Two further plays are illustrated by more than one painter. On the reverse of the Cleveland Painter’s Medea vase is a scene from the Telephus which permits comparison with the Bari Telephus vase and the Würzburg parody of Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazousae. The other play is an Aeschylean tragedy on the death of Sarpedon illustrated in one version by the Policoro Painter again.

The Cleveland Painter’s vase²⁶ shows Telephus, one knee on the altar holding the baby Orestes, an iconography that became canonical (and arguably may have become canonical before our earliest vase). It is an action-packed scene, which, even without a knowledge of the play, has the ability to grab the viewer — two men with drawn swords, a helpless baby appealing for mercy, a wife restraining a man bent on fatal actions. The Cleveland Painter has the simplest version and perhaps is closest to the actual theatrical scene.²⁷ Telephus, with bandaged right leg, holds the baby, who stretches out his arms to his father Agamemnon, who rushes up drawing his sword, while to the right Clytaemnestra seeks to restrain him. In the Bari version a few years later,²⁸ Clytaemnestra is running through a door into the house (?), her left arm raised to her head, while the child reaches out to seize Telephus’ hair. Telephus again has a bandaged leg. Some of the details are different from the earlier version but nothing that could not imply continuing on-stage action. The Würzburg parody²⁹ takes only Telephus from the standard scenes and, because this is comedy, shows the actor’s tights. It leaves out the bandage and substitutes the wineskin for the baby. Nevertheless, the pose is instantly recognisable. All three of these representations suggest vase painters who have been witness to a performance and were captured by the action. In fact, iconographical tradition almost certainly takes over early, and only Würzburg parody and possibly the Cleveland Painter’s vase may directly stage influenced. The corollary may also be valid, however, that iconographical tradition only developed because of frequent productions of the Telephus, and later stage action may have been influenced by the iconography. But here the simplicity of the depiction suggests we may be close to actual stage practice.

²⁶Lucanian kalyx krater c. 400, Cleveland 91. 1: Taplin 1. 102.

²⁷Taplin (37) argues that the iconography, of which there are some twenty versions, came from action on the stage rather than a messenger’s speech; cf. Webster, 47.

²⁸Lucanian bell-krater, 400—375 B. C., Bari, Museo Nazionale 12521; Taplin 3. 105, LCS supp. 3, 35, F6 (416d).

²⁹Apulian bell krater c. 370s B. C., Würzburg H 5697; Taplin 11. 4, RVAp 65, 4/4a.