School Encyclopedia. Pergamon altar Are temples built on the throne of Satan
Shchusev A.V. The project of a temporary mausoleum on the grave of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. // Construction industry. M., 1924. N4, p. 235.
The mausoleum, although wooden, of a temporary nature, but intended for the grave of Lenin on Red Square, demanded intense attention for its composition, both from the side of the type and from the side of the form of a small structure standing on a large square in front of the mighty historical Kremlin wall .
If you start to think historically, then examples of monumental structures of monuments and altars near large walls and towers of city or fortress structures existed in ancient times of the ancient world. Let's start with the famous, now in the Berlin Museum, Bergamo [Pergamon] altar to Zeus with bas-reliefs of the battle of the gods with the titans. This altar, according to Schliemann's excavations, was found near the wall of the Trojan castle. It is low and flat, but, as an elegant contrast, it attracts attention and, without competing with the wall, does not disappear on its own.
From http://www.digital-images.net/Images/Rome/Pyramid_ofCestius_6832M.jpg Another example is the pyramid of Cestius in Rome at Porta St. Raolo - despite the miniature scale in relation to the walls, stands out for the clarity of its pyramidal shape. We see the same thing on the famous Roman via Arria, where whole groups of small monuments were linked to gigantic massifs of walls.
From http://www.veneziatiamo.eu/pictures/LoggettadelSansovino_SANMARCO_02.jpg From examples of the Renaissance, we see the Logett "at Sansovino in Venice at the bell tower of St. Mark, a small elegant building standing at the foot of the majestic bell tower and also playing with contrast. But this past - the present obliges us to the new, but the past still teaches us. ..
To give the tree monumental forms and not turn into props - this was the task of a real mausoleum. The general form was adopted as that of a truncated pyramid, the top of which, in the form of a coffin lid, was raised on small black wooden posts. This motif completes the volume of the entire structure, allegorically expressing the idea of crowning in the form of a colonnade.
Such a top rests on a stepped structure, turning into a cube, enclosing the crypt, to which they go down the stairs, which is expressed by the forms of the outbuildings and where the middle door leads.
The facade is covered by two stands - this is the grave of the people's tribune. A calm, simple inscription "Lenin" indicates who is buried here. The proportions and divisions of the parts of the project are divided according to the figure of the so-called Egyptian triangle with aspect ratios 3X4X5.
Sheathing with boards is taken vertical, ledge; fastening with special massive nails. The roofs are copper, the roof steps are also covered. Coloring - a light gray tone of drying oil to protect against damage to the tree; rods, doors and pillars of black oak.
There are several lawns around the monument, tying it with a common cemetery.
The construction completion date is April 15 this year.
Astafieva-Dlugach M.I. Stories about the architecture of Moscow. M., 1997. p. 58-59
(p. 58)
[From the story of Acad. A.V. Shchusev to students of the Moscow Architectural Institute in 1946. RGALI, f. 2466, op. 1, d. 10, l. 2 - 12rev.]
From http://arx.novosibdom.ru/story/sov_arx/sovarch_051_01.jpg Such a task was set that it is not known whether the mausoleum should be temporary or permanent... went to the meeting. I arrived and also sat down at the round table. Sitting here, some knew me, some didn't. And so, they say that it is necessary to make a mausoleum so that Lenin's body can be approached and exited through another entrance. Maybe it will be a permanent mausoleum, or maybe we will burn the body later. I was told that the project should be done in one night... They told me: we will give you a tool, go and work. I invited the late L.A. Vesnin. It was winter, the ground was frozen, they tried to carry out blasting. And so I started designing. I give such a hall where the coffin stands. You go around it and exit through another door. For wreaths it was necessary to make arches. I did everything. Spring has come. They called me again and said that a lot of people go to look at Lenin, and we want to make a permanent mausoleum ...
I began to remember how the Egyptians made pyramids, but here stood St. Basil's Cathedral on the square nearby. They tell me that I should give a mausoleum higher than Vasily (p. 59) the Blessed. I began to go over in my head, remember everything and found in the excavations that under the walls of Troy stood a small thing, but significant. And so I did this. Some said it was not good, and some agreed with me. Mayakovsky then attacked me and said that something like the Mosselprom factory should be built. I was offended, complained to the government that they were interfering with my work and asked them to stop writing about me in the newspapers. I made a wooden structure. A competition has been announced. Presented projects. I didn't see them. Five years have passed, and they tell me that my mausoleum has become known to the whole world. And they propose to make it in granite, and that this mausoleum should be a platform where leaders stand and meet demonstrations ...
This is the idea of my thinking. Life has justified this idea. And it gives, as it were, the correct image, maybe someone could offer another idea, but I decided that this image is simple, massive and lively.
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| From http://www.alyoshin.ru/Photo/afanasyev/afanasyev_shchusev_79.jpg |
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In fact, Wurmbrand is quite a prolific author. In his book Marx, Prophet of Darkness: Communism "s Hidden Forces Revealed (1st ed. 1983, 2nd, supplement. 1986), pp. 96-97:
The German translation of the same book Das andere Gesicht des Karl Marx (7th ed., 1987. p. 107; 1st ed. 1975) also states:
Svenska Dagbladet (Stockholm) for 27 January 1948, reveals that:
1) The Soviet Army after the conquest of Berlin, carried off the Pergamos altar from Germany to Moscow. This tremendous structure measures 127 feet long by 120 feet wide by 40 feet high. (...)
