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21. Music Lesson
- Description
- 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.
22. Music lesson
- Description
- 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.
23. Music Lesson
- Description
- 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.
- Description
- Pottery: red-figured kylix. INTERIOR: seated old man and man. On the left an old man with beard and receding hair is seated on a simple stool with a striped cushion. He is dressed in long chiton and himation and has a red wreath in his hair. He holds a plain stick in his left hand and gestures towards the bearded man facing him with his right hand. This man wears a himation and shoes and has a red wreath in his hair. He leans to the left on a knotty stick and is seen in three-quarter back view. His left arm, covered in drapery, is bent back to hold the top of his stick which supports him under his left armpit. He gestures with his right hand towards the seated man. Border: dotted cross square alternating with five units of running maeander (five-stroke, clockwise); irregularities at 7 o'clock (three and a half maeander units) and at 8 and 9 o'clock (only four units). EXTERIOR: Briseis. Side A (lower): Briseis being led away from Achilles. On the far left a bearded herald in short chiton, chlamys, pilos hat with red ties and boots with horizontal divisions (dilute glaze) starts to move away to the left but turns back his head and torso so that his right leg is also seen from the back (dilute glaze wash in hair and beard). He holds a kerykeion up in his left hand; his right hand grips the draped hand or wrist of a woman behind him. She is Briseis and wears a chiton and a himation pulled up over the back of her head, faces to the left, a double red band around her head. Behind her is a second bearded herald (dilute glaze wash for beard). He wears a pilos hat with red ties, horizontally striped boots (dilute glaze) and a chlamys that covers the short chiton that he is presumably wearing beneath it. In the centre a bearded man in a himation leans on a knotty stick to the right, his right hand on his hip, his left arm hidden in his drapery. He has a red fillet in his hair. He faces the tent of Achilles which takes the form of four (only two shown) plain posts with simple block bases with a large striped textile with a fringed edge draped over them. Up in the folds of this marquee are, on the left, a Corinthian helmet with a long crest on a square hook or shelf and, on the right, a scabbard with a red strap. Next to the scabbard is planted a spear. In the centre of the tent sits Achilles on an elaborate folding stool (animal legs) with a cushion decorated with zigzags. He wears shoes and a himation which envelops all but the upper part of his face. He has a red fillet in his hair and dilute wash in his wavy hair. His left arm is wrapped around a knotty stick. Behind the tent, on the extreme right, stands a bearded elder in long chiton, himation and shoes; he also has a red hair-band. He holds a staff or sceptre in his right hand. Side Β (upper): Briseis being led back. On the left a bearded man, wearing a himation pulled up over the back of his head and a red fillet, leans on a knotty stick, his right leg frontal: he is presumably Agamemnon. In front of him stands a bearded elder to the left. He is dressed in long chiton (dilute glaze border), himation, shoes and a red fillet and rests his right hand on top of a plain stick. Behind him stands a second bearded elder similarly dressed and accoutred but facing to the right. In the centre is a fluted column with a plain block base but a Doric capital with architrave above. To the right of the central column a herald in pilos hat with red ties, chlamys and red thonged high sandals moves to the right. In his right hand he holds a kerykeion; his left hand is raised inside his chlamys; at his hip is a scabbard. In front of him is Briseis in chiton (upper folds done with dilute glaze) and himation pulled up over the back of her head. She has a double red band around her head. In front of her is a second herald who leads her by the hand - hers within its drapery. He is moving right but has turned back to look at her, his head to the left, torso and right leg frontal. He is dressed in short chiton, chlamys and pilos hat with red ties and holds a kerykeion up in his left hand. In front of him, on the extreme right, is a second column, as the first. These two columns are probably intended to be the entrance porch to Agamemnon's more palatial tent, out through which the two heralds are leading Briseis. Under either handle: a solid stone seat with dilute glaze strokes. Ground line: single reserved line. Relief line contour throughout (except for hair); dilute glaze for minor interior markings; added red for inscriptions. --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
- Description
- Komasts or revelers frolic around the exterior of this Athenian red-figure cup. The men dance and hold drinking cups, while female attendants provide the music. The unusual feature of this vase is the odd way the men are dressed. They wear long chitons and turban-like headdresses, and attendants shelter them with parasols. Several dozen vases with similarly dressed revelers survive. Scholars call these scenes of men in fancy dress Anakreontic, after the poet Anakreon, who came to Athens from East Greece in the late 500s B.C. Scholars do not agree on how to interpret this costume. Because the men's clothing is similar to that of the women in the scene, some scholars see the men as transvestites dressing up as women. Other scholars point out that this clothing was suitable male attire in the Greek colonies on the coast of Turkey and in the neighboring kingdom of Lydia. They see the adoption of Eastern dress for symposia, or drinking parties, as part of a larger infiltration of East Greek art and ideas into Athenian culture beginning in the 520s B.C. A quieter scene decorates the interior of the cup, with a young man offering a flower to a standing woman holding a mirror. --J. Paul Getty Museum; Bareiss Loan Number: S.82.AE.37, May, Helmut, ed. Weltkunst aus Privatbesitz, exh. cat. (Cologne: Kunsthalle Köln, 1968), cat. no. A 33; figs. 14-15.; Bothmer, Dietrich von, and J. Bean. Greek Vases and Modern Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Bareiss. Exh. checklist, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: 1969. p. 7, no. 90.; Bothmer, Dietrich von.
