agalma (αγαλμα)

(Language: Greek)

Short Description: image, cult-statue, ornament, shrine, object of worship, something in which one takes delight

Long Description: image, cult-statue, ornament, shrine, object of worship, something in which one takes delight; theon agalmata is the common phrase for ‘images of the gods’ and ‘cult-statues’ which may be ‘animated’ by the theurgists; the word agalma contains no implication of likeness and is not a synonim of eikon; for Plato, the created cosmos is ‘a shrine brought into being for the everlasting gods’ ( ton aidion theon gegonos agalma: Tim.37c); for the Emperor Julian, the visible Sun is ‘the living agalma, endowed with soul and intelligence and beneficent, of the noetic Father’ ( Ep.51.434).

Sources: The Golden Chain: An Anthology of Platonic and Pythagorean Philosophy, by Dr. Algis Uždavinys