An unexpected encounter with Alexander at Delphi

Speaking of Delphi, the pictures that come to mind are those of the great Temple of Apollo, the reconstructed Treasury of the Athenians, and the impressive Stadium, but who will notice the scanty walls labeled as Offering of Craterus?

Squeezed between the Temple of Apollo and the Greek Theatre is an inconspicuous rectangular building measuring 15x35 meters, probably a portico with columns in the front, not unlike the Treasury of the Athenians. Thanks to the inscription on the back wall it appears that this was a Pan-Hellenic sanctuary, known in antiquity as the ex-voto of Craterus, one of the generals and friends of Alexander the Great. These ten verses also reveal that this monument was dedicated by Craterus’ son with Phila, the daughter of Antipater, who was Regent of Macedonia while Alexander was campaigning in Asia. This dedication dates probably from around 320 BC, i.e., after the death of General Craterus.

Inside stood a bronze sculpture, now lost, representing Alexander the Great and Craterus on a lion hunt. Plutarch tells us that this bronze group was created by Lysippos and Leochares, the most famous artists of the 4^th century BC, while Pliny only mentions Lysippos.

The theme of the lion hunt commemorated the incident when Craterus saved Alexander’s life during such a hunting event in the East.

The best-known lion hunt is the pebble mosaic floor that was found at the House of Dionysus in Pella and which is now exhibited at the local museum. Here, both Alexander and Craterus are on foot, attacking the lion at the center of the picture. Another depiction of the same scene was found in Messene and is now on display at the Louvre in Paris. Here we see Craterus on horseback and Alexander on foot, attacking the lion caught between them. It is not documented which of the two compositions was cast in bronze here in Delphi, but it is quite exciting to locate the very building where this special monument once stood!

[Click here to see more pictures of Delphi]

Pausanias - Führer durch Olympia

Pausanias was born in Asia Minor in 110 AD and lived during the reign of Emperors Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, i.e., the heydays of the Roman Empire. He traveled extensively, and he is the author of the first travel guide ever!

His trips took him to Asia Minor and Greece, including Macedonia and probably Epirus, but also to Syria and Egypt, and even to Rome with the Latium region and Magna Graecia to the south. His travel experiences have been written down in ten books and cover the Greek regions of Attica, Argolis, Laconia, Messenia, Elis, Achaia, Arcadia, Boeotia, and Phocis. They are a first-hand testimony of what the world looked like in the second century AD.

The major part of his story is about Olympia, which takes about one-fifth of his entire work, a treasure trove for those who want to drift back in time.

Pausanias, Führer durch Olympia (translated by Ernst Meyer) is thus only a part of Pausanias’ travel guide. It so happened that I came across this German version many years ago. It may only be a pocketbook, but it does contain Pausanias’ story in full.

It is wonderful to walk with Pausanias through the streets of this famous city where the Olympic Games were held for twelve centuries (from 776 BC until 393 AD). He starts with the city’s origins and myths and soon goes straight to the Temple of Zeus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. He describes the temple in detail: the roof, the pediment, the metopes, the grand statue of Zeus by Phidias, the votive offerings, and the altars. He then walks to the workshop of Phidias, the Temple of Hera, and the Philippeon, built by Philip II and finished under Alexander III. At the Philippeon, he actually witnessed the statues of both Macedonian kings together with those of Amyntas and Eurydike, Philip’s parents, and of Olympias, his wife – all executed by Leochares in ivory and gold.

He spends time and effort to describe the unbelievably great number of Zeus statues all over Olympia, including one representing Alexander the Great as Zeus! Then follows a description of the statues erected for the winners at the Olympic Games. In between, he stops at a statue of Anaximenes, who not only wrote a history of the Greeks but also that of Philip II and his son Alexander. It is quite amazing to read that such a large number of these statues were made of bronze, silver, and even electron, and that many of them, besides the famous Zeus, were also chryselephantine sculptures with their hands and faces made of gold or ivory. This is beyond our imagination!

Next, he treats the many Treasury Houses, to end with the renowned Stadium and the adjacent Hippodrome.

Although this book dates from 1971, it contains a very pertinent list of annotations that are still very much up-to-date. To help us in picturing Olympia, there is a clear map locating the city’s main buildings. To complete the story, there is a useful Register of the buildings and memorials, as well as a list of all the Athletes and Artists treated in this book.

The Philippeon at Olympia

After his victory at Chaironeia in 338 BC, King Philip of Macedonia ordered the construction of the Philippeon at Olympia. This temple took the shape of a tholos with 18 slender Ionic columns on the outside and nine half Corinthian ones on the inside. It was enhanced with five statues representing Philip himself, his parents (Eurydice and Amyntas), his wife, Olympias, and his son, Alexander. The architect was Leochares of Athens, who had also been working at the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus – a detail that cannot be lost to the attentive observer. For Philip, only the best was good enough, it seems! This temple stood inside the sacred temenos, an indication that it was dedicated to Zeus in thanks for his recent victory over Athens and Thebes, the ultimate goal to consolidate his power and that of his successors in all Greek cities. Besides, this was the place where the Olympic Games were held every four years, and this Philippeon would stand there for everyone to see!

