Gorgo: Apotropaism and Liminality An SS/HACU Division III by Alyssa Hagen Robert Meagher, chair Spring 2007 Table of Contents List of Figures................................................................................................................ 1 Introduction.................................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1: Gorgon and Gorgoneion.............................................................................. 5 Chapter 2: Gorgo as a Fertility Goddess....................................................................... 15 Chapter 3: Gorgo as the Guardian of Hades................................................................. 29 Chapter 4: Gorgo in Ecstatic Ritual............................................................................... 41 Chapter 5: Gorgo in the Sphere of Men......................................................................... 51 Bibliography................................................................................................................... 64 Alyssa Hagen 1 List of Figures 1.1 Attic black figure neck amphora. (J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu 86 AE77. Image 7 from [http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/P23.12.html].) 1.2 Mistress of Animals amulet from Ulu Burun shipwreck. (Bochum, Deutsches 9 Bergbau-Museums 104. Image from [http://minervamagazine.com/issue1704/ news.html].) 1.3 Egyptian amulet of Pataikos. (Image from Virtual Egyptian Museum 10 [http://www.virtual-egyptian-museum.org].) 1.4 Etruscan roof antefix with gorgoneion. (Image from Beazley Pottery Archive 11 [http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk].) 1.5 Attic red figure Stamnos by the Siren Painter. (London, British Museum E440. 14 Image from [http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/O21.3.html].) 2.1 Detail of handle on Francois Vase, showing Artemis as Mistress of Animals. 17 (Florence, Museo Archeologico 4209. Image from Perseus Vase Catalog [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu].) 2.2 West pediment central group, Temple of Artemis at Corfu. (Corfu, 18 Archaeological Museum.) 2.3 Attic black figure pinax by Lydos. (Munich, Antikensammlungen 8760. Image 19 from Beazley Pottery Archive.) 2.4 Seated goddess with leopards, Catal Huyuk, Turkey. (Image from 20 [http://www.utexas.edu/courses/classicalarch/images1/catallady.jpg].) 2.5 Etrurian chariot plaque, Perugia, Italy. (Image from I. Krauskopf, LIMC (1988) 20 IV:2 no. 89.) 2.6 Laconian black-figure hydria with gorgoneion. (London, British Museum B58.) 22 2.7 Plate showing Gorgon as Mistress of Animals, Rhodes. (London, British Museum 23 A748. Image from I. Krauskopf, LIMC (1988) IV:2 no. 280.) 2.8 Perseus slaying the horse-bodied Gorgon. Boeotia, early 7th c. B.C.E. (Paris, 25 Louvre CA795. Image from [http://www.utl- auch.asso.fr/html/page%20htm/ Art_Grec/ Art_Grec_Cours2_VII.htm].) 3.1 Caeretan black figure hydria showing Herakles and Cerberos. (Paris, Louvre 34 E701. Image from [http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/M12.1.html].) 3.2 Coin from Kamarina, Sicily. (Image from [http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/sg/ 35 sg1062.html].) 3.3 Bronze plate from northern Iraq showing Pazuzu overlooking healing ceremony 37 to dispel Lamashtu, c. 650 B.C.E. (Paris, Louvre. Image from [http://www.ezida .com/cats/pazuzu%20louvre6.jpg].) 3.4 Impression of Neo-Assyrian cylinder seal. (Image from [http://classics.uc.edu/ 39 ~johnson/epic/gilgamesh_images/humbaba.jpg].) 3.5 Attic black-figure jar depicting Perseus beheading Medusa. (London, British 39 Museum B471.) 4.1a Old Babylonian relief of Humbaba’s head. (Paris, Louvre 12460. Carter, p. 356 44 fig. 1.) 4.1b Mask from Temple of Artemis Ortheia, Sparta. (Archaeological Museum of 44 Sparta, photo by Robert Meagher.) Alyssa Hagen 2 4.2a Etrurian chariot plaque, Perugia, Italy. 45 4.2b Detail of Attic black figure eye-cup by Nikosthenes. (Munich, Antiken- 45 sammlungen 2088. Image from [http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/T60.4.html]) 4.3 Tondo of Attic black figure kylix, Etruria. (Tampa, Museum of Art 86.51. Image 47 from Perseus Vase Catalog.) 4.4 Proto-Attic amphora showing early Gorgons, Eleusis. (Eleusis Museum. Image 49 from [http://www.utexas.edu/courses/classicalarch/images3/eleusisbody.jpg].) 5.1 Bronze shield-strap panel and drawing from Olympia. (Berlin, Archaeological 53 Institute B1687.) 5.2 Bronze volute krater from Vix, France. (Châtillion sur-Seine, Musèe 54 Archéologique. Image from Perseus Vase Catalog.) 5.3 Seated Athena statue wearing aegis by Endoios. (Athens, Acropolis Museum 625. 55 Image by David Gill from [http://www.davidgill.co.uk/attica/akr_athena625.htm]) 5.4 Corner detail of pediment on Temple of Artemis at Corfu. 