Vase Catalog Number: Boston 06.2447

Essay: C & B No. 51

Height, 0.332 m.; diameter, 0.167 m. A Nolan amphora with ridged handles, of slender proportions. Intact. Scratched on the base, [symbol]. Practically no relief contours. The fillets on the three heads and the cord of Oedipus' petasus in red. Brown used for inner markings on the sphinx and on Oedipus, for the dots and the curved lines on her wing, for the dots on her tail, for the folds of Oedipus' chiton and the cross-strokes on his scabbard, for the lower border of his mantle, and for both borders of the mantle on the reverse.

Ann. Rep. 1906, p. 59, no. 3. Goldman, A.J.A. xv, 1911, p. 382, fig. 2 (drawing). Beazley, J.H.S. xxxiv, 1914, p. 194, no. 12; p. 187, fig. 7 (drawing of A), p. 184, fig. 59, (photograph of B). V.A., p. 163. Hoppin, i, p. 5, no. 12. Beazley, Att. V., p. 373, no. 25. A drawing of the shape in Caskey, G.G.V., p. 74, no. 38.

The sphinx is seated on a short Doric column, gazing at the youthful Oedipus who stands facing her, extending his right hand. He is armed with spear and sword, and clothed in a short chiton and a mantle; his petasus hangs at his back from a red cord. It is the moment of the propounding of the riddle; the tenseness of the situation is expressed by the wide-open eyes of both figures, the furrowed brow of the sphinx, and the attitude of Oedipus' right hand.

On the reverse a youth standing, wrapped in a mantle and resting his right hand on a knotted stick.

About 450-440 B.C. By the Achilles painter. Another version of the subject by the same hand is on the pelike in Berlin, Berlin F 2355, Beazley, J.H.S. l.c., p. 193, figs. 12 a and b, and a third on a Nolan amphora in Dr. James Loeb's collection (Collection B. et C., Pl. 20, no. 17; Sieveking, Bronzen, Terrakotten, Vasen der Sammlung Loeb, pl. 50).(Note *)

*) (From Addenda to Part I) No. 51. ARV. p. 636, Achilles Painter no. 22. A (after Caskey), Schnitzler Gr. Vasen pl. 56, 72; A, Fairbanks and Chase p. 52 fig. 52.

Keywords:

armed, chiton, column, mantle, Oedipus, Oedipus with the Sphinx, alone, petasos, seated, spear, sphinx, stick, sword, wearing, wrapped, youth

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