DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26205#0017
CHAPTER II
PERSONIFICATIONS OF RIVERS IN GREEK
ART
In comparison with literature, Greek art introduces personifications of rivers
somewhat later, i. e. not before the 7th century B. C. The proper development
of such images occurs however in the 6th century B. C., and their more
frequent usage becomes a characteristic feature of the art of the 5th and 4th
centuries B. C. This is fully consistent with the developmental trends of Greek
art in which various personifications and allegories had sporadically appeared
in the Archaic period whereas the Classical period was the epoch when
they gained great popularity. This rapid development in the use of personi-
fications in the art of the 5th and 4th centuries B. C. is associated mainly with
the increasing influence of drama, where there existed the necessity of
rendering in abstract, non-descriptive form the psychical state of the heroes
through representing the personifications of Madness, Jealousy, Compassion,
Wrath, Anguish, Fear etc. In turn, the personifications of certain ideas such
as, for example, Peace, Victory, Democracy, Virtus (Arete) came into being
under the influence of victorious Peisian wars and changes taking place
in the political system of Athens during the 5th century B. C.1 2
1 The earliest monument discernible for us, though non-extant, is the Chest of Kypselos from
the 7th century B. C., known from the description in Pausanias (5, 17,5—19,9). Judging from this,
the personifications depicted on the Chest did not appear alone, but made allegories in groups
of twos and threes. Each of the figures, after the pattern of vase painting, was provided with an
elucidating inscription. Cf. W. v. Massow, Die Kypseloslade, AM, 41, 1916, pp. 1—117; EAA,
Suppl. Atlante I, 1970, PI. 186—189. The style of reliefs decorating the Chest must have been similar
to that of vase painting, which can be testified to by the fact that the personifications cited by
Pausanias of Justice (Dikia) and Injustice (Adikia) appear on a red-figured amphora of Nikostenes
Painter, dated to ca. 530 B.C. and now in Vienna. Cf. Beazley, ARV2, 11.
2 In the wake of the Persian wars, during the 5th and 4th centuries B. C. the personifications
come into being of, among others, Hellas, Democracy, Boule, Demos, Eutaxia (personification
of social order). Cf. among others, Ostrowski, Prowincje, pp. 36—38.
PERSONIFICATIONS OF RIVERS IN GREEK
ART
In comparison with literature, Greek art introduces personifications of rivers
somewhat later, i. e. not before the 7th century B. C. The proper development
of such images occurs however in the 6th century B. C., and their more
frequent usage becomes a characteristic feature of the art of the 5th and 4th
centuries B. C. This is fully consistent with the developmental trends of Greek
art in which various personifications and allegories had sporadically appeared
in the Archaic period whereas the Classical period was the epoch when
they gained great popularity. This rapid development in the use of personi-
fications in the art of the 5th and 4th centuries B. C. is associated mainly with
the increasing influence of drama, where there existed the necessity of
rendering in abstract, non-descriptive form the psychical state of the heroes
through representing the personifications of Madness, Jealousy, Compassion,
Wrath, Anguish, Fear etc. In turn, the personifications of certain ideas such
as, for example, Peace, Victory, Democracy, Virtus (Arete) came into being
under the influence of victorious Peisian wars and changes taking place
in the political system of Athens during the 5th century B. C.1 2
1 The earliest monument discernible for us, though non-extant, is the Chest of Kypselos from
the 7th century B. C., known from the description in Pausanias (5, 17,5—19,9). Judging from this,
the personifications depicted on the Chest did not appear alone, but made allegories in groups
of twos and threes. Each of the figures, after the pattern of vase painting, was provided with an
elucidating inscription. Cf. W. v. Massow, Die Kypseloslade, AM, 41, 1916, pp. 1—117; EAA,
Suppl. Atlante I, 1970, PI. 186—189. The style of reliefs decorating the Chest must have been similar
to that of vase painting, which can be testified to by the fact that the personifications cited by
Pausanias of Justice (Dikia) and Injustice (Adikia) appear on a red-figured amphora of Nikostenes
Painter, dated to ca. 530 B.C. and now in Vienna. Cf. Beazley, ARV2, 11.
2 In the wake of the Persian wars, during the 5th and 4th centuries B. C. the personifications
come into being of, among others, Hellas, Democracy, Boule, Demos, Eutaxia (personification
of social order). Cf. among others, Ostrowski, Prowincje, pp. 36—38.