The Art of Contact by Martin S. Rebecca;

Author:Martin, S. Rebecca; [Martin, S. Rebecca;]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780812249088
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Published: 2017-01-15T07:00:00+00:00

Figure 39. Plan of the final phase of the Poseidoniasts’ clubhouse at Delos. Plan redrawn by Sveta Matskevich after Bruneau and Ducat 1983, fig. 63.

The under-life-sized Hellenistic sculptural group known as the Sandal Slapper or the Slipper Slapper offers us an opportunity to explore a middle ground negotiation in art (see Plates 23–25).106 It was found in the lake quarter of Delos in a complex identified by Greek inscription (Figure 39):

ΤΟ ΚΟΙΝΟΝ ΒΗΡΥΤΙΩΝ ΠΟΣΕΙΔΩΝΙΑΣΤΩΝ ΕΜΠΟΡΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΝΑΥΚΛΗΡΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΓΔΟΧΕΩΝ ΤΟΝ ΟΙΚΟΝ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΝ ΣΤΟΑΝ ΚΑΙ ΤΑ ΧΡΗΣΤΗΡΙΑ ΘΕΟΙΣ ΠΑΤΡΙΟΙΣ ΑΝΕΘΗΚΕΝ

Club of the Poseidoniasts of Berytos, merchants, shippers, and warehousemen set up the building, the stoa, and the oracles for our ancestral gods.107

The Poseidoniasts were part of a broader phenomenon of sacred and secular merchant groups or “clubs” established on Delos and elsewhere in the Mediterranean, which consisted of people brought together by common interests that arose outside of extant state structures.108 Clubs combined economic, religious, and social activities. Familiar Phoenician onomastic practices indicate that “Poseidon,” especially since he seems to be one of the group’s “ancestral gods,” or theoi patrioi, might be the name used here for “Ba‘al” the Phoenician sky god—although it is difficult to be certain.109 The formula naming merchants, shippers, and warehousemen from Beirut is found in several dedications inside the building. Although it belongs to an explicitly Beiruti group composed of residents of Delos, the complex’s plan is loosely comparable to the earlier “building with the children friezes” from the Eshmun complex at Bostan esh-Sheikh (see Figure 28).110 The similarity might indicate that the plan stems from a broadly Phoenician design, but it might be merely coincidental. At the same time, a mercantile group with a religious association has Greek and Italian parallels, and the courtyard design of the complex itself has Italian precedents.111 The complex measured fourteen hundred square meters in its largest iteration. It has been studied recently in detail by Monica Trümper, who shows that the final, third phase of the structure had two courtyards (“E” and “F”), four small rooms on the south side, and a sanctuary with an entrance room (“X”), colonnaded antechamber (“V”), and four shrines (“V1–4”).112 It was loaded with statuary: marble cult images and other religious dedications, twelve portraits of Greeks and Romans, and a number of terracottas.

The entrance room “X” was accessible from a narrow passage from the street and from the connecting courtyard “F.” An inscription with the name Zeno son of Dionysios was found in this entrance room as part of a dedication to his theoi patrioi.113 A number of portrait statues and altars were once placed there, but now only their bases survive. Rooms “V2” and “V3” are thought to be dedicated to the club’s theoi patrioi. According to an inscribed statue base, Poseidon was honored in room “V2.” Most agree that room “V3” would have honored Aphrodite/Aštart. Charles Picard’s original publication suggested that room “V4” was dedicated to the third member of the so-called Berytian Triad, Herakles/Melqart; later publications following his rationale have suggested Eshmun.

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