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Eros and Dionysos on Kerch VasesAuthor(s): Margarete BieberSource: Hesperia Supplements, Vol. 8, Commemorative Studies in Honor of Theodore LeslieShear (1949), pp. 31-38+440-441Published by: The American School of Classical Studies at AthensStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1353878.
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EROS AND
DIONYSOS
ON
KERCH
VASES
(PLATES
4-5)
rIHREE Attic vases of the middle of the fourth century B.C. n the Metropolitan
I
Museum
of
Art
have
an
unusual
combination
of a
woman
dressed
only
in a
himation
in
the
center,
with
Eros on the one
side,
and
Dionysos
or
his
followers
on
the
other
side.
All
three
vases
have been
published,
but
their
interpretation
has
not
yet
been
absolutely
certain
and
convincing.
Perhaps
the finest and
one of the
best known
of the
so-called
Kerch
Vases
is
the
Pompe
Vase,
an oinochoe
(Plate
4,
1).'
It
gets
its name
from that
written
beside the
graceful
woman
standing
in the
center,
crowned with
a
wreath
which
seems
to
be
of
myrtle,
and
holding
in
both
hands two
twigs
of the
same
plant joined
at
the
tip by
a
round object, probably a jewel. Gisela Richter rightly explains that the presence of
Dionysos
indicates
that the
occasion is a
Dionysiac
festival.
The
golden
basket
next
to the
woman has been
explained
by
Deubner as
indicating
a
procession
with the
carrus
navalis
at the
Anthesteria,
while the
Eros
tying
his sandal
"
soll
die Anmut
der
Frauengestalt
zum Ausdruck
bringen."
2
The
seated
Dionysos
is
supposed
to
be the
one who will ride
in
the
ship-car,
the carrus
navalis,
in
the
pompe given
in
his
honor
at the Anthesteria. Schefold
explains
the
Pompe
as a
personification
of a
festival
procession,
which has
come with
gifts
to the
temple
of
Dionysos,
while
Brendel sees
personified
the
procession
which will
accompany
Dionysos
from the
Limnaion to the Bukoleion for his symbolic wedding ceremony.3
The
skyphos (Plate
4,
3A-B)
in the
Metropolitan
Museum4 has in
the
center of
each side a seated woman.
The
one on
A
holds
in her
lap
a sacrificial basket of
the
same
form as
the
one
represented
on
the oinochoe. The one on
B
is seated on a
chest.
On
each side
is
an
Eros behind the
seated
woman;
the one on
A
is
leaning
against
her,
the
one on
B is
bringing
a chest
and a sash or
large
fillet.
On
A,
before
the seated
woman,
is a
satyr,
and
nearer to the
woman a
standing
woman,
while
another is
behind
1Met. Mus. No. 25.190. Gisela
Richter,
A.J.A.,
XXX, 1926,
pp.
422
if.,
fig.
1,
and
Red-Figured
Athenian Vases
in the
Metropolitan
Museum.of
Art,
pp.
215
f.,
no.
169,
pls.
164
and
177;
L.
Deubner, Jahrbuch,XLII, 1927, p. 173, fig. 3, and Attische Feste, pp. 97 iff., 103, pl. 9, 4. K.
Schefold,
Kertscher
Vasen,
in
Beazley-Jacobsthal,
Bilder
griechischer
Vasen, III, 1930,
pp.
5
f.,
14,
pl.
10,
and
Untersuchungen
zu den
Kertscher
Vasen,
p.
37,
no. 327
(cf.
pp.
66,
104
f., 151,
154).
G.
Richter
and
M.
Milne,
Shapes
and
Names,
fig.
121.
0.
Brendel,
A.J.A., XLIX,
1945,
pp.
519
ff.,
fig.
1.
2
L.
Deubner,
Attische
Feste,
pp.
102
f.
3
K.
Schefold,
Kertscher
Vasen,
p.
14.
0.
Brendel,
loc.
cit.,
p.
524.
4
Met.
Mus. No.
06.1021.181.
G.
Richter in
A.J.A., XI, 1907,
pp.
417
ff.,
figs.
5 and
7,
and
Red-Figured
Athenian
Vases,
p.
217,
no.
170,
pls.
165
and 178. L.
Deubner, Jahrbuch,
XL,
1925,
pp.
217 iff. K.
Schefold,
Kertscher
Vasen,
p.
13,
pl.
