Myth and Greek Art: Creating a Visual Language Notes

Myth and Greek Art: Creating a Visual Language

Greek art prominently features gods, heroes, and mythological creatures, reflecting their importance in explaining the cosmos and human nature.
This fascination spanned from the Dark Ages (e.g., terracotta centaur from Lefkandi, ca. 950–900 BC) to the Hellenistic period (e.g., marble Laocoon, ca. 30–20 BC).
Greek artists, influenced by oral tradition, predecessors, market demands, and medium restrictions, displayed imagination and originality in narrative art.
The essay explores how Greek painters and sculptors depicted myths visually and how they made these themes relevant to their audiences.
A successful narration of myth in art requires employing a visual "grammar" understood by viewers and relating to the contemporary society's Zeitgeist.
The essay focuses on Athenian art due to the abundance of material (especially painted vases) and greater knowledge of the city's cultural and political history.

An Exemplum: Theseus Cycle

The Codrus Painter depicted seven deeds of Theseus on an Athenian wine cup around the time the Parthenon was nearing completion.
Central tondo: Theseus slaying the Minotaur, his most recognizable exploit.
Six additional deeds encircle the tondo and repeat on the cup's exterior:
- Contending with the wrestler Cercyon.
- Felling Procrustes with an axe.
- Toppling Sciron off his cliff.
- Driving the Marathonian bull to Athens.
- Binding Sinis to his pine tree.
- Slaying the sow in spite of the protests of its aged mistress Crommyo.
The painted vase represents a sophisticated visual language evolved from a long tradition of heroic imagery.
Figures are depicted "heroically" nude, though Theseus might be expected to wear travel attire..
Opponents are portrayed as "other" or unheroic: heavily bearded, balding, older, in compromised poses.
Theseus' sword, a gnorismata (token) of the hero, is present in every episode.
Setting elements are minimal, only those necessitated by the scene (Sciron's rock, Sinis' pine tree, Crommyo's old woman).
Theseus' deeds resemble those of Heracles (capturing a boar and bull, wrestling Antaeus), with some deeds demonstrating mental prowess.
Theseus bears a club, like Heracles, while driving the bull to Athens.
The tondo's composition, where Theseus drags the Minotaur from a Doric porch, recalls Heracles leading Cerberus from Hades, suggesting Theseus also overcame death.
The visual device of figures appearing in the same location inside and out is startling.
Theseus' poses mimic the Tyrannicides sculptural group (Kritios and Nesiotes, 477-6 BC) in the Agora.
Theseus, draped in a cloak, mimics Aristogeiton, while Theseus with Sciron's foot basin mimics Harmodios.
The future king of Athens is portrayed as a freedom fighter, a hero of the early democracy.
Cercyon at Eleusis and the bull at Marathon reference locations in Attica associated with the defeat of the Persians.
The artist emphasizes the poses of Harmodios and Aristogeiton and references Salamis and Marathon.
The cycle cup rewrites history by associating Athens' Bronze-Age hero with its present glory.
The wine cup, in the context of the Greek symposium, could serve as an exemplum to young Athenian males to perform heroic deeds for their city.
Theseus served as a role model for Athenian youth at the beginning of the Peloponnesian Wars.

Horse, Bird, and Man: The Artist’s Toolkit

In the early centuries of Greek art (900–700 BC), artists used simple geometricized forms: humans, quadrupeds, and birds.
Artists created super- or subhuman creatures by combining these basic forms.
Attaching a horse’s hindquarters to a human created a centaur (e.g., Nessus, Chiron, Pholus).
A male figure with an equine tail and ears became the satyr; a horse protome attached to a rooster’s body produced the hippalektryon.
A human body with an animal’s head created a daemon of subhuman intelligence (e.g., the Minotaur).
Wings were added to horses to create Pegasus and power the chariots of divinities.
A female with wings could be a goddess (potnia theron, Iris, Nike) or a monster (Harpy, Fury, Medusa).
Fish tails added to human torsos resulted in marine creatures (Triton, Skylla).
The Greeks invented Hermaphroditus, a semidivine being that was both male and female.
Multiplying forms also created mythological daemons (e.g., Molione/Actorione, Geryon, Cerberus, Hydra, Chimera).
Many mythological figures take the form of twins (Dioscuri, Cercopes, Boreads) or triads (Gorgons, Fates, Graiae).
Hecate could be depicted as a normal woman or a triple-bodied divinity.
Most canonical hybrids were invented or adapted from Near Eastern or Egyptian prototypes (e.g., sphinx, siren) by the mid-seventh century.
Other conventions in Greek figurative art include horror vacui, the horizontal ground line, isocephalism, avoidance of the frontal face, and size as an indicator of status.
Until attributes or inscriptions are included, identifying myths in narrative scenes is difficult (e.g., man hunting a deer, two males confronting a tripod, a man and woman boarding a ship).
Items of dress, such as belts or headgear, may indicate heroic or divine status but are not decisive for identification.
Old-fashioned conveyances and armor may allude to the Homeric past.
In later Greek art, the figure moving to the right is usually the victor.
Elements of setting are minimal, and temporal indicators are almost nonexistent.
Archaic works illustrate the high point of the action rather than preceding or following events.
Artists might conflate two scenes to represent two events in a narrative (e.g., King Priam being killed and Astyanax being hurled from the walls of Troy).

