On view
Janiform kantharos with addorsed heads of a male African and a female Greek,
ca. 480–470 BCE
This Athenian kantharos, a high-handled wine-cup, depicts addorsed male and female faces. Potters in ancient Athens and elsewhere produced numerous vessels with either single or paired faces. Vases of the type shown here are frequently described in modern racial terms as “Black” and “white,” but these concepts were absent in antiquity. Ancient Greeks referred to people who today are racialized as Black as Aithiopes (a compound of the words for “I blaze” and “face”), and Aithiopia was a generic name for the region of Africa south of Egypt. This vase, then, is best understood as a representation of a young Aithiops man and perhaps an Athenian woman. The elite male drinking party, the symposium, was one setting in which the cup might have been used. Since the woman wears a diadem of ivy, an attribute of the wine-god Dionysos, the vase likely portrays revelers in his retinue.
Najee Olya, Assistant Professor, Classical Studies, the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
More Context
Special Exhibition
<p>As they drank from this two-handled wine cup, Athenians would face one of two exotic busts: a light-skinned woman or a so-called Ethiopian man. The Greek word "Ethiopian" meant "burnt-faced men" and described various peoples from distant southern lands. The contrasting glazes, molding, and decoration used for these conjoined heads demonstrate an interest in the visual signs of racial difference. </p>
Information
ca. 480–470 BCE
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