Kylix (drinking cup) with a lyre player, athletes, and youths
Date: ca. 425-420 B.C.
Dimensions:h. 3 11/16 in. (9.4 cm); diam. of rim 9 7/8 in. (25.1 cm); diam. of foot 3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Gilbert M. Denman, Jr.
Object number: 86.134.80
Inscribed: A graffito is incised under the foot: X.
Provenance: sold by Galerie Günter Puhze, Freiburg, to Gilbert M. Denman, Jr. (1921-2004), San Antonio, 1982; Gilbert M. Denman, Jr., by gift to the San Antonio Museum of Art, 1986
Published References
A. Lezzi-Hafter, Der Eretria-Maler (Mainz 1988), pl. 12, fig. 10e, no. 17
H.A. Shapiro, C.A. Picón, and G.D. Scott, III, eds., Greek Vases in the San Antonio Museum of Art (San Antonio, 1995) pp. 186-7, no. 94
T. K. Hubbard, "Pindar, Theoxenus, and the Homoerotic Eye," Arethusa, 35.2 (2002) 255-296.
T. K. Hubbard, Homosexuality in Greece and Rome (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2003), 1-20 passim, figs. 24a-24c.
M. Söldner, Bios Eudaimon. Zur Ikonographie des Menschen in der rotfigurigen Vasenmalerei Unteritaliens: Die Bilder aus Lukanien (Bibliopolis 2007), 70, fig. 98.
Label TextA young man holds a wreath intended for the victorious lyre-player in the interior of this cup. On the exterior, four youths admire an equal number of athletes. Two of the athletes hold the discus, while another has a javelin. Because Greek athletes exercised in the nude, the gymnasium and palaestra (wrestling school) provided many opportunities for the admiration and courtship of young men. (Jessica Powers 2008)
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
