Pergamon Altar

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The front of the Pergamon Altar, as it is reconstructed in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

Empty basis of altar in Pergamon

The Pergamon Altar is a structure originally built in the 2nd century BC in the Ancient Greek city of Pergamon (also known as Pergamum; modern day Bergama in Turkey) in north-western Anatolia, 25.74 kilometers (16 miles) from the Aegean Sea. The temple was dedicated to Zeus.

The Pergamon Altar was shipped out of the Ottoman Empire from the original excavation site by the German archaeological team lead by Carl Humann, and reconstructed in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin in the 19th century, where it can be seen alongside other monumental structures such as the Market Gate of Miletus and the Ishtar Gate from Babylon.

The Altar has a 113 metre (371 feet) long sculptural frieze depicting the gigantomachy, or struggle of the gods and the giants. It is rumoured that the architect of Lenin's Tomb in Red Square designed the mausoleum after the Pergamon Altar.

1 Gigantomachy frieze
2 Political use
3 Trivia
4 References

[edit] Gigantomachy frieze

Due to the pedantic nature of Hellenistic art, it has been theorized that the program of the external frieze of the Great Altar, which only partially survives, was deeply scholastic. The library at Pergamon was second only to Alexandria in the ancient world, and scholars such as Pergamon's own Krates of Mallos were probably commissioned to collaborate on its design. The original interpretation of Carl Robert and Otto Puchstein divided the four sides of the great altar's frieze into the realms of the Olympians (east), water and earth gods (west), celestial/light gods (south) and gods of night and constellations (north). Robert and Puchstein drew on three sources for their interpretation: Theogony, by Hesiod; Bibilotheke, by Apollodorus, and, for the North Frieze, Phainomena, by Aratos.

The interpretation that is currently most accepted is from Erika Simon's 1975 Pergamon und Hesiod, which draws exclusively on Hesiod's Theogony for a reading of the Great Altar. According to Simon, the frieze is arranged genealogically, with the descendants of Ouranos and Ge, the Titans and Olympians, on the South and East friezes, respectively. On the left portion of the West frieze begin the descendants of Pontos, deities associated with water who curl around to the right portion of the North frieze. Lastly are the descendants of Nyx, associated with darkness, mortality, and fate, who occupy the central portion of the North Frieze.

There are some inconsistencies with Simon's interpretation, such as the presence of Dione, mother of Aphrodite, who did not exist in Hesiod's Theogony but was instead a Homeric character. A more recent yet less respected interpretation by Michael Pfanner asserts that Nyx is in fact Persephone, as shown by the nearby presence of a pomegranate flower. In any event, of the near-hundred figures on the frieze surrounding the Great Altar, only fourteen have both name and position confirmed by surviving inscriptions; these include Athena and Ge (east), Aphrodite and Dione (north), Triton and a host of satyrs (west), and Themis and Asteria (south). Figures whose inscriptions have not been preserved but who may iconographically be identified beyond a doubt include Artemis, Zeus and Nike (east).

[edit] Political use

The Great Altar was probably constructed sometime around 180 BC, in the wake of Eumenes II's military victories over his opponents in the eastern Mediterranean and the mainland of Asia Minor. Pergamon sought to cultivate an image of itself as the inheritor of Athen's cultural and political legacy over the Greek-speaking world—Athens had fallen from primacy in the fifth century BCE, and no city-state had risen to replace it. Pergamene building projects aimed at this goal were extensive and included the sponsorship of monuments on the distant Acropolis and other Greek city-states in Asia Minor. The gigantomachy frieze on the Great Altar bolsters these claims by making direct reference both to the Parthenon at Athens and Attalid naval victories over Hannibal of Carthage. Most significantly, the extensive theme of Greek gods defending a natural order paralleled the Attalid conception of the Pergamene dynasty as defenders of Greek culture.

On the interior of the great altar is a separate frieze depicting the life of Telephos, son of Herakles, whom the ruling Attalid dynasty associated with their city and utilized to claim descendance from the Olympians. Pergamon, having entered the Greek world much later than their counterparts to the west, could not boast the same divine heritage as older city-states, and had to retroactively cultivate their place in the Greek tradition.

[edit] Trivia

The altar is mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Revelation 2:12-13 "In Pergamos where Satan's Throne is"

Hitler's Architect The architect, Albert Speer, used the Pergamon Altar as the model for the Zeppelintribüne. The Führer's pulpit was in the center of the tribune, which was built from 1934 to 1937.