Milette Gaifman
Milette Gaifman is associate professor of Greek art and archaeology, jointly appointed in the Departments of Classics and History of Art at Yale University.
Gaifman, Milette
Gaifman, Milette
United States of America
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Description: The Art of Libation in Classical Athens
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00126
This volume presents an innovative look at the imagery of libations, the most commonly depicted ritual in ancient Greece, and how it engaged viewers in religious performance. In a libation, liquid—water, wine, milk, oil, or honey—was poured from a vessel such as a jug or a bowl onto the ground, an altar, or another surface. Libations were made on occasions like banquets, sacrifices, oath-taking, departures to war, and visitations to tombs, and their iconography provides essential insight into religious and social life in 5th-century BC Athens. Scenes depicting the ritual often involved beholders directly—a statue’s gaze might establish the onlooker as a fellow participant, or painted vases could draw parallels between human practices and acts of gods or heroes. Illustrated with a broad range of examples, including the Caryatids at the Acropolis, the Parthenon Frieze, Attic red-figure pottery, and funerary sculpture, this important book demonstrates the power of Greek art to transcend the boundaries between visual representation and everyday experience.

*This eBook is available exclusively on the A&AePortal.*
Print publication date February 2018 (in print)
Print ISBN 9780300192278
EISBN 9780300247879
Illustrations 130
Print Status in print