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VI. Narrative and Images

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2016

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Greek pottery provides us with a fascinating, if bewildering, variety of painted scenes. It is therefore no cause for astonishment that study of imagery, iconography, narrative method, mythical and contemporary subject matter, etc. should be of major scholarly concern. Scholars work with the evidence they possess but have to keep in mind what is missing - both from literature and from art. The more closely investigated such matters are, the more obvious it becomes that we must be careful to make distinctions between the imagery of different centres of vase production, and also between the imagery in vase-painting and that in other media, especially sculpture. It is inevitable that Athens has been the area most intensively probed, and that myth has been the most attractive magnet.

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Research Article
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New Surveys in the Classics , Volume 22: Greek Art , 1991 , pp. 63 - 77
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Copyright © The Classical Association 1991

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References

Notes

1. For some of the areas of Greek life that vase-paintings are used to illuminate, see on festivals: Parke, H. W., Festivals of the Athenians (London, 1977)Google Scholar, Simon, E., Festivals of Attica: an archaeological commentary (University of Wisconsin Press, 1983)Google Scholar, Pickard-Cambridge, A. W., The Dramatic Festivals of Athens , 2nd edition revised with supplements and corrections by Gould, J. and Lewis, D. M. (Oxford, 1988)Google Scholar; for symposia: Hagenau, G., Aus dem Weingarten der Antike (Mainz, 1982)Google Scholar, Lissarrague, F., Un flot d’images - une esthétique du banquet grec (Paris, 1987)Google Scholar, Murray, O (ed.), Sympotica, a symposium on the Symposion (Oxford, 1990)Google Scholar; for sex: Boardman, J. and Rocca, E. La, Eros in Greece (London, 1978)Google Scholar, Dover, K. J., Greek Homosexuality (London, 1978)Google Scholar, Johns, C., Sex or Symbol: erotte images of Greece and Rome (London, 1982)Google Scholar; for death: Kurtz, D. C. and Boardman, J., Greek Burial Customs (London, 1971)Google Scholar, Vermeule, E., Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry (University of California Press, 1979)Google Scholar, Garland, R., The Greek Way of Death (London, 1985)Google Scholar. See later for such aspects as the hunt, sacrifice, etc.

2. See e.g. M. Pipili’s recent study, Laconian Iconography of the Sixth Century B.C. (Oxford University Committee for Archaeology, monograph 12, 1987)Google Scholar.

3. Havelock, E. A., Prologue to Greek Literacy (Cincinnati, 1971)Google Scholar, The Literate Revolution in Greece and its Cultural Consequences (Princeton, 1982), The Muse Learns to Write (Yale UP, 1986); Gentili, B., Poetry and its Public in Ancient Greece (Baltimore, 1988)Google Scholar; Harris, W. V., Ancient Literacy (Harvard, 1989)Google Scholar.

4. Carpenter, T. H., Dionysian Imagery in Archaic Greek Art (Oxford, 1986), xvi Google Scholar.

5. R. M. Cook, Clazomenian Sarcophagi (see IV, n. 14), 130.

6. See Shapiro, A. H., Art and Cult under the Tyrants in Athens (Mainz, 1989)Google Scholar and Francis, E. D., Image and Idea in Fifth-century Greece (London, 1990)Google Scholar.

7. Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Graecae , ed. Kahil, L. (Zurich and Munich, 1981- )Google Scholar.

8. Brommer, F., Denkmälerlisten zur griechischen Heldensage 1-4 (Marburg, 1971-76)Google Scholar - not vases; Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage, 3rd ed. (Marburg, 1973); Göttersagen in Vasenlisten (Marburg, 1980).

9. Schefold, K., Myth and Legend in Early Greek Art (London, 1966)Google Scholar; Götter- und Heldensagen der Griechen in der spätarchaischen Kunst (Munich, 1978); Die Göttersage in der klassischen und hellenistischen Kunst (Munich, 1981); (with Jung, F.) Die Urkönige, Perseus, Bellerophon, Herakles und Theseus in der klassischen und hellenistischen Kunst (Munich, 1988)Google Scholar; a final volume to come on the group enterprises.

