16 - Myth into Art: Foreign Impulses and Local Responses in Archaic Cypriot Sanctuaries

Summary

This chapter first discusses various methodological concerns related to Cypriote iconography, before turning to a series of limestone images depicting a tri-corporate warrior, traditionally associated with the Greek Geryon, that appears in Cypriot sanctuaries during the Archaic period. There have been two fundamental approaches to interpreting divine images dedicated in Cypriot sanctuaries. The first approach assumes a wholesale transferal of both image and meaning from a foreign origin to the island, and the second approach focuses on local contexts for divine iconography and related rituals. In Greek art, the myth was especially popular in the sixth century BC among representations of the many exploits of Herakles, who was himself a favorite in Archaic Greece. The isolation of hybridization processes in art shifts the focus from origins and streams of influence to genesis and agency. Finally, the chapter suggests a more nuanced approach that focuses on the transmission, translation, and reception of religious iconography and the productive capacity of cultural interactions.