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A Louvre fragment reconsidered: Perseus becomes Erichthonios1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

John H. Oakley
John H. Oakley
Affiliation:
The College of William and Mary in Virginia
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Extract

A fragmentary red-figure cup, formerly in the collection of Henri Seyrig, has been connected with the myth of Danae and Perseus ever since Beazley first noted it in 1954. Although a number of iconographical discussions of this myth have appeared since, the vase has never been published and, therefore, its iconography never discussed. Today, the fragments are in the Louvre, inv. no. 980.0820. Thanks to the kindness of F. Villard and A. Pasquier, I am able to publish them here for the first time (plate IXa–b).

Type
Notes
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 102 , November 1982 , pp. 220 - 222
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1982

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References

2 Beazley, J. D. and Caskey, L. D., Attic Vase Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ii (Oxford 1954) 12Google Scholar.

3 For the iconography of Danae and Perseus on vases, see Beazley–Caskey (n. 2) 11–12; Schauenburg, K., Perseus in der Kunst des Altertums (Bonn 1960) 7–12Google Scholar; Henle, J., Greek Myths: A Vase Painter's Notebook (Bloomington/London 1973) 87–88, 210–12Google Scholar; and Oakley, J., ‘Danae and Perseus on Seriphos’, AJA lxxxvi (1982) 111–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar (see 111, n. 3 for the earlier bibliography).

4 I would like to thank Prof. Dietrich von Bothmer for informing me of the current location of this vase and D. Knoepfler, Mme Nicolet and H. Cahn for answering inquiries concerning it.

5 For the literary sources of this myth, see Werre-de-Haas, M., Aeschylus' Dictyulci (Leiden 1961) 5–10Google Scholar; Woodward, J. M., Perseus: A Study in Greek Art and Legend (Cambridge 1937) 3–23Google Scholar; Catterall, J. L., s.v. ‘Perseus’ RE xix. A (1937) 982–7Google Scholar; Kuhnert, E. in Roscher, , Lexicon iii s.v. ‘Perseus’ 1986–2028Google Scholar; H. W. Stoll in Roscher i s.v. ‘Danae’ 946–49.

6 Brommer, F., Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage3 (Marburg 1973) 272–3Google Scholar. See my article (n. 3) 111 n. 3 for additions and subtractions to Brommer's list, and 112 n. 7. for a discussion of the vases connected with the various moments of the story.

7 Richter, G. M. A., The Furniture of the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans2 (London 1966) 72–8Google Scholar.

8 Boston 13.200: ARV 2 247, 1 and Para. 350; Fig. 3.

9 Amyx, D. A., ‘The Attic Stelai: Part III’, Hesperia xxvii (1958) 264 ff.Google Scholar This is Amyx's ‘basket-chest’: see pl. 51 c for type drawings.

10 Ibid. 268–71.

11 For the literary sources, see Powell, B., Erichthonius and the Three Daughters of Cecrops, Cornell Stud. Class. Phil, xvii (1906)Google Scholar; Kron, U., Die zehn attischen Phylenheroen, Ath. Mitt. Beiheft v (1976) 67–8Google Scholar.

12 For the conflation of the myths of Erechtheus with that of Erichthonios see most recently Mikalson, J., ‘Erechtheus and the Panathenaia’, AJP xcvii (1976) 141 ff.Google Scholar

13 For the iconography of this scene, see Kron (n. 11) 67–72, 252–3 with a list of these vases and of other monuments where the identification of this scene as the subject matter is tenuous and U. Kron in LIMC i. 1 s.v. 'Aglauros' 288–9, 294 ff; see also Schmidt, M., ‘Die Entdeckung des Erichthonios’, AthMitt lxxxiii (1968) 200 ff.Google Scholar and Schefold, K., Die Göttersage in der klassischen und hellenistischen Kunst (Munich 1981) 48 ff.Google Scholar Not included in these discussions are a recently published Apulian krater calyx in the J. Paul Getty Museum attributed to the Black Fury Group (Mayo, M., The Art of South Italy: Vases from Magna Graecia [Richmond 1982] no. 18Google Scholar) and an Attic red-figure column-krater by the Orchard Painter in the collection of Denman, Gilbert M. Jr (Shapiro, H., Art, Myth, and Culture: Greek Vases From Southern Collections [New Orleans 1981] 20–3Google Scholar).

14 Frankfurt, Liebieghaus STV 7: ARV 2 386, 1649 and Para. 521; Kron (n. 11) pl. 6.

15 Leipsic, Universität T 654; ARV 2 585, 35 and 1660; Kron (n. 11) pl. 2,2.

16 Athens, National Museum, Acropolis 508, 509: ARV 2 973, 7–8; Smith, H. W. R., Der Lewismaler (Leipsic 1939) pl. 22b, f.Google Scholar

17 Private, Gilbert M. Denman Jr: Shapiro (n. 13).

18 Basel, Antikenmuseum BS 404: Schmidt (n. 13) pls 73–4; fig. 4.

19 British Museum E 372: ARV 2 1218, 1; Kron (n. 11) pl. 7,3.

20 The sister guilty of opening the basket in the literary sources is usually Aglauros. This combined with the inscription on the Lewis painter's skyphos (n. 16) has lead Schmidt and Kron to identify the fleeing sister on the Phiale Painter's lekythos as Aglauros. For a list of literary references to Aglauros, see Ervin, M., ‘The Sanctuary of Aglauros on the South Slope of the Akropolis and its Destruction in the First Mithridatic War’, Archeion Pontou xxii (1958) 134–5, n. 3Google Scholar.

21 On the far left-hand side of the fragment where it comes to a point there is a single curved line (⊃) which does not seem to be part of Aglauros' dress. This may well be part of the curved body of a snake rising out of the basket. Unfortunately too little remains to be certain.

22 Athens, National Museum, Acropolis 396, 433, 508–9, 1188–9, 1191, 1193, 1195. Kron (n. 11) 249–56, cat. nos E36, E35, E26, E9, E8, E40, and E10 respectively.

23 Kron (n. 11) 74–5.