Architectural relief of Melpomene, one of the nine Greek muses and patron of tragedy. She is depicted laureate and wearing a draped tunic, holding in her right hand a mask of Pan or Satyr, god of pastures, flocks and shepherds. Melpomene was often represented as holding a knife or club in one hand and a tragic mask in the other, however, her holding a Pan mask is unusual.

The art of the theatre came to the Near East with the Roman occupation, and the majority of theatres in Jordan were built during the 2nd century AD. The Nabataeans, however, built their Classical theatre in Petra at the beginning of the 1st century AD, around a century before the Romans arrived there. This was yet another feature of their absorption of the Graeco-Roman culture in all its aspects.

Site: Petra.

Period: Nabataean, first half of the 1st century AD.