two new representations of helen and menelaos

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Two New Representations of Helen and Menelaos

Author(s): Kenneth HammaReviewed work(s):Source: The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, Vol. 11 (1983), pp. 123-128Published by: J. Paul Getty Trust

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123

T w o N e w Representationsf H e l e n a n d Menelaos

KennethHamma

Helen'sreturnto Menelaos at the fall of Ilion waspopu-

lar subjectmatterfor the pictorialartistsof antiquity and

survives in numerous vase paintings and reliefsof Greek

and Roman date.' Representationsof this episode on two

objects in the Getty Museum are here added to those

alreadyknown.

Helen was by all accounts a daughter of Zeus and the

most beautifulamong women. She quite naturallyattract-

ed the often forcefulattention of men, and her wooersand

paramours from Theseus to Deiphobos are related by

Hesiod, Homer, and the various authors of the poems of

the Epic Cycle. Very little, however, survivesin the frag-

mentaryepic poems concerningHelen's returnto her hus-

band afterthe greatestof her misadventures n Troy with

Paris and, for a short while after Paris' death, with

Deiphobos. FromProklos'analysisof the Iliupersis f Ark-

tinos, we gather only that Menelaos took Helen back to

the ships after killing Deiphobos.2 The event was also

relatedwith an apparently ulleraccount and a long reper-

cussion in the figurative arts in Lesches' Little Iliad.

Menelaos approached his long-absent wife with drawn

sword and murderousintent, enragedat the troublesshe

had brought down on him and the other Achaeans. Ac-

cordingto a scholiast on the Lysistrata155), Lescheshad

the same account as Aristophanes: "Menelaos at least,

when he caught a glimpsesomehowof the breastsof Helen

naked, cast away his sword, methinks."3Although this

shows Aristophanes' sensibilityfor presenting the impor-

tance of Helen's beauty in her conquering of Menelaos'

anger, it surely was not that of Lesches or any epic poet.

As Ghali-Kahilmakes clear, the epic poem must have in-

cluded at this point the intervention of Aphrodite rather

than Helen's own charms.4

Fragments roman early fifth-centuryred-figurekalpisin

the Getty Museumofferan earlyif hesitant representation

that indicatesAphrodite'sassistanceto Helen (fig. 1).5 The

surface preservation of the fragments is good, and al-

though most of the vase is missing, the figured scene is

nearly complete. Helen moves away to the left, turning

back with out-stretchedarm to beg her husband to spareher life. Her right hand probably originally touched the

veil on top of her head, a gestureof her despair.6She is ful-

ly clothed in chiton and himation. The beardedMenelaos

approachesfrom the right. He carrieshis shield with cen-

taurblazon on his left armand spearin his left hand. With

his right hand he has begun to draw the blade from its

scabbardas he glaresintently at his wife and victim. Com-

ing from the battle inside Ilion, Menelaos is dressedin full

armor: greaves with red leggings, a cuirass over a short

tunic, and a crestedhelmet, its hinged cheek-pieces urned

up. Betweenthe two figures s a small altar,an Ionicvolute

at its top and red swatches attached to the side.7 A fire

once burned on top of this altar(eschara);the flameswere

painted in added white which is now entirely worn away

leaving the glazedulled. The altar stands pars pro toto for

the sanctuaryin which Helen seeks refuge.8

The painterof the vase is the ProvidencePainter,active

in the first decades of the fifth century.9His name vase is

here illustrated n figure3. He liked smallearswith round

interiors,likeHelen's, and cork-screw piralsof hairfalling

over the shoulders. The blunt, pear-shapedankle bones

and crossedsquares n the maeanderpatternbelow the fig-

1. The basic work on the subject remains Lilly Ghali-Kahil, Les

Enlevementset le retourd'Helene,EcoleFran;aised'Athenes:Travauxet

Memoires, 10 (Paris, 1955). Also now J.-M. Moret, L'Ilioupersis ans la

ceramiquetaliote,BibliothecaHelveticaRomana, 14 (Geneva, 1975),pp.

31-41.

2. Proklos, Chrestomathia:evXkaoo 8e &vetp6v 'EXkviv liri Ti; vai3; KUaT6YZC1,

ATiopolov povwkSaq.

3. Trans:H.G. Evelyn-White,Hesiod, heHomericHymns ndHomerica

(HarvardUniversity Press, 1974), p. 519.

4. Ghali-Kahil, Helene, pp. 31-32, 36 ff. According to the scholiast

(Lys. 155-56), it was Ibycus who introduced the nude breast variant: i

ian-opia napdp16l3uK( E6ptxl8i1q&XX' o$klrnCI; PaoT6v kpakelav 4iVpoqPiXrjp'3.

