The Parthenon Enigma (81 page)

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Authors: Joan Breton Connelly

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83.
Clairmont, “Girl or Boy?”; Connelly, “Parthenon and
Parthenoi
,” 60–61.

84.
See A. M. Snodgrass,
Narration and Allusion in Archaic Greek Art: A Lecture Delivered at New College Oxford, on 29th May, 1981
(London: Leopard’s Head Press, 1982), 5–10; N. Himmeman-Wildschutz, “Erzählung und Figur in der archaischen Kunst,”
AbhMainz
2 (1967): 73–101; P. G. P. Meyboom, “Some Observations on Narration in Greek Art,”
Mededelingen van het Nederlands Historisch Instituut te Rome
40 (1978): 55–82; Connelly, “Narrative and Image in Attic Vase Painting,” 107–8.

85.
Ensuring that they will be in perpetuity the brides of Hades? See M. Alexiou,
The Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition
(Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1974), 5, 27, 39, 120. For a broader discussion of the similarities in marriage and funeral rituals, see R. Rehm,
Marriage to Death: The Conflation of Marriage and Funeral Rituals in Greek Tragedy
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994).

86. Euripides,
Trojan Women
309–460.

87.
Euripides,
Iphigeneia at Aulis
1080–87, 1577.

88.
Aeschylus,
Agamemnon
228–43.

89.
Euripides,
Children of Herakles
562.

90.
Sophokles, Fr. 483 Nauck = 526 Radt. See A. C. Pearson,
The Fragments of Sophocles
(Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1917), 167–68; A. H. Sommerstein, D. Fitzpatrick, and T. Talboy,
Sophocles: Selected Fragmentary Plays
, vol. 1 (London: Aris and Phillips, 2006), 81.

91.
London, British Museum 1897.7-27.2;
ABV
97.27;
Para.
37;
Addenda
2
26;
LIMC
7, s.v. “Polyxena,” no. 26. Tyrrhenian amphora by the Timiades Painter, ca. 570–560 b.c.

92.
See the amphora in Viterbo showing the sacrifice of a bull held in a similar position, horizontally and high in the air: J.-L. Durand and A. Schnapp, “Boucherie sacrificielle et chasses initiatiques,” in Bérard et al.,
La cité des images
, 55, fig. 83; Connelly, “Parthenon and
Parthenoi
,” 63, fig. 6. We are reminded of Aeschylus,
Agamemnon
213–33, where Iphigeneia is held high like “a kid, above the altar.” A marble sarcophagus, dated ca. 520–500
B.C.
, found in 1994 during salvage excavations at Gümüsçay, Turkey, near the site of ancient Troy, shows the sacrifice of Polyxena in which she is held up in the same position while Neoptolemos slits her neck. See N. Sevinç, “A New Sarcophagus of Polyxena from the Salvage Excavation at Gümüsçay,”
Studia Troica
6 (1996): 251–64.

93.
As Shear, “Polis and Panathenaia,” 744, and Hurwit,
Athenian Acropolis
, 233, would have it.

94.
Museo Archeologico Regionale di Palermo, NI 1886. Attic white-ground lekythos (500/490
B.C.
). Attributed to Douris.
ARV
2
446.226;
Addenda
2
241;
LIMC
5, s.v. “Iphegeneia,” no. 3.

95.
It is not until the fourth century
B
.
C
., in South Italian vase painting, that scenes of virgin sacrifice (especially of Iphigeneia) occur in significant numbers. These not only postdate the Parthenon by a century but also are highly influenced by the stagecraft of Greek theater, which, by then, had established a somewhat “standard” iconography for the subject.

96.
Stewart,
Greek Sculpture
, 81, 148.

97.
Pausanias,
Description of Greece
5.10.6–7.

98.
See the divine family group from Brauron. L. Kahil, “Le relief des dieux du sanctuaire d’Artémis à Brauron: Essai d’interprétation,” in
Eumousia: Ceramic and Iconographic Studies in Honour of Alexander Cambitoglou
, ed. J.-P. Descœudres, Mediterranean Archaeology Supplement 1 (Sydney: Meditarch, 1990), 113–17. And, indeed, viewed as a royal family group, the central figures of the Parthenon east frieze may provide a further parallel to the sculptural program of the Apadana at Persepolis, where the king and crown prince appear at the very center of the relief composition; see M. C. Root, “The Parthenon Frieze and the Apadana Reliefs at Persepolis: Reassessing a Programmatic Relationship,”
AJA
89 (1985): 103–20.

