Terracotta fragments of a kylix (drinking cup) 500 BC

These terracotta fragments, now housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, are the remnants of a kylix, or drinking cup, crafted by the artist Kachrylion. Imagine this cup in its wholeness, once part of the symposium, an exclusive male gathering for intellectual and political discourse. The fragments depict figures rendered in the red-figure technique, a style where the figures retain the natural red of the clay, set against a black background. The imagery likely portrayed scenes of aristocratic life, perhaps athletic contests or mythological narratives, reinforcing the values of the elite class. Consider the act of drinking from this kylix. It was an intimate, social act, but also one deeply embedded in a culture of exclusion. The symposium was a space where gender roles were strictly defined, and where the voices of women and other marginalized groups were conspicuously absent. What stories did these vessels carry, and whose stories were left untold?