“THAT MY BODY IS STRONG”: THE PHYSIQUE AND APPEARANCE OF ACHAEMENID MONARCHY PDF

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DIETRICH BOSCHUNG, ALAN SHAPIRO AND FRANK WASCHECK ( EDS. ) BODIES IN TRANSITION Dissolving the Boundaries of Embodied Knowledge MORPHOMATA This volume engages from the perspective of the an- cient Mediterranean world with current debates in the field of cultural studies revolving around the idea of...

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“THAT MY BODY IS STRONG”: THE PHYSIQUE AND APPEARANCE OF ACHAEMENID MONARCHY Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

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DIETRICH BOSCHUNG, ALAN SHAPIRO AND FRANK WASCHECK ( EDS. )

BODIES IN TRANSITION Dissolving the Boundaries of Embodied Knowledge

MORPHOMATA

This volume engages from the perspective of the ancient Mediterranean world with current debates in the field of cultural studies revolving around the idea of embodied knowledge. In particular, it deals with the dissolution of the concept of the ideal body as a repository of knowledge through instances of deformation or hybridization. The starting point comprises a series of case studies of less than perfect bodies: bodies that are misshapen, stigmatized, fragmented, as well as hybrid human/ animal creatures, transgendered persons, and bodies on the cultural periphery of the classical world. All of these examples represent deviations from the ‘normal’ order of things and evoke familiar feelings of alienation. The ordered knowledge that has shaped the body is subverted and falls into disorder. One strategy for dealing with this is to canonize transgression in visual form. Fluid bodies are captured in the image and domesticated, creating a visual order in KPZVYKLY;OLIVK`HZY\PUPZHÉ_LKÉN\YLVMÈ\PKP[` and thus especially receptive to attributions of meaning, which helps explain its persistence as a cultural trope. It allows for the observation of cultural change.

BOSCHUNG, SHAPIRO, WASCHECK ( EDS. ) — BODIES IN TRANSITION

MORPHOMATA EDITED BY GÜNTER BLAMBERGER AND DIETRICH BOSCHUNG VOLUME 23

EDITED BY DIETRICH BOSCHUNG, ALAN SHAPIRO AND FRANK WASCHECK

BODIES IN TRANSITION Dissolving the Boundaries of Embodied Knowledge

WILHELM FINK

unter dem Förderkennzeichen 01UK0905. Die Verantwortung für den Inhalt der Veröffentlichung liegt bei den Autoren. Bibliografische Informationen der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek: Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte Daten sind im Internet über www.dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. Alle Rechte, auch die des auszugsweisen Nachdrucks, der fotomechanischen Wiedergabe und der Übersetzung vorbehalten. Dies betrifft auch die Vervielfältigung und Übertragung einzelner Textabschnitte, Zeichnungen oder Bilder durch alle Verfahren wie Speicherung und Übertragung auf Papier, Transparente, Filme, Bänder, Platten und andere Medien, soweit es nicht § 53 und 54 UrhG ausdrücklich gestatten. © 2015 Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn Wilhelm Fink GmbH & Co. Verlags-KG, Jühenplatz 1, D-33098 Paderborn Internet: www.fink.de Lektorat: Torsten Zimmer, Alan Shapiro, Thierry Greub Gestaltung und Satz: Kathrin Roussel, Sichtvermerk Printed in Germany Herstellung: Ferdinand Schöningh GmbH & Co. KG, Paderborn ISBN 978 -3 -7705 - 5808 - 7

CONTENT Preface

7

Introduction by Alan Shapiro

9

FRANÇOIS LISSARRAGUE Corps à corps: épisèmes anthropomorphiques dans la céramique attique

11

ERIC R. VARNER Fluidity and Fluctuation: the Shifting Dynamics of Condemnation in Roman Imperial Portraits

33

DESPOINA TSIAFAKIS Thracian Tattoos

89

HANS BERNSDORFF Schmerz und Bestrafung in der hellenistischen ‚Tätowierelegie‘

119

JAN N. BREMMER Stigmata: From Tattoos to Saints’ Marks

137

VÉRONIQUE DASEN Body Marks—Birthmarks. Body Divination in Ancient Literature and Iconography

153

MARCELLO BARBANERA The Lame God: Ambiguities of Hephaistos in the Greek Mythical Realm

177

LLOYD LLEWELLYN-JONES “That My Body is Strong”: The Physique and Appearance of Achaemenid Monarchy

