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Cacus on a Black-Figured Vase

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Percy Gardner
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Extract

The Ashmolean Museum has recently acquired an interesting small amphora (height m. ·29) which Mr. Arthur Evans was fortunate enough to discover when excavating in the cemetery of Terranova (Gela) in Sicily. It is of somewhat late date, perhaps about B.C. 500, but certainly much earlier than the destruction of Gela by the Carthaginians in B.C. 405. Mr. Evans has kindly handed over the publication to me.

There is a feature worthy of mention in the technique of the vase. No red is used, but white appears, especially on the side on which Herakles is represented, being used for the basis on which the foot of Herakles rests, and part of his lyre: also there are white spots on the wreath of the Satyr of the other side.

A coloured plate of this vase will be published in my forthcoming Catalogue of Vases in the Ashmolean Museum (Pl. I. A). Meantime I here print a rough engraving of the designs of it; since it seems to deserve a more lengthy discussion than is allowed by the plan of the Catalogue.

I consider that on the two sides of the amphora we have representations of two scenes in the adventure of Herakles and Cacus, not however treated in the serious vein of mythological representation, but in the lighter vein of comedy. This adventure of Herakles is so familiar to scholars from its treatment by Livy and Virgil, Ovid and Propertius, that it is needful only to briefly sketch it.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 13 , November 1893 , pp. 70 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1893

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References

1 The grave was vaulted, of oval form, made of cement, not terra-cotta, and contained a skeleton interment. It had been partially disturbed, and only fragments were found of another small amphora, in size, shape and style the fellow to the above.

2 I use the form Herakles rather than Hercules advisedly, because we have to do with a Greek or Graecized myth.

3 Fröhner, , Médaillons, p. 56Google Scholar: Roscher, p. 2289.

4 Cacus is girt with a sword, and wears high boots. The latter are not winged: Roscher (p. 2400) shows that such boots are worn not only by Hermes, but by Apollo and Peleus; the supposed wings are only a flap.

5 Bonner Studien, p. 89.

6 Klein, , Meistersig., p. 169Google Scholar.

7 Ibid. p. 103.

8 A date for Epicharmus is given by the statement of Hesychius that his literary career at Syracuse began six years before the Persian Wars. See Freeman, 's Sicily, ii. 283Google Scholar, 544.

9 Catalogue, No. 249.

10 Athen. Mittheil. 1888, pl. 9—12 etc. The reverse is figured on p. 81 below.

11 Propertius, v. 9, 10. Cf. Hesiod, , Theog. 287Google Scholar, Of course in art Geryon has three bodies as well as three heads.

12 Cyprus, p. 136; cf. Roscber, p. 1635; Perrot, , Phénicie et Cypre, p. 574Google Scholar. The cut in the text is from a block kindly supplied by Mr. John Murray.

13 Nuove Mem. dell' Inst. ii. 1865, pl. 15. Tlie vase is published by Helbig, Google Scholar, who interprets it as relating to the theft of Hermes.