The Gaze

“Terracotta vase with an applied medallion that depicts a male and female having sexual intercourse on a boat (c.2nd cent CE). The words NAVIGIUM VENERIS (“the love boat”) appear behind the man who is holding onto the boat’s rudder. Image from OCD entry “sexual representation, visual.” Photo courtesy of J.-M. Degueule. Currently in Lyons, Musée de la Civilization Gallo-romaine (CEL 7645).” via Twitter. Notice the strong eye contact between the two figures. An alternate translation would be “Sex-Boat” or the “Boat of Venus”. The English word venereal as in venereal diseases derives from this same use of Venus to mean Sex. This type of medallion was made by a mold and thus easily produced in large quantities at a cheap cost. Compare this scene to some of the frescoes discussed in the set reading by Clarke.

“Look into my eyes…”
Said by every stereotypical hypnotist, and repeated by every meme and song riffing on hypnotic powers

The “I See You” or “I’m Watching you” gesture as demonstrated by Al Roker, television weather forecaster.

The power of the gaze in our own cultures is rooted in every day language and gestures. Besides those above think about how we say things like ‘Big brother is watching’, ‘You must have eyes in the back of your head’ and likewise we verbalize and visualize the power of invisibility or disappearing, and laugh about it being done badly.

A Homer Simpson meme often associated with “stealth mode”

Another meme about watching and (poor) camouflage

All of this is that you already have some relevant experience and understanding that directly relates to theoretical academic discussions of the power of “the Gaze“. That theoretical (and often metaphorical) discussion of the gaze has informed both directly and indirectly how scholars today interpret ancient art and seek to reconstruct the conditions in which it was originally viewed and by whom and to what effect.

I highly recommend that you begin this unit by watching the Zoom lecture posted on BB. In it I talk through some aspects of the gaze and spend most of the time situating the discussion on the Roman garden and how the sexually charged gaze could be used to both titillate, but also convey moralizing messages about the normative behavior of elite citizen males. This goal of the lecture is help prepare you to read the article (link below) about sexually explicit imagery in the Roman domestic space.

However one of other key elements touched on in that lecture is the connection between images of the phallus and the evil eye in ancient thought. To the Romans the evil eye was associated with invidia, some times translated as envy or jealousy, but it is made up of the preposition in- (against) and the verb videre (to see). In short the phallus is one of the most common (if not THE most common) apotropaic symbols in the ancient Mediterranean.

“If we hold these beliefs, we should also believe that the right course, on the arrival of a stranger, or if a sleeping baby is looked at, is for the nurse to spit three times at her charge. And yet the baby is further under the divine protection of Fascinus (the Divine Phallus), guardian not only of babies but of generals, a deity whose worship, part of the Roman religion, is entrusted to the Vestals; hanging under the chariots of generals at their triumphs he defends them as a physician from jealousy, and the similar physic of the tongue bids them look back, so that at the back Fortune, destroyer of fame, may be won over.”
Pliny the Elder (a Roman Senator who died in the eruption of Pompeii), Natural Histories 28.7

[Yes, Fascinus (the Divine Phallus) shares an etymology with our word ‘fascinate’, both derive from the verb fascinare which can mean more generally to enchant, bewitch, or charm. ]

A mosaic with the evil eye attacked by multiple apotropaic elements among them the phallus of a dwarf or pygmy. The Greek inscription reads “AND YOU!” a curse of sorts and according one source, Julius Caesar’s last words. Think of it as equivalent to ‘right back atcha’ or ‘up yours!’. Now in the Hatay Museum (Turkey). 2nd Cent CE. Image via Twitter.

Laughter could also be considered apotropaic so many, though not all, fascina (fascinum, singular) were made to be comical often turning the phallus into a bird or beast and giving it a personality and action of its own or have the phallus attached to a figure of derision (often a disabled person or someone of a servile status or with dark skin).

The so-called ‘Lucky Hunchback’ from a mosaic found in Antioch (Antaka, Turkey). 2nd cent. CE. Notice he holds flutes and likely represents an enslaved entertainer. Notice the “AND YOU” inscription as above.

This represents a bath attendant of Sub Saharan African heritage, an enslaved person with the job of stoking the fires of the bath. There is a shovel over his shoulder. The mosaic was found in a bath complex in Timgad, Algeria. Late 2nd Cent CE.

The above images are also supposed to provoke laughter and again in the Baths. As Professor Lynne Lancaster posted on Twitter: “Baths of Tricrinaria Ostia. Mosaic inscription: STATIO (station) CVNNVLINGIORVM. Not considered a manly activity–joke is on guy who reads inscription after sitting on bench.” The laughter thus provoked protects the bathers (nude and vulnerable) from the evil eye.

Still interested? More Evil Eye images can be found on my blog and my colleague Sarah Bond has a great post about invidia. There is also a supplemental page on this website of images of Roman phallic representations.

Link to Reading for Annotation

Images to Supplement the Reading