Alexamenos graffito

File:AlexGraffito.svg

The image depicts a human-like figure affixed to a cross and possessing the head of a donkey or mule. In the top right of the image is what has been interpreted as either the Greek letter upsilon or a tau cross. To the left of the image is a young man{{snd}}apparently intended to represent AlexamenosRodolfo Lanciani, Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Discoveries, 1898, chapter 5 'The Palace of the Caesars'{{snd}}as a Roman soldier or guard, raising one hand in a gesture possibly suggesting worship.{{Cite book |last=Wright |first=Thomas |url=https://archive.org/details/ahistorycaricat00wriggoog/page/n61 |title=A history of caricature and grotesque in literature and art |date=1968 |publisher=New York, F. Ungar Pub. Co |others=Oxford University}}{{cite book |first=Augustus John Cuthbert |last=Hare |title=Walks in Rome, Volume 1 |publisher=Adamant Media Corporation |year=2005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NjvP6cmXX94C |page=201 |isbn=9781402186424 }}

The name Alexamenos (and its Latinate variant Alexamenus) is also attested in the instances of Alexamenus of Teos, student of Socrates, and the general, Alexamenus of Aetolia (2nd century BC), possibly composed of the common Greek compound elements of {{Wikt-lang|grc|ἀλέξω}} (aléxō, {{gloss|I defend, help}}) and {{Wikt-lang|grc|μένος}} (ménos, {{gloss|strength, bravery, power}}, etc.). Alternatively, it may be derived directly from {{lang|grc|ἀλεξάμενος}} (alexámenos), which is the participle of that same Greek verb.{{Cite web |url=https://www.behindthename.com/name/alexamenos/submitted |title=Behind the Name – Alexamenos |access-date=2019-05-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190523233134/https://www.behindthename.com/name/alexamenos/submitted |archive-date=2019-05-23 |url-status=live }}

Beneath the cross is a caption written in crude {{lang|grc|ΑΛΕ ΞΑΜΕΝΟϹ ϹΕΒΕΤΕ ΘΕΟΝ. ϹΕΒΕΤΕ}} can be understood as a variant spelling (possibly a phonetic misspelling){{Cite web |title=Blog {{!}} NT Resources - Greek for a Week |url=https://www.ntresources.com/blog/ |access-date=2025-03-23 |website=www.ntresources.com}} of Standard Greek {{Lang|grc|ϹΕΒΕΤΑΙ}}, which means {{gloss|worships}}.{{efn|More specifically, {{lang|grc|ϹΕΒΕΤΑΙ}} ({{lang|grc|σέβεται}}, sébetai) is the third-person present-tense singular indicative middle/passive conjugation for {{Wikt-lang|grc|σέβομαι}} (sébomai; see Ancient Greek grammar and Koine Greek grammar), which classically means {{gloss|to feel awe or fear before God, especially when doing something disgraceful}}. It also carries a more general meaning of feeling shame or religious awe. Its descendant in Modern Greek, {{Wikt-lang|el|σέβομαι}} (sévomai), merely means {{gloss|respect}}.}} The full inscription would then be read as {{lang|grc|Ἀλεξάμενος σέβεται θεόν}}, {{gloss|Alexamenos worships [his] God}}.{{cite book |first1=David L. |last1=Balch |first2=Carolyn |last2=Osiek |title=Early Christian Families in Context: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |year=2003 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VjMdbpzLhRQC&pg=PA103 |page=103 |isbn=9780802839862 }}{{cite book |first=B. Hudson |last=MacLean |title=An introduction to Greek epigraphy of the Hellenistic and Roman periods from Alexander the Great down to the reign of Constantine |publisher=University of Michigan Press |year=2002 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x2AD3M77TgMC&pg=RA1-PA208 |page=208 |isbn=0472112384 }} Several other sources suggest {{gloss|Alexamenos worshipping a god}}, or similar variants, as the intended translation.{{cite CE1913 |wstitle=The Ass (in Caricature of Christian Beliefs and Practices) |last=Hassett |first=Maurice M. |volume=1}}{{cite web|url=http://www.ctsfw.edu/library/files/pb/1560 |title=Home Page – Concordia Theological Seminary |publisher=Ctsfw.edu |access-date=2012-10-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704204343/http://www.ctsfw.edu/library/files/pb/1560 |archive-date=2008-07-04 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.sustain.ubc.ca/pdfs/seedreport04/dec04/Graffiti%20R%20Proj.pdf |title=A Sociological Analysis of Graffiti |publisher=Sustain.ubc.ca |access-date=2012-10-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004110730/http://www.sustain.ubc.ca/pdfs/seedreport04/dec04/Graffiti%20R%20Proj.pdf |archive-date=2011-10-04 }}{{cite web|author=Charles William King|title=Gnostics and their Remains|year=1887|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/gno/gar/gar71.htm|at=p. 433 note 12|access-date=2012-10-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104134234/http://www.sacred-texts.com/gno/gar/gar71.htm|archive-date=2012-11-04|url-status=live}}

