Villa de Los Misterios

8/11/2019 Villa de Los Misterios

1/21

THE VILLA ITEM

AND A BRIDE'S

ORDEAL.1

By JOCELYN

TOYNBEE.

The

paintings

in

the

triclinium of the Villa

Item, a dwelling-

house excavated

in

i909

outside the Porta Ercolanese

at Pompeii,

have not only often been published

and discussed

by foreign scholars,

but they have also formed the subject of an important paper in this

7ournal.2

The artistic qualities

of the paintings

have been ably

set

forth3:

it

has

been establishedbeyond all doubt

that the subject

they depict

is some formof

Dionysiac nitiation: and,

of the detailed

interpretations

of the

first seven of the

individual scenes, those

originally put

forward

by

de

Petra4

and accepted, modified

or

developed by

Mrs.

Tillyard appear,

so far

as

they go,

to be

unques-

tionably

on the

right

lines.

A fresh

study

of the

Villa

Item

frescoes

would seem, however,

to be

justified

by

the

fact that the

majority

of

previous

writers

have confined

their

attention

almost

entirely to

the first seven scenes-the three to the east of the entrance on the

*north

wall

(fig. 3),

the

three on the east

wall

and

the one to the east of

the window

on the south

wall,

to

which

the last

figure

on

the

east wall,

the

winged

figure

with the

whip, undoubtedly

belongs.

The

three

remainingpaintings-the

one

to the

west

of

the

window

on

the

south

wall

and the two

on the west

wall,

one

on either side

of the

exit-

have

received

comparatively

scant

notice,

and no

satisfactory

explanation

has

yet

been

given

of their

place

in

the

general

scheme.

The

object

of this

paper

is to

attempt

to show

that the last

three

paintings do,

in

reality, play

as

important

a

part

as the

rest

;

and

to

offerfor them aninterpretationwhich maybe of interestasthrowing

new

light

on the first seven scenes

and as

giving

a new coherence

to

the

series

as a

whole.

1 The following

interpretation

of

the

Villa

Item

frescoes

was first

suggested

by

the present writer

in

a

lecture given

in

Cambridge.

This paper

was

written

at

the

instigation

of

Dr. A.

B.

Cook,

to

whom

the

writer

is

deeply

indebted

for

much

valuable

help

received

in the

course

of

discussion

and

for many

references.

2P.

B. Mudie

Cooke (now

Mrs.

E. M.

W.

Tillyard),

'The Paintings

of

the

Villa

Item',

J.R.S.

II

(19I3), pp. 157-I74.

To the list of articles

and

references

there quoted

(p.

I

57,

n.

2)

should

now

be added

the

following:

Rizzo,

Dionysos

Mystes,

contributi

esegetici

alle

rappresentazioni

di

nzisteri

orfici,

I9I4(Menz.Accad.Arch.

Nap., I9I8);

Pottier,

Rev.

arch.

I9I5,

ii,

p. 32I

ff.; Lechat,

Rev.

des

etudes

anciennes,

I9I7,

pp.

I72 ff.;

de Ridder,

Rev.

des etudes

grecques,

I9I7,

p.

I89

f.

;

Macchioro,

'

Dionysos Mystes ',

Atti Accad.

Torino, liv (i9I8),

pp.

I26

ff.,

222

ff.; Zagreus: studi sull'

Orfisnio,

1920;

Die

V/illa

d.

Mysterien

in

Poinpei,

1928

E. D. van

Buren,

I.R.S.

ix

(I919), pp.

22I

ff.; Com-

paretti, Le

nozze di Bacco ed

Ariana, 1921 ; Carini,

La

villa

dei

misteri dionisiaci; Reinach, Rip.

de

Peintures

grecqueset romiiainesI 922), p.

I I

5;

Pf

uihl,

Malerei

uind

Zeichnung

der

(;riechen

(1924), ii,

pp.

876-7, iii,

pp.

3I9-323 ;

Ippel,

Pomiipeii, 1925,

pp. iz6 ff.; Engelmann, Pompeii,

1925,

pp. 96 ff.;

Warscher,

Pom?peji, I925, pp.

Z28

ff.

; Herbig,

Arch. Anz.,

I925,

pp.

262 ff.; Rostovtzeff, Mystic

Italy,

1927,

pp.

42 ff.;

Mau, FuihrerdurchPomtpeii,

1928, pp.

204

ff.

3

e.g. Mudie Cooke, op. cit., pp.

I71-173.

4 N. d. S.,

i9i0.

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2/21

68

THE VILLA

ITEM

AND

A

BRIDE

S

ORDEAL.

We

may begin

with

a

description

of the last three

paintings

they have been far less often published (being omitted, for instance,

in

Mrs.

Tillyard's

publication

in

7.R.S.

iii),

and

are

consequently

less

familiar,

than the other

seven.

The first

of them

(fig. 4,

no.

8),

1 that

to

the

west

of

the

window

on the south

wall,

shows

a

female

figure

seated

towards the

left

upon

a

cushioned

chair

with

elaborately

carved

legs

and no

back;

her

face is

turned towards

the

spectator

and

her

hands

are

raised

to bind

round her

head the

long

strands

of

her

hair;

she

wears

a

long, fine

chiton,

a himation

passing

over

her left

shoulder

4

5

6

7

_

t I

T

WINDOw

8

ENTRANCE

>

g

- - '

EXIT

SCALE

METRES

0

1

2 3

4 5

6 7

1-,,

1 1

L I ,

I , I , I

FIG.

3.

PLAN OF

THE

tricliniurnl

IN THE VILLA

ITEM,

POMPEII.

and

wound,

sash-like,

round her

waist,

and a

bracelet

on

either

arm.

Behind the

seated

lady

there

stands to

the left

a

handmaid, draped

in

a

long

chiton and

ample

cloak and

holding up

the

next lock of

her

mistress's

hair in readiness for it to be

fastened

in its

place.

On

the

left of the scene, facing the pair of women, an Eros stands on tip-toe,

holding

a mirror. The second

picture,2

painted

on the

adjoining

west

wall,

to the south of the

exit,

really

forms

part

of

the

same

scene:

it

shows an Eros

standing

to

the

left and

leaning against

a

I

N.

d.

S.,

I9IO,

tav.

xviii.

2

N.

d.

S.,

I9 I0,

tav.

xix.



3/21

THE VILLA ITEM AND A

B3RIDE

S ORDEAL.

69

pillar, his right

leg crossed in

front

of his left and his

chin resting on

his right hand: he holds in his left hand a flowery sprig and above

his head a

flower-basket hangs

suspended

by its

tall handle: he

clearly balances

the

Eros with the mirror

on

the

other

side.

The

last

painting (no.

9)

I

represents

a woman

seated upon a couch,

one end of

which supports

her body in

an upright position:

she is dressed in

a

long, fine chiton

and has a

bracelet

on either arm,

while a coloured

veil

is

drawn

over her

head and draped

around

her:

her cheek rests

against her right

hand and she

wears a meditative

and

expectant air.

Let us

see

what

previous writers

on the

Villa Item have

to say

of

the two scenes represented

in these three paintings. Mrs.

Tillyard

ANGLE OF WALL.;

EXI-T

EXIT.

ENTRANCE

1/.

8

9

FIG.

4.

SKETCH OF

THE

FRESCOES

IN

'I'HE

VILLA

ITEM,

POMPEII.

considers

that

the

first

scene (in which

we

include

the

Eros

on

the

west

wall)

has no

particular

significance

and

she

is inclined to

regard

the

subject

'

as one of domestic

life,

inserted

to fill

the

vacant

space.'

