A Black-Figure Parody of The Ransom of Hector
A Black-Figure Parody of The Ransom of Hector
A Black-Figure Parody of The Ransom of Hector
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has recently acquired an Attic black-figured
amphora of unusual interest1 (fig. 1-2). The vase can be securely attributed to the Painter
of Munich 1379, one of the artists in Beazley's Princeton Group.2 Beazley assigned three
amphorae - all in Munich - to the painter, and the Boston amphora is most like the name
vase.3 While the Boston vase is clearly the work of the Painter of Munich 1379, it also
strengthens the ties between that painter and some of the other Princetonians, for it has
close connections with works outside the Munich trio. For example, the Boston amphora
can be compared to Oxford 1965.141 and Louvre F 5, both of which Beazley assigned to
the manner of the Princeton Painter, and to an amphora now in a private collection in
I. 1979 .618. Annual Report of the Museum of Fine Arts ,
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Madison, Wisconsin.4 Beazley himself noted the connection between Oxford 1965.141
and Louvre F 5 and the work of the Painter of Munich 1379, and it is clear that the boundaries separating that painter and those artists who are called in the manner of the Princeton
The Boston amphora can be readily assigned to the Painter of Munich 1379, but
the interpretation of the two curious scenes in the panels of the vase poses a more difficult
problem. The panel on side A (fig. 3) shows a large cart, loaded with amphorae, moving
to the right. The cart is pulled by a pair of yoked mules, one of which is ithyphallic.6 The
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driver, a bearded man in a himation, sits on his cargo and urges his team forward. At the
mules' heads, a small, bearded man, who wears a fringed hat and a short garment, guides
the animals and seems to hold the muzzle of the near one.7 Partially hidden by the mules
are two draped males (a youth on the left and a bearded man on the right), who carry
spears and appear to be engaged in conversation.8 There are nonsense inscriptions to the
left of the driver, below the cart, between the mules' hind legs, and along the right edge
of the panel.9 In the center of side B (fig. 4), a small, unarmed, draped and bearded man
touches the chin of a larger man. The larger figure, also draped and bearded, clutches the
clothing of the shorter man with his left hand and holds his spear, point downwards, under
his right arm.10 The two men in the center are flanked left and right by pairs of draped and
bearded men. The figures on the right rest their spears on their left shoulders. Of the pair
on the left side of the scene, one of the men holds a spear, point downwards, in his left
hand, while the other rests a long shaft on his right shoulder. There are nonsense inscriptions at both the right and left edges of the panel, at the heads and along the lower bodies
of the three leftmost figures, and between the two rightmost figures.11
The cart on side A (fig. 5) is one of the most detailed depictions of such a vehicle in
Attic black-figure, and even though it is not fully preserved, a great deal of information
about draft animals, carts, and cargo can be gleaned from it. The cart is pulled by a pair
of yoked mules who wear halters rather than bridles and are thus not controlled by a bit
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and reins.12 The driver urges his team forward with the short goad he holds in his right
hand. He directs the mules by means of the long whip which he holds in his left hand.13
12. Only a small part of the yoke is preserved, but it
can be restored by comparison with the yokes worn by
the donkeys and mules on the wedding procession lekythos
to the left of the mules' heads. For the use of the short
goad and the long whip, compare the donkey cart loaded
with amphorae on the unattributed band-cup Louvre F 77,
where the driver holds a short goad, and a figure walking
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The cart which the mules pull is large, open, and sturdily built.14 It has a heavy
wheel of cross-bar type, and the pair of concentric circles around the wheel's contour
probably indicates the unusual thickness of the felloe.15 The curved line which runs downwards from the felloe describes the left contour of the axle block, which is composed of at
