Greek Verse on a Vase by Douris

by David Sider

Hesperia, Volume 79, Issue 4
Page(s): 541-554
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41012854
Year: 2010
VIEW ONLINE

ABSTRACT:

A schoolroom scene on an Attic red-figure kylix painted by Douris (Berlin, Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen 2285) presents two interdependent problems of reading. One concerns the text on the scroll held up by the teacher: is it in hexameters or lyric, and is it part of a preexisting poem or an ad hoc composition by the painter? The second problem is iconographical: how is the viewer to interpret the action? Here it is argued that the verse is meant to be an epic hexameter and that its mistakes are to be attributed to the student, rather than to Douris.