Pelike

Attica, Greece, (group G), second third of 4th century BCE

Pelike of more slender proportions. Ceramic clay. Red-figure painting executed using black lustre and white slip. The front is filled with the large head of an Amazon and a horse, with a griffin protome turning against them. On the back, two men wearing himatia stand by a stele. Decorated with palmettes at the bottom handles and egg-and-dart ornamentation along the lip and the edges of the panels.

H: 27.8 cm

UMP 8314

Purchased from Vladislav Škorpil (Shkorpil) in 1901.

According to the later legends of Homer (Iliad 3.184nn, 6.186), the Amazons, a mythical tribe of female warriors, were the daughters of Ares and Aphrodite. Their original homeland was in northeastern Asia Minor, but they later lived on the southern and southeastern shores of the Black Sea near the Thermodont River. Myths describe the Amazons as the arch-enemies of Heracles, Theseus, and Achilles, who killed their queen Penthesilea. On the Kerch vases they are often portrayed as having flowing black hair, an alopekis cap on their heads, and in close-fitting clothing they adopted from the Cimmerians and Scythians – in trousers and belted tunics. Their attributes were weapons: war axes, bows, swords, and shields. Symbolic imagery later gained in popularity – enlarged details of their exploits (such as a large Amazonian woman’s head with horse and griffin protomes).