BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV
THE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF GENERAL HISTORY
THE MYTH OF NIOBE IN LITERATURE AND ART
FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD
THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MASTER OF
ARTS DEGREE (M.A)
BAR LESHEM
UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF:
PROF. YULIA USTINOVA AND PROF. NIRIT BEN-ARYEH DEBBY
MARCH 2018
Acknowledgments
This thesis is dedicated to my late grandfather, Dr. Ehud Loeb, whose encouragement and knowledge were the inspiration for my work.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis advisors, Prof. Yulia
Ustinova and Prof. Nirit Ben-Aryeh Debby, from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, for their patience, guidance, motivation and immense knowledge.
I would also like to thank Naomi Miller, my language editor, and Dr. Danny
Unger, Dr. Ariadne Konstantinuo, Dr. Ory Amitay and Dr. Ronit Milano, for their valuable insights and continued guidance.
Last but definitely not least, I am grateful to my family and friends, especially to my mother, Naomi Leshem, sister, Shahaf Leshem, and grandmother, Shoshana Loeb, for their moral and emotional support not only during my BA and MA studies, but throughout my life in general.
Abstract
Many of the Greek myths which are found in a variety of literary and visual sources were developed, represented and adapted in different eras, societies and cultures throughout the ages. This thesis examines the representations, adaptations and reception of the myth of Niobe, as determined from both literary and visual sources, over an extended period of time. Starting with ancient Greece, the analysis then continues through ancient Rome, and ends with a survey of the myth’s representation in the late Middle Ages and the Early
Modern period.
The myth focuses on the mythological queen of Thebes, Niobe, who boasted about her many children to the goddess Leto. As a punishment, Leto sent her two children,
Apollo and Artemis, to kill all of Niobe’s children, thus depriving her of her source of pride. This myth is one among many myths which concern with the hybris element, and
Niobe is a one among a long line of hubristic mythological figures.
The main goal is to understand the underlying reasons for these different interpretations and adaptations, given what we know about the social context. In particular, the analysis focuses on the phenomenon of hybris / superbia / pride and examines the way in which the portrayal of this element of the Niobe myth sheds light on the moral questions pertinent to each society and time. To reduce the aims of the research to one question, this would be: “In what manner had the myth of Niobe developed and what purposes has it served?”
The wide corpus which is presented and examined in this treatise introduces a variety of media and genres. The corpus will be divided into two main categories of evidence representing the myth of Niobe: literature and visual art. Literary texts belong to different genres, such as Greek tragedy, epic poetry, Greek and Roman poetry, moralizing texts and early-Renaissance poetry and biographies. The visual art comprises ii a variety of media including Greek vases, reliefs, sculptures and paintings and domestic art such as cassone panels.
The examination of each type of evidence will comprise three main parts. First, a detailed description of the text or image will be provided. Second, the content and message of each artifact will be compared to those of earlier evidence, both visual and literary. Finally, after placing the piece of evidence in its iconographic or narrative and context, conclusions will be drawn about the purposes and reception of the artifact within the society in which it was created. Over the course of the thesis, by examining both the artifacts themselves and their recent and contemporary artistic, social, and historical contexts, I will attempt at reconstructing the evolution of the Niobe myth through the ages.
This thesis is organized as follows. Chapter One focuses on ancient Greek evidence, Chapter Two is devoted to the representations of Niobe in ancient Rome and
Chapter Three deals with the evolution of the images in the Christian world of the late
Middle Ages and Early Modern period.1
My main conclusion concerning the development of the myth asserts that a clear shift occurs in the manner of its perception. While the literary and visual representations in ancient Greece featured Niobe as both a paradeigma for a grieving mother and as a hubristic figure, it seems that in later times of ancient Rome, the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, Niobe was represented mostly as a hubristic mythological figure, thus downplaying the earlier attitude. It is argued that this shift, and in particular the abandonment theme of grief, results from the ethical norms current in the societies in
1 The time gap between ancient Roma and the Late Middle Ages is due to the fact than not much evidence regarding the myth of Niobe has been found or survived during the Early Middle Ages. Therefore, the main source of knowledge for later artists and author was Ovid’s reception, through a variety of adaptations; his popularity grew mainly from the twelfth century onward. iii which the myth was presented. The use of Niobe to convey a message of consolation, which had been an important part of the representation in ancient Greece, was overlooked during the Roman empire, as the importance of the warning against superbia was particularly salient at that time. Similarly, in the Christian environments of both the late
Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, the Niobe myth was seen as an ideal vehicle serving an exhortatory purpose – to encourage humility and warn against the Christian vice of pride (which is also known as superbia). Thus my analysis shows not only a specific iconographical and narrative development in the Niobe myth, but, from a broader perspective, it also sheds light on the alterations of a classical tradition in accordance to the ideology of a particular society.
iv CONTENTS
Introduction 2-8
Chapter One – Ancient Greece 9-34 a. Niobe in Greek Literature a. 9-21 b. Niobe in Greek Art b. 22-32 c. Conclusions c. 32-34
Chapter Two – Ancient Rome 35-51 a. Pride and the Roman View a. 35-38 b. Roman Literature b. 38-43 c. Later Roman Art c. 44-49 d. The Image of Niobe in the Ancient World d. 50-51
Chapter Three – Late Medieval and the Early Modern Period 52-72 a. Pride in Christianity a. 52-53 b. Ovid’s Reception b. 53-55 c. Pre-Renaissance and Early-Renaissance Literature c. 55-62 d. Italian Renaissance and Baroque Art d. 62-71 e. Conclusions e. 71-72
Conclusions 73-77
Bibliography 78-86
List of Illustrations 87-91
Illustrations 92-108
Introduction
The myth of Niobe is one among many Greek myths which were adapted and interpreted throughout the ages, both in literary sources of different genres and in a variety of visual media. The myth focuses on the mythological queen of Thebes, Niobe, who boasted about her many children to the goddess Leto, thus claiming superiority over the goddess. As a punishment, Leto sent her two children, Apollo and Artemis, to kill all of Niobe’s children, thus depriving her of her source of pride. Different aspects of the myth vary from version to version, and from period to period, as will be discussed in the subsequent chapters.
This thesis examines the myth’s representations, adaptations and reception, as determined from both literary and visual sources, over an extended period of time.
Starting with ancient Greece, the analysis then continues through ancient Rome, and ends with a survey of the myth’s representation in the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. The main goal is to understand the underlying reasons for these different interpretations and adaptations – that is, to examine the way in which the myth was used in a particular location and period, given what we known about the social context. In particular, the analysis focuses on the phenomenon of hybris / superbia / pride and examines how the portrayal of this element of the Niobe myth sheds light on the moral questions pertinent to each society and time. To reduce the aims of the research to one question, this would be: “In what manner had the myth of Niobe developed and what purposes has it served?”
The wide corpus which is presented and examined in this treatise introduces a variety of media and genres. The corpus will be divided into two main forms of art representing the myth of Niobe: literature and visual art. Literary texts belong to different genres, such as Greek tragedy, epic poetry, Greek and Roman poetry, moralizing texts
2 and early-Renaissance poetry and biographies. The visual art comprises a variety of media including Greek vases, reliefs, sculptures, paintings and domestic art such as cassone panels.2
Given the constrains of the thesis, it is not possible to mention all of the known visual and literary representations of the myth of Niobe. However, the representations of the myth that are discussed were carefully chosen and, in my opinion, they constitute central evidence of a relatively robust nature.
A consistent methodology will be used to examine each piece of evidence, notwithstanding any limitations that may apply, as, for example, imprecise knowledge of the location or age of an artifact. The examination will comprise three main parts. First, a detailed description of the text or image will be provided. Second, the content and message of each artifact will be compared to those of earlier evidence, both visual and literary. This will provide a basis for the understanding of the development of the artistic representation of the myth. Finally, after placing the piece of evidence in its iconographic or narrative context, conclusions will be drawn of the artifact within the society in which it was created. Over the course of the thesis, by examining both the sources themselves and their recent and contemporary artistic, social, and historical contexts, I will attempt at reconstructing the evolution of the Niobe myth through the ages.
Two main theoretical approaches will guide my methodology: Small’s narrative theory and the field of classical reception studies. While theories abound on the relationship between visual imagery and text, and many studies, some of which will be discussed in the main chapters, discuss the narrative of mythology, the broad applicability
2 Regarding the myth of Niobe, both in the classical iconography and in the entirety of myths, the only myth that matches the description of the two gods together (Apollo and Artemis) shooting arrows at young girls and boys is the myth of the killing of the Niobids, thus the identification of the visual sources is rather obvious. 3 of Small’s narrative theory to my methodology means that it warrants special attention in this introduction. According to Small, when examining the connection between the literary and visual tradition in antiquity, one must also take into consideration the oral tradition which has not survived.3 In addition, she argues, the visual and literary traditions may have become separated over the course of time, in which case each tradition leans more heavily on its own history.4 While in some cases I will examine the relationship between one medium and another, for example the influence of Greek tragedies on
Apulian art, I will not discount the possibility that the literary and visual traditions developed in parallel. Moreover, I believe that much of the evidence that will be examined, developed in its own context; thus rather than being directly influenced by other media, it was developed from its own tradition, including contemporary societal beliefs and values.
The second theoretical approach originates from the broad field of classical reception studies. In Hardwich’s and Stray’s definition, the field of reception means
“…the way in which Greek and Roman material has been transmitted, translated, excerpted, interpreted, rewritten, re-imaged and represented.”5 Given that this is the precise topic of my thesis, the field of classical reception will accompany us throughout the dissertation. Classical reception theory focuses both on the elements of classical tradition that were adopted by later generations and on the manner in which those elements were received, not only in their own time but also by those who adopted them.
Thus, the theory may be applied to all depictions, representations and adaptations of an element, be it a myth, a tradition, a text or an image.
3 Myths are a part of a narrative tradition. Graf argues that: “They [the myths] are tales that are rephrased constantly and passed on within a (poetic) tradition. Graf (1993), p. 61. 4 Small (2003), pp. 3-6;36. 5 Hardwick and Stray (2008), p. 1. 4 The thesis touches upon various fields of study, theories, and approaches, depending on the period and the nature of the artifact under discussion. It is appropriate to mention here some of the broader fields of research upon which I have based many of my own theories. This research can be divided into two main themes: studies of the myth of Niobe and examination of the development of the concept of hybris / superbia / pride.
An examination of the visual and literary representations of a myth in a variety of periods, places and media present a significant challenge, considering the many pieces of evidence which are scattered across the world in various collections. Cook’s fascinating research on the myth of Niobe and its visual representations assisted me in selecting most of my visual corpus. Even though his main purpose was to address the origin of the Uffizi group, a group of sculptures which will be discussed in the first and second chapters, his wide survey on the Greek and Roman visual representations of the Niobe myth was of great service.6 In addition to Cook’s research, an extensive survey on the literary findings was available in Gantz’s collection of literary sources, which addresses each notable figure in Greek mythology. In addition to identifying the main Greek and Roman literary sources that refer to Niobe, Gantz provides an elaborated discussion of the variety of texts.7 These two scholars provided the main starting point for my thesis, especially with regard to the first two chapters. However, it is important to note that I will not discuss all of the evidence identified by Cook and Gantz since, as was mentioned above, I decided to focus on the artifacts and texts which appear to be most relevant to my purposes.
Finally, the reader’s attention is drawn to two additional sources that provided basic information about the visual images that will be examined in detail in this dissertation:
The Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologicae Classicae,8 and Beazley’s archive.9
6 Cook (1963). 7 Gantz (1993), pp. 537-539. 8 LIMC (1981), Niobe, Niobidai, pp. 608-618 + 908-929. 9 The Bezaley Archive, http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/archive/default.htm [accessed January 2018]. 5 Regarding the third chapter of my thesis, which focuses on post-classical periods, there were no single sources that identified and summarized the representations featuring the myth of Niobe. Therefore, the work done in collating findings from medieval and early-
Renaissance literature and art was my own undertaking. I assimilated these findings from a variety of sources, each of which presented only one or a small number of representations of the myth.
The second main area of research that is a recurring theme in this thesis is the depiction and development of the concept of ‘hybris’. Many myths concerning hybris were known in ancient times and were later, in the Middle Ages, Early Modern period and thereafter, reinterpreted as the sin of pride, one of Christianity’s vices. While the
Greek word ‘hybris’, Roman ‘superbia’, and English ‘pride’ (or superbia which is used in Latin and Italian texts) are not equivalent to each other, in many of the myth’s adaptations these terms were used to refer to Niobe’s act of boasting. To understand more fully the role played by hybris / superbia / pride in each of the historical periods and societies considered in this thesis, a brief examination of previous academic studies of the concept is appropriate.
Fisher’s study is one of the most comprehensive in the field of hybris in ancient
Greece. He provides a wide overview of the subject in a variety of media and fields, such as politics, epic poetry, Greek drama and philosophy,10 And the chapters examining the role of hybris in Homer’s, Aeschylus’ and Sophocles’ writings, are directly relevant to my study. Specific arguments put forward by Fisher will be presented and discussed when the aforementioned ancient texts are examined.11 Outside the limits of ancient Greece, a few more studies will be introduced, one of which deserves special mention in this introduction. Payne examines the concept of hybris / superbia / pride over an extended
10 Fisher (1992). 11 See Chapter One. 6 time period.12 He starts his journey in ancient Greece and then continues to Rome and the Early Modern period, referring to phenomena such as “The Roman Triumph” and
“The Terribiltà”13 as a way of illustrating how the concept of hybris / pride was viewed and expressed in different societies and historical periods.
The aim of this thesis, as mentioned above, is to examine the myth of Niobe and its translations and adaptations in different societies. In so doing, it will become apparent that the theme of hybris / superbia / pride is a key component in understanding the development of the myth. I will try to demonstrate that, in most cases, the myth was used as a device to address moral questions on a broadly similar theme – hybris in Greek tragedies and poetry, superbia in Roman poetry, and superbia / pride in early modern texts.14
Despite my contention that throughout the ages, the concept of pride had been a recurring and central theme of the representations of the myth of Niobe, my main conclusion concerning the development of the myth asserts that a clear shift occurs in the manner of its perception. While the literary and visual representations in ancient Greece featured Niobe as both a paradeigma for a grieving mother and as a hubristic figure, it seems that in later times of ancient Rome, the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, Niobe was represented mostly as a hubristic mythological figure, thus downplaying the former attitude. It is argued that this shift, and in particular the abandonment theme of grief, results from the ethical norms current in the societies in which the myth was presented. The use of Niobe to convey a message of consolation, which had been an important part of the representation in ancient Greece, was overlooked
12 Payne (1960). 13 Ibid. pp. 41-56., Ibid. pp. 85-103. 14 It is important to state that the word superbia is found also in Christianity as one of the mortal sins. My distinction between the Roman superbia and the Christian pride is to demonstrate the difference in the mind of ancient Rome and early-modern Christianity. That being said, there is an obvious continuity between the Greek hybris, the Roman superbia, and the Christian pride / superbia. 7 during the Roman empire, as the importance of the warning against superbia was particularly salient at that time. Similarly, in the Christian environments of both the late
Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, the Niobe myth was seen an ideal vehicle serving an exhortatory purpose – to encourage humility and warn against the Christian vice of pride. Thus my analysis shows not only a specific iconographical and narrative development in the Niobe myth, but, from a broader perspective, it also sheds light on the alterations of a classical tradition according to the ideals and ideology of a particular society.
This thesis is organized as follows. Chapter One focuses on ancient Greek evidence, Chapter Two is devoted to the representations of Niobe in ancient Rome and
Chapter Three deals with the evolution of the images in Christian world of the late Middle
Ages and Early Modern period. In order to limit the scope of the third chapter to a level appropriate for this thesis, I focus mainly on Italian representations of the Niobe myth.
Each chapter consists of an examination of the main literary and visual sources, and while an attempt has been made to present the finding in chronological order, deviations from this structure were sometimes inevitable, depending on the chapter’s internal logic. In addition, in the first and third chapters, the suffixes ‘BCE’ and ‘CE’ are not employed every time that a specific date is mentioned, since dates in the first chapter always refer to BCE, while those in the third chapter always refer to CE. However, in dealing with ancient Rome, in order to avoid ambiguity, a clear distinction is always made.
In conclusion, the intended contribution of this thesis is to provide improved understanding to the Niobe myth, not only as a mythological story about a woman and her boasting, but also as a narrative that remains relevant to the present day. Its moral lesson can be represented and retold in every society, entertaining and educating people in locations and periods far beyond those presented in this thesis.
8 Chapter One – Ancient Greece
a. Niobe in Greek Literature
The myth of Niobe is known from various ancient Greek and Roman sources. In general, only fragments of the story have been preserved and different sources refer to different details of the myth. Among the small number of ancient sources that present the myth in full, the two most important are: Homer in the Iliad,15 and Ovid in his Metamorphoses.16
Niobe was the daughter of Tantalus and the queen of Thebes, wife of Amphion, king and founder of Thebes. Niobe bore many children, the number varying from version to version. It is told that Niobe boasted about her superiority to the goddess Leto, for she had a large number of children, while Leto had only two: Apollo and Artemis. This statement makes Niobe one of the many hybristai characters in Greek mythology, since boasting of superiority over a goddess is considered an act of hybris. As in any act of hybris, Niobe was punished accordingly: Leto asked Apollo and Artemis to avenge their family’s dishonor and to take from Niobe the reason for her boasting: her children. Apollo and Artemis shot and killed all or most of the Niobids with arrows, thus leaving Niobe with nothing to boast about and her alleged superiority demolished. Some of the sources also present the death of Amphion following the death of his children. In most versions, a metamorphosis element is described: as a result of Niobe’s grief she was petrified. It is told that she still weeps and that water runs from the stone.17
While it is probable that Homer did not invent all the myths which are found in his epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, and that they represent older traditions in Greek society, he is credited with preserving the myths in their fullest written versions. Like
15 Hom. Il. 24. 602-620. 16 Ov. Met. 6. 146-312. 17 Gantz (1993), pp. 536-540. 9 many other myths to which Homer refers,18 and from the phrasing of the story, it is clear that the myth was already known when it was mentioned in the Iliad: “For even the fair- haired Niobe was bethought her of meat…”.19 In the closing book, which revolves around the dead body of Hector, son of Priam, Niobe’s story is featured as a point of comparison for the grief of the king of Troy, thus making the story a paradeigma. The myth is told by Achilles, who wants to encourage Priam to eat after they both weep for their losses:
Achilles for his friend Patroclus and for his father, Peleus, and Priam for his son, Hector.
