La presa di Ecalia e i Gefirei

This paper focuses on the iconography of the Capture of Oichalia (Oichalias Halosis). The images can be divided into three groups: Herakles’ banquet at the court of King Eurytos, the archery contest for the hand of Iole, and the fight against the Eurytides. The famous “Eurytios Krater” (c. 600 BC) is usually considered to be the oldest depiction of the myth; in this study, however, I suggest to see a possible allusion to the archery contest in the MPG hydria from Skoubris tomb 51 at Lefkandi. The fight between Herakles and Eurytos’s sons appears exclusively on vases painted in Athens over a generation, between 510 and 480 BC. Th e Eurytides are depicted as Oriental or at least as Barbarians, a phenomenon that finds no explanation in literary sources. The aim of the paper is also to show that these images reflect the hostility of certain Athenian political forces against the Gephyraioi, the clan of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, to whom part of the tradition attributes Phoenician origins.