Representation or presence? Picturing the divine in ancient Rome Jçrg Rüpke 0 Introduction The ancient religions that we try to conceptualize as “traditional religion” or “polis religion”, “civic cults” or “polytheism as an open system” in order to avoid the derogatory term of “paganism” had simply be called “idolatry” by centuries of Jewish or Christian not only polemicists but simple observers. 1 In fact, in using statues housed in temples, ancient religions had a powerful instrument to construct – or, from a different perspective, represent – the divine in a differentiated, polytheistic form. It enabled ritual access, stimulated reflexion, inspired imagination in day or night dreams and visions. It even informed critical philosophical thinking. The gods could be met and addressed in their temples, sacrifices enabled via extispicy to put questions and receive immediate answer. The inquiry into the will of the gods in the many forms of divination frequently draws on this system of representation, too. “Idolatry” seems to be a much less derogatory term today. Or at least, should be. In an age of media innovation, humanities have discovered images as a major object of research. Specialties like art history or iconology have advanced to the centre of research in anthropology as religious studies. Drawing on the concepts and results of such inquiries, I will try to more precisely describe the place of images in Roman religion by asking: Do they and how do they represent the gods? 1 Religion with and without images In his speech in front of the pontiffs, Cicero (106 – 43 BC) protests that Clodius had robbed him of his house without a sufficient legal basis for turning it into a sanctuary, that is, to have consecrated his house, to have made a monument in 1 See Schmidt 1987. – For intensive discussions I would like to thank the colleagues within FIGVRA and Nicole Belayche, the coordinator, in particular. The respective grant of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft is gratefully acknowledged. AUTHOR’S COPY | AUTORENEXEMPLAR AUTHOR’S COPY | AUTORENEXEMPLAR