papers related to objects in the exhibition "age of spirituality", the metropolitan museum...

A Coptic Jason ReliefAuthor(s): Malcolm BellSource: Gesta, Vol. 18, No. 1, Papers Related to Objects in the Exhibition "Age ofSpirituality", The Metropolitan Museum of Art (November 1977-February 1978) (1979), pp. 45-52Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the International Center of MedievalArtStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/766789 .

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A Coptic Jason Relief

MALCOLM BELL University of Virginia

FIGURE 2. Reconstruction of the original form of the Kansas City relief.

places abraded, especially in the upper right corner, and all of the heads are damaged, perhaps intentionally. Repairs in concrete have been made on the back surface, as well as at the left side of the flat upper moulding. The figurative panel is framed by a flat border consisting of a two-step meander with squares; each square is composed of a stiff, four-petalled rosette. A line is lightly engraved along the surface of the meander. A chamfered, frame-like moulding separates the figurative panel from the meander; corresponding to this on the outside of the meander is a flat band. A curious feature is found in the absence of any relief ground: in the spaces between the figures the ground has been cut away through the full depth of the panel, which thus takes on the character of a transparent grill.

The right edge of the p.anel is cut with a protruding flange, as though for a tongue and groove joint, and this side would therefore seem cut for insertion into another surface. The sides of the "tongue" slope slightly inwards and the cutting is somewhat rough. The bottom and top of the relief are flat. Close examination of the left edge shows that the vertical meander border there served also as the right border of another, adjoining figurative scene, which is now entirely broken away (Fig. 2). Along the left side, opposite the back of Medeia's throne, are traces of a cutting through the full thickness of the relief, like those in the surviving scene; what seem to be the remains of two other such cuttings can be seen above and below this one. Leftwards continuation of the

45

FIGURE 1. Jason's capture of the golden fleece; limestone relief in The Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City.

In 1941, the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art in Kansas City acquired a limestone relief of late antique style, depicting Jason's capture of the golden fleece (Fig. 1). The relief had earlier been in the possession of the dealer and collector Paul Mallon in Paris. No sure information exists as to the provenance, although it was suggested at the time of purchase that it might have come from Antioch. The relief was accordingly identified as Syrian and has been so referred to in the Nelson Gallery's handbook. Recently the relief was included in the Age of Spirituality exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; it was then possible to make a more extensive examination of the piece and the problems that it raises.1

The Jason relief is of substantial size and is carved in a soft, pale-buff limestone which contains pebbles and bits of shell.2 A roughly horizontal break runs across the center, cutting the bodies of Medeia and Jason. The surfaces are in

GESTA XVIII/1 t The International Center of Medieval Art 1979



relief is also indicated by the meanders in the left lower corner; both strands move horizontally to the left and are stopped only by the break.

The nude figure of Jason dominates the rectangular field of the figurative scene. With both arms extended he strives to reach the fleece) which is placed at the top of the central tree and rather resembles a large fish.3 Jason carries a scabbard and wears a light cloak over his left arm. The proportions of his body are far removed from any classical model; his elongat- ed torso, which seems to have been stretched by his attempt to grasp the fleece, is supported on stubby legs, and his hands are disproportionately large. Jason stands on rocky terrain, which fills the right corner of the relief. At the left of the tree Medeia sits on a high throne with turned legs and back, holding in her left hand a frond, in her right a conical cup, from which the guardian serpent is sipping.4 The central part of the serpent's body is missing but was evidently coiled around the fork of the tree. Medeia wears a sleeveless chiton, with crossed straps over her chest; at the crossing is a round medallion. To the right of Jason is another warrior, probably an Argonaut, holding a short spear in his left hand; his right arm, bent at the elbow, was extended, and his left side is partly covered by drapery. Below Jason are two diminutive sleeping figures, probably to be identified as soldiers; they rest their heads on one hand and in the other hold a spear. Each wears a Phrygian cap, sleeved tunic, and boots, and the right figure also has a short cloak. Above a wavy double line in the right corner is the Argo; the ship has a high stern, evidently carved in the shape of a head; the rudder is seen against the ground line, and there is a mast with yardarm supported by stays.5 Behind and above Medeia is a veiled woman, with pierced ears, probably the muse Kalliope, wearing chiton and himation; she holds in both hands a papyrus scroll from which she is evidently reading.6 All of the faces of the relief are triangular in shape, with puffy cheeks; the eyes are deeply drilled, and there is some attempt to render drapery and hair naturalistically .

