167. 95.25 BELL-KRATER from S. Maria di Capua PLATE CI and SUPPL. PLATE 25, 1
Height as restored 0.423; diameter 0.482. Said to have been found in 1889. A, VA. p. 182 fig. 114, whence Rumpf Religion der Griechen fig. 162, Cl. Rh. 8 p. 219 (Arias), Schefold Die Bildnisse der antiken Dichter, Redner und Denker p. 223, Friis Johansen Eine Dithyrambos-Aufführung pll. 7-8. A, sacrifice. B, satyr and maenads. About 425 B.C., manner of the Kleophon Painter (VA. p. 182 no. 8; Att. V. p. 419; ARV.1 p. 787 no. 1; ARV.2 p. 1149 no. 9). At first I attributed the vase to the Kleophon Painter, adding that it was 'not on the level of his highest achievement'; later, I ranged it under his 'manner', adding that it 'might well be a late work of the painter himself'. A shadow of doubt remains: but I am almost sure that it is by the painter; see also Friis Johansen Eine Dithyrambos-Aufführung pp. 4-6. The foot of the vase is alien. Part of B is missing, and a few fragments on A. There is a ledge, as often, between mouth and body. The 'odd man' of the lower border is under the left foot of the right-hand figure on B. A. The altar is a plain block, the side of which is streaked, as usual, with dried blood. There is something on the altar, a small heap or mound (omitted in the older reproduction): part of it is lost in the fracture and I am not sure what it is. A man whose name ends in ...Σ stands at the altar and dips the fingers of both hands in a small vessel held for him by the youth Hippokles (ΙΠΠ[Ο]ΚΛ[ΗΣ]) who stands facing him. On his other hand Hippokles holds a platter, the κανοῦν. On the left another youth, Mantitheos (ΜΑΝΤΙΘΕΟΣ), bending, holds a young ram at his side. Behind him, the youth Kallias (ΚΑΛΛΙΑΣ) plays the flute. On the right of the picture a man named Aresias (ΑΡΕΣΙΑΣ）1 stands watching, his right hand on his staff. All wear himatia and wreaths. Mantitheos has tied his himation round his waist, to leave his arms free. In Aresias and Hippokles it falls in good order over the left shoulder; Aresias raises the end of his with his concealed left hand. In the chief man, and in Kallias, it leaves the left shoulder bare as well as the right. Aresias has rather long hair, covering the neck; the chief man's is nearly as long; the youths have short hair. The skull of an ox is seen above the altar, hanging on the wall; it is bound with a knotted fillet which has tags at the rounded ends. A large wreath is also seen hanging. Three of the figures stand with one leg frontal and bent at the knee, and the head turned in the direction of the supporting leg. In the chief man and in Kallias the hip of the supporting leg is thrown well out and the free leg swings well back. The κανοῦν2 is here a shallow platter with three small semicircular feet, and on the rim three small semicircular projections into each of which a sprig is stuck. These upright sprigs are a feature of the κανοῦν, and small clay models of κανᾶ have holes in the appropriate places. A κανοῦν very like ours appears on the volute-krater fragment, by the Painter of the New York Centauromachy, in Leningrad.3 The vessel in the other hand of Hippokles, evidently of metal, has a concave, flaring body like that of a kantharos; two handles like those of metal kylikes; and three small round caster-like feet. More will be said about it, and about the scene in general, when we come to speak of no. 168.4 The artist shows part of the inside, although the upper and lower lines of the outside remain straight. The faces and other bare parts have relief-contour (except most of the feet); but not the himatia. The minor details of the bodies, and the streaks on the altar, are in brown lines. White for the sprigs, the fillet of the bucrane, the wreaths (except the leaves), and the