211

HELEN KING Between Male and Female in Ancient Medicine

249

JAN N. BREMMER A Transsexual in Archaic Greece: The Case of Kaineus

265

ALAN SHAPIRO Alkibiades’ Effeminacy and the Androgyny of Dionysos

287

ANNETTA ALEXANDRIDIS Ζῷα: Bilder des Körpers zwischen Mensch und Tier im Mythos von Aktaion

313

Contributors

350

Plates

355

L L OYD L LEWELLY N - JO N ES

“THAT MY BODY IS STRONG”: THE PHYSIQUE AND APPEARANCE OF ACHAEMENID MONARCHY AB S T RACT The body of the Persian Great King was carefully and skilfully constructed through text and image as a series of signs to be decoded and read. Placing the Persian royal body within the context of general Near Eastern ideologies of the monarchic body, this chapter explores the codified meanings of, firstly, the royal head because the Great King’s eyes, nose, beard, and hair are rich in cultural and symbolic meaning. But more than anything it is the clothed body of the king that speaks in a uniquely ‘Persian voice’. The chapter explores how the monarch’s clothed body is a site of representation, an emblem of his power, potency, legitimacy, and strength. Look at any conventional Persian-made image of an Achaemenid Great King, such as that of Darius I carved into the rock face of the mountain H[ )PZP[\U pl. 1 VY [OL LU[OYVULK PTHNL VM +HYP\Z VY ?LY_LZ MYVT 7LYZLWVSPZpl. 2HUK[OLOLYVPJÉN\YLZVMRPUNZZSH`PUNHT`[OPJILHZ[ on the doorjamb of the same palace.1 Notice how perfect the monarch

1 See Llewellyn-Jones 2013b, 214 fig. F7. In these door-jam images, the Great King, in his role as ‘Persian Hero’, kills an Asiatic lion, a symbol of chaos and disorder, by stabbing it in the belly. The Great King wears a voluminous Court robe, but turns it into a practical garment for slaughter by girding the skirt and hitching it into his belt, and freeing his arms from the sleeve-like overhang.

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is.2 His body emanates strength and vitality, his posture encodes military prowess and sportsmanship; his hair and his beard are thick and luxuriHU[HUKYHKPH[LOLHS[OHUK]P[HSP[`"OPZMHJL^P[OP[Z^LSSKLÉULKWYVÉSL large eye and thick eyebrow, is as powerful as it is handsome. These images are state pronouncements. We must read them as codes through which the king’s body takes on cultural meaning: it is [OLTHUSPULZZ^OVSLULZZILH\[`HUKWO`ZPJHSÉ[ULZZVM[OLTVUHYJOZ body which guarantees his right to rule. The Bisitun image in particular might be regarded as a ‘site of representation’ where Darius’ maleness is KLÉULKPUVWWVZP[PVUHUKPUJVU[YHZ[[V[OLTLUPUMYVU[VMOPT![OLPYZ are the subjugated, bound bodies of defeated enemies, while his is the body of a victorious and virtuous warrior-king who, for the sake of the deity who hovers above the scene, has destroyed those whose bodies and HJ[PVUZKPKUV[HJJVYK^P[O[OL;Y\[OArta But how did the Persian King’s body function as a site of representation? In this chapter I will explore a diverse corpus of evidence in order to articulate something tangible about the body of the Persian Great King. By placing the Achaemenid materials within the context of an ancient Near Eastern cultural koine, as Margaret Cool Root successfully did in her seminal 1979 work King and Kingship in Achaemenid Art, we might be better equipped to engage with the cultural ideology of the Persians who created the texts and images which make up our deposit of study mateYPHSZ9\SLYZILMVYLHUKHM[LY[OL(JOHLTLUPKRPUNZKL]LSVWLKHY[PZ[PJ programmes as a response to their perceptions of the particular politiJHSOPZ[VYPJHSKLTHUKZVM[OLPYYLPNUHUK*VVS9VV[\[PSPaLK[OLHY[HUK ideology of Egypt and Mesopotamia to throw light on the creation and utilization of a visual language of monarchy in the Persian Empire, realPaPUN[OH[[OL(JOHLTLUPKZYLHKPS`HUKLU[O\ZPHZ[PJHSS`LTIYHJLKTHU` of the artistic and ideological constructions of Near Eastern kingship. I will employ the same methodology here for the study of the Great King’s body, but in addition introduce to my work the literature of the Hebrew bible, which, as Mark Hamilton has recently shown, is a rich starting point for any analysis of the ancient Near Eastern monarchic body.3 For their part the Greeks too were aware of something of the royal ideology surrounding the body of the Persian king, and even if they had 2 The Achaemenid body is mathematically perfect too, as noted by Azarpay 1994 in his study of the grid pattern adopted by Achaemenid artists for the schematised depiction of the human body. 3 Hamilton 2005.

