358 S. Rebecca Martin
Figure 24.1 “Skythian” archer on the inside of an Attic red-figure plate from Vulci of ca.
520–500. Inscription on either side of the figure “Epiktetos egraphsen.” London, British Museum
GR 1837.6–9.59. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
barbaric pharaoh attempts to sacrifice him to Egyptian gods, but the hero turns the
tables. An Attic black-figure amphora of ca. 530, for example, shows Herakles using a
priest to beat the pharaoh on his altar; the scene parodies representations of Astyanax
and Priam (see Figure 24.2;LIMC“Bousiris” no. 10; see Miller in Cohen 2000: 422,
n. 36; cf. an almost identical scene by the Persephone Painter of ca. 550 in London,
British Museum B 205, Woodford 1993, Figure 101=LIMC “Astyanax” 11; see
also Woodford 1993: 110, Figure 103; Mitchell 2009: 171; Walsh 2009: 79–89).
Miller uncovered two consistent and usual elements of the Archaic Bousiris myth.
The first is its emphasis on violence, which is found elsewhere only in scenes showing
Astyanax and another Trojan figure, Troilos (a shared theme of the violation ofxenia,
or hospitality, may be important). The second is the construction of a foreign context
through the conventions of Egyptian pharaonic dress (theuraeus; examples including
LIMC“Bousiris” nos. 7, 9, 29–30, and maybe 4) and, in a few instances, the linen
kalasirisworn by the priests (mentioned in Herodotos 2.81; cf.LIMC“Bousiris” nos.
9, 16). In addition to occasional markers of dress are consistent “African” physiog-
nomic markers: snub noses, fully and partially shaved heads, or coarse short hair. That