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Ares in Coronea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Extract

In the last number of this Journal (liv, p. 206) Mrs. Arnold makes the interesting suggestion that the god associated with Athena Itonia at Coronea, whom I have regarded as being her predecessor and more or less vanquished rival, may have been not Hades but Ares. The evidence for regarding Ares as originally a chthonic deity is to be found in Mrs. Arnold's note, but I should like here to direct attention to a Boeotian vase in the Louvre which has some bearing on the question. It is a black-figured lekane (figs. 1–3) belonging to the last quarter of the fifth century, painted in the style prevalent in southern Boeotia at this period. Fortunately for us the painter has taken the unusual step of inscribing the names of the figures. On the outside is a combat between a mounted Ares and Athena. They do not bear the full brunt of the conflict, but are coming up to the support of henchmen who are the protagonists, on Athena's side Heracles, on the side of Ares a figure with the significant name of Gagenes. Both Athena and Ares are somewhat removed from the fray, Ares on a hill (which causes his head to disappear over the edge of the bowl and break into the meander on the rim) and Athena behind a tree indicated by a tall trunk topped by the familiar conventional palmette.

Type
Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1935

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References

1 My thanks are due to M. Merlin for most kindly allowing me to publish the vase and procuring me photographs of it.