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1 results

  • One - Myth a Casualty of Christianity

  • Mont Allen, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
  • Book:
    The Death of Myth on Roman Sarcophagi
    Published online:
    13 January 2023
    Print publication:
    29 December 2022, pp 50-73

  • Summary

    Was the demythologization of Roman sarcophagus reliefs driven by a burgeoning Christian faith? To put it more succinctly, was myth a casualty of Christianity? This long-standing theory proposes that sarcophagi featuring mythless imagery – seasons, shepherds, philosophers, and hunters – gained in popularity because such imagery was religiously neutral and thus capable of appealing to both traditional “pagan” and new Christian clientele alike, a flexibility that the old mythological sarcophagi did not have. Testing this hypothesis requires that we consider Christian numbers and purchasing power in the city of Rome in the third century, as well as the question of who, exactly, was carving early Christian sarcophagi.