Basic Principles Persisting throughout Greek Art

These principles are illustrated by a red-figure skyphos (ca. 430 BC) depicting the Return of Hephaestus.
Figures move to the right on a horizontal ground line, filling the space from top to bottom, resulting in size discrepancies.
Each figure carries distinctive attributes (tongs and hammer for Hephaestus, kantharos and thyrsus for Dionysus) for identification.
There is no reference to the past or future, nor any indication of setting.
The myth is altered on a vase painted ten years later, influenced by monumental wall painting.
The figures are scattered, with hints of landscape; Hera is relegated to the corner, and her attendant is a siren.
Extraneous satyrs and maenads are added, reflecting the composition and style of major painting.
Artists could combine temporal and spatial aspects within a larger format.
The setting of the myth is transposed to a symposium with cushions and music.
The running satyr with tongs and a torch may reference the torch-race held at the Hephaisteia in Athens.
Mythological narratives can reference aspects of the real life of its users, their drinking parties and their festivals.
Format and medium play major roles in depicting mythological scenes.
A vase painter portrays the birth of Athena as a tiny goddess emerging from Zeus' head, while a sculptor depicts her full-sized on the Parthenon's east pediment.
Round fields restrict protagonists to one or two figures, while square fields admit two or three.
Long friezes are suitable for multifigured narratives (e.g., the wedding reception of Peleus and Thetis).
Gods and giants are labeled in multifigured reliefs.

Myths Greek Artists Avoided

The act of metamorphosis is challenging for artists.
Dionysus' transformation of the Tyrrhenian pirates into dolphins is not essayed until the fourth century.
Actaeon's conversion into a stag is depicted by attaching horns to his head.
Artists succeed better at depicting Odysseus' companions transformed into swine by Circe.
The multiple transformations of Thetis are symbolized by a lion atop her shoulder.
Differentiating between sleep and death was a challenge, so winged male personifications represented these states.
Personifying abstract concepts was common (e.g., Athanasia offering the elixir of immortality).
Portrayals of human sacrifice are rare; images of the sacrifice of Iphigeneia show her being led to the altar, not the act itself.
The dismemberment of Pentheus was not a common subject.
Greek artists were unwilling to render the human body in a less than ideal form.
The one-eyed Polyphemus is not depicted with a single eye due to the predilection for profile views.
The lame Hephaestus is seldom depicted with a deformed foot.
Geras, the personification of old age, is one of the only mythological figures represented as severely deformed.
The preferred figure of Greek artists was the perfect male specimen, the hero.

Heracles: From Hero to God

As the Panhellenic hero, Heracles is represented in all periods and regions of Greek art.
His iconography changes over time, but his popularity never wanes.
Myths highlighting military, athletic, and hunting prowess predominate in sixth-century Athenian vase painting.
Heracles fights formidable opponents, competes in athletic contests, and conquers wild beasts.
Other heroes have only one claim to fame (e.g., Theseus, Perseus, Bellerophon).
The labors, deeds, and parerga of Heracles fit a variety of formats and had a universal appeal.
Attic vases with representations of Heracles far outnumber those of other heroes.
Heracles is also popular in Laconian vase-painting, sometimes dressed as a warrior.
On Corinthian vases, the deed of the Lernaean hydra predominates.
Theseus is more popular in Athens, limited to the Cretan adventure.
On the archaic Acropolis, Heracles is featured on at least four pediments.
Local taste affected the choice of myths and their manner of representation.
The Nemean lion constitutes twenty-five percent of all black-figure scenes of Heracles.
After 450 BC, there is a shift to depictions of his apotheosis and appearance in the company of the Olympian gods.
In the fourth century, the favorite themes are the apples of the Hesperides and his initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries.
His appearance as an infant strangling the snakes demonstrates a more human side.
Alexander the Great minted coins with the head of Heracles in his own likeness.
Heracles survived pagan antiquity, emerging as the figure of Fortitude in Christian art.

