School Encyclopedia. Shchusev and the Pergamon altar Where is the throne of Satan
AltarZeus of Pergamon...It would seem that what new can be said about the structure, which has been striking the minds of observers for two thousand and two hundred years, impressing and delighting? The altar is rightfully considered one of the pearls of the Museum Island in Berlin. It is stored in the Pergamon Museum, the building of which was erected specifically to accommodate this amazing structure. I will talk about what is presented to the visitor's eye in the first room of the exhibition of classical antiquities, about the logic of the decoration of the Altar and about the second life that the Altar has received today. Therefore, if you like the romance of amazing archaeological discoveries and the characters of ancient Greek myths familiar from childhood,
follow me, reader!
When you stand at the foot of a huge marble staircase in a spacious museum hall with a glass ceiling, the first thing that comes to mind is the question, but where, in fact, is the altar itself? And, only a little getting used to, you understand that all this marble splendor with columns, steps and the intricacies of frieze bodies is what it is. Of course, the altar, the table on which the offerings were burned, was located inside, but it has not been preserved, and the whole monumental structure is conventionally called the Altar. I must say right away that we are only in front of a Full-Scale Reconstruction, and it will take a certain amount of imagination to imagine what the Altar once was. In the hall of the museum, it is only half assembled, but thanks to the mirror wall, the viewer gets the feeling that he sees the entire monument in front of him.
In the original, its massive platform was almost square: 36.44 meters wide and 34.20 meters long. In the reconstruction, five steps rising from the platform support a monumental pedestal, the sides of which are covered with a frieze. This grandiose sculptural frieze is 120 meters long and once framed the entire altar around the perimeter. Above the frieze rises a colonnade, consisting of exquisite columns withIonic capitals andprofiled bases, the columns support an ornamented entablature. Initially, the roof was topped with sculptures of galloping quadrigas, griffins, centaurs and figures of gods.
Pergamon altar, reconstruction.
Historical reference:
The Pergamon Altar was erected in honor of the victory won in 228 BC. the army of King Attalus I over the barbarian Gauls (Galatians). The Gauls were a militant Celtic tribe that invaded Asia Minor from Europe. The powerful Syrian kings, who considered themselves the heirs of Alexander the Great, preferred to pay tribute to them in order not to take the risk of battle. The next goal of the Gauls was Pergamum, a small but very rich state, which seemed to them easy prey. The Pergamum king Attalus I, refusing to pay tribute to the Gauls, led his army and gave them battle. Although the Pergamians were inferior in numbers to the Gauls, their technical equipment was much better. Therefore, in the battle that took place at the source of Caic, they utterly defeated the Gauls.
The logic of the decoration of the Altar is such that King Attalus I, the memory of whose glorious victory was immortalized by the Altar, belonged to the Attalid dynasty. The ancestor of this dynasty was considered Telef, who was the son of Hercules, famous in myths. The rulers of Pergamon revered Telef as their ancestor; from his mythological deeds, and his role as the founder of the kingdom of Pergamon, they derived their legitimacy as rulers. The Small Frieze of the Altar, located in the inner sanctuary, is dedicated to the plot of the myth about Telefe. I will tell you more about it below.
The large frieze that framed the Altar is 2 meters 30 cm high and is entirely covered with scenes of gigantomachy - the battle of the Olympian gods with the giants. Gigantomachy was a popular subject for Greek art from the Hellenistic period. As you know, the outcome of this grandiose battle was influenced by the participation of Hercules in it, therefore, he, as the son of Zeus and the father of Teleph, is the key link here, logically connecting both friezes.
Let's look at the Great Frieze in more detail. Unfortunately, time has not preserved all of its fragments, so we can only imagine how the frieze could once look like.
A fragment of the east frieze, the high relief depicts (from left to right) Alcyoneus, Athena, Gaia and Nike.
