One Original Ancient Roman Byzantine seal ring artifact |
| | Ancient Roman, 5-6 century AD.
Measuring 15-16mm. inner diameter. Size 5.5 US
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Bezel decorated with crescents and gamma in the center.
2.39gm. total weight.
Ring is in good condition and very nice and rare inclusion to the finest collection.
You
are bidding on an original artifact. As pictured.
Please note images can be enlarged.
Authenticity guaranteed, see below.
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Item is in good condition and very rare and nice inclusion to the finest collection.
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Rings
were worn by ancient Greek and Roman senators and citizens. For the
rich they conveyed status and wealth. For the plebians they held symbols
of gods, animals, patterns and more. Some
were engraved in inverse, and were used as signet rings to sign/seal
important documents. Some represented military allegiance, bearing
legionary eagles, chevrons, stars, and naval patterns. |
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The
hippocampus or hippocamp, also hippokampos (plural: hippocampi or
hippocamps; Greek: ἱππόκαμπος, from ἵππος, "horse" and κάμπος, "sea
monster"), often called a sea-horse in English,[citation needed] is a
mythological creature shared by Phoenician, Etruscan, Pictish, Roman and
Greek mythology, though its name has a Greek origin. The hippocampus
has typically been depicted as having the upper body of a horse with the
lower body of a fish. Coins minted at Tyre around the 4th century
BC show the patron god Melqart riding on a winged hippocampus and
accompanied by dolphins. Coins of the same period from Byblos show a
hippocampus diving under a galley. A gold sea-horse was discovered in a hoard from the kingdom of Lydia in Asia minor, dating to the 6th century BC. Greek and Roman Terracotta bell-krater (mixing bowl) with lid, late 5th century BC In
the Iliad, Homer describes Poseidon, god of horses, earthquakes, and
the sea, driving a chariot drawn by brazen-hoofed horses over the sea's
surface, and Apollonius of Rhodes, describes the horse of Poseidon
emerging from the sea and galloping across the Libyan sands. This
compares to the specifically "two-hoofed" hippocampi of Gaius Valerius
Flaccus in his Argonautica: "Orion when grasping his father’s reins
heaves the sea with the snorting of his two-hooved horses." In
Hellenistic and Roman imagery, however, Poseidon (or Roman Neptune)
often drives a sea-chariot drawn by hippocampi. Thus, hippocampi sport
with this god in both ancient depictions and much more modern ones, such
as in the waters of the 18th-century Trevi Fountain in Rome surveyed by
Neptune from his niche above. Hippocampus in Roman mosaic in the thermae at Aquae Sulis (Bath) The
appearance of hippocampi in both freshwater and saltwater is
counter-intuitive to a modern audience, though not to an ancient one.
The Greek picture of the natural hydrological cycle did not take into
account the condensation of atmospheric water as rain to replenish the
water table, but imagined the waters of the sea oozing back landwards
through vast caverns and aquifers, rising replenished and freshened in
springs. Thus, it was natural for a temple at Helike in the coastal
plain of Achaea to be dedicated to Poseidon Helikonios, (the Poseidon of
Helicon), the sacred spring of Boeotian Helikon. When an earthquake
suddenly submerged the city, the temple's bronze Poseidon accompanied by
hippocampi continued to snag fishermens' nets. Likewise, the
hippocampus was considered an appropriate decoration for mosaics in
Roman thermae or public baths, as at Aquae Sulis modern day Bath in
Britannia. Etruscan Hippocampi appear with the first
Oriental-phase of Etruscan civilization: they remain a theme in Etruscan
tomb wall-paintings and reliefs,[13] where they are sometimes provided
with wings, as they are in the Trevi fountain. Katharine Shepard found
in the theme an Etruscan belief in a sea-voyage to the other world. Pictish The
sea-horse also appears in Pictish stone carvings in Scotland. The
symbolism of the carving (also known as "Pictish Beast" or "Kelpie") is
unknown. Although similar but not identical to Roman sea-horse images,
it is unclear whether this depiction originates from images brought over
by the Romans, or had a place in earlier Pictish mythology. The
"sea-horse" in medieval heraldry was a legendary creature that was part
horse and part fish, not to be confused with the later heraldic
hippocampus, which was a natural seahorse. Medieval, Renaissance, and modern
The
mythic hippocampus has been used as a heraldic charge, particularly
since the Renaissance, most often in the armorial bearings of people and
places with maritime associations. However, in a blazon, the terms
hippocamp and hippocampus now refer to the real animal called a