While there is no good evidence to suppo-rt a Syrian origin for the Jason relief, several arguments can be advanced in favor of an attribution to Coptic Egypt. The stone closely resembles the pale limestone used by the late antique sculptors of Ahnas, Oxyrhynkos, and other Coptic sites. The meander frame recurs in similar form in a group of Coptic relief panels which range in date from the fifth to the sixth or even seventh centuries.7 In all of these the meander is combined with squares con- taining rosettes; in one later relief, with a Christian subject, the meander takes on symbolic value, as the crossing of the two strands becomes truly cruciform (Fig. 3), but in the earlier reliefs the motif is purely decorative. Only the earliest of these reliefs with meander border has a pagan subject, but themes from Greek mythology are frequently found in other forms of Coptic relief sculpture, primarily niche gables.8 lMoSt important for an attribution to Egypt is the style of the Kansas City relief, as expressed in the distorted proportions of the figures and the suppression of illusionistic space. Thus

FIGURE 3. Relief with orant monk; Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.

the oddly proportioned body of Jason has parallels in fifth century reliefs from Ahnas, and the triangular heads with broad foreheads, large eyes, and pointed chins, are seen in a large group of reliefs from Ahnas and elsewhere.9 The stylistic tendency to spread the subjects evenly across the available space is not so typical of Coptic stone sculpturej which is usually in higher relief and more subject to architectural space, as it is of Coptic ivories, where the problems of design are similar (Fig. 4).10 The suppression of illusionistic space in favor of a flat surface is especially apparent in the Jason relief; the overlapping of figures, a device which might be expected to imply depth, is here used to opposite effect. The Argonaut helper is thus both in front of the frame and behind Jason, and the two soldiers are similarly placed in relation to Jason. All of the parts of the composition are thus brought out to the surface. The deep shadows of the interstices enhance this effect, which is also seen in the cited ivories. Spacial reference can also be entirely symbolic, as in the placement of the Argo. Yet another technique used to diminish the effect of illusionistic space is disparity in scale, as seen in the small figures of the soldiers. Certain other details of the Jason relief also appear in Coptic sculpture; thus the decorative scale pattern used for the fleece appears also in the feathers of the swan in Leda reliefs, or in the fish-scales of Nereid scenes.1 1 The drilled pupils, while not found invariably, are nonetheless common.1 2

If the Kansas City Jason relief can be shown to belong to the group of Coptic mythological sculptures, it nonetheless remains anomalous in two important respects. Most Coptic mythological subjects appear in niche gables and have only

46



FIGURE 5. Jason capturing the fleece; from a Campana plaque in the British Museum, London.

and beardless. The Coptic version of the capture scene thus appears to owe little to the iconographic tradition represented by the sarcophagi.

Rather surprisingly, the Kansas City relief finds a close iconographic parallel in the unique Campana plaque, which is now in the British Museum (Fig. 5). The connection is, in fact, so close that the two works evidently exemplify the same iconographic tradition. In the terracotta, Medeia also sits at the left of the tree, now on a diphros, extending the cup to the serpent, as a youthful Jason moves to seize the fleece. He too is seen from behind. The soldiers who guard the fleece are present in both reliefs, but in the Campana plaque, which is designed as a frieze, they are placed at the right, three in number, all with Phrygian caps. 1 6

Allowing for the obvious difference in style, the relationship between these two works is strikingly close. The most significant iconographic difference is the presence in the Coptic relief of the armed man to the right of Jason, who appears in none of the Roman versions of the scene. In all of them Jason and Medeia go alone to the serpent-guarded tree. However, in earlier Greek depictions of the capture of the fleece, there are other participants. ()n a series of fourth- century B.C. vases from south Italy, Jason is accompanied by two or more Argonauts, among whom the Boreads, Kalais and Zetes, can be recognized.17 In several vases these com- panions participate actively in the seizure of the fleece.1 8

The version of the story followed in the vases and on the Coptic relief is related to the account of the capture of the fleece preserved by Diodoros Siculus (4.48. 1-5). King Aietes has stationed Taurian guards at the precinct of Ares, where the fleece is kept. When Jason and Medeia approach, the king's daughter speaks to them in their language and is permitted to enter; Jason and the Argonauts burst in after her, then kill or drive out the guards within the precinct. The capture

FIGURE 4. Ivory with the Dioskouroi; Museo Civico, Trieste.

two or three figures; narrative is seldom stressed.1 3 The Jason relief has instead unparalleled narrative consistency, which seems almost literary in character. The curious transparency of the relief is also highly unusual, raising questions about its function.

