In the courtyard of an imaginary royal tent, two heads look at each other and seem to be talking. The stone head has a Persian-style beard and curls, and a Greek-style crown. The bronze head probably belongs to Apollo, but may also belong to the deity Reshef. These heads were found in Cyprus, where Greek and Persian influences mixed with Phoenician and other local cultures.

We are in the era of the Achaemenid dynasty in ancient Persia, which is about 500 BC. it was the largest empire in the world: centered in Iran and stretching from Libya to Pakistan.

Thus begins our tour of the exhibition “Luxury and power: from Persia to Greece”, which opened last Thursday at the British Museum. It is structured chronologically along three thematic axes and spans five centuries, from 550 to 30 BC.

Around 160 exhibits, most of them owned by the British Museum, from Afghanistan to Italy, show how different styles of luxury connect different peoples and cultures, despite the political borders that separate them. He also attempts to rethink the historical prejudices of many ancient Greek writers who described a “barbarian” East weakened by decadence and excess of luxury as he explores the more complex relationship between luxury and power from Central Asia to the Balkans.

At the entrance to the first hall, we see hanging fabric screens with images of the king on the throne and the courtiers around him, who are trying to mentally transfer us to the stage of the Persian king.

Pericles’ Athens struggled with Persian influence, although their artists satirized the defeated empire.

In the center of the hall, we are attracted by a collection of exquisite gold and silver ritas (vessels with an open mouth and a hole at the bottom, used to pour wine), a golden jug, silver utensils such as bowls, ladles (for poison testing), a horn-shaped bowl and wine filters that introduce us to the rite of royal feasts. When the king traveled, local lords and nobles were invited to lavish feasts with exotic food from all over the empire.

A gilded silver rito in the form of a winged griffin stands out. Drinking at a Persian royal feast was a test of courtly conduct, requiring skill and finesse. Lying on the couch, the drinker held the raito in the air in one hand and theatrically poured a stream of wine into a drinking cup balanced on the fingertips of the other.

Various remarkable objects around them testify to how they used luxury as a means of power and domination. An intricate griffin-shaped gold bracelet, a silver bowl, and a gilded silver amphora appear to have been gifts in a tribute ceremony depicted on a relief at Persepolis, while a silver bowl and an alabaster jar for storing oil were donated by Artaxerxes and Xerxes. correspondingly loyal subjects.

Items associated with wealth and prestige included rich clothing – we see an image of the royal robe, which was tied at the waist and was decorated with rich embroidery and gold jewelry – gold jewelry, incense and incense. Among the exhibits are a clay censer, a silver incense spatula, a gold bottle of perfume and a glass bottle for eye makeup.

Greek asceticism

The second hall is devoted to the saying of the Delphic oracle: “Nothing superfluous”, where the Greek exhibits are simple and strict, rejecting the Persian grandeur.

Here, in the center of the hall, there is a collection of ceramic black-figure and red-figure drinking vessels. Among them is a rare rayot with a mouth between the legs of a sphinx, used for rituals, bowls in the form of animal heads, for example, a lion and a wild boar, bowls and a crater-vessel in which wine was mixed with water – with performances from banquet scenes. The cup with the donkey’s head stands out for its humor. When the cup was empty, it covered the face of the drinker, turning him into a donkey. It is a process of transformation, almost Dionysian, and different from the Persian-style rites that convey power and prestige.

Approximately 160 exhibits, from Afghanistan to Italy, highlight the links between peoples and cultures.

We then see how Pericles’ Athens struggled with Persian artistic influence, even as it satirized the defeated empire. Spectacular red pottery depicts Persians in indecent poses: the donkey-eared king Midas is presented as a Persian, and the bowl depicts a Persian head pejoratively under the figure of an Athenian and her maid. Nearby, a perfume bottle in the shape of a winged dancer wearing trousers and holding a tambourine, circa 350 BC, suggests that the Persian world was no longer a threat and could be assimilated into Athenian culture.

During the years of Alexander

In the third hall, we are transported to the time of Alexander the Great, when two cultures merge.

When Alexander conquered Persia, he combined Greek, Persian and local luxury styles to define a new type of government.

