Italy's iconic Riace Bronzes will return to their home at the Reggio Calabria National Museum later this year after lengthy restoration work.
The Riace Bronzes [Credit: ANSA]For almost three years the 2,500-year-old ancient Greek statues representing warriors have been in the Calabrian regional government's headquarters, undergoing a long-awaited restoration. A host of chemical, laser and electromagnetic tests designed to help experts better understand where the statues came from, and who created them, were also carried out.
So now, it's almost time for them to return to their permanent home.
According to the superintendent for archaeological and cultural heritage of Calabria, Simonetta Bonomi, restoration work should be completed near the end of the year and the two warriors "will be back home again" in time for Christmas.
The celebrated bronzes were found in August 1972 off the coast of Calabria and quickly captured worldwide attention. They were so highly prized that they are rarely allowed to travel from their home, despite repeated requests.
Even former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi was turned down twice after seeking to borrow the statues for Group of Eight summits.
During the current restoration work, the Riace Bronzes, last let out in 1981 for a triumphant round-Italy tour, have been kept inside a purpose-built area with a glass front allowing visitors to watch the delicate restoration work.
Meanwhile, the Reggio Calabria museum has been undergoing restorations itself while the bronzes have been away. Approximately six million euros have been earmarked for that project, and regional authorities have released the final funds need to complete the work before year end.
The Bronzes were discovered in 1972 by a Roman holidaymaker scuba diving off the Calabrian coast and turned out to be one of Italy's most important archaeological finds in the last 100 years.
The statues are of two virile men, presumably warriors or gods, who possibly held lances and shields at one time. At around two metres, they are larger than life.
The 'older' man, known as Riace B, wears a helmet, while the 'younger' Riace A has nothing covering his rippling hair.
Both are naked.
Although the statues are cast in bronze, they feature silver lashes and teeth, copper red lips and nipples, and eyes made of ivory, limestone and a glass and amber paste.
Italy has the world's biggest trove of archeological treasures but the Riace Bronzes attracted particular attention.
This was partly due to their exceptionally realistic rendering and partly to the general rarity of ancient bronze statues, which tended to be melted down and recycled.
Stefano Mariottini, the scuba diver who first spotted one of the statues some 300 meters off the coast and eight metres underwater, said the bronze was so realistic that he initially thought he'd found the remains of a corpse.
A million people came to see them in 1981 and the pair are even featured on a commemorative postage stamp.
The statues usually pull around 130,000 visitors annually to the Reggio Calabria National Museum.
A museum in Sweden will digitise its mummy collection in 3D to allow visitors to unwrap a real mummy in digital form.
Visitors will be able to virtually explore what is inside a mummy's sarcophagus [Credit: Institute Swedish ICT]The mummies from Medelhavsmuseet in Stockholm will be digitised by technology which uses photos and X-ray scans to create 3D models.
The permanent exhibition is scheduled to open in the spring of 2014.
The curators hope it will help visitors gain a deeper understanding into the lives of ancient Egyptian people.
The museum will scan six mummies using a process called reality capture technology, where high-resolution 3D digital models can be made by compiling data from photos and X-ray scans.
Museum visitors will be able to explore the mummies in a way similar to what archaeologists do when they are looking for novel discoveries from ancient remains.
"We aim to set a new standard for how museums work with 3D digitisation and interactive visualisation to make collections more accessible to other museums, researchers and museum visitors," said Thomas Rydell of the Swedish Interactive Institute.
"In this project we are working with mummies, but the same methods could of course be used on large variety of objects, such as natural history objects and other historical artefacts."
The museum visitors will be able to zoom into very high resolution to see details like carving marks on a sarcophagus. They will also be able to "unwrap" a mummy by peeling off virtual layers of the wrapping to explore the artefacts buried with the body.
"We can literately create a virtual copy of the mummy. This version could be shared with other museums, be used for research or be part of an interactive visitor experience," added Mr Rydell.
The work is a collaboration between Swedish visualisation researchers, Medelhavsmuseet in Stockholm and two technology companies, Autodesk and Faro.
"The technology will enable our visitors to gain a deeper understanding of the men and women inside the mummy wrappings," said Elna Nord, producer of the exhibition.
"Layer by layer, the visitor can unwrap the mummy and gain knowledge of the individual's sex, age, living conditions and beliefs. With help from the technology, the mummies become so much stronger mediators of knowledge of our past."