What strikes me is the round shape of the temple, hence the name tholos, of course. You don’t find too many of those, and I’m wondering how far Philip’s idea is related to the Tholos of Delphi, dedicated to the goddess Athena, which he must have seen since it was built somewhere between 380 and 360 BC. From what I understand, Philip liked the pomp and splendor and didn’t mind spending his money lavishly to achieve such purposes. Building a Tholos in the very center of the sacred area of Olympia was something that couldn’t be overlooked, neither by his friends nor by his enemies. 

The Philippeon must have been quite something! There are rumors that the statues were made of ivory covered with gold leaf, but detailed research has revealed that this could not have been the case, so they must have been carved in heavy gilded stone. So far, Worthington’s remarks (Philip II of Macedonia).

Olympias’ presence here, however, has been a source for many discussions (women didn’t fit into the Greeks’ concept) despite her being the spouse of Philip and the mother of Alexander, the future heir to the throne. Ian Worthington reminds us here of the five small ivory heads that were found in the Vergina Tomb, thought to belong to King Philip, representing Philip, Alexander, Olympias, and two unknown portraits, that of a man and a woman, who might well be Eurydice and Amyntas. In this context, it is not so strange to see Olympias here after all. 

This temple was not finished yet at the time of Philip’s murder, and some skeptics claim that when Alexander completed this construction, he added the statue of his mother, Olympias. But then, archaeological investigations have clearly proven that the five pedestals were cut and placed at the same time. This means that Olympias was indeed included in Philip’s original plans. Olympias’ presence here at a time when Philip was planning his wedding with Eurydice, his seventh bride, does raise some questions, though. Why would he show a preference for Olympias among all his wives, were it not to show her as the mother of the pretender to the throne, Alexander? We must make an effort to look at this through the eyes of Philip’s days, when any form of recognition for a woman was unheard of. Philip, as we know, had no sympathy left for Olympias, certainly not at this time of his career, and he certainly couldn’t afford to push Olympias to the foreground when he just managed to unite Greece under his wings – he couldn’t risk losing face, could he? My own assumption is that Olympias was represented here just like Mausolos on top of his famous Mausoleum in Halicarnassus with his wife beside him. Leochares, previously working there, may add credibility to this theory. It’s logical, isn’t it? 

Another remarkable fact is that here at the Philippeon of Olympia, the city of the Temple of Zeus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, Alexander is, beyond doubt, being presented as Philip’s legitimate heir, while there were and still are so many theories against Alexander being the successor of his father when he was murdered. Why are there so many discussions contesting Alexander’s evident succession to the throne of Macedonia? Should we ignore this proof at Olympia and take it as a trivial detail of no importance? The shortsighted critics and writers keep surprising me time and again whenever they have the need to push their own vision and theory forward! There is no proof for any of this. We can only speculate – that’s all. 

Well, so much for Philip II and Alexander III of Macedonia …

An introduction to Caria, Turkey

It is quite amazing to realize how little we know about the ancient regions of Turkey. In Greece, we are quite familiar with Attica and Macedonia, for instance, but in Turkey, that knowledge is still very remote. Ask any of the millions of tourists who flock to Antalya each year and close to none will be able to tell you that they actually are in ancient Pamphylia.

Well, I have been among those ignorant travelers for years, I must admit, as it is only since I intensively followed the trail of Alexander the Great after crossing the Hellespont (modern Dardanelles) that I became aware of the distinctive areas. They slowly fell into place: the Phrygians with their typical hats, the Lydians with King Croesus, and mostly Ionia with cities like Ephesus, Priene, and Miletus. So my puddle of awareness slowly grew as I marched alongside Alexander the Great to the East.

This time, I find myself in ancient Caria, where Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum) once shone with its famous Mausoleum, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. However, unlike the situation in our modern times, clear borderlines generally did not exist, and the limits of these more or less independent regions were rather vague. At times, a river or a mountain range may have defined the limit, but otherwise, many border towns were often alternatively ruled by the strongest ruler on either side.

In any case, although I had visited several inland cities in southwestern Turkey that belonged to Caria, I still had no clear image. Caria remained an abstract region. Strange, to say the least.

