Funerary rites and rapports of sociability at Antioch: some remarks on the Banquet of Mnemosyne Mosaic

ABSTRACT

In this article, we aim at reflecting about the pagan mortuary practices in the Late Antiquity, when, due to the progressive Christianization of the Roman Empire, occurred a deep change in the way Greeks and Romans dealt with the experience of death. As case study, we chose the city of Antioch, capital of the Syrian province, which, in the second half of the fourth century, was the scenario of a massive Christianizing campaign led by the ecclesiastical authorities. Therefore, we intend to discuss whether Antioch actually was then a Christian polis, but without considering the Patristic literature, full of misrepresentations. In order to comprehend the religious dynamic of daily life that tended to undermine the control exerted by the clergy over the town, we decided to explore the information provided by the archaeological sources, more specifically the mosaics, a strategy capable of increasing our amount of knowledge regarding the way of life of social actors who otherwise would either remain anonymous or be known by means of the written sources only.

Keywords:
Late Antiquity; Antioch; Funerary Rites; Banquet; Mosaics