Asàrotos òikos (ασάρωτος οίκος), "the unswept floor, unswept house" - iconography of Ancient Roman mosaics depicting the dirty remnants of a banquet.[1]

Created by Sosus of Pergamon, according to Pliny:

"[Sosos] laid at Pergamon what is called the asarotos oikos or 'unswept room,' because on the pavement was represented the debris of a meal, and those things which are normally swept away, as if they had been left there, made of small tessera of many colours." Natural History (XXXVI.LX.184)

One of the best examples is now in Vatican museum.[2]

References edit

  1. ^ "Asarotos oikos: The unswept room". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2024-04-09.
  2. ^ "Asàrotos òikos mosaic". www.museivaticani.va. Retrieved 2024-04-09.

Sources edit

  • Fathy, Ehud. In the Guise of the Popular: the Deceptive Image of the Asàrotos Òikos Mosaic s. March 2022. Eikon / Imago 11:31-46
  • Fathy, Ehud. “The asàrotos òikos Mosaics as an Elite Status Symbol”. Potestas: Estudios del Mundo Clásico e Historia del Arte 10 (2017): 5-30
  • Fathy, Ehud. “From Earthly to Divine: The Transition of the asàrotos òikos Motif into Late Antiquity and Early Christian Art”. En Humanitas 75 (2020): 93–120.
  • Elderkin, George Wicker. “Sosus and Aristophanes”. En Classical Philology, 32, no. 1 (1937): 74–75
  • Ribi, Emil A. “Asárotos òikos-von der Kunst, die sich verbirgt”. En Zona Archeologica: Festschrift für Hans Peter Isler zum 60. Geburtstag, eds. S. Buzzi, D. Käch, E. Kistler et al., 361–369, pls. 55–56. Bonn, 2001.
  • Ермолаева Е. Л. Об одной древнегреческой пародии и античных мозаиках в стиле «неприбранный пол» // Актуальные проблемы теории и истории искусства: сб. науч. статей. Вып. 5 / Под ред. С. В. Мальцевой, Е. Ю. Станюкович-Денисовой, А. В. Захаровой. – СПб.: НП-Принт, 2015. С. 69–76.