Lekane with Gigantomacy scene

Inside this large krater, a white, wavy, vine branch and a key pattern encircle the central space of the vessel, where a Gigantomacy scene unfolds. Zeus, riding a chariot drawn by four white horses and driven by Nike, the goddess of victory, brandishes the bunch of lightning bolts he is going to throw at his opponent – a Giant with a human torso and the tails of a sea serpent. The Giant emerges from the ground, holding an enormous rock above his head to use as a weapon. The setting of the Olympic battle is suggested by the three golden stars painted on the heads of the horses. The scene is a magnificent representation of a Greek cosmogonic myth: the fight of the gods against the Giants, sons of Gaia and Uranus. In Greek imagery, the Gigantomachy represented the battle that threatened the entire structure of the cosmos. But the Olympian gods, keepers of the order of the universe, won this battle and imposed the triumph of civilisation over barbarism.