(Re)assembling the Tereus Myth: Vase Painting, Memory, and the Senses
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Martina Delucchi
Martina Delucchi is a postdoctoral researcher at the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici in Naples. After completing her PhD in Classics at the University of Bristol, she conducted research at the ÖAW in Vienna and the University of Göttingen. Dr Delucchi specializes in cross-cultural studies, migration studies, ethnicity, and the relationship between myth and society, exploring how myth has been utilized as a tool for cultural policy and soft power. Her first monograph,Imagining Telephus: A Greek Myth Across Cultures in the Ancient Mediterranean , was published by De Gruyter in 2024.Giacomo Savani is Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Leeds. His research explores the adoption and adaptation of Greek and Roman culture across different spaces and times, focusing on materiality as a vector of political, social, and cultural interactions. He is particularly interested in the potential of sensory approaches to the study of asymmetrical interactions in antiquity, which he explored in his monographRural Baths in Roman Britain: A Colonisation of the Senses (Routledge, 2025).
Abstract
The myth of Tereus has a long history of visual representation, and several depictions of the story survive from antiquity, including vases from the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. While scholars have attempted to reconstruct the version of the narrative chosen by each artist — especially during the fifth century and in relation to Sophocles’ Tereus — so far, the materiality and sensoriality associated with similar objects have received little attention. Furthermore, the role played by art and material culture in shaping the myth has been only partially acknowledged. Building on the concept of “sensorial assemblage” developed by Yannis Hamilakis to read objects and places in connection with memory, feelings, and the senses, this chapter investigates the sensory implications of the Tereus myth through the lens of vase painting. Moving from the palimpsest of politics, memory and sensorial exchanges that characterised the development of the myth in fifth-century Athens, the authors uncover the complex entanglement of theatrical performances, objects and religion that allowed it to be “re-assembled” in Southern Italy during the fourth century BCE.
Abstract
The myth of Tereus has a long history of visual representation, and several depictions of the story survive from antiquity, including vases from the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. While scholars have attempted to reconstruct the version of the narrative chosen by each artist — especially during the fifth century and in relation to Sophocles’ Tereus — so far, the materiality and sensoriality associated with similar objects have received little attention. Furthermore, the role played by art and material culture in shaping the myth has been only partially acknowledged. Building on the concept of “sensorial assemblage” developed by Yannis Hamilakis to read objects and places in connection with memory, feelings, and the senses, this chapter investigates the sensory implications of the Tereus myth through the lens of vase painting. Moving from the palimpsest of politics, memory and sensorial exchanges that characterised the development of the myth in fifth-century Athens, the authors uncover the complex entanglement of theatrical performances, objects and religion that allowed it to be “re-assembled” in Southern Italy during the fourth century BCE.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword VII
- Contents IX
- Introduction 1
- (Re)assembling the Tereus Myth: Vase Painting, Memory, and the Senses 15
- Lamenting about the Wrong Crime: Homer, Sophocles and Demonising the Other 41
- Hunting Tereus: Rubens, Shakespeare, Sophocles 61
- Passion, Knowledge and Truth: Second Thoughts on Sophocles’ Tereus 77
- ζηλοτυπ[ίᾳ ......] οἰστρηθεισ̃ α: Domestic Violence and Revenge in Sophocles’ Tereus 95
- Tereus’ Illicit Penetration(s): A New Reading of Fragment 581 R 115
- The Voice of the Shuttle: The Tereus Myth in Aristophanes’ Birds 131
- Tereus in the Fifth and Fourth Century: From Paratragedy to Mythic Burlesque 153
- The Tereus Myth in Roman Republican Drama 179
- “(In)Human, All Too (In)Human”: Ovid’s Tereus and the Vulnerable Body 191
- Postface 205
- Methodological Appendix: The Orchid and the Wasp — Reading Fragments with Assemblage Theory 223
- List of Contributors 241
- General Index
- Index of Sources
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword VII
- Contents IX
- Introduction 1
- (Re)assembling the Tereus Myth: Vase Painting, Memory, and the Senses 15
- Lamenting about the Wrong Crime: Homer, Sophocles and Demonising the Other 41
- Hunting Tereus: Rubens, Shakespeare, Sophocles 61
- Passion, Knowledge and Truth: Second Thoughts on Sophocles’ Tereus 77
- ζηλοτυπ[ίᾳ ......] οἰστρηθεισ̃ α: Domestic Violence and Revenge in Sophocles’ Tereus 95
- Tereus’ Illicit Penetration(s): A New Reading of Fragment 581 R 115
- The Voice of the Shuttle: The Tereus Myth in Aristophanes’ Birds 131
- Tereus in the Fifth and Fourth Century: From Paratragedy to Mythic Burlesque 153
- The Tereus Myth in Roman Republican Drama 179
- “(In)Human, All Too (In)Human”: Ovid’s Tereus and the Vulnerable Body 191
- Postface 205
- Methodological Appendix: The Orchid and the Wasp — Reading Fragments with Assemblage Theory 223
- List of Contributors 241
- General Index
- Index of Sources