- Description
- Komasts or revelers frolic around the exterior of this Athenian red-figure cup. The men dance and hold drinking cups, while female attendants provide the music. The unusual feature of this vase is the odd way the men are dressed. They wear long chitons and turban-like headdresses, and attendants shelter them with parasols. Several dozen vases with similarly dressed revelers survive. Scholars call these scenes of men in fancy dress Anakreontic, after the poet Anakreon, who came to Athens from East Greece in the late 500s B.C. Scholars do not agree on how to interpret this costume. Because the men's clothing is similar to that of the women in the scene, some scholars see the men as transvestites dressing up as women. Other scholars point out that this clothing was suitable male attire in the Greek colonies on the coast of Turkey and in the neighboring kingdom of Lydia. They see the adoption of Eastern dress for symposia, or drinking parties, as part of a larger infiltration of East Greek art and ideas into Athenian culture beginning in the 520s B.C. A quieter scene decorates the interior of the cup, with a young man offering a flower to a standing woman holding a mirror. --J. Paul Getty Museum; Bareiss Loan Number: S.82.AE.37, May, Helmut, ed. Weltkunst aus Privatbesitz, exh. cat. (Cologne: Kunsthalle Köln, 1968), cat. no. A 33; figs. 14-15.; Bothmer, Dietrich von, and J. Bean. Greek Vases and Modern Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Bareiss. Exh. checklist, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: 1969. p. 7, no. 90.; Bothmer, Dietrich von.
- Description
- Pottery: red-figured kylix (drinking-cup). INTERIOR: Warrior and girl. On the left a warrior sits on a stool with fringed cushion decorated with rows of dots and rows of two-tailed blobs. He is dressed in short chiton (dilute glaze folds on shoulder), dotted himation (battlement upper border, black lower border), cuirass, Corinthian helmet and red greave-pads (upper band crenellated, lower plain). His hair and beard are done with dilute glaze; a long curl falls down over his shoulder. He holds a spear upright in his left hand (a group of dilute glaze lines on upper shaft; point breaks the border pattern) and holds out a bossed phiale in his right. The bosses are done with raised clay and then gilded by using red miltos as a bole. His mouth is open and his name is written as if issuing from it: +PVΣΙΠΠΟΣ. On the right stands a girl in chiton (folds of second overfold and sleeve done in dilute glaze; ends of red girdle show over her right knee) and himation. Her blond hair (done with dilute glaze) is tied up at the back with a double reserved cord with three tassels that fall on her shoulder and a hair slide or clip. She supports the rim of a black shield (reserved line at joint with rim) with her left hand and holds up a dipper with a long handle that terminates in a very schematic duck's head: she is about to pour wine into the warrior's phiale. Over her back is written her name: IEVXΣO. Her disc earring is done with raised clay and was gilded, like the phiale. Border: dotted saltire cross (blobs at ends of arms) alternating with three units of stopt maeander (five- to six-stroke, anticlockwise: reversed behind helmet crest and woman's head, and only two units at two o'clock). EXTERIOR: satyrs threaten Hera and Iris. Side A: Hera threatened by satyrs. Creeping out from under the handle root on the extreme left is a satyr, named ΤΕΡΠΟΝ. His left knee is almost on the ground, his right is doubled up under him; both hands are on the ground. Like all the other satyrs on the cup, he has his mouth slightly open, his hairline is receding, he has an erection and he wears a red wreath of ivy leaves. In addition, however, his long hair falls down in curls over his back. Almost alongside him walks another satyr, named BABAK+OΣ. His fists are clenched (the preliminary sketch shows that the left arm was originally raised by c. 90 degrees). In front of him is a third satyr, named HVAPIEI: (the first letter is cramped and may be a mistake for K), who moves forward, but the way he spreads his hands suggests he may be hesitating (his erection is obscured by the tail of the next satyr). In the centre is a fourth satyr, named ΣTVON, who stoops as he moves forward. He is almost in three-quarter back view. Facing these satyrs stands Hermes (HEPMEΣ retr., except final sigma). He wears a dotted chlamys with a black border tied at the neck (circular brooch), petasos (dilute hatching along the curve before the brim, to indicate shadow) with red ties and winged boots and carries a kerykeion (four raised dots for gilding on finial) in his left hand. His right hand is raised with thumb and