9,
and
Untersuchungen, p.
61,
no.
593
(cf.
pp.
104
f.).
Richter-Milne,
op.
cit.,
fig.
177.
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M. BIEBER
her on
the
same side as Eros. On
B
a
standing
woman
in a
Dionysiac
sleeved
chiton
and a seated
satyr
are in
front
of
the seated
woman.
Gisela Richter
again
explains
the
subject
rightly
as the
preparation
for
a
Dionysiac
festival,
but she
does not
explain
the Eros.
Schefold
5
says
that
Attic
virgins
have
come
in
procession
to the
sanctuary
of Dionysos and are staying there surroundedby his followers. He adds that " this
picture
is
not
yet interpreted
with
certainty."
The
explanation
"
Kanephoria
of the
girls
at
the
great city Dionysia"
he
gives,
rightly,
with a
question
mark.6
The
hydria
(Plate
4,
2)
7
has
again
a seated woman
in
the center.
She has
taken
incense
from
a box
in
her left hand and is
putting
it on a stand over
an altar.
Eros
is
crowning
her. Behind her a woman seems
to
be
holding
either
a
garland
or a
string
with
an
tvye:,
he
magic
wheel,
a
love
charm.8
On the other
side
of the altar
a
Menad
is
beating
the
tympanon
and a seated
satyr
is
playing
the flute.
The
oinochoe has been connected
by
all
authors
with
the Anthesteria and
particu-
larly the Choes festival, when, indeed, such wine jugs were used on the second day
of
the
feast
celebrated
on the 12th
day
of the month Anthesterion.9
The
skyphos,
on
the other
hand,
belongs
to the
Lenaia
festival in
the
month
Gamelion,
or
Lenaion,
as
testified
by
the
vases
collected
by
Frickenhaus and
rightly
connected
with this
feast.
On
these vases there are
many
examples
of
the
skyphos
in
the hands of
the
Lenai
from whom the
festival
and
even the whole month has been
named.10The
hydria
can
belong
to both
festivals,
as the
Attic
people
did not drink
the wine
pure
but
always
mixed
with water. But
why
are
all three kinds decorated
with the unusual combina-
tion
of
love-god
and
wine-god
?
The answer is that all three vases-and indeed many of the Kerch vases-are
wedding
presents,
and that the
real
nuptials
or
wedding night,
the
Synaulia,
took
place
at
the time
of
the
new
moon,
which
separates
all Greek months
from
each
other and
thus
also Gamelion
or
Lenaion
from the
following
Anthesterion.
The
marriage
cere-
monies,
however,
were not
confined to
one
day
but
extended over a
period
of
time
covering
the
last
days
of
the
Gamelion
and
the
first
days
of
Anthesterion,
ending
on
the
twelfth
day
with
the
Choes,
the feast
of children.
The Greek
wedding
was not an
individual
festival,
but a
community
feast
which,
like
peasant
and
Chinese
weddings,
extended
over a
number
of
days.
When the
Greek
5
K.
Schefold,
Kertscher
Vasen,
p.
13.
6
K.
Schefold, Untersuchungen, p.
61.
7
Met. Mus.
No.
26.60.75.
K.
Schefold,
Untersuchungen,
p.
24,
no.
191,
fig.
3,
pl.
11, 1;
cf.
pp.
92,
96
f.
8
See
Theocritus,
Idyll
2.
9
August
Mommsen,
Feste der Stadt
Athen,
1898,
pp.
384
if.
L.
Deubner,
Festschrift
fur
Paul
Clemen,
pp.
119
f.,
and Attische
Feste,
p.
101.
10
August
Frickenhaus,
"
Lenaenvasen,"
72.
Programm
zum
Winckelmannsfeste,
Berlin,
1912.
L.
Deubner,
Attische
Feste,
pp.
127
ff.,
agrees
with
Frickenhaus,
while
M.
Nilsson,
in
Sitzungsber.
Miinchen
Akad.,
1930,
no.
4,
pp.
3
ff.,
relates
the vases to the
Choes.
32
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EROS
AND DIONYSOS ON KERCHVASES
girl
of
good family
was
mature,
she was
promised
by
her father to a
youth
of
a
family
of
equal
social
standing
and wealth.
In
the
following
Gamelion,
the
wedding
month,
all the
families whose children were
going
to
marry,
offered
solemn
sacrifices,
particu-
larly
to the
highest gods,
Zeus
Teleios
and
Hera
Teleia,
the
protectress
of
marriage,
whose Theogamia or sacred wedding with Zeus was celebrated also in Gamelion."
