shapesofantiquity

[shapesofantiquity]

[shapesofantiquity]

I honestly have never been a fan of the supposed love between Achilles and Patroclus, also because in the Greek work Iliad this relationship isn't explicitly mentioned. This caused a big debate both in the Antiquity and in modern times.

But it occurred to me to read recently the novel by Madeline Miller The Song of Achilles and I simpy loved it: the beautiful narrative style, the very nice descriptions of every place (the court of Phtia and the battlefield of Troy in primis) and the feelings of the protagonists...

Each line was a work of art and every figure was good portraited with his/her own particular feature. Of course Miller invented many features (we can't forge that the work is still a novel), she imagined what they could look like: think only of Deidamia, the girl who is pregnant with Achilles. But every figure is unique and that's what makes this work a good novel.

The reading was worth it!

[shapesofantiquity]

The beautiful "Tomb of the Diver" located in Paestum, and dated to the 5th century BC.

It was unearthed by the Italian archaeologist Mario Napoli in 1968 and since then the tomb has been subject of debates all along academia.

Recently, a scholar pointed out that the image of the diver, who is pictured alone could represent an ascent, the moment of transition between life and death.

And that's what exactly this picture transmits when one looks at it: a sense of detachment from reality and a sense of quiet suspension.

shapesofantiquity

Frescos "Tumba del Nadador" Paestum Italia s.v a.C. Es de las pocas pinturas helenas que se conservan de esta época.

[shapesofantiquity]

This is one of the beautiful so-called Fayyum' s portraits.

They are facial portrait of dead people from that Egyptian area carved on wood and then put on the dead body. The body was mummified, in order that it could be preserved for the eternity.

Many wood portraits of women, babies, children and young men overcame time, climate and wars and we can still gaze at them in museums.

Their facial features could tell us a lot about their lives, social conditions and health. There are for example children's portraits that depict the little deads with their toys. Pretty, isnt'it?

Portrait of a Woman, Roman, 2nd century, Saint Louis Art Museum: Ancient Art

https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/186/

[shapesofantiquity]

Classical antiquity was fascinating in every century. And tourists existed also in 20th century (and also before).

This woman was perhaps a tourist, since she is taking a photo of the beautiful Parthenon. She should have used a box camera, a type of camera that was suitable for subjects that move little during the exposure. And, of course, a tripod.

We could see that the Parthenon was already damaged by time, weather conditions, wars and other factors. But it still preserves its beauty through the centuries.

Woman takes a photo of the Parthenon in the Acropolis, Athens, Greece, 1905.

[shapesofantiquity]

Who were the Caryatids?

They were women-shaped sculptures used as columns or pillars.

The best-known Caryatids are the ones in the porch of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis of Athens.

These type of sculpture knew later a reprise, both in Antiquity under the Romans (from Augustus on) and in modern times. Some examples of this reprise could be found in Vienna in Palais Pallavicini or at one side of the Parliament, in the lbright–Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo (USA) and in Edinburgh...on a department store!

Caryatids are engraved also on African stools, were they represented the ancestresses.

This photo represent one Erechtheion's Caryatid in a different way from the one we all know, where all the columns are shown.

Because sometimes it's better to see things from a different perspective! What do you think?

shapesofantiquity

A Caryatid’s view to Philopappos Hill, Athens, Greece 1930 by Walter Hege

[shapesofantiquity]

I really like vintage photos or vintage drawings of ancient temples like this or the sketch of the "Campo vaccino" of Giovanni Battista Piranesi in Rome (I discovered this last one during my university times).

They captured things and aspects of ancient temples and Greek and Roman arts that unfotunately time and climate stole us. The flair of imperfection was still there and that's made this captured moments beautiful.

shapesofantiquity

James Robertson - Temple of Jupiter, Athens, 1862

[shapesofantiquity]

Funny joke, just for a laugh!

And today, I can teach you an interesting word: Φιλόγελως. It means”lover of the laughter, laughter-lover”.

