Contrast Megaron-Agora

Title: Contrast Megaron-Agora
Repository: British Museum
Alternative: Menelaos and Helen Symposium Hydria Old Catalogue 719 Vase E161
Creator: Syriskos Painter
Photographer: Lowenstam, Steven
Creator Display: attributed to Syriskos Painter (Greek vase painter, active ca. 500-ca. 475 BCE)
Description: Pottery: red-figured hydria. (1) Menelaos pursuing Helen. Menelaos, a bearded warrior with cuirass, helmet with raised cheek-pieces, and himation, pursues to right with drawn sword and outstretched left arm Helen, who with left on bosom turns as she flees, extending her right towards him with a gesture of supplication. She wears a Doric chiton with border of zigzags and a row of dots near each edge, and apoptygma, undertied, an himation over her shoulders, earrings and sphendone: her hair hangs down her back. On right a woman in long sleeved chiton, mantle and earrings, and head-dress like that of Helen, moves to left, extending both arms as if to protect Helen. In the field above Helen, καλή. On left of her, ό παις; on right of the woman, KAΛΟΣ, καλός. (2) On shoulder: Symposion. Three wreathed figures wearing himation covering the legs and left shoulder recline to left, leaning each against a folded striped cushion. The one on right is bearded, and looks to right, extending to left on his right palm a cotyle: the central one also looks to right with his right resting on his breast; the third looks to left and twirls aloft on his right forefinger a kylix (κοτταβίζων); between these two hangs a basket. In the field, ό παϊς καλός. Strong style. Purple inscriptions, wreaths, cords of baskets. Eye archaic. The design on the body (1) is enclosed within a border formed by, below, pairs of maeanders separated by red cross squares; above, zigzag pattern; at sides, net pattern, which also forms the sides of the design 2; above 2, tongue. The lower part of the body is encircled by two thin lines of purple, and below, by a band of rays, black on red. The lip is left red. --The British Museum A Catalogue of the Greek and Etruscan Vases in the British Museum, London, William Nicol, 1851; Walters, H B; Forsdyke, E J; Smith, C H, Catalogue of Vases in the British Museum, I-IV, London, BMP, 1893; Walters, H B; Forsdyke, E J, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: Great Britain 7, British Museum 5, London, BMP, 1930
View: Front
Coverage: Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece (creation) Vulci, Lazio, Italy (discovery)
Temporal: ca. 480 BCE
Subject: Agora, Megaron Italian Byzantine Pottery VII
Style Period: Red-figure Attic (Mainland Greek pottery styles)
Work Type: hydriae
Date: -0485/-0475
Identifier: Lowenstam_VRC_06981
Item Locator: Box 16, Section 9
Rights: In Copyright
Dc Rights Holder: University of Oregon, Department of Classics
Local Collection Name: Steven Lowenstam Collection
Type: Image
Format: image/tiff
Measurements: Height: 54.61 cm
Material: pottery | painted
Set: Lowenstam Collection of Ancient Western Art and Archaeology
Primary Set: Lowenstam Collection of Ancient Western Art and Archaeology
Institution: University of Oregon
Cultural Context: Attic (culture)
Id Current Repository: 1843,1103.86