pinge duos anguis:
The Protective Function of the Serpent on Pompeian Household Shrines.
Amanda Pavlick
Tufts University
apavlick@gmail.com
The identity of the serpent depicted on Pompeian household shrines has long
been a point of contention among modern scholars. Though serpents were multifaceted
creatures in mythology, and could hold either fearsome or beneficial powers,
the serpent on Pompeian domestic altars represents one very specific deity with
a strong, regularized iconography. This serpent has been variously identified
as any number of permutations of tutelary deities; most notably it has been
called the Greek agathos daimon, a god of good fortune, or the Italian genius
loci, a deity of local protection. Though George K. Boyce identified the serpent
as the genius loci in an important 1942 article, his assertion has gone unfortunately
disregarded in scholarship. Current trends either identify the serpent erroneously
as the agathos daimon or so superficially treat the serpent as to all but ignore
its presence, and thus its importance, in the household cult. I posit that this
difference in scholarly opinion rises from the lack of any definitive study
on the possible identities of the serpent and its role in domestic religion.
This paper asserts that the genius loci, likely a native Italic deity of localized
protection, is the most appropriate identity for this serpent by an examination
of, primarily, a representative sample of figurally decorated Pompeian domestic
shrines and Latin texts. The popularity of this deity on such shrines demonstrates
that this was an god with an important function in the household cult. By reasserting
the identity and the power of this deity, we can obtain a more complete picture
of the function of the domestic cult as a whole within the Pompeian household.