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Conjectures in Polygnotus' Troy1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 October 2013
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Pausanias x. 26. 2: γεγραμμέναι δὲ ἐπι κλίνης ὑπὲρ ταύτας Δηινόμη τε καὶ Μητιόχη καὶ Πεῖσίς ἐστι καὶ Κλεοδίκη. ‘Painted on a couch above these are Deinome and Metioche and Peisis too and Kleodike.’
In Polygnotus’ Troy Taken, painted in the Lesche of the Cnidians at Delphi, this group formed part of the Trojan prisoners, shown between the wall of the city and the sea. ταύτας refers to another group (Klymene, Kreousa, Aristomache, and Xenodike) who are described as being above the women between Aithra and Nestor: Andromache with her child, Medesikaste, and Polyxena. These were certainly at the bottom of the picture; Deinome, Metioche, Peisis, and Kleodike certainly at the top. ἐπὶ κλίνης is unconvincing in the context. Most editors and translators accept it without comment, but Frazer's translation, ‘sitting on a couch’ underlines a minor difficulty: four on a couch is hard to envisage in terms of Greek life or art; and though the σχῆμα Πινδαρικόν does not make for clarity, it seems impossible to confine the phrase to the first one or two names. The reading, however, is unacceptable on other grounds, as Carl Robert has shown: this is the open air and these are prisoners of war; a κλίνη is entirely out of place. Polygnotan art was certainly not fully naturalistic, and included much that had a symbolic not a literal reference; but a couch is as improper in this context symbolically as naturally. In Polygnotus' other picture in the Lesche, the Underworld, Theseus and Peirithoos, and in another part Pelias, were shown seated on θρόνοι, while other figures sat on rocks or hillocks or leaned against trees; but the spatial and temporal setting of the Underworld was certainly (and naturally) less defined than that of the Troy. Robert tentatively suggests ἐπικλινής, translating ‘in gebückter Haltung’, but admits that the word has poor authority as applied to persons, and that to force it on this author in this sense is hardly justified.
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References
2 e.g. Dindorf (1882); Schubart (Teubner, 1891); Frazer, , Pausanias's Description of Greece (1898)Google Scholar; Spiro (Teubner, 1903); Jones, W. H. S., Loeb iv (1935)Google Scholar; Weickert, , Studien zur Kunstgeschichte des 5. Jhdts. v. Chr. I. Polygnot (1950) 13Google Scholar; Meyer, , Pausanias Beschreibung Griechenlands (1954).Google Scholar
3 Robert, C., Die Iliupersis des Polygnot (1893) 44Google Scholar, n. 1, compares x. 25. 4, 
Cf. also the first sentence of the passage quoted in n. 35.
4 Ibid. 9 and 44.
5 x. 29. 9 (Theseus and Peirithoos); 30. 8 (Pelias); 30. 5, Maira on a rock; 30. 6, Orpheus on a hillock and leaning against a willow, on the other side of which leans Promedon; 31. 5, Memnon on a rock. Weickert, loc. cit. 14 f., shows that the unities of space and time cannot be pressed too hard even in the Troy, but he seems to me greatly to exaggerate the artist's freedom from them: what was represented was essentially the city and the camp on the morning after the sack.
6 iii. 2 (1910) 587 and 767.
7 N. G. Wilson writes: ‘Confusion of ι and η is frequent (iotacism): λ and ρ are also confused (in many languages). A very close parallel is the variation between πλήν and πρίν in the MSS. at Ar. Ach. 39 and Aesch. PV 481, 519, 770.’
8 See especially Dunkley, B., Greek Fountain-buildings before 300 B.C. (BSA xxxvi (1939) 142–304, Pls. 22 f.Google Scholar and many text-figures). A girl at a fountain on a fine Attic white-ground cup of near Polygnotus' time: Ghali-Kahil, , Neue Ausgrabungen in Griechenland (Antike Kunst, Beiheft I, 1963) 18 f.Google Scholar, no. 37, pl. 9; Beazley, ARV 2827Google Scholar, Stieglitz Painter, no. 1. An elaborate rustic fountain on a South Italian vase-painting of about 400 B.C. but ‘Polygnotan’ in composition: the goddesses preparing for the Judgement of Paris on the reverse of the Dolon Painter's Teiresias krater, FR, pl. 147. See also nn. 9, 11, and 30.