Other sacrifices
were
offered to
the
gods
of the
phratries,
which
the
girl
was
going
to
leave;
to
Artemis,
to whom
she
dedicated
her
toys
and a strand of
hair;
and
finally
to the
nymphs
of the
Kallirhoe,
the
water of which was
carried
in
a
special
form
of
vase,
the
loutrophoros,
in
a
procession
to the house of the bride
for
her
bridal
bath
on
the last
evening
before the
wedding,
called
Proaulia."2
This was
on
the
evening
before
the
last
day
of
the
month
Gamelion. The
wedding
meal took
place
on
the
last
day
of Gamelion
n
the
house of the
father of the
bride.
There followed
in
the
evening
of the
same
day
the
wedding Pompe,
when the bride
was led on a
chariot
by
the bride-
groom and a friend, the parochos or paranymphos,in solemn procession to the house
of
the father
of
the
bridegroom.'3
The
procession
(Pompe)
led
by
a
flute
player,
went
through
the dark
night
of
the
new moon
accompanied
by
the
light
of
torches
in
the
hand of the mother of the bride
and
by
friends,
singing
the
Hymenaios,
the
marriage
song.
In
the new
home the bride
was led around
the
altar
and
then
by
the
bridesmaid,
the
nympheutria,
to the
marriage
chamber,
where
in
the
night,
when
sun
and moon
met,
the
marriage
was consummated.
This was
the
night
when winter
ended,
that is
the
night
between
Gamelion,
the last
winter
month,
and the
Anthesterion,
the
first
spring
month. Thus a new life
began
with the
growing
moon."4
1
For the
months,
see
Bishoff,
in
Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopddie
der klassischen
Altertums-
wissenschaft,
X,
s.
v.
Kalender,
pp.
1568
ff.,
p.
1591,
no. 54.
Ch.
Em.
Ruelle,
in
Daremberg-Saglio,
Dictionaire des
Antiquites,
s.v. calendarium
(calendrier),
pp.
822
iff. Martin
P.
Nilsson,
"Die
Entstehung
und
religi6se
Bedeutung
des
griechischen
Kalenders,"
in Lunds
Universitets
Arsskrift,
N.
F.
XIV,
2
Avd.
I,
Vol.
19,
no.
21, 1918,
pp.
5
f.,
25
ff.
For the
sacred
wedding
of
Zeus
and
Hera
in
Gamelion,
see
Hesych., p.
334,
s.v.
rap.,XtWv
3
'
T
v
ujvwv rS
"Hpas;
and
Phot.,
epo'v
ydapov
'AOrvcztot
Eopr'rv
Atos
dyovvatv
Kat
"Hpas,
Lepov
yad/ov
KaXovvreg.
A.
Mommsen,
op.
cit.,
pp.
382 f.
L.
Deubner,
Attische
Feste,
pp.
117,
177 f.
12
P.
Wolters,
in Ath.
Mitt., XVI,
1891,
pp.
371
ff.
Id.,
in
Jahrbuch, XIV, 1899,
pp.
128 ff.
Hans
Nachod,
in
Pauly-Wissowa,
Real-Enc.,
XIII,
pp.
2098-2101. Max
Collignon,
in
Daremberg-
Saglio,
Dictionaire
des
Ant., III, 2,
pp.
1648
f.
P.
Sticotti,
in
Festschrift fiir Benndorf, pp.
185
ff.
E.
Pernice,
"
Griech.
Privatleben,"
in
Gercke-Norden,
Einleitung
in
die
Altertumswissenschaft
3,
1922,
pp.
51
f.
13
A.
Brueckner,
"Athenische
Hochzeitsgeschenke,"
in Ath.
Mitt., XXXII,
1907,
pp.
80 iff.
Perdrizet,
'ApX.
'E+.,
1905,
pp.
209
ff.,
pls.
6-7.
P.
Sticotti,
loc.
cit.,
pp.
181 ff.
E.
Samter,
"
Hoch-
zeitsgebrauche,"
in
Neue
Jahrbiicher
fir
das klassische
Altertum, XIX,
1907,
pp.
131
iff.,
pl.
I,
and
Geburt,
Hochzeit,
Tod,
pp.
196
f.,
pl.
11.