Niobe is recognized here as the mother of twelve children and the base story, about her boasting and subsequent punishment, is introduced.20
Willcock defines a paradeigma as a “…myth introduced for exhortation or consolation”.21 The function of the paradeigma was mostly to comfort: “X was in a worse situation than yours, but got through it, so you will get through this” or to encourage: “X persevered through harder times than yours, so you should persevere”.22 In the case of
Niobe, the myth is brought up for both purposes: Achilles wants to encourage and to comfort Priam by recounting a story about a grieving mother whose situation is worse than Priam’s, since she had lost twelve children and Priam had lost only one.
The paradeigma is a common narrative technique in Greek texts, particularly in a so-called historical narrative, as in this case of the Trojan War. It is also common for the point of comparison, the paradeigma, to feature to a mythic character rather than a
‘historical’ one. Thus, Niobe’s story is appropriate for Priam’s situation according to all the aforementioned criteria: Niobe is a mythic character, she is a relevant point of
18 Létoublon presents the critical approach, ‘Neoanalysis’, which is based on the idea Homer already knew the traditions of the myths he told. Létoublon (2014), p. 28. 19 “…καὶ γάρ τ᾽ ἠΰκοµος Νιόβη ἐµνήσατο σίτου.” Hom. Il. 24. 602. Trans. by A.T. Murray (1924). 20 Even though the specific word “hybris” is not mentioned in the text, it is implied when Niobe puts herself on the same level, or even superior to the goddess Leto: “…οὕνεκ᾽ ἄρα Λητοῖ ἰσάσκετο καλλιπαρῄῳ: φῆ δοιὼ τεκέειν, ἣ δ᾽ αὐτὴ γείνατο πολλούς.” Hom. Il. 24. 607-608. 21 Willcock (1964), p. 142. 22 Livingstone (2014), p. 126. 10 comparison for the grieving father, and her situation may be interpreted as “worse”.
However, the Niobe myth was probably altered to fit this purpose. The basic element of a grieving mother stands; however, as discussed below, some of the details are recognized only in Homer’s version, suggesting that they may have been added to provide a more fitting comparison.
The first detail is mentioned at the beginning: Niobe asks to eat. In no other version that we know of did Niobe ask to eat. As Gantz rightly argues, it is peculiar that she decides to resume the normal activities of life and only later returns to the abject grief that turns her to stone.23 This indicated that the detail may have been added to the story to achieve a better comparison with Priam. Livingstone proposes another theory according to which the innovation of this detail should not only be attributed to Homer, but should also be considered as a detail added to illuminate the character of Achilles.24
Other details that appear to have been added are that the children of Niobe were left unburied and the people of Thebes were turned into stones.25 The obvious reason for the first addition is to compare the unburied Hector with the unburied Niobids. Another reason, suggested by Macleod, is to show the intervention of the gods in the story: the gods will Hector’s burial, and similarly, they bury the Niobids after nine days.26 The act of turning the people of Thebes into stones relates and connects to the already established stone motif in the myth.27
A question may be raised: Why did Homer choose a woman who committed hybris for his paradeigma? Priam, although the king of Troy and an enemy of Achilles, did not boast. As will be seen later in this chapter, this is not the only case in Greek
23 Gantz (1993), p. 537. 24 Livingstone (2014), p. 126. 25 Hom. Il. 24. 611. 26 Macleod (1982), p. 139. 27 Wilcock (1964), p. 142. 11 literature in which Niobe’s myth is used as a paradeigma for a situation in which there was no act of hybris. Achilles compares the two personae solely with respect to their grief, and not in relation to an act of hybris.
After Homer, for the rest of the Archaic period, there are no other full texts recounting the myth. In later Greek and Latin sources, we learn about the early poets and their references to the myth. The Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus refers to a few older sources and cites the number of the Niobids mentioned in each source.28 The composition itself asserts that there were seven sons and seven daughters and described the boasting mother, the punishment, and the act of turning Niobe into stone by Zeus.29 The text also includes the names of Niobe’s seven sons and seven daughters, while no names are mentioned in Homer’s version. Pseudo-Apollodorus also adds another detail which was not presented by Homer: the survival of both Amphion and the eldest daughter Chloris.30
It is difficult to determine the context in which these Greek authors referred to the myth of Niobe, since Pseudo-Apollodorus does not mention it. As noted above, the author adds a few details which were not included by Homer. It is probable that those details: the death of Amphion, the names of the Niobids, and Zeus’ intervention in the story, were known from earlier sources, since the Bibliotheca is a compendium of Greek myths, and its main purpose is to summarize earlier sources rather than to present original material.
Thus, although his text improves understanding that the myth of Niobe was common, it does not provide a wider context.31
The myth is also represented in the Greek tragedies of the fifth-century BCE
Athens. Vickers argues that Greek tragedy is “… essentially a representation of human
28 For instance, he mentions that Hesiod refers to ten sons and ten daughters, Herodotus to two sons and three daughters, and Homer to six daughters and six sons. Hom. Il. 24. 604. 29 A detail which is not mentioned in Homer. 30 Apollod. Bibl. 3.5.6 31 For a full discussion on the different sources see: Gantz (1993), pp. 537-539. 12 suffering, and the causes and effects of it; and that within and without the play this suffering produces in humane characters or in humane spectators the feeling of sympathy for the sufferer.”32 Although the Greek tragedy derives its main storylines from older myths and traditions, Vickers argues that it is translated into contemporary feelings and values and that there is a continuity in social and religious attitudes, from Homer to the fifth century.33
For our purpose, two common themes of Greek tragedy stand out as being relevant to the Niobe myth: the relations between gods and men and the value of family. As
Vickers argues, the value of family is one of the most important subjects in everyday life.
The concept of family can define and lend identity to an individual, by means of their legacy, continuity, land and property. When the last generation of a Greek family dies without issue, the oikos dies with it. 34 In Niobe’s myth, we can witness the end of one of a known mythological family: the legacy of Tantalus.35
The other subject is the relationship between the gods and men. The hybris is a fundamental act presented in Greek tragedies. There is a slight difference between
Aeschylus’ and Sophocles’ use of the term. Fisher defines Aeschylus’ use of the term as religious and identifies it as the basis for the understanding of the relations between gods and men in his plays.36 In contrast, Sophocles, although he sometimes uses the act of hybris in a religious sense, his principal use of the term is as an act between mortals: mainly crimes and humiliations.37 Unfortunately, since the plays referring to Niobe have been preserved only in a few fragments and ancient testimonies, the differences that
32 Vickers (1973), p. 52. 33 Ibid. p. 101. 34 Ibid. p. 110. 35 In various ancient sources, Tantalus was a wealthy king, whose kingdom differs according to the sources. In the context of the myth of Niobe, he is identified as king Sipylus in Lydia. He is the father of Pelops, king of Pisa, Broteas and Niobe. See Gantz (1993), pp. 531-536. 36 Fisher (1992), p. 247. 37 Ibid. p. 298. 13 Fisher raises are not discernible. However, the arguments of Fisher and Vickers help define the uses of the myth in tragedies, and thus also shed light on the manner in which the myth of Niobe may have used in this genre.
A number of scholars have tried to reconstruct Aeschylus’ Niobe based on the surviving fragments.38 Both Fitton Brown and Keuls placed the scene in Thebes, because of fragment 160 and its reference to Amphion’s home.39 Fragment no. 154a probably reveals the opening scene:
“… this is the
[third(?)] day that she has been sitting at this tomb, a living mother
brooding over her dead children, with the unhappy beauty of her
from [melt]ing away. A [mortal] afflicted is nothing…”40
Both Fitton Brown and Keuls agree that in the opening scene, according to fragment 154a, Niobe is already seated on the grave of her children, silent and veiled, and will probably not speak for most of the play. 41 They further agree that according to fragment 158, Tantalus is one of the main characters and arrived in Thebes during the play.42 This identification of Tantalus will be of help in further discussions of the visual representations of the play.43
38 I will refer mainly to Fitton Brown (1954) and Keuls (1978). Neither fragmentary play has been dated, so it is not known which play came first. The order of examination of the plays is mainly arbitrary, but since Aeschylus preceded Sophocles, his play will be discussed first. 39 Sommerstein (2009), p. 169: “…the halls and home of Amphion.” Fitton Brown (1954), p. 176. 40 Sommerstein (2009), p. 163. “τριταῖ]ον ἦµαρ τόνδ᾿ ἐφηµένη τάφοντέκνοιϲ ἐπῴζει ζῶϲα τοῖϲ τεθνηκόϲιν, ]ϲα τὴν τάλαιναν εὔµορφον φυήν·]ϲ κακωθεὶϲ δ᾿ οὐδὲν ἄλλ᾿ ε[ἰ] µὴ…” 41 Fitton Brown (1954), pp. 179-180. Keuls (1978), pp. 64-67. 42 Fitton Brown (1954), p. 177. 43 See Section b. 14 The remaining fragments are shorter and less informative. It is believed that Niobe speaks following pleadings from her father and that her first words are a long lamentation.
At the end of the play Niobe is believed to be petrified.44
Similarly, only a few fragments of Sophocles’ play have survived, which reveal a number of points about the story. Most of the surviving fragments are presented in two papyri, published in 1971 and 1984.45 The first fragment is as follows:
“Niobe which began with this line: The most … son of Zeus. The plot is
as follows: Niobe had an excessive love for her children and often said
that her own progeny was better that of Leto. While sending the boys off
to hunt with some friends she boasted of them again, saying that she was
the mother of the best of all children…”46
In this fragment, we learn that Niobe sent her boys to hunt, and it is probable that they were slaughtered off stage and that their death was revealed to us by a messenger.47
In the second fragment48 we learn about Amphion’s death, which Easterling argues announces by a messenger whom he identifies as the old paidagogos.49
Fragment 441a, which is not from the papyri, reveals a few lines, spoken by
Apollo to Artemis, as follows:
“
44 Fitton Brown (1954), pp. 179-180. Keuls (1978), pp. 65-66. 45 P. Oxy. 2805 and 3653 respectively. 46 Lloyd-Jones (2007), pp. 228-231. “Νιόβη ο[ὗ ἀρ[χὴ] ἥδε· ]ις ἡλίου τέκνα. ἡ δ᾿ ὑπόθεσις·Νιόβη τοὺς παῖδα]ς περισσότερον στέρξασα πολλάκιςτὴν γονὴν τὴν ἰ]δίαν ἀµείνονα τῆς Λητοῦς ἔφησεν.ἀποπέµπουσα] δὲ ἐπὶ θήραν τοὺς ἄρρενας µετὰ φίλων τινῶν πάλ]ιν ἐµεγαλορηµ[όν] ησενὡς παναρίστων ὑ]πάρχουσα µήτη[ρ] τῶνδε κατὰ τὰς.” P. Oxy. 3653, Fr. 1. 47 Easterling (2006), p. 12. 48 Lloyd-Jones (2007), p. 231. 49 Easterling (2006), p. 12. 15 ‘Do you see that frightened one inside, the one who is cowering alone
trying to hide, in the tun-store and by the bins? Will you not aim a swift
arrow at her, before she can hide out of sight?’” 50
Apollo turns Artemis’ attention to a girl who is hiding. Easterling argues that this fragment indicates that the slaughter scene of the daughters was shown on stage, and places Apollo in the acting area and Artemis inside the stage building.51 A few more fragments of the play survived, quoted by different authors, but none of them reveals many details about the essential and basic components of the play.
From the reserved fragments of the two plays, it seems that there are two different beginnings to the story: while it seems that Aeschylus’ play began with Niobe seated and grieving on her children’s grave, Sophocles’ play seems to have begun at an earlier point in time as it appears to include the slaughter of Niobe’s daughters. This discrepancy implies that the plot of each tragedy focused on a different part of the myth: the grief in the first, and the immediate punishment in the second.
These two plays are not the only tragedies which feature Niobe. She is presented in two other of Sophocles’ tragedies: Antigone and Electra. In these plays, Niobe is mentioned briefly, as a paradeigma, and not as the main heroine.
Mythological paradeigmata are common in the realm of Greek tragedies and are mostly introduced by a way of a comparison, often for the purpose of exhortation or consolation, much like in other genres in Greek literature. The author often focuses on different aspects of the myths from those emphasized in the pre-Classical period and occasionally introduces original elements. The portrayal of the classical myths in the genre of Greek tragedy is an intriguing area of study, which examines the manner in
50 Lloyd-Jones (2007), pp. 231-233. “<ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ> ὁρ]ᾷς ἐκείνην τὴν φοβουµένην ἔσω, τ]ὴν ἐν πιθῶνι κἀπὶ κυψέλαις κρυφῇµό]νην καταπτήσσουσαν; οὐ τενεῖς ταχὺνἰὸ]ν κατ᾿ αὐτὴν πρὶν κεκρυµµένην λαθεῖν;” 51 Easterling (2006), p. 11. 16 which tragedies approached the myths and processed them into something distinctive to the genre.52
Sophocles’ Antigone is dated to or after 441 BCE and was probably performed before Electra. In lines 823-833, while talking to the chorus about her fate, Antigone compares herself to Niobe and gives an extensive description of the latter’s petrification.
Interestingly enough, she does not mention the hybris act or the slaughter of Niobe’s children. Like Homer, Sophocles has an agenda too: to compare the two heroines by pointing out their similarities. Antigone cries about her fate and matches her fate to that of Niobe. The chorus rejects the comparison, stating that Niobe is a goddess and an offspring of the gods, while Antigone is merely human.53
There are a few points of comparison between Antigone and Niobe, an obvious one being their respective punishments; Antigone was doomed to die a ‘rock-bound death’, as Griffith defines it, while Niobe was trapped forever in a rock form.54 However, it seems that the theme of grief itself is the main reason for invoking Niobe as a paradeigma.
A few other, more minor points of comparison may be identified, although they are not mentioned in the text. Like Niobe, Antigone too belongs to the royal oikos of
Thebes. In addition, they both come from a family with a sinful past. Tantalus, Niobe’s father, is one of the great examples of hybris sinners,55 as are Antigone’s brothers who killed one another. As mentioned by Kornarou, another small point of comparison, though with some difficulties, lies in the acts committed by the two heroines: Niobe’s hybris
52Konstantinou (2015), pp. 476-477. 53 Soph. Ant. 834-835: “Yet she was a goddess, as you know, and the offspring of gods, while we are mortals and mortal-born.” Trans. by R. Jebb (1900). This claim will be discussed below in the context of Electra. 54 Griffith (1999), p. 268. 55 Tantalus’ punishment is described in Homer’s Odyssey. See: Hom. Od. 11. 582-592. For an elaborated examination on the myths and representations of Tantalus see also Gantz (1993), pp. 531-556. 17 against Leto and Antigone’s defiance of Creon.56 However, these acts are different; Niobe acted against a goddess, while Antigone acted against a king. Furthermore, Antigone’s actions do not constitute hybris; thus, hybris plays merely a small part, if any, in this paradeigma.
I propose a further possible reason as to why Sophocles chose to invoke the myth of Niobe. Homer emphasizes the comparison of the unburied body of Hector with the unburied Niobids, where, as argued above, the latter were probably an innovation of the poet. Could it be that the unburied Polynices, brother of Antigone, is likewise intended as a parallel to the unburied Niobids in the Homeric tradition? Although Sophocles does not mention this comparison in the play of Antigone, perhaps it was implied and would have seems obvious to the Athenian audience in the fifth century, who knew the Homeric tradition.
Irrespective of whether all the above-mentioned points of comparison are justifiable or not, it is clear that the two heroines, Niobe and Antigone, are used as a paradeigma for grief and, as characters who lost their family, they will both live on through their lamentation in the ancient tradition.
The next Sophoclean heroine who mentions Niobe is Electra, in Sophocles’ tragedy by the same name. Electra, lamenting the death of her father, Agamemnon, turns to two figures from Greek mythology, Procne and Niobe.57 Both of these mythological women, as Electra claims, are the ultimate mourners, who do not forget the deaths of their family and mourn forever. Electra admires Niobe and gives her goddess-like quality, since she weeps forever as a rock.
56 Ibid. p. 264. 57 Soph. El. 145-149: “Foolish is the child who forgets a parent’s piteous death. No, closer to my heart is the mourner who eternally wails, “Itys, Itys,” that bird mad with grief, the messenger of Zeus.”. Lines 150-152: “Ah all suffering Niobe, you I count divine, since you weep forever in your rocky tomb!” Trans. by R. Jebb (1900). 18 Like Antigone, Electra turns to Niobe’s grief to emphasize her own. Interestingly, she also does not recall the hybris, and only mentions the death of Niobe’s children, without expanding on the subject. The eternal mourning is what interests her, despite the major difference in their circumstances: while Niobe is responsible for her children’s death, Electra is not responsible for the death of her father. This detail is irrelevant with regard to making the paradeigma stand.
The most interesting detail in these three lines of the play that refer to Niobe is
Electra’s claim that Niobe is a goddess in her opinion. The same statement is made in the response of the chorus to Antigone’s comparison. Is there an ancient tradition underlying these statements? There is a significant reservation; Electra states that in her eyes Niobe is a goddess, which is clearly a subjective statement. However, the chorus in Antigone do agree with her claim, reinforcing the motif of Niobe as a goddess.
In both of these references of Antigone and Electra, two details stand out: Niobe’s grief and her petrification. The above analysis shows that, just like in the paradeigma of
Homer, here too there are some difficulties in comparing the characters one on one.
Furthermore, Sophocles, like Homer, alters and leaves out some details of the story, to match his agenda.
It may be concluded that the use of Niobe as a paradeigma, both in Homer and in tragedies, does not concern the act of hybris but rather the portrayal of Niobe as a symbol of grief. Her unique grieving process, until the point of petrification, grants her the prestigious status of the ultimate grieving mother, and this is probably the reason for her use in a variety of paradeigmata.
