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Venus, Polysemy, and the Ara Pacis AugustaeAuthor(s): Karl GalinskySource: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No. 3 (Jul., 1992), pp. 457-475Published by: Archaeological Institute of America
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Venus, Polysemy,and the Ara PacisAugustaeKARL GALINSKY
Abstract
The intentionallymultipleiconographyof the "Tellus"
relief on the AraPacisAugustaedeliberatelywasdesignedto createmultiplemeaningsand associations.Attempts olimitit to one particular ype,such as Pax,are not tenablebecause none of the actuallyexisting iconographicdetailsand symbols, ncludingthe companion figures,areexclu-
sivelythose of Pax. The Zoilosrelief and the Sebasteionat Aphrodisiasshed new light on the iconographyof
Venus,as does the relationof the relief to the floralscrolls.The intentional polysemy of the relief is considered
against the background of Republican representations,religiousand artisticsyncretism, he occurrenceof multi-
valency n otherareasof the Augustanculture(includingthe ResGestae), nd withinthe totalconceptof the artisticand architecturalprogramof the Ara Pacis.The guiding
idea wasto representthe conceptof the Pax Augustanotsimply,such as by means of one image, but by evokingthe richness of its ramifications.Hence the complexandassociativeimageryof this particularAndachtsbild.*
Some 20 years ago, I proposed that the mytholog-ical relief on the southeast of the Ara Pacis was inter-
preted best in terms of its composite iconography,' as
it incorporates figural details and symbols especiallyof Venus and Terra Mater and, to a lesser extent, of
Pax (fig. 1). This "polysemous" interpretation of the
female figure and her two companions has appeared
in several subsequent discussions and been extendedto include Ceres.2 Conversely, it has been rejected on
the categorical grounds that "the possibility of givingtwo names to the same figure was completely alien to
Roman customs and mentality"3and with the specific
argument that a single identification as Pax Augustais appropriate.4
In view of these arguments, the extensive discussion
of the monument in the past two decades, and some
additional pertinent evidence especially from Aphro-
disias, it is useful to consider the state of the questionfrom three principal aspects: 1) whether a single icon-
ography, as exemplified by Pax, is both in evidenceand adequate; 2) without a return to a single inter-
pretation, the relevance of further material to the
iconography of Venus; and 3) the relation between
multivalence, especially multiple iconography and
viewer response, and an intended, central meaning.This involves the related discussion of the intellectual
level of the viewing public or, to borrow a useful term
from aesthetic and literary theory, the "horizon of
expectations" current at the time.
* I amgrateful
to DianeConlin,
DianaKleiner,EugenioLa Rocca,BernhardOverbeck,James Russell,Bert Smith,
and BarbetteSpaethfor severalhelpful suggestionsand tothe American Academy in Rome, especiallyits Director,
Joseph Connors,and its Librarian,LucillaMarino,for var-ious courtesiesduring my stay there as VisitingScholar nthe springof 1991.
The followingabbreviations re used:de Grummond N. de Grummond, "Pax Augusta and
the Horaeon the Ara PacisAugustae,"AJA94 (1990) 663-77.
Galinsky G.K.Galinsky,"Venus n a Relief on theAra PacisAugustae," nAeneas,Sicily,and Rome(Princeton1969) 191-241.An earlier version appeared in AJA70 (1966) 223-43.
H61scher T. Hl1scher,"DieGeschichtsauffassungin der r6mischen Reprisentations-kunst,'jdI 95 (1980)265-321.
Kaiser Augustus KaiserAugustus und die verloreneRepub-lik (Catalogue of Berlin Exhibition
1988).LaRocca E. La Rocca et al., Ara Pacis Augustae:
in occasione del restauro delfronte ori-entale(Rome 1983).
Torelli M. Torelli, Typologyand Structureof Ro-
man Historical Reliefs (Ann Arbor
1982).
Zanker P.Zanker, Augustus und die Macht derBilder(Munich1987).
The pointwas madeclearlyand repeatedly n the text
(Galinsky 00, 215, and224);de Grummond664 n. 3 makesit appearas if it had been relegatedto a footnote (Galinsky200 n. 34). Accordingly,here is scant mentionin her articleof my discussionof the iconographicdetails pertainingtoPax (Galinsky237-39), which was not lost on others (e.g.,Torelli42).
2 E.g., B. Andreae, Die Kunstdes alten Roms (Freiburg1989) 58-59; Torelli42; Zanker 139, fig. 136; H. Kenner,"DasTellusreliefderAraPacis,"OJh53 (1981/1982)41-42;M.D. Fullerton,"TheDomusAugusti n ImperialIconogra-phy of 13-12 B.C.,"AJA89 (1985) 480, n. 59; C.B. Rose,"'Princes' nd Barbarians n the Ara Pacis,"
AJA94 (1990)
467, n. 74; E.Bartman,JRA3 (1990)272, 277; MichaelC.J.Putnam,ArtificesfEternityIthaca1986)328-29; B. Spaeth,"Demeter/Ceresn the Ara Pacis and the CarthageRelief,"
AJA90 (1986)210 andina forthcomingbook;P.J.Holliday,"Time,History,and Ritual n the AraPacisAugustae,"ArtB72 (1990)551. On Ceres,cf. Galinsky 38-39 and K.Hanell,"DasOpferdesAugustusan der AraPacis,"OpRom (1960)116-18.
S. Settis,"DieAra Pacis," n KaiserAugustus413; cf.R.R.R.Smith,JRS 73 (1983)226 (reviewof Torelli)and E.Simon,Die Gutter derR6mer(Darmstadt1990) 207 n. 16.Contra,e.g., Zanker254 and Kenner(supran. 2) 41-42.
4de Grummond,passimand esp. 664.
AmericanJournal of Archaeology96 (1992)457
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458 KARL GALINSKY [AJA96
..................
"viol
Oo
....
.............I : - , : , ~ a ~ i : ~ - ~ ' : i~ i A:
Fig. 1.Ara PacisAugustae.Femaledeitywithsymbolsof fruitfulness.(CourtesyDeutschesArchiologischesInstitut,Rome,neg.no. 86.1448)
THE ICONOGRAPHY OF PAX
Pax, under her aspect of Pax Augusta, is the ani-
mating concept of the entire pictorial program of the
altar proper and of the figural and floral decoration
of the precinct walls. The relief panel under discus-
sion is an integral part of this overall intent. "Venus,"
as I put it, "is the figure most emblematic of Pax."5
De Grummond quotes German Hafner,6 who uses
similar terms ("the motherly figure, surrounded by
children, animals, and lavish vegetation, personifiesthe blessings of peace"), to deduce from such a char-
acterization that "it is, of course, but a small stepfurther to
saythat she
actuallyis
Peace."'7It is, actually, quite a significant step. It needs to be
supported by the presence of sufficient iconographicdetails to enable us-and the Roman viewer-to iden-
tify the figure predominantly or even exclusively as
Pax. Virtually none of the few indices that are ad-
duced satisfy that criterion.
Poppies
and ears of corn
are symbolic of Ceres even more copiously than of
Pax; the same goes for the ears of grain or corn in
her crown, which also appear on coins of Venus.8 The
presence of two children-Pax or Eirene is always
represented with only one-is explained not with ref-
erences to literary or artistic comparanda, but with
the simple assertion that "it is natural that the Roman
goddess should double her offspring and have twins,
no doubt alluding to Italian fertility in general and
Romulus and Remus in particular; the twins Castor
and Pollux and their counterparts from the imperial
family,Gaius and Lucius and Tiberius and Drusus,
may have come to the viewer's mind as well."9 What
is correctly noted here is the richness of associations
that is precisely the hallmark of both the architectural
and the sculptural program of the Ara Pacis. It con-
5 Galinsky239.6 The Art of Rome, Etruria, and Magna Graecia (New
York1969) 192.7 de Grummond666.8 The figure'swreath s not a simplecoronaspicea,such
as the one worn,e.g., by the Terra Materon the cuirassofthe Augustusstatue from PrimaPorta,but "fiorie frutta"
(LaRocca43) predominate; he compositionof the wreath
is assimilated o the florasproutingforth to the left of the
figure. Ceres: Spaeth (supran. 2); Venus coins: Galinsky238 n. 143, fig. 164a.
9 de Grummond667-68. Cf. the interpretationof the
figureas Iliaby L. Berczelly,"Iliaand the Divine Twins.AReconsideration f Two Relief Panels from the Ara Pacis
Augustae,"ActaAArtHist (1985) 89-149.
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1992] VENUS, POLYSEMY,AND THE ARA PACIS AUGUSTAE 459
travenes, ntrinsically, nyattemptto reduce thatmul-
tifacetedness to one aspect. The explanation de
Grummondproffers in fact fits Venus a great deal
better than Pax: she has an establishediconographywithtwochildren,and she is Genetrixandgeminorum
materamorum.'0As for furtherarguments n supportof anunequivocal dentificationas Pax,the collocation
of Pax and Roma is matched by that of Venus and
Roma,and the hypothesisthat the female figuremayhave held a caduceus in her hand" is an argumentumexsilentio n the absence of any traces.As de Grum-
mond herselfcandidlyadmits:"Unfortunately,we are
unable to make comparisonwith other monumental
images of Pax from Roman times, since no securelyidentifiedones have survived."'2
With this we come to the "Horae."Two basic,re-
latedpointsemerge.First, he sidefigureson the relief
are riding on creatures-a cetus and a swan-quiteunlikethoseon whichthe Horae arerepresentedeven
on late sarcophagi; this is fully recognized by de
Grummond.13 Second, the underlying reason is the
extraordinary range of associations of the Horae since
their beginnings in early Greek literature and art,
which produced anything but a fixed identification
with, or as, Eirene, let alone Pax.
The earliest mention of the Horae occurs in the
Iliad,wherethey appearas the keepersof Zeus's loud
gates (5.749-51). Hardly any traces of that function
are found in the subsequenttradition.Instead, two
basicvariantsare evident in Hesiod and the HomericHymns, where the Horae are mentioned several times.
