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48-481: An agalma (Ancient Greek: άγαλμα , lit.   'statue') is a cult image or votive offering . Agalma may also refer to: Cult image The term idol is an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship, while idolatry is the worship of an "idol" as though it were God . The use of images in the Ancient Near East seems typically to have been similar to that of

96-624: A Counter-Reformation renewal of venerable imagery, though banning some of the more fanciful medieval iconographies. Veneration of the Virgin Mary flourished, in practice and in imagery, and new shrines, such as in Rome's Santa Maria Maggiore , were built for Medieval miraculous icons as part of this trend. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church : The Christian veneration of images

144-420: A murti is a representation of a divinity, made usually of stone, wood, or metal, which serves as a means through which a divinity may be worshiped. Hindus consider a murti worthy of serving as a focus of divine worship only after the divine is invoked in it for the purpose of offering worship. The depiction of the divinity must reflect the gestures and proportions outlined in religious tradition. In Jainism ,

192-604: A diminutive of eidos ("form"). Plato and the Platonists employed the Greek word eidos to signify perfect immutable " forms ". One can, of course, regard such an eidos as having a divine origin. The Book of Isaiah gave classic expression to the paradox inherent in the worship of cult images: Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. Judaism emphatically forbids idolatry, and considers it one of

240-535: A god cast it into the territory of Ilium, because it had been profaned by the hands of a woman who was not a virgin, or whether Elektra carried it herself or whether it was given directly to Dardanus vary in sources and scholia . In Ilion, King Ilus was blinded for touching the image to preserve it from a burning temple. During the Trojan War , the importance of the Palladium to Troy was said to have been revealed to

288-486: Is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype", and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it". The honor paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration", not the adoration due to God alone: Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward

336-649: Is represented only as the sun-disk, with rays emanating from it, sometimes ending in hands, and temples to Aten (e.g. the Great Temple of the Aten in Amarna ) were open courts with no roof, that the Sun might be worshipped directly as it traveled across the sky. Cult images were a common presence in ancient Egypt, and still are in modern-day Kemetism . The term is often confined to the relatively small images, typically in gold, that lived in

384-432: The naos in the inner sanctuary of Egyptian temples dedicated to that god (except when taken on ceremonial outings, say to visit their spouse). These images usually showed the god in their sacred barque or boat; none of them survive. Only the priests were allowed access to the inner sanctuary. There was also a huge range of smaller images, many kept in the homes of ordinary people. The very large stone images around

432-615: The Historical Buddha , and other buddhas and bodhisattvas became important in many schools of Buddhist art , and have mostly remained so. The attitude of the devotee towards the image is highly complicated and variable in Buddhism, depending on the particular tradition, and the degree of training in Buddhist thought of the individual. The dharma wheel is an image that used for worship in Buddhism. The Dharma represents and symbolizes all of

480-537: The Palatine Chapel, Aachen was probably a decisive moment, leading to the widespread use of monumental reliefs on churches, and later large statues. Many Christians believed that idols were not merely idle statues, but that they are inhabited by demons who could exercise influence through the idol. By destroying idols, converted Christians believed to deprave devils of their earthly and material dwelling. The Libri Carolini , an eighth-century work composed at

528-575: The Palladium or Palladion (Greek Παλλάδιον (Palladion), Latin Palladium ) was a cult image of great antiquity on which the safety of Troy and later Rome was said to depend, the wooden statue ( xoanon ) of Pallas Athena that Odysseus and Diomedes stole from the citadel of Troy and which was later taken to the future site of Rome by Aeneas . The Roman story is related in Virgil 's Aeneid and other works. Rome possessed an object regarded as

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576-592: The Tirthankaras ("ford-maker") represent the true goal of all human beings. Their qualities are worshipped by the Jains. Images depicting any of the twenty four Tirthankaras are placed in the Jain temples . There is no belief that the image itself is other than a representation of the being it represents. The Tirthankaras cannot respond to such veneration, but that it can function as a meditative aid. Although most veneration takes

624-452: The ancient Egyptian religion , about which we are the best-informed. Temples housed a cult image, and there were large numbers of other images. The ancient Hebrew religion was or became an exception, rejecting cult images despite developing monotheism ; the connection between this and the Atenism that Akhenaten tried to impose on Egypt has been much discussed. In the art of Amarna , Aten

