#a level classics

[casskeeps]

hermes and dionysus

basic information

name: hermes and dionysus

date: 343 bce

artist: praxiteles

size: over life-size

location: olympia

original, reconstruction, or copy: marble, only copies remain

subject matter

the sculpture depicts hermes with the infant dionysus - another anthropomorphisation of gods. we're not quite sure what hermes was holding, but it's commonly believed to be grapes.

context

praxiteles was part of a movement back to marble sculpture, but he was renowned for his polishing of the marble - it increased the luminosity and shine of the sculpture. this statue can be considered a culmination of late classical features - contrapposto, naked male statues, anthropomorphisation of gods, and sensitive treatment of both anatomy and drapery.

composition

both figures are in contrapposto - a very common pose for the period, but the stance is adapted to become more serpentine; the praxitelean s-curve

hermes' arm that extends out and upwards, potentially holding a bunch of grapes, has broken off - this is an example of sculptors choosing unsuitable poses for their material, as the low tensile strength of marble is not suitable for the positioning of the arms so far away, especially without any possibilities for bridging and support

speaking of support, the arm that holds the infant dionysus is supported by a large pillar of draped fabric - this is done to mask the support underneath, and is mostly successful, except for the bridge between his left hip and the support pillar

the anatomy of the figures is largely typical of the period, with musculature created by gently rounded planes such as the calves and thighs, but also exaggerated in places such as the iliac crest

praxiteles imitates the radiance and softness of skin by polishing the statue, but fails to apply this treatment to the whole statue - the back is not as finely finished, making the sculpture appear frontal

the faces, again, lack much emotion.

the eyebrows do not really exist? there is a clear depiction of the browbone, but the actual eyebrows as entities do not appear on the face

the bone structure on the face is gently carved, and the curved planes of forms such as the jaw and cheekbones make the face more aesthetically pleasing and naturalistic.

the proportions are pretty solid, as to be expected in late classical sculpture

the drapery used to mask the support pillar utilises numerous catenary folds in order to demonstrate the effect of gravity on the fabric

scholars

boardman: "the relaxed langour of the figure just stops short of effeminacy to our eyes"

osborne: "aggressively three-dimensional drapery"

osborne: "it is wit, rather than tradition, that surely lies behind the choice of subject: the young god of wine is made to show precocious interest in the fruit of the vine"

extra information

museum of olympia

[rippilie]

Me and my classics class walking into the exam on Tuesday knowing that Odyssey is a Mario game

[meraisun]

crouches uncrouches like minecraft. classics gang

a fellow classics student! hello! i swear, classics is too cool of a subject to be so underrated.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

the fact that shakespeare was a playwright is sometimes so funny to me. just the concept of the "greatest writer of the English language" being a random 450-year-old entertainer, a 16th cent pop cultural sensation (thanks in large part to puns & dirty jokes & verbiage & a long-running appeal to commoners). and his work was made to be watched not read, but in the classroom teachers just hand us his scripts and say "that's literature"

just...imagine it's 2450 A.D. and English Lit students are regularly going into 100k debt writing postdoc theses on The Simpsons screenplays. the original animation hasn't even been preserved, it's literally just scripts and the occasional SDH subtitles.txt. they've been republished more times than the Bible

[bixels]

I'm not explaining why re-imagining characters as POC is not the same as white-washing, here of all places should fucking understand.

[otlwoozi]

MAMA 2024 ALBUM DAESANG - FML

[iasminomarata]

quartz quadrant 💎✨

[corallapis]

[clowns0cks]

"the master Is too unserious now we want a master like the classic ones" ok so you want sad wet pathetic cats with pathetic plans that are gonna beg the doctor to save them as soon a little inconvenience happens. Ok I agree bring back roger delgado and anthony ainley's level of loser NOW

[anxious-lorf]

The World Ends With You is a veritable goldmine for out-of-context screenshots

[n64retro]

Sonic Adventure 2: Battle

Sonic Team / Sega Gamecube 2002

[casskeeps]

new york kouros

basics

name: new york kouros

date: 590-580 bce (early archaic)

artist: unknown

function: attic grave marker

size: ~195cm - about life size

original, reconstructed, or copy: original naxian marble

subject matter

this statue is a kouros: a statue of a nude male figure. number one thing to remember is that most kouroi are not supposed to depict real people - instead, they are more of a representation of idealised youth.

context

beginning of the archaic period ! this statue is the product of a process called orientalising: the process where egyptian artistic features are assimilated into greek art. the greeks first came into contact with egyptians in around 660 bce, and the influence of egyptian art is very clearly visible in the new york kouros (elaboration in stylistic features).

