The flax in the “Flora’s image” in the Ariadne House (Pompeian area, Italy) as a symbol of feminine in a wedding sacred to the afterlife

Abstract

In ancient time, life elements, like plants and animals, and unanimated forces of nature were usually associated with specific meanings related to deities and sacred rituals. In Roman archeology, the strong symbolic value of plants represented in wall paintings and artifacts was proved by several contributions, but this topic is often neglected. In this paper, for the first time, an interpretation is proposed for the plant represented in one of the most iconic paintings in Pompeii, the so-called “Flora” in Ariadne’s house. Here, the analyzed plant is picked by a girl turned away and holding a floral cornucopia, and it plays a relevant role in the scene. Through the analysis of its morphological elements, and comparing them with other ancient representations, we suggest its identification as flax (Linum usitatissimum L.). Flax was an economically and culturally very important plant, widely represented in objects and paintings in the Mesopotamian and Egyptian area. We also suggest that the meaning behind the choice of depict flax was also related to its classical attribution as a symbol of fertility and afterlife as well as linked to the “feminine” sphere. This interpretation, together with other elements of the images, strengthens the already proposed interpretation of the yellow-dressed girl a wife, which is let to go this life for an afterlife, in the figure of Persephone. Graphical abstract

Plants as Symbols of Power in the Achaemenid Iconography of Ancient Persian Monuments

“…However, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of the various functions and meanings within the iconography of ancient monuments, even those that represent the centers of power where every detail aims to convey a specific ideology. Although it has been shown that images played a powerful communicative role in ancient Roman culture [33] and in a wider iconological context [1,[34][35][36][37][38][39], the role of plant-based motifs is often treated summarily and afforded little attention. The literature only traces general characteristics and focuses on dominant elements, such as lotuses and palms, while describing others simply as rosettes, flowers, or trees, while providing few taxonomic details [15,22,[40][41][42], which are in some cases wrongly interpreted and often there is no exploration of why specific floral elements were chosen.…”

“…The literature only traces general characteristics and focuses on dominant elements, such as lotuses and palms, while describing others simply as rosettes, flowers, or trees, while providing few taxonomic details [15,22,[40][41][42], which are in some cases wrongly interpreted and often there is no exploration of why specific floral elements were chosen. In general, archeological studies often neglect the biodiversity behind such representations, whereas previous botanical investigations of several archeological monuments in the Mediterranean area have demonstrated its richness [10,12,43,44], for example, in the great attention that the ancients paid even to the minor details of plants and flowers [35,37].…”