A characteristic feature of the frieze is the simultaneity of the captured events. The grandiose figures intertwined in battle seem to be captured in a single moment, all scenes are full of dramatic tension and increasing movement. First of all, this frieze is interesting because almost any character, and there are more than a hundred of them, can be recognized. Let me remind you that the gods of Olympus, led by Zeus, fought the giants, the children of Gaia, whom she gave birth to from the drops of blood of Uranus overthrown by Cronus. These were monstrous snake-footed giants, possessing terrible strength, who wanted to take away their power over the world from the gods - the Olympians. Gaia made her children invulnerable to the weapons of the gods, and only a mortal, according to myth, could take the life of a giant. Hercules became such a mortal, whose participation in this battle decided its outcome. The son of Zeus, he fought on the side of the gods, shoulder to shoulder with his father. His arrows, filled with the poison of the Lernaean Hydra, claimed the lives of many giants. Unfortunately, the figure of Hercules has not been preserved. We know that he was depicted on the east side of the frieze only thanks to a fragment of the skin of the Nemean lion, the trophy of the first labor in which he was depicted.
East frieze, view from the stairs.
The frieze continues on the sides of the grand staircase, narrowing as the steps rise. Here, we find an interesting detail: the staircase seems to be built into the plot of the frieze. Gods and giants literally climb the steps, lean on them with their knees or lie on them.
Fragment of the West frieze, stairs.
Not a single group of figures here is similar to another, their poses are different, and attire, hairstyles and even shoe details are worked out to the smallest detail. Unfortunately, the name of the master who designed this amazing frieze has not come down to us. The only inscription on the south side of the steps names Theoret, who may have worked on the corresponding fragment. The surviving names of other artists who created the Altar tell us that they came from the leading art centers of the Hellenistic world. Obviously, the masters were assisted by their students, priests and those who developed the thematic and compositional structure of this unusually long frieze.
And now I suggest you travel to Moscow, to the Pushkin Museum im. Pushkin, where a very interesting project by Andrey Alexander, dedicated to the plots of the Pergamon Altar, is currently presented to the attention of visitors. The author, artist and mime, positions his project as a multifaceted artistic reconstruction, which is an attempt to recreate the relief of the East Frisian. The project called "Giants vs. Gods" allows the viewer to see how majestic the frieze could once have looked.
I will talk about the plots of the East Frisian on the example of these reconstructions.
Let's start from the left edge, and we will move along the frieze to the right. Here, the three-faced Hecate, the goddess of paths and crossroads, witchcraft and magic, accompanied by one of her dogs, armed with a torch, sword and spear, fights against the snake-footed giant Clytius, who has brought a stone block over his head. On the right, armed with a bow and arrows, the hunting goddess Artemis confronts a naked giant armed with a sword and shield, presumably Otu. Between them, Artemis' hunting dog bites another giant on the neck.
Summer, the mother of Apollo and Artemis, armed with a flaming torch, beats a giant with animal features in appearance. On the right, Apollo, the god of healing and divination, wounded the giant Ephialtes with his arrow.
The fertility goddess Demeter, armed with a torch, whose image is lost on the original frieze, most likely occupied this place.
The wife of Zeus, Hera, rules the quadriga (according to the attribution of the Pergamon Museum). Her winged horses were associated with the four winds: Not, Boreas, Zephyr and Eurus. According to Alexander's plan, Irida rules the quadriga, and Hera, armed with a spear, slays the giant.
I think the choice of the east frieze is not accidental - after all, it is here that Hercules appears, a character that unites both friezes of the Altar. The one, whose figure on the original frieze is almost completely lost, draws the string of his bow. He aims at the chest of Alcyoneus, the most powerful of the giants, who is held by Pallas Athena (we will see them later). According to the myth, the battle took place on the Phlegrean fields, which lay on the Chalkid peninsula of Pallene. Gaia, the mother of the giants, gave them a healing agent that made them invulnerable to the weapons of the gods. Only a mortal, who at that time was Hercules, could kill the giant. Alcyoneus, slain by his arrow, could not die on Pallene, here he was immortal. Hercules had to put him on his shoulders and carry him away from Pallene, outside of which he died.
To the right of Hercules, the Thunderer Zeus, armed with lightning, fights against the leader of the giants, Porphyrion, and his two younger associates. Zeus is assisted by his eagle.
