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A Sybarite Himation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

P. Jacobsthal
Affiliation:
Christ Church, Oxford

Extract

We would gladly give the mediocre textiles preserved in South Russian graves, if Fate had spared a masterpiece of Greek tapestry which we know only from description. It leads a shadowy existence in handbooks, and one can hardly say that recent papers mark any advance towards its precise interpretation.

(i) Aristotle, de miris auscult. 96, 838a.

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Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1938

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References

1 CR 1878–9, pl. IV ff. The most interesting piece is the painted woollen cover from the sixth mound of the kurgan of the Seven Brothers, with mythological scenes and inscriptions, pl. IV; it is figured also by Bieber, Gr. Kleidung, fig. 10b. Date 430–20: Jacobsthal, , Orn. Gr. Vasen, p. 148, n. 281Google Scholar; Schefold, RM 46, 1931, p. 120, and ESA XII, p. 17. For the piece with assyrianising birds (pl. V, 2), Bieber, loc. cit., fig. 10, see Jacobsthal, loc. cit., and Beazley, , Der Panmaler, p. 26Google Scholar.

Superior in quality, and of the greatest historical interest for the contact between China and the West, are the textiles from Noin-Ula in Mongolia: Borovka, AA 41, 1926, pp. 341 ff.; Scythian Art, pl. 73–4; Die Antike 3, 1927, pp. 64 ff.Google Scholar; Alföldi, AA 46, 1931, pp. 393 ff. They are dated to 2 B.C. or thereabouts by the Chinese inscription engraved on the foot of the lacquer bowl found with them (fig. in Ausstellung Chinesischer Kunst, Berlin 1929, Cat. no. 1255Google Scholar; O. Kümmel, AA 42, 1927, p. 451). It is a matter of discussion, however, whether the embroidery with the Scythian horsemen (Die Antike, loc. cit., pl. 8 = AA 41, 1926, p. 357) is not of earlier date—fourth century B.C. or so.

2 Dugas, , BCH 34, 1910, p. 116CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Roes, ibid., 59, 1935, P. 324. I have had the opportunity of discussing the problems with competent friends in or near Christ Church; I am especially grateful to J. D. Beazley; I owe copious information to F. Jacoby; I am indebted to A. S. F. Gow and A. J. B. Wace for useful additions.

3 Diodorus XIV, 109, 1.

4 Polybius XII, 24, 3.

5 See p. 210, n. 29.

6 Roughly the equivalent of £32, 500 gold, or the pay of 3250 mercenaries for ten months.

7 I refrain from discussing the utterly dark question of the sources of Pseudo-Aristotle, Polemon and Athenaeus and their affiliation, as it is of minor importance to us. All we can take for granted is that the Thaumasia and Polemon were both using some writer of Sikelika; whether the same, it is hard to say, as we do not know what Polemon said about the appearance of the himation. What one would really like to know is whether, in the original context, the garment and its story were mentioned in connexion with the tyrant's hobby, or illustrated Sybaritan τρυφή, as they do in Athenaeus.

8 Beloch, , Gr. Geschichte2 III, 2, 153Google Scholar.

9 For the variae lectiones see above. The form Alkimenes, which has crept into some of the textbooks, is Westermann's conjecture, not based on any manuscript.

10 See below, n. 20.

11 Dugas, loc. cit. p. 120, n. 6.

12 Busolt, , Gr. Gesch. III, 1, pp. 518 f.Google Scholar; Beloch, op. cit. II, 1, pp. 199–200; Wade-Gery, , JHS 52, 1932, pp. 217–19, 222 and 225CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Orsi, , Boll. d'Arte, 1919–20, p. 95 ffGoogle Scholar.

