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Visual Humour on Greek Vases (550–350 BC): Three Approaches to the Ambivalence of Ugliness in Popular Culture

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Abstract

Ugliness, in a society obsessed with beauty was often feared and mocked, but it could also be used to criticise mainstream values. This was the choice made by Athenian vase-painters of the sixth to the fourth centuries BC. Mass-produced at the height of Athenian democracy, painted vases were an inexpensive and popular artform that offer us an amazing insight into the daily life of the great city. In contrast to other artforms often commissioned or too expensive to fool around with, vase-painters made a liberal use of parody, visual puns, situation comedy and caricature. The study of the visibility of ugliness on Greek vases opens a number of unexpected theoretical and methodological issues which help us better define visual humour in ancient Greece. At least three forms of ugliness were displayed on vases: (1) caricature, an intentional form of ugliness; (2) the inherent ugliness of physical deformity, foreigners, the elderly and the ‘other’; (3) finally, the construction of ugliness both physical and moral through the intrusion of a ubiquitous humorous mythological creature called the satyr in a ‘civilised’ society presents a third pathway to ugliness.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Abbreviations of reference works in vase-painting: ABV: Beazley, J. D., Attic Black-figure Vase-painters, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956; ARV2: Beazley, J. D., Attic Red-figure Vase-painters, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963; Add: Burn, L, Glynn, R., Beazley Addenda, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982; Add2: Carpenter, T. H., Mannack, T., Mendonca, M., Beazley Addenda, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989; (BA#): Oxford: Beazley Archive (BA) Database number; CVA: Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum; KH 1: Wolters, P. and Bruns, G., Das Kabirenheiligtum bei Theben, vol. 1, Berlin, 1940; KH 4: Braun K. and Haevernick, T. E., Bemalte Keramik und Glas aus den Kabirenheiligtum bei Theben, Berlin, 1981; LIMC: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae; Para: Beazley, J. D., Paralipomena; Additions to Attic Black-figure Vase-painters and to Attic Red-figure Vase-Painters, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971; PV2: Trendall, A. D., Phlyax Vases, 2nd ed. (BICS, Suppl. 19, 1967); RVAp: Cambitoglou, A., Trendall, A. D., The Red-figured Vases of Apulia, vol. 1–2, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979, 1982; RVP: Trendall, A. D., The Red-figured Vases of Paestum, British School at Rome, 1987.

  2. 2.

    Aristotle, Poetics, 1449a34–35. Common editions of ancient texts are cited in the bibliography; however, all translations of the Greek are my own.

  3. 3.

    See also Sidwell, From Old to Middle, 252–253.

  4. 4.

    Quoted and discussed further by S. Attardo, Linguistic Theories of Humor, 37–39.

  5. 5.

    Homer, Iliad, 2: 212–277.

  6. 6.

    Halliwell, Greek Laughter, 10.

  7. 7.

    A red-figure pelike in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, LOAN399 (BA 44463) attributed by Lezzi-Hafter to the Achilles painter, has a graffito under its foot ‘4 for 3.5 obols’, that is 0.15 ancient drachma or 1.05 euros for four vases. See Vickers and Gill, Artful Crafts, 85–87, Figs. 4.3–4.4.

  8. 8.

    Bourdieu, La distinction.

  9. 9.

    In recent years, studies of ‘popular’ cultural practices in the classical world have tried to redefine the ancient sociological landscape. See especially the works of Grig, Popular culture, and Forsdyke, Slaves Tell Tales.

  10. 10.

    On ways of distinguishing representations of masks worn by painted characters from caricatured faces on Greek vases, see Mitchel, Origins, 254–257.

  11. 11.

    Athenian red-figure askos, Paris, Louvre Museum, G610; (BA 2720). Provenance: Italy. 460–440 BC. Vectorised drawing © Alexandre G. Mitchell.

  12. 12.

    Athenian red-figure skyphos, Laon, Municipal museum, 37.1034; (BA 212122), ARV2 832.32, Add2 295. Provenance: Eretria (Greece); Amphitrite painter; 450–430 BC. Vectorised drawing © Alexandre G. Mitchell.

  13. 13.

    Aristophanes, Clouds, 102–103.

  14. 14.

    Baldwin, Philogelos, 43.

  15. 15.

    See Detienne, La mètis.

  16. 16.

