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0:02
(crowd chattering)
0:09
- Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Sean Hemingway, and I'm the John A. and Carole O. Moran Curator in Charge of Greek and Roman Art here at The Met.
0:19
First, I would like to acknowledge the generous support of Laura and Jack Winchester, which enables us to have a lecture here today.
0:26
Now it gives me great pleasure to introduce our speaker. Dr. Mario Iozzo is the director of the Archaeological Museum of Florence.
0:36
Dr. Iozzo is an esteemed scholar of Greek vase painting and has expertise in many other areas, notably ancient bronzes, and archaic Greek sculpture from Magna Graecia.
0:48
A prolific scholar, Dr. Iozzo has written over 70 articles and authored and edited numerous books and exhibition catalogs.
0:57
I want to mention just one now, "The François Vase: Rex Vasorum, a Guide," published in Florence in 2017.
1:07
Dr. Iozzo has participated in many different archaeological excavations, from Gortyna and Ayia Triada on the island of Crete,
1:16
to Palantion and Tegea in Arcadia, Greece, as well as at important sites in Southern Italy, Sardinia and Tuscany in Central Italy.
1:27
It must be said that Dr. Iozzo is also an outstanding human being and generous colleague, who has helped a plethora of international students and museum professionals over the years. I can attest to this myself, having been one of the many students who benefited from his brilliant thoughtfulness when I was a graduate student working at the Harvard Art Museums.
1:50
The latest outstanding example of Dr. Iozzo's collegiality can be seen upstairs in the Mary and Michael Jaharis Gallery for Greek art of the sixth to fourth centuries BC in the magnificent kylix on loan as part of our ongoing agreement with the Republic of Italy and which Dr. Iozzo helped us install yesterday.
2:12
The kylix is, of course, the subject of Dr. Iozzo's lecture today entitled, "An Enigmatic Eros in Flight, A Masterpiece of Greek Vase Painting from the Archeological Museum in Florence." Please join me in welcoming Dr. Mario Iozzo. (crowd applauding)
2:37
- Thank you, Sean, for your presentation. I'm flattered, thank you very much.
2:45
Beautiful Florence is famous for its 96 museums and monuments. One of them is the National Archaeological Museum, which occupies the palace of the Crocetta or Little Cross.
3:01
Its lovely garden was established in 1619 and it is still maintained according to the 1737 design by Francesco Romoli,
3:15
sorry, the same architect who created the grand Boboli Gardens of the Pitti Palace.
3:24
Our museum began in 1870, the same year that The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded.
3:31
The core collection of the museum was in place by 1855 when Grand Duke of Tuscany Leopold II of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine initiated the Egyptian museum, which remains an important component of the archaeological museum today.
3:50
This Egyptian museum displayed over 2,000 objects, mainly from the expedition that Grand Duke Leopold and the King of France, Charles X, had organized in 1828-29. This campaign, which was one of the very first international scientific expeditions, was led by the great French Egyptologist Jean-François Champollion and by his Italian colleague, Ippolito Rosellini, who is considered the founder of Italian Egyptology.
4:24
This large painting in our museum by Giuseppe Angelelli, the expedition's draftsman, depicts the leaders in Egyptian dress.
4:35
The finds from the excavations were divided equally with the Louvre and some extraordinary works arrived in Florence. For example, these reliefs from the tomb of the Pharaoh Sethi I, the same Pharaoh who took in Moses as his adopted son.
4:58
Excuse me. Yes. This famous relief of the goddess Maat also comes from the royal tomb.
5:05
By 1855, the core collection of the Egyptian museum was housed in the so-called Cenacolo di Fuligno, the monumental refectory of a Franciscan monastery in Florence, well-known for its splendid Last Supper painted by Perugino.
5:24
In 1860, General Giuseppe Garibaldi landed in Sicily following his departure from Genoa with 1,000 soldiers dressed in their famous red skirts.
5:38
Sorry, shirts. (Mario and crowd laughing) That would be a little bit strange at the time.
5:46
He defeated the Bourbon rulers, conquered the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, that is today Southern Italy, and most of the Papal States, as well as Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Then Garibaldi handed over Italy to the House of Savoy and so the Kingdom of Italy was created in March 1861, the first time Italy had been unified since the Roman Empire.