10. Henle, J., Greek Myths: a vase-painter’s notebook (Bloomington, 1973)Google Scholar, with useful bibliography; for another bibliography, see Moon AGAI, pp. 301-32. A volume by T. H. Carpenter, Art and Myth in Ancient Greece, has now appeared (1991).

11. Loeb, E.H., Die Geburt der Götter in der griechischen Kunst der klassischer Zeit (Jerusalem, 1979)Google Scholar. See Woodford’s, S. review in JHS 101 (1981), 221-2Google Scholar. See also Arafat, K., Classical Zeus (Oxford, 1990), chs. 2 Google Scholar & 3.

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13. Boreas: Simon, E. ‘Boreas und Oreithyia auf dem silbernen Rhyton in Triest’, Antike und Abenland 13 (1967), 101-27Google Scholar, figs. 1-20 and colour plate, esp. 111-17. Aegina: LIMC I. 367-71 (S. Kaempf. Dimitriadou); Arafat, K., Classical Zeus (Oxford, 1990), pp. 77-88Google Scholar.

14. Vojatzi, M., Frühe Argonautenbilder (Würzburg, 1982)Google Scholar.

15. Meyer, H., Medeia und die Peliaden: eine attische Novelle und ihre Entstehung. Ein Versuch zur Sagenforschung auf archäologischer Grundlage (Rome, 1980)Google Scholar and see IV, n. 41 (Ohly-Dumm). See also C. Sourvinou-Inwood, Theseus as Son and Stepson (BICS Suppl. 40, 1979).

16. Moret, J.-M., Oedipe, la sphinx et les Thébains: essai de mythologie iconographique (Geneva, 1984)Google Scholar.

17. The bibliography on the Trojan saga and its aftermath is long. For some various approaches, see Moret, J.-M., ‘Le jugement de Paris en Grande-Grèce: mythe et actualité politique’, AK 21 (1978), 76–98 Google Scholar, pls. 21-8. For Peleus and Thetis, see IV, n. 25 (Williams) and n. 26 (Stewart), and n. 3, above, ch. 1. For other themes, see Davies, M. I., ‘The Reclamation of Helen’, AK 20 (1977), 73–85 Google Scholar, pl. 17; Batista, W., ‘Hektors Lösung’, Boreas 2 (1979), 5–36 Google Scholar; Williams, D., ‘Ajax, Odysseus and the arms of Achilles’, AK 23 (1980), 137-45Google Scholar, pls. 33-6; Davies, M. I., ‘Ajax at the bourne of life’, ΕΙΔΩΛΟΠΟΗΑ, Actes du colloque sur les problèmes de l’image dans la monde méditerranéen classique, Château de Lourmarin en Provence 2-3 Septembre 1982 , ed. Metzger, H. (Rome, 1985), pp. 82–117 Google Scholar, pls. 1-2; Moret, J.-M., L’Ilioupersis dans la céramique italiote (Geneva, 1975)Google Scholar; Prag, A. J. N. W., The Oresteia: Iconographie and Narrative Tradition (Warminster, 1985)Google Scholar; Brommer, F., Odysseus. Die Taten und Leiden des Helden in antiker Kunst, und Literatur (Darmstadt, 1983)Google Scholar; The Quest for Ulysses, edd. Stanford, W. B. and Luce, J. V. (London, 1974)Google Scholar; Rubens, B. and Taplin, O., An Odyssey round Odysseus (London, 1989)Google Scholar.

