Tragedy as a Source of Plots for Greek Vase-Painting

2020 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-114
Author(s):  
Yana Zabudskaya
Keyword(s):  
Vase Painting

Atalanta as Model: The Hunter and the Hunted

1996 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith M. Barringer
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Rites Of Passage ◽  
Social Roles ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Vase Painting ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Visual Evidence ◽  
Male Perceptions ◽  
Material Record ◽  
Insight Into

Atalanta, devotee of Artemis and defiant of men and marriage, was a popular figure in ancient literature and art. Although scholars have thoroughly investigated the literary evidence concerning Atalanta, the material record has received less scrutiny. This article explores the written and visual evidence, primarily vase painting, of three Atalanta myths: the Calydonian boar hunt, her wrestling match with Peleus, and Atalanta's footrace, in the context of rites of passage in ancient Greece. The three myths can be read as male and female rites of passage: the hunt, athletics, and a combination of prenuptial footrace and initiatory hunt. Atalanta plays both male and female initiatory roles in each myth: Atalanta is not only a girl facing marriage, but she is also a female hunter and female ephebe. She is the embodiment of ambiguity and liminality. Atalanta's status as outsider and as paradoxical female is sometimes expressed visually by her appearance as Amazon or maenad or a combination of the two. Her blending of gender roles in myth offers insight into Greek ideas of social roles, gender constructs, and male perceptions of femininity. Erotic aspects of the myths of the Calydonian boar hunt and the footrace, and possibly also her wrestling match with Peleus, emphasize Atalanta as the object of male desire. Atalanta challenges men in a man's world and therefore presents a threat, but she is erotically charged and subject to male influence and dominance.

Labor IX

2021 ◽  
pp. 123-134
Author(s):  
Adrienne Mayor
Keyword(s):  
Black Sea ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Vase Painting ◽  
Ancient Greek

Heracles’ ninth Labor, set by King Eurystheus and Princess Admete of Tiryns, was to obtain the war belt of Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons dwelling in Pontus on the Black Sea. Artistic and literary evidence suggests that his mission began peacefully but turned violent thanks to Heracles’ nemesis, the goddess Hera. The encounter between Heracles and his companions against the Amazons was one of the most popular subjects in ancient Greek vase painting and sculpture, second only to the Nemean Lion, with the earliest depiction on a terracotta shield of about 700 BC, found at Tiryns. The artistic and literary depictions reveal that Hippolyte and the Amazons were considered the equals of Greek males in courage and combat skills, although they were ultimately defeated and the Amazon queen’s precious war belt was won by Heracles.

Greek and Roman Pottery in the African Kingdom of Meroe: Ways of Penetration and Influence

2021 ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Svetlana E. Malykh
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Vase Painting ◽  
Mediterranean Origin ◽  
Hellenistic World ◽  
Sea Ports ◽  
Southern Neighbour ◽  
Main Consumer ◽  
Archaeological Excavations

The article analyzes the ceramic imports found on the territory of the Meroitic Kingdom – the southern neighbour of Egypt, which existed on the territory of modern Sudan since the second half of the 6th century B.C. until the middle of the 4th century A.D. The imported pottery revealed in the process of archaeological excavations of necropoleis, residential and temple complexes are mainly of Mediterranean origin and are associated with the Hellenistic world that later became a part of the Roman Empire. The finds are mostly rare and are represented by fragments of amphorae from various regions of Italy, Aegean region, Asia Minor, the Levant, northern Africa, as well as the European provinces of the Roman Empire – Baetika and Gaul. The main consumer of foreign goods, in small numbers reaching the middle and upper reaches of the Nile, was probably the Meroitic elite. It is logical to assume that the penetration of Mediterranean ceramics into Meroe was facilitated by the trade ties of its northern neighbour – Egypt:trade with the Mediterranean took place through Egyptian river and caravan routes; although hypothetically, one cannot exclude the possibility of goods entering Meroe bypassing Egypt, through the Red Sea ports. Despite a small share of imported products in the Meroitic Kingdom and regardless of the ways of their movement, they had a significant influence on the local pottery manufacturing; a reflection of this process was the appearance in the African kingdom of Hellenistic forms of vessels (kraters, askoses, lekythoi, clepsydras, etc.) and vase painting in the Greek style. As a result, a very special synthesis of artistic ideas emerged, embodied in Meroitic ceramics. Along with the local Nubian features, Egyptian and Hellenistic themes, techniques and ceramic forms are recognized there, which are characteristic for the pottery of Late and Ptolemaic Egypt, ancient Greece and Rome and allows us to see the Kingdom of Meroe as the extreme southern outpost of the Hellenistic world.

