Entangling Dionysos: Abundance Decoration in 4th–2nd centuries BCE Northern Greece Restricted; Files Only
Archie, Ellen Margaretta (Spring 2025)
Abstract
Abundance motifs, much of which are associated with the god Dionysos, decorate ancient Greek jewelry, vessels, furniture, and mosaics in houses and tombs. This imagery becomes especially common adornment in 4th-2nd centuries BCE northern Greece. Scholars studying this region credit the imagery in domestic contexts as celebrating a generalized plenty; but, in funerary contexts, they find it charged with promise of an Orphic afterlife. Approaching decoration from a theoretical perspective and examining objects across context, I argue their entanglement and ecological nature: it is impossible to reconcile the imagery’s meaning in one environment independently of the other. It equally entangles with other kinds of motifs within a space. My consideration of how decoration was activated experientially– in the dining room, on the body, and in the tomb– offers a fresh way of understanding how decoration added meaning to a person’s life through exchanges with objects and between people. Invoking conviviality, it shapes interactions between the living in times of celebration, offers a touchstone between life and death in mourning, and provides comfort in the knowledge that the deceased was enveloped in a recollection of relationships made in life. This imagery’s ability to cross between environments weaves a powerful kosmos not only abundance but also social experience. Decoration is meaningful not because it suggests a future but because it enlivens the present and recalls the past.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Methodology and Chapter Outline 5
A Brief History of Northern Greece in the 4th–2nd Centuries BCE 10
Argead Kingship and Court 11
Instability in the Period of the Diadochoi 18
The Antigonid Dynasty and the later Macedonian Kingdom 21
The Sites and Their Objects 24
Olynthos 25
Pella 26
Vergina 28
Amphipolis 32
Other Important sites 34
Local and Foreign Luxury 36
Northern Greek Burial Practices 39
Conclusion 40
Chapter I Constructing Kosmos: The Ecology of Decorative Arts and the Kosmos of Life & Death 41
Hierarchies of Art and Ornament 42
Experiencing Decoration 51
People, Objects, Interactions 53
The Ecology of Decorative Arts 59
The Entangling Kosmos 61
Kosmos across Life and Death 65
Chapter II A Decorative Dionysos: The Abundant Kosmos 69
Abundance: Dionysos et al. 70
A Semiotic God 77
A Decorative God 85
Rosette-Colored Glasses? 89
Buried Abundance: Against an Orphic Interpretation of Abundance Imagery 92
Conclusion 101
Chapter III The Enveloping Dionysos: Surrounding Kosmos in House and Tomb 102
Grounded Abundance: Domestic Pebble Mosaic Floors 104
A Grounded Dionysos and the Symposion: Olynthos and Pella 105
Images of Masculine Societal Connections and Vegetal Ornament 117
Experiencing Decoration: Hunt Mosaics at Pella 120
Floor-al Vegetation 124
Encircling Plenty: Painted Wall Decoration at Olynthos, Pella, and Amphipolis 128
A Malleable Feast: Uses and Viewership of Domestic Decoration 132
Entangled and Entombed: Macedonian Tomb Painting 136
Buried Vegetation 137
Lived Experience as Decoration in the Tomb 141
Chapter IV The Supporting Kosmos: Abundance Imagery on Furniture, Textiles, and Urns 150
In Search of Things Past: Furniture in Domestic Contexts 151
Survival 151
Abundance Imagery: Bronze Couches with Fulcra 152
Tables 155
Stone Couches: Potidaia 157
The Vergina Klinai: Wooden Couches with Decorative Appliqués 169
Societal Abundance: Standardizing Decoration Across Klinai 177
Monumental Furniture in the Tomb 187
Type B Klinai Decoration in the Domestic Environ 188
The Spectacle of the Funeral: Ornament, Pyre, Tomb 194
Thrones 198
Encompassing Decoration: Larnakes and Urns in the Tomb 201
Larnakes: Decoration Unboxing 201
Urns: The Vessel At-Hand 204
Chapter V Activating Dionysos: Kosmesis, Adornment, and Use of Handheld Objects 216
In Their Cups: Animation, Decoration and Experience through Silver Calyx Cups 217
Handling Abundance 229
Lamps and Lanterns 234
Florals and Philia: Ceramic Vessels and their Decoration 236
Pyxides and Containers 237
Extending Kosmos 238
Chapter VI Performing Plenty: Kosmemata and the Adornment of the Body 241
Dionysos and Dancers: A Diadem from Amphipolis 242
Eros, Aphrodite… Papposilenoi: Who is Appropriate for Wear? 250
Ornamental Vegetation and Fertility 255
Wearing Landscape 257
Herakles Knots and Abundance Imagery: Macedonian Court and Societal Splendor 261
Kosmemata, Experience and the Body 270
Wreaths: Multimodal Adornment 271
New and Used in the Tomb 273
Conclusion 275
Excursus: Animal Head Terminals: Achaemenid Luxury and Empire 277
Excursus: How do Intaglio Rings Differ from Other Jewelry? 282
Conclusion 285
Appendix: Burial and Domestic Assemblages 292
Bibliography 365
Images 394
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File download under embargo until 12 January 2032 | 2025-12-15 11:04:29 -0500 | File download under embargo until 12 January 2032 |
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