the excavation of the athenian agora twelfth season: 1947

188 HOMER A. THOMPSON
trainer. Between them sits a shaggy dog, looking up at the right-hand figure. To the
left is another athlete, striding riglht and raising his lead jumping-weights 106 before
him as he prepares to jump.107 Stylistically our vase should belong to the last decade
of the fifth century; the drapery of the central figure on a hydria108 of the same period
bears some resemblance to that of our trainer.
The lekythos on PI. 67, 3, is assigned by Beazley to the Icarus painter.109 On it
is the figure of a maenad who stands facing right, wearing a full-sleeved, decorated
chiton a himation and a wreath. Her long hair flows down her back; she holds in her
left hand a large thyrsus.
A tantalizing fragment of a calyx-krater (P1. 67, 4), assigned by Beazley to the
manner of Polygnotus,110 shows a male figure right, wearing a himation and holding
a lyre; in front of him are the hand and arm of one holding a sword. Below the sword
is the corner of a chiton, the inner edge of its broad lower hem being marked by two
parallel relief lines.1"' The scene is hard to interpret. The death of Orpheus seems
impossible, since the armed figure is turned away from the lyre-player. In view of
the stress laid by the tragedians on the fact that Orestes slew Klytemnaistra on
Apollo's direct injunction, and in default of other interpretations, one may hazard a
tentative suggestion that our piece is from a representation of the murder in which
Apollo's share in the responsibility is indicated by his presence as an onlooker.
Plate 68 illustrates six fragments, all but one (no. 3) from the 1947 season. The
first (P1. 68, 1) is a fragment of a kylix 112 in the ripe archaic style. From the interior
medallion there survives part of the head of a satyr, looking right. His forehead is
wrinkled and hide-bound; above his lorng, sensitive horse's ear a magnificent wreath
sits rakishly; in the field above is a kappa, as if for the first letter of KaX6". Behind
him can be seen part of the reserved line which enclosed the scene.
106 For the difference in shape between these and stone weights, see Caskey and Beazley, Attic
Vase-Paintings in the Museumt of Fine Arts, Boston, text to pl. VII.
107 On the position, see the note on an amphora in the Gallatin collection, C.V.A., pl. 54,' no. la.
08 Monumenti Inediti, IV, pl. 47.
109Paralipoinena, to A.R.V., p. 482: " Add as no. 18 bis." Inv. P 17,601. Preserved height,
to top of handle, 0.142 m.m; diameter, 0.069 m. Mended from several pieces; the mouth, neck and
small fragments from the body missing. On the shoulder, a double row of rays. Partial relief
contour. White for the wreath, the sprays from the thyrsus and the wine. From a filling over
bedrock, in the area west of the Areopagus.
110 Paralipomllena to A.R.V., p. 682: " No. 6 bis." Inv. P 18,279. Preserved height, 0.079 m.;
preserved width, 0.081 m. Mended from three pieces. Relief contour; dilute glaze for the bridge
of the lyre. The glaze fired red and grey in places. From the filling behind the east wall of the
Great Drain, in the' area west of the Areopagus.
11: Compare a vase by Polygnotus, A.R.V., p. 677, no. 1; and one by the Niobid painter, A.R.V.,
p. 419, no. 15, the left-hand hoplite on B.
112 Inv. P 18,346. Max. dim., 0.044 m. Relief contour. Dilute glaze for the wrinkles on the
forehead. Purple for the wreath and for the kappa in the field above. From the area west of the
Areopagus; mixed context, fifth to third centuries B.C.