JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

dura-europos
three closed doors pierce what was meant as the outer wall
and above it is the inner shrine still with its winged Victories.
The outer wall, however, has become a series of seven stone
walls, each a different color, which rise from the bottom to the
top and from side to side of the painting. Thus the three doors
and the inner shrine seem to be artificially superimposed upon
the walls. The inner shrine has ten columns instead of the
five in the Aaron scene, and like the three doors, it is closed.
The temple does not stand on the ground and no ritual is indicated
(and so it is called the “Closed Temple”). On each of
the two doors in the lower central doorway are three panels.
These depict, from top to bottom, a bull lying in the position
of sacrifice; a herculean figure standing naked and flanked by
a small naked figure; and the figure of Tyche.
To the right of the “Closed Temple” is the last painting
on this register of the west wall which depicts a third temple,
open and empty, with cult objects and the fragments of two
Persian deities strewn on the ground before it. Beside it is the
Ark on a cart pulled by two bovines that are being whipped
and led by two men in Persian costume. Three dignified men
in light-colored pallia walk abreast behind the Ark. The painting
was without doubt suggested by the biblical incident in
which the idol of Dagon collapsed before the Ark and the Ark
itself was returned to the Israelites on a cart. The left side of
the top register of the west wall is almost totally destroyed although
the base of a throne with “Solomon” written on it in
Greek and the bottom of various figures can be seen. Nothing,
however, can be identified. Opposite this, a long painting
presents the drama of the Exodus from Egypt. Egypt is
depicted as a walled town at the far right with figures of Ares
and two Victories above the open gate through which the Israelites
march out. They advance in four columns. In the upper
three columns two bands of armed troops guard both sides
of a row of 12 men in white pallia, presumably the 12 heads of
tribes. The bottom row is made up of ordinary people wearing
only the belted chiton. Leading them is Moses as a great heroic
figure. In a white dotted pallium Moses strides vigorously
toward the Red Sea, which he is about to strike, not with the
rod expected from the biblical narrative, but with the knobby
mace of Heracles. The sea before him is already closed in the
economy of narrative art and Moses is again depicted closing
it on its other side; the sea is filled with drowning people. Beyond
this Moses again touches water with his rod; this time
the water is a pool filled with numerous leaping fish to indicate
its vitality. The armed guards of the first scene stand behind
the pool with the 12 heads of the tribes; they hold banners
like those carried in mystic processions. When the sea
was divided, according to Jewish legend, 12 paths were made,
one for each tribe, and these are apparently indicated by a tier
of horizontal lines behind the third Moses. The other walls of
the room present biblical scenes in a similar vein but, since
they are only partially preserved, their overall plan, if any existed,
cannot be reconstructed. Of the east wall only the lowest
register and dado remain; one scene shows a few birds and
part of a table. Another apparently shows David and Abishai
approaching the sleeping Saul and Abner in the wilderness;
half the painting is occupied by an army on white horses led
by a captain. In the Esther scene the artist seems to have represented
divine intervention and this apparently also appears in
two scenes on the south wall. There, below a badly preserved
procession of the Ark of the Covenant are three scenes from
an Elijah cycle which first depicts Elijah coming to the widow,
and then the sacrifice of the prophets of Baal. The sacrifice
is being vitiated by a great serpent that attacks the small figure
of Hiel according to the legend in which Hiel was hidden
behind the altar to set fire to the sacrifice but was killed by a
snake. Beside this, in the corner adjoining the west wall, Elijah
offers his sacrifice while servants pour on water and three
great figures dressed in pallia bring down heavenly fire. Although
Elijah reviving the widow’s son should have preceded
the two scenes of sacrifice, it instead adjoins them on the wall
where it was apparently part of the original plan and the cycle
on the south wall, an afterthought probably intended to show
the lesser triumphs of the prophet as preparation for his final
power to raise the dead.
The north wall is better preserved but still only part remains.
In the single scene left at the top Jacob dreams of the
ladder. The design is identical with that in the catacomb of
Via Latina in Rome except that in the catacomb the angels
wear white pallia and at Dura-Europos, Persian dress. As the
pallium is the original form, the change to Persian dress in
the East must be of significance, but nothing suggests what
prompted it. The register beneath this contains only unidentifiable
fragments on the right; beside it is a fine representation
of a great battle centering on two champions attacking
each other with lances as in other scenes of Eastern art while
warriors in identical armor fight above and below them. One
champion rides on a black horse and the other on a white. In
the same painting a group of six warriors guard the Ark of the
Covenant while four men in Greek chitons carry it away from
the battle. The scene must be based on the battle of Ebenezer
where the Ark was captured but it also shows the turmoil of
the conflict between light and darkness (the two horsemen) as
against the triumphant reality embodied in the Ark. As in the
Elijah cycle the scene seems to be related to the one adjoining
it on the west wall where the heathen idols crash before
the Ark after the same battle. The scene on the side wall again
seems to amplify the one on the west wall but the artist’s exact
intention cannot be determined. Below this in the longest
painting in the room is a great pageant of Ezekiel. He is first
depicted being brought into the valley, then preaching to the
bones, and supervising their restoration to life. The continuation
depicts either the legendary beheading of Ezekiel or Mattathias
the Hasmonean slaying the faithless Jew.
The paintings at Dura-Europos were executed by at least
two artists. One, influenced by Hellenistic art, portrayed
the major biblical personages (Moses, Jacob, Joseph, etc.)
as Roman citizens dressed in the tunic and pallium, and the
Israelite host as Roman soldiers. The other drew his inspiration
from Persian art and portrayed his figures as horsemen
54 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6