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Seleukid Sacred Architecture, Royal Cult and the Transformation of Iranian Culture in the Middle Iranian Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Matthew P. Canepa*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA

Abstract

This article proposes a new approach to three of the most persistent problems in the study of Iranian art and religion from the coming of Alexander to the fall of the Sasanians: the development of Iranian sacred architecture, the legacy of the Achaemenids, and the development of the art and ritual of Iranian kingship after Alexander. Canepa explores the ways in which the Seleukids contributed basic and enduring elements of Iranian religious and royal culture that lasted throughout late antiquity. Beyond stressing simple continuities or breaks with the Babylonian, Achaemenid or Macedonian traditions, this article argues that the Seleukids selectively integrated a variety of cultural, architectural and religious traditions to forge what became the architectural vocabularies and religious expressions of the Middle Iranian era.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2014

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References

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33 Downey, Mesopotamian Religious Architecture, 7–50. The temple of Apollo at Didyma presents an important example where the dynasty rebuilt the temple using cutting-edge Hellenistic architecture, tying this cult of their divine progenitor to the dynasty. H.W. Parke, “The Temple of Apollo at Didyma: The Building and its Function,” Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1986: 121–31. On the oracle: Graf, Fritz Apollo (New York, 2009), 6061Google Scholar.

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37 Downey, Mesopotamian Religious Architecture, 78–9.

38 Ibid., 89.

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40 Strabo 11.13.5; Seleukos I: Pliny Natural History 6.17; Brown, Stuart C., “Ecbatana,” Encyclopaedia Iranica online, 1998Google Scholar, http://www.iranica.com.

41 The remains at the site of Kangavar, once thought to be those of the Seleukid temple, have been securely dated to the Sasanian era. Azarnoush, MassoudNew Evidence on the Chronology of the ‘Anahita Temple,’Iranica Antiqua 44 (2009): 393402CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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57 Leriche, “Bactria, Land of a Thousand Cities,” 128.

58 Anjelina Drujinina, “Wohnen im hellenistischen Baktrien- Wohnhäuser in der Stadt Oxeiane (Tachti Sangin),” in Alexander der Grosse (see note 28), 177–81.

59 A fortification wall surrounded the temple in a later building phase opening with a gate opening to the east. In this phase this open space became an interior court. Gunvor Lindström, “Der Oxos-Tempel in Tachti Sangin,” in Alexander der Grosse (see note 28), 350.

60 Lindström, “Der Oxos-Tempel in Tachti Sangin.”

61 Dushanbe National Museum, inv. M 7257 and TS 4002/1091; Gunvor Lindström, “Kat. Nr. 232,” “Kat. Nr. 233,” in Alexander der Grosse (see note 28), 351.

62 Admirably dealt with by Mairs, “The ‘Temple with Indented Niches.’”

63 Mairs, “Greek Identity and the Settler Community”; Mairs, “The ‘Temple with Indented Niches’”; Lindström, “Heiligtümer und Kulte.”

64 On its development see Stewart, Andrew Faces of Power: Alexander's Image and Hellenistic Politics (Berkeley, CA, 1993)Google Scholar.

65 Seleukos I briefly continued Alexander's minting of Darics which might have presented an opportunity for a Seleukid representing himself as an Achaemenid king; however, the fact that even under Alexander the coins lost their Achaemenid iconography suggests that monetary policy rather than ruler representation motivated this continuity. Malcolm Colledge, “Greek and Non-Greek Interaction,” in Hellenism in the East, ed. A. Kuhrt and S. Sherwin-White (Berkeley, CA, 1987), 140–43.

66 Canepa, “Technologies of Memory,” 563–96.

67 Kuhrt, “The Seleucid Kings and Babylonia,” 41–54.

68 Smith, R.R.R., Hellenistic Royal Portraits (Oxford, 1988), 57–8Google Scholar, 81–2; Fleischer, Robert Studien zur seleukidischen Kunst I. Herrscherbildnisse (Mainz, 1991)Google Scholar; Fleischer, RobertPhysiognomie, Ideologie, Dynastische Politik: Porträts seleukidischer Könige,” in Akten, XIII. internationalen Kongresses für klassische Archäologie, Berlin, 1988 (Mainz, 1990), 33–6Google Scholar. On Seleukid seals: Gross, RobertHellenistic Royal Iconography in Glyptics” (PhD diss., Rutgers University, 2009), 3553Google Scholar; Invernizzi, Antonio Seleucia al Tigri: Le impronte di sigillo dagli Archivi, 3 vols. (Alessandria, 2004)Google Scholar, 1: tab. 15–18.

