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| My Favourite Planet > English > Europe > Greece > Northern Aegean > Samothraki > gallery |
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| Samothraki, Greece |
Samothraki gallery |
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Paleopolis Museum Samothraki. Detail of a frieze of female dancers
from the Sanctuary of the Great Gods. Circa 340 BC. |
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"The Hall of Choral Dancers" (formerly known as the Temenos) in the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on Samothraki was named by archaeologists after this long sculpted frieze of white Thasian marble which shows a row of women dancing hand-in-hand. In the four surviving blocks of the frieze displayed in the museum, three of the women play instruments: a drum (tympanon), flute (aulis) and lyre (or kithara).
The frieze, 114-115 metres long, 32-34 cm high and 35-38 cm thick, was part of an elaborate entablature which ran completely around the top of the outside of the building. [1] It is estimated there were originally as many as 200 figures, each around 25 cm high.
The ritual dance depicted on the frieze may have been associated with the mythical marriage of Kadmos and Harmonia, an important element in the myths concerning Samothraki and its mysteries, and there may have been another image of the marriage itself on the wall below it.
The building, the oldest and largest marble structure at the sanctuary, has been dated to 340-330 BC and is thought to have been built by King Philip II of Macedonia (ruled 359-336 BC), father of Alexander the Great. Philip is said to have met Olympias (Ὀλυμπιάς, circa 375-316 BC), his future wife and mother of Alexander, on Samothraki. [2]
The hall, 34 metres long and 20.7 metres wide, was built of Thasian marble, and entered by a projecting, roofed Ionic portico (circa 12.30 x 6.20 metres), with a ceiling of marble coffer panels decorated with reliefs of heads thought to depict Samothrakian deities or heroes.
The hall's interior was divided into two aisles separated by a wall and entered by separate doors: the western aisle was paved with marble slabs; the floor of the eastern aisle, set a little higher, was made of marble chip mosaic.
The function of the hall remains unknown, although according to one theory it was the main location for initiation into the the cult of the mysteries of the Great Gods, while according to another it was used for the rituals and sacrifices of the annual summer celebrations here.
The frieze is Archaistic (imitating art of the Archaic period) in style [3], and it has been estimated that it may have originally contained more than 200 figures. Several fragments of the frieze have survived, and the four larger pieces are normally displayed in the Samothraki Archaeological Museum.
The surviving parts of the frieze have been referred to in several ways by various authors. Here we refer to the FS (Frieze Samothrace) numbering used by Clemente Marconi [see note 1].
Block F(S)11 and F(S)10
Louvre, Paris. Inv. No. MA 689-699. Now in Samothraki Museum.
Found by Champoiseau in 1863, built into a wall of the Gattilusi Tower, Paleopolis, where Cyriacus of Ancona had seen them on his visit to Samothraki in October 1444 [4]. They were taken to the Louvre, Paris in the same year but returned to the island in 1955 on permanent loan to Samothraki Museum in exchange for the left hand of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, discovered in 1950 (see gallery page 8).
The reliefs are badly worn, and it is not possible to see the details apparent in block F(S)1.
Block F(S)11: Six dancers, including a flute (aulos) player, fourth from left.
Block F(S)10: Six dancers, set in facing pairs, followed by a drum (tympanon) player, apparently leading a new set of dancers.
Block F(S)2 and F(S)1
Samothraki Museum. Inv. No. 49.1043 A-B.
Found in 1949, north of the terrace adjoining the Hall of Choral Dancers [5].
F(S)1 is the largest and best preserved block (photo above). A kithara player leads seven dancers holding hands. The leading dancer holds on to a trailing part of the kithara player's garment with her left hand. In front (right) of the kithara player, a new set of four dancers and part of a fifth repeat the same actions.
Other parts of the frieze, mostly small fragments, are kept in storage at the museum. The two largest are complete but badly worn blocks, found in July 1994 at the southeast corner of the hall:
Block F(S)33. T-299. A corner block, 112 cm long, showing a row of 8 dancers led by a musician playing an instrument, perhaps a kithara or tympanon.
Block F(S)34. T-302. An entire block, 99 cm long, showing a row of 8 dancers.
