Alexander the Great's Flying Machine: an Iconographic

doi: 10.2143/AWE.14.0.3108199 AWE 14 (2015) 313-322

ALEXANDER THE GREAT’S FLYING MACHINE: AN ICONOGRAPHIC STUDY

JOHN BOARDMAN

Abstract The iconography for Alexander’s flying machine, as described in the Alexander Romance, spread throughout Christian Europe. The notion and the elements of the iconography can, however, be traced in early Mesopotamia, Syria/Palestine, Roman and notably Sasanian art. Oxford’s Alfred Jewel may also be a candidate.

In common with many leaders of men, emperors or generals, Alexander the Great attracted a number of stories about his life and works which are purely fictional, many of them wholly fantastic. In the case of Alexander it was a matter of extending his life and exploits beyond the completion of his Eastern expedition, in which he destroyed the Persian empire and stood at the gates of India, and his death in Babylon shortly thereafter, in 323 BC. He had wanted to go on east but his troops had had more than enough of marching and fighting, and he had to turn back. However, imaginative authors gave him an extension of life and experiences in the East, in the course of which he was able to visit its many imaginary crea- tures (for example skiapods – men with one large foot which they used to shade their heads – a notion inspired by yoga positions), giant birds that could lift a camel (a golden eagle can lift a calf), and other oriental wonders, which continued to be the source for stories popular from antiquity (Ctesias in the 5th century BC)1 through the Middle Ages in Europe and the East – the world of Sir John de Mandeville, Sindbad the Sailor, Marco Polo and others. The stories probably began soon after Alexander’s death, but only in centuries AD did they certainly receive any literary form, and then they proliferate and vary considerably in detail. The first Greek version seems to be of the 3rd century AD and is ascribed to a Ps.-Callisthenes, borrowing the name of a historian at Alexander’s court. There were many translations and other versions, in Armenian, Greek, etc. In recent years they have been the subject of several important books by Richard Stoneman.2 The story which is the subject of this essay also enjoyed an extensive iconography in the Middle Ages in all of Europe, includ- ing Britain. It is one that tells of Alexander’s flight, which he undertook with the object of viewing the whole world from a great height. Its companion story is of his descent in a diving bell to view the floors of the ocean. The iconography of the flight has been carefully studied in a book by Victor Schmidt.3 This essay is devoted to an attempt to unravel earlier

1 Nichols 2011. 2 Notably Stoneman 1991; 1994. 3 Schmidt 1995.

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iconographic conventions which may have contributed to its later form in European medi- aeval art. The essence of the story is that Alexander provided himself with a basket or seat to which were attached two large birds. These were persuaded to carry him upwards by pieces of meat held by Alexander on sticks over their heads, always just out of reach. In the iconography other winged creatures could be so employed, notably griffins – the lion/eagle monsters with very early Eastern associations in literature and art, and enthusiastically adapted and adopted by the classical world. Alexander is generally placed on a throne or stool rather than in a basket or cage. A good and typical mediaeval example is the group which appears on a floor mosaic in the 12th-century Cattedrale dell’Annunziata at Otranto, where Alexander is named, is seated on a stool, and the creatures are griffins (Fig. 1).4 Another, an 11th-century relief on St. Mark’s in Venice (Fig. 2), has him in a chariot, which is closer to the ‘Byzantine’ tradition for the subject, and will seem equally relevant to the story of the evolution of its iconography.5 The assumption has been that the story and the iconography are altogether late inven- tions. This is most probably true, but I suspect that elements in both may derive from older traditions in Mesopotamia, Persia and Phoenicia, where nothing like the Alexander story is involved, but where there are precedents for many details and compositions – notably, the image of a deity feeding creatures set at either side of him/her, the use of thrones whose sides are in the form of winged creatures or monsters, and the desirability of lifting a king or deity to the heavens. The notion that a ruler or god might fly, with or without animal aid, was commonplace in antiquity. Thus, at Nineveh in the 7th century BC, Eteanna could be lifted to heaven by an eagle to view the world and Ocean, a story later also attributed to the earlier king/hero Gilgamesh. In Greek art and myth we have the story of Zeus’ eagle carrying off Ganymede for his master, a subject and scheme later borrowed in Indian art with the Garuda eagle. We start with the feeding. As early as the 4th millennium BC an Uruk cylinder seal shows a god holding two long flowering branches on which two bulls feed (Fig. 3).6 A 15th- century BC Middle Assyrian relief from Assur shows a mountain deity (to judge from the patterning of his headdress) holding two short branches with foliage and fruit to either side, with small goats climbing on them and feeding (Fig. 4).7 The posture with the branches set obliquely is that commonly adopted for holding sceptres both in the Near East and Egypt, often with the forearms crossed. The overall scheme is obviously that commonly adopted for the ‘Master…’ or ‘Mistress of Animals’, of many periods and sources, where the pose demonstrates the deity’s command over the wild creatures or monsters which stand at either side, on leads or held by the deity. Later, towards the end of the Bronze Age, there is an ivory relief, sometimes regarded as Mycenaean, from the port of Ugarit at Minet-el Beida (Syria), where a goddess standing on a mountain holds fronds which are being nibbled by rampant attendant goats (Fig. 5).8

