AN ATTIC RED-FIGURED CALYX-KRATER

ATTRIBUTED TO THE DINOS PAINTER CIRCA 430-420 B.C.

Details

AN ATTIC RED-FIGURED CALYX-KRATER
attributed to the Dinos Painter
circa 430-420 b.c.
The obverse depicting the "Death of Aktaion," with Artemis standing at the far left serenely gazing on the melee unfolding to her right, the goddess clad in a long chiton and a lozenge-patterned head-band, a quiver at her back, holding her strung bow in her lowered left hand and a long torch in her right, in the center on uneven terrain is Aktaion at the moment of his transformation into a stag, the youthful hunter clad in a himation which is pinned in front by a circular brooch, wearing leather boots, a petasos hanging off his shoulders, moving to the right but turning back towards winged Hekate, short stag horns protruding from his forehead, his ears now converted into those of a stag, futilely defending himself with a raised throwing stick (lagobolon) from his three hounds who attack from all sides with the assistance of Hekate, the goddess ornately clad, reaching out towards the youth, the head and fore-paws of a dog (with which she is associated) emerging from the crown of her head, which is framed by short white strokes perhaps evoking the dog's barking, the three identified above by inscriptions, the hunter's two companions, Diokles and another not identified, flee to the right, their arms raised in panic, with Diokles wearing a short, patterned chiton and a pilos helmet, and carrying two spears, the other wearing a short chiton and a mantle, a petasos over his shoulders, and two spears in his hands, a tree growing on a hill between Hekate and Aktaion; the reverse with a standing draped man holding a staff in the center, framed by two draped women, perhaps to be identified as Aktaion's parents, Aristaios and Autonoë, and another member of the Theban royal household; a band of three meanders alternating with crossed squares below, and a band of adorsed angled palmettes below the rim
193/8 in. (49.21 cm) high

Literature

Kahil, "La Déesse Artémis: Mythologie et iconographie" in Greece and Italy in the Classical World, Acta of the XI International Congress of Classical Archaeology, London, 3-9 September 1978, 83, pl. 35a.
Guimond, "Aktaion," in LIMC, Vol. I,1, p. 462, Vol. I,2, pl.
357,83a.
Guy in Leipen, et al., Glimpses of Excellence, A Selection of Greek Vases and Bronzes from the Elie Borowski Collection, no. 17 (who credits Bothmer with the attribution).
Berger-Doer, "Diokles," in LIMC, Vol. III,1, p. 395, no. 1.
Matheson, Polygnotos and Vase Painting in Classical Athens, p. 149-150, pl. 133.A & B.
Simon, "Hekate in Athen" in Athenische Mitteilungen 100 (1985), p. 276 (here attributed to the Kleophon Painter).

Exhibited

Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 18 December 1984 to 30 June 1985

Lot Essay

The story of Aktaion is known from several different versions. The earliest story, known already by Hesiod at the end of the 8th century B.C., tells that the youth angered Zeus by desiring the mortal woman Semele, who would later become the god's consort and father of Dionysos. During the 5th century B.C., Eurpides informs that Aktaion angered Artemis for his boast that he was a better hunter than her. In the third version, possibly slightly later in date than the Dinos Painter's krater, the youth is killed because he came upon Artemis while she was bathing. In all cases, Artemis is responsible for his death, either fulfilling Zeus's will or by her own design. The youth was torn to pieces by his own hounds; they failed to recognize their master after Artemis transformed him into a stag. According to Guy (op. cit., p. 23) "of all the known representations of the myth, this must surely rank as one of the finest." For the most recent account of the myth and an illustration of a slightly earlier vase by the Lykaon Painter with a similar version of the myth, see pp. 314-316 in Reeder, Pandora, Women in Classical Greece.

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