Embassy

Title: Embassy
Repository: British Museum
Creator: Douris
Photographer: Lowenstam, Steven
Creator Display: attributed to Douris (Greek vase painter and potter, active ca. 500-475 BCE)
Description: Pottery: red-figured cup. INTERIOR: Achilles and Odysseus. On the left Achilles sits on a plain stool, closely wrapped in a himation that covers the back of his head, and with head bent forward, his left hand supporting his forehead (relief lines for forehead hair and lower fringe of beard). Behind him his sword in its striped scabbard is suspended from a red loop and above him is his shield wrapped in its cover (sagma). On the right stands Odysseus clad in a himation and leaning on a knotty stick. He has a red fillet in his hair and gestures with the thumb and fingers of his right hand as he speaks to Achilles: his mouth is shown slightly open. Behind him on the ground is the corner of a stool with a plain cushion. There is a large reserved exergue. Border: stopt maeanders (five-stroke, clockwise) interrupted at irregular intervals by nine dotted cross-squares. EXTERIOR: departure of warriors and conversation scene. Side A (upper): departure of three warriors. On the left a bearded warrior moves away to the left, but turns his head back to the right (relief strokes on beard). He wears an Attic type helmet with the cheek flaps up (crest holder decorated with zigzag and triangles), cuirass, greaves and a himation and carries a spear in his left hand. Behind him an elderly bearded man with thinning hair (and relief strokes on beard and hair over neck) stands to the left. He wears a himation and shoes, and has a red fillet in his hair. His right hand rests on the top of a plain stick; his left is under his cloak. In the centre a woman stands to the left but turns her head back to the right. She wears a chiton (upper folds in dilute glaze), a himation and a headscarf and holds an oinochoe with a black foot out in her right hand and a bossed phiale (lobes in dilute glaze) low in her left. On the right stands a young warrior in an Attic type helmet with the cheek flaps up (dotted crest holder), cuirass and himation. He holds out a bossed phiale (lobes in dilute glaze) in his right hand, while his left grips a spear against his body. Behind him is a second young warrior, similarly clad and accoutred, but gesturing with his right hand. On the far right is a woman in chiton and himation and with a red fillet in her hair (wavy relief lines over forehead) and a bun at the back. She has her right hand up as if holding a flower, her left is hidden in her drapery. Side Β (lower): men and youths in conversation, together with a young warrior. On the left is a bearded man in himation, seen in three-quarter back view, to the right. He holds a knotty stick on the far side of his body and gestures with his right hand. There is a thick reserved fillet in his hair. In front of him a bearded man in himation and with a red fillet in his hair (relief line fringe in beard and hair, both over brow and neck) stands to the right but turns his head back to the left, so that his chest is frontal. His left hand rests near the top of a knotty stick. In the centre, a youth dressed in cuirass and himation, stands to the right, his head turned back. His left hand holds a staff (perhaps a sceptre) and there is a red fillet in his fringed hair (relief lines). On the right is a bearded man in three-quarter back view, wearing a himation that is caught up under his left armpit. He also has a red fillet in his hair (relief lines over brow). His right hand reaches out towards and behind the young warrior in the centre, his left arm hangs down. To the right of this man a youth in himation stands to the left but turns back to the right. His right hand is raised and he has a red fillet in his hair. Behind him, on the far right, is a bearded man in a himation who holds out his right hand. He too has a red fillet in his hair. At either handle: floral complex with a circumscribed palmette either side of the handles and a large and a small palmette addorsed under them; spiral terminals and dots. Ground line: single reserved line. Relief line contours throughout (inner hair contour only); dilute glaze for minor interior markings; added red for inscriptions; reserved line inside and outside lip. --The British Museum Williams, Dyfri, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: Great Britain 17, British Museum 9, London, BMP, 1993; 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
Inscription: Inscription Type: inscription Inscription Script: Greek Inscription Position: Interior Inscription Language: Greek Inscription Content: ΗΟΠΑΙΣ KALOΣ --The British Museum
View: Interior
Coverage: Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece (creation) Vulci, Lazio, Italy (discovery)
Temporal: ca. 470 BCE
Subject: Embassy Iliad Book 2-16 Iliad Book 9
Style Period: Red-figure Attic (Mainland Greek pottery styles)
Work Type: cups (drinking vessels)
Date: -0475/-0465
Identifier: Lowenstam_VRC_00833
Item Locator: Box 2, Section 24
Rights: In Copyright
Dc Rights Holder: University of Oregon, Department of Classics
Local Collection Name: Steven Lowenstam Collection
Type: Image
Format: image/tiff
Measurements: Width: 40 cm Diameter: 32.4 cm Diameter: 19.2 cm (of tondo) Diameter: 12.2 cm (of exterior ground line)
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: 1843,1103.61