Nineteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

The Eleusis Amphora is a Proto-Attic neck-handled amphora dating to c. 650-625 BCE. Attributed to the Polyphemus Painter, the ceramic includes scenes of the blinding of the Cyclops Polyphemus (indeed, this vase is the one that gave the painter his name); a lion fighting a boar; and the beheading of Medusa. One may ask: what is the purpose of such imagery? One finds a possible answer in Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank’s essay entitled, “Introduction: Learning to Look and Think Critically,” in Reframing Art History. In this text Kilroy-Ewbank states that art is created for a variety of reasons, but one is “to soothe and calm”. Recognizing that the vase held the remains of an adolescent boy and using an object biography approach, one can interpret the pot’s narratives as a visual optative mood in which those for whom this container was created offer up to the child a wish that he be as clever as Odysseus, as fierce as the heroes Achilles and Hector, and as beloved by the gods as Perseus as he makes his way in shadowy Hades.