Pannychis

By Gregory Nagy

On the reception of Sappho as a personal experience to be expressed in pictures: examples from two vase paintings produced in classical Athens, fifth century BCE

2020.11.06 | By Gregory Nagy §0. The two images that I show here in introducing this essay are line drawings of close-ups taken from two separate vase paintings created by an artist known to art historians as the Meidias Painter, whose career as a vase painter in Athens can be dated to the late fifth century BCE. In these close-ups, I focus on a single figure who is represented in… Read more

By Gregory Nagy

Looking for references to Sappho’s songs in Athenian vase paintings: preliminary comments

2020.10.30 | By Gregory Nagy §0. In this essay, I am not looking for references to the text of Sappho’s songs in Athenian vase paintings. Instead, I look merely for traces of pictorial references to the contents of these songs, especially as performed in the city-state of Athens during the classical period, in the fifth century BCE and beyond. In other words, I am looking for aspects of Sappho’s songs… Read more