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Theseus and Skiron

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Extract

Panofka has remarked that till 1833 only three works of art were known representing Theseus in the act of hurling Skiron into the sea, and that one of the three was known to us only through the description by Pausanias.

The active wielding of spade and shovel during the last half century has done much for the elucidation of many an ancient myth; yet, with a few exceptions (as the Euphronios cup from Caere), the monuments have told us little of Skiron.

For this dearth two causes have been suggested: the absence of a universal religious importance in the case of such local legend; and, secondly, the unsuitability of the theme for display of artistic power. The death of Skiron, unlike that of the Minotaur, is the close of a drama simple and isolated in plot and action, whereas the fate of the Cretan monster is closely bound up with the fortunes of a heroine, and leads on to her union with an Olympian god. The myths that gathered round the house of Minos were a fruitful field for the artist as well as for the poet.

Again, the adventures of Theseus with the Amazons were shared with the national hero of Hellas. They brought upon the scene a host of combatants whose graceful forms lent themselves to the display of artistic skill, while their foreign dress and equipments admitted of the greatest variety of treatment. The myth of the Centaurs presents a struggle in which savage power combines with heroic types of beauty to produce a vivid and brilliant picture.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1888

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References

page 272 note 1 Der Tod des Skiron.

page 272 note 2 I. 3, 1.

page 272 note 3 In 1865 Benndorf enumerated sixteen representations of Skiron, viz. the group described by Pausanias, a metope on the Theseion, a fragment of frieze of the Mausoleum, a terra-cotta bas-relief now in the Berlin Museum, and twelve vases. Bull. d. Inst., 1865, pp. 156–160.

page 272 note 4 Klein, Euphronios. 2

page 272 note 5 In the Naples vase (Gerhard, , Auserles. Vasenbild. IV. 234Google Scholar) Hephaestos (or Hermes), Athene and Endeis hardly add to the effect. The dazed appearance of the youths on the Munich cup (Arch. Ztg. XXIII. Taf. 195) certainly does heighten the idea of sang-froid expressed in the hero's countenance.

page 273 note 1 Die Amazonen in der attischen Litteratur und Kunst.

page 273 note 2 So Diodorus (iv. 59) speaks of Theseus as

page 273 note 3 iv. 61. See the Hydria from Vulci in the Berlin Museum (No. 2179) published by Gerhard Etr. camp. Vasenb. Taf. VI., VII. Cf. the account of Ariadne by the elder Philostratos.

page 273 note 4 viii. 71.

page 273 note 5 Pollux, , Onomastikon, X. 35.Google Scholar

page 273 note 6 Mem. II. 1, 14.

page 273 note 7 iv. 59.

page 274 note 1 Compare the coins of Aegina. According to Professor Robert the tortoise was the symbol of the whole of this district of the Saronic Gulf, as the hind was of Arcadia.

page 274 note 2 ix. 391.

page 274 note 3 Vita Thesci. X.

page 275 note 1 Aristoph. Ach. 738, on which Suidas remarks: So Kallimachos, Ep. 25, 6,

page 275 note 2 II. 29, 9. So Apollodoros (III. 12, 7) says

page 275 note 3 I. 39, 6.

page 275 note 4 I. 44, 6.

page 275 note 5 In Paus. I, 3, 2 the tense of ἦρχεν shows that Hadrian (who died A.D. 138) was no longer alive; and Pausanias says (VII. 20, 6) that his first book was finished before Herodes Atticus built his Odeion in memory of Regilla, who died A.D. 161.

page 275 note 6 Paus. I. 44, 8. Cf. I. 3, 1.

page 275 note 7 Ovid, Metam. VII. Ibis, 407; Statius, Theb. I. 333 and XII. 577. Hyginus, Fab. 38, mentions the washing of the feet, and in Ciris 466—8 is the tortoise. Claudian, , De Bello Pollentino (Getico) 188, and In Rufinum, I. 253.Google Scholar

page 275 note 8 Cf. the line from the Skiron of the comic poet Alexis, in Athenaeus XV. 678.

