Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 September 2015
A small Corinthian phiale mesomphalos of which a few joining sherds were found at Perachora, had been decorated outside with animals in a rather perfunctory style, and inside with a figure-scene, a frieze with the figures' feet towards the centre of the bowl (plate XXIIIa). The surface was finished differently inside and outside, a striking instance, as J. K. Brock points out, of variation in technique without chronological implications. Surface-finish and painted decoration together also exemplify how a change in the entire approach of Corinthian artists—both potter and painter, in this case—will often accompany a change of subject-matter. The filling-ornaments enhance the difference: outside, a rather dense filling of the usual solid shapes; inside, a dot-rosette only.
The subject of the inside picture is described as ‘three padded dancers, the one in the middle holding a horn’. Padded dancers are undoubtedly present, the best-preserved figure (on the right) is wholly typical, except for his excited gesture indicating that something unusual is afoot. But his neighbour is different. Nude, slim-waisted, strong-limbed, he comes striding in from the left, turning his head towards the quarter whence he came. He too has lively arms, their length expressively exaggerated; in his right hand he holds what could certainly be a misdrawn horn, though it should be said that padded dancers take better care of their drink.
1 Perachora ii 266, no. 2561, pl. 109. Pl. xxiiia reproduces, with the kind permission of the Managing Committee of the British School at Athens, a photograph which T. J. Dunbabin placed at my disposal.
2 For comparison Brock refers to a lost vase, probably a companion-piece of the Athens amphoriskos (see below). Other padded-dancer vases with dotrosettes (aryballoi): Payne, H., Necrocorinthia (abbreviated NC in the following), pl. 37. 7–8Google Scholar; CV Oxford ii pl. 6. 22. The pyxis in Berlin, NC no. 876 (Antike Kunst, vi (1963) pl. 22), which combines padded dancers and a women's dance, has dot-rosettes in the latter scene.
3 As regards the iconography of padded dancers generally I must refer here and in the following to my forthcoming conspectus of the material in Symbolae Osloenses (abbreviated SO). On conventions in rendering their costume, v. also Acta ad archaeologiam et artis historiam pertinentia (Inst. Ront. Norv.), ii (1965), last section of my article; in the following I cite this article as Acta.
4 SO, nos. 215–240 (including ten examples of one type, that of padded dancers together with nude women). The difficulty in such cases is, first, to determine whether the intruding figures may after all be intended for padded dancers; secondly, to distinguish between intrusion and mere juxtaposition.
5 Payne, in NC 142 Google Scholar (with nn. 6 and 7) summarizes the discussion; of later studies, Brommer, F.'s survey (JdI lii (1937) 198 Google Scholar sqq.) remains the most important for Corinthian as for other periods. Recently Delcourt, M. (Héphaistos ou la légende du magicien, 1957)Google Scholar has examined the monuments afresh in the course of her fundamental study of the god's cults and myths (pp. 90 sqq.); Bruneau, Ph. in BCH lxxxvii (1963) 509 sqq.CrossRefGoogle Scholar is not concerned with the Corinthian material. Cf. also the following notes.
6 ‘Some Thoughts on the Pre-History of Greek Drama’, in Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies v (1958) 43 sqq. See also his Greek Theatre Production (1956), passim; Antike und Abendland viii (1959) 7 sqq.; Greek Art and Literature 700–530 B.C. (1959) 62 sqq.; Pickard-Cambridge, A., Dithyramb, Tragedy and Comedy 2nd ed. (1962) 171 sq.Google Scholar
7 Old no. B 42. From Nola. NC no. 1176; Walters, H., History of Ancient Pottery i pl. 21, 1Google Scholar (before cleaning). I am greatly indebted to Dr. Ann Birchall for her help in having the vase cleaned and providing new photographs; one is reproduced here by courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum.
