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The Geometric period
Because our knowledge of the Early Iron Age of Greece has advanced substantially in recent years, the dramatic developments of c. 900–700 BC, the Geometric period, no longer seem as abrupt as they once did. Rather than a sudden increase in the tempo of culture, it is now more accurate to talk about a slow and steady growth of activity and an expansion of settlements throughout Greece. This is not to diminish the importance of the changes during the Geometric period, which include the reappearance of literacy, but to re-contextualize them in the larger history of ancient Greece. Contact with others through colonization and trade brought dramatic changes, including the development of a writing system for the language that we call ancient Greek. We also witness clear evidence of an awareness and veneration of the past, which, of course, contributed to the self-definition of Greeks in the Early Iron Age.
Colonization Colonization is one key factor in the flourishing of culture during this phase. Greeks from Euboia set up a trading colony ( emporion ) at Al Mina in modern-day Syria in c. 825 BC, and during the mid-eighth century, Greeks traveled overseas and settled in apoikiai (settlements or homes away from home) in northern Greece, south Italy, and Sicily. Greek colonies were also set up around the Black Sea beginning c. 700 BC and in Cyrene in modern-day Libya in c. 632 BC. Overseas contact with the Near East and Egypt is clearly detectable in eighth-century BC Greece in the form of eastern imports (Fig. 2.1), eastern craftsmen on Crete, the adoption of eastern shapes for Greek pottery, and Greek objects found in the east. Greeks used eastern motifs on a range of “Greek” objects and Greek imitations of eastern objects: bronze conical cauldron stands, Cretan metalwork (Fig. 2.2), pottery from Ithaka, terracottas from Tiryns, and Late Geometric pottery from Athens (Fig. 2.3a–b; this skypos shape itself is borrowed from the Near East), to name just a few. Crete, Corinth, and Ithaka were pivotal in these eastern–Greek interactions because of their location along trade routes connecting the Levant to the western Mediterranean, while Euboia was a critical point of contact between the east and west Aegean.Greek contacts with the Near East, the north Aegean, the Black Sea region, North Africa, Egypt (for example, the Greek emporion established at Naukratis in Egypt), and the western Mediterranean (modern-day France and Spain) intensified in the seventh century. Eastern ideas affected Greek literature, myth, religion, and virtually every aspect of material production. Tales of monster-slaying heroes, hybrid beasts, the artistic motif of animal combat, the technology and aesthetic of large-scale sculpting and building in stone, ivory objects, bronzeworking technology, metalware – all these were introduced – or reintroduced– into Greece in the late eighth and seventh century BC, and were received and adapted by Greeks to their own purposes.
Writing Perhaps most important of all the Near Eastern imports into Greece was the Phoenician alphabet, which was adapted to create a new written script for the Greek language. The earliest extant Phoenician inscription found in Greece is an inscribed bronze bowl in a tomb datable to c.
900 BC at Knossos, and Phoenicians had contact with Greeks at Kommos in southern Crete in the tenth century BC; Kommos, Pithekoussai (a Euboian colony on Ischia), Al Mina, and Rhodes have all been nominated as places where Greeks began to use the Phoenician alphabet to record their own language, and Methone (a colony of Eretria) in the north has produced a remarkably large number of examples of early Greek writing (c. 730 BC) on pottery. Among the first samples of Greek writing, which developed c. 775–750 BC (some graffiti may be earlier in date), is the inscription scratched on to an oinochoe (wine pitcher) from Athens that announces that the pot is “For he who dances most lightly” (Fig. 2.4). This formula is rendered in dactylic hexameter, the poetic meter used by the Homeric epics, the Iliad and Odyssey , composed orally c. 750 BC and later recorded in writing. The myths and characters described by the Homeric poems recur elsewhere shortly thereafter: a Rhodian cup found in a grave at Pithe-koussai is inscribed with a verse that refers to one of the chief characters in the Iliad : “Nestor had a most drink-worthy cup but whoever drinks of mine will immediately be smitten with desire of fair-crowned Aphrodite” (Fig. 2.5). Writing – though not always poetry – quickly began to appear on pottery elsewhere and in dedicatory inscriptions on vases, marble and bronze sculpture, and weapons (Figs. 2.6– 7 ). These early examples of writing are private, but this new alphabet was employed for a public document c. 650 BC, the law code from Dreros on Crete inscribed on stone slabs near the temple of Apollo (Fig. 2.8a–b; see also fig. 2.15a–b). This document prescribes the term of office and a term limit for the chief magistrate. Many more written laws survive from elsewhere in the Greek world from the early sixth century onward. The recording of laws in written documents and their public display are crucial to a sense of community identity and governance. This – and other developments outlined below – clearly point to the growing organization of Hellas into poleis, roughly translated as “city-states.”
