Aspects of Death in Early Greek Poetry and Art by Emily VermeuleReview by: Joseph W. DayThe American Journal of Philology, Vol. 102, No. 1 (Spring, 1981), pp. 110-113Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/294161 .

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sor Willets is not writing an archaeological but a cultural history, the strong sections covering myth, cult, matriarchy, and the roles of tribe, clan and household repay close attention. It is a pity that the maps of Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece are marred by legends con- taining misinformation and unhelpful news: "Kamares, Pottery style before and after 2000, named after cave"; "Sesklo, Flourished from c. 3000"; "Dimini, Climax 2300-2100"; 'Lerna, Settlement 23 cen- tury, destroyed c. 2100"; "Phaistos, First palaces 2200- 1700"; or the misplacement of Vasilike. These might be redone.

The sections on classical Crete, enfolding it in a larger Mediterra- nean history, tackle the difficult problems with energy: the Dorian presence in Crete, the early relations with Syria and Cyprus, the forms of language, the adaptations of cult, the internal organization of society. Professor Willets is strong on law and slavery, as one would expect, and has added his translation of the Gortyn law code as a valuable appendix. The discussions of the marriage restrictions for heiresses and the conflicts of patriarchal and matriarchal values are extremely interesting. The British Museum poinikastas text is stressed, the red-letter and judge positions fully explored. Religion and cults with their epigraphic testimony form the climax of the book, with a few final words bringing Cretan history up to date, from the role of Hellenistic mercenaries to the German invasion of 1941. There is a substantial bibliography, and interesting notes, although the abbreviations are sometimes confusing and some page references not filled in. The misprints are not important, generally involving n for u (skenomorphic) and the appearance of the book is clean and hand- some. Professor Willetts has presented with considerable subtlety and special knowledge the continuity and complex changes in six- thousand years of Cretan culture.

EMILY VERMEULE HARVARD UNIVERSITY

EMILY VERMEULE. Aspects of Death in Early Greek Poetry and Art.

Berkeley, University of California Press, 1979. Pp. xvi + 270. $22.50 (Sather Classical Lectures, 46)

Despite the importance of this book's topic for students of Greek artists, poets, and burial customs, there exists little up-to-date, exten- sive, and synthetic work on it. Throughout Aspects, V. keeps Rohde's Psyche in sight, but she avoids its dated methods of religious history. Likewise, V. draws upon such recent works as Kurtz and Boardman's Greek Burial Customs and Burkert's Homo Necans, but she has at- tempted a wider, less specialized study. This is not to say that V. has written a comprehensive or monumental treatment; as she says, the book "is a derivative and arbitrary selection of aspects of Greek death in terms of artistic documents and familiar passages." (x) Two qual- ities of Aspects, however, make it a valuable contribution: V. surveys

sor Willets is not writing an archaeological but a cultural history, the strong sections covering myth, cult, matriarchy, and the roles of tribe, clan and household repay close attention. It is a pity that the maps of Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece are marred by legends con- taining misinformation and unhelpful news: "Kamares, Pottery style before and after 2000, named after cave"; "Sesklo, Flourished from c. 3000"; "Dimini, Climax 2300-2100"; 'Lerna, Settlement 23 cen- tury, destroyed c. 2100"; "Phaistos, First palaces 2200- 1700"; or the misplacement of Vasilike. These might be redone.

The sections on classical Crete, enfolding it in a larger Mediterra- nean history, tackle the difficult problems with energy: the Dorian presence in Crete, the early relations with Syria and Cyprus, the forms of language, the adaptations of cult, the internal organization of society. Professor Willets is strong on law and slavery, as one would expect, and has added his translation of the Gortyn law code as a valuable appendix. The discussions of the marriage restrictions for heiresses and the conflicts of patriarchal and matriarchal values are extremely interesting. The British Museum poinikastas text is stressed, the red-letter and judge positions fully explored. Religion and cults with their epigraphic testimony form the climax of the book, with a few final words bringing Cretan history up to date, from the role of Hellenistic mercenaries to the German invasion of 1941. There is a substantial bibliography, and interesting notes, although the abbreviations are sometimes confusing and some page references not filled in. The misprints are not important, generally involving n for u (skenomorphic) and the appearance of the book is clean and hand- some. Professor Willetts has presented with considerable subtlety and special knowledge the continuity and complex changes in six- thousand years of Cretan culture.