In the next chamber, another inscription in a different hand reads "{{Lang|grc|ΑΛΕξΑΜΕΝΟϹ}} {{Lang|la|FIDELIS|italic=no}}" (Alexamenos {{Wikt-lang|la|fidelis}}), Latin for {{gloss|Alexamenos is faithful}} or {{gloss|Alexamenos the faithful}}.{{cite CE1913 |wstitle= Graffiti |first= Maurice M. |last= Hassett |volume=6}} This may be a retort by an unknown party to the mockery of Alexamenos represented in the graffito.

No clear consensus has been reached on when the image was made. Dates ranging from the late 1st century AD to the late 3rd century AD have been suggested,{{cite book |first=Hans |last=Schwarz |title=Christology |publisher= Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |year= 1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rcrsdlz041AC&pg=PA207 |page=207 |isbn=9780802844637 }} with the beginning of the 3rd century AD thought to be the most likely.{{cite book |first=Michael |last=Green |title=Evangelism in the Early Church |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |year= 2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9F-nnE2dfqUC&pg=PA244 |page=244 |isbn=9780802827685 }}

The graffito was discovered in 1857 when a building known as the domus Gelotiana was unearthed on the Palatine Hill. The emperor Caligula had acquired the house for the imperial palace, which, after Caligula died, became used as a Paedagogium (boarding school) for imperial page boys. Later, the street along which the house sat was walled off to give support to extensions to the buildings above, and it thus remained sealed for centuries.{{cite book |first=Edward L |last=Cutts |title=History of Early Christian Art |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |year=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zayvAvrH0EwC&pg=PA200 |page=200 |isbn=9780766187214 }}

The inscription is usually considered to be a mocking depiction of a Christian in the act of worship. The donkey's head and crucifixion would both have been considered insulting depictions by contemporary Roman society. Crucifixion continued to be used as a method of execution for the worst criminals until its abolition by the first Christian emperor Constantine in the 4th century.{{cite book |author-link=N. T. Wright |first=N. T. |last=Wright |title=What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity? |year=1997 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gCsD4nkYeEQC&pg=RA1-PA46 |page=46 |isbn=9780802844453 }}

It seems to have been commonly believed at the time that Christians practiced onolatry (donkey-worship). That was based on the misconception that Jews worshipped a god in the form of a donkey, a claim made by Apion (30–20 BC – {{Circa|AD 45}}–48) and denied by Josephus in his work Against Apion.{{Cite web|url=http://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/apion-2.html|title=Josephus: Against Apion II|website=penelope.uchicago.edu}}

Origen reports in his treatise Contra Celsum that the pagan philosopher Celsus made the same claim against Christians and Jews.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/04167.htm|title=CHURCH FATHERS: Contra Celsum, Book VII (Origen)|website=www.newadvent.org}}