18. Boardman, J., ‘The Kleophrades Painter at Troy’, AK 19 (1976), 3–18 Google Scholar, pls. 1-3.

19. Ahlberg, G., Prothesis and Ekphora in Greek Geometric Art (Goteborg, 1971)Google Scholar; Fighting on Land and Sea in Greek Geometric Art (Stockholm, 1971). See also Rombos, T., The Iconography of Attic Late Geometric II Pottery (Jonsered, 1988)Google Scholar.

20. Fittschen, K., Untersuchungen zum Beginn der Sagendarstellungen bei den Griechen (Berlin, 1969)Google Scholar is a full treatment. A. M. Snodgrass has looked at the problem from time to time: ‘Poet and painter in eighth century Greece’, PCPS 205 (1979), 118-30Google Scholar; ‘Towards an interpretation of the Geometric figure-scenes’, AM 95 (1980), 51-8Google Scholar, pls. 11-14; Greece, Archaic, the age of experiment (London, 1980), 65–77 Google Scholar; ‘La naissance du récit dans l’art grec’, Lausanne Colloque, pp. 11-18; ‘The first figure-scenes in Greek art’, An Archaeology of Greece (University of California Press, 1987), ch. 5 Google Scholar. See also Carter, J., ‘The beginnings of narrative art in the Greek Geometric period’, BSA 67 (1972), 25–58 Google Scholar, pls. 5-12.

21. J. Boardman, ‘Symbol and story in Geometric art’, Moon AGAI, pp. 15-36 (quotation from p. 29); another view, Benson, J. L., ‘Symptom and story in Geometric art’, BABesch 63 (1988), 69–76 Google Scholar. See also Kannicht, R., ‘Poetry and Art. Homer and the monuments afresh’, Classical Antiquity 1 (1982), 70–86 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, pls. 1-6.

22. See Hemelrijk, J. M., Gnomon 42 (1970), 166-71Google Scholar; Snodgrass, A. M., Narration and Allusion in Archaic Greek Art (London, 1982)Google Scholar and An Archaeology of Greece (University of California Press, 1987), ch. 5. See also Davies, M., ‘A convention of metamorphosis in Greek art’, JHS 106 (1986), 182-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar, pl. 8, and Froning, H., ‘Anfänge der kontinuirenden Bilderzählung in der griechischer Kunst’, JDAI 103 (1988), 169-99Google Scholar.

23. Cook, R. M., ‘Art and epic in Archaic Greece’, BABesch 58 (1983), 1–10 Google Scholar (quotation from 6). Shapiro, H. A., ‘Herakles and Kyknos’, AJA 88 (1984), 323-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar, pls. 68-9, has made a good case for the Herakles and Kyknos illustrations being based on the version in the pseudo-Hesiodic Shield of Herakles.

24. Robertson, M., ‘Geryoneis: Stesichorus and the vase-painters’, CQ 19 (1969), 207-21CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Brize, P., Die Geryoneis des Stesichoros und die frühe griechische Kunst (Würzburg, 1980)Google Scholar; ‘Samos und Stesichoros. Zu einem früharchaischen Bronzeblech’, AM 100 (1985), 54–90 Google Scholar, pls. 15-24 and Beil. 2.

25. See n. 18, above, 11-13 and IV, n. 26.

26. Trendall, A. D. and Webster, T. B. L., Illustrations of Greek Drama (London, 1971)Google Scholar gives a selection of Attic and South Italian theatrical scenes. See also March, J. R., The Creative Poet (BICS Supplement 49, 1987)Google Scholar. For dithyrambs and vases, see Froning, H., Dithyrambus und Vasenmalerei in Athen (Würzburg, 1971)Google Scholar and Oakley, J. H., ‘A calyx-krater in Virginia by the Nikias Painter with the birth of Erichthonios’, AK 39 (1987), 123-30Google Scholar, pls. 18-19.

