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UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Writing Gems: Ekphrastic Description and Precious Stones in Hellenistic Epigrams and Later Greek Prose Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8394c37k Author Rush, Emily Michelle Publication Date 2012 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Writing Gems: Ekphrastic Description and Precious Stones in Hellenistic Epigrams and Later Greek Prose A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Classics by Emily Michelle Rush 2012 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Writing Gems: Ekphrastic Description and Precious Stones in Hellenistic Epigrams and Later Greek Prose by Emily Michelle Rush Doctor of Philosophy in Classics University of California, Los Angeles, 2012 Professor John Papadopoulos, Co-Chair Professor Mario Telò, Co-Chair This study investigates how inscribed gems and precious stones serve as a particularly useful model for discussing a variety of concerns of the Hellenistic world. These widely circulated objects, typically made from valuable materials and ranging in type from uncarved gems to decorative cameos and seal stones, were anything but inert objects. Rather, as I argue, precious stones were not only treasured for their economic value, but were also charged with social, political, and cultural signifi cance. Such stones functioned as more than ornamentation, frequently serving as markers of personal authority and social identity, thus possessing signifi cant semiotic power despite their typically small size. Due to their highly symbolic and multifaceted nature, gemstones seem to have deeply engraved themselves upon the literary imagination of a number of ii writers of Greek poetry and prose from the third century B.C.E. to the third century C.E. who wrote detailed descriptions of such stones. Although the art of gem carving had been well established by the Hellenistic period, literary treatment of precious stones is rather limited up to that point. It is only after the eastward expansion of Alexander the Great and an infl ux of new materials and gems types, that a select number of Greek epigrammatists began to engage with the themes of the production of gemstones and their materials in response to an increasingly available category of luxury goods and perhaps also as a self-conscious nod to the genre’s own lithic origins. Through their ekphrastic descriptions of gemstones, therefore, Hellenistic epigrammatists initiated a literary discourse on precious stones, whose infl uence would extend not only across temporal, spatial, and generic boundaries, but well beyond the classical world. In the fi rst half of my dissertation, I probe the metapoetic signifi cance of the relationship between ekphrastic epigrams and Greco-Roman gemstones by focusing on the production and materials of gemstones. My second chapter argues that a close link exists between the poems and the objects described and concludes that the minute attention to detail displayed by the glyptic artist becomes simultaneously a source of delight and wonder as well as a metapoetic device for the exacting art of ekphrastic poetry. In the third chapter, I discuss the manner in which later Greek authors, much like glyptic artists, drew upon technological and intellectual knowledge of precious stones, their properties and symbolic values in order to explore issues of adaptation, authority and originality in literary texts. I contend that engraved seal stones and their impressions can be seen as a metaphor for later prose adaptations of the poetic discourse and conclude that such imitations ought not to be viewed as imprecise copies of an original, but rather as adaptations whose mimetic qualities allow for creative originality. In the second half of my dissertation, I analyze the social and literary implications of iii the ekphrastic description of gems. The fourth chapter treats one of the most pervasive forms of magic in antiquity: magic stones and amulets. I show how the literary descriptions of magical stones are noteworthy, not only for their representations of the magical stones themselves, but also for the way in which they imitate magical practices through the careful combination of the written with the visual. The fi fth chapter explores the social reception of gems and their ability to illuminate ancient ideas about gender. Although precious stones were used by both men and women, their use was largely divided along gender lines. Both sexes utilized precious stones, however, in their literary treatment during the Hellenistic and Imperial periods gems are predominately associated with women. By means of a detailed study of the gendered treatment of gems in ekphrastic texts, I argue that women become assimilated with precious stones and on account of the gendered conceptualization of stones in literary texts, women become eroticized, objectifi ed and commodifi ed in a manner similar to gemstones by means of this association. The fi nal chapter traces Greek authors’ utilization of precious stones as a means of treating identity