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Beating the Galatians: Ideologies, Analogies and Allegories in Hellenistic Literature and Art
- Author(s):
- Thomas J. Nelson (see profile)
- Date:
- 2022
- Group(s):
- Ancient Greece & Rome
- Subject(s):
- Greek literature, Hellenistic, History, Galatians, Gigantomachy (Greek mythology), Callimachus, Seleucids, Ptolemaic dynasty, 305-30 B.C., Lucian, of Samosata
- Item Type:
- Book chapter
- Permanent URL:
- https://doi.org/10.17613/s0qt-4d56
- Abstract:
- Hellenistic literature and art commemorated victories over the Galatians through a variety of analogies and allegories, ranging from the historical Persian Wars to the cosmic Gigantomachy: each individual victory was incorporated into a larger sequence in which order constantly quelled the forces of chaos. This paper explores this analogical phenomenon by setting it within a larger Hellenistic context. The first section analyses the various analogies and allegories employed by the Aetolians, Ptolemies and Attalids, comparing these with their 5th-century Athenian precedent and reassessing the case for a Galatian allegory in the Pergamene Great Altar’s Gigantomachy frieze; the second examines how Callimachus manipulated the common Greek-barbarian antithesis with possible intercultural and metapoetic elements; and the third asks how Seleucid ideology might relate to this larger pattern, focusing on Lucian’s account of Antiochus’ ‘Elephant Victory’ (Zeux. 8–11). Although Lucian’s account probably derives from a prose source and not directly from Simonides of Magnesia’s court epic on the subject, I contend that the Syrian writer is likely indebted to the Seleucids’ own self-presentation in portraying Antiochus as the heir of the Achaemenids through a distinctly orientalising motif: the deployment of an exotic secret weapon. The Greek-barbarian dichotomy so prominent elsewhere thus collapses: the Seleucid king was depicted as the ideal blend of East and West, a worthy successor of Alexander the Great.
- Metadata:
- xml
- Published as:
- Book chapter Show details
- Publisher:
- Peeters
- Pub. Date:
- 2022
- Book Title:
- Galatian Victories and Other Studies into the Agency and Identity of the Galatians in the Hellenistic and Early Roman Periods. Colloquia Antiqua 33
- Author/Editor:
- A. Coşkun
- Page Range:
- 97 - 144
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 12 months ago
- License:
- All Rights Reserved
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Beating the Galatians: Ideologies, Analogies and Allegories in Hellenistic Literature and Art