Athena, the daughter of Zeus, holds the giant Alcyoneus by the hair, whom Hercules is ready to slay with an arrow. The task of Athena is to tear the enemy off the ground, thereby depriving him of invulnerability. On the right is Gaia, who asks Athena to spare her son. Above it is the winged figure of Nike, the goddess of victory.
Ares, god of war, drives a chariot, his horses rearing over the reclining figure of a winged giant.
The completeness of the picture, albeit an artistically recreated eastern frieze, is no less impressive than the altar itself. This wonderful canvas 25 meters long can be seen in the Pushkin Museum im. Pushkin until July 21, 2013.
By the way, in the Pushkin Museum im. Pushkin, there are several casts made from the Great Pergamon Frieze. In 1941, the National Socialist authorities ordered to bury it in damp clay soil under a military warehouse, which burned down during the next bombing of Berlin. In 1945, the Soviet occupation authorities took (!) the Pergamon altar to the USSR, but not as a trophy, but as an exhibit requiring urgent restoration, which was carried out by the Hermitage specialists. From 1945 to 1958 the Altar was kept in the Hermitage. And in 1958, the altar of Zeus, like many other things, was returned to Germany as a gesture of Khrushchev's goodwill, and returned to Berlin. At the same time, an agreement was reached that a plaster copy would be made especially for the USSR.
Now back to Pergamon. Nowadays, anyone can climb the majestic marble steps up to the sanctuary where the altar once stood. However, in the past, during religious ceremonies, only a select few (priests, members of the royal house, and emissaries) were allowed to do so. Above, behind the colonnade, there is an open courtyard where the altar once stood, now the center of it is decorated with an excellent mosaic floor.
Although such interior spaces were usually covered with frescoes, here, as already mentioned, is the Small Frieze, or Telephus frieze, which sequentially, like a huge stone book, tells the story of the founding father of Pergamum.
Although there were several versions of this legend, the modern Hellenistic mythologists circulated the variant that made the Pergamon version the most interesting. The meaning of the myth was part of a carefully structured propaganda designed to emphasize in the eyes of contemporaries the inextricable link between the events of the myths and their own history. The inhabitants of Pergamon called themselves Telephides, the descendants of Teleph.
Although many fragments of the Lesser Frieze are also lost, relying on ancient versions of this story, we can reconstruct the sequence of events.
The myth of telephos
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Once, the oracle of Apollo at Delphi predicted to the king of Arcadia, Aleyus, that the descendants born of his daughter could harm him. In order to avoid this danger, Alei made his daughter Avga a priestess of Athena, threatening her with death if she lost her chastity. Hercules, who was staying with Aleus, managed to seduce Avga, and as a result of their secret relationship, a boy was born, who was given the name Telef. To prevent the evil predicted by the oracle, Alei had to renounce his daughter. August was put in a boat with a sail and given to the will of the waves. In the end, the boat moored to the shores of Mysia, where it was seen by the servants of the king of Misia, Tevphrant. Teufrant adopted Avga and made her his adopted daughter, and in gratitude for her miraculous salvation, he founded the cult of Athena in Mysia.
At this time, Aley, faced with the problem of what to do with the little son taken from Avga, did not find anything better than to leave him in a plane tree grove near the temple. There the boy was discovered by Hercules.
Having matured, Teleph fulfilled the terrible prediction of the Oracle and once killed his mother's brothers, the children of Aleyus. The king recognized him as the son of his daughter and Telef, showered with curses, was forced to leave the country. Finally, he arrived at the court of Teuphrant in Mysia, where he helped Teuphrant to expel the Afaretid Idas, who claimed the throne of Mysia Teuphrania, and for this service Teuphrant gave him Avga as his wife. She did not recognize Telef, and he also did not recognize her as his mother. During his wedding with Avga, the sacred snake sent by Athena told the truth that they are mother and son. Then Tevphrant gave his son Avgi his daughter as a wife and made him heir to the throne.
Telephus and Avga, fragment of the Lesser Frieze.