672-702: The citadel in Troy by a secret passage and carried it off, leaving the desecrated city open to the deceit of the Trojan Horse . Odysseus, according to the epitome of the Little Iliad (one of the books of the Epic Cycle ) preserved in Proclus's Chrestomathia , went by night to Troy disguised as a beggar. There he was recognized by Helen , who told him where to find the Palladium. After some stealthy killing, he won back to

720-521: The conquest of Mecca in the year 630. In the aftermath, Muhammad did three things. Firstly, with his companions he visited the Kaaba and literally threw out the idols and destroyed them, thus removing the signs of Jahiliyyah from the Kaaba. Secondly, he ordered the construction of a mosque around the Kaaba, the first Masjid al-Haram after the birth of Islam . Thirdly, in a magnanimous manner, Muhammad pardoned all those who had taken up arms against him. With

768-689: The Eastern church in the period after the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I , and later spread to the Western church. Palladia were carried in procession around the walls of besieged cities and sometimes carried into battle. The Trojan Palladium was said to be a wooden image of Pallas (whom the Greeks identified with Athena and the Romans with Minerva) and to have fallen from heaven in answer to

816-622: The Elder said that Lucius Caecilius Metellus had been blinded by fire when he rescued the Palladium from the Temple of Vesta in 241 BC, an episode alluded to in Ovid and Valerius Maximus . When the controversial emperor Elagabalus (reigned 218–222 AD) transferred the most sacred relics of Roman religion from their respective shrines to the Elagabalium , the Palladium was among them. In Late Antiquity , it

864-462: The Greeks by Helenus , the prophetic son of Priam . After Paris ' death, Helenus left the city but was captured by Odysseus. The Greeks somehow managed to persuade the warrior seer to reveal the weakness of Troy: the city would not fall while the Palladium remained within its walls. The perilous task of stealing this sacred statue again fell upon the shoulders of Odysseus and Diomedes . The two stole into

912-604: The Kaaba, in the process being charged tithes . This helped the Meccan merchants to incur substantial wealth, as well as ensuring a fruitful atmosphere for trade and intertribal relations in relative peace. Muhammad 's preaching incurred the wrath of the pagan merchants, causing them to revolt against him. The opposition to his teachings grew so volatile that Muhammad and his followers were forced to flee Mecca to Medina for protection, leading to armed conflict and triggering many battles that were won and lost, which finally culminated in

960-474: The Palladium (or perhaps the credit for gaining it) for himself. He raised his sword to stab Diomedes in the back. Diomedes was alerted to the danger by glimpsing the gleam of the sword in the moonlight. He disarmed Odysseus, tied his hands, and drove him along in front, beating his back with the flat of his sword. From this action was said to have arisen the Greek proverbial expression "Diomedes' necessity", applied to those who act under compulsion. Because Odysseus

1008-548: The actual Palladium for several centuries; it was in the care of the Vestal Virgins for nearly all this time. Since around 1600, the word palladium has been used figuratively to mean anything believed to provide protection or safety, and in particular in Christian contexts a sacred relic or icon believed to have a protective role in military contexts for a whole city, people or nation. Such beliefs first become prominent in

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1056-531: The bronze Piraeus Athena (2.35 metres high, including a helmet). In Greek and Roman mythology , a " palladium " was an image of great antiquity on which the safety of a city was said to depend, especially the wooden one that Odysseus and Diomedes stole from the citadel of Troy and which was later taken to Rome by Aeneas . (The Roman story was related in Virgil 's Aeneid and other works.) Some members of Abrahamic religions identify cult images as idols and their worship or veneration as idolatry ;

1104-457: The chamber, but Hindu temple architecture typically allows the image to be seen by worshippers in the mandapa connected to it (entry to this, and the whole temple, may also be restricted in various ways). Hinduism allows for many forms of worship and therefore it neither prescribes nor proscribes worship of images ( murti ). In Hinduism, murti usually means an image that expresses a Divine Spirit ( murta ). Meaning literally "embodiment",

1152-559: The city's founding myth , was variously referred to by Greeks, from the seventh century BC onwards. The Palladium was linked to the Samothrace mysteries through the pre-Olympian figure of Elektra , mother of Dardanus , progenitor of the Trojan royal line, and of Iasion , founder of the Samothrace mysteries. Whether Elektra had come to Athena's shrine of the Palladium as a pregnant suppliant and

