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Peiraieus in 1805

  • John McK. Camp
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Sidelights on Greek Antiquity
This chapter is in the book Sidelights on Greek Antiquity

Abstract

In 1805-1806 Edward Dodwell, a British classical scholar, spent seventeen months in Greece, together with an Italian artist, Simone Pomardi. They were there to study, draw, and paint the ancient ruins and landscapes of Greece. The result was a collection of 1000 drawings, 600 by Pomardi and 400 by Dodwell, as well as several volumes on their travels throughout Greece and the antiquities they visited. Most of the drawings, amounting to just under 850 pieces, were located in a farm belonging to the family, in the Republic of Ireland. The collection was acquired by the Packard Humanities Institute and has appeared in shows in Greece (Corfu), England, Italy, and the USA. The pieces can be viewed in many ways: by media (watercolors, sepias, pen-and-inks), by subject (landscapes, ancient sites, individual ruins), by scenes of contemporary life, and by size (panoramas up to 4 meters long). They can also be appreciated by topography: several images of a single site or area. This paper, dedicated to a man who spent his life studying the remains of Attica, presents the drawings taken by both men of the Athenian port of Peiraieus, one of the most important in the ancient Mediterranean. Dodwell and Pomardi spent several days there in May of 1805, drawing and studying the harbors, the landscapes, and the antiquities (tomb of Themistokles, ancient fortification walls, remains of a temple, and objects recovered from a cemetery). Their drawings create a portrait of the city at a time when Peiraieus - among the busiest of ports in both antiquity and today - was one of the most deserted and neglected places in Greece in the generation before the foundation of the modern Greek state.

Abstract

In 1805-1806 Edward Dodwell, a British classical scholar, spent seventeen months in Greece, together with an Italian artist, Simone Pomardi. They were there to study, draw, and paint the ancient ruins and landscapes of Greece. The result was a collection of 1000 drawings, 600 by Pomardi and 400 by Dodwell, as well as several volumes on their travels throughout Greece and the antiquities they visited. Most of the drawings, amounting to just under 850 pieces, were located in a farm belonging to the family, in the Republic of Ireland. The collection was acquired by the Packard Humanities Institute and has appeared in shows in Greece (Corfu), England, Italy, and the USA. The pieces can be viewed in many ways: by media (watercolors, sepias, pen-and-inks), by subject (landscapes, ancient sites, individual ruins), by scenes of contemporary life, and by size (panoramas up to 4 meters long). They can also be appreciated by topography: several images of a single site or area. This paper, dedicated to a man who spent his life studying the remains of Attica, presents the drawings taken by both men of the Athenian port of Peiraieus, one of the most important in the ancient Mediterranean. Dodwell and Pomardi spent several days there in May of 1805, drawing and studying the harbors, the landscapes, and the antiquities (tomb of Themistokles, ancient fortification walls, remains of a temple, and objects recovered from a cemetery). Their drawings create a portrait of the city at a time when Peiraieus - among the busiest of ports in both antiquity and today - was one of the most deserted and neglected places in Greece in the generation before the foundation of the modern Greek state.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. Contents XI
  4. List of Figures XIII
  5. Tabula Gratulatoria XIX
  6. Vasileios Petrakos: A Life Dedicated to the Service of Greek Archaeology XXIII
  7. Part I: Epigraphy and Ancient History
  8. Thucydides, Historical Geography and the ‘Lost Years’ of Perdikkas II 3
  9. Athens, Samothrace, and the Mysteria of the Samothracian Great Gods 17
  10. De quelques épitaphes d’étrangers et d’étrangères au Musée d’Érétrie 45
  11. Φυτωνυμικά τοπωνύμια Κωμών της Αργολίδος 103
  12. Le recours à l’arbitrage privé dans les actes d’affranchissement delphiques 117
  13. Προξενικό ψήφισμα από την Αιτωλία 137
  14. Women’s Religion in Hellenistic Athens 145
  15. Notes on Athenian Decrees in the Later Hellenistic Period 159
  16. “Those Who Jointly Built the City” 179
  17. Part II: Archaeology
  18. Attica and the Origins of Silver Metallurgy in the Aegean and the Carpatho-Balkan Zone 197
  19. Cultural Variation in Mycenaean Attica. A Mesoregional Approach 227
  20. Mythical and Historical Heroic Founders: The Archaeological Evidence 299
  21. Das Volutenkapitell aus Sykaminos 321
  22. Dionysos Lenaios at Rhamnous. Lenaia ἐν ἀγροῖς and the “Lenaia vases” 359
  23. Philoktet in Attika 383
  24. Part III: History of Greek Archaeology
  25. Peiraieus in 1805 411
  26. Karl Otfried Müller in Marathon, Rhamnus und Oropos 423
  27. Spyridon Marinatos and Carl Blegen at Pylos: A Happy Collaboration 441
  28. Vassilis Petrakos et les fouilles suisses d’Érétrie 451
  29. List of Contributors 465
  30. Index of Epigraphical Texts 469
  31. Index Locorum 477
  32. Index of Mythological Names 483
  33. Index of Geographic Names (Place Names, Ethnic and Demotic Adjectives) 485
  34. Index of Ancient Personal Names 499
  35. Index Rerum 505
  36. Index of Modern Personal Names 515
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110699326-020

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. Contents XI
  4. List of Figures XIII
  5. Tabula Gratulatoria XIX
  6. Vasileios Petrakos: A Life Dedicated to the Service of Greek Archaeology XXIII
  7. Part I: Epigraphy and Ancient History
  8. Thucydides, Historical Geography and the ‘Lost Years’ of Perdikkas II 3
  9. Athens, Samothrace, and the Mysteria of the Samothracian Great Gods 17
  10. De quelques épitaphes d’étrangers et d’étrangères au Musée d’Érétrie 45
  11. Φυτωνυμικά τοπωνύμια Κωμών της Αργολίδος 103
  12. Le recours à l’arbitrage privé dans les actes d’affranchissement delphiques 117
  13. Προξενικό ψήφισμα από την Αιτωλία 137
  14. Women’s Religion in Hellenistic Athens 145
  15. Notes on Athenian Decrees in the Later Hellenistic Period 159
  16. “Those Who Jointly Built the City” 179
  17. Part II: Archaeology
  18. Attica and the Origins of Silver Metallurgy in the Aegean and the Carpatho-Balkan Zone 197
  19. Cultural Variation in Mycenaean Attica. A Mesoregional Approach 227
  20. Mythical and Historical Heroic Founders: The Archaeological Evidence 299
  21. Das Volutenkapitell aus Sykaminos 321
  22. Dionysos Lenaios at Rhamnous. Lenaia ἐν ἀγροῖς and the “Lenaia vases” 359
  23. Philoktet in Attika 383
  24. Part III: History of Greek Archaeology
  25. Peiraieus in 1805 411
  26. Karl Otfried Müller in Marathon, Rhamnus und Oropos 423
  27. Spyridon Marinatos and Carl Blegen at Pylos: A Happy Collaboration 441
  28. Vassilis Petrakos et les fouilles suisses d’Érétrie 451
  29. List of Contributors 465
  30. Index of Epigraphical Texts 469
  31. Index Locorum 477
  32. Index of Mythological Names 483
  33. Index of Geographic Names (Place Names, Ethnic and Demotic Adjectives) 485
  34. Index of Ancient Personal Names 499
  35. Index Rerum 505
  36. Index of Modern Personal Names 515
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