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Three Attic Lekythoi from Eretria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Eugénie Sellers
Eugénie Sellers
Affiliation:
Berlin.
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Extract

The three lekythoi with black figures on a white ground, now published for the first time on Plates I., II., and III., were found in 1888 in the excavations carried on by the Greek Government on the site of the ancient Eretria. They are now in the Central Museum at Athens, and have been catalogued and briefly described by M. Staes in the Δελτίον ἀρχαιολογικόν for 1889 (pp. 99 and 139). The vases are of almost unique interest: two of them belonging to the cycle of the adventures of Odysseus, subjects from which have proved so curiously rare in vase-painting, while the third gives an episode in the story of Herakles and Atlas, of which the solitary monumental instance up to now had been the famous metope of Olympia (Friederichs-Wolters, 280). The beauty of the vases, the perfect state of their technique and of their preservation, no less than the interesting problems connected with mythography which they raise, have already won for them considerable celebrity; I therefore wish to record my special thanks to the Ephors of Antiquities in Athens for allowing me the publication of the vases—so graciously accorded to me during my studentship at the British School at Athens in 1891. Mr. Ernest Gardner, Director of our School, had the kindness to supervise the drawings which have been executed by M. Gilliéron. It had been my intention to make the publication of these lekythoi the occasion for a discussion of white-faced ware in connection with the whole subject of Greek painting proper, but I have unfortunately been prevented from collecting the necessary material in time for the present number of the Journal.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 13 , November 1893 , pp. 1 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1893

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References

1 See also Reinach, S., Chroniques ďOrient, 1890, pp. 635Google Scholar and 636, and Mayer, Max. in Athen. Mittheil. 1891, pp. 305Google Scholar and 308.

2 On the Attic ‘provenauce’ of these Eretria lekythoi see Weisshäupl, 's article ‘Attische Grablekythos,’ Athen. Mitth. 1890, p. 40Google Scholar.

3 These rows of dots are on the whole rare on this class of lekythoi; the pattern most generally found is the simple maeander, or the maeander alternating with crosses (cf. Mayer, Max., Athen. Mittheil. 1891, p. 309)Google Scholar.

4 For the ingenious mechanical contrivance by which the potters probably produced the straight lines which occur so invariably on lekythoi at the bottom and the top of the main picture, see Pottier, E., Étude sur les lécythes blancs ďAttique, p. 95Google Scholar, and further the suggestive remarks of Durand-Gréville, E., ‘De la couleur du décor des vases Grecs’ (Rev. Archéologique, 1892, p. 19Google Scholar f.). The potter, it seems, presented a brush charged with paint to the lekythos, which was made to revolve on the wheel. On the Siren vase it should be noticed that on the left of the Ionic column, above the dots, only a single line appears, while there are double lines on the right. Just at the top of the capital on the right we can clearly see the little upward movement which the potter imparted to his brush so that the lower line might not interfere with the capital: when he got to the other side he apparently could not resume the right position and the lines ran together.

5 Staes, M. in describing the vase (Δελτίον 1889, p. 99Google Scholar) suggested, unnecessarily I think, that the wave-lines were πρὸς δήλωσιν τῆς ἐκ μαλλίου κατασκευῆς αὐτοῦ.

6 Mr. Cecil Smith kindly informs me by letter that the ‘same unusual rendering of the sea is found on a fragment of early sixth century (Asiatic ?) ware in the British Museum from Naukratis, B 10319; the vase represented apparently Odysseus, (in his ship) passing the Sirens’ (Class. Rev. 1888, p. 233)Google Scholar.

7 Br. Mus. Catal. 98, described by Mr.Smith, A. H. as ‘two male figures scated to right,’ Milchhoefer, Anfänge der Kunst, p. 180Google Scholar.

8 Milchhoefer, loc. cit. p. 185. Dr. Milchhoefer was the first to point out the intimate typological connection between Cyrenaean vases and the island gems.

9 The same figure of a man bound to a column occurs on the inside of a Phoenician bowl (Perrot, iii. p. 759, fig. 543), noted by Mr.Smith, Cecil (J.H.S. xi. p. 179)Google Scholar as affording a link between the Cyrenaean ware (and through it the Protokorinthian ware) and ‘the mixed Egypto-Assyrian art which we associate with Phoenicia.’ Cf. further the Lamia bound to a palm-tree, and tortured by Satyrs, on a lekythos of this same Eretria series, Athen. Mittheil. 1891, pl. IX.