14 The strongest argument is afforded by the coins with the head of Athena on the obverse and ΣΥΒΑΡΙ and the Sybarite bull on the reverse. They are discussed by Hill, , Hist. Gr. Coins, p. 49Google Scholar, Beloch, loc. cit., n. 4 and Wade-Gery, op. cit., p. 217, n. 49. To the kindness of Mr. E. S. G. Robinson I owe the following remarks, which correct some of Beloch's statements: ‘The main point is that it seems impossible that the Sybarites, after having been turned out of the joint foundation, could have continued to use types which obviously owe so much to Athenian influences. Further, these coins and coins with ϴΟΥΡΙѠΝ are so close in style and even in mint-mark (e.g., the secret letter on the flank of the bull), that it is very difficult to believe they were not struck in the same mint. The difficulty is that there are coins of Thurium which, at first sight, might appear to be slightly earlier than the coins with the name Sybaris, but this is the kind of accident which is not unknown elsewhere. As regards the detail of Beloch's note, the coins with the name of Sybaris are so scarce that the period during which they were struck need not have been more than a year or so. He cannot be right, either, in saying that the reason why only small silver was struck was that the Athenian tetradrachm was the current unit, for these coins are subdivisions, not of the Attic standard, but of the Achaean standard in use at old Sybaris and neighbouring cities. It is the same standard which the people of Thurium used throughout their history.’

15 Philip, RE, s.v. Sybaris. Mr. T. J. Dunbabin convincingly points out to me that the statement of Pausanias deserves no fides.

16 Stephani, CR 1865, p. 53; 1878–9, p. 104; Rossbach, RE, s.v. Alkisthenes; Weniger, ML, 5, p. 577, line 49 speaks of a ‘carpet.’

17 AJA 1934, p. 107 (Wace)Google Scholar.

18 Mon. Inst. vi–vii, pl. 32; Martha, L'Art Etrusque, fig. 172; CIE 5276; Körte, , JdI 12, 1897, p. 60Google Scholar; Messerschmidt, , JdI 45, 1930, p. 62Google Scholar; Nekropole von Vulci, pl. 11.

19 of Ephesus (Athen. XII, 525c), in his description of the Artemision, not written before the third century B.C., gives a list of luxurious garments, among them κεφαλαὶ (?) . See Studniczka, , Beiträge zur Geschichte der altgriechisch Tracht, p. 22, n. 64Google Scholar.

20 One inscribed textile of pre-Roman date is preserved, the piece mentioned in n. 1. Many of the garments in the Brauronian treasure had inscriptions: frequently occur in the list, see IG II2, no. 1514 ff., passim. See also Buschor, , Beiträge zur Cesch. der griech. Textilkunst, pp. 47 fGoogle Scholar.

21 Kinkel, , Epic. Gr. Fragm. I, 17Google Scholar; Bethe, , Homer II, ii (2. Auflage 1929), p. 153Google Scholar.

22 FR, pl. 69; Schefold, , Unters. zu den Kertscher Vasen, no. 369, pp. 121Google Scholar.

23 Kallixeinos apud Athen. v, 201c, d; Ehrenberg, , Alexander and the Greeks, pp. 2 ffGoogle Scholar.

24 Binneboessel, Studien zu den attischen Urkundenreliefs, passim.

25 Athens, N.M. nos. 2952 an d 2961; Walter, , ÖJh, 18, 1915Google Scholar, Beiblalt, p. 91, fig. 34. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Walter for lending me his photograph, which I reproduce here as Fig. 3.

