The Macedonian Question

Experience a thrilling journey as ancient Greek Macedonian history comes to life. This post presents a comprehensive collection of Museum links throughout the world. You are invited to wander, discover, and perhaps get lost among a maze of Museums. Have fun exploring ancient Macedonia!!!

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

The following abridged list of rulers for the ancient Greek world is primarily for the rulers of the Hellenistic age (323–31 B.C.), after the time of Alexander the Great. In the preceding centuries, the dominant geopolitical unit was the polis or city-state. Greek city-states were governed by a variety of entities, including kings, oligarchies, tyrants, and, as in the case of Athens, a democracy.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

During the mid-fourth century B.C., Macedonia (in northern Greece) became a formidable power under Philip II (r. 360/59–336 B.C.), and the Macedonian royal court became the leading center of Greek culture. Philip's military and political achievements ably served the conquests of his son, Alexander the Great (r. 336–323 B.C.).

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

The ancient Greeks believed that Mount Olympos, the highest mountain in mainland Greece, was the home of the gods.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Stater with head of Alexander the Great, 286–281 B.C.; Hellenistic
Greek; Lysimachos, Pella
Gold; Diam. 3/4 in. (1.9 cm)
Gift of Edmund Kerper, Esq., 1952 (52.127.4)

From the beginning of his reign, Alexander the Great envisioned himself as the champion of the Greeks against the Persians and their other enemies, and his choice of coin types and the image chosen by subsequent Macedonian rulers were apparently influenced by the concept. On the obverse of this gold stater is the head of the deified ruler wearing a diadem with ram's horns; on the reverse is an image of a seated Athena crested with a Corinthian helmet, and a flying Nike carrying a victory wreath.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

In the end, he was defeated by his own army, which insisted on returning to Greece. On the way back, he died of fever in Babylon at the age of thirty-three. All the lands that he had conquered were divided up among his generals (52.127.4), and it was these political divisions that comprised the many kingdoms of the Hellenistic period (323–31 B.C.).

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Likewise, well-established maritime trade routes around the Mediterranean basin enabled foreigners to travel to Greece. In the seventh century B.C., contacts with itinerant eastern craftsmen, notably on Crete and Cyprus, inspired Greek artists to work in techniques as diverse as gem cutting, ivory carving, jewelry making, and metalworking. After the unprecedented military campaign of Alexander the Great (r. 336–323 B.C.), more extensive trade routes were opened across Asia, extending as far as Afghanistan and the Indus River Valley. These new trade routes introduced Greek art to cultures in the East, and also exposed Greek artists to a host of artistic styles and techniques, as well as precious stones. Garnets, emeralds, rubies, and amethysts were incorporated into new types of Hellenistic jewelry, more stunning than ever before. In the ensuing centuries, the Greeks continued to live in these eastern regions, but always maintained contact with the Greek mainland.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Head of a Ptolemaic queen, Hellenistic, ca. 270–250 B.C.
Greek
Marble; H. 15 in. (38.1 cm)
Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, The Bothmer Purchase Fund, Malcolm Hewitt Wiener, The Concordia Foundation and Christo G. Bastis Gifts and Marguerite and Frank Cosgrove Jr. Fund, 2002 (2002.66)

This monumental head gives an impression of sovereign calm and power, even though the veil that once covered the top and back of the head is missing. Although the features are cast in a classical style typical of the late fourth century B.C., the face is sufficiently individualized to identify it as a portrait. The head is almost perfectly preserved. It was originally prepared as a separate piece for insertion in a statue. Marble at the summit and back of the head is roughly worked and would have been concealed by a veil constructed of marble or stucco.

