ACHELOOS ,The King of Euphrates... Acheloos is shown with the horn of furtility on his head seattering around fruit and nuts and has a mustache in the shape of wings. He has flowers in his hair and has two horns of furtility on the upper part of his forehead. Fruits and plums and sunseed flowers are shown in this mosaic all sorrounded by branches and the horn of furtilitiy. Acheloos was one of the sons of Okeanos and Tethys.According to one of the myths; Akheloos, who is the neighbour of the King Oineus in Kalydon Aitolia ask the Kings doughter Deineria to merry him. Acheloos had the ability for metamorphosis as the king of river and could turn into different things. He could sometimes be a bull, sometimes a dragon. This talent scared Deineria. When Herakles came to Oineus’s palace and made a proposal for marriage for his doughter , Deineria accepted it at once. But Herakles had a very hard time taking away his bride because of Acheloos who could a big fight tool place between the two rivals. Acheloos used all his talents and Herakles used all his power. Durring the fight Acheloos turned into a bull. But Herakles broke one of his horns. Then Acheloos considered himself defeated and he burrendered. He left the right of marriage with Deineria to Herakles but asked for his broken horn to be returned to him. Herakles in return presented him with, one of flower and fruit making horns of goat Amaltheia the wet nurse of Zeus. Some authers claim that this wonderful horn actually belonged to Acheloos himself. Today the Acheloos river is called Astropotama and flows into the Greek sea at Patlas Bay.  ANTIOPE and SATYROSAntiope was a very beautiful woman. Zeus had fallen in love with her ,after seeing her beautiy Zeus approaches Antiope in shape of a Satyros (man participating in a Dionysos ceremony by drinking wine) and steals Antiope’s heart . Zeus had two children from her. After a time, Zeus leaves her and Antiopes leaves her home and marries with Sicyklon(Cyclon), the king of Epopeus. The GYPSY Girl (GAIA) This mosaic which was found during the Zeugma excavations in 1992, became the symbol of Zeugma because of the mysterious look she had in her eyes.The girl’s resemblance with gypsies caused this mosaic to be named as “Gypsy”. Some sources claim that “she” is GAIA, the Goddess of the Earth.In Mythology, it is considered that GAIA is the first element allgod’s ancestors have derived from.Although GAIA has a major role in Hesiodos’s Theogonia,it is never seen in Homeros’s poems.  According to Hesiodos ,GAIA without a male element gave birth to the “sky” and the “mountains” and also the “sea”.After the birth of the sky GAIA coupled with him and therefore all her children became real Gods and were not just simple elements of power first six titans Okeanos,Koios Krios.Hyperion,Iapetus and Kronos and six titanids; Theia, Reia, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoibe, Tehys were born.All of these were feminene Godlike creatures.The youngest one of this generation was Kronos.It was followed by Kyklops. These were godlike creatures that ruled the “thunder”,”Lightning”,”thunderbold”,There names were; Arges, Steropes and Brontes.And at last from Ouranos’s loves gigentic Hekatogkheirs were born.They were much for violance and had hundred arms. DEMETER  The mosaic which the Goddess of earth with the horn of fertility on her left shoulder is shown in a square pool crowned with flowers and ears of wheat right to the west of Gods related to Euphrates.The mosaic artist has created an equation of production by first ,having the water go through the pool where the God of Euphrates are pictured and have it reach the pool where the Goddess of fertility Demeter is,and this way he describes the abundance and fertility. . In addition Demeter’s bust, is placed in the middle of decoration that is seen in the following order, an octagonel band an two equilateral rotated 90 degrees and placed inside each other and the eight axe description taking place on each of eight corners at the ornamentation. This composition with the geometric decorations of number eight is surrounded by a circular band placed inside a square, decorated with plants. The number eigth must have something to do with Demeter’s daughter Persephone. Because Zeus had decided that she should spend 2/3 of year (8 months) at the time of blossoming and fruit harvest time with her mother Demeter and the other 1/3 the winter period with her husband Hades. The Birth of APHRODITE (VENUS) 
