Greek Archaic Pottery – Attic LG Skyphos
The internal frieze of this skyphos from the Kerameikos bears a scene of choral dance, the segments of which are constituted respectively by: a line of girls; two girls; and a line of youths who precede another line of girls. The figures hold each other’s hands, except a group of girls who dance alone. Each of the three segments is led by a player of the phorminx. Some of the youths bear a sword. The girls wear an elaborate garment and a girdle, the ends of which are visible at the waist, an attribute which projects them ideally into the nuptial sphere. A line of tripods on the band around the outside of the vessel could be connected to the internal scene: it would represent the prizes in an “agon” in music and choral dance. B. Borell has proposed that this scene could be connected to the Attic festival of the Thargelia, in which the victors in dithyrambic choruses dedicated to Apollo Patroos the tripods won as prizes (Borell 1978, 65, n. 168). Whether it concerns this or another festival is impossible to say.
Attic skyphos
Diameter 16 cm.
Late Geometric II Period
From the Burly Workshop
c. 735-720 BCE
From the Kerameikos, Athens
Athens, National Museum – NM 874
Greek Archaic Pottery – Attic LG Skyphos
The internal frieze of this skyphos from the Kerameikos bears a scene of choral dance, the segments of which are constituted respectively by: a line of girls; two girls; and a line of youths who precede another line of girls. The figures hold each other’s hands, except a group of girls who dance alone. Each of the three segments is led by a player of the phorminx. Some of the youths bear a sword. The girls wear an elaborate garment and a girdle, the ends of which are visible at the waist, an attribute which projects them ideally into the nuptial sphere. A line of tripods on the band around the outside of the vessel could be connected to the internal scene: it would represent the prizes in an “agon” in music and choral dance. B. Borell has proposed that this scene could be connected to the Attic festival of the Thargelia, in which the victors in dithyrambic choruses dedicated to Apollo Patroos the tripods won as prizes (Borell 1978, 65, n. 168). Whether it concerns this or another festival is impossible to say.
Attic skyphos
Diameter 16 cm.
Late Geometric II Period
From the Burly Workshop
c. 735-720 BCE
From the Kerameikos, Athens
Athens, National Museum – NM 874