    Boeotian black-figure skyphos from the Theban Kabirion sanctuary, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, G249; KH 4.67.409, pl. 23. 450–375 BC; Boeotian black-figure kantharos from the Theban Kabirion sanctuary, London, British Museum, 1893.3–3.1. 450–375 BC; Boeotian black-figure kantharos from the Theban Kabirion sanctuary, Nauplion, archaeological museum, 144; KH 4.67.405. 450–375 BC; Boeotian black-figure kantharos from the Theban Kabirion sanctuary, Mississippi, Mississippi University, P 116; KH 1.100K20=KH 4.67.402. 450–375 BC.

  17. 17.

    Apulian red-figure oinochoe, London, British Museum, F366, close to the style of the Felton painter, 350 BC; PV2 85, no. 194, RVAp 177, no. 94. Photograph © Alexandre G. Mitchell.

  18. 18.

    Apulian red-figure oinochoe, Paris, Louvre museum, K36, 360–350 BC, Circle of the Ilioupersis painter. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diomedes_Odysseus_Palladion_Louvre_K36.jpg).

  19. 19.

    Taplin, Pots and Plays, 37.

  20. 20.

    Athenian black-figure amphora, Syracuse, Regional Archaeological museum Paolo Orsi, 21965; Leagros Group; 520–500 BC. Digitised drawing after Perrot, Histoire de l’Art, 10, 210–211, figs. 136–137.

  21. 21.

    Bergson, Laughter, 2.2.

  22. 22.

    Dasen, Dwarfs; Dasen, ‘Infirmitas’.

  23. 23.

    See the chapter by Jessica Milner Davies in this handbook.

  24. 24.

    Mitchell, ‘Disparate bodies’; Mitchell, ‘The Hellenistic turn’; Mitchell, ‘Les handicaps à l’époque de Galien’.

  25. 25.

    Davies, Ethnic Humor.

  26. 26.

    Black-figure Boeotian kantharos from the Theban Kabirion sanctuary, Berlin, Staatliche Museen, 3179; KH 1.99K16, pl. 29.1–2, 50.11=KH 4.64.355. 450–375 BC. Vectorised drawing © Alexandre G. Mitchell. As explained above in the context of Taranto in Apulia, Greek democracy was no longer the monopoly of Athens: from the end of the fifth century and early fourth, Thebes had also moved from an oligarchic government to a democratic one. Statements based on Greek vases from different regions of the Mediterranean are therefore not invalidated because of their dispersion.

  27. 27.

    Mitchell, Greek Vase Painting, 208–209.

  28. 28.

    Athenian red-figure rhyton, St Petersbourg, Hermitage museum, 679; (BA 204087), ARV2 382.188 (1649), Para 512, Add 113, Add2 228; Brygos painter; 480–470 BC. Vectorised drawing © Alexandre G. Mitchell.

  29. 29.

    Galen, On the Natural faculties, I, 22.

  30. 30.

    Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters, 14.613d.

  31. 31.

    Fragment of a black-figure Boeotian kantharos from the Theban Kabirion sanctuary, Athens, National archaeological museum 10530; KH 1.103K44, pl. 15.4 = KH 4.63.320. 450–375 BC. Vectorised drawing © Alexandre G. Mitchell.

  32. 32.

    Snowden, Blacks, 161.

  33. 33.

    See the (non-exhaustive) bibliography on the representations of Africans in classical antiquity in Mitchell, Greek Vase Painting, fn. 90.

  34. 34.

    Boeotian black-figure kantharos from the Theban Kabirion sanctuary, Athens, National Archaeological Museum, 10429; KH 1.98K9, pl. 10.11, 44.4=KH 4.63.303. 450–375 BC. Vectorised drawing © Alexandre G. Mitchell.

  35. 35.

    Apollodorus, The Library, 2.4.6–7; Pausanias, Description of Greece, 9.19.1; Suidas, s.v. ‘Teumēsia’; Ovid, Metamorphoses, 7.762.

  36. 36.

    On humour as a revealing catalyst of hidden anxieties, see Mitchell, ‘Humor, women, and male anxieties’.

  37. 37.

    Homer, Odyssey, 11: 489–491.

  38. 38.

    Theognis II, 1021. See Greek Elegiac Poetry.

  39. 39.

