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The Rosi Krater

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

J. D. Beazley
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Extract

Fig. 1 gives the picture on the front of an Attic red-figured bell-krater which was formerly in the Roman market: about 1831 the vase belonged to the dealer Rosi, at another time to the dealer Campanari: it has since disappeared. The reproduction is taken from the lithograph (made from a drawing in Gerhard's apparatus) which was published by C. von Paucker, with a commentary, in AZ 1852, pl. 42 and pp. 450–8.

Two small pieces are marked in the drawing as restored. There may be a little restoration besides this: the cheekpieces of the helmets, part of the shield, and one or two small particulars, were either retouched in the original, or copied carelessly by the modern artist. The faces, too, especially those of the two left-hand figures, cannot be quite as they were in the original.

The date is about 450 B.C. As to the artist, there is much that recalls the Eupolis Painter, and the vase is almost certainly his work (ARV. p. 670 no. 3). Compare the drapery, especially, with that on his name-piece, the bell-krater in Vienna (1772: A, WV. E pl. 12, 1, whence Robert Herm. p. 65 fig. 52: A, von Lücken pl. 113: ARV. pp. 668–9 no. 1).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 67 , November 1947 , pp. 1 - 9
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1947

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References

1 The earliest comely Medusa may be on the bell-krater by the Polydektes Painter in Bologna (Annali 1881 pll. F–G; Boll. d'Arte XXVII, 497Google Scholar: ARV. p. 665, middle, no. 2), adduced by Furtwängler, (Mast. p. 158)Google Scholar: but it is perhaps not quite certain, as the features are not perfectly preserved. A little later, about 440 B.C., is the pelike by Polygnotos in New York (45.11.1: Boll. d'Arte XXVII, 555–6Google Scholar; part of A, AM. LX–LXI, pl. 100; Bull. Metr. Jan. 1946 pp. 127–130, Milne, M. J.Google Scholar), where Medusa has the face of a strong virago.

There are some early classic Medusas which though perfectly human are ill-favoured: e.g. those on a white pyxis in the Louvre (MNB 1286: Mon. grecs 1878 pl. 2 = Dumont and Chaplain II pl. A: phot. Giraudon 34133: ARV. p. 607, middle) and a bobbin in Athens (10459: Wolters and Bruns Kabirenheiligtum pl. 24, 1–3).

1(bis) The bird above the man must be an owl, harbinger of Athena.

2 See below, p. 5.

3 The parenthetic clause comes awkwardly and is sometimes rejected as an interpolation. On the other hand it would be awkward not to be told who the slayer was. See also Robert, Oidipus I, 131Google Scholar. Statius describes how Tydeus, mortally wounded, with a last effort cast his spear at Melanippos and killed him (Theb. 8, 724 ff.).

The question who slew Melanippos does not affect our argument.

4 See below, p. 5.

On the story, Stoll in Roscher s.v. Melanippos, Johannes Schmidt in Roscher s.v. Tydeus, Robert, Oidipus I, 131–5 and II, 47–9Google Scholar, Robert, Heldensage, 938–9Google Scholar, Frazer, Apollodorus I, 369–70Google Scholar, Richter in Richter and Hall, 171–2, Haspels, ABL, 179Google Scholar.

4 (bis) Amphiaraos,indeed, as Robert, points out (Oidipus I, 133)Google Scholar, was no longer available to Statius, since he had already been swallowed up into the earth: but Statius was free to put that event later if he had so wished.

5 Thebanische Heldenlieder, 76–7: further, Robert, Oidipus I, 131–5Google Scholar and Heldensage 935.

6 . Pindar here as in other places gives a glimpse not of the cloud but of the silver (or golden) lining to the cloud.

7 In schol. Ar. Aves 1536 (above, p. 4) it is not known who the ἒνιοι were who called Βασιλεία Ἀθανασία, or to what period they belonged: in any case they have nothing to do with the story of Tydeus.

8 Antiphanes fr. 86, 6 Kock: . It is perhaps more than a coincidence that this line implies a still more obvious . On the scansion of the word, Schulze, Quaestiones Epicae, 142Google Scholar.

9 Does not ἀμβροσίη σώματος mean ‘her fragrant body’ rather than ‘her immortal body’?

10 Three examples from many: the flower offered by Leda on the amphora by Exekias in the Vatican (Pfuhl, MuZ fig. 230); offered by Athena on the amphora by the Andokides Painter in Munich (ibid. fig. 315); brought by Hermes on a volute-krater in Oxford (CV. pl. 31, 1).