EMILY VERMEULE HARVARD UNIVERSITY

EMILY VERMEULE. Aspects of Death in Early Greek Poetry and Art.

Berkeley, University of California Press, 1979. Pp. xvi + 270. $22.50 (Sather Classical Lectures, 46)

Despite the importance of this book's topic for students of Greek artists, poets, and burial customs, there exists little up-to-date, exten- sive, and synthetic work on it. Throughout Aspects, V. keeps Rohde's Psyche in sight, but she avoids its dated methods of religious history. Likewise, V. draws upon such recent works as Kurtz and Boardman's Greek Burial Customs and Burkert's Homo Necans, but she has at- tempted a wider, less specialized study. This is not to say that V. has written a comprehensive or monumental treatment; as she says, the book "is a derivative and arbitrary selection of aspects of Greek death in terms of artistic documents and familiar passages." (x) Two qual- ities of Aspects, however, make it a valuable contribution: V. surveys

110 110

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REVIEWS

a wealth of detail taken from epic and lyric poetry, early philosophy, art, and funerary practices, and she employs a basically sound com- parative method to interpret individual pieces and to derive general conclusions unhindered by preconceptions. Both in its character as a survey and in the use of visual evidence (figures in the text, not plates), Aspects represents something of a departure from the norm for the Sather series.

Throughout the book, V. has restated, often with fresh insight and good interdisciplinary support, many of the basic generalizations about early Greek (defined as ca. 750-450 B.C.) art and poetry deal- ing with death. They include: the perceived activity and power of the dead in "controlling Greek life, not only as important objects of an- cestor or hero cult, but also through their role in myth and poetry and art" (7); the inconsistency, ambiguity, and pessimism of the Greeks in trying to alleviate the pain of death by means of poetry, art, and funerary practices and in conceiving of the body and soul after death; the great quantity, high artistic quality, and thematic continuity, throughout the periods considered, of works dealing with death; the importance of wit and intelligence for Greek thinking about death- "for some poets, wit was the only reliable pharmakon for death" (26); in short, the basic humanism of the Greeks in this matter. In chapter 1, V. introduces these ideas and other points, some of which she pursues later in more detail; her analysis of the Homeric and later usage of thanatos (death) is particularly instructive and complete. In the second chapter, V. surveys some of the evidence for Bronze Age practices, artistic motifs, and beliefs. Special attention is given to two aspects: first, the universality of Bronze Age customs, most notably- exemplified by Greek imitations of Egyptian motifs like the ba-bird, and, second, the continuation of Bronze Age funerary art and prac- tices, in spite of the change to cremation, into later times. There is much of value in this chapter; but the non-expert reader should be aware that the archaeological evidence is by no means complete and has been variously interpreted. For example, no book has yet done for Mycenaean Greek funerary practices what Pini's Minoische Grdber- kunde has for Minoan Crete.

Chapter 3 contains a discussion of the "elaborate ballet" of dying in combat in the battle books of the Iliad, which helped to "shape the tradition of subsequent literatures, that death is not the enemy of achievement or creativity but its cause." (94) The treatment is good, particularly in comparing human and animal combat motifs; yet this reviewer at least would like to have seen integrated into it the evi- dence for athletics as an activity parallel to war in its ability to confer immortal glory. Not only would this have been relevant to a book that deals with immortality as well as mortality, but some tantalizing con- nections exist between death and athletics.1 Chapter 4 examines the

1 Besides, of course, the practice of funeral games, one can point to exam- ples like the deaths of losers (e.g., Oenomaus); parallels between hunting and athletics (e.g., Pindar, Pyth. 9; Nem. 6.14); the funerary epigram to an

