On this vase, the centaur Pholos prepares for a feast, an event whose smell attracts other centaurs and leads to a fierce conflict in which Herakles eventually drives off his assailants. This depiction of Pholos is unusual in that he does not have the expected human abdomen, but instead, his human legs are attached directly to his equine body, giving him the chest of a horse.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Terracotta lekythos (oil flask)
Artist:Attributed to the Class of Athens 581.1
Period:Archaic
Date:ca. 490 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Terracotta; black-figure on white ground
Dimensions:H. 7 in. (17.8 cm.)
Classification:Vases
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1908
Object Number:08.258.29
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1909. "The Department of Classical Art: The Accessions of 1908. IV. Vases." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 4(6): pp. 101–2, fig. 1.
Baur, Paul Victor Christopher. 1912. Centaurs in Ancient Art: The Archaic Period. no. 270, p. 110, pl. II, Berlin: K. Curtius.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1917. Handbook of the Classical Collection. p. 70, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Blinkenberg, Christian Sorensen. 1919. "Hade's Munding." Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Vol. 2. p. 12, fig. 4, Copenhagen: Andr. Fred. Horst & Son.
Luce, Stephen Bleecker. 1924. "Studies of the Exploits of Heracles on Vases." American Journal of Archaeology, 28(3): p. 303 n. 29.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. p. 92, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Haspels, Caroline Henriette Emilie. 1936. Attic Black-Figured Lekythoi. no. 2, pp. 93, 223, Paris: E. de Boccard.
Montini, Italo. 1938. Il ritratto di Augusto. p. 92, Rome: C. Colombo.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1953. Handbook of the Greek Collection. p. 75 n. 84, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Bogen, Kathrin. 1969. Gesten in Begrussungsszenen auf attischen Vasen. p. 122, Bonn: Habelt.
Beazley, John D. 1971. Paralipomena: Additions to Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters and to Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters [2nd edition]. p. 225, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Schiffler, Birgitt. 1976. Die Typologie des Kentauren in der antiken Kunst : vom 10. bis zum Ende d. 4. Jhs. v. Chr., Archäologische Studien zum christlichen Altertum und Mittelalter, 4. no. no. A/Ph 21, p. 263, Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Brize, Philip. 1980. Die Geryoneis des Stesichoros und die frühe griechische Kunst. no. 17, p. 147, Würzburg: K. Triltsch.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1997. Vol. 8: Thespiades-Zodiacus. "Kentauroi et Kentaurides," p. 708, no. 352, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
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.
