The Essence of Greek Mythology
Just as you understand the Nativity scene, so should you understand the meaning of the above birth scene. Once you’ve read this book you will understand it. In fact, we could say that the goal of this book is to help you understand this one scene, because if you grasp what the vase artist is telling us, you grasp the essence of Greek mythology. That is a very exciting prospect.
The container itself is a red figure kalyx krater that stands 37.9 centimeters high. The Greeks mixed their wine with water, and that is what this kalyx krater was used for. The body of the vessel looks like the calyx (or bud sheath) of a flower, hence its name.
The red figure technique used the rich red of the clay for the figures with a painted black background. The artist is known as the Nikias painter. In his Athenian Red Figure Vases: The Classical Period, Sir John Boardman writes that this artist “is named for the potter who signed himself Nikias, son of Hermokles.”
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