4 Schmidt 1995, 175, fig.1. 5 Schmidt 1995, 177, fig. 13; and 18–19 for the ‘Byzantine tradition’ of the griffin chariot. 6 Wicke 2013, 20–21, figs. 10–12. 7 Orthmann 1975, pl. 194. 8 Harden 1963, pl. 60.

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Fig. 1: Otranto, Cathedral, painted wall. Fig. 2: St Mark’s, Venice, relief.

Fig. 3: Cylinder seal, Fig. 4: Relief from Assur. Berlin, Vorderasiatische Museum. Berlin, Vorderasiatische Museum.

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Fig. 5: Ivory relief Fig. 6: Relief from Khorsabad, from Minet el-Beida. London, British Museum.

For analogies to the winged creatures at either side of Alexander’s seat we may look for thrones whose arms and sides are fashioned as animals. Lion-paw feet for furniture had a long history in the Near East, animal-heads are obvious decoration for the ends of throne arms, and the sweep of wings can readily fit the combination of arm and throne-back. Mesopotamia seldom places a whole creature here – a Khorsabad relief in the British Museum has a horse below the armrest (Fig. 6). In Egypt it is commonly just the lion or sphinx head and sometimes a leg, seldom the whole body. A wooden fragment in London, probably from Egypt, has just the head and leg.9 Whole winged creatures appear relatively late, especially in the Phoenician sphere (West as well as East), and are commonly sphinxes flanking the throne of a deity, male or female. There are several stone and ivory reliefs and numerous scarab intaglios with such thrones, and these take us down to the 5th/4th centu- ries BC. Examples are on the Ahiram sarcophagus of the 10th century BC,10 an ivory from Megiddo (Fig. 7), and, much later, a typical 5th-century scarab scene on Fig. 8.11 In the Greek world the scheme is less familiar, but winged beasts commonly draw divine chariots. Medea’s chariot is drawn by winged snakes, and in Etruria, shown frontally on a 3rd-century BC urn, the group is very evocative of flight.12

9 Curtis 2000, fig. 66. 10 Harden 1963, pl. 15; from Byblos, in Beirut; cf. pl. 41, for Baal, in Tunis Museum. 11 Boardman 2003, notably examples on pls. 16, 17, 54, 55, and see p. 62. On seats with zoo- morphic side-members, see Gubel 1987, 37–84. 12 In the Vatican: ThesCRA VIII, pl. 63, Cat. 3; LIMC VI, Medeia no. 41.

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Fig. 7: Ivory from Megiddo. Jerusalem, Rockefeller Museum.

All these elements could combine to produce an image of a deity being lifted by winged creatures attached to his seat and being fed to induce flight, but for specific examples which represent an Alexander in such a position we have to wait for Dark Age Europe. An inter- mediary can, I think, be found, partly in the arts of the later Classical period in the Mediter- ranean world, but especially in the arts of Sasanian Persia which had some influence on early Byzantine art, closer to the period of the appearance of Alexander’s flight in Europe. Chariot groups showing a god, commonly Dionysos/Bacchus, or a king-emperor, are often shown frontally. The motive power is usually equine, but for deities may be leonine. In a frontal view, especially when set in a roundel, the creatures are often shown frontal at either side, or in profile seeming to climb up the borders of the scene. The type is widely copied and appears even in India, where the sun god Surya may be shown thus, appropri- ately elevated. A shorthand for a frontal chariot is often simply the chariot and rider flanked by the horses. Such scenes are a commonplace in the early Roman world, and especially in Egypt. Thus, for a Dionysos chariot powered by centaurs on a Coptic textile (Fig. 9),13 we see the most basic scheme. Sasanian Persia (3rd century AD and later) offers the best examples of more explicit scenes on gilt silver dishes (Appendix I). Here we see the Moon God being drawn up into the heavens by zebus, often winged. The god is shown in a shrine rather than a chariot car, and a ‘king’ may appear also. The associations may be more Manichaean than royal Sasan- ian. The beasts climb upwards beside the god, along the sides of the usually circular field (Fig. 10).14 A Sasanian seal in Berlin offers the most abbreviated version for a solar or lunar god in a flying chariot (Fig. 11).15 To these scenes of heavenly elevation we can, I feel certain, add representations of Sasan- ian kings, also on the gilt silver dishes (Appendix II).16 They are commonly shown seated frontally on a bench rather than a throne. At either side the bench is supported by winged

