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Male bust with a cylindrical headdress and a Palmyrene inscription in four lines to the right of the head (pl. VI 11, 2) : ![]() "Yarhibôlâ, son of Neshâ, (son of) 'Oggâ, (son of) Shalmâ, alas. (7) The headdress of Yarhibôlâ is in the form of a modius with two perpendicular narrow furrows above the eyes, one to the right, one to the left, and with a wreath of leaves which has an oval medallion in the center. He, too is unbearded, but his eyes are made quite differently from those of Malkû. The eyeball slants slightly inward toward the lower lid and has no plastic indication of iris or pupil. He wears the same costume as Malkû, but the folds are more natural and the chiton is ornamented on the left with a narrow clavus.(8) The himation is put on in the opposite way from usual, that is : starting on the left shoulder it passes first across the chest then around the back and forward over the left shoulder again. The more common way is for it first to pass around the back then over the chest and back over the left shoulder (cf. bust I).
The right hand here also rests in the himation, while the left -holds a
"schedulä, a folded parchment
which may have played a certain part in the funeral rites ;(9) or, it may
represent the deed of the
tomb,(10) "the eternal house," as it is sometimes called in Palmyrene.(11)
Favoring this last
interpretation is the fact that one such "schedulä is inscribed with just
these words Of the many Palmyrene men represented on funerary reliefs, only a minority wears the modius-like headdress described above. The question, therefore, naturally rises if the Palmyrenes with such a headdress might not represent a class apart in the community of Palmyra. In this connection it is important to note : first, that the modii vary among themselves, some being plain,(13) some decorated with a wreath enclosing in the center either a medallion(14) or a small bust which sometimes looks like a miniature edi- |
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