Narrative Art and Oral Epic Poetry as Performance

Transcription

1 ARTH The visual culture of the prehistoric Aegean Gloria Huang 1

2 Introduction Many scholars have investigated the relationship between the Homeric epics and the Bronze Age Aegean, discussing such issues as the identification of specific sites as part of the Homeric setting. This so-called Homeric problem has deep roots in the Aegean archaeological data as a result of pioneers like Heinrich Schliemann, who treated the epics as treasure maps of a sort. The drive to understand how these well-known poems actually related to the Greeks past is particularly strong. One of the recent approaches discussed by Sarah Morris focuses on the identification of what she terms epic similes in Aegean art as precursors to the epic narratives in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Morris looks at how heroic formulae, like the lion hunt, chariot scenes or feasting scenes are expressed visually and pinpoints them as direct precursors to the themes present in the epics; she believes that Homeric epics as we know them develop when those formulae are elaborated upon and given specific names 1. In addition, she also suggests that epic, or at least narrative poetry existed alongside the Theran frescoes because it is difficult to imagine that the subject matter and execution of the naval frieze could have been conceived of without an oral narrative tradition present as well. While it is certainly helpful to identify commonly treated themes throughout Aegean history, viewing these similes as links between the narrative forms is problematic. One must consider the situations in which these themes and similes were used; both oral poetry and visual art are performances that play out in very different ways. Comparisons of thematic groups in poetry and the visual arts are difficult, since they are put together differently and serve different functions. It is more likely that narrative in the visual arts and narrative in oral poetry of the time were mutually linked, each influencing the other in terms of subject matter and iconography. Our only evidence for oral poetry lies in the Homeric epics, which are far removed chronologically from late Bronze Age art. It would be impossible to infer the syntactic and rhythmic structure of these contemporary poems through the visual arts; we can only identify the presence of narrativity and the strains of common iconic themes. Through examining how the differences in performance come to bear on the way narrative is conveyed in each art form, I hope to illustrate the pitfalls that come with any kind of scholarly investigation that looks at pre-historic Aegean art as a direct precursor to the Homeric epics. Epic Poetry and the Oral Society Both the Iliad and the Odyssey are possibly the earliest transcriptions of orally transmitted poetry in Greek times; they are a product of a long history of oral societies that viewed the medium of writing as meant for bureaucratic purposes. For this reason, the epics had their origins in the tradition of storytelling, in which a bard (who we know as Homer) recited the poem to an audience using a vast pool of spoken formulae to structure the narrative. The poem, therefore, is born from performance. The narrative quality of the poems is undeniable, as they are composed through a particular arrangement of formulae around the bare facts of a story in a 1 Morris, Sarah P. A Tale of Two Cities: The Miniature Frescoes from Thera and the Origins of Greek Poetry in American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 93, No. 4 (Oct., 1998), pg

