Odysseus and the Sirens-Dionysiac Boat-Races-A Cylix by Nikosthenes

Author(s): Jane E. Harrison

Source: The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 6 (1885), pp. 19-29
Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/623385 .
Accessed: 10/02/2015 03:52
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to The Journal of Hellenic Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 193.226.121.130 on Tue, 10 Feb 2015 03:52:11 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

A CYLIX BY NIKOSTHENES.

19

ODYSSEUS AND THE SIRENS-DIONYSIAC BOATRACES-A CYLIX BY NIKOSTHENES.

PLATEXLIX.
FouR years ago, in dealing with the Myths of the Odyssey,'I
raised afresh the time-honoured difficulty of the art-form of the
Sirens: Why are the sweet singers of Homer pictured as hybrid
monsters-birds with the faces of women ? Much that I then
said about the Sirens may, I hope, still hold good; but the final
solution or part solution of the difficulty which I arrived at, I
now believe to be mistaken, and, with more complete material at
hand, I hope in the present paper to offer a new, and possibly a
more satisfactory, solution. I fell then into the not uncommon
error of projecting into the mind of the Greek vase-painter a
great deal of allegorizing tendency and somewhat mystical moral
purpose which was really conspicuous by its absence ; my familiarity with the literary forms and the literary growth of mythology was much wider than my acquaintance with the manner
and the influence of artistic tradition. The power of tradition in
an art and still more in a handicraft is not easily overestimated.
The thought and expression of the handicraftsman is governed
by the art forms that lie ready to his hand, just as the thought
of a writer is moulded and fashioned by the language he employs. Each must use current phraseology, only elevating or
debasing it a little according to his proper faculty. The more
one becomes familiar with Greek vase-painting the more weight
does one allow to this principle of typography-the more does
one recognize the simplicity of the factors which, combined and
recombined in almost mechanical fashion, make up the
multiplicity of vase-compositions.
In determining the origin of a vase type we naturally look
1 Myths of the Odysseyin Art and Literature. By J. E. Harrison(Rivingtons).

c2

This content downloaded from 193.226.121.130 on Tue, 10 Feb 2015 03:52:11 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

20

A CYLIX BY NIKOSTHENES.

for a black-figured instance. In the case of Odysseus and the

Sirens, I had long been aware of the existence of such an instance. Brunn, in his list of signed vases, gives, under the head
of Nikosthenes, ' 42, aus Vulci, einst bei Durand (n. 418), dann
bei Beugnot (n. 57), zuletzt bei W. Hope. (Odysseus und die
Sirenen).' A description follows, correct, except in one particular,
which I shall note later. Acting on this notice, I at once asked
permission to visit the Hope collection at Deepdene, but my
letter remained unanswered; nor did more influential pleading
meet with better success. I felt sure that a vase by Nikosthenes would at least give the clue to the primitive type of
the myth, but Brunn's description left the representation too
obscure to serve as foundation for a theory, and, much disappointed, I gave up the question. Three years later, when
investigating a quite different matter, I accidentally learnt that
the Nikosthenes vase was not in the Hope collection at all, but
had gone, owing to the sale of part of the collection, to the
Louvre. The vases of the Louvre I had, in the meantime, so
far as facilities could be obtained, carefully examined; but the
cylix I so earnestly desired to see had escaped me. I tell the
story of my search only to point two morals: First, the imperative need of a printed and publicly accessible record of all
sales of private collections; second, the need of a printed catalogue
of all public collections. The difficulty of collecting the mere
materials for the study of vases is sufficient without these extra
and most baffling hindrances.
What I have to say about the vase is best said under two
divisions.
First, the connection of the design with the type of Odysseus
and the Sirens.
Second, the connection of the design with other similar designs
which I believe in all probability relate to nautical races in
honour of Dionysos.
First as to the connection of the design with the type of
Odysseus and the Sirens.
The cylix from which the design is taken is of the ordinary
shape seen in the cut. This drawing, from a photograph, and
those in Plate XLIX. I owe to the kind superintendence of
M. Hgron de Villefosse. The scenes on the obverse and reverse
are very similar. On the obverse appear two ships, the one

This content downloaded from 193.226.121.130 on Tue, 10 Feb 2015 03:52:11 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

A CYLIX BY NIKOSTHENES.

