Introduction to Ramayana in Archaic Greek and Etruscan Art, Part I

Description (Introduction, Part I):

 

South Asian Legend of Rama in Greek and Etruscan artworks during the early Classical period (6th century BCE). Two relics are highlighted as proof of knowledge of the ancient Indian epic Ramayana among Ionian Greeks and Etruscans in Caere  - Campana plaques in the Louvre Museum, Paris and the Caeretan hydria in Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. A brief overview of the Mediterranean world, including important facts and maps for visualization, is also presented to help understand the context in which Indian myth traveled to East Greece and Italy.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlzjihOHcmA&t=71s

Transcript (Introduction, Part I):

The title of this presentation is simply, the South Asian Indian legend of Rama in archaic Greek and Etruscan art. The Campana plaques, one of which you can see on the left, from ancient Italy, and one of the Caeretan hydriae, which were painted water jars, are two examples that prove certain Ionian artists in the ancient Mediterranean had knowledge of this particular Indian epic. The South Asian Indian legend of Rama is officially called the Valmiki Ramayana, or just simply the Ramayana. And it is one of the two national epics of India, and definitely one of the great stories of the ancient world.  

The name of the legendary poet who composed the Ramayana is Valmiki, spelled V A L M I K I, and this is why it is called the Valmiki Ramayana. It is a poem that is much longer than the Greek epics Iliad and Odyssey combined, as it contains a wealth of stories that have fascinated Indian and Southeast Asian cultures for centuries. And although the epic poem of the Ramayana is probably more than 2,500 years old, the earlist known depictions of it from Asia date only to the 2nd century BCE.

In this presentation, I am making the bold claim that the Campana plaques and the Caeretan hydria that were painted in the Mediterranean world should constitute the oldest collection of imagery portraying the main characters of the Ramayana, including the hero Rama and heroine Sita, who you can see above from right to left. This familiarity with the story of the Ramayana in the ancient Mediterranean world began around the mid to late 6th century BC and probably ended abruptly around the beginning of the fifth century BC. And that is why it has been forgotten to some extent. 

Both the Caeretan hydria that you see on the bottom right and the Campana plaque that you see on the left, they are both artworks that date to the 6th century BC. And to be more specific, probably the third quarter of the 6th century BC, 550 to 525 BC. And this is far earlier than any Indian artwork that depicts the Ramayana by several centuries. And so given that this work of art dates to much earlier, the 6th century BC, it is an astonishing gap and if it was accepted as a depiction of the Ramayana, it would immediately become the oldest known depiction of it. And the importance of this and the magnitude of this is very, very great, meaning that the ramifications for our understanding of world history are enormous.

To gradually and gently introduce this subject matter which is very complex, I am giving  you a preview here of Greek and Etruscan art from a Caeretan workshop in the 6th century BCE. My purpose here is to give a quick overview of terms and important facts from ancient Italy and Greece in the late 6th century BC. And then after that I will give a preview of my own case study of Caeretan artworks. My case study will focus on Greek and Etruscan knowledge of South Asian Indian mythology, particularly the legend of Rama, the great hero of the Valmiki Ramayana, which is very famous even today all over South Asia and even Southeast Asia, in countries such as Cambodia and Thailand and many other Southeast Asian countries. So it’s a very popular epic in the Asian world, and what I am trying to prove is that it also was known in the 6th century BC to the Greeks and Etruscans for a short period of time.

Before getting into terminology, I just want to draw your attention to the pictures on this slide. They are from the Caeretan artworks called the Campana plaques, which are five in number. And this is a sample of faces from three of those slabs. And the Caeretan artworks were produced in the southern Tuscan city of Caere. Tuscany is the modern name for ancient Etruria. So Caere was located in southern Etruria near Rome. And what I was trying to just do briefly here is give you a little bit of a preview based on the facial recognition of these characters. And if you look at these characters from left to right, you can see the similarity in their hand gestures and their facial appearance. Their beard is shaped in a very similar way and the hair is also very similar. And I am going to argue in the presentation that each one of these characters is a depiction of the Indian hero Rama. You can see also if you look at more closely, the right hand side here is a zoomed-in photo of the picture of the man who’s holding bow and arrows and has his right hand raised. So you see that on the right side here, and then on the left side you see two pictures of a man with a beard and also making a hand gesture. But also if you look at it you’ll see that this second picture on the left has another man with a bow and arrows. So Rama is typically depicted with bow and arrows in Indian religion and in the Indian art. And so really the Etruscan artists or the Greek artists in Etruria were doing the same thing here. They were depicting him with bow and arrows. And you see that in the second and third pictures here.

So now I’ll get into more of the terminology from ancient Italy and Greece as well as, you know, getting more in depth about these Campana plaques and the Caeretan hydria. The story of Rama, the great hero of ancient India, was later subsumed into the foundation myth of Rome and into the mythology of the founding king Romulus. And this is a subject that I am not going to go into detail in this presentation, but that’s what this presentation is laying a foundation for. So even though I will not be going into a length discussion about the foundation myth of Rome, I just want the audience to keep in mind that this presentation is meant to act as a bridge towards that even broader subject. I want to establish some important details about the classical world or ancient Mediterranean in the 6th century BC before going into greater detail in this presentation. 

