Gephyra (May 2019)
Χρυσᾶ τῶν Ἡλιάδων τὰ δάκρυα. Golden flow the tears of the Heliades or the mithric interpretation of the Phaeton myth
Abstract
In the furnishing, not only of the Mausoleum of Belevi near Ephesos but also in the palace of Nero (Domus Aurea) in Rome the myth of Phaëton is shown. It will be explained by the builders to be the reborn Mithras in order to create a new golden age. Analogous to the Telephos-Frieze from the Pergamon-Altar it is supposed that in both places it was planned to show the myth of Phaëton and his sisters, the Heliades, narrative in more than one sequence. But not the western version, which accused Phaëton of presumption and justified his punishment and destruction by Zeus, should be shown but the eastern interpretation, which demanded in Mithraic understanding the sacrifice of the son by his father in the expyrosis, in the decline of the world by fire. Mithras as Kosmokrator, „the Assyrian Phaëton in Persia“ (Nonnos) guarantees a new golden era (aurea aetas). It is not astonishing that in fine arts from antiquity to the renaissance (Michelangelo) to modern times (Goethe) artists follow the literary western examples (Ovid, Philostrat). Only the amphiglyphic relief from Dieburg in Germany testifies that the Mithraic interpretation existed (Nonnos, Dio Chrysostomos). This is not contrary to the assumption that the tombs in Halikarnassos as well as in Belevi are not built for one ruler but for dynasties. Therefore, the mausolea for the Hecatomnids and the Antigonids were in need of different places for funerals and cult of the ruling dynasts in the upper floor with sarcophags and statues and the normal family-members of the dynasty in the podium.
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