Tomb Of The Diver Analysis

CLA101 – Assignment 1

Age On the north wall of Tomb of the Diver, we can see that some men have beards, while some do not. Some men have larger and more full beards than the rest of them. As said in the lecture, this signifies age in classical Greek art. On the right side of the painting, there are two men sitting on a bench. The man who is further right is an older man because of his beard. He is sitting with a younger man, presumable the youngest in the painting. This young man has no sign of a beard and we are also not able to see his muscles, which we can see in the other men. In classical Greece, young men were depicted at women in paintings. The two men do not have their wine kylix in their hands, the older man has his hand behind the …show more content…
There were often competitions, and entertainment, like musicians or prostitutes. The men on the far right has two lyres by them. The way the young man’s hand in on the lyre, it looks like he is playing it. The other lyre is much smaller and is just sitting there. This could mean that one of the lyres could have been left by a prostitute. As we discussed in the lecture, symposiums would often have women come and entertain the guests with music, but they would also be prostitutes. This lyre could have been left by one of the women because it is much smaller than the lyre being played by a man. People who aren’t as important as the men invited to symposiums were painted smaller than everyone else, as seen from the slave boy on the Bomford cup. In ancient Greece, women were considered less important, so they would be smaller. The young man could also be playing the lyre for competition. Symposiums would usually have competitions, and who is the best musician was usually one of them. This cloud also be why the older man on the middle bench is looking directly at the younger man playing the lyre. The older man looks like he is smiling, which could mean that he is impressed with the young man’s musical talent. The younger man on the middle bench has his kylix angled to look like he is about to throw it. He is playing kottabos, which is a game played at symposiums where they would fling the wine from their cups. Kottabos would often be used as a competition, or as discussed in the tutorial, as flirting. I think this case of kottabos is supposed to be flirting because the man on the left is not acknowledging him. If it was a kottabos competition, the man on the left would be looking at him, not looking away. Men at symposiums would always be doing something, if it was partaking in competitions, or just watching