Pompeii Walk - 1st 30 minutes

The first 30 minutes of a 5 hour Pompeii walk video that I enjoyed immensely. Although I wasn't controlling the video camera, I was able to grab some screen shots that with a little editing with Topaz Sharpen AI, On1 Effects, and Photoshop's sky replacement feature (In summer Naples skies are usually empty and that makes for boring images!) I felt like I was revisiting the site and didn't even have to suffer any jet lag!

Enhanced screen captures:

House of the Mariner Tablinum screen capture from Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

Mosaic fragments from the House of Trittolemo Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

Mosaic fragments from the House of Trittolemo Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

Apollo statue in Temple of Apollo Pompeii screen capture from Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

Apollo statue in Temple of Apollo Pompeii screen capture from Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

Diana in the Temple of Apollo Pompeii screen capture from Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

Temple of Apollo Pompeii screen capture from Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

Temple of Apollo Pompeii screen capture from Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

The Eumachia, the largest building in the Forum of Pompeii screen capture from Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

Statue of the priestess Eumachia in Pompeii screen capture from Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

The Forum in Pompeii screen capture from Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

Interior of the Sanctuary of the Genius of Augusts in Pompeii screen capture from Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

Sanctuary of the Genius of Augustus in Pompeii screen capture from Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

The circular area in the center of the Macellum was a fish market in Pompeii screen capture from Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

Frescoes on the walls of the Macellum in Pompeii screen capture from Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

Frescoes on the walls of the Macellum in Pompeii screen capture from Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

Frescoes on the walls of the Macellum in Pompeii screen capture from Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

Remains of victims of Pompeii stored in the Macellum screen capture from Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

A worship center in the end of the Macellum in Pompeii screen capture from Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

Another view of the Forum in Pompeii screen capture from Pompeii Walk video courtesy of POMPEII ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

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Disability and the politics of "Divine Disfavor" in the Greco-Roman world

I was reading Classical Wisdom's newsletter in preparation for this weekend's virtual symposium and found their article "Hephaestus:The Humane God" particularly interesting. Although most of us think of Hephaestus as the divine metalworker that forged magical armor and weapons like the shield of Achilles, Sean Kelly pointed out that he was also the only god in the Greek pantheon (and Roman under the name Vulcan) who suffered from a physical impairment.  Hephaestus attempted to intervene in a quarrel between  Zeus and Hera, and an enraged Zeus  cast him from Mount Olympus, injuring his legs.  Thereafter he was the subject of derision because of his lameness although he was respected for his smithing skills. He forged Hermes' winged helmet and sandals, the Aegis breastplate, Aphrodite's famed girdle, Agamemnon's staff of office, Achilles' armour, Diomedes' cuirass, Heracles' bronze clappers, Helios' chariot, the shoulder of Pelops, and even Eros's bow and arrows. This did not prevent him from being referred to as "the lame one" or "the halting" though. However, an inscription found in Knossos, Crete indicates he was still worshipped.

So was this contradiction extended to those who suffered physical impairments in the human realm of the Greco-Roman world?

Classicist Martha L. Rose argues that modern models of "pity, charity, and categorization" were not imposed onto ancient persons with disabilities. Other scholars further observe that although modern categories of disability were not employed by ancient Greeks and Romans, there was the social stigma that individuals who were "unable" to perform some activities fell short of bodily or aesthetic ideals.  Garland adds that these individuals were also, at least to some extent, excluded from the religious life of the community, especially from service in priesthoods.

"In classical antiquity as in later times the social response to the handicapped was in part determined by religion, since beauty and wholeness were regarded as a mark of divine favor, whereas ugliness and deformity were interpreted as signs of the opposite. It made a difference, too, whether a disability was congenital or acquired later through disease, accident, warfare, or debauchery". - Robert Garland, The Eye of the Beholder: Deformity and Disability in the Graeco-Roman World.

