A Type γ Courting Scene for Alan: The Spitzer Amphora at Bryn Mawr College

Abstract

Side B (color fig. 39) shows a pederastic courting scene of Beazley's Type γ. 5 In the center a youthful eromenos and bearded erastes peform sexual intercourse in the dia merion mode (fig. 2) framed by pairs of naked men dancing in from either side. The adult erastes hunches over with bent knees and stares downward intently, holding the youth tightly between his thighs and embracing him with hands clenched on the boy's hips. He is slightly wilder than his dancing companions, with a large eye, an odd, almost satyric ear, and a slightly longer beard made a bit shaggy by short incisions, like the hair above his neck. The eromenos stands upright, looking ahead over his lover's shoulder, and reaches back awkwardly across his lover's upper right arm with clenched fist, his other, bent arm only partly shown. Like Apollo, he sports the long hair of youth and rises slightly above the older men. He wears a short cloak that must be open in front but hangs behind him to cover his buttocks and pass between his body and arms on either side, its ends hanging free on either side. It has red folds like those on the other side, and is decorated with a few white dot clusters; an incised fold shows that it covers his back and sides down to the knees. The naked dancers appear in profile, with partly incised red beards, red circles around their nipples, and a range of hairstyle. The two on left have short hair with red crests in front, with traces of a red hairband on the leftmost figure, and small flaccid genitals. The leftmost dancer stands or prances on one leg, raising the other behind, and appears to slap his companion on the buttocks, although a slight bit of reserve may indicate that his hand is closed and passes behind. His companion stands with slightly flexed knees, raising his hands up and down, recalling Type β courting; he may be a bit younger, less muscular than his companion, slightly paunchy, with sagging horizontal abdominals, vague musculature on his left arm, but well defined leg muscles. On right, the leading dancer moves in vigorously with flexed, widely spaced knees, his left hand lowered in front, the other raised and bent oddly behind, its hand emerging behind his shoulder, vaguely echoing the dancer on left; his long hair flows behind onto his shoulders, his red beard is fringed, and an incised pompadour rises over his forehead. The remaining dancer stands in place twisting his torso to a frontal view, raising his left arm behind and over his head, the other arm lower, crossing his waist. He lacks a defined mouth and also sports an elaborate pompadour with very short krobylos.