This article aims to examine both the mimic specialisation of kinaidoi and the correlated literary productions of the kinaidologoi and ionikologoi. Within this framework relative sub-genres, such as hilarōdia, magōdia, simōdia and lysiōdia, some of which date at least back to the 4th century B.C., will be discussed. In the present, first part of the article, an important mould-made relief bowl (a so-called “Megarian bowl”) is examined, which possibly belongs to the 1st century B.C. and is extant in two copies (Νat. Arch. Μus., Athens, 11797, and Louvre, CA 936). The interpretation proposed suggests that the bowl’s relief depicts a man being punished for having committed adultery with the mill owner’s wife; the punishment, assisted by the kinaidoi, consists of the rape of the adulterer by a donkey. The relief was probably not directly inspired by a kinaidoi performance, but rather by a literary text written by kinaidologoi. Should the view claiming that the relief bowl’s theme was linked particularly to Macedonia be correct, then the relationship of certain poets such as Alexander Aitolos and Timon of Phlius with the king Antigonus Gonatas perhaps explains the interest in the kinaidoi that we detect in this type of pottery. Whatever the case, the specific bowl provides interesting information about the mimic sub-genre of kinaidoi.