Clemente Marconi of the New York Institute of Fine Arts has recently written a more detailed analysis of the frieze based on new discoveries and further investigation at the sanctuary [see note 1]. A new analysis of the frieze has revealed, among other things, that it was made by several people and that parts were not completely finished. Marconi also discusses ar some length the background and significance to the Samothracian mysteries, and particularly the Hall of Choral Dancers, of the myth and literary tradition (including Hesiod, Idomeneus, Pindar, Diodoros and Pausanias) of Kadmos and Harmonia. |
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photo:
© David John |
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| Samothraki |
Notes, references and links |
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1. The frieze of the Hall of Choral Dancers
See:
Phyllis Williams Lehmann and Denys Spittle, Samothrace, Excavations Conducted by the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University, Volume V The Temenos (part 1 text, part 2 plates). Princeton University Press, 1982.
Thesaurus Cultus Et Rituum Antiquorum (ThesCRA), No. 191, page 365. J. Paul Getty Museum. Getty Publications, 2004.
Clemente Marconi (New York Institute of Fine Arts), Choroi, Theōriai and International Ambitions: The Hall of Choral Dancers and its Frieze. Chapter 8, pages 106-135 in Samothracian connections: Essays in honor of James R. McCredie, edited by Olga Palagia and Bonna D. Wescoat. Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK, 2010.
2. Philip and Olympias on Samothraki
The story of the meeting and betrothal of Philip and Olympias on Samothraki was told by the Greek historian Plutarch (Πλούταρχος, circa 46-120 AD), who often includes tales of omens and other supernatural occurences in his narratives.
"And we are told that Philip, after being initiated into the mysteries of Samothrace at the same time with Olympias, he himself being still a youth and she an orphan child, fell in love with her and betrothed himself to her at once with the consent of her brother, Arymbas.
Well, then, the night before that on which the marriage was consummated, the bride dreamed that there was a peal of thunder and that a thunder-bolt fell upon her womb, and that thereby much fire was kindled, which broke into flames that travelled all about, and then was extinguished. At a later time, too, after the marriage, Philip dreamed that he was putting a seal upon his wife's womb; and the device of the seal, as he thought, was the figure of a lion."
Plutarch, The Life of Alexander, Part 1, chapter 2. In The Parallel Lives by Plutarch, published in Vol. VII of the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1919. At Bill Thayer's LacusCurtius: Into the Roman World, University of Chicago.
See also: William S. Greenwalt, Philip and Olympias on Samothrace: A clue to Macedonian politics during the 360s. In Timothy Howe, Jeanne Reames (editors), Macedonian Legacies: Studies in Ancient Macedonian History and Culture in Honor of Eugene N. Borza, pp 79-106. Regina Books, Claremont, CA, 2009.
William Greenwalt discusses evidence of links between Macedonia and Samothrace and the meeting and betrothal of Philip and Olympias in the context of Macedonian politics and alliances.
3. Archaistic style
For a discussion of the Archaistic style in Greek art and architecture, See:
Anastasia Fiolitaki, Archaistic elements in Greek art and architecture of the fourth century BC, with particular reference to works from Ionia and Caria. PhD thesis, University of London, 2001.
Fiolitaki points out the similarities between the style of the relief and costumes of the dancers and those on other Archaistic friezes, such as one from Antiphellos in Lycia (today Kaş, Turkey) and the mid 4th century BC the "Epidauros base" relief of Hebe from the temple of Asklepios at Epidauros (National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Inv. No. NM 1425).
4. Cyriacus of Ancona on Samothraki
See:
Phyllis Williams Lehmann, An antique ornament set in a Renaissance tower: Cyriacus of Ancona's Samothracian nymphs and muses. In: Revue Archéologique, Nouvelle Série, Fasc. 2, Études de sculpture antique offertes à Jean Charbonneaux, 2 (1968), pages 197-214. Presses Universitaires de France. At jstor.org.
5. Discovery of frieze blocks in 1949
See:
Karl Lehmann, Samothrace: Fourth preliminary report. Hesperia, XX, 1, 1951, pages 1-30 and plates 1-18. American School of Classical Studies at Athens. |
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Some of the information and photos in this guide to Samothraki
originally appeared in 2004 on davidjohnberlin.de.
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