21

slightly in advance of the other; the prow of each is decorated

with a boar's head, the stern shaped into a swan's neck and head.
On each of the ships there stands, to the fore, apparently on the
outlook, a drapedmale figure; behind, in the stern, is seated the
steersman with his two oars.

The outlook man .of the foremost ship is distinguished

from the others (probably with no special intent) by his
long hair, formally arranged in a long stiff coil, after the familiar,
archaic fashion of the IDiskophoros. On the reverse the same
design is repeated, but in the case of each ship the draped figure
on the outlook is omitted, and each ship is further adorned by
a large eye painted on the forepart-in the front ship in black,
in the hinder one in white. All four ships have their white
sails fully set, and to the stern of each of them is horizontally
attached a landing ladder: just such a ladder as we see in
actual use in representations of scenes from the myth of the
Argonauts. To our modern minds these ladders seem attached
in a fashion most inconvenient for sailing. The four ships are
interesting specimens of ancient war galleys; but, if they present
any special features, I must leave the discussion of such to those
who have a knowledge of shipbuilding, ancient and modern.
I pass to the remaining decoration. Under each of the handles
of the cylix is a dolphin, placed there for the double purpose of
filling decoratively the vacant space and of indicating the sea.
On a spiral line coming out of the handle a Siren perches, with
head turned in the direction of the ship, the body towards the
handle. Brunn says, in his catalogue of the Nikosthenes vases,
that 'gegen den Henkel je eine Sirene auf einem Felsen, die

This content downloaded from 193.226.121.130 on Tue, 10 Feb 2015 03:52:11 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

22

A CYLIX BY NIKOSTHENES.

nach den Schiffen zuriickblickt;' but manifestly no rock is

indicated, nor do I think that the Siren is intended to be looking
towards the ship. Sirens used decorativelymake a better pattern
with the head turned around in this way, and accordingly we find
this attitude becomes the typical one. Sirens used in precisely
the same fashion, and perched on a spiral, may be found not
infrequently in vases of the mature black-figured and very early
red-figured style. In Gerhard'sAuserlesene Vasenbilder,xxviii.,
we have a Siren of precisely this pattern perched on a spiralnot, as in our cylix, as an ornament on a handle, but full in the
centre of the design, and yet with no connection with the
subject. Again, on a vase in the Hermitage (Myths of the
Odyssey,pl. 44), we have another Siren perched on a spiral, at
the foot of a palm tree. I formerly thought that this Siren-at
whom the Apollo and Hermes of the rest of the design seem to
look fixedly-formed an integral part of the design. I now
believe her to be purely decorative.
It may rightly be asked on what grounds I have headed this
paper, 'Odysseus and the Sirens.' Obviously the characteristic
figure in this myth, Odysseus bound to the mast, is wanting.
No less certain to my mind is it that the Sirens are mere
decorative adjuncts. The picture, then, resolves itself into four
galleys, possibly engaged in a race, and has no mythological
meaning whatever. Such is my opinion; but, for all that; the
design has, I believe, a very high mythological importance. We
catch in it the type of Odysseus and the Sirens just at the very
moment of formation. Let us turn for a moment to a red
figured rendering of the same scene, the only one that, so far as
I am aware, exists: I mean the well-known amphora of the
British Museum (Myths of the Odyssey, pl. 37).
Here the
dead type is vitalized, translated from a mere genre scene into
a design with a mythological meaning.
The Sirens, two before (i.e., one to each handle), are three
according to current, though not Homeric, tradition. By the
very slightest addition of line the spiral ornament has become an
actual rock. The steersman is there and the oarsmen (whom
Nikosthenes leaves out), but, instead of the man on the outlook,
we have Odysseus bound to the mast; instead of the
filll sails,
they are partially reefed, for at the passing of the Sirens there
fell a dead, noon-day calm. In the cylix of Nikosthenes the
only

This content downloaded from 193.226.121.130 on Tue, 10 Feb 2015 03:52:11 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

A CYLIX BY NIKOSTHENES.

