Terracotta Interspecies Figures from Ayia Triada: Traditional Iconography or Artistic Innovation? (15 min)

Presenters

Guy Hedreen, Williams College

Abstract

From LM IIIC Ayia Triada and related sites come several extraordinary terracotta figures of creatures composed of parts of more than one present-day species. Those sculptural representations have been thought to represent traditional mythological figures, such as sphinxes or centaurs, but there is no scholarly consensus as to what they should be called. In this paper, I argue that they are best understood as nova, artistic creations with no precise preexisting mythological prototype.

The composite figures consist of two different types. Some represent creatures with the legs and torso of a cow or bull and the armless torso and head of a human. Others comprise a human-bovine combination of cow or bull torso, human neck and head, and human legs. While the former type is roughly similar to the later Greek centaur, the latter type, with human legs, bovine torso, and human head, resembles nothing in the art of the Aegean or Near East.

I argue that the nature of the terracottas can be understood by considering their mode of construction. The earliest, most elaborate examples were created by joining three clay wheel-made cylinders, one each for head, neck, and body, which were then customized specifically into bulls or composite beings through the addition of details including horns, dewlap, shoes, and so on. A little experimentation, such as slight adjustment to the placement of the cylinders, would lead to an entirely new type of being. The impetus for such an experiment might have been familiarity with earlier Aegean composite creatures, say, a sphinx. But what the potter took away from that encounter was not an intention to represent a specific, preexisting type, but rather the generic and generative idea of combining parts of a human body with parts of an animal, to create a new “species.”