Anna-Laura Honikel M.A

Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main

A new analysis of the mythological figures on the Cosmological Mosaic in Mérida, Spain

The cosmological mosaic from Mérida is one of the most famous Roman mosaics in the western Mediterranean. The multi-figured cosmological scene has sparked great interest in international mosaic research, which often focused on the interpretation. This lecture draws attention to the fact that the iconography of some figures does not match their respective inscriptions. This creates tension in the relationship between image and text. The irritation the viewer perceives because the two factors initially do not seem to be compatible with each other can be reduced successively by a thorough contemplation.
To explain this phenomenon a rather unconventional (and for mosaic research quite uncommon) methodical instrument from the literary studies is used. With the help of the terminology of rhetoric tropes, the tense relationship between iconographical schemes and inscriptions can be defined more precisely.
Using the example of the personifications Oriens, Occasus and Aeternitas, it can be shown how variably the factors iconography and inscriptions were put into relation and how specific messages could be conveyed as a result.

Responsables : Séverine Blin, Amina Aïcha Malek, Claude Vibert-Guigue