In Theogony 01-903, Hesiod says of Zeus that "he
marriedbrightThemis who gave birthto the Horae,and [in the sense of 'that is'] Eunomia, Dike, and
blooming Eirene, who mind the works of mortal
men."Apparently, hat wasan innovationon Hesiod's
partbecause the usual, and stronger,tradition s one
that associates he Horae,who varyfrom two to three
in number,withAphroditeon the basis of theirorig-inal functionas seasons of life and growth.14 In Attic
cult, for instance, their names are Thallo and Karpo;'5the small boys held by the female deity on the Ara
Pacis are generally referred to as karpoi. In Hesiod'sWorks ndDays(74-75), the fair-hairedHorae,alongwiththe Charitesand Peitho,participate n crowningPandorawithspringflowers; he model, as Westcom-
ments,"seems o be a typicalscene in whicha goddesssuch as Aphrodite dresses and adorns herself with
help from her attendants.Cf. Cypria r. 4 (Aphroditewore clothes made for her by the Charites and Horai,
such as the Horai themselveswear,dyed with springflowers);Hornm.ymn6.5-13. (Aphrodite,emergingfrom the sea, is dressed by the Horai and adorned
with a gold headband, gold and orichalc ear-rings,
and gold necklaces)."'6The major portion of thatHymn oAphrodites devoted to the descriptionof the
work of the Horae who adorn her (lines 5-15; the
poem has 21 lines). Nor is the preceding descriptionof Aphrodite being carried by the "moistbreath ofthe westernwind over the watersof the sea"incom-
patiblewith the imagery of the Ara Pacis relief, in
particular he companionfigures.The use of the dualin the Hymnseems to indicatetwo Horae.17
In the Homeric Hymn to Apollo(3.194-203), the
Horae,Aphrodite,and the Gracesdancetogetheron
Olympuswhile Apollo playsthe lyre. As personifica-
tionsof fruitfulness and growth,they were naturallyassociatedwith Demeter, too.'s A good example of
the resultantmultiplicityn art is their representationwith Aphrodite, Demeter,and others on the ApolloThrone in Amyclae.19
Their representationin art reflects these associa-
tions and others before they are stereotyped into
Seasons especiallyfrom the third century A.C. on-
10 Ov.Fast.4.1; cf. B6mer'scommentaryadloc.andRose
(supran. 2) 467 with reference to A. Wlosok,"GeminorumMaterAmorum,"in E. Lefavreed., MonumentumChilon-
iense.Festschriftiir ErichBurck(Amsterdam1975)514-23
(cf. now "Amorand Cupid," n A. Wlosok,Res humanae-resdivinae.KleineSchriftenHeidelberg1990]101-15). The
appellationof alma Venus-an adjectiveshe shares with
Ceres,Pax, and MagnaMater-is particularly ppropriate.Aphroditewith twoor more Erotes:LIMCII.1, 118-21 (A.Dellivorias);Venus withtwo Cupids:denarius(103 B.C.)ofL.JuliusCaesar M.Crawford,TheRomanRepublicanCoin-
age [Cambridge1974]no. 320).1 de Grummond668, citing suggestionsof E. La Rocca
and G. Koeppel.12 de Grummond668.13 de Grummond 671.14 The pertinentreferences to ancientsources and mod-
ern scholarshipare readilyavailable n M.L.West,Hesiod.
TheogonyOxford 1966) 406-407; G.M.A. Hanfmann,TheSeasonSarcophagus t DumbartonOaks(Cambridge,Mass.
1951) 1.85;cf. now V. Machaira n LIMCV.1 (1990) 502-503.
15 Pausanias9.35.2;cf. Hyg.Fab. 183.16 M.L.West,Hesiod,Works ndDays(Oxford 1978) 161
wherefurtherdocumentationcanbe convenientlyfound.17 Forthisaspectand others,see T.W.Allen, W.R. Halli-
day, and E.E. Sikes, The HomericHymns2 Oxford 1936)374-75.
18 Details in N.J. Richardson,TheHomericHymnto De-meterOxford1974)83; LIMCV.1 (1990)503.
19Paus.3.19.4;see Hanfmann(supran. 14) 1.83.Cf. Ar.Pax 456, where Aphrodite,the Horae, the Graces,Pothos,and Hermes
appearas the antithesesof War.
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460 KARLGALINSKY [AJA 96
?:::.:::~
.::--:::: .'; 3~s~88~
i : i iii -li-..
i; i
?;?1~.tR
~??::--':j-"arslllpP- srRi~-~ ~be~~
:---'
: ::-ii- :::-----'i:i'i'i"i'i'i'i'i':-'-_i-::ii~i--i-~iia-ii
:i-:::iiii::iiiiiii~:-ii-iiiii?ii::_'~ii-::-::-:~:-'iiiii~?i*i
Fig.2. Aphroditeandthe Horai. Stamnosof theTyszkiewiczPainter,DetroitInstituteof Arts.(CourtesyDetroitInstituteof Arts,neg. no. 32043)
ward.20As Hanfmann has wisely remarked, "the rep-resentations of the Horae in classical art are an
extremely difficult problem," especially because theytend to be shown as "general and distant symbols."One specific element, however, is that "their appear-
ance in processions corresponds to the description ofthe Homeric Hymn of Aphrodite."21 We see them,
i.a., in connection with the marriage of Peleus and
Thetis, the mission of Triptolemus, Herakles' recep-tion on Olympus, and as Aphrodite's attendants as
she is readying herself for the Judgment of Paris (fig.
2).22 This last association is attested for stage perfor-mances as late as the time of Apuleius (Met. 10.32.9).
In sum, in the case of the Horae we are dealingwith an iconographic tradition that up to the time of
Augustus and beyond is as diverse as it can be unspe-
cific. In mythography, this is reflected by their acqui-sition of no fewer than nine names as is shown by the
compilation of Hyginus, Augustus's freedman (Fab.
153). That very adaptability, of course, may have
appealed to the designers of the Ara Pacis as theyendeavored to create as large a range of associations
as possible with a concomitant multi-referential im-
agery. At the same time, this obviates any attempt to
limit the meaning of the figures to Pax and Horae;
certainly, the iconographic evidence belies the pres-ence of an exclusive typology. Even if we could con-
strue, at best, a Greek Eirene out of the scant
iconographic evidence that would support such an
interpretation, we would need to consider that this is
not simply an Ara Pacis, but an Ara Pacis Augustae.That, as Momigliano recognized many years ago, calls
for a connection with "traditional Roman mores" and
"the values of a moral andreligious
tradition which
Augustus understood."23For similar reasons, the pos-ited similarities between the Athenian Altar of Pityand the Ara Pacis have rightly been categorized as no
more than generic.24
THE ICONOGRAPHY OF VENUS
In addition to the material I adduced previously,two aspects merit discussion. One is the connection
with sculpture at Aphrodisias. The other is the rela-
tion between the imagery of Venus and the floral
frieze.
AphrodisiasAs I noted in my earlier discussion, the closest
typological parallels between the Ara Pacis goddess as
Venus under her aspect as goddess of earth, sea, and
sky are the cult images of the Aphrodisian Aphro-dite.25 Aphrodisias also furnished, in terms of both
artistic conceptualization and style, a close precedent,which has led Bernard Andreae to posit that the Ara
Pacis was a product of the same workshop.26 That is
the monument of Zoilos at Aphrodisias, dating from
20 SeeLIMCV.1 (1990)503-38 and Hanfmann(supran.
14)passim.21 All quotationsare from Hanfmann(supran. 14)98.22 Stamnosof the TyszkiewiczPainter ca.480 B.C.);De-
troit,Instituteof Arts,inv. 1924.13.ARV2291.28;C. Clair-
mont,DasParisurteiln derantikenKunst(Zurich1951)48,
pls. 31-32; B. Philippakis,TheAtticStamnos Oxford 1967)36, pl. 23;LIMCV.1 (1990)507 no. 41.
23A.D. Momigliano,"The Peace of the AraPacis,"JWarb5 (1942)229-30. On the differencein iconographybetweenEireneand Paxsee G.G.Belloni,"Espressioniconografichedi 'Eirene'e di 'Pax',"n M. Sordi ed., La pace nel mondoantico Milan1985) 127-45; E. Simon,Eireneund Pax.Frie-
densgittinnenn derAntike(SitzungsberichteerWissenschaft-lichenGesellschaftn derJohannWolfgangGoethe-Universitiit
Frankfurt mMain 24.3, Stuttgart1988).24 Cf. Smith(supra n. 3) 226 and Torelli 57 n. 12 con-
cerningthe argumentsof H. Thompson,"TheAltarof Pityin the Athenian Agora,"Hesperia21 (1952) 79-82; also,A.H. Borbein, "Die Ara Pacis Augustae. GeschichtlicheWirklichkeitund Programm," dI 90 (1975) 246-48. Themorespecificresemblances o the AraAugustiat Miletusareanotherindicationof interactionwith Graeco-RomanAsiaMinor; see K. Tuchelt, "Bouleuterionund Ara Augusti,"IstMitt25 (1975) 136-40.
25 Galinsky 16-17 withfig. 160.Reference s to thereliefdecorationof thesestatues;seeLIMCII (1984)151-54, esp.nos. 18-40 (R.Fleischer).
26
Andreae(supran. 2) 59.
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1992] VENUS, POLYSEMY,AND THE ARA PACISAUGUSTAE 461
the late 30s or the 20s B.C.27 It most probably was aheroon or commemorative monument for Julius Zo-
ilos, a freedman of the "son of the divine Julius." The
epigraphic evidence attests that Zoilos was a majorbenefactor of the city, probably not in the least becauseof his relations with
Octavian/Augustus.
