DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14144#0108
72
EXTANT WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART.
i ft. at the base. It has, therefore, two broader and two narrower
sides. On both the former we find the broad, thickset figures of
a man and a woman, with very slight variations of attitude or
action. We are led to suppose that the personages in the two
reliefs are the same, represented on two different occasions ; but
the action in one of them is rendered uncertain by the mutilation
of the hands. In the better preserved of the two the man is passing
his left arm round the woman's neck, and thrusting his sword into
her throat with his right hand ; while the woman lays one hand
on the weapon, and holds up the other as if in supplication. We
naturally think of Orestes and Clytcmnestra; but what scene in
their joint lives can be represented on the other side, in which the
figures are almost identical, and the action apparently peaceable ; and
in which both are taking hold of some object like a sickle (neeklace ?), the
exact nature of which it is impossible to define ? Some archaeologists,
therefore, incline to the opinion that the reliefs represent, not the
matricide of Orestes, but the perfidy of Eriphyle. In the first scene
she is receiving the treacherous caresses of Polyniccs and the famous
necklace of Harmonia, the price of the blood of her husband, Amphia-
raus ; 1 and in the second (fig. 24) undergoing the penalty of her crime
at the hands of her own son Alcmrcon,2 who acted in obedience to the
instructions of his father and the Delphic Oracle. On each of the two
narrower sides is a serpent rising in folds, which, according to those
who refer the monument to Eriphyle, is intended to represent the
avenging Furies, by whom the traitress was overtaken.
There is much in these reliefs analogous to those of the Selinun-
tian metopes—the same short, thickset figures, the same heavy,
clumsy thighs, out of all proportion to the rest of the body, the same
stride of the legs, while the soles of both feet rest flat on the ground,
the same quiet stolid impassiveness in the midst of slaughter. J he
chief difference between the reliefs of the two sides of the stele is in
the arrangement of the hair, and in the dress of the women ; the one
in the murderous scene being heavily draped, while the other is
lightly clothed, if at all, above the waist.
' Horn. Oil. xv. 247, 'AM' uAct' h &i)&t]<ti yuvaiav ffrfKO hwpwv. - Apullodor. iii. 7. 2.
EXTANT WORKS OF ARCHAIC ART.
i ft. at the base. It has, therefore, two broader and two narrower
sides. On both the former we find the broad, thickset figures of
a man and a woman, with very slight variations of attitude or
action. We are led to suppose that the personages in the two
reliefs are the same, represented on two different occasions ; but
the action in one of them is rendered uncertain by the mutilation
of the hands. In the better preserved of the two the man is passing
his left arm round the woman's neck, and thrusting his sword into
her throat with his right hand ; while the woman lays one hand
on the weapon, and holds up the other as if in supplication. We
naturally think of Orestes and Clytcmnestra; but what scene in
their joint lives can be represented on the other side, in which the
figures are almost identical, and the action apparently peaceable ; and
in which both are taking hold of some object like a sickle (neeklace ?), the
exact nature of which it is impossible to define ? Some archaeologists,
therefore, incline to the opinion that the reliefs represent, not the
matricide of Orestes, but the perfidy of Eriphyle. In the first scene
she is receiving the treacherous caresses of Polyniccs and the famous
necklace of Harmonia, the price of the blood of her husband, Amphia-
raus ; 1 and in the second (fig. 24) undergoing the penalty of her crime
at the hands of her own son Alcmrcon,2 who acted in obedience to the
instructions of his father and the Delphic Oracle. On each of the two
narrower sides is a serpent rising in folds, which, according to those
who refer the monument to Eriphyle, is intended to represent the
avenging Furies, by whom the traitress was overtaken.
There is much in these reliefs analogous to those of the Selinun-
tian metopes—the same short, thickset figures, the same heavy,
clumsy thighs, out of all proportion to the rest of the body, the same
stride of the legs, while the soles of both feet rest flat on the ground,
the same quiet stolid impassiveness in the midst of slaughter. J he
chief difference between the reliefs of the two sides of the stele is in
the arrangement of the hair, and in the dress of the women ; the one
in the murderous scene being heavily draped, while the other is
lightly clothed, if at all, above the waist.
' Horn. Oil. xv. 247, 'AM' uAct' h &i)&t]<ti yuvaiav ffrfKO hwpwv. - Apullodor. iii. 7. 2.