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Drinking cup (kylix) depicting the goddess Eos abducting Kephalos or Tithonos

Greek
Early Classical Period
about 470–460 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Greece, Attica, Athens

Medium/Technique Ceramic, Red Figure
Dimensions Height: 10.2 cm (4 in.); diameter: 32.6 cm (12 13/16 in.)
Credit Line Catharine Page Perkins Fund
Accession Number95.28
ClassificationsVessels

Catalogue Raisonné Caskey-Beazley, Attic Vase Paintings (MFA), no. 155.
DescriptionInterior: The winged goddess Eos (Dawn) about to carry away Tithonos. She is elaboratly dressed in a beribboned chiton, a head covering (sakkos) and earrings. The boy wears a himation and ribbon diadem; his long hair tied up underneath it.
Greek inscription, "Handsome!" (KALOS) between the faces of Eos and Tithonos.

Exterior: Men of varying age (probably the family and friends of Tithonos) hurry towards an armed leader who has one foot on a rocky precipice (or tree?) and is looking up to the sky. At the other end an altar burns with the remains of a sacrifice.

On one handle the Greek inscription, "Hieron made it"; (HIERONEPOIESEN)

Condition: Put together with some unimportant restoration.
Signed "Hieron made it"
Inscriptions"Hieron made it" (HIERON EPOIESEN) on handle; "Handsome!" (KALOS) on interior.
Interior:
ΚΑΛΟΣ

Handle:
ΗΙΕΡΟΝΕΠΟΙΕΣΕΝ
ProvenanceSaid to have been found at Vulci, not later than 1835; acquired by the Roman dealer Basseggio, of whom it was bought by Herr Schlosser of Heidelberg in the winter of 1835-36; later in possession of Herr von Bermus at Stift Neuburg near Heidelberg; later still in Adolphe van Branteghem Collection; 1892: Hotel Drouot auction of Van Branteghem Collection, Paris, May 30 - June 1, lot 72; purchased at the van Branteghem auction by Edward Perry Warren; 1895: purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren for $ 29,857.37 (this figure is the total price for MFA 95.9-95.174)