-600 to -500 – Ancient Greek dance

Painting / -600 to -500

Two boxers dancing and double-flute player.

585 B.C. approx.

Attic black-figure pelike vase.

Pyrrhias.

Boy dancing at a contest, and flutist.

580 B.C. approx.

Middle Corinthian aryballos of Pyrrhias.

Komastes dancers. Attic black-figure Komast cup

Painting, terracotta black-figure vase

580 B. C. approx.

9.7 x 26.1 cm

Ancient Greece

The Geranos dance on the François vase

Painting on a vase

575 B.C. approx.

Ancient, Greece

Terracotta kylix: Komast cup (drinking cup)

Painting, terracotta black-figure vase

575 B. C. approx.

9.5 cm height; 21 cm diameter

The black-figure technique was introduced into Athens from Corinth at the end of the seventh century B.C. During the early sixth century, Attic cup painters favored Corinthian motifs, like these dancing revelers. Indeed, the Komast cup is the earliest canonical type of Attic black-figure kylix.

Ancient Greece

Comic dance by men on Boeotian kantharos.
570 B.C. approx.

Women dancing in line, holding by the wrists.

Relief on a Pithos vase.
570 B.C. approx.
The movement suggests a low walking dance.

Two revelers dancing with flutist in the middle.

565 B.C. approx.
From the island Aegina, in the SAronic Gulf, Greece. Signed by the ceramist Ergotimos. One

of the rare cases that a Greek vase bears the signature of the ceramist, rather than the painter.

Chiot kalyx depicting dancers

Painting on pottery, red-figure kalyx vase

565 BC approx.

Greece, Thessaloniki, Archaeological Museum

Ivy-crowned Maenads dance between the columns of a Doric colonnade leading a goat and a deer

Painting on pottery, black-figure lekythos vase

565 BC approx.

Ancient, Greece

Satyr playing a lyra, two Maenads and a Satyr dance. Attic black-figure lekythos

Painting on pottery, black-figure lekythos vase

565 BC approx.

Ancient, Greece, Attica, Athens

Young dancer with crotala and double-flute player.

560 B.C. approx.
Attic red-figure hydria vase. The young man to the right is probably holding a purse offered as a prize to the dancer.

Dancing figures. Attic black-figure kylix vase

Painting on pottery, black-figure kylix vase

560 BC approx.

Ancient, Greece

Black-figure kantharos from Ritsona. On the upper frieze a dance of revellers.

Painting on pottery, black-figure kantharos vase

560 BC approx.

Ancient, Greece, Boeotia

Men dressed as women, bearing horses’ ears,

dancing to a double flute player.

560 B.C. approx.

Black figure vase.

Amasis Painter.
Three groups of three women dancing to double flute and cithara.

560 B.C. approx.
Detail on shoulder of Attic lekythos, black-figured vase, decorated with a scene of a wedding procession.

Four dancing men between two cocks, and two friezes of animals. Black-figured amphora

Painting, pottery, black-figured amphora

560 B.C. approx.

38 cm height; 24 cm diameter

Ancient Greece, Athens

Three male and one female dancer. Black-figure

Kantharos vase.

555 B.C. approx.

Found at Rhitsona, Boeotia, in a cemetery of

historical times. The other side of the vase depicts three male dancers and a standing aulos-player.

Saphos and Diosphos group.
Satyr and maenad dancing.
555 B.C. approx.
Attic black-figure lekythos found in Ampurias,

Gerona, Spain.

