Gods who look like people
The Greeks imagined their gods as human in appearance, and subject to every human passion. In art this creates a practical problem: a god and a man can look exactly alike. On a vase by Exekias in the Metropolitan Museum, a noble couple rides in a chariot with such dignity that it is impossible to say whether they are gods or mortals. The Greeks solved the problem with a code. Each god had attributes, objects, clothes or animals, and by the Archaic and Classical periods there was an established iconography that anyone could read.
The attributes, god by god
Here are the main signs, the ones that let you name a statue or a figure on a vase:
- Zeus, god of the sky and father of the gods: a mature, bearded man with a thunderbolt, or enthroned with a sceptre topped by an eagle. The ox and the oak were sacred to him.
- Poseidon, his brother, god of the sea: bearded like Zeus, with a trident.
- Hera, queen of the gods: often wears a tall crown, the polos.
- Athena: in full armour, with helmet, spear and the aegis, a goatskin with a fringe of snakes; the owl and the olive tree were sacred to her.
- Apollo: young and beardless, with the kithara, a large lyre, or with bow and arrows.
- Artemis, his twin sister and goddess of hunting: bow and quiver.
- Hermes, the messenger: winged sandals and a herald’s staff, the kerykeion.
- Dionysos, god of wine and theatre: a wreath of ivy, like the laurel of Apollo, the olive of Athena and the roses of Aphrodite.
In practice, start from the hands, then the head, then the clothes. A woman with helmet and aegis is Athena; a young man with a lyre is Apollo; winged sandals are Hermes.
Is every bearded god Zeus?
No, and the most famous bronze god of all shows why. From the sea off Cape Artemision came a bronze figure 2.09 metres tall, made around 460 BCE: a bearded, naked god with his left arm stretched forward and his right arm raised to throw. If his hand held a thunderbolt, he is Zeus; if it held a trident, he is Poseidon. The object is lost, so the Greek Ministry of Culture still labels him “Zeus or Poseidon”.
Both gods are mature, bearded and powerful, so beard and body alone cannot decide. The attribute, or the place where a statue stood, or an inscription, is what settles a name. When all three are missing, the honest answer is a pair of names.
The lost giants: Zeus at Olympia and Athena Parthenos
The most important statues of the gods were the cult statues inside the temples, and the most famous were chryselephantine, made of gold and ivory (from chrysos, gold, and elephas, ivory). None survives. We know them from ancient descriptions and small copies.
Pheidias made the Zeus of Olympia around 430 BCE. When the traveller Pausanias saw it, centuries later, the god sat on a throne decorated with gold, jewels, ebony and ivory, a wreath of olive shoots on his head; in his right hand he held a Victory, also of gold and ivory, and in his left a sceptre inlaid with every kind of metal, with an eagle perched on top. Even his robe was gold, embroidered with animals and lilies.
On the Acropolis of Athens, the Athena Parthenos stood upright in a tunic to her feet, with the head of Medusa in ivory on her breast, a Victory about four cubits high in one hand and a spear in the other, a shield at her feet and a serpent beside the spear. Her helmet carried a sphinx in the middle and griffins on either side. The original was about 12 metres tall; the best idea of it comes from a small marble copy made in Roman times, around 200-250 CE, and known as the Varvakeion Athena.
Where to see them
The National Archaeological Museum in Athens has the god of Artemision and the Varvakeion Athena. At Olympia you can stand in the ruined Temple of Zeus where Pheidias’s statue sat. In New York, the Metropolitan Museum’s Greek galleries are full of vases on which the gods can be named by their attributes. Check opening times before you go.
Sources
- C. Hemingway and S. Hemingway, “Greek Gods and Religious Practices”, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2003); H. Koda, “The Greek Key and Divine Attributes in Modern Dress” (2003).
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, collection records 17.230.14a, b (Exekias) and 63.11.6 (Andokides).
- Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, Odysseus: Zeus or Poseidon of Artemision (Χ15161); Temple of Zeus at Olympia.
- National Archaeological Museum, Athens, “Classical Period” (Varvakeion Athena, no. 129).
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.24.5-7 and 5.11.1 (Perseus Digital Library).
