Sale: CNG 72, Lot: 2805. Estimate $750.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 June 2006.  Sold For $1000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

[Oil lamps] ROMAN. Italy. Pottery oil lamp. Circa 1st century AD. Length 13cm. Mold-formed with central motif of Odysseus leaving the cave of Polyphemus concealed under a ram, all in concentric frame. Small unreadable potter’s mark on base. Fill hole on discus, tiny vent hole on frame, ring handle. Pinkish colored clay with irregularly applied red slip. Choice condition, slip worn.

From the Dr. Robert B. Beckett Collection. Ex Antiqua XI (2002), Lot A22t.

The Cyclops Polyphemus trapped Odysseus and his men in his cave, sealed behind a huge rock which Polyphemus only moved to allow his flock of sheep to enter and leave. Odysseus contrived that evening to get the giant drunk, and when Polyphemus was asleep, Odysseus’ men put out the Cyclops’ eye. The next morning Polyphemus moved aside the rock to let his sheep out. Totally blind, he felt the sheeps’ backs to try to prevent the Greeks from escaping. Odysseus and his men, however, clung to the bellies of the sheep and were thereby set free.