5. The J. Paul Getty Museum 76.AE.44.2. Height: 17.7 cm.; Width:

31.3 cm. Presentedby the Crary Foundation in memoryof J.PaulGetty.

6. As often in red-figure,e.g., a cup in the manner of the Brygos

Painter,TarquiniaRC 5291: Ghali-Kahil,H1elne,no. 54, P1.56.2; ARV2

405,1 and p. 1651, "mightbe by the Foundry Painter."

7. Altars arenot frequentadjunctsto the scene in Attic red-figure,but

cf. TarquiniaRC 5291, supran. 6.

8. The altarin this sense is equivalentto the cult statueat which Helen

seeks refuge, popular in red-figurepainting and first introduced by the

BerlinPainter:Vienna 741:ARV2203,101; Ghali-Kahil,H&ene,pl. 57.1.

Also Moret, L'Ilioupersis,. 33.

9. Attribution: JiffFrel.

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124 Hamma

ured scene also show his hand. He was an excellentdraughtsman,drawingsoft sweepingfolds of draperywith

masterly control and exhibiting a fine sense for detail,

from Helen's delicate earring to the leather thong on the

cheek guardon Menelaos' helmet.

His instinct for composition, at least on this vase, was

not so self-assured.The heavy relief line the Providence

Painter used in outlining his figures permits us to detect

pentimenti. At the far left side of Helen approximatelyhalf

a centimeter of drapery has been obliterated. This is not

drasticnor an infrequent phenomenon. Much more inte-

resting is the figure which originally had a place in the

center of the composition between Helen and her hus-band, just to the left of the altar. Although paintedout en-

