Africa (goddess)

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Africa
Goddess of Fertility and Fortune
Dido throne MAN Napoli Inv8898.jpg
Africa (right) with Queen Dido (centre), and an 'Aethiopian' woman presenting ivory (left), Roman fresco from Pompeii, before 79 CE
Other namesIfri
Venerated in Africa Preconsularis
Major cult centre Thimugadi, Algeria [1]
AbodeNorth Africa, Caves
GenderFemale
Temple
Genealogy
OffspringFour Seasons
Equivalents
Greek Demeter or gaia
Roman Ceres or terra
A 2nd-century CE Tunisian mosaic of Goddess Africa with Four Seasons. Goddess Africa with Four Seasons at the corner, a mosaic in El Djem Museum Tunisia.jpg
A 2nd-century CE Tunisian mosaic of Goddess Africa with Four Seasons.
Coin from the time of Hadrian, with an image of the goddess Africa Hadrian, aureus, 134-138 AD, RIC II, 298.jpg
Coin from the time of Hadrian, with an image of the goddess Africa

The Goddess Africa, in Latin Dea Africa, was the personification of Africa by the Romans in the early centuries of the common era. [5] [6] [7] She was one of the fertility and abundance deities in North Africa worshiped by the tribe of Ifri. Her iconography typically included an elephant-mask head dress, a cornucopia, a military standard, and a lion. [8]

Contents

To the Romans "Africa" was only their imperial province, roughly equating to modern north-east Algeria, Tunisia and coastal Libya, [9] and the goddess/personification was not given sub-Saharan African characteristics; she was thought of as Berber. [10] [5] Especially after she was revived in the Renaissance, by now clearly only the personification of Africa with no divine pretensions. [11] [12]

Etymology

Afri was a Latin name used to refer to the inhabitants of what was then known as northern Africa, located west of the Nile river, and in its widest sense referring to all lands south of the Mediterranean, also known as Ancient Libya. [13] This name seems to have originally referred to a native Libyan tribe, an ancestor of modern Berbers. [14]

Africa is also known from the Berber word ifri (plural ifran) meaning "cave" [15] [16] The same word [16] may be found in the name of the Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania, a Berber tribe originally from Yafran (also known as Ifrane) in northwestern Libya. [17]

Roman use

She is portrayed on some coins, carved stones, and mosaics in Roman Africa. A mosaic representing Roman Africa is found in the El Djem museum of Tunisia. [4] [18] [19] A sanctuary found in Timgad (Thamugadi in Berber) in Algeria features goddess Africa's iconography. [20]

She was one of a number of "province personifications" such as Britannia, Hispania, Macedonia and a number of Greek-speaking provinces. Africa was one of the earliest to appear, and may have originated with the publicity around Pompey the Great's African triumph in 80 BC; some coins with both Pompey and Africa shown survive. [21]

Tetradrachm of Ptolemy I depicting Alexander the Great with an elephant scalp headdress Tetradrachm Ptolemaeus I obverse CdM Paris FGM2157.jpg
Tetradrachm of Ptolemy I depicting Alexander the Great with an elephant scalp headdress

The elephant headdress is seen first on coins depicting Alexander the Great, commemorating his invasion of India, including the (possibly fake) "Porus medallions" issued during his lifetime and the coinage of Ptolemy I of Egypt issued from 319 to 294 BC. [22] It may have had resonances with Pharaonic ideology. [22] The image was later adopted on coinage of Agathocles of Syracuse minted around 304 BC, following his African Expedition. [23] Subsequently it is seen on coinage of King Ibaras of Numidia, a kingdom that Pompey defeated in 1st century BCE, so very likely picked up from there by Pompey's image-makers. [21]

Goddess

To the Romans the distinction between goddesses who received worship and personification figures understood to be literary and iconographic conveniences was very elastic, and Africa seems to have been on the boundary between the two. She was certainly not a major deity, but may have received worship at times.

