Well, I didn’t actually burst into tears but I spent an absorbed hour and three quarters at the Alexander exhibition in Oxford. That, of course, is a bit of a misnomer as it isn’t really an exhibition about Alexander and doesn’t claim to be. Alexander is only present in this bust here
http://kizzikat.livejournal.com/25312.html, found at Pella and dating to about 300 BC. I was strongly tempted to at least touch it, if not take away with me.
Alexander is also present in the things he would have selected to place in Philip’s tomb, such as the (then) 100 year old bronze tripod, the beautifully worked silver cup and jug. There are none of the principal items from Philip’s tomb here, not surprisingly, except for the greaves, which I will come back to in a moment.
The exhibition though is really about the world of Alexander’s royal family as revealed principally through the burials at the ancient royal city of Ageae, ending with the finds from the tomb of what has been identified as Alexander’s son, Alexander IV. The exhibition has three rooms, the world of the king, the world of the queen, and the banqueting room. It starts with some of the earliest ‘royal’ finds from Macedonia, long bronze swords from the 13th century BC imported from the Mycenean world to the south, followed by the short swords of the iron age, the iron head, hand grip and butt of a sarissa and some other iron items. Interestingly, no axes, but I’ll come back to that.
On the opposite side of the room are various kingly items such as the tripod, a gilt diadem, and various vessels. There is also the gold wreath which I believe is the one Robin Lane Fox was referring to. It is a stunning profusion of golden oak leaves and tiny acorns about half an inch long, and none of the pictures do it justice. However, to clear up any confusion, for me at least, this is not the queen’s wreath. There are two gold wreaths in the exhibition, the other is a myrtle wreath of leaves and flowers, and this is the one believed to have belonged to one of Philip’s early wives, Meda.
The gold oak wreath is too big for a woman in any case, and was found in the sanctuary of Eukleia, the goddess of good repute, in 2008 along with the cremated remains of a young man of about 17, and is dated to about 310 BC. This is pure supposition, but could it be Alexander’s son Herakles? I'm not sure that this is the same gold wreath that is pictured in the small guide book as this is dated 325-300 BC.
There is also the golden head of Medea which has been used as the frontispiece for the exhibition. It was once attached to Philip’s linen corselet. Only an inch and a half across, the workmanship is incredibly fine. I must do some research about the significance of snakes for warding off harm.
On the opposite wall to the swords etc. is a large representation of the painted hunting scene from the façade of Philip’s tomb. Its size enables you to study it in some detail, for example, I hadn’t realised that the figure of Alexander is wearing a wreath of green leaves; I had assumed it was a helmet he was wearing.
At the end of the room is a statue of a young man wearing a knee-length tunic belted around the lower ribs rather than the waist and a short cloak. Interesting statement about normal daily attire. Accompanying it is a statue of a boar with a greyhound-like dog balancing on its back and biting its ear. Interesting hunting method. These come from the gymnasium at Ageae and are believed to represent a dedication by a young man at his coming of age.
In the centre of the room are pieces of broken pots from the tomb of Philip’s mother Eurydike with a large quantity of big iron nails. Many of these nails, up to 8 inches long, have their ends bent at 90° as though they were too long for whatever they were nailed through and the ends have been hammered to bend back flush into the wood. Presumably in the days before screws, this was a common method for securing woodwork.
In the second room are the myrtle gold wreath, several life-sized terracotta heads dating to c.480 BC, one still bearing the red painted Greek key symbols on her headdress, a good many figurines, one still bearing pale purple on her robes, toilet articles, a good many vases, many of which still show strong reds, blues, and browns on the garments of the figures against a white background. The principle items in this room though are the funerary wear accompanying five female burials.
The best of these is the ‘Lady of Ageae’, about 30 years old when she died in c.500 BC. She was literally covered in gold, gold soles to her shoes, gold rosettes sewn onto her skirt (presumably attached by the hole in the centre), thin gold snake bracelets, a ring (surprised there weren’t more rings and bracelets), a gold plaque at her waist (without buckles, heavy belts would have been difficult to secure presumably), several exquisitely worked gold pins, bracelets and pendants to adorn her bosom and shoulders, including two huge pins about 10 inches long with beautiful filigree heads. She also had a gold bead necklace, beautiful golden earrings, an upright diadem of sheet gold engraved with mythological scenes and her mantle would have been edged in engraved gold strips about an inch wide. Most curious though are the coils of gold wire, almost like miniature ringlets, which she would have worn framing her face. Very Schliemann-like. The other women had what I believe are silver versions of these ringlets.
