Rings are so deeply personal, are they not? Visible and confronting each time one catches a glimpse of one’s hand. Which is all to say, the choice of subject matter matters, and in this case it is somewhat intriguing. It’s a masterpiece in miniature dating to the last decades of the 5th century B.C., found in Pantikapaion – a Greek settlement on the Crimean coast of the Black Sea.
Centered within that pointed oval bezel, a Persian soldier sits on a folding camp stool, holding an arrow by the feathered haft and peering over to inspect it. His costume is typical of how the Greeks represented Eastern barbarians in the Classical period: floppy Phrygian cap, pretty little boots, lightly embroidered tunic, and fabulous harlequin-print leggings. This last element evidently made a big impact on the typically bare-legged fighting force of Greece – a feat of tailoring rooted in in the archaeological record and enthusiastically deployed by Greek artists in a variety of media (check out the color reconstructions of the Scythian’s from pediments of the Temple of Aphaia at Aegina, for example).
The inscription along the upper right edge reads ‘ATHENADES’, presumably the owner’s name and perhaps indicating a proud Athenian lineage. Which might all play into the unusual choice of subject matter for this intimate adornment: perhaps a loaded reminder at the outskirts of Greek colonial power of the glorious Athenian victory over Persia in the not so distant past.
