Tyche of Constantinople

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sardonyx cameo
, 4th century)

The Tyche of Constantinople was the deity of fortune (

Malalas says that her name was Anthousa (Roman equivalent Flora).[1] Her attributes included the mural crown, cornucopia, a ship's prow,[2] and a spear.[3] She was depicted standing or seated on a throne.[4] As the personification of the city, Tyche or Anthousa could be abstracted from her origins as a Classical goddess, and like Victory made tolerable as a symbol for Christians.[5] Under Constantine, the Tychai of Rome and Constantinople together might be presented as personifications of the empire ruling the world.[6]

Tyche of Constantinople appears in two basic guises on coins and medallions. In one, she wears a helmet like

Dea Roma. In the other, which was used for instance on silver medallions in 330 AD to commemorate Constantine's inauguration day, Tyche wears a crown of towers representing city walls, and sits on a throne with a ship's prow at her feet.[7]

The iconography of Tyche shared some attributes with

Imperial cult for the newly Christianized regime.[9] Proskynesis (prostration as submission to authority) was performed before emperors and symbols of imperial authority including the Tyche, and later before Christian symbols.[10]

One tradition held that Constantine had a cross inscribed on the Tyche of Constantinople near the

Eastern Roman Empire into the 6th century, among such examples as a consular diptych and jewelry ornaments.[13]

References

  1. ^ Jonathan Bardill, Constantine, Divine Emperor of the Christian Golden Age (Cambridge University press, 2012), p. 252.
  2. ^ Bardill, Constantine, Divine Emperor, p. xvi.
  3. ^ Martin C. Ross, Catalogue of the Byzantine and Early Mediaeval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection: Jewelry, Enamels, and Art of the Migration Period (Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1965, 2005, 2nd ed.), vol. 2, p. 31.
  4. ^ Bardill, Constantine, Divine Emperor, p. xvi.
  5. ^ Bardill, Constantine, Divine Emperor, pp. 252, 262.
  6. ^ Bardill, Constantine, Divine Emperor, p. 262.
  7. ^ Bardill, Constantine, Divine Emperor, p. 262
  8. ^ Bardill, Constantine, Divine Emperor, p. 262.
  9. ^ Averil Cameron and Judith Herrin, Constantinople in the Early Eighth Century: The Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai (Brill, 1984), p. 36.
  10. ^ Cameron and Herrin, Constantinople in the Early Eighth Century, p. 236.
  11. ^ Bardill, Constantine, Divine Emperor, p. 315.
  12. ^ Cameron and Herrin, Constantinople in the Early Eighth Century, p. 25.
  13. ^ Ross, Catalogue of the Byzantine and Early Mediaeval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, pp. 31–32, 61.

External links

Media related to Tyche of Constantinople at Wikimedia Commons

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