The power of rats and rodents in popular beliefs

III. Animals associated with magic

The monument’s imagery includes a dog knocking over a basket of fruit carried by a type of cherub; a griffin attacking a bull; and a rodent gnawing on what appears to be fruit (which is the figure on which the analysis will focus), predominantly scenes of disturbed order, chaos and the unexpected. On the other side of the altar, there is a real story: Acte, Euphrosinus’ freed slave, his wife and Junia’s mother, ran away with Zosimus, her lover and slave. The inscription suggests that some kind of potion was used to sicken Acte’s husband, and she is described as a venenaria. Then Acte can be identified initially as a woman who knows of, makes use of, sells, or distributes venenum. Acte’s husband fell ill, reinforcing the idea that the drug she administered had an effect. The relationship between adultery and potion or poisoning was intrinsic in the Roman imagination, both in the lower and upper classes, so that the accusation of one of these crimes most often implied the accusation of the other. 

The representations of rats and rodents in Ancient Egypt contained a duality that persisted in Greco-Roman culture: weapons of the gods or punishment; life and death; the natural and the supernatural. They were considered to be brave warriors, with various stories in which they helped to defeat armies. Associated with magic, prophecy, and immortality, they could signify fertility and abundance as well as disease, misery and destruction. As it is gnawing on a good fruit that was knocked down by an angel, the rat may refer to Acte’s intervention with his potion, but it may also relate to the quest for justice and revenge: rats were also considered avengers, leading defeats against various ancient armies. Euphrosinus could therefore have used Junia’s funerary tomb and adorned it with a rat precisely to call on the help of his vengeful spirit.

Sara Tolfo