Possible Ancient Prototypes for the Cyprus Plates Downey, Susan B Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Winter 1967; 8, 4; ProQuest pg. 309 Possible Ancient Prototypes for the Cyprus Plates Susan B. Downey ON ONE of the seventh century! silver plates from Cyprus is depicted David slaying the lion (PLATE 3). David rests his left knee on the lion's back and braces himself with his right leg. He grasps the lion's ear with his left hand and raises a stick in his right. Scholars have been puzzled about the ancient model for this plate, as the type of Heracles and the Nemean lion on which the design ought to have been based is generally depicted in a very different way. In Graeco-Roman art one pose had become canonical -Heracles choking the lion with both hands.2 Scholars have tried to explain the deviation of the design on the Cyprus plate from its pre­ sumed prototype in various ways. John Beckwith suggests a derivation from the type of Mithra tauroctonos.3 Charles Morey suggests the type ofHerac1es and the stag as the model,4 Hugo Buchthal either Herac1es and the stag or Heracles and the bull.5 Weitz mann argues that the change from the usual pose represents the artist's reworking of a more spread-out composition in order to fit the scene into a circle.6 The peculiarity of the pose even led Wilpert to suppose that the plate is a forgery based on the pose of Mithra.7 Aside from the fact that the beast involved is not a lion, each of these suggested prototypes differs in some significant way from the pose of David on the plate. In an overwhelming majority of Mithraic sculptures, Mithra does not grasp the horn or the ear of the bull, but 1 For the date of the plate, see Erika Cruikshank Dodd, Byzantine Silver Stamps (DOStudies VII, Washington 1961) 189. 2 Roscher, Lexicon 1.2 (1886-90) 2223, 2243 S.V. HERAKLES. The predominance of this type is shown by Graeco-Roman coins: Reinhold Brauer, "Die Heraklestaten auf antiken Miinzen," ZfN 28 (1910) 38-48. See also the reliefs on sarcophagi: Carl Robert, Die antiken Sarkophag-Reliefs III (Berlin 1897) pIs. 31-38. 3 John Beckwith, The Art of Constantinople (London 1961) 53. , Charles R. Morey, Early Christian Art (Princeton 1953) 97. 6 Hugo Buchthal, The Miniatures of the Paris Psalter (London 1938) 17. G JWait 10 (1947) 39-40. 7 J. Wilpert, "Early Christian Sculpture: its Restoration and its Modern Manufacture," ArtB 9 (1926) 117. 309 310 POSSmLE ANCIENT PROTOTYPES FOR THE CYPRUS PLATES pulls the bull's head back by the muzzle.s Generally he plunges the dagger into the bull's throat; only exceptionally does he raise the dagger in his right hand.9 The type of Heracles and the stag which appeared as early as the beginning of the fifth century B.C. in the metopes of the Athenian treasury at Delphi and of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia remains almost constant throughout Greek and Roman art. Heracles kneels on the stag's back and grasps the antlers with both hands.l° Only on one coin does a variant appear, in which Heracles grasps the antlers with one hand and raises a club in the other.H This isolated instance may be accepted as a die cutter's invention. The type of Heracles and the bull is less fixed. Of the two major types, the one generally used on frieze sarcophagi, in which Heracles runs alongside the bull and grasps his horn or muzzle, may be dis­ missed as a possible prototype for the David scene.12 On the column sarcophagi Heracles usually kneels on the bull's back, a position influenced by the desire for parallelism with the deer slaying on the same sarcophagP3 The position of the arms varies. On a sarcophagus in the Villa Borghese, Heracles grasps the bull's horn with his right hand, while his left hand is lowered.14 On a sarcophagus in the Museo Torlonia, Heracles raises his club in his right hand and holds his left hand behind him.Is In neither case, then, does he take a position like that of David on the plate. In various parts of the periphery of the Roman Empire appears an odd type of Heracles kneeling on the lion's back and raising his club. One of these is a clumsy relief from Dura Europos on the Euphrates (PLATE 4, figure 1). Heracles kneels on the lion's back, raising the club behind his head with his right hand and grasping the top of the lion's 8 M. J. Vermaseren, Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae I (The Hague 1960) fig. 14, 15, 26,27 et passim. 9 Statue in Ostia by Krition of Athens: ibid., mono 230, fig. 69; terracotta plaque from Panticapaeum: ibid., mono 11, fig. 2; relief from Gaganica (Thrace): ibid., II, mono 2327, fig. 646. 10 Roscher, Lexicon 1.2 (1886-90) 2224, 2243 S.V. HERAKLES. Brauer, op.cit. (supra n.2) 57-8. Robert, op.cit. (supra n.2), pIs. 29-34, 37, 38. Elaine Loeffler, "Lysippos' Labors ofHerakles," Marsyas 6 (1950-53) 10-11. 11 Brauer, op.cit. (supra n.2) 58 pI. m.2. 12 Loeffler, op.cit. (supra n.10) 21 pI. v.l; Salomon Reinach, Repertoire de reliefs grecs et romains III (Paris 1912) pI. 30 no. 2; pI. 29 no. 2; pI. 51 no. 2. 13 Loeffler, op.cit. (supra n.lO) 21; Marion Lawrence, "The Velletri Sarcophagus," AjA 69 (1965) 215. 14 Reinach, op.cit. (supra n.12) pI. 169 no. 2; Loeffler, op.cit. (supra n.lO) pI. lV.2. 15 Reinach, op.cit. (supra n.12) pI. 340 no. 3. Dow;,\;n PLATE 3 D\ \11) SL\ YL,\(; Till Llo:\: By Z\:\TJ:\J SIL \TR PL\TE FRO:'.I CYPRUS TilE \lETROPOLITA:\ \l\·SEDl Of A.RI', :'\0. 17.190.394 ((;ifi of). l'itT)"'17t .\[,'rS;llll. 1917; dialH. 5} i11.) PLATE ..J. DO\\'iIY {l'hl1Ci..\IJ,I"dph l"l)/! l"lt':';Y l~1 1)111<1 l'III,/i(I/lIL'1I 11111(1)