tirely, the figure'soutline is visible from the shoulders up

(fig. 2) and shows it to have been small-about half the size

of Menelaos-and facing toward Menelaos with its right

hand up as if to stop the angeredhusband from achieving

his immediate goal. This little fellow was surely Eros,

whom red-figurepainters added to the composition in the

fifth century, making visible Menelaos' impending change

of heartas told in the Little Iliad.The same effect of reveal-

ing the next moment in the story was achieved in a dif-

Figure1. Fragmentsof a kalpisby the ProvidencePainter with Helen and Menelaos. Malibu, The J. Paul Getty Museum 76.AE.44.2.

- ~~~~; : -~~~~~i

I_

Figure . Detail of figure1 in a raking light, showing pen-timenti of the figure of Eros between Menelaos

and Helen.







Two Representationsf Helen and Menelaos 125

ferent manner by the Berlin Painter, a painter with whom

the ProvidencePainter is closelyassociated:"He must have

been a pupil of the Berlin Painter."'0The Berlin Painter

seems to have been the first to introduce two innovations

into this scene of Helen and Menelaos: the cult statue at

which Helen seeks refuge and the sword which Menelaos

has pulled clearof the scabbardand let drop (fig.4)." This

latterelement in particularchangesthe time and importof

the scene: Menelaos is no longerthreatening,Helen is safe.

The ProvidencePainter'sEros effectively accomplishesthe

same. Against this emissaryof Aphrodite Menelaos' rage

will not prevail.

The Providence Painter's Eros is, to my knowledge, the

earliest in this context. Eros is common in later red-figure

painting and has previously been recognized intervening

between Helen and Menelaos in the second quarterof the

fifth centuryon a column kraterby the Painterof Bologna

235.12 In painting out his Eros and in omitting the other

innovations of the Berlin Painter,the ProvidencePainter is

being old-fashioned. His Menelaos is still threatening, like

that of the black-figurepainters. He has sacrificed he new

narrative emphasisfor a sparebut entirelysuccessfulcom-

position. The unclutteredoutlines, the simpleand forceful

gesturesof Menelaos and Helen, and the sacrificial altar

relate his narrativeclearly and easily.

Figure . Detail of a neck amphora, the name piece of the

ProvidencePainter. Providence, Museum of Art,Rhode Island School of Design, gift of Mrs.

Gustav Radeke, 15.005.

Figure a. Neck amphora by the Berlin

Painter, front. Vienna, Kunsthis

torischesMuseum 741.

Fiue4 Rvreo fgr a

10. ARV2623.

11. BerlinPainter amphora,supran. 8. On the compositional changes,

see Moret, L'Ilioupersis, p. 31-34.

12. Bologna 235: ARV2 517,6; Ghali-Kahil, Helene, pl. 56.1; Moret,

L'Ilioupersis,. 33.







126 Hamma

I know of no other representationsof this scene by the

Providence Painter. A lekythos in Boston (fig. 5), how-

ever, preserves another of his depictions of Helen and

Menelaos-their wedding.'3 It is the naturalantecedent tothe kalpis in Malibu. As the Getty representationshows usthe resolution of the Trojan war, the Boston lekythosshows us its beginning, the new bridegroomsupportedin

his marriageby the unluckysuitors who sworeto stand byhim for rich-hairedHelen's sake.'4

A fragmentarymarble relief n the Getty collection offersa second and a very differentdepiction of Menelaos' dis-

coveryof Helen (fig.6).1'No originaledgessurvive,but thereliefblock, to judge from the size of the figure,may havebeen originally 45 to 55 cm. in height. The carving is ex-

tremely low; outline and details have been incised with a

small drill, especially where planes within the reliefover-

lap. The carved faceof the stone wascleaned at some time

with acid, leaving the surfacelightly pitted and reducing

the clarity of the representation.Some details barely visi-ble on the stone are not reproducedin the photograph,

e.g., the folds of cloth on the figure'srightshouldersimilar

to those on the left.

Most of the relief is occupied by the figure of a warrior

preserved romthe hips to the head; his faceand right arm

arepartiallymissing. He wears a cuirassand a helmet with

a long crest to the right (the incised outline of it is con-

tinuous over the figure'sshoulder) and the cheek-piecesdown over his beard. His body is turned slightly to the

right, his head sharply to the left. With his left hand he

grasps the scabbardand with his right pushes the sword

back into it. Behind and to the right of the figure,betweenhis lower left arm and torso, is the upper edge of a large

curved object (A in the line drawing, fig. 7). Above and

behind this is another figure or object indicated by the

edges of two planes ascending to the right at about a 45

degreeangle, the nearer ncisedwith two curved lines (B in

the line drawing, fig. 7).

The relief was first identified as Amphiaraos departingfor the expedition against Thebes.'6 This interpretation

might have been suggested by the object to the right,

which could possibly be understood as the neck, mane,and bridle of a horse, but which is after all far too small

and too low in the relief. It mightalso have arisen fromthewarrior'spose, looking in the opposite direction of his

movement, as Amphiaraos looks back at his wife. And al-

though a friendlydepartureof Amphiaraos from Eriphyle

is not unattested, the gestureof returning the sword to the

scabbardwould be iconographicallyunique and seemstoo

strong a narrativeelement and thus out of place.'7It im-

plies not only anger subdued but a plan of murdergiven

up. The figure is almost certainly to be identified as

Menelaos.'8Pushing the sword back into the scabbardis

equivalentto, if somewhat more methodicalthan, the im-

pulsivedroppingof the sword common in Attic and South

Italianvase painting.'9The same gestureis perhaps foundon a scarcely legible provincial Roman relief in Budapest(fig. 8).2? To the far left on that relief Eros stands on an

