One of the most important ancient vessels exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki is the Attic black-figure column krater with the inv. no. ΘΕ 546, which dates back to 560 BC. It comes from the excavations of Evdokia Skarlatidou in the ancient cemetery in Thermi (Sedes), Thessaloniki, where it was used as a cinerary urn. It contained the ashes of the deceased and a Corinthian aryballos, the only grave good of the burial.
The column krater owes its conventional name to its handles, which look like columns, as they rise and support the two horizontal handle-plates at the rim. The shape of the column krater is believed to have been invented at the end of the 7th century BC in Corinth, and it was known in antiquity as the Corinthian krater. Like all types of kraters, it was central to the banquets, where it was used for diluting wine with water.
The vessel bears on its main side a mythological scene: the famous Calydonian boar hunt. It was the hunt against the terrible beast that the goddess Artemis had sent to Calydon in Aetolia as punishment, because Oeneas, the king of Kalydon, had neglected to include the goddess in the sacrifice concerning the first annual fruits of his country.
In the depiction, the wounded, imposing animal occupies the center. It is trapped and attacked by five hunters with spears and bow, as well as by their three dogs who devour it. A sixth huntsman lies dead beneath the boar. The hunters, who are not named here, include, according to literary sources, well-known ancient heroes, such as Meleagros, Peleus and Atalanta.
The secondary side of the vase depicts an aquatic bird framed by two confronted boars, a theme undoubtedly influenced by the main representation.
This krater is the work of the vase-painter Lydos, one of the most important black-figure vase-painters of the middle of the 6th century BC, working in the Athenian Kerameikos. His name -Lydos- indicates that he had some connection to Lydia.
You can see the exhibit in the permanent exhibition "Macedonia from the 7th c. BC to Late Antiquity", showcase 31.