Past and present: defining oneself In conjunction with these developments is the growth of ancestor cult: offerings made at older tombs, some of them from the Bronze Age. This self-conscious awareness of the past is manifested in other ways, as well. For example, the Bronze Age temple at Ayia Irini on the island of Keos was used almost continuously to the Hellenistic period. In the eighth-century BC sanctuary, a painted terracotta head that once belonged to a female figure created in the mid-to late Bronze Age was found far from its corresponding body fragments and in situ in its eighth-century context: re-erected on a ring stand on the floor. In other words, the head once belonged to a full-bodied statue, but when detached (from an unknown cause), was reused on the stand. Dionysos was worshipped in this sanctuary by c. 500 BC and this seems likely to have been the case since at least the eighth century BC to judge from other objects found at the site. Thus, the site and the statue seem to have retained their sacred character from the Bronze Age into the Geometric period, when this earlier object was reused in the same location, perhaps in honor of Dionysos.
2500 BC). The progression to stone, however, is not linear; regional variation seems to have played a part, and stone wall construction may have appeared earlier in some temples in the Early Iron Age or Protogeometric period while the use of mudbrick walls persisted later in other places. Over time, temples were elaborated with interior colonnades to support roofs, front porches with columns to create a more impressive entrance, and sometimes an interior hearth with a statue standing nearby. Although Geometric temples often survive in poor condition, terracotta “temple models” of the eighth century enable us to flesh out the picture. Four models were found at Perachora in the area that was part of the later sanctuary of Hera Akraia (Fig. 2.11) and may reflect (to some degree) the temple constructed there c. 800 BC. Of the temple itself, only the stone foundations remain, and these indicate an apsidal structure oriented east–west, c. 8m long and 5.5m wide, with mudbrick walls. The models ( c. 750–725 BC), also apsidal in shape, may add to this picture: each is preceded by a porch supported on double prostyle columns (columns placed immediately in front of the building), and the best surviving model indicates that windows at the top of the wall all the way around provided light and ventilation for the building, which was capped by a hipped roof. Euboia, so important in colonization and trade, was also the site of early large buildings. The apsidal Building A (“bay hut”) at Eretria ( c. 9.75m × 6.50m) of c. 750 stood on stone foundations and had wooden columns on clay column bases (the bases are still extant); the disposition of the columns – lining the walls, both inside and out, and three within the structure – helped support the roof and reinforced the walls (Fig. 2.12a–b, see building 1 on plan). A porch with two prostyle columns preceded the building. It is unclear whether Building A was a temple or not, but an apsidal Hekatompedon (“hundred- footer,” c. 35m × 7–8m), a mudbrick structure on stone foundations erected in the last quarter of the eighth century BC, certainly was: this was located in the sanctuary of Apollo Daphnephoros and presumably was built for his worship (Fig. 2.13, see building 2). This Hekatompedon, the largest of all apsidal temples, had a different method of supporting its very long roof: an interior, central row of wooden columns on stone bases. Opposite the structure (though not directly aligned with it) was an altar with a sacrificial pit (Fig. 2.13, number 12). By the mid-eighth century, rectangular structures had largely usurped the earlier apsidal temples. The temple of Hera (32.86m × 6.5m) at Samos of the first half of the eighth century BC
- the first of many temples on this site – consisted of a long, narrow rectangular room of mudbrick walls on stone foundations with three columns in antis at the east end (Fig. 2.14a). A single row of wooden columns down the middle of the building supported the roof, probably of thatch, but also partially obscured the cult statue placed on a base at the far west end of the structure. A contemporary stone altar outside to the southeast was the focal point for offerings, but its orientation is different from that of the temple, which suggests that an altar here preceded the temple and that the later altar kept the previous orientation; in fact, archaeology demonstrates that there were several altars on the site, both earlier and later – c. 950, 850, c. 775, c. 750, c. 720
- of ever increasing size; they continued to be re-erected into the sixth century BC.