forefinger together. Behind Hermes, Hera (HEPA retr.) moves rapidly away to the right, her head turned back to the left and her right arm outstretched. She wears a chiton (dilute glaze folds on sleeve) with a red tie under the overfold, a himation with a battlement border, a stephane, a snake bracelet and disc earring (stephane and bracelet are done with raised clay and were gilded). She has gathered some of her chiton in her left hand to aid her flight. On the far right Herakles (HEPAKLEΣ retr., except final sigma) moves rapidly to the left: his left foot is off the ground. He is dressed in a striped jacket, trousers decorated with stripes, rows of dots and double tailed blobs, a short chiton and his lion-skin. The upper folds of his chiton are done with dilute glaze. He holds a bow (red string) and arrow out in his left hand and a club, which is done with raised clay and was gilded, back in his right hand. A quiver with two arrows in it hangs from a red strap at his left hip. He is shown in three-quarter back view. Side B: Iris caught by two satyrs, Dionysos and a satyr. On the left a satyr, named ΔΡΟMΙΣ, runs past a plain block: both his feet are off the ground and his arms are outstretched. The preliminary sketch lines indicate that the artist had once intended to draw a folding stool covered with an animal skin on this block. In front of him stands Dionysos (ΔIONVΣOΣ) with his legs crossed, the left frontal, the right on tip toe behind. He is dressed in a long chiton with a red girdle and a himation and has an animal skin (pardalis) tied around his neck and a red ivy wreath in his hair. He has a striped sceptre in his left hand and a black kantharos in his right. The preliminary sketch indicates that a regular vine branch was once intended. In the centre is an altar with volute finials and an ovolo pattern. At the centre of either volute is a lump of raised clay that was gilded. The altar is wreathed with ivy and has three splashes of red, either blood or wine. A satyr, named Ε+ON, is climbing over the altar to reach Iris. He is seen in three-quarter back view and has his right foot on top of the altar, next to the fire-brick, his left leg trails behind. He has gripped Iris' right wrist with his left hand and tugs at the upper folds of her chiton with his right. Iris (IPIN) tuns away to the right, left foot off the ground, but turns her head back towards Echon. She has scaly wings and is dressed in a chiton (dilute glaze folds for second overfold), a plain sakkos and disc earring (raised clay for gilding). In her right hand she holds a kerykeion. In her left hand she has an elongated object filled with a dilute glaze wash: it continues in dilute glaze without relief line contouring up in a high curve with a slight blob at the end. On the right a third satyr, named LΕΦΣΙΣ, stops Iris' flight. He has caught her left elbow with his right hand and endeavours to wrench the object from her with his other hand. He is seen in three-quarter back view; his left foot is off the ground. Ground line: single reserved line. On edge of foot: BPVAOΣ EΠOIEΣEN, in glaze, spaced and divided so that Brygos is under side A, epoiesen under side Β (see fig. 3g). Relief line contours throughout (except hair); dilute glaze for minor interior markings; added red for inscriptions; thin reserved line outside at juncture of offset lip and wall. --The British Museum, Williams, Dyfri, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: Great Britain 17, British Museum 9, London, BMP, 1993; Walters, H B; Forsdyke, E J; Smith, C H, Catalogue of Vases in the British Museum, I-IV, London, BMP, 1893
- Description
- Pottery: red-figured kylix (drinking-cup). INTERIOR: Warrior and girl. On the left a warrior sits on a stool with fringed cushion decorated with rows of dots and rows of two-tailed blobs. He is dressed in short chiton (dilute glaze folds on shoulder), dotted himation (battlement upper border, black lower border), cuirass, Corinthian helmet and red greave-pads (upper band crenellated, lower plain). His hair and beard are done with dilute glaze; a long curl falls down over his shoulder. He holds a spear upright in his left hand (a group of dilute glaze lines on upper shaft; point breaks the border pattern) and holds out a bossed phiale in his right. The bosses are done with raised clay and then gilded by using red miltos as a bole. His mouth is open and his name is written as if issuing from it: +PVΣΙΠΠΟΣ. On the right stands a girl in chiton (folds of second overfold and sleeve done in dilute glaze; ends of red girdle show over her right knee) and himation. Her blond hair (done with dilute glaze) is tied up at the back with a double reserved cord with three tassels that fall on her shoulder