The Kansas City relief is an important addition to the rather small group of scenes in Graeco-Roman art that depict the capture of the golden fleece.14 In the Roman period the capture scenes are found primarily on sarcophagi and gems, but there is also a single terracotta relief plaque in the Cam- pana series (Fig. 5), and a stucco relief from the underground basilica near Porta Maggiore in Rome. The capture scenes on sarcophagi form one episode of the larger story of Jason and Medeia; iconographically consistent, they depict an armed and bearded Jason at the left of the tree, while Medeia stands at the right subduing the serpent (Fig. 6). The Kansas City scene differs from the sarcophagi in important respects. Medeia is seated on a high throne, to the left of the tree; Jason, seen from behind, is at the right, and is youthful

47



FIGURE 7. Medeia charming the serpent; from a Lucanian hydria in Paris.

It is difficu]t to determine whether or not this tradition consisted of a group of related narratives, or was shaped by a single source. Wilamowitz suggested that Apollonios's version of the capture of the fleece was an abbreviation of some richer account, and as he implied, there is reason to think that this may have been the Lyde of Antimachos of Kolophon.20 This lost poem, which dealt with the story of the Argonauts in some detail, was written in the late fifth or early fourth century B.C. According to the scholiast on Apollonios 4.156, Apollonios's version agreed with Antimachos's in that Jason did not kill the serpent, as earlier accounts had told (as Pindar, in Pyth. 4); instead, Medeia merely charmed it with her (pap,uaKa.2l Antimachos may have invented this version.22 The extent to which Apollonios may have followed the Lyde in other details is a matter for speculation. Yet it is true that the south Italian vases were painted in an era when the Lyde might well have become widely known; moreover, they differ from the flfth century depictions of the capture, in which Medeia does not appear and Jason kills the serpent, or is, in one version, even swallowed by it;23 and they share other elements which later reappear in Apollonios. Possible "Anti- machan" details include: 1) Medeia's seated position ;2 4 2) her sprig of juniper;25 3) her potion;26 4) Argonauts as participants.27 It is thus tempting to conclude that the influence of Antimachos's lost account is felt in the figurative tradition which includes the south Italian vases, the Campana plaque, and finally the Coptic relief. In this telling of the story, Medeia will have been seated as she charmed the serpent with potion and sprig of juniper; Argonauts will have assisted Jason; and there may have been present a detachment of soldiers at the sacred precinct, guarding the fleece.

The woman who stands behind Medeia, reading from a papyrus scroll, does not appear in any other version of the scene of the capture.2 8 Nor is there a character in the literary

FIGURE 6. Jason capturing the fleece; detail from a sacophag?ls in the Praetextatus Catacomb, Rome.

of the fleece follows. Diodoross account helps to explain the presence of the guards in the Campana plaque and the Coptic relief, as well as the participation of the Argonauts in the capture, as seen in the Coptic relief and the vases. Yet there are major differences, for no violence is done to the guards in the two reliefs: they are asleep. Diodoros's account certainly did not directly inspire the Coptic scene, but the two versions may draw in part on common sources.

Although the Kansas City relief also agrees in significant details with the Argonaatika of Apollonios of Rhodes (4 123-166), once again certain differences suggest that it represents a variant tradition. In both epic poem and relief Medeia overcomes the serpent by the combined effects of a sprig of juniper and a potion, but Apollonios sends Jason and Medeia alone to the tree and there is no mention of either a detachment of guards or a seat for Medeia. With the exception of the sprig of juniper, these details are all found in the Campana plaque of the first century A.D. (Fig. 5). With the exception of the guards, these details, including the juniper, appear in one or more of the south Italian vases of the fourth century B.C. In a Lucanian hydria in Paris, Medeia is seated as she charms the serpent (Fig. 7), and in a volute krater in Leningrad she holds a branch of juniper.19 In several vases already discussed, Jason is aided by his friends. All of these works seem to reflect in slightly different form a common tradition, which also lies behind the literary account of Apollonios.