6:15
The capital was initially established at Turin, the city of the Savoys, but in 1865, it was moved to Florence, because it was geographically more central. And not only that, but also because Rome, which otherwise would have been the perfect location, was still under Papal rule. Florence maintained the capital of the Kingdom of Italy from 1865 to 1871. The Savoyard rulers decided to redistribute the immense collection of art and scientific materials that had been assembled over 450 years
6:59
by the Florentine dynasties of the Medici and the Habsburg-Lorraine. In this redistribution, the paintings remained in the Uffizi Gallery, together with the large ancient marble statues, difficult to move, that served as decorative adjuncts in the large rooms, as all of the minor arts, which ranged in date from the Middle Ages to 1800, went to the newly established Bargello Museum and all the ancient art went to the newly created Etruscan Museum established in 1870,
7:39
which was housed together with the old Egyptian museum in the Cenacolo del Fuligno.
7:46
Very early, however, it became clear that the Cenacolo was not large enough to accommodate the enormous quantity of art that belonged to the Etruscan Museum, which, despite its name, also comprised the collections of Greek, Italic and Roman art, as well as art from Magna Graecia and Sicily. In 1880, the entire museum, by then called The Royal Archaeological Museum of Florence, was moved to the large palace of the Crocetta, a historic building that first had belonged
8:24
to Lorenzo the Magnificent and which, between 1619 and 1633, was transformed into the residence of the Princess of Tuscany, Maria Maddalena de' Medici, the sister of Grand Duke Cosimo II.
8:44
Today, the Archaeological Museum is famous for its large Egyptian collection, one of the most important in the world. The rarities of which include the famous chariot from the time of Tutankhamun. This is the very same chariot, the only one existing actually in the world. This is the very same chariot that Cecil B. DeMille used as a model for the chariot of Ramses II in the scene of the parting of the Red Sea in his movie, in his film, The Ten Commandments.
9:16
The Archaeological Museum is especially well-known for the exceptional Greek, Etruscan and Roman art assembled by the Medici and the Lorraine. I have time only to mention a few of them. The other life-size head of a horse, a Greek bronze, once owned by Lorenzo the Magnificent.
9:36
The Minerva from Arezzo made in Magna Graecia around 300 BC. The famous Chimaera, that was at the Getty Museum a few years ago, the renowned Etruscan masterpiece made about 400 BC.
9:53
Its right leg bears the inscription, from right to left, (speaks in Etruscan), "votive gift" written in Etruscan. And the Idolino or the Little Idol, a boy who stands on a high Renaissance base, the total height of which is three meters tall or almost 10 feet.
10:18
Another Etruscan treasure in the museum is L'Arringatore, The Orator, a large bronze of the late 2nd century BC that bears the inscribed name of the Etruscan nobleman, Aule Meteli, who evidently became a Roman Senator. He raises his hand to call for silence before he speaks.
10:41
But perhaps, the most famous masterpiece of the museum is the celebrated François Vase, a marvel of Athenian vase painting and one of the most ambitious narrative experiments in all of the Greek art. Recently, the Francois Vase was installed in a dramatic new gallery, thanks to a generous gift from Jack and Laura Winchester, who donated their support through the Friends of Florence, a nonprofit organization that has graciously supported the Archaeological Museum in the last few years.
11:14
Those benefactors are with us today and so I take this opportunity to thank them personally for their steadfast support. I say this, not only in my role as the director of the National Archeological Museum of Florence, but also on behalf of the Italian Ministry of Culture patrimony, thank you very much. (crowd applauds)
11:40
Moreover, I also thank them for the renovation of our galleries dedicated to the Greek and Roman bronzes, as well as for the restoration of the room dedicated to ancient coins. As a matter of fact, the museum has an important collection of over 64,000 coins, mostly gold, that comes from all over the ancient world. 2,000 are now displayed in what probably was the bedroom of the Princess Maria Maddalena, of the Medici. Beautifully decorated with tapestries of the 1500s and 1600s
12:20
and a fresco of St. Catherine by Giovanni da San Giovanni, 1635.
