La Fortuna di un'immagine: Antiochia

This work is about the polysemy of an iconography: that of the tutelar goddess of Antiochia on the Orontes. This goddess is generally referred as tyche. The turreted goddess created for the first time by the sculptor Eutychides is currently considered as a tutelar goddess and not as a tyche. However, many literary sources testify that this iconography was intended as a tyche, actually. Also a story of the various statues of Antiochia is drawn, specifically according to the Histories by John Malalas: statues were erected by Julius Caesar and by Trajan. From the second century onward a decisive shift in iconography is witnessed, where the original Hellenistic model tends to be substituted with another one: the tyche is in front, seated on a throne, flanked by two paredres, one of which crowns her, following a scheme widely spread in the Orient.