It probably represents a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty—the succession of Macedonian Greeks who ruled Egypt from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. until the annexation of Egypt by Rome and the suicide of Cleopatra in 30 B.C.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA

Portrait of a Ptolemaic queen as Isis, most probably Cleopatra

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA

Stater of Kingdom of Macedonia with head of Athena, struck in the name of Alexander III
Greek, Early Hellenistic Period, 323–320 B.C. or later

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA

Head of Herakles (Alexander the Great?)
Greek, Early Hellenistic Period, Late 4th century B.C.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA

Double victoriate of Thessalian League with head of Zeus, struck under Philippos
Greek, Hellenistic Period, 196–146 B.C.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA

Stater of Kingdom of Macedonia with head of Apollo, struck under Philip II
Greek, Late Classical Period, 359–336 B.C.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA

Tetradrachm of Kingdom of Thrace with head of deified Alexander the Great, struck under Lysimachos
Greek, Hellenistic Period, 286–281 B.C

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA

Tetradrachm of Kingdom of Macedonia with head of Demetrios Poliorketes
Greek, Hellenistic Period, 291–290 B.C.

The Oriental Institute, Illinois, USA (The Oriental Institute is a research organization and museum devoted to the study of the ancient Near East)

The Demotic Dictionary Project

The Oriental Institute, Illinois, USA

The occupation of Egypt by Alexander the Great caused Greeks to settle in Egypt...

The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USA (The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879 as both a museum and school...)

Coin Showing Alexander the Great, Issued by King Lysimachus of Thrace, 306-281 B.C.
Silver tetradrachm
Diameter: 3.1 cm (1 1/4 in.)

The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USA

Greek, Macedon
Helmet, 4th century B.C.
Bronze
35.6 x 19.4 x 30.5 cm (14 x 7 5/8 x 12 in.)
Costa A. Pandaleon Endowment, 1978.297

The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USA

Coin Showing the Gorgon Medusa, 411-356 B.C.
Silver drachm
Diameter: 1.5 cm (3/4 in.)
Gift of Martin A. Ryerson, 1922.4922

The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USA

Coin Showing Zeus, Reign of Phillip II (359-336 B.C.)
Silver tetradrachm
Diameter: 2.6 cm (1 in.)

The Field Museum, Illinois, USA

Cleopatra spoke several languages, but her first language was Greek. Scholars have found her handwriting in Greek on a royal decree.

The Field Museum, Illinois, USA

Though Cleopatra was a queen of Egypt, her family heritage was Macedonian Greek.

The Field Museum, Illinois, USA

In the exhibition, you can explore Cleopatra’s family tree. Her lineage is traced back to Ptolemy I, a Macedonian Greek general who served under the conqueror Alexander the Great in the 4th century B.C.E.

The Getty, California, USA

Ancient authors record that Alexander the Great was so pleased with portraits of himself created by Lysippos that he decreed no other sculptor would make his image.

The Getty, California, USA

This scene represents a divine counterpart to the everyday closeness between a mortal mother and her son. During the Hellenistic era, gods and goddesses were often portrayed in a more personal way. This method of representation was a dramatic departure from the earlier Classical style, when the gods were represented more formally as gods, rather than as lighthearted--and humanlike--creatures.

The Getty, California, USA

The head belongs to a larger category of portraiture that arose in the wake of Alexander the Great: portraits of Hellenistic rulers.

[...]

Sculptors in the Hellenistic kingdom of Pergamon frequently used such grayish marble.

The Getty, California, USA

Identified by his mass of leonine hair, his young idealized face, and his deep-set, upturned eyes, Alexander the Great was the first Greek ruler to understand and exploit the propagandistic powers of portraiture.

The Getty, California, USA

In the Hellenistic Greek world, after the death of Alexander the Great, the production of terracotta figurines and masks boomed.

The Getty, California, USA

Reliefs such as this one depicting heroic banquets were popular in eastern areas of the Greek world in the Hellenistic period.

The Getty, California, USA

Serapis was a creation of the Ptolemies, the Greek rulers of Egypt from 323 to 30 B.C. They needed a deity to help unify the mixed population of native Egyptians and Greek colonists.

The Getty, California, USA

A portrait of Alexander the Great decorates the front of this four-drachma coin, a tetradrachm. The Greek goddess Athena appears on the back.

