Decoration: A,B: SYMPOSIUM, DRAPED MEN, ONE WITH SCYTHIAN CAP, SOME WITH CUPS, ONE WITH LYRE AND YOUTH WITH LYRE RECLINING, YOUTH WITH LADLE, KRATER WITH FIGURES, CROSS, OINOCHOE, LYRE AND ARYBALLOS SUSPENDED, TABLES, SHIELD SUSPENDED I: SYMPOSIUM, DRAPED MEN RECLINING, ONE PLAYING PIPES
Last Recorded Collection: London, British Museum: 1895.10-27.2
Publication Record: Eschbach, N. and Schmidt, S. (eds.), Töpfer, Maler, Werkstatt. Zuschreibungen in der griechischen Vasenmalerei und die Organisation antiker Keramikproduktion (Munich, 2016): 61, FIGS.6-8 (A, B AND I) Hesperia, The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens: 60 (1991), PL.97 (A, B, I) Oakley, J.H. (ed.), Athenian Potters and Painters, Volume III (Oxford and Philadelphia, 2014): 127, FIG.4 (B) Slater, W.J. (ed.), Dining in a Classical Context (Ann Arbor, 1991): FIGS.19-21 (A, B, I) Topper, K., The imagery of the Athenian symposium (Cambridge, 2012): 89, FIGS.32-33 (A, B)
CAVI Lemma: RF stemless cup. From Thebes{1}. Unattributed imitation of Douris. Second
quarter fifth. 470-460{2}.
CAVI Subject: Symposium: Int.: two bearded men reclining: that on the left plays the
flutes, the other sings (his arm is bent over his head). A: three bearded men
reclining on couches: the leftmost is frontal, the second to right is speaking,
the third is about to throw the kottabos cup. B: at the far left, a cupbearer,
with a ladle; next, three males on three couches: a youth tuning his lyre; at
right, a bearded man talking to another bearded man, seen from the back.
CAVI Inscriptions: All Grr.: Int.: from the singer's mouth: ^ διὰ τς θυρίδος, retr., but the
individual letters left to right{3}. A: to left of the kottabos player's mouth:
τοι, retr. Between the second man's hand and the third man's knees: [Λ]άχετι{4}.
B: to left of the right man's face: φασιν, retr., but the letters face left to
right. Immediately below, left to right (i.e., boustrophedon in relation to the
last line): αλεθε; continued to right of the right man's head: ταυτα. The
inscription is certainly continuous: φασὶν ἀλεθ ταῦτα{5}.
CAVI Footnotes: {1} information from a dealer. {2} if Laches is correct on A, this is a bit
too late. {3} the bent arm intervenes. Lyric fragment; see Page, PMG, fr. 752
(Praxilla 8: ὦ διὰ τῶν θυρίδων καλὸν ἐμβλέποισα | παρθένε τὰν κεφαλὰν τὰ
δ'ἔνερθε νύμφα. See Page's comments on the singular vs. the plural. {4}
[[plausible restoration by Csapo–Miller, 376]] Visible is ΑΧΕΤΙ. The τοι can be
interpreted as a (Sicilian) dialect form for σοι in the kottabos formula: τοὶ
τάνδε λατάσσο `to you'; or as the definite article, τῷ, i.e. `to him (who is
absent); but Csapo–Miller opt for τῷ = τίνι, a question, which is answered by
the second man: `to Laches', see 373ff. with many parallels [[and the decisive
argument, 379]]. αχετι, as formerly read, was interpreted as non-Greek by
Jacobsthal (1912), 61, and as the beginning of a song by Wilamowitz (αχετι, name
of the cicada, cf. ἠχέτα τέττιξ (loc. cit.)). C. and M. discovered a restored
area, which allows for a letter between head and arm of the second symposiast.
The formula would then be: `To whom [to throw this drop]? Answer: to Laches,' a
kalos especially of the Antiphon Painter. Cf. the datives on Munich 2421 and
Louvre G 114. C. and M., if I understand them, argue for Laches as an imaginary
prize for the winner of the kottabos game. I would doubt this and would still
prefer: `to you, Laches,' despite the placement of the words [[but see C.–M.,
who rightly argue that this would have to be in the vocative]]. {5} taken to be
a song by Jacobsthal and Herzog, Umschrift (1912) 20, Wilamowitz (p. 121) as
prose introducing a coming poetic saying. It probably introduces a story. ταυτα
= ταδε: see [[very plausibly H.R.I. apud]] Csapo–Miller, 372f. n. 32. {6} on the
letter forms, see Csapo–Miller, 369 n. 12; on dotted delta 369-70 and notes.
CAVI Comments: The cup was first declared a Boeotian imitation of Douris by Jacobsthal
(1912), but in a review in Gött. Gelehrte Anz. 1933, p. 10, he recanted. Later,
M. Robertson persuaded Sparkes that shape, glaze and details of potting pointed
to Attica. The graffito inscriptions were doubted in the BM Registry (see
Csapo–Miller, 368), but not since. Campbell dissociated the inscriptions from
the pictures as later additions and so did Weber. Csapo–Miller consider the
inscriptions archaic Attic, but perhaps added by another hand, possibly from a
model (see Csapo–Miller, 371). The vase is somewhat earlier than the floruit of
Praxilla (451), hence she is perhaps quoting an earlier drinking song, or the
quote given in note 2 below is not genuine Praxilla. Dotted delta{6}.
CAVI Number: 4691
AVI Bibliography: Jacobsthal (1912), 59-63, pl. 22. — Wilamowitz (1913), 121. — Pfuhl (1923),
ii, 714. — Lullies (1940), pl. 33. — Wegner (1949), pl. 30,1. — D.A. Campbell
(1964), 66 n. 33. — Sparkes (1967), 123 n. 56. — Weber (1984), 485-95. —
Csapo–Miller (1991), 367-82, figs. 1-2, pls. 97-100; facss. of inscriptions, pp.
367-68.
CAVI / AVI Data from Henry Immerwahr's Corpus of Attic Vase Inscriptions (CAVI), updated by Rudoph Wachter's Attic Vase Inscriptions (AVI)
