Identification of a motif

[Maty]

I'm not a professional on this topic so can rush in where angels fear to tread. My own suggestion is that if we are looking for a mythological theme, we could look at the Trojan wars - as suggested by the chariot. This would make our horsemen horsewomen - Amazons to be precise, with Penthesilia riding the white horse. You can see a Scythian bow case on one of the rider's backs and the Amazons were famous as both archers and horsewomen. The two lions below would be those of Cybele, worshipped by the Amazons.

 

Another alternative is that this is another Amazon - Areto and her companions Iphito, Pantaristo etc, off to avenge the murder of Hippolyte.

 

Or perhaps this particular painter fancied a break from mythological themes, and painted a bunch of Scythian horsemen. We may never know.

[Formosus Viriustus]

The Amazons also occurred to me as a possibility. But then the rider on the left seems to have a beard ?

 

FV

[Maty]

The Amazons also occurred to me as a possibility. But then the rider on the left seems to have a beard ?

 

FV

 

S/he does indeed - though it's six pixels in size, so hard to tell. We need a bigger pic - and preferably another one that shows the other side of the vase, which may be where the main event is taking place.

[sylla]

The Amazons also occurred to me as a possibility. But then the rider on the left seems to have a beard ?

 

FV

 

S/he does indeed - though it's six pixels in size, so hard to tell. We need a bigger pic - and preferably another one that shows the other side of the vase, which may be where the main event is taking place.

Zoomable pics of Boston 1979.614 are available via Google Images; from left to right, the horseman 1 has a long beard, 2 & 4 a middle and 3 a short one; the four are undisputedly male. There are no bows or arrows in this scene, just two javelins for each one of them. They are all dressed in the Scythian male way.

 

Both amazons and Scythians were frequent motifs of Attic vases, especially the former; both may be even found in the same scene. From what I have been able to check out on, the feminine nature (and dress) of the Amazons were almost always quite clearly depicted.

[Maty]

Okay - not Amazons. (Although they are sometimes depicted in a Scythiany way), and it looks as though the leftmost figure is carrying a Scythian bow case.

 

How about Adrastus then? There's a very similar theme - dude on departing on chariot accompanied by Scythian bowman - identified as him on p.200 of Gods and Heroes in late archaic Greek art by Karl Schefold, Luca Giuliani, Alan Griffiths. The pic is also a hydria this time by Psiax (Wurtzburg 319).

 

Apparently Adrastus departing from Argos was a known motif, and he went on to become king of the Scythians. This would make him the rider of the white horse in the main picture, which is the stallion Arion, given to him by Heracles. If the bottom pic had shown lions fighting boars, I would have regarded the identification as definitive.

Edited July 12, 2009 by Maty

[sylla]

Okay - not Amazons. (Although they are sometimes depicted in a Scythiany way), and it looks as though the leftmost figure is carrying a Scythian bow case.

 

How about Adrastus then? There's a very similar theme - dude on departing on chariot accompanied by Scythian bowman - identified as him on p.200 of Gods and Heroes in late archaic Greek art by Karl Schefold, Luca Giuliani, Alan Griffiths. The pic is also a hydria this time by Psiax (Wurtzburg 319).

 

Apparently Adrastus departing from Argos was a known motif, and he went on to become king of the Scythians. This would make him the rider of the white horse in the main picture, which is the stallion Arion, given to him by Heracles. If the bottom pic had shown lions fighting boars, I would have regarded the identification as definitive.

The lions (all male) in the bottom pic are hunting bulls; it seems to have been a quite common motif in Attic vases and not necessarily related to the main theme, especially because there have never been lions in Scythia (but well, geographic rules were not always operative in mythology).

 

I think all that is perfectly compatible with your ingenuous interpretation.

 

As far as I have been able to check it out, the Amazons' depictions in Attic vases were consistently quite obviously feminine (and gorgeous), even when dressed on the Scythian way.

Edited July 12, 2009 by sylla