59 5.5 Attic red figure pelike. (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 45.11.1. Image 62 from [http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/P23.6.html].) Alyssa Hagen 3 Introduction This thesis began in an archaeology class, in a lecture on temples – the Doric and Ionic orders, peristyle counts, the endless details which make up an introduction to ancient Greek architecture. A slide came up showing a reconstructed front view of a temple to Artemis on the Ionian island of Corfu. The west pediment, my professor explained, featured a captivating relief sculpture of the Gorgon Medusa, flanked by lions. Now why, he asked, turning from the screen to face the class, would a Gorgon adorn the entrance to Artemis’ temple instead of the goddess herself? Would it not be more logical to display a sculpture of Artemis on her own temple? The Gorgon’s presence belies a more complex motive behind the decoration of this sacred space, and I set myself the task of discovering what it was. How is it that a Gorgon could be an acceptable choice? In other words, is there a deeper meaning associated with this bogey? I have attempted to plumb the depths of this question, to explore the network of meaning which created and fostered its use. There were two paths for me to take from the starting point of this temple pediment. First, that the Gorgon was used as a decoration over temple entrances in general. This is true; her image appears on temples around Magna Graecia, to other deities like Apollo and Hera. In that case, there had to be a significance to the entryway itself. In fact, the Gorgon was an apotropaion – a symbol meant literally to “turn away,” to deflect harm from its bearer. The significance of this apotropaic role, though, only became clear to me when I incorporated what I learned from investigating the second path: that the Gorgon decorated the temple of Artemis because she shared a special thematic connection to this goddess. These two paths led me further back in time, past the Archaic age which fostered the Gorgon to the Bronze Age and earlier, and across the sea past Greece to Mesopotamia and Egypt. Alyssa Hagen 4 The research itself posed problems, both from primary and secondary sources. Most of the primary literature I cite is later than the images I use, dating from after the fifth century B.C.E. until well into the Roman period. Since there is a dearth of early literature on the Gorgon – Homer and Hesiod provide the bulk of this – I have had to rely heavily on the images of the monster for my interpretations. Having little background in art history, I was apprehensive about my skill in “reading” this evidence for artistic and anthropological significance. But the archaeological record is at least as valuable as the literary, and gives us more insight into daily life, in this case, the religious lives of Greeks. Their world was awash with symbols, which in a largely illiterate society provided guidance and stability and reinforced the connections and roles that kept social order. In following the clues of these symbols, I discovered more and more layers of meaning around the Gorgon going much deeper than I had originally thought. My research led me far away from Greece to Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and even India. I was forced to limit my scope considerably for this project because I realized that the Gorgon embodies fundamental concepts which recur in cultures across the world – the interplay between creative and destructive, masculine and feminine, mortal and immortal which humans are constantly seeking to define and understand. In the course of this exploration, we will see more clearly how the Gorgon addressed these issues in the roles she plays, and how these roles complement and follow upon one another to create a more cohesive picture of her place and purpose in ancient Greek religious belief. Alyssa Hagen 5 Chapter 1: Gorgon and Gorgoneion Gorgoneia, or gorgon-head symbols, appeared in a wide variety of places and contexts in ancient Greece. Archaeologists have found them on the pediments of temples and other public monuments, houses, ships, furniture, jewelry, and weapons. The face of the Gorgon was thought to be necessary, then, to protect an individual in any type of situation, indoors and outdoors, public and private. But what hazards were thought of as so threatening that this protection was deemed necessary? What exactly does an apotropaion repel? The answer to these questions can be found when we gain a greater understanding of the Archaic worldview. The Gorgon appears in art and literature of the middle Archaic era, around 700-600 B.C.E., and is a product of the new pessimistic Zeitgeist that characterized this time. This was the fallen age, Hesiod’s “age of iron,” and life was unpredictable. Humans lived in fear of the jealousy (nemesis) of the gods, of Zeus’ harsh justice, of unalterable Fate. This attitude permeated all levels of daily life, down to the causes of