The subsequent scenes of the bas-relief tell of the deeds of Teleph as king of Mysia.
Among other things, the Greeks during the reign of Telephos, sailing at random to Troy, sailed to Mysia, where they landed and began to devastate the country, mistaking it for Troad. Telephos put up a fierce resistance to the aliens and even put them to flight. Then Achilles and Patroclus came to the aid of their associates, at the appearance of which Telephos left the battlefield. Before sailing from Aulis, the Greeks made sacrifices to Dionysus, but Telephos did not have time to do this. A vine suddenly growing out of the ground made him stumble and fall, and Achilles, taking advantage of this, wounded Telephs in the thigh with his famous spear - Chiron's wedding gift to his father Peleus.
Realizing their mistake, the Greeks again went to sea, where their fleet was scattered by a terrible storm sent by Hero, after which, being alone, each ship went to its native shores. Teleph's wound did not heal in any way, causing great suffering, and Apollo announced to him that only the one who wounded him could cure him. Then Telef, under the guise of a beggar, went to Mycenae, where the Greek leaders were preparing for a new campaign against Troy. On the advice of the Mycenaean queen Clytemester, whom Teleph trusted, he snatched her little son Orestes from the cradle and, threatening to kill the baby, demanded help from Agamemnon. Earlier, the oracle warned the Mycenaean king that the Greeks could only reach Troy with the assistance of Telephus, so he willingly agreed to help him, but on the condition that he lead the Greek fleet to Troy. An agreement was reached, and Agamemnon turned to Achilles with a request to heal Telef. Achilles said that he did not know how to heal, but Odysseus guessed that Apollo did not mean Achilles, but his spear. Then Achilles scraped off the rust from his spear and covered the wound with it, and in a few days it completely healed. Telephos showed the Greeks the sea route to Troy, and upon returning home he founded Pergamon.
The altar of Zeus has impressed descendants for many centuries. The Roman Lucius Ampelius in his Book of Things Worthy to Remember (Liber memorialis 8.14) described the Great Pergamon Altar as follows: “Pergamo ara marmorea magna, alta pedes quadraginta cum maximus sculpturis; continent autem gigantomachiam." - ("In Pergamon there is a large marble altar, forty feet (?) high, with amazing sculptures, and it is entirely surrounded by scenes of the battle of giants"). When Ampelius wrote these lines, the Altar was already about four hundred years old.
However, just a few centuries later, nothing reminded of this amazing structure. And only the ruins left from the upper and lower cities could impress an eccentric traveler who decided to include a visit to Pergamum in his itinerary.
Model of Pergamon, reconstruction.
The altar was rediscovered in 1871 by the German engineer Karl Humann, who at that time was working on the construction of roads at the invitation of the Turkish government. He sent to Berlin several reliefs he discovered, which he believed depicted scenes of battle "with men, horses and wild animals", and were created, in his opinion, for the temple of Minerva in Pergamon.
The sent reliefs at first passed almost unnoticed in Berlin. In the end, they attracted
the attention of the archaeologist and director of the sculpture collection of the Royal Museums of Berlin, Alexander Conze, who became interested in them, but only eventually realized what the connection was between the description of Ampelius and the relief fragments stored in the so-called Hall of Fame of the Old Museum. Conze immediately sent a message to Humann that he should look for other reliefs. A year later, in September 1878, the Berlin Museum, officially authorized by the Turkish authorities, began excavating the citadel of Pergamon, and Karl Humann, the man who had found Pergamon again, was appointed head of the mission, but that's another story...
I hope that my story has given some idea of the Altar to those who have not yet seen it, and perhaps will inspire someone who, having a few free hours in Berlin, wants to visit the Pergamon Museum.
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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Throughout history, thousands of mysteries have accumulated that have surrounded and still do most of the Greek islands and mainland Greece. Some of them have been revealed, while others attract historians and archaeologists, ordinary people who are interested in stirring up the past.
It all started many centuries ago, when the Celtic tribes invaded Asia Minor from Europe. The next victim was the small rich state of Pergamon. For many days and nights the Pergamon army held the line. They succeeded, the troops under the leadership of Attalus I utterly defeated the Galatians.
