Written and Visual Culture About the Mosaic of Castulo: The Influence of Lucian’s Works

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the new combination of two mythological legends with no apparent connection, the Judgement of Paris and Love of Selene and Endymion, listed as main scenes in a Hispanic mosaic found at Castulo in 2012. With this objective the peculiarities iconographic of both scenes, with an unpublished parallel Selene and Endymion, and their possible relation to different literary versions offered by ancient authors are analyzed, identifying the link between the protagonists of the two scenes on the Castulo mosaic in the works of Lucian, reflecting undoubtedly the semantic transformation of mythology and the influence of Written Culture in Visual Culture, in response to the extent of culture and the line of who commissioned the mosaic with critical ideas of Syrian author

Keywords

• judgement of paris
• selene/endymion
• roman mosaics
• hispania
• lucian