The shape, especially the protruding handles set low on the body, spreads out like the cup of a flower, hence the name. (A calyx is the group of leaves --- usually green ---that are directly under a flower’s petals and just above the stem.) The calyx-krater pottery form was most likely invented by Exekias. Exekias was a potter and vase-painter who worked in Athens from about 550 to 525 BC.
This red-figure piece uses the traditional single ground-line to present figures of wrestlers and audience.
Louvre, Paris
Image Courtesy of Henri Sivonen ©2007