Pausanias recorded his journeys in an organized manner to help us understand both contemporary Greece and what was considered the ancient world even in his time. While describing his journey throughout mainland Greece in the middle of the second century AD, Pausanias approached statues he identified as xoanon (xoanon). Xoanon in Greek meant "scraped" or "carved thing" and was a unique word travelers and historians rarely used in relation to statues. Because of this separation between a xoanon and a standard statue (agalma) when he described a statue, we must construe that Pausanias identified unique features placing one statue into a category unique from all others. This leads us to ask a few questions about how he identified a xoanon and from these questions, we may understand clues Pausanias and others left when finding such a statue. What sources did Pausanias employ in recognizing a xoanon? Was there a formal methodology in Pausanias’ mind that identified xoana such as a statue's use, material, posture, or age?

According to Pritchett, Pausanias used the word agalma for regular statues no less than 694 times and xoanon 97 times for unique works. In antiquity, people usually noted various temples, buildings, and statues when writing about their travels. Pausanias showed religious interest in monuments, painting, and statues. In doing so, he assisted modern scholars in understanding differences between agalma and xoana, yet he was not the only person that discussed ancient statues. Dio Chrysostom briefly mentioned Greek statues when discussing Rhodes. Pliny the Elder, Lysippos, Cassius Dio, and Herodotus also described some statues so surely that Pritchett comfortably declared "there was a wide audience interested" in the numerous Greek statues found everywhere.¹ What does make Pausanias unique is his catalogue of cult statues and his dependable writing about only statues and paintings located within public buildings. Pausanias rarely mentioned a statue in detail and his highest respect for an excellent piece was to say "it is worth seeing." This traveler maintained a conservative approach in describing statues with such a degree that when he uses the word xoanon, it must be regarded as an identification more than a general attribute. His diverse vocabulary still managed to use xoanon as a label while any other word may have sufficed if it was only a description. For this reason, it can be suggested that the word for "carved thing" was imbedded into his learning and his education came from various sources such as literature, guides, and personal experience. In the following explanation, we may understand that a xoanon meant any carved, wooden piece that was used as a cult statue for specific worship.

Pausanias was educated in the classics as showed in his ability to quote lines and remember statements exactly from Herodotus or Homer.² He referred to scholarly works only an analytical education provided. An example of this is that Pausanias' tales and travels parallel Diodoros of Sykion, enough to facilitate he may have known Diodoros' description about Greek statues though he never read the man's works relevant to myth.³

Pausanias used the word expounder (exegetai) instead of guide (periegetai) yet C.P. Jones clearly explained that this explanation was in reverence for Herodotus not as a way to identify any well-informed guide. An example may be seen in Pausanias' citation about expounders in Olympia while others in his time labeled them guides.⁴ For this reason, we must consider each expounder with mixed credibility. Frazer mentioned that "Pausanias often refers to the educated people whom he met or with whom he stayed and from whom he obtained a good deal of information..."⁵ Commonly, Pausanias asked information from the locals, and while he traveled this may be where he learned to recognize xoana. He mentioned all through his work where he received information such as "Athenians familiar with antiquity know," "I once heard a Cypriot claiming," "I heard from a Byzantine," "I have heard this from an Ephesian," "an Egyptian said," and "if the old man gave me the truth." Pausanias clearly was sober in his research for he found people explaining things relative to his subject such as "the historians of the earliest period of Patrai say," "writers on the ancient history of Euboia offer," "the Theban writers on antiquities," and "I know from a Phoenician."⁶ Pausanias did not accept what people or books told him at face value for occasionally he quipped "believe it if you like."⁷

Pausanias wrote while discussing the city of Argos that inside the Sanctuary of Wolf Apollo was a xoanon originally dedicated by Danaos. In his reflection, he stated: “I am certain that all the idols of those days were wooden, particularly in Egypt.”⁸ This reminds us of a passage handled by his mentor, Herodotus in which he discussed with Egyptian priests about some large statues he noticed:

"They brought me into a great hall and showed me the huge wooden figures there, counting them up to the number they had already given... They declared that each one of these huge figures was a 'piromis' succeeding a 'piromis,' until they had gone through the entire line of three hundred and forty-five figures, and they failed to connect any one of these with either a god or a hero. A 'piromis' is, in Greek, a 'good and handsome man.'"⁹

