Page 19 - GALIET INFINITE MEDEA: Euripides IV

In Sourvinou-Inwood’s cosmos, these rhetorical distancing and zooming devices can also be projected to Attic and SI iconography. The notable differences between pre- and post- 430 b.c.e. Attic and SI art focus on the minimizing of the Argonaut’s cycle, the maximizing of Medea’s eastern dress and of new subjects. In pre-430 b.c.e. Attic iconography, Medea is distanced from normality because she is represented as a divinity (Cypselus chest, four Attic lekythoi), as a polos-hat deity and as a rejuvenating sorceress (neck amphora). Images of Peliades’ murder, are fewer, and of Jason’s rejuvenations rarer, and of Aeetes’ Dragon and Theseus’ cycle non-existent; except for a Roman-relief of a possibly Attic Thesean scene imbued with negative connotations. Medea’s Attic expulsion doesn’t reveal her in oriental dress. From 43027 b.c.e. onwards, Medea is distanced because she appears wearing ‘eastern gab’ and carrying magic box during last of Attic Argonautan and Thesean-Marathon Bull cycles. Similarly, the popular Corinthian cycle, depicting Medea’s infanticide and lush sun- chariot escape, distances her because of her supernatural aura.
Despite the complexity in differentiating Attic and SI parameters in eastern dress, Sourvinou-Inwood argues that distancing nuances 3⁄4 ‘metaphorical orientalisms’ 3⁄4 appear in SI vase paintings. Tiara and zigzag stroke/lozenge motif sleeves symbolize either real orientalism (Medea in tiara and zigzag sleeves, ghost Aeetes in oriental sleeves) or ‘metaphorical orientalism’ (Aegisthus in zigzag sleeves suggesting
27 In Sourvinou-Inwood’s analysis, in this period, Colchean and Corinthian cycle scenes are more popular in SI art than Theseus’ fight against the Marathon Bull. Theatrically ornate and simple customes together with sword and sandal recognition tokens are seen in Sourvinou-Inwood´s Adolphseck and Leningrad kraters.
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