Greek Religion Visual Sources Flashcards
Ninnon Tablet
Date: 4th century BCE
Style: red-figure plaque / tablet
main image: depiction of the cult of Eleusis, from left to right: initiates led by the god Iacchus are approaching the seated goddesses Demeter and Persephone. ( the procession of the Eleusinian mysteries arriving)
Significance: key visual source for the reconstruction of the ritual taking place at the Eleusinian Mysteries; the only piece of visual information on the mysteries
Currently in the National Museum, Athens
Panathenaic Amphora
Date: 333/332BCE
Style: black figure
Image: Athena is a large figure with a spear and her right hand and shield in the left. She’s wearing drapery and her Aegeas is depicted stylistically.
She is wearing her helmet for battle. on either side are columns with smaller depictions of Athena holding sacred items.
On the other side of the amphora are three runners either representing Athena’s presence at the Parthenon or a different scene. Runners are depicted naked which could represent tradition in the games or specific people.
Significance: The amphora itself would have been an object of wealth as it was awarded to the winner of the games and would have contained expensive olive oil from outside of the city.
Currently in the British museum
Kylix depicting a consultation of the Pythia
Date: 440-430BCE
Style: Attic red-figure, by the Kondros painter.
Image: depicts the Pythia sitting on a tripod holding a bowl or lead tablet. There is a column between her and the bearded man wearing a laurel wreath this could be a representation of the Separation between the Pythia and anyone asking or could be depicting the an actual column
Significance: the image (tondo) is at the bottom of the kylix a cup and and revealing this image in a symposium would have been a talking point owned by someone wealthy
Currently in the Antikensammlung, Berlin
Amphora depicting sacrifice
Date: c.450 BCE
Style: Red-figure amphora, 44.45 cm tall
Image: On one side two women, back to back, are represented preparing bulls for sacrifice with stemmata (sacrificial fillets) in a nearly symmetrical composition.
The other side shows a group of two women and two men. At the far left, a woman, she wears a cloak over a chiton, and her hair is tied up. To her right, a bearded man facing right and wearing a himation, he holds up a walking stick in his left. To his right is a woman, who wears a patterned chiton and a cloak. In her right hand, she holds an oinochoe and in her left hand a phiale. To her right, a bearded man, facing left, stands wrapped in a himation. In his right hand he holds a long stick, possibly a scepter.
Significance:
Shows how sacrifice was conducted at the time and the role of women in religious life
Currently in the British museum
Marble relief/anatomical votive
Date: 1st century AD
Style: A marble relief - high relief
Image: A votive offering to Aesclepius after a cure was received in one of his sanctuaries, presumably after incubation - an inscription dedicating it from Tyche to Asclepius and Hygieia as a thank offering
Inscription reads: ‘Tyche [dedicated this] to Asklepios and Hygieia as a thank offering’
Significance: excavated from the Shrine of Asklepios (in 1828), shows the tanks given after a healing
Currently in the British museum
Athenian Acropolis
Date: occupied from the 16th century BCE, reconstructed in the 5th century BCE
Style: The Acropolis was burnt to the ground by Xerxes’ invading army in 480 BCE
After being burnt down, the Athenians swore the oath of Platea to rebuild it and in the later 5th century BCE, Under Pericles, rebuilding began
Acropolis = highst (acro) city (polis)
Phidias was the main Architect for the Parthenon
Significance It was the key religious center of the city for both civic and religious life; the place where festivals were held
Other features Statue of Athena Promachos
Temple of Athena Nike
The sacred way = the path towards the acropolis that was 10m wide to accommodate those that traversed it
Propylaea = A large wall surrounding the Acropolis
Symbolises the partition between the religious parts of Athens and the rest of the city
Acropolis: The Parthenon
Dedicated to Athena Parthenos, built between 447 - 432 BCE. Had Doric friezes - depicts Giantonomachy, centauromachy, Amazonomachy and trojan war)
And ionic friezes - depicts Panathenaic procession made entirely from marble.