The Getty, California, USA

Although known in earlier periods, gold wreaths became much more frequent in the Hellenistic age, probably due in large part to the greatly increased availability of gold in the Greek world following the eastern conquests of Alexander the Great.

The Getty, California, USA

Certain elements of the hairnet's decoration seem to have had a close connection to the Ptolemies, the ruling family of Hellenistic Egypt.

The Getty, California, USA

Shown leaning on a pillar, Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, is identified by the bow and quiver over her shoulder and the presence of the stag.

The Getty, California, USA

This type of headdress, unknown in Greece before Alexander, was adopted directly from Persia.

The Getty, California, USA
(See if you can spot the Panhellenic Sunburst symbol!!!)

Storage Jar with the Judgment of Paris
Attributed to the Painter of the Wedding Procession
Greek, Athens, about 360 B.C.

The Getty, California, USA

The Greeks, however, used strainers to filter out bits of grape skin and other sediment when serving wine. The form and decoration of this strainer were popular in the 300s B.C., especially in Macedonia in northern Greece.

The Getty, California, USA

An inscription in Greek over the altar reads, "To the good fortune of Queen Berenike." She was the wife of Ptolemy III who ruled from 246 to 221 B.C. as part of the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty that controlled Egypt in the Hellenistic period.

The Getty, California, USA

When the Greeks, led by Alexander the Great, expanded into Persia in the fourth century B.C., Greek artisans began producing this type of bowl in glass, clay, and silver.

The Getty, California, USA

By the 300s B.C., however, the shape was popular in Greece, especially in the northern area of Macedonia, where archaeologists have excavated several similar silver examples. Other areas of Greece imitated the shape in pottery.

Asian Art Museum, California, USA

Greek inscriptions, royal portraits, and images of Greek deities were standard features on coins issued by the Indo-Greek rulers of Central Asia and northern Afghanistan during the centuries just before the Common Era. Many Indo-Greek coins contained translations of the Greek into a local script and language on their reverse sides, indicating the great cultural diversity in this area of the ancient world.

Asian Art Museum, California, USA

The end of the royal Greek city of Aï Khanum (meaning "Lady Moon") came suddenly around 145 B.C. at the hands of nomads from the northeast, who set fire to the palace and robbed the treasury.

Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan USA

During the Ptolemaic Period the Faiyum was doubtless the most fertile region in the entire country of Egypt. Greek mercenaries, after their term of service had ended, settled here in retirement, and the entire region was stamped with the signs of Greek culture.

Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan USA

Alexander the Great and his Macedonian Greek armies invaded Egypt in 332 B.C.

Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan USA

A Hellenizing influence, a result of Alexander the Great’s extension of the Greek empire into Asia, has been perceived in Gandharan sculpture, not least in the extraordinarily skilled rendering of high relief figures that recall those from the Parthenon reliefs.

Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, Michigan USA

Moreover, many ethnic groups influenced Egyptian life throughout the period covered by this exhibition (c. 3100 BCE-700 CE). The most conspicuous were the Macedonian Greeks and Romans who successively ruled Egypt after 332 BCE

Harvard University Art Museums, New Hampshire, USA

Following the conquest of the Persian Empire by Alexander, Greek culture spread across Egypt, the Near East, and northern India, interacting with local traditions.

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA

Greek culture was introduced to Central Asia following the conquests of Alexander the Great around 330 B.C.E. Although made many centuries later, this object testifies to the continued vitality of Greek art and culture in Central Asia.

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA

Here, artists created styles of Buddhist art that combined local traditions with Greek (and later Roman) influences, which had initially been introduced with the conquests of Alexander the Great (died 323 B.C.E) in the late fourth century B.C.E.

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA

The western nature of the art of Gandhara can be understood in the context of the many Greek outposts founded across Asia by Alexander the Great (reigned 336–323 B.C.E.), who reached India in 327 B.C.E.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA

Well before 326 B.C., when Alexander the Great's Greek army conquered areas north and west of India (parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan), cultural and commercial ties had been established between the Gandhara region of Pakistan-Afghanistan and the ancient Mediterranean world.

