This vase was a Name That Vase entrant. Thank you to winner fakeceridwensilverhart for your name and poem!
One half has the tone of copper, the metal of Venus while the other could look like iron, associated with Mars. I even see a hint of figures at the place where the tones touch. Though not married, tales tell of Mars and Venus having a strong attraction to one another, yet they could not openly act on it because Zeus had promised Venus to Vulcan. The Roman poet Claudian describes a temple with a pair of statues commemorating their desire, made out of magnetic material so that as they neared they would literally spring together. Modern scholars aren’t sure those statues truly existed, so perhaps they are just another part of the myth!


