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  Magna Graecia: Greek Art From South Italy and Sicily > About the Exhibition > Gela > Altar with Eos and Kephalos (about 500-475 BC)
 
 
Altar with Eos and Kephalos (about 500-475 BC)
Gela, acropolis at Bosco Littorio
Terracotta
Museo Archeologico Regionale di Gela, inv. Sop. BL 12
[Cat. no. 58]

Altar with Eos and Kephalos (about 500-475 BC)

The abduction of Kephalos by Eos (goddess of the dawn) is represented on this altar (arula), found near the other two altars from Gela [cat. nos. 56 and 57].

Fleeing after her capture of the Trojan prince as he was hunting, Eos adopts the same running pose as the Gorgon Medusa in cat. no. 56. This episode from Greek myth symbolically marks the passing of a youth into the afterlife-a touching depiction of the religious belief that the soul of the deceased was taken from the earth by Eos at sunrise. Commonly illustrated on vases, the scene also appears on another similar altar from Gela, found in the chthonic sanctuary north of the acropolis.


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