The Project Gutenberg eBook of Greek Tragedy in the Light of Vase Paintings, by John H. Huddilston

92. Wiener Vorlegeblätter, ser. D. pl. 10. 4 and 5 = op. cit. ii. pl. 138. 139. Aischylos was the first to chain Prometheus, and all the monuments representing the giant thus fastened on the cliff are dependent on the Prometheus. Cf. Milchhoefer, in Berliner Winckelmannsprogramm for 1882.

93. The question as to where and how the Etruscans came to have so wide a knowledge of Greek poetry will long remain a perplexing one. One thing seems clear, viz., that the Romans did not serve as any connecting link between Greece and Etruria. Greek art as well as Greek letters reached this people direct. It hardly seems probable that translations of the Greek poets were so extensively made by this practical people, that the artists could in this manner have had access to so much that is Euripidean. There is, moreover, a great deal in some of the reliefs that bespeaks a familiarity with the scenes as actually given in the theatre. This leads me to think that the wandering troops of actors had penetrated Etruria also, and introduced the plays of which the Etruscans made so much in their art.

94. Figs. 12, 16, 27, 28; cf. also note 2, p. 95 f.

95. Vid. Lüders, Die dionysischen Künstler, Berlin, 1873.

97. The ‘Megarian Bowls’ have much in common with such later monuments as the tabula iliaca. Cf. Jahn’s Bilderchroniken, and Baumeister, Denkmäler, i. no. 775.

98. Jahn, Telephos und Troilos, 1841, p. 46 ff., believed that Exekias was indebted to Euripides’ Telephos for the idea of his dice-players; cf. Overbeck, Bildwerke, pl. 14. 4, and Wiener Vorlegeblätter, 1888, pl. 6. 1^a. We know now that Exekias must have lived nearly 100 years before the date of the Telephos.

99. Klein in his Euphronios, 1886, p. 236 ff., saw in the Iliupersis kylix, pub. Baumeister, Denkmäler, i. no. 795, the workings of Aischylos’ Ὅπλον Κρίσις; in the Euphronios kylix, Wiener Vorlegeblätter, ser. v. pl. 6, representing the death of Troïlos, a connexion was pointed out with Sophokles’ Troilos; and the Dolon kylix, also by Euphronios, cf. op. cit. p. 136 f., might be brought under the Rhesos of Euripides.

100. Note especially the Brygos kylix, Brit. Mus., cat. iii. E 65; pub. Mon. d. Inst. ix. 46, and Wiener Vorlegeblätter, ser. viii. 6. Dionysos stands by his altar over which a satyr springs to grasp Iris. Others of the tribe make merry. Cf. also Brit. Mus., cat. iii. E 768; pub. Wiener Vorlegebl. ser. vii. 4, in the style of Euthymides. Seilenos in herald’s dress is in the midst of a long train of satyrs.

101. The main scene is published and discussed by Dümmler in Rheinisches Museum, 1888, p. 355 ff.

102. Cf. the Peiraieus frag. pub. Arch. Ztg. 1880, pl. 16. Other examples of later styles are included by Reisch, Griech. Weihgeschenke, p. 68 ff. Vid. further the list in Arch. Ztg. 1880, p. 182 f.

103. Gerhard, Auser. Vasen, pl. 56, and Reinach-Millin, Peintures, i. 9.

104. Berlin, inv. no. 3237. Pub. and discussed by Bethe, Jahrbuch, 1896, p. 292 ff. and pl. 2; cf. Furtwängler, Arch. Anz. 1893, p. 91 f.

106. No. 3235, A. Pub. Mon. d. Inst. ii. pl. 36; Overbeck, Bildwerke, pl. 24. 19; cf. Furtwängler, Masterpieces, p. 152 f.

107. Fig. 8, and p. 63 f.

108. Heydemann’s cat. no. 3240. Pub. Müller-Wieseler, Theater-gebäude, pl. 6. 2; Baumeister, Denkmäler, i. fig. 422.

109. iv. 115–117. Cf. also Bethe, Prolegomena zur Geschichte des Theaters im Altertum, p. 42.

