Tragic imagery in a domestic context: Fifth-century relief plaques from Melos (Greece).
Published: 2005
Language: eng
Description: The small provincial Cycladic Island of Melos is the site for the manufacture of a series of unprecedented images in the 5th century B.C. These innovative images include subjects that appear to be modeled on Attic tragedies contemporary with the production of the reliefs. The reliefs provide insight into the ephemeral theatrical narrative as conveyed through performance and into how narrative takes permanent form in a material object. The domestic function of these inexpensive, mass-produced objects is analyzed in relation to their iconography.Prior research fails to consider the Melian reliefs as a whole, concealing their importance for understanding the relationship between subject matter and context. Nor has the question of context and function received any serious analysis. My research indicates that the primary use for the reliefs was domestic, as decorative appliques to common household furnishings. Accordingly, my analysis of ornament and decorative subject matter involves the social and cultural attitudes reflected in the choice of a specific mythic subject. If particular reliefs represent tragedy, then why? I focus my investigation on the particular dramatic moment selected for illustration. That moment is then evaluated against Aristotle's analysis of tragedy as it is established in the Poetics. By connecting the pivotal moments of tragedy with those represented visually in the reliefs, I argue that the images have a significance similar to that of the drama, and that they function in Aristotelian terms, revealing such aspects as anagnorisis, peripeteia and ethos.The appearance of contemporary tragic imagery in a domestic context proves that the ethical issues explored by the tragedians were unequivocally central to the domestic sphere. The reliefs are a crucial link in our understanding of classical culture. Not only is the subject matter of Attic tragedy revealed to be socially significant on the most fundamental level, but it is exploited by what had always appeared to be a peripheral workshop.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-10, Section: A, page: 3493.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toronto, 2005.

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