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XXIII.—Armorial devices on black-figured vases at Berlin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

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Half-a-centuey ago, when the words “Bacchic” and “Mystic” played a very important part in the explanation of Grecian monuments, it was usual to consider the shield-devices seen on Greek vases as symbols specially appropriate to certain members of the Hellenic Pantheon. In those days Panofka never wearied of pointing out the opposition of the heavenly bodies to the Chthonian, or how the God of Light triumphed over the Lord of Darkness. His explanations, however, required a great deal of explaining, and the darkness eventually got the best of it, for these views are seldom mentioned now, save as illustrations of perverted ingenuity and misapplied erudition.

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Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1888

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References

page 477 note a As to Panofka, see his Tod des Shir on; and the Einleitung to Otto Jahn's description of the Munich vases, pl. lxi. note 405.

page 477 note b Gerhard, , Griechische und etrusMsche TrinlcschalenGoogle Scholar, Taf. A—B.

page 477 note c The amphora appears on a Munich vase (No. 645) as the device of Ares.

page 477 note d Gerhard, , Trinkschalen, Erste Abtheilung, S. 4, Taf. iiiGoogle Scholar. It is the vase of Erginos and Aristophanes (No. 2531) at Berlin.

page 477 note e Gerhard, , Auserlesene Vasenbilder, Dritter Theil, S. 91, Taf. cxciiiGoogle Scholar.

page 478 note a Gerhard, A. V., ccxi. S. 124.

page 478 note b In 1828.

page 478 note c See the Annali for 1831, pp. 1-218.

page 478 note d Homer, Iliad, iii, 166-242.

page 478 note e Yet Diomed is recognised by his shield, Iliad, v. 182; possibly by its shape or size, as in the case of Ajax below.

page 478 note f vv. 225-229.

page 478 note g Iliad, xi. 526-7.

page 478 note h Journal of Hellenic Studies, iv. 282Google Scholar.

page 478 note i iv. 4, 10.

page 479 note a Mr. Cecil Smith has shown me a lekythos (B. 550) in the British Museum, on which the shields of all the four warriors are marked with A.; see Müller, in Bevue Numismatique, 1859. In reality, A. alone would not sufficiently distinguish between Athenians, Argives, etc. Of other vases in the same collection, B. 666 has on a shield; and the small amphora B. 47 has A Θ E. The subject represented in this case is probably Aethra conducted by her Athenian grandsons. For a different sort of national symbol see Bacchylides (Frag. 41 Bergk.)

So the Thebans displayed the club of their national hero. Xen. Hellenics, vii. 5, 20 (the reading without ἓχοντες is the correct one).

page 479 note b Pausanias, iv. 28, 5.

page 479 note c Plutarch, Apophth. Lac. 234 D.

page 479 note d Iliad, xviii. 483-608. Cf. Hesiod, ‘Аσπίς ‘Hρακλέους 144-317.

page 479 note e Septem contra Thebas, 642-8. An actual inscription, ‘Аγαθῇ τύχṋ, is said by Plutarch (Dem. 20) to have been written in golden letters on the shield of Demosthenes.

page 479 note f On one vase (Gerh. Auserl. Vas. Taf. 258) are no fewer than eight instances of devices on shields.

page 480 note a Key (Latin-English Dictionary) quotes throe passages from Livy (iv. 19, 5; ix. 41, 18; and xxx. 34, 3) in which rnnbo is used offensively. In the passage quoted in Smith's Diet, of Antiq. (under Glvpeus) Key takes umbo in the transferred sense of elbow, and rightly, as the context Incideris turbam shows. (Key reads cuneos umbone repellet.) These passages from Livy refer to a different shield. As to the Greek shield see Leaf, , Journal of Hellenic Studies, iv. 282Google Scholar.

page 480 note b As of Kleonymos, Aristoph. Nubes, 353. See also Pax, 1186.

page 480 note c The shield of Ajax is itself compared to a tower, σάκος ήύτε πύργον, Iliad, vii. 219.

page 480 note d To account for the serpent on the shield of Menelaos in the painting by Polygnotos at Delphi Pausanias (x. 26, 3) makes a rather far-fetched reference to the prodigy at Aulis (Iliad, ii. 308).

page 480 note e See Jahrhuch des Instituts, Bd. II. erstes Heft, Taf. 5.

page 480 note f So the Pegasus at Munich (No. 656); and elsewhere on Panathenaic vases.