2

But this

'

stop-gap

'

theory

does

not

readily

commend

itself to

our

acceptance

as

affording

a

probable

explanation

of the

toilet-

scene.

The notion

that

the

artist

was

sp

badly

off for relevant

subject-matter

that

he

had to

decorate

half

of one of

the four

walls

and both the available portions

of another

with

scenes

extraneous to

the

main

theme

of

the

paintings

is one which

ill accords

with

the

size

and dignity

of the

chamber

itself

or

with

the

solemnity

and

1N. d.

S.,

I9IO,

tav. xx.

2

op.

sit.,

r.

i66

f.

;

cf.

dPfUlhI,

op.

cit., ii.

p.

877,

' Die

Darstellungen

jenseits

des Fl:enstersund

an der

Eingangswand

sind

dagegen

unabhangig

uind

zienlich

anspruchlos

(Fratien und

Eroten).'



4/21

70

THE

VILLA

ITEM

AND

A

BRIDE S

ORDEAL.

importancewhich, on Mrs. Tillyard's own showing, characterise he

other painted scenes. It would seem that the authoress herself

appreciatesthe unsatisfactorynature

of

her interpretation; for she

proceeds o quote first Hartwig,1

who

remarks hat, from the presence

of

the Erotes,

the

scene

may represent

the

attiring

of

a

bride, but

thinks that

the

woman

herself

may

be

an

initiate,

and then de

Petra2

and Nicole,

3

who explain

the scene as the

attiring of an initiate,

a view which is in itself preferable, nasmuch as it provides a single

explanation

for

all the scenes.'

A

similar view

is

propounded by

Carini, where,

under the

heading 'Epilogo,'

he makesbrief mention

of the

toilet-scene.

The initiate,

he

says,

has

passed through

the

ordealsof the rite; 'la pace e la tranquillitasono orain suo dominio

si

e riabbigliata,

si

rassetta le chiome

e

l'Amore

le

e servo.'

But

an explanationwhich

would

have

us see

nothing more in this paint-

ing

than the dishevelled

initiate

tidying

her

dress

and

'

doing'

her

hair after

the

rough-and-tumble

of the

initiation rite is tame

at the

best:

and we should

scarcely expect

to find the

Attic tragedian's

'

quiet ending'

in

a

Dionysiac initiation chamber in Augustan

Pompeii. Again,

how does this

explanation

account

for

the

fact

that

'

l'Amore

le

e

servo'

?

Turning

to our third

painting,

that to

the north

of

the door in

the

west wall(fig. 4, no. 9), we find that Mrs.Tillyarddismissest in asingle

sentence:

'The

remainingfigure,

that of

the

seated woman

on the

entrance-wall,

s

probably

that of an

initiate.'5

De

Petra describes

the seated

lady

as

being merely

a

spectator. As for Carini,

he

mientions

hat

painting

not at

all.

But

perhaps

the most

complete

and

openly avowed dismissal

of

both of

our scenes

s

that

of

Pottier

7:

On

peut

croire

que

la

grande composition primitive dont s'est inspire l'artiste

s'

arretait

a [sc. avec le panneau de

la

danse]. I1 a fallu remplir les autres parois avec

d'autres compositions qui forment comme des bouche-trous. En effet, ce qui suit ne

paraitpasse rapporterau meme sujet .

..

L'inspiration est puisee a une autre source;

les personnagesne sont pas

placees

dans le

meme

plan perspectif. Nous ne devons

donc

pas

r6unir

la

grande composition a cette partie qui rentre dans une serie plus

banale.'

Are we

really

to

be satisfiedwith this

?

Hartwig,

it would

seem,

was on the

right trackwhen

he

suggested

that the eighth scene in the series represents he attiring of a

bride;

but he

did

not,

to

the

mind of the

present writer, perceive

the; full

significanceof his own suggestion. The seated woman is indeed the

Neue

Freie

Presse,

Vienna,

27th

May,

I9IO.

2 N-

d-

S.,

9S0,

p. I44-

3

Gaz.

des Beaux

Arts,

v

(19II),

p.

30.

4

op.

cit.,

p.

27.

5

op.

cit.,

p.

I7I.

The

reason for

supposing

the

vest wall to be

the

exit-,

rather

than the

entrance-,

wall

is set

forth

convincingly

by

Macchioro in

Zagreus,

pp.

15,

I6.

Rostovtzeff

(op. cit.,

p.

55),

ignoring,

it

seems, Macchioro's

cogent

arguments,

persists

in

describing the

large

doorway

in

the

west

wall

as

the

entrance.

6 op.

Cit-,

p.

144.

7

Rev,

arch.,

I9I5,

ii,

p.

345-



5/21

THE VILLA ITEM AND A BRIDE'S ORDEAL. 71

bride-hence, of course,the Erotes; but she is also, at the same

time,

the initiate. The toilet-scene is not a ' quiet ending,' but the entry

upon a new stage to which the previous scenes were leading up and

of which the ninth scene, on the north end of the west wall, is the

culmination. The Dionysiac initiation-rite here depicted is, in

fact, a pre-nuptial rite. In the eighth scene the bride-to-be has

passed through the ordeal preliminary o her bridal and prepares o

meet

her

bridegroom:

in the ninth

scene, fully

attired and seated

on the

lectus

genialis, she awaits the bridegroom's oming. Such is

the

theory:

there remains

the

all-important question,

Does

the

theory fit the facts ? In other words, Do the first seven scenes,

portraying the actual rite itself, admit of our explainingthe whole

initiation in

the

terms

of a

pre-nuptial ceremony

?

In

Scene

I

(fig. 5),

on the

left,

is

the

figure

of

the initiate

standing

draped and

veiled

towards

the

right. On the right

of

the

scene

a

woman s seated

facing

the

spectator,holding

a

roll in

her

left

hand

and

placing her right hand upon the shoulderof a small naked boy, who

standsat her side and

reads

rom

a

scroll.

Mrs. Tillyard rejects, quite

ri-ghtly, he reading-lesson heory

of this

scene and suggests

that

the

seated lady is

the

priestess,who will perform

the initiation

ceremony

for the initiate, and the child a quasi-priest,employed to read aloud

the sacred formulae. That children were so employed she proves

conclusively by

the

evidence

she

quotes, notably

Demosthenes'

1

The theory

put forward in this paper

depends,

of course,

on the assumption

that these two scenes

do come

last

in

the

series. Here

we must take into

account the work

of V. Macchioro, who

stands out

in contrast

to other writers

on the Villa

Item, first,

in rightly

laying more stress

upon the two scenes,

relating them closely

to, and publishing

them along

with,

the rest, both

in his Zagreus

(i920)

and in

Die Villa d. Mysterien

in Ponszpei (I928),

and,

secondly,

in placing

them at the beginning,

instead

of at the end, of the series (Zagreus, p.

I6

f. and

p. 69 f.; Die Villa,

etc.,

p.

I4).

With

regard

to

the

second point,

Macchioro,

while rightly describing

the

lady

at

her

toilet as

a

bride-initiate,

proceeds

to

explain

the

first

scene

as

the initiate decking

herself

for

her mystic marriage

with Dionysos,

the second

as

a

priestess looking

on

at

the

performance.

The

present

writer finds

herself unable

to

accept

Macchioro's

view for

three

main reasons.

