#rihe

[selkies-and-cycles]

Celestial official: someone should put you two in a mental hospital!

young Nezha: someone should put you in a box floating down the river, GRANDMA!

young Rihe: yeah!!! >:P

[seelennahrung]

Wenn auch immer du den Moment so akzeptierst wie er ist - egal welche Form er auch annimmt - dann bist du ruhig und im Frieden.

Eckhart Tolle

[culest]

[takejustbreath]

[sensationsarefailure]

richey edwards gives this blog free advertising

(screenshot from the video for Revol, if you blinked you'd miss it)

Thanks Rich, wherever you are

[reachedoutmyhand]

How widespread and adaptable were god-like features and divine qualities among Hellenistic kings?

Key themes/definitions: Divine attributes, qualities - both physical qualities and less well-defined qualities, and their physical manifestation in both documentary and material evidence.

  God-like features and divine qualities were most widespread on coin portraits, and are apparent throughout the period, ranging from some of the earliest posthumous Alexander coins (e.g. of Lysimachos) which show Alexander with the horn of Ammon, to coins of Demetrius Poliorcetes with bull's horns and Ptolemy I Soter wearing an aegis.

Some portraits far more explicit than others, for example coins of Ptolemy III Euergetes in which the king wears a radiate crown and aegis, and holds a trident/scepter. 

In statuary, god-like features and attributes are less common, although heroic nudity (often associated with semi-divine or divinised figures) is very common. Explicity, there are examples of e.g. statuettes of Arsinoe II with a double cornucopia (note also Ptolemy II with elephant skin and club).

This follows part of a common trend whereby godlike and divine qualities are more common in the Ptolemaic kingdom, as in the Egyptian religion the pharaoh is already a divinised figure.

Less physical qualities were also associated with divinity, and this can be seen in documentary evidence for the period; they ithyphallic hymn for Demetrius Poliorcetes, for example, describes him:

"Full of joy, as befits the god, fair and laughing." ~Athenaeus

The idea of physiognomy bearing great importance was an established Greek belief, and in the Hellenistic period the idea that divinity might be visible in a man's features may have become more prevalent, explaining the idealised portraits of young Alexander.

On the other hand:

Check out this ugly fucker. Enough said.

[reachedoutmyhand]

Archaeologically, can we define such a things as a 'royal city' in the Hellenistic period?

Key definitions/themes: Archaeological evidence for kingship. Are there royal institutions? What makes a city royal? Notably emphasis on palaces as physical institutions and the use of statuary and architecture to express royal ideas and ideals.

Macedonian models - Aigai & Pella. Large palace complexes set above the cities. Appear not to be based on Persian/Achaemenid models.

Alexandria

We know that Alexandria was the royal capital of Egypt, founded by Alexander during his conquests, and yet not a large amount of the city is accessible archaeologically due to continued habitation.

Royal elements include:

Royal palace

Large amounts of sculpture relating to the kings, and somewhat unusually the queens, of Egypt, some in pure Egyptian style and some in a more mixed Graeco-Egyptian style

Pergamon

Pergamon is the royal capital of the Attalid kingdom.

Recognisably royal elements of the city include:

Extensive and numerous palace complexes and associated buildings including armouries etc. There seem to be several phases of palace buildings, suggesting that each monarch built his own palace.

Statuary with royal iconography  - i.e. Berlin Attalos head - which suggests agency of/interaction with kings

A Heroön, where the kings - particularly Attalos I and Eumenes II - were worshipped

Royal tumuli, the burial places of the kings, whose raised mounds are visible on the flat plain by the city

Ai Khanoum

Ai Khanoum in Bactria has a palace complex which draws from both Achaemenid and Hellenistic models; a palace is an important element of a 'royal city' and featured in both Alexandria and Pergmaon.

And yet the city is in a little-traversed corner of Bactria, and is hardly the royal capital that either Alexandria or Pergamon was. 

Sculptural remains include fragments of a colossal cult statue, male and female figures and a hermaic old man - but there does not seem to be any evidence of sculpture of royal figures, as in other Hellenistic royal cities.

[reachedoutmyhand]

Which documentary and material sources would you use to understand Hellenistic kingship?

Key definitions/themes: Understanding Hellenistic kingship as a new phenomenon which is unlike, but not unrelated to, previous Macedonian models of rule. 

Sources:

"It is neither descent nor legitimacy which gives monarchies to men, but the ability to command an army and handle affairs competently." ~Suda, Basileia

Later sources on kingship can be useful to understand Hellenistic kingship from an outside view; historical narratives of the period (e.g. Arrian's Anabasis) or more biographical accounts (e.g. Plutarch's Life of Demetrius) can also be used.

"I am Antiochus, the great king, the legitimate king, the king of the world, king of Babylon, king of all countries, the caretaker of the temples Esagila and Ezida, the first son of king Seleucus, the Macedonian, king of Babylon." ~Borsippa cylinder

Understanding Hellenistic kingship involves understanding those models of kingship that influenced it; here we understand that Hellenistic kingship relied on previous traditions and models to a certain extent with the tradition Akkadian script and ceremony in which the Seleucid king Antiochus has taken part.

Coinage is an important source for understanding Hellenistic kingship because of the self-representational nature and the use of coins to convey certain messages about monarchs.

For example, coins of Ptolemy I, above:

Elements of Alexandrian imagery, including the hairstyle and the diadem, implying some kind of inheritance from Alexander

Strongly individualised facial features, not idealised; Gruen has suggested that these rough features were an attempt to imply the possession of qualities necessary for kingship, such as strength and military prowess.

Associations with divinity, as here the eagle of Zeus, and more explicit attributes in later coinages such as Ptolemy III Eurgetes, who wears an Aegis, a radiate crown, and holds a trident/scepter

Understanding the importance of physical appearance & self-representation in kingship - the Berlin Attalos head was found in Pergamon near the Great Altar, and is usually thought to represent Attalos I.

At some point, the statue had flat hair, but was re-carved and had Hellenistic style hair and a diadem added on a later dead, presumably when Attalos first became king. This is an illustration of the necessity of looking like a king or fitting the model of kingship.