Essays in Classical Archaeology

for

Eleni Hatzivassiliou

1977-2007

edited by

Donna Kurtz

with

Caspar Meyer, David Saunders, Athena Tsingarida and Nicole Harris

The Beazley Archive and Archaeopress

July 2008

Studies in Classical Archaeology

Volume IV

Essays in Classical Archaeology

for

Eleni Hatzivassiliou

1977-2007

© Beazley Archive and authors 2008

ISBN 978-1-903767-05-4

Published by

The Beazley Archive Stelios Ioannou School for Classical and Byzantine Studies, Oxford OX1 3LU, England

www.beazley.ox.ac.uk

in association with

Archaeopress

Publishers of British Archaeological Reports

Gordon House, 276 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7ED, England

www.archaeopress.com

This volume also forms British Archaeological Reports, International Series, No. 1796

73

8

A chorus of women ololyzousai on an early Attic skyphos

Nassi Malagardis

A fragmentary skyphos found in the sanctuary of

Hera at Perachora and now in Athens merits our

attention (fig. 1).1 I am prompted to dedicate its first

publication here, bare and meagre though it is, to the

memory of Eleni as a modest offering according to

our common Greek tradition.

Clay reddish-brown; paint for the most part fired brown. Dancing

women. Flesh added white, mostly flaked off; hair and forehead

locks painted over very light incisions. Long short-sleeved chitons

or belted peploi with apoptygma. Two have red spots in the upper

part, now effaced; two have patterned hems; the others are plain.

In the field, between two dancers, rosette of particular type with

five incised leaves around an incised circle. Inscriptions between

some pairs of dancers; there are five such inscriptions, all using

the same letters: YOYO…gradually disappearing. Nonsense? Rays

at base, below a zone of vertical lightly oblique wavy lines, enclosed by two horizontal lines. Inside, black with a red band half

way up.

The bowl is partially recomposed from three sets of

mended sherds. The most important set (fig. 2),

consisting of eighteen joined fragments, preserves

the greatest part of the figured subject: four almost

complete female figures and a small part of a fifth

figure; the lower part of the rim area, slightly

concave at the top, separated from the main figured

zone by two thick lines, with what are probably blob

rosettes; and a small part of the zone of vertical wavy

lines and of the rays decorating the lower part of the

My thanks are due to the Director of the National Archaeological

Museum of Athens for permission to publish the vase. In

particular, I thank warmly the Keepers of the Vase Collection, my

friend Dr Betty Stasinopoulou, Dr George Kavvadias and all the

staff of the vase department, who in spite of their enormous

workload at this moment, kindly found time to help me in this

task. I also thank the staff of the photographic department for

supplying photos. My friend Alexandra Doumas very kindly read

the manuscript, made valuable suggestions and helped me with the

English version. 1 Athens, Νational Museum 3637 (Perachora II, 337-338, no.

3637, pl. 139 and 395, no. 16, pl. 163).

bowl. The second set (fig. 3), composed of six joined

fragments, preserves the lower part of three women

and part of the band including vertical-oblique wavy

lines. The third set (fig. 4) consists of three joining

fragments and preserves most of one woman and the

foot of one other figure behind her.

Two other fragments (figs. 5-6),2 each of two joining

sherds, could not be incorporated into the restored

vase. They preserve different parts of female figures,

including an arm with a hand holding a long narrow

ribbon (tainia). The skyphos foot should be lower.

Ten women were probably depicted, five on each

side, of which eight are for the most part preserved.

Their eyes are almond-shaped and their eyebrows are

rendered with finely incised curved lines. Their hair

is gathered on the nape of the neck. They advance to

the right, in single file with an almost identical

vigorous step. Their arms are open wide, bent at the

elbows, with the right lower arm downward and the

left upward. They turn their heads towards one other,

forming pairs of dancers and imparting a rhythmical

movement to the image of dancing.

