Aion from Villa Barberini
TNMM 276 ↔ CIMRM 326
Marble statue (H. 0.68), found in 1933 when the Villa Barberini, partly situated on the ruins of the Alban Villa of Domitianus, was added to the papal country-residence, Castel Gandolfo.
Standing Aion before a throne. His body is covered with a loin-cloth only. He has a lion's head and four wings are attached to his shoulders. On his breast an eye, on stomach and knees lion's heads. He has four arms, the hands of which are broken off. In one hand a sceptre. Beside his feet a hydra and a horned(?) lion's head (r) and a sitting three,headed Cerberus (l). On either side a trunk entwined by a serpent. The left one is crawling upwards, the other lays its head above that of the Cerberus, consisting of a dog's, a lion's and ram's head.
References
Illustrazione Vaticana 1933, 579f; Brendel in AA 1933, 595ff No. 7 and fig. 8; van Buren, Anc. Rome, 144f ana 162; Breccia, Cronos mitriaco, 263f; Pettazzoni in AntC XVIII, 1949, 265ff and figs. Pl. III, 5/6. Our figs. 89 and 90 with kind permission of the Direction of the Vatican Musea.
- Vermaseren, Maarten Jozef (1956) Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae
