Life and Easy Living

Illustration

by Dana Murray
published on 31 August 2015

Floor mosaic with allegorical representation of Life and Easy Living. Crafted from limestone and glass tesserae, this mosaic was excavated in Syria and dates to approximately 350-400 CE.

In the mosaic, an affluent couple is shown engaged in relaxed conversation on an elegant couch. The allegorical meaning is described through the Greek inscription tryphe - bios, which identifies the female figure as Tryphe, meaning soft and leisurely living. The male figure is Bios, meaning Life. The allegory is meant to imply that life should be accompanied by pleasurable living.

The man is shown holding a magic wheel in his right hand, a charm used to keep lovers together. Its presence emphasizes the idea that Life and Easy Living should be inseparable.

The mosaic is currently housed in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada.

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About the Author

Dana Murray

Researcher with interest in the art, architecture and religion of ancient Greece and the Near East.

License & Copyright

Uploaded by Dana Murray, published on 31 August 2015. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.

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Cite This Work

APA Style

Murray, D. (2015, August 31). Life and Easy Living. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/4041/life-and-easy-living/

Chicago Style

Murray, Dana. "Life and Easy Living." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified August 31, 2015. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/4041/life-and-easy-living/.

MLA Style

Murray, Dana. "Life and Easy Living." World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 31 Aug 2015. Web. 03 Dec 2022.