Prescribed Sources Flashcards
Panathenaic Amphora
333-332 BCE. Black figure. Armed Athene striding forwards. Three athletes running. Reveals the goddess’s presence in Athens’ festival and her anthropomorphic depiction. She appears an active goddess who both protects and punishes. Her large size, emphasised by her head extending over the top of the border, depicts her large-than-human power
Ninnion tablet
400-300 BCE. Red-figure plaque. Depiction of the cult at Eleusis from left to right: initiates led by Iacchus (with a torch in either hand) are approaching the seated Demeter and Persephone. Demeter sitting on the mirthless rock. Initiates identifiable by the typical myrtle leaf crown on their heads. Sticks and sacks evoke the journey to Eleusis, now arrived at destination. Wear himation. Possibly depicting the climax of the initiation, the revelation of the secret being an epiphany of the deities in a nocturnal setting and perhaps underworld environment, hence the necessity of torches. Lower half could also be the first day of the festival, when Kore is still in the underworld, and the upper half that last day, well after Kore has returned. Vessel held by woman behind Kore is the plemochoe, used on the final day
Leg votive
Relief. Marble. Dedicated by Tyche to Asklepios and Hygeia as a thank offering
The site at Delphi
Earliest buildings are 6th century BC. Pythian games. Key buildings: Temple of Apollo, the Theatre, the Sacred Way, the stadium
Consultation with the Pythia
440-430 BC. Red figure kylix. the Kodros painter. The pythia sits on her tripod holding a laurel branch and a libation bowl. Her head and entire body are covered to show her modesty and respectability. The column in the background suggests they are indoors, likely in the adyton of the temple. Doesn’t clarify whether consultations with the Pythia were direct because we cannot tell if the man is a consultant or intermediary priest.
the site at Olympia
Earliest buildings are 6th century BC. Panhellenic sanctuary and site of the most important festival of games. Key buildings: temple of Zeus, the ash altar, the treasuries, the Echo Stoa and the stadium
Sacrifice
red-figure amphora. Nausicaa painter. 450 BCE. Women performing a task typically assigned to young unmarried women (parthenoi) in the sacrificial ritual. They are preparing the bulls for sacrifice by adorning them with stemmata (sacrificial fillets.) Context of a choregic festival in a sanctuary of Dionysus. Two tripods, typical prizes for musical or theatrical competitions in Athens, suggest a double victory for the phyle (tribe.) Women may be personifications of the phyle, or embodiments of victory, Nike, albeit seen here wingless. Less likely they are mortal women. The sacrifice to follow, however, would have been performed by men. On side B a group of two men and two women are presented. B depicts a libation about to be poured. the standing figure may be Dionysus himself or, more likely, one of the mythical kings of Athens, patrons of the phylai.
Athenian acropolis
Rebuilt during the mid to late 5th century BC. Key religious site in Attica and important for the whole of Greece. Festivals: Panathenaia, plynteria. Buildings recommissioned by Pericles, after the sack of Athens by the Persians 480 BC. Key buildings: Parthenon, Erechthion
