Archaeological Contributions to Roman Religion

Author(s): Margarete Bieber

Source: Hesperia, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1945), pp. 270-277
Published by: American School of Classical Studies at Athens
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/146712
Accessed: 18/05/2009 11:42
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ascsa.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the
scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that
promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

American School of Classical Studies at Athens is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Hesperia.

http://www.jstor.org

ARCHAEOLOGICALCONTRIBUTIONS TO
ROMAN RELIGION
(PLATES XXXVIII-XXXIX)
T

WO Graeco-Romanstatuesin Buffalo,AlbrightArt Gallery,thoughnot artistically valuable, are interesting for Roman adaptations of Greek art and religion.
1. SEATED DIANA

The statue (Plate XXXVIII, 1) was purchased in 1927 from the Charles Clifton
Collection and was exhibited in the Albright Gallery in 1928.' It is said to have been
found near Rome. Its height is 86 cm., or 34 inches, with the base, which is 4 cm.
The head was broken, the face has been polished, the rear part of the head with the
nape of the neck is restored, but it seems to belong. Both arms are missing from
above the elbows. Remains of the fingers of the right hand are on the mantle which
is laid over the right thigh. Behind it lies the quiver, while a small piece of the bow
seems to lie on the left shoulder over the rounded bunch of folds of the mantle behind
the long strands of hair, falling on the shoulder.
Diana is seated on a rock over which an animal skin is spread; of its four claws,
two are hanging down in the back, one on each side, while the head is seen at the left
rear part. This animal head seems to be of the same kind as the heads of the fur
straps which decorate her high boots. It might be the head and skin of a boar, with
broad mouth and small eyes, an animal sacred to Diana. In the Hadrianic tondi on
the arch of Constantine, for example, after the boar hunt, a sacrifice is made to Diana,
to whom the boarskin is dedicated.2
The unusual feature of this statue is the fact that she is seated. The Greek
Artemis is the model for the costume; short chiton with belt under the breast in the
Hellenistic manner, himation, and endromides. But the Greek Artemis, the goddess
of the hunt, is ordinarily shown standing or running, and is not represented seated
except at special occasions: at a festival like the Panathenaia on the east frieze of the
Parthenon; in the unexplained love story on the Pompeian wall painting; when riding
on a doe or stag as on a Faliscan bowl in Wiirzburg, B 356, from Civita Castellani
(Plate XXXVIII, 2), a vase in Vienna, 668 (probably also Faliscan), and a statuette
at Sorrento.3
An Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture added to the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy through
the generosity of the late Colonel Charles Clifton, p. 6, no. 11, ill. on p. 14.
2
Bieber, Rom. Mitt., XXVI, 1911, pp. 244 ff.; Bulle, Arch. Jahrb., XXXIV, 1919, pp. 144 ff.;
Lehmann-Hartleben, Rom. Mitt., XXXV, 1920, pp. 143 ff.; Arndt-Brunn-Bruckmann, Denkmdler
griech. u. r6m. Skulptur, pls. 559-560; L'Orange and von Gerkan, Der Konstantinsbogen, pls. 40 b
and 41 a.
Alda Levy, Notizie degli Scavi, 1924, p. 375, pi. 18; Rumpf, Rom. Mitt., XXXVIII/IX,

ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO ROMAN RELIGION

271

The Romans, however, only rarely took over the Greek religious personalities
without changing or mixing them with other conceptions. Such a process is already
under way in the Hellenistic period. Thus Artemis and Selene, the goddess of the
moon, become one, and the same is true of their Roman equivalents, Diana and Luna.
Ennius (239-168 B.c.) called Diana Trivia in one of his tragedies, which Varro,
De Lingua Latina, VII, 16, explains as meaning that she is Luna.4 Catullus, in his
poem 34 on Diana, lines 15 f., writes tu potens Trivia et notho's dicta lumine Luna.
Horace, Carmen, III, no. 22 calls Diana Montium custos, nemorumque virgo
diva triformis, which means a goddess in three forms: Hekate-Luna-Lucina. On the
Viennese vase and on Roman coins 5 Artemis riding on a stag holds a torch, like
Hekate-Luna. As the statue in Buffalo has a half-moon over her forehead, there can
be no doubt that she is meant to be Diana Luna. We find the figure or the bust of
Diana with her bow as Luna, the goddess of the moon-day, Monday, between Sol for
Sunday and Mars for Tuesday on the octagonal or round stones with the seven gods
of the weekdays used as drums for columns in honor of Jupiter in Gallia and
Germania.6
But this does not explain the fact that she is seated, for Luna rides on a mule
or a car. There is, however, another contamination of Diana with Vesta. In inscriptions from the sanctuary on the Lacus Nemorensis (Lake Nemi) in the Alban
hills near Ariccia Diana is called Diana Nemorensis Vesta or Aricina Diana Vesta.7
Vesta is indeed always represented seated. Her Greek prototype Hestia was represented seated in a statue by Scopas, which was set up in Rome in the Servilian gardens
8
(Pliny, 36, 25). Vesta accordingly appears seated on Roman coins and on three
reliefs, where the presence of the Vestal Virgins testifies her to be Vesta: one in the
Villa Albani, one in Palermo, and one in Sorrento, the latter showing copies of statues,
among them the Apollo of Scopas. The Vesta might be copied from the Hestia of
the same artist.9
1923/4, pp. 475 f., fig. 21. Cf. also Loewy, Ram. Mitt., LII, 1927, p. 209, Beilage 24 a; Farnell,
Cults of the GreekStates, II, p. 525, pl. XXX b. The wall painting: P. Herrmann,Denkmdler
der Malerei,p. 27, pl. 18. My P1. XXXVIII, 2: Langlotz, Griech. Vasen in Wiirzburg,p. 146,
no. 818, pl. 237.
4 Vahlen, EnnianaePoesis Reliquae (1903), p. 138, Fragm. 121.
5 Coinsof Faustinajunior: Gnecchi,MedaglioniRomani,p. 40, pl. 68.
6 Hertlein,Juppitergigantensdulen,
pp. 82 ff.; Esperandieu,Recueilgeneraldes bas-reliefs de la
Gaule romaine,I, p. 281 f., no. 412; Bieber, Skulpturenin Kassel, pp. 46 f., no. 93, pl. XXXV;
pp. 35 f., pl. IX, 3.
Koepp, GermaniaRomana2,IV, Weihedenkmdler,
7Orelli, InscriptionumLatinarumselectarumCollectio,I (1828), p. 292, nos. 1455 and 1457;
G. Wilmanns,ExemplaInscriptionumr
Latinarum,II (1873), p. 20, no. 1767 (dated A.D.100). Cf.
Birt in Roscher,Lexikon d. Myth., I, 1004.
8 Gnecchi,Rivista Italiana di Numismatica,XIX, 1906, pp. 479 f., pl. 17; Cohen, Medailles
imperiales, II, p. 252, no. 62; Rizzo, Bulletino comunale di Roma, LX, 1932, pp. 25 ff., 40, tav. d'agg.

B 1-3, pls. I-II.

9 Rizzo, op. cit.,

pp. 28 ff., fig. 5, tav. II, tav. d'agg. C; Lippold-Arndt-Amelung, Einzelaufnahmen
ant. Skulpt., 4688; Wissowa in Roscher, Lexikon der Mythologie, VI, s. v. Vesta, cols. 271 f., figs. 4-5.

