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Opus Mixtum. Essays in ancient art and society

Edited by Eva Rystedt, Charlotte Scheffer, and Charlotte Wikander

Fifteen papers on various aspects of ancient art and society are gathered in this volume. They deal with the choice of moment depicted in the Parthenon frieze, the use of the Greek architectural orders in political propaganda, and the “programme” of the relief plaques from zone F at Acquarossa which is suggested to be celebrations connected to the ruler. The architectural layout of a well-temple in Sardinia is interpreted as an iconographic message of the cult of Tanit-Astarte. The significance of the horse in connection with death and the various types of female deities connected with horses in Archaic Greek religion are discussed, as well as the image of Artemis Ephesia and its connection with the mysteries of the goddess, the epithet Ambologera (“Delayer of old age”) attributed to Aphrodite, and the role of women in Roman religion. A white-ground lekythos by the Achilles Painter with the “mistress-and-maid” motif associated with music-making is analysed. A reconstruction of the Laocoon group, especially regarding the positions of the serpents is put forward. A marble head of Dionysos in the Swedish Zorn Collection is interpreted as an adaptation of the type of Apollon Lykeios and a “lost” Etruscan mirror in Lund is published and its maker introduced as the “Kulturen Master”. The young male head bound with a taenia, on Macedonian silver staters, is identified as Apollo. There is a note on the Medusa head on the armour of Alexander in the Alexander mosaic. The notion of the “one year” of Persian rulers is also discussed.

Contents

Börje Blome & Paul Åström | The Laokoon group. A tentative reconstruction
Ingrid Edlund Berry | Whether goddess, priestess or worshipper. Considerations of female deities and cults in Roman religion
Kåre Fagerström | All the Virgin’s horses and all the Virgin’s men. On the choice of moment in the Parthenon frieze
Johan Flemberg | Aphrodite and old age
Pontus Hellström | Columns, what are you up to?
Carl Nylander | Xenophon, Darius, Naram-sin. A note on the King’s “Year”
Lilian Portefaix | The “hand-made” idol of Artemis Ephesia—a symbolic configuration related to her mysteries?
Eva Rystedt | Women, music and a white-ground lekythos in the Medelhavsmuseet
Marie-Louise Säflund | The self-portrait. A signature of the anonymous master
Barbro Santillo Frizell | “I am a ship”. The iconography of a water temple
Charlotte Scheffer | Female deities, horses and death(?) in Archaic Greek religion
Margareta Strandberg Olofsson | Some interpretational aspects of the Acquarossa/Tuscania mould-made terracottas and their architectural context
Ulla Westermark | Apollo in Macedonia
Charlotte Wikander | A marble head of Dionysos
Ingela M.B. Wiman | “Bid the shrill fife outsound”. An Archaic Etruscan mirror from Kulturen in Lund.
Ingrid Molander | The published writings of Gösta Säflund. A bibliography

Bibliographical information

Eva Rystedt, Charlotte Scheffer, & Charlotte Wikander, eds., Opus Mixtum. Essays in ancient art and society (Skrifter utgivna av Svenska Institutet i Rom, 8°, 21, Stockholm 1994. ISSN: 0283-8389. ISBN: 978-91-7042-150-1. Softcover: 176 pages.

Reviews

L’Antiquité Classique 66, 1997, 729–730 (Hermary Antoine)
Revue belge de Philologie et d’Histoire 75:1, 1997, 158–159 (Chevallier Raymond)
The Classical Review 47:2, 1997, 444 (John Elsner)