Sol: Image and Meaning of the Sun in Roman Art and Religion, Volume I 1

"With this analysis of Sol images, Steven E. Hijmans paints a new picture of the solar cult in ancient Rome. The paucity of literary evidence led Hijmans to prioritize visual sources, and he opens this study with a thorough discussion of the theoretical and methodological issues involved. Emphasizing the danger of facile equivalencies between visual and verbal meanings, his primary focus is Roman praxis, manifest in, for instance, the strict patterning of Sol imagery. These patterns encode core concepts that Sol imagery evoked when deployed, and in those concepts we recognize the bedrock of Rome's understandings of the sun and his cult. Case studies illustrate these concepts in action and the final chapter analyzes the historical context in which previous, now discredited views on Sol could arise"-- Provided by publisher Contents 8 Figures 14 Abbreviations 17 Introduction 20 Chapter 1 Art and Sol: Some Parameters for an Analysis of Images of the Roman Sun 25 1 Two Sun Gods? 25 2 Reading Roman Art – The Problem of the “Greek Norm” 32 3 Greek Art and Etruscan Art 37 4 Greek Art and Good Taste 49 5 The Iconographic Toolbox 52 6 The Semantics of Roman Art 59 7 Matters of Methodology 64 8 The Interpretative Process – Understanding Manners of Meaning 73 Chapter 2 Recognizing Sol: The Three Main Image Types 81 1 Introduction 81 2 Criteria 82 2.1 Youth 82 2.2 Rays 83 2.3 Raised Right Hand 83 2.4 Chlamys 85 2.5 Chiton 87 2.6 Quadriga 87 2.7 Whip 87 2.8 Globe 88 2.9 Torch or Torches 89 2.10 Staff 90 2.11 Sceptre 91 2.12 Armour 91 2.13 Other Attributes 92 2.14 Three Image Types 93 3 Divine Radiance 98 3.1 Nimbus Without Rays 99 3.2 Rays and Radiate Nimbus 99 3.3 Radiate Crown 100 3.4 Radiate Crown or Wreath with Ribbons (Fig. 2.4) 100 Chapter 3 Understanding the Image Types for Sol: Main Definitions 105 1 Introduction 105 2 Chronological Evolution and Meaningful Patterns 110 3 Sol as a Deity 112 4 Sol in Mythological Scenes 113 5 Sol as a Minor Figure 115 6 Sol-and-Luna 1 – Architecture and Liminality 116 7 Sol-and-Luna 2 – Attributes of Aeternitas 121 8 Sol-and-Luna 3 – Cultic Reliefs 122 9 Sol-and-Luna 4 – Sarcophagi 129 10 Sol-and-Luna 5 – Alone, without Context 130 11 Sol-and-Luna 6 – Early Middle Ages 132 12 Sol Alone, as Minor Figure or in Complex Scenes 132 13 Intaglios 134 Chapter 4 Understanding the Image Types for Sol: Specific Cases 154 1 Sol and Alexander 154 2 Sol in the Synagogue 161 3 A Divine Kiss on the Lips 168 4 Funerary Altar of Julia Victorina 170 5 Mithras 172 5.1 The Mithraic Cult 174 5.2 The Mithraeum according to Beck 176 5.3 The Tauroctony 179 5.4 “Illegible” Narrative Imagery 182 5.5 Sol and the Rhetoric of the Tauroctony 185 5.6 Sol in Other Mithraic Scenes 187 5.7 The “Romanness” of the Sol-Image in Mithraic Art 188 5.8 Sol and “Star Talk” 191 5.9 Image, Narrative, and Meaning 193 6 Preliminary Results 194 7 Sol: The Planet 197 7.1 The Religious Aspect 199 7.2 A Divine Cosmos 201 7.3 The Julian Calendar Reforms and the Planetary Deities 203 The Images: Catalogue and Discussion 209 1 Table of Contents 209 2 Introduction 221 3 Catalogue 226 4 Discussion 802