lVl/\oi lLK NEGA TIVE NO. 91-80188 -VnCROFILMED 1991 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES/NTW YORK 44 as part of the Foundations of Western Civilization Preservation Project" Funded bv the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES Reproductions mav not be made without permission from A. ^ X Columbia Universit\' Librarv COPYRIGHT SI ATE^ffiNT The copyright ]a\^ of the United States -- Title 17, United States Code - concerns the making of photocopies or other reproductions of cop)^righted material.. Columbia Uni\-ersit\ Library resen^'cs the riehl to refuse to accept a copy order if m its'judgement, fulfrilment of the order would involve eolation of the copvriciht law. AUTHOR: GOLDMAN ? HETTY TITLE: THEORESTEIAOF AESCHYLUS.... PLA CE : JL^ AM. M.. JLj m 1910 COMiMBlA [J. .l\ i.W ; ! ; ; iliUARli ■■ niH! lOCRAri 1!( MKAUAI { )RM TARCM: F Master Negative # Original Material as Filmed - Existing Bibliographic Record Goldrnaii^ Hetty Greek rr,s'^.:^.^::J:''r'y'''' '^s illustrated hv I ) , - "Printed from the .•iar-r^--' ,4^,^* philolc,--, vol. T.'^ a;^^V ^^^'^i^s In classical " ♦ , , ■'■' ■'■' ■*- J -* ^■' 1- \j , List of moniirnents" : fi ^"iG article i ■ * BUCcessful candidate r.A tCrA.:" 'r^''' ' ^ f'^ffi-^^^prosented by the lot -' 21." "oltime of pam- ^ phlets. Kt'slriiiions on Use: VILM blZl- J3j^h_f!^__ __ RniuU/ M. -J RATIO: JJ. IMAGE PLACEMENT: lA <^ IB IIB DATi; -;:, '.':"''• ^^i« - ^- a:a:\a J^_Lj_5 . MLMLDl)^. :;i - : ,.:.(■!! : i JiMCATIONS, INC ,. ' BRIDGF , CT m^ V Asaoetetiofi lor In f o rma tion and Imago Managomont 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1100 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 301/587-8202 N^V Centimeter 1 234 56789 10 IIIiIiIIiIiIIiIiImIiImIiIIiIi IIIIiIII '■''!' 'mI''''I''[| |I| ||||| J I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ,-— ~— -T— I I M I I I I I I I Inches I 2 3 1.0 I.I 1.25 11 mil, 1^ |2-8 2.5 1^6 32 2.2 ■ 63 1:° ... ^ lis 2.0 i& li u Kiku 1.8 1.4 1.6 12 13 14 iiliinliiiiliiiiliiiiliiii rrr TTT 15 mm m MflNUFfiCTURED TO flllM STfiNDfiRDS BY nPPLIED IMfiGE, INC. c THR ORESTEIA OF AESCHYLUS AS ILLUSTRATED BY GREEK VASE-PAINTINC; By Hktty Goldman Printed from the HARVARD STUDIES IN CLASSICAL PLIILOLOCV Vol. XXI, igio THE ORESTEIA OF AESCHYLUS AS ILLUSTRATED BY GREEK VASE-PAINTING^ By Hetty Goldman \ IN the discussion of Greek vase-painting the state nKiU liiru i o an st ever sought to produce an illustration of any given liter f f a myth, that should be slavishly faithful in ever} i tail, hasa* i the value of an axiom. It is generai y conceded that, even wht at had a definite poetic version in mind, he felt at liberty tn a • a a own imagination play about the subject, introducing or diacaai ng figures of secondary importance merely on the basis of personal prefer- ence, or because the composition demanded it for the proper filling of space and the maintenance of that finely adjusted sen f lialance which succeeded tu Lne rigid synimetry of earlv painting u 1 wa^ nut wholly lost even when the potter's art ceased to ilourish on Attic soil. But just when a vase-painter may be said, in spite of a certain amount of license in treatment, to have been inspired by a definite literary model and when to show a complete independence of it cannot be so easily determined. Walters, for example, says that "The influence of Tragedy on vase-paintings is an indirect one, and t atirely confined t ) the vases of Southern Italy on the one hand, and ^ t' i h v ( f E a h< on the other ";^ and those who accept this st a a se- quence, refuse to see any connection between the Orcsir.^ t a u as and the numerous vases of later date dealing with the baine Influence of one art upon another, however, is of a subtle aa : manifests itself in a variety of ways. The painter may la :;c. t work the actual scenic production of a play, and show rei c the grouping of the actors, the costumes, and the stage-st aa . again, he may follow the myth in a more general fashiiia t iha ducing a definite moment in the action, but composing the ] aiKi his ^ This article is the thesis presented by the successful candidate for the Chlrift Eliot Norton Fellowship in Greek Studies for 1910-11. ' Walters, History of Ancient Pottery^ Vol. II, p. 162. I 12 Hetty Goldman according to the traditions of his own art, or trying by a synthetic treatment to suggest rather the play as a whole than any specific scene. After the middle of the fifth century the Greek vase-painter was more given to this latter method. He grouped his composition rather loosely, an«i we i rk in vain among his works for any conception of such con- cent r it ed dramatic intensity as that of the murder of Aegisthus on pre- Aeschylean vases. Finally the treatment of a myth by a popular dramatist may cause the vase-painter to identify certain general types with the particular story. That some such thing happened in the case of the scene in the Choephori in which Electra and Orestes meet at the tomb of their father, I hope to prove. The history of this composition, which has at its centre the figure of a woman seated in an attitude of dejection on the steps of a tomb, offers, in the variety of its application to different subjects, a striking example of the peculiar tenacity with wl.'t li the vase-painter clung to a type when once created, and of his talent for combining a comparatively limited number of elements in an infinite variety of ways. But more of this when the Choephofi is under discussion. T wish now to take up the three plays of the Oresteia and see whether uic) Vuind in any relation with vase-painting subsequent to the production of the trilogy in 458 B.C., and also, in a few cases of exceptional interest, with works of an earlier date. ): ti^amefnnonf however, offers practically no material for this study. The reason must, I think, be sought in the play itself ; and while conceding the possibility that vases dealing with the home-coming of Au memiion and his murder at the hands of his wife may yet be ])ro'ii;rii to lighi, i doubt whether at any time the vase-painter found in this a subject suited to his needs. Unlike both the Choephori and the Eume?iideSy the Agamemnon offers no single stage picture that, either by length of duration or novelty of elements, tends to impress itself upon the imagination with lasting force. In the Choephori the meeting of the brother and sister works up gradually to the climax of the recog- nition, and during the long kommos in which the spirit of the dead is invoked and the living nerved to their work of vengeance, Orestes and Electra, siinin - at either side of the grave ^ or grouped in some way * T. G. Tucker in his edition of the Choephori^ p. xxxvii, gives the following stage directions: "The scenic grouping appears to be this. At the foot of the mound, to The Oresteia of Aeschylus 113 on its steps, must have presented to the eyes of the spectator a veritable tableau, which the vase-painter could, if he wished, take over and repro- duce on the surface of his pottery. In the Eumenides, after the two speeches of the Pythian priestess, — the one merely an introductory prayer, the other descriptive of the horrors she has witnessed within the sanctuar}% — the interior of the temple is revealed and the group, ter- rible in its effect, of the distraught and blood-flecked Orestes clinging to the navel stone in the midst of the sleeping furies, is suddenly flashed upon the vision of the spectators.