19 A unique addition to the corpus of Greek literature is a few epigrams from the
Palatine Anthology.58 The anthology contains epigrams in ancient Greek, although not all of them were composed in the periods of ancient Greece. Ten of the epigrams are dedicated to the myth of Niobe.59
Book Seven, in which most of Niobe’s epigrams appear, consists of sepulchral epigrams, although it is likely that only a few of these are epitaphs that were engraved on tomb-graves.60 Four of these epigrams deal with the story of Niobe and focus on the loss of her children.61 More especially, they deal with the loss of Niobe, her dead children, and the stone motif. Four of them present her in the first-person singular, as she talks about her grief.62 Two of the epigrams refer to her hybris.63 Epigram 549 contemplated the reason for her boasting: “Why did she speak the boastful words that robbed her of her life and her children?”64 Epigram 47, from Book Ten, which too deals with Niobe’s grief, paraphrases Homer’s version: “Eat and drink and keep silence in mourning; for we should not, as Homer said, mourn the dead with our belly. Yes, and he shows us Niobe, who buried her twelve children all together, taking thought for food.”65
58 It is difficult to place these epigrams in a chronological order, since most of them cannot be dated, even though some of them are attributed to known poets. The Greek Anthology, translated by W. R. Paton, contains the manuscript of the Palatine Library of Heidelberg, which was compiled in the 10th century by Constantine Cephalas. This manuscript consists chiefly of three older anthologies from different dates: the Stephanus or Wreath, of Meleager, dated to the first century BCE, the Stephanus of Philippus, dated to the Augustan period, and the Cycle of Agathias, dated to the age of Justinian: Paton (1979), pp. vii-xi. 59 Ibid. 60 Paton (1979), vol. 2, Book 7. 61 The epigrams are as follows: Book 7: Epigram 386, written by Bassus Lollius, a native of Smyrna, who probably lived in the time of Germanicus. Epigram 530, written by Antipater of Thessalonica, who probably lived in the first century BCE. Epigram 549, written by Leonidas of Alexandria. Epigram 743, written by Antipater of Sidon, a Greek poet who lived in the second century BCE. Book 10, which contains hortatory and admonitory epigrams: Epigram 47, written by Palladas, a Greek poet from the fourth century AD from Alexandria, Egypt. 62 Epigrams 386 and 530. 63 Epigrams 549 and 743. 64 “τί δ᾽ ἀλαζόνα µῦθον φθέγξατο, τὸν ζωῆς ἅρπαγα καὶ τεκέων;” 65 “ἔσθιε, πῖνε, µύσας ἐπὶ πένθεσιν οὐ γὰρ ἔοικεν γαστέρι πενθῆσαι νεκρόν Ὅµηρος ἔφη: καὶ γὰρ ὁµοῦ θάψασαν ὀλωλότα δώδεκα τέκνα σίτου µνησαµένην τὴν Νιόβην παράγει.” 20 This anthology is an interesting literary phenomenon. Niobe’s myth is used in these epigrams as means of consolation for grief. Niobe, as was shown in previous discussions, and will be shown below, is not only a hubristic woman, but also a grieving mother. Her use in sepulchral epigrams shows another layer of representation. She is not only portrayed in epic poems or tragedies, but also, it appears, in an every-day context.
From the literary evidence, it seems that the myth has two main uses: Niobe as a stand-alone story and Niobe as a paradeigma. Even though Niobe is considered to be one of the most renowned hubristic characters in mythology, it is the theme of her loss, mourning and metamorphosis which stands out in different literary sources and is the main the reason for her use as a point of reference and paradeigma. The only surviving representations of the myth as a stand-alone story are in the two fragmentary tragedies which feature her as the heroine. It is possible, especially in the case of Aeschylus’ version, that in these representations too, the theme of mourning played a significant part.
However, as may be seen in most Greek tragedies of fifth-century Athens, acts of hybris are found in abundance. Therefore, we may assume that the stand-alone stories of the myth focus on the hybris, as well as on the mourning and metamorphosis. In the representations of the myth as a paradeigma, the hybris play a secondary role, and sometimes, as was seen in Electra, was overlooked entirely. It seems that based on the
Greek literary evidences, Niobe is mostly presented as the ultimate grieving mother, and it is this part of the myth which takes the lead.
To complete the picture of the cultural context in Ancient Greece, in which the myth of Niobe grew and developed, a discussion of the visual representations of the myth is appropriate. Like the literary representations, the visual representations may shed light on the cultural and social contexts of the myth. The same question may be raised: for what purposes was the myth represented?
21 b. Niobe in Greek Art
The myth of Niobe was well-known to the Greek society and was a part of an oral and visual tradition as well as a literary one. The oral tradition was not preserved, and we rely only on the literary and visual traditions.
A methodological problem arises: should we consider every piece of visual evidence as a representation of a written text? Small believes not; she rules out the common belief that images that are inspired by a literary source necessarily represented the text. Small further argues that once a myth enters the cultural tradition, the original source of that myth ceases to be important. As time passes by, it becomes increasingly difficult to find the original source upon which the artist may have relied, especially since the artist may have used more than one literary source. The artist may have turned to epic poems, tragedies and the oral tradition as combined sources for one image.66
Small draws our attention to the way in which modern scholars analyze images: first they turn to the text and then to the image. However, she rightly argues that this approach does not necessarily match the way of working for the artists in antiquity, as it ignores the role of oral culture. Stories continued to circulate orally, and texts were not available to everyone, let alone the craftsmen who created the pictures, sculptures and reliefs. Small’s opinion is that the ancient artists were illustrating stories, not texts. These stories were available from a number of sources: other artists who portrayed those myths, other objects, performances of plays, oral stories, and of course, texts.67 She adds that these two traditions of myths that we know of today, literary and visual, evolved simultaneously: “…writers and artists followed their own traditions with little overlap
66 Small (2003), p. 3. 67 Ibid. p. 6. 22 other than the obvious: both groups were interested in the stories, but told them in their own way…”.68
Thus, it is probable that the visual representations of the myth of Niobe did not follow one particular text, and we cannot even assume that every image is a portrayal of text at all. Keeping that in mind, an examination of the visual evidence is now presented.
Until the late 1950s it seemed that the earliest representation of the myth was from the fifth-century BCE. In the early 1960s, a purchase was made by the Hamburg Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe: a black-figure Tyrrhenian amphora with two narrative scenes on its shoulder, as well as decorative elements on the other part of the vase, typical of Archaic black-figure vase paintings. The amphora is dated to the first half of the sixth century and according to Chan is attributed to the Castellani painter.69 One of the narrative scenes is the slaughter of the Niobids (illustration 1)70, which depicts six figures: four Niobids,
Apollo and Artemis.
Apollo is seen on the left side of the frieze. He holds a bow and wears a short, belted tunic and high boots. To his right, four Niobids are trying to escape him: two male youths and two maidens. The two youths are naked and carry short mantles over their arms. The maidens are white-skinned and they wear a long chiton. The four Niobids are depicted in the same position: one foot and one arm are forward and raised, which represents a running position.71 Their heads are turned to the left side, towards Apollo, and their bodies are turned towards a second archer, Artemis, who is placed at the other side of the frieze. She wears a helmet and a short chiton and holds a bow in her hand.
This is the earliest visual representation of the Niobe myth which has survived to this day.
68 Ibid. p. 36. 69 Hoffman (1960), pp. 182-183. 70 Hamburg: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe 1960.1 71 See note 69. 23 The next representation moves us forward by about 100 years later, to the
Classical period, when, unlike in the Archaic period, red-figure vase paintings were the dominant technique. During this period, around 575-450 BCE, a new spirit in vase paintings is observable and several specific trends can be distinguished. One of those trends was for vase artists to be influenced by the murals of Polygnotus, a famous painter of the same period. These artists produced ambitious compositions on large vases with figures placed at different levels.72
It is believed that the painter, named the Niobid Painter, of a red-figure calyx krater discovered in Orvieto in 1880, is one of the artists who was influenced by the innovative compositions of Polygnotus.73 The krater, which is now known as the Niobid krater, is decorated with narrative scenes on both sides. The obverse side (illustration 2)74, carries an enigmatic scene that cannot be identified with certainty. It is usually interpreted as a scene of the Marathon warriors before the battle.75 Since this identification is uncertain, it is difficult to establish a connection between the scenes on the obverse and the reverse side, if such a connection existed.76
The reverse side is easily identified as the killing of the Niobids by Apollo and
Artemis (illustration 3).77 The composition is completely different from the Hamburg amphora. Unlike the frieze-composition, where all the figures are aligned on one level, this composition presents the figures on different levels. Like in the earlier black-figure vase, the scene features Apollo, Artemis and four Niobids, but with many differences.
First, the painting technique changed. The red-figure technique, which was invented
72 Richter (1969), p. 346. 73 e.g. Simon (1963), Harrison (1972). 74 Paris: Musée du Louvre G341. 75 Among the scholars who support the theory are: Harrison (1972), Gaunt (2002), Boardman (2005) and Giuliani (2015). 76 Stansbury-O’Donnell (1999), pp. 118-119. 77 See note 74. 24 around the 530s, developed and improved the quality of the scenes portrayed on vases.
This may be seen by comparing the more elaborated scene on the Niobid krater, with the strict and repetitive style of the Hamburg amphora.
In the Niobid krater, Apollo is portrayed naked, his left foot forward and his bow raised. His head is decorated with a laurel wreath and he holds his lyre. Artemis wears a long chiton and stretches one arm out in front of her to steady the bow, while the other arm reaches for the quiver behind her. Similar to the Hamburg amphora, the two gods, identified without difficulty, are in the midst of slaughtering the Niobids. The four
Niobids who are depicted are already wounded with arrows and every Niobid is portrayed in a different position. One is kneeling behind Artemis, with an arrow protruding from his back. Another is running from the gods, also wounded. Beneath them are a female and a male figure who are lying down and seem to already be dead.
The female warrants particular attention. Her entire body is turned toward the viewer, a position which is not typical in Greek vase paintings. Unlike her brothers, she is not naked. She seems to be wearing a tiara, stephane, and a necklace, and her clothing seems festive. Seaford argues that her clothing is reminiscent of a maiden on her wedding day; but why would she be dressed so? Seaford raises two suggestions: either that there is an additional element of the old tradition, which is not known to us, namely, the marriage of one of the daughters of Niobe, or that her clothing does not represent wedding attire, but funeral. Seaford elaborates the second hypothesis and explains that the rituals of death and marriage had many elements in common for a young girl. The maiden’s clothing is one of those elements. Therefore, according to this view, the Niobid’s clothing symbolizes her death, and not marriage.78 In the lack of any additional surviving evidence on that matter, it is impossible to rule out either the first possibility or the possibility that
78 Seaford (2005), pp. 114-115. 25 a separate, iconographical tradition was developed whereby a wedding was included in the myth.
Although only two complete Attic vases depicting the Niobids are extant, they lead to the conclusion that early representations of the myth in the Athenian paintings focused on the slaughter of the Niobids, while Niobe was not even present. It seems that the emphasis was on the action of the gods and the punishment, rather than on Niobe’s grief, in contrast to the main focus in the literary sources.
Another visual representation is the statue of Zeus at Olympia, described in detail by Pausanias, which was decorated with a Niobid scene, among other myths. These reliefs are dated probably to 440-430 and Pausanias places them on the two forward legs of
Zeus’ throne.79 A Greek vase painting may be the earliest evidence of the Phidian decoration of the throne: the Baksy krater (illustration 4).80 On one of the fragments Zeus is seated on his throne, and the common belief is that it is a representation of the throne in Olympia. Beneath the arm-rest one can observe the first part of a figured scene, which may have occupied the length of the side of Zeus’ throne. A part of a kneeling figure can be spotted, which may be Apollo. In front of him is a part of a garment of another person, who may be running away from him. This scene may have of the Niobids scene, as described by Pausanias.81
In addition, numerous Roman fragments have been identified as copies of the throne of Zeus, meaning that this art work is not just known to us not just from literary sources.82 These findings may provide information about the different positions and circumstances in which the Niobids were presented, but they do not enable a full
79 Paus. 5.11.2 80 St. Petersburg: State Hermitage museum BAK8. 81 Davison (2013), p. 335. 82 Many Roman fragments can now be found around the world in different collections. A full discussion of all of these fragments would be beyond the scope of the present study. For a complete survey see: Cook (1963), pp. 43-46. 26 understanding of the composition of the scene and the placement of every figure.
However, two particular findings are worthy of discussion, as they represent the fullest evidence of Zeus’ throne that has survived to this day. Both are regarded as being as copies of the Phidian throne. The first one is a relief, now located in the Hermitage collection, which is dated to the first-century BCE (illustration 5).83 This relief was probably made by the Greek masters of the Neo-Attic school and may have served as a frieze in a temple. The relief presents nine figures that have survived, all of them believed to be Niobids in different positions. Some are already dead, some are helping their siblings and some seem to be in great agony.
The second copy is a relief of a marble roundel, dated to the same period, which presents a somewhat more elaborate scene of the same subject (illustration 6).84 In addition to the dying and dead Niobids, some of whom are occupying the same position as in the previous copy, the two gods are present, at the top frieze. Artemis is shown in her chiton and seems to be shooting arrow from her bow. Apollo, to her right, is headless and kneeling. Even though the roundel shows a fuller scene than the frieze, the fact that the artist had to adjust the composition to the round shape hinders identification of the original composition.
Why did this scene decorate the throne of Zeus? Fink argues that the scenes depicted on the throne show the cruelty of the gods toward man.85 Davison notes that the representation has an act of hybris as one of its main themes; he argues that since the statue and throne of Zeus were located in Olympia, where athletes competed for the most important prizes, a warning against hybris was an appropriate message.86 Irrespective of the reason, a key observation can be made here: the myth of Niobe was clearly important
83 St. Petersburg: State Hermitage museum ГР-4223. 84 London: The British Museum 1877,0727.1 (on display G23). 85 Fink (1967), p. 59. Ridgway (1981), p. 168. 86 Davison (2013), p. 337. 27 and well-known enough to decorate the throne in Olympia, either as one of the many myths which revolve around Apollo and Artemis, or as a myth which represents an act of hybris.
Other Roman copies of what seem to be Hellenistic sculptures have been discovered at various locations. Most of them are single sculptures and they mostly depict dying Niobids.87 Two groups were found that present the sculptures in almost their full compositions. The first is the Uffizi group, found in 1583 on the Via Lavicana and located today in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence (illustration 7).88 The group consists of thirteen figures: Niobe herself, sheltering her youngest daughter, four other daughters, six sons, and a paidagogos. Davidson speculates that the original group had about sixteen figures, considering Niobe’s seven sons and seven daughters.89 The scene depicts the slaughter of the Niobids, and while the gods are absent, constituting difference from Attic vases’ iconography, Niobe is present. Davidson turns to Pliny, who describes a similar group that was placed in the temple of Apollo Sosianus in Rome.90 He believes that the Uffizi group is a copy of the original sculptures to which Pliny refers. Pliny attributes these works to the sculptors Scopas or Praxiteles, thus dating them to the fourth century. Both
Davidson and Cook believe that the original group, as well as the copy, was placed on a pediment.91
Another group, found in 2013 in Ciampino, probably depicts the same iconography (illustration 8).92 The group was found the villa of the Roman consul Marcus
Valerius Messala Corvinus, at the bottom of what was once a two-and-a-half-foot deep
87 These sculptures are located in various museums, e.g. Rome, Museo Nazionale, 72274. Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg 52 (Cat. 398) and 472 (Cat. 399). For a full survey of the different sculptures, see: Cook (1963), pp. 43-44. 88 Florence: Uffizi Gallery, Hall n. 42. 89 Davidson (1875), p. 155. 90 Plin. HN. XXXVI. 4. 91 Davidson (1875), p. 158. Cook (1963), pp. 33-40. 92 discovered in 2013 by A. Betori, Ciampino, Italy. 28 pool.93 The group contains six complete figures that were easily identified as dying
Niobids. Betori, the excavation director, believes that these sculptures decorated the four sides of the pool, thus making the composition different from the Uffizi group which was organized on a pediment.94
These two groups, together with the various single sculptures which are scattered around the world, offer another iconography of the slaughter of the Niobids in ancient
Greece and Rome. Herrmann suggests that the iconography of these groups derives from the Phidian Niobids on the throne of Zeus.95 Whether they form a direct line of iconography or not, both the copies of the Phidian Niobids and the copies of the
Hellenistic groups show a visual development of the subject of the slaughter.
The Niobids are also represented on several fourth-century BCE vases from South
Italy, mainly from Apulia. Red-figure pottery of local manufacture is known in South
Italy from the fifth century, and from the fourth century, drama and performance scenes begun to appear its decorations. Scenes from Attic tragedies were particularly common, especially on large Apulian vases. These were usually variations on scenes and characters from a certain tragedy, rather than accurate depictions of specific episodes.96 It has been argued that the South Italian and Apulian painters who adopted tragic themes did so for funerary purposes, unlike their Attic counterparts.97 Moreover, it is thought that painted vases discovered in graves were not placed there directly, serving merely funerary gifts, but were first used in the burial ceremony.98
93 The identification of the villas as the property of Corvinus comes from pipe stamped “Valerii Messalla” which was discovered at the site more than a hundred years earlier. Lorenzi (2016), p. 50. 94 Ibid. 95 Herrmann (1975), p. 91. 96 Trendall and Webster (1971), p. 11. 97 Keuls (1978), p. 41. 98 Guliani (1996), p. 71. 29 A number of vases have been identified by a number of scholars as a representation of Aeschylus’ Niobe.99 Most vase paintings follow the same iconography:
Niobe is depicted inside a naiskos with different characters around her. Her father,
Tantalus, is identified on some of the vases, thanks to a fragment that have been attributed to Aeschylus’ play.100 Several other figures re-occur: an old woman, mostly portrayed with white hair and often seated in a lamentation position, can be identified as an old nurse. A group of women often carrying funerary offerings is often depicted, perhaps representing the chorus.101
The portrayal of Niobe in this group of vases is unique: She is not only depicted standing inside a burial monument, but in most cases she is also painted in white from her waist or her legs down. Keuls suggests that the monument symbolizes not only the grave of Niobe’s children, but Niobe’s grave as well.102 This leads to the belief that the white on her lower body implies her process of petrification.