23

sign of intended connection between the ship and the Sirens is

the fact that the men on the outlook seem to gaze her way, and
that the Sirens are perched only on that side of the handle
towards which the ships are steering. But, on the other hand,
on the reverse the outlook men are not depicted, and I fear
the position of the Sirens is determined merely by considerations
of space.
Why I think the vase to be of great importance is that it
seems to me that in this design we have a clear instance of what
has taken place somewhat less obviously and strikingly in countless other cases. Forms accidentally and merely decoratively
juxtaposed suggest the art-form for the expression of a myth.
The art-form (which must always be carefully distinguished from
the literary form and the origin of the myth) of the Myth of
Odysseus and the Sirens, I believe to have been suggested by
the merely accidental juxtaposition of two racing galleys and the
Assyrian bird-women already long current in decorative art.
E5POIE is inscribed
Thecylix beforeus is signed. 4IkOOE/(0EN
just above the white sail on the obverse to the right hand. A
signed vase has its own importance with reference to the style
of the potter. But as the manner of Nikosthenes is familiar to
all I need not stop to consider it. Dr. Klein in his Griechische
Vasen mit Meistersignaturen,has collected seventy instances of his
signature. Our cylix stands as No. 60 in his list, and the further
authorities on his style are cited op. cit. p. 24. The principal
characteristic of the work of Nikosthenes is, however, somewhat
important to the matter in hand. He stood on the boundaryline between the black and red figured masters, but in spirit he
belonged to the past. He was above all things a mechanical
decorator, caring little for mythological meaning, much for a
certain mannerism of effect. Casting our eye over the list of
his works we find a few mythological subjects, but these treated
in a very abstracted, schematic, non-original fashion: such
designs have the emptiness and lifelessness of an often repeated
scheme which tends to lose its meaning and lapse into a mere
pattern. What Nikosthenes best loves are such figures as
dancing Satyrs and Maenads,sphinxes, panthers, Sirens, Hippalektryons. Black-figured types are getting exhausted, and
Nikosthenes is not the man to revitalize them; he decorated a
vase or two in accordance with the new red-figured technique,

This content downloaded from 193.226.121.130 on Tue, 10 Feb 2015 03:52:11 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

24

A CYLIX BY NIKOSTHENES.

but he never felt the impulse "of the new Attic inspiration.
Perhaps nowhere is the contrast between the new and old
manner better seen than by the juxtaposition of the mechanical
cylix before us and the amphora with the red-figured Odysseus
and the Sirens already cited.
I turn to the second point: the connection of the design in
the cylix of Nikosthenes with other similar designs, which,
I believe, in all probability relate to nautical races in honour of
Dionysos.
About the end of the black-figured period it is not uncommon
to find a certain class of vases decorated with a design consisting
of four or five ships following each other in regular succession.
I have collected the following instances, to which no doubt
many more might be added:a. Lebes. Munich, Cat. 781. G., A. V., ccliv.
b. Kelebe. G., A. V. cclxxxv., vi.
c. Deinos. Millinger, Vas. Coghill, 52.
d. Deinos. Politi, Descrizione d'una Deinos.
e. Kelebe. Hermitage, Cat. 10.
f. Lebes. Hermitage, Cat. 86.
g. Deinos. Bull. 1873, p. 125.
These seven vases, it will be noted, are all of such shapes
that they allow of decoration on the lip of the vase. When the
vase was full of liquid, the ships painted on the vertical part of
the lip would appear to be actually floating, and it is possible
the artist may have been influenced by what seems a somewhat
trivial conceit. Be this as it may the ships, four or five in
number, are in all seven cases used as decoration for the lip.
It is of great importance to note what the remaining decoration
of each vase is.
The Munich lebes (a) has the horizontal rim of its lip
decorated with a frieze obviously agonistic, chariot-race,
combat of armed warriors, judges seated on okladiai.
The Kelebe, once in the Feoli collection (b), has on the
obverse, in red figures, a palaestric scene, bearded men in conversation with boys; this extends to the reverse. The horizontal
rim has in blackfigures a complicated Dionysiac scene-Dionysos,
seated on the capital of a short pillar, holds a rhyton in the
right hand, a vine-branch in the left. To him advances Hermes
with herald's staff. Hermes is followed by a bearded Satyr,