Couve-Collignon,
Vases
peints
du
Musee
d'Athenes,
no.
1341,
pl.
XLV. W.
Hahland,
Vasen
urn
Meidias,
pl.
4. K.
Schefold,
Untersuchungen,
no.
284,
pp.
30,
103, 133,
pl.
50.
Here
a
girl
leads
the
wedding procession
with a
sacrificial
basket on
her
head.
14
Scholion
to
Hesiod,
Erga,
784: 'A97valot
ras
rpos
(vvo8oV
7j,.pas
e?AEyovTO
Vrposacovv5
Koa2
T'
OeoyauLTaETEXOWV,
OrT
7/26/2019 Eros and Dionysos on Kerch Vases
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In
the
period
between
this new
beginning
and the
next full moon
in
the
middle
of
Anthesterion,
other
ceremonies took
place.
In
the
morning
after
the
wedding
night
the
bridegroom
went
to the house
of his
father-in-law,
while
the bride
received
the
visit
and
presents
from
her female relatives
and
friends
in
the
ceremony
known
as
Epaulia.15 In one of the following days the priestess of Athena brought the sacred
aigis
of Athena
from the
Acropolis
to the
houses
of the
new brides
in order to
bring
them
the
blessing
of the
city goddess."6
Probably
on the fourth
day
of the
Anthesterion
month the
young
women
brought
sacrifices to
Aphrodite.'7
Finally,
at the
Anthesteria
festival,
at
the occasion
of the Choes
on
the twelfth
of
the
month,
the
sacred
marriage
of
the
wife of the
Archon
Basileus with
Dionysos
took
place
in
the
Boukoleion,
the
place
of
office of
this
highest
priest.'8
There
can
be no
doubt
that
this
marriage
cere-
mony
was acted
by
the
archon basileus
himself who
represented
his
god,
as the
priest
often
does. The
bodily
epiphany
of
the
god
was characteristic
of the
Dionysiac
cult,
and the priest, through divine possession, was temporarily identified with his god.19
The archon
basileus
was
the leader of
both the
Lenaia and the
Anthesteria
festivals.
The
wife of the
archon
had
to
be
a
virgin
when she married
him,
and
she was
not
allowed to
marry
more
than once.20
This means
that
when an Athenian
was lifted
to
this
high
office,
his
wife
too had
to
be
acceptable
to
the
voters. Thus
their
marriage
in
the
guise
of
Dionysos
and
Ariadne was
an
exemplification
of the
consummation
of
a
happy
marriage.
It
was
meant
to be a
blessing
for
the
newly
sown
land and
the
marriages
consummated
at
the
preceding
new
moon.
At the
same time
there
was not
only general
feasting
and
drinking
from the
Choes,but also a children'sfestival, and the children also received little oinochoes with
pictures
on
them as
presents.
On
one of these little
toy
jugs
the
ceremonial
wedding
procession
of
Dionysos
and the wife
of the archon
is
represented
with children
imi-
Politics, VII, 16,
p.
1335
a:
optcravares
Xetiwvos
r3V
ravvLavav
7rotdarOaL
Tavrv.
They
determined the
winter as limit
for
the
nuptials.
See
A.
Mommsen,
op.
cit.,
p.
382
f.
15
L.
Deubner,
in
Jahrbuch, XV, 1900,
pp.
144
ff.,
pl. 11.
A.
Brueckner,
op.
cit.,
pp.
91
ff.
Many
examples
on
Kerch Vases.
See
K.
Schefold,
Kertscher
Vasen,
pls.
3,
1
and
19-20,
and
Unter-
suchungen,
pls.
15,
2; 16; 17, 2;
33-34.
16
Zonaras,
Lexikon,
s. v.
atyts,
p.
77. A.
Brueckner,
op.
cit.,
pp.
114
f.
17
A.
Brueckner,
op.
cit.,
pp.
112 ff.
Another
example
is
the
vase
in the
Metropolitan
Museum,
G. Richter, Red-Figured Athenian Vases, p. 201 f., no. 160, pl. 159.
18
Aristotle,
Constitution
of
Athens, III, 5,
and
LVII,
1.
A.
Mommsen,
op.
cit.,
pp.
391 ff.
L.
R.
Farnell,
The
Cults
of
the
Greek
States, V,
p.
217
f.
G.
Elderkin,
Kantharos, 1924,
pp.
118.ff.
L.
Deubner,
Attische
Feste,
pp.