13 Bonhams, London, 28 April 2010, lot 348. Boardman 2014, fig. 28. 14 Appendix I, no. 4. 15 Ettinghausen 1972, pl. 15.52. 16 Also on a painting at Bukhtar-I Noshirwan, with horses.

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Fig. 8: Scarab seal, Kassel, Antikenmuseum. Fig. 9: Coptic textile, Market.

Fig. 10: Sasanian plate, Fig. 11: Sasanian seal, Market. Berlin, Vorderasiatische Museum.

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Fig. 12: Sasanian plate, London, British Museum.

creatures or lions, shown frontally or facing the sides. On some examples we see winged horses, once with their forelegs raised from the ground, others have birds. On a dish in London griffins have lifted their forelegs as if to rise (Fig. 12). Scholars have been divided in their opinions whether this signifies elevation of the king. Prudence Harper has consid- ered Sasanian kings’ ascensions, and is uncertain.17 However, Ettinghausen remarks of the winged protomes on thrones ‘the motif must have also implied ascension and apotheosis’.18 In the circumstances I think it very likely that Sasanian royalty were deemed able to fly, like their Moon God, and this gives a precedent for the creation of scenes where the winged creatures are attached to a throne or other receptacle (cage or basket) to lift an Alexander to the heavens. The only novelty is the motivation for their ascension – food. Specific Sasanian views about Alexander are not apparent in the literature, so far as I know, but they are very clear among their successors in Islamic Persia where Alexander (Iskander) is often repre- sented in his campaigns, and being elevated to the heavens by various winged creatures, or visiting the depths of the seas in a diving bell.19 The scenes appear even in Mughal Indian art. In Persian legend the mythical emperor Kai Ka’us flew thus to China.

17 Harper 1979, 18 Ettinghausen 1972, 14. 19 For this see Stoneman et al. 2012.

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Fig. 13: The Alfred Jewel, Fig. 14: The Fuller Brooch, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum. London, British Museum.

Sasanians and Romans of the Eastern empire were regularly at loggerheads, but there had been various routes for the transmission of Western stories and iconography to the East since Alexander, as well as a Greek presence in varying degrees. Palmyra and Alexandria helped to keep informal routes East–West open for many years. A text of one version of the ‘Alex- ander Romance’ may have been established by around the 3rd century AD and, at a place like Alexandria, ‘the Asiatic capital of Europe’ (in the words of Lawrence Durrell), it is not difficult to imagine artists ready to draw on traditions East and West to establish an iconog- raphy for parts of the story, given the availability of the various traditions which could contribute to its composition. Thence it might easily be transmitted via the Eastern Roman Empire into the iconographic tradition of Christian Europe. The Sasanian associations of the iconography had been mooted by the distinguished mediaevalist David Talbot Rice,20 à propos of the gold and crystal ‘Alfred Jewel’ in the Ash- molean Museum, Oxford (Fig. 13). He had also remarked on the possible relevance of Sasanian images and noted the ‘Sasanian’ costume (cap and tunic) of one of the European examples. On the Oxford jewel we see just the bust of a figure holding the two flowering branches. The object has been thought to be an aestel: provided with a point it would have been used to assist readers of manuscripts, following the words and lines, in which case it decidedly would have to do with Sight. A slightly later jewel, the Fuller Brooch in London (Fig. 14), has the bust of a figure holding two floral stalks and is more obviously identified as Sight, being surrounded by personifications of four other senses.21 That these derive from the iconography of an Alexander seeking to see the whole world seems highly plausible,

20 Talbot Rice 1956. 21 The Fuller brooch was also for a while in the Ashmolean Museum, but judged a forgery.

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although Talbot Rice’s suggestion has been steadfastly ignored by Ashmolean authors,22 and both the identification of an aestel and the identity of the ‘Alfred’ have been called into question.23 The jewels may be the earliest allusions to the figure in mediaeval Europe.

