Great Altar Research Articles

Review: Building Democracy in Late Archaic Athens

Review: <i>Building Democracy in Late Archaic Athens</i>

Repositioning the Sea on the Great Altar of Pergamon: A Demonstration of Hellenistic Boat Construction on the Telephos Frieze

The Telephos frieze of the Great Altar of Pergamon contains a rare testimony of boat construction in the Hellenistic period, portraying specialized tools and working practices in an ancient boatyard. The sculpture documents the building of a small boat, offering rare insight into ancient boatbuilding. The vessel of Auge, mother of the Trojan hero Telephos, is a symmetrical skiff with two rounded ends resembling a coffin, a typology barely evidenced archaeologically. This article notes iconographic idiosyncrasies on the frieze that depart from the principal sources of the Telephos myth in the depiction of the infant accompanying his mother Auge to her watery tomb. To build the boat-coffin shown on the frieze, the trained craftsmen use the bow saw, bow drill, two-handled adze, and mallet and chisel, tools known from shipwrecks but documented only rarely in visual representations. Beyond a close technical examination of these implements, our discussion considers relevant maritime funerary rituals and examines several different ship typologies in relation to the boat depicted on the Telephos frieze. From his mother’s tiny skiff to her son the mythical hero’s mighty warships, their careful portrayal on the altar symbolizes the expansion by Eumenes II (r. 197–159 BCE) of his kingdom into the Aegean.1

Faience Found in the Recent Excavations to the East of the Great Altar in the Samos Heraion

Faience Found in the Recent Excavations to the East of the Great Altar in the Samos Heraion

Handover of the buildings and equipment remaining after the dissolution of the Pauline monastery in Leśna Podlaska in 1864 to the Eastern Orthodox Church and its further history

In Leśna Podlaska, the image of Mother of God has been an object of worship since 1683. In 1727, the Leśna parish was taken over by monks from the Pauline Order. In 1875, on the basis of Tsar Alexander II's decree, the church in Leśna Podlaska, together with the venerated image, the great altar, and votive offerings, were handed over to the Eastern Orthodox Church. The remaining furnishings were transferred to 18 parish churches of the liquidated dioceses of Podlasie and Lublin. The organ was transferred to All Saints Church in Warsaw. The book collection of the Pauline monks from Leśna was donated to the library of the seminary in Lublin. In the years 1879–1881, the exterior of the church was changed, giving the building an appearance characteristic of Orthodox Church temples. Leśna Podlaska became an important centre of Russification policy carried out by Russia.

The Ludovisi “Suicidal Gaul” and his wife: bronze or marble original, Hellenistic or Roman?

From 1981 to 2002, in various lectures and writings, I presented my suggestion about the “Roman” conception of the Ludovisi Suicidal Gaul, without eliciting positive responses. What has prompted me to re-open this issue after the passing of so many years? Perhaps the catalyst was a major exhibition — Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World — held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from April 18 to July 17, 2016, together with its impressive catalogue. There, an essay by M. Papini reviewed present knowledge about the victory dedications of the Attalids and the stone bases for them erected at Pergamon within the precinct of Athena Nikephoros. Although admitting that certainty was impossible and that serious difficulties existed about previously attempted reconstructions, he reproduced two drawings that showed the Ludovisi Gaul atop the large cylindrical monument as well as on the long rectangular pedestal “leaving aside [other] improbable attempts … and even more the interpretation of the marble pieces as Roman works evoking Pergamon ‘in the grand manner’.” The Ludovisi Gaul was not part of the New York exhibition. Its companion piece, the Dying Gaul collapsing on a broken trumpet, did receive a catalogue entry (by E. Polito) that reiterated the difficulty of visualizing the original placement. Yet these two Gauls (the “Trumpeter” and the Ludovisi Gaul) have joined the sculptures from the Pergamon Great Altar as virtual touchstones for our understanding of Pergamene style even though they may not be “Greek” at all, let alone Pergamene.

