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The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens dining in the sanctuary of demeter and kore 1 Hesperia The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens Volume 81 2012 Copyright © The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, originally published in Hesperia 81 (2012), pp. 267–342. This offprint is supplied for personal, non-commercial use only. The definitive electronic version of the article can be found at <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.81.2.0267>. hesperia Tracey Cullen, Editor Editorial Advisory Board Carla M. Antonaccio, Duke University Angelos Chaniotis, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Jack L. Davis, American School of Classical Studies at Athens A. A. Donohue, Bryn Mawr College Jan Driessen, Université Catholique de Louvain Marian H. Feldman, University of California, Berkeley Gloria Ferrari Pinney, Harvard University Sherry C. Fox, American School of Classical Studies at Athens Thomas W. Gallant, University of California, San Diego Sharon E. J. Gerstel, University of California, Los Angeles Guy M. Hedreen, Williams College Carol C. Mattusch, George Mason University Alexander Mazarakis Ainian, University of Thessaly at Volos Lisa C. Nevett, University of Michigan Josiah Ober, Stanford University John K. Papadopoulos, University of California, Los Angeles Jeremy B. Rutter, Dartmouth College A. J. S. Spawforth, Newcastle University Monika Trümper, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Hesperia is published quarterly by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Founded in 1932 to publish the work of the American School, the jour- nal now welcomes submissions from all scholars working in the fields of Greek archaeology, art, epigraphy, history, materials science, ethnography, and literature, from earliest prehistoric times onward. Hesperia is a refereed journal, indexed in Abstracts in Anthropology, L’Année philologique, Art Index, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, Current Contents, IBZ: Internationale Bibliographie der geistes- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Zeitschriften- literatur, Numismatic Literature, Periodicals Contents Index, Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies, and TOCS-IN. The journal is also a member of CrossRef. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens is a research and teaching institution dedicated to the advanced study of the archaeology, art, history, philosophy, language, and literature of Greece and the Greek world. Established in 1881 by a consortium of nine American universities, the School now serves graduate students and scholars from more than 180 affiliated colleges and uni- versities, acting as a base for research and study in Greece. As part of its mission, the School directs on going excavations in the Athenian Agora and at Corinth and sponsors all other American-led excavations and surveys on Greek soil. It is the official link between American archaeologists and classicists and the Ar- chaeological Service of the Greek Ministry of Culture and, as such, is dedicated to the wise management of cultural resources and to the dissemination of knowl- edge of the classical world. Inquiries about programs or membership in the School should be sent to the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 6–8 Charlton Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540-5232. hesperia 81 (2012) Hellenistic Free- Pages 267–342 standing Sculpture from the Athenian Agora, Part 1 Aphrodite ABSTRACT This study, the first in a series of articles on freestanding Hellenistic sculp- ture from the Athenian Agora, publishes 20 certain, probable, and possible Hellenistic marble sculptures of Aphrodite, against the background of the genre’s evolution from ca. 450 b.c. through the Early Roman period. The statuettes among them probably were intended for domestic use, the others as dedications. An over-life-size example is identified as the cult statue of Aphrodite Hegemone of the Demos. The author explores the debt of these works to Classical Athenian originals and to neoclassical Athenian aesthetics, and argues that after the Sullan sack of 86 b.c., a preference for fully draped figures in this genre changed to one for seminude or nude statues and statu- ettes, often made for export. INTRODUCTION The ancient literary and epigraphical sources on the sculpture of Hellenistic Athens focus almost exclusively upon two genres.1 First are the honorary and votive portraits (eikones) that crowded the city. Almost always made of bronze and occasionally gilded, these portraits ran the gamut of Hel- lenistic elite and sub-elite society, including kings, politicians, city officials, generals, philosophers, poets, affluent private citizens, and miscellaneous 1. Research for this study was car- pieces that required it; to Craig Mauzy Harrison, Raphael Jacob, Alexander ried out in the Agora Museum and the for his splendid photographs; to Karen Mantis, Becky Martin, Olga Palagia, American School of Classical Studies Bohrer, Robert Bridges, the late Kristen