This relief must have originally been a rectangular architectural panel, framed by simple molding. The shepherd god, a mythic figure combining a human torso with the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a ram, is frontally depicted, standing upright and holding the flute (syrinx) in front of his epigastrium. With his right hand, he grasps the lower end of a boomerang-shaped hunting stick, the lagobolon in Greek or pedum in Latin. His back is cloaked with a goat fleece knotted in front of his mid-upper chest. The god is bearded, and his head is covered with thick, curly hair that partly hides his horns. The wide-open eyes are almond-shaped; they are framed by thin lids.
The lower part of the slab, along with the legs of Pan, is broken off. The face is badly worn. The molding is damaged at various points.
Provenance: Qanawāt. Formerly a collection of as-Suwaydāʾ Museum, the piece had disappeared after 1934. It resurfaced later and was presented to the Museum of Damascus by Mr. Antoine Daḥdāḥ.
Substance: basalt.
Dimensions: H 53 cm, W 42 cm, D 20 cm.
Era: 2nd to 3rd century CE.
Text: ada[ted from Weber (p. 96).
Collection: National Museum of Damascus.
Maurice Dunand. Le Musée de Soueïda, inscriptions et monuments figurés. Paris, Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1934.
Sélim et Andrée Abdul-Hak. Catalogue Illustré du Département des antiquités Gréco-Romaines au Musée de Damas, 1951.
Catalogue du Musée National de Damas. publication de la Direction Générale des Antiquités et des Musées. Damas 1969.
Thomas M. Weber. Sculptures from Roman Syria in the Syrian National Museum of Damascus. Vol I, from Cities and Villages in Central and Southern Syria. Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft. Worms. 2006.
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