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narratives with whom she can be readily identified. She seems instead to be intrusive, to have symbolic value in a scene which is otherwise strongly narrative. Without feeling entirely secure about this, I am inclined to think she is the muse Kalliope, the inspiration of epic poets whose attribute is often a papyrus scroll.2 9 Although on sarcophagi Kalliope's scroll is rolled up, it can be shown unrolled on occasions when the muse is actively inspiring a poet. In a fifth century ivory in Paris, Kalliope hovers before the blind Homer, reciting from the scroll which she grasps with both hands. 3 °

If the woman with scroll is indeed Kalliope, then her relationship to the narrative scene will need to be established, for muses do not normally appear in scenes in which they take no dramatic role. Here we do not see the muse with the inspired poet, but rather with the result of his inspiration, the dramatic scene. The poet's existence may be implied, but he is not depicted. If this interpretation is correct, we must then ask why the relief should have such strongly literary allusions, why it is so concerned to establish a poetic vehicle for the subject represented. To answer this question we must consider the immediate source of the iconographic scheme.

In general visual effect the Kansas City relief is closer to late antique ivories than to other Coptic relief sculpture. There is an analogous suppression of pictorial depth, enhanced by the sharp separation of figures from ground, which in the relief can have been either light or dark, depending on the lighting of the space behind it. Solids and voids have the same value, an effect which is emphasized by the grill-like character of the piece. Although there is at least one other such Coptic grill relief, the general effect is more typical of the ivories, and especially of the group attributed to Egypt.3 1

Certain details of the Jason relief suggest that it may have an even closer connection with late antique ivories. The sleeping Taurian guards are not only reminiscent of the Dioskouroi in a fourth or fifth-century ivory in Trieste (Fig. 4), but they closely resemble the figures of bound prisoners in a panel from an imperial ivory of the fifth or sixth century in Milan.32 They also remind one of the pair of guards at the tomb of Christ in the Trivulzio ivory in Milan, of the fourth century.33 In all three of these works we see seated soldiers in sleeved tunics. The treatment of space as a rising field viewed in aerial perspective (cf. the Argo) is found in circus scenes from consular diptychs and in the Helios and Selene diptych in Sens, of the late fourth or early fifth century.3 4 One surviving ivory, assigned to the eastern Mediterranean by Volbach, is also treated as a grill, and the subject is also mythological (Fig. 8).35 The Trieste ivory with the Dioskouroi is generally thought to be Coptic; the figure style is related to the Jason relief. All of these works suggest that the model for the relief may, in fact, have been an ivory.

If indeed the model for the Jason relief was an ivory, an explanation offers itself for the presence of the figure here called Kalliope, who gives the scene its curious "literary" quality. Although the muse does not seem entirely approp-

FIGURE 8. Bellerophon and the Chimaera; ivory in the British Museum, London.

riate in a work which, as I shall suggest shortly, probably comes from a tomb, she would not be out of place on an ivory book cover, particularly if the book were a poetic account of the story of Jason and Medeia. Could, then, the model for the Jason relief have been an ivory book-cover? In considering such an hypothesis, it is of interest to note that Apollonios invokes the muse at the beginning of book four of the Argonautika, in which the capture of the fleece is described. Although as we have seen, the Kansas City relief does not follow Apollonios in all details, the two works belong to the same tradition. It does not seem wholly im- probable that such a bookcover might contradict in details the text which it serves; the ivory carver drew upon an established iconographic tradition, and may not have known the poem. An even more appropriate literary work for such a cover might, of course, be the Lyde of Antimachos, but we do not know if he there invoked the muse.3 6

The funerary function of most Coptic architectural sculpture has been emphasized recently by H. Torp, who has also shown convincingly that the frequent subjects from pagan mythology should not be given an allegorical Christian interpretation, but should rather be seen as reflecting the

