Drinking Cup (Kylix) with Herakles and Kyknos

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Drinking Cup (Kylix) with Herakles and Kyknos

Artist The Euergides Painter (Greek, active 510-500 BCE)

Place of OriginGreece, Attica

Dateabout 515 BCE

Dimensions4 5/8 × 15 1/4 × 11 3/4 × 11 13/16 × 15 1/8 × 4 3/4 in. (11.8 × 38.7 × 29.8 × 30 × 38.5 × 12 cm)

MediumRed 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

1961.25

On View

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

DescriptionAttic red-figure drinking cup (kylix), made in Athens and signed by the potter Euergides. Inside the bowl, a rooster walks to the right within a plain circular border; its comb and wattle are painted red, and around it runs the potter’s signature, Εὐ[ε]ργ[ι]δές ἐποίησεν, meaning “Euergides made me.” One side shows the hero Herakles, beardless and wearing a lion skin, overpowering a collapsing warrior—usually identified as Kyknos—while a bearded fighter, possibly the god Ares, charges in from the right. On the other side, armed men battle; a wounded warrior falls as an inscription praises a handsome youth (Ὁ παῖς καλός).

Label TextIn ancient Athens, most painted pottery was unsigned. When signatures do appear, they typically record either the potter who shaped the vessel (epoiesen, “made [me]”) or the painter who decorated it (egrapsen, “painted [me]*). This kylix bears the inscription Εὐ[ε]ργ[ι]δές ἐποίησεν (“Euergides made me”), identifying the potter. Such signatures served not only as marks of authorship but also as indicators of quality and workshop identity in a demand-driven market. They provide rare insight into the collaborative nature of vase production in Athens around 520–510 BCE, where potters and painters worked together as part of highly efficient teams.Published References

Kunstwerke der Antike: Auktion XXII, Münzen und Medaillen AG Basel, 13 Mai 1961, p. 82, lot no. 155.

Washington, Seldon, "Greek Vase Painting," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 5, no. 3, 1962, p. 89.

"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, Jan.-Mar. 1962," The Art Quarterly, vol. 25, no. 2, 1965, p. 165.

Beazley, John D., Attic Red-figured Vase-painters, Oxford, 2nd ed., 1963, pp. 90, 97, 1625, 1700.

"La Chronique des Arts," Supplement to the Gazette des Beaux Arts, no. 1129, 1963, p. 67.

Riefstahl, Rudolph M., "Greek Vases," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 11, no. 2, 1968, p. 40.

Luckner, Kurt T., "Greek Vases: Shapes and Uses," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 15, no. 3, 1972, pp. 76-77.

Brommer, Frank, Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage, Marburg, 3rd ed., 1973, p. 107, no. 6.

Boulter, Cedric G., and Kurt T. Luckner, Corpus vasorum antiquorum: Toledo Museum of Art, U.S.A. Fasc. 17, Toledo, 1976, p. 31-32, repr. pl. 48 and 49,2, fig. 6-8; profile drawing fig. 10.

Burn, Lucilla, and Ruth Glynn, Beazley Addenda: Additional References to ABV, ARV² & Paralipomena, Oxford, Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1982, p. 84.

Carpenter, Thomas H., with Thomas Mannack and Melanie Mendonça, Beazley Addenda: Additional References to Attic Black-figure Vase-painters (ABV, ARV²) & Paralipomena, 2nd ed., Oxford, Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1989, p. 171.

Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae, Zurich, 1994, vol. 7-1, p. 979, vol. 7-2, repr. p. 711.

Russell, Pamela J., Ceramics and Society: Making and Marketing Ancient Greek Pottery, Tampa, Tampa Museum of Art, 1994, no. 35, pp. 60-61, repr.

Ivanov, Dimitar, Ares, Sofia, St. Clement Ohridski University Press, 2000, fig. 8 (det., col.).

von Bothmer, Dietrich, “The Quest for Lykaon, Son of Ares and Pyrene,” in Homère chez Calvin. Figures de l’hellénisme à Genève. Mélanges Olivier Reverdin, Geneva, Droz, 2000, pp. 302–303, figs. 6–8.

Ask ChatGPT Muth, Susanne, Gewalt im Bild. Das Phänomen der medialen Gewalt im Athen des 6. und 5. Jahrhunderts v. Chr., Berlin / New York, De Gruyter, 2008, pp. 30, 190, figs. 12, 110.

Zardini, Francesca, The Myth of Herakles and Kyknos. A Study in Greek Vase-Painting and Literature, Verona, Fiorini, 2009, pp. 73, 606, figs. 4, 155.

Matthew, Christopher, "When Push Comes to Shove: What was the Othismos of Hoplite Combat?" Historia, Franz Steiner Verlag, vol. 58, no. 4, 2009, repr. p. 401.

Siftar, Lucie, Das Phänomen der unvollständigen Gestalt in der griechischen Kunst. Unterschiedliche Facetten eines besonderen Darstellungsmittels, Heidelberg, Propylaeum, 2018 (Daidalos – Heidelberger Abschlussarbeiten zur Klassischen Archäologie, Band 8), p. 112, fig. 6.4.

Exhibition History

Tampa Museum of Art, Ceramics and Society: Making and Marketing Ancient Greek Pottery, 1994, no. 35.