A heroic nude male figure in high relief stands frontally with his arms away from his body. He looks off to his l. The weight is on his l. leg, the r. is bent and drawn back slightly. In his r. hand he holds a thick round object, probably a weight (?), with an incised circle and a central dot. His l. holds a javelin. A small nude boy at his r. side looks in the same direction as the man, or more likely, looks up at him. He holds an object in his bent l. arm. The r. arm is also bent, the hand at his paunchy child’s stomach. The other athletic objects are indicated: a hoe, standing upright in the lower r. corner, would be to even out the sandpit for jumping; and a pair of concave-sided cylinders, hanging in the upper l. corner of the stele, are encircled and held suspended by a strap. Background surface recedes sharply from the man’s knees downward. Letters ΝΥΜΦΕΡΩΣ carved on flat surface just below relief. Back side is rough picked.

Type and pose are modeled on heroic athletic stelai and specifically follow the style of gladiatorial reliefs. Nympheros was a common name of gladiators. Better work of 2nd C. A.D.

For spiritual antecedents of the relief cf. Friis-Johansen, Attic Grave Reliefs, 22, fig. 8 and Hatt, Sculptures Strasbourg, no. 17. For related gladiatorial reliefs, Robert, Gladiateurs, no. 302, pl. 19; no. 119, pl. 23; no. 241, pl. 21. For the name, cf. ibid., 301, no. 191a; no. 300, pl. 5; no. 302, pl. 19. For similar pair of cylinders, see Arndt-Amelung-Lippold, Einzelaufnahmen, no. 222.