#sappho painter

[lionofchaeronea]

A scene from Book IX of the Odyssey: Odysseus, sword in hand, has tied himself to the underbelly of a ram to escape from the cave of the now-blinded Cyclops Polyphemus. Side A of an Attic black-figure white-ground column-krater (mixing bowl), attributed to the Sappho Painter; ca 510-500 BCE (late Archaic period). Now in the Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe, Germany. Photo credit: ArchaiOptix/Wikimedia Commons/ Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

[lionofchaeronea]

A scene of sacrifice. Heracles, readily identifiable by his lionskin and quiver, roasts meat on two spits. A tail rises from the flames; it has been suggested by the scholar Milette Gaifman that this indicates the gods have accepted the sacrifice. A dog rests beneath.

The mythological import of this scene is vigorously disputed among scholars. Some (e.g. G.F. Pinney and B.S. Ridgway) identify the dog as Cerberus and interpret the scene as Heracles returning from his final labor, in which he retrieved Cerberus from Hades. Others, pointing to Side B of the vase, which depicts Helios, Eos (Dawn), and Nyx (Night), prefer to read the scene as Heracles's journey to the western extremity of the Earth to slay Geryon and steal his cattle. It is also possible, as Gaifman points out, that the scene represents an otherwise unknown myth concerning the hero.

Attic black-figure lekythos (perfume container), attributed to the Sappho Painter; ca. 500 BCE (late Archaic period). Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY, USA. Photo credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[lionofchaeronea]

Athena battles one of the Giants. Black-figure terracotta lekythos (oil-flask), attr. to the Sappho Painter; ca. 500 BCE. Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.