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

197. The remarkable feature in these reliefs that shows non-Euripidean influence is the letter which the old nurse hands to Hippolytos. This points to another handling of the myth, where the former confined herself to a written statement rather than a word of mouth proposal. Strikingly in harmony with Euripides, however, is the position of the trophos. She grasps Hippolytos’ elbow—ναὶ πρός δε τῆσδε δεξιᾶς εὐωλένου (v. 605). Cf. also the Pompeian wall painting, Mus. Borbonico, 8, pl. 52. This and other wall paintings represent the scene between Hippolytos and the nurse as taking place in the presence of Phaidra, who sits quite alone.

198. Cf. fig. 15. Cat. vol. iv. F 279; pub. by Kalkmann, Arch. Ztg. 1883, pl. 6; vid. ibid. p. 43 ff.

199. Cf. a similar group in fig. 23.

200. The same group of divinities, with the exception of Apollo, occurs on the Naples amphora, no. 3256, pub. Mon. d. Inst. ii. 30, and Robert, Die Marathonschlacht, p. 37; Robert calls attention to the fact that this is an essentially Athenian assembly. Poseidon, Athena, and Pan were inseparably associated with the Acropolis, the latter, of course, after the battle of Marathon. The Naples vase represents a battle between Greeks and barbarians, and according to Robert’s theory is dependent upon Polygnotos’ painting in the Stoa Poikile. As participants and spectators the gods occur in the upper section. Athena, indeed, whirls into line on her chariot. If this ingenious theory has hit the gist of the matter regarding the Naples painting, then we may also claim the group of gods on the Hippolytos vase as peculiarly Athenian. And such would be very appropriate for a picture that represented an Attic tragedy, whose hero had a cult under the shadow of the Acropolis.

202. v. 1214; cf. also Ovid, Met. 15. 512, where the bull is described as having his breast half out of the water.

204. Nat. Hist. 35. 114.

205. Cf. Mon. d. Inst. vi. pl. 2; Arch. Ztg. 1847, pl. 6.

206. Körte, I rilievi delle urne etrusche, ii. pl. 33–36.

207. The urn in the Brit. Mus., no. 6, pl. 36, op. cit., has two such figures.

208. So Bergk and Ribbeck.

210. Pliny, 35. 73, says of the picture, oratorum laudibus celebrata. Numerous mentions are in fact made of it by the orators. Cf. especially Cic. Orat. 22. 74. Vid. further, Brunn’s Griech. Künstler, ii. p. 82 ff.

211. Discovered April 30, 1825, in the house of the ‘Tragic Poet’; pub. Baumeister, Denkmäler, i. no. 807 = photo, Alinari, 12027. Vid. Helbig, Campanische Wandgemälde, no. 1304. Here, however, Iphigeneia is being carried (cf. Aisch. Agam. loc. cit.), while Pliny speaks of her as stans in Timanthes’ painting.

212. Pub. Baumeister, op. cit. i. 806; vid. F.-W. no. 2143.

213. Vid. Michaelis in Röm. Mitth. 1893, p. 201 ff.; cf. p. 4 above.

214. Brunn, I rilievi delle urne etrusche, i. pl. 35–47. There are altogether twenty-six reliefs, of which twenty-one belong to Perugia. Cf. Schlie, Die Darstellungen des troischen Sagenkreises auf etruskischen Aschenkisten, p. 60 f.

215. Op. cit. p. 81 f., but cf. my remarks on p. 10 ff.

216. Pub. by Robert, Homerische Becher, p. 51.

217. A second in Athens, pub. Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. 1887, pl. 5; a third, on the authority of Furtwängler (vid. Robert, loc. cit.), in the Branthegem coll. in Brussels.

218. So at least one thinks of the case. Agamemnon ought to have been inside at this moment, shut off from the public gaze. The Greek drama, however, had to bring outside, before the public as it were, even those delicate scenes such as the present where the interior of Agamemnon’s tent should have been the scene.

219. The name occurs six times on the vase, and is always without an N. This is strong epigraphical evidence that our spelling Klytaimnestra is incorrect.

222. Cf. Aisch. Agam. v. 224 ff.; Eur. Iph. T. v. 8 and 360; Iph. A. v. 873, 875, 935, 1177, are hardly to be taken in the literal sense.

223. Elekt. v. 157 and schol.

224. Cf. Proklos in Argum. to Kypria.

225. Frag. 123, and Paus. 1. 43. 1.

226. Bk. iv, ch. 103, and Paus. loc. cit.

227. Vid. Suidas s.v.

228. 1456^a. 6; 1453^b. 11.

