The Idol of Cádiz: A longue-durée and Transcultural Construction of the Sacred

The Idol of Cádiz was a pre-Islamic monument, crowned by a statue, and located on the outskirts of Cádiz, the ancient Gades. This article adopts a longue-durée approach to literary accounts, exploring how and why perceptions of this vestige of Antiquity changed over the centuries: how it adopted new...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Elices Ocón, Jorge
Format: article
Status:Versión aceptada para publicación
Publication Date:2024
Country:España
Institution:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repository:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/374514
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/374514
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Antiquity
Al-Andalus
Sculpture
Reception
Talisman
Idol
Works of art
Art history
Description
Summary:The Idol of Cádiz was a pre-Islamic monument, crowned by a statue, and located on the outskirts of Cádiz, the ancient Gades. This article adopts a longue-durée approach to literary accounts, exploring how and why perceptions of this vestige of Antiquity changed over the centuries: how it adopted new values and functions, encompassed new spheres of influence, and even underwent physical change. Far from being neglected, perceptions of the Idol changed according to the political, cultural and religious transformations occurring in al-Andalus over the centuries. This article analyses the process of reception or Iconotropy of the Idol as an intertwined production of meaning and memory spanning fields of knowledge, belief systems and political regimes, pointing out how the sacred is dynamically constructed, and how it is susceptible to changing circumstances.