27. See e.g. Kossatz-Deissmann, A., Dramen des Aischylos auf westgriechischen Vasen (Mainz, 1978)Google Scholar.

28. Simon, E., ‘Satyr-plays on vases from the time of Aeschylus’, Eye of Greece, pp. 123-48Google Scholar, pls. 30-40; L. Burn, ‘A heron on the left, by the Kodros Painter’, Copenhagen Symposium, pp. 99-105. See also, for a wider view, Lissarrague, F., ‘Why satyrs are good to represent’, Nothing to do with Dionysus, edd. Winkler, J. J. and Zeitlin, F. I. (Princeton, 1989), pp. 228-36Google Scholar, pls. 1-16.

29. Green, J. R., ‘A representation of the Birds of Aristophanes’, Greek Vases II (1985), 95–118 Google Scholar; Taplin, O., ‘Phallology, Phlyakes, Iconography and Aristophanes’, PCPS 213 (1987), 92–104 Google Scholar (he also discusses the South Italian Telephos bell-krater (Thesm. 96-99), first published by A. Kossats-Deissman, ‘Telephus transvestitus’, Tainia, pp. 281-90, pls. 60-61, and now illustrated in Simon, E., The Ancient Theatre, trans. Vaphopoulou-Richardson, C. E. (London, 1982), pl. 15 Google Scholar).

30. Simon, E., Menander in Centuripe (Stuttgart, 1989)Google Scholar, with full references to other Meander representations.

31. Quotation from n. 16 above, p. 11. See also Metzger, H., ‘Beazley et l’image’, AK 30 (1987), 109-18Google Scholar, pls. 15-16, on Beazley’s adherence to the literary text in interpretating a scene.

32. Brommer, F., Herakles. Die zwölf Taten des Helden in antiken Kunst und Literatur, 4th ed. (Darmstadt, 1979)Google Scholar, translated and enlarged by S. J. Schwarz as Herakles . The Twelve Labors of the Hero in Ancient Art and Literature (New York, 1980)Google Scholar, and Herakles II. Die unkanonischen Taten des Helden (Darmstadt, 1984). See also Denkmalerlisten zur griechischen Heldensage I (Marburg, 1971) and Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage, 3rd ed. (Marburg, 1973), pp. 1-209.

33. See Galinsky, G. K., The Herakles Theme (Oxford, 1972)Google Scholar and Vollkommer, R., Herakles in the Art of Classical Greece (Oxford University Committee for Archaeology, monograph 25, 1988)Google Scholar.

34. The literature is now extensive. See particularly J. Boardman’s contributions: ‘Herakles, Peisistratos and sons’, RA 1972, 57-72; ‘Herakles, Peisistratos and Eleusis’, JHS 95 (1975), 1–12 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, pls. 1-4; ‘Herakles, Delphi and Kleisthenes of Sikyon’, RA 1978, 227-34; ‘Exekias’, AJA 82 (1978), 18–24 Google Scholar; ‘Image and politics in sixth century Athens’, Amsterdam Symposium, pp. 239-47.

35. ‘Herakles, Peisistratos and the unconvinced’, JHS 109 (1989), 158-9. ‘That Greeks used their myth-history as a mirror to their life, and one which they could readily distort to suit their needs and circumstances, is a commonplace’ (159).

36. ‘Pots and Peisistratan Propaganda’, JHS 107 (1987), 167-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This note contains references to many extensions and counterarguments to Boardman’s ideas. One might single out R. Osborne’s ‘The myth of propaganda and the propaganda of myth’, Hephaistos 5/6 (1983/4), 61-70, pls. 1-2, and an overingenious attempt to relate ‘Herakles versus Nereus’ to Solon’s struggle against civil unrest, Ahlberg-Cornell, G., Herakles and the Sea-Monster in Attic Black-Figure Vase-painting (Stockholm, 1984)Google Scholar. For a general comment on political symbolism, see Arafat and Morgan (V, n. 1), 231-1.