:-::
i~i !:! i
:.[i~i
Fig.3. Monumentof Zoilos,Aphrodisias.Representation fPolis. (After A. Alf61ldi,Aion in Merida und Aphrodisias[Mainz1979]pl. 23)
iiiii--i-i_-i-ii-
ii::i::
: r•
iri:-~ii?!i:_..ii:i~i•i?:;
iri?-i iii
Fig.4. Monumentof Zoilos,Aphrodisias.Time crownsZo-ilos. (AfterA.
Alfoldi,Aion n
Meridaund
AphrodisiasMainz1979]pl. 24)
The decorative program of the frieze showed Zoilossurrounded and being welcomed by various symbolic
and allegorical figures. He is being greeted by Demosand crowned by Polis (fig. 3). Polis, of course, is the
representation of Aphrodisias. Her iconography,therefore, is assimilated to Aphrodite with her velifi-catio, which recurs on the side figures of the Ara Pacisrelief, and her clinging drapery; the modeling of the
drapery around one shoulder and the breasts is sim-ilar to that of the central
figureon the Ara Pacis
relief.Both the latter and Polis wear crowns: respectively,one of fruits and flowers and a mural crown. Zoilos is
shown again as being crowned by Time (= Honos)
(fig. 4).28 Her upper body is bare like that of the side
figures of the Ara Pacis relief in the manner of the
27 The most importantdiscussionsare K. Erim, "TheZoilusFrieze,"n A. Alfbldied., Aion in MeridaundAphro-disias. (MadriderBeitriige6, Mainz 1979) 35-37; Erim,Aphrodisias. ityof VenusAphroditeLondon 1986) 137-39;A. Giuliano,"Rilievodi Aphrodisiasn onore di ZOILOS,"
ASAtene37/38 (1959/1960)389-401. For the epigraphicalevidence for the date of the monument,seeJ. Reynolds n
Alf6ldi (supra)38-40 and in Aphrodisiasnd Rome.(JRSMonograph1,London 1982) 158-59.
28 Cf. the hypothesis hatHonosmightbe presenton theRomapanel of the AraPacis;at the time of this writing, nfact, the youthfulhead of "Iulus"on the Aeneas panel isbeingtransposed o the Romareliefas Honos.
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462 KARLGALINSKY [AJA96
i;:-:ii-:i---_iii-iiiiiiiia~~i8"i~i~iiisiiiiii~irii_~i?;;iei;---ii
_- --
""":"'i'i"":?iiiij_;i-__---?:;-; ;;;
a:
-..:ii-ii;~'-::::-;ii-
ii:?'t?~~.-?-?~?i-ii?iiiiiiiiiii:.. -.;;liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-i;_i:i::i?iiii"iiiiiiii;;iaiiiiiiiiii
i:iii;;'i~ iii;iiiiiiiii;i~?i!!iiiiii;iiii?i'ii": ii I-iii-iiijilg~a~ii
; -I--.lii:i:'-ii:iiliiiiiijiiiiiiiiiiiii;i:;;:-:. iii:iiiiii::iii:illli- -:::iiiiiiiiii
~:'".":.""." i: - t .~::.'P ? iiiiiiii:::i::-:i--iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiziiiiiiiiii.; --iii;i:iii--iiiiiiiiiii:iiiiiiiiiiii:iiiiii:ii:::--j:j;p;;;-ii?~:;~;:.i:i;;iiiiii;~:iiiii-_i:
""-?miii;;.---i-.:_ii-?;_:iiiiiiiiiiii:i:ii?:"'::-:i:-i'-;: "---
~..c'i-i;~l-ii-':li~;:-";!:.i~-~? ~arr??:: -:::::~~:.l?;i;ili;';~?~li~--l~j:~~!;;i~i~;-:i::iiii-iiii;-i:-:
?""8tilil~81~"~8~"~8Si'?:ii%;-
;"":;
- :I -il-i:iii-i-: i :; i
Fig. 5. Monument of Zoilos, Aphrodisias.The goddessRoma. (After A. Alfl1di, Aion in Merida und Aphrodisias
[Mainz1979]pl. 26a)
Arles Aphrodite type,29 and she holds a cornucopia.Other personifications are Andreia (= Virtus), Aion
(resembling Kronos or Saturn), Mneme (= Fama),and Roma. As the Roma on the Ara Pacis, Roma here
is seated and turned to the left, resting her left arm
on a clupeus (fig. 5). Since the exact sequence and
arrangement of the Aphrodisias panels cannot yet be
established with absolute certainty, generalizationsabout the total program need to be made with care.
It can be argued, however, that relative to the Ara
Pacis, the various allegories are juxtaposed ratherthan integrated into an ambitious ensemble. The
lesser degree of sophistication is also indicated by the
outright labeling of most of the figures (Roma is an
exception, but there are traces of an inscription on
her shield). A common element of the two monu-
ments, however, is the combination of diverse icono-
graphies-one can only speculate how Time would
have been identifiedwithoutan inscription--andthe
inspiration rom variousartisticstylesand traditions.
The interactionbetween Rome and Aphrodisiaswasreciprocal.This is stronglysuggested bythe relief
sculpturesof the Sebasteion and especiallythose of
its southportico,
which was builtmostly during
the
first half of the firstcenturyA.C. The reliefs in the
lower story representGreekmyths,and those in the
upper storythe emperorsandmembersof their fam-
ily.30Their exact collocationand the degree of con-
nection between the mythological and imperial
representationswillrequiresomespeculation n most
cases.An exceptionis the reliefs above Room I at the
east end, where a generalized representationof the
VictoriaAugusti,here an Augustuswith Nike and a
trophy, seems to be have been accompaniedin the
lowerstory by reliefs withAeneas'sflight from Troy
(fig.6),and with
Aphrodite,Eros,and Anchises
(fig.
L-;i
..-d.- ::'-i::
-s I:-~~k~s~g~B~ga~~0~'r~ 'i
dd:5.:
??.:i
' .-::: ; : ~:
-:::;:?:
::?
I:?i
-i;z?.: :::?:i^C':P--.
",:::: :" nii
i: :i?it:-l: ,--.a-:: :1
i' hI; ;
LLi
?: ?.
i:?
i:
A--,--~-
as~a~s~e~s~ia~_l _
;-r
a. ,U~~
r
Fig. 6. Relieffrom the Sebasteionat Aphrodisias.Aeneas's
flight from Troy under Venus's protection. (After C.
Rouech6and K.T.Erimeds.,Aphrodisias apers JRASuppl.1, Ann Arbor1990]98, fig. 9)
29 Fordetails,see Giuliano(supran. 27) 395.
30 See R.R.R.Smith, "TheImperialReliefsfrom the Se-
basteion at Aphrodisias," RS 77 (1987) 88-139; Smith,
"Mythand Allegoryin the Sebasteion,"n C. Rouech6andK.T. Erimeds.,Aphrodisiasapers JRASuppl.1,Ann Arbor
1990)89-100; Erim1986 (supran. 27) 106-23.
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1992] VENUS, POLYSEMY,AND THE ARA PACISAUGUSTAE 463
: ::::::::::_:i..
:" :b "!~'?' ?:j~6?
,c:
--:-;- ::-::li
:
'B
:i:n-b
P
--:.-
-:::-::
Fig.7. Relief from the Sebasteionat Aphrodisias.Anchises,
Eros,and Venus. (After C. Rouech6and K.T. Erimeds.,
AphrodisiasapersIRA Suppl.1,AnnArbor1990]98,fig.9)
7). The schema of the flight is the familiar one "but
with the 'local' addition of an escorting Aphrodite in
the background."3• While her blowing veil is only
suggested here, her velificatio is worked out fully in
the relief with Anchises and Eros. The figure is seated
and the
velificatio
cannot be explained by vigorousmotion. As Smith remarks: "The carefully elaborated
Aphroditeand babyEros seem to be a unique compo-sition with a perhaps intentional allusion to the fa-
mous Tellus figure on the Ara Pacis"32and more
particularly, to the companion figures. It is another
indication that these figures on the Ara Pacis relief
need to be understood under the iconographic aspectof Venus. Their conventional identification as Aurae,
as de Grummond has demonstrated, rests on the
thinnest of foundations.33
The Floral Scrolls
Preoccupation with the figural reliefs on the uppertier of the outside walls of the enclosure of the Ara
Pacis has led to a neglect of the fact that the reliefs
with the floral scrolls are considerably larger: their
height is 1.82 m, as compared with 1.55 m for the
upper reliefs.34A look at the model (fig. 8), which can
be viewed from a greater distance than the present
monument, makes the different proportions even
more obvious. It is the largest known application of
the motif from antiquity. Its function goes well beyondmere decoration as it contributes significantly to the
Ems r,%1::.:X1, .4T
o i l 'tic-:--
IM????-
:Eno
. .
Fig. 8. Model of the Ara PacisAugustae.Rome,Museodella CiviltaRomana. AfterKaiserAugustus 22, Kat.226)
~' Smith n Aphrodisiasapers supran. 30) 97.32 Smithin Aphrodisiasapers supran. 30) 97. The allu-
sionmaybe enhancedbythe possiblereferenceof the other
side panelwith Poseidon and a standingmale figure, capite
velatoand with a long cloak,to Aeneas'sarrivaln Italy.
33 de Grummond669.34 T. Kraus,Die RankenderAraPacis(Berlin 1953)9; G.
Koeppel,"DiehistorischenReliefs der r6mischenKaiserzeit
V: Ara PacisAugustae1,"BJb187(1987) 108-37.
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464 KARL GALINSKY [AJA 96
S I R :-:?-:i-i-i:iiof, ",:
Fig. 9. Ara PacisAugustae, loral frieze.Snakeattackingbird'snest.(Photo:Diane
Conlin)
-104 J tt, . ,:- 7.
jY 4'.