26 RE, s.v, Kranz, col. 1600, 11 ff.

27 Binneboessel, op. cit., nos. 2, 6, 55, 67, 78. See also Schöne, Gr. Reliefs, nos. 76, 77; Walter, Beschreibung der Reliefs im kleinen Akropolismuseum, nos. 10, 12, 13, 30–33, 33; idem in ÖJh, loc. cit. It is not always possible to ascertain if the deity is putting a wreath or her hand on the head of the person honoured, and sometimes the descriptions are at variance (e.g., Binneboessel, no. 6, where she wrongly speaks of a wreath, whereas Walter's interpretation (no. 11) is correct). There is an honour-decree from a place other than Athens, to which my attention was drawn by Beazley, the Troezenian psephisma IG IV, 748 (= Dittenberger3 no. 162); the relief is figured in AM 36, 1911, p. 34, fig. 5. The Troezenians in 369 confer εύεργεσία and πολιτεία on a Plataean, who is shewn crowned by Poseidon in the presence of Aphrodite; the pattern is apparently Attic. Of a different kind are the treaty stele Mon. Ant. 11, 1902, pl. 26, 3, p. 301, fig. 9, p. 495 (Reinach, , Rép. Reliefs II, 318Google Scholar; Jacobsthal, , Mel. Reliefs, p. 137Google Scholar) where the contracting cities, Polyrhenion and Phalasarna, are represented by their goddesses clasping hands, or the fourth-century Tegeatan honourdecree for an Athenian, who is receiving προξενία and εύεργεσία, with a picture of Tyche and a tropaion on top (IG V, 2, no. 1; I owe the reference to G. Klaffenbach), or cases such as Inschriften von Priene, no. 17—shield and helmet in relief over the text of the psephisma conferring honours on Sotas, who had distinguished himself in the defence of the town against the Gauls.

May I just mention a few other στεφανώσεις of interest: (1) Alcibiades crowned by Olympias and Pythias, by Aglaophon II (Athen. xii, 534d), see Robert, , Arch. Hermeneutik, pp. 79 and 420Google Scholar. (2) the Corinthian mirror in the Louvre (de Ridder, no. 1699; Pfuhl, , MuZ, fig. 624, p. 720Google Scholar; FR ii, p. 42), showing Leukas crowning Korinthos—surely a copy of some famous painting. Did it commemorate some event of the years of the foundation of the Corinthian League? (3) To a lower and more private sphere belongs the picture on a hydria, formerly in the Caputi collection (Adi 1876, pl. D, E; Richter, , Craft of Ath. Pottery, p. 71Google Scholar; Beazley, AV, p. 250, no. 30—recently attributed by him to the Leningrad Painter), which is a work of the fifties or sixties of the fifth century. The painter portrays himself crowned by Athena—— a vain desire which life has hardly satisfied. (4a) Polybius V, 88: ‘.’ The group was erected after the fatal earthquake in 227 or 226 B.C., see Hiller von Gaertringen, RE, suppl. V, col. 785; Robert, , Arch. Herm. p. 420Google Scholar, note to p. 77. (4b) Demosthenes, , de Corona, 91Google Scholar: (in 339 B.C.).

If the psephisma is a forgery the striking similarity with the Rhodian group seems to prove at least a Hellenistic date for it; see Weil, H., Plaidoyers politiques de Démosthéne p. 413Google Scholar. Dumont, (Mon. des Et. Grecques 1873, 31)Google Scholar and Gardner, P. (JHS IX, p. 61)Google Scholar—see RE V 157—believe that a fragment of a colossal bronze statue of a woman from Perinthos formed part of the group. I do not see what a statue of a woman found at Perinthos has to do with a group of three demoi which stood in Byzantium, and not at Perinthos.

