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The Orpheus Metope from Bassai

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Extract

A fruitful combination of excavation, fieldwork, and research has in recent years increased our knowledge of the Temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassai. In particular, the sculptured frieze which encircled the interior of the cella has been the subject of numerous studies, the most recent being the monograph by C. Hofkes-Brukker and A. Mallwitz published in 1975. The investigations made at Bassai by N. Yalouris and F. A. Cooper have produced important new evidence. As a result of the excavations conducted by Yalouris since 1959, the early history of the sanctuary and of the structures preceding the classical (‘Iktinian’) temple are reasonably clear. Furthermore, Cooper has shown that the ‘Iktinian’ building, the fourth in a series of temples to Apollo on the site, was not designed to receive pedimental sculpture, and that some, if not all, of this temple's akroteria were floral. The traditional attributions of pedimental and akroterial statues must be discarded, along with the theory that the ‘Iktinian’ building was started as early as the middle of the fifth century B.C.

Yet, despite this progress, and the fact that the temple is one of the best-preserved monuments from antiquity, many issues remain controversial. Scholars postulate several building phases for the Classical temple. The chronology of the sculptures is still debated, as is the order of the twenty-three frieze-slabs within the cella.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1981

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References

Acknowledgements: I should like to thank Brian F. Cook, Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum, for allowing me to examine the Bassai metopes, and Susan Walker, Dyfri Williams, and William Cole for facilitating their study in the basement of the Museum. Brunilde S. Ridgway, John Boardman, and J. J. Coulton kindly read drafts of this paper; I have benefited greatly from their criticism, and from the helpful advice of Robert Guy and Paul Taylor. I am also indebted to Frederick A. Cooper and Argyres Petronitis for reports on their work at Bassai. In expressing my gratitude to these scholars, I wish to emphasize that I alone am responsible for the views expressed in this paper. The photographs are by the author, and are reproduced by courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum.

In addition to the standard abbreviations, the following are also used:

Bassai-Fries Hofkes-Brukker, C. and Mallwitz, A., Der Bassai-Fries (Munich, 1975).Google Scholar

Cooper F. A. Cooper, The Temple of Apollo at Bassai. A Preliminary Study (Univ. of Pennsylvania Diss., 1970; Garland Press: London and New York, 1978, with added preface).

Hahland Hahland, W., ‘Einige Bemerkungen zur Deutung und Anordnung der Metopen-reliefs von Bassae’, ÖJh xliv (1959) 3753.Google Scholar

Hofkes-Brukker Hofkes-Brukker, C., ‘Die Metopen des Bassaetempels’, BABesch xxxviii (1963) 5283.Google Scholar

Sauer Sauer, B., ‘Die Metopen des Apollontempels von Phigalia’, Berichten d. Königl. Sächs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften (1895) 207–50.Google Scholar

Schoeller Schoeller, F. M., Darstellungen des Orpheus in der Antike (Freiburg, 1969).Google Scholar

1 Bassai-Fries, with a selective bibliography on p. 170.

2 Excavations: Ergon (1959) 106–9; PAE (1959) 155–9; BCH lxxxiii (1959) 620, 623–5; JHS ArchRep (1959–60) 10; ADelt xxvi (1971) Chronika 142–6; AAA vi (1973) 39–55; Acta of the XI International Congress of Classical Archaeology (London, 1979) 89–104. See also Cooper, N. K., AJA lxxxiv (1980) 202Google Scholar, for a brief summary of the early archaic sanctuary.

3 Cooper 119–29, with full references, and addenda on pp. 2–3 of the preface; id., AJA lxxvi (1972) 207–8.

4 Pediments: Dinsmoor, W. B., AJA xliii (1939) 2447Google Scholar; id., AJA lx (1956) 401 n. 3; Johnson, F. P., AJA xlvii (1943) 1617.Google Scholar Akroteria: BrBr 766–7 (L. Curtius); Picard, C., Mon. Piot xxxix (1943) 4980CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hofkes-Brukker, C., BABesch xl (1965) 5171.Google Scholar

5 For the traditional view, see e.g., Dinsmoor, W. B., The Architecture of Ancient Greece 3 (London, 1950) 154–59Google Scholar; Roux, G., L'Architecture de l'Argolide aux IVe et IIIe siècles avant J.-C. (Paris, 1961) 2156Google Scholar; Robertson, M., A History of Greek Art (Cambridge, 1975) 356–7.Google Scholar

6 See Ridgway, B. S.'s review of Bassai-Fries, in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians xxxvi (1977) 36–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 See most recently Mallwitz, in Bassai-Fries; Martin, R., ‘L'atelier Ictinos-Callicratès au Temple de Bassae’, BCH c (1976) 427–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarContra: Cooper 130–42 and addenda on p. 3 of the preface; see also his comments on the date of the temple in the Acta of the XI International Congress (supra n. 2) 210–11.

