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Women in Pompeii Author(S): Elizabeth Lyding Will Source: Archaeology, Vol Women in Pompeii Author(s): Elizabeth Lyding Will Source: Archaeology, Vol. 32, No. 5 (September/October 1979), pp. 34-43 Published by: Archaeological Institute of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41726375 . Accessed: 19/03/2014 08:08 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Archaeological Institute of America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Archaeology. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 170.24.130.117 on Wed, 19 Mar 2014 08:08:22 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Wfomen in Pompeii by Elizabeth Lyding Will year 1979 marks the 1900th anniversary of the fatefulburial of Pompeii, Her- The culaneum and the other sitesengulfed by the explosion of Mount Vesuvius in a.d. 79. It was the most devastatingdisaster in the Mediterranean area since the volcano on Thera erupted one and a half millenniaearlier. The suddenness of the A well-bornPompeian woman drawn from the original wall in theHouse Ariadne PierreGusman volcanic almost froze the bus- painting of by onslaught instantly ( 1862-1941), a Frenchartist and arthistorian. Many tling Roman cityof Pompeii, creating a veritable Pompeianwomen were successful in business, including time capsule. For centuriesarchaeologists have thosefrom wealthy families and freedwomen. exploited the Vesuvius disaster,revealing detailed evidence about the last hours of the town and its doomed inhabitants.Excavation has also uncov- ered factsabout the lives of Pompieans in happier evidence about the female membersof society.It times,when the rich soil on the slopes of Mount is an importantsource of information,in fact, Vesuvius yielded abundant harvestsof grapes, about the women of antiquityin general. Yet ar- olives, fruitsand vegetables. In those days, a vol- chaeology is a source that has gone largelyuntap- canic holocaust had seemed an impossibility.After ped. Studies of the women of ancient timeshave all, Pompeii had flourishedsafely for six hundred tended to draw theirevidence fromliterature, years,basking in the sun of southern Italy. Within even though the remarksabout women in ancient three days, however,the entire citywas buried by literatureare few in number and often lack objec- volcanic ash. Eventuallyeven its verylocation was tivity.Since Pompeii provides more archaeological forgotten.As layersof rich soil accumulated over evidence about women than most other ancient the site,what had been a thrivingcity became fer- sites except Rome itself,the failureto come to tile countryside. grips withthe evidence is all the more regrettable. The men and women of Pompeii abandoned Although the great nineteenth-centuryPom- everythingin the wake of disaster.They leftbe- peianist,Johannes Overbeck, frequentlyrefers to hind a wealth of unedited public records, mostly women, later scholars like August Mau, Amedeo in the formof inscriptions.But while men such as Maiuri and R.C. Carrington,consider women's M. Holconius Rufus and L. Caecilius Jucundus, activitiesless worthyof record. Their workswere who were of only local importance,have taken writtenin periods which saw historyas being - their place in Roman historybecause of Pompeii's guided by politicaland militaryevents areas unique historicalposition, the women of the city where women's participationtraditionally has been have been largelyignored. They are overlooked in minimal. More recent studies of Pompeii based on studies of Pompeii as well as in historiesof women this research perpetuate the tendencyto overlook in antiquity.But archaeology provides abundant women, or to referto them only incidentallyin 34 ARCHAEOLOGY This content downloaded from 170.24.130.117 on Wed, 19 Mar 2014 08:08:22 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions " " Domina orwoman of rankfrom the Hall of theMysteries in the Villaof the Mysteries in Pompeii. It is possiblethat thepainting represents IstacidiaRuf ilia, a public priestesswhose family probablyowned the villa sometime in itshistory . September/October1979 35 This content downloaded from 170.24.130.117 on Wed, 19 Mar 2014 08:08:22 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Frescoof Venusfrom the House of Venus Marina in Pompeii. The painting covers a largepart of the back wall of the garden . Venus was the patron divinity of Pompeii . discussionsof brothels,jewelry and mixed bathing. robed. Venus was a fertilitysymbol, stern city - But withthe growingcontemporary emphasis on guardian and overseer of people's lives in es- economic and social history,such attitudesseem sence, she ruled as the "Great Mother." In her more and more out of date. Although women's honor, Pompeii erected a temple so impressive historyis stillin its infancy,and ways to organize that it contained nearly 300 columns before it was and present the factsare