Page 20 - GALIET INFINITE MEDEA: Euripides IV

transgression, Creon in headdress connoting a tyrannical king).28 Further, Medea’s orientalism swings from least oriental (no tiara, only zigzag sleeves in P8029 and strokes in K30030) to mostly oriental (tiara and richly-oriental wear in Talus Vase, S108031 and E22432; tiara in K12733 and 8212634). This ‘metaphorical orientalism,’ according to Sourvinou-Inwood, is not ethnically driven: Trojan Cassandra is never shown in oriental garments35 and Andromeda shifts from oriental to Greek wear in SI art based on her barbaric36 association in Euripides’ Andromeda. Sourvinou-Inwood’s hypothesizes that, in Euripides’ Medea,37 Medea wears zooming Greek dress until killing of her sons (the closing scene) and distancing oriental dress in chariot scene. Medea’s oriental dress, in stressing her foreignness, equates her personae with the removed ‘other’: the bad, destructive and negative woman, the Persian of the Bull of Marathon.
28 Sourvinou-Inwood, 285.
29 Attic skyphos Florence p 80. Sourvinou-Inwood, 285.
30 The Campanian neck amphora Paris Louvre K300. Sourvinou-Inwood, 286.
31 Paestan squat lekythos Bochum, Univ. S. 1080. Sourvinou-Inwood, 286.
32 Hydria, London E224. Sourvinou-Inwood, 286.
33 Apulian calyx krater Paris Louvre K127. Sourvinou-Inwood, 286.
34 Paestan volute krater Naples 82126 (H3248). Sourvinou-Inwood, 286.
35 Sourvinou-Inwood asserts that Cassandra’s Trojan personae is not as important. Instead, Cassandra’s most dominant traits are her rejection of Apollo and her seer abilities together with becoming victim of Ajax’s rape in Athena’s altar and victim of Clytemnestra.
36 Sourvinou-Inwood posits that both are oriental princesses, Perseus rescues Andromeda (proper role), while Medea betrays homeland and brother (improper role). Andromeda’s dress reflects Euripides Andromeda: mother of Perses. Andromeda shifts from oriental to Greek dress in SI. In Euripides’ play, Andromeda’s barbarism dictates oriental dress. Her connection with Persians, significant in 5th c. Athens, is less so in 4th c. SI art. Her Greek dress may have matched the good of her persona.
3737The ca. 400 Lucanian hydria (i) and Lucanian Cleveland bell krater (ii) are closest to Euripides’
Medea. In both vases, Medea is distanced by her supernatural aura and by wearing oriental tiara and stroke and lozenge motif sleeves, respectively. By contrast, the Apulian amphora Naples Museum Nazionale 81954 (vi) least evokes Euripides’ Medea. Sourvinou-Inwood 269-274.
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