McKenzie Kuhn Ancient Romance Final Paper Closer to Nature 12/13/13

You cant make it very far in any town or city in the United States without running across a go green tote bag or a storefront marketing local goods-all of which meant to promote environmentalism. Though the modern push to be environmentally friendly is largely backed by scientific evidence of anthropogenic influence on the climate, David Sills points out in his article, The Environmental Movement and Its Critics, the increased interest in the environment is not entirely due to the need to save the earth (1). The push is more of a fad, the popular thing to champion. Evidence that this movement involves more than just environmental concerns can be found anywhere. Internet sites boost ways to join the movement and get closer to nature. However, there are a few twists. Modernfarmer.com is a webpage that promotes local farms and even has a 24-hour goat cam set up so the viewer can experience farm life from anywhere in the world. But while waiting for the goat cam to load sponsored commercials from car companies cover the page. The presence of these ads invalidates the site as purely environmental because large car companies and the car industry in general play a major roll in global climate change and the emission of fossil fuels (US EPA). The car commercial shows that the site is more about the consumer and profit than the environment. Another site, eatlocalgrown.com, has an interactive map to help viewers find local produce in their area. The webpage also posts articles and videos related to the local movement. One article is for city dwellers looking to bring nature inside-Window Farms: How to Grow a Garden in Your Apartment. This article promotes a way to enjoy nature in an unnatural urban setting (more to come on gardens in the

following sections). Alone, this article seems to be just a simple way for people to experience more of nature. However, this article is coupled with titles such as Top 10 Ways to Prepare Kale and 20 Ways to Build a Whole Food Kitchen on a Budget. These titles go beyond simply getting closer to nature and become more directed towards the popularity associated with eating more locally. The website plays to the fad, not the actual environmental problem. Even though there is scientific reason supporting the growth in the environmental movement, it can largely be viewed as a fad; nature is a popular thing to be interested in. But nature, as a fad, is not related to modern times. Evidence of nature movements can be found throughout the centuries. In the 1800s the Transcendentalists lead a religious and social movement focused on moving away from the corrupt city and into virtuous nature. In Ralph Waldo Emersons poem, Nature, he depicts nature as pure and good: She is gamesome and good, But of mutable mood,-- No dreary repeater now and again, She will be all things to all men. (Nature II, 2.0-2.4) In contrast to nature being viewed as good, transcendentalists depicted the urban lifestyle as bad. Henry David Thoreau says in his essay, Walking, that he does not understand why his neighbors do not enjoy nature like he does, to say nothing of the moral insensibility, of my neighbors who confine themselves to shops and offices the whole day for weeks and months, aye, and years almost together(Thoreau, 6). Thoreau and the transcendentalist movement wanted to

escape the urban lifestyle and connect with nature at a deeper level. The popularity of nature did not stop in the 1800s. Evidence of similar nature fads can be found all the way back to ancient times. The question is: why do these environmental movements occur? What drives humans to want to be out in nature opposed to the city? This paper will approach this question from the ancient perspective by looking at why particular objects of interests, such as mansions, statues, and fossils, were placed in natural settings and not urban settings. In ancient times, even powerful leaders took part in the nature fad. Just east of the busy streets of Rome, lie the ruins of a spectacular villa that used to be owned by the emperor Hadrian. This once grand estate is a spectacle for modern tourists from all over the world with its intriguing architecture, rich history, and beautiful location. Many emperors had lavish mansions, but Tivoli stands apart with its spectacular location in the hills. Why would Hadrian build his mansion in the hills and not in Rome? Dwight Burrage, who wrote about his own trip to Tivoli, states that this particular location was most likely picked because, Hadrian probably wanted plenty of room for carrying out his plans and to have his grounds include hill and valley and plains and views of the mountains from below. Thus he could best reproduce the famous scenes in other lands that he had visited(340). Hadrian wanted to put his home in a place where he could experience, or recreate, the best features of nature. In the center of the villa, Hadrian built an Egyptian style canal, the Canopus, lined with statues of alligators in order to bring the essence of Egypt alive in the estate. Hadrian had a found attachment for Egypt, which can be seen in the statues of his lover, Antinous, depicted as the god Osiris (Mari and Sgalabro,

102). His mansion stood as the pinnacle nature lovers get-a-way. Hadrian could escape the city and come to Tivoli to enjoy nature in high fashion. Tivolis location in an all-encompassing natural setting allowed Hadrian to not only recreate features of nature from other places, but also scenes from his favorite myths. Statues of popular mythical characters were placed all over the villa to bring the stories to life. One of the most famous statues found at Tivoli is the Centaurs by Aristeas and Papias. The statue is comprised of a half man, half horse figure laughing while carrying game over its shoulder. Traditionally, as Alex Scobie puts it in his article, The Origins of Centaurs, centaurs, represent the fierce and rough aspects of nature(1). This statue could have been placed in Rome for more people to see. However, by placing it in the villa, it allows the spectator to experience a more realistic picture of the stories associated with the centaur. In the city, the centaur would have been out of place. Hadrian was not the only emperor to join the nature movement. At the summer home of Tiberius, called Sperlonga, a statue of Andromeda presides on the top of a cliffs edge for all visitors to see. In the story of Andromeda, she is chained to the side of the cliff as a sacrifice to a sea monster, but before the sea monster can act Perseus swoops in and saves her then kills the monster (Perseus and Andromeda). As visitors approach Sperlonga, they are transported back in time by the presence of the statue and feel as if they are actually a part of the myth. Viewing Andromedas statue in a museum or temple would only let the spectator imagine what the scene could have been like. By placing the statue on the cliff, the viