Leucippides

Abductions are extremely common events in Greek myth; accordingly, famous episodes often make their appearance in vascular depictions too. Using the abduction of the Leucippides by the Dioscuri as a case study, this paper aims to investigate the depiction of emotional trauma – or lack thereof – in abducted girls. Nowadays, no one would ever doubt the traumatic nature of such experience; however, pottery painters show surprisingly different levels of sensitiveness and solidarity towards these girls' feelings. We find panic-filled runs, surprised gestures and outstretched hands begging for help; but we also find girls modestly covering their heads with veils, standing straight and solemn on their abductor's chariot, or even taking the reins of it. How can these girls be so collected in such a situation? Most abductions happened by chariot – Persephone's is probably the most famous, but as I have mentioned before, it is also a common occurrence for the Leucippides' – and the abductor and abducted girl, standing on a chariot among powerless well-wishers, must have distinctly reminded its Greek users of a wedding procession. Abductions in real life did not seem to be as popular as in depictions. Weddings, on the other hand, were obviously part of the everyday life of any Greek person; and mock abductions had – apparently – something to do with wedding rituals too, at least in some contexts (e.g. Sparta). In conclusion, the depictions of the abducted girls' feelings walk a thin line between the emotional trauma of a violent accident and the solemn acceptance of the ineluctable fate of marriage. On which side the painting is more inclined depends on what the painter wants to highlight – rape or marriage, violence or persuasion, acceptance or reluctance.

Theocritus' Idyll 22 is a hymn to the Dioscuri; it follows quite closely the structure of traditional hymns, but with an unexpected twist to a traditional story. For the first time ever, Castor is the only protagonist of the abduction of the Leucippides and of the fight with the Apharetidae, their husbands-to-be. However, what should attract our attention is the connection itself between the two episodes – never before had it happened, at least in literary sources. While both episodes are widely attested, mainly in iconography, they do not converge until the Hellenistic period. Nonetheless, Theocritus is not the one who invented the abduction as the cause of the fight – the iconography already hints at it before. Probably, he is the first to introduce the abduction of the brides-to-be as the cause of the fight, but this extra detail – satisfying from both a logical and an emotional point of view – is only the conclusion of an evolutionary process that brought to the fusion of two episodes into one. In the beginning, the Dioscuri took part with the Apharetidae in an ill-fated cattle raid. They still abducted their chosen brides, but in a completely different (and we can assume more successful) context – a cultic context, judging by the pottery paintings. By the time we have our first detailed narration of the episode in the Hellenistic age (i.e. Theocritus'), these events have all merged into a single, more complex structure. How did it happen? This paper aims to shed some light on the main moments of this story, with a particular focus on the interactions between literary and iconographic sources.

It is widely known that the Dioscuri – the divine (or semi-divine) twin sons of Zeus – are deeply embedded in Spartan myths and religion; however, the geographical and chronological diffusion of their stories outside Laconia is much more controversial.
In this paper, I will examine a single episode of their myth in a specific geographical context: the reception of the abduction of the Leucippides at the hands of the Dioscuri in Southern Italy. In fact, the earliest examples of this myth outside Laconia are dated to the middle of the sixth century and prove an already widespread knowledge of the story of the Leucippides. Those first cases are barely more recent than the earliest information from Sparta we have, and also seem to be closer to the Spartan situation itself, as compared for example to Athens. Nevertheless, the first signs of drift in the meaning of the episode are already evident.
In particular, my interest will focus on the poleis of Rhegion and Locri. I will try to ascertain how, when and why the myth of the Dioscuri developed in these contexts, by recurring to a selection of archaeological, artistic, literary and historical evidence, to recreate a clearer picture of the intricate web of relations connecting Archaic Sparta and the Peloponnese to the colonies of Magna Graecia.