This content downloaded from 193.226.121.130 on Tue, 10 Feb 2015 03:52:11 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

A CYLIX BY NIKOSTHENES.

25

who leads a boy on horseback into the presence of Dionysos.

After the boy-presumably a successful competitor in the
horse-race-comes a representation of a Bacchic festival, Satyrs
and Maenads with krotala, cithars, rhytons-the scene characterised by vine-branches, panthers, a snake, and wine vessels of
various shapes, one a kelebe of the very shape of the vase it
helps to decorate. We can, I think, scarcely escape the inference
that Dionysos is here a prize-giver at games in his own honour,
and that the galleys which are decorated in the inner vertical side
of the rim are racing galleys contending at the same festival.
The deinos of the Coghill collection (c) is of the same type as
the two preceding; on the horizontal surface of the lip is a
continuous frieze, composed of five pairs of combatants, four
boys on horseback, four figures seated on okladiai, and sundry
judges and ephebi; as usual the ships occupy the vertical
surface of the lip.
The Politi deinos (d) repeats the same pattern-i.e. horizontal
frieze of warriors arming, stepping into chariots, pairs of combatants; vertical frieze of five galleys.
The Hermitage kelebe (e), obverse Dionysos, viz. crowned and
holding in the left hand a rhyton. Opposite him a female
figure, possibly Ariadne; between them a vine-branch. Behind
each a succession of Satyrs and Maenads. Under each handle
Satyr and Maenad. Reverse, same scene, with slight alterations.
Vertical side of lip, four galleys.
The Hermitage lebes (f) has no decoration except the five
galleys on the vertical side of the lip.
The remaining deinos (g) has a garland of ivy around the
neck, and on the horizontal side of the rim combats of hoplites
and of chariots with charioteers.
The regular scheme of decoration for this class of vases stands
as follows :Horizontal side of lip, agonistic types.
Vertical side of lip, galleys.
Where the shape (kelebe) admits of further decoration the
design is either (1) agonistic or (2) Dionysiac.
In the case of one vase (b) the agonistic type is plainly
referred to Dionysos, in the case of another (e) the galleys appear
in conjunction with designs which are exclusively Dionysiac.
I am well aware that this evidence alone is too slender to

This content downloaded from 193.226.121.130 on Tue, 10 Feb 2015 03:52:11 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

26

A CYLIX BY NIKOSTHENES.

