Archaeologia Adriatica, Vol. 2 No. 2, 2008.
Original scientific paper
A Depiction of Aphrodite/Venus or a Maenad on a Relief from Noricum
Erwin Pochmarski
; Institut für Archäologie, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz
Abstract
The article discusses a previously unpublished iconographically unusual relief from the municipium of Flavia Solva in the southeastern part of the Roman province of Noricum. The relief depicts a half-clothed female figure whose right hand pulls a fold of a cloak across the legs and at the same time uses it to lean against a pilaster with a capital in the shape of a calyx. The left are is extended forwards. This is an image of Aphrodite/Venus, whose partner was on the broken off right half of the relief. Various suggestions for the reconstruction of the missing part (a depiction of Aphrodite and Hippolytus or Helen and Menelaus) are quite possible, but they have no parallels among Roman provincial reliefs, although they were known in late Hellenistic glyptics. The types can be noted of Aphrodite Marina,
Aphrodite Euploia/Pontia, and Aphrodite of Cyrene. The depiction of Aphrodite herself was usually reduced, as Eros was usually depicted to the right of her, as a distinctly lower artistic pair in such a group. The only solution that could also be considered would be the transformation of Aphrodite/Venus into a Maenad, whose partner (Satyr) is missing. The presence of a maenad can be compared to the common reliefs of satyrs and maenads turned towards one another. A satyr could be added according to the model of a neo-Attic sarcophagus from Janina (Greece). According to the above, the depiction can best be interpreted as Venus, with Eros on the right half of the relief.
Keywords
Aphrodite/Venus; Flavia Solva; Noricum; glyptic; Aphrodite Marina; Aphrodite Euploia/Pontia; Aphrodite of Cyrene; Satyr-Maenad; sarcophagus; Eros
Hrčak ID:
37204
URI
Publication date:
23.5.2009.
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