Fig. 10. Ara PacisAugustae,floralfrieze.Scorpion. Photo:DianeConlin)
meaning of the monument. L'Orange's high-flownand sweeping interpretation, based mostly on some
lines in Vergil's Fourth Eclogue, of the floral scroll as
a reflection of the aurea aetas has come to be consid-
ered axiomatic and been repeated uncritically,35but
is untenable simply in view of the complexity of the
35 H.P.L'Orange,"AraPacisAugustae.Lazonafloreale,"
ActlnstRomNorv (1962)7-16; hence, e.g., Zanker 184-88
("dieparadiesischenRanken");LaRocca45 ("l'etadi oro");E.Simon,AraPacisAugustae Tfibingen1967)13.The mostdetailedstudy of the artistic tradition s still that of Kraus
(supra n. 34), supplemented by C. B6rker,"Neuattischesund Pergamenischesan den Ara Pacis Ranken,"Jdl 88
(1973) 283-317; H. Buising,"Rankeund Figuran der AraPacisAugustae,"AA92 (1977)247-57; andG.Sauron,"Les
modblesfundrairesclassiquesdans l'art decoratif neo-at-
tique,"MEFRA 91 (1977) 183-236 and "Lemessageesth6-tique des rinceaux de l'Ara PacisAugustae,"RA 1988, 3-40. Sauron's rticleon "Lemessagesymboliquedes rinceauxde l'Ara PacisAugustae,"CRAI 1982, 81-101 is good at
pointingout the discrepancies etweenthe floralfriezes andEcl. 4.19-30, but is flawedby problematicoverinterpreta-
tions.
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1992] VENUS, POLYSEMY,AND THE ARA PACISAUGUSTAE 465
'K:
/ /.-,iai-~~~___-~iiiiE :
1--1g1:: /ii~~iii~
i*~ii~i/
::::j-::i::-:: :_I
?::-: a_-~jk
Fig. 11.Erosand floral crolls.LekythosbyDouris.Cleveland
Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Fund, 66.114.
(CourtesyClevelandMuseumof Art,neg. no. 36910A)
tradition of the Golden Age by the time of Vergil andAugustus.36 Discreet as it may be, the presence, for
instance, of snakes attacking a bird's nest (fig. 9) and
of scorpions (fig. 10) accords well with Vergil's refor-
mulation of the Golden Age in the Georgics as one
based on unremitting work against harmful obsta-
cles.37 At the time of the reditus of Augustus in 13
B.C., which the Ara Pacis celebrates, there was no
indication of the utopia of the Fourth Eclogue, but far
more realistic dimensions prevailed: Augustus's prin-
cipal action after his return, as Dio relates in the same
chapter in which he discusses the genesis of the Ara
Pacis, was to settle the long-standing problem of the
compensation of the soldiery, a measure that "in the
rest of the population . .. aroused confident hopes
!iii:-
:i--
-ii!i-iiii:i
-ii:ii-i l
AL % * t A ;
Fig. 12. Eros and floral scrolls.Lekythosby the SyriskosPainter. Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Antiken-Sammlung.
(CourtesyStaatlicheMuseenzu Berlin,neg. no. Ant. 4076)
that they would not in the future be robbed of theirpossessions" (54.25.6). This was one aspect of pax,
too, as a lingering relic of the civil wars was finallylaid to rest; on the foreign front, so far from the gatesof the Temple of Janus staying closed for long, paxwas parta victoriis (Res Gestae 13) and conquests con-
tinued.38
Clearly, the floral scroll, which is a tour de force in
purely artistic terms (as Kraus has observed, "neither
previously nor later was a surface of more than 20 m2
ever decorated with a continuous vegetal ornament
arising out of one root"),39expresses the notion of
the growth and abundance of vegetation accompany-
ing the age of the Pax Augusta. Another corollary is
that this growth is ordered, although several asym-
36 See B. Gatz, Weltalter,oldeneZeit und sinnverwandte
VorstellungenHildesheim1967);cf. EnciclopediaVirgiliana1.412-18, s.v. aurea aetas(M.Pavan).For the long traditionof agricultureas a symbolof peaceunder an ideal ruler seethe sources istedbyA.J.Woodman,Velleius aterculus.TheCaesarianand AugustanNarrative(2.41-93) (Cambridge1983)255.
37G. 1.121-59; cf. my discussionin Atti del Convegnomondialescientifico i studisu Virgilio Milan1984) 1.241-
43; Settis(supran. 3) 417; and P.A.Johnston,Vergil'sAg-riculturalGoldenAge:A Studyof theGeorgicsLeiden1980).
38 For the reflectionof these warlike hemeson Augustanmonuments, including the Ara Pacis, see the perceptiveremarksof E.S.Gruen,"Augustus nd the Ideologyof Warand Peace," n R. Winkesed., TheAge of Augustus Provi-dence 1985)60-63.
39Kraus(supran. 34) 5.
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466 KARLGALINSKY [AJA 96
! _ - i ! ! i i i !
~ ~
. . . . . . .
ii~iiiii
•
;::
:di).;ii:::-rl_-::;:,:'
:::
::)}:...
-:---::i-i-:N ?
Fig. 13. Statue of female deity from Cumae. Frontalview.
(CourtesySoprintendenzaalle AntichithNapoli [Caserta]
neg. no. 37.1963)
metries prevent monotony and indicate the Augus-tan sense of nuance rather than a neurotic rage for
order.40
~~li~~li~~s~'~::::::-:
:::--: : -
:: -i-_:~i--
::::::::.:_O"ii-:--:::::: : : -i _-:i---:i-:::;::-iiii
i --:_-::-i-::
-I'-~~~-'--::::-i~:siiiiij^
i~iiiii:i-:
I --i:-~--!-i~il--~--:
:::---:::
u~~i::: ::':i:~~i:::-~-~:_i~iiiiPi~~:i:_-i---
::
n?~:i:-:li::i:~::sl-i':~l:iill~-::-:_-.-
'"-?~?~:-ls~n":"?_ ?-r J"-:.--~_?~?,!C~.i :_-: ;-? ::. ii-ii:-iii-
l:,s::::::~:i::: .; r:~,_:_;:::::i:;::iii-:-,~~~i:~-:::-::::i: :- ::.E"':::-::::,__::;:~i-
:::i-i
:
:I-:__,_~-ii -ii:,:~~~-:iiiiFii"i'i~,:;g~''~''~''iiiii:iiii-i'__-ii:ii-iiiiiiiii
:i:::
i? :-::::: :
---.: - ~e:--i:iii-
iFil: : .. :
:---
':::i::?::-?: -?_:
:: :::i-::~
s:?i:i:i__:iii---:ii
~-;:~-?:_' i~:::~"-~-:)i?:~--:_i-~::--
lii iijiii- -:_: ::-
ii-cl~~~~~
Fig. 14. Statue of female deity from Cumae. Rear view.
(CourtesyDeutschesArchiologischesInstitut, Rome, neg.no. 83.1888)
There are several examples of connections between
the ambience of Aphrodite/Venus and floral scrolls.
On a lekythos by Douris, Atalanta is pursued by Erotes
40 E.g.,the distancebetween heswansandthefloral talksvaries on the long friezes (Bising [supran. 35] 248); also,Sauron 1977 (supran. 35) 209: "Alorsque l'axecentral de
la composition,c'est-A-diree candelabrev6g6tal,r6pond
"
un principede sym6trie .. les deux axeslaterauxfondentune dissym6triea l'int6rieurde chaquemoiti6de composi-tion." "Neurosis"becauseof "strictly ymmetricalorder":
Zanker185.We are dealingwith valuejudgments;whatever
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1992] VENUS, POLYSEMY,AND THE ARA PACISAUGUSTAE 467
.......--
............
....
, % n o
iiiii
!iiiii
l.;;.:?.? ? i . : . . . . .. . . . . . -
Fig. 15. Erotesand floral scrolls. Silver craterfrom Hildes-
heim Treasure,AntikenmuseumBerlin. (Photo:Johannes
Laurentius)
one of whom holds a floral spray in his right hand
and a fuller palmette and bud tendril in his left (fig.
11).41 The florals recur on the shoulder of the vase.
Similarly, a flying Eros holding in each hand a tendril
with palmettes and a blossom decorates the shoulder
of a
lekythos by
the
Syriskos
Painter
(fig.12).42Closer
to the time of the Ara Pacis, around A.D. 7, a statue
of a seated female deity holding a child was set up in
the Forum at Cumae.43 The figure is seated on a
throne covered by acanthus scrolls akin to those of
the Ara Pacis (figs. 13-14). The statue probably is a
copy of a Rhodian work; it is not clear whether the
floral decoration of the throne was part of the original
composition or was executed especially for the Cu-
maean copy. If it was inspired by the Ara Pacis, it was
in good company: the famous Augustan silver crater
from the Hildesheim treasure is a playful adaptationof the Ara Pacis scrolls
(fig. 15).44The
largely sym-metrical arrangement is still present, except that Cu-
pids now take the place of the swans and try to catch
fishes and locusts. Zanker has aptly characterized it as
i:~:,~_~&~~,-:;_~_::::_:-~:_?i:i,:-~??~~ii-:~~a-inn?:onii~:a~l:~:~?Ui-:--i~~~l
. . . .. . . . . .
Fig. 16. VictoriaCaesaris.Friezefragmentfrom the Temple of DivusJulius,Rome.
(CourtesyDeutschesArchiologischesInstitut,Rome,neg. no. 63.1233)
"monotony"remains is dispelled by the decidedly non-monotonousrepresentationof the individualsparticipatingin the processions.Also,there is the questionof a construc-tive alternative o an orderedfloral frieze-a more disorga-nizedone, perhaps?
41 Cleveland66.114;ARV2 446 no.226bis;CVACleveland
1.21-23,pls.32-35; D.C.Kurtz,AtticWhiteLekythoiOxford
1975)30-31, pls. 10.2and 11.42
Berlin (formerly East)2252; ARV2 263 no. 54; Kurtz
(supran. 41) 127-28, pl. 8.1b.43 M.E.Bertoldi,"Recenti cavie scopertea Cuma,"BdA
58 (1973) 40, figs. 6-7; Settis (supran. 3) 417, fig. 193.Identifiedby Bertoldi as Psycheand Cupid, by Zanker309as the samedeityas on the Ara Pacis.