This is one of the earliest large skyphoi of Corinthian

type, the oldest of the four principal types of Attic

black-figure skyphoi.3 The distinguishing features of

the Corinthian type – borrowed from the Corinthian

kotyle – are a deep bowl with thin, straight walls

flaring upwards; two horizontal round handles placed

2 Fr. a: max. height, 4.8 cm, max. width, 5.5cm; Fr. b: max. height,

6 cm, max width, 3.6 cm. Estimated dimensions of the skyphos:

height, 22 cm, diameter, 29 cm. 3 For the types of Attic skyphoi, see Malagardis, N., Skyphoi

attiques à figures noires. Typologies et recherches (forthcoming).

Malagardis

74

near the rim lightly concave at the top; and a fine

flared foot.4

Almost all the Attic skyphoi of the first half of the

sixth century BC belong to this type. The road was

prepared by the Athenian potters active in the late

eighth and the late seventh centuries BC who

produced this type of skyphos almost exclusively,

albeit with some old-fashioned exceptions.5 The

beautiful Protoattic skyphoi from the Agora and

especially from the Kerameikos are the proof of the

importance of this shape, indebted doubtless to the

influence – and to the success – of the

Protocorinthian kotylai, but also to the Protoattic

style.

The Attic skyphoi of Corinthian type are mostly

small, fine and fragile, with some magnificent

exceptions in Protoattic, the Komast skyphoi and

others of the first decades of the sixth century.

In Athens, during the last decades of the seventh

century BC, the vase-painter possesses not only a

settled technique but also a settled style.6 Indeed,

after the highlight of the Geometric style represented

by the Dipylon Master – the only possible author of

the Greek narrative art – the luxuriant exuberance of

the Protoattic style reveals a completely new artistic

perception belonging to a new world. Shape and

decoration become integrated harmoniously in a rich

symphony of vibrating rhythm and graceful forms.

The ability of the artists is as high as their ambition. It results in early Attic black-figure, which may be

thought of as beginning with the establishment of the

full black-figure technique in Attika, with the Nessos

Painter and those who are near him or follow him.7

In the next generation, the Gorgon Painter is the

Nessos Painter's direct successor. Yet all succeeding

Athenian vase-painters are heirs of the Nessos

Painter, which makes them heirs too of the Analatos

Painter and, before him, of the Dipylon Master. We

have no skyphoi by these great masters, probably

because their powerful style needed size. The

skyphos-krater (or more precisely, the skyphoid

krater, for this shape is closer to a krater than to a

skyphos) better suits the spirit of the time.

4 On skyphoi of this type, cf. Agora XII, 81-83; Agora XXIII, 58-

59. 5 Such as the skyphoi Athens, Agora P 7014 and P 12587, which

continue the shape of the Attic Geometric skyphos, cf. Agora VIII,

147, nos. 132-133, pl. 8. Cf. also Athens, Agora P 4663, “Tharios”

skyphos. 6 Dev², 12. 7 Beazley, “Early Attic Black-Figure”, 38, although some, among

them J.M. Cook, put the Gorgon Painter as the beginning of the

black-figure technique.

During the following period, in which we place our

skyphos from Perachora, we discern three trends in

the painting of Attic skyphoi, even though we cannot

always clearly define their stylistic and chronological

borders.

The first trend, Attic in spirit, in spite of the

apparently Corinthian influences on the Gorgon

Painter and the painters in his manner, shows more

attachment to the essential values of the Attic style as

they appeared during the late Geometric period. This

trend is represented by vases of excellent quality and

elegance, such as the skyphoi of the KX and KY

painters and of the Komast Group.

