Coptic Monuments Depicting a Heroine of Ovid's Metamorphoses

Kakovkin Alexander Ya.

The author analyzes some monuments featuring nymph Daphne and created by Coptic sculptors, weavers and engravers in the 4th-9th centuries. These artifacts, with their distinctive stylistics and iconography, fill the gap between the artistic objects of the late antiquity and those of the Middle Ages representing this heroine. They are also interesting for the symbolical interpretation of the characters they depict.