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Illustrations to Bacchylides

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

A. H. Smith
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Extract

The Editors of this Journal have reason to think that a considerable body of its readers will be glad to be furnished with reproductions of the monuments, mainly vase paintings, that are discussed in connexion with Bacchylides. Even those to whom the published illustrations are readily accessible will probably find it convenient to have them brought together for reference, in a collection made from this point of view.

III. The story of Croesus.—In the story as told by Bacchylides, Croesus voluntarily ascends his pyre, with wife and daughters; he invokes the gods, and more especially Apollo; he orders the pyre to be kindled; Zeus extinguishes the flames, and Apollo takes Croesus and his children to the land of the Hyperboreans. According to Herodotus, Croesus with his companions is placed on the pyre by order of Cyrus. After Cyrus has changed his mind, and his servants have made ineffectual attempts to extinguish the pyre, Croesus invokes Apollo, who extinguishes the flames. Fig. 1 shows the well-known vase in the Louvre, representing the subject. It had already been interpreted, before the discovery of Bacchylides, as evidence of an alternative version of the story, in which the sacrifice was voluntary. Croesus sits enthroned, and makes a solemn libation, while an attendant Euthymos is busy with the pyre. Some of the commentators interpret the objects that he holds as torches, but they are quite unlike torches, as usually represented (cf. J.H.S. xi. Pl. 6), and resemble more nearly the whisks for sprinkling lustral water. If this is the correct interpretation their use further emphasises the ceremonial character of the scene.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 18 , November 1898 , pp. 267 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1898

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References

page 267 note 1 M. Theodore Reinach's edition (Poèmes Choisis de Bacchylide…par Eugène D'Eiehthal et T. R.), which has appeared since this article was put in hand, has to some extent covered the same ground, for those parts of the poet with which he deals. The same monuments appear, in several cases, in both collections, but this is inevitable in connexion with the less-frequent myths.

page 267 note 2 Monumenti dell' Inst. i., Pl. 54; Welcker, Alte Denkmaeler, Pl. 33; Baumeister, , Denkmaeler, p. 796Google Scholar; Reinach, p. 25, etc.

page 267 note 3 Curtius, E., Griech. Gesch., 6th ed., i., p. 574.Google Scholar

page 267 note 4 Cf. notes by Jones, H. Stuart and MissHarrison, , Class. Rev. 1898, pp. 84, 85Google Scholar; Jebb, , Mélanges Henri Weil, p. 237.Google Scholar

page 268 note 1 A red-figured crater in Brit. Mus., No. F. 149. Formerly at Castle Howard. Late fourth century B.C.

page 268 note 2 Murray, , J.H.S. xi., p. 226.Google Scholar

page 269 note 1 De VI. Cons. Honor. 30.

page 269 note 2 Carm, ii. 307; xxii. 67. See Stephani, , Compte Rendu, 1864, p. 57.Google Scholar

page 269 note 3 Bergk, , Poetae Lyr. Gr., 4th ed. iii., Alcaeus. 2–4Google Scholar.

page 269 note 4 Pindar, , Pyth. ix. 6.Google Scholar

page 269 note 5 Overbeck, , Griech. Kunstmythologie iv., p. 495.Google Scholar

page 269 note 6 Robert, , Hermes xxxiii., p. 151Google Scholar; Croiset, , Mélanges Henri Weil, p. 73Google Scholar; Reinach, p. 4.

page 269 note 7 J.H.S. xviii., p. 295.

page 269 note 8 For black-figured vases, see Gerhard, Auserlesene Vasenbilder, Pls. 129–131. For red-figured vases, see Wiener Vorlegeblätter, Series E, Pls. 1–4. For a list of forty-nine representations of the subject, see Walters, , J.H.S. xviii., p. 296.Google Scholar

page 269 note 9 Arch. Zeit. 1867, Pls. 220, 221; pp. 33, 97, Heydemann, Vasensammlungen des Mus. Nazionale zu Neapel, Santangelo, No. 11 (where see references to earlier literature). Roscher, , Lexikon, ii., p. 2620Google Scholar; Reinach, , Bacchylide, p. 5.Google Scholar

page 270 note 1 Overbeck, Gallerie Heroischer Bildwerke, Pls. 3, 4; White Athenian Vases in Brit. Mus. Pl. 18.

page 271 note 1 Heydemann, No. 3255; Overbeck, l.c. Pl. 4, Fig. 3.

page 271 note 2 Millingen, Ancient Unedited Monuments, Pl. 27.