The second trend – or another facet of the first – is

best represented by Sophilos, the first Solonian

painter, with his skyphos Athens NM 19044.8 He

was not a fine draftsman but his style draws on the

great styles of the period of the birth of Attic black-

figure. Like the KX Painter, he was a follower of the

Gorgon Painter. Within this movement, certain Attic

vases, especially those concentrated in the first

decades of the sixth century BC, present

characteristics often considered provincial or rural

because of their careless drawing. However, Vourva,

Vari, Marathon represent rural Attica and all these

localities are closely connected with Sophilos.9 So I

am inclined to think that all these "rural" or "non-

Attic" painters are simply representative of another

drawing style and are addressed to clients of different

taste. In contrast to the great virtuosos of the

preceding period, they could resist the established

order without releasing themselves from its

influence. This is the reason why this style, known as

the Vourva style, is so difficult to identify as soon as

we move away from the known painters.

The third trend during the first quarter of the sixth

century is represented by vases of a style that is

entirely under Corinthian influence. They are

covered with a horror vacui of Corinthian motifs,

among which the human figure or the usual animals

crowd to find a place. It reached its zenith in the

second quarter of the sixth century BC. Represented

especially by the Polos Painter and his companions,

it was preceded at the beginning of the century, and

even earlier,10 by other painters. The road was

8 Para 19.32bis. 9 The evidence that there was a very close connection between the

vases that cluster around the two neck-amphorae from Vourva and

Marathon and Sophilos was already pointed out by Beazley,

“Early Attic Black-Figure”, 38-39. 10 For the early history of this Corinthianising trend, see Dunbabin,

T.J., “An Attic Bowl”, BSA XLV (1950), 193-202. On the

"Corinthio-Attic" vases, cf. Smith, H.R.W., The Hearst Hydria: an

Attic Footnote to Corinthian History (University of California

Chorus of women ololyzousai

75

marked out by skyphoi, such as Athens, Kerameikos

inv. 66,11 or by the oldest vases of the Ragusa

Group.12

The very fragmentary skyphos from Perachora

belongs within the second trend and its ‘rural’

expression. It has peculiarities both stylistic and

iconographic. Quality, colour of the clay, matt paint

and ornamental elements betray links with the

Vourva style, but the dancing women in the main

zone are of another stamp.

Among the motifs, we observe the rosette that

reappears on other Attic vases from the early part of

the sixth century BC, such as the fragment of a dinos

in London,13 or one of the earliest Attic nuptial lebes

in Athens,14 the technical treatment and style of

which are close to the Perachora skyphos. On side A,

a man drives a quadriga to right in front of another

man, richly dressed in chiton and himation, who

leans on a sceptre and behind whom is a small

female figure. On B (fig.7), four women walk to the

right, enveloped in chiton and himation, their heads

veiled; a vertical row of rosettes frames both sides of

the picture. On the shoulder is a horizontal row of

identical rosettes. Could this be the arrival of the

groom at the home of the bride who stands behind

her father, her legal guardian, a mythical king (?),

coming to ask for the engye, the promise made by the

bride's father?15 The solemnity of the women's

attitude could suggest the nymphai, the iokolpoi

brides of Sappho,16 a choral procession of women,

covered with violet over-fold, and indicates a similar

spirit to the skyphos beyond the likeness of style and

date.

Exactly the same rosettes occur on the skyphos-

krater Eleusis 846, attributed to the Painter of Eleusis

Publications in Classical Archaeology 1, no.10) (Berkeley, 1944),

252-253. 11Kerameikos VI², pl. 77, 489-490, no 91, "Vorstufe" of the Polos

painter dated in 600-590 BC. It preserves above the foot the well-

painted rays of the Protoattic skyphoi, while the walls of the bowl

– now stout – are filled with rosettes amidst which antithetic

sphinxes and water birds try to find a place. 12 Boardman, J., “The Ragusa Group”, in Capecchi, G., et al.