Piromis was possibly his Hellenized word for the Ancient Egyptian Perew-Mešew meaning "residence of a noble." Mešew was a standard Egyptian title labeling important men or princes of a pharaoh.¹⁰ What Herodotus failed to understand was that the word "pir" of piromis came from the word Per meaning residence or house. In Herodotus’ interpretation the priests may have explained the wooden figures as a medium for which the living interacted with the important dead or as a chamber that the spirit occasionally dwelled within. He could have asked what the wooden statues were, and they responded ‘a place that the dead nobles dwell’. The statues were not the gods or heroes, they were the residence that the divine occasionally appeared in. While classic Greeks and Romans may have mistaken statues as divine representations, the Ancient Egyptians considered a statue merely a vessel for the entrance of the ka or spirit and little else. Sir Gardiner Wilkinson explained that Egyptians "saw nothing beyond the external form that presented itself to the eye and... they merely thought of its physical character. Hence the absurd worship of the mere agent in lieu..."¹¹ Indeed, the Ancient Egyptians treated sculpture as a tool for religious functions and not as a way to express artistic abilities.¹²

The early Greeks also created statues to be used as a tool. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, called any statue of gods a xoanon. Each instance he mentioned xoana, it is always in a temple or shrine. The only one that was not a god was Aeneas but he was still the object of veneration.¹³ Euripides in Trojan Women, used the word xoanon in reference to the Trojan Horse, a word that he interchanged with another synonym for statues, bretas.¹⁴ His use of bretas signified it as a "cult image" and there are only two other accounts that he dared to use it, the first when talking about the Horse, and the second when a bretas should be raised immediately after a victory in battle. In the second, easy explanation simply declares the brete to be sacred statues, but the Horse's use of interchanging xoanon with bretas suggests the Horse was wood and carried "life" within, similar to Pausanias' hints for a standard xoanon statue as a carrier of a divine or heroic spirit.¹⁵ Donohue's misunderstanding of the Horse's use, lead him to assume that xoanan and bretas cannot mean statue. The explanation given to the Trojans stated the Horse was a Greek tool for Athena and that it could give divine favor to the Trojans if placed within their city.¹⁶ In itself, the Horse shared the same qualities as Pausanias' xoanan and Euripides' understanding the Horse's use showed he did know what qualified as a xoanan.

This relates to Botticher’s theory that the early worship of Greek gods were founded on pre-existing tree cults because coins in some areas showed gods seated in trees.¹⁷ If true, the Ancient Greeks had a similar relation to wood as the Ancient Egyptians did by considering the wood itself as a medium for a designated god or hero. We may reexamine several signs that the Greeks believed wood could be used as a religious go-between for the gods. Based from his understanding, Pliny explained that "images of the deities were made from trees"¹⁸ and "the images of gods dedicated in the shrines should have been more usually of wood or terra-cotta..."¹⁹ Clement of Alexandria wrote that the image of Hera Kiqairunia at Thespiai was a cut tree stump.²⁰ Clement may have misconstrued that Hera was within the tree-trunk instead of actually embodying the tree-trunk.

Pausanias possibly knew, if not believed, in the early theory that Greek mediums to the gods were wooden. According to Frazer, Pausanias used the word sebw not to regard with reverence, but to worship. Pritchett explained this as a regular assertion to the cult of gods and often modified by the adverb malista in Pausanias' work.²¹ Pausanias revealed the Pythian priestess in Delphi prophesied to the Corinthians that they must find the "tree and worship it just like a god: so they made it into images."²² In the priestess’ archaic explanation the divinity laying within or as the tree itself must appear from one wooden image to another for the Corinthians reasoned that each new wooden image was a representation of the original source.

A similar passage from Pausanias stated the Mythymnians worshipped a wooden xoanon, the Phallic Dionysos, with honor and prayers so that a wooden statue could become an incarnate of a divinity yet not the divinity itself.²³ He mentioned other xoana in relation to wood such as Aeneas established the city of Boiai because Artemis disappeared into a myrtle bush there as a hare and that they still worshipped the tree up to Pausanias' time.²⁴ Anachronistically speaking, when Christians worship their god in a church, they do not expect it to be the only house of god. Instead, an aspect of their divinity would be within the church. Such may be the way for Ancient Greek theology. Pritchett reminded us that the tree was not a cult object, but rather it was a shrine for the divinity that housed within it.

