Chalcedony seal-stone with yellow jasper inclusions
Hellenistic, 3rd century BC
Probably made at Pergamon (Pergamum), modern Turkey
Head of Philetairos, ruler of Pergamon (about 343-263 BC)
This portrait is of a heavy-looking man, clean-shaven and with
short, curling hair. Very similar portraits on coins indicate that
the man is Philetairos, the eunuch ruler of Pergamon (Pergamum) and
founder of the Attalid dynasty. Under Philetairos the city of
Pergamon became a great cultural and political centre. The
engraving may have been executed in Philetairos' own lifetime;
however, as his portrait appears on the coins of several of his
successors and his appearance is likely to have been well known in
Pergamon, the seal-stone may date to the later third or early
second century BC.
In the Hellenistic period, it became common for rulers of the
separate Hellenistic kingdoms to have their own images, whether
realistic or idealised, engraved on seal-stones. This fashion
appears to have started with Alexander the Great, who is said to
have granted the seal-engraver Pyrgoteles a monopoly in portraying
the royal image in this medium.
Like earlier Archaic and Classical Greek seals, many Hellenistic
examples would have been set into rings and used both as jewellery
and as a mark of possession or identity. The fashion for wealthy
individuals to form collections of fine examples of gems is first
seen at this time.
D. Collon (ed.), 7000 years of seals-1 (London, The British Museum Press, 1997)
L. Burn, The British Museum book of Gre (London, The British Museum Press, 1991)
G.M.A. Richter, Engraved gems of the Greeks, E (London, Phaidon, 1968)