110. The Penelope vase, pub. Mon. d. Inst. ix. pl. 42 = Baumeister’s Denkmäler, iii. no. 2332, has lately been explained by Robert as being based on Soph. Νίπτρα. Cf. Die Marathonschlacht in der Poikile, p. 78 ff. If I could accept this view my position would be very materially strengthened. The Νίπτρα must be set cir. 428 B.C., and this means that the painting is later than this date. Much as I should like to bring this important monument into connexion with the drama, I cannot think of a later date for the vase than 440 B.C., which to be sure renders its relation to Sophokles impossible. If, however, Professor Robert be correct, it shows that there is at least one vase painting of the fifth century that represents a form of a myth which belonged to the theatre, and this was not granted in Bild und Lied.

111. Cf. Gardner’s Types of Greek Coins, pl. v. nos. 17–20, and Furtwängler’s Masterpieces, p. 105 ff., with the very instructive collection of Italian and Sicilian coins which shows the Attic influence in this period.

112. Cf. Mommsen, Unteritalische Dialekte, p. 89 ff.

113. De leg. 1. 637^c.

114. Dio Cassius, 39. 3. 6.

115. Zonaris, viii. 2. 370, καὶ τὸ θέατρον ἔκλεισε.

116. Cf. figs. 5, 6, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23.

117. The large class of Lower Italy vases that illustrate scenes from comedy are priceless treasures. They are based on the ‘farce-plays,’ φλύακες τραγικοί—the invention of Rhinthon (vid. Rhinthonis Fragmenta, Halle, dissertation by E. Völker, 1887); cf. especially Heydemann, Jahrbuch, 1886, p. 260 ff., where all the examples then known are discussed. Bethe, Prolegomena zur Geschichte des Theaters im Altertum, p. 278–292, handles particularly the interesting question of the stage represented in the scenes.

Mention should be made also of Körte’s excellent article in the Jahrbuch for 1893, p. 61–93, on Archaeologische Studien zur alten Komödie.

118. Robert’s conclusion in regard to the literary source of all the monuments (Bild und Lied, p. 149 ff.) is that they go back to the Oresteia of Stesichoros. This view has been generally accepted by archaeologists, and met with no opposition till Wilamowitz showed reason for believing in the existence of a Delphic epic dealing with this subject. The whole question needs another careful investigation.

119. Pub. Mon. d. Inst. vi. pl. 57. 1 = Roscher’s Lexikon, i. p. 1238. Cf. Robert, op. cit. p. 167 ff.

120. Naples, no. 1755, pub. Baumeister, Denkmäler, iii. 1939 = Reinach-Millingen, Peintures, pl. 14.

121. Fig. 2. Pub. Raoul-Rochette, Monuments inédits, pl. 34. Cf. ibid. p. 159 ff.; Overbeck, Bildwerke, pl. 28. 5; cf. text ibid., p. 688 ff.; Inghirami, Vasi fitt. ii. pl. 151.

122. Cf. figs. 14, 15, 23, 24 for the regulation dress of the pedagogue.

123. Cf. note 2, p. 44.

124. Munich coll. Jahn’s cat. no. 814. The figure of Elektra alone together with the view of the tomb is published by Inghirami, Vasi fitt. ii. pl. 154.

125. Pub. Inghirami, op. cit. ii. pl. 153.

126. An amphora, no. 544. The painting has not been published so far as I know, but the similarity it bears to figs. 3 and 4 appeared to me to render a publication of it here unnecessary.