3 way that is engaging for the audience of the time. 2 In this method of storytelling, the bard s own skill at molding his memorized stock phrases around any particular subject becomes paramount. Several elements of performance are particularly salient in comparison to our later examination of the Theran wall paintings as an example of Bronze Age art. Firstly, we must investigate the relationship between the artist, the work, and the audience in the overall narrative experience. Secondly, we must also consider the function of stock phrases or themes in the works. We may more closely evaluate the approach used by Morris and others through these focus points. The bard, during a performance, makes use of the stock phrases in his memory that conform to meter and rhythm. These may be classified in groups: 1. noun-adjective combinations ( bright eyed Pallas 3 ), 2. repeated lines ( When young dawn with her rose-red fingers appeared once more 4 ), and 3. themes. Bowra suggests that these phrases help the bard in the task of oral composition, as they most likely had to produce an essentially new song every time they performed. This means that details such as the names of two people who are battling may vary, but the structure of the battle is formed from the same phrases. As the bard performed for an audience, he would also have to constantly gauge their interest levels and elaborate accordingly. What can be deduced about the way narrative meaning is negotiated and communicated in the kind of oral society that the Homeric epics come from? In a narrative, events are ordered in a very human timeline; the construction of a narrative is reflective of cultural values and ideology because events are singled out and placed in a causational sequence. Cultural memory is sequenced and understood through narratives. The significance of temporal organization in a narrative is a result of the meaning attributed to each event that humans choose to include. 5 In the case of the epics, where the historical Aegean is synthesized with myth, cultural memory plays out in full force when different elements from the entire continuum of the past exist alongside each other. References to bronze weapons coexist with references to iron agricultural and industrial tools. 6 There was certainly never such a condition in Aegean history. It is possible to conclude, therefore, that chronological accuracy was not important in the structuring of the epic narrative. For this reason, efforts to identify the Mycenae of Agamemnon as portrayed in the epics are already troubled. The cultural memory reflected in the epic narratives is a shifting amalgam of images that has been passed down generations through continual poetic structuring. The relevant question to ask in this case is whether the structure that we find in the epics is a direct descendent of the structure seen in art pieces such as the Akrotiri frescoes from the Bronze Age. 2 Bowra, C.M. The Comparative Study of Homer, in American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 54, No. 3, (Jul.- Sept., 1950), pg Fagles, Robert, trans., The Odyssey. New York: Penguin Group, pg. 105, ln. 422 These examples are pulled in no particular order from the book to illustrate the groups discussed. 4 Ibid., pg. 191 ln. 1 Also appears on pg 221 ln This line is one of the most repeated epithets throughout the epic, as it is used as an opener to lead into passages. 5 Bruner, Jerome. The Narrative Construction of Reality in Critical Inquiry, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Autumn 1991) pg. 6 6 Snodgrass, A.M. An Historical Homeric Society? in The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 94. (1974), pg

4 Prehistoric Aegean visual art and Narrative Studies on Aegean pictorial art have constantly battled with the question of how to identify narrativity. There is a distinct lack of narrative text in Linear B, and text is rarely used as an identifier for figures in art the way it is seen abundantly in narrative Classical pottery. Because of this, there is very little to discuss on narrative art from the Bronze Age if one defines narrative art as depictions of singular and significant events involving specific people. 7 In many cases, such as with bull-leaping scenes (the Toreador fresco as an example) and hunting scenes found across a variety of contexts, iconography prevails as a sort of generic indicator of loose narrative. Bull-leaping scenes are common in Aegean art, and all aspects of its representation from the young, lithe bodies of the bull leapers to the flying gallop pose of the bull are familiar enough to remind viewers of the actual activity of bull-leaping. In other words, repeated exposure to such themes aid in their interpretation as vague narratives because the iconographic event becomes familiar to the viewer. Another potential form of narrative shows in ritual scenes in which depictions of a procession or ceremony coupled with evocative gestures from the figures may encourage the viewer to envision the ritual activity and reconstruct a simple narrative from knowledge of that activity. Examples of this are found in the Sacred Grove fresco from Knossos, the Xeste 3 frescoes on Akrotiri, or on painted Mycenaean larnakes. Gesture, in particular, is often looked to as a story-telling component, since it suggests motivated action. These examples, however, are not totally compelling narratives because of their lack of sequential drive. 8 In the Sacred Grove fresco there is a large scope in the number of figures represented and a spacious setting, but the lack of any indication of a preceding or successive event/action locks the picture in one still moment. In her dissertation titled The Question of Narrative in Aegean Bronze Age Art, Candace Cain identifies the miniature frieze from the West House at Akrotiri (also often referred to as the naval frieze or the flotilla frieze) as a striking exception from other contemporary art in terms of composition and subject. There is a clear impulse towards successive events in the directional movement of the boats, as well as a continued unified space (water, land, and even a river stemming from the ocean). Cain considers this particular work instrumental in provoking many specialists to investigate narrative in other Aegean art like those previously discussed. 9 The miniature naval frieze has been the subject of a great deal of scrutiny by scholars focusing on its broad scope and descriptive style. Many have described the frieze as an example of epic art, which is inextricably linked with the idea that the Homeric epics developed from these works. The landscape in the frieze is drawn from a high and wide perspective, which allows many subjects to be shown together. Certainly the broader scope of the visuals lends a greater sense of magnitude to the scene shown, in terms of how many details are encompassed within the frame of the painting. Whether or not the scene depicted qualifies as an epic or heroic narrative is an issue up for debate, one that will not be discussed here for present purposes. 7 Cain, Candace Dawn. The Question of Narrative in Aegean Bronze Age Art (Ph.D diss., University of Toronto, 1997), pg. 157 Cain investigates the degree of specificity found in several commonly discussed examples of Aegean Bronze Age art in order to understand how the notion of narrative art is usually brought up. 8 Cain, pg. 175 Cain also cites the example of the Isotopa ring in her discussion of ritual narratives, concluding that the narrative value of these examples is low. 9 Ibid. pg

