Cacus on a Black-Figured Vase

• Published in: The Journal of Hellenic Studies
• Main Author: Gardner, Percy
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1893
• Subjects: Literature and Literary Theory; Linguistics and Language; Archeology; Visual Arts and Performing Arts; Language and Linguistics; Classics; Terranova
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/623891; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0075426900027828

The Ashmolean Museum has recently acquired an interesting small amphora (height m. ·29) which Mr. Arthur Evans was fortunate enough to discover when excavating in the cemetery of Terranova (Gela) in Sicily. It is of somewhat late date, perhaps about B.C. 500, but certainly much earlier than the destruction of Gela by the Carthaginians in B.C. 405. Mr. Evans has kindly handed over the publication to me. There is a feature worthy of mention in the technique of the vase. No red is used, but white appears, especially on the side on which Herakles is represented, being used for the basis on which the foot of Herakles rests, and part of his lyre: also there are white spots on the wreath of the Satyr of the other side. A coloured plate of this vase will be published in my forthcoming Catalogue of Vases in the Ashmolean Museum (Pl. I. A ). Meantime I here print a rough engraving of the designs of it; since it seems to deserve a more lengthy discussion than is allowed by the plan of the Catalogue. I consider that on the two sides of the amphora we have representations of two scenes in the adventure of Herakles and Cacus, not however treated in the serious vein of mythological representation, but in the lighter vein of comedy. This adventure of Herakles is so familiar to scholars from its treatment by Livy and Virgil, Ovid and Propertius, that it is needful only to briefly sketch it.