Scenes of the daily lives of Athenian schoolboys decorate this red-figure cup. In addition to basic literacy and mathematics, Greek boys were trained in athletics and music. On the interior of the cup, a boy holding a lyre stands in front of a bearded man, who must be his music teacher. On the outside, men and boys form similar scenes. The imagined walls of the schoolroom are hung with musical instruments and athletic equipment: lyres, string bags with knucklebones, sponges, and aryballoi. The scenes on this cup are not purely educational, however. On one side of the vase, a boy holds a hare on his lap, while on the other, a man offers a hare to another boy. In addition to serving as a classroom, the gymnasion in its role as the center of Greek physical and intellectual life was also the center of romantic courtship. Hares were popular love gifts in the homosexual relationships between older men and boys favored by the Athenian aristocracy in the early 500s B.C. --J. Paul Getty Museum Bareiss Loan: S.82.AE.36, May, Helmut, ed. Weltkunst aus Privatbesitz, exh. cat. (Cologne: Kunsthalle Köln, 1968), cat. no. A 31; fig. 13.; Bothmer, Dietrich von.
Scenes of the daily lives of Athenian schoolboys decorate this red-figure cup. In addition to basic literacy and mathematics, Greek boys were trained in athletics and music. On the interior of the cup, a boy holding a lyre stands in front of a bearded man, who must be his music teacher. On the outside, men and boys form similar scenes. The imagined walls of the schoolroom are hung with musical instruments and athletic equipment: lyres, string bags with knucklebones, sponges, and aryballoi. The scenes on this cup are not purely educational, however. On one side of the vase, a boy holds a hare on his lap, while on the other, a man offers a hare to another boy. In addition to serving as a classroom, the gymnasion in its role as the center of Greek physical and intellectual life was also the center of romantic courtship. Hares were popular love gifts in the homosexual relationships between older men and boys favored by the Athenian aristocracy in the early 500s B.C. --J. Paul Getty Museum Bareiss Loan: S.82.AE.36, May, Helmut, ed. Weltkunst aus Privatbesitz, exh. cat. (Cologne: Kunsthalle Köln, 1968), cat. no. A 31; fig. 13.; Bothmer, Dietrich von.
Scenes of the daily lives of Athenian schoolboys decorate this red-figure cup. In addition to basic literacy and mathematics, Greek boys were trained in athletics and music. On the interior of the cup, a boy holding a lyre stands in front of a bearded man, who must be his music teacher. On the outside, men and boys form similar scenes. The imagined walls of the schoolroom are hung with musical instruments and athletic equipment: lyres, string bags with knucklebones, sponges, and aryballoi. The scenes on this cup are not purely educational, however. On one side of the vase, a boy holds a hare on his lap, while on the other, a man offers a hare to another boy. In addition to serving as a classroom, the gymnasion in its role as the center of Greek physical and intellectual life was also the center of romantic courtship. Hares were popular love gifts in the homosexual relationships between older men and boys favored by the Athenian aristocracy in the early 500s B.C. --J. Paul Getty Museum Bareiss Loan: S.82.AE.36, May, Helmut, ed. Weltkunst aus Privatbesitz, exh. cat. (Cologne: Kunsthalle Köln, 1968), cat. no. A 31; fig. 13.; Bothmer, Dietrich von.
On this Athenian white-ground lekythos attributed to Douris, two young warriors put on their armor, assisted by a woman and a young boy. The main lines of the bodies and clothing are drawn in black glaze, and the rest of the drawing is rendered with a brownish line made from diluted glaze. The words written between the figures are kalos inscriptions, praising Athenian youths. Large, white-ground lekythoi with outline drawing like this one are unusual in the early 400s B.C., yet three such lekythoi can be attributed to Douris. In the late 500s B.C., Athenian potters began to paint over the natural reddish color of their pottery with a highly purified clay that turned white when fired. Initially artists applied this technique to a variety of shapes. However, because the white slip was rather fragile, by the mid- 400s B.C. artists limited the use of this technique to leykthoi used in funerary ritual. --J. Paul Getty Museum
Scenes of the daily lives of Athenian schoolboys decorate this red-figure cup. In addition to basic literacy and mathematics, Greek boys were trained in athletics and music. On the interior of the cup, a boy holding a lyre stands in front of a bearded man, who must be his music teacher. On the outside, men and boys form similar scenes. The imagined walls of the schoolroom are hung with musical instruments and athletic equipment: lyres, string bags with knucklebones, sponges, and aryballoi. The scenes on this cup are not purely educational, however. On one side of the vase, a boy holds a hare on his lap, while on the other, a man offers a hare to another boy. In addition to serving as a classroom, the gymnasion in its role as the center of Greek physical and intellectual life was also the center of romantic courtship. Hares were popular love gifts in the homosexual relationships between older men and boys favored by the Athenian aristocracy in the early 500s B.C. --J. Paul Getty Museum Bareiss Loan: S.82.AE.36, May, Helmut, ed. Weltkunst aus Privatbesitz, exh. cat. (Cologne: Kunsthalle Köln, 1968), cat. no. A 31; fig. 13.; Bothmer, Dietrich von.