Naslov
Ergo sit Hippolytus

Autori
Buljević, Zrinka

Izvornik
Opuscula archaeologica (0473-0992) 21 (1997); 117-128

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, članak, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
Hipolit; Fedra; sarkofag; Manastirine; Salona
(Hippolytus; Phaedra; sarcophagus; Manastirine; Salona)

Sažetak
The image of Hippolytus' death that the poet Prudentius saw in the catacombs of St Hippolytus at Via Tiburtina in Rome, which he described around 400 AD when writing to Pope Valerian about the passio of the blessed martyr Hippolytus, could have been created only after 236, when the deposition of the relics of St Hippolytus occurred, and it is suggested that it was earlier, like the burial itself, than the pictures in the cubicule of the nearby gallery, which are dated to the beginning of the 4th century. The picture would thus have been painted between 236 and circa 300, in a period marked by three persecutions, that of Decius, then that of Trebonianus Gallus and Valerian, and after peaceful years, yet another major persecution of the Christians by Diocletian. In the case of the painting above the altar of St Hippolytus, as well as on a Salonitan sarcophagus from Manastirine, this is an image from the myth of Hippolytus related to the grave, whether it was taken from Euripides or indirectly from the Roman literary tradition. We believe the first case to be firm proof about the transformation of a pagan image into a Christian one, as is shown by the poet Prudentius' description of the martyrdom of St Hippolytus and the picture that he saw above the grave. Our sar-cophagus is at the very least confirmation of a Christian burial both in terms of indirect proof (a change in the choice of subject, the disappearance of hunting scenes, and a simplification of the presentation specific to the second type of motifs on sarcophagi exhibiting the Hippolytus myth), the hypothesis that specifically the motif of the seduction of a man and the rejection of Phaedra's ad-vances served as a model for the artistic presentation of the Biblical Potipharmotiv, the picture described by Prudentius, as well as direct proof, such as: the site of discovery (in the Salonitan basilica at Manastirine), the period of creation between 300 and 310 (in a Roman workshop, which were then reorienting themselves to the production of Christian sarcophagi), the period of the first deposition in memoria VIII after 312, and its transferal to corridor K (where at the end of the 4th and beginning of the 5th century it was used for subsequent burials), and the common fate it shared with the sarcophagus of the Good Shepherd. It was not merely the dangerous times that stimulated such a manner of showing certain Christian themes (the picture of the death of St Hippolytus) or concepts (the Salonitan sarcophagus), rather the entire cultural climate was such that pagan art graduaJly gained influence in the formation of Christian iconography. We believe that the painting above the grave of St Hippolytus in his catacombs and the sarcophagus from Manastirine even contemporaneously bear witness to the mentality of late Antiquity and the process of transforming mythological scenes into Biblical ones. Clearly we also should not neglect the component of the difficult times in which the sarcophagus was created, specifically the possibility that the person ordering the sarcophagus could choose to translate the Christian spirit into a pagan body. Euripides' myth could also be considered a figment of the tragedian's imagination, just like that of the Roman literary tradition. In the same manner, we can take Prudentius' record as part and parcel of poetic license, or the picture in the catacombs as resulting from artistic imagination, but we must also consider them an undoubted confirmation of the climate in which they were expressed or created. In conclusion, the sarcophagus with the images of Hippolytus, which has shared in the fate of the sarcophagus with the Good Shepherd, is as equally Chris-tian as the latter: ordered in the same manner, and created on the basis of late Roman ideas and in the climate of dangerous times.

Izvorni jezik
Hrvatski

Znanstvena područja
Arheologija

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