least two pieces.16 The axle block is attached to the side rail of the cart, on which are very
carefully depicted the ends of floor planks that have been mortised into this rail.17 Below
the side rail the painter has depicted what appears to be the draft pole, a long member with
a rounded end, which passes behind the axle block and runs the full length of the cart,
extending to beyond the left edge of the panel. On vehicles of this kind, the draft pole,
which would mean that they are placed below the side
rail, an impossible arrangement. The amphora and stand
at the front of the cart, however, are on the same level as
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which connects the animals' yoke to the cart, is rigidly fixed and runs the length of the
cart, beneath the floor.18
The cargo of five large amphorae is carefully lashed in place. Four ropes run vertically
between the amphorae, and two long ropes, forming a large "X", further secure the load.19
The amphorae are extremely big and unusually tall. Their mouths, necks, and shoulders
are fully delineated. Their lower bodies are not, however, although they are ornamented
with bands consisting of dots or short strokes between pairs of lines.20 Apparently, the five
amphorae rest in separate stands, whose curved sides and flattened bottoms are most clearly
discernible beneath the two vessels at the rear and at the front of the cart.21
18. See, e.g., Aranzadi, loc. cit. {supra, n. 17), p. 2195
fig. 11; Galhano, op. cit. {supra, n. 17), figs. 14 and 16;
Piggott, op. cit. {supra, n. 15), fig. 117 (sixth-century bc
Paris, 1931, pl. 38, 3), the donkey cart on the unattributed
expect to see emerging from the cart and then disappearing behind the near mule.
19. The first and fourth ropes are clearly visible, and
one can see that the first one passes round the underside
band round the amphora in front of Dionysos on Munich 8763 by the Amasis Painter: Para., p. 65; Beazley
Addenda, p. 19; von Bothmer 1985, op. cit. {supra, n. 6),
p. 79-80, no. 4; detail showing amphora, p. 80.
The upper bodies of the amphorae in the Boston cart
are not much different from those of several amphorae
depicted on contemporary vases. See, e.g., the large
amphora, on one side of Brussels R 279 by the Princeton
Painter {ABV, p. 299, no. 20; Bhr, op. cit. {supra, n. 18),
pls. 166-7), the two big amphorae on Altenburg 189 by
the Painter of Berlin 1686 {Para., p. 129, no. 17 quater;
CVA, Altenburg , 1, pls. 15-6) and the somewhat smaller
vessel on Munich 8763 (see above) by the Amasis Painter.
The scenes on Brussels R 279 are usually thought to be
of an oil sale, but it seems just as likely that wine is
being sold. One side of the Altenburg vase may show the
sale of wine. The amphora on Munich 8763 is probably
a wine vessel.
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The mouths of several of the amphorae are partly preserved, and three of them are
carefully closed with conical-shaped mounds of added white. These white mounds are the
plaster caps which serve as the outermost seals on the amphorae, rather than the actual
stoppers.22 The contents of the amphorae are clearly valuable, and the presence of the
ithyphallic mule, usually associated with Dionysos or satyrs and wine, makes it probable
that the vessels are filled with wine.23
The subjects of the two panels on the Boston amphora can be described, quite simply,
as a mule cart and a supplication scene. The scene on side A, with its detailed depiction
of the mule cart, could be interpreted as an illustration of everyday commercial activity.
n. 14), p. 138) proposed that the cross-hatching rep-
22. The stoppers can be compared to those on the bandcup Louvre F 77 (supra, n. 13; see also, CV A, Louvre, 9,
III Hep. 70), which are similar in shape and color and
are probably also meant to be plaster. For amphora
stoppers, see C. Smith, Amphora-stopping from Tarentum, JHS, 4, 1883, p. 158-61; V. Grace, Standard Pottery
Containers of the Ancient Greek World, in Commemorative Studies in Honor of Theodore Leslie Shear, Hesperia,
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It might, for example, show a farm cart with its cargo of wine-filled amphorae brought
in from the country by the owner/driver and his slave in order to sell the goods in the city ;
the men with spears standing alongside the mules might then be city officials of some kind.
