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Orphic Myths on Attic Vases

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Extract

The accompanying cut represents the painting upon a hydria in the British Museum (No. E 818). The design, in red figures, covers the body of the vase, which apparently dates from early in the fourth century B.C., and stands 32 mètres high; the glaze is of that semi-iridescent character which marks the Attic vases of this time, and the red figures are smeared with ruddle and show the original sketch marks very plainly. It was found in excavations in Rhodes in 1880, outside a tomb at the site named in Mr. Biliotti's Diary Cazviri; unfortunately the circumstances of the find do not assist us in determining more accurately the date; but it may be taken as of certainly Athenian fabric, and probably of the date above stated.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1890

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References

page 343 note 1 Biliotti's Diary. Cazviri. March 11. 1880. No. 43. ‘Discovered a sharply vaulted tomb; found outside,

‘1 Hydria black glaze painted with three red figures; not very fine specimen however, as the figures are rather roughly done.

1 alabastron.

1 glass bottle with three coloured stripes.

1 lekythus with ornaments.

1 same with one handle, very common.

1 fragment of stone, perhaps part of a tool.’

page 345 note 1 Arch. Zeit. 1868, p. 3.

page 345 note 2 Annali dell' Inst. 1867, p. 179.

page 345 note 3 Herod, vii. 75.

page 345 note 4 Anab, vii. 4. 4.

page 345 note 5 Pauly, , Real-Encycl. s. v. Liber Pater, iv. p. 1022Google Scholar, refers to a representation of this same scene in Gerhard A. B. taf. 70, but I cannot find the publication he refers to; it is apparently not Antike Bildwerke nor Auserlesene Vasenbilder. The statement above is of course exclusive of the two familiar types, of Orpheus playing to or destroyed by Thracians; and Orpheus in Hades.

page 346 note 1 Toepffer, , Att. Geneal. p. 36.Google Scholar

page 346 note 2 J. H. S. vol. iii. p. 111.

page 346 note 3 Hermes, 1890, p. 1.

page 346 note 4 Lobeck, , Aglaophamus, p, 547Google Scholar &c. For the various versions of the resurrection myth see Frazer, 's Golden Bough, vol. i, p. 324.Google Scholar

page 347 note 1 See Kretschmer, in Aus der Anomia, p. 17Google Scholar, for the Phrygian-Thracian origin of the names Dionysos and Semele.

page 347 note 2 In the Etruscan form of the parallel Kabiric legend, which is represented on an engraved mirror published by Gerhard (16th Winckel-mannsfestprogramm), there are two winged and bearded Kabiri who tear a boy to pieces; and in the parallel story of the Korybantes there are two who thus destroy the third, their brother.

page 348 note 1 The Theban vases are black-figured; since we can hardly imagine black-figured vases being made at Athens as late as the end of the fifth century, it may be that the origin of the Theban type may date back perhaps a half century earlier; in a class of ware specially destined for a temple the style of black figures in which it had started would be kept up by a hieratic conservatism; the Panathenaic amphorae at Athens are an obvious parallel.

page 349 note 1 See J. E. Harrison, Mythology and Monuments of Athens, p. cxviii.

page 349 note 2 For the same reason Stephani's explanation of the Venice relief (C. R. 1863 p. 119) as Persephone and Zagreus cannot be accepted.

page 349 note 3 Muller-Wieseler, Denkm. ii. No. 413; see Heydemann, , Dionysos-Geburt, p. 55.Google Scholar

page 351 note 1 See Aus der Anomia, p. 174.