Charlotte Knihtila Art History 201 Prof. Dale 15 Apr. 2024 The History Behind the Visual Construction of Theseus Pursuing Helen What may come to mind when discussing Theseus are his Isthmian deeds: slaying the minotaur and the battle against the Amazons being two of the most prominent ones (mythica). In general, Theseus is regarded as an Ionian-Athenian hero whose legendary adventures have stood the test of time in the forms of vases, metopes, and friezes (oxford). However, Mixing Vessel with Theseus Pursuing Helen (ca. 460-450 BCE), located in the Chazen Museum of Art and attributed to a follower of the Niobid Painter, shows a different side of Theseus. Mixing Vessel with Theseus Pursuing Helen depicts three figures on the obverse and reverse …show more content…
Menelaos retrieving Helen from Troy was another popular Greek myth a bit before the 6th century BCE. In examples of the vases, (find examples of vases, state the composition in relation to Theseus and Helen, state elements that may have occurred, compare it to Neils and Clement’s theories). Now understanding how the composition of Mixing Vessel with Theseus Pursuing Helen follows its predecessors, by looking at other vases depicting Theseus pursuing Helen there are similarities and differences in certain ways things are depicted. (find examples of vases and compare/contrast) Guy Hedreen has an explanation which would explain these discontinuities during the time periods in which these vases and kraters were made. Hedreen explains that artists and the general public heard these myths through oral tradition or general conversation during the Archaic and Early Classical Periods. There may not have been many texts widely available at the time, so the only account artists could go off on was stories passed down through others …show more content…
She further explains that additions were to fill in gaps within Theseus’ life by adding onto his Isthmian deeds and elaborate his character as a person (neils). Due to these additions being fairly recent within the time range of vases depicting Theseus and Helen, visual representations of this could be different as well. In the end, these reasons would explain why certain details in the visual depiction Theseus abducting Helen are different across the wide amount of vases while still adhering to the visual canon of the three figures, as described by Clement before. To sum things up, I would argue that the visual depiction Mixing Vessel with Theseus Pursuing Helen referenced already existing visual narratives of pursuers and pursued, such as Menelaos pursuing Helen, and the visual discrepancies between other visual depictions of Theseus abducting Helen are due to the gradual changes to the narrative over time as a result of oral tradition (Clement: Hedreen). As Theseus’ character was being added onto during the 6th to 5th century BC, this could have also led to further discontinuities in the visual depiction
Theseus, The Great Athenian hero, was the son of Dianae and King Aegeus. Theseus had something that not many children at his age didn’t have, “he grew up strong far beyond others” (210). When he was young his father, King Aegeus, set a hollow sword and a pair of shoes and placed a great
This myth is about the great Odysseus on his return from the Trojan War. On his way home, he washed up onto the isle of Circe, a great and powerful magician, famous for turning unwanted guests into animals. His men went first and only one came back, he told Odysseus that all the men had been turned into animals. Odysseus goes to confront Circe and ends up being invited to a banquet. In the end, Odysseus managed to bribe Circe to turn his men back and to let him leave the island. The first thing I noticed when looking at this painting is the architecture and how much of the canvas it takes up. This represents the power and strength of Circe. On the bottom right and left corners, you can see beautiful women on one side, and men turning into animals on the other. The beautiful women were used to lure them men and are separated from them in the painting. In the back you can see the messenger, Hermes, who gave Odysseus a plant to void all of the magic. Pannini also used directional lines and the geometric shape of the architecture to direct the eye into the arch where Odysseus and Circe were
The human figures appear in the flesh color of the original clay, with the details and background painted using black slips. The contrasting sides not only have different stories, but have inconsistent artistic and craftsmanship ability, skill, and style. Because, recreation was so crucial to Greece, the story of Theseus and Helen appeared in many other forms. Although in the other vases I examined the characters were not deliberately labeled, the themes and styles remained constant and hinted at the same myth. Our narrator is consistent with the style of other vases using the red-figure technique, but different in imagery.
Throughout the Iliad and the Odyssey, Athena meddles in the affairs of mortals, leading them to do her will without having to change directly the course of history herself. Athena guides the kings of Achaea into the war against Troy to reclaim Helen and because of her influence, they return victorious. In the Iliad, Helen is taken to Troy by Prince Paris, and later claimed by Deiphobus, when the red-haired king Menelaus is away. Upon hearing of this treachery, Menelaus calls his brother and the kings of Greece together to gather a force to bring back his wife. Odysseus is one of these kings, and Athena, favoring Odysseus, guides the men in their efforts and shows them the path to victory. Athena saves Odysseus and the men cached inside of the legendary “Trojan Horse” as Helen circles the figure “challenging all our fighters...
Athena, the Greek goddess of both wisdom and war, is often considered the craftiest of all Olympian gods. She was born of a headache, and erupted from Zeus’ head fully armed and ready for battle. However, beside all this pomp, she is a rather caring, if war-loving, immortal. Throughout the entirety of The Odyssey she conveys an entirely platonic, almost motherly love for Odysseus. It is this that makes her significant character in Homer’s work. In The Odyssey, Athena is portrayed as a, if not the, major female figure throughout the entire epic poem. With her affection for Odysseus and her frequent appearances she plays a major role throughout the entire poem. Evidence of this integral role will be presented as proof of her importance to the story.
