Aja, 27.3, 1923

Venus Pompeiana and the New Pompeian Frescoes
Author(s): Mary Hamilton Swindler

Reviewed work(s):
Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1923), pp. 302-313
Published by: Archaeological Institute of America
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/497848 .
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Zrctaeological
nistitute
of america
VENUS POMPEIANA AND THE NEW POMPEIAN
FRESCOES
ONE of the most
interesting
discoveries in the recent excava-
tions at
Pompeii
is a series of frescoes
dealing
with
religious
subjects.
In addition to conventional
representations
of the
twelve
gods,
and
paintings
of the Lares and
serpents-themes
previously
found-there occur rarer
subjects,
some of which show
interesting
oriental connections. On one of these frescoes from
the front of a
shop
in the street of
Abundance,
we find a rather
crude
representation
of Venus
Pompeiana,
the
goddess
with
::;: -I:
~xL~~
FIGURE 1.-VENUS POMPEIANA: POMPEII.
whose cult we are concerned.1 She is
represented
with her usual
attributes,
a rudder of a
ship,
a
sceptre,
a branch of olive or
myrtle,
and
Cupids
(Fig.l).
The
figure
is none too
artistic,
but the
type
presents
one known to us from
paintings
discovered earlier and
1
Della
Corte, Not. Scav.
1912, pp. 138;
176
ff.
American Journal of Archaeology, Second Series. Journal of the
n
Archaeological Institute of America, Vol. XXVII (1923), No. 3.
302
VENUS POMPEIANA 303
reproduced
in
poor copies.
In some of these
examples
the
goddess
appears
with
only
one
Cupid,
but the Venus
type
is constant. In
a
painting
from the house of the Dioscuri she is clad in a
gold-
starred mantle of blue
(Fig. 2).
She wears a turreted crown set
with emeralds and bears a
sceptre
and branch of olive. Her left
arm rests on the
upturned
rudder of a
ship
and beside her a
Cupid
stands on a
pedestal
and holds
up
a mirror before the
goddess.'
Other
representations
of Venus
Pompeiana,
poor
at best in the
reproductions,
show the
same features. Sometimes she is
pictured
with other divinities
(Fig. 3).
In this
case,
she is associated with Vesta and the
Lares,
with the Sarnus below and a
serpent pro-
ceeding
toward an altar. The same
type
is
found
again
in
Fig. 4,
where
Jupiter
is shown
at the left and the familiar
figure
of Venus
Pompeiana recurs,
robed now in a blue
mantle and violet chiton.
More
interesting
for us than this
group
of
frescoes is a new
representation
of the
god-
dess from a
pilaster
of
shop
No. 7 in the
newly
excavated
part
of the Via dell' Abbon-
danza.
Here,
Venus
Pompeiana,
the
tute-
lary divinity
of the
city,
is
represented
drawn
by
a
quadriga
of
elephants (Fig. 5).
The
goddess
wears
a
long
blue
garment
and
mantle,
and a turreted crown set with
eight great
emeralds. She rests her left hand on the rudder of a
ship
and bears an olive branch and
sceptre.
Her chariot has the
form of a
ship's prow
and two familiar
Cupids fly
toward
her,
one
bearing
a
palm branch,
another a
wreath,
while a third one beside
her holds
up
a mirror. At the left of the
scene, Fortune, standing
on the
globe
of the
earth, places
one hand on a
ship's
rudder and
holds in the other a
cornucopia. Balancing
her at the
right
is a
second
figure, usually interpreted
as
Abundantia,
with
patera
and
horn of
plenty.
It would
seem, however,
to be a male
figure
and is more
probably
a Genius. But one of the most
interesting
features in the scene is the
group
of four
grey elephants
which
draw the
chariot,
the two central ones bowed down under a
yoke,
I; Ilr~K '
8,
it
i
hr
FIGURE 2.-VENUS
POMPEIANA: NAPLES.