9 Troilus scene on the François Vase: FR, pls. 11–12; Arias–Hirmer, pl. 44; Boardman, , Dörig, , Fuchs, , and Hirmer, , Gr. Kunst, pl. 93.Google Scholar For further references see Beazley, , ABV 76Google Scholar, Kleitias no. 1; and for other pictures of the scene the mythological indexes to ABV and ARV 2; also n. 30 below.
10 Il. vi. 457. The biblical quotation is from Joshua ix. 21. I suppose there may be a sex-distinction here: the men of Gibeon to hew wood, the women to draw water. Certainly the references in Greek literature suggest that it was regarded as normally a woman's task, and in art they are shown performing it far more often than men. For youths to draw water, as occasionally shown, for instance on Phintias' hydria in London (E 159, ARV 2 24, no. 9, with refs.; Pfuhl, MuZ, fig. 382) is, no doubt, as Furtwängler pointed out in FR ii. 68, part of life in the palaestra. The odd scene on a black-figure pelike of around 500 (Berlin inv. 3228; Pfuhl, MuZ, fig. 276) is reasonably described by Bothmer, von (JHS lxxi (1951) 43Google Scholar, no. 42) as ‘At the well, with satyr creating a disturbance’; but I read it differently: an old, poor man, who no longer has wife, daughter, or slave, has to go to the well himself. A girl with kilted skirt runs off with her water-pots and glances back at him. ‘Oh to be young again’ he thinks. ‘I'd show her. What a satyr I was!’
11 In most of the pictures referred to in n. 9 Achilles and Polyxena at the fountain without Troilus: hydria in Leningrad by the Berlin Painter (Beazley, , Berliner Maler, pl. 24, 1Google Scholar; ARV 2 210, no. 174, with other refs.); also on some black-figure lekythoi of the same time (see Haspels, , ABFL, esp. 150Google Scholar).
12 Eur. El. 54 ff., 107 ff. Cf. Herodotus iii. 14. 2: Cambyses, having conquered Psammenitos of Egypt, dresses the Pharaoh's daughter like a slave and sends her, in her father's sight, with a pot for water, vi. 137. 3 (the Pelasgians in Attica) is also relevant: 
The bracketing of 
seems almost certainly right and in any case the point of the story is that it was citizens' daughters who went to the fountain (cf. n. 10 above).
13 
14 Iliad and Odyssey refs.: see below, nn. 20 and 21. The literary refs. usefully collected by Austin, , Virgil, , Aeneid ii (1964) 124 ff.Google Scholar
15 Relief (part of a marble throne?) from Samothrace in the Louvre, : Encyclopédie photographique 25 (III 5) 135 DGoogle Scholar; Hesperia xii (1943) Pls. 9 f. (C. Lehmann, who discusses the relief ibid. pp. 130 ff., with reference to Polygnotus' Underworld and the Chamaileon passage (nn. 16 and 17 below), especially 133, n. 86); Bousquet, , Mél. Picard i (1949) 105–31Google Scholar, ‘Callimaque, Hérodote et le trône d'Hermès à Samothrace’ (a different interpretation; illustration, 114, fig. 1). Vase-paintings: Overbeck, , Bildwerke des theb. u. troischen Sagenkreises 607–17Google Scholar, nos. 83–94; Roscher, 1279 f.
16 x. 456 c–457 a. See also Wehrli, F., Die Schule des Aristoteles 9Google Scholar: Phainias von Eresos, Chamaileon, Praxiphanes (1958), Chamaileon, fr. 34 and Kommentar 83 f. Chamaileon's date, ibid. 69.
17 
18 Bowra, , Greek Lyric Poetry 1320 f.Google Scholar; ibid.2 309, with n. 8.
20 viii. 493, xi. 523. The name has neither patronymic nor epithet in either line.
