Mythological Childhood: A Male Preserve?

An Interpretation of Classical Athenian Iconography

in Its Socio-Historical Context
Author(s): Lesley Beaumont
Source: The Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. 90, Centenary Volume (1995), pp. 339-
361
Published by: British School at Athens
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30104530
Accessed: 10-01-2016 15:02 UTC

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 MYTHOLOGICAL CHILDHOOD: A MALE PRESERVE?

An interpretation of classical Athenian iconography in its

socio-historical context1

From the late nineteenth century onwards, classical scholars have expended considerable time
and energy on valuable researches into the birth and childhood of the Greek gods and, to a
lesser extent of the mythological Greek heroes, as represented in classical art and literature.
For the most part, these studies have comprised investigations into the early life of individual
gods or heroes: M. Heydemann's Dionysos'GeburtundKindheit2and K. Wernicke's 'Die Kindheit
des Zeus'3 are two of the earliest such works, and references to the many subsequent relevant
studies on the birth and infancy of a wide range of mythological personalities will be listed in
the footnotes accompanying this article. Rarely, however, have there been attempts to
synthesize this growing corpus of knowledge and material in order to explore whether there
may have been any iconographic features and underlying conceptual approaches commonly
at work in the classical Greek presentation and understanding of superhuman nativity and
childhood: noteworthy here is the work of E. H. Loeb, Die Geburtder Gotter,4and ofJ. Laager,
Geburt
undKindheit
desGottes.5
It is therefore with the idea of synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of one particular aspect
of superhuman nativity and childhood in mind that this article is written. In the course of
making a comprehensive study of the iconography of divine and heroic children in Attic red-
figure vase-painting for the purposes of a doctoral thesis, the present author was struck
forcefully by a dichotomy in the representation of male and female figures. For while the birth
and childhood of the Greek gods and heroes are themes well documented in Attic red-figure,
those of their mythological female counterparts, the classical Greek goddesses and heroines,
are virtually non-existent in red-figure iconography. The notable exceptions are Aphrodite
and Athena, but even they, at their birth, are depicted not as infants but as fully-formed
adults. Can we therefore find some explanation for this divergent state of affairs?

I This article grew out of research carried out for

my Metzger, Rech. = H. Metzger, Recherchessur l'imagerie
doctoral thesis, The Iconographyof Divineand HeroicChildren
in athlnienne
(Paris,I965)
AtticRed-figure of theFifthCentury
Vase-painting BC(Universityof Metzger, Repr. = id., Les Reprisentations
dans la ciramique
London, 1992). I should like to acknowledge the help of attiquedu IVe siecle (Paris, i95i)
Sarah Currie, John Prag, and Alan Johnston, all of whom Schefold, Gott.= K. Schefold, Die Goittersage
in derklassischen
read drafts of this article and offered many helpful and undhellenistischen
Kunst(Munich, 1981)
stimulating suggestions for its improvement. The following Schefold, Urk. = id., Die Urkonige,Perseus,Bellerophon,
abbreviationsare used throughout: Heraklesund Theseusin derklassischenund hellenistischenKunst
(Munich, 198I)
Add. = T. H. Carpenter,BeazleyAddenda(2nd edn; Oxford, Schefold, Held.= id., Glitter
undHeldensagen
derGriechen
in der
1989) Kunst(Munich, 1978)
spdtarchaischen
Brommer, GV = F. Brommer, Gottersagenin Vasenlisten SWinckelmannsprogramm, o10(1885).
(Marburg, I98o) 3Archiiologische
Zeitung,43 (1885).
Brommer, VGH= id., Vasenlisten zur griechischen
Heldensage 4 Die Geburt
derGClitter
in dergriechischen
Kunstderklassischen
Zeit
(3rd edn; Marburg,1973) (Jerusalem, 1979).
Loeb, Geb. = E. H. Loeb, Die Geburtder GCtterin der 5 GeburtundKindheitdes Gottesin dergriechischen
Mythologie
Kunstderklassischen
griechischen Zeit(Jerusalem,1979) (Winterthur, 1957).

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340 LESLEY BEAUMONT

In order to inform our debate, the methodological criteria for the identification of a child
figure in the ancient visual arts will first be set out. Next, the evidence of Attic red-figure for
mythological childhood scenes will be presented. Though doubtless still incomplete, this data
has been compiled from a comprehensive study of the extant and published corpus of red-
figure material. Furthermore, that the conclusions of our debate may have wider-ranging
implications than for the discrete group of Attic red-figure alone, the evidence of classical
Greek sculpture and of the ancient literary sources will, where relevant, also be taken into
consideration. Subsequently, in our attempt to shed light on the apparently absent childhood
phase of the Greek goddesses and heroines, we shall expand the scope of our discussion to an
examination of the fifth-century Athenian socio-historical context for the divergent perception
of male and female gods and heroes.

METHODOLOGICAL CRITERIA FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF A CHILD FIGURE IN THE

PICTORIAL AND PLASTIC ARTS OF CLASSICAL GREECE

The interpretation of visual images which were created almost two-and-a-half thousand years
ago must always be approached with extreme caution, and with an awareness that our
twentieth-century visual appraisal of these images will in most cases be conditioned and
subjectivized by social and cultural factors which are different from those experienced by a
fifth-century BC viewer. In his recent book Childrenand Childhoodin Classical Athens6 Mark
Golden has, for example, convincingly shown that the ancient Greeks' perception and
treatment of childhood were in many ways quite different to our modern understanding of
this life stage. What objective criteria can we then bring to bear when attempting to identify
the child figure in classical Greek art?

(i) Sitze,heightand bodilyforms. These can be 'read' with caution as a clue to the age or life stage of
a youthful figure, but should never be used as the sole determining factor. Often a child is
depicted as a figure smaller than his or her adult companions, but it does not follow that figures
of reduced stature are always children: social status often influenced the depiction of individual
figures, so that slaves, for example, are often shown on a smaller scale than their masters and
mistresses. Furthermore, divine figures are often accorded greater stature than the mortals or
heroes shown with them, in order to stress the power and 'otherness' of the gods.
The depiction of bodily physique and musculature must be treated with similar caution. As
the fifth century progresses there is a development towards an increasingly naturalistic
representation of the human form, including that of children. However, this development is
not sufficiently consistent or homogeneous to allow us to identify the child figure on the
grounds of the depiction of bodily physique alone.

(ii) Facial and bodyhair. Children and adolescent males are always clean-shaven. Generally in
those red-figure vase-paintings which attain a reasonable level of artistic merit, with attention
paid to small details of representation, an adult male is endowed with a darkened growth of
pubic hair while a male child's pubic area is left unshaded. However, older boys who have
reached puberty may also be given pubic hair.

(iii) Attributes.Attributes may provide a useful indication of childhood status; these include toys
and the paraphernalia of the schoolroom.

6 Baltimore and London, I990.

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 MYTHOLOGICAL CHILDHOOD: A MALE PRESERVE?
34I

(iv) Dress.In the case of female figures, dress also provides a clue to life stage. To depict as
naked a goddess, heroine or respectable woman was well-nigh unthinkable to fifth-century
Athenian society, though this attitude changed in the fourth century with the work of artists
such as Praxiteles.A naked female figure in fifth-centuryart, therefore,commonly indicates a
pre-pubescent girl, a woman in mortal distress, or an adolescent girl or woman of dubious
morals and lifestyle. Female children in red-figureare often also clothed, but inappropriateto
girlhood status are such forms of dress as the veil, a symbol of wifely modesty.

(v) Relationshipoffigures.The arrangement and juxtaposition of figures may contribute to the

identification of the child. This is particularlythe case for the physically dependent stage of
babyhood and infancy where, for example, the child figure is often supportedor carried in the
arms of an adult.
These, then, are objective criteria which can help us in reading the iconography of
childhood in classical Greek art. Not all of the criteria will be applicable to every image of
childhood, nor should identificationof a questionablechild figure be made on the basis of any
one of these criteria used in isolation. They should, however, be used as a guide and as a
reminderof the need for caution in the interpretationof ancient representationsof childhood.
BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD OF THE MALE GODS (DIVINE BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD)
Of the divine male children depicted in red-figure,Dionysos is by far the favouritecharacter,
particularlybetween about 470 and 435 BC.7In total he appears in survivingred-figuresome
thirty times in a variety of contexts, ranging from his first birth from Semele8 or his second
birth from Zeus's thigh9 to his delivery by Zeus into the care of the nymphs of Nysa'o or by
Hermes into the care of the nymphs (FIG. I),11a silen,'12Papposilenos,'3 or Athamas and Ino.14
We also find scenes of the divine child entertained by nymphs/maenads and silenoi/satyrs,'5
and two further categories of associated representations treat the birth and childhood of
Dionysos in his manifestationsas Dionysos-Zagreus'6and Dionysos-Iakchos.'7
Other divine minors who appear intermittently in Attic red-figure are Hermes, Ploutos,
Asklepios, and Apollo. Even Zeus, the great father of men and of gods, was once himself a

