An Attic Red-figured Stamnos, attributed to the Hephaisteion Painter, circa 480 B.C.

Leon (1907-1988) and Harriet (1916-1972) Pomerance, New York, acquired by 1958

acquired by the present owner likely in the 1980s

Man in the Ancient World, An Exhibition of Pre-Christian Objects from Regions of the Near East, Egypt and the Mediterranean, catalogue to the exhibition at Queens College, New York, 1958, p.23, no. 169, illus. p. 59

John D. Beazley, Attic red-figure vase-painters, 2nd ed., Oxford, 1963, p. 298, no. 3

The Pomerance Collection of Ancient Art, catalogue to the exhibition, The Brooklyn Museum, New York, 1966, p. 96. no. 113

Barbara Philippaki, The Attic Stamnos, Oxford, 1967, pl. 27 1-2

John D. Beazley, Paralipomena, Oxford, 1971, no. 356

Beazley Pottery Archive Database no. 203088: https://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/C0ED0D75-D07A-46C9-966A-B6AAEC773BCB

Queens College, New York, Man in the Ancient World, An Exhibition of Pre-Christian Objects from Regions of the Near East, Egypt and the Mediterranean, February 10th-March 7th, 1958

The Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, The Pomerance Collection of Ancient Art, June 14-October 2nd, 1966 

The stamnos exhibits a relatively rare subject in Attic vase painting only a few other examples are known including one in the British Museum (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1837-0609-39) and one recorded in the Vatican collection (https://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/7EEB36A5-00F2-4606-A5D5-8C6EB2E4E1FC).

In Greek mythology, Aethra was the daughter of Pittheus, king of Troezen. The aging king of Athens visited Troezen, where he slept with Aethra. Following their union, Athena came to Aethra in a dream and instructed her to leave a sleeping Aegeus and wade to the nearby island of Sphairia where Poseidon would also lay with her. The result of these two unions was one son, the hero Theseus, who would go onto become the king of Athens and slay the minotaur. Aethra is also a minor character in the Trojan war cycle, as her son Theseus entrusted her to guard Helen after she had been kidnapped by the Greek forces. Helen’s brothers Castor and Pollux retaliated by rescuing Helen and enslaving Aethra as a prisoner in Troy, where she spent the war as a servant to Helen.