Eagle (in Christian Archaeology)

EAGLE (in Christian Archaeology). - The eagle appears in early Christian art only as an ornamental motif, as in a cubiculum of the Cemetery of Callixtus in Rome, or on an ivory pyxis found at Carthage, now in the Museo Civico of Livorno, or on the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus. In certain Roman and Gaulish sarcophagi with the scene of the Resurrection, the eagle with spread wings holds suspended by its beak or talons a triumphal crown encircling the monogram of Christ of the so-called Constantinian form. In such cases G. B. De Rossi recognized an allusion to the classic standard of the Roman legions, because it is linked with the laurel crown that encircles the signum Christi erected on the labarum of Constantine.

Later it is found in the mosaic floors of the baptisteries of Capua and Valencia, perhaps by reason of verse 5 of Psalm 102: "renovabitur ut aquilae iuventus tua." In the East it is sometimes a symbol of the resurrection of the deceased, as certain Coptic stoles in the Cairo museum show, or of the resurrection of Christ in the paintings of Athribis and Bawit. In the funerary mosaics of Palestine both concepts are found together. As a symbol of resurrection and apotheosis, St. Ambrose (PL 16, 420) and St. Maximus of Turin (PL 57, 369) point to the eagle; as such it is at the feet of Christ in the chalice of Antioch, v. ANIMALE; APOTEOSI.

Enrico Iosi