and a hair slide or clip. She supports the rim of a black shield (reserved line at joint with rim) with her left hand and holds up a dipper with a long handle that terminates in a very schematic duck's head: she is about to pour wine into the warrior's phiale. Over her back is written her name: IEVXΣO. Her disc earring is done with raised clay and was gilded, like the phiale. Border: dotted saltire cross (blobs at ends of arms) alternating with three units of stopt maeander (five- to six-stroke, anticlockwise: reversed behind helmet crest and woman's head, and only two units at two o'clock). EXTERIOR: satyrs threaten Hera and Iris. Side A: Hera threatened by satyrs. Creeping out from under the handle root on the extreme left is a satyr, named ΤΕΡΠΟΝ. His left knee is almost on the ground, his right is doubled up under him; both hands are on the ground. Like all the other satyrs on the cup, he has his mouth slightly open, his hairline is receding, he has an erection and he wears a red wreath of ivy leaves. In addition, however, his long hair falls down in curls over his back. Almost alongside him walks another satyr, named BABAK+OΣ. His fists are clenched (the preliminary sketch shows that the left arm was originally raised by c. 90 degrees). In front of him is a third satyr, named HVAPIEI: (the first letter is cramped and may be a mistake for K), who moves forward, but the way he spreads his hands suggests he may be hesitating (his erection is obscured by the tail of the next satyr). In the centre is a fourth satyr, named ΣTVON, who stoops as he moves forward. He is almost in three-quarter back view. Facing these satyrs stands Hermes (HEPMEΣ retr., except final sigma). He wears a dotted chlamys with a black border tied at the neck (circular brooch), petasos (dilute hatching along the curve before the brim, to indicate shadow) with red ties and winged boots and carries a kerykeion (four raised dots for gilding on finial) in his left hand. His right hand is raised with thumb and forefinger together. Behind Hermes, Hera (HEPA retr.) moves rapidly away to the right, her head turned back to the left and her right arm outstretched. She wears a chiton (dilute glaze folds on sleeve) with a red tie under the overfold, a himation with a battlement border, a stephane, a snake bracelet and disc earring (stephane and bracelet are done with raised clay and were gilded). She has gathered some of her chiton in her left hand to aid her flight. On the far right Herakles (HEPAKLEΣ retr., except final sigma) moves rapidly to the left: his left foot is off the ground. He is dressed in a striped jacket, trousers decorated with stripes, rows of dots and double tailed blobs, a short chiton and his lion-skin. The upper folds of his chiton are done with dilute glaze. He holds a bow (red string) and arrow out in his left hand and a club, which is done with raised clay and was gilded, back in his right hand. A quiver with two arrows in it hangs from a red strap at his left hip. He is shown in three-quarter back view. Side B: Iris caught by two satyrs, Dionysos and a satyr. On the left a satyr, named ΔΡΟMΙΣ, runs past a plain block: both his feet are off the ground and his arms are outstretched. The preliminary sketch lines indicate that the artist had once intended to draw a folding stool covered with an animal skin on this block. In front of him stands Dionysos (ΔIONVΣOΣ) with his legs crossed, the left frontal, the right on tip toe behind. He is dressed in a long chiton with a red girdle and a himation and has an animal skin (pardalis) tied around his neck and a red ivy wreath in his hair. He has a striped sceptre in his left hand and a black kantharos in his right. The preliminary sketch indicates that a regular vine branch was once intended. In the centre is an altar with volute finials and an ovolo pattern. At the centre of either volute is a lump of raised clay that was gilded. The altar is wreathed with ivy and has three splashes of red, either blood or wine. A satyr, named Ε+ON, is climbing over the altar to reach Iris. He is seen in three-quarter back view and has his right foot on top of the altar, next to the fire-brick, his left leg trails behind. He has gripped Iris' right wrist with his left hand and tugs at the upper folds of her chiton with his right. Iris (IPIN) tuns away to the right, left foot off the ground, but turns her head back towards Echon. She has scaly wings and is dressed in a chiton (dilute glaze folds for second overfold), a plain sakkos and disc earring (raised clay for gilding). In her right hand she holds a kerykeion. In her left hand she has an elongated object filled with a dilute glaze wash: it continues in dilute glaze without relief line contouring up