Description:
Nola amphora with red drawing on black background and a small palmetto under each handle. Front drawing represents the hero Cephalos and Eos dressed in the costume of Northern Greece, wearing a "Petasos" cap, his chlamys is held by a round clasp like those on coins of the Aetolian League; two spears in his right hand, and his hunting dog, Laelaps, at his side. He is starting for the hunt and looks backwards to the figure Eros (Aurora). Inscription: "The fine girl, the fine boy." The drawing on the back represents an Ephebe, standing to the left, he is draped in mantle with black border and holds two spears in his right hand.
Provenance:
Mary B. Walton, Merchantville, New Jersey; acquired 29 September 1938 by the Brummer Gallery, New York; acquired 24 November 1941 by Amherst College.
Label Text:
The richly layered myth of Eos and Kephalos raises themes of longing, deception, fidelity, guilt, and suicide. The scene depicted on this elegant amphora shows only the beginning of the complex story. Here, noble Kephalos, married to an Athenian princess, is captured by the lustful goddess of dawn, Eos, while hunting in the woods. He wears the cloak and sunhat of an outdoorsman and has his trusty hound by his side. After living with Eos for several years, Kephalos, who never stopped pining for his wife, convinces the goddess to let him return home. The story takes many twists and turns, and ends with his wife’s accidental death at Kephalos’s hands and the hero’s remorseful suicide.
PR, 2013
Tags:
vases; design; narrative; figures Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1941.23 |
