When attributes go beyond the signum. Remarks on the visual identity of the gods in Rome

Abstract

In this work we aim to analyze, through the pages of the Latin authors, the semiotic construction underneath the visual representation of the gods in the Roman culture; each of them possessed some attribute or combination of attributes capable of identifying them with more or less certainty, what the ancient authors called insignia, the “special signs” that guided the interpretation / identification of a signum. In particular, some concrete objects will be examined, used by the Roman culture to construct divine images in their function of attributes endowed with a specific identity. In Rome there were also specific cases in which the power of the insigne was overflowing. The mark of recognizability, in these cases, was identified with the totality of the image, just as the image was reduced to the extension of the mark of recognition: the insigne, in that case, was the image. This will lead us to question the methods of construction, adaptation, borrowing and exclusion of divine images among ancient polytheisms, outlining comparative and analytical perspectives.