Английская Википедия:Ichthyocentaurs

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Файл:Ichthyocentaurs from the Fountain of the Centaurs by AA Weinman, Jefferson City MO USA, 1927.jpg

Ichthyocentaur statue outside the State of Missouri's capitol building

In late Classical Greek art, ichthyocentaurs (Шаблон:Lang-el, plural: Шаблон:Lang) were centaurine sea beings with the upper body of a human, the lower anterior half and fore-legs of a horse, and the tailed half of a fish. The earliest example dates to the 2nd century B. C., among the friezes in the Pergamon Altar. There are further examples of Aphros and/or Bythos, the personifications of foam and abyss, respectively, depicted as ichthyocentaurs in mosaics and sculptures.

The term ichthyocentaur is of late coinage, attributable to the Byzantine writer John Tzetzes in the 12th century. They are also referred as sea-centaur.

Nomenclature

Origin

"Ichthyocentaur" is not a term in the vocabulary of Classical antiquity at all. The word's earliest known use occurs in the 12th century by Ioannes Tzetzes in his commentary On Lycophron, 34 and may have been coined by him.Шаблон:RefnШаблон:Sfnp

Meaning

Ichthyocentaur is a Triton represented as having the fore-legs of a horse, rather than just having a fish-like lower-body.

Ichthyocentaur comes from two different words, ichthyo- and centaur. Ichthyo- is an adjective stem from Greek ikhthis (Шаблон:Lang) "fish"; centaur, from Greek kentauros (Шаблон:Lang), a creature from classical mythology that has a man's upper body attached to a horse's body and legs.

Synonyms

The term or its equivalent in other European languages (Шаблон:Lang-de, plural: Ichthyokentauren; Шаблон:Lang-fr) has been used in classical art commentary in the modern age, and vernacular terms such as "sea-centaur" (Шаблон:Lang-de; Шаблон:Lang-fr) have also been interchangeably applied. Henri van de Waal (1976) placed "ichthyocentaur", "centaurotriton", and "sea-centaur" in the same iconographic group or iconclass synonymous treatment of these terms are also seen in archaeological papers.Шаблон:Sfnp

Centaur-Tritons is another name for ichthyocentaurs, noted in a 19th-century reference.

Greek art

Файл:Altar Pérgamo Tritón 02.JPG

Triton on Pergamon Altar

The earliest datable depiction of an ichthyocentaur is found in the relief sculptures of the Pergamon Altar (2nd century, B. C.), although the inscription labels the figure as a "Triton".Шаблон:Sfnp The ichthyocentaur in this relief sculpture has wings on its back; these wings are of a peculiar type which are lined with either seaweed or sea creature parts instead of feathers.

Ichthyocentaurs are sometimes portrayed with a pair of pincered arms (similar to a lobster's clawed arms) emerging out of their heads.Шаблон:Refn

Aphros and Bythos

Файл:Venüs'ün Doğuşu Mozaiği.jpg

Aphrodite with Bythos and Aphros.Шаблон:Right

Zeugma mosaics

A "Birth of Venus (Aphrodite)" mosaic unearthed at Zeugma, Turkey shows Aphrodite emerging from a shell, supported by two "sea-centaurs", construed as special names for Tritons, according to a paper published by the leader of the French excavation team.Шаблон:Sfnp The mosaics bear inscriptions, identifying the sea-centaurs as Aphros ("Sea-Foam", personified) and Bythos ("Sea-Depths").Шаблон:Sfnp

The Aphros is shown with a pair of lobster-like appendages growing out of his head,Шаблон:SfnpШаблон:Refn as is Bythos (see images).

In the Zeugma mosaic, the elder-looking triton is labeled Aphros and the youthful-looking one is called Bythos, which is contrary to convention seen in other examples.

This mosaic dates to the 3rd century CE, and is now part of the Gaziantep Museum of Archaeology's collection, now housed in the annex named the Zeugma Mosaic Museum.

Apamea, Paphos and others

In the marine procession mosaic found underneath a cathedral at Apamea, Syria (c. 362-363 CE), there is an Aphros in ichthyocentaur form. This Aphros (identified by inscription) is depicted as a youthful triton with lobster-like antennae on its head and hair of seaweed.Шаблон:Sfnp Bythos also appears in the same group; he evidently appears old-aged and the commentator remarks this is none other than the "Old Man of the Sea".

Файл:ZyPaphos07.jpg

Thetis (center), Bythos (center bottom).Шаблон:Right

The Paphos mosaic depicts Bythos alone carrying the nereid Thetis along with two other nereids, Doris and Galateia.

The two sea gods also appear in a pair of matching sculptures (belonging to the Louvre and Vatican Museums) depicting them carrying silen companions of the god Dionysus after his company was driven into the sea by King Lycurgus of Thrace.

Aphros in glosses

Aphros is glossed as a king of Ancient Libya and the progenitor of the Aphroi (or Carthaginians) according to the entry in the Byzantine lexicon, the Suda. A mosaic uncovered in Tunisia confirms this belief; it depicts a pair of African sea gods swimming alongside Poseidon's chariot—one is the ichthyocentaur Aphros and the other a twin-tailed Triton, god of the Libyan Lake Tritonis.Шаблон:Better source needed

The Suda also states this Aphros was the son of Cronos and Philyra. This matches the parentage of the centaur Chiron, who was the son of the Titan Cronos and the nymph Philyra (Bibliotheke of Pseudo-Apollodorus 1.2) from which it might be deduced this Aphros and Chiron were siblings. Aphros was perhaps regarded as Aphrodite's foster-father, given their similarity in names.

Other examples

The monochrome mosaic Ishthmia (2nd century CE or later),Шаблон:Sfnp included an ichthyocentaur-form Triton on the upper panel and a winged-form Triton on the lower; both these beardless Tritons were depicted with a pair of what look like crustacean pincers growing out of their heads.

A pair of marine thiasos fresco fragments in Herculaneum have been described, such that in one fragment, are two tritons, one of them an ichthyocentaur. The ichthyocentaur here is beardless, and bears a ribboned trident. A pair of sea crayfish (lobster) feet or pincers sprout from each triton's head.Шаблон:Efn In the second fragment, a youthful ichthyocentaur proceeds ahead of a mounted Venus marina; the ichthyocentaur holds two objects difficult to identify.

Literary examples

One late literary example that has been noted is the poem by Claudian (d. 404), the Epithalamium for the wedding of Honorius and Maria, in which Venus rides Triton on her back as her whole procession heads for the wedding. Here Triton is described as follows "The dread monster uprose from the abyss; his billowing hair swept his shoulders; hoofs of cloven horn grown round with bristles sprang from where his fishy tail joined his man's body". Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher observed that this Triton (with cloven hooves) is being described as an ichthyocentaur subtype with a bull's forelegs.

Renaissance period

Conrad Gessner's "sea-satyr" or "sea-Pan" was also described as an "ichthyocentaur" or "sea-devil" in his chapter on tritons in his Historia animalium IV (1558). In the German translated edition, this creature is called "Meerteuffel Шаблон:Sic" or "sea devil".

This "marine daemon" (Шаблон:Lang-de), with other names such as "sea Pan monster", "monstrous sea satyr" or "centaur-fish" has also been used on heraldic devices.

See also

• Hippocampus (mythology)
• Onocentaur

References

Citation

Bibliography

• Шаблон:Citation
• Шаблон:Citation
• Шаблон:Cite book
• Шаблон:Cite book
• Шаблон:Citation Шаблон:JSTOR
• Шаблон:Citation. Шаблон:URL, L'Erma di Bretschneider.

External links

• Theoi Greek Mythology: IKHTHYOKENTAUROI
• University of Pittsburgh: Borges Center: Fantastic Zoology: Ichthyocentaur Шаблон:Webarchive
• GREEK MYTH INDEX: ICHTHYOCENTAUR
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art: WORKS OF ART: ASIAN ART: Marine Deity (Triton or Ichthyocentaur)