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Terracotta head of Alexander as Helios Kosmokrator. Bruxelles, Musée du Cinquanténaire (after Catalogue New York 1980, cat. 42).
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... on a big mosaic in one hall of a pal- ace at Ay Khanum (Afghanistan). 15 Alexander himself appears in a 3 rd - 2 nd century bce terracotta fragmentary vase from Pontus now in the Musée du Cinquanténaire (Bruxelles) as Helios Kosmokrator, with two lateral six pointed stars and a central crescent with an eight pointed star inside above his head (Fig. 4). Most likely, these signs were repro- duced in order to underline Alexander's deifi cation and not because of its apotropaic implications. In particular, although its appearance like Helios, more than one detail of the head of Alexander in this fragment refers to the typology of some Dionysus portrait. 16 It is worth insist- ing not ...
Context 2
... spirits of sky, earth, sun, moon, water, and fi re (Daffinà 1983, 162-163 according to a well-known Sasanian artistic formula. 43 Among the decorations which, possibly, were intended to be characteristic of this fi gure, there is also an isolated multi-rayed star-rosette on each shoulder and several geometrical elements scattered on the mantle (Fig. 14) : 44 both could be associated to the astral symbology of Ana̵ hita̵ found in some sources. A very similar image appear carved on one side of a capital said to have been transported from Bisutun to Ta̵ q-e Bosta̵ n (Fig. 15). 45 Reproductions of several star-rosettes inside circles on the mantle of this possible divine fi g- ure call to ...
Context 3
... for this specimen of (late) Sasanian art, the hy- potheses of chronology are quite controversial. There is then another point not to be neglect- ed as referring to the sculptures of the bigger grotto at Ta̵ q-e Bosta̵ n : the probable statue of Ahura Mazda̵ on the right of the central king is wearing a mantle embellished with six-point- ed stars (Fig. 14). Such an observation further supports the inconsistency of an association be- tween Ana̵ hita̵ and the star as an automatic one. Something more can be added on the iconogra- phy of this ...
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Citations
Traditional symbols and codes are very powerful elements of culture. In modernity they have become connected with the paradigm of intertextuality: being actual because of their modern and contemporary treatment, at the same time they are associated with intracultural communication, the national historical background and ethnic traditionalism, as well as having a lot of intercultural features. Paradoxically serving to define cultural boundaries and uniqueness, they also can testify to historical processes of cultural globalization.
The aim of this research is to contextualize the iconicity and contemporary meaning of modern national visual symbols (a rue, a six-petal rosette; a sun with wavy rays) and uncover the main differences and similarities between their ancient historical and folkloric meaning and actual modern interpretations based on art, folk art and art-historical, historical, archaeological and folkloric data. This interdisciplinary approach is based on semiotic (i.e. ethnosemiotic), ethnological interpretation and contextual analysis of the function and meaning of visual symbols as elements of culture.
The study clarifies how these ornamental signs of national identity, which are related to cultural heritage, but with intercultural historical origins, come alive and come to be newly interpreted by the social imaginary, influenced by scientific concepts in modern religious, spiritual and cultural life and their representations, and how these signs are prevalent internationally. It also analyses how, as logos in highly symbolic forms relating to mythical paradigms, these visual signs are involved in processes of the auto-communication of culture, its transmission, creation and memory, and how they are related to the boundaries of semiotic space or the semiosphere (Lotman 2005: 210; 2009: 131-142).
This paper is a study on the so-called "spread wings"—a particular element of the Sasanian art that is attested also in other regions of the Persian Empire in Late Antiquity, including the western coast of the Persian Gulf and the Caucasus. The spread wings can be observed on Sasanian coins above the royal crowns, which are considered specific for every Sasanian sovereign, supporting astronomical elements, like the crescent, star, and, possibly, the sun. The Arabs and the peoples of the Caucasus who adopted Christianity used the spread wings element as a pedestal for the cross. In Armenian literature, there are some connections between those spread wings and glory, so that a kind of pedestal could be considered a device to exalt or glorify the element above it. The floating ribbons attached to Sasanian crowns had possibly the same meaning and were adopted also outside of proper Persia. In the same way, it could be considered correct to identify those luminaries on Sasanian crowns as divine elements connected with the religion of pre-Islamic Persia.
