DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14697#0377
Zeus Phi Ho s
1209
enthroned with a footstool bears a strong resemblance in costume, pose, and
general effect to the figure of Augustus on a silver skyphcs from Bosco Reale1.
He notes also that on this toreutic triumph, as on the chalice of Antioch, the
central figure appears twice—once seated to receive the submission of the bar-
baric Germans, once enthroned amid the gods as master of the universe. I
submit that the artist of the chalice has given to Christ the aspect and position
of a divinised emperor2. Now Roman emperors were often acclaimed by Greek
adulation as Zeus incarnate3; and a bust of Zeus, referred to the first or second
century a.d., is supported on an eagle with spread wings4. We are not, there-
fore, surprised to find that the head of Caracalla on a coin of Antioch struck
between 213 and 217 a.d. has a similar eagle beneath it5. In view of these facts
it becomes a legitimate conjecture that the eagle beneath the seated Christ
marks him as at once human and divine, the true claimant to the throne of
Zeus6.
So, then, the Shepherd-Judge is also the Divine Ruler. And, if it be argued
that this multiple role is not likely to go back to the first century, I should
answer that it is already implied by a great passage in the Gospel7: ' But when
the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall
he sit on the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all the
nations : and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separa-
teth the sheep from the goats.'
It amounts to this. For the Christian artist—trained, it may be, in a pagan
school—Christ has dispossessed all rivals and has taken his seat on the very
throne of Zeus. But the chalice has a reverse as well as an obverse design, and
we have still to ask Why this duplication of Christ in younger form? and
Wherein lies the special appropriateness of the vine-symbolism? The problem,
so put, suggests its own solution. The boyish figure seated on the divine throne
1 A. Heron de Villefosse in the Mon. Piot 1899 v. 133 ff- pis. 31—33 = Reinach Rep.
Reliefs i. 92 no. 2 f., 93 no. if., 94 no. 1 f.
2 For a later variation on the same theme see the well-known ivory pyxis at Berlin
(R. Garrucci op. cit. vi. 60 pi. 440, 1, L. von Syhel op. cit. ii. 253 fig. 77, C. M. Kaufmann
op. cit. pp. 366, 552 fig. 142), which likewise has Christ seated en face on a round-backed
throne, with a roll in his hand and a footstool at his feet. He is flanked by two seated
Apostles (St Peter and St Paul), who raise their hands in salutation. The other ten
stand to right and left of him.
The position assigned to the two foremost Apostles suits their ' Dioscuric ' character
{supra p. 606). Zeus is supported by the Dioskouroi [supra i. 35 fig. 8, ii. 1230 tail-
piece) ; Christ, by St Peter and St Paul (supra i. 51 fig. 24, ii. 1207 fig. 1009).
3 See e.g. the examples that f collected in Folk-Lore 1905 xvi. 308 ff.
4 Supra p. 951 n. o with fig. 844.
5 Supra p. 1193 fig. 1003. The head of Trajan on silver coins struck at Tyre is often
supported by an eagle with closed wings (Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Phoenicia p. 300f.pl.
36, 1, 3—6, Hunter Cat. Coins iii. 268 f. pi. 77, 5). Some specimens, which have the
same obverse type, but for reverse Tyche seated with the Orontes at her feet, are assigned
doubtfully by G. F. Hill to Tyre (Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins pp. cxxxvii f., 302 pi. 36, 9), by
G. Macdonald to Antioch (Himler Cat. Coins iii. 163 f. pi. 72, 19).
6 I do not deny that the eagle here may have had a further significance. C. M.
Kaufmann op. cit. p. 286 discusses its appearance in Christian art 1 als...Symbol der
Auferstehung...und zwar der in Christo gebotenen felix reparatio temporum (vgl. Ps.
103, 5) im Jenseits.'
7 Matthew 25. 31 f. Aischylos long since had made Agamemnon, his divine ruler, an
dyad6s Trpoj3aToyvdfj.ij)i> (Ag. 795).
