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Lot Essay
The mug is mold-made in the form of the head of Io, with bovine horns and ears and long, wavy, center-parted hair tied in a top-knot. Her face has tawny flesh-tones in support of her bovine character. On the vessel neck Io is seated to the right, facing Hermes, who walks away but looks back. There is a band of ovolo below the scene, with palmettes and tendrils framing the strap handle.
This figural mug may be the only surviving example made in Athens depicting Io. Another Class W mug in the form of woman wearing a Persian cap is close in style, including the facial features and especially the treatment of the hair, and too the details of the drapery on the seated figure and of the framing palmettes and tendrils on the vessel neck (see J.D. Beazley, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Oxford, Fasciule I, pl. IV,7-8). For a later figural kantharos depicting Io from Apulia, associated with the Iliupersis Painter, see no. 86 in N. Icard-Gianolio, “Io,” LIMC, vol. V.
Io was a priestess of Hera in Argos who attracted the amorous attentions of Zeus. To hide his indiscretions, Zeus covered the land of Argos in heavy clouds, but this only attracted Hera’s curiosity. When Zeus became aware of Hera’s presence, he transformed Io into a heifer. Hera promptly asked Zeus to give her the heifer as a present, and to prevent Zeus from transforming her back into female form, Hera tethered her to a tree in her sacred olive grove at Argos under the watchful gaze of the hundred-eyed giant Argos. Once Hera’s attention was elsewhere, Zeus dispatched his son Hermes to steal Io away, but he was forced to kill the giant. Hera honored the giant by placing his eyes on the plumage of the peacock, and then unleashed a gadfly to continually sting Io. She would eventually wander to Egypt, where Zeus restored her (see H.J. Rose, “Io,” in Oxford Classical Dictionary).
This figural mug may be the only surviving example made in Athens depicting Io. Another Class W mug in the form of woman wearing a Persian cap is close in style, including the facial features and especially the treatment of the hair, and too the details of the drapery on the seated figure and of the framing palmettes and tendrils on the vessel neck (see J.D. Beazley, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Oxford, Fasciule I, pl. IV,7-8). For a later figural kantharos depicting Io from Apulia, associated with the Iliupersis Painter, see no. 86 in N. Icard-Gianolio, “Io,” LIMC, vol. V.
Io was a priestess of Hera in Argos who attracted the amorous attentions of Zeus. To hide his indiscretions, Zeus covered the land of Argos in heavy clouds, but this only attracted Hera’s curiosity. When Zeus became aware of Hera’s presence, he transformed Io into a heifer. Hera promptly asked Zeus to give her the heifer as a present, and to prevent Zeus from transforming her back into female form, Hera tethered her to a tree in her sacred olive grove at Argos under the watchful gaze of the hundred-eyed giant Argos. Once Hera’s attention was elsewhere, Zeus dispatched his son Hermes to steal Io away, but he was forced to kill the giant. Hera honored the giant by placing his eyes on the plumage of the peacock, and then unleashed a gadfly to continually sting Io. She would eventually wander to Egypt, where Zeus restored her (see H.J. Rose, “Io,” in Oxford Classical Dictionary).