127. Cf. παρ’ οὐδετέρω κεῖται ἡ μυθοποιία of the Hypothesis.

128. Cf. Overbeck, Bildwerke, pl. 29, and Raoul-Rochette, Mon. inéd. pl. 35–38.

129. Cat. no. 349; pub. Compte Rendu, 1864, pl. 6. 5; cf. Stephani, ibid. p. 252 ff.

130. Cf. a similar figure with the key in figs. 6, 18, 20. In the latter cases Iphigeneia is the priestess.

133. Vid my Attitude of the Greek Tragedians toward Art, p. 12 ff., for a discussion of this passage.

134. So Eur. Orest. v. 321; Elekt. v. 1345.

135. Naples, no. 3249, photo, Alinari, 11296, from which fig. 6 is taken. The painting was published by Jahn, Vasenbilder, 1839, pl. 1. 1, from a drawing. Jahn himself had not seen the vase. The drawing does the fine picture so little justice that I could not think of reproducing it. The work on the vase is wonderfully clear and strong. Every figure is in itself a beautiful work of art. The picture presents an unusual variety of situations that are artistically of great interest.

136. Cf. also fig. 8.

137. No. 3256. Pub. Overbeck, Bildwerke, pl. 29. 4; general view of the whole vase, Gerhard’s Apulische Vasen. pl. A. 6. Another painting, a late work and wretchedly done, somewhat similar, is published in Arch. Ztg. 1877, pl. 4. 11.

138. Fig. 8. Pub. Overbeck, Bildwerke, pl. 29. 7; Mon. d. Inst. iv. pl. 48; Arch. Ztg. 1860, pl. 138. 2; Baumeister’s Denkmäler, ii. p. 1117; Rayet et Collignon, Histoire de la céramique grecque, p. 297.

139. Vid. Overbeck, Bildwerke, pl. 29. 11, and 12.

140. Cf. vs. 67, 84, 91.

141. This view is maintained by Dörpfeld and Reisch, Das griechische Theater, p. 243 ff. In reply to this vid. Robert in Hermes, vol. 32, p. 439 ff. Vid. also Bethe, Prolegomena zur Geschichte des Theaters im Altertum, pp. 112–116, where this point in the production of the Eumenides is ably discussed.

142. Cf. this scene on the Sarcophagi reliefs. Robert, Die antiken Sarkophag-Reliefs, ii. pl. 54–56, nos. 155–161, the right end scene; also no. 157¹, p. 173.

143. Cf. the ghosts of Aigisthos and Klytaimestra on the end reliefs of the Sarcophagus, no. 155, op. cit.

144. Orest. 408, 1650; Tro. 457; cf. also the relief found near Argos, pub. Athen. Mitth. 1879, pl. 9 = Roscher’s Lexikon, i. p. 1330.

145. Wilamowitz, Aischylos Orestie, Zweites Stück, 1896, p. 246 ff., has shown the plausibility of believing in such an epic. The author was a Delphian.

146. A few fragments remain from the Oresteia of Stesichoros. Cf. Bergk-Schaefer, Poetae lyrici graeci, iii. p. 219 ff.

147. Opinions vary on this point. Three different views are held. (1) The temple of Athena remains the scene throughout the rest of the play; the Areiopagos (v. 685) becomes then merely a part of the stage decorations given by the periaktoi. (2) Between v. 235 and v. 685 the scene was changed from the Acropolis to the Areiopagos. (3) There is no scene from v. 235 other than the Areiopagos. The latter seems to me absolutely untenable. Repeated allusion is made to the temple and to Orestes clinging to the old image in the δῶμα (v. 242 ff.). Regarding the first and second, it makes little difference whether the scene was in fact shifted or whether it was represented on the wings. The practical working was the same in either case.

