token, Hellenistic art is often very “literary,” in the sense that it alludes to or takes its inspiration from
works of literature. Greek artists had always concerned themselves with the depiction of myth, but now
they often depicted myth with reference to a version in a particular literary text. Just as Hellenistic poets
grounded their verse in their laborious reading of the work of their predecessors, so their counterparts in
the visual arts made themselves intimately familiar with the literature of the past. A particularly
impressive example of this is the structure built at Pergamum in the first half of the second century BC to
house the Great Altar of Zeus. Pergamum, a city on the west coast of Asia Minor, was the site of a small,
independent Hellenistic kingdom whose founder controlled the treasury of one of Alexander’s generals.
The kings of Pergamum, known as the Attalid dynasty, sought to make Pergamum into a center of learning
and culture comparable to what Athens had been in the fifth and fourth centuries. The Attalid kings
established an impressive library in Pergamum, second only to that in Alexandria, and they built up the
acropolis of the city in magnificent fashion with several imposing public buildings, including the Altar of
Zeus. This structure was of an unusual design: The altar was set on a high platform and surrounded by a
colonnade, which projected out on either side of the grand staircase leading up to the platform (figure 75).
The platform was decorated with a large sculptured frieze, over 2 meters high and about 120 meters in
length, depicting the mythical battle between the gods and the giants. The artists responsible for the frieze
designed it following an elaborate program that is carefully based on Hesiod’s Theogony, in which the
battle is described. In learned fashion, the approximately one hundred figures that appeared on the frieze
were identified by inscriptions.
Figure 75 Reconstruction of the west side of the Great Altar of Zeus; width 36.44 m, first half of second
century BC. Berlin, Pergamum Museum.
Source: © Eye Ubiquitous / Alamy Stock Photo.