Lemnos, Cimon, and the Hephaisteion

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-193
Author(s):  
Jeremy McInerney
Keyword(s):  
Strong Association ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Correct Interpretation ◽  
Control Work ◽  
The Temple

This paper presents the case for reading the Hephaisteion as a temple planned and begun by the Philaid family early in the fifth century. It was originally designed to give a house to Hephaestus in Athens after the successful campaign of Miltiades brought the island of Lemnos, traditionally the home of Hephaestus, under Athenian control. Work on the temple was interrupted by the death of Miltiades but resumed in the wake of Cimon’s successful northern ventures. The strong association of Miltiades and Cimon with the strategic islands of the northern Aegean suggests that the correct interpretation of the Hephaisteion’s east frieze is the expulsion of the Pelasgians from Athens. Their punishment is interpreted here as a mythological analogue for the annexation of the Pelasgians’ island, Lemnos. Evidence from the island demonstrates that the Athenian cleruchs on Lemnos were eager to distinguish themselves from the Lemnians. The Pelasgian episode enabled them to demonstrate this, and to emphasize their Athenian identity.

scholarly journals The Bronze Trumpeter at Sparta and the Earthquake of 464 b.c.

1909 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-62
Author(s):  
Leonard Whibley
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
British School ◽  
The Temple

Among the objects discovered in the excavation of the temple of Athena Chalkioikos at Sparta is a small bronze figure of a trumpeter (illustrated in the Annual of the British School at Athens, xiii p. 146). Mr. Dickins, who says that the figure ‘can be dated without hesitation in the middle of the fifth century,’ regards ‘the presence of a trumpeter as a dedication in Sparta as perplexing, because the Spartans marched to battle to the sound of flutes, and made no use of trumpets for martial music’. This is, I think, the view generally held. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a possible reason for the dedication of the trumpeter at the date, which the style of the work suggests.

The Orpheus Metope from Bassai

1981 ◽  
Vol 76 ◽  
pp. 323-328
Author(s):  
Carlos Arturo Picón
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
Early History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
To Receive ◽  
The Temple

A fruitful combination of excavation, fieldwork, and research has in recent years increased our knowledge of the Temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassai. In particular, the sculptured frieze which encircled the interior of the cella has been the subject of numerous studies, the most recent being the monograph by C. Hofkes-Brukker and A. Mallwitz published in 1975. The investigations made at Bassai by N. Yalouris and F. A. Cooper have produced important new evidence. As a result of the excavations conducted by Yalouris since 1959, the early history of the sanctuary and of the structures preceding the classical (‘Iktinian’) temple are reasonably clear. Furthermore, Cooper has shown that the ‘Iktinian’ building, the fourth in a series of temples to Apollo on the site, was not designed to receive pedimental sculpture, and that some, if not all, of this temple's akroteria were floral. The traditional attributions of pedimental and akroterial statues must be discarded, along with the theory that the ‘Iktinian’ building was started as early as the middle of the fifth century B.C.Yet, despite this progress, and the fact that the temple is one of the best-preserved monuments from antiquity, many issues remain controversial. Scholars postulate several building phases for the Classical temple. The chronology of the sculptures is still debated, as is the order of the twenty-three frieze-slabs within the cella.

scholarly journals Museum of Light: The New Acropolis Museum and the Campaign to Repatriate the Elgin Marbles

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Beresford
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Natural Light ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Public Display ◽  
Bright Sunlight ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Of Greece

It is almost half-a-dozen years since the New Acropolis Museum in Athens was inaugurated in June 2009, following a gestation period of over three decades. Before, during and after the construction of the building, the importance of natural light was frequently emphasised by the Museum’s Swiss-French architect, Bernard Tschumi, as well as many Greek government officials, archaeologists, and other heritage professionals. The manner in which the same bright sunlight illuminates both the Parthenon and the temple’s decorative sculptures which are now on display in the Museum, is also routinely referenced by campaigners advocating a return of those sculptures that were removed from the Athenian Acropolis on the orders of Lord Elgin between 1801–03 and subsequently shipped to London. Following the purchase of the collection by the British government in 1816, the Marbles of the Elgin Collection were presented to the British Museum, where they are presently on display in Room 18, the Duveen Gallery. However, for more than two centuries it has been maintained that the sculptures can only be truly appreciated when viewed in the natural light of Athens. Even before the completion of the New Acropolis Museum there were bitter attacks on the manner in which the Marbles are displayed in the British Museum, and the quality of the illumination afforded to the sculptures in the Duveen Gallery. The aesthetics of the Attic light has therefore taken its place as one of the principal weapons in the armoury of Greek officials and international campaigners seeking the return of the Marbles removed by Lord Elgin. Nonetheless, this paper will argue against the accepted orthodoxy that the New Acropolis Museum replicates the original light conditions many of the sculptures from the temple experienced when on the Parthenon. Indeed, this article will dispute the goal of many architects, politicians, and heritage professionals of the need ensure that, when on public display, all of the Parthenon sculptures are bathed in bright natural light. The ability to display the Marbles in the sun-drenched gallery of the New Acropolis Museum forges a powerful link binding the environment of Classical Athens with the present-day capital of Greece, offering politicians and activists seeking the repatriation of the Elgin Marbles a potent weapon wielded to great effect. However, the politically motivated design parameters laid on the museum, requiring the building admit vast amounts of natural Attic light, has destroyed the architectural context the Marbles were displayed in when originally affixed to the temple in the fifth century BC.