(I)

It

would surely

be strange

that

the bride

initiate should

deck herself

so

carefully

before

a

rite

which was

going

to

involve

her in being stripped

and flogged. Or

is

Dionysos'

bride to be decked

as a victim for sacrifice

?

(z)

If the series

ends

with

our

scene

VII,

from

that

scene

must be extracted the

culmination of the whole

story. This Macchioro does by dividing the scene

into

two;

the

flagellation

he

describes

as the

initiate's

'

passion';

in the dancing girl, clashing

cymbals,

he sees the same

initiate reborn

or

resur-

rected after her

'passion'

as a

Bacchante.

This

interpretation

of

the

figure

not

only

seems

some-

what

forced

and strained in

itself, but,

in

divorcing

the

figure

from

the

flogging

episode,

it

robs

the

'cymbalorum pulsus'

of

its

natural

raison

d'etre-

'ne

vox quiritantis

.

.

. exaudiri

possit

'

(Livy 39,

I0

7, of the Bacchanalia). Moreover,

on

Macchioro's

own showing, this interpretation

would involve

a

repetition; for, according

to

him,

in the

scene

with the fawn

we

already

have

the initiate reborn

in

Zagreus by being changed"into

a fawn

(Zagreus,

p.

8o

ff.

;

Die

Villa, etc., p. I8). (3)

Macchioro

justifies himself

in

making

the

series

begin

with

the

toilet-scene

by pointing

out' that it is

directly

opposite the entrance, and would be the painting

on which

the

eyes

of

a

person entering

the

chamber

would first light. With

the view'that

the small

door

in the north wall (p. 68, fig 3)

is

the

entrance,

the

large

door

in the wvestwall

the

exit,

the

present

writer

is in complete agreement.

But one's

natural

instinct

on

entering

a

picture-gallery

is

not, surely,

to

make

a

bee-line for

the

picture

on

the

wall opposite

the

door by

which

one

enters,

but to

follow

the pictures

round the walls from left

to

right. And it is surely

curious

that the

spectator

should be

supposed

to

pass

the

exit almost

immediately after beginning

his

tour

of

inspection,

to

re-pass the entrance, and

then to finish

up

his round at a

point at which

it

would look

as

if

he

were

expected to leave by

the

windowv. Rostovtzefi (Mystic Italy, p. 46), accepting

Macchioro's

main thesis that the

paintings represent

initiation-rites

connected with

the sacred marriage

of the

soul,

also follows

him in

placing the

toilet-

scene first in

the

series and

in

describing it as

'

the

decking

of the bride'.

2

op.

Cit.,

p.

170

f-



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7/21

THE

VILLA ITEM

AND A BRIDE S ORDEAL.

73

remarksupon the

childhoodof Aeschines

(de

fals.

leg.

I99)

and the

two sepulchral inscriptionsfrom Italy relating to child-priests of

Dionysos

(I.G., xiv,

i449,

1642).

But she makes

no suggestionas to

why children

were

thus employed.

Probably the use of

little boys

and girls

in religious rites

in general is to be explained

by the fact

that a child is pure

and innocent, and

that to

ritual purity magical

properties

are attached,

properties potent

for the expulsion

of evil

and the

induction

of good. There

was, however, a special

class of

rites in

which children

were employed,

namelymarriage-ceremonies.

Mrs. Tillyard herself

bringsforward

he

facts that

at Greekweddings

the

mystic formula

eyuyov

%ocxOv,

6pov

O?CVOV,

suggesting

this

very release from evil and discoveryof good, was spoken by a child

and that

a

-tocxZ

&oc?Axxs

took part in the

marriage-ritual. But

she gives

no hint of the obvious

explanation

of these facts.

A child

pronounces

the

mystic words because

the procreationof

children is

the natural and

proper end of marriage;

a

7r(XZL

&pLockXsq

takes

part in

the ceremonies because

he has

both parents

'

alive and flourish-

ing,' i.e. in full

possession

of their reproductive

powers, and his

presence

is therefore

a

good

omen

that the

union

of bride and bride-

groom will be blessed

with

offspring. Thus in

the Marriage Hymn

at

the

end of Aristophanes'

Birds we hear of

o

o&tyLOoOkXs

Epcs1

;

and is not this, perhaps, the meaning that really underlies the familiar

association

of

Aphrodite

with

the child

Eros

and

the

idea

that

it

is

the latter

who administers

the shafts

of love ? A still more

striking

piece

of

evidence

is

supplied

by Callimachus,

2

who speaks

of

an

ordinance

(-?'L0ov) in accordance

with

which the bride

is to take

a

baby

boy to bed with

her the night

before

her

marriage,

a

tocZs

V.pOocX

-'

pour

encourager les autres'

Val

XcdX'

o0p(

MCpO6os

Uv&aoc-TO

WZOFUOV

4

SXS?'SUe

7pOlV6V.LOV

("7VOV

aC5CMi

XpaeVL T-v -CFXXWvrXa'L-

aiUv

0LOcc?LX.

Backed

by such evidence

we

are

surely justified

in

maintaining

that

the presence

of the child

in

this first scene

is in

favour

of,

and

certainly provides

no

obstacle

to,

the

view

that

the

Villa

Item

ceremony is

a

pre-nuptial

initiation.

Scene

II

(fig.

5)

need

not detain us

long.

It shows us the

initiate,

draped,

veiled and

crowned

with

myrtle,

seated with

her

back to the

spectator.

On either

side

of her

is

a

handmaid:

the one on the

right,

who is

also

crowned

with

myrtle,

is

pouring

out

water

or wine from

a

jug. On the left of the trio and obviously belonging to the same scene,

though

actually painted

in the

same

panel

as the

figures

of

Scene

I,

is

the

figure

of another

handmaid,

walking

towards

the

right

and

crowned with myrtle:

in

her

right

hand she

holds a

sprig

of

myrtle

IV.

1737.

2-Aitia

3,

I,

I-3.



8/21

74

THE VILLA ITEM

AND A BRIDE

S ORDEAL.

and on her left supports

a flat dish

on which are certain ndeterminate

objects . Mrs. Tillyardsuggests2 hat the initiate is hereperforming

a ritualablution, in

which case the

attendant on the left

of the group

may be

bringingup unguents and

perfumes,

while the one

to the

right

of the initiate

pours

out water for the washing.

Macchioro3 would

see in the

scene a ritual meal or agape, in which case the maiden

on

the left

would be bringingeatables

on her dish and the

maiden on

the

right

would be

pouring out a libation.

Neither interpretation

creates any difficulty

in the

way of the theory of

a

pre-nuptial

initiation rite. We also note the

prominenceof myrtle

and recall

both the fact that it

was sacredto Venus

in ancient times and its

association,right down to moderntimes, with marriages.

In

Scene

III (fig. 5) we see the

initiate enteringupon

the initiation

proper.

The proximity

of the god's presence

is suggested by the

Dionysiac company

among whom she finds

herself. On the left

an

old Silenos,

crowned

with myrtle and facing

towards the right, lolls

againsta

cippus and

plays the lyre.

Opposite him are

seated upon a

rock a male and female

satyr,

the former playing the

syrinx, the

latter

sucklinga fawn

(or hind ?),

4

while a goat stands,

posing

to

the

spectator, in the foreground.

Between

this Dionysiacgroup

of Scene III

and a second Dionysiac

group belongingto Scene IV on the adjoiningeast wall, linkingthe

two scenes

together, so that it

is hard to say where one

scene ends

and the

other begins, the figure

of our friend

the initiate reappears.

