DOI Kapitel:
Division C: The road immediately east and south of the Acropolis, from the street of Tripods to the shrine of Demeter Chloe
DOI Kapitel:Section XII
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61302#0432
200
MYTHOLOGY AND MONUMENTS
DIV. C
weapon of the wild barbarian ; with it the Thracian woman slays
Orpheus, and Theseus borrows it from the wild robber Prokrustes.
Through the air swoops down the winged demon of madness,
Lyssa (Rage), and smites the king with her pointed goad. To the
left, behind a hill, a Maenad strikes her cymbal at the coming of
the god. In the reverse picture (fig. 12) all is still. The god has
sent his angel against Lycurgus, but no trouble disturbs his own
divine repose. About him his thiasos seem to watch the scene
alert and curious, but he only lifts his hand in token of assent.
FIG.’lI.— MATER (obverse): LYCURGUS SLAYING HIS FAMILY.
It cannot be said for certain that the vase, a piece of fourth
century work, is actually inspired by yEschylus. Another instance
—a design from an amphora in the Jatta collection at Ruvo—is
more obviously dramatic. In front of a house (indicated by
columns and pediment), Lycurgus, his head bound with ivy, is
slaying his son. The mother rushes forward, with hands upraised,
unwitting to her doom. An attendant, with two spears, stands,
his head buried in his hand, in profound and dramatic depression.
Vases on which a house or temple in the background is depicted
for scenery, may safely be assumed to depend on stage repre-
sentations.
Of the story of Pentheus, ancient art has left no representation
worthy at all to vie with the picture in the Bacchae of Euripides.
MYTHOLOGY AND MONUMENTS
DIV. C
weapon of the wild barbarian ; with it the Thracian woman slays
Orpheus, and Theseus borrows it from the wild robber Prokrustes.
Through the air swoops down the winged demon of madness,
Lyssa (Rage), and smites the king with her pointed goad. To the
left, behind a hill, a Maenad strikes her cymbal at the coming of
the god. In the reverse picture (fig. 12) all is still. The god has
sent his angel against Lycurgus, but no trouble disturbs his own
divine repose. About him his thiasos seem to watch the scene
alert and curious, but he only lifts his hand in token of assent.
FIG.’lI.— MATER (obverse): LYCURGUS SLAYING HIS FAMILY.
It cannot be said for certain that the vase, a piece of fourth
century work, is actually inspired by yEschylus. Another instance
—a design from an amphora in the Jatta collection at Ruvo—is
more obviously dramatic. In front of a house (indicated by
columns and pediment), Lycurgus, his head bound with ivy, is
slaying his son. The mother rushes forward, with hands upraised,
unwitting to her doom. An attendant, with two spears, stands,
his head buried in his hand, in profound and dramatic depression.
Vases on which a house or temple in the background is depicted
for scenery, may safely be assumed to depend on stage repre-
sentations.
Of the story of Pentheus, ancient art has left no representation
worthy at all to vie with the picture in the Bacchae of Euripides.