The ancient Romans were fascinated by mice, and a profusion of small bronze decorative mice have bee
The ancient Romans were fascinated by mice, and a profusion of small bronze decorative mice have been discovered throughout the Roman world. At about 3.8 cm/1.5 in in height, and often shown nibbling food, they may have served an apotropaic function in protecting living spaces, such as stored food¹, or the wicks, wax, and oil of lamps and candles², from being ruined by curious and hungry rodents. Ovid says that Apollo was honored as Smintheus, meaning “of mice”, in the region around Troy, and supposed it was because he protected the fields of farmers from the predation of mice. A small bronze mouse found near Alexandria Troas, and suggested to Ovid that it had been deposited as an offering Apollo Smintheus.³I picked up this little fellow from Westair Museum Reproductions. ¹H.B. Werness. Encyclopedia of Animal Symbolism in Art. London: A&C Black, 2006, p. 285. https://books.google.com/books?id=iBSDddO-9PoC&q=Mouse#v=snippet&q=Mouse&f=false² Kierna, Phillip. “The Bronze Mice of Apollo Smintheus.” American Journal of ArchaeologyVol. 118, No. 4 (October 2014), pp. 601-626. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3764/aja.118.4.0601³ Ovid. Fastorum libri sex. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 265-266. https://books.google.com/books?id=w6uUBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA265&lpg=PA265&dq=aelian+de+natura+animalium+mice&source=bl&ots=jRrc7sHUI8&sig=g7M86QePg48khSI5WBBya-k_6ds&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjp0LuErKfWAhUqwYMKHW-9DJoQ6AEISTAH#v=onepage&q=aelian%20de%20natura%20animalium%20mice&f=false -- source link
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