Professional mourners in the ancient world

 

Statues of Mourning Women, South Italian (Apulian, Canosan), 300-275 BCE Terracotta, now in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa venue, Pacific Palisades, California

This group of mourning women, often understood as female figures in prayer (orantes), was likely produced in the area of Canosa in south-eastern Italy. Although there are considerable differences in terms of clothing, poses and hairstyles, the four statues seem to depict a type of youthful female figure, probably envisioned as one of the mourners who expressed their grief during funerary ceremonies. The group was intended to be placed around a funerary couch (kline), and was probably produced for a fairly prestigious client who, in the context of Romanization in the area, aspired to underscore his economic prosperity, personal identity, and native traditions. The figures were made not with molds, as has been previously conjectured, but rather through a modeling process over a fairly thick conical structure. Working from the bottom up, clay pieces were laid over this hollow structure to define the anatomy and iconographic details of the figure. The forearms, created separately, and the head, made with a bivalve mold, were inserted in holes specially made by the craftsman. The tubular structure was then modeled from within to establish the round shapes of knees and breasts, and from the exterior, through the application of clay parts, to depict the details of the chiton and himation. A spatula and other sharp tools were used to define the hair, eyes, and various details of clothing. Colors were applied after the firing over a preparatory layer of white slip, which has been preserved in several areas. The palette shows little variety, consisting of pink, red, white, possibly dark brown, and black. - J. Paul Getty Museum

These sculptures probably represented women who were known by the Romans as praeficiae, professional mourners, who followed musicians in the funeral procession and sang a funeral song praising the deceased. Paying mourners to attend your funeral showed society the importance of your social status.

The practice of hiring professional mourners has been documented in ancient Egypt, China, and the Middle East as well as in Greece and Rome.  In ancient Egypt only childless women could become professional mourners as it was considered unseemly for men to weep in public. These women could not have any body hair and had the names of goddesses tattooed on their shoulders.

Mycenaean larnakes, burial chests, depict mourners performing ritual laments. During the Greek Archaic Period, greater simplicity in burial practices coincided with  the rise of democracy and the egalitarian military of the hoplite phalanx.  But during the 4th century BCE,  the decline of democracy and the return of aristocratic dominance was accompanied by the return of more elaborate funerary rituals.

"Ancient Romans honored their dead through extended mourning. Men would typically mourn for a period of a few days, during which they would always wear black and would not cut their hair or beards. Women would wear white and might not cut their hair as well. However, while formal mourning usually only lasted a few days for men, when a woman lost a husband or parent, it wasn’t uncommon for her to mourn for a year. Adopting traditions from the ancient Greeks, many Romans also periodically visited their deceased loved one’s tombs or burial sites to offer gifts and sacrifices. Toward the end of February, ancient Romans sometimes celebrated Feralia as well. This was a general festival for honoring the dead. Romans would traditionally celebrate by bringing food to the sepulchers of the deceased." - Joe Oliveto, State University of New York at New Paltz

Statue of Mourning Woman, South Italian (Apulian, Canosan), 300-275 BCE Terracotta, now in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa venue, Pacific Palisades, California

If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!

Crete's Minoan, Mycenaen, and Roman treasures

I noticed this morning that Carole Raddato retweeted a link to her excellent article, "Exploring Western Crete's Archaeological Treasures" that she originally wrote back in May 2019. I must have missed the original post so read it for the first time today and found it fascinating and beautifully illustrated.  So I am featuring an abstract of it as today's "Antiquity Alive" presentation:

"The Minoan civilization emerged on the island of Crete in the Early Bronze Age at the end of the third and beginning of the second millennium BCE. It flourished from c. 2000 BCE until c. 1500 BCE with the establishment of centres, called "palaces" by modern archaeologists, that concentrated political and economic powers, as well as artistic activities. Of particular significance was the religious role played by the palaces in the cult of the Mother Goddess."

"The British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans discovered the first of these palaces in Knossos in 1900 CE and named the people who built them after the legendary King Minos. It was King Monos who, according to tradition, ordered the construction of a labyrinth in Knossos to hold the Minotaur, the mythical half-man, half-bull creature. The Minoan culture spread throughout the entire eastern Mediterranean world and its stunning art and architecture deeply influenced the Mycenaean Civilization (1600 - 1100 BCE)  that would succeed it. After the downfall of the Mycenaeans, Crete was ruled by various ancient Greek city-states until the Romans conquered the island in 69 BCE and made Gortyn their capital."

