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eagle. Another Nilotic scene appears on a southern
intercolumn panel of the same Church at
Tayibat al-Imam, Hamah (Zaqzuq and Piccirillo
1999: 448, plan I, fig. 17).
Nilotic landscape scenes and isolated motifs
of Nilotica, including such images as animal
combat, water plants, crocodiles, ducks, and the
Pharos, the Alexandria lighthouse, are depicted
on three Byzantine mosaic pavements of Cyrenaic
churches: on the panel of the north-east chapel
at Qasr-el-Lebia, on the north aisle and southeast
chapel of the Cyrene cathedral, and on the
mosaic pavement of the nave of the East Church
at Qasr-el-Lebia (Alföldi-Rosenbaum & Ward-
Perkins 1980: 45-49, 59-60). Although differently
executed they are apparently based on a common
model.
B. The Repertory Elements
The iconographic elements of the Nilotic scene
compositions consist of (see Table V.1; see also
Versluys 2002: 261-299):
• The Nile
personification
• Nilometer
•
•
•
•
•
•
Towered building or a walled city with
an arched gate, with or without the name
inscribed in Greek ‘Alexandria’ or ‘Egypt’
The crocodile and animal combat: a buffalo
(cow) attacked by a crocodile
Sailing boat with men and sometimes winejars
Water plants, nilombos plants like lotus
and papyrus
Fishes
Birds such as cranes, herons, ibis, flamingos,
ducks
The Personification of the River Nile
The Nile river personification is a rare occurrence;
he is portrayed as a male figure, reclining
on an animal. On the bottom mosaic panel of the
House of Leontis at Beth She"an, the Nile dominating
the scene is rendered as a bearded, large,
half-naked figure, seated on an animal identified
as a crocodile (Zori 1966: 131) or a hippopotamus
(Roussin 1981: 7); his outstretched right arm
holds a duck; his left arm rests on a globular jug,
from which the Nile water flows down along the
lower part of the panel (pl. V.1).
iconographic elements of nilotic scenes 101
At Sepphoris, in room 6 of the Nile Festival
Building (Weiss and Talgam 2002: 61, 66-67)
the partly destroyed Nile river personification is
seen on the upper right corner of the mosaic as a
male figure reclining on the back of a large hippopotamus,
resting on an amphora from which
water streams; the Nile flows down, out of the
amphora and the animal’s mouth, along the lower
part of the centre of the pavement (pl. V.3). The
Nile figure is rendered as an old man with a bare
upper body, his right arm outstretched. Three
putti carrying gifts accompany Nilus. Two other
putti appear; one is mounted on the other’s back,
and engraves the number IZ on the Nilometer.
A symmetrical counterpoint in the composition
at Sepphoris shows on the upper left corner: this
is a reclining female figure who personifies Egypt,
the female consort of Nilus, also represented as
Euthenia, holding a cornucopia in her left hand
and leaning with her right elbow on a basket of
fruit (pl. VIII.1a). She personifies the abundance
brought about by the inundation of the Nile (for
the allegorical picture of a goddess and the horn
of plenty as a symbol of truphe see Meyboom 1995:
78 and 334, note 198).
The personification of the Nile at Sepphoris
resembles other renditions of the Nile in the art of
Late Antiquity (Dunbabin 1978: 109-110, pl. III;
Ostrowski 1991: 56, fig. 1), such as the 2nd- or
3rd-century mosaic pavement from the Villa del
Nilo near Lepcis Magna (Hermann 1959: 61-62;
Whitehouse 1979: 128, M34; Roussin 1981: 9-10;
Versluys 2002: no. 91). The tepidarium mosaic
shows a Nile celebration procession, featuring the
personified Nile reclining on a hippopotamus and
holding a cornucopia in his right hand, accompanied
by nine putti, two nymphs, and priests; an
inscribed Nilometer is rendered at the left end.
In this scene the Nile god is the focus of the representation.
A different depiction of the Nile appears in
the late 5th or early 6th century on two mosaics
discovered at Syria and Phoenicia: on the
central panel of the mosaic at Jiyé (Phoenicia) a
half naked bearded figure of the Nile is rendered
reclining on a cart drawn by a pair of hippopotami
lead by a putto, he is wearing a horned hat,
holding a sistrum in his right hand and a plant
in his left (Ortali-Tarazi and Waliszewski 2000:
168, figs. 1, 3).
A slightly similar portrayal appears on the 6th
century outer border of the mosaic pavement at
Sarrîn (Balty 1990: 60-68, pls. XXXI-XXXIII,