1200-797: The command of Charlemagne in response to the Second Council of Nicaea , set out what remains the Catholic position on the veneration of images, giving them a similar but slightly less significant place than in Eastern Orthodoxy. The 16th-century Reformation engendered spates of destruction of images, especially in England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, the Low Countries (the Beeldenstorm ), and France. Destruction of three-dimensional images

1248-458: The destruction of the idols and the construction of the Masjid al-Haram, a new era was ushered in, facilitating the rise of Islam . The garbhagriha or inner shrine of a Hindu temple contains an image of the deity. This may take the form of an elaborate statue, but a symbolic lingam is also very common, and sometimes a yoni or other symbolic form. Normally only the priests are allowed to enter

1296-410: The exteriors of temples were usually representations of the pharaoh as himself or "as" a deity, and many other images gave deities the features of the current royal family. Ancient Greek temples and Roman temples normally contained a cult image in the cella . The cella in Greek temples was in the center, while it was located in the back of Roman temples. Access to the cella varied, but apart from

1344-454: The form of prayers, hymns and recitations, the idol is sometimes ritually bathed, and often has offerings made to it; there are eight kinds of offering representing the eight types of karmas as per Jainism. This form of reverence is not a central tenet of the faith. Very early Buddhism avoided representations of the Buddha, who was represented by symbols or an empty space . Later large images of

1392-543: The goddess and was accorded the highest respect. It was placed under a bronze likeness of a palm tree and a gold lamp burned in front of it. The centerpiece of the grand feast of the Panathenaea was the replacement of this statue's woolen peplos (a garment) with a newly woven one. It was also carried to the sea by the priestesses and ceremonially washed once a year, in the feast called the Plynteria ("washings"). Its presence

1440-579: The gravest sins . Judaism is aniconic , meaning any physical depiction of God whatsoever is disallowed; this likewise applies to cult images. The prohibition of idols within Judaism is so severe that numerous stipulations exist which are beyond simply concerning their use: Jews cannot eat anything offered to an idol as a libation , cannot move openly in places where idols are present, and cannot interact with idol worshippers within certain timeframes of idolatrous festivals or gatherings. As time progressed and

1488-623: The idol depends on the school of Buddhism that you belong to. Buddhist idols that originate from Theravada Buddhism are commonly slim, and majestic. Buddhist idols that originate from Mahayana Buddhism are usually thicker, with a more dignified and nonchalant face. Buddhist idols that originate from Vajrayana Buddhism usually have a more exaggerated posture, and usually show the Buddha / Bodhisattva performing hand Mudras . In Shinto , cult images are called shintai . The earliest historical examples of these were natural objects such as stones, waterfalls, trees or mountains, like Mount Fuji , while

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1536-625: The image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is. Towards the end of the pre-Islamic era in the Arabian city of Mecca , an era otherwise known by the Muslims as جاهلية, or al-Jahiliyah , the pagan or pre-Islamic merchants of Mecca controlled the sacred Kaaba , thereby regulating control over it and, in turn, over the city itself. The local tribes of the Arabian peninsula came to this centre of commerce to place their idols in

1584-569: The most illustrious of which was of the Athena Poliás , " protectress of the city". The cult image of the Poliás was a wooden effigy, often referred to as the " xóanon diipetés " (the "carving that fell from heaven"), made of olive wood and housed in the east-facing wing of the Erechtheum temple in the classical era. Considered not a man-made artefact but of divine provenance, it was the holiest image of

1632-478: The prayer of Ilus , the founder of Troy . "The most ancient talismanic effigies of Athena", Ruck and Staples report, "were magical found objects, faceless pillars of Earth in the old manner, before the Goddess was anthropomorphized and given form through the intervention of human intellectual meddling." The arrival at Troy of the Palladium, fashioned by Athena in remorse for the death of Pallas, as part of

1680-487: The priests, at the least some of the general worshippers could access the cella some of the time, though sacrifices to the deity were normally made on altars outside in the temple precinct ( temenos in Greek). Some cult images were easy to see, and were major tourist attractions. The image normally took the form of a statue of the deity, typically roughly life-size, but in some cases many times life-size, in marble or bronze, or in

1728-751: The religious traditions which the Jews were exposed to diversified, what was considered "idolatry" was subject to some debate. In the Mishnah and Talmud , idolatry is defined as worshipping a graven image through the actions of both typical idol worshippers, and through actions customarily reserved for worship of the Jewish God in the Temple in Jerusalem , such as prostrating , sacrificing animals , offering incense , or sprinkling animal blood on altars. Kissing, embracing, or "honoring" an idol, while not considered idolatry per se ,

