CIRCA 475-425 B.C.

The obverse of this column krater depicts the nude bandit Sinis, with his left hand bending the branches of a pine tree downwards. Beside him, Theseus is shown wearing a chlamys and petasos and holding a spear in his left hand, bending a pine branch downwards in his right. On the left stands a bearded draped figure, holding a staff in his left hand. Sinis, also known as Pityokamptes, `the Pinebender', was a cruel and cunning highwayman who set upon travellers and murdered them by luring them into a trap. He would ask his unsuspecting victims to help him bend two trees down to the ground. He then tied them to the trees by their wrists and flung the trees back up, thus tearing their bodies to shreds. However, Sinis was confronted by Theseus at the Isthmus of Corinth, during the hero's journey from Troezen to Athens, and here met the same grisly end as his victims.

It is likely that the standing figure on the left is the umpire of the trial of strength between Theseus and Sinis. Theseus, having grasped a larger branch than Sinis and holding it down with ease, is the clear victor in the contest.