The Diver of Paestum

Since its discovery in 1968, the painting of a diver on a tomb in Paestum, originally the Greek colony of Poseidonia in southern Italy, has left viewers spellbound. It depicts a beautiful and enigmatic scene: a young man dives headfirst into the water from a cliff or tower. The image is joined by others from the same tomb depicting a banquet of young people drinking wine, playing games and enjoying music. Understanding this painting is often seen as a key to unlocking some of the mysteries of ancient Greek culture – and therein lies the puzzle. What is the meaning of the diver? Is it, as many have argued, a metaphorical representation of the passage from life to a world beyond?

The eminent art historian Tonio Hölscher rejects this view, arguing that there is nothing symbolic or metaphorical about the painting: the scenes celebrate the real lives of the Greek colonists of the early 5th century BC. The painting captures a young man’s spirited personality and pursuits during a life which may have been short, but was lived to the full. In a groundbreaking reversal of how the painting is typically interpreted, this book opens a window onto the world of Ancient Greece and its culture of athleticism, eroticism, love for nature and enjoyment of the sea. A joyful ode to youth, it is above all a unique portrait of the zest for life in Antiquity. Preface
Note to the English Edition

1. Tomb, City, and Civic Culture: Challenges of a Sensational Discovery
2. Eschatology or Lifeworld?
3. Ephebes by the Sea: Images
4. Ephebes by the Sea: Places
5. Girls by the Sea: Images
6. Girls by the Sea: Places?
7. Life Stages and Living Spaces
8. Mythical Heroes and Maidens in the Wilderness and by the Sea
9. The Body, Beauty, and the Culture of Direct Action
10. Images of Life in the Face of Death
11. The Tomb in Paestum: The Deceased, his Lifeworld, and his Cultural Milieu
12. Envoi

Appendix
List of Figure Credits

“This is a remarkable book, of great originality and charm, a pleasure to hold and to read. Though relatively short, and written in a straightforward unassuming way, it is a work of high intellectual ambition: a brilliant and memorable intervention in the interpretation of ancient Greek funerary imagery.”
Chris Hallett, University of California, Berkeley

“Professor Tonio Hölscher is one of the world's foremost art historians of the ancient Greek world. Any new book of his is to be hugely welcomed, and that this one is devoted to exploring and explaining a great rarity, a 2-D color painting of the fifth century BCE from Paestum (Poseidonia) in southern Italy, is an enormous bonus.”
Paul Cartledge, University of Cambridge

“A powerful, new anthropological interpretation of one of the masterpieces of ancient Greek painting. Hölscher’s magisterial discussion of the frescoes of the Tomb of the Diver in Paestum as a representation of the real lifeworld of Greek youths becomes an opportunity for addressing key aspects of Archaic and Classical Greek culture. A must read for anyone interested in ancient Mediterranean art and its hermeneutic potential.”
Clemente Marconi, New York University

Tonio Hölscher is Emeritus Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Heidelberg.