The Yale University Art Gallery, Connecticut, USA

This under-lifesize marble head represents a female member of the Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled over Egypt from the death of Alexander in 323 B.C. through the suicide of Cleopatra in 30 B.C. This portrait is highly idealized, with softly modeled and rather generic facial features. The loss of much of the coiffure, which in antiquity would have been completed in stucco and attached to the marble head, creates further difficulties in identifying the portrait's historical subject. The favorite candidate among scholars is Arsinoe III, who served as queen alongside her husband (who was also her brother), Ptolemy IV, from 217 to 205 B.C. This was a tumultuous period in the history of Hellenistic Egypt; both king and queen were murdered during a palace coup.

Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey, USA

29 bracelets and armlets (or anklets), with flattened or squared terminals: one is fragmentary (1/3 preserved; no terminals). Diam. range from 9.3 cm. to 6.9 cm. Northern Greek in style, from Thessaly or Macedonia.

Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey, USA

Head of an athlete
ca. 200 - 150 B.C.
Greek
Ptolemaic
Fine-grained, grayish white marble

Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey, USA

Miniature oinochoe
late 8th - early 7th century B.C.
Greek
Geometric

[...]

Thessalian or Macedonian.

The British Museum, London, UK

In 336 BC Alexander the Great embarked on a programme of territorial expansion, which would eventually extend the boundaries of the Greek world to Egypt in the south and to India in the East. In 334 BC Alexander crossed the Hellespont, the narrow strait separating Europe and Asia, and went first to Troy. There he dedicated his armour to Athena and laid a wreath at the tomb of Achilles, the legendary hero and champion of the Greeks in the Trojan War. This act prefigured Alexander's role as a new Achilles liberating the Greek cities of Asia Minor from Asiatic rule.

The British Museum, London, UK

Following the death of Alexander and the division of his empire, the Hellenistic period (323-31 BC) saw Greek power and culture extended across the Middle East and as far as the Indus Valley.

The British Museum, London, UK

Fabled for her sexual allure and cunning intelligence, Cleopatra VII of Egypt has fascinated generations of admirers and detractors since her life ended in suicide in 30 BC. This intriguing exhibition at The British Museum focused on Cleopatra, last of the Ptolemaic monarchs, Macedonian Greeks who had ruled Egypt since the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. The exhibition traced Cleopatra's life as queen of Egypt and her liaisons with the two great Roman leaders of the day, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. The myth and iconic status of Cleopatra is also examined, largely through the representation of the queen in European art from the Renaissance to today.

The British Museum, London, UK

These form three distinct bands of writing. The top band consists of fourteen lines of hieroglyphs: symbols such as an eye, a seated man, a reed and a basket. The middle band is made up of thirty-two lines of a curvilinear script called demotic, the everyday language used in ancient Egypt. At the bottom are over fifty lines of tightly compressed Greek writing.

The inscriptions are three translations of the same decree, passed by a council of priests, that affirms the royal cult of the thirteen-year-old Ptolemy V on the first anniversary of his coronation. In the early years of the nineteenth century, scholars were able to use the Greek inscription on this stone as the key to deciphering the others.

The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) inherited the Macedonian kingdom from his father Philip II in 336 BC. After regaining Philip’s position of hegemony within Greece, Alexander embarked on a great campaign against the Persian empire in 334 BC.

The Beazley Archive, Oxford, UK

Among the Hellenistic royal families only the Ptolemies in Egypt depicted a substantial number of their non-ruling queens on coins and gems, sometimes assimilated to a goddess. A general or family Ptolomaic portrait type seems recognizable in the features of many gems.