inscriptions. B. On the back of the vase, a satyr with a drinking-horn stands between two maenads with thyrsoi, one of whom has the body frontal, with the left leg bent at the knee. Both wear chiton, himation, and saccos. One of them draws her himation tight at the left hip. There is no relief-contour. There are some brown details on the satyr's trunk, and the edges of the himatia are brown. White for the satyr's head-fillet and the leaves in the women's hair. Under each handle, a conventional floral design, without relief-lines. The style is close to the Kleophon Painter, but late and mannered. Compare a small fragment of a bell-krater in Oxford, Oxford G 138.37, and another, also in Oxford, Oxford 1954.255, which has part of a sacrifice scene.5 The inscriptions were considered in AJA. 1929 pp. 366-7. Aresias is not a common name: one of the Thirty was called Aresias. A Mantitheos was banished in 415 B.C. for participating in the mutilation of the herms. A Kallias, son of Telokles, was prosecuted on the same count: but of course Kallias is a very common name. A Hippokles was one of the Ten.6 The date of the vase is about 425. Is it not possible that the Aresias, the Mantitheos, the Kallias, and the Hippokles are those who played a part in the politics of Athens during the last two decades of the fifth century? And the chief man? All that remains of his name is the final sigma. Schefold has hazarded the attractive conjecture that he may be Kritias.7 A much earlier Mantitheos is represented on a komos cup by the Ambrosios Painter in Munich.8 One of his companions is Kydias the poet; another is Kallias. Kallias reappears, at a sacrifice, on another cup by the Ambrosios Painter, in Würzburg.9 The sacrifice is conducted by Lysistratos: a common name, but a later Lysistratos was among those prosecuted for the mutilation of the herms. One of the revellers on a third work by the Ambrosios Painter, the symposion cup in Villa Giulia,10 is Kleinias — a name well known from the family of Alcibiades. On a fourth cup by the Ambrosios Painter, in Oxford,11 two of the revellers are Hipponikos and Kallaischros: both known to us are from the family of Kallias, the other from the family of Kritias. These cups are the best part of a hundred years earlier than the Boston vase: but the agreement of the names is surely more than coincidence: the men and youths on the Boston krater are πατρικοὶ φίλοι.MIT 1950, p. 69, fig. 4; EAA, IV, pp. 819-820 (F. Canciani); Ginouvès 1962, p. 315; Metzger 1965, p. 109, no. 10; E. De Miro, ArchCl 20 (1968), pp. 243-245, 247, pl. 95; K. Schauenburg, Gymnasium 76 (1969), p. 51, note 59; Para., p. 457, no. 9 (Manner of the Kleophon Painter); H. Froning, 1971, Dithyrambos und Vasenmalerei in Athen (Beiträge zur Arch 2), Würzburg, Triltsch, pp. 59, 109, note 331; G. Hübner, AM 88 (1973), p. 73, note 45; Schelp 1975, pp. 50, 89, no. K 81 b; CVA, Sarajevo, 1, p. 50, under pl. 46 (M. Parovič-Pešikan et al.); R. Hampe, AA 1976, p. 201, note 47; Samos, IV (1978), p. 105, under no. 203 (H. P. Isler); Beazley Addenda 1, p. 165; Images 1984, p. 54, fig. 82 (J.-L. Durand, A. Schnapp); Bilderwelt 1984, pp. 81-82, fig. 82 (J.-L. Durand and A. Schnapp); G. Neumann, AA 1986, p. 109; Osborne 1987, p. 175, fig. 58; S. G. Cole, in R. Hägg, N. Marinatos, and G. C. Nordquist, 1988, Early Greek Cult Practice: proceedings of the fifth international symposium at the Swedish Institute at Athens, 26-29, June, 1986, Stockholm: Svenska Institutet i Athen; Göteborg: Distributor, Paul Âströms Forlag, p. 162, note 20; Veder Greco, p. 35 (P. E. Arias); Schmidt 1988, p. 12, no. 8 (J. Boardman); Beazley Addenda 2, p. 335; M. D. Stansbury-O'Donnell, AJA 94 (1990), p. 234; Lissarrague 1990b, p. 168, note 78. Exhibited: Tampa Museum of Art, 1991.