#MuseumsUnlocked - Sussex, Hampshire, Surrey, and Kent
The famous Europa mosaic from Lullingstone Villa in Kent, mid-Fourth Century AD. #Mosaic
The verse above reads:
INVIDA SI TA[URI] VIDISSET IUNO NATATUS
IUSTIUS AEOLIAS ISSET AD USQUE DOMOS
Image: English Heritage
The famous Europa mosaic from Lullingstone Villa in Kent, mid-Fourth Century AD. #Mosaic
The verse above reads:
INVIDA SI TA[URI] VIDISSET IUNO NATATUS
IUSTIUS AEOLIAS ISSET AD USQUE DOMOS
Image: English Heritage
This is usually translated:
'If the jealous Juno had seen the swimming of the bull, more justly would she have gone to the Aeolian halls'
Traditionally, this has been linked to Virgil 'Aeneid' 1.50-52, where Juno travels to Aeolus to raise the storm to wreck Aeneas' ships.
'If the jealous Juno had seen the swimming of the bull, more justly would she have gone to the Aeolian halls'
Traditionally, this has been linked to Virgil 'Aeneid' 1.50-52, where Juno travels to Aeolus to raise the storm to wreck Aeneas' ships.
But as this mosaic floor was laid in the period where the traditional Roman pagan religion was vying with Christianity, there have been frequent attempts to identify symbolism within the scene and the text.
For more on this, and a different interpretation of the text, see:
COSH, S.R. “The Lullingstone Mosaic Inscription — A Parody of Martial?” Britannia, vol. 47, 2016, pp. 262–266
jstor.org/stable/44336606
COSH, S.R. “The Lullingstone Mosaic Inscription — A Parody of Martial?” Britannia, vol. 47, 2016, pp. 262–266
jstor.org/stable/44336606
