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Attic Red-Figure Oinochoe, Shape 3 (Chous)

Creator

Painter

The Oionokles Painter worked as a vase-painter in Athens in the years around 470 B.C. He decorated a wide range of vase shapes in the red-figure technique, but he appears to have specialized in neck-amphorae. The favorite themes of the Oionokles Painter were scenes of pursuit and Dionysiac scenes. He painted relatively few mortals or scenes of everyday life. Action and a sense of humor often chara

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Date: about 470 B.C.
Medium: Terracotta
Culture: Greek (Attic)
Department: Vessels
Institution: Getty Museum

With his mouth open as though singing, and his arms thrown out in a dramatic gesture, the bearded man on this vase shows the effects of a hard night’s drinking. At right, already burdened with his master’s staff and a basket, an enslaved youth holds out a vessel for the man to urinate into. The jug he offers is a *chous*, a special form of *oinochoe* (wine-pitcher), and it is the very same shape as the vessel on which this scene is depicted. Reinforcing the connection, another *chous* stands at the far right of the scene, garlanded with ivy. The *chous* was used during the Anthesteria, a three-day religious festival in honor of Dionysos, the god of wine. A drinking contest was held on the second day of the festival, and these jugs were used to hold a standard amount of wine for the contest.

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