Ὀλυμπίου ἔνδοθεν αὐλή – Zur Deutung des Pergamonaltars als Palast des Zeus

Abstract

While the famous friezes of the Pergamon altar have been discussed repeatedly in every conceivable way, archaeological study has engaged less intensively with the building typology and the semantic tradition of the monument’s form. This article aims to show that the development of the stoa with symmetrical projections and its application in Classical architecture, above all in the “stage palace” in the Greek theatre, offer new clues for a general interpretation of the Pergamon altar: In this light, the altar may be understood as an artistic concretization of an idea of the aulē of Zeus on Mt. Olympos, an imagined palace already described by Homer and prefigured in myth for centuries.

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