DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.47071#0092
88
POET AND ARTIST IN GREECE
were preserved, we should probably find in them many
passages which would lend themselves to comparison with
the vase-pictures portraying the same events, especially
in the poem called the Oresteia.
Stesichorus has in some cases preserved myths or
versions of myths otherwise unknown in literature, but
represented upon vases. As an example may be quoted
the story of how Heracles crossed the ocean to the western
land whence he had to fetch the cattle of Geryon, by the
loan of the golden cup in which the sun made his journey
38. Heracles threatens the Sun-god
from day to day. This subject is found on several vases
in which Heracles, with bow and club, threatens the sun
god as he rises out of the sea in his chariot. A later
phase of the story is shown in the inside of a bowl, in
which Heracles is seen sitting in the cup as it floats
across the sea, indicated by wavy lines and fishes and
other marine animals.
Many other lyric poems contain passages of narrative
or description which may be compared with the treatment
of the same subjects by the vase-painter. One of the most
striking of these is Simonides’ description of Danae with
POET AND ARTIST IN GREECE
were preserved, we should probably find in them many
passages which would lend themselves to comparison with
the vase-pictures portraying the same events, especially
in the poem called the Oresteia.
Stesichorus has in some cases preserved myths or
versions of myths otherwise unknown in literature, but
represented upon vases. As an example may be quoted
the story of how Heracles crossed the ocean to the western
land whence he had to fetch the cattle of Geryon, by the
loan of the golden cup in which the sun made his journey
38. Heracles threatens the Sun-god
from day to day. This subject is found on several vases
in which Heracles, with bow and club, threatens the sun
god as he rises out of the sea in his chariot. A later
phase of the story is shown in the inside of a bowl, in
which Heracles is seen sitting in the cup as it floats
across the sea, indicated by wavy lines and fishes and
other marine animals.
Many other lyric poems contain passages of narrative
or description which may be compared with the treatment
of the same subjects by the vase-painter. One of the most
striking of these is Simonides’ description of Danae with