- (Jean Thirion Mélanges de l'école française de Rome, 1955, Volume 67, ...... que les représentations d'Orphée aux iiie et ive siècles après J.-C. ont perdu ... www.ecfi-t.com/sfaxreader/french/1955Thirion.pdf
Elaine K. Gazda Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology University of Michigan Kelsey Museum of Archaeology 434 S. State Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1390 Tel: 734-647-0438 Email: gazda@umich.edu
Elaine K. Gazda, Professor of Classical Art and Archaeology, University of Michigan
''Elaine Gazda has been a professor of classical art and archaeology at Michigan since 1974 as well as a curator at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. She is recipient of the university’s Excellence in Research Award for 1999 and a trustee and frequent visiting scholar at the American Academy in Rome, where she co-directed an NEH Summer Seminar for College Teachers. Her scholarly interests include Hellenistic and Roman art, particularly Roman sculpture, painting, and building techniques; Etruscan art and archaeology; and the art and archaeology of Graeco-Roman Egypt. She has done fieldwork in Italy at Cosa and Pompeii as well as in Turkey at Pisidian Antioch and Sardis.
She is the editor of The Ancient Art of Emulation: Studies in Artistic Originality and Tradition from the Present to Classical Antiquity; The Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii: Ancient Ritual, Modern Muse; Roman Art in the Private Sphere; and Karanis: An Egyptian Town in Roman Times.''
Dean's Designate Associate Professor retired, Department of Humanities (Classics)
* B.A. Toronto 1959 * M.A. Toronto 1960 * Ph.D. Toronto, 1967
St. George Office: 97 St George St. E-mail : irwin@utsc.utoronto.ca
"The Songs of Orpheus and the New Song of Christ", Orpheus, The Metamorphoses of a Myth, ed. John R. Warden (University of Toronto Press, 1981 hc., 1985 pb.) 51-62.
Ivan Mortimer Linforth (1879-1976) was an American scholar, Professor of Greek at University of California, Berkeley. According to the Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists he was "one of the great Hellenists of his time".[1] He is best known for his book The Arts of Orpheus (1941). In it he analysed the body of texts dealing with Orpheus and the Orphics. He concluded that there was no exclusively 'Orphic' system of belief in Ancient Greece.[2]
Fritz Graf, Professor and Chair of Greek and Latin and Director of Epigraphy at the Center for Epigraphic and Palaeographic Studies at Ohio State, is one of the world's leading experts on ancient Mediterranean myths and religions.
ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE HOLY LAND1 A. Ovadiah
''Various texts show how the Church, in its attempt to overpower Orphism, tried to merge Orpheus with Jesus and to turn them into one be- ing. This is further reinforced in De Laudibus Constantini by Eusebius, who compares the ‘Logos’ which tames mankind, with Orpheus who tames wild animals. This passage of Eusebius is, no doubt, evidence of the blurring of the functional differences between Orpheus and Jesus; it helps to understand the attempt of Christians to adopt Orpheus for their religious needs and to identify him with Jesus, with the ‘Logos’ or with the ‘Good Shepherd’.18''
18. Cf. A. Ovadiah and S. Mucznik, “Orpheus from Jerusalem – Pagan or Christian Image?”, The Jerusalem Cathedra, 1(1981), pp. 152-166.
Orpheus Mosaic, Jamahiriya Museum, Tripoli, Libya. From the villa Orpheus, near Lepcis Magna. It shows Orpheus playing his lyre among animals (upper level), fishermen and fishes (middle row), and a hunter returning home, two birds and a goatherd (down). Color modified. ---- Procedent de la vil·la Orfeu, a la vora de Lepcis Magna. S'hi veu Orfeu tocant la lira entre animals (nivell superior), pescadors i peixos (nivell mitjà) i un caçador tornant a cas, dos ocells i un pastor amb les seves cabres (nivell inferior). Color modificat
Reidar Hvalvik, Professor, Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo
''To a certain extent this example may explain the origin of the earliest images of Christ, or at least some of them: Pagan images were interpreted in the light of the Christian message. The images were, so to speak, “adopted” by the Christians.
Another popular figure in pagan funerary art was Orpheus, known as singer and poet. The myth about Orpheus was first and foremost characterized by his love for Eurydice. When she died after being bitten by a serpent, Orpheus decided to go to Hades and bring her back. By his beautiful song he made his way down to Hades and was permitted to take his beloved back to the land of the living – on one condition: He was not allowed to turn his face to look at Eurydice when they were ascending. Unfortunately he could not help turning his head, and had to return without his beloved. Nevertheless Orpheus became a symbol for love which is not hindered by death and grave. And even more important: He had been in Hades and had come back.
