The tortured love affair between Eros and Psyche was explored with gusto in the Hellenistic world and into the Roman. Particularly popular were vignettes where Psyche was shown as a butterfly, helpless in the hands of Aphrodite’s precocious, capricious (sociopathic?) sidekick who is occasionally shown holding over a flame by the wings…
This composition has Eros (oddly bald as an egg!) holding the Psyche-butterfly in his arms, her wings fluttering in vain beneath his arms. His face is all chubby determination (this can’t be good news for Psyche), and his feathered wings are rendered in delicate low relief splayed out against the background.
I’ll resist the urge to gush about this peculiar allegory and its meaning in the ancient world. Because what’s really interesting here is what function this plaster emblema served and where it was found. It is an overcast of a metal element (a very fine one, likely gilt silver) used to decorate a fancy cup or mirror, and found in a hoard with dozens of others in Begram (north central Afghanistan).
These plaster casts have been found peppering trade routes between Alexandria and the Hellenistic East as far as the Punjab, and are thought to have been carted around by merchants trying to tempt local consumers with fashionable silverware without having to bring the good stuff on the road. Impossible to melt down, they remain little glimpses into the heady world of ancient touretics and the mechanisms behind its diffusion and trade…
