Stoivadeion
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Stoivadeion is a temple to Dionysos located on the Greek island of Delos.
Description
The Stoivadeion contains a rectangular platform containing a statue of Dionysos which was flanked by two actors impersonating Paposilenoi. These actors are now in the Delos Museum for protection. Two pillars, one on each side of the platform, each support a huge phallus, the symbol of Dionysos. The southern pillar is decorated with relief scenes of a Dionysiac circle.
Three sides of the southern pillar[1] have relief representations: the central scene shows a cockerel whose head and neck are elongated into a phallus, on either side are groups containing Dionysus and a Maenad, with a small Silenus on one side and a figure of Pan on the other. The southern pillar bears an inscription that it was erected ca. 300 B.C. by a Delian named Carystios in celebration of a victorious theatrical performance he sponsored.
Phallic statues
Two phallic statues[2] are found on the island of Delos, at the platform of the Stoivadeion, dedicated to Dionysus. On either side of the platform, a pillar supports a colossal phallus, the symbol of Dionysus. The southern pillar, which is decorated with relief scenes from the Dionysiac circle, was erected ca. 300 BC to celebrate a winning theatrical performance.
- "No oversized phallic monuments are extant from Classical Athens, such as the huge phalluses on Delos which are still standing today to the delight and puzzlement of modern visitors." --The Reign of the Phallus: Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens Eva C. Keuls
See also
- Eros in Greece
- Phallus#Ancient_Greece
- Frontal vue of the two phallic statues, showing the central relief on the pillar depicting a phallic cockerel [3]