229. Ribbeck, Die römische Tragödie, p. 50.

230. Ribbeck thinks of Naevius.

231. For these last two scenes as well as the others, vid. Robert, Die antiken Sarkophag-Reliefs, vol. ii. pl. 57–59, and p. 165 f. and 177 ff.

232. Fig. 17, from Raoul-Rochette, Mon. inéd. pl. 41. Heydemann, cat. Santangelo, no. 24; cf. Trendelenburg in Annali d. Inst. 1872, p. 114.

233. Vid. Robert, op. cit. nos. 157^b, 168, 171.

234. A wall painting from Herculaneum, pub. Pitture di Ercolano, i. pl. 12; Overbeck’s Bildwerke, pl. 30. 9; cf. Helbig, Campanische Wandgemälde, no. 1334. Another painting from Pompeii is published in Arch. Ztg. 1875, pl. 13; for the same on pastes and gems cf. Overbeck, op. cit. pl. 30, and Furtwängler’s Beschreibung der geschnittenen Steine im Antiquarium (Berlin), nos. 791 ff.

235. Fig. 18 from a Ruvo amphora in Naples. Heydemann, no. 3223. Pub. Mon. d. Inst. ii. pl. 43; Overbeck, Bildwerke, pl. 30. 4. Vid. Annali d. Inst. vol. ix. p. 198 ff.; Arch. Ztg. 1875, p. 137; Vogel, Scenen eur. Trag. p. 70 ff.

236. Cf. v. 1463, where the poet says Iphigeneia is to be κλῃδοῦχος for the Brauronian Artemis. In Aisch. Supp., also, Io is spoken of as at one time κλῃδοῦχος ἥρας. Cf. v. 291.

237. Cf. the monuments in Overbeck’s Bildwerke, pl. 30, that represent this scene; and the central group on the front side of the Munich sarcophagus, op. cit. no. 167.

238. Artemis sits on an altar in fig. 21, as do Orestes and Pylades on an Etruscan mirror; vid. Gerhard’s Etruskische Spiegel, ii. 239, and v. 117. Neoptolemos jumps upon the βωμός in the Andromache (v. 1123) to avoid his foes. Cf. fig. 10, p. 84.

239. Cf. Robert, op. cit. nos. 177 and 178, the Berlin and Weimar Sarcophagi, and no. 180, a fragment in the court of the Palazzo Mattei. Robert properly refers to the next following moment when Orestes and Pylades are left alone with the chorus, Iphigeneia having gone inside to bring the letter. In order to obtain just the sarcophagi scenes we have but to allow Iphigeneia to withdraw after the close of her speech, v. 642.

240. Robert, op. cit. pl. 57–59, and p. 165 f. and 177 ff.; Arch. Ztg. 1875, p. 134 ff.

241. The two wall paintings published by Overbeck, Bildwerke. pl. 30, nos. 31 and 14, and interpreted as representing this same moment, have since been explained by Petersen, Arch. Ztg. 1863, p. 113 ff., as belonging to the Alkestis. While the former view has been generally given up, the latter has not by any means been everywhere accepted. It is, at most, probable.

242. Fig. 19, pub. Arch. Ztg. 1849, pl. 12 = Overbeck, op. cit. pl. 30. 7 = Mon. d. Inst. iv. pl. 51. Vid. also under ‘Iphigeneia’ in Baumeister, and Roscher. Cf. Vogel, op. cit. p. 72 ff., and Arch. Ztg. 1875 p. 136.

243. Fig. 20, no. 420, in the cat. of the Hermitage, pub. Mon. d. Inst. vi. pl. 66; cf. Annali d. Inst. 1862, p. 116 ff., and Stephani in Compte Rendu, 1863, p. 159 ff.

244. Compte Rendu, loc. cit.

245. Fig. 21; pub. in the Bullettino archeologico Napolitano, 1862, pl. 7, and in Brunn’s Vorlegeblätter, pl. 13. 1. Cf. also Vogel, op. cit. p. 74 ff.

247. Cf., however, Laborde’s Vases Lamberg, i. p. 14, also Annali d. Inst. 1848, pl. L, and Overbeck’s Bildwerke, pl. 30. 8, for a vase which probably shows the escape with the idol. It is not certain, but this seems to be what is represented. The work is very ordinary.