12:27
Furthermore, I gratefully acknowledge the generous contribution made by the Jay Pritzker Foundation, Martha and David Slosburg and Paul and Anisa Belson, donations all given through the Friends of Florence, which have permitted the renovation of another jewel of the museum, namely, our very large collection of ancient gems and cameos assembled by the Medici and the Lorraine, which comprises more than 2,300 pieces, of which 432 are now exhibited in 34 display cases installed in a long gallery,
13:09
excuse me,
13:12
in a gallery long at 125 meters or 410 feet.
13:19
This permanent exhibition, which opened the last December, is accompanied by educational materials, panels, videos, and touch screens, all of them bilingual in Italian and English. So you are welcome whenever you like. (crowd chuckles) Apart from what we inherited from the Medici and the Lorraine, around 1900, the museum itself purchased other masterpieces, such as the Etruscan terracotta sarcophagus of Laerthia Seianti, an Etruscan lady, including the contents of her grave.
13:59
As well as the sarcophagus of the Amazons, the one and only example of a painted sarcophagus sculpted in Greek marble. Painted by an artisan from ancient Taranto, it held the remains of a wealthy aristocrat, an Etruscan woman who died in Tarquinia around 350 BC and who, as we know from the inscription on the lid and on the side of the sarcophagus, was the grandmother of a high level magistrate who commissioned her tomb.
14:34
Soon after that, the finds from the first systematic excavation conducted in Etruria also began to flow into the museum. I will mention only a few. The large tomb complexes of the Royal Necropolis that literally were filled with gold, silver, ivory and ceramic objects imported from every part of the Mediterranean, as well as thrones, chariots, carriages, cinerary urns of every form, large cauldrons adorned with animal heads and, incredibly enough,
15:12
hundreds of kilos of armor and bronze vases and ornaments.
15:22
At that time, the museum's director, Luigi Adriano Milani, also purchased everything that remained of the rich grave gifts from an Etruscan tomb discovered in 1882 at Orvieto in the Necropolis of Crocifisso del Tufo. The material had been recovered from a large two-room tomb that, unfortunately, already had been robbed.
15:50
The tomb was called the Tomb of the Panathenaic Amphora, because it contained a large black-figure amphora given as a prize at the Panathenaic Games held in Athens in honor of the goddess Athena. Prize vases such as these held about 40 liters or almost 11 gallons of olive of oil from the groves sacred to the goddess. As always, on one side, the sport for which it was awarded is represented. Here, a chariot race. And on the other side, the goddess herself.
16:26
On our vase, the champion stands in front of her about to present the ribbon of victory to Athena.
16:34
The amphora was painted by Lydos, Lydos in English, a painter well-known to us, and some of his most remarkable vases are exhibited right here in The Metropolitan Museum.
16:47
Our vase is something special in the history of the Panathenaic Games, which began in 566, about.
16:57
Made about 560, this amphorae clearly was a prize from one of the very earliest games. It is not surprising, therefore, that it displays features that only later on became standardized, such as the inscription, "ton Athenethen athlon," or, "Of the Games in Athens," written above the chariot rather than vertically alongside the goddess, which is the way it would be for centuries to come.
17:30
A few Etruscan bucchero amphorae made in Chiusi and Orvieto also were among the tomb's grave gifts, as well as parts of two small ivory chests including their feet, a handle in the shape of a little lion, and three plaques with scenes from a symposium and a deer hunt. These plaques must have covered an elegant cosmetic and jewelry case of an aristocratic Etruscan lady.
17:58
Other objects from the same tomb should be mentioned, too. A rare wine pitcher produced at Rhegion in Southern Italy,
18:09
two Athenian amphorae, one with lid, both decorated by the same anonymous painter around 530 BC, who is known today as The Affecter, owing to his idiosyncratic drawing style.
18:25
One amphora depicts the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus seated on his throne and the other shows an assembly of gods.
18:35
Other vases from this tomb include a large black-figure krater of about 550 BC,
18:44
as well as a rare type of wine pitcher with a bird-like spout. For the specialist in the audience, it's Beazley's shape number 10. (crowd laughing) On it, we see several gods welcoming Herakles to Olympus after the completion of his famous 12 labors. One of the goddesses is Hebe, who will become his divine wife.
19:10
Also, an eye cup decorated with a royal or perhaps divine couple in conversation and under one of its handles, a dog vomiting what might be wine. In fact, it is red. This cup is a work of the Painter of the Nicosia Olpe, always for the specialists.
