Roman Bronze Fascinum and Sabazios Hand Amulets + Egyptian Faience Charm

Roman, Imperial period, and Egypt, Late Dynastic to Roman period. A group of four small amulets, united by their protective purpose. Three are cast in leaded bronze: a hooked fitting ending in a long-snouted animal head resembling a wolf, a votive hand raised in the benedictio Latina gesture associated with the god Sabazios, and a phallic pendant pierced for suspension. The fourth is a molded faience phallic amulet of Egyptian manufacture, its glaze now worn to a warm earthen tone. The phallus, the hand and the predatory beast all belong to the protective vocabulary of the ancient Mediterranean. Such charms were worn against the evil eye, likely by children, soldiers and travelers alike. Sabazios, a Thraco-Phrygian sky and vegetation deity absorbed into Roman religion by the late Republic, is best known through the bronze votive hands that bear his name. Cast with the first two fingers and thumb extended in the gesture Christians later inherited as the benedictio Latina, the fuller examples crawl with attributes: pinecones, serpents, frogs, lizards, a mother nursing a child. They appear to have been mounted on staves and carried in procession by his initiates, whose mystery cult spread with soldiers and traders from Anatolia to the Danube and Britain. The fascinum, the winged or pendant phallus, was the most ubiquitous protective device in Roman life, hung on doorways, worn by children on cords, and mounted on chariots. Pliny records that a fascinum was fixed beneath the chariot of a triumphing general to blunt envy at the moment of his greatest exposure to it. Egyptian faience amulets of similar form draw on a separate but parallel tradition of generative potency tied to Min and Osiris. Please note that the leaded bronze amulets contain up to 28.6% lead and are not recommended for wear. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids. Item # 204631

Estimate:£149.5

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