148. The present whereabouts of the vase is not known. Pub. Baumeister, Denkmäler, ii. p. 1118; Overbeck, Bildwerke, pl. 29. 9; Reinach-Millingen, Peintures, ii. 68; also as frontispiece to the 4th ed. of Paley’s Aeschylus. He disposes of it in a line or two, and, with the usual accuracy which characterizes philologists when dealing with matters of archaeology, says the vase is ‘probably nearly contemporaneous’ with the Eumenides (p. 584). The composition is remarkably like the Assteas painting, Wiener Vorlegeblätter, ser. i. pl. 7. The figures of Apollo and Kadmos, as well as the two Athenas, have much in common. There is the same roundness and plumpness in the figures. Furthermore, Assteas was partial to bust figures and never lost an opportunity to introduce them. The border on the veil of the female bust of our vase is Campanian, as are also certain other details. All this brings me to the opinion that Assteas, who was very likely from Paestum and may have been in touch with Campanian styles as well, was the painter of our vase. It is at least from the school of Assteas. A painting by Python (J. H. S. 1890, pl. 6), one of the set of Assteas, exhibits the same treatment of hair and decoration that is found on the painting, fig. 9.

149. These feathers, for that is what these projections are, can be counted on dozens of helms belonging to this period. Athena and warriors wear them alike. Their occurrence before the latter part of the fourth century B.C. is unknown to me.

150. Cf. Aisch. Supp. v. 463.

151. Pub. Arch. Ztg. 1860, pl. 137. 4 = Overbeck, Bildwerke, pl. 29. 8.

152. Vid. Arch. Anz. 1890, p. 90.

153. It is worth noting that, when viewed both from the artistic in his plays and the art that was an outgrowth of his plays, Sophokles occupies the same position as regards Aischylos and Euripides. Cf. my Attitude of the Greek Tragedians toward Art, p. 32 ff.

154. P. 35, note 3, and p. 36, note 3.

155. Poet. 1450^a. 25.

158. Athen. p. 537; cf. Plut. Alex. c. 10 and 53.

160. This fact comes out particularly in Polybios; cf. Susemihl, Geschichte der griech. Litteratur in der Alexanderzeit, ii. p. 119.

161. C. I. A. ii. 973 is the authority for this occurrence in the years 341–39 B.C.

163. Cf. Nem. 7. v. 49 ff.

164. Vid. Hypothesis: τὸ δὲ δρᾶμα τῶν δευτέρον.

165. Fig. 10; no. 239 in the Jatta catalogue. Pub. Annali d. Inst. 1868, pl. E = Engelmann’s Atlas zum Homer, ii. Odyssee, pl. 4. 18; cf. Vogel, op. cit. p. 36 ff.

166. Cf. similar figures in figs. 6, 18, 20.

167. The composition is strikingly like that in fig. 18. The two temples are exact counterparts of each other. The altars likewise and the Apollo figures have much in common. Most important of all is the fact that in both pictures the chief persons are denoted by inscriptions. It should be observed further that both vases are of the same style, amphoras with volute handles, and both were found in Ruvo. These facts lead me to believe that one and the same artist may have been the painter of both works.

168. Cf. figs. 6, 7, 18, 20, 21, 23.

169. The 26th idyll of Theokritos should also be counted with the Bakchai.

170. Suidas s. v. Thespis.

171. But one verse remains, Nauck’s Fragmenta, no. 183.

172. A psykter in the Bourguignon coll., Naples; pub. Jahrbuch, 1892, pl. 5. The vase belongs to the Epiktetos set, and may be dated cir. 500 B.C.

173. The following, given by Hartwig, Jahrbuch, 1892, p. 154 ff., may be mentioned as supplementing the list in Jahn’s well-known essay, Pentheus und die Mainaden, Kiel, 1841.

(1) Attic pyxis, Louvre; pub. Jahrbuch, 1892, p. 156; date 420–400 B.C.

(2) Kylix in Museo di Papa Giulio, Rome, described by Hartwig, op. cit. p. 163, who thinks it may have well been influenced by Euripides, but he sets the date of the Bakchai at 410 B.C.! I have not seen the vase nor any publication of it, but should infer from Hartwig’s description that it is older than the tragedy.

174. Lucanian fabric, no. 807 in Jahn’s cat., pub. Jahn’s Pentheus und die Mainaden, pl. ii. a; Reinach-Millingen, Peintures, pl. 5 = Baumeister, Denkmäler, ii. no. 1396.