1
The actual condition of this fresco may be seen from the more recent
reproduction
in
Herrmann,
Denkmaler der
Malerei, pl.
123.
Here,
it is much
restored.
304 MARY HAMILTON SWINDLER
the outer ones fastened to these
by harness,
and all four adorned
with
golden
ornaments. What is the
significance of the scene
and how is it to be
interpreted?
The
goddess
is
obviously Venus
Pompeiana,
clad in her familiar
starry
mantle and with her usual
attributes.
Venus
Pompeiana
was
apparently
celebrated in cult ritual
after the
founding
of the Sullan
colony
at
Pompeii,
in 80 B.C. At
that
time,
the
colony
was named Colonia Cornelia Veneria
~L.....\r~ _cm~_
/
5
i
^
~YJ~ Bbj
"'.f ` ~e.
~ :1~
\ I
: $ _.~i~
~
FIGURE 3.-VENUS
POMPEIANA, VESTA AND THE
LARES; BELOW, THE SARNUS:
NAPLES.
Pompeianorum,
from the
family
name of the
Dictator,
Lucius
Cornelius Sulla Felix and from the
goddess
to whom he
paid
special
honors. Sulla entertained the idea that he was the
favorite of Venus and honored her
especially
as a
goddess
of
Fortune under the name Venus Felix.' He
represented
her on
aurei struck outside of Rome while he was
engaged
in his cam-
paign against Mithradates
(Fig. 6).
On these coins the head of
1
Plut. Sulla, 34; Appian, Bell. Civil. I, 97; cf. G. Wissowa, Gesamm. Abh. zur
Rom. Rel. und
Stadtsgesch., Miinchen, 1904, pp.
17
ff., 23; Mommsen,
Gesamm.
Schriften,
V, p. 509;
G.
Wissowa, Religion und
Kultus der
Rimer, 1912, pp. 291ff.
VENUS POMPEIANA
305
the
goddess appears
crowned
by
a diadem. Before her stands
a
Cupid holding
a
palm branch,
the
symbol of Sulla's victories in
85
B.c.1
We
recognize
this Sullan Venus Felix in various frescoes
of Venus
Pompeiana,
the
tutelary goddess
of the Sullan
colony.
Because of the
peculiar
character of her
cult,
which was
closely
akin to that of
Fortuna,
she is
accompanied by
attributes
of
Fortune,-a rudder,
a
ship's prow
and a branch of olive. Mau
has identified her
temple,
dating
from the
early days
of the Sullan
colony
in some
ruins of tufa near the
Forum,
overlooking
the sea.2 The
original structure was re-
placed
in the
Empire by
an
important temple
of
marble.
The essential feature of the
cult of Venus
Pompeiana
is
that she is
practically
a
Sullan creation-a mixture
of
Venus-Aphrodite and
Felicitas, introduced
by
the
dictator after his victories in
the East.3 She is not a
goddess
of
fertility
native in
Campania,
as some have
argued. The attributes which characterized the
goddess
in later frescoes were
already stamped upon her,
for the
most
part,
in the
days
of Sulla. Another
development
of her
cult was in the direction of Venus Victrix. In the
temple
which
Pompey erected in 55 B.c. in connection with his theatre in
Rome,
she was united with Felicitas. Both of these
cults, Venus
Felix and Venus
Victrix,
were later crowded out in
great measure
by
the Caesarian cult of Venus
Genetrix,
the founder of the Julian
race,
but the cult of the Sullan
colony showed a remarkable vi-
tality.
The fresco in
question,
which bears the
representation of Venus
Pompeiana, probably dates from the last
period
of the
city.
The
paintings have been often
renewed,
but the
uppermost layers
appear to
belong
to the later
days
of the
city. This is also borne
i lli\
"
---- -;--=
FIGURE
4.-VENUS POMPEIANA AND
JUPITER: NAPLES.
I
G. F.
Hill, Historical Roman
Coins, 1909, pp. 93-94, pl. xi, 55;
cf. Plut.
Sulla,
34.
