The abduction of Persephone by Hades surrounded by gods
The myth of the abduction of Persephone was situated in Sicily. Hades’ chariot occupies the most prominent area of the vase. All around appear deities connected with the event—Zeus, Hades’ brother, whose sanction was needed; Aphrodite and Eros, abettors of Hades’ desire; Demeter, Persephone’s mother; torch-bearing Hecate; and Athena. The vegetation in the scene and the choice of a water jar as the shape emphasize the aspect of fertility in the story. Mythological subjects such as this commonly decorated funerary vases.
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detail 1
Artwork Details
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Title:Terracotta hydria (water jar)
Artist:Attributed to the Group of B.M. F 308
Period:Late Classical
Date:ca. 340–330 BCE
Culture:Greek, South Italian, Apulian
Medium:Terracotta; red-figure
Dimensions:29 3/4 × 22 1/2 × 17 3/4 in. (75.6 × 57.2 × 45.1 cm) Diam. of foot: 8 1/2 in. (21.6 cm) Diam. of rim: 9 1/2 in. (24.1 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Gift of Miss Matilda W. Bruce, 1907
Accession Number:07.128.1
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von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1964. Guide to the Collections: Greek and Roman Art. p. 24, fig. 32, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Metzger, Henri. 1966. "L'imagerie de grande Grèce et les textes littéraires à l'époque classique." Convegno internazionale di studi sulla Magna Brecia, 6: pp. 176–77.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1978. Antichnoe iskusstvo iz muzeia Metropoliten, Soedinennye Shtaty Ameriki: Katalog vystavki. no. 88, Moscow: Sovetskii Khudozhnik.
Trendall, Arthur Dale and Alexander Cambitoglou. 1978. The Red-Figured Vases of Apulia, Vol. 1. no. 66, p. 427, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Brommer, Frank. 1980. Göttersagen in Vasenlisten. p. 30, Marburg: N.G. Elwert.
Trendall, Arthur Dale. 1981. "A Campanian Lekanis in Lugano." Numismatica e antichità classiche, 10: p. 182, pl. 13.11.
Lindner, Ruth. 1984. Der Raub der Persephone in der antiken Kunst. no. 14, p. 21, pl. 10, Würzburg: K. Triltsch.
Schauenburg, Konrad. 1984. "Unterweltsbilder aus Grossgrichenland." Römische Mitteilungen, 91: pp, 259, 371, ns. 2, 97.
Foley, Helene, Lesley A. Beaumont, and H. Alan Shapiro. 2003. "Mothers and Daughters." Coming of Age in Ancient Greece: Images of Childhood from the Classical Past, Jenifer Neils, John H. Oakley, and Katherine Hart, eds. p. 124, fig. 11, New Haven: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College.
Stampolidis, Professor Nicholas Chr. and Stavroula Oikonomou. 2014. Beyond: Death and Afterlife in Ancient Greece. no. 66, p. 142, Athens: Museum of Cycladic Art.
Trendall, Arthur Dale. 2016. Myth, Drama and Style in South Italian Vase-Painting: Selected Papers by A.D. Trendall, Ian Mcphee, ed. pp. 25–6, fig. 15, Uppsala: Paul Aströms Förlag.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
