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

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.
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