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Centauromachy and Amazonomachy in Greek Art: The Reasons for Their Popularity

Author(s): Frank B. Tarbell


Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1920), pp. 226-231
Published by: Archaeological Institute of America
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/497687
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CENTAUROMACHY AND AMAZONOMACHY IN GREEK


ART: THE REASONS FOR THEIR POPULARITY

UNLIKE the Romans, the Greeks, in most branches of their


art, made little use of recent historical material. This is pre-
eminently true of their monumental sculpture. During the
great central period of Greek art, the Fifth and Fourth Centuries,
B.c., there is no known Greek building whose sculpture represents
a recent historical event, excepting the Temple of Athena Nike
("Wingless Victory") at Athens.2 The usual themes are myth-
ological, and of these certain ones enjoyed especial popularity.
A few great mythical contests, viz., that of the Gods against the
Giants, those of Greeks against Centaurs, against Amazons, and
against Trojans, supply subject matter to an impressively large
number of decorative Greek sculptures. Of these themes the
centauromachies and amazonomachies were the most often
repeated. Thus, among the works of the Fifth Century,
with Centaurs were to be seen at Athens, in painting, wi
Theseum and, in sculpture, on twenty-three metopes of t
thenon, on the sandals of the cult-image in that temple
western frieze of the "Theseum" (falsely so called), and
shield of the colossal bronze statue popularly known as th
Promachus; at Sunium on the frieze of the Temple of Po
at Olympia in the western pediment of the Temple of Z
Phigalia (Bassae) on the frieze of the Temple of Apollo. The
Fifth Century list for battles with Amazons is almost as long.
These were to be seen at Athens, in painting, within the Theseum
and the Painted Stoa, and, in sculpture, perhaps on the western
1 In mural painting, however, historical battle-scenes were not uncommon at
any period. The reason for this divergence from monumental sculpture is
obscure.

SThe Frieze of the Parthenon, although inspired by actual contemporary


events, is not strictly historical. It presents a generalized and idealized pic-
ture of recurring celebrations.
Lycian sculptures, such as those on the "Nereid Monument" at Xanthus,
are excluded from the statement made above.

American Journal of Archaeology, Second Series. Journal of the 226


Archaeological Institute of America, Vol. XXIV (1920), No. 3. u

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CENTAUROMACHY AND AMAZONOMACHY 227

metopes of the Parthenon and certainly on the shield


image in that temple; at Phigalia (Bassae) on the f
Temple of Apollo; at Olympia on the throne and a
foot-stool of the cult-image in the Temple of Zeus. S
facts, so far as known, for public buildings and st
humbler level the same subjects figure frequently on
temporary painted vases of Attica.
What is the explanation of such iteration? A curren
to this question regards these mythical battles as symbols
more real and more important, achievements. Th
view takes somewhat different forms. Some authorities see in
the contests against Centaurs and Amazons covert references to
the glorious struggle of Greece against Persia. An eloquent
presentation of this interpretation is given by Professor G. Bald-
win Brown.1 The passage is too long to quote, but the gist of it
is conveyed in the sentence, "The victory over Persia inspired
indirectly all the monuments of the culminating period of Greek
sculpture."2 Other writers, believing in a symbolic interpreta-
tion, read the symbols in a more general way. It is enough to
quote Professor Percy Gardner,3 in whose view the metopes of the
Parthenon present "the story of the development of order out of
chaos, and civilization out of barbarism."4
I do not believe in any one of these symbolic interpretations.
It is, of course, impossible to prove that no such ideas were enter-
tained by any Greek. But I think it can be made probable that
neither the artists who designed the works in question nor the
general public understood them in that way. To speak affirm-
atively, I maintain that the Athenians and other Greeks of the
Fifth Century, as well as earlier and later, took the mythical
contests now under consideration simply at their face value.
The overthrow of the invading Amazons by the Athenians was an
important event in the legendary history of Attica. The sub-
ject, then, might and probably did stir patriotic emotions among
the Athenians. Outside of Attica it had little, if any, patriotic
significance. As for the battle of Lapiths against Centaurs, the
SThe Fine Arts (4th ed.), pp. 82-86.
2See also Colvin, J. H. S. I, p. 109; E. Gardner, Handbook of Greek Sculpture
(1915), p. 495; Roscher, Lexikon der griech. u. rdm. Mythologie, vol. II, 1038,
1039.
3Principles of Greek Art, p. 315.
4Similar views are expressed by Overbeck, Geschichte der griech. Plastik,
I, 425; Curtius, History of Greece (Am. ed.) II, 623.

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228 F. B. TARBELL

Attic hero, Theseus, did indeed t


was not for the Athenians a nati
was not included, as the amazono
series of great Athenian achievem
that these two stories stood on a
with other mythical stories, such
of the Calydonian boar-hunt. T
selves and they were on a hero
reference to events other than th
Several considerations lead to this conclusion. In the first
place, it must be borne in mind that the tales of Centaurs and
Amazons originated at an early period. Just what set them going
it is fortunately needless for present purposes to inquire. Long
before the Persian Wars these stories furnished material for
artistic representation. Thus the battle of Lapiths and Cen-
taurs appears on the Hesiodic Shield of Heracles, associated with
other mythical and with genre subjects. Among the numerous
scenes on the Throne of Apollo at Amyclae and the Chest of
Cypselus the combat of Heracles with Centaurs found a place.
Among extant monuments the Frangois vase, dating from about
560 B.c., has on one side a somewhat extended Lapith-Centaur
battle, while on the architrave of the temple at Assos Heracles
pursues a group of Centaurs. It is needless to cite additional
examples. Contests of Greeks with Amazons also begin to
appear on the black-figure vases of the Sixth Century. There
is nothing to suggest that in this period Centaur-stories and Ama-
zon-stories had any more meaning than the numerous other tales
of the artists' repertory. It is, of course, conceivable that after
the great experiences of the Persian Wars these stories took on a
new significance; but some positive proof of this ought to be
produced before we can accept it.
Now-and this is the second point-there is no ancient author-
ity for the symbolic interpretations under discussion. Con-
sidering the extreme meagerness of our ancient sources of infor-
mation regarding Greek art and especially regarding the popular
appreciation of art, this objection is not fatal. But it should at
least give us pause. The only passage, I believe, in extant ancient
literature which attempts to give a reason for the employment
of centauromachy or amazonomachy in art is Pausanias V, x, 8.
1Isocrates, IV, 68; VI, 42; VII, 75; XII, 193; Ps.-Lysias, II, 4-6; Pau-
sanias, V, xi, 7.

