Vase Catalog Number: Mississippi 1977.3.97

Essay: Shapiro No. 31

Attic Red-Figure Neck AmphoraCollection of The University Museums, University of Mississippi Phase I Cultural Center (1977.3.97)
Attributed to the Group of Polygnotos440-430 B.C.Height: 42.2 cm.Diameter: 24.1 cm.Side A: Theseus, Peirithoos and Amazon.Side B: Three youths in mantles.

The Amazon on side A holds her bow in the left hand and retreats to the right, turning to strike with her battle-ax at Theseus, whose spear has already penetrated her side. Only the distinctive ax marks her as an Amazon; instead of the usual patterned tights she wears a Greek peplos. Behind Theseus his friend Peirithoos prepares to throw a stone. The figures are not named, but each is labeled "beautiful" -- KALOS, KALOS, KALE. This is one of six vases, all from the same circle of painters and all with the same three-figure composition, differing slightly in details of weaponry and costume, which probably go back to a common original. On one of the other vases the central figure is labeled "Theseus," and the identification should hold good for all six. Theseus is heroically nude except for his helmet; the painter has given Peirithoos a shaggy pilos and an animal-skin cloak, perhaps in reference to his rustic Thessalian homeland.

The combats of Achilles and Herakles against Amazons appear in vase painting after about 550 B.C., but Theseus' Amazonomachies begin in the last quarter of the century, when the Athenians were attempting to raise their national hero to equal status with Herakles. An epic poem, the Theseis was perhaps composed about 525, and illustrations of episodes from the epic appear soon afterward. The theme of Theseus' defeat of an Amazon army that invaded Attica to avenge his abduction of their queen became especially popular after the Athenian repulse of the Persian invasions of Attica in 490 and 480 B.C. Greek artists seldom represented historical events directly, preferring to look to the legendary past for a parallel event; thus for artists working in Athens, the Amazon invasion became a visual metaphor for the Persian ones, and Amazonomachies were chosen as the theme for decorating several public buildings. The common ancestor for the examples of this three-figure composition could be either a wall painting or another vase painting. Two large-scale Amazonomachies of Theseus were painted in Athenian buildings in the generation after the Persian Wars, one by Mikon and one by Polygnotos of Thasos (not the vase painter of the same name). No detailed description of either painting survives, but 5th-century vase painters are believed to have copied some of Polygnotos' innovations: many-figured compositions, the placement of figures at different levels rather than on a common ground line, and the use of trees and other landscape features. The Theseus-Amazon pair from this vase also occur on at least four other vases, as part of many-figured Amazonomachies with Polygnotan characteristics. Variations on the Peirithoos figure also occur in these pictures, and it is likely that this group was derived from a larger vase-painting that in turn was derived from a wall painting.

Keywords:

Amazon, animal, attacking, axe, bow, cloak, defending, helmet, hero, holding, mantle, naked, Peirithoos, peplos, pilos, skin, spear, stone, Theseus, Theseus and Peirithoos, Theseus and the Amazons, throwing, wearing, youth, youths

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