5 Cain s review of scholarship done on the miniature frieze elucidates two compelling arguments represented by Televantou and Morgan. Televantou maintains that the frieze shows a continuous narrative around all four walls of Room 5, beginning with west wall. Morgan does not deem the frieze a true narrative and treats it thematically. The argument over narrativity shows how each researcher has his or her own biases towards particular ways of viewing; there is no easy answer based on the available evidence. However, Cain brings up the question of how the frieze might have functioned in the oral society that produced it. One of the approaches to the content of the frieze involves looking for parallels with the structure of epic poetry in the use of parataxis, which structures a narrative through the juxtaposition of motifs instead of continuous narration. 10 In this regard, the piece does not need a unifying idea because it is composed in segments that are strung along one after another; this corresponds with the construction of an oral narrative, in which the bard treats a scene as he arrives at it, expanding or shortening his descriptive use of motifs in response to the mood of the audience. The approach used by Morris in her examination of the West House frieze as proof of an existing oral poetic tradition emphasizes parallels in composition and metaphoric content. Morris lists the different motifs present in the frieze, likening them to motifs from the Homeric epics. Some of the motifs outlined in her study include a gathering of old and young men, lions roaming the plains, as well as epic episodes such as the drowning of a few men. Though these comparisons fit neatly together when Morris draw upon specific passages from the epics, how can we determine a link between their visual format and their oral format, aside from a simple sharing of subject matter? One argument put forth earlier referenced the paratactical structure of the frieze, which would account for the lack of specific figures to focus on throughout the whole naval scene. Morris uses this concept to explain the lack of explicit narrative structure; she links the sailing ships on the frieze to the catalogue of ships, which is a passage recounting the captains and contingents of all the ships in a fleet that is inserted into the narration of the epic. The passage is located in book 2 of the Iliad, with no lead-in or lead-out from the narrative. In the Iliad, Homer breaks off the narrative to invoke the help of the muses (a phrase which functions as a commonly used formula to lead into new passages) for the sole purpose of this recitation. The poet, in this case, would have been displaying his systematic memorization of names, an almost virtuoso display in oral culture. Morris posits that the ornamentation and detail on the fresco ships, such as the motifs associated with specific boats and the people depicted on them, would correspond with emblems detailing the origin of the boats from the catalogue. Unlike the ships in the catalogue, however, these vessels are not simply inserted arbitrarily into the context of the fresco; they are complemented by smaller, less detailed boats that are shown docking at the ports. Furthermore, the actions of the figures in the city on the right acknowledge the presence of the ships, running up and down the mountain as if to communicate to the people in town. There would be no need for a catalogue of ships in the context of the West House frieze, as the format of the wall painting is meant to show the movement of the ships from one end to another. The catalogue of ships is purely a display impressive performance by the bard who is reciting it, which is a dimension wholly absent from narrative in a wall painting. It may be helpful to study the ways pictorial content is combined with the physical presence and experience of the art object. 10 Cain, pg

