Aeschylus. Aeschylus II: The Suppliant Maidens, The Persians, Seven Against Thebes, Prometheus Bound. Translated by Seth G. Benardete. Edited by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
Aeschylus: The Suppliant Maidens
Primary Source: Codex Laurentianus 32.9 (commonly referred to as Manuscript M).
Location: Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana, Florence, Italy.
Date: Produced c. 1000–1050 AD.
Significance: This is the “fountainhead” for Aeschylus. It is a high-quality parchment codex that arrived in Italy in 1423. The Suppliant Maidens and The Libation Bearers survive almost exclusively through this single tradition.
For an art history perspective, these works analyze the iconography of the Danaids (Aeschylus) and the architectural/religious setting of Eleusis (Euripides).
Scholarly Citations
Papadopoulou, Thalia. Aeschylus: Suppliants. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2011. (Focuses on the “Danaid Myth” in archaic poetry and visual transitions to the classical stage).
Oliver, J. H. “The Marathonian Bull of Theseus and the Suppliants.” American Journal of Philology 101, no. 1 (1980): 30–35. (Discusses the intersection of political iconography and the Athenian stage).
Vermeule, Emily. “The Danaids and the Barrel of the Danaids.” Art and Culture of Ancient Greece. Edited by Jeffrey Hurwit. (Analyzes the shift from Aeschylus’s heroic suppliants to the later artistic motif of the Danaids punished in the underworld)
On the featured image:
Artist: Attributed to The Danaid Painter
Title: Hydria (water jar) showing three of the Danaids in the Underworld
Museum: British Museum, London
Museum Number: 1867,0508.1339 (also listed as Vase F210)
Culture/Period: Campanian (Red Figure)
Date: c. 340 BC – 320 BC
Findspot: Avella, Italy (Province of Avellino)
Material: Pottery
Link: British Museum Collection – 1867,0508.1339
Provenance
The vessel was previously part of the collection of Louis, Duc de Blacas d’Aulps. It was acquired by the British Museum in 1867.
Art History Scholarly Articles
The following works provide art historical analysis on the Danaid Painter and the iconography of the Danaides within South Italian vase painting.
Trendall, A. D. “The Danaid Painter.” In The Red-Figured Vases of Lucania, Campania and Sicily, 428–432. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967.
This serves as the definitive stylistic catalog for the painter, establishing the “Danaid Group” within the AV (Arezzo/Vianola) sequence of Campanian pottery.
Vermeule, Emily. “The Danaids and the Barrel of the Danaids.” In The Mirror of the Past, edited by Jeffrey M. Hurwit. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980.
Vermeule examines the transition of the Danaid myth from epic poetry to its specific visual representation in Greek and South Italian funerary art.
Schauenburg, Konrad. “Unterweltbilder aus Unteritalien.” Römische Mitteilungen 91 (1984): 359–387.
A critical study of “Underworld scenes” (Katabasis) in South Italian pottery, providing context for how the Danaids were depicted as eternal water-carriers in a funerary context.
Walters, H. B. Catalogue of the Greek and Etruscan Vases in the British Museum: Vol. IV, Vases of the Latest Period. London: British Museum, 1896. (Ref: F210).The original museum catalog entry providing technical descriptions and the initial 19th-century art historical assessment of the piece.