In cult worship, Pausanias learned there were specific types of wood used for xoana. He mentioned a few as if reciting a learned lesson he told a tutor and nearly says as much. He explained as far as he was "able to learn them [i.e. the types of wood]," the ancients made human images from ebony, cypress, cedar, oak, yew, and Libyan lotos,²⁵ yet in the next line Pausanias quickly clarified that the Kyllenian Hermes was from juniper.²⁶ This addition suggests Pausanias recalled a certain terminology from personal experience or from other sources identifying xoana figures and was surprised when he found the Hermes' wood was outside his expectation. This implies that it was learning, not personal experience that first taught him the xoana were made from specific woods and he nearly says as much with his use of edunhqhmen in 8.17.1. Plutarch found similar qualifications as all his xoana are made from wood.²⁷ Only Strabo's misunderstanding of xoana made him mention a xoanon by Colotes was made from ivory and Pheidias' chryselephantine Zeus in Olympia. The only reason this may be done is that Strabo considered any statue used as a form of worship may be classified as xoana.²⁸

Pausanias wrote that the Athenians built a shrine to an ebony statue of Ajax in Salamis.²⁹ Because Pausanias' dependability in noting any ebony cult statue that he saw, there is assurance that a statue not described as ebony, was definitely an other type of wood. This could be said for olive wood as well, but he only once mentioned an olive cult statue. The Phallic Dionysos mentioned earlier had a "face made of olive wood... that was definitely godlike."³⁰ If he did not mention the sort of wood a cult statue was made from, it was most likely unknown. Olive wood is easily recognizable with its distinct grains, especially for the Greeks living among it, so that the various cult statues unidentified by him were probably made from an unknown wood. His use of labels such as the xoanon of Hera is “made of pear wood,” the xoanon of Asklepios is agnus-wood (willow), and a statue made from fig-wood³¹ showed his original learning clearly was in error about the specific woods used. What his mistake clarified is a xoanon can be made from any wood and came from any location for as we know, ebony was imported from Nubia or Azania.

Pausanias identified a xoanon not only by its material, but also by shape. His explanation might not be as evident, but it is through some important words, we may understand a statue's posture. A xoanon came from any Hellenized location so a posture may not be distinguishable at first. What is important is that in Boeotia and Crete he mentioned several as "the works of Daidalos”³²

If we understand Pausanias correctly, Daidalos was a sculptor of xoana work which meant that whatever posture is described in reference to Daidalos must be understood as within the definition of a xoanon. With this acceptance, let us examine evidence that Pausanias used in valuing the posture of standard xoana: “There is a small xoanon Aphrodite at Delos with its right hand injured by time,” Pausanias wrote about a Daidalic statue. “Instead of feet it ends in a four-square block."³³ Hurwit added that some were large scale and even possibly “life-size or more.”³⁴ A statue thus could be of any size.

Palaephatus also discussed Daidolos and explained that "Sculptors [of divine-images] in Daedalus’ day made statues with their feet fused together and their hands at their sides... [yet] Daidalus was the first to make foot striding forward, and so people said, ‘Daidalus made his statue walking not standing.’"³⁵ Diodoros compared Daidolos to other works: “The composition (rhythmos) of the ancient Egyptian statues is the same as those made by Daidalos among the Greeks."³⁶ He also agreed with Pausanias by saying that the arms and hands stretched from the body and the statues carried a walking motion.³⁷ Though Pausanias considered Daidalos rather clumsy to look at, the artist's' work had a “strong sense of something divine.”³⁸ This establishes that a Daidalic statue placed one foot forward as if it was walking, while the other foot held back. Secondly, its arms swung away from the body as if walking. Thirdly, the Daidalic work was non-traditional and carried a newer stance than other statues. We would assume then that all xoana were standing figures but this Pausanias showed this is not the case. He wrote that the pear-wood xoanon of Hera was taken to Tiryns by the Argives, and he himself saw it as “a rather small seated statue.”³⁹ As a seated statue, this rules out that all xoana were standing.

Xoana could be clothed or nude. The Eileithuia in Aigion was “swathed from top to toe in fine cloth” with stone face, hands, and feet,⁴⁰ while Pausanias hints that it was rare for an Eileithuian xoanon to be anything other than nude.⁴¹

When Pausanias declared a statue xoanon, we must understand the time frame he categorized it if we are to understand his definition of a xoanon. The problem is that Pausanias' terminology for time is more restrictive than other people's description. He never declared xoana old but that all early statuary were wood.⁴² As for the youngest xoanon, he wrote that at Troizen "[Athena's] xoanon is by Kallon of Aegina." Another statue inscribed with the name of Kallon on its base gives the date of c. 500 BC so all xoana, according to Pausanias would be no newer than the end of the Archaic period.⁴³ Various inscriptions disprove this classification. A xoanon was dedicated by Timotheos son of Sosikles who wished to install a shrine to Aphrodite in the first century BC. It is unlikely that the statue was archaic and probably was most recently carved.⁴⁴ Many such dedications show Pausanias was extraordinary in his classification.