6 The West House frieze and Performance The issue of performance is also highly relevant when discussing the West House frieze because it addresses the experiential component of the art piece. Performance can be explained in terms of several factors; Mike Pearson suggests that performance is organized around the variables of status, space, ostension, time, omission, narrative, behavior and choreography. 11 How can an actual work of art embedded within a fixed frame be considered as a performance then? In Pearson s example of funerary practices, in which the roles of spectators interact with the display of the deceased s body, he suggests that the physical trappings of the performance space actually function as vehicles for meaningful experience on the part of the spectators. Performance is born from the process of ostension (the display of certain objects such as the body of the deceased to engage with the spectators) and how it aids the formation of narrative within each viewer (in this case, the passing of the deceased person into something beyond this world). This explanation of performance emphasizes the interaction of spectators with a staged space; even in a situation where no person is in the role of a performer, a performance can be realized through the actions of the spectators. Frescoes, as art forms that occupy architectural space, create a physically engaging experience for the viewer. In the case of the naval frieze in the West House, different scenes of the one continuous narrative are seen as the viewer walks around the room; it is thought that the frieze ran across the top of the room, above the areas where the Fisherman fresco and so-called Priestess fresco are located. 12 There is a unity of style that connects them; the perspective and other compositional elements are consistent. The performance aspect of the frieze is rooted in active participation on the part of the viewer in drawing together a coherent story from the images present in the room. When treating the art as performance one must consider the role of the artist in constructing the piece with an audience in mind; the artist composes both the elements within the frame of the fresco as well as the actual spatial layout of the piece in such a way that his narrative intentions can be realized when the audience confronts it. The organization of picture elements according to the long band style of the frieze clearly encourages a horizontally moving view; as each portion of the picture is focused on, the viewer can establish a sense of environment within the represented scene, and eventually actors. Narration is therefore played out in this mental activity on the part of the viewer and the performance or the art piece is realized. In other words, the composition within the picture frame relies on the active involvement of the viewer in progressively digesting the continuous band of the frieze. Morris treatment of the frieze singles out units of action or characters that relate to generic poetic units. For example, she identifies the scenes of arrival and departure that are part of a broader tradition of representation in maritime cultures, relating them to descriptions of arrival and departure from the epics. The passage from the Odyssey that Morris uses to illustrate the scene or arrival describes handsome harbors on each side of the city, a narrow causeway, and an assembly place built from quarried stone. These elements can be seen in the South frieze where many boats are heading, though there are also many specific details in the depiction of the city and the boats around it that are no less important than those mentioned by Morris; for 11 Pearson, Mike. Performance as Valuation: Early Bronze Age Burial as Theatrical Complexity', in The Archaeology of Prestige and Wealth, vol D. Bailey (ed.), pp Oxford: BAR International Series. (1998) 12 Doumas, C., Alex Doumas (trans). The Wall Paintings of Thera Greece: Kapon Editions (1992). Article accessed from The Thera Foundation < 6

7 instance, the reddish building by the mountain (Fig.1) is many stories tall, and it stands next to the bay below a structure high on the mountain. 13 These descriptions are only meant to illustrate how varied details can get; while both oral poetry and visual arts undoubtedly draw upon the same tradition of maritime cultures, it would be difficult to identify a specific formula for the generic port town. In fact, the other town seen in the South frieze appears very different, with no impressive flight of stairs of communal square in the middle. Accounts of arrivals by sea in the Homeric epics are most likely influenced by cultural memory or imagery that comes out of years of naval activity, but the attention to detail throughout the entire frieze suggests that there is a great emphasis on the skill of the painter in rendering the shapes of the town, boats, and people in a visually coherent way. The painter s care to position the boats to that they do no overlap and the negotiation of the bird s eye view with the side view on the landscape versus the town buildings reveals a familiarity with the technical ability to render the subjects in a long frieze format. We return to the role of the artist, which can be compared with that of the poet or bard in oral composition; the artist is once removed from the experience of his work by others, with only his technical skill in manipulating perspective and landscape to use as a tool to aid the viewers comprehension of the overall scene. Since the viewer is instrumental in the creation of narrative in the friezes, a certain subjective and mutable process of interpretation is at work as well; the viewer s own recognition of familiar building structures, ships, or landscape are evocative descriptors that flesh out the narrative. Going back to Pearson s example of performance in funerary rites, the entire purpose of the performance is to play out a narrative within each spectator that deals with the passage of the deceased beyond the living realm. In the case of the frescoes, the narrative portrayed would rely a great deal on the function of the room as a whole, as well as the identity of the viewer. As there is still debate over the function of the room, it is entirely possible that the room housed different kinds of rituals (whether secular or religious) depending on the occasion. In that case, the frescoes would take on different meanings depending on the kind of activity going on in the room. Although the cities and boats depicted in the frieze seem to be representative of generic Just as the human body can perform its gender through representational style, (as discussed by German in the article Performance, Power, and the Art of the Aegean Bronze Age 14 ) the friezes can also perform a narrative through their formal construction. When the artist painted the frieze, he would have had to consider the role of the composition in its specific location in the room, and how the positioning of each visual component would be experienced by the spectators. The spectator s act of viewing the fresco, which may vary depending on the circumstances that bring him or her to the room, then creates the meaningful narrative that defines the purpose of the frieze. This narrative would not be fixed by any means, but actually dependent on the circumstances surrounding the viewer s experience. Other forms of Aegean art and the epic simile Other forms of art have been studied in a manner similar to Morris work with the West House frescoes. The impulse to find hints of the Homeric environment inside Bronze Age 13 Morris, pg German, Senta. Performance, Power, and the Art of the Aegean Bronze Age. Hadrian: British Archaeological Reports. (2005) 7

