Side A: Menelaos versus Paris

Side B: Hektor and Apollo

Side A: Aphrodite and Menelaos

Side B: inscription behind Apollo

Tondo: Eos with body of Memnon

Tondo: inscription on left

Collection: Paris, Musée du Louvre
Summary: Interior: Eos with body of MemnonSide A: Menelaos vs. ParisSide B: Ajax vs. Hector
Ware: Attic Red Figure
Painter: Signed by Douris
Potter: Signed by Kalliades
Context: From Capua
Date: ca. 485 BC - ca. 480 BC
Dimensions: H. 0.12 m.; Diam. 0.26 m
Primary Citation: ARV2, 434.74; Para, 375; Beazley Addenda 2, 237
Shape: Cup
Beazley Number: 205119
Region: Campania
Period: Late Archaic


Date Description: Middle period of the painter

Decoration Description:

Interior: Eos poignantly lifts her fallen son, Memnon, who lays listlessly in her arms. She is dressed in a finely pleated Ionic chiton which reveals the lines of her legs, wears a patterned sakkos on her head, and has elaborately patterned wings. Her arms and parts of the torso of Memnon are gone and restored with plain clay. Memnon's head and arms fall lifeless down at the right. Some details of his anatomy and the bleeding wounds are done in dilute glaze. The exergue upon which she stands has a tongue border at top; the border around the tondo is formed of alternating crosses, maeanders (alternating directions), and X's; the last two maeanders above the exergue mistakenly overlap.

Side A: In the center, Paris, carrying spear and shield, flees to the right away from Menelaos who is in pursuit wielding a sword and carrying a shield (cf. Hom. Il. 3.15 ff.). Both bearded warriors wear finely pleated chitoniskoi, himatia, breastplates (Paris' with an elaborate scale pattern), and helmets. Dilute glaze is used to articulate musculature. At left is an unnamed goddess (no doubt Aphrodite) holding a flower painted in added red in her raised left hand. At the right, stands Artemis with bow and quiver, gesturing with raised right hand. Both goddesses wear Ionic chiton, himation, patterned sakkos, and Artemis has earrings; the diaphanous chitons allow their breasts as well as the left goddess' legs to show through.

Side B: Ajax, left, attacks Hector in the middle of the picture (cf. Hom. Il. 7.206 ff). Ajax, bearded, wears a helmet, greaves, and a variously patterned cuirass over a chitoniskos; he holds his shield, which is artfully shown foreshortened, up on his left arm, and is about to stab Hector again with his spear poised in his right hand. Bearded Hector, wearing only a helmet and scabbard slung around his left shoulder, falls back bending his left knee and holding his spear out in his right hand in an attempt to defend himself. His shield is on his left arm. Some of the musculature and Hector's chest wound are painted in dilute glaze. At the left, Athena runs to the right behind Ajax raising her left hand protectively and carrying a spear in her lowered right arm. Her legs appear through the finely pleated Ionic chiton, over which she wears a himation and the scaly aegis; she also wears a helmet. Apollo closes the scene at the right, complementing Athena's raised arm gesture while running to the right. He is dressed in Ionic chiton and himation, wears a wreath in his hair, his quiver at the back, and holds his bow in his left hand; the latter extends into the palmette behind the god. Black glaze relief dots form hairline curls on both Hector and Apollo. Below the handles are two palmettes, one above the other, on tendrils which lead to the single palmettes closing each scene.

Shape Description: Type C cup

Inscriptions: On the interior, [epig-rough]*E*O*S, Eos, behind her head; *D*O*R*I*S *E*G*R*A*F*S*E*N, Douris painted it, written in two lines between the figures' heads; *M*E*M*N*O*N, Memnon, written in letters dropping from Memnon's head; *K*A*L*I*A*D*E*S *E*P*O*I*E*S*E*N, Kalliades made it, written below Memnon's name; a nonsense inscription *E*E*N *E*M*E*K*N*E*R*I*N*E, behind the kalos name; [epig-rough]*E*R*M*O*G*E*N*E*S *K*A*L*O*S, Hermogenes is beautiful, written in two lines behind Eos. On Side A, *M*E*N*E*L*E*O*S, Menelaos, written behind his helmet; *A*L*E*X*S*A*N*D*R*O[*S], Alexandros (i.e. Paris), written in retrograde to the left of his head; *A*R*T*E*M*I*S, Artemis, written to the left of her head. On Side B, *A*Q*E*A*I*A, Athena, written in two lines in front of her face; *A*I*A*I, for Ajax, written in front of his face; [epig-rough]*E*K[*T]*O*R, Hector, written behind his helmet.

Sources Used: Simon & Hirmer 1976, 118