4 Intervisuality in the Greek symposium
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Riccardo Palmisciano
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to extend the research about intervisuality to the relationship between the images painted on sympotic vases and sympotic poetry. Aristocrats had vessels in their hands and under their eyes while performing songs. Could the presence of a certain subject in the paintings on these vessels lead to the choice of a related subject for poetic performances? Could images help express the poetic message? The study of erotic activities during symposia seems particularly rewarding, as images make up for the surprising silence of poetic sources. Scholars have observed that lyric poems never describe sexual intercourse, unless a description of this sort had a iambic function. The large number of vessels which display sexual activities in all their details can help us to understand the silence of poetry. Images can explain the right schemata and the correct way to court and love a boy or girl. Images can also deliver warnings against bad behaviour when it comes not only to sex but also to wine-drinking. The Gorgoneion so frequently painted on the inside of drinking vessels and eye cups are interpreted in this chapter in relation to the social control exerted by the hetairia towards its members. Poetry and images worked together to express the ideal of equilibrium and moderation which true aristocrats must achieve even when under the influence of wine.
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to extend the research about intervisuality to the relationship between the images painted on sympotic vases and sympotic poetry. Aristocrats had vessels in their hands and under their eyes while performing songs. Could the presence of a certain subject in the paintings on these vessels lead to the choice of a related subject for poetic performances? Could images help express the poetic message? The study of erotic activities during symposia seems particularly rewarding, as images make up for the surprising silence of poetic sources. Scholars have observed that lyric poems never describe sexual intercourse, unless a description of this sort had a iambic function. The large number of vessels which display sexual activities in all their details can help us to understand the silence of poetry. Images can explain the right schemata and the correct way to court and love a boy or girl. Images can also deliver warnings against bad behaviour when it comes not only to sex but also to wine-drinking. The Gorgoneion so frequently painted on the inside of drinking vessels and eye cups are interpreted in this chapter in relation to the social control exerted by the hetairia towards its members. Poetry and images worked together to express the ideal of equilibrium and moderation which true aristocrats must achieve even when under the influence of wine.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: In limine
- 1 À rebours: intervisuality from the Middle Ages to classical antiquity 15
- 2 From image to theatrical play in Aeschylus’ Oresteia 33
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Part II: Archaic and classical age
- 3 Homer and the art of cinematic warfare 81
- 4 Intervisuality in the Greek symposium 103
- 5 The protohistory of portraits in words and images (sixth–fifth century BCE): tyrants, poets, and artists 121
- 6 Looking at Athens through the lyric lens 149
- 7 The politics of intervisuality 171
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Part III: Hellenistic and imperial age
- 8 The goddess playing with gold 197
- 9 Intervisuality in declamation and sung poetry in imperial Greek cities 213
- 10 Intervisual allusions in Lucian, Dialogues of the Sea Gods 15 235
- 11 Was Philostratus the Elder an admirer of Ovidian enargeia? 255
- 12 ἐκ τῶν πινάκων. Aristaenetus’ intervisual allusions to Philostratus’ art gallery 283
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Part IV: Pointing to Rome
- 13 Ordering the res gestae: observations on the relationship between texts and images in Roman ‘historical’ representations 305
-
Appendix
- List of contributors 335
- Index nominum et rerum notabilium 339
- Index locorum 345
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: In limine
- 1 À rebours: intervisuality from the Middle Ages to classical antiquity 15
- 2 From image to theatrical play in Aeschylus’ Oresteia 33
-
Part II: Archaic and classical age
- 3 Homer and the art of cinematic warfare 81
- 4 Intervisuality in the Greek symposium 103
- 5 The protohistory of portraits in words and images (sixth–fifth century BCE): tyrants, poets, and artists 121
- 6 Looking at Athens through the lyric lens 149
- 7 The politics of intervisuality 171
-
Part III: Hellenistic and imperial age
- 8 The goddess playing with gold 197
- 9 Intervisuality in declamation and sung poetry in imperial Greek cities 213
- 10 Intervisual allusions in Lucian, Dialogues of the Sea Gods 15 235
- 11 Was Philostratus the Elder an admirer of Ovidian enargeia? 255
- 12 ἐκ τῶν πινάκων. Aristaenetus’ intervisual allusions to Philostratus’ art gallery 283
-
Part IV: Pointing to Rome
- 13 Ordering the res gestae: observations on the relationship between texts and images in Roman ‘historical’ representations 305
-
Appendix
- List of contributors 335
- Index nominum et rerum notabilium 339
- Index locorum 345
