Toupha

The toupha or toufa ({{lang-el|τοῦφα, toûpha or τουφίον, touphíon) is a kind of ornamental crest or head-dress with a plumage of the feathers, hair or bristles of exotic animals, worn in classical antiquity as a triumphal decoration. In surviving depictions, it is most often seen on military helmets and emperors' crowns.

The equestrian statue of Justinian from the Augustaion, wearing a toupha.
The "Bamberger Gunthertuch", a Byzantine silk tapestry depicting an emperor on his triumphant return from a campaign. The tyche on the left offers a toupha.

One of the most famous touphas is that which surmounted the crown or helmet of the bronze equestrian statue of the emperor Justinian I atop the column of Justinian, erected by said emperor, which stood in the Augustaion square of Constantinople. The toupha was made of gilded bronze, with a design of peacock-feathers. It is known primarily from a life-drawing of the statue made in the 15th century; the entire monument was later demolished. Particularly imposing in size, the head-dress fell from the statue in the 9th century and was remounted by an acrobat. A rope was stretched between the roof of Hagia Sophia and the summit of the column, by means of an arrow. Along this line, one could tightrope-walk to the statue. The emperor Theophilus rewarded the tightrope-walker with 100 gold nomismata for this exploit.

In colloquial language, toupha or typha came to mean a "tiara", and the 12th-century historian, Joannes Zonaras, even records that a verb, typhoomai ("to be filled with extreme arrogance"), was derived from it.

See also

Bibliography
  • Toupha, vol. 3, page 2100, of Alexander Kazhdan (ed.), Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, 3 vols., Oxford University Press, 1991 (ISBN 0195046528)
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