Tertullian, writing during the late 2nd or early 3rd century, reports that Christians, along with Jews, were accused of worshipping such a deity. He also mentions an apostate Jew who carried around Carthage a caricature of a Christian with a donkey's ears and hooves, labeled {{Lang|la|Deus Christianorum}} {{lang|grc|ὀνοκοίτης}}{{cite web|url=http://www.tertullian.org/latin/apologeticum_becker.htm|title=Tertulliani Apologeticum|access-date=2018-08-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180912204755/http://www.tertullian.org/latin/apologeticum_becker.htm|archive-date=2018-09-12|url-status=live}} ({{gloss|The God of the Christians conceived of an ass}}).{{Cite web |title=Tertullian : T.H. BINDLEY, The Apology of Tertullian (1890) |url=https://www.tertullian.org/articles/bindley_apol/bindley_apol.htm |access-date=2025-03-23 |website=www.tertullian.org}}

In the image, Alexamenos is portrayed venerating an image of the crucifix, a detail that Peter Maser believed to represent actual Christian practice, the veneration of icons. This practice, however, was not known to be a part of Christian worship until the 4th or 5th century.

File:Anubis as Guardian of the Dead.png

File:The Gnostic Anubis.png

Some scholars have argued that the inscription is actually a depiction of the jackal-headed Egyptian god Anubis. For example, in his book on early Christian history published in 1876, Rev. John P. Lundy identifies the inscription as the "Gnostic Anubis."{{cite book |last1=Lundy |first1=John Patterson |title=Monumental Christianity; or, The art and symbolism of the primitive church as witnesses and teachers of the one Catholic faith and practice |date=1876 |publisher=New York, J.W. Bouton |page=61 |isbn=978-0-524-01114-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/MonumentalChristianity/page/60/mode/1up?q=gnostic+anubis}} He writes that the inscription depicts the "head of Anubis, or Thoth, the Egyptian Mercury and custodian of the dead".{{cite book |last1=Lundy |first1=John Patterson |title=Monumental Christianity; or, The art and symbolism of the primitive church as witnesses and teachers of the one Catholic faith and practice |date=1876 |publisher=New York, J.W. Bouton |page=59 |isbn=978-0-524-01114-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/MonumentalChristianity/page/60/mode/1up?q=gnostic+anubis}} 19th-century scholar Charles William King says it is disputed whether it is a caricature of a Christian convert or an adoration of the jackal-headed god Anubis.{{cite book |last1=King |first1=Charles William |title=The Gnostics and their remains : ancient and mediaeval |date=1887 |publisher=London : Nutt |page=433 |url=https://archive.org/details/gnosticsandtheir00kinguoft/page/n460/mode/1up?q=Alexamenos}}

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist|2}}

• Titus Flavius Josephus, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/apion-2.html Against Apion, II (VII), 2.80]
• Norman Walker, The Riddle of the Ass's Head, and the question of a trigram, ZAW 9 (1963), 219–231.

• Anti-Christian sentiment

{{Commons category}}

• [http://ntresources.com/blog/?page_id=2669 The Alexamenos Graffito: page by Rodney J. Decker]
• [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/gladiators/graffito.html Alexamenos and pagan perceptions of Christians]
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070121210001/http://www.textexcavation.com/alexamenos.html Alexamenos: a Christian mocked for believing in a crucified God]}}

Category:3rd century in art

Category:3rd century in the Roman Empire

Category:3rd-century inscriptions

Category:3rd-century Christianity

Category:1857 archaeological discoveries

Category:Ancient city of Rome

Category:Anti-Christian sentiment in Italy

Category:Archaeological discoveries in Italy

Category:Arts in Rome

Category:Christianity in the Roman Empire

Category:Christianity in Rome

Category:Crucifixion of Jesus in art

Category:Donkeys in art

Category:Early Christianity-related inscriptions

Category:Graffiti (archaeology)

Category:Palatine Hill

Category:Roman Empire art

Category:Roman-era Greek inscriptions

Category:Donkey deities