Dancing with Greek Vases

As gods dance, women twirl in choruses, and men leap in kōmos revels on Athenian red-figure vases, their animate bodies must be made to conform to the rounded shape of the vessels. Occasionally, these vases are even included in the images themselves, particularly within the kōmos revel, where the participants incorporate vessels into their dance as props, markers of space, and tools to engage new dance partners. Positioning these scenes within their potential sympotic context, I analyze the vases held by the dancers according to the ancient viewer’s own possible use of these physical vessels. The symposiasts’ own dextrous interaction with the objects echoes the dancers’ behaviors, so that human and ceramic bodies come together in shared movement. The handling of vases thus suggests a tactile, embodied experience shared between dancers and viewers; by evoking viewers’ familiarity with handling similar vessels, the vase-paintings invite viewers to join in the dance.

Bodies in Motion

Drawing on the combined approaches of ancient Greek iconography, dance history, and the archaeology of ritual and religion, this paper examines dance gesture as a mechanism of ritual communication in ancient Greek vase-painting. After presenting the problems and limitations of matching art and text with regard to dance, as both Classical scholars and practitioners of modern dance have attempted, the paper expands on various ways of showing dance on vases. Special attention is given to komast dancers on black-figure vases and to other types of dance scenes and figures. A rethinking of the evidence for dance as ritual on Greek vases is proposed under the two categories of non-repetitive and repetitive gesture. It is posited that such a distinction anticipates the mood, participants, and occasions, and might indicate discrete areas of ritual activity. Dance, gesture, and ritual are also considered according to the gender and sexuality of performers, the presence of the divine, and the relationship between the shape, composition, and function of some vessels.

General

Materiality of ancient text – written, painted, scratched, or carved – is a topic dear to my heart, and I find the visual dimension of ancient writing fascinating for many reasons. Like many Classicists, I also find a great joy in puzzling out the meanings of the lettered lines, arched like dancing serpents, on archaic Greek vases. If one pauses in front of an interesting pot in a museum, it is very easy to forget the time and the rest of the exhibition, as the somersaulting shapes of the continuous script reveal first their letters, then words, rewarding the reader's patience with a short sentence or two: ‘Rejoice! Drink well!’ At times, we have to admit defeat and acknowledge that we are in front of a ‘nonsense’ inscription: that is, an inscription whose lettering creates meanings in a different way – such as a framing device for the visual narrative scene, or devices in the narrative itself, or mimicking foreign sounds or music. Then there is the endlessly amusing world of ancient graffiti – some with acute-angled, nervous letters written in haste; some curvy and elegant, worked out by a skilled and learned hand with plenty of time at its disposal; many accompanied by drawings, some innocuous, some coarse; and all of them, in some way, intent on defying human transience and ephemerality.

Medea and the Rejuvenation of Pelias: One Alternative Version

The myth of Medea has become familiar in the Greek literature since Homer’s time. He told the story about the trip of the Argonauts guided by Jason. The mythical narrative has different versions that survived in various informative supports such as the texts of the dramatic poets and the images of the Greek vases. In this essay, we propose to analyse the remote information and reference of the action of the myth of Medea through the Greek vases. We selected to research about the episode that has been known as Pelíades. We may infer there are two versions about Medea and Pelias, in the most remote of them the priestess of Hekate belongs to the seventh century and, in this period, Medea has the ability to cure and rejuvenate an old person. This information shows the mythological narrative of Pelias and Medea is very ancient.

Myths of the Odyssey in the British Museum (and beyond): Jane Ellen Harrison’s museum talks and their audience

Jane Ellen Harrison’s early work giving tours and lectures in London’s museums offers an unusual window on visitor experience in the late nineteenth century. This article examines the composition and motivations of her audience, looking at how Harrison’s lectures addressed gendered and class-based anxieties about their access to education and ability to respond appropriately to prestigious objects. Harrison used Greek vases to tell stories from ancient Greek literature. She made the case for the value of Greek vases as a repository of stories that could be understood through comparisons with literature but which also stood as evidence in their own right, hinting at lost stories and the perspectives of ordinary people. Her museum talks demonstrate a belief that Greek vases offered an alternative to Classical literature, one which had been made by ordinary people in the past and could be ‘read’ by ordinary people in the present.