The landscape has remained unchanged since the Roman empire. Soft hills where barley and wheat are cultivated like 2.000 years ago surround Djemila, a city on an Algerian plateau built in 96 AD by the Roman army.
Archaeological site in Djemila, Algeria [Credit: ANSA]The settlement, which was inhabited until the 6th century, is one of many archaeological sites in Algeria, which has an unparalleled heritage in Africa. And the continent's largest country now means to exploit it in order to re-launch an international tourism business reduced to almost nothing in the past two decades.
Moreover, all Roman cities are in northern and central Algeria, the safest areas in the country with no major security issues. Djemila hosts a number of important buildings: an amphitheatre from the 2nd century, where performances and music festivals are still held, temples, prisons, altars, an arch dedicated to Caracalla and a magnificent baptistery from the 4th century which is still intact.
On Friday, the Muslim weekly holy day, the site is flooded with local tourists: women wearing the Islamic veil or Maghreb-style face veil, bearded men wearing long kaftans, lots of children observe with admiration and respect the remains of a faraway, ancient civilization and are friendly in welcoming the rare foreign visitors.
Inside the museum where extraordinary mosaics can be found depicting hunting scenes or joyous everyday scenes portraying men and gods, some glance elsewhere but most observe the figures with great attention.
What makes Algeria's archaeological sites extraordinary — from Djemila to Tipaza, Timgad and Tiddis — is the beauty, almost primordial, of the surrounding landscape which is rare in other parts of the Mediterranean.
'From a touristic standpoint, we are still children and need to become adult', Said Boukhelifa, a high official with the Algerian tourism ministry, told ANSAmed. "One thing is certain, we don't want to make mistakes which have been committed elsewhere. We are aiming for a tourism which respects nature, landscapes and our historic culture. This is the challenge we have to start from, after all the years that have been lost."
An island at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, Sicily occupied a pivotal place in antiquity between Greece, North Africa, and the Italian peninsula.
Statue of a Youth (The Mozia Charioteer), Sikeliote (Sicilian Greek), 470–460 B.C. Marble. Courtesy of the Servizio Parco archeologico eambientale presso le isole dello Stagnone e delle aree archeologiche di Marsala e dei Comuni limitrofi–Museo Archeologico Baglio Anselmi. By permission of the Regione Siciliana, Assessorato dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identita Siciliana. Dipartimento dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identita Siciliana. Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome, on view at the Getty Villa April 3–August 19, 2013, will showcase ancient Sicily as a major center of cultural innovation from the fifth to the third centuries B.C., when art, architecture, theater, poetry, philosophy, and science flourished and left an enduring stamp on mainland Greece and later on Rome.
“This is the first major exhibition to arise from the Getty’s 2010 Cultural Agreement with Sicily, presenting masterpieces that are among the most accomplished examples of ancient Greek art in the world,” said Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum.
“We are especially thrilled to have on view the exceptional statue of a victorious Charioteer from Mozia that the Getty has recently conserved. This object is a unique expression of the marvelous artistry of Greek sculptors at the dawn of the Classical era.”
Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome, co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Assessorato dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identita Siciliana, features some 150 objects, a major portion on loan from institutions in Sicily, including stone and bronze sculptures, vase-paintings, votive terracotta statuettes and reliefs, carved ivory, gold and silver metalwork, jewelry, inscriptions, architectural revetments, and coins.
“These splendid objects bear witness to the athletic and military victories, religious rituals, opulent lifestyles, and intellectual attainments of the Sicilian Greeks, which shaped Greek culture at its peak,” explains Claire Lyons, acting senior curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum and curator of the exhibition.
The Mozia Charioteer
The Mozia Charioteer, widely considered one of the the finest surviving examples of Greek sculpture, serves as the exhibition’s centerpiece. Recently on view at the British Museum in London during the 2012 Summer Olympics, the statue has since undergone conservation treatment at the Getty Villa. Part of the Getty’s cultural agreement with Sicily, this 18-month collaborative conservation project involved remounting the sculpture and the provision of a seismic isolation base, which will accompany the object when it is reinstalled at the Whitaker Museum on the island of Mozia.