On this background it is not surprising that the image of Orpheus is found on sarcophagi and in grave chambers. He is usually depicted as a singer, sitting with the harp in his hands. He is surrounded by animals – tamed by his song and music. This motif is also found on Christian graves because Orpheus could easily be adopted by Christians. The church father Clement of Alexandria compares Christ and Orpheus and stresses that only Christ can tame the wildest of all animals – the human being (Protrept. 1). Due to Orpheus’ reputation as a singer and poet it is neither surprising that king David can be depicted as Orpheus in ancient synagogues, as in a synagogue in Gaza from 6th century. The surprising thing is the existence of images in a synagogue – but that is another story.
Through pagan, mythological figures Christ started to be depicted in Christian funerary art. In a way Christian art came from below in two senses of the word. It came from the catacombs of Rome (at least the oldest preserved images are found in Rome), and it came from ordinary people, not from the top of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, i.e. from presbyters and bishops.
By using motifs that originally were pagan, Christians in fact made a confession of their faith. It was not the pagan Hermes who was the Good Shepherd, but Christ. It was not Orpheus who went back from Hades, but Christ. Another interesting example of this phenomenon is the depiction of Christ in the shape of the sun god, Sol Invictus. The worship of various gods in the shape of the sun god was popular among the Romans. Why did the Christians choose this image? Because the sun or more precisely “the sun of righteousness” was a biblical image of Christ. Malachi 4:2 was read as a prophecy of Christ. Consequently Christ was the one who with good reason could be depicted as the sun. In the synagogue Hamat Tiberias we find the image of the pagan Sun god, related to the zodiac. This is, so to speak, a pure pagan motif; in the Christian grave chamber in Rome the pagan image is converted.''
J.B. Friedman: Orpheus-Christus in the Art of Late Antiquity, from Orpheus in the Middle Ages, Cambridge, 1969.
''Certainly, we have much to set straight if we could. Orpheus was a Greek who in Thrace tried to substitute the quietude of the Greek Apollo for the frenzy of the Thracian Dionysus, and met his death at the hands of the Maenads, the followers of Dionysus. Or he came from Crete and introduced the orgiastic cults into Greece from Asia. There is a tradition that he visited Egypt, which is interesting. He went down to Hades to recover his wife, Eurydice, and sailed with the Argonauts to Colchis. Who is to separate out the facts from such charming legends? In all events, the Orphic tradition is a confusion - there are at least three versions of the cosmogony, f'or instance - -but one which consists of an intermingling of ordered structures; many themes are interwoven, and the consequent suggestiveness is immense. We have to pick our way delicately, seeking out features which we can discern most clearly, remembering all the while that we are dealing in Orpheus more with the name of a tradition than with a single influence, or rather with a single influence over which has become encrusted an entire tradition. ''
'' L'iconographie des sarcophages chrétiens, son origine et les principes de son utilisation [modifier] Sarcophage chrétien du IVe siècle
Les images chrétiennes qui apparaissent à cette époque ne sont pas liées à la nécessité de propager le christianisme, mais répondent plutôt à un goût pour la représentation figurée qui est profondément enraciné dans le monde méditerranéen.
Il est difficile de cerner le moment où certaines formes, dans l'art funéraire, deviennent des manifestations de la foi chrétienne, à cause de ce phénomène qu'Henri-Irénée Marrou appelle la pseudomorphose (en cristallographie, le terme désigne l'état d'un minéral qui, après un changement de composition chimique, conserve sa forme cristalline primitive au lieu de cristalliser selon sa substance nouvelle): les images des premiers sarcophages chrétiens et des sarcophages païens sont puisées dans le même répertoire. On peut distinguer deux approches.
La première est une reprise sans modification des motifs existants: pour représenter des images allégoriques d'idées abstraites, les artisans ont recours à des scènes qui servent à représenter des idées semblables dans l'art païen. C'est le cas par exemple des motifs bucoliques qui, par leur univers champêtre, peuvent évoquer la paix éternelle (l'âge d'or = paradis). Le pasteur ou le criophore symbolisant la philanthropie dans l'art païen, ou encore l'Orphée en berger, sont investis de l'idée chrétienne du Bon Pasteur, le Christ conducteur d'hommes, qui va chercher la brebis égarée, l'allégorie de l'âme chrétienne. L'orante (ou dans certain cas son pendant masculin) qui symbolisait la piété sera la personnification de la foi chrétienne ou l'évocation d'un chrétien ordinaire. Elle est souvent représentée sous les traits de la défunte pour montrer que celle-ci avait été une bonne chrétienne (le geste de prière debout paumes de main tournées vers le ciel est repris par les chrétiens). Il n'est pas possible d'identifier ces représentations comme étant chrétiennes tant qu'elles figurent seules sur les sarcophages, mais elles acquièrent une connotation chrétienne quand elles se trouvent associées à des scènes bibliques.