in a high curve with a slight blob at the end. On the right a third satyr, named LΕΦΣΙΣ, stops Iris' flight. He has caught her left elbow with his right hand and endeavours to wrench the object from her with his other hand. He is seen in three-quarter back view; his left foot is off the ground. Ground line: single reserved line. On edge of foot: BPVAOΣ EΠOIEΣEN, in glaze, spaced and divided so that Brygos is under side A, epoiesen under side Β (see fig. 3g). Relief line contours throughout (except hair); dilute glaze for minor interior markings; added red for inscriptions; thin reserved line outside at juncture of offset lip and wall. --The British Museum, Williams, Dyfri, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: Great Britain 17, British Museum 9, London, BMP, 1993; Walters, H B; Forsdyke, E J; Smith, C H, Catalogue of Vases in the British Museum, I-IV, London, BMP, 1893
- Description
- Pottery: red-figured kylix showing the deeds of Theseus. Interior: Within a circle of pattern consisting of sets of three maeanders separated by chequer squares, Theseus slaying the Minotaur. Theseus, with drawn sword in right, moves to left, looking back, and dragging with his left hand the Minotaur by the left horn out of a building. The Minotaur has apparently fallen forward, dying: only his head, right arm, and body to waist are visible, the rest being concealed behind the building: the surface of his bull's head and human body are covered with brown strokes, indicating hair. The building is represented by a Doric fluted column with entablature and triglyphs, forming a porch to the main building, which is itself represented by a broad vertical stripe of pattern, consisting of alternate labyrinth (?) patterns and chequer squares; this is partly cut off by the border of the design. In this, as in all the other scenes, Theseus is beardless and wears a fillet and a sword-belt with scabbard. Round the central design is a frieze composed of a series of groups representing six more of the Labours of Theseus in the following order, starting from the left handle and proceeding from left to right: (i) The sow of Crommyon springs upward to right against Theseus, who advances with sword drawn back and left hand raised and wrapped in a mantle as a shield. Beside the sow, in the background, an old woman stands, bending forward, with both arms outstretched towards Theseus, the left resting on a long staff with forefinger extended; she has a long chiton and a mass of white hair; her face is wrinkled, and the flesh of her arms covered with strokes, indicating hair. She is probably Crommyon, the personification or wood-nymph (see Loeschcke, loc. cit.) of the locality, (ii) Kerkyon: Theseus (on left) has gripped with his right the left arm and with his left the right side of his opponent, and, drawing the other's body towards him, throws Kerkyon backwards across his thighs: the left arm of Kerkyon hangs uselessly behind the back of Theseus, and with his right he vainly tries to loosen Theseus' grasp of his side. He has a short beard and hair and a fillet, and is bald over the forehead. Beside this group, a club hanging up and a spear or staff resting on end obliquely against the background. (iii) Procrustes has fallen backwards to left on his bed, supporting himself with his right hand, and, with left hand and foot feebly raised, tries to ward off the blow which Theseus, swinging over his back the double axe (pelekys), is dealing him. Procrustes has rough shaggy hair and beard: the bed is marked off into lengths by curved strokes of brown, (iv) Skiron: Theseus on left in three-quarter back view, swings over his head the foot-pan (podanipter) to strike down Skiron, who has fallen backwards to right on the hill in an attitude balancing that of Procrustes in iii: he is bald over the forehead, and has shaggy hair and beard; on the summit of the hill, beside Skiron, is a willow (?) tree; at the foot is the tortoise, half seen, as though climbing up out of water, (v) The Marathonian bull, charging violently to right, is checked by Theseus, who, with right leg supported against a rock and left knee pressed against the bull's shoulder, throws his weight back on a cord in his left which is fastened to the animal's horns, and throws it back on its haunches; in his right he holds a club, (vi) Sinis Pityocamptes, seated on a hill-top beside a tall pine-tree, is dragged to left by Theseus, who has seized him by the right arm in one hand and with the other draws down the top of the pine-tree. Sinis has thrown one arm around the pine and presses his right foot against the rock in scene v: with his left foot drawn up he struggles to rise: his body and this leg are towards the spectator. At the foot