The triumphant Mozia Charioteer, discovered in 1976 on the island of Mozia in western Sicily, is believed to represent a charioteer who competed at Olympia on behalf of one of the Sicilian rulers. The extraordinary style of the sculpture, especially notable in the sinuous pleating of the long linen xystis that sheathes the figure’s athletic physique, is a tour-de-force of stone carving. Clearly a master of his craft, the sculptor was able to reveal the torso and limbs beneath the thin fabric. With its confident gaze and proud stance, this statue conveys the high level of originality and experimentation achieved by Greek sculptors working in Sicily.
The “Signing Masters”
Important evidence of Sicilian artistic innovation is also apparent in the exquisite coins of the time. Beginning in the late fifth century B.C., a group of Sicilian Greek coin engravers, mainly based in Syracuse, added their signatures to the dies used to stamp coins. Known as the “Signing Masters,” these remarkable craftsmen created extraordinary works of art on a miniature scale. Departing from the traditional profile view, they devised novel ways of representing the human body in a lively three-quarter perspective or striking frontal pose. This testimony of individual mastery of the medium is virtually exclusive to Sicilian Greek coins created around 400 B.C. Often abbreviated in tiny but legible script, the artists’ signatures are typically all but hidden in locks of hair or elements of jewelry.
Known as the “coin of coins,” the unique Aitna tetradrachm from the Royal Library of Belgium is one of the most precious ancient coins in the world. On view in the exhibition along with 50 other exceptionally crafted Sicilian Greek coins, the image on the tetradrachm depicts the head of Silenos on the obverse and on the reverse, Zeus enthroned with an eagle perched beside him, imagery that alludes to the cult of Zeus on Mt. Etna. Greek settlers and their gods
Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome will also examine how settlers from the Greek mainland brought their myths and religious practices to Sicily. To sanctify new colonies and maintain ties with mother cities, they built altars and temples to such gods as Apollo, the patron deity of colonists, as well as the deified hero Herakles. Included are terracotta heads of Apollo, Hades, and Persephone, created as cult or votive images of deities that played a central role in ancient Sicilian worship. The skillfully modeled clay, embellished with striking polychrome pigments, compares favorably with the most accomplished works in marble and bronze. An exceptional example of metalwork is a religious offering dish made of two and a half pounds of gold. Known as a phiale mesomphalos, the vessel is embossed from the center outward with bands of beechnuts, acorns, and bees above blossoms; the owner’s name —Damarchos, son of Achyris— is inscribed beneath the rim, together with its equivalent weight in gold coins.
The divine hero Herakles was also embraced by Greek settlers, who linked his deeds to their cities. Contrasting aspects of Herakles’ identity —peaceful healer, solitary herdsman, and violent aggressor— heightened the appeal of his cult among the men of rural Sicily, who tended flocks and worked as mercenary soldiers. Among the objects on view is a finely preserved bronze statuette of Herakles recovered from a river-bed in Contrada Cafeo (Modica), which suggests that a shrine to the hero was situated nearby.
Preeminent among the honored deities was Demeter, goddess of agriculture, and her daughter Persephone (or Kore). Sanctuaries of the goddesses dotted the island, but their cult was most enthusiastically embraced in central Sicily, where, according to myth, Kore descended to the Underworld as the bride of Hades. Depictions of these deities include a terracotta bust with a rare painted figural scene that may represent part of a ritual honoring or celebrating the goddesses, and a cult statuette disc overed near an altar in Gela together with an offering jug of carbonized seeds of grain.
Archimedes of Syracuse
A section of the exhibition will focus on Archimedes of Syracuse (about 287–212 B.C.), one of history’s foremost scientists and mathematicians. More than a millennium ahead of its time, his work laid the foundation for branches of math, physics, engineering, and even computer science. When Syracuse’s King Hieron II asked him to determine whether a crown was made of pure gold, Archimedes made his legendary deduction that a solid displaces a volume of liquid equal to its own volume, a discovery that supposedly caused the scientist to leap from his bath and run naked through the streets crying “Eureka” (“I have found it!”).
On view is a leaf from the Archimedes Palimpsest, the only surviving manuscript containing copies of Archimedes’ writings. The medieval prayer book that included this leaf was inked by a scribe onto recycled parchment that originally bore the theories of Archimedes. The pages were scraped clean before being overwritten, but with the use of advanced imaging technology, the original writing is visible. The leaf on view is a section of text from “Proposition 1” from Archimedes’ Method, a work integrating geometry and physics.