2) The architect Stjusev, who built Lenin's mausoleum, used this altar of Satan as a model for the mausoleum in 1924.
Stjusew erhielt damals die otwendigen Informationen von Frederik Poulsen, einer autoritat in archaologischen Kreisen.However, in the bibliography, Wurmbrand refers to Svenska Dagbladet not of January 27, but of January 17, 1948, the title of the article (in English translation) An Unforgettable Night, (in German translation) Eine unvergeßliche Nacht - i.e. in Russian An unforgettable night.
Be that as it may, Shchusev clearly indicated the prototype of Lenin's first wooden mausoleum - the Pergamon Altar.
In this regard, several questions arise:
– what reconstruction of the Pergamon altar he saw, and where; in my opinion, the first wooden mausoleum of Shchusev and his sketches do not quite resemble the modern reconstruction of the Pergamon altar;
- why Shchusev mentioned the Danish archaeologist Frederik Poulsen (Frederik Poulsen) - who, although he mentioned the Pergamon Altar in his book Der Orient und die fruhgriechische Kunst, was himself a specialist in Etruscan art;
– why Shchusev writes about the Pergamon altar as being found by Schliemann near the walls of Troy. In fact, the excavations in Pergamum were carried out by the archaeologist Carl Human.
Also, it would be great if one of the readers found the opportunity to take a photo of the reconstruction of the Tower of Babel proposed by Theodor Dombart in his book Zikkurrat und Pyramide.
But he is still far from the truth, and only Professor Koldewey, based on a thorough analysis of the Anubelshunu table and his own excavations in Babylon, which discovered the surviving remains of the base of the tower and the beginning of grandiose stairs, managed to give a complete and accurate picture of the construction of the Tower of Babel, the Etemenanki ziggurat [see. perspective view of the Tower of Babel, drawn by Prof. Koldeveem, fig. 65 on p. 61].
labas was able to get a book by Georgy Marchenko "Karl Marx" (in Russian, published around 1976 according to the library mark), in which on p. 77-78 mentions Shchusev's interview (Marchenko's knowledge of history leaves much to be desired, but here I will quote him without comment):
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The Pergamon Altar is one of the most famous works of Hellenistic art that has survived to this day.
Hellenism the period in the history of the Mediterranean, primarily the eastern, is called, from the time of the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC) to the final establishment of Roman domination in these territories (approximately 30 BC). The peculiarity of the Hellenistic period: the spread of the Greek language and culture in the territories that became part of the states that were formed after the death of Alexander the Great in the territories he conquered, and the interpenetration of Greek and Eastern cultures (especially Persian), as well as the emergence of classical slavery. Cultural and economic activity shifted during this period from Greece to Asia Minor and Egypt. It was in Asia Minor, in the city of Pergamon, that this altar was created.
But first, a few words about the meaning of the word "altar".
Altar
Altar (from lat. altarium) - an altar, a device for burning a sacrifice. Initially, such structures were created to perform ritual sacrifices.
In ancient Greece, the altar acquired the appearance of temples, like the famous Pergamon altar.
In the Orthodox Christian East, the altar is the elevated eastern part of the Christian church, intended for clergy and usually separated from the middle part of the church by an iconostasis. In the center of the altar is a throne.
Altar of the Vladimir Skete on Valaam
History of the Pergamon Altar
The Pergamon altar was created as a memorial monument in honor of the victory of the Pergamon ruler Attala I over the Galatians (a union of Celtic tribes that invaded the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor in 279-277 BC).
Bust of Attalus I Soter. Pergamon Museum (Berlin)
The altar was built by the king of Pergamon Eumenes II in the period between 180-159 years. BC e. During his reign, the kingdom of Pergamum reached the zenith of its power, and Pergamon began to compete with Alexandria for the status of the main center of Hellenistic culture.
It is believed that the altar was dedicated to Zeus (or "twelve Olympians"), King Eumenes II, Athena. According to some inscriptions preserved on the altar, it is impossible to establish the exact dedication of this structure. Ancient authors left their mention of the altar: "In Pergamon there is a large marble altar, 40 steps high, with large sculptures ..." (Lucius Ampelius). The same author ranks the altar among the wonders of the world. But in general, there are surprisingly few references to the Pergamon Altar in the written sources of antiquity, which is a mystery.
In 713, the city of Pergamum was destroyed by the Arabs, and after an earthquake during the Middle Ages, the altar, like many other structures, was buried underground.
It was discovered only in the 19th century, when German specialists were building roads in Turkey.
Engineer Carl Human, who supervised the work, understood the significance of the open marble ruins and made attempts to prevent their destruction. But for real archaeological excavations, support from Berlin was required, which he received only in 1878. The first excavations lasted one year, as a result, large fragments of a frieze (framing decorative composition) of an altar of great artistic value and numerous sculptures were discovered.