44 E. Perniceand F. Winter,Der HildesheimerSilberfund(Berlin 1901)61-64, pls. XXXII-XXXIII; U. Gehrig,Hil-desheimerSilberfundBerlin 1967)20, figs. 2-5.
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468 KARLGALINSKY [AJA96
a privateand lightheartedadaptationof the Altar's
Fruchtbarkeitsprogrammatik.45It was not a purely whimsical transference: the
swansof the Ara Pacisrefer not merelyto Apollo,butto Venus, the Genetrix of the domusAugusta.46An-other indication of this connection is the most imme-
diate predecessorof the acanthus frieze of the AraPacisin Rome. Significantly, hat is the frieze of the
Temple of DivusJulius, dedicatedin 29 B.C.47There
a Victoriafigure sprouts forth from acanthusleaves
amid the candelabra-like crollsand tendrilsthat re-cur on the AraPacis(fig. 16).The iconographyof the
figuredeliberatelygoes beyond that of a genericVic-
toria and is intended to have severalmeanings.48The
acanthusscrollsassociateher withVenus,the deityof
vegetation.Venus, forJulius Caesar,was both Venus
Genetrix and Venus Victrix. Both, as Mommsen
showedlong ago,
were subsumed under theconceptof VictoriaCaesaris.49The multiplicityof the concept
produceda multipleand associativeiconography hat
serveddynasticpurposes.
POLYSEMY
The same is true of the pictorialprogramof theAraPacisAugustae.In order to dojusticeto the manyramificationsof the concept of the Pax Augusta,the
artistsintentionallychose to represent Pax not one-
dimensionallyas, for instance,by means of a statue.
Paradoxically, hat absence was the basis of Stefan
Weinstock'sfamous argument that the monumentthereforecould not be the Altar of AugustanPeace.50
It wascountered with the hypothesisthat Pax surelywasrepresentedsomewhere on the Ara Pacis,which
really amounts to accepting Weinstock'spremise.Thus Toynbee, followingHanell, imagineda person-ificationof Pax to be present near Augustus on thesouth frieze; Simon posited a statueof Pax near the
altar;de Grummondspeculatesabout the possibilityof a caduceus in the hand of Venus/Tellus,and soon.5' The fundamental realization,however,of the
designers and artistswas that the Pax Augusta wastoo richa conceptto be presentedso simply.52Hence
the challenge they set themselveswas to represent it
by evoking the comprehensivenessof its many asso-ciations.This is reflectedbythe multilayeredrelation-
ships between the images on the various relief
panels-the full meaning, as in Pompeian pictorial
programs, emerges only when they are "read"orviewed in conjunctionwith one another-and by the
equallymultilayeredandcomplexiconographyof theVenus/Tellus/Pax elief.
One circumstance hat may have given the artiststhis freedom was the erection of a cult statueof Pax
in 11 B.C. Dio (54.35.2) reports that Augustus re-ceived a donation of silver from the Senate and the
People to have a statue made of himself. As always,he refused to do so and instead had statueserected
ofSalus,Concordia,
and Pax. Since Ovid mentionsasacrifice o these three deities andJanus on 30 March
(Fasti3.881-82), Wissowaassumed the construction
of a sanctuarywith altars and statuesto these deitieswherethe annualfestivalwasheld on 30 March.53Yet
the Fasti Praenestini (CIL I2, p. 234) mentionno such
event,and Dio speaksonlyof eikones nd not of altars.
Ovid,on the other hand,besidesaddingJanus,refersto ara Pacis (iam adorantescumquehoc Concordia mitis/et Romana Salus araque Pacis erit) and it would be
disingenuousto saythat this is an ara other than theAra Pacis,especiallyas his reference to alma Venus,
geminorummaterAmorumoccurs only three lines later,at Fasti 4.1. The janiform configurationof the AraPacis may have suggested to Ovid the addition of
Janus.Still, even these additional arguments are not
enough to support Hanell's hypothesis that Salus,Concordia,and Pax therefore appeared on the AraPacisAugustae.54Dio speaksof eikones, tatues,and
the theorythat Pax,Salus,and Concordiaweremadean annualsacrificeon 30 Marchraisesmoreproblemsthan it solves: Pax in that case would have had two
45Zanker 87-88.46 Bilsing (supra n. 35) 248 n. 7; Galinsky209-10 with
referenceto the frieze of the Apolloaltarat Aries;Bartman
(supran. 2) 272.
47 Kraus(supran. 34) 41-42; Helbig411.828-29no. 2057(E. Simon),especiallywith reference to inv. 3693; H61scherin KaiserAugustus373-74, no. 206.
48 I followthe interpretationof Simon(supran. 47) 829wherethe relevantdocumentationcanbe found;see esp. H.
Jucker,DasBildnis mBlitterkelch.GeschichtendBedeutungeinerromischen ortratformBibliotecaHelveticaRomana3,Rome 1961) 201-203. Also germane to the connectionofthe images of Roma and Venus on the Ara Pacis is thefrequentrepresentationof Caesar'sVenus with a shieldon
her side; see, e.g., Crawford (supra n. 10) 480/9-18 andBMCRR1.547 nos. 4169-75. Cf. the denarius of Octavian,
issued between32 and 29 B.C.:RIC 12 p. 59 no. 250a.
49CIL12, pp. 322-23.50 "Pax and the 'Ara Pacis',"JRS 50 (1960) 44-58.
51J.M.C. Toynbee, "The Ara PacisAugustae,"JRS 51(1961) 153-54; E.Simon,Augustus.KunstundLeben n Romum dieZeitenwendeMunich1986)30; de Grummond668,citingsuggestionsof E.LaRoccaandG. Koeppel.A goddessholding two childrenand a caduceuscertainlywouldhaveher handsfull.
52 Cf. Momigliano supran. 23) 229-31 and Zanker177-81.
53 G. Wissowa,Religionund KultusderRomer2 Munich1912)329.
54Hanell(supran. 2) 95-98; followedby Toynbee(supra
n. 51) 153-54.
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1992] VENUS, POLYSEMY,AND THE ARA PACISAUGUSTAE 469
annual festivals at the Ara Pacis,a problem that Hanell
tries to resolve by arguing that the sacrifice on 30
January really was not to Pax, but to Augustus. All
that can be safely said is that the connection between
Ovid's notice and Dio's is unclear.55 Dio speaks of a
statue of Paxbeing
setup
somewhere in Rome at the
time the Ara Pacis was built. It can be safely assumed
that this statue showed Pax in her traditional iconog-
raphy. There was, therefore, no need to do the same
in the much more ambitious, conceptualized, and
intellectualized pictorial program of the Ara Pacis
Augustae.
Sophisticated programs of this kind did not lack
precedent in Rome. A conspicuous example is the
honorary monument for Sulla erected by the Maure-
tanian king Bocchus in the city around 91 B.C.56
While presupposing a high degree of intellectual un-
derstandingon the
partof the
viewer,its individual,
multivalent images and motifs (including Victoria,
Erotes, Hercules, Jupiter's eagle, and the Dioscuri)lack any relation to one another except for expressingdifferent aspects of Sulla's ideology. The pictorial
program on the Ara Pacis, by contrast, is much more
cohesive. Its images, even more so than the mere
juxtaposition of emblems on the Bocchus monument,
have several significances and challenge especially the
educated viewer to discover the many associations that
make up the entire program, i.e., the notion of the
Pax Augusta. Five related aspects or backgrounds of
the resultant and deliberate multivalence need to be
considered briefly to provide some context.
1) As H61scher has masterfully demonstrated with
reference especially to numismatic representations of
the last century of the Republic,57historical represen-
tation, and particularly the representation of formerlyshared concepts (such as fides, exemplified in the
paintings from the third-century Fabian Tomb on the
Esquiline),58yields to an unrestrained proliferation of
private representations and values. There are dispar-
ate efforts to urge the acceptance of such individual
values or "programs" as public ones, but all this ex-
presses only the excessive relativization of the respub-lica into a multiplicity of res privatae.59 Formerlycommunal values are privatized: the Roma Victrix of
the entire Roman
people
on a denarius of 119 B.C.60
changes into the personal goddess of victorious gen-erals from Marius to Caesar, especially the Venus
Victrix of Sulla, Pompey, and Caesar.6' A good ex-
ample is one of Caesar's denarii, struck in 44 B.C.,
which shows his wreathed head, with the legend dic-
tatorperpetuuson the obverse, and his ancestress Ve-
nus, holding a statuette of Victory in her right hand
and a scepter in the left, on the reverse (fig. 17).62
::
::::
Fig. 17. Denariusof Caesar,reverse.Venus Victrix.(Cour-
tesyStaatlicheMiinzsammlung,Munich)
A related development, which also provides one of
thebackdrops
to thepolysemy
ofAugustan art,
is the
plethora of personifications into which the represen-tation of formerly communal concepts and abstrac-
tions, such as libertas,pietas, pax, andfides, is dissolved
by moneyers who use them for the projection of
personal interests.63 Their representation, which orig-inated from the cult statues of these deities in their
temples, now is freed from such a referential context.
Given a virtually unlimited allowance for free play, it
develops into a multiplicity of personifications, alle-
55It is significanthat Ovid'sotherwiseindefatigablemod-
ern commentator,FranzB6mer,does not takeup this issueat allin his brief annotationson Fast.3.882(P.OvidiusNaso.Die Fasten2 [Heidelberg1958] 204).
56 For a good summarywith illustrationsand completebibliographyee T. H61schern KaiserAugustus384-86; cf.
H6lscher,Staatsdenkmalnd PublikumXenia9, Constance
1984)17-18.
57 H61scher 69-81; H61scher, DieBedeutungder Min-zen zum Verstandnis der Reprasentationskunster r6m-ischen Republik,"n Proceedings f the Ninth International
Congress fNumismaticsLouvain1982)1.269-82;cf. Zanker
21-28.
