Agora Object: Agora XXX, no. 589
Chronology:   Ca. 500 B.C.
Deposit:   D 7:2
Published Number:   AV 30.589
References:   Object: P 7240
Five non-joining wall fragments, a with start of keel. Glaze much pitted on underside of bowl. P.H. a) 0.18; max. dim. a) 0.25, b) 0.174, c) 0.087, d) 0.107, f) 0.062; est. circumference at ground line 0.90. A. Ashmead, Hesperia 35, 1966, pl. 11:5.a--d, f.

Athletes. Fragment a preserves most of a trainer (head missing but for tip of beard) standing to left in a himation and boots (his toes are not indicated), a wand held in his left hand and resting on his shoulder. The trainer's right arm was bent at the elbow and held out. In front of him is the right foot, with the heel raised very high, of an athlete to left; the end of a javelin overlapping the feet of the trainer belongs to this athlete. Behind the trainer are the buttocks, left leg, and part of right of an athlete to right and between the two:

From what remains of this athlete, it is clear that his right leg was raised slightly above the ground; he is taller than the trainer, and he is probably a discus thrower, although the position of his legs is a bit unusual (see below). Below, key pattern to left. Fragment b gives more of the pattern, the lower parts of a musician to right draped in a long chiton decorated with a vertical stripe. Like the trainer on fragment a, he probably also wears boots because his toes are not indicated as they are on the foot of the athlete in front of him. Behind the musician's foot, at the break, is a little bit of diagonal relief contour whose meaning is unclear (possibly the end of a javelin[?]). Next to the musician's feet is a javelin belonging to the youth who stands further over (left leg frontal, right in profile, the tip of one finger at the break above the javelin). He overlaps the handle of a pick, its head (mostly missing) stuck firmly in the ground (this would explain the vertical position of the head). Fragment c preserves the lower calf and left foot of an athlete to right, the right wrist and hand, the fingers lightly touching ground of one who has fallen or sits on the ground. Fragment d shows most of the left arm resting on the bent left knee, part of the right leg of an athlete sitting on the ground to right, his torso frontal. In front of him are the legs of another athlete, also to right. The legs of this athlete are not the same as those of the one on fragment c: the dilute glaze, the preliminary sketch, and the size are different. On the far right, relief line and traces of an object that looks like a jumping weight. Fragment f shows the back of the head of an athlete (at the left break), to left. Behind his head:

Above, tongue pattern at the junction with the neck. Preliminary sketch. Incised contour for hair. Relief contour. Dilute glaze: muscles. Red: fillet; inscriptions.

It is not easy to determine what each athlete is doing or the exact sequence of the figures. The following seems to be the best possibility but not without problems. There were probably nine figures. We may begin with one that is certain and move from left to right. This is the figure of the trainer on fragment a. The athlete behind him looks like a discus thrower (compare Antiphon on the reverse of Berlin 2180 by Euphronios: ARV2 13, 1; Paralip. 321, 1; Addenda 152; Mind and Body, cat. no. 44; Euphronios, cat. no. 1). Then there seems to be a gap of about 0.08--0.10 cm. in which there would have been an athlete, an acontist whose javelin appears at the far lower left of fragment b. Next probably comes fragment b with the musician and the acontist (the character of the glaze and the potting lines on the inside suggest this arrangement). Fragments c and d are more difficult to place, but I propose that they come in alphabetical order. The slanting position of the left calf and foot on fragment c indicates an athlete in a fairly active pose (cf. the javelin thrower in the tondo of Munich 2637 by Onesimos [ ARV2 322, 28; Paralip. 359, 28; Mind and Body, cat. no. 46; Addenda 215]). The hand lightly touching ground seems to belong to the left athlete on fragment d, who sits on the ground, and the athlete in front of him is very likely a jumper, who may have looked something like the one on the outside of Florence PD 265 by Onesimos (ARV2 322, 29; Addenda 215). The last figure is the one whose right foot with heel raised appears on the far left of fragment a, the end of whose javelin overlaps the feet of the trainer. The position of this acontist may have been very similar to one on the psykter in a Swiss private collection, attributed to a painter of the Pezzino Group (ARV2 1621, 3 bis; Addenda 157; NumAntClass 16, 1987, pl. 5:7), only reversed. My identification of the last athlete as an acontist differs from that of Ashmead, who interpreted him as a wrestler and suggested that the hand on fragment c belongs to him, his victorious opponent being the one whose left calf and foot appear at the left of this fragment (p. 32). This interpretation does not explain how the javelin overlapping the feet of the trainer on fragment a fits into the composition, for as Ashmead rightly remarks (p. 31, note 53), "there is not room for an acontist's body" in the space that would be available. The athlete whose head is partly preserved on fragment f might belong to the one on fragment b, if he is not bent over, or to the missing athlete who would have appeared between the athlete on fragment a and the musician on fragment b (the character of the glaze suggests this placement of the fragment). If this is correct, then the small bit of relief contour at the break just behind the heels of the musician on fragment b could be the end of a javelin. Perhaps it is just a javelin stuck in the ground (cf. the two on the skyphos by the Brygos Painter, Boston 10.176 [ ARV2 381, 173; Paralip. 368, 173; Addenda 227]).

Manner of the Kleophrades Painter (ARV1 129, 5); near the Kleophrades Painter (ARV2 193, 1; Paralip. 341, ---, 1).