175. The original shows no trace of the fire that is so prominent in the publications. There can, however, be no doubt that a burning torch was meant, if not so painted originally.

176. vs. 954 ff., 1052, 1061 ff.

177. P. 25 above. It should be noted that this is the first example of a Pentheus scene discovered in Pompeii or Herculaneum.

179. The episode seems to have been first told in the Ἰλίου Πέρσις of Arktinos. Polyxena being led by Neoptolemos to the tomb of Achilles appears on an Attic bl. fig. vase of cir. 550 B.C., vid. Berlin cat. 1902; pub. Overbeck, Bildwerke, pl. 27. 17. Two gems of the severe style in the Berlin Antiquarium (nos. 489, 490), pub. Overbeck, op. cit. pl. 27. 13 and 14, also represent the sacrifice. The painting in the Pinakotheke of the Propylaia may have been by Polygnotos (cf. p. 21 above), and if it was, Euripides no doubt had often seen it. This showed her about to be sacrificed; Paus. 1. 22. 6.

180. ‘Megarian Bowls’ is a name applied to a class of small cups decorated with a band of relief. The ware is red or black, and appears both in glazed and unglazed form. The largest number of the vases has been found in Megara, hence the name ‘Megarian.’ As many have been discovered also in Boeotia and other places, the present terminology is somewhat misleading. Examples of this ware are to be found in every large museum in Europe. The British Museum possesses no less than nine such cups, and fragments from fourteen others (vid. cat. iv. pp. 251–256). The reliefs illustrate mostly scenes from the Theban and Trojan Cycles. Whether the terra cotta presented a cheap way of reproducing silver and gold cups, which were highly prized, and served therefore the place of our casts, or whether the bowls were made from special moulds and are to be considered independent works of art, is quite uncertain. The fact that there are in existence three copies of the same work, each agreeing in every detail with the others, would seem to point to the former supposition. Robert, who has handled this set of monuments most thoroughly, distinguishes two classes: (1) the whole vase is cast from one mould; (2) the reliefs having been made separately are stamped on the ready bowl. Vid. especially Robert’s Homerische Becher for the whole question; cf. also p. 27 ff. above.

181. Fig. 12, pub. by Robert, op. cit. p. 73 ff.

182. Fig. 13: pub. Mon. d. Inst. ii. pl. 12; Welcker, Alte Denkmäler, iii. pl. 23. 2; Overbeck, Bildwerke, pl. 28. 2.

183. The first play belonged to the trilogy containing the Aigeus and Theseus, which made up a set of purely Attic interest. It is well known that Euripides deepened and widened the belief in the Athenian heroic period.

184. Suidas names an Hippolytos of Lykophron—a poet of Alexandria.

185. The Phaedra seems to have followed the first Hippolytos of Euripides.

186. Cf. Met. 15, vs. 497 ff., and Heroid. 4.

187. Cat. iv. F 272, pub. by Braun, Mon. ed Annali, 1854, pl. 16; Engelmann’s Atlas zum Homer, ii, Odyssee, pl. 15. 93. First correctly interpreted by Heydemann, Arch. Ztg. 1871, p. 158 ff.; cf. also Vogel, op. cit. p. 66 f., and Kalkmann, Arch. Ztg. 1883, p. 62 ff. The vase is Apulian ware. The lower zone represents the violence of the Centaurs at the marriage of Peirithoös’ daughter, Laodameia. Theseus and the father are seen rushing to the help of the bride.

188. The fact that no succession of events, where one person appears more than once, can be found in Hellenic art, forbids us interpreting this group as again Phaidra and an attendant. I cannot, however, rid myself of the feeling that the figure leaning on the kline is not a servant, but is more in rank with Phaidra. Her rôle is more than that of the other attendants. This is shown by her attitude and dress. Her appearance is exactly that required for Phaidra after she had ordered her attendants to lift her up, remove her veil, and allow her hair to drop over her shoulders (vs. 198–202).