A recently discovered Roman mosaic in Britain depicts a different and long-lost version of the most famous story of the Trojan War.
This artifact, known as the Keton Mosaic, depicts a major conflict during the Trojan War. But this story is not based on Homer’s Iliad, the longest-told story, researchers report in a new study. Instead, it takes inspiration from a lesser-known tragedy by the Athenian playwright Aeschylus. This book, called “The Epistle to the Phrygians,” was written in the early 5th century BC, and today only fragments and analyzes that are discussed in other ancient works survive.
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The mosaic measures 10 by 5.3 meters (33 feet by 17 feet) and likely covered part of the floor of the triclinium (dining room) of a large villa. The mosaics were in use by the 4th century AD, but preliminary research suggests that the villa may have been occupied even earlier.
In Homer’s story about the Trojan War, the Greeks spent ten years fighting the city of Troy, in what is now Turkey. According to the myth, Paris, the son of King Priam of Troy, kidnapped the beautiful queen of Sparta, Helen, and the Greeks were fighting to get her back.
The mosaic depicts three scenes of the conflict between the Greek hero Achilles and the Trojan prince Hector. The first panel depicts the duel between the two after Hector kills Patroclus, Achilles’ close companion and potential lover. In the second, Achilles drags Hector’s corpse behind his chariot. And in the third, Achilles ransoms Hector’s body in gold to his father Priam.
Researchers initially thought the mosaic depicted scenes from Homer’s epic poem, the Iliad. However, upon closer inspection, study lead author Jane Masseglia, a historian at the University of Leicester, discovered that some of the mosaic’s details contradicted Homer’s version. In a new study published Dec. 3 in the journal Britannia, Masseria and colleagues argue that the difference instead points to “Phrygians” as the inspiration for the image.
For example, in the Iliad, Achilles clearly states that he will not accept gold as a ransom for Hector’s body. And in the mosaic, Achilles drags the body of Hector around the tomb of Patroclus, while in the “Iliad” he drags it around the walls of Troy. However, fragments of the “Phrygians” and fragments of analyzes of the text by antiquarians describe both events as depicted in the Keton mosaic. The Phrygians is the only known retelling of the Trojan War in this way.
The art style provided further clues about the mosaic’s inspiration. “Not only does the Keton mosaic depict scenes that tell Aeschylus’ version of the story, but its upper panel is actually based on a design used on Greek vases from Aeschylus’s time, 800 years before the mosaic was built,” Masseria said in a statement.
She pointed out that other parts of the mosaic also had designs from an earlier era.
“We found that other parts of the mosaic were based on designs found on much older silverware, coins and pottery from Greece, Turkey and Gaul,” Masseria said.
The findings suggest close cultural ties between the Romans in Britain and the rest of the classical world, the authors said in their study.
Masseria added: “Rather than being isolated from the rest of the ancient world, Romano-British artisans were part of a broader trade network that passed down pattern catalogs from generation to generation.” “Ketton combines Roman British craftsmanship with traditional Mediterranean design.”
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