Pair Of Eyes In Greek Art

Take a walk through New York’s A,C,E-Chamber Street train station. As you walk or wait for the train you will notice rectangular motifs of eyes, some of the eyes are in pairs some are not. (Fig 1.) Nevertheless, you cannot help but wonder if they eye are staring at you as you wait for the train or if the eyes are looking over the station like a camera? Sight is a wondrous sense that can also give us insight into more than just what we see. If you were a god that made no physical contact with humanity, your eyes would be your window to oversee your kingdom. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Gallery 156 has a bronze sculpted Pair of Eyes within a glass case. (Fig 2). These eyes once belonged to an over life cult statue that holds the position
Cult statues were made for the temple they would be place in and serve as a idol for the Greeks to worship. Were the Pair of Eyes made for a cult statue? Probably not as these unique gods were made out of the finest materials gold and marble but so did their eyes. Ivory is not a common mineral, it is found in animals such as whales, walrus and elephants. Theses animals were considered exotic as they were not locally found from Greece. If the Pair of eyes were out of ivory that means the eyes of the beholder was significant. According to the Ancient Greek ranking of society, the upper-class or Athens is ranked highest while peasants and the slaves were ranked lowest. Nevertheless, the upperclassmen still had to look upon a higher power to receive order. Each god or goddess were seen as immortal magical beings that helped the Greek community in times of need. They were presented with offerings from their followers in exchange for their usage of their
Eyes in fine arts sometimes scare viewers because the eyes are so realistic that it gives off the illusion of following the viewer as they move. The bronze sculpture though looking upwards are still represented with a naturalistic feeling that displays movement and direction. When one thinks about having eyes on them there is no better metaphor than a camera, maybe even a surveillance camera perhaps. Surveillance and voyeurism go hand in had. With voyeurism the subject, this case the Pair of eyes is presented as the one who is watching and sees what is happening. The Pair of Eyes is observing their surrounding making notes of what is going on. If the eyes were to serve as a vessel for the gods window, instead of being in physical form, they can observe and judge what they have created and also see what has been brought before them. This could be offerings or problems their creations have faced. One unknown Greek poet wrote that “Nature alone cannot inform them... for those Greeks who visited these sites … They gazed in them with Greek Eyes, eyes different from ours and dwelt upon them with Greek Minds.” The Pair of eyes like many eyes made for those who believed gods would take them their form were the way to watch and see. The sun couldn’t tell Apollo about the light in a soul. The sea could not tell Aphrodite about the love between sea and land. Nor could the elder tree tell the Titians about time.