middle helladic to the late helladic i shaft graves 7 страница

A pitcher, either an oinochoe or olpe, was dipped into the krater and then used to pour wine into cups. There is a wide range of cup shapes, some deep and large and others shallow and more delicate. The kylix was a shallow, broad bowl on a stemmed foot with handles projecting from the bowl; there was also a stemless kylix. This type of cup had to be handled carefully by the drinker if the wine were not to be spilled. Pictures of symposiasts holding a kylix up at an angle, as in the painting from the Tomb of the Diver (see Figure 10.20, page 255), show them either signaling the need to be refreshed with wine or playing a game called kottabos, in which the sediment from the wine is flung at a target. The skyphos was a steep bowl with two handles that was sturdier and less likely to spill. The kantharos had high vertical handles and was a more elaborate shape related to metal vases (see Figure 5.16). We will be seeing examples of these types of vessels throughout this book.

While drinking, the symposiasts could sing or converse or be entertained by musicians, singers, or acrobats. The symposiasts could also rouse themselves from their couches to move around the andron, the house, or into the streets. The Corinthian skyphos (Figure 5.23) shows the komos, a boisterous dance of symposiasts around a dinos. Some painted cups show symposiasts throwing up from too much drinking, reminding viewers of the sympotic pictures that the gifts of the gods needed to be consumed with balance and thought. This prompts us to remember, when looking at images on all vases, that these were objects that were used in specific ways, setting up a visual relationship with the viewer. With a cup, some pictures, such as inside the bowl, could only be seen by the drinker, while some on the outside could only be seen by other symposiasts. Motion and sharp angles of viewing would frame or limit what a viewer could see, so considering the sympotic context is

5.22 Diagram of vase types. After S. Bird and S. Woodford, Greek Designs (London: British Museum, 2003), p. 90. © The Trustees of the British Museum.

important in considering the experience of the many images to be found on vases generally, including the narratives that we will explore in Chapter 9.

Before leaving the context of the symposion, one must remember that it was a formal and ritualistic activity, one in which the guests would bond with each other as members of the polis. Events could be boisterous and get out of hand, but the symposion could also be a venue in which serious thought or the performance of poetry and music helped to articulate the ideas of the participants. Many of the literary works of Plato and Xenophon are set in a symposion, with the participants engaging in a conversation with each other. That aspect of the proceedings continues on today in the use of the word symposium for a gathering of individuals to hear papers and discuss important topics.

graves

It was important to the Greeks for the dead and their names to be remembered and honored. Grave goods placed inside a tomb and grave offerings at or around the tomb are one way to do so, and a grave marker would be a still more visible sign to those who passed the cemeteries that were typically located just outside the walls of a town along the main roads. The Late Geometric I vases from the Dipylon cemetery in Athens were an early effort to distinguish the tombs of the elite, but this did not preserve their individual identity for someone who did not know or remember the deceased (see Figures 4.7 and 4.9, pages 78, 80). By the sixth century, large stone statues like those found in sanctuaries could be used as markers for elite tombs, such as the kouros statue found at a cemetery near Anavyssos, close to the tip of the Attic peninsula southeast of Athens (Figure 5.24). The nude youth is typical of works produced in this period, presenting an idealized, athletic male figure. The middle stone of a three-step base associated with the statue, but not certainly belonging to it, is inscribed: “Stay and mourn at the monument for dead Kroisos whom violent Ares destroyed, fighting

in the front rank” (tr. Boardman 1991, 104). To die in battle, like Achilles, was to be heroic and ideal. The inscription, which by early custom would have been read aloud by the viewer rather than silently, evokes the name and deed of the deceased, perpetuating his memory. This statue is not a portrait but a representation of the ideal Greek male, and this is how Kroisos is to be remembered. The expense of a life-size marble statue testifies to the importance placed on his remembrance by the family and, if the inscription belongs to the statue, helps anyone visiting the tomb to know Kroisos.

Upon death, the body of the deceased would be washed and prepared and then laid out in the home on a couch or bier, a process called the prothesis that we saw on Geometric vases and continues to be seen in all periods of Greek art (see Figures 4.7 and 4.9, pages 78, 80). Family and others would grieve and mourn over the dead, and then would accompany the body to the cemetery in a procession called the ekphora.

