Read The Parthenon Enigma Online
Authors: Joan Breton Connelly
125.
For Theseus versus Pallas, see K. O. Müller, “Die erhobenen Arbeiten am Friese des Pronaos von Theseustempel zu Athen, erklärt aus dem Mythus von den Pallantiden,” in
Kunstarchaeologische Werke
, ed. K. O. Müller (1833; Berlin: S. Calvary, 1873), 4:1–19, followed by E. B. Harrison, “Athena at Pallene and in the Agora of Athens,” in Barringer and Hurwit,
Periklean Athens
, 121–23. For the frieze as a mythological analogue of the Athenian people’s expulsion of the aristocracy and tyrants, see K. Reber, “Das Hephaisteion in Athen: Ein Monument für die Demokratie,”
JdI
113 (1998): 41–43. See also E. Simon,
Die Götter der Griechen
, 4th ed. (Munich: Hirmer, 1998), 197–201; A. Delivorrias, “The Sculpted Decoration of the So-Called Theseion: Old Answers, New Questions,” in Buitron-Oliver,
Interpretation of Architectural Sculpture
, 84, 89–90; F. Felten,
Griechische tektonische Friese archaischer und klassischer Zeit
(Waldsassen-Bayern: Stiftland, 1984), 60–64.
126. Plato,
Timaeus
24e–25d. J. M. Barringer, “A New Approach to the Hephaisteion,” in Schultz and Hoff,
Structure, Image, Ornament
, 105–20, esp. 116–17; Barringer,
Art, Myth, and Ritual
, 138–41.
127.
Palagia, “Interpretations of Two Athenian Friezes,” 184–90; Hurwit,
Age of Pericles
, 184–87; Pemberton, “Friezes of the Temple of Athena Nike,” 303–10; Harrison, “South Frieze of the Nike Temple”; E. B. Harrison, “Notes on the Nike Temple Frieze,”
AJA
74 (1970): 317–23; A. Furtwängler,
Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture: A Series of Essays on the History of Art
(Chicago: Argonaut, 1964), 445–49; C. Blümel, “Der Fries des Tempels der Athena Nike,”
JdI
65–66 (1950–1951): 135–65.
128.
Palagia, “Interpretations of Two Athenian Friezes,” 189–90, identifies the east frieze as a depiction of the birth of Athena.
129.
Kardara, “Glaukopis,” 84–91. See also Jeppesen, “Bild und Mythus an dem Parthenon.”
130.
Those identifying the scene as the Battle of Marathon include: Palagia, “Interpretations of Two Athenian Friezes,” 184–90; Hurwit,
Age of Pericles
, 184–87; Harrison, “South Frieze of the Nike Temple.”
131.
Euripides,
Erechtheus
F 370.75–90 Kannicht.
132.
Aristotle,
Politics
1297b, 16–22, tells us that it was in days of old that the cavalry dominated the army. I thank John Marr for this reference.
133.
Cicero,
On the Nature of the Gods
3.19, 49–50.
134.
Generally identified as the ten
Eponymous Heroes, counted as six men on the south side of the gods (E18–23) and four men on the north (E43–46), with the “left over” men identified as marshals. For a summary of discussion and bibliography, see Brommer,
Der Parthenonfries
, 255–56, nos. 14 and 19. See S. Woodford, “Eponymoi or anonymoi,”
Source Notes on the History of Art
6 (1987): 1–5; Kron, “Die Phylenheroen am Parthenonfries”; Harrison, “Eponymous Heroes”; see, however, Jenkins, “Composition of the So-Called Eponymous Heroes.”
135.
Four men at north: E47–49, E52; man at south corner: E1.
136.
Figures numbered as E47 and E48 on block 6. For marshals in the Panathenaia procession, see Shear, “Polis and Panathenaia,” 124–26.
137.
Brommer,
Der Parthenonfries
, 255–56; Harrison, “Eponymous Heroes”; Kron,
Die zehn attischen Phylenheroen
, 202–14; Kron, “Die Phylenheroen am Parthenonfries”; Neils,
Parthenon Frieze
, 158–61.
138.
Jenkins, “Composition of the So-Called Eponymous Heroes”; Jenkins,
Parthenon Frieze
, 33–34.
139.
Nagy, “Athenian Officials,” 67–69.
140.
A. E. Raubitschek,
Opus Nobile
(Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1969), 129; Ridgway,
Fifth Century Styles
, 79, sees them as Athenian citizens. Berger and Gisler-Huwiler,
Fries des Parthenon
, 179, summarize the various interpretations.
141.