7 On the iconography of the young Dionysos see LIMCiii,
Dionysos pp. 478-82, pls 376-81; K. Arafat, ClassicalZeus
(Oxford, 1990), 39-50; Schefold, Gott. 27-41; Brommer, GV
16-19; Loeb, Geb.28-59, 286-300; D. Aebli, Klassischer
Zeus
(Munich, 1971),I08-24; P. Zanker, WandelderHermesgestalt
in
derattischenVasenmalerei
(Bonn, 1965), 77-80; Metzger, Repr.
101-IO, pls 8-9; A. B. Cook, Zeus, iii (Cambridge, I940),
79-89; A. Greifenhagen, 'Kindheitsmythos des Dionysos',
RM 1931, 27-43; H. Philippart, 'Iconographie des Bacchantes
d'Euripide', RB Arch. 9 (1930), II-30; H. Heydemann,
Dionysos'Geburt
undKindheit(Winckelmannsprog.Io; I885).
8 Berkeley8.3316:ARVI343.i, 1681, 1691;Add.367.
9 Bonn 1216.19: ARV 796.3. Boston 95.39: ARV 533.58;
Para. 384; Add. 255. Monash: Charles Ede Ltd, Pottery
from
Athens, 5 (Jan. 1979), no. 22; A. W. Johnston, Trademarkson
GreekVases(i979), Cat. I9B. 6a. Athens, National Museum
(Acropolis)819 (G203):ARV35.1.2.
10 LouvreMNB
1695(GI88):ARV508.I, 1657;Add.252. Paris,
Cab. Med. 440: ARV252.51; Add. 203. Ferrara 2737 (T381):ARV
589.3, I660: Para.393: Add. 264. New York LI982. 27.8: The
VaticanCollections:
The PapacyandArt (New York, 1983), I90.
AthensNat. Mus. (Acrop)325:ARV460.20:Para.377:Add.244.
11London E492: ARV619.16; Add. 270. Moscow, Pushkin II
Ib 732: ARV 618.4; Para. 398: Add. 270o. Palermo IIo9: ARV
630.24: Para. 399. Rome, Villa Giulia 49002 (FIG. I): ARV
10o67.8;Para.447: Add.325. Once Hamilton: A. B. Cook, Zeus
ii (Cambridge, 1925), 245.
12 Rome, Villa Giulia 1296: LIMC v, Hermes 368a, pl. 229.
Louvre G478:ARV 1156.17: Add. 337. Once Vienna, Prince
Reuss: C. Robert, ArchaeologischeHermeneutik(1919), 340, fig.
262.
13 Vatican 16586 (559): ARV 1017.54, 1678; Para. 440; Add.
315. Once Liverpool, Foster:FR iii. 302-6, fig. 146.
14Athens, Kyrou 71: LIMC v, Hermes 37Ia, Ino Io, pl. 441.
15 New York x. 313. I: ARV 623.69; Add. 271. Naples Stg
283: ARV 1080.3; Add. 327. Once Roman market (Bassegio):
A. Greifenhagen, Alte Zeichnungen
nachunbekanntengriechischen
Vasen(Munich, 1976), no. 18, fig. 31. Hermitage, St 2007:
Metzger, Repr. 107-10o, pl. 9. Vienna 736: ARV 1551.17, 1698;
Add.388. Louvre CA296I: LIMCiii, Dionysos 698.
16 Hermitage St 1792: ARV I476.1: Para. 496: Add. 381.
Once Hamilton:ARV(1476.i),1525.4: Add.385.
17 Oxford 1956.355: LIMC iv, Demeter 389, pl. 590; v,
Iakchos 8.

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342 LESLEY BEAUMONT

defenceless baby, saved from the merciless

destruction of his father by his mother Rhea,
who substituted the child with a stone in order
that Kronos should not devour yet another of
her progeny. Although, strictly speaking, red-
figure artists never portray the child Zeus himself
but rather twice depict a swaddled bundle
masquerading as the infant Zeus as it is handed
from Rhea to Kronos,'8 Zeus's childhood did
receive visual expression in other contemporary
artisticmedia.'" Pausanias,for example (viii. 47.
3), tells us of an altar, probably classical, of
Athena Alea in Tegea, which was decorated with
figures of Rhea and the nymph Oenoe with the
baby Zeus. Elsewhere (ii. 17. 3) he writes about
the sculptures of the fifth-century temple of Hera
at the Argive Heraion, where a birth-of-Zeus
scene decorated most likely the east pediment of
the temple, and reports (vii. 24. 4) that a bronze
statue of the boy Zeus made by the late archaic
or early classical sculptor Ageladas of Argos
could be seen at Aigion in Achaia.
The infant Hermes appears in Attic red-figure
three times between about 490 and 430 BC,
FIG.I. The baby Dionysos delivered by Hermes into the either with the stolen cattle of Apollo or in the
care of the nymphs. arms of Iris (FIG.2).20Red-figure scenes with the
divine Eleusinian child Ploutos decorate six
vases, all but one dating to the fourth century BC, and reflect the growing popularity of the
Eleusinian cult: most commonly he is shown as a little boy standing by the side of his mother in
a larger Eleusinian gathering.21The infant Asklepios occurs once only, on a fine plate decorated
by the Meidias Painter shortly after 420 BC,a date which corresponds with the date of the formal
introduction of the Asklepios cult to Athens. Here his nurse is the place nymph Epidauros, and
the presence of a tripod atop a column suggests the celebration of a victorious dithyramb, most
likely written on the Asklepios theme.22

18New York o6.1021.144: ARV I1o7.Io;Add. 330. Louvre
G366:ARV585.28.
19On the iconography of the child Zeus see furtherArafat
(n. 7), 62-3; Schefold, Gott.23-7; Brommer, GV 42; Loeb,
Geb.1io6--12;Cook (n. 7), 927-38; K. Wernicke,'Die Kindheit
des Zeus', AZ 43 (1885),229-32.
20 Vatican 16582: ARV 369.6, 1649; Para. 367: Add. 224.
Berne, private collection: LIMC v, Hermes 242b, pl. 220.
Tibingen 16oo00 (Io06) (FIG.2): ARV974.27:Add.309. On the
iconography of the infant Hermes see LIMC v, Hermes;
Schefold, Gott.46-8; R. Blatter, 'Hermes, der Rinderdieb',
AK 14 (197I), 128-9, pl. 40; Zanker (n. 7), 60-4; M. Frankel,
'Hermes als Kind', Az43 (1885), 151-2.
21Once SandfordGraham:Metzger,Rech.34 no. 2 and pl.
14. i. Tibingen s/io 1666 (EI83):ARV1477.7;Para.496; Add.
381. Athens, Fethiye Djami ig6I.VAK.79o:Metzger, Rech.37
no. 17, pl. i6. 2. Hermitage, St 1792:ARV 1476.1, 1695; Para.
496; Add.381. Istanbul:IJMC iv, Ge 28, pl. 98. Malibu, Getty
8I.AE.213:M. Robertson, GettyVases,5 (I99I), 75-8. I list here
only vases showing the divine Eleusinianchild Ploutos. There
existed also, of course, Kephisodotos'bronze group of Eirene
with the child Ploutos as the straightforwardpersonificationof
wealth. On the iconography of the Eleusinian Ploutos see
further Schefold, Go'tt.64-5: B. Grossman, TheEleusinianGods
andHeroesin Greek Art(Ph.D.;Washington,I959).
22 Antwerp, private collection: LIMC ii, Asklepios I. On
the iconography of the infant Asklepios see further L. Burn,
The MeidiasPainter(Oxford, 1987), 71, 00oocat. M33, pl. 46;
Schefold, Giitt.57-8, fig. 70; D. Cramers with E. Simon, 'Ein
neues Werkdes Meidias-Malers',AA 1978, 67-73.

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 MYTHOLOGICAL CHILDHOOD: A MALE PRESERVE? 343

FIG. 2. Iris with the child Hermes.

FIG. 3. Leto, carrying the infant Apollo and Artemis, flees from Python.

The child Apollo, too, can be securely identified only once in the survivingcorpus of Attic
red-figurevases, shooting arrows at an invisible adversarywhile being carried in the arms of
his mother Leto.23A similar group of mother and son is, however, seen again on two Attic
black-figurewhite-groundlekythoi, where the target for Apollo's arrowsis unmistakablein the
form of the serpent Pytho.24A second red-figurevessel, a neck amphora, presents a variation
on the Apollo-Python theme with a scene in which Leto, carrying both the infant Apollo and
the infant Artemis, flees to right to escape the huge, rearing, snaky Python (FIG. 3).25 Doubts

23 Berlin F2212: ARV73o.8; Add. 283.
24 Paris, Cab. Med. 306: ABV 572.7; Para. 294; Add. I37.
Bergen VK 62.115: Para. 294. On the iconography of the
infant Apollo see further LIMC ii, Apollo; Schefold, Giitt.
42-6; O. Palagia, Euphranor(1980), 36-9; Loeb, Geb. i3, 195 n.
7; L.-G. Kahil, Apollo and Python', in Melangesoffertsi K.
Michalowsky(Warsaw,1966), 483-90; T. H. Schreiber.Apollo
Pythoktonos(Leipzig, I879).
25Once Hamilton, now lost (FIG. 3): LIMCii, Apollon 995,
drawing on p. 302. See also Palagia (n. 24).

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344 LESLEY BEAUMONT

do, however, linger over the identity and character of this vase. Pottier suspected its
authenticity and Trendall has suggested that the vase may be of Apulian, rather than
Athenian, origin and date to the fourth century. Further clarification is unfortunately
impossible, since the vase, which once belonged to the Second Hamilton Collection, is now
lost.
Such are the scenes of the birth and childhood of the male gods in Attic red-figure.

BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD OF THE MYTHOLOGICAL MALE HEROES (HEROIC BIRTH AND
CHILDHOOD)
If we turn now to the Greek mythological male heroes we find, not surprisingly given the far
greater numbers of heroes than gods, a much larger group of vases illustrating their various
heroic childhood adventures. Among the forty-six red-figure vases known to me which
illustrate the childhood of Attic heroes, the most commonly occurring personality is
Erichthonios, who was perhaps the most autochthonous of all Attic heroes. On vases
decorated between 470 and 400 BC he most frequently appears as a babe in arms. Several
times he is represented as the archetypal chthonic child, handed up at his birth to Athena by
the figure of Ge half-emerged from the earth (FIG.4).26 Other vases present the discovery of
the child by the Kekropids27 or the young hero in the care of Athena.28
Herakles' infancy and boyhood adventures are also popular with Attic red-figure vase-
painters.29 As a baby in the company of his twin brother Iphikles, he appears four times
between 480 and 450 BC battling the snakes sent by Hera (FIG.5);3ohe also is once seen in the
arms of Iris.31Another eight vases, produced between about 490 and 450 BC,depict him as an
anarchic schoolboy killing his tutor Linos, and a further piece shows a quiet moment
preceding the attack.32
Other Attic heroes whose childhood provides subject matter for red-figure vase-painting are less
commonly represented. Herakles' infant son Hyllos appears some five times in the arms of his
mother, Deianeira,33 and the same great hero's boy helpers, Lichas and Philoktetes, accompany

26 British Museum EI82: ARV580.2: Para. 392: Add. 263.
Munich 2413:ARV495.I, 1656; Para.380; Add.250. Palermo
2365: ARV1339.3;Add.367. Berlin F2537(FIG.4): ARVI268.2,
I689; Add. 356. Richmond 81.7o: LIMC iii, Eos 124; iv,
Erechtheus II, pl. 632. Leipzig T654:ARV585.35, 166o: Add.
263. See also Cleveland 82.142:LIMCiii, Attike 5, pl. 14.
27Athens, 3rd Ephoreia A8922: LIMC iv, Eunoe I, pl. 26.
Louvre 980.020: LIMC iii, Danae 70; iv, Erechtheus 30, pl.
633.
28British Museum E372:ARV 1218.1:Add. 349. Louvre CA
681: LIMC iv, Erechtheus 35, pl. 634. Athens, Nat. Mus.
(Acrop) 396: ARV' 628.I. Athens, Nat. Mus. (Acrop) 433:
ARIA216.o10.On the iconography of the birth and childhood
of Erichthonios see further LIMC iv, Erechtheus; Arafat (n.
7), 51-8, 188; P. Brulk, La Fille d'Athlines
(Paris, 1987), ch. I;
Schefold, Gott.48-57; Loeb, Geb.165-81, 334-44; Brommer,
VGH 262; H. Metzger, 'Athena soulevant de terre le
nouveau-n&',in P. Ducrey (ed.), Milangesd'histoireancienneet
d'archiologieoffertsi Paul Collart(Lausanne, 1976),295-303; C.
B&rard,Anodoi(Rome, 1974), 34-8; Aebli (n. 7); Cook (n. 7),
I8I-8.
29 On the mythology and iconography of the birth and
early life of Herakles see LIMC iv, Herakles pp. 728-9,
827-32; Schefold, Urk.129-35; E Brommer,Herakles,ii (I984),
1-7; P. Flacelikre and P. Devambez, Hirakles:imageset recits
(1966), 17-27, 72-8; C. Robert, Diegriechische
Heldensage
(1920),
422-675-
30 Louvre GI92 (FIG.5): ARV208.I60, 1633;Para.343; Add.
195. Perugia 73: ARV 516; Add. 253. Leipzig T3365: ARV
559.15I1.New York25.28:ARVIIIo.41;Add.330.
31Munich, Kleinkunst 2426: ARV 189.76, 1632: Para.341:
Add.189.
32Boston 66.206: ARV291.I8; Para.356; Add. 210. Athens,
3rd Ephoreia A5300oo (inv.0.18):LIMCiv, Herakles 1672. Paris,
Cab. Med. 811:ARV829.45; Add. 294. Ferrara26436 (T96I):
ARV889.I61; Para.428; Add.302. Munich 2646: ARV437.128,
1653; Para.375; Add. 239. Bologna 271:ARV59o.7; Add. 264-
Boston, Herrmann: LIMC iv, Herakles 1670. New York
06.I1021.165:ARV I65I. Schwerin KG7o8:ARV 862.30, 1672:
Para.425: Add.298.
33Louvre G229: ARV289.3, 254.4, 1642;Add.210. Padula T
xliii: ARV 1642.5 bis;Add.21o. Basle, Cahn He 479: LIMC iv,
Herakles 1675, pl. Oxford 1890.26 (v322): ARV 627.1;
558.
Add. 271. Munich 6026 (WAF2398): ARV I446.3. On the
iconography of Hyllos see further LIMC v, Hyllos I; F.
Bromrmer,Herakles,ii (1984), 133-4: J. D. Beazley, 'Herakles
torna a casa', Apollo(Salerno)I (1961),21-6.

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 MYTHOLOGICAL CHILDHOOD: A MALE PRESERVE? 345

FIG.4. Birth of Erichthonios. L. to r.:Kekrops, Ge, Erichthonios, Athena,

Hephaistos, Herse.

FIG.5. The infant Herakles struggleswith the snakes sent

by Hera. L. to r.:maidservant,Athena, Herakles, Iphikles,
Alkmene, Amphitryon.

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346 LESLEY BEAUMONT

their master on a total of six vases.34The

Eleusinianbabes Eumolposand Hippothoon
and the schoolboyMousaios are each found
once only,35 and while by contrast the
Eleusinian youth Triptolemos is a very
familiar characterin red-figure,it is almost
impossible to ascertain, either from his
iconography or from the literary sources,
whether the common fifth-century
perception of this hero was as child,
'adolescent', or young man.36 Finally, the
crawlinginfantKephalosappearson a white-
ground vase of about 425 BC,37and the baby
Ajax may be the draped bundle carried by
EriboiatowardsTelamonon a cup decorated
about 430 BCby the Kodros Painter.38
Greek heroes of non-Attic origin
constitute by far the largest category of
mythological childhood scenes depicted in
Attic red-figure. I have collected just over
one hundred such scenes; among these I
find that the boy Ganymede, frequently
seen in flight from Zeus, is the most
commonly represented child, appearing
FIG.6. Death of Priam and his grandson, the boy Astyanax, at
the hands of Neoptolemos. A young girl carryinga phiale flees certainly some forty-two times, his peak of
to 1.;a warriorflanks the scene on 1. and r. popularity being in the late archaic and
early classical periods.39 Indeed he,
together with another Trojanprince, Astyanax, accounts for over half the total number of red-
figure vases depicting the childhood of non-Attic heroes; the brutal death of Astyanax at the
hands of Neoptolemos occurring twelve times between about 5io and 460 BC (FIG. 6).40 Also

34 British Museum E494: ARV 1079.3, 1682; Add. 326.
Vienna IV I144: ARV II88; Add. 341. Taranto 52399: ARV
1337.4; Add. 366. Hermitage 43f: ARV 1346.1; Add. 368.
Hermitage II. 1867/68.964 (33a):ARV1408.1; Add.374. New
York 12.231.2: ARV3i9.6: Para. 358; Add. 214.
35 New York 37.II.23: ARV I3I3. 7; Para. 477; Add. 362.
Tiubingen s/Io i6io: LIMC i, Alope I, pl. 432. Louvre G457:
ARV1I254.80,1562;Para.469; Add.355.
36 On the iconography of Triptolemos see G. Schwarz,
(GrazerBeitrage suppl. 2; 1987); I. K. Raubitschek
Triptolemos
and A. E. Raubitschek, 'The mission of Triptolemos', Hesp.
Suppl. 20 (1982), 109-17; Schefold, Gott. 58-64; C. Dugas, 'La
mission de Triptolhme', Recueil C. Dugas (Paris, 1960), 123-9;
Grossman (n. 21); A. B. Cook, Zeus, i (Cambridge, 1914),
211-37. Problems in interpretation of the adolescent figure
posed by Attic red-figure vase-painting are the subject of a
forthcoming article by the present author. See also M.
Kleijwegt, AncientYouth:TheAmbiguity ofrouth andtheAbsenceof
in Greco-Roman
Adolescence Society(Amsterdam,1991).
37Kansas 31.80: ARV 1248.8; Add. 353.
38 Basle Bs 432: Para. 472; Add. 177.
39There also exist many more red-figurescenes in which the
identification of a boy figure as Ganymede seems likely but
cannot be proven. On the iconographyof the boy Ganymede,
and for lists of vases on which he is represented,see Arafat (n.
7), 66-76, 189-91;LIMCiv, Ganymedes;G. Kempter,Ganymed:
Studienzur Typologie, undIkonologie
Ikonographie (Ph.D.;Wurzburg,
1980);S. Kaempf-Dimitriadou,Die LiebederG6litter in derattischen
Kunstdes5. Jh. v. Chr.(AK 11, Beiheft; 1979);Schefold, Gott.
211-18; P. C. Mayo, Amorspiritualis Aspectsof theMyth
et carnalis:
of Ganymede in Art (Ph.D.; New York, 1967);H. Sichtermann,
'Zeus und Ganymedin Fruiklassischer Zeit', AK2 (i959), 0-15-
4o Malibu, Getty 80.AE.I54: LIMC iv, Hil1ne 336 bis, pl.
352. Malibu, Getty 83.AE.362, 84.AE.8o and 85.AE.385: LIMC
iv, H6lne 277, pl. 341. Berlin 2280 and 2281 and Vatican:
ARVi9.I and 2; Add. 153. Louvre GI52: ARV369.i, 1649; Para.
365; Add. 224. Vienna, University 53 c 23-25, 20: ARV
314.1;
Add.2I3. Athens, Nat. Mus. (Acrop)212:LIMCii, Astyanax I,
17, pl. 684. Berlin F2175: ARV 246.11; Add. 202. Rome, Villa
Giulia 3578: ARV 290.9, 1642; Add. 210. Boston 59.178: ARV