"According to tradition, Gortyn is where Zeus, in the guise of a bull, brought the princess Europa from her home in Phoenicia." (Following this affair three children were born, Minos, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon, who became the kings of the three Minoan Palaces in Crete.)

 "Homer mentions Gortyn in the Iliad as “having walls” and in the Odyssey as the place where Menelaus and his fleet of ships, returning home from the Trojan War, were blown off course to the Cretan coastline." 

"Under Roman rule, Crete re-emerged as a major cultural centre and became the joint province of Crete and Cyrenaica and a centre of early Christianity. When the Roman Empire split into two, Crete was made part of the Eastern empire. It continued to prosper during the Byzantine era until it faced repeated Arab raids and, ultimately, full conquest in the 820s CE." - Carole Raddato

In 1884, the Gortyn Law Code was discovered on the site of a structure built by the Roman emperor Trajan, the Odeon, which for the second time, reused stones from an inscription-bearing wall that also had been incorporated into the foundation of an earlier Hellenistic structure.  It is both the oldest and most complete known example of a code of ancient Greek law.  Although portions of the inscriptions have been placed in museums such as the Louvre in Paris, a modern structure at the site of the mostly ruined Odeon now houses many of the stones bearing the famous law code.

 https://www.ancient.eu/article/1391/exploring-western-cretes-archaeological-treasures/

Statue group of Persephone (as Isis) and Pluto (as Serapis) with the three-headed dog Cerberus. From the Sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods at Gortyn on the island of Crete. Mid-2nd century CE. Heraklion Archaeological Museum.
Pluto-Serapis has the modus on his head, a utensil used for the measurement of grain. Persephone-Isis with covered head bears her symbols at the forehead (the crescent moon, the solar disk and the snake (uraeus). She is depicted holding in her right hand the sistrum, an Egyptian musical instrument. The inclusion of Cerberus, guard of the underworld, in the group defines the two deities, despite their Egyptian symbols, as Pluto and Persephone, gods of the underworld.

 

If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!

Centaurs in Myth and Art

Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being as wild as untamed horses, and were said to have inhabited the region of Magnesia and Mount Pelion in Thessaly, the Foloi oak forest in Elis, and the Malean peninsula in southern Laconia. The most common theory holds that the idea of centaurs came from the first reaction of a non-riding culture, as in the Minoan Aegean world, to nomads who were mounted on horses. The theory suggests that such riders would appear as half-man, half-animal. Bernal Díaz del Castillo reported that the Aztecs also had this misconception about Spanish cavalrymen. The Lapith tribe of Thessaly, who were the kinsmen of the Centaurs in myth, were described by Greek writers as the inventors of horse-riding. 

The Centaurs are best known for their fight with the Lapiths who, according to one origin myth, would have been cousins to the centaurs. The battle, called the Centauromachy, was caused by the centaurs' attempt to carry off Hippodamia and the rest of the Lapith women on the day of Hippodamia's marriage to Pirithous, who was the king of the Lapithae and a son of Ixion. The hero Theseus was present and helped the Lapiths by assisting Pirithous in driving off the centaurs. Another Lapith hero, Caeneus, who was invulnerable to weapons, was beaten into the earth by Centaurs wielding rocks and the branches of trees. In her article "The Centaur: Its History and Meaning in Human Culture," Elizabeth Lawrence claims that the contests between the centaurs and the Lapiths typify the struggle between civilization and barbarism.

Though female centaurs, called centaurides or centauresses, are not mentioned in early Greek literature and art, they do appear occasionally in later antiquity. A Macedonian mosaic of the 4th century BCE is one of the earliest examples of the centauress in art. Ovid also mentions a centauress named Hylonomei who committed suicide when her husband Cyllarus was killed in the war with the Lapiths.

