A Rhyton in Form of a Sphinx
1887; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 8; Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/623449
ISSN2041-4099
Autores ResumoThe rhyton here published was found in a tomb at Capua in 1872, as described briefly in the Bullettino of that year (p. 42); it was acquired in the following year by the British Museum, and was soon thereafter included, but only in one view, among the ‘Photographs of the Castellani Collection,’ pl. 12. Always much admired for its beauty, both in the modelling of the Sphinx and in the drawing of the figures which encircle the cup above her head or occupy the spaces under her body, this vase has been seen at a certain disadvantage, as I believe, from a defective interpretation of the subject painted round the cup. In the Bullettino this subject was called ‘Triton, Nike and other figures,’ and this description has remained unchallenged. But obviously the figure here named Triton does not end in the tail of a fish, as a Triton should end. It is the tail of a serpent, and therefore he must be identified with some legendary person possessed of this combination—a human body ending in the coils and tail of a serpent. There can be no doubt that he is Kekrops, Κέκροπα σπείραισιν εἱλίσσοντα as he is described by Euripides, or as he appears in a Berlin terra-cotta, representing the birth of Erichthonios. On the terra-cotta Athene receives the infant Erichthonios from Gaia, who rises from the earth holding him up.
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