Table Of ContentOXFORD STUDIES IN ANCIENT CULTURE
AND REPRESENTATION
Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture and Representation publishes significant
interdisciplinary research into the visual, social, political, and religious cultures
of the ancient Mediterranean world. The series includes work that combines
difterent kinds of representations that are usually treated separately. The over-
arching programme 1s to integrate images, monuments, texts, performances, and
rituals with the places, participants, and broader historical environment that gave
them meaning.
Aniconism in Greek
Antiquty
MILETTE GAIFMAN
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6pp,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© Milette Gaifman 2012
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First Edition published in 2012
Impression: 1
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A collaborative spirit among individuals, departments, and institutions paved the
way for this book, from its inception (in a very different form) as my Princeton
doctoral thesis. My deep gratitude is due to William A. P. Childs, my Princeton
supervisor, for his encouragement to pursue this project, for teaching me not to
take anything for granted, and for saying: ‘stick to your guns!” In lengthy
meetings, Fritz Graf guided me through the complexities of ancient religion,
and helped me formulate the research questions underlying my work. Princeton’s
Program in the Ancient World (PAW) cultivated a dialogue across difterent ficlds
that still informs my thinking about antiquity. I owe much to Hugo Mecyer,
Theodore Leslie Shear Jr., Andrew Ford, Robert Kaster, John Ma, Josia Ober,
Froma Zeitlin, and Peter Brown. I had the good fortune of being taught by
Evelyn B. Harrison at the Institute of Fine Arts in New York. The Program in
Hellenic Studies led by Dimitri Gondicas, as well as PAW, the Kress Foundation,
and the Donald and Mary Hyde Fund, generously supported my rescarch at the
time. Kim Bowes and Christopher MacEvitt accompanied me on my first exped-
ition in the quest for south Italian standing stones. And upon my return from
that trip, I discovered images of heads from Cyrene and other ‘strange things’ that
Michael Padgett left in my mailbox.
Having one foot in Classics and another in History of Art while also thinking
about History of Religion goes back to my undergraduate years at the Hebrew
University. My debts are to Joseph (Yossi) Geiger, who first suggested
that I embark the journey to the US, to Hannah Cotton, Bianca Kiihnel, Guy
Stroumsa, and to Andrea Rotstein, who was a close classmate at the time.
It was the research partnership between Princeton and Oxford that first brought
me to Oxford. There I met Jas’ Elsner, who took me under his wing when I was a
student, and later on inspired me to question the winding paths that lead to what
we think of now as our academic disciplines. I count myself among those fortu-
nate ones whose work is subject to that kind and intelligent Elsnerien scrutiny. In
Oxford more intellectual horizons opened up, whether in formal seminars such as
those convened by Robert Parker and Martin Goodman among others, or over
coffee at the Oriental Institute with Fergus Millar and that lively cohort of
‘Orientalists’ that included, among many, Jonathan Kirkpatrick, Youval Rotman,
and Ted Kaizer. In the Sackler library, Ian Rutherford was always willing to share
his knowledge, and whispered chats with Verity Platt were the best way out of any
confusion. The President and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, especially Ewen
Bowie, welcomed me, first when I was a graduate student, then as a Rothschild
Fellow, and later on as a Visiting Scholar during my Junior Faculty Leave.
Vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As large sections of this book were written in Oxford, the opportunity to
publish it with Oxford University Press 1s a wish come true. I am 1n great debt to
the editors of the series Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture and Representation,
Simon Price, Oliver Taplin, Peter Thonemann, Tim Whitmarsh, and especially to
Bert Smith, for his clear vision and unrelenting backing. I also thank the external
reviewers for keeping me in check, and the copy editors for much improving the
original manuscript.
It was first under the auspices of the Oxford-Princeton research partnership
that I met the late Simon Price. At that time I could not have imagined that later,
as a Series Editor, he would come to play an important role in my work. Simon
was a careful reader of numerous drafts, alert to large and small issues alike.
Against my resistance, he has pushed me to expand the scope of this publication
and not to shy away from the most fundamental questions. It is extremely painful
that he is not here to see this book in its final form.
During the time while this work was underway, the field of Classics lost
another great scholar, Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood. Christiane showered me
with her warmth and friendship, and always offered her sound judgement. First,
when I was in Oxford, over lunches at an Italian restaurant (where she could
enjoy a cigarette or two during the meal, before the arrival of the smoking ban),
and later on 1n lengthy conversations across the ocean. Even in her absence she
remains a constant in my life, and a vibrant imagined intellectual interrogator.
Where this book began in Princeton and developed in Oxford, it was at Yale
that I found a new academic home upon completion of my dissertation. There I
was greeted by an unusual number of congenial colleagues in my two depart-
ments, Classics and History of Art. I offer my deep gratitude to Diana E. E.
