DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0179
n8 Sequence of the Mountain-cults
Kithairon, which will claim our attention later, involved the erection
on the mountain-top of temporary wooden altars destined for the
bonfires of Zeus Kithaironios1. High up on the Cretan Mount Ide
was a permanent rock-cut altar of Zeus Idazos2. Thus with some
variety of detail, according to local circumstances, the primitive
cult of Zeus required an altar on the summit or as near it as
might be.
Even where that cult was celebrated »
On a tall mountain, citied to the top,
Crowded with culture !
hieratic conservatism was apt to maintain the open-air altar. A
case in point is furnished by Pergamon. The Akropolis of that
marvellous city crowns a hill that rises a thousand feet above sea-
level and commands a view of unequalled beauty over the valleys
of Teuthrania. Thanks to the excavations begun by A. Conze and
K. Humann on behalf of the Prussian government in 1878, a fairly
accurate picture may be drawn of Pergamon in its glory, as it was
when Pliny called it ' by far the most famous town in the province
of Asia3.' The silhouette of the city seen from below against the
sunrise (pi. x)4 shows the sky-line cut by two magnificent temples.
In the centre rises the Doric fane of Athena Polids or Nikephoros,
a building of greyish trachyte, flanked on its northern and eastern
sides by a two-storeyed stod or ' colonnade.' Immediately behind
the northern stod are the halls in which the Pergamene Library
was lodged. Further north, and therefore in our illustration more
to the left, stands out the huge temple of the deified Trajan, a
sumptuous Corinthian pile of white marble, surrounded on three
sides by airy colonnades. Athena, then, had her temple, and
Trajan had his. But Zeus5 was content with the altar that smokes
1 Append. B Boiotia.
2 lb. Crete.
3 Plin. nat. hist. 5. 126. The most convenient summary of what is known about
Pergamon is still that contained in Baumeister Denkm. ii. 1206—1227 (history, topography,
and architecture by E. Fabricius), ib. 1227—1287 (art by A. Trendelenburg). But the
great Berlin publication {Altertumer von Pergamon, here cited as Pergamon) is slowly
approaching completion: two volumes have already been devoted to the altar built by
Eumenes ii (197—159 B.C.), viz. Pergamon iii. 1. 1—128 (Der grosze Altar. Der obere
Markt. Berlin 1906) with an Atlas of 34 plates, by J. Schrammen; Pergatnon iii. 2.
1—250 {Die Friese des groszen Altars Berlin 1910) with an Atlas of 36 plates, by
H. Winnefeld.
4 Based on the Berlin panorama by A. Kips and M. Koch (Baumeister Denkm. ii
pi. 36), which in turn utilised the drawing by R. Bohn in Die Ergebnisse der Atisgrab-
ungen zu Pergamon Berlin 1888 iii pi. 2. See also E. Pontremoli and M. Collignon
Pergame, restauration et description des monuments de Vacropole Paris 1900.
5 J. Schrammen in Pergamon iii. 1. 82 points out that the name of the deity to whom
Kithairon, which will claim our attention later, involved the erection
on the mountain-top of temporary wooden altars destined for the
bonfires of Zeus Kithaironios1. High up on the Cretan Mount Ide
was a permanent rock-cut altar of Zeus Idazos2. Thus with some
variety of detail, according to local circumstances, the primitive
cult of Zeus required an altar on the summit or as near it as
might be.
Even where that cult was celebrated »
On a tall mountain, citied to the top,
Crowded with culture !
hieratic conservatism was apt to maintain the open-air altar. A
case in point is furnished by Pergamon. The Akropolis of that
marvellous city crowns a hill that rises a thousand feet above sea-
level and commands a view of unequalled beauty over the valleys
of Teuthrania. Thanks to the excavations begun by A. Conze and
K. Humann on behalf of the Prussian government in 1878, a fairly
accurate picture may be drawn of Pergamon in its glory, as it was
when Pliny called it ' by far the most famous town in the province
of Asia3.' The silhouette of the city seen from below against the
sunrise (pi. x)4 shows the sky-line cut by two magnificent temples.
In the centre rises the Doric fane of Athena Polids or Nikephoros,
a building of greyish trachyte, flanked on its northern and eastern
sides by a two-storeyed stod or ' colonnade.' Immediately behind
the northern stod are the halls in which the Pergamene Library
was lodged. Further north, and therefore in our illustration more
to the left, stands out the huge temple of the deified Trajan, a
sumptuous Corinthian pile of white marble, surrounded on three
sides by airy colonnades. Athena, then, had her temple, and
Trajan had his. But Zeus5 was content with the altar that smokes
1 Append. B Boiotia.
2 lb. Crete.
3 Plin. nat. hist. 5. 126. The most convenient summary of what is known about
Pergamon is still that contained in Baumeister Denkm. ii. 1206—1227 (history, topography,
and architecture by E. Fabricius), ib. 1227—1287 (art by A. Trendelenburg). But the
great Berlin publication {Altertumer von Pergamon, here cited as Pergamon) is slowly
approaching completion: two volumes have already been devoted to the altar built by
Eumenes ii (197—159 B.C.), viz. Pergamon iii. 1. 1—128 (Der grosze Altar. Der obere
Markt. Berlin 1906) with an Atlas of 34 plates, by J. Schrammen; Pergatnon iii. 2.
1—250 {Die Friese des groszen Altars Berlin 1910) with an Atlas of 36 plates, by
H. Winnefeld.
4 Based on the Berlin panorama by A. Kips and M. Koch (Baumeister Denkm. ii
pi. 36), which in turn utilised the drawing by R. Bohn in Die Ergebnisse der Atisgrab-
ungen zu Pergamon Berlin 1888 iii pi. 2. See also E. Pontremoli and M. Collignon
Pergame, restauration et description des monuments de Vacropole Paris 1900.
5 J. Schrammen in Pergamon iii. 1. 82 points out that the name of the deity to whom