support a theory of galley races in honour of Dionysos. Literary

testimony can, however, be added.
In a former number of the Hellenic Journal (vol. ii. p. 90
and p. 315) Prof. Gardner has brought together the evidence as
to boat-races in general among the Greeks, and incidentally of
races that seem to have been run in honour of Dionysos. In
the Corcyra types of coins, which Prof. Gardner thinks refer to
galley races, the head of Dionysos occurs twice on the obverse
(vol. ii. p. 95), and one racing galley has, we note, the significant
name of Kc^poq. Most important for our purpose is the passage
of Pausanias (cited by Prof. Gardner, ii. 315, and in connection
with vase-paintings by Gerhard, G., A. V., ccliv. p. 24, n. 13) in
which he speaks of the festival in honour of Dionysos Malanaigis
(Paus. ii. 35, 1) in which there were contests in music, in
swimming and with boats (Kal 7rXioW rltOEaou-aOXa). In
Dumont's L'Ephibie Attique, Inscr. viii. 54, we have noted a
part of the service rendered by the Attic Ephebi to Dionysos
&
u4tXiXavrTO wolorXOOt.We can readily con8ca
drroso-avr-o
ceive
that the Greeks, if they had boat-races at all, would have
races of war-galleys. All the agonistic training of the Greeks
was tinged with a certain fine, patriotic, utilitarianism; the
friendly contest of racing war-galleys might be a fitting prewith an enemy's fleet.
paration to the more serious
latXXa
The God Dionysos does not himself
disdain to go to sea. On
a beautiful cylix in the Munich collection (No. 339) we have
Dionysos of colossal size reclining in a galley shaped exactly
like our Nikosthenes galleys; from the mast rise up vinebranches laden with huge bunches of grapes, and all around the
ship dolphins are playing. On the outside of the cylix, on
either side of the handles, are combats of hoplites; on the
obverse and reverse are two eyes. According to Pausanias
(ix. 20, 4) Dionysos contended with and overcame a Triton who
disturbed his worshippers. Very frequently on vases of about
the date of Exekias we have designs in which Dionysos or his
symbols appear in connection with the sea; e.g. G., A. V., viii.
we have a cylix in which a white-haired man holding a trident
rides a hippocamp, on either side a huge eye surrounded by
vine-branches and bunches of grapes. Similarly an amphora,
G., A. V., viii., on the obverse Dionysos with cantharos in his
right hand seated on an okladias, in front of him a bearded

This content downloaded from 193.226.121.130 on Tue, 10 Feb 2015 03:52:11 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

A CYLIX BY NIKOSTHENES.

27

man (a competitor in a musical contest ?) playing on a lyre,

between them a vine; reverse, a triton holding an ivy wreath,
about him dolphins.
I would therefore suggest:1st. That it is possible, and even probable, that where the
type of four or five war-galleys, in connection with other agonistic
schemes appears, we have in the galleys a representation of a
galley race.
2nd. That wherever Dionysiac attributes appear in conjunction with these galleys, the race was presumably run in
honour of Dionysos.
3nd. That, considering the immense popularity of Dionysiac
subjects about the time of the black-figured vases, just before
the time of the red-figured Attic cylix masters, even where
there are no Dionysiac symbols, it is probable the intention
is Dionysiac.
4th. That the large eyes which so frequently appear about
this date are Dionysiac, in the simple sense that they stand
symbolically for galleys which ran races in honour of Dionysos.
5th. That with the general decline of Dionysiac subjects,
and probably, to some extent, because of the unmanageable
shape of the ships, their representations of galley-races went
out of fashion in the period of the red-figured Attic cylix
masters.
6th. That possibly the vases we have enumerated above,
being all of the nature of mixing vessels, i.e., deinos, lebes, or
kelebe, were of the sort used as prizes in these Dionysiac
festivals, or in some other way specially connected with the
ceremonies.
7th. That the Nikosthenes vase represents a Dionysiac
galley-race, but in just such a way as we should expect from
a potter whose manner was mechanical. There is a technical
advance in the representation of the race, inasmuch as the galleys
are almost side by side, but the representation is taken from
the rim of a mixing vessel, which it suits fairly well, and put
on to the obverse and reverse of a cylix, which it suits very
badly. The Sirens present are possibly borrowed from some
definitely Dionysiac representation (on the connection of
Dionysos and the Sirens see Myths of the Odyssey, p. 161);
but such a meaning was scarcely present to the mind of the

This content downloaded from 193.226.121.130 on Tue, 10 Feb 2015 03:52:11 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

28

A CYLIX BY NIKOSTHENES.

mechanical Nikosthenes, who used the Siren merely as a piece

of decoration.
Finally, resuming our first point: the representation of a
boat-race in honour of Dionysos, the meaning of which was
only half present to the vase-painter, together with the figure
of the Oriental bird-woman decoratively used, supplied the type
which was ultimately to represent artistically the myth of
Odysseus and the Sirens.
JANE E. HARRISON.