It was applied to the oldest exisiting collection of jokes. We don’t know the exact date of composition (maybe between the 5th and the 6th century AD?), but it’s sure that also Greek people enjoyed jokes and making fun of other people. Well, centuries pass, but personalities never change.

Persephone: I’m cold

Hades: Come here, you can have my jacket

Zeus: I’m cold too

Hera: Come here, I’ll set you on fire

[shapesofantiquity]

Today is the 2th August...On the 2th August 47 BC Julius Caesar defeated Pharnaces II, son of Mithradates of Pontus, one of the most important enemies of Rome, at Zela (now Zile, Turkey). Let's read what the Greek writer and philosopher Plutarch of Chaironeia wrote about the battle:

"εὐθὺς οὖν ἐπὶ τὸν ἄνδρα τρισὶν ἤλαυνε τάγμασι, καὶ περὶ πόλιν Ζῆλαν μάχην μεγάλην συνάψας αὐτὸν μὲν ἐξέβαλε τοῦ Πόντου φεύγοντα, τὴν δὲ στρατιὰν ἄρδην ἀνεῖλε. καὶ τῆς μάχης ταύτης τὴν ὀξύτητα καὶ τὸ τάχος ἀναγγέλλων εἰς Ῥώμην πρός τινα τῶν φίλων Ἀμάντιον ἔγραψε τρεῖς λέξεις ‘ἦλθον, εἶδον, ἐνίκησα.’

He immediately marched against him with three legions and after a great battle near Zela, he drove him out of Pontus and totally destroyed his army. Announcing to Rome the extraordinary rapidity of this expedition, he wrote to his friend Martius only three words: "I came, I saw, I won".

Plut. Rom. Caes. 50, 6

[shapesofantiquity]

“ [...]

Like the bright hair uplifted from the head

Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge Of the horizon to the zenith’s height, The locks of the approaching storm.”

P. Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind II (1820)

Detail of the swirling drapery of a dancing maenad, 27b BC - 14 AD, Metropolitan Museum of Art

[shapesofantiquity]

FIRMAMENT

[noun]

the vault of heaven; the sky.

Etymology: from Late Latin firmāmentum, “sky” (considered as fixed above the earth), from Latin for “prop, support”, from firmāre, “to make firm”.

-

Original: by Franz Von Stuck

[shapesofantiquity]

The Porte de Mars, the widest triumphal arch built from the Romans (32 metres and 40 lenght!), dates from the 3rd century AD.

Its iconography is a hommage to the Urbs aeterna, Rome: there is a scene who depicts Rome’s founder, Romulus, with his brother Remus. Furthermore, the central arcade depicts a Roman invention, the calender along with the depictions of the work of the months.

I wish you everybody a joyful summer!

shapesofantiquity

Details from the Porte de Mars, an ancient Roman triumphal arch in Reims, France.

[shapesofantiquity]

Huge cemetery with at least 250 rock-cut tombs discovered in Egypt

About 250 tombs, some with fancy layouts and hieroglyphics, have been discovered cut into a hill at Al-Hamidiyah cemetery to the east of Sohag, in Egypt’s Eastern Desert, about 240 miles (386 kilometers) southeast of Cairo, Egypt’s antiquities ministry said.

The tombs were constructed at different times in Egypt’s history, the archaeologists said in a statement from the ministry. The earliest were constructed about 4,200 years ago, at a time when Egypt’s “Old Kingdom,” as modern-day Egyptologists call it, was collapsing. At this time, the pharaohs of Egypt were losing control of the country, as a number of local governors gained power. Why these tombs were cut into the hill is not clear but it was not an uncommon practice in ancient Egypt. Read more.

[shapesofantiquity]

John William Waterhouse is a Pre-Raphaelist painter, better known for his paintings that depict subjects from the Classical mythology.

This painting depicts Jason and Medea, two main figures from the work of the Greek poet Apollonios of Rhodes (3rd century BC), Argonautica.