In spite of the all-too-vague descriptions Pausanias provides, we can surmise that a xoanon was a statue of either gender in any size standing or sitting, traditionally nude though with a few exceptions. A xoanon could be from any time frame even if Pausanias suggested other wise. We possess no better source for the explanation of xoana than when he agreed with other ancient scholars. Pausanias recognized xoana as wood and suggested they were not only religious statues, but statuaries with the ability to have the spirits of gods or heroes dwelling within them. His understanding came from plenty of source material assisting him in methodology to identify xoana through guides, personal education, and literature.

END NOTES

^{^}1 W. Kendrick Pritchett (1999), p 168.

^{^}2 Pausanias: 2.20.8, 10.33.3 (about Herodotus); 1.2.4, 1.12.4 (about Homer).

^{^}3 Ibid., 10.21.8 (Diodoros’ similarity with Pausanias in relation to Brennos); 8.7.6 (the Delphic oracle, as to Diodoros' 16.91).

^{^}4 CP Jones (2001), p 37.

^{^}5 Christian Habicht (1985), p 145.

^{^}6 Pausanias 1.27.5, 1.42.6, 3.17.7, 5.5.9, 6.20.18, 6.25.9, 7.18.2, 8.14.12, 9.18.2, 9.28.2

^{^}7 ibid., 2.5.1, 2.31.10, 4.2.7, 5.1.8, 9.10.1.

^{^}8 ibid., 2.19.3

^{^}9 Herodotus, 2.143.

^{^}10 E.A. Wallis Budge (1978), p 238. The only other word phonetically similar to piromis is the word Per-em-us (a pyramid’s slope) which the statues are most definitely not. Mesew is used for Egyptian generals and leaders quite often.

^{^}11 Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson (1941), p 202.

^{^}12 Alan B. Lloyd (1975), p 93.

^{^}13 A.A. Donohue (1988), p 77.

^{^}14 Ibid., p 22.

^{^}15 Ibid., p 26.

^{^}16 Jenny March (2001), p 783.

^{^}17 W. Kendrick Pritchett (1999), p 174.

^{^}18 Pliny, 12.2.5 “arborea et simulacra numinum fuere...”

^{^}19 ibid., 34.34

^{^}20 Clement d’Alexandrie, 4.46.3

^{^}21 W. Kendrick Pritchett (1999), p 175. See Pausanias 7.26.7, 8.26.6, 8.37.9, and its relative use with that of many deities such as Artemis, Athena, Apollo, and Demeter in places such as 2.23.5, 2.30.3, 2.30.6, 3.13.14, 3.14.5.

^{^}22 Pausanias, 2.2.6.

^{^}23 Ibid., 10.19.2

^{^}24 Ibid., 3.22.12

^{^}25 W. Kendrick Pritchet (1999), p 166. ópósa kai hmeiV katamaqein edunhqhmen

^{^}26 Pausanias, 8.17.1

^{^}27 A.A. Donohue (1988), p 137.

^{^}28 Ibid., p 78. Strabo (8.3.4 & 8.3.30). Strabo mentions xoana 24 times as images of gods.

^{^}29 Pausanias., 1.35.2

^{^}30 Ibid., 10.19.2

^{^}31 Ibid., 2.17.4; 3.14.7; 6.18.7

^{^}32 Ibid., 9.40.2

^{^}33 Ibid.

^{^}34 Jeffrey M. Hurwit, (1987), p 131.

^{^}35 Palaephatus, 21.

^{^}36 Diodorus, 1.97.6

^{^}37 Jeffrey M. Hurwit, (1987), p 131. Translated from Diodorus 4.76.1

^{^}38 Pausanias, 2.4.5.

^{^}39 Ibid. 2.17.5

^{^}40 Ibid. 7.23.5

^{^}41 Ibid. 1.18.5. Athens was the only other case that Pausanias mentioned as clothed.

^{^}42 A.A. Donohue (1988), p 146.

^{^}43 Pausanias, 2.32.5; K.W. Arafat (1996), p 57.

^{^}44 A.A. Donohue (1988), p 66. See IG XII.3, 248.

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