On the reverse is a warrior clothed in Campanian (southern Italy) clothing, seated in a naiskos (shrine) as six seated women gaze toward him. The theme of death repeats on the krater’s neck, showing a beautiful woman, perhaps the goddess Aphrodite, in a scene of apotheosis for the youth that accompanies her in the four-horsed chariot. The identities of the figures gathered around the outside of the structure are unclear, but perhaps they are dead souls in the Underworld. The study closes with a discussion and catalogue of representations of volute-kraters.Covered with figures and ornament, the centerpiece of this volute krater is the god Hermes–identified by his hat, caduceus and winged boots–who stands in a colonnaded structure before a seated woman, perhaps Persephone. Brief notes on Neo-Attic marble volute-kraters and volute-kraters in precious metals are appended. The development of several types from before the Vix krater until after the Derveni is analysed, and a catalogue of over one hundred given.

Volute-kraters were also made in bronze during the archaic and classical period. In the second half of the fifth century, local potteries in South Italy were established that imitated Athenian work: the evolution of their earliest volute-kraters and their debt to Attic are described. The catalogue lists over six hundred examples in black-figure, red-figure and black glaze. Special attention has been paid to style, patternwork, and profile in order to identify new potters and painters, their interconnections, and their chronological framework. The central chapters study the evolution of the volute-krater in the Athenian potters' quarter from the late seventh century until the middle of the fourth. The first chapter sketches the background from which the first Attic volute-kraters emerge, as well as discussing ceramic volute-kraters made in other Greek potteries in the sixth century, including Sparta, Corinth, Northern Greece and Reggio di Calabria. This dissertation traces the developments in shape and decoration of one of the grandest mixing vessels made in Athens from the late seventh century B.C.

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