The Penelope Painter I – Skyphos A
This deep cup is decorated with two extraordinary scenes hard to interpret. On this side a bearded, naked satyr pushing a girl sitting on a swing. This swing is made of a stool hung by red ropes on an object outside the picture frame — probably on a branch since the rich plant ornamentation near the handle alludes to the fact that this scene takes place outdoors. The girl, whose hair hangs down in long curls, wears a wide undergarment and a cloak which is wrapped around the lower part of her body, both billowing in the breeze. An inscription at the border of the vessel can be understood as a shout of encouragement by the satyr rather like ‘swing high, my beauty’.
But what is depicted here is no innocent child’s game. The swinging of girls was part of a religious festival called the Aiora that was established to commemorate the suicide of Erigone. Bowed down with grief at the violent death of her father, the Attic hero Ikarios, Erigone had hanged herself. Ikarios had been instructed in the production of wine by Dionysos and he had given some of this new drink to try to some farmers in his neighborhood. When they — greatly inebriated by the wine — fell over as if dead, their relatives killed Ikarios in the belief that he had poisoned them.
But according to evidence from other vase paintings, the swinging was also a metaphor for the sexual act. It was part of the rites which prepared a girl of marriageable age for betrothal. Other evidence for a ritual context is the garland decorated with ribbons which the satyr wears on his head.
Inscriptions. Above the satyr: Ε(υ)α[ν](θ)εια; bove the girl: [κ]αλη{2}.
Attic red-figured skyphos
Attributed to The Penelope Painter
450-400 BC
From Chiusi, Italy
Berlin Altes Museum
The Penelope Painter I – Skyphos A
This deep cup is decorated with two extraordinary scenes hard to interpret. On this side a bearded, naked satyr pushing a girl sitting on a swing. This swing is made of a stool hung by red ropes on an object outside the picture frame — probably on a branch since the rich plant ornamentation near the handle alludes to the fact that this scene takes place outdoors. The girl, whose hair hangs down in long curls, wears a wide undergarment and a cloak which is wrapped around the lower part of her body, both billowing in the breeze. An inscription at the border of the vessel can be understood as a shout of encouragement by the satyr rather like ‘swing high, my beauty’.
But what is depicted here is no innocent child’s game. The swinging of girls was part of a religious festival called the Aiora that was established to commemorate the suicide of Erigone. Bowed down with grief at the violent death of her father, the Attic hero Ikarios, Erigone had hanged herself. Ikarios had been instructed in the production of wine by Dionysos and he had given some of this new drink to try to some farmers in his neighborhood. When they — greatly inebriated by the wine — fell over as if dead, their relatives killed Ikarios in the belief that he had poisoned them.
But according to evidence from other vase paintings, the swinging was also a metaphor for the sexual act. It was part of the rites which prepared a girl of marriageable age for betrothal. Other evidence for a ritual context is the garland decorated with ribbons which the satyr wears on his head.
Inscriptions. Above the satyr: Ε(υ)α[ν](θ)εια; bove the girl: [κ]αλη{2}.
Attic red-figured skyphos
Attributed to The Penelope Painter
450-400 BC
From Chiusi, Italy
Berlin Altes Museum