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However, Gregoria is not the name of a city.
Scholars have variously identified her as a Roman
female donor or the wife of the son of the 7thcentury
emperor Heraclius (Buschhausen 1986:
153-154). Avner-Levy (1996: 370-373) believes
that Gregoria was a local donor, and that the
attributes carried by the three personifications
are the same as those of the personifications of
Spring, Summer, and Autumn. Accordingly, they
represent not only Tychai but also ‘the three seasons
of fertility’. She asserts that the three personifications
represent the city, Madaba, the local
donor, Gregoria, and the capital of the Byzantine
Empire, Rome, as symbolizing ‘the notion of the
good order (Eunomia)’.
Though the personifications of Egypt at Sepphoris
and the three cities at Madaba are different
in style, design, execution, and meaning they
are all apparently based on portrayals found on
Roman coins of cities (Piccirillo 1993: 38; Weiss
and Talgam 2002: 66). The personifications of
Egypt on the Nile Festival mosaic at Sepphoris
and of the three cities at Madaba are unique,
whereas the usual representations of land and
cities are not personifications but renditions of
walled cities with gates, towers, and buildings,
often identified by their inscribed names (Piccirillo
1993: 34-37; Duval 2003).
E. Personifications of Time, Year, and Calendar
The year and calendar are personified on mosaic
pavements by three elements: the four seasons,
the months, or the zodiac signs representing the
twelve months, and the sun and the moon representing
day and night. On synagogue mosaics
all three are assembled to create a calendar. On
pagan and church mosaic pavements the three
elements appear individually in various versions.
The most common is a composition of the personifications
of the four seasons; there are a few
designs of the Labours of the Months, and to date
one with the sun and the moon.
Personifications of the Four Seasons
The personifications of the four seasons are the
legacy of common classical figural art. They are
a popular motif on mansions, villas, 3 and church
mosaic pavements, and form part of the zodiac on
synagogue floors of the Roman-Byzantine period.
They consist of female busts, with their attributes
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recalling similar depictions of Hellenistic-Roman
images. They are accompanied by their names in
Hebrew inscriptions on synagogue mosaics and
Greek inscriptions in other representations.
On synagogue mosaics at Beth "Alpha, Hammath
Tiberias, Huseifa, Na#aran, and Sepphoris
the four seasons lie diagonally in the four
spandrels of the zodiac scheme’s outer square;
each season is represented by a bust of a woman
wearing jewellery, equipped with identifying attributes,
and objects representing the activities of the
season; except at Huseifa, all are accompanied by
the Hebrew name of the month that represents
the relevant season (pl. III.11). The Beth "Alpha
seasons are the only winged figures, depicted frontally,
with richly coloured jewellery and decorations.
Only at Sepphoris is each season also
accompanied by its name in Greek. The attributes
of the Sepphoris seasons are depicted flanking
the image, not holding them as on comparable
pavements. The four seasons’ representations in
each design are similar in appearance, manner,
and style; the facial features, the eyes, and some
of their jewellery and dress are alike; only the
different attributes distinguish them.
Comparable renditions of the four seasons in
the corners of a similar zodiac design as women’s
busts with their typical attributes appear on the
5th-century mosaic pavement in the main hall of
the Tallaras Baths on the Greek island of Astypalaea
(Jacoby 2001: 226-7, figs. 2,5) (pl. III.12b)
and on the Antioch mosaic (fig. III-14).
Personifications of the seasons identified by
their Greek inscription on pagan and church
mosaics, unlike the portrayal of seasons as part
of the zodiac composition in the synagogue, are
depicted in medallions in various arrangements
and compositions: in medallions assembled in
the centre of the mosaic field (El-Maqerqesh and
Petra church), in square panels at the corners of
the mosaic field (Caesarea), in panels in the border
of the nave mosaic field (St. George’s church at
Mukkayyat), in acanthus or vine scrolls in the four
corners of the border of the nave mosaic field (Hall
of the Seasons and Hippolytus Hall at Madaba;
Bishop Sergius church at Umm al-Rasas), and
3 At the Roman villa of ‘En Yael (Jerusalem, late 3rd
century) four male busts of the personifications of the seasons
appear in rectangular panels on a corridor mosaic;
the busts are perhaps inspired by a western model (Roussin
1995: 31, 33 fig. 4).