The cylix which is the subject of the following paper has a double claim on the interest of archaeologists; first, it presents a peculiar, and—so far as at present known—for art a unique form of a familiar myth, the slaying of Itys; second, it is inscribed with the love name Panaitios, and therefore is readily classed with an already familiar group.

The vase in question is first reported by Dr. Helbig in the Bullettino, 1878, p. 204. It was found at Cervetri in the Boccanera excavations. It is now in the museum of Munich, and it is to the kindness of Professor Brunn that I owe the permission to publish the vase and the superintendence of the necessary drawings. A vase of so great interest could hardly have escaped publication but for the fact that it made its reappearance in the world saddled with what seems to me a mistaken interpretation. Dr. Helbig, without any hesitation, says (loc. cit.): ‘Una tazza … la quale nell’ interno rappresenta un mito molto raro cioè quello di Prokne ed Itys,' and cites as a parallel the well known Paris vase (Ann., 1863, tav. d'agg. C.) Dr. Klein, who had not seen the vase, describes from report (Meistersignaturen, p. 145): ‘Prokne im Begriffe dem auf einem Bette, u.s.w.’) My own view is that not Prokne, but her mythological prototype Aedon, the original nightingale, is represented, and that the vase-painter embodies the Homeric, not the later Attic form of the myth. The Munich cylix gives us the earlier (Aedon), the Paris cylix the later (Prokne) tradition. It is solely to draw attention to this point that the remarks that follow are addressed; the interesting question of the origin, development, and various transformations of the myth I reserve for a future occasion.