Seaman, Dimitris Sourlas, at Athens in 1996–1998, 2000, and W. D. E. Coulson, Jack Davis, Blanche Ronald Stroud, Mary Sturgeon, Rob- 2007–2012. I owe my sincere thanks to Menadier, James Muhly, Maria Pilali, ert Sutton Jr., Stephen Tracy, Ismene John Camp, Evelyn Harrison, T. Leslie Stephen Tracy, and Nancy Winter for Trianti, the late Stelios Triantis, and Shear Jr., and the late Homer Thomp- administrative and library support at Barbara Tsakirgis for help on particular son for allowing me to study and pub- the School; and to Gianfranco Ador- points. Others will be acknowledged in lish this material; to Jan Jordan and nato, Richard Anderson, Erin Babnik, their proper place. All translations are Sylvie Dumont for facilitating access to Judith Binder, Jake Butera, Michael my own. it; to Karen Loven for cleaning those Djordjevitch, Hallie Franks, Evelyn © The American School of Classical Studies at Athens 268 andrew stewart benefactors. Then, a distant second, come images of the gods and deified mortals (agalmata), often made of marble.2 Yet this dazzling array, spanning almost three centuries (ca. 323– 31 b.c.), has left pitifully few remains. None of the attested bronzes and only a few of the marbles survive, including the head of a Hellenistic king often identified with anagalma of Ariarathes V of Cappadocia dedicated by the Dionysiac Artists, and a head and torso attributed to Euboulides’ monument in the Inner Kerameikos.3 A few original portraits in marble and numerous Roman copies go some way toward making up the deficit in eikones, but offer no help with the agalmata. Sculptures from other sites in Attica and those made for external clients are more plentiful, but lie beyond the scope of this study.4 After the towering achievements and massive output of sculpture in the Classical period, the sumptuary laws of Demetrios of Phaleron (enacted probably in 317/6, but certainly before his overthrow in 307/6) evidently triggered a slump in marble sculpture for the Athenian market. Yet this handful of textually attested originals by no means represents the sum total of Hellenistic sculptures in the city and its environs. Best known are the aforementioned marble portraits, most of them Late Hellenistic in date, the Mounychia Asklepios, and a number of reliefs.5 These include some miscellaneous votive plaques in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens and at Eleusis, a few later Hellenistic gravestones there and in the Kerameikos, and the well-known Piraeus reliefs after the shield of Athena Parthenos and other monuments, if these are indeed Hellenistic.6 All of them inaugurate traditions that would continue to flourish far into the Roman period, and represent the second efflorescence of Athenian marble sculpture. Seventy years of sculptural discoveries in the Agora (Fig. 1), mostly still unpublished, significantly enhance this picture. The Stoa of Attalos now houses over 3,600 fragments of sculpture, many of which are certainly or probably Hellenistic, including over 300 reliefs and statuettes, both vo- tive and domestic,7 and a much smaller but still considerable quantity of large-scale, freestanding sculpture. These statues and statuettes not only deserve attention in their own right, but also enable us to test the common assumption that Athenian taste remained generally conservative through- out the Hellenistic period. Is this true in each and every genre, and, if so, to what degree? How do these sculptures follow, transform, modify, or contravene what we know of Hellenistic neoclassical theory from the texts and from finds elsewhere? 2. See Stewart 1979 for the evi- Pace Houser 1982, p. 230, the half- Stewart 1979; von den Hoff 1994; dence. dozen scraps from a gilded equestrian Zanker 1995, pp. 77–197; Stewart 3. For these, see Stewart 1979, statue found in a mid-Hellenistic con- 2006. pls. 16:d, 17:d (texts: IG II2 1330, 4298; text (Agora B 1382–B 1385: Shear 5. See Stewart 1979. Paus. 1.2.5), with Despinis 1996, 1973, pp. 165–168, pl. 36) cannot be 6. See Stewart 1979, with Rügler pp. 325–333, pls. 62–65. Despinis splits reconciled with the “golden” Antigonos 1989; Stephanidou-Tiveriou 1979. the head-torso piece, shows that the One-Eye and Demetrios Poliorketes 7. The votives will be published by head may belong to an Apollo and the mentioned at Diod. Sic. 20.46.2 and Carol Lawton and the gravestones by torso probably to a Muse, and argues (presumably) toppled at the beginning Janet Grossman. Statuettes of the that the Athena found with them is of the Second Macedonian War in 200; Mother of the Gods constitute the bulk Roman (correctly, in my view; so, ear- those figures were riding in chariots. of the domestic pieces. lier, Karanastassis 1987, pp. 416–420). 4. Richter 1965, vols. 1–2, passim; hellenistic freestanding sculpture: aphrodite 269 Figure 1. State plan of the Athenian First, however, a caveat about provenance and chronology. Unfor- Agora indicating premodern find- tunately, the discovery of a piece of sculpture in the Agora by no means spots of catalogued Hellenistic stat- guarantees that it once stood there.
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