Fragmentary Attic Black-Figure Lip Cup (Tondo)

Interior: in the tondo, an assembly of gods (?), featuring a child or Hebe (?), Zeus (seated), Hermes and a seated woman (Hera?). Hermes stands in the middle, to right, looking back. He wears a petasos, a nebris, and a short chiton. He raises his left hand and carries his kerykeion in his right. He looks at Zeus, who sits on a stool with legs that terminate in animal paws. Two incised rosettes embellish its hinges. Zeus has a fillet in his hair, and over his long chiton wears a himation with a "running dog" pattern on the upper and lower edges. In his left arm he holds a sceptre with a floriform finial. Behind Zeus is a small figure (most of the lower torso and feet remain), who stands facing right wearing a long himation. On the other side of the tondo, a woman faces left, sitting on a stool. She wears a necklace, a peplos (?) and himation. In the exergue below the figures, two confronting cocks.
Around the tondo, four lines, a dot-band, three lines, a band of tongues (alternately black and red, separated by relief lines), and four lines.The rest of the interior is black.

Exterior: on both A and B: a nude horserider to right, with a second horse alongside. Below, adjacent to each handle root, a sphinx. Inscribed in the handle zone on both sides, signature of Epitimos as potter.

The deep bowl has a lip that is sharply offset on the interior and tooled on the exterior. There is a line within the lip, whose edge is black. One thick black line runs around the exterior, just below the offset of the lip. The handles are black on the outside only. Under the handle zone, the black lower part of the bowl is divided by a nrarrow band. The bottom of the bowl is black; the fillet between the bowl and foot is reserved. The foot’s exterior, save the edge, is black. The underside and interior of the foot’s stem are reserved. A stump of clay is visible on the bottom of the bowl inside the stem. The cup was burned in antiquity, and has been refired in modern times.

Adapted from A. Clark, CVA Malibu 2 (1990).