seahorse, and the terms seahorse and sea-horse refer to the mythological
creature. The above-mentioned fish hybrids are seen less frequently. In
appearance, the heraldic sea-horse is depicted as having the head and
neck of a horse, the tail of a fish and webbed paws replacing its front
hooves. Its mane may be that of a horse or it may be replaced with an
additional fin. Sea-horses may be depicted with wings, but this motif
does not appear to be present within any officially sanctioned arms. Tritons and winged hippocampi in the Trevi Fountain, Rome The sea-horse is also a common image in Renaissance and Baroque art, for example, in the Trevi fountain, dating to 1732. A
winged hippocampus has been used as a symbol for Air France since its
establishment in 1933 (inherited from its predecessor Air Orient); it
appears today on the engine nacelles of Air France sea craft Bronze hippocampi appear in Dublin, Leinster, Ireland on lampposts next to a statue of Henry Grattan and on Grattan Bridge. Capricornus and related mythical animals Closely
related to the hippocampus is the "sea goat", represented by Capricorn,
a mythical creature with the front half of a goat and the rear half of a
fish. Canonical figures, most of which were not themselves cult images,
and coins of the Carian goddess associated with Aphrodite as the
Aphrodite of Aphrodisias through interpretatio graeca, show the goddess
riding on a sea-goat. Brody describes her thus: ... a semi-nude
female figure appears riding on a sea-goat, accompanied by a dolphin and
a Triton. This is the goddess Aphrodite herself, shown here not in her
distinctive local guise but in a more traditionally Hellenistic style.
She is the marine aspect of Aphrodite, known to the Greeks as Aphrodite
Pelagia .... She rides on a fantastic marine creature with the body and
tail of a fish and the forepart of a goat. This sea-goat moves to the
right and turns his head back to look at the goddess. This group also
appears on Aphrodisian coins from the 3rd century A.D. Aside from
aigikampoi, the fish-tailed goats representing Capricorn, other
fish-tailed animals rarely appeared in Greek art, but are more
characteristic of the Etruscans. These include leokampoi (fish-tailed
lions), taurokampoi (fish-tailed bulls) or pardalokampoi (fish-tailed
leopards).
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The phoenix is a
mythical
sacred
firebird
that originated in
Persian mythology
, ancient
Phoenician
mythology (according to
Sanchuniathon
),
Chinese mythology
,
Egyptian
religion and later
Greek mythology
.
A phoenix is a mythical bird that is a fire spirit with a colorful plumage
and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple, blue, and green according to some
legends). It has a 500 to 1,000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds
itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and
are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises,
reborn anew to live again. The new phoenix is destined to live as long as its
old self. In some stories, the new phoenix embalms the ashes of its old self in
an egg made of myrrh and deposits it in the Egyptian city of
Heliopolis
(Greek
for sun-city). It is said that the bird's cry is that of a beautiful song. In
very few stories they are able to change into people.
The Roman poet Ovid
wrote the following about the phoenix:
Most beings spring from other individuals; but there is a certain kind
which reproduces itself. The Assyrians call it the Phoenix. It does not live
on fruit or flowers, but on frankincense and odoriferous gums. When it has
lived five hundred years, it builds itself a nest in the branches of an oak,
or on the top of a palm tree. In this it collects cinnamon, and spikenard,
and myrrh, and of these materials builds a pile on which it deposits itself,
and dying, breathes out its last breath amidst odors. From the body of the
parent bird, a young Phoenix issues forth, destined to live as long a life
as its predecessor. When this has grown up and gained sufficient strength,
it lifts its nest from the tree (its own cradle and its parent's sepulchre),
and carries it to the city of Heliopolis in Egypt, and deposits it in the
temple of the Sun.
French author
Voltaire
thus described the phoenix:
It was of the size of an eagle, but its eyes were as mild and tender as
those of the eagle are fierce and threatening. Its beak was the color of a
rose, and seemed to resemble, in some measure, the beautiful mouth of
Formosante. Its neck resembled all the colors of the rainbow, but more
brilliant and lively. A thousand shades of gold glistened on its plumage.
Its feet seemed a mixture of purple and silver; and the tail of those
beautiful birds which were afterwards fixed to the car of Juno, did not come
near the beauty of its tail.
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