A. Mau, Rom. Mitt. XV, 1900, pp. 270 ff.
3 G.
Wissowa, Religion und
Kultus der
Rismer, 1912, p.
291.
out
by
coins found in this
region
which date
mostly
from the
Neronian
period.
When did Sulla's
Venus-Felix-Pompeiana-
Fortuna cult
acquire elephants
to draw the chariot of the
goddess
and what do
they
mean?
FII:l i::i:ii--i"
i:. aii:-
xiag~ : :b-_?:~a~:- i
i~~i~k~
: :
::'----- - :":-?::; -* _:~~-----:~~
'-iir?:?;C -.r.??.~ ~-~?S:?-b-..-:)nr
':::~-:::
-":"- ' : -~-~--i - . :: :::i- ~- ~i_,::_ :i;; i;:-?i- :: :-cii:
r
-i_---i---: : :.: _:::::-:::: -:::::?
:: : - - ::
:: --- ::iC?
;
::::j- : ::: :r:::: r,~_! :B~:E~_~-~:9i_~;~--'
::
?*;:-
.ic,
F- ----'=-? ~1-: :j::-:
-:i i i:::::: :::".
i" %~,~
r:?a?:-
- ::
ii:
,xc~,.-----i ??
'r'* ?" i*'
?~5-
-i:-:il-i-
r
-"-i
r-;
:*a;
FIGURE
5.-VENUS
POMPEIANA IN A
QUADRIGA
DRAWN BY ELEPHANTS: POMPEII.
Obviously
Rome took over the
elephant
from the
orient,
where
it was
employed
for various ends. It first became known to the
Greeks in the
days
of
Alexander,
who
captured
a number which
had been used in battle
against
him. He
probably employed
them to bear burdens and to arouse fear in the
enemy.
After
Alexander's
death,
the
"military
era of
elephants"
followed for
three
centuries,
and the various
elephants acquired by
him were
apportioned
out
among
his
generals
and used as
fighting
tanks.
Their use in battle
is, perhaps,
reflected on coins of Seleucus I
(312-280 B.c.),
where Pallas is
represented
in full armor in a
VENUS
POMPEIANA
307
chariot drawn
by
four
elephants (Fig. 7). Elephants
were also
used
by
the Ptolemies in elaborate
processions
and
they
often
drew the
images
of the
gods.'
Coins of
Ptolemy
Soter and
his son bear the device of
Pallas and
Jupiter
in ele-
phant-drawn chariots,
so that
the
practice
of
representing
the
gods
in
quadrigae
of ele-
phants goes
back to the Alex-
andrian
age. Fig.
8
gives
two coins of
Ptolemy
with a
probable representation
of Alexander
as Zeus
Ammon, holding
a thunderbolt.
It is
interesting
to trace the
growing
interest in
elephants
at Rome
beginning
with the
days
of
Pyrrhus.2 Legend says
that
at the battle of
Ausculum,
in
279
B.c.,
the
elephants
of
Pyrrhus
were
frightened by
the
grunting
of swine on the
Roman
side.3
In
273,
five
elephants
taken in battle at
Beneventum,
were led in
triumph
in Rome and it was
probably apropos
of this
event,
when
elephants
were
first seen in
Rome,
that a "brick" was issued at
Capua, bearing
on the obverse an
elephant,
on the reverse a sow.4 At that time
money
with the device of an
elephant
was issued
by
the
consul,
FIGURE 6.-VENUS POMPEIANA:
CoIN
OF SULLA.
FIGURE
7.-PALLAS
IN
QUADRIGA
OF
ELEPHANTS: COIN OF SELEUCUS
I.
FIGURE
8.-ALEXANDER
AS
AMMON
IN
QUADRIGA
OF ELEPHANTS:
COINS OF PTOLEMY SOTER.
1 Athen. V, 34.
2
Plut.
Pyrrhus, 15, 17; Pliny, N.H. VIII, 6,
6.
3 Ael. De Nat. Animal.
I,
38.