Ill

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REVIEWS

"vulnerable" immortality of the gods, who cannot obtain the heroic glory of death and therefore behave worse than men, and the mythical adventures of certain humans and other creatures (e.g., Medusa, Geryon) who go up and down the ladder connecting mortal life with immortality and death. In the fifth chapter, perhaps the best, V. be- gins with the "other" partheneion of Alcman and looks at the the- matic connections that artists and poets articulated amongst Love, Sleep, and Death; mythical figures that illustrate these connections include Eos, the Harpies, and the Sphinx. In chapter 6, the paradoxi- cal magic of sea and song is discussed; like Sirens, both have to do with immortality but both are dangerous.

Some scholars might fault Aspects for handling topics of special interest to themselves with brevity or superficiality. This reviewer, for example, would like to have seen a fuller treatment of the origin and form of private and public funeral monuments and funerary epi- grams. One must not, however, expect too much of Aspects. It is a good survey, and in its text, figures, full notes, and critically selected bibliography the specialist will find much relevant information from other fields, and the generalist and student will receive valuable in- sights and find out where to pursue topics further. Some might be offended by the tone of Aspects, its witty remarks and irreverent quotations and photographs; others, more generous, might say that this material must have contributed to the rhetorical success of the lectures but should have been edited out for publication. This re- viewer, however, respects V. for fitting her rhetoric to that of the Greeks, whose wit and irreverence often marked their attitudes to- wards death. One general criticism should be made: V. occasionally draws conclusions from "connections" perceived to exist amongst disparate sources.2 In chapter 2, for example, one finds both the kind of hard-headed argumentation one expects of V. (in regard to grave gifts, 56ff.) and the suggestion of a parallel between the vulture shrines of Catal Huyuk and Greek keres; the parallel may well be legitimate, but we want more proof. Finally, one can only lament the length of the delay between the lectures (1975) and the date of publication; only a few references from 1976 appear and virtually no subsequent ones.

A typographical point: one wishes that the references in the notes had been checked more carefully. References to Homer in chapter 1 seem especially careless, and there follows a list of corrections: p. 211, n. 6, for II.775 read 755; p. 212f., n. 12, for XXIV.348 read xxiv; for XII.361 read XXII.362; for XIII.100 read XXIII: p. 213, n. 13, except possibly for xi.476, I fail to see the relevance of the passages cited to support the statement about intelligence and color; p. 214, n. 23, for i.306 read 136; p. 217, n. 45, for XI.109,323, xi. 109 simply

athlete-warrior erected near a race course (Friedlander and Hoffleit, Epi- grammata, no. 136).

2 On the dangers of such practice, cf. A. M. Snodgrass, "Poet and Painter in Eighth Century Greece," PCPhS N.S. 25 (1979) 118ff.

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read, I assume, xi. 109, xii.323; for XVII.373 read 371f.; p. 220, n. 66, for XVIII.478 read XVII; for II.354 read 359; for XIV.207 read xiv; delete xiii. 157 and add xii. 157 to the next item; for VIII. 170 read 70; n. 67, for III.699 read II; for XXIV.587 read, I assume, XVIII.583; n. 68, delete XXII.202; for XVII.714 read, perhaps, xxii. 14.

JOSEPH W. DAY THE COLLEGE OF WOOSTER

ELMAR SCHWERTHEIM (ed.). Die Inschriften von Kyzikos und Umgebung. Teil I: Grabtexte. Bonn, Rudolf Habelt Verlag, 1980. Pp. xv + 283. Plates 44. Folding Map. DM94.00. (Inschriften griechischer Stadte aus Kleinasien, Band 18)

The Kommission fur die archaologische Forschung Kleinasiens at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Institut fur Alter- tumskunde at the University of Cologne have been bringing out vol- umes with striking rapidity and skill. This handsome fascicle, richly illustrated, presents 588 (minus one) texts of metrical inscriptions and other epitaphs. The commentary is economical but useful and the accuracy high. The reviewer found two false breathings in no. 497, line 8, but only five false accents (one each in nos. 38, 301, 509, 532 and 544). In no. 38 'Aov?]laviaj does not look right; the photograph seems to show the name after 6r6,Cvr,ua as IH6oIaq [P]ovoiviag, i.e. "of Polla Fulvia."