The temple was rebuilt c. 670 BC with dramatic changes: at the east, a pronaos (porch) with four columnar supports preceded the main room, which had only two columns in antis; instead, the interior space was entirely open, maximizing visibility for the cult statue that stood on a new base (Fig. 2.14b). A stone platform, perhaps a bench, lined the limestone walls. Stone slabs found outside the building have prompted some scholars to restore a peristyle (ring of columns) around this temple, but this reconstruction is disputed. However, it is certain that the sanctuary was further enhanced by a stoa in the late seventh century, the first such building attested for the Greek world; behind its wooden colonnade, it offered shelter from rain and sun to votive offerings and visitors. Stone walls largely replaced mudbrick by the late eighth century, and this permitted a change in roofing: no longer did the roof have to extend out so far to protect the vulnerable mudbrick walls, but could be truncated closer to the stone wall, if desired. An example is the rectangular temple of Apollo at Dreros, oriented north–south, with stone walls and foundations (Fig. 2.15a–b). A paved terrace preceded the structure, and the presence here of one column is attested; these clues suggest that there may have been a roofed porch, and if so, probably at least one more column. Within the one-roomed structure, wooden columns atop stone bases flanked a stone-lined central hearth. One can visualize the appearance of the Dreros temple – or its approximation – from a small terracotta model (Fig. 2.16), which is topped by a gabled roof ornamented with a Geometric pattern. But a gabled roof is unlikely at Dreros given the central hearth because the roof must have included some opening to permit smoke to escape. The southwest corner of this large room was dedicated to cult: a stone offering table stood in front of a hollow rectangular cist and an adjacent bench (Fig. 2.15b). Three bronze figurines, two females and a larger male, contemporary with the temple were found in this area (Fig. 2.17). They were made in the sphyrelaton technique, a Near Eastern process, which involves riveting separate sheets of bronze together to create the statues; the seams are most clearly visible on the backs of the figures, especially that of the male. The male is nude save for a cap on his head, while the females wear long peploi (long, close-fitting garments made of heavy fabric) covered by a cape or mantle over the shoulders, and poloi (tall, cylindrical caps); all had inlaid eyes. Their original placement is unknown, but scholars have suggested that they stood atop the bench in the temple. The material, workmanship, and size of the figures, particularly the male, indicate the importance of the sphyrelata; are these meant to represent deities – Apollo and others – worshipped here? Within the temple were found bones, teeth, and goats’ horns (also inside the cist mentioned above), animals closely associated with Apollo, as well as butchering knives and pottery suitable for storing and eating food and liquids. Together with the hearth, these objects suggest that sacrifice and dining may have occurred within the building. The seventh-century temple (oriented north–south) at Iria on Naxos was already the third on the site, and presents an incipient feature that became standard for the Ionic order, which developed in the Cyclades: the column base with molding (Fig. 2.18a–b). Four wooden columns on bases created an impressive entrance to a tripartite cella constructed with stone walls. Wooden columns on bases divided the cella, and at least two of these interior column bases were marble
The Doric and Ionic architectural orders An architectural order is a collection of conventions or characteristics, which, over time, are used in a specific, formulaic way – the Doric order always has metopes and triglyphs in its frieze, for example – although some variations within the conventions are permissible. The characteristics of a given architectural order did not all appear at one moment, but in piecemeal fashion, then combined in variations until finally a pattern crystallized and was repeated again and again.