99.
For readings of the two girls as
arrephoroi
, see Sourvinou-Inwood,
Athenian Myths and Festivals
, 300–302 (where it is further suggested that the small child at far right may be a third
arrephoros
); Dillon,
Girls and Women
, 45–47; Neils,
Parthenon Frieze
, 168; Wesenberg, “Panathenäische Peplosdedikation und Arrephorie,” 151–64; H. Rühfel,
Kinderleben im klassischen Athen: Bilder auf klassischen Vasen
(Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1984), 98; Simon,
Festivals of Attica
, 67; Simon, “Die Mittelszene im Ostfries,” 128; Deubner,
Attische Feste
, 12–13; Stuart and Revett,
Antiquities of Athens
, 2:12. Hurwit,
Age of Pericles
, 230, and
Athenian Acropolis
, 225, says the girls could be
diphrophoroi
(stool carriers) or, possibly,
arrephoroi
. Sourvinou-Inwood,
Studies in Girls’ Transitions: Aspects of the
Arkteia
and Age Representation in Attic Iconography
(Athens: Kardamitsa, 1988), 58–59 and 100–101n285, suggests the two
girls at the left could, in fact, be a ten-year-old and her slightly younger counterpart, but neither older than eleven.

100.
See Boardman, “Parthenon Frieze,” 213, for the importance of costume as a pointer to age, and Boardman, “Another View.” For peplos as a costume worn by prepubescent girls, see Connelly,
Portrait of a Priestess
, 150–53.

101.
Boardman, “Parthenon Frieze,” 213; Boardman, “Closer Look,” 312–13. Wesenberg sees these objects as trays and reads the stool legs as torches; Wesenberg, “Panathenäische Peplosdedikation und Arrephorie.”

102.
Furtwängler,
Meisterwerke
, 427–30, where he suggests the stools are meant for Pandrosos and Ge Kourotrophos to join the Theoxenia. B. Ashmole questioned this view, allowing that, “though possible,” it “is not entirely satisfactory and a little strange”; see B. Ashmole,
Architect and Sculptor in Classical Greece
(New York: New York University Press, 1972), 143. See also Simon,
Festivals of Attica
, 68, and Simon, “Die Mittelszene im Ostfries,” 142–43. Boardman, “Closer Look,” 321, sees the two girls as
diphrophoroi
bringing stools.

103.
Holloway, “Archaic Acropolis,” 224, points out “the difficult problem of a divine audience in the midst of a human festival.”

104.
Vatican Museum 344;
ABV
145.13; J. D. Beazley,
The Development of Attic Black-Figure
, rev. ed., ed. D. von Bothmer and M. B. Moore (1951; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 61. See Connelly, “Parthenon and
Parthenoi
,” 63. H. von Heintze, “Athena Polias am Parthenon als Ergane, Hippia, Parthenos,”
Gymnasium
100 (1993): 385–418, similarly sees the bundles carried on stools by the girls on the Parthenon frieze as clothing rather than as seat cushions.

105.
Metropolitan Museum of Art 75.2.11,
ARV
2
1313.11;
Para.
477;
Addenda
2
180. L. Burn,
The Meidias Painter
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987), 98, M 12, plate 52b; Connelly, “Parthenon and
Parthenoi
,” 63–64.

106.
J. Scheid and J. Svenbro,
Le métier de Zeus: Mythe du tissage et du tissu dans le monde gréco-romain
(Paris: Errance, 1994), 26–29; Mansfield, “Robe of Athena,” 50–59; Barber, “
Peplos
of Athena,” 112–15; Barber,
Prehistoric Textiles
, 361–63.

107.
For the Shroud of Turin, see A. Nicolotti,
Dal Mandylion di Edessa alla Sindone di Torino: Metamorfosi di una leggenda
(Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, 2011); F. T. Zugibe,
The Crucifixion of Jesus: A Forensic Inquiry
, rev. ed. (New York: M. Evans, 2005); I. Wilson,
The Blood and the Shroud: New Evidence That the World’s Most Sacred Relic Is Real
(New York: Free Press, 1998); H. E. Gove,
Relic, Icon, or Hoax? Carbon Dating the Turin Shroud
(Philadelphia: Institute of Physics, 1996).

108.
Demaratus,
FGrH
42 F 4; Apollodoros,
Library
3.15.4.

109.
D. B. Thompson first recognized the lion’s paw: “The Persian Spoils in Athens,” in
The Aegean and the Near East: Studies Presented to Hetty Goldman on the Occasion of Her Seventy-Fifth Birthday
, ed. S. S. Weinberg (Locust Valley, N.Y.: J. J. Augustin, 1956), 290.

110.
Petersen,
Die Kunst des Pheidias
, 247 and n1, first identified this object as a footstool. See Furtwängler,
Meisterwerke
, 186; followed by Jeppesen, “Bild und Mythus an dem Parthenon,” 27, 31, fig. 7; Boardman, “Another View,” 41, plate 16.4; Boardman, “Closer Look,” 307–12; Neils,
Parthenon Frieze
, 167.