19:31
The tomb also held a few stone game pieces, three alabaster unguentaria, seven bronze feet from wooden furniture and a small terracotta head. Outside of the tomb, the stuff for the horses. A horse bit, elements of an iron harness and part of a bell collar were discovered.
19:54
But the most extraordinary item from that tomb at Orvieto is our red-figure cup decorated in coral red, a special color only rarely seen on vases.
20:07
In common with other objects from this tomb, our cup fell victim to the great flood of the Arno River in 1966. The Archaeological Museum was heavily damaged and that required the restoration of the thousands of ancient objects that were broken by the violent inundation of the muddy and oily water.
20:33
Dated around 510, our cup is signed on both sides by the potter Kachrylion, an artisan who perhaps was a slave and whose name means "the little jewel."
20:46
He specialized in the production of cups and a number of talented vase painters worked for him, including Euphronios, Oltos, Peithinos, the Thalia Painter and the Hermaios Painter.
20:58
In view of his many collaborations, it is certainly curious that Kachrylion's three coral red cups, although signed by him as a potter, cannot be attributed to a recognized vase painter. Could it be that Kachrylion himself painted those exceptional cups? That's a question marks and no answer.
21:23
The outside of the cup is decorated with lively scenes of the deeds of Theseus, the legendary hero of Athens. Coral red was used on the stem and below the figures. On one side, from left, we see the terrible brigand Sinis
21:46
who lies on the ground and holds on to one of the pines that grew on the Isthmus of Corinth. He used to bind travelers to two of those pines, bent the trees down, and then suddenly released the trees like elastic bands, so that those unfortunate people were thrown into the air and simultaneously torn in pieces. Here, Theseus is about to give the brigand his comeuppance by inflicting the very same torture on Sinis, who, by the way, in ancient sources, was aptly called Pityocamptes,
22:24
that is, he who bends the pines.
22:29
The encounter with the Minotaur comes next. The monstrous son of the King of Crete, the Minotaur lived in the maze of the labyrinth.
22:38
Then we see the robber, Procrustes, who used to tie travelers to a bed and made them conform to its size even though that meant cutting off the parts of their bodies that didn't fit.
22:54
To punish him, Theseus forced Procrustes onto that very bed and he is about to shorten him (crowd laughs) with his hammer or axe to fit the length of the bed that will become his final resting place. A basin appear under the bed, having been placed there by the painter because of a lack of space in the next encounter, to which it actually belongs.
23:23
On the opposite side of the cup, in fact, another evil doer, Skyron, is being flung headfirst from the Skyronian Rocks, the cliffs overlooking the sea, that were named for him.
23:41
And in fact, we know, they were located on the road near Megara, because Euripides mentions this "Skyronides Petrai" in his tragedy, Hippolytus. From those very cliffs, Skyron threw into the sea anyone who refused to submit to his odious requests to wash his feet in his foot basin, which is in fact, is the one we saw in the previous scene under the bed. When travelers knelt down to wash his feet, Skyron took advantage of their vulnerable position and kicked them off the cliffs and into the sea
24:24
where magical turtles waited to devour them.
24:30
Next, we see the struggle between Theseus and Kerkyon in the center, in the middle. The mighty bodybuilder and King of Eleusis, who habitually challenged passers-by to a fight with the promise that he would give them part of his kingdom if they were to defeat him. But all those matches ended with the defeat and death of his adversaries, all of them, that is, except for Theseus who killed him and ascended the throne of Eleusis. Finally, there is the capture of the dreadful
25:06
fire-breathing Bull of Marathon.
25:10
You know, I think that traveling in Greece at that time must have been a real nightmare. (crowd laughing)
25:18
Our cup is considered very important in the history of the evolution of the subjects depicted in Athenian art. Some of the most significant changes in those subjects came about in that extraordinarily eventful period at Athens, the end of the 6th century BC. Those subject changes occurred just when the rule of the sons of the tyrant Peisistratus had collapsed and democracy was established for the first time. Consequently, it is hard to escape the conclusion that at least some
25:55
of those changes were intentionally political.
25:59
It was then that the deeds of Theseus rose to importance and the Athenian hero was seen as the symbol of the new democracy. Kachrylion has left us with is considered the oldest known example of the Theseus stories depicted as a single narrative cycle.
