Macedonian Shield

[system1988]

The importance of the city of Dion, as a religious center in Macedonia, dedicated to the worship of Zeus, is well known and has been so since the 5th century BC up to the Imperial age. (Worship of Jupiter Optimus Maximus)

During the digs that took place in 1997, in the city of Dion, near the temple of Zeus the Highest bronze pieces were uncovered with engraved decorations of stars and circles. After their conservation they were identified as parts of a Macedonian type shield that was based upon hard undercoating made of skin and wood. The decoration is a star with 12 beams that is surrounded by a cord on which there are nine letters which if combined with eight more they display the inscription: ΒΑΣΙΛΕ[ΩΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡ]ΙΟΥ (of the king Demitrios) Around that central symbol of the shield were a few more stars engraved in their triple elliptic orbits.

A star much like the one in Dion is found as a symbol on the shields we see in coins of unknown origin dated after the death of Alexander the Great as well as on coins of the Demitrios The Polierketes. The Royal inscription around the symbol of the shield is also found on another shield, this time from Vegora (with the name of Antigonos on it) as well as on one more shield made of limestone which was found on Memphis Egypt with the name of Ptolemy on it. Moreover Antigonos Gonatas after his victory against the Gauls in 277 AD he created a currency with the same Macedonian shield and the inscription "ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΓΟΝΟΥ" (Of the king Antigonos)

The decoration of the macedonian shield with elliptical orbits of stars has been a stable trend from the Classic Era to the Imperial Age. The obsession with this basic shape that made the shield directly recognisable is difficult to explain just as a decorative need. It is not by chance that many researchers for almost a hundred years consider the macedonian shield to depict stars.

Some researchers believe that this is a sun symbol and others believe the seven orbits with the small stars on the coins of Antigonos Gonatas were symbols for the seven days and nights of the week. Even though no one can claim to side with one side or the other completely we tend to reach the conclusion that the decoration of the Macedonian shields on the sum of the monuments currently known, it is theorized that this is the depiction of a constellation from which the center of the shield is excluded. There we can see monograms god figures and symbols.

The part of the shield that was discovered in Dion (you can see it as the darkened part of the shield in the photo) is refered to the Demitrios the Poliorketes, King of Macedonia (294-287 BC). Demitrios, born in Macedonia but earlier as a child he went along with his father Antigonos the One Eyed in Asia Minor, had as his role models Philip and Alexander and had as his goal to empower Macedonia as well as to reclaim his father’s kingdom. In Dion, where part of his shield was discovered, used to be the host city for the statues of the Macedonian Kings, as well as for the votive statue for the dead Graninkos battle soldiers would never be able to have any other but a very deep meaning for the Sovereign King who had Alexander closest to his heart.

Plutarch observed that Demitrios used to spend his leisure time royally. While the other Kings occupied themselves with flute playing, painting or just like Aerop, build lamps and bronze small tables, Demitrios designed battleships and siege engines. Maybe the design put to that Macedonian shield of Antigonedes was his doing.

My sources: “The Archaeological works at Macedonia and Thrace- 20 years” Published by the Aristotelian University of Thessalonica in 2009. D. Pantermalis- "Dion: History and worship"

[spitamenes]

Didn't they find a stone at St.Marks tomb with a Macedonian shield engraved into it? Sorry if it's entirely irrelevant, but that's what the stones above reminded me of.

Edit: maybe not "shield" but a Macedonian "star"? Either,or...

[spitamenes]

Im going ridiculously far out on a limb here, and will probably show my ignorance in multiple fields by asking this, but I will anyway. So there is a big Macedonian "star" in the middle, and seven smaller stars encircling the big one. Was there not a time where astronomers believed there were only seven planets circling the sun? Because mercury was too small, and Pluto was to far, and small? I know were talking about ancient times, but if you look at ancient cultures, some did have knowledge of the planets in our solar system. I thought egypt was fairly advanced in astronomy. Was Macedonia involved in anything like this? Im just spewing thoughts right about now, so ignore them if it's a bit far fetched.

[agesilaos]

The Greeks knew only Mercury, Venus, Mars, Juppiter and Saturn, the other planets had to await the invention of telescopes to be discovered. They did include the Moon and the Sun among the objects orbiting the Earth so that makes seven, they had also observed the retrorograde motion of the planets, which may be represented by the flattened crescents. However I am sure that coins depict varying numbers of these stars so something astronomically significant seems less likely than simple decoration of a type but with no deeper meaning. The Greeks did not work on seven day weeks, either.

[system1988]

Im going ridiculously far out on a limb here, and will probably show my ignorance in multiple fields by asking this, but I will anyway. So there is a big Macedonian "star" in the middle, and seven smaller stars encircling the big one. Was there not a time where astronomers believed there were only seven planets circling the sun? Because mercury was too small, and Pluto was to far, and small? I know were talking about ancient times, but if you look at ancient cultures, some did have knowledge of the planets in our solar system. I thought egypt was fairly advanced in astronomy. Was Macedonia involved in anything like this? Im just spewing thoughts right about now, so ignore them if it's a bit far fetched.

