Introduction
Introduction
This book explores the power of civic ideology to control powerful outsiders and insiders — as well as the limits of this power — by focusing on honorific portraits of the Hellenistic period. It considers the workings of images, representations, and memory, since honorific statues, as public art, tell us a lot about these themes, along with processes of competition and assertion on the ground and the role of families in these processes. Drawing on epigraphical sources combined with archaeology and art history, the book examines the honorific portrait within the context of social relations studied under the modern term ‘euergetism’. More specifically, it shows how the phenomenon of portraits in ancient art relates to the historical and anthropological context of city-states honouring worthy individuals through erecting statues, as well as the development of families imitating this practice. A number of test cases are discussed and approached from a variety of angles — Athens, Priene, the Oropian Amphiaraion, and the Epidaurian Asklepieion.
Keywords: civic ideology, Hellenistic period, images, representations, memory, honorific statues, social relations, honorific portraits, city-states, families
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