Daidalos and the Origins of Greek Art 9780691241944, 0691035997, 069100160X, 3579108642

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L AND THE ORIGINS OF GREEK ART

Bronze figurine of seated helmet-maker, Geometric, eighth century B.C. H. .052 m. New York 42.11.42.

L

AN D THE

ORIGIN s OF

G R E E K A R T Sarah P. Morris

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS • PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY

Copyright © 2992 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Chichester, West Sussex All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Morris, Sarah P., 1954Daidalos and the origins of Greek art I Sarah P. Morris. p.

cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN0-691-03599-7 ISBN0-691-00160-X (pbk.) 1. Art, Greek. 2. Daedalus (Greek mythology)—Influence. I. Title. N5633.M67

1992 91-23831

700'.938—dc20 This book has been composed in Linotron Palatino Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources Second printing, and first paperback printing, with corrections, 1995 Printed in the United States of America 3579

10

8642

The Greeks, surpassing all men in their natural genius, first appropriated most of these tales, then dramatized them colorfully with additional ornaments, intending to beguile with the pleasures of myths, they embellished them in all sorts of ways. Thence Hesiod and the famous poets of the cyclic epics made their own versions and excerpts of Theogonies and Gigantomachies and Titanomachies,

which they circulated and thus defeated the truth. Our ears have over the centuries become accustomed to and prejudiced by their fabrications; they defend the mythology they receive as a sacred trust. . . which, having been wrought over time, has made its hold inescapable, so that the truth appears to be nonsense, and an illegitimate tale, truth. —Sanchuniathon, from the writings of Philo of Byblos: Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica 1.10.40

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PREFACE:

ix

A Reader's Guide and an Author's Apologia

xix

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

xxiii

ABBREVIATIONS

XXV

DAIDALOS AND THE LEVANT PART I. Daidalos and Daidala in Greek Poetry CHAPTER

1. Craft and Craftsmen in Epic Poetry

3

CHAPTER

2. Daidala in Archaic Poetry and Ritual

36

CHAPTER

3. Daidala in Classical and European Literature

60

PART II. Daidalos and Kadmos CHAPTER

4. Da-da-re-jo and Kothar-wa-Hasis: From Ugarit to the Aegean

73

5. From Bronze to Iron: Greece and Its Oriental Culture Aegean and Levant in the Bronze Age Greeks and Phoenicians in the Mediterranean

101 101 124

6. Daidalos in Crete Kaptor and Its Culture Minos and Moses

150 150 172

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

CHAPTER

7. Daidalos in Sicily: Greeks and Phoenicians in the West

195

VU1

CONTENTS

DAIDALOS AND ATHENS PART III. The Reincarnation of Daidalos CHAPTER

8. Magic and Sculpture

215

CHAPTER

9. The "Daedalic" Style

238

CHAPTER

10. Daidalos in Athens: From the Throne of Xerxes to the

Diphros of Daidalos

257

PART IV. From Daidalos to Theseus 11. The Great Transformation: History into Art Ionia: ov8kv 6fioia) etc., prefers the former. Cf. Lexikon des Sprache der mundlichen Dichtung," Glotta 48 (1970) Fruhgriechischen Epos, fasc. 10, ed. E.-M. Vogt (Gottin1-7; A. Heubeck, "Zum Problem der homerischen gen, 1982), 195-96, s.v. SaiSaX.609. Kunstsprache," MH 38 (1981) 65-80.