Mycenaean pottery found at Ugarit (in modern Syria) is thought to depict centaurs and suggests the myth originated in the Bronze Age. In Greek art of the Archaic period, centaurs are depicted in three different forms. Some centaurs are depicted with a human torso attached to the body of a horse at the withers, where the horse's neck would be. This form, designated "Class A" by Professor Paul Baur, later became standard. "Class B" centaurs are depicted with a human body and legs joined at the waist to the hindquarters of a horse. In some cases centaurs of both Class A and Class B appear together. A third type, designated "Class C", depicts centaurs with human forelegs terminating in hooves. Baur describes this as an apparent development of Aeolic art (from northwest Asia Minor and some of the offshore islands including Lesbos), which never became particularly widespread. At a later period, paintings on some amphorae depict winged centaurs.

Fresco depicting a Centaur from Pompeii at the NAM Naples courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Simon Burchell.

Old Centaur teased by Eros. Roman copy (1st–2nd centuries CE) of a Greek original of the 2nd century BCE at The Louvre, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Painting by Sebastiano Ricci, of centaurs at the marriage of Pirithous, king of the Lapithae courtesy of The Yorck Project and Wikimedia Commons.

"Battle of Centaurs and Wild Beasts" was made for the dining room of Hadrian's Villa and estimated to be made between 120-130 A.D. The mosaic now resides in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in Germany courtesy of the Google Art Project and Wikimedia Commons.

Centaur and figure playing dual flutes on Roman Sarcophagus 2nd-3rd century CE that I photographed at at the Terme di Diocleziano in Rome.

Centaurs pulling a cart on a Roman Sarcophagus 2nd-3rd century CE that I photographed at at the Terme di Diocleziano in Rome.

Hercules Battling the Centaur Nessus by Giovanni Bologna 1599 that I photographed in Florence, Italy.

Theseus and the Centaur by Antoine-Lous Barye French 1849 cast 1880 Bronze that I photographed at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, California.

Bronze man and "Type B" centaur Greek Geometric mid-8th century BCE that I photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

The remains of a fresco of a centaur that I found in the Atrium of the Villa San Marco in the Stabiae Excavation near Naples, Italy

Fragment of a shield strap with mythological scenes of the centaur Nessos Greek made in Argos by Aristodamos 575 BCE Bronze that I photographed at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California.

Relief of Centaur carrying off a nymph from the Via Praenestina marble Roman Imperial Period that I photographed at the Terme di Diocleziano in Rome.

Old Centaur from Hadrian's Villa 2nd century CE Roman copy of 2nd century BCE Hellenistic original that I photographed at the Capitoline Museum in Rome

Young Centaur laughing at Eros's wounds from Hadrian's Villa 2nd century CE Roman copy of 2nd century BCE Hellenistic original that I photographed at the Capitoline Museum in Rome.

A frieze depicting a centaur recovered from the ancient Roman theater that I photographed at Orange, France 2nd century CE

A frieze depicting a centaur recovered from the ancient Roman theater that I photographed at Orange, France 2nd century CE

A frieze depicting a centaur recovered from the ancient Roman theater that I photographed at Orange, France 2nd century CE

A frieze depicting a centaur recovered from the ancient Roman theater that I photographed at Orange, France 2nd century CE

Centaur Mosaic discovered near the ancient Roman theater at Orange, France. late 2nd century CE - early 3rd century CE that I photographed in Orange, France.

Centaur Mosaic discovered near the ancient Roman theater at Orange, France. late 2nd century CE - early 3rd century CE that I photographed in Orange, France.

Centaur on Roman Sarcophaus 3rd century CE (?) Marble that I photographed at the Capitoline Museum in Rome.

Agate Cameo sculpture of a centaur playing a double flute, 1st century BCE (modern period frame) at the Cabinet des médailles, Paris courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Sailko

Antonio Canova, Theseus Defeats the Centaur (1805-1819) by Antonio Canova at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Georges Jansoone.

One of my favorite frescos - Achilles and Chiron fresco from the Basilica in Herculaneum courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Bronze centaur, late 5th century B.C.E., Greek, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The boulder included in this work suggests that the source of inspiration was the myth of Kaineus, a Lapith invulnerable to man-made weapons, who could only be overcome by being beaten into the ground with trees and stones.

If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!

