ATTRIBUTED TO THE PAINTER OF THE NICOSIA OLPE, CIRCA 540-530 B.C.

According to Hesoid (Theogony 920-925), “Zeus gave birth from his own head to bright-eyed Athena, the awful, the strife-stirring, the host-leader, the unwearying, the queen, who delights in tumults and wars and battles.” The obverse of this skyphos shows the goddess – without her usual attributes of a helmet and armor – standing before her father moments after she emerged full-grown from his forehead, with two nude youths and a cloaked man observing. The reverse shows a warrior putting on a greave before a goddess, with the same retinue of onlookers present. Bothmer notes, op. cit., that the same combination of subjects appears on at least two other skyphoi by this painter.