South Italian - Paestan

Museum: Madrid, Museo Arqueologico Nacional
Size: 55 cm. (calyx-crater signed on the cul Asteas egraphsen
Function: convivial, display
Technique: red-figure with added white and red-paint
Style: South Italian, Paestan
Subject/s: in a loggia above, supported by white columns, Mania, personification of madness, Iolaos, Herakles’s companion, Alkmene, his mother, and Aphrodite, between Furies, watch the deranged Herakles about to throw the child he is carrying on to the pile of household goods as his wife watches in horror at the door of her home.
Date: mid-4th c.
Analysis: the loggia above, personification, and conspicuous pile of goods and house suggest the theatre, possibly a play by Euripides.