Also in this room are two heads of classical type, one a young man who shows Alexander characteristics (the bent neck, the parted lips), although it isn’t Alexander, and a young woman, possibly Athena.
The third room contains the vessels used at banquets with which kings consolidated the support for their rule, from the early clay vessels through to the silver cup, ladle, jug (no spout, curiously, so it was probably ornamental rather than functional) and bowl from Philip’s tomb. There is an elegant ice bucket that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the 1920s or 30s from Alexander IV’s tomb, but the item that caught my eye here was a small ivory figure which was inlaid into a footstool from Alexander IV’s tomb. No bigger than 3 inches high by 4 inches wide, it is an exquisitely detailed figure of a bearded man’s torso, his arms outstretched. He is wearing long sleeves, presumably Persian dress, a lock of his long hair still remains on one shoulder, and his minute fingers are curled outwards, standing proud from the rest of the hand. The workmanship is extraordinary. I think the workman would have had to work outside in natural light to see clearly what he was doing.
I haven’t done a very good job of explaining this exhibition, but those are some of my thoughts.
What did I learn from the exhibition?
a) The exhibition opens with a quote from Herodotus (8.137-8 I think), which I need to look up, about Perdiccas and his brothers at the gardens of Midas from where they went forth and recovered the kingdom. I don’t know if this is Philip’s brother or an earlier king (which I suspect), but it is interesting that the gardens of Midas which I’ve seen associated with Mieza (are they the same?), had obviously had a long royal association. I may be completely wrong here, but it was just a thought that struck me.
b) Macedonian warriors tended to be buried with two spears rather than a sword and helmet. This would seem to be indicative of the importance placed on hunting rather than hand to hand fighting as the measure of a man.
c) Macedonian queens often seem to have been buried with a staff bearing triple double axes (three axes one above the other). These seem to have a religious significance relating to their function as high priestesses. I need to do some research about double-headed axes but they are quite ancient symbols from what I recall, connected with chthonic gods and the sacrifice of victims.
Yet how does this relate to the use of axes in hunting? On the hunting scene from Philip’s tomb, there is a foreground figure, more prominent than Philip or Alexander who are both clothed, on horseback and armed with spears, who is naked and wielding an axe. I couldn’t see if it was double-headed. You have got to be damned brave (or stupid) to go up against an enraged lion (chased by horses, baited by dogs and speared), naked and wielding an axe. Is this figure some sort of hunting deity, a specially designated huntsman whose job was to despatch the lion, or is it some sort of initiation rite for a young man to ritually offer the killing stroke to a lion with an axe?
Sorry for this digression, but I have been thinking about the representations of naked hunters in Macedonian art recently and would appreciate any thoughts. If Pages were designated to chase the prey towards the hunters, running naked in the heat would seem to make sense, and running barefoot if your only alternative were floppy tie-on sandals would also make sense. Yet actually hunting animals naked with only a cloak to wrap around your arm doesn’t seem to make sense, unless it was a rite of passage, an unusual occurrence, or it was an artistic convention to show hunters naked.
d) Philip was not a big man. The greaves, I am guessing, would make him about 5 foot 4 or maybe 6 inches tall. They are also surprisingly slender-legged for a man in his mid-forties. They are presented with the right (his right, the left as you look at them) leg advanced. I don’t know if this is artistic convention, but presented like this, I couldn’t see the supposed difference in length. The left one (his left, the right as you look at it) certainly looked a little twisted, but not enough to account for Val Kilmer’s club-footed gait, and I wasn’t certain if it was just the greave having been crushed a bit.
Finally, was the exhibition worth going to? Yes, it was certainly worth the £8 entrance fee, although it wasn’t anywhere near as busy as I thought it would be. I am not certain it is worth a plane flight though as I really took my time at nearly two hours to look round.
Apologies for this having been such a rambling report. I have posted some photos of the small version of the exhibition catalogue here
http://kizzikat.livejournal.com/25450.html#cutid1. If you zoom into 150% you should be able to read it. I haven’t really looked yet at the big catalogue.
Finally finally, could I just say that if there is anyone who likes going to museums to look at statues etc., I have set up a small community here
http://www.livejournal.com/users/greek_art if anyone wants to join or just browse (hope it’s okay to post this link).