^ Here, indeed, was a picture that through the medium of the emotions it aroused, etched itself upon the very souls of the spectators. The Agame?n?wn offers no single moment that can compare with either of these for pictorial effect. Splendid as must have been entrance of Agamemnon from a spectacular point of view, with the prophelc -^ Cassandra mounted upon the chariot and the host of warriors and townspeople following the home-coming lord, it depended for its effect, in all probability, on those very elements that the vase-painter was least able to reproduce, — the shifting play of color and the restless movement of the crowd. With the entrance of Clytemnestra commences a scene of unequalled tragic horror, but of a horror not patent to the senses. Into the tissue of her highly colored address she weaves a dark thread of sinister meaning and creates before our eyes that web of words with which she strangles the suspicions of the king, even as later she ensnares his limbs with the net of her devis- ing, the ancLpov dfjLLfiXrf(rTpov. ^o kindred art, much less that of the mere decorator of vases, could hope to reproduce this scene. But when we come to the actual murder, which Clytemnestra describes with perfect directness and terrible clarity, we might expect either hand, stands the chorus, with the Coryphaeus in the middle. At the summit on one side of the monument stands Orestes, and on the other Electra. ' ' Perhaps the less formal arrangement found on the terra cotta relief in Berlin, published in Monttvtenti IneJiti delP Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica^ VI, pi. 57. 2, might be considered equally appropriate and somewhat more suggestive of the mood of exaltation that pervades the scene. Pylades sits on the lowest step of the crrave monument. Above are Orestes and Electra with arms entwined. Orestes di »». iiis sword, to dedicate it at his father's tomb. ^ Scholium to Eum. 64: crpa4>ivTa. ykp fiTjxavi^fjiaT a ii'dr-\a ^-o.?. -i a -o fxavrehv ws Ci^' '^"■^ yiverai. 6\l/ii rpayiKifij t6 (Jjkv |i0os ^,.^;... ►.. t . ^a-n^i^ *0p4arT}%, cd 8^ mJ/icXy (ppovpovaau airrbv. i 14 Hetty Goldman ■s)!H' a /!! . i to find ih net ir- aied by the vase-painter. Scenes of conflict were r k ii 1 ulptor and painter delighted in depicting. And \ :^ V r ii A* vises that can, with any fair amount of probability, u ; ^ ' the subject, and these are quite unrelated to the \c ).as. A small picture in the interior of an Attic cylix ! j ' ib n i with considerable dramatic feeling. It has the essential r ! ense. ^^o see Clytemnestra bent on the destruction 01 r. r husband, rush iil' ve in hand, towards the bathroom door. }i '. ipart from the fact that the vase has all the characteristics of the bcvcic red-figured style and can hardly be dated later than about 470 n.c, the weapon that she carries in the play of Aeschylus is a s.v ; ' not in axe.^ The other picture (III) shows a woman threaten- 11^ a fallen warrior with an axe or a kind of flail.* The most, I think, that can be said is that this may represent a very much generalized version ut ihc uiuider, although the youth of the warrior and the fact that he is helmeted argue against this interpretation. The flying drapery is introduced solely to give weight to the left half of the com- position, quite in the manner of the Parthenon metopes or the Dexileos monument, and cannot be supposed to represent the garment in which Aui -''ininn was entangled, iicre then there is nothing to suggest Am n\it Hi influence, although the vase was painted after the produc- tion of the t'!= :\ But may there not, after all, be something in the manner of Agamem- non's death that made it, artistically speaking, an undesirable subject for the vase-painter? I think an examination of the only extant monuments on which this is faithfully portrayed will supply the answer. ^ The Roman numerals refer to the list of monuments on pp. 155 ff. * Aesch. Cho. loio f . : naprvpei 5^ /xot apoo5r]\Tf)T; jj) t that account, to consider the subjects identical. * The Oresteia of Aeschylus 115 \'c A series of Etruscan cinerary ums^ represent the murde- They do not, it is true, accord strictly with the Aeschylean here Aegisthus is the actual perpetrator ui the deed : 1 Ci) lemiie-iri merely comes to his aid armed with a piece of (urn * - ^esembiiiiu n foot-stool, snatched up under the sudden urn 'b: on of passion :i i hate. But this divergence, fundamental from a mythological and dra- matic point of view, is negligeable in a discussion of the composii on of the scene. U:. the best of these as regards artistic merit IX K Agamemnon, his head and arms completely involved in the eiiciinil)er- ing garment, has fled to the household alt ', where Aegisthus, sword in hand, seizes him from the left, while Clytemnestra runs up from the other side, ready to dash against the ensnared victim the foot-stool she holds raised above her head. A wuiged 1 ui) wiui diawn hwt ri to the left and a servant hiding in terror behind the open door to the right complete the composition. The picture is well conceived, has dramatic unity, and is executed with considerable boldness and life, and yet the total effect is far from pleasing. What in the telling makes a supremely pathetic appeal, the helpless entanglement in a taearherous garment of the mighty hero whose foot, in tiu vo-^is oi his faithless wife, had trampled Ilium,^ when presented to the i . fails entirely to arouse a similar emotion. This muffled figure, '» save for the feeble effort at resistance made with the right arm, ■ 1 by itself, 1- essentially unbeautiful, and when piutruded into the \er\ ^aitt of a scene of violent action breaks that rhythmic movement 11 * :i wHh h the inner harmony of the composition depends quite as much as upon the proper balance and disposition of parts. On anothei where the garment is thrown over the head of the seated V, in a manner to suggest rather a passive than a helplessly figure, the effect is nothing short of lud; . r II'""! ■' ,;(■■ » Brunn, Urne Etrusche, I, pi. LXXIV, LXXXV, 4. * Ag. 906 f . : p-Tf) x^l^^ Tidels rhv ffbv irSS*, ufva^, 'IXiov iropOi^opa. ^ A detailed discussion of the urns hardly f'N .1 inn the scope of this artidCf but I should like to suggest that this picture, in % « nnestm alone • aks th attack on Agamemnon, is in reality no more dependent ii \ v It is merely an abbreviation of the larger scene, as is e\id : t too, she carries the foot-stool, a weapon with which she cio . ar : carry out a murder single-handed. J'ln.T'i I fit' I T ^^ Hetty Goldman a Greek vase-painter might have treated the subject with more skill than the Etruscan artisans who made the cinerary urns, he could never, T think, lu ^ worked it into a telling and harmonious group. And it \in:>{ l)c remembered that the superiority of the Greek to the Etruscan consisted, at least in part, in the avoidance of essentially inartistic subjects. The Etruscan attempted everything, the Greek only what was best suited to the medium in which he worked. It may not be going too far in speculation to suggest that, had the scene been actually represented and the net, the hUrvov "AtSov, introduced, it would have been done somewhat in the manner of Polygnotus, who reduced all such artistically discordant elements to a refined, but vague, and, it must be added, according to modern feeling, rather meaningless symbolism. To us the figure of a woman in a swing would fail adequately to suggest the tragic end of Phaedra by hanging, or two youths seated on a rock the punishment of Theseus and Pirithous in the lower world. ^ But if the first drama of the trilogy fails to show any point of contact with subsequent vase-painting, it has at least one retrospective reference that throws an interesting light on the persistence of types in ancient art. 1 think there can be little doubt that, in the passage describing the sacrifice of Iphigenia, Aeschylus is recalling, and not creating, a picture ; and if this be so, the central group of a composition, already so well known in the year 458 «.c. that Aeschylus could stimulate the interest of his spectators by a reference to it, reappears on a wall-painting at Pompei. The poet says : ^ pd(T€v 8' do^oi5 Trarrjp /otcr' €V)^av SiKav x^Axaipas vTr€pOe ftay/xov r*~\ouTt TTipLTTCTrj TraVTL dvjJLiji Ka^elv 6.€p- Sr)v^ OTO/xaTo's t€ KaWnrpijo- pov 6oyyor dpalov oikol^, i^ /3a(f>a<; 8' €s TreSoi/ )(€ovcra * IKaCTTOV OvTYj- ' Fansanias 10, 29, 3 and 9. « 4^. 231 ff. i T/ie Oresteia 0/ Aeschylus 1 i 7 •nptTTOvcra. ^* ok €v ypa<^al?, TrpocrcwcTrciv BiXoVCr , CTTCt TToAAaKtS rraTpo'i kut avopojvas cvr^art^ lS c/xeAi/^ev, ktA. Apart from the distinct reference in TrpcVovo-a 0' ws ev ypacjxiU^ I think there may be a reminiscence of the painting in the words KpoKov ^a<^s. Aeschylus uses adjectives of color very sparingly, although it must be added, on the other hand, that a saffron robe was the conventional dress of royal maidens.