Aphrodite (Venus),the Goddess of Love sometimes considered as the daughter of Zeus and Dione and sometimes she is said to be the daughter of Ouranos.According to the myth, sexual organs of Ouranos were cut seperate from his body and had fallen into the sea.And Ouranus had a daughter from the sea. So she was called the “woman born from the waves” or “woman born from the seeds of the gods”. Aphrodite was taken first to Kytirra then to the coasts of Cyprus by the Zephyroses. There ,she was met by the seasons,dressed and made up and taken to the world of immortality. In Lukianos’s myth, it’s said that Aphrodite was first raised by Nereus.Later, Platoon has come out with two different Aphrodite concepts ; the naive love goddess “Aphrodite Oirania”,daughter of Ouranos and the daughter of Dione ordinary love goddess “Aphrodite Pandemos”. Aphrodite was married with the god Hephaistos,although she was in love with Ares, the god of war. Homeros tells the story of how they had been cought and how everything was told to Hephaistos.Hephaistos had set a trap for them. One night when two lovers get together in Aphrodite’s bed, Hiphaistos had thrown his magical net on them an captured them together in the net,and called all the gods of Olympos to see this.Upon Posedion’s requests ,Hephaistos had agreed to remove the net.But the Goddess Aphrodite in shame ,had left to run away to Cyprus and Ares to Thrace. From Aphrodites affairs, Eros, Anteros, Deimos and Phobes (horror-fear), Harmonia (Later bacame Kadmos’s wife in Thebai) had been born. One day there had been a contest between the Goddesses ;Hera , Athena and Aphrodite.Zeus told Aleksandros,who was later called PARIS, to act as an arbitrator and ordered Hermes to take them to Ida Mountain. The three goddesses startad arguing in front of Aleksandros.They were praising themselves for their beauity and were promising him many presents.Hera promised him the kingdom of the universe,Athena promised him never to be defeated in battles Aphrodite promised him a marriage with Helene.At the end,Aleksandros had chosen Aphrodite to be together with his love Helene.Consequently Aphrodite had caused the Trojan war to start. All through the war she supported the people of Troy,she especially protected Paris.When Paris fought one to one with Menelaos, she protected and saved him just before he was defeated and caused the war to go in general.Later she protected and saved Aineras in the same way just when he was about to be killed by Diomedas. Diomedas even wounded the goddess.But unfortunately Aphrodite’s protection could not save Troy from being defeated or Paris from being killed.But she could make the Troy race to go on.By her support Aineis, his father and son could escape from the city to find new land and start a new state.That is the reason why Aphrodite/Venus is considered to be the protecting Goddess of Rome.Besides Venus is considered to be the ancestor of Julii family (because Julii was from Julius clan therefore he was from the ancestors of the goddess).For this reason Sezar had built a temple for her named Mother Venus or Venus Genetrix. The goddess’s favorite animals were pigeons. For that reason pigeons had been put in her cart. Her favorite flowers were roses and daffodils. . ARIADNE’s Wedding with DIONYSOS  The 10 figures in the mosaic from left to right are:A man figure standing,drinking wine out of a cup, A man sitting and holding a torch, A dressed woman walking twords right with her arm up in the air holding something in her hands which can not be seen due to the damage in that part of the mosaic. A woman sitting on the throne is shown with most amount of clothes looesly covering her body around her torso, A men’s figure shown with a halo around his head , Next to throne a child figure, Two clothed women figure walking to the left. Which on the left is demaged at the head part and the one on the right holds a boy with things inside and the lid open.On the far right there is a woman holding the flute next to a man with beard and naked torso. The couple in the center,Eros next to them,the woman with a box of presents and another woman figure with her arms up giving the impression that she is either placing a ring of leaves or spinning yarn to weare the net of feith makes us think that this mosaic pictures Dionysos’s wedding. EROS (Love) and PHYSKE (Spirit/Soul) 
Eros brings joy and beauty to the world just like his mother Aphrodithe, fills people’s heart with the passion and prepares them either for happines or for death. He had pair of wings on his back. He would travel the world flying with those wings and spread beauty audors of flowers where he passed over.He always had arrows in his hand. He would shoot people at heart by his arrow and make them fall in love with another . One day he himself fall in love with a beauty, Physke.She was one of the three daughters of a King. She was so beautiful that people were sometimes confused her with Aphrodithe and worshipped her. Aphrodithe was very much disturbed by being confused with a mortal. For this reason she called her son Eros and told him make Physke fall in love with the ugliest man in the world. Eros took off to carry out his mother’s orders. When he found Physke, Eros , was ready to make this arrogant girl, who brogged of not fall in a love with anyone, fall madly in love with the worstman in the world, but just when he pointed his arrow to shoot at her heart, Physke’s beauty devastated him. He fall in love with Physke instead of making her fall in love with someone else.Physke’s only wish was to see the face of this young man who has madly in love with her. But Eros never accepted this. He always met her after dark and left before dawn, he had prohibited any light in the palace no candles no fire. It was no use for Physke to bag he never gave in