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Animals in a repeated antithetic symmetrical heraldic<br />
composition flanking various objects, especially<br />
inscriptions, are popular on mosaic floor<br />
panels. The design is usually a pair of animals<br />
(sometimes identical) facing each other on either<br />
side of an object or an inscription. Saller and<br />
Bagatti (1949: 102) contend that animals facing<br />
each other were used because of the available long<br />
and narrow space; however, ‘There was certainly<br />
also some ideal concept which guided the artist<br />
in the choice of these subjects’.<br />
In synagogues and churches the flanked objects<br />
include vases, trees, plants, and inscriptions. In<br />
synagogues the animal representation flank the<br />
Torah Shrine and a Menorah, and in churches<br />
they flank an altar, a temple, trees, and mountains.<br />
A. Same Animals Flanking Inscriptions and Objects<br />
The design on synagogue pavements frequently<br />
contains an inscription flanked by lions and birds,<br />
often in a panel of its own. The animals are a pair<br />
of lions on mosaic panels in the synagogues at<br />
Hammath Tiberias, Hammath Gader, and Sepphoris<br />
(pl. IX.1; fig. IX-1). Conversely, different<br />
animals, a lion and a bull, flank an inscription<br />
at the entrance panel of the Beth "Alpha synagogue.<br />
At the Sepphoris synagogue, the partly<br />
destroyed band 1, composed of three panels, shows<br />
a pair of lions, each in his own panel, grasping<br />
a bull’s head in its front paw; they flank a Greek<br />
dedicatory inscription inside a round wreath in<br />
the central panel (Weiss 2005: 61-65, figs. 4-8).<br />
The lions and the bulls’ heads are symmetrically<br />
composed but are not identical in many details.<br />
A similar pair of lions, each seizing a bull’s head,<br />
are found on a relief from Tiberias (fig. IX-2).<br />
Lions flanking various objects and subduing<br />
bulls exmplifies a motif that evolved from ancient<br />
Oriental art; it is also prevalent in Hellenistic<br />
tombs. The lion symbolically signifies death claiming<br />
its victim. A similar motif of lions flanking<br />
designs of symmetrical antithetic animals 199<br />
CHAPTER NINE<br />
DESIGNS OF SYMMETRICAL ANTITHETIC ANIMALS<br />
a bull’s head may have been a stylized version of<br />
this same motif (Avigad 1976: 140,142).<br />
Lions flanking Jewish symbols such as the<br />
menorah or the Torah shrine may have had significance<br />
beyond their decorative function, in<br />
which the attributions of guardian and protector<br />
are attached to them—a feature already acknowledged<br />
in ancient Near Eastern art (Hachlili 1988:<br />
327-328). Avi-Yonah (1960a: 23; 1960b: 30 note<br />
19; see also Goodenough, 1958, VII: 29-37, 78-86)<br />
maintains that the lion is the symbol of Judah, the<br />
guardian and protector (based on Gen. 49: 9,<br />
Num. 23: 24, Deut.33: 20-22). This may explain<br />
the significance of lions flanking the Torah Ark in<br />
Beth "Alpha and the menorah at Ma#on (pls. II.2a,<br />
XI.1a). Possibly the lions flanking inscriptions at<br />
Hammath Tiberias, Hammath Gader, and Beth<br />
"Alpha (pl. IX.1) have the same significance as<br />
guardians and protectors. These finds seem to<br />
indicate that the lions were consistently selected<br />
in their capacity as representations of power or<br />
images of vigilance to adorn synagogues.<br />
A pair of pheasants flanking a Greek inscription<br />
and a pair of guinea-fowl flanking a vase and an<br />
Aramaic inscription praising the artists (pl. IX.2a;<br />
fig. IX.3b) lie on panels outside the border of the<br />
inhabited vine scroll on the pavement of the Beth<br />
Shean small synagogue.<br />
A pair of peacocks flank an inscription in a<br />
row of the inhabited scrolls mosaic at the synagogue<br />
of Gaza-Maiumas (fig. IX-3a; pl. VI.1). A<br />
pair of peacocks holding a wreath flank a Greek<br />
inscription on the mosaic of the small chapel<br />
at El-Maqerqesh at Beth Guvrin (fig. VI-11).<br />
On the border panel of the Huseifa synagogue<br />
a Hebrew inscription לארשי לע םולש ‘peace to<br />
Israel’ is flanked by a pair of menorot ( pl. IX.4a;<br />
fig. IX-4;).<br />
On a mosaic pavement in Tiberias synagogue<br />
a Greek inscription inside a wreath has the Jewish<br />
symbols of a lulav and an ethrog on either side<br />
(fig. IX-5).<br />
The antithetic composition seen on synagogue<br />
pavements also contains the Torah shrine flanked<br />
by lions and birds at the Beth "Alpha synagogue