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[OLPYV^UJ\S[\YHSHNLUKHPUYLWYLZLU[PUN[OL7LYZPHUZPUZWLJPÉJVM[LU KLSL[LYPV\Z^H`Z[OL.YLLRTHKL[L_[ZZ[PSSTHUHNL[VLTIVK`ZVTL bone fide Achaemenid thought-processes and cultural norms and therefore can still offer up valuable information. As James Davidson notes, “the Greeks did not invent things, but were quite happy to misunderstand, modify, or simply decontextualize some salient Persian facts, images, and representations, for, of course, it was the grains of truth that gave negative constructions their cogency”.4 This chapter will therefore also \[PSPaL.YLLR[L_[ZMVY[OLYLÈLJ[PVUZ[OL`THRLVU[OL7LYZPHUWO`ZPX\L

THE ROYA L B O DY AS D IV INE B ODY ([[OLYV`HSJVYVUH[PVUVYPUP[PH[PVU[OL7LYZPHURPUN[VVRVUHUL^ body. Since the lack of basic laws of primogeniture, succession struggles, and other forms of harem politics played a role in determining who the heir to the Achaemenid throne might be, it was the coronation rather than [OLWO`ZPJHSIPY[OVYL]LU[OLKLH[OVM[OLWYL]PV\ZRPUN[OH[THYRLK the moment when the king became a different person. Accordingly, it ^HZH[[OLJVYVUH[PVU[OH[OL^HZNP]LUHKPMMLYLU[HUH[VT`HUKWLYOHWZ H KPMMLYLU[ [OYVUL UHTL [VV 7S\[HYJO PU HSS WYVIHIPSP[` KLYP]PUN OPZ PUMVYTH[PVU MYVT *[LZPHZ ^OV ^HZ YLZPKLU[ H[ [OL (JOHLTLUPK JV\Y[ YLJVYKZZVTLKL[HPSZVM[OLJVYVUH[PVUPUP[PH[PVUYP[LZ! “Shortly after the death of Darius [II], the king [Artaxerxes II] went [V7HYZHNHKL[VILPUP[PH[LKPU[V[OLYV`HSYP[LZB[LSL[çPLT`Z[LY` rite’] by the Persian priests. It takes place at the shrine of a goddess of war [Anahita], whom one might liken to Athene. The initiate must enter the shrine, remove his own dress, and put on the clothes once ^VYUI`*`Y\Z[OL,SKLYILMVYLOLOHKILJVTLRPUNLH[HJHRLVMÉNZ swallow terebinth and drink a bowl of sour milk. If there are other rituals, then they are not known to outsiders. When Artaxerxes was about to perform these rites, Tissaphernes came up to him bringing one of the priests who—because he had been in charge of Cyrus’ traditional education during his childhood and had taught him to be a Magus—was, it seemed, more upset than any other Persian when Cyrus had not been made king. Because of this he was trusted when

4 Davidson 2006, 35.

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he started making accusations against Cyrus. He accused him of planning to lie in wait in the sanctuary so as to attack and kill the King when he was removing his clothes.” 5 Here, the new king, having conducted his father’s funerary ceremonies, is transformed into the new ruler having undergone a series of classic rite of WHZZHNLYP[\HSZ![OLKVUUPUNVMZ`TIVSPJNHYTLU[ZHUK[OLLH[PUNVMZWLJPÉJ foods and the imbibing of ritual liquor, followed by his dressing in new garments to symbolize an altered state of being. The drinking of the sour milk HUK[OLHJ[ZVMPUNLZ[PUNO\TISLMVVKZHUKOHSS\JPUVNLUPJZJVUÉYTLK[OL initiate’s liminal status, as did the new king’s dressing in the pre-monarchic clothing of Cyrus: humility and humbleness were stressed in this [LSL[Ŧ and only afterwards, when the king donned a robe of state, was his new brilliance, Z[YLUN[OHUK]P[HSP[`JVUÉYTLKHUKHUUV\UJLK6 This ritual simultaneously imbued the Achaemenid monarch with sacredness and legitimacy.7 .YLZZTHUUZ PUÈ\LU[PHS ^VYR VU [OL JVUJLW[ VM HUJPLU[ ZHJYLK kingship has suggested that in the religious and political thought of the Near East the royal body was generally perceived to have taken on a new form of being at the investiture or coronation, so much so in fact that Gressmann thinks royal body-transformation was part of a region-wide Hofstil.8 If this is correct then it is logical to see the ancient Persian investiture ritual as part of the same Near Eastern-wide theological system. In Achaemenid iconography, the Great King shares his appearance with that of Ahuramazda, echoing, I suggest, a Hofstil^OPJO^HZHSYLHK`PKLU[PÉHISL in the Neo-Assyrian period: “Man is a shadow of god”, runs one Assyrian proverb; “the king is the perfect likeness of God”, it concludes.9 The proverb compares the king to other humans, and contrasts them too, and such a double-layered creed might be corroborated in the teachings of (OPXHY[VV!)LH\[PM\S[VILOVSKPZ[OLRPUNBˆDHUKUVISLPZOPZTHQLZ[` to them that walk the earth”.10 Similarly a Neo-Assyrian composition