page 275 note 9 Cf. Gurlitt, , Das alter der Bildwerke des Theseions, p. 34.Google Scholar

page 275 note 10 Pollux, X. 86, 87, . Epicharmos lived (till 484) in the Sicilian Megara, and is said by Aristotle to have used mythological plots.

page 275 note 11 Paus. I. 3, 1.

page 276 note 1 Stuart's Ant. Ath. 2 III. 1, Pl. 18. Gurlitt (p. 56) considers that the sculptures of the ‘;Theseion’ were executed after those of the Parthenon, and by pupils of Pheidias.

page 276 note 2 This metope is imitated in the bronze group of Theseus with the Minotaur. See Furtwängler, , Die Broncefunde aus Olympia, p. 101.Google Scholar

page 276 note 3 History of Discoverics, vol. ii. Pt. 1, pp. 246–7.

page 276 note 4 Overbeck, , Gesch. d. Gr. Pl. II. p. 76.Google Scholar

page 276 note 5 Mon. dell. Inst. VI. VII. 83, and Ann. 1863, pp. 459–468.

page 276 note 6 It is the κορύνη.

page 276 note 7 For a description of this fragment I am indebted to Mr. Cecil Smith.

page 277 note 1 Bull. dell. Inst. 1865, pp. 156–160.

page 277 note 2 Mon. dell. Inst. III. Tav. 47; Annali 1842, pp. 113–122.

page 277 note 3 On the Euphronios vase he wears a bangle on the right leg.

page 277 note 4 Cf. Theseus with Sinis on a Naples vase, Annali 1865, Tav. H.

page 277 note 5 See Apollodorus III. 15, 7.

page 277 note 6 Arch. Ztg. 1865, pp. 21–31. Taf. 195. The vase is now (August, 1888) No. 301 in the second vase-room at Munich.

page 277 note 7 See the story of his being taken for a girl, Paus. I. 19, 1.

page 277 note 8 Catal. Vases Brit. Mus. 824.*

page 277 note 9 Pp. 57–64, and Pl. X.

page 277 note 10 Klein (Euphronios, pp. 197–8) dwells on the importance of this kylix. But it appears to be practically the same as our No. 3. The vase is No. 52 in Mr. Torr's Catalogue of Classical Antiquities at Harrow.

page 277 note 11 Auserlesene Vasenbilder III. 233. This kylix is now (August, 1888) No. 371 in the third vase-room at Munich.

page 278 note 1 Bull. dell. Inst. 1865, pp. 156–7, and 160.

page 278 note 2 Tod des Skiron. See also Furtwängler, , Beschreib. d. Vasensamml. Mus. Berlin. (No. 2288).Google Scholar

page 278 note 3 A.V. III. 233, p. 154.

page 278 note 4 Bull. dell. Inst. 1865. See also Heydemann, , Mitth. p. 55.Google Scholar

page 278 note 5 Klein, , Euphronios 196Google Scholar. Helbig, Bull. dell. Inst. 1882, p. 237Google Scholar. This interesting vase I had hoped to publish in this Journal. It is however about to be published in the Musco Italiano.

page 278 note 6 See also Wiener Vorlegeblätter, V. 1.

page 280 note 1 But see Heydemann, , Arch. Ztg. 1871, 55Google Scholar and Klein, , Euphronios 2, 198.Google Scholar

page 280 note 2 Plut. V. Thesei, X.

page 280 note 3 The tree which occurs throughout the Euphronios vase, and in our No. 5, is a support for the clothes of Theseus.

page 280 note 4 Hesychius explains σκ[ε]ίρα as χωρία ὕλην ἔχοντα. As to the etymology of Σκ[ε]ιρων, see Pape, Wörterbuch d. Gr. Eigennamen. See also Robert, , Hermes, vol. xx. p. 349 foll.Google Scholar

page 281 note 1 Arch. Ztg. 1865, p. 24.

page 281 note 2 The Etruscans do not seem to have made use of the subject. It does not appear on Greek coins. See Numismatic Commentary on Pausanias, , in Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. VIII. p. 42.Google Scholar