Black-figured kylix (drinking-cup) possibly showing a scene from the “Attic Thesmophoria”

Painting, terracotta pottery, black-figure vase

555 B. C. approx.

26.67 cm diameter

Posibly found in Rhodes. Attic Thesmophoria, a fertility dance celebrated by the wives of Athenian citizens. On the other side of the vase is a representation of ritual ploughing. Demeter is the veiled figure seated at the far left-hand side of the dance scene: one hand is raised to her head in a gesture associated with mourning

Ancient Greece, Athens

Three nude women and five nude men dancing. Pottery: black-figured amphora with lid

Painting, pottery, black-figured amphora

550 B. C. approx.

34.7 cm height; 21 cm diameter

Ancient Greece, Corinth

A Maenad dances. Attic black-figure kylix vase

Painting on pottery, black-figure kylix vase

550 BC approx.

Location: Greece, Marathon, Archaeological Museum

Ancient, Greece

Satyr dancing. Attic black-figure Nikosthenic amphora fragment

Painting, terracotta black-figure vase

545 B. C. approx.

16.8 x 13.3 cm

Ancient Greece, Athens

Fragment of a Clazomenian sarcophagu

showing women’s dance.

540 B.C. approx.

Nude youth (with added red on hair and chest) dancing, to right, with left arm lowered and left leg raised high. Attic black-figured pottery band-cup

Painting, pottery, black-figured band-cup

2.1 cm height x 3.8 cm width

540 B.C. approx.

Ancient Greece, Athens

Flutist playing for two satyrs and three woman dancing

Painting on white figure amphora vase

540 B.C. approx.

Ancient, Greece

Flutist playing for satyrs dancing, one satyr carrying a woman

Painting on white figure amphora vase

540 B.C. approx.

Ancient, Greece

Pamphaios Painter.
530 B.C. approx.

Maenad dancing in front of Dionysos.

Satyrs playing chelys and double flute.

Athenian hydria, fine late black-figured style.

Found in Vulci, Italy. Purchased in 1849.

Nicosthenis.Satyrs and maenads.
530 B.C. approx.

Neck-amphora vase.

Vigorous dance (Komos ?) by men and women. Attic black-figure band cup

Painting on clay vase

530 B.C. approx.

11.1 x 18.8 cm diam.

The women wear the characteristic short garment of Komasts (Komos dancers)

Ancient, Greece

Vigorous dance (Komos ?) by men and women.

Attic black-figure band cup.

530 B.C. approx.
The women wear the characteristic short garment of Komasts (Komos dancers).

Tumbler. Eight dancing youths. Terracotta black-figure vase. Greek, ca.

525–510 B.C.

Painting, black-figure vase, terracotta

8.5 cm height; 9 cm diameter

These youths are descendents of the komasts, the padded dancers that originally entered Athenian iconography from Corinth. We can interpret the figures here as young men in good spirits after a symposium (drinking party). Attic art. Eight dancing youths

Ancient Greece

Epictetos. Professional girl dancer and flutist.

Attic cup.

520 B.C. approx.

Andokides Painter. Maenad.

520 B.C. approx.

From an amphora vase.

Dionysus, two women and five satyrs dancing. Attic black-figure column krater

Painting, terracotta black-figure vase

520 B. C. approx.

47 x 54 x 47.1 cm

Ancient Greece, Athens

The seated Dionysos is framed by dancing maenads and satyrs

Painting on pottery, black-figure skyphos vase

515 BC approx.

From the sanctuary of Artemis Munychia

Ancient, Greece

Psiakas (?). Flutist and dancer.
515 B.C. approx.
Attic black-figure plate (pinakion) attributed to the painter Psiakas.

Epictetos. Comastes dancer holding vase and double-flute player.

515 B.C. approx.

Attic plate found in Vulci, Italy.

Vigorous dance by Satyrs and Maenads, part of the cult of Dionysos. Band cup.

515 B.C. approx.

Men dancers on a terracotta one-handled drinking cup

Painting, terracotta, black-figure vase

515 B.C. approx.

9.7 height; 8.2 diameter

Ancient, Greece

Euphronios Painter.

Youths dancing the Komos 1.

510 B.C. approx.
Volute-krater from the former collection Bacci. Attributed by Furtwängler to Euphronios. Among the youth a bearded man holding a cup. Crotals, double flute, barbiton are represented.