Polis and Personification in Classical Athenian Art

Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-90-04-19417-5
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 19, 234 Seiten, Format (B × H): 221 mm x 287 mm, Gewicht: 975 g

Reihe: Monumenta Graeca et Romana

In this study Dr Smith investigates the use of political personifications in the visual arts of Athens in the Classical period (480-323 BCE). Whether on objects that served primarily private roles (e.g. decorated vases) or public roles (e.g. cult statues and document stelai), these personifications represented aspects of the state of Athens—its people, government, and events—as well as the virtues (e.g. Nemesis, Peitho or Persuasion, and Eirene or Peace) that underpinned it. Athenians used the same figural language to represent other places and their peoples. This is the only study that uses personifications as a lens through which to view the intellectual and political climate of Athens in the Classical period.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Smith, Amy C

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike Griechische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike Klassische Archäologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunstgeschichte Kunstgeschichte: Klassisch (Griechisch & Römisch)

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments
Bibliography & Abbreviations
List of Illustrations

Chapter One Introduction: Viewing personifications in Classical Athens
The relevance of literature in the study of personifications
Civic and political
Overview of previous scholarship
Synopsis

Chapter Two Names or comments? The Birth of Political Personification in Greece
Prosopopoeia, allegoria, and hyponoia
Personifications in myth and cult
Greek personifications before the Classical period
Parallels in Classical Athenian literature
Political personifications in old comedy
Symbolic figures in the visual arts of early Classical Athens
The use of labels with personifications
Chapter Three Humanising Greek places and spaces: Local Personifications and Athenian
Imperialism
The family of Okeanos
The daughters of Asopos
Eleusis and more eponymous heroines
Nymphs, Nereids, and maenads

Chapter Four Goddess before personification? Right and Retribution
Nemesis
Themis
From epic to Athens

Chapter Five The independence of epithets: Kharites, virtues, & other nymphs in the
‘Gardens of Aphrodite’
Civic virtues in the Classical Athenian polis
Hygieia and a healthy city
Peitho in the polis
Civic Harmony
Other personifications in the realm of Aphrodite
Civic expressions in public processions
Chapter Six Aristocracy or democracy? Eukleia and Eunomia between the gods
Eukleia
Eunomia
A joint cult of Eukleia and Eunomia at Athens?
Chapter Seven Visual personifications in literature and art: Aristophanes’ Eirene and her
attendants
Eirene
Opora and Theoria
The benefits of Peace
Chapter Eight Ephemeral personifications: Civic festivals and other peacetime pleasures
Basileia and Soteria
Pompe and Athenian festivals
Panhellenic festivals87
Fin-de-siecle ephemera
Chapter Nine Masculine people in feminine places: The Body Politic at home and abroad
Athens and Attika
Tribes and neighbourhoods
Aspects of the Athenian Demos
Personifications of cities regions outside Attika
Local personifications in the public eye
Chapter Ten The mother of wealth: Eirene revisited
Kephisodotos’ statue of Eirene and Ploutos
Wealth and Fortune
Ploutos at Eleusis

Chapter Eleven From oikos to polis: Democracy and more civic virtues in fourth century
Athens
Tykhe
Philia
Homonoia and Arete
Demokratia
Chapter Twelve Conclusion
Catalogue
Document reliefs
Monumental paintings
Miscellaneous reliefs
Statuary
Vase paintings
Indices
Political terms
Artists
Other personal names
Topographical index
Monumenta
Testimonia
General index
Figures

Über Autor(innen)

Amy C. Smith, PhD (1997) in Classical Archaeology, Yale University, is Senior Lecturer in Classics and Curator of the Ure Museum, University of Reading. She has published widely on Graeco-Roman art in the spheres of politics, myth, and religion.