1209
enthroned with a footstool bears a strong resemblance in costume, pose, and
general effect to the figure of Augustus on a silver skyphcs from Bosco Reale1.
He notes also that on this toreutic triumph, as on the chalice of Antioch, the
central figure appears twice—once seated to receive the submission of the bar-
baric Germans, once enthroned amid the gods as master of the universe. I
submit that the artist of the chalice has given to Christ the aspect and position
of a divinised emperor2. Now Roman emperors were often acclaimed by Greek
adulation as Zeus incarnate3; and a bust of Zeus, referred to the first or second
century a.d., is supported on an eagle with spread wings4. We are not, there-
fore, surprised to find that the head of Caracalla on a coin of Antioch struck
between 213 and 217 a.d. has a similar eagle beneath it5. In view of these facts
it becomes a legitimate conjecture that the eagle beneath the seated Christ
marks him as at once human and divine, the true claimant to the throne of
Zeus6.
So, then, the Shepherd-Judge is also the Divine Ruler. And, if it be argued
that this multiple role is not likely to go back to the first century, I should
answer that it is already implied by a great passage in the Gospel7: ' But when
the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall
he sit on the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all the
nations : and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separa-
teth the sheep from the goats.'
It amounts to this. For the Christian artist—trained, it may be, in a pagan
school—Christ has dispossessed all rivals and has taken his seat on the very
throne of Zeus. But the chalice has a reverse as well as an obverse design, and
we have still to ask Why this duplication of Christ in younger form? and
Wherein lies the special appropriateness of the vine-symbolism? The problem,
so put, suggests its own solution. The boyish figure seated on the divine throne
1 A. Heron de Villefosse in the Mon. Piot 1899 v. 133 ff- pis. 31—33 = Reinach Rep.
Reliefs i. 92 no. 2 f., 93 no. if., 94 no. 1 f.
2 For a later variation on the same theme see the well-known ivory pyxis at Berlin
(R. Garrucci op. cit. vi. 60 pi. 440, 1, L. von Syhel op. cit. ii. 253 fig. 77, C. M. Kaufmann
op. cit. pp. 366, 552 fig. 142), which likewise has Christ seated en face on a round-backed
throne, with a roll in his hand and a footstool at his feet. He is flanked by two seated
Apostles (St Peter and St Paul), who raise their hands in salutation. The other ten
stand to right and left of him.
The position assigned to the two foremost Apostles suits their ' Dioscuric ' character
{supra p. 606). Zeus is supported by the Dioskouroi [supra i. 35 fig. 8, ii. 1230 tail-
piece) ; Christ, by St Peter and St Paul (supra i. 51 fig. 24, ii. 1207 fig. 1009).
3 See e.g. the examples that f collected in Folk-Lore 1905 xvi. 308 ff.
4 Supra p. 951 n. o with fig. 844.
5 Supra p. 1193 fig. 1003. The head of Trajan on silver coins struck at Tyre is often
supported by an eagle with closed wings (Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Phoenicia p. 300f.pl.
36, 1, 3—6, Hunter Cat. Coins iii. 268 f. pi. 77, 5). Some specimens, which have the
same obverse type, but for reverse Tyche seated with the Orontes at her feet, are assigned
doubtfully by G. F. Hill to Tyre (Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins pp. cxxxvii f., 302 pi. 36, 9), by
G. Macdonald to Antioch (Himler Cat. Coins iii. 163 f. pi. 72, 19).
6 I do not deny that the eagle here may have had a further significance. C. M.
Kaufmann op. cit. p. 286 discusses its appearance in Christian art 1 als...Symbol der
Auferstehung...und zwar der in Christo gebotenen felix reparatio temporum (vgl. Ps.
103, 5) im Jenseits.'
7 Matthew 25. 31 f. Aischylos long since had made Agamemnon, his divine ruler, an
dyad6s Trpoj3aToyvdfj.ij)i> (Ag. 795).