Pottery workers, ‘the Ladies’, and ‘the Middling Class of people’: production and marketing of ‘Etruscan and Grecian vases’ at Wedgwood c.1760–1820*

Collections of Greek vases, and their reproductions in the form of luxury publications and vessels displayed atop bookshelves in libraries, were the domain of male elites in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain. Less well explored is the consumption of creative reproductions of Greek vases by elite and ‘middling’ women, and the participation of women across the social spectrum in the production of ceramics inspired by Greek vases. This article uses the Wedgwood archive to tell such stories. The subjects range from aristocratic designers through paintresses to women doing the hard labour of wedging. It argues for the importance of recognizing these engagements with Greek vases as part of the history of the reception of Greek vases in Britain. It explores the way that gender and class constrained the kind of contact women had with these materials, and it puts forward an interpretation of these engagements as independent embodied knowledge of Greek vases.

Greek Vase Painting

Greek vase-painting is one of the best studied areas of classical antiquity. Figure decorated pottery, often called “vases,” was produced in large quantities in many regions of the ancient Greek world. Although decorated pottery had been made in Greece since prehistoric times, the field of Greek vase-painting is a branch of classical archaeology which focuses on vessels produced between the late Geometric and late classical/early Hellenistic periods (8th–3rd century bce). Early modern connoisseurs and collectors during the 18th century were attracted to Greek vases coming out of tombs in Italy, often mistakenly considering them to be Etruscan rather than Greek. Formal study of vases began during the late 19th century, but it was throughout the 20th that the sub-discipline truly gained momentum. Through the efforts of J. D. Beazley (b. 1885–d. 1970), a professor at Oxford University, the black- and red-figure vases of Athens (also termed “Attic”) which survive in enormous quantities were categorized according to painter and published in his magisterial lists (Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters, 1956; Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, 1963; see Beazley 1956 and Beazley 1963 under Connoisseurship and Attribution). Beazley concentrated on attributing unsigned works, and his attributions remain for many scholars an important framework for the study of Greek vases. A. D. Trendall (b. 1909–d. 1995) created a similar typology for the Greek vase-painters of South Italy and Sicily. Also foundational is the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, launched by the Louvre in 1922 (see under Digital and Special Resources), which provides illustrated catalogues of Greek vases from museum collections, and also continues to feature vital information about individual vessels. Since the death of Beazley, research on Greek vase-painting has evolved greatly. The 1980s and 1990s saw increased attention to vase iconography, including studies of both myth and everyday life. At the same time, there emerged an updated series of regional studies for vases made outside of Athens, including those of Corinth, Boeotia, Laconia, East Greece, and western Greece. These studies too have focused to an extent on painter attribution, production, and distribution, while important developments in archaeological science have greatly benefited our understanding of local fabrics and techniques. In recent decades, scholarship has shifted toward contextual studies that emphasize social, historical, and religious functions and meanings of vases and their images. At present, there is an interest in the role of archaeological context and how it may have impacted the choices of both artist and consumer.

ENTRE EXPOSIÇÃO E CONTROLE: o luto e o sofrimento feminino nos ritos fúnebres em representações de vasos gregos

Quando a temática de morte passa a ser analisada a partir de uma perspectiva histórica, podemos abordar um grande número de interligações com outras esferas que compõem a realidade. Portanto, neste sentido, neste estudo de caso, pretendemos inferir sobre a questão do papel feminino na realização dos ritos funerários e o interesse no controle das emoções femininas pelo legislador Sólon em Atenas no século VI a.C. Para tanto, empreenderemos a análise de dois vasos de diferentes perá­odos de produção, no qual é visá­vel o papel das mulheres com relação ao seu sofrimento.Palavras-chave: Morte. Grécia. Mulher. BETWEEN EXPOSURE AND CONTROL: mourning and female suffering in funeral rites in representations of Greek vases Abstract: When the death issue starts to be analyzed from a historical perspective, we can approach a large number of interconnections with other sectors that form reality. Therefore, in this case study, we intend to infer about the question of the female role in the performance of funeral rites and the interest in the control of feminine emotions by the legislator Solon in Athens in the 6th century BC. Thus, we will perform the analysis of two vases of different periods of production, in which the role of women in relation to their suffering is visible.Keywords: Death. Greece. Woman. ENTRE EXPOSICIÓN Y CONTROL: el luto y el sufrimiento femenino en los ritos fúnebres en representaciones de vasos griegosResumen: Lorsque la thématique de la mort commence á être analysée dans une perspective historique, nous pouvons aborder un grand nombre d'interconnexions avec d'autres secteurs qui composent la réalité. Par conséquent, dans cette étude de cas, nous avons l'intention d'inférer sur la question du rôle féminin dans l'exécution des rites funéraires et de l'intérêt du législateur Solon á contrôler les émotions féminines au VIá¨me siá¨cle av. J-C. Pour cela, nous effectuerons l”™analyse de deux vases de différentes périodes de production, oá¹ le rôle de les femmes sont visibles en ce qui concerne la souffrance.Palabras clave: Mort. La Grá¨ce. Femme.