Iconographic and iconological evaluation of the tryphe and bios mosaic

Abstract

Mosaic pavements used in the decoration of public and private buildings with great interest, especially in the Roman Period, are very rich in terms of repertoire. Most of these mosaics consist of mythological designs. Among these, in addition to the personifications of gods and goddesses, some allegorical representations came to the fore. Allegory can simply be thought of as a concretization or visualization of a concept or idea for those to be understood better. In the reflection of the Greco-Roman tradition on the mosaics, we can observe that especially moral and personal values are brought to the foreground. From this point of view, designs that symbolize comfort and luxury, such as Tryphe and Bios, are quite different and varied. The subject of the study is the Tryphe and Bios Mosaic, which represents one of these examples and is exhibited at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada today. The mosaic, which is thought to be of Syrian Emesa origin and dated to approximately AD 350-400, will be defined in detail and will be evaluated iconographically and iconologically.