bavarikon4UDescription
This vessel is a sculpture and drinking horn rolled into one. The group of figures, consisting of a naked, black boy and a crocodile attacking him, stands like a sculpture on a base and forms the stand for a rhyton (drinking vessel in the shape of a horn). Its red-figure decoration depicts four women. Only fragments of the two on the reverse have survived. The woman on the left on the front can be identified as a hunter by her clothing: she is wearing a short garment with animal fur strapped over it, a fur cap and high boots. The ends of a long scarf hang down from her shoulders. Two hunting spears lean against her left shoulder. The second woman, entering from the right, hands her an alabastron (anointing vessel). She is wearing a long chiton (undergarment) with a coat over the top. Her hair is covered with a shawl.
The vessel was produced as part of a series using a mould consisting of several parts. Eight other examples have been discovered. Some give the name of the potter, Sotades, who probably worked in the workshop of Hegesiboulos in Athens; others have the inscription "The crocodile in love" on the base, which expresses the joy of joking figurative vessels.