Klemer, with whom I enjoy a collaboration that is not theoretical, but an
everyday reality. I cherish our special friendship. Teaching in the two depart-
ments inspires further thought on visual culture and the classical world in
general, and enriches my approach to topics pertinent to this book, such as
visualizing the sacred, art and text, or receptions of classical antiquity across
time and geographical areas. I am grateful to my students, who teach me more
than they realize, and to my colleagues for the rich and amicable intellectual life
they foster, particularly to Egbert Bakker, Tim Barringer, Victor Bers, Kirk
Freudenburg, Emily Greenwood, Verity Harte, Jacqueline Jung, Pauline
LeVen, Joseph Manning, Mary Miller, Rob Nelson, Irene Peirano, Christopher
Wood, and Mimi Yiengpruksawan. Throughout this time, I could always count
on the unylelding support of the chair of either department. I thank John
Matthews, Chris Kraus, Ned Cooke, David Joselit, and Alexander Nemerov.
And I particularly enjoy examining Greek vases with Susan Matheson in one of
the Study Rooms of the Yale University Art Gallery.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Vil
It is often the case that the most unexpected comment, whether at a conference
or over beer, changes one’s own perspective. This book was much improved by
conversations with Alexander Beecroft, Fran¢oise Frontisi-Ducroux, Stella Geor-
goudi, Guy Hedreen, Irene Lemos, Frangois Lissarrague, Irad Malkin, Richard
Neer, Robin Osborne, Corinne Pache, Christopher Pelling, Alan Shapiro, Mike
Squire, Jeremy Tanner, and Jennifer Trimble.
Friends working in fields other than my own made me consider aniconism
outside the framework of classical antiquity, especially Seth Brodsky, Anne
Dunlop, Eckart Frahm, Brian Kane, Gundula Kreuzer, Ian Quinn, Kathryn
Slanski, Francesca Trivellato, and Lillian Tseng. .
This book entailed travel to numerous archaeological sites and museum col-
lections, where I have in general had a remarkably warm welcome from friendly
colleagues. In Santorini, Maya Efstathiou greeted me with a big smile and guided
me through the paths of Ancient Thera, Vaggelis Sigalas led me to the writing on
the rocks, and Iannis Bitis helped me understand the architecture of the site.
I received great help from Antontio De Siena in Metapontum, Maria Stamato-
poulou and Roula Intzesiloglou in the Archacological Museum of Volos, Anna
Karapanyiotou in the Archaeological Museums of Tegea and Tripolis, from Popi
Bairami in Rhodes, Guy Sanders and Ioulia Tzonou-Herbst in Corinth, and
Admantia Vasilogambrou in Sparta. And I will never forget the enthusiasm of
Peter Ward and Dimitrios Theodoratos on the island of Chalke as we tramped
over the wilderness looking for the seat of Zeus and Hekate.
My thanks for the assistance in obtaining photographs, plans, and permissions
to: Maria Hadjicosti at the Department of Antiquities in Cyprus, loanna Dama-
naki and Jan Jordan at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Chris
Suthemns at the British Muscum, Marta Fodor at the Museum of Finc Arts in
Boston, Elizabeth Saluk at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Patrick Schollmeyer at
the Institute of Archaeology of Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Marina
Sanz Novo at the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid, Wilfred Geominy
at the Bonn Museum of Art, and Annika Keller at Art Resource, New York. I also
thank Dieter Mertens for the map of Metapontum, Bill Metcalf and Nathan
Elkins for their help with photographs of coins from the Yale University Art
Gallery, and Andrew Wilson for the photographs from Cyrene.
Nicole Chardiet was efficient in all matters of bureaucracy, Thomas Beasley
combed through the bibliography, and Richard LaPlante sharpencd my images.
Rona Johnston Gordon made me rethink the structure of the book, and helped
the text flow better. The production of this book in its final form was funded in
part by the generous support of Yale’s departments of Classics and History of
Art, the Griswold Fund, and Yale’s Morse Fellowship for Junior Faculty.
Vil ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Last but not least my wonderful family. My love and affection to my
super-mensch brother-in-law Kevin Gordon and my super-smart sister Morit
Gaifman, who always see things funny side up, and finally to my parents, Hannah
and Haim Gaifman, to whom I dedicate this book.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations X
List of Abbreviations Xvii
INTRODUCTION I
1 What Is Greek Aniconism? 17
2 Pausanmias’ Aniconica 47
3 Greek Views of Aniconism: The ‘Primitive’ Within 77
4 Rough Rocks 131
s Standing Stelai 181
6 The Aniconic Depicted: Stelai on Classical Vases 243
7 Apollo’s Pointed Column and the Dioskourot’s Parallel Beams 271
Conclusion 305
Bibliography 313
Index of Locorum 347
Index of Inscriptions 351
Subject Index 353
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
I.1 Attic white ground lekythos from Rhodes.
