Text, Pottery spouted 'krater' (large bowl), cross

Pottery spouted 'krater' (large bowl). Greek, Athenian Geometric, 735-720 B.C. (LGIIa) From Thebes. The scene shows a man grasping a woman by the wrist as he turns towards a ship with two rows of oarsmen. This may be an early representation of myth; for example, Theseus fleeing Crete with Ariadne, or Paris abducting Helen, the ultimate cause of the Trojan War. If the female figure is Ariadne, she may be holding the crown of light with which she illuminated the labyrinth in some versions of the myth. If she is Helen, then the two charioteers seen on the other side of the bowl along with a mounted horseman could be her brothers, Kastor and Plydeukes.