Shushan Purim Isru Chag Post

I was going to post this yesterday, but I'm swamped with work...let's just call this the Shushan Purim Isru Chag post...😁

For those who don't know, Dura Europos, a city in eastern Syria, was excavated in the 1930's. One of the most incredible discoveries made there was a well-preserved shul. The shul's walls were decorated with beautiful paintings of scenes from Tanach, such as Eliyahu at Mt. Carmel, the Plishtim being punished for taking the Ark, King David, the First Temple and so forth. One of the most fascinating things about these paintings - which are dated to the years 244-245 CE - is that some of them are based on midrashim. For example, the Eliyahu at Mt. Carmel painting clearly shows Chiel Beit Ha'eli hiding in the Baalic altar and being killed by a snake (alluded to in Shemot Rabbah 15:16 and Pesikta Rabbati 4; stated explicitly in Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 214).

With regards to Purim, there's an honest-to-goodness Purim panel at that shul:

(picture taken from here. Slightly edited for modesty)

On the left we can see Haman leading Mordechai. Haman is dressed like a Thracian horseman, which is why he is bare-legged, but ironically, is not on a horse. The folks in the middle might be the eunuchs. There is a claim in research that the guy nearest to Haman is Eliyahu disguised as Kharvonah. This argument is based both on his attire, which is similar to how other prophets are depicted at Dura, as well as the claim that tzitzit (fringes) can be seen on the hem of his robe. Unfortunately, try as I could, I was unable to see any out of the ordinary fringe-like decorations on his garb. At least, nothing that differentiated between him and the other men. I myself considered the possibility that these were Daniel, Chananyah, Mishael and Azaryah. By the way, those H-like symbols on their robes are called Gammadia and though they often appear in this shape and other shapes in Roman-Empire art, typically on important figures, no one really knows why.

On the right we see Achashverosh and Esther receiving news about the fighting in Shushan. What's interesting is that Mordechai is dressed exactly like Achashverosh. I had always imagined Mordechai receiving a spare set of clothes, different from what Achashverosh wore, but nope - the artist drew both with the exact same set.

An interesting thing about the Dura shul is that at some point before it was abandoned, Sassanians began visiting it and left written comments on the walls noting which painting they liked (true story!). On the Purim panel, they wrote:

"In the month of Mihr, on the year 14 and day of Frawardīn

when Hormizd the scribe and the Kardag of the district and the pious scribe

and they came to this district of the Jews, to this place of worship of the god of gods

of the Jews, they saw this painting, they saw and liked ... saw

... painting ..."

It's possible that they liked the painting because it was done in Sassanian style and to them, this was a sign that they were the rightful heirs of the powerful Achaemenid Empire (the lineage of Koresh, Daryavesh, Achashverosh, etc). For more info, see here.