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Late Protoattic Amphora:
(Polyphemus Painter)

Note: This amphora, which was used to bury an Athenian child, is truly a unique piece of innovation. It depicts the blinding of Polyphemus at the top, Orientalizing facing-boars-and-lions below, and at the bottom, a scene of Perseus and the Gorgon sisters. Unlike Corinthian pottery of the time (see next slides), this Attic piece used eastern motifs but adapted them in a creative way to tell two stories in narrative scenes - note the drinking cup in Polyphemus' hand, and the attempt to distinguish Odysseus and show him in action, for example. The back of the vase, meanwhile, is a hodge-podge of every known motif in use on pottery at Corinth and across the Aegean at that time!

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modified Feb. 8, 2005
s_davies@mail.utexas.edu