Chryselephantine Couches, Feasting, and Imperial Violence in Hellenistic Macedonia

Abstract

Macedonian chryselephantine couches - exquisitely carved and gleaming with gold, glass, and ivory - offer a particularly illuminating case study of the material ramifications of Alexander the Great’s conquests for Hellenistic art. Well-documented in archaeological remains and written texts, the couches also offer a concrete lens through which to analyze the transfer of cultural knowledge about feasting: an ephemeral activity as significant for Hellenistic kings as for their Persian predecessors. This article examines the couches’ archaeological contexts, the aristocratic tombs in which they were found and the elaborate palaces and elite houses in which they were likely first used. It then analyzes the couches themselves as delicate luxury objects that nonetheless, in their iconography, style, and even their material, highlighted the violence of Macedonian imperialism. And finally, it considers the ephemeral practices through which the couches were activated for their patrons, that is, the feasts and funerals at which the Macedonian aristocracy both emulated and reacted against Persian precedents. This re-evaluation of Macedonian chryselephantine couches illuminates global interconnections during the formative period of Hellenistic art.