101,
106
ff.,
116
f.,
pl.
10,
and in
Jahrbuch,
XLII, 1927,
p.
174
f.,
figs.
4-5,
and
in
Festschrift
fiir
Paul
Clemen, 1926,
pp.
118
iff.,
figs.
4-5.
On the
vase in
Palermo,
Furtwangler-Reichhold, pl.
59,
with
the
wedding
of
Dionysos
and
Ariadne,
Eros
binds
his sandals
as
on the
vase
in PI.
4,
1.
Such shoes
are
rightly explained
as
nymphides
or
bridal
shoes
by
G.
Richter,
op.
cit.,
p.
202.
"9
See
M.
Nilsson,
in
Jahrbuch, XXXI, 1916,
pp.
315
f.,
323
ff.
20
L.
Deubner,
Attische
Feste,
p.
100
f. The
name
Basilinna,
often
given
to
the
wife
of
the
Archon
Basileus,
is modern. See
Grace
Macurdy,
in Am.
Jour.
of
Philol.,
49,
1928,
pp.
276
ff.
M.
BIEBER
4
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EROS
AND DIONYSOS
ON
KERCH
VASES
tating
the
ceremony (Plate
5,
1A-B).21
The archonbasileus
as
Dionysos
with
thyrsos
and kantharos is
already
seated on
the
wedding
car,
the
parochos
prepares
to
help
the
bride
step
up.
Behind her three children
carry
an
object
which
has been
wrongly
inter-
preted by
Deubner as
the
stylis
from a
ship
and with
its
help
he
has
wrongly
assigned
the ship float, carrus navalis, to the Anthesteria.22My interpretationof the object as a
ploughshare
has been
accepted
by
M.
Nilsson.23 The
boys
carry
not
a
light
stylis,
but
a
heavy yoke,
as do the oxen when
ploughing,
a
symbol
of the
yoke
of
marriage
which
unites
man and woman.
The
pole
with the
ploughshare
at the
end is erected
vertically,
so
that
the
iron cannot hurt
anybody,
and the
handle
for
the
ploughman
is
indicated.24
It is
decorated
with
fillets,
which
appear
so often in the
hands of
friends or Eros on
wedding
vases
(see
Plate
4,
3B).
The
plough
is a
symbol
of
fertility.
poco
means
to
plough
and to
marry
and
generate.25
In
the refined
atmosphere
of
fourth-century
Athens the
plough
takes the
place of the phiallos, he crude symbol of productive power and seed of life used in
the rural
Dionysia.
The consummation
of
the
marriage
as
represented
n
the
ceremonial
wedding
of the
priest
and his chaste
wife,
in the
guise
of
Dionysos
and
Ariadne,
has
as
a
goal
the creation of
legitimate
children. That is
why
the last
part
of the
marriage
ceremonies
lays
the
emphasis
on the children. The
fertility
of
the
marriage
is
com-
pared
to
the
fertility
of the fields. The
chief
purpose
of a Greek
marriage
was the
procreation
of
legitimate
children,
particularly
sons,
for
the
good
of
the
gods,
the
state,
and the
family
itself.
Immortality through
the
life
of the
children
on
earth,
on
the
one
hand,
and on the
other,
individual
immortality through
reunion with the
godhead is the wish of many. Both could be attained by initiation into the Bacchic
21
Met. Mus.
no. 24.97.34. L.
Deubner,
in
Jahrbuch,
XLII,
1927,
pp.
177
iff.,
figs.
7-9,
and
Attische
Feste,
pp.
104
iff.,
pl.
11,
2-4.
Anita
Klein,
Child
Life
in
Greek
Art,
p.
26,
pl.
XXVI.
M.
Nilsson,
in
Sitzungsberichte
Akademie
Miinchen, 1930,
no.
4,
pp.
8
ff.
22
L.
Deubner,
Attische
Feste,
p.
105
f.,
pl.
12.
The fillets
with
the
pearls
at their
ends are not
the
flag
(pafKos)
used
for the
stylis
even
though
it is called
'rawva
by
Pollux, I,
90.
None of
the
stylides
from Alexander coins
collected
by
Deubner,
pl.
12, 2,
has such a fillet. It
can,
on the
other
hand,
very
well
decorate
he
phallos
as
well as the
symbolicplough
in
the
pompe.
See
the black-
figured
vase
in
Florence
(Dieterich,
Mutter
Erde3,
pp.
