Living Poets

Image: London, British Museum, 1836,0224.145. Illustration from Jahn, O. 1861. Über Darstellungen griechischer Dichter auf Vasenbildern. Leipzig. Plate 3.

Object description: Red figure kylix (wine cup) showing Anacreon and two dancing youths.

Object Archaeology: Vulci, Lazio

Inscriptions: Interior: ΚΑΛΟΣ ΜΕΜΝΟΝ (καλός Μέμνων: “pretty Memnon”). Exterior (Clockwise): ΛΥKOPIΣ (Λύκωρις: Lycoris); ΗΕΡΑΚΛΕΣ (Ἡρακλῆς: Heracles); ΑΝΑΚΡΕΟΝ (Ἀνακρέων: Anacreon); ΝΥΦΕΣ (?Νύμφης: Nymphes) (Jahn 1861: 756-60; Hartwig 1893: 89).

Restorations: Many breaks restored.

Dimensions: Height: 13 centimetres. Diameter: 33 centimetres.

Bibliography

• Beazly, J. D. and Caskey, L. 1954. Attic Vase Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, vol. 2. Boston, Mass. 61.

• Beazley, J. D. 1963. Attic Red Figure Vase-Painters. 2nd ed. Oxford. 62-3.

• Boardman, J. and Kurtz, D. C. 1986. ‘Booners.’ In J. Frel and M. True eds., Greek Vases in the J. Paul Getty Museum, vol. 3. Malibu, Calif. 35-70.

• Hartwig, P. 1893. Die griechischen Meisterschalen der Blüthezeit des strengen rothfigurigen Stiles. Berlin. 89.

• Jahn, O. 1861. Über Darstellungen griechischer Dichter auf Vasenbildern. Leipzig.

• Price, S. D. 1990. ‘Anacreontic Vases Reconsidered.’ Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 31 (2): 133-175.

• Richter, G. M. A. 1965. The Portraits of the Greeks I. London. 76-77.

• • and Smith, R. R. R. 1984. The Portraits of the Greeks. London. 85.

• Salskov Roberts, H. 2002. ‘Anakreon in the Pictorial Arts.’ In B. Amden ed., Noctes Atticae : 34 articles on Graeco-Roman Antiquity and its Nachleben : Studies Presented to Jøergen Mejer on his Sixtieth Birthday, March 18, 2002. Copenhagen. 241-253.

• Schefold, K. and Bayard, A.-C. 1997. Die Bildnisse der Antiken Dichter, Redner und Denker. Basel. 76-79.