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Date : between 180 and 159 B.C.
Material : Marble
| Gigantomachy
Item 2 on 4
Greek Antiquities
Sculpture (Bas-relief)
Area related
Pergamon - Pergamum (Turkey)
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| Description |  |
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Clythius - Otos - Hecate - Artemis - Leto - Tityos - Apollo - Ephialtes ? - Demeter - Hera - Four Winds - Heracles - Zeus - Porphyrion - Alcyone - Athena - Nike - Ares - Gaia
The battle of the gods and giants rages over the four sides of the altar, always understood as a simultaneous occurrence. The original interpretation of Carl Robert and Otto Puchstein divided the four sides of the great altar's frieze into the realms of the Olympians (east), water and earth gods (west), celestial/light gods (south) and gods of night and constellations (north). Robert and Puchstein drew on three sources for their interpretation: Hesiod's Theogony, Bibliotheke, by the pseudo-Apollodorus and, for the north frieze, Phainomena by Aratos.
Genealogical references draw the narrative around the frieze and give it continuity : on the southeast corner (CB), the goddesses Asteria and Phoebe, Hekate and Leto, appear, on the corner (DA), Triton and Poseidon, the gods of the sea. An ingenious placement of about 100 larger than life figures was thus ensured.
The eastern frieze (B) is reserved for the Olympians, where Hera guides the chariot of Zeus into battle, to the right of Herakles (name inscription on the cornice). Thereupon follow Zeus, Athena and the war chariot of Ares.
The gods of day and night — Eos (the goddess of the dawn), Helios (the sun god), and Selene (the goddess of the moon) — wage war on the southern frieze (C). On the northern frieze (A) the dramatic events are dominated by the fates (the goddesses of destiny), after Aphrodite (goddess of love and beauty) and the followers of Ares (the war god).
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