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 MYTHOLOGICAL CHILDHOOD: A MALE PRESERVE? 347

FIG.7. The child Achilles brought to Chiron by his father, Peleus.

popular with the vase-painters, particularly between 490 and 440 BC, is the infant
Perseus: some seventeen vases depict various moments of the unfolding fate of the young
hero and his mother Danae, from incarceration in the chest by Akrisios to rescue by the
fishermen on Seriphos.41Less frequently represented are the young Achilles, handed over
to his tutor Chiron, either as a baby or an older boy (FIG. 7);42 Oinopion, usually shown
in the presence of his father Dionysos, either as his young cupbearer or as a babe in

590.11; Para. 394; Add. 264. Bologna 268 (FIG. 6): ARV
598.1; Para. 394; Add. 265. Florence 73140: ARV 586.5I,
1660: Add. 263. Naples 2422: ARV I89.74, 1632; Para. 341;
Add. 189. On the iconography of the death of Astyanax see
LIMC ii, Astyanax I; A. E Laurens, 'L'enfant entre l'6p&e
et le chaudron: contribution a une lecture
iconographique', DHA Io (1984), 214-19; H. Ruihfel, Das
Kind in der griechischenKunst (Mainz, 1984), 45-58; O.
Touchefeu, 'Lecture des images mythologiques: un
exemple d'images sans texte, la mort d'Astyanax', in F.
Lissarague and E Thelamon (eds), Imageet ciramique
grecque
(Rouen, 1983), 21-9; C. Zindel, Drei vorhomerische
Sagenversionenin dergriechischenKunst(Ph.D.; Basel, 1974);
Brommer, VGH 393-5; C. Mota, 'Sur les representations
figurdes de la mort de Troilos et de la mort d'Astyanax',
RA 49 ('957), 25-44; M. I. Wiencke, 'An epic theme in
Greek art', AJA 58 (i954), 285-306 and pls 55-64.
4i Boston I3.200: ARV 247.1; Para. 350; Add. 202.
Hermitage 1549 (St 1357, B642): ARV 228. 30, 1637; Para.
347, 510; Add. 199. Hermitage 1602 (St 1723, B637): ARV
360.1, 1648; Para. 364, 512; Add. 222. Malibu, Getty, Bareiss
350: LIMC iii, Danae 45. Syracuse 2390o: LIMC iii, Danae
55. Princeton, Clairmont: ARV 924.35; Add. 305. Ttibingen
s/Io x56r (EIog): ARV736.12o; Add. 283. Athens, Agora
P29612: LIMC iii, Danae 57. Providence, Rhode Island
25.084: ARV 697.18; Add. 280. Toledo 69.369: LIMC i,
Akrisios 5, pl. 343. New York I7.23o.37: ARV 498.i, i656;
Para. 381; Add. 251. Boston 03.792: ARV 10o76.13; Para. 449;
Add.326. Ferrara818 (T503VT):ARV231.79, 1637;Para.347;
Add. 200. Oxford 1917.62: ARV 0Ior8.75, r678: Add. 315-
Knossos, Strat. Mus.: ARY 1019.85. Bonn 1216.53: ARV
II81.20; Add. 340. Private collection: LIMC iii, Danae 46.
On the iconography of the infant Perseus see further LIMC
i, Akrisios; iii, Danae; J. Oakley, 'Danae and Perseus on
Seriphos', AJA 86 (1982), III-I5, pls 12-I3; Schefold, Urk.
97-00oo; Brommer, VGH 272-3; K. Schauenburg, Perseus in
der Kunstdes Altertums(Bonn, 1960), 7-12; C. Clairmont,
'Danae and Perseus in Seriphos', AJA 57 (1953), 92-4; T. H.
Howe, 'Illustrations to Aischylos' tetralogy on the Perseus
theme', AJA 57 (1953), 269-75, pl. 76; H. Luschey, 'Danae
auf Seriphos', BA Besch. 24-6 (i949-5i), 26-8; Cook (n. 7),
455-9; J. M. Woodward, Perseus (I937), 3-23, 60-2, 66, 76;
R. Engelmann, 'Danae und Verwandtes', OJh 12 (1909),
165-71.
42 Louvre GI86 (FIG. 7): ARV 207.I40, 1633; Add. I94.
Copenhagen 6328: ARV 283-4; Add. 208. Athens, Nat. Mus.
(Acrop.) 328: ARV 460.19; Add. 244. Louvre G3: ARV 53.1;
Add. 162. Berlin F4220: ARV 61.76, 1700; Add. I65. On the
iconography of the young Achilles see further J. Beazley,
Development of AtticBlack-figure
(California, 1986), 9-10; LIMC
i, Achilleus I, pp. 40-2, 45-7, 53-4; Rtihfel (n. 40), 59-74; F.
A. G. Beck, Album of GreekEducation (Sydney, 1975), 9-12; D.
desAchilleusin griechischer
Kemp-Lindemann, Darstellungen und
Kunst(Berne and Frankfurt,1975), 7-i8; Brommer,
riimischer
VGH 330-I; K. Friis Johansen, 'Achille bei Chiron', in
Dragma: Festschrift/Nilsson(Lund, 1939), 181-205.

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348 LESLEY BEAUMONT

""'

FIG.8. The little Alkmaion suckled by his mother Eriphyle.To 1.Amphiaraos and to r. a
woman observe the scene.

arms;43Orestes, depicted in the late fifth and fourth centuries also as a babe in arms, either as a
player in the Orestes-Telephos episode or suckling at his mother's breast;44Alkmaion as a young
boy at the departure of his father, Amphiaraos, to battle or as a babe suckled by the treacherous
Eriphyle in a calm domestic setting (FIG.8);45the boy Dryas slaughtered mistakenly by his crazed
father, Lykourgos,46and the young Itys, done to death by his mother, Aedon.47 Non-Attic heroes
who make only a rare appearance as children on Attic red-figure vases are Oidipous,48
Askalaphos or Ialmenos (the sons of Astyoche and Ares),49and Glaukos son of King Minos.5so

43 Louvre Cp964 (GI38): ARV 365.61, 1580, 1596, 1606,
1648; Add. 223. New York 75.2.27 (GR593): ARV 1159.2; Add.
337. Ferrara 2738 (T3II): ARV593.4i, 602, 1660: Para. 394;
Add. 264. Bologna 153: A. Zannoni Scavi della Certosa(1876),
198, pl. 50, no. 25. Vienna 1773: ARV 972.2; Para. 435; Add.
309. On the iconography of Oinopion see further LIMC iii,
Dionysos IX; Schefold, Held. 22-3; Gott, 30-I1; F. Magi,
'Oinopion', ASA n.s. 1-2 (1942), 63, pls 1-15.
44 British Museum E382: ARV 632; Add. 272. Berlin 3974:
LIMC i, Agamemnon 13, pl. 192. Salonika 34. 263: ARV
I473.1. Athens, Kerameikos 2712: ARV 1313.6, 1690, 17o8;
Add.362. On the iconography of the Orestes-Telephos story
see further E. C. Keuls, 'Clytemnestra and Telephus in
Greek vase painting', inJ.-P. Descoeudres, Ediovoia: Studies
... Cambitoglou(Sydney, 1990), 87-94; LIMC i, Agamemnon
II. c; Brommer, VGH 471-2; C. Bauchhenss-Thuiriedl, Der
MythosvonTelephos in derantikenBildkunst(Wtirzburg,I971); T.
B. L. Webster, MonumentsIllustratingTragedyand SatyrPlay
(BICS suppl. 20o; 1967), 145, 164-5; J. D. Beazley and L. D.
Caskey,Attic VasePaintingsin theMuseumof FineArts,Boston,iii
(1963), 54-7; H. Metzger, 'Apollon Lycien et T6l1phe', in
Milanges Picard, ii (RA 30; 1949), 746-51; L. Sdchan, Etudes sur
la Tragsdiegrecque(1926), 120-7, 503-18.
45 Hermitage w755 (B1845, St 1650): ARV 605.64; Para. 513;
Add. 267. Boston o3.798: ARV Ioi1.i6; Para. 440; Add. 314.
Syracuse I8421: ARV 10I75.7; Para. 449; Add. 326. Berlin,
Charlottenburg F2395 (FIG. 8): LIMC i, Amphiaraos 27, pl.
559. On the iconography of Alkmaion and the departure of
Amphiaraos see further LIMC i, Alkmaion; Amphiaraos;
Brommer, VGH476-7; M. Delcourt, Oresteet Alcmion(1959),
31-91.
46 Krakow 1225: ARV 1121.17;Add. 331. Rome, Villa Giulia:
ARVi343 (a). Possiblyalso British Museum E246: CVABritish
Museum 6, pl. 10oo.2. On the iconography of the
Lykourgos-Dryastheme see Schefold, Held. 186-8; Brommer,
VGH5o3-4; A. D. Trendalland T. B. L. Webster,Illustrations of
GreekDrama (London, 1971), iii. I, 13-16; J. D. Beazley, Greek
Vasesin Poland(1928),44-6; Shchan(n. 44), 63-79.
47 Munich 26381 and 919I: ARV 456.1, 1654; Add. 243.
Louvre cGI47:ARV 472.2II, 1654; Para. 378; Add. 246. Basel,
Cahn 599: B. A. Sparkes,in C. Boulter (ed.), Greek Art:Archaic
intoClassical(1985), 31-3 and pl. 36. Rome, Villa Giulia 3579:
ARV 514.3. On the iconography of the Itys story see
Schefold, Held. 42-3; Sparkes, 29-33 and pls 34-6; Brommer,
VGH269-70.
48 Paris, Cab. Mid. 372: ARVg87.4; Para. 437; Add. 311.
49Boston oi.8097: ARV785.2; Para.418; Add. 289. Possibly
also Reggio Calabria 12939a-b: ARV6I9.II bis; Add. 270.
50 British Museum D5 (white-ground): ARV763.2, 772: Add.
286.

