Obverse, Theseus seizing the bull of Marathon Reverse, three youths
When Theseus made his way from Troizen to Attica, he performed a number of feats, including the capture of a bull that had been ravaging the region around Marathon; he sacrificed the bull to Apollo. Here the two protagonists move gracefully in unison, much like their counterparts on the south frieze of the Parthenon.
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Side 1: Theseus seizing the bull of Marathon. Attributed to the Polygnotos Group.
Artwork Details
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Title:Terracotta calyx-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)
Artist:Attributed to a painter of the Group of Polygnotos
Period:Classical
Date:ca. 440–430 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; red-figure
Dimensions:H. 14 3/4 in. (37.5 cm) diameter of mouth 14 9/16 in. (37 cm) diameter of foot 6 9/16 in. (16.7 cm)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Fletcher Fund, 1956
Object Number:56.171.48
Shefton, Brian. 1956. "Medea at Marathon." American Journal of Archaeology, 60(2): pp. 161–62, pl. 60.1.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1957. "Greek Vases from the Hearst Collection." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 15(7): pp. 166, 178.
Beazley, John D. 1963[1942]. Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, Vols. 1 and 2, 2nd ed. p. 1057, no. 104, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Beazley, John D. 1971. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters [2nd edition]. p. 445, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Avery, Catherine B. 1972[1962]. The New Century Handbook of Greek Art and Architecture. p. 61, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Kron, Uta. 1976. "Die Zehn attischen Phylenheroen: Geschichte, Mythos, Kult und Darstellungen." Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung, Beiheft, 5: no. Ak19, A26, pp. 156, 272, 133, 134, 268.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1981. Vol. 1: Aara-Aphlad. "Aigeus," p. 360, no. 6, pl. 275, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Boardman, John. 1989. Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Classical Period, a Handbook. fig. 164, London: Thames and Hudson.
Gebauer, Jörg. 2002. Pompe und Thysia: Attische Tieropferdarstellungen auf schwarz- und rotfigurigen Vasen. pp. 53 n. 263, 205 n. 824, Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.
Kaltsas, Nikolaos. 2004. Agon no. 177, pp. 299–300, Athens: Hellenic Ministry of Culture.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 139, pp. 125, 432, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Attributed to a Painter in the Group of Polygnotos
ca. 440 BCE
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