References to "debilitas" in Rome encompassed both physical and other types of impairment, such as language difficulties, as evidenced in the writings of Cicero and Livy.  Aristotle even referred to baldness as a defect which may account for Gaius Julius Caesar's obsessive efforts to disguise his baldness as it could be perceived as him being among those with divine disfavor even though he claimed to be descended from Venus.

Blindness or partial blindness was highly regarded in the Roman psyche. Many individuals became famous after losing an eye. Notably, slaves would sometimes enter gladiatorial matches with a patch over a functioning eye, though historians disagree on whether this was in reference to the mythical cyclops or to make the gladiator appear more experienced. It is also known that many mythological figures, as well as known historical individuals, were thought by the Romans to have been blinded in return for favors from their gods. Such gifts varied from foresight to talent in singing.

Although Roman leaders typically had themselves depicted as physically perfect in statues and coinage, disabilities from injuries received while in the military were seen as marks of honor as opposed to simple disfigurements, with injuries to the eyes appearing most frequently in both common soldiers and famous personalities such as Hannibal.  In Commentarii de Bello Gallico, Julius Caesar mentions that the Gauls commonly maimed his centurions, usually by blinding them, mentioning that four centurions out of a cohort were blinded. Soldiers disabled in such circumstances were given a stipend by the state once they retired.

Walter D. Penrose Jr. points out that the ancient Athenians also provided maintenance payments to the "adynatoi" and exempted them from military service.  War orphans, disadvantaged by the lack of a father, also eventually received a mandated allowance.

"Diogenes Laertius writes that Solon reduced the allowances paid to victors in Panhellenic games on the grounds that it would be tasteless to increase the honors for these, while ignoring those who had died in battle, whose sons should be supported and educated at state expense," reports Dillon in his paper, "Payments to the Disabled at Athens: Social Justice or Fear of Aristocratic Patronage?"  

But, Dillon thinks the actual subsidy was probably introduced as a reform of Periklean democracy rather than any legislation of Solon or Peisistratus.  He also doubts the charitable nature of such payments.

"It could  perhaps be suggested that Athens was a 'welfare state' that made financial provision for those who could not support themselves, with the Athenians being motivated by considerations of 'social justice' to make provision for those less fortunate than the typical able-bodied citizen. But this does not seem to be the character of Athenian society, even in the age of democracy. Rather, it seems that the Athenians were motivated less by altruistic considerations than by a concern for the democracy itself," Dillon states.

"In providing the adynatoi with a means of subsistence, it avoided forcing citizens who could not support themselves to rely upon wealthy citizens for financial assistance, Dillon says, "Such assistance could have led to the establishment of patron-client links detrimental to the interests of the democracy."

He also notes that the tradition of Peisistratus providing financial assistance to farmers so they could make a decent living was also probably the result of a desire to keep them on the farms and away from the city where they might engage in political agitation.

Of course the Romans of the Republican Period embraced the patron-client relationship as a social model, despite reservations of Romulus as reported by the Greek historians Dionysius and Plutarch, because it was deemed "perculiarly congenial" to Roman politics and lent a sense of familia between citizens. However, as powerful generals began to extend their patronage over entire communities of the conquered or defended, the Republican form of government was doomed.  

Both Caesar and Augustus, established client-patron relationships in conquered regions. This can be seen in Caesar’s relations with the Aedui of Gaul wherein he was able to restore their influence over the other Gallic tribes whom where once their clients. Thereafter he was asked on several occasions to serve the duties of a patron by the Aedui and was thus regarded by many in Rome as the patron of the Aedui.  Augustus established colonies in all parts of the empire during his conquests which extended his influence to its very furthest reaches. He also made many acts of largess to the whole population of Rome, including food and monetary handouts, as well as settling soldiers in new colonies that he sponsored which indebted a great many people to him, serving his ambitions for power.

You can read more about The Discourse of Disability in Ancient Greece here:

https://www.academia.edu/27820223/The_Discourse_of_Disability_in_Ancient_Greece

Statuette of Hephaestus the god of fire and patron of jewelers, armorers and blacksmiths Roman copy of a Greek original 1st - 2nd century CE Bronze that I photographed at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri.

