Beautiful and terrible, this fragment is a standout in every way. It is the preserved part of a large cup’s interior, and the dramatic arc of the woman’s shoulders would have followed the contours of circular tondo.
She is a wonder, with the fine pleats of her chiton simultaneously swinging independent of her body while revealing her tensed torso and heaving bosoms (these with the usual artistic difficulties) beneath. Her placid expression is belied somewhat by that intense gaze ringed by lashes and willful chin. The body of a smaller boy flails before her, and this is where things become grim: the inscription beneath identifies him as Itys and the myth is a doozy.
Prokne was an Athenian princess given in marriage to a Thracian king, subsequently bearing a son, Itys. After years apart, she begged her sister to visit. Philomena ventured North, accompanied by her brother-in-law, but during the journey he brutally violates her and cut out her tongue to prevent her from tattling. By means of a graphic tapestry woven by her hapless sister, Prokne learned of the assault, eventually murdering her young son and punishing her husband by feeding him their son piece by piece.
This is that horrible moment where Prokne is in the midst of throttling and stabbing young Itys – infanticide somehow acceptable to an Athenian audience because it punished rape, upholding the bodily sanctity of Athenian maidens in the face of barbarian aggression. I guess? It’s a weird one, difficult on every level, and without that inscription we would be even further in the dark…