^ The Pompeian wall-painting (I) in which Iphigenia is raised by two attendants in the manner described by Aeschylus has certain character- istics that mark it as an eclectic composition. There is in t. c vhole a rather formal but by no means obtrusive symmetry, and although the figure of the nymph bringing the stag is clearly introduced in order to balance that of Artemis, this is done in no mechanical fashion. The goddess, who, enthroned upon the clouds, has been watching the prepa- rations for the sacrifice, seems suddenly, upon the more merciful prompt- ings of her heart, to summon her attendant with the stag by an imperious gesture. The nymph arrives with streaming hair and swelling draperies that indicate the rapidity of her flight, while below the praying maiden and hesitating seer seem to hear, although they do not comprehend, the saving presence. Furthermore, the entire absence of background in the picture, when taken in conjunction with the symmetrical arrange lieiil of the central group, argues for an early prototype. These are ( ii -ac- teristics of the art of the fifth century; but the attitiulc of A- n n suggests at once the famous picture b} ! a.nanthes of Sicyoii, in which the painter, having expressed in the surrounding characters every p^rada- tion of sorrow and horror at the cruel fate of the maiden, \e.iw 1 : iii the eyes of the spectators the father's inexpressible irrief. The Vom- peian artist, therefore, appears to have combined r; ments from ^ rctk art of the fifth and the early fourth century.^ That he 1. - r^ ^ a 1 in fusing them one can hardly maintain, i e very introe a : lae veiled Agamemnon into this scene rests upun a inisunder-a.iaa a^ ul tiic ' Cf. Eur. Phoenissae 1491 (Dindorf). Antigone says: aroKu - Tpvas. 2 The date of Timanthes is usually given as about 4cii to illustrate both. The identification, however, of the particular theme with the general subject in the work of t^i; vase-painter only reflects a deeper identity that lies at the heart of the play. Here in the scene in which the newly united brother and sister join with the chorus in sum- moning the unappeased spirit of Agamemnon to help them in tne work of vengeance that must be executed in his name, Aeschylus gives the supremely poetic and final expression to the primitive Greek idea con- cerning the dead. That, in all its savage intensity, it actually represents the belief of his own day one can hardly affirm. It does give, how , in a highly wrought form, the quintessence of what lay at the root of popular religion and inspired the customs and beliefs pictured by the painters of funerary vases. The Greek of the fifth century, with a total disregard of that logic which only enters religion when the systematizing theologian begins to blur the traces of its manifold and unreconciled origins, thought of the dead as at once removed to the lower world and residing in his tomb. In the lower world he led a shadowy and help- less existence ; in the tomb he was a powerful daemon whose tendency towards maleficent interference in the affairs of the living could be re- strained only by constant attention to his needs.* Therefore these cere- monies at the tomb, these ornamental fillets and wreaths, and offerings of food and drink. Doubtless the Greek peasant returning from market to his country home at dusk and passing through the Ceramicus and out at the Dipylon gate, many a time believed that he had seen the dead mournfully seated upon the steps of their tombs, in the dejected attitude the vase-painter has made iamiliar to us. It is this conception of the dead as a powerful tomb-haunting daemon that Aeschylus has emphasized in the Choephori. Here the moving force, the actual hero one might say, is just this spirit of the departed crying out for vengeance from the grave Hhcre he resides, working for ' Cf. A. Fairbanks, Athenian White Lekythoi, p. 354: ''The objects which seem to be for the use of the dead, whether placed in the tomb or brought to the grave monument, indicate that the wants of the dead were conceived as practicalK _; icai with the wants of the living." 120 Hetty Goldman the destruction of his murderers, and not Orestes " prompted to his revenge by heaven and hell " and following unwillingly in the wake of an overmastering fate. On one of a series of Roman sarcophagi,^ going bnrk |)rubably to some famous Greek painting,^ the ghost of Agamem- non, mysteriously shrouded, actually appears at the door of the tomb, and beside it sleeps a Fury holding the axe of Clytemnestra. Here the painter has not illustrated the play ; he has given an illuminating inter- pretation of its spirit. We cannot expect as much of the mere artisans who decorated the vases. Yet, despite the very general way in which the vase-painter has treated his theme, there are certain points in the characterization of the individuals that he never forgets. The relative importance of Orestes and Pylades is always carefully indicated. The figure of Py lades is placed in a position of less prominence — he plays the part of the com- panion, the willing but not vitally interested friend, while on the purely sepulchral vases the figures bringing offerings are usually ranged sym- metrically at either side of the tomb. Electra too is distinguished from her attendants, either by the signs of mourning, — the short hair and the black robe, — or by the prominence of her position in the centre of the composition, or yet more subtly, by the indication of the ravages of grief and ill-treatment that make Orestes recognize her among the band of mourners and exclaim : ^ kqX yap *HX€KT/oav SoActu aruxuv dScX^T^v rr}v ifjLrjv TrevOei \vypw TrpCTTOvcrav. A detailed examination of the vases will, I think, bear out these general statements. The very opening of the play, the arrival of Orestes and Pylades at the tomb, is, I believe, depicted on a Campanian amphora in the i;r : ; Museum (VI).'* On the ground, m front of a grave monument ^ The sarcophagi are all discussed in K. Robert, Die antiken Sarcophagreliefs^ Vol. II, pp. 165-177, pi. LIV-LVI. 2 O. Benndorf, Annali deW Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica^ XXXVII (1865), pp. --off. ^ Cho. 1 > \>. ^ The caa' .aie of the British Museum pves no mythological interpretation of the scene. \ The Oresteia of Aeschylus 121 in the shape of an Ionic column standing on a high plinth, a youth is seated clasping a staff between his hands. Before him, to the left and on slightly higher ground, stands another youth with hansn'ng pilos, a spear in his right hand and a sheathed sword in his left. A chlann-^ -s draped over his left arm. He seems to be addressing the spirit m the tomb. On the Berlin relief ^ Pylades is similarly seated in front of the grave, quite in the spirit of Aeschylus, a witness, but in no sense a participant in the scene. If both youths were merely worshippers at the grave, the careful differentiation between the two could have no meaning, but for Orestes and Pylades it is altogether admirable. After the long journey Pyaldes, not inspired by the larger emotions that ex lit and sustain his friend, sits down wearily upon the ground. If the ancient shepherds were as prone to take their noonday rest in the shade of some convenient monument as are their modern descendants, the vase-painter may very well have taken this figure, which has a certain genre-like charm, from life, and not have borrowed it from his storehouse of inherited types. Orestes, on the other hand, moved by the sight of his father's grave, and conscious of his personal danger, invokes the help of Chthonian Hermes and addresses the dead spirit :- Tv/x/Sov 8* €7r O)(0uj Ta)8c K-qpvaau) iraTpi kXvciv, aKovcraL. Although made in Campania, the picture probably brings us nearer to the time of Aeschylus than is at first apparent, for it belongs to a class of vases modelled in shape, technique, and treatment on the Attic Nolan amphora.