Museum Archetypes and Collecting in the Ancient World ed. by Maia Wellington Gahtan and Donatella Pegazzano

Reviewed by: Museum Archetypes and Collecting in the Ancient World ed. by Maia Wellington Gahtan and Donatella Pegazzano Carol C. Mattusch Maia Wellington Gahtan and Donatella Pegazzano (eds.). Museum Archetypes and Collecting in the Ancient World. Monumenta Graeca et Romana, 21. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2015. Pp. xiv, 222. $175.00. ISBN 978–90–04–28050–2. A relatively long introduction (1–18) precedes fifteen mostly brief but enlightening essays on collecting, ranging from the ancient Near East to Christian Constantinople. Massimiliano Franci notes Pepi II’s (2278–2184 B.C.) request for a pygmy, Hatshepsut’s (1479–1457) exotic garden at Deir al Bahari, orientalizing objects from the Mediterranean world, and the Library of Ashurbanipal (668–629). [End Page 557] Josephine Shaya focuses on the epiphanies and votives in Athena’s temple listed in the Lindian Chronicle of 99 b.c.; Lindos became a magnet for tourists, and soon Romans were collecting antiques from Greek temples. Margaret Miles links the rise of collecting with the fifth- and fourth-century influx of wealth: metals that the Phocians took from Delphi, gold and silver mined in Thrace, silver mined at Laurion, gold and silver from Persia, and the bronze siege machinery of Demetrios Poliorketes used for the Colossus of Rhodes. Displays of wealth included Ptolemy II’s procession and the Museum and Library at Alexandria, Pergamon’s collection of antique statues, Hieron II’s gigantic altar in Syracuse, and Roman art collections and displays. Ann Kuttner continues the subject of Attalid collecting at Pergamon, concluding that “aspects of Pergamon’s visual environment, like the Great Altar, increasingly took on a role in Roman eyes as themselves exemplary of a golden age of art” (53). Évelyne Prioux’s long essay covers first-century b.c. cameos and epigrams that may have been influenced by Poseidippos. Paolo Liverani masterfully uses administrative records from the third century b.c. to the fourth century a.d., including inventory numbers inscribed on statues, to interpret changing meanings and contexts of art brought to Rome from Eastern conquests. Alexandra Bounia argues that Roman collections defined their owners in historical and contemporary terms, demonstrated power and wealth, and established cultural standing. Alessandra Lazzeretti discusses Verres’ and Cicero’s collections: because she depends largely on Cicero’s writings, she concludes predictably that Verres surrounded himself with magnificence, while Cicero preferred “a cultured evocation of the Greek world” (101). Ida Gilda Mastrorosa inspects rich Roman triclinia: citron (coniferae cupressaceae) tables; silver and gold tableware; murrhine vases; bronze dining couches and tables; she omits lamps. Francesca Ghedini and Giulia Salvo review the display of Roman panel paintings, marble panels, emblemata, and reproductions of famous Greek originals, using evidence from literary testimonia and frescoed illustrations of these works. Nathaniel Jones continues: post-166 b.c. annual Delian temple records and frescoes from the Villa della Farnesina (28–19 b.c.) illustrating panel paintings both record panel paintings with and without shutters, panels set against the wall, embedded panels, panels mounted on bases, panels set into ceiling coffers, and frieze panels. The Delian inventory usually lists what a votive was, what it was made of, and often the name of the dedicator, not subject or artist; whereas the Farnesina illustrations constitute a virtual collection of Greek art. “The original Greek context of masterpieces was easily remembered by most of the observers” (131). Richard Neudecker refers to “masterpieces” in the Villa dei Papiri, but they are only heads, removed from any “original” context. And in Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli, Erechtheion caryatids (not korai as on 133) were installed as statues. Lea Stirling surveys Late Antique statue-collecting: “purchased antiques and family heirlooms” (139); repair and resale of secondhand works; relocating public statues; and new commissions of portraits, mythological and ideal sculpture. More diverse collections contained fewer and smaller works. In Constantinople, Sarah Bassett considers Constantine’s imported classical sculptures and the Christian relics that were added during the late fourth and fifth centuries, forming a “Christian foundation myth … analogous to the sculptured installations that linked the fortunes of the city to those of Troia and Roma” (155). Jaś Elsner sees value in both artifacts and texts in their effect on today’s [End...

Making a Drama out of a Crisis

The Prince of Medicine: Galen in the Roman Empire Susan P Mattern Oxford University Press, 2013 HB, 368pp, £15.00, 978-0199605453 Although Galen of Pergamum (129–ca. 216) never left enough personal information to constitute a biography in the modern sense, he was a figure famous enough in his native city, with its Great Altar of Zeus (reconstructed in modern Berlin), as well as in the imperial capital Rome, for his passage to have been remarked on. While he may not have written much about himself he was a prolific author, with a corpus ‘making up one-eighth of all the classical Greek literature that survives.’ So famous was he as a physician that he was associated in Arab legends with that other charismatic healer, Jesus of Nazareth. Susan Mattern has already written about the role of the physician in second-century Graeco-Roman society in Galen and the Rhetoric of Healing. Her latest book examines the character of the man who was to be the last word in medicine for over a millennium. A rather mysterious, driven, arrogant, and vainglorious figure emerges. Galen himself suffered from a recurrent abdominal illness in his twenties and recovered from it completely aged 27, a cure he attributed to the intervention of the god Asclepius. …