In honor of the great victory, the inhabitants of the city of Pergamon erected an altar to Zeus, on both sides of which there were reliefs depicting gods and giants, between whom a battle took place. This image has become a symbol of courage and great faith in victory. The altar became a symbol of the triumph of justice, the struggle between good and evil, great reason and brute force, a reminder to posterity of how their ancestors fought against the Galatians for the independence of their country.
In the center of the altar stood the figure of Zeus. It had everything - greatness and strength, martial passion and almost animal strength in the fight against the giants. Athena stands near Zeus, the sun god Helios and his faithful friend and assistant Hercules are fighting nearby.
As time went on, at the beginning of the 1st century BC. e. Pergamum was conquered by the Romans and many sculptures were taken out of this country, but the city continued to develop until it fell under the onslaught of the Arabs. After the destruction continued by the Byzantine invaders, then the Turks, who turned the city into ruins.
In ancient times, notoriety spread around the Pergamon Altar, and in the 14th century, after the Fourth Crusade, the Pergamon Altar, according to legend, was the object of worship of pagan sects and sacrifices were made on it.
New information about the altar appeared in 1864, when, during the construction of the road, the German engineer Karl Humann found two fortress walls on the eastern outskirts of the city and learned from the workers about the curses of the gods that overtake everyone who tries to disturb the peace of the spirits.
Some believed that devils lived in the mountain and guarded the ancient stones. Others said that the pagan devils came out at night and shuddered in the dance. Still others considered the mountain magical, and according to legend, the gods of an ancient pagan country hid in it. The information received made it clear that there was once an ancient city here, which everyone forgot about, and it was time to remember about it.
It turned out that the hill hides ancient Pergamon and the famous altar. Restoration work made it possible to open the friezes and columns of the altar of Zeus to the world.
Capital of Greek Thrace. Komotini
Olives - how to cook them?
In this article, I will try to describe the most common ways to prepare table olives. Black olives in brine. We collect olives when they ripen, that is, as soon as they acquire a blackish skin and strong flesh. We wash the olives thoroughly to remove all foreign substances and place them in a wooden or plastic pot, adding brine there.
Meteora. Monasteries in Greece
Once there were no temples and cloisters in these places, Meteora in Greece is an unusual phenomenon in itself. She is known throughout the world for the beauty of the bewitching creations of nature. Stone cliffs of incredible height are directed to the sky. Their peaks are gentle, which made it possible to choose this beautiful place. Hermit monks came here in the 10th century.
From the history of Sparta - the city of warriors
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International festivals in Greece
Greece annually hosts many international festivals that invite participants and spectators to plunge into the magical worlds of all spheres of culture: theater, cinema, music, dance. The most famous international festivals that take place in Greece, we will consider in our article. Thessaloniki: International Film Festival The largest film festival in southeastern Europe is undoubtedly the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. On it you can not only get acquainted with the latest films of Greek directors, but also see the creations of young representatives of cinema from different countries. This is the oldest film festival on the Balkan Peninsula, it was first held in 1960 in the form of "Greek Cinema Week". In the future, the Thessaloniki Film Festival turned into an international one only 32 years later - in 1992. It is at this festival that most European young directors present their first films to the attention of the audience. The Thessaloniki Film Festival focuses mainly on innovative contemporary cinema.
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."
The last post was about, which contains a rich collection of Egyptian antiquities. And this one is about one of the most famous archaeological museums in the world - the Pergamon Museum. And its fame is fully justified, at least this museum is one of the best I have ever visited. Formally, it unites in one building the Antique Collection, the Near Asian Museum and the Museum of Islamic Art. But in order.
The building of the Pergamon Museum itself is quite beautiful, but now, unfortunately, it is being renovated:
And the main entrance looks like this: 
But inside, "everything is fine." And there is even a Russian audio guide, which makes the walk even more interesting. And having received the coveted device and sticking headphones into your ears, you immediately get to the most famous, interesting, and impressive exhibit - the Pergamon Altar, which actually gave the name to the museum (because of this altar the museum was built)
And this altar... it turned out to be so cool that I even forgot to take a "human" picture of it =) I walked with my mouth open, listened to the story of the audio guide and thought about how great ancient civilizations were. 