One of the most elaborate vases in this group is the Naples loutrophoros
(illustration 9).103 At the center of the composition, Niobe is placed inside the usual naiskos, touching her head in a gesture of grief. The lower part of her garment is painted white, indicating the petrification process. To her left, an old white-haired woman is seated, whom Trendall identifies as an old nurse.104 To her right an old man, identified as
Tantalus, reaches towards Niobe. Behind the seated woman is a female attendant and behind Tantalus is a youth carrying a spear. In the lower part of the composition, two female figures are seated, surrounded by offerings. The base of the naiskos is decorated
99 This group appears in the LIMC (1981) article of Niobe in this order: LIMC Niobe 10, Taranto 8923. 11, Sydney, NM 71.10. 12, Naples 3246. 14, Taranto 8928. 16, Bonn 99. 17, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, F 4282. 18, Malibu 82.AE.16. 20, Princeton Art Museum, y 1989-29. 100 Fragment 158 which was quoted once by Strabo and twice by Plutarch starts with the association of the text to Tantalus. Fitton Brown (1954), p. 177. 101 Keuls (1978), p. 65. 102 Ibid. pp. 58-61. 103 Naples: Museo Nazionale 82267 (H3246). 104 Trendall (1972), p. 311. 30 with winged tendril-limbed creatures, an attested motif in various places in the
Mediterranean; in Apulia and elsewhere, it was habitually associated with the
Netherworld.105 In the upper left, Leto, Artemis and Apollo appear. Their connection to the story is clear, and therefore their appearance is appropriate to the scene. In the upper right, Zeus and Hermes are portrayed, which may be connected to the petrification of
Niobe, a detail included of some versions of the story.106 This scene presents all of the
Apulian iconography of the myth of Niobe. However, not every vase from this period and location portrays this composition fully; most describe only parts of it, perhaps with the addition of some other details. For instance, the Sydney hydria portrays an abridged version of the same scene (illustration 10):107 Niobe inside of her naiskos, painted in white from the waist down. Tantalus and a youth can be seen to her right and a lamenting, seated woman to her left. Above them are two young maidens and at the bottom of the monument offerings are presented.108
As mentioned above, Keuls argues that the fourth-century vases from South Italy served funerary purposes, unlike the Attic painted vases, which were usually used for symposia. She also suggests that most Apulian vase paintings were intended to deliver a message of hope and consolation. It is difficult to see the optimistic message in the Niobe myth, but Keuls argues that the fact the Niobe is petrified, and therefore reunited with her children, may be the element of hope that these artists were aiming to convey.109
While it seems that Aeschylus’ play was the subject to numerous visual representations, Easterling draws our attention to a particular example that may have been a representation of Sophocles’ version of the myth. This single vase, a late fourth-century
105 See Ustinova’s discussion on the subject: Ustinova (2005), pp. 70-72. 106 Trendall (1972), pp. 309-312. Keuls (1978), p. 47. 107 Sydney: Nicholson Museum 71.10. 108 Trendall (1972), p. 314, Keuls (1978), p. 47. 109 Keuls (1978), p. 42. 31 volute krater is attributed to the Baltimore Painter, from South Italy, and, uniquely, shows the killing of the Niobids (illustration 11).110 Easterling determines, without any doubt, that it is a dramatic scene with theatrical characteristics. The vase shows eight of the
Niobids, seven of them struck by arrows. Apollo in his chariot is in the top register, along with three boys and, according to Easterling, a paidogogos. A fourth boy crouches by the chariot of Apollo. Artemis is depicted in her chariot in the lower register, along with
Niobe and three of her daughters in a domestic environment.
c. Conclusions
Having considered all of the different visual and literary representations of the Niobe myth, it is appropriate to draw conclusions concerning the myth’s purposes. It has been argued that the two main uses of the myth are as follows: (1) to present Niobe as a hubristic character whose direct punishment was the slaughter of her children, and (2) to view her as the ultimate grieving woman or mother.
The vast majority of the surviving Greek literary evidence involves the use of the myth as a paradeigma whereby Niobe is invoked as a portrayal of the ultimate grieving mother. In these cases, the act of hybris, the slaughter of the Niobids, and the moral aspect of hybris leading to the myth are not emphasized, and in some cases are not mentioned at all. Even though Homer mentions the hybris and the slaughter, his main purpose is to show the grieving mother as a comparison with Priam. Sophocles, in his tragedies Electra and Antigone, hardly mentions the hybris aspect of the myth, and praises Niobe for her grief and dedication to her family. In the tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles which feature Niobe as the heroine, it is difficult to raise speculations since they are fragmentary.
However, if we consider the ideas which characterize most of the fifth-century Greek tragedies, they may paint a different picture than the other literary sources. Acts of hybris
110 Easterling (2006), p. 13. Ruvo: Museo Nazionale 424. 32 are common in tragedies and often motivate the storylines. The punishment of the hero or another character may be derived directly from their actions and is intended as a moral warning. Thus, it is possible that the moral of the myth may stem from the act of hybris.
Niobe in a stand-alone story, and not as a paradeigma, is more likely to act both as a hubristic mother and a grieving one, with an equal emphasis.
In the visual representations, the use of the myth varies depending on the medium and on the period and location of the artist. On the one hand, the many visual representations from the fourth century in South Italy depict Niobe as a grieving mother.
It is commonly believed that these vases were used mainly for funerary purposes and therefore conveyed a specific funerary message.111 Even though there are a large number of findings from specific period and location, I argue that they can be considered as one group relying on a common visual tradition. In this group, like in most of the literary representations, the focus is on Niobe’s grieving and her petrification. The clear iconography of Niobe in the naiskos, the white portion of her dress symbolizing her petrification, and the different funerary symbols support this focus.
On the other hand, and in contrast, the visual representation that focuses on the slaughter of the Niobids, a motif that is less significant in literature, crosses periods and areas: from the Archaic period of the sixth century, to the Classical period of the fifth- century Athens and Olympia, until Roman copies of works by fourth-century sculptors.
These representations show different depictions and iconographies of the slaughter by
Apollo and Artemis.
It is worth considering why this particular visual representation, of the slaughter, had such timeless appeal. Firstly, the killing of the Niobids is a good source of inspiration for artists who wish to challenge themselves by depicting a variety of figures in different
111 Keuls (1978), p. 42. Giuliani (1996), p. 71. 33 positions and circumstances: the human body in flight, in the act of dying and in death.
As may be seen in the Niobid krater, the slaughter provided the Niobid Painter with the opportunity to depict different Niobids, in different positions, at different levels, thus imitating the innovative Polygnotean style of composition.
The second reason for the appeal of these representations may relate to the idea of the hybris. First of all, in all of the known representations the two gods are present. As
Fink argues, the purpose of these images may be to show the cruelty and the superiority of the gods in relation to humans.112 In addition, the message of the hybris, which was central to many areas of Greek society and culture, is present, albeit indirectly; the cruel punishment is a result and representation of what could happen if someone commits hybris.
On the surface, the literary and visual representations deal with different aspects of the Niobe myth. However, there is a common thread that runs through all portrayals of the character irrespective of the medium, period and location. Niobe in the ancient Greek context represents two central themes of that society: grief at the loss of a family member and the act of hybris. Therefore, the representations of the myth serve not merely to showcase a mythological figure, but to represent some of the basic components of society and human nature.
To understand the myth, its representation and its purposes in a more comprehensive way, one needs to examine the evolution of the myth in periods and societies sequential to Greece, while keeping in mind the Greek representations described in this chapter. The following chapters aim to achieve this goal.
112 Fink (1967), p. 59. 34 Chapter Two – Ancient Rome
The Niobe myth was adapted and developed in the literature and art of ancient Rome.
The aim of this chapter is to examine the purposes served by these representations.
a. Pride and the Roman View
In the early years of ancient Rome, Roman mythology consisted mostly of non- anthropomorphic Italic gods which were connected to rituals rather than to stories and myths per se.113 In the third-century BCE, Roman historians, authors and poets began writing about Roman history and mythology, with a strong Greek influence. Most of the myths, including those which had been transferred from the Greek mythology, were used as a way of explaining the foundation and history of Rome, along with dealing with moral questions in the Roman society, especially those related to appropriate behavior.114
During the Augustan reign, Roman mythology was at its peak, as poets like Ovid enriched the literature both with Roman versions of Greek myths115 and with new Roman myths that related to their own history and calendar.116
One of the central themes regarding the moral aspects of Roman society was the theme of superbia,117 and even the great emperors were to be reminded of their humanity while they were professing their divinity. For example, the victory parade of a conqueror who returned to Rome was not a humble ceremony, but even in that scenario, symbols reflecting the theme of superbia, as a reminder to the conqueror’s humane aspect, rather than divine, could be observed. The victorious emperor typically rode a chariot adorned with ivory and wore a tunic of Tyrian purple and a toga decorated with gold stars. The
113 Momford and Lenardon (1977), p. 431. 114 Fox (2014), pp. 249-252. 115 The best example is probably Ovid’s Metamorphoses. 116 Ovid’s Fasti. 117 Since we now move to Rome, which does not have a direct equivalent of the term hybris, I will use the term superbia, which has a reasonably close meaning, and as will be shown later on, is used in the same manner as hybris in Ovid’s version of the myth. 35 procession was led by Roman senators, the victorious army, and trumpeters. The spoils of wars were also on prominent display. However, two main symbols emphasized the emperor’s humanity: a red-painted phallus was depicted on the chariot, which Payne describes as a reminder of his sexuality, and a slave who walked beside the emperor during the procession and whispered warnings in his ear to remind him that he is mortal.118
Referencing to the group of sculptures that portray the Niobe myth, which was mentioned in the previous chapter,119 Betori argues that the myth was particularly appropriate to the period of the reign of Augustus, since the motif of chastised pride, fundamental to the myth of Niobe, suitably expressed the adhesion of the ruling classes to the principality, which was a common phenomenon at that time.120 In addition, Baraz argues that the formation of the Roman political system was designed to prevent “…the accumulation of excessive power in the hands of one member of the elite…”, thus resulting in a common negative perception of superiority as potentially dangerous for the
Roman hierarchy.121 The Roman discourse of superbia leads to the conclusion that it was a central idea in this period, and it seems that the myth of Niobe formed a part of a wider historical and political context.
The myth appeared for the first time in Roman literature in Ovid’s
Metamorphoses122 and this is also the fullest and longest version of the myth given that the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles have not been fully preserved, and that other Greek sources presented the myth as a paradeigma and not as a full, stand-alone story.
118 Payne (1960), pp. 41-43. 119 See discussion on illustration 8. 120 This argument was presented in Alessandro Betori’s lecture by the name Le groupe des Niobides de la villa des Valerii à Ciampino (Rome), during the conference Actualité de la recherche archéologique, which took place in the Louvre on 9.12.2013, http://www.louvre.fr/le-groupe-des-niobides-de-la-villa- des-valerii-ciampino-rome?ltype=archives. 121 Baraz (2008), p. 380. 122 Ov. Met. 6. 146-312. 36 Ovid is a late source in ancient Rome, dating to the year 8 CE. Before focusing on his innovative version of the myth, it is important to understand the context in which it was written. The Uffizi group of statues and the group which was found recently in
Ciampino (illustrations 7 and 8) were already established in the visual imagery of the
Roman empire.123 The temple of Apollo Sosianus, where the original sculptures of the
Uffizi copies were placed,124 was built by Gaius Sosius, about the 30s of the first-century
BCE. The second group, discovered recently during an excavation near Rome, was identified as having been located in the villa of Marcus Valerius Mesalla Corvinus, who was not only a general and a consul but also a literary patron who sponsored, among others, the young Ovid. Betori, the head of the excavation, argues that these statues existed before Ovid’s version was written.125
In addition to these two groups and other copies of Greek figures which were discovered separately, another visual representation that helps to provide the context for
Ovid’s portrayal is one testified in Propertius’ writings. This artwork did not survive and
Propertius’ version is the only description of it. It was portrayed on the doors of Apollo’s temple on the Palatine hill, which was built by Augustus and vowed in 31 BCE.126
Propertius describes the art in Apollo’s golden portico in a poem to Cynthia. At the end of the poem, Propertius refers to the Libyan ivory doors, where one door was dedicated to the Gauls and the other to the Niobids: “…the other (door) mourned the Tantalids’ funeral…”.127 It seems that Propertius preferred to focus on the grief of Niobe, using the
Latin verb ‘maerebat’, ‘mourned’, rather than on the punishment and the superbia, thereby in some senses ‘romanticizing’ the myth.128 From this brief description it is
123 Feldherr (2010), p. 298. 124 According to Pliny’s identification. Davidson (1875), p. 154. Plin. HN. XXXVI. 4. 125 Lorenzi (2016), p. 51. 126 Aicher (2004), p. 156. 127 Prop. Elegies. 2.31.14: “…altera maerebat funera Tantalidos.” Trans. by Katz (2004). 128 Feldherr (2010), p. 89. 37 difficult to establish which scene of the Niobe myth was actually portrayed. However, considering the iconographic line which was already established in this era, and the placement of the door in the temple of Apollo, it seems more likely that the depiction was of the gods’ deeds, that is, the slaughter rather than of the grieving Niobe.
This brief survey of the visual backdrop in Rome against which Ovid wrote his poem may assist with understanding of his version of the myth. Ovid’s Metamorphoses was completed in the year 8 CE, thus making it a later source than the visual representations of the previous discussion. However, it was written in the era of
Augustus’ reign and therefore was a product of the same context as the visual findings.
b. Roman Literature
Ovid’s version is the first Roman literary narrative and it may be divided into three elaborated parts: Niobe’s superbia, the slaughter, and the metamorphosis. Each of these receives almost equal attention and shows some innovations and alterations by Ovid that were not part of the earlier narrative.
The first part clarifies the reasons for Niobe’s superbia. The Ovidian Niobe did not brag merely about her number of her children, but also about her superiority over
Latona’s129 divinity. After an exposition which explains Niobe’s origin, the main story begins by introducing the rites of worship for Latona by Manto, daughter of Tiresias.130
Niobe objected to these rites and to the women’s worship of Latona. As a prelude to describing these actions, Ovid uses the adjective deriving from the same root as superbia:
“…utque oculos circumtulit alta superbos…”131 Niobe declares that there is no reason to worship Latona, since she, Niobe, is a divine queen on earth. She stresses her divine
129 The Roman Leto. 130 Ov. Met. 6. 157-164. 131 Ibid. 169. 38 legacy: Tantalus is her father, Dione is her mother,132 and Atlas and Jupiter are her grandfathers.133 Ovid, who was approaching the myth when it had a long tradition, most of the details of which had already been established, found some points of uncertainty, such as the motivation for Niobe’s actions, and elaborated upon them. Niobe’s claim that she is more godlike than Latona was probably Ovid’s innovation, created to explain
Niobe’s motive for bragging, as this had not been discussed in previous sources.134 After the exposition, Niobe continues by referring to Latona’s children and by emphasizing her own superiority due to the fact that she has many more.135 These remarks of the proud queen upset the goddess and the counter-reaction comes in the form of the known punishment.
The next part, which describes the slaughter of Niobe’s children, is the most elaborated scene in Ovid’s work when compared to his other scenes.136 Ovid starts with a description of the slaughter of the male Niobids, who are hunting on their horses near the walls of the palace. Each Niobid is identified by name and is afforded and individual depiction of the manner in which he dies. After their deaths, Ovid’s turns his attention
Amphion’s suicide, stating that he stabs himself in the chest with a sword.137 The vivid descriptions not only of the deaths of each individual male Niobid, but also the death of
Amphion, serves as a rich source for later visual representations, which may have partially relied upon this text.
Following the tragic and graphic deaths of the male Niobids and Amphion, Niobe and her daughters grieve over the loss of their family. It is during this scene that the female
Niobids are slaughtered by the two gods as well. In contrast to the slaughter of the sons,
132 This is the first occasion on which Niobe is recognized as the daughter of Dione. 133 Ov. Met. 6. 172-176. 134 Anderson (1978). p. 171. 135 Ov. Met. 6. 185-194. 136 Ibid. 218-304 137 Ibid. 271. 39 the daughters’ deaths are described only briefly, without any identifications by name. The youngest daughter is the main focus, as Niobe entreats the gods to spare her life, although this is in vain. The moment when Niobe pleads for her daughter’s life seems to correspond to the pinnacle of the myth. This scene resembles the sculpture of Niobe shielding her youngest daughter in the Uffizi group (illustration 7a). Ovid was probably familiar with the group or with one of the numerous copies that were discovered in a variety of places in the Roman empire. Furthermore, the detailed description of the individual deaths of the Niobids makes it likely that Ovid took inspiration from the sculptured group.
The story concludes with the traditional ending: Niobe is petrified by her grief and her tears are still falling to this day. Ovid adds a detail about the wind carrying the stone to Niobe’s homeland, Sipylus, thus returning the Niobe statue to its origins place, as far as the tradition goes.
Ovid’s version should be read in its Roman context; in particular, Feldherr suggests the possibility of a connection with the “imperial aspect” of Augustan culture.
He argues that Ovid may have used the myth as an exemplum138 to remind the audience of their place within the Empire.139 Furthermore, he notes that Ovid strengthens the connection between the specific myth and Augustan Rome, for example, by adding of the detail of Niobe’s mother as Dione, thus connecting Niobe to Aeneas, Rome’s founder.140
Through this connection, Ovid seems to be presenting Niobe not only as a mythological figure from ancient Greece, but also as a part of the Roman world and mythology.
Feldherr also makes a direct connection to Augustus: Niobe’s claim for her divinity, which Feldherr compares to Augustus’ self-proclaimed divinity. This comparison seems peculiar at first, since it implies a connection between Niobe’s superbia and Augustus’
138 The Latin version of paradeigma, exempla in the plural. 139 Feldherr (2010), pp. 295-296. 140 Dione is the Homeric mother of Aphrodite (Venus in Rome), making her Aeneas’s cousin. 40 claim. Feldherr solves this problem by placing Niobe in the role of a negative exemplar to Augustus: Niobe’s fate is that of a deserving victim of divine punishment, in a direct contrast to Augustus.141
Whether or not the comparison with Augustus is justifies, it seems that most of
Ovid’s innovations serve the explicit purpose of placing Niobe within the Roman landscape, while at the same time drawing inspiration from the already established visual representations of the Niobe myth that existed in contemporary Rome.
A problematic literary source is the Fabulae, a composition originally attributed to the Latin author Gaius Julius Hyginus by its first modern editor of this composition,
Micyllus in 1535, but later believed to be wrongly attributed. Since the attribution is unclear, there is no certain way to date or place this composition. Furthermore, its content has been altered and expanded over the course of its existence and therefore the original form is lost.142 It is also unclear whether the original composition was written in Latin or was translated from Greek over the years,143 and on which sources it relied. However, the general assumption is that the original composition was written before the third-century
CE, probably later than Ovid’s Metamorphoses.144
Since it is not possible to determine the identity of the author, the original content, or the date, the extent to which the cultural and literary context of the composition may be used to aid interpretation is limited. However, this version of Niobe’s myth is important to our understanding of the reception of the myth.
