Roman Romance

What did the Romans know about love?

Venus took pride of place as the goddess of love, fertility, and marriage. One of her festivals, Veneralia, was held on April 1st and encouraged couples to respect ‘traditional’ values of romance. It was also a chance for people to ask for her help in granting love-related favours!

Denarius of Julia Domna depicting Venus on the reverse

Cupid is the next divine figure best linked with love in the Roman world. Cupid is likely the Romanised version of Eros, a key figure of Greek mythology. The fable of Cupid and Psyche is laced with the bizarre and fantastical; including Psyche receiving assistance from some ants that help her sort grain into piles during Venus’s trials to regain Cupid’s love. It shows no matter how weird, even amongst the gods love is never far from the Roman imagination.

Roman intaglio depicting Cupid, discovered at the Roman Baths

What did the real people of Rome say about love in their lives? 

The ‘ideal’ marriage occupied the hearts and minds of Romans in everyday life. Marriages were generally arranged by the paterfamilias (Father of the household). In upper-class society, marriage was commonly focused on alliance-forging, dowry exchange, or property gain, and romance is presented as an afterthought. It is easy to look at Roman marriages as cold, political, and calculated. Which, in fairness, is not wrong in some cases.

How reflective of wider Roman society is this? 

Whether it is the controversial Ovid, the amorous Catullus or the elusive Gallus, love poetry is a valuable insight into a far more general perspective of romance. Read them with a large pinch of salt because little is without agenda or exaggeration in Rome. These poems show love in all its colours, the good, the bad, and the peculiar. It is endearing to see that even two thousand years ago, love was still everything it is to us today.

Finlay
Placement student

The Hippo Camp!

The Beau Street Hoard features coins with all sorts of pictures on the back, including gods and goddesses, emperors and temples, and many different kinds of animals, both real and mythical. One of these mythical animals is the Hippocamp.

The Hippocamp is half-horse and half-fish, almost like an equine mermaid! The Roman god of the sea, Neptune, is often shown using Hippocampi to pull his chariot. We have a mosaic of a Hippocamp in the museum.

 

The Hippocamp Mosaic

 “Hippocamp” is actually a Greek word. “Hippo” means horse and “Kampos” means sea monster. We often translate it as “sea-horse”.  The Etruscans (a pre-Roman civilisation in Italy) had lots of mythical animals that were half-fish, including aigikampoi (fish-tailed goats), leokampoi (fish-tailed lions), taurokampoi (fish-tailed bulls) and pardalokampoi (fish-tailed leopards).

Of course, of all the animals featured on the coins, our favourite is the Hippo! This is why the mascot for the Heritage Lottery Funded Beau Street Hoard Project is Beau the Hippo. So we decided to create our own version of a Hippo Camp.

 

The Hippo-Camp - L-R: Phil, Gordo and Beau

As you can see, Beau and his friends, Phil and Gordo (named after Philip I and Gordian III, the most represented Emperors in the Hoard) are having a lovely time at the Hippo-Camp. This picture was drawn by our volunteer artist-extraordinaire. It looked like so much fun that even our stuffed animal Beau wanted a go!

 

The Re-Enacted Hippo-Camp (with Beau)

Tuesday Time Tables – Modern Monsters and their Roman Myths

And so we came to our last Tuesday Time Table event of the summer and I chose to take the evening in a very different direction.

As an English graduate, I am passionate about writing in any form; you name it, I’ll have read it! So, stories, myths and fables were the clear themes for me to explore. But how to link it to the Romans? And how to create an interesting handling session with this theme?

Perseus and Medusa

 
The Roman period is rich in myth and legends, often referring to the creation of the great city of Rome. These Roman narratives often focus on the trials and tribulations of humans, who possess a divinely ordered destiny and often this comes with occasional intervention from the gods. Frequently, these stories are equipped with ferocious beasts that must be vanquished by the stoic hero. There are hundreds of stories, with masses of mythical characters, creatures and moral endings. So, finding stories to use for the handling table was effortless; the real difficulty came in whittling down which stories to pick! I chose the following:

- Romulus and Remus, raised by a she-wolf

- Medusa and Perseus

- Hercules and the snakes

- Salus and the snakes

But finding the objects? In the vast museum collection, which objects could combine with these stories? After trawling through the collections database I came across a selection of coins (depicting Romulus and Remus suckled by a wolf and Salus feeding a snake respectively), a medal (showing Medusa fleeing from an unknown figure) and the remains of a wolf’s tooth. Despite countless searches, no object could be found relating to the story of Hercules. In place of an object, I brought in gummy snakes instead that visitors could freely sample. So even if the visitor didn’t enjoy the handling table, they could walk away with a sweet taste in mouth!