21 xxiii. 653–99 (boxing; Epeios has both patronymic and epithets); 826–49 (discus: 
appears only in 838–40).
22 Wooden statue: Callimachus, fr. 197; see Pfeiffer, ad loc; Picard, , Rev. Num. 5e série, vi (1942) 1–22Google Scholar, ‘Le Sculpteur Epeios’; Bousquet, loc. cit. [n. 15]. Epeios in the Horse: Virgil, , Aeneid ii. 264Google Scholar; Quintus Smyrnaeus, xii. 329–34.
22a In later writers he has a pedigree (son of Agrios and so a kinsman of Diomede) and a story; see Roscher, s.v. In the Iliad (only ii. 211–77; he is not mentioned in the Odyssey) he has neither patronymic nor heroic epithet—he is 
and 
—and is set in opposition to the 
23 Panopeus' forswearing and its punishment in Epeios' cowardice: Lycophron, , Alexandra 930–50Google Scholar and scholia thereto (Scheer, ii. 299–304); see also n. 47. 
(applied by a rival to Cratinus), Com. adesp. fr. 31 K.
24 Rep. 620 c. That water-carrying is not only a servile but also primarily a feminine occupation (see above n. 10) perhaps also has a bearing here.
25 Chamaileon's date is not absolutely fixed, but it is accepted that he was a follower of Aristotle, living in the earlier part of the third century B.C. See Wehrli, loc. cit., n. 16 above.
26 There is evidence for damage and restoration to the building in the fourth century B.C. (Pouilloux, , F. de D. ii (1960) 135Google Scholar; part of a full publication of the remains of the Lesche, with a most valuable discussion). This is too early for Chamaileon to have seen the paintings previously (if he is speaking from autopsy); and there is no evidence as to whether the paintings (which were almost certainly on panelling and so could be taken down and replaced) suffered damage on this occasion (Pouilloux, loc. cit. 136 f.). An inscription (Syll. 3 682; picture, BCH lxiii (1939) 170) of 140/39 B.C. records the honouring by the Delphians of three painters (Kalas, Gaudotos, and …. ades) sent by Attalos II of Pergamon to copy or restore a painting or paintings. The phrase is 
and the object is missing, 
in literature commonly means ‘copy’, but epigraphical usage favours ‘restore’; and the fact that the Delphians honoured the painters suggests some local benefit received from their work. The conjecture that they were restoring the Lesche is tempting; but Attalos I had dedicated a stoa lined with painted panels a quarter of a century before, and there can be no certainty. See Daux, Delphes au IIe et au Ier siècle (1936) 509 and n. 1; Roux, , BCH lxxvi (1952) 184 f.Google Scholar
27 Pope-Hennessey, J., Fra Angelico, pl. 105Google Scholar and remarks on p. 24. On the early reconstructions of Polygnotus' picture see Robert, loc. cit. 28–34.
28 Ibid. 31 and 44 f.
29 The comparative material collected by Loewy, , Polygnot (1929).Google Scholar A very interesting recent discussion by Simon, E., ‘Polygnotan Painting and the Niobid Painter’ (AJA lxvii (1963) 43–62, Pls. 7–12).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
30 Fountain-spouts attached to the natural rock occasionally from the sixth century to the fourth, e.g.: late sixth-century Attic black-figure hydria, London B 324 (Beazley, , ABV 361Google Scholar, Leagros Group no. 24; Gerhard, , AV, pl. 92Google Scholar; CV, pl. 84, 4; this and the next are Troilus-scenes); early fifth-century Attic black-figure lekythos, London B 542 (Haspels, , ABFL 254Google Scholar, related to the Theseus Painter); Attic red-figure column-krater, Berlin 4027 (ARV 2 551, Pan Painter no. 5; Annali 1887, pl. w; this and the next which both show Herakles approaching or at a fountain, are contemporary with Polygnotus); Greek gem: Furtwängler, , AG, pl. viii. 39Google Scholar; fourth-century Italiote krater with Phineus and the Harpies, : Mon. Ined. iii, pl. 49Google Scholar; also on some Etruscan bronze cistae, including the Ficoroni cista (Pfuhl, MuZ, fig. 628); and an Etruscan painted vase with the ambush of Troilus, the Fould stamnos (Beazley, , EVP 179, no. 1Google Scholar; Jahn, , Telephos und Troilos und kein Ende, pl. 3Google Scholar; Roscher s.v. Troilos, 1227). The Pan Painter has a donkey-head, all the others lion-heads, much the commonest type in representations of built fountains and in surviving examples, and most likely in Polygnotus' work. The built fountains in Troilus-scenes usually have a lion's head; a donkey's on an early red-figure cup, London E 413 (Dunkley, loc. cit. [n. 8] 171 fig. 10; see also nn. 9 and 11 above).
