-
- Left: RF amphora by Berlin Painter c480BC
- Right: Nolan RF amphora c480BC
- Left:
- Athenian Vase - Greek art
- Large bow - sign of a coward, long-distance weapon
- Large curved sword
- Cap
- Beard - bushy, unkempt, more common Dionysian satyrs. Cowardly and uncouth
Unrealistic! You can’t hold a sword and shoot arrows
-
- Croesus Amphora
- 500-480BC
- Left: Croesus on pyre
- Right: Theseus, Antiope, Peirithoos
Cf Hdt 1.86
-
- Persians wearing Skythian-style outfits
- Both c480BC
- L: Cup by Painter of Oxford Brygos:
- Greek vs Persian with wicker shield
- c.480 BC (Oxford)
- R: Cup interior. Greek defeats Persian
- Persian with large wicker shield
- Greek with smaller round shield
- Trousered Persian in both
- Persian with spear on left
- But v similar sword to Greek on right
- Cap with flaps in both
-
- Calyx krater: Greek spears
- Persian, Persian runs, c. 450 BC (Basel)
- Greek is visually heroised - ‘tactical nudity’ - stripped to minimal hoplite attributes, defensive armour gone. Bare skin vs gaudy dress
- Persian visually diminished - archer, inadequate defence = weakness?
- Bronze, large round shield, long spear
- Enemy in retreat - cowardly? Yet he has no shield and fights an armed Greek
- Long wide trousers, sleeves, patterns, cap
- Persian runs
- Terror
- No control
- Empty quiver - impotent
-
- Eurymedon Jug
- c460BC
- Left: Eurymedon eimi
- Right: 'I stand bent over'
- Eurymedon is dressed in a peasant's short cloak, and scrubby beard
- Eurymedon = a river in SW Anatolia and the site of a famous Greek victory against the Persians (probably 466)
- Important victory in terms of wealth and prestige
- Literal interpretation? Greeks treated captives badly?
- Metaphorical? Greeks victorious over Persians?
- Iconographical? Greeks masculine, Persians effeminate?
- Naval prestige? By 470s navy already of paramount importance
Social context = interplay between classes in early Classical Athens
- Earlier Oriental figures identified as Skythians - see Francois Vase boar hunt. Pointed cap! Shown as attendants/allies to Greeks
- These disappear in Persian War period. Orientals become opponents.
- Cf. Calyx Krater - Greek stabs Persian
- Naked Greek - no hoplite accoutrements though.
- Non-ideal Greek features. His cloak is straight, his beard is wispy. Is this a coded portrayal?
- Ideally tidy beard, good hair, folded cloak, or a linen xitwn. Young man no beard, chitoniskos.
- Lower classes - a short tradesman’s cloak cf Hephaistos. A flawed body is rare but would be lower class.
- Scanty beards = farmers, Thracians, amorous failures, labourers
- Lower class = dubious morality in elitist thought
- Diminished Persian - empty quiver, bow, no defensive weapons, cap, a straggly beard(?)
- Neither comes off well! The Persian is worsted both by the rape imagery but also by the lower-class Greek (who himself is nothing to be proud of)
- The all-powerful Greek is a low-life
- Athens is dependent on non-heroic forms of warfare (her navy), but cannot shed traditional attitudes about moral worth and social standing
|
|
