Tátrai Vilmos szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 92-93.(Budapest, 2000)

SZILÁGYI, JÁNOS GYÖRGY: "Les Adieux". A Column-krater of the Syracuse Painter

felt in renderings, otherwise related in many respects to the departure-theme, of arming and the receiving of armour - not a few times even on black-figure vases, which are much more restrained in their treatment of emotions, and still more on the red-figure pieces, even those of the Syracuse Painter himself. These warriors leaving home in full armour, by chariot or on foot, are setting out to die; their libation is a funerary offering. In this sense they are preparing to cross over, though the exalting power of a "beautiful death", from one form of existence to another, from life to survival as the beneficiaries of collective memory. This is the foremost message of the vase-paintings.

28 It is possible to take the reading of the panel of the Budapest krater a step beyond the general definition of its subject. The winged horse of the shield blazon does not give us much of a foothold: the same device appears on shields of warriors by many painters from many periods, and still more often in Athens, at just this period, on the shield of Pallas Athena: it may be a sign that she is somewhere nearby even in this picture.

29 The eye is a common ornamental motif on aprons, first of all on Athenian vases of the second quarter and middle of the fifth century,

30 at times attached to a shield emblazoned with the winged horse.

31 Still, there is one motif important to the interpretation of the whole that Beazley, able to study the vase only from photographs, understandably overlooked: the sceptres held by the two male figures framing the central scene. The word's original meaning (skeptron: "stick") had narrowed already in Homer to mark the attribute of gods, heroes, and men of privileged rank, possessors of power either real or expressed in certain cultural ideals (priest or priestess, herald, judge, or poet), and first and foremost of kings. This is reflected in their iconography: portrayed in Attic red-figure with ornamented staff and usually floral decoration at the upper end, they are quite definitely the attributes of gods or kings,

32 at this period obviously kings of the mythological tradition. The Budapest panel cannot, therefore, 28 Simon, E., Opfernde Götter, Berlin 1953, 71-72; Fink, J., ÖJh 50 (1972-1975) 167; Drougou, St., Der attische Psykter, Würzburg 1975, 99; La Geniere, J. de, in Tarquinia: ricerche, scavi e prospettive (a cura di M. Bonghi Jovino - C.Chiaramonte Treré), Milano 1986, 208; Spiess, op. cit. (n.20) 177-178. See also Lullies, R., CVA München 4, 18, ad pl. 173. - The funerary scene on side B of a Campanian columnkrater of the Owl-Pillar Group seems the continuation of the departure on side A (Trendall, LCS, 671, 60; AEphem 1974, pi. 56). 29 Chase, G.H., The Shield Devices of the Greeks in Art and Literature, Cambridge, Mass. 1902 (reprint 1979), 53; as device on Athena's shield on the Panathenaic amphorae between 500-480: Bentz, M., Panathenäische Preisamphoren, Basel 1998, 49, 205, 207, but at this period on other vases as well, e.g. a lekythos of the Nikon Painter, in Pegasus und die Künste (hrsg. C. Brink - W. Hornbostel), Hamburg 1993, 143, no. 35 and colour pi. 13. On an Etruscan vase belonging to the Praxias Group, see CVA Castle Ashby, pi. 55,1. 30 E.g. Harva, op. cit. (n.2.) 9 and fig. 21; a general summary in Steinhart, M., Das Motiv des Auges in der griechischen Bildkunst, Mainz 1995, 112-113 and notes 1001-1007. On the various possibilities for interpretation see Deonna, W., Le symbolisme de l'oeil, Bern 1953, 96-196. 31 E.g. Arete, Galerie für antike Kunst, Liste 20, Zürich 1985, no. 30. 32 The most exhaustive discussion to date, though giving relatively small consideration to the pictorial respresentations: Dorigny, S., DS IV, 1115-1117; see also Hug, A., RE HA (1923) 368-370; Schauenburg, K.,RM 82(1975) 211-216.