31 Phintias hydria: E 159, Beazley, , ARV 224Google Scholar, no. 9; Pfuhl, MuZ, fig. 382; CV 5 (GB 7) pl. 70, 1. Geras Painter pelike: 1925. 30. 34, ARV 2 285, no. 7; CV Hoppin, pl. 12, 3–4.
32 
Simias also refers to the water-carrying:
See Powell, , Coll. Alex. 117Google Scholar, with a rearrangement of the lines.
33 Buschor-Hamann, pl. 79; Hege-Rodenwaldt, pl. 75; Ashmole, , Yalouris, , and Frantz, , Olympia pl. 202.Google Scholar On the action, see Beckel, , Götterbeistand 62 f.Google Scholar, with notes citing Lippold and Brommer.
34 Pausanias, who goes first to epic in seeking sources for the picture, could find authority for three names (Klymene and Aristomache at 26. 1 and Medusa at 26. 9) only in Stesichorus: evidence that the painter depended for some details directly or indirectly on the lyric poet.
35 x. 26. 2 (middle): 
36 X. 26. 4. 
37 
loc. cit. 10 and 48 f. Printed also by Spiro in the 1903 Teubner edition. For the manuscript readings and other attempts to deal with them see also Hitzig and Blümner, loc. cit. 588.
38 Epeios and Neoptolemos are linked as twin destroyers of Troy by one of the scholiasts on Lycophron, , Alexandra 52Google Scholar (Scheer, ii. 39), where an allusion to ‘the second burning by Aeacian hands’ is applied to both as great-grandsons of Aeacus, Neoptolemos through Peleus and Achilles, Epeios through Phokos and Panopeus. As editors of Lycophron have pointed out, the poet's own words do not suggest that he had more than Neoptolemos in mind.
39 
Severyns, iii. 11. and iv. 92, ll. 261–5 and 266–7; on the order, see iii. 77–98, esp. 97 f. See also Apollodorus, , Ep. v. 23.Google Scholar
40 Loc. cit. 63.
41 The latest and greatest of the archaic pictures of the Sack is the Kleophrades Painter's on his Vivenzio hydria (Naples 2422; FR, pl. 34; Pfuhl, MuZ, fig. 378; Beazley, , Kleophradesmaler, pl. 27Google Scholar; part, Arias–Hirmer, pl. 125; Boardman, etc., above n. 9, pl. 128; ARV 2 189, no. 74, with other refs.; also ibid. Addenda 1632). See also next note.
42 Beside Medusa Polygnotus painted an old crop-headed slave (Pausanias was not sure whether woman or eunuch), on whose lap sat a naked child, covering its eyes with its hand for fear. One cannot but think of old Aethra in the Kleophrades Painter's picture (last note; this end of the scene is not shown in Arias–Hirmer or in Boardman, etc., but in Arias, Ceramice); and opposite Aethra there, a little Trojan girl sits on the uneven ground, her head on her hand, her world fallen about her. In Polygnotus’ picture, Aethra was in the Greek camp, still in attendance on Helen. Polygnotus is perhaps more likely to have painted a woman than a eunuch as a slave, though Sophocles brought a eunuch on to the stage in a Trojan context in his Troilus (Pearson, fr. 620 and p. 254).
