Black-figure "Mastos" with Combat Scenes

Description This shape of drinking-cup is called a "mastos" and resembles a woman's breast. On the front, a soldier whose nudity signifies heroic status advances against two warriors dressed in short tunics; two heralds watch from either side. On the back, a nude warrior confronts a clothed one in a similar scene. Beneath the horizontal handle stands a siren, a mythical creature with a woman's head and a bird's body, whose powers included knowledge of the outcome of battles.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
7/27/1987	Treatment	x-ray
4/25/2001	Treatment	other

Exhibitions

• Heroes: Mortals and Myths in Ancient Greece. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville; San Diego Museum Of Art, San Diego; Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA), New York. 2009-2011.

Provenance Engel-Gros Sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris 1921, no. 38; Dikran Kelekian, New York and Paris [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1924, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1924