Two adjacent, monumental, elite tombs from the cemetery of Sant’Antonio in Ruvo del Monte, to the west of Melfi, mark an intersection of Etruscan, Lucanian, and Attic artistic cultures. Tomb 64, a female burial published by Angelo Bottini in 1990, had an elaborate array of grave goods that included bronze basins and implements, drinking cups, high-handled kantharoi and nestorides of local manufacture and, of particular interest, an Etruscan so-called candelabrum. Its finial consists of a winged female figure carrying a boy in her arms (Fig. 21.1).

Tomb 65, a male burial that had been partially robbed in antiquity, preserved some pottery similar to that in Tomb 64, but included a large Lucanian red-figure kalyx krater attributed to the Pisticci Painter that depicts a winged female figure pursuing a young hunter while an older man with scepter observes (Fig. 21.2). Both tombs date to the last two or three decades of the fifth century BC, and, as Bottini argues, particularly for the candelabrum, it can hardly be a coincidence that two similar narratives in different media were imported to the same locale and used similarly as grave goods in adjacent burials in a single tomb monument.

The candelabrum figure was included in the LIMC addendum as a representation of Eos/Thesan carrying Tithonos, and the kalyx krater under the update on Eos as the goddess pursuing Kephalos. Lurking behind both iconographic identifications is the vast number of Attic red-figure representations of Eos with a young male from the period beginning around 480 to the end of the fifth century. Over 210 representations can be identified on fifth-century Attic red-figure vases, making it one of the most common mythological narratives in Attic vase painting. The goddess is identified as Eos by inscription on nine Attic vases, and chases either the Trojan prince Tithonos, identified by a lyre, or the Attic hunter Kephalos, identified by spears or a club and usually wearing a cloak and petasos. Kephalos is identified by inscription six times; Tithonos is identified twice by inscription, but in one case carries a club and should be identified as Kephalos; his brother Priam is identified once.