For some time now, I have been working on a devotional piece related to the famed (likely) early–3rd century graffiti discovered near the Palatine Hill in Rome in the mid–19th century called the Alexamenos Graffito. In it (as you can see in the tracing of the plaster section containing the graffiti below), a young man is depicted as worshiping a crucified figure with the head of a donkey (or, some say, horse). Three Greek words are scratched by the artist:
ALEXAMENOS
CEBETE
DEON
That is:
Alexamenos
Worships
[His] God
While almost every aspect of this is disputed in some way or another, the major reading of this graffiti is that it represents the parodying of Christian worship by (likely) a non-Christian Roman youth and, essentially, the bullying of a young Christian named Alexamenos. The graffiti was found in a building that, at the time of the graffiti’s creation, was a paedagogium, basically a training school for boys who would go on to serve in the imperial household or in some other servile station.
It is an intriguing and arresting little glimpse into the Christian experience of one young man and, perhaps, of many Christians in Rome at that time.
I am seeking to flesh out some devotional implications of this by considering, among other factors:
who this young man likely was
the significance of his station as a Greek “foreigner”
the significance of his status as a slave (he wears the colobium, the traditional garment of the slave)
the significance of the hand raised in a gesture of reverence to the crucified Christ (here depicted in mocking fashion)
the significance of his gaze upward and of Christ’s gaze downward at him
the significance of the fact that Christ, too, is depicted as wearing the colobium
the significance of the donkey head (a recurring slight by the Romans toward Jews and Christians that was mentioned by Tertullian)
the significance of the sarcastic attribution of deity to the crucified Christ (“worships [his] god”).
And many more considerations.
It has been a fascinating journey. Along the way I have been privileged to have some correspondence and conversation with Felicity Harley-McGowan of the Yale Divinity School, likely the leading expert on Alexamenos. Her work on this graffiti is very important and worthy of close consideration. Furthermore, the deep dive on Alexamenos has led me to a number of very interesting fictional imaginings of this young man and his plight from writers of the mid-19th century to today.
This project has been deeply rewarding and deeply moving. If you feel so inclined, say a little prayer that it might be found useful to somebody who might need to get to know Alexamenos. While we must be careful with conjecture run amuck, there are tantalizing clues here that we can helpfully tease out for consideration. The reward is in that project, in trying to step into the world of this young man using our imaginations and the historical data available to us.
Your post triggered the sounds of an old, old song about words of the prophets written on subway walls & tenement halls & whispering in the silence, an old friend; go Wymusings; some discoveries have a way of reminding us how little we know about long ago. Thank you; muse on. Poets, artists and music seem often to reveal what reason & words can't quite convey. Thank YOU!