DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0463
Virbius as Dianus
393
probably brought at an earlier date from the same locality1 and
now preserved in the Capitoline Museum (pi. xxiii, i—3)2. Both
herms combine a beardless with a bearded head and are characterised
by curious foliated decoration, which has been diversely explained.
To speak first of the bust found by Lord Savile at Nemi.
In 1885 G. Fiorelli described it as a double Bacchic herm3, pre-
sumably because he took its foliation for vine-leaves. But in the
same year W. Helbig suggested that we have here to do with a
pair of water-divinities, arguing that fins start from their brows and
aquatic plants spread over the cheeks of the bearded head, the
neck and chest of both ; further, that the younger face has a small
fin at each angle of the mouth, the elder face a beard saturated
with water, while the hair of both alike is damp and wind-blown4.
In 1886 Helbig proposed to regard them as personifications of the
neighbouring lakes of Albano and Nemi5—a view which has been
favourably received6. In 1902 I put forward a new surmise7. Since
the shaft of the herm is inscribed ' Sacred to Diana3,' it seemed
reasonable to interpret the Janiform bust as thatof Diana's favourite—
Hippolytos transformed into Virbius, who in Ovid's account says of
the goddess :
She made me older and henceforth of features
Unrecognisable9.
1 L. Morpurgo in Ausonia 1909 iv. 124.
2 Friederichs—Wolters Cipsabgiissc p. 614 no. 1545, Einzelaufnahmen nos. 417—419
( = my pi. xxiii, 1—3) with Text ii. 31 f. by P. Arndt, Helbig Guide Class. Ant. Rome
i. 331 f. no. 451, id. Fiihrer durch die bffentlichen Sammluiigen klassischer Altertiimer in
Rom3 Leipzig 1912 i. 439 no. 794, L. Morpurgo 'La rappresentazione figurata di Virbio'
in Ausonia 1909 iv. 109—127 with figs. 1—6 and pis. 5, a—c and 6, a—c, Stuart Jones
Cat. Sculpt. Mus. Capit. Rome p. 150 f. Sala delle Colombe no. 28 pi. 37. Height of
busto-355m. Marble, grechetto. Restored: older head—lock of beard and lock near right
eye ; younger head—part of left shoulder and angle of herm. ' Fair work of first or early
second century a.d.' (Stuart Jones loc. cit.).
3 G. Fiorelli in the Not. Scavi 1885 p. 479 ('un' erma bacchica doppia').
4 W. Helbig ' Scavi di Nemi' in the Bull. d. Inst. 1885 p. 227 f. (' Un' erma doppia...
composta dalle teste di due esseri acquatici').
5 W. Helbig in the Rom. Mitth. 1886 i. 61 (' personificazioni di acque che nell' agro
aricino avevano un interesse locale, cioe del lago Albano e di quello di Nemi').
6 E.g. G. H. Wallis Illustrated Catalogue of Classical Antiquities from the site of the
Temple of Diana, Nemi, Italy Nottingham 1893 p. 33. However, O. Rossbach ' Uas
Dianaheiligtum in Nemi' in the Vei-h. d. 40. Philologenversamml. in Gorlilz 1889 p. 159
is content to treat them as indeterminate aquatic powers.
' Class. Rev. 1902 xvi. 373.
8 sacr-dian [supra p. 392 n. 9) must, at Nemi, be completed as 'sacrum Diaiw,'
not ' Diane ' (Folk-Lore 1905 xvi. 289).
9 Ov. met. 15. 539 f. addidit aetatem nec cognoscenda reliquit ] ora mihi. Cp. Auson.
cento nuptialis 360 epist. p. 207, 28 ff. Peiper ne in sacris et fabulis aut Thyonianum
mireris aut Virbium, ilium de Dionyso, hunc de Hippolyto reformatum.
393
probably brought at an earlier date from the same locality1 and
now preserved in the Capitoline Museum (pi. xxiii, i—3)2. Both
herms combine a beardless with a bearded head and are characterised
by curious foliated decoration, which has been diversely explained.
To speak first of the bust found by Lord Savile at Nemi.
In 1885 G. Fiorelli described it as a double Bacchic herm3, pre-
sumably because he took its foliation for vine-leaves. But in the
same year W. Helbig suggested that we have here to do with a
pair of water-divinities, arguing that fins start from their brows and
aquatic plants spread over the cheeks of the bearded head, the
neck and chest of both ; further, that the younger face has a small
fin at each angle of the mouth, the elder face a beard saturated
with water, while the hair of both alike is damp and wind-blown4.
In 1886 Helbig proposed to regard them as personifications of the
neighbouring lakes of Albano and Nemi5—a view which has been
favourably received6. In 1902 I put forward a new surmise7. Since
the shaft of the herm is inscribed ' Sacred to Diana3,' it seemed
reasonable to interpret the Janiform bust as thatof Diana's favourite—
Hippolytos transformed into Virbius, who in Ovid's account says of
the goddess :
She made me older and henceforth of features
Unrecognisable9.
1 L. Morpurgo in Ausonia 1909 iv. 124.
2 Friederichs—Wolters Cipsabgiissc p. 614 no. 1545, Einzelaufnahmen nos. 417—419
( = my pi. xxiii, 1—3) with Text ii. 31 f. by P. Arndt, Helbig Guide Class. Ant. Rome
i. 331 f. no. 451, id. Fiihrer durch die bffentlichen Sammluiigen klassischer Altertiimer in
Rom3 Leipzig 1912 i. 439 no. 794, L. Morpurgo 'La rappresentazione figurata di Virbio'
in Ausonia 1909 iv. 109—127 with figs. 1—6 and pis. 5, a—c and 6, a—c, Stuart Jones
Cat. Sculpt. Mus. Capit. Rome p. 150 f. Sala delle Colombe no. 28 pi. 37. Height of
busto-355m. Marble, grechetto. Restored: older head—lock of beard and lock near right
eye ; younger head—part of left shoulder and angle of herm. ' Fair work of first or early
second century a.d.' (Stuart Jones loc. cit.).
3 G. Fiorelli in the Not. Scavi 1885 p. 479 ('un' erma bacchica doppia').
4 W. Helbig ' Scavi di Nemi' in the Bull. d. Inst. 1885 p. 227 f. (' Un' erma doppia...
composta dalle teste di due esseri acquatici').
5 W. Helbig in the Rom. Mitth. 1886 i. 61 (' personificazioni di acque che nell' agro
aricino avevano un interesse locale, cioe del lago Albano e di quello di Nemi').
6 E.g. G. H. Wallis Illustrated Catalogue of Classical Antiquities from the site of the
Temple of Diana, Nemi, Italy Nottingham 1893 p. 33. However, O. Rossbach ' Uas
Dianaheiligtum in Nemi' in the Vei-h. d. 40. Philologenversamml. in Gorlilz 1889 p. 159
is content to treat them as indeterminate aquatic powers.
' Class. Rev. 1902 xvi. 373.
8 sacr-dian [supra p. 392 n. 9) must, at Nemi, be completed as 'sacrum Diaiw,'
not ' Diane ' (Folk-Lore 1905 xvi. 289).
9 Ov. met. 15. 539 f. addidit aetatem nec cognoscenda reliquit ] ora mihi. Cp. Auson.
cento nuptialis 360 epist. p. 207, 28 ff. Peiper ne in sacris et fabulis aut Thyonianum
mireris aut Virbium, ilium de Dionyso, hunc de Hippolyto reformatum.