Attic Red Figure Pelike

Ancient Greece, Athens (Attic), ca. 4th century BCE. An attic, red-figure pelike with relief decoration and inscriptions naming characters from Homer's the Iliad. The almost spherical body, resting on a molded foot in two degrees with a reserved band around the top, merges gracefully into a concave neck with an overhanging rim, whose reserved hand has a black painted egg and dart motif.

Thick strap handles with two vertical ribs connect the shoulders to the neck, which is decorated with two ivy vines with traces of yellow pigment. The main decoration, set above a broad meander band, consists of six applied relief figures, three on each side, with two more at the bases of the handles. These figures have been modeled separately and then attached to the black glazed surface of the pelike. Greek names are incised above the figures, some letters having white pigment still adhering, and there is a long inscription between the figures and the meander band on the side where the stem ends of the ivy meet on the neck.

On the side with the long lower inscription, the leftmost figural group, labeled above with the name Menelaos, consists of a bearded man wearing a short belted chiton and high-topped boots stepping right onto the buttock of a woman falling right, her arms raised in supplication. She is nude except for drapery around her lower body. Both figures substantially cover a horse galloping to the right behind them.

In the center of this side is a male figure riding right with a spear in his right hand, labeled above with the name Menestheus. The youth wears a finely pleated chiton, high-topped boots, and a cloak that billows out behind. At the right, the figure is substantially lost but probably male and is labeled Deiphosbos. He lunges left, with that leg extended behind, and wears what appears to be a cuirass over a short chiton, high-topped boots, and a cloak that billows around him. Below the handle is the restored figure of a nude youth striding left, based on the one at the base of the other handle. The young man turns his head back and down and carries a somewhat cylindrical object in his left hand. He wears a baldric diagonally across his chest, high-topped boots, and a cloak that billows behind.

On the side lacking a lower inscription, the relief figures are substantially more fragmentary. At the left was a group, now reduced to the greater part of one nude male who moves vigorously to the right, his left thigh held horizontally and with his shield on that arm. Above are two inscriptions, Polyxena (over his head) and Teukros (over the lost portion). In the center is a figure labeled Ajas (Ajax) who moves to the left and seems to wear a long-plumed helmet and a short tunic. Part of another leg, perhaps greeved, extends diagonally at the level of his left knee. At the right is a figure labeled Teiresias who is galloping right, a spear behind. Finally there is the handle figure of a nude youth striding left.

This piece has been tested using thermoluminescence (TL) analysis and has been found to be ancient and of the period stated. A full report will accompany purchase.