The Fabulae offers discrete stories, each with its own titles. Three of them, in sequence, deal with the different aspects of myth of Niobe: the myth itself, Niobe’s
141 Feldherr (2010), pp. 300-302. 142 Smith and Trzaskoma (2007), pp. xlii-xliii. 143 Cameron (2004), p. 36. 144 Ibid. p. 43. 41 daughter Chloris, and the other Niobids.145 The story starts in Fabula 9, with accounts of
Zethos and Amphion’s foundation of Thebes and the marriage of Amphion and Niobe. In this version, not only does Niobe brag about her superiority over Latona, but she also ridicules Latona’s twins: “…because she [Diana] dressed like a man and because of
Apollo’s long dress and hair.”146 The slaughter is then described, but with the survival of one of the daughters, Chloris. Niobe was petrified and Amphion, while trying to storm
Apollo’s temple, was slain by the god. This narrative seems to be combined from different versions: as discussed previously, Dione is also mentioned in this text as the mother of
Niobe, a detail which was probably an invention of Ovid, while Amphion’s storming of the god’s temple, although not mentioned in any other surviving versions, is likely to have its origins in an earlier literary source. Various manifestations of superbia are presented here,147 thus emphasizing the role of Niobe as a hubristic mythological woman.
The next story, Fabula 10, presents the story of Chloris following her survival and Fabula
11 stands as a catalogue of the names of the Niobids.
As previously mentioned, this composition of the myths cannot be placed in a precise cultural and periodic context. However, the facts that (a) it has survived and been presented in different versions throughout the years, (b) it was adapted, at least in part, from Ovid’s version, and (c) it places emphasis on Niobe’s hybris / superbia shows the importance of the Niobe myth and the manner in which it was received during Roman times.
A clear shift can be seen in the focus of the myth between its representation in ancient Greece and in the Roman literary sources. While in Greek literature, the focus
145 Hyg. Fab. 9-11. 146 Ibid. 9. “…quem partum Niobe Latonae anteposuit superbiusque locuta est in Apollinem et Dianam, quod illa cincta viri cultu esset et Apollo veste deorsum atque crinitus, et se numero filiorum Latonam superare.” Trans. by Smith and Trzaskoma (2007), p. 99. 147 Ibid. “…quem partum Niobe Latonae anteposuit superbiusque locuta est in Apollinem et Dianam…”, “…et se numero filiorum Latonam superare…” 42 was mainly on the grief of Niobe and therefore on Niobe herself, it seems that in Rome, at least in Ovid’s and Hyginus’ versions, the focus is on the slaughter and the direct punishment of the superbia. The exception is Propertius’ account of the artwork portrayed on Apollo’s temple, which emphasized the themes of grief and morning. However, it seems that his intention was to glorify and romanticize the description of the doors of the temple and the temple itself.
These observations lead to the question of why did the common iconography in
Roman times and the literary sources as well, focused on the punishment and slaughter rather than on the grief? As discussed above, it seems that the subject of superbia was particularly appropriate to the Roman Late Republic. Feldherr suggests that the myth was presented as an exemplum, but his account of the message portrayed by this exemplum differs from the message behind the Niobe paradeigma of ancient Greece.148 While the latter served to invoke a mythological figure to draw parallels with the plight of another literary character, the Niobe exemplum in Roman literature focused on a more practical message of intimidation. As Feldherr describes it, the Roman sources show “the imperializing power of narratives to impose order by reminding listeners of their place”.149 The superbia narrative in this case was not merely another myth about a mythological woman boasting, but it was a reminder to the common citizens of the Rome, and maybe even to their rulers, of their human mortality and the place of the individual within the system of the reign.
No other Roman literary sources of the myth are found after Hygnius, and the later visual iconography of the slaughter, with its unique characteristics were created in parallel to the Roman literature.
148 See chapter 1. 149 Feldherr (2010), pp. 295-6. 43 c. Later Roman Art
Three findings take us to a different medium, frescoes, a medium that has not yet been discussed in this thesis since no earlier murals of the Niobe myth have survived.
Two of the frescoes were found in Pompeii and one was found in a villa in Rome. All of them portray the slaughter of the Niobids and continue the iconographic line of the Roman view. One of the frescoes from Pompeii as well as the fresco from Rome are dated to the same period of the late first-century BCE or the early first-century CE. The second fresco from Pompeii is dated close to the destruction of Pompeii in 79 CE.150
The first Pompeian fresco (illustration 12)151 depicts the most elaborated scene of all three. It presents the slaughter of the male Niobids by the gods, without the slaughter of the female Niobids. Only a leg has survived from the figure of Apollo, who is placed in the upper right corner of the scene. In the center of the composition is a temple, with a pair of local divinities below. The Niobids are scattered in the field, on and off their horses. Cook believes that the door of the temple of Apollo, which is described by
Propertius, also portrayed a scene of this sort, a suggestion that is impossible either to prove or to reject.152
The fresco from the Villa Doria Pamfili in Rome (illustration 13)153 shows Apollo sitting on a hill, two dying or dead Niobids, and Niobe sheltering her youngest daughter.
The most intriguing detail of this image is the adaptation of Niobe’s figure, sheltering her youngest daughter, which is a clear iconographical influence from the Uffizi Group, with the statue of Niobe in the same description (illustration 7a).
150 Cook (1963), pp. 24-25. 151 Pompeii VII.15.12, Casa del Marinaio. 152 Cook (1963), p. 25. 153 Rome: Villa Doria Pamfili, colambarium (wall B, xx). 44 The second Pompeian fresco, from the Casa dei Dioscuri (illustration 14)154, depicts a pair of Delphic tripods, with the male Niobids surrounding one of them, and the female Niobids the other. Both groups are portrayed in the midst of the slaughter, while the gods are not depicted.
Little can be said about the purpose or context of these paintings. Although frescoes on mythological subjects in Pompeii were quite common, most of them were connected to the theme of love: Venus was the main character of interest, as well as the loves of Jupiter. However, not all of these paintings overlooked tragic stories of Greco-
Roman mythology.155 To gain insight into the possible uses of the frescoes, it is worth considering their iconographies in more detail. In the two Pompeian paintings, new and intriguing iconographic themes are presented. The first one seems to follow the story presented in Ovid of the male Niobids who were slaughtered prior to their sisters while hunting near the walls of the palace. It is the first time that a separation of the female and male Niobids can be seen in a work of visual art and it seems that the artist’s goal was to depict one particular narrative scene of the myth rather than a complete picture of the whole myth. The second Pompeian painting also shows a separation between the male and female Niobids. Thus, the two Pompeian paintings present the death of the Niobids in a different way from Roman artwork, the main element of this difference being the separation of the female and male Niobids. The painting from Rome, on the other hand shows a simplified version of the Roman iconography which was established earlier in the Roman copies of Greek sculptures and reliefs. In particular, the sheltering Niobe represents a strong link.
The number of visual representations of the myth, and the depiction of such a dramatic scene as the killing of the Niobids, seem to indicate the importance of the myth
154 Pompeii: Naples 1154, Casa dei Dioscuri. 155 De Carolis (2001), pp. 44-45. 45 in Roman view. However, the reason for its importance is more difficult to determine. Is it, in common with other Roman literary representations, a warning connected to the implications of superbia, or is it a fashionable iconographic theme? It is possible for it to serve both purposes. The Romans drew much of their visual inspiration from Greek sculptures and many of the known Roman sculptures are copies of Greek sculptures that did not survive. The case of Niobe is no exception and thus the popularity of the myth seems to begin with the copying of Greek art. However, another reason for its representation, besides the visual aspect, lies in the message of the myth, thus making it not only fashionable to represent, but also with a relevant message to Roman society.
The group of visual representations that completes the discussion of the Niobe myth in Roman art and in ancient art in general, consists of a number of second-century
CE sarcophagi depicting the killing of the Niobids. Depictions of Greco-Roman mythology in Roman funerary art seem to begin in the early Hadrianic period. Initially, the sarcophagi were decorated with garlands of fruit and flowers held by Erotes or
Victories. New designs soon came to light - depictions of various mythological themes organized in friezes. These designs started to appear during the Hadrianic period and continued until the later third-century CE. Around a dozen themes were featured on these sarcophagi, which can be grouped, according to Newby, into scenes of violent death or abduction and scenes of heroism.156 Toynbee defines the mythological narratives that were depicted over and over on these Imperial sarcophagi as ‘stock-designs’.157
The discourse around the symbolism and purposes of mythological scenes in these funerary representations started in the 1940s. While Cumont argued for complex allegorical symbolism, Nock drew a simpler conclusion and, through comparison with other forms of Roman art, suggested that the scenes served an educational purpose and
156 Newby (2014), p. 305. 157 Toynbee (1967), p. 180. 46 were an expression of classicism.158 The latest examination on the subject was made by
Zanker and Ewand who believe that these images can be read as consolations to the bereaved: scenes of violent death could express the pain of the loss of a loved one, and scenes of feasting may represent the banquets which took place during the funerary rituals.159 In addition, Toynbee argues that the mythological symbols depicted on the sarcophagi are ‘ideal’ rather than ‘realistic’: they present the myths as a symbol of the after-life or as trials of the soul.160
The Niobe myth was one of the ‘stock-designs’ on Hadrianic sarcophagi.161 The
Niobe iconography on Imperial sarcophagi generally depicts the slaughter scene, like most Roman visual representations of the subject. In this medium, the male Niobids are slaughtered on their horses, while the female Niobids are also shot dead, but in keeping with the myth, are not on horses. In Ovid,162 and in pseudo-Apollodorus,163 the killing of the male Niobids occurred while they were hunting, while the female Niobids were killed inside the walls of the palace. In addition to the Niobids, most sarcophagi depict two pedagogues, a nurse, Amphion and Niobe on each sides of the scene, and the gods. Thus, these sarcophagi display the fullest visual description of the myth in ancient art.
While all of these sarcophagi depict the same scene of the Niobe myth, Toynbee divides them into two main stylistic groups.164 The Lantern sarcophagus, a member of the first group according to Toynbee’s attribution, is dated to 132-134 CE and depicts the scene of the slaughter arranged on two levels (illustration 15).165 The scene shows the dying and dead Niobids, with Niobe on the right sheltering her two youngest daughters
158 See these authors’ full discussion of the subject in Cumont (1942), Nock (1946) and Newby (2014), p. 302. 159 Newby (2014), p. 303 and Zanker and Ewald (2012), pp. 18-21. 160 Toynbee (1967), p. 172. 161 A full discussion on all of the discovered Niobe sarcophagi can be found in Robert (1975). 162 Ov. Met. 6. 218-226. 163 Apollod. Bibl. 3.5.6. 164 Toynbee (1967), p. 184. 165 Rome: Lateran XII. 47 and Amphion on the left end, trying to storm heaven. Although the scene includes many figures, the artist succeeded in organizing the composition without overcrowding. On the upper frieze, on each side of the lid, Apollo and Artemis are depicted shooting down some of the Niobids and Amphion himself. The victims are looking upwards, indicating that they are aware of the gods and their actions. This design group shows sophistication and a highly organized composition.166
The second Niobid design ascribed by Toynbee, represented by a sarcophagus in
Galleria dei Candelabri of the Vatican (illustration 16)167 is, as she argues, less ambitious than the first. There is no attempt at depiction of the horses, and the hunting scene indicated only by two hunting-spears held by one of the sons. The number of human figures portrayed is five less than in the first design: fourteen as opposed to nineteen. The gods are no longer on the lid, but on the same frieze as the main scene one on each side.
However, some of the figures are still depicted looking up, as if the gods are still above.
This detail seems to be a relic of the first design and an uncalculated detail of the artist.
The composition is less organized than the Lateran sarcophagus of the first design: there are no central figures or group, nor a calculated composition with a connection between all of the groups in the scene. Toynbee dates this sarcophagus, along with another one of the same group, the Munich sarcophagus (illustration 17),168 to the early and mid
Antonine periods, respectively, and thus they were created later than the first, more organized design.169
An intriguing point to consider is the differences between the funerary representations of the myth in ancient Greece and those in ancient Rome. In ancient
Greece, the Apulian vases represented the funerary use of the myth and depicted the
166 Toynbee (1967), p. 175. 167 Vatican: Galleria dei Candelabri. 168 Munich 345. 169 Toynbee (1967), p. 186. 48 grieving Niobe and her petrification, while the Roman funerary art focused on the slaughter scene, like other Roman representations of the myth. This shift shows the
Roman way of thinking about the myth: no longer was Niobe the ideal grieving mother, but a warning against superbia. It seems that in Imperial Rome, the superbia element was more significant than the more human theme of grieving that had predominated in ancient
Greece.
It seems that after this group of sarcophagi, no later representations of the Niobe myth have survived, though the commentary of Lactantius Placidus on Statius suggests another painting: “Niobe is still painted like this today, with her bosom full of children, while she tries to embrace each on in her arms”.170
To summarize, the following conclusions may be drawn about the portrayal of the
Niobe myth in the Roman era. Firstly, through the examinations of the Roman literary and visual representations of the myth, it may be concluded that the Niobe myth shifted from being an example of hybris to the portrayal of superbia. However, the shift was further-reaching than that; it seems that in Roman times, superbia took on a more mundane and political aspect. The Roman empire used the myth of Niobe and its theme of superbia as a form of moral propaganda. Thus Niobe was brought into alignment with
Roman history and was seen from the perspective of the structure of Roman society. In addition to the visual representations – both original and copies – and the Roman literary versions of the myth, Niobe was also represented in Roman funerary art. However, in contrast to the Greek funerary representations, this depiction follows the accepted Roman iconography of the myth, thus using Niobe to issue a warning rather than as an image of consolation.
170 Lactant. Theb. III. 194, “nam hodie quoque Niobe sic pingitur: gremium conferta tot natic, dum unum quemque amplecti minibus affectat”. Trans. by Cook (1963), p. 28. 49 d. The Image of Niobe in the Ancient World
In the first two chapters of this treatise, a wide examination of the myth of Niobe and its representations and reception in ancient literature and art were provided. Although some of the fragmentary images and incomplete literary evidence were not presented or discussed at length, examination of the main and fuller evidence has produced a general and broad appreciation of the representation of the myth. It has been shown that the focus of the myth has shifted across different media and in the transition from Greece to Rome.
In Greek literature, the main use of the myth was as a paradeigma, which featured
Niobe as a grieving mother, rather than as a hubristic woman. Two exceptions are the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles, which feature Niobe as the main heroine. Since they have not survived in full, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusion concerning the purpose and focus. However, it was postulated that Aeschylus mainly focused on Niobe’s grief, while Sophocles emphasized her punishment. In contrast, most of the Greek art portrayed the slaughter of the Niobids, mostly a shortened version of it, and showed only a subset of the dying or dead Niobids rather than the whole group. An exception to this iconography is the group of Apulian vases which show the petrified Niobe inside a naiskos. This group has a funerary purpose and may be considered as a representation of consolation in that Niobe is being reunited with her dead children.171
The Roman representations, which are mostly from the Late Republic period, show a significant shift in focus. Ovid seems to be influenced by the already existing visual representations in the Roman landscape and thus his main focus is on the slaughter, which he describes in detail over 85 lines.172 Visual representations that were created after
Ovid’s poem also showed an interest in the slaughter. However, a small shift in
171 Keuls (1978), p. 42. 172 Ov. Met. 6. 218-305. 50 iconography was seen again in the Roman sarcophagi: while in Greek and earlier Roman art, the depiction of the myth was a shortened version, showing only a subset of the
Niobids, and perhaps excluding Niobe and/or the gods, the sarcophagi provided a convenient surface for a full expression of the myth. Thus, on the surviving sarcophagi, all of the dying and dead Niobids are depicted, along with Niobe, Amphion, pedagogues, a nurse and the gods.
The relevance of the Niobe myth was sustained beyond the ancient world, as can be seen from its expression in early modern literature and art. Like many other mythological figures, Niobe was represented in fourteenth-century Italian literature, and fifteenth to sixteenth-century art. The myth was portrayed in an entirely different world than the ancient one, particularly with regard to religion and beliefs. Accordingly, the meaning and purposes of the myth have changed. In the second part of this treatise, an examination of the reception of the myth in Renaissance and Baroque literature and art will be provided, while the intention stays the same: to examine the purposes of the portrayal of the myth and, accordingly, to understand its use respect to its social context, in this case the Christian world of the late medieval, Italian Renaissance, and Baroque periods.
51 Chapter Three – Late Medieval and the Early Modern period
When Moving to the later eras of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, we witness a perceptual change in all that is related to the classical tradition. The classical myths, which were known in these later periods mostly through Roman poets such as
Virgil, Horace and Ovid, were allegorized. The pagan myths were reinterpreted according to various aspects of Christians ideology – the precise aspect depending on the context in which the interpretation took place.173
The Niobe myth was no exception to this theological and cultural shift. In this chapter, I examine the changes that occurred in the Niobe myth in the Christian context, with the aim of revealing the purposes these literary and visual representations. I confine my discussions mainly to the late Middle Ages and Early Modern period, while focusing for the most part on the Italian culture and setting, with a few deviations to areas such as
France and Germany.
Through these new representations of the Niobe myth, a wide picture appears concerning the reception of the classical tradition of the myth. In the Christian world of the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, the Niobe myth, especially its visual representation, is reshaped according to Christian ideas – in particular, the Christian notion of the vice of pride.
a. Pride in Christianity
While the meanings of the Greek hybris, the Roman superbia, and the Christian pride174 are not completely equivalent, in the Christian world, as we shall see when
173 That is, different periods of time, different media, etc. 174 The term ‘superbia’ can also be found in the Christian tradition, as a direct continuation of the classical concept of hybris. Superbia in Christinity is one of the seven deadly sins and is also known as pride. Thus there is a continuation from the hybris / superbia theme of the Greco-Roman tradition to the superbia / pride theme of Christianity. To separate the Roman superbia and the Christian superbia, I will mainly use the word ‘pride’ to describe the latter. 52 examining the uses of the myth, the classical notion of hybris is translated into the
Christian sin of pride. The best example is Dante’s use of mythological figures in the pride section in the Purgatorio, a literary work that will be discussed below.
