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The Pergamene Frieze

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Extract

In the reconstruction of the Pergamene frieze from the fragments which have come to the Berlin Museum much progress has been recently made, and it is now possible to follow—in respect of some of the slabs—a tolerably clear order to which certain mechanical or external signs in the stones themselves would appear to point. And this is a clue more helpful than that which the affinity of style or the natural relations of the figures can afford. It is partly on such grounds as these that the slab on which Dionysos appears has been assigned to the south-east corner of the staircase, and it has been conjectured that near to this, perhaps immediately on its right, was one on which was seen the form of a winged god whose left arm holds a shield, and whose right arm, wielding a sword, is swung over his head against a fallen antagonist.

The giant has sunk on his knee, and is raising in supplication or defence his left arm that dimly appears through the shaggy fell that envelopes it. A right hand grasping a stone, the fragments of a knee just lifted from the ground, are placed beneath, and probably belong to him. The drapery of the god is arranged for dramatic effect, as the exomis leaves the right side bare, so that the action gains force and clearness of expression. The composition can make no claim to originality, its forms are highly sculpturesque, and had long been a tradition of sculpture: a metope on the east front of the Parthenon (Michaelis, No. xiii.), on which a scene from the gigantomachy is represented, is the earliest source to which we can directly trace this motive.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1885

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References

page 102 note 1 A more recent discovery makes this improbable.

page 103 note 1 Such affinity may explain the representation of Boreas on the chest of Cypselus as serpent-footed, for the serpent is the symbol of the powers of the nether world. Compare with this the vase from Palermo (Arch. Zeit. 1872, taf. 45), where a winged youth with sword in hand, following a maiden, appears to be Boreas; vide Lucian, Tim. 54,

page 103 note 2 Jahn, , Vasensammlung, No. 376Google Scholar; Gerhard, , Auserlesene Vasenbilder, iii. 152.Google Scholar

page 103 note 3 Annali dell' Instituto, 1854, pl. 8, 9.

page 103 note 4 Paus. 8, 36, 6.

page 104 note 1 Vide Paus. x. vi. 4; Herod. 7, 178; Preller, , Griech. Myth. 2, 150.Google Scholar

page 104 note 2 Trendelenburg compares the head of the Ludovisi Medusa; the structure of the heads, the east of features is to some extent the same, but the expression of the Ludovisi work is of an altogether different sentiment.

page 104 note 3 Claudian's description (Gigantom. 89) may have been borrowed from such a scene.

Ille viro toto moriens, serpentibus imis

Vivit adhuc stridore ferox et parte rebelli

Victorem post fata petit.

page 105 note 1 M. d. I. v. 12, the figure of a snake-footed giant, with fins about his waist. Overbeck, , Kunst-Mythologie, p. 395Google Scholar. Compare also a relief from the theatre of Catania. The later ideal of Triton recalls many features of the Pergamene giants.

page 106 note 1 This would seem to be an essential mark both of the mother and daughter, except on some sarcophagi showing the rape of Proserpine, when her body is half uncovered. Vide Claudian's poetical embellishments of Proserpine's dress.—Rapt. Pros. 41—54.

page 106 note 2 Trendelenburg would see in these two figures the Genetyllides, but we know very little of their characteristics, nor are his arguments very satisfactory.

page 106 note 3 The letters are those attached to the figures in the Bescreibung der pergamenischen, Bildwerkc.

page 106 note 4 Apollodorus (i. 6) mentions the Moerae among the combatants, and they may have been seen on our frieze; but the goddess (A) who is armed with the torch, or (B) who is followed by the hound, cannot at least be one of them.

page 107 note 1 Gigantomachie auf antiken reliefs.

page 107 note 2 This is Ravaisson, M.'s explanation. Monuments grecs, 1875Google Scholar.

page 107 note 3 Bacch. 275:—

page 107 note 4 Myth. Vatic. i. fab. 2. The whole account is confused mythology.

page 107 note 5 Paus. 8, 25, 42.

page 108 note 1 This is proved to be a corner slab by the marks of the mechanical connection between B and C.

page 108 note 2 It is seen on the peplos of the Dresden Pallas; the instances from coins are fairly numerous.

