The focus of the banquet scene in the outer frieze is an offering table with a bowl probably filled with fruit. It is flanked by two reclining figures. On the right is a figure wearing an Egyptian crown, above whom an inscription may signify "king." Behind him appears a flute player. On the left of the table is a "queen" with an Egyptian wig, above whom are letters that certainly include the prefix "Cypro-" and give her name or title, perhaps Kypromedousa, "protectress of Cyprus." Behind her, from right to left, come three musicians, a large amphora, a table with vases and ladles, and three women bearing offerings: bowls, the legs of sheep or goats, and trussed geese. The banquet iconography, combining Egyptian and Phoenician features, indicates that the bowl would not have been a temple dedication.
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Title:Fragmentary silver bowl
Period:Archaic
Date:ca. 710–675 BCE
Culture:Cypriot
Medium:Silver
Dimensions:diameter 6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm)
Classification:Gold and Silver
Credit Line:The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription, 1874–76
Accession Number:74.51.4557
Inscription: Cypriot characters above "king" and "queen"
Myres, John L. 1914. Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. no. 4557, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Matthäus, Hartmut. 1985. Metallgefässe und Gefässuntersätze der Bronzezeit, der geometrischen und archaischen Periode auf Cypern: mit einem Anhang der bronzezeitlichen Schwertfunde auf Cypern, Prähistorische Bronzefunde, Abteilung II Bd. 8. cat. 424, pp. 161–2, 376, pl. 34, 424; 35, 424, München: Beck.
Karageorghis, Vassos. 1999. "A Cypriot Silver Bowl Reconsidered: I The Iconography of the Decoration." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 34: pp. 14–19, fig. 1.
Hendrix, Elizabeth. 1999. "A Cypriot Silver Bowl Reconsidered: II. The Technique and Physical History of the Bowl." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 34: pp. 21–30, figs. 4–5, 9–15.
Neumann, Gunter. 1999. "A Cypriot Silver Bowl Reconsidered: III. The Inscription." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 34: pp. 33–34.
Karageorghis, Vassos. 1999. "A Cypriot Silver Bowl Reconsidered: I. The Iconography of the Decoration." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 34: pp. 14–19, fig. 1.
Karageorghis, Vassos, Joan Mertens, and Marice E. Rose. 2000. Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 307, pp. 188–9, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Hermary, Antoine. 2000. "Déesse plutôt que reine? A propos d' une coupe en argent de la collection Cesnola." Cahier du Centre d' Études Chypriotes, 30. pp. 67–77.
Karageorghis, Vassos. 2003. "Heroic Burials in Cyprus and Other Mediterranean Regions." Ploes : sea routes : interconnections in the Mediterranean, 16th-6th c. BC : proceedings of the international symposium held at Rethymnon, Crete, September 29th-October 2nd, 2002, Professor Nicholas Chr. Stampolidis and Vassos Karageorghis, eds. p. 343, fig. 6, Crete: A.G. Leventis Foundation.
Karageorghis, Vassos. 2006. Aspects of Everyday Life in Cyprus: Iconographic Representations. no. 115, pp. 140–2, Nicosia: Foundation Anastasios G. Leventis.
Satraki, Anna. 2013. "The Iconography of Basileis in Archaic and Classical Cyprus: Manifestations of Royal Power in the Visual Record." Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research, 370: fig. 2, pp. 127–28.
Aruz, Joan and Michael Seymour. 2016. Assyria to Iberia : Art and Culture in the Iron Age pp. 229–31, fig. 3, New York.
Karnava, Artemis and Massimo Perna. 2020. Inscriptiones Graecae, Inscriptiones Cypri, XV 1, 1. no. 119, pp. 48–49, Berlin/ Boston: Walter de Gruyter & Co.
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