- Museum number
- 1865,1118.49
- Description
-
Pottery: red-figured pelike.
(a) A girl, with long sleeved chiton, himation knotted around her waist, and hair looped up with fillet, leans forward to right, holding in her left a rectangular box; with her right she sprinkles with seed (?) four objects in the form of phalli set upright in the ground, around which are leaves (?) springing up. Above her on left hangs a sash, on right a looped fillet.
(b) An ephebos in himation and fillet moving to right with arm extended, as if signing to the figure in (a).
Late stage of fine period. Purple is used for the fillet, seed, and leaves. Above and below each side, egg pattern.
- Production date
- 440BC-430BC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 125 millimetres
-
Height: 17.78 centimetres
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Height: 177 millimetres
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Weight: 500 grammes
- Curator's comments
- This scene may have reference to one of the mystic ceremonies of Athenian women, such as the Thesmophoria, or to a fertility ritual associated with festivals such as the Haloa, if indeed it is related to ritual at all. This image has been discussed and illustrated in numerous publications but see in particular: Johns 1989, 42 and fig. 5; Lewis 2002, 83-4 (and fig. 2.28, but note the reverse direction of the drawing; Rabinowitz 2002, 140 (and fig. 5.19) and 140-146 for a discussion of the distinction between a phallus and a dildo); Parker 2005, 288-9 fig. 16, raising the possibility that this might be visual joke about women's delight in the phallus rather than a representation of actual ritual.
Bibliography:
Johns, C. 1989, Sex or symbol. Erotic images of Greece and Rome (London: BM Press).
Lewis, S. 2002, The Athenian woman. An iconographic sourcebook (London; New York: Routledge).
Parker, R. 2005, Polytheism and society at Athens (Oxford: OUP).
Rabinowitz, N. 2002, 'Excavating women's homoeroticism in ancient Greece: The evidence from Attic vase painting', in N. Rabinowitz and L. Auanger (eds), Among women. From the homosocial to the homoerotic in the ancient world (Austinr: University of Texas Press), 106-166.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2009 2 Apr-13 Oct, Alicante, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2010 30 Apr-30 Aug, Seoul, National Museum of Korea, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2010-2011 15 Oct-07 Feb, Taipei, The National Palace Museum, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2010-2011, 11 Mar-12 Jun, Kobe City Museum, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2011, 4 July-25 Sept, Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2011-2012, 25 Oct-12 Feb, Mexico City, National Anthropological Museum, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2012-2013 6 Oct-6 Jan, Portland Art Museum, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2013, 6 May–6 Oct, Dallas Museum of Art, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2014, 21 Feb-9 Jun, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greek Art and Thought
2014, 2 Aug–9 Nov, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia, The Body Beautiful in Greek Art and Thought
2022 19 May – 25 Sept, London, British Museum, Feminine Power
- Acquisition date
- 1865
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1865,1118.49
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: W49 (Museum Secretum)
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Miscellaneous number: Witt.49 (Witt Collection Number)
