An “Idyllic” World Against War Atrocities; Images of Elegance, Escapism and Liberation in the midst of the Peloponnesian War

Abstract

his presentation proposes to explore the impact of the Pelopon-nesian War -a bloody and disastrous civil war between Atheni-ans and the Delian League and Spartans and the Peloponnesian League, 431-404 BC 1 - on the society of Late Classical Athens, as reflected on the images of women in the popular art medium of vase-painting. These years saw the dramatic decline of citizen population in both Athens and Sparta. Losses due to war and plague in Athens have been estimated, according to Thucydides, to the range of about one third of the original male, citizen population. 2