page 109 note 1 The ingenuity of this arrangement, which thus presents the greater part of his back en face, is noted by Trendelenburg, , Die Gigantomachie des pergamenischen Altars, p. 65.Google Scholar

page 109 note 2 The same principle of composition is seen on the Parthenon frieze.

page 110 note 1 The lower arms are lost, but there are fragments of hands grasping a large stone, placed above his head, and very probably belonging to him.

page 110 note 2 Vide Duc de Luynes, Descr. de Vases peintes, pl. 8.

page 111 note 1 Paus. 2, 30, 2: These words might indeed describe three shapes, arranged as in Geryon front-wise; but the common later tradition, and the significance of such figures at the three cross-roads, bears out the other interpretation.

page 111 note 2 Overbeck, , Geschichte d. griech. Plast. ii. p. 236Google Scholar, adopts this view without question; but he is wrong in considering this as an unique instance of such a rendering. Vide Gerhard, , Antike Bildwerke, cccvii. 34 and 36.Google Scholar

page 111 note 3 In Arcadia, connected so closely with Pergamon in religion and legend, the worship of Despoina was supreme (Paus. 8, 37, 6); Koppen, Die dreigestaltete Hekate identifies Despoina with Hekate (page 6).

page 112 note 1 Generally speaking such traits are found more in literature than in art; on a vase from Ruvo, (Bullet. Napol. 1853, tav. 6)Google Scholar, serpents are seen on her forehead.

page 112 note 2 Sophocles, , Ῥιζοτόμοι, fr. 490 ed. Nauck, Google Scholar. In the Pergamene frieze, the hound by her side is not at all the λυσσῶπις σκυλάκη (Orph. Argon. 975) of the infernal goddess.

page 113 note 1 Schol. Theocr. 2. 12.

page 113 note 2 The Despoina of Arcadia is the daughter of Poseidon and Demeter.— Paus. 8, 37, 6.

page 113 note 3 In another part of the frieze a sea deity is designedly opposed to a giant of the sea; another instance, which may appear capricious, will be noticed later on.

page 114 note 1 Praep. Ev. 4, 23.

page 114 note 2 Gr. Litteratur geschichte, i. p. 984.

page 115 note 1 One might conjecture that the work of Scopas (Paus. 2, 22, 7) has influenced the Pergamene sculptor.

page 116 note 1 There is no real reason for so calling him; the name of Orion is not found in any account of the gigantomachy, nor have the legends concerning him anything to do with this tradition.

page 117 note 1 Claudian, (Rapt. Proserp. 234)Google Scholar speaking of the ‘geminus cinctus’ of Diana, may refer to some such arrangement.

page 117 note 2 Trendelenburg gives the name of Artemis to the figure called Hera by Heydemann on the vase from Altamura.

page 118 note 1 Müller, , D. d. a. K. 2, 158Google Scholar.

page 119 note 1 Another principle is seen in the smaller reliefs discovered at Pergamon, which will be described later.

page 121 note 1 Overbeck, , Kunst-Mythologie, i. p. 371.Google Scholar

page 121 note 2 Welcker, , Griech. Götterlehre, i. p. 326.Google Scholar

page 122 note 1 Hymn to Apollo, line 94.

page 122 note 2 This word has more properly an ethical than a geographical reference; but vide Strabo, 435.

page 122 note 3 Such combinations as Ge-Themis and Athene-Themis, found in inscriptions from the Athenian theatre, do not prove that Θέμις is a mere abstract epithet. Compare such composite figures as Zeus-Poseidon, Zeus-Dionysos.

page 122 note 4 Somewhat analogous is the part which the Moirae play in the action. Apollod. i. 6.

page 122 note 5 Pausanias, 9, 22, 1, and 10, 5, 6.

page 122 note 6 The letters Εϒ have been preserved on a fragment giving the name of a deity; one of three suggestions will probably be accepted, viz. that the name is Eurynome, or Euterpe (for the Muses probably appeared on the frieze), or Eunomia.

page 123 note 1 Traces of a long lock of hair appear on his back between the shoulders; a long-haired god will scarcely be Hermes, and certainly not Heracles. The Oriental character of the other figure in the group suggests that it belongs to the company of Cybele, and that the young god is akin to her.

page 123 note 2 Are we to give this name to the curious lion-headed and winged figure found on a Cyzicene stater, of which a cast is in the British Museum ?

page 123 note 3 Paus. x. 18, 5:

page 123 note 4 Annali dell. Inst. xiii. p. 170, 260.

page 124 note 1 Pergami symplegma nobile digitis corpori verius quam marmori impressis. Pliny, 36, 24.