58 Helbig II4 no. 1600 (B. Andreae);F. Coarelli n Roma
medio-repubblicanaRome1973)200-208; H61scher 70-71;
for a different interpretation,see E. La Rocca, "FabiooFannio,"DialArch3rd ser.2 (1984) 31-53.
59 H61scher 71-73; Crawford(supran. 10)729-44; C.J.Classen,"VirtutesRomanorumnach dem Zeugnisder Miin-zen republikanischerZeit,"RM 93 (1986) 257-79. For the
general background,see C. Meier, Res publica amissa2
(Frankfurt1980).60 Crawford(supran. 10) no. 281; BMCRR11.283,no.
555.61 T. H61scher,VictoriaRomana Mainz1967) 138-56; cf.
A. Alf6ldi,"The MainAspectsof Propagandaon the Coin-
age of the RomanRepublic,"n R.A.G.Carson and C.H.V.Sutherland ds.,Essaysn RomanCoinagePresentedoHarold
MattinglyOxford 1956)63-94.62 Crawford supran. 10)no. 480/7b;BMCRR1.546,no.
4155.63 For details, see H61scher271-73 and in Proceedings
(supran. 57).
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470 KARLGALINSKY [AJA96
Fig. 18.Denariusof Octavian, bverse.Pax or Venus.(Cour-
tesyStaatlicheMiinzsammlung,Munich)
gories, symbols, and emblems that can be combined
and recombined in ever new associative constellations.
The range of personifications exceeds the availabilityof clearly differentiated iconographies: the same fe-
male head, for instance, can represent Pietas, Liber-
tas, and Venus, whereas the same male head can serve
for Vulcan, Saturn, Jupiter, and Neptune.64 The in-
terchangeability continues on Octavian's coinage: the
female head (fig. 18) on the obverse of one of the
denarii he issued as divifilius between 36 and 29 B.C.
has been interpreted variously as Venus or Pax,65 hus
constituting an interesting precedent in parvo for the
debate on the Ara Pacis relief. Strictly speaking, how-
ever, we are not dealing with polysemy, but with neu-
trality of semiosis. Hence symbols, such as a caduceus
and a pileus, had to be added to help in understandingthe identity of the representations. The artists of the
Zoilos monument at Aphrodisias achieved the same
by simply adding the names of the allegories.We can see the changes that come about in the
pictorial program of the Ara Pacis. Its underpinningis the Augustan social and political program of a
return to a central value system: "Peace as prosperitynow depends on Roman mores."66 Instead of the
chorus, though by no means the symphony, of manydifferent speakers and voices in the late Republic, and
instead of the discordant din, as reflected by their
Fig. 19. Cistophorusof Augustus,reverse. Pax. (CourtesyAmericanNumismaticSociety,New York)
diverse proclamations, aspirations, achievements, and
designs, Augustan public art, parallel to the changed
political situation, marks the return to a far more
limited, repetitive, and didactic selection of motifs that
convey traditional and shared values.67 With the Au-
gustan restoration of genuine meaning to such con-
cepts, in particular that of the res publica, in the
political and moral realms comes the establishment of
genuine polysemy to the images and symbols in art:
the female personification on the Ara Pacis is not
simply a chiffre that can be filled in as one wishes68
but has a variety of significances that complement one
another. This is accompanied by another reciprocal
process: compared with the confusing multiplicity of
Republican representations (and individual "pro-
grams") there is now a reduction, as we just noted, in
Augustan public art in general to a few repeatedmotifs. This quantitative reduction, however, is more
than compensated for by the multiplicity of associa-
tions and purposely evoked meanings.69 A corre-
sponding development is that the coin issues with
indefinite identities disappear; there are no represen-tations of Libertas, for instance, nor of Pax in Augus-tan coinage after the cistophoric series of 28 B.C.
Even there, Pax is represented not with a genericdivine head, but unambiguously with a caduceus and
the accompanying legend PAX (fig. 19).70
64 See the chapteron "Polyvalencet diversit6des effigiesdivines" in H. Zehnacker, Moneta. Recherchessur l'organisa-tion desemissions monetairesde la Ripublique romaine(BEFAR
222, Rome 1973)11.764-821.
65 RIC 2 p. 59 no. 251;Grueber,BMCRR11.9,nos.4327-32. Grueberinterpretsthe head as Paxwhile Mattingly, sdid Babelonearlier,regardsthe portraitas thatof Venus.
J.B. Giard, Catalogue des monnaies de l'Empire romain. I.
Auguste Paris,Bibliothque Nationale1976)65 no. 6 pro-poses Pax or Concordia,and designatesalmost the samehead (no. 5) as Venus. Cf. A. Wlosok,Die Gittin Venus n
VergilsAeneis (Heidelberg 1967) 120 n. 67 with further
bibliography.
66 Momigliano supran. 23) 229; cf. D.E.E.Kleiner,"TheGreat Friezesof the Ara Pacis Augustae.Greek Sources,
RomanDerivatives,and Augustan Social Policy,"MEFRA90 (1978)772-76 and my discussionof "Augustus'Legisla-tion on Moralsand Marriage," hilologus125 (1981) 126-
44, esp. 142,n. 76.67 Seeesp.Zanker 09-10; cf. Halscher nKaiserAugustus
359.68 For the phenomenon,cf. H61scher,Victoria Romana
(supran. 61) 97 and W. Eder,"Augustusand the Power ofTradition: The Augustan Principateas Binding Link be-tweenRepublicand Empire," n K.Raaflaub nd M. Toher
eds., BetweenRepublic andEmpire. InterpretationsofAugustusand His Principate (Berkeley 1990) 119.
69 Cf. Zanker209-10 and 178-80.
70 RIC 12 p. 79, no. 476; BMCRE 1.112,no. 691; Giard(supran. 65) 908-10; C.H.V.Sutherland,TheCistophori f
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1992] VENUS,POLYSEMY,ND THEARA PACISAUGUSTAE 471
2) The intentionalmultiplicityof meaningscan be
experienced on several levels, depending on the so-
phisticationof the viewer.To some, the pictorialpro-
gram would be understandablein relatively simpleterms:prosperity;a linkingof the Augustanpresentto the Roman past in the basic manner of Vergil'sAeneid;references to peace and relaxed tranquillity,as is indicated,too, by the demeanor of some of the
participantsn the procession.Cognoscentiwouldap-
preciatethe complex allusivenessof the imageryfar
more.Forthem,the function andappealof individual
reliefs andtheirentiretywould be that of whatZanker
hascalledanAndachtsbild r "contemplative icture":
youcango backtime and again,look at the icons,and
discover new meanings and associations.They are
rooted in rich artistic, iterary,religious,and mytho-
logicaltraditions.It is like readingthe Aeneid.At the
sametime, it is not a matterofpurely subjective
and
impressionisticunderstandings,which would lead to
misinterpretation,but the varietyof evocationsop-erates within the frameworkof a clearlyestablished
overallmeaning.3) This intentional multivalencebegins with the
architecturalconfigurationof the Ara Pacis and is
enhanced by the multiplicityof artistic traditionson
which tdrawsandthe concomitantdiversityof artistic
styles. The building itself combines aspects of the
augural templum nd the shrines of Janus.71 n addi-
tion, the Ara Pacis was erected in lieu of a triumph,and
despiteits understatement on the relief
decora-tion of the monument itself the triumphaldimension
resultsfrom the building's ncorporation nto the de-
sign of the Horologium.Similarmultiplicityof meaninginheresin the pres-
entationof the "processions."They do not representa specific,one-dimensional historicalevent, such as
the constitutioor dedicatio. The representation of the
ceremony includes, along with the stone garlands
hung up on the insideof the enclosurewalls,elements
that fit both events, but it goes beyond both in the
mannerof the Boscorealecups. The principal ntentis to presentthe idea of the return of Augustus, the
guarantor(auctor) f peace; formally, t presents"the
meeting that could have taken place."" The subor-
dinationof actual"reality"o the guidingideasbehind
it is the hallmark,e.g., of Augustus'sRes Gestae.It
was a typicallyRomanconceptwhose antecedentsare
found, in differentways, n Republicanart and in the
very idea of the respublicaas a series of normative
concepts. Their implementationis not so much an
individual action as a reflection of the underlying
concept; the implementing actions, therefore, are
thought of as repetitiveand generic ratherthan spe-cific.73 Hence it is also left open whether Augustusand his entourage form two processions,or one, or
should beenvisaged
asstanding
in a circle.But there
is no ambiguityabout the central ntent: the attention
is focusedon Augustus,and he, his arrival adventus),and the rite he is performing are enhanced by the
corresponding representation of the adventus ofAeneas on the adjacentpanelon the west side.
Similarly,he well-documentedmultiplicityof artis-
ticprecedentsand"citations"-Greek,Etruscan,Pom-
peian,andRoman-and styles(Atticizing,Hellenistic,and Roman)contributeto evoking a plethoraof tra-
ditions and types.74 In short, the monument was
deliberatelydesigned to have an unparalleledmulti-
plicityof dimensions that defy reductionismexceptin the sense that they harmoniouslyexpress the con-
cept of the Pax Augusta in all the richness of itsassociations.
4) Another source of the artisticsyncretismof the
Tellus/Venus/Pax/Cereselief is syncretismn religionand cult. Venus and Ceres, for example, had ajointcult.75Similarly, here is a greatdeal of interminglingbetween the cults of Tellus and Ceres.76The most
Augustus London 1970) 12-14, 40-44, 88-90, pls. 1-2, 15-17. The issuingmintwasEphesus.
7' Torelli27-35; Horologium:E.Buchner,Die Sonnenuhr
des Augustus (Mainz 1982).72 Torelli 55 with reference to earlierscholarship;Settis
(supra n. 3) 421; Borbein (supra n. 24) 245-46, 260; cf.G.M.Koeppel,"DiehistorischenReliefs der r6mischenKai-serzeit. V. Ara PacisAugustae 2,"BJb 188 (1988) 97-106who considersthe processional riezes as representing, n a
generalway,a supplicatio pon Augustus'sreturn.
