Meleager, Nekyia,
and the Niobid Krater:
A Reinterpretation
McKenzie Lewis
The Florida State University
Recent interpretations seeking to identify the iconography of the Niobid Krater in the Louvre (circa 450 B.C.E.) propose that the vase is a copy of a monumental wall painting (Boardman 2005; Barron, 1972; Harrison, 1972; Simon, 1963). In 1919, however, J. Six identified the vase’s obverse as a depiction of Herakles in the Underworld. I propose a more complete return to this interpretation, especially to his too-quick dismissal of Meleager as the figure immediately to the left of Herakles.
This interpretation is appropriate for many reasons. Nekyia, as a literary motif, can be found in several contemporary Athenian authors and common in this tradition is the hero Meleager. This literary motif inspired Nekyia as an artistic motif, of which the Niobid Krater is but one example. Other examples, such as Polygnotos’ Nekyia at Delphi and the later Nekyia Krater in New York, have striking parallels to the Niobid Krater. The Nekyia Krater, moreover, features the same cast of characters proposed here, yet on that vase the characters’ names are inscribed. Both the New York Krater and the Niobid Krater juxtapose a Nekyia motif and a vengeful Artemis. Restoring Meleager to the Niobid Krater, moreover, connects via Artemis the vase’s Niobid scene and Nekyia motif.
Finally, Meleager’s presence on this vase and ubiquity in poetry, such as in an ode by Bacchylides and a fragment attributed to Pindar, as well as in dramas attested to Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Phrynichos, are cause for a re-examination of the hero’s importance in 5th Century Athenian art.
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