
If we've oodles
of Alexander statues, we've few surviving images of
the people around Alexander unless, like
Ptolemy, they went on to become Successor kings of the
Hellenistic Era. A number of figures probably meant to
be historical persons appear on the Alexander
Sarcophagus from Sidon, now in the Istanbul
Archaeological Museum, but only Alexander is securely
identified.
For reasons of copyright, I can't post images here
unless I took them myself. Ergo, I've inserted links
to images available elsewhere.
Alexandros
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Multiple portraits exist from
antiquity. If some striking differences
exist among them, one can almost always spot
an "Alexander." Andrew
Stewart's Faces of Power
(Berkeley, 1993) not only catalogues
and assesses them, but offers commentary on
what later political motives affected the
variations. He contends that the Azara Herm (in
the Louvre) is probably closest to a
likeness (as opposed to a portrait, which is
different). Obviously, the herm depicts a
much older Alexander. The Akropolis head (at
left) is the youngest datable portrait we
have, made when he was 18-19, but it shows
strong Athenian "idealizing" tendencies,
merging a recognizable Alexander with the
"perfect ephebe," and should be considered
akin to the ancient version of Photoshop. If
the Azara Herm is the most realistic, I'm
quite fond of the lesser-known
full-body
sculpture of Alexander in the Istanbul
museum, near the Pergamum head.
I'm sometimes asked who I'd cast for
Alexander in a modern movie, but I've not
seen anybody I thought that close. I do
think L.C. Chase did a magnificent
job finding a stock model for Alexander on
the cover of Book 1: Becoming to
match the Akropolis head here. Also, while
there have been various attempts to put
skin on Alexander statues, Royalty
Now recently did one from the Azara Herm
that I find the most likely.
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Hephaistion
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We've only one clearly labeled sculpture of
Hephaistion (Thessaloniki Museum, at left),
but it was made some years after his death
as a votive offering. It might reflect
statues of him made during his lifetime, but
we can't assume it's a likeness. Several
other statues or heads have been identified
as him, but none were labeled to allow
certain identification, and at least one
(the Getty head) is probably a forgery. The
central horseman in the battle scene on the
long side of the Alexander Sarcophagus
(Istanbul Museum) is often identified as
Hephaistion, and is the
image
I use on my educational website about him.
Yet, and if it's more commonly identified
today as Demetrios Poliorketes (son of
Antigonos Monophthalmos), I prefer the Prado
Bronze. It has a certain gravitas, and
when I was imagining the younger Hephaistion
in the novel, it formed the basis. While
striking, my Hephaistion never matched the
softer, round-faced, bow-mouthed Athenian
ideal. The Madrid Bronze has a longer,
squarer face with a strong chin, and I see
that square jaw and prominent chin in a
couple other purported images of
Hephaistion. (If you compare my shot of the
Thessalonike Hephaistion to the Prado
Bronze, you'll find distinct similarities,
especially in the lower face.)
When the publisher requested images for the
cover artist, after a bit of poking around,
I did find someone who might be a (younger)
version of the Prado Bronze: Portuguese
model Vick Correia -- perfect
in
virtually every way except a lack of beard.
So there's a living Hephaistion for readers.
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Philipppos

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We have no certain (labeled) portrait of
Philip, but several have been indentified as
him, one marble
bust from the Glyptotek in Denmark, another in the
Vatican, sometimes called Philip and
sometimes Alkibiades, a
late gold medallion of Philip (the
mate to one of Olympias), and the tiny
ivory
head found in Royal Tomb II at
Vergina. The Glyptotek and Vatican heads do
strongly resemble each other, as well as the
medalion. Regarding the ivory head, we might
be more certain of its identity if the
tomb's identification were less of a
quagmire. Although officially called
"Philip's Tomb" by the Greeks, the academic
community is far less convinced. Right now,
collective opinion leans to the occupants of
Tomb II being Philip III Arrhidaios and
Hadea Eurydike. As the ivory head came from
the same klinē (dining couch) as heads identified
as Alexander and Olympias/(Myrtale),
identifying it as Philip, even if that isn't
Philip's tomb, remains possible. To quote
Beth Carney, when Kassandros buried
Arrhidaios and Eurydike, as well as
Alexander IV, he might have simply cleaned
out the "Argead attic," to put a fork in
that dynasty. (The statue at left is a
modern one, from the town of Methonē, where
Philip lost his eye.)
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Myrtale

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We have even fewer surviving images of
Alexander's mother, Myrtale-Olympias. One is
the matching
gold
medallion to the one of Philip
mentioned above (see left, Thessaloniki
Museum).
Another may be the Gonzaga
Cameo (carved sardonyx gem), but the
subjects of it are in dispute, with
Alexander and Olympias only two
possibilities; others include Ptolemy and
Arsinoe, Tiberius and Livia, and it was
originally thought to be Augustus and Livia.
It's modeled on later Ptolemaic portraits of
royals.
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Aristoteles

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A few busts of Aristotle survive (left:
National Museum, Athens), although most seem
to be similar to the Roman
marble
copy of a bronze made by Lysippos
(Alexander's personal sculptor) during
Aristotle's lifetime. Another,
more
Romanized version.
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Ptolemaios

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As he later became the first Ptolemaic king
of Egypt (Ptolemy I Soter), we do have
several images of Ptolemy. He was not an
attractive man; none of the Ptolemies were,
even the famous Kleopatra VII (that
Kleopatra,yes). The
Louvre
bust is perhaps the best known,
although its identification owes to coin
images. Another coin, showing
Ptolemy
with his wife Berenike, is a precursor
type of the Gonzaga Cameo mentioned above.
The coin at right comes from the NYC
Metropolitan Museum.
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