73 Cf. Holscher 314 and in KaiserAugustus360; cf. W.Kunkel'sdefinitionof the Republican onstitutionas a "Sys-tem traditionellerBegriffe und Leitsitze, die keineswegsimmer mit der politischenRealitatSchrittgehaltenhaben"
(Untersuchungen zur Entwicklung des rdmischenKriminalver-
fahrens in vorsullanischer Zeit [Munich 1962] 76) and Bor-
bein'sremarks on "interpretedreality" aking precedenceover actualreality(supran. 24, 246, with reference to the
"processions"f the AraPacis).
74See,
e.g.,G.
Koeppel,"The Roleof PictorialModels n
the Creationof HistoricalReliefduring the Age of Augus-tus," n Winkes(supran. 38) 89-105; Borbein(supran. 24)249-52; for the floral rieze: Kraus(supran. 34)andB6rker(supran. 35);for variousartisticstyles:M.Pallottino,"L'AraPacise i suoi problemiartistici," dA32 (1938) 162-78 andT. H61scher, Rdmische Bildsprache als semantisches System(SBHeid1987)45-49.
75 Documentation n Galinsky238 n. 142. B. Spaeth hasfurthermade me awareof the following:CIL9.3087, 3090,3170; 10.5191;EphEp8.315, 855 (Pompeii); f. G.Colonna,"Sul acerdoziopelignodi Cereree Venere,"ArchCl8 (1956)216-17; I. Chirassi-Columbo,Funzionipoliticheed impli-cazioniculturalinell'ideologia eligiosadi Ceresnell'imperoromano,"ANRW II.17.1 (Berlin1981)425.
76 H. le Bonniec, Le culte de Ceres d Rome. Des origines a
lafin de la Ripublique (Paris 1958) 48-107.
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472 KARLGALINSKY [AJA96
prominentexample in the Augustanambienceis the
coalescence of Apollo and Sol.77Giventhis phenom-enon alone, it is impossibleto maintainthat the mul-
tiple identificationof this figure would run counter
to the Romanmentality.
5) The
general
context of the Augustanculture is
characterizedprecisely by the same deliberate utili-
zation of multivalency.In the politicalculture, this
applies to terms like auctoritas, libertas,pater patriae,and res publica.78 The overall moral and guiding
meaning is alwaysclear. It is combinedwith a broad
rangeof applications,and the associatedelasticityand
nuances of such terms were ideally suited for the
complexity and variety of situationsin which these
conceptswere operative.As for Augustanliterature,to give but one example, the charactersin Vergil'sAeneidare similarlymultilayered.79
This raises one final andimportant
ssue. How are
the viewers to respond?What kind of identification,if any, are they to make of "Tellus"?How can we be
sure that such an identificationcorresponds to the
intent of the creators?
All these questions are at the center of current
literary and aesthetic theory.80Perhaps those who
propose the reduction of the image to one meaningdo so to stayclear of the deconstructionist haos that
mightprevailotherwise.Butthereare no groundsfor
such misgivings. Augustan public art and, for that
matter, some of Augustan poetry, is distinguished
precisely by the combination of two aspectsmodern
theory tends to wall off from one another: a central,
authorial,and moral meaning and an invitation to
viewer or reader participation.The viewer of the
"Tellus"relief is invited, by means of an obviouslymultidimensionaliconography, to discover the re-
markableand intentional depth and multiplicityof
meaningfulassociations.8' t is a processthat Zanker
has tried to capturewith the notion of the Andachts-
bild.This involvesthe connectionswith the represen-tationson the other friezes,the floraldecorations,and
the monumentas a whole. It is a deliberatelypartici-
patory process, in accordance with the meaning of
auctoritas and with the Augustan political milieu,
which was far too dynamicto conform to the simpleschema of a partyleaderhanding down orders.82
Besides the overallmeaning of the Ara Pacis,that
of the southeast relief is clear also: whetherTellus,
Venus, Pax,or
Ceres,the
deityand her
companionfigures personify the abundance of vegetation and
the blessingsof peaceon land and sea.They alsohave
a dynasticdimension,being related to the domusAu-
gusta as are the other reliefs. To some, including
myself, the aspectof Venus may prevail,s3 o others,thatof Pax,andso on. None areincompatiblen terms
of the iconography,which is a shared one, and the
overallmeaning.The artisticsuccess of the Ara Pacis
waspreciselythat it appealed to manydifferent sen-
sibilitiesand people, regardlessof educationalor so-
cialbackground.Its extraordinarydegree of concep-
tualization,in contrast to the Zoilos frieze and the
77 Cf. the syncretismof Venusand Lucifer on the cuirassof the Augustusstatuefrom PrimaPorta;see E.Simon,"Zur
Augustusstatuevon PrimaPorta,"RM 64 (1957)54-55.
78 See, e.g., J. Beranger, Recherchessur l'aspect ideologiquedu principat(Basel 1953); R. Heinze, "Auctoritas,"n VomGeistdesRdmertums3 Stuttgart 1960) 42-58; RE 22.2 (1953)
2287-90, s.v. Princeps(L. Wickert),with update in ANRW
II.1 (Berlin 1974) 74. B. Andreae, L'art de l'ancienne Rome
(Paris1973)115explicitlymakes heconnectionbetween heAra Pacis and Augustus's auctoritas.On libertas, ee P.A.Brunt, The Fall
of
the Roman
Republic
and Related
Essays(Oxford 1988)esp. 281-350 ("libertas eant differentthingsto different people"; p. 283). See alsoJ. Hellegouarc'h,Levocabulaire latin des relations et des partis politiques sous la
rdpubliqueParis1963)esp. 295-361 and 542-65. Augustusbeginsthe Res Gestaewiththe extremelymultivalentphraserempublicam . . . in libertatemvindicavi; for the context and
various meanings, see W. Weber, Princeps. Studien zur Ge-
schichte esAugustusI (Stuttgart1936) 141-42 and G. Wal-
ser, "DerPrincepsals Vindex Libertatis,"Historia4 (1955)353-67. I am discussingall these aspects n more detail in a
forthcomingbook on the Augustanculture.
79 J. Griffin,"The Creationof Charactersn the Aeneid,"in Latin Poets and Roman Life (London 1985) 183-97,
esp. 195.
80 Cf. my Introduction("The Interpretationof RomanPoetryand the ContemporaryCriticalScene") n TheInter-
pretation of Roman Poetry: Empiricism or Hermeneutics?
(Frankfurt1992) 1-40; my chapteron "Reading he Aeneidin Modern Times" in Classical and Modern Interactions (Aus-tin 1992);and,in termsof a generalhermeneutic or Roman
art,H61scher supran. 74).81 This well-knownaspectof the AraPacishasbeen artic-
ulatedexcellently by Zanker178-81; cf. Settis(supran. 3)423-24 and E. La Rocca'sIntroduction to KaiserAugustus22-23. Cf., from a somewhatdifferentorientation, . Pollini,"Time, Narrativity,and DynasticConstructsin AugustanArtand
Thought,"AJA91 (1987)298.
82 For a revisionof Syme'sviewof Augustus(TheRomanRevolution Oxford1939])see nowtheessaycollectionedited
by Raaflauband Toher (supran. 68).83 WithoutfollowingSauron's(supran. 35) extravagant
interpretationof the relationshipbetween the floralfriezeand the individualsof the procession,a more generalsym-bolic relationshipmay well exist: the floral frieze developsfrom one root only, as did the Julian family from Venus
Genetrix, and the acanthus and floral decoration, in anassociationwith VictoriaCaesariswho incorporatedVenusGenetrixand VenusVictrix,was used for the dynasticTem-
ple of DivusJulius.Kenner(supran. 2) 41-42 suggeststhatthe nameof the centralfigureof the Ara Pacisreliefwas eft
deliberatelyindeterminate,but "ihr sch6nster Name soll
nachdemschweigendenWunschdes AugustusVenus sein."The procedurewould be typicalof his auctoritas.
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1992] VENUS, POLYSEMY,AND THE ARA PACISAUGUSTAE 473
.....6 7 1 1 , ? ? : : : . : - ? - - - 7
Fig.20. Octavianas MercurywithRoma.Altar n the Museo
CivicoArcheologico,Bologna.(CourtesyMuseo CivicoAr-
cheologico,Bologna, neg. no. B84/3373)
Bocchus monument, does not result in aridity but in
a pictorial program brimming with vital images that
are accessible to all. Hence, for instance, the easy
adoption into private, middle-class art of the family
groups with a child tugging at a parent's toga or
palla.84Lest this modus interpretandi of the relief should
seem permeated unduly by contemporary aesthetic
theory, we should recall that none other than the
generally conservative Servius introduced the term
"polysemous" into literary criticism; he used it in con-
nection with the very first line of the Aeneid.85Equally
apropos is Syme's astute observation, at the very end
of The Roman Revolution, that "likeAugustus, his Res
Gestae are unique, defying verbal definition and ex-
plaining themselves."86 In a similar vein, W. Weber
three years earlier commented on one of the most
significant chapters of the Res Gestae, that dealingwith his auctoritas(34), by saying that Augustus "likes
to veil things and leaves their interpretation to oth-
ers."87It is in the context of this spirit that the Ara
Pacis relief needs to be understood. With reference
to Roman art, it may suffice to cite the concludingcomments Karl Lehmann-Hartleben made over 60
years ago on the sculptural program on a provincial
Augustan altar in the Museo Civico in Bologna.88There we do find a caduceus, held by Mercury/Octa-vian who follows a briskly striding Roma (fig. 20).Other symbols, such as cornucopiae ending in capri-corn heads, round out the ensemble of images. The
upper part of the altar is not preserved, nor is there
an identifying inscription. In response to some com-
mentsby
Rostovtzeff, Lehmann-Hartleben used the
occasion to characterize Augustan art in general:
Ob wirden Altar der Roma und dem Mercurius,oder
ihr und dem Genius Augusti geweiht denken sollen,muss beim Fehlen der Inschriftdahingestelltbleiben.Der Synkretismusder Symbolewird in der kiinstler-ischen Formensprachedes augusteischenZeitalterszu
einer fein geschliffnen Sprachform,die durch immer
wechselnde Verbindung einen jedesmal neuen Aus-
druck schafft.Es kommtwederaufdie griechischeG6t-tergestaltals pers6nlichesElement an, noch auf die
begrifflich-qualitativeFunctionsklarheitder altrbm-
ischen Gottesvorstellung, och endlich auf die durch
Zuteilung einmaliger Attribute bewirkte allegorischeEinzelgestalt er neuerenZeit.Sondern n unendlichen
VariationenspieltdiePhantasie mdasallgemeinePrin-
zipdesGbttlichenls Wirkungsursprungnd zieht dabei
Gestalten,Attributeund religi6seIdeenin wechselnder
Verbindungheran ... Mit "Realismus"der "Wirklich-
keitssinn," en man mmerwiederalsGrundprinzip er
r6mischen Kunst proklamiert,hat freilich auch das
nichtszu tun.89
In the sculptural program of the Ara Pacis, this
kind of concept is pushed to unprecedented heights.
