Detail of a Terracotta Hydria Attributed to the Priam Painter in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2019

Terracotta Hydria (water jar)
Greek, Attic, black-figure, ca. 510 BC
Attributed to the Priam Painter
On the body, nine women accompanied by Dionysos and Hermes
On the shoulder, chariot race

On loan from the collection of Shelby White and Leon Levy, (L.1999.10.12)

Who are the ladies? They are finely dressed in differently patterned garments, and they all have a red diadem and a necklace with a pendant. The consistency of their clothing and the manner in which they are treated as a tight group, closer to Dionysos than to Hermes, suggest that they are genetically similar. They are usually interpreted as the nine muses. Alternatively, they could be the nymphs on Mount Nysa in Boeotia, with Dionysos whom they raised. Their anonymity is tantalizing, but they remain no less charming.


Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.