Gender and Inscribed Epigram: Herennia Procula and the Thespian Eros

Abstract

A marble statue base found at Thespiae preserves an elegiac couplet about Praxiteles' Eros signed by one Herennia Procula (BCH [1926] 404-6). This poet, who is absent from surveys of ancient women writers, is here identified as a member of a wealthy Roman family resident at Thessalonica (IG X 2.1 no. 70). The couplet, which was probably composed for a copy of the Eros statue made to replace the original removed by Nero, makes sophisticated allusion to a series of epigrams about Praxiteles' Cnidian Aphrodite, but with a key variation that points to the nature of the worship of Eros at Thespiae. Plutarch's Amatorius, set during the celebration of the Thespian Erotidia, provides important parallels to show that the Praxitelean Eros had by the early Flavian period become an object of veneration for women hoping for happy and sexually fulfilling marriages.

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