Stemless kylix ( Cup); A-B: Escape from the Cave of Polyphemus
Artist: Class of the Top-band stemlesses (Greek | Attic)
Date: about 540-530 BCE
Dimensions:
H: 2 3/4 in. (7 cm); Diam (lip): 7 5/32 in. (18.2 cm); Diam (with handles): 9 21/32 in. (24.5 cm); Diam (foot): 3 9/16 in. (9 cm)
Medium: Black figure; wheel-thrown, slip-decorated earthenware with incised details.
Place of Origin: Greek, Attic
Classification: Ceramics
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1927.97
Label Text:But as for me—there was a ram, far the best of all the flock; him I grasped by the back, and curled beneath his shaggy belly, lay there face upwards with steadfast heart, clinging fast with my hands to his wondrous fleece. (Odyssey, Book 9)
Trapped inside the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemos, wily Odysseus must think fast in this episode from the Odyssey as each day the monster devours more of his men. Together they manage to blind the drunken Polyphemos with a long wooden stake. On the sides of this cup, we see their escape as Odysseus ties each man underneath the Cyclops’ sheep so that they could leave, undetected, as the flock went out to feed. On one side of the cup, the man depicted is beardless and young, while on the other side a bearded man, likely Odysseus himself, clings underneath the ram.
Trapped inside the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemos, wily Odysseus must think fast in this episode from the Odyssey as each day the monster devours more of his men. Together they manage to blind the drunken Polyphemos with a long wooden stake. On the sides of this cup, we see their escape as Odysseus ties each man underneath the Cyclops’ sheep so that they could leave, undetected, as the flock went out to feed. On one side of the cup, the man depicted is beardless and young, while on the other side a bearded man, likely Odysseus himself, clings underneath the ram.
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