As Witnessed by Images: The Trojan War Tradition in Greek and Etruscan Art
What informed and inspired the visual artists who depicted the Trojan War on vases, on walls, and in sculpture? Scholars have debated this question for years. Were Greek painters simply depicting the stories of Achilles and Odysseus as recounted in Homer’s epics? Or did they work independently, following their own traditions without regard to the Iliad, the Odyssey, and other poetry of their time?

Steven Lowenstam offers here an alternative theoretical framework, arguing that Greek artists and poets interacted with each other freely, always aware of what the others were producing. As Trojan War myth was the common inheritance of all Greek storytellers, verbal and visual depictions of heroic myth were not created in isolation but were interdependent responses to a centuries-old tradition.

As Witnessed by Images investigates visual depictions of Achillean and Odyssean myth from ca. 650-300 BCE and traces the many messages that the stories of Achilles and Odysseus inspired. Lowenstam identifies a variety of images and interpretations—some regarded Achilles as a hero, others believed him to be a cruel bully—that reflect and directly respond to the ancient heroic tradition from which the Iliad and Odyssey evolved.

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As Witnessed by Images: The Trojan War Tradition in Greek and Etruscan Art
What informed and inspired the visual artists who depicted the Trojan War on vases, on walls, and in sculpture? Scholars have debated this question for years. Were Greek painters simply depicting the stories of Achilles and Odysseus as recounted in Homer’s epics? Or did they work independently, following their own traditions without regard to the Iliad, the Odyssey, and other poetry of their time?

Steven Lowenstam offers here an alternative theoretical framework, arguing that Greek artists and poets interacted with each other freely, always aware of what the others were producing. As Trojan War myth was the common inheritance of all Greek storytellers, verbal and visual depictions of heroic myth were not created in isolation but were interdependent responses to a centuries-old tradition.

As Witnessed by Images investigates visual depictions of Achillean and Odyssean myth from ca. 650-300 BCE and traces the many messages that the stories of Achilles and Odysseus inspired. Lowenstam identifies a variety of images and interpretations—some regarded Achilles as a hero, others believed him to be a cruel bully—that reflect and directly respond to the ancient heroic tradition from which the Iliad and Odyssey evolved.

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As Witnessed by Images: The Trojan War Tradition in Greek and Etruscan Art

As Witnessed by Images: The Trojan War Tradition in Greek and Etruscan Art

As Witnessed by Images: The Trojan War Tradition in Greek and Etruscan Art

As Witnessed by Images: The Trojan War Tradition in Greek and Etruscan Art

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Overview

What informed and inspired the visual artists who depicted the Trojan War on vases, on walls, and in sculpture? Scholars have debated this question for years. Were Greek painters simply depicting the stories of Achilles and Odysseus as recounted in Homer’s epics? Or did they work independently, following their own traditions without regard to the Iliad, the Odyssey, and other poetry of their time?

Steven Lowenstam offers here an alternative theoretical framework, arguing that Greek artists and poets interacted with each other freely, always aware of what the others were producing. As Trojan War myth was the common inheritance of all Greek storytellers, verbal and visual depictions of heroic myth were not created in isolation but were interdependent responses to a centuries-old tradition.

As Witnessed by Images investigates visual depictions of Achillean and Odyssean myth from ca. 650-300 BCE and traces the many messages that the stories of Achilles and Odysseus inspired. Lowenstam identifies a variety of images and interpretations—some regarded Achilles as a hero, others believed him to be a cruel bully—that reflect and directly respond to the ancient heroic tradition from which the Iliad and Odyssey evolved.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780801887758
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date: 07/31/2008
Pages: 248
Product dimensions: 7.10(w) x 10.10(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Steven Lowenstam (1945-2003) was a professor of classics at the University of Oregon. Educated at the University of Chicago and Harvard, he contributed significant scholarship to the field of Homeric studies. He is the author of The Scepter and the Spear: Studies on Forms of Repetition in the Homeric Poems, The Death of Patroklos: A Study in Typology, and numerous journal articles.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Foreword, by T. H. carpenter
Introduction
Paradigms and the Role of Poetry
Chronology
Purposes and Methodology
1. Greece
The François Vase
Corinthian Perspectives
Troilos and Achilleus
Exekias
Sirens
Ransom of Hektor
Fifth-century Portraits of Achilleus and Odysseus
Kabiric Vases
Conclusions
2. Megale Hellas
Trojan Topics
The Funeral of Patroklos
Thetis' Touch and an Embassy to Achilleus
The Dolon Painter
Thersites
Lykaon
Conclusions
3. Etruria
The Monteleone di Spoleto Chariot
The First Pania Pyxis
The Ambush of Troilos
Fifth-century Mirrors
Achilleus' Immolation of Trojan Youths
The Torre San Severo Sarcophagus
Aftermath and Conclusions
Conclusions
Notes
Bibliography
Index

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