largelylacking, there is damaged by an earlier earthquake in a.d. 62. The littledoubt that it is preciselyin the contextof dual nature of the Pompeian Venus may in some economic and social historythat women's ac- way indicate the attitudeof Pompeians about - complishmentsmust be seen and understood. One women generally females are both motherand must look for the specificrole women played temptress,wielding universal power over society. during antiquity.In this search, archaeology must As child-bearers,women were of pivotal im- be used as a primarytool, and the women of portance in the home throughoutantiquity. But at Pompeii must be recognized as a major source Pompeii somethingmore has emerged. There is of evidence. strongevidence that during the last two centuries of the city'shistory many women were activelyin- volved outside the home in civic and religiouslife ne way to approach the studyof Pompeian as well as in business. The best documentation women is to consider the city'spatron deityfirst. comes frominscriptions carved, scratchedand Venus, the prototypeof femininity,was desig- painted on tombs,temples and houses. Several nated Pompeii's guardian divinityby the Roman particularinscriptions at Pompeii mentionthe of- general Sulla afterhe made the citya Roman col- fice of public priestess.This duty must have been ony in 80 b.c. The Venus of Pompeii, as repre- held in high esteem since it is mentioned promi- sented in sculptureand painting,is at once seduc- nentlyon tombstonesand elsewhere. But only a tive and dignified.She is both coquette and mater few women are actuallyreferred to by name. Oné familias,at times unclothed and other times heavily public priestessnamed Mamia was accorded the 36 archaeology This content downloaded from 170.24.130.117 on Wed, 19 Mar 2014 08:08:22 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions rare honor of burial on land donated by order of Unlike M. Tullius, however, Mamia is rarely the municipalcouncil of Pompeii. Mamia was a mentioned in discussionsof Pompeii. Another memberof a prominentold family,a leftoverof public priestessnamed Eumachia is more well the Samnite nobilityonce in controlof Pompeii known. Like Mamia, Eumachia died long before before it became a Roman colony. She probably the fatal eruption of a.d. 79. She was a priestess died some time during the firstquarter of the of Benus or of Ceres, the Roman agricultural firstcentury after Christ. The special plot where deity.Although the temple of Ceres at Pompeii she was buried lay close to the gates of the city- has not yet been identified,the prestigeof this a place of honor where veryfew persons were cult and its exclusivelyfemale leaders must have buried. Her tomb can stillbe seen today on the been as great as the one in Rome itself.Eu- Via dei Sepolcri, or Streetof Tombs, just outside machia's rise to a position of religiousauthority the Herculaneum Gate. The sepulcher is in the was surelyfacilitated by her wealthyfamily's busi- shape of a semicircularbench inscribedon the ness interestsin which she activelyparticipated. In back withlarge letterscommemorating the honor fact,as early as the firstcentury after Christ, paid her by the city. women in the cityof Rome were risingto posi- What had Mamia done to meritsuch public tions of power in trade and industry,although no honor? Another inscription,found in the Forum direct politicalpower was gained. Perhaps Eu- of Pompeii, provides an explanation. On the east machia combined business activitywith her high side of the Forum lies a small building which is priestlyduties. most often referredto as the "Temple of Her father,L. Eumachius, was apparentlyof Vespasian" or the "Temple of the Genius of the Greek extractionand had evidentlynot risen out Emperor." An inscriptionfound there almost of slavery,but mighthave been a descendant of certainlynames Mamia (one letterof the name is one of the Greek colonistswho came to the area damaged) as the donor of a temple to the genius of Pompeii some time afterthe sixthcentury b.c. (the name for the tutelarydeity or "soul") of an By the latterhalf of the firstcentury b.c., his es- emperor, perhaps Emperor Augustus himself. tate was so extensivethat he was able to export The block of stone on which the inscriptionap- Pompeian wine, doubtless the famous Vesuvinum, pears exactlyfits the cornice of the temple'scella . all over the Mediterranean.Wine amphoras bear- The giftof this importantbuilding led the Pom- ing his trademarkhave been found as far away as peians to honor the priestessMamia, just like they Spain, France, Carthage, Athens and probably did when the cityofficial M. Tullius donated the Rhodes. Numbers of bricksstamped withthe Temple of Fortuna Augusta in 3 b.c. He was name L. Eumachius and the name of one of his buried at public expense outside the Stabian Gate freedmen,have been discovered at Pompeii.
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