The Colosseum

Along with a bunch of other comics artists I know, every Monday thru Friday we choose a topic (for example, "dinosaurs" or "Harry Potter" and then we draw a warm-up picture on that topic. I don't normally post these drawings to the Olympiansrule blog because they normally have nothing to do with Olympians, but today the topic was "Civilization" and I drew the famous Colosseum of Ancient Rome. I admit it still doesn't have much to do with Olympians, but I thought you all might still like to see it.

Antique of the Week: The Hephaisteion in Athens

This week's installment of Antique of the Week is the Hephaisteion, or Temple of Hephaistos, that has stood overlooking the Athenian Agora (literally, "open space", the Greek equivalent to a Roman forum) since the 5th Century BCE. It is often cited as one of, if not the, best preserved ancient Greek temple.



The Hephaisteion has also been known as the Theseion due to the belief that it housed the mortal remains of the famous Athenian hero Theseus, best known as the slayer of the minotaur. This was probably due to the fact that the temple formerly was decorated with sculptural representations of Theseus and his adventures, amongst others. A few pieces remain on site,as can be glimpsed in the photo below



In the time when this structure was still used as an actual temple, it held bronze statues of Hephaistos himself, as well as another statue of Athena, in her aspect as the goddess of crafts (both statues are now lost, unfortunately). Appropriately, the Temple was formerly surrounded by many workshops, clayworkers and forges.



On the day we visited, amongst the other pilgrims was this tortoise, which seems to me to be a particularly Hephaisteion type of animal.

Antique of the Week: The Farnese Hercules

As it came time to create this week's installment of Antique of the Week, I've been hard at work on Olympians Book 3, The Glory of Hera. Obviously the Queen of the Gods herself steps up to take center stage in this chapter, but the book also focuses in large part on Heracles, the super-strong demi-god son of Zeus. In fact, in a way, the book is even named after him-- the title "Glory of Hera" is a translation from ancient Greek of Heracles's name.



So the statue we're looking at here is of Heracles, the famous Farnese Hercules. Heracles gets his Latin name here because this statue was created for Ancient Rome, and was located in the Baths of Caracalla (possibly a future candidate itself for Antique of the Week). The Farnese portion comes from when the statue was rediscovered in the sixteenth century and was promptly snatched up by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, nephew of the Pope. Nowadays the sculpture is on display at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, which is where I took these photos.




This statue is my favorite depiction of Heracles/Hercules from ancient sources, and my own depiction of the hero in Hera owes a lot to this sculpture. Things I particularly like-- his exaggerated musculature,and the weary, tired expression on his face and posture. I also really like the way that the sculptor worked in so many of Heracles's symbols-- tired, he leans against his olive wood club, around which he has draped the skin of the Nemean Lion- killing and skining that lion was Heracles's first Labour. Then, around his back, we see that he is holding a couple of the Apples of the Hesperides-- Golden apples from the private garden of Hera herself, which for his eleventh Labour Heracles was sent to fetch.

Antique of the Week: Athena Brandishing her Aegis

A photo from my own collection, from the Acropolis Museum in Athens. This particular statue had a big influence on my own depiction of Athena in Olympians, especially in regards to her Aegis. Originally part of the Old Temple (built on the site before the insanely iconic Parthenon that still stands today) this Athena was part of a sculptural group depicting the Gigantomachy, the battle of the Olympians against the Earth-born Gigantes. As displayed in the museum (unfortunately I didn't seem to record any photos of this) she looms over a vanquished Gigante, the triumphant Goddess of War.

Antique(s) of the Week: The Temples at Paestum, formerly Poseidonia

Since last week we dealt with a statue that has been attributed as being either Zeus or Poseidon, I thought I might continue the theme of mis-attributions of the sea god with a look at the ancient Greek temples at Paestum, in Italy. Paestum began its life as a Greek colony called Poseidonis in about the 7th century BCE. On the left, we have the large structure identified as a temple to Hera. On the right, we have another temple, for years believed to be a temple to Poseidon. Makes sense, to have a temple to Poseidon, given the fact that the town was named Poseidonis, right?



Turns out, however, that this temple was yet another temple to Hera. What? Another temple? I mean, I know Hera was a very important Goddess, but she got two temples, right next to each other, and poor Poseidon gets none?



I find this very interesting, especially because there are many myths wherein Poseidon vies with another god for dominion over a particular place, and strangely, he always seems to lose. He famously competed with Athena to be the patron god of Athens (and lost), and he similarly alternately flooded or dried up Argos when they chose Hera as their patron deity over him.

The above, by the way, is a shot of the full moon taken by yours truly from the altar of the contested temple. Pretty cool, huh?



Finally, a sculptural representation of Poseidon himself, or rather his Roman counterpart Neptune, as sculpted by the great Baroque artist Giovanni Bernini. This image was sent in by reader R. Clancy, who photographed it himself at the Victoria & Albert Museum in the UK where this sculpture resides. Special thanks to Mr. Clancy for providing the inspiration for this installment of Antique of the Week.

Antique of the Week: The God from the Sea

From my own trip to the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

This is one of the most famous bronze statues that have come to us from ancient Greece. It avoided the fate of most ancient bronzes (being melted down) by being lost at sea-- it wasn't rediscovered until the 1920's! Most scholars believe that this statue represents Zeus, but others believe it be his brother, Poseidon (which would be cool, given how it was dramatically rescued from the Mediterranean sea). Notice that his right hand was obviously meant to be holding something-- like maybe a lightning bolt, or perhaps a trident. It's too bad it's empty, because whatever he once held would undoubtedly have told us the secret of the God from the Sea!