Classics and Comics by George Kovacs;C. W. Marshall; & C. W. Marshall

Author:George Kovacs;C. W. Marshall; & C. W. Marshall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA
Published: 2011-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

11

Persians in Frank Miller’s 300 and Greek Vase Painting

EMILY FAIREY

The medium of Classical vase painting has elements in common with that of contemporary comics. Comics and vase painting share qualities such as mass production,1 the combination of drawing and writing, repeated representation of familiar characters, and even a paneling of sorts. However, a central question of this chapter is whether vase painting conveys a narrative or an ideological statement the same way that comics do. Addressing this issue, I wish to examine one common motif of ancient vase painting and modern comics, one that tells us much about the functions of different art media, as well as the state of mind of artists in different cultures, both at war: the depiction of Greeks fighting Persians.

In his 300, graphic artist Frank Miller’s artistic rendering of the Persians is so extreme that many have accused him of creating a racist and warmongering allegory that reflects the present conflict of the United States in the Middle East (Kashani 2007). He presents the Achaemenid Persians as morally deviant and corrupt and as ethnically Africans and Arabs. His Persians range from the power mad, deviant Xerxes to the arrogant, pierced, and studded ministers ready to bribe and corrupt the Spartan oracle, to the spooky, depersonalized “Immortals,” and finally to the hapless Persian soldiers who are no better than victims and slaves of their king’s monomania and certainly no match for the Spartans.2 Overall, they are a bizarre and frightening collection of characters, with a variegated appearance that contrasts with the simplicity of the Spartan costume. In contrast, in Greek vase painting after the Persian Wars, although gods and mythological characters commit their traditional atrocious crimes on many pelikes, kraters, and amphoras, Persians overall are portrayed in a neutral or even positive light. On vases, one sees Persians engaged in combat with Greek hoplites as worthy adversaries, bearing the trappings of Persian culture or even presiding over dignified processions.3 Yet the Greeks compensate for positive visual treatment of Persians in their moral judgments against them in literature. Miller adopts this literary critique of the ancients but selects only part of their visual depiction. While he draws the image of his Spartans from the heroic nudity of Greek hoplites on ancient vase paintings, his Persians bear little resemblance to their black- and red-figure counterparts.4

Following the Persian Wars, Greek writers did much to disassociate their culture from that of Persia. Herodotus, Miller’s primary source, shows the Persians displaying the vices that attend too much success on their expeditions in book 7.5 In particular, the Athenian tragedians after the Persian Wars systematically put down the Persians, amassing a host of contrasts that have come to be collectively termed the “Hellene-Barbarian antithesis.” For example, in Aeschylus’ Persians (72–75, 388–423), the Persians are like a herd and lack tenacity, in contrast to the discipline and courage of the Greeks. In depicting them in this way, Aeschylus explains the Greek victory in absolutist cultural terms.6 Another example of this view is the

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