(eds.), Memoria di Enrico Paribeni (Rome, 1998), 59-65. See also

Di Vita, A., BdA 44, (1959), 293-310. 13 British Museum B. Inv. G 128.16. CVA Oxford 2 (1931), pl. 1,

no. 19, “depraved style”. Other examples are listed by Beazley

(ibid.,) on page 92. 14 National Museum Inv. 915/CC 654 (Collignon, M., and Couve,

L., Catalogue des Vases peints du musée National d'Athènes

(Paris, 1902-1904), 13, no. 654, pl. XXVII (recto)). 15 Hdt. 6.130 gives the first evidence of the Engye, the only official

sanction existing for a marriage, cf. Oakley, J.H., and Sinos, R.,

The wedding in ancient Athens (Madison, 1993). 16 Sappho 30. 5 Voigt.

767,17 "an artless painter", and on a kantharos in the

Louvre.18 The latter vase has been taken as Boeotian

but Beazley grouped it with other Attic vases.19 The

style and the quality in general are very different

from those of the other Boeotian kantharoi.

Furthermore, the vase resembles the Attic KX

Painter,20 suggesting that it is the work of an

Athenian painter perhaps active in Boeotia. But since

the style remains basically Attic, we may well ask

whether these vases are indeed Boeotian.

Could we recognize the ancestors of these rosettes in

the blatt-rosettes, leaf-rosettes inserted in a circle on

and near the handles of the Athens Nessos

amphora?21 The small part of the rim area preserved

on the Perachora skyphos suggests that blob rosettes

might have been painted in the rim band, but the poor

condition precludes confirmation. Analogous rosettes

appear on a rim fragment of a high domed lid,

Athens, Agora P 25268.22

The red spots on the upper part of the dress of two

women on the skyphos from Perachora appear in the

same place on the peplos of the leader of a dance of

six women at an altar on the Little Master cup of the

Burgon Group in the British Museum.23 But on our

skyphos the spots do not seem to distinguish the

wearer from the other dancing women. We observe,

moreover, that they appear on other garments in a

ceremonial context, as on the volute-krater from

Spina.24

In addition, the vertical wavy lines or stepped

zigzags in the zone below the main figural

representation are another old decorative element.25

The motif of ‘senkrechte Schlagenlinien’ or

‘Wellenlinien’, frequent on lekanai of the Androsiren

Painter,26 or simply a hasty version of the motif of

stepped zigzags, is widespread on the Attic pottery of

17 ABV 21.2, Beazley, “Early Attic Black-Figure”, Hesp XIII,

(1944), 38. 18 Inv CA 1339. The number CA 1399 given by Beazley in CVA

Oxford 2 (1931), 92, is wrong. Considered as Boeotian in CVA

Louvre 17 (1975), pl. 22, no. 1-2. 19 CVA Oxford 2, 1931, 92 and ABV 29-30. 20 ABV 22-23. 21 Athens, National Museum inv 1002 (ABV 4.1). 22 Agora XXIII, 153, no. 408, pl. 40. 23 Inv. 1906,12-15.1 (Ashmole, B., "Kalligeneia and hieros

Arotos", JHS LII, (1946-47), 8-10, pl. 3d; ABV 90.7; Add² 6;

Brijder, Siana Cups I, 263, no. 290, pl. 58 a-b). 24 Aurigemma, S., Museo di Spina (Ferrara, 1936), 180, pl. XCVI. 25 As for example on the neck of a one-handled ‘becher’, Athens,

Kerameikos inv. 350, dated in the eighth century BC (Kerameikos

V 1, pl. 112). 26 E.g. Athens, National Museum 16374 (Lioutas, A., “Attische

schwarzfigurige Lekanai und Lekanides”, Beiträge zur

Archäologie 18, (1987), pl. 3.2). Cf. also Athens, National

Museum. Acr 591b (Graef-Langlotz, Akropolisvasen, pl. 23.591).

Malagardis

76

the seventh century BC,27 and is placed in the same

region on the body of the vases.28 All these features,

the deft and wide stroke of the paintbrush, as well as

the brownish paint, suggest a date in the first decades

of the sixth century BC.

