Iris - Ball Games

We tend to think about the ancient Greeks enjoying athletics more than ball games, but while athletics were very popular, ball games had their place too. Ball games were particularly associated with the young. Children and adolescents were expected to stay fit and healthy. Ball games were an easy and enjoyable way to exercise and improve dexterity. Young men often played team ball games, such as the one that you can see in one of the Statue Base animations. Young women had fewer opportunities for team games, as they could not play together at the gymnasium. That did not exclude them from ball games all together. They could play games at home if they had space and juggling was a fun and improving activity that young women could play by themselves. Juggling requires a lot of concentration, good hand-eye co-ordination, and enough fitness and strength to keep the hands and arms up and moving. As a demonstration of fitness and skill, juggling could even be an indication of marriageability. That is often the subtext to images of women juggling on vases.

In this animation, the ball player kicks the ball, which bounces round to the opposite side of the vase. There it is spotted by Iris, the goddess of the rainbow. For the ancient Greeks, rainbows were created by Iris. She carries messages from one god to another, especially messages from Zeus and Hera. When she flies, she leaves rainbows streaking behind her across the sky.

This vase is a bell krater, made in Athens in around 350BCE. With its large mouth and spacious belly, a bell krater would have been used for mixing wine and water together. This vase was created in what is known as the ‘Six Style,’ or the ‘Six Technique.’ Before firing, coloured slips were added onto the black slip covering the vase. These second slips were usually white, red, or pink. Incisions might be made in the slip too. The technique is named after Jan Six, a Dutch scholar who was the first to note and discuss these vases.

On one side, this vase features a woman with short hair wearing a long black dress playing with several balls. The opposite side of the vase features the goddess of the rainbow, Iris. You can tell that this is Iris as she has a distinctive combination – wings and a herald’s staff, known as a caduceus. The red of Iris’ dress and the white of her skin have been added on top of the black slip, while the detail in her wings has been made by incisions into the slip.

This vase is housed in The State Collections of Antiquities at the Antikensammlungen and Glyptothek Museum, Munich, Germany (vase no. DV73). Below you can see Panoply’s Steve K Simons and Sonya Nevin visiting the vase in Munich.

This animation joins together the two sides of the vase. We see the woman in the black dress playing with a large ball. She kicks the ball away so that she can juggle with the smaller balls. The ball she kicked bounces around to the other side of the vase where it surprises Iris, the rainbow goddess. As Iris flits about to see the ball, she creates flashes of rainbow colour. Iris then takes the opportunity to play with the ball herself!

The music in the animation was created by Aliki Markantonatou (https://www.alikimarkantonatou.net).

On the page for Iris. Rainbow Goddess, you can see a second animation featuring Iris and a short documentary about her.

The Activity tab of the Iris. Rainbow Goddess page contains a downloadable PowerPoint and Activity sheet about Iris.

Can you juggle? Can anyone in your class juggle? Give it a go!

Do you have access to a glass prism? Try using one to split apart the colours in white light to reveal the rainbow of colours that comprise it.