This scaraboid features a superbly engraved lion attacking a serpent. The lion lunges forward with an open mouth revealing fangs. His mane is a series of carefully incised striations. The snake is bearded, with a forked tongue, its body looped below the lion’s forepaw and then extended back along the groundline. The scene is enclosed within a line border.

The lion is similar in style to one on a late Archaic scarab from Pergamon, now lost, inscribed with the owner’s name, Aristoteiches (pl. 388 in Boardman, Greek Gems and Finger Rings). The encounter with the serpent is unusual, although an eagle carries one above a similar lion on a chalcedony scaraboid from Cyprus, now in Boston, no. 34 in J.D. Beazley, The Lewes House Collection of Ancient Gems.