The ancient ships had always been equipped with ornaments both in the bow and in the stern, which were generally raised above the other parts of the deck and placed above the point where the helmsman had his seat. The purpose of these ornaments was to flaunt power, but also to intimidate and ward off both evil spirits and enemies. At the bow, in addition to the animal-shaped rostrum, there was a decoration on the top of the bow, the acrostolium (ὰκροστόλιον), an archetype of what would become the figurehead from the 16th century, and above the rostrum, where bow “sees” the sea, i.e. apotropaic eyes. In the stern, an element emerged in importance, which anticipates the symbol par excellence of ancient ships: the aplustre (ἄφλαστον), flanked internally by the chêniscus (χηνίσκος) goose-shaped ornament or more generally a bird’s head. The ornament we want to deal with in this short note is exactly what decorated the top of the stern like a plume: the aplustre. It is an ornament formed of wooden planks, an extension of the planking, which constituted the highest part of the stern of a ship. The aplustre was a one or more volute plume, otherwise in the shape of an animal with a twisted neck or simply a fan like a bird’s tail, a sign of recognition of the ship but also an image of the ship’s tutelary deity. The aplustre was the heart and soul of the warship and had to flaunt the strength and power of a navy; he was endowed with magical powers capable of protecting the ship during combat and of being a guide and protection for the helmsman during navigation. The myth of the aplustre as protection (or tutela) of the boat means that its destruction - as Lucretius and Cicero wrote - had to be teaching seafarers to admonish them in facing the pitfalls and dangers of navigation with the right respect for Poseidon. Not only that, the importance of this object was such that the aplustre was a sought after spoiling of war at the end of a naval battle, for this reason, it was animatedly defended by sailors and furiously coveted by opponents. The strong symbolic value assigned to this constructive-decorative part of the ship also made it a sort of symbol-trophy, which was to be torn from the enemy ship and carried in triumph, otherwise, it was exhibited as an emblem of a naval victory. Vice versa, his loss translated into the image of a tragedy for a defeat suffered a lack that had to be filled with a victory at sea to snatch the coveted trophy from the enemy again. The aplustre was, therefore, the representative ornament par excellence of ships, of great symbolic value on which « fulgent Argoæ stellis », as Germanicus wrote in the Aratea phaenomena.

Symbology and myth in ancient ships: the aplustre

Massimo Corradi
2020-01-01

Abstract

The ancient ships had always been equipped with ornaments both in the bow and in the stern, which were generally raised above the other parts of the deck and placed above the point where the helmsman had his seat. The purpose of these ornaments was to flaunt power, but also to intimidate and ward off both evil spirits and enemies. At the bow, in addition to the animal-shaped rostrum, there was a decoration on the top of the bow, the acrostolium (ὰκροστόλιον), an archetype of what would become the figurehead from the 16th century, and above the rostrum, where bow “sees” the sea, i.e. apotropaic eyes. In the stern, an element emerged in importance, which anticipates the symbol par excellence of ancient ships: the aplustre (ἄφλαστον), flanked internally by the chêniscus (χηνίσκος) goose-shaped ornament or more generally a bird’s head. The ornament we want to deal with in this short note is exactly what decorated the top of the stern like a plume: the aplustre. It is an ornament formed of wooden planks, an extension of the planking, which constituted the highest part of the stern of a ship. The aplustre was a one or more volute plume, otherwise in the shape of an animal with a twisted neck or simply a fan like a bird’s tail, a sign of recognition of the ship but also an image of the ship’s tutelary deity. The aplustre was the heart and soul of the warship and had to flaunt the strength and power of a navy; he was endowed with magical powers capable of protecting the ship during combat and of being a guide and protection for the helmsman during navigation. The myth of the aplustre as protection (or tutela) of the boat means that its destruction - as Lucretius and Cicero wrote - had to be teaching seafarers to admonish them in facing the pitfalls and dangers of navigation with the right respect for Poseidon. Not only that, the importance of this object was such that the aplustre was a sought after spoiling of war at the end of a naval battle, for this reason, it was animatedly defended by sailors and furiously coveted by opponents. The strong symbolic value assigned to this constructive-decorative part of the ship also made it a sort of symbol-trophy, which was to be torn from the enemy ship and carried in triumph, otherwise, it was exhibited as an emblem of a naval victory. Vice versa, his loss translated into the image of a tragedy for a defeat suffered a lack that had to be filled with a victory at sea to snatch the coveted trophy from the enemy again. The aplustre was, therefore, the representative ornament par excellence of ships, of great symbolic value on which « fulgent Argoæ stellis », as Germanicus wrote in the Aratea phaenomena.
2020
978-88-3618-042-4
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11567/1038059
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