Roman Terracotta Oil Lamp with Luna
£ 175.00
A Roman terracotta oil lamp featuring a circular concave discuss enriched with the goddess Luna in portrait, facing forward. Underneath is a crescent moon slightly encompassing the portrait. A filling hole is visible below the moon. Three concentric grooves frame the imagery. The oil lamp displays a voluted angular-tipped nozzle and a flat base with one incised band. Section missing from the base, repairs to the front and reverse of fragments mended together.
Date: Circa 1st-2nd century AD
Provenance: Madame Suzanne Gozlan then by descent. Madame Suzanne Gozlan (1921-2022), Doctor of History and Archaeology, professor at the Ecole Normale d'Instituteurs de Chartres and lecturer at the University of Paris, Sorbonne.
Condition: Good condition, some chips to the shoulder. Repairs from fragments mended together, a section missing from the base.
SOLD
Luna is the Roman goddess of the moon, the Greek equivalent of Selene, and is often portrayed with a crescent moon. Her counterbalance is Sol, god of the sun. Many goddesses were associated with the moon such as Juno and Artemis however, Luna was the only one portrayed by Greek poets as the moon incarnated. She was born from the Titan Theia along with her brother Sol and sister Eos as stated in Hesiod’s Theogony. Luna became consort to Jupiter and also Endymion and had fifty offspring know as The Menae. This myth, mainly Greek but also Roman, was well established across the Roman population and featured on many wall paintings.
To discover more about oil lamps in Antiquity, please visit our relevant blog post: Lighting The Way.
