The Judgment of Animals in Classical Greece: Animal Sculpture and ...

village of Vix in France (Fig. 25). 521 This krater has been considered an imported Greek
product of the sixth century B.C., but issues, such as its exact location of manufacture
and date are still debated. 522 Its neck is decorated with a continuous frieze of appliqué
relief figures, that is, figures with flat reverse sides fastened by rivets to the neck. 523
They depict hoplites on foot, and four-horse chariots with their charioteers in a
procession. The backs of these figures are marked with Greek letters, a recognized
method for their correct positioning on the vessel. 524 Rumpf considered these decorative
elements partial evidence for suggesting that the krater described by Herodotus was of
identical appearance. 525 Despite René Joffroy’s warning of 1954 that “it would be rash to
see in the krater from Vix the present of the Lacaedemonians to Croesus,” Rumpf’s
521 For the most recent discussion and illustrations of the krater from Vix, see C. Rolley, La tombe princière
de Vix (Paris, 2003) 77-90; also 90-106 for a catalogue of all the well-preserved bronze volute kraters and
parts of them found in Greek sites, such as Olympia, Delphi, and Athens. For earlier discussions of the Vix
krater, see R. Joffroy, Le Trésor de Vix (Côte d’Or) (Paris, 1954) 6; also Rolley, Greek Bronzes 146, fig.
129, where he explains that “the body and the neck are hammered in one piece; the two parts of the rim, the
handles, and the appliqué decoration on the neck and possibly also the foot are cast”: for a brief discussion
of the complex mathematics involved in the design of the krater, see Vickers and Gill, Artful Crafts 190, n.
223.
522 There are three major theses regarding the place of manufacture of the Vix krater: 1) Laconia, 2) South
Italy, 3) Corinth, and two regarding its date: 1) 570-560 B.C., 2) 530-520 B.C. The thesis of Laconian
manufacture is advocated by Stibbe, Laconian Mixing Bowls 63-67, who dates the Vix krater to 570-560
B.C. and attributes it to a Laconian workshop. He also stresses the close relationship between Laconian
fictile and bronze kraters. Rolley, Greek Bronzes 150, dates the krater between 530 and 520 B.C.,
considers it “inseparable from” two hydrias found in Paestum and Sala Consilina, and therefore attributes it
to a South Italian workshop located perhaps in Sybaris; also Les vases des bronze de l’ archaïsme recent en
Grande Grèce (Naples, 1982). For a most recent summary of these opposing theses and updated
bibliography on the debate, see C. M. Stibbe, “The Krater from Vix Again: A Review Article,” in C. M.
Stibbe, “Agalmata. Studien zur griechisch-archaischen Bronzekunst,” (BABesch Suppl. 11; Dudley, 2006)
310-321. The hypothesis of a Corinthian origin was advanced by M. Gjødesen, “Greek Bronzes: A Review
Article,” AJA 67 (1963) 333-351. For a list of additional scholars, each of whom adheres to one or another
thesis, see S. Hodkinson, “Laconian Artistic Production and the Problem of Spartan Austerity,” in N.
Fischer and H. van Wees, eds., Archaic Greece: New Approaches and New Evidence (London, 1998) 103,
n. 24.
523 Rolley, La tombe princière de Vix 79-83, pls. 8-11, and Greek Bronzes 146, fig. 129, where he refers to
the decoration of the frieze as “appliqué”; also Joffroy, Le Trésor de Vix 11, 21.
524 Rolley, La tombe princière de Vix 87-88.
525 It has to be mentioned that the decoration of the frieze played only a partial, but still supportive, role in
Rumpf’s identification of Herodotus’ krater as that of the Vix-type. Rumpf, “Krath&r Lakwniko&j,” in
Schauenburg, ed., Charites 131, went much further, especially in comparing the holding capacity of the
krater described by Herodotus with that of the krater from Vix. The latter has a capacity of 1200 litres,
whereas that of the one described by Herodotus, he estimated to be 7800 litres.
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