Statuette of Hephaestus the god of fire and patron of jewelers, armorers and blacksmiths Roman copy of a Greek original 1st - 2nd century CE Bronze that I photographed at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri.

Roman fresco depicting Thetis at Hephaestos' forge waiting to receive Achilles' new weapons from Pompeii (IX I, 7, triclinium e), now in the collections of the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Marie-Lan Nguyen.

Vulcan by Guillaume Coustou the Younger, 1814, now in the Louvre Museum in Paris, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Marie-Lan Nguyen.

Closeup of Vulcan from a relief depicting Venus, Mars and Vulcan, about 1810, by Bertel Thorvaldsen courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Rufus46.

Hephaestus hands in the new Achilles' armor to Thetis (Iliad, XVIII, 617). Attic red-figure Kylix, 490–480 BCE, now in the collections of the Altes Museum in Berlin, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Bibi Saint-Pol.

Black-figure Amphora depicting Dionysus who encounters the lame Hephaestus, god of fire and metalworking, riding on a donkey as a maenad looks on, 520 BCE, from Attica, now in the collections of the Walters Art Museum. Image courtesy of the museum.

Athena holding a spear (now missing) watches the procession of the Great Panathenaia. Next to here, the lame god Hephaistos leans on a crutch. Block V (fig. 36-37) from the East frieze of the Parthenon, ca. 447–433 BCE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Marie-Lan Nguyen.

Detail of the mosaic of the seasons and the months, 3rd century AD, found in Hellin (Albacete), National Archaeological Museum of Spain, Madrid. September - Vulcan on winged genius carrying scales, Libra, courtesy of Carole Raddato (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Fragment of a neo-Attic relief representing the birth of Erichthonios. The scene shows Hephaestus with “pileus” and holding tongs in his hands, Gaia, the earth goddess, wearing a crown of olive leaves and ears, and one of the daughters of Cecrops, standing with a hand to her mouth. Gaia is portrayed in the act of offering to Athena her newborn son Erichthonius. Both characters are now missing. This fragment, today inserted in the base of Galba’s statue, was found near Ostia where a famous Hephaisteion is documented. It dates from 50 BCE to the 50 CE. courtesy of Egisto Sani (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Closeup of Relief depicting twelve deities including Hephaestus (far left) Late Hellenistic or Roman possibly from Tarentum, Italy 1st century BCE that I photographed at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland

Calyx crater in red figure, 420-400 BCE, Lugano Painter. Side Aː Symposium scene. Bearded Dionysos and Hephaistos, a maenad and satyr. Archaeological Museum of Agrigento courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Zde.

Attic colum crater, Leagros group, 550-500 BCE. Side A: The return of Hephaesos (Hefaistos) to Olympos. Archaeological Museum of Agrigento, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Zde.)

Vulcan (1838) by Herman Wilhelm Bissen (1798-1868). Sculpture in the Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor James Steakley.

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The Transformation of Pharaonic deities to household gods in Roman Egypt

The iconography and style of depictions of Horus and other traditional Egyptian deities were influenced by Hellenistic and, later, Roman traditions of representation, often combining trappings of power in ways that are striking to modern observers.

"Roman period depictions of  the falcon-headed Horus have been  found  in  a  variety  of   materials  throughout  the  empire,  from  Egypt  to  Oxfordshire.  Usually  dressed  in  Roman  military costume, falcon-headed Horus is sometimes depicted on horseback, but more often standing, while seated figures are rare. Although smaller figures may have been dedicatory, larger stone and metal sculptures were probably objects of  public or private devotion." - Polychromy in Roman Egypt: A study of a limestone sculpture of the Egyptian god Horus by Joanne Dyer, Elisabeth R. O"Connell, and Antony Simpson.

