Key word for this dialogue: psukhē, with reference to key word for the last time, sēma.
I draw attention to my use in this dialogue of the word "hydria" (note the spelling: not "hydra"!): it is a Greek word for a vessel used for libations (= ritual pourings, on occasions that include the worship of ancestors and the worship of heroes). There will be two main hydrias shown. One of them I previewed the last time:
Münster Hydria (around 520 or 510 BCE)
The other is actually housed in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts:
Boston Hydria (around 520 or 510 BCE)
Note that the Münster Hydria depicts an athletic event.
The picture mixes the ritual of an athlete's ordeal with the myth of a hero's ordeal. Here are working definitions of "ritual" and "myth":
Ritual is doing things and saying things in a special (sacred) way.
Myth is saying things in a special (sacred) way.
So ritual frames myth.
To review:
Mimesis is the process of re-enactment in sacred space. What you re-enact is myth, how you re-enact is ritual.
Reminder: myth (including epic, which is myth in the anthropological sense of the word "myth") is framed by ritual - the ritual of performance.
You can re-enact not just by acting but even by telling or retelling.
So what do we see in the picture painted on the Münster Hydria? We see an athlete / warrior engaging in a chariot contest and we see Achilles honoring Patroklos by way of participating in that chariot contest.
The picture shows ritual and myth together, just as poetry shows ritual and myth together in the chariot race described at Iliad XXIII.
Emily Vermeule speaks of a "window effect" created by the picture frame of the Boston Hydria, but her comment can apply to the picture frame of the Münster Hydria as well: "The technique gives the impression that the myth is circling around in another world, outside the window frame through which the spectator views it, in endless motion which is somehow always arrested at the same place whenever we return to the window."
GN's question to students: as you are looking through the window, are you looking in from the outside or are you looking out from the inside?
The figure runs around a turning point (terma), a point of concentration. (Note what Nestor tells Antilokhos in Iliad XXIII: "concentrate on the sēma." The medium of the tomb (sēma) of the hero (or ancestor) is the message of the hero (or ancestor)
Things to look for as you compare the picture of the Münster Hydria (=M) with that of the Boston Hydria (=B):
a. The axis of vision centers on the sēma in M, while the sēma is off-center in B.
b. The chariot is also off-center in B. Study question: what is centered in B, and why?
c. The homunculus (= smaller-than-life-size body-double) has no wings in M; it does have wings in B.
d. The homunculus is labeled as psukhē in M and as Patroklos in B. Question: whose psukhē is the homunculus in M? Of Achilles? Of Patroklos? Of both?
e. Note the picture on the shield of the homunculus in both M and B.
f. The Greek word for 'picture on a shield' is sēma.
g. The sēma on the shield of a hero is supposed to symbolize his identity.
h. A running leg (or foot: the Greek language does not make the same distinctions between 'leg' and 'foot' that the English language does) is symbolic of which hero in the Iliad?
i. When there are three running legs spinning around a center (the technical Greek word for this visual device is triskeles = 'three-legs'), the idea of superhuman running speed is implied.
j. The "winged lady" is still in the process of landing in B; on the other hand, she has already landed in M.
k. In B, The "winged lady" makes a gesture toward the portico situated on your far left. The old couple in the portico repeat the gesture. Achilles is making eye-contact with the gesture. Notice that he is not making eye-contact with the sēma, nor with the psukhē of Patroklos. Is he getting on the chariot or getting off?
l. Consider the painting of the council of the gods on the upper part or "shoulder" of the Münster Hydria. We see here Zeus and Hermes (with his caduceus = his magic wand) at center left and center right, while Athena is at the right. Dionysus is at the extreme left. Note the goddess, making a gesture, between Dionysus and Zeus. Study question: how does this council of the gods compare with the council of the gods at the beginning of Iliad XXIV?
m. How does the action of "the winged lady" in B (and, probably, in M) compare with the action of a certain character in Iliad XXIV?
Things to look for as you compare the pictures of M and B with other pictures.
1. Note each image (sēma) on each hero's shield. Compare with the pictures of animals guarding the tomb (sēma) of the hero.
2. Note the details that convey an epic event (by "epic" we mean the kind of macro-narrative represented by the Iliad) and details that convey an athletic event. Where are epic / athletic details distinct and where are they not? Compare the epic / athletic events of the Funeral Games of Patroklos in Iliad XXIII. Compare Pindar's Pythian 8, available on the website. Where are epic / athletic details distinct and where are they not?
The rage of the hero translates into the killer instinct of the athlete. Compare the dragging of Hector's corpse, presented as an athletic event. For me (GN), this detail about the "dragging" is an aetiology (myth) for the athletic event (ritual) of the chariot race featuring apobatai at the Panathenaia in Athens.