Mythography and Greek Vase Painting

AbstractThis chapter examines points of overlap between mythography and Greek vase painting. Although vase painters had different goals from mythographers, they used similar organizational and rhetorical strategies to present and reflect on myth. The chapter shows that the strategies of narrative, catalogue, and pendant can be detected in both vase painting and mythography. The François vase is discussed as an example of visual narrative and catalogue; the “Heroines pyxis” in London is treated as a second instance of catalogue; and Makron’s skyphos depicting the abduction and recovery of Helen is offered as an instance of pendant images. While vase paintings were not strictly mythographic in themselves, the examples considered in this chapter suggest that painters expected viewers to be adept at the same sorts of narration and comparison that made mythographic thought possible. The chapter ends by discussing some limitations of the approach that compares vase painting and mythography.