Seventh-Century Material Culture in Boiotia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Larson
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Early Writing ◽  
Vase Painting ◽  
Artistic Production

This chapter briefly discusses aspects of the material culture of seventh-century bce Boiotia in general and makes specific reference to sites and areas of relevance in studying Hesiod, in particular Askra, Thespiai, the Valley of the Muses, Thebes, Plataiai, and Akraiphnia. It pays special attention to the sanctuary of Apollo on the Ismenion hill and to the Herakleion in Thebes, the sanctuary of the hero Herakles, who was worshipped there as an epichoric figure, and discusses inscriptions and finds from these two sites. The chapter also offers a view of Boiotia and of the environs of Thebes in particular as an early Greek center for artistic production during the time of Hesiod, as shown through vase painting, figurines, early writing, sculpture, and an artist’s signature.

scholarly journals Erichthonius or Theseus, who established the Panathenaea?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-268
Author(s):  
Tatiana Borisovna Gvozdeva
Keyword(s):  
Olympic Games ◽  
Urban Community ◽  
Vase Painting ◽  
New Name ◽  
New Information ◽  
History Of ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
Regional Character ◽  
The Olympic Games

The sources know two versions of the establishing of Panathenaia, the main public holiday of the Athenian polis. The earliest version of aition of Panathenaia is associated with the history of the Athenian indigenous king Erichthonius. The son of Gaia and Hephaestus, Erichthonius was raised by the goddess Athena on the Acropolis, and after becoming king of Athens, he dedicated the feast of Panathenaia to the goddess. In the source, he is the first founder of the holiday. However, two types of Panathenaia were known in Athens: the Lesser Panathenaia, which were held annually, and the Greater Panathenaia, which, like the Olympic Games, were held every four years. Gradually, there appear pieces of new information about the history of the establishing of the Panathenaia in the mythological tradition. Now the authors distinguish two stages in the history of the feast, wherein the earlier one was called Athenaia. Gradually Erichthonius was relegated to the background, as founder Athenaeus, whereas the holiday got a new name - Panathenaia. This process was often associated with the synoekismus of Theseus, when he had united all the Athenians into one urban community. The cult of Theseus became especially popular in Athens after the reforms of Cleisthenes. Theseus' exploits are becoming a popular theme in Attic vase painting, especially scenes depicting the struggle, which Theseus was believed to be the founder of in Athens. At the same time, the program of the Panathenaic Games was expanding, the Panathenaia gradually acquired a supra-regional character.

Euboean Floral Black-Figured Vases: Additions and Corrections

1970 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 265-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. D. Ure
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Vase Painting

In recent years a number of vases with floral decoration have come to light, and we can now carry a little further the study of the Euboean floral black-figure style of vase-painting started in BSA lv. 211 f. Unfortunately few have any known provenience and it is often hazardous to attempt to distinguish between the work of Euboean and Boeotian workshops. Some of the Euboean attributions here made are tentative, and even when they can be regarded as certain the question of the distribution of the vases within Euboea still remains largely unsolved.An early example of a vase with decoration that consists entirely of floral elements is a pelike in Athens, Plate 69a, with provenience given in the inventory as ‘Chalcis?’. It has bands of myrtle, ivy, and a kind of laurel with spatulate leaves covering the neck and the upper part of the body, and can be regarded as a precursor of the floral style. It is to be distinguished from it chiefly by the absence of the palmette, which is the chief ingredient of the floral style proper. The stemless ivy leaves accompanied by spots recall the sixth-century skyphos of Chalcidian make, Rhitsona 31. 41 (BSA lviii. 18, pl. 2. 3), and the little stemmed kothon, Athens E1520 (Ibid. pl. 2. 8).

Three Attic Lekythoi from Eretria

1893 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugénie Sellers
Keyword(s):  
Perfect State ◽  
Vase Painting ◽  
The Third ◽  
British School ◽  
Greek Government ◽  
First Time

The three lekythoi with black figures on a white ground, now published for the first time on Plates I., II., and III., were found in 1888 in the excavations carried on by the Greek Government on the site of the ancient Eretria. They are now in the Central Museum at Athens, and have been catalogued and briefly described by M. Staes in the Δελτίον ἀρχαιολογικόν for 1889 (pp. 99 and 139). The vases are of almost unique interest: two of them belonging to the cycle of the adventures of Odysseus, subjects from which have proved so curiously rare in vase-painting, while the third gives an episode in the story of Herakles and Atlas, of which the solitary monumental instance up to now had been the famous metope of Olympia (Friederichs-Wolters, 280). The beauty of the vases, the perfect state of their technique and of their preservation, no less than the interesting problems connected with mythography which they raise, have already won for them considerable celebrity; I therefore wish to record my special thanks to the Ephors of Antiquities in Athens for allowing me the publication of the vases—so graciously accorded to me during my studentship at the British School at Athens in 1891. Mr. Ernest Gardner, Director of our School, had the kindness to supervise the drawings which have been executed by M. Gilliéron. It had been my intention to make the publication of these lekythoi the occasion for a discussion of white-faced ware in connection with the whole subject of Greek painting proper, but I have unfortunately been prevented from collecting the necessary material in time for the present number of the Journal.

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