Literature on Sicilian art
Finally, the exhibition examines the reflections of literature in Sicilian visual arts. Many mainland Greeks became familiar with Sicily through the epic poetry of Homer, including Odysseus’s wanderings after the Trojan War, which took him to the western Mediterranean.
Often depicted in vase-painting and sculpture, Odysseus’s encounters with strange creatures like the Cyclops and Scylla were allegories for early colonial settlement and trading enterprises that spread Greek culture to distant, exotic regions. The pastoral genre created and perfected by the Syracusan poet Theokritos (about 300–after 260 B.C.) flourished as Sicily was falling under the dominion of Rome in the third century B.C. He is renowned for his Idylls (literally, “little pictures”), which paint nostalgic word-images of Sicilian country life from the point of view of a sophisticated urbanite. Theokritos’s rustic characters—including satyrs, shepherds, and the woodland deity Priapos—also populated the visual arts of the period, attesting to the appeal of rural fantasies during a time of civic turmoil. On extended loan from Syracuse, a life-size statue of the fertility god Priapos, the earliest such figure in Greek art will be featured in the exhibition. Like the Mozia Charioteer, it was also the subject of a collaborative conservation project undertaken by the Getty Museum.
The importance and popularity of Greek comedy and drama outside of Athens is evident in the theatrical figurines, masks and scenes on vases, many of which come from the island of Lipari. The celebrated “Father of Tragedy,” Aeschylus (Greek, 525–456 B.C.) traveled to Sicily on at least two occasions, where his plays found fertile ground in the strong local tradition of performance on the island.
On display is a terracotta mixing vessel with the earliest known depiction of the myth of Perseus and Andromeda, which likely reflects a performance of Sophocles’ Andromeda (about 450 B.C.). The Greek inscription painted above the figure of Perseus—“Euaion, the son of Aeschylus, is handsome”— names the actor, son of the great tragedian.
Rich harvests, bountiful seas, and a favorable trade location brought immense wealth to the Sicilian city-states, and the exhibition highlights their widespread reputation for luxurious lifestyles with five gilt-silver vessels, part of a larger group of fifteen. The silver treasure had been buried for safekeeping beneath the floor of a house in Morgantina during the Roman sack of the city in 211 B.C. The entire hoard comprises religious vessels as well as a set for the symposion, a convivial drinking party for men that was an important part of the social life of well-to-do Greeks.
Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome is the latest in a series of cooperative efforts between the Getty and the Sicili an Ministry of Culture and Sicilian Identity arising from a 2010 agreement that calls for a number of collaborative projects, including object conservation, seismic protection of collections, exhibitions, scholarly research, and conferences. Recent related projects include the 2010 loan of the Gela Krater, a monumental red-figured volute krater (wine mixing vessel) attributed to the Niobid Painter; The Agrigento Youth, a rare example of an early classical marble statue called a kouros (an idealized nude young man), loaned to the Getty from the Museo Archeologico Regionale in Agrigento (2010/2011); and most recently the loan of thirty-six objects from the sanctuaries of Demeter at Morgantina (2012/January 2013).
The exhibition is co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Assessorato dei Beni Culturali e dell’Identita Siciliana, and celebrates 2013 as the Year of Italian Culture in the United States, an initiative of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, realized under the leadership of the President of the Republic of Italy.
All cultures throughout time have tried to honor and commemorate those they have lost. A new exhibit at the Oriental Institute Museum will show how the living cared for the dead, and how the ancients conceptualized the idea of the human soul in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Israel/Palestine.
This stela with hieroglyphic text asks the living to leave food or to say prayers evoking food for a deceased man and his wife. (Egypt, ca. 2219–1995 B.C. OIM E16955) [Credit: Anna R. Ressman/Oriental Institute Museum]The exhibit, “In Remembrance of Me: Feasting with the Dead in the Ancient Middle East,” opens to the public April 8. The show is built around two themes: the regular offering of food and drink to nourish the dead in the afterlife, and the use of two- or three-dimensional effigies of the dead, often made of stone, to preserve their memory and provide a means of interaction between the living and the dead.
