Britannia (personification)

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The Britannia , lithograph (19th century). Typical representation as a personification of the British ( Union Jack , British lion) sea power ( Tritonic trident, merchant ship).

The figure of Britannia is understood to mean the national allegory (national figure ) of Great Britain , i.e. a personalization and transfiguration of the British people and territory based on the Greco-Roman model.

Antique model

The national allegory of Britannia goes back to Pallas Athene , patron goddess of the city-state of Athens or her Roman counterpart Minerva , one of the three patron deities of Rome . Both goddesses stand for wisdom and state community and were described with the Latin term genius loci , which literally means “the spirit of the place”. In this sense, genius loci describes the spiritual atmosphere of a place, which should be shaped by the spirit of the people who have stayed or are still there.

The female genius of the Roman province of Britain was therefore worshiped as a deity by the Romano-British under the name Britannia . If one wishes to refer explicitly to the area conquered by the Romans, one also speaks of Britannia Romana (Roman Britain), in contrast to non-Roman Britain also referred to as Britannia Barbara (Wild / Foreign Britain).

In modern times, the name of the former Roman province that existed in ancient times in the territory of the respective contemporary state was often chosen - in analogy to Britannia if a corresponding Roman deity was missing. Examples are Austria, Germania or Helvetia.

etymology

Britannia is derived from the Latin name Britanni for the inhabitants of the largest of the islands (what we now call the British Isles ) in the North Sea , whereas Britanni is derived from the much older Greek Prettanoí . The oldest report about the "British" goes on an expedition of the Greek Pytheas around the year 325 BC. BC back. Albion , the other ancient name for Britain, is Celtic or pre-Celtic in nature.

Typical representation

One ace coin with the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius on the obverse and the Britannia on the reverse, dating from 154
Coin from 1936; from 1860s for approx. 100 years with changing images of monarchs on the front and unchanged Britannia on the reverse shown here

Antique illustration

After the southern part of the British Isles was conquered by the Romans in 43 and integrated into the Roman Empire , the genius loci of the country - the goddess Britannia - was worshiped. Coins and other evidence show that in the 2nd century Britannia was usually depicted as a martial deity with a trident, a battle shield and a Corinthian battle helmet.

In the centuries after the Romans withdrew from the British Isles, the British -Roman deity Britannia was largely forgotten as a result of the conquest by the Germanic Angles , Saxons and Jutes as well as the colonization by William the Conqueror in 1066 and the gradual Christianization associated with it .

Representation in the English Renaissance

The Britannia at Plymouth - Memorial to the Battle of Hastings

When a national identity was formed in the middle of the 16th century and a nation state developed with the Act of Union in 1707 , in Renaissance Britain under Queen Victoria I - as in other European states - there was an anthromorphization and transfiguration of one's own people and country based on the Greco-Roman model. Modern Britannia as the personification of British naval power took the place of the old patron goddess. She kept the Corinthian helmet as an expression of military strength. The Union Jack was now emblazoned on the protective shield as a national symbol. Characteristic of the British military dominance at sea, Britannia holds a tritonic trident and, if possible, was depicted in front of a merchant ship, which stands for commercial sea dominance, and a British lion, which embodies the glorious and powerful (constitutional) monarchy.

Naming

Since Britannia symbolizes British values, ideals and patriotism, it often served as the namesake:

One of the first stamps from the Free Irish State by overstamping stamps in circulation until independence

Watermark / postage stamp

The Britannia is also a very popular motif for watermarks in Great Britain. It is widely used from securities (stocks, checks) to stationery. She is usually depicted seated and timeless (indefinite Union Jack ). An example of this can be seen on this commercial website at papermoulds.typepad.com

bibliography

  • Stephen Allen: Lords of Battle: The World of the Celtic Warrior . Osprey Publishing, 2007, ISBN 1-84176-948-7 .
  • Robin George Collingwood: Roman Britain and the English Settlements . Biblo & Tannen Publishers, 1998, ISBN 0-8196-1160-3 .
  • Norman Davies: The Isles a History . Macmillan, 2000, ISBN 0-333-69283-7 .
  • Hewitt, Virginia. "Britannia (fl. 1st – 21st cent.)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition 2007, accessed 28 Aug 2011
  • Christopher Snyder: The Britons . Blackwell Publishing, 2003, ISBN 0-631-22260-X .
  • M. Dresser (ed.), 'Britannia', Patriotism: the making and unmaking of British national identity, vol. 3
  • R. Samuel, National fictions (1989), pp. 26-49
  • Britannia depicta: quality, value and security, National Postal Museum (1993)
  • H. Mattingly, Nerva to Hadrian, reprint (1976), vol. 3 of Coins of the Roman empire in the British Museum
  • JMC Toynbee, The Hadrianic school: a chapter in the history of Greek art (1974)
  • M. Henig, 'Britannia', Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae , 3/1 (1983), pp. 167-69
  • KT Erim, 'A new relief showing Claudius and Britannia from Aphrodisias', Britannia, 13 (1982), pp. 277-81
  • H. Peacham, Minerva Britannia, or, A garden of heroical devises (1612)
  • J. Thomson, Britannia: a poem (1729)
  • R. Strong, Gloriana, the portraits of Queen Elizabeth I (1987)
  • HA Atherton, Political prints in the age of Hogarth. A study of the ideographic representation of politics (1974)

Web links

Commons : Britannia  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bernhard Maier : History and culture of the Celts . Verlag CH Beck , Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-64140-4 , p. 215 ( excerpt online , Google Books [accessed November 9, 2014]).
  2. ^ Iron Age. BBC , accessed November 10, 2014 .
  3. ↑ Wrecksite: SS Britannia († 1941)
  4. ↑ Daily Mail April 14, 2011: "A thousand rather popular pubs ..."