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View: Side B
High-handled cup (kantharos) depicting Zeus in pursuit
Greek
Late Archaic Period
about 490–480 B.C.
Place of Manufacture: Greece, Attica, Athens
Medium/Technique
Ceramic, Red Figure
Dimensions
Height: 24.7 cm (9 3/4 in.); diameter: 11.5 cm (4 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Catharine Page Perkins Fund
Accession Number95.36
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsVessels
Catalogue Raisonné
Caskey-Beazley, Attic Vase Paintings (MFA), no. 017.
DescriptionKantharos ( high handled wine cup):
Side A: Zeus pursues a young boy, probably Ganymede. Zeus is identified by his scepter, and he wears high traveling boots and a cloak (himation). The boy carries a hoop and stick, and runs to the right. In his haste to get away, his cloak is beginning to fall off.
Side B: Zeus pursues a woman, whose identification is disputed. They seem to be running away from a sanctuary, complete with an altar and palm tree. The woman pulls up her skirt to facilitate her get-away, and reaches back in a gesture of supplication. There are two examples in which a woman Zeus pursues is labeled "Aigina", so that may also be the case here. However, Zeus' mythological affairs were numerous, so there are many women to choose from. Martin Robertson suggests that perhaps the woman in this scene is Semele, who became the mother of the god Dionysus as a result of the union. The place where Semele died was immediately made into a sanctuary. There is a connection to Dionysus: his favored cup shape is the kantharos, like this very cup.
Condition: Part of the head of the woman, and a part of her drapery missing.
Side A: Zeus pursues a young boy, probably Ganymede. Zeus is identified by his scepter, and he wears high traveling boots and a cloak (himation). The boy carries a hoop and stick, and runs to the right. In his haste to get away, his cloak is beginning to fall off.
Side B: Zeus pursues a woman, whose identification is disputed. They seem to be running away from a sanctuary, complete with an altar and palm tree. The woman pulls up her skirt to facilitate her get-away, and reaches back in a gesture of supplication. There are two examples in which a woman Zeus pursues is labeled "Aigina", so that may also be the case here. However, Zeus' mythological affairs were numerous, so there are many women to choose from. Martin Robertson suggests that perhaps the woman in this scene is Semele, who became the mother of the god Dionysus as a result of the union. The place where Semele died was immediately made into a sanctuary. There is a connection to Dionysus: his favored cup shape is the kantharos, like this very cup.
Condition: Part of the head of the woman, and a part of her drapery missing.
ProvenanceBy date unknown: with Edward Perry Warren (according to Warren's records: May 1893. Said to have been found at Thebes in Boeotia); 1895: purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren for $ 29,857.37 (this figure is the total price for MFA 95.9-95.174)