When the Sun Meets Okeanos

The Glitter Path as an Eschatological Route, from the Late Bronze Age to Archaic Greece

Abstract

In the Aegean, a landscape of small islands and peninsulas means that views of the Sun rising or setting over the sea are commonplace. Yet this everyday occurrence can produce a dazzling spectacle known as the “glitter path” – a line of bright sunlight reflected on the water, linking the seashore and the horizon. This paper explores how this phenomenon was elaborated as a form of seascape by the Aegean Greeks from Late Bronze Age (LBA) III through to the Archaic period, examining how it was incorporated into their worldview as something natural assimilated into the cultural. The diachronic perspective focuses on elements of continuity and discontinuity regarding beliefs about the world beyond. First, funerary pottery iconography from LB III (ca. 1400–1100 BC) is examined: in particular, a close relationship between the Sun and the sea can be inferred from imagery on Octopus Style funerary jars, where abstract representations of glitter paths seem to appear in the shape of hybrid octopuses. The evidence suggests that the octopus was depicted as the light-bearer within the darkness of the sea, with marked eyes to emphasise vision. The second part of the study gathers proof of allusions to the phenomenon of the glitter path in early Greek poetry as suggested by the descriptions of the door of Hades and gates of the Sun in the first literary documents produced in Greece from the eighth century BC, most notably in the works of Homer and Hesiod, but also in the poetry of Pindar, Mimnermus and Stesichorus.