The very profusion of circumstantial detail, however, together with this curious juxtaposition
of the cart and the armed pair, suggests a narrative element that goes far beyond what
might be expected in a simple genre scene. The interpretation of side B is made difficult
by the absence both of inscriptions that make sense and of diagnostic attributes of the
various figures. It is, however, certain that the scene is one of supplication, which is less
likely to be taken from everyday life than to be heroic or mythological in inspiration.24
The scene on side B also has a tension, an emotional charge, wihch is again out of character
in a genre story.
Several clues strongly suggest that the two scenes are indeed heroic in theme and
are meant to be seen as parts of a single story. That figures on both sides wear fillets and
long, richly decorated garments and carry spears provides both visual and thematic connec-
tions between the two sides of the amphora. The combination of the spears, which are
not accompanied by other elements of armor, and the elaborate clothing would seem to
identify the characters as heroic, although emphatically not in battle. The profusion of
inscriptions - albeit nonsense ones - also gives a heroic flavor to the scenes. Finally, the
faces of several figures can only be described as distinctive and individualized: the cart
driver on side A with his long, hooked nose, the man with the large nose and the sorrowful
expression who stands second from the left on side B, and the small man with the narrow
eye who supplicates the large man on side B.25 It is as though these men were meant to be
identified as specific characters in a story. Surely, the two scenes should be regarded as
heroic in inspiration and as thematically related. The combination of a cargo of goods and a
The story of the ransom of Hector is preserved in Book 24 of the Iliad . The gods,
unhappy with Achilles' treatment of the body of Hector, dispatch Thetis to tell her son to
relinquish the corpse. At the same time, Iris is sent to Priam, and she urges him to take a
rich ransom down to the ships of the Achaeans to win back his son's body from Achilles.
Priam is accompanied only by the old herald Idaios, who will drive the mule cart which
will carry the ransom to Achilles and will bear Hector's body back to Troy. Priam obeys,
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and he chooses the goods for the ransom himself: garments, blankets, gold, tripods, cauldrons, and a goblet. His sons bring out
[xa^av aeipav uTpo^ov y](jliovy)v
x<xXy)v 7rpc0T07raYea, 7repLv0a 8 Syjcocv biz auTYj.
. . . the easily running wagon for mules, a fine thing new-fabricated, and
fastened the carrying basket upon it.26
The preparation of the cart is described carefully, if slightly ambiguously, and when the
vehicle is ready, it is loaded with the ransom.27 Priam's sons
e <xv S' 7)(juvou xpaTepcovu^oc vTeaispyo,
chariot. Zeus takes pity on Priam and sends Hermes to guide the old man and to make
certain that the Achaeans do not see him until he reaches Achilles. Hermes joins Priam
and Idaios when they stop to water their mules and horses at the river and takes up the
reins of Priam's chariot. The trio approaches the Achaean camp and slips by the sentries,
whom Hermes has caused to fall asleep. Once inside Achilles' compound, Hermes departs,
and Priam enters Achilles' shelter alone, while Idaios stays with the mules and horses.
Achilles has just finished his meal when Priam appears and takes hold of the hero's knees
and kisses his hands. Priam entreats Achilles to accept the ransom and to return Hector's
body to him. The old man and the hero weep and mourn together for their own losses, and
then Priam asks again for his son's body. Finally, the mules and horses are unharnessed,
and the ransom is unloaded. Hector's body is washed and anointed, and Achilles himself
helps to place it in the mule cart. Although a place is made on the porch of the shelter for
Priam and Idaios to sleep, Hermes soon comes to them, saying they must flee. The god
26. II. 24.266-7. The translation used here and below
is: The Iliad of Homer , trans. R. Lattimore, Chicago, 195 1.
27. The entire passage is II. 24 . 268-74. Fr various interpretations of the details of this passage, see A. J. B. Wace
no. 295 (inv. no. 8646) and p. 272-3, no. 443 (inv. no. 8636).
