Pomona's pomarium: The "Mapping Impulse" in Metamorphoses 14 (and 9)

Romans experience a dramatic shift in awareness about the physical space of their empire in the age of Augustus. More than simply apprehending the extent of the world that was theirs, Romans under Augustus exhibit a "mapping impulse," an urge for ordering space, demarcating empire, countin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inTransactions of the American Philological Association (1974) Vol. 140; no. 1; pp. 163 - 194
Main Author LINDHEIM, SARA H.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Baltimore The Johns Hopkins University Press 01.04.2010
Johns Hopkins University Press
Subjects
Boundaries
Cartography
Colonies & territories
Cultural factors
Gender identity
Geography
Literature
Mapping
Narratives
Poetry
Politics
Roman civilization
Semiotic signs
Space
Transvestism
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Summary:Romans experience a dramatic shift in awareness about the physical space of their empire in the age of Augustus. More than simply apprehending the extent of the world that was theirs, Romans under Augustus exhibit a "mapping impulse," an urge for ordering space, demarcating empire, counting people and resources. The propensity for controlling space reverberates in all contexts of public life—political, social, cultural, economic. This paper explores a literary context of the Augustan cultural preoccupation with space, taking the story of Vertumnus and Pomona in Metamorphoses 14, together with the (connected) story of Iphis and Ianthe in Metamorphoses 9, as a case-study. I argue that these narratives too participate in the "mapping impulse," revealing in their fantasies about firmly delineated gender categories one literary instance of the concern with space, the desire for wholeness, order and fixed boundaries so pervasive under Augustus.
ISSN:0360-5949
1533-0699
2575-7180
1533-0699
2575-7199
DOI:10.1353/apa.0.0050