Recent Discoveries of Tarentine Terra-Cottas

Arthur J. Evans

doi:10.2307/623631

Recent Discoveries of Tarentine Terra-Cottas

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013

Arthur J. Evans

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There are few sites in the Hellenic World that in recent years have been so prolific of discoveries as that of Tarentum. The scheme so earnestly taken up by the Italian Government for converting the half-forgotten nest of fishermen and olive proprietors into a great Mediterranean arsenal, bids fair to restore Taranto to some measure at least of the importance which her unique position secured to her in ancient days. The mediæval citys hut up within the limits of its peninsular site, the Akropolis of the ancient Tarentum, blocking the passage from the inner to the outer sea, is again enlarging its borders, and a new quarter—the Borgo Nuovo—is rising on the mainland to the east where lay the Agora of the great Doric city. The inner sea—the Mar Piccolo—the Limên of Tarentum, at present laid out in gardens for the ‘sea-fruit’ which supplies the Naples market, is already being deepened in its south-eastern bay to form a secure and unassailable harbour, and the leviathans of the new Italian navy will henceforth anchor in the same historic port whence Hannibal transferred the Tarentine galleys adry to the outer sea.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 7 , November 1886 , pp. 1 - 50

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/623631 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1886

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^{page 2 note 1} The measurements as given by Viola, Signor (Memorie della r. Accademia dei Lincei, ix. 493Google Scholar) are as follows: lower diameter of columns 1·90 m.; upper 1·55 m.; height 8·47 metres from level of stylobate to top of abacus. The number of the flutes however is 24 in place of 16 at Ortygia.

^{page 3 note 1} See Memorie della r. Accademia, &c., ix. Tav. iv.

^{page 3 note 2} Viola (op. cit.) has expressed the opinion that a combat between Tarentines and a barbarian foe is here represented. The well-known Tarentine Anathema at Delphi may be thought to favour this view. For my own part however I am unable to detect in the long flowing hair and round shield of a youthful warrior, the barbarian characteristics on which Sig. Viola and after him Prof. Helbig base this opinion. The free flowing style of hair and round unornamented shield appear as frequent characteristics of the youthful warriors on the Tarentine didrachms of fourth-century date: the lance which he brandishes and the horse beside him are decidedly Tarentine traits. In the best period of Tarentine numismatic art the armed Ephebi are generally represented bareheaded, armed with lances and round shields, and with locks streaming in the wind.

^{page 7 note 1} La Grande Grèce, T. I. p. 107.

^{page 7 note 2} Cited by Viola, , Memorie dei Lincei, 1881, p. 519.Google Scholar

^{page 9 note 1} See Pervanoglu, P., Das Familienmahl auf altgriechischen Grabsteinen, Leipzig, 1872.Google Scholar

^{page 9 note 2} Hellenic Journal, Vol. V. 1884, p. 102, seqq. Cf. Milchhöfer, 's remarks, Mitth. d. deutschen Arch. Inst. in Athen, iv. (1879)Google Scholar.

^{page 12 note 1} History of discoveries at Halicarnassus, Cnidus and Branchidae, by Newton, C. T., Vol. ii. pt. i. p. 329Google Scholar, and pl. xlvi. fig. 6.

^{page 12 note 2} Cf. Helbig, , Bullettino di Corr. Archeologica, 1881, p. 198.Google Scholar

^{page 13 note 1} Archäologische Zeitung, 1882, T. xiv. f. 4.

^{page 14 note 1} Mitth. d. deutsch n arch. Inst. in Athen, vii. (1882) Pl. vii.

^{page 14 note 2} Op. cit. p. 160 seqq.

^{page 14 note 3} For examples of this class cf. Pervanoglu, Das Familienmahl, &c. passim.

^{page 15 note 1} Furtwaengler, who had not these Tarantine terra-cottas before him to confirm his views, observes (op. cit. p. 166), “Der Zusammenhang der Rosse des Erddunkels und der des Lichtes zeigen deutlich die Dioskuren deren Begriff aus dem Allgemeinen des Heros mit dem Pferde abgeleitet scheint.” He adds, “nicht zu vergessen sind die Rosse, Reiter, und Gespanne aus Thon in alterthümlichen Gräbern als Gaben an den Heros.”

^{page 16 note 1} The cup in the hands of the heroized departed or offered to them by their attendants is in fact a sculptural improvement on the earlier and simpler sepulchral practice of placing vessels on the grave. This practice still survives throughout large parts of Eastern Europe, and of its former existence at Tarentum itself there is evidence in an epitaph of the local poet Leonidas (c. lxxxvii) on the bibulous Maronis whose ghost mourns not for the loss of children or husband, but that the cup over her grave——should be empty.