Four-wheeled wagons do not appear in black-figure,
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harnesses the mules and horses and drives them out of the Achaean camp. As he had first
joined Priam and Idaios at the river's edge, so now does he depart from them at the ford
across the Xanthos. Hector's body is returned to Troy, and the Iliad ends with his burial.
The literary account of the ransom of Hector has a visual counterpart, for it is well
of the story. The more common alternative appears first on two vases of ca. 570 bc: a hydria
On both vases, the action recalls Iliad 24, for Achilles, apparently finishing his meal, is
reclining on a dining couch, while Priam approaches from the left, with outstretched hands.
Homer does not place Hector's body in the "room" in which Achilles and Priam first meet;
it lies elsewhere, although apparently nearby. Both vase-painters, however, have shown
Hector's body stretched out along the bottom of the picture, and it becomes an established
element in the iconography. A third piece, a fragment from Naukratis, which also dates to
the second quarter of the sixth century, shows only the lower part of Hector's body and
the legs of a table and couch, but it appears to illustrate the same version as the hydria
and the Tyrrhenian amphora.31 As well established as this first iconographie scheme appears
to be, there exists another tradition at this time. A fragment of a Siana cup (ca. 560 bc) by
the Heidelberg Painter shows Achilles, standing and facing right, being approached by
Priam, who faces left.32 The old man leans on a stick and holds his right hand before the
face of Achilles. Achilles raises his hand in a gesture of acceptance or, perhaps, of welcome.
The scene is very fragmentary, and all that is preserved of Achilles is part of his head and
arm. It is certain, however, that the hero was standing upright, not reclining.
29. For the theme in general, see K. Friis Johansen,
The Iliad in Early Greek Art , Copenhagen, 1967, p. 12738; LIMC, I, p. 147-61; W. Basista, Hektors Lsung,
Boreas i 2, 1979, p. 5-36; R. Lullies, Eine Amphora aus
dem Kreis des Exekias, Ant. Kunst , 7, 1964, p. 82-4;
K. Schefold, Gtter-und Heldensagen der Griechen in der
sptarchaischen Kunst , Munich, 1978, p. 235-8; F. Brommer, Vasenlisten zur griechischen Heldensagen , 3rd ed.,
Marburg, 1973, p. 464-6; D. Kemp-Lindemann, Darstellungen des Achilleus in griechischer und rmischer Kunst ,
p. 149, no. 646; Basista, loc. cit. (supra, n. 29), p. 18, no. V 4.
There is another fragment, once in the University collection, Leipzig, which Beazley called "not far from
'Tyrrhenian' " and whose scenes he identified as "Priam
and Achilles on one side; frontal chariot on the other".
See J. D. Beazley, review of K. Friis Johansen, Iiiaden i
tidlig graesk Kunst, JHS, 54, 1934, p. 85; see also LIMC,
I, p. 149, no. 651, and Basista, loc. cit. (supra, n. 29),
p. 18, no. V 5; and Friis Johansen, op. cit. (supra, n. 29),
p. 267, no. 20c.
32. The fragment (ABV, p. 66, no. 50), which was once
in the Curtius collection and subsequently on the American market, is apparently lost; cf., however, Lullies,
loc. cit. (supra, n. 29), p. 82, n. 5. A drawing of the fragment
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The Heidelberg Painter's version of the story stands apart from the representations of
the scene on other Attic vases of this period, but it is close to that which appears on a
series of "Argivo- Corinthian" bronze reliefs from the second quarter of the century and
beyond.33 On these reliefs, Achilles, naked and carrying a spear, faces right, while Priam,
who is slightly bent over and leans on a stick, stands to left and touches the chin of Achilles
with his right hand. The old man occupies the center of the composition, flanked by Achilles
on the left and by Hermes, identifiable by his caduceus, on the right. The body of Hector
is stretched out along the bottom of the scene, and his head is at the right, to the right of
his father. These bronze reliefs seem to represent a distinctive Argivo-Corinthian version
of Homer's story. Whatever its origin, this variation with Achilles upright and facing right
and Priam facing left, touching Achilles' chin, was clearly known in Athens by ca. 560 bc,
when the Heidelberg Painter painted his Siana cup. It thus appears at about the same
time as the version which was first used by the Painter of London B 76 and the Castellani
Painter. These two interpretations of the ransom of Hector continue to coexist. In the
third quarter of the sixth century, when the Painter of Munich 1379 was working, the
version with Achilles reclining is seen, for example, on an amphora attributed to Group E.34
The variation with Achilles upright appears on a bronze shield-band relief from the Acropolis
at Athens which is dated to the end of the century.35 The version with Achilles reclining was
to remain the most common, but the other variation was not forgotten or liable to be
misinterpreted.