The Doric order developed on mainland Greece and by the sixth century, or perhaps even earlier, a number of its architectural conventions combined into a coherent, repeatedly used formula, which defined the order: fluted columns (sixteen or twenty flutes) standing directly on the stylobate and topped by capitals comprising an echinus and abacus. The columns support a plain architrave, above which runs a frieze composed of alternating triglyphs and metopes, and a cornice caps the structure. As happened with the Doric order, the Ionic order gradually emerged, in the seventh century, as a set of architectural practices used for both buildings and votive columns and only achieved a fixed formula in the sixth century BC, trailing the development of Doric by a few decades (Box 2.1 Fig. 1). The Ionic capital developed alongside the Aeolic capital (Box 2.1 Fig. 2) in the later seventh century BC. Aeolic capitals were already used in architecture by the end of the seventh century at Old Smyrna (see Fig. 2.52), while the Ionic capital seems initially to have been used not for architecture but for votive columns that supported statues and were dedicated in sanctuaries in the Cyclades. Ionic capitals for architectural use appeared in the Oikos of the Naxians on Delos in the first quarter of the sixth century BC. The Ionic capital quickly became the favored of these two possibilities – Ionic or Aeolic – and developed as a true order. The Ionic formula includes columns that rest upon bases (which were usually ornately decorated), a column capital comprising a volute and echinus, and in contrast to Doric columns, taller, thinner column shafts that have more flutes (usually twenty-four, and the flutes meet in a flat arris, while Doric flutes join in a sharp edge), lending them a more ethereal presence. The Ionic architrave is horizontally divided, usually into three registers, and rather than a Doric frieze of metopes and triglyphs, the Ionic frieze is a continuous, uninterrupted band, which is sometimes painted, sometimes sculpted in relief then painted. A dentil molding surmounts the frieze. The Roman writer Vitruvius described the essential qualities of the Doric and Ionic orders, which had already existed for centuries by the time he wrote his ten books on architecture in the later first century BC. His text considers all aspects of ancient architecture and stresses the importance of proportions, symmetry, and so on. These orders formed a building canon, which could be varied within certain parameters to obtain different effects, but adhered strictly to certain “rules.” Vitruvius describes the Doric order as masculine, the Ionic as feminine; it is certainly true that Ionic architecture has many more elements of decoration and molding, which were painted, and therefore, Ionic architecture appears more colorful and ornate, i.e., “feminine,” to Vitruvius. The author also explains their various decorative components, such as metopes or dentil mouldings, as deriving from the wooden elements of early buildings (so, for example,
triglyphs mask the ends of projecting beams). Scholars doubt the truth of this claim (although early columns clearly were made of wood), and there is also some question as to whether the Ionic order originally arose in Asia Minor, as Vitruvius explains, or in the Cyclades islands, which is what current archaeology suggests. But Vitruvius seems accurate in stating that the Doric order originated on the mainland of Greece.
Gifts to the gods
The Geometric period or style takes its name from the simplified, schematic forms of small statues dedicated in the sanctuary of Olympia and elsewhere (Fig. 2.24). The bronze or terracotta images comprise human-formed figures (although they may represent deities, not humans), as well as horses, cows, bulls, birds, and other, mostly domesticated, animals, varying in size from a few centimeters to about 36cm. They are found in the thousands at sanctuaries, and also turn up in other contexts, such as graves. Groups, such as adult female animals nursing their young (Fig. 2.25) or dancers, as well as figures belonging to the world of myth or fantasy, including the earliest centaur in Greek art, occasionally appear (Figs. 2.26– 27 ). As mentioned above, hybrid beings, such as centaurs or sphinxes, are imports from the Near East, where such creatures had a long history before arriving in Greece. When embellished by some peculiar feature or an additional figure, the figurines have inspired scholars to propose mythological identifications: perhaps the wise Centaur Chiron for a six-figured Centaur carrying an object from Lefkandi (Fig. 2.26) and Nessos. Another common bronze votive in sanctuaries during the Geometric period and the seventh century is the bronze tripod cauldron, which could be embellished with protomes (three-dimensional figures truncated and attached to another object; Fig. 2.28a); the protomes could be bulls, horses, or more exotic eastern creatures, such as griffins, sirens, lions. They are numerous at Olympia, where the Olympic games began c. 776 BC, according to legend (in fact, they are likely older); the bronze tripod cauldrons may have been victory prizes in the games in their earliest manifestation before the athletic contests were transformed in the sixth century BC into “crown games” (when the sole prize was a vegetal crown – at Olympia, a crown made of olive branches). According to this thinking, the tripods were subsequently dedicated as thankofferings to Zeus by the victorious athletes as indicated by inscriptions on them (Fig. 2.28b). Some tripod legs are decorated with embossed or relief images suggestive of mythological scenes, such as two warriors, perhaps Herakles and Apollo, struggling for the latter’s tripod, a narrative recognizable from later labeled images of the tale (Fig. 2.29). Not only were Greek objects that had been influenced by eastern motifs dedicated in sanctuaries in the seventh century, but a flood of imported goods from the Near East – faience scarabs, bronze objects and sheets decorated in relief, ivory figurines, and the like – also were deposited at sanctuaries, such as Olympia, Perachora, and especially the Hera sanctuary on Samos. Votives at Samos include an Egyptian bronze figurine of a plump nude female with a box-shaped crown perched atop wig-like hair (Fig. 2.30). Her nudity is unusual for Greek
