Greek Perspectives on the Achaemenid Empire: Persia Through the Looking Glass

393 Pages·2016·26.435 MB·English

by  Janett Morgan

Greek Perspectives
on the Achaemenid Empire
EDINBURGH STUDIES IN ANCIENT PERSIA
Dealing with key aspects of the ancient Persian world from the Achaemenids
to the Sasanians: its history, reception, art, archaeology, religion, literary
tradition (including oral transmissions) and philology, this series provides
an important synergy of the latest scholarly ideas about this formative
ancient world civilisation.
series editor
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Cardiff University
editorial advisory board
Touraj Daryaee
Andrew Erskine
Thomas Harrison
Irene Huber
Keith Rutter
Jan Stronk
titles available in the series
Courts and Elites in the Hellenistic Empires: The Near East after the
Achaemenids, c. 330 to 30 bce
By Rolf Strootman
Greek Perspectives on the Achaemenid Empire: Persia through the
Looking Glass
By Janett Morgan
forthcoming titles
Reorienting the Sasanians: Eastern Iran in Late Antiquity
By Khodadad Rezakhani
The Bactrian Mirage: Iranian and Greek Interaction in Western Central
Asia
By Michael Iliakis
Plutarch and the Persica
By Eran Almagor
Sasanian Persia: Between Rome and the Steppes of Eurasia
By Eberhard Sauer
Visit the Edinburgh Studies in Ancient Persia website at
www.euppublishing.com/series/esap
Greek Perspectives on the
Achaemenid Empire
Persia through the Looking Glass
Janett Morgan
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© Janett Morgan, 2016
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Published with the support of the
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Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Acknowledgements xiv
Note on Abbreviations and Style xvii
Series Editor’s Preface xviii
Maps xx
Introduction: Perspectives, Looking Glasses and the
Achaemenid Empire 1
1 Journeys of the Mind: Greek Perspectives on the ‘East’
before the Achaemenid Empire 18
2 Journeys through the Looking Glass: Early Perspectives on
the Achaemenid Empire 67
3 Facing the Gorgon: Reactions to the Achaemenid Empire
in Classical Athens 125
4 What the Butler Saw: Intimate Perspectives on King and
Court in Classical Ionian Texts 189
5 The Mirror Crack’d: Spartan Responses to the ‘East’ and
to the Achaemenid Empire 222
6 Entering the Hall of Mirrors: Macedonia and the
Achaemenid Empire 255
Conclusion: Travelling with Eunuchs 293
Bibliography 298
Index 354
List of Illustrations
Fig. I.1 View of the site at Persepolis before restoration
(photograph by Luigi Pesce, 1840s to 1860s).
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Accession
Number: 1977.683.70. Gift of Charles K. and Irma B.
Wilkinson, 1977. www.metmuseum.org. 2
Fig. I.2 Line drawing of a Greek soldier fighting an
Achaemenid soldier. From the Edinburgh Cup. Painted by
the Triptolemos Painter, c. 460 bce. National Museum,
Scotland A.1887.213 (drawing by author). 4
Fig. I.3 Greek soldier attacking Achaemenid archer on the
Eurymedon Vase, painted by the Triptolemos Painter, c.
460 bce. Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe
1981.173 (drawing by Paul Butler). 6
Fig. I.4 Achaemenid- style glass phiale made in the ‘Greek
east’, sixth century bce. Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York. Accession Number: 69.11.6. Purchase, Arthur
Darby Nock Bequest, in honour of Gisela Richter, 1969.
www.metmuseum.org. 12
Fig. 1.1 Frontispiece from the Museum Wormianum (1655),
showing Ole Worm’s cabinet of curiosities (Smithsonian
Institution Libraries [Public domain], via Wikimedia
Commons). 22
Fig. 1.2 South façade of the British Museum (photograph by
Edmund Connolly). 25
Fig. 1.3 Plan of male cremation and female inhumation in
the central room of the Toumba building at Lefkandi,
c. 950 bce (Popham, Calligas and Sackett 1993: pl.13).
Reproduced with permission of the British School at
Athens. 27
Fig. 1.4 Drawing of an engraved Near Eastern bronze bowl
from Toumba Grave 55.28 (Popham and Lemos 1996:
vi
List of Illustrations vii
pl. 133). Reproduced with permission of the British School
at Athens. 28
Fig. 1.5 Photograph of centaur figurine from Toumba Graves
T1 and T3, Lefkandi (Popham, Sackett and Themelis 1980:
frontispiece). Reproduced with permission of the British
School at Athens. 33
Fig. 1.6 Replica miniature tripod (photograph by author). 41
Fig. 1.7 Replica of Geometric-s tyle kantharos cup from the
seventh century bce with chariot scene (photograph
by author). 44
Fig. 1.8 Bronze figurine showing man and centaur, mid-
eighth century bce. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York. Accession Number: 17.190.2072. Gift of J. Pierpont
Morgan, 1917. www.metmuseum.org. 45
Fig. 1.9 Early Corinthian tripod pyxis showing woman
between sphinxes on leg and woman among animals on
lid, c. 620–590 bce. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York. Accession Number: 22.139.4a, b.
www.metmuseum.org. 59
Fig. 1.10 Monumental stone columns from the temple of
Apollo, Corinth, c. 540 bce (photograph by author).
Reproduced with permission of the Ephorate of Antiquities
of Corinth. The copyright of the antiquities depicted herein
