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Books > Arts & Architecture > Art forms, treatments & subjects > Sculpture & other three-dimensional art forms > Sculpture
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The Serpent Column - A Cultural Biography (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R3,770
Discovery Miles 37 700
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The Serpent Column - A Cultural Biography (Hardcover)
Series: Onassis Series in Hellenic Culture
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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The Serpent Column, a bronze sculpture that has stood in Delphi and
Constantinople, today Istanbul, is a Greek representation of the
Near Eastern primordial combat myth: it is Typhon, a dragon
defeated by Zeus, and also Python slain by Apollo. The column was
created after the Battle of Plataia (479BC), where the sky was
dominated by serpentine constellations and by the spiralling tails
of the Milky Way. It was erected as a votive for Apollo and as a
monument to the victory of the united Greek poleis over the
Persians. It is as a victory monument that the column was
transplanted to Constantinople and erected in the hippodrome. The
column remained a monument to cosmic victory through centuries, but
also took on other meanings. Through the Byzantine centuries these
interpretation were fundamentally Christian, drawing upon
serpentine imagery in Scripture, patristic and homiletic writings.
When Byzantines saw the monument they reflected upon this
multivalent serpentine symbolism, but also the fact that it was a
bronze column. For these observers, it evoked the Temple's brazen
pillars, Moses' brazen serpent, the serpentine tempter of Genesis
(Satan), and the beast of Revelation. The column was inserted into
Christian sacred history, symbolizing creation and the end times.
The most enduring interpretation of the column, which is unrelated
to religion, and therefore survived the Ottoman capture of the
city, is as a talisman against snakes and snake-bites. It is this
tale that was told by travellers to Constantinople throughout the
Middle Ages, and it is this story that is told to tourists today
who visit Istanbul. In this book, Paul Stephenson twists together
multiple strands to relate the cultural biography of a unique
monument.
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