Figure . Lekythos by the Providence Painter. Boston,Museum of Fine Arts, Catherine Page Perkins

Fund, 95.44.

13. Boston 95.44: ARV2640,76; L.D. Caskey and J.D. Beazley, AtticVasePaintingn theMuseumof FineArts,Boston OxfordUniversityPress,1931-36), no. G125, pl. 46.

14. Hesiod frg. 94; Evelyn-White,Hesiod,pp. 89 ff.15. The J. PaulGetty Museum 75.AA. 113.Presentedby Dr. Max Ger-

chik. Height: 17.6 cm.; Width: 19.4 cm.; blue-white marble, 5-6 cm.thick, back roughly picked. Ex-coll. Dr. Bruno Meissner.Ars Antiqua,Lagerkatalog (December 1967), no. 4, pl. 1;J.Frel, Antiquities n theJ.

Paul Getty Museum,a Checklist.Sculpture11:GreekPortraits nd Varia(Malibu, 1979), no. V76, p. 36. 1thank ZdravkoBarov for his observa-tions on the condition of the stone.

16. Ars Antiqua, Lagerkatalog,upran. 15.

17. A. Yalouri, "A Hero's Departure,"AJA 75 (1971), 269-75.18. Frel, supran. 15.

19. Supran. 11.







Two Representationsf Helenand Menelaos 127

Figure. Fragment f a Romanreliefwith Helenand Menelaos.Malibu,The J.PaulGettyMu-seum75.AA.113.

Figure . Drawing after the relief in figure 6. Drawingby Martha BreenBredemeyer.







128 Hamma

altar, and in the center a partiallynude Helen confronts

Menelaos, "qui remet (?)l'epee au fourreau."'l

Menelaos'gesture is typical, but a reconstruction of the

entire scene remains problematic. One would expect

Menelaos to be confronting Helen, but does this mean by

his glance or the turn of his body? I take it to be the latter.

To the right of Menelaos (area B in the line drawing)could

be the left armof Helen, the short parallelcurvesbeing the

sleeve of her chiton or an arm bracelet, the narrow strip

above that being the edge of her himation which has beenpulled up over her head and graspedlower down in her

hand. As such she could be an archaizing Helen, like

Menelaos himself, a figural ype reminiscent of Attic black-

figure.22 he round area below (A in the line drawing)may

be Menelaos' shield, which appears on the ground and

leaning against his thigh in other representations.23Why then is Menelaos looking away to the left? Al-

though it is impossibleto be certain, he may be looking at

the agent of his changed temperament, Eros or Aphrodite.

On a terracotta dish in Alexandria, one finds a similarly

distractedMenelaos, turned right but looking left. To the

right is Helen, nude and grasping he Palladion, and to the

left an Eros has stopped Menelaos' bare sword in mid-

swing before it completes the fatal blow.24To be sure, our

Menelaos is not interacting thus with an Eros, but nor

does he involve himself directly with Helen if this

reconstruction is correct. He is caught still, balanced as it

were between anger and forgiveness. The composition isquiet and academic,the iconographyeclectic. This and the

archaizing tyle point to a date for the relief n the first cen-

tury B.C. The fine workmanship and low relief are like

much archaizingwork of the late first century and can be

compared,for example, to the figureson the base of the

Zelada candelabrumin the Vatican Museum.25

The relief does not possess the presence and vitality of

the ProvidencePainter'sscene. Yet it conveys in Menelaos'

gesturethe same change of heart which had been the cen-

ter of the narrative since Lesches' Little Iliad. It is this foi-

ble of human nature, a volte-facewhen confronted with

beauty, that must have fascinated the ancients just as itcontinues to do.

University of Southern California

Los Angeles

Figure . Roman relief from Acquincum. Budapest,Mus6enational. Photo: Ghali-Kahil,pl. 88.1.

20. Budapest, Musee national; Ghali-Kahil,Helene,no. 199, pl. 88.1;

C. Robert,Die antikenSarkophag-ReliefsBerlin1890-1919), III,3, no 426,

p. 505 (here identified as Jason and Medea).21. Ghali-Kahil, Helene,p. 246.

22. For Helen compare, e.g., amphoraby the Painter of the Vatican

Mourner, Vatican A350: ABV 140,1 (top); Ghali-Kahil,Helene,no. 28,

pl. 43.1. The type appearsalso later seated and sometimesnude: Etruscan

kalyx krater,Villa Giulia 1197:Ghali-Kahil,Helene,no. 164, pl. 73.2-4;

and in a Pompeianpaintingof the persuasionof Helen from the Casa di

Amantus: Ghali-Kahil,Helene,no. 176, pl. 37.1. Archaisms in Menelaos,

particularly n the elongated right hand, the long crest and turned-down

cheek-piecesof the helmet like the one-piece helmets of Attic black-

figure; cf. Baltimore Walters Art Gallery 48.16: ABV 140,1 (bottom);

Ghali-Kahil,Helene,no. 29, pl. 43bis.1.

23. Cf. fourth-centurybronze cista, BritishMuseum, Walters no. 640:

Ghali-Kahil, Helene, no. 229, pl. 95.2. A late sixth-century amphora,

Florence 4148, shows Menelaos' shield merely set on the ground:Ghali-

Kahil, Helene,no. 91, pl. 79.1.

24. Alexandria 9578 (first century A.D.): Ghali-Kahil, Helene,no. 196,pl. 88.2. Or, similarly, on an Apulian krater where Helen's attendant or

Aphrodite intervenes behind Menelaos, attracting his gaze away from

Helen; Berlin 1968.11, near the Darius Painter: A.D. Trendall, "Three

Apulian Kraters n Berlin,"JBerlMus12 (1970), 153-190, figs. 6, 8. Here

Helen is shown with a bared breast, and Trendall notes (p. 167),

"Menelaus has already caught a glimpseof it for the sword lies fallenfrom

his hand.... Although he has now turned his head away to look in the

opposite direction fearing lest he be still further unmanned."

25. G. Lippold, Die Skulpturendes VatikanischenMuseums (Berlin,

1936), III, 2, no. 54, pl. 142, pp. 319-321 (with further comparanda).The

quiet composition compareswith the affected calm of neoattic reliefs of

the persuasionof Helen; see Ghali-Kahil,He'lne, nos. 170-175.

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two new representations of helen and menelaos

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