4

DAIDALOS AND

DAIDALA

"intricately worked," or "skillfully wrought" satisfy their meaning, encouraged by two instances as a verb for the activity of a craftsman at work. All ancient glosses and modern understanding of these words can be traced to their epic occurrences, which lend them meaning but also derive their narrative significance from them. A survey of epic SaiSaka in terms of metrical, syntactical, and thematic distribution reveals far greater powers of connotation than specific denotation. The most common form of these words in poetry is in adjectives; they account for twenty-eight of thirtysix appearances throughout the Iliad and Odyssey. Their morphology, identified by the -eos suffix, makes them material- or Stoffadjective, albeit of unfamiliar Stoff.5 Neither position nor distribution of these adjectives shows them to be traditional epithets fixed in a metrical formula; they represent morphological units of greater flexibility within the technique of composition.6 Since their greatest concentration is in the Iliad, and the artist himself is introduced in that poem, it forms an appropriate departure for this quest for Daidalos. The most frequent manifestations of this word family involve armor, the man-made barrier between warrior and weapon, and often the outfit accompanying a hero into death and glory—hence their concentration in the narrative of the battlefield rather than in the Odyssey, an epic of return, where SatSdXeo? never describes armor. Nor is it surprising to find eight out of twenty-eight occurrences in the Iliad clustered in Book 18, devoted to the armor and arming of the best of the Achaeans, Achilles. Most frequently qualified as 8at8d\eopT}£ or cuirass, an outfit once rejected as a historical anachronism until archaeology confirmed its Bronze Age existence.7 Paris (Iliad 3.358), Menelaos (4.136), Hektor (7.252), Diomedes (8.195) and Odysseus (11.436) are all endangered, at a moment in battle, by an arrow or spear that strikes them: Kcd Star flwptjKOS TTo\v8ca8akov T/ptypeio-To.

and pierced through their much-decorated cuirass. The practical assembly of armor in each of these passages has troubled scholars, who wonder how to wear dwpri^, fiirpri, and tjiivr\ (cuirass, belly guard, and belt) together, but their combination is purely poetic.8 The adjective is clearly fixed in an iteratutn for5 Leumann, Homerische Worter, 131-33, considers SaiSakeos but a variant of iro\vSalSa\opi7£. Such a belt not only reaffirms the Near Eastern connection but is conveniently illustrated by a corslet represented on a richly decorated ivory gaming box from Enkomi in Cyprus.18 Thus elements of Agamemnon's entire outfit could allude to a Near Eastern ensemble, a royal gift from the Levant enshrined in the poetic tradition and embellished by a recent Greek innovation, the Gorgon. This dazzling outfit, fit for a king and the leader of the Greeks, closes the repertoire of ScuSdXeos armor in the Iliad by introducing the most glamorous description of all, that of the "best of the Achaeans," Achilles himself. In his case, the request, manufacture, description, arming, and activity of the ensemble dazzle with the entire spectrum of forms of 8ai8aX- words, culminating in the introduction of Daidalos himself. Thetis arrives at the house of Hephaistos, built of bronze by the craftsman-god, and finds him making twenty tripods with golden wheels attached to their feet (18.372-79): rbv 8' evp' ibpoiovra. e\ur(r6fj.evov irepi ipucras, (Tirevdovra- rpiTroSa? yap kelKocri Trairas erev^ev eoTotfievai irepi TOIXOV kvoraOsos fueydpow Xpvcrea Se crip' VTTO KVKXCI eKaorcj) irvOfievi OT)KEV, (uppa oi avTOfiaroi, delov Svcraiar' ayoiva 7JS' awn? irpo a n d irepovr), that were gifts from his wife, even assuring her of the admiration they attracted from other women. Penelope's reaction is emotional, for she recognizes as (rqixara ep,Trs8a what the stranger describes. In his account, he dwells on the golden pin in detail (19.225-31): XXalvav iropv. TO 8e Bav/j.d^eo'Kov

k\\6v,

anavres,

a>S oi xpvo-eot. k6vreV VVV Kaipwv Sux^evovra (cat onrb TOV KaracrKSvacravTO1; AaiSakeux Kakovfieva. 4>Ko86(ir)cre K S. F. Bondi, "Osservazioni sulle fonti dassiche per la Colonizzazione della Sardegna," Saggi Fenici 1 (1975) 49-66. ** Bondi, in Phonizier im Westen, 370 (my translation).

