Wall fragment with thin matte glaze on inside. Thickens slightly at top. Max. dim. 0.094.

Youth (forehead, much of legs missing) standing to right, looking back, a himation draped around his waist and over his left forearm. Around his head is a myrtle wreath. In his left hand he holds a bakchos, which rests against his left shoulder.

Behind the youth are a large rock and some vines. At the far right there is a bit of relief contour and reserve for an object, perhaps something leafy such as the end of a branch of a small tree. There is also something above the youth's head, but it is unclear; it might be the end of a staff held by someone standing on a higher level. Relief contour. Dilute glaze: muscles; hair. White: contour lines below rock.

The bakchos was carried by initiates in the rites of the Eleusinian Mysteries. It could be a single branch of myrtle or several held together at intervals by rings. For the two types, see H. Metzger, Recherches sur l'imagerie athénienne, Paris 1965, p. 24, note 4 with bibliography; the most comprehensive discussion is J. D. Beazley, "Bakchos-Rings," Numismatic Chronicle, ser. 6, 1, 1941, pp. 1--7; more recently, E. Simon, Festivals, pp. 28, 32.

17 may be by an artist working in the manner of the Meidias Painter. The initiate and the bakchos are similar to the ones on the fragmentary stamnos in Boston by the Painter of the Carlsruhe Paris (Boston, M.F.A. 03.842: ARV2 1315, 2; Paralip. 477, 2; Addenda 362; Burn, Meidias Painter, p. 101, cat. no. C 2, pl. 47:a), but the drawing on 17 does not seem to be quite the same. Eleusinian subjects are not very common among painters of the Meidian group (Burn, p. 73), and if the assignment of 17 is correct, it adds another example.