• DOI:10.1353/AJP.1997.0015
• Corpus ID: 162188763

The Statue of Augustus from Prima Porta, the Underground Complex, and the Omen of the Gallina Alba

@article{Reeder1997TheSO,
  title={The Statue of Augustus from Prima Porta, the Underground Complex, and the Omen of the Gallina Alba},
  author={Jane Clark Reeder},
  journal={American Journal of Philology},
  year={1997},
  volume={118},
  pages={118 - 89}
}

• J. C. Reeder
• Published 1 March 1997
• History, Art
• American Journal of Philology

attention on the architecture and art of this imperial villa. The statue of Augustus from Prima Porta and the garden paintings from the underground complex have long been the most famous exemplars of their types. Recently new studies have treated these works of art in relation to their setting.1 But there is one source of information in particular which has not received the scrutiny in this regard that it might and that is the remarkable omen which gave the villa its name in antiquity, ad Gallinas. Although this omen is sometimes mentioned to explain the odd name, scholars have not examined in any detail the relationship of the omen to the art and architecture of the villa. In fact, the omen of the gallina alba is the foundation augurium of the villa-garden itself.2 In this essay I intend to examine the ancient literary sources con? cerning the villa; the only information given by the sources about the villa comes in fact by way of the omen. First the individual components of the omen and the surrounding body of augury and myth will be exam? ined and illustrated where possible in the monuments. Secondly I hope to illuminate the symbolic interrelationships between this augural im? agery and the iconography of three features of the art and architecture of the villa-garden: the statue of Augustus, the underground complex, and the laurel grove. This imagery and symbolism played an essential