belongs to the Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Sports (Law
3028/2002). 61
Fig. 1.11 Medusa pediment on the temple of Artemis, Corfu,
c. 590 bce (drawing by Alexander Morgan after Tataki
1990: 134–5). 62
Fig. 2.1 Plan of the Persepolis Terrace, c. 470–450 bce (Roaf
1983: fig. 155). Reproduced by kind permission of the
British Institute of Persian Studies. 74
Fig. 2.2 Genius figure from Pasargadae, with Assyrian-s tyle
wings, Elamite clothing and Egyptian-s tyle crown (photo:
B. Grunewald, D- DAI- EUR- THE- R- 1975–0200). © DAI
Fotoarchiv Teheran. All rights reserved. 75
Fig. 2.3 Tribute delegations on the Apadana at Persepolis
(photograph by Luigi Pesce, 1840s to 1860s).
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Accession
Number: 1977.683.61. Gift of Charles K. and Irma B.
Wilkinson, 1977.
www.metmuseum.org. 78
Fig. 2.4 Relief from Khorsabad with gift-g iving scene
viii Greek Perspectives on the Achaemenid Empire
showing lion- headed situlae (drawing by Alexander
Morgan after Botta and Flandin 1849: pl. 103). 92
Fig. 2.5 Gold Achaemenid rhyta with lion terminal, fifth
century bce. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Accession Number: 54.3.3. Fletcher Fund, 1954. www.
metmuseum.org. 93
Fig. 2.6 Achaemenid seal showing king fighting lions, fifth to
fourth century bce. Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York. Accession Number: 1985.192.5. Gift of Martin
and Sarah Cherkasky, 1985. www.metmuseum.org. 96
Fig. 2.7 Relief sculpture showing king fighting lion from the
Hall of 100 Columns, Persepolis (photograph by Lloyd
Llewellyn- Jones). 97
Fig. 2.8 East Greek trefoil oinochoe from Ionia showing
waterbird and sphinx, c. 625–600 bce. J. Paul Getty
Museum, Getty Villa. Object no. 82.AE.126. Gift of Vasek
Polak. Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content
Program. 99
Fig. 2.9 Outline plans of the tomb of Cyrus and the tomb at
Taş Kule, showing stepped bases (drawings by author after
Cahill 1988: fig. 4 and Curtis 2000: fig. 41). 102
Fig. 2.10 Clazomenian sarcophagus, c. 480–470 bce.
Attributed to Albertinum Group. J. Paul Getty Museum,
Getty Villa. Object no. 77.AD.88. Digital image courtesy
of the Getty’s Open Content Program. 103
Fig. 2.11 Marble stele (grave marker) of a youth and little
girl, with capital and finial in the form of a sphinx, c. 530
bce. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Accession
Number: 11.185a–d, f, g, x. Frederick C. Hewitt Fund,
1911; Rogers Fund, 1921; Munsey Funds, 1936, 1938;
and Anonymous Gift, 1951. www.metmuseum.org. 108
Fig. 2.12 Plan of Archaic Acropolis showing the possible
positions of ‘treasury’ buildings C, D, E at 5 and
Hekatompedon at 6 (Dinsmoor 1947: fig. 3). Courtesy of
Archaeological Institute of America and American Journal
of Archaeology. 110
Fig. 2.13 The remains of the Hekatompedon pediment
from the Athenian Acropolis, c. 570 bce. Acr. 3+, 36+,
35+ (photograph by Socrates Mavromatis). Courtesy
of the Acropolis Museum, Athens. The copyright of the
antiquities depicted herein belongs to the Hellenic Ministry
of Culture & Sports (Law 3028/2002). 113
List of Illustrations ix
Fig. 2.14 Reconstruction of the central scene of lions
attacking a bull on the pediment of the early temple of
Athena, Athenian Acropolis (Howe 1955: pl. 83, fig.
14). Courtesy of Archaeological Institute of America and
American Journal of Archaeology. 114
Fig. 2.15 Scene of lion attacking bull, from the Apadana
staircase at Persepolis (photograph by
Lloyd Llewellyn- Jones). 114
Fig. 2.16 Remains of Building F, c. 550–525 bce, lying
underneath the later Tholos building in the Athenian
Agora (2002.01.0269). Courtesy of the American
School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations. 115
Fig. 2.17 Plan of the Pisistratid Telesterion at Eleusis,
c. 550–510 bce (drawing by author after Lawrence 1983:
335, fig. 328). 117
Fig. 2.18 Parasol on sixth- century bce Attic vase fragment
(drawing by author after Athens National Museum,
Acropolis Collection 682, in Graef and
Langlotz 1925: pl. 46). 119
Fig. 2.19 Relief of King Xerxes (485–465 bce) in the
doorway of his palace at Persepolis with parasol
bearer (photograph by Luigi Pesce, 1840s to 1860s).
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Accession
Number: 1977.683.63. Gift of Charles K. and Irma B.
Wilkinson, 1977. www.metmuseum.org. 120
Fig. 2.20 The ‘Persian or Scythian’ horseman, c. 520–510
bce. Found in 1886 near the Erechtheion but originally
placed on the Athenian Acropolis (photograph by Socrates
Mavromatis). Courtesy of Acropolis Museum, Athens.
The copyright of the antiquities depicted herein belongs to
the Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Sports (Law 3028/
2002). 122
Fig. 3.1 Line drawing of red-fi gure oinochoe, c. 450 bce,
showing Achaemenid male seated on a mule. Found in
Tarquinia, Etruria. Berlin Antikensammlung, Staatliche
Museen zu Berlin V.I.3156 (drawing by author after
Shapiro 2009: 66). 127
Fig. 3.2 Black- figure neck amphora, c. 500 bce, showing
Theseus fighting the Minotaur. Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York. Accession Number: 21.88.92. Rogers
Fund, 1921. www.metmuseum.org. 135
Fig. 3.3 Model of the Tholos building in the Athenian Agora,