The index is one of names only and not divided into nomina and personal names. The missing index of professions and formulas may perhaps appear in a later fascicle. The formulas brnoxo- eTaal rTo [zrf rovpflopv]Xia; E(y)K)rfiarl in no. 557, dnoreiael] oyadpiv 6 Ti K,7pov[6d/loi 6OKSEl in no. 554, and Kai a6 yE, cb napoceTra, Xdpy; on TOVTo 0T KOIVOV (as#vov) elna; (dv]zrebag) E4Ioi "xaipelv" ei'veKev EVcaEfli with variations in nos. 73, 90, 278, 348, 541, 548 are worth mentioning here.

Nos. 126 and 380 are registered in both Latin and Greek, Nos. 144, 357, 424 and 482 in Latin only. No. 395, which is in Latin or Latin alphabet, ends idio patri mnemes charin. Most of the inscriptions are from the Roman period, but no. 286 has been dated in the sixth cen- tury B.C.

The book should be in every library for classics.

read, I assume, xi. 109, xii.323; for XVII.373 read 371f.; p. 220, n. 66, for XVIII.478 read XVII; for II.354 read 359; for XIV.207 read xiv; delete xiii. 157 and add xii. 157 to the next item; for VIII. 170 read 70; n. 67, for III.699 read II; for XXIV.587 read, I assume, XVIII.583; n. 68, delete XXII.202; for XVII.714 read, perhaps, xxii. 14.

JOSEPH W. DAY THE COLLEGE OF WOOSTER

ELMAR SCHWERTHEIM (ed.). Die Inschriften von Kyzikos und Umgebung. Teil I: Grabtexte. Bonn, Rudolf Habelt Verlag, 1980. Pp. xv + 283. Plates 44. Folding Map. DM94.00. (Inschriften griechischer Stadte aus Kleinasien, Band 18)

The Kommission fur die archaologische Forschung Kleinasiens at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Institut fur Alter- tumskunde at the University of Cologne have been bringing out vol- umes with striking rapidity and skill. This handsome fascicle, richly illustrated, presents 588 (minus one) texts of metrical inscriptions and other epitaphs. The commentary is economical but useful and the accuracy high. The reviewer found two false breathings in no. 497, line 8, but only five false accents (one each in nos. 38, 301, 509, 532 and 544). In no. 38 'Aov?]laviaj does not look right; the photograph seems to show the name after 6r6,Cvr,ua as IH6oIaq [P]ovoiviag, i.e. "of Polla Fulvia."

The index is one of names only and not divided into nomina and personal names. The missing index of professions and formulas may perhaps appear in a later fascicle. The formulas brnoxo- eTaal rTo [zrf rovpflopv]Xia; E(y)K)rfiarl in no. 557, dnoreiael] oyadpiv 6 Ti K,7pov[6d/loi 6OKSEl in no. 554, and Kai a6 yE, cb napoceTra, Xdpy; on TOVTo 0T KOIVOV (as#vov) elna; (dv]zrebag) E4Ioi "xaipelv" ei'veKev EVcaEfli with variations in nos. 73, 90, 278, 348, 541, 548 are worth mentioning here.

Nos. 126 and 380 are registered in both Latin and Greek, Nos. 144, 357, 424 and 482 in Latin only. No. 395, which is in Latin or Latin alphabet, ends idio patri mnemes charin. Most of the inscriptions are from the Roman period, but no. 286 has been dated in the sixth cen- tury B.C.

The book should be in every library for classics.

JAMES H. OLIVER JAMES H. OLIVER BALTIMORE, MARYLAND BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

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