Frieze of the Pergamon Altar
Author: Gryffindor - Own work, from Wikipedia
The second and third archaeological campaigns took place in 1880-1881. and in 1883-1886. Everything found by agreement with the Ottoman side became the property of Germany. German archaeologists were able to find almost all the main fragments of the altar. The restored Pergamon Altar was exhibited in Berlin.
Subsequently, the Turks demanded the return of the value, but permission to export the altar was obtained from the Sultan, the export is considered legal.
After the Second World War, the altar was removed from Berlin by Soviet troops and since 1945 it has been kept in the Hermitage: in 1954 a special hall was opened for it, the altar became available to visitors.
Stieglitz Museum
In 1958, the altar, with a gesture of goodwill, N.S. Khrushchev was returned to Germany. A plaster copy of the altar is located in the gallery of the main hall of the Museum of Baron Stieglitz (Museum of Applied Arts of the St. Petersburg State Art and Industry Academy named after A.L. Stieglitz) under a glass dome.
Description of the Pergamon Altar
Western facade of the altar. Exhibition at the Pergamon Museum
Author: Lestat (Jan Mehlich) - Own work, from Wikipedia
The Pergamon altar is notable for its peculiarity (or innovation) - it was turned into an independent architectural structure.
Erected on a special terrace on the southern slope of the mountain of the acropolis of Pergamon, the altar was almost 25 m lower than other buildings and was visible from all sides. From the mountain there was a view of the lower city with the temple of the god of healing Asclepius, the sanctuary of the goddess Demeter and other structures.
The altar was intended for worship in the open air. There was a high plinth (36.44 × 34.20 m) on the five-step foundation. On one side, the plinth was cut through by a wide open marble staircase 20 m wide, leading to the upper platform of the altar. The upper tier was surrounded by an Ionic portico. Inside the colonnade there was an altar courtyard, where an altar 3-4 m high was placed. The platform of the second tier was limited on three sides by blank walls. Statues are placed on the roof of the building. The total height of the building is about 9 m.
The famous Large frieze 2.3 m high and 120 m long stretched along the perimeter of the plinth. On the inner walls of the altar courtyard there was the second frieze of the Pergamon altar - the Small one, 1 m high, dedicated to the history of Telef, the son of Hercules and Avga.
The Berlin Pergamon Museum exhibits a model-reconstruction of the altar, which is not an absolutely identical copy of the ancient altar. Only the main, western side has been recreated.
Large altar frieze
The theme of the Great Frieze of the Altar is gigantomachy, the battle of the Olympian gods with the giants. On the side of the gods, a number of ancient and fictitious deities are fighting: winged and serpentine giants which are led by King Porfirion (one of the strongest giants, the son of Uranus and Gaia. He was distinguished by special strength among the giants).
Zeus fights Porphyrion. Pergamon Altar in the Pergamon Museum (Berlin)
- a common plot of ancient sculpture: the battle of the Olympian gods with giants. But this plot on the large frieze of the Pergamon Altar was interpreted as the victory of Greek culture over barbarism.
three moira(spirits of fate) with bronze maces inflict mortal blows on Agria and Foant. Pergamon Altar in the Pergamon Museum (Berlin)
the gods personify the world of the Greeks, the giants - the Gauls. The gods embody the idea of a well-ordered state life, the giants embody the traditions of the aliens, their aggressiveness. Zeus, Hercules, Dionysus, Athena - the personification of the dynasty of Pergamon kings.
The frieze depicts about 50 figures of gods and the same number of giants. The gods are located in the upper part of the frieze, their opponents are in the lower part, which emphasizes the opposition of two worlds: the “upper” (divine) and the “lower”. Giants have features of animals and birds: snakes instead of legs, wings behind their backs, etc.
On the eastern (main) side of the altar are the Olympian gods, on the north - the gods of the night and the constellation, on the west - the deities of the water element, on the south - the gods of heaven and heavenly bodies.
The sculptural figures are made in high relief (high relief) and are marked by a high degree of expressiveness. The reliefs of the Pergamon altar are the best example of Hellenistic art that abandoned the tranquility of the classics. “Although battles and skirmishes were a frequent theme in ancient reliefs, they have never been depicted in the way they were on the Pergamon altar - with such a shuddering sense of cataclysm, battles not for life, but for death, where all cosmic forces, all demons of the earth participate and the sky."
Almost a century ago, at its foot stood the "Great Whore of the Apocalypse" - the occultist Leah Hirag. On a mission from her lover Aleister Crowley, she whispered the words of an ancient spell. The purpose of the secret rite was to "liberate the vibes of the ancient nature gods."
Few of the tourists who have visited Berlin avoid the famous Pergamon Museum. Its main exhibit, the Pergamon Altar, is rightfully considered one of the wonders of the world. After all, this magnificent monument is the only thing that has survived from the kingdom of Pergamon, which has disappeared from the face of the Earth forever.
In the III century BC, after the collapse of the empire of Alexander the Great, the small kingdom of Pergamum, which lay in the west of modern Turkey, gained independence. The wealth of Pergamum was so great that the country competed with Athens itself.
