Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta by Hodkinson Stephen

Author:Hodkinson, Stephen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: COOKING/General
Publisher: Classical Press of Wales
Published: 2000-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Fig. 11. Drawing of terracotta relief amphora, from the Heroon by the R. Eurotas – with the addition of a fragment from the Cabinet des Médailles, Paris (reproduced with permission of the British School at Athens).

The size of these amphoras is noteworthy: the height of the two complete examples is some 670 and 700 cm, respectively. So too is the character of their relief decoration (see Fig. 11). It is spread over three horizontal zones. The decoration of the lowest zone is limited to large rosettes placed between abstract patterns. In the middle, shoulder zone, however, the extant amphoras bear similar reliefs, consisting of scenes depicting a chariot and charioteer followed by a hoplite on foot, who is sometimes shown in the process of mounting the chariot. The decoration of the upper zone around the neck displays three distinct chronological phases. On the earliest amphoras, decoration is limited to patterns of tongues and grooves. The second phase is marked by friezes of animals and mythical beasts. In the third phase, however, the neck receives the principal figured representation of the amphora, with lively scenes of hunting or battle. (Fig. 11 provides a good example of this last phase.)

The iconography of the amphoras matches the ideology proclaimed by Tyrtaios in several respects. Warfare and warriors are clearly a central theme, as is the hoplite infantryman who appears on the shoulder zone of every amphora. Yet the social persona of the hoplite is depicted in an overtly aristocratic manner (cf. Sourvinou-Inwood 1995, 220–1, 225–6, 273). By placing him in association with a chariot, these scenes and especially those in which the warrior is actually mounting the chariot give him a ‘heroic’ image akin to Tyrtaios’ ascription of Homeric qualities to the fallen hoplite. The lions which sometimes appear on the neck in its second decorative phase may also suggest a connection with heroes through their strength and perceived pre-eminence in the animal world; lions appear too among the slaughtered game in the hunt scene from the tumulus amphora. Finally, the warrior scenes which appear in the third phase depict not regular hoplite battles but the kind of combat described in some of Tyrtaios’ poems, in which the soldiers are supported by light-armed troops slinging stones, and even by archers.23 The warriors’ shields are not uniform as in hoplite combat, but comprise various styles, including the so-called figure-of-eight ‘Dipylon shield’, whose depiction was ‘the standard “property” for artists who wished to depict a heroic scene’ (Snodgrass 1967, 45). The archaizing atmosphere of the amphoras is further emphasized by the fact that they are significantly later in date than similar series known from elsewhere (the Cyclades, Crete, Rhodes, Boiotia) which commenced in the years either side of 700 (Schäfer 1957; Cambitoglou 1981; Simandoni-Bournia 1990).

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