Archaeologists have found an important mosaic from the Roman Empire in Ketton, England. The work of art shows the course of the Trojan War in antiquity – albeit with an alternative narrative and based on a different model than previously thought. The source of this historical tradition is not the famous “Iliad” by Homer, but a play by the Greek playwright Aeschylus, as a new study shows. This tragedy called “The Phrygians” is less common today, but was apparently well known to the Romans and served as a template for numerous other works of art in the Mediterranean for centuries.
In 2020, a local resident in Ketton, Rutland, UK, accidentally discovered a Roman mosaic. Archaeologists then excavated and examined the work of art and the surrounding villa complex. They determined that the mosaic, measuring approximately 10 by 5 meters, once adorned the floor of a dining or audience room in a Roman villa and probably dates from the third or fourth century AD. According to the researchers, it is one of the most remarkable Roman discoveries in Britain. The Ketton mosaic shows scenes from the Trojan War and thus refers to Greek culture.
In this mythical campaign, Greek troops fought for ten years against the city of Troy, ruled by King Priam, to recapture the kidnapped Greek beauty Helen of Sparta. The Ketton mosaic depicts on separate and framed panels three important scenes from this war: the duel of the Greek hero Achilles with the Trojan prince Hector, Achilles’s dragging of Hector’s body by his feet, and the subsequent ransom delivery by King Priam, in which Hector’s body is literally weighed in gold. The motif of the fourth panel could not be reconstructed.
But not copied from the “Iliad”.
Until now, historians had assumed that the template for the comic-like ancient mosaic was Homer’s epic poem “Iliad”. Researchers led by Jane Masséglia from the University of Leicester have now checked whether this is true. To do this, they also reconstructed burned and previously unrecognizable sections of the tile mosaic. The new analyzes revealed: The mosaic is not based on the “Iliad” by the Greek poet Homer, but on a now little-known play by the Greek playwright Aeschylus. The script of this tragedy, called The Phrygians, written in the early fifth century BC, only exists in fragments today, but its contents are well preserved.
The Tragedy of Aeschylus also tells of the Trojan War, but with a slightly different narrative. As a result, Achilles and Hector fought not in a foot chase as in the Iliad, but while riding in horse-drawn chariots. The mosaic also shows clear abrasions on Hector’s towed body. If the Iliad had been the original, the corpse would have been protected by a golden shield. In the third panel of the mosaic, the ransom is explicitly handed over by weighing it in gold. In the Iliad, however, the ransom consists predominantly of counted textiles.
Both the “Iliad” and the play “The Phrygians” were well known to the Romans, as Masséglia’s team reports with a look at contemporary documents. However, the well-read and cultured owner of the villa in Ketton where the mosaic was found apparently preferred the now less common version of Aeschylus and had a work of art based on this model made in his house. “In fact, there are scenes in the Ketton mosaic that tell the Aeschylus version of the story,” reports Masséglia.
Roman-British craftsmanship in Mediterranean design
Analyzes of the mosaic also revealed that the images combine various ornate patterns and designs used by craftsmen in the ancient Mediterranean for centuries. “When I noticed the use of standard patterns in one panel, I realized that other parts of the mosaic were based on designs that we can see in much older cutlery, coins and ceramics from Greece, Turkey and Gaul,” reports Masséglia.
Accordingly, the stories of the ancient heroes Achilles and Hector were conveyed not only through texts, but also through images and works of art made from a wide variety of materials, from ceramics and cutlery to paintings and mosaics. Many of these works illustrated the narrative from Aeschylus’ “Phrygians”. “The top panel of the mosaic is actually based on a design of a Greek pot from the time of Aeschylus, 800 years before the mosaic was laid,” says Masséglia.
This suggests that the craftsmen in Roman Britain who constructed the mosaic were more cosmopolitan than previously thought. “Romano-British craftsmen were not isolated from the rest of the ancient world, but part of this larger network of trades that passed on their pattern repertoire through generations. In Ketton we therefore have Romano-British craftsmanship, but a Mediterranean design heritage,” explains Masséglia.
Source: University of Leicester; Specialist article: Britannia, doi: 10.1017/S0068113X25100342