In 228 BC, hordes of barbarian Gauls chose Pergamon as their next victim. Many states have already managed to submit to them, but the appetites of the conquerors grew by leaps and bounds. Pergamum seemed to them easy and sure prey. However, the barbarians miscalculated: the Pergamon army was inferior in number, but superior in technical equipment. This played into the hands of the Pergamons.
In the battle at the headwaters of the Caic River, Attalus I, the ruler of Pergamum, utterly defeated the Gauls, which earned him the nickname "savior" from his subjects. In honor of the victory, Attalus ordered the construction of a sacrificial altar in the middle of the capital. The battle of the gods and giants, imprinted in stone, was supposed to remind the descendants of the battle of their fathers with the Gauls, on which the fate of their country once depended.
The altar was located on the southern slope of the mountain, from which a magnificent view of the lower city opened. The temple of the god of healing Asclepius, the sanctuary of the goddess Demeter, other religious buildings, the houses of the rich - everything was visible at a glance. The altar itself was a cult building - divine services were held in it in the open air.
The altar was raised to a high plinth, in the center of it was cut a wide marble staircase leading to the upper platform. Inside the colonnade was a courtyard where the actual altar was located. From the outside, the walls were decorated with sculptural compositions depicting the battle of gods and titans.
For a long time, the altar symbolized the power and greatness of ancient Pergamum, but, as the wise man said, everything flows, everything changes. The kings of Pergamum became dependent on the Romans and became victims of the policy of "divide and conquer."
The last of the rulers of the kingdom Aristonicus ended his days in tears - he was strangled in prison. The days of the great country were numbered. The Romans unceremoniously seized her wealth. The Roman emperor removed from Pergamon a library second only to that of Alexandria, and presented thousands of scrolls to Queen Cleopatra.
In the first centuries of our era, fanatical early Christians smashed the faces of the ancient gods and giants, and the altar itself was called the "throne of Satan." And so he stood defeated until 718, until the Arabs subjugated Asia Minor.
In 1536, the ancient city of Pergamon fell completely. The once majestic building turned into a pile of ruins and was buried under the dust of centuries. Its existence was only reminded by the legends that the Turks who inhabited these lands passed from mouth to mouth.
In 1864, the Turkish government entered into an agreement with a German firm to build a road from the small town of Bergamo to Izmir. Examining the site of future construction, engineer Karl Humann noticed a steep rocky hill more than three hundred meters high on the eastern outskirts of the town.
Climbing it, the engineer discovered the remains of the fortress wall. Archaeological excavations had never been carried out in this place, and some sixth sense told him that a lot of interesting things could be found here. He talked to the Turks hired in the surrounding villages to build the road. They unanimously declared:
This place is cursed, you can't dig here. White she-devils and red-haired devils live in the mountain. Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers also said that Allah severely punishes everyone who mines a stone here: people lose the power of speech, their arms and legs fail.
Humann suggested that once there could be a city about which history has not preserved any information, but it lives in folk tales. Karl turned to Berlin archaeologists for support - in vain. They did not believe in the existence of the ancient city.
Only in 1878, things got off the ground: the director of the imperial museums, Alexander Kontse, allocated money for archaeological work, and Humann received official permission from the Ottoman side. The first excavations began on September 9 and lasted a year. Here is how Carl Humann described the happy day that brought the first finds:
As we climbed, seven huge eagles soared over the acropolis, heralding happiness. They dug up and cleared the first slab. It was a mighty giant on serpentine writhing legs, facing us with a muscular back, his head turned to the left, with a lion's skin on his left hand ... They turn over another plate: the giant falls with his back on a rock, lightning pierced his thigh - I feel your closeness, Zeus!
I frantically run around all four plates. I see the third approaching the first: the serpentine ring of the big giant clearly passes to the slab with the giant kneeling down… I positively tremble all over. Here's another piece - I'm scraping the ground with my nails - it's Zeus! The great and marvelous monument has once again been presented to the world, and all our works have been crowned.
Deeply shocked, we, three happy people, stood around the precious find, until I sat down on the stove and relieved my soul with large tears of joy.
Everything found by agreement with the Ottoman side became the property of Germany. Loaded donkey carts moved to the coast, where ancient artifacts were loaded onto German ships and sent to Berlin.
The fate of the treasure in Germany was not easy: either the museum could not be completed for it, or it was subjected to a real invasion from German occultists and frankly satanic sects.
Famous magicians Aleister Crowley and Samuel Mathers, the founder of the Golden Dawn magical order, were interested in the altar. Secret rites were performed at the altar by Leah Hirag, known in occult circles as the "Whore in Purple", and Martha Künzel, a National Socialist who was a member of the Order of the Oriental Templars.
The Pergamon altar attracted the SS men and their close associates like a magnet, for example, Karl Maria Wiligut, a German pagan who seriously influenced the mystical moods of the Third Reich. The altar was admired by Richard Walter Darre and Himmler's favorite Helmut Dalkuen.
At the beginning of World War II, the Pergamon Museum was closed, the sculptural composition was covered with sandbags, and later dismantled and transported to a bunker. At the end of the war, on the initiative of the Soviet academician Igor Grabar, the altar went to the Soviet Union as compensation for the loss of art objects suffered by the USSR during the war years. So the Pergamon treasure ended up in the Hermitage storerooms.
