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Lot Essay
One side of this amphora depicts Theseus slaying the Minotaur, a popular scene depicted on Greek vase painting. Born of the union between Queen Pasiphae and a bull sent to Crete by Poseidon, the Minotaur was confined to the legendary labyrinth designed by Daidalos. Each year the King of Athens dispatched fourteen youths and maidens as tribute to King Minos, who feed them to the Minotaur to temporarily pacify the beast. Theseus slaughtered the bull-headed monster, saving Athens’ young citizens, and soon after was crowned King of Athens.
The departure scene on the reverse is noteworthy because it is framed by Doric columns surmounted by roosters, which are typically found on Panathenaic amphorae flanking Athena. M. Popkin (“Roosters, Columns, and Athena on Early Panathenaic Prize Amphoras: Symbols of a New Athenian Identity,” Hesperia, 81) has argued that such symbols make “clear that Athens is not only Athena’s spiritual home, but her architectural, physical home as well.” One can surmise that the columns illustrated here delineate the boundaries of Athens and the security it provides compared to the vast unknown that the soldier with his hound will soon encounter.
The departure scene on the reverse is noteworthy because it is framed by Doric columns surmounted by roosters, which are typically found on Panathenaic amphorae flanking Athena. M. Popkin (“Roosters, Columns, and Athena on Early Panathenaic Prize Amphoras: Symbols of a New Athenian Identity,” Hesperia, 81) has argued that such symbols make “clear that Athens is not only Athena’s spiritual home, but her architectural, physical home as well.” One can surmise that the columns illustrated here delineate the boundaries of Athens and the security it provides compared to the vast unknown that the soldier with his hound will soon encounter.