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The Bronze Athena at Byzantium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

R. J. H. Jenkins
R. J. H. Jenkins
Affiliation:
King's College, London
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Extract

1. A Bronze statue of Athena, armed, stood in the Forum of Constantine at Constantinople. This fact is witnessed by three well-known passages:

(a) Arethas, bishop of Caesareia (ninth to tenth centuries), commenting on a passage of Aristeides, wrote: ‘I believe this (i.e., the Pheidian χαλκῆ Ἀθηνᾶ of Aristeides, Κατὰ τῶν Ἐξορχουμένων, p. 408) is the one set up in the Forum of Constantine, at the porch of the council-chamber, or senate, as they call it now; facing it, on the right-hand side of the porch as you go in, is Thetis, the ⟨mother⟩ of Achilles, with a crown of crabs. The common folk of to-day call the Athena “Earth” and Thetis “Sea”, being misled by the marine monsters on her head.’ (Cf. Kougeas in Laographia IV, 1913, 240, 241.)

(b) Cedrenus (eleventh to twelfth centuries), after a note on the senate on the north side of the Forum, continues: ‘On the open square of the Forum stand two statues; to the west, that of Athena of Lindus, wearing a helmet and the monstrous Gorgon's head and snakes entwined about her neck (for so the ancients used to represent her image); and to the east, Amphitrite, with crabs' claws on her temples, which was also brought from Rhodes.’ (Cedrenus, ed. Bonn., I, p. 565; cf. Kougeas, loc. cit. sup.)

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 67 , November 1947 , pp. 31 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1947

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References

1 See below, p. 33, note 12.

2 For adoration of statues at Byzantium, see Preger, , Script. Orig. Const., Leipzig, 1907, II, pp. 177, 258Google Scholar.

3 Bulle, , Schöne Mensch3, Munich, 1922Google Scholar, pl. 118.

4 AM LVI, 1931, 59 ff.

5 AM LVII, 1932, 151 ff.

6 Hesperia V, 1936Google Scholar, pls. VII–IX.

7 Op. cit., p. 154, n. 2.

8 Phidias, Frankfurt, 1924, pp. 80 f.Google Scholar

9 Pauly-Wissowa XIX, 1938, p. 1925Google Scholar.

10 Professor Ashmole pointed out this comparison to me; and I am indebted to his kindness for several helpful suggestions besides.

11 Furtwängler, , Masterpieces, tr. Sellers, London, 1895, pp. 27 ffGoogle Scholar. and fig. 6. But see Chamoux, in BCH LXVIII–LXIX (1944–1945) 207 ff.Google Scholar

12 Cedrenus, as we saw above (p. 31), called the statue ‘Lindia’, and hence concluded that it came from Rhodes; but this is quite out of the question, for see Blinkenberg, , L'Image d'Athana Lindia, Copenhagen, 1917, pp. 36 ffGoogle Scholar

13 Loc. cit. See finally the brilliant restoration of Stevens in Hesperia V (1936) 494, 497Google Scholar, which agrees with our miniature in nearly all respects.