Discovering Macedonia
VERGINA
The Hellenistic period, which began with Alexander the Great
and ended with the close of the pre-Christian era, comprises the final
illustrious chapter in the history of the ancient Greek world. If the Archaic
period constituted a dynamic introduction, and the Classical period
consolidated that which we call Greek culture, with its unique creations in the
fields of art, letters and thought, in the Hellenistic period this culture
spread to the very limits of the ancient world in a mighty wave, taking on
universal dimensions, and providing fecund wellsprings to the new world which
was to blaze the path to Christianity. The great new centers of political power
were now situated in the capitals of the Macedonian kings who succeeded
Alexander: in Alexandria, Antioch and Paramus. In these cities, where the
world's great libraries were established, culture flourished anew, attracting
philosophers and artists.
It is a well-known and accepted fact that the founders and
organizers of these centers were the Macedonian comrades of the young king who
had not only transformed the map but had also revolutionized the thought and
lives of millions of people, both Greeks and speakers of other languages. To
date, however, no historian of art or culture has sought out the roots of this
phenomenon in Macedonia, homeland of these men, in their cultural origins, as
if their background had consisted solely of hard military training bereft of
culture, together with the lowly entertainment of the soldier. The splendor of
the Athens of Pericles and Phidias was such as to make the backward regions of
the rest of Greece seem even less enlightened. And the eloquent voice of
Demosthenes had nearly persuaded us that the "barbaric Macedonian"
who threatened his land
was a crude and uncouth ruler, unfit to be considered a Civilized Greek.
But even the sparse information, which has come down to us,
suggests that we could perhaps take the Athenian orator's words with a grain of
salt. We know for a fact that this "barbaric king" engaged Aristotle,
who came to Macedonia accompanied by his friend and disciple Theophrastus, as a tutor for his son, just as we know that
he commissioned Leochares, one of the most brilliant sculptors of the 4th
century B.C., to execute portraits of his family to be placed in Olympia. Many
of the most renowned musicians, poets, sculptors and painters of the time lived
and worked in the Macedonian capital. Most important, this relationship with
men of art and letters was an old and well-established tradition in the
Macedonian court. Philip himself had carried on a correspondence with
Speusippus, nephew and successor of Plato at the Academy, thus following in the
steps of his predecessor, Perdiccas III, whose political advisor was Euphraeos,
another important disciple of Plato. Yet further in the past, early in the 5th
century B.C., Alexander I had commissioned Pindar to write an ode, while his
successor, Perdiccas II, played host to the poet Melanippides and to that most
renowned physician, Hippocrates, at Aigai. But it would have been difficult to
find more stimulating intellectual company in all of Greece than that of
Archelaus (413-399 B.C.). The greatest painter of that time, Zeuxis, decorated
his palace, where the two most outstanding contemporary poets, Agathon and
Euripides, lived. Wrote and presented their works, including the most exciting
play of the latter, the "Bacchae". Thus it is not at all surprising
that Macedonians such as Marsyas, Ptolemy, Craterus and others not only had an
excellent education, but wrote very distinguished works as well.
Bur perhaps not even this highly significant information,
scattered and fragmentary, was enough to convince us of the cultural tradition
of the Macedonian, who kindled the flame of Hellenism. We had to see their
works of art, the houses in which they dwelt, the utensils they used and the
tombs where they found eternal rest with our very own eyes and touch them with
our hands. Only then could we understand how they wished - whether in
Alexandria, Pergamum, Antioch or in far off Bactria - to recreate a world which
they had left behind in their distant Macedonian homeland, in Aigai or Pella,
Dion or other cities which the archaeologist's pick has just revealed to our
astonished eyes. And if we had heard of Cleitus, and Antigonus, Harpalus and
Philotas, Pankasta and Berenice, the generals, queens and concubines who became
a part of history, the grave stones of Vergina now confirm that these same
names were born by ordinary Macedonians, such as Alcimus, Alcetas, Cleander,
Peucolaus, Menander and Pierio. Who, indeed, could question the etymology of
these names or seek their roots in obscure reverberations of Illyrian or
Thracians, when any Greek or Hellenist can encounter them not only in Greek texts
but in everyday life today in Greece as well? And when we read: «Παρ'
'Ήρας' Αργείας
είμi τών αέθλων» (I
am victor of the games of Argive Hera) on a bronze tripod found in the tomb of
Philip, in the knowledge that this trophy was won around 440-430 B.C. by some
Macedonian champion, does this not help us to recall the descent of the
Macedonian kings from Hercules, «Πατρώος
Ηρακλής» (Hercules ancestor), as he is
referred to on the inscription found in the palace at Vergina? And standing on
the verandah of the palace, gazing down on the orchestra of the theatre at just
a few meters’ distance and, beyond that, on the little temple of Eucleia, can
we entertain any doubts as to the fact that this was a city inhabited by people
of indisputably Greek origins?
