WAR IN THE HELLENISTIC WORLD

AESTHETICS OF WAR
10
AESTHETICS OF WAR
10.1. Images of Violence in Hellenistic Literature and Art
Theokritos is usually remembered as the poet of shepherds in love; he
was also the poet of passionate women, of self-confident kings, but also
of realistic descriptions of violence – for example, in his 22nd idyll, in which
he describes the boxing match between Polydeukes and Amykos (lines
97–128):
Drunk with the blows, he came to a standstill and spat crimson blood, while
all the heroes shouted to see the grievous wounds about his mouth and jaws;
and as his face swelled the eyes were narrowed to slits. Then did the prince
confound him with feints on every hand, but when he marked him at a loss
drove with the fist down on the brow above the center of the nose and skinned
the whole forehead to the bone, and with the blow Amykos stretched on his
back upon the flowery sward . . . Polydeukes slipped his head aside and with
his stout fist struck below the left temple and put his shoulder into the punch;
and from the gaping temple swift flowed the dark blood. Then with his left he
landed on the mouth so that the close-set teeth rattled, and with an ever faster
rain of blows savaged the face until the cheeks were crushed and Amykos,
dizzy, stretched his length on the ground.
(trans. A. S. F. Gow)
Such merciless representations of violence are not uncommon in Hellenistic
art and literature (Fowler 1989: 33–5; see section 10.2). From the famous
dying Gauls of Athens and Pergamon, to the irrational violence of the
toddler who strangles a goose, from the long, detailed, and frequent representations
of contemporary battles and the sacking and plundering of cities
in Hellenistic historiography, to mythical narratives of violence in the epic
poetry of Apollonios of Rhodes, from battle scenes in grave monuments or
Homeric scenes on drinking bowls, to hunting scenes on mosaics, from fighting
athletes and warriors, to the images of the mythical combat between
the Olympians and Giants on the Great Altar of Pergamon, Hellenistic audiences
were confronted with a variety of texts and images which represented
violence.
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