Getty Museum

Tripod Pyxis

Date

about 570 B.C.

Medium

Terracotta

Culture

Greek (Corinthian)

Department

Vessels

Institution

Getty Museum

During the 700s and 600s B.C., images of animals and monsters often decorated luxury items imported to Greece from the Near East. The Greeks soon began reproducing these images in their own art. Among these monsters was a half-human, half-bird creature that became linked with the Greek mythological beings known as sirens. Sirens bewitched men with song and lured them to their deaths in the epic poem *The Odyssey.* In later representations, sirens are most often female. But in the 600s and early 500s B.C., both male and female sirens populate Greek art. One leg of this Corinthian black-figure tripod pyxis depicts a siren clearly meant to be male because of his beard. He wears a red fillet, or ribbon, in his hair and spreads his wings over his back. The second and third legs of the pyxis depict a large long-necked bird, perhaps a swan or goose. The tripod pyxis was a small container meant to hold jewelry, cosmetics, or other little items. Originally, this pyxis would have had a lid, which is now missing.

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