Louvre Museum, Paris, France

Early in his reign, Louis XIV wished to become a new Alexander, but all he retained of the life of the Greek was his great military accomplishments and his generosity. The large paintings commissioned from the painter Le Brun in 1665 were the vehicles for this propaganda. Le Brun was able to recreate the tumult and ferocity of battle through facial expressions. He carefully described an imagined Antiquity, set up carefully centered compositions, and selected colors that emphasized the action of the hero across the vast surface of the canvas.
Crossing the Granicus and The Battle of Arbela illustrate the famous battles between the Greeks and the Persians, while The entry of Alexander the Great into Babylon evokes the triumph of Alexander entering this eastern city, in which we can make out the city's famous hanging gardens.

Louvre Museum, Paris, France

Alexander was born in 356 BC, the son of Olympias, a Molossian princess, and Philip II, the king of Macedonia. The kingdom, which was located in the north of Greece, was prosperous and possessed a powerful army. Philip was able to impose his will over the other Greek tribes and city-states, but was assassinated in 336 while he was preparing to invade the neighboring Persian Empire.

Louvre Museum, Paris, France

In the countries of the Levant, the peace that had lasted since the founding of the Persian empire and the arrival of the Greeks under Alexander and his successors, was a source of enduring prosperity.

Louvre Museum, Paris, France

The Egyptians knew nothing and cared little about the appearance of their Greek sovereigns, and continued to depict them according to the prescribed Pharaonic models. The relief's composition and iconography are purely Egyptian, but the text is written in Greek, the language of the conquerors.

Louvre Museum, Paris, France

Sarcophagus of Dioscorides, a Greek Egyptian
Dioscorides was a general under Ptolemy VI, and is well known from a number of Greek papyri. Despite being a member of the Greek élite that governed Egypt at the time, he chose to be buried according to local Egyptian custom. He had his dark stone sarcophagus finely engraved, at appropriate places on the body, with religious inscriptions taken from the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead.

A Greek, buried Egyptian-style

This sarcophagus is remarkable evidence of an Egyptian-style burial deliberately chosen by a Greek. Its owner has now been identified with certainty as the general Dioscorides, who held a high rank at the court of Ptolemy VI Philometor.

The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia

The Greek world penetrated deep into Central Asia in the centuries after the invasion of Alexander the Great. The coins of the Greek kings of Bactria and north-western India illustrate the mingling of Greek and native cultures. This coin shows a Greek king wearing a local headdress on the obverse and the Greek god Poseidon, representing the Indian trident-bearing god Siva, on the reverse.

Glyptothek, Munich, Germany

III. Hellenism

Alexander the Great conquered by 330 BC the Persian empire. This was the Greek art of the ancient world. The Hellenistic sculpture plays with the emotions of the beholder. Against the ideal beauty of the previous era put the artists also aspects of horror, violence and the ugly.

Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece

The exhibition “Towards the birth of cities …” presents the material remains from settlements and cemeteries dating to the Iron Age (1100-700 BC) in the region extending between Mt. Athos and Olympus. At Kastana, Philadelpheia, Assiros, Toumba-Thessaloniki and elsewhere, settlements which are characterized by self-sufficiency and which controlled the sources of the region’s wealth were founded or re-founded.

Archaeological Museum Pella, Macedonia, Greece

The museum is near the archaeological site. It was built in 1960 to house the excavated finds, and has operated as an archaeological museum since 1973. It has information panels and exhibits.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt

During the reign of Ptolemy I, successor of Alexander the Great to the throne of Egypt, Alexandria received a great number of Greek artists who admired the calm and cheerful atmosphere of Alexandria. Gradually, with the mingling of these Greek artists with Egyptians and adopting some of their traditions and beliefs, a hybrid mixture of Greek and Egyptian art emerged.

Al Ain National Museum, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

The Hellenistic culture was the result of the cultural interaction between the Greek civilization and the civilization of the ancient Near East. This took place after the conquest of Alexander in the Near East. Here in the Arabian Gulf, traces of this culture were evident in the 3rd century BC.

Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia

Many designs use the cross motif, which may have originated from the Greek invasion by Alexander the Great.

•