The gods battle the Giants

The inside and outside of this red-figure drinking cup illustrate the Greek myth of the battle between the gods and Giants (Gigantomachy), all of whom are labeled with their names.
Inside the cup, a tondo surrounded by a meander pattern depicts Poseidon fighting the Giant Polybotes. He has grabbed the Giant and thrusts his trident into his enemy’s chest. Both are figured as heavily-armed warriors. To the left, Gaia rises from the ground. As mother of the Giants, she raises her arms in a gesture at once beseeching and frightened. The lower part of the tondo contains an inscription naming the potter Erginos and the painter Aristophanes.
Three more pairs of gods and Giants do battle on the outside of the vase. The center of one side shows Zeus, naked, striding towards the Giant Porphyrion at right. Zeus raises a thunderbolt in his right hand, preparing to sling it against his enemy – who is likewise naked save a helmet. Although the Giant defends himself with a huge shield, his only weapon is a large rock. To the right, Athena prepares to spear Enkelados. The Giant falls to his knees, reaching for his sword, holding his shield on the wrong side. At left, Artemis presses the burning ends of two crossed torches into Gaion’s chest and leg – while the Giant, clad in a panther skin, tries to resist. The other side of the vase features Apollo at the center, shown as a nude young man crowned with a laurel wreath. A length of cloth winds gracefully around his arm. In his left hand he holds a bow, even though he carries a sword in his right. While he prepares to deal a blow to Ephialtes, the Giant tries to flee towards the left while holding Apollo at bay with a spear and protecting his left side with a large shield. Behind him, Ares (also outfitted with a shield and helmet) drives his spear into the chest of his enemy Mimon – who falls to the ground and tries in vain to cover himself with his shield. Although he holds a sword, he poses no threat to the war god. To Apollo’s other side, Hera is about to skewer Phoitos with her spear. She wears a belted chiton and a veil fluttering in the wind, as well as a serrated crown and armbands. She averts the impending blow of the Giant’s sword with her bare left hand.
The Gigantomachy is one of the central themes of ancient myth. In this battle between the gods and the sons of the earth, the Giants (gigas meaning simply “huge”) challenged the gods’ rule and rose up against Olympus. The ensuing struggle mirrors the primordial tension between order and chaos.
Depictions of the Giants as heavily armed hoplites appear from the Archaic period onward, as do the pairings of certain gods with certain Giants. Thus Porphyrion, the leader of the Giants, is always matched against Zeus, and Athena usually fights Enkelados. Snake-legged and animal-headed Giants only appear later, in the fourth century BC, and from that point on largely define the iconography of the Gigantomachy.
This cup even includes the motif of a Giant in love with a goddess, a later development in the repertoire. Gaion is the only Giant shown without a helmet and weapon, raising just his bare arm to block the burning torches that Artemis presses into his flesh. In other images (including the Great Frieze from Hellenistic Pergamon), the Giant Otos stops one of his own kind from attacking Artemis – who herself appears to hesitate in her attack. In still other variants, a Giant may be shown with Eros binding his hands.
In decorating this vase, the Athenian vase painter Aristophanes looked to known Athenian sculptures. He modelled Gaia’s drapery, for instance, on that of the Erechtheion caryatids. Aristophanes signed three vessels, of which two also bear the name of Erginos as potter; presumably the pair worked closely together. They were active in the period 430–400 BC.