Advanced Search 
View: Front
Drinking horn (rhyton) in the form of a crocodile devouring an African youth
Manner of: the Sotades Painter
Greek
Classical Period
about 460 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Greece, Attica, Athens
Medium/Technique
Ceramic, Red Figure
Dimensions
Overall: 23 x 23 cm (9 1/16 x 9 1/16 in.)
Credit Line
Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Accession Number98.881
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsVessels
DescriptionCrocodile devouring an African youth; a drinking horn emerges behind them; hexagonal base; around the rim of the horn is a Bacchic scene with four figures; two satyrs and two maenads; intact. The horn suggests that the vase is a rhyton (funnel vase), but there is no outlet for wine at the base of the vase.
[Label text]:
A modeled representation of an African being devoured by a crocodile supports the cup of this rhyton. Foreigners like the one depicted here were often slaves in Greece. Maenads and satyrs dance around the rim of the vessel. One satyr holds a wineskin and an amphora for storing wine, evidence for the use of ryhta like this one.
[Label text]:
A modeled representation of an African being devoured by a crocodile supports the cup of this rhyton. Foreigners like the one depicted here were often slaves in Greece. Maenads and satyrs dance around the rim of the vessel. One satyr holds a wineskin and an amphora for storing wine, evidence for the use of ryhta like this one.
ProvenanceBy 1898, purchased near Santa Maria Capua Vetere by Edward Perry Warren (b. 1860 - d. 1928), London [see note 1]; 1898, sold by Edward Perry Warren to the MFA for $69,618 [see note 2]. (Accession Date: September 20, 1898)
NOTES: [1] According to Warren's records, this was bought three kilometers from Santa Maria Capua Vetere and found "in the neighborhood". [2] This is the total price paid for MFA accession nos. 98.641-98.940.
NOTES: [1] According to Warren's records, this was bought three kilometers from Santa Maria Capua Vetere and found "in the neighborhood". [2] This is the total price paid for MFA accession nos. 98.641-98.940.