Misunderstood Gestures: Iconatrophy and the Reception of Greek Sculpture in the Roman Imperial Period Author(s): Catherine M. Keesling Reviewed work(s): Source: Classical Antiquity, Vol. 24, No. 1 (April 2005), pp. 41-79 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/ca.2005.24.1.41 . Accessed: 21/02/2012 12:13 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Classical Antiquity. http://www.jstor.org CATHERINE M. KEESLING Misunderstood Gestures: Iconatrophy and the Reception of Greek Sculpture in the Roman Imperial Period Anthropologists have deWned iconatrophy as a process by which oral traditions originate as explanations for objects that, through the passage of time, have ceased to make sense to their viewers. One form of iconatrophy involves the misinterpretation of statues’ identities, iconography, or locations. Stories that ultimately derive from such misunderstandings of statues are Monument-Novellen, a term coined by Herodotean studies. Applying the concept of iconatrophy to Greek sculpture of the Archaic and Classical periods yields three possible examples in which statues standing in Greek sanctuaries may have inspired stories cited by authors of the Roman imperial period as explanations for the statues’ identities, attributes, poses, or locations.