Tomb of the Diver
Dublin Core
Title
Tomb of the Diver
Description
Location: National Archaeological Museum of Paestum
Date: 480-470 BC
Details: The so-called Tomb of the Diver was discovered about a mile (1.5 km) south of the ruins of Paestum. The tomb consisted of a chamber built from five stone slabs--one for each of the walls and one for the roof--and covered with plaster. They feature one of the earliest and best preserved examples of Greek monumental painting.
The walls of the tomb depict a symposium, an important social gathering for aristocrats in ancient Greek communities. Participants at symposia would recline together on couches after a meal to enjoy drinking, poetry, music, and conversation. One of the men portrayed in this tomb holds a lyre--an instrument which was used to accompany lyric poetry--and a lyre was one of the grave goods in this tomb. The symposium scene clearly connects the tomb's occupant to the elite, male culture that was prevalent across the Greek world in this period.
On the other hand, the tomb equally indicates connections to Italian cultural traditions. The covering slab features the painting of the eponymous diver, after whom the tomb is named. It may symbolize the diver metaphorically "diving" into the afterlife, transitioning from life to death, paralleling scenes in Etruscan art (e.g. the diver scene in the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing). It has also been argued that the local inhabitant was of Italian origin, thus attesting to the cross-cultural contact that characterized Paestum (Greek Poseidonia) from an early date.
Further reading:
Beaulieu, M.-C. 2016. The Sea in the Greek Imagination. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Tuck, S. K. 2015. A History of Roman Art. Wiley-Blackwell.
Robinson, E.G.D. 2011. "Identity in the Tomb of the Diver at Poseidonia." In M. Gleba and H. W. Hornaes (eds.), Communicating Identity in Italic Iron Age Communities. Oxbow Books.
Date: 480-470 BC
Details: The so-called Tomb of the Diver was discovered about a mile (1.5 km) south of the ruins of Paestum. The tomb consisted of a chamber built from five stone slabs--one for each of the walls and one for the roof--and covered with plaster. They feature one of the earliest and best preserved examples of Greek monumental painting.
The walls of the tomb depict a symposium, an important social gathering for aristocrats in ancient Greek communities. Participants at symposia would recline together on couches after a meal to enjoy drinking, poetry, music, and conversation. One of the men portrayed in this tomb holds a lyre--an instrument which was used to accompany lyric poetry--and a lyre was one of the grave goods in this tomb. The symposium scene clearly connects the tomb's occupant to the elite, male culture that was prevalent across the Greek world in this period.
On the other hand, the tomb equally indicates connections to Italian cultural traditions. The covering slab features the painting of the eponymous diver, after whom the tomb is named. It may symbolize the diver metaphorically "diving" into the afterlife, transitioning from life to death, paralleling scenes in Etruscan art (e.g. the diver scene in the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing). It has also been argued that the local inhabitant was of Italian origin, thus attesting to the cross-cultural contact that characterized Paestum (Greek Poseidonia) from an early date.
Further reading:
Beaulieu, M.-C. 2016. The Sea in the Greek Imagination. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Tuck, S. K. 2015. A History of Roman Art. Wiley-Blackwell.
Robinson, E.G.D. 2011. "Identity in the Tomb of the Diver at Poseidonia." In M. Gleba and H. W. Hornaes (eds.), Communicating Identity in Italic Iron Age Communities. Oxbow Books.
Creator
Gabriel Baker.
Rights
Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
Collection
Citation
Gabriel Baker. , “Tomb of the Diver,” Archaeology, Artifacts, & Landscapes, accessed April 19, 2024, https://gabrieldavidbaker.com/digital-exhibit/items/show/15.