Totenmahlreliefs

This paper reconsiders the emergence of an iconographic formula in the context of Western Anatolia in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, which came later to be termed the 'Funerary Banquet' or 'Totenmahl'. Consisting usually of a single  male shown in a 'sympotic' context (reclining on a kline, with drinking service), flanked by attendants and often accompanied by a female consort, this formula is known earlier, and elsewhere, but the standarisation of the image type as a funerary motif at this juncture is notable. The paper addresses why this phenomenon occurred there and then, and whether there were specific meanings associated with it. It argues that the motif emerged in a context of heightened competition in drinking culture in both the Achaemenid Empire and the late Archaic Aegean zone. While the 'funerary banquets' of Western Anatolia never displayed overt signs of eschatological significance, its ambiguity meant that it was particularly resonant in funerary contexts, and could accommodate multiple explanations on the part of viewers, encouraging investment with funerary meaning which eventually affected its further trajectory in later periods. (See also Introduction of the volume for general discussion of the 'funerary banquet' motif in ancient art and its interpretation.)

The article examines two votive Greek reliefs housed in the Museum Barracco at Rome. One represents a heros equitans followed by a young servant and a dog, the other is decorated with a Totenmahl scene. Provenance and ways of acquisition are unknown, but it’s possible to hypothesize an Attic/Beotic origin for the former, whereas the latter was surely made in Attica. Although both reliefs have not received much attention in the archaeological literature, they are important witnesses
of heroic cults of the 4th century BC in Greece.

During excavations in 2016-2017 in Tiel (Prov. Gelderland, the Netherlands) west of Nijmegen some interesting pieces of Provincial Roman sculpture made of limestone from Lorraine were discovered between Roman settlement traces. It concerns an almost complete ‘enthroned Jupiter’ (ca. 200 AD), the top part of a ‘votive altar’ with dedication text to an hitherto unknown goddess Athalenniae or Aþhalenniae (ca. 200 AD), two fragments of the top corner of a ‘tombstone with a decorated pediment’ and the dedication text to the D(is) M(anibus) (2nd century) and an important fragment of a 2nd-century ‘stele’ depicting the funeral banquet (‘Totenmahlstele’) (AD 120-140).

The article discusses the grave stele of one Iulia Iucunda, found in Črnomelj in the province of Pannonia (National Museum of Slovenia, inv. no. L 119). The busts of the couple are carved within the main field, whereas the relief frieze bearing the scene of the funerary banquet (cena funebris, German Totenmahl) follows below. It is represented in differentia specifica for that province, as the reclining deceased is absent. The unexpected figure for the funerary banquet is the naked figure at the far left, stepping towards mensa tripes. Considering its posture, it resembles the satyrs (type Askophoros A) or the personifications of the Seasons as the youth. In their left, the figure carries a pedum, with a basket or a bundle (?) hanging down from its bent end. In their other hand, a hardly distinguishable curved object is visible: a sickle or a pruning knife (?). However, the pedum is the standard attribute for both mythological entities, while the sickle is common for the personification of Summer, and the pruning knife for both, satyrs, and Autumn. As both mythological beings share the posture as well as several attributes and the carved figure is mal preserved, it is almost impossible to claim which one of them is shown.However, none of them is represented in the funerary sculpture neither in Neviodunum nor in Siscia, although both are quite popular in the adjacent province of Noricum, in which the comparable figures are dated after the first quarter of the 3rd century. One of the open issues is the dating of the stele, as in the hitherto literature it spans from the late 1st till the beginning of the 3rd century. As the coiffure of the spouse resembles the Severan hair dresses, perhaps mostly the one of Iulia Maesa, and her husband wears a sagum, which was worn by both, military and civilians, especially after the rule of emperor Caracalla, the dating to the first third of the 3rd century seems more plausible.