New records of &lt;I&gt;Loculoascomycetes&lt;/I&gt; from natural protected areas in Sonora, Mexico

Thirty collections of Loculoascomycetes from the Ajos-Bavispe National Forest Reserve and Wildlife Refuge, the Pinacate and Great Altar Desert Biosphere Reserve, and the Sierra of Alamos-Rio Cuchujaqui Biosphere Reserve, in Sonora, Mexico were studied. Ten new records for the Mexican mycobiota are presented: Capronia montana, Chaetoplea crossata, Didymosphaeria futilis, Glonium abbreviatum, Hysterographium mori, Montagnula infernalis, Patellaria atrata, Rhytidhysteron rufulum, Thyridaria macrostomoides, and Valsaria rubricosa. Photographs of macro- and microscopic characters are given for some species.

Book Review of L'autel de Pergame: Images et pouvoir en Gréce d'Asie, by Françis Queyrel

Queyrel has written extensively on Hellenistic art, particularly the art of Pergamon, including several articles on Pergamene sculpture and an important recent book that focuses on Attalid portraits (Les Portraits des Attalides. Fonction et representation [Athens 2003]). In his latest publication, he chooses to examine one of the most significant monuments from the Hellenistic Age, the Great Altar at Pergamon, and the result reflects his obvious expertise and familiarity with the subject.

Imperial Icon: The Pergamon Altar in Wilhelminian Germany

In August 1882, Jacob Burckhardt traveled to Berlin to see for himself the latest trophy of Imperial German archaeology, the remarkable external frieze of the great altar at Pergamon, parts of which had only recently been laid out for public exhibition. Burckhardt had already obtained photographs of the frieze and had been impressed, but coming face to face with it bowled him over. “This discovery,” he wrote to a Basel friend from his hotel in Berlin, “has shattered the systems of the archaeologists and tumbled an entire pseudo-aesthetics to the ground. . . . Since we have come into possession of these terrifyingly glorious spectacles [‘spectacles’ is the best translation I could find for Burckhardt’s striking ‘Evenements’] everything that has been written about the emotional power of the Laocoon is for the wastebasket. Try to imagine a frieze . . . as of now, well over 200 feet long; 8-foot tall gods locked in struggle with giants and protruding so far out from their background that they practically constitute free-standing sculptures; a scene of biting, battering, chopping, crushing, involving also powerful dogs and lions, and with the snake-like tail-ends of many of the giants forming into heads that bite the gods in the back and leg—all this taking place sans ombre de generosite [relentlessly and unforgivingly]. The artistry and style . . . such as to make Phidias tremble on his throne”1 (fig. 1; for additional illustrations, see

Reading Galatians and Empire at the Great Altar of Pergamon

Reading Galatians and Empire at the Great Altar of Pergamon

Le renouveau des représentations mythologiques dans la propagande impériale de Trajan à Septime Sévère : l’exemple de la Gigantomachie

The renewal of mythological representations in Imperial propaganda from Trajanus to Septimius Severius : the example of Gigantomachy. The use of the mythological representation of the fight between The Giants and the Olympians acquires renewed favour in the Roman Imperial days. From the sources, Trajan is likely to be responsible for it. Gigantomachy seems to counterbalance the historical relief : the fable acts as an allegory of the civilizing and transcendental Imperial victory. This topic of hellenistic origin spreads through microasiatic models, notably inspired by the frieze of the Great Altar of Pergamon. Gigantomachy meets with a real success in Minor Asia because of the Hellenistic heritage from the romanized cities, as well as in Gaul because of the merging of the myth with the local cult of Jupiter Taranis, to whom the Emperor was associated.

From Pergamon to Sperlonga: Sculpture and Context. By Nancy T. de Grummond and Brunilde S. Ridgway.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsFrom Pergamon to Sperlonga: Sculpture and Context. By Nancy T. de Grummond and Brunilde S. Ridgway.Elizabeth KosmetatouElizabeth Kosmetatou Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Archaeology Volume 106, Number 3July 2002 The journal of the Archaeological Institute of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/4126300 Copyright © 2002 by the Archaeological Institute of America. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

La fonction du Grand Autel de Pergame

The texts on the Great Altar of Pergamon are here revisited and reelevaluted to discern the function of this monument. An inscription from Pergamon gives a neglected indication : it mentions the existence of a cult of the Twelve Gods and the God Eumenes II. We can also modify a suggestion of Louis Robert : the Great Altar was devoted to the cult of the Twelve Gods and the God Eumenes II.