Sculpting in stone
Located in the middle of the Aegean Sea, Crete was ideally situated to receive new technologies from the Near East, including the carving of large-scale stone sculpture. Crete produced some of the earliest Greek stone sculpture in the historical period (post-Bronze Age) in the seventh century BC, and although it is not over lifesize, it certainly marks a dramatic change from the Geometric small-scale terracottas and bronzes (Fig. 2.34a–b). The architectural sculpture at Prinias was attached to a small, roughly rectangular building, Temple A, perhaps dedicated to Artemis (Fig. 2.35a–b). The one-room structure has a hearth and two wooden posts, arranged in a similar fashion as in the earlier temple of Apollo at Dreros (Figs. 2.15a–b), but this time the walls ( antae ) of the building extend forward to create a pronaos preceding the cella. A limestone frieze of animals comprised a lintel for either the pronaos or cella: simple repeated figures fill the height of the frieze and process in profile with frontal heads; there is no background or any indication of a narrative. The free-standing females sitting atop the frieze, and the female figures in relief standing on the underside of the lintel, are rendered in Daidalic style, named for the mythological first artist, Daidalos of Crete (see Chapter 1). Typical of the Daidalic style are a U-shaped face, long, wig-like hair rendered in symmetrically placed braids or in stacked horizontal layers down the back and over the shoulders, a fringe of snail curls over the forehead, frontal pose with arms symmetrically placed and held close to the body, and legs and feet close together so that the figure resembles the block from which it was carved. In the case of female Daidalic figures, like those at Prinias, feet peep out from under a long belted garment, sometimes with a cape ( epiblema ) over the shoulders. Considering the development of limestone sculpture on Crete, it is scarcely surprising that the first large-scale three-dimensional stone sculpture in Greece begins nearby in the Cyclades islands, where marble was, and is, abundant (see Chapter 1). The earliest known monumental (H 2.3m) marble sculpture is a recent discovery: a female statue ( kore ) of c. 640 BC found on Thera in 2000. The figure is rendered in Daidalic style with her right hand held to her torso. The context in which she was found cannot be established so nothing definitive can be said about function.
The same is not true of a large kore made of Naxian marble, which was dedicated in the sanctuary of Apollo and Artemis on the island of Delos (Fig. 2.36), perhaps in a temple to Artemis of the mid-seventh century BC (Artemision E). The tall sculpture is rendered in Daidalic style with a belted peplos and hands held down by her sides (Fig. 2.37a–b). An inscription carved on her skirt (Fig. 2.37c) states that the statue was dedicated by a woman, Nikandre from Naxos, to the “Far Shooter,” which could be either Apollo or Artemis. Whom does this expensive dedication represent: Nikandre, Artemis, or simply an agalma , a beautiful gift? Her extraordinary thinness (nowhere is she thicker than 20cm) recalls ancient literary descriptions of wooden xoana (e.g., of the first statue of Hera on Samos). Drilled holes in the kore’s closed hands once held metal attachments, perhaps a bow and arrow. Considering these characteristics, her location, and her size, it is likely that this figure is intended as an image of Artemis.
Archaic Delos possesses another contemporary Naxian marble sculpture, a statue clearly identifiable as the god Apollo (Fig. 2.38a–c). Although fragmentary, those fragments are impressive: a colossal triangular torso, and the rounded hips and upper legs of a monumental kouros , who wears a belt cinched around his waist. The scale clearly points to a deity. Found in the sanctuary of Apollo, this early statue, about 9m high when complete, depicts the god holding a bow and perhaps arrows, and was a dedication of the Naxians, as indicated by its inscribed base. Metal attachments were affixed to the marble to indicate locks of hair and his belt. Naxos provided the marble for several other early large-scale sculptures, and three over-lifesize kouroi are still visible today in their ancient quarries where they were abandoned, probably because of damage (a crack or flaw; Fig. 2.39). But the largest kouros discovered thus far was found in the sanctuary to Hera on the island of Samos and was made of local Samian marble (see Fig. 3.21). Its 4.80m height would suggest that it represents a deity, but its inscription indicates that it is a votive offering, rather than an image of a god; in other words, size alone is not a criterion for distinguishing between deity and non-deity, and other facts, including context, must be considered.