What happened next depended on the type of burial, cremation or inhumation. If cremation, the body would be burned at the cemetery, and the ashes collected and placed in a container like an amphora or krater, usually ceramic but sometimes bronze or precious metal like gold. The tomb of the Rich Lady in the Athenian Agora is an excellent example of a cremation burial, as we saw in the last chapter (see Figures 4.4-4.6, pages 74, 75, 76). Other vases or offerings for the dead sometimes show signs of being burned in the fire, but in many cases not. The ashes and other grave goods would be placed in the tomb, which could consist of a simple pit or trench in the ground (fossa tomb), or a trench or pit lined with terracotta panels (a cappucina tomb) or stone slabs (cist tomb).

With inhumation burial, the body was placed into the tomb, which was usually rectangular in shape so that the body was stretched out. As with cremation burials, the tomb could be a simple trench in the ground (fossa) or lined with terracotta (a cappucina) or stone slabs (cist). In addition, the body could be placed into a stone coffin called a sarcophagus (see Figure 14.1, page 344), either set into the ground or placed in a chamber or vault. Even large vases like a pointed amphora and a pithos (see Figures 6.15 and 6.18, pages 144, 146) could be used as a coffin, although each was likely intended for another purpose, such as a grave marker and storage container respectively.

Grave goods could be placed next to or on the body, and also on top of a slab covering the tomb. A drawing made during the excavation of the Late Geometric IIB Tomb XI in the Athenian Agora shows a fossa inhumation burial of a man with a large number of vases as grave goods placed at his feet (Figure 5.25). In making the trench, the diggers cut through an earlier tomb and the lower legs of its occupant (the later well in the drawing cut through the upper part of the same grave). The grave goods in Tomb XI included two amphorae, some bowls and drinking cups, a terracotta mourning figure, an iron knife, and a number of other vase fragments. Some of these show signs of burning, and must be offerings in a sacrificial pyre at the tomb site that were gathered and buried with the

deceased. Other assemblages of grave goods can be seen in other chapters (see Figures 12.16, page 305; 13.5, page 326; 13.16, page 337). Indeed, many of the sympotic vessels found in museums today come from tombs, either in Greek sites or in those of other cultures like the Etruscans, who purchased these objects in large quantities. Being sealed in a tomb can help to preserve an object, unlike a domestic context in which breakage and discarding in the trash is a more likely fate for pottery.

A wide variety of objects and materials could be placed in the grave with the deceased. Vessels for drinking were common, as were kraters, which could also be used as ossuaries for cremation burials. Some vases found in tombs have been mended with drill holes and lead clamps, showing that vases in the household could find their way into graves, whereas other vases could be bought for the occasion. The jewelry and metal objects found in tombs likely came from domestic contexts before they were used in the tomb, so we find some overlap between objects found in tombs and those originally used in houses. Small terracotta figures like those in sanctuaries could also be placed into graves, showing further overlap among contexts (see Figures 1.4-1.5, pages 9-10). Whatever their source, grave goods and grave offerings are reminders of the rituals associated with funerals and the importance of tombs and their dead for the living.

After the burial, there were return visits to the grave on days 3, 9, and 30 after death, and then monthly or annually after that. A special category of vases made in Athens, white-ground lekythoi, contained oil and were left at the tomb on these visits, and the paintings that cover their white surface give us a synopsis of funerary practices and beliefs (Figure 5.26). The lekythos on the left shows the prothesis in the house, with a young man lying on a kline or bier. At his head is a standing youth who claps his hand to his hair in grief; as a youth, he has not yet developed the restraint expected of adult men at the funeral. Leaning over the deceased is a woman who holds the chin of the deceased and gestures toward the youth. Unseen at the foot of the couch is a second woman in a pose like the standing youth. The action is similar to what is represented more schematically on the Geometric prothesis scenes, but is essentially the same on a reduced scale at a time when there were restrictions of lavish public displays of grief at funerals.

