- Sappho, a vase painting and the poetry of parting

The paper examines a representation on a krater of Sappho, reading the complex iconographic schema in combination with specific verses of the poet. The painting is on an Attic calyx krater, now in Bochum, which dates around 480 BC. Interpretation of the vase has long focused only on Sappho, disregarding the rest of the composition. The poet is depicted on one side, with her name (ΣΑΦΦΟ). A female figure is painted on side B and is indicated by an inscription as ΗΕ ΠΑΙΣ “the girl”. The author of the paper attempts a different interpretation, taking into account both sides of the krater, as well as of the verses of the poet.