MARGARETE BIEBER

272

The Diana of Buffalo thus might be the copy of a cult statue from Ariccia or
another of the many sanctuaries of Diana in Italy, formed with the idea of combining
the characteristics of the Greek Artemis, Selene, and Hestia, or the Roman Diana,
Luna, and Vesta.
The sanctuary, however, may also have been in one of the Roman provinces.
The only other seated Diana known to me is on a relief in Tours in Gallia, where she
is seated under a tree, with a stag and a cupid beside her.10 She might be Diana
Arduinna from the Ardennes in Alsace, named in a dedication of a soldier from
Reims (Remus),"' or she might be Diana Abnoba of the Black Forest, named in a
statuette from Miihlberg in the Museum of Karlsruhe in Germany12
In any case the statue in Buffalo is a truly Graeco-Roman conception with the
emphasis on the Roman side. The coarse work probably belongs to the beginning
of the third century after Christ.
2. RECLINING HERCULES
The statuette of a reclining man (Plate XXXIX, 3) is of Parian marble. It is
83 cm. or 34 inches long, and 46 cm. or 141 inches high, of which 7 cm. or 3 inches
are for the base. The base consists of rock over which a skin is spread, as in the
first figure. This time, however, it is that of a lion with a broad face and grim mouth
open to show the formidable teeth. The man is lying on his left side, with his left leg
bent and his right lower leg originally crossing the left ankle. The right arm was
extended. The left arm leans on an inflated animal skin, of the type used for water,
wine, or oil. Here its mouth is used as a fountain. The round channel goes through
to the back of the rock. When I saw the statue first, I believed it to be a river god.
But such a one would have neither the wine skin nor the lion skin. Then I thought it
might be a satyr, but the figure does not have a tail. The lion's skin decides for
Herakles.
There are indeed many replicas of the reclining Herakles: one life-size figure
in the Vatican, one life-size torso in the Museo Mussolini, 10 statuettes, 17 reliefs in
marble, terracotta, stucco and bronze are known to me. To these can be added Roman
coins and a wall painting from Pompeii. I know the following replicas:
Esperandieu, Recueil general des bas-reliefs, statues et bustes de la Gaule romaine, IV,
p. 124, no. 2991.
Amelung, Skulpt. des Vat. Mus., I, pp. 170 f., Galleria lapidaria, no. 11 b; cf. Koepp, Germania Romana, IV2, Weihedenkmaler, p. 49, pl. XXVI; Krueger, Germania, I, 1917, pp. 4 f.; Ihm in
Pauly-Wissowa, R.E., s. vv. Arduenna and Arduinna.
12
Esperandieu, Recueil general des bas-reliefs, statues et bustes de la Germanie Romaine,
p. 214, no. 345.
10

ARCHAEOLOGICAL

CONTRIBUTIONS

I. FIGURES IN THE ROUND

A. MARBLE

1. Life size: Amelung, Skulpt. Vat. Mus., I,

pp. 812 ff., Chiaramonti, no. 733, pl. 87;
Reinach, Rep. de la Stat., I, p. 469, 5; Gusman,
La Villa Hadriana, pp. 283 f., fig. 487 (not
found there, found in Rome). Right hand
holds club.
2. Torso and fragment of head, found in Rome.
Mustilli, Museo Mussolini, pp. 70 f., no. 12,
pl. XLIV, nos. 179-180.
3. Statuette found in Rome. Mustilli, op. cit.,
p. 164, no. 16, pl. CVI, no. 402. In right hand
club.
4. Statuette from Baiae in Naples. Unpublished. Cf. Mustilli, op. cit., p. 70.
5. Statuette in Buffalo, our Plate XXXIX, 3.
6. Statuette in Rome. Gatti, Notizie degli
Scavi, 1925, pp. 394 f., fig. 23; Reinach, Rep.
de la Stat., VI, 59, 4. Head missing. Right
hand holds club, left bowl. Height, 0.50 m.
7. Statuette in Brussa. Mendel, Sculptures gr.,
rom. et byz. du Musee de Brousse, pp. 10 f., no.
7, fig. 5. In right hand apple. Left hand on
water jug. Head missing.
8. Torso statuette in Tarentum. Notizie, 1897,
p. 227. Reinach, op. cit., II, p. 796, 1.
B. TERRACOTTA

1. From near Capua in Boston. Caskey, Bulletin of the Boston Museum, VIII, 1910, pp.
27 f., no. 46; Fairbanks, Greek Gods and
Heroes, Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston, p. 62, fig.
57; Reinach, op. cit., V, p. 95, 2. Found near
Capua. Inv. No. B.C. 10087. In right hand
club, in left arm large horn of plenty. Our plate
XXXIX, 4.
2. Seven terracottas from Tarsus: Excavations
at Gizlii Kule Tarsus, Vol. II (in press).
C. TUFA

1. Rome, Mus. Naz., found in Rome, regio

XIV Trastevere. Marchetti, Notizie, 1889, pp.

TO ROMAN RELIGION

273

244 f., fig. b., from aedicula before which altars

dedicated to Hercules. This is probably a Hercules cubans. In left hand club, right takes cup
from table.
II. RELIEFS
A. MARBLE

1. Athens, 1454. Loewy, Rim. Mitt., XII,

1897, pp. 63f., fig. 3.; Stais, Marbles et
Bronzes du Musee nat., I2, p. 250; Svoronos,
Das Athener Nationalmuseum, I, pi. LXXVIII,
1, and II, pp. 457 f.; Reinach, Rep. des Reliefs,
II, p. 351, 2. Hands broken. Found in Athens.
2. Athens, 1462. Loewy, loc. cit., p. 63, no. E;
Stais, op. cit., pp. 251 f. (fig. wrongly labelled
no. 1333); Arndt-Amelung, Einzelaufnahmen
ant. Skulpt., no. 1249; Reinach, Rep. des Reliefs, II, p. 349, 7; Svoronos, op. cit., I, pl.
LXXVIII, 2, and II, pp. 464 f. Right hand
empty, in left bowl. Behind Herakles fluteplaying satyr. In background to left a tree with
club, bow and quiver of Herakles. From
Eleusis.
3. Fragments of similar relief in Delos. Demangel, Revue archeologique, XXIII, 1926, pp.
182 ff., figs. 1-3. Only satyr, part of head and
weapons of Herakles are preserved.
4. Brockelsby Park, from Athens. Loewy, loc.
cit., pp. 61 f., fig. 2; Michaelis, Ancient Marbles
in Great Britain, pp. 231 f., no. 28; Reinach,
Rep. des Reliefs, II, p. 438, no. 2; Mus. Worsleyanum, pl. I, 2. In right hand skyphos, in left
wine skin, which, however, is said to be restored, as is also the head. The inscription
I.G., II2, 4952 tells that the relief is dedicated
for recovery from an illness.
5. Louvre, from Constantinople. Loewy, pp.
146 f., fig. 2; Heron de Villefosse, Catalogue
sommaire des marbres ant. du Louvre, no. 36;
Reinach, Rep. des Reliefs, II, p. 260, 3; Eduard
Schmidt, Archaistische Kunst, pp. 36 f., pl.
XVII, 2. It is dedicated to Isis. In right hand
club, in left flutes. In background the three
nymphs. In center an outlet for water, thus it

274

MARGARETE BIEBER

is a fountain relief. In right upper corner mask

of Achelo6s.
6. Sofia, National Museum, from Madara,
Bulgaria. Filow, Arch. Anz., XXVI, 1911, p.
367, fig. 11; Reinach, Rep. des Reliefs, II, p.
154. In left arm club or cornucopia, in right
hand cup which is being filled by two satyrs
and one nymph. To the left three nymphs.
That the three draped women are the nymphs
and not the graces is shown by the reliefs ibid.,
p. 155, 1-2, also B.C.H., 1897, pp. 130 f. Behind
Herakles tree with snake. Below, hydra, boar,
horses, Stymphalian birds as an allusion to his
deeds. Lower register, cows, horses, and rider.
Inscription to Hercules invictus.
7. Oxford, from Athens. 158/9 after Christ.
Loewy, pp. 60 f., no. A; Michaelis, op. cit., p.
573, no. 135. Reinach, Rep. des Reliefs, II, p.
523, no. 7. The inscription I.G., II2, 3012. Tree
with weapons to the left. Dedication by their
sophronistes for a victory of the epheboi at
Eleusis.
8. Rome, Vatican, Sala a Croce Greca, no.
564 a; Loewy, pp. 62 f., pl. III. Schreiber,
Hellenistische Reliefbilder, pl. 112; Reinach,
Rep. des reliefs, III, p. 377, 5. Lippold, Skulpt.
des Vat. Mus., III, 1, pp. 161 f., pl. 65. Wreath
around head. Badly preserved. In left hand
cup. Right arm modern. Beside Herakles boy
with cake, and the hind part of a pig.
9. Rome, Villa Albani. Loewy, pp. 64 f., no.
G; Reinach, Rep. des Reliefs, III, p. 139, 2, R;
Peter in Roscher, Lexikon der Mythologie, I,
2, col. 2914. Arndt-Amelung, Einzelaufnahmen,
3601. In right hand bowl, in left club. Trees
in background, left with snake. Lower register
pig and boukrania. Border wave pattern. An
oval depression under the bowl may be for a
water spout.
10. Munich, Antiquarium. Loewy, p. 62, no. C,
who quotes Christ. In left hand skyphos, right
empty on thigh.
B. TERRACOTTA
1. Campana relief, time of Augustus. Sieveking, Bronzen, Terrakotten, Vasen der Sammlung Loeb, p. 47, pl. 34, 1. Right hand holds

