White Attic kylix with depiction of Apollo playing the lyre CLV058COD05

White Attic kylix (deep glass of circular shape) found in a tomb of Delphi . Classical period, 480 BC.

Attic kylix of the first quarter of the 5th century B.C.

It depicts the god Apollo in a very typical posture: the god, against a white background, is seated on a stool (diphros). He wears a white tunic (chiton) and a purple himation which wraps the lower part of his body. He wears a wreath of myrtle leaves on the head, decorating his hair which is tied at the back of his head. With his right hand he pours some wine from a shallow bowl (phiale) thus performing a libation, whereas in his left hand he holds a seven-stringed lyre with a sound-box made of a turtle's shell, a precursor of the guitar. Opposite the god stands a black bird. Some scholars relate it to the art of divination, whereas others identify it with a rook, associating it thus with the myth of Koronis, daughter of the king Phlegyas, with whom Apollo had fallen in love.

It is the work of an unknown angiographer, although by some scholars it is attributed to the Painter of Berlin