Religions of Rome

Roman Religions

(Chicago Citation)

Chapter six is a detailed examination of the iconography of the Roman god Sol, particularly the depiction of the rays, or radiant energy associated with the sun god. Many historians automatically assume that any artwork that contains a depiction of symbolic light must be associated with Sol, but the author, Steven Hijman, explained how the only acceptable forms of symbolic light that are associated with Sol are rays, radiate nimbi, and radiate crowns without lemnisci. But while depictions of Sol will have one of these forms of symbolic light, they were not used exclusive in relation to Sol. And this is the central theme of the chapter, whether or not "rays alone always constituted a 'solar quote' in Roman Imperial art."[footnoteRef:1] To demonstrate how solar allusions are not always necessary when depicting an image of Sol, there were three examples of Roman Imperial artwork presented to the reader. These examples were a statue of Sol-Caracalla located in N. Carolina, a collection of specific frescoes from Pompeii, and the radiate crown used by ancient Roman Emperors. From these examples the author concluded that the "the imperial radiate crown is not a solar or divine symbol,"[footnoteRef:2] but that it was also used with a secondary symbolic meaning. This exemplifies how the Romans used solar imagery in association with depictions of things that were not Sol, and therefore, simply having symbolic light imagery does not guarantee that the artwork depicts the Roman god Sol. [1: Hijmans, Steven, (2009). "Sol: The Sun in the Art and Religions of Rome." (PhD diss., University of Groningen), 511.] [2: Ibid., 547.]

Now that Chapter six has identified that solar imagery does not always equate with the sun god, Sol, Chapter seven delves into the idea that the Imperial couple, the Emperor and Empress, were associated with a Sol-Luna paradigm. This did not always mean that the Imperial couple were supposed to be Sol and Luna, but that they were endowed with the symbolic meaning of the Sol-Luna couple. The Sol-Luna image was not only used when depicting the Imperial couple in visual artwork, using the solar imagery for the Emperor and lunar imagery for the Empress, but also in literary artwork as well. Horace's 1st Century BC work entitled Carmen Saeculare was used as a literary example of the Sol-Luna paradigm used to depict the gods Apollo and Diana. While Apollo and Diana had their own distinct identity within the ancient religious world, there were not clearly defined roles for gods; and thus a god could have many, sometimes completely unique, identities and attributes. In the Carmen Saeculare, Apollo and Diana assumed the characteristics of Sol and Luna, which exemplified the overall meaning of the chapter: that the "Romans were comfortable with that full range of meaning - from symbolic to divine - for a single deity that we have been postulating for Sol."[footnoteRef:3] [3: Ibid., 566.]