Kourion Complex Palace (Mosaics) Fales, c. 1955 (1 of 2)De C. Fales (probably)

13

room (52) and in the west wall, a wide door in the middle, probably [handwritten: flanked] flanked on either side by two horizontally oblong windows, leave little room for any large or extensive symbols.

Now the design of the mosaic floor consisted of cruciform shapes and pictures of birds and fishes, each picture, a different species. They are related to mosaics with pictures of many kinds of animals. At Antioch, for instance, there was a mosaic with different species of fishes, and another, of birds. [handwritten: 62] [handwritten: 63] This depiction of various species probably finds its origin in the classification of plants and animals by Theophrastus. [handwritten: 64] These [handwritten: however,] direct antecedents of the birds and the fishes have little to do with the relation of these pictures to the [handwritten: ζηνατα Χριστου/] of the inscription. As the cruciform shapes may be purely fortuitous decoration, we [handwritten: point] must [handwritten: xxxx] consider the birds and the fishes. We have already noted in Ps. Clementine how the pagan symbols were [handwritten: xx] overcome by baptism. Now Theophilus of Antioch states rather clearly that the animals born out of the water [handwritten: on the fifth] [handwritten: at the] [handwritten: day] [handwritten: time] of the creation, [handwritten: a symbol] xxxxxxxx i.e. the birds and the fishes, are symbols or proof, [handwritten: σημειον] of the baptism which was come with Christ, [handwritten: ἡ σέ πεισερα τα ἐκ των ὑδάτων ἔγεννήθη ζώα· σί ωἰ καὶ ἐν τοώτοις δείκνυται ἥ τὸν Θεοώ. Τίς γὰρ δύναται πληνόν καὶ γοών παντοποιητοώ Ἑαρρησαν]