Side B: Theseus and the Minotaur
Side A: Calydonian Boar Hunt
Side B: Theseus and the Minotaur
| Collection: | Munich, Antikensammlungen |
| Summary: | Side A: The Calydonian boar hunt |
| Ware: | Attic Black Figure |
| Painter: | Attributed to the Group of Louvre F 110 |
| Potter: | Signed by Glaukytes and Archikles |
| Context: | Vulci |
| Date: | ca. 550 BC - ca. 540 BC |
| Dimensions: | H. 18.7 cm., d. 26.8 cm., h. of foot 8.5 cm., d. of foot 12.0 cm. |
| Primary Citation: | |
| Shape: | Band cup |
| Beazley Number: | 310552 |
| Region: | Etruria |
| Period: | High Archaic |
Condition:
In the process of restoration, the broken edges have been smoothed. There are several missing pieces at breaks. On the foot there are several patches of altered color, and several added red figures in the frieze now appear olive green, as their color has faded.
Decoration Description:
The vessel has black glaze on exterior and interior, the latter more diffuse. There are areas of clay color showing on the foot and handle attachments.
Side A depicts the Calydonian Boar Hunt. In the center stands the boar, being attacked from both sides. His lowered head and legs planted forward bespeak his defensive position. On his back a white hunting hound is crouching with grinning fangs. Underneath the boar a second hound lies dead, with its entrails, represented in dilute glaze, ripped out. From the left, five naked, bearded hunters are attacking, with their upper bodies turned frontally even though their heads and lower bodies are in right profile. Two hounds are at their sides. The figures are arranged in three overlapping levels. The first hunter, Kastor, has stuck one spear in the boar's eye and a second in its shoulder; the spear points stick out the other side of the bloody wounds. One hound, Charon, is biting the boar's snout. The second hunter, Polydeukes, stabs a trident with his left hand into the boar's forehead, while with his right he holds a spear ready. The following three hunters do the same, the first, Mofsos, with a second lance in his left hand, the second and third, Jason and Idasos, with their left weapons raised as well as those on the right. Between them the second hound is running hard. On the right, two more hounds and four naked companions proceed to attack as well. Only the first and third hunter are bearded, and all are pictured with their upper bodies turned to the back. The first, his name not completely clear, with his arms painted on backwards, leads the attack with a trident gripped in both hands, ramming it into the boar's hindquarters. One dog, a female, has gotten a biting grip on the boar's rear flank, where blood flows from the wound. The second and third hunters, Peleus and Melanion, correspond in their positions and weapons to Jason and Idasos, while the last, Kimon, with his hound corresponds to Mofsos and his hound on the left. On both sides of the scene a sphinx appears among the palmettes in the handle zone.
Side B depicts Theseus fighting the Minotaur. In the center of the scene Theseus leans forward, facing right, wearing a short chiton and belted nebris. At his side his scabbard, as well as his hair, both of which fly out behind him, demonstrate the force of his lunge. He grips the Minotaur's horn with his left hand, while with his right he holds his sword. The Minotaur is covered with hair, shown by white marks, and it bleeds from a wound in its midsection, as it tries to flee. It has fallen to its right knee even as it tries to run with its left, but it grips the blade of Theseus's sword in its right hand, turns its head toward him, and tries with its left to free its horn from his grip. With Athena in the lead, a group of four Athenian maidens and three youths watch the fight. The goddess, her upper body partly obliterated by a break, wears a peplos decorated above with spiral patterns. She holds in her right hand Theseus's lyre with its plektron hanging from it, while she gestures with her upraised left hand. Behind her the first female of the Minotaur's sacrificial victims, Euanthe, wears a long chiton with a rosette-decorated mantle over her shoulders and arms. The second figure, a youth named Lykinos, is dressed similarly, with a knee-length mantle thrown over him, a part of which he holds in his left hand. To the left follow the similarly clad Anthula, Antias, Glyke, and the bearded Simon and Engedo. The males' mantles are red, while the females' are black with large red dots. To the right of the struggle stands Ariadne in a peplos decorated with a fishbone border. In her outstretched right hand she holds a ball of wool, in her left a wreath. Ariadne's wet nurse, Throphos, stands behind her in a striped and rosette-decorated peplos. With her arms outstretched and her legs stepping nervously, she shows her unease at the spectacle. Behind her stand more calmly the Athenian youths and maidens, Lykios, Eunike, Solon, and the badly damaged Syon, all dressed similarly to those on the left. On both sides near the handles are sphinxes.
Red is used on both sides for hairbands, wide stripes and musculature on the thighs of the sphinxes, on the head and beard hair of the maidens and youths (except for the wet nurse), the females' long chitons and peploi except in the decorative zones, Theseus's short chiton and the stripes on his scabbard, the snout, throat, horn and blood of the Minotaur, the central dots in the rosettes of the females' mantles and the wet nurse's peplos, the necks, ribs and musculature of the hunting hounds and the boar, the boar's trunk, belly stripes and blood, the body of the lyre, and Ariadne's ball of wool. White is used for the females' skin, the face,neck and narrow wing stripes of the sphinxes, the rosettes on the females' mantles and the wet nurse's peplos, the youths' chitons, the lyre's arms, the hound on top of the boar, the belly and neck stripes of the other hounds, and spots on the body of one of the hounds. The females' and sphinxes' eyes are depicted with added white, now worn off the shinx on the right of side B.
Inscriptions:
On side A, above the boar, its name is inscribed,
On side B, Theseus's name is inscribed in retrograde,
Between the handle attachments are the signatures of the potters,
Sources Used:
Other Bibliography:
See CVA entry above for extensive bibliography.