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The she-wolf mirror: an interpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

T. P. Wiseman
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Lo specchio della lupa: una interpretazione

Lo specchio prenestino del IV secolo a.C. che raffigura la lupa con i gemelli, la cui autenticità è stata sostenuta da Adam e Briquel nel 1982, è stato generalmente interpretato come una rappresentazione della storia di Romolo e Remo. Di fatto considerazioni sulla presenza di altre figure nel disegno portano ad un'ipotesi diversa: vale a dire che i gemelli siano i Lares Praestites, ed i testimoni della scena siano Mercurio (Hermes) e Lara (Dea Tacita), genitori dei bambini; Pan Lykaios e Quirinus, che rappresentano i Lupercalia e i Quirinalia; ed una bestia selvatica (fera) che rappresenta i Feralia.

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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 61 , November 1993 , pp. 1 - 6
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Copyright © British School at Rome 1993

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References

1 MdI 11 (1879)Google Scholar, plate III. 1, whence Roscher, W. H. (ed.), Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie I.2 (Leipzig, 1886), 1465fGoogle Scholar, and Gerhard, E., Klügmann, K. and Körte, G., Etruskische Spiegel V (Berlin, 1897), 172Google Scholar.

2 Dulière, C., Lupa Romana (Etudes de philologie, d'archéologie et d'histoire anciennes publiées par l'Institut belge de Rome, 18: Rome, 1979), 72Google Scholar; Adam, R. and Briquel, D., ‘Le miroir prénestin de l'antiquario comunale de Rome et la légende des jumeaux divins en milieu latin a la fin du IVe siècle av. J. C.’ MEFR(A) 94 (1982), 33–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar, q.v. for detailed argument and previous bibliography. Authenticity accepted by Small, J. P., LIMC IV.1 (1988), 131Google Scholar. Cf. Weigel, R., LIMC VI. 1 (1992), 293Google Scholar: ‘it appears to be the oldest representation of the L[upa] R[omana] with twins’; he thinks the two figures standing at left and right are ‘perhaps shepherds’.

3 As does that of Massa, F.H. Pairault, Iconologia e politico nell'Italia antica (Milan, 1992), 178–9Google Scholar, and my own attempt, in LCM 16.8 (Oct. 1991), 116–7Google Scholar, which this note supersedes.

4 Dionysius of Halicarnassus 14.2.2, Homer, Iliad 23.845fGoogle Scholar, Theocritus 7.18f and 128, etc; see Gow, A.S.F., Theocritus II (Cambridge, 1950), 87–8Google Scholar.

5 Justin 43.1.7 For the Lupercalia, the most controversial of Roman festivals, see most recently Ulf, C., Das römische Lupercalienfest (Impulse der Forschung, 38: Darmstadt, 1982)Google Scholar, and Pötscher, W., Grazer Beiträge 11 (1984), 221–49Google Scholar.

6 About AD 390? See Syme, R., Historia 37 (1988), 358–71Google Scholar = Roman Studies VI (Oxford, 1991), 358–71Google Scholar.

7 Dionysius of Halicarnassus 1.80.1 (Aelius Tubero fr. 3P), Ovid, Fasti 5.101Google Scholar, Valerius Maximus 2.2.9, Plutarch, Romulus 21.5Google Scholar, Quaestiones Romanae 68. By Justin's time, the loincloth had become a substantial apron: see Schumacher, W. N., Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 11–12 (1968–1969)Google Scholar, taf. 10b, lla and b.

8 Ovid, Fasti 2.31f and 425–52Google Scholar, Valerius Maximus 2.2.9, Festus (Paulus) 49L, Plutarch, Romulus 21.5Google Scholar, Caesar 61.2, Antony 12.1, Quaestiones Romanae 68.

9 Dionysius of Halicarnassus 1.32.3 and 80.1, Plutarch, Romulus 21.3Google Scholar, Caesar 61.1, Livy 1.5.1f ( = Roman Inuus), Ovid, Fasti 2.267–80 and 423fGoogle Scholar (= Roman Faunus), Justin 43.1.7 (= Roman Lupercus), Virgil, Aeneid 8.343fGoogle Scholar with Servius' commentary ad loc.