248. Helbig, no. 1333, pub. in Mon. d. Inst. viii. pl. 22; photo, Alinari, no. 12029. Cf. Helbig, Untersuchungen über die Campanische Wandmalerei, p. 147 ff.

249. Arch. Ztg. 1875, p. 144.

251. Vid. Röm. Mitth. 1896, p. 67.

252. We know of such an original, the famous painting of Timomachus. Pliny, Hist. Nat. 35. 136, says, Timomachus Byzantius Caesaris dictatoris aetate Aiacem et Medeam pinxit ... Timomachi aeque laudantur Orestes, Iphigenia in Tauris. Further than this we know nothing of the painter. That he was immensely popular follows from Pliny’s statement (loc. cit.) that Caesar paid 80 talents for this Aiax. In regard to the date of Timomachus we possess Pliny’s authority for Caesaris aetate. Robert defends this (Arch. Märchen, p. 132), while others seek to find an earlier date. Miss Sellers in The Elder Pliny’s Chapters on the History of Art, Jex-Blake and Sellers, p. 160 f., argues for the fourth century B.C. Vid. loc. cit. for the latest discussion of this painter’s date, as well as for references to the literature. Further reference may be made to Helbig, Untersuchungen, p. 147 ff., where especially the influence of Timomachus on the wall paintings is dwelt upon.

253. Cf. Arist. Poet. 1449^a. 19 and 20.

254. Miss Harrison, J. H. S. 1883, p. 248 ff., has brought together and discussed thirteen vases connected with this myth, of which the first twelve are bl. fig.

255. v. 99, Odysseus says he thinks they have dropped down on a city of Bromios, so many are the satyrs whom he sees before the cave.

257. Pliny 35, 74. A Cyclops dormiens so large that a number of satyrs were engaged in measuring his thumb with a thyrsos. I follow Robert (Bild und Lied, p. 35) and Winter (Jahrbuch, 1891, p. 272) in connecting this painting with Euripides.

258. The painting is on a krater in the possession of Sir Francis Cook, Richmond, England; pub. by Winter, Jahrbuch, 1891, pl. 6. He thinks the work Attic, but Furtwängler (Masterpieces, p. 109, note 8) is sure it is Lower Italy ware.

259. The three eyes are plainly visible. One huge eye alone in the centre of the forehead belongs to later times.

260. Furtwängler, loc. cit., remarks that the publication is not exactly correct, as fire is plainly noticeable on the wood that the youths are contributing.

261. Polyphemos here is strikingly like the figure on an Etruscan urn. Brunn, I rilievi, i. pl. 873. The Kyklops is in both cases stretched out upon his left side, and is on the point of being attacked.

262. The poet mentions the krater, and in the next breath the skyphos, neither of which is exactly found in the rough sketch in the painting. Besides these, Euripides names in this play the kylix, amphora, and pithos—a considerable vocabulary of ceramic terms.

263. My remark applies only to the extant monuments, for one finds that Pausanias saw the marriage of Jason and Medeia represented on the Kypselos Chest (5. 18. 3). This is in keeping with the Corinthian origin of the Chest. It is hardly to be expected that such domestic events in Medeia’s career would have found their place in any work of art that was not made in Corinth, or at least in a place essentially influenced by Corinthian legend.

264. Vid. Arch. Ztg. 1867, p. 58.

265. Benndorf und Schöne, Die antiken Bildwerke des Lateranensischen Museums, p. 61 ff.; F.-W. no. 1200. The Berlin copy of this relief, long supposed to be of Renaissance origin, has lately been proved to be antique; vid. Kekulé von Stradonitz in Jahrbuch, 1897, p. 96 ff.

266. Cf. Baumeister’s Denkmäler, i. p. 142; ii. p. 875; iii. p. 1852.

267. Kekulé’s Die antiken Terracotten, ii. p. 21.

268. Vid. Roscher’s Lexikon, ii. p. 2513.

269. Robert in Die antiken Sarkophag-Reliefs, ii. p. 205–217, gives all the literature; cf. also pl. 62–65. Vid. Arch. Ztg. 1866, p. 234 ff.; Annali d. Inst. 1869, p. 5 ff.; Urlichs’ Würzburger Programm, ein Medea-Sarkophag, 1888. (This fine sarcophagus is now in the Berlin museum.) Robert and Urlichs have, to my mind, shown conclusively that these reliefs go back to Euripides’ Medeia for their literary source. Notwithstanding that they all date from about the second century A.D., and could thus be based on various Roman plays, the arrangement of the events on the reliefs bears a remarkable similarity to the scenes in Euripides. The reliefs on the long sides are taken up with exactly the scenes of the Greek poet. Those on the ends are but indifferently worked out, and often do not represent any events in the Medeia-Jason adventures.

