Achilles Painter - XXV: Oedipus and the Sphinx
The scene painted on this pelike depicts Oedipus engaged in solving of the sphinx riddles. This was one of the Achilles Painter’s favorite subjects, and the five examples by him are more than we have from any other painter.
Oedipus is in the process of solving the riddle. He wears traveller’s garb, with a petasos hanging from his neck, and a chitoniskos under a chlamys draped around him. He stands frontally, looking left in the direction of the Sphinx, holding a spear upright in his right hand.
The Sphinx is seated in profile to the right on a rock. In other vases painted by Achilles Painter she stare directly at Oedipus, but on this pelike her gaze is turned downwards, as if she has already lost the contest.
Both of the protagonists seem already guess their sad fate.
Source: John H. Oakley, “ The Achilles Painter”
CAVI/CAV @ www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/B6D240CC-495D-4267-9EC7-9EB11...
Attic black-figure hydria
Height: 24,9 cm
Ca. 445-440 BC
From Vulci, Etruria
Berlin, Altes Museum – Inv. F 2355
Achilles Painter - XXV: Oedipus and the Sphinx
The scene painted on this pelike depicts Oedipus engaged in solving of the sphinx riddles. This was one of the Achilles Painter’s favorite subjects, and the five examples by him are more than we have from any other painter.
Oedipus is in the process of solving the riddle. He wears traveller’s garb, with a petasos hanging from his neck, and a chitoniskos under a chlamys draped around him. He stands frontally, looking left in the direction of the Sphinx, holding a spear upright in his right hand.
The Sphinx is seated in profile to the right on a rock. In other vases painted by Achilles Painter she stare directly at Oedipus, but on this pelike her gaze is turned downwards, as if she has already lost the contest.
Both of the protagonists seem already guess their sad fate.
Source: John H. Oakley, “ The Achilles Painter”
CAVI/CAV @ www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/B6D240CC-495D-4267-9EC7-9EB11...
Attic black-figure hydria
Height: 24,9 cm
Ca. 445-440 BC
From Vulci, Etruria
Berlin, Altes Museum – Inv. F 2355