La deuxième approche consiste à reprendre des modèles formels existants dans l'art païen ou profane pour présenter une nouvelle narration. Le meilleur exemple est l'histoire de Jonas, un des thèmes bibliques les plus anciens et les plus fréquents, souvent représenté en plusieurs scènes sur les sarcophages. Dans la première scène du cycle, qui est généralement réduite à la représentation du bateau, ce dernier est une transposition du motif funéraire de la barque avec des Amours ailés (ou des enfants) remplacés par des marins. Le poisson des scènes suivantes est représenté en monstre-dragon qui faisait partie du cortège de Neptune dans le décor des sarcophages païens (d'où la présence de Neptune à côté de la barque sur le sarcophage de Santa Maria Antica). Jonas lui-même en repos dans la quatrième scène est représenté d'après le modèle de Dionysos sous la treille ou à l'image du berger Endymion endormi. Dans les cas où seule cette dernière scène est représentée, c'est la coloquinte qui permet d'identifier le personnage comme étant Jonas.
Les premières illustrations des scènes bibliques apparaissent dans la deuxième moitié du IIIe siècle. Le choix des scènes vient probablement des prières pour les mourants (et des liturgies funéraires) qui se référaient aux exemples de salut accordé par Dieu dans l'Ancien et le Nouveau Testament. En s'appuyant sur ces exemples, les fidèles souhaitent que leurs demandes d'intervention divine, exprimées dans les prières, soient en quelque sorte prolongées sur les parois de leurs tombes. Cela explique pourquoi les sarcophages richement décorés étaient souvent enterrés, les scènes représentées étaient adressées à Dieu et non à la contemplation des fidèles.
Les thèmes vétérotestamentaires qui prédominent au début sont mêlés aux univers pastoraux. Au IVe siècle, ils cèdent peu à peu la place dominante aux sujets néotestamentaires. Parmi les scènes de l'Ancien Testament qui reviennent le plus souvent figurent celle de Jonas (déjà mentionnée), les trois Hébreux dans la fournaise (Dn 3
), Daniel entre les lions (Dn 6
), Noé (Gen 6
, Gen 7
, Gen 8
), Moïse et la source miraculeuse (Ex 17
), le sacrifice d'Isaac (Gen 22
), et moins systématiquement l'histoire de Suzanne (Dn 13
), Adam et Ève créés par Dieu (Gen 2
) ou dans la scène du péché originel (Gen 3
), la remise de la Loi à Moïse sur le mont Sinaï (Ex 24
). L'iconographie de plusieurs de ces scènes n'est pas figée et peut varier, des personnages sont rajoutés, comme l'ange et le serviteur dans la représentation des Hébreux.
Les scènes les plus fréquentes du Nouveau Testament, qui se multiplient dès le début du IVe siècle sont les miracles du Christ: la multiplication des pains (Jn 6
), le miracle de Cana (Jn 2
), la guérison de l'aveugle (Jn 9
), de l'hémorroïsse (Mc 5
, Mt 9
) et de l'infirme (Jn 5
), la résurrection de Lazare (Jn 11
). Les scènes de l'Adoration des Mages (Mt 2
), la Nativité (Lc 2
) et le Baptême du Christ (Jn 1
), qui rappellent l'importance de l'Incarnation pour la Rédemption, sont porteuses d'un message du salut aussi bien individuel que collectif. Des éléments apocryphes s'insèrent dans le récit, tels le bœuf et l'âne dans la Crèche. Pierre, distingué dans l'assemblée des disciples, trouve rapidement sa place dans le décor, probablement à cause de son importance pour Rome : les scènes les plus courantes étant celles de son arrestation (avec deux soldats en « bonnet pannonien », en usage dans l'armée romaine au IVe siècle) et l'annonce du reniement (Lc 22. 31-34
)
Mais dans le courant du IVe siècle, le répertoire s'élargit : les scènes des vies de Pierre et de Paul, le Christ parmi les apôtres, différents moments du cycle de la Passion, l'entrée dans Jérusalem (Mt 21
; Lc 19
; Jn 12
), le lavement des pieds (Jn 13
), Jésus devant Pilate et le lavement des mains (Mt 27. 24
). Dans la scène de Crucifixion le Christ est représenté couronné de lauriers, avec au pied de la croix deux soldats-gardiens.