In this work Jason has to bring back to his uncle Pelias, the golden fleece of a magic goat. He asks Medea, who is keen with magical practices since she’s the niece of the sorceress Circe, for help. Medea falls in love with Jason and decides not only to help him in the exploit, but also to follow him in Greece abandoning Colchis, her country, forever.

𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘮 𝘞𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦- 𝘑𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘔𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘢 

𝘐’𝘮 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 

𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦

[shapesofantiquity]

It sounds like a very good idea for a Christmas gift. What do you think? :)

Kouros of Tenea with his archaic smile, marmor, 550-560 BC, Munich

Have a safe and good Christmas time with your beloved ones! And, of course, stay healthy!

shapesofantiquity

gift idea for classicists: face masks with the archaic smile on them

[shapesofantiquity]

The distinctive characteristic of cultural history museums is that they relate the human experience. They have been perceived as the memory of society, having the power and responsibility to decide what should be remembered and taking on the role of narrator and communicating stories of national identity, democracy, progress and enlightenment.

Anna Steen, “Samdok: Tools to Make the World Visible” (via museological) -

The modern word “museum” comes from the greek word Μουσεῖον (Mouseion), which means “shrine of the Muses”.

This was a building founded in Alexandria of Egypt by the son of the Diadoch Ptolemy I Soter, companion and one of the late successors of Alexander the Great. His son was Ptolemy II Philadelphos.

Map of Ancient Alexandria. The Museum is the building in green.

The Museum was a place where intellectuals met: philosophers, scientists and philologists housed and taught there, thanks to the generosity of the Pharao.

Many buildings were annexed to the Museum: a botanical garden, the famous and big Library that contained more than 400.000 books and an astronomical observatory.

The Library of Alexandria

At the head of the Museum was the ἐπιστάτης (epistates), a sort of superintendent that administered the activity of this imponent institution.

The scholars who worked there contributed not only to the progress, but also to the many shapes of identity that Alexandria began to have, as capital of one of the four great Hellenistic kingdoms. From its very beginning the metropole began to be a truly melting pot of different cultures and identities where the idea of memory of the past also began to flourish thanks to the Library.

[shapesofantiquity]

Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, 1603-19, Isfahan (Iran)

This is the beautiful, geometrically carved ceiling of the left aisle of the inner courtyard of the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque situated in Isfahan, Iran. I went to Iran with my alma mater, a small Austrian university, in 2016 and Isfahan was the last city of our long and adventurous journey. The Mosque was built during the Safavid Period: under its dinasty, the Safavids, it began the religious imprinting of Iran as Shi’ite country, which still remains nowadays.

Islamic mosques are full of simple motives like flowers and arabesques and the ceilings and wall are also decorated with letters. They seem Arabic letters to my eyes and what I always found fascinating since my Iran journey is that in the Islamic culture calligraphy plays a very important role, not only in everyday life, but in religion as well.

I would like to cite a very nice paragraph from a book written by Jason Elliot, Mirros of the Unseen, which captures in an excellent way the essence of this beautiful and mysterious places:

“ Those hovering canopies of multiplying arabesques and torrents of turbulent calligraphies, those kaleidoscopic vaults and cloud-piercing minarets wrapped in spiralling wizardries of gleaming tilework, at once both exuberant and rational! I was troubled by the mysteries of their colours and magically resonating shapes, and at the insistence of their bright geometries, as if behind them pressed a language longing to be heard; and I wondered if I might ever learn it. These monuments and their decoration were, I realised, the first examples of Persian art I had properly seen (how these early impressions fall most freshly on the senses and, like a first kiss, linger with uneven fondness!)”

I still remember the moment I captured this shot with my camera. We had a 10 minute-break in order to explore the mosque by our own and while I was taking this photo a guy from my university group approached to me and started talking. We talked about the Pink Floyd, a rock-band that we both share a passion for and it was a very nice moment. It’s in moments like this, when you come to realize that associating a photo with a beautiful moment is something unique. Every moment is different and, with a photo, lasts forever.

¦ shapesofantiquity