A Syrinx Player from Dura-Europos

 

This statuette represents a syrinx player. It was discovered in excellent preservation with only a slight oxidation. The lower portion of the syrinx had been bent inward. The figure stands with the weight on the right leg, with the left leg slightly advanced. The arms are bent at the elbows, both hands holding the instrument to the mouth. The head is turned slightly to the right. The figure is clad in a long, short-sleeved, ungirdled tunic that fits close to the form of the body. The head is bare, the short-cropped hair blocked in as a mass of curls. The syrinx player is μονοσάνδαλος, his right foot shod with a sandal with a heavy overlapping tongue, his left foot bare; his syrinx is an enormous one of nine pipes, represented as square or rectangular in section. The modelling is fluent and fully plastic. It is simplified into large unbroken forms. The figure is cast solid and left just as it came from the mold. Surface imperfections due to casting are numerous. The easy grace and mastery of the figure, its simple flowing lines, and the treatment of hair and features all suggest work of the late fourth or early third centuries.

Provenance: Dura-Europos. 

Substance: bronze. 

Height: 103 mm . 

Era: Roman. 

Text: adapted from Rostovtzeff. 

Collection: National Museum of Damascus. 

Michael Rostovtzeff. The Excavations at Dura-Europos: 9th season, 1935-1936 (p. 160-161 fig XVI). Yale University Press 1944.

Bašīr Zuhdī. Lamḥā ʿan al-ʾālāt al-musīqīyyā al-qadīmā wa mašāhid al-mūsīqīyyīin ʿala ʾāṯārinā al-fannīyyā. Annales archéologiques arabes syriennes 1972 (pp. 81-121).