The early and medieval Christian traditions saw pride as the central obstacle for morality; not only was it perceived as a threat to living a truly moral life, but it was also regarded as a direct challenge to God.175 Many myths which deal with hybris were used as an exemplary case of what would happen if a person were to act out of pride; thus these myths served as allegories to warn against one of the key vices in Christianity. Keeping all of this in mind, and noting that Niobe is a symbol of hybris, I now examine the development of the representation of the myth, starting with the reception of Ovid in the aforementioned eras.
b. Ovid’s Reception
Ovid’s Metamorphoses is the main source for transferring the myth of Niobe from
Antiquity to the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Although Ovid was never really forgotten, since many medieval commentaries were written in different locations,176 his popularity grew during the twelfth century,177 thanks to one of the main allegorical French translations, the Ovide Moralisé. This manuscript, now known through various editions and copies, serves a double purpose: it helps us to understand the allegorical use of the myth of Niobe and, through one version of the manuscript in particular, it acts as a visual Christian translation of the myth.178
175 For a fuller discussion on the subject see: Boyd (2014), p. 245. 176 For a discussion on the variety of commentaries see: Akbari (2016), p. 188. 177 Ziolkowski (2008), p. 23. 178 I have chosen to focus on the Ovide Moralisé since it was the first complete translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses and contains a moral exposition, which helps with the examination of the poem in its new allegorized form. 53 The Ovide Moralisé was written in the early fourteenth century, by an anonymous writer. It is a French allegorized translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses and one of the main manuscripts which shed light on the reception of Ovid in the late Middle Ages. Along with the text itself, a few illuminated manuscripts have survived.179
The text moralizes the myth by focusing on Niobe’s pride and portraying her as a sinner: “…her pride brought shame upon her…”.180 She receives the known punishment, but with a Christian twist: Two personifications, Chastity and Wisdom, punish Niobe and turn her into stone. This metamorphosis signifies humility and devotion to the contemplative life, since the petrification process may be paralleled with becoming a repentant sinner, thus making Niobe an exemplum to the Christian penitent. Cassell defines this interpretation of the text as “an allegory of cupidity and greed”.181 This is one of the best examples of the myth of Niobe being used as an allegory for Christian thoughts, a phenomenon that will continue to characterize the development of the myth in Early Modern literature and art.
In the Arsenal manuscript,182 which is one among a few manuscripts of the Ovide
Moralisé, along with the text, two miniatures which present scenes from the myth of
Niobe are visible (illustrations 18 and 19).183 The miniature in folio 79r presents Niobe in the center of the composition, with her dead children in a pile behind her, on the left side of the composition. She is depicted in a praying position, facing a sculptured figure, perhaps to indicate her idolatry in the eyes of the Christian spectator. In the second miniature in this illuminated manuscript, in folio 81v, Apollo appears from the sky in the upper right corner, shooting an arrow towards the male Niobids, who are presented on
179 Lord (1975), pp. 162-170. 180 “…ses orguelz la mist a honte…” Ovide Moralisé, VI. 1003. Trans. by Cassell (1984), p. 68. 181 Ibid. p. 68. 182 Arsenal, MS 5069, Bibliothèque de l’Arsénal, Paris. 183 Fol. 79, 81v. 54 the left side of the miniature. Some of the Niobids are on their horses, resembling the
Pompeian iconography which was discussed in the previous chapter, and are looking towards the god; others are on the ground, dead and bleeding. The artistic style of both representations is typical of miniatures in Nothern European Christian manuscripts of the thirteenth century, bringing the scenes closer to the Christian tradition.
As mentioned above, the Ovide Moralisé was not the only commentary on or adaptation of Ovid’s poems. Commentaries appeared throughout the late Middle Ages, in the early Renaissance period, and beyond. An example of these texts is the Ovidius
Moralizatus, another allegorized adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, written in French in the 1330s-1340s by the French author Petrus Berchorius (Pierre Besuire). In this representation, Niobe is also presented as a proud sinner.184 This text is another indication of the transformation of Niobe from a mythological figure who is exhibits hybris / superbia, to an exemplum for one of Christianity’s vices: Pride.
c. Pre-Renaissance and Early-Renaissance Literature
Moving on to Italy, where we will stay for the rest of this chapter, with one exception, two important writers of the late medieval and early Renaissance period draw on the proud Niobe in their literary works: Dante Alighieri (1265 – 1321) and Giovanni
Boccaccio (1313 – 1375). These two writers had a significant influence both on their contemporaries and on later generations in the Italian literary and artistic traditions, as will be shown in subsequent discussions. Both writers present the myth of Niobe according to the now established tradition, but in different manners: while Dante, who is considered the greatest medieval poet and theologian, refers to Niobe as a mythological woman and discusses her hybris in a more epic way, Boccaccio, who is regarded a humanist and a forerunner of the Renaissance, uses the myth to illustrate to contemporary
184 Cassell (1984), p. 68. 55 women how not to act. However, both of the writers connect Niobe to the Christian sin of pride.
In Dante’s Purgatorio, three lines are dedicated to the Niobe myth.185 Canti 10-
12 deal with the sin of pride in purgatory by means of a unique description: most of the sinners who are described in these canti are represented in artifacts. The sinners in canto
12, where Niobe is mentioned, are described as relief scenes on the pavement on which the poets pass.186 Along with Niobe are various of sinners from Greek mythology and the
Old Testament: Nimrod, Saul, Arachne, Rehoboam and more. The connection between
Niobe and Arachne, who are mentioned near one another, may suggest that one of Dante’s influences was Ovid’s Metamorphoses – in Ovid, Arachne is the previous story to the myth of Niobe.187 Dante refers to Ovid in several places in the Commedia, and places him among the great ancient poets in the Limbo, third after Homer and Horace. The Ovidian figures in Dante’s Purgatorio “serve as witnesses of his [Dante’s] awareness of the dangers they represent and for his own transcendence of them as Christian poet and visionary…” 188
Having argued that Dante’s Niobe probably drew inspiration from Ovid, it is important to understand the way that Niobe was translated in Dante’s system of thought.
The three lines which are dedicated to her suggest a degree of empathy of the poet with the grieving mother:
185 Dante, Purg. 12.37-39. 186 It is interesting to note the symbolism of this description: Dante is actually stepping over these characters representing pride. 187 Ov. Met. 6.1-145. 188 Fyler (2009), p. 413. 56 “O Niobe, with what grieving eyes did I see you
carved in the surface of the road, amid seven and
seven of your dead children!”189
Similar to Aeschylus’ and Sophocles’ plays, the grief of Niobe and her loss are the focus of Dante’s representation of the myth. Fiero suggests that the punishments described in Dante’s Purgatorio are corrective rather than retributive: “…they [the punishments] are devised to assist the sinner in the cultivation of virtue, not to punish him for the sin he had committed”.190 Thus, it seems that the myth of Niobe, described in a relief on the pavement in purgatory, is used, much like in ancient times, as an exemplum and a warning to the proud sinner. Dante’s Niobe seems to follow the classical tradition, which represents her as a mythological woman who grieves due to her act: hybris in Greek mythology, superbia in Roman literature, and now, in Dante’s period, the sin of pride.
Boccaccio is an early-Renaissance Italian author who dealt with mythological figures, Niobe among them. In his De Mulieribus Claris, Boccaccio presents a collection of historical and mythological women in 104 chapters; each chapter deals with a different woman. In his preface, Boccaccio declares that his goal is to record the stories of women who were renowned for great deeds: both good and bad.191 This is the first collection of biographies in Western literature devoted exclusively to women.192 Brown argues that although the only sources which were explicitly cited are St. Paul, the Bible and Jerome,
Boccaccio also used classical authors, Ovid among them.193 Similar to the Ovide
Moralisé, the stories in this text are presented for moral purposes.
189 Dante, Purg. 12. 37-39. “O Nïobè, con che occhi dolente/ vedea io te segnata in su la strada,/ tra sette e sette tuoi figliuoli spenti!” Trans. by Durling (2003), p. 191. 190 Fiero (1975), p. 4. 191 Brown (2003), p. xii. 192 In his preface, Boccaccio informs the reader that he drew his inspiration from Petrarch’s De Viris Illustribus (Lives of Famous Men). See: Boccaccio’s preface, first line. 193Brown (2004), p. xvi. 57 Brown places Boccaccio in the context of early Renaissance humanistic literature.
In this period, it was believed that a close study of classical history and literature would provide future leaders of the Italian society with the ethical models necessary to exercise virtuous power. The classical stories were combined with moral instructions for both men and women. Boccaccio’s text is a perfect example of this belief.194
Chapter 15 of De Mulieribus Claris is dedicated to Niobe, whom Boccaccio identifies as “…practically the most famous noble woman”.195 He starts by presenting the usual story of the marriage of Niobe and Amphion and then mentioning their seven sons and seven daughters.196 He then presents the arrival of Manto in Thebes, to establish the rites of Latona.197 This detail is found only in Ovid’s version, making it the definite source on which Boccaccio relied. After Niobe’s disrespect of the goddess, Boccaccio’s version departs from the ancient tradition. Instead of the Niobids being slaughtered by Apollo and
Artemis, Boccaccio recounts that they all died from a fatal illness, probably at the will of the gods. Amphion, it is told in this version, impaled himself on a sword.198 Niobe,
Boccaccio reports, fell into such deep silence that she seemed a motionless rock rather than a woman.199
After presenting the myth, Boccaccio relates to the moral conclusion of this story.
The first subject to which Boccaccio turns is the matter of pride, thus connecting Niobe to the Christian sin:
“It is a hard and especially hateful thing to look upon proud men, to say
nothing of enduring them. But it is perfectly unbearable to observe proud
194 Ibid. pp. xviii-xix. 195 Boccaccio, De Mulieribus Claris, 15.1: “Nyobes fere vulgo inter egregias notissima mulier”. Trans. by Brown (2001), p. 67. 196 The number of children is the first detail which connect this version to Ovid’s myth. 197 Boccaccio, De Mulieribus Claris, 15.2 198 Ibid. 3. 199 Ibid. 5. 58 women. For the most part, Nature had made men high-spirited, while she
has given a meek and submissive character to women, who are more
suitable to luxury than to power. For this reason, it should be not
surprising if God’s wrath is swifter and his sentence more harsh against
women whenever it happens that, like foolish Niobe, they go beyond the
boundaries of their weakness.”200
Boccaccio broaches a variety of subjects: pride, the myth and the perception of women in his time. In this text, not only is the sin of pride viewed as a despicable act, but when the perpetrator is a woman, the act is considered to be particularly abhorrent. Thus this text reveals not only the attitude of this era towards the sin of pride, but also its attitude towards women. This is the first time that the gender element emerges as a main feature of the myth. Even though most texts refer to Niobe’s maternal nature, it seems that Boccaccio is the first person to enter into a generic discussion of the connection between gender and the sin of pride.
Boccaccio continues his story with the pride element itself, positing that “…to have many children is not a work of virtue, but a work of Nature who bends Heavens’ goodness to that end.”201 Boccaccio refers to the word ‘virtue’ as if the motive for Niobe’s bragging is to show her virtue, a word with considerable meaning in the Christian faith.
Here is another moral interpretation of the myth by the author about the way in which women should behave: they should not brag about their children, for having children is
200 Ibid. 6-7. “Durum est et odiosum plurimum superbos, non dicam tolerare, sed spectare hominers; mulieribus autem fastidiosum et importabile; cum illos ferventis animi, ut plurimum, natura produxetis; has vero mitis ingenii et remisse virtutis, lautitiis potius quam imperiis aptas, produxit. Quam ob rem miribale minus si in elates dei proclivior ira sit et iudicium sevius, quotient eas sue debilitates contingat excedere terminus, ut insipiens Nyobes fecit, fortune lusa fallacia, et ignara quoniam ample prolis parentem fore, non virtutis parientis, sed nature opus esse, in se celi benignitatem flectentis.” Trans. by Brown (2001), p. 69. Since the structure of the Latin paragraph is different from the English translation, I have decided to present the full Latin paragraph in this note, including the text that is referred to in the next quote (“…to have many children… to that end”). 201 Ibid. 7. See previous note. 59 an act of God, not a virtue of women. He concludes his account of the myth with the observation that Niobe “…should have been satisfied to give thanks to God – indeed it was her duty to do so – for granting her children, rather than seeking divine honor for herself…”202
In this version, Boccaccio not only moralizes the myth of Niobe, but also places it in the context of fourteenth-century Italian society. This version shows that the classical myth of Niobe was still relevant, but was reinterpreted and received according to both
Christians virtues and vices and contemporary views of the way in which women should behave. Boccaccio’s interpretation also acts as a warning of what might happen if a woman were to act the way Niobe did.
The text of De Mulieribus Claris remained popular for some time after the invention of printing. The first printed edition of the Latin text came from the press of
Johannes Zainer from Ulm, in 1473.203 It is not possible to discuss here all of the versions, printed and translated, or all of the miniatures which accompany these texts. However, in the first printed version of Johannes Zainer, a peculiar and intriguing miniature is visible
(illustration 20).204 This miniature shows Niobe and Amphion, on either side of the image, recognized by their written names which appear beside them. Amphion is portrayed with a sword protruding from his chest, in keeping with Boccaccio’s version of the story. Both are dressed in contemporary fourteenth-century attire. The interesting and unique part is the Niobids, who appear to be arranged in a pile, naked and dead, while the sun, depicted in the top part of the image, reaches out to them with its beams. The sun replaces Artemis and Apollo in the usual classical iconography, thus imparting a sense of Christian
202 Ibid. 8. “Statis igitur illi, imo debitum, erat Deo ex concessis egisse gratias, quam sibi divinos qualescunque honores quesisse…” 203 Brown (2003), p. xx. 204 Boccaccio, De Mulieribus Claris, printed edition by Johannes Zainer at Ulm, fol. 9v, ca. 1473. 60 ideology to the image and myth.205 The motif of the Niobids lying dead and naked in a pile was seen in a previous image – a miniature in the Ovide Moraliseé illuminated manuscript (illustration 19). However, the interpretation of the sun as the agent responsible for killing the Niobids seems to be a unique description, which is not presented in any other surviving. Thus the miniature in the Zeiner version seems to be a combination of the classical tradition, of describing the killing of the Niobids with a more
Christian interpretation. However, as will be seen in further discussions, the iconography of later Italian art shows a return to the purely classical representation of the subject.
Ending our discussion on the late medieval and early-Renaissance literature concerning the myth of Niobe, a few points of conclusion may be drawn. Firstly, it seems that Ovid’s version is used as the main source of inspiration for these texts and that understanding of his reception in these eras is important for appreciating Niobe’s adaptation and development in Christian times. Secondly, the myth of Niobe was moralized and allegorized in all of these texts and was translated into Christian ideas.
However, there are also some differences between the three main texts which were examined in this discussion: While there is some similarity between the Ovide Moralisé and De Mulieribus Claris, specifically, the moralizing aspect and the reference to
Christian ideology, Boccaccio’s text brings the myth closer to his time, while the first author seems to leave the myth in the context of Ovid. Dante’s point of reference is different again; he leaves Niobe purely mythological figure and as one example among a variety of mythological and biblical sinners. These differences in the depiction of Niobe may arise from the different literary genres and traditions.206 However, the main similarity remains – the connection of Niobe with the Christian sin, and vice, of pride.
205 Furthermore, Apollo, the Greek god who is connected with the sun is often paralleled to the Judeo- Christian God. 206 That is, moralized ancient text, theological late mediaeval poetry and early-Renaissance literature. 61 All of these texts and accompanying miniatures together with the classical literary and visual representations of the myth, exerted an influence on the perception of Niobe by later generations. The following discussion examines the later207 Italian visual versions of the myth.
d. Italian Renaissance and Baroque Art
Except for the Boccaccio miniature, not much visual evidences can be found during the fifteenth century and it seems that the Niobe myth had arrived in Italian art mostly from the sixteenth century onwards.208 An intriguing aspect of the visual representations in sixteenth-century Italian art is the variety of media in which the myth was represented: in a Renaissance cassone,209 a decorated marriage chest, which was popular during the Florentine Renaissance, in a number of drawings of the ancient representations, and in a few large-scale paintings. In the following discussion, I will offer an examination of these findings and of the different possible purposes that the myth served in each case.
The first representation in this discussion is a carved chest, dated to 1536 and signed by the Florentine artist Baccio Bandinelli (illustration 21).210 In the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Florence, cassoni were a part of traditional furniture which decorated a newly-wed couple’s bedroom. The uniqueness of this genre lies in the painted or carved scenes which adorned them. The painted narratives, istorie, not only had decorative functions, but most of them were also used for exhortatory aims. Thus many of the decorated scenes portrayed classical myths or biblical tales which served as examples to
207 By ‘later’ I mean Italian Renaissance and Baroque literature and art, which is the focus of the remainder of this chapter. 208 This is not surprising, since the representations of mythological subjects in Italian art began mostly in the second half of the fifteenth century, first with the depictions of the Olympian art and then, in the sixteenth century, with the portrayal of other mythological figures. See: Freedman (2011), p. 6. 209 Cassoni in plural. 210 Private collection. 62 the new couple, guiding them to act according to the moral conventions of their society.
The istorie can be regarded as following the Renaissance conception of history and history painting as exemplum virtutis.211 According to this view, the authority of ancient history lies in the teaching of moral lessons. Most of the cassoni-narratives portrayed stories of righteous men and women and were intended as ‘mirrors’ for the newly- weds.212 However, less common but still in existence were the scenes which were used to warn the young couple of the consequences of sinning.
One of those scenes can be found in the aforementioned carved cassone which is adorned with the scene of the killing of the Niobids. It is an important representation of the Niobe myth in a popular medium and setting. This particular cassone seems to draw its inspiration from the late Roman sarcophagi,213 as Mather suggests, even though the scene itself seems to be designed differently from that adoring the sarcophagi.214 As opposed to the sarcophagi designs, which did not portray a separation between the female and the male Niobids, in the case of the cassone, there is such a separation. In the front scene of the cassone, Apollo is portrayed shooting arrows towards the riding male
Niobids and their horses. In the middle of the scene, Artemis is shooting down the female
Niobids. At the right end, Niobe is portrayed, in her usual sarcophagi-iconography, protecting her youngest daughter. At both ends, trees are depicted, and as a background for the scene involving the female Niobids, some sort of fabric is shown, which is a reminiscent of a set for theater. These additional elements, that is the trees and fabrics, may have been intended emphasize the differences between the two scenes, as portrayed in some of the literary evidence: The male Niobids were killed during their hunt, while the daughters, were killed within the walls of the palace.
211 Tinagli (1997), p. 22. 212 ibid. p. 29. 213 Examined in the previous chapter. 214 Mather (1913), p. 73. 63 Mather suggests that because of the separation of the scenes, it is probable that
Bandinelli relied on Homer’s version and not, as was common in this era, on Ovid.215
However, Homer’s version of the myth does not indicate such a separation for the two settings of the killing.216 Going back to Small’s theory,217 it may instead be the case that
Bandinelli was inspired by a long tradition which was already established in his times, and that he took different elements from different visual and literary representations.
