Wine Cup (Kylix) with Symposium Scene

CultureGreek

Periodlate Archaic

Dateca. 480 BCE

MediumCeramic

Credit LineCarlos Collection of Ancient Art, acquired in honor of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

Dimensions5 1/4" (13.4 cm)

Object number1998.008

Label TextA defining feature of the culture of ancient Greece was the symposion. After dinner, a group of men would recline on couches arranged on three sides around a room (triklinion). As they drank wine mixed with water, they might perform religious rituals, recite poetry with musical accompaniment, talk on the topics of the day, and play party games.

Both the interior and exterior of this cup represent such a gathering. The symposiasts lean against striped cushions. One pours a libation to the gods from a phiale. Several are playing kottabos, a popular game in which a player, holding up a cup, flings a few drops of wine toward a target in order to dislodge it. The winner might be awarded a prize, such as a kiss from one of those present. Dregs that by mistake hit a fellow guest would prompt laughter.

Above the heads hang more drinking cups, baskets, and walking sticks. Three types of musical instruments are shown: the lyre, the barbitos (both stringed instruments), and the aulos (an oboelike wind instrument), here represented in leopardskin cases. A silhouette frieze below the figures outside depicts a row of sympotic vessels-jugs (oinochoai), cups (kylikes), and mugs (skyphoi). Inscriptions on both the exterior and interior made of letters and blobs do not convey specific meaning; rather, they may be intended to convey the liveliness of this party's conversation.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, 1998 - February 1999
The Carlos Kylix: An Exploration of Ancient Greek Vase Painting, Michael C. Carlos Museum, March 10 - October 3, 1999
MCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, November 1999 - May 2004
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2004 - August 2010
Wine and Spirit: Rituals, Remedies, and Revelry (travelling show), Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, Massachusetts, September 2 - December 12, 2010; Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, January 29 - April 10, 2011
MCCM Permanent Collection Gallery, June 20, 2011 - April 28, 2014
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, July 2014 - Present
Published ReferencesDyfri Williams, Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Great Britain 17, The British Museum 9 (London: British Museum Press, 1993), 71.
Jasper Gaunt, "New Galleries of Greek & Roman Art at Emory University: The Michael C. Carlos Museum," Minerva 16 (2005): 13-17.
Louise Pratt, Eros at the Banquet: Reviewing Greek with Plato's Symposium (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2011), cover; 15; 18- 20; 44.
Michael C. Carlos Museum: Highlights of the Collections (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2011), 47.
Fiona Hobden, "Symposion," in Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, ed. Claire Smith (Heidelberg: Seringer, 2014), 7189-90.

ProvenanceSaid to be ex coll. Mario Studer, Lugano, Switzerland. Purchased by MCCM from H. A. C. Kunst Der Antike, Basel, Switzerland, June 15, 1998, lot 46.

Status

On view

Collections