43 x. 31. 2: 
44 Cf. Fleischer, in Roscher, i. 136, s.v. Aias.Google Scholar
45 Loc. cit. 63. Frazer, v. 367, following Seeliger, Die Überlieferung d. gr. Heldensage bei Stesichoros, thinks that he was swearing that he had not done it, and specifically rejects the notion of atonement, as does Davreux, , La légende de la prophétesse Cassandre (1942) 13 and 210.Google Scholar Hitzig and Blümner, iii. 2. 769 record opinions but make no judgement.
46 This extraordinary story is most fully given in Lycophron's Alexandra 1141–73 and the scholia thereto (Scheer, ii. 335–40), where Timaeus and Callimachus are cited; and in Apollodorus, , Ep. vi. 20–22Google Scholar; but confirmation and important details are supplied by Aeneas Tacticus, Polybius, Strabo, Plutarch, and others, and most importantly by an inscription of the third century B.C., found in Western Loeris and published by Wilhelm, in ÖJh xiv (1911) Hauptblatt, 163–256Google Scholar, with a full discussion and collection of the other sources. The most recent discussion, with references to the earlier literature, is by Momigliano, in Secondo Contributo (1960) 446–53 (from CQ xxxix (1945) 49–53).Google Scholar The girls, chosen from the best Locrian families, were landed by night and every man's hand was against them. If one was killed, the killer was honoured, and the body was burned with wild and barren woods and the ashes thrown into the sea from Mt. Traron. If they managed to reach the sanctuary of Athena, they worked there, sweeping and sprinkling, but not allowed to approach the goddess or to leave the sanctuary except at night. They were shorn, wore a shift only, and went barefoot. It seems as though originally the girls were sent for life, others replacing them as they died; but that after the revival in the third century, which was ordained by Delphi and enforced by King Antigonus (probably Gonatas), and possibly for a period before the discontinuance, a pair was sent every year and the former pair, if they had survived, came home. There seems to have been an attempt at one stage to send only one girl at a time, but this was disallowed. The revived tribute continued to a date to which Plutarch, , De sera numinis vindicta 557 DGoogle Scholar, could refer as ‘not long since’. Strabo, xiii. 1. 40, pp. 600 f., reports the tradition current in Ilium in his day that the practice started soon after the Trojan War, but asserts his own view that it dated only from after the Persian conquest. There is no certain reference to it earlier than the fourth century (Aeneas Tacticus xxxi. 24), but the three hexameters quoted by Plutarch, loc. cit., though thought by some to be by Euphorion, are attributed by others with greater probability to a cyclic poet. One need not in any case doubt that this practice in classical Greece was a survival from remote antiquity. See also Huxley, G. L., Ancient Society and Institutions, 147 ff.Google Scholar
47 Roscher, loc. cit. (n. 44) 135. If an oath were a regular part of a purification ceremony, that would fit perfectly here; but I cannot find that it was. Whether Ajax swore that he had not done the deed or that he would atone for it, he was forsworn; though in the second case the gods hardly gave him a fair chance. It is curious, though doubtfully relevant, that the cause assigned for Epeios' cowardice is the perjury of his father Panopeus (n. 22). Amphitryon, campaigning against King Pterelaos of the Taphian Islands, bound his allies, Kreon, Kephalos, and Panopeus, by Athena and Ares, that they would not withhold any of the booty; but Panopeus did (scholiast on Lycophron, , Alexandra 932Google Scholar; Scheer, ii. 302).
48 If Ajax at the altar, in the story Polygnotus was illustrating, was supposed to have fled there after actually violating Cassandra, then a ritual washing would have been in any case necessary, since even after legitimate intercourse Greeks were forbidden to approach a holy place unwashed: cf. Hesiod, Op. 733 f. Herodotus, ii. 64. 1 f. Pausanias (x. 24. 7) names a fountain Kassotis immediately below the Lesche in the temenos at Delphi, which he was told went underground and inspired the priestesses in the inner shrine of the temple. For a full discussion, see Pouilloux, in F. de D. ii (1960) 154–7Google Scholar, and in more detail in Énigmes à Delphes (1963) 79–99.