Sculpture stone Many unfinished and partially finished stone sculptures – some still in the quarry or along the transport road – as well as ancient metal tools inform us about ancient sculpting techniques (Box 2.2 Fig. 1). The debt owed to Egypt is clear from the application of the grid system to archaic sculpture (whereby a grid is applied to the front surface of the stone block to demarcate bodily proportions), and copper and bronze tools were useful for carving soft stone, such as limestone. Iron tools were better suited to work with marble, which Greece has in abundance. First white Naxian, then Parian marbles and less commonly, grey-white Hymettan marble from Athens dominated archaic works. White/yellow Pentelic marble from Athens was exploited from the later sxth century on. Brilliant white Thasian marble became common only in the Hellenistic period. Grey marble was also quarried on Samos and in Lakonia from the seventh century BC onward.
Once in the sculptor’s workshop or at the building site, the first shaping of sculpture was done with points or punches, and the entire surface was worked simultaneously. After the age of the archaic grid, it is likely that some preliminary model, probably of fired clay or plaster, served as a guide, particularly likely with large-scale sculpture. Mallet and chisel were applied at an oblique angle to shape the stone further, then the claw chisel (borrowed from Egypt and first attested in Greece c. 575–550 BC) gave final shape to the stone surface, leaving telltale parallel scoring marks behind (Box 2.3 fig. 1). A rounded or bull-nosed chisel and tooth chisel provided finer modeling. A rotating drill, using a strap or bow attached to a twisted rope and a rounded chisel, drove holes directly into stone; it is attested very early for insertion of attachments, eye sockets as bedding for inserted eyes (of stone, glass, or ivory), nostrils, and ears, and was eventually used for creating drapery folds (a series of holes made in a row, then the webbing remaining between them removed). Toolmarks could be smoothed with rasps, and emery or
repeated deer encircles the neck (Fig. 2.40a); the cookie-cutter animals, their poses, and species recall eastern metalwork, while the overall dense patterning suggests influence from ancient textiles, such as the checkered shroud hovering over the corpse, which lies on a bier between the vase’s handles (Fig. 2.40b). Mourners surround the corpse and tear at their hair in grief at the prothesis , the laying out and mourning of the dead. The black silhouette figures are rendered uniformly and schematically: inverted triangles to indicate the torso, wasp-waists, and simplified limbs or garments, with no individuation save the distinction between the sexes: females wear skirts, males do not. Zigzag ornament fills open space, and the raised shroud reveals the corpse, who is not painted in profile, but tilted toward the viewer. Information, rather than the imitation of nature, is the goal of the depiction, whose subject is an apt choice for a funerary marker. The molded legs of the bier and of the stools provided for the mourners, the number of mourners, and the ornate shroud all suggest the wealth and/or status of the deceased. While this is a narrative, no clues identify a particular individual or story. Such generic scenes decorate other funeral markers, but the specificity of some Geometric vase paintings suggests the possibility of myth. On a louterion (spouted krater) said to be from Thebes (Fig. 2.43a–b), a man grasps a woman by the wrist and steps forward to board a ship, manned by two banks of rowers. The man’s gesture is known from later vase painting, where it signifies the woman’s status as bride or sexual partner. If the later iconographical meaning can be extrapolated back in time, we would be viewing a couple boarding a ship; identities for the pair, such as Helen and Paris or Menelaos, and Ariadne and Theseus, have been proposed, but nothing secures the identification of this suggestive scene. This is true for a number of Geometric vase paintings. If these are depictions of myths, we still are unable to comprehend how this information was conveyed to the ancient viewer or how the ancient viewer recognized them.