Is a dance represented here? The women in line on

the Perachora skyphos move in the same direction

with a brisk, sprightly step that could be confused

with a lively run, as seen for nymphs or Nereids

fleeing from Peleus, e.g. on the C Painter's Siana cup

in Taranto.29 But the movement of their heads, with

one woman facing another, breaks with the direction

in which they move their feet, and differentiates them

from figures running in flight.

Furthermore, in spite of the liveliness of their pose,

there is nothing that allows us to designate these

women as maenads. There are no movements

expressing Dionysiac frenzy or mania or the attitudes

of female komasts. On black-figure vases, the first

female dancers are these of the Palazzolo, the

‘Prague Komast’ and the KY Painters.30 They wear a

short tunic and always dance as a couple with

komasts, men or satyrs, sharing their movements. It

is possible that we have here a feminine version of

the motif of two komasts multiplied, a device

sometimes used by the vase-painters. And if the

women's dance step has nothing to do with the

eklaktizein of komasts, this could be due to their long

skirts. Indeed, the female dancers dressed in mid-calf

length chitons on the Palazzolo Painter’s cup in

Harvard,31 and those of the ‘Prague Komast’ Painter

on his cup in Prague,32 make much more restrained

steps than those of the woman depicted nude or in

the characteristic attire of komasts. This explanation

would seem to be confirmed by a komast cup of

special shape in Munich,33 decorated on each side

with a female komast in a long chiton dancing with

moderate steps between two nude komasts. However,

the likeness between the female figures on the cup

27 Kerameikos VI², 105, 340. 28 As on the skyphoid krater from the Kerameikos, attributed to the

Painter of Berlin A34 (Athens, Kerameikos Museum 801, ABV

1.2). 29 Taranto, I.G. 4442 and also Munich, 8954 (Brijder, Siana Cups

I, 240, no. 52, pl.16a-b and 237, no. 13, pl. 9c-d). 30 E.g. on a cup from Thasos, 85.670 (Brijder, Siana Cups II, 473,

no. 1, pl. 157a-c and Brijder, 1997, 9, fig. 16-17). 31 Cambridge Mass., Harvard University, Fogg coll. inv no.

1925.30.133 (ABV 35.2; Brijder, Siana Cups I, pl. 5d). 32 Prague, Charles University 80-14 (ABV 35.3, Brijder, Siana

Cups I, no. K 89, pl. 6b). 33 Munich, Antikensammlungen inv. 426 (ABV 36, Kunst der

Schale, 289, fig. 2a-b). The shape of this cup could be an

experimental one between the skyphos and the komast cup, under

the influence of Protocorinthian forms, as suggested by the

enlarged foot.

and on the skyphos can only support the idea of

dancing and an indication of an early date.

The women on the skyphos execute vigorous but

standardised movements, and clearly convey a well-

regulated performance which is obviously a dance.

However, if their pose is that of orcheisthai and their

steps are dance figures, it is notable that they do not

hold hands, as is the case for women's circular

dances (helissein) on Geometric and Protoattic vases

or, later, on the shoulder of lekythoi by the Amasis

Painter, unless it is supposed that the notion of

helissousai is suggested by the pairs.34

The numerous small sherds of the skyphos leave no

place for other persons whose presence could shed

further light on the identity of the women and the

context of their performance. The ritual aspect could

be suggested by bands that the female figures hold in

one hand,35 as visible on one of the fragments.

The ten female figures move in a rhythmical and

regular step, while gesturing in the ancient tradition,

cheiras aneschon,36 recognised on Geometric vases.

All these features, this well-ordered collective

activity, are typical of a chorus of maidens.37 They are anonymous. Anonymity in vase-painting is a very

common and deliberately employed device that

points to the human sphere. They appear in pairs, not

only to achieve a decorative effect. Just as a single

figure evokes the individual, so a pair evokes

community and consequently the enacting of a well-

regulated performance, a ritual situation.