page 271 note 3 Millin-Dubois Maisonneuve ii., Pl. 7: S. Reinach, , Peintures de Vases antiques, recueillies par Millin, etc., ii. 7.Google Scholar

page 271 note 4 Apollodorus, , Bibl. ii. 29Google Scholar; cf. Paus. ii. 7,8.

page 271 note 5 Paus. viii. 18, 7.

page 272 note 1 Vitr. viii. 3, 21.

page 272 note 2 Millingen, Vases Antiques, Pl. 52, and S. Reinach, op. cit. Millingen 52; Heydemann, No. 1760; Müller-Wieseler, Denkmaeler i., Pl. 2, No. 11; De Witte, , Gaz. Arch. v., p. 126Google Scholar; Frazer, , Pausanias iv., p. 259.Google Scholar

page 272 note 3 It has also been thought to be an image of Hera. According to Acusilaos, the Proetidae had gone mad because they ‘disparaged a xoanon of Hera.’

page 272 note 4 In Müller's Denkmaeler, l.c. Compare the introduction of Lussa by Euripides in the Hercules Furens and of Mania in the vase of Assteas, Mon. dell' Inst. viii. 10.

page 272 note 5 Bibl. ii. 26.

page 272 note 4 De Witte, Gaz. Arch. v., Pl. 19, Fig. 1; cf. De Witte, ibidem.

page 274 note 1 Cf. the collected list of types, Walters, , B. M. Catalogue of Vases, ii., p. 13.Google Scholar

page 274 note 2 Cf. the vases quoted by Reisch, , Athen. Mitt. 1887, p. 123.Google Scholar

In the group dedicated by Hippotion of Tarentum at Olympia, Heracles used the bow Paus. v. 25, 7.

page 274 note 3 Stephani, , Compte Rendu, 1869Google Scholar, Pl. 4, Fig. 1 and (more complete) ib. 1876, Pl. 5, Fig. 1.

page 275 note 1 Smith, C., J.H.S. ix. Pl. 1, p. 1Google Scholar; again in Cat. of Vases in the British Museum, iii., Pl. 16, No. E 494. In the later publication the fragment at the right of J.H.S., Pl. 1 is shown as part of the Heracles; the Athene is disconnected from the other fragments; ΛΙ (part of Lichas?) is preserved above the youth.

page 276 note 1 See the observations by Mr. Murray, prefixed to E. 494, in the Cat. of Vases, iii.

page 276 note 2 Robert, , Arch. Anzeiger, 1889, p. 141Google Scholar; Marathonschlacht in der Poikile, p. 50; Hermes, xxxiii., p. 132. Cf. Jebb, , Mélanges Henri Weil, p. 235Google Scholar, MissHarrison, , Class. Review, 1898, p. 85.Google Scholar

page 276 note 3 Robert, , Hermes, l.c. p. 140.Google Scholar

page 276 note 4 We owe the new illustration of the vase to the kindness of Mr.van Branteghem, A.. See also Mon. Grecs. de ľAss. d'Éludes Grecs, 1872, Pl. 1Google Scholar; Klein, , Euphronios, p. 182Google Scholar; Reinach, Pl. 4, etc. The new drawing by M. Devillard gains greatly in force and effect as compared with the older, but excellent, engraving, by having the internal blacks rendered as solid.

page 278 note 1 Ghirardini, , Museo Italiano di Ant. Class. iii., p. 1, Pl. I.Google Scholar; Furtwaengler, and Robert, , Arch. Anzeiger, 1889, p. 141Google Scholar; Reinach, p. 66; Robert, , Nekyia des Polygnot, p. 41Google Scholar; Hermes xxxiii., p. 135.

page 278 note 2 Mon. dell' Inst., i., Pls. 52, 53; De Luynes, Descr, de quelques Vases peints, Pls. 21, 22; Welcker, Alte Denkmaeler, Pl. 25, Reinach, p. 64 (reverse ibid. p. 61).

page 279 note 1 Petersen, Roemische Mittheilungen ix., Pl. 8; Reinach, p. 79.

The red-figured vase in the Brit. Mus. E 264 (Wiener Vorlegebl. 1890–91, Pl. 3), interpreted as Theseus recognised by his parents, is in many respects parallel to the Tricase vase.

page 280 note 1 From Mon. dell' Inst. iv., Pl. 56, supplemented with notes supplied by Mr. Cecil Torr.

page 280 note 2 Reproduced by Reinach, p. 45.