69 Virgilio, Biagio Lancia, diadema e porpora: Il re e la regalità ellenistica, 2nd edition, Studi ellenistici 11 (Pisa, 2003), 87130Google Scholar; Debord, PierreLe culte royal chez les Séleucides,” in L'Orient méditerranéen de la mort d'Alexandre aux campagnes de Pompée. Pallas (Toulouse, 2003), 281308Google Scholar; Nuffelen, Peter van, “Le culte royale de l'empire des séleucides: une réinterprétation,” Historia 53, no. 3 (2004): 278301Google Scholar.

70 This exclusively Greek view of Achaemenid court culture captured in Ritter, Hans-Werner, Diadem und Königherrschaft (Munich, 1965)Google Scholar.

71 Henkelman, WouterAn Elamite Memorial: the šumar of Cambyses and Hystaspes,” in A Persian Perspective: Essays in Memory of Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg, ed. Wouter Henkelman and Amélie Kuhrt (Leiden, 2003), 101–72Google Scholar; Henkelman, Wouter The Other Gods Who Are: Studies in Elamite-Iranian Acculturation Based on the Persepolis Fortification Texts (Leiden, 2008), 287–91Google Scholar, 429–32, 546. On the impact of Persian and Seleukid funerary traditions see Canepa, “Achaemenid and Seleucid Royal Funerary Practices.”

72 Boyce, Mary and Grenet, Frantz, A History of Zorastrianism, Volume 3: Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman Rule (Leiden, 1991), 1217Google Scholar.

73 Debord, “Le culte royal chez les Séleucides”; van Nuffelen, “Le culte royale de l'empire des séleucides.”

74 Virgilio, Diadema, Lancia, Porpora, 118–27; Debord, “Le culte royal chez les Séleucides,” 291–300; van Nuffelen, “Le culte royale de l'empire des séleucides,” 278–85. The Nikatoreion of Seleukeia-Pieria, that is, the temenos in which Antiochos I buried Seleukos I, was a mausoleum and was not the genesis or center of an empire-wide cult like the Sēma of Alexandria. Appian Syr. 63; Canepa, “Achaemenid and Seleukid Royal Funerary Practices,” 7.

75 Among the most important testimonies are the copies of the edict (prostagma) of 193 promulgated by Antiochos III. Three copies of this edict were discovered at sites across the empire: Eriza/Dodurga in Phrygia (1884), Laodikeia-Media Nehāvand in Iran (1947) and a fortress (phylakē) in the region of Kermānšāh, Iran (1967). Van Nuffelen, “Le culte royale de l'empire des séleucides,” 278–85.

76 Mehdi Rahbar and Sajjad Alibaigi, “The Hunt for Laodicea: A Greek Temple in Nahavand, Iran,” Antiquity 83, no. 322 (December 2009): http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/alibaigi322/.

77 See the collections of documents in Virgilio, Diadema, Lancia, Porpora, 206–310; and Ma, John Antiochos III and the Cities of Asia Minor (Oxford, 1999), 284372Google Scholar.

78 Van Nuffelen, “Le culte royal de l'empire des Séleucides,” 298.

79 Despite earlier reluctance to acknowledge the influence of the Seleukid ruler cult on Babylon, this phrase and practice is clearly an innovation and only attested from the reign of Antiochos III. See Linssen's critique of Sherwin-White, “Ritual for a Seleucid King at Babylon?,” Linssen, Cults of Uruk and Babylon, 125–8.

80 Houghton, Arthur and Larber, C., Seleucid Coins (Lancaster, 2002–8), 1.1: 115Google Scholar.

81 Ibid., 1.1: 232.

82 Downey, Glanville A History of Antioch in Syria (Princeton, NJ, 1961), 68CrossRefGoogle Scholar and 75–6.

83 Possibility that this type was taken from Antigonos: Houghton and Larber, Seleucid Coins, 1.1:8.

84 Ibid., 1.2: 127; 332, 333, 334. In some cases, rival factions of the Seleukid dynasty would foreground Apollo or Zeus types as symbol of their claims. Ibid., 1.2: 348. The appearance of the caps of the Dioskouri with the anchor has been interpreted as propaganda on the part of Berenike symbolizing the union of Seleukids and Ptolemids. 1.1: 226.

