The Parthenon Enigma

by Joan Breton Connelly

  120. Euripides, Alkestis 122; Euripides, Hippolytos 1437–39. I am indebted to Emily Vermeule for drawing this to my attention.

  121. Frag. 11 H = Philemo, test. 6 Kassel-Austin. Colin Austin kindly provided this reference.

  122. C. C. Picard, “Art archaïque: Les trésors ‘ionique,’ ” Fouilles de Delphes: Monuments Figurés: Sculpture 4, no. 2 (1927), 57–171; R. Neer, “Framing the Gift: The Politics of the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi,” ClAnt 20 (2001): 297–302, gives details of the east frieze. V. Brinkmann, “Die aufgemalten Namenbeischriften an Nord- und Ostfries des Siphnierschatzhauses,” BCH 109 (1985): 77–130; L. V. Watrous, “The Sculptural Program of the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi,” AJA 86 (1982): 159–72.

  123. V. Brinkmann, “Die aufgemalten Namensbeischriften an Nord- und Ostfries des Siphnierschatzhauses,” BCH 109 (1985): 79, 84–85, 87–88, 118–20.

  124. Barringer, Art, Myth, and Ritual, 112–13n2, 223–24, gives a summary of the dating: J. S. Boersma, “On the Political Background of the Hephaisteion,” Bulletin van de Vereeniging tot Bevordering der Kennis van de Antieke Beschaving 39 (1964): 102–6, claims that the temple was part of the Kimonian building program (ca. 460 B.C.); this position is followed by M. Cruciani and C. Fiorini, I modelli del moderato: La stoà poikile e l’Hephaisteion di Atene nel programma edilizio cimoniano (Naples: Scientifiche Italiane, 1998), 84; Camp, Archaeology of Athens, 103, places the start of construction around 460–450 B.C.; C. H. Morgan, “The Sculptures of the Hephaisteion II: The Friezes,” Hesperia 31 (1962): 221–35, dates it to ca. 450; Thompson and Wycherley, Agora of Athens, 142–43; Ridgway, Fifth Century Styles, 26–27, places it at 450 or shortly thereafter; Dinsmoor, Architecture of Ancient Greece, 179–81, is for dating the beginning of construction to 449.

  125. For Theseus versus Pallas, see K. O. Müller, “Die erhobenen Arbeiten am Friese des Pronaos von Theseustempel zu Athen, erklärt aus dem Mythus von den Pallantiden,” in Kunstarchaeologische Werke, ed. K. O. Müller (1833; Berlin: S. Calvary, 1873), 4:1–19, followed by E. B. Harrison, “Athena at Pallene and in the Agora of Athens,” in Barringer and Hurwit, Periklean Athens, 121–23. For the frieze as a mythological analogue of the Athenian people’s expulsion of the aristocracy and tyrants, see K. Reber, “Das Hephaisteion in Athen: Ein Monument für die Demokratie,” JdI 113 (1998): 41–43. See also E. Simon, Die Götter der Griechen, 4th ed. (Munich: Hirmer, 1998), 197–201; A. Delivorrias, “The Sculpted Decoration of the So-Called Theseion: Old Answers, New Questions,” in Buitron-Oliver, Interpretation of Architectural Sculpture, 84, 89–90; F. Felten, Griechische tektonische Friese archaischer und klassischer Zeit (Waldsassen-Bayern: Stiftland, 1984), 60–64.

  126. Plato, Timaeus 24e–25d. J. M. Barringer, “A New Approach to the Hephaisteion,” in Schultz and Hoff, Structure, Image, Ornament, 105–20, esp. 116–17; Barringer, Art, Myth, and Ritual, 138–41.

  127. Palagia, “Interpretations of Two Athenian Friezes,” 184–90; Hurwit, Age of Pericles, 184–87; Pemberton, “Friezes of the Temple of Athena Nike,” 303–10; Harrison, “South Frieze of the Nike Temple”; E. B. Harrison, “Notes on the Nike Temple Frieze,” AJA 74 (1970): 317–23; A. Furtwängler, Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture: A Series of Essays on the History of Art (Chicago: Argonaut, 1964), 445–49; C. Blümel, “Der Fries des Tempels der Athena Nike,” JdI 65–66 (1950–1951): 135–65.

