An Exceptional Attic Black-figure Amphora Near Exekias, Dionysos and His Retinue of Satyrs Amid Undulating Grapevines

Two-handled jar (amphora)

Greek, Archaic Period, about 540–530 B.C.

Close to: Exekias

Place of Manufacture: Athens, Attica, Greece

Height: 51.4 cm (20 1/4 in.); diamater: 33 cm (13 in.)

Ceramic, Black Figure

 

Inscriptions: Side A:

[Π]ΟΛΥΔΕΥΚΕS,

retrograde,

[ΦΑL]ΙΟS

ΕΥΡΥΛΟΧΟS, retrograde

SΙΜΟS

ΑΙSΧΙΝΕS, retrograde

ΚΑSΤΟΡ

ΗΕΛΕΝΕ

ΚΑΣΟΝ ΚΑΛΟΣ, retrograde

 

Side B:

ΔΙΟΝΥΣΟΣ

 

Side A: The Dioskouroi harness a biga. Helen stands at the left, raising her left hand in a gesture of farewell. Polydeukes steadies the chariot with his left foot; Kastor wears a long white robe; a groom, Aischines, holds Simos, the off-horse; a second groom, Eurylochos, holds the near-horse, named ...ios.

(Kason Kalos) retrograde on side A.

Side B: Dionysos, ivy-wreathed and seated on a folding stool, drinks from a kantharos in the midst of a grapevine populated with twelve diminutive satyrs.

 

From the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Done