She

shows extreme

alarm; her hands are

out-stretched

in

terror;

her

veil

flies out behind her, emphasing

the rapidity with

which she

moves

towards the left,

while glancing backwards

ver her shoulder

towards

he right. In

Scene IV (fig. 6) we may

discover hecauseof her

trouble. An old Silenos,

ivy-crowned,is

seated on a low platform

towards

he right, glancingback

over his shoulderas though

to

recall

the fleeinggirl. In

his right hand

he holds a bowl, into

which

a

young

satyr, standing behindthe Silenos,is gazing intently, bending down

to

obtain

a nearer view of whatever

it is he sees in the

vessel

and

grasping

the latter by the foot.

Behind

him again stands

another

young satyr, holding

up a Silenos-mask

n such

a

position

that

it

must

obviously be

reflected in the liquid

which

the

bowl

contains.

It

is to

Mrs. Tillyard5

that we owe

the

valuable

and

convincing

suggestion that the

scene is one of divination,

appropriate

to

Dionysos

as

god

of

oracles,

and

that

the form of

divination

in

use

here

is

that

known

as

?Xevoptole,

by which images

were

observed

1

Rostovtzeff (Op.Cit.,

p.

49)

describes them as

'

a

wedding-cake cut into

slices.'

2

op.

Cit.,

p. I69.

3 Die Villa etc., p. i6.

4

The attitude of the figure appears to the present

writer to indicate, unmistakably,

that she

is

giving

her breast

to the

animal

to

suck,

and

though

the

ears

are

pointed,

the

face,

unlike

that of

the

com-

panion figure,

is not unfeminine.

We

may

thus

compromise

between

the view of

Hartwig,

who

would

call

them both

female,

and

that

of

Mrs.

Tillyard, who

describes

them

both as male

(J.R.S.,

IIr,

p-

157,

n-

4).

,

op.

cit.,

p. I67 ff-



9/21

6

~

H

I

.

M

L

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10/21

76 THE

VILLA ITEM AND A B3RIDES ORDEAL.

in a vessel

containing liquid,

the observer being in some sort of

hypnotic state such as that induced by the Bacchic rapture.

So

far so

good. But, granted

that divination is appropriate

to

-Dionysos

and that lekanomancy

is the particular brand of

divination

here depicted

and itself appropriate

to Dionysiac rapture,

we want

to

go

a step further and investigate

the exact place of

lekanomancy

in

a

Dionysiac

initiation-rite.

Why does this

scene of lekanomancy

figure

in the

Villa

Item series

? Why has

it

this

disquieting effect

upon the initiate ?

One of the

most striking literary

sources for

lekanomancy

quoted

by Mrs. Tillyard is a

magical papyrus at Paris,

giving directions for

the ritual,

in which Aphrodite is

asked to send

light.

1

Again, the clearest plastic representation of the practice

quoted

by the same

writer is on a peike

from Ruvo at

Naples, showing

the defeat

of Marsyas; the vase

is published by Dr.

A. B. Cook

(Zeus, I, pl. xii), who

says

of

the

figure

of

Aphrodite

seated on

the

left

of the

scene, that she

'

is unconcernedly

holding

a

phiale to

serve

as a

divining-glass or

Eros (op. cit., p.

128). Mrs.

Tillyard notes

the recurrence

of Aphrodite both

in the text and in

the painting;

but

she does not consider

whether this recurrence

has

any significance.

It

surely

suggests some special

connection between lekanomancy

and

marriage, and Hesychius'

comment on

the vessel

employed, the

?sxocmvk,

supports the conjecture-?XexvcSae

xsp4e'psocL

?07r'caeq

xoca

eV

ct4

aoMpu77ra&

pspov

-ros VSoyoc,Loc.2 Further, pre-nuptial

divination

by water

is

a

well-known

practice among

country-folk

right

down to our own

day. 'In Lincolnshire,

on S. Mark's

Eve, girls

walk

backwards

to the

Maiden's

Well

at North Kelsey,

and after

going

three

times

round it can see,

on looking

into the

water,

the

features

of their future husbands.'

3 Ninck4 supplies

us with Conti-

nental parallels for this.

In East

Prussia, he

tells

us,

on

S. John's Eve,

a

person

in love takes a glass

of water

and utters

the

words

'

The

beloved one comes to drink ': if the desire of the lover's heart is to

be

fulfilled,

the

image

of the beloved

one

is seen in

the

water.

In

Switzerland

and

Bavaria,

on

S.

Andrew's

Eve, girls gaze

into

springs

and

see

the image of their future

husbands;

but sometimes they

see

the

Devil instead,

which is a sign of death.

It is now clear

that

the

scene of

lekanomancy,

or

divination by

water,

suits

our

pre-nuptial

initiation

theory very

well and

takes

on

a

new

significance.

Our

'The text

is printed

by Ninck, Die Bedeutung

des Wassers

im

Kult und

Leben

der Alten,

p.

52.

2

M. Schmidt

in

his

ed. minor (I867)

of Hesy-

chius reads for

the meaningless

acvOpvsr-rd,

d6piUaTra,

the word used by Hesychius himself of

07rTsqpa,

'wedding gifts.'

It is also possible

that one

of the

mosaics signed by Dioskurieds

of Samos, found

at

Pompeii

and now in

the Naples Museum,

provides

us with another

instance of the

connection

between

love and lekanomancy

(fahrb., xxvi,

I9Ii,

p.

4,

fig.

z).

Three

women,

one

old

and two

young,

are

seated

round

a

table.

The

old

woman

bolds

in

her

right hand

a

long-stemmed

cup and

appears to be

speaking.

The two

young

women are listening,

and

appear

from their expressions and gestures

to be

greatly

agitated.

We might

not unreasonably

hazard the guess that the youthful pair have come

to

consult the old lady

about their

love-affairs, and

that the old

lady has been

gazing

into the cup

to

divine the

future and is now

expounding their

fate

to her clients.

3

Halliday,

GreekDivination,

p. I 53; Gutch

and

Peacock, Country

Folklore,

vol. v, Lincolnshire,

p.

5.

4

op. cit., p.

55.



11/21

THE VILLA

ITEM

AND

A

BRIDE

S

ORDEAL.

77

friend has peeped

into the >xovcws,oping to descry

the features

of

her bridegroom-to-be,and has seen instead the reflection of the

Silenos-mask,with

its

gaping

mouth, flat nose,

goggle eyes and

wrinkledbrow-a

pretty

fair

paganequivalentof

the

ChristianDevil.

Hence her alarm. But why

have the satyrs shown her the mask

?

Is

it

merely

a

piece of teasing

or '

frightfulness

on their part ? Or

is

there some

hidden meaningin the notion of

a person's husband

appearingto her in a hideous

disguise? Did

not Psyche's lover

come to her under

the form of

a

scaly serpent

But, as in the myth

Psyche's over was

in

reality

no

scaly serpent,

but Eros, Love himself,

so

in

the

Villa Item we

see that the

type

of

the real over, the mystic bridegroom,was no staring,grinningSilenos,

but the young god Dionysos.

Scene V (fig. 6)

shows

us

love indeed,

Dionysos reclining upon

the

bosom

of Ariadne

his

beloved. That

Dionysos was

the god, not

of

wine only,

but

of all life

and fertility

in general has

now become such a commonplace

as to render

references superfluous.