Pliny the Elder, in his book Natural History, wrote "in Africa nemo destinat aliquid nisi praefatus Africam", which scholars translate as "no one in Africa does anything without first calling on Africa". [24] This has been the literary proof of her existence and importance, in some cases interpreted as a proof for a North African goddess-centric cult. Other writers have also interpreted the female personification of Africa to be a "Dea" or goddess. [25]

Maritz, however, has questioned whether personified Africa was ever a "Dea" or goddess to Romans, or anywhere else. The iconographic images of "Dea Africa" with elephant scalp head dress was just a Roman icon for Africa, states Maritz. This is likely because neither Pliny nor any writer thereafter ever described her as "Dea", nor is there an epigraphical inscription stating "Dea Africa". In contrast, other Roman goddesses carry the prefix "Dea" in texts and inscriptions. Romans already had their own goddesses of fertility and abundance, states Maritz, and there was no need for a competing goddess with the same role. [26]

Renaissance revival

In the Renaissance Africa was revived, along with other personifications, and was, by the 17th century, usually given a dark complexion, curly hair and a broad nose, in addition to her Roman attributes. [27] She was a necessary part of images of the Four Continents, which were popular in several media.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Aomar Akerraz; Moustapha Khanoussi; Attilio Mastino (2006). L' Africa romana: Atti del XVI convegno di studio, Rabat, 15-19 dicembre 2004. dell'Universita degli Studi di Sassari. pp. 1423, 1448. ISBN   978-88-430-3990-6.
  2. ↑ Aomar Akerraz; Moustapha Khanoussi; Attilio Mastino (2006). L' Africa romana: Atti del XVI convegno di studio, Rabat, 15-19 dicembre 2004. dell'Universita degli Studi di Sassari. pp. 1423, 1448. ISBN   978-88-430-3990-6.
  3. ↑ Baader, Hannah; Shalem, Avinoam; Wolf, Gerhard (2017-03-31). ""Art, Space, Mobility in Early Ages of Globalization": A Project, Multiple Dialogue, and Research Program". Art in Translation. 9 (sup1): 7–33. doi:10.1080/17561310.2015.1058024. ISSN   1756-1310.
  4. 1 2 3 Gifty Ako-Adounvo (1999), Studies in the Iconography of Blacks in Roman Art, Ph.D. Thesis awarded by McMaster University, Thesis Advisor: Katherine Dunbabin, page 82
  5. 1 2 Takruri, Akan (2017-02-12). 100 African religions before slavery & colonization. Lulu.com. ISBN   978-1-365-75245-2.
  6. ↑ Christine Hamdoune (2008), La dea Africa et le culte impérial [ permanent dead link ], Études d'antiquités africaines, Volume 1, Numéro 1, pages 151-161
  7. ↑ African Affairs: Journal of the Royal African Society. 1902.
  8. ↑ Paul Lachlan MacKendrick (2000). The North African Stones Speak. University of North Carolina Press. p. 236. ISBN   978-0-8078-4942-2.
  9. ↑ Vycichl, W. (1985-11-01). "Africa". Encyclopédie berbère (in French) (2): 216–217. doi:10.4000/encyclopedieberbere.888. ISSN   1015-7344.
  10. ↑ Corbier, Paul; Griesheimer, Marc (2005). L'Afrique romaine: 146 av. J.-C. - 439 ap. J.-C. Le monde, une histoire Mondes anciens. Paris: Ellipses. ISBN   978-2-7298-2441-9.
  11. ↑ Maritz, J. A. (January 2002). "From Pompey to Plymouth: the personification of Africa in the art of Europe". Scholia. 11 (1): 65–79. hdl:10520/EJC100201. ProQuest   211597444.
  12. ↑ Montone, Francesco (2013-09-11). "AFRICA IN THE ROMAN IMAGINATION. THE PERSONIFICATION OF THE GODDESS AFRICA IN THE PANEGYRIC ON MAIORIANUS BY SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS (CARM. 5, 53-350)". Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of Postgraduates in Ancient Literature (Ceased Publication 2015).
