Judgment of Paris by Yale Oinochoe Painter
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Judgment of Paris
Attic red figure hydria, from Capua, Campania. H 0.330m. Attributed to the
Painter of the Yale Oinochoe, 500-450 BCE. British Museum E 178, London.
- On the right Paris sits, holding a chelys (lyre) on a rocky outcrop, rather like a natural throne. He is beardless with long hair and a fringe of curls round his forehead. He wears a fillet and a himation which is draped over his arms. At his feet a mountain ram faces right, its fleece indicated with arrow-shaped marks.
- Three Goddesses enter the scene, approaching him in single file from the left.
- First and closest to him is Hera in a bordered chiton with long sleeves and a himation with a sakkos and earrings on her head. She extends an apple to him with her left hand and holds the scepter of authority, surmounted with a honeysuckle flower, in her right.
- Following behind her comes Athena, in a long chiton, with her mantle or himation hanging in pteryges (wing-like folds) and her aegis, dotted and bordered with a fringe of snakes. On her head she wears a fillet and earrings. Her left hand is obscured by Hera, but her right holds a spear. She looks back to the right at Aphrodite who approaches last.
- The Goddess of love wears a long chiton, a mantle which discreetly covers her arms and the back of her head, and a dotted fillet.
- Each of the Goddesses has a wavy loop of hair brought forward over the temples.
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