Palladas, Praxiteles’ Parian Eros and Constantine’s transformation of pagan images in Constantinople

Abstract An argument for locating Palladas’ floruit in the early fourth century, first advanced in 2009, has met with a mixed reception. This article buttresses the argument and continues the work of integrating this evidence into accounts of the early fourth century. The topic is Palladas’ ekphrastic epigrams, which exhibit an original theme of the gods transformed. It is argued here that these reflect Constantine’s widespread confiscation of temple statues, some of which were publicly destroyed while others were erected in Constantinople. The heart of the article considers the one Palladan ekphrasis that has seemed to some to be unrelated to the rest. Anth. Gr . 16.207 describes an Eros who is gentle and kind, but who is also master over land and sea. This statue, it is argued, was one of Constantine’s confiscations that had been erected in Constantinople, where it was transformed into an expression of imperial ideology. The article also considers the art-historical argument that this statue may, in fact, have been Praxiteles’ Parian Eros. This case is one indication among several that the temple statues confiscated under Constantine and erected in Constantinople were palimpsests: their original significance had been erased and they were transformed into something new.