Red-figured wine bowl (calyx-krater), attributed to the
Niobid Painter
Greek, about 460-450 BC
Made in Athens, Greece; found at Altamura, Puglia, Italy
The creation of Pandora above a frieze of dancing and playing
satyrs
The Greek myth of Pandora, the first woman, expresses the
ambiguity of the (male) Greek attitude to the female sex. Pandora
was both a gift and a punishment for men. Zeus was angry because
the Titan Prometheus had cheated the gods into choosing fat and
bones, rather than the best part of the meat, as their share of the
animal sacrifices that men made to them. In retaliation, Zeus
deprived men of fire, but Prometheus stole it back (in a hollow
fennel stalk). So Zeus commanded the god Hephaistos to make a woman
out of clay, and she was named Pandora, meaning 'all gifts',
because all the gods gave her gifts; the goddess Athena dressed her
in fine clothes and garlands and taught her the art of weaving;
Hermes endowed her with lies, a deceitful nature and the gift of
speech. Then she was sent into the world, a 'beautiful evil' as the
poet Hesiod (lived around 700 BC) described her, 'a plague to men
who eat bread'.
The upper scene of this vase shows the gods preparing Pandora.
She stands stiffly, like a wooden statue, while Athena prepares to
put a wreath on her head. Other gods sit, stand, or move around
her. The lower frieze shows a group of satyrs dancing to the music
of a pipes player, satyrs riding on each other's backs, a maenad,
and a satyr father and child. Sophokles (about 496-406 BC) is known
to have written a satyr play called Pandora, which may
well have been the inspiration for this vase.
R. Woff, Bright-eyed Athena (London, 1999)
J. Boardman, Athenian red figure vases: t-1 (London, The British Museum Press, 1989)
M. Robertson, The art of vase-painting in Cl (Cambridge, 1992)