Detail of a Terracotta Calyx Krater by the Persephone Painter with Odysseus and Circe in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sept. 2007

Terracotta calyx-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)
Greek, Attic, red-figure, ca. 440 BC
Attributed to the Persephone Painter
Above, obverse: Odysseus pursuing Circe
Above, reverse: women and king
Below, obverse: man between women
Below, reverse: youth and women

Accession # 41.83

The primary and the most interesting scene on this two-row krater shows Odysseus pursuing the enchantress Circe. In the air between them are Circe's magic wand and the skyphos (deep drinking cup) that contains the potion with which she transforms men into animals. Behind Odysseus, two of his men with features of a boar and a horse or mule gesticulate toward him. The pursuit below may also be mythological.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.