Aetion of Amphipolis - My Favourite Planet People

Aetion (Αετίων) may have been a Greek sculptor and painter working from the mid 4th century to the early 3rd century BC, was perhaps from Amphipolis, Macedonia and a contemporary of Alexander the Great.

No surviving ancient sculpture or painting - even a copy - can be attributed to Aetion, and his existence can only be surmised from references by ancient writers to one or more artists of the same name. It may be that each writer was referring to a different person who may or may not have been connected to one or more of the others.

Greek men were often named after a grandfather or other male relative, and it is known that families of artists and artisans continued in business over several generations (see, for example, Evandros of Veroea and Archermos of Chios). It is at least likely that there was more than one artist named Aetion from the same family.

The case of Aetion is further complicated by the fact that the name appears to differ in various modern publications and translations: ᾿Ηετίων (Hetion or Eetion [see note 9]) and even Έχίων (Echion [see below]). This may be due to the illegible state of ancient papyrii and other manuscripts, errors made by the original authors, ancient copyists or modern scholars.

This a prime example of the confusion surrounding several ancient Greek artists, about whom little or nothing is known apart such references, often vague, ambiguous and even dubious. Many extant artworks, either Greek originals or, more commonly, works of the Roman period presumed to be copies of Greek masterpieces, have been identified with particular artists merely on the strength of brief mentions in ancient literary works.

Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) mentions two sculptors, Aetion and Therimachus, living in the years of the 107th Olympiad, i.e. 352-349 BC (Natural History, Book 34, chapter 19 [1]). He later mentions two painters named Aetion and Therimachus, also during the 107th Olympiad, and adds that "by the former we have some fine pictures: a Father Liber [Dionysus], Tragedy and Comedy, Semiramis from the rank of a slave elevated to the throne, an Old Woman bearing torches, and a New-made Bride, remarkable for the air of modesty with which she is portrayed". (Natural History, Book 35, chapter 36 [2]) He does not indicate whether these sculptors and painters were the same artists, but it seems unlikely that they were not.

Cicero (106-43 BC) had earlier mentioned Aetion as a painter in a list which also includes the 4th century BC painters Nicomachus, Protogenes and Apelles (see Ancient Greek artists - Painters). He said that in their works "everything is finished to perfection", in contrast to Zeuxis, Polygnotus, Timanthes and others who used only four colours (Brutus, section 70 [3]).

Lucian of Samosata (circa 125-180 AD) wrote about a picture of the wedding of Alexander the Great and Roxana [4] by "the painter Aetion" who exhibited the work at Olympia. He related that "Proxenides, one of the chief judges there at that time, was delighted with his talent and made Aetion his son-in-law". He went on to describe the painting, in which Roxana is depicted sitting on the bridal couch with "her eyes cast down in modesty" (Herodotus or Aetion [5 and 6]), which reminds us of Pliny's modest bride.

Even if the Aetion mentioned by Pliny and Lucian are the same painter, and he did paint a picture of the wedding of Alexander and Roxana, which took place in 327 BC, there still remain the questions of whether he did so during Alexander's lifetime, who commissioned the work, and where and when did he paint it?

Some modern sources claim that Lucian (and by extension Pliny) was actually writing about Echion (Έχίων, about whom I have found no further information apart from this claim), supposedly a 1st century AD painter also known as Aetion. This may be merely due to a problem of translation. In one version, translated by H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler [5], Aetion presents his painting at Olympia "in quite recent times". However, the translation by K. Kilburn [6] gives us "... the recent story of Aetion the painter...", which could mean that the story of the incident had only recently been published or become commonly known.

Lucian prefaced his description of the picture with the words: "The picture is actually in Italy; I have seen it myself". This is no proof that it had been made recently: it is known that an enormous number of Greek artworks were taken to Italy by the Romans, often as war booty, from the 2nd century BC onwards [7] (see, for example, the Granikos Monument).

In the early 16th century Raphael made a sketch for a painting of The Wedding of Alexander the Great and Roxana, based on Lucian's description of Aetion's work, and Sodoma completed a fresco of the subject (see below).

A fresco from Pompeii depicting a male and female, both standing and facing each other, with a small Eros and a shield-bearer in Persian garb in supporting roles, has been interpreted as the marriage of Alexander as Ares and either Roxana or Stateira (also known as Barsine) as Aphrodite [8]. It has also been suggested that the fresco may be a copy of, or inspired by, a Hellenistic painting. Although the identification of the naked male figure as Alexander seems plausible, the identity of the sceptre-holding female (an Amazon queen has also been suggested) and the significance of their meeting are far from clear and continue to be debated. The scene certainly does not remotely resemble Lucian's description of Aetion's painting. If the Pompeiian fresco painter was inspired by Aetion's work, then he may have altered and simplified the scene to suit his or his client's taste and budget.

Both Theocritus (writing around 280-270 BC) and Callimachus (310/305–240 BC), Greek poets who worked at Alexandria, mention an Aetion in epigrams.

Theocritus, in "On a statue of Asklepios" (Epigram 7, in some publications Epigram 8) [9], praised a cedar wood statue of Asklepios, the Greek god of healing, for which his doctor friend Nikias of Miletus paid a large sum of money to the highly-skilled Aetion.

Among the epigrams which can reliably ascribed to Theocritus, several are about statues and monuments, mostly naming those who dedicated them. However, it may be significant that this is the only epigram in which the artist is named.

The dates of Nikias' life are not known, but he was a pupil of the Epicurean philosopher Metrodoros of Lampaskos (circa 330-277 BC), which makes it within the realms of possibility that he commissioned the statue from the Aetion who may have also painted the marriage of Alexander and Roxana during the king's lifetime (356-323 BC).

Callimachus (Epigram 336 [10]) is more obscure, perhaps because of a corrupted manuscript. He wrote in the first person, from the viewpoint of what appears to be a statue of a naked hero with a sword and a snake by "Aetion of Amphipolis". If this is the same Aetion, it is the only mention of him in connection with Amphipolis.