This cassone is a good example of a Christian visual interpretation of the myth and it reveals the manner in which the myth was received in this era. Considering the medium of this representation, it seems that the myth was chosen for a didactic and exhortatory purpose for a young Florentine couple who had just married. Furthermore, we see that the iconographic line of depicting the slaughter of the Niobids, rather than the grieving and petrification process of Niobe, remained popular in this era. It seems that in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance period, the imagery of punishment and violent scenes was particularly popular. Many of the violent scenes, which show a sinner’s death as a punishment for his vices, were in fact an exemplum for the Christian sins.218
Since no evidence of the origin of this commission has been found, two possibilities may be raised. The first is that the message of the myth was directed to both of the newly-weds, to ensure a life without pride and a continuity of their dynasty. In other words, the myth may have been used as a warning of the consequence of sinning: losing one’s offspring, who were the main purpose of marriage in this era.219 The second possibility is that the myth was directed towards the young bride. Based on Boccaccio’s version of the myth, it seems that the myth may have been used to discourage the young
215 Ibid. 216 That is, the hunting area for the male Niobids, and an indoor setting for the female Niobids. 217 See discussion on page 22. 218 Merback (1999), p. 144. 219 Tinagli (1997), pp. 23-24. 64 woman from boasting about the number of her children, since this is an act of Nature, and not her doing.220 Either way, it seems that along with the literary interpretations of this era, this scene and the artifact on which it appeared reveal another layer to the Christian reception of the myth.
Even though no other cassone was discovered portraying this myth, nor were other items of marriage furniture such as the lettucci and spalliere,221 this representation, along with Boccaccio’s version of the myth, reveal that in this era, Niobe was not just treated as a mythological figure but was brought close to day-to-day life and was used to address popular sentiments, in particular for a female audience.
During the later part of the Renaissance and in the Baroque period, a variety of paintings were made with the subject of the slaughter of the Niobids. Three paintings of the Venetian High-Renaissance artist Tintoretto are particularly interesting.
A series of fourteen oil-on-wood octagonal paintings were commissioned by the
Venetian Pisan counts and were executed by Tintoretto, in 1541. These paintings were intended to decorate the bedroom of Vittore Pisani in honor of his marriage. The subjects of all of these paintings were drawn from a variety of myths from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, portraying themes related to unhappy love or examples of punished pride, including the story of the killing of the Niobids (illustration 22).222
The Niobid scene is distinctive from the other representations which have been seen so far. The scene is depicted in the manner of ‘sotto in su’, “from below to above”, portraying a view of Niobe seen from below. Niobe is in the center of the composition, raising her arms and her gaze towards the gods. The two gods are depicted shooting from the clouds. Only three Niobids are represented: On the left, a male Niobid is shown killed
220 Boccaccio, De Mulieribus Claris, 15.7. 221 Marriage beds and wall panels, respectively. 222 Palluchini and Rossi (1982), pp. 134-135. Modena: Galleria Estense, inv. num. 354. 65 by an arrow and a female Niobid is depicted sheltering herself and her brother with some kind of fabric, while an arrow penetrates her arm. On the right-hand side, an almost fully naked male Niobid is depicted from behind and seems to be fleeing or trying to shelter himself, a detail which is hard to define, since his mother’s arm is covering a part of his figure.
This scene seems to follow a specific style and design, which can be seen in all of the paintings of this commission, and therefore does not follow any known Niobe iconography. No other iconographical line shows the figure of Niobe with the two gods and only three Niobids. In the designs of the Hadrianic sarcophagi, Niobe and the gods are depicted in the same composition, but as part of a full description that includes all of the figures: all of the Niobids, Niobe, Amphion and the gods. In the other paintings in this commission, the mythological scenes also portray only a small number of figures, presented in ‘sotto in su’.
Although the iconography of the painting stands out from the visual representation on the cassone, both depictions serve a similar purpose. It was mentioned above that the themes of this commissioned were unhappy love and the punishments of pride. Since, as shown in this chapter, the Niobe myth was already established in this era as providing an example of a proud woman, it is reasonable to conclude that this is the case here as well.
Commissioned as a dedication to newly-weds, and intended to be presented in their bedroom, the myth of Niobe, with its known Christian message, fits the occasion. The painting, along with the other paintings with similar themes, were meant to serve exhortatory purpose. This constitutes another example of the use of the Niobe myth in the mundane world in the Christian Renaissance period.
66 Two more paintings portraying the myth of Niobe were made by Tintoretto.
However, not much information has been preserved concerning the commissions. From a stylistic point of view, these paintings show another shift in iconography.
Tintoretto’s second depiction of the theme is a roundel painting, now found in the
Collezione Roccan in Venice and dated to 1543-4 (illustration 23).223 Niobe is presented with all of her seven daughters, while the gods are shooting them from above. This scene is peculiar since no other visual representation portrays only the female Niobids. In one of the Pompeian paintings and a miniature from the Ovide Moralisé (illustrations 12 and
18), we witnessed the depiction of just the male Niobids, riding their horses. However, no other depiction of only the female Niobids, and Niobe, has been discovered. In addition, this painting seems to be lacking the dramatic element. Although arrows are shot by the gods who are placed among the clouds, the facial expressions of the Niobids lack a sense of horror element and are depicted more peacefully than anything else.
Pallucchini and Rossi rightfully argue that it is possible that this painting was made for a more decorative purpose, rather than to portray a faithful representation of the myth. 224
The third painting of Tintoretto, now presented in the Courtauld Institute of Art in London (illustration 24)225 and dated to 1545-8, shows a kind of euphoric scene, with a background depicting outdoor nature as the central theme of the painting. The surrealistic scene is interrupted by the gods shooting the Niobids and a small number of
Niobids fleeing them. However, similar to the previous painting, the scene lacks its usual dramatic element, and even though a dead Niobid is presented, the figures are portrayed in an atmosphere of playfulness rather than with an expression of horror. Much like the previous painting, it seems to be a more decorative piece as well.
223 Venice: Collezione Rocca, entry num. 41770. 224 Palluchini and Rossi (1982), p. 140. 225 London: The Courtauld Institute of Art, A. Seilern collection, n. 337. 67 Evidently in some cases, like the two later paintings of Tintoretto, the myth was transformed to fulfil a decorative role – a scene among many others which presented mythological figures in a mythological setting. The fact that the goal was to decorate rather than to moralize can be seen from the style of the two paintings; rather than focusing on the moral message and depicting the violence of the scene, the paintings create a somewhat serene atmosphere.
Although a number of other Renaissance paintings with the theme of Niobe can be found, the remainder of this chapter focuses on one particular visual representation.226
The representation in question is one of two large canvas paintings which were commissioned by Taddeo Barberini, and painted by the Roman artist Andrea Camassei.
The paintings were originally placed in Barberini’s residence in Rome’s Via dei
Giubbonari. Taddeo Barberini was the nephew of Urban VIII and was chosen from among all of the Pope’s nephews to be responsible for the continuation of the Barberini’s family name. The two paintings deal with themes from the Greco-Roman mythology concerning the goddess Diana,227 one being The Hunt of Diana (illustration 25),228 and the other, which will from the center of this discussion, being The Massacre of the Niobids
(illustration 26).229 In this Baroque design, Camassei presents a full scene of male and female Niobids in different phases of fleeing, dying or lying deceased. A horse is depicted in the center of the painting, along with other horses at different levels in the image, which connects it to the iconographic line which started in ancient Rome.
226 Since the purpose of this treatise is to discuss the central adaptations and most common purposes of the myth, I have chosen to focus on a number of examples which in my opinion represent the essence of the Niobe paintings of the Renaissance and Baroque style. 227 Artemis’s Roman name. 228 Rome: Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, inv. num. 2425. 229 Rome: Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, inv. num. 2426. 68 This painting portrays two aspects of the Niobe myth and its reception: the first is a visual aspect, in particular, inspiration drawn by the artist from the ancient images, and the second is the use and purpose that the myth serves.
Camassei’s painting is a good example of the influence of the ancient representations on the Renaissance and Baroque artists. In particular, the Uffizi group, discovered in 1583 and other Roman copies of the same design, inspired Renaissance and
Baroque artists.
It seems that many of the figures in Camassei’s design show a similarity to the sculptured group. The most obvious example is the figure of Niobe, sheltering her youngest daughter. Similar to the sculpture (illustration 7a), in Camassei’s painting,
Niobe shelters her young daughter with one hand, while the other hand is raised towards the sky, while her daughter hugs her. In this Baroque painting Niobe receives a more colorful and expressive representation: her blue, red and white attire, along with the daughter’s yellow clothing, stand out in the scene, although Camassei uses the same color palate in the whole design. Camassei adds a crown to her image, perhaps so that the audience may recognize her as the Queen of Thebes. The different positions of the dying and dead Niobids also resemble some of the statues of the Uffizi group. A further element which draw seems to draw its inspiration from classical models is the gods, found in the upper part of the scene. They shoot arrows towards the lower figures below them. The addition of these figures increases the resemblance to the Roman sarcophagi, in which the gods are depicted on the lid. It seems that Camassei drew most of his inspiration from the available Roman findings.
As mentioned above, the two paintings ordered in this commission were first placed in Taddeo Barberini’s residence in the Via dei Giubbonari. At the end of the seventeenth century, they were transferred to the Palazzo Barberini alle Quattro Fonatane,
69 where they were definitively recorded in 1817.230 A question may be raised: why did
Taddeo Barberini order these two paintings which portray these specific themes? The themes seem to be inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses and were possibly known to the
Baroque patron and artist through the earlier adaptations of Boccaccio and Dante.
Beyond the obvious popularity of themes which were drawn from Ovid’s writings, it is likely that the Barberini family aspired to present and express their wealth and power through works of art, and perhaps also as an attempt to express cultural knowledge and appreciation. One way of doing so was to order depictions of themes from
Greco-Roman mythology that reflected their ideology.231 Taddeo Barberini may have followed his family’s pattern and commissioned two allegorical paintings which expressed his power and ideology, and possibly his knowledge of the classical tradition.
Considering the Christian adaptation of the Niobe myth, it is reasonable to assume that the purpose of this representation was to display the devotion of the patron to Christian morality, while the choice of this myth in particular would imply a desire to draw attention to the Christian sin of pride.
From this analysis, it seems that this image portrays the two aspects mentioned above: the visual aspect, which includes the popularity of the classical visual representations of the myth, and a ‘deeper’ meaning or moral message. To further develop the first aspect, another layer of thought may be added. Along with the generic popularity of representing myths through ancient visual findings, it is possible that this particular myth was chosen because it enables an impressive scene to be portrayed to the audience.
The unique theme of the Niobe myth enables the artist to portray a scene full of pathos: various figures in different positions, with different emotional gestures, and a variety of
230 Mochi Onori and Vodret (1998), p. 140. 231 Scott (1991), p. 11. 70 representations of death. It is possible that all of these elements and aspects were in the mind of the patron and artist while commissioning the piece.
Even though our focus is mainly on Italy in the Renaissance and Baroque eras, it is important to stress that the myth was represented, especially visually, in different areas in Western Europe through the Early Modern period. For instance, we can find a tapestry, commissioned by Henry IV and designed by Toussain Dubreuil (illustration 27).232
Without elaborating, it is possible to assume that it served a similar purpose to Camassei’s paintings, since it was placed in the King’s palace and possibly aimed to display wealth and power.233
e. Conclusions
In this chapter, an examination of the Christian reception of the Niobe myth was provided, starting in the late Middle Ages and continuing until the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods. Through the visual and literary representations, several observations were made.
The main process by which the myth was connected to the Christian ideology involved the Christian translation of the Greco-Roman hybris /superbia concept into the sin of pride.234 First and foremost, the figure of Niobe was adapted into an example of a sinner of pride. She was still presented in her usual story, sinning against the gods and boasting about her many children. However, it seems that the purpose was to warn the
Christian audience against sinning by showing Niobe’s punishment as a possible consequence. This transformation took place not only in literature, but in visual images as well. A further development seen in this period was a more mundane use of the myth,
232 St. Petersburg: The State Hermitage Museum, inv. num. T-2792. 233 Vittet (2010), p. 59. 234 It seems that over the course of time, the concept of hybris naturally developed into the Christian sin of pride. However, in Greco-Roman times, the act of hybris / superbia was not identified as a sin, while in Christianity it was considered a religious notion. 71 through the version of Boccaccio and the carved cassone. It seems that through the
Christian sin of pride, the figure of Niobe was translated into a character that served an exhortatory purpose, especially to Italian women and young brides. The punishment of
Niobe, of diminishing her dynasty, would have been especially relatable in times when offspring were the main purpose of marriage and could have established one’s social class. These two connected uses of the myth show its reception of the myth in these periods and locations, and its translation from pagan to Christian ideologies.
72 Conclusions
In this thesis I presented an examination of the main visual and literary representations of the myth of Niobe, starting in ancient Greece where the myth had first developed, continuing with ancient Rome, then on to the late Middle Ages, and finishing with the
Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods. Through examination of both the representations themselves and the societies in which they were created and received, the purposes and uses of the myth in these different periods were uncovered.
Three different layers of analysis were carried out in this thesis. The first layer was an examination of the artistic and literary development of the myth, which involved analyzing each chosen source separately and then drawing a conclusion about the common approaches of a given medium in a particular period. This helped create a broad picture of the importance of the myth in each period and location.
The second layer, which emerged directly from the first, dealt with the purposes of the myth, which changed according to the medium and period of time: from Greek tragedy, to funerary vases, large-scaled paintings, Renaissance furniture and more. To this layer another was added, concerning the hybris/superbia/pride element, which was seen in the different societies and eras in most of the literary and artistic evidence. Thus, the case-study of the Niobe myth carried out in this thesis provides a deeper understanding of the translation of the Greek concept of hybris, to Roman superbia and Christian superbia / pride.
A further contribution of this thesis is the wider conclusions that it reaches concerning the historical and social context of each period and location. For example, an examination of the purposes of the myth in ancient Greece revealed that on the one hand,
Niobe served as a paradeigma to convey a message of consolation to the bereaved, while on the other hand, the myth was one of many narratives concerning the punishment of
73 hybris. These two uses of the myth appear to be almost contradictory from a modern perspective. Thus, their coexistence in ancient Greek society deepens our understanding of the beliefs and values prevalent in this context.
The main artefacts and texts in the three different time periods studied in this thesis are as follows. In ancient Greece, as already mentioned, we encountered two main uses of the representation of the Niobe myth: as a paradeigma for grief, and the other as a hubristic mythological woman whose punishment followed her act of hyrbis. The examination of the literary and visual evidence provided in that chapter acted as basis for understanding later traditions.
In ancient Rome, we saw a shift in focus in the literary tradition: a transition from
Niobe as a paradeigma for grief to Niobe as an exemplum for a sinner. In this chapter I have examined the Roman interpretations of myth of Niobe starting with the Roman copies of the Greek sculptures. It was demonstrated that in ancient Rome, most representations, both literary and visual, focused on the punishment itself, as a warning against superbia.
The third chapter provided another shift in the focus of the narrative, as well as a transition to a new context, from the pagan to the Christian world. Here too the pride element took a central place in the discussion, for the hubristic Niobe became a sinner of the Christian vice of pride, which is known as superbia as well. Similar to the first two chapters, I examined the main visual and literary sources of the myth. The reception of the myth played a central role in this discussion – specifically, the way in which Ovid’s work was perceived, reinterpreted, and used as a springboard for other Early Modern sources.
Through these discussions, we saw an iconographic and perceptual development concerning the Niobe myth in particular, and the societies in which the myth grew in
74 general. The main conclusion is that each society used the myth according to its own social or ethical standpoint, but in most cases, moral aspect of hybris / superbia/ pride was a central component. The figure of Niobe was altered according to the main needs and ideals: she acted as a paradeigma for grief in Greek societies, as a warning against superbia in Roman society, and as an exemplum for a sinner of pride in the mundane and religious world of Early modern Christianity.
Viewing the development of the myth throughout all three periods studied in this thesis it seems that even though the societies and religions changed throughout the ages, the purposes of the representations of Niobe stayed broadly similar. In Greco-Roman times, the myth was used as a paradeigma or exemplum. In ancient Greece, the myth conveyed two main messages: the first was a massage of warning against acting in hybris, while the second was a message of consolation, using Niobe as a symbol of the ideal grieving woman or mother. In Roman times, it seems that the superbia message took center stage, while the portrayal of Niobe as the ideal grieving woman had disappeared.
The late medieval and Early Modern periods seemed to largely follow the pattern established in Roman times, perhaps because the main source of the myth which was available for this audience was Ovid’s version. However, even though the example of, and warning against, sinning are central in these representations, a focus on the figure of
Niobe re-emerges in the Italian discourse. For example, Boccaccio did not merely discuss the sin of pride on the part of a mythological sinner, but he also created a persona for
Niobe and, by using her as a negative exampler, made her relevant to the women of his time. Dante reintroduced the element of grief, showing that he had a degree of sympathy with Niobe’s plight and reinterpreting her punishment as an act of penitence.
Thus the myth of Niobe appears to have been developed in a direction which fits the essence of each period and society, while still retaining its the main themes and
75 elements of the myth: the myth as a sort of a paradeigma for grief, and the hybris- superbia-pride aspect.
In addition, the representations of the myth deepen our understanding of the prevalent ideas and interest of the different societies. A few specific examples are as follows. First, the importance of the depiction of Niobe as the ideal grieving woman shows the centrality of the tragic element in Greek society. This element is particularly noticeable in the consolation message which may have been derived from Homer’s version, in some of the poems in the Greek Anthology, and in the Apulian funerary art.
The latter example seems especially intriguing, since the Niobe myth was portrayed on vases, which were a part of the funerary ceremony and were later placed in the grave; thus Niobe’s act of hybris was completely overlooked in comparison with her burden of grief. Second, the emphasis on the superbia aspect showed the importance of ‘knowing your place’ in Roman society, as was argued in the second chapter. There, the Niobe myth was no longer used as a message of consolation, but as a warning. This use of the myth can be seen again in the funerary art of the Roman sarcophagi; when comparing this art to the funerary Greek art, a clear shift is seen – from a message of consolation to a violent scene. Third, the Christian interpretation of Niobe as a proud woman shows the importance in Christian societies of the warning against one of its central sins, while using
Greco-Roman mythology as exempla. All of these perceptions come to light through the literary and visual examination of the myth of Niobe as a case-study.
In my opinion, this myth constitutes an intriguing and distinctive case-study, since unlike many other Greek myths that feature hubristic figures, the story of Niobe – in particular, her punishment and her grief – are highly relatable. For instance, the fear of losing one’s children is something that people in all societies and eras can relate to, much more so than the fear of rolling a rock up a hill for eternity, as was the fate of Sisyphus.