The seventh century BC
Corinth
Corinth’s geographical position – on the isthmus between the mainland and the southern peninsula or Peloponnese that divides the Saronic Gulf in the east from the Corinthian in the west – placed it at the center of trade between Greece and the Near East, where it played a pivotal role in the dispersal of oils and perfumes imported from the latter. The products arrived in Corinth in large containers and were decanted to small vessels for sale (Fig. 2.44); the painted pottery industry in Corinth grew in response to this stimulus, and these Protocorinthian (“first Corinthian”) wares are small vessels shaped from the fine, buff-colored Corinthian clay. These wheel-made wares were hardened to a leather-like condition, then the design – often simple, irregularly spaced bands or rudimentary figural scenes – was sketched on to the surface as a guide for the brown or black slip. Details were incised into the slip with a metal instrument, then the pot was fired, and other details could be added in paint (most often white or purple) after firing. Various details recall eastern incised metal vessels, such as incision into black slip on the handles and necks, and rivet-like sculpted embellishments (Fig. 2.45a); it is likely that the
technique of incising details was learned from imported metal and ivory objects, then applied to pottery in Corinth. This new technique, Protocorinthian black-figure, dominated the production of painted pots on the mainland during much of the seventh century BC, although pottery, especially simple pots for daily use (e.g., cooking and dining), was certainly produced and used everywhere in Greece. Among the finest examples of Protocorinthian work is the diminutive Chigi olpe, which is a mere 26.2cm high (Fig. 2.45a–b). Typical of this fabric are the superimposed horizontal friezes filled with tiny figures and the liberal use of added paint in various colors, here rendered with extraordinary precision and detail. Opposed phalanxes of hoplites (heavily armed infantry) approach each other to the sound of a flute on the top frieze; long-haired youths hunt a lion in the middle frieze; and in the bottom zone, boys with the help of dogs capture a hare in a net. Three stages of male life, three types of activities of ever-increasing danger are portrayed: hare hunting, lion hunting, and that most dangerous type of hunting of all, warfare, where your quarry is armed and intent on killing you, as well. In addition, a mythological scene, the judgment of Paris, appears on the middle band, where it is divided from the lion hunt by a sphinx, a fabulous Near Eastern creature (Fig. 2.45b). The myth is identifiable through the painted names of the three goddesses, Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, the last of whom ensures her victory by promising Helen to Paris (although Helen was married to someone else). This is among the first clearly identifiable mythological narratives in Greek imagery.
Early depictions of myth
Files of colorful animals became a favorite device on later Corinthian vases, though the sharp precision of the earlier small vessels yielded to a looser style on larger pots, and mythological subjects became more common. The brightly painted depiction of Herakles is clearly identifiable by inscriptions written in Corinthian script on a column krater (Fig. 2.46a). The hero wields a knife as he reclines at a symposion with King Eurytios and his sons, while Iole, the king’s daughter, stands among them. Components of this image reveal tremendous attention to detail: each dog shown in a slightly different position, and one of them is in outline technique; the varied arm positions and gestures of the reclining banqueters; and the lebes (circular pot) from which the wine was decanted into drinking cups. This is the earliest scene in Greek vase painting of a symposion, a custom that appeared in Greece not long before. Another Trojan War theme (Fig. 2.46b; cf. Fig. 2.45b) decorates the reverse of the krater: fighting warriors, including Odysseus and Diomedes, and Ajax, who has impaled himself on his sword; again, all figures are named. Athenian vase painters quickly learned the black-figure technique from their Corinthian counterparts and began to produce their own wares in the seventh century. Unlike the Corinthian vases, however, these early Protoattic vases were very large (and therefore were used differently from the Corinthian examples), made liberal use of myth, and tended to cover the body of the vase with a single theme. An impressively large amphora, a striking contrast to contemporary small Protocorinthian vessels, was found at Eleusis, where it was used as a container for a child’s
long dark skirts that completely reveal one leg and hasten along with their thin, spidery arms outstretched toward the fleeing Perseus. In addition to the animal combat on the shoulder, Near Eastern influence is also evident in the choice of myths on the Eleusis amphora. Near Eastern monster-slayer myths, especially those concerning fantastic hybrid creatures, became enormously popular in Greek art, vase painting and other media across the Mediterranean in the seventh century BC, (admittedly, Odysseus only blinds the Cyclops, but he does enfeeble him.) During this time of colonization and trade, of far-off travels and wanderings, the stories of Odysseus’ adventures on his homeward journey seem to have been especially appealing. The myth of the blinding of Polyphemos recurs elsewhere in the Greek world, as we see on a krater from Caere in present-day Italy (Fig. 2.48a–b). Five virtually identical men wield a long stake as they rush toward the Cyclops (who is the same size as his attackers); the seated giant supports himself with his left arm while fending off the attack with his right. A wine vessel stands on the ground