Athena relief by Sömek
Coordinates: 36 ° 36 ′ 16 ″ N , 34 ° 4 ′ 51 ″ E
The Athena relief of Sömek is located about two kilometers north of the village of Sömek in the district of Silifke in the Turkish province of Mersin , near the valley of the Limonlu river , the ancient Lamos. In ancient times the river formed the border between the Rough Kilikien (Kilikia Tracheia) in the west and the Plain Kilikien (Kilikia Pedias) in the east.
description
The relief is carved into the rock at a height of about 1.50 meters above the ground. It has a total height of 1.30 meters. In a niche, which is closed at the top by a shell, there is an image of a woman who can be identified as the goddess Athena by the inscription . The niche is delimited on both sides by pilasters with block-shaped capitals protruding towards the front . The goddess is dressed in a peplos , which is held together by a belt at the waist over the apoptygma , the upper part of the garment. In the lower part, the robe lies close to the body so that the lower legs are clearly visible below. The fabric builds up on the ankles and feet, with fold lines running down to the floor.
The right arm of the figure is raised and holds a lance, the left, hanging, a shield standing on the ground, shown to the side. The lance is on a pillar that is directly connected to the left pilaster. A serpent winds around the lance and column, the lower end of which extends over the ground to Athena's feet. Above the shield and the left arm of the goddess, the head and mane of a bridled horse can be seen, the body of which disappears behind her right arm. A star, a crescent moon and a bundle of lightning can be seen on the right pilaster . Traces of a severed bust can be seen between the moon and the lightning bolt. The same traces can be found to the left of the pilaster on the left, which itself is undecorated. A symbol is carved to the right of the right border of the picture, which consists of a stand with two crescent moon and a sphere with a star. Serra Durugönül, who researched the Cilician rock reliefs in the 1980s, suspects it to be a candlestick, a cult object that can be interpreted as a simplified representation of the Jewish seven-armed candlestick .
The inscription is engraved in 13 lines in a narrow field between the lance held on the left and the female figure. Therein the goddess is referred to as Αθηνα Κρισοα (Athena Krisoa), whereby the epithet Κρισοα, derived from a place name, refers to a local variant of the deity; the associated place Κρισοα could not yet be localized. But he must have been in the north of the Rough Cilicia . The same epithet appears on another inscription in the area, in both cases Athena is referred to as Ὀρεία (for example , who lives in the mountains ).
Efrenk's warrior relief is located about 600 meters to the northwest .
Interpretation and dating
The image of the goddess corresponds to the type of Athena Parthenos , based on the statue of Phidias in the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens . Numerous replicas of this statue already existed in ancient times, some of them in Cilicia. Similarities with the original of Phidias exist mainly in the clothing, the shield and the column on the left. In the original statue, this was the support of the right hand, on which Athena carries a nike figure . Even if it no longer had a supporting function with the relief and without the Nike, the artist probably did not want to do without the characteristic attribute.
The appearance of Jewish symbols such as the menorah is not uncommon in Cilicia. Examples, also occurring here five instead of seven-variant, there are, among other things Köşkerli , Çatıören , the nearby Örendibi, the country castle of Korykos and on an altar stone in the Museum of Silifke . The common occurrence with pagan symbols, like here the lightning bolt of Zeus , indicates, according to Durugönül, an equal coexistence of Jews and Romans in the region.
According to Durugönül, two possible time periods come into question for the creation of the relief, especially because of the type of shell that closes the relief at the top. The first would be the time of the emperors Claudius and Nero in the 1st century, the second after the Hadrianic period in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. Based on comparisons with other rock reliefs in Asia Minor , including that of a moon god in Sumatar in Osrhoen , the one The inscription dates from 165 and dates the relief to the 2nd century.
literature
- Serra Durugönül : Athena Krisoa Oreia. In: Epigraphica Anatolica. 10, 1987, pp. 115-116.
- Serra Durugönül: The rock reliefs in the Rough Cilicia . (= BAR International Series. 511). BAR, Oxford 1989, ISBN 0-86954-652-7 , pp. 50-51, 128-137.
- Serra Durugönül, Ahmet Mörel: Evidence of Judaism in Rough Cilicia and its Associations with Paganism. In: Istanbul communications. 62, 2012, pp. 303-322.
Individual evidence
- ↑ On the cult of Athena Oreia, only documented in Cilicia, see. Emanuela Borgia: Il culto di Athena Oreia in Cilicia. In: Michel Mazoyer (ed.): La campagne antique: espace sauvage, terre domestiquée. Paris 2003, ISBN 2-7475-4977-1 , pp. 73-89.
