PLATE XIX
The Birth of Erichthonios
Ge, emerging from the ground, entrusts the infant Erichthonios to Athene, this being a mythological way of saying that Athene herself is an earth goddess. The tall manly figure, who looks paternally on the scene before him, is Hephaistos. On both sides of this group are the Erotes (" Loves ") who presided over the union of the god and goddess. From a red-figured stamnos of about 500 b.c., in Munich (Furtwängler-Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei, No. 137). See p. 67.