8 NC no. 1073. Published by Loeschke, G., AM xix (1894) 510 sqq.Google Scholar, pl. 8; the extensive literature surveyed by Breitholtz, L., Die dorische Farce, etc. (1960)Google Scholar and by Webster in Pickard-Cambridge, op. cit., List of Monuments, no. 38; add Delcourt, , Héphaistos, 94 Google Scholar, fig. 3. For the splendid photographs and leave to reproduce them I am indebted to the generosity of Mrs Semni Karouzou.
9 A detail which did not appear clearly in the old drawing, is that the raised hand of the ὀσχοφόρος is clenched about some small object, impossible to interpret (grape ? ?): his gesture is thus analogous to that of the man holding a bunch of grapes, he is not ‘pointing the way’ (Loeschke, op. cit., 515 sq.; Schnabel, , Kordax (1910) 57 Google Scholar). He might be thought of as pulling the lady's hair. The implications would be interesting—cf. the plate, BCH lxxxvi (1962) pl. 5 (SO no. 225); or the Protoattic ‘Aigisthos’ Krater ( Matz, , Gesch. d. griech. Kunst i pl. 211 Google Scholar)–but the possibility seems a very bare one.
10 I doubt if it is possible to argue, with Graef, (Hermes 1901, 95)Google Scholar, Brommer, (JdI 1937, 199 n. 1)Google Scholar, Herter, (Vom dionysischen Tanz zum komischen Spiel (1947) 47 n. 46)Google Scholar and Webster (in Pickard-Cambridge, op. cit., 171) that the painter thought of this figure as male. The strongest objection is hardly the dress (NC 142 n. 5)—as Professor Webster pointed out to me, it might suit an effeminate as well as a woman—but the fact that a distinction in the eye-shape was at least attempted. Corinthian painters do not always distinguish male and female eyes, but where a distinction is found it must have some purpose. Also, the incised contour seems like a reminiscence of outline-technique.—The scale-pattern of the shawl has been thought to furnish a clue, but this also is doubtful. In earlier art such cloaks were common (e.g., Matz, op. cit., pls. 172, 206, 211). Conceivably in sixth-century art they would lend a solemn, old-world air; but on a jug about contemporary with the amphoriskos (Perachora ii no. 2066, pl. 77) two women in a sacrificial procession wear cloaks with a scale-pattern border, so not even this is certain. Less relevant for comparison are monuments where scale-pattern may be a stylisation of hair (as Higgins, , Brit. Mus. Terracottas ii Google Scholar no. 1664), for whatever the garment on the amphoriskos represents it is not ‘a skin’ (Webster, l.c.)—it has the modish cut and arrangement of, e.g., Iole's cloak on the Eurytios Krater (NC pl. 27).
11 Acta Archaeologica (Copenhagen) xxxv (1964), beginning of my article; cf. SO.
12 CV pl. 7, 4–6 and 9; JdI 1937, 214 sqq., figs: 14–15; Brommer, F., Satyroi (1937) 25, figs. 15–16.Google Scholar I am grateful to the Keeper of Musée Rodin, Mme Goldscheider, for leave to examine the vase as closely as could be done without taking it to pieces and cleaning it; the modern paint has flaked since the publication, and a little more can be discerned than formerly.
13 A reclining figure occurs with padded dancers on three other vases: the plate in Athens, , BCH lxxxvi (1962) pl. 5 Google Scholar; London, bowl, AJA lxv (1961) pls. 8 and 12Google Scholar; and the Tydeus Painter's amphoriskos in London, NC pl. 38, 1 and 5 (SO nos. 225, 224, 240).
14 Cf. Hopper, in BSA xliv (1949) 249.Google Scholar Shape and patterns suggest a Late Corinthian date. The potterwork is good, it seems in the tradition of the best MC cups and kotylai; the style of the drawing on the other hand is crude, and hard to date on its own merits. It may have affinities with certain poor aryballoi, the probable upper limit of which is late MC and which may well continue into LC I (v. my article in Acta Archaeologica xxxv, last part).