  13. ↑ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879). "Afer". A Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Archived from the original on 16 January 2016. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
  14. ↑ Vycichl, W. (1985-11-01). "Africa". Encyclopédie berbère (in French) (2): 216–217. doi:10.4000/encyclopedieberbere.888. ISSN   1015-7344. Etymology: The Latin designation (Africa) originally meant the land of the Afri, an indigenous tribe of present-day northern Tunisia, often confused with the Carthaginians, but Livy clearly distinguishes the Afri from the Carthaginians:- "Hasdrubal placed the Carthaginians on the right wing and the Afri on the left"- "the Carthaginians and the African veterans"- "the Carthaginians had Afri and Numidians as mercenaries"- "the horsemen of the Libyphoenicians, a Carthaginian tribe mixed with Afri
  15. ↑ Desfayes, Michel (25 January 2011). "The Names of Countries". michel-desfayes.org. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 9 April 2019. Africa. From the name of an ancient tribe in Tunisia, the Afri (adjective: Afer). The name is still extant today as Ifira and Ifri-n-Dellal in Greater Kabylia (Algeria). A Berber tribe was called Beni-Ifren in the Middle Ages and Ifurace was the name of a Tripolitan people in the 6th century. The name is from the Berber language ifri 'cave'. Troglodytism was frequent in northern Africa and still occurs today in southern Tunisia. Herodote wrote that the Garamantes, a North African people, used to live in caves. The Ancient Greek called troglodytēs an African people who lived in caves. Africa was coined by the Romans and 'Ifriqiyeh' is the arabized Latin name. (Most details from Decret & Fantar, 1981).
  16. 1 2 Babington Michell, Geo (1903). "The Berbers". Journal of the Royal African Society. 2 (6): 161–194. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a093193. JSTOR   714549. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
  17. ↑ Edward Lipinski, Itineraria Phoenicia Archived 16 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine , Peeters Publishers, 2004, p. 200. ISBN   90-429-1344-4
  18. ↑ Parrish, David (2015). "The mosaics of El Jem". Journal of Roman Archaeology. 12: 777–781. doi:10.1017/S1047759400018663. ISSN   1047-7594.
  19. ↑ Robert A. Wild (1981). Water in the Cultic Worship of Isis and Sarapis. Brill Archive. pp. 186–187. ISBN   90-04-06331-5.
  20. ↑ Aomar Akerraz; Moustapha Khanoussi; Attilio Mastino (2006). L' Africa romana: Atti del XVI convegno di studio, Rabat, 15-19 dicembre 2004. dell'Universita degli Studi di Sassari. pp. 1423, 1448. ISBN   978-88-430-3990-6.
  21. 1 2 Ostenberg, Ida (2009). Staging the World: Spoils, Captives, and Representations in the Roman Triumphal Procession. Oxford University Press. pp. 222–223 with footnote 138. ISBN   978-0-19-921597-3.
  22. 1 2 Lorber, Catherine (2018). Coins of the Ptolemaic Empire. New York: American Numismatic Society. pp. 46–59.
  23. ↑ de Lisle, Christopher (2021). Agathokles of Syracuse : Sicilian Tyrant and Hellenistic King (First ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 128–130. ISBN   9780191894343.
  24. ↑ J. A. Maritz (2006), "Dea Africa: Examining the Evidence", Scholia: Studies in Classical Antiquity, Volume 15, page 102
  25. ↑ Levy, Harry L. (1958). "Themes of Encomium and Invective in Claudian". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 89: 336–347. doi:10.2307/283685. ISSN   0065-9711. JSTOR   283685.
  26. ↑ J. A. Maritz (2006), "Dea Africa: Examining the Evidence", Scholia: Studies in Classical Antiquity, Volume 15, pages 102-121
  27. ↑ Spicer, Joaneath (2016). "The Personification of Africa with an Elephant-head Crest in Cesare Ripa's Iconologia". Personification. Brill Academic. pp. 675–715. doi:10.1163/9789004310438_026. ISBN   9789004310438.

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