The painter of the Boston amphora appears to have been well acquainted both with
Homer's text and with the pictorial version with Achilles upright, for his interpretation
of the tale partakes of both. On side A, the mule cart, with its carefully secured cargo, is
driven by a single bearded man, who can be identified as Idaios. The team is guided by
a small man, who seems to be holding the muzzle of the near mule, as though to quiet the
animal, and the cart passes by the two men, who are apparently oblivious to it, as were the
sentries when Priam and Idaios drove into the Achaean camp. On side B, the tiny unarmed
man with the unusual eye is Priam, who is ushered into the presence of the large figure,
who must be Achilles, by two men carrying spears. Achilles, in what may seem contradictory gestures, tucks his spear under his arm with one hand and takes hold of the small
man's clothing with his other. The two men to the left of Achilles are his men, who take a
more active role in the scene than does the pair on the right.
One prominent element of the story of the ransom of Hector, however, is absent in
the depiction on the Boston vase: the body of Hector. The lower part of the panel on side B
33. For the bronze reliefs, see Friis Johansen, op. cit.
(supra, n. 29), p. 49-51; p. 246, nos. ioa-io^; LIMC , I,
p. 148, no. 642; E. Kunze, Archaische Schildbnder ,
Olympische Forschungen, II, Berlin, 1950, p. 145-8. The
two earliest examples are Berlin 8099 (Kunze, op. cit .,
Beilage 11, i and 3; Friis Johansen, op. cit. [supra, n. 29],
fig. 7) and Olympia B 1654 (Kunze, op. cit., Beilage 11,
2 and pl. 19, 8: f and IV /).
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is not completely preserved, but there was never a corpse stretched out along its full width.
The body of Hector is indeed present in the vase-paintings and on the bronze reliefs. In
Iliad 24, however, the corpse is in another part of Achilles' shelter, and Priam does not
see his son when first he confronts Achilles. The vase-painters introduce the body in their
versions of the story largely for pictorial reasons. They must create tension and interest
through action and juxtaposition. The poet desires the sense of drama and psychological
tension created by Priam's not seeing his son at first.36 The absence of the body on the
Boston amphora actually makes the vase seem closer to the story as it is told in Iliad 24 than
On the other vases, the scene is always set inside Achilles' shelter. Occasionally, vasepainters may include depictions of the metal objects as a suggestion of the wealth of the
ransom Priam has brought, or they may add extra props or extra figures to intensify the
action or the meaning, but they are primarily concerned with the confrontation between
Priam and Achilles.37
But that the mule cart was always associated with the ransom of Hector may be
demonstrated by examining several later treatments of the story. The cart and Priam's
supplication of Achilles were important elements in Aeschylus' Phrygians or the Ransom
of Hector , which was probably produced in the 490's bc, perhaps as part of a trilogy of
which the other two plays were the Nereids and the Myrmidons .38 Priam probably made his
first entrance in the mule cart which carried the rich ransom, and he was accompanied by
the Trojan chorus.39 In the prologue, Achilles spoke with Hermes, but he sat silent through
the first song of the chorus of Trojans and through Priam's subsequent pleading for Hector's
body. Ultimately, he must have spoken to Priam and given up Hector's body to him.40
Despite the changes Aeschylus has undoubtedly made, his play still contains the two
basic elements of the story of the ransom - the same two elements which appear on the
Boston vase.
