Jug of fine light clay, with angular body, laurel-wreath.
The Greek word KITIAC (Kitias) painted above the wreath of laurel leaves and berries is probably a woman's name. These vessels are associated particularly with women's festivals and gatherings.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Terracotta lagynos (pitcher)
Period:Hellenistic
Date:late 2nd–early 1st century BCE
Culture:Cypriot
Medium:Terracotta
Dimensions:8 7/8in. (22.5cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription, 1874–76
Accession Number:74.51.390
Inscription: Painted on neck: "Kitias"
From Cyprus, probably from the area of Larnaka (Kition)
Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1878. Cyprus: Its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples. A Narrative of Researches and Excavations During Ten Years' Residence in That Island. p. 40, New York: Harper & Brothers.
Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1885. A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol. 1. pl. CXLIII.1067, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.
Myres, John L. 1914. Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. no. 958, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Vessberg, Olof and Alfred Wesholm. 1956. The Swedish Cyprus Expedition, Vol. 4, Pt. 3. p. 65, fig. 28:6, Stockholm: Håkan Ohlssons Boktryckeri.
Masson, Olivier. 1984. "Noms de femmes sur des Lagynoi Chypriotes." Annual Report of the Department of Antiquities Cyprus for the year 1984 (RDAC), : pp. 231–32.
Karageorghis, Vassos, Joan Mertens, and Marice E. Rose. 2000. Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 452, p. 279, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Yon, Marguerite. 2004. Kition-Bamboula V. Kition Dans Les Textes: Testimonia litteraires et epigraphiques et corpus des inscriptions., V. p. 273, Paris: Editions Recherché sur les Civilisations.
Lund, John. 2015. A Study of the Circulation of Ceramics in Cyprus from the 3rd Century BC to the 3rd Century AD, Gösta Enbom Monographs, 5. no. 112, pp. 80, 255, fig. 49, Bristol, CT: Aarhus University Press.
Kantirea, Maria and Daniela Summa. 2020. Inscriptiones Graecae, Inscriptiones Cypri, XV 2, 1. no. 297, p. 86, Berlin/ Boston: Walter de Gruyter & Co.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
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.