107
f.; Deubner,
Attische
Feste,
p.
136,
pl.
22),
which is a
transition
from the
phallos
to the
plough.
28
M.
Bieber,
in
Jahrbuch,
XLIII, 1922,
p.
306,
note 1. M.
Nilsson,
loc.
cit.,
p.
11.
H.
R.
W.
Smith,
C.V.A.,
USA
10,
San
Francisco
Coll., 1943,
p.
47
f.
accepts
Deubner's
"
Schiffskarren
"
and
even
explains
a
dolphin
on a miniature
chous
as an allusion
to
it.
24
See
the form of
the
plough
on
the
cup by
Nikosthenes
n
Berlin,
1806:
0.
Jahn,
in
Berichte
d. Siichsischen
Gesellschaft
der
Wiss.,
1867,
p.
76
f.,
pl.
1,
1.
J.
C.
Hoppins,
Black-Figured
Vases,
p.
184
f.,
no.
6;
and the
plough
in
Florence, Walters,
British Museum
Guide to the Exhibition
illustrating
Greek
and
Roman
Life,
3, 1929,
p.
167,
fig.
184.
25
The
Athenian
marriage
contract contained the
phrase:
for
the
plowing
of
legitimate
children
(eri
rat&8v
yvartoWv
apo'T).
Clemens
Alex., Strom., II,
23. The oracle
given
to
the
Troizenians:
"plough
not
the
young
field,"
is
explained by
Aristotle, Politics,
VII,
16,
p.
1335
a
"that
many
died because
they
married
too
young."
See
translation
by
B.
Jowett,
p.
314.
A.
Dieterich,
Mutter
Erde8,
1925, pp.
46
f.,
109.
35
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7/11
M. BIEBER
mysteries.
Jocelyn
Toynbee
and the
author have
independently
and about
the same
time
proved
that the celebrated
frescoes
in
the
Villa Item at
Pompeii
are
only
to
be
understood as the
representation
of
initiation
of brides
into
the
Dionysiac mysteries,
and Maiuri
in
his
model
publication
has
accepted
this
explanation.26
The Kerch vases (Plate 4) can be explained satisfactorily in the same way; and
they
become the
oldest testimonials
for the
combination of
wedding
and initiation
in
a
pre-nuptial
rite. The
sacrificial baskets
on Plate
4,
1
and 3A
have been
explained by
Gisela
Richter as a
Dionysiac
implement,
while
Deubner
has shown that
they belong
to
the
wedding
ceremony.27
Both
views
have to be
combined.
The
baskets
contain
objects
which
symbolize
the
mysteries
of
love,
marriage,
and
fertility.
When the
girls
came
in
procession
(Pompe)28
to the
sanctuary
of
Dionysos, they
were
told the
facts of
life
and
marriage
with
the
help
of
symbols
and
teaching
by
older
matrons.
The love
is
represented
by
Eros,
the
initiation
by Dionysos
and his
thiasos.
It
was
probably only
a small group of well-born girls that was initiated into the Dionysiac thiasos before
their
wedding.
Gisela
Richter
has shown
that
only
such
girls
are
handling
the
sacri-
ficial
basket,
represented
on
the
oinochoe and
skyphos
(Plate
4,
1
and
3).
The
question
of whether
these vases
with Eros
and
Dionysos
alluding
to the
initiation into
the
Dionysiac
mysteries
belong
to
the Lenaion
or the
Anthesterion
festival
cannot be solved
by
their
shapes,
for
the
skyphos
is
characteristic
of
the
first,
the
oinochoe
of the
second. But the
oinochoe
is
used,
in
addition
to the
skyphos,
on
the
Lenaia
vases;
and the
hydria
(Plates
4,
2
and
5,
2)
could
always
be used
at
Dionysiac
festivals.
Walter Otto
29
has shown
that water
is
as much
the
gift
of
Dionysos
as
wine.
It is the moist element which preserves life and furthers creative power in plants,
animals,
and man. This
enables
us
to
offer
a
better
interpretation
of
another Kerch
Hydria
in
Athens
(Plate
5,2)30
than has
hitherto
been
possible.
It shows
Eros
watering
plants
in
the
presence
of
Dionysos
(left)
and
two
women,
one
with
a
tympanon
(right).
We thus
again
have
the same
combination as on
the
three New
York
vases
(Plate
4).