49



large stock of Roman funerary imagery.3 ? Although nothing is known of the provenance of the Jason relief, it seems probable that it did once decorate a tomb. The capture of the golden fleece was a fitting subject for funerary art, as its presence on the Roman sarcophagi demonstrates. K. Schefold has suggested that Medeia is seen on the sarcophagi as an image of immortalitas, and Jason as one of pietAs.38 More recently in an interesting study of the magnificant Medeia sarcophagus in Basel, M. Schmidt has shown that even Medeia's murder of her children should be understood as a transcendent victory over mortality.39 The Coptic relief contains elements that are consonant with such an interpretation. The high throne on which Medeia sits is of a sort normally used by gods; the great height requires a footstool, omitted here for lack of space-leaving Medeia's feet dangling.40 Medeia is thus viewed as an enthroned goddess, engaged moreover in a religious act, for the image of a goddess feeding a snake has a generic religious meaning, as Schmidt has ob- served, recalling a variety of goddesses who are depicted as feeding snakes.4l Medeia thus appears as an image of immortalitas; only with her active assistance is Jason able to win his victory. This victory can then be understood as the attainment of his own immortalitas through divinely sanc- tioned heroic action.

Although it is possible to guess at the meaning of the relief, its real function remains mysterious, both because nothing is known of its provenance and because there are no close parallels for its peculiar form. The irregularly cut back of the relief is not decorated and was not intended to be seen. The relief may have been used as a window, in which case the figurative scene would have been viewed against the darkness of the interior of the room or building. If the relief was intended for use within a tomb, as seems more likely, it may then have formed part of a screen, providing light from one part of the tomb to another. One possible use for such a grill relief might be as a screen for a burial niche or loculus, and indeed carved screens with purely ornamental decorative patterns have been found.4 2 An example of the late fourth or early fifth century comes from Ahnas; below a broken pediment, on the underside of which hovers a relief Dionysos, is a stone grill composed of geometric motifs.43 This grill is evidently to be understood as a screen for an aedicula, within which the burial was placed. In its original wider dimension of ca. 2.00 m., the Kansas City relief would have been sufficiently wide for such a function.

On stylistic grounds the Jason relief, with its naturalistic rendering of hair and drapery, belongs to the earlier phases of the development of Coptic sculpture, the "soft" stylistic grouping recognized by Kitzinger, and dated by him to the "early years of the (fifth) century or even to the last decades of the fourth."44 Torp has more recently suggested that most Coptic sculpture with pagan subject matter should be dated in the fourth century, but at present it does not seem that the question of dating can be resolved satisfactorily without new evidence, and this should surely come from excavation.

q *

After the preceding paper was written, photographs of two fragmentary reliefs were discovered by Prof. Kurt Weitz- mann in the Princeton University Manuscripts Seminar. Both photographs bear on their backs the name of M.G. Mallon. The reliefs are similar in style and technique to the Kansas City Jason scene. Their present whereabouts are unknown to me.

The first piece is evidently the upper half of the missing left panel of the Kansas City relief (Fig. 9). The fragment's right edge at the meander frame agrees with the break at the top left of the Kansas City panel; the meander is the same in both reliefs, and the style and technique are identical. The piece is 29 inches in length, according to a note on the back of the photograph. The subject is uncertain. A flying Eros, who has parallels in Coptic sculpture and ivories, places a wreath on the head of a male figure, whose body is entirely missing. This figure evidently dominated the scene, in the manner of Jason and Medeia in the adjoining panel. To the right is a horseman, also beardless; his right arm is raised and he appears to hold a round object in his left. Like the Eros, the horseman is a familiar motif in the Coptic repertory. The raised arm below the horse's head may belong to the central figure, although it seems somewhat small.

As in the case of the second fragment, the subject of this relief is probably taken from the story of Jason and Medeia. I believe that the scene depicts a moment either during or after Jason's initial athla in Kolchis, which pre- cede the capture of the fleece. Then, with the assistance of the love-stricken Medeia, he harnesses the brazen bulls and defeats the earthborn men, whom he has sown from the dragon's teeth. In the account of Apollonios of Rhodes (3.1314f.), the Dioskouroi participate in the harnessing of the bulls, and the horseman at the right may be one of the two brothers.

