![]() At last, we get a draught of intoxicating exuberance.Every bid submitted is treated as a maximum bid. This is drunk history in which stiff classicism melts into “oriental” splendour. A cup in the shape of a Greek amphora has two centaurs dancing on it as handles. A drinking horn has a classical frieze, naked gods and demigods sport on cups with bull faces, all in glinting gold. They brilliantly combine Greek and Persian themes in an aesthetic free-for-all. At the heart of the Hellenistic delights are gold drinking cups and platters from the Panagyurishte Treasure, exquisite Thracian objects lent by Bulgaria’s National Museum of History. This Hellenistic era comes across as a fascinating, seductive cultural melting pot. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. For more information see our Privacy Policy. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. An Egyptian statue from the 4th century BC looks completely Pharaonic but it’s a portrait of one of the Greek rulers from whom Cleopatra descended. Born in Macedon in 356 BC, Alexander defeated Persia, burned its great capital Persepolis, and created a new Greek empire from Egypt to Afghanistan. Things flare into life when Alexander the Great comes on stage, though. Persians instead appear as the foils of Athenian self-confidence: one drinking cup is shaped into a caricature of a grimacing, defeated “Persian”. The show can’t actually demonstrate anything like as much Persian influence as it wants to. A section of the Parthenon frieze in the exhibition depicts young Athenian women carrying Persian objects as tribute in the Panathenaic procession: but artistically this masterpiece owes nothing to Persia. Yet the classical style that crystallised at this time was simple and austere, rejecting Persian magnificence. Athens in the 5th century BC was so rich it could afford a gigantic ivory statue of Athena, covered in gold, to stand inside the new Parthenon temple, rebuilt after the Persians had sacked the Acropolis. Surely this all confirms the traditional view that Greek and Persian culture were opposites. Photograph: © The Trustees of the British Museum A display of drinking cups from 5th century Athens shows how ceramicists and painters turned the opulent Persian rhyton into pottery in the shape of ram and pig heads, painted red, white and black.Īthenian drinking mug in the form of the head of a bearded Persian. In classical Athens, full of cocky democratic self-consciousness after seeing off the mighty Achaemenid army, it was considered vulgar and ostentatious to drink from a bulbous golden horn. They must have been fantastic to drink from. Shaped like horns, made of gold or silver, these Persian banqueting vessels feature bulls, griffins and human portraits. At the heart of each section are huge, luxurious drinking cups known as rhytons. ![]() ![]() Rejecting all that Herodotean stuff, it instead centres on a history of cups. Herodotus brings history to life, which this show refuses to do. And strange to marginalise the father of history: Herodotus didn’t just tell of Persia’s invasion of Greece and its failure, but also explored the cultures of much of the Greeks’ known world, perhaps even visiting Babylon to research and listen. It’s oddly pedantic to insist on the Greek version of his name when he’s been famous for centuries as Herodotus. It’s more surprising that such short shrift is given to “the Greek historian Herodotos”. The wars that ancient historians made so much of are relegated to small connecting displays – a Hoplite helmet, sounds of clashing weapons, that’s your lot. Finally, the two cultures merge as Alexander the Great conquers Persia yet embraces its ways. Then we see how classical Athens wrestled with Persian artistic influence even as it mocked the defeated empire. First, we get a taste of the Persian empire, including a relief of Darius I worshipping Anubis in Egyptian style. There are three sections: a sort of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. Gold armlet (part of the Oxus Treasure), Tajikistan, 499–300 BC.
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