Attributed to the Painter of the Yale Lekythos
Terracotta; H. 5 1/2 in. (14 cm)
Rogers Fund, 1907 (07.286.44)
There were several important ceremonies in ancient Greece in which it was customary for boys and girls to sacrifice a lock of their hair. The image depicted on this vessel, however, may refer to a scene in The Seven against Thebes, a tragedy by Aeschylus produced in Athens about 470 B.C. Since the seven heroes knew that only one of them would survive battle, each cut a lock of his hair and tied it to the chariot that would carry home the survivor. This lekythos was probably made as a tomb offering. It may represent one of the seven heroes from Aeschylus' tragedy, or it may reflect the heroic death of an Athenian youth.