26:21
Later on, his deeds would be shown in chronological order, but that is not the case on our cup. Here, the encounters that took place between Athens and Troizen, the place where Theseus was born, are interwoven with the ones that occurred elsewhere, at Marathon and on Crete. This also explains why Skyron's foot basin is not located in what later would become its usual place, because the composition of that episode was not yet codified.
26:58
If you want to see a wonderful, real example of a podanipter, a feet-washing basin in bronze, one of these, very well-preserved, is on display on the ground floor gallery in the Greek section.
27:11
In this museum, I mean.
27:14
Our painter presented those six adventures of Theseus as a single unified narrative. Perhaps this came about because of the influence of the epic poem known as the Theseis in the ancient sources. That poem, too, was composed just after the fall of the Tyrants and it would have inspired Athenian artists to create images of the deeds of Theseus as a series. This epic, or perhaps I should say epics, because it seems that there might have been more than one, celebrated the iconic champion
27:55
of the newly liberated Athens, a heroic killer of monsters and the destroyer of bandits. In short, Theseus was the very incarnation of the democratic ideals of the Athenian city-state.
28:10
The inside of our cup is embellished with beautiful coral red glaze, very careful applied to the surface following the technique invented about 20 years earlier by the great black-figure potter and painter, Exekias.
28:30
Although coral red vases were fired in the normal way, which was a single firing with three distinct stages, oxidation, reduction and re-oxidation, we still do not know the exact composition of the coral red glaze. However, we do know that Exekias' invention was immediately taken up in the Athenian workshops of his colleagues such as Psiax, Skythes, Euphronios, Douris, Hegesiboulos and Sotades,
29:02
the major vase painters of that time. All of them used coral red and used it in different ways. Some even chose it as the background for some black-figure pictures. Occasionally, some might have modified its chemical composition.
29:24
The potter of our cup also adopted this new chromatic technique, which by his time already was well-known and well-tested. The inside of our cup depicts a young Eros in flight, without a doubt, the most beautiful of all the flying Erotes in Greek vase painting. His torso is frontal, his legs are in profile and his wings are rendered in an illusionistic perspective that in reality could not exist. Even so, the overall effect of the image is very satisfying.
29:59
The god really does seem to fly in the air as he holds the stem of what can only be a large lotus flower. Although some have said that it could be a rose.
30:12
Beside the lotus' association with fertility, the flower symbolizes beauty and desire and its blossom is a sign of the irresistible force of love.
30:25
Eros is surrounded by an inscription, "ho pais kalos," which means, "The child is beautiful," words that could only be fully appreciated when the cup was rotated. In fact, by turning the cup, the image of the god was transformed, because when the inscription was read, Eros himself was turned upside-down and he appeared to float in his magical, circular space. Imagine that you were drinking from this cup, you would see Eros flying through that rippling, rose-colored wine.
31:01
Our cup is also considered one of the oldest Athenian representations of Eros alone without his mother, Aphrodite.
31:13
In general, in this cup, the young god in flight has been interpreted as a possible reference to the sexual attractiveness of Theseus and in a like manner, his lotus flower has been understood as both an erotic symbol and as a reference to Theseus who seduced and sometimes betrayed many women, including Phaedra, Helen, Antiope and Ariadne.
31:41
In the last years of the 6th century BC, a new iconographic tradition developed in Athens around the god Eros. Official cults were instituted in his honor, altars were dedicated to him. One of them was in the gymnasium of The Academy, dedicated by the military commander, Charmos, who was related to the family of the statesmen, Peisistratos. Also a sanctuary of Eros was established on the north slope of the Acropolis, where he was worshiped together with Aphrodite.
32:17
Until now, the gracefully made image on our cup has always been interpreted as Eros flying over the sea. And the sea interpreted as referred to his mother's birthplace.
32:33
According to a version of the myth that derives from Roman sources of the Imperial period, but that surely must draw on much earlier literature, it was Aphrodite herself who, while rising out of the sea on her way to Olympus, gave wings to her young son.
32:54
Moreover, according to the Orphic and Pythagorean beliefs, Eros' wings were made of gold, as we also know from the poet, Anacreon and from the playwright, Aristophanes and as we see on this famous water jar in Florence, that was decorated by the Meidias Painter.
