Xoanon

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Original limestone figure, Middle Bronze Age, Cyprus, 1900–1800 BC BC
(Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens)

The Artemis of Ephesus
(an 18th century copy)

The Xoanon ( xoánon ; Greek : "the carved" ) is a human-shaped statue of a certain deity made of wood . They were set up in archaic, Greek (also Cypriot) temples, which were mostly aligned so that this holy of holies was illuminated by the sun.

Today the term is also used for statues whose limbs (face, hands and feet) are made of marble or lime. The board idols and the chryselephantine statues, as they are mainly known from Phidias , represent a further development .

literature

• Walter Hatto Gross : Xoanon. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IX A, 2, Stuttgart 1967, Col. 2140-2149.