Zechariah

2021 ◽  
pp. 523-534
Author(s):  
Paul L. Redditt
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Complete Dependence ◽  
Minor Prophets

This essay discusses the origin of the book of Zechariah, its location near the end of the Minor Prophets, and the significance of that location. Zechariah depicts an upturn in the fortunes of postexilic Jerusalem, first with returnees from Babylon ca. 520 bce (chaps. 1–8). Chapters 9–14 were added incrementally: chapter 10 in the early fifth century, and chapters 11–14 throughout the rest of the fifth century. Zechariah 2–8 unpacks the cosmological significance of the rebuilding of the temple. Chapters 9–11 threaten surrounding little nations that might harm the temple, and chapters 12–13 predict an upturn of fortunes for Jerusalem. Finally, chapter 14 portrays God as the protector of the returnees against all peoples who did not come to Jerusalem to worship God. In summary, Zechariah announces the need for Judah to repent from its sins, anticipates Jerusalem’s restitution, and counsels complete dependence on God instead of an army.

Rome's Holy Mountain

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Moralee
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Roman History ◽  
The Third ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Hill ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Remote Past

Rome’s Capitoline Hill was the smallest of the Seven Hills of Rome. Yet in the long history of the Roman state it was the empire’s holy mountain. The hill was the setting of many of Rome’s most beloved stories, involving Aeneas, Romulus, Tarpeia, and Manlius. It also held significant monuments, including the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, a location that marked the spot where Jupiter made the hill his earthly home in the age before humanity. This book follows the history of the Capitoline Hill into late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, asking what happened to a holy mountain as the empire that deemed it thus became a Christian republic. This is not a history of the hill’s tonnage of marble- and gold-bedecked monuments but, rather, an investigation into how the hill was used, imagined, and known from the third to the seventh century CE. During this time, the triumph and other processions to the top of the hill were no longer enacted. But the hill persisted as a densely populated urban zone and continued to supply a bridge to fragmented memories of an increasingly remote past through its toponyms. This book is also about a series of Christian engagements with the Capitoline Hill’s different registers of memory, the transmission and dissection of anecdotes, and the invention of alternate understandings of the hill’s role in Roman history. What lingered long after the state’s disintegration in the fifth century were the hill’s associations with the raw power of Rome’s empire.

scholarly journals Views of Athens in the year 1687

1883 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 86-89
Author(s):  
Charles Waldstein
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Original Condition ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Temple

Since such works as Beulé's L'Acropole, d'Athènes, the Count De Laborde's Athènes au xv.e, xvi.e, et xvii.eSiècles, and Michaelis's Parthenon have appeared, the history of the Acropolis and its buildings has been made widely known, or at least the ascertainment of exact information has been made easy for all interested in these subjects. The more complete the list of records, the more importance do we attach to any new document referring directly to the Acropolis or the Parthenon. The two drawings in the library of the late Sir Thomas Phillipps at Thirlstane House, Cheltenham, here published, give views of the Acropolis in 1687.The main points in the history of the Parthenon (for this ever remains the centre of interest on the Acropolis of Athens), are the following: After its completion in 438 B.C. it appears to have remained in its original condition until it was turned into a Christian church about the middle of the fifth century or the middle of the sixth, and by peculiar persistency of its original dedication to the virgin goddess of wisdom, it appears to have been at first converted into a church of St. Sophia and then of the Virgin Mary. The alterations made chiefly affected the interior of the temple.

