Ancient Goat Art

(also sheep)

[thesilicontribesman]

Roman Terracotta Ram from a Child's Burial in Arrington, The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge.

[domus-laetitiae-deactivated2022]

Öllampe mit Kopf des Jupiter Ammon , Pompeji

Oil lamp with head of Jupiter Amon, Pompeii

[cma-greek-roman-art]

Nanny Goat, late 2nd Century BC, Cleveland Museum of Art: Greek and Roman Art

Goats were among the earliest domesticated animals and figured prominently in Greek art and mythology since at least the 8th century BC. This example with its powerful stance, curly beard, and horns is not a ram but an expecting doe with swollen flanks. The subject is rare and its meaning unclear. Possibly she was part of a group dedication to a goddess. The sunken areas at the tail and hips and her open mouth, indicating heavy breathing, are signs that she is ready to give birth. Size: Overall: 30.5 x 31.1 cm (12 x 12 ¼ in.) Medium: bronze

https://clevelandart.org/art/1990.32

[cma-greek-roman-art]

Nanny Goat, late 2nd Century BC, Cleveland Museum of Art: Greek and Roman Art

Goats were among the earliest domesticated animals and figured prominently in Greek art and mythology since at least the 8th century BC. This example with its powerful stance, curly beard, and horns is not a ram but an expecting doe with swollen flanks. The subject is rare and its meaning unclear. Possibly she was part of a group dedication to a goddess. The sunken areas at the tail and hips and her open mouth, indicating heavy breathing, are signs that she is ready to give birth. Size: Overall: 30.5 x 31.1 cm (12 x 12 ¼ in.) Medium: bronze

https://clevelandart.org/art/1990.32

[via-appia]

Roman mosaic of a market scene, 2nd - 3rd century

[lionofchaeronea]

Ancient Egyptian faience amulet of a deity (probably Khnum) with four ram heads, each facing a different direction.  Artist unknown; 664-30 BCE (Late Period or Ptolemaic).  Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[vizuart]

Late Roman floor decor in the aptly-named House of the Rams’ Heads, excavated from a wealthy suburb of Antioch, southern Turkey, circa 400-500 CE. Rams symbolized royalty in the rapidly encroaching Sasanian Empire. Displayed in Simons Hall at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey.

[moodboardmix]

A Recumbent Sheep, Mesopotamia, Sumerian, Late Uruk- Jamdat Nasr, 

Ca. 3300–2900 b.c., black stone.

Babylonian Collection, Yale University, New Haven; YBC 2261

Courtesy: The Morgan Library & Museum

[ancientgoatart]

Campanian lamp with Odysseus clinging to the belly of the Cyclops’ ram

said to be from Pompeii

ca. 1 CE

Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology, University of Reading

[hadrian6]

Faun with Kid.   Roman copy of a Hellenistic original belonging to the second School of Pergamus (160-150 B.C.). It was discovered in Rome in 1675. marble. Museo Nacional del Prado. Spain.      http://hadrian6.tumblr.com

[cma-greek-roman-art]

Hair Ringlet with Ram Head, c. 4th Century BC, Cleveland Museum of Art: Greek and Roman Art

Size: Overall: 3.5 cm (1 3/8 in.) Medium: gold

https://clevelandart.org/art/1968.102.a

[archaicwonder]

Greek Agate Kohl Pot, 5th-3rd century BC

A carved agate kohl pot or cosmetics phial formed as two addorsed rams’ foreparts and two bulls’, the rim formed by the conjoined horns of the rams. 99 grams, 60mm (2 ¼").

See it in 360° here.

[ancientgoatart]

Those look like goats to me, not rams. 

[archaicwonder]

Gold and Banded Onyx Ring Depicting the Eagle of Rome, 1st Century AD

This ring is a particularly fine example of a form known across the Roman empire. The black-and-white banded onyx intaglio depicts the eagle of Jupiter with a wreath in its beak on a pyxis with ram heads each side and ears of corn below. The gem is elegantly accommodated into the gold bezel which rounds in perfect geometry at each end. Effectively a continuity of propaganda from the First Triumvirate (Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus) and Second Triumvirate (Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian), the eagle symbolized the power of the victorious Roman emperor. Both the palm branch and the wreath are also symbols of victory. Augustus (27 BC - AD 14) in particular employed this image.

Gems with this type of image set in rings, as in the case of the present example, were probably worn by military officers. The style of the gem and the shape of the ring suggest a late first century date. Rings and gems of a similar style are known from Pompeii and must date before AD 79 when the city was destroyed.

[cma-greek-roman-art]

Patera with Fluted Handle and Ram Head Finial, 400s BC, Cleveland Museum of Art: Greek and Roman Art

Size: Diameter: 24.2 cm (9 ½ in.); Overall: 6.4 cm (2 ½ in.) Medium: bronze

https://clevelandart.org/art/1981.6

[ancientgoatart]

[amare-habeo]

Rhyton protome in the shape of a winged ibex

Central Asia, 5th-4th century BC

Bronze, H 13.3 x W 14.5 cm

David Aaron, London, UK

[neapolis-neapolis]

Misteri dionisiaci (60-70 a.C.), particolari, Villa dei Misteri - Parco archeologico di Pompei, Napoli.

[ancientgoatart]

[lionofchaeronea]

A Respite for Mountain Goats

Anthologia Palatina 6.121 = Callimachus

Notes: Cynthus: a mountain on Delos.  Ortygia: traditional birthplace of Artemis, perhaps to be identified with the island of that name off the coast of Sicily.

Goats of Cynthus, take heart; for the bow Of Cretan Echemmas is now located In Ortygia, in Artemis’ shrine- the bow With which he emptied the great mountain of you; But now, o goats, he has stopped, since the goddess Has wrought a peace treaty between him and you.

Κυνθιάδες, θαρσεῖτε· τὰ γὰρ τοῦ Κρητὸς Ἐχέμμα   κεῖται ἐν Ὀρτυγίῃ τόξα παρ’ Ἀρτέμιδι, οἷς ὑμέων ἐκένωσεν ὄρος μέγα, νῦν δὲ πέπαυται,   αἶγες, ἐπεὶ σπονδὰς ἡ θεὸς εἰργάσατο.

A Goatherd with His Flock beside a Spring, Jakob Roos, 1706