The art of libation in classical Athens

Resource Information

The work The art of libation in classical Athens represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Bates College. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The art of libation in classical Athens

Statement of responsibility

Milette Gaifman

Creator

• Gaifman, Milette, 1971-

Author

• Gaifman, Milette, 1971-

Subject

• Greece -- Athens
• History
• Libations
• Libations -- Greece | Athens -- History -- To 1500
• Art, Classical
• Libations in art
• To 1500
• Libations in art
• Art, Classical -- Greece | Athens

Genre

• History

Language

eng

Summary

This volume presents an innovative look at the imagery of libations, the most commonly depicted ritual in ancient Greece, and how it engaged viewers in religious performance. In a libation, liquid-water, wine, milk, oil, or honey-was poured from a vessel such as a jug or a bowl onto the ground, an altar, or another surface. Libations were made on occasions like banquets, sacrifices, oath-taking, departures to war, and visitations to tombs, and their iconography provides essential insight into religious and social life in 5th-century BC Athens. Scenes depicting the ritual often involved beholders directly - a statue's gaze might establish the onlooker as a fellow participant, or painted vases could draw parallels between human practices and acts of gods or heroes. Illustrated with a broad range of examples, including the Caryatids at the Acropolis, the Parthenon Frieze, Attic red-figure pottery, and funerary sculpture, this important book demonstrates the power of Greek art to transcend the boundaries between visual representation and everyday experience

Cataloging source

BTCTA

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography