Over in this case is one of the masterpieces of Greek vase-painting. It is a terra-cotta drinking cup by the wonderfully-gifted Athenian artist Exekias (for a replica of cup, see Fig. 1). Although made in Greece, this cup is one of thousands of Athenian vases that were discovered in Etruscan tombs in Italy. The Etruscans, who lived north of Rome, were great importers of Greek vases. The excavator of this cup was Lucien Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon. The cup was found in the Etruscan cemetery of Vulci.

We know that the artist Exekias made this vase because he signed it. If you look carefully at the outer edge of the cup's base, you can find the Greek letters from the artist's signature. They read EXEKIAS EPOESE, which means "Exekias made me." This type of signature means that Exekias potted or shaped the vase. When Exekias potted this vase around 535 B.C., he and other contemporary potters threw their vases on the wheel. The same artist signed other vases EXEKIAS EGRAPSE, meaning "Exekias painted me." Since the vases with Exekias' signature as painter are in the same style as this cup, we know he painted it as well. Judging from other surviving artists' signatures on Athenian vases, it was rare for the same artist to both shape and paint a vase. Only master artists like Exekias were able to do both.

This is a particular type of thick-steemed cup that is called after its decoration an eye cup. This is the earliest-known example of an eye cup, which leads us to believe that Exekias invented the cup shape. A large pair of wide-open eyes decorates each side of the cup (Fig. 2); each eye is set within an outlined eye socket and topped by an eyebrow. Between each pair of eyes is a nose. It is believed that these eyes had an apotropaic function, that is that they warded off evil. But whom were they intended to protect? I would suggest that perhaps the men who were to drink from the cup were intended to be spared the type of death depicted around the cup's two handles.

The eyes and the figures around the handles of the cup are executed in what's called the black-figure technique. After the cup was thrown and before firing, figures and decorations that were to turn black were painted in a brown clay slip, which was made from fine clay particles mixed with water. Interior details were then etched through the brown slip in a process called incision, and white and purple slips were added to areas where these colors were desired. During the smoky phase of the cup's firing, the brown slip turned the reflective black color the vase still exhibits today, and the areas with added white and purple stayed the same color.

Under each handle on the cup's exterior (Figs. 3 and 4) is a dead warrior. Battling warriors flank each handle. They are fighting over the bodies. One corpse has been stripped of his armor, and the other is still wearing his helmet and white breastplate. J.D. Beazley, the great British scholar of Athenian vase-painting, suggested that the nude warrior who's lost his armor (Fig. 4) might be Patroklos, friend of the Greek warrior Achilles. As you recall from Homer's Iliad, Patroklos went to battle wearing Achilles' armor, which was stripped from his body when Hektor killed him. After this occurrence, the Greeks and Trojans battled over Patroklos' body, with the Greeks finally recovering the body of their fallen comrade and dragging it back to their camp. Exekias' cup seems to show the Greeks to the left of the handle, in the process of recovering Patroklos' nude body. Their Trojan opponents would be the heavily-armed warriors with spears raised to the right of the handle. Note how much of the armor of the standing black-figure warriors is embellished with added purple, a feature that helps to distinguish the warriors' black flesh from the armor.

The background around the warriors and eyes of the cup's exterior is unpainted. Significantly, the entire background of the cup's interior (Fig. 5) was painted in coral-red slip before the black figures were painted over it. Exekias is believed to have invented this type of once brilliantly-colored background. It may have signified the wine-dark sea over which the boat of the wine god Dionysus glides. All the bowl's circular interior is devoted to this representation of Dionysus at sea; such a wide pictorial zone is unlike the usual restriction of a cup's interior decoration to the central medallion.

The myth depicted is one which is otherwise unknown in Greek art. The story can be found in the Greek Homeric "Hymn to Dionysus." According to this hymn, Dionysus, when standing on the shore, was seized by pirates and put aboard their ship. Soon strange things began to happen. First wine streamed throughout the ship. Next, according to the Homeric Hymn, "all at once a vine spread out both ways along the top of the sail with many clusters hanging down from it." Dionysus then transformed himself into a ferocious lion, that pounced upon the ship's master. The "Homeric Hymn" continues: "And when the sailors saw it they leapt out overboard one and all into the bright sea, escaping from a miserable fate, and were changed into dolphins."

This cup shows the moment after the pirates' transformation into dolphins. Seven such transformed pirates leap above the sea's coral-red waters in positions around the boat. Dionysus rides triumphantly on the boat (Fig. 6), shaded under a canopy of grape vines and clusters. The dolphins, Dionysus, the ship and the grape vines are colored black, and the billowing sail was once entirely white.

Five dolphins are under the boat, and one is on each side of the boat. Note how the dolphins flanking the boat are positioned vertically with snout pointed downwards, so that they appear to be diving back into the water after leaping high into the air. All seven dolphins have their backs arched in such a way that they form counter-curves in relation to the cup's circular rim. Following the curve of the rim are the keel of Dionysus' boat and the grape vines that have miraculously sprouted on the boat.

The bow of Dionysus' boat is on the left, and has the shape and features of a boar's head. The curling stern on the right has the form of the neck and head of a swan. Attached to the stern are two steering rudders and a landing ladder. Two small white dolphins are painted on the keel of the boat, and a railing is along the top of the boat.

The boat's sail, which was once entirely white, billows leftwards from the mast and causes the boat to glide in that direction. To the left and right of the mast are the two thin curved lines of the grape vines. These vines divide into four branches that form an arched canopy over the mast and sail. Attached to these branches are grape leaves and large, meticulously-incised grape clusters.

Dionysus reclines serenely on the boat, in the pose of a guest at an ancient symposium or drinking party. His raised knees are on the left and his torso, which is positioned frontally, is on the right. Dionysus' damaged profile head is turned to the left, as if the god is looking in the direction of the boat's effortless movement. Dionysus' knees are covered by a cloak, which has incised folds at Dionysus' waist, and is covered by dots of added white paint. The god's torso is bare. His bent-back right arm, which is bent in front of his chest, holds a drinking-horn. The god leans back his left elbow, like a symposiast on a couch in a banquet hall. Dionysus is bearded and wears a festive wreath of ivy leaves.

Why did Exekias decide to paint this never previously-illustrated theme of one of Dionysus' miracles? Of course any theme involving the god of wine would have been appropriate for a cup like this, which was used for the consumption of wine by guests at symposia. This one is particularly apt, since the god adopts the same pose as the reclining symposiast who would have drunk from the cup. The Athenians held Dionysus in special esteem, since they believed the god brought the grapevine to their region and taught the early Athenians how to make wine. Perhaps Exekias wanted the ancient symposiast to ponder on the power of Dionysus as he drained the wine from the cup and saw the god ever more clearly. Perhaps he also wanted the drinker to feel the same sense of freedom from cares that the gliding god seems to experience and that was granted to all who partook of his sacred drink.