Bryn Mawr College Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Faculty Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology Research and Scholarship 1990 Birds, "Meniskoi," and Head Attributes in Archaic Greece Brunilde S. Ridgway Bryn Mawr College, [email protected] Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy . Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.brynmawr.edu/arch_pubs Part of the Classical Archaeology and Art History Commons, and the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Custom Citation Ridgway, Brunilde S. 1990. Birds, "Meniskoi," and Head Attributes in Archaic Greece. American Journal of Archaeology 94:583-612. This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. http://repository.brynmawr.edu/arch_pubs/22 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Birds, "Meniskoi,"and Head Attributesin Archaic Greece BRUNILDE SISMONDORIDGWAY To G. Roger Edwards Abstract beings and scenes of everyday life. This situation is Research on metal attachments in Archaic sculpture proportionately more acute the earlier the artistic leads to the conclusion that the "meniskoi"mentioned by phase and the more "primitive" or abstract the ren- as the birds be a Aristophanes protectionagainst may pun dering. Thus, on vases of the Geometric period, some or allusion,the meaning of which escapesus today.Spikes and attachment holes on the heads of kouroi and korai scholars have wanted to identify Homeric heroes and should rather be seen in the light of some examples on specific legends, for example, Paris abducting Helen marblesphinxes, where traces of paint and other devices or Theseus departing with Ariadne, whereas others indicate for the metal bars. It is specificmeanings argued have read the same figures as an eighth-century ship that what has been taken as in the usually simplification captain taking leave of his wife. A shipwreck with rendering of Archaichair should often be read as a head sailors surrounded fish has been as one cover; in particular,Antenor's Kore, Akr. 681, is consid- by interpreted ered an Athena wearinga helmet, in imitationof an earlier of Odysseus' adventures, but also as one of the perils image. Elaborate Archaic headdresses may have their of contemporary Greek trade expanding overseas.' in roots prehistoricor Easternpractices, and in turn lead Even apparently standard decorative motifs such as to the fashions of complicated fifth-centurytemple stat- animals and ornaments have been ues, like the Athena Parthenos and the Rhamnousian filling alternatively taken as divine or as elements of life Nemesis. Identificationmust be made on a case-by-case symbols daily basis, but it seems plausible to suggest that most kouroi having practical purposes, some more easily intelligi- and korai represented divine beings, whose distinctive ble than others, especially in their meaningful juxta- headdressesserved as identifiersfor the ancientviewers.* position. In particular, an important article by John Boardman has tried to make sense of the seemingly It is a well-known fact of Greek iconography that generic horses and fish decorating Argive Geometric the modern viewer, without the help of specific clues vases in terms of the natural habitat of the vase paint- such as written labels or distinctive attributes, cannot ers, who could see around them horses at pasture in always distinguish representations of mythological fig- areas ringed by marshes and sea. A more recent pub- ures and epic events from those of common human lication has instead returned full circle to earlier re- * This article is dedicated to G. Roger Edwards,without Boardman, J. Boardman, GreekSculpture: The Ar- whom it would not have been written. Not only did he put Archaic Period chaic Period (London 1978). at my disposal his most extensive file on meniskoiand rep- Richter, G.M.A Richter, The Archaic Gravestones resentations of the moon crescent and astral signs (from AGA of Attica(London 1961). which most of my references are taken), but he gave me Richter, G.M.A. Richter, Korai, Archaic Greek access to many of his own ideas and, with his intensive Korai Maidens (London 1968). attempts to visualize the Aristophanic meniskosand other Richter, G.M.A. Richter, Kouroi, Archaic Greek head ornaments, forced me to come to grips with the issue. Kouroi Youths (London 1960). His scholarly generosity is here most gratefully acknowl- Ridgway, B.S. Ridgway, The Archaic Style in Greek edged. I am also grateful to Jane B. Carter and especially Archaic Style Sculpture (Princeton 1977). Jody Maxmin,for helpful discussion,references, and obser- Paris and Helen or Theseus and Ariadne: see, e.g., vations. I warmlythank Kevin Glowackifor bibliographical W.R. Biers, The Archaeology of Greece: An Introduction (Ith- help and comments, and Kenneth Shapiro and MarinaBe- aca and London 1980) 119 and fig. 5.20; cf. also p. 106. lozerskaya,who in the Spring of 1989 checkedthe headdress Shipwreckas Odyssean adventure or contemporaryoccur- of Antenor'sKore for me. The followingabbreviations have rence:J. Boardman,Pre-Classical (London 1967) 63 and fig. been used: 32; cf. also the vase from Pithekoussai,most recently dis- cussed by D. Ridgway, "The PithekoussaiShipwreck," in AMA Die archaische Marmorbildwerke der Ak- Studies in Honor of T.B.L. Webster 2 (Bristol 1988) 97-107, ropolis (Frankfurt 1939). Korai pub- with mention of possible interpretationsand previous bibli- lished by E. Langlotz,other sculptures ography.For a generaldiscussion on the iconographicmean- in the round and reliefs by W.