Though the cross is one among the most universally acknowledged symbols of Christianity, different symbols have been broadly used in the early years. In instances of fierce persecution, as below the Roman Emperors Decius and Diocletian, symbols wanted to be extra allusive. What would possibly appear to be a Swastika on first inspection right here in truth seems to be a Gammadion [Latin, Crux Gammata]. It later got here to be often called the Crux Dissimulata, ‘the allusive Cross’. Some years earlier than Bishop Clement of Alexandria had left directions to the trustworthy to make use of such gadgets as the Dove, the Anchor and the Fish – a logo that survives to this very day!
For comfort the time period Gammadion will likely be used in this text to guage the occurrences of this system in each Greek and Roman contexts. The place did it come from? Almost definitely it was first fashioned from the juxtaposition of 4 capital Greek gammas. We discover each sacred and secular utilization of the Gammadion in the Roman Catacombs. It’s probably nonetheless that the Gammadion was in common use earlier than its adoption there as a variant of the Christian cross.
The Gammadion motif was carefully related to quite a few Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. It was linked to Artemis and Diana as the goddesses of looking, as exemplified in the mosaic of the Nice Hunt in Piazza Armerina in central Sicily. It seems on pictures of Aphrodite and was most likely considered a logo of fecundity. As a photo voltaic image it’s linked to Apollo and it was additionally definitely considered a logo of devotion to Gaia, the Earth Goddess.
Our principal concern right here is to evaluation its use in sepulchral contexts. In the mausoleum of S. Sebastiano there’s a sequence of 5 Gammadions, 4 of that are verso [crampons turning to the left] and solely one among which is recto [crampons turning to the right]. These ornamental parts nearly definitely pertain to the pagan burial of Marcus Clodius Hermes courting from the time of Emperor Hadrian [76-138AD]. Altars of dedication and gravestones have additionally been discovered close to Hadrian’s Wall in England, generally with the verso type of the Gammadion and generally with the recto kind.
Variant types of the Gammadion could also be discovered; generally occurring as a part of a composite motif, and infrequently incorporating the Xhi Rho and the Alpha and Omega. In the Through Latina there’s a catacomb portray depicting Moses and the Escape from Egypt with a Gammadion on his tunic. Nevertheless the use of the Gammadion shouldn’t be restricted to the Christian catacombs alone; it additionally seems in the Jewish catacomb at the Villa Torlonia, a district of Rome.
This and different gadgets have been positioned in the catacombs to create an environment of conviction that Christ was alive, and that believers would additionally enter their heavenly relaxation. Quite a lot of inscriptions from the catacombs of San Callisto and Domitilla, in conjunction with the Gammadion, provide an assurance of Episcopal blessing now and everlasting life hereafter.
We discover a related utilization on a fresco that decorates an ‘arcosolium’ in the cemetery of Generosa. An arcosolium had two components, the decrease of which was the precise sarcophagus on which a marble slab was positioned. On this fresco is depicted the ‘Good Shepherd’ with the Gammadion in the verso kind on each the proper and left of his tunic.
There may be additionally an instance of the Gammadion showing on the clothes of a ‘fossor’ or grave-digger. The image of Diogenes decorates the principal arcosolium in the cemetery of Domitilla, in the direction of the finish of the Fourth century when Damasus was Pope. The varieties are each recto and verso. In the following century Pope Leo I gave the Church of S. Susanna an altar frontal with 4 Gammadions embroidered upon it.
Different examples on gravestones from the Roman Empire have been discovered in Anatolia and elsewhere in these early centuries. We discover each pagan and Christian influences at work in Anatolia. Artist-sculptors of various backgrounds shared a standard retailer of iconographic motifs. Christian artwork differed principally from its pagan counterpart in the selection and interpretation of those motifs.
On gravestones the imagery was clearly eschatological [dealing with ‘the last things’] as the very perform of sepulchral artwork demanded that its contents ought to replicate everlasting values. In the Phrygian interval it was commonplace for these stelae [Latin for ‘upright stone slabs’] to be reduce in the type of a door, clearly representing the passage from this life to the subsequent.