4
G. F.
Hill,
Historical Roman
Coins, p. 26, pls. VII-VIII;
of.
Haeberlin,
Systematik, p.
54.
Curius Dentatus.
Elephants
were also used
extensively
in the
first Punic War
by
the
Carthaginians.'
After the Roman
victory
over Hannibal at Palermo in
251,
the
elephants
which caused his
defeat were taken to Rome
by Metellus,
the victorious
consul,
and four hundred of them were killed in the
circus.2
A denarius
of the Caecilian
family,
struck about
92
B.C.,
refers to the famous
victory
and
triumph (Fig. 9).
The coin was
probably
issued
by
C. Caecilius Me-
tellus,
and bears on one side the
head of
Roma,
on the other
Jupiter
in a
biga
drawn
by elephants.
He
holds a thunderbolt in his hand and
above him flies
Victory.
This
type
and later ones
perpetuate
the mo-
tives found on Ptolemaic and Seleucid coins.
After the
period
of the wars with
Carthage,
the most
important
references to
elephants
in Rome associate them with the names
of Caesar and
Pompey. Pompey,
after his African
campaign
in
79
B.c.,
desired to enter Rome in a
quadriga
of
elephants,
but was
prevented
because the
gate
was too small to admit
them.3
He
introduced
elephants
into the circus at the dedication of his
theatre and
temple
of Venus Victrix in 55
B.c.,
but was cursed
by
the
populace,
who
found it difficult to endure the
suffering
of
the beasts.4
Elephants
were associated with Caesar at
Thapsus,
where
they appeared
in the line of
battle and caused the defeat of Juba~ who
had
placed
them
there.5
The fifth
legion,
which
distinguished
itself in the
struggle
against
these
animals,
had the
privilege
of
bearing
on its standard the
image
of an
elephant.
At this
time,
the coins of
Caesar,
which bear the device of an
elephant,
were
probably
struck in allusion to the
victory
at
Thapsus
and to the
name of the
conqueror
which in the Punic
tongue
meant
"ele-
~bQI~
FIGURE
9.-JJUPITER
IN BIGA
OF ELEPHANTS: COIN OF
THE CAECILIAN FAMILY.
/ ?~??t(?
S.
V? 'L
FIGUJRE
10.- COIN OF
CAESAR STRUCK
AFTER THAPSUS.
1 Polyb. I, 33; Livy, XXI, 28, 35,
cf.
55;
37.
2
Pliny,
N.H. VIII,
6.
SPlut,
Pomp. 14; Pliny,
N.H.
VIII,
2.
Cic.
ad Fam.
VII, 1, 3; Pliny,
N.H.
VIII,
7
6
Dio, XLIII, 8; Appian,
Bell. Civil.
II,
96.
VENUS
POMPEIANA
309
phant"
1
(Fig. 10). According
to various
authorities,
the Phoeni-
cian word cessarah can mean:
tergum elephanti
vel
scutum
ex
corio
elephanti confectum.2
Caesar
probably adopted
the coin
device as an allusion to
conquered
Africa and because of the
punning
element involved in the name. He
had, however, previously, employed
it after his victories over Ariovistus
in Gaul
(Fig. 11). Here,
an
elephant
is shown
on
the obverse
trampling
on a
serpent;
on the reverse are sac-
rificial
implements alluding
to the
office of Pontifex Maximus. An almost exact duplicate of this
coin bears the name of
Hirtius,
the
legate
of Caesar3
(Fig. 12).
Caesar also
employed elephants
on his
triumphal
return from
Gaul,
when he entered the
capital by
night, lighting
the
way
with
forty
torch-bearing
elephants.4
Augustus
seems to have shown
the same
predilection
for
elephants,
and
many
coins of the
Augustan age
bear the
elephant, appar-
ently
used as a
symbol
of
victory
and
triumph.
The conquest
of
Egypt undoubtedly
caused
their
employment
to be more
frequent.
