The Etruscan World (Routledge Worlds)

• Maria Paola Baglione –

chosen for the gable of the monumental Temple A reveals the same ethico-political tension
that conforms to the ideals espoused by Athens in the decade of the Persian Wars. The
sources recall that in the stoa of Athena Areia at Plataea, rebuilt by the Athenians after
the war, the same themes present at Pyrgi recurred in two frescoes: Polygnotus portrayed
Odysseus near the end of the slaughter of the Suitors, and Onasias depicted the expedition
of Adrastus and of the Seven against Thebes (Pausanias 9.4.2).
At Caere as at Pyrgi, the sanctuaries appear to be the recipients of the products of great
effort, the implementation of which certainly constituted an example of the technological
and stylistic innovations of the most successful ceramic workshops of Athens. The period
around the Persian Wars is one of the most innovative and fruitful, and we cannot exclude
the possibility that such demanding products were executed by famous masters upon
commission. Two hypotheses have been advanced on defi ning the personality of the
master who decorated the phiale: Onesimos (Williams 1993), to whom we owe the great
kylix from Caere (exhibited in the Caere Museum, sala Castellani), or the Brygos Painter
(Baglione 2000), certainly related to the fi rst period of his career, in that period of major
activity in the years around 480/470 bc.

Details of the Mesomphalic Phiale: interior

The banqueters are depicted in the pose of the “Banquet on the ground” leaning on
cushions but without couches; from above, moving to the right are identifi ed: A – fi rst
couple, with female fi gure with long, light-colored hair; B – isolated female fi gure to
left, with hair gathered in a sakkos; C –male couple, with diner on right striking the
strings of a barbiton (lyre); D – second couple (probably man and woman) of whom only
intertwined arms are visible; E – fl ute-player in transparent chiton who with melody of
a double fl ute induces a state of euphoria in the guest, depicted collapsed on the pillows,
his face frontal; F – fi nally, a youth who extends his right hand to stroke the chin of a girl
in front of him, followed by the body of another guest, isolated. Between the banqueters
other instruments are hung by cords (one lyre and one cithara).

Mesomphalic Phiale: exterior

The pivotal point of the representation is the detail of the decapitated male head that
has fallen to the ground (A) framed between the bloodied arms of two slain banqueters
dangling over the edge of the kline and the right foot of a fl eeing personage; on the left,
facing the scene, an armed man (lower part of his cuirass visible); at the extreme left
corner, alongside the leg of a second kline, one can see the head of another fallen man, his
face to the ground (B). The fragment which remains most clearly legible illustrates one
of the fi nal events of Odyssey Book 22, dedicated to the slaughter of the suitors: Odysseus,
despite the pleas of the haruspex Leiodes, cuts off his head with a sword he has snatched
from the ground: “and the head, still speaking, fi nished in the dust” (Odyssey 22.329). In
the following groups of fragments it is possible to identify other elements that emphasize
the ruthlessness of the massacre: Group B (left): two men fallen back onto a kline (the
arm of one can be seen), the second, wreathed, has his head on the ground; C – on a
third, broken, kline lies a victim (the color of the fragment is due to exposure of the vase
to fi re), while in front runs a man armed with greaves; before a fourth kline – D – from
which hangs the hand of another victim, a personage wrapped in a large, draped cloak