  128. Palagia, “Interpretations of Two Athenian Friezes,” 189–90, identifies the east frieze as a depiction of the birth of Athena.

  129. Kardara, “Glaukopis,” 84–91. See also Jeppesen, “Bild und Mythus an dem Parthenon.”

  130. Those identifying the scene as the Battle of Marathon include: Palagia, “Interpretations of Two Athenian Friezes,” 184–90; Hurwit, Age of Pericles, 184–87; Harrison, “South Frieze of the Nike Temple.”

  131. Euripides, Erechtheus F 370.75–90 Kannicht.

  132. Aristotle, Politics 1297b, 16–22, tells us that it was in days of old that the cavalry dominated the army. I thank John Marr for this reference.

  133. Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods 3.19, 49–50.

  134. Generally identified as the ten Eponymous Heroes, counted as six men on the south side of the gods (E18–23) and four men on the north (E43–46), with the “left over” men identified as marshals. For a summary of discussion and bibliography, see Brommer, Der Parthenonfries, 255–56, nos. 14 and 19. See S. Woodford, “Eponymoi or anonymoi,” Source Notes on the History of Art 6 (1987): 1–5; Kron, “Die Phylenheroen am Parthenonfries”; Harrison, “Eponymous Heroes”; see, however, Jenkins, “Composition of the So-Called Eponymous Heroes.”

  135. Four men at north: E47–49, E52; man at south corner: E1.

  136. Figures numbered as E47 and E48 on block 6. For marshals in the Panathenaia procession, see Shear, “Polis and Panathenaia,” 124–26.

  137. Brommer, Der Parthenonfries, 255–56; Harrison, “Eponymous Heroes”; Kron, Die zehn attischen Phylenheroen, 202–14; Kron, “Die Phylenheroen am Parthenonfries”; Neils, Parthenon Frieze, 158–61.

  138. Jenkins, “Composition of the So-Called Eponymous Heroes”; Jenkins, Parthenon Frieze, 33–34.

  139. Nagy, “Athenian Officials,” 67–69.

  140. A. E. Raubitschek, Opus Nobile (Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1969), 129; Ridgway, Fifth Century Styles, 79, sees them as Athenian citizens. Berger and Gisler-Huwiler, Fries des Parthenon, 179, summarize the various interpretations.

  141. Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 26.4: “It was decreed, on a motion of Perikles, that a person should not have the rights of citizenship unless both of his parents had been citizens.” Plutarch, Life of Perikles 37.3: “He [Perikles] proposed a law that only those who could claim Athenian parentage on both sides could be counted as Athenian citizens.” E. Carawan, “Pericles the Younger and the Citizenship Law,” CJ 103 (2008): 383–406; K. R. Walters, “Perikles’ Citizenship Law,” ClAnt 2 (1983): 314–36; C. Patterson, Pericles’ Citizenship Law of 451–50 B.C. (New York: Arno Press, 1981); Boegehold, “Perikles’ Citizenship Law.”

  142. I agree with Fehr, Becoming Good Democrats and Wives, 81, 112–13, in seeing these parthenoi as the equivalent of the young, beardless men on the flanks and west side of the frieze. Together, they show the youths and maidens of early Athens as socialized into their future civic and domestic roles, as citizens and members of the military and as citizen wives and mothers, and as a community of ideal members fully engaged in local cult ritual. See Jeppesen, “A Fresh Approach,” 129–33, for reading of these maidens as epikleroi, heiresses who lost their fathers and inherited property in the absence of male heirs. Since these women were not allowed to hold property in their own rights, they were required to marry one of their male kin, to keep resources within the family.

  143. Euripides, Erechtheus F 370.77–80 Kannicht.

  144. Euripides, Children of Herakles 781.

  145. Homer, Iliad 2.550.

  146. Euripides, Erechtheus F 370.92–94 Kannicht, where the fragmentary text reads: “[ox] or bull and a [ram].”

  147. IG II2 1146; IG II2 1357.

  148. Simon, Festivals of Attica, 64, sees the water bearers not as participants in the ritual but as victors in the torch races, carrying their prize hydriai.