On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the victory over Nazism, Nikita Khrushchev made a grand gesture - he offered to return the ancient monument to Germany. In 1958, the bulk of the exhibits returned to the GDR. Since then, the altar has again settled in the homeland of Karl Humann. Is it forever? The Turkish government is increasingly claiming the return of the treasure to its “historical homeland”. However, the chance for the Turks to get back the priceless masterpiece is still negligible.
Used materials from the article by Oksana Volkova, the magazine "Steps", No. 7, 2012
No less rapidly than Alexandria of Egypt, other Hellenistic cities developed, especially those that had access to the sea. In Asia Minor, the city of Pergamum grew up, named so from the local word meaning "city". The hill on which he was located was on the banks of the navigable river Selinus. At the beginning of the IV century. BC. this hill was owned by a certain Gongil of Eretria, and after the conquest of Alexander, was in the power of a certain Phileter. Being a confidant of one of the commanders of Alexander, he managed to appropriate his treasury. This was enough for the city of Pergamum in Asia Minor, where the thief had established himself, to become the capital of a small kingdom. Phileter's successors inherited his skill. They skillfully maneuvered between powerful neighbors. A difficult test fell to their lot - the invasion of the barbarian hordes of Gauls, who created their own state next to them. At the cost of incredible efforts, they managed to be thrown back.
The king of Pergamum, Eumenes II, nicknamed the Savior for getting rid of the invasion of the Gauls, decorated the capital with marble colonnades and palaces to commemorate the victory. A monumental altar was erected on the western side of the city hill. Pausanias, unfortunately for art history, did not visit Pergamon. Only in the work of the late author Lucius Ampelius “Memorial Book” is there the only phrase in all ancient literature relating to the altar: “In Pergamum there is a large marble altar 40 feet high with powerful sculptures depicting a battle with giants.” In addition, a record of the Byzantine prince Theodore Laskaris, who visited Pergamon in the 14th century, has been preserved: “Everything here is full of royal grandeur, the walls, incomparable in their splendor, ascend to the bronze heavens.” This would be the limit of our information about one of the wonders of the world, if it were not possible to find the remains of the altar and its sculptural decorations.
Among European archaeologists and art critics who have done a lot to study this outstanding monument of ancient art, Carl Humann (1839-1896) occupies the first place. He dreamed of becoming an architect and studied architecture at the Berlin Academy. Illness forced him to interrupt his studies and go on the advice of doctors to improve his health on the island of Samos (1861). In Constantinople, Vizier Fuad Pasha interested Humann in the project of building a new road through Western Asia Minor and gave him a responsible order to draw up its route. This led Humann in 1864 to the Turkish town of Bergama, which retained the name of the ancient capital of the Pergamon kingdom.
28 km from the Aegean Sea, at the confluence of the rivers Selinus and Ketios, a hill with picturesque ruins rose. Humannus was struck by the human figures swarming in them. They were workers who burned marble into lime. This place was the ruins of a Byzantine wall, partly built from the remains of an ancient frieze. Humann extracted several fragments from it and sent it to Berlin for research. Using his connections, Humann achieved the cessation of work and thus saved Pergamum from final destruction.
In 1871, a group of Berlin scientists visited the excavation site; among them was the famous archaeologist Ernst Curtius. Humann promised his colleagues to unearth a "Byzantine wall", partly composed of architectural and sculptural remains. One could count on interesting finds, but at that time no one assumed that parts of the Pergamon altar were in the wall.
Humann was able to start excavations only in 1878. Alexander Konze, director of the sculpture collection of the Berlin Museum, worked with him. The ancient "Byzantine wall", from which the study began, contained either whole slabs or fragments of a significant part of the huge frieze. By the end of 1878, Humann had removed 39 slabs. “We found a whole era of art. The greatest work of antiquity left at our fingertips!” wrote Human.
To understand the sequence of reliefs, it was important to find the foundation of the altar. This discovery was made in the same 1878 on the southern slope of the city hill. The foundation in its original form had an almost square shape (36.4 x 34.2). In its western side there was a staircase of 20 wide steps leading to the upper platform of the altar surrounded by columns.
The greatest interest among archaeologists was caused by 11 slabs located at the foundation. Carl Humann described their discovery as follows: “It was July 21
1879, when I invited guests to come with me to the acropolis to watch the inward-facing slabs being turned over. When we turned them over, seven huge eagles were spinning over the acropolis, it would seem, foreshadowing happiness. They knocked over the first slab. A mighty giant appeared on serpentine writhing legs, facing us with a muscular back, head turned to the left, with a lion's skin on his left hand. “Unfortunately, it does not fit any known stove,” I said. They took the second plate. A magnificent god, with his whole chest turned to the viewer. A cloak hangs from his shoulders, fluttering around his wide-paced legs. “And this stove does not fit anything I know!” The third slab depicts a lean giant who has fallen to his knees, his left hand painfully grabs his right shoulder, his right hand seems to have been taken away. Before he is completely cleared of the earth, the fourth plate falls: the giant pressed his back against the rock, lightning struck his thigh - I feel your closeness, Zeus! Feverishly, I run around all four plates. I see the third approaching the first: the snake ring of the big giant clearly passes to the slab with the giant who has fallen to his knees. The upper part of this slab, where the giant extends his hand wrapped in a skin, is missing, but it is clearly visible that he fights on top of the fallen. Is he fighting a big god? Indeed, the cloaked left leg disappears behind the kneeling giant. “Three fit together!” - I exclaim and stand already about the fourth: and she approaches - the giant, struck by lightning, falls behind the deity. I literally tremble all over. Here is another piece - with my nails I scrape off the ground: the lion's skin is the hand of a gigantic giant - against this scales and snakes - an aegis! It's Zeus! The monument, great, wonderful, was again presented to the world, all our works were crowned, the Athena group received the most beautiful addition. Deeply shocked, we, three happy people, stood around the precious find until I sat on Zeus and relieved my soul with large tears of joy.
