Lecture: “When Gods and Heroes Retreat: The Death of Myth on Roman Sarcophagi” by Mont Allen

• Event Date: Sunday, October 12, 2014
• Time: 3:00 pm (CDT)
• Location: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
• Cost: Free Admission

• Talk

A perplexing development sweeps over Roman sarcophagi of the Late Empire: the unexpected Entmythologisierung or “demythologization” of their imagery. These lavishly carved coffins had featured bold mythological scenes since the very beginning of their mainstream production early in the second century AD, when inhumation had replaced cremation as the favored means for disposing of the dead. Evocative testament to Rome’s ongoing love affair with classical Greek culture, they derived visual force from their resonance with an artistic tradition centuries old while providing catharsis and consolation to those still living. How then to make sense of this imagery’s peculiar withering and subsequent abandonment on later sarcophagi, as mythological narratives were truncated, gods and heroes were excised, and genres featuring no mythic content whatsoever -- such as the late third century’s endless procession of specimens featuring bucolic shepherds and studious philosophers -- came to the fore?

That it must represent a major shift in the cultural values of the Late Empire is usually taken for granted, given the central position occupied by sarcophagi in the Roman visual imagination of the third century. But little consensus exists regarding its precise significance and the factors that may have driven it. Did it perhaps reflect the growing strength of Christianity? The political disenfranchisement of Rome’s old elite? The cultural illiteracy of its new? A desire for scenes of peace and tranquility as antidotes to the horrors of the Third Century Crisis? An eagerness for imagery more finely tuned to status display? A trivialization of myth brought about by the exceeding banality of mythological portraiture? Or something else entirely? This lecture provides an overview of the phenomenon, examines the various explanations proposed, subjects them to critical scrutiny, and ventures a new account of what was at stake in this, the most pivotal shift in the late Roman artistic landscape.

This event is organized by the Central Illinois Society of the Archaeological Institute of America and hosted by the Spurlock Museum.