The image depicts a human-like figure affixed to a cross and possessing the head of a donkey or mule. In the top right of the image is what has been interpreted as either the Greek letterupsilon or a tau cross. To the left of the image is a young manapparently intended to represent Alexamenosas a Roman soldier or guard, raising one hand in a gesture possibly suggesting worship. The name Alexamenos is only attested in this instance, being composed of the common Greek compound elements of and . Beneath the cross is a caption written in crude ΑΛΕ ξΑΜΕΝΟϹ ϹΕΒΕΤΕ ϑΕΟΝ, ALE XAMENOS WORSHIPS DEITY. ϹΕΒΕΤΕ can be understood as a variant spelling of Standard GreekϹΕΒΕΤΑΙ, which means "worships". The full inscription would then be read as Ᾰλεξᾰ́μενος σέβεται θεόν, "Alexamenos worships God". Several other sources suggest "Alexamenos worshiping a god", or similar variants, as the intended translation. In the next chamber, another inscription in a different hand reads , Latin for "Alexamenos is faithful" or "Alexamenos the faithful". This may be a retort by an unknown party to the mockery of Alexamenos represented in the graffito.
Date
No clear consensus has been reached on when the image was made. Dates ranging from the late 1st to the late 3rd century have been suggested, with the beginning of the 3rd century thought to be the most likely.
Discovery and location
The graffito was discovered in 1857 when a building called the domus Gelotiana was unearthed on the Palatine Hill. The emperor Caligula had acquired the house for the imperial palace, which, after Caligula died, became used as a Paedagogium for the imperial page boys. Later, the street on which the house sat was walled off to give support to extensions to the buildings above, and it thus remained sealed for centuries.
Interpretation
The inscription is usually taken to be a mocking depiction of a Christian in the act of worship. At the time, pagans derided Christians for worshipping a man who had been crucified. The donkey's head and crucifixion would both have been considered insulting depictions by contemporary Roman society. Crucifixion continued to be used as an execution method for the worst criminals until its abolition by the emperor Constantine in the 4th century, and the impact of seeing a figure on a cross is comparable to the impact today of portraying a man with a hangman's noose around his neck or seated in an electric chair. Already Paul the Apostle wrote that "Christ crucified foolishness to Gentiles". It seems to have been commonly believed at the time that Christians practiced onolatry. That was based on the misconception that Jews worshipped a god in the form of a donkey, a claim made by Apion : Tertullian writes:
Origen reports in his treatise Contra Celsum that the pagan philosopher Celsus made the same claim against Christians and Jews:
Tertullian, writing in the late 2nd or early 3rd century, reports that Christians, along with Jews, were accused of worshipping such a deity. He also mentions an apostate Jew who carried around Carthage a caricature of a Christian with ass's ears and hooves, labeled Deus Christianorum ὀνοκοίτης. It has also been suggested that both the graffito and the roughly contemporary gems with Crucifixion images are related to heretical groups outside the Church. A small minority of scholars consider the image to be not of Jesus, but of some other deity. In the image, Alexamenos is portrayed venerating an image of the crucifix, a detail that Peter Maser believed to represent actual Christian practice of veneration of icons. This practice, however, was not known to be a part of Christian worship until the 4th or 5th century.