The kingdom of Pergamum existed in 283-133 BC. e. in what is now Turkey. During these one hundred and fifty years, the kingdom went through "all stages" - formation, flourishing, decline and absorption by a stronger power (in this case, Rome). The capital of the kingdom was the city of Pergamum, according to legend, founded by a descendant of the Trojans named Pergamum, who received his name in memory of the Trojan citadel, which was called (do not believe it) Pergamum.
In 263 - 153 years the city reached its peak, for example, it had the second largest ancient library, books were written on specially processed animal skin, which is still called "parchment". Even in Pergamum there were the first showers. Many majestic temples and the altar of Zeus, erected in 180-159 (although scientists are still arguing about the exact dates, but who cares except them) 
The altar was intended for worship in the open air. It was a high plinth (36.44 × 34.20 m) raised on a five-level 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 the actual altar was located (3-4 m high). The platform of the second tier was limited on three sides by blank walls. The roof of the building was crowned with statues. The whole structure reached a height of about 9 m. Along the perimeter of the basement, a continuous ribbon stretched the Great Frieze (2.3 m high and 120 m long), the main theme of which was the so-called gigantomachia (a good word) - the battle of the Olympian gods with the giants (to help ancient sculptors portrayed several more fictional creatures to the Olympians) 
Here, for example, is the “Battle of Athena with Alcyoneus”: the goddess with a shield in her hands threw the winged giant Alcyoneus to the ground. The winged goddess of victory Nike rushes towards her to crown her head with a laurel wreath. The giant unsuccessfully tries to free himself from the hand of the goddess. I think that Athena's face would have depicted joy if it had not been lost. 
The altar was found at the end of the 19th century (in the Middle Ages, due to an earthquake, the building was underground). In a nutshell, it was like this - the German surveyor Karl Humann came to the Ottoman Empire to lay roads, visited the city of Pegram and was horrified when he saw how the locals burned the fragments of ancient statues into lime. As a result, Humann found support in Berlin, sponsors, allies, permission from the Sultan and inscribed his name in golden letters in the history of archeology. First of all, as a person thanks to whom the Pergamon Altar was found 
And in 1945 the altar moved to St. Petersburg, to the Hermitage, where a special hall was built for it. But in 1958 it was nevertheless returned, although it was agreed that a plaster copy would be made. And already at home, I read on Wikipedia that these casts were made, and in 2002 transferred from the Hermitage storerooms as a gift to the St. Petersburg State Art and Industry Academy and now a copy of the altar is on the gallery of the main hall of the Museum of Baron Stieglitz. Why doesn't anyone know about this? Probably the Masons are hiding (or Wikipedia is lying) 
By the way, ancient authors practically do not mention the altar. The only mention is a Roman writer of the II-III centuries. Lucius Ampelius, who in his essay “On the Wonders of the World” (lat. Liber memorialis; miracula mundi) wrote: “In Pergamon there is a large marble altar, 40 steps high, with large sculptures depicting gigantomachy.” Such silence of the sources is interpreted simply - for the Romans this monument was not very interesting (although it was considered a masterpiece), because did not originate in the classical era and did not come out of real Greek, primarily Attic workshops. In short - an Asian remake, a miserable likeness of ancient statues and blah blah blah. 
Even in the museum you can see what is left of the small (internal frieze), which tells about the life of Telef, one of the kings of Pergamum 
At the Peragma Altar, all the most interesting things in the museum do not end, but only begin
The next room is a reconstruction of the market gate from the legendary city of Miletus, the most powerful and richest of the Ionian cities in Asia Minor. The huge gates (they never fit into the frame, like almost everything in this museum) were built in the 2nd century BC. AD and destroyed by an earthquake in the 10th or 11th century.
By the way, this gate is the only object of the museum, restored in full size (28.92 by 6.66 meters and 16.73 meters in height). About 60% of the material of the monument is original marble, which is extremely rare for such structures. 