The ancient city of Tiryns in history and myth

 Tiryns is the site of a Mycenaean palace and city where the hero Heracles is thought to have resided while he performed his twelve labors.  Although it originated before the Bronze Age, it reached its height between 1400 and 1200 BCE and was considered one of the most important centers of the Mycenaean world, especially in Argolis.  Tiryns is first referenced by Homer, who praised its massive walls. Ancient tradition held that the walls were built by the Cyclopes because only giants of superhuman strength could have lifted the enormous stones.  Tradition also associates the walls with Proetus, the sibling of Acrisius, king of Argos. According to the legend Proetus, pursued by his brother, fled to Lycia. With the help of the Lycians, he managed to return to Argolis. There, Proetus occupied Tiryns and fortified it with the assistance of the cyclopes.

The city's  acropolis was constructed in three phases, the first at the end of the Late Helladic II period (1500–1400 BCE), the second in Late Helladic III (1400–1300 BCE), and the third at the end of the Late Helladic III B (1300–1200 BCE).  The palace of the king inside the citadel was similar in construction to that of Mycenae. The walls were decorated with alabaster slabs along the lower zones with rosettes and flowers in relief with frescoes embellishing the upper zones. Mycenaean frescoes were similar in style to those of Minoan Crete and depicted religious ceremonies, processions, hunters, and warriors.

Tiryns was affected by the social collapse at the end of the Bronze Age but survived and was inhabited continuously until the middle of the 8th century BCE. Then in the 5th century BCE, when Cleomenes I of Sparta defeated the Argives, their slaves occupied Tiryns, according to Herodotus.  The Argives eventually avenged their defeat, though, in 468 BCE when they  completely destroyed both Mycenae and Tiryns, and, according to Pausanias, transferred the residents to Argos.

Tiryns was one of the sites excavated by Heinrich Schliemann in 1884-1885. Schliemann initially thought the ruins were medieval and almost destroyed them to excavate deeper seeking Mycenaean treasures.  Excavations continue today under the  direction of the German Archaeological Institute at Athens and the University of Heidelberg. 

Watercolor of a fresco depicting a Mycenaean hunt scene from the palace of Tiryns, Greece at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada courtesy of the museum (enlarged with AI software).

Fragment of a fresco depicting a female figure participating in a procession, carrying offerings to the goddess. Her elegant head is shown in profile, while her body is shown frontally. She is holding a lily in her hand as an offering to the goddess at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Marsyas

Tiryns wall-painting fragments with a representation of a procession of women bearing offerings, from the later Tiryns palace, 14-13th century BCE, National Archaeological Museum of Athens courtesy of Carole Raddato.

Tiryns wall-painting fragments with a representation of wild-boar hunt, from the later Tiryns palace, 14-13th century BCE, National Archaeological Museum of Athens courtesy of Carole Raddato.

If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!

Lyrists and Citharists

The earliest reference to the word lyre is in Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning "lyrists" and written in the Linear B script.  In classical Greek, the word "lyre" could either refer specifically to an amateur instrument, which is a smaller version of the professional cithara and eastern-Aegean barbiton, or "lyre" can refer generally to all three instruments as a family of stringed instruments. A classical lyre has a hollow body or sound-chest which, in ancient Greek tradition, was made out of turtle shell. Extending from this sound-chest are two raised arms, which are sometimes hollow, and are curved both outward and forward. They are connected near the top by a crossbar or yoke. An additional crossbar, fixed to the sound-chest, makes the bridge, which transmits the vibrations of the strings. The deepest note was that farthest from the player's body; since the strings did not differ much in length, more weight may have been gained for the deeper notes by thicker strings, as in the violin and similar modern instruments, or they were tuned by having a slacker tension.  The number of strings on the classical lyre varied at different epochs and possibly in different localities—four, seven, and ten having been favorite numbers.  Plutarch says that Olympus and Terpander used but three strings to accompany their recitation.