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CENTAUROMACHY AND AMAZONOMACHY 229

There the writer, after describing the centauromachy in th


ern pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, adds thi
ment: "Alcamenes, it seems to me, represented this sc
cause he had learned from Homer that Pirithous was a son o
and because he knew that Theseus was a great grandson of
Pelops." (Frazer's translation.) This explanation shows at
least that in Pausanias' time the centauromachy was not under-
stood as a symbol for the Persian Wars or for the victory of
civilization over barbarism. If such an understanding was cur-
rent in the Fifth Century B.c., it must have died out.
In the third place, if we are seeking to divine the ideas under-
lying Greek monumental art during its great period, we are
bound, not to single out a few subjects, however popular, but to
survey the entire field. What do we find? The range of mythi-
cal material employed is considerable. Thus, among the sub-
jects with which Polygnotus and the other painters of the gen-
eration following the Persian Wars adorned the walls of public
buildings in Athens and elsewhere, we find the visit of Odysseus
to Hades, the slaughter of the suitors of Penelope, the seizure of
the Leucippides by Castor and Pollux, the return of the Argo-
nauts, the expedition of the Seven against Thebes. The Temple
of Athena at Tegea, an important building of the early Fourth
Century, had in its eastern pediment a group representing the
Calydonian boar-hunt. Is it likely that these compositions
suggested hidden patriotic meanings? And, if not, is it not
arbitrary to assume that other compositions, drawn from the
same great storehouse of mythology, were invested with sym-
bolic significance?
In the fourth place, we find centauromachies and amazono-
machies used in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries under circum-
stances where their supposed symbolic meaning would be inap-
propriate. I refer to the Heroan at Trysa in Lycia and the
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. The former of these must have
been the funeral monument of some Lycian chieftain. Even if
he claimed to be a Greek, as Benndorf supposed, he was a Persian
subject. So was the Carian satrap to whom the Mausoleum
was erected. We have to strain probability a good deal in order
to believe that subjects currently understood in Greece as typi-
fying the successful resistance of Greece to Persia were used to
adorn these edifices. Even the vaguer significance of the triumph
of Greek civilization over barbarism would seem out of place.

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230 F. B. TARBELL

Finally, there is an argum


considerable value. Whereas in a gigantomachy the gods are,
of course, unmistakably victorious over their enemies, in a
centauromachy or an amazonomachy there is, as a rule, but slight
indication, if any, of victory. Pausanias (I, xvii, 2) describes as
follows a painting by Micon: "In the sanctuary of Theseus
there is also painted the battle of the Centaurs and Lapiths:
Theseus has already slain a Centaur, but the others are fighting
on equal terms." (Frazer's translation.) Of the twenty-three
metopes of the Parthenon with Centaurs and Lapiths six give a
decided advantage to the Lapiths; six show apparently unde-
cided struggles; eleven, including the four in which the Centaurs
carry off women, give the advantage to' the Centaurs. Take
again the centauromachy on the west frieze of the so-called
"Theseum." There, to be sure, the Lapiths outnumber the
Centaurs by two, but-otherwise there is nothing to indicate
which side is to gain the day. This apparent indifference to the
outcome of the contest goes so far that on red-figure vases we
sometimes find, represented alone, the incident of the Lapith
Caeneus being rammed into the ground by two Centaurs.' Now
it is true that a'Greek, looking upon any of these scenes, could
have felt no doubt of the general issue; that was fixed in legend.
But if the artists had really intended to suggest by allusion a
Greek triumph, is it likely that they would have balanced the
antagonists so equally and even have detached from the story
an incident of Lapith defeat?2
What then is the explanation of the popularity in Greek art of
centauromachy and amazonomachy? In my opinion there is no
need to hunt for any far-fetched explanation. These subjects
commended themselves to the painters and sculptors of the Fifth
Century and later, partly because they were drawn from famous
and honorable exploits, but chiefly because they afforded an
inexhaustible variety of artistic themes. Add the self-perpetu-
ating power of a fashion once established and you probably have
the whole story.
1 E. g. Mon. Ant. IX, P1.2, a vase-painting by Polygnotus, dating about 460
B.C.

2 Contrast the painting of the Battle of Marathon in the Painted Stoa


although at one side the struggle was undecided, the rout of the Pers
made clear (Pausanias I, xv, 1). In those parts of the frieze of the Te
"Wingless Victory" which represent a battle or battles between Gree
Persians the superiority of the Greeks is marked.

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CENTAUROMACHY AND AMAZONOMACHY 231

This will seem to some a lame and impotent conclusio


would indeed be agreeable to believe, with Professor B
Brown (The Fine Arts, p. 83), that "the primary conceptio
Greekas opposed to barbarian . . . -Hellas against the
Hellenic-formed the fundamental theme of Greek monumental
art." But this is a modern illusion. It must dissolve if the
evidence be critically examined.
F. B. TARBELL.

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