Attic black-figure Kyathos of the Perizoma Group
Photogallery
Attic black-figure Kyathos of the Perizoma Group
Four groups of armed dancers, each composed of two men with a helmet, lance and pelta shield, move in time with music played by a bearded double-flute player, dressed in a long tunic. The men wear a breastplate and are covered by a loincloth, or perizoma. This detail constitutes the motif that defines the Group, to which kyathos belongs.
The Pyrrhic dance, a sort of ritual armed dance, is already documented in Etruria in very ancient times, possibly from the beginning of the Orientalising period. It is certainly subsequently found among the athletic practices depicted in the Etruscan pictorial cycles in tombs, which in some cases may have been painted by immigrant Greek masters. The armed dance – linked to the military training of the Athenian citizen and inserted into the programme of the Panathenaic – is represented in Attic ceramics imported into Etruria. It is possible that the Etruscan oligarchies, recipients of vessels of this type, shared similar civic values along with an ancient legacy of warrior culture.