The lekythos on the right shows a stone funeral stele, on which garlands brought by the visitors have been tied. The woman to the left carries a basket, from which garlands or ribbons can be seen hanging; she will leave these offerings at the tomb. Wreaths, lekythoi, and a kylix stand on the steps as offerings left at the tomb, as can be seen on another lekythos from the same time (see Figure 10.25, page 261). The youth on the right leans on a stick, as is common in conversational types of scenes, but we do not know whether this youth is the deceased or another family member. So, too, the woman

5.26 Attic white-ground lekythoi with funerary scenes. London, British Museum. Left: attributed to the Sabouroff Painter, c. 450-440 все. 13 in (33.02 cm). Prothesis and mourning. D62. Center: attributed to the Reed Painter, c. 420-410 все.

11G in (29.2 cm). Charon. D61. Right: attributed to the Reed Painter, c. 420 все. 12G in (31.7 cm). Woman and youth at tomb. D73. Photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum.

Koroibos son of Kleidemides, of Melite Kleidemides son of Koroibos, of Melite Koroibos son of Kleidemides, of Melite

Two more names follow these:

Euthydemos, son of Sosikles of Eitea Sosikles, son of Euthydemos

The first three names are three generations of the male head of the family, with given names alternating by generations. The fourth individual, Euthydemos, may have married a sister or daughter of Koroibos II, and assumed the role of head of the family, which then passed to his son Sosikles. The stele to the right features a relief of a special long-necked vase called a loutrophoros. This vessel, used for ritual washing, was particularly appropriate for commemorating the dead and its inscription tells us that it is for Kleidemos, son of Kleidemides, probably the brother of the first Koroibos (the alternation of names by generation makes this uncertain). He appears to have died unmarried and was good in battle, and perhaps died fighting like Kroisos. The nearby monument of Dexileos (see Figures 12.12 and 12.13, pages 301, 302) tells us that he died in a battle in 394-393 and shows him triumphant riding a horse, even though he was killed in battle (see also Figure 9.17, page 231 for another battle funerary monument).

The left stele shows a woman seated on a chair with a female attendant, probably a slave (Figure 5.28). She holds something like a necklace in her hand; the inscription tells us that she is

“Hegeso, [daughter of] Proxenos.” Given its date, about 400 bce, it is thought that she could be the wife of the first Koroibos mentioned on the adjacent stele. While more naturalistic in appearance than Phrasikleia or Kroisos in the mid-sixth century, this is still an idealized and universal representation, now of a woman who, as wife, manages the household. She is beautiful, poised, and modest. As the only woman represented by image or name in the family plot, one can see the relative importance of male lineage, but the interruption in the male line on the middle stele also reminds us that women had a role to play in the continuity of the family and household, as we shall discuss further in Chapter 13. Indeed, the fortune of Koroibos, like that of Euthydemos, might have been made by his marriage to the daughter of Proxenos, if she were Proxenos’s only descendant, prompting a special monument for the female line of the family (Stewart 1997, 124-129).

Boardman, J. 1991. Greek Sculpture: The Archaic Period: A Handbook. London: Thames and Hudson.

Cahill, N. 2002. Household and City Organization at Olynthus. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Euripides, Ion in D. Grene and R. Lattimore, eds. 1958. Euripides III, tr. R. F. Willetts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Gell, A. 1998. Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Papadopoulos, J. K. and M. R. Schilling. 2003. Ceramicus Redivius: The Early Iron Age Potters’ Field in the Area of the Classical Athenian Agora. Hesperia Supplements 31. Princeton: American School of Classical Studies in Athens.

Stansbury-O’Donnell, M. D. 2011. Looking at Greek Art. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press.

Stewart, A. 1997. Art, Desire, and the Body in Ancient Greece. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press.

Tanner, J. 2007. “Portraits and Agency: A Comparative View.” In R. Osborne and J. Tanner, eds. Art’s Agency and Art History, 70-74. Oxford: Blackwell.

Whitley, J. 2012. “Agency in Greek Art.” In T. J. Smith and D. Planzos, eds. A Companion to Greek Art, Chapter 30. Oxford: Blackwell.

further reading

Boardman, J. 1991. Greek Sculpture: The Archaic Period: A Handbook. London: Thames and Hudson.

Cahill, N. 2002. Household and City Organization at Olynthus. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Camp, J. M. 1986. The Athenian Agora: Excavations in the Heart of Classical Athens. London: Thames and Hudson.