As fertility-god

he is

obviously marriage-

god as well; his ep6oy&kuoo

s a type of all other marriages; there

is no

difficultywhatsoever

n

finding

a

place

for Dionysos 'in

a

pre-

nuptial

ceremony. The position

of

this

scene

in the series

may be

explained n either of two ways.

It is conceivable,

on the one

hand,

that at this point in the initiation rite the initiate was vouchsafed

a

vision of

the

divine

union

under the

form

of a

painted

or

sculptured

representationor, possibly,

of

a

tableau

vivant. On

the other

hand,

we

may regard

the

Dionysos

and Ariadne

group

as

breaking

nto

the

sequence

of the other

scenes,

being given

this

central

position,

on the

only wall which

is not broken'

by

a door or

window

(p. 68,

fig.

3),

because

Dionysos,

the

god

of the initiation

rite,

must dominate the

whole

of the chamberwith his

presence:

similarly,

he

figure

of

Christ

dominates

he

whole

of

a

Christian

basilica

with

His

presence

over the

High

Altar

in the Maiestas Christi

of

the

apse,

which

may

break the

sequenceof a seriesof scenes from the life of a saint painted on the

walls

on either

side

of

the

sanctuary.

Scene

VI

(fig. 6)

offers

no

difficulty to,

but rather

provides

the

fullest corroboration

f,

the

theory

of

a

pre-nuptial

rite. In the fore-

ground

a

woman, kneeling

to the

right,

unveils

a

liknon

and

discloses

its

contents,

a

large phallos.

The

upper part

of

this scene

has,

most

unfortunately,

perished;

but

enough

remains

to show that two

women

are

standing

behind

the

kneelinggirl

and the

liknon.

One

of

them holds a

dish

and

may

be

an

attendant;

in the other

we

may

recognisethe lower half of our initiate. That a phallos,the symbol

of

fertility par

excellence,

hould have

been shown

to

a

bride-to-be

in

a

rite

preceding

marriage

s

surely

a matter

too

obvious

to

require

further

comment.

In SceneVII

(fig. 6),

the scene on

the

east

side

of

the

window

in the

south wall, we

reach

what

is

really

the

crux

of

the

whole

matter.



12/21

78 THE VILLA

ITEM AND A BRIDE S ORDEAL.

The

interpretation of this

scene has

proved to be a matter of no small

controversy. The present writer must at once profess her full faith

in the

view, first put

forward by de

Petra and afterwards expanded

by Mrs. Tillyard, that the

winged lady

with the whip, the last figure

on the east wall, forms an

essential part of Scene VII

on the south

wall, and

that

the

whole

depicts

a

scene of

ritual

flagellation. It

is

true

that, since the

publication of Mrs.

Tillyard's paper, the flagella-

tion

theory

has, on more than one

occasion, been hotly denied.

Rizzo,'

detaching the

winged lady from Scene VII

and attaching

her to the preceding

Scene VI, sees in

her Adrasteia, an infernal

demon, who has come to

interfere with the mystic

rite of unveiling

the phallos. Pottier,

2

likewise assigning the figure to Scene VI,

calls her a

divine messenger-Iris, Nike,

Erinys or Dike, showing, by

the gesture

of

her left

hand, disgust, and by the

brandishing of a

whip

in her

right hand, wrath at the

exposure

of

'

impure sacra,'

a

proceeding

which

she

has come to

abolish as unworthy of the

Augustan

age:

he also

thinks that the

half-naked

girl

on the left of

Scene

VII,

kneeling

to

the

right, with her

face buried

in the seated

woman's

lap,

is

recording

a modest

maiden's horror.' Reinach,

writing

in

I9IO,

is

openly contemptuous

3;

and in

1922,

in his

Repertoire

de

Peintures,

4

he

still

adhered to

the same

opinion.

Rostovtzeff (op. cit., p. 54) likewise maintains that the theory cannot be

accepted. But, positive

as

the

opponents

of

the

flagellation-theory are,

their

arguments

do

not

carry conviction.

Any

one

with common sense

and

an

open mind

must see

at a

glance

that

the winged

lady

of

the

east

wall

is on the

point

of

bringing

down her

whip upon

the

naked back

of

the unfortunate

girl-our

initiate

once

more-who

is

next

to her

on

the south

wall,

and that she

obviously

forms

part

of

the

same

scene

as

her

victim,

the

seated

woman in

the

centre

(who,

moreover,

has

her

eyes

fixed

with

alarm

upon

the

winged

figure)

and

the

two

girls

on the

right,

one of

whom

watches

anxiously

for the

descent

of

the

blow,

while

the other

clashes

cymbals

to

drown

the

poor

maiden's

cries.

5

The

'

flagellationists

'

have

the

support

of

Macchioro, though

he

wrongly,

as the

present

writer

believes,

turns

the

cymbal-clasher

into a

separate

scene

by

herself

and

interprets

her

action,

as

we

have

already noted,

6 on

quite different lines.

Assuming, then,

that

Scene VII

in

our

series

portrays

a

ritual

flagellation,

it

remains

to

investigate

its

purpose

in

this

Dionysiac

rite.

With

regard

to ritual

flagellations

in

general,

Mrs.

Tillyard7

I

Dionysos Mystes,

etc.

2

Rev. arch.,

I9I5, ii,

p.

3Z2

If.

3

Rev. arch., I9IO, ii,

p.

431.

4

p.

II5.

5

Mrs. Tillyard

has dealt

at

length

(op. cit.

p.

I6z ff.)

with

the

later erroneous

and

'

moralising

'

versions

on

gems

and terra-cotta

reliefs,

in

which

the

stern winged figure has been divorced

from her

proper setting

and transformed

into

an insipid,

prudish damsel,

shocked and disgusted, as the

gesture of her left hand shows, at the unveiled

phallos. But

in the Villa Item

'

the position of the

left hand is the result of

the

sudden

upward turn

of

the body;

the action is, in fact, almost exactly

like

that of a

golfer,

about

to hit a ball

in front or

slightly

to

his left

'

(ibid. p. I6I).

6

vide supra,

p. 7, n. I.

7

op.

cit.,

p.

I65.



13/21

THE VILLA ITEM

AND A BRIDE'

S

ORDEAL.

79

has put us on the right track.

She points out that the purpose

of

the custom is not punishment or a test of endurance, but purifica-

tion and the expulsion

of evil, and inculcationof good,

influences.

But we need

to go further than that. What

particularevil influence

is to be expelled here ? What

special good influence is to

be incul-

cated

?

Does

the

theory

of a pre-nuptial ceremony throw

any

light upon these questions ?

In other words,have we any

evidence

that in ancient

Greece and Rome men and

women underwent

ritual

flagellations,

of

which

the

purpose was

to stimulate the procreative

powers and thus promote the

chief end of marriage? Such

evidence

is,

as

we

shall

see, neither scanty

nor far to seek. Since our

paintings

are of the Romanage and were discovered n an Italian city, we will

begin

our investigation among

the rites

of

ancient Rome.

Of

the

instances

of this

practice suppliedby

ancient Rome the

Lupercalia

is the

most obvious

and the most familiar. It

is

well

known

that during

the courseof that

mysterious

estival

the

Luperci,

priests of

the mysteriousgod Lupercus, ran

round the Palatine hill

flogging, with

straps made from

the skin

of a

goat, which

they had

previously

sacrificed, any women who

offered

themselves

to their

blows.

