Serpentine pillar
.JPG)
The serpent column was a dedication of the Greeks , which they dedicated to the god Apollo after their victories over the Persian invaders (480 BC in the Battle of Salamis and 479 BC in the Battle of Plataiai ) .
description
The snake column consists of a bronze column with three snakes entwined with each other. Originally their heads wore a golden tripod . The reconstruction of the monument is controversial. A "big solution" is being discussed, according to which the tripod placed its feet on the floor, i.e. the column served as the central support of the tripod (cf. Steinhart last), a "small solution" is also represented, according to which the feet of the tripod placed on the three heads of the serpentine column or on a plate above it (cf. Gauer). There are models for both reconstruction proposals. The choice of motif is interpreted differently (cf. Stähler, Geschistordenkmäler; Steinhart; Gauer).
An inscription on the body of the serpent gives the names of the Greek polis involved in the war against the Persians . Originally, Pausanias , King of the Spartans, wanted to claim victory for himself in an inscription alone. As Thucydides reports, this inscription was removed in order to document the common victory. The Lacedaemonians (Spartans) are mentioned first. A reconstruction of the column is available as an engraving in the Dresden Kupferstichkabinett .
history
The serpent column was initially in Delphi . In 331 AD Constantine the Great had it set up in the hippodrome of Constantinople to decorate his new capital . There are various statements as to whether the golden bowl was stolen in Delphi or not until the Fourth Crusade .
Later the column is said to have been converted into a three-mouth fountain, as described by travelers in 1422. After Constantinople was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453, one of the heads was damaged. Ottoman images document that the heads were preserved for the time being. Hans Dernschwam, who traveled to Constantinople in the mid-16th century, described the serpent column as follows:
“Mer is a tall, poured, copper-free sewle on the obstandem Platz Athmedan, digkher than a gaping one. It is twisted threefold like 3 snakes and overhead there are three snakes walking upside down with open mouths; nothing is written about it. The turkish and jews say ire fables should be a treat for the nathers, whose two should be Constantinapol, for whom one shouldn't have to stop. "
It was not until the 17th century that the snake heads were cut off.
A damaged snakehead is now in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum . The column itself (like the obelisk of Theodosius ) still stands on the former Hippodrome Square today. Since, as is customary in long-lived cities, the street gradually increased in height, the inscription on the column was hidden below street level. In 1855 the base was exposed again. So now the pillar stands in a small recess under the open sky and is accessible at all times. Their length is 5.35 m, their original height with the heads should have been 8 m.
A copy of the part of the column still existing in Istanbul was installed in 2015 at the original location in Delphi.
inscription
The inscription commemorating the victory over the Persians was the main purpose of the column. It begins with the succinct classification: They fought in the war: Then follow the names of the 31 Poleis: Lacedaemonians ( Sparta ), Athenians , Corinthians , Tegeatians, Sicyonians , Aiginetes , Megarians , Epidaurians , Erchomenians, Phleiasians , Troizzards , Hermioneers , Tirynthians, Plataeans, Thespians , Mycenaean , Keer, Moller, Tenier, Naxians, Eretrians, Chalkidians , Styrier, Eleans, Potaidaiaten, Leukadier, Anaktorier, Kynthier, Siphnians, Ambrakioten, Lepreaten . Eight names appear from the coalition's poleis that Herodotus does not pass on to us. Pausanias also makes no mention of four poleis whose names appear on the column.
literature
- ↑ Herodotus, Histories 9.81.
- ^ Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War , I, 132.
- ^ Photo Deutsche Fotothek, Kupferstichkabinett Dresden
- ^ P. Amandry, Delphi
- ↑ Herodotus, Historien 9.81 - Note 45, Edition Phaidon Verlag and Pausanias, Description of Greece Book 10, 13.9.
- ^ Franz Babinger (ed.): Hans Dernschwam's diary of a trip to Constantinople and Asia Minor (1553/55). According to the original in the Fugger archive. 2nd Edition. Duncker and Humblot, Berlin / Munich 1986, p. 100.
- ↑ Turhan Can, Istanbul
- ↑ see photo
- ↑ Meiggs-Lewis 27, quoted in O. Murray, Das early Greece
- Paul Stephenson, The Serpent Column: A Cultural Biography , Oxford University Press 2016.
Web links
Coordinates: 41 ° 0 ′ 20.2 " N , 28 ° 58 ′ 30.4" E