The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 9, 2026

An orange-red ceramic kylix vessel features a shallow bowl atop a flared foot, with black handles looping from its sides. Black-figure silhouettes with maroon accents wrap around the exterior. From the left, two robed figures and a third in a tunic observe a central confrontation: a helmeted warrior brandishing a spear and shield faces a nude figure. On the far right, a horseman approaches the scene, framed by the vessel's handles.

Siana Cup (Black-Figure Kylix [Drinking Cup]): Horseman and Warriors

575–550 BCE

Greek, Attic

ceramic
Diameter: 26.8 cm (10 9/16 in.); Overall: 14.1 cm (5 9/16 in.)
Gift of Edgar A. Hahn 1965.78
Location: 102B Greek

Did You Know?

Siana cups take their name from a cemetery in Rhodes where many were first found.

Description

Two kneeling warriors do battle in the tondo of this large drinking cup, red blood streaming from their wounded legs. Without labels or attributes, their identities remain uncertain—perhaps Eteokles and Polyneikes, the cursed sons of Oedipus. The exterior figures are anonymous, although many are accompanied by small dots probably meant to imitate letters (for identifying inscriptions). On one side, a warrior is greeted by a nude youth holding a garland, with a horseman, a flying eagle, and several men observing. On the other, a bearded man rides a rearing horse, flanked by six draped men. Waterbirds stand beneath the handles.
  • Dr. Jacob Hirsch, New York, NY
    Conde de Lagunillas, Havana, Cuba
    ?-1965
    Edgar A. Hahn, Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1965-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Beazley Archive. n.d. Beazley Archive Pottery Database. Oxford: Beazley Archive. BAPD 758 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
    "Annual Report for 1965." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 53, no. 6 (1966): 137-71. www.jstor.org
    Boulter, C. G., Jenifer Neils, and Gisela Walberg. Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971. p. 14, Plates 20,3 & 21 & 22,2 www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
    Immerwahr, Henry R. A Corpus of Attic Vase Inscriptions (CAVI). [Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified], 1998. p. 791, no. 3203
  • Year in Review: 1965. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27-November 14, 1965).
  • {{cite web|title=Siana Cup (Black-Figure Kylix [Drinking Cup]): Horseman and Warriors|url=false|author=|year=575–550 BCE|access-date=09 May 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1965.78