London, British Museum B 633.
Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum.
33
Attic red-figure pelike attributed to the Trophy Painter.
1.2
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 20.187.
Photo: [2012] © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
36
I.3 Herm from Siphnos.
Athens, National Archaeological Museum, 3728.
Photo: Vanni/Art Resource, NY.
37
Marble faceless bust from Cyrene.
1.4
Cyrene, Archaeological Museum, courtyard (no museum inventory number).
Photo: Andrew Wilson.
37
1.§ The Pitsa tablet from near Corinth.
Athens, National Archacological Museum, 164.64.
Photo: Scala/Art Resource, NY. 42
1.6 Attic black-figure amphora by Exekias.
Rome, Vatican Museum, 344.
Photo: Scala/Art Resource, NY.
43
1.7 Attic black-figure lekythos.
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 9s.15.
Photo: [2012] © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 43
1.8 Attic black- and red-figure amphora, black-figure face.
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 01.8037.
Photo: [2012] © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 44
General view of the Agora of the Gods in Ancient Thera.
Photo: Milette Gaifman.
137
Distribution of inscriptions in the Agora of the Gods in Ancient Thera.
Adapted from M. Liebke, IG xi1.3 tab. 1.
138
4.3 Inscriptions in the Agora of the Gods in Ancient Thera.
Reproduced from M. Liebke, IG x11.3 tab. 11.
140
4.4 Rock inscription of Zeus above a niche (IG XI1.3.353).
Photo: Milette Gaifman.
141
4.5 Rock inscription of Apollo (IG x11.3.356).
Photo: Milette Gaifman. 143
Drawing of rock inscription of Apollo (IG X11.3.356).
Reproduced from IG x11.3, 92. 144
4.7 Rock inscription of Ko(u)res (IG X11.3.354-).
Photo: Milette Gaifman. 147
4.8 Rock with inscriptions of Zeus and Ko(u)res (IG x11.3.350).
Photo: Milette Gaifman.
148
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Xi
4.9 Drawing of rock with inscriptions of Zeus and Ko(u)res (IG X11.3.350).
Reproduced from IG x11.3, 91. 149
4.10 Niches and inscription of the Nymphs of Hylleis (IG x11.3.378).
Photo: Milette Gaifman. 151
4.11 Rock inscription of Zeus (IG x11.3 suppl. 1313).
Photo: Milette Gaifman. 15§
4.12 Plan of the north-west corner of the Athenian Agora.
Plan: American School of Classical Studies: Agora Excavations. 158
4.13 Perspective drawing of the north-west corner of the Athenian Agora.
Drawing: American School of Classical Studies: Agora Excavations. 159
4.14 View of Crossroads Shrine with pottery deposits 7z situ.
Photo: Amenican School of Classical Studies: Agora Excavations. 160
4.15 Crossroads Shrine after final cleaning.
Photo: American School of Classical Studies: Agora Excavations. 160
4.16 General view of the slopes of the Acropolis of Chalke.
Photo: Milette Gaifman. 163
4.17 Double rock-cut seat of Zeus and Hekate, Chalke.
Photo: Milette Gaifman. 164
4.18 Three-quarter view of the rock with seat of Zeus and Hekate, Chalke.
Photo: Milette Gaifman. 166
4.19 Side view of the rock with seat of Zeus and Hekate, Chalke.
Photo: Milette Gaifman. 166
4.20 Coin of Caracalla with shrine of Aphrodite in Paphos.
New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, Ruth Elizabeth White
Fund 2009.110.130.
Photo: Yale University Art Gallery. 171
4.21 Reverse of Coin of Vespasian with shrine of Aphrodite in Paphos.
London, British Museum, GC 24p78.24.
Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum. 172
4.22 Reverse of Coin of Vespasian with shrine of Aphrodite in Paphos.
London, British Museum, GC 24p77.20.
Photo: © Trustees of the Brniush Museum. 173
4.23 Coin of Tiberius in honour of Drusus with Zeus Salamino: and stone
of Aphrodite of Paphos.
New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, 2001.87.11630.
Photo: Yale Umiversity Art Gallery. 175
4.24 Coin of Antoninus Pius from Seleukia Pieria with temple of Zeus Kasios.
New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, 2001.87.12620.
Photo: Yale University Art Gallery. 176
4.25 Casts of a coin from the Athenian Agora.
Ist century AD.
Photo: American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavanons 177