Claude Calame lists and categorises the various

contexts of choral performances in archaic Greece.38

Through analysis of the literary sources, texts and

commentaries on the subject, he has gained precious

information about the composition and some of the

activities of the lyric chorus, in particular the

choruses of young women,39 addressing such

questions as who were their protagonists, in what

kind of religious rituals did they participate and what

was their social function.

34 For Geometric and Protoattic examples, see Tölle-Kastenbein,

R., Frühgriechische Reigentänze (1964). Amasis Painter lekythoi:

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 31.11.10 (ABV 154.57,

Para 64, Add2 45, BAPD 310485) and 51.11.1 (Para 66, Add2 45,

BAPD 350478). 35 Cf. Krug, A., Binden in der griechischen Kunst (Mainz, 1967). 36 Il. 6.301. Neumann, G., Gesten und Gebärden in der

Griechischen Kunst (Berlin, 1965). 37 On the surviving representations of choruses on vases or in

terracottas, cf. Crowhurst, R., Representations of Performance of

Choral Lyric on the Greek Monuments, 800-350, PhD Thesis

(University of London, 1963). Also Webster, T.B.L., The Greek

Chorus (London, 1970). 38 Calame, Les chœurs. 39 Ibid., 50, "Morphologie du chœur lyrique".

Chorus of women ololyzousai

77

Although they often appear to fulfil different

purposes, choral performances all tend to inscribe

and reinforce societal norms. They were a standard

part of the worship of gods in the Greek polis

throughout the archaic period. In archaic Greek

culture such choruses consisted of homogenous age

groups, as in the case of the young women on the

skyphos. In literary sources, chorus-members number

between three and sixty, with ten to twelve being

particularly well-represented.

Ten dancers,40 as on the skyphos, are attested in

female choruses of the late eighth to the mid-fifth

century BC.41 The dance was always connected to a

particular occasion or with a cult dedicated to a

divinity or reflects a rite of passage in connection

with a divinity. It is thus necessary to place the

chorus in its ritual context.

I am tempted to think that the clue to interpreting the

paintings on the Perachora skyphos lies in the

nonsense inscriptions painted between some pairs of

dancers, in addition to the find-spot of the vase. Are

these inscriptions really nonsensical or are they

rather onomatopoeias giving rhythm to the dance?

The repetition of the same syllable suggests the

latter. This interpretation may also illuminate other

scenes in which onomatopoeias appear, such as those

incised next to and around the singing sirens on the

phiale from Eleusis.42

Phonetically these onomatopoeias look strangely like

a song or rather an ululation, an ololyge or ololygmos

(from the verb ololyzo), which was uttered by young

women during certain choral performances, and the

transcription of which could be YOYO or

YOUYOU.

The ululations uttered in the act of ololyzein are

either cries of invocation, which punctuate the

performance of a ritual song, or the resumption of a

tune.43 The ololyge is a specifically feminine

action,44 which accompanies a propitiatory offering

to a divinity or a sacrifice.45 It is the female

complement to the paean.46 The term used for this

40 Ibid., 56. 41 See note 36. 42 Eleusis, Archaeological Museum inv. 458 (Fritzilas, S., Ο

》のγとうφοな kου Θさjえα. 『 αkkすせお Αγγiすογとαφかα jkさち iποχお kさな ちiοjύjkαkさな Αしさちαはせおな hさたοせとαkかαな (Athens, 2006), no. 175). 43 Frisk, H., GrEW, s.v. ololyzo. Wegner, M., RE 17 (1936) s.v.

ololyge. 44 Deubner, L., "Ololyge und Verwandtes", APAW (1941), 1.