33:17
Now, speaking about the interpretation of Eros flying over the sea, I would like to emphasize that in all the other representations on vases, the sea is always clearly identified by specific, naturalistic elements. Waves, cliffs, fish or sea creatures, such as dolphins, octopuses, starfish, mollusks and shellfish. Sometimes even fish traps and fishermen were represented,
33:50
but not a single one of those elements appears on our cup.
33:56
So please take a good look at the so-called sea over which Eros flies. There are no waves at all and no sea creatures at all. Instead it looks the same way that land is usually depicted.
34:12
Therefore, I find myself in opposition to the traditional interpretation and I want to put forward a different idea that our Eros is flying between the sky and the earth.
34:29
Sorry. In the Homeric epics, Eros is not listed among the gods of Olympus, but rather, as we know from the oldest cosmologies, he is a primordial god who is the incarnation of the original creative force of the cosmos.
34:50
As such, Eros was responsible for the birth of the race of gods, as well as for the subsequent development and diversification of the Greek pantheon and ultimately, also for the stability of the world and its inhabitants. Plato's Socrates says that the word "eros" was a transformation of "ersos," from the verb "ersein," that is, he who flows into you, in you. Elsewhere, Plato tells us that the name Eros derives from "Pteros," meaning the winged one and in another one of his writings,
35:34
he explicitly declares that Eros is not a true god at all, but rather, a "daimon megas," a great demon, who was a powerful intermediary between God and men.
35:50
According to Hesiod's Theogony, Eros was "lusimeles kai kallistos," that is, he who melts your loins and the most beautiful of all the immortals. Moreover, he was the first to be born, immediately after Chaos, that is empty space, came into being. By virtue of his mere presence and force as a catalyst, Eros was considered the true originator of cosmic life and the irresistible force that is capable of turning the mind of gods and men upside-down.
36:33
And with that power, Eros compelled immediately Chaos to generate, Gaia, the earth and Ouranos, the sky. The reproductive power of Eros had an immediate effect on them and Gaia and Ouranos joined together to bring forth the entire race of gods.
36:58
Their first born was Oceanus, the primordial ocean that surrounds the world. And the last to be born were the Titans, the youngest of whom was Kronos, the father of Zeus and the progenitor of the family of the Olympian gods.
37:15
This aspect of the god of love as the generating force, the one who played the fundamental role in the unification of the primordial forces of the cosmos is found in various philosophical doctrines that range in date from the Archaic Period until the late Neoplatonism of the Roman Era. This aspect of Eros, however, was especially evident in the Orphic religion, which underwent a period of the growth in Athens at the end of the 6th century again.
37:49
According to the Orphic Hymns, a collection of religious poems that date from the 2nd or 3rd century AD, but which transmit much older texts, Eros was born from the womb of Chaos as a magic egg. In Greek, "ooion argurion" which means, "an egg shining like silver." The young god of love who jumped out of this egg was born with wings of gold.
38:20
And because he was the primordial firstborn and the most ancient of all the gods, he was called Protogonos, the first born one. He immediately revealed what was hidden inside the egg, namely the two halves of the cosmos, Ouranos, the sky and Gaia, the earth.
38:44
Accordingly, the love god also was called Phanes, he who reveals, he who shows.
38:52
Eros flew between those halves, and compelled them to join together to procreate and to bring forth numerous offsprings.
39:02
Surprisingly, an image of this very moment actually exists on a small carnelian gem of the Hellenistic period, once in the collection of Sir Henry Russell of Swallowfield in England, which shows the newborn Eros, the Protogonos, still holding together the eggshell's two halves, or rather, the two halves of the universe, sky and earth.
39:28
I believe that this is the correct interpretation of the flying Eros in Kachrylion's cup. Therefore, I would like to emphasize the following points. The cup was painted at the moment when Orphic beliefs flourished in Athens. Our Eros does not fly over the sea, rather, he flutters between the earth and the sky and he carries a lotus flower, a symbol of fertility, fecundity and procreation.
40:00
If my interpretation is correct, then this cup actually is the oldest known representation of the Orphic god Eros Protogonos Phanes,
40:10
whose power and the primogenial catalyst guarantees the unity of the cosmos as well as its internal harmony from which springs creation itself.
40:24
A remarkable and important detail lends credence to my proposed reading. It happens to be a detail that until now has entirely escaped the notice of any scholars and which, therefore, has remained unexamined and unexplained since the year of the cup's discovery in 1882.