37. Brommer, F., Theseus. Die Taten des griechischen Helden in der antiken Kunst und Literatur (Darmstadt, 1982)Google Scholar. See also Denkmälerlisten zur griechischen Heldensage II (Marburg, 1971), pp. 1-28 and Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage, 3rd ed. (Marburg, 1973), pp. 210-58. For a popular treatment, see The Quest for Theseus, ed. Ward, A. G. (London, 1970)Google Scholar. See also Neils, J., The Youthful Deeds of Theseus (Rome, 1987)Google Scholar. See also E. D. Francis (n. 6 above).

38. See Sourvinou-Inwood, C., ‘Theseus lifting the rock and a cup near the Pithos Painter’, JHS 91 (1971), 94–109 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, pl. 12.

39. See Barron, J. P., ‘New light on old walls: the murals Of the Theseion’, JHS 92 (1972), 20–45 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, pls. 1-7; ‘Bakchylides, Theseus and a woolly cloak’, BICS 27 (1980), 1–8 Google Scholar. For a stress on the earlier importance of Theseus, see Shapiro, H. A., ‘Theseus and the creation of an Athenian national hero’, AJA 93 (1989), 279 Google Scholar. For Kimonian influence on Polygnotos’ panel paintings, see Kebric, R. B., The Paintings in the Cnidian Lesche at Delphi and the Historical Context (Leiden, 1983)Google Scholar. Kebric sees Eurymedon as the catalyst for the Cnidians’ dedication, but for another, more scabrous way of expressing Eurymedon, see the Attic red-figure oinochoe in Hamburg, Schauenburg, K., ΕΥΡΥΜΕΔΩΝ ΕΙΜΙ’, AM 90 (1975), 197–121Google Scholar, pl. 15 and for a different interpretation, Pinney, G. F., ‘For the heroes are at hand’, JHS 104 (1984), 181-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar, pl. 8 c-d.

40. J. Boardman, ‘Herakles, Theseus and Amazons’, Eye of Greece, p. 1-28, pls. 1-6. See also Gauer (see III, n. 28).

41. E.g. Burkert, W., Structure and History in Greek Mythyology and Ritual (University of California Press, 1979)Google Scholar; Gordon, R. L. (ed.), Myth, Religion and Society (Cambridge and Paris, 1981)Google Scholar; Bremmer, J. (ed.), Interpretations of Greek Mythology (London and Sydney, 1987)Google Scholar; Edmunds, L. (ed.), Approaches to Greek Myth (Baltimore and London, 1990)Google Scholar.

42. See n. 7, above.

43. F. Brommer, Herakles. The Twelve Labors (see n. 32, above), p. 2.

44. The most entertaining introduction to this subject is Bérard, C. and others, La Cité des Images, Religion et Société en Grèce antique (Fernard Nathan - L.E.P., 1984)Google Scholar, now A City of Images, Iconography and Society in Ancient Greece, trans. Lyons, D. (Princeton, 1989)Google Scholar. Subjects considered are the warrior, sacrifice and the hunt, Eros as hunter, women, festivals and mysteries, wine, satyrs, and masks.

45. The French/Swiss have been some of the foremost proponents of the new approaches; of those concerning themselves with art, one might mention Bérard, C., Lissarrague, F., Durand, J.-L. and Schnapp, A.. There have been many recent conferences (Rouen, Provence, Paris)Google Scholar that have been devoted to the subject of myth and its interpretation. Of those scholars writing in English, one might single out a German, Hoffmann, Herbert: Sexual and Asexual Pursuit. A structuralist approach to Greek vase-painting (RAI, Occasional Paper 34; London, 1977)Google Scholar; ‘In the wake of Beazley’, Hephaistos 1 (1979), 61–70 Google Scholar; ‘Iconography and Iconology’, Hephaistos 7-8 (1985-6), 61–66 Google Scholar; ‘The cicada on the omphalos: an iconographical excursion’, Antiquity 62 (1988), 744-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; ‘Why did the Greeks need imagery? An anthropological approach to the study of Greek vase-painting’, Hephaistos 9 (1988), 143-62Google Scholar (cf. A. Schnapp, Why did the Greeks need images?’, Copenhagen Symposium, pp. 568-74).

