Domestic Dionysus? Telete in mosaics from Zeugma and the Late Roman Near East

Study of the iconography and meaning of representations of Telete in some mosaics from the Pars orientalis. The author also considers and discusses the significance of Dionysiac imagery in a domestic context. Throughout this paper some mosaics are mentioned: the mosaic from the Maison of Bacchus at Cuicul (Djemila) (2nd-3rd century A.D), which includes a scene of the unveiling of the liknon ; the mosaics from the Maison de la Procession dionysiaque at Thysdrus (El Jem) (2nd century A.D.) ; the mosaics from the House of Dionysos at Sepphoris (2nd-3rd century A.D.) (notably the mosaic of the large triclinium with Dionysiac scenes, such as the drinking contest of Dionysos and Heracles represented in the central panel and a series of fourteen smaller panels around it ; a mosaic from the Atrium House and another from the House of the Drinking Contest at Antioch ; a mosaic from Apamea with the theme of the drinking contest ; the mid-4th century A.D. mosaic in the triclinium of the House of Aion at Nea Paphos, which has a central figured area containing five panels (Leda and the Swan, the Beauty contest of Cassiopeia and the Nereids, Apollo and Marsyas, Triumph of Dionysos and the Adoration of the infant Dionysos) ; the mosaics from Sarrîn in Osrhoene, just East of the Euphrates (late 5th-first half of the 6th c.), which came from a peristyle, with mythological subjects : Artemis as huntress together with two hunters on foot, Aphrodite in her shell, Europa on the bull, the rape of Auge by Heracles, a scene that must be probably identified as Aeneas and Dido (or Meleager and Atalanta), and a Dionysiac thiasos ; a mosaic from Sheikh-Zuweid in the Sinai peninsula, now in the museum in Ismailiya (5th-6th century A.D.), with two panels : Phaedra and Hippolytus and the Dionysiac thiasos with inscriptions, and other labels identifying some figures (the word Telete is written above the small Eros in the Dionysiac panel) ; and a 6th century A.D. mosaic at Madaba, with the depiction of Phaedra and Hippolytus. In the final part of the paper, the author studies a group of mosaics which contain the representation of Telete: part B of the so-called House of Poseidon at Zeugma on the Euphrates (inscription), with Dionysos and the satyr Skirtos (there are also references to other mosaics of this complex, dated late 2nd/mid-3rd century A.D. such as Achilles at Skyros, the Muses and personifications of a group of Virtues, Perseus and Andromeda) ; a mosaic in a private collection formerly in New York, from the general area of Roman Syria, dated to the second half of the 2nd or early 3rd century A.D., showing the figures of Eros, Aphrodite, the Charites and Telete, identified by inscriptions (p. 212 and 213, fig. 16-18 in colour) ; another mosaic from Zeugma, with Eros and Telete in the centre, busts of the Seasons at the angles, and animals and fish in the panels between them, besides some inscriptions (p. 213-214 and 219, fig. 19), and a mosaic, still from Zeugma, showing – according to the author – the wedding of Eros and Telete. The Author mentions some other pavements : a mosaic from the House of the Bacchic Thiasos at Antioch ; the mosaic of Hippodamia at her wedding with Pelops from Shahba-Philippopolis (p. 212); a mosaic with the representation of Briseis and Syriac inscriptions, presumably from the region of Edessa (p. 212, note 70) ; the mosaic from Shahba-Philippopolis showing Dionysos and Ariadne (p. 213) ; the mosaic from the House of Dionysos at Sepphoris entitled Hymenaios, with the central couple identified by the editors as Dionysos and Ariadne and a mosaic from Zeugma showing the wedding banquet of Dionysos and Ariadne.