Sir Harold Bell observes, "...a new religion, whether introduced by a conquering people or established as the result of a religious reform, never quite obliterates the beliefs and customs existing before its appearance.  Some of these beliefs and customs linger on underground, and so far from disappearing entirely with the passage of time they may even acquire new vitality as the first impulse of the new creed dies away." 

Opposing the traditional “decline of paganism/triumph of Christianity” model most often used to describe the Roman period in Egypt, David Frankfurter, in his text, "Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance",  argues that the religion of Pharaonic Egypt did not die out as early as has been supposed but was instead relegated from political centers to village and home, where it continued a vigorous existence for centuries.

Even though the Roman emperor Augustus introduced restrictions on Egyptian temples that lead to their economic decline, the worship of traditional Egyptian deities continued in the domestic sphere including the consultation of oracles during the first three centuries of Roman occupation.

Frankfurter points to the continuing role of priests in Egyptian society despite the decline of religious institutions and the use of hieroglyphs for religious and administrative record keeping. Their charismatic leadership, their ritual expertise, and their knowledge of healing and guidance was still valued by the people since the day to day needs of the people - fertility, safety, and health of both individuals and their livestock - did not change.  Only their collective identity as it related to their religious systems evolved. This was accomplished with new divine names and the introduction of Roman iconography. Although divination under Roman administration could be accomplished by any literate individual who could read the sacred texts, no longer encoded in hieroglyphs but written in Coptic Egyptian or Greek, the fact remained that the most literate individuals were still the priests. Religious authority simply shifted from places and buildings to texts and persons in the form of independent "holy men." This resulted in the domestic worship of traditional deities up to the 5th century CE. 

Early Egyptian Christianity was eventually able to capitalize on this existing religious infrastructure. Frankfurter observed that Biblical texts and Christian lore were used not for their ideological content but for oracles and grimoires (magical texts) so what is described in the Coptic texts as the demonization and defeat of local spirits are not victories of one ideology over another but, rather, merely ritual innovations. 

Archaeologist point to the dozens of figurines found in Roman Period burials as evidence of this evolution in Egyptian worship. I find the figurines of Horus depicted in Roman armor to be among the most interesting. I think the ancient Egyptians would have identified the parallel between Horus, the son of Osiris, with Augustus and his descendants as sons of the deified Julius and hence the blending of iconography, especially with the introduction of the Roman emperor cult empire-wide during the reign of Augustus.  I also think it interesting that spectroscopy studies of the terracotta sculpture of Horus in Roman attire at the British Museum revealed the figure's chiton was painted green, the color of rebirth in the ancient Egyptian tradition.  However, the pigment was composed of celadonite, a common green pigment found in Roman art, but virtually unknown in dynastic Egypt. 

For those of you interested in examining this topic further, I would suggest exploring the posts and databases of "The Coptic Magical Papyri: Vernacular Religion in Late Roman and Early Islamic Egypt" project.  This ongoing scholarly effort is a five-year research project (2018-2023) under the direction of the Chair of Egyptology at  Julius Maximilian University Würzburg.  A team  consisting of Korshi Dosoo (research group leader), Edward O. D. Love, and Markéta Preininger are studying the corpus of Coptic  “magical texts” – manuscripts written on papyrus, as well as parchment, paper, ostraca and other materials, and attesting to private religious practices designed to cope with the crises of daily life in Egypt. There are about five hundred of these texts which survive, dating to between the third and twelfth centuries of the common era. Their website points out these documents address " the realities rather than the ideal of religious practices and beliefs as they were experienced and carried out in daily life. They provide rich information about the experiences of people from the periods they document – the transitions from traditional Egyptian religion to Christianity and Islam, the diffusion and interaction of different forms of Christianity (“gnostic” and orthodox, Miaphysiste and Dyophysite, cults of saints and angels), and conceptions of the human and divine worlds – how human experiences such as happiness and success, suffering and sickness, love and conflict were understood and negotiated."

