Kantharos in the Form of a Satyr's Head

Place of OriginGreece, Attica

Date500-450 BCE

Dimensions5 7/8 × 3 5/8 × 2 1/4 in. (15 × 9.3 × 5.8 cm)

MediumMolded earthenware with slip decoration

ClassificationCeramics

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number

1917.134

Not on View

DescriptionA ceramic drinking vessel (kantharos) with a deep bowl and two high, vertical loop handles attached at the rim and shoulder. The lower body of the vase is mold-made in the form of a single satyr’s head facing forward. The satyr possesses archaic features, including wide, staring eyes with dotted pupils, a snub nose, and animalistic ears. A large, spade-shaped beard painted in black glaze with incised wavy lines covers the lower front, while a wreath or diadem sits above the brow. The reverse of the vessel is not janiform; it is smooth and painted black to represent the back of the head. The neck of the vase flares upward to a wide rim. Decoration includes faint painted details on the handle plates (rotelles).

Label TextThis drinking cup, or kantharos, is molded in the shape of a Satyr—a mythological follower of Dionysus, the god of wine. With his animal ears, snub nose, and wild beard, the Satyr represented the uninhibited side of nature. Such cups were designed for the symposium, an aristocratic Greek drinking party.Published References

Beazley, John D., Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, Oxford, 2nd ed., 1963, p. 1544, no. 6 (the entry describes this vase incorrectly as being janiform.)

Beazley, John D., Paralipomena, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1971, p. 504.

Luckner, Kurt T., "Greek Vases: Shapes and Uses," The Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 15, no. 3, 1972, p. 80, repr. fig. 27.

Boulter, Cedric G., and Kurt T. Luckner, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, U.S.A. fasc. 17, Toledo Museum of Art, 1976, pls. 57, 3 and 4, p. 37.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Beazley, J.D., "Charinos," Journal of Hellenistic Studies, London, 1929, vol. XLIX, part 1, p. 65.

cf. Auktion XVIII Basel, Basel, Munzen und Medaillen, 1958, pl. 37, no. 117 (now ARV2 p. 1544, no. 12 - for a close parallel to the Toledo satyr's face on a Janiform satyr's head Kantharos).