Journal of Mosaic Research (Nov 2015)
The Orpheus Mosaic of Prusias ad Hypium
Abstract
The mosaic of Orpheus was discovered coincidentally in a field in the southern region of the city in the 1950s. It is a floor mosaic arranged in rectangular form situated on the ground of a Roman villa in the city. The base of the mosaic measures 8.10 x 5.30 m. Orpheus is the son of Oeagrus, the king of Thrace and Calliope the Muse. When Orpheus started playing his lyre, as the melody he uttered was combined with the extraordinarily harmonious music of the lyre, even the wildest animals were tamed, the birds flying in the sky halted to listen to him, and the trees and the rocks caught in the harmony of the music accompanied him by swaying and saluting. The mosaic of Prusias ad Hypium is arranged in a conventional style with Orpheus sitting on a rock as a central figure being surrounded by the animals of paradeisos. The personifications of four separate seasons are placed at the four corners of the round panel in the center of which Orpheus sat. A guilloche in a single row is used in the frame decoration of the panel where Orpheus, the animals and the four seasons are present. The border in the shape of a rectangle comprising intersecting circles consists of two rows at the upper short edge, three rows at the lower short edge and one row at each of the long edges. The border consisting of consecutive dark brown triangles is the outermost pattern encircling the mosaic. Rock, tree or plant motifs that are the indicators of natural environment are not used. The Orpheus mosaic of Prusias ad Hypium should belong to late 3rd-early 4th century A.D. owing to its stylistic and iconographic features.