It can be tempting to look at myth and think of it in historical terms. There’s an amount of intuitive plausibility to their myths where it could be argued that it’s capturing an element of history and transmitting it through oral narratives. This could be seen in a great number of myths, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and the myth of Theseus included. But there is too much “other” going on in these myths to make them strictly historical. With the myth of Theseus, this “other” is too politically motivated for propaganda not to be part of its function. By analyzing the myth itself and how myth can be used as propaganda and applying that to this myth, it’s clear that the myth of Theseus is more than just an entertaining story, or a snapshot of history.
The significance of the quest to the society is that Theseus’ society admired those of great heroes
Trojan prince Paris abducted Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta. The Spartans refused to return Helen to Sparta so Menelaus persuaded his brother Agamemnon to lead an army against Troy. They fought for nine years but never were able to defeat he main city. The Greeks then built a large wooden horse in which warriors were hidden inside. The Greeks appeared to leave and the horse was left at the front gates of the city. The Trojans brought the horse inside the gates and the other Greeks returned at night. The people hidden inside the horse opened the gates for these Greeks and they destroyed Troy. This war could also have another motive as to who controlled trade through the Dardanelles.
Oh no, Helen’s been stolen! Prince Paris has kidnapped Helen, the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. Paris was assisted by Aphrodite, who promised him Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, as a reward for siding with her during a competition against the goddesses Hera and Athena.
Also, the sculpture named Kroisos (Kouros from Anavysos). ca. 540-525 BCE. Compare with the Kouros, both of them are freestanding, painted sculpture. Kroisos has a greater body than Kouros, and I can image that the flesh, sinew and bones inside the stone. And as for Kroisos’s facial expression is more naturalistic than Kouros. His lips are drawn up that becomes an artificial smile, I mean the archaic smile, but not reflect in his
Winckelmann like Vasari dealt greatly with the artistic problems concerning representation and imitation of nature including the need for the human beauty in a figure. However he also was interested in art criticism based in historical timelines and causes for the change and evolution of modern art. This greatly seen in this article not only in his thesis that great contemporary art is based in antiquity but also in his explanation for why the Greek art was so well done and why it has risen back into the hands of modern art. First, Greek work came back to contemporary society greatly by the monarch led by Titus who brought authentic work from Greek masters for his artists to learn from and imitate. He also discusses the correlation between the bodies, like that of the Theseus model, with the Greek lifestyle they lived based heavily on training for the Olympic games and the resemblance of youth’s bodies to godlike figures. Great masters of contemporary work use these same bodily model and ideal of beauty in their work. Winckelmann states that their present good taste is due to the fact that they, “partook of good taste at its source.” Overall the Greeks set up rules of art that could be imitated to capture nature and its ideal form of beauty, an idea that many sought to accomplish.
In The Iliad the major conflict begins between Prince Paris and the Achaean king Menelaus over Helen. During the war that arises from the attempt to bring back Helen the Achaeans reside in a city nearby and hold captive several women. Chryses asks
All throughout Edith Hamilton’s rendition of Theseus’ story she displays example for all three parts of the characteristic from Theseus’ superior strength, the prime example from the story is when Theseus kills the sleeping Minotaur without any weapons and only his bare hands, an example of Theseus’ intelligence comes during his reign as the King of Athens, he’s described as a wise king who chose a more democratic rule to govern his people, and an example for Theseus’ courage lies in his selfless actions to volunteer himself as one of the sacrifices to enter the Labyrinth to face the Minotaur. Although Hamilton’s description of Theseus’ legacy speaks for itself, “Theseus was, of course, bravest of the brave as all heroes are, but unlike other heroes he was as compassionate as he was brave and a man of great intellect as well as bodily strength (Hamilton 166.)” Just in Hamilton’s quick summary of Theseus’ character is a testament that he doesn’t fit the role of an epic hero but he is the literal archetype which epic heroes strive to be. Theseus isn’t just superhumanly strong, like Hercules, or only incredibly courageous to the point it’d be stupid, like Perseus, Theseus is superior in strength, intelligence, and
Throughout the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huckleberry Finn challenges the meaning of being civilized by being morally good with only self-guidance and nature to rely on. Mark Twain was born in Florida, Missouri in 1835, and spent most of his young life near the Mississippi River just as Huck did. Twain’s father died when he was 12 and Huck’s father also died when he was young. Twain expressed Huck’s sense of adventure and fortune through his travels to the holy land and his interests in South American treasure. Twain served for the Confederacy during The Civil War, but was persuaded to leave by his brother, putting him on the path of becoming an author. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, Twain emphasizes that the traditional definition of being civilized does not apply to Huck by shaping Huck’s morals through survival and nature.
Homer, Iliad is the narration of the Trojan war. The Trojan war was one of the most important and significant wars of Greek mythology, Homer described how the war was triggered by the abduction of the most beautiful women known as Helen. This paper will argue how the traditional view of this poem is accurate because it indeed was Helens beauty and her selfishness that sparked the Trojan war. Although Helen was not happy about the outcomes of her mistakes. This paper will present how Helen faced many forms of self judgment, how she created many relationships with significant characters, such as Paris, Priam and Aphrodite. Homers portrayal of this significant women was remarkable as we were able to feel her pain and anguish, the readers were