How effectively are scenes from the Trojan War depicted in vase painting? Compare the artist’s technique of story-telling with that of Homer in The Iliad.
... the war, however, the differences between the visual and the literary conception of these events is notable. Figure 1 Attic black-figure Hydria Composed by one of the Leagros Group around 510 – 500 BC This chaotic scene shows the body of Hektor being dragged by ‘the tendons of both feet’ by Achilleus; this is a frantic image with many people and props, perhaps quite hard to comprehend at first glance. The action on the vase could be seen to take place chronologically from left to right -viewer’s perspective- starting with Hektor’s pleading parents, Priam and Hekabe, ‘And now his mother tore her hair, and flung the shining mantle away from her head, and raised a great wail…And his dear father groaned pitiably…’ The positions taken here by the grieving parents are almost stock gestures used to show grief...