Inventory number
ΝΑ 1957 Αα 1154
Artist
The Persephone Painter
Category
Vessel
Period
Classical Period
Date
450-440 BC
Dimensions
Height: 0.894 m
Rim diameter: 0.325 m
Body diameter: 0.27 m
Material
Clay
Location
Gallery of the Acropolis Slopes, Case 5
Fragmentarily preserved loutrophoros-hydria decorated in the red-figure technique. It was found in 1957 in the Sanctuary of the Nymphe in fragments, was pieced together and was restored to a great extend.
The decoration of the vessel is arranged in three zones. On the neck an epavlia scene is depicted with the bride accepting a small box offered to her by a woman in the presence of a second woman. On the body of the loutrophoros unfolds a scene from the mythical wedding of Herakles and Hebe. Only the head of the bride survives. She is boarded on a quadriga and can be recognized by the faded inscription HBE in front of her. Next to her Ganymedes, also identified by the inscription ΓΑΝ.Ι.ΔΕΣ, holds a rod in his hand and turns towards a young woman. He might be the charioteer of the quadriga where alongside Hebe, Herakles would have been also depicted, but his figure hasn’t been preserved. Next to the chariot Apollo stands, holding his guitar to accompany the hymenaios song that the procession of friends and relatives would have sang. The preceding man, perhaps the proegetes leans on a staff and two women behind him complete the wedding procession.
On the third and lowest decorative zone an abduction scene is depicted. A woman is being taken by a man while two more women are running to get away. Two pairs of women and a single female figure complete the scene. The abduction of women is closely connected with wedding depictions either combined with them as in this vessel, or on their own foretelling in this way the marriage itself.
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