Mug with a Bathing Athlete in the Getty Villa, July 2008

Mug with a Bathing Athlete
Greek, made in Athens, 430-420 BC
Terracotta
Red-figured oinochoe attributed to the Eretria Painter

Inventory # 86.AE.243

After exercise or competition, athletes cleansed themselves by applying oil to the body, scraping off the oil and dirt on the skin with a curved metal blade called a strigil, and then sponging with water. The bathing athlete depicted on this vessel squats on the balls of his feet, holding a sponge between his hands. His aryballos (oil container) hangs on the wall behind him.

Text from the Getty Villa museum label.