medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Saturday, August 9, 2008, at 4:40 pm, Diana Wright wrote:
> It always evokes for me the Demeter (mother)-Persephone (daughter) &
> small boy configuration, such as
> http://z.about.com/d/ancienthistory/1/7/U/6/2/DemeterTriptolemusPersephoneFrieze.jpg
The boy in this configuration is usually called Triptolemos (as in the image caption for the view pointed to by Diana). The image shown appears to have been retouched. Here's a fairly recent view of the original piece (a stele, BTW, not -- as in the image caption -- a frieze) in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens:
http://tinyurl.com/6ar9b7
And here's a view of a copy in the Eleusis Museum at Eleusis:
http://tinyurl.com/59o39k
Larger view:
http://tinyurl.com/6g65qb
In both of those, note the wearing of many of the surfaces (e.g. Triptolemos's nose, Persephone's/Kore's nose, and her right arm).
In this particular composition Triptolemus (receiving from Demeter the grain with which he will instruct mankind in agriculture) appears to me more a young man (kouros) than a small boy.
For T. as a small boy, see this image of him (seated, in chariot) in the Eleusis Museum:
http://www.miti3000.it/mito/luoghi/img/elefsina/Triptolemos.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
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