Their English-version website is available here: https://www.coptic-magic.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/

If you wish to read the full research paper Polychromy in Roman Egypt: A study of a limestone sculpture of the Egyptian god Horus, it is  available from: 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303482369_Polychromy_in_Roman_Egypt_A_study_of_a_limestone_sculpture_of_the_Egyptian_god_Horus 

Limestone seated figure of the Egyptian falcon god Horus wearing Roman military dress, from Egypt, Roman period, Roman Empire: Power & People, Leeds City Museum, UK courtesy of Carole Raddato

Limestone seated figure of the Egyptian falcon god Horus wearing Roman military dress, from Egypt, Roman period, courtesy of the British Museum.

Reconstruction of the pigments detected on the Limestone seated figure of the Egyptian falcon god Horus wearing Roman military dress, from Egypt, Roman period, now in the collections of the British Museum.

Roman period copper-alloy figure of the Egyptian god Horus, standing and wearing a nemes headdress and military costume now in the collections of the British Museum, courtesy of the museum.

Bronze figurine of Horus attired as Roman emperor with radiate crown suggestive of Sol Invictus, 2nd century CE, now in the collections of The Louvre in Paris. Image courtesy of the museum and Wikimedia Commons.

Shallow dish with high relief figures of Isis and falcon-headed Horus in Roman attire, possibly 2nd century CE, Egypt now in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The curator there points out the feathered neck of the Horus figure suggests disintegration of pharaonic conventions for combining animal and human figures.

Egyptian relief of the God Horus in Roman style armor fighting the evil God Seth in crocodile form, 4th century CE, now in the collections of The Louvre in Paris, image courtesy of the museum.

Bronze figurine of Horus in Roman armor wearing the crowns of upper and lower Egypt at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston courtesy of the museum.

 

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Ovid's Ibis

In 1 BCE, the Roman poet Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō , known to us as Ovid, penned three books, the Ars amatoria (The Art of Love) instructing Romans in the techniques of seduction and love. The first book addresses men and teaches them how to seduce women, the second, also to men, teaches how to keep a lover. The third book addresses women and teaches seduction techniques. Ovid describes the places one can go to find a lover, like the theater, a triumph, which he thoroughly describes, or arena – and ways to get the girl to take notice, including seducing her covertly at a banquet. Ovid emphasizes care of the body for the lover and advises men to avoid giving too many gifts, keep up their appearance, hide affairs, compliment their lovers, and ingratiate themselves with slaves to stay on their lover's good side.  Ovid gives women detailed instructions on appearance telling them to avoid too many adornments. He advises women to read elegiac poetry, learn to play games, sleep with people of different ages, flirt, and dissemble. Book three ends with his wish that women will follow his advice and spread his fame saying Naso magister erat, "Ovid was our teacher". (Ovid was known as "Naso" to his contemporaries.) 

Unfortunately for Ovid, the Emperor Augustus, who had enacted his Julian marriage laws which promoted monogamous marriage to increase the population's birth rate in 18 BCE, did not take kindly to Ovid's disregard for what Augustus viewed publicly as the serious crime of adultery. (According to Suetonius, Augustus himself was "given to adultery not even his friends deny, although it is true that they excuse it as committed not from passion but from policy, the more readily to get track of his adversaries' designs through the women of their households."  Even the boisterous Marc Antony charged him with taking the wife of an ex-consul from her husband's dining room before his very eyes into a bed-chamber, and bringing her back to the table with her hair in disorder and her ears glowing.) 

Although Augustus did not act immediately, after his daughter Julia's very public lascivious rebellion against her father's moral restrictions and possible implication in her husband's conspiracy against Augustus which Ovid may have known about, the poet was exiled to the island of Tomis by the Black Sea where he died in 17 or 18 CE. The order was issued by Augustus alone, without any participation of the Senate or of any Roman judge. Ovid himself wrote many references to his offense, but gave only obscure or contradictory clues.