8 Most scholars place the frieze around 420 B.C.: see Cooper 147–50; Bassai-Fries 128–32. Pending the full publication of the architectural evidence, I tentatively follow the early-fourth century B.C. date for the sculpture proposed by Harrison, E. B., AJA lxxxi (1977) 275 n. 48Google Scholar, and B. S. Ridgway, Fifth Century Styles in Greek Sculpture (Princeton, forthcoming).

9 Cooper 144–6 with references, and p. 3 of the preface for his own arrangement, which is the only one based on full knowledge of the architectural evidence. Add: Bassai-Fries 49 Plan II.

10 Dinsmoor, W. B., AJA lx (1956) 402Google Scholar; Bassai-Fries 180, for a list of the slabs and a chart of measurements.

11 Cooper, preface pp. 1–2.

12 This is not the place to discuss the quality of the Bassai sculptures and the chronological conclusions which might be drawn from such observations. Suffice it to say that I am not entirely convinced that the metopes and the frieze are contemporary.

13 Smith, A. H., BMC Sculpture i (London, 1892) 270–88 nos. 505–9Google Scholar (architecture), 510–19 (metopes), 520–44 (frieze). Hofkes-Brukker 53–67 published eight metopal fragments which were not included in Smith's catalogue: no. 1912.1–30. 4; nos. 1961. 12–6. 1–7. For the international team, see A Description of the Collection of Ancient Marbles in the British Museum; with Engravings iv (London, 1820) 1–4; Dinsmoor (supra n. 5) 154 n. 1, and in Metropolitan Museum Journal iv (1933) 204–6; Cooper 187–8. For the architectural fragments, see also Lethaby, W. R., Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (London, 1908) 171–8.Google Scholar

14 Excavations: Kourouniotes, K., AE (1910) 271332Google Scholar; Cooper 187–91, with other references. Metopes: Yalouris, N., ‘Συμβολὴ εἰς τὴν ᾀποκατάστασιν τῶν γλυπτῶν τοῦ ναοῦ τῶν Βασσῶν’, AE (1967) 187–99, esp. 196–9 nos. 25–37Google Scholar = Athens, Nat. mus. inv. nos. 4782–94. A few of these pieces are so badly preserved that the author could not determine whether they belong to the frieze or to the metopes.

15 The most recent reconstructions are those of Hahland and Hofkes-Brukker. Find-spots: Sauer 222–7; Hahland 37–40; Hofkes-Brukker 52–3. See Cooper 143 n. 31 and 239–40 for a nineteenth-century manuscript which mentions the fragments British Museum nos. 512 and 519.

16 No. 511 = Saucr pl. ii: Hofkes-Brukker 56 fig. 4 (top right) for a photograph, and 57 fig. 5 for the reconstruction drawing. No. 1961.12–6.3: ibid, 62 fig. 9 (top right), and 63 fig. 10 for the drawing.

17 No. 518 = Sauer pl. iv: Hofkes-Brukker 54 fig. 2 (left), and 55 fig. 3 for drawing. No. 1961.12–6.4: ibid., 56 fig. 4 (left), and 57 fig. 5 for the drawing.

18 Smith (supra n. 13) 274–5 no. 510; Sauer 209 pl. I; Kähler, H., Das griechische Metopenbild (Munich, 1949) pl. 93Google Scholar; Hahland 50 and fig. 29; Hofkes-Brukker 53–5 and fig. 1.

19 Measurements: Max. Pres. H.: 14·3 cm; Max. Pres. W.: 10·4 cm; Max. Pres. Th.: 6·0 cm.

20 For the identification as Orpheus, see supra n. 18 and infra n. 21. Hahland and Sauer summarize previous discussions of the iconography.

21 The theory of an alopekis goes back to P. Wolters, who identified the figure as Thracian: see his revised edition of Friedrichs, C., Königliche Museen zu Berlin. Die Gipsabgüsse antiker Bildwerke in historischer Folge erklärt 2 (Berlin, 1885) 301 nos. 880–2.Google Scholar Sauer 209, 228 seems to have been the first scholar to propose Orpheus. Orpheus in Thracian costume: Fuchs, W., RM lxv (1958) 45Google Scholar; Schoeller 19–20, 75–6, 81. For other figures who wear the alopekis, see Furtwängler, A., Kleine Schriften ii (Munich, 1913) 528Google Scholar (Boreas, Troilos, Amazons); Schauenburg, K., Perseus in der Kunst des Altertums (Bonn, 1960) 108–9Google Scholar, JdI lxxxix (1974) 137–86 passim (Bendis); Greifenhagen, A., Alte Zeichnungen nach unbekannten griechischen Vasen ( = SB Munich, 1976) 25–7 no. 13 fig. 24 (Thamyris).Google Scholar