Ces différentes scènes et personnages sont répartis sur les parois sans chronologie ou lien direct, c'est l'ordre de l'ensemble qui semble diriger le plus cet agencement. La scène de Daniel entre les lions, à la composition symétrique, se place souvent dans le centre (par exemple sous le médaillon), le sacrifice d'Isaac et la remise de la Loi, dessinant des diagonales, s'insèrent à côté du médaillon. La source miraculeuse et la résurrection de Lazare se trouvent dans les extrémités des cuves, en raison de la verticalité de leur composition. La scène des trois Hébreux dans la fournaise est régulièrement placée sur le bandeau du couvercle à cause de son horizontalité.
L'art chrétien présente à ses débuts davantage d'unité, aussi bien dans l'art des sarcophages que dans celui des catacombes, l'iconographie étant la même dans les grandes lignes. Il n'y a pas non plus de différence importante entre les sarcophages romains et provinciaux des IIIe siècle et IVe siècle siècles. Mais la manière simple et expressive des premiers sarcophages, exécutés dans le style plébéien, s'effacera au IVe siècle devant le courant qu'on a appelé le « classicisme constantinien ». Le bas-relief, se rapprochant de la ronde-bosse, retrouve alors son élégance, et le traitement poli accentue la sérénité des personnages qui vient remplacer le naturel des expressions du IIIe siècle.''
Cirencester, Corinium Museum website Cirencester (Roman Corinium) has one of the best collections of Roman mosaics in Britain, in a newly designed and superbly laid out museum. The beautiful second-century mosaic of the Seasons has been incorporated into a reconstruction of a Roman house. In the fourth century AD two groups of mosaicists based in Cirencester made mosaics for the many wealthy residences in the town and villas in the Cotswolds: the Corinium Museum has an impressive display of their work, including a scene of Orpheus surrounded by the wild animals who were charmed by his music, which was a local speciality.
Peter Johnson - 2002 - Social Science - 72 σελίδες The master of the Barton Farm mosaic was obviously responsible for the Orpheus mosaic from Dyer Street and the magnum opus of the officina, ...
The Orpheus pavement of Cirencester (and Woodchester) and the south-west are a Romano-British Specialty and belong to a moment when the tale had become a vehicle of both pagan and Christian teaching. Dionysiac legend also had its place, as at East Coker (Somerset), where the story of the divine birth may be recognized. The Labours of Hercules appear at Bramdean (Hampshire), the story of Cyparissus at Leicester. These echo not Vergil, but the hardly less beloved Ovid.
( Woodchester villa is found Near Cirencester’s: The villa's plan is of the courtyard type confirming to typical Italian design. There are comparatively few of this layout in England. It had two large courtyards surrounded by buildings with 65 rooms including a main residence, a farm, a sun terrace, a spa and bath complex, and a large hall that contained the wonderful mosaic, The Great Pavement. This is one of the most complex and intricate mosaic designs found in northern Europe, and is 2,209 square feet and when complete contained one and a half million pieces of stone. This great mosaic was made around AD 325 by craftsmen from Corinium, with the main design based around Orpheus and his relationship with nature. In all, thirteen mosaics have been recorded in situ.)
(The Orpheus mosaic at Woodchester is one from among the largest of surviving Roman pavements north of the Alps; 50’ square and 1½ million pieces of stone. ~~ reproduced here without reduction to preserve detail and lighting)
Professor Keith Branigan, BA, PhD, FSA was appointed to the first Chair of Archaeology at Sheffield in 1976. He has researched and published extensively on the prehistory of the Aegean and on Roman Britain. His special interests are in funerary behaviour, early metallurgy and the relationships between town and country.
''The popular figure with all his attibutes was depicted in early figure with all his attributes was depicted in early Jewish art as well. Orpheus wearing a Phrygian cap and playing a harp in front of some animals appear on the second stage of the main panel above the Torah Ark in the third century synagogue of Dura Europos. Here, too, the popular image of a musician was probably taken to represent King David, the harpist, the ancestor of the future Messiah, and annointed king and savior of the Nation of Israel.
David with harp, detail from Gaza synagogue floor
Evidence for the existence of such a figure in Jewish art is found only later, in the beginning of the sixth century, in the mosaic floor of the synagogue at Gaza. There the harpiest confronted by animals is crowned rather than donned with a Phrygian cap, and above his head is the Hebrew inscription "David."