^ Did the vase-painter in this case take over, ready made, the subject as well as the form ? One cannot say with certainty, although there is something in the refinement and delicacy of the faces and the purity of outline in the figures that argues strongly in favor of this supposition. The two vases that Overbeck* wishes to associate with this opening > A/on. delP Inst. VI, pi. 57, 2. 2 Cho. 4 f. 3 Cf. H. B. Walters, History of Ancient Pottery, I, p. peculiar fabrics which we may also attribute to a Campanian Nolan amphorae reproducing both their form and their scht ''Tbere are a few n . . . imitations of f decoration." * J. Overbeck, Gallerie heroischer Bildwerke, p. 684, No. 7; p. jy A- 122 Hetty Goldman The Oresteia of Aeschylus 123 scene can, I think, be placed here only by a rather strained mythological interpretation. They show two youths at a grave. On one vase they merely stand at either side with an urn between them ; on the other they are making offerings of a wreath and a cake. It is true that two male figures are rarely depicted at a tomb in a purely sepulchral connection;^ on the other hand, the bringing of offerings by Pylades vv i 1 be entirely out of keeping with the subsidiary role he is made to play in the ti 1 Iv : and as there is no attempt to differentiate the two in attitude or tu suggest that one participates in the rites more fervently than the other, I think the interpretation as two ephebi at a stele is preferable. With the withdrawal of Orestes and Pylades, Electra appears on the scene, followed by a chorus of women in wild lamentation. A hint of the gestures that accompanied this parodos, although not reflected in any of the vases connected with the trilogy, may be found in a sepul- chral statue'-^ that has come down to us, depicting a woman who wails and tears her hair, and in the figures on certain white Athenian lecythi.^ But according to the words of the poet, the grief of the chorus took on an even more violent and varied form than art could depict : * taAros €*< 8o/xa)i/ t^av Xohsi TrpOTTO/XTTO? O^VX^tpt (JVV KTVTTiO, TT -n-aprji^ cfyoLVLOis d/u,vy/u,ois «i ; XaSov vtt oAyco-tv, TTpOCTTepVOl <7T0X/X0t TTCTrXoiV dycXao'Tois ivfxopal<: TTCTrXT/y/xcvcDV. 1 A. Fairbanks, Athenian White Lekythoi, p. 351: " ii. ^^uraance with Greek practice the offerings are ordinarily brought by women; it is very rare to find two men at the tomb, though one of the figures is usually a man who seems merely to watch what is going on." Murray, White Athenian Vases in the British Museum^ pl. V, |vHirv:-r. shnw^ two Tu^n 'H this position. ' jlct!, dcW' In..'. \. \\. 44. 3 1 li! inks gives u i.-^.. of these on p. 352 of his Atn: m^in White Lekythot- * ' \ . 22 ff. 1 A rfnglc vase (VII), on which the picture is divided between the two sides, shows the moment just before the meeting of brother and sister. A woman with her chiton drawn up over head, is engaged in tying a taenia about a stele (inscribed Af AM E) which stands on a three-stepped base. Opposite her another female figure holds a basket vi ' • On the reverse two youths are depicted, both with chlamys an -'^ '"f «^^ "T^ nature of the ceremonies that have been performed. To the left of the grave stands Orestes with a spear in his left hand and a ph.ale extended in the other, while Hermes occupies the corresponding position to the right He is placed upon the base of the tomb, and leaning on his kerykeion, crowns the column with a wreath. Pylades is seated at the left, under the handle of the vase ; he turns his head to look towards the centre. He holds a spear in one hand and a large pilos in the other. A bearded man with a staff stands directly behind Hermes, and a similar figure, wearing a close fitting cap and likewise carrying a staff, is seated, facing the centre, on a sack tied together at one end. He occupies the space under the right handle. The figure of a nude youth at the left, and that of a servant holding an alabastron at the right, complete the composition. All the figures, with the exception of Orestes and Electra who are drawn in three quarter view, look towards the centre. For a vase of so late a date the grouping is strangely symmetrical ; nor is the picture animated by any unifying idea that would tend to counterac the unpleasing impression of its formal arrangement. Electra, in spite of the advent of her brother, and although placed at an angle that of necessity, makes her aware of his presence, maintains the dejected attitude appropriate to the opening of the play. Orestes, on the other . Permission to publish this vase and the photograph from which the plate was made were obtained through the kindness of M. Edmond Pott.et. I'l.AlK II I Okksiks, 1\i kci k \, \\ii lli.kMi.s Ai I in: r»>Mi: « >i At;\MK\i\M\ LrcwiAN Ami'IK'KA, Lni \kk 544 The Oresteia of Aeschylus 129 hand, is pouring a libation, a ceremony he could not have performed until after the recognition had taken place.^ If, as has been suggested, an effigy or emblem of Hermes was actually placed at the tumulus when the play was performed,^ his presence here on the vase is doubly accounted for, although the fact that he is invoked by both Orestes and Electra would seem sufficient explanation : * Orestes. 'Ep/x^ ^ovit^ Trarpo)* €7ro7rT£va)»' Kparrj^ aiOTTjp ycvov fiOL ^vfi/jui^^o^ r aiTov/xevo). Electra. Krjpv$ fiiyLO-Tt tu)v dvo) re kol Kara), *Ep/a^ )^06vL€^ Krjpv$a<; e/xot, Tovs yi/s evepOc Satfiova^ kXvclv c/xas cv;(as . . . The introduction of a nude youth into a scene in which he is obviously out of place, merely in order to provide a counterpart to the female ser- vant at the extreme right, does not show the inventive power of the artist in a favorable light. There is, however, an imaginative touch in the figure of the retainer, whose foreign appearance, in combination with the baggage upon which he is seated, at once suggests the further development of the plot : the disguise, by means of which Orestes and Pylades penetrate into the interior of the palace.'' In the bearded man immediately behind Hermes we must probably see the Paedagogus and admit into an Aeschylean scene a character derived in all probability, either directly or indirectly, from the Electra of Sophocles. No other interpretation suggests itself, and yet it is difficult to explain his presence on any other ground than the deliberate choice of the vase-painter ; for by a slight shifting of the remaining figures the composition could easily have been extended to its present dimensions, and the decorative requirements equally well fulfilled. He does not reappear on any of the vases that represent abbreviations of this picture. On XIII the composition is reduced to seven figures. Pylades and the Paedagogus are omitted, the retainer with the baggage transferred * The pouring of a libation by Orestes is not alluded to in the text of the play. It might, however, have taken place during the kommos without special mention. * T. G. Tucker, The Choephori of Aeschylus^ p. xxxii: " The opening scene is the tumulus of Agamemnon with an effigy or emblem of Hermes.' 3 Cho. I f. and 124 ff. * Cf . Huddilston, Greek Tragedy in the Light of Vase-paintings, p. 50. i^Q Hetty Goldman to the left, and a seated female attendant holding a box takes his place on the right. The attitude of Hermes is the same, but he now stands on the ground instead of on the step of the monument, and Orestes holds a pitcher. There are unessential modifications in the poses of the end figures. Only four of the characters are present on XIV. To the right of Electra stands Hermes, identical with the one on vase XH, except that the right hand holds no wreath. The servant at the extreme right of XH and XHI has been moved to a position directly behind Hermes, and now lifts her drapery with the left, and an alabastron with the right hand. Orestes, with a cantharus in his hand, occupies the left field. The picture on XV (Plate H), which consists of only three figures, — Electra seated on a high five-stepped monument, surmounted by a Doric column supporting a crater, with Orestes to the left and Hermes to the right, — appears to be an excerpt from the larger composition of XHI, from which it differs only in unessential details. Orestes holds a cylix' and the position of Electra is slightly shifted towards the left. On all the vases there are minor variations, which I have not noted, in the shape of the monument and the nature and number of the offerings and vases placed upon the steps. It would be idle to seek for a basic composition among a series of pictures in which the elements are rather aligned than composed, and the meaningless figures of serving men and women represented in pre- ference to characters of such primary importance in every version of the myth as Pylades, who is omitted on all but the most comprehensive treatment of the story (XII). Electra is everywhere the same figure of gentle and resigned melancholy, pensively leaning her head upon her hand. She is still the direct descendant of the old Electra of the Melian relief, but one feels that she has survived rather as a type than as an individual ; for all the stem and tragic intensity has vanished with the emaciated form. Here the limbs are rounded, the body gracefully bent under the weight of affliction. She appears rather a burdened than a bitter and rebellious spirit. This emotional attenuation is the price she has had to pay for her long apprenticeship as the universal -. of mourning, during which she seems to have been recreated in ; milder spirit of the ideas which, towards the middle of the fifth and in the fourth century, centred around the conception of the dead. \\ The Oresteia of Aeschylus 131 « % That the vase-painters of Southern Italy were capable of more dramatic feeling, the pictures connected with the Etanenides will show. The servant seated on the baggage offers the link that binds the picture most closely to the Choephori^ for by his presence emphasis is laid on a feature that, so far as we know, is purely Aeschylean, and one upon which hinges the whole development of the plot : the disguise of Orestes and Pylades as Daulian merchants.^ A vase (XVI) that shows the moment before the recognition ought perhaps to have been commented upon earlier, but I have relegated it to this position because the type of the Electra connects it very closely with the series we have just been discussing. She is seated in the familiar attitude on the steps of an aedicula, holding a large jar in her lap. Orestes, with a gesture indicative of surprise and pleasure, ap- proaches from the right, while Pylades, with a nice sense of differentia- tion is made to stand quietly on the other side of the monument and look back upon the scene.'-^ By the help of this picture we may interpret another (XVII), which, at the first glance, seems rather to reflect the version of Sophocles than that of Aeschylus. Compared with the somewhat dull adherence to a type, one might almost say to a formula, in some of the vases reflecting the Choephori, this one is vivified by an imaginative strain of unusual freshness and charm. The artist has here succeded in giving a poetic suggestion of the momentary emotion without introducing the note of exaggeration that mars so many of the dramatic vase-paintings.^ The grave monument, bound with a black taenia, occupies the extreme left of the picture, and Electra, a noble, rather matronly figure in a black chiton, her hair cut short, stands beside it, looking towards Orestes, as if his arrival had interrupted her ministrations at the grave. She holds a black taenia in the right hand, and a large hydria ornamented with a taenia and branches in her left arm. Orestes leans forward upon his spear, and looks smilingly into his sister's eyes, as if trying to draw from her a joyful recognition of his identity. It is the moment when Electra, who has previously accepted too confidently the uncertain evidence of * Cho. 674: OP. ^^w)S it.h elfu Aau\iei>s iK ^(aK^wv. ' This attitude, although sufficiently motivated here, becomes a positive mannerism on late South Italian vases. ^ I refer particularly to the vases based on Euripidean and post-Euripidean plays. 132 Hetty Goldman the footsteps and lock of hair, now hesitates before the assurance brought her by his words •} avTov fitv ovv opwo-a SvafmOcl^ €fxe' Kovpav 8' iSovaa ttJvSc Kr)BeLOv rptxos ixvoaKOTTOvcrd t iv (ttl^oktl toI? €/iot9 dv€7rTCpu)0r] In the play she is evidently thought of as pouring a hbation from a small, light vessel, for she inquires of the chorus whether she is to throw it away {^Cho. 96 ff.) : ^ o-rV driiJLOJS, uxTirep o^v dirJiXeTO Trar^p, rdd' iKX^aaa, ydirorov x'^^ru', ' 6/xotws Kal Trarpos tov (tov /xaras * aXyos yvvaiilv dvSpo^ etpyccr^at, tIkvoV he will not, on the other hand, name the sin she has committed. When he accuses her of having sold him and she demands that he state the price she received in return he says : ^ ai(T\x)voixaL (TOi rovr oi'CtStcrat crac^ws. Instinctive pity, not understanding, prompts him momentarily to spare her life, but when he finally fulfills the command laid upon him by Apollo he seems in spiritual accord with it and so responsible for his deed. Although there are no representations of Clytemnestra's appeal to Orestes on extant vases, the design on an Etruscan mirror (XX) makes it extremely probable that the motif was not invented by Aeschylus, but was taken over by him from some poem sufficiently well known in the early part of the fifth century to have influenced popular art. The > Cho. 918 and 920. 2 Cho. 917. 138 Hetty Goldman mirror evidently repeats the design on the interior of an Attic cylix^ that, on stylistic grounds, can hardly be dated later than 470 b.c. The picture accords perfectly with the version of Aeschylus, and the names of Orestes (Urusthe) and Clytemnestra (Clutumsta) are inscribed. It is possible, but extremely improbable, that the engraver of so archaic a mirror was sufficiently well acquainted with the play of Aeschylus to have adapted to this subject a design originally depicting another myth. It is also to the Choephori that we must look, I think, for the sugges- tion of a vase-picture (XXI) illustrating no actual scene, but the event that takes place prior to Orestes's return and inspires the action of the play, — his visit to Delphi. In the centre Apollo, with lyre in one hand and a laurel branch in the other, sits upon the omphalus, which is decked with taeniae. Directly in front of him to the left, with one foot raised, stands Orestes, his gaze fixed in rapt and solemn attention upon the prophetic god. Over the left shoulder he carries a spear and in his right hand he holds a sword, as if consecrating it to the deed of vengeance. Behind Apollo appear Pylades, as always in the vase- paintings inspired by Aeschylean conceptions a mere spectator, and the Pythia seated upon the tripod and holding a taenia. A female figure, standing close to Orestes, cannot be named with any certainty. The gesture of her left hand indicates that she is in some way actively connected with the scene, but perhaps merely as an officiating priestess.-^ ' Cf. H. B. Walters, History of Ancient Pottery^ II, p. 307: "Apparently the red-figured vases which were imported into Etruria in such large numbers in the fifth century served as prototypes, not for their paintings, but for the engraved mirrors. . . The interior designs of the kylikes, perfected by Epiktetos, Euphrorios, and their contemporaries, served as obvious models for disposing a design m a circular space; and they had in the subjects a mythological repertory ready to hand." Compare the attitude of Orestes with that of Achilles on the interior of the Troilus cylix, published by P. Hart wig, Die griechischen Meisterschalen des strengen roth- Jigurigen Stils, pi. LVIII, LIX, I. 2 I have given the interpretation suggested by Botticher, Arch. Zcit.^ i860, pp. 50 ff., which seems to me most in harmony with the spirit of the composition, but scholars have expressed widely divergent opinions. Heydemann ( Vasensammlungen ZH Neapel^ No. 1984) and Jahn ( Vasenhilder^ p. 9) see in it Orestes consecrating his sword at Delphi on his return from Tauris; Rochette (^Mon. Ined.^ p. 187) and Over- beck (//cpovaas ' aTrrcpot yc firjv tSctv avrat, /mc'Aatvat S* e? to ttuv /^SeXvKrpoTroi • piyKOvai 8' ov -irXaroiai aLOx^TiDve<; Kal Tre-rrkcKTavrjfxevaL TTVKVOtS hpaKOVCTLV ' ava$ "AttoXXov, atSc TrXrjOvovaL Or]^ Ka$ o/x/xarooi/ (TTa^ovaiV al/xa Svcrc^tXes. The Pythian priestess adds that their flesh as well as their garments was black, and that unlike the Harj^ies, whom they otherwise resembled, they had no wings. Apollo calls them : ^ ypauxi TtakavaX Traidc?. These features, which are the only ones that the text of the play forces us to associate with the Erinyes, all appear, with the exception of the blood oozing from the eyes, on one or another of the vases deal- ing with the flight of Orestes, and I think the weight of this negative evidence may at least be brought to bear against the suggestion that The Oresteia of Aeschylus 141 » This is the method of K. Bottiger, "Die Furienmaske," h'leine Schriften^, Vol. I, pp. 189-277. « Vita Aeschyii, p. 4 (Dindorf). 3 Cho. 1048 ff. and 1057 f. * Eum. 69. Aeschylus portrayed them ^vith the distended mouth and protrudmg toneue of the typical gorgoneion.' . v i u- „if Of the Harpies, to whom he likens the Furies, Aeschylus hun elf n,ust have given some word picture in his early play Plunan,- and Tant monuments have preserved for us some indications of the char- acter of the painting that he refers to in the hnes : Selirvw <^£pov(Tas, aTTTcpoi yt ^v iSdv, for we possess a series of vase-paintings of the Phineus myth, beginning with a black-i^gured cylix and ending with an extended composjfon on an early Italian amphora of the fourth century, that by ---^ -"J- lencies either of drawing or conception, show ev.dence of reflectmg the contemporary art of painting. On the cylix of the sixth century^ both Harpies and Boreadae fly through the air propelled each by two enormous pa.rs of wmgs and wmged boots. If Aeschylus had some such archaic pamtmg m mmd, and U is Lite as reasonable to suppose that he refers to an o d and famous work as to a newly executed one, the feature most clearly d.sungu^h- ing his Furies from their artistic prototypes would certamly be their ''' A NlTlmphora now in the British Museum,' probably dating from the decade preceding the production of the play, although falling far I n Muller. Die Eumeniden^ p. 185. . SLuTrW. Sra..fr.s.^ fr. .60, gives a much restored passage .ron, PhUode- mus, De pietate, p. 1 8. \ f rdul' WUr^burg, 354, Furtwangler und Reichhold, Di. gri'Ms^h' Va.en- , ; ^ !;o rTl Fur wangler gives an interesting estimate oi the art.st.c " r", 'he'v se " UnVer ^en al.TrtumUchen Darstellungen aus dem d.on^.chen merits of the vase . l-ntf'j^ cj. ut unerreicht durch die Lebendigkeit, :?sr.t:l ».« '- ■«-: "r- ™,.r/ '" '" ""■' ■"' .„i,„...«.. "r'tSm'';" "rv~r^s i. ,. .* n. .=, .^ » British Museum E 302, Cat. lU, p. 219, 142 Hetty Goldman below the other vases of this series in artistic merit, suggests, by its ! ' teness, that it must be an excerpt from a larger picture. Fhineus, enthroned en face beside the depleted table, stretches out his t arm and turns his head toward a Harpy, who makes off to the left . Ill i od and drink. Her equipment for flight consists of a single pair of wings. The apprehensive glance she casts backward is without meaning, unless we assume that the original painting included the pursuing Boreadae.^ That a Greek artist of very unusual distinction busied himself with the Phineus myth eariy in the second half of the fifth century is shown by an oenochoe from Sicily,^ that can hardly be dated before 430 or much after 420 B.C. At the left of the picture a Harpy lies at the feet of the seated Phineus, her limbs relaxed and head reversed in utter exhaustion or death. At the right two Boreadae bind a second Harpy, who, though fallen to her knees, offers desperate resistance. The pathos and the fiery, almost excessive energy of the painting awaken surprise in us who are dependent primarily upon sculpture for our con- ceptions of (}reek art, and therefore look for these characteristics in the products of the fourth rather than in those of the fifth century. If, now, we compare these Harpies with the Furies on a South Italian crater of about the same date,' we find the two almost identical, both in general conception and in details of costume, save that the former are winged and the latter have snakes coiled in their hair. Their features are beautiful and majestic, without a touch of brutishness or ferocity, and they both wear short chitons, heavy studded belts with crossed shoulder straps, and high hunting boots. Art, therefore, seems * J. II. Iluddilston, The Attitude of the Greek Tragedians tou>ards Art, p. 16, says in commenting on this vase : " The painting is at any rate but a very few years earlier than the production of the Eumcnides and is, moreover, so closely in harmony with the cTSoi' . . . 0epou7/iauts is unknown, I merely quote <™ 'he sake of corpleteness, the description from the CaU.loghi Uel M,.eo Ca,„Mn.u Ser. IV, No. Te ' % aso l colonnette, figure gialle. Oreste supplica nel tempio d' Apol o. Coperto di clamide e col pilo viatorio dietro le spaUe, ha nella destra la spada, s. nfugta all ara d DeU rappresentata da sei grandi pietre. Presso del mcdesimo sta Apollo che .n epressivo a«o vieta il progredire piu oltre alia furia ala.a, recante m cascuna mano Tn erpente. Pallade ancora prende in tu.ela il figUo d, Egtsto (?) Al d, sopra del Lpo di Oreste si vede nel campo un bucranio colle vine, emblema de. sacnfic, e della rplebrit\ dell' ara, alia quale si e refugiato." , . , , ' Tschylus L. not actually depict the Erinyes as white-ha.red, but the sugges- tion Tor such a conception is contained in the epithet Apollo apphes to them, Eum. 69, 7/3aiai TraXatai TraiSes. The Oresteia of Aeschylus 151 iar repulsiveness of the Aeschylean creation. These creatures have no affinity with any other type. They are as far removed from the archaic gorgoneion as from the idealized Furies of other vase-paintings, and the extraordinarily natural manner in which the relaxation of sleep is portrayed suggests that the artist either drew his inspiration from life or copied, however rudely, the work of some more important master. Their equipment, too, seems to differ from what we have found on other vases. Instead of the torches, swords, scourges, or even spears of other Erinyes, they carry a short staff or wand, a feature that we know to have characterized them, although it is never mentioned by Aeschylus. Indeed, if there is any truth in the story narrated by Lycophron,i our Apulian vase-painter may have witnessed, at some time, a curious cere- mony performed by the inhabitants of the town of Dardanus. In the monologue which bears her name, Cassandra prophesies that the maidens of this village, when they wish to escape matrimony, will take refuge at her shrine disguised as Furies, and she ends with the words : KCtVats cyo) h-t]VQ.iov a(l>diTO6poL<; yvvai^lv avS-qO-qaofiaL. The remaining vases that deal with Orestes at Delphi, although they bring the evidence of numbers to testify to the hold that the third play of the trilogy had upon the popular imagination, offer no new points of view for our study, and so, without multiplying descriptions that must of necessity resemble each other in their essential features, I shall select those minor details that seem worth commenting upon. A picture (XXXII) that represents the same moment as the St. Petersburg crater contains only three figures, and offers a good example of the shorthand that vase-painters sometimes employ when they wish to treat a subject in a condensed manner. Orestes kneels upon a box- like altar and two laurel sprays in the field serve to indicate the locality as Delphi. A single Erinys armed with a torch and a curious crooked sword represents the host of his pursuers. The priestess, as usual, departs in precipitous alarm. The artist who placed a charming little composition on the neck of a crater in Berlin (XXXIII) has proved himself more master of his own craft than of Delphic tradition, for he has seated Apollo, who inter- ' Lycophron, Alexandra^ 1131 ff. 152 Hetty Goldman poses between Orestes and the Fury, upon the tripod of the Pythia,^ while she escapes towards the right accompanied by a temple attendant carrying a platter. Here, too, the impression of frantic haste in the suppliant's flight is conveyed with particular success by the convulsive, but not ungraceful, manner in which he has thrown himself upon the altar with head reversed and rolling eyes. But it remains for a toy crater in Vienna (XXXIV) to supply an element of humor that may not be wholly unconscious. The vase is wretchedly executed and would not deserve mention were it not for its subject. Orestes kneels upon the altar in such a way as to interpose the omphalus between himself and the Fury, and so seems to rely for protection rather on the bulk than on the sanctity of the object he embraces. A large dog follows in the wake of the pursuer, the only visible embodiment upon vase-pictures of the conception of the Furies as hounds of the chase. An extended composition on the neck of a crater in St. Peters- burg (XXXV) shows a charming variety in the attitudes of the Erinyes, who appear in groups of two at either end of the picture. Orestes is at the altar in the centre, his divine protector by his side, while the nearer Fury to the left rushes towards him in stormy pursuit. The further one, half sunk in the ground, her head thrown back and arm uplifted, is to all appearances the ecstatic Bacchante, a type that the vase-painter, in his search for novelty, has simply borrowed. Those on the right have already entered into the bitter controversy with Apollo, and the one who stands before him with a long wand might be uttering the accusing words -} ava^ "ATroXXov, avraKOvaov iv fxipu, avTo? (TV rovTUiv ov fxeracTLO^ TreAct, dXA' eU TO TTcif €7rpa$aoil:ios v/xvifideT (SporoTs, TO. T 6vTa Kal /x^WovTa 6€(nrl^u}v dei. 2 Eum. 198. T/ie Oresteia 0/ Aeschylus 153 low it in execution, the group is again composed of Apollo, Orestes, and the pursuers, one of whom rises from the ground with flying hair and snakes writhing about her arms. A guttus (XXXVII) and an askos (XXXVIII), decorated in relief, probably carry us further into the third century than any of the other vase-pictures, but the type of the composition remains unaltered. Orestes, with one knee upon the ground, embraces the omphalus and stretches out his right hand, armed with the sword, to defend himself against the attacking Erinys.^ On three vases (XXXIX, XL, XLI) the composition has been reduced to a formula of pursuit, in which Orestes, attacked by a Fury on either side, defends himself with sword held in the right hand and scabbard in the left. It is interesting to note that in the conception of the vase- painters it was evidently the presence of the god Apollo, and not the sanctity of omphalus and altar, that protected the suppliant from the Erinyes, for on two pictures, although he kneels at the holy of holies, they attack him with snake and torch. On the third vase (XLI) we seem to see Orestes on the long wanderings that led him ultimately to Athens and the ancient image of the goddess. That the scene is not at Delphi, but in the open, is shown by the pebbles used to indicate the ground-line. Both Erinyes attack him with snakes, but his head is averted from the one who holds in her left hand a mirror that reflects the image of his murdered mother. Finally, in one instance (XLII) Orestes flees before a single wanged Erinys. In the Eumenides, as the last of the trilogy, we move out of the darkness into the light, and in every scene the note of hope is sounded more strongly, until we emerge into the final brightness of the acquittal and the solemn pageant that establishes the Erinyes as 2c/avat in their cavernous dwelling. The arrival of Orestes at the sanctuary of Athena is not depicted on the vases,^ but there seems to be a faint echo of the ^ On the askos the Erinys is not actually represented. In her stead a snake darts out at Orestes. This must, I think, be taken rather as a symbolic or abbreviated representation than a return to the primitive conception of the Erinys as a snake. For illustrations of this conception on eariy Greek pottery see J. E. Harrison, Prolego- mena to the Study of Greek Religion', pp. 235-237. '■^ Verrall, in his edition of the EumeniJes, p. liii, expresses the view that the interior of the temple was not revealed at all in the first act. But here, if anywhere, I think the evidence of the vases ought to be considered. They represent only the scene at the omphalus. IC4 Hetty Goldman trial on a calpis in St. Petersburg (XLIII). Here the result of the trial, rather than the trial itself, is depicted. It is indeed difficult to recognize in this curled and richly dressed youth the desperate fugitive from torment and pursuit, or the implacable Erinyes in the graceful maidens that resemble the daughters of Atlas sporting about the golden apple tree.i Their transformation into beneficient powers is already complete, and not even the emblems of snake and torch remain to mark their former identity.'^ Orestes, crowned with laurel and carrying two spears in his right hand, stands in front of the urn into which Athena has just cast her vote. He appears to be conversing with the goddess, who faces him and stands in the centre of the picture on a somewhat higher level. She wears helmet and aegis and carries a spear. A small Nike flies towards her to indicate the triumph of her decision. Ge,» identified by an enormous snake that curls over her arm and rises in a loop behind her head, sits at the right and looks towards Orestes. An Erinys stands in front of her, leaning on her knee. An- other is seated above to the right and three more occupy the field to the left. Hermes stands at the extreme right, but Apollo, whose presence suggests itself far more naturally, is omitted.' With this vase we have come to the last link in the chain that con- nects the Oresteia of Aeschylus with the art of the vase-painter, and, in looking back, we must ask ourselves how close a bond we have suc- ceeded in establishing between the two. Of the Agamemnon we have found no traces on monuments that represent purely Greek tradition. On the other hand, do the many typical representations of Orestes and Electra at the grave of their father really go back, consciously and directly, to the Chocphori of Aeschylus, or rather to a form of the » Cf. the vase of Meidias, Furtwangler und Reichhold, Die gr. Vasenmalerei, 1 Q ^ * 2 Of course, in the absence of all emblems, the identification as Erinyes cannot be certain. r> , 3 A statue of GO stood in the sanctuary of the Semnae on the Areopogus, Paus. i, '-« An entirely different interpretation, but one that seems to me less probable in view of the large urn placed between Athena and the youth, has been suggested by Heydemann and taken up by Crusius (Roscher, Ausfuhrliches Lexikon der Mythologie, art. Kadmos, pp. 839-840). They see in this picture Athena encouragmg Cadmus before his combat with the dragon. The Oresteia of Aeschylus 155 myth, ancient in its origin, that first inspired and then reabsorbed the conceptions of the poets, Xanthus, Stesichorus, and Aeschylus ? Doubt- less among the people at large the legend, as Aeschylus had told it, was known to many who had never heard of the poet ; just as the stories of Shakespeare's plays, quite dissociated from his name, are repeated in parts of rural England. But it was not to this class that the vase- painters catered. The pictures are almost invariably found on large vases that served a partly useful, partly ornamental purpose in the houses of the rich and cultured population of Southern Italy \ and if they de- manded and liked these representations it was doubtless on account of their literary and theatrical associations. There is, however, nothing in the pictures to suggest that the vase-painter had either seen an actual representation of the play or done more than familiarize himself, in a general way, with the drama he was called upon to illustrate. But in the representations of the opening scene of the Eumenides there breathes an entirely different spirit. The momentary emotion,— the terror of the priestess, the exhaustion of the suppliant, the indigna- tion of the affronted god, — seem to have been caught from the living picture of the stage and reproduced, often with striking fidelity. And in view of the number of vases we have been able to associate with this scene, we are justified in maintaining that no other single creation of the tragic poets exerted so marked an influence on the vase-painter's art. LIST OF MONUMENTS » The Agamemnon The Sacrifice of Iphigenia I. Pompeian wall-painting in Naples. Raoul-Rochette, Monumejis Inedits, p. 135, pi. 27; Helbig, Campa- nische IVandgemalde, p. 283, No. 1304; Baumeister, Denkmdler, I, fig. 807. The Murder 0/ Agamemnon II. Cylix (Attic severe r. f.), Berlin, No. 2301. Archaeologtsche Zeitung, 1854, pk 66, 2; Robert, Bild und Lied, pp. 150, 178. > In this list I have noted the principal monuments which I have discussed, with brief bibliographical references for each. The Roman numerals are the ones used m the text in referring to the monuments. ic6 Hetty Goldman ni. Calyx Crater (Campanian), St. Petersburg, No. 812. Millin-Reinach, Peintures de I'asc-s An/it/iitSy I, pi. 58; Overbeck, Gallerie heroischer Bildiverke, p. 680, No. 3; Arch. Zeit., 1854, pi. 66, 3; Stephani, Compte- Rendu, 1863, p. 43. IV. Etruscan cinerary urn. Rochette, Mon. Ined., p. 145. P^- 29; Brunn, Vme Etrusche, I, pi. 74, 2; Overbeck, I/er. Bildw., p. 682, No. 5, pi. 28, 3; Bau- meister, Denkmdle)\, I, fig. 22. v. Etruscan cinerary urn. Brunn, Urne Etrusche, I, pi. 85, 4; ''^««- ^^^^ ^^^^"> 1868, Tav. d' agg. N. The Choephori Orestes and Pylades at the Grave of Agamejyinon VI. Amphora (Campanian of the Nolan type), British Museum, F 143 (C«/. IV, p. 70, fig. 21). The Meeting of Orestes and Electra at the Gra7>e of Agamemnon VII. Scyphus (Lucanian). Inghirami, Vasi EittiH, II, pi. 140; Rochette, Mon. Ined., p. 151; Overbeck, Her. Bildw., p. 687, No. 14. VIII. Terra cotta relief from Melos, Louvre. Rayet, Catalogue de la collection d' antiquites du Louvre^ 8; Mon. deir Inst., VI, pi. 57, i; Conze, Attn. delP Inst., 1 86 1, pp. 340 ff.; Robert, Bild und lied, pp. 167 ff. IX. Lecythus (white ground), British Museum, D 33 {Cat. Ill, p. 399). Plate I. X. Lecythus (white ground) . Inghirami, Vasi Eittili, II, pi. 1575 Rochette, Mon. Ined., p. 156, pi. 31 A. XL Amphora (Lucanian), Naples, No. 1755. Millingen-Reinach, Peintures de Vases Antiques, pi. 14; Inghirami, Vasi Eittili, II, pi. 137; Rochette, Mon. Ined., ^. 151; Over- beck, Her. Bildxv., p. 687, No. 13; Baumeister, Denkmaler, III, fig- 1939- XII. Calpis (Lucanian), Naples, No. 2858. Inghirami, Vasi Eittili, II, pi. 151; Rochette, Mon. Ined., p. 1 59, pi. 34; Overbeck, Her. Bildiv., p. 688, No. 15, pi. 28, 5; Hud- dilston, Greek Tragedy in the light of Vase-paintings, p. 48, fig. 2. XIII. Calpis (Lucanian), Munich, No. 814. Inghkami, Vasi Eittili, II, pi. 154 (incomplete); HuddUston, Gr, Tragedy, etc., p. 52, fig. 3. The Oresteia of Aeschylus 157 i XIV. Amphora (Lucanian). Millingen, Vases Coghill, pi. 45; Moses, Vases Englefeld, pi. 20; Inghirami, Vasi Eittili, II, pi. 153; Overbeck, Her. Bild^v., p. 690, No. 16. XV. Amphora (Lucanian), Louvre, No. 544. Plate II; of. Huddilston, Gr. Tragedy, etc., p. 54. XVI. Medallion Crater (Lucanian), Naples, No. 1761. Millingen-Reinach, Peintures de Vases Antiques, pi. 16; Inghirami, Vasi Eittili, II, pi. 139; Rochette, Moti. Ined., p. 158, pi. 31; Overbeck, Her. Bihki\, p. 685, No. 9, pi. 28, 7. XVII. Vase, formerly in the Hamilton Collection. Tischbein, Hamilton Coll., II, pi. 15; Inghirami, J'asi Eittili, II, pi. 141; Overbeck, Her. Bildw., p. 686, No. 10. XVIII. Bell Crater (South Italian), British Museum, F 57 {Cat. IV, p. 40). D'Hancarville, Hamilton Collection, II, pi. 100. The Murder of Aegisthus XIX, Pitcher (Apulian), Bari, not pubUshed. Discussed, Furtwangler, Berliner Philologische Wochenschrift, 1888, p. 1451. The Murder of Clytemnestra XX. Etruscan mirror. Overbeck, Her. Bildw., p. 704, No. 38; Gerhard, Etruskische Spiegel, II, No. 237. Apollo'* s Command to Orestes XXI. Nestoris (Lucanian), Naples, No. 1984. Rochette, Mon. Ined., p. 188, pi. 37; Overbeck, Her. Bild^v., p. 715, No. 56, pi. 29, 11; Arch. Zeit., i860, pi. 138, I; Bau- meister, Denkmaler, II, fig. 1 307. The Eumenides The Purification of Orestes at Delphi XXII. Bell Crater (South Italian), Louvre. Mon. delP Inst., IV, pi. 48; Overbeck, Her. Bildw., p. 714, No. 55, pi. 29, 7; Arch. Zeit., i860, pi. 138, 2; Baumeister, Denk- maler, II, fig. 1 3 14; Furtwangler und Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei, pi. 120, 3. XXIII. Bell Crater (Apulian), St. Petersburg, No. 1734. Stephani, Compte-Rendu, 1863, p. 213, cf. p. 259, No. 12. XXIV. Bell Crater (Lucanian), British Museum, F 166 {Cat. IV, p. 84). Ann. delP Inst., 1847, Tav. d' agg. X; Overbeck, Her. Bildw. ^ p. 716, No. 58, pi. 29, 12; Arch. Zeit., i860, p. 62, pi. 137, 3. 158 XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. XXXIII. XXXIV. XXXV. XXXVI. XXXVII. XXXVIII. Hetty Goldman Orestes takes Refuge at Delphi Calpis (Attic r. f., early fine style), Berlin, No. 2380. Arch. Zeit.^ 1884, pi. 13. Amphora (South Italian, style of Assteas), Naples, No. 3249. Jahn, Vasenbilder, pi. I; Botticher, Berliner Winckelmannspro- gram, 1859, pi. I ; Huddilston, Greek Tragedy, etc., p. 61, fig. 6. Calyx Crater, formerly in the Hope Collection. Millin-Reinach, Peintures de Vases Antitjiies, II, pi. 68; Overbeck, Iler. Bildw., p. 712, No. 54, pi. 29, 9; Baumeister, Denkmaler, II, fig- 1315- Amphora (Apulian), Vatican, Helbig, Fithrer^^ II, No. 1238. Rochette, Mon. Ined.., p. 90, pi. 38; Overbeck, Her. Bihkv.y p. 711, No. 53, pi. 29, 8; Arch. Zeit., i860, pi. 137, 4, cf. pp. 54 ff.; Arch. Zeit., 1884, pp. 199 ff. Calpis (Campanian), Berlin. Arch. Anz. V (1890), p. 90, No. 8; J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study 0/ Greek Religion- , p. 231, fig. 51. Celebe, Louvre ( ?), not published. Described, Cataloghi del Museo Campana, Ser. IV, No. 16; cf. Stephani, Comptc-Rendu, 1863, p. 260, 13; Arch. Zeit., 1884, p. 206. Calyx Crater (Apulian), St. Petersburg, No. 349. Stephani, Compte-Renduy 1S63, pp. 251 ff., pi. VI, 5. Amphora (Apulian), Collection Jatta. Rochette, iMon. Im'd., p. 419, pi. 76, 8; Miner\'ini, Bull. Xap., II (1844), p. 141 ; Overbeck, Her. Bildw., p. 707, No. 43, pi. 29, 5. Volute Crater (Apulian), Berlin, No. 3256. Rochette, Mon. Ined., p. 193, pi. 35; Gerhard, Apulische Vasen- bilder, pi. A, 6; Overbeck, Her. BiUkv., p. 710, No. 52, pi. 29, 4. Toy crater, Imperial Cabinet, Vienna. Arch. Zeit., 1877, pi. 4, I, cf. pp. 17, 137. Volute Crater (Apulian), St. Petersburg, No. 523. Bull. Nap., II (1844), pp. 107 ff., pi. 7, I. Bell Crater (Apulian), Copenhagen. Thorlacius, J rtj /"zV/mw, ^/^. (Copenhagen, 1826); Muller-Wieseler, Denkm'dler, II, pi. 13, No. 14S; Gerhard, Metroon, pi. II, 2 (only Orestes and the omphalus) ; Smith, De Malede Vaser i Kjobn- havn, p. 81; Overbeck, Her. Bildiv., p. 710, No. 51. Guttus with relief, not published. Described, Brunn, Bull. delP Inst., 1853, p. 165. Askos with relief, British Musueum, G 48 {Cat. IV, p. 245), not pub- lished. The Oresteia of Aeschylus 159 Orestes Pursued by the Furies XXXIX. Vase, formerly in the Hamilton Collection. Tischbein, Second Hamilton Collection, III, pi. 23; Overbeck, Her. Bildw., p. 707, No. 42, pi. 29, 10. XL. Rhyton. D'Hancarville, Antiquites etrusques, grecques et romaines, II, pi. 30, 31; Overbeck, Her. Bildw., p. 707, No. 44. XLI. Nestoris (Lucanian), Naples, No. 1984. Rochette, Mon. Ined., p. 186, pi. 36; Overbeck, Her. Bildw., p. 706, No. 41, pi. 29, 2. XLII. Bell Crater (South Italian). Millingen, Vases Coghill, pi. 29, i; Overbeck, Her. Bildw., p. 705, No. 40, pi. 29, 3. The Acquittal of Orestes on the Areopagus XLIII. Calpis, St. Petersburg, No. 2189. Stephani, Compte-Rendu, i860, pp. 99 ff., pi. V.