The Pulvinar in Roman Culture

Abstract

This paper examines the cultural workings of the Latin term pulvinar in its rhetorical, literary, and material contexts. The aim is to illuminate the term’s specific meanings and to assess its broader symbolic or ideological point. Three uses constitute the central focus of this essay: 1) the “lectisternium,” 2) the “sacred-marriage bed,” and 3) the Pulvinar ad Circum Maximum (“temple” at the Circus Maximus). The essay draws from scholarship on public representations of the domestic sphere and on emperor worship in order to understand the term as a vibrant and sophisticated cultural emblem in the early Empire.