Anna Perenna Research Articles

Anna Perenna in Vergil, Ovid, and Statius: A Curse or A Blessing?

Abstract The discovery of the fountain of Anna Perenna in Rome in 1999, and especially the presence there of curse tablets, establishes that she was known as a religious presence in the time of Ovid and, presumably, of Vergil. This paper seeks to examine the depictions we find of her in the works of Ovid, Vergil, and in Statius’ Punica 8.

Latin curse texts: Mediterranean tradition and local diversity

There are altogether about six hundred Latin curse texts, most of which are inscribed on lead tablets. The extant Latin defixiones are attested from the 2nd cent. BCE to the end of the 4th and beginning of the 5th century. However, the number of extant tablets is certainly not final, which is clear from the new findings in Mainz recently published by Blänsdorf (2012, 34 tablets),1 the evidence found in the fountain dedicated to Anna Perenna in Rome 2012, (26 tablets and other inscribed magical items),2 or the new findings in Pannonia (Barta 2009).3 The curse tablets were addressed exclusively to the supernatural powers, so their authors usually hid them very well to be banished from the eyes of mortals; not to speak of the randomness of the archaeological findings. Thus, it can be assumed that the preserved defixiones are only a fragment of the overall ancient production. Remarkable diversities in cursing practice can be found when comparing the preserved defixiones from particular provinces of the Roman Empire and their specific features, as this contribution wants to show.

La figura dell’antonomasia nell’epilogo di Epigr. Bob. 1 e 2

The paper shows how the figure of speech antonomasia could give the Epigrammata Bobiensia 1 and 2 new meanings; so we can see at the end of the first the personification of the fire, that is Vulcanus, and at the end of the second one an allusion to the nymph Anna Perenna.

Die liefde wat die son beweeg en die ander sterre: Digterlike transendering – tot die vermenigvuldigde lewe ontroer

The love that moves the sun and the other stars – Poetic transcendence, stirred to live the multifaceted life: The oeuvre of T.T. Cloete may be characterised, among other possibilities, by a sensitive perception of a mystic interconnectedness in creation. This interconnectedness is developed and interpreted in many ways. The poetic potential of the female (Woman), in different forms, is one of the central themes being activated. In a recently published de luxe publication, Uit die wit lig van my land gesny, the poet focuses on the creative role of woman in the grand act of creation, identifying her role as a kind of hair-spring of poetic inspiration and design. Woman, alternatively Anna Perenna, the Universal Mother, is not only bearer of an embryo being transformed unto spirit, but she also acts as a source of light (’sun woman’), actualising cosmic insight. It is part of the interwoven patterns characterising humankind’s place in a hologram of life. The poet compares these poetic patterns to the weaving of Persian rugs. The ancient forms inscribed in the memories of ancestors are communicated to the next generation. Poetic transcendence is developed as a process through which a wealth of colours of life and death is inspired by individual as well as universal femininity.

ROMAN TOPOGRAPHY AND LATIN DICTION

This article contains five notes on Roman topography. The first three briefly argue (1) that the uia Tecta supposedly to be placed in the Campus Martius has perhaps arisen from corruption of uia Recta; (2) that the temple of Juturna, placed by Ovid near the arches of the Aqua Virgo, could not have stood where Largo Argentina now is, but further north, perhaps in the grounds of Santa Maria in Via; and (3) that the rites of Anna Perenna described by Ovid in Fasti 3 took place near the Mausoleum of Augustus, and not at the recently discovered spring near Piazza Euclide. Note (4) exhibits the evidence for regarding the twin summits of the Capitol and the Arx as the duo luci between which the Asylum was set up, and goes on to suggest that Vergil and Ovid may have used the name Ianiculum to refer to the Arx; (5) demonstrates that in with the name of a hill can refer to any site from the foot up, and builds on this in arguing that the phrase Concordia in Arce refers to a temple constructed where the slope rises from the Forum.

A Roman Hecale: OvidFasti3.661–74

This is one of the identities offered by Ovid for the goddess Anna Perenna, whose festival falls on the Ides of March. Ovid's lines give us the following information about this version of Anna: she was a poor but industrious old woman living in the suburbs of Rome, her benevolent baking and distribution of cakes provided much-needed sustenance for theplebsduring theirsecessioon the Mons Sacer, and theplebsrepaid this service when peace was restored by dedicating a cult-statue to her, so founding the cult of Anna Perenna. This Anna is thus a minor character, otherwise unknown, associated with a cult of obscure origin and with a major historical event, the firstsecessio plebisto the Mons Sacer usually dated to 494 B.C. This alone would make it likely that Ovid is inventing her here as circumstantial detail. When we consider that wo are told that she lived at Bovillae, some twelve miles south-east of Rome (orta… Bovillissurely indicates residence as well as place of birth), and that the Mons Sacer was located three miles north-east of the city, any probability of Ovid's story being a fully historical report vanishes; Anna of Bovillae was simply in the wrong place to purvey cakes to theplebson this occasion, unless she ran a modern-style delivery service over a thirty-mile circuit. The possibility remains that there was an otherwise unknown cult of Anna Perenna at Bovillae to which Ovid refers, since the association of Anna with Bovillae must have come from somewhere, especially as it here seems to introduce an unwanted inconsistency.