Where is Heimarmene? A New Interpretation of the Famous Amphoriskos in the Berlin Collection of Classical Antiquities

Abstract

The amphoriskos by the Heimarmene Painter in the Berlin Collection of Classical Antiquities has been supposed to bear the sole depiction of Heimarmene, the personification of ineluctable fate. A new reading of the inscriptions now shows that, on the back of the vase, Nemesis and Eutychia are more likely to be juxtaposed with Eukleia and Eunomia. As personifications they comment upon the central scene, the persuasion of the bride by Aphrodite and Peitho, while Himeros infuses desire into the bridegroom. Thus interpreted, the pictorial representation has numerous parallels among wedding vases from the circle of the Meidias Painter. Eukleia and Eunomia, embodying good reputation and good order, propagate love and sexuality within a fully legitimate marriage, and hence recall the Pericleian legislation pertaining to marriage which made citizenship conditional upon the Athenian ancestry of both parents. As a consequence of the Peloponnesian War and the chaos caused by the plague, it was in many cases no longer possible to establish legitimate ancestry. This being so, reference to the ancestry ideology of the citizens of the Athenian polis may have been particularly necessary.