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 MYTHOLOGICAL CHILDHOOD: A MALE PRESERVE? 349

FIG.9. Birth of Athena from the head of Zeus. Attic black-figurecup, British
Museum B424(ABVI68; Para.70; Add.48).

Thus, as the evidence here presented clearly shows, the birth and childhood myths of a
variety of Greek male gods and heroes supply the subject matter for many Attic red-figure
vases. Let us now turn our attention to the birth and childhood of the Greek goddesses and
mythologicalheroines.
BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD OF THE GODDESSES AND MYTHOLOGICAL HEROINES

The birth of Athena and that of Aphrodite are popular subjectsin Attic vase-paintingand also
in classical sculpture and literature.Analysis of these many scenes, however,shows that unlike
their divine male counterparts,who are depicted as babies at their birth, the two newly born
goddesses are represented as adult and fully formed. Birth-of-Athena scenes, appearing
frequentlyin black-figure,and on a few red-figurevases from the first half of the fifth century,
employ one of three alternate iconographic formulae:the miniature adult Athena may emerge
from the head of Zeus (FIG.9) or may stand on his knee (FIG.Io), or the full-size adult goddess
may stand before her divine father, as seems to have been the case in Pheidias'spresentation
of the scene in the east pediment of the Parthenon.51Many gods may attend her birth, but
Hephaistos with his axe, Eileithyia,and sometimes Demeter are common.
An objection could perhaps be raised here, that the presentation of Athena at her birth by
some artists as a miniaturized adult figure is no different from the miniature, adult-like
appearance of several of the male gods in the pictorial representation of their birth and
childhood stories;take, for example, the rather adult-lookingmini-Hermes in FIG.2. The dress
and attributesof the mini-Athena figure, namely helmet, breastplate,spear, and shield, make
it clear, however,that she possesses adult status. The ancient literarysources for Athena's birth
also furtherrecount that she emerges in her fully formed adult state. By contrast, in the case of
the male gods the various ancient literary sources for their birth confirm their infantnature,
while their miniature, adult-like appearance in the various artistic media is chronologically
determined: that is to say, with very few exceptions the representationby Greek artists of all
children, be they divine, heroic, or mortal, tends to follow the schema of the miniature,adult-

51 On the iconography of the birth of Athena, and for Brommer, GV Io; Loeb, Geb. 14-27; Aebli (n. 7), 83-8. For
lists of representations, see Arafat (n. 7), 32-9; LIMC ii, the ancient literary sources concerning the birth of Athena
Athena I, 985-90; Schefold, G'tt. 19-23; Held, I2-2o; see LIMCii, p. 985.

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350 LESLEY BEAUMONT

FIG.Io. The newborn Athena stands on the knee of her father,Zeus, and is greeted by
Eileithyia.Attic red-figurepelike, Vienna KunsthistorichesMuseum 728 (ARV286.II;
Add. 209).

FIG.Ii. Baby,naked except for a stringof amulets,containedwithin an

egg which is perched on an altar.A standingwoman gazes at the egg.

like figure until the later part of the fifth century,when more naturalisticinfant figures appear,
with large heads and chubby limbs, and are depicted in more convincing childlike poses; the
little figure shown within an egg, and painted c.430-425 BC (FIG. II), is a good example of this
development. By drawing on the ancient literary sources as comparative material for the
representationof mythological childhood in classical art, I by no means wish to imply that the
iconographical and literary traditions are anything other than independent one of the other.

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 MYTHOLOGICAL CHILDHOOD: A MALE PRESERVE? 351

FIG.12. Aphrodite rising from the sea at her birth. 'LudovisiThrone': Rome, Museo
Nazionale Romano 8570.

Indeed, where the birth of Athena is concerned, it seems highly probable that the artistic
convention of the miniaturized Athena figure develops precisely becauseof the particular
iconographical difficulties posed by the attempt to show one full-size adult figure emerging
from the head of another.
Birth-of-Aphrodite scenes, first appearing about 460 BC on Attic red-figure vases, can also
be divided into three main iconographic types: the goddess may, for example, rise from the
sea, a schema employed not only by Attic vase-painters but also by Pheidias on the base of the
cult statue of Zeus at Olympia, and further seen on the mid-fifth-century south Italian
sculpture relief now commonly known as the 'Ludovisi Throne' (FIG. 12). Alternatively, she
may emerge from a shell, or may ascend from the depths of the earth at her anodos.Eros is
often present to help or greet her; sometimes he is joined by a woman or is replaced by two
women. Further, in the fourth century Aphrodite may ride in an opening scallop shell. In each
case, however, she, like Athena, is represented not as a babe but as an adult woman.52
The only other goddess whose birth or childhood is depicted in classical art is Artemis.53 I
earlier mentioned a red-figure neck amphora decorated with a scene of Leto carrying the
baby Apollo and Artemis and fleeing from the monster Python (FIG.3). Sadly, however, since
the vase has been lost, doubts about its authenticity cannot be satisfactorily resolved one way
or the other. Further, even if authentic and datable stylistically to the second quarter of the
fourth century BC, a question still remains as to whether it is of Athenian or Apulian

52 On the iconography of the birth of Aphrodite, and for
lists of representations, see Arafat (n. 7), 30-2; LIMC ii,
Aphrodite; Schefold, Gott.75-85; Brommer, GV I-2; Loeb,
Geb.60-lo5; Bbrard(n. 28), 153-60; Aebli (n. 7), 130-33; G.
Devereux, 'La naissance d'Aphrodite', in J. Pouillon and P.
Maranda (eds), Echangeset communications: milangesoffertsi
ClaudeLivi-Strauss,ii (Paris, 1970), I229-48; E. Simon, Der
GeburtderAphrodite(Berlin, 1959). For the ancient literary
sources concerning the birth of Aphrodite see LIMCii, pp. 2
and 113.
53 On the iconography of the infant Artemis see LIMCii,
Artemis.

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352 LESLEY BEAUMONT

manufacture. Working on the assumption that the vase is genuine, several scholars have
ventured to suggest that its iconography may reflect a fourth-century statue group by
Euphranor: this piece, itself no longer extant, is attested by Pliny (NH xxxiv. 77) as a bronze
group of Leto carrying the infant Apollo and Artemis and standing, in Pliny's day, in the
temple of Concord at Rome.54
It has, further, sometimes been suggested that a small black-figure neck amphora of
c.500-480 BC by the Diosphos Painter may also depict the infant Artemis.55 This shows a
bearded man holding up before him a diminutive female figure. The little figure looks like a
miniature adult or, because of her very stiff pose, like a doll or small statue. But whatever or
whoever she is, she is clearly very special, since in the vase-painters' preserved repertoire
mortal children are always carried by women and only divine or heroic infants may be held in
the arms of men. The presence of Hermes, furthermore, confirms that we are here presented
with a mythological subject. A woman stands before the man with his small charge and
stretches out her arms towards them. It is possible that we have here the infant Artemis in the
arms of Zeus before Leto. The scene is quite different from the established iconographic
schema for the birth of Athena, and thus is unlikely to be she, but examination of the other
side of the vase may provide an alternative identification. Here we see Atalanta wrestling
Peleus, and since the obverse and reverse scenes of the Diosphos Painter's amphorae usually
show related subjects, H. Mommsen has suggested that the little female figure held by the man
may also be Atalanta, about to be exposed after her birth by her father, Iasios, while her
mother, Klymene, stands by pleading.56 Certain interpretation of the iconography nevertheless
remains something of a mystery.
Lily Kahil has suggested that the infant Artemis may also be seen on a mid-sixth-century
Attic black-figuretripod-pyxisfragment from Brauron:57here a little figure dressed in a short
chiton is carried on the shoulder of a woman and flanked by two winged female figures.
Again, however, there is no certain confirmation of this identification.
Assured, genuine, and extant representations of the infant Artemis from classical Athens are
thus highly elusive. It does, however, seem that the child Artemis did appear on rare occasions
in fourth-century Athenian art. Nevertheless, our search for representations of the Greek
goddesses as children in Attic red-figure and other classical period artistic media has, on the
whole, drawn a blank. And if we now turn our attention to mythological child heroines, we
find much the same situation.
An Attic red-figure representation of an apparently mythological female child is found on
an amphora of about 460 BC by the Niobid Painter (FIG. I3).58 The scene shows Artemis
chasing a woman who carries a little girl on one arm. The child, who is depicted very much as
a miniature woman, is distinguished as female by her mode of dress: spotted chiton, himation,
and matching spotted cap. Identification of the figure is, however, problematic. Beazley
suggests that the picture represents Artemis chasing Niobe with one of her children.59 This,
however, seems unlikely: our handful of Attic red-figure scenes which depict the death of the
Niobids at the hands of Artemis all show the Niobids as youthful, but apparently full-grown

54 Palagia (n. 24), 36-9. Strabo (xiv. I. 20) also records at
Ephesos a statue group by Skopas which depicted a standing
Leto holding a sceptre and accompanied by Ortygia, who
carried Leto's children.
55 Berlin FI837: ABV509, no. 121, 703; Para. 248; Add. 127.
Beazley further compares this piece to the scene on an
unpublished red-figure skyphos fragment by the Lewis
Painter in Reggio Calabria (ARV973.3bis).
56H. Mominsen, CVABerlin 5, 58.
57Brauron Museum 53I: LIMCii, Artemis I263.
58 Paris, Seilliere (FIG. 13): ARV604.5I, 1661; Add. 267.
59ARV604.5I.