270. A half-tone reproduction of the vase is shown in the frontispiece. The section with the painting is given separately in fig. 23. It is no. 810 in Jahn’s catalogue; pub. in Millin’s Tombeaux de Canose, 1816, pl. 7; Arch. Ztg. 1847, pl. 3; Wiener Vorlegeblätter, ser. i. pl. 12; Baumeister’s Denkmäler, ii. p. 903; Roscher’s Lexikon, ii. p. 2510; Inghirami, Vasi fitt. iv. pl. 388; Engelmann, Bilderatlas zu Ovid, pl. 13, 81. Discussed by Jahn, Arch. Ztg. 1847, p. 33 ff.; ibid. (by Dilthey) 1875, p. 68 f.; Robert, Bild und Lied, p. 37 ff., and Hermes, vol. 30, p. 567 note; Körte, Ueber Personificationen psychologischer Affecte, p. 38 ff.; Vogel, Scenen eur. Trag. p. 146 ff.; Seeliger in Roscher’s Lexikon, loc. cit.; Bethe, Prolegomena zur Geschichte des Theaters im Altertum, p. 148, note 6.

271. The latter name is found in schol. Eur. Med. v. 19, and in Hyginus. fab. 25.

272. Diod. Sic. iv. 55. 5, calls Kreusa’s brother Hippotes.

273. The reading Κ ... ΩΝ in Millin’s publication, followed also by Conze in the Vorlegeblätter and by Baumeister, is incorrect as Jahn (vid. cat. no. 810, note) expressly stated, and as is plainly proved by a glance at the original. Hence the useless conjectures that have been made to fill up the space between the first and last letters. There is absolutely no trace of the Κ, but there are faint remains of letters preceding ΩΝ, and the correct reading is without question, ΚΡΕ]ΩΝ.

274. Cf. p. 152, and note 3.

275. This inscription, which is very distinct, does not appear in Conze’s publication. All the inscriptions occurring on the palace are painted in white. All others are incised.

276. This moment is shown on another vase (vid. fig. 24), and so, too, on the sarcophagi Kreusa is always represented in the moment of falling or springing from the κλίνη.

277. In spite of this, Vogel, p. 149, asks, Warum zeigt uns der Vasenmaler den Kreon nicht in dem Augenblicke, wo er seine Tochter von den unheilvollen Brautgeschenken der Medeia befreien will, sondern in dem, wo er überwältigt von dem Unglücke das Scepter seinen Händen entfallen lässt und starr und seiner selbst nicht mehr mächtig seine Blicke auf die herbeieilende Merope lenkt? i. e. why did the vase painter not paint another scene instead of the one he did?

278. Cf. note 7, p. 145. On fragment no. 197, Robert, op. cit., the arms of Kreon are incorrectly restored, and his hands are represented as clasped. On all the reliefs Kreon is turned towards Kreusa and not away, as on the vase. I refuse, however, to believe with Jahn and others that Kreon is staring at Merope. He sees nothing and nobody.

279. Apollod. I. 9. 3.

280. Soph. Oed. Rex, v. 775, the wife of Πόλυβος Κορίνθιος.

281. Supposing the word to be a pure invention of the painter, there are still in Euripides suggestions of the name if one were seeking such for the figure. In v. 404, Medeia declares she ‘will not be a laughing-stock to the race of Sisyphos and Jason’s new alliances’; and in v. 1381, γη δε τηδε Σισύφου, the former queens would be suggested with the name Merope. It is but natural that the vase painter took the name thus suggested by Euripides.

283. Suidas refers to a Medeia by Neophron. Ennius’ Medea was, according to Cicero, De Fin. 1. 2. 4, a literal translation from Euripides. The Medea exul by the same poet has generally been held to be a version of Euripides’ Aigeus.

284. Hermes, vol. 31, p. 567 note.

285. Bild und Lied, p. 42.

286. Zeichnungen von Sandro Botticelli zu Dantes Goettlicher Komoedie nach den Originalen im König. Kupferstichkabinet zu Berlin, von Dr. F. Lippmann.

287. In canto iii, Charon is an old man; Botticelli drew him as the devil. In the second plate to this same canto the souls are swimming out to Charon’s boat, a fact which Dante does not mention. The illustration to canto xx has only two persons identical with those of the poet, and in Purgatorio iii the souls on the shore and in the boat are additions of the artist.

