Polymnia. Studi di Archeologia n.09

The iconography of votive Terracottas from the Northern Sanctuary of Pontecagnano redirects to a rather coherent ritual context, in which the central role is carried out by the piglet sacrifice and the offering of vegetables. The rites, performed by male and female devotees, were addressed to propitiate a local divinity, with Demetria’s feature, protecting agrarian fertility.

Brauron’s shrine, dedicated to the cult of Artemis, is one of the principal of the ancient world, both for its importance in the Attica region of the archaic and classical age, and for the role it has overtaken as an exemplary case study. The rites of passage for girls and young women, recalled in multiple literary sources and made concrete by the archaeological discovery of the monumental place of worship, were mainly functional to marriage. The overall examination of the documentation found in the excavations, especially as regards the votive gifts, depicts a more complex system of attendance than is evident from the ancient texts, which only refer to some particularities of the cult. Starting from the archaeological approach, therefore, it is possible to reconstruct an overall organic picture of religious praxis. Crossing these results with the information provided by the classical authors, the research conducted tries to overcome the apparent contradictions discussed by the recent bibliography, which tends to portray a reductive vision of the sanctuary's social and cult activities. The study, on the other hand, enhances the historical dimension of frequentation and transformation processes, the relationship between traditional rituals and their social function, proposing a more articulated panorama of the activities and occasions in which the place of worship has played a central role for codification and social control.

The contribution elaborates on the use of epigraphic evidence in order to reconstruct ‘religious landscapes’. It offers some methodological suggestions and proposes some examples drawn from extant Roman documents. Furthermore, it focuses on religious figures that are mentioned in Latin inscriptions, by considering their different functions, nuances, and variations.

On a methodological level, this paper deals with the interpretative difficulties of the figures of the 'sacred', especially in reference with the ambiguity inherent in iconographic analysis. In fact similar iconographic schemes could be used for deities with similar competences, with only personal details working as distinctive elements. Some case studies are used to clarify, as it is increasingly necessary to combine effectively different specialisms with an interdisciplinary approach.

According to the bibliography in the territory of Salona (Roman province of Dalmatia), two fragmentary statues of Mater Magna with an object similar to cista mystica were found. This is an ‘atypical’ attribute, at least regarding to the depictions of the goddess in sculpture. More frequently, it appears in the images related to the ministers of the cult, the priests of the Phrygian and Roman tradition. The contribution examines the significance of cista mystica within the cult of Mater Magna and Attis as well as the question of identification and significance of this attribute in statues from Salona.

The episode of Heracles and Busiris is represented in figure pottery as a perverse sacrifice in which all the ritual rules are systematically reversed. The paper aims to analyze the specific logic underlying the visual construction of the scene, focusing the meaning it assumed in usage context of symposium: the cultural performance where cognitive processes, visual imagery and social memory are involved.

We will focus in this study on archaeological findings related to domestic cult in two major cities of Valle del Ebro, the Municipium Augusta Bilbilis (Calatayud, Zaragoza) and Colonia Caesar Augusta (Zaragoza). In these places it have been exhumed four lararios that the topics under study have been shown: the gods are present tangibly in two of the lararios of Bilbilis, while in the first larario which is referred Caesaraugusta we can recognize only through attributes. As it regards to the devotees, in the splendid larario of the eponymous House Bilbilis is also possible to recognize them. It should be noted that in the second documented larario in Caesaraugusta, because of their condition, we can only make a brief description of the structure, which continues to indicate the existence of domestic worship in the peristyle of the domus.

Con l’ausilio delle testimonianze epigrafiche e letterarie, il contributo affronta il tema delle cariche sacerdotali e delle figure addette alla gestione dei culti attive nelle città latine, offrendo un quadro di sintesi dei principali istituti religiosi latini e della loro evoluzione storica. La valutazione delle consuetudini religiose investe i parametri, anche cronologici, del rapporto/confronto con il sistema romano e dell’integrazione nell’ordinamento istituzionale cittadino dei modelli romani. La riflessione su alcune funzioni sacerdotali e sulla natura degli istituti sacrali tenta di restituire i tratti del profilo istituzionale e religioso del mondo latino, che manifesta al contempo concordanze e divergenze rispetto allo schema romano, lasciando intravedere gli elementi di una realtà cultuale stratificata su molteplici esperienze che si dipanano sul medio e lungo periodo storico.

The African provinces, maybe more than other regions of the Empire, are known to have delivered pavements characterized by a Dionysiac theme (Dionysos, satyrs, bacchantes, other members of his thiasos, Dionysiac emblems such ad vines, masks, etc.). The meaning to be related to those mosaics is very debated, in particular whether to consider them as reliable sources or not to define the traits of the African Dionysism. To resolve the issue, it is necessary to study the mosaics in their own context. This contribution intends to analyse, as an example, the oecus mosaic from the ‘House of Silenus’ at El Jem-Thysdrus, aiming to clarify if it could be intended in a symbolic interpretation (i.e. the scene allude to certain aspects of the Dionysiac mysteries) as it is traditionally proposed.