The
practice
of
using
them to draw the
chariot of deified
emperors
and members of the
imperial
family,
came into Rome
from
Egypt
at this time. In
Fig.
13 we have two
Augustan
coins
dating
from the
year
17
B.c.,
which bear the head of
Octavian on the obverse and
on the reverse a
triumphal
FIGURE 11.-COIN OF CAESAR
IN GAUL.
FIGURE 12.-COIN
OF
HIRTIUS.
FIGURE
13.-CoINS
OF AUGUSTUS.
1
Serv. ad
Aen. I, 286;
ef.
Cohen,
Mid.
Imp.
2
I, p. 17; Duruy,
Hist.
of
Rome, III, p.
464.
2
De
Vit,
Onomas.
II,
40.
3
Babelon, Monnaies
de la
Rep.
Rom.
I,
543,
No. 3.
4
Suet. Div. Jul. 37.
arch
placed on a viaduct of small arches and surmounted
by
a
biga
of
elephants,
in which
Augustus stands,
crowned
by Victory.
The
triumphal
arch relates
generally
to the victories of
Augustus
J~~
FBPV~S
~T
ac?
P~
f
~AB
~,~?9~~
8: as BP
~i~i"
c6%
ce~
~ ~8;
FIGURE 14.-COINS OF TRIUMVIRI OF MINT UNDER AUGUSTUS.
or his commanders in the
East,
but more
especially
to those in
Africa between 34 and 19
B.c.,
during
which
period
the Fasti re-
cord no less than five
triumphs
in that
portion
of the
Empire.'
The various coins
"ssued
by
the Triumviri connected with the
mint about 20
B.C.,
also make allusion to the same victories
(Fig.
14).
We have further a reference which
records the erection
by Augustus,
of four
elephants
in a kind of black
glass
in the
term-
ple
of
Concord.2
After the death of
Augustus,
a medallion
was struck
by
Tiberius on which was de-
picted
a statue of
Augustus
in a chariot
drawn
by
four
elephants accompanied by
guides (Fig. 15).
The coin dates from the
year
36
A.D.,
and is our earliest Roman ex-
ample
of a deified
emperor
in a
quadriga
of
elephants.
The same honor
appears
to have been voted
by
the
Senate for
Livia, Vespasian, Julia,
Faustina the Elder and Per-
tinax.3
In
conclusion,
we
may say
that the
elephant
was
symbolic
of the orient in the
early days
of
Italy.
The wars with
Africa
brought
the
elephant
into battle with the
Romans,
often
FIGURE 15.-DEIFIED
AUGUSTUS
IN
QUAD-
RIGA OF ELEPHANTS:
COIN OF
TIBERIUS.
1 H. A. Grueber, Coins of the Roman Republic in the Br. Mus. II, p. 39 and
note 3.
2 Pliny,
N.H.
XXXVI,
67. I owe the reference to Miss M. B. Wesner.
3
Suet.
Claud. 11; Pliny,
N.H.
XXXIV, 10; Dio, LXXV, 4.
VENUS POMPEIANA 311
with
terrifying
results. Led in
triumphal procession
after
battle,
it thus came to mean the
conquered orient,
and its use in
this connection
was
especially
prominent
in the
wars with Car-
thage,
after
Thapsus
and fol-
lowing Augustus'
victories in
Africa. In the
days
of
Trajan
and
Hadrian,
such allusions were still common
(Fig. 16).
In the
reign
of Au-
gustus,
in addition to this
symbolism,
the
suggestion
that the
persons
drawn
by elephants
were divine assumed
prominence.
The Romans were undoubt-
edly
familiar with the eastern
practice
of
placing gods
and
deified rulers in
elephant-
drawn chariots. The
sugges-
tion of divine association
thus
involved,
must have at-
tracted
Augustus,
and we
may
well believe that the
medallion of Tiberius would have been
very acceptable
to him.
