Black-Figure Trefoil Oinochoe (Wine Jug): Europa on Bull
attributed to Class of Vatican 440 (Greek, Attic)
c. 530 BCE
- Medium
- ceramic
- Classification
- Ceramic
- Dimensions
- Overall: 23.6 cm (9 5/16 in.)
- Culture
- Greek, Attic
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Greek and Roman Art
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Calmly seated sidesaddle on a bull, the woman depicted on the front of this small wine jug probably represents Europa, the Phoenician princess abducted by the Greek god Zeus. According to myth, Zeus either sent a bull or transformed himself into one, then carried Europa across the sea to Crete. There, she bore Zeus two or three sons, including the legendary king Minos. The bull ascended to the sky as the constellation Taurus.
