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The Chigi vase is a Proto-Corinthian '' olpe'', or pitcher, that is the
name vase In classical archaeology, a name vase is a specific "vase"In the study of ancient Greek pottery a "vase" is a general term covering all pottery shapes. whose painter's name is unknown but whose workshop style has been identified. The painter is co ...
of the Chigi Painter. It was found in an Etruscan tomb at Monte Aguzzo, near
Veio Veii (also Veius; it, Veio) was an important ancient Etruscan city situated on the southern limits of Etruria and north-northwest of Rome, Italy. It now lies in Isola Farnese, in the comune of Rome. Many other sites associated with and in th ...
, on Prince Mario Chigi’s estate in 1881. The vase has been variously assigned to the middle and late Proto-Corinthian periods and given a date of ca. 650–640 BC; it is now in the National Etruscan Museum, Villa Giulia, Rome (inv. No.22679). The vase stands 26 cm (10.2 inches) tall, which is modest compared to other Greek vases. Some three-quarters of the vase is preserved. It was found amidst a large number of potsherds of mixed provenance, including one
bucchero Bucchero () is a class of ceramics produced in central Italy by the region's pre-Roman Etruscan population. This Italian word is derived from the Latin ''poculum'', a drinking-vessel, perhaps through the Spanish ''búcaro'', or the Portuguese ' ...
vessel inscribed with five lines in two early
Etruscan alphabet The Etruscan alphabet was the alphabet used by the Etruscans, an ancient civilization of central and northern Italy, to write their language, from about 700 BC to sometime around 100 AD. The Etruscan alphabet derives from the Euboean alphab ...
s announcing the ownership of Atianai, perhaps also the original owner of the Chigi vase.


Mythological scenes

The Chigi vase itself is a
polychrome Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors. Ancient Egypt Colossal statu ...
work decorated in four friezes of mythological and genre scenes and four bands of ornamentation; amongst these tableaux is the earliest representation of the
hoplite Hoplites ( ) ( grc, ὁπλίτης : hoplítēs) were citizen-soldiers of Ancient Greek city-states who were primarily armed with spears and shields. Hoplite soldiers used the phalanx formation to be effective in war with fewer soldiers. The ...
phalanx formation The phalanx ( grc, φάλαγξ; plural phalanxes or phalanges, , ) was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar pole weapons. The term is particularly u ...
– the sole pictorial evidence of its use in the mid- to late-7th century, and terminus post quem of the "hoplite reform" that altered military tactics. The lowest frieze is a hunting scene in which three naked short-haired hunters and a pack of dogs endeavour to catch hares and one vixen; a kneeling hunter carries a ''lagobolon'' (a throwing cudgel used in coursing hares) as he signals to his fellows to stay behind a bush. It is not clear from the surviving fragments if a trap is being used, as was common in depictions of such expeditions. The next frieze immediate above suggests a collocation of four or five unrelated events. First a parade of long-haired horsemen, each of whom is leading a riderless horse. Possibly these are squires or ''hippobates'' for some absent cavalrymen or ''hippobateis''; the latter, it has been conjectured, may be the hoplites seen elsewhere on the vase. The riders are confronted with a two-bodied
sphinx A sphinx ( , grc, σφίγξ , Boeotian: , plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon. In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the head of a woman, the haunches of ...
with a floral crown and an
archaic smile The archaic smile was used by sculptors in Archaic Greece, especially in the second quarter of the 6th century BCE, possibly to suggest that their subject was alive and infused with a sense of well-being. One of the most famous examples of the ar ...
. It is not clear if the creature is participating in any of the action in this frieze. Behind the sphinx is a lion-hunting scene in which four youths wearing cuirasses (save for one who is nude, but belted) spear a lion which has a fifth figure in its jaws. Whether there were indigenous lions in the Peloponnese at this time is a matter for speculation. moreover the shock-haired mane of the lion betrays a
neo-Assyrian The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history and the final and greatest phase of Assyria as an independent state. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew t ...
influence, perhaps the first such in Corinthian art and replacing the previously dominant Hittite forms. Finally in this section, and just below the handle, is a
Judgement of Paris Judgement (or US spelling judgment) is also known as ''adjudication'', which means the evaluation of evidence to make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. The term has at least five distinct uses. Aristotle ...
scene. Above is another hunting scene, albeit of animals only: dogs chasing stags, goats and hares. In the highest and largest frieze is the scene that has attracted the most scholarly attention – a battle involving hoplite warfare. However this characterization is not without its problems. For one thing, the hoplites shown here meeting at the moment of ''othismos'' (or "push") do not carry short swords, but instead like their Homeric forebears have two spears; one for thrusting and one for throwing. Further,
Tyrtaeus Tyrtaeus (; grc-gre, Τυρταῖος ''Tyrtaios''; fl. mid-7th century BC) was a Greek elegiac poet from Sparta. He wrote at a time of two crises affecting the city: a civic unrest threatening the authority of kings and elders, later recalled i ...
(11.11-14
West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
) does not mention a supporting second rank as it may be represented; it is far from self-evident this is a second rank depicted on the vase or that it supports the first. To render the phalanx tactics unambiguously the painter would have had to have given a bird's-eye view of the action, a perspective unknown in Greek vase painting. Consequently it is not clear if the hoplite formation shown here is the developed form as it was practiced from the 6th century onwards. Lastly
aulos An ''aulos'' ( grc, αὐλός, plural , ''auloi'') or ''tibia'' (Latin) was an ancient Greek wind instrument, depicted often in art and also attested by archaeology. Though ''aulos'' is often translated as "flute" or " double flute", it was u ...
-players and cadenced marching are not attested in literature from the Archaic Period, so the aulos-player drawn here cannot have served in reality to keep the troops in step: what function he had, if any, is open to speculation. However,
Thucydides Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His '' History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of " scienti ...
does state that a Spartan phalanx in the Battle of Mantinea was accompanied by aulos-players in order to keep step as they approached the opposing army, which may suggest that they were used in the same way at the time when the vase was made.


