Resources > Domestic Devotion
Dr Alexandra Sofroniew visited the Centre for the Study of Ancient Material Religion at The Open University on 4th May 2023 to give a paper entitled ‘From public to private: votive religion returns to the home’. After the seminar, Jessica Hughes and Alexandra Sofroniew were joined by Emma-Jayne Graham and Dominic Dalglish to record an audio discussion about ‘domestic devotion’ in the ancient Roman world. The discussion also features the voice of Professor Rina Arya, talking about domestic devotion in contemporary Hindu homes.
You can listen to this recording via Soundcloud.
Programme structure and timecodes:
0.00 Introduction; 0.45 Alexandra Sofroniew on ancient Greek and Roman household gods, and where and when they were venerated; 6.03 Emma-Jayne Graham on sensory and lived religion approaches to Roman lararia; 11.39 Dominic Dalglish on differences between devotional objects in temples vs homes; 18.08 Venus and Jupiter in domestic shrines; 20.10 Rina Arya on contemporary Hindu domestic shrines; 27.12 Studio responses to Rina Arya; 35.30 Emma-Jayne Graham on a fresco from the House of Sutoria Primigenia in Pompeii; 37.40 Alexandra Sofroniew on a Pompeian household shrine collection; 39.00 Dominic Dalglish on a bronze figurine of Jupiter.
Further reading and resources:
Arya, Rina (2022) Collections in Hindu domestic shrines (digital essay written for the Gods’ Collections project) [Open Access].
Flower, Harriet (2017) The Dancing Lares and the Serpent in the Garden: Religion at the Roman Street Corner, Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Graham, Emma-Jayne (2021) ‘At home with the Lares: lived religion rematerialised at Pompeii’, in Material Religion in Pompeii, Issue 10 of the Open Arts Journal [Open Access].
Haug, Annette and Kreuz, Patric-Alexander (2021) ‘The diversity of Pompeii’s domestic cult activity’ in Material Religion in Pompeii, Issue 10 of the Open Arts Journal [Open Access]. NB. Figure 1.5 of this essay shows the ‘sausages’ fresco discussed in the audio by Emma-Jayne Graham at 35.30.
Hughes, Jessica (2021) (ed) Material Religion in Pompeii, Issue 10 of the Open Arts Journal [Open Access].
Sofroniew, Alexandra (2016) Household Gods: Private Devotion in Ancient Greece and Rome (Los Angeles, CA: The J. Paul Getty Museum).
Bronze figurine of Jupiter holding a sceptre and thunderbolt. 17.8cm. From the collections of The British Museum. Museum catalogue number 1865,0103.36
Recording the audio discussion in the Department of Classical Studies at The Open University campus in Milton Keynes.