22 Alopekis: Hdt. vii 75; Xenophon, An. vii 4. 4; Furtwängler (supra n. 21) 526–8; Radford, E., JHS xxxv (1915) 134–5Google Scholar; Schröder, B., JdI xxvii (1912) 329–31, 335 fig. 10Google Scholar; Heuzley, L., REG xl (1927) 8 n. 1Google Scholar; Vos, M. F., Scythian Archers in Archaic Attic Vase-Painting (Groningen, 1963) 41–5Google Scholar also discusses other Eastern caps; Cahn, H., RA (1973) 1314.Google Scholar

23 See e.g., ARV 1 92 τ: von Bothmer, D., Amazons in Greek Art (Oxford, 1957) 151 no. 53 pl. lxxii: 8.Google ScholarARV 2 402, 24: Simon, E. and Hirmer, M., Die griechischen Vasen (Munich, 1976) fig. 159.Google ScholarARV 2 1059, 132: ibid., fig. 201.

24 See e.g., ARV 2 197, 10: Wegner, M., Das Musikleben der Griechen (Berlin, 1949) pl. 31a.CrossRefGoogle ScholarARV 2 3, 2: MuZ fig. 313. ARV 2 60, 66: Simon–Hirmer (supra n. 23) fig. 94.

25 On kitharas, see Wegner (above, n. 24) 30–7, 206–8. For the balteus, see T. Reinach, in DA s.v. ‘Lyra’ esp. 1446; Beazley, J. D., JHS xlii (1922) 72–4Google Scholar, with illustrations.

26 See, e.g., a female torso from the Nike Parapet in Athens: Carpenter, R., The Sculpture of the Nike Temple Parapet (Cambridge, Mass., 1929) 51 pls. xx: 2, xxi: 1.Google Scholar

27 Three-Figure Reliefs: Götze, H., RM liii (1938) 189280 esp. 191–200 pls. 32–3Google Scholar; Hofkes-Brukker 53. For a reconstruction-drawing of our figure with a long garment, see Cockerell, C. R., The Temples of Jupiter Panhellenius at Aegina and of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae near Phigaleia in Arcadia (London, 1860) pls. v, viii.Google Scholar On the costume of kitharoidoi, see Marcadé, J. in Études Delphiques ( = BCH Suppl iv. Paris, 1977) 397–8.Google Scholar For an example of a kitharoidos with a long, sleeveless garment and a chlamys-like himation, cf. ARV 2 640, 74: Caskey, L. D. and Beazley, J. D., Attic Vase Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ii (Boston, 1954) 42 no. 88 pl. lxvi.Google Scholar See also ARV 2 556, 100: Beazley, , The Pan Painter (Mainz, 1974) pl. 17, 3.Google Scholar Gracco-Roman statue of Apollo Kitharoidos in the Vatican: Helbig, W., Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertümer in Rom 4 i (ed. Speier, H., Tübingen, 1963) 69 no. 89.Google Scholar

28 Note, however, that in another metopal fragment, British Museum no. 516, the sculptor carved the intersecting bands more prominently: Sauer pl. I; Hahland 51 fig. 30; Hofkes-Brukker 52 fig. 1 (right).

29 Decorative or amulet: Wolters (supra n. 21) 301; Schoeller 19–20. Artemis: Hofkes-Brukker 60–1.

30 Buschor, E., Medusa Rondanini (Stuttgart, 1958) 14, 17, 24–5, 35, pls. 10:6Google Scholar (Nike Temple Parapet), 54:2 (Parthenon west frieze vii, 11); Floren, J., Studien zur Typologie des Gorgoneion (Aschendorf, 1977) 6, 101.Google Scholar

31 Hofkes-Brukker 53; Schoeller 19 n. 30. For the karyatids and their copies from Monte Porzio, see also Budde, L. and Nicholls, R., A Catalogue of the Greek and Roman Sculpture in the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge (Cambridge, 1967) 46–9 no. 81Google Scholar, with references.

32 ‘Das Zeusbild des Pheidias in Olympia’, JdI lvi (1941) 1–71, esp. 13–48, with a list of copies, to which add: London, Wellcome Historical Medical Museum no. R. 4517/1936: Vermeule, C. and von Bothmer, D., AJA lxiii (1959) 332–3 no. 2 pl. 78 fig. 2Google Scholar; Florence, Uffizi Gallery no. 1006: Mansuelli, G. A., Galleria degli Uffizi. Le Sculture i (Rome, 1958) 40 no. 11Google Scholar, with mention of another copy in Cyrene. For the Nike-type see also Robertson (supra n. 5) 320. The copy in Oxford and one of the three in East Berlin (no. K 181) have the gorgoneion.

