ἐπὶ Κύκλωπας ἀδελφούς.
φέρε μοι, ξεῖνε, φέρ’ ἀσκὸν ἔνδος μοι. vs. 503 ff.
His proposal to go and share his good fortune with the brother Kyklopes does not meet the approval of Odysseus, who bids him keep his good things to himself and enjoy them. Seilenos goes even further and says—
κλίθητί νύν μοι πλεῦρα θεὶς ἐπὶ χθονός. v. 543.
and Polyphemos takes up the suggestion at once, for we hear him ask
τί δῆτα τὸν κρατῆρ’ ὄπισθε μου τίθης; v. 545.
There can be little doubt that these verses particularly interested the artist. Well satisfied with the newly discovered drink, the Kyklops has dropped down upon his side as Seilenos recommended. The ἀσκός, which he ordered extra, hangs beside him and upon the ground is a bowl[[262]]. Both of these have evidently been drained. The inhuman monster sleeps on, quite in the manner of Euripides, in the presence of the active preparations for his own ruin.
§ 9. Medeia.
The heroine of this tragedy of Euripides is one of the most imposing and terrible figures that has come down to us from ancient Greek literature. It is not, however, the magician of strange power, who assisted Jason in winning the Golden Fleece and in performing his other Kolchian adventures, that overawes one; neither is it the sorceress who worked her wonders on Pelias, but rather the Medeia who avenged her slighted honour through the destruction of Jason’s newly won bride and his two sons; it is the Medeia at Corinth that we know best, the Medeia of Euripides. This chapter in the barbarian’s career assumed under his hand a prominence which far exceeded anything that had gone before. Euripides’ Medeia has remained ever since the Medeia of art and letters.
In early Greek art Medeia is not a common figure, and when she does occur it is invariably as the sorceress[[263]]. In this rôle one meets her on both black and red figured vases[[264]], and on the famous relief in the Lateran[[265]]. After the beginning of the fourth century B.C. the Corinthian Medeia predominates. As such one finds her on vases from Lower Italy, Apulia and Campania especially, on Pompeian wall paintings[[266]], on terra cottas[[267]], gems[[268]], and the Roman sarcophagi[[269]].