Stemless Kylix with the Escape of Odysseus
Stemless Kylix with the Escape of Odysseus
Artist
Class of the Top-band stemlesses
(Greek | Attic)
Place of OriginAthens, Greece
Dateabout 540-530 BCE
DimensionsH: 2 3/4 in. (7 cm); W (with handles): 9 5/8 in. (24.5 cm); Diam (Lip): 7 5/32 in. (18.2 cm); Diam (foot): 3 9/16 in. (9 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
1927.97
On View
Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic
DescriptionA stemless drinking cup (kylix) with a wide, shallow bowl and horizontal handles. Decorated in the black-figure technique, it depicts the escape of Odysseus and his men from the Cyclops Polyphemos’ cave. The composition includes two contrasting figures: a young, beardless man on one side and a bearded man, likely Odysseus, on the other. The kylix has been broken and repaired.
Label TextBut 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.Published ReferencesCatalogue of the American Art Association 6 Jan. 1927, lot no. 12 (Alphonse Kann Collection).
Bieber, Margarete, "The Statue of a Ram in Toledo," American Journal of Archaeology, vol. XLVII, 1943, p. 382, repr. fig. 4, p. 380.
Brommer, Frank, Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage, 2nd ed., 1960, p. 316, no. 25.
Washington, S., "Greek Vase Painting," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, Toledo Museum of Art, 1962, vol. 5, p. 85.
Reifstahl, Rudolph M., "Greek Vases," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, Toledo Museum of Art, 1962, vol. 5, no. 4, p. 34.
Touchefeu-Meynier, O., Themes odysséens dans l'art antique, Paris, 1968, p. 44, no. 107.
Beazley, John D., Paralipomena, Oxford, 1971, p. 102, no. 45.
Fellmann, Berthold, Die antiken Darstellungen des Polyphemabenteuer, Munich, 1972, p. 84, 123.
Brommer, Frank, Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage, 3rd ed., Marburg, 1973, p. 439, no. 31.
Boulter, Cedric G., and Kurt T. Luckner, Corpus vasorum antiquorum: Toledo Museum of Art, U.S.A. fasc. 17, Toledo, 1976, p. 27, repr. pl. 40, 3, 4.
Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae (LIMC), Zürich, 1981-1999, vol. VI, pt. 1, p. 958, no. 104.
1st century BCE - 3rd century CE
Old Kingdom, Dynasty 5, about 2400 BCE.
Workshop of the potter Nikosthenes
about 520 BCE
Unidentified, Gorgoneion Group
about 560 BCE
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