The cemeteries of classical Athens were replete with marble sculpture, works of art erected in memory of the dead. These two girls probably come from a grave monument. Their slender proportions and small heads are typical of Greek sculpture from the late fourth century B.C. The older girl has died and the smaller figure is a servant or a little sister. The two wear long, simple dresses called chitons. Both are lengths of woven cloth, fastened with buttons or pins. Because such cloths were not cut to the body but simply draped over it, they were endlessly changeable. They could slip off the shoulders and gape below the arms, things we often see in Greek art.

The older girl also wears a distinguishing garment, a mantle pinned back on her shoulders. This is the special garb of the kanephoros, the maiden who carried the basket with the knife for ritual sacrifices. The kanephoros was a girl of exceptional promise on the verge of marriage and adulthood; the monument is a poignant reminder of her early death that prevented her from reaching maturity.