Tropaion. Réflexions sur la texture symbolique du trophée d’armes comme image au service du faire-savoir triomphal

Abstract

Among the many categories of objects that can be designated as “trophies” there is a type of monument related to the military rituals of the Greeks of the Classical period. It was made of the panoply of an infantryman from the defeated army, lifted on a pole erected on the battlefield as soon as one of the feuding armies had gained control of it. Its initial function consisted in declaring the victory by a strong visual statement. The tropaion is present in Greek iconography from the fifth century BC and is mentioned by historians, philosophers and poets, who do not however provide much information about it. One thing that we do know, from Euripides, concerns its status as an image: it is referred to as “the idol of Zeus tropaios”. But in what sense could this monument which, visually speaking, resembled nothing but a soldier from the vanquished army, “represent” the God of Victory? The key to that mystery lies in reflection on the notion of representation, conceived not according to the model of visual resemblance but as deriving from the link of ownership between the image as an offering and its recipient.

Keywords

• figurative
• iconicity
• image
• interpretation
• pragmatics
• theology