Nereid Monument
by Weston Westmoreland
Title
Nereid Monument
Artist
Weston Westmoreland
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
The Nereid Monument
The Nereid Monument takes its name from the Nereids, the most likely identity of the statues placed between the columns of this monumental tomb.
The Nereids were sea nymphs in Greek mythology, who helped sailors on their voyages when they faced fierce storms.
The Nereid Monument is a sculptured tomb from Xanthos in Lycia (then part of the Achaemenid Persian Empire), present-day Turkey. It took the form of a Greek temple on top of a base decorated with sculpted friezes, and is thought to have been built circa 390 BC as a tomb for Arbinas, the Xanthian dynast who ruled western Lycia, in modern-day south-west Turkey, under the Achaemenid Empire.
The monument is thought to have stood until the Byzantine era, and then to have been destroyed by local Christians for its stones and metals.
According to Melanie Michailidis, though bearing a "Greek appearance", the Nereid Monument, the Harpy Tomb and the Tomb of Payava were built according main Zoroastrian criteria "by being composed of thick stone, raised on plinths off the ground, and having single windowless chambers".[2] The Nereid Monument was the main inspiration for the famous Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.
Although he wasn't Greek, Erbinna chose to be buried in a tomb that mostly resembled a Greek temple of the Ionic order, but here placed on a high podium following the local tradition for burials of important individuals.
The monument is influenced by the Ionic temples of the Acropolis of Athens. Its lavish decorative sculpture is a mixture of Greek and Lycian style and iconography.
More amazing images from Ancient Civilizations at https://weston-westmoreland.pixels.com/collections/ancient+civilizations
Weston Westmoreland
Uploaded
October 21st, 2022
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