The Maenad and the Muse. Connectivity and Appropriation of Models in Hellenizing Mesopotamia and Parthia. Two case-studies from Seleucia on the Tigris and Old Nisa

This paper addresses patterns of models’ appropriation through Asian regions in the Hellenistic period, and focuses on two case-studies: on the one hand, subjects reproduced on miniature and widely diffused media (seal impressions from Seleucia on the Tigris), on the other, subjects engraved on luxuries linked to royal ideology and propaganda (ivory rhytons from Old Nisa). The same subjects occur at both sites, revealing that iconographies – and thus ideas – widely circulated and could be envisioned, devised, and appreciated in different contexts and by users of different communities or classes. Their meaning, originated in a Greek milieu, was object of appropriation and could be (re)elaborated for satisfying the demand of a multifarious patronage.