208

DAIDALOS AND KADMOS

That this legend was an extension of Daidalos's adventures in Sicily is indicated by its Sicilian authority (Diodorus, or his source, Timaeus), by the fact that Daidalos is "summoned" from his legendary duties in Sicily, and in archaeology, where some of the first Hellenic elements (e.g., terracotta figurines, pottery) are related to Sicilian equivalents.47 In Diodorus's account, the first sentence describing his Sardinian works implies monuments of prehistoric proportions and fame that attracted the name AaiSdXeux much as did "Cyclopean" walls. Bronze Age nuraghi inevitably suggest themselves as structures likely to inspire legend and name, but the rest of Diodorus's description suggests another direction. Large and luxurious gymnasia, law courts, and "others promoting evSaifioviiq" are not only remote from prehistoric associations but introduce a Daidalos unheard of elsewhere: a designer of civic buildings. Such achievements on Sardinia complement those on Sicily: contributions to the life of a Greek city, structures for leisure and justice to match his defensive and hydraulic installations claimed on Sicily. These western Greek activities, once again, are explicitly "colonial" in inspiration, a symbolic imposition of the Greek way of life and thought on alien territory. But, as implied in the account of the statues removed from Omphake to Gela, a natural element of chauvinism colors these legends, introducing a Greek priority where others were present earlier. If native Sicels did not precede Greeks at most places in Sicily, other immigrants may have—in particular the Phoenicians. At Eryx, for example, Daidalos's improbable engineering works must be reconciled with the city's Punic history and classical fortifications.48 Even his elaborate gold "honeycomb" for the Aphrodite sanctuary at Eryx (possibly a Punic goddess, since Astarte of Eryx was worshiped at Carthage) suggests gold Orientalizing work, like the discoveries in the Sanf Angelo Muxaro tombs.49 Thus Greek sources on Daidalos's activity at the site present a weaker case than does the Levantine evidence. The site of Heraklea Minoa, an archaic Greek colony founded from Selinos, demonstrates Phoenician/Punic finds and perhaps even a Semitic name long before its Hellenic identity.50 Its Greek name celebrates two Aegean heroes as if to certify, doubly, Greek 47 As noted by Moscati, in Fenici e Punici in Sardegna phoras, Tanit signs, symbols, and letters, from (Milan, 1968), although more recent evidence and E. Miro, "Heraklea Minoa. Scavi eseguiti negli anni analysis include Etruscan and South Italian origins 1955-57," NSc (1958) 283 nn. 33-34, fig. 51; Culican, for Greek pottery in Sardinia (Davison, in SSA 1:73- in Phonizier im Westen, 110, on its Phoenician and Pu77). nic pottery. Its Semitic name may have been Ras 48 A. M. Bisi, "Scavi e richerche alle fortificazione MLQRT or "Cape of Melqart (Herakles)," especially puniche di Erice," Kokalos 14 (1968) 307-15. if Minoa place-names in the Aegean mean a prom49 See n. 25. S. Moscati, "Centri artigianili fenici in ontory? Another Semitic name that compares with Italia," RSFI (1973) 37-52. D. Harden, The Phoenicians the Greek colony's name is Malcara (Berard, Coloni(London, 1971), 80, on Astarte of Eryx at Carthage. zation grecque, 424). 50 Tusa, in Phonizier im Westen, 98, cites Punic am-