That, too, is an aspect that makes the Ara Pacis the
most representative work of Augustan art. It was an
experiment like so much of Augustus's political dis-
pensation and the Augustan culture in general, which
were far from static.90 In the case of the "Tellus"
84 See Kleiner(supran. 66) 767-72; cf. D.E.E. Kleiner,"PrivatePortraiture n the Age of Augustus," n Winkes
(supran. 38) 108-12.85 Servius ad Aen. 1.1: "cano"polysemussermoest; see the
commentsof A. Patterson,Pastoraland Ideology:Virgilto
ValbryBerkeley1987)30.86 Syme (supra n. 82) 524.
87 Weber supran. 78) 221: "Er iebt die Verhuillung nd
uiberlasstnderen ihre Deutung."88 "EinAltar n Bologna,"RM 42 (1927) 162-76.
89 Lehmann-Hartlebensupran. 88) 174-75. The italicsare thoseof the original ext.
90 Cf. E.T. Salmon,"The Evolutionof Augustus'Princi-
pate,"Historia5 (1956)456-78; W.Eck,"Augustus' dmin-istrative Reformen: Pragmatismus oder systematischesPlanen?"ActaClassica26 (1986) 105-20; K.Galinsky,"Re-cent Trends in the Interpretationof the Augustan Age,"TheAugustanAge5 (1986) 22-36; Eder (supran. 68) 104-
11. It is moreappropriateo speakof an Augustanevolutionthan of a Romanrevolution.
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474 KARLGALINSKY [AJA 96
saR4?:~i i?;"Ark~, -:;i::)i?-iizO
; : - V w
Fig. 21. Relief from Carthage.Paris,Louvre.(CourtesyServicephotographiquede la reunion des musees nationaux,neg. no.
MA1838)
relief, the experimentation with an exceptional de-
gree of polysemy was scaled down on the well-known
relief from Carthage (fig. 21): the seated figure now
clearly is an earth goddess, accompanied by an astral
goddess on the left and a male sea deity on the right.91Concern for greater intelligibility takes precedenceover multiplicity of meaning and associations; it is
regrettable that we know nothing about the monu-
ment of which the Carthage relief was a part nor
about the context in which it was found.
ADDENDUM
After this article went into print, John Elsner's on
"Cult and Sculpture: Sacrifice in the Ara Pacis Au-
gustae" appeared inJRS 81 (1991) 50-61. The focus
of Elsner's discussion is not on iconographic matters,
but on a concept of interpretation that allows for
alternative readings and varied reader response, in-
cluding irony and subversion. Hence the final artistic
product is full of "ambivalences." In that sense, it
bears on the issue of what I call "polysemy."
Our definitions, however, are quite different. To
anyone conversant especially with the prevailing An-
glo-American interpretation of Augustan poetry in
the last 20 years or so, Elsner's argumentation is quitefamiliar and is characterized by the same strengthsand weaknesses. The former include a reaction for-
mation against monolithic, ideological interpretationsand more emphasis on the participation of the reader.
As I briefly point out, such issues, and especially the
problems of multiple interpretations and their validity
or hierarchy, are at the center of the modern criticalor theoretical debate, and it is important for Latinists
(and Roman art historians) to use some methodolog-ical and hermeneutical precision instead of merrily
confusing, to use only one example, intentionality and
reception; I discuss these matters in more detail in
the works cited in note 80. For the art historian (em-
phasis on historian), it is not enough to say that one
subversive reading or the other is suggesting itself; he
or she will need to produce evidence or at least the
strong likelihood that a given artifact or monument
91 Bibliographyn de Grummond674 n. 70; see also H61scher1984(supran. 56) 31.
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1992] VENUS, POLYSEMY,AND THE ARA PACIS AUGUSTAE 475
was read in that sort of key. We all have learned, in
the past two decades, that "no text is resistant to
interpretation" (Stanley Fish) or, to quote Gerald
Graff, that "under the right kind of close inspection,"
ambiguity, ambivalence, and irony somehow are never
hard to find in poetry (Professing Literature.An Insti-
tutional History [Chicago 1987] 206). Works of art,
and especially complex ones, are easily susceptible to
such interpretive schemes, too.
The polysemy that I am discussing is different. It
is set against the background of a discernible and
documented iconographic tradition. It recognizes the
peculiar dynamic of the Augustan culture of callingfor wide viewer, reader, and, yes, even political par-
ticipation within the framework of a guiding auctori-
tas, a concept that is both elastic and precise. The
phenomenon, of which the Ara Pacis is an excellent
example,is too nuanced to be treated in terms of the
convenient scholarly dichotomies such as Hellenistic
vs. Classical, public vs. private, or ideology vs. subver-
siveness. A related problem, shared by Elsner, is that
Augustan scholars do not take the trouble to define
concepts such as "ideology," let alone refer to modern
discussions of the subject (cf. Duncan Kennedy's re-
view of T. Woodman and D. West, Poetry and Politics
in the Age of Augustus [Cambridge 1984] in LiverpoolClassical Monthly 9.10 [Dec. 1984] 158-60).
There is, then, plenty of middle ground between
the monolithic, Symean view of the Augustan dispen-sation-and here Zanker
deserves more credit thanElsner gives him for debunking the notion of "prop-
aganda" and documenting the process of creative
reciprocity-and the notion that any subjective inter-
pretation that we can cleverly construct today must
be 1) subversive and 2) also have been on the minds
of a Roman audience at the time. This middle groundallows for the plentiful existence of contradictions and
creative tensions, and the scholar's task is precisely to
work through these rather than be content with end-
lessly hectoring about "ambiguities" while not pre-
senting convincing documentation. The Augustan
notion of the Golden Age, for instance, in both artand literature is far from the idyll that Elsner, Zanker,and L'Orange would have us believe, but incorporatesthe seemingly conflicting notions of peace and war,
and of labor and repose (cf. the apt summation of this
as "pace laboriosa" by E. Montanari, Enciclopedia Vir-
giliana V, 686, s.v. Saturno. Such concepts are pre-sented as complementary rather than disjunctive. We
can add to them death and life. The opposition, there-
fore, that Elsner is trying to build between the animals
on the "Tellus" panel and the same kind of animals
being led to slaughter on the smaller friezes (with the
resulting bucrania on the inside of the precinct walls)is unfounded and his resultant overinterpretations
about "the nature of the Principate itself" go further
astray yet. In the current nonjudgmental and trivial-
izing climate of literary interpretation there are no
such things any more as misinterpretations of the
"private voice" of Vergil, for instance. To apply the
same approaches to as carefully planned and complexan official monument as the Ara Pacis is an even more
serious mistake. In order to view the Ara Pacis as
something more than an instrument of ideology and
in order to recognize its intentional and sophisticated
multiplicity of meanings we need not resort to mis-
reading it in terms of facile ambivalences that were
far from the minds of its creators.
As scholars of ancient art, archaeology, and litera-
ture we are fortunate to be dealing with dead peoplewho cannot talk back. It is salutary to realize that this
inability is due to the ravages of time rather than their
volition and that live authors and artists tend to resist
the currently fashionable modus interpretandi. John
Updike's comment is typical: "It is in the nature of
deconstruction to rob literary works of their intended
content, substituting instead the subliminal messagesthe author did not intend" (New York Times Book
Review [10 June 1990] 40). Or, as I found out first-
hand, some Classicizing postmodern architects will
simply disagree that the production of irony was their
intent, even if a given building may strike some view-
ers (and professional architectural critics in particular)as ironic (cf. my discussion in ch. 1 of Classical and
Modern Interactions [supra n. 80] of John Blatteau'sremodeling of a branch of the Riggs Bank in Wash-
ington, D.C.). Like many of its current counterpartson Augustan poetry, Elsner's article, which has many
strong points, too (especially his discussion of generalversus individual representation of cult acts, which
intersects with some of my comments on the repre-sentation of underlying concepts as opposed to that
of individual actions), illustrates the ongoing need for
careful distinctions such as H.R. Jauss's "horizons of
expectation," which differentiate between the recep-tion of a work of literature (also applicable to art) at
its own time and in later times. Similarly useful is E.D.Hirsch's distinction between the "meaning" of a work
of literature, which is intended for it by its author,
and its "significance," which is any interpretation
given to it by others (Validity in Interpretation, New
Haven 1967). The melding of such horizons in the
1930s did a great deal of lasting damage to the studyof Augustan art; it is important that we not repeatthe same mistakes again even in an ostensibly moreacademic fashion.
DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
AUSTIN, TEXAS 78712