85 P. Bernard, “Delbarjīn,” Encyclopaedia Iranica online, 1994, http://www.iranica.com.

86 Houghton and Larber, Seleucid Coins, 1.1: 116.

87 Such as Alexander Balas (150–145 BCE): ibid., type: 1805.

88 Ibid, type 497, 500.1, 501, 503–12.1.

89 Heinz Luschey, “Bīsotūn ii. archaeology,” Encyclopaedia Iranica online, 1989, http://www.iranica.com.

90 Bernard, PaulHeracles, Les Grottes de Karafto et let sactuaire du Mont Sambulos en Iran,” Studia Iranica 9 (1980): 301–24Google Scholar; Tubach, JHerakles vom Berge Sanbulos,” Ancient Society 26 (1995): 241–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Von Gall argues the vast complex is a sanctuary: H. von Gall, “Karafto Caves,” Encyclopaedia Iranica online, 2010, http://www.iranica.com.

91 Michels, ChristophZum ‘Philhellenismus’ der Könige con Bithynien, Pontos und Kappadokien,” in Interkulturalität in der Alten Welt: Vorderasien, Hellas, Ägypten und die vielfältigen Ebenen des Kontakts, ed. R. Rollinger et al. (Weisbaden, 2010), 561–82Google Scholar; Edward Dąbrowa, “The Parthians and the Seleucid Legacy,” in Interkulturalität in der Alten Welt, 583–90.

92 Invernizzi, AntonioDie hellenistischen Grundlagen der frühparthischen Kunst,” AMIran 27 (1994 [1996]): 191203;Google Scholar Invernizzi, AntonioArsacid Dynastic Art,” Parthica 3 (2001): 133–57Google Scholar; Invernizzi, AntonioRepresentations of Gods in Parthian Nisa,” Parthica 7 (2005): 71–9Google Scholar.

93 Final publication: Invernizzi, Antonio Nisa Partica: Le sculture ellenistiche (Florence, 2009)Google Scholar. Invernizzi, Antonio and Lippolis, Carlo, Nisa Partica: Ricerche nel complesso monumentale arsacide 1990–2006 (Florence, 2008)Google Scholar.

94 Invernizzi, “Arsacid Dynastic Art,” 134; Lippolis, CarloNotes on the Iranian Traditions in the Architecture of Parthian Nisa,” in Orbis Parthicus: Studies in Memory of Professor Józef Wolski, ed. Edward Dąbrowa (Cracow, 2009), 5366Google Scholar.

95 Invernizzi, Ricerche nel complesso monumentale, 83–166, 265–82, 374–5 (though with caution with reference to the temple at Kuh-e Khwaja, whose date is still problematic). Reflecting Parthian innovations, a 17-meter diameter mud brick structure, “The Round Hall,” belonged to a later phase linked to the Red Building by corridors and three passages. Invernizzi, Ricerche nel complesso monumentale, 7–81.

96 Shenkar, “Temple Architecture,” 132; Rapin, “Les Sanctuaires de l'Asie Centrale,” 122–3.

97 Invernizzi, AntonioNisa: An Arsacid City and Ceremonial Center in Parthia,” Encyclopaedia Iranica online, 2010Google Scholar, http://www.iranica.com.

98 Ibid.

99 Dąbrowa, Edward, “ΑΡΣΑΚΕΣ ΘΕΟΣ. Observations on the Nature of the Parthian Ruler-cult,” in Un impaziente desiderio di scorrere il mondo: Studi in onore di Antonio Invernizzi per il suo settantesimo compleanno, ed. C. Lippolis and S. de Martino (Florence, 2011), 247–54Google Scholar.

100 Canepa, Matthew P., “Dynastic Sanctuaries and Iranian Kingship between Alexander and Islam,” in Persian Kingship and Architecture: Strategies of Power in Iran from the Achaemenids to the Pahlavis, ed. S. Babaie and T. Grigor (London, 2014)Google Scholar; Canepa, “Achaemenid and Seleucid Royal Funerary Practices”; Canepa, “Technologies of Memory.”

101 Rapin, ClaudeIndo-Greeks and Vishnuism: on an Indian Object from the Sanctuary of the Oxus and Two Temples in Taxila,” in In the Land of the Gryphons, ed. A. Invernizzi (Florence, 1995), 275-291Google Scholar.

102 Delberjin's ceramics and the iconography of the Dioskouri painting associated with its earliest layer cohere better with a Greco-Bactrian vs. Kushan date. See Shenkar, “Temple Architecture,” 120 and 124–5. Bernard, “Delbarjīn”; Bernard, “L'architecture religieuse de l'Asie Centrale à l’époque hellénistique,” 51-59.

