A
xoanon (
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
: ξόανον; plural: ξόανα
xoana, from the verb ξέειν,
xein, to carve or scrape [wood]) was an
ArchaicThe archaic period in Greece is a period of Ancient Greek history. The term originated in the 18th century and has been standard since. This term arose from the study of Greek art, where it refers to styles mainly of surface decoration and plastique, falling in time between Geometric Art and the...
wooden
cult imageIn the practice of religion, a cult image is a man-made object that is venerated for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents. Cultus, the outward religious formulas of "cult", often centers upon the treatment of cult images, which may be dressed, fed or paraded, etc...
of
Ancient GreeceAncient Greece is the civilisation belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the...
. Classical Greeks associated such cult objects, whether aniconic or
effigyAn effigy is a representation of a person, especially in the form of sculpture.The term is usually associated with full-length figures of a deceased person depicted in stone or wood on church monuments. These most often lie supine with hands together in prayer, but may also be recumbent, kneeling...
, with the legendary
DaedalusIn Greek mythology, Daedalus was a most skillful architect, or artificer, or craftsman, so skillful that he was said to have invented images that seemed to move about. Daedalus had two sons: Icarus and Iapyx, along with a nephew, whose name varies...
. Many such cult images were preserved into historical times, though none have survived to the modern day, except where their image was copied in stone or marble.
A
xoanon (
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
: ξόανον; plural: ξόανα
xoana, from the verb ξέειν,
xein, to carve or scrape [wood]) was an
ArchaicThe archaic period in Greece is a period of Ancient Greek history. The term originated in the 18th century and has been standard since. This term arose from the study of Greek art, where it refers to styles mainly of surface decoration and plastique, falling in time between Geometric Art and the...
wooden
cult imageIn the practice of religion, a cult image is a man-made object that is venerated for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents. Cultus, the outward religious formulas of "cult", often centers upon the treatment of cult images, which may be dressed, fed or paraded, etc...
of
Ancient GreeceAncient Greece is the civilisation belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the...
. Classical Greeks associated such cult objects, whether aniconic or
effigyAn effigy is a representation of a person, especially in the form of sculpture.The term is usually associated with full-length figures of a deceased person depicted in stone or wood on church monuments. These most often lie supine with hands together in prayer, but may also be recumbent, kneeling...
, with the legendary
DaedalusIn Greek mythology, Daedalus was a most skillful architect, or artificer, or craftsman, so skillful that he was said to have invented images that seemed to move about. Daedalus had two sons: Icarus and Iapyx, along with a nephew, whose name varies...
. Many such cult images were preserved into historical times, though none have survived to the modern day, except where their image was copied in stone or marble. In the second century CE,
PausaniasPausanias was a Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between...
described numerous
xoana in his
Description of Greece, notably the image of
HeraIn the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hera or Here was the wife and older sister of Zeus. Her chief function was as goddess of women and marriage. In Roman mythology, Juno was the equivalent mythical character. The cow, and later, the peacock were sacred to her...
in her temple at
SamosSamos is a Greek island in the North Aegean sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of Asia Minor.-Geography:...
. "The statue of Samian Hera, as Aethilos says, was a wooden beam at first, but afterwards, when Prokles was ruler, it was humanized in form" In Pausanias' travels he never mentions seeing a
xoanon of a mortal man.
Types of xoana
Some types of archaic
xoana may be reflected in archaic marble versions, such as the pillar-like "Hera of Samos" (Louvre Museum), the flat "Hera of Delos" or some archaic
kourosA kouros is the modern term given to those representations of male youths which first appear in the Archaic period in Greece. The term kouros, meaning youth, was first proposed for what were previously thought to be depictions of Apollo by V. I...
-type figures that may have been used to represent
ApolloIn Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo , is one of the most important and many-sided of the Olympian deities...
.
A different type of cult figure in which the face hands and feet were carved of marble and the rest of the body made of wood is called
acrolithAn acrolith was a statue made in Classical antiquity, in which the trunk of the figure was made of wood, and the head, hands, and feet were made of marble...
. The wooden part was usually covered either with cloth or gold leaf.
Woods and textiles
For
StraboStrabo was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born in a wealthy family from Amaseia in Pontus , which had recently become part of the Roman Empire.. He studied under various geographers and philosophers; first in Nysa, later in Rome...
, the "carved"
xoanon might also be of ivory; Pausanias, however, always uses
xoanon in its best, strict sense, to denote a wooden image; at
CorinthCorinth, or Korinth Corinth, or Korinth Corinth, or Korinth (Greek Κόρινθος, Kórinthos is a city in Greece. In antiquity it was a city-state, on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece. To the west of the isthmus lies the Gulf of...
Pausanias noted that "The sanctuary of Athena Chalinitis is by the theater, and near it is a naked
xoanon of Herakles, said to be by Daidalos. All the works of this artist, though somewhat uncouth to look at, nevertheless have a touch of the divine in them." (
Description, 2.4.5)
- Of the works of Daidalos there are two in Boeotia, a Herakles in Thebes and the Trophonios at Lebadeia. There are also two other xoana in Crete, a Britomartis at Olous and an Athena at Knossos.... At Delos, too, there is a small xoanon of Aphrodite, its right hand damaged by time, and instead of feet its lower part is square. I am persuaded that Ariadne got this image from Daidalos. (Pausanias, 9.40.3).
