Pantheon and stuff

Friday July 10 started off with a visit to the Pantheon.  Originally built by Marcus Agrippa (Augustus' right-hand man), it was originally intended by Agrippa to be a temple dedicated to Augustus.  Agrippa's building burned down and a restoration by the emperor Domitian was struck by lightning and destroyed.  This version was rebuilt, beginning under the emperor Trajan and finished by the emperor Hadrian.  Hadrian added some interesting touches.  

If you look at the building from in front, you see the standard temple pediment.  You can also see behind the standard front a circular structure, including a dome.  This interplay between the rectangular shapes and the circular shapes are a theme repeated throughout the building.

The elevation is different today.  When it was built, street level was considerably lower.  As with most temples, one would have approached up a series of massive steps.  Originally the columns and the pediment were decorated with bronze reliefs.  These are long lost.

Here one can see the marble facing of the building affixed to the brick.  Most of the marble is gone now.

Here are the bronze doors of the temple.  There is some dispute whether these are the original doors or later replacements.

Here in the outside colonnade you can begin to see the rectangle/circle theme picked up in the floor.

The dome of the Pantheon with the oculus (opening).  The dome is an engineering marvel.  It features graduated construction (heavier below, light on top) in terms of both the thickness of the concrete and the composition of the material.  Lighter aggregate was used in the concrete for the upper areas.  The dome was poured in a single cast--done all at once.  After the concrete cured, the wooden mold was taken away.  Notice again, the rectangle/circle theme.

The marble floor inside is magnificent.  Again, the rectangle/circle theme repeats.  The Pantheon is so well preserved because it was one of the first pagan temples to be converted to a Christian church.  The eastern Roman Emperor Phocas gave the building to Pope Boniface IV in 609 AD.

On the lower level of the Pantheon, the original marble walls have been kept, though Christian paintings have been added.  Note again, rectangles and circles.

In the upper level, most of the original marble decoration was removed, as it was thought to have been a later replacement.  Only one section (picture below) survives.  Archaeologists now believe that the material that was removed was indeed original, not replacement, so this small glimpse of the upper level decor gives us an idea of what it looked like.

The tomb of painter Raphael.  Keats and Shelley the day before, Raphael today: seeing tombs of great artists.

More rectangles and squares.  What an incredible building!

After the Pantheon, we went looking for some other post-Augustan works in what was the Campus Martius.  Here is all that remains of a temple built by Antoninus Pius to honor his predecessor, Hadrian.

When Hadrian died, the Semate did not want to deify him (declare him a god).  Hadrian had reduced the power of the Senate during his rule and had a number of powerful Senators executed.  Hadrian had also acted in very non-Roman fashion and had been called "Graeculus" (greekling) behind his back.  Antoninus managed to win over the Senate and they declared Hadrian a god, and granted Antoninus the cognomen "Pius" for his efforts to make sure his predecessor was duly honored.

Around the corner from the temple of the deified Hadrian is a column dedicated to Marcus Aurelius, built by his awful son Commodus.  Like Trajan's column, the column of Marcus Aurelius shows his accomplishments in spiral relief on the outside, and has a spiral staircase inside leading to a balcony.  The reliefs on Marcus Aurelius' column are bloodier than those of Trajan.  Marcus Aurelius spent most of his reign in armed conflict with the Germans and Parthians.

We then went to the Stadium of Domitian, now known as Piazza Navona.  This stadium was built for athletic contests, not chariot racing.  Though the original outer structures are long gone, the current buildings follow the exact same footprint and preserve the shape and size of the stadium.  At the far end of the stadium in this photo is the Fountain of the Four Rivers, described a few days ago.

We then walked to the Museum at the Palazzo Altemps.  This museum also houses incredible Roman statues from antiquity.

Here is Ceres, the goddess of grain and the harvest.  This is the first statue of her I've seen on this trip.

Here is a statue of Minerva.  Notice the snake/serpent.  Famously described by Vergil in Book II of the Aeneid, a Trojan priest tries to convince his people to destroy the Trojan horse.  To get him to shut up, Minerva sends two sea serpents to kill him and his sons.  We will see a beautiful statue of this priest, Laocoon, when we visit the Vatican Museum.

Venus.

Another statue of Minerva.  Minerva was the only other god or goddess who was allowed to hurl Jupiter's lightning bolts.  She also wore Jupiter's Aegis, to which she had fastened Medusa'a head (seen in the statue).  The purpose of Medusa's head was to freeze opponents with fear.

Dionysius (Bacchus) with a satyr.

Hercules with his club and golden apples.

Isis--an Egyptian goddess brought to Rome.

Mercury with his winged cap.

Mars, with shield and sword.

A statue of Orestes and Electra.  They were brother and sister, the children of king Agamemnon.  When Agamemnon returned from the Trojan War, his wife (their mother) Clytemnestra split his head with an ax at dinner.  Orestes, as a dutiful son, was obligated to revenge his father's death.  Unfortunately, this meant killing his mother.  As punishment for killing his mom, he was pursued by the Furies for seven years.  According to one version of the story, he then had a trial and the goddess Athena (Minerva) cast the deciding vote in his favor, ending his torment.  Electra, his sister, was loyal to him throughout the ordeal.

A statue of a Gallic warrior.

A massive Juno.

A statue of Cupid and Psyche.  It's a long story, and a terrific one, but would take too long to recount here.  Do look it up and read it.

A statue of Venus bathing.

Pan and Daphnis.  According to myth, Pan taught Daphnis, a shepherd boy, how to play the reed flute.

The muse Calliope, the muse responsible for eloquence and epic poetry.

Urania, the muse responsible for astronomy.

A brilliant statue: The Gaul Killing Himself and His Wife.  Here the Gaul has already killed his wife, whose limp body he supports with his left arm.  With his right arm, he is plunging his sword into his chest while looking defiantly over his shoulder, depriving his enemy of the chance to enslave them.

That ended our morning out in Rome.  To escape the heat, I decided to go to the beach in Sorrento for the weekend and stay in a hotel with Air Conditioning and a pool.  I took the Frecciarossa bullet train to Naples.  The train reached a high speed of 300 kph, or 186.4 mph.  Here we're traveling at 'only' 292 kph or 181.4 mph.