CAVI Lemma: Fr. of RF rhyton. From Thasos, Artemision. Unattributed. Workshop of potter
Sotades (?). Ca. 450 (Johnston). Ca. 450 (the inscription; Salviat).
CAVI Subject: No figured decoration is preserved. The base is not glazed.
CAVI Inscriptions: On the side of the base, horizontal, in a somewhat uneven line, Gr. after
firing: ω κρωκωδιλος ερασθ[εις].
CAVI Footnotes: {1} base only; from a Sotadean plastic vase of a crocodile eating a African,
because of the inscription.
CAVI Comments: Salviat interprets the inscription: the crocodile is in love with the African
so it eats him. I would compare this inscription with the Boston ball (63.119,
q.v.): a comment by the owner of the vase. (Salviat says written by the merchant
or the owner; I think the owner because of the local alphabet.) Despite the fact
that the base is not glazed, Salviat associates it with Sotadean plastic vases.
Frs. of such a one with a crocodile eating a African have been found on Thasos.
The first omega is not preceded by another letter (just enough is preserved),
hence there was no heta. Thasian (Parian) alphabet. Omega for omicron. H.
Hoffmann connects the base with the fragments of the crocodile-African rhyton
without discussing them in detail. He notes that to a fifth-century Athenian the
plight of the African would not arouse pity but ridicule (for his lack of
heroism). On p. 21 he quotes Salviat for the interpretation of the crocodile's
love for the African as representing the religious concept of a god in his animal
form ravishing a young mortal in order to make him immortal.
CAVI Number: 7666
AVI Bibliography: Salviat (1967), 96-101, figs. 1-4 (fig. 1 is a dr., fig. 2 a ph. of the fr.).
— Johnston (1990), 467/M (not ill.). — Hoffmann (1997), 156/F 7, 19-33
(discusses all nine copies of this type, all from the same mold (see Cat. F1-9);
the Thasos copy is not illustrated; for the inscription see p. 21).
CAVI / AVI Data from Henry Immerwahr's Corpus of Attic Vase Inscriptions (CAVI), updated by Rudoph Wachter's Attic Vase Inscriptions (AVI)