I am afraid I am more ignorant than you on the subject and maybe on other multiple fields. I took the shield part of the text out of a bigger article that had to do with the archaeological findings of the writer in Dion. Do my thought is that he had little space to fully speak his mind and I myself posted here an edited version of the cut part so that it would be more acceptable to you. It is a scientific research after all and the language was too cold and calculating. The part I left out is the following:

"It is not by chance that many researchers for more than a hunred years consider the shield to depict stars and solar symbols. Svoronos, (JIAN 19, 1918-19 page 189) by extracting the event of the engraving of the solar field, from the myth of the foundation of the Macedonian Dynasty with the decoration (Herodotus 8,137,139), claimed that this was a solar symbol. A. Oikonomidis (Classical Bulletin 64, 1988,77) interpreted the seven orbits with the little stars on the tetradrachma (coins) of Antigonos Gonatas as symbols of the seven days and nights of the week."

The writer of the article continues: "It is not implausable for the little stars of the periphery that are "trapped" in elliptic orbits, to be moving stars (planetes- or wanderers) that were created in order to guard the <<numbers of time>> (Platon Timeos 38b). Planetes, in contrast to the non-moving planets were for the ancient people were the dynamic stars, gods, symbols of power etc.)

Well, for all who wish to learn about Ancient Greek Astronomy i reccomend wikipedia! For me the answer lay in the Britannica Encyclopedia. Then again i did not understood much of it. For me the more important thing is that this object and the concerns surrounding it are now more publicly known. I would also like to add that Philip's royal surroundings as well as he himself knew very well the Pythagorean School (which made great observations about astronomy) as Diodorus Siculus says.

I am also not aware of the stone of St. Mark you are refering to.Thanks for the info however.

[system1988]

The Greeks knew only Mercury, Venus, Mars, Juppiter and Saturn, the other planets had to await the invention of telescopes to be discovered. They did include the Moon and the Sun among the objects orbiting the Earth so that makes seven, they had also observed the retrorograde motion of the planets, which may be represented by the flattened crescents. However I am sure that coins depict varying numbers of these stars so something astronomically significant seems less likely than simple decoration of a type but with no deeper meaning. The Greeks did not work on seven day weeks, either.

You are probably right but I have the impression that the Ancient Greeks knew the concept of the week and its seven days because it fits with their concept of the 4 moon phases (each one lasting roughly 7 days)


Best regards

[spitamenes]

@system 1988,
The tomb of St.Mark is pretty interesting stuff. I might get the story a bit wrong but here it is in brief.
Some people believe that the tomb of St.Mark is actually the final resting place of Alexander's mortal remains. Supposedly Alexander's remains were smuggled out of Egypt from his last known official resting place because they were in danger of being destroyed by the religious and/or political unrest going on at the time. (Which I do not remember the exact time in history this was supposed to have happened.) but I do think it happened around the time when his tomb became lost to history, and if I remember correctly, this is also roughly the time when St.Marks tomb was created. And after all that, during excavations, they found a stone in the tomb that clearly has what looks to be a Macedonian style star carved out of it. There have been threads here about this subject and others here know much more on the subject than I do. I did find it intriguing though.

[Meg]

This is a very vague memory of something to do with the somatophylakes - seven stars around the sun, seven nights around the king...

Does anyone know if this is recorded anywhere?

[agesilaos]

starshieldsculpture.jpg (92.91 KiB) Viewed 9065 times

Sounds like an interpretation from a modern author, as mentioned above a seven day week was not an ancient Greek concept, judging from the Athenian way of naming their days a ten day week seems likely there, though this does not mean that pertained elsewhere. Also numismatic evidence shows six and five stars and the shield at St Marks above has none.

sd coin5.jpg (40.13 KiB) Viewed 9065 times

pyrrhos

sd coin.jpg (147.94 KiB) Viewed 9065 times

gonatas?

[Paralus]

gonatas?

A good pair whose ever they are....

[spitamenes]

I wish I had gonatas like that.
Edit: I'd have to wash those gonatas if they were mine though.

[spitamenes]

You have dirty gonatas.
... I can go all day with this!

[Paralus]

Forgive them basileus for they know not what they do...

[spitamenes]

OK ok. My apologies.
I knew what I was doing though.

Agesilaos, thank you for putting up the image of the St.marks stone. I know it doesnt have the other "stars" circling it, but the center image seems quite similar.

[system1988]

OK ok. My apologies.
I knew what I was doing though.

Agesilaos, thank you for putting up the image of the St.marks stone. I know it doesnt have the other "stars" circling it, but the center image seems quite similar.

Yes it seems quite similar. The discussion about that particular St. Mark relief is a rather long one. Thanks to a kind gesture, I had the chance to see the relief's narrow side (at least the one side) and that, alas, seems to me Roman- era. Of course I cannot be 100% sure as I only have photos to guide me to that conclusion. In the end I cannot but agree that that relief may indeed lead us to discoveires of any kind.

As far as the coins of Gonatas are concerned I think that they are pretty clear.

@Spitamenes

I do not know whether you know how to read modern Greek but "Gonatas" (appart from the "s") means knees.