Attic Red-Figure Neck Amphora with Double Handles

The vase is entirely black save for a figure standing on a short ground-line on both the front and back. There are sizable areas where the black has misfired, especially on the neck of side A.

On one side (A), a young man crowned with an ivy wreath cavorts with his left leg flexed off the ground. Nude save for the cloak over his left arm, he rotates his right arm to aid his balance as he endeavors to keep the cup in his left hand upright. On the reverse (B), an older male adopts a similar pose. Lacking a cup from which to drink, he extends his left hand, and holds his right to his hip. Wreathed like his companion, he has a receding hairline, so is clearly older. He could be accompanying the youth in a *komos* (revelry) that occurred in connection with a festival such as the Apatouria, when boys were registered into the phratry (tribal association) of their father.

Once in the collection of Prince Albrecht of Prussia (1837-1906), this vase bears incised letters under the foot, and is likely to have been found in Italy. It has been reassembled from numerous fragments and large sections of the black background and part of the lip have been restored.