a scent, balance each other.  The fourth side of the sarcophagus presents us with a banqueting scene.  On four couches, much like the Assyrian,[727] are arranged the banqueters.  At the extreme right the couch is occupied by a single person, who has a long beard and extends a wine-cup towards an attendant, a naked youth, who is advancing towards him with a wine-jug in one hand, and a ladle or strainer in the other.  The three other couches are occupied respectively by three couples, each comprising a male and a female.  The male figure reclines in the usual attitude, half sitting and half lying, with the left arm supported on two pillows;[728] the female sits on the edge of the couch, with her feet upon a footstool.  The males hold wine-cups; of the females, one plays upon the lyre, while the two others fondle with one hand their lover or husband.  A fourth female figure, erect in the middle between the second and third couches, plays the double flute for the delectation of the entire party.  All the figures, except the boy attendant, are decently draped, in robes with many folds, resembling the Greek.  At the side of each couch is a table, on which are spread refreshments, while at the extreme left is a large bowl or amphora, from which the wine-cups may be replenished.  This is placed under the shade of a tree, which tells us that the festivity takes place in a garden.[729]

No one can fail to see, in this entire series of sculptures, the dominant influence of Greece.  While the form of the tomb, and the lions that ornament the covering, are unmistakably Cyprio-Phoenician, the reliefs contain scarcely a feature which is even Oriental; all has markedly the colouring and the physiognomy of Hellenism.  Yet Cyprian artists probably executed the work.  There are little departures from Greek models, which indicate the “barbarian” workman, as the introduction of trees in the backgrounds, the shape of the furniture, the recurved wings of the Gorgon, and the idea of hunting the wild bull.  But the figures, the proportions, the draperies, the attitudes, the chariot, the horse, are almost pure Greek.  There is a grace and ease in the modelling, an elegance, a variety, to which Asiatic art, left to itself, never attained.  The style, however, is not that of Greece at its best, but of archaic Greece.  There is something too much of exact symmetry, both in the disposition of the groups and in the arrangement of the accessories; nay, even the very folds of the garments are over-stiff and regular.  All is drawn in exact profile; and in the composition there is too much of balance and correspondence.  Still, a new life shows itself through the scenes.  There is variety in the movements; there is grace and suppleness in the forms; there is lightness in the outline, vigour in the attitudes, and beauty spread over the whole work.  It cannot be assigned an earlier date than the fifth century B.C., and is most probably later,[730] since it took time for improved style to travel from the head-centres of Greek art to the remoter provinces, and still more time for it to percolate through the different layers of Greek society until it reached the stratum of native Cyprian artistic culture.