Title

The Unwelcome Guest: Envy and Shame Materialized in a Roman Villa

Authors

Andrew Scholtz, Binghamton University--SUNYFollow

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4615-8068

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Fall 2021

Keywords

Roman villa, Kefallonia, Skala, mosaics, epigraphy, emotion, envy, shame, evil eye, materiality

Abstract

A third-century C.E. inscribed mosaic from Skala, on the Greek island of Kefallonia, has greatly expanded our knowledge of envy’s evil eye in the Roman Mediterranean. Yet its inscription has not drawn the attention it deserves. Paying heed to the literary, affective, and material dimensions of this and other mosaic texts, I explore how the Skala poem, in tandem with the imagery it accompanies, mediates encounters between guest, host, and house. In so doing, it forms part of a decorative program materializing envy as actor in a drama celebrating a householder’s fortune while exposing the envious to general scorn.

Comments

https://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/tapa

Preprint file updated January 3, 2022.

Recommended Citation

Scholtz, Andrew. “The Unwelcome Guest: Envy and Shame Materialized in a Roman Villa.” TAPA 151 (2021): 335-361.