Mosaic of a Funerary Symposium

Artist Antioch

Artist Necropolis

Datelate 4th century

Mediumlimestone, marble and glass tesserae

Dimensionsoverall: 178.8 × 270.2 cm (70 3/8 × 106 3/8 in.)
weight: 1358 lb.

ClassificationsMosaics

Credit LineExcavation of Antioch and Vicinity funded by the bequests of the Reverend Dr. Austin S. Garver and Sarah C. Garver

Terms

Object number1936.26

DescriptionTho women recline on a curved couch (stibadium) decorated with stripes of red and green. A third woman, holding a scroll, sits on a low stool to the left of the dining couch. Behind her, two women enter with wineskins slung over their shoulders. Through a wooden door visible at the far right a serving girl offering a jus and basin for washing hands has just entered the room (*1). Another bowl is held by one of the reclining diners. Additional tableware is displayed in the right foreground: a krater and a tall pointed amphora set into a metal stand. The multi-lobed, sigma-shaped table is a of a type popular in the eastern Mediterranean; in fact, one like it was excavated from a house in Daphnae (*2). The hanging curtain (parapetasma) fastened to the back wall by circular bosses recalls similar devices used to frame deceased couples on Roman sarcophagi and may allude to apotheosis (*3).

The pavement was found in a necropolis south of the city, in a small chamber surrounded by tombs (*4). What may be loculi or perhaps benches for meals around the perimeter of the room were found in the excavation. A wide geometric border punctuated by ten personifications surrounded this central scene. The corners were anchored by the turning points of the year, the Tropai. These busts were accompanied by standing personifications of the Seasons. Only Winter and the Winter Solstice are extant, at the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College. To the left and right of the central banquet scene are two personifications, one of Agora (the Marketplace), the other of Eukarpia (Fertility), at the Worcester Art Museum. The funerary banquet was framed by time - seasonal, calendrical, eternal. Through this pavement was the only figured mosaic found in the cemeteries of Antioch, the funerary banquet was a common scene for Roman tomb decorations. The scene is accompanied by an inscription giving the name of a woman, "Mnemosyne," and the word AIOXIA (banquet). The tomb chamber may have been owned by a woman, Mnemosyne. Or perhaps it records a group of women in a funerary collegium who used the space for regular funerary banquets. In the latter case, the inscription "Mnemosyne" may be understood more generally as "Memory." The pavement is a compelling combination of reality and aspiration: banquets were the centerpiece of Roman rituals surrounding death, but the feast also represented the eternal bounty of the afterlife. At this wake the deceased woman holds an unfurled scroll, but her attention is directed to the scene's inscription, which we read with her. (Kondoleon, 2000)

*1 That the servant girl is holding vessels for the washing of hands is suggested by Dunbabin 1993, 120.
*2 From Daphnae-Harbie 27 P (Antioch II 1938, 178, no. 226, pl. 21).
*3 Koortbojian 1995, 52 n. 10.
*4 Jean Lassus, Antioch excavation field books, 12-30 April 1935, Antioch Archives, Department of Art and Archeology, Princeton University.

Label TextA lounging woman in offered a wash basin at a funerary banquet in this fourth century mosaic excavated from a cemetery in the Roman city of Antioch. Above the women reads the inscription “Mnemosyne” meaning “Memory,” and below them sits a jar or krater used to hold wine and water. Romans commonly belonged to burial societies, which met often and held feasts in honor of the deceased.ProvenanceExcavation at Antioch, October 5, 1936; sector 24-L

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