The Oriental Institute’s Neubauer Expedition to Zincirli, Turkey in 2008, during which an inscribed funerary monument was discovered, inspired the exhibit. The monument, which dates to about 735 B.C, is carved with an image of a man named Katumuwa seated before a table heaped with offerings and with a lengthy inscription in Aramaic—a language widely used in the ancient Middle East. The text proved to be the longest-known memorial inscription of its type.
The original Katumuwa stela, discovered by University of Chicago archaeologists, dates to about 735 B.C. (Rendering and reconstruction by Travis Saul, 2014) [Credit: Oriental Institute Museum]Until the discovery of the stela, scholars did not know about the practice of enacting annual sacrifices for the soul of the deceased. The discovery also revealed that the people of Zincirli, located in the ancient Syro-Hittite region of southeastern Turkey, believed Katumuwa’s spirit resided in the monument.
“The text gave us a whole new understanding of the ancient belief system in eastern Turkey and northern Syria. Although Katumuwa knew that the realm of the dead could be a cruel and lonely place, the rituals he describes that his family would enact on his behalf would give him a happy afterlife,” said exhibit curator Virginia R. Herrmann, PhD’11. Herrmann, now a visiting professor at Dartmouth College, was part of the team that discovered the stela and co-curated “In Remembrance of Me.”
Archaeologists Virginia R. Herrmann and Ben Thomas examine the Katumuwa stela at Zincirli, Turkey, shortly after its discovery in 2008 during an Oriental Institute expedition [Credit: Eudora Struble/Oriental Institute Museum]Before the discovery of the stela, it was not understood that, in eastern Turkey and northern Syria, such banquet scenes depicted on other monuments were special pleas to the viewer to make annual offerings of animal sacrifices and grapes or wine. Those offerings were directed not only to the deceased, but also to local gods. The biblical commandment to “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long” (Exodus 20:12), is rooted in the tradition expressed by the Katumuwa text.
The text also revealed that the rituals took place not just at the grave or in the home, but in a private mortuary chapel next door to a temple—exactly the setting where the Katumuwa stela was discovered. The stela itself is in the Gaziantep Museum in eastern Turkey, but a precise facsimile of its front has been produced for the exhibit.
This door plaque contains a scene of ritual feasting. (Khafajeh, Iraq, ca. 2600–2350 B.C. OIM A12417) [Credit: Anna R. Ressman/Oriental Institute Museum]The exhibit also features a video produced by video artist Travis Saul, MFA’12, in collaboration with Herrmann and her colleague and exhibit co-curator, Oriental Institute Associate Professor David Schloen. It provides background on the site of Zincirli, the discovery of the stela, a recreation of the rituals enacted to commemorate the soul of Katumuwa, and a recitation of the text in Aramaic and English.
Rituals of remembrance
Other sections of the exhibit explore how commemoration and communication with the dead was enacted, the importance of banquet scenes, and how the concept of the soul differed in ancient Egypt, Iraq and Israel/Palestine.
These vessels were from a funerary ritual, enacted at the time of Tutankhamun’s funeral. (Luxor, Egypt, ca. 1327 B.C.) [Credit: Anna R. Ressman/Oriental Institute Museum]Artifacts include a stone plaque from Mesopotamia that shows a banquet, an Egyptian wooden model of men preparing food that was thought to provide food eternally for the deceased, and stone schematic human figures that living relatives thought to have contained the soul of the dead. Loaned objects were provided by the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and include a stela of a woman of a type similar to that of Katumuwa.
Rituals of remembrance of lost loved ones—from memorial services to Day of the Dead celebrations in Latin America and even the “funeral selfie” phenomenon—continue to be an important aspect of many cultures.
This stela shows a deceased man being attended by family members, part of an ancestor cult. (Luxor, Egypt, ca. 1295–1069 B.C. OIM E14287) [Credit: Anna R. Ressman/Oriental Institute Museum]Understanding how the ancients considered and prepared for mortality and worked to preserve the memories of their family members raises questions about how contemporary society contends with these same issues. An epilogue to the exhibit features modern objects of commemoration from many nations, reminding the visitor that rituals that link the living and the dead remain a part of our lives.
Jack Green, chief curator of the Oriental Institute Museum, said, “In coordinating this exhibit, we found that although death can often be a taboo topic in Western society, there are plenty of examples today that commemorate the dead through festive and colorful celebrations—the Dia de Muertos being just one example.”