According to ancient Greek mythology, the young god Hermes stole a herd of sacred cows from Apollo. In order not to be followed, he made shoes for the cows which forced them to walk backwards. Apollo, following the trails, could not follow where the cows were going. Along the way, Hermes slaughtered one of the cows and offered all but the entrails to the gods. From the entrails and a tortoise/turtle shell, he created the Lyre. Apollo, figuring out it was Hermes who had his cows, confronted the young god. Apollo was furious, but after hearing the sound of the lyre, his anger faded. Apollo offered to trade the herd of cattle for the lyre. Hence, the creation of the lyre is attributed to Hermes.

Apollo Kaitharoidos from the Hadrianic Period (2nd century CE) Roman copy of Hellenistic original Marble photographed by Mary Harrsch at the Palazzo Altemps in Rome

Apollo Kaitharoidos from the late 1st century CE Roman copy of Hellenistic original photographed by Mary Harrsch at the Palazzo Altemps in Rome

Roman fresco of erotes playing with a cithara, a professional version of the lyre, from Herculaneum, possibly the basilica 1st century CE from MANN (Naples) courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Fresco of actors with masks and a lyre from Pompeii 1st century CE MANN (Naples) courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Lyre player. Marble, Roman copy from the 2nd century CE after a Greek bronze original of the 5th century BCE at The Louvre courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Salli

The Mycenaean sarcophagus of Hagia Triada, 14th century BC, depicting the earliest lyre with seven strings, held by a man with long robe, third from the left courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor J. Ollé

If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!

The Ancient Art of Niello

Mycenaean dagger with niello-accented lion hunt scene, 1550 BCE, at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor παρακάτω.

Niello is a black mixture, usually of sulphur, copper, silver, and lead, used as an inlay on engraved or etched metal, especially silver. It is added as a powder or paste, then fired until it melts or at least softens, and flows or is pushed into the engraved lines or shapes in the metal. It hardens and blackens when cool, and the niello on the flat surface is polished off to show the filled lines in black, contrasting with the polished metal (usually silver) around it. The metal where niello is to be placed is often roughened to promote adhesion.

Niello was used on a variety of objects including sword hilts, chalices, plates, horns, adornment for horses, jewelry such as bracelets, rings, pendants, and small fittings such as strap-ends, purse-bars, buttons, and belt buckles and was also used to fill in the letters in inscriptions engraved on metal. Though historically most common in Europe, it is also known from many parts of Asia and the Near East.

The earliest claimed use of niello appears in late Bronze Age Byblos in Syria, around 1800 BCE, in inscriptions in hieroglyphs on "scimitars". In Ancient Egypt it appears a little later, in the tomb of Queen Ahhotep II, who lived about 1550 BCE, on a dagger decorated with a lion chasing a calf in a rocky landscape in a style that shows Greek influence, or at least similarity to the roughly contemporary daggers from Mycenae, and perhaps other objects in the tomb. At about the same time of c.1550 BCE it appears on several bronze daggers from shaft grave royal tombs at Mycenae (in Grave Circle A and Grave Circle B), especially in long thin scenes running along the center of the blade. These show the violence typical of the art of Mycenaean Greece, as well as a sophistication in both technique and figurative imagery that is startlingly original in a Greek context. There are a number of scenes of lions hunting and being hunted, attacking men and being attacked; most are now in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens.

Pliny the Elder (CE 23–79) describes the technique as Egyptian, and comments on the oddness of decorating silver in this way. Some of the earliest Roman uses, from 1-300 CE, seem to be small statuettes and brooches of big cats, where niello is used for the stripes of tigers and the spots on panthers. These were very common in Roman art, as creatures of Bacchus. Small animal brooches were worn both by Roman soldiers stationed in the provinces and by the native population. Though brooches in these forms appear throughout the Roman world, the distribution of finds and the archaeological remains of workshops suggest that the major centers of production were Britain and Gaul. The animal repertoire of Roman Britain was somewhat different, however, where brooches with niello stripes depicted a hare and a cat. From about the 4th century CE, it was used for ornamental details such as borders and for inscriptions in late Roman silver, such as a dish and bowl in the Mildenhall Treasure and pieces in the Hoxne Hoard. It was also often used on spoons, which were inscribed with the owner's name, or later, on Byzantine crosses.

Silver panther brooch with niello spots, Roman, 100-300 CE, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Late Roman silver, gilt, and niello buckle from Gaul, 400 CE, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!