The joy of life in a Macedonian symposium along with the grief over the nobleman's death, is depicted on this great monument of Ancient Macedonia. The face of the tomb is entirely painted. The ornate triangle of the pediment presents mythical griffons with all-golden wings, followed by dark-blue triglyphs and white metopes, while the narrow frieze above the entrance narrates a symposium scene, so familiar in literature or on painted vases, yet for the first time so lively represented before the eyes of the visitors. At the centre, six wreathed symposium participants lying languidly on anaklintra (couches) enjoy delicious dishes, guitar and diaulos music performed by young women, while men on foot and on horseback make haste to join them. Some hoplites in Macedonian costume, relaxing on their spears and the characteristic resplendent bucklers, are watching calmly. A moving representation depicts two full-length young men wrapped in long chlamyses standing sorrowful next to the tomb's entrance, eternal guards of their dead fellow warrior. These two figures constitute the finest examples of Macedonian painting found so far; their style can be readily compared to Florentine mannerism. This is undoubtedly the grave of a renowned Macedonian military, to judge from the remains of real armor found in the burial chamber which was nearly destroyed by antiquity looters.

Macedonian Tomb 325 – 300 BC