СЦЕНАТА ОРФЕЙ УКРОТЯВА ДИВИТЕ ЖИВОТНИ II: ОРФЕЙ И КЕНТАВЪРЪТ ХИРОН
THE SCENE OF ORPHEUS TAMING WILD ANIMALS II: ORPHEUS AND THE CENTAUR CHIRON

Summary/Abstract: A series of remarkable images on mosaics from sepulchral buildings or ritual halls, textile works of art within a Christian context, as well as pyxides, introduce strange and unusual mythological figures into the widespread theme of Orpheus taming wild animals. A special place in the pictorial composition is occupied by the figure of a centaur, who seems to have had complex functions indicating the space of the events. This paper aims to systematize the source base, to analyze “the narrative,” and to offer new details to the interpretation of the remarkable and enigmatic scene, which – in combination with the fragmented poetic evidence – allows the reconstruction of a possible mythological precedent for the journey of Orpheus to the World Beyond, where he attained the mystic theological knowledge and that allowed him to lay the foundations of the mysterial initiations. Those eschatological notions were projected in some early Christian or Christian gnostic communities in the period between the 2nd and the mid-6th century, as indicated by sacral and funerary monuments.

• Details
• Contents