Funeral altar (Bômos)

Funeral altar (Bômos), 313-314, Otourak (near Acmonia, Phrygia), Marble. Musée d’Art et d’Histoire (Musée du Cinquantenaire, Brussels, Belgium). Made with CapturingReality.

The decoration of the four faces is composed of the following elements made difficult to read by a hammering due to the Christians: a) medallion representing a rider hero (Manes?) Surmounted by the bust of the Sun. Below niche with a bust of the goddess Hecate (?) B) a crown once containing a portrait (?) replaced by a cross; c) an eagle, a crown in its beak and indisctinct figures (a rider and two felines); d) Hermés holding the purse and the caduceus (?).

In the inscription spread over three faces (a-c), the high priest Athanatos Epitynchanos boasts of having received, thanks to his initiation by the high priestess Ispatalé, the gift “to make oracles real”.

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