It is interesting to compare the Pergamene group with the bronze of Heracles and the lion; Furtwängler, , Sabouroff, ix. cxlviiiGoogle Scholar. The type of the action is the same, but the head of Heracles is bent much further forward, and his body has more of the ‘distortum et elaboratum,’ but the bronze shows a glaring defect in the position of the left arm of Heracles, which is avoided on the corresponding figure of the frieze.

page 126 note 1 On the frieze of the Theseum we see this motive effectively employed for the figure of the so-called Theseus, and the Pallantid that hurls the stone against him recalls the figure of the giant that confronts Apollo.

page 126 note 2 Arch. Zeit. 1882, 3, p. 251, note.

page 127 note 1 Published by Lenormant, , Élite Ceram., vol. 2, pl. lv.Google Scholar Very similar is the action of Apollo on the relief from Termessus, (of late date, Arch. Zeit. 1881, p. 158)Google Scholar.

page 127 note 2 E.g. on the vase from Altamura, published by Heydemann.

page 127 note 3 Vide Overbeck, , Geschichte d. griech. Plastik. 2, p. 237Google Scholar; Conze, , Die Ergebnisse d. Ausgrabungen1880, p. 61Google Scholar; Furtwängler, , Arch. Zeit. 1882, p. 251.Google Scholar

page 128 note 1 Kekule, Apollo-köpfe, Arch. Zeit. 1878, p. 7Google Scholar; vide silver coin from Epidauros, , Arch. Zeit. 1869, taf. 23, 8.Google Scholar

page 128 note 2 Gesch. d. griech. Plast. 2, 320—328.

page 128 note 3 Paus. x. 15, 2:

page 131 note 1 On the fifth-century vase, published by Heydemann, Hera, according to his explanation, is seen fighting with the spindle. The same figure is explained by Trendelenburg as Artemis with the plectron.

page 131 note 2 One might conjecture that the figure from the Gigantomachy of the frieze of Priene, whose left arm seizes her antagonist's head, is Hera (Overbeck, , Gesch. d. griech. Plast. vol. ii. p. 102, fig. b.Google Scholar

page 131 note 3 She is found in coins of Bruttii hurrying forward in long chiton, with helmet on head, and holding shield in both hands. The conjecture that the sons of Praxiteles who carved a statue of Enyo fixed for sculpture the type of the goddess has some plausibility.

page 132 note 1 The myth of the destruction of the giants at Phanagoria (Strabo, 495) through the guile of Aphrodite, if an early local legend, is possibly non-Hellenic.

page 133 note 1 Theocritus, 17, 36. Hyginus, ed. Schmidt, p. 12.

page 133 note 2 B. M. Cat. Greek Coins, Epirus, pl. 17. 5, 12; pl. 18, 1. The vase published by Welcker, , Alte Denkmäler, 3, p. 136Google Scholar, does not serve as an analogy. Dione is there in the cortège of Bacchus, and wears a vine-crown.

page 134 note 1 Mon. inediti dell. Inst. 1854, pl. xix.

page 137 note 1 Cf. the representation of the twinbrethren on the sarcophagus of the Lateran Die antike Bildwcrke des later. Museums, Benndorf u. Schöne, 250.

page 137 note 2 Year 1883, p. 196.

page 137 note 3 The resemblance of this figure to one of the Dioscuri on the Louvre amphora is most striking and almost conclusive.

page 137 note 4 They cannot be barbarian warriors, for they carry Hellenic arms, and the figures of some of the giants on the Ruvo vase strangely recall these.

page 139 note 1 Corp. Ins. Graec. 4042.

page 139 note 2 Galerie Mythologique, 2, cxx.

page 140 note 1 I had wrongly conjectured that this belonged to the horse of Eos.

page 140 note 2 There is a fragment, of very fine workmanship, of a goddess who is carrying a torch, of which the traces appear on her breast, and who will belong to the company of Helios or Hekate.

page 142 note 1 Furtwängler, , Sabouroff Coll. v. cxxxvii.Google Scholar