This orangey-red terracotta Siana cup, which has a distinctive ridge line around the body, is named after the ancient town of Siana in Rhodes. On one side, a graceful swan stands between two horsemen, who are both riding towards it. On the opposite side a swan is accompanied by two winged horses, possibly a reference to the mythical winged horse Pegasus.
Pegasus was the child of Medusa and the god Poseidon. Medusa was pregnant by Poseidon when Perseus came to slay her. As he chopped off her head, her child Pegasus sprang from her neck. According to myth, when the hero Bellerophon, who was also a son of Poseidon, asked his father for a winged horse he was given Pegasus.