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 MYTHOLOGICAL CHILDHOOD: A MALE PRESERVE? 353

FIG.13. Artemis chasing a woman who carries a little girl on one arm.

figures.60Furthermore,while the Niobid Painter,in his well-knownand assuredrepresentation

of the subject on a kalyx krater in the Louvre,61shows Artemis in similar fashion as on our
amphora, he depicts the Niobids as youths or young men and women. An alternative
interpretation,put forwardby R. M. Cook, K. Schefold, and A. D. Trendall, is that our vase
shows Artemis chasing Kallisto with the infant Arkas.62Although this subject is found on
fourth-century Greek coins and in south Italian red-figure,63we have no evidence for it
elsewhere in Attic vase-painting and, more importantly, since the child on our amphora is
female she cannot be Arkas. Perhaps, however, instead of searching for a mythological or
heroic identity for the child figure, we should consider a more allegorical way of interpreting
the iconography. If we remember that Artemis, among her several roles, was goddess of
women in childbirth--a role celebrated particularlyin her cult as Artemis Brauronia--then it
is possible to interpret the Niobid Painter'sscene as a representationof the goddess pursuing
with her deathly bow and arrows a woman with child; for Artemis was able to take away life
as well as protect it. If this interpetationof the iconography as a manifestationof one aspect of
Artemis'scult is correct, then both the fleeing mother and the infant are likely to be of mortal,
rather than heroic or mythological, identity.
The 'birth' of Helen, though a subject several times represented in Attic red-figure vase-
painting from about 430 to the very early fourth century BC, does not--with two possible
exceptions--present us with the child herself, but only with the egg from which she will
hatch.64This commonly appears lying on an altar in the presence of Leda and the Dioskouroi
and/or Tyndareus;sometimes Hermes or the eagle of Zeus also appears. One scene in which

60 On the iconography of the death of the Niobids see
LIMCii, Artemis, section IX. 3. I; Schefold, Gott.159-70: R.
M. Cook, NiobeandherChildren: An InauguralLecture(I964).
61Louvre G341:ARV6oI.22; Para.395; Add.266.
62 A. D. Trendall in LIMCii, Arkas;Schefold (n. 60);Cook
(n. 60).
63On the iconography of Arkassee LIMCii, Arkas.
64For lists of the Attic red-figurerepresentationssee Loeb,
Geb. 185-92, 345-52: Brommer, VGH 514-15: Metzger, Repr.
28, 277-86: J. D. Beazley, EtruscanVase-painting
(1947),39-42,
with addenda to his list in Caskey and Beazley (n. 44), 70-3:
E Chapoutier, 'Ldda devant l'oeuf de Nemesis', BCH 66-7
(I942-3), 1-21: R. Kekul6, 'Die Geburt der Helena aus dem
Ei', SB Berl.22 (1908),691-703.

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354 LESLEY BEAUMONT

the infant Helen may be visible is found on a

lekythos of about 430-425 BC in Berlin (FIG.
11).65 This, too, shows a woman gazing at an
egg which rests on an altar, but this time the egg
is much larger, and visible within the yolk is a
naked baby with a string of amulets slung round
its chest, depicted in crawling pose and
stretching out its arms in the direction of the
woman. The problem, however, is that the
infant's genitals are not discernible, and it is
therefore difficult to determine the sex of the
child. But it does sport the shoulder-length
coiffure regularly assigned to baby boys in red-
figure iconography, rather than the more ornate
hairstyle of a topknot commonly given to girl
children on choes (FIG. 14).66 If not therefore
Helen, the child could be the boy Enorches
who, as son of Thyestes and his sister Daito, was
also born from an egg.67
Beazley also describes a pyxis fragment of
about 450 BCin Reggio Calabria as showing 'an
altar, and on it the child Helen creeping out of
a half egg-shell; then, on the right, the legs of a
FIG.14. Attic red-figurechous depicting a mortal
woman in chiton and himation--Leda
female infant. She is naked except for a string of standing to left'.68 However, since the fragment
amulets, and sports the topknot coiffure common to has never been published and I have been
baby girls on choes.
unable to trace the piece, it is difficult to
comment further on the interpretation of the
scene. If this is Helen, not only is it the only Attic picture in which the little girl is seen issuing
from egg, it is also our earliest illustration of the birth-of-Helen story, pre-dating by some
twenty years our first scenes of the unhatched egg lying on the altar.
The only other Attic red-figure scene that at first sight would seem to present us with the
figure of a small girl can, on closer examination, be interpreted in different fashion. The scene
in question decorates a skyphos of about 470 BC by the Lewis Painter.69 Here we see two
women standing one on either side of a diminutive female figure veiled in a mantle. Noting
that such a mode of dress is, however, more appropriate to a bride or matron than to a child,
H. R. W Smith put forward the convincing hypothesis that we are here presented with a
draped xoanon,and further interpreted the scene as a celebration of the cult of either Samian
or Kithaironian Hera, at whose festivals a xoanon or xoana, respectively, were dressed as
brides.70

65 Berlin F2430 (FIG. ii): LIMC iii, Enorches I, pl. 562. H1lkne 3. Note that Helen emerging from the egg, often as a
66 For baby girls on choes with regular topknot hairstyle small but fully developed woman, is a subject found in 4th-
see e.g. Athens, Nat. Mus. 1739 (FIG.14) and 14532: G. Van cent. south Italian red-figure: see LIMC iv, H6l1ne. We,
Hoorn, Choesand Anthesteria(Leiden, 1951), figs. 278-9. however,are concerned with Attic iconography.
67 See LIMCiii, Enorches. 69Berlin 2317: ARV972.I.
68 Caskey and Beazley (n. 44), 72. See also LIMC iv, 70H. R. W Smith, Der Lewismaler(1939), io-Ii.

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 MYTHOLOGICAL CHILDHOOD: A MALE PRESERVE? 355

Our remaining red-figure evidence for the youthful adventures of the Greek mythological
heroines concerns older figures who can at best be described as 'adolescent' or maiden. A red-
figure oinochoe of about 430-420 BC, probably by the Schuwalov Painter, presents, for
example, a rare scene of the sacrifice of Iphigeneia.71 The heroine is being forced by a warrior
towards an altar of stones, where a second man-perhaps Agamemnon-stands waiting with
a dagger in hand. Standing by is Artemis, holding the little deer that she will substitute at the
last moment for the human sacrifice. Iphigeneia is markedly smaller in stature than the other
figures in the scene, but it is difficult to determine whether this is meant to indicate her tender
years, or whether it is a device employed by the vase-painter to arouse the viewer's
compassion for the helpless victim. Iphigeneia seems not to possess the womanly feature of
breasts, but the damaged state of the vase makes it difficult to be sure; her face also does not
survive. Our only other Attic vase showing the sacrifice of Iphigeneia is a white-ground
lekythos decorated in outline by Douris.72 There she is led to sacrifice by a sword-bearing
warrior inscribed 'Teukros', and she is depicted on the same scale as the other characters in
the scene.73 As Iphigeneia was brought to Aulis on the pretext that she was there to be
married to Achilles, then, if her diminished stature in the Schuwalov Painter's scene is meant
to indicate her youth, it is a girlhood that is almost spent, since it is through marriage that the
girl will pass to womanhood. The parallel between marriage and death in classical antiquity,
both of which marked a transitional phase between two states, has several times been drawn,74
and it is interesting to note that the only human sacrifices depicted in classical Greek art are
those of Iphigeneia and Polyxena,75 both of whom suffered their grisly fate as brides of
Achilles.
Significantly, just as Athena and Aphrodite are born not as children but as mature, adult
goddesses, Greek mythology also presents the birth, or rather the creation, of the first woman,
Pandora, as that of a fully developed and accomplished female figure. Although not a
commonly occurring personality in the extant corpus of classical Greek art, she is depicted on
a handful of fifth-century Attic red-figure vases at her epiphany as a full-size figure, a guise in
which she apparently also occurred on the base of Pheidias's Athena Parthenos.76
Interestingly, on an Attic white-ground cup decorated by the Tarquinia Painter about 465 Be
Pandora, here inscribed Anesidora', appears as a slightly smaller, more girlish figure between
Athena and Hephaistos, who are represented on a somewhat larger scale (FIG. 15).77 The
reduced stature of Pandora/Anesidora could here be a device employed by the painter in
order to emphasize her mortal status in the presence of divine companions. On the other
hand her smaller scale could be an indication to the viewer that we are here presented with a
youthful, maiden figure rather than a mature woman. Alongside this possible interpretation of
the iconography it is interesting to note Hesiod's description of the newly created Pandora as
parthenos.78