Pediments - East side shows her birth, West shows the competition with Poseidon
Held the chryselephantine statue by Pindais of Athena Parthenos (11.5m)
Did not have a purely religious purpose and no alter has been identified - seems to have functioned like a bank
Acropolis: The Erectheion
Greek temple on the north side of the acropolis dedicated to Athena, Poseidon and Erechtheus
421-405 BCE , High Classical Greece
held the most sacred statue of Athena (Athena Polias) doesn’t have columns - has statues of women holding up the porch; the caryatids
Marks the most sacred spot in Athens - where Athena and Poseidon competed for Athens and held the grave of King Kekrops, a mythical king of Athens with the head of the man but body if a snake
Was used for two Ancient rites - the Plynteria (cleansing festival) and the Panathenaea
Delphi
Date: C. 650 BCE
Style: Separated into two sections - lower part contains a 4th century temple to Athena Pronoia where one of the first architecturally complex gymnasiums was built in the Greek world
Focuses on the upper sanctuary - the sacred way lead up to the temple and the theater, both dedicated to Apollo
Significance Considered the center of the world and housed the oracle of Apollo; the Pythia
Also had the serpent column (9meteres high made of 3 bronze serpents - recall Pytho) - a column inscribed with all of the names of those who fought against the Persians in the Greek alliance
Panhellenic sanctuary, held the Pythian games
Delphi: Temple of Apollo
In the center of the sanctuary in front of it is an alter dedicated by the Chios giving them the privilege of consulting the oracle first (promanteia - important as the oracle was only available a few days per year)
Entered via ramp on the east side
Made of limestone, it was hexa-style (6 columns along the front by 15 down the side => gives more room for the adyton)
location of the ayton is debated; recent excavations reveal a room within the naos. In the naos was the omphalos, a wood and gold statue of Apollo, and a laurel tree
Decorated with inscriptions and sculpture including; ‘know thyself’ and ‘nothing in excess’
Eastern pediment showed arrival of Apollo by chariot, West pediment likely showed Gigantomachy with Zeus in the center
Pythia prophesied in the adyton
Delphi: Theater
Reflects the presence of Dionysus, it is the only competition space in the temenos as the stadium is outside
Originally had 35 rows of seats - to house the plays 5000 people could fit in the raised seating (constructed 4th century BCE)
Was a Pythian festival held every 8 years with a single contest; the singing of a hymn to Apollo, replaced by the Pythian games (first recorded in 582BCE)
Delphi: Stadium
Northwest of the sanctuary of Apollo, outside the Temenos
117.5 meter track, seated 6500 people. track built in the 4th century, promoted inter polies relations
not completely separate from the religious activities; one inscription forbids the removal of ceremonial wine
Majority of Athletic games too place here e.g. running races or field events such as javelin
The equestrian competitions were held in the hippodrome, below Delphi
Delphi: Sacred way
Entrance is on the south-east, the sacred way was constructed in the final phase of the sanctuary’s history
The sacred way is steep as the sanctuary was built of mount Parnassus
Treasuries, stoas and monuments lined along the sacred way, each polis had a treasury where they could dedicate their wealth to Apollo - important in the transactional nature of worship and in the influence of a polis
13 treasuries at the time of Pausanias and Herodotus but 32 now
Athenian treasuries - biggest (490)
Siphnian treasuries - most decorated (525)
Sanctuary at Olympia
Date: earliest buildings are 6th century BC
Style: Central western Peloponnese, under the authority of Elis who provided all of the priests and officials
SignificancePanhellenic sanctuary and site of the most important festival games
Site of the Olympic games
Temple of Zeus, Pheidias’ chryselephantine statue of Zeus, the ash altar of Olympian Zeus, the echo stoa and the stadium
Olympia: Temple of Zeus
Constructed before 456BCE (110m x 44m)
Doric Temple dedicated to Zeus
Was one of the largest temples on mainland Greece
The very model of the fully developed classical Greek temple of the Doric order.
East pediment = a chariot race between Pelops and Oinomaos, in the center is Zeus, presiding over the event (the founding myth to the games) on either side is the personification of the rivers of Olympia (Kaldeos and Alpheios)
West pediment = the centauromachy
The metopes = the 12 labours of Heracles - also believed to be the founder of the Olympic games
The temple housed the renowned statue of Zeus; the chryselephantine statue of Zeus (12.4m) designed by Phidias, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
Ionic friezes in classical architecture.
Just outside the temple were the Zanes - statues dedicated tp Zeus by winners of the Olympics