  149. Photios, s.v. σκάφας, bases his definition on Menander fr. 147 (PCG). See RE (1949), s.v. “Panathenaia”; Shear, “Polis and Panathenaia,” 134–36; Simon, Festivals of Attica, 65, 69–70; Deubner, Attische Feste, 28.

  150. I thank Dr. Tomas Lochman, curator of the Skulpturhalle Basel des Antikenmuseums, for his kindness in facilitating my research on the casts of the Parthenon sculptures. I am also indebted to Prof. Dr. Anton Bierl for inviting me as visiting professor, Departement Altertumswissenschaften der Universität Basel. The tray bearer shown on this page, bottom, is molded from north frieze, figure N15, a fragment that is in the Vatican. See Jenkins, Parthenon Frieze, 86; Connelly, “Parthenon and Parthenoi,” 69. On skaphephoroi in general, see Berger and Gisler-Huwiler, Fries des P
arthenon, 195–96; Brommer, Der Parthenonfries, 214.

  151. F. Graf, “Milch, Honig und Wein: Zum Verständnis der Libation im griechischen Ritual,” in Perennitas: Studi in onore di Angelo Brelich, ed. M. Eliade (Rome: Ateneo, 1980), 209–21; Simon, Festivals of Attica, 70, has suggested that the honey is meant for Gaia, who might somehow have been worshipped in the Panathenaia.

  152. Euripides, Erechtheus F 370.83–86 Kannicht.

  153. Ibid., F 370.87–89 Kannicht.

  154. J. G. Pedley, Paestum: Greeks and Romans in Southern Italy (London: Thames and Hudson, 1990), 36–39, figs. 11–13; P. C. Sestieri, “Iconographie et culte d’Hera à Paestum,” Revue des Artes 5 (1955): 149–58.

  155. Demaratus, FGrH 42 F 4; Euripides, Erechtheus F 370.102 Kannicht.

  156. Euripides, Erechtheus F 370{–369d}5–9 Kannicht.

  157. Berger and Gisler-Huwiler, Fries des Parthenon, 67–69. Others disagree: Simon, Festivals of Attica, 62; Boardman, “Closer Look,” 322–23. Von Heintze, “Athena Polias am Parthenon,” sees the men as members of a male chorus for the prosodion (processional song performed en route to the altar of the divinity); Fehr, Becoming Good Democrats and Wives, 80, sees the men as symbols of the “meritorious older generation of Athenian citizens.” See Shear, “Polis and Panathenaia,” 134–35.

  158. Xenophon, Symposium 4.17.

  159. Boardman, “Closer Look,” 324–25.

  160. Thucydides, Peloponnesian War 6.58.1.

  161. Parian Marble, IG XII 5 444, 17–18. Harpokration, s.v. “apobates”; Pseudo-Eratosthenes, Constellations 13. See Kyle, Athletics in Ancient Athens, 63–64, 188–89, 205 (A37), and 213 (A70).

  162. Nonnus, Dionysiaca 37.155ff.

  163. See Neils and Schultz, “Erechtheus and the Apobates”; also Fehr, Becoming Good Democrats and Wives, 52–67; C. Ellinghaus, Die Parthenonskulpturen: Der Bauschmuck eines öffentlichen Monumentes der demokratischen Gesellschaft Athens zur Zeit des Perikles, Techniken in der bildenden Kunst zur Tradierung von Aussagen (Hamburg: Dr. Kovač, 2011), 109–71; P. Schultz, “The Iconography of the Athenian Apobates Race,” in Schultz and Hoff, Structure, Image, and Ornament, 64–69; Neils, Parthenon Frieze, 97–98, 138–86; Shear, “Polis and Panathenaia,” 299–310; Berger and Gisler-Huwiler, Der Fries des Parthenon, 169–86.

  164. Plutarch, Life of Phokion 20.1.

  165. IG II2 2316.16 and IG II2 2317 + SEG 61.118.49. See discussion in Shear, “Polis and Panathenaia,” 313–314. For the City Eleusinion, see M. M. Miles, The City Eleusinion, Athenian Agora 31 (Princeton, N.J.: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1998).

  166. Marble base, Agora S399. See T. L. Shear, “The Sculpture Found in 1933: Relief of an Apobates,” Hesperia 4 (1935): 379–81.