of the hill the outline of a tortoise has been drawn in error and left unfinished; the hill conceals the hind legs of the sow in i. Exterior: Here the six scenes just described are repeated in their corresponding positions; each figure, however, standing immediately below the corresponding one of the interior, so that here the relative positions are reversed. There are slight differences in points of detail: in (i) the left hand of Crommyon leaning on the staff is drawn back; in (ii) Kerkyon is characterised as a pancratiast by the bruised face and large shapeless ear; between (i) and (ii) hang a pilos; in (v) the rock is not shown; and in (vi) no hill is given, Sinis merely kneels to right on the ground-line, out of which the pine-tree grows: here again his body is en face, and his bent right leg is drawn in bold foreshortening. The human opponents of Theseus throughout all the scenes have an irregular profile and wrinkled forehead, in contrast to the regular outline of the face of Theseus. On the bottom of the foot engraved characters. Purple (or vermilion, ? now faded to grey) is used for the leaves of trees, strings of pilos, and cord tied to bull; white for the hair of Crommyon. Brown inner markings for anatomy, surface of hills, tortoise-shell, and skin of Minotaur, &c. The eye is of the realistic profile type. Below the exterior scenes is a band of pattern like that round the interior medallion; below each handle an ornament formed by a palmette resting on one half seen, with side tendrils. --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
30. Memnon
- Description
- Pottery: red-figured kylix. Interior: Within a circle consisting of sets of four to seven single maeanders, separated by red cross squares, a woman seated in a chair, confronted on right by a youth closely draped, who leans backward, with his staff resting against his back, keeping it in position with hands under his cloak. The woman holds between each thumb and forefinger a flower, raising the one in her right towards her face. She wears a sleeved chiton, a himation passing over her left shoulder, and her hair is looped up and confined with a sphendone; beside her in the field hangs a mirror. The youth wears a fillet. The seat of the chair is decorated with vertical bands in sets of three, in very light brown. The figures rest on a line which cuts off an exergue left red. Exterior: (a) Combat of Achilles and Memnon in presence of Thetis and Eos. Memnon falls backward to right, his right leg bending under him, his spear glancing harmlessly off his opponent's thigh: his opponent's spear, broken in two, sticks in his right groin, and the purple blood gushes out. He is bearded, and wears short chiton, cuirass with scale body, and a helmet with low visor and cheek-pieces; his left arm with the shield falls helplessly backward. Achilles, disregarding the lance of Memnon, strides forward to despatch him with his sword; he wears a short chiton, a cuirass decorated with chequers, a Greek helmet with frontal decorated with a snake; his shield, like that of Memnon, is seen from the interior; his scabbard hangs from a purple cross-belt; he is beardless, and has long hair falling in parallel wavy tresses, like that of Memnon. Behind Achilles Thetis moves swiftly forward with a gesture of pleasure, raising both hands as if to clap them; her long hair is neatly arranged and tied with a fillet, which forms a bow at the back. Behind Memnon Eos rushes forward with outstretched right, tearing her disordered hair with her left. Each of the goddesses wears a long sleeved chiton, undertied, and a himation over the left shoulder. Their feet overlap the palmette ornament. (b) Two pairs of warriors. On the left a man wearing chlamys and fillet, and holding spear, confronted by a man with shield and spear, dressed in short chiton, helmet and cuirass, with a mantle over his shoulders; device, a Pegasos springing to left. Next is a similar figure en face, also with shield and spear, but with helmet tilted back; device, a lion springing to left. He looks to right over his shield at a fourth warrior, who has shield and spear on left arm and holds out his helmet in his right; he is dressed like the last, and has a purple fillet around his hair; device, a crescent. On the left of him, καλός. All these figures are bearded, and have long curly hair. Purple is used for the flowers and inscriptions, and in the details indicated below. No inner markings. The hair of the women is indicated by dark brown lines on a light brown wash. Eye of the archaic type, in transition to profile (i.e. with disc against inner angle slightly opened). Below each handle a single palmette. --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