C9475 - ICONOGRAPHY AND ICONOLOGY OF POWER IN EASTERN SOCIETIES

Learning outcomes

The course provides a critical overview of the iconography of power in ancient and modern Eastern societies, with a particular focus on the phenomena of mutual exchange between East and West, leading regalia and other symbols back to their ideological, religious, political and cosmological meaning. By the end of the course, students will acquire some basic tools allowing them to analyse the images of power through a philological/iconological study of their historical evolution in the light of textual and visual sources accompanied by their interpretation.

Course contents

These will be the main subjects discussed during the course:

1. The concept of power: authority and state; leadership and kingship; forms of the royal power; the transmission of the power; the royal enthronement; limits of the power; the various concepts of authority.
2. The king as warrior; archer, spearmen, knight. The royal hunt.
3. The king and the gods: theocracy and kingship; apotheosis and divinization.
4. The regalia: introduction. The crown; origin, development, forms and symbols; the ceremony of the coronation; the royal mantle; the ring.
5. The royal chamber and the cosmocratic role of the king; the architecture of power; the music of the power.
6. The globe and the sphere; the ancient clocks and planetaria.
7. The throne and the sceptre; the sword and the weapons. Bow, arrow, spear, sword, knife, shield.
8. Games and power; boardgames (chess, backgammon, counters, etc.) and sports. The Olympic games.
9. We and the others; war and peace.
10. The rules of ancient diplomacy: titles and epistles. The ambassadors and their immunity. Negotiations and truces.
11. Power and calendars: the synchronization and the economical administration of the natural phenomena.
12. Universal divination, astrology and astronomy. The Jupiter / Saturn conjunctions and the eras of the world.
13. The power and the laws; religion and society; multiculturalism, universalism and nationalism. Conflict of religions and their economic and doctrinal bases.
14. The colours of power; the animals of power.

Readings/Bibliography

During the lectures, references to the following works will be given. For the examination, the students will choose two studies in particular, plus the contents of all the classes held in the year

1. The Concept of Power and Kingship

• Bloch, Marc, The Royal Touch: Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula in England and France, London, Routledge, 1973.
• Kantorowicz, Ernst H., The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Mediaeval Political Theology, Princeton University Press, 1957.
• Oakley, Francis, Kingship: The Politics of Enchantment, Oxford, Blackwell, 2006.
• Quigley, Declan (ed.), The Character of Kingship, Oxford, Berg, 2005.
• Cannadine, David – Price, Simon (eds.), Rituals of Royalty: Power and Ceremonial in Traditional Societies, Cambridge University Press, 1987.

2. Sacred Kingship, Theocracy and Divine Authority

• Frankfort, Henri, Kingship and the Gods: A Study of Ancient Near Eastern Religion as the Integration of Society and Nature, Chicago, 1948.
• Assmann, Jan, The Search for God in Ancient Egypt, Cornell University Press, 2001.
• Baines, John, “Kingship, Definition of Culture, and Legitimation”, in D. O'Connor – D. Silverman (eds.), Ancient Egyptian Kingship, Leiden, Brill, 1995.
• Widengren, Geo, “The Sacral Kingship of Iran”, Numen 4 (1957), pp. 242–257.

3. Royal Regalia, Coronation and Political Symbolism

• Schramm, Percy Ernst, A History of the English Coronation, Oxford University Press, 1937.
• Schramm, Percy Ernst, Herrschaftszeichen und Staatssymbolik, 3 vols., Stuttgart, 1954–1956.
• Bedos-Rezak, Brigitte Miriam, When Ego Was Imago: Signs of Identity in the Middle Ages, Leiden, Brill, 2011.
• Warner, Marina, Monuments and Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1985.

4. Ritual, Ceremony and the Performance of Power

• Buc, Philippe, The Dangers of Ritual: Between Early Medieval Texts and Social Scientific Theory, Princeton University Press, 2001.
• Nelson, Janet L. (ed.), Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe, London, Hambledon Press, 1986.
• Jackson, Peter (ed.), Rituals of Rule, Rituals of Resistance, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1997.

5. Kingship, Warfare and the Royal Hunt

• Allsen, Thomas T., The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.
• Keegan, John, A History of Warfare, New York, Vintage Books, 1994.
• Miller, Naomi F. – Gleason, Kathryn L. (eds.), The Archaeology of Garden and Field, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994.

6. Throne, Sceptre, Globe and Cosmocratic Symbolism

• Eliade, Mircea, The Myth of the Eternal Return, Princeton University Press, 1954.
• Eliade, Mircea, Patterns in Comparative Religion, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1996.
• Biedermann, Hans, Dictionary of Symbolism, New York, Facts on File, 1992.
• Cirlot, J. E., A Dictionary of Symbols, London, Routledge, 2001.

