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Meaningful mingling: classicizing imagery and Islamicizing script in a Byzantine bowl
Art Bulletin, The, March, 2008 by Alicia Walker
48. Hans Dieter Betz, ed., The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), Papyri Graecae Magicae (PGM) IV.296-334.
49. Apollo was strongly associated with prophecy in the Greco-Roman world. No fewer than twenty-two separate oracular sites were dedicated to him. Leonard Schmitz, "Oraculum," in Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, ed. William Smith, 2 vols. (1870; reprint, Boston: Longwood Press, 1977), vol. 2, 836-40.
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50. Images of Apollo holding a branch and leaning against a pedestal typically depict the god frontally (John Boardman et al., eds., Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae [hereafter LIMC], 8 vols. [Zurich: Artemis, 1981-99], vol. 2, pt. 2, 205, nos. 249, 251-54, 260, 312-13, nos. 189, 191, 192, 202-4, 209, 252, 253, 260). The figure has also been identified as Dionysos based on his pose and the wreath that encircles his head (Cutler, "The Mythological Bowl," 244-45; and Kalavrezou, "The Cup of San Marco," 170). Apollo and Dionysos possess similar characteristics (languid poses and wreathed hair tied in knots at the nape of the neck), but the prominence of the branch within the S. Marco composition links the figure more strongly with Apollo.
51. Schmitz, "Oraculum," 836-38; and H. Parke, Greek Oracles (London: Hutchinson, 1967), 72-89.
52. Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri, PGM I.262-347, II.1-184, III.290-320, VI.1-47, VII.727-39. See also S. Eitrem, "Dreams and Divination in Magical Ritual," in Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, ed. Christopher A. Faraone and Dirk Obbink (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 177-78.
53. These references are made by John of Rhodes in the tenth century and Kedrenos in the twelfth century. See J. P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae graeca, vol. 96 (1860; reprint, Turnhout: Brepols, 1976), col. 1284D; George Cedrenus, Compendium Historiarum, Corpus scriptorum historiae Byzantinae, ed. I. Bekker, vol. 1 (Bonn: E. Weberi, 1838), 532, trans. Timothy Gregory, "Julian and the Last Oracle of Delphi," Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 24 (1983): 356. See also A. Markopoulos, "Kedrenos, Pseudo-Symeon, and the Last Oracle at Delphi," Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 26 (1985): 207-10, who questions the attribution of the tenth-century reference to John of Rhodes, because the author is otherwise unattested in the literary record.
54. Marlia Mango, The Sevso Treasure, pt. 1 (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 1994), 167, 180, figs. 3-1, 3-15. See also the depiction of Zeus in the Milan Iliad, Weitzmann, "The Survival of Mythological Representations," fig. 1.
55. Although the aegis is more commonly associated with Athena, it was in fact the trophy of Zeus, who received the Gorgon's head from his son the hero Perseus. Zeus later presented the aegis to Athena, who is often depicted with the device on her breastplate or shield. Cutler ("The Mythological Bowl," 245-48) tentatively identifies this figure as Perseus bearing a shield with the Gorgon's reflection. The vignette does not, however, convincingly parallel any known representations of Perseus. Kalavrezou ("The Cup of San Marco," 170) also interprets the face as that of the Gorgon but does not venture to identify the figure who holds it.