In particular, there is an image of a horseman with golden decorations, including a camisole and breeches with covered soles, and a golden crown from Turkey, similar to that found in the royal tomb of Alexander the Great’s father, Philip II, in Vergina. outside.

The wreath of golden oak, consisting of two branches with a bee and two cicadas, highlights the spread of luxury throughout the region and its evolution after the death of Alexander in 323 BC.

But the impression is spoiled by an impressive treasure trove of golden vases from Panagyurishte, Bulgaria, in the center of the third hall.

This treasure weighing 6,164 kilograms was accidentally discovered by three brothers digging clay for bricks in 1949.

It is distinguished by excellent and refined craftsmanship and consists of a flask, an amphora-rito, three rhytons with female heads, two rhytons ending in a deer head and a ram’s head, and another rhytos ending in a semi-goat.

While the shapes of the vessels are of Oriental/Achaemenid designs, their technique and decoration are Greek, indicating longstanding contact between the two cultures.

Duration until 13 August.

Luxury has a history

They say that history is written by the winners. Similarly, most of the ancient texts describing the Greco-Persian wars were written by Greeks, many of whom, in explaining their victories against the Persians, presented the Greeks as defenders of democracy and the Greek ideals of simple living and self-discipline, while the Persians as decadent, effeminate” barbarians”, succumbed to the excesses of luxury. However, between these two worlds there has always been mutual respect, as evidenced by the ancient Greek texts, from Herodotus to the famous tragedy of Aeschylus “Perses”. It is about relationships with the alien and the other, about a mixture of disgust and admiration associated with the perception of the Other.

“Treasure Galore”

At the beginning of the exhibition, there is a quote from Herodotus of 479 BC, where he talks about the tent of the Persian commander: “Treasures were in abundance – the tents were filled with gold and silver furniture. When Pausanias saw the rich embroideries, he could not believe his eyes.”

The history of luxury is wider than the historical binaries of Persia and Greece, and the Greco-Persian world was a network of hundreds of cultural groups constantly interacting with each other.

The relief depicts Darius I worshiping the god Anubis in the Egyptian style, while the frieze from the Nereid monument depicts the Greek king of Lycia Arbinas sitting on a throne, like a Persian monarch, with his legs raised above the ground. and with an umbrella, the highest Persian symbol of male power, for protection from the sun. His clothes and headdress are also made in the Persian style.

The artistic “exchange” of classical times and the Hellenistic era is reflected in the exposition of the British Museum.

Next, we see how classical Athens struggled with Persian artistic influence, even poking fun at the defeated empire. Images of Persians on Greek ceramic vases have changed throughout history before, during and after wars. First they are presented as noble warriors, then they are ridiculed as riding a donkey, then they are humiliated, placing them below women, and then, after the fall of the Persian Empire, they are portrayed with respect as a camel rider and a winged dancer.

Finally, the two cultures merge when Alexander the Great conquers Persia. With the founding of cities and libraries and the participation of scientists and geographers in his campaigns, he changed world history, spreading Greek culture in Eurasia and mixing it with local traditions and customs of other cultures. Alexander the Great is the one who accepted the Other and his absolute uniqueness. The alabaster bust, although reminiscent of an Egyptian pharaoh, represents either Alexander the Great or one of the first Hellenistic kings of Egypt, possibly Ptolemy I or II, who adopted traditional pharaonic iconography to portray themselves as the rightful rulers of Egypt.

The notion of Persians as “barbarians” is redeemed by the richness of their culture and customs. Despite this, the exhibition cannot vividly and figuratively convey how different styles of luxury have connected the West and the East over the centuries.

royal majesty

The décor of the exhibition: hanging fabric screens, columns on the walls and purple sheathing of the exhibition windows are an attempt to convey a sense of royal grandeur with theatricality bordering on kitsch. Also, in addition to two films that serve as a link between the rooms and make the story understandable, as well as videos explaining and recreating the technique of making cups from “clear glass”, black glazed ceramics, and extracting the purple dye of murex snails, the exhibition does not offer any public interactivity.

The curatorial approach is original and timely, and fits into the framework of post-colonial approaches, according to which historical analysis has so far bypassed the numerous dimensions of such a great civilization as the Persian one. In practice, however, the result is muted, and the exhibition fails to vividly convey the cultural palimpsest of these important historical periods.