07-22-2014, 08:13 PM
Quote:is a morsel from the kill being offered and a portion eaten by the lead or main hunter... indicating that the right figure is the leader of the Hunt and the killer of the prize?
That's a neat reading, and I suspect you might be right. Yes, it does look like meat they're putting on the altar, now I look more closely. And I remember some of the stories of martyrs during the various anti-Christian persecutions refusing to eat the meat of sacrificial animals, so that was presumably also part of the ritual.
The shadows are just weird though - is the lack of any single light source deliberate?
I wondered if the unbelted tunics might have some military significance - remembering the story of Julian ordering cowardly soldiers to go on parade like that. But if the hunters are civilians perhaps the belts were not so important, and they're just supposed to be relaxing after their labours, as you say.
Nathan Ross