71Kiel University B538: LIMCv, Iphigeneia i, pl. 466 and
drawing on p. 708.
72Palermo NI 1886: ARV446.226; Add. 241.
73 On the iconography of Iphigeneia see further LIMC v,
Iphigeneia: L. Kahil, in L. Kahil and P. Linant de
Bellefonds, Religion,mythologie,
iconographie
(I99i), 183-96.
74 On the equation between death and marriage see R.
Seaford, 'The tragic wedding', JHS (1987), Io6-30:
O107 I.
Jenkins, 'Is there life after marriage?A study of the abduction
motif in vase-paintings of the Athenian wedding ceremony',
BICS 30 (1983), 137-45: H. P. Foley, Arethusa,15 (i982), 168 -73:
J. Redfield, 'Notes on the Greek wedding', Arethusa,15 (1982),
I88-91: A. Brelich, Paidesetparthenoi(Rome, 1969), 242-9.
75The death of Polyxena appears on a fragmentarycup by
Makron, Louvre GI53: ARV 460o.i4; Add. 244. Also on a
Megarian bowl, Athens, Nat. Mus. 14624: U. Hausmann,
Hellenistische no. 25, pls 35-7.
(i959), 36
Reliefbecher
76On the iconography of Pandora see LIMCi, Anesidora:
LIMCvii, Pandora.
77 British Museum D4 (FIG. i5): ARV 869.55; Para. 426; Add.
299.
78 Worksand Days, 60-85; Theogony,571-89.

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356 LESLEY BEAUMONT

FIG.15. Birth, or creation, of Pandora/Anesidora. Athena and Hephaistos stand

to 1. and r.

This brief survey of Attic red-figure illustrations of mythological birth and childhood tales
thus bears out my opening statement that while the male gods and heroes are well represented
as children in the extant corpus of vase-paintings, infant and child goddesses and heroines are
virtually non-existent. In summary, then, while the birth of Aphrodite and of Athena are
popular subjects with vase-painters, these two appear as fully formed women at their
respective nativities. The child Artemis, it is true, does seem to have been represented on rare
occasions in fourth-century Athenian art, but her exceptional infant appearance does not
undermine our basic working premise that infancy as a stage of life is familiar to the male
gods but is, by contrast, a condition on the whole foreign to the divine female. Similarly, in the
heroic sphere female children almost completely elude our search. The evidence of Attic
black-figure and of the plastic arts does little to redress this apparently male preserve of
mythological childhood scenes, although the interpretation of the Diosphos Painter's amphora
depicting a man holding a diminutive, doll-like figure remains puzzling.
And yet, if we turn to Attic red-figure representations of mortal children, girls, both infant
and 'adolescent', though not as numerous as boys, are common enough. Often these female
offspring appear on choes as crawling babies, distinguished from their male counterparts by a
differentcoiffure (often a topknot)and the absence of male genitalia (FIG.I4).79 A series of late
fifth-century black- and red-figure krateriskoi from Brauron and other sites in Attica showing
the little 'bears' are also now well known: here young girls of apparently diverse ages, some
naked and others clothed, perform a variety of activities in honour of Artemis Brauronia.80
Mortal female children are also depicted in classical Athenian sculpture, most commonly on
grave stelai: for example, a stele of c.435 BC erected in memory of the shoemaker Xanthippos

79 See e.g. Athens, Nat. Mus. 1739 and I4532 (references in l'Artbmis attique', AK 8 (1965), 20-33; ead., 'Rites et
n. 66). Mystire', AK 20 (1977), 86-98; ead., 'Le cratdrisque
80On the krateriskoisee C. Sourvinou-Inwood, Studiesin d'Art~mis et le Brauronion de l'Acropole', Hesp. 50 (1981),
Girls' Transitions(Athens, 1988); L. Kahil, 'Autour de 25263.

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 MYTHOLOGICAL CHILDHOOD: A MALE PRESERVE? 357

shows the dead man with his two young

daughters (FIG. 16); and, further, on the early
fourth-century stele of Mynnia we see a little
girl named Artemisias kneeling on the ;
~; "":""";
ground.81 The female child figure per se was a

not therefore considered by classical artists to

be unsuitable subject material for
representation. Furthermore, it seems
significant that though young girls may
sometimes be represented in mythological
scenes, they too are apparently of mortal
rather than divine or heroic status. Take, for
example, the young fleeing female figure
carrying a phiale on two vases decorated
about 470-460 BC by the Niobid Painter (FIG.
6);82 both scenes depict the death of Priam,
and in both cases the girl is probably to be
interpreted as a Trojan maidservant. Further
examples of apparently mortal girl children in
a mythological scene can be found on a
skyphos of about 490 BC by the Brygos
Painter, where Priam approaching Achilles is
accompanied by, among others, two little
maidservants.83 The well-differentiated ages of
the several figures in this scene are worthy of FIG.I6. Grave stele of the shoemakerXanthippos, shown
note. with his two young daughters.

FIFTH-CENTURY ATHENS: THE SOCIO-HISTORICAL CONTEXT

We are thus faced with the questions of why, at their births, the gods should be represented as
children while the goddesses appear in their adult state, and why the childhood of the
mythological Greek heroines is so elusive. In the first instance it cannot be that while the
goddesses came into possession of their full adult faculties and the capacity to perform
complex activities immediately after birth, the gods were considered to be helpless infants: for,
as we have seen, the newborn Hermes and Apollo were capable of cattle-rustling and dragon-
slaying respectively. In her review of Loeb's Die Geburtder Gotter, Susan Woodford briefly
addresses the conundrum of infant gods and newborn adult goddesses, suggesting that this
might be 'evidence of male myth-makers recalling their own helpless infancy and the adult
competency of their mothers': a reflection in art, that is to say, of the 'male experience of a
childhood in which a young boy was very much under the control of full grown women'.84 We
might also suggest that the absence of pictorial or plastic representations of the female gods
and heroes as child figures may perhaps reflect an inability on the part of the fifth-century

81 Stele of Xanthippos: London, British Museum 628 (FIG.
16). C. Clairmont, ClassicalAttic Tombstones (1993), i. 630o.
Stele of Mynnia: Malibu, J. Paul Getty Museum 7i.AA.I21;
Clairmont, ii. 718.
"2Bologna 268 (FIG.6): ARV 598.I; Para. 394; Add. 265.
FerraraT936:ARV60oI.I8, 661; Para.395; Add.266.
83 Vienna 37Io: ARV380.r7r, 1649; Para. 366; Add. 277.
84 JHS o101(1981), 22I-2. I am grateful here for the
generous help and stimulatingcomments of Susan Woodford,
received via a personal communication of 15 Dec. 1994-.

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358 LESLEY BEAUMONT

(male) artist to visualize the female body as anything other than sexual or maternal. However,
since, as we have seen, representations of mortal girl children in classical art are common
enough, this line of reasoning cannot provide us with an answer. Indeed, I do not think that
the solution to our problem is likely to be so abstractlybased in the particular understanding
of the male psyche, but is more likely to be sought and found in the wider, more general
context of fifth-century social attitudes to the discrete groups with which we are concerned.
No art is created free of its social context: a society's attitudes inevitably affect, and are
reflected in, the public and popular art produced for and consumed by that society.This is not
to assert that artistic conventions do not have their own dynamic and independent existence;
but it does mean that modes of visualization, and their artistic expression, are related to a
society's perception of the several discrete groups it comprises. A consideration, therefore, of
particular aspects of fifth-centuryAthenian attitudes to the gods, to women, and to children
may illuminate our understanding of contemporary modes of visualization and artistic
realization. Let us therefore first examine the social position and status of children and of
women in fifth-centuryAthens.
We begin with Athenian social attitudesto children. In brief, children were considered to be
physically,morally,and intellectuallyweak and incomplete. Plato describes them as lacking in
knowledge and reason, gullible, simple, foolish, and holding insignificant values and
opinions."85Aristotle classes them as incomplete beings, and denigrates childhood as a stage of
life to which no one in his right senses would wish to return.86 Though these sources
essentially postdate the fifth century, there is evidence that similar attitudes to children did
pertain then. Sophokles in his OidipousTyrannos (1511-12) makes reference to children's
immature intellect, while Aischylos in the Eumenides(38) assigns to the same unfavourable
category a child and an alarmed old woman, both of them fearful and powerless. He also
refers to children'smindlessnessand lack of understandingand of sense in his Prometheus Bound
(987-8) and his Agamemnon(277, 479).
Mark Golden has, furthermore, drawn convincing parallels between the social status of
children and slaves in classical Athens.87He notes that at least from the time of Aischylos the
wordpais was used to denote both a child and a slave. It is interesting,too, that in fifth-century
iconography the artisticconvention used to depict both slaves and children, namely that of the
miniature adult, is several times the same, diminution of size thus apparently often suggesting
inferiority." And Plato also several times classifies children and slaves together, stating that
they suffer from many of the same undesirablenatural characteristicsand tendencies, such as
unruly appetites and pleasures.89Aristotle goes even further, claiming that children can be
grouped together with the sick, the bad and brutish, the drunk, and the lunatic.90
Children, therefore, while doubtless loved and valued by their parents and wider family,
seem only to have occupied the lowest position in the Athenian social order. Plato further
places women in the same category as children and slaves,9' and that this view of women's

85 See e.g. Tht. 197 e; Rep. 441 a-b; Gorg. 464 d and 502 e; im altenGriechenland
Welskopf (ed.), SozialeTypenbegriffe undihr
Soph. 234 b-c; Euthd. 299 d; Phlb. 14 d. Fortlebenin den Sprachender Welt,iii (Berlin, 1981), 307; N.
86 See e.g. EE i. 1215 b 23-4; ii. I2I9 b 5a. Himmelmann, Archiiologisches zum Problemder griechischen
87 M. Golden, Ant. Cl. 54 (1985), 91-104. See further, on Sklaverei(Weisbaden, 1971).
the social status of and attitudes towards children, id., 89 See e.g. Rep, iv. 431 c.
Childrenand Childhoodin Classical Athens (Baltimore and 9o See e.g. EEi. 1214 b 30; vii. 1238 a 33; NE vii. 1154b IO;
London, 1990), esp. 1-I2. Pol. vii. 1323 a 33; Probl. xxx. 14. 957 a 43-
88On the representation of slaves as diminutive adult 91 See e.g. Ep. viii. 355 c; Rep. iv. 431 c.
figures see U. Kastner, 'Bezeichnungen ftir Sklaven',in E. C.