Extended angle intercolumniations in fifth-century Athenian Ionic

1979 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 155-157
Author(s):  
J.J. Coulton
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
Original Design ◽  
Regular Distribution ◽  
English Only ◽  
The North ◽  
Greek Architecture ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Regular Spacing

It is a widespread feature of Doric temples that the intercolumniations nearest the angles should be somewhat narrower than normal so as to allow a regular distribution of triglyphs and metopes in the frieze. The nature and working of this adjustment have been widely discussed; but little attention has been given to the contrary arrangement in two Athenian Ionic temples, where the intercolumniations nearest the angles are actually wider than normal. Of the standard handbooks on Greek architecture in English, only that of Dinsmoor notes that the angle intercolumniations of the north porch of the Erechtheion are 0·052 m larger than the central one, and even he does not discuss the fact in his main treatment of the building. He also notes that the angle intercolumniations of the temple by the Ilissos are 0·051 m greater than the central one, but attributes that to later distortion of the building. Shear mentions both these instances in her discussion of the possible works of Kallikrates, and accepts the wider intercolumniations of the Ilissos temple as part of the original design. Following Stevens, she explains this feature in the Erechtheion as intended to allow a regular spacing of the ceiling beams, and suggests that the same explanation may apply to the Ilissos temple too.

scholarly journals Elephantine

2021 ◽  
Vol 134 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-424
Author(s):  
Bob Becking
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
Persian Empire ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Egyptian Population ◽  
Southern Border ◽  
The Temple

Abstract Elephantine. On Judeans in fifth century bce Southern Egypt In the fifth century bce a group of Judaeans lived as mercenaries in the Persian army on and around the island of Elephantine, as guardians of the southern border of the Persian empire and to shield the Persian trade interests. Documents show that these Judaeans had their own form of Yahwism. For almost 100 years they lived in peaceful coexistence with the Persian administration, the local Egyptian population, and with a dozen other ethnic groups settled on the island. From around 425 this pax persica was disrupted by local discords and the destruction by the priests of Khnum of vital elements of the Persian administration as well as the temple of Yahô. This contribution argues that the increasing urge of Egypt to abandon the Persian yoke and the influx of an extra group of Judeans – with a different form of Yahwism – around 420 created increasing tension between the different groups leading to the breakup of the peaceful cohabitation.

Between Salem and Mount Gerizim: The Context of the Formation of the Torah Reconsidered

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-334
Author(s):  
Walter J. Houston
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Persian Period ◽  
Jerusalem Temple ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Holy Places ◽  
The Common ◽  
Final Composition ◽  
The Temple

Building on recent suggestions, I argue that the final composition of the Pentateuch in the Persian period was the result of common enterprise or compromise between the province of Samaria and Jerusalem. This is based on an examination of the historical circumstances as well as on the contents and text of the Pentateuch. Contrary to the picture painted in Ezra-Nehemiah, there were good relationships and contacts between the upper classes of the two provinces throughout the period, and it is probable that the priestly staff of the temple of Argarizim, which recent evidence shows was established in the mid fifth century, was closely related to that of Jerusalem. The identities of both holy places are hinted at in the text. The likely original text of Deut 27:2–8 ordains sacrifice to be made and the Torah to be inscribed on Mount Gerizim (v. 4), not on Mount Ebal as in the MT. This either suggested the establishment of the sanctuary there (Kartveit), or was suggested by it (Nihan). On the other hand, Gen 14:18 refers to Jerusalem under the name of Salem. The Torah contains material of northern origin, and some of it, especially the story of Joseph, originated relatively late. The Tabernacle and ritual texts in P do not, as often thought, represent the Jerusalem temple, but an ideal sanctuary, and they are available to reform the practice of both temples. The MT, like the Samaritan Pentateuch, contains revisions away from the common inheritance.

Byzantine Festal Homilies on The Virgin Mary

2019 ◽  
pp. 153-167
Author(s):  
Mary B. Cunningham
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
The Temple

Liturgical homilies in honour of the Virgin Mary, Theotokos (‘God-bearer’) were composed in Greek from about the early fifth century ce in the Eastern Christian Church. As Marian feasts were added to the Byzantine liturgical calendar between approximately the sixth and eighth centuries, preachers throughout the Eastern Roman empire (and beyond) added to this corpus, delivering homilies on subjects such as the Annunciation, the Nativity of the Virgin, her Entrance into the temple, and Dormition and Assumption into heaven. They were collected and transmitted mainly in liturgical collections, thus becoming readings for both liturgical and private devotional use. The surviving homilies, many of which remain untranslated into modern languages, contain a combination of Christological, narrative, and intercessory themes. As poetic, but also deeply theological, reflections on Mary, the Mother of God, these works represent important contributions to the wider Christian tradition.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document