1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Stele

Stele, the Greek name (στήλη) for a pillar or vertical slab of stone or marble, sometimes decorated with bas-reliefs and bearing inscriptions, and generally terminated with a cresting (ἐπίθημα) enriched with the anthemion plant. In later times the stele was crowned with a small pediment. The Way of the Tombs at Athens was lined with stelae, some of them in memory of prominent citizens.