Decoration: Body: APOLLO (?) AND MUSES, SOME SEATED ON ROCKS, ERATO PLAYING KITHARA, POLYHYMNIA, THALIA WITH LYRE (ALL NAMED), DEER
Last Recorded Collection: Sozopol, Museum: 266
Publication Record: Lazarow, M., Ancient Pottery from Bulgaria (Sofia, 1990): 59-61, NO.17 Oakley, J.H. et al., Athenian Potters and Painters, The Conference Proceedings (Oxford, 1997): 353-358, FIGS.1-10 (INCLUDING PROFILE AND DRAWING)
CAVI Lemma: RF chous (oinochoe){1}. From the Harmanite peninsula (an Opferrinne){2}.
Eretria Painter (Oakley, Lezzi-Hafter). Ca. 425 (Lezzi-Hafter).
CAVI Subject: Eight Muses and a male figure (Apollo?).
CAVI Inscriptions: A Muse to right confronting a fawn; above her head, horizontal: [Ευ]τερπε. A
Muse wearing a peplos. Two Muses seated, that on the left with a lyre, that on
the right reaching out for a lost object tended by Thaleia(?); above her head:
Καλλιοπ[ε]. Below the two, on a lower level, a Muse seated and playing the
flutes; to right of her face: Πολυμ{μ}νια{3}. On an intermediate level, another
Muse seated and holding a lyre while raising one arm to hold out a lost
object(?); on her left: [Θα]^λεια, retr.{4}. A standing Muse; above her head,
nearly horizontal: [Ο]ρανια. A male figure in himation, the head missing; above
him: Α[πολλον(?)], retr.{5}. At the far right, a Muse seated and playing the
lyre (phorminx); above her head, roughly horizontal: Ερατο.
CAVI Footnotes: {1} of the rare globular shape, with twisted handles, ending in two snake
tails. {2} on the Black Sea at ancient Apollonia Pontica. Used in a funeral rite
with the bottom smashed. {3} so the dr., but the text gives Polyhúmmnia, "the
way the name was pronounced." This remark and the spelling must be wrong. {4} so
the dr.; the raised arm intervened; the text has [Th]áleia, retr. {5} the extant
letter must be very high up, near the top margin, as there is only a small bit
of original surface preserved in this area (see figs. 8 and 9); the dr. is not
accurate. The depiction of Apollo without attribute is unusual (Lezzi-Hafter).
CAVI Comments: Sozopol is in Bulgaria; the vase was made for Thrace (Lezzi-Hafter). She
thinks the vase was a special order for a funeral in Thrace (of a Greek or
Thracian), which explains the snakes (see note 1 below); Kalliope, who is a
central figure, was the mother of Orpheus. For the two Muses whose names are
lost, Klio, Melpomene and Terpsichore are available. From the same find spot
comes a mug with Thracians, also attributed to the Eretria Painter, which
Lezzi-Hafter also considers a commissioned piece (see pp. 359ff., figs. 12-17).
- Mixed alphabet. The inscriptions are horizontal or nearly so.
CAVI Number: 7487a
AVI Bibliography: Lazarov (1990), no. 17. — Lezzi-Hafter (1997), 353-359, figs. 1-11 (fig. 10
is a rough dr. showing the inscriptions) (bibl.: p. 368,3).
CAVI / AVI Data from Henry Immerwahr's Corpus of Attic Vase Inscriptions (CAVI), updated by Rudoph Wachter's Attic Vase Inscriptions (AVI)
