Sperlonga
Situated on a promontory by the sea a few km S of Terracina, the village has become famous through the discovery in 1957 of a large number of fragmentary sculptures and other antiquities in a nearby grotto.
The grotto had long been associated with a neighboring building identified as a villa of Tiberius, hence its popular name l'Antro di Tiberio. In fact it has been thought that this very grotto had been the scene of the incident, related by Tacitus (Ann. 4.59) and Suetonius (Tib. 39), in which Tiberius was almost killed by falling rocks during a banquet. A circular pond, slightly more than 20 m in diameter, occupied the forward part of the cave, and in front of that lay a large, rectangular pool with a small island in its midst. To left and right, in the depths of the grotto, are two smaller caves, in one of which it is suggested that the Blinding of Polyphemos may have been placed. The disposition of the various sculptures is still a matter for study.
The antiquities found on this site ranged from the 5th c. B.C. (a few red-figure Attic vases) to sculptures and terracotta lamps of late antiquity. The most important among the more than 7000 marble fragments were what proved to belong to five large sculptured groups representing: 1) The blinding of Polyphemos by Odysseus and his companions, 2) The wreck of Odysseus' ship, 3) The killing of Odysseus' companions by Scylla, 4) Menelaos carrying the body of the dead Patroklos, 5) The rape of the palladion by Diomedes and Odysseus.
The identification and reconstruction of these sculptured groups were aided by an inscription in Latin hexameters (datable to the 3d or 4th c. A.D.) in which a certain Faustinus cites three of the groups, adding that they would have evoked the admiration of “the divine poet of Mantua” (i.e., Vergil).
The dating of the Sperlonga group must be computed on stylistic grounds. The style obviously is that of the late Hellenistic “baroque” period, for which we fortunately have a monument dated by external evidence, namely, the reliefs on the Altar of Pergamon, presumably erected by Eumenes of Pergamon in the second quarter of the 2d c. B.C. The delicate modeling of the Sperlonga sculptures suggests original Greek workmanship; and it is significant that the marble of these sculptures has been identified as of the same Rhodian variety as that of the Pergamene reliefs, i.e., lithos larticos.
We may, therefore, surmise that the sculptured groups from Sperlonga were imported from Greece during the time of the Roman conquest of the Hellenistic kingdoms when Greek works of art were brought to Italy in large quantities, and were then set up with new bases on which the original inscriptions were transcribed.
The sculptural groups, as well as the other antiquities found at Sperlonga—eg., a Ganymede, a kneeling satyr, and a portrait of Faustina—are now all admirably installed in a newly built museum. The reconstructed statues and reliefs are in the exhibition galleries; fragments still awaiting identification are in storerooms.
BIBLIOGRAPHYG. Jacopi, L'Antro di Tiberio a Sperlonga (1963); id., L'Antro di Tiberic e il Museo Archeologico di Sperlonga (1965); H. P. L'Orange, “Odysseen i Marmor,” Kunst und Kultur 47 (1964) 193ff with English summary on pp. 227ff; id., “Osservazioni sui ritrovamenti di Sperlonga,” Acta Instituti Romani Norvegiae, II (1965) 261ff; B. Andreae, RömMitt 71 (1964) 238ff; id., Gnomon 39 (1967) 84ff; id., Bild der Wissenschaft (1969) 457ff; P. Krarup, Analecta Romana Instituti Danici 3 (1965) 73ff and 4 (1967) 89ff; id., Acta Instituti Romani Norvegiae 4 (1969) 19ff; H. Sichtermann, “Das veröffentliche Sperlonga,” Gymnasium (1966) 238ff; G. Saflund, “Sulla ricostruzione dei gruppi di Polifemo e di Scilla a Sperlonga,” Opuscula Romana 7,2 (1967) 25ff; P. H. Blanckenhagen, “Laocoon, Sperlonga und Vergil,” Arch. Anz. (1969) 256ff; B. Conticello, “The one-eyed Giant of Sperlonga,” Apollo (1969) 188ff; id., “Restoring the Polyphemus of Sperlonga,” Archaeology 22 (1969) 204ff; E.S.P. Ricotti, “Il Gruppo di Polifemo a Sperlonga, problemi di sistemazione,” RendPontAcc 42 (1969-70) 117ff.
G.M.A. RICHTER