Since writing the above, I have examined the vase collections

of Northern and Central Italy and the collections of the Louvre,
with a view to finding further instances of the connection between
Dionysos and nautical races-with the following results. I
letter the additions, so as to follow consecutively the previous
list.
h. Lebes. Louvre, Campana coll.: white label 224, blue-edged
label 1064-horizontal lip, ivy pattern; vertical rim, five ships
with steersmen only.
i. Lebes.
Louvre, of very large size-horizontal lip, a
frieze of chariot races, armed combats, seated judges, Herakles
and Nemean lion, Theseus and Minotaur; vertical rim, six ships
in full sail, steersmen and oarsmen, white sails.
j. Patera. Louvre, black ware with boss in centre; round the
boss frieze of ships racing. The fore parts only shown.
k. Cylix. Corneto (Bruschi coll.) black-figured-below each
handle a ship, between each handle two Dionysiac eyes, and
between each of these warriors. Vine branch decorations
1. Amphora. Corneto (Bruschi coll.) fine black-figured-obverse
Dionysos seated in large ship; in left hand cantharos, in background vine and grapes, in outlook place Satyr. In rear of ship
Maenad with lyre and Satyr with cup; below handles dolphins;
reversesimilar but differing in details.
in. Neck of amphora-(noted Klein, Meistersignaturen, Exekias 5), now in collection of Augusto Castellani, Rome, vertical
rim for ships in waves, horizontal rim, inscription

E+5EKIA MEPOIEEX FPAI/NETOM

MXAOK X/\N+APOPOI
None of these six last vases are,"sofar as I am aware, published
--h. simply repeats the normal scheme we have noted with no

This content downloaded from 193.226.121.130 on Tue, 10 Feb 2015 03:52:11 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

A CYLIX BY NIKOSTHENES.

29

definite Dionysiac evidence-i. adds agonistic though not certainly Dionysiac evidence--j. belongs to the late embossed ware,
and I only cite it because together with it were a number of
other similar cups with chariot races, &c. so that it seems to make
for the fact that the ships are an Agonistic type. k. is distinctly
Dionysiac, as is shown by the eyes and vine branches-the
warriors between the eyes probably represent an armed combat
-1. belongs to the same type as the beautiful Munich cylix
cited above (Munich No. 339). There is nothing in either case
to indicate the subject of racing, but the vases are of course of
great value as showing the connection of Dionysos and seafaring
matters-rn. I believe to be the neck of a deinos - it is
valuable, as it enables us to take the type as belonging to the
time of Exekias.
I would add to these two instances nearer hand which escaped
my notice before.
n. A small black-figured cylix, British Museum, exterior
decorated by four ships alternately war galleys and merchant
ships. This is probably a mere decorative caprice of the vasepainters, as the two sorts of ships would scarcely be entered for
the same race.
o. Cup in the form of the prow of a war galley, British Museum.
"Round the lip of the cup are Sirens' heads, below which is
Seilenos reclining in an arbour and playing on the flute. At
the back of the prow is a Victory." Mr. Newton conjectures
(Guide-book p. 17) that this cup may belong to the class
called trieres.

This content downloaded from 193.226.121.130 on Tue, 10 Feb 2015 03:52:11 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

J. H.S.18 85. PI.XLIX.

This content downloaded from 193.226.121.130 on Tue, 10 Feb 2015 03:52:11 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions