[1941]. In South Kensington Museum.
CHAPTER XVI
DETAILS OF TYPES, ARRANGEMENT, AND ORNAMENTATION
Distinctions of types—Costume and attributes of individual deities—Personifications—Heroes—Monsters—Personages in every-day life—Armour and shield-devices—Dress and ornaments—Physiognomical expression on vases—Landscape and architecture—Arrangement of subjects—Ornamental patterns—Maeander, circles, and other geometrical patterns—Floral patterns—Lotos and palmettes—Treatment of ornamentation in different fabrics.
It may be profitable to supplement the foregoing account with a few general considerations, such as the attributes, emblems, and costume by which the different figures may be distinguished, the general treatment of the subjects at different periods, and the use of ornamental motives in the various stages of Greek vase-painting.
§ 1. Distinctions of Types
In the earlier vase-paintings deities are often not only indistinguishable from one another, but even from kings and other mortal personages, attributes and subtle distinctions of costume being ignored; and in the period of decline a similar tendency may be noted, due in this case not so much to confusion of ideas as to a general carelessness of execution and indifference to the meaning of the subject. In the former vases it was, doubtless, largely the result of conventionality and limitation in the free expression of forms; but it is a peculiarity not confined to painting, and may be observed not only in the minor arts, in terracotta and bronze figurines, but even in sculpture of a more exalted kind—as, for instance, in the female statues from the Athenian Acropolis. Thus, all the deities are draped, and their costume differs in no respect from that worn by mortals; all alike wear the chiton, himation, or chlamys, and ornamentation of the drapery with embroidered patterns is no mark of distinction. It is only as the art advances in the B.F. period that the necessity for differentiation makes itself felt, and each deity becomes individualised by some peculiarity of costume or special attribute which makes it possible to recognise them without difficulty. To give a brief survey of these characteristic marks will be the object of the following pages.[[1942]]
Among the Olympian deities, Zeus is generally bearded, and fully draped in long chiton and mantle; on R.F. vases he wears a laurel-wreath. He fights the giants from his chariot, but otherwise is standing, or seated on a throne, which is often carved and ornamented with figures.[[1943]] He usually holds a thunderbolt, or a sceptre, surmounted by an eagle or otherwise ornamented; in one or two cases the termination is in the form of a lotos-bud, curiously conventionalised.[[1944]] Hera is distinguished by the stephane or broad diadem, often ornamented, and covered with the bridal veil, the edge of which she draws forward with one hand in the attitude considered typical of brides. Her sceptre is sometimes surmounted by her emblem—the cuckoo.
Poseidon, on the Corinthian and Attic B.F. vases—on which he is but a rare figure—is often hardly to be distinguished from Zeus, the approximation of the types extending even to their emblems. Where he holds in addition a dolphin or tunny-fish, there is, of course, no doubt as to his presence; nor, again, in the Gigantomachia, where he wields a rock (see p. [13], and Fig. [112]); but his trident, which subsequently becomes the unmistakable evidence of his identity, often assumes (as on the Corinthian pinakes) the form of a sceptre ending in a lotos-bud,[[1945]] which is typical of Zeus, and, indeed, of Olympian deities generally. The other sea-deities are, however, of a more clearly defined type. The essential feature of Triton is the fish-tail in which his body terminates. Nereus, on the other hand, is represented as an old man, bald and grey-bearded. In this form he contends with Herakles (see p. [101]), and it may be that the differentiation was necessary to avoid confusion with the Triton type. As attributes he often holds a dolphin or tunny-fish, and a trident or sceptre. The winged deity with a long sinuous fish-tail seen on early Corinthian vases is probably Palaemon (see p. [26]); but in one case this deity is feminine.[[1946]] Amphitrite, as the feminine consort of Poseidon, holds a sceptre or tunny-fish, and Thetis and the Nereids appear in ordinary female form. The former, however, in her struggles with Peleus, is accompanied by lions, serpents, and other animals, which indicate the transformations she was supposed to assume. Skylla appears as described in Homer, with fish-tail and the fore-parts of dogs issuing from her waist, which is encircled by a fringe of scales or feathers.
Demeter and Persephone are not always distinguishable from one another, both having the same attributes—a torch or ears of corn (cf. Plate LI.). Their identification depends rather on the nature of their respective actions in the scenes where they appear. Triptolemos is always seen in his winged two-wheeled car (sometimes drawn by serpents), and usually holds ears of corn or a libation-bowl; on B.F. vases he is bearded. The other Eleusinian deities, on the late R.F. vases where they occur, are marked by the large torches which they hold.
Apollo on the B.F. vases almost invariably occurs in his character of Kitharoidos,[[1947]] the lyre which he holds being of the form known as kithara (on later vases it is a chelys); he is therefore, like all musicians, fully draped in long chiton, and his hair falls in curls on his shoulders, or is gathered in a κρώβυλος. Unlike most gods, he is at all times youthful and beardless.[[1948]] He is also represented holding a laurel-branch, shooting an arrow from his bow, or riding on a swan or Gryphon, or accompanied by a hind or other animal. His sister Artemis is draped in long chiton and mantle, and often wears a high cap on B.F. vases; it is not until the later R.F. period that she appears in hunting costume, with knotted-up hair, short chiton, and high laced-up hunting-boots or endromides; sometimes also a fawn-skin. She is usually distinguished by her bow and arrows, and is accompanied by a hound, deer, goat, or other animal.[[1949]]