Professor discusses Egyptian, Roman cultures

Caitlin Barrett, assistant professor in the Department of Classics at Cornell University, spoke yesterday evening on the topic of Egyptianizing iconography, as seen in the Pompeian house of the upper-class Roman Publius Cornelius Tages, a freed slave.

Barrett began with a short overview of the Roman Empire’s appropriation of ancient Egyptian culture after Egypt became a province of the empire in 30 B.C. Barrett said that one of the most prominent aspects of this cultural transfer was the Romans’ adoption of “Nilotic scenes,” or paintings depicting the Nile River during flood.

In the lecture, Barrett focused on the Nilotic scenes found in a Pompeian house called the Casa dell’Efebo.

“The Nilotic scenes from this house are not only among the most elaborate of Pompeii, but can also have some evidence of the house’s probable owner, which may help us situate this iconography within its social context,” she said.

Barrett stressed that the Nilotic scenes of the Casa dell’Efebo reveal not only elements of Egyptian tradition, but also aspects of Roman culture.

Before examining the Pompeian house in detail, Barrett presented an overview of the general content of Nilotic scenes. Pygmy human figures — usually depicted playing music, fighting river animals, drinking, fishing and engaging in sexual activities — are a common motif in such scenes, she said.

These pygmy figures, although sometimes vulgar, have many connections to Egyptian myth, Barrett said. One myth surrounds the Nile’s annual fertilizing floods, when the “wandering goddess,” often interpreted as either goddesses Isis or Hathor, would return to Egypt.

“Depictions of pygmies engaging in sex on boats or on river banks ... have Egyptian parallels,” she said. “In Egyptian inundation festivals, sexual imagery recalls the returning Isis /Hathor’s reunion with her spouse.”

Barrett next described the Casa dell’Efebo and its symbolic design. Since Nilotic scenes are associated primarily with the celebration of water and the returning of the Nile flood, she said, many scenes found within the house are located near fountains or baths and contain pygmy figures.

“The eastern side of the bench depicts another riverbank with buildings and shrines,” Barrett said. “The western side of the bench is poorly preserved, but shows traces of a pygmy crocodile battle.”

Barrett considered the possible influence of Roman culture on the designs.

“If the Nilotic complex can be read meaningfully in terms of Egyptian theology, it nonetheless conveys another set of messages derived from Roman culture,” she said.

Instead of serving as private places of refuge, upper-class Roman houses often served as public places where the owner could impress special visitors with his wealth and good taste, Barrett explained. She believes that the Casa dell’Efebo’s owner, Tages, was attempting to imitate Roman villas with his own Nilotic scene.

Barrett emphasized that Tages was concerned with showing off his cultural sophistication, and the Nilotic scenes in his home were important to this effort.

“So for Pompeian audiences, Egyptian [design] need not only or solely signify the other,” she said. “Just as the real life Egypt had been at this point incorporated into the Roman Empire, so too could Romans now appropriate Egyptianizing iconography and ritual as acceptable forms for performing Roman-ness.”