The Persian and Carthaginian Invasions of 480 B.C.E. and the Beginning of the Classical Style: Part 2, the Finds from Other Sites in Athens, Attica, Elsewhere in Greece, and on Sicily; Part 3, the Severe Style: Motivations and Meaning

Abstract

This study, in three parts, addresses the problem of the beginning of the classical style—the so-called Severe Style—from an archaeological perspective, focusing on those sculptures either found, or allegedly found, in Persian destruction contexts or directly associated with the Persian and Carthaginian invasions. Part 1 appears in a previous issue of the AJA (112 [2008] 377-412). Parts 2 and 3 are presented in this article. The first part of the study reexamined the 19th-century excavations of the Acropolis and demonstrated that the style probably did not predate the Persian invasion of 480-479 B.C.E. Part 2 revisits finds from elsewhere in Athens and Attica, Phokis, the Aphaia sanctuary on Aigina, and Sicily, with similar results. Part 3 summarizes current theories on the origins and significance of the Severe Style, suggests that the Tyrannicides of Kritios and Nesiotes, dedicated in 477/6, indeed inaugurated it, and reconsiders the idea that the Greek victories of 480-479 somehow inspired it, at least in part.