ARTIFACT - Winged Atlas/Hercules
In our latest installment of ‘cool things I found researching my book but could not fit them in’, let’s look at an unusual sculpture that combines elements of a titan with that of a hero, and then adds some interesting Indian additions to the mix as well.
India was a vital part of the ancient trade network; a network that stretched at times from Cornwall, in the southwest of England, to Indonesia in southeast Asia. In fact we have objects from Canaan that prove this global market was in place over 3,000 years ago, long before ancient Greece or Rome were even a glint in the milkman’s eye.
Now, obviously, the existence of this large network does not mean that people on one side of the world were actually aware of the people living on the other side of it. The tin miners of Cornwall had no concept of the banana growers in Indonesia, but goods were moving and covering vast distances by land and sea. Much of this global market was facilitated in India, which, due to its location, served like a bridge between various worlds: southeast Asia and China to the east, the Mediterranean and eastern side of Africa to the west. It was, of course, highly productive in its own right as well.
When Alexander the Great invaded India in 327 BCE, he discovered a powerful set of kingdoms ranging in size from the smaller, yet formidable forces of Porus in what is now Pakistan, to the great empires of the Nanda based at Pataliputra. Alexander’s original plan to cross the Ganges was swiftly abandoned and he never got further than the Indus river. But what he achieved was to bring Greek and Indian culture together in the region of Gandhara (part of modern Pakistan), creating a unique environment where both Greek and Indian ideas and styles began to blend.
This led to some amazing shifts in both cultural spheres. I wrote a previous post about Indian art making its way to Pompeii here, but this time we will look at Greek art in India. This example comes from Pakistan, dates from the 3rd century CE and highlights just how blended the two cultures had become.
The statue is 38cm in height and depicts a vajrapani, a protector of the Buddha. The vajrapani is male and has a very Greek look about him, as well as a very impressive mustache. He is muscular in build but also has wings, which is slightly unusual. So, who is this Greek looking winged-man, and why is he a protector of the Buddha?
The figure is known by modern scholars as Atlas, named after the Titan who was punished by Zeus and forced to hold up the heavens for all eternity. We do not actually know if this statue, and others like it, are supposed to depict Atlas, but the name comes from the common motif of this figure being used in Buddhist art to hold important things on their shoulders or in their hands (such as here). The wings, however, have never been satisfactorily explained because Atlas did not have wings.
No matter what these are called, chances are, this one was not meant to be Atlas at all. Gandhara was a melting pot of ideas and artistic trends. You will notice that this ‘Atlas’ has a lion’s pelt as his cloak, and the head of the lion serves as a head covering as well. This is the tell-tale sign of one figure of Greek myth – the hero Hercules. Now Hercules makes a lot more sense. He was used frequently in Buddhist art as one of the protectors of the Buddha! He is easy to identify because he usually has one of two objects with him: his lion cloak, or a club like the one here.
So, this statue is most likely a depiction of a Greek hero, but in his role as protector of the Buddha.
We still can’t work out why he has wings though.