Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Jochen1, post: 3406670, member: 103829&quot;]<b>Excursion: &#039;The Mourning Penelope&#039; - An Addentum to &#039;Tyche&#039;</b></p><p><br /></p><p>Recently (actually some years before!) I have found in a book of my schoolfellow Volker Sinn, Einführung in die klassische Archäologie, an interesting consideration about the depiction of the seated City Tyche, which I want to share.</p><p><br /></p><p>In AD 1930 during excavations in Persepolis the Greek marble statue of a seated woman with crossed legs was found, supporting her head with the hand. It is only a seated torso but because of style examinations it is certain that the statue was created around 440-430 BC and comes from a studio on the Aegean Islands or the west-coast of Asia Minor. The depiction is known already from depictions of Penelope and Electra from c.470 BC. Today we know 7 copies in bronze and marble from the Roman Imperial Time. But this seems to be the original statue, at least one of them. It is known under the name &#039;Mourning Penelope&#039;.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]904675[/ATTACH]</p><p>This statue was found in the so-called Treasury of Dareios under a layer of debris with a height of some meters and was destroyed 330 BC. And that is remarkable! For usually the Greek have took back to Greece all works which were displaced by the Persians. That was true e.g. for the statue of the &#039;Tyrannocide&#039; or the &#039;Apollo Philesios&#039; of Didyme. And that was true for all Persian booty. But not for our &#039;Mourning Penelope&#039;! The conclusion must be that the &#039;Mourning Penelope&#039; can&#039;t be booty!</p><p><br /></p><p>And that leads us to the relation of the Greeks on the Aegean Islands and the west-coast of Asia minor to the Persians. The hostility of the Greeks against the Persians which we know from literary sources is the view of the continental Greeks especially the Athenians. In Asia minor it was very different. Here we had pro-Persian tendencies especially since under the Attic-Delic Sea League the obligatory dues increased and often the independence was lost. So it is understandable that many Greek cities - of course out of opportunity too - turned toward the Persians.</p><p><br /></p><p>What is the symbolic meaning of Elektra and Penelope in Greek mythology? Penelope as widow according to the ethical conceptions of the nobility society of the early Greek was obligated to remarriage. For 10 years she was exposed to the impudent bedgerings of the suitors who had spread in her palace. Only the hope for the return of Odysseus had make bearable this debasement. By her unbending morale she finally gained the victory over her tormentors. Elektra, daughter of king Agamemnon of Mykene and his wife Klytaimnestra was exposed to most evil humiliations after the murder of Agamamnon by Klytaimnestra and Aigisthos which she had to suffer many years hoping for the return of her brother Orestes and the future revenge. Only then her fate turned to good and by Pylades she returned to deserved emotional security. So we have 2 parallel fortunes which were regarded by the Greeks as symbols of unbended bearing against temptations and hostility. Elektra stands for sense of family, Penelope for loyalty and married love (Sinn). We can understand why their depictions are so similar.</p><p><br /></p><p>But their meaning can well be meant poltically! First the Thebans used the figure of the invincible mythological woman for their city. Then this motiv became the iconography of the City Goddess (Tyche) of several Greek cities. The most famous was the so-called Tyche of Antiocheia. It is imaginable that this image motif was used by Greek cities of Asia minor to symbolize their resistance against subordination under a foreign power. And this was for these cities Athens and the Attic-Delic Sea League! So it is well possible that a statue with the symbolism of Penelope was sent to Persepolis to emphasize a petition for Persian support against Athens. And then we understand why this statue was destroyed by the Greek troops of Alexander the Great in 330 BC. There was no hope for mercy!</p><p><br /></p><p>I have added 2 pics:</p><p>[1] Statue of the &#039;Mourning Penelope&#039; from the Iran National Museum in Teheran. This is the statue found in 1930 in Persepolis. See above. The pic itself is from livius.org</p><p>[2] &#039;Mourning Penelope&#039;. Roman copy from the Bodemuseum in Berlin. Pic from</p><p>commons.wikimedia.org. We see the obvious similarity to the type of the seated Tyche.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]904678[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sources:</b></p><p>[1] Volker Sinn, Einführung in die Klassische Archäologie, Beck 2000</p><p>[2] <a href="http://www.livius.org/pen-pg/persepolis/persepolis_treasury.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.livius.org/pen-pg/persepolis/persepolis_treasury.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.livius.org/pen-pg/persepolis/persepolis_treasury.html</a></p><p>[3] <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sonnenschein_Trauernde_Penelope.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sonnenschein_Trauernde_Penelope.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sonnenschein_Trauernde_Penelope.jpg</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Best regards[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in