Venus, Polysemy, and the Ara Pacis Augustae

Abstract

The intentionally multiple iconography of the "Tellus" relief on the Ara Pacis Augustae deliberately was designed to create multiple meanings and associations. Attempts to limit it to one particular type, such as Pax, are not tenable because none of the actually existing iconographic details and symbols, including the companion figures, are exclusively those of Pax. The Zoilos relief and the Sebasteion at Aphrodisias shed new light on the iconography of Venus, as does the relation of the relief to the floral scrolls. The intentional polysemy of the relief is considered against the background of Republican representations, religious and artistic syncretism, the occurrence of multivalency in other areas of the Augustan culture (including the Res Gestae), and within the total concept of the artistic and architectural program of the Ara Pacis. The guiding idea was to represent the concept of the Pax Augusta not simply, such as by means of one image, but by evoking the richness of its ramifications. Hence the complex and associative imagery of this particular Andachtsbild.