Strategies for salvation: the triconch church at Antigoneia and its mosaic pavement

Publication of a mosaic lying across the north and south apses and the intervening bema of a small triconch church, perhaps datable round the middle of the 6th century. In one of the fields is a figure with a human body and the head of a bird or beast which has been connected with the composite deity Abraxas and with the image of a cock-headed man at Brading (Isle of Wight, Britain). He is a salvationary being with the power to combat and overcome evil: compare the dog-headed and cock-headed Egyptian deities, especially Anubis and Hermanubis, on amuletic gemstones. The forces of evil are symbolised by a snake fastening on the figure's gullet; and the figure's victory is signified by a tree and a bird. A complementary figure may have existed in the missing fourth panel of the bema.