DAIDALOS IN SICILY

209

claims extending to the heroic past.51 Its foundation legends replicate those of Herakles and Daidalos in their competition with Phoenicians in the West. The Spartan "Dorieus" fails to found Greek colonies in Punic North Africa and in Sicily, where he revives the Greek claim to Eryx through Herakles but loses his life; it is his descendants who founded Heraklea Minoa.52 Minos's other Sicilian connection, the city of Kamikos imagined to be near the Cretan colonies of Gela and Akragas, likewise yields evidence of early Phoenician influence, in the Orientalizing metalwork from the Muxaro tombs (n. 25). The stylistic interpretation of the gold workmanship, now to be compared with new discoveries at Knossos and Lefkandi, is corroborated by the exclusive presence of Phoenician pottery in the same necropolis and the conspicuous absence of Greek equivalents.53 The effect of these recent views recommends a closer look at ambiguous finds from the Gela area, such as the earliest "Greek" import there, actually a Cypriote Bichrome IV cup of the seventh century.54 The same ware appears in Etruria (Pontecagnano), Campania (Cumae), Spain (Toscanos), Sardinia, and elsewhere in Sicily, all places associated with Phoenicians.55 While it could well have reached Gela via Rhodes or Crete, the colony's founding cities, its distribution elsewhere at Phoenician sites, and the Phoenician presence on Cyprus, allow Cypro-Phoenicians an equal if not dominant role in bringing the ware to Gela. Even Cretan pottery in the West, found widely outside the island's single colony, Gela, could represent Phoenician traffic rather than Greek.56 Greek pottery from Gela antedating its historical foundation date has been hailed as evidence of an earlier oi/ajcrts ("settlement"), suggesting why Thucydides uses EKTUTOLV and EITOIKOL ("founded" and "residents") instead offyKuravand OLTTOIKOL ("settled" and "colonists") to describe the early settlement of Gela.57 Likewise, burial customs identi51

Manni, Kokalos 8 (1962) 6-29; E. Sjoqvist, "Herades in Sicily," Acta Instituit Romani Regni Suediae 22 (1962) 117-23. 52 Dunbabin, Western Greeks, chap. 11; A. Schenk, "Dorieus," Historia 9 (1960) 181-215; G. Mastruzzo, "Osservazioni sulla spedizione di Dorieo," Sileno 3 (1977) 129-47; Boardman, Greeks Overseas, 215; Davison, "Greek Presence in Sardinia," in SSA, 1:189. 53 W. Culican, in Phonizier im Westen, 110 (red-ware jugs). 54 P. Astrom, "Coppi Ciprioti provenienti da Gela," Kokalos 14 (1968) 332-33. Cf. P. Orlandini, "Le pill antica ceramica greca di Gela e il probleme di Lindioi," CronArch 2 (1963) 50-56. 55 Etruria: Markoe, Phoenician Bowls, 146; Toscanos: Schubart, in Phonizier im Westen, 231 and MadrMitt 9 (1968) 86 fig. 6; G. Maas-Lindemann, MadrForsch 6

(1983) 955-57. Sardinia: see Chapter 5, nn. 69, 78. * F . G. Lo Porto, "Vasi Cretesi e pseudocretesi in Italia," in AntichM Cretesi, 2:172-88; Graham, CAH III.2, 95. Cretan art in Etruria: E. Lowy, "Daedalica Etruriae," StEtr 4 (1930) 97-100; L. Bonfante Warren, "Riflessi di Arte Cretese in Etruria," in Studi Luisa Banti, ed. G. Becatti and others (Rome, 1965), 81-87. Compare how Lakonian pottery in South Italy could represent Samians who stopped at Gythion rather than Spartans themselves: R. M. Cook "Die Bedeutung der bemalten Keramik fur den griechischen Handel," Jdl 74 (1959) 114-23; "Archaic Trade: Three Conjectures," JHS 99 (1979) 153-54. 57 H. Wenkter, "Die Ktisis von Gela bei Thukydides," Rom Mitt 63 (1956) 129^39; Barletta, Ionic lnfluence in Archaic Sicily, 239-64.

