Pompeii, Its Life and Art. August 1840-1909 Mau
Other divinities besides Apollo were honored in this sanctuary, which in the earlier time was evidently the most important in the city; statues and altars for their worship were placed in the court. The pedestals of the statues still remain where they were originally placed, on the step in front of the stylobate of the colonnade; the statues themselves, with one exception, have been taken to Naples. There were in all six of them, grouped in three related pairs. In front of the third column at the left of the entrance, stood Venus, at the right was a hermaphrodite—both marble figures of about one half life size. They belong to the pre-Roman period and were originally of good workmanship, but even in antiquity they had been repeatedly restored and worked over. As a work of art, the hermaphrodite is the more important.
An altar stands before the statue of Venus. In pre-Roman times this may have been the only shrine in the city at which worship was offered to Herentas; for by that name the goddess of love was known in the native speech. Venus as goddess of the Roman colony (Fig. 4), was represented in an altogether different guise, and had a special place of worship elsewhere (see pp. 124-129).
Though the statues of Venus and of the hermaphrodite here form a pair, both artistically and in respect to arrangement, the latter belongs not to the cycle of Venus but to that of Bacchus; and in order to make this the more evident, the ears of a satyr were given to the figure. We may, perhaps, infer that the god of wine also was worshipped in this sanctuary. In the sacristan's room (6 on the plan) we find a painting in which Bacchus is represented as leaning upon Silenus who is playing the lyre, meanwhile allowing the panther to drink out of his cup. This seems strange enough in a temple of Apollo; still it cannot be considered conclusive evidence that Bacchus actually received worship here. Without doubt the Wine-god was honored in Pompeii, the region about which was rich in vines. He appears countless times in wall paintings, but no shrine dedicated to him has yet been found.
On the right side of the court, in front of the third column, was a statue of Apollo; on the left directly opposite stood Artemis, both life size figures in bronze. An altar stood before the statue of Artemis; the altar of Apollo was before the temple. Both statues were armed with the bow, and it is evident that they were not designed to stand facing each other, but side by side, or one behind the other; both may originally have belonged to a Niobe group. As works of art, they are not of high merit. We recognize a certain elegance and nicety of finish, but these qualities cannot compensate for superficiality in the treatment of the figure, want of expression in the faces, and lack of energy in the movement. We have no other evidence of the worship of Artemis in Pompeii.
Further on, in front of the fifth column on either side, was a marble herm. That on the right is still in place and is seen in Plate II. It is of fine workmanship, and clearly belongs to the pre-Roman period; it represents Hermes, or Mercury. The god appears as a youth standing with his mantle drawn over the back of his head; the face, with a placid, serious, mild expression, is inclined a little forward. In this form Mercury was honored as the presiding divinity of the palaestra, the god of gymnastic exercises; we shall find him in the same guise later in the court of the Stabian Baths (p. 200). How this type of Hermes came to be chosen for the place of honor in athletic courts is by no means clear; it was certainly designed originally to represent him as a god of death, the Psychopompus, conductor of souls to the Underworld. The worship of Mercury here as a god of gymnastic exercises would not be in harmony with the surroundings; we should rather believe that the Pompeians, having placed him in such close relation with Apollo, god of the death-dealing shaft, and the earth goddess, Maia, associated more serious ideas with his image.
PLATE II.—COURT OF THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO
The herm on the opposite side of the court probably represented Maia. No trace of it has been found; the female herm in the Naples Museum formerly assigned to this place is now known to have been brought from Rome. In Greek mythology, the mother of Hermes was Maia, the daughter of Atlas; and this relationship, by a common confusion, was transferred to the Italian Maia, who was originally goddess of the spring, and gave her name to the month of May. The assignment of the herm opposite Mercury to Maia is based upon a number of inscriptions which establish the existence of a cult of Mercury and Maia in Pompeii. From the same source we learn that with the worship of these two that of Augustus was intimately associated; there are few better illustrations of the development of emperor worship in the Early Empire.
These inscriptions were found in different places, none of them in their original location. They are dedications once attached to votive offerings, of which one was set up each year by a college of priests, consisting of slaves and freedmen, under the general direction of the city authorities. The official title of this college at first, certainly to 14 B.C., was Ministri Mercurii Maiae, 'Servants of Mercury and Maia'; the word minister indicates a low order of priesthood. The worship of the emperor was then added, and the priests were called 'Servants of Augustus, Mercury, and Maia.' Still later, at least as early as 2 B.C., the names of the two divinities were dropped, and the priests were designated simply as 'Servants of Augustus.'
The extant inscriptions of this series come down to the year 40 A.D. As an example, we give that of 2 B.C., in which the ministri Augusti first appear: N. Veius Phylax, N. Popidius Moschus, T. Mescinius Amphio, Primus Arrunti M. s., min. Aug., ex d. d. iussu M. Holconii Rufi IV, A. Clodi Flacci III d. v. i. d., P. Caeseti Postumi, N. Tintiri Rufi d. v. v. a. s. p. p. Imp. Caesare XIII, M. Plautio Silvano cos—'Numerius Veius Phylax, Numerius Popidius Moschus, Titus Mescinius Amphio and Primus the slave of Marcus Arruntius, Servants of Augustus (set this up), in accordance with a decree of the city council, on the order of Marcus Holconius Rufus, duumvir with judiciary authority for the fourth time, Aulus Clodius Flaccus, duumvir for the third time, and of Publius Caesetius Postumus and Numerius Tintirius Rufus, duumvirs in charge of the streets, buildings, and public religious festivals (the official title of the aediles, p. 13) in the thirteenth consulship of the Emperor Caesar (Augustus), the other consul being Marcus Plautius Silvanus.'
It is not difficult to understand how the worship of Augustus came to have a place in this sanctuary. The divinities here honored stood in close relation to him. Apollo was his tutelary divinity, to whom he thought that he owed the victory at Actium, and in whose honor he built the magnificent temple on the Palatine. Venus, moreover, was revered as the ancestress of the Julian family; and finally Mercury was said to be incarnate in Augustus himself.
This last conception found expression in one of the finest of the odes of Horace, written in 28 B.C. Fearful portents, the poet says, are threatening Rome; Jupiter with flaming right hand has even struck his own temple on the Capitoline. To what god shall we turn for help—to Apollo, to Venus, or to Mars? or rather to thee, winged god, Maia's son, that even now doest walk the earth in the form of a youth, the avenger of Caesar:—
Sive mutata iuvenem figura
Ales in terris imitaris almae
Filius Maiae, patiens vocari
Caesaris ultor.
It is interesting to note that evidence of the worship of Augustus as Mercury has come to light also in Egypt. In an inscription from Denderah we find Helmîs Kaisar, 'beloved of Ptah and of Isis'; Helmîs Kaisar is apparently 'Hermes Caesar,' and in Egyptian inscriptions Augustus is elsewhere referred to as 'the beloved of Ptah and of Isis.'
CHAPTER XI
THE BUILDINGS AT THE NORTHWEST CORNER OF THE FORUM, AND THE TABLE OF STANDARD MEASURES
The large building at the northwest corner of the Forum (Fig. 33, 1, 2, 3) was erected after the earthquake of the