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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Dal kētos al sēnmurv? Mutazioni iconografiche e transizioni simboliche del kētos dall’Antichità al Medioevo (secolo XIII)

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Using literary and iconographic sources the paper discusses the image of kētos from Antiquity to Middle Ages. The kētos, according with Greek literature, was used in the myths of both Perseus and Andromeda and Heracles and Hesione. The archaic images of the sea-monster are identifiable on Corinthian vases, on which we have only heads of leonine form. From 5th century the classical type of kētos is distinguished from all other Greek sea-monsters by a long neck, fins (also like wings), long muzzle and corrugated upper surface (like a crocodile), and leonine forelegs. Separated from histories of Andromeda and Hesione, the kētos is represented as a mount of marine gods and, especially, Nereides. The transition from Late Antiquity to Early Christian art is well represented by Aratea and by the Book of Jonah, on which the kētos was reproduced using the classic type. It served for representing Jonah’s big fish on sarcophagi and catacombs paintings, according to Midrash commentary who distinguished kētos from Leviathan. During the Middle Ages (from 11th-12th century) the image of kētos changed gradually in two directions: from classical type into a kind of a panther/ dog, sometime winged, with a sea-serpent tale (Campanian ambos) ; or into a simple big fish as reproduced on manuscripts and italian sculptures. The article also discusses the influence of Sassanid Sēnmurv, concluding that the kētos was essentially an elaboration of models from Antiquity