Transportation of reliefs weighing up to 60 centners presented great difficulties, especially on a section of a narrow old road. Carl Humann, an experienced engineer, ordered to build something like a sleigh from long trunks and lay open treasures on them. There were other kinds of obstacles to deal with as well. According to Turkish laws, a third of the finds belonged to the owner of the site, a third to the state, and a third to the organizer of the excavations. It took considerable effort to persuade the Turkish government to sell its stake.
So, 97 stone slabs and 2000 fragments were sent to Berlin. The restoration work has begun. She showed that the highest Olympian gods occupied the eastern side of the altar, the daytime deities - the south, the gods of the night, constellations and the underworld - the north. Almost the entire western side was assigned to a wide entrance staircase. The signs of stonemasons on the slabs (letters of the Greek alphabet), and in some cases the names of the gods, helped to understand the sequence of reliefs.
In 1902, the building of the Pergamon Museum appeared in Berlin with a restored altar. In 1908, as a result of the settlement of the foundation, the slabs had to be removed, especially since at that time new fragments of the frieze became known, somewhat changing the idea of its composition. The new building of the Pergamon Museum was opened for viewing in 1930, but the exposition did not last long. In 1939 all Berlin museums were closed. War…
There is something symbolic in the fate of the greatest monument of ancient art. When the Allied aircraft dropped thousands of bombs on Berlin, the gods and giants took refuge in one of the dungeons near the Tiergarten. There they lay throughout the war, only occasionally shuddering from explosions. By the end of the war, when all of Berlin was a sea of ruins, the trophies were taken to where they were not in danger.
A few more years passed, and the hall of the Hermitage with the Pergamon frieze was opened for public viewing. It was a great event in the artistic life of our country. Perhaps, for the entire centuries-old history, the Pergamon frieze for the first time found spectators who could understand and appreciate his idea so well. Everyone who entered the hall found himself surrounded by restless marble figures. For a front-line soldier, this was like a battlefield, where even "the dead, before falling, take a step forward." The ancient relief seemed as modern a work of art as Shostakovich's 7th symphony, which arose during the years of the blockade. In this heap of bodies there was the same chaos and fragmentation, the same furious impulse and titanic sound.
With the transfer of ownership of the Berlin Museum to the government of the German Democratic Republic, a new chapter in the history of the Pergamon Altar begins - the restoration of the altar and the installation of the frieze. Since October 4, 1959, the Pergamon Altar Museum has been open to the residents of East Berlin and its guests.
The plot of the large frieze of the altar is monsters with snake bodies and sometimes with the heads of lions or bulls, the struggle of the gods with the giants. The giants, the sons of the Earth - Gaia, rebelled against the gods. The oracle promised victory to the gods if mortals were on their side. Therefore, Hercules acts as allies of the gods.
The east frieze depicts the battle of the Olympian gods with the giants. The heads of the combatants have not been preserved, but the expressiveness of powerful bodies conveys the superhuman tension of the struggle. The naked torso of Zeus is the personification of such infinite power that lightning strikes falling on the giants are perceived as its direct radiation. The leader of the giants, Porfirion, turned his mighty back to the viewer. This is a worthy rival of Zeus.
Equally dramatic is the episode of the battle involving Athena. Grasping the winged giant by the hair, the goddess plunges him to the ground. The giant's body is tensely curved, his head thrown back in unbearable torment. Wide eyes full of suffering. Gaia, the mother of the giants, rises from the earth and vainly begs Athena to spare her son. But the flying Nika is already crowning Athena with a victorious wreath.
On the south side of the east frieze, a three-headed Hecate with a torch, shield and sword fights against the giant Clytia. In impotent rage, the snake bites the shield of the goddess. To the right of this group is Artemis, the courageous hunter-goddess, attacking a heavily armed giant. Between them is another defeated giant with the body of a snake. Artemis' dog grabbed him by the neck. Defensively, he grabbed the animal's eye.
Behind Artemis is Latona, the mother of Apollo and Artemis. She turned her torch against the young winged giant, who, unable to withstand the swift onslaught of the goddess, fell. With one hand he convulsively supports his body, with the other he tries to take the torch away. In the thrown back head, in the expression of the face and eyes - a premonition of imminent death. Naked Apollo threw the giant to the ground. Apollo's head has not been preserved. But the jubilation of the winner is felt in the pose. Apollo's adversary is a bearded giant. In the expression of his face, one can feel surprise at the power of the enemy.