Eros
pours
the
fertilizing
moisture
on the
flowers as a
symbol
of
the
brides
who
are
initiated into
the
Dionysiac
mysteries
and
at the
same
time
into
the
secrets of
married
life,
the
purpose
of
which is
the
procreation
of
children.
The
26
M.
Bieber,
"Mysteriensaal
der
Villa
Item,"
in
Jahrbuch, XLIII, 1928,
pp.
298
iff.,
pls.
5-9.
Eadem, in Review of Religion, II, 1937,
pp.
3 ff.
Jocelyn
Toynbee,
" The Villa Item and
a
Bride's
Ordeal,"
in Journal
of
Roman
Studies,
XIX,
1929,
pp.
67 iff.
A.
Maiuri,
La
Villa
dei
Misteri,
pp.
121 ff.
27
G.
Richter,
in
A.J.A.,
XI,
1907,
pp.
423
ff.,
and
A.J.A.,
XXX,
1926,
pp.
422
ff. L.
Deubner,
"Hochzeit und
Opferkorb,"
in
Jahrbuch,
XL, 1925,
pp.
210
ff.;
XLII,
1927,
pp.
176 f.
G.
Richter,
Red-Figured
Athenian
Vases,
p.
216,
note 5. K.
Schefold,
Untersuchungen,
pl.
50.
28
Demosthenes,
Meidias,
10:
Kalt
brt
A,lvatw
v
7rop,7r.
29
Walter F.
Otto,
Dionysos,
Mythos
und
Kultus,
1933,
pp.
149 ff.
30
Athens,
Nat.
Mus.
no.
1424.
K.
Schefold,
Untersuchungen
zu
den
Kertscher
Vasen,
p.
17,
no.
139,
pl.
11,
2.
Couve-Collignon,
Vases
peints
du
Musee
d'AtJhenes,
no.
1852,
fig.
5
from
Phot.
German
arch. Inst.
Athens no. 939.
36
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8/11
EROS
AND
DIONYSOS
ON KERCH VASES
fertility
of the
earth
is
being paralleled
with
the
human
fertility,
the
importance
of
having
and
leaving
children
for
immortality
on
earth.31
It seems to
me
a
significant
fact that
the
special
Lenaia
vases
disappear
after
the
end of the fifth
century.
I
believe that the Kerch vases have taken their
place
after
the connection of this women's feast with the wedding feast was attained. Probably
the
usage
of
enlightening
well-born Attic
girls
in
this
religious way
did not
become
the fashion
before the fourth
century.
The soft and
graceful spirit
is
a continuation
and
further
refinement of what has
already
taken
place
in
the fifth
century.
The
originally
wild
orgiastic freny
of
Bacchic
dances,
which continued
in
northern
Greece,
as
described
in
Euripides'
Bacchai,
appears
already
much
softened, sobered,
and
disci-
plined
on the
Lenaia vases.
On
the
Kerch vases
they
are
still more tamed and
refined.
I
believe that the
initiation took
place
in
Gamelion and
exactly
at
the
Lenaion
festival
named
from
the
Lenai,
the
Menads,
and
in the Lenaion
sanctuary,
the old
dancing place of the Lenai. Dionysiac mysteries are mentioned for the Lenaion in
334/3
B.C.32
The
old name of the
month, Lenaion,
was
replacedby
the name
Gamelion,
because the
wedding
ceremonies took
place during
this
month. The
initiation
belongs
to the
proteleia
and
proaulia,
just
as the first sacrifice is
brought
to Zeus Teleios and
Hera
Teleia.
All
preparatory
ceremonies
were
performed
in
the latter
part
of
Gamelion,
the
last
winter
days
with the
waning
moon,
while all
allusion to
blessings
of the consummated
marriage by Aphrodite,
Athena,
and last but
not
least,
by
the
priest king
and
his
wife
in
the
guise
of
Dionysos
and
Ariadne,
were
performed
in
the first
days
of
spring
and
during
the
growing
moon,
when,
it
was
believed,
all
that
had to grow and prosper belongs. The wedding presents, including the Kerch vases,
brought
at the occasion
of
the
Epaulia
on the
morning
after the new
moon could
allude to
both.
The
prevalence
of Eros
in
the
center
of
the
picture
has
not
only
the
artistic
purpose
of
giving
a
white,
flashy
and
showy spot
in
the middle of
the red
figures
and
he
not
only
"
parallels
and
underlines the
main
action
"
(Brendel)
but he
gives
to
the
Kerch vases a
deeper meaning
than has
been
accredited to them
up
to now.
