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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
In the Museo Civico at Bologna there are two Panathenaic amphorae which are not mentioned by Georg von Brauchitsch in his recently published work on these vases. One of them is of considerable interest and importance. I am enabled to publish them by the kindness of the Director, Prof. Ghirardini, who not only obtained for me the photographs here reproduced in line (Pl. IV) but also sent me a copy of the description of them contained in a forthcoming work by Pellegrini: Catalogo dei vasi greci dipinti delle Necropoli Felsinee. I propose also to examine briefly the evidence for certain assumptions which are commonly accepted without question and which seem to me entirely to vitiate many of the theories proposed by von Brauchitsch. Questions with regard to these vases are so frequently arising that these theories should not be allowed to pass uncriticised.
1 Die I'anathenäischen Preisamphoren, Leipsic, 1910.
2 Op. cit. Nos. 76–82.
3 I.G. ii. 965. Cp. my Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals, pp. 232 ff.
4 Die Antiken Vasen von der Akropolis, by Botho Graef, vol. ii. Nos. 1062, 1124.
5 Op. cit. p. 139. Cp., however p. 153, where he entirely disregards his own rule; v. infra, p. 190, and Greek Athletic Sports, p. 278
6 vi. 13. 2.
7 Vol. xiv. 1910, p. 422 and xv. p. 504.
8 P. 206.
9 J.H.S. xxxi. p. 301.
10 Op. cit. p. 162, n. 1.
11 Graef's figures do not agree with those given by von Brauchitsch. I have therefore corrected the latter.
12 Op. cit. p. 166.
13 Von Brauchitsch gives 21 and 9 p.c. without, 39 and 25 p.c. with the Acropolis vases. The difference in no way affects the argument.
14 Von Brauchitsch, op. cit. Nos. 2, 3; Vasen von der Akropolis, ii. Nos. 1043, 1044.
15 No. 1062.
16 I.G. ii. 965.
17 This view was propounded by SirSmith, Cecil in B.S.A. iii. p. 182Google Scholar, and accepted by me provisionally in my Greek Athletic Sports, pp. 76, 241.
18 Op. cit. p. 244. I regret that I had not the advantage of seeing von Brauchitsch's book before I wrote this section. For though I strongly disagree with many of his theories, it is an extremely useful study of these vases. Had I possessed all the evidence which he presents, I should not have accepted even provisionally the assumptions which I am discussing.
19 Von Brauchitsch, pp. 130, 153. He gives only 10 but omits to include Nos. 55, 56.
20 Robinson, in Am. Journ. of Archaeology, xiv. p. 425Google Scholar. Brauchitsch on the evidence of the figure of Triptolemus on the pillar assigns a fourth vase to Pythodelus (No. 98), the fragment in the Bibl. Nationale at Paris No. 248.
21 Op. cit. p. 161. The accident that two scholiasts happen to use the singular in speaking of these vases is counterbalanced by the use of the plural in two passages of equal worth or worthlessness, and the use of the plural by Pindar, in Nem. x. 64Google Scholar is worth all four passagps together, though even to this I attach very little weight.
22 Op. cit. pp. 75 ff.
23 Von Brauchitsch gives seven such vases, Nos. 76–82. To these must be added the two Bologna vases, and at least seven of the Acropolis fragments, Nos. 1102–1108.
24 Op. cit. pp. 86, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93, 101, 106, 109, 117, etc.
25 Von Brauchitsch on No. 36, p. 31, and Graef, op. cit. on fragment No. 988.
26 Nos. 932–994.
27 Thus he rejects No. 992 because the drawing of the eye proves it to belong to the middle of the fifth century. He rejects 983, 984 because of the Maeander pattern above the panels, 993 because of the laurel wreath on the shoulder, and yet the latter ornament certainly appears on genuine vases of the fourth century, cp. Von Brauchitsch, p. 93. There is perhaps more ground for rejecting 994, where the figure of Athena is turned to the right, though even this variation is adopted in the later vases of the fourth century. Surely if there were Panathenaic vases in the fifth century, such variations in unessential details are just what we should expect.
27a Hill, , Handbook of Greek Coins, pp. 161Google Scholar ff.
28 Cp. Greek Athletic Sports, p. 243, Fig. 39. Since writing this passage I have seen the vase itself and feel no doubt that it is merely an imitation.
29 E.g. von Brauchitsch, No. 48; B.M. Vases, B 144; Acropolis fragment, No. 923.
30 Thus he describes fragment 993 as a pseudo-Panathenaic vase ‘die als Nachzüglerin der echten tief in das V. Jahrhundert hineinreicht.’
31 Nos. 30, 31, 32, 36, 43, 47.
32 Nos. 76, 77.
33 The capitals of the columns are by incised lines on either side converted into Ionic capitals. In every other respect they are Doric, and it is possible that the incised lines are a later addition.
34 Mus. Greg. Pl. XLII.
35 The British Museum has three slightly smaller: B. 137 (foot-race); B. 138 (crowning the victor), each 37·5 cm.; B. 140 (boxing), 40 cm. The latter is a fairly late vase, the lion as an emblem on the shield seldom occurring except in the fully developed red-figured style (v. Brauchitsch, p. 116). The snake which appeals on B. 137 is also found only on later vases, ib. p. 118.
There is also one of the very few fourth-century uninscribed vases, B. 612 (boxers). The cocks on the pillars are replaced by rams, a variation which is not found before the time of the archons' signatures.
36 V. supra, p. 183.
37 P. 153.
38 Von Brauchitsch denies that the hippiosrace existed at Athens till the fourth century; but he gives no reason for doing so. We simply do not know. There was a hippiosrace at the Nemea and at the Isthmia, in the fifth century; v. Greek Athletic Sports, pp. 220Google Scholar, 225.
39 Ib. Figs. 107, 108.
40 Fragment 1041 representing this race appears also to be very early. There is nothing improbable in this conclusion. Conservative Olympia was not a pioneer even in things athletic, and a practical military event like the race in aimour was more likely to originate in a state where the army was of vital importance than in a state which was at that period remote from the conflicts and wars of Greece and which was encouraged in its inertia by the sanctity of its festival.
41 The festival is mentioned six times, chs. 18, 43, 49, 54, 60, 62.
42 For the substance of this paragraph v. ch. 60.
43 The length of time which oil will keep depends on a fairly even temperature, and is also partly a matter of taste. In Greece I am informed by Mr. Hasluck it will keep for several years and the Greek palate appreciates old oil. In Italy I learn from Mrs. Ross that it keeps perfectly good for two years, but after one year it begins to lose the herb-like taste so much prized in Tuscany. In ancient days enormous quantities were required also for external use by athletes and by the general public in all forms of exercise and in the bath, and for such purposes the flavour of the oil would be immaterial! In the present day it is used for anointing the dead. They too are not particular! For an account of oil-makiug, see Old Florence and Modern Tuscany, by Mrs. Ross.
