As attributes of Mercury, it is not surprising that both goats and rams occur in fairly large numbers. They also appear in both naturalistic and stylised form. The goat is always shown standing, often with a beard and shaggy coat which is depicted by wavy mouldings or grooves (e.g. 243 and 928). Sometimes the coat is rather coarse, as in the broad ribs on Goat 1157 from Colchester or the stab marks on 418 from Silchester. His horns may rise at an angle straight from the back of the head (928), curl down slightly (243), or rise at the tip (237). He usually has a fairly squat frame and short legs, but Goat 419 from Silchester is a much leaner beast with long slender legs and a long neck. This figurine also has a rib along the back from the head to the rump, where is flicks up to create a small tail. The rib is decorated with longitudinal and transverse parallel grooves.
The ram is usually shown standing as well, but sometimes he is also shown couchant (317, 319 and 444). He has large horns which curl under his ears and his fleece can be shown in a variety of ways including incision (992) and punched rings (718). Two rams (718 and 944) carry panniers on their backs. Given the association of the ram with Mercury, these are thought to represent two purses of Mercury (Henig 1995c, 53). It is likely that some of these goat and ram figurines were once part of Mercury groups, such as figure 55 from St Albans.
© Internet Archaeology/Author(s)
University of York legal statements | Terms and Conditions
| File last updated: Tue Mar 20 2012