15 For the Dümmler Krater (NC no. 1178; SO no. 226) see Bouzek, J. in Γέρας. Studies presented to G. Thomson (Prague, 1963), 61 sqq.Google Scholar, the first photographic publication. Both may well be products of one workshop—perhaps the Medallion Painter's; shape and drawing show them to be later than that master's Copenhagen, krater (AJA lxv (1961) pls. 11–12).Google Scholar
16 Payne, , in NC 314 Google Scholar, regards the shape as very early, and this may be right, though there is hardly an unbroken line of development.
17 See Arch. Zeitung 1859, Pl. 125: cf. NC nos. 942, 1073A. For the Pholos vase (NC no. 941) see now Devambez, P., La peinture grecque (1964) pls. 61 and 64.Google Scholar
18 The Chimaera Painter: AJA lxiii (1959) 363 (Lawrence, P.)Google Scholar, and Acta Archaeologica xxxii (1961) 173 sqq. (Ström, I., who pushes the argument too far by suggesting a Transitional date for the painter)Google Scholar; cf. Antike Kunst vii (1964) 77 sqq. (Benson, J. L.).Google Scholar
19 This seems the natural interpretation of the fact that good painters affect clumsiness in dealing with certain subjects: thus on the amphoriskos CV Norway i pl. 4, the drawing of the bull is straight, while the procession is done in a manner that must be artificial, very stiff and naïve with scant incision. Is not this seventh-century art seen through sixth-century eyes? To the bibliography given in connection with the Oslo amphoriskos should now be added Jucker, I., ‘Frauenfest in Korinth’ (Antike Kunst vi (1963) 47 sqq.)Google Scholar, a thorough discussion of vases with such subjects, especially bottles, and their theme which is, she suggests, a festival of Artemis. The Corinthian Heraia would be another possibility in view of the part played by children in the pictures (cf. Nilsson, , Griechische Feste 57 sqq.Google Scholar); but surely the manner may have come to be considered appropriate for the representation of ‘feminine’ cults and festivals altogether. It is most frequent on vases of ‘feminine’ shapes and use (cf. Jucker, op. cit., 54 sq.). Dot-rosettes, eventually dissolving into the ‘hailstorm’ type of filling, are common in connection with it; note that silhouette-style animals (‘altertümelnd’ Jucker, op. cit., 54) are also much exposed to hail. So are round-shielded warriors, a type that grows frequent in MC; and one aryballos in Syracuse (11825) has a frieze of silhouette padded dancers with hailstorm filling.
20 Gnomon 1961, 456.
21 Examples in SO of phalloi, stone-throwing, shaggy hair and beard; there are also parallels for the varient rendering of costume and attitude.
22 JdI 1937, 204; Delcourt, , Héphaistos, 96.Google Scholar
23 The earliest instance may be the Ferrara bell-krater (c. 460 B.C.), Webster, , Griechische Bühnenaltertümer (1963) pl. 1, AV 10.Google Scholar I am grateful to Professor Webster for discussing this question with me: he thinks that a beardless Dionysos Μελαναίγις may be the subject of the Protocorinthian plastic vase in New York, Richter, , Handbook to the Greek Collection (1953) pl. 24a Google Scholar (cf. Robertson, in BSA xliii (1948) 23 n. 1Google Scholar) and this indeed seems possible.
24 The objection that padded dancers (supposing them to have been present in the original) are not attested at Corinth till the Transitional period, and then only once ( Kraiker, , Aigina no. 423, pl. 32 Google Scholar), may be only apparent. The seventh century is rich in grotesques that sometimes resemble the dancers and may be related to them in meaning (see further in SO), and the abnormal appearance of the dancers on the amphoriskos could be taken to mean that the models were of this sort—though the stylistic explanation given above seems simpler.
25 Körte, , JdI, 1893, 91 Google Scholar, with n. 63.
26 Thus H. J. Rose, himself, at an unguarded moment wrote, ‘[Artemis Brauronia] appeared on occasion in bestial shape … By a very common tendency of all manner of religions, her worshippers were attracted into their deity's outward form’ (Ancient Greek Religion, 85). The limitations and exceptions to my thesis are obvious.
