Red-Figure Kylix Fragment: A Komos (Party Scene)

This fragment of a kylix, or drinking cup, depicts a man playing a lyre and another man singing and dancing as part of a komos, a ritualized dance which usually followed the symposium. The two men approach a woman holding a ladle. A krater (a vessel for mixing water and wine) with a psykter or wine-cooler inside it rests between the lyre player and the woman. This fragment joins with several others in the Museo Archeologico in Florence that depict the heads of the woman and the lyre player, as well as certain other details.

The word ANTANDRO, painted in red, runs along the curve of the ladle in between the lyre player and the woman. ANTANDRO[S] translates as "instead of a man" or "as a substitute" and could be part of the lyre player’s song. The word is meant to guide the viewer’s eye from the musician to the woman, at the same time that it mimics the shape and path of the ladle in her hand. It could, also, refer to the krater, which is shown here in the midst of the dance, possibly suggesting that the object is "a substitute" participant in the komos.