The plot of the northern frieze is a continuation of the scenes of the eastern frieze, ending with the image of the god of war Ares. His wife Aphrodite opens the northern frieze. Nothing says that this is the patroness of beauty and love. Before us is a formidable warrior who has taken her place in the ranks of the fighters. Her spear was lodged in the already dead giant's chest. By stepping on his face, the goddess tries to free her weapon. Aphrodite's mother Dione fights the young giant with the same fury. She is helped by the son of Aphrodite, the winged Eros.
Part of the northern frieze is occupied by the image of the goddess in peplos and mantle. In her raised right hand is a vessel from which a snake protrudes. With her left hand, she grabbed the edge of the shield, which covers the helmeted bearded giant. The majestic and courageous appearance of the goddess made it possible to see in her the goddess of the night Nikta, revered by Zeus himself.
To the right of Nikta is her daughter Moira. In myths, these are decrepit old women spinning the threads of human destinies. Here are the young warriors who surrounded the bearded giant. He no longer hopes for salvation. There is hopelessness and horror in his face. To the right of the moira is a perfectly preserved figure of an unknown goddess. Her long hair falls in waves over her shoulders. Together with the goddess, the lion fell on the giant and tormented him with fangs and claws. Behind the goddess with a lion is the team of Poseidon, the god of the seas. Pitiful fragments have been preserved from it.
Poseidon reveals a series of sea deities, the continuation of the image of which we find on the western frieze. First of all, we see the god of the waves, Triton, with a human face and upper body, a dolphin's tail and hooves instead of legs. Triton fights three giants at once. One of them has already been thrown to the ground, the other has fallen on his left knee, the third is protected by a lion's skin. In the same group of sea deities, Poseidon's wife Amphitrite and her parents Nereus and Dorida. Dorida grabbed the young giant by the hair and stepped on his serpentine tail. Following the enemy of Dorida, two giants can be seen pursued by the Ocean.
In the continuation of the western frieze behind the stairs, the gods of the circle of Dionysus are depicted. The god of vegetation and wine is accompanied by two young satyrs and a goddess in a long robe, walking behind a lion. It is believed that this is Nisa, the nurse of Dionysus.
None of the works of the era, which began with the eastern campaign of Alexander the Great, reflects its spirit better than the Pergamon altar. Passion and intoxication with the struggle, which makes compassion and pity impossible, permeate every figure. In the giants who entered into a hopeless struggle with the gods, the Pergamians could see their courageous opponents of the Galatians. But equally, they could believe that under the guise of giants, the supporters of Aristonicus, who raised the fight against Rome, or the soldiers of Mithridates VI Eupator, who at one time owned Pergamum, are depicted. Both that, and another, and the third interpretation do not exclude each other. The altar is an artistic embodiment of the tragedy of wars, including popular riots and rebellions, which are so rich in the history of antiquity. The idea of the frieze is the victory of the forces of order over the rebellious elements, ready to destroy the mind and the boundaries of the universe, destroy the divine harmony, plunge the world into chaos.
The most outstanding exhibit of the ancient collection is the Pergamon Altar, after which the museum is named. The altar is decorated with a grandiose frieze depicting the battle of the gods with the giants.
This is what the Pergamon Altar looks like in the museum hall (photo from Wikipedia)
Around 180-159. BC e. Marble. Altar base 36.44 × 34.20 m
What is this altar, why is it called that and how did it get into the museum in Berlin? That's what I wanted to find out after I saw it with my own eyes. The Internet and Wikipedia helped me with this.
Pergamon- an ancient city off the coast of Asia Minor (now the territory of Turkey), the former center of the influential state of the Attalid dynasty. Founded in the 12th century. BC e. immigrants from mainland Greece.
Here is a very interesting article by N.N. Nepomnyashchy about how this city was formed, what it was like and what happened to it. http://bibliotekar.ru/100velTayn/87.htm
In memory of the great victory over the barbarian tribe, which was called the "Galatians" (in some sources - the Gauls), the Pergamenes erected in the middle of their capital city of Pergamum the altar of Zeus - a huge marble platform for sacrifices to the supreme god of the Greeks.
The relief, which surrounded the platform from three sides, was dedicated to the battle of gods and giants. The giants, as the myth said - the sons of the goddess of the earth Gaia, creatures with a human body, but with snakes instead of legs - once went to war against the gods.
The sculptors of Pergamum depicted on the relief of the altar a desperate battle between gods and giants, in which there is no room for doubt or mercy. This struggle between good and evil, civilization and barbarism, reason and brute force was supposed to remind posterity of the battle of their fathers with the Galatians, on which the fate of their country once depended.
In Pergamon, this building was located on a special terrace on the southern slope of the acropolis mountain, below the sanctuary of Athena. The building consisted of a plinth raised on a five-step foundation, in the western side of which an open staircase 20 m wide was embedded. The building of the altar, measuring 36 × 34 m, rested on a four-stage base and reached a height of about 9 m. A relief frieze 2.30 m high and 120 m long covered the high smooth wall of the basement and the side walls of the stairs. A jagged cornice completed the upper edge of the frieze.