  167. Tracy and Habicht, “New and Old Panathenaic Victor Lists,” 198; Kyle, Athletics in Ancient Athens, 63–64.

  168. Thucydides, Peloponnesian War 6.56–58; Demosthenes, Against Phormio 39; Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.2.14.

  169. Demosthenes, Erotikos 24–25.

  170. Boardman, “Parthenon Frieze,” 210.

  171. For the ranks of horsemen, see Jenkins, Parthenon Frieze, 55–63; Jenkins, “South Frieze,” 449; Harrison, “Time in the Parthenon Frieze,” 230–33; Berger and Gisler-Huwiler, Fries des Parthenon, 110–11; L. Beschi, “Il fregio del Partenone: Una proposta lettura,” RendLinc, ser. 8, 39 (1985): 176, 183, 185.

  172. For ten groups of riders on the south frieze as evoking the ten Kleisthenic tribes, see Harrison, “Time in the Parthenon Frieze,” 232; T. Osada, “Also Ten Tribal Units: The Grouping of the Cavalry on the Parthenon North Frieze,” AJA 115 (2011): 537–48; T. Stevenson, “Cavalry Uniforms on the Parthenon Frieze?,” AJA 107 (2003): 629–54; Pollitt, “Meaning of the Parthenon Frieze,” 55; Jenkins, Parthenon Frieze, 99; S. Bird, I. Jenkins, and F. Levi, Second Sight of the Parthenon Frieze (London: British Museum Press, 1998), 18–19; I. Jenkins, “The Parthenon Frieze and Perikles’ Cavalry of a Thousand,” in Barringer and Hurwit, Periklean Athens, 147–61; Jenkins, “South Frieze,” 449; Harrison, “Time in the Parthenon Frieze,” 230–32; E. B. Harrison, review of Der Parthenonfries, by Brommer, AJA 83 (1979): 490. Some see the ranks of riders as associated with the brotherhood groups called phratries.

  173. Fehr, Becoming Good Democrats and Wives, 146–47, sees in the cavalry and chariot groups sophrosune (healthy-mindedness, self-control guided by knowledge and balance), arete (excellence), and philia (friendship among fellow soldiers).

  174. Aristotle, Politics 1297b16–22. On the other hand, many ancient traditions, like the trooping of the colors, involved staged anachronisms.

  175. Xenophon, On Horsemanship 11.8.

  176. Connelly, “Parthenon and Parthenoi,” 69–71; G. R. Bugh, Horsemen of Athens (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1988), 34–35, notes that the horsemen on the frieze are too old to be ephebes. See Brommer, Der Parthenonfries, 151–53; Castriota, Myth, Ethos, and Actuality, 202–26.

  177. For the three red-figured cups in Berlin and Basel, see H. Cahn, “Dokimasia,” RA (1973): 3–22; Connelly, “Parthenon and Parthenoi,” 70–71. See G. Adeleye, “The Purpose of the Dokimasia,” GRBS 24 (1983): 295–306.

  178. Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 49.

  179. Ibid., 42.

  180. Herodotos, Histories 8.53; Demosthenes, On the False Embassy 303.

  181. Fehr, Becoming Good Democrats and Wives, esp. 35–40, sees in the west frieze the testing and training of young men and horses, emphasizing equality, discipline, and collectiveness within the group. The bearded figures are seen as role models for the young trainees.

  182. For the genealogical function of architectural sculpture, see T. Hölscher, “Immagini mitologiche e valori sociali nella Grecia arcaica,” in Im Spiegel des Mythos: Bilderwelt und Lebenswelt Symposium, Rom 19.–20. Februar 1998 = Lo Specchio del Mito, ed. F. de Angelis and S. Muth (Weisbaden: Ludwig Reichert, 1999), 11–30; Connelly, “Parthenon and Parthenoi,” 66; Marconi, “Kosmos,” 222–24. We have already noted the depiction of the royal family of Elis on the east pediment of Zeus’s temple at Olympia (470–456 B.C.). The genealogical emphasis can be seen even earlier in the sculptures of the temple of Aphaia at Aegina (ca. 500–480 B.C.), where a localized “take” on the Trojan Wars is shown in the pediments. Here, two of its native sons (King Telamon on the east gable and his grandson Ajax on the west) fight in two successive Trojan Wars, separated by a generation. The first Trojan War is fought against Trojan King Laomedon and the second against King Priam. See E. Simon, Aias von Salamis als mythische Persönlichkeit (Stuttgart: F. Steiner, 2003), 20ff. But, of course, we have already tracked this genealogical function for architectural sculpture as far back as the Bluebeard pediment of the Hekatompedon.

