FAYETTEVILLE,
Ark. — A “communication explosion” in the early days of the Greek alphabet
brought both writing and figure scenes onto pottery in the eighth century
B.C.E. Whatever the purpose of an inscription, when writing appeared on ancient
Greek pottery, it became performance art.
Research by
Alexandra Pappas of the University of Arkansas and Robin Osborne of Cambridge
University revealed not only the great variety of writing on pottery from
ancient Athens, Corinth and Boeotia but also its performative nature. They are
co-authors of “Writing on Archaic Greek
Pottery,” a chapter in Inscribing Images,
Illustrating Texts: Art and Inscriptions in the Ancient World, edited by
Zahra Newby and Ruth Leader-Newby and published by Cambridge University Press
in 2007.
At times, writing
provided an alternative form of geometric decoration to the lines and zigzags
used on early Greek pottery. When figures were painted on a pot, inscriptions
often played a complementary role in communicating a story.
For example, a
Corinthian aryballos — a small, narrow-necked vase used as an oil bottle by
athletes — shows horses with two figures, named “horse walker” and “horse
turner.” The shape of the names on the pot “reflects and reinforces their
meaning.” The name “horse walker” runs vertically behind the figure and leads
to the ground, “planted there like the feet of the figure.” In contrast, the
name “horse turner” curves down from the head to waist of the rider, suggesting
the forward motion of the horse.
“What is
important about all the names is that they do not bring the viewer additional
information from 'outside’ the picture, but draw attention to features of the
picture itself,” Pappas and Osborne wrote.
Simply putting
the words on a pot was more engaging than inscribing a stone tablet.
“Writing does
things on a pot, it engages with the viewer as the viewer uses the pot,” the
scholars wrote. “The appearance of the writing was always important, and the
effect of the writing on the user of the pot calculated.”
As an example,
the scholars cited an aryballos from the temple of Apollo at Corinth with a
painted scene combining the names of the figures and a poetic dedication. The
main figure is a pipe-player, Polyterpos, who plays for a line of leaping
dancers. A stream of letters pouring out of his pipe snakes along the vase, separating
the dancers from each other. The letters frame the lead dancer, Pyrwias, and
the verse proclaims he is the winner of the vase for his skill in dancing. As
an athlete, he probably would have also carried the aryballos to the gymnasium
where he would tip it to pour oil into his palms, thereby advertising his
victory to those around him.
“The writing does more than produce a
relationship between word and image which is intellectually satisfying,” Pappas
and Osborne wrote. “This is a vessel to be used in the very context of
gymnastic performance that it illustrates, a vessel whose use involves exactly
the turning up and turning back that is performed and encouraged by the text.
The cleverness of the text, and with it the prowess of Pyrwias himself, is put
on display in particular when the aryballos is put into use.”
Pappas and
Osborne note that their collaboration came about “by happy accident.” While
Osborne was researching the book chapter, he discovered that Pappas was working
on the same material as part of her doctoral thesis, and the final chapter
incorporates the work of both scholars. Pappas is an assistant professor of
classics in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the
University of Arkansas.