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 MYTHOLOGICAL CHILDHOOD: A MALE PRESERVE? 359

lowly social status also prevailed in fifth-century Athens has been well illustrated by much
recent research, which does not require repetition here.'92
We cannot, however, ignore the fact that the Greeks nonetheless did revere powerful female
gods, among whom the Olympians Athena, Artemis, Hestia, Aphrodite, Hera, and Demeter
were foremost; these divine women, furthermore, frequently provided subject material for
artistic representations. Scholars who have analysed the role and status of such goddesses in
myth have pointed out the ambiguities in the presentation of the divine female.93 While
conforming to stereotypical images of women--virgin (Athena, Artemis), old maid (Hestia),
sex-bomb (Aphrodite), nagging wife (Hera), mother/matron (Demeter)-the goddesses at the
same time represent states of existence to which no mortal woman could aspire, namely
independence and non-reliance on males. But in order to achieve this, they must either deny
or exploit their femininity and sexuality.
It is, therefore, possible for a female to be perceived as divine if she both comprises and yet
transcends mortal feminine characteristics and attributes. Similarly, it is possible for a male
god to be a child if he both embraces and yet transcends the nature of childhood. The most
obvious illustration of this is provided by the childhood adventures of Hermes and Apollo: the
newborn Hermes steals the cattle of Apollo and then returns to snuggle down in his cradle,
while the infant Apollo performs the slaughter of Python while nestled in his mother's arms.
Consider, however, the difficulties involved in presenting a goddess as a child. In both
practical, and more importantly, social terms the female child constituted a completely
dependent figure on the grounds of both sex- and age-related status. Here, two quotes from
Aristotle are particularly illuminating:

There is a difference of character between the rule of the free over the slave and that of the male over
the female and that of the man over the child. In all of these the elements of the mind are present, but
they are present in different ways. For the slave does not possess the faculty of deliberation at all. The
female possesses it but in an indecisive form. The child possesses it but in an imperfectform.
(Politics,i. 1254 b 22-3)

Further,a boy actually resembles a woman in physique, and a woman is as it were an infertile male; the
female, in fact, is female on account of inability of a sort, viz., it lacks the power to concoct semen...
because of the coldness of its nature.
(GenerationofAnimals, 728 a 17-21)

In both cases the observation seems to be that the male child and the adult woman are
equivalent on account of their incompleteness. The boy, however, has the potential to develop
into a complete being. The female child, on the other hand, possesses no innate significance
because she embodies impotency and the inability ever to attain completeness. The adult
goddesses, as we have noted, both comprise mortal feminine characteristics and yet transcend
the limitations of the human female condition. Given the state of utter powerlessness
represented by the mortal female child figure, however, it seems well-nigh impossible to

92 On the status of, and attitudes towards, womeri in 5th-
cent. Athens see P. Schmitt-Pantel (ed.), A Historyof Women
(1992);D. Cohen, G&R 36 (1989),3-15; V J. Hunter, Echosdu
mondeclassique,33 (1989), 39-48; R. Just, Womenin Athenian
Law andLife(1989);E. Cantarella, Pandora's TheRole
Daughters:
and Statusof Womenin GreekandRomanAntiquity,trans. M. B.
Fant (1987);J. P. Peradotto and J. P. Sullivan (eds.), Women in
theAncientWorld(1984);J.Gould, JHS Ioo (1980),38-59; S. B.
Pomeroy,Goddesses, Whores,WivesandSlaves:Women in Classical
Antiquity(1975);A. W Gomme, CP20 (1925),1-25.
9l See e.g. N. Loraux, in Schmitt-Pantel (n. 92), 11-44:
Pomeroy (n. 92), I-I6.

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360 LESLEY BEAUMONT

envisage ways in which an infant goddess might transcend, as well as embrace, her limitations.
Could this, then, account for the discrepancy between the infant birth of the gods and the
adult manifestation of the goddesses? For while, on the one hand, the former possess the
capacity to develop their full divine power, the female child conversely personifies and
embodies a state of being incompatible with the nature of divinity.
Even the male gods did not long have to suffer the indignity of childhood. The ancient
literary sources relate that it was the gift of the gods, fed on nectar and ambrosia, to grow and
develop at an abnormally rapid rate and pass quickly through childhood.94 This is further
confirmed by the evidence of vase-painting since, although young mythological heroes and
mortal children may be represented at all stages of their development, from babyhood to
adolescence, divine children almost without exception are depicted as infants, and nearly
always as babes in arms.
In response to the question of why the childhood of the mythological Greek heroines is so
elusive, I think it is possible to repeat the solution I have put forward to explain the adult birth
of the goddesses: namely, that the double handicap of inferior gender and immaturity was
incompatible with heroic status. However, in the case of the Greek heroines there may be an
alternative explanation. This is based on the observation that while, indeed, infant and child
heroines are well-nigh completely absent from the extant classical Greek iconographical and
mythological corpus, older girl heroines by contrast do turn up as major figures in Greek myth
and art. I have already made reference to one such older girl heroine, namely Iphigeneia, who
is brought to Aulis on the very eve, supposedly, of undergoing the transition from girlhood to
womanhood via her promised marriage to Achilles. Another example of a maiden heroine
standing on the threshold of womanhood is the young Nausikaa, playing ball with her
maidservants when she is surprised by Odysseus, himself a mature man. Such older girl
heroines, unlike infant or child heroines, have already attained puberty and, significantly, have
therefore developed a potential for relations with men. And just as was the case with their
mortal counterparts, it is this capacity for interaction with the male sex that makes them of
interest to society. This stands out with particular clarity in the case of Pandora, who, as the
first woman, is presented in Greek myth and art at her creation as an accomplished and
developed maiden figure, richly blessed and educated in the arts of attracting and ensnaring
the male sex in the form of Epimetheus. Heroic and mortal female life begins, therefore, in the
sense of being socially recognizable, only once the state of potential sexual receptivity to the
male is attained.

SUMMARY

In conclusion, then, it is suggested that the notable discrepancy in classical Athenian art and
mythology between the representation of the birth and childhood of the gods and heroes and
that of the goddesses and heroines can be illuminated, at least in part, by a consideration of
contemporary fifth-century Athenian social and religious attitudes. It must here again be
stressed that no direct relationship is assumed between art and social consciousness: that is to
say, Athenian art of the classical period does not illustrateclassical Athenian social thought or
values. Nevertheless, art is the externalized expression of modes of visualization at an
individual and/or collective level, and it is these modes of visualization that are strongly
influenced by the social context in which they develop.

94 HomericHymn to D)elianApollo, I23-5; Hesiod, Theogony,492-3; Sophokles, Ichneutae,271-2.

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 MYTHOLOGICAL CHILDHOOD: A MALE PRESERVE? 361

In fifth-century Athens the social context determined that the female child occupied only
the very lowliest position in the social order. Contemporary religious sensibilities, meanwhile,
seem to have required that the gods in their infancy demonstrate that their divinity was not
limited by the dependency of the childhood state. Such perception of the nature and
manifestation of divinity was, it is suggested, incompatible with the totally dependent and
powerless female child figure, an incompatibility that led artists and mythographers to devise
for the goddesses the concept of adult birth. A rare exception to the general observation that
child goddesses are absent from the classical Athenian iconographical corpus is Artemis, who
apparently did infrequently appear in fourth-century Athenian art. Here, however, it may
perhaps be significant that it was in particular Artemis, of all the goddesses, who claimed a
special relationship with young girls: this can be seen, for example, in the ritual dedication of
their childhood toys to the goddess by girls before their marriage, and also in their celebration
of the cult of the goddess as Artemis Brauronia. Could, then, the occasional artistic
presentation of Artemis as a child perhaps be related to the peculiar and strong cultic
identification of the goddess with young girls?
In the case of the mythological heroines an alternative hypothesis to account for the
absence of the infant and child figure has been put forward. Here it is suggested that, unlike
the goddesses, who can exist independently of and without reliance on the male gods, the
heroines by contrast, closer in their nature to mortal women, to a large degree acquire
significance and a social status only through association with male heroes. And as this can
occur only once the heroines, like their mortal female counterparts, have attained puberty, we
therefore find evidence of the Greek heroines entering classical art and mythology in the
shape of developed maiden figures or as fully adult women.

BritishSchoolatAthens LESLEY BEAUMONT

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