circlet on knee, in left bowl. Head and feet

missing.
2. Medallion from a vase. Heron de Villefosse
in Gazette arch., VI, 1880, pp. 178 ff., pl. 30.
In left hand skyphos.
C. STUcco
Dura-Europos. Hopkins in Excavations at
Dura-Europos, seventh and eighth seasons 19331935 (1939), p. 370, pl. XL, 1. In left hand
goblet, in right club. Cast in a mould. Length,
0.275 m.
D. BRONZE

1. Applique for a capital of a lamp stand, from

Ephesos; in Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum.
Eichler, Oesterr. Jahreshefte, XXIV, 1929, pp.
210 f., fig. 145, p. 217, fig. 150, and pl. III. At
his side were kneeling cupids. In right hand
rounded object, probably a fillet.
2. Round diskos, probably emblema of a vase.
Heron de Villefosse, Gazette arch., XI, 1886,
pp. 57 f., pl. 6; Reinach, Rep. des Reliefs, II,
p. 477, 1. He reclines on his right side. He is
surrounded by 4 cupids who have taken his
weapons.
3. Bronze band. Bonn, Provinzialmuseum.
Loewy, loc. cit., pp. 144 f. In right hand club,
in left cup.
E. COINS

1. Pergamon. Von Fritze, Die Miinzen von

Pergamon (1910), p. 70, pl. VI, 9. Periods of
Antoninus Pius and Gallienus.
2. Tarsus. Didrachm of Macrinus. Cox, A
Tarsus Coin Collection in the Adana Museum,
Numismatic Notes and Monographs, no. 92,
1941, p. 46, no. 192, pl. IX. Right hand on club.
In left arm horn of plenty.
III. WALL PAINTING
Casa del Centenario. Sogliano, Notizie degli
Scavi, 1897, p. 153. Sogliano, Pitture murale,
no. 498. Loewy, loc. cit., pp. 144 f., fig. 1.
Right hand grasps cupid, another cupid on his
shoulder. To the right a tree. These, like D 2,
are playful adaptations of the motif.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO ROMAN RELIGION

275

Emanuel Loewy was the first to collect examples of the type. He believed that
it was copied from painting. It is true that a feasting Herakles in a similar position
is found on classical vases and on a silver bowl in the Metropolitan Museum.13 But
sculptured representations in the round and on marble reliefs do not begin before the
Hellenistic period. It is common in ancient art for motifs to be used first in drawing
and only later in reliefs and in the round. The marble replicas all seem to be of the
imperial period. The Buffalo statuette is probably of the Antonine age, the period
when this type first appears on coins (El). A similar grinning lion's head is found
on the fragment of a fountain in the storerooms of the Vatican dated in this period14
with cupids playing on a lion skin, probably originally around a reclining Herakles
as on the wall painting (III) and the bronze diskos (D 2).
Loewy has named the type Hercules Olivarius, by combining it with the base
for a reclining figure with an inscription dated in the second or third century after
Christ, ... o Olivarius, opus Scopae minoris, completed by Petersen as [Hercules
invictus cognominatus volg]o Olivarius, by Mommsen as [Hercules invictus de circo
maxim]o.15 This base was found in 1895 in Rome near the round temple on the Tiber
and thus in the region XI, where the Curiosum Urbis as well as the Notitia Urbis
Romae mention an Hercules Olivarius between the Porta Trigemina and the Velabrum, near the Apollo Caelispex and the circus maximus.1 As the vegetable market
was situated in the Velabrum, the name Olivarius may be derived from oliva, olive
oil, sold in the market. It could hardly refer to an olive branch, as none of the replicas
except the relief in the Sala a Croce Greca (A 8) has a wreath, and this one is
decidedly not an olive wreath. Unfortunately the large statue in the Vatican and
most statuettes have lost their heads. The terracotta statuette in Boston (B 1, Plate
XXXIX, 4) has a fillet only. The combination of the base with the statue in the
Vatican is difficult, because the base is now incomplete and only 1.012 m. long, while
the statue is 2.41 m. But if Petersen's supplementof the inscription, which more than
doubles it, is right, the base would become just the right size. This combination would
date the original of the type ca. 100 B.c., as the younger Scopas is mentioned in the
inscriptions of his son Aristandros of Paros, who worked in the early first century
B.C. in Delos.17 Some of the replicas, however, may go back to the type of the Hercules
13 GiselaRichter,A.J.A., XLV, 1941,
pp. 363 ff., figs. 2 and 6. Vases with recliningHerakles,
ibid., pp. 369 ff., note 16. Cf. also the recliningHeraklessurroundedby satyrs and maenadson the
TabulaIliaca in the Villa Albani: Jahn, Bilderchroniken,pp. 39 ff., pl. 5. Lippold-Arndt-Amelung,
ant. Skulpturen,no. 4659.
Einzelaufnahmnen
14