^{page 18 note 1} The adaptation of this sepulchral design to the cult of the Chthonic Dionysos and the Kourotrophos finds a perfect parallel in the adaptation of the same design to the cult of Asklêpios and Hygieia which is well brought out by Prof. Gardner loc. cit. p. 115, seqq.

^{page 19 note 1} Cf. Helbig, , Bull. di Corr. Arch. 1881, 196Google Scholar, who cites Rangabé Ant. Hell. II. n. 777. Benndorf, , Griech. und Sicil. Vasenb. I. p. 14Google Scholar, 15, and compare C. I. G. I. n. 1570.

^{page 23 note 1}

Memorie della r. Accad. dei Lincei, xi. 1883, p. 296.

^{page 24 note 1} It is thus described by Viola (loc. cit.): “tutta la superficie è sparsa di frammenti di terrecotte figurate e dl piccoli vasettini, che io credo simbolici, ed inoltre basta dare un colpo di zappa perchè vengano fuori moltissiini frammenti di statuette e di vasi di creta.”

^{page 24 note 2} As a local reference to the cult of the Chthonic Persephonê, may be cited the poem of the Tarentine poet Leonidas in which the shepherd prays his fellows πρòς Γῆς that offerings may be brought to his tomb (c. xcviii.)

^{page 31 note 1} Polyb. Lib. viii. c. 30.

^{page 32 note 1} Polyb. loc. cit. The Tarantine leaders Niko and Tragiskos took their stand at the tomb of Pythionikos.

^{page 32 note 2} Vol. ix. (1881) T. III.

^{page 32 note 3} See Memorie, &c. op. cit. p. 536; and cf. Helbig loc. cit. Specimens of the same kind of vase but of a less elaborate style may be seen amongst those from Bolsena in the British Museum.

^{page 35 note 1} Leonidæ Tarentini Carmina, xci.

^{page 35 note 2} Op. cit. c. xlviii.

^{page 42 note 1} Cf. the τακτὸς σȋτος to be doled out during the truce to the Lacedæmonian troops blockaded in Sphaktêria, Thuc. iv. 16.

^{page 47 note 1} Über den Aberglauben des bösen Blicks bei den Alten. Berichte der k. sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig. VII. 1855 (p. 52, seqq. and Taf. V. p. 3).

^{page 47 note 2} Bullettino Archeologico Napolitano, N.S., Anno V. (1857), p. 169.

^{page 47 note 3} In Daremberg et Saglio, Dictionnairedes Antiquitès, Art. Amvletvm, a representation of the Neapolitan example first published by Minervini is given and the suggestion made.

^{page 47 note 4} Cf. Jahn, op. cit. p. 53.

^{page 47 note 5} I have myself observed several instances of the open hand in such positions in the Byzantine parts of Europe.

^{page 48 note 1} Terra-cotta hands occur amongst the votive offerings found on the site of ancient sanctuaries, e.g. from Reate.

^{page 49 note 1} The loaves found at Pompeii were of flat segmented form as are still the modern Turkish.

^{page 49 note 2} The Christmas festivities on which ‘wheel cakes’ of this ceremonial kind are especially used, are connected with a variety of symbolical acts and offerings all having for their object the assurance of good crops, increase of cattle, domestic prosperity and especially the birth of male children during the ensuing year. An analogous object would account for the character of many of the symbols on these Tarantine disks.

^{page 49 note 3} Cf. the old Slavonic Kolivo, also Koljuvo, Serbian Koljivo, Rouman Colîlǎ. In the Slavonic Wakes however the Kolivo is rather cooked corn in a flat dish than a cake proper. Of the modern and mediaeval Greek form Ducange remarks ‘κόλυβον, κόλυβα, frumentum coctum; in Ecclesiâ Graecanicâ Colybi benedici et distribui solerent primo Sabbato jejuniorum.’ For various primitive forms of the ‘wheel-cake’ (Pogač or Kolač) and other flat segmented cakes (ĉesnice) with a central socket made use of in the Illyrian Peninsula for purposes connected with domestic cult I may refer to my articles ‘Christmas and Ancestor-Worship in the Black Mountain,’ Macmillan's Magazine, Jan., Feb., and March, 1881. Amongst the Russian Lapps I have seen moulds for flat cheeses of a similar character with a central cross or wheel and various surrounding ornaments. It is possible that some of the present moulds may have been used for cheeses, as well as cakes.

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