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+--- Thread: Greek victory columns? (/showthread.php?tid=16896)
Greek victory columns? - Eleatic Guest - 05-25-2010
Did the Greek erect (triumphal, victory, honorific) columns in the same manner the Romans did so later beginning with Trajan's Column?
From the top of my memory, only the serpent column in Byzantium which celebrates the Greek victories of the Persian wars would come close. But this, as much as the little known Heliodorus pillar in India, seems to be devoted to the Gods while I find the Roman victory columns to be, in terms of political symbolism, much more secular structures, rather comparable to triumphal arches.
To make the point blunt, I believe the practice of erecting victory columns which is still with us was first introduced by the Romans (in the Trajan's Column) with no real precedent in older civilizations. Any dissent?
Re: Greek victory columns? - hoplite14gr - 05-25-2010
Not victory columns but rather victory memorials.
The greatest number of them is described by Pausanias in his tenth book where he writes about Delphoi.
Kind regards
Re: Greek victory columns? - Giannis K. Hoplite - 05-31-2010
Pausanias the Laconian erected a column with his own guilded statue on it, do i have this wrong? I think he was condemned for his hybris back in Sparta, but i think he cared little.
This sounds like triumphal columns,but not exactly. As Stefanos said,they were positioned in Delphoi and other sanctuaries mostly (where people wouldn't have to bear this hybris every time they went to the Agora)
Khaire
Giannis