Atalanta as Model: The Hunter and the Hunted - Robert Bedrosian's ...

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54 CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY Volume 15/No. 1/April 1996 Atalanta, however, is romantically linked with Melanion or Hippomenes in earlier texts,23 and, as we will see, on early vases. The earliest certain vase paintings of the Calydonian boar hunt date to the early sixth century B.C. and are mostly of Attic manufacture,24 perhaps inspired by a lost epic poem of Stesichorus.25 Typical of the Attic black-figure examples is a dinos of ca. 575-550 B.C., now in the Vatican (306), on which we see the boar in the center with a hunter lying wounded or dead beneath (fig. 1).26 Dogs attack 23. Hippomenes: Merkelbach and West (supra, n. 3) frags. 72; schol. at Eur., Ph. 150. Melanion: Hellan. in FGrH frags. 99, 162; schol. at Eur., Ph. 150, 151. On Hippomenes, see John Boardman, LIMC 5 (ZUrich and Munich, 1990) 465-66, s.v. Hippomenes. On Melanion, see John Boardman, LIMC 6 (Ztrich and Munich, 1992) 404-405, s.v. Meilanion. 24. Images of a boar hunt exist in earlier vase painting, but one cannot identify them with the Calydonian hunt. For example, a Corinthian pyxis lid from Corinth of ca. 600, the famous Dodwell pyxis now in Munich (327), is ornamented with a boar hunt (Heldensage3 314, C3; D. A. Amyx, Corinthian Vase-Painting of the Archaic Period [Berkeley, 1988] 205-206, 284, 565, pl. 86). The names of the hunters are inscribed, but they do not correspond to any of the known hunters listed in the ancient literary sources. Scholars have established some general rules for making this distinction: when there are inscribed names that correspond to those in the ancient name lists, or when a female hunter (who must surely be Atalanta) appears, distinguished by white paint and clothing, then we have the Calydonian boar hunt. See Woodford (supra, n. 10) 416, 430; Keck (supra, n. 15) 154-55; and Dietrich von Bothmer, "An Attic Black-Figured Dinos," BMFA 44 (1948) 44, who discounts the Corinthian vases as uncertain depictions. Cf. Georg Daltrop, Die kalydonische Jagd in derAntike (Hamburg and Berlin, 1966) 18. Contra: Alain Schnapp, "Images et programme: Les figurations archaiques de la chasse au sanglier," RA 2 (1979) 200, 204, who states that the presence of any of the following in vase paintings is enough to satisfy the requirements for the Calydonian boar hunt: symmetrical placement of hunters around boar, the presence of Atalanta, a dog on the back of the boar, or Ankaios under the boar. Cf. Karl Schefold, Gods and Heroes in Late Archaic Greek Art, trans. A. Griffiths (Cambridge, 1992) 197, who says that the Corinthian vase paintings of the Calydonian boar hunt have hunters' names different from those on Attic vases, and therefore the Corinthian vases must be based on a Corinthian epic; Elizabeth Langridge, "The Boar Hunt in Corinthian Pottery," AJA 95 (1991) 323; Keck (supra, n. 15) 154; Konrad Schauenburg, Jagddarstellungen in der griechischen Vasenmalerei (Hamburg and Berlin, 1969) 12, who avers that in the case of the anonymous Corinthian vases, the Calydonian boar hunt is probably not intended, and that Corinthian vases with inscriptions suggest a lost myth; and P. de la Coste-Messeliere, Au Musee de Delphes (Paris, 1936) 131-33. 25. Woodford (supra, n. 10) 430. Keck (supra, n. 15) 154 tries to demonstrate a direct link between literary text and image concerning the Calydonian boar hunt. This effort, however, is unnecessary, for surely vase painters may have been influenced by oral accounts of these myths, i.e., folktales, in which details, such as the names of the participating hunters, would alter in the retelling. See also March (supra, n. 15) 37-38, who tacitly assumes a strong literary influence on sixth-century B.C. vase paintings of the Calydonian boar hunt; and Antonio Minto, II Vaso Francois (Florence, 1960) 164. 26. Heldensage3 310, A3. The theme also appears on the reliefs from the heroon at Gjl6baschi Trysa, on two Melian reliefs, in one of the pediments of the Temple of Athena Alea at Tegea, and perhaps in the metopes of the Sicyonian Treasury at Delphi. See Fritz Eichler, Die Reliefs des Heroon von Gjolbaschi-Trysa (Vienna, 1950); Paul Jacobsthal, Die melischen Reliefs (Berlin, 1931) 32-33 no. 27, 78-80 no. 103, Tafs. 15, 60; Andrew Stewart, Skopas of Paros (Park Ridge, N. J., 1977) 14-21, 60-62, 133; and De la Coste-Messelibre (supra, n. 24) 120-27. Pausanias 3.18.15, 8.46.1 reports that the Calydonian boar's teeth were kept in the temple at Tegea and were eventually transported to Rome by Augustus. Elinor Bevan, Representations of Animals in Sanctuaries of Artemis and Other Olympia Deities 1 (Oxford, 1986) 77 reports that many boars' tusks were found This content downloaded from 71.172.230.227 on Thu, 25 Jul 2013 17:02:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