Aristotle,
Athenian Constitution
26.4: “It was decreed, on a motion of Perikles, that a person should not have the rights of citizenship unless both of his parents had been citizens.” Plutarch,
Life of Perikles
37.3: “He [Perikles] proposed a law that only those who could claim Athenian parentage on both sides could be counted as Athenian citizens.” E. Carawan, “Pericles the Younger and the Citizenship Law,”
CJ
103 (2008): 383–406; K. R. Walters, “Perikles’ Citizenship Law,”
ClAnt
2 (1983): 314–36; C. Patterson,
Pericles’ Citizenship Law of 451–50
B.C.
(New York: Arno Press, 1981); Boegehold, “Perikles’ Citizenship Law.”
142.
I agree with Fehr,
Becoming Good Democrats and Wives
, 81, 112–13, in seeing these
parthenoi
as the equivalent of the young, beardless men on the flanks and west side of the frieze. Together, they show the youths and maidens of early Athens as socialized into their future civic and domestic roles, as citizens and members of the military and as citizen wives and mothers, and as a community of ideal members fully engaged in local cult ritual. See Jeppesen, “A Fresh Approach,” 129–33, for reading of
these maidens as
epikleroi
, heiresses who lost their fathers and inherited property in the absence of male heirs. Since these women were not allowed to hold property in their own rights, they were required to marry one of their male kin, to keep resources within the family.
143.
Euripides,
Erechtheus
F 370.77–80 Kannicht.
144.
Euripides,
Children of Herakles
781.
145.
Homer,
Iliad
2.550.
146.
Euripides,
Erechtheus
F 370.92–94 Kannicht, where the fragmentary text reads: “[ox] or bull and a [ram].”
147.
IG
II
2
1146;
IG
II
2
1357.
148.
Simon,
Festivals of Attica
, 64, sees the water bearers not as participants in the ritual but as victors in the torch races, carrying their prize
hydriai
.
149.
Photios, s.v. σκάφας, bases his definition on Menander fr. 147 (
PCG
). See
RE
(1949), s.v. “Panathenaia”; Shear, “Polis and Panathenaia,” 134–36; Simon,
Festivals of Attica
, 65, 69–70; Deubner,
Attische Feste
, 28.
150.
I thank Dr. Tomas Lochman, curator of the Skulpturhalle Basel des Antikenmuseums, for his kindness in facilitating my research on the casts of the Parthenon sculptures. I am also indebted to Prof. Dr. Anton Bierl for inviting me as visiting professor, Departement Altertumswissenschaften der Universität Basel. The tray bearer shown on
this page
, bottom, is molded from north frieze, figure N15, a fragment that is in the Vatican. See Jenkins,
Parthenon Frieze
, 86; Connelly, “Parthenon and
Parthenoi
,” 69. On
skaphephoroi
in general, see Berger and Gisler-Huwiler,
Fries des Parthenon
, 195–96; Brommer,
Der Parthenonfries
, 214.
151.
F. Graf, “Milch, Honig und Wein: Zum Verständnis der Libation im griechischen Ritual,” in
Perennitas: Studi in onore di Angelo Brelich
, ed. M. Eliade (Rome: Ateneo, 1980), 209–21; Simon,
Festivals of Attica
, 70, has suggested that the honey is meant for Gaia, who might somehow have been worshipped in the Panathenaia.
152.
Euripides,
Erechtheus
F 370.83–86 Kannicht.
153.
Ibid., F 370.87–89 Kannicht.
154.
J. G. Pedley,
Paestum: Greeks and Romans in Southern Italy
(London: Thames and Hudson, 1990), 36–39, figs. 11–13; P. C. Sestieri, “Iconographie et culte d’Hera à Paestum,”
Revue des Artes
5 (1955): 149–58.
155.
Demaratus,
FGrH
42 F 4; Euripides,
Erechtheus
F 370.102 Kannicht.
156.
Euripides,
Erechtheus
F 370{–369d}5–9 Kannicht.
157.
Berger and Gisler-Huwiler,
Fries des Parthenon
, 67–69. Others disagree: Simon,
Festivals of Attica
, 62; Boardman, “Closer Look,” 322–23. Von Heintze, “Athena Polias am Parthenon,” sees the men as members of a male chorus for the
prosodion
(processional song performed en route to the altar of the divinity); Fehr,
Becoming Good Democrats and Wives
, 80, sees the men as symbols of the “meritorious older generation of Athenian citizens.” See Shear, “Polis and Panathenaia,” 134–35.
158.
Xenophon,
Symposium
4.17.
159.
Boardman, “Closer Look,” 324–25.
160.
Thucydides,
Peloponnesian War
6.58.1.
161.
