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The Death of Talos
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
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In Clio Medica 7 (1972) 1 ff. D. Gourevitch published an article (which I have not seen) on ‘Les représentations des soins donnés a Philoctète’. Among these the author included the picture on an Attic red-figure column-krater in Salerno. The next year Albin Lesky republished the pictures with a new interpretation: the death of Talos, the brazen giant who guarded Crete and was destroyed by the Argonauts with Medea's help. It has since been published again, for the first time officially, by the excavator, G. ďHenry, who gives the correct provenance: Montesarchio (the ancient Caudium), near Benevento. He reverts to the interpretation as Philoctetes on Lemnos. I know the vase only from these publications, none of which illustrates or describes the picture on the back of the vase, but it is not likely that this is iconographically relevant or interesting. One detail as well as the general view of the main picture is given by Lesky (after Gourevitch).
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References
1 AA (1973) 1115–19 figs. 1–2.
2 SE 42 (1974) Scavi e scoperte 508, pl. 82,b.
3 ARV 2 1338 Talos Painter no. 1; Sichtermann, H., Griechische Vasen in Unteritalien aus der Sammlung Jalta in Ruvo (Munich, 1966) 23Google Scholar ff. no. 14, pls. I and 24–34; Lesky, l.c. (note 1) fig. 3; and often.
4 L.c. (note 3) 24.
5 Ferrara, Erratico presso T. 312; ARV 2 1340, middle; NSc. (1927) pl. 19; Montanari, G. B. in Riv. Ist. 4 (1955) 179–87Google Scholar, figs. 1–4 (the fullest publication); Aurigemma, S., Le Necropoli di Spina in Valle Trebba I (Rome, 1960) 117Google Scholar f., pl. 138; Dohrn, T., Die Ficoronische Cista (Berlin, 1972) 36Google Scholar ff., pl. 34; EAA 587 fig. 700.
6 See Page, D. L., Medea (Oxford, 1938)Google Scholar lxii n. 1; Shefton, B. B. in AJA 60 (1956) 161CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the dates of these vases see below.
7 L.c. (note 5) 37.
8 Gnomon 39 (1967) 821. A scene on an Etruscan mirror which seems to show the capture of Talos is flanked by figures of Athena and Turan (below, n. 13); but see Montanari l.c. (note 5) 186.
9 Lekythos in Taranto with Theseus deserting Ariadne (cited by Lesky, ): ARV 2560Google Scholar, Near the Pan Painter no. 5; ÖJh. 38 (1950) Hauptblatt 1–16, 41 (1954) 77–90. Others in scenes of Alkyoneus attacked by Herakles, collected by Andreae, B. in JdI 77 (1962) 130–210Google Scholar, with many pictures: Hypnos in figs. 10, 22, 27, 34–5, 37, 41, 44, 45, 47, 50, 53–4, 56.
10 Krater: New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 1972.11.10; MMBull. Fall 1972, cover and centre. Cup: London, B.M. E 12; ARV 2 126, Nikosthenes Painter no. 24, with refs. Both: Robertson HGA pl. 73.
11 E.g. Pfuhl MuZ fig. 535 (London, B.M. D 58; ARV 2 1228, Thanatos Painter no. 12); Robertson, GP 150–1Google Scholar (London, B.M. D 59; ARV 2 851, Sabouroff Painter no. 272).
12 London, B.M. 1206, Cat. Sc. II pl. 22; Robertson HGA pl. 131a; and often.
13 Talos is likewise beardless on several Etruscan bronze mirrors, if as seems likely they illustrate this story (Mansuelli, G. A. in SE 20 [1948/1949] 87Google Scholar). On one (Gerhard ES pl. 58) the attackers are inscribed Castur and Pultuce, but their victim is not named. On another (Gerhard ES pl. 56,1) they are Kasutru and Pulutuke seizing Chaluchasu in the presence of Athena (not inscribed) and Turan (above, n. 8). Beazley, (EVP 199)Google Scholar associates these representations with that on an Etruscan vase of earlyish fifth-century date, and does not suggest that the subject is the capture of Talos, remarking of Chaluchasu that ‘linguistically the name may be equivalent to Chalchas’ but that it cannot be the Chalchas we know. In AA 1948/1949 62 (with fig. 5) L. Curtius revives a plausible conjecture by Panofka, (AZ 4 [1846] 317)Google Scholar that the name is connected with the root χαλκ and indicates the Man of Brass, Talos. He is illustrating and discussing (58 ff., figs. 3 and 4) two uninscribed mirrors in Berlin, one engraved like all the others (Gerhard ES pl. 255), the other, of beautiful quality, with the design in relief. On these the attackers are bearded and winged, and Curtius postulates a version of the story in which the doughty deed was assigned not to the Dioscuri but to the other Argonaut twins, the sons of Boreas, Kalais and Zetes, shown seated in the Argo on the Ruvo vase. The central figure, unbearded on both, has on the engraved piece a crescent-moon on his brow and a star beside him; and Curtius quotes some evidence for an association of Talos with heavenly bodies, see also Montanari (l.c. n. 5) 186 f. Yet another engraved mirror without inscriptions bears an analogous composition (Gerhard ES pl. 353; Dohrn l.c. 38 and pl. 35), in which the wingless victim is bearded; but he is on his knees and his hands seem bound behind him, and Dohrn is no doubt right, following Gerhard, in interpreting him as the defeated Amykos between the Dioscuri.
14 Dohrn op. cit. pls. 4, 17 and 19. The figure is generally interpreted as either Boreas or Sosthenes; see Dohrn 17 f. with n. 53.
15 ARV 2 1103 ff.
16 Above, n. 5.
17 See Gnomon 46 (1974) 827 (M.R.)
18 Nostalgic echoes of works from around the mid century are common in Athenian art in the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War; see Robertson, HGA 421Google Scholar.