The man is prostrate, and seems to be crawling along the ground, the dog stands partly on him, and appears to be biting his left heel.

The interpretation which M.Clermont-Ganneau gives to this entire scene lacks the probability which attaches to his explanation of the outer scene.

He suggests that the prisoner is the hunter of the other scene, plundered and bound by his charioteer, who is hastening away, when he is seized by his master's dog and arrested in his flight.
The dog gnaws off his right foot and then attacks the left, while the fugitive, in order to escape his tormentor, has to crawl along the ground.

But M.Clermont-Ganneau himself distrusts his interpretation,[785] while he has convinced no other scholar of its soundness.

Judicious critics will be content to wait the further researches which he promises, whereby additional light may perhaps be thrown on this obscure matter.
In its artistic character the "cup of Praeneste" claims a high place among the works of art probably or certainly assignable to the Phoenicians.