THE OWL of ATHENA. in the Archaeological Seminar at Upsala
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THE OWL OF ATHENA. IN the Archaeological Seminar at Upsala is a vase, presented by Dr. Nachmanson, the design on which is illustrated in Fig. 1. I forbear to discuss it in any other respect than that of the design, as Prof. Sam Wide, to whose kindness I owe the permission to use the illustration, reserves to himself the right of dealing with the vase fully in a subsequent publication. It is an amphora of good b.-f. style to be dated about 550 B.C., and the scene is framed in a border which displays along the top the maeander Fiu. 1.—VASE IN THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SEMINAR, UPSALA. pattern and at the sides a double row of dots. In the centre of the scene is an altar towards which the priest advances from the left leading the ram he is about to sacrifice. He is a youthful male figure, draped only in his himation, and crowned with a wreath of olive. Beside the altar on the r. rises a slender column surmounted by a statue, the upper part of which disappears from our ken beyond the borders of the field; evident ly the statue was not of paramount importance in the scene depicted. Beyond the column to the r. the fore-part of a bull is visible : the sacrifice was of a most 174 THE OWL OF ATHENA 175 complete kind.1 But to whom was it offered ? The answer is revealed by the presence of an enormous owl, seated upon the altar, whose body in profile is turned towards the worshipper; but the head, represented full face, is turned at an impossible angle towards the spectator. In the same way on an engraved gold ring of the fifth-fourth century in the British Museum, the deity, Zeus, to whom a woman is sacrificing at an altar is represented by an eagle2 (Fig. 2). Thus, as in countless votive reliefs of an early date, for example the hero reliefs from Sparta, etc., the relations between the deity and the spectator are fully established. The olive branches which straggle across the background from the r., although they doubtless serve to fill the space, are probably also intended as an indication that the scene takes place in FIG. 2.—ENGRAVED . GOLD RING IN THE the °Pen alr- BRITISH MUSEUM. In certain cases animal forms were introduced, not as a mere decorative motive, but from a clear desire to express a definite meaning, the significance of which would be obvious to the spectator, and hence the introduction into the picture of animals as symbolic of divinities. Dr. Rouse in his interesting work Greek Votive Offerings gives much valuable information, but on p. 375 he says : ' The attendant animals are not treated as equivalent to their deities and are. therefore not proved to be symbolic of them.' And on p. 380: ' The Greeks would not consider an attribute or an attendant animal as an equivalent for the deity himself.' To this rule, he maintains, the early artists invariably adhered until ' the great dividing line of the fourth century;' after which a change takes place and in the succeeding centuries many innovations were introduced, and with the gradual weakening of the early simplicity and directness of faith, religion in general was overlaid with elaborate and fantastical symbolism. In many cases the explanation which Dr. Rouse gives of seeming contradictions to this proposition are perfectly logical, but there seem to be certain instances where the statement might be qualified, as the vase under discussion proves. He has observed that in certain cases, as for example on coins,3 the representation of the owl is really a sort of short- hand mark for the city of Athens. In the vase under discussion, however, the owl obviously cannot represent the city, but its position on the altar indicates that it is symbolic of none other than the patron divinity herself: that here—at least—Athena is represented by her owl. But this vase is not unique in the prominent positio11 it bestows upon Athena's owl. Throughout the course of Greek art and upon objects of widely different artistic merit the subject can be traced, as I hope to show by a few examples. 1 Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, i. p. 290. kling incense from a libanotris which she holds 2 F. H. Marshall, Catal. of Finger Rings, in her left hand. PI. II. 59. The woman appears to be sprin- 3 Greek Votive Offerings, p. 375. 