Parian Marble,
IG
XII 5 444, 17–18. Harpokration, s.v. “apobates”; Pseudo-Eratosthenes,
Constellations
13. See Kyle,
Athletics in Ancient Athens
, 63–64, 188–89, 205 (A37), and 213 (A70).
162.
Nonnus,
Dionysiaca
37.155ff.
163.
See Neils and Schultz, “Erechtheus and the Apobates”; also Fehr,
Becoming Good Democrats and Wives
, 52–67; C. Ellinghaus,
Die Parthenonskulpturen: Der Bauschmuck eines öffentlichen Monumentes der demokratischen Gesellschaft Athens zur Zeit des Perikles, Techniken in der bildenden Kunst zur Tradierung von Aussagen
(Hamburg: Dr. Kovač, 2011), 109–71; P. Schultz, “The Iconography of the
Athenian Apobates Race,” in Schultz and Hoff,
Structure, Image, and Ornament
, 64–69; Neils,
Parthenon Frieze
, 97–98, 138–86; Shear, “Polis and Panathenaia,” 299–310; Berger and Gisler-Huwiler,
Der Fries des Parthenon
, 169–86.
164.
Plutarch,
Life of Phokion
20.1.
165.
IG
II
2
2316.16 and
IG
II
2
2317 +
SEG
61.118.49. See discussion in Shear, “Polis and Panathenaia,” 313–314. For the City Eleusinion, see M. M. Miles,
The City Eleusinion
, Athenian Agora 31 (Princeton, N.J.: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1998).
166.
Marble base, Agora S399. See T. L. Shear, “The Sculpture Found in 1933: Relief of an Apobates,”
Hesperia
4 (1935): 379–81.
167.
Tracy and Habicht, “New and Old Panathenaic Victor Lists,” 198; Kyle,
Athletics in Ancient Athens
, 63–64.
168.
Thucydides,
Peloponnesian War
6.56–58; Demosthenes,
Against Phormio
39; Pausanias,
Description of Greece
1.2.14.
169.
Demosthenes,
Erotikos
24–25.
170.
Boardman, “Parthenon Frieze,” 210.
171.
For the ranks of horsemen, see Jenkins,
Parthenon Frieze
, 55–63; Jenkins, “South Frieze,” 449; Harrison, “Time in the Parthenon Frieze,” 230–33; Berger and Gisler-Huwiler,
Fries des Parthenon
, 110–11; L. Beschi, “Il fregio del Partenone: Una proposta lettura,”
RendLinc
, ser. 8, 39 (1985): 176, 183, 185.
172.
For ten groups of riders on the south frieze as evoking the ten Kleisthenic tribes, see Harrison, “Time in the Parthenon Frieze,” 232; T. Osada, “Also Ten Tribal Units: The Grouping of the Cavalry on the Parthenon North Frieze,”
AJA
115 (2011): 537–48; T. Stevenson, “Cavalry Uniforms on the Parthenon Frieze?,”
AJA
107 (2003): 629–54; Pollitt, “Meaning of the Parthenon Frieze,” 55; Jenkins,
Parthenon Frieze
, 99; S. Bird, I. Jenkins, and F. Levi,
Second Sight of the Parthenon Frieze
(London: British Museum Press, 1998), 18–19; I. Jenkins, “The Parthenon Frieze and Perikles’ Cavalry of a Thousand,” in Barringer and Hurwit,
Periklean Athens
, 147–61; Jenkins, “South Frieze,” 449; Harrison, “Time in the Parthenon Frieze,” 230–32; E. B. Harrison, review of
Der Parthenonfries
, by Brommer,
AJA
83 (1979): 490. Some see the ranks of riders as associated with the brotherhood groups called
phratries.
173.
Fehr,
Becoming Good Democrats and Wives
, 146–47, sees in the cavalry and chariot groups
sophrosune
(healthy-mindedness, self-control guided by knowledge and balance),
arete
(excellence), and
philia
(friendship among fellow soldiers).
174.
Aristotle,
Politics
1297b16–22. On the other hand, many ancient traditions, like the trooping of the colors, involved staged anachronisms.
175.
Xenophon,
On Horsemanship
11.8.
176.
Connelly, “Parthenon and
Parthenoi
,” 69–71; G. R. Bugh,
Horsemen of Athens
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1988), 34–35, notes that the horsemen on the frieze are too old to be ephebes. See Brommer,
Der Parthenonfries
, 151–53; Castriota,
Myth, Ethos, and Actuality
, 202–26.
177.
For the three red-figured cups in Berlin and Basel, see H. Cahn, “Dokimasia,”
RA
(1973): 3–22; Connelly, “Parthenon and
Parthenoi
,” 70–71. See G. Adeleye, “The Purpose of the Dokimasia,”
GRBS
24 (1983): 295–306.