5 Plutarch, ArtaxerxesÕӋÖ$*[LZPHZ-ÓÙ-VYHUPU[YVK\J[PVU[V*[LZPHZ and his life in Persia see Llewellyn-Jones and Robson 2010. 6 For a discussion see Binder 2008, 111–22 and 2010. On terebinth and homa see Sancisi-Weerdenburg 1995 and McGovern 2009, 110–120. 7 As noted by Chaumont 1961, 298. See further Roux 1995, 83–118 and Hani 2011. 8 Gressmann 1929. 9 Parpola 1970, 112–13, Letter 145. 10 Teachings of Ahiqar 7. 95 ff. See Lindenberger 1983 and 1985.

LLOY D LLE W E LLY N - J O NE S: “ T HAT M Y B O DY IS S TRO N G” 215

about the creation of mankind stresses that the king’s physical being was made distinct from, and superior to, ordinary men: ,HNVKVM^PZKVTVWLULKOPZTV\[O[VZWLHRZH`PUN[V)LSL[PSP NVKKLZZVMJYLH[PVU!@V\HYL)LSL[PSP[OLZPZ[LYVM[OLNYLH[NVKZ" it was you who created man, the human. Fashion now the king, the JV\UZLSSVYTHU.PYK[OL^OVSLÉN\YLZVWSLHZPUNS`THRLWLYMLJ[OPZ countenance and well-formed his body!’ And Belet-ili fashioned the king, the councillor man.” 11 In Near Eastern belief, the gods carefully and lovingly created the TVUHYJOZIVK`HUK[OH[YV`HSIVK`^HZZWLJPÉJHSS`JYHM[LK[VILPUH relationship with the gods. In the Hebrew bible the special relationship IL[^LLU [OL +P]PKPJ RPUN HUK @HO^LO PZ Z[YLZZLK ^OLU [OL TVUHYJO acknowledges his creation at the hands of the deity: -VY`V\JYLH[LKT`PUULYTVZ[ILPUN"`V\RUP[TL[VNL[OLYPUT` TV[OLYZ^VTI0WYHPZL`V\ILJH\ZL0HTˆ^VUKLYM\SS`THKLŽ 12 4`MYHTL^HZUV[OPKKLUMYVT`V\^OLU0^HZTHKLPU[OLZLJYL[ WSHJLZ>OLU0^HZ^V]LU[VNL[OLYPU[OLKLW[OZVM[OLLHY[O`V\Y eyes saw my body.” 13 (UK^P[OHWSH`VU[OL[OLTLVMRPUNHZ@HO^LOHUK@HO^LOHZRPUNŽ the prophet Isaiah was able to foretell his people that, “Your eyes will see the king in his beauty ”.14 Unfortunately, surviving Achaemenid texts are silent about the physical creation of the king’s body, but it is clear from the iconography that just as the king and the god share close intimacy of space, so, like the Israelite monarch and his god, they too share a physical form; the Great King encodes in his appearance the best physical attributes of the anthropomorphic divinity, (O\YHTHaKH0U[OL(JOHLTLUPKHY[^VYRZZ\JOHZ[OL)PZP[\UPTHNLWSÓ VY[OL7LYZLWVSPZ;YLHZ\Y`YLSPLMWSÔ[OL.YLH[2PUNHUK[OLZ\WYLTLKLP[` adopt the same hair-style and beard-shape, the same crown, and the same garment; they are, in effect, one another’s doppelganger. Reciprocity between 11 12 13 14

4H`LYÓÛÚÙ$=:ÔÖUÛÔMPNÕӋÕØ"JM9HKULYÔÒÓÒÓÒ Psalm 139.13–16. Eccles. 11.5. Is. 33.17.

