Detail of a Kylix by Onesimos with a Discus Thrower in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, January 2018

Drinking cup (kylix) depicting pentathletes
Onesimos
Greek
Late Archaic Period
about 500–490 B.C.

Place of Manufacture: Greece, Attica, Athens

Medium/Technique Ceramic, Red Figure

Dimensions: Height: 9 cm (3 9/16 in.); diameter: 22.5 cm (8 7/8 in.)

Credit Line: Henry Lillie Pierce Fund

Accession Number: 01.8020

Collections: Ancient Greece and Rome

Classifications: Vessels

The exterior of this drinking cup shows scenes of youthful athletes working out under the watchful gazes of their trainers, probably preparing to compete in the pentathlon--a multipart event consisting of running, discus, long jumo, javelin, and wrestling components. Although no scenery is included, the setting is surely the palaestra, an athletic training ground that was often incorporated into a larger complex, the gymnasium, at the center of social and intellectual activity in ancient Greek cities. Men and boys frequented the palaestra for recreation, instruction, and preparation for competition and to maintain their bodies in a state of battle readiness.

On one side of the cup, a nude youth practicing the long jump appears in midflight, holding a pair of halteres (jumping weights); while modern scholars debate exactly how these were used, according to Aristotle, "a pentathlete using halteres jumps farther than one without them" (On the Movement of Animals 3.705a) To the right of the jumper, a trainer--only slightly older, judging by his lack of a beard, but clothed, a mark of his higher status--stands ready with a rod. At the left is another youth holding weights, preparing for his turn to jump. On the other side of the cup, not pictured here, a trainer looks upon a discus thrower in the midst of his backswing; a youth holding a discus also appears on the bottom of the interior.

Athletic scenes were a popular subject for the decoration of Greek vases. The male Athenian who used these vessels at symposia would have been intimately familiar with the palaestra, where many of them underwent the kind of athletic training depicted on the cup.
Catalogue Raisonné Caskey-Beazley, Attic Vase Paintings (MFA), no. 078; Highlights: Classical Art (MFA), p. 121.

Description: Interior: Youth with diskos. The athlete bends forward at the moment in the backward swing just before the forward swing and release. Greek inscription, "Panaitios is handsome" (PANAITIOS KALOS), along the inner edge of the tondo above the athlete.

Exterior: Scenes of the athletic practice at the palaestra. One of the main figures is a jumper in mid-flight. At his right is his trainer, ready with the rod used for correcting mistakes. At the left, another youth runs, holding jumping weights (halteres). On the other side, the main figure is a diskos-thrower in the midst of his back swing. Again, a trainer and another athlete accompany the main figure.

Condition: Kylix was broken and repaired.

Inscriptions: Interior: "Panaitios is handsome" (PANAITIOS KALOS)
ΠΑΝΑΙΤΙΟS ΚΑLΟS

Provenance: Said to come from Orvieto [see note]. 1901, sold by Alfred Bourguignon, Naples, to Edward Perry Warren (b. 1860 - d. 1928), London; 1901, sold by Edward Perry Warren to the MFA. (Accession Date: December, 1, 1901)

NOTE: According to Bourguignon's label.

Text from: collections.mfa.org/objects/153699/drinking-cup-kylix-depicting-pentathletes