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31 Mythological Subjects 6 T he Codrus Painter and his Circle produced more than ten cups representing heroes in well-known episodes or nameless warriors departing for a campaign .1 The warriors are sometimes given heroic status by the proud display of their nudity and by association with heroic scenes; most figures remain unidentified, shown either fighting or, more often, making a libation with the help of a woman.2 Few of them have inscriptions, confirming their generic heroic identity. The political and polemic realities of the 440s and 430s meant that many Athenian households experienced similar departure scenes, as hoplites left home and the women of the family bade them farewell. These circumstances explain the quantity of the departure scenes in this period as well as the vase-painters’ choice of heroes and myths to depict. The Codrus Painter and his Circle served this trend faithfully, since most of the vases of the early phase are decorated with an Attic myth, a departure scene, or a combination of both. 6.1 heroic kings and royal heroes: the codrus cup The namepiece of the Codrus Painter was found in the necropolis of Vulci and belongs to his early phase (cat. 1). The tondo depicts two figures: Ainetos, a legendary king rarely represented in art, and Codrus, another mythical king of Athens, after whom the painter was named (pl. 1a).3 The warrior king Codrus is shown in full armor with an impressive device of a Chimaera on his shield,4 while Ainetos wears a himation and rests his weight on a staff. According to the myth, Codrus sacrificed himself to save Athens because an oracle had stated that the city would remain safe from the Dorians only if the king was killed by the enemy. The cup represents the moment of the king’s departure and anticipates his heroic sacrifice.5 The exterior of the Codrus cup is decorated with two departure scenes. On one side, two heroes named Menestheus and Aias are preparing to leave for the Trojan War; on the other, two Attic heroes inscribed Theseus and Phorbas are depicted among family members as they set off on a mission, probably against the Amazons (pl. 1b–c).6 The two departure scenes are arranged in a similar manner. Five figures are divided into groups of two and three. The departing warriors are placed in the second and fourth positions . The middle and the extreme right figures on both sides are women. This arrangement makes it easy for the vase-painter and the viewer to compare the two scenes and assimilate the roles of the figures, whose identity is certain, since they are all inscribed. On one side Aias7 carries a shield with a bull device and converses with a bearded man named Lykos8 instead of his real father, Telamon, as one might expect (pl. 1b).9 Following this pair comes Athena and behind her a youthful figure , Menestheus, a legendary king of Athens and founder of colonies.10 Athena is between the two heroes, wearing an elegant peplos, its upper half covered by an elaborate aegis. She has a diadem on her hair and holds a spear in her right hand. With her left she gestures toward Menestheus, who is depicted as lightly armed, in contrast to the more heavily armed Aias.11 The last figure of the group is Melite, the personification of the homonymous Attic deme. She wears a peplos, and her stance, with one hand on the waist, recalls the statue of Athena by Euenor.12 If Melite’s presence here is a reference to a deme, then Aias could also be perceived as a symbol of the Aiantis tribe. These two figures are further associated, since the sanctuary of Aias’ son, the Eurysakeion, is in the deme of Melite.13 On the other side of the Codrus cup, a mature man named Aigeus14 is talking to his son, Theseus, who is 32 Mythological Subjects of the great Neleid family who settled in Athens after the sack of Pylos by Herakles. On the other hand, the Peisistratids traced their lineage to a third Neleid who did not reach Attica, while a fourth Athenian family, the Medontidai , claimed Medon, son of Codrus, as their ancestor.24 The scene on side A of the Codrus cup takes place in the palace of Aigeus but is by no means a “family picture,” since the parameters of both space and time argue against that...

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