Book contents
- The Death of Myth on Roman Sarcophagi
- Greek Culture in the Roman World
- The Death of Myth on Roman Sarcophagi
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Note on the Text
- Introduction
- One Myth a Casualty of Christianity
- Two Bucolic Sarcophagi and Elite Retreat
- Three Refuge from the Third-Century Crisis
- Four Culture, Status, and Rising Populism
- Five Myth Abstracted
- Six Distinguishing the Mythological
- Seven Conclusion
- Eight Coda
- Works Cited
- Index of Objects by City/Museum
- General Index
Six - Distinguishing the Mythological
Function and Form
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 January 2023
- The Death of Myth on Roman Sarcophagi
- Greek Culture in the Roman World
- The Death of Myth on Roman Sarcophagi
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Note on the Text
- Introduction
- One Myth a Casualty of Christianity
- Two Bucolic Sarcophagi and Elite Retreat
- Three Refuge from the Third-Century Crisis
- Four Culture, Status, and Rising Populism
- Five Myth Abstracted
- Six Distinguishing the Mythological
- Seven Conclusion
- Eight Coda
- Works Cited
- Index of Objects by City/Museum
- General Index
Summary
This chapter addresses the question of whether we have drawn too strong a distinction between the mythic and the non-mythic. What happens if we consider not iconographic criteria, but modal ones? Taken from the viewpoint of function rather than subject matter, the distinction between mythic and mythless imagery becomes shaky indeed. This chapter first revisits the relationship between the mythological and the so-called biographical sarcophagi, then shows how close attention to Roman sculptural technique – what we might call “material iconography” – provides traction for understanding how Roman viewers imagined the relationship between these genres.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Death of Myth on Roman SarcophagiAllegory and Visual Narrative in the Late Empire, pp. 167 - 196Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022