Camp, J. M. 2001. The Archaeology of Athens. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Kurtz, D. C. and J. Boardman. 1971. Greek Burial Customs. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Lissarrague, F. 1987. The Aesthetics of the Greek Banquet: Images of Wine and Ritual (Un Flot d’Images), tr. A. Szegedy-Maszak. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Mee, C. 2011. Greek Archaeology: A Thematic Approach. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.

Nevett, L. C. 1999. House and Society in the Ancient Greek World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nevett, L. C. 2010. Domestic Space in Classical Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Stansbury-O’Donnell, M. D. 2011. Looking at Greek Art. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press. Topper, K. 2012. The Imagery of the Athenian Symposium. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press. Young, R. S. and J. L. Angel. 1939. Late Geometric Graves and a Seventh Century Well in the Agora. Hesperia Supplements 2, 44-55. Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

the seventh century

(C 725/700-625/600 BCE)

Timeline

Greek Pottery Painting and the Mediterranean Metalwork and Terracotta Architecture and its Decoration Textbox: Network Theory

timeline

he seventh century is generally called the

These issues present themselves in an ivory statue of a man and lion that was found with other ivory and gold artifacts buried in Delphi under the Sacred Way, the path that led through the sanctuary to the Temple of Apollo (Figure 6.1). The figure has more lifelike proportions than earlier Geometric bronzes (compare Figures 4.17 and 4.19, pages 88 and 90) and his costume and anatomy are more detailed, including jointed fingers, knees, and plaits of the hair. The figure is still frontal and the arms are compressed to hold a spear and head of a lion while keeping close to the body and minimizing the carving of the ivory surface. The small mouth and cheeks are more rounded, the overlarge eyes have tear ducts and pupils, and the ears are formed by spirals, details lacking in the Geometric bronzes. Two circles are formed at the end of the front braid and are divided into eight segments, a motif called a rosette that becomes popular in Orientalizing art. The lion’s head is also frontal and its snout, eyes, eyebrows, and ears create a dynamic X-shaped composition that gives some real energy to its face. The claws and tendons are given detailed attention, although the tops of both feet are shown, as if it had two left feet. The top ledge of the base has a meander/battlement pattern like those we saw in the Geometric period, but the curved section below has a more curvilinear, leaflike pattern.

The object was likely a votive offering to the sanctuary at Delphi, which had become an important Panhellenic site by the eighth century все. Like the sanctuary of Olympia that we discussed in Chapter 4, Panhellenic sanctuaries were important cultural exchanges for Greek art and Delphi’s prominence grew through the seventh century and afterward. As we shall see more fully in the next chapter, visitors came to Delphi from all over the Greek world and some from the non-Greek

Mediterranean, bringing offerings to Apollo in the hopes of an oracle and guidance. Visual motifs, subjects, and styles could be observed and dispersed by exchange of goods and ideas.

The ivory statue was likely brought to Delphi from somewhere else, but trying to determine its origin is difficult since it has a pastiche of traits from different artistic traditions. In terms of its subject and com­position, the closest parallel for the ivory is found in monumental Assyrian sculpture, such as the guardian figure holding a small lion from a courtyard in the palace at Khorsabad in modern Iraq (Figure 6.2).

This figure wears a short tunic and its beard, face, and hairstyle differ from the Delphi ivory. The lions are similar, but the legs of the Assyrian lion move more convincingly in three dimensions to wrap around the body of the guardian. There is no parallel for the composition in small sculpture, and it is not likely that the ivory carver had seen the Assyrian palaces for it to be a direct influence. The style and some of the details, such as the ornament on the bottom level of the base, can be found in the art of Lydia in Asia Minor, but the battlement pattern appears to be more Greek in origin. The ivory itself likely originated in western Asia, but it could have been carved elsewhere. The face, especially its triangular chin, has some affinity with the “Daedalic” face found in Greek sculpture of the seventh century, such as the votive figure of the “Mantiklos Apollo” that we will see in the next chapter (see Figure 7.19, page 176), but is otherwise more rounded. While it has a belt like the Mantiklos Apollo, this is not a Greek device; and the Mantiklos Apollo’s nudity is more typical of Greek male figures, unlike the Delphi man.