210

DAIDALOS AND KADMOS

fied as "Cretan" in Sicily could indicate North Syrian or Phoenician habits long adopted by Crete as native.58 Once Phoenician settlement, rather than forerunners of the Greek colony, is considered, a scenario of Levantine exploration, settlement, and influence as a prelude to the formal Greek colony can be imagined. In the early centuries of western Mediterranean exploration, as in the Aegean, communities of Greeks and Phoenicians appear to have cohabited peacefully and productively to the point of intermarriage, exchange of burial customs, joint industrial ventures and communications in letters. Such a situation is most plausible, even vivid, when documented epigraphically, as at Ischia.59 At this Euboian colony, one of the earliest and farthest north in western Greece, imports of Greek and Levantine origin match early inscriptions in Greek and Aramaic (some on the same vessels) that make the site a new candidate for the home of the Greek alphabet.60 Hellenic prejudice lingers in the tendency in modern scholarship to label those Phoenicians present IAETOIKOI, skilled craftsmen in Greek service, whereas the original commercial and industrial initiative could well be a sign of Levantine enterprise.61 The nature of these early communities is elusive, yet all-important to the development of social and cultural institutions that eventually epitomize Greek civilization (as suggested in Chapters 4-6). Only in the archaic and classical periods, with the rise of Carthage and its Punic establishments, did Greeks and Phoenicians experience division and conflict. These historical hostilities account for a certain measure of pro-Greek revisions of early colonial history in regions where rival claims to common interests were involved.62 This pattern—early cooperation dissolving into classical confrontations, producing abiding attitudes in literature—repeats itself wherever Greeks and non-Greeks coexisted in the archaic Mediterranean world. On Crete, the figure of Minos was admired, then reviled, during the Athenian Empire, and the figure of Daidalos served to appropriate the culture of early Crete into an Athenian past. In the West, the same figure asserted Greek 58

Rizza and Moscati in Kokalos 30-31 (1984-1985) 65-70, 1-22, on the kinship between Butera and Crete; see, Chapter 6, nn. 55—57, on Levantine burial customs in Crete. 59 G. Buchner, in Phonizier im Westen, 277-306, in section of the Cologne conference entitled "Phonizier und Griechen: Partnerschaft und Konkurrenz." Mysterious graffiti from Segesta, in Sicily, deserve a review in this context: A. Ambrosini, "Italica o Anatolica la Lingua dei Graffiti di Segesta?" Kokalos 14 (1968) 168-77, at one point suggests either Asia Minor, Cyprus, or Crete as the most plausible origin (p. 173). 60 Buchner and Coldstream, in Phonizier im Westen,

290-96, 269-71; S. Segert, The Origin of the Greek Alphabet (Los Angeles, 1977), 3. 61 For example, D. Ridgway, "Sardinia and the First Western Greeks," in SSA 2:173-85, identifies early enterprise in Iberia, Italy (Ischia), Sardinia, and the Levant under the rubric of "Euboian"; could it represent Euboian pottery along the trail of Phoenician activity? See now his L'Alba delta Magna Graecia (Milan, 1984), reviewed by L. Bonfante, AJA 91 (1987) 151. a As concluded by E. Manni, "Semites et Grecs en Sicile jusqu'au Ve. siecle av. J.C.," Bulletin de VAssociation Guillaume Bude~ (1974) 63-84. I am grateful to David Jordan for this reference.

DAIDALOS IN SICILY

211

claims and culture over "barbarian" ones, only after the classical confrontation between Greek and Punic forces. In this scenario, Daidalos played a handy role: his name attached itself with ease to monuments and their legends so that, like Herakles, his adventures grew in step with Greek ambitions westward.63 Moreover, his cultural value as a Greek hero of the arts who preceded the banner of barbarism also served a classical desire to see Greeks first and foremost in the development of civilization. All these patterns trace themselves more fully and profoundly in the homeland of Greek chauvinism: Athens. 63

U. Tackholm, "Tarsis, Tartessos und die Saulen des Herakles," OpRom 5 (1965) 142-200; D. Van Berchem, "Sanctuaires d' Hercule-Melqart: Contribution a 1' 6tude de 1' expansion phenicienne en Mediterranee," Syria (1967) 73-109, 307-38; A. Brelich, "Herakles, Melqart, Hercules e la peninsola Iberica," in

Minutal. Saggi di Storia delle Religioni (Rome, 1974),

111-32; C. Jourdain-Annequin, "Heracles en Occident. Mythe et histoire," DHA 8 (1982) 227-82.