page 480 note g Paus. iv. 16, 7. Cf. the flying eagle as shield-device on a terra-cotta of the earlier part of the fifth century in the do Luynes collection, Rayet, Etudes d'Archeologie et d'Art, p. 325. I have to thank Prof. Alfred Goodwin for a reference to the description by Pausanias (viii. 11, 5) of the monumental shield with serpent-device placed over the tomb of Bpaminondas in allusion to his descent from the Spartoi.

page 480 note h See Leaf, on Iliad, xi. 32Google Scholar.

page 480 note i Iliad, v. 738–42Google Scholar. See Leaf's note.

page 480 note k Homer, , Iliad, xi. 3639Google Scholar.

page 481 note a Paus. v. 19, 4. On a vase at Munich, I have seen a Boeotian shield with a lion and a serpent painted white, and in the middle an engraved Gorgoneion.

page 481 note b Aesch. Septem contra Thebas, 385-6.

page 481 note c Nos. 1701, 2007, 3988, 3992. I have to thank Prof. Fnrtwiingler for pointing out to me the two most striking instances, viz. No. 1701 and No. 2007. In the former the griffin projecting from the shield apparently takes an active part in the struggle.

page 481 note d Nos. 79, 378, and 1060 in the Kurze Beschreibung der Vasensammlung König Ludioigs I.

page 481 note e B 273 [560]. See Klein, , Meistersignaturen,2 p. 65, No. 49Google Scholar.

page 481 note f For information as to these (and for much other assistance) I am indebted to Mr. Cecil Smith.

page 481 note g Ephemeris Arch. 1886, p. 121, and Plate 8.

page 481 note h Müller-Wieseler, Denkmiiler II.2, Plate XX. Nos. 215 and 215a.

page 481 note i Monumenti d. I. vi. vii. Tav. 78.

page 482 note a The fact that one of the snakes on the shield of Zeus is twisted back round the following one, suggests that they are to be considered as alive, and not as mere ornament.

page 482 note b See Furtwängler, La Collection Sabouroff, Plate XLIX. 3 (where the protome of a serpent projects from the shield of Neoptolemos), and note 11 in the Commentary.

page 482 note c No. 1727—N.B. in text and notes the numbers in four figures without further reference relate to Furtwängler's Beschreihung dor Vasensammlwiig itn Antiquarium.

page 482 note d See Head's Coins of the Ancients, Plate xv. 1. Cf. Hesiod, Ά σπίς Ήρ, 129-131. See the Amphora B. 72, in the British Museum, with Perseus purstied by Gorgons.

page 482 note e Eros wielding the thunderbolt was the appropriate device of the warlike lady-killer Alcibiades. Plut, Alcib. 16.

page 482 note f On a vase in the British Museum (No. 162) occurs the unusual device of the TnWquarters of a horse. As unusual devices may also be noticed the two rams butting each other on the amphora of Amasis (Arch. Ztg. 1881, Taf. 15: and Baumeister, Denlcmäler p. 1982); the Artemis (with bow) bare-legged with short chiton flying back (Inghirami, Pitture di Vasi Etruschi, T. cix. 2); and the square with white border, at Munich (No. 1121). On a red-figured vase (E. 276) in the British Museum, Achilles has his name on his shield as well as the device of a panther. The caduceus on the small krater (B. 303) in the same collection is clearly modern.

page 483 note a E. g. on Nos. 1693, 1699,1849. On a red-figured kylix (E. 33) in the British Museum, four warriors have the same device, a tripod.

page 483 note b Homer, , Iliad, i. 48Google Scholar.

page 483 note c E. g. in the chariot race. Hesiod, Ά σπίς Ήρ. 305-313.

page 483 note d Mon. d. I. X. tav. 4, 5; and Annali, 1874, p. 82. Of. the fragment of a vase from Daphnae with wrestlers, boxers, judge, and prize tripods, described in the fourth Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund (p. 69, Plate xxx. 3) by Mr. A. S. Murray, who quotes Paus. v. 17, 4, κείνται δέ καί τðίποδες, άθλα δή τοίς νικώσι.

page 483 note e Odes, iii. 25, 1.

page 483 note f Bacchae, 169.

page 483 note g No. 1852.

page 483 note h Septem contra Thelias, 466.

page 484 note a The strongest argument against this view is, perhaps, supplied by the device of the anchor, which occurs, not indeed at Berlin, but on two vases in the British Museum (N"os. 16 and 39). Even this device may possibly be connected with the idea of the ώκύποðος ναύς.

page 484 note b See on the early red figured kylix, No. 2307, the four running hoplites, with a lion and a winged phallos. Gerhard, Auserl. Vas. Taf. cclxi. vierter Theil. S. 32.