On the right sits a storage jar from around 540 B.C. that portrays a scene of Theseus and the Minotaur. It can be found in the new exhibit at the Fogg,The Social Context of Greek Art. But why is this scene important? Who was Theseus What's a Minotaur? What are all the designs on the pot? What about the dress of the characters? And, what's a "storage jar?"

This exhibit not so much answers these questions as it provides an accessible and viable means to address these and countless other issues about Fifth Century Athens and Greece. Gregory Crane, Associate Professor of Classics, has organized the two-room exhibit of ancient pots, coins, weapons and everyday objects with one very non-ancient device: Perseus, a computer database that sits calmly in the form of two Macintoshes beside the exhibited objects in the galleries.

Perseus contains a diverse and comprehensive group of archaeological, historical and literary details. It includes the following: multiple photographs of exhibited objects and similar works from different periods; photographs of architectural plans, structures and landscapes; maps of Greece; numerous historical and literary texts from the period and etymological analyses of these texts and a concise history of the period.

The viewer can take advantage of all these sources to learn more about this particular storage jar and the culture that produced it. He or she can read about Theseus in its original primary text. He or she can look at other swords, vases and fashion from the period and other periods and compare them. Perseus thus opens up the questions and possibilities for analysis and study of Greek culture.

For example, one might choose to trace the representations of the Theseus story before, during and after the Golden Age in order to see which elements were emphasized pictorially. One could consider what the stress of, say, the violence of the scene or the ornateness of the dress, signifies.

Crane incorporates this method into his core class, "Classical Greek Literature and 5th Century Athens;" this teaching technique integrates the artistic and archaeological records with the literary ones. Rather than imposing a dogmatic approach and theory on this material, Crane's overall objective is to motivate any museum visitor to use the information: "...to reorganize from bottom up, what issues we are addressing...to change the possibilities" of study.

Data of the Database

Although the centrality of the exhibited objects should not be ignored, the database makes. The Social Context of Greek Art strikingly unique. For "Scene of Theseus and the Minotaur" and others like it, the viewer can access Perseus to find out relevant information of the history of the object and its acquisition, as well as to look at high-quality photographs of the object.

The Perseus photographs--between about 40 and 60 computer-scanned pictures of each work--show the piece from various angles. Each file includes perspectives otherwise inaccessible to the viewer, like shots from beneath; the database also includes zoom-in shots of astounding clarity.

The other photographs on the database--architectural sites and maps--are included to "Let people browse around and acquire a concrete and gut feeling of a living society." Thus, with a few simple clicks on the Macintosh, one can acquire a terrific sense of the a city like Delphi. After locating Delphi on a map of Greece, the viewer can click a few more times for the history of the region and for background on particular structures.

The viewer can also click to see the architectural plan of a particular Greek temple and its physical evolution through the years. Photos of the temple and its surrounding landscape complete the viewer's experience; it gives him or her a "better feeling than with conventional tools," the next best thing to a trip to Greece.

Another part of the database provides a concise, but substantial, history of the Golden Age. The history begins by describing Greece's clashes with Persia, and closes with the military expeditions of Alexander.

In between, one can read about the Athens-Sprat relationship, from alliance to confrontation; of shifts in the social and political structures through the period; and about gender relations and attitudes toward the ancient Greek family. Again, the overall effect is to flesh out the exhibit and provoke the viewer to thought and synthesis.

The database also includes numerous texts from the Classical period and a comprehensive glossary that allows students to probe into the original Greek vocabulary. When reading a work by Homer, Herodotus, Sophocles or others, students can highlight an English word and the original Greek word will appear with its meaning.

Crane points to the differences in the meaning of "respect" as an example: respect for people and respect for Gods are two different words in Greek; furthermore, "respect" for a king connotes servility. Perseus makes word derivations far more available to the student, thereby radically changing another logistical problem formally intrinsic to this kind of study.