The antics of Helen of Sparta, famous both for her beauty and her adultery, have fascinated ancient and modern audiences alike. The subjects of her abduction from Sparta and recovery from Troy are explored in various ancient discourses. This study investigates the iconography of Attic vase-paintings, c. 550-350 BCE, that show (or have been identified as depicting) these two events in the life of Helen. My approach seeks to investigate their subtexts or metanarratives of emotion through a rigorous methodology. This process first involves engaging in a close reading of the vase scenes in order to identify their visual language, especially their emotional vocabulary. The second process contextualises the vases in the society that produced and used them. By reading them in their original context of production and reception, one can extrapolate a range of meanings these scenes could have had for their original audience. In doing this, there are two main goals: to establish which emotions are pertinent to the ancient audience in these two episodes (emotional content), and how emotions – in essence invisible – are communicated in the vase images (emotional language). Applying this methodology to the scenes yields significant results. The identification of the most typically emotional indicators includes the following: gesture; stance; gaze; clothing, physical attributes and icons; divinities and personifications; and contextual icons or information. The emotional content that emerges includes, in particular, the emotion of eros – its potentially destabalising and emasculating consequences – and the appropriateness of orgē and revenge. Another significant result is in relation to the traditional identification of the scenes. While most of the traditional identifications of Helen’s recovery stand firm, the opposite is true for the abduction. My rejection of the majority of images identified as Helen’s abduction by traditional scholarship is necessary due to a lack of evidence – inscriptional or iconographic – and the marked incongruity of these depictions with their context. These results demonstrate the merits of a solid methodology that takes the language of images seriously, as well as the social, political and ideological context in which the vases were produced and viewed.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: During the fifth century BCE there were three defining periods in Athenian history that challenged its society: the Persian Wars (490 – 479 BCE); Periclean Athens (mid-fifth century); and the Peloponnesian War (431 – 404 BCE). As the development of identity is a reactionary process, these three periods had a profound effect on the Athenian identity and led to the redefinition of this self-image along the primordialist models. Two premises are combined in this study. Firstly that comparisons to contrary ethnicities are vital to the development of identity, and secondly that the visual articulation of an identity is essential to the reinforcement and maintenance of this self-image. This can be applied to the development of Athenian identity during the fifth century BCE as reflected in Attic vase painting. Through a study of the "other" imagery produced in this century, with special attention given to Amazons, it is possible to see the development and nature of the Athenian identity during each of the three periods. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Tydens die vyfde eeu vC was daar drie omskrywende periodes in Atheense geskiedenis wat hul samelewing uitgedaag het: die Persiese Oorloë (490 – 479 vC); Perikleiese Athene (mid-vyfde eeu); en die Pelopponiese Oorlog (431 – 404 vC). Omdat die ontwikkeling van identiteit 'n reaksionêre proses is, het hierdie drie periodes 'n diepgaande indruk op die Atheense identiteit gehad en het bygedra tot die herdefiniesie van hierdie selfbeeld volgens die primordialis modelle. Twee stellings word gekombineer in hierdie studie. Eerstens dat vergelykings aan teenoorgestelde etnisiteite essensieel is vir die ontwikkeling van identiteit, en tweedens, dat die visuele artikulasie van 'n identiteit noodsaaklik is vir die versterking en onderhoud van die selfbeeld. Dit kan toegepas word by die ontwikkeling van Atheense identiteit gedurend die vyfde eeu vC soos in Attiese vaas versiering uitgebeeld is. Deur middel van 'n studie van die "ander" beelde geskep in die eeu, met spesiale aandag aan Amasone, is dit moontlik om die ontwikkeling en karakter van die Atheense identiteit gedurend elk van die drie periodes te verstaan.

Klíčová slova anglicky: woman, wedding, Attic vase-painting, South Italian vase-painting Abstrakt anglicky: The diploma thesis focuses on the search, documentation and interpretation pictures of women on South Italian vase painting concerning wedding ceremonies and the transition between children's age and maturity. Attributes, objects and divine beings, which together with the woman in the picture are occurring, are also monitored. Furthermore, this work describes myths that are recorded on the South Italian ceramics. In this thesis is also discussed the issue of connection between marriage and death in Greek society. Result of this work is to evaluate wedding themes in Attic and South Italian vases and to create a catalog of images with marriage motives.

Dans le cadre du programme de renouvellement des approches en histoire de l’art grec mis en place dans l’équipe de recherche PLH-CRATA, je me suis engagée dans une thèse sur « L’aspective sur la céramique attique du VIIIe siècle av. J.-C. au premier quart du VIe siècle avant J.-C. ».Ce concept, élaboré par les égyptologues, désigne une construction de l’image qui n’est pas régis par le procédé de la perspective. Les différentes techniques de représentation en perspective ont toutes pour buts de représenter la vue d’objets en trois dimensions sur une surface donnée, en tenant compte des effets de l’éloignement et de leur position dans l’espace par rapport à l’observateur. Les Grecs nous ont légué leur vision perspective avec des figures conçues depuis un seul endroit en un seul moment. Toutefois, ce mode de représentation ne s’est mis en place que très progressivement, entre la fin du VIe siècle et le milieu du Ve siècle. Avant cette période, l’art de nombreuses cultures est régi par les principes de l’aspective. Cette notion associe plusieurs points de vue dans la représentation d’un même personnage. Elle peut aussi regrouper plusieurs moments d’une même histoire dans une image unique. L’artisan représente les parties comme si chacune d’entre-elles était isolée, s’affranchissant du regard subjectif de l’observateur. Il y a bien dans l’art archaïque grec une aspective. Il faut en déceler la présence, mais aussi en dégager les spécificités. C’est à cette tâche que je me consacre, dans une thèse conçue avec des gros plans sur certaines périodes clés. Les résultats sont particulièrement étonnants, puisqu’ils mettent en évidence, dans l’art géométrique, une présence plus marquée des procédés perspectifs qu’au VIIe et VIe siècle, au sein d’une image construite, par ailleurs, selon des procédés aspectifs. Les résultats montrent ainsi que, dès le départ, les deux conceptions de l’espace graphique connaissaient des interpénétrations. / As part of the renewal program study of history of Greek art developed in the research team PLH-CRATA, I am carrying out a thesis entitled : « The aspectivity in attic vase-painting : 900 – 575 ».This concept, elaborated by Egyptologists, refers to the construction of the image in graphic spaces which are not governed by perspective. Aspectivity is a close but distinct notion of what Waldemar Deonna called "primitivism". The perspective vision is the one that is natural for us. All the different techniques of perspective representation have in common the intention of representing the view of objects in three dimensions on a given space. They take into account the effects of the distance and the position in space with respect to the observer. The Greeks bequeathed us their perspective vision with figures conceived from a single place in a single moment. This representation is at the origin of the spatial and temporal unity. However, this mode of representation only took place very gradually between the end of the 6th century and the middle of the 5th century.Before this period, the art of many cultures is governed by the aspective principles. This notion, belonging to semiology, associates several points of view in the representation of the same character, whereas in natural vision we have only one. The aspective can also group together several moments of the same story in a single image, which can be read in one moment. The artist represents the parts as if each of them was isolated, as an enumeration of the various characteristics of the subject, freeing themselves from the subjective gaze of the observer placed in a certain place. The works do not seek to show a representation in time and space, but to show what must be, even if the events are not linked in time. The image becomes more a construction than a representation.There is, in Greek archaic art, as in the Egyptian and Near Eastern arts, an aspective. It is necessary to detect its presence, but also to identify its specificities. It is to this task that I dedicate myself, in a thesis conceived with close-ups on certain important periods. The results are particularly surprising, since they show, in the art of the Geometric period, a stronger presence of perspective processes that in the seventh and early sixth century BC. J.-C. within an image constructed otherwise by aspective processes. The results thus show that, from the start, the two conceptions of graphic space know some interpenetrations.