It
must
be remembered that
Eros is the
son
of
Aphrodite,
and
that sons
are the
purpose
of
marriage.
In
them the
father lives on even
after
death. Thus
not
only
artistic but
also symbolic and psychological reasons have multiplied the figures of Eros on the
Kerch vases. The
soft, sentimental,
and
delicate
spirit
of the
period
is
reflected as
much on
these
vases as it
is in
the
great
art
of
Praxiteles and
Skopas,
who
created,
31
See
Olympiodorus,
Commentaria
n
Aristotelem,
Vol.
XII,
Pars
II
(ed.
G.
Stiive), p.
57,
lines
6-8,
on
Aristotle,
Meteorologica,
p.
343
b
4:
yauoXitos
e
tpv
EXiycro
rap'
AGtlvatos
8ta
T
Kar'
;KElvovTOV
KalpOV
TOVS
ya/Aovs
6TLTEXdcarat-
EVXoyov
yap
Wovro TOTErEpEoV
orE
KaIL
y
apoevrTatl-
TE7rt78O.
yap
6
xKatpo 7rpo Kap7rwv yeveLv.
32
I.G.,
II2,
1496,
lines
74
f.:
Ey]
Al'owcn,v
'v
[;Tri
A}]va%w
[7r]apa
/warrfp v- [eTr/]EAXTrV.
Fragment
a,
dated
334/3
B.C.
37
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9/11
beside
Eros,
the
personifications
of
Himeros,
Longing,
and
Pothos,
Passion
of
love.88
It is
quite
possible
that some of the
cupids
on the
Kerch
vases
represent
these brothers
of
Eros.
I
also
wonder
whether some
of
them
might
not
represent
Hymenaios,
the
marriage god.84
Hymenaios is sometimes called the son of Dionysos, and Dionysos himself is
called
Hymenaios
in
an
epigram;
35
and
it
is in
this character
as a
wedding
god
that
he is shown on
the vases in Plate
4, 1
and
5,
2.
Thus the
women
in
this
presence
or
in
the
midst
of
his followers
(Plate
4,
1-3)
are brides-to-be
preparing
for their
wed-
ding procession
(pompe)
which
took
place
between their
initiation
into
the
mysteries
of
Dionysos
and into the
mysteries
of Eros.
They belong
neither to
the
Lenaia
nor
to
the
Choes
festival,
but to the
whole
wedding proceedings
which extend between the
two.
MARGARETEIEBER
COLUMBIAUNIVERSITY
88
Eros,
Himeros,
and Pothos
by Skopas
in
Megara:
Pausanias, I, 43,
6. Himeros
and
Pothos
on
vase
in
Berlin,
no.
2633. Himeros also
on
epinetron
of
the
Eretria
master,
and
on the
hydria
of
the Meidias
painter,
E.
Pfuhl,
Malerei
und
Zeichnung,
III,
p.
220
and
240,
figs.
561
and
594.
84
Cf.
for
Hymenaios
B.
Sauer,
in
Roscher,
Lexikon
der
Mythologie,
1, 2,
pp.
2800 ff.
That
he
was
represented
in
Greek art of the fourth
century
is testified
by
the
description
of
the
painting
of
Alexander the Great
by
Aetion
(Lucian,
Her.,
5).
Being
the
son of
Dionysos
at least in
one
version,
he
may
well
be meant
in
some of
the vases which
show
a rather
grown-up
winged
boy
in
the
company
of this
god. Unfortunately
no
inscription
of
his
name
has
up
to
now been
found
on a
vase.
B5
Dionysos is called
Hymenaios-(vp,ev~jov)-in
the hymn Anthologia GraecaPal.,
IX,
no. 524,
line
21,
which
enumerates his
characteristics
in
alphabetical
order from
a,/poKo0',vv
o
wpeawXotrov.
38
M.
BIEBER
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10/11
PLATE
4
1
2
Kerch
Vases
in
the
Metropolitan
Museum,
New York
(Courtesy
of the Trustees of the
Metropolitan
Museum)
3A
3B
M.
BIEBER: EROS
AND
DIONYSOS
ON
KERCHVASES
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11/11
PLATE
5
Toy
Oinochoe
in
Metropolitan
Museum
lB
2.
Kerch
Hydria
in Athens