-H. ing of Geometricrepresentations, see A.M. Snodgrass,An Schuchhardt, architecturalsculpture Archaeologyof Greece(Sather Classical Lectures 53, Berkeley by H. Schrader. 1987) 147-69. 583 AmericanJournal of Archaeology94 (1990) 584 BRUNILDE SISMONDO RIDGWAY [AJA 94 ligious interpretations, explaining the patterns as on all four is seen to be a more complex combination reminiscent of a Bronze Age Leader of Horses de- of garments including a diagonal mantle and perhaps rived from Oriental iconography and connected with a veil tucked in at the waist, unexpectedly early for ritual fish sacrifice.2 Greek art and worn in a manner now convincingly This ambiguous situation could have improved connected with earlier Near Eastern practices. A sim- during the Archaic period, especially with the spread ple coiffure of angular masses framing the face is now of writing to provide labels for painted scenes and explained as a veil draped under a polos and almost dedicatory inscriptions for monuments. Yet the am- entirely covering the hair, again of Oriental deriva- bivalence remains, not only for representations on tion. The iconography of the goddess standing on a black- and red-figure vases, but also for extant sculp- lion had always been interpreted in terms of Eastern tures, whether large or small, in terracotta, bronze, influence, and this earliest among Greek stone sculp- or stone. It is with the last that I am particularly tures therefore confirms ties with more remote peri- concerned here, although examples and evidence ods and lands.3 from the other categories will occasionally be intro- Attributes, often added in metal or carved together duced to support my arguments. To be sure, our with separately inserted limbs, had the potential to interpretation of surviving statuary is hampered by transform a generic human form into a divinity. Thus various factors, of which a few may bear examination the well-known "Nikandre" from Delos could repre- and exemplification here. sent the Naxian woman who dedicated the marble Paint, for instance, was an integral element of all statue, but the metal attributes once held by the figure ancient carving, yet today it is mostly lost and can only in both hands, combined with the epithets of Artemis be recovered, if at all, through technical means not mentioned in the votive inscription, make it virtually accessible to the general viewer. By means of color, certain that it is a representation of the goddess her- sculptors introduced significant details too difficult to self, holding a bow and an arrow. A more or less render plastically, gave liveliness and distinction to standard kouros type provided with a belt and gold facial features, and created visible differentiation pendants to the hair turns into an Apollo.4 Wings at from garment to garment and even from statue to the booted feet of a generic traveler indicate Hermes. apparently similar statue. A startling demonstration Thus the anthropomorphism of Greek gods is at the of the importance of paint has been given by the same time a help and a hindrance-a help to the recent publication of the Isthmia perirrhanterion, ancient sculptor who could use a standard model and, showing the supporting female figures as differently by judiciously adding different attributes, adapt it for clothed and made up. What looked like a plain tunic various purposes or depictions; a hindrance for the 2 J. Boardman,"Symbol and Story in GeometricArt," in 419-30; a Syro-Palestinianconnection for the iconography W.G. Moon ed., Ancient GreekArt and Iconography (Madison is postulatedon p. 425, where the waterbasin as cult equip- 1983) 15-36. For connection of the Argive motif with My- ment is said to reachback to EarlyBronze Age Mesopotamia. cenaean pictorial vases from Ugarit in North Syria, see S. In the same volume, see M. Waelkens,P. de Paepe, and L. Langdon,"The Returnof the Horse-Leader,"AJA 93 (1989) Moens, "Quarriesand the MarbleTrade in Antiquity,"11- 185-201. 24, for the theory that the Greeks learned their quarrying For 3 a recent general treatment of paint on Archaic methods from Anatolia.This point is further elaboratedby sculpture see, e.g., E. Walter-Karydi,"Prinzipien der ar- M. Waelkens, "The Quarrying Techniques of the Greek chaischen Farbgebung," in Studien zur klassischen Archiiolo- World," in Marble: Art Historical and Scientific Perspectives gie (FestschriftF. Hiller, Saarbriicken1986) 23-41. Isthmia on AncientSculpture (Malibu, Getty Symposiumheld 28-30 perirrhanterion:M.C.