What can we learn from violent depictions of myth?
written by Emily Mifsud
Through our recent research into Pompeiian wall art, it is obvious the famous city’s citizens had a fascination with scenes from Greek mythology. Some of the more common scenes included prominent love stories, deaths, and interactions of gods and heroes.
What piqued my interest as I studied the repeated scenes was how differently one artist interprets the myth from another rendition in a separate house. One that stuck out to me was a certain rendition in a private dwelling (r9-i5-p6-space-d North wall) of the story of Helle falling from the golden ram during her and Phryxus’ escape across the sea. Usually, this story is depicted visually (as in the image below) as Helle falling off the flying ram, with cupids surrounding her as she falls, and with little to no explanation as to how she comes to fall. In this house, however, the ram and Phryxus are depicted at sea level, with Helle being drowned by a group of tritons and tritonesses, seemingly at the behest of Poseidon. Helle has been drawn to look very distressed, with an arm above her head waving for help from her brother, who sits upon the ram seemingly “indifferent to the drama taking place so close to him” (Carratelli et al, Pompei: pitture e mosaici (Rome, 1999) vol. 9, p. 415. Translated from Italian).
Book illustration from 1902 or earlier of a Pompeiian Fresco depicting Helle's fall from the ram. Phrixus reaches to save her but inevitably Helle drowns and gives her name to the crossing point known as Hellespont.
J. C. Andrä, Griechische Heldensagen für die Jugend bearbeitet (Berlin, 1902). Image: wikimedia.
A second example of this dramatic turn from traditional renditions is in this fresco from the House of Jason (r9-i5-p18-space-g north wall). Here, Hercules has forced Nessus to a submissive kneel holding his hair/head while Deianira remains in her chariot. As the story goes, we know that Nessus tries to rape Deianira after their crossing of the Euneos river, but in this depiction this hasn’t happened yet. The artist here is seeming to imply that Hercules is pre-emptively threatening Nessus. Is this to show Hercules’ possessiveness of Deianira? Or perhaps that he somehow suspects Nessus’ intentions? It is hard to tell, obviously, without some explanation from the artist. But the message does not really matter here, rather what matters is that this artist, for whatever reason, has decided to make a significant enough departure from tradition that they have completely reframed the context of the story.
Nessus attempts to take Deianira from Hercules. Etching by Antonio Tempesta 1608. Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. 2012.136.425.4) Nessus has captured Deinanira on his back as he is chased by an armed Heracles.
So, what does this mean? It obviously doesn’t take away from the rather concrete interpretations presented in our source texts (Iliad, Odyssey, etc), but it does suggest that it was acceptable to make some changes to the context or details of a story, at least in Pompeii. Were these artists trying to portray a more ‘realistic’ version of these stories, or portray its subjects as more malevolent? Perhaps these artists were of a particular school or doctrine which aimed to subvert the traditional storytelling of the myths. Maybe the owners of these houses wanted to have something different to their neighbours. These are not new questions however, and likely will never be answered. Any further understanding or clarification we can infer from these images brings us one step closer, though. So, what can we answer with these? Well, an absence of significant departures from traditional myth would suggest these images and stories were held as sacred in society, whereas with these alternative depictions, this is not necessarily true (at least in Pompeii).
This is the first in a series of blog posts from students at Macquarie University who are participating in this semester’s PACE internship.