Journal of Biblical Literature - Society of Biblical Literature

Friesen: Myth and Resistance in Revelation 13 289
The sculptures from the walls of this altar platform provide rare surviving
examples of the use of myth in an imperial cult setting. The external walls of the
altar platform contained twelve sculptures. 29 Only a few pieces of the twelve
sculptures were found, so we cannot say what the overall sculptural program
might have been. The extant fragments of four identifiable scenes show that
local mythology regarding justice and vengeance predominated. Leto and her
twins Apollo and Artemis appear in three of the four scenes as examples of local
versions of Panhellenic myths. 30 One scene is so severely damaged that it is
clear only from analogous sculptures that it portrays Apollo with a bow. A second
scene appears in two examples: Leto sits on her throne with water nymphs from
the Mykale mountain range at her feet (left); Apollo and Artemis (right) stand in
her presence. 31 A third scene, again quite damaged, portrays Artemis shooting
the giant Tityos in order to stop him from raping her mother Leto at Delphi (fig.
3). The rest of the story is not pictured (as far as we know): as punishment, Tityos
was pegged to the ground in Tartarus, where vultures feasted on his liver. The
fourth scene changes characters but not themes: the twin founders of Miletos,
Pelias and Neleus, avenge their mother, Tyro, by killing her evil stepmother,
Sidero, even though Sidero had fled to the temple of Hera for protection (fig. 4).
Given our incomplete knowledge of the Miletos altar and its sculptures, it
is important not to make too much of this evidence. But it is equally important
not to make too little of it. If the interpretations of the remains are accurate
(and I think they are), we have a good example of local mythology appropriated
to support Roman imperialism in a specific setting. New imperial cult rituals
were grafted onto the municipal rituals already established for city governance
of Miletos, and local myths were used to provide the narrative. By visually
“retelling” the mythic stories of Miletos in this ritual setting, their meaning was
altered to reflect and to promote a particular social hierarchy. The local stories
of vengeance and divine judgment upon evildoers were deployed to support
Roman rule and the collaboration of the local elites (the bouleµ) with Rome.
An implication of this conclusion is that we should not expect to find a
homogeneous, unified mythology of imperial cults. The ways these myths were
only the inscriptions and did not deal with the architectural and sculptural evidence. Even though
the evidence is fragmentary, Tuchelt’s argument is stonger.
29 There were four scenes on the back wall (visible from the propylon); three scenes on each
side wall; and a scene on either side of the staircase (visible from the bouleuterion).
30 On the overlap of local and Panhellenic myths, see Simon Price, Religions of the Ancient
Greeks (Key Themes in Ancient History; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 19.
Although Delos was named as the birthplace of the twins in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, local tradition
in western Asia Minor asserted that the true birthplace was Ortygia, near Ephesos (Strabo,
Geography 14.1.20). The intimate connection between Artemis and Ephesos is well known. There
were also important oracular shrines of Apollo in the region, with the most prominent centers at
Didyma (under the control of Miletos) and at Klaros.
31 Tuchelt, “Buleuterion,” pls. 28–29.