Kylix (drinking cup): Theseus and the Minotaur

Artist The potter Tleson (Greek)

Place of OriginGreek, from Attica

Dateabout 550 BCE

Dimensions6 1/4 × 12 3/8 × 9 3/8 × 3 11/16 in. (15.9 × 31.4 × 23.8 × 9.4 cm)

MediumBlack Figure; Wheel-thrown, slip-decorated earthenware with incised details

ClassificationCeramics

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1958.70

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

DescriptionInside: Theseus and the Minotaur

Label TextThe scene on this drinking cup shows the famous story of the Athenian hero Theseus slaying the fierce bull-headed monster, the Minotaur, in the heart of the Labyrinth of King Minos of Crete. Both figures are labeled by inscriptions in Greek. This kylix was broken and repaired in antiquity. Drill holes are still visible in the wall of the cup, through which lead clamps were placed to join the pieces. The inscription around the outside of the cup translates as “Tleson son of Nearchos made me.”Published References

Auktion XVIII Basel, Basel, Munzen und Medaillen, 1958, pp. 28-29, lot no. 87.

Brommer, Frank, Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage, Marburg, 2nd ed., 1960, p. 176, no. 48.

Washington, S., "Greek Vase Painting," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 5, no. 4, 1962, p. 79.

Riefstahl, Rudolph M., "Greek Vases," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 11, no. 2, 1968, p. 31.

Beazley, John D., Paralipomena, Oxford, 1971, p. 75, no. 1 bis.

Luckner, Kurt T., "Greek Vases: Shapes and Uses," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 15, no. 3, 1972, p. 76, fig. 20.

Brommer, Frank, Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage, Marburg, 1973, p. 233, no. 56.

Boulter, Cedric G., and Kurt T. Luckner, Corpus vasorum antiquorum: Toledo Museum of Art, U.S.A. Fasc. 17, Toledo, 1976, p. 23-24, repr. pl. 34 and 35,1.

Simon, Erika, Die Griechischen Vasen, Munich, 1976, no. 66, pp. 22, 81, repr. (tondo and profile).

Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae (LIMC), Zürich, 1981-1999, vol. VI, pt. 1, p. 575, no. 9, repr. vol. VI, p. 2, p. 317.

Russell, Pamela J., Ceramics & Society: Making and Marketing Ancient Greek Pottery, Tampa Museum of Art, 1994, no. 33, repr. p. 57.

Antigone & the Greek world, Cleveland, OH, Nexus, 1997, repr. p. 1.

Heesen, Pieter, Athenian Little-Master Cups, Amsterdam, Pieter Heesen, 2011, pp. 180, 187-188, 257, repr. fig. 106, pl. 80c and pl. 81a.

Stutzinger, Dagmar, Griechen, Etrusker und Römer: Eine Kulturgeschichte der antiken Welt im Spiegel der Sammlungen des Archaologischen Museums Frankfurt, Regensburg, Schnell & Steiner, 2012, fig. 107 p. 106.

Exhibition History

Tampa Museum of Art, Ceramics & Society: Making and Marketing Ancient Greek Pottery, 1994, no. 33.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Beazley, John D., Attic Black-figure Vase-painters, Oxford, 1956, p. 181.

cf. Beazley, John D., The Development of Attic Black-figure, Berkeley, 1951, p. 55 (on the Tleson Painter and Tleson Potter).

cf. Beazley, John D., "Little-master Cups," Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 52, 1932, pp. 195-196 (on little master cups).

cf. Kunze, E., Archaische Schildbander (Olympische Forschungen II), Berlin, 1950, pp. 129-132 (on the iconography of Theseus and the Minotaur).