DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52591#0191
THE TREASURY OF THE ATHENIANS 175
laying low the Cery-
Fig. 71.—-Heracles and the
lion (b.f. vase).
his thigh. Behind the hero hang quiver, bow, and chiton,
to fill the surface of the background. While the lion’s
body is too much destroyed for a judgment to be formed of
it—holes on the neck point to manelocks of lead or bronze
having been inserted—the nude body of the hero proclaims
a good eye for anatomy, and the strain involved in the
throttling of the animal is excellently expressed in the
prominent bare leg and stretching of the abdomen. Throt-
tling—Trachelismos 1—in black-figured vases is as a rule
represented, as here, in standing
combat (όρθοπάλη) (fig. 71); in
the red-figured style the battle
takes place more commonly in
recumbent or kneeling postures.2
That is based on the idea that
the lion could not be slain by
brass or iron. In one of the
idylls of Theocritus,3 the fight-
ing scheme is better thought
out than in the plastic represen-
tations, in that Heracles seizes
the lion from behind, places his
heels on its back paws, and
presses his thighs about its rump,
to hinder it from using the strong
claws, which in the metopes and
vase-paintings are in full activity.
Only two of the Heracles
metopes are sufficiently well
preserved to permit of stylistic
observations. One represents him
neian stag (fig. 72)/ On b.f. vases of the sixth century,
the hero is seen running alongside of the stag, which he
has seized by the antlers. Our metope, along with a
vase of severe r.f. style, is the first example of the new
fighting scheme, which later becomes universal5; its
1 Norman Gardiner, Journal of Hellenic Studies, xxv, 1905, p. 294 f.
2 Reisch, At hen. Mitteil., xii, 1887, 121. 3 Theocr., xxv. 266 f.
4 Furtwangler, Aegina, 309, 351.
5 Idem in Roscher, Lexikon, i. 2200 and 2224 ; Olympia, Hi, plate 38’; Sauer.
Theseion, plate vi, E. metope iii.
laying low the Cery-
Fig. 71.—-Heracles and the
lion (b.f. vase).
his thigh. Behind the hero hang quiver, bow, and chiton,
to fill the surface of the background. While the lion’s
body is too much destroyed for a judgment to be formed of
it—holes on the neck point to manelocks of lead or bronze
having been inserted—the nude body of the hero proclaims
a good eye for anatomy, and the strain involved in the
throttling of the animal is excellently expressed in the
prominent bare leg and stretching of the abdomen. Throt-
tling—Trachelismos 1—in black-figured vases is as a rule
represented, as here, in standing
combat (όρθοπάλη) (fig. 71); in
the red-figured style the battle
takes place more commonly in
recumbent or kneeling postures.2
That is based on the idea that
the lion could not be slain by
brass or iron. In one of the
idylls of Theocritus,3 the fight-
ing scheme is better thought
out than in the plastic represen-
tations, in that Heracles seizes
the lion from behind, places his
heels on its back paws, and
presses his thighs about its rump,
to hinder it from using the strong
claws, which in the metopes and
vase-paintings are in full activity.
Only two of the Heracles
metopes are sufficiently well
preserved to permit of stylistic
observations. One represents him
neian stag (fig. 72)/ On b.f. vases of the sixth century,
the hero is seen running alongside of the stag, which he
has seized by the antlers. Our metope, along with a
vase of severe r.f. style, is the first example of the new
fighting scheme, which later becomes universal5; its
1 Norman Gardiner, Journal of Hellenic Studies, xxv, 1905, p. 294 f.
2 Reisch, At hen. Mitteil., xii, 1887, 121. 3 Theocr., xxv. 266 f.
4 Furtwangler, Aegina, 309, 351.
5 Idem in Roscher, Lexikon, i. 2200 and 2224 ; Olympia, Hi, plate 38’; Sauer.
Theseion, plate vi, E. metope iii.