28 From Heyne, who first altered Σούσοις into Σουσίοις, and Longpérier (1854) onwards, writers have been disinclined to take Susa for Susa and Persai for Persai, i.e. Persepolis. Longpérier's translation, ‘Le haut représentait les animaux sacrés des Susiens, le bas ceux des Perses,’ has recently been revived by Miss Roes (loc. cit. in note 2), who, ‘risquant l'indignation des fervents de l'archéologie classique,’ thinks that there were to be seen two types of those monsters with two bodies and one head. But, as any dictionary teaches, Ӡῷον and Ӡῷδιον are frequently used for figures of any kind. On Amasis' linen cuirasses (Herod. II, 182 and III, 47)—in the sanctuaries of the Samian Hera and of the Rhodian Athana Lindia (Blinkenberg, Chr., La Chronique du Temple Lindien C, 36Google Scholar) , which need not be animal friezes, see Buschor, , Texlilkunst, p. 43Google Scholar. Strong indirect proofs are Ӡῳγράφος, Ӡῳγραφία, etc. Ӡῳγράφος first occurs in Herodotus II, 46, 5 but Ӡῳγραφήματα is as old as sixth century (Kranz, , Hermes, 1938, 118Google Scholar) see also Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, Index). In Empedocles 128, 5, is the metric translation of will be also a fifth-century word, although the Erechtheum inscriptions IG I2, 372, col. 1, 41–2 (Jahn-Michaelis, , Arx Athenarum, p. 100Google Scholar) and IG I2, 374c, col. 2, 38 ff. (Jahn-Michaelis, p. 108) do not use it. By mere chance the term occurs for the first time in Vitruvius 3, 5, 10 and 4, 1, 2; but in Hieronymus of Kardia's description of the bier of Alexander (Diod. 18, 26) is equivalent (see Müller, , Leichenwagen Alexanders, p. 63Google Scholar, and Wilamowitz, , JdI, 20, 1905, p. 106)Google Scholar.

The contrast ‘Susian animals—Persian animals’ is as warped as if one were to speak of ‘Parisian’ and ‘French’ ones. And was the ancient author such an expert that, like Miss Roes, he could tell Susian monsters from Persian?

To take Πέρσης for an adjective is a blunder, the adjective is definitely Περσικός. Miss Roes, following an old-fashioned dictionary, quotes two cases for an adjectival use of Πέρσης. Of these, the first is in the epigram by Alkaios, , Anth. Plan. 5Google Scholar (Stadtmüller, , Anth. Pal. ad vii, 247Google Scholar) Πέρσαν στρατόν, but Pape (Wörterbuch der Eigennamen 3, s.v. Πέρσης) had already corrected it to Περσᾶν στρατόν; the second is Agatharchidas, , De mari Erythraeo (GGM I, p. 113Google Scholar; RE VI, 593) ‘.’ I should give no credence to it, and I prefer to read or . Dugas, op. cit., p. 116 ingeniously reads ‘σούσοις,’ instead of ‘Σούσοις.’ σοῦσοις is a rare Greek word of oriental origin meaning lily; he thought of a frieze of lotus.

For Persai having been the earlier form of Persepolis we have good third century authorities: Berossus (apud Clem. Alex. Protr. V, 65, 3, Staehlin, p. 50, 5) and the source of Arrian, Anab. III, 18, 10. See Liddell and Scott s.v. and RE XIX, col. 1264, line 1. The source of Ps. Aristotle and Athenaeus is another example; and if, as is likely, “Πέρσαι” was written on our cloth (see n. 20) it would be our earliest evidence for the usage.

29 Ion, 1158 ff.

30 AM 52, 1927, Beilage XIII, 5 and XIV, 2; p. 112.

31 Benndorf, Das Heroon von Gjölbaschi-Trysa, pl. 12.

32 Benndorf, and Niemann, , Reisen im südwestlichen Kleinasien, i, figs. 34–7Google Scholar; AM 52, 1927, p. 141, fig. 5.