and character and suggests that gems become metonymic representations. In these instances, visual impact becomes not an end goal for ekphrasis, but rather a means for exploring the didactic nature of stones’ properties and of the images graven upon them. Through the examination of portraits carved on gemstones, a connection may be forged between an ekphrastic character sketch and the representation of types found on inscribed gemstones. iv The dissertation of Emily Michelle Rush is approved. David Blank James I. Porter John K. Papadopoulos, Committee Co-Chair Mario Telò, Committee Co-Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2012 v DEDICATION To My Parents vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ii DEDICATION vi LIST OF IMAGES ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi VITA xii Chapter 1: An Introduction to Gems and Precious Stones in Greek Culture and Literary Thought 1 1.1 Greco-Roman Gemstones 3 1.2 Precious Stones in Literature and Ekphrastic Description 5 1.3 Prior Scholarship 8 1.4 Medium, Value, and Meaning of Precious Stones 12 1.5 Scope and Plan of the Study 22 Chapter 2: Artistic Strategies in Posidippus’ Lithika 26 2.1 Faceting a Connection Between Ekphrasis and Epigram 28 2.2 Precious Stones and Artistic Production 41 2.3 Glyptics and the Lithika 57 2.4 Conclusion 60 Chapter 3: Fictive Spaces: Ekphrastic Landscapes in Hellenistic Epigram and the Novel 61 3.1 The Representational and Replicative Functions of Engraved Seal Stones 63 3.2 “Making an Impression”: The Shield of Achilles and Myron’s Cow 75 3.2A The Shield of Achilles 75 3.2B Myron’s Cow 78 3.3 Art and Illusion in Glyptic Landscapes 82 3.4 Additional Ekphrastic Epigrams 86 3.5 Heliodorus’ Amethyst 88 3.6 Conclusion 96 vii Chapter 4: Magical Gems 97 4.1 Magic Gemstones and Amulets 100 4.2 The Magnesian Stone as Exemplum of Marvel, Magic, and Anthropomorphic Agency 109 4.3 The Verbal and Visual Powers of Magic and its Ekphrastic Treatment 119 4.4 Conclusion 137 Chapter 5: Gender, Identity, and Characterization 138 5.1 Precious Stones and Seals as Markers of Identity 142 5.2 The Gendered Use and Conception of Gems in Antiquity 149 5.3 Gender and Description of Gems 151 5.4 Gender and Ekphrastic Description in Heliodorus 159 5.5 Portraiture and Characterization on Engraved Stones 163 5.6 Conclusion 171 Chapter 6: Conclusion 172 Bibliography 176 viii LIST OF IMAGES Figure 1.1 Carnelian depicting a landscape scene. First century C.E. St. Petersburg: Hermitage Museum. Figure 2.1 Onyx bearing the Greek inscription “remember.” Third century C.E. London: British Museum. Figure 2.2 Woman seated on a rock while writing. Classical. Collection unknown, photo Beazley Archives. Figure 2.3 Mnemosyne writing on a tablet. Hellenistic. Collection unknown. Figure 2.4 Sard depicting Othryades writing “VICI” on his shield. 1st century B.C.E. Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum. Figure 2.5 Portrait of Berenike II signed by Nikandros. Hellenistic. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery 42.1339 Figure 2.6 Medusa signed by Solon. Hellenistic or Imperial. London: British Museum. Figure 3.1 Agate depicting a fi sherman. 3rd-2nd century B.C.E. or 1st century C.E. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. 41.160.692. Figure 3.2 Carnelian depicting goat and goatherd. Collection unknown, photo Beazley Archives. Figure 3.3 Glass paste imitating a banded agate depicting a lioness attacking a boar. Hellenistic. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Figure 4.1 Engraved jasper depicting a man and woman copulating. Imperial. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Médailles. Figure 4.2 Sard depicting Eros shooting an arrow. 2nd century C.E. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts. Figure 4.3 Engraved green jasper depicting Eros burning the feet of Psyche. Hellenistic or Imperial. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Médailles. ix Figure 5.1 Agate Scarab from Aegina. Late Archaic. Collection unknown, photo Beazley Archives. Figure 5.2 Chalcedony scaraboid. “The Seal of Mikē.” Mid fi fth century B.C.E. Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum. Figure 5.3 Scaraboid. Woman (un)dressing. Classical. Oxford: Ashmolean 1892.1486. Figure 5.4 Scaraboid. Woman reclining. Classical London: British Museum. Figure 5.5 Portrait of Berenike II signed by Nikandros. Hellenistic. Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery 42.1339 Figure 5.6 Engraved gem depicting Galene (or Selene?). Hellenistic. Collection Unknown. x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Over the course of this project, I was supported fi nancially, intellectually, and emotionally by a number of people and institutions. The research for this work was carried out at the University of California Los Angeles and in various museum collections in London, Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, and Berlin. The departments of Classics and Art History at UCLA provided me with fellowships over the course of my research, and without them my dissertation would not have been completed.