composition

the pose of the statue is highly rigid, and appears to sacrifice naturalism of anatomy for structural integrity. this is most evident in the "impossible twist" in the wrists, and the positioning of the feet.

the wrists are profile, flat next to the thigh (although bridged by a support), despite the elbow and inner forearms being frontal and facing the viewer. while this allows for sounder support between the hands and thighs, making the arms harder to break off, it detracts from the naturalism by depicting an anatomically improbable positioning of the hand and wrist in relation to the rest of the arm.

the feet, while not anatomically impossible, also demonstrate a sacrifice of naturalism for balance and structure; the pose of the kouros emulates a person walking, but it lacks the naturalism of the action. this effect is created by the straightened legs (there is no bend in the knee joint), and the flattened feet. the flat feet and rigid legs create an impression of stillness, as opposed to the shift of weight shown by later statues by the raising of the heel of the foot.

the anatomy of the face and head also demonstrate the common difficulties depicting humans in archaic sculpture; the ears are created using a volute shape for the shell of the ear, and the eyes are a stylised almond shape and oversized for the face. the use of abstract shapes to depict natural forms can be referred to as geometricism, and the oversized eyes can be referred to as "insectoid".

the kouros has a relatively emotionless face; it has an archaic smile in order to give it more of an impression of life, but the rest of the face doesn't respond to the muscles. this is what makes the archaic smile unsettling and almost inhuman to many viewers - it lacks proper interaction between muscles.

the proportions of the statue also demonstrate the effects of geometricism on archaic greek art; the torso is much wider at the shoulders than at the hips and waist, creating a triangle shape to represent the form of the upper body. the entire body is slender, and the digits are much longer than human digits - this is particularly evident in the toes, which are noticeably lengthened.

stylistic features

this kouros is highly typical of the archaic period, particularly the early archaic period - it is highly influenced by both geometricism and egyptian art.

the anatomy has many features of archaic period - particularly the abstract shapes used to represent the more complex natural forms. these include volutes in the representation of the ears, gull-wings (like m and w shapes) in the pectorals, eyebrows, and knees, and chevrons (v shapes) in the elbows, knees, iliac crest, and to represent the bottom of the ribcage.

the subject is also highly typical of the archaic period, as a nude male figure (a kouros), but it's important to note that the nude male figure perseveres through greek sculpture, even to the late classical period and beyond

scholars

harris and zucker: "the lack of contrapposto, the symmetry, does place him in some ways firmly in a world that is not ours"

osborne: "this kouros is particularly important, not only for the fine details, but also for its proportions"

extra information

khan academy

the metropolitan museum

smarthistory

[scatterpatter]

MEGAMAN FANS HOW WE FEELIN-

[meraisun]

Hello there. Hope you're having a great day. I read my IGCSEs in January, but moved to the UK to read A-levels at college in September. I've applied to read Classics, Philosophy, Economics and Politics. For Classics, my college is doing Option C - World of the Hero 💪, Greek Theatre and Politics of the Late Republic. Do you think I can read non-prescribed plays for Greek Theatre? I find Sophocles really boring 😭😭 Your blog layout is so pretty btw!

ayy! we almost do the exact same topics except i do greek religion instead of politics of the late republic (i like religion, but i think polr is better in almost every way 💀). congrats on your igcses and good luck with starting your a-levels this autumn!

to answer your question, you have to read the prescribed plays (that's euripides' bacchae, sophocles' oedipus the king and aristophanes' frogs), but you can read other non-prescribed plays and you do get marks for making relevant use of them in your answers. just make sure you don't neglect/completely ignore the prescribed plays, you have to talk about them in your answers!

i think sophocles just takes some getting used to. i'd recommend reading some of his other works (can't recommend ajax enough) to get used to his style of writing. you may also want to listen to his works as audiobook or change the translation you're reading (if you're not already reading the fagles translation, i'd recommend getting it).

aside from sophocles, i'd recommend reading:

hippolytus by euripides (prolly my favourite greek tragedy and has alot of parallels with bacchae).

medea by euripides (it's very different from alot of the surviving tragedies in terms of structure. there's a really good production of it on youtube. the actress that plays medea is perfect).

helen by euripides (a greek tragedy with a happy ending and it features helen and menelaus!)

the oresteia by aeschylus (aeschylus' trilogy is just amazing in every way, but aeschylus is really fond of his choruses which may be boring).

lysistrata by aristophanes (currently reading this and the fact that aristophanes' comedies remain funny 2400 years after he died is crazy).

thesmophoriazusae by aristophanes (produced the same year as lysistrata and just as funny + features aristophanes taking the utter piss of euripides).

[pennzance]

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!

[felinefractious]

Richson on the Level of Blueyonder

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