The first important fact is that the Ionians or the Greeks were scattered across the Mediterranean world. And they had colonies in Asia Minor on the western coastline. And many of these Ionian artists from Asia Minor also traveled to Etruria and settled there during the second half of the 6th century BC or 550 to 500 BC. So they were well-traveled. They actually traveled to many different places in the Near East and in the Mediterranean world. But one of the most important places where they settled down was the ancient city of Caere in southern Etruria. The next point I want to make is that, and it’s a very important fact, is that the Persians or ancient Iranians had already conquered the Ionians in Asia Minor, as well as most of West Asia by 525 BC. And their empire actually stretched far enough to include parts of modern-day northwest India or what you would call Pakistan, or Afghanistan. 

And the next point I want to make is that Caere was a city situated in southern Etruria, very close to the boundary between Roman and Etruscan tribes of Latium and Etruria. So the Latin tribes of Rome and the Etruscan tribes were on the border around this area of Caere and Rome. And Rome was a city in Latium, of course, that was situated very close to the Etruscan cities of Caere and Veii in southern Etruria. So, Caere and Rome were in close proximity and that’s what is very important for our analysis and the Persians had an empire that stretched all the way from Ionia and Asia Minor to really, the northwest boundaries of India. So these Ionian artists were able to communicate with ancient Indians and Persians.

Now the next few points are that Rome was ruled by generations of Etruscan kings. And this again ties into the fact that the there was a close relationship between Etruria and Rome in the 6th century BC, especially between Rome and Caere, as well as a few other Etruscan cities like Tarquinia. So Rome was ruled by generations of Etruscan kings whose origins have often been traced to Tarquinia, another coastal city in southern Etruria that was close to Caere and Rome. The next point I want to make that’s very important is that the Etruscans themselves were very fascinated, unusually fascinated, with oriental cultures, especially in the Near East during the Orientalizing and Archaic periods, which primarily span the seventh and sixth centuries BC, which would be approximately 700 to 500 BC. 

Now the Caeretan hydriae are specific works of art in a workshop in Caere that existed about or between 530 to 510 BC. And these Caeretan hydriae were painted water vessels and along with them there was also an established art of terracotta wall painting, which was connected to the hydria. And both of these works of art were often the work of Ionian artists who had immigrated to Caere. And these Ionian artists also had access to interactions with Oriental civilizations including Persia and Egypt as well. For example, in Egypt there was the coastal city, or important trading outpost of Naukratis, where there were many Greek artists. Just to summarize, before we move to the next slide, I just want to re-emphasize that the Caeretan hydriae were produced in the coastal city of Caere in southern Etruria. And these painted water vessels as well as the terracotta wall painting, which includes the Campana plaques, were often the work of Ionian artists who had immigrated to Caere. And these Ionian artists had access to interactions with Oriental civilizations including Persia and Egypt.

To visualize the ancient Mediterranean world, I’ve presented some simple maps here. On the left hand side, you see ancient Italy with Etruria and Latium. Latium is in the southeastern part of the map of Italy. And then you see Etruria in the northwestern part of it. And on the border between Etruria and Latium, you see the cities of Cerveteri and Rome. Cerveteri is the modern name for ancient Caere. And you can see the blue arrow pointing at it and the red arrow is pointing at Rome. And they’re clearly in close proximity to one another. So these two cities had a close relationship in the 6th century BC.

Now moving on to the map on the right hand side, you see the Ionian cities colored in green on the western coast of ancient Anatolia or Asia Minor, which is now modern Turkey. And if you look on the top you can see an orange arrow pointing at the Ionian city of Phocaea, which is of particular interest. These Ionian artists that immigrated to Caere, they likely hailed from Phocaea, which is, you know, located in the northern part of Ionia near the border of Lydia, which was one of the first nations to fall infamously to the Persians and Cyrus the Great around the middle of the 6th century BCE.

The following is a general list of the main ideas I have that I want to prove in this presentation. So what am I trying to prove about the classical world including Greece and Etruria in the 6th century BC, especially the second half of it which was 550 to 500 BC? Well, on a high level, I want to expose the incomplete nature of our understanding of that time period due to Eurocentrism and ignorance of Asian influences, particularly Indo-Persian on the Greeks and the Etruscans. Specifically, archaeological excavation of artworks from the city of Caere has revealed knowledge in Etruscan aristocratic circles of so-called Oriental myths, which are actually traceable to the Indian legend of Rama, the earliest composition of which dates to the 6th century BC in India, the same period coincidentally. 

The next point I want to make is that the Caeretan hydria, that specific work of art which is kept at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in the USA, and the Campana plaques, which are a group of five terracotta painted panels, and those panels are kept at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France; these two separate works of art, the Caeretan hydria and the Campana plaques, they are two major examples of artworks depicting the popular Indian myth of the Ramayana, which was also told in ancient times to countries all over Southeast Asia. Next, I want to talk about the Persian Empire which facilitated the necessary social exchanges between Ionian Greeks from Europe and North Indians from Asia that were required for transmission of this Indian epic Ramayana all the way from India to Italy, or what you would call Etruria.