Similar
xoana were ascribed by the Greeks to the contemporary of Daedalus, the equally legendary
SmilisSmilis was a legendary ancient Greek sculptor, the contemporary of Daedalus, whose name was associated with the archaic cult figure of Hera at Samos. Smilis was born in the island of Aegina.-External links:* "The Sculptors: The Archaic Period"...
. Such figures were often clothed in real textiles, such as the
peplosA peplos is a body-length Greek garment worn by women in the years before 500 BC. The peplos is a tubular cloth, essentially, folded inside-out from the top about halfway down, so that what was the top of the tube is now at the waist and the bottom of the tube is about ankle-length. The garment is...
that was woven and ceremonially delivered to Athena on the Acropolis of Athens into historic times.
The wood of which a
xoanon was carved was often symbolic: olivewood, pearwood,
VitexVitex agnus-castus — commonly called just Vitex, but also called Chaste Tree, Chasteberry, or Monk's Pepper — is a native of the Mediterranean region. Refer to Vitex for other species in the genus.-Cultivation:...
, oak, are all specifically mentioned.
In Athens, in the
ErechtheumThe Erechtheum is an ancient Greek temple on the north side of the Acropolis of Athens in Greece.-Architecture:The temple as seen today was built between 421 and 407 BC. Its architect may have been Mnesicles, and it derived its name from a shrine dedicated to the legendary Greek hero Erichthonius...
, an ancient olivewood effigy of
AthenaIn Greek mythology, Athena is the goddess of wisdom, peace, warfare, strategy, handicrafts and reason, shrewd companion of heroes and the goddess of heroic endeavour...
(the Palladion) was preserved. The Athenians believed it had fallen to earth from the heavens, as a gift to
AthensAthens , the capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the world's oldest cities, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
; it was still to be seen in the second century CE. On the island of
IcariaIcaria, also spelled Ikaria , locally Nikaria or Nicaria , ancient name: Doliche , is a Greek island 10 nautical miles southwest of Samos. It derived its name from Icarus, the son of Daedalus in Greek mythology, who fell into the sea nearby.-History:Icaria has been inhabited since at least 7000 B.C...
a rustic piece of wood was venerated for the spirit of
ArtemisArtemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. In the classical period of Greek mythology, Artemis was often described as the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo...
it contained or represented (Burkert).
OvidPublius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who wrote about love, seduction, and mythological transformation....
in
Metamorphoses (10.693ff) describes how in the cave of
CybeleCybele , was the Phrygian deification of the Earth Mother...
numerous wooden images are to be seen.
Copies of venerable images
Such an archaic image of wood of the Tauric goddess was stolen by Iphigeneia and Orestes in
Iphigeneia in TaurisIphigeneia in Tauris is a drama by the playwright Euripides, written sometime between 414 BC and 412 BC. It has much in common with another of Euripides's plays, Helen, and is often described as a romance, a melodrama or an escape play.-Background:Years before the time period covered by the play,...
(lines 1359-59). The importance of the
xoanon in local cult ensured that it would be carefully copied when colonies were founded, and sent out with the colonists from the mother-city.
StraboStrabo was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born in a wealthy family from Amaseia in Pontus , which had recently become part of the Roman Empire.. He studied under various geographers and philosophers; first in Nysa, later in Rome...
(4.1) reports that the
metropolisA metropolis is a big city, in most cases with over half a million inhabitants in the city proper, and with a population of at least one million living in its urban agglomeration. Big cities belonging to a larger urban agglomeration, but which are not the core of that agglomeration, are not...
Massilia (modern
MarseilleMarseille , formerly known as Massalia , is the 2nd most populous French city as well as the oldest city in France...
) was founded by
PhocaeaPhocaea, or Phokaia, was an ancient Ionian Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia. Greek colonists from Phocaea founded the colony of Massalia in 600 BC, Emporion in 575 BC and Elea in 540 BC.-Geography:Phocaea was the most...
ns. Their cult of Artemis of Ephesus was transferred with the colony, justified in the
founding mythA national myth is an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nation's past. Such myths often serve as an important national symbol and affirm a set of national values. A national myth may sometimes take the form of a national epic...
by a dream, and the artistic design of the cult image — Strabo uses the term
diathesis (
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
διάθεσις) — was re-exported to Massiliote sub-colonies, "where they keep the
diathesis of the
xoanon the same, and all the other usages precisely the same as is customary in the mother-city".
Similarly, cementing cultural ties between the
PhocaeaPhocaea, or Phokaia, was an ancient Ionian Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia. Greek colonists from Phocaea founded the colony of Massalia in 600 BC, Emporion in 575 BC and Elea in 540 BC.-Geography:Phocaea was the most...
n colony at Massilia and the
PhocaeaPhocaea, or Phokaia, was an ancient Ionian Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia. Greek colonists from Phocaea founded the colony of Massalia in 600 BC, Emporion in 575 BC and Elea in 540 BC.-Geography:Phocaea was the most...
n community in
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
, "Among the others, the Romans have consecrated Artemis'
xoanon on the Aventine, taking the same model from the Massiliotes" (Strabo, 4.1.5). So the cult image of the Lady of Ephesus, identified as
ArtemisArtemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. In the classical period of Greek mythology, Artemis was often described as the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo...
in
Greek understandingInterpretatio graeca is a Latin term for the common tendency of ancient Greek writers to equate foreign divinities to members of their own pantheon...
, was established as
Diana Aventina at Rome, of whom marble copies survive (
illustration, left).