7. Ancient Diplomacy and International Relations

• Cohen, Raymond – Westbrook, Raymond (eds.), Amarna Diplomacy: The Beginnings of International Relations, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.
• Liverani, Mario, International Relations in the Ancient Near East, 1600–1100 BC, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.
• Kuhrt, Amélie, The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period, London, Routledge, 2007.

8. Calendars, Astronomy, Astrology and Divination

• Rochberg, Francesca, The Heavenly Writing: Divination, Horoscopy and Astronomy in Mesopotamian Culture, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
• Pingree, David, From Astral Omens to Astrology, Rome, Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente, 1997.
• Tester, S. J., A History of Western Astrology, Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 1987.
• Neugebauer, Otto, The Exact Sciences in Antiquity, New York, Dover Publications, 1969.

9. Religion, Law and Society

• Assmann, Jan, The Price of Monotheism, Stanford University Press, 2010.
• Bellah, Robert N., Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age, Harvard University Press, 2011.
• Fowden, Garth, Empire to Commonwealth: Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity, Princeton University Press, 1993.

10. Games, Chess and the Representation of Power

• Murray, H. J. R., A History of Chess, Oxford University Press, 1913.
• Eales, Richard, Chess: The History of a Game, London, Batsford, 1985.
• Hall, Edith (ed.), Greek and Roman Games in the Ancient World, Oxford University Press, 2024.

11. Colours, Animals and Political Symbolism

• Pastoureau, Michel, Blue: The History of a Color, Princeton University Press, 2001.
• Pastoureau, Michel, Black: The History of a Color, Princeton University Press, 2008.
• Pastoureau, Michel, The Bear: History of a Fallen King, Harvard University Press, 2011.
• Pastoureau, Michel, Symbolic Bestiaries and Political Animal Imagery (collected essays).

12. Iranian Kingship and the Ideology of Power

• Gnoli, Gherardo, The Idea of Iran: An Essay on its Origin, Rome, IsMEO, 1989.
• Shahbazi, A. Shapur, The Glory of the Kings: The Ancient Iranian Concept of Royal Power, Costa Mesa, Mazda Publishers, 2005.
• Wiesehöfer, Josef, Ancient Persia, London, I.B. Tauris, 2001.
• Panaino, Antonio, Astral Characters of Kingship in the Sasanian and Late Antique World (collected essays).

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons using textual material for students; discussions about the items also with the presence of other colleagues.

Students who are affected by learning disability (DSA) and in need of special strategies to compensate it, are kindly requested to contact the Teacher, in order to be referred to the colleagues in charge and get proper advice and instructions.

Be informed that the use of generative artificial intelligence is considered a form of plagiarism if the methodology and the limits of its use are not clarified.

Assessment methods

As previously stated, the students will discuss two studies in the list above given. In addition, they should be able to discuss the main subjects analysed during the classes. The students unable to attend the lectures are asked to contact the professor in order to establish an additional alternative bibliography.

The acquisition of a solid vision of the subjects presented in the class and the knowledge of the related arguments with a precision in the terminology and an ability in the critical reference to the different aspects of the discipline, will be recognized with the highest votes, as excellence. A mnemonic knowledge with a correct language, but not always consistent and critically argued will be considered as worth of a discrete evaluation.
Weak points in the preparation with an unfitting language, mistakes in the chronological determinations of the problems, incompetence in the bibliographical items, and uncritical references, will be considered as insufficient.
It is mandatory that the student pays attention on the technical terminology, the correct spelling of the specific terms, and in particular in the framework of the iconological problems, that he/she is in condition of expressing in a formal way the phenomena that have been treated in the class.

In any case, some standard rules will be followed in conformity with other disciplines:

The ability of the student to achieve a coherent and comprehensive understanding of the topics addressed by the course, to critically assess them and to use an appropriate language will be evaluated with the highest grades (A = 27-30 con lode).

A predominantly mnemonic acquisition of the course's contents together with gaps and deficiencies in terms of language, critical and/or logical skills will result in grades ranging from good (B = 24-26) to satisfactory (C = 21-23).

A low level of knowledge of the course’s contents together with gaps and deficiencies in terms of language, critical and/or logical skills will be considered as ‘barely passing' (D = 18-20) or result in a fail grading (E).

The professor normally offers two sessions for the examinations every month (except August), one in Bologna, one in Ravenna. Furthermore, in special or urgent cases, special sessions can be organized upon request, if possible.

Teaching tools

Manuals, videos, manuscripts in facsimile, epigraphic sources, coins, etc. Lessons will be held in the class or via remote teaching means according to the general conditions and in agreement with the laws and regulations fixed by the University.

N:B.

Students with learning disorders and/or temporary or permanent disabilities: please, contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students ) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Office hours

See the website of Antonio Clemente Domenico Panaino