33 Carpenter, R., ‘The Nike of Athena Parthenos’, AE (19531954) ii, 4155 Pls. i–iiGoogle Scholar; Leipen, N., Athena Parthenos, a Reconstruction (Royal Ontario Museum, 1971) 35Google Scholar. See also Berger, E., AntK x (1967) 86 n. 27.Google Scholar

34 Wegner (supra n. 24) 36, 40; id., Musikgeschichte in Bildern ii, 4: Griechenland (Leipzig, n.d.) 116; Schoeller 21; Hoffmann, H., Jahrbuch da Hamburger Kunstsammlungen xiv–xv (1970) 37 n. 10Google Scholar; Snyder, J. M., AJA lxxx (1976) 189–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Three-Figure Reliefs: supra n. 27.

35 Schauenburg, K., JdI lxxiii (1958) 65 fig. 10Google Scholar, 72 n. 88, with references; Schoeller 76–7 pls. xii: 1–2, xxiii: 1, 3; Pensa, M., Rappresentazioni dell' Oltretomba nella ceramica apula (Rome, 1977) 2331 figs. 1, 5, 8Google Scholar, pls. i, ivb, v, xii.

36 Brommer, F., Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensage 3 (Marburg, 1973) 507 nos. B 1–11Google Scholar; Hoffmann (supra n. 34) 31–44, with a list of examples on 44; Schoeller 51–3. For Thracian fashions, see supra n. 22, especially Cahn and Heuzley.

37 See, e.g., ARV 2 119, 1: Antiken aus dem Akademischen Kunstmuseum Bonn 2 (Düsseldorf, 1971) 155 no. 176 pl. 95; ARV 2 182, 4: MuZ fig. 373; ARV 2 208, 148: AM lxxxix (1974) pl. 44: 2. Krug, A., Binden in der griechischen Kunst. Untersuchungen zur Typologie (6–1. Jahr. v. Chr.) (Hösel, 1968) 54–5 pl. IGoogle Scholar, Typ Anhang i, pl. iii no. Ala. Cockerell (supra n. 27) describes our figure as Apollo Musagetes, ‘crowned with a tiara, his hair bound and descending behind his shoulders’.

38 See, e.g., ARV 2 1058, 119: Bieber, M., The History of the Greek and Roman Theater 2 (Princeton, 1961) 3 fig. 4Google Scholar = Wegner, Musikgeschichte (supra n. 34) 73 fig. 44 (not in ARV 2). ABV 296, 4: Wegner, op. cit. 35 fig. 13.

39 See, for instance, the helmets on the following vases illustrated in AM lxxxix (1974) pls. 44, 2 (= ARV 2 208, 148), 46, 1 (= ARV 2 198, 25), 48, 1 (= ARV 2 202, 77).

40 See the comments in Sauer 209. For an Athena wearing a long, sleeveless chiton, see ARV 2 490, 120: AM lxxxix (1974) 90 no. 54 pl. 41: 2.

41 Berlin F 1846 (not in Beazley): Gerhard, E., Auserlesene griechische Vasenbilder hauptsächlich etruskischen Fundorts i (Berlin, 1840) pl. 37Google Scholar; Schauenburg, K., JdI xciv (1979) 73 n. 106.Google Scholar See also a red-figure Panathenaic amphora by the Nikoxenos Painter in West Berlin, no. 2161, ARV 2 221, 7: Schauenburg, op. cit., 72 fig. 21. On pp. 73–5 Schauenburg discusses representations of Athena playing musical instruments; for the black-figure neck-amphora illustrated in his figs. 1–2, see now Münzen und Medaillen, Auktion 56 (19.ii.1980) 38–9 no. 84 pl. 33.

42 See, e.g., Basel, Antikenmuseum inv. no. BS 228: Berger, E., Ant K x (1967) 82–8 pls. 22–3Google Scholar; Athens, Agora Museum inv. no. S 1232: ibid., pl. 24, 6; Athena Velletri type: Harrison, E. B., AJA lxxxi (1977) 137–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

43 In a recent issue of this journal (lxxi [1976] 49–54) B. F. Cook announced a number of improbable and false joins present among the frieze-blocks from the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos. For another incorrect restoration, one of the sculptured coffers of the Temple of Athena at Priene, see Carter, J. C., in Studies in Classical Art and Archaeology. A tribute to Peter Heinrich von Blanckenhagen (Locust Valley, N.Y., 1979) 147 pl. xlii.Google Scholar