Iconographic Innovators

Some artists produced new perspectives on traditional themes.
Exekias stands out for his individual treatment of traditional themes and his invention of new motifs.
Trojan War scenes predominate in his repertoire.
Exekias makes the suicide of Ajax a psychological drama.
He is credited with the new motif of Achilles and Ajax gaming.
Exekias limited his mythological scenes to one or two figures, achieving a dramatic intensity not found elsewhere.
The Early Classical sculptural program of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia displays an interest in the temporal progression of a narrative.
The labors of Heracles were chosen for the metope slots.
The fact that Heracles is shown without his bow has been interpreted as a calculated response to the Persian War.
The master designer at Olympia varied the temporal aspects of the labors.
The Nemean lion metope heralds the image of the “Weary Heracles” devised by Lysippus.
Locale is responsible for the subject of the temple’s east pediment, the chariot race of Pelops and King Oinomaus.
The viewer is presented with the psychologically tense moment before the bloodshed.
The artist conveyed the personalities of the protagonists with the language of stance, gesture, and facial expression.
The east pediment represents the prelude to a wedding, while the west shows the outcome of a wedding where chaos has erupted.

The Big Battles

Battle imagery came into its own after the Persian Wars.
The centauromachy and the Amazonomachy became ubiquitous in architectural sculpture and wall painting.
These battles make their appearance in the Theseum in Athens, in friezes within the Temple of Apollo at Bassae, and on the Parthenon.
Scholars have detected a change in these battles in the early fifth century BC.
The battle with the centaurs moves indoors to the wedding feast.
The Amazonomachy takes place on the slopes of the Acropolis, recalling the Persians’ violation of Athena’s sanctuary.
Mikon’s painting of Theseus fighting the Amazons was juxtaposed with the painting of the Battle of Marathon.
These “big battle” scenes allude to the Greeks’ victories over the Persians.
The Amazon theme was revived ca. 200 BC, when Attalus I dedicated the bronze figures of dead barbarians.

Myth and Politics

The symbiosis between mythical representations and contemporary politics is most evident in Athens.
Cycle cups devoted to the youthful deeds of Theseus began to appear as Cleisthenes reformed the political system.
Athenians embellished the life of Theseus by giving him a series of youthful deeds.
The cycle cup was the vehicle invented to publicize these new exploits.
In the mid to late fifth century, Athenians commissioned artists to depict the birth of Erichthonius.
On the latest versions, Ge is identified as Attica, both earth in general and a place personification.
The Meidias Painter feminized this founding myth of Athens.
Scholars argued for a close correlation of myth depictions and contemporary political events.
Boardman argued that the mid-sixth-century black-figure hydriae were prompted by Peisistratus’ stratagem.
Peisistratus’ personal identification with Heracles would then be the impetus for all the Archaic pediments.
More recently, doubts have been cast on this approach because Heracles was such a universal hero.

Gods

The Olympian gods were objects of intense veneration.
Their most significant form of representation was the cult statue.
These statues often bore subsidiary decoration of a mythological nature.
Cult statue bases seem to have been loci for myths relating to the famous progeny of the gods.
The east pediment of the Parthenon allowed for the inclusion of all or most of the Olympian gods.
The collectivity of the canonical twelve gods is represented on the Parthenon frieze.

Mythical Themes around the Gods

The one narrative episode in which a large number of gods participate is the gigantomachy.
The central figures in this battle are Zeus, Athena, Heracles, and Ge.
The theme could allude to the Persian Wars.
Another popular theme involving the gods is amorous pursuit, particularly of mortals.
The myth of Hades’ rape of Persephone is largely ignored in Greek art.
One of the most common manifestations of the individual gods is their epiphanies.
Athena is regularly depicted at the side of heroes, acting in a bouleutic capacity.
Apollo and Artemis are often depicted as a pair at weddings.
Eros flutters around mortal brides on wedding vases.
Divine mothers look on as their sons fight duels in the Trojan War.
Deities are shown pouring libations onto altars, revealing their own sanctity.

Conclusion

Mythical representations changed considerably over the centuries of Greek art.
Common trends are the “youthening” of gods and heroes, the decline in monstrosity, increasing naturalism, and the tendency for narrative subjects to become purely decorative.
Dionysus and Hermes lose their beards, and Apollo is portrayed as a young boy killing a lizard.
Medusa becomes a beautiful woman, and Athena no longer pops out of Zeus’ head as a doll-like creature.
Sirens become conventional mourners on late Classical grave stelae.
Battles with Amazons and centaurs are stock themes.
Nike becomes a purely symbolic figure, as does Eros.
Some favorite subjects are nearly absent from Greek art.
Why Greek artists preferred certain subjects over others is still a matter of speculation.
Future excavation may bring to light new and different mythical representations.
This artistic legacy remains one of the richest sources for our understanding of Greek myth and its role in Greek life.