10 Further instances in Schrader's lists, p. 86, 87 (statuary), p. 91 (vases). Occasionally one or more Sirens perch on a rock—sometimes with a dolphin below, e.g. on a B.F. oinochoe (B 510) in the Brit. Museum (Bolte, p. 30, n. 66), but these Sirens, I fancy, are merely borrowed or repeated from some such picture as the one on the lekythos.

11 This observation, made by Mr. Cecil Smith when I submitted the drawings of the vases to the Hellenic Society, Oct. 24, 1892, is quoted here by his permission.

12 It seems doubtful whether the fine Louvre cylix by Nikosthenes (Klein, , Meistersig. No. 69, p. 69)Google Scholar, published by Miss Harrison (loc. cit. pl. XLIX.), must not, in spite of her arguments to the contrary, still be considered to represent Odysseus and the Sirens. Loeschcke (loc. cit.) had well pointed out that it would precisely be in the manner of a rapid and careless draughtsman like Nikosthenes to be content to indicate the story in his mind, by merely adding a decorative Siren to the motive of the racing ships, without attempting any further elaboration. Other vase-painters also seem satisfied with the simple suggestion of an episode, e.g. on a newlyacquired B.F. skyphos from Boeotia in the Berlin Museum (pointed out to me by Dr. Furtwaengler) the frieze of three Sirens perched on rocks which decorates the reverse must have reference to the adventure of Odysseus (although neither the hero nor the ship is depicted), seeing that the obverse of the vase represents the adventure of Odysseus in the cave of Polyphemus.—It would seem that in time the influence of the racing ships made it necessary to call in other ship adventures for Odysseus, in addition to that of the Sirens. Thus on the Calene cup of the Berlin Museum (Baumeister, p. 1606, fig. 1675) we get the ship of Odysseus in scenes relating to the Sirens, Scylla and Polyphemus. Cf. the obsidian panel acquired by the Brit. Museum in 1887 (Glass. Rev. 1887, p. 250) with a relief which may be Odysseus in his ship mocking Polyphemus.

13 This same absence of white is noticeable on the Cyrenaean ware, See Studniczka's, note (31) in Kyrene, p. 8Google Scholar.

14 For a list of instances and for an analysis of the evolution of the type see Robert, C. in Arch. Zeitung, 1881, p. 138Google Scholar ff. Cf. his recent great article on the Nekyia of Polygnotos, (Sechszehntes Hallisches Winckelmanns-programm, 1892)Google Scholar. See also Girard, P., La Peinture Antique, p. 173Google Scholar ff. For the attitude of Odysseus on the present lekythos cf. also Mayer, Max. in Athen. Mittheil. xvi. (1891), p. 308Google Scholar.

15 See especially Dümmler, F. in Jahrbuch 1887, p. 172Google Scholar.

16 Cf. also Max. Mayer, loc. cit. p. 144, whose conclusions with regard to the lekythos on Plate I. I am however quite unable to agree with.

17 Cf. Furtwaengler's subtle remarks on the influence of Polygnotian painting on vases about the years B.C. 460—450 in Winckelmanns-fest-programm, 1890, p. 112. (Eine vase aus Gela).

18 For this class of lekythos with outline drawing—transitional between the black technique illustrated on Plates II. and III. and the later polychrome ware—see Weisshäupl's, article in Athen. Mittheil. 1890, pp. 40—63Google Scholar.

19 A similar mistake occurs on an amphora in the Brit. Museum (Catal. 864), published by Mr.Smith, Cecil, J. S. iv. (1883)Google Scholar pl. XXX, representing Herakles and Geras. ‘Herakles holds the club in his left hand, which however is drawn as if it were a right hand.’

20 I do not know whether much, or any, cosmogonic importance can be attached to the peculiar rectangular shape, given on our lekythos to the firmament. The only other instance known to me of such a shape for the firmament occurs on a little vase in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It has been published by Pottier, M. as a tail-piece to his charming article ‘Grèce et Japon’ (Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1890, p. 132)Google Scholar: within a little rectangular heaven (not unlike the one on our lekythos) a very long-tailed and small-winged Pegasos is flying upwards towards six stars and a crescent moon.