40:46
I am talking about the fact that our Eros has no genitalia. (crowd chuckles) The first thing to note is that his right hand does not cover genitalia, although the finger prints are nearby, rather, it seems to focus us on that point, on that area. And by no means it is conceivable that this was anything else than a deliberate omission. And I will tell you why. We must bear in mind that the ancient Greeks did not share our modern obsession with the size of male genitalia. (crowd laughing)
41:24
On the contrary, ancient authors condemned their ostentatious display as vulgar and unacceptable.
41:32
We need only look at ancient statuary to understand that the genitalia were merely emblematic elements, necessary to indicate a figure's sex. As a matter of fact, on statuary and on vases, there was a more or less standard size for the genitalia. Nevertheless, they were never omitted. Obviously, they were necessary to indicate the sex of a figure and all the more so, in the case of love god, Eros.
42:03
This is certainly true for Greek vases on which the genitalia are visible in all representations of Eros and in all other nude male figures in flight.
42:16
Male genitals are visible, even when in positions that in reality would make it difficult, if not impossible, for them to be seen. I have examined more than 230 representations, and I have discovered that only two or three instances show flying boys or Erotes without their genitals and that is owing either to the perspective of the figure's orientation like turning towards the back or because the figure was rendered very sketchily.
42:53
Once again, we find that the Orphic Hymns emphasize the androgynous nature of Eros, who was conceived as an ambivalent being with a double nature. The Greek terms are "diphue" and "disomatos," who according to Orphic beliefs, had his "aidoia," that is, his shameful parts, which is to say, his genitals, "opiso peri ten pugen," placed in back, near his anus.
43:30
And in that case, when Eros was drawn in profile, his genitals certainly would not be visible, which is precisely what we have in our cup.
43:42
Moreover, the fact that the love god's genitalia were intentionally hidden from you meant that the cult of the Orphic Eros Protogonos Phanes was a mystery cult.
43:57
Over the centuries, Orphic beliefs spread into the Greek world and in Southern Italy and merged with the Pythagorean religion.
44:07
Later on, in the wake of their absorption in the Roman world, Eros Protogonos Phanes melded with the image and appearance of another powerful mystery god, the Persian Mithras, whose cult, imported from the Near East, became especially popular in the first centuries of the Roman empire.
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At that time, Eros Protogonos Phanes was represented as a beautiful youth with a scepter who arose from the two halves of the cosmic egg. He often was envisioned as a hermaphrodite who, because he came into being at the beginning of creation, possess both genders. He was endowed with golden wings, wrapped in the coils of the mystic serpent that symbolized the infinite and held a torch in hand because he brought light into the universe. And that is just how we see him
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in this Roman relief of the Zodiac in the Archeological Museum of Modena, Central Italy.
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Lastly, I would like to put forward, that's the last page. (crowd laughing) I would like to put forward another idea, one that could explain the connection between the Orphic Eros inside our cup and the deeds of Theseus on the outside, images that, at first, might seem completely unrelated. At the end of the 6th century BC, Athenian vase painters produced cups with pictures on the exterior that were, for the most part, thematically connected to the images of the inside.
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The pictures on our cup have been understood by many as if Eros, somehow, was connected to the love affair of Theseus.
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Unlike those interpretations that have been given so far, I believe that our Eros has nothing to do with Theseus' well-known escapades as a lover, because not one of those women seduced by him appear on our cup.
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Instead, I think that if we consider the cup from a historical perspective, then the god may be linked to Theseus'
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daring victories over monsters and bandits. As I have already mentioned, Theseus come to prominence in Greek art at the moment when democracy was established in Athens, which was the same period when the Orphic beliefs developed in the city and also when the cult of Eros rose to importance among the Athenians. Consequently, we can understand the deeds of Theseus as a metaphor in the same way that in Orphic belief, Eros was the powerful unifying force and harmonizer of the cosmos,
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so, too, was Theseus, the powerful hero, the irresistible force that civilized and pacified the Athenian city-state. In final analysis, Theseus' struggles against monstrous creatures and defeating violent brigands brought into being the values of the newly democratic Athens. Like the Orphic Eros,
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he brought into being the values of unity and stability of the cosmos. Thank you very much for your attention. (crowd applauding)
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