1776-544: The ships. He and Diomedes then re-entered the city and stole the sacred statue. Diomedes is sometimes depicted as the one carrying the Palladium to the ships. There are several statues and many ancient drawings of him with the Palladium. According to the Narratives of the Augustan period mythographer Conon as summarised by Photius , while the two heroes were on their way to the ships, Odysseus plotted to kill Diomedes and claim

1824-674: The specially prestigious form of a Chryselephantine statue using ivory plaques for the visible parts of the body and gold for the clothes, around a wooden framework. Most cult statues are anthropromorphic and take human shape. The most famous Greek cult images were of this type, including the Statue of Zeus at Olympia , and Phidias 's Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon in Athens, both colossal statues now completely lost. Fragments of two chryselephantine statues from Delphi have been excavated. The acrolith

1872-399: The teachings of the Buddha. The Dharma is a wheel or circle, that maintains different qualities that are meant to be essential to the Buddhist religion. Typically, the wheel shows the eight step path that Buddhists follow to reach Nirvana. The symbol is a wheel in order to show the flow of life: Buddhists believe in reincarnation, so life moves in a circle and does not end in death. The build of

1920-501: The vast majority are man-made objects such as swords, jewels or mirrors. Rather than being representative of or part of the kami , shintai are seen as repositories in which the essence of such spirits can temporarily reside to make themselves accessible for humans to worship. A ceremony called kanjō can be used to propagate the essence of a kami into another shintai, allowing the same deity to be enshrined in multiple shrines. Palladium (mythology) In Greek and Roman mythology ,

1968-491: The worship of hollow forms, though others do not. The matter has long been controversial, depending largely on the degree of veneration or worship which is thought by opponents to be given to them. The word idol entered Middle English in the 13th century from Old French idole adapted in Ecclesiastical Latin from the Greek eidolon ("appearance", extended in later usage to "mental image, apparition, phantom")

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2016-569: Was another composite form, this time a cost-saving one with a wooden body. A xoanon was a primitive and symbolic wooden image, perhaps comparable to the Hindu lingam ; many of these were retained and revered for their antiquity. Many of the Greek statues well-known from Roman marble copies were originally temple cult images, which in some cases, such as the Apollo Barberini , can be credibly identified. A very few actual originals survive, for example

2064-476: Was either brought by Aeneas, the exiled Trojan (Diomedes, in this version, having only succeeded in stealing an imitation of the statue) or surrendered by Diomedes himself. An actual object regarded as the Palladium was undoubtedly kept in the Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum for several centuries. It was regarded as one of the pignora imperii , sacred tokens or pledges of Roman rule ( imperium ) . Pliny

2112-566: Was essential for the destruction of Troy, Diomedes refrained from injuring him. Diomedes took the Palladium with him when he left Troy. According to some stories, he brought it to Italy; others say that it was stolen from him on the way. According to various versions of this legend the Trojan Palladium found its way to Athens , Argos , Sparta (all in Greece ) or Rome in Italy . To this last city it

2160-573: Was highly controversial for centuries, and in Eastern Orthodoxy the controversy lingered until it re-erupted in the Byzantine Iconoclasm of the 8th and 9th centuries. Religious monumental sculpture remained foreign to Orthodoxy. In the West, resistance to idolatry delayed the introduction of sculpted images for centuries until the time of Charlemagne , whose placing of a life-size crucifix in

2208-660: Was normally near-total, especially images of the Virgin Mary and saints, and the iconoclasts ("image-breakers") also smashed representations of holy figures in stained glass windows and other imagery. Further destruction of icons, anathema to Puritans , occurred during the English Civil War . Less extreme transitions occurred throughout northern Europe in which formerly Catholic churches became Protestant. Catholic regions of Europe, especially artistic centres like Rome and Antwerp , responded to Reformation iconoclasm with

2256-551: Was rumored that the Palladium was transferred from Rome to Constantinople by Constantine the Great and buried under the Column of Constantine in his forum. Such a move would have undermined the primacy of Rome, and was naturally seen as a move by Constantine to legitimize his reign and his new capital. The goddess Athena was worshipped on the Acropolis of Athens under many names and cults,

2304-464: Was still forbidden. Christian images that are venerated are called icons . Christians who venerate icons make an emphatic distinction between " veneration " and " worship ". Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians make an exception for the veneration of images of saints – they distinguish such veneration from adoration or latria . The introduction of venerable images in Christianity

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