There is a beautiful mosaic in front of the gate: 
The ruler greets the crowd nearby 
And outside the Milesian gates, the Greco-Roman collection of the Pergamon Museum ends (the continuation of Berlin's ancient collection is in the Old Museum, I will definitely write about it) and ancient Babylon begins!
Which was great!
The main "Babylonian" exhibit of the Pergamon Museum is the Ishtar Gate, built in 575 BC. e. by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II in the northern part of the city. The dimensions of the restored Ishtar gate are 14 meters high and 10 meters long, in the original they were twice as high and these were the small gates of the city, i.e. behind them were located another one - several times more! Actually, the city itself was not small - in those days, the first metropolis in the history of mankind was inhabited by more than 150,000 people - a gigantic figure for the ancient world!
By the way, they say that in Iraq there is a life-size copy of the Ishtar Gate ... in Iraq ((((( 
The main, attracting attention, element of the Gate is the reliefs depicting the animal world of Mesopotamia. There were about 575 of them in total. Like the gates, they are made of burnt glazed brick. 
In a similar style, the walls that bounded the road of religious processions, departing from the gate, along which during the holidays (for example, the Babylonian New Year) passed processions with statues of the gods, were made in a similar style. 
Conditionally, the procession road was reconstructed, though it is much narrower and lower than the original... 
Time did not spare the ancient lions =( 
The Processional Path led to the ziggurat of Etemenanki. The seven-story Etemenanki was the tallest (90 m) building in Babylon. At its top stood the temple of Marduk, the patron god of Babylon. The ziggurat of Etemenanki was probably the prototype of the biblical Tower of Babel. Only ruins are left of it now. 
Some ancient symbols: 
And here it is - a stone with a set of laws of Hammurabi. Unfortunately a copy, because. the original is in the Louvre 
In addition to the gates, the museum contains quite a few interesting exhibits of the Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian cultures. 
Here, for example, King Barrakib and his clerk: 
soldiers 
The museum also had an exhibition dedicated to the ancient Mesopotamian city of Uruk. This city was considered very large, as many as 6 thousand people lived in it! But there were few interesting exhibits at the exhibition, but they showed an interesting film, where everything was clear even without knowing the language 
And on the second floor of the Pergamon Museum was the so-called "Museum of Islamic Art". It presented the art of the Islamic peoples of the 8th-19th centuries, who lived in the vastness from Spain to India. After the monumental masterpieces of the ancient Greeks, Romans and Babylonians, medieval Islamic art was perceived with boredom. Beautiful, of course .... but somewhere I saw this. Yes, and I do not like all these oriental curls.
cute bird: 
Mihrabs - niches in the walls of the mosque, indicating the direction of Mecca. 
Carved ceiling from the Alhambra, by the way, this is Spain. It is made of wood and history is connected with it - the building in which it was located, which was some kind of palace, became a private dwelling in the 19th century. In 1865, the German banker Arthur von Gwinner bought the land with his building, lived there for some time, and in 1891 he gave the land and the building to the Spanish state, but in return received permission to take out the decorative ceiling. I don't even know if it's a good exchange =) 
Funny Arabic Drawings: 
Oh yes, and carpets, there were a lot of them in the exposition: 
I have never seen such a number of His works, so I could not resist: 
And here is the "pearl" of the Museum of Islamic Art - Frieze from Mshatta - an ornamental relief frieze of the middle of the 8th century, which adorned the Mshatta palace in the desert of Jordan. The ruins of Mshatta were discovered 30 km south of the Jordanian capital Amman in 1840.
The construction of the palace supposedly began during the reign of Caliph Al-Walid II in 743-744. Its construction was stopped after the assassination of the caliph, and after a while the unfinished palace was destroyed by an earthquake. The name "Mshatta" was given to the palace by the Bedouins who made stops near the ruins. Well, at the end of the 19th century, the Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid II presented the frieze to Kaiser Wilhelm II, so they ended up in the museum.
Of course, in the original, the walls were twice as high! 