On the evening of the event, I was nervous; would the evening be a complete failure? But as the visitors came to the table, all demonstrated a keen interest in both the stories and objects. Though many recalled the stories, some visitors had never heard them and were enthusiastic to listen to the tales. Children, in particular, enjoyed the table, loving the monsters and the sweets that accompanied them. Over the course of two hours, 92 visitors came to the event; it was a great success but it unfortunately this meant there were no celebratory sweets left over for me to nibble on!

Fiona Davies

A Gorgon's Head?

Gorgon's Head?

I have puzzled over an alternative interpretation as to who/what the image in the centre of the Temple Pediment really is. I am sure that the character who dominates the centre is almost certainly not a Gorgon. For starters it’s a male; the only male Gorgon is Nanas (guardian of Zeus) who would have no relation to this site. Most importantly though, where are the snakes!? I see some thick wisps of beard but certainly no snakes. So who is this character?

The obvious choice for me is Neptune, not only does the aged bearded face resemble him but he is the God of water. The Romans had no natural explanation for hot springs such as those found at Bath, so to turn to a supernatural source for worship was not uncommon and here the deity of water makes perfect sense.

Artist illustration of Temple Pediment

If you look carefully you will see nestled in the corner of the pediment are Tritons; half men half fish creatures who were the servants of Neptune. If this image is not of Neptune then who is he? This mysterious figure could be any one of a number of water deities, perhaps the God Oceanus?

Mildenhall Silver Plate

Another theory is that in an effort to endear themselves to the native populous they governed, the Romans often amalgamated ‘their’ Gods with local ones (our very own Sulis Minerva is a great example of this.) Perhaps this is what happened here but current knowledge of local deities is very limited and offers no obvious links.

Next and perhaps most controversially it might be Mithras. This Eastern God was popular amongst the Romans at the time the Baths were active. Worship of Mithras was most popular among the military; soldiers of course built the Baths. The story of this God is also entwined with that of Sol (the Sun God).

As the Roman Baths website tells us the discovery of the Gorgons Head Temple Pediment “confirmed that the Roman site at Bath was unusual and attracted special interest to the site”.
Is it right to keep referring to this image as a Gorgon when it is clearly an interpretation that can be questioned? It’s hard to believe that once the head of Sulis Minerva was believed to be that of Apollo, What do you think?

Heath Meltdown

Web of Deceit

When working on the “Gift’s for the Goddess” display table during Heritage Open Week, I came across a replica of an ancient Roman spindle whorl. Being who I am, I was intrigued to find out more about this strange little round item, especially how it worked. Learning how it twists the thread into long strands ready for weaving reminded me of a Roman myth of a weaving competition between Minerva and Arachne. The story goes as follows…

Arachne was considered the best weaver of textiles of all mortals. People across the lands would come watch her as she created the most beautiful textiles with such grace. One day, Arachne claimed to the public that she could out weave the goddess Minerva. Unfortunately, after Minerva heard this, she was not pleased and disguised herself as an old woman. The goddess went to visit Arachne and under her disguise she warned Arachne about the wrath of the gods and to not tempt the goddess Minerva. Arachne having heard the advice, refused to do so. Minerva took away her disguise and stood before Arachne and declared she would accept her challenge. Arachne surprised and bashfully agreed to do so.

Minerva

Many gathered around the competitors as they took their stations and attached the webs to the beam. They watched in awe as they elegantly spread the slender shuttle in and out along the thread. Both of them worked with such skill and speed. Eventually the colourful images started to form on the textiles.

Weaving loom

Minerva displayed the story of her triumph over Neptune in claiming the city of Athens. Arachne wove stories of gods who failed or caused errors to mortal kind.

This outraged Minerva and she destroyed Arachne’s beautiful textile. The goddess then placed shame into Arachne’s heart for defying the gods.

The next day Arachne felt such guilt and shame that she tried to take her own life. Minerva, having heard this, felt pity on Arachne and went to visit her. While standing before Arachne she said “Live, guilty woman and that you preserve the memory of this lesson…” and promptly turned Arachne into a spider.

(Want to learn how to use a Roman Spindle Whorl?...keep reading there will be more on that later!)