Perseus Art and Archaeology Browser

ID:

aa_5378

Beazley Number:

330676

Type:

Vase

Date:

ca. -500

Period:

Archaic

Painter:

Attributed to the Theseus Painter

Condition:

Broken and repaired.

Ware:

Attic Black Figure

Shape:

Skyphos

Decoration Description

The rim of the vessel has a reserved band between two black bands. On the reserved band is an ivy pattern. On the base, above the foot, are red and black tongues.

Side A: A woman in barbarian dress is shown riding on a lion and shooting at a monster. She wears a jerkin and leggings decorated with a diamond pattern, and a hat with long ear flaps. She rides the lion to the right, and aims her bow and arrow at a monster on the right. The monster has a large, egg-shaped body painted with black and white checks. It has the head of a donkey or rabbit, with long ears, and two small hoofed legs. It is breathing red fire at the woman on the lion. In between the combatants is a tree.

This could possibly be a griffin; both Herodotus and Aeschylus mention a story of the Arimaspians battling griffins in the north (Palmer, 180). However, representations of griffin battles don't appear in Greek art until the fourth century B.C. Perhaps this is simply a monster from the artist's imagination.

Collection:

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Citations and Bibliography

ABV, 518.26; Para, 255

H. Palmer "The Lady and the Monster" Archaeology 6 (Autumn 1953) 180; EAA, vol. vii, 752-753