DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4921#0027
INTRODUCTION.
xxvii
The vases of which we have been speaking form a class by themselves. They are dis-
tinguished chiefly by having against the shoulder and neck a plastic figure of a woman holding
in her hand a vase in the shape of an cenochoe, which cenochoe serves as a spout for the main
vase. Occasionally to this figure is added a winged Eros, thus forming a group which may have
been meant for Eros and Psyche,* though we are aware that the legend of these two is not
known in classical literature till the later times of Apuleius. Singularly enough, a not dissimilar
group, but of course without the cenochoe, occurs on several bronze hydrise which come from
Greece and appear to be not later than the fourth century B.C. These groups are in relief, and
served as ornaments at the lower end of the upright handle of the hydria. One in Berlin shows
us Eros and a winged female figure standing side by side and turned towards the front. j- An-
other in the British Museum has the same group, but with some variations in detail. For
instance, our female figure does not appear to be winged. It seems as if she were standing
within the shelter of the left wing of Eros. As a piece of decoration, that appears to be what is
intended, though doubtless a comparison with the Berlin bronze shows definitely that in the
original motive the large wing on the right of the group belongs to the female figure. In our
bronze, to produce an intentional variation, the farther wings of her and of Eros are left out. It
is quite possible that the original motive had been derived from the Cypriote vases. But apart
from that question, the groups and single figures J on the Cyprus vases certainly present a
singular phenomenon for which no explanation appears to have been yet found. So far as we
know, the figures are invariably Greek. The idea of women carrying water from fountains was
a favorite idea on Greek vases of the sixth century B.C. The winged figure of Eros—or whoever
he may be—is purely Greek. Yet in the remains of Greek art we find nothing which could
have served, so far as we can now judge, to suggest the utilizing of the figure of a woman carry-
ing a water jug for the spout of an actual water jug. It is a conception which strikes us more by
* Dr. Herrmann, ibid., figs. 41, 42, calls the group Eros and a Maiden. Mr. Munro (.Hellenic journal, xi., p. 40) says : "In some
cases . . . the woman is no longer single, but beside her appears a youth whom we may call Eros or Thanatos, according to taste."
t Published in Arch. Zeit., 1884, pi. i.
\ Heads of bulls also occur frequently, and of other animals more rarely, in place of the female figures.
xxvii
The vases of which we have been speaking form a class by themselves. They are dis-
tinguished chiefly by having against the shoulder and neck a plastic figure of a woman holding
in her hand a vase in the shape of an cenochoe, which cenochoe serves as a spout for the main
vase. Occasionally to this figure is added a winged Eros, thus forming a group which may have
been meant for Eros and Psyche,* though we are aware that the legend of these two is not
known in classical literature till the later times of Apuleius. Singularly enough, a not dissimilar
group, but of course without the cenochoe, occurs on several bronze hydrise which come from
Greece and appear to be not later than the fourth century B.C. These groups are in relief, and
served as ornaments at the lower end of the upright handle of the hydria. One in Berlin shows
us Eros and a winged female figure standing side by side and turned towards the front. j- An-
other in the British Museum has the same group, but with some variations in detail. For
instance, our female figure does not appear to be winged. It seems as if she were standing
within the shelter of the left wing of Eros. As a piece of decoration, that appears to be what is
intended, though doubtless a comparison with the Berlin bronze shows definitely that in the
original motive the large wing on the right of the group belongs to the female figure. In our
bronze, to produce an intentional variation, the farther wings of her and of Eros are left out. It
is quite possible that the original motive had been derived from the Cypriote vases. But apart
from that question, the groups and single figures J on the Cyprus vases certainly present a
singular phenomenon for which no explanation appears to have been yet found. So far as we
know, the figures are invariably Greek. The idea of women carrying water from fountains was
a favorite idea on Greek vases of the sixth century B.C. The winged figure of Eros—or whoever
he may be—is purely Greek. Yet in the remains of Greek art we find nothing which could
have served, so far as we can now judge, to suggest the utilizing of the figure of a woman carry-
ing a water jug for the spout of an actual water jug. It is a conception which strikes us more by
* Dr. Herrmann, ibid., figs. 41, 42, calls the group Eros and a Maiden. Mr. Munro (.Hellenic journal, xi., p. 40) says : "In some
cases . . . the woman is no longer single, but beside her appears a youth whom we may call Eros or Thanatos, according to taste."
t Published in Arch. Zeit., 1884, pi. i.
\ Heads of bulls also occur frequently, and of other animals more rarely, in place of the female figures.