behind him. A Greek and a non-Greek (perhaps Etruscan or Italian) ship do battle on the reverse. The krater’s tall foot and the large forms of the non-figural decoration are typical of west Greece and unlike those found on contemporary pottery from the Greek mainland. Aristonothos has signed the vessel just in front of, and above, the right handle, written in retrograde: Aristonothos epoi(e)sen , that is, “Aristonothos made (it or me).” This is one of the earliest craftsmen’s signatures on a Greek vase, and it is written with the Euboian alphabet. But what does it mean to “make” this vessel? The verb ποι′εω is used for potters’ signatures on Attic vases in the sixth century BC and also appears in dedicatory inscriptions to indicate that someone made a dedication. Here, it may refer to the creation of the vessel, either the potter or painter, or perhaps both if one person performed both tasks, as is sometimes the case. The lettering and findspot suggest a Euboian artist working in one of the Greek colonies in the west; again we can observe the importance of Euboia in colonization and east–west contact. Other aspects of the Trojan saga and its heroes also appealed to seventh-century craftsmen. A relief pithos from Mykonos is one of many such relief pithoi from the Cyclades, though few are decorated so elaborately (Fig. 2.49a–c). The reliefs, restricted to the front side of the vessel, depict the fall of Troy ( Ilioupersis ). The Trojan horse, like a child’s toy on wheels, fills the neck (Fig. 2.49b). Windows in the treacherous gift reveal Greeks hidden within, while Greeks clamber around it. Friezes on the body of the pithos are divided into metope-like squares and filled with identifiable scenes, such as the brutal death of the child Astyanax, in two- or three-figure compositions worked in disparate scales (Fig. 2.49c). Although the function of relief pithoi is not known, scholars suggest that they stood as gravemarkers or that human remains were deposited in them (see Fig. 2.47a). Vase painting followed other paths in the eastern Aegean. Corinthian and Attic pottery were common imports to east Greece, but east Greek pottery was seldom exported in the seventh century BC. The Wild Goat Style, named for its most common figural motif, is well represented on the island of Rhodes, where the oinochoe (wine pitcher) was the most common shape (Fig. 2.50). Both silhouette and outline technique are used against a yellowish background with added
red to enliven details. The neck and handle are painted black, and registers filled with animals, especially grazing goats, and blossoms cover the body. Fill ornaments, such as the ubiquitous rosette, are organized in regular patterns. Rivet-like attachments at the handle, the vertical depression running down it, and incised spirals on the neck imitate eastern metalware, while the painted decoration may take inspiration from textiles (cf. Figs. 2.40a–b).
Attic black-figure: painters and potters
Attic vase painters quickly mastered the black-figure technique invented in Corinth, and by the early part of the sixth century Attic wares dominated the market. These Attic craftsmen had the advantage of Attic clay, which fired to a brilliant orange color and contrasted with lustrous black figures produced by the slip derived from Attic clay. Attic painters embraced myth whole-heartedly as we can observe from an upsurge in the variety and quantity of mythological images in vase painting. Among the earliest Attic black-figure wares is an amphora by the Nettos Painter on which the theme of the Gorgons recurs (Fig. 2.51a–b; cf., e.g., Figs. 2.32, 2.47). Like many other large amphorae previously discussed, this container was destined for funerary use: it stood as a gravemarker in the Dipylon cemetery in Athens. The Nettos Painter takes his name from the scene on the neck, where the Centaur Nettos (or Nessos) pleads for his life with Herakles; both names are painted near the protagonists (Fig. 2.51b). Nettos had offered to help carry Herakles’ bride, Deianeira, across a river, but en route, the brutal Centaur assaulted Deianeira, and Herakles rushed to her rescue. Herakles braces his left leg against the Centaur’s back and pulls Nettos’ head by his hair, preparing to attack him with a dagger. The Centaur supplicates his opponent by extending his hands toward the hero’s chin, a common gesture that will be to no avail in this case. Two Gorgons traverse the belly of the amphora, their legs in a pinwheel pattern to signify running. Their lower bodies are in profile but their upper bodies face front, revealing their carefully rendered, mask-like, leering faces, tongues protruding from their mouths. To our left, a beheaded Medusa stumbles to the ground, blood pouring from her neck. Perseus and Athena are omitted; the narrative is reduced to its bare elements, the fate of Medusa clear, the role of Perseus simply implied. Dolphins leaping along the lower border allude to the seaside setting of the myth. As was the case with the Protoattic Eleusis amphora (Fig. 2.47), numerous fill elements on the vase, such as rosettes, as well as the mythological themes of hero killing hybrid monster, betray Near Eastern influence. But the use of Greek writing, the masterful incision to portray the wings and faces of the Gorgons, and the anatomy and hair of Herakles and Nettos signal a new style of painting that concentrates on action and heftier, volumetric figures. Although the use of a single narrative to fill the largest part of the vase is a legacy of Protoattic style, the Protoattic outline technique has vanished. Instead, the painter takes full advantage of the black silhouettes, added color, and repeated patterns created by the figures themselves (the Gorgons’ whirling legs, the mix of animal and human limbs of Herakles and Nettos) to create an energetic narrative.
