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Source Description
Whether cutting his hair or combing it, this solitary warrior seems to be contemplating his fate. If mythological, he may be Parthenopaios or another of the ill-fated Seven Against Thebes, a band of warriors tasked with overthrowing that central Greek city. The Seven left mementos for their loved ones before departing, and he may be cutting a lock of hair for this reason. The same motive might apply to historical soldiers as well, and he may represent one of the many Greeks who battled the Persians around the time this vase was made. Unfortunately, the inscriptions painted on either side of the figure seem to be nonsense—actual Greek letters that do not spell out recognizable names or words.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
110059
label
Red-Figure Lekythos (Oil Vessel): Warrior Cutting Hair
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
110059
contentType
object
title
Red-Figure Lekythos (Oil Vessel): Warrior Cutting Hair
description
Whether cutting his hair or combing it, this solitary warrior seems to be contemplating his fate. If mythological, he may be Parthenopaios or another of the ill-fated Seven Against Thebes, a band of warriors tasked with overthrowing that central Greek city. The Seven left mementos for their loved ones before departing, and he may be cutting a lock of hair for this reason. The same motive might apply to historical soldiers as well, and he may represent one of the many Greeks who battled the Persians around the time this vase was made. Unfortunately, the inscriptions painted on either side of the figure seem to be nonsense—actual Greek letters that do not spell out recognizable names or words.
date
c. 480–470 BCE
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60755092
creators
11009
genreSpecific
Ceramic
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 43.5 x 16.5 cm (17 1/8 x 6 1/2 in.)
cul
Greek, Attic
accession
1928.66
Source extras
tec
ceramic
tombstone
Red-Figure Lekythos (Oil Vessel): Warrior Cutting Hair, c. 480–470 BCE. Attributed to Oionokles Painter (Greek, Attic, active c. 480–460 BCE). Ceramic; overall: 43.5 x 16.5 cm (17 1/8 x 6 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund, 1928.660
collection
GR - Greek
didYouKnow
The painter lavished great detail on this warrior’s armor, even including a lion on his helmet’s cheekpiece!
citations
citation
Beazley Archive. n.d. <em>Beazley Archive Pottery Database</em>. Oxford: Beazley Archive.
page_number
BAPD 207549
citation
Carter, Martha L. <em>Classical Art</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1961.
page_number
Reproduced: cover
citation
Beazley, J. D. <em>Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters.</em> Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963.
page_number
p. 648, No. 37
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 20
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 20
citation
Thompson, Dorothy Burr. <em>An Ancient Shopping Center: The Athenian Agora</em>. <em>(Excavations of the Athenian Agora, Picture Book No. 12). </em>Princeton, N.J.: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1971.
page_number
p. 19, fig. 35.
citation
Boulter, C. G., Jenifer Neils, and Gisela Walberg. <em>Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971. </em>
page_number
p. 20, plate 31
citation
Boardman, John. "Heroic Haircuts." <em>The Classical Quarterly</em> 23, no. 2 (1973): 196-97.
page_number
Mentioned in n. 5.
url
www.jstor.org/stable/638172
citation
Kunisch, Norbert. "Parthenopaios." <em>Antike Kunst</em> 17, no. 1 (1974): 39-41.
page_number
Taf. 8,1.
url
www.jstor.org/stable/41318586
citation
Boardman, John. <em>Athenian Red Figure Vases, the Archaic Period: A Handbook. </em>London: Thames and Hudson, 1975.
page_number
P. 195, fig. 361.
citation
Dusenbery, Elsbeth B. "Two Attic Red-Figured Kraters in Samothrace," <em>Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens,</em> Vol.47, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1978), pp. 211-243.
page_number
Mentioned at p. 228, n. 55.
citation
Moon, Warren G. and Louise Berge. <em>Greek Vase-Painting in Midwestern Collections</em>. Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1979.
page_number
Reproduced & mentioned: pp. 164-165, cat. 94
citation
Burn, Lucilla, Ruth Glynn, and J. D. Beazley. <em>Beazley Addenda: Additional References to ABV, ARV² & Paralipomena. </em>Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1982.
page_number
p. 134
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art, and Jenifer Neils. <em>The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland: Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: P. 17, no. 19
citation
Elfriede R. Knauer, "<em>Ou gar en amis</em>: A Chous by the Oionokles Painter," <em>Greek Vases in the J. Paul Getty Museum</em>, vol. 3.
page_number
Pp. 91-100 (CMA vase mentioned in nn. on pp. 99-100).
citation
Carpenter, Thomas H., J. D. Beazley, Thomas Mannack, Melanie Mendonça, and Lucilla Burn. <em>Beazley Addenda: Additional References to ABV, ARV² & Paralipomena. </em>Oxford: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1989.
page_number
p. 275
citation
Serbeti, Eleftheria D. "The Oionokles Painter," <em>Boreas: Münstersche Beiträge zur Archäologie </em>12 (1989), pp. 17-46.
page_number
See esp. pp. 17-22, 40-46.
citation
Jarva, Eero. "Archaiologia on Archaic Greek Body Armour". Studi Archaeologica Septentrionalia 3 Rovaniemi: Pohjois-Suomen historiallinen yhdisys, 1995.
page_number
p. 31, Fig. 8
citation
Fliegel, Stephen N.<em> Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art.</em> [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998.
page_number
p. 22
citation
Immerwahr, Henry R. <em>A Corpus of Attic Vase Inscriptions (CAVI)</em>. [Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified], 1998.
page_number
p. 791, no. 3202
citation
Herodotus, Aubrey De Sélincourt, and John Marincola. <em>The histories.</em> London: Folio Society, 2006.
page_number
p. 380
citation
Fliegel, Stephen N. <em>Arms & Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. </em>[Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: P. 32
citation
Girard, Thibaut. <em>L'oblique dans le monde grec: concept et imagerie.</em> 2015.
page_number
p. 147, Fig.139
citation
Arrington, Nathan T. <em>Ashes, Images, and Memories: The Presence of the War Dead in Fifth-Century Athens</em>. Oxford Univ. Press, 2015.
page_number
p. 37, n. 77.
citation
Osborne, Robin. <em>The Transformation of Athens: Painted Pottery and the Creation of Classical Greece.</em> Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018.
page_number
p. 234, Fig. 10.6
citation
Oakley, John Howard. <em>A Guide to Scenes of Daily Life on Athenian Vases.</em> Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2020.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: P. 173-174, fig. 8.8
creditline
The Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 05:51:39.269000
sourceId
110059
dept
Greek and Roman Art
coll
GR - Greek
med
ceramic
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
32e32e6b3629e347