Ovid wrote two poetry collections while in exile, Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto, which illustrated his sadness and desolation. Being far from Rome, he had no access to libraries, and thus might have been forced to abandon his Fasti, a poem about the Roman calendar, of which only the first six books exist.  The Tristia expresses the poet's despair in exile and advocates his return.   The Epistulae ex Ponto was a series of letters to friends pleading with them to effect his return. But at one point his anger at what he viewed as his unjust punishment boiled over and he penned the Ibis, a curse poem attacking a powerful but unnamed adversary in Rome, modeling the work on a lost poem of the same title by the Greek Alexandrian poet Callimachus. Candidates for "Ibis" have been suggested including Hyginus, Cassius Severus, Titus Labienus, Thrasyllus of Mendes, Caninius Rebilus, Ovid's erstwhile friend Sabinus, and the emperor Augustus, but scholars cannot agree if "Ibis" refers to a single person, to more than one person, or to nobody at all. Ovid threatens his enemy in the second section of the poem (lines 251–638) with a veritable catalogue of "gruesome and mutually incompatible fates" that befell various figures from myth and history, ranging from laming and blinding to cannibalism to death by pine cone. (I tried to find out what "death by pine cone was, particularly since I live in the Pacific Northwest where coniferous trees are abundant, but had no luck!) Ovid also declares that even if he dies in exile, his ghost will rise and rend Ibis' flesh.

Image: Hollow cast bronze Ibis eating a lizard, Roman, 100 BCE - 100 CE, now in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, image courtesy of the museum. When I saw this beautiful sculpture I wondered if it could have been a symbol of resistance against Roman imperial rule in a well-read Roman household.

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The widespread myth of winged horses

 According to Greek myth, the immortal winged horse Pegasus and his brother Chrysaor were born from the blood issuing from Medusa's neck as Perseus was beheading her.  In another version, when Perseus beheaded Medusa, the winged horses were born of the Earth, fed by the Gorgon's blood. A variation of this story holds that they were formed from the mingling of Medusa's blood, pain and sea foam, implying that Poseidon was involved in their creation. The last version bears resemblance to Hesiod's account of the birth of Aphrodite from the foam created when Uranus's severed genitals were cast into the sea by Cronus.

Pegasus was captured and raised by the hero Bellerophon who engaged in fighting off monsters. The hero competed with the gods and this angered Zeus, who struck down the horse, turning Pegasus into the beast of burden who carried lightning bolts at Zeus's palace. 

Everywhere the winged horse struck his hoof to the earth, an inspiring water spring burst forth. One of these springs was upon the Muses' Mount Helicon, the Hippocrene ("horse spring"), opened, Antoninus Liberalis suggested, at the behest of Poseidon to prevent the mountain swelling with rapture at the song of the Muses.  Another was at Troezen. Hesiod relates how Pegasus was peacefully drinking from a spring when the hero Bellerophon captured him.

Pegasus allowed Bellerophon to ride him in order to defeat the monstrous Chimera. The hero then went on to achieve other heroic acts and attempted to fly to Mount Olympus to join the gods. This angered Zeus, who caused Bellerophon to fall from the winged horse's back then struck down the horse, turning Pegasus into a beast of burden who carried lightning bolts at Zeus's palace. 

In ancient art, the oldest winged horses appeara on Assyrian seals in the 13th century BCE.  Winged horses appear not only in Greek and Roman art but in the art of the Etruscans, Koreans, Indians, Chinese, and the Tatars.  From the middle of the 7th century BCE, Pegasus is represented in flight in Greek art until the Archaic Period when he is often depicted fighting alone without wings against the Chimera. 

Pegasus is most often represented alone, or accompanied by Bellerophon fighting the Chimera, in which case the most classic representation shows the hero in the saddle, brandishing a spear facing the monster. A tradition from the archaic era presents the hero dismounted before fighting. Pegasus is also represented alongside the Muses.  Pausanias attests that Pegasus was an ornamental figure in ancient architecture such as in Corinth, where heroic worship was paid to Bellerophon and a statue of this hero and of the horse Pegasus decorated the temple of Poseidon.  The Romans associated Pegasus with the Emperor Augustus and it became the emblem of several Roman legions including Legio II Adiutrix and Legio II Augusta.

