Seeing like a city: eikôn and andrias in Hellenistic civic culture (original) (raw)
2016, Pharos
What is eikôn? Epigraphical examples accompanying actual ancient statues (notably a remarkable early Hellenistic dossier from Erythrai, concerning the statue of the tyrannicide Philitas) allow us to read the word in concept, as an image emanating from or produced by material means (the andrias). The workings of eikôn represent a body of civic thinking about art and images, that reflects the political culture of the Greek civic state. This com-munitarian connoisseurship determined production, appearance and reception of Hellenis-tic: if the actual works of this civic art of mostly lost, some playful variants or reactions to it allow us to capture some of its effect. Keywords statues-art history-visuality-civic culture-Hellenistic art-polis Mutilating and restoring the eikôn: Philitas of Erythrai Some time in the early Hellenistic period, the citizens of Erythrai decided to restore the statue of one Philitas, the tyrannicide. This work of civic art had been modified earlier, when the city was under the control of an oligarchical faction: apparently feeling under threat by the stance (stasis) of the statue, they had removed the sword which the figure wielded, thus changing the monument and neutralizing its threat. The democratic polis deliberated, investigated, and put the sword back in place, reestablishing its meaning. The moment is a striking example of an honorific statue, perhaps quite ancient, and its political force in a local, relational context, down in time; 1 we know of this statue through the official decision taken by the Erythraians, and inscribed on a stone slab set up next to the statue.
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