an an Physke loved Eros without seeing him or knowing whole was. One day Physke’s sisters told her that the man she loved, was the ugliest looking beast of the world. She could not resist her curiosity and hid a lamp under a vase and waited for Eros’s arrival that night. Eros with no suspicion came to the palace and spent the night with Physke. When he fell a sleep ,Pyske got up quietly and took the lamp from under the vase and when she appmached the bed she was as tonished at what she saw. When she expected to see an ugly face, she met with the most handsome young man one could imagine. When she saw this handsome face beyond description ,she fell even more in love with him. When she learned forward to kiss him on the forehead one drop of hot oil from the lamp fell on to his bare shoulder. Eros woke up in pain. As he realized that his lover did not keep his orders, he opened his wings and flew away. As Eros left the palace he had built by his magic, vanished also. Physke was in anguish and did not know what to do. With the hope to find her loved one, she travelled all arround the world but alas, could not even find a trace of Eros. Finally she came to the door step of Aphrodithe’s palace all axhouseled, but Aphrodithe let alone helping her, made her work as a slave... Poor Physke, took all the suffering without complain and did all that was asked of her without a word of objection, with the hope that she would one day meet her loved one. Finally Eros’s shoulder healed and he went to Olympos to change the fate of his belowed. Who was devoted to him from the bottom of her hearth. He bagged Zeus to resque Physke and give her to him as his wife. Zeus accepted all his wishes and ordered Hermes to have Physke brought to Olympos. Physke was brought to the Gods Plane and got married to the man he loved more then aynthing in the world lived happily ever after. The God of EUPHRATES 
The god of Euphrates was found pictured on an octagonal pool floor in this mosaic. Euphrates can be seen half laying on a couch. River Euphrates pictured flowing out of a jug under his elbow and the land that has met with the water is covered with green plants. Euphrates holds a branch from a tree.His torso is naked, and there is a tree at his foot. This mosaic was found during the Belkis/Zeugma Necropol digs in 2000 in a Roman villa pool hallway with the Euphrates River Gods. There are two shellow polls in this hallway.According to the Myth ,Euphrates who the river is named after, had a son called Aksurtas. One day this young man was sleeping alongside his mother and Euphrates who thougth that it was a stranger killed his own son. Euphrates later realizes his big mistake and jumps in to River Medos and suicides. After that day ,the river Medos was called Euphrates. GALATEIA 
Ethymologically there are two characters who are associated with milk white color.First one is one of Nreus’s daughters and a mermaid goddess who takes part in some of the Sicilian legends.The Sicilian Kyklops Polyphemos, who had an appearence of a beast, was madly in love with Galateia the milk skinned beauty who lived in the seas.But the girl love with Akis who was the son of a Nympha and God Pan.One day when Galateia was resting on her lovers chest ,Polyphemos saw them.Akis tried to run to escape but Kyklopos threw a big stone which hit and killed him.Galateia gave Akis his mothers identity and turned him in to a cleared water river. Some tales say that three heros were born of Galateia and Polyphemos’s love : Galas, Keltos and Illyrius who later gave names to Galats,Kelts and Illyrians.In this case they both must have loved each other but no evidence of such a case has reached us to confirm additional information.The other Galateia is from Crete and is the daughter of a person called Eurytios.This Galateia,although she lived in Phaistos city and came from a good family, was married to poor Lampros.When Lampros learned that Galateia was pregnant he told her that he only wanted a son and if she had a daughter, she was to disown the baby. When Lampos was up in the mountains herding sheep,Galateia had a baby girl.She could not leave the baby and with advice of the oracles she had dressed the baby as a boy,and named him Lukippos and kept all this secret from Lampos.But as time went by ,Leukippos grew to be very beautifull and it became very hard to keep this secret Galateia fell in to a fear and went to Leto’s temple to ask the Goddess to change the gender of her daughter.Leto could not resisting Galateia’s beggings, accepted her wish and turned her daughter into a young man. ACRATOS 
This mosaic was found during the excavations carried out by the Museum of Gaziantep at Zeugma / Kelekagzi region.Acratos and Euphrosyne were shown seated on a kline on which,Acratos was filling Euphrosyne’s cup with a wine jug, shaped like a deer’s head. On the left the large wine container crater takes place. Euphrosyne means joy and good spirits, she is one of the beauties called brightness sparkle and beauty and symbolyzes anything that is nice for sight. She was the daughter of Zeus and Eurynome. Acratos is a God that symbolyzes men who are weak against women. METIOKHOS and PARTHENOPE 