288. Cf. Dilthey in Annali d. Inst. 1876, p. 294, and pl. 35 in Mon. d. Inst. x.

289. Vid. Klein’s Euphronios, p. 89, and Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Her. Fur. vol. ii, ed. 1, p. 214.

290. Cf. fig. 24, where the female figure on the left is none other than a nurse.

291. Bild und Lied, p. 38.

292. Cf. figs. 24 and 25 and Baumeister’s Denkmäler, i. p. 142.

293. It will be observed that the writer does not share the view of Bethe, Prolegomena zur Geschichte des Theaters im Altertum, p. 142 ff., that the Flugmaschine was not in use in the Greek theatre before 425 B.C. Robert, Hermes, vol. 31, p. 530–577, has conclusively shown the incorrectness of Bethe’s arguments, and not only proved the use of the Flugmaschine for the Medeia, 431 B.C., but also for a much earlier date. Bethe’s remark, Demnach ist für die erste Aufführung der Medea im Jahre 431 ihr Erscheinen in der Höhe, also auch die Anwendung der Flugmaschine, nicht möglich (p. 146), is based upon a false conception of the resources at hand in that period of Athenian architectural activity.

294. It has already been pointed out above, p. 159, that Medeia entered the palace to slay the boys, and that they might or might not have been alone. At any rate it was not allowable to represent them in art without some older companion. Robert’s remark, Bild und Lied, p. 39, Den Kindern die bereits bei der Mutter angelangt sind, muss aber jetzt noch ein anderer Begleiter zugestellt werden, is inexplicable. Where had the children gone to reach their mother? Was it not just the reverse, viz. that the mother had gone to them?

296. One must remember that Diodorus gathered his excerpts together at least 300 years after the date of our vase, during all of which time the mythographers had been busy helping to straighten out the family affairs that the tragedians of the fifth century had treated imperfectly!

297. As a matter of fact this reference, although brought in under another φασί than the first remark, where three sons are named, τοὺς μὲν πρεσβυτάτους δίο διδύμους Θετταλόν τε καὶ Ἀλκιμένην, τὸν δὲ τρίτον πολυνεώτερον τούτων Τίσανδρον, iv. 54. 1, seems to me to speak of a common origin, and I hold both as coming from the same authority, under whose influence our vase painter certainly never stood.

298. Eur. Orest. v. 791.

299. As in the Medeia, nothing is said to indicate how the chariot was drawn. It is only from the monuments and later literary references (vid. Argum. to the Medeia and schol. on v. 1320) that one learns of the dragons; or is the utterance of Jason, vs. 1297 f., ἢ πτηνὸν ἆραι σῶμ’ ες αἰθέρος βάθος | εἰ μὴ τυράννων δώμασιν δώσειν δίκην | πέποιθ’, an intimation of the strange escape of the sorceress? How was Lyssa’s chariot drawn? Why not also by dragons?

300. Cf. fig. 26, where the figure that stands beside the dragons has been identified as Οἶστρος or Λύσσα. That the latter is the child of night harmonizes well with the night escape indicated by Selene and the stars on this vase.

301. On a vase of Assteas, vid. p. 179 below, which shows Herakles in the act of murdering his sons, the painter calls the personification of Lyssa, mania.

302. Mention should be made here of the Parian inscription, which gives us the curious information that there was a society of hetairai established under the patronage of the goddess Οἰστρώ; cf. Pernice, Athen. Mitth. 1893, p. 16. 2, and Maass, ibid. p. 25 f. There is, of course, a wide distinction between the personification and the cult use of οἶστρος, but it is worth while to point out that Eur. Hipp. vs. 1300 ff., gives the same notion that Maass suggests and supports by a quotation from Paullus Silentiarius (Anth. Plan. v. 234), where οἰστροφόρου Παφίης occurs. Artemis, speaking to Theseus of Hippolytos’ death and its cause, says, ἀλλ’ ἐς τόδ’ ἦλθον, παιδὸς ἐκδεῖξαι φρένα | τοῦ σοῦ δικαίαν, ὁς ὑπ’ εὐκλείας θάνῃ | καὶ σῦς γυναικὸς οἶστρον, ἢ τρόπον τινὰ | γενναιότητα, where we may suppose Euripides to have thought of Phaidra as possessed with οἶστρος, which means τῆς ἐχθίστης θεῶν (v. 1301), i.e. τῆς Κύπριδος (v. 1304).