Red-Figure Pelike

The two scenes that appear on this pelike—Hermes shaking hands with an aged king on one side and refined young women spinning and admiring jewelry on the other—are most likely vignettes from the same visual narrative. The altar on the side of the vase suggests that the story represented here is taking place in the courtyard of a palace, the place where guests were first welcomed and where young girls in the household might be seen by these guests, sometimes likely suitors. For this reason, it is tempting to equate the beautiful girls pictured here with the Nereids, and the aged king with Nereus. Perhaps Nereus welcomes the newly arrived Hermes, pictured as a companion of Peleus (only his boots are visible now) who has come to seek the hand of the king’s beautiful daughter, Thetis. Also noteworthy here is the representation of females spinning and primping, a theme so pervasive in 5th-century vase painting that such scenes are usually explained as ones of "everyday life." Yet the imagery of this pelike argues against such a simplistic reading. Instead of virtuous housewives performing domestic tasks, these are parthenoi—beautiful, unmarried young women.