After the
reign
of
Augustus,
the custom of
placing
deified rulers
in such chariots was
very frequent, judging
from the devices on
coins. On coins of
Nero,
we
see the heads of Nero and
Agrippina accompanied
on
the obverse
by
two
figures
considered to be
Augustus
and
Livia,
in a chariot
drawn
by
four
elephants
(Fig. 17).
In the
days
of
the
Antonines,
similar coins
are also found. Faustina is seen
represented
in the same fashion
(Fig. 18). Sometimes,
she is shown under the
guise
of Ceres
(Fig. 19).
FIGURE
16.-COINS
OF TRAJAN.
FIGURE
17.-DEIFIED AUGUSTUS AND
LIVIA: COIN OF NERO.
FIGURE 18.-DEIFIED FAUSTINA IN
BIGA OF ELEPHANTS.
5
What of Venus
Pompeiana? 1
She
began
at
Pompeii by being
a
special cult,
favored
by Sulla,
a mixture of Fortuna and
Aphrodite.
By
the
days
of Nero she had taken on some of the
pomp
which the orient was accustomed to
display
in
placing
its
gods
in
elephant-drawn
chariots.
Pompeii
was a
city
more
open
to oriental influ-
ence than
any
other Roman site
except
its
neigh-
bor, Puteoli,
the
early
harbor of Rome. The
oriental cults which
flourished at
Pompeii
show the
extent of
this
power.
Isis had her
temple there,
though
her
worship
was
suppressed many
times at Rome between
the
years
58-48
B.c.
The influence of
Egypt
is
extensively
seen
FIGURE
19.-
DEIFIED
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FIGURE 20.-AFRICAN ANIMALS:
FRESCO
FROM POMPEII.
1
The recent article by
Delle Corte, Awsonia, 1921,
on Venus Pompeiana,
came to
my
notice after the
writing
of this
paper.
He
gives
a list of illustrations
of Venus of
Pompeii
and wishes to add to the list the
pompa formerly assigned
to
Cybele,
which is illustrated in Not. Scav.
1912, p. 110, fig. 7. A second article
by Pais,
available after this
paper
was in
press,
considers the fresco an allusion
to
Pompey's
African triumph
and to his
attempt
to enter Rome in 79 mc. in a
quadriga
drawn
by elephants.
This does
not, however,
account for the later
practice
of
representing
deified
emperors
and members of the imperial family
in chariots drawn
by elephants,
nor for the
prominent part
which the
elephant
plays
in the Julio-Claudian house. The attributes of Venus must also be
accounted for and the peculiar
character of her cult at Pompeii.
The actual
date of the fresco in
question
furnishes an additional difficulty.
The frescoes
have been renewed several times but the
upper layer appears
to
belong
to the
last
period
of the
city.
Pais considers the
figure
at the
right
of Venus,
Felicitas.
E.
Pais,
'Venere Pompeiana
trionfante su di un cocchio tirato da elefanti e le
gesta
di Cneo
Pompeio Magno,'
Bolletino dell'
Associazione
Archaeologica
Romana, IV, 1914, pp.
256-267.
VENUS POMPEIANA 313
in
Pompeian
mosaics
showing
animals from the Nile and in fres-
coes such as
Fig. 20,
where various African animals
appear.
The direct influence of
Egyptian
life and customs on
Pompeii
may
thus have been
strong enough
to account for the
type
of
Venus drawn
by elephants.
She
may
be
only
a descendant of
the Alexandrian
deities,
borne in similar chariots. It
is,
how-
ever, tempting
to see in the fresco some of the influence
very
prominent
in Rome under the Julio-Claudian
house,
which used
the
elephant
in a
symbolic way
as emblematic of their
triumphs
over
Africa,
to add
pomp
to the
ruling
monarchs and to
suggest
their divine character.
MARY
HAMILTON
SWINDLER.
BRYN
MAWR COLLEGE
BRYN
MAWR,
PA.

Aja, 27.3, 1923

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Aja, 27.3, 1923

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Venus Pompeiana and the New Pompeian Frescoes

Author(s): Mary Hamilton Swindler

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