  183. Summarized by Castriota, Myth, Ethos, and Actuality, 134–38.

  184. Chaniotis, “Dividing Art–Divided Art,” 43.

  185. Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.27.4; 9.30.1. See C. Ioakimidou, Die Statuenreihen griechischer Poleis und Bünde aus spätarchaischer und klassischer Zeit (Munich: Tuduv-Verlagsgesellschaft, 1997), 99–100, 262–73 (interpreted as a state monument for the fallen); R. Krumeich, Bildnisse griechischer Herrscher und Staatsmänner im 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr. (Munich: Biering & Brinkmann, 1997), 109–11, 244, no. A58. See M. Korres, Melete Apokatastaseos tou Parthenonos 4 (Athens, 1994) 124, for discovery of blocks from the base of this statue group, built into the repaired west door of the Parthenon. Korres, Study for the Restoration of the Parthenon, 86–87, 124, argues that supports from three surviving blocks of the statue base indicate that the images of Erechtheus, Eumolpos, Tolmides, and the Theainetos all stood together on the same base.

  186. Policoro, Museo Nazionale della Siritide 35304; Proto-Italiote, ca. 400 B.C., LIMC 2, s.v. “Athena,” no. 177; LIMC 4, s.v. “Eumolpos,” no. 19; L. Weidauer, “Poseidon und Eumolpos auf einer Pelike aus Policoro,” AntK 12 (1963): 91–93, plate 41; Clairmont, “Euripides’ Erechtheus and the Erechtheum,” 492, plates 4 and 5;
LCS 55, no. 282; M. Treu, “Der Euripideischer Erechtheus als Zeugnis seiner Zeit,” Chiron 1 (1971): 115–31.

  187. For earliest references to Poseidon Hippios, see P. Siewert, “Poseidon Hippios am Kolonos und die athenischen Hippeis,” in Arktouros: Hellenic Studies Presented to Bernard M. W. Knox, ed. G. Bowersock, W. Burkert, and M. C. J. Putnam (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1979), 280–89.

  188. Hurwit, Athenian Acropolis, 223.

  189. A research model long examined by the so-called French School associated with the Centre Louis Gernet. See, for example, F. Lissarrague, Vases Grecs: Les Athéniens et leurs images (Paris: Hazan, 1999); A. Schnapp, “De la cité des images à la cité dans l’image,” Métis 9 (1994): 209–18; and the collection of essays in Bérard et al., La cité des images.

  190. Euripides, Ion 184–218.

  191. Sourvinou-Inwood, Tragedy and Athenian Religion (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2003), 25–30; Sourvinou-Inwood, “Tragedy and Anthropology,” in A Companion to Greek Tragedy, ed. J. Gregory (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), 297–302.

  192. Euripides, Erechtheus F 351 Kannicht. Translation: Collard and Cropp, Euripides VII: Fragments, 371.

  193. Euripides, Erechtheus F 360.46–49 Kannicht.

  194. Euripides, Erechtheus F 369.2–5 Kannicht. Translation: Collard and Cropp, Euripides VII: Fragments, 387, 389.

  195. Translation: Collard and Cropp, Euripides VII: Fragments, 387.

  196. Euripides, Erechtheus F 370{–369d} 9–10 Kannicht. Translation: Collard and Cropp, Euripides VII: Fragments, 389.

  197. Marconi, “Degrees of Visibility,” 166–67.

  198. Ibid., 157–73. Marconi tracks Athenian taste for excess in sculptural decoration back to the Athenian Treasury at Delphi, probably built in the 480s B.C.

  199. Language that is enargês (“vivid” and “with life-giving clarity”) generates a surplus of linguistic power that can be deployed in politics alongside other forms of power. See Allen, Why Plato Wrote, 26, 36, 43, 58–61, 63, 81, 89, 90, 105, 106, 139, 173, 179, 192.