These origins bore abundant fruit in artistic creation. It is difficult to counterfeit cultural values, for
the language of art clearly reveals both the provenance and purpose of the
work. It is a language, which testifies to the identification of speaker and
listener alike. And the works yielded up by the Macedonian excavations, first
and foremost the masterpieces uncovered at Vergina, speak a language the
grammar and syntax, which lead back to a lengthy Greek tradition. The
incomparable nobility of the figures, the spare expressiveness of the forms,
the sensitivity and wisdom which pervaded their conception and execution tell
us that these works were fashioned by men who had a background of long and
superior artistic tradition, and were intended for those possessing the cultural
refinement to appreciate such values.
At the pinnacle of this creativity are the painted
compositions discovered in the royal tombs of Vergina. The rape of Persephone
by Pluto, which is depicted on a tomb wall 3,50 m. in length, constitutes the
finest example of the great Greek painting tradition to come down to us. I have
strong reason to believe that it is the work of one of the most renowned 4th
century painters, Nicomachus, who is known to have rendered a portable painting
on this theme.
The power of design and the chromatic subtlety of form are easily comparable to
the most superb achievements of Italian Renaissance painting.
More highly inspired yet is the hunt mural, which adorns the facade of Philip's
tomb. This ingenious composition unfolds on a frieze of 5,50 m. showing three
riders and seven hunters on foot with their dogs, hunting wild animals in the
forest. Roebuck, wild boar and bear, run to earth and wounded by their agile
pursuers, are shown on the painted surface, with the main scene on the right
representing a lion hunt. The prey is trapped beneath the spear of a mature
mounted huntsman, who is preparing to strike as a second young horseman
approaches rapidly. These two riders should be considered to be none other than
Philip and Alexander and this mural to constitute the oldest and most authentic
portrait of these two celebrated kings. The theory that this is a work of
Philoxenus of Eretria, the artist who painted the famous battle of Alexander
against Darius (preserved in the well-known Roman mosaic copy in Pompeii),
appears to me to be quite plausible. Thus we have yet another work by a great
artist of the 4th century B.C. and are in a position for the first time to
assess the achievements of Greek painting of the Classical period, which we had
absolutely no knowledge of hitherto.
Many pages would be needed for one to give even a general
idea of the findings of Vergina, as I have endeavored to do in my first book,
which has already been published. I shall just mention the ivory carvings,
which adorned the wooden couches found in the royal tombs. Amongst these are
many small heads, which certainly portray specific individuals whom it is
difficult to identify. Two of these can, however, be recognized: they are
undoubtedly portraits of Philip and Alexander, and represent the most authentic
images of the two kings, at the same time constituting two of the most
excellent and ancient portraits offered us by Greek art. If we add to these a
relief showing Pan and a couple (possibly divine?) which is surely the most
beautiful ivory of antiquity, and the ivory embellishment of Philip's shield as
restored by the Museum of Thessaloniki, we could claim to have the rarest
collection of Classical Greek ivories.
Thus, a single glance at all these works which accompanied
the Macedonian kings to their graves would suffice to confirm that before us we
have the most brilliant works of a civilization deeply rooted in the long
artistic tradition of the Greek world just as it prepared to spread its
branches, laden with the fruit of Hellenistic art and universal thought.
MANOLIS ANDRONICOS
The Pan-Macedonian Association
of America, Sixty Years of Activity.
PAN-MACEDONIAN ASSOCIATION USA, Inc.