Sacrum è una delle occasioni in cui studiosi italiani e stranieri possono incontrarsi per scoprire nuovi documenti, compararli o mettere in discussione opinioni che sembrano superate. Questo volume è dedicato alle figure sacre: alle divinità, ai sacerdoti e ai devoti, scoprendo con piacere studi che si completano o dialogano tra loro, al di là delle fonti studiate, archeologiche, epigrafiche, iconografiche o letterarie.

With concern of sodalitas of Augustales Claudiales, remain some fragments of fasti. We can distinguish as follows: cooptationes fragments – divided into decurias; three magistri fragments – magistri were yearly responsible for board, and publici fragments that is the public slaves who performed service for the association. These fasti fragments have been discovered both in Bovillae, chosen by Tiberius as the seat for the establishment of sodalitas in 14 A.D. and in Rome, too. It can be assumed that sodalitas also had a seat in Urbe because of functions fulfilled by its members in the City and also because of the conservation status of some fragments when they were found out.

La ciudad de Brescia y su territorio se distinguen por la riqueza de los datos arqueológicos referidos a la presencia en época romana de sacerdotes y oferentes. En la primera parte del texto se presenta el cuadro de los conocimientos referidos a los epígrafes de sacerdotes en Brescia y en Valcamonica, donde se concentra la mayor parte de estos hallazgos. En la segunda parte del texto se profundiza el estudio sobre la devoción al dios Mercurio a través del análisis de los epígrafes y de algunos supuestos lugares de culto.

La prima parte di questo contributo è dedicata alle diverse interpretazioni dei ministri di Mater Magna: il modo stesso di presentare sacerdoti, ministri o devoti della dea costituisce, infatti, una "rappresentazione", talvolta fondata su pregiudizi e ben lontana dalle fonti. Si analizzeranno, poi, le fonti letterarie antiche e le "autorappresentazioni" epigrafiche ed iconografiche di questi ministri del culto.

This study interrogates the composition of “sacro-idyllic” landscapes, particularly their typical constitutive elements (quadrangular or cylindric pillars, bulbous or pointed columns that are sometimes truncated or at least rounded) which are variously named in archaeological literature as “bethylus”, “Agyieus” or “omphalos”. The cult of sacred stones (the locus of a divinity in which its tangible form, being represented without zoomorphism or anthropomorphism, is supposed to be compatible with its majesty and divine mystery) is not unique to Semitic religions. Belief in their power is widely and anciently attested to in the Greek and Roman world. Its perceptions formed predominantly by the ancient authors, modern historiography has long described aniconism as a marginal phenomenon and a sign of archaism. This viewpoint is now widely questioned. Aniconism is a bias far more widely adopted in the ancient world than was previously imagined. It is possible that the religious practices which survived in the countryside can be seen as an afterglow of the ancient times in which men had direct access to the gods and the tangible forms of these rites inspire the paintings in Rome and Campania. Representing, or perceived as representing, the primal form of religious dévotion, anaconic divine images, until now unnoticed, may be far more numerous than immediately apparent in domestic decoration of the end of the Republic during the Flavian period. This study analyses the arrangement of these images, and makes conspicuous the diverse ways in which painters use the structures erected in their sacro-idyllic landscapes as “animated stones”.

First of all, the aim of this research is to present the most relevant – ancient and modern – studies on representations of divinities in the Mediterranean area. In particular, one intends to identify a specific role of images in order to construct a relationship between divinities, rituals, and meaningful representations of human beings and objects.

In einem ihrer letzten Artikel analysiert Patricia Meilán Jácome zwei Ikonographien, in denen Dionysos/Bacchus in Verbindung mit Tigern, Löwen und Panthern dargestellt wird. Die Forscherin analysiert eine Gruppe von Darstellungen, zwischen der Zeit Augustus und dem späten Altertum, in denen Dionysos/Bacchus auf einem von Wildkatzen gezogenem Wagen steht oder er diese selber reitet. In der Römischen Kultur drücken beide Darstellungen einerseits die starke Verbindung von Dionysos zum fernen Osten, andererseits die Bindung des Gottes zur weiblichen Figur aus, welche als Wildkatzen dargestellt werden. Das Ziel dieses Beitrages ist, die Beziehung zwischen Dionysos und den Wildkatzen zu erweitern und zu vertiefen, um das kulturelle und politische Gewicht dieser Darstellungen von der archaischen Epoche bis zur Spätantike zu bewerten um die Entwicklung dieser Beziehung in der Römischen Zeit besser zu behandeln.