Obverse, seated woman, holding openwork processional basket and accompanied by two other women, Eros, and satyr Reverse, seated woman with standing servant, Eros, and satyr
Openwork baskets of this type holding implements of sacrifice were carried by women in religious processions. The presence of a satyr and Eros on both sides of this vase suggests that the festival being celebrated is the Anthesteria. On the second day of this important Attic celebration devoted to Dionysos, the god of wine, he was united in marriage in a secret ritual to the wife of a high honorary official of Athens. It was apparently also a popular time for weddings in the city, and the seated woman on the back of this vase may be a bride being prepared for marriage. The basket and details of jewelry are in slight relief and gilded.
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Title:Terracotta skyphos (deep drinking cup)
Period:Late Classical
Date:ca. 350 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; red-figure
Dimensions:H. 6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm) diameter 7 3/4 in. (19.7 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1906
Accession Number:06.1021.181
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1906. "Collection of Greek and Roman Vases." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1(6): pp. 79–80, fig. 7.
Richter, Gisela M. A., Marjorie J. Milne, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1922. Shapes of Greek Vases. New York.
Schefold, Karl. 1934. Untersuchungen zu den Kertscher Vasen. no. 593, pp. 61, 92–93, 96, 104, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co.
Richter, Gisela M. A. and Marjorie J. Milne. 1935. Shapes and Names of Athenian Vases. p. 28, fig. 177, New York: Plantin Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. and Lindsley F. Hall. 1936. Red-Figured Athenian Vases in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 170, p. 217, pls. 165, 178, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1946. Attic Red-Figured Vases: A Survey. p. 161, fig. 125, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Bieber, Margarete. 1949. "Eros and Dionysos on Kerch Vases." Hesperia Supplement, 8: pp. 31–38, pl. 4.3a–b.
Metzger, Henri. 1951. Les représentations dans la céramique attique du IVe siècle. no. 29, pp. 30, 45, 144, Paris: E. de Boccard.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. pp. 115, 254, pl. 94g, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1958[1946]. Attic Red-Figured Vases: A Survey, Revised Edition, 2nd edn. p. 161, fig. 125, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Boardman, John. 1989. Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Classical Period, a Handbook. fig. 395, London: Thames and Hudson.
Miller, Margaret C. 1997. Athens and Persia in the Fifth Century B.C.: A Study in Cultural Receptivity. p. 161 n. 60, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Gebauer, Jörg. 2002. Pompe und Thysia: Attische Tieropferdarstellungen auf schwarz- und rotfigurigen Vasen. no. Kv 59, pp. 569–70, Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.
Mertens, Joan R. 2010. How to Read Greek Vases. no. 29, pp. 30, 45, 144–48, 152, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