Liddell, H.G, Scott, H.S., et al., Greek-English Lexikon (Oxford,

1996), s.v. ololyge, loud cry of women invoking a god. 45 Il. 6. 301, Od. 3. 450. 46 Sappho, fr. 55c (1, 353 Diehl) = S. 78, 31. Lobel, γυちαすせiな h’Ñそiそυjhοち Ûjαす πとογiちijkiとαす. Deubner, Feste, 24, note 10.

type of sung accompaniment is ololyzo. In

Bacchylides, on Theseus’ return from the house of

Poseidon, the young Athenian girls make the sea

resound with their voices, kourai ololyxan, while the

young men sing the paean.47

During the Panathenaia and the pannychis which

preceded the procession, choruses of maidens

accompanied the paean sung by young men with

ololygmata and dancing.48 Perhaps this was a

reminiscence of the Urstufe of the Panathenaia, the

Athenaia.49

Morphologically, terms such as ololyzo consist of the

verbalisation or the nominalisation of a previously

doubled onomatopoeia. The Athenian painter may

have been inspired by such performances, but this

does not explain why the vase was dedicated in the

sanctuary of Hera, rather than offered to Athena. Did

this ritual performance take place in the sanctuary of

Hera at Perachora?

Hera was a deity whose worship was associated with

choral performances by women.50 Numerous

fragments of Geometric vases found at Perachora

show representations of such performances.51

Feminine services were offered to Hera, such as by

the sixteen women of Elis responsible for organising

the two choral performances on the occasion of the

Heraia at Olympia (among which was a female

performance).52 C. Picard discusses a rite of

noviciate in the sanctuary of Hera Akraia and

Limenia at Perachora,53 a sanctuary outside the polis,

particularly well-adapted for the initiatory rites.54 It is

possible that this rite included choral performances,

although they are not mentioned in the literary

sources. However, this representation can be read

independently of texts, and the iconographic

schemata reveal events for which there is no textual

evidence. This means that the images of dancers do

not describe the real world but, rather, they evoke a

world of mind existing without any doubt for the

artist and for the people to whom he addresses his

message.

47 Bacchylides, 17, 124 sq. Deubner, Feste, 24, note 11. 48Ôそοそυγたαkα παちちυχすοすな Üπο παとしiちωち Óαχiす ποhωち せとοkοすjすち;

Deubner, Feste, 24. Eurip. Heraklid. 777 ff. 49 Deubner, Feste, 22, note 8. Paus. 8, 2, 1. 50 Calame, Les chœurs, 209-224. 51 The representations of female choruses on Corinthian vases

found in the Hera sanctuary at Perachora were collected by Payne,

Perachora II, pl. 77. 52 Paus. 5, 16, 6 s. Nilsson, M.P., Griechische Feste (Leipzig,

1906), 292. 53 RA (1932), 218-229. 54 On the problems of the sanctuary's localisation, see Brelich, A.,

Paides e Parthenoi (Rome 1969), 356, note 117.

Malagardis

78

In summary, this vase dates around the end of the

first quarter of the sixth century BC and can be

ascribed to a painter who worked in the tradition of

Sophilos. We suggest moreover that represented on it

is a women's chorus engaged in a ritual performance

in honour of Hera Akraia or Limenia, in her

sanctuary at Perachora, where this skyphos was

dedicated. We may also venture the hypothesis that

here we have a rare depiction of the ologyges which

the ololyzousai women shouted, and which the

painter, by his inscriptions, was kind enough to

describe phonetically.

Chorus of women ololyzousai

79

Abbreviations

ABV

Beazley, J.D., Attic Black-figure Vase-painters,

(Oxford, 1956).

Add²

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Chorus of women ololyzousai

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Figs. 1-2. Skyphos Perachora 3637. Athens, National Archaeological Museum.

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Figs. 3-4. Skyphos Perachora 3637. Athens, National Archaeological Museum.

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Chorus of women ololyzousai

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Figs. 5-6. Fragments - Skyphos Perachora 3637. Athens, National Archaeological Museum.

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Photograph: National Archaeological Museum, Athens.