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king and god is guaranteed and thus in an inscription from Susa Darius I JHUZ[H[L^P[OJVUÉKLUJL[OH[(O\YHTHaKHPZTPUL"0HT(O\YHTHaKHZ" I worshipped Ahuramazda; may Ahuramazda bear me aid”.15 ;OLVYPNPUHUKZPNUPÉJHUJLVM[OL[YHKP[PVUVM[OLOHUKZVTLRPUN sharing in the physically perfect attributes of the gods is unclear, although it is probably connected to the connotation that the ruler is superlative in all respects. It was certainly part of a royal ideology promoted across the Near East, from Egypt to Iran.16 The Greeks too were aware of the belief, although they failed to understand the subtleties of the system. Thus, in the Pseudo-Aristotelian tractate De Mundo, the Persian Great King is presented as the antitype of God: “invisible to all” he resides deep within the inner chambers of his tightly guarded palace at Susa or Ecbatana; in his seclusion he nevertheless “sees all and hears all”.17 He acts only through his courtiers and, like a god, he inhabits, as Ernst Kantorowicz puts it, a “celestial Versailles”.18 This is a king whose foot never touches the ground, whom, like a god, is perpetually suspended in mid-air: he alighted from his chariot onto a golden footstool, which a stool-bearer was specially detailed to carry, and he was not touched by anybody’s helping hand. According to several fourth-century Greek Persica, this king never went on foot outside his palace, and even within its walls wherever he ^HSRLKOL[YVK\WVUÉUL:HYKPZJHYWL[Z^OPJOL]LY`VULLSZL^HZMVYIPKden to use.19 Even when he banqueted with his court, the Great King was JVUJLHSLKILOPUKHJ\Y[HPU`L[HISL[VZLLHSS^OVÈVJRLK[VOPZ[HISL[V LUQV`OPZILULÉJLUJL20 When suppliants approached him they prostrated themselves on the ground and kept their eyes lowered.21 ;OL.YLH[2PUNOLSKI`]PY[\LVMOPZVMÉJLHWVZP[PVUZ\WLYUH[\YHS He was, if less than a god, still more than a man. In his Persae, Aeschylus JHSSZ[OLKLHK+HYP\Z[OLMH[OLYVM?LY_LZisotheos “equal to the gods”, theion “divine”, and akakos, “knowing no wrong”, and while the Athenian tragedian must not be taken literally on these points, he was capable,

15 DSk. 16 See Bertelli 2001; Hamilton 2005; Sommer 2009; Llewellyn-Jones 2013b. 17 Pseudo-Aristotle, Mund. 348a. 18 Kantorowicz 1957, 187. 19 +PUVU-Ô×H$([OLUHL\ZÓÔ×ÓÖH"/LYHJSLPKLZ-Ó$([OLUHL\ZÓÔ×ÓÖI‹J 20 /LYHJSLPKLZ-Ô$([OLUHL\ZÖÓÖ×H‹ÓÖØH 21 Fry 1972.

LLOY D LLE W E LLY N - J O NE S: “ T HAT M Y B O DY IS S TRO N G” 217

nonetheless, of thinking of the Achaemenid dynasty in this way.22 Even if Persian kings were not gods, they could be represented in that way, and understood in that light too.

THE BO DY ROYAL AN D T H E IMAG E OF “T H E O F F I C E OF K I N GS H I P” Created under imperial auspices for predominately Persian spectators at [OLOLHY[VM[OL,TWPYL[OL)PZP[\UYLSPLMKH[LK[VQ\Z[ILMVYL×ÓÛ)*, is a vivid depiction, although not necessarily a ‘portrait’ as we might use [OL[LYTVM+HYP\Z[OL.YLH[[OL(JOHLTLUPKTVUHYJOWSÓ7O`ZPJHS likeness was not necessarily the intention behind portrayals of ancient Near Eastern monarchs; it is the institution of monarchy which is being portrayed and, as we will explore, the coded references the king’s beard and coiffure, his stance and body-language, and to his clothing make the Bisitun relief, and other images of its type, a “portrait of a Persian ruler.” 23 This is why, on the Treasury relief, the Crown Prince, standing behind [OH[PZ[VZH`ILZPKL[OLYV`HS[OYVULPZPKLU[PJHSPUL]LY`^H`[VOPZ seated father; this is a portrait of the longevity of the institution of royalty.

22 Aes. Per. 651, 654–5, 671, 711, 857; see further Garvie 2009, 73–80. It is little wonder that the Greeks mistook the Great King’s intimate relationship with Ahuramazda to mean that the king himself was divine. See Plut. Them. 27.4–5: “Amongst our many excellent customs, this we account the best, to honour the ...