Folia archeologica 45.
Beszédes József: Dioscuros ábrázolású sarokkő Alsóhetényből
166 MIHÁL.Y NAGY Fig. 7. Bellerophon and the Chimaera from the Lovas casket 7. ábra Bellerophón és a Khimaira a lovasi ládikáról The inscription of the Heracles panel The characters behind the female figure on this panel were carved originally into the mould, consequently they appear in negative on the outer surface of the casket mount. (Figs. 6 and 10). The characters resemble the Latin letters V I E R X. The text could perhaps be interpreted as an abbreviation of the expression of best wishes uter(e feti)x. This kind of abbreviation is quite unfamiliar, although such inconsistencies are at present on the Tordas casket as well. The film for the picture on Fig. 11. had been placed in reversed position into the enlarger, during the enlargement, in order to illustrate on this picture, how the original writing on the mould looked like. Interpretation of the scenes on the Lovas casket As we have already seen, the craftsman of the moulds had applied iconographical elements of various origins. Because of the syncretism of these elements, we cannot identify the persons represented on these panels, only on the basis of classical mythology, and we may assume, that in this late period, the incosistency in the use of iconographical types, moreover the confusion of attributes are due to the phenomenon, called interpretatio germanica. As Dorottya Gáspár had pointed out, Apollo appears surelv only on the Lovas panels among Pannonian caskets (Fig. 5). 4 X Apollo playing the lyre appears on the golden patera from Pietroasa too, which, according to recent researches may have been made in Antioch around 360, probably 363 A.D., for the temple of Cybele, reconstructed by the emperor Julian. 4 !' On the patera, which according to other scholars, shows German deities in Roman disguise, appears a male god, sitting on a boar's skin and holds a mace with globular head in his right hand. 5 0 The god 4* Gáspár 1971, 34. " ! Harhoiu 1977, 10-11, Pl. VI: 1, with further literature. 1( 1 Harham 1977, Pl V:2; a better picture can be found in Dunäreanu-Vulpe 1967, Pl. 15.