27 Webster, , Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies v (1958) 43 sqq.Google Scholar
28 L.c., and Greek Art and Literature 700–530 B.C., 63, referring to Picard's excellent article in BCH lxx (1946) 455 sqq.
29 So also the (lost) Chalcidian vase, Delcourt, Héphaistos fig. 4, unlike other Return scenes where both gods are shown together. A highly important monument for comparison is the amphora ABV 96, no. 9; a goddess on a mule-cart brought to the assembled gods by Hephaistos.
30 See JHS lxxviii (1958) 6 sq.; cf. Pickard-Cambridge, , Dithyramb 2 82 Google Scholar, n. 3, and pl. 4.
31 AM 1894, 518 sqq. Cf. Brommer, Satyroi; Buschor, , Satyrtänze und frühes Drama (1943).Google Scholar
32 JHS lxxviii (1958) 6, fig. 2. Comparison with the Florence cup, ibid., fig. 4, suggests that the Oxford dancer may have boarded the float in a burst of high spirits.
33 Webster, , Greek Theatre Production 133.Google Scholar
34 AM 1894, 514 n. 1; Delcourt, , Héphaistos 94.Google Scholar
35 Jacobsthal, P., Orna mente griechischer Vasen (1927) 95 sqq.Google Scholar
36 Acta, n. 10; further in SO. I call both versions ‘lameness’; Mme Delcourt would no doubt claim that seen in NC fig. 44A, for her homme retourné (op. cit., 130), but I can see no evidence that the two versions were regarded differently at this date. The existence of two versions argues for an original difference in the meaning.
37 Delcourt, op. cit., 121 sqq. On p. 228 Wilamowitz, with his practical view of a cripple's duties in primitive and warlike communities (NGG, 1895, 236 sq.), gets an undeserved sneer.
38 JdI 1937, 217 sq.
38 bis Cf. Pausanias iii 22, 2.
39 Nilsson, , Griechische Feste 237 sq.Google Scholar; cf. RE s.v. ‘Eukleios’. By 392 B.C. this seems to have been a theatre festival ( Xenophon, , Hell. iv 4.3 Google Scholar; Diod. xiv 86)—the θέατρον in question hardly that to the north of Apollo's temple, judging by Xertophon's account, but located in the Agora (unless his ‘agora’ can be taken to refer to an area adjoining the North Stoa, and not equivalent to the ‘Agora’ of the excavations).
40 Paus, ii 2. 6. Cf. Will, E., Korinthiaka (1955) 216 sq.Google Scholar
41 Bulletin of the John Rylands Library xxxvi (1954) 581; Greek Theatre Production 135.
42 Monuments Piot xl (1944) pls. 3–4: contrast, e.g., Furtwängler, , Sammlung Sabouroff pl. 48.Google Scholar 1 (SO nos. 201, 202).
43 For a black-figure hedgehog, see the Amphiaraos Krater (NC no. 1471); a good conspectus of Corinthian, plastic vases in BCH lxxxvii (1963) 431 sqq.Google Scholar (J. Ducat).
44 CV i pl. 1, 26 (NC no. 1258).
45 Random examples: boars on two Louvre aryballoi, E 522 (unpublished?), A 455 (NC no. 544; CV viii pl. 18. 13–14) have bristle-dashes all over, incised and white respectively. Two in Scandinavia have white dots on the face only—Oslo (CV i pl. 1. 6–8: dots largish), Gothenburg, (Symbolae Osloenses xxx (1953) fig. 4).Google Scholar
46 NC 70 (with n. 5). Red spots on birds are frequent; see, e.g., the Medallion Painter's usage, AJA lxv (1961) pls. 1–14. His later work is close in style and date to many ‘spotted’ dancer pictures.
47 Acta, n.8; further relevant material in SO.
48 If this is correct, the contrast mentioned above (n. 42) is to be explained either as due to the (slight) difference of style; or there is a distinction between the general notion of dappledness and the specific one of sumptuously patterned clothes.
49 They range from motley fools to the ‘coat of many colours’ (which has, it seems, only the authority of the Septuagint).
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