Christie, James: Disquisitions upon the painted Greek vases, and their probable connection with the shows of the Eleusinian and other mysteries (London, 1825)

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this painting the three females form a group in inferis, which is
implied by the umbrella spread over them ; they are draped, as
being inert, and their inactivity is further implied by two of them
being seated, and the third in a quiescent (though upright)
posture : the fancied Clytemnestra is indeed in the act of listen-
ing with appearance of expectation j equally with her com-
panions she is motionless; but they are in inferis, where like
the dcemon in his glass prison, they sit enchanted, waiting until
some more powerful magician shall come to their assistance,
and break the charm. The pillar, beneath which they are seated,
is the boundary between motion and rest, between life and death.
The small figure upon the summit is not the Tauric Diana, but
the emblematical Bacchus, whose powers are for awhile suspended.
The hooded elder, resting on his staff, and the supposed Achilles,
leaning on his spear, are engaged in conversation. The gross
appearance of the latter is ill suited to the youthful and fiery
character of the Grecian hero : and I conceive, they are both
designed to complete the view of that intermediate state, to which
all ranks, the virgin and the matron, the warrior and the sage,
were supposed to be equally obnoxious. Their expectation of
being recalled is however indicated by the fingers of the warrior
bent backward, and on the reverse of the vase, the animating
powers advance to release them, with the torch, the tibia?, and
the tambourine, to the sound of which instruments, perhaps, the
Clytemnestra listens, being thereby apprised of their coming.