32 p. 355 no. 1; VA. p. 113; Att. V. p. 100 no. 1; Panm. p. 20 no. 1; ARV. p. 361 no. 1). Graffito the letter beta.
In the following pages I have repeated some passages from my previous accounts of the vase (JHS. 32 p. 354; VA. pp. 113-14; and especially Panm. pp. 9-11 and 20). See also the first publication, by Hauser, in FR. ii pp. 289-96; Zahn in BPW. 1910 pp. 910-11; Pfuhl pp. 487-8; and especially Jacobsthal Aktaions Tod p. 10.
The picture on the obverse is the Death of Actaeon. Actaeon was the Theban hunter who incurred the wrath of Artemis, and his hounds took him for a stag and tore him to pieces. The later story, that Artemis hated him because he had seen her naked, familiar to the moderns and already to Callimachus, was unknown to the Pan Painter: the earlier story was that Zeus was angry with Actaeon for wooing Semele, and ordered Artemis to slay him. There are many ancient pictures of Actaeon's death, but this one stands alone. Other artists showed Actaeon attacked, but defending himself — fleeing, or (if falling), struggling or laying about him; and Artemis standing solemn by. The Pan Painter has quickened the movement and subtilized the contrast. The design is V-shaped. The two figures burst apart as if from an explosion at the base of the vase. Actaeon is neither fleeing nor struggling: he is collapsing utterly, he is dying. From the waist down he is already lifeless. Artemis turns towards Actaeon as she flies past him, and holds an arrow on her bow. He cries, he flings his arms out, he is dead. 'The feeling for great gesture appears here for the first time. That the motive may tell with its full force, the shanks, which would impair the leading lines of the composition, are almost foreshortened away. The mantle fills the void between left arm and torso, so that the body of Actaeon contracts to a compact mass, a mountain-block hurled to earth by divine power.' So Hauser: he speaks of a rock; but there is another image that would be no less apt. This is not the first falling or dying figure in Greek art: but it is the first that brings to mind the Homeric simile: 'He fell as falls an oak, or a white poplar, or a tall pine':
“ἤριπε δ᾽ ὡς ὅτε τις δρῦς ἤριπεν ἢ ἀχερωΐς
ἠὲ πίτυς βλωθρή
” The Pan Painter likes out-of-the-way subjects; and the picture on the other side of the vase is unique. The god Pan is almost unknown in Attic art before the Persian wars: he had ground for complaining to Philippides, on the eve of Marathon, that the Athenians neglected him. After the Persian wars Pan became popular at Athens: but not in this context: only here is he seen pursuing a boy. A young goatherd, in country garb — goat-skin, sheepskin cap, stockings, whip — is hotly pursued by the goat-god; and at the rock-seat, a third, strange person, the wooden herm-like image of some small Priapos-like deity, views the scene with a round, bewildered eye. In the drawing, a blend of late-archaic daintiness and early-classic grandeur; the pathos of the early-classic period but not its ēthos; swift, nay explosive movement; ravishing elegance; a darting, fastidious touch; piquant contrasts, deliberate and amusing disproportions — small things made larger, large things smaller, than one expects; round heads with tiny nose and delicate nostril but big chin and bull neck; wasp waist but sturdy thighs; powerful arms but tapering fingers; the bow very long, the quiver very
” The Pan Painter likes out-of-the-way subjects; and the picture on the other side of the vase is unique. The god Pan is almost unknown in Attic art before the Persian wars: he had ground for complaining to Philippides, on the eve of Marathon, that the Athenians neglected him. After the Persian wars Pan became popular at Athens: but not in this context: only here is he seen pursuing a boy. A young goatherd, in country garb — goat-skin, sheepskin cap, stockings, whip — is hotly pursued by the goat-god; and at the rock-seat, a third, strange person, the wooden herm-like image of some small Priapos-like deity, views the scene with a round, bewildered eye. In the drawing, a blend of late-archaic daintiness and early-classic grandeur; the pathos of the early-classic period but not its ēthos; swift, nay explosive movement; ravishing elegance; a darting, fastidious touch; piquant contrasts, deliberate and amusing disproportions — small things made larger, large things smaller, than one expects; round heads with tiny nose and delicate nostril but big chin and bull neck; wasp waist but sturdy thighs; powerful arms but tapering fingers; the bow very long, the quiver very
