Calyx Krater with the Death of Aktaion

Place CreatedAthens, Greece, Europe

CultureGreek, Attic

PeriodClassical

Dateca. 430 BCE

MediumCeramic

Credit LineCarlos Collection of Ancient Art

Dimensions19 7/16 x 18 7/8 in. (49.4 x 47.9 cm)

Object number2000.006.001

Label TextAktaion boasted that he was a better hunter than the goddess of the hunt herself, Artemis. Furious, she turned him into a stag, whereupon his hunting dogs devoured him.
Aktaion occupies center stage. Nude and beardless, expressive of heroism, vulnerability, and youth, he wears only a pair of hunting boots, a mantle pinned at the shoulder, and a sun hat (petasos). His hair is wreathed. He defends himself with a hunter's throwing stick (lagobolon). The process of transformation into a stag has begun: antlers sprout from his forehead; his ear is deerlike. His dogs begin to sniff the change of scent. Shortly he will be devoured. At right, two companions flee. The first, more elaborately dressed, is named Diokles. The second person (name unknown) has taken to the hills. At far left is Artemis herself, simply dressed, her hair with a diadem and held in a patterned kerchief. The lighted torch she holds indicates the dawn twilight when the hunters' quarry is running. Bow and quiver remind us that it is she, not Aktaion, who hunts. Before her stands her assistant from the Underworld, Hekate, who, like Artemis, is named by inscription. The head of a small dog emerges from her own head, which is also named.
The figures are drawn on undulating lines to convey that the action takes place out of doors, in hilly terrain. The conifer likewise symbolizes a forest, perhaps Mount Kithairon outside Thebes, where the story unfolded.
Exhibition HistoryRoyal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada, December 18, 1984 - June 30, 1985
MCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, Summer 2000 - May 2004
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2004 - January 2011
Monsters, Demons & Winged Beasts: Composite Creatures in the Ancient World, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 5 - June 19, 2011
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, June 20, 2011 - August 26, 2013
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, October 2, 2013 - Present
Published ReferencesLilly Kahil, "La deesse Artemis: Mythologie et Iconographie," in Greece and Italy in the Classical World: Acta of the XI International Congress of Classical Archaeology, ed. J.N. Coldstream and Malcolm A.R. Colledge (London: National Organizing Committee, XI International Congress of Classical Archaeology, 1979), 83, plate 35a.
Lucien Guimond, "Aktaion," LIMC I.1-2 (Zurich: Artemis, 1981), 357, 462, number 83a.
"Artemis," LIMC II.1-2 (Zurich: Artemis, 1984), 561, 732, number 1398.
Neda Leipen, et al., Glimpses of Excellence: A Selection of Greek Vases and Bronzes from the Elie Borowski Collection (Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, 1984), 22-23, number 17.
Erika Simon, "Hekate in Athen," Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaologischen Instituts Athenische Abteilung 100 (1985): 276, plate 50, 2.
Gratia Berger-Doer, "Diokles," LIMC III.1-2 (Zurich: Artemis, 1986), 395.
H. Sarian, "Hekate," LIMC VI.1-2 (Zurich: Artemis, 1992), 997, number 96.
Susan B. Matheson, Polygnotos and Vase Painting in Classical Athens (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995), 149-150, 389, plate 133, number D 41.
Christie's New York, Ancient Greek Vases (June 12, 2000), lot 111.
MCCM Newsletter, September - November 2000.
MCCM Newsletter, December 2000 - February 2001.
Jasper Gaunt, "New Galleries of Greek & Roman Art at Emory University: The Michael C. Carlos Museum," Minerva 16 (January/February 2005), 13-17.
Susanne Muth, Gewalt im Bild: das Phanomen der medialen Gewalt im Athen des 6. und 5. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2008), 609, figure 438.
Michael C. Carlos Museum: Highlights of the Collections (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2011), 49.
Susan Jaques, A Love for the Beautiful: Discovering America's Hidden Art Museums (Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 2012), 42.

ProvenanceEx coll. Elie Borowski (1913-2003), Basel, Switzerland, from at least 1979. Purchased by MCCM from Christie's New York, Sale 9448, June 12, 2000, lot 111.

Status

On view

Collections