page_title: Phye
section_title: Iconography
hierarchical_section_title: Phye / Iconography
caption_attribution_description: Greek, Attic; Amphora, Type B; Vases; Obverse, Athena mounting chariot, with Herakles and gods; Reverse, warriors' departure
context_page_description: Phye was a young woman from ancient Paeania who accompanied the tyrant Peisistratos in a chariot during his return to Athens in 546/5 BCE. Phye was dressed as the goddess Athena in order to deceive the people of Athens into believing that Peisistratos' return to Athens was divinely sanctioned.
context_section_description: Approximately 170 ancient Greek vases (and at least one relief sculpted on a marble base), dating from the 560s through the 480s BCE, boast imagery of Herakles and Athena in a chariot, a scene commonly described as representing the apotheosis of Herakles. Boardman originally argued that these scenes departed from typical Heraklean apotheosis scenes (with Herakles and Athena on foot) because of a conscious desire to evoke the story of Peisistratos and Phye. In later works, Boardman rephrased his interpretation of these scenes, and said that they served as a point of reference for the historical Phye episode: "...familiarity with such scenes would have guaranteed the ordinary Athenian's recognition of what was implied by the procession." Ferrari, following Osborne and Connor, acknowledges the similarities between the iconography of Herakles/Peisistraots and Athena/Phye, but argues that it was Peisistratos who was intentionally evoking Herakles in his decision to appear with 'Athena' in a chariot upon entering the city. 
  One vase in particular by the Priam Painter offers further evidence for the link between the iconography of Herakles & Athena and the historical event of Peisistratos & Phye. On a belly amphora currently in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford 212), a typical scene of Herakles and Athena is accompanied by the inscription "Ηρακλἐους κὀρη (Herakleous Kore)". Boardman, like Beazley before him, reads this as 'Herakles' daughter' rather than Herakles' girl, and connects the mythological to the historical in that Phye (Athena) was the daughter (in law) of Peisistratos (Herakles). Ferrari believes these words are the beginning of a metrical hymn and connects the mythological scene and historical event to the larger theme of the Panathenaic festival.
caption: Amphora depicting Athena mounting chariot with Herakles and other gods, c. 520 BCE.
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