33 Benndorf and Niemann, fig. 86; AM 52, 1927, p. 143, fig. 6.

34 Pfuhl, , MuZ II, 677Google Scholar; Schuchhardt, AM 52, 1927, p. 140. In the discussion of perspective drawing during the fifth century B.C., as far as I know, the most striking example has been neglected —the relief with the Persian sacrifice from Erghili (Daskylion) in Istanbul (Mendel, no. 1357; BCH 1913, p. 348, pl. 8). It is of provincial Ionian style of the last quarter of the century. Macridy and Mendel, trying to accord the relief with Strabo's description of the Persian rite (XV, 3, 14) took the construction between the priests and the door for a pyre (bucher de brindilles—botte de branchages). A pyre consists of logs, loosely piled up, to give draught enough to the flame, as shewn by the following more or less elaborate pictures: (1) Myson's Croesus amphora in the Louvre (G 97 FR, pl. 113; Beazley, AV, p. 97, 1). (2) Pelike in Munich (FR, pl. 109, 2; Beazley, AV, p. 452, 3), in the manner of the Kadmos Painter—same construction of pyre, but the logs have already fallen asunder: (Iliad, 9, 212; this excellent variant, read by Aeschylus, Prom. 7 and the Orphic poets (Abel, fragm. 291) has been wrongly rejected on Aristarchus' authority). (3) An Attic krater (Gerhard, Ant. Bildwerke, pl. 31; Milani, , Mito di FUottete I, 3Google Scholar; Baumeister, , Denkmäler I, p. 307Google Scholar; FR II, P. 257), which Beazley assigns to a painter whose chief work is London F 64 (Mem. Line. 6th ser., I, pl. 31,1). (4) Python's Alkmene vase (London F 149; Trendall, Paestan Pottery, pl. 15, p. 56). (5) Tarentine volute krater in Naples, no. 3254 (FR, pl. 89). 6) Etruscan cista in London (Walters no. 638; JdI, 45, 1930, p. 73). (7) Tabula Iliaca. O. Jahn, Griechische Bilderchroniken, pl. I, I*, p. 24: the pyre of Patroklos, very sketchily rendered.

But here we have definitely a pen, made of reedstalks, given a solid foundation by a wooden beam on the ground, and held by wooden poles, inside and outside of which only the latter are visible. I am not convinced that the heads of the victims are already cut off: their eyes are open like those of living animals and not closed as those of the sacrificed ram on the Nekyia krater in the Bibl. Nat. (FR, pl. 60; Trendall, Frühitaliotische Vasen, pl. 16, no. 238). The beasts are lying down and their heads look over the wall. I have asked Dr. Dörner to check my interpretation, based on study of photographs, and, after examination of the original, he confirms its correctness; furthermore, he agrees that the plastic rendering of the animals ends at the right outline of the heads; where one expects the fleecy neck of the sheep, the background is roughed; no doubt the artist used colour here, as he did for the details of the doorconsole.

The horizontal lines of the stalks converge to the left, and the intervals between the actually equidistant poles decrease towards the left; the head of the sheep is done on a considerably smaller scale than that of the bull. This is the most radical case of skiagraphia in classical art. See Delbrueck, , Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Linearperspektive, pp. 41 ff.Google Scholar; Jolles, , Vitruvs Aesthetik, pp. 70, 74, 86Google Scholar; Pfuhl, , JdI 25, 1910, p. 21Google Scholar.

May I say a word on the shape of the door? It has its closest analogy in the door on the Thasian relief in the Louvre (Rayet, , Monuments de l'art antique, I, pl. 22Google Scholar; BrBr, pl. 61) the construction of which has been discussed by Studniczka, , ÖJh 6, 1903, p. 172Google Scholar. The console—οῦς (Klenk, , Die antike Tür (Diss. Giessen 1924) p. 43)Google Scholar—is of exaggerated size; only its outline is sculptured, the details were painted. Its form is very similar to that of the door-consoles on Locrian reliefs (Ausonia III, pp. 141, 143, 209Google Scholar). The console on the Thasian relief correctly renders preserved architectural models as the Erechtheum-door or that of the Lycian fourth-century Amyntas grave (Benndorf und Niemann, op. cit., I, p. 41, fig. 29), whereas the Daskylion and Locrian reliefs turn it sideways 90 degrees. This is either a licence of projection or the rendering of another architectural reality: I am inclined to believe the former.

The consoles of tables, attached to the leg, supporting the tapering end of the table-top, resemble our door-consoles. But here the profile-view on reliefs and vases corresponds to reality and construction. Examples of such table-legs preserved are figured by Richter, Ancient Furniture, fig. 204, 206A; an elaborate representation is to be seen on the Thasian relief in Istanbul, Mendel 587; JdI 28, 1913, pl. 26; Rodenwaldt, Griechisches Relief, fig. 87; Richter, op. cit., fig. 205. Miss Richter (fig. 357) gives a reconstruction. That the table scroll-console is an ornamental development of a simple angular projection is best shown by Etruscan miniature tables such as Berlin, Neugebauer, Führer Bronzen, pl. 28, p. 31 (Richter, op. cit., fig. 197) and the piece in London, Walters, BM Bronzes, no. 448 (Richter, op. cit., fig. 198). The consoles of the kyliouchia on Locrian reliefs present a more difficult problem. Examples are: Ausonia, III, pp. 193, 195, 216, 227Google Scholar; Mon. Ann. Boll., 1856, pl. 28 (facing p. 114); Stackelberg, , Gräber der Hellenen, p. 42Google Scholar (Studniczka, Das Symposion Ptolemaios II, fig. 49); Studniczka, ibid., fig. 48; B.M. Guide Greek and Roman Life, p. 36, fig. 26 (Richter, op. cit., fig. 229); Richter, fig. 242. These chests are very detailed pictures of noble Greek furniture. The large consoles, supporting the projecting part of the top table, have to be taken for real; their sideview may have corresponded to that of the Amyclaean console-capitals JdI 33, 1918, pl. 8–9, p. 147, whereas the little consoles under the lintel of the sham doors offer the same alternative as the door-consoles on the Daskylion and Locrian reliefs.

35 χιτωνίσκος πυργωτός occurs in the middle fourth-century list of clothes in the Brauronion IG II2, nos. 1514, 26; 1515,18; 1516,5,23; 1517,152. The mosaics imitating this textile pattern are mentioned by Studniczka, , Das Symposion Ptolemaios II, 53Google Scholar. The variant shown by the cloth CR 1878–9, pl. 5, 5, which might well be called πυργωτόν, is extremely common in tapestries of many countries and periods. The close connexion of tapestries and mosaics is a well-known fact, but proved cases are rare. I know only one: the mosaic in London, Hinks, Cat. of Paintings and Mosaics, fig. 87, is very similar to the Hellenistic embroidery from Noin-Ula in Mongolia, , Die Antike 3, 1927, pl. 8Google Scholar (AA 41, 1926, PP. 359–60, fig. 10); Borovka's comparisons of motives with some of the South Russian mosaics (AA 41, 1926, pp. 352–3 and 357) are erroneous.

36 I have repeatedly discussed the difficult point with my friends: Beazley looks at the man with Petronian eyes and quotes his favourite writer's chapter 29: ‘non destiti totum parietem persequi. erat autem venalicium cum titulis pictum, et ipse Trimalchio capillatus caduceum tenebat Minervaque ducente Romam intrabat. hinc quemadmodum ratiocinari didicisset, denique dispensator factus esset, omnia diligenter curiosus pictor cum inscriptione reddiderat, in deficiente vero iam porticu levatum mento in tribunal excelsum Mercurius rapiebat. praesto erat Fortuna cornu abundanti copiosa et tres Parcae aurea pensa torquentes.’ Ed. Fraenkel stresses the other aspect of Alkisthenes as a ‘condottiere in “Persian” costume.’

37 F. von Lorentz, RM 52, 1937, 204 ff., in a study on ΒΑΡΒΑΡΩΝ ΥΦΑΣΜΑΤΑ, published when my paper was already with the printers, has independently come to the same result.

38 RE, s.v. Sybaris, Col. 1002, Matz, F., Die Naturpersonifikationen in der griechischen Kunst, p. 103Google Scholar.