"This is a remarkable book, of great originality and charm, a pleasure to hold and to read. Though relatively short, and written in a straightforward unassuming way, it is a work of high intellectual ambition: a brilliant and memorable intervention in the interpretation of ancient Greek funerary imagery." Chris Hallett, University of California, Berkeley "Professor Tonio Hölscher is one of the world's foremost art historians of the ancient Greek world. Any new book of his is to be hugely welcomed, and that this one is devoted to exploring and explaining a great rarity, a 2-D color painting of the fifth century BCE from Paestum (Poseidonia) in southern Italy, is an enormous bonus." Paul Cartledge, University of Cambridge "A powerful, new anthropological interpretation of one of the masterpieces of ancient Greek painting. Hölscher's magisterial discussion of the frescoes of the Tomb of the Diver in Paestum as a representation of the real lifeworld of Greek youths becomes an opportunity for addressing key aspects of Archaic and Classical Greek culture. A must read for anyone interested in ancient Mediterranean art and its hermeneutic potential." Clemente Marconi, New York University "This is a remarkable book, of great originality and charm, a pleasure to hold and to read.

Though relatively short, and written in a straightforward unassuming way, it is a work of high intellectual ambition: a brilliant and memorable intervention in the interpretation of ancient Greek funerary imagery." Chris Hallett, University of California, Berkeley "Professor Tonio Hölscher is one of the world's foremost art historians of the ancient Greek world. Any new book of his is to be hugely welcomed, and that this one is devoted to exploring and explaining a great rarity, a 2-D color painting of the fifth century BCE from Paestum (Poseidonia) in southern Italy, is an enormous bonus." Paul Cartledge, University of Cambridge "A powerful, new anthropological interpretation of one of the masterpieces of ancient Greek painting. Hölscher's magisterial discussion of the frescoes of the Tomb of the Diver in Paestum as a representation of the real lifeworld of Greek youths becomes an opportunity for addressing key aspects of Archaic and Classical Greek culture. A must read for anyone interested in ancient Mediterranean art and its hermeneutic potential." Clemente Marconi, New York University.