Metiokhos was a young man originally from Phrygia. He was in love with a girl called Parthenope who had vowed to remain a virgin. She was in love with him too but she also wanted to keep her vow.She cut her hair and became an exile. She went to Campania and devoted herself to Dionysos. Aphrodite , who refused physical love and never forgiven this behaviour,got very angry with her and turned Parthenope in to a demon ,called Siren, with a birds body and woman’s head. .In another version of a myth , Parthenope jumped into the sea and suicided with her sisters.The waves threw her body to the shore and a monument was built on Napoli shore in her name. Parthenope’s grave was said to be in Napoli. Napoli in Italy is named Parthenope in Greek because of this myth The two figures of the mosaic (METIOKHOS and PARTHENOPE) which were smuggled out of Turkey 36 years ago from Zeugma by Euphrates part which will be burried under the Birecik Dam waters, were brought back to Gaziantep Museum. The two figures brought back from the USA on June 19 and essambled to the main part of the mosaic. The main part was found in Zeugma in 1993 and was being exhibited in the Museum of Gaziantep. The missing parts of the mosaic were indicated by a big question mark ( ? )on the exhibition. The mosaics which were smuggled out of country were found in Houston by Esra Akca (an Archeologists working for the Turkish Ministry Of Culture- Museums and Monument Division) and brought back to Turkey and reunited with the main part. The two characters of this love story (Parthenope and Metiokhos) finally came back home, after so many years. OCEANOS and TETHYS 
Oceanos, the archaic era (except for Mediterranean) lived with Tethys who symbolizes the feminine component in the sea.It is believed that all rivers and streams came into existence from Oceanos and Tethys.In this mosaic that was found in excavations in Zeugma, which is estimated to be the floor of a pool pictures, Oceanos and Tethys were surrounded by sea creatures.Also Eros figures riding dolphins can be seen in the mosaic. SILENOS 
Silenos is the general name given to old Satyroses (the nature demons that never leave Dionysos’s side).It is also known that the legendary hero who raised Dionysos was also called Silenos.There are many different informations on Silenos’s family tree.Silenos is sometimes considered Pan’s or Hermes’s son, born from a Nympha,sometimes he is said to be born from the drops of blood Hermes had shed when his fallus was cut from his body by Ouranus Kronos. Silenos was a very wise man but he only showed his wisdom under pressure.For example ,once King Midas had brought him to his place and Silenos had told him wise things. It is also claimed that Silenos was the father of Kntaunos Pholos and had him from an ash tree Nympha. Some other legends see him as the father of Apollo Nomius (Apollon of Archadia). Silenos was a very ugly man, having a huge belly,flat nose, thick lips and had the look of a bull. 
The Water FairyThe water fairy is pictured laying on grass leaning on her elbow in a rectangle frame.There is a spring flowing from under her elbow. This repsents the springs providing water for the creeks that flow into Euphrates. The Drama Group 
There are different comments about this mosaic.The first impression was the three human figures sitting in chairs in front of a platform pictured as a drama group.But researchers disagree to this and make a note that in dramas, faces were usually hidden behind masks. There is a pharease at the bottom of the mosaic saying “made by Zosimos”which indicates the fact that it was made by mosaic artist Zoimos of Samsota. ACHILLEUS going to Trojan War 
According to the myth; The parents of Achilleus’s,who didn’t want him to join the war of Troy sent him to King Lykomedes’s palace on Skyros Island.There Akhilleus joins the daughter of Lykomedes in women’s clothes.But when the predictions spread around that Troy could never be conquered unless Akhilleus joined the war,Odysseus starts looking for Achilleus. Odysseus knowing the warrior personality of Achilleus goes to king Lykomedess palace with a wise plan.He goes in ,with colorful fabrics,jewellery and some weapons.Where all the other girls tend to the fabrics and jewellery Achilleus can not resist it and takes the sword and the shield and starts playing with them.Odysseus’s plan has worked and Achilleus’s real identity was revealed in this mosaic, which pictures that moment. 
EROS and DOLPHINDuring the excavations sponsored by Peckard Humanities Institute, this mosaic was brought to day light which shows the god of love Eros riding on dolphins. POSSEDION,OCEANOS and TETHYS 
This mosaic which is estimated to be floor of a pool or a dining room.The most important gods of the sea are pictured.At the top Possedion can be seen riding a creature called Hippocam which has the head and front legs of a horse and is a fish at the back.Possedion holds a pitchfork. In the lower part of the mosaic another sea god Oceanos and Tethys which symbolizes femaleness (fertility) in the seas are pictured.The rest of the mosaic is decorated by various sea animals. |
