Roman mosaic recently discovered in Britain depicts a long-lost version Trojan War a story that differs from the most famous tale of the saga.
The artifact known as Ketton Mosaicshows a key conflict during the Trojan War. But it is not based on Homer's The Iliad is the most enduring version of the tale, researchers report in a new study. Instead, it was inspired by a more obscure tragedy by the Athenian playwright Aeschylus. Called The Phrygians, it was written in the early fifth century BC and survives to this day only in fragments and analyzes discussed in other ancient works.
The mosaic, measuring 33 by 17 feet (10 by 5.3 meters), probably covered part of the floor of the triclinium or dining room of the large villa. Mosaics were in use as early as the fourth century AD, but preliminary research suggests that the villa may have been inhabited even earlier.
In Homer's account of the Trojan War, the Greeks spent 10 years fighting against the city of Troy, in what is now Turkey. According to myth, Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, kidnapped the beautiful Queen Helen of Sparta, and the Greeks fought to get her back.
The mosaic depicts three scenes of conflict between the Greek hero Achilles and the Trojan prince Hector. The first panel shows a duel between Hector and Patroclus, Achilles' close companion and possible lover. In the second, Achilles drags Hector's corpse behind his chariot. And in the third, Achilles redeems Hector’s body from his father Priam for its weight in gold.
Initially, researchers thought that the mosaic depicted scenes described in Homer's epic Iliad. But upon closer inspection, study the first author Jane Massegliaa historian from the University of Leicester, found that some details of the mosaic do not correspond to Homer's version. In a new study published December 3 in the journal BritanniaMasseglia and her colleagues argue that the differences instead point to the “Phrygians” as the source of inspiration for the images.
For example, in the Iliad, Achilles directly says that he will not accept gold as ransom for Hector’s body. And in the mosaic, Achilles drags Hector's body around the tomb of Patroclus, and in the Iliad he drags it around the walls of Troy. However, fragments of the Phrygians and analysis of the text by ancient scholars describe both events as they are depicted in the Ketton mosaic. The Phrygians is the only known retelling of the Trojan War that describes events in this way.
The artistic style provided additional clues about the mosaic's inspiration. “In the Ketton mosaic, not only do we have scenes that tell Aeschylus' version of the story, but the top panel is actually based on a Greek pot design that dates back to the time of Aeschylus, 800 years before the mosaic was laid,” Masseglia said in a statement.
According to her, other parts of the mosaic also have drawings from more ancient times.
“I discovered that other parts of the mosaic are based on designs that we can see on much older silverware, coins and pottery from Greece, Turkey and Gaul,” Masseglia said.
The results suggest close cultural ties between the Romans in Britain and the rest of the classical world, the study authors write.
“Romano-British craftsmen were not isolated from the rest of the ancient world, but were part of this wider network of professions that passed down their catalogs of patterns from generation to generation,” Masseglia added. “At Ketton we combine Roman-British craftsmanship and Mediterranean design heritage.”
