The Creation of Pandora by Athena and Hephaestus by Tarquinia Painter
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The Creation of Pandora (or Anesidora) by Athena and Hephaestus
Attic red figure, white ground kylix from Nola, Campania. H 3 5/8 in, D 12 1/4
in. Attributed to the Tarquinia Painter, 470-460 BCE. British Museum D 4,
London.
- In the center Pandora (or Anesidora) stands in a frontal pose, stiff as an Archaic kore or xoanon with her feet together and hands at her sides.
- She looks to the left and raises the edge of her drapery slightly with each hand.
- Above her is her name [A]NESIDORA.
- She is wearing a long, sleeved chiton undergirt and decorated with stars; her hair streams down loosely about her shoulders, confined with a fillet, apparently just placed there by Hephaestus.
- Athena appears to be fastening Pandora's chiton on her shoulders.
- Both deities stand taller than the mortal woman.
- Athena on the left wears a long chiton girt at the waist with a girdle, the ends of which fall in front under the upper fold of the chiton.
- Around her shoulders she wears the aegis fringed with snakes and set with the gorgoneion.
- It is decorated with a diaper pattern rather than scales.
- Over her is her name, ATHENAA.
- Hephaestus on the right wears a rather scanty himation and holds his hammer at his side in his left hand.
- His short hair is confined with a golden fillet.
- The scene recalls Hesiod's Theogony (Hes. Th. 573-580).
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