APPENDIX I Sasanian plate showing the Moon God ascending. 1. St Petersburg S43, from Klimova, Perm region. Harper 1979, pl. 1; 1981, pl. 35; Splendeurs 1993, no. 66. Zebus and putti. 2. Boston, Museum of Fine Art. Frye 1962, pl. 85. Winged zebus, two grooms and a bear. 4. Market. Bonhams, London, 25 April 2012, lot 177. Winged zebus and putti. Here, Fig. 10.

APPENDIX II Sasanian plate with the king seated on a bench supported by winged animals. 1. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale 379. Winged horses. Ettinghausen 1972, fig. 50; Harper 1979, pl. 3; 1981, pl. 33. 2. London, British Museum 124093. Griffins, forelegs raised. Dalton 1964, pl. 38. Harper 1979, pl. 8 (taken for Islamic in date); 1981, pl. 109; Splendeurs 1993, no. 62. Here, Fig. 12. 3. Baltimore, Walters Art Museum 57.625 (bowl). Birds. Harper 1979, pl. 5; 1981 pl. 36. 4. St Petersburg. Winged horses. Harper 1981, pl. 19. 5. St Petersburg S250. Winged horses. Harper 1979, pl. 2; 1981, pl. 20; Ettinghausen 1972, fig. 49; Porada 1965, 217, fig. 118.

Bibliography

Bakka, E. 1966: ‘The Alfred Jewel and Sight’. The Antiquaries Journal 46, 277–82. Boardman, J. 2003: Classical Phoenician Scarabs: A Catalogue and Study (Oxford). —. 2014: The Triumph of Dionysos: Convivial Processions, from Antiquity to the Present Day (Oxford). Curtis, J. 2000: Ancient Persia (London). Dalton, O.M. 1964: The Treasure of the Oxus, with other Examples of Early Oriental Metal-work, 3rd ed. (London). Ettinghausen, R. 1972: From Byzantium to Sasanian Iran and the Islamic World (Leiden). Frye, R.N. 1962: The Heritage of Persia (London). Gubel, E. 1987: Phoenician Furniture: A Typology Based on Iron Age Representations with Reference to the Iconographical Context (Louvain). Harden, D.B. 1963: The Phoenicians (London).

22 For example, Hinton 2008, 21, 63 for the Fuller Brooch. Another early Alexander (10th century) with arms crossed appears on a church at Khakhuli in Georgia, at the other end of Christendom. 23 Hinton 2008, 18–20, 25–29; Bakka 1966. Alfred ‘the Great’ is late 9th-century.

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Harper, P.O. 1979: ‘Thrones and Enthronement Scenes in Sasanian Art’. Iran 17, 49–64. —. 1981: Silver Vessels of the Sasanian Period I: Imagery (New York). Hinton, D.A. 2008: The Alfred Jewel, and other Late Anglo-Saxon Decorated Metalwork (Oxford). Nichols, A. 2011: Ctesias on India, and Fragments of His Minor Works (London). Orthmann, W. 1975: Der alte Orient (Berlin). Porada, E. 1965: Ancient Iran: The Art of pre-Islamic Times (London). Schmidt, V.M. 1995: A Legend and its Image: The Aerial Flight of Alexander the Great in Medieval Art (Groningen). Splendeurs 1993: Splendeurs des Sassanides (Brussels). Stoneman, R. 1991: The Greek Alexander Romance (Harmondsworth). —. 1994: Legends of Alexander the Great (London). Stoneman, R., Erickson, K. and Netton, I. (eds.) 2012: The Alexander Romance in Persia and the East (Groningen). Talbot Rice, D. 1956: ‘New Light on the Alfred Jewel’. The Antiquaries Journal 36, 214–17. Wicke, D. 2013: ‘Uruk; a major exhibition in Berlin’. Minerva May/June, 18–21.

Beazley Archive Classics Centre 66 St Giles Oxford OX1 3LU UK [email protected]

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