Cultic Allusions in the Heraklitos Mosaic

Potestas. Estudios del Mundo Clásico e Historia del Arte

卷:14

Ehud Fathy¹ 

[1] Tel Aviv University;

关键词: heraklitos;    sosus;    asàrotosòikos;    dionysus;    isis;    mysterycults;    nile;    roman elite;   

DOI  :  http://dx.doi.org/10.6035/Potestas.2019.14.1

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The Heraklitos mosaic, which dates to the second century adandisdisplayedtodayattheVaticanMuseums,depictsthethemeof the asàrotos òikos (‘unswept floor’) alongside allusions to Dionysian andIsiacmysterycults.Themosaiciswellknownduetoitshighlyil-lusionistic depiction of scraps of food, which are scattered evenly across the room’s floor, as if left behind –a theme which according to Pliny was first created by the mosaicist Sosus in Hellenistic Pergamon. The mosaic Pliny is referring to was never discovered, and the theme is known today only through five surviving Roman variations, the Heraklitos mosaic be-ing the largest and most elaborate one. This article examines the ways in which the Heraklitos mosaic expresses the connection between power, social status and initiation into mystery cults in Imperial Rome, and ex-plorestheconnectionbetweentraditionalRomanbeliefs,foreigncultpractices and elitist artistic representation.

【 授权许可】

Unknown