Scarab

Agate scarab, banded with lighter shade at top of engraved image. Face engraved with scene of Oedipus confronting the Sphinx, within an orlo etrusco (rope-pattern) border. A nude youth with short hair and carefully modeled musculature leans toward left, where a creature with large human head, long thin neck and winged shoulder looks upward at him from the ground. The youth extends his left (forward) arm toward the creature, who seems to speak to him; she has thin, short hair held by a narrow fillet, and the facial features of an elderly female. Chipped on edges. Label with printed number 684 stuck to the surface.