Let me introduce myself, I am a small bust of Jupiter made of embossed silver foil, I am wearing armour and a cloak and I have a thunderbolt on my right breastplate. If you look at me carefully you will notice that the moustache is asymmetrical to give a touch of realism to my face which has a Middle Eastern feel.
My beard and hair are curly and thick, I could be an influencer sponsoring cosmetics for mature men looking for likes. I was found at a post station at the Petit St Bernard pass, the one that connects Aosta with the Isère valley in France. In my day, the pass was called Alpis Graia But which Jupiter am I? Not the classical one worshipped in the main cities of the Roman Empire. In the province of Gaziantep, in that part of Turkey bordering Syria, a fellow of mine was depicted riding a bull with a thunderbolt and a two-pronged axe. His name was Jupiter Dolichenus. He was very popular between the 2nd and 3rd century A.D. so much so that a temple was dedicated to him on the Aventine, his cult was very popular among the soldiers of the army.
Another similar of mine, Jupiter Penninus, presided over the nearby Great St Bernard Pass called Summus Poeninus at the time. He was a deity resulting from the syncretism between the king of Olympus and Penn god of the mountains in the Celtic-Ligurian area, for some time I was mistaken for him, but the thunderbolt on his breastplate he did not have.
The archaeologists who examined me were not soft on me, all body shaming! "He lacks hieraticity," they ruled, "he cannot be Jupiter Dolichenus with those vacuous eyes, the coarse facial features, the strong, squashed nose. I am a Pirandellian character, I am not Nib, I am not Dolicheno and so I became Jupiter Graio. It is not known who moulded me, probably a silversmith from Gaul, what is certain is that more than one Roman officer has invoked me in the snowy mountains of the Valle d'Aosta and that is enough for me to shine from this display case in the regional archaeological museum.
- The work: Jupiter Gracious - 2nd century AD | MAR - Regional Archaeological Museum Aosta
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