Since I did my presentation on the casa Romuli/hut of Romulus, I'm familiar with how significant the story was to Romans many centuries ago. For those of you who aren't familiar with the legend, Romulus and Remus were twin sons of Mars that were sentenced to drown via the Tiber River. A servant took pity and put them in a basket, which washed ashore, where a she-wolf found them and suckled the twins until a shepherd discovered them and raised them. When they were adults, Romulus and Remus disagreed on where to found their city. The quarrel eventually led to Romulus killing Remus, and then founding his city, which was later named Rome after him.
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| The original statue of the she-wolf in the Capitoline Museum. The twins weren't actually added to the statue until much later. |
During my research on the hut of Romulus, where the famous founder was said to have lived, I found that Romans in the past found the tiny hut to be important to their history, as it reminded them of their ancestors' lives as shepherds. I've been seeing how important the story of Romulus and Remus was to the Romans, because I have seen several places with the image of the she-wolf suckling the twins. The image comes from a famous statue that now resides in the Capitoline Museum. When we were at another museum, I saw a picture of the she-wolf and twins on a coin, but I wasn't able to find the coin myself, unfortunately (there were a LOT of coins in that exhibit). There are little statues of the she-wolf at souvenir shops, so the story is well-known enough to be appealing to tourists. Today I even saw the image of the she-wolf on the side of a sarcophagus in the museum in Ostia.
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| The carving of the she-wolf on the side of a sarcophagus. The image is set in the center of the relief and definitely stands out when you look at this side of the sarcophagus. |
We're only about halfway into the trip. so I'm keeping an eye out for other places where the she-wolf and twins are depicted. I'm excited to see where else they are preserved in this city.
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| The replica of the she-wolf outside of the Capitoline Museum. |
Your right the she-wolf is everywhere in ancient iconography and throughout the present city today. It is an iconic image of Rome so much so that tourists from around the world seem to at least remotely know about it. So why do you think this image is has lasted over 2000 years and is still used in Rome today? Is it simply because it links modern Rome with its ancient origins or is it something more?
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated the pictures you included with this post, the repeated imagery of the She-Wolf and the twins in multiple variations certainly helped drive your point home. Do you think that the wolf being used as an icon instead of the alternative telling of a prostitute or loose shepard's wife is because a wolf makes a more interesting/potentially lasting symbol? For lack of a better of trying to phrase, perhaps that the wolf is more "magical" and therefore makes a more interesting founding myth? Have your thoughts or opinions on the She-Wolf and the Twins changed over the course of this trip?
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the first things that I noticed about Rome after a couple days of walking around the city. This image is everywhere! I find it really fascinating that for around 2000 years, this symbol of the founding of the city has lasted. As I look around and see this image portrayed I have been wondering what it means to native Romans today. Do they hold this symbol sacred or is it just a symbol of their country? Do they place value in it, as a way of remembering where there city came from? It is very interesting to me to see the symbol everywhere, and it is one of my favorite symbols of Rome.
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