Archaic wooden cult image of Ancient Greece
A
xoanon
(
,
[1]
Greek
:
ξ?ανον
; plural:
Greek
:
ξ?ανα
xoana
, from the verb
Greek
:
ξ?ειν
,
xeein
, to carve or scrape [wood]
[2]
) was a wooden
cult image
of
Archaic Greece
. Classical Greeks associated such cult objects, whether
aniconic
or
effigy
, with the legendary
Daedalus
. Many such cult images were preserved into historical times, though none are known to have survived to the modern day, except as copies in stone or marble. In the 2nd century CE,
Pausanias
described numerous xoana in his
Description of Greece
, notably the image of
Hera
in her temple at
Samos
. "The statue of the Samian Hera, as Aethilos [
sic
]
[a]
says, was a wooden beam at first, but afterwards, when
Prokles
was ruler, it was humanized in form".
[3]
In Pausanias' travels he never mentions seeing a xoanon of a "mortal man".
Types of xoana
[
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]
Some types of archaic xoana may be reflected in archaic marble versions, such as the pillar-like "
Hera of Samos
" (
Louvre Museum
), the flat "
Hera of Delos
" or some archaic
kouros
-type figures that may have been used to represent
Apollo
.
A different type of cult figure in which the face, hands, and feet were carved of marble and the rest of the body made of wood is called
acrolith
. The wooden part was usually covered either with cloth or
gold leaf
.
Woods and textiles
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]
For
Strabo
,
[4]
the "carved" xoanon might also be of
ivory
;
[b]
Pausanias, however, always uses
xoanon
in its strict sense, to denote a wooden image; at
Corinth
Pausanias noted that "The sanctuary of Athena Chalinitis is by the theater, and near it is a naked xoanon of Herakles, said to be by Daidalos. All the works of this artist, though somewhat uncouth to look at, nevertheless have a touch of the divine in them."
[5]
Of the works of Daidalos there are two in Boeotia, a Herakles in Thebes and the Trophonios at Lebadeia. There are also two other xoana in Crete, a
Britomartis
at Olous and an Athena at Knossos. ... At Delos, too, there is a small xoanon of Aphrodite, its right hand damaged by time, and instead of feet its lower part is square.
[c]
I am persuaded that Ariadne got this image from Daidalos.
?
Pausanias, 9.40.3
Similar xoana were ascribed by the Greeks to the contemporary of Daedalus, the equally legendary
Smilis
. Such figures were often clothed in real textiles, such as the
peplos
that was woven and ceremonially delivered to Athena on the Acropolis of Athens into historic times.
The wood of which a xoanon was carved was often symbolic: olivewood,
[d]
pearwood,
Vitex
, oak,
[e]
are all specifically mentioned.
In Athens, in the
Erechtheum
, an ancient olivewood
[6]
effigy of
Athena
was preserved. The Athenians believed it had fallen to earth from the heavens, as a gift to
Athens
; it was still to be seen in the 2nd century CE.
[7]
On the island of
Icaria
a rustic piece of wood was venerated for the spirit of
Artemis
it contained or represented (Burkert).
[f]
Copies of venerable images
[
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]
The importance of the xoanon in local cult ensured that it would be carefully copied when colonies were founded, and sent out with the colonists from the mother-city.
Strabo
(4.1)
[4]
reports that the
metropolis
Massilia
(modern
Marseille
) was founded by
Phocaeans
. Their cult of
Artemis of Ephesus
was transferred with the colony, justified in the
founding myth
by a dream, and the artistic design of the cult image ? Strabo uses the term
diathesis
(
Greek
δι?θεσι?) ? was re-exported to Massiliote sub-colonies, "where they keep the diathesis of the xoanon the same, and all the other usages precisely the same as is customary in the mother-city".
[8]
Similarly, cementing cultural ties between the
Phocaean
colony at
Massilia
and the
Phocaean
community in
Rome
, "Among the others, the Romans have consecrated Artemis' xoanon on the Aventine, taking the same model from the Massiliotes" (Strabo, 4.1.5).
[4]
So the cult image of the
Lady of Ephesus
, identified as
Artemis
in
Greek understanding
, was established as
Diana Aventina
at Rome, of whom marble copies survive (see illustration at right).
See also
[
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]
Notes
[
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]
- ^
The name
Aethilos
in the available text is thought to be a mis-spelling of
Aethlios
.
- ^
Thus
Strabo
describes the
chryselephantine
sculptures of
Phidian
Zeus and
Polyclitan
Hera as xoana, and even the marble Nemesis at
Rhamnus
, as Frazer noted (Frazer 1897).
- ^
Compare the image of the "Lady of Ephesus" whom the Greeks called Artemis:
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
.
- ^
The olive is sacred to Athena.
- ^
The oak is especially sacred to Zeus.
- ^
Ovid
describes how in the cave of
Cybele
numerous wooden images are to be seen in
Ovid
.
Metamorphoses
. 10.693 ff.
.
Citations
[
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]
Sources
[
edit
]
- Stewart, Andrew.
One Hundred Greek Sculptors: Their Careers and Extant Works
.
- Burkert, Walter
(1985).
Greek Religion
. II.5.3 Temple and Cult Image.
- Pausanias
.
Description of Greece, translation and commentary
. Translated by Frazer, James George. II, pages 69?70.
- Donohue, A. A. (1988).
Xoana and the Origins of Greek Sculpture
.