Discovering the Greeks (CL 10) Mid-Term Image Bank

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering visual artworks, architecture, and historical artifacts from the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Geometric, and Archaic periods of ancient Greece.

From late Neolithic Period [Bronze Age]; Polychrome (multi-colored) Vase from Late Neolithic Dimini (5300-3300 BCE). Abstract, not human or animal form, vessel is enhanced beyond its utilitarian use by its decoration; so much time and care put into this vessel to make it one of beauty.

Bronze Age; Dimini (ca. 4800-4500 BCE) — Megaron (large central building). Agro pastoral (evidence of farming, herding, and crop tillage), close to the sea, walls are significant (are they defensive walls or retaining walls to hold in the Earth), why are the walls built like this (mud, wood, some kind of roof). A central megalodon in the middle, seen as holding something of great importance. Walls form around the important thing, forming a protective layer. The architecture may reflect a central authority figure or centralized system of movement of goods.

Bronze Age. Cycladic Folded-Arm Figurine. Named after the Cyclades Island, very mysterious figurines found in burial sites, hard to interpret (schematic in a way, anonymous), female bodies with arms folded, arranged in various ways, might be religious idol or a representation of the person for who its buried with, maybe a parallel to fertility.

Bronze Age. Palace of Knossos Plan. Looks like a labyrinth. A myth says a beast lives inside the labyrinth, and Theseus goes in to find a way to kill it. In Crete, there is this large palatial structure. Architecture is evidence of a sophisticated society. Mazy outward set of spaces are observed, that would perhaps lead into the Throne Room. There is a protected inner space: were there threats in this society, who/what was protected? King/Queen may have used this long term; reminds us of Hearst Castle in San Simeon, which is a controlled space with a controlled access

Bronze Age. Bull’s Head Rhyton, Knossos 1550-1500 BCE. Reconstruction of a rhyton, which is a ritual libation vessel. You may pour wine out of it. The bull was destroyed after pouring a libation; this may regard conquering the bull. The bull may be the symbol for a powerful person/oneself. You would pour something for the Gods rather than drink out of.

Bronze Age. Minoan Snake Goddess (1600 BCE), Knossos. Minoans do not have evidence of temples or individualized houses of the Gods; could the palace itself be a site of religious reverence? Maybe they did not believe they needed special houses for the gods? Glazed ceramic (falence), projection of features like bosom, is she a snake goddess or a goddess at all? Is it a snake or rope in her hand. Cat on her head. Are these objects even religious?

Bronze Age. Frescoes from Akrotiri “Saffon Gatherer”. Painting depicting unfamiliar person: maybe an ordinary person, a divine person, or someone plucking saffron (hard to gather, expensive, comes from far away). Person may be part of cycle of fertility and fecundity of nature. In the whole painting, she is looking at someone else in an abundant field. Large earrings, great eyebrow detail, sense of abundance and rich color scheme. Hard to interpret. Which of the women should you look at first?

Bronze Age. “Fisherman Fresco” Akrotiri, Thera. Awkward, lanky body. Who is this? This image is one of abundance and comfort. Perhaps this honors the Gods for bringing fish to the people, or is a painting offered to the Gods to ask them for more fish please. The fish is not found close to the shore; you must find this fish in deep water (luxurious fish!).

Bronze Age. West House Fresco, Akrotiri. Cattle at the top and people guarding the cattle (armed in front of them). People to the left on walls, below them a ship with people falling off (people defeated in battle, spears everywhere). The collage is hard to read, but people believe it has to do with a cattle raid. Owning cattle and living close to show brings danger; people want to take them from you. Similar to Odyssey; his companions destroy the cattle of the sun God (blasphemous move).

Bronze Age. Lion Hunt Dagger, ca. 1550-1500 BCE, Bronze with inlay of gold, silver, and niello. Using alloys now, a more sophisticated version of metals. You are able to read the dagger all the way to the end: figures with spears charging toward a lion with his tongue out. At the end of the dagger, the lion is fleeing; is the lion at the end of his life? The dagger compresses the shape, insinuating the lion being trapped. Gold is not from mycenae, so it comes from somewhere else.

Bronze Age. Royal burial ground called Grave Circle A, found inside Lion Gate in Mycenae. Two circles of stones delineated a formal burial space in which six shaft graves containing nineteen burials. The shaft graves were marked by stelai/stone markers of engraved limestone, indicating that the spirits of ancestors were being honored and treated as guardians of the fortress.

