DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.47071#0046
42
POET AND ARTIST IN GREECE
three only. The Cyclops, who is of gigantic stature
compared with them, is seated upon a rock. Odysseus,
while guiding the club into the Cyclops’ eye with one
hand, offers with the other a cup of wine, though this must
have been done long enough before for the Cyclops to fall
into a drunken sleep. The cannibal feast is also repre-
sented ; for the Cyclops holds in his hands two human
legs, which could indeed remain after he had devoured
the rest of the victims, but which evidently are intended
to complete the story. And the effect of the red-hot club
upon the Cyclops’ eye is represented by a huge snake,
which symbolises the action of the destructive element.
This vase-painting really offers as good an example as can
be found of the desire to include all the successive events
of a story in a single scene. On another vase, while
Odysseus and a companion are blinding the Cyclops, who
is recumbent on the ground and of huge size, another com-
panion, at the other end of the picture, is represented as
heating a club in a fire. This does not probably mean
that the same object, here the club, is represented twice in
the same scene, but rather indicates the heating of the
club in the fire as part of the tale, very much as when
Troilus1 is pursued by Achilles when he had gone to
water the horses, and his errand is suggested by other
young Trojans drawing water from the spring.
Another scene from the adventure with the Cyclops is
the escape of Odysseus and his companions from the cave,
by means of the flock of sheep. This is a very common
subject upon black-figured vases. In its simplest form it
consists only of one or more sheep with Odysseus and some
of his companions hanging beneath them, usually tied on
by thongs, Odysseus being distinguished from the others
by a beard and a sword ; sometimes he goes first, but in
1 See p. 64.
POET AND ARTIST IN GREECE
three only. The Cyclops, who is of gigantic stature
compared with them, is seated upon a rock. Odysseus,
while guiding the club into the Cyclops’ eye with one
hand, offers with the other a cup of wine, though this must
have been done long enough before for the Cyclops to fall
into a drunken sleep. The cannibal feast is also repre-
sented ; for the Cyclops holds in his hands two human
legs, which could indeed remain after he had devoured
the rest of the victims, but which evidently are intended
to complete the story. And the effect of the red-hot club
upon the Cyclops’ eye is represented by a huge snake,
which symbolises the action of the destructive element.
This vase-painting really offers as good an example as can
be found of the desire to include all the successive events
of a story in a single scene. On another vase, while
Odysseus and a companion are blinding the Cyclops, who
is recumbent on the ground and of huge size, another com-
panion, at the other end of the picture, is represented as
heating a club in a fire. This does not probably mean
that the same object, here the club, is represented twice in
the same scene, but rather indicates the heating of the
club in the fire as part of the tale, very much as when
Troilus1 is pursued by Achilles when he had gone to
water the horses, and his errand is suggested by other
young Trojans drawing water from the spring.
Another scene from the adventure with the Cyclops is
the escape of Odysseus and his companions from the cave,
by means of the flock of sheep. This is a very common
subject upon black-figured vases. In its simplest form it
consists only of one or more sheep with Odysseus and some
of his companions hanging beneath them, usually tied on
by thongs, Odysseus being distinguished from the others
by a beard and a sword ; sometimes he goes first, but in
1 See p. 64.