Collection: Mannheim, Reissmuseum
Summary: Side A: Tribal victorySide B: Three draped youths with strigils
Ware: Attic Red Figure
Painter: Painter of Athens 12255
Context: Found in Boiotia
Date: ca. 400 BC - ca. 390 BC
Dimensions: H. 0.287; max. diam. (rim) 0.278
Primary Citation: ARV2, 1435
Shape: Calyx krater
Beazley Number: 218047
Period: Late Classical

Decoration Description:

A: Eros, running 3/4-view to the right, with his left leg advanced, wearing a wreath, arms bent, holds his hands forward at waist level; a white bull (which Eros leads to sacrifice?), before an Ionic column with white disk above; a female figure, running 3/4-view to the right, with her head profile to the left, wearing a belted peplos (?), an olive wreath, a beaded necklace, and two white bands on each wrist, raises her right arm to touch the horn of the bull, and holds a sword upright in her left hand.

Beazley suggested that the female figure was "victorious Phyle," celebrating a victory in the torch race; this figure is comparable to "Phyle" on the Munich vase by the Hector Painter (Munich J 386) (also cf. a possible Phyle on London E 284). It has further been suggested that the running Eros is meant to be Agon. Neither figure is labelled, and no sure comparanda exist, however, for either identification.

Sources Used: LIMC, 1.304 s.v. Agon no. 5, pl. 223 (F. Canciani); A. Greifenhagen, CVA Mannheim, Reiss-Museum 1 (1958) 40-41, pl. 29.4, 30.1-2, 4-5 (with previous bibliography).