The second fragment comes from the left side of a similar relief with two scenes (Fig. 10). The dimensions, as recorded on the photograph, are twenty-eight by twenty-two inches. Here the border consists of a simple meander with squares; in place of the rosettes are two types of loop motifs, both of which consist of a single continuous band. The simpler, a square with looped corners, appears in Coptic textiles; the second, a knot-like form, is related to textile designs and may be derived from the complex varieties of Solomon's knots seen in Roman mosaics (which are, however, composed of two or more loops).4 5 The ship in the upper right corner resembles the Argo of the Kansas City relief; here two shields are suspended from the yardarm. It seems probable that the two central figures are once again Jason and Medeia; she is veiled, evidently a bride or bride to be, and he is beardless and holds a spear over his left shoulder. In the left corner above a wavy line are two men wearing Phrygian caps and long-sleeved costumes; one holds a round object as though to throw it, the other touches his head and seems to be falling. Below the

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FIGURES 9 and 10. Fragmentary reliefs with Jason scenes; whereabouts unknown.

the discussion of the piece, which is inventoried as 41-36, in R.E. Taggart, ed. Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts (Kansas City, 1959), 43.

2. Height, 1.06 m.; width, .87 m.; thickness, .135-.15 mt

3. In the Argonautika of Apollonios Rhodios (4.124), the tree is called an oak; Valerius Flaccus makes it an ash (8.113).

4. The frond is identified by Apollonios as juniper, a shrub thought to be harmful to snakes; Pliny, N.H. 24.36, Et. Mag. 144. 38-41.

5. The cockle shell Argo is similar to the ship of Odysseus in a fourth or fifth century bronze statuette in Richmond; Arts in Virginia 10 (1970): 32f; Age of Spirituality, No. 199.

6. The veil falls behind her shoulders, but one would expect it to be a part of the himation, pulled up over her head.

7. The reliefs with meander borders known to me are: a) British Museum 1798, J. Beckwith, Coptic Sculpture (London, 1963), pl. 120; Erotes in a vine scroll, simple meander with eight- petalled rosettes. The date suggested by Beckwith (sixth or seventh century) seems too late. b) Relief in Kairo, K. Wessel, Koptische Kunst (Recklinghausen, 1963), fig. 92; scene of the bathing of the infant Christ, date uncertain, simple meander with eight-petalled rosettes. c) Relief of praying saint, Dumbarton Oaks, Wessel, fig. 62, cruciform meander with four-petalled rosettes; (here FIG. 3). d) British Museum 15 27, Beckwith, pl. 124, cross with birds, battlement meander with four-petalled rosettes. From the monastery of Apa Jeremiasj Saqqara, sixth or seventh century. e) G. Duthuit, La sculpture copte (Paris, 1931), pl. LXVI:b, cross with eagle above, sixth or seventh century. f) Relief in Cairo, A. Gayet, L'art copte (Paris, 1901), p. 225. Meander with decorative motifs in squares. The motif of the meander with squares is probably borrowed from floor mosaics, where it is a common framing device from the earliest times, even going back to the Pella mosaics; on such borders, E. Kitzinger, "Studies on Late Antique and Early Byzan- tine Floor Mosaics, I. Mosaics at Nikopolis," DOP 6 (1951): 99, n. 72; D. Levi, Antioch Mosaic Pavements (Princeton, 1947),

groundline a man with bare shoulders lifts his head strangely, a target for the stone-thrower. The two figures in the corner resemble the sleeping Kolchian guards of the Kansas City relief; the moment here may then be the escape of Jason and Medeia after the capture of the fleece.

If the two new fragments do indeed illustrate moments in the Argonautika, then we can assume that the missing fourth scene did so as well. At the right of the escape scene, its subject probably illustrated a later moment in the story- perhaps with a setting in Thessaly (Pelias?) or Corinth (the murder of the children?). The stylistic similarities and the very curious form of the three existing reliefs suggest that they were once a part of the same monument, and such an assump- tion is strengthened by the fact that they were all once in the possession of the Mallon family. We have then a cycle of scenes illustrating the story of Jason and Medeia. If the arguments advanced above concerning the provenience of the Kansas City relief are correct, the two reliefs will have been used to close off loculi in the same tomb. The occurrence of several scenes from the story of Jason and Medeia in a funerary context finds a parallel in Roman sarcophagi, where the choice of subject must have a related meaning.

