The Hemlock Cup - Bettany Hughes [10]
17. A rare representation of a slave from the bottom of a drinking cup. The man is shackled and is collecting rocks. c.490–480 BC. Metal shackles from the early fourth century BC have been found in the Athenian-run silver-mining district of Laurion.
18. A stern Socrates rescues Alcibiades from the pitfalls and snares of the world (in this case the arms of two beautiful young women). Possibly the work of Lorenzo Bartolini (1777–1850) but also attributed to Antonio Canova.
19. Although Plato tells us that Socrates was not interested in the physical aspects of erotic love, as this kylix indicates, this was not an activity to which fifth-century Greeks were averse.
20. Marble stele (marble from Mount Hymettus) showing a priestess holding a giant temple-key. The stele was discovered at the site of Rhamnous and could therefore be a representation of a priestess in charge of the cult there of the deity Nemesis. The ribbon-band in the woman’s hair is also a sign of her sacral position.
21. A representations of Socrates suffering at the hands of his ‘shrewish’ wife Xanthippe. As imagined in Stuttgart in 1467 and Antwerp in 1579.
22. Another representations of Socrates suffering at the hands of his ‘shrewish’ wife Xanthippe. As imagined in Stuttgart in 1467 and Antwerp in 1579.
23. The physiognomy of Socrates under scrutiny, 1789.
24. Ostrakon (a broken piece of pot with the name of an Athenian citizen scratched upon it) voting for the ostracism of Alcibiades in 416 BC.
25. After the Athenian defeat at Aegospotami all Athens’ subject allies deserted. Samos, though, remained staunchly democratic. As an act of thanks all Samian citizens were given Athenian citizenship, a pact which is sealed here on a stele of 405–403 BC where Hera (patron goddess of Samos) and Athena (patron goddess of Athens) shake hands.
26. The burnt head of Apollo, discovered buried beneath a pavement at Delphi. Apollo was the god honoured during the sacred month of the Delian expedition. Athens, and her people, could not be polluted by spilt blood at this time, and so once Socrates had been condemned to death he had to wait for at least twenty-eight days until the sacred embassy returned from the island of Delos to the city-state. Only then could he drink his fatal hemlock draught.
27. The bronze name tickets used by Athenian citizens when they put themselves forward for selection as jurors. This particular strip belonged to a man called Demophanes, who came from the Kephesia deme of Athens (the region that has recently suffered so badly in summer fires).
28. The excavation of the Dipylon Gate at the Kerameikos in Athens at the beginning of the twentieth century. After Socrates’ death it was said that the mourning population of Athens, realising their mistake, set up a staue of the philosopher just in front of this gateway to the city.
29. Plato teaching Socrates, or leaning over his shoulder to learn from him. Illustration taken from Matthew Paris’ fortune-telling book c.1250 AD. Through the centuries, Socrates and Plato’s relationship has been interpreted and re-interpreted. In the Islamic tradition, Plato is allowed an ever increasing role. From the sixteenth century it was thought by the Ottoman rulers of Athens that the Parthenon was in fact Plato’s Academy.
30. ‘Socrates’ Tomb’, at Athens, also traditionally known as the Tower of the Winds, actually the Horologion of Kyrrhestos, as painted in 1839. The building was used by Muslim mystics for centuries.
31. Aphrodite on the so-called Ludovisi Throne rises from the sea-foam from which she was thought to be born. c.470–460 BC.
32. The Ludovisi Throne. On the reverse of its exquisite representation of Aphrodite’s ocean-birth two ‘types’ of female inhabitants of Athens are shown. On the left