The cost of war is shown as an intimate sorrow on this marble stele, a tall, narrow gravestone for a beloved son. The memorial honors a young warrior named Pollis who died about 480–479 BCE during the historical wars between the Greeks (especially Athens) and the Persians. A funerary  text is inscribed (cut) into the stone at the top. The form of the letters suggests that the stele stood near the city of Megara, an ally of Athens. Below the text the image of the young soldier is carved in low relief. The monument is broken off below his knees. Paint, now lost, would have made the letters more legible and depicted colorful details on the armor.

The text directly addresses the viewer in Pollis’s voice: “I speak, Pollis, dear son of Asopichos, not being a coward: I myself died at the hands of the tattooers.” Greek males were described as “the son of” their fathers instead of by a last name. Pollis died at the hands of “tattooers,” probably Thracians who lived in northern Greece and were Persian allies. Their practice of tattooing made them noteworthy. It was likely Pollis’s father who called him a “dear son” and carefully recorded his bravery by including that he died “not...a coward”).

Below the text, a nude Pollis is shown as a hoplite soldier moving intently from left to right, wearing a helmet and carrying a shield, sword, and nine-foot throwing-spear, only part of which fits on the stele. Greek hoplites marched on foot against the enemy and overlapped their round shields to form a protective wall during attack. The tips of the long spears pointed up over the shields. In the carving, Pollis rests the shield on his left shoulder and holds his spear horizontally in his right hand, but his slightly crouched position suggests that he is ready for action.