Bronze Age. Treasury of Atreus/Tholos. Schliemann gave this Tholos the name Treasury of Atreus. Atreus is an ancestor of Agamemnon. This did not necessarily belong to that figure, but the structure is extraordinary. The cyclopean stones are built 40- 50 ft; earth is laid over the stones, so a giant tumulus is created (one can enter it). Under the earth, burials are made. There is incredible stone-lofted figure atop the grave. This shows how well-off and mighty you are/terrify a potential enemy of the city; you bury your head with such high honor. Just the path is super long.

Bronze Age. Ring depicting women before a shrine, Tomb of the Griffin Warrior, Ilkaina, near Pylos, c. 1450 BC. Gold. This is evidence of Cretan manufacture. This could mean a few things: 1. The Mycenaeans, when they took over a place such as Knossos, hauled some of the goods back to their own site. The style of dress being worn by the figures is very similar to the reconctruction of the snake goddess. 2. There may have eventually been a friendly relation between these two cultures, and the Mycenaeans wanted to style themselves with the aesthetics of the Minoans. This good is at the time of takeover.

Iron Age. Toumba Building at Lefkandi. Has a large structure called apsidal because it has an apse. Completely massive, made of mud-brick walls with stone foundations with postholes suggesting a porch was built onto it. Had deep burial shafts in the central room for unknown reasons. Perhaps a house for an important figure, and is later a burial site. This is almost a hero shrine, and perhaps also a burial site for his spouse. There is a site of cremated remains of a man and the corpse of a woman. The woman may have been sacrificed at the time of the man’s death (because she is related to him). 4 horses also buried, indicating great wealth. Relates to Iliad; Achilles offers his funerary honor to Patroclus, sacrificing horses and burning Patroclus’s body. The man’s ashes were inside a bronze amphora made on the island of Cyprus a century before the burial; could be migration, rich enough to get Cyprus delicacy.

Iron Age. Centaur from Toumba cemetery at Lefkandi: broken in 2 and placed in two different graves; hollow; geometric dog-tooth pattern (10th BCE). Ritually broken in half; connection being established between 2 different persons; dog-tooth pattern (triangles and hourglass running up the chest), sleeve tattoo, forward-looking glance. Mysterious figure, showing up as lusty, bestial, and unlikable creatures in many myths. There is an idea that a more civilized group defeats the cnetaurs. However, in ancient Greek myth, the first physician Chiron was a centaur. We do not know which tone is being activated with the centaur: is it that “we are wealthy and want to acknowledge first doctor” or what? It is significant that there was a horse buried on the site of Lefkandi and that the centaur is a hybrid of human and horse.

Iron Age. Mykonos Pithos Decoration. An Archaic relief storage vessel that held oil or grain (c. 675 BC) found on Mykonos, featuring the earliest visual depiction of the Trojan Horse on its neck and scenes of the sack of Troy on its body. Lack of caption indicates it is part of regular cultural context. Decorated past utilitarian purpose.

Iron Age. Nestor’s Cup (Pithekoussai, Bay of Naples, ca. 725 BCE). Did not actually belong to Nestor (guy from Trojan War from Pilos). Nestor always praises and glorifies past; cup found from Bay of Naples (Greek colony). It is a terracotta clay cup without great production value (easy to produce), but it shows some of the earliest evidence of Greek alphabet. The inscription describes that drinking from the cup with cause you to be a bit tipsy and will give you gifts from Aphoridite: contrast between cheap cup and great Trojan War warrior.

Iron Age. Dipylon Amphora (Krater), 765-730 BCE Athens. Used as funerary ritual, buried with the dead or holding their cremated remains. Prothesis (movement of the body from the home to the burial/cremation site) and the ekphora (revealing display of the body before it is actually cremated or buried. The people in the inscriptions appear to be pulling their hair (part of ritual), the person was probably of great wealth/a warrior because the image depicts armed people with horses. The geometric decoration also indicates wealth too. Honoring dead here makes the Greek culture look more wonderful. Image of funeral is recorded on vessel used in funeral.

