Detail of a Kylix with a Seated Poet and a Youth by Douris in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sept. 2007

Terracotta kylix (drinking cup)
Greek, Attic, red-figure, ca. 490-480 BC
Attributed to Douris
Interior, seated poet and youth
Exterior, obverse and reverse, youths and men

Accession # 1976.181.3

The seated man is identifiable as a poet through the lyre in his left hand and the inscription Egeas in the exergue. Although the name is not otherwise attested in this form, it may refer to Agias, or Hegias of Troizen, mentioned in ancient literature as the author of the Nostoi, a poem now lost that narrated the return from Troy of various Greek heroes. On the exterior of the cup, the column and aryballos (oil flask) situate the scene in a gymnasium.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.