Ivory was precious and rare in the Greek world, a material reserved for very special images. This fine ivory carving probably was a decoration for a piece of furniture, perhaps a little chest or jewel-box.

The piece shows two young women in various states of undress. The woman on the left is missing her head, but you can see her hands at the belt around her waist. She is probably about to untie the belt and let her dress slip off. The woman on the right has already let her garment fall below her knees. A bit of fabric still clings to her left shoulder. This dress is a simple tube of cloth that was fastened at the shoulders with long pins, like the ones you see in this case below the women to the right. The cut of the dress is simple, but the fabric is splendid—look at the refinement and complexity of its geometric pattern, which may have been heightened in gold.

The woman with her head intact has a telling facial expression. Her eyes are open wide, her lips slightly puckered, and her brow fixed as though she were looking down her nose in pride or defiance—what the Greeks called hubris. In Greek mythology, there are many stories about people whose hubris aroused the gods’ anger. In one story, the daughters of King Proitos of Argos refused to respect the god Dionysos. Dionysos punished them with madness and drove them to unseemly acts of every kind. This could be an image of King Proitos' daughters. Carved in ivory, the women's bodies, their expressions, and the act of undressing become the elements of a mythic story.