103 Canepa, “Dynastic Sanctuaries.”

104 SK 4; Schlumberger, Daniel et al., Surkh Kotal en Bactriane, 2 vols. (Paris, 1983–90), 1: 1120Google Scholar, 49–62.

105 Schlumberger et al., Surkh Kotal en Bactriane, 1: 31–48.

106 Ibid., 1: 63–5, 107–32.

107 Fussman, Gérard, “The Māṭ devakula: a New Approach to its Understanding,” in Mathurā: The Cultural Heritage New Delhi, ed. Doris Meth Srinivasan (New Delhi, 1989), 197–8.Google Scholar The later temples housed fire cults, but were built in the ruins of the sanctuary after its original cult had ceased to function. Schlumberger et al., Surkh Kotal en Bactriane, 1: 28–9.

108 C14 dating has proven that the complex at Kuh-e Khwaja dates to the late Parthian or early Sasanian period. The architectural and sculptural features more strongly cohere with Sasanian art. Ghanimati, SoroorNew Perspectives on the Chronological and Functional Horizons of Kuh-e Khwaja in Sistan,” Iran 38 (2000): 137–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

109 At this point, the earliest known Zoroastrian fire temples dated with C14 come from Tash-k'irman Tepe, Chorasmia and Mele Hairam in Turmenistan. Tash-k'irman Tepe is dated to the fourth century BCE by C14 and Mele Hairam to the second century CE. Although they have been compared to the Seleukid temples, as their cultic space is divided into two rooms, their ground plans do not match the symmetrical design of Seleukid, or Seleukid-influenced temples. A.V.G Betts and V.N. Yagodin, “The Fire Temple at Tash-k'irman Tepe, Chorasmia,” in After Alexander (see note 25), 435–53; Kaim, BarbaraAncient Fire Temples in Light of the Discovery at Mele Hairam,” IranAnt 39 (2004): 323–37Google Scholar.

110 Like Surkh Kotal, Takht-e Sangin received a fire cult in a later phase; though in this case the temple plan itself was reused. Litvinsky, B.A. and Pichikian, I.R., “The Hellenistic Architecture and Art of the Temple of the Oxus,” Bulletin of the Asia Institute 8 (1994): 4766Google Scholar.

111 Joe Cribb, “Money as a Marker of Cultural Continuity and Change in Central Asia,” in After Alexander (see note 25), 333–75.

112 Canepa, Matthew P., Two Eyes of the Earth: Art and Ritual of Kingship between Rome and Sasanian Iran (Berkeley, CA, 2009), 196–7Google Scholar and 326–7.

113 Ibid.

114 Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, “Religious Iconography on Ancient Iranian Coins,” in After Alexander (see note 25), 413–34; Dąbrowa “Parthians and the Seleucid Legacy,” 586.

115 Curtis, “Religious Iconography”; Curtis, V.S., “The Iranian Revival in the Parthian Period,” in The Age of the Parthians, ed. V.S. Curtis and S. Stewart (London, 2007), 725Google Scholar.

116 Calmeyer, PeterFortuna-Tyche-Khvarnah,” Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 44 (1979): 347–65Google Scholar; Sinisi, FTyche in Parthia: The Image of the Goddess on Arsacid Tetradachms,” Numismatische Zeitschrift 116/117 (2008): 231–48Google Scholar.

117 On the dynamics behind these processes see Canepa, Matthew P., “Theorizing Cross-Cultural Interaction Among Ancient and Early Medieval Visual Cultures,” in Theorizing Cross-Cultural Interaction among the Late Antique and Early Medieval Mediterranean, Near East and Asia, ed. Matthew P. Canepa (Washington, DC, 2010), 729Google Scholar.

118 Invernizzi, Ricerche nel complesso monumentale, 226–33.

119 Carter, MCoins and Kingship: Kanishka and the Kushana Dynasty,” in A Treasury of Indian Coins (Bombay, 1994), 2938Google Scholar.

120 Haider, Peter W., “Tradition and Change at Assur, Nineveh and Nisibis between 300 BC and AD 300,” in The Variety of Local Religious Life in the Near East in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods (Boston, MA, 2008), 194207Google Scholar; Ted Kaizer, “The Heracles Figure at Hatra and Palmyra: Problems of Interpretation,” Iraq 62 (200): 219–32.

121 The fratarakid rulers of Persia and the early Sasanians, however, engaged with Achaemenid traditions in a more direct manner, though they were peripherally affected by the practices of the Arsakids. Canepa “Technologies of Memory,” 567–70