Greeks and Phoenicians beyond the Pillars of Herakles [sic]: B.S.J. Isserlin, "Did Carthaginian Mariners Reach the Island of Corzo (Azores)? Report on the Result of Joint Field Investigations Undertaken on Corzo in June, 1983," RSF 12 (1984) 31-46; J. Fernandez Juraldo, "Die Phonizier in Huelva," and P. Cabeira and R. Olmos, "Die Griechen in Huelva," both in MadrMitt 26 (1985) 49-60, 61-79; Davison, "Greek Presence in Sardinia," in SSA, 1:187-92.

C H A P T E R

8

Magic and Sculpture

T

H E NAME VASE of the Foundry Painter spans the ancient biography of the artist Daidalos as perceived in early classical Athens, the focus of the latter half of this book. The interior (Figure 1) presents Hephaistos making armor for Achilles, watched by Thetis, the hero's mother: this occasion gave birth to Daidalos in Homeric poetry (Iliad 18. 590-92; Chapter 1). The exterior of the cup (Figure 58) is devoted to the manufacture of bronze statuary, the monumental art in which Athens excelled during the period of the cup's manufacture, and the medium with which Daidalos became associated during the same decades. Contemporary with the deployment of poetic 8ai8aka in classical tragedy (Chapter 3) was a far more important and innovative development in classical literature: the reappearance of the eponymous figure of Daidalos himself, in a guise partially derived from his poetic cognates but remote from his fleeting persona in Homer. The personification of Daidalos as a mythological artist was closely tied to historical events in Athens, which eventually claimed him as a native son. Attic drama is the first genre since epic poetry that preserves both poetic words formed on 8ai8a\- and the name of the artist himself, beyond the incidental allusions to him in archaic literature. His adventures form the main subject of lost plays bearing his name as title, like the Daidalos of Sophokles (frags. 158-64a, Radt: probably a satyr play) and comedies by Aristophanes (frr. 191-204KA), Plato (frr. 19-20 Kock) and Euboulos (frr. 20-21KA). Related dramas include the Kamikoi of Sophokles (frags. 323-27 Radt) and the Kokalos by Aristophanes (frr. 359-71 KA), both devoted to the Sicilian adventures of Daidalos, the Minos (frag. 407) by Sophokles and Euripides' Cretans, apparently set in Crete. According to Clement of Alexandria (Stromateis 6.752), the comedies by Plato and Aristophanes entitled Daidalos overlapped considerably in content (ja ak\7)k(ov aipaipovvrai), as if the legend was popular to the point of becoming repetitive. Crucial to classical conceptions of Daidalos was the role of Minos as antagonist: the Cretan figure once revered as lawgiver and ruler eventually became a frequent antagonist in classical tragedy (6 rpayiKciraTos nvdos: Plutarch, Theseus 16).l The dynam3

1

On Cretan myths in Attic tragedy, see K. Reck- came, 162, 231-35 n. 89; P. Ghiron-Bistagne, "Phedre ford, "Phaedra and Pasiphae: The Pull Backward," ou l'amour interdit," Klio 64 (1982) 29-49; Kokalakis, TAPA 104 (1974) 319-28; Haft, The Myth That Crete Be- "Icarus," 115-20. Cf. Chapter 6.

