User:Can isikli/Achilles Mosaic (Zeugma)



Achilles Mosaic (Akhilleus on the Skyros Island mosaic), is a floor mosaic of the Poseidon Villa in the ancient city of Zeugma. It is dated to the first half of the 3rd century AD. It is exhibiting at the Zeugma Mosaic Museum.

Description
The mosaic is thought to have been at the bottom of a pool because it has a fountain in the middle. At the center of the mosaic is Achilles, the greatest hero of the Hellenes during the Trojan War. It is depicted when Achilles was found by Odysseus in the palace of King Lycomedes on the island of Skyros. According to the mythology, Achilles lived in the palace where he was sent by his mother and father, who did not want him to participate in the Trojan War, wearing women's clothes and living with the king's daughters. When Odysseus started to make the trumpet sounds that herald the war, the women ran away, while Achilles took up arms and thus his identity was revealed.There is a wave motif right around the middle part where the scene is depicted.

"Achilles on the Island of Skyros" theme
Achilles appears in the Iliad written by Homer as the greatest warrior of the Greeks in the Trojan War and the theme of “Achilles on Skyros” is a subject that inspired various wall paintings and floor mosaics in the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Periods. There are approximately 15 mosaics depicting the mythology of Achilles on Skyros, dated between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD, in various regions of the Roman Empire such as Turkey, Spain, North Africa, Mauritania and Gaul.