1960.345: Bell Krater (bowl for mixing wine and water): Bouzyges and the Plow

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1960.345

People

Attributed to The Hephaistos Painter, Greek

Title

Bell Krater (bowl for mixing wine and water): Bouzyges and the Plow

Classification

Vessels

Work Type

vessel

Date

c. 430-420 BCE

Places

Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Attica
Find Spot: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Vari (Attica)

Period

Classical period, High

Culture

Greek

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/288177

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Terracotta

Technique

Red-figure

Dimensions

39.4 cm h x 43.2 cm diam. (15 1/2 x 17 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

David M. Robinson (pre 1931-1960), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1960.

State, Edition, Standard Reference Number

Standard Reference Number

Beazley Archive Database #214755

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of David M. Robinson

Accession Year

1960

Object Number

1960.345

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Description

On one side: at the right of the scene stands the nude and bearded Bouzyges (“Ox-yoker”), the legendary inventor of the plough. He faces towards the left, with his body turned away from the viewer as he stands behind his plough, his left foot resting on the body of the ploughshare and his left hand grasping onto the handle. In his right hand he points forward with a rod over the rear of the two oxen (one barely visible behind the other) which are pulling the plough, with a yoke over their shoulders.

An old man with white hair and beard (mostly no longer visible) stands further back in the field, behind Bouzyges, the plough and the oxen. He is wrapped in a cloak, and faces Bouzyges, with his left arm extended towards him. With his right hand he leans upon a staff. This man may be Kekrops, a legendary ancient king of Athens.

Behind him stands a goddess, probably Demeter, who is also further back in the field, behind the oxen. She wears a long dress (peplos) and a crown in her hair. Her right arm holds up a long spear or scepter, while her left arm is extended towards Bouzyges, holding out six ears of grain, presumably representing the promised harvest which the new plough will produce. The stems of the grain were painted in added white and are no longer visible.

On the left edge of the scene there is a bare tree with no leaves.

On the other side: three young men. The two on the edges of the scene stand facing the center, and each leans on a staff which he holds in with his hand outstretch towards the center. The man in the center stands facing towards the right, with his right hand on his hip. All of the figures wear long cloaks (himatia). This side of the vase is heavily worn, and the figures are little more than empty shapes, with only minor traces of their former detail (facial features, drapery) preserved.

Three words are incised on the vase, starting from the left edge of the side with the three youths and continuing around to the figure of Demeter, which identifies an individual: “Diokles, of the deme Halai, of the tribe Kekropis”. When this vase was discovered it had human bones inside it, and it is likely that this inscription refers to the man whose remains were interred in it.

Around the top edge of the vase there is a laurel wreath band; at the bottom, there are bands under each scene which act as a ground line. On the side with Bouzyges, this is filled with a meander pattern, while on the other side it is either undecorated or the decoration has worn off.

This vase has been broken, and is extensively repaired with fills and overpainting, including parts of the inscription. Although the final word currently reads KEKROPIAS (ΚΕΚΡΟΠΙΑΣ), this would be an unexpected form and it is likely that it originally read KEKROPIDOS (ΚΕΚΡΟΠΙΔΟΣ), which is the expected (genitive) form for the tribe name Kekropis; examination under ultraviolet light has revealed that the bottom of the A seems to have been restored, making it very plausible that it was originally the letter Δ (D), while the area between this letter and the Σ (S) is in poor condition but there are faint traces of what might be an O.

Publication History

• David M. Robinson, Bouzyges and the First Plough on a Krater by the Painter of the Naples Hephaistos, American Journal of Archaeology (1931), vol. 35, no. 2: pp. 152-60
• David Moore Robinson, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum U.S.A.: volume 3, The Robinson Collection, Baltimore, MD, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1938)
• Fogg Art Museum, The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities, A Special Exhibition, exh. cat., Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 1961), p. 18, no. 104
• J. D. Beazley, Attic Red-figure Vase-Painters (Oxford, 1963), p. 1115.30
• Henry R. Immerwahr, "Some Inscriptions on Attic Pottery", The James Sprunt Studies in History and Political Science (1964), Vol. 46, pp. 24-25, no. 7
• Arthur O. Lovejoy and George Boas, Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity, Octagon Books (New York, 1965), p. 194
• A. G. Woodhead, SEG 22-84. Attica. Unknown provenance. Tituli vasorum, s. VI/Va., Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum (1967), vol. 22, cat. 84, https://epigraphy.packhum.org/text/291895?&bookid=172&location=7
• J. D. Beazley, Paralipomena, Oxford University Press (UK) (Oxford, 1971), p. 453
• Uta Kron, Die zehn attischen Phylenheroen: Geschichte, Mythos, Kult und Darstellungen, Gebr. Mann Verlag (Berlin, 1976), pp. 95-6, 251 cat. K22, pl. 12
• Erika Simon, Festivals of Attica: An Archaeological Commentary, University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, WI, 1983), p. 21, pl. 7.2
• M.-C. Amouretti, Le pain et l'huile dans la Grèce Antique: de l'araire au moulin, Les Belles Lettres (Paris, 1986), p. 295
• Betty Grossmann, The Apostle of Triptolemos, Philia epe eis Georgion E. Mylonan, E en Athenais Archaiologike Etairia (Athens, 1987), vol. 2, pp. 245-53, p. 248
• Karl Schefold and Franz Jung, Die Urkönige, Perseus, Bellerophon, Herakles und Theseus in der klassischen und hellenistischen Kunst, Hirmer Verlag (Munich, 1988), p. 80, fig. 91
• Thomas Carpenter, Thomas Mannack, and Melanie Mendonca, ed., Beazley addenda : additional references to ABV, ARV² & Paralipomena, Oxford University Press (UK) (Oxford, 1989), p. 331
• Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC), Artemis (Zürich, Switzerland, 1999), Bouzyges 2; Demeter 419 (vol. 4); Kekrops 29 (vol 6).
• Hilde Rühfel, Begleitet von Baum und Strauch: Griechische Vasenbilder, J. H. Röll (Germany, 2003), p. 85
• Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum, J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, CA, 2004-2012), VI. 2.a Ackerbau, gr. 11.
• Louise Calder, Cruelty and Sentimentality: Greek Attitudes to Animals, 600-300 BC, Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. (Oxford, 2011), pp. 37-38, 171, no. 55
• Gunnel Ekroth, Castration, Cult and Agriculture: Perspectives on Greek Animal Sacrifice, Opuscula (2014), vol. 7: pp. 153-74
• Wolfgang Filser, Die Elite Athens auf der attischen Luxuskeramik, De Gruyter (Berlin, 2017), pp. 123-125, fig. 19

Exhibition History

• The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities: A Special Exhibition, Fogg Art Museum, 05/01/1961 - 09/20/1961

Verification Level