Student No. 868447

 

How much mythology is portrayed on carvings in ancient Greece?

 

 

Mythology has a huge role to play in ancient Greek religion, without it the foundations of the religion would not exist and therefore neither would the religion.  Greek mythology not only contains epic deeds done by heroes but is the basis for all the gods in ancient Greece.  The triumph of the gods versus the giants, written clearly by Hesiod in his work the Theogany, which allowed the Greeks to worship the Olympian gods, is just one of the many mythological stories about the gods.  In fact, the whole idea for Greek mythology, and in effect religion, rests upon two people according to Herodotus, Homer and Hesiod (Herodotus 2:53).  Due to the belief that mythology was so important to Greek religion it is natural to see many of these myths being carved onto temples, treasuries and reliefs as decoration.  To see just how much mythology is carved into stone I will mainly be looking at three sites in Greece as not only are they three sites that are steeped in history, but they also have a lot of carvings of various themes.  These three sites are Olympia, Delphi and the Parthenon at Athens.

 

The first site I will be looking at is the Parthenon on the Acropolis at Athens.  This temple was dedicated to the goddess Athena and therefore much of its stonework is about her and her life.  This in itself shows that mythology appears on the Parthenon as Athena was steeped in Greek mythology.  The Parthenon has three areas which had carvings, all of which told a different story.  The east pediment, the west pediment and the Frieze (Lawrence 1996:113).  The east pediment depicted Athena coming out of Zeus’ head in full armour which in Greek mythology was the birth of Athena.  The west pediment told the story of Athena and Poseidon fighting over the patronage of the city.  This once again was portraying a mythological story.  The frieze which runs around the Parthenon on all four sides which was rare in the ancient world (Lawrence 1996:114) does not however portray a mythological story but the Panathenaic procession (Robertson 1975:9).  This was a procession that happened on the 28^th day of the month of Hekatombaion which was Athena’s birthday and was used by the Athenians to honour Athena (Robertson 1975:8).  Unfortunately much of the carvings that made up the two pediments and the frieze are no longer part of the Parthenon or even survive but some still exist in museums around the world (Buxton 2004:23).  From looking at the Parthenon, it shows us that mythology plays a huge role in religion and as such it appears in the most prominent places on the Parthenon, the two pediments.  However mythology does not dominate the Parthenon as the frieze portrays a very normal and real procession.

 

The second site that I will be going to is Delphi.  Delphi consists of temples and treasuries which were put up by a nation state when they had enough money.  As there were many nation states in Greece there were likewise quite a few treasuries each with their own decoration.  It is for this reason that Delphi is a good choice to visit as it will give a variety of carvings which will give a good insight into how much mythology was actually portrayed.  The most recognised treasury at Delphi, due to its restored nature, is that of Athens.  The Athenian treasury depicts two of the Greek heroes, Theseus and Herakles (Mee, Spawforth 2001:305).  Not only are both of these heroes mythological, the treasury depicts some of the many different adventures they undertook.  One story that is carved about Theseus is his most recognised feat which is of him and the Minotaur.  One of Herakles’ feats is of him and the Nemean Lion.  Not only does the Athenian treasury depict the two heroes but it also emphasises their importance through some of their mythological adventures.  The Athenian treasury has also got inscriptions along the side many of which describe Athenian victories in games (Mee, Spawforth: 2001:305).  This shows that even though all the carvings on the Athenian treasury are about mythology it was still important to emphasise why the Athenians considered themselves great.  The site of Delphi should be the most rewarding as despite its historical earthquakes, levelling many of the buildings, there are still some treasuries standing which will give a variety of different carvings. 

 

The final site that I will be looking at is Olympia.  The main temple at Olympia is the temple of Zeus.  It was made of the cheap material limestone yet despite this it did include elegant metopes and sculptures on both pediments.  The east pediment depicted the myth of a chariot race between Pelops and Oenomaus (Mee, Spawforth 2001: 286/7).  The west pediment told the story of a fight between the Lapiths and the Centaurs (Mee, spawforth 2001:287) which was another Greek myth.  Finally the metopes, which appeared underneath the pediments, portrayed Herakles and the twelve labours he undertook (Mee, Spawforth 2001:287).  As Zeus was the father of Herakles it seems fitting for his son to be portrayed on his temple.  Both the two pediments and the metopes portray Greek mythological stories which suggest that the Greeks chose to carve mythology instead of real life feats.  Unfortunately, the temple of Zeus no longer stands however much of the sculpture from the temple has been recovered and now sits in the Olympian museum (Mee, Spawforth 2001:286) so it can still be viewed.

 

It is clear to see that mythology is portrayed by the Greeks through stonework and it does feature a lot on both temples and treasuries.  However there are other buildings and treasuries at these sites which should give more evidence either for or against whether mythology appears in large amounts on buildings in ancient Greece.  Even though I have only mentioned three sites, we will be visiting many more for other people’s projects which I may include if the extra sites show any, or lack of, mythology.  By visiting these three sites and any extra sites I hope to reinforce my belief that a lot of mythology is portrayed via stone carvings.

 

 

 

 Bibliography

 

 

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Buxton, B. 2004. The Complete world of Greek Mythology. London

 

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Lagerlöf, M.R. 2000. The sculptures of the Parthenon. Yale

 

Lawrence, A.W. 1996. Greek Architecture 5^th ed. Yale

 

Mee, C. Spawforth, A. 2001. Oxford Archaeological Guides – Greece. Oxford

 

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