8 artifacts is strong, though still beset with problems when one considers the context that the art was originally experienced in. Alynne Grace discusses the imagery found on various Bronze Age seals, comparing the glyptic examples with passages of Homeric poetry. 15 Like Morris, Grace takes the example of a single scene and relates it to a broader theme that is treated in epic poetry, such as the image of a lion attacking its prey. The focus on identifying common imagery, in this case, avoids addressing the question on how these icons would have been seen and experienced through their specific mediums. Grace makes a suggestion that seals functioned for their owners as epithets in epic poetry did for the characters they were linked to; in other words, the contents of the seals were descriptive units that gain meaning when associated repeatedly with a specific figure. Pictorial sealings were meant to be seen by large numbers of people since they were a method of attributing ownership and status to all kinds of objects. What dimensions of performance did their use involve? As Grace has established, the seals were linked to one s persona within the social sphere, so that possessions could be claimed. In this respect, the seals were a stylistic performance of social prominence, just as stylistic renderings of a woman s body performed her gender. 16 In addition, the imprints of the seals were used to attribute administrative information to the objects they adorned. After the introduction of writing, sealings also sometimes bore written information detailing the specific contents of the container. 17 In some cases, the sealings dealt with quantities that were not directly represented by the objects they sealed; some scholars contend that this means the sealings themselves were authoritative documents independent of the importance of the objects they sealed. What did the pictorial images contribute in this scenario? The concept of performance can include the way one s personal image is ordered within the social system. The establishment and use of a uniform administrative system, therefore, could have elevated the iconography of the seals to a higher degree of performance; that is, the seals performed on a mass, public level that was connected with the palatial government. Therefore, descriptive or adjectival images on the seals themselves work to associate culturally recognized motifs with socioeconomic materials. Seals may fit into a role similar to the previously discussed iconographic works where the familiarity of an icon helped determine a general narrative or theme that could be associated with a particular person or object. This contrasts with the role of both oral poetry and the miniature frescoes, which emphasize a sort of spectatorial consciousness 18 characteristic of larger scale narrative. It would be difficult to evaluate the comparison of seals to epic similes when they are not performed as part of a narrative, since similes work as basic units that make up the flavor of the narrative composition. The study of imagery on sealings and seals does reveal the tendency of familiar themes and subjects to reappear across multiple contexts. As we have discussed so far, motifs such as the lion as predator, warriors fighting beasts, chariot races, or even more simple imagery like flying birds or dolphins show up on wall paintings, seals, and poetry. This should not be too 15 Grace, Alynne C. Aegean Seals and Oral Literacy in Bronze Age Greece (Master s thesis, The State University of New York at Buffalo, 2005) 16 German 17 Younger, John G. Review Article: Seals and Sealing Practices: The Ancient Near East and Bronze Age Aegean. In American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 100, No. 1, (Jan. 1996), pg Cain, pg. 176 Cain references Winter in using this phrase to describe the kind of interaction between image text and audience that requires less effort on the part of the audience to decipher the narrative. 8

