Art and Myth in Ancient Greece by Thomas H. Carpenter

Author:Thomas H. Carpenter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Published: 2021-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

164 Attic black-figure ‘Tyrrhenian’ amphora from Vulci. Herakles and Amazons. Herakles grabs the arm of a fleeing Amazon named Andromache and swings his sword while warriors fight Amazons on either side of him. Note the elaborate embroidery on Andromache’s chiton and the panels of her shield band. c. 560. 39.4 cm (15⅝ in.)

Herakles and the Amazons is, after his fight with the lion, the second most popular labour with Attic black-figure vase-painters, appearing on nearly four hundred vases. In single combat or in the midst of a mêlée, he wears his lion-skin and fights with a sword or his club. The Amazons are usually dressed as hoplites, though later they are shown as archers in Scythian dress and still later as Persians. Their weapons are usually spears and bows, and later sometimes axes.

The popularity of the story reaches its peak with vase-painters around 525 and decreases rapidly after about 500. It is the subject of relatively few Attic red-figure vases, mostly Archaic and none later than about 450. The nature of the scenes on red-figure vases changes little from those on black-figure.

Herakles fighting a single Amazon is the subject of metopes from the Treasury of the Athenians at Delphi, Temple E at Selinus, the Temple of Zeus at Olympia (as well as on a crossbar of the throne of Zeus inside the temple) and the Hephaisteion at Athens.[165] At the beginning of the 4th century Herakles and an Amazon comprise the central group of the frieze from the Temple of Apollo at Bassae.

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