Judgement of Paris

The
Judgement of Paris Judgement (or US spelling judgment) is also known as ''adjudication'', which means the evaluation of evidence to make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. The term has at least five distinct uses. Aristotle ...
on the Chigi vase is the earliest extant depiction of the myth, evidence perhaps of knowledge of the lost epic ''
Cypria The ''Cypria'' (; grc-gre, Κύπρια ''Kúpria''; Latin: ''Cypria'') is a lost epic poem of ancient Greek literature, which has been attributed to Stasinus and was quite well known in classical antiquity and fixed in a received text, but which ...
'' from the 650s BC. The figure of Paris is labelled ''Alexandros'' in the Homeric manner, though the writer might not be the same as the painter since the inscriptions are not typically Corinthian. This scene, obscured under the handle and “painted somehow as an afterthought” according to John Boardman. invites the question whether the events on this vase (and vases generally) are random juxtapositions of images or present a narrative or overarching theme. In line with recent scholarship of the Paris structuralist school Jeffrey Hurwit suggests that reading upwards along the vertical axis we can discern the development of the ideal Corinthian man from boyhood through ''
agon Agon ( Greek ) is a Greek term for a conflict, struggle or contest. This could be a contest in athletics, in chariot or horse racing, or in music or literature at a public festival in ancient Greece. Agon is the word-forming element in 'agony', ...
es'' and ''
paideia ''Paideia'' (also spelled ''paedeia'') ( /paɪˈdeɪə/; Greek: παιδεία, ''paideía'') referred to the rearing and education of the ideal member of the ancient Greek polis or state. These educational ideals later spread to the Greco-Roman ...
'' to full warrior-citizen, with the sphinx marking the liminal stages in his maturation.Hurwit, 2002, p. 18.


References

{{reflist, 2


Sources

*D. A. Amyx, ''Corinthian Vase Painting of the Archaic Period'', 1988. *Jeffrey M. Hurwit, "Reading the Chigi Vase", ''Hesperia'', Vol. 71, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 2002), pp. 1–22. *John Salmon, "Political Hoplites?", ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'', Vol. 97, (1977), pp. 84–101.


External links


Hoplite scene on the Chigi vase
7th-century BC works 1881 archaeological discoveries Individual ancient Greek vases Archaeological discoveries in Italy Collections of the Villa Giulia