bringing the sustenance of funeral gifts from the earth’s such as Theseus, Achilles or Alexander the Great were often surface to the deep tomb. In Homer’s Odyssey (12.158–200), the shown on red stones, carnelians and jaspers, for red is the sirens are “endowed with omniscient memory, including colour of blood and life.” In late antiquity, hematite was chosen complete knowledge of the Trojan War.… In Greek literature, for magical amulets, as notes G. Vikan, “Magic and Visual their presence foreshadows, accompanies, or otherwise refers Culture,” in Greek Magic: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, ed. J. C. to death”: M. J. Bennett in Centaur’s Smile 2003, p. 285. Essential B. Petropoulos (Abingdon and New York, 2008), p. 55, because was the siren’s association with transport to the afterlife and of its “persuasive parallel”: as an iron oxide, it can hold its red with the underworld and the task of the spiritural nourishment “blood” within its shiny black skin. Perhaps amber that was of the dead. See also D. Tsiafakos, “Life and Death at the Hands more red than yellow was selected for martial subjects. If the of a Siren,” Studia Varia from the J. Paul Getty Museum 2 (Malibu, amber was not red enough, it could be colored, as Pliny relates 2001): 7–24; LIMC 8, 1, Thespiades-Zodiacus: Supplementum (Natural History 37.12): “tinted, as desired, with kid suet and the (1997), s.v. “Seirenes” (E. Hostetter and I. Krauskopf), pp. root of alkanet. Indeed, it is now stained even with purple dye.” 1093–104; and LIMC 4 (1988), s.v. “Harpyiai” (L. Kahil and A. In discussing the making of artificial transparent stones (ibid.), Jacquemin), pp. 445–50. For the confusion surrounding the he mentions this possibility again: “It can be dyed any color.” Harpies and other winged creatures, including their D. E. Eichholz’s gloss (Eichholz 1962, p. 200, n. a) explains: “The interchangeability, see B. Cohen, “Red-Figure Vases Take modern technique is to open a fissure, introduce colouring Wing,” in Athenian Potters and Painters: The Copenhagen matter and heat the amber. The root of the alkanet, which was Proceedings, ed. Oakley et al. (Oxford, 1997), pp. 143–55. That commonly used for rouge in antiquity, would have reddened the sirens ranged along the coast of Italy, and that Parthenope it.” was traditionally buried at Naples, may provide some 224. On the large and animated eye, see Steiner 2001, pp. 171–81; explanation for the impressive number of amber sirens from Faraone 1992, pp. 45, 58–59, 119; and Mottahedeh 1979. See documented Italian finds of the sixth to fourth centuries, a also Frontisi-Ducroux 1991. On the startling eyes of number of them from Campania. The sirens’ watery origins Mesopotamia, see Winter 2000. (they are daughters of either Achelous, the river god, or of Phorkys and Ceto, sea divinities) must also have added to their 225. Archaic Etruscan gemstones are a case in point; see I. powers. Since amber, too, was of water (originating in, Krauskopf, “Interesse private nel mito: Il caso degli scarabei hardened by, or borne by ocean, sea, rivers, or streams), etruschi,” in Le Mythe grec dans l’Italie antique: Fonction et imag; material and subject reiterated each other. Actes du colloque international organisé par l’École française de 222. This amber pendant is from Tomb 9, Rutigliano-Purgatorio Rome, l’Istituto italiano per gli studi filosofici (Naples) et l’UMR 126 Necropolis: see Negroni Catacchio 1993, p. 199, fig. 7. du CNRS (Archéologies d’Orient et d’Occident), Rome, 14–16 novembre 1996, ed. F. H. Massa-Pairault (Rome, 1999), pp. 223. On Eos and Kephalos see n. 220, above. The amber of Herakles 405–21. slaying the Nemean lion (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Cabinet 226. D’Ercole 1995. des Médailles Fröhner 1146) shows the slaying on the pendant’s main side and a coiled, bearded snake on its 227. Melfi, Museo Archeologico Nazionale “Massimo Pallottino” secondary side, although the figures wrap around the lump: (from Lavello-Casino, Tomb 955): the female head is inv. D’Ercole 2008, pp. 52–61, figs. I–II; and La Genière 1967, p. 302, 337381; the pendant, in the form of the foreparts of a rearing figs. 7–8. The Ajax in New York (Ajax Carrying the Body of horse, is inv. 337832. I do not know the inventory numbers of Achilles) is Metropolitan Museum of Art 1992.267.2, Gift of Mr. the other ambers from the tomb. For the tomb, see Magie and Mrs. Jonathan P. Rosen, 1992. The Achilles from the “Tomb d’ambra2005, pp. 82–83; Due donne 1993, pp. 63–69, 97–158; of Amber” at Ruvo di Puglia (Naples, Museo Archeologico andBottini 1990. Nazionale 113643) was found with at least six other figured ambers, including an equine head and three female heads: A. 228. A. Bottini, “Le ambre nella Basilicata settentrionale,” in Ambre C. Montanaro, Ruvo di Puglia e il suo territorio: Le necropoli; I 2007, p. 233, cites the British Museum Satyr and Maenad corredi funerari tra la documentazione del XIX secolo e gli scavi pendant (Strong 1966, pp. 61–62, no. 35) as another example of moderni(Rome, 2007), pp. 917–18, no. 325.3 (with important the identification of a deceased person with Dionysos in Italic bibl., including Ambre 2007, pp. 246–47, ill. 280); G. Prisco, “La Italy. The London pendant is perhaps the most complex of the tomba delle ambre,” in I Greci in Occidente: La Magna Grecia “Orphic” ambers, as this author outlined in “Dionysos in nelle collezioni del Museo Archeologico di Napoli, exh. cat. Amber” at the College Art Association Annual Meeting (New (Naples, 1996), pp. 115–16; and Siviero 1959, p. 132, no. 560. York, 1996). See also A. Bottini, “The Impact of the Greek Colonies on the Indigenous Peoples of Lucania,” in Pugliese Martial subjects have a long history as protective objects, Carratelli 1996, p. 546. beginning in the third millennium and continuing through to the present. In Rome, martial subjects in red stones were 229. Garnered from essays by A. M. Nava, S. Bianco, A. Bottini, and especially popular; see M. Henig, “Roman Seals,” in Collon M. Tagliente in The Wine of Dionysos 2000 (in n. 79, above). 1997, p. 99: “It is not surprising that Mars and warrior heroes Archaic and Afterward 75