It is generally accepted that Caria covered the area from the Meander River in the North to today’s Lake Köyceğiz above Caunos in the South. The Carians, curiously enough, do not fit in with their neighbors in any way, neither culturally nor linguistically. There are many theories about their origin, but as they say themselves, they have always lived on the mainland and have always been called Carians. Homer in his Iliad mentions that they were “barbarous of speech” and it seems that even today’s Turkish in that region is labeled as being “harsh”. They were excellent seafarers, though serving in many foreign armies, and were, for instance, highly prized (and probably well paid) by the Egyptians. It is said that it was the Carians who taught the Greeks to put crests on their helmets and showed them how to affix handles on their shields, which, till then, were simply slung over the soldier’s shoulder.

Caria’s greatest ruler certainly was Mausolus, who lent his name to the word “mausoleum” after the tomb he built for himself. This is definitely a “must-see” for every visitor, yet what is left is a very disappointing sight, I would say. The ancient Mausoleum stood in the very heart of the city, but today’s site looks more like a bomb crater amidst the low houses. I thoroughly admire the efforts of historians and archaeologists to bring these unique remains back to life, but it is asking a great deal of our imagination to picture this once so grandiose building on this spot. What is left here are only crumbs. For twenty centuries, the Mausoleum withstood many wars and natural disasters, but the repeated earthquakes turned out to be fatal, and when the Knights of Rhodes arrived here in 1402, they found ready building material for the construction of their fortified castle, the very one that we call St John’s Fort in the middle of the harbor. The story goes that the Knights still found an untouched coffin in the base of the Mausoleum, but postponed opening it till the next day. Yet the next day, the tomb had been plundered. It is said that both Mausolus and his wife Artemisia were cremated, meaning that there could only have been an urn with their cremated remains, but that is something we will never know for sure. The Knights were kind enough to save some of the friezes that were lying around and used them to decorate the walls of said castle. This is where the British archaeologist, Charles Newton, found them in the mid-19th century to recover them and ship them to the British Museum, together with part of a wheel (two meters in diameter) from the quadriga on top of the Mausoleum and the statues of King Mausolus and Queen Artemisia. In a later shipment, he loaded the blocks of marble and green stones that were to be transhipped in Malta. This load, however, never left the Maltese docks because the stones were considered of less importance and amazingly enough, they were used in the construction of the city’s new docks in the 19th century (see Remains of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus in Malta?).

Despite all the efforts made in recent decades, we are still not entirely sure what the Mausoleum really looked like. Although we have detailed descriptions from witnesses like Pliny and Vitruvius, they don’t give a good overall view, yet plenty of facts and figures to go by. The fact is that the most talented artists of that time were called upon. Skopas, Leochares (the same architect who built the famous Philippeon in Olympia for Alexander’s father!), Bryaxis, and Timotheus were appointed to decorate one side of the Mausoleum each, assisted of course by hundreds of craftsmen of all kinds. The Mausoleum is said to have been 148 feet high, resting on a square base with a stairway leading to the first platform. The outer wall of that platform was decorated with statues of gods and goddesses, while on each corner, a warrior on horseback was guarding the tomb. On top of this platform stood an imposing square mass which was girded with a band of reliefs representing the battle of centaurs and Amazons with Greek soldiers. This section was then crowned by 36 columns, alternated with more statues, behind which a massive block supported the pyramidal roof, where the quadriga with Mausolus and Artemisia was placed. During my last visit, it suddenly dawned on me that this Mausoleum has, in fact, close ties with the Pyramids in Egypt, as in both cases the actual tomb is hidden deep inside a massive stone construction.

Except for a few dozen lost blocks and column drums, nothing significant is left on the spot to see, with one single frieze that found shelter in the small museum next to the very ruins. For those who are really interested, it is worthwhile to take a closer look at St John’s Castle itself to locate the recuperated stones and column drums from the ancient Mausoleum in its walls. Finally, I would highly recommend a visit to the British Museum in London, to admire the magnificent statues of Mausolus and Artemisia, the horse head with its iron bit still in place, the lions that once watched over the lower staircase, and, of course, the many friezes created by the four great artists, were it only to make the (mental) picture complete.

Click on the Label Caria 2012 to read the full story

The latest news about the Palace of Aegae

In recent years the Palace of Philip II in Aegae has been off-limits to visitors because of new archaeological digs on the site of what is now called Vergina in northern Greece. Intensive restoration works have lead to document new facts about the lay-out of this palace.

According to the latest news, construction of the palace was started by Philip II of Macedon in 350 BC and works were completed only in 336 BC, the year of his cruel murder. The research has revealed important information about ancient Macedonian architecture, especially since the palace was built without interruption and thus in a very consistent style.

Most revealing is the two-storied front section of the building as archaeologists until now believed that such galleries appeared only in the 2nd century BC. More importantly even is the general acceptance that Pytheos was the palace’s architect, i.e. the same one who built the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. Aegae seems to share the same sculptor Leochares, also.

I simply can’t wait till this area will open to the public again to have a closer and different look at all these details!