DESCRIPTION

No C 07
Philadelphia, University Museum MS 3440
Black-figure amphora

Zeus is seated on a chair. He is represented with head and legs in profile to the right, the body diagonally. Seated, he is almost as tall as the surrounding standing figures. The feet rest on a footstool. The forearms are extended almost horizontally forward, the left hand holding a staff, the right hand clenched. The god's dress consists of a chiton and a himation, which covers the arms.

Athena is represented emerging from the head of Zeus in a sprinting position, head and legs in profile to the right, the body facing. Her dress presumably consists of a peplos and an epiblematon. She wears a helmet and carries a shield on the left arm, the right forearm extended almost horizontally forward, with clenched fist.

There are four deities on each side of the picture. On the right stand two goddesses, close to each other, the right arms raised, with palm turned outward and extended fingers, Ares, characterised as such by helmet and shield, and Dionysos, identified by the ivy-wreath round his head. On the left side three gods are identified as Apollo, by the zither, Poseidon, by the trident, and Hermes, by the petasos, while a goddess without any attribute stands between Poseidon and Hermes (Hera?)

The chair has slightly curved plain legs and a low back with a swan's head finial. The tenons and dowels by which the frame of the seat is mortised into the legs are clearly indicated.

A small figure of a winged creature with a human body and the head of a dolphin is seen between the legs of the chair.

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