Sol: Image and Meaning of the Sun in Roman Art and Religion

Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-90-04-51652-6
Verlag: Brill Academic Publishers

Buch, Band 198, 1440 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 1668 g

Reihe: Religions in the Graeco-Roman World

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hijmans, Steven E.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte Religionen der Antike
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike Klassische Archäologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures

Abbreviations

Volume I

Introduction

1 Art and Sol: Some Parameters for an Analysis of Images of the Roman Sun

1 Two Sun Gods?

2 Reading Roman Art – The Problem of the “Greek Norm”

3 Greek Art and Etruscan Art

4 Greek Art and Good Taste

5 The Iconographic Toolbox

6 The Semantics of Roman Art

7 Matters of Methodology

8 The Interpretative Process – Understanding Manners of Meaning

2 Recognizing Sol: The Three Main Image Types

1 Introduction

2 Criteria

3 Divine Radiance

3 Understanding the Image Types for Sol: Main Definitions

1 Introduction

2 Chronological Evolution and Meaningful Patterns

3 Sol as a Deity

4 Sol in Mythological Scenes

5 Sol as a Minor Figure

6 Sol-and-Luna 1 – Architecture and Liminality

7 Sol-and-Luna 2 – Attributes of Aeternitas

8 Sol-and-Luna 3 – Cultic Reliefs

9 Sol-and-Luna 4 – Sarcophagi

10 Sol-and-Luna 5 – Alone, without Context

11 Sol-and-Luna 6 – Early Middle Ages

12 Sol Alone, as Minor Figure or in Complex Scenes

13 Intaglios

4 Understanding the Image Types for Sol: Specific Cases

1 Sol and Alexander

2 Sol in the Synagogue

3 A Divine Kiss on the Lips

4 Funerary Altar of Julia Victorina

5 Mithras

6 Preliminary Results

7 Sol: The Planet

The Images: Catalogue and Discussion

1 Table of Contents

2 Introduction

3 Catalogue

4 Discussion

Volume II

5 Temples and Priests of Sol in Rome

1 The Origins of the Cult of Sol in Rome

2 Early Temples of Sol in Rome: Circus Maximus and Quirinal

3 The Porticus Solis – a Misidentified Temple of Sol

4 Priests and Others Involved in the Cult

5 Sol and the Roman Notions of Divinity

Appendix: Inscriptions Cited by Palmer and Chausson

6 Solar, Divine, or Imperial? Understanding the Radiance of Gods and Emperors in Roman Art

1 Introduction

2 A Hint of Sol

3 A Statue in Raleigh

4 The Sternenstreit

5 Circe

6 The Imperial Radiate Crown

7 The Emperor as Sol?

1 Nero as Sol?

2 Other Depictions of the Emperor as Sol?

3 Constantine as Sol?

4 Conclusions

8 Sol-Luna Symbolism and the Carmen Saeculare of Horace

1 Introduction

2 The Sign Sol-and-Luna

3 Horace’s Carmen Saeculare – Another terminus ante quem

4 Mommsen’s Criticism and Its Aftermath

5 Horace’s Hymn Rehabilitated

6 In Conclusion

9 Image and Word: Christ or Sol in Mausoleum M of the Vatican Necropolis?

1 Introduction

2 Mausoleum M

3 Interpretation and the Diachronic Aspect

4 Parallels

5 With Roman Eyes

6 Visual Impact, Meaning, and Atmosphere

7 Visual Meanings versus Verbal Ones

8 In Conclusion

10 From Aurelian to Julian: Sol in Late Antiquity

1 Sol Invictus and Christmas

2 Pagans, Christians, and Cosmic Divinity

3 Pagans, Christians, and “Solar Theology”

4 Sol as Supreme Deity?

5 Beliefs, Ambiguities, and Imagery

6 Constantine and Purposeful Traditionalism

7 In Conclusion

11 The Invention of Sol Invictus: An Analysis of Previous Research on Sol

1 The Republican Sun God

2 The Orient and the Imperial Sol

3 Classical Studies and the Western Elite

4 The Tenacity of Paradigms and Ideology

Conclusions

Bibliography

Concordances

Plates

I Sol: A Viewer’s Typology

II Catalogue

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Dr. Steven E. Hijmans, Professor of Roman Archaeology at the University of Alberta in Canada, studied Classics and Archaeology at Groningen University. He has published numerous articles on Sol, other aspects of Roman religion, and visual meanings.