216

THE REINCARNATION OF DAIDALOS

ics of this antagonism that made Daidalos an Athenian hero will be explored in Chapters 10-13; this section will investigate the dimensions of Daidalos, the artist. The substance of Attic dramas about Daidalos addressed local historical manifestations of his legend; the surviving fragments of these lost plays indicate precious little about the artist beyond an emphasis on his Sicilian adventures (Chapter 7) as a sequel to those in Crete. That the artist's talents at this point emphasized architecture is implied in phrases praising builders' skills, such as TBKTOvapxo1; fiovaa (quoted from the Sophokles play by Pollux, 7.117 = frag. 159 Radt) and the verb apxt-reKTOvelv from the drama by Aristophanes (cf. Hesychius, s.v. reKTOvovpybs = apxirsKTOiv). Other talents tailored to Sicilian episodes, notably the famous trick with the sea snail, first appear in these dramas (Sophokles, Kamikoi frag. 324 Radt; cf. Apollodoros, 1.14). In the absence of complete dramas, later epitomes and collations by mythographers embroider these classical scraps into a complicated chain of adventures in Athens, Crete, and Sicily, well stocked with local personalities. The Athenian connection, new since epic and archaic poetry, is introduced at least as early as Sophokles' Kamikoi, whose fragment 323 implies an aition for Perdix and her sanctuary on the Akropolis (Chapter 10). But even Sicily may have entered the story via Athens, no surprise in a period when Athenian ambitions expanded west to include Magna Graecia. One of the earliest testimonia to Athenian preoccupation with Daidalos in Sicily appears in Herodotus's digression on Crete's absence from the battle of Salamis (7.170; see Chapter 7, n. 8). The Cretans justified this absence by citing past grievances against fellow Greeks (7.171). The Delphic oracle reminded them, they claimed, how other Greeks refused to help them avenge the death of Minos in Sicily, while the Cretans responded to Menelaos's expedition to Troy and suffered on behalf of Helen's husband. Valuable information emerges from this meager passage: in the aftermath of the Persian wars, the legends of Minos and Daidalos were located three generations before the expedition to Troy, linking epic to recent history in the same chain of causation argued in the opening paragraphs of Herodotus's work. Thus one aspect of the revival of Daidalos in classical times—his western Greek adventures—was inspired by a convergence of regional and historical interests: in this case Crete, Sicily, and the Persian wars. Obedience to historical concerns is characteristic of the shape taken by myth in the classical period, and the case of Daidalos introduces a phenomenon to be explored more fully in the book's fourth part. Meanwhile, other Athenian sources attest to another new contemporary concern, Daidalos's activity as sculptor and architect. A cluster of testimonia implicates poets, philosophers, and artists alike in this new topos, making it difficult to determine whether his renascense as an artist was sponsored in serious, professional circles of sculptors and philosophers, or through popular exaggerations of his legendary talents.2 2

Thus E. Kunze, in "Zu den Anfangen der griechischen Plastik," AthMitt 55 (1930) 141, describes one

reference as "gleichfalls zum literarischen TOITOS gewordenen, vielleicht von Euripides oder von der K6-

MAGIC AND SCULPTURE

217

Both these traditions, learned and light-hearted, might reflect a more official promotion of his persona under the same historical circumstances that elevated Hephaistos to a leading Attic cult. Under these auspices, the figure of Daidalos reappears in Greek literature, when new intellectual preoccupations encouraged a reconstruction of his epic personality. The discussion that follows will examine imagery in poetry and prose that evokes the authority of Daidalos, its possible connections to a more learned and technical branch of debate, and the sum of these implications for the classical image of the artist. A major proportion of classical references to Daidalos and his art are humorous, whether in comedies and satyr plays or in philosophy. They extend a metaphor made literal into a visible phenomenon, especially amusing on stage: the animation of statues as a metaphysical, aesthetic, and ultimately comic phenomenon. One reason the dramatic stage made an important contribution to the classical obsession with sculpture was the popularity of the sanctuary as a setting for Greek tragedy, hence frequency of statues on stage.3 Episodes of supplication, prayer, purification, oracular consultation, and crucial encounters took place among altars and statues, according to illustrations of drama.4 Ritual interaction with statues in tragedy inevitably inspired parodies in satyr plays and comedy, where conversant and active statues became a popular topos.5 Many of the comic effects of this topos were no doubt transmitted in stage action now lost, and what was once a visual gag has become an artificial problem for scholarship. Among these jokes, Daidalos may have been particularly popular precisely because his oeuvre was conveniently vague, and his reputation for magic statues securer than for attested works. The earliest such testament is in a satyr play by Aeschylus called Theoroi or Isthmiastai.6 In a scene set in a sanctuary, the satyrs exclaim at the sight of what seem to be their own portraits (frag. 78, 6-7, 11-17): 6

el8a>kov elvai TOVT' kp/f) fjx>p