Athena relief of Sömek
36.60444444444434.080833333333Koordinaten: 36 ° 36 ' 16 "N, 34 ° 4' 51" E
The Athenarelief of Sömek is about two kilometers north of the village in the district Sömek Silifke in the Turkish province of Mersin, near the valley of the river Limonlu, the ancient Lamos. The river formed in ancient times the boundary between the Rough Cilicia ( Cilicia Tracheia ) in the west and the plains of Cilicia ( Cilicia Pedias ) in the east.
Description
The relief is carved at a height of about 1.50 meters above the ground in the bedrock. It has a total height of 1.30 meters. In a niche, which is closed at the top of a shell, is the image of a woman who can be identified, among others, by the inscription as the goddess Athena. The niche of pilasters with block-shaped, forward projecting capitals is limited on both sides. The goddess is wearing a peplos, the. Waist above the Apoptygma, the upper part of the garment, is held together by a belt At the bottom of the garment fits close to the body, so that the lower leg is clearly revealed underneath. Accumulates at the ankles and feet of fabric, side run away wrinkle lines to the ground.
The right arm of the figure is raised and holding a spear, the left, hanging, one standing on the ground, side plate shown. The lance is on a column that connects directly to the left pilaster. To lance and column winds a snake, whose lower end extends over the ground to the feet of Athena. Above the shield and the left arm of the goddess are head and mane of a bridled horse to see whose body disappears behind her right arm. On the right are pilasters to see a star, a crescent moon and a thunderbolt. Between the Moon and Lightning bundle traces can be detected a chipped bust. The same kind of tracks can be found to the left of the left pilaster, which itself is undecorated. To the right of the right boundary of the image is engraved a symbol, a sign consisting of a stand with two lying on it crescents and a ball with star. Serra Durugönül that explored the Cilician rock reliefs in the 1980s, believed in a candlestick, that is a cult object, which is to be interpreted as a simplified representation of the Jewish seven-branched candelabrum.
Between the left held lance and the female figure is the inscription engraved in a narrow field in 13 rows. In it the goddess as Αθηνα Κρισοα (Athena Krisoa ) is called, said from a place name derived Κρισοα epithet refers to a local version of the deity; the corresponding place Κρισοα could not yet be localized. But he should certainly have been in the north of the Rough Cilicia. The same epithet appears a further inscription on in the area, both Athena is called Ὀρεία ( resident about in the mountains).
Interpretation and dating
The figure of the goddess Athena Parthenos corresponds to the type of, inspired by the statue of Phidias in the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens. From this statue numerous imitations were already present in ancient times, some of them also in Cilicia. In common with the original by Phidias exist primarily in clothing, the shield and the left-wing column. This was the mainstay of the right hand, there carries on the Athena Nike, a figure in the original statue. Even if they had no supporting function more when relief and without the Nike, the artist did not want to give up the distinctive attribute well.
The occurrence of Jewish symbols such as the menorah is not rare in Cilicia. Examples, for the five - occurring here instead of seven-branched variant, there is, among other things Köşkerli, Çatıören, the obvious Örendibi, the country castle of Korykos and on an altar stone in the Museum of Silifke. The common occurrence with pagan symbols, like here the thunderbolt of Zeus, has loud Durugönül indicate a equitable coexistence of Jews and Romans in the region.
Especially given the nature of the relief above the final shell come to Durugönül for the formation of the relief two possible periods in question. The first would be the time of the Emperor Claudius and Nero in the first century, the second the nachhadrianische in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD Because of comparisons with other Anatolian rock reliefs, including a moon god in osrhoenischen Sumatar, the inscription of a according to dates from the year 165, they dated the relief of the 2nd century.