Dying Amazons

Abstract

Original title: Sterbende Amazonen. Die eigenartige Weihung im ephesischen Artemision

The bronze statues of wounded Amazons by Phidias, Polycletus, and Cresilas in the Ephesian sanctuary of Artemis share a common theme: in dying, they hold themselves upright. This uncommon theme and the larger-than-life-size format of the statues clearly betrays the sculptors’ intention to glorify their subjects. The theme points to the iconographic and intellectual world of classical Attica: in 5th-century Athens, we find two contrary views of war and enemies. On the one hand, one must fight for Athens, just as epitaphioi called on citizens to do so. On the other hand, Aeschylus’ Persians elevates the suffering of the Persians to a general human phenomenon; in the Agamemnon, Aeschylus stresses the shared guilt of both adversaries in wartime. Such ideas, which are reflected in vase paintings and in Polygnotus’ paintings of ›conquered Troy‹, provide the context for the Ephesian statutes of the mythical arch-enemies of Athens: the female warriors, defeated and doomed to die, hold themselves upright and, like female figures of Attic tragedy (Alcestis, Antigone) and other Attic artworks from the Classical Period, depict ›conscious dying‹. No political symbolism can be detected in the statues of the Amazons; they can only have been the dedication of a wealthy individual.