BARRINGER: Atalanta as Model 55 the boar on its back and from the front and rear, while hunters approach from either side. Atalanta appears at the right, distinguished by the white paint on her arms and face. She appears as an archer with Scythian boots,27 while the other hunters are armed with spears and tridents, although a male archer appears to the left of the boar. Atalanta appears as an archer on other vases, such as a dinos of ca. 560 B.C. from Greece, now in Boston (Museum of Fine Arts 34.212),28 and a hydria of ca. 550 B.C. near the Princeton Painter, now in Florence (Museo Archeologico Etrusco 3830), on which the archer Atalanta is armed as an Amazon with helmet and short chiton (fig. 2).29 An unusual example is the Francois Vase of ca. 570, signed by Kleitias and Ergotimos (Florence, Museo Archeologico Etrusco 4209), on which Atalanta (name inscribed) carries a spear3 and is compositionally paired with Melanion, whose name is inscribed (fig. 3). In short, the typical Attic black-figure composition is comprised of hunters symmetrically disposed around a huge central boar (usually facing to the viewer's left, although occasionally he faces right), with dogs attacking the boar and often with a wounded or dead hunter (frequently named Ankaios) lying beneath the boar. Atalanta is usually, though not always, present.3' For example, a band cup from Vulci of ca. 540 signed by Archikles and Glaukytes, now in Munich (Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2243), bears the typical composition: the hunters are named, but Atalanta is not present.32 In the half century between 600 and 550 B.C., however, Atalanta is always included in representations of the Calydonian boar hunt, indicating that vase painters knew of a tradition that included Atalanta before the first surviving literary accounts of a century later.33 in the sanctuary of Athena Alea at Tegea, perhaps in connection with Atalanta. Bevan speculates that Atalanta may have had an altar in the shrine. Many boars' tusks were also found at Calydon (76). 27. On the appearance of Scythian archers, see Francois Lissarrague, L'autre guerrier: Archers, peltastes, cavaliers dans l'imagerie attique (Paris and Rome, 1990) 125-49; H. A. Shapiro, "Ama zons, Thracians, and Scythians," GRBS 24 (1983) 111; and M. F. Vos, Scythian Archers in Archaic Attic Vase-Painting (Groningen, 1963) 40-52. 28. ABV 87, 18; Addenda2 24; Heldensage3 310, A4. 29. Heldensage3 311, A13. On the appearance of Amazons in archaic Greek vase painting, see Shapiro (supra, n. 27) 106; and Dietrich von Bothmer, Amazons in Greek Art (Oxford, 1957) 6-115. 30. ABV 76, 1; Paralipomena 29; Addenda2 21; Heldensage3310, Al. Schnapp (supra, n. 24) 197 believes that the bow is a weapon that designates heroic status or divinity. 31. On the composition, see Keck (supra, n. 15) 155-57; Fred S. Kleiner, "The Kalydonian Hunt: A Reconstruction of a Painting from the Circle of Polygnotos," AntK 15 (1972) 7-14; Daltrop (supra, n. 24) 15-25; Von Bothmer (supra, n. 24) 42-48; and Minto (supra, n. 25) 36-40. Schnapp (supra, n. 24) 195-218 claims that those Attic paintings that are certainly Calydonian do not include mounted hunters (204, 208). He makes a distinction between mythological and non-mythological boar hunts on the basis of the inclusion of horses; the hunt on foot is, he states, narrative and diverse in its manifestations, while that on horseback is stereotypical and largely symmetrical. Schnapp, however, does not account for Munich 8600, Vatican 306, and Boston 34.212, which are all clearly ornamented with the Calydonian boar hunt but include horsemen. 32. ABV 163, 2; Paralipomena 68; Addenda2 47; Heldensage3 311, A14. 33. Philostratus the Younger, Imagines 417K describes a painting of the hunt with Atalanta wearing boots and a garment that falls above the knees, along with the wounded Ankaios, Meleager, and Peleus. This content downloaded from 71.172.230.227 on Thu, 25 Jul 2013 17:02:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
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