trophy
A trophy (from Greek τρόπαιον tropaion "victory sign") is an object that serves as a sign of triumph , this can be achieved through a person, an animal ( hunting trophy ) or a thing, but also when averting a risk or a threat.
Trophy types
According to the breadth of triumph, trophies can vary in type. When defeating opponents, captured enemy weapons, ship parts or flags are in the hands of the victor. As a hunting trophy can the antlers of a deer killed over the fireplace of Waidmanns be. Meyers Konversationslexikon from 1905 writes that trophies in the "[...] battle can be flags, standards and artillery captured, as well as combinations of weapons as decoration of armories [...]". The looting of enemy possessions as a sign of victory is an archetype that can even be found in headhunting, which various ethnic groups prescribe as an initiation ritual. These include the Celtic head cult as well as the shrunken heads ( tsantsa ) of the South American Shuar . The head trophy thus represents the defeated opponent. The trophy was symbolically charged for certain purposes, e.g. B. as a scalp or skull (see Tzompantli ) with the North or Mesoamerican Indians, or as a cut off nose with the Japanese (see Mimizuka ). In the Old Testament , hostile, captured foreskins are mentioned as a trophy ( 1 Sam 18.24-27 EU ).
history
The trophy is based on the ancient Greek term tropaion (pl. Tropaia; Latin tropaeum), an ancient symbol of victory that the Greek generals put up on the battlefield after defeating the enemy. It consisted of a frame on which the weapons and armaments of the subjugated were hung in the same way as they could be seen on a hoplite (foot soldier). From the 5th century BC The 'tropaion' was adopted in art and adorned coins, reliefs and other artifacts and designed as a panoply . In the Imperium Romanum the victory sign became an important symbol, but with the fall of the Roman Empire the tropaion was lost in its original form.
Since then , victory trophies have been the opposing standards , pennants and flags . The severed heads of the enemy were impaled on long poles and regarded as a trophy, and not only among barbarian peoples. Later, in the Turkish Wars, Austrian troops captured the bell trees of the Janissary units and carried them forward in parades .
treatment
Trophies are always presented with pride to others . Whether they were attached to castle walls or houses, as in the past, to give the common people an impression of the strength of their owner or even to suggest, or whether they are displayed in specially made showcases in public institutions, schools and churches. Its purpose is to display power and pride. In castles and mansions there are trophy rooms that display the hunting prey in the form of antlers, animal heads, tusks , elephant feet or fish bites.
At sporting events for some time aimed fan groups of different clubs or countries from out of opposing fans trophies in the form of scarves and robes to or club flags conquer . Physical confrontations are not spared. The looted items are usually burned with hooting to symbolize the superiority of their own association. In contrast to the sporty fighter with his trophy won on the field , the fan has to take care of himself on the side fighting area. Souvenirs are in contrast to “captured” trophies, as they can be purchased anywhere and anytime.
literature
Stefanie Leibetseder and Esther Wipfler: Trophy . In: RDK Labor (2017). Martin Miersch: The Trophy, in: Martin Warnke / Thomas Gaethgens / Hendrik Ziegler u. a. (Ed.), Picture Guide for Political Iconography, Munich: Beck 2011, pp. 465–472.
