Hermathena and Cicero

Deborah, thanks for this:

> Given the direction of your recent "thought-streams", you might want
> to take a look at Bryan Garsten's _Saving Persuasion: A Defense of
> Rhetoric and Judgment_ (Harvard University Press, 2006), which
>
> 	"analyzes the formation of an antirhetorical tradition in
> 	modern political thought, investigates its rival classical
> 	tradition of rhetoric and judgment, and explores the promise
> 	that a politics of persuasion offers contemporary democratic
> 	societies."

And regarding this...

> But Garsten does touch on one strain of iconography popular in the
> Renaissance, which featured the "Gallic Hercules" as a double
> (ambiguous) symbol of eloquence. The impetus for this particular
> imagery came from Lucian, who stated that the Gauls worshipped
> Hercules not as a symbol of force, but of oral persuasion, and
> portrayed Hercules as an orator "whose power consisted of chaining men
> into groups and dragging them about". (Memorable, no? ;-)

The "Gallic Hercules" would appear to be the deity Ogmios? I believe
there is a depiction in which the chains run from the deity's tongue to
the ears of those thus being led about.

> Also, one other emblem of Renaissance syncretism which might interest
> you: the device (identity, brand) for Cicero's academy was a
> Hermathena, another symbol displaying the paradoxical attribution of
> opposite qualities to a single god. Cicero hunted a very long time for
> the perfect herm, and once he found it, used it to ornament his
> lecture hall. Then, in the 16th century, Achille Bocchi chose this
> same symbol as the impresa for his own academy, fully integrating the
> hermaphrodite with the religious mysteries, and giving new life to a
> classical term of visual rhetoric.

I cannot turn up anything in a Google search for Hermathena other than
a journal published from Trinity College Dublin, and a South American
butterfly, so any further info (perhaps off-Cafe, before this gets  
just too
weird) would be appreciated.

Incidentally, for the next couple of days you will be able (over  
broadband)
to hear a rather fine radio play broadcast last week and, as is  
common for
British Broadcasting Corporation radio transmissions, available for a  
week
afterwards under "Listen Again" terms.

The play is by Mike Walker, it is called "Meeting at Forniae", and  
was the
first of a series of six based loosely on Suetonius' Lives of the  
Caesars.
Cicero is the central character in the play, played by Anton Lesser; the
other two chief protagonists are Gaius Julius Caesar (played by David
Troughton, better known for his TV role as Dr Who) and Cato the Younger;
with strong counterpoint roles for Caesar's daughter (and Pompey's wife)
Julia, and Cicero's beloved daughter Tullia.

The scenario, which as far as I know has no basis in historical fact  
but is
if you like "rhetorically" true enough, has Caesar slipping in  
quietly from
Gaul, and Cato coming from Rome, to spend a couple of days together at
Cicero's coastal villa. Cato militantly champions the supremacy of  
the Senate
and Republican virtue against Caesar's strong-man ambitions and  
Populares
agenda; can Cicero bring about a negotiated settlement or must Rome  
inevitably
move towards confrontation and civil war?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ct508

Conrad

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