DOI chapter:
Divison D: The Acropolis, from the Propylaea to the statue of Athene Lemnia
DOI chapter:Section XVI
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61302#0575
SEC. XVI
OF ANCIENT ATHENS
401
cylix it has evidently been) is decorated with a design in relief
representing Artemis, a beautiful, archaic type of the goddess,
her quiver on her shoulder, her bow in the left hand, a flower
held delicately in her right—its whole feeling, as Dr. Hirschfeld
first noted, and as every one who sees it must own, that of a
cultus statue. The hands, arms, face, and feet are white ; the
whole of the rest of the figure was gilt, strong evidence in itself
that it is a copy of some chryselephantine image. The flower
was not in the fifth century B.C. the characteristic attribute of
Artemis ; it must therefore rest on some ancient, half-obsolete
FIG. 25.—CYLIX : ARTEMIS—(a) INTERIOR ; (£) EXTERIOR
(museum OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, ATHENS).
tradition. It is no chance invention of the vase-painter ; he might
put a flower in the hands of a chance mortal maiden, but not so
lightly could he give it a goddess attribute-laden like Artemis.
On the reverse (fig. 25, 3) is the dedication, ια . . . [ά]νε^κε[ν],
which Dr. Robert restores conjecturally [Ά]ιά[ντω]. As there is
no space for the name of the goddess to whom it is dedicated
ry Άρτίμι,ΒΙ), the name of some woman dedicator must naturally
be supplied. The form of the A and N in the inscription points
to a date about 470-460 B.C., the time when the elder Praxiteles
was working, together with Kalamis, on the Acropolis.
2 D
OF ANCIENT ATHENS
401
cylix it has evidently been) is decorated with a design in relief
representing Artemis, a beautiful, archaic type of the goddess,
her quiver on her shoulder, her bow in the left hand, a flower
held delicately in her right—its whole feeling, as Dr. Hirschfeld
first noted, and as every one who sees it must own, that of a
cultus statue. The hands, arms, face, and feet are white ; the
whole of the rest of the figure was gilt, strong evidence in itself
that it is a copy of some chryselephantine image. The flower
was not in the fifth century B.C. the characteristic attribute of
Artemis ; it must therefore rest on some ancient, half-obsolete
FIG. 25.—CYLIX : ARTEMIS—(a) INTERIOR ; (£) EXTERIOR
(museum OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, ATHENS).
tradition. It is no chance invention of the vase-painter ; he might
put a flower in the hands of a chance mortal maiden, but not so
lightly could he give it a goddess attribute-laden like Artemis.
On the reverse (fig. 25, 3) is the dedication, ια . . . [ά]νε^κε[ν],
which Dr. Robert restores conjecturally [Ά]ιά[ντω]. As there is
no space for the name of the goddess to whom it is dedicated
ry Άρτίμι,ΒΙ), the name of some woman dedicator must naturally
be supplied. The form of the A and N in the inscription points
to a date about 470-460 B.C., the time when the elder Praxiteles
was working, together with Kalamis, on the Acropolis.
2 D