The materiality of the world of the dead in the iconographic representations of the attic pottery production in the classic period

Abstract

This research project aims at analyzing the iconographic representations of the Greek underworld (the world of the dead) in vases from the Attic pottery production (Athens), from the end of the Archaic to the beginning of the Hellenistic Period. This study intends to focus on the images of the Orpheus myth, due to its characteristics essentially related to the conceptions of death and the relations between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Our proposal of iconographic analysis considers chronological, morphological, technical (material and manufacturing process) and stylistic singularities of Attic pottery production, as well as its iconological aspects, that is, representations of personified figures in scenes related to the world of the dead and their social meanings. In addition, we also intend to discuss the analysis of the visual material culture in relation to its archaeological context, that is in the funerary contexts, in order to understand its context of production and consumption in order to reflect on the functions, meanings and implications of the iconographical representations of the world of the dead in the Athenian society of the Classical Period as forms of social and cultural expressions of the world of the living. (AU)