Kaschnitz-Weinberg, Sculture del Magazzino del Museo Vaticano, p. 166, no. 355, pl. 68.

15Petersen, in Notizie degli Scavi, 1895, pp. 459 f.; idem, Rom. Mitt., XI, 1896, pp. 99 f.
Cf. Gatti, Notizie degli Scavi, 1895, pp. 458 f.; idem, Bulletino comunaledi Roma, XXV, 1897,
pp. 55 f.; Mommsen,C.I.L., VI, no. 33936.
16Jordan-Hiilsen,Topographievon Rom, I, 3, pp. 145 f.; II, p. 559. Kiepert-Hiilsen,Forma
Urbis Romae, 15; Roscher,Lexikon der Mythologie,I, 2901 f., 2916 f., 2960.
17
Loewy, Griech.Kiinstlerinschriften,nos. 287 f.; Bieber in Thieme-Becker,Kiinstlerlexikon,
XXXI, pp. 119 f.; Lippoldin Pauly-Wissowa,R.E., s. v. Skopas2.

MARGARETE BIEBER

276

cubans, which stood in the XIV region, Trastevere, e.g. the tufa figure (C) which
was found there and deviates from the others by reaching for a cup on a table
before him.
There may even be more than two types behind the group. The attributes of both
hands are varied. The right hand sometimes lies empty or with a fillet on the thigh,
sometimes it holds a skyphos, a bowl or a club; one, in Brussa (A 4), an apple. The
left hand holds either a cup or the club; once, in the relief in the Louvre (A 5), flutes;
in the terracotta statuette Plate XXXIX, 4 and perhaps also in the relief at Sofia
(A 6) a cornucopia lies in the arm.
The statuette in Buffalo deviates from all the others by leaning on an inflated
animal's skin. But it is not the only replica to be used as a fountain. The same is true
of the relief in the Louvre (A 5) and probablyof the relief in the Villa Albani (A 9).
The wave border of the latter probably is an allusion to water. The water jug under
the left hand of the statuette in Brussa (A 4) takes the place of the inflated skin.
The relief in the Louvre is dedicated to Isis, but probably also to the water nymphs
which are represented in the background. The three nymphs reappear in the relief
in Sofia (A 6), which is dedicated to Hercules invictus. Such a combination of
Herakles with the water nymphs occurs also in reliefs found in Rome, in the Vatican
and Capitoline museums. In the former Herakles stands in the presence of Artemis,
Silvanus, and the three nymphs to whom the relief is dedicated."8In the latter the
story of Hylas and the nymphs is presented near a spring in the presence of Herakles.
The inscription tells that a freedman of Marcus Aurelius (139-161 A.D.) has dedicated
the relief to the springs and to the nymphs.'1
Thus it is clear that Herakles has been used as a fountain figure because he has
some relation to the springs. The horn in the arm of the statuette in Boston, Plate
XXXIX, 4, which is probably also on the relief in Sofia (A 6) and the coin from
Tarsus (E 2), points in the same direction. Hartwig in his dissertation on Herakles
with the horn of plenty 20 has shown that the cornucopia often found as an attribute
of Herakles is given him as the discoverer and protector of sources. Aristides, Or. V,
35, says that Herakles gave his name to the sources of rivers and that he had the
leadership with the nymphs. Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 1441-3, says that
Herakles found and producedsources. The story of the Stymphalian birds represented
on the relief in Sofia (A 6) relates to the water which watered the dry plain of Argos
Salomon Reinach, Rep. des Reliefs, III, p. 386, no. 1; Amelung, Skulpt. des Vat. Museums,
II, p. 730, Loggia scoperta, no. 5, pl. 83. The inscription reads: Ex voto nymfabus D. D., C.I.L.,
VI, 549.
19 Stuart Jones, Catalogue of Ancient Sculptures, Sculptures of the Museo Capitolino, Stanza
degli imperatori, no. 93, p. 220, pl. 53, 4; Reinach, op. cit., III, p. 191, no. 1. For the inscription
see C.I.L., VI, 166 = 30706.
18