NOTES

*I am indebted to Prof. Kurt Weitzmann for his generous assistance and advice. I also express my thanks to Gary Vikan and Pamille Berg for help in obtaining photographs, and to Tom Markunas for the draw- ing which appears as Fig. 2.

1. Age of Spirituality, No. 214. Information on the purchase of the relief has been kindly provided by the Nelson Gallery. See

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21. Scholia in Ap. Rhod. Vetera, ed. Wendel (Berlin, 1929), 4.156. 373, 415, n. 27, 469. The motif may also have appealed to Coptic designers, as S. der Nerssessian has suggested: the "tendency to separate a composition into small parts which can be easily appre- hended appears also in the geometric ornament. The broken fret is used in preference to the continuous one," AB 23 (1941): 166. We may note that the meander with squares must necessarily be used for continuous four-sided frames. This is clearly demonstrat- ed in the Kansas City Jason relief, where the sculptor has created problems for himself by placing a meander unit, rather than a square, in the upper corners of his frame. As can be seen in FIG- URE 2, meanders do not turn corners without causing collisions. All is well in the bottom corners, where squares are used.

8. A recent treatment of mythological themes in Coptic sculpture is H. Torp, " Leda Cristiana," Acta 4 ( 1969): 10 1-1 12.

9. For the distorted proportions, cf. Duthuit, La sculpture copte, XXVI; Beckwith, Coptic Sculpture, figs. 68, 69; for the faces, Duthuit, pls. XXVIIIa, XXXIIa, b; Beckwith, figs. 60, 65, 66. The faces appear to have developed from such early fourth century examples as those of the Venice porphyry tetrarchs; a later version is the St. Menas relief in Alexandria, Age of Spirituality, No. 512.

10. Cf. W.F. Volbach, Elfenbeinarbeiten der Spatantike und des fruhen Mittelalters, 3rd. ed. (Mainz am Rhein, 1976), nos. 67, 70, 90-2.

11. Cf. Beckwith, Coptic Sculpture, figs. 69, 70; Duthuit, La sculpture copte, pls. XXVIa, XXIXa.

12. Cf. Beckwith, Coptic Sculpture, figs. 54, 65, 68, and many ivories: figs. 30-36, 38, 39, etc.

13. Narrative is fuller in simple rectangular reliefs; cf. Duthuit, La sculpture copte, pl. XXIVa (Herakles).

1 4. On these see H. Heydemann, Jason in Kolchis, 11. Hallisches Winckelmannsprogramm (1886); E. Simon, "Die Typen der Medeadarstellung in der antiken Kunst," Gymnasium 61 (1954): 203-227; F. Brommer, Denkmalerlisten zur griechischen Helden- sage 3 (Marburg, 1976): 168ff.

15. Sarcophagi: C. Robert, Die antiken Sarcophagreliefs 2: nos. 188- 190, 192; H. Sichtermann, Griechische Mythen auf romischen Sarcophagen (Tubingen, 1975), no. 31, pls. 70. 71, 74:2 (here fig. 6, sarcophagus from the Catacomb of Praetextatus); M. Schmidt, Der basler Medeasarcophag (Tubingen, n.d.). Campana plaque: H. von Rohden, H. Winnefeld,Architektonische romische Tonreliefs der Kaizerzeit (Berlin, Stuttgart, 1911), ll5f., fig. 217; G.P. Campana, Antiche opere in plastica (Rome, 1851), pl. 63. Stucco relief: JHS 44 (1924): 77, fig. 5.

16. On these figures, see Heydemann, Jason in Kolchis, with com- ments on the continuation of the scene to the right.

17. a) Volute krater by the Sisyphos Painter, in Munich, Furtwangler- Reichhold, pl. 98-99, P.E. Arias, M. Hirmer,A Thousand Yearsof Greek Vase Painting, pl. XX;; b) Lucanian llydria in Paris, A.D. Trendall, Red-figured Vases of Lucania, Campania, and Sicily (Oxford, 1967), 1 12, no. 5 79; J.V. Millingen, Peintures antiques et inedites de vases grecs (Rome, 1813), pl. 6, (F ig. 7); c) Apulian volute krater in Leningrad, Reinach, Repertoire des vases peintes grecques et etrusques 1: 1 39 (much restored); d) Lucanian volute krater in Naples, A.D. Trendall, Paestan Pottery, 96f., fig. 62. It is interesting to note that on this vase Medeia wears the same crossed straps that appear on the Coptic relief.