    Babrius, Phaedrus. Fables, 60.

  40. 40.

    Demetrius of Phalerum, 262.

  41. 41.

    Athenian red-figure pelike, Rome, National Etruscan museum of Villa Giulia, 48238; (BA 202567), ARV2 284.1, Add 104, Add2 208. Provenance: Ceveteri (Italy). Matsch painter; 480–460 BC. Vectorised drawing © Alexandre G. Mitchell.

  42. 42.

    Athenian black-figure lekythos, Adolphseck, Schloss Fasanerie, 12; (BA 303575), ABV 491.60, Add2 122, Para 223. Provenance: Greece; Class of Athens 581; 510–500 BC. Athenian red-figure skyphos, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 1943.79; (BA 211723), ARV2 889.160, Add2 302, Para 428. Provenance: Spina (Italy). Penthesilea painter; 460–440 BC. Athenian red-figure neck-amphora, London, British Museum, E290; (BA 207611), ARV2 1571, 653.1, Add2 276. Charmides painter; 460–440 BC. Athenian red-figure pelike, Paris, Louvre museum, G234; (BA 202622), ARV2 286.16, 1642, Add 104, Add2 209. Provenance: Capua (Italy). Geras painter; 510–490 BC.

  43. 43.

    Aristophanes, Clouds, 1011–1020.

  44. 44.

    Bergson, Laughter, 1.3.

  45. 45.

    Shapiro, Personifications, 94.

  46. 46.

    Boeotian black-figure kantharos from the Theban Kabirion sanctuary, Bonn, Akademisches Kunstmuseum, 301. 450–375 BC. Vectorised drawing © Alexandre G. Mitchell. See also Mitchell, Greek Vase Painting, 248–279.

  47. 47.

    On the ambivalence of the satyr, see Lissarrague, ‘l’ambivalence’; Lissarrague, ‘sexualité’; Lissarrague, ‘satyres bons à montrer’.

  48. 48.

    Elias, Civilising Process.

  49. 49.

    Jørgensen, ‘taming’.

  50. 50.

    Aristotle, Politics, II, 1268b.

  51. 51.

    On the bearing of arms in ancient Greece, see Wees, ‘Bearing Arms’.

  52. 52.

    Aristophanes, Wasps, 1212–1217.

  53. 53.

    Herman, Morality.

  54. 54.

    Athenian red-figure skyphos, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 520; (BA 200611), ARV2 76.84, Add 83, Add2 168, Para 328. Epiktetos; 520–490 BC. Vectorised drawing © Alexandre G. Mitchell.

  55. 55.

    Athenian red-figure cup, Geneva, Museum of Art and History, 16908; (BA 11019), Add 88, Add2 178. 510–490 BC. Vectorised drawing © Alexandre G. Mitchell.

  56. 56.

    Athenian red-figure column krater, Munich, Antikensammlungen, 2381; (BA 202099), ARV2 221.14, Add 98, Add2 198. Provenance: southern Italy; Nikoxenos painter; 525–490 BC. Vectorised drawing © Alexandre G. Mitchell.

  57. 57.

    Simon, ‘Satyr-plays’, 130.

  58. 58.

    Brommer, Satyrspiele, 60.

  59. 59.

    Mitchell, Greek Vase Painting, 156–206. On the innocuous presence of the double-pipes player in the scene as well as on hundreds of other black- and red-figure vases featuring athletes and without the presence of satyrs or actors, see Mitchell, Greek Vase Painting: 188.

  60. 60.

    Compare to the giant dildo on the Athenian red-figure amphora, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 98.882; (BA 202711), ARV2 279.7, Add 102, Add2 208, Para 354. Provenance: Capua (Italy); Flying-angel painter; 500–490 BC.

  61. 61.

    Nietzsche, Birth of Tragedy, 18.

  62. 62.

    See Lévi-Strauss, Raw.

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  1. Department of Art History and Archaeology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland

    Alexandre G. Mitchell

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  1. Department of English Studies, Durham University, Durham, UK

    Daniel Derrin

  2. Department of History, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK

    Hannah Burrows

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Mitchell, A.G. (2020). Visual Humour on Greek Vases (550–350 BC): Three Approaches to the Ambivalence of Ugliness in Popular Culture. In: Derrin, D., Burrows, H. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Humour, History, and Methodology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56646-3_9

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