Der Opferkult in den Vorhöfen der Tempel in Edfu, Medamud und Kom Ombo

Article Der Opferkult in den Vorhöfen der Tempel in Edfu, Medamud und Kom Ombo was published on January 1, 2002 in the journal Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde (volume 129, issue 1).

Aspekte zur Sammlungs- und Einrichtungsgeschichte des Berliner Pergamonmuseums

This article focuses on the development of the Pergamon-Museum of Berlin and its various collections. The predecessor of the current museum building gave only place for the Great Altar of Pergamon and some other architectural pieces of the hellenistic period. After its abolishment in 1908 the new erected building (which opened only in 1930) contained before World War II three museum departments (Deutsches Museum, Pergamon-Museum, and the Vorderasiatisches Museum). - There were some long-lasting frictions between the directors Wilhelm von Bode, Theodor Wiegand, and the architect Ludwig Hoffmann about the question whether roman provincial architecture is worth to be exhibited in a museum or not - here exemplified on the Market Gate of Miletus. Wilhelm II, the Kaiser, was strongly involved not only in this but was generally interested in all museum matters. It was always he who made the last decision, and the museum directors tried very often to persuade him of their ideas.

New Perspectives on the Art of Pergamon

Previous articleNext article No AccessReview ArticleNew Perspectives on the Art of Pergamon Pergamon: The Telephos Frieze from the Great Altar. By Renée Dreyfus and Ellen Schraudolph.J. J. PollittJ. J. Pollitt Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Archaeology Volume 103, Number 2April 1999 The journal of the Archaeological Institute of America Views: 4Total views on this site Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/506748 Views: 4Total views on this site Copyright © 1999 by the Archaeological Institute of America. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

La divinité titulaire du grand autel de la Place du théâtre à Délos

The identification of the great altar in the Theatre square on Delos with the altar of Dionysos mentioned in the accounts of the hieropoioi is not acceptable. Everything points to the conclusion that there was only one altar of Dionysos on Delos in the period of independence, which was located to the northeast ofthe Sanctuary of Apollo.

The "Pillar of Oinomaos" and the Location of Stadium I at Olympia

During his visit to the Altis at Olympia in the midsecond century A.D., Pausanias recorded the existence of a conspicuous monument located between the Great Altar of Zeus and the Temple of Zeus: a wooden pillar surrounded by four columns supporting a roof. An inscribed epigram placed in front of the pillar, and reproduced by Pausanias, identified the monument. It was the last standing column from the House of Oinomaos, local and legendary ruler of Pisa. On the basis of the available physical evidence, parallels in Archaic Greece, and literary testimony, I argue that the pillar did not serve an architectural function, but that it is best understood as one of the old turning posts used for the footraces held in Stadium I. The existence of a turning post in the Altis places the stadium in close proximity to the Altar of Zeus in whose name the games were held. When the racetrack was moved to the east, the turning post became obsolete. Its association with the House of Oinomaos should be dated to the Hellenistic period.*

Pax and the ‘Ara Pacis’

We call a monument Ara Pacis without any support from ancient tradition. It was Friedrich von Duhn who first so called it in 1879 and he justified it in the briefest fashion. He considered three sacrificial slabs and three processional slabs. He did not produce any analysis but based his case on the fact that some of those reliefs were discovered in the grounds of the Palazzo Fiano, that is on the Campus Martius, and that the Ara Pacis was built on the Campus Martius. That was all. Nevertheless, his conjecture was enthusiastically received: it was the golden age of classical archaeology, when numberless monuments were assigned to great Greek artists and great historical events and thus the foundations were laid for a more critical and sceptical study of Greek art. This scepticism destroyed many identifications but it never reached the Ara Pacis, and that I believe for special reasons. There was great excitement in the years after 1873 when Carl Humann discovered the great altar of Pergamum ; excavations began in 1878 with sensational results. Friedrich von Duhn made his ‘discovery’ in the following year and it concerned another great altar, but this time in Rome. He was clearly spellbound and so were his contemporaries. They did not ask for proof. In that atmosphere such credulity was natural. Yet however much the altar has been studied during the last eighty years the question has never been asked why it should be the Ara Pacis. My answer is that it is not. My first task, however, is to reconsider the evidence about Pax and I shall do this as if our altar did not exist. I shall return to it in the second part of my paper and end with the interpretation of a specimen relief, the sacrifice of Aeneas which seems to me the most revealing of the reliefs.