Turning Heads: Alexander and the Animals

Abstract:This article engages with two intriguing pictorial tropes, two "pathos formulas," in the art of the late Classical and Hellenistic periods, one well known and one hardly noticed. The latter is a stylized head pose adopted by animals in the popular imagery of the hunt. This pose assigns humanlike consciousness to animals, thus raising bigger interpretive questions. The ancient understanding of Alexander's personality and/or appearance as leonine presents the reverse relationship, whereby the animal takes priority in conceptualizing the human. The well-known pathos formula explored in this connection concerns Alexander himself, whose turn of head is among the most frequently invoked but imperfectly understood aspects of his portraiture.