CIMRM 832 - Possible shepherd. White Friars, Chester, Britain

In the Grosvenor museum in Chester is a stone with a figure bearing a shepherd's crook. It is probably Attis, rather than Mithras, and was found at Whitefriars, close to 169.

CIMRM 832 is accessioned as CHEGM: 1999.6.170 (Haverfield's 170). It was found built into a cellar wall in White Friars in 1851. This was subsequently identified as Attis, the Shepherd. This is on display at the Grosvenor Museum.

The Richmond-Wright catalogue (1955) entry reads:

170, pl. XLI. - Panel, 14 by 29 by 11 in., found in 1851 in White Friars, built into a cellar wall near that in which no. 169 was found; it shows a standing figure of Atys, the shepherd, clad in Phrygian cap, tunic and cloak, with a shepherd's crook (pedum) in his left hand. The figure faces slightly towards the left, as if one member of an opposed pair, flanking a tomb. Watkin Cheshire 192 with figure.

Haverfield's catalogue entry reads:

170.-Figure of a boy, erect, with legs straight, wearing a Phrygian cap and a tunic to the knees, the right hand on the chest, the left holding up a staff with a curled end; carved in low-relief on a rectangular block 29 inches high by 14 inches wide by 10 inches thick. Found in 1851 in White Friars, built into a cellar wall near that in which 169 was found. Like 169 it is possibly Mithraic; more probably sepulchral. One detail is uncertain: the hand laid on the chest seems to hold something which hangs down. This does not resemble (as some have thought) an inverted torch, but its real character is not easy to decide. See the annexed cut. [W. 192.]

Cumont, TMMM II, p.391 (mon.269b, fig. 308) simply reproduces Haverfield's image.

Note: It looks to me as if a better set of photographs needs to be obtained. Vermaseren can never have seen this item; nor Cumont either. The Grosvenor Museum boasts a collection of "tombstones"; no doubt these items are among them.

CIMRM entry

832. Marble relief (H. 0.725 Br. 0.35 D. 0.225), found in Chester "built up in an adjoining hall "White Friars" in 1851 ". Chester, Grosvenor Mus. Watkins, Roman Cheshire, (1886) p.1921; MMM II No. 269b and fig. 308; Haverfield, Cat. Grosv. Mus., 80 No. 170 and fig. Standing dressed figure with a sheep-hook in his l.h.; in the r.h. a torch(?) pointing downwards. If the monument represents a torchbearer, then it could have belonged to the inventory of the same sanctuary. Remnants of a building with columns should have been discovered here (Cumont).

A figure with a crook sounds more like Attis to me. - RP.