Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

The Blue Globe

4i

has a blue nimbus about his beardless head and obviously per-
petuates the type of Helios1. An interesting miniature on linen
of about the same date comes from a priestly mitre found at
Panopolis (Achmim). On it we see Christ as a youthful brown-
haired figure, standing in a blue robe trimmed with carmine and
holding a cross in his right hand : he too has a blue nimbus round
his head2. A clavus of polychrome wool-work, found on the same
site but in a Byzantine grave of the sixth century or thereabout,
represents a white-robed saint between two trees : his left hand
holds a staff, and his head is circled by a blue nimbus*. The
magnificent mosaic on the triumphal arch of S. Paolo fuori le mura
at Rome, which was designed in the middle of the fifth century
but has undergone substantial restorations, culminates in the bust
of Our Lord wearing a golden radiate nimbus rimmed with dark
blue4.

ii. The Blue Globe.

The blue nimbus marked Zeus as a dweller in the blue sky.
More intimate is the connexion denoted by another symbol in the
repertory of the Pompeian artist, the blue orbis5 or globe.

Camp. no. 164?), Demeter (Helbig no. 176 'blaulich'), Dionysos (Helbig no. 388),
Helios (Sogliano no. 164?), Hypnos (Helbig no. 974 'blaulich, zackig'), Kirke (Helbig
no. 1329), Leda (Helbig no. 143), Selene (Sogliano no. 457 ' azzurognolo'), young god
with white or golden star above him (Helbig nos. 964, 971), young radiate god (Helbig
no. 969, Sogliano no. 458, cp. Helbig no. 965 youth with blue radiate crown and white
star above), mountain-nymphs (Helbig no. 971), wood-nymph (Sogliano no. 119), radiate
female figure with bat's wings (Sogliano no. 499) or bird's wings (Sogliano no. 500). See
also Stephani op. cit. pp. 19, 22, 23, 47, 49, 65.

1 J. Wilpert Die Malereien der Kalakomben Roms Freiburg 1903 pi. 160, 2, infra
ch. i § 5 (f).

2 Forrer Reallex. p. 485 fig. 401.

3 Id. ib. p. 939 pi. 292, 1.

4 G. B. de Rossi Musaici cristiani e saggi dei pavimenti delle chiese di Roma anteriori
al secolo xv Roma 1899 pi. 13, L. von Sybel Christliche Antike Marburg 1909 ii. 328
pi. 3 (after de Rossi), W. Lowrie Christian Art and Archceology New York 1901 p. 311.
On the blue nimbus in Christian art see further O. M. Dalton Byzantine Art and
Archaeology Oxford 1911 p. 682.

5 The word is found in the description of a silver statue of Iupiter Victor, which
stood on the Capitol of Cirta : Corp. inscr. Lat. viii no. 6981 — Dessau Inscr. Lat. set. no.
4921* (Wilmanns Ex. inscr. Lat. no. 2736) SYNOPSIS ] Iovis • victor • argentevs |

in kapitolio • habens • in • capite • co | ronam • argenteam • qverqveam |
folior • xxv $ in qva • glandes • n • xv • fe|rens • in manv • dextra • orbem •
argen|tevm • et victoria • palmam • ferentem | [spinar?] • xx • et coronam

folior • xxxx • I [in manu] sinistra • hastam • arg • tenens.... . Cp., however,
Amm. Marc. 21. 14. 1 sphaeram quam ipse (sc. Constantius ii) dextera manu gestabat,
25. 10. 2 Maximiani statua Caesaris.-.amisit repente sphaeram aeream formatam in
speciem poli quam gestabat. Souid. s.v. 'lovcrriviavos also uses the term crcpacpa (infra
p. 52 n. 4).