Archaic Age. Heraion of Samos. Building C is a Temple built over Megaron B, which had been a ruler’s apsidal residence, itself succeeding Megaron A. Shift away from Mcmansion to a sort of communal space that isn’t a house for a person, but rather a god. It is a progression away from an oikos/individual toward something more shared

Archaic Age. Amphora from near Athens, early 7th C, Odysseus blinding Cyclops. Strange reflection of the Greek encounter with new peoples. Images can be viewed as evidence of the kind of encounter one would have had in the process of colonization, or of migration/immigration. In Greek literature, there is a repeated motif of Greeks destroying other groups/other kind of powerful mostrous individuals. Stories are cultural self-congratulation.

Archaic Age. Temple C Metope at Selinus. An Archaic sculpture depicting Perseus severing the head of the Gorgon Medusa as she holds the winged horse Pegasus, attended by Athena.

Archaic Age. Bronze statuette of Spartan woman running (ca. 525 BCE). In Spartan society, women were often separated from their husbands and often had more than 1 husband (polyandry). No obligation to engage in domestric work, were allowed to excercise outdoors, didn’t wear makeup, participated in races, wrestled, and were allowed to be naked (could be naked because they were participating no less in society than men). 40% of Spartan land was controlled by women – many men were often away from Sparta due to war so it was inevitable. Marriage happened by capture, sex in the dark, male escaped in night (deemphasis on personal).

Archaic Period. Ivory panel, Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia (7th C BCE). Represents (draw on) abduction by ship of a woman possibly (Paris taking Helen?). There is a lack of literature, resource, and art in Sparta, but this is an example of fine goods produced. Ivory is hard to find in Sparta, so this must have been traded. Woman is confined by her wrists – female figure magnificently designed. She is arguable part of the offering to the goddess Artemis Orthea. Might be a parallel of the importance of the goddess to the horrible act of Helen snatched.

Archaic Period. Laconian bronze hoplite warrior statuette (6th C). Cast bronze statuette of a Greek hoplite warrior equipped in heavy military gear. Preaches idea that you are your best self if you are in battle, whether you are young or old. Creates communal moment where young are not meant to abandon the old; you must protect elders. All of your body is devoted to the state (Sparta is totalitarian). Sign of Spartan military presence. Figure is faceless: every part of the human is reduced to the military ideal (Spartan military ethos).

Archaic Period. Phrasikleia Korê made by Aristion of Paros, Attica. Name means something like woman who has great glory. Says “shall always be called mairen [kore] having received this name from the gods instead of marriage.” Lotus bud in her hand, comes from Egypt (Egyptian culture entails joy, life sun, but also death and ressurrection. Life-sized, would stand over grave in imposing way (suggesting might of the gods and their blessings). Ambiguity attends to many of the statues; is this the person who is being memorialized, or is it an image of a god? It might offer tribute to deceased to put an image of divine over deceased, but just a theory. Nondistinctive/nonspecific to person, they all have the same hair (braid things).

Classical Period. Nikias Painter, detail of red-figure bell-krater depicting symposium scene. Symposium=drinking together, less philosophical and devoted to carousing. Respectable women not present; flute girls or prostitutes there instead (hetairai=sex workers often known for skill in entertaining men). Unclear if woman in photo enjoys

Archaic Age. Gela painter, pinax (tablet), detail of prosthesis (exposure of corpse). Solon reformed around “sumptuary practices” (showing off wealth). This is an exposure of a corpse, showing off wealth, which Solon criticized. “Showing off” creates resentment. Laying of body must be done inside, before the sun comes up, do not have too many cloaks. Ekphora must occur before sunrise, food and drink in procession cannot be expensive. Laws on axones (tablets) placed in middle of Athens in agora.

Classical Age. Ostraka made of terra-cotta. Citizens voted by scratching the name of the person they wanted to ostracize on a piece of broken pottery (the ostrakon). Ostracism=process by which Athenians could expel a leading figure for ten years.

Classical Age. Faravahar, representation of Ahura Mazda (supreme god of Zoroastrianism). Greeks have depictions of gods, but do not have same relationships between their rulers and the gods, while the Persian king sees himself has appointed by Ahura Mazda (“by the grace of Ahura Mazda, I am King”).

Classical Age. Athenian Attic red-figure amphora, depicting battle between Greek hoplite and Persian archer. Greek Hoplite depicted in traditional heroic nudity, signifying physical perfection, democratic transparency, courage, and civilized status. The Persian archer wears tight-fitting trousers, appears soft/weak, and seems “un-Greek” or “barbarian.” Signifies how Greeks celebrate victories over “barbaric, tyrannical” eastern empires.