20

R. P. Hartwig,Heraklesmit demFiillhorn (DissertationLeipzig, 1883). He gives on pp. 3 f.

fifteen examples of Herakles with the horn of plenty.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL

CONTRIBUTIONS

TO ROMAN RELIGION

277

according to Pausanias, VIII, 22, 3. Vergil, AeLeid, VII, 697, tells that he produced
the Ciminian Lake in Etruria.
Particularly significant is the relation of Herakles to the hot springs through
which he became a healing-god. Thus an altar was erected to him at Thermopylae
according to Herodotus, VII, 176, and Strabo, IX, 428. Hesychius tells that Herakles
created the springs for himself, whie Diodorus Siculus, IV, 23, tells that the warm
inme Sicily were created by the nymphs to refresh the weary Herakles.
springs in Himera
He therefore is represented on coins of Himera of the early fourth century resting
opposite the spring on rocks over which his lion skin is spread.2t As the giver of
warm springs he was venerated in the Roman colony founded by Trajan at Mediam
(Mehadia) near the Danube in Dacia (Rumania), together with Asclepius and
Hygieia.2 He became " salutifer," the god who gives health, n an inscription from
Mehadia 23 or " salutaris " in inscriptions from Rome.24The relief in Brockelsby Park
(A 4) is dedicated for recovery from an illness. The statuette in Buffalo may have
been erected for a similar reason.
Hercules for the Romans was not only a hero as for the Greeks, but a god,
particularly venerated by the Roman army. On Roman provincial monumet
.s he
appears in the presence of the highest gods, Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Mercury,
Apollo,25and he is the giver of health as well s of fertility, bliss, and plenty, as
indicated by the cornucopia in the arm of the statuette in Boston, Plate XXXIX, 4,
and other representations of the hero.
Thus the two statuettes in Buffalo, though not artistically beautiful, contribute to
the understanding of the problem of how the Romans took over Greek religion and
Greek types of gods and heroes and adapted them to their own use.
MARGARETEBIEBER
COLUMBIAUNIVERSITY

British Museum Catalogue of Coins, Sicily, p. 83. Hill, A Guide to the Principal Coins of
the Greeks (1932), p. 46, pl. XXVI, no. 28.
22
C.I.L., III, 1561 is dedicated to Asclepius and Hygieia; 1562 to the water gods; 1566,
Herculi genio loci fontibus calidis; 1569-1571, Herculi invicto.
23
C.I.L., III, 1572, Herculi salutifero.
24
C.I.L., VI, 237, 338-9. In Alifae the warm baths were dedicated to Hercules, thermas
Herculi, C.I.L., IX, 2338.
25
Koepp, Germania Romana', IV, Weihedenkmaler, pp. 12 f., 33 f., 36 f., pls. VII, X 2, XI 1,
and XII 1. Esperandieu, Bas-reliefs de la Gaule Romaine, I-XI (1907-1928) and idem, Bas-reliefs
de la Germanie Romaine (1931), passim. Quilling, Die Juppitersdule des Samus und Severus,
21

pp.34 ff., 167.

2. Diana on Doe. Vase in Wiirzburg

Courtesy Martin WagnerMuseum

1. Seated Diana. Statue in Buffalo

CourtesyAlbright Art Gallery

BIEBER: ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO ROMAN RELIGION

PLATE XXXIX

3. Reclining Herakles. Statuette in Buffalo

CourtesyAlbright Art Gallery

4. Reclining Herakles. Terracotta Statuette in Boston

CourtesyMuseumof Fine Arts

BIEBER:

ARCHAEOLOGICAL

CONTRIBUTIONS

TO ROMAN

RELIGION