Many tomb-stones were evidently intended for general application, since the inscription sometimes fails to correspond in every respect with the relief, but other scenes were wrought out for the particular occasions on which they were erected. To this latter class must have belonged the monument at Athens[211], where the figures are of heroic size, representing a youth in the full vigor of early manhood, accompanied by an old man, leaning on a cane. In the hand of the young man is a stout club, an attendant is sleeping at his feet, while his dog is watchfully alert. There is no inscription to inform us who is commemorated by this monument, nor what artist has left this wonderful evidence of his genius and skill, but the subject is treated with marvellous vigor and grace.
The siren was a familiar figure on the tombstone either singly or in couples, signifying that, by their song, the dead were constantly lamented and the living consoled. A small tombstone in the Berlin Museum contains a lady engaged in her toilet with the assistance of an attendant maid and, above them, two sirens are engaged in playing, the one on the lyre and the other on the flute.
Very frequently the scene represented typifies the separation of the deceased from the relatives who stand sorrowfully about. To the Greek, there was a solemn dignity in death and that sentiment finds expression in these reliefs by the representation of the deceased as seated and rather larger than the other persons of the group. The nearest relative bids farewell to the seated figure by clasping hands. In the particulars that have been mentioned, the scene, in every instance, is nearly the same but, in other details great variety is introduced. Now, it is a husband who holds the hand of his departing wife while her sister stands by her side and the long sleeved servant is behind the chair resting her hand upon the back of it, as if ready to render instant service. Again a mother is going away from her little daughter and, at the moment of departure, has placed her arm tenderly about the child and bends sadly over her. The servant stands as usual behind the deceased. In another scene, the infant in the arms of one of the group would suggest that distressing incident in family history, the death of the young mother in, or near child-birth. In this group too, there remains the hand and long sleeve of the servant. In all these pictures, if it is a lady who is commemorated, she is represented as holding her veil in a peculiarly graceful manner, which occurs so frequently as to suggest a symbol of departure.