Source: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago [March 13, 2014]
In Greek mythology, Eros was the god of love. He was capable of overpowering the minds of all gods and all men. Literary sources of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. portrayed him as a powerful, often cruel, capricious being, and in classical Greek art Eros was usually represented as a winged youth.
A radically different visual image of Eros—as a charming, winged child asleep on a rock—was introduced centuries later by Hellenistic artists. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s statue of Eros Sleeping—one of the finest of the surviving bronze statues from classical antiquity—will be the focus of the special exhibition Sleeping Eros, opening January 29, 2013. The exhibition is made possible by The Vlachos Family Fund.
Eros Sleeping will be shown with 46 related works of art in various media, ranging in date from the fifth century B.C. to the 17th century A.D., drawn primarily from the Museum’s permanent collection. Two works from private collections will also be shown.
Through these examples, the exhibition will examine the cult and image of Eros before and after the Sleeping Eros statue type, show the breadth of its influence, and trace the wide dispersal of the type in Roman times and its subsequent rediscovery during the Renaissance. The exhibition will also consider the original function and context of the sculpture, how the statue was made, and the issue of originals and copies in Greek and Roman sculpture.
The Sleeping Eros was among the earliest types of ancient sculpture to be rediscovered during the Italian Renaissance, and it was the subject of numerous figural studies by Renaissance and Baroque artists in Italy—including Michelangelo, among many others—who were looking to the classical tradition for training and inspiration. Some works were close likenesses, such as the fine Drawing of a Sleeping Eros after an antique sculpture by Giovanni Angelo Canini (1617–1666), which will be shown in the exhibition. Other, less literal, adaptations will also be displayed.
In 1943, when the Metropolitan Museum acquired its statue of Eros Sleeping, it was believed to be an original Hellenistic sculpture or a very close replica created between 250 and 150 B.C. Subsequently, some scholars have suggested that it is a very fine Roman copy of one of the most popular sculptures ever made in Roman Imperial times. Recent research—to be presented in the exhibition—supports the former identification, but also makes apparent that it was restored in antiquity—most likely in the Early Imperial period.
Details of the research will also be published in an upcoming article in the Metropolitan Museum’s annual Journal.
A public lecture by the curator on Friday, April 5, 2013, and gallery talks will be offered in conjunction with the exhibition.
Additional information about the exhibition and its accompanying programs can be found on the Museum’s website at www.metmuseum.org.
The exhibition is organized by Seán Hemingway, Curator, Department of Greek and Roman Art. Exhibition design is by Michael Batista, Exhibition Design Manager; lighting is by Clint Ross Coller and Richard Lichte, Lighting Design Managers; graphics are by Mortimer Lebigre, Associate Graphic Designer, all of the Museum’s Design Department.
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art [January 23. 2012]
Even today, the world of the ancient Greek gods has lost none of its fascination. Accounts of the deeds of mighty Zeus, his jealous wife Hera, the twins Apollo and Artemis, beautiful Aph-rodite, and Dionysos the god of wine, are as enthralling as ever after more than 2000 years.
A mask of an old man is on display at the Roman-Germanic Museum in Cologne, Germany. The exhibition 'Return of the Gods' will run until 26 August 2012 [Credit: EPA/Oliver Berg]
Greek poets and artists conveyed a vivid picture of the world of these gods. Their work set creative precedents and were a source of inspiration; they also furnished models and a stim-ulus for new interpretations and original compositions by Roman writers and sculptors.
Over a period of more than three hundred years, the Brandenburg-Prussian Electors and Kings in Berlin collected antique works of art, which are now in the museums of the ‘Preußischer Kulturbesitz’ Foundation – the Pergamon Museum and the Collection of Antiqui-ties. For the first time in Cologne, in the exhibition The Return of the Gods, the Olympian world of the Greek gods is recreated with marble statues, stone reliefs, bronzes and luxurious vases from the Berlin collections – a cross section of outstanding European art from early Greek times to the imperial Roman period.
Zeus, Hades, Poseidon
Zeus, the Romans’ Jupiter, was the majestic ruler of the Olympian world. As the lord of the heavens, he carried a thunderbolt as his weapon. Zeus was the father of nu-merous gods and heroes; most of his offspring were not begotten with his wife Hera, but were the result of his many erotic liaisons.
