Apulian Red-Figure Bell Krater

Side A: a scene from a “phlyax” comedy. About two hundred “phlyax” vases dating to ca. 420 – 340 BC have survived from the western Greek colonies of southern Italy and Sicily, many recovered from tombs, documenting a popular performance tradition.

Because none of the “phylax” plays have survived in literary form, vase-paintings remain our primary sources for their performance. Depictions demonstrate the popularity of a ribald and slapstick local tradition featuring plot twists which seem often to have revolved around the antics of the gods (including Zeus and Hermes), Dionysos, and Herakles. Actors in a scene typically stand on a stage, in this case, simply supported by three posts. This and other more detailed examples (such as [96.AE.112](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/29526/)) are visual evidence for the type of playing surface the actors may have erected in the orchestras of local theaters. We can understand the intent of this vase-painting was to recreate a popular scene from a comic play known to the users of the vase.

The “phlyax” costume is composed of many consistent elements and is worn by all actors in these plays, including those playing female roles. It always includes a tunic and padded belly over baggy sleeves and trousers, from beneath which dangles a flaccid phallus. The specific costume worn by the actor on the left is referred to as a “stage-naked” costume; it is distinguished by a padded torso and belly which he has strapped over the normal “phlyax” costume, and is likely intended to create a buffoonish version of the nude torso of the ideal Greek hero. Topped by a full head mask of a beardless young man with dark hair, a sharply protruding chin, and an open mouth, the actor stands erect, extending a staff forward with his left. He faces a female figure standing in center stage clad in the costume of a young woman. The traditional garment would have consisted of a belted peplos (a pleated shift of wool or linen). In this case the peplos has been accentuated by a separate piece of fabric which the actor holds aloft so as to billow in the wind, suggesting a finer, perhaps more expensive and beautiful fabric. These traditional features of youthful beauty are capped, implausibly, by the white-haired mask of a wrinkled old crone. This mask also features an open mouth and the profile turn of their heads toward one another may suggest they are speaking. Approaching from the right is a tall crowned actor wearing a white-haired, bearded mask, also clad in the baggy sleeved and legged comedy costume of a “phlyake”. Here the flaccid phallus dangles from beneath an elaborate tunic denoting, together with the jaunty crown, the ridiculous representation in comic form of a figure of great status. Holding a scepter topped by an ornamental bird, the figure can be read as Zeus, the King of the gods, whose amorous adventures are a well-known feature of his mythology. Gesturing lecherously toward the center of the scene, the Zeus character could be chasing a female he believes to be beautiful (but who he cannot from his vantage point see is in fact old and ugly), while the old woman, pretending she is young and desirable, focuses her own amorous gaze towards the parody of the handsome youth to the left.

Side B: three standing female figures. The thyrsus held by the figure on the left indicates a connection to the rites of Dionysos; she may be a maenad. She beckons with her left had toward the heavily mantled female standing in the center of the composition. To the right, a woman, again in comparatively elaborate dress, holds aloft a taenia, or ritual ribbon. Together with the thyrsus, the ribbon can be seen as connoting religious intentions associated with the function of the vase as a burial urn or grave devotion.