Minotaur by the Edinburgh painter

 #minotaur 

This artist is known as the Edinburgh painter 

The subject is #Theseus slaying the #Minotaur the woman watching is probably #Ariadne ?

Bacchon in his Cape ?

There is a character in #Plutarchs #Amatorius  called #Bacchon described as a youth or young man in his late teens an ephebe wearing a cape. I saw this image of a statue found at Tralles and thought this could be very similar to the cape Bacchon wore and perhaps his posture and character described as thoughtful and respectful. 

Do read Plutarchs" Amatorious ?

If you can read Greek I'm doing a commentary in instalments over on my Metousia Patreon  in the Hellenika tier.

SIDE SADDLE SIRENS

 #nereids #thetis 

Reviewing my collection of images of Nereids and Thetis it suddenly occurred to me how odd it is that they are shown riding "sidesaddle".

 The Nereids are usually the only examples we see of females swimming and yet they do not ! 

They cling to or ride seahorses or tritons! 

Yet other goddesses and women on land or sea are not shown riding any form of mount except for some Amazons. 

So why the side saddle position perhaps  to show they had feet rather than fins unlike their male cousins the Tritons?

This selection of images covers several centuries and areas of Greek art.

I have never yet seen an image of a nereid on a seahorse or Triton in which they are in an actual riding position. Okay so goddesses have perfect balance but the artists would have seen male riders on cavalry and surely known how impossible the positions they depicted were?

Unless they had seen some women riding side saddle perhaps sitting in a white horse in some kind of procession of priestesses or royalty? I note also hippocampi are rarely dark or speckled usually white.

These may all just be matters of style but possibly what else?

Ideas anyone ? 

Athena's Birth

 #Athena 

ATHENA'S BIRTH 

This is pre Classical but it serves as a contrast to more finished Classical works

Hermes in his messenger boots is on the left and Poseidon on the far right

Zeus ruler of the gods has a robe with embroidered borders and a stylized thunderbolt. 

Two goddesses act as midwives standing ready to receive the child a miniature Athena. 

So did anyone else notice how one goddess has a pattern of squares on her cloak and a patterned vertical panel on an other wise plain robe whereas the other vice versa ?

And Zeus' look of ... is it horror or surprise at whats happening?

KETOS MEDLEY

KETOS MEDLEY

A medley of images of Ketoi

KTISIS

#Ktisis #creation #hellenisticart #mosaic #greekart

KTISIS as a word and idea is an excellent example of semantic change.

It seems to have originally been used to refer to the foundation and building of colonies but then to refer both the larger settled built up urban world and to to the idea of the world as a created thing both by Stoics and Christians. 

The artists who used Ktisis as a theme seem to have made a point of being extra careful with the lettering and always portrayed Ktisis as an aristocrat or queen. 

In this final image Ktisis is shown contemplating a measuring instrument and the artists has been less careful with the lettering but the breaking up of the word emphasizes accidentally or intentionally the tilt of her head and her facial expression.

THETIS

#thetis #greekart #nereid #seagoddess #greekceramics

Greek artists often depicted Thetis as accompanied by dolphins, sea horses or Tritones.

So the female figure riding a sea horse in these two mosaics may very well be Thetis however another popular theme was her Wedding to Peleus.

As Thetis like other sea gods had shapeshifting powers the lion on her shoulder would tell a Greek viewer this is Peleus the mortal father of Achilles wrestling with the goddess.

One aspect of the story rarely pointed out that would explain her resistance  is that Peleus killed her nephew and she seems to have had mixed feelings about her marriage to a mere mortal though given the other choices were being ravished by Zeus or Poseidon ... 

Triton, Hippocampoi, and other Marine Chimeras - One

Someone on #Classicstwitter was asking about #Ichthyocentaurs. This Roman example while labelled a Triton is very similar to an Ichthyocentaur 

Here's another example !

So how as a visual art theme did the snake or eel bodied Tritons we see on Greek ceramics become these chimeras of three creatures?

Starting with Early depictions I will show over the next couple of posts how I think it happened.

Note this image features tritons and hippocampoi - merhorses! 

I think someone decided to fuse both which I'll discuss in greater detail next time ! 

Tritons One

Since its #mermay I'm going to alternate #Tritons with #Greekverblists

This is #Heracles fighting the sea god #Triton. There is no recorded story in surviving written literature but the depiction matches written descriptions of Triton, human like from the belly upwards but like a fish or dolphin below.

Triton is also depicted with a lower body more like an eel. Here he is either kidnapping or rescuing a youth. Notice the dolphin swimming besides them.

Again dolphins swim alongside the sea god in this piece.

Next time back to Greek Verbs.

Even more Party God

#dionysios #greekart
Mid week so we're back to the Party God of the Olympians

DIONYSIOS 

This is part of an Hellenistic Mosaic which may be a copy of a painting or an original work.

Its a common theme the god reclining and like earlier paintings on ceramic vessels he's half naked and wearing a wreath however the theme's details have changed ...he's now clean shaven no beard and the use of mosaic allows the artist to show him with pale skin and include a tonal background and foreground not possible with the limited range of colors on Classical ceramics.

The Greeks and Romans did not have stoneware glazes or underglazing under clear glazes.
That gloss you see thats polished terra sigillata not glaze! Contact with glass making cultures expanded the range of colors for painting and mosaic.

The satyrs having darker skin? Why?  Drawing attention to Dionysios having pale skin like an aristo or a woman and emphasizing which figure is the god and by contrast showing the Satyrs are wild rural deities.