10 Head, B. V., Historia Numorum (ed. 2, Oxford, 1911), 445, fig. 241Google Scholar; good illustration in Jenkins, G. K., Ancient Greek Coins (London, 1972), 115 no. 245Google Scholar.

11 E.g. Messana tetradrachm c. 420–10, Cyzicus electrum stater c. 350, Panticapaeum gold staters c. 350–300: illustrated in Kraay, C. M. and Hirmer, M., Greek Coins (London, 1966), 286Google Scholar no. 57, 370 no. 722, 335 nos. 440–2. For the iconographic development in general, see Borgeaud, P., The Cult of Pan in Ancient Greece (Chicago, 1988), 52f, 209fGoogle Scholar, with earlier bibliography.

12 See North, J. A., in CAH2 VII.2 (Cambridge, 1989), 574–6Google Scholar; Michels, A. K., The Calendar of the Roman Republic (Princeton, 1967), esp. 207–20 on its dateGoogle Scholar.

13 Degrassi, A., Inscriptiones Italiae XIII.2 (Rome, 1963), 408–14Google Scholar; Scullard, H. H., Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic (London, 1981), 74–9Google Scholar.

14 ‘Romani a Quirino Quirites dicuntur’: Festus (Paulus) 43L, Justinian, Inst. 1.2.2Google Scholar, Isidore, Orig. 9.2.84Google Scholar. Flamines maiores: Gaius, Inst. 1.112Google Scholar, cf. Cicero, Philippics 2.110Google Scholar, Tacitus, Annals 3.58Google Scholar; Vanggard, J. H., The Flamen: a Study in the History and Sociology of Roman Religion (Copenhagen, 1988), 46fGoogle Scholar.

15 Ovid, Fasti 2.477Google Scholar, Paulus (Festus) 43L, etc: full annotation in Maltby, R., A Lexicon of Ancient Latin Etymologies (Arca 25: Leeds, 1991), 516fGoogle Scholar.

16 Maltby, , Lexicon, 228Google Scholar: ‘ab inferis’, ‘a ferendis epulis’, ‘a feriendis pecudibus’ (Varro, Ling. 6.13Google Scholar, Festus (Paulus) 75L, etc).

17 Ovid, Fasti 2.569–616Google Scholar, cf. Lactantius, Inst. 1.20.35Google Scholar. See Aronen, J., Opuscula Inst. Rom. Finlandiae 4 (1989), 65–88Google Scholar, and in Steinby, E. M. (ed.), Lacus Iuturnae I (Lavori e studi di archeologia, 12: Rome, 1989), 59–60Google Scholar.

18 Or Larunda: Varro, Ling. 5.74Google Scholar, Ausonius, Technopaegnia 8.9Google Scholar, Lactantius, Inst. 1.20.35Google Scholar; see also Tacitus, Annals 12.24Google Scholar, with Coarelli, F., Il foro romano: periodo arcaico (Rome, 1983), 262–4Google Scholar.

19 I do not know what the significance is of the two birds on the tree (one of them clearly an owl), nor of the fan-like object Tacita seems to be holding.

20 See n. 16 above.

21 Lares Praestites: Ovid, Fasti 5.129–46Google Scholar, Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae 51Google Scholar. ‘Infernae nympha paludis’: Ovid, Fasti 2.610Google Scholar.

22 Homeric Hymns 19.27–47; cf. Herodotus 2.145.4, etc.

23 For the Velabrum in this context, see Coarelli (n. 18 above), 271–6.

24 Varro, Ling. 6.34Google Scholar: ‘Lupercis nudis lustratur antiquum oppidum Palatinum.’

25 See Tabeling, E., Mater Larum: zum Wesen der Larenreligion (Frankfurter Studien zur Religion und Kultur der Antike, 1: Frankfurt, 1932), esp. 39–68Google Scholar. Larunda: n. 18 above. Ovid, (Fasti 2.598)Google Scholar alludes to the foundation legend in the story of Lara; and since the Larentalia (23 December) involved a parentatio for the di manes of slaves (Varro, Ling. 6.23Google Scholar; Degrassi (n. 13 above), 543–4), Larentia seems to be like Lara/Tacita in her association with the dead.

26 Schwegler, A., Römische Geschichte I (Tübingen, 1853), 432–5Google Scholar.

27 Mommsen, T., Hermes 16 (1881), 1 n. 1Google Scholar.