The Darius Painter in Mainz and Bonn

Abstract

Re-examination of fragments of a volute krater by the Darius Painter, kept in the antiquities collection of Mainz University, leads to the conclusion that fragments in the Academic Art Museum at Bonn University belong to the same vessel. This finding together with observations on the Mainz fragments allow a new identification of the scene in the neck zone. It is not an abduction that was depicted there, but Semele’s return from the Underworld led by Hermes. This is combined with Amphiaraos’s meeting with Hades in the krater’s main image. With its pictorial programme established, the Mainz-Bonn krater provides new impulses for the much discussed question of the interpretation of Apulian representations of the afterlife.