The present paper argues that the figures depicted on the second zone of a metallic rhyton, which belongs to the Vassil Bojkov collection in Sofia (nr. 2222) and is dated to around 430-420 bc , are not Poseidon and Melanippe with their twin sons, Boiotos and Aiolos (the younger), as has been suggested, but Poseidon with one of his other mistresses, Tyro, along with their twin children, Pelias and Neleus (Fig. 1-3). The great tragic poets of Antiquity have also dealt with the stories of the two aforementioned heroines that share a lot of similarities. However, two iconographic elements that appear in this particular scene on the rhyton significantly reinforce the newly suggested identifications. The first one is the cradle, the “ark” (skaphe) in which the newborn twins have been placed and the second one is the hair of the female figure that has been cut. These are characteristics that do not fit the story of Melanippe, but that of Tyro instead, as is also confirmed by few surviving fragments of Sophocles’ Tyro.