22. Antimachos, frag. 63 (Wyss). Red-figure cup by Douris, P.E. Arias and M. Hirmer,A Thousand 23. Years, pl. 147.

24. Depicted on the Lucanian hydria in Paris (FIG. 7); cf. also the Campana plaque and the Coptic relief

25. Illustrated on the Apulian volute krater in Leningrad; cf. also the Coptic relief and Apollonios; an Apulian volute krater in Naples (Heydemann, Jason in Kolchis, pl. 1), shows Medeia holding sprigs in both hands in the scene of the harnessing of the bulls.

26. Shown on the Lucanian hydria, Apulian volute kraters in Naples and Leningrad; of the Campana plaque, stucco relief, sarcophagus tradition, Coptic relief, and Apollonios.

27. Included on the Lucanian hydria, Apulian volute kraters; cf. the Coptic relief.

28. The standing woman leaning against a post, who appears in this scene on a Lucanian hydria (here FIG. 7), is probably Aphrodite.

29. On the scroll as attribute of Kalliope, M. Wegner, Die antiken Sarcophagreliefs5: 3, DieMusensarkophage, 98f.

30. Volbach, Elfenbeinarbeiten, no. 69.

31. The strange mounted Horus-hero, Duthuit, La sculpture copte, pl. XVI, is evidently such a relief. One is reminded of later Coptic grill reliefs without figurative subjects; cf. Duthuit, pls. LXc, LXIIa, b; Beckwith, Coptic Sculpture, fig. 136.

32. Volbach, Elfenbeinarbeiten, no. 82 (Trieste), no. 49 (Milan).

33. Ibid. , no. 111.

34. Ibid. , no. 61; Age of Spirituality, No. 134.

35. Volbach, Elfenbeinarbeiten, no. 67, Bellerophon and the Chimacra; Age of Spirituality, No. 143.

36. Antimachos did make such an invocation, but to all the muses, at the beginning of the Thebais; frag. 1 (Wyss).

37. Torp, "Leda Cristiana."

38. Schefold,RA (1961): 2, 183, 192f.

39. M. Schmidt, Der basler Medeasarcophag, 9f., 37 ff., esp. 41.

40. For such thrones, G.M.A. Richter, The Furniture of the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans (London, 1966), fig. 477, 481, 487, 488, 655.

41. Schmidt, Der basler Medeasarcophag, 9f.

42. On such aedicula, U. Monneret de Villard, La scultura ad Ahnas (Milan, 1923), 35, 62ff.

43. Duthuit, La sculpture copte, pl. XVIIIa. Such a pierced opening in a tomb is curiously reminiscent of the openings in the serdab chambers in much older Egyptian tombs, through which the ka could communicate with the external part of the tomb.

44. E. Kitzinger, "Notes on Early Coptic Sculpture," Archaeologia 87 (1937): 184f., 189.

45. For the looped motifs in textiles, cf. W.F. Volbach and t. Kuehnel, Late Antique Coptic and Islamic Textiles (New York, 1926), pls. 14, 30..

18.

19.

b), c), and d) in the previous note. Supra, n. 17 (c). U. Wilamowitz von Moelendorff, Hellenistische Dichtung 2: 231. For the Lyde, Antimachi Colophonfi Reliquiae, ed. B. Wyss 20. (Berlin, 1936), frags. 56-65.

Photograph credits: FIG. 1 (William Rockhill Ifelson Gallery of Art); FIG. 3 (Dumbarton Oaks Collection); FIGS. 4, 9, 10 (K Weitzmann); FIG. S (from Campana, Antiche opera); I5IG. 6 (Deutschen Arch- aeologischen Instituts-Rom); FIG. 7 (from Millingen, Peintures antiques); FIG. 8 (Hirmer FOTOARCHIV).

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