111.
For interpretation of this object as an incense box, see Simon,
Festivals of Attica
, 67; Simon, “Die Mittelszene im Ostfries,” 141; as a jewelry box, see Connelly, “Parthenon and
Parthenoi
,” 64–66. For similar boxes showing lion’s paws, see E. Brummer, “Griechische Truhenbehalter,”
JdI
100 (1985): 1–162.

112.
Aelius Aristides,
Panathenaic Oration
87 (Lenz and Behr).

113.
Paris, Musée du Louvre CA 587. Connelly, “Parthenon and
Parthenoi.

114.
London, British Museum 1843.11-3.24;
LIMC
1, s.v. “Andromeda,” nos. 3 and 17. London, British Museum E 169;
ARV
2
1062.1681.

115.
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 63.2663;
Para.
448;
LIMC
1, s.v. “Andromeda,” no. 2. See H. Hoffmann, “Some Recent Accessions,”
Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts
61 (1963): 108–9, who suggests that the box represents Andromeda’s “wedding trousseau.”

116.
Neils,
Parthenon Frieze
, 164–66.

117.
Simon, followed by Neils,
Parthenon Frieze
, 189–90, sees the gods at the north side of the east frieze as having a primary connection with the sea and those at the south with the land, and further associates the Panathenaic procession with Athenian victories on land and sea during the Persian Wars. Also, J. Neils, “Reconfiguring the Gods on the Parthenon Frieze,”
Art Bulletin
81 (1999): 6–20; Jeppesen, “A Fresh Approach,” 123–25; I. S. Mark, “The Gods on the East Frieze of the Parthenon,”
Hesperia
53 (1984): 289–342; E. G. Pemberton, “The Gods of the East Frieze,” 114; G. W. Elderkin, “The Seated Deities of the Parthenon Frieze,”
AJA
40 (1936): 92–99.

118.
J. E. Harrison, “Some Points in Dr. Furtwängler’s Theories on the Parthenon and Its Marbles,”
CR
9 (1895): 91.

119.
I thank Angelos Chaniotis for making this point and for providing further references for gods turning their gaze away from certain deeds: Euripides,
Iphigeneia in Tauris
1165–67; Herakleides Pontikos frag. 49 ed. Wehrli; Lykophron 984; Kallimachos frag. 35 ed. Pfeiffer; Apollodoros,
Library
5.22; and Quintus Smyrnaeus 13.425–29.

120.
Euripides,
Alkestis
122; Euripides,
Hippolytos
1437–39. I am indebted to Emily Vermeule for drawing this to my attention.

121.
Frag. 11 H = Philemo, test. 6 Kassel-Austin. Colin Austin kindly provided this reference.

122.
C. C. Picard, “Art archaïque: Les trésors ‘ionique,’ ”
Fouilles de Delphes: Monuments Figurés: Sculpture
4, no. 2 (1927), 57–171; R. Neer, “Framing the Gift: The Politics of the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi,”
ClAnt
20 (2001): 297–302, gives details of the east frieze. V. Brinkmann, “Die aufgemalten Namenbeischriften an Nord- und Ostfries des Siphnierschatzhauses,”
BCH
109 (1985): 77–130; L. V. Watrous, “The Sculptural Program of the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi,”
AJA
86 (1982): 159–72.

123.
V. Brinkmann, “Die aufgemalten Namensbeischriften an Nord- und Ostfries des Siphnierschatzhauses,”
BCH
109 (1985): 79, 84–85, 87–88, 118–20.

124.
Barringer,
Art, Myth, and Ritual
, 112–13n2, 223–24, gives a summary of the dating: J. S. Boersma, “On the Political Background of the Hephaisteion,”
Bulletin van de Vereeniging tot Bevordering der Kennis van de Antieke Beschaving
39 (1964): 102–6, claims that the temple was part of the Kimonian building program (ca. 460
B.C.
); this position is followed by M. Cruciani and C. Fiorini,
I modelli del moderato: La stoà poikile e l’Hephaisteion di Atene nel programma edilizio cimoniano
(Naples: Scientifiche Italiane, 1998), 84; Camp,
Archaeology of Athens
, 103, places the start of construction around 460–450
B.C.
; C. H. Morgan, “The Sculptures of the Hephaisteion II: The Friezes,”
Hesperia
31 (1962): 221–35, dates it to ca. 450; Thompson and Wycherley,
Agora of Athens
, 142–43; Ridgway,
Fifth Century Styles
, 26–27, places it at 450 or shortly thereafter; Dinsmoor,
Architecture of Ancient Greece
, 179–81, is for dating the beginning of construction to 449.

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