Bell Krater with Helen Fleeing Menelaos

Place of OriginMade in Athens, Greece; reportedly found in Camarina (Sicily) or Monte Alto di Castro (near Vulci)

Dateabout 440-430 BCE

DimensionsH: 12 13/16 in. (32.5 cm); W (with handles): 15 1/4 in. (38.7 cm); Diam (lip): 14 25/32 in. (37.5 cm); Diam (foot): 7 3/32 in. (18 cm)

MediumRed-figure terracotta.

ClassificationCeramics

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

Object number

1967.154

On View

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

DescriptionA wheel-thrown earthenware bell krater decorated in the red-figure technique, showing a mythological scene of Helen fleeing toward an altar and Menelaos in pursuit. Reverse side depicts a woman offering a phiale to a youth with a spear.

Label TextThis vase depicts a pivotal moment in the story of Helen and Menelaos during the fall of Troy. After a ten-year war, Menelaos finds his wife Helen, whose departure to Troy with Paris is often blamed for the conflict. Here, she is shown fleeing toward the altar of Aphrodite, goddess of love, her hair and clothing in disarray. Ancient accounts frame this moment as one of male astonishment at female beauty, implying that Menelaos drops his sword and forgives Helen because of her irresistible allure. Yet, this interpretation diminishes Helen’s complexity, reducing her to an object of desire rather than recognizing her as a figure caught in the machinations of gods and men.Published ReferencesRiefstahl, Rudolph M. "Greek Vases," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 11, no. 2, 1968, p. 43.

Luckner, Kurt T., "Greek Vases: Shapes and Uses," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 15, no. 3, 1972, p. 71.

Brommer, Frank, Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensagen, 3rd, ed., Marburg, 1973, p. 407, no. 17.

Boulter, Cedric G., and Kurt T. Luckner, Corpus vasorum antiquorum: Toledo Museum of Art, U.S.A. Fasc. 17, Toledo, 1976, p. 28-29, repr. pl. 43.

Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae, Zurich, 1988, v. IV, pt. 1, p. 543, 559, 560, no. 274, repr. v. IV, pt. 2, pl. 340.

Carpenter, T.H., Art and Myth in Ancient Greece, New York, 1991, p. 210, fig. 338, p. 232.

Woodford, Susan, The Trojan War in ancient art, London, 1993, p. 112, fig. 108, p. 113.

Erp Taalman Kip, A. Maria van, Schurken en schelmen, Amsterdam, 1995, repr. p. 95.

Lyons, Deborah, Gender and Immortality: Heroines in Ancient Greek Myth and Cult, Princeton, 1997, p. 39, fig. 2, p. 40.

March, Jenny, Cassell Dictionary of Classical Mythology, London, 1998, p. 253, fig. 91, p. 252.

Albersmeier, Sabine, Heroes! Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece, Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, 2009, no. 26, p. 206, repr. (col.) p. 207.

Marshall, C.W., The Structure and Performance of Euripides' Helen, Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, 2014, repr. det. dustjacket.

Boggild Johannsen, Kristine and Jane Hjarl Peterson, eds., Family Lives: Aspects of LIfe and Death in Ancient Families, Copenhagen, Museum Tusculanum Press, 2019, p. 51-52, repr. (col.) p. 51, fig. 8.

Exhibition HistoryBaltimore, Walters Art Museum; Nashville, TN, Frist Center for the Visual Arts; San Diego Museum of Art; New York, Onassis Center, Heroes! Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece, October 11, 2009-January 3, 2011.Comparative ReferencesSee also Beazley, John D., Attic Red-figure Base-painters, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1963, pp. 1012-1013 (on the Persephone Painter).

cf. Ghali-Kahil, Lilly, Les enlevements et le retour d'Helene, 1955, p. 86 ff (on Menelaos's pursuit of Helen).

cf. Snodgrass, Arms and Armour of the Greeks, London, 1967, p. 95 (on Thracian helmets like the one Menelaos is wearing on this vase).