Base: view from below

Overview: interior

Overview: exterior

Tondo: woman with lamp, upper half

Tondo: lamp

Tondo: woman with lamp

Collection: University Museums, University of Mississippi
Summary: Interior: Nude woman singeing her pubic hair
Ware: Attic Red Figure
Painter: In the manner of Onesimos
Date: ca. 500 BC - ca. 490 BC
Primary Citation: ARV2, 331.20; Para, 361; Beazley Addenda 2, 217
Shape: Kylix
Period: Late Archaic

Condition:

Broken and mended.

Decoration Description:

Int.: The tondo is encircled by a reserve line. Within this, a nude woman stands, with legs slightly apart and bent, over a basin set on the ground. Her hair is pulled back in a bun, and she wears earrings. A sack or clothing is hung on the wall to the right. She holds an oil lamp in her left hand, and is singeing her pubic hair. In her right she holds a sponge.

The practice of singeing pubic hair must have been fairly common in Classical Athens, to judge from the number of references to it in comedy (Aristoph. Lys. 151, 825-828; Aristoph. Thes. 215, 236-2470, as cited in Descoeudres, 9-10).

Inscriptions:

*P*A*N*A*I*T*I*O*S *K*A*L*O*N ("Panaitios is beautiful")

Sources Used:

J.P. Descoeudres "Hdistos Daimon" Antichthon 15 (1981) 9-10

Other Bibliography:

F. Hauser "Aristophanes und Vasenbilder" OeJh 12 (1909) 85 ff.; M.I. Davies, "Merkins and Modes," Images et Société en Grèce ancienne (Lausanne 1984, publ. 1987) = Cahiers d'archéologie romande 36 (1987) 243-8.