At least two of the plays in the Aeschylean trilogy, the Nereids and the Phrygians , are
thought to be represented on a red-figured double-register calyx-krater attributed to Polygnotos.41 The krater is very fragmentary, and what is preserved of the depiction of the
36. See Basista, loc. cit. {supra, n. 29), p. 35-6.
37. See, e.g., an amphora by the Rycrott rainter in
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Phrygians is part of the mule cart. Hedwig Kenner has reconstructed the cart as it would
have been outfitted for returning Hector's body to Troy, rather than for bringing in the
ransom. It is still, however, the mule cart, which appears here as a principal image in the
ransom of Hector.42
In the Roman period, the ransom of Hector continues to be a popular subject, and
there are representations of it in wall painting and stuccowork, on sarcophagi, and on the
reliefs known as the Tabulae Iliacae ,43 The two elements of the story which regularly recur
are the mule cart loaded with the ransom and Priam supplicating Achilles. The Roman
versions that have the most in common with the pictures on the Boston vase appear in two
Pompeian houses and in the Tomb of the Pancratii on the Via Latina in Rome.44 In a
painted frieze in the so-called House of Loreius Tiburtinus, Priam kneels before a seated
Achilles while a servant unloads the ransom from the mule cart on the right of the picture.45
A similarly kneeling Priam occupies the center of a scene which is framed on the right by
the seated Achilles and on the left by the mule cart in a painted and stucco frieze from the
sacrarium in the House of the Cryptoporticus.46 The two elements are present but arranged
in yet a third way on a stucco relief from the Tomb of the Pancratii.47 Clearly, the suppli-
cation and the mule cart with the ransom were regarded as the two images which best
characterized Iliad 24.48
While it is apparent that the loaded mule cart and the supplication on the Boston
amphora have elements in common with the story of the ransom of Hector and that the
painter's version is close to the Homeric account, it is also clear that the Boston amphora
does not provide a simple and straightforward depiction of the two scenes. The mule cart
does not carry a cargo of precious metal objects and garments; it carries wine-filled amphorae.
One of the mules is ithyphallic. Priam is not an old, white-haired man; he is a small figure
with a narrow eye. Achilles is a big man, with a head of red hair, who seems to be roughing
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up his supplicant. Something out of the ordinary is going on; it seems more likely that the
panels on the Boston amphora are not decorated with scenes illustrating Iliad 24, but rather
with tableaux from a parody of the ransom of Hector.
The parody shows the enormous mule cart with its carefully secured cargo of wine
amphorae as it passes the Achaean guards unnoticed. The small Priam, in the company of
Achilles' men, some of whom seem to threaten him, entreats the hero, who is behaving a
bit like a bully (and perhaps, given the contents of the amphorae, even a drunken one). It
must be admitted that the story of the ransom of Hector does not seem, at first, to be
particularly promising comic material. Indeed, as it is told in Iliad 24, it is one of the most
moving scenes in the entire poem. But, on the Boston vase, the painter does not describe
those most emotional parts - Achilles and Priam talking to each other as father and son,
Achilles discoursing on the lot of man - rather he concentrates on the elements of the
story which lend themselves to visual gags. The large mule cart makes its way right under
the noses of the Achaean sentries, and it is a cart laden not with precious metal objects and
luxurious woven garments, but with amphorae full of wine. Old Priam is shown as a small
man beseeching the great - even in stature - hero. It has already been noted that some of
the figures have quite distinctive faces, and they may be meant to identify particular charac-
of Hector originated. While it is possible that the Painter of Munich 1379 conceived the
idea entirely on his own, it is more probable that his inspiration came from an external
source. The images on the Boston amphora are the painter's version of a comic performance
he had seen and heard.
