Lekythos (unguent container); Scene: King Acrisius sending off Danae and Perseus
Artist: The Providence Painter (Greek)
Date: about 470 BCE
Dimensions:
H: 15 15/16 in. (40.5 cm); Diam (mouth): 3 5/32 in. (8 cm); Diam (shoulder): 5 5/8 in. (14.3 cm); Diam (foot): 3 15/32 in. (8.8 cm)
Medium: Red Figure; Wheel-thrown, slip-decorated earthenware
Classification: Ceramics
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1969.369
Label Text:A lekythos is a container for oil used in funeral rites. They often therefore depict funerary rites, a scene of loss, or a scene of departure. On this lekythos, however, the painter has depicted an episode in the story of Danae and Perseus. King Acrisius of Argos had been warned by an oracle that he would be killed by his daughter Danae’s son, so he locked her in a tower. However, Zeus, king of the gods, entered the tower as a shower of gold and impregnated Danae, who gave birth to Perseus. To save himself, Acrisius put Danae and her son in a wooden chest and set them adrift on the sea (the scene shown here). The infant Perseus, shown as a miniature adult, is already in the chest. His mother is about to climb in. Acrisius, on the right, gestures as if to hurry the two away.
Mother and child survived the ordeal, and much later Perseus did kill his grandfather, although by accident.
Mother and child survived the ordeal, and much later Perseus did kill his grandfather, although by accident.
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