46. Gordon, R. L. (ed.), Myth, Religion and Society (see n. 41, above), ix (Buxton)Google Scholar.

47. Snodgrass, A. M., An Archaeology of Greece (California, 1987), p. 135 Google Scholar.

48. Gordon, R. L. (ed.), Myth, Religion and Society (see n. 41, above), xi (Buxton)Google Scholar.

49. Hoffman, H., ‘Hahnenkampf in Athen. Zur Ikonologie einer attischen Bildformel’, RA 1974, 195–220 Google Scholar; Hephaistos 9 (1988) (see n. 45, above).

50. Schnapp, A., ‘Images et programme: les figurations archaïques de la chasse au sanglier’, RA 1979, 195–218 Google Scholar; Lissarrague, F. and Durand, J.-L., ‘Les entrailles de la cité’, Hephaistos 1 (1979), 81–108 Google Scholar, pls. 1-3; Schnitt, P. and Schnapp, A., ‘Image et société en Grèce ancienne: les représentations de la chasse et du banquet’, RA 1982, 57–74 Google Scholar; A. Schnapp, ‘Héraclès, Thésée et les chasseurs: les ambiguïtés du héros’, Lausanne Colloque, p. 121-30. See also n. 44, above. For the larger view, see Burkert, W., Homo Necans. The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth, trans. Bing, P. (California, 1983)Google Scholar.

51. Sourvinou-Inwood, C., Theseus as Son and Stepson (BICS Suppl. 40, 1979)Google Scholar; ‘Menace and pursuit: differentiation and the creation of meaning’, Lausanne Colloque, pp. 41-58; ‘A series of erotic pursuits: images and meanings’, JHS 107 (1987), 131-53CrossRefGoogle Scholar, pl. 2b-3; ‘Myths in Images: Theseus and Medea as a case study’, L. Edmunds (ed.), Approaches to Greek Myth (see n. 41, above), pp. 393-445; C. Bérard, ‘Le chassaresse traquée: cynégétique et erotique’, Kanon, 280-4, pls. 83-4. See also n. 44, above.

52. See Carpenter, T. H., Dionysian Imagery in archaic Greek art (Oxford, 1986)Google Scholar; Lissarrague, F., Un flot d’images, une esthétique du banquet grec (Paris, 1987)Google Scholar; Hoffman, H., ‘Rhyta and Kantharoi in Greek Ritual’, Greek Vases IV (1989), 131-66Google Scholar. For satyrs, see n. 28, above.

53. Tyrrell, W. B., Amazons, a study in Athenian mythmaking (Baltimore and London, 1984)Google Scholar; Hardwick, L., ‘Ancient Amazons - heroes, outsiders or women?’ Greece & Rome 37 (1990), 14–36 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54. Kahil, L., ‘L’Artémis de Brauron: rites et mystère’, AK 20 (1977), 86–98 Google Scholar, pls. 18-21; ‘La déesse Artémis: mythologie et iconographie’, Greece and Italy in the Classical World. Acta of the XI International Congress of Classical Archaeology (London, 1979), pp. 73–87 Google Scholar, pls. 31-6; ‘Le “cratérisque” d’Artemis et le Brauronion de l’Acropole’, Hesperia 50 (1981), 253-63CrossRefGoogle Scholar, pl. 62; ‘Mythological Repertoire of Brauron’, Moon AGAI, pp. 231-14; Sourvinou-Inwood, C., Studies in Girh’ Transitions (Athens, 1988)Google Scholar; Dowden, K., Dream and the Maiden. Girls’ Initiation Rites in Greek Mythology (London and New York, 1989)Google Scholar.

55. J. Boardman, ‘Image and Politics in Sixth Century Athens’, Amsterdam Symposium, p. 241.