The legend tells how the giants, the sons of the goddess of the earth Gaia, once decided to attack Olympus and overthrow the power of the gods. According to the prediction of the oracle, the gods could win this fight only if a mortal man came out on their side. Hercules, the son of the god Zeus and the earthly woman Alcmene, is called to participate in the battle.
The large frieze of the Pergamon Altar impresses not only with its grandiose scale and colossal number of actors, but also with a very special compositional technique. The extremely dense filling of the surface of the frieze with high-relief images, leaving almost no free background, is a remarkable feature of the sculptural composition of the Pergamon Altar. The creators of the altar seemed to be striving to give the picture of the martial arts of the gods and giants a universal character; throughout the frieze there is not a single segment of the sculptural space that is not involved in the active action of a fierce struggle.
The altar, with its famous frieze, was a monument to the independence of Pergamon. But the Pergamonians perceived this victory deeply symbolically, as the victory of the greatest Greek culture over barbarism.
Here is how M.L. Gasparov describes these events in his book "Entertaining Greece":
It was an impregnable city on a steep mountain, where once King Lysimachus laid down his treasures and left with them a faithful man from the Attalid clan. Lysimachus died, the Attalids became the princes of Pergamon, they built it with beautiful temples and porticos for Lysimachov's money, they opened the second library in the world with its parchment books. The riches of Pergamon haunted the Gauls: they went to war against Pergamon and were defeated by Prince Attalus. And this victory was immortalized in a royal way: the son of Attalus, Eumenes, erected an altar of unprecedented size in Pergamon with the inscription "To Zeus and Athena, the giver of victory, for the favors received." It was a building half the size of the Parthenon; above there was a colonnade surrounding the altar, to which a staircase led twenty steps high and twenty steps wide, and below there was a relief frieze, the height of a man, enveloping the building with an endless strip, and this frieze depicts the same that was woven on the coverlet of the Parthenon Athena , - the struggle of the gods with the giants, the victory of a rational order over an unreasonable element. Here arms are clashed, bodies are bent, wings are stretched, snake bodies are wriggling, faces are distorted by flour, and powerful figures of Zeus, throwing lightning, and Athena, plunging the enemy, loom among the crowded bodies. Such was the Pergamon altar - all that remains to us from the Gallic invasion.
This fragment of the frieze depicts Athena's struggle with Alcyoneus
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(Fragment of the eastern frieze of the Pergamon altar).
Athena is the daughter of Zeus. The inscription on the cornice tells us her name. The goddess is dressed in a wide peplos, girded with two snakes. An amulet with the head of the Gorgon Medusa, which drives away evil forces, is placed on the left chest of Athena. Armed with a large round shield, she holds it so that we can see its inner side. The goddess entered into a fight with the winged giant - Alcyoneus, grabbed him by the hair and tries to tear him off the ground, in contact with which he draws strength. Tormented by unbearable pain, the young man stretches out his left arm and left leg towards his mother, Gaia. With eyes full of sorrow, she begs Athena to spare her beloved son. But the snake has already sunk its deadly teeth into the body of a giant, and the goddess of victory Nike is already flying to Athena and crowning her with a laurel wreath.
These are fragments of the frieze of the altar, which I photographed in the museum
What happened to the altar of Zeus in Pergamon?
Anastasia Rakhmanova wrote about this in the magazine No. 11 "Around the World" for November 2006:
The kingdom of Pergamon fell, the temples were destroyed, the frieze was broken.
More than one and a half thousand years, its fragments lay in clay soil near the city of Pergamum (modern Bergama) in Turkey. Local residents slowly dug out pieces of old marble to burn them for lime in chalk stoves. And in 1878, an expedition of German archaeologists led by engineer Karl Human arrived in Pergamon. For several seasons of excavations, she removed the powerful columns of the ancient temple from underground. The broken pieces of the frieze - the arms, legs, heads and tails of the titans - were put into wooden boxes and sent to Berlin. Moreover, as the Germans do not get tired of repeating, with the personal permission of the then Sultan.
By the way, while scouring various sites in order to better understand what exactly I saw in the Pergamon Museum, I found that the parchment also comes from Pergamon, and here is a little about it from the site
http://maxbooks.ru/parchment.htm
Parchment is a writing material made from dressed animal skin, usually calf, sheep or goat.
In the production of parchment, the skin was not tanned, but carefully cleaned, scraped and dried under stress, obtaining sheets of thin and durable skin of white or yellowish color.
Although dressed animal skin has been used for writing before, the invention of parchment is usually associated with the name of the king of Pergamon, Eumenes II (197-159 BC). According to the historian Pliny, the Egyptian kings, wishing to maintain the prestige of the Library of Alexandria, banned in the 2nd century. BC e. papyrus was exported from Egypt, and the Pergamon Library, the second largest library in the ancient world, had to develop an alternative production of writing material and improve the ancient methods of leather processing. Thus parchment became an alternative to papyrus not only in Pergamum but throughout the Mediterranean, the main material for books in the Middle Ages, and continued to be used even after the invention of printing in the mid-fifteenth century.
And Wikipedia states that the altar was destroyed by an earthquake.