A Fine Greek Late Classical Bronze Forepart of a Winged Pegasus, 5th century BCE at the Miho Museum in Kyoto, Japan.  This Pegasus image is thought to have originally been an ornament on some object, and for all of its small scale, it is a truly impressive example of detailed sculpture. The point of attachment of the wings, their middle section and their curving tips form a composition that can frequently be seen on such imaginary winged magical beings as the sphinxes, sirens and gorgons seen on Archaic vase painting. The style of the wings on this small Pegasus thus forms a remaining archaic element, while the wings themselves are created in a detailed sense of real wings. The face has a piercing gaze, and the wrinkles around the mouth and point of attachment of the jaw, the nostrils with their raised blood veins are all elements of this detailed expression, with the curved wings giving a sense of tension to the sculpture that adds to its life-like expressive power. These elements all accord with the severe style of the early period in Greek classical art. Similar examples from the same period can be found in the Vatican Museum's Pegasus shaped roof ornament from 5th century BC Etruria. Like the exhibited work, the Vatican Pegasus has the severe early classical Greek style combined with elements of the Archaic style.  This small sculpture gives a realistic depiction of the sacred horse's majesty as he appeared in the world of myth, and can be said to reveal the highest levels of refined artistry of this period. - Miho Museum

 

Winged horse, used to decorate a tool whose shape and use are unknown. Bronze figurine, made in a workshop in northwestern Greece (perhaps Ambrakia), third quarter of the 6th century BCE. From Dodona in Epirus, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Marie-Lan Nguyen.

Bellerophon fighting the Chimera. Side A of an attic black-figured “overlap” Siana cup, ca. 575–550 BCE. Found in Camiros (Rhodes) now in The Louvre, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Bibi saint-Pol

Plate with chimera and Bellerophon on Pegasus by the Painter of Baltimora (Apulia), 350-300 BCE at the Palazzo Massimo in Rome, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Sailko 

Mosaic emblema with Pegasus, the immortal winged horse which sprang forth from the neck of Medusa when she was beheaded by the hero Perseus, 2nd century CE, Archaeological Museum of Córdoba, Spain , courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Carole Raddato

Fragment of capital with winged horses, from inside the cell of the temple of Mars Ultor in the forum of Augustus, c. 2 BCE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Sailko

Gold pediment-shaped brooch with Pegasus, Greek, 340-320 BCE, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Terracotta plaque depicting Perseus riding a wingless horse slaying Medusa with wings  Greek 490-470 BCE from Melos that I photographed at "The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece" exhibit at the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon.  The presentation was originally assembled by the British Museum.

Bronze plate with the foreparts of winged horses emerging from the rim of the plate, Greek, 2nd half of the 6th century BCE that I photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Greek Chariot Ornament Depicting Pegasus the winged horse of Perseus, Greek, 5th century BCE Bronze that I photographed at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. "This ornament of the foreparts of the winged-horse Pegasos decorated a pole that would have connected a chariot to a horse. Careful modeling and incised decoration create a detailed representation of this mythical creature that signified speed. A coiled snake rears up behind Pegasos' head." - Walters Art Museum

Mosaic of Pegasus in Split Archaeological Museum, Split, Croatia, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Bernard Gagnon.

Pebble mosaic depicting Bellerophon killing Chimaera, in Rhodes archaeological museum, 300-270 BCE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributors TobyJ and Speravir.

Kylix with scene of Gigantomachia including Pegasus, Attic, 490 BCE from Vulci by the painter of Brygos at the Antikensaammlung, Berlin, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Sailko 

Bellerophon slaying the Chimera mounted on Pegasus. Central medallion restored with a Roman mosaic of over 100 m2 discovered in 1830 in Autun, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Félix Potuit

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