9 surprising, given that the works of art that use these motifs come from the same culture and share the same history. What is important to keep in mind is that motifs can be molded to represent different things depending on the medium they are put into; this was seen in the connection between seals and administrative authority. The image of dolphins jumping on a sealing could be linked with the perseverance of Euryalos during a boxing match 19, thus connecting tenacity with ownership; on the other hand, the dolphins could be connected with the poetic description of a seascape as in the text of the Shield of Herakles 20. Whatever the medium, it may already be difficult to judge what exactly the images stand for, making connections across media such as those claimed by Grace and Morris very shaky. Conclusion The difference in how performance is structured in epic poetry compared to narrative art is a vital distinction in regards to the question of whether poetic structure is reflected in visual composition. The Homeric epics as experienced in its time by an audience listening to a bard were constructed through a real-time activity in which the bard ordered stock phrases around the events of a specific story. Similies and epithets functioned as building blocks that were very familiar to the audience, strengthening their usefulness as anchor points that keep the pace of the poem flowing and interest high. Their actual content did not necessarily contribute to the action of the narrative, but instead evoked a sense of recognition from the audience that drew upon the collective cultural memory. In contrast to the oral epics, the art of the Bronze Age that deals with similarly large-scale narrative used the building blocks of its subjects as spatially ordered segments that contributed to the overall work by compelling the viewers towards movement across the rest of the frieze. The viewer is in fact responsible for constructing the narrative through participating in the performance of the art, unlike the audience of the bard; in oral poetry the bard is responsible for arranging the lyric formulae to grasp his audience s attention as he leads them through the narrative. Through the example of the West House miniature friezes, we can see how the audience was required to move throughout the room to view the entire pictorial sequence, while the role of the room itself as a setting for some kind of social activity helped alter the framework from which to approach the scenes in the friezes. This distinction makes it difficult to compare the small components of each piece, for how can we compare the completely separate and mobile units of oral stock phrases with the permanently positioned and specifically functional pieces of visual characters? Narrative is constructed differently in these two cases. The Homeric epic poetry and its chronological predecessor Bronze Age art undoubtedly share a bond through the cultural memory. Morris identification of themes such as the lion hunt as stock formulae carried down in history from the frescoes to the Homeric epics may be too bold of a connection; instead, it may be more constructive to view these examples as images or symbols that persisted in the collective memory through repeated treatment in various art forms. As was mentioned earlier, the details in oral epics are never chronologically consistent because 19 Grace, pg. 16 the dolphin seal was grouped with other seals depicting fish, which Grace linked to the one passage of the Iliad. 20 Morris, pg. 517 Morris actually uses this example to show a connection between the painted dolphins on the fresco and poetry, which is also a claim that cannot ever be fully substantiated due to the variability of meaning in these motifs. 9

10 of their function as representatives of a generic cultural past. Abundant evidence can also be found for the presence of themes such as the hunt/chase of animals. While the persistence of this kind of simile is certainly a testament to a shared cultural history, it must be kept in mind that the specific use of the simile varies depending on the medium in which it appears. Fig. 1 : Portion of the West House miniature frieze - South wall 10

11 Bibliography Bowra, C.M. The Comparative Study of Homer, in American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 54, No. 3, (Jul.-Sept., 1950), pg Bruner, Jerome. The Narrative Construction of Reality in Critical Inquiry, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Autumn 1991) pg Cain, Candace Dawn. The Question of Narrative in Aegean Bronze Age Art (Ph.D diss., University of Toronto, 1997) Doumas, C., Alex Doumas (trans). The Wall Paintings of Thera Greece: Kapon Editions (1992). Article accessed from The Thera Foundation < Fagles, Robert, trans., The Odyssey. New York: Penguin Group, 1996 German, Senta. Performance, Power, and the Art of the Aegean Bronze Age. Hadrian: British Archaeological Reports. (2005) Grace, Alynne C. Aegean Seals and Oral Literacy in Bronze Age Greece (Master s thesis, The State University of New York at Buffalo, 2005) Morris, Sarah P. A Tale of Two Cities: The Miniature Frescoes from Thera and the Origins of Greek Poetry in American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 93, No. 4 (Oct., 1998), pg Pearson, Mike. Performance as Valuation: Early Bronze Age Burial as Theatrical Complexity', in The Archaeology of Prestige and Wealth, vol D. Bailey (ed.), pg Oxford: BAR International Series. (1998) Snodgrass, A.M. An Historical Homeric Society? in The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 94. (1974), pg Younger, John G. Review Article: Seals and Sealing Practices: The Ancient Near East and Bronze Age Aegean. In American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 100, No. 1, (Jan. 1996) pg