Zes penningen met sportwedstrijden 1580

These six pen drawings depicting sport competitions were made by Onofrio Panvinio. In the upper left, we observe a scene of ‘Athletae’, athletes or fighters, carrying an obelisk. This recalls the ancient Roman tradition of transporting obelisks as symbols of power and conquest, linking athletic prowess with imperial ambition. Consider how the obelisk, originally an Egyptian symbol of the sun god Ra, was adopted and transformed by the Romans to celebrate their military victories. Here, we see the merging of different cultural symbols into one powerful image, a phenomenon echoed throughout history. In ancient Egypt, the obelisk represented stability, a connection to the gods, and royal power. But in ancient Rome, the same symbol represented imperial authority. It's a prime example of how symbols evolve, their meanings shaped by successive cultures, creating a powerful, if sometimes unsettling, palimpsest of collective memory. The enduring image of triumph becomes deeply embedded in our cultural subconscious.