In 486 BC comedy officially became part of the City Dionysia, and it was probably
added to the Lenaea in the late 440's bc.49 This does not necessarily mean that there were
no comic performances in Athens before 486 bc, and indeed, as K. J. Dover has suggested,
"it may be that humorous dramatic performances were a 'fringe' activity of the Dionysiac
festivals for a long time, perhaps even for centuries, before this official recognition . . ."50
There are numerous representations of comic choruses on vases which are earlier than 486 bc,
and they testify to the existence of some kind of comic performances with choruses, at least,
from the second quarter of the 6th century onwards.51 Among the contemporaries of the
49. See A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, The Dramatic Fes-
ABV, p. 66, no. 57; Para., p. 27, no. $7; Beazley Addenda,
p. 6; H. A. G. Brijder, A Pre-Dramatic Performance of a
Satyr Chorus by the Heidelberg Painter, Enthousiasmos.
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Painter of Munich 1379, working in the third quarter of the 6th century, there seems to
have been a particular interest in comic performances, for two of these artists, the Painter
of Berlin 1686 and the Swing Painter, decorated vases with scenes of comic choruses.52
Unfortunately, very little else can be surmised about either the form or the content of these
performances.53 Something is known about the comedies of the Sicilian writer Epicharmos,
who may have been working as early as the late 6th century and was certainly composing
in the first decades of the 5th century.54 A number of his works have plural titles, and
that probably means that they had choruses, and he seems to have been particularly fond
of mythological burlesques.55 Themes from the Trojan War were fair game for Epicharmos;
the Trojans surely had such a subject, and Odysseus was the target of several of his
burlesques.56 There is certainly no literary evidence for organized comedy before Epicharmos
but he does develop a reputation among later writers as an artist who brought together
"various elements into a structure which was sufficiently coherent to be regarded as the
beginning of artistic comedy".57
The literary evidence for 5th-century comedy before Aristophanes is pitifully fragmentary and even the evidence of the work of his contemporaries is surprisingly meager,
but there is some information from these later comic writers which helps to recreate the
character of this parody of the ransom of Hector. An elder contemporary of Aristophanes,
Philonides, wrote a comedy called H 'A^vy) - the Mule-Cart. 58 Nothing more is known
about the work, but its theme could well have been a parody of the ransom of Hector in
which, as on the Boston amphora, the mule cart plays a most prominent role.
The figure of "Achilles" on the Boston amphora is not behaving very nobly and
52. Berlin 1697 {ABV , p. 297, no. 17; Para., p. 128,
no. 17; Beazley Addenda , p. 39), by the Painter of Berlin 1686, is decorated with a chorus of "knights". See
Bohr, op. cit. (. supra , n. 18), pl. 198, and Green, loc. cit.
{supra, n. 49), p. 101, no. 3; fig. 6. There is also a comic
chorus on the Swing Painter's Christchurch 41/57 {Para.,
p. 134, no. 31 bis; Beazley Addenda, p. 40; Bhr, op. cit.
{supra, n. 18), pl. 56; Green, loc. cit. {supra, n. 49), p. 100-1,
fig. 7-
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might well be described as driving a hard bargain. The hero is referred to in exactly such
terms in the Tragedians , a comedy by Phrynichos, who is also Aristophanes' contemporary:
"You're a hard bargainer; Achilles drove no harder".59 It is easy to imagine that the large
country cart pulled by mules and the hard-bargaining Achilles were two of the principal
elements of humor in the parody, and it is these two elements which the painter of the
have been another aspect of the parody's humor. The scene with the mule cart appears
at first to depict an everyday commercial transaction, and indeed, that is also part of its
humor. Priam's cartload of priceless objects brought as his son's ransom has been transformed here into a cargo of wine-filled amphorae brought for sale, and Priam himself has
become a merchant trying to make a deal with the shrewd-trading Achilles. The high
tone of epic is parodied through its translation into the low life of the everyday. It may also
be that this metaphor of daily commerce explains the meaning of the long shaft that the
sad-looking man, second from the left on side B, holds with a peculiar grip - with his thumb
on top of the shaft. It might be a spear, but it seems too long, and the man does not hold it
properly. It might also be the arm of a scale. Aeschylus' Phrygians ended with the weighing
of Hector's body against the ransom brought by his father, and the comic possibilities of
balancing the hero's corpse against the amphorae filled with wine are obvious.60 Or course,
the balance would not be the small, jeweller's device shown in the weighing of the souls
of heroes, but the large, commercial type used in scenes of the weighing of goods.61
This image of weighing, or, at least the use of the metaphor of daily commerce, calls
59. J. M. Edmonds, The Fragments of Attic Comedy i I,
Leiden, 1957 [reprint], p. 466-7, n. 52. See also Meineke,
op. cit. {supra, n. 58), I, p. 147-60; Kock, op. cit. {supra,
n. 58), I, p. 383, no. 52; and A. Krte, s.v. "Phrynichos" (7)
in RE , XX, i (1941) 918-20. 1 am indebted to A. A. Donohue for the reference to the Tragedians.
60. For the reconstruction of the end of the Phrygians ,
the drama, but they may have been part of the parody
as it is depicted on the Boston vase. Again, one might
think of the potential comic possibilities, particularly
the visual gags. As Priam comes to supplicate Achilles,
already one of the supernumeraries has come forward
with the scales, ready to pile on the gold to equal the
weight of the great Hector. But, of course, in the parody,
can save him now, even his bulk in gold weighed out by
Priam (22.351-2).
61. For large balances, see, e.g., the Taleides Painter
amphora in New York (47. 11. 5; ABV, p. 174, no. 1;
p. 688; Para., p. 72, no. 1; Beazley Addenda, p. 22;
CVA, New York, 3, pl. 11), the Lakonian cup by the
Arkesilas Painter, with King Arkesilas of Cyrene and the
weighing of silphium (Cabinet des Mdailles 189;
C. Stibbe, Lakonische Vasenmaler, Amsterdam, 1972,
p. 278, no. 194; pls. 61-2; E. Simon, Die griechischen
Vasen, Munich, 1981, pl. XV), and an oinochoe by the
Keyside Class (Vienna 1105; ABV, p. 426, no. 4; Gtter.
Heroen. Menschen. Antikes Leben im Spiegel der Kunst,
Vienna, 1974, p. 69, no. 212; pl. 35). These balances all
have arms which are thicker in the middle, whereas the
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to mind the last phase of the contest between Aeschylus and Euripides in Aristophanes'
Frogs . An exasperated Dionysos, trying to determine which poet he should take back to
Athens from the Underworld, decides to weigh the verses of the two poets in a balance.
The god says to his two contestants :
te Seup vuv, e7rep ye Sei xa tout [jls
vSpV 7UOL7]TCV TUp07tG)XYj<Jai, TS^V/jV.
Bring out the scales then, if my duty is to judge two master poets like a
grocer selling cheese.62
The verses go into the pans of the balance, and the pan which "contains" Aeschylus' verse
eS7TpXi. 7TOTa(JL oUVOfJLOl T ZniGT:pO(p(X.l
"I wish the Argo's hull had never winged her way" rises.64
Dionysos chides Euripides - his personal favorite - for putting wings on his verse, while
Aeschylus
L(70Y)X 7COTOCfXV, pL07rG)XlXto
. . . put a river in [his], the wool-merchant's trick, and soaked his words
in water as they do their wool.65
Wool merchants and wine merchants, cheese sellers and mule carts - it was all part of the
fun that the Painter of Munich 1379 has captured on the panels of the Boston amphora.
Art Department ,
Rutgers University , New Jersey.
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