The gate of the year

Figure above:

Mosaic from the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, Italy, of the V century. The image shows Christ in the guise of the Good Shepherd, surrounded by its flock. This is one of the oldest pictures of Jesus, who is depicted beardless, as opposed to the later representations. The iconographic pattern to which it was inspired was already present in the pre-Christian world, and was employed to represent the Greek god Hermes, worshipped particularly by shepherds, and can be traced back to the Sumerian representations of Dumuzi, the shepherd god who had as his symbol the ram and to whom lambs were sacrificed.
In Christian symbolism, the lamb means purity and innocence and recalls invariably Jesus, who is often called the “Lamb of God”, because he is the sacrificial victim, who assumed on himself mankind’s sins to be expiated in front of God.

[Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_Galla_Placidia]

Figure below:

Statue of the IV century, representing the Good Shepherd, from Corinth and now exhibited in the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens, Greece. The iconographic pattern to which this image was inspired is certainly that of the Hermes Criophoros (“bringer of a ram”), widely diffused in Greek art of the Archaic and Classical period.

[Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1826_-_Byzantine_Museum,_Athens_-_Good_shepherd_%284th_century%29]




Animals

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Figure above: Mosaic from the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna, Italy, of the V century. The image shows Christ in the guise of the Good Shepherd, surrounded by its flock. This is one of the oldest pictures of Jesus, who is depicted beardless, as opposed to the later representations. The iconographic pattern to which it was inspired was already present in the pre-Christian world, and was employed to represent the Greek god Hermes, worshipped particularly by shepherds, and can be traced back to the Sumerian representations of Dumuzi, the shepherd god who had as his symbol the ram and to whom lambs were sacrificed. In Christian symbolism, the lamb means purity and innocence and recalls invariably Jesus, who is often called the “Lamb of God”, because he is the sacrificial victim, who assumed on himself mankind’s sins to be expiated in front of God. [Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_Galla_Placidia] Figure below: Statue of the IV century, representing the Good Shepherd, from Corinth and now exhibited in the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens, Greece. The iconographic pattern to which this image was inspired is certainly that of the Hermes Criophoros (“bringer of a ram”), widely diffused in Greek art of the Archaic and Classical period. [Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1826_-_Byzantine_Museum,_Athens_-_Good_shepherd_%284th_century%29]