Poseidon was the master of the sea, inland waters and storms. As the “shaker of the Earth”, who made the Earth tremble with his trident, he was held responsible for earthquakes and natural disasters. People also venerated him as the protector of their ships. The Romans called this god Neptune.
Brother of Zeus and Poseidon was Hades, the Romans’ Pluto. He became the lord of the underworld when the gods drew lots to divide the world between them.
All these “Father Gods” are represented as mature, dignified and mighty. Zeus the father of the gods, Hades the ruler of the underworld and Poseidon the god of the sea, are difficult to tell apart when not depicted with their characteristic attributes
Asclepius, the Healing God
Asclepius was the god of medicine and healing. He was the son of Apollo and a mortal woman, so merely a demigod. He was nevertheless worshipped as a god but not regarded as one of the Olympian gods.
Asclepius’ place was among the people. He is represented in the likeness of a Greek citizen: bearded, wearing a robe and leaning on a staff. A snake is coiled around his staff and the staff (or rod) of Asclepius is still the traditional symbol of medicine.
Asclepius had many sanctuaries that attracted throngs of worshippers, where the sick sought cures through healing sleep (incubation). A centre of his cult developed at Epidaurus and another was located on the island of Kos. The physicians of Kos achieved great fame in the 5th century BC. The best known was Hippocrates and, even today, doctors swear the “Hippocratic Oath”.
The cult of Asclepius reached the western part of the Roman Empire in 293 BC when the Epidaurus sanctuary established a shrine to the Latinised Aesculapius on Rome’s Tiber Island.
Hera and Demeter – the Mothers
Hera, the Romans’ Juno, was the sister and spouse of Zeus. As the queen of the gods she watched over marriage and legitimate offspring. She therefore pursued the amorous escapades of her husband with jealous severity.
Demeter, Ceres for the Romans, was the goddess of the fertile earth, of grain and agriculture. According to the “Homeric” hymn to Demeter, her daughter Kore was abducted by Hades and, as Persephone/Proserpina, became his wife in the under-world. Searching for her daughter, the desperate Demeter neglected her responsibilities as the goddess of agriculture, which led to a severe drought. Only after the return of her daughter for two-thirds of the year did she allow everything to grow and flourish again, but Kore-Persephone had to spend one third of each year with Hades in the underworld, during which time nature was also dead.
Demeter and Hera are usually depicted as motherly goddesses, often wearing a dia-dem and veil. When ears of wheat – a specific attribute of Demeter – are not shown, it is scarcely possible to distinguish between the two.
Aphrodite and Hermes
Aphrodite’s sphere of influence was love; her son Eros was the personified god of love. From the 5th century BC onwards, Aphrodite was depicted in ever more reveal-ing clothes: light and flimsy garments accentuated the beauty of the female body. Aphrodite first appeared completely naked in the 4th century BC, as a statue by Praxiteles, whose visualisation of the goddess was widely copied. Venus, the Roman equivalent of Aphrodite, was said to be the mother of Aeneas. Hence she became the mythical ancestress of the family of the Julii, to which both Caesar and Augustus belonged.
Hermes was the messenger of the gods, the god of roads, boundaries and herds-men, the patron of thieves. He guided the souls of the dead into the after-world.
Hermes wore the clothes of a traveller: a short cape, a broad-brimmed hat and boots or sandals. Speed was suggested by wings attached to his hat, shoes or heels. In addition, he carried a messenger’s staff with two snakes (Kerykeion). The Roman equivalent of Hermes was Mercury, the god of commerce and economic prosperity.
Athena – the Patroness of Great Works
Athena was the wise daughter of Zeus. Before his marriage to Hera, Zeus was the husband of Metis, the goddess of wisdom. Zeus then swallowed his consort when she was pregnant with Athena because it had been prophesied that she would bear him a child stronger than himself, who would ultimately depose him. Athena was born when Hephaestus, the blacksmith god, cleaved open her father’s skull.
Athena was the goddess of battle, depicted with a helmet, lance and shield. Another emblem was the “aegis”, a breastplate with the head of the Gorgon Medusa in the centre. Athena was the patroness of the crafts and all artistic activities. She is also said to have invented the flute. While playing it beside a stream, she saw a reflection of herself with her cheeks puffed out, and crossly cast the instrument aside. The satyr Marsyas retrieved the flute and later challenged Apollo to a musical contest.
Many cities invoked the protection of Athena, especially Athens, where she was worshipped on the Acropolis. Her Roman equivalent was Minerva.
Apollo and Artemis — divine twins
The twins Apollo and Artemis were the children of Zeus and Leto. Jealous Hera pur-sued her rival relentlessly until, finally, the island of Delos allowed Leto to give birth to her children there.
Apollo was the upholder of order in human society, slaying wrongdoers with his bow and sending pestilence as a punishment. He defended religious purity. His attribute was the laurel. He was also the god of oracles and divine prophesies, leader of the muses and a master of the lyre. He was depicted as an idealized youth with long hair.
Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and huntsmen, represented unspoiled nature. Known since ancient times as the “Mistress of the Animals” and the “unconquered virgin”, she nurtured and protected young animals, but was also a huntress who killed her prey. Since the late classical period, she has usually been depicted as a young girl in a hunting tunic with a bow and a quiver full of arrows, often accompanied by an animal. Just as her brother was both the god of healing and the god of pestilence, so Artemis was the goddess of childbirth and the bringer of death in childbirth.
The Sanctuary
In the Greek and Roman world, the sanctuary was the most important place for wor-shipping the gods. People would go there with votive offerings and gifts to praise or appease a deity and to ask for favours.
At larger ritual sites there were temples with a cult image of the god. However, the centre of the sanctuary was always the altar where sacrifices were offered. At public ceremonies, cattle were often sacrificed: the priests would burn the bones, fat and hide of the animal as an offering to the gods; the meat would then be consumed by the worshippers at a ritual feast. Individual citizens usually donated smaller animals, fruit or libations. The rites could be accompanied by processions, dancing and music.
An abundance of offerings of various types would accumulate at such sacred sites. Large objects like statues would be set up on display while smaller votive objects, such as miniature figurines or weapons captured from the enemy, were deposited somewhere. In large Greek sanctuaries, Olympia and Delphi for example, there were also treasuries where valuable offerings were stored.
Dionysus and the Theatre
Dionysus was the god of wine and delirious ecstasy. Those who gave themselves to this god had to risk becoming “possessed”. Dionysus was surrounded by a retinue (thiasos) of half-wild hybrid creatures, youthful satyrs, older sileni, and frenzied maenads who often danced to the music of flutes and drums.
Dionysus was depicted as child, as a seductive youth with a body that is sometimes rather feminine, and as an old man leaning on a satyr. His attributes were the ivy, either as a wreath to prevent intoxication or wound around a staff (thyrsos), and a drinking vessel (kantharos). He always symbolised a hedonistic way of life.
Greek theatre originated in the cult of Dionysus. In many places of worship, dramatic performances were part of his festivals. Starting in Athens in the 6th century BC, first tragedies, then “satyr” plays and – after 486 BC – comedies were performed during the Great Dionysia festival. All the roles in the plays, even female roles, were taken by three male actors wearing costumes and masks, accompanied by a choir.
The Pergamon Altar
In the conflicts to succeed Alexander the Great, Philhetairos was able to establish his rule in Asia Minor, at Pergamon. His grandson, Attalos I, took the title of King. The latter’s son, Eumenes II (197-159 BC), defeated the invading Celts and developed the fortress into a Hellenistic city with prestigious marble buildings.
The religious centre was the altar of Zeus, which was visible from afar. A flight of steps led up to a podium and the colonnaded area with the altar for burnt offerings. The podium was decorated on all sides by a frieze depicting the battle of the gods against the giants. The rear walls illustrated the history of the founding of Perga-mon. Acroteria with figures stood on the roof.
The gigantomachy on the Pergamon Altar marks the pinnacle of Hellenistic art. It is the most complete antique depiction of the struggle of the younger generation of Olympian gods, together with Hercules, against the giants, born out of chaos, who were trying to destroy the new world order. Zeus with his lightning bolts is shown fighting a snake-footed giant, an allusion to the victory over the Celts.
From 20 December to 1 June 2013 the exhibition "Mostri. Creature fantastiche della paura e del mito" (Monsters. Fantastic Creatures of Fear and Myth) will be open to the public at Palazzo Massimo alle Terme.
