New heroes in antiquity : from Achilles to Antinoos

138 Pages·2010·0.6 MB·English

by  Jones

REVEALING ANTIQUITY
(cid:129)18(cid:129)
G. W. Bowersock, General Editor

NEW HEROES IN ANTIQUITY
FromAchilles to Antinoos
(cid:2)
CHRISTOPHER JONES
Harvard University Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, Eng land
2010
Copyright © 2010 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Jones, Christopher P., 1940–
New heroes in antiquity : from Achilles to Antinoos / Christopher Jones.
p. cm. —(Revealing antiquity ; 18)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 674- 03586- 7
1. Mythology, Greek. 2. Gods, Greek. 3. Superheroes— Greece.
4. Heroes— Greece. 5. Greece— Religion. I. Title.
BL785.J66 2010
292.2'11—dc22 2009011505
Contents
Ac know ledg ments vii
List of Illustrations ix
Introduction 1
1. Poetic Heroes 3
2. Local Heroes 13
3. Warriors and Patriots 22
4. Athletes, Poets, Phi los o phers 38
5. Private Heroes 48
6. Greek Heroes in a Roman World 66
7. Antinoos 75
8. Heroes and Saints 84
Appendix: Living Heroes? 93
Notes 99
Index 117

Ac know ledg ments
T
his book began as a series of four lectures that I had the honor of
delivering at the Collège de France in March 2001. I am very grateful
to those who made my stay there so memorable, especially Professors
Marc Fumaroli and Gilbert Dagron, and to those who attended my lec-
tures and improved them by their comments, particularly Jean- Louis
Ferrary. Since then I have spoken on the topics of this book in several
places, the University of Chicago, the University of Toronto, Yale Uni-
versity, and Dumbarton Oaks Research Center, Washington, D.C., and
to these audiences too I am grateful. Most of the research has been
done in the incomparable surroundings of the Institute for Advanced
Study, Princeton, and I am indebted to the many people who made my
stays there possible and fruitful. My greatest thanks, however, are due
to the person who has read with a searching but always kindly eye al-
most everything I have written, my dear friend Glen Bowersock.

List of Illustrations
Pl. 1. Relief from Chrysapha, Laconia 16
Pl. 2. Monument of a young warrior, Tarentum 17
Pl. 3. Heroic relief, Pergamon 54
Pl. 4. Relief showing Polydeucion, Brauron, Attica 55
Pl. 5. Monument of “heroine” Maria, Lilybaion, Sicily 57
Pl. 6. A Roman soldier commemorated as a hero, Selymbria 60
Pl. 7. The inscription of Claudius Paulinus, Pergamon 70
Pl. 8. Coin showing hero Protesilaos, Elaious 73
Pl. 9. The Obelisk of Antinoos, Rome 77
Pl. 10. Detail of silver plate showing Achilles, Augst 91