JEWS OR PAGANS? 157name of the owner of the hall, Socrates, and to the left, a crude graffito of a
menorah.Avigadwasevidentlyrighttoclaimthatthemenorahwasnotmade
by the same hand as the mask, carved in high relief by the stonemason. He
may also have been right to think that whoever carved the menorah thought
the doorway looked insufficiently “Jewish,” but there is no way of knowing
whether this was Socrates himself, a relative of his, an official of the necropo-
lis,orapasserby.Whatissignificantistheinitialdecisiontomarkthechamber
atitsmostconspicuouspointwithaDionysiacmask(velsim.),andthefailure
of the menorah carver to efface it.
Some of those buried at Beth Shearim used mythological sarcophagi with
no detectable trace of hesitation. Some of these are of exceptionally crude
workmanship, almost certainly made at Beth Shearim itself of the localnari
(a type ofchalk), decorated with carvings whose closeststylistic analogues are
the reliefs on the walls of the catacombs. Some of the crudest are simple
imitations of the most popular types of Roman sarcophagi, decorated, for ex-
ample, with a bucranium-and-acanthus design, with eagles, shells, or simpli-
fiedhuntscenes—surelyallpaganinoriginbutnotnecessarilyinfunction.^100
Buttwoofthesesimplesarcophagihaveunmistakablypaganimages—onone,
another Dionysiac mask and on another, two fully clothed and wingedNikai
holdingaloftawreath.Theuseofsuchmotifsoncrudeproductsmadelocally
foralocalmarketplainlydemonstratesthepopularityofthemotifsthemselves
andshowsthattheimplicationsofthemanyfragmentsofrelativelyhighqual-
ity, probably imported, marble sarcophagi, found in the same catacomb and
featuring a wide range of pagan themes cannot be dismissed.^101
Inaseparate burialoutsidecatacomb11,grandlybuilt withafacadedecor-
ated with friezes of animals,^102 the excavators found not only a fragmentary
marble sarcophagus featuring reliefs of Leda and the Swan on the short side
and perhaps of Achilles on Skyros on the long side,^103 but also, on a marble
plaque,aGreekepigramcommemoratingtheyouth,anativeofBethShearim,
who had probably been buried in the sarcophagus. Here is the epigram.
(^100) On the stone sarcophagi of catacomb 20, seeBeth Shearim3.136–64; only two of these
sarcophagi have Jewish designs—a “hunt” sarcophagus that also features a rosette and another
decorated with a menorah. Avigad predictably plays down the importance of the mythological
themes on some of these sarcophagi.
(^101) SeeBethShearim3.164–73. The Leda sarcophagus fro mthe mausoleu madjacent to cata-
comb11wasfoundbyisotopicanalysistohavebeenmadeofPentelicmarble,whichisconsistent
with the fact that it, like the marble fragments from catacomb 20, is of roughly “Attic” type;
presumably, then, they are all Greek imports, like the very similar sarcophagi from Caesarea; see
R. Gersht and Z. Pearl, “Decoration and Marble Sources of Sarcophagi fro mCaesarea,” in R.
L. Vann, ed.,Caesarea Papers(JRAsuppl. 5 (1992): 223–43; 234 for the Leda sarcophagus of
Beth Shearim; and M. Fischer,Marble Studies: Roman Palestine and the Marble Trade, Xenia
vol. 40 (Konstanz: Universita ̈tsverlag Konstanz, 1998), pp. 206–7, 238–39.
(^102) See reconstruction inNEAEHL, s.v. “Beth Shearim.”
(^103) Published by Avi-Yonah,ArtinAncientPalestine, pp. 257–69.