Our ancient authorities

inform us categorically

that the

object

of

the

flogging was to induce fertility

in the

women

flogged.

In

Plutarch, Romulus,

21,

we read

-ol

8'

?v

JXLXL

yuvocxeq

ot

yi)youL

To

7raOCLOOL

VOpLdOUGaML

7po%q

SUTOXLOCV

XtL xiLV

auVepystV.

Again,

n

Plutarch,

Caesar,

6i :-7ro?xi

8F

T&v

Fv

r'

yXLuvcx&v

F'r-

tUNOCVT76GCL

7tOCpFOtULV

&()MrEp

EV

&aOC6a?X0?U

T&()

XPey

TOCLa; 7r?(yM

7r;e7rxe;C1;VYOCeM

pOq

e;U'OXLOXV

XU0UCSOCLq7

OCYOV0Lq;

K?

1x;poq:

xu-Gvv

OCYOC00V

?C,LVOL.

Juvenal(Sat.

ii,

I40

ff.)

tells the

same tale

'steriles

moriuntur'

et

illis

turgida

non

prodest

condita

pyxide

Lyde,

nec

prodest

agili palmas praebere

luperco;

and Ovid

(Fasti

ii, 425

f.)

informs us that the goddessof childbirth,

Juno Lucina,

the

dedication-day

of

whose temple

fell

on the Kalends

next

to

the

Lupercalia,

and

who

seems

to

have

had some

special

connection with

Lupercus,

instituted

the

flogging

of

women with

the skin

of a

goat-amiculum

Junonis:-

'nupta, quid expectas

?

non tu

pollentibus

herbis

nec

prece

nec

magico

carmine mater

eris.

excipe

fecundae

patienter

verbera

dextrae:

iam socer

optatum

nomen habebit

avi.

ille caprum mactat iussae sua terga puellac

pellibus

exsectis

percutienda

dabant.'

Again,

the

fifth-century Pope

Gelasius

quotes

from

Livy's

second

decade,

a

propos

of the

Lupercalia,

as follows

(Epist.

Rom.

Pontif.

ed.

1

Pauly-Wissowa,

s.v. Lupercalia,

col.

I824.



14/21

80

THE VILLA ITEM AND A BRIDE S ORDEAL.

Thiel, p. 6oi)

:- nec

propter morbos inhibendos

instituta

com-

memorat [sc. Livius] sed sterilitatem, ut ei videtur, mulierum, quae

tunc acciderat, exhibenda.' We may note in this connection that the

whips

with which the

women were

flogged

at

the

Lupercalia

were

known

as

februa, and that the verb februare

means

'to purify';

and

that Pope Gelasius, when he abolished

the

festival (Feb. 15th) in

496,

substituted

for it

the Feast

of the

Purification

of

the Blessed

Virgin Mary (Feb. 2nd).

It

is

clear

that in

the ritual

flogging

of

the

Lupercalia

the

evil to be purified away is all that hinders fertility,

the

good to be inculcated is all that promotes it. Deubner, in his

essay on

the

Lupercalia,

1

concludes that

'

die Wirkung der Luper-

calia wurde vorziiglich in der Fruchtbarkeit der Frauen erblickt'.

It looks

as if

Lupercus

were

a

fertility deity,

and as if

the

flogging

with

the skin of the

goat

were believed

to

impart

to the

flogged

woman

the

fertilising power

of the

god.

We have

two

other instances of

the

ritual

flogging

of

women

in

Roman

religious practice;

and

though,

in contrast to the

Luper-

calia, we

have

in neither

instance

any

definite statement in

the ancient

sources

that the flogging was intended

to

promote fertility, such may

very possibly

have been

the

case.

Plutarch tells us

that,

at

the

festival

of the

Nonae Caprotinae, maidens (OpoxrocxLvaF)eat one another.

2

Varro asserts that rods were cut from the wild fig-tree in the Campus

Martius under which the sacrifice

to

Juno Caprotina

took

place.3

Mannhardt, putting

two

and

two

together, suggests4

that it

was

with

the rods

cut

from that

fig-tree

that the maidens

beat

one

another;

and

it

might

be

supposed

that

the

power

of

Juno, as the

female

principle

of

life

and

goddess

of

childbirth, could be trans-

mitted

to

women

flogged

with

rods

from

her sacred

tree. We

have

already

noted

the association of Juno with Lupercus. The second

instance

is

supplied by

the

festival

of

the Bona

Dea

or

Fauna,

the

female

'

off-shoot,' so

to

speak,

of the

fertility god Faunus. At this

festival,

we

are

told, women were flogged with myrtle,

ancd he

fact

that

myrtle was

not

allowed

inside the

goddess's temple was explained

by

the ancients

by

the

story

that

Faunus beat

his

daughter Fauna

with

myrtle.5

Mannhardt's

suggestion

6

that the

flogging

with

myrtle

was

intended to

induce

fertility

in the

women

is

supported by

two

points already noticed,

first the fact

that

myrtle

was

sacred to

Venus,

and, secondly,

its use at

weddings down

to

modern

times.

Warde

Fowler

further

suggests

7

that,

if

myrtle

were

used

for ritual

whipping,

it

might

be excluded

from

the

temple because,

'

as

being invested

with some mysterious power, it was tabooed from ordinary use.'

We now

pass

from

ancient

Rome

to

ancient

Greece.

We

have

1

Archiv. lir

Religionswissenscha/t,i9io,

p.

481 Ef.

2

Romulus, 29,

i6.

Cf.

Camillus, 33,

6.

3

De

L. L.

vi,

I8.

4Myth. Forsch., p.

3z.

o Plut. Q.R.

zo; Macr.

i,

zS

; Lactant.

i,

22,

I I.

'

ibid, p. I I

5.

7

Roman

Festivals, p.

Io+.



15/21

THE VILLA

ITEM

AND A

BRIDE'S

ORDEAL.

8I

in

Greek

literature

two direct

references and one indirect

reference

to the ritual flagellation of women. It is true that in none of these

instances

is the promotion

of fertility

mentioned

as the end in

view;

but there

is nothing

to suggest

that

this was

not the object.

It

is

interesting

to

notice,

in connection

with the

Villa Item

frescoes,

that

in each case

the flogging

is associated

with Dionysos.

First

there

is the

well-known

reference

in Pausanias

(viii,

23, i) to the

whipping

of

women

at

the

festival

of Dionysos

at

Alea in Arcadia:-ev

Atovuc7ou

-

eop-rj

xoct&

pkvteupc

ex

AZXT&V

C6v

LYO5UV-

UVoCZxe,

oUo

L-n

pTro&L

V

Sy-not

rop& r

'OpO4q.

The flogging

rite came to Alea

from

Delphi,

and at Delphi

we find it.

Our second

reference

is from

Nonnus

(Dionysiaca, 9,

26I-4)

ou&

O

lolwq

ou

-rcp&

vOlj

5sp6c

&vjp

x6peue

tocvu7rcXxtoLO

?

xtLacou

yuLoP36poLq

WxZaaLv

eipca[Ovto-

yu'vac xg.

Here,

as

in

the festivals

of the Bona

Dea

and

Nonae Caprotinae,

we have women flogged

with whips

made by

the plant

sacred

to

the

fertility

god,

and the

obvious inference

seems

to be that

the object

of

the flogging

was the

transmission,

via

the

ivy,

of the powers

of

Dionysos to the women. Thirdly, it is very likely that, as Farnell

suggests,1

a

ritual flogging

underlies

Homer's

description

(1liad

vi,

130 ff.)

of

Lukourgos'

pursuit

of the

Maenads

with an

ox-goad.