76 Furthermore, the horror of Niobe’s punishment is such that one can almost overlook her hybris, which may explain why she became a paradeigma for grief. Thus, the sin and the punishment of Niobe make her a more relevant figure in day-to-day life than most mythological figures.
Due to the limitations of this thesis, I was not able to discuss every known visual and literary representation of the myth, and therefore I chose to focus on what I believe to be the most central and relevant evidence to meet the stated purposes.
Moreover, almost every artistic or literary evidence, and every era, could provide enough scope for a more elaborated research undertaking its own right. For example, the representation of the cassone could form the basis for a larger study on the hybris representations in Renaissance cassoni or domestic art, a subject that I plan to explore in future studies.
In addition to carrying out more detailed research into specific artefacts or eras, another possible avenue for future work would be to examine the Niobe myth in the context of other fields of study. For instance, the issue of gender could be examined in more depth – specifically the link between the reception of the myth and the perception of women in each of the examined societies.
The contribution of this thesis is two-fold. First, it acts as a source for the literary and visual representations of the myth of Niobe throughout the examined periods of time.
Second, through the case-study of Niobe, it deepens our understanding of the societies, cultures and traditions which were examined, as well as the relationships between them.
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86 List of Illustrations
1. Attic black-figure neck amphora, Castellani Painter, Apollo and Artemis with
Bows and Arrows Killing the Niobids, 600-550 BCE, Hamburg: Museum für
Kunst und Gewerbe 1960.1, Paralipomena 40.35, CAVI 3872, BAD 35268,
Cook (1963), 1.
Image taken from: The Beazley Archive, http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
2. Attic red-figure calyx krater, Niobid Painter, by Beazley: Herakles and the
Argonauts (?) (obverse), 475-425 BCE, Paris: Musée du Louvre G341, ARV2
601.22 Paralipomna 395, BAD 206954.
Image taken from: The Beazley Archive, http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
3. Attic red-figure calyx krater, Niobid Painter, Death of the Niobids with Apollo
and Artemis (reverse), 475-425 BCE, Paris: Musée du Louvre G341, ARV2
601.22 Paralipomna 395, BAD 206954, Cook (1963), 3.
Image taken from: The Beazley Archive, http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
4. Attic red-figure bell krater, Introduction of Herakles to Olympos (fragments),
400-300 BCE, St. Petersburg: State Hermitage museum BAK8, BAD 7207,
LIMC Herakles 2871, Zeus ADD.143.
Image taken from: The Beazley Archive, http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk
5. Marble Relief, The Death of the Niobids (Roman copy of Greek original of the
430s BCE, first-century BCE, St. Petersburg: State Hermitage museum ГР-
4223.
Image taken from: The Hermitage Museum, http://www.hermitagemuseum.org
6. Circular marble relief, Apollo and Artemis Slaying Niobids, first-century BCE,
London: The British Museum 1877,0727.1 (on display G23), Cook (1963), 29,
LIMC Niobidai 33.
87 Image taken from: http://www.my-favourite-
planet.de/english/people/n1/niobe.html
7. Group of sculptures, marble, The Niobe Uffizi Group, first / second century CE
Roman copy, Florence: Uffizi Gallery, Hall n. 42, Cook (1963), 16, LIMC
Niobe 7, Niobidai 23a (Uff. 294), c (Uff. 2922), d (Uff. 293), e (Uff. 300), f
(Uff. 302), h (Uff. 290), i (Uff. 306), j (Uff. 298).
7a. Detail from the Uffizi Group, Niobe Sheltering her Youngest Daughter.
Images Taken from: https://www.friendsofflorence.org
8. Group of sculptures, marble, Niobe group, first-century BCE-CE, discovered in
2013 by A. Betori, Ciampino, Italy, Lorenzi (2016). (Image from the
excavations).
Image Taken from: Lorenzi, R. (2016). “A Myth in Stone: The Delicate Work of
Conserving a 2,000-year-old Story”. Archeology, 69(3), pp. 50-53.
9. Apulian red-figure loutrophoros, from the workshop of the Varrese Painter, The
Mourning Niobe, Partially Petrified, ca. 340 BCE, Naples: Museo Nazionale
82267 (H3246), LIMC Niobe 12.
Image taken from: Keuls, E. (1978). “Aeschylus’ Niobe and Apulian Funerary
Symbolism”. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, Bd. 30, pp. 41-68
10. Campanian red-figure hydria, The Mourning Niobe with Tantalus, fourth-
century BCE, Sydney: Nicholson Museum 71.10, LIMC Niobe 11.
Image taken from: http://sydney.edu.au/
11. Apulian red-figure volute-krater, The Killing of the Niobids, late fourth-century
BCE, Ruvo: Museo Nazionale 424, Easterling (2006).
Image taken from: Easterling, P. E. (2006). “Sophocles: The First Thousand
Years”. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 49(S87), pp. 1-15.
88 12. Fresco, third Pompeian style, Massacre of the Niobids, late first-century BCE,
Naples, from Pompeii VII.15.12, Casa del Marinaio, De Carolis (2001), MANN
inc. no. 111479, Cook (1963), 22.
Image taken from: De Carolis, E. (2001). Gods and Heroes in Pompeii. Loss
Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.
13. Fresco, Niobe Sheltering daughter, Niobids, Apollo and Artemis, late first-
century BCE, Rome: Villa Doria Pamfili, colambarium (wall B, xx), Cook
(1963), 24.
Image taken from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MNR-
PalMassimo-ColombarioVillaDoriaPamphilj_01.JPG
14. Fresco, fourth Pompeian style, The Niobids with Two Tripods, third quarter of
first-century CE, Pompeii: Naples 1154, Casa dei Dioscuri, Cook (1963), 25.
Images taken from:
https://www.flickr.com/groups/1912490@N25/discuss/72157635123595882/
15. Marble sarcophagus, Niobe Sarcophagus, ca. 135 CE, Rome: Lateran XII, 813,
Cook (1963), 32(1), Toynbee (1967), pl. XXXVII, Robert (1975), no. 315, pl.
100.
Image taken from:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/69716881@N02/16393059319
16. Marble sarcophagus, Niobe Sarcophagus, ca. 160-170 CE, Vatican: Galleria dei
Candelabri, Cook (1963), 33(2), Toynbee (1967), pl. XXXVIII, Robert (1975),
no. 313, pl. 379-80, LIMC Niobe 9.
Image taken from: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/341710690457381776/
17. Marble sarcophagus, Niobe Sarcophagus, ca. 160 CE, Munich 345, Cook
(1963), 33(1), Toynbee (1967), pl. XXXIX, Robert (1975), no. 312, pl. 99.
Image taken from:
89 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sarcophagus_Niobids_Glyptothek_M
unich_345_front.jpg
18. Ovide Moralisé, France: Arsenal MS 5069, fol. 79r, second quarter of the
fourteenth century, Niobe at Prayer with Dead Children.
Image taken from:
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b525031179/f161.item.r=Arsenal%20MS%2
05069
19. Ovide Moralisé, France: Arsenal MS 5069, 81v, second quarter of the fourteenth
century, Apollo Kills Niobids.
Image taken from:
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b525031179/f161.item.r=Arsenal%20MS%2
05069
20. Boccaccio, De Mulieribus Claris, printed edition by Johannes Zainer at Ulm,
fol. 9v, ca. 1473, Niobe, Amphion and their Dead Sons.
Image taken from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/58558794@N07/6693243403/
21. Baccio Bandinelli, The Slaughter of the Niobids, 1536, wooden carved cassone,
77x165.7x54.7, private collection.
Image taken from: https://www.pandolfini.it/it/asta-0201/cassone-firenze-
secolo-xvi.asp
22. Tintoretto, Niobe and her Children, ca. 1541, oil on wood, 127x123 cm,
Modena: Galleria Estense.
Image taken from:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tintoretto,_tavole_per_un_soffitto_a_
palazzo_pisani_in_san_paterniano_a_venezia,_1541-
42,_strage_dei_figli_di_niobe.jpg
90 23. Tintoretto, Apollo and Diana Shooting Niobe and her Daughters, 1543-1544,
round canvas, 155 cm, Venice: Collezione Rocca.
Image taken from: http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it
24. Tintoretto, Apollo and Diana Killing the Niobids, 1545-1548, oil on panel,
31x67 cm, London: The Courtauld Institute of Art.
Image taken from:
http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/images/gallery/e47b6d87.html
25. Andrea Camassei, The Hunt of Diana, 1638-1639, oil on canvas, 300x410 cm,
Rome: Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica.
Image taken from: Web Gallery of Art, https://www.wga.hu
26. Andrea Camassei, The Massacre of the Niobids, 1638-1639, oil on canvas,
300x410 cm, Rome: Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica.
Image taken from: Web Gallery of Art, https://www.wga.hu
27. Designed by Toussain Dubreuil, Diana and Apollo Slaying the Children of
Niobe, ca. 1630, tapestry (wool, silk and gold thread), 400x535 cm, St.
Petersburg: The State Hermitage Museum.
Image taken from: https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/
91 Illustrations
1. Attic black-figure neck amphore, Apollo and Artemis with Bows and Arrows Killing
the Niobids, 600-550 BCE.
2. Attic red-figure calyx krater, Herakles and the Argonauts (?) (obverse), 475-425
BCE.
92 3. Attic red-figure calyx krater, Death of the Niobids with Apollo and Artemis
(reverse), 475-425 BCE.
4. Attic red-figure bell krater, Introduction of Herakles to Olympos (fragment), 400-
300 BCE.
93 5. Marble relief, The Death of the Niobids (Roman copy of Greek original of the
430s BCE, first-century BCE.
6. Circular marble relief, Apollo and Artemis Slaying Niobids, first-century BCE.
94 7. Group of sculptures, marble, The Niobe Uffizi Group, first / second century CE
Roman copy.
95 7a. Detail from the Uffizi Group, Niobe Sheltering her Youngest Daughter.
8. Group of sculptures, marble, Niobe group, first-century BCE-CE.
96 9. Apulian red-figure loutrophoros, The Mourning Niobe, Partially Petrified, ca.
340 BCE.
97 10. Campanian red-figure hydria, The Mourning Niobe with Tantalus, fourth-
century BCE.
98 11. Apulian red-figure volute-krater, The Killing of the Niobids, late fourth-century
BCE.
99 12. Fresco, third Pompeian style, Massacre of the Niobids, late first-century BCE,
Naples.
13. Fresco, Niobe Sheltering daughter, Niobids, Apollo and Artemis, late first- century
BCE.
Detail of Niobe Sheltering her daughter (on the right):
100 14. Fresco, fourth Pompeian style, The Niobids with Two Tripods, third quarter of
first-century CE.
101 15. Marble sarcophagus, Niobe Sarcophagus, ca. 135 CE.
16. Marble sarcophagus, Niobe Sarcophagus, ca. 160-170 CE.
102 17. Marble sarcophagus, Niobe Sarcophagus, ca. 160 CE.
18. Ovide Moralisé, France: Arsenal MS 5069, fol. 79r, second quarter of the
fourteenth century, Niobe at Prayer with Dead Children.
103 19. Ovide Moralisé, France: Arsenal MS 5069, 81v, second quarter of the fourteenth
century, Apollo Kills Niobids.
20. Boccaccio, De Mulieribus Claris, printed edition by Johannes Zainer at Ulm,
fol. 9v, ca. 1473, Niobe, Amphion and their Dead Sons.
104 21. Baccio Bandinelli, The Slaughter of the Niobids, 1536.
22. Tintoretto, Niobe and her Children, ca. 1541.
105 23. Tintoretto, Apollo and Diana Shooting Niobe and her Daughters, 1543-1544.
24. Tintoretto, Apollo and Diana Killing the Niobids, 1545-1548.
106 25. Andrea Camassei, The Hunt of Diana, 1638-1639.
26. Andrea Camassei, The Massacre of the Niobids, 1638-1639.
107 27. Designed by Toussain Dubreuil, Diana and Apollo Slaying the Children of
Niobe, ca. 1630.
108 תוכן עניינים
מבוא 8-2
פרק ראשון – יוון העתיקה 34-9 א. ניובה בספרות יוון א. 21-9 ב. ניובה באמנות יוון ב. 32-22 ג. מסקנות ג. 34-32
פרק שני – רומא העתיקה 51-35 א. גאווה והנוף הרומי א. 38-35 ב. ספרות רומא ב. 43-38 ג. אמנות רומית מאוחרת ג. 49-44 ד. הדימוי של ניובה בעולם העתיק ד. 51-50
פרק שלישי – ימי הביניים המאוחרים והעת החדשה המוקדמת 72-52 א. גאווה בנצרות א. 53-52 ב. ההתקבלות של אובידיוס ב. 55-53 ג. ספרות פרה-רנסנסית ורנסנסית מוקדמת ג. 62-55 ד. אמנות איטלקית ברנסנס ובבארוק ד. 71-62 ה. מסקנות ה. 72-71
מסקנות 77-73
ביבליוגרפיה 86-78
רשימת איורים 91-87
איורים 108-92
תקציר
רבים הם המיתוסים מיוון העתיקה אשר פותחו, יוצגו ועובדו בתקופות, חברות ותרבויות שונות לאורך השנים בספרות ובאמנות. תזה זו בוחנת את אותם ייצוגים, עיבודים והתקבלות של המיתוס
של ניובה (Niobe), באמנות ובספרות, לאורך תקופה אשר מתחילה ביוון העתיקה, דרך רומא העתיקה
ומסתיימת בימי הביניים המאוחרים והעת החדשה המוקדמת.
המיתוס מתמקד במלכת תבאי, ניובה, אשר התרברבה בילדיה הרבים כנגד האלה לטו (Leto).
כעונש, שלחה לטו את שני ילדיה, אפולו (Apollo) וארטמיס (Artemis) להרוג את כל ילדיה של ניובה,
ובזאת לקחה ממנה את הסיבה לגאוותנותה. מיתוס זה הוא אחד מיני רבים אשר מתייחסים לאלמנט
ההיבריס (hybris) במיתולוגיה היוונית, וניובה היא אחת מתוך שורה ארוכה של דמויות מיתולוגיות
היבריסטאיות.
המטרה העיקרית של התזה היא לבחון מדוע ייצגו את מיתוס זה במקומות ובתקופות שונות.
באופן ספציפי, המחקר מתמקד בתופעת ההיבריס \ סופרביה (suprbia) \ גאווה ובדרך בה ייצוגו של
אלמנט זה שופך אור על שאלות מוסריות הקשורות לכל תקופה וחברה. השאלה העיקרית של המחקר היא: באיזו דרך התפתח המיתוס של ניובה ומהן המטרות שאותן הוא שימש?
הקורפוס שמוצג ונבחן בתזה בנוי ממדיה וז׳אנרים שונים, ומתחלק לשני סוגי אמנות אשר מציגים את המיתוס של ניובה: ספרות ואמנות חזותית. סקירת הספרות כוללת ז׳אנרים כגון טרגדיה יוונית, שירה אפית, שירה עתיקה, טקסטים מוסריים וספרות מהרנסנס המוקדם. האמנות החזותית מורכבת ממדיה מגוונת כגון כלי חרס יווניים, תבליטים, פסלים וציורים.
בחינת הממצאים מתחלקת לשלושה שלבים עיקריים: תחילה, תיארתי באופן מפורט את הטקסט או הדימוי. שנית, השוויתי בין הממצא המתואר ותוכנו לממצאים הקודמים לו, הן ספרותיים והן חזותיים. לבסוף, לאחר שמיקמתי כל ממצא בהקשר האיקונוגרפי או הנרטיבי שלו, הסקתי מסקנות בקשר למטרתו והתקבלותו בחברה בו הוא נוצר. במהלך התזה, בהתחשב בממצאים האמנותיים והספרותיים ובהקשרים האמנותיים, חברתיים והיסטוריים, ניסיתי לבנות תמונה של הדרך בה המיתוס של ניובה התפתח ועובד במהלך השנים.
מבנה התזה הוא כדלקמן: הפרק הראשון מתמקד בתקופת יוון העתיקה, הפרק השני ברומא העתיקה והשלישי בעולם הנוצרי של ימי הביניים המאוחרים והעת החדשה המוקדמת. כל פרק מכיל
בחינה של הממצאים הספרותיים והאמנותיים העיקריים.
המסקנה העיקרית שלי בקשר להתפתחות המיתוס היא שחל שינוי בייצוגו ותפישתו במהלך התקופות. בעוד שהממצאים הספרותיים והחזותיים ביוון העתיקה הציגו את ניובה הן כפרדיגמה (paradeigma) של אם אבלה והן כדמות היבריסטאית, נראה שבתקופות המאוחרות יותר של רומא העתיקה, ימי הביניים המאוחרים והעת החדשה המוקדמת, ניובה יוצגה כדמות היבריסטאית גרידא, ולא כדוגמה לאדם שחווה אבל. טענתי היא ששינוי זה, ובפרט נטישת הייצוג הראשון ביוון העתיקה, הוא תוצאה של המוסכמות המקובלות בחברות שבהן המיתוס הוצג. השימוש במיתוס של ניובה כמסר של ניחומים, יחד עם הייצוג של האבל ביוון העתיקה, נעלם מהתפישה הרומית, כאשר הדגשת האזהרה כנגד סופרביה (המקבילה של היבריס בלטינית) הפך למרכזי. באופן דומה, בסביבה הנוצרית של ימי הביניים המאוחרים והעת החדשה המוקדמת, המיתוס של ניובה נתפש ככלי אידיאלי להעברת מסרים חינוכיים, בכדי לעודד לענווה ולהזהיר כנגד החטא הנוצרי של הגאווה. בזאת, המחקר שלי מראה לא רק התפתחות נרטיבית ואיקונוגרפית במיתוס של ניובה, אלא גם שופך אור, בפרספקטיבה רחבה יותר, על הדרך בה המסורת הקלאסית יכולה להשתנות בהתאם לאידאלים ולאידאולוגיה של החברה.
אוניברסיטת בן-גוריון בנגב
הפקולטה למדעי הרוח והחברה
המחלקה להיסטוריה כללית
המיתוס של ניובה בספרות ובאמנות
מהעת העתיקה ועד לעת החדשה המוקדמת
חיבור זה מהווה חלק מהדרישות לקבלת התואר ״מוסמך למדעי הרוח והחברה״ (M.A)
מאת: בר לשם
בהנחיית: פרופסור יוליה אוסטינובה ופרופסור נירית בן-אריה דבי
מרץ 2018