176 E. M. DOUGLAS In Homer the epithet of Athena was j\avKa>'7ri<;, a term which must mean more than merely bright-eyed, for that would be equally appropriate, to other goddesses, whereas it is only to Athena that it is applied. It was the omen of the owl perching upon the shrouds which led the confederates to accede to the opinion of Themistocles; * and with this is to be compared the stratagem of Agathocles,5 who let.out certain owls among his troops that the men might be encouraged by the sacred sign; in which he succeeded, ' eiedo-Tcov olcovi^ofi-evayv Bia TO 8o/c€tv lepbv elvai TO t,&ov ri}<{ 'AOrjvas' Still more striking is the passage from Aristophanes 'yXavg yap rjfi&v irplv fjM%e(T0ai TOV crrpaTov SteirraTO,' 6 and the comment of the scholiast thereon ; ' VXavKa rrjv 'AOrjvav Ka\eV Evidently to the men of that period the goddess was actually embodied in her owl. It has been suggested that the figure of the owl on the countless small aryballoi to be found in every museum has an apotropaic significance; but the fact that this is practically a repetition of the coin design, the owl associated with the olive twig, leads one to suspect that here, in a very crude and homely form, is a reference to Athena the protectress—apotropaic, yes— in the sense that the goddess is powerful to shield from evil, and that there- fore the design has a certain mystic force like the rough little medallion of a saint, bought for a few sous at some fair or noted shrine. The subject of the birth of Athena was a very difficult one for the primitive artist.7 How was he to depict it without rendering it grotesque or belittling the majesty of the goddess ? Kleanthes of Corinth8 is said to have been the first to attempt the task, but the subject became a popular one and the numerous examples on extant vases show that, although the details may vary, the artist usually adhered to a fixed scheme. Besides Zeus, Eileithyia is almost invariably present, Hephaistos, often Apollo as Citharoedus and other male and female divinities. It has been suggested 9 that the example in the British Museum No. 147 is the Attic prototype of the subject; but the very complexity and multiplicity of details point to a long development. In a few cases Athena is not visible, for it is the moment before the birth which is represented. In Munich is a b.-f. vase10 which shows Zeus facing r., seated on a simple seat, the back formed by a lion's head. Before him stands Eileithyia making the usual gesture, and behind her Ares armed. Behind Zeus Apollo Citharoedus prepares to hymn the great event upon his eight-stringed lyre, whilst right in the background is Hermes, only the point of whose petasos remains. From the head of Zeus springs Athena all armed, and upon his wrist perches her emblem, the owl. Unusual as the introduction of this last detail seems, yet this representation appears to have a prototype in a vase now in the Vatican.11 * Plutarch, Themis. 12. 8 Athen. viii. 346. 5 Diod. Sic. xx. 11. 9 Loeschcke, Arch. Zeit. 1876, p. 112, sqq. 6 Aristophanes, Wasps, 1086. 10 0. Jahn, Vasensammlung zu Miinchen 7 E. Schneider, Geburt der Athena, 1880, No. 645; Mite des Mon. dr., i. PI. LX. enumerates thirty-five vases with this subject. u Cat. Mus. Greg., ii. PI XLVIII. 26. THE OWL OF ATHENA 177 Here in the centre is Zeus seated on a throne, the back of which curves round in the form of a swan's neck. He is clad in a long chiton ornamented with purple spots, and round his shoulders is a mantle with broad purple stripes. In his 1. he holds a sceptre, the end shaped like a shepherd's crook. -Facing him to the r. stands Eileithyia clad in an elaborately decorated garment, fastened upon the shoulders with enormous brooches. Behind her is Ares, and to the 1. behind the throne stands Poseidon with the trident in his r., and lastly Hermes, draped in a small purple chlamys. Beneath the throne is a diminutive youthful male figure, enveloped in his himation, but raising his covered r. in a gesture of adoration. Above the wrist of Zeus is perched the owl, turning its head fully towards the spectator; but no anthropomorphic image of the principal personage in this scene is visible. Evidently to the later artist of the Munich vase the owl symbol alone did not suffice, and he therefore added the anthropomorphic image of the goddess to elucidate the waning significance of the theriomorphic image. The Berlin Museum possesses an interesting fragment of a Corinthian pinax,12 the votive offering of some local potter of the seventh century. On the 1. rises the great oven, before which is a tiny, bearded, grotesque figure, evidently apotropaic. On the 1. is the potter himself, stooping over his work; while perched on the top of the oven is a large owl.