A medley of OWLS

A medley of #Owls #classicalgreekart #coins #greekcoins

The Older Dionysus

#classicalgreekart #dionysus

As I stated in a prior post originally Dionysus was depicted as an older mature male with festival robes. The naked or half naked beardless youth appears to have been a Hellenistic and Roman development possibly inspired by Euripides Bacchai?

Here's another example

Note the robes are draped in a feminine style and the leopard skin cloak !

Two examples of Tritons

The Greeks seem to have preferred depicting mermen or mermaids.

#Tritons are usually shown as male though in Roman art you get pairs of both sexes or male Tritons cavorting with female Nereids or Oceanids.

Hercules wrestling with a seagod or Triton.

Another example.

The bodies are a blend of male snake eel and fish.

Fantastic Beasts The Griffin in Greek Art

FANTASTIC BEASTS
THE GRIFFIN IN GREEK ART
#griffin #greekart #myth
With #Fantasticbeasts and where to find them premiering this week
let's take a look at a popular beast from Greek mythology
who also features in the #Potterverse

Whether its depicted in Persian Assyrian Greek or other art the Griffin's consistent features are having the body of a lion and an eagle like head but with large external ears and either a mane or frill down the neck or some kind of tuft on top of the head.

I have three examples for you to enjoy.

One of the earliest depictions on a Griffin is a famous #Minoan fresco from Knossos.

This was derived from art from Mesopotamia and Persian such as this seal.

Griffins are also depicted as being used for riding by gods though this may be a Maenad.

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The Evolution of the Greek Sphinx

The Evolution of the #Greek #Sphinx

A Final Chronological Look at Sphinxes in #GreekArt

Starting with an Egyptian Sphinx

Then the sort of #Sphinx  Phonecian traders might have been selling as luxury items

From the #Archaic period 

And Classical 

Finally a Early hellenistic mosaic floor from Etretria

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Sphinxes on Greek Ceramics

#sphinx #greekceramics #sphinxes

4 examples in roughly chronological order of sphinxes depicted on Greek ceramic

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The SPHINX IN GREEK ART

THE SPHINX IN GREEK ART

#sphinx #greekart #ceramics #sculpture

It is a curious feature of Greek art that the creature with a male head and lion's body becomes female and acquires a body more like that of a cheetah or cat in Greek Art.

We do not know if early Greek visitors to Naucratis or Memphis or Thebes actually saw the Sphinx at Giza or Sphinx figures at temples. It is perhaps more likely the first images Greeks saw of Sphinx were Phoenician ivories like this?

This one is male but the beardless face along with the legend of a female sphinx at Thebes plus the arrival of the first domestic cats lead to images like this:

On this Archaic era vessel the sphinxes appear alongside lions and a feline that may be a leopard or cheetah plus other animals.

Next time the Sphinx of Delphi !

Pegasus on a plate

Here's #Pegasus.

I'm sharing this simply cos I'm sorting thru older images in my laptops folders and wanted to share the pleasure of this striking piece showing Pegasus acting as a war horse aiding his rider to defeat Chimera!

Heracles and Athena An Image

with the new Heracles movie coming soon I thought for my middle week post I might look at some images of Heracles. Here's the son of Zeus and his half sister.

Notice he's not the pumped up wrestler of later Hellenistic and Roman art but more svelte! That lion skin is suppose to act as armor as the Nemean lion allegedly had a hide so thick Heracles had to spear or stab it down its throat to kill it.

MMM no one ever dares suggest Mycenaean  aristos may have been such lousy hunters they celebrated lion hunts cos they weren't very good at catching them?

Apollo and Mithras

Apollo and Mithras
A strange relationship

A couple of weeks back some one described my Judeo-Christian deity  as being just another near eastern solar god. I politely pointed that that was incorrect for several reasons. anyway I started thinking about the rayed halo iconography and its origins and did some googling to find the latest views on that.

A lot of people believe the rayed halo was borrowed from either the Mithras cult or or some other sun god like Apollo.

Now the odd thing is that Apollo with a rayed halo or any halo is only depicted with one from the late Hellenistic era onwards.

Some scholars used to believe the Kouros images of archaic Greek art were Apollo like this one.

Greek Classical art depicted Apollo like this :

Either dressed as a musician or shown as an archer or nude always with long hair and young. Frequently you can see where a hand holding a bow was broken off.

Now these Hellenistic Imperial era images.

First sign of the rayed halo motif!

Though this may be Helios driving the sun chariot!

The later Greeks seem to have confused the two in popular art.

Images of Mithras a maybe Persian god. 

Maybe a persian god? The first shows Mithras with a Hellenistic Greek King Antiochus and the second is Persian. 

Now the Mithras cult is odd. Said to have come from Persia there are very few artifacts within the Persian and Parthian cultural sphere showing Mithras. 

Given the Mithras cult peaks during the Roman era is it possible there was a separate Anatolian Mithras cult incorporating solar imagery from both Greek and Near Eastern art . Mithras changed from a minor deity to a separate syncretistic cult.

A lot of Roman art copies and adapts earlier Greek art.

Here's a mosaic from Roman Africa.

Who used the rayed halo first? Apollo or Mithras. Given Hellenistic cultural contact with the Parthians its not impossible the rayed halo idea moved from west to east? 

By the way that sun god thing in relation to images of Christ? The earliest images of Christ tend to to stress the Good Shepherd image without HALOS.

But thats a topic for a separate post.

Apollo and Mithras. What was the ultimate source for the rayed halo?

I've given you images to think about. Enjoy.