Pergamon Altar

The Pergamon Altar (Ancient Greek: Βωμός τῆς Περγάμου) is a monumental construction built during the reign of king Eumenes II in the first half of the 2nd century BCE on one of the terraces of the acropolis of the ancient Greek city of Pergamon in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey.

Overview

The structure is 35.64 metres (116' 31/32") wide and 33.4 metres (109' 6 5/8") deep; the front stairway alone is almost 20 metres (65' 11/16") wide. The base is decorated with a frieze in high relief showing the battle between the Giants and the Olympian gods known as the Gigantomachy.

In 1878, the German engineer Carl Humann started official excavations on the acropolis of Pergamon, an effort that lasted until 1886.

The Great Altar of Pergamon, dedicated to Zeus and Athena, was ornamented on its vast sockel with reliefs depicting the struggle of the Olympian gods and the subterranean powers. It was built by Eumenes II (197-159 BCE) in commemoration of his victoryover the Gauls in 190 BCE. The altar, ascended by means of a stairway on its western side, enclosed an offering table within a raised court bounded on three sides by colonnaded enclosure wall which itself was ornamented on the inside with reliefs depicting the legend of Telephus, the son of Heracles and Auge and forefather of the Pergamene royal family.

Foundation Remains

circa 130 BCE

The foundations Of The Great Altar Of Zeus as they stand today, the altar itself is in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin; Pergamum, Turkey.

In Byzantine times, the temple was neglected and eventually dismantled. Fragments of marble from the altar were built into the Byzantine defensive walls.

In 1871, the Zeus Altar was rediscovered by the German engineer Carl Humann, who took it back to his home country. It is now exhibited at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. The Turkish government is in the process of trying to get the artifact back from Germany.

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Recommended Readings

The Pergamon Altar: Its Rediscovery, History and Reconstruction

Phillip Von Zabern

It explains all the scenes (recovered) of the battle frieze, accompanied by photos. The Eastern Frieze, for example, includes a scene of the Goddess Artemis, ready to attack an armed giant. At her feet, one of her hunting dogs bites down on the neck of another giant.
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The Great Altar of Pergamon

Umut Dogan

The book describes the reliefs, depicted the victory of the Olympian gods over the Giants (also called Gigantes), one of the most popular stories of Aegean mythology sculptural friezes carried the main body of the altar, which was in the form of a stoa with Ionic columns aligned in a single row along all sides.
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Notes

• Initially, the Ottoman government wanted to share the finds (2/3 to Germany 1/3 to Turkey), but in negotiations which took place 1878/79, which were even influenced by Bismarck, an agreement was concluded which allocated all finds to the German Empire for a payment of 20,000 goldmarks. It helped that the Ottoman Empire was at that time weak on the domestic front and grateful for Bismarck's mediating role at the Congress of Berlin. See Kunze, Kästner: Antikensammlung II, p. 30; Schaller: Pergamonaltar, col. 211.
• Alexander Conze, quoted from Max Kunze, Volker Kästner: Antikensammlung II. Der Altar von Pergamon. Hellenistische und römische Architektur. Henschelverlag, 2nd edition, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-362-00436-9.

See Also

• Pergamon Theatre
• Seven Churches of the Apocalypse
• Temple of Dionysus
• Temple of Athena
• Notable Exhibitions at the Pergamon Museum

References

• Kahl, Brigitte. 2010. Galatians Re-Imagined: Reading with the Eyes of the Vanquished. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
• On the use of the altar and possible ways of sacrificing see Max Kunze: Der Pergamonaltar. Seine Geschichte, Entdeckung und Rekonstruktion. von Zabern, Mainz 1995, ISBN 3-8053-1468-X.
• Dreyfus, Renée, and Ellen Schraudolph. 1996. Pergamon: The Telephos Frieze From the Great Altar. San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
• Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Antikensammlung (ed.): Die Antikensammlung im Pergamonmuseum und in Charlottenburg. Also Antikensammlung Berlin, von Zabern, Mainz 1992, ISBN 3-8053-1187-7.
• Wolfgang Radt: Pergamon. Geschichte und Bauten einer antiken Metropole, Primus, Darmstadt 1999.
• Pollitt, J.J., Art in the Hellenstic Age (Cambridge 1986).
• Queyrel, François, L'Autel de Pergame. Images et pouvoir en Grèce d'Asie. Antiqua vol. 9. Paris: Éditions A. et J. Picard, 2005. See Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2005.08.42.
• Ridgway, B.S. 2000. Hellenistic Sculpture II. The Styles of ca. 200-100 BC, (Madison, Wisconsin).
• Bernard Andreae: Datierung und Bedeutung des Telephosfrieses im Zusammenhang mit den übrigen Stiftungen der Ataliden von Pergamon, in: Wolf-Dieter Heilmeyer (ed.): Der Pergamonaltar. Die neue Präsentation nach Restaurierung des Telephosfrieses, Wasmuth, Tübingen 1997.
• Stewart, A. 2000. "Pergamon Ara Marmorea Magna. On the Date, Reconstruction, and Functions of the Great Altar of Pergamon" in N. De Grummond and B.S. Ridgway, editors, From Pergamon to Sperlonga: Sculpture and Context (Berkeley).
• Hoffmann, Herbert, "Antecedents of the Great Altar at Pergamon" The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 11.3 (October 1952.
• De Grummond, Nancy Thomson, and Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway. 2000. 'From Pergamon to Sperlonga: Sculpture and Context. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Bilsel, Can. 2012. Antiquity On Display: Regimes of the Authentic In Berlin's Pergamon Museum. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Pollitt, J. J. 2002. Art in the Hellenistic age. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
• Ridgway, Brunilde Sismondo. 2000. Hellenistic sculpture. Vol. 2, The styles of ca. 200–100 B.C. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press.
• Smith, R. R. 1991. Hellenistic sculpture: A handbook. World of Art. London and New York: Thames & Hudson.