'

Lukourgos,

in fact, is

a

figure

in an

ancient

Thracian passion-play.

Armed

with an ox-goad

he drives

the ox-god

into

the

sea,

and

pursues

the

Maenads,

perhaps

to kill

them or

to scourge

them

with fructifying

or

purifying

branches

'*2

Farnell then

goes

on

to identify

Lukourgos

as a

priest

of Dionysos.3

Of

the

ritual flogging

of men

in

ancient

Greece

we have

two

notices.

First there

is Hesychius

(s.v.

M6Wporov)

&x

yXOlOZU

nyp

tL,

4)

9TUTOV

&XXouq

toZq

fi%tpLOL

-a ceremonial

flagellation

with,

it

would seem,

the

bark

of

some

tree

sacred

to the

goddess.

But

by

far

the

most

famous

and

familiar

instance

is the

flogging

of

the

Spartan

boys

at

the altar

of Artemis

Orthia.4

The

Orthia-rite

has been

discussed

by

Reinach5

and

at great

length

and

in

great

detail

by

Thomsen

in his

Orthia.

6

Thomsen,

after

quoting

Frazer's

rejection first

of the traditional

idea

that

the flogging

represented

an

original human

sacrifice

(Philostratus,

Fit.

Apol.,

vi.

20,

2)

and

secondly

of

the

notion

that

it was merely

a

test

of

endurance, puts

1

Cults,

v.

p.

98.

2

Op.

cit.,

p. 103.

3

cf. Cults,

v,

107.

Farnell says

d

propos of

the

Viza Carnival still performed in Thrace,

in which

a

marriage forms one of the chief scenes,

'

there

is

also

some

evidence that the principal actors

used

to

be beaten

with

wands

during

some

part

of

the

ceremony'.

4

Pausanias,

iii, I6, I0;

Plutarch,

Lyc.

i8;

Inst.

of

Laced.

40;

Lucian, Anacharsis,

8.

5'

Laflagellation

ituelle

in

L'antbropologie,

904,

pp.

7-50,

52-53.

6Archiv

fIur

Religionswissenschalt,

I

906,

p.

397

ff.



16/21

82

TIIE

VILLA ITEM AND A BRIDE S ORDEAL.

forward his own suggestion that Orthia was an

old local tree-goddess

afterwards identified with Artemis. He draws attention to the remark

of Pausanias that the image of Orthia was called

'

Lygodesma

'

('willow-bound') because

it

was

found in a thicket

of

willows

and had

willow-boughs twined

around it. He also notes that lygoswas used at

the Thesmophoria and

in

the cult

of

Hera

at

Samos,

and therefore seems

to have been credited with sacred properties. Thomsen's theory

is

that it was with whips

of

lygos

that the

Spartan

boys were scourged

and that with the stripes from her tree the magical power of the

goddess passed into them.

He

further compares Mannhardt's identi-

fication

1

of the

&a1aryC0GL

with

a '

Schlag

mit

der

Lebenrute

'

and quotes his statement to the effect that ' Menschen, Tiere, Pflanzen

werden zu verschiedenen

Zeiten

des Jahres

mit einem

grvinen Zweige

geschlagen, um gesund

und

kraftig zu werden

'*2

For his

own part

Thomsen

would

derive OpOO'

rom a root

meaning

'

erh6hen,

grosser machen, verstarken, gedeihen

machen' and concludes that

'OpO'oc

'

bedeutet

dann

die

Emporgewachsene.'

Bearing these

suggestions

in mind,

together

with

the

fact that

the

Spartan boys

were

ZPoL,

lads

on

the

verge

of

manhood,

it

would surely

not be

wholly

unreasonable

to

conjecture-

that the

Orthia-rite

was

in essence

a

pre-nuptial fertility-rite, designed

to

render the

boys

who

under-

went it successful husbands.

It

is

worthy

of

notice

that,

in

all the

above instances

of

ritual

flagellations

in ancient

Greece

and

Rome, when

women are flogged

the

deity

is

male-Lupercus (with

whom

Juno is,

it

seems,3 associated),

Faunus

(through

his

daughter

and

'

offshoot.'

Fauna)

or

Dionysos,

but

when

men are

flogged,

female-Demeter or Orthia. This

is

just

what

we should

expect

to

find. Members of

the female

sex are

scourged

that

they may

be imbued

with the

complementary

reproductive

powers

of the

opposite sex, represented by

a

male fertility god, and

vice-versa.

Our

theory

receives

further

support

from the fact that

we have

references

to ritual

flagellations

in

which

the

blows

are

actually applied

to the

reproductive organs. Tzetzes, Chiliades, 5, 726 f.,

for

example,

describes such

a

scourging

as

administered at

Athens

in times of

plague,

famine

and

other

disaster,

to a

scapegoat,

the

ugliest

man

in

the

city:

Wapt, o

t ,

p

'Ce,

,7

,

c6

x&o

Xcpp;

z7VoCXLq

y&p pOtcv-6e

xr

ov

-L To

xO

qX,XXLq

UCXo

(XypLoWUq

TC

XCL

oX`?Xo0L

-rv

&ypL&X

Z.T.

4

I

Wald-

und Feldkdlie.

2

op. cit., p.

251.

3vide

spra,

p.

79

note 1.

'

f.

(i)

H-lipponax

5-

(Lohb ed.,

1929.

p. 36)

Xtfup

yeviaiTp

17Zp6C,

v

5i

rq

OvAeq

[o]

q5dp/taKOS

ax0es

earrdKLS

'artorctfeb.

Sch.

A.

explains

Oi'g.6e

-s

ro dppev

acdoZov;

(ii)

H-lipponax

48 (ibid.,

p.

34)

:-fdXXovers

iv

Xett4WVL

Ka

p'arrtovres

|

Kpd8bao ,;c, aKiXXpTaLv

Wco

$Odp/aKOV.

A. D.

Knox translates

XE/Jvp

as

'meadow,'

buit

this

seems mcaningless in the context. Morc probably

it has here

the

sense

that

it bears in

Eur.,

Cvcl.

171, i.e. pudenda mwuliebria

(cf.

KA'oS)

X

(iii.)

F-lipporiax

92

(ibid., p. 62)

=

papyrus-fragment

06a

U

Xv&i.ovoa

13(aOay)[uKopXaPc]

7riwywra

6IP

tr1ycEwva

7rap[j]

JKac

F'ot rbV

6pXtp,

r- orXE

KjpdA&

oivoXoi-oEV &$O< Te>

[,Oap,*d'eK-,

6j(v

r)oZs

atoLotiOV LtP ()[WOEVTI



17/21

THE VILLA ITEM

AND A BRIDE S ORDEAL. 83

There

are other

instances

of

ceremonial scourging in antiquity

in which the victim is not a human being but the image of a god or

a puppet. There is the familiar

passage in Theocritus (7,

io6

ff.)

describing

the

flogging of Pan's

image with squills by boys in Arcadia.

1

Reinach2 quotes

a

similar

flogging

of

Apollo's image

at

Delos. In both

cases the flogging may have

been meant as a gentle reminder to the

deities in

question

of

their

respective r6les

as

bringers of fertility

and prosperity. Finally,

we

have Plutarch's accoun't3 of the

cere-

monial

whipping

of the

puppet by the Thyiades

in

the Charila-rite

at

Delphi. Here we may

note that

the

institution

of the

rite is con-

nected with the story of a maiden and of a famine at Delphi;

and we

may compare, for the part played by the Thyiades as the agents of

the scourging, a Pompeian fresco representing

the death

of

Pentheus,

in which

one of the

Maenads

is armed

with

a

whip.4

Ritual

flagellations

in fertility

rites are

not

confined to the world

of ancient Greece and Rome.

'

Among

the

Bechuanas,' writes Frazer,

4

'no lad

may

marry

[my

italics]

till he has

gone through

the

initiatory

ceremony called boguera. The ceremony

is

performed upon

a

number

of lads together. . . . They are

scourged frequently and mercilessly.

...

Probably

. .

. these

ordeals

were instituted,

not as tests

of

endurance,

but

as

religious purifications. Among primitive peoples

beating

is

certainly practised as a healing and purifying ceremony, without

any

idea of

punishing,

or

testing

the

endurance

of,

the

sufferer.'

This

rite recalls in a most

striking

manner

the

flogging

of the

Spartan

boys,

and

we

should

surely

be

justified

in

going

one

step

further than

Frazer

and in thinking

that the

whipping

of

the

boys

among

the

Bechuanas, just when they

were

reaching marriageable

age, was

intended

to

stimulate

fertility.

For

the ceremonial

whipping

of

women

in ancient Greece

and Rome

Frazer6

again supplies

a

modern

parallel

:

Among savage

tribes

girls

at

puberty

have

to

undergo

various

initiatory

ceremonies;

among

some

tribes

of

Brazil

and

British Guiana

the

girls

on these

occasions

are lashed

by

their

friends

so

severely

that

they

sometimes

die

under

the

rod:

it is considered

an offence

to the

parents

not

to strike

hard.'

In

the case of

many

of these

modern

ritual

scourgings

it

is recorded,

as

in the case

of

the

Orthia-rite,

that the

victim

is

expected

to utter

no

cry.

Possibly

it

is felt that cries of pain are

an evil omen

and spoil

the

magic.

This

would

explain

the

cymbal-clashing

in the

Villa

Item fresco.

If

the cries

of the

victim were

drowned

by

the noise

of the

cymbals,

I

Cf. the

Boston

krater

of

the Pan-painter

(Furtwangler-Reichhold, pl.

I I

5) showing a rock

surmounted

by a herm

of

Pan (?)

on

the right, and

on the left a

shepherd, holding a

whip in his right

hand,

who

makes off towards the left and

glances

back over

his

shoulder

towards a goat-headed

Pan

in hot pursuit

of him. Has the

shepherd

been

flogging

the

herm

and roused the

god to activity

with a vengeance ?

Cf. also Nonnus' story

(Dion.

48, 689 ff.)

of

how

the

nymph

Aura

took

her

revenge

on Aphrodite; she entered the goddess's temple,

detached

her

Kfe-ros

and

a3piv

dvL&s5roto

yase

[t6onLri~

Ocais'9p.q

2L'anthropologie, I904,

p.

50.

3

0.

G.

I2.

4

kerrmann-Bruckmann,

pl. 42.

5

Pausanias' Description of

Greece, vol. iii,

p.

341.

6

ibid.,

p.

342.



18/21

84 THE

VILLA ITEM AND

A

BRIDE S

ORDEAL.

they would not

penetrate to the ears of the

powers that be and no

harm would be done.

It

is

just conceivable

that some such

pre-nuptial fertility-rite

involving

a ceremonial flogging

lies at the bottom, not

only of the

Russian

custom of

the bride giving a whip as

a wedding-present to

the bridegroom, but

also of the grim

accounts of

wife-beating in

Kalevala or The

Land of Heroes,

the national

epic

of

Finland.

In

the

course of the epic Ilmarinen,

the hero, weds the

daughter of a

nobleman, and in Runo

23 (1. 703 ff.) an old crone

regales the

bride with

her

own

alarmingexperiences as a bride at the hands

of her

husband:--

In his hand a stick of cherry

'Neath his arm a

club he

carried,

And he hurried to attack

me,

And

upon

the head

he struck me.

When the

evening

came

thereafter

And there came the time for

sleeping

At

his side a rod he

carried,

Took

from nail a

whip

of

leather,

Not

designed

to

flay another,

But, alas,

for

me,

unhappy.'

In

Runo

24 the

bridegroom

receives instructions as to

the

manage-

ment of his bride. He is told to ' correct ' her with reeds, sedges

and,

in

the last

resort, with

a

birchwood.

Possibly

the original

motive of

such

'

correction

'

was

not

chastisement,

but the

stimula-

tion of

the

bride's functions

as

a

wife.

Lastly,

in

Irish

folklore, we

hear of

how the

great

hero Cuchulainn

fell into a

magic

sleep:

two

women, Fano and

Liban,

dressed

in

green

and

purple

respectively,

visited

him and gave him

such

a

horse-whipping

that

he

nearly died.

2

It

would

seem, then,

as

if

there

were

sufficient

cumulative

evidence to

enable us

to

make

out a

good

case

for

believing that

these ritual

flagellations were

intended

to

promote

the

fertility

of

the

persons

subjected

to

them.

Thus

interpreted,

the

flagellation

scene

of

the

Villa Item would

harmonise

excellently

with

the

theory

that the

series as

a

whole

depicts

a

pre-nuptial

initiation

rite. The

bride-initiate is

flogged

to

prepare

her

for

marriage

and

mother-

hood.

There

now

remains

the

identification

of

the

winged

figure,

the

agent

of the

flagellation.

After

rightly rejecting

the

proposed

identifications of Aidos,

Dike,

Iris, and

Telete,

none

of

which

will

do, Mrs. Tillyard3

concludes

that 'it would

perhaps

be

better to

abandon the

attempt at a definite identification and regard her merely as one

of the

Maenads.' But need

we

despair

so

soon

? The

two out-

standing features of

the

Villa

Item

figure

are her

high boots

1

W.

F.

Kirby's translation.

2

M. d'Arbois de Jubainville, Cours de

littioature

celtique, .

I7I,

178

f.

3

op.

cit.,

p.

i66,



19/21

THE VILLA ITEM AND A

BRIDE

S

ORDEAL. 85

and her enormous

wings. The boots immediately

suggest Artemis

and remind us of the fact that Orthia was identified with Artemis

and that the

'

Asiatic Artemis,'

the

OT6-tL

' p&

of Iliad xxi,

470,

was a fertility-goddess

and winged into the bargain.

A Chalcidian

skyphos, the

'

Skyphos Santangelo'

at Naples (Nat.

Mus. S.A.,

I2z),2

with

a

representation of the contest

for the Delphic tripod, shows

a

winged Artemis

'

backing' Apollo.

But, apart

from a few such

reminiscences of the

'-

Asiatic

Artemis

'

type, the winged Artemis

is

not found in post-archaic art.3

The winged figure drawn in a chariot

by

a

couple

of hinds on a black-figure vase published

by Lenormant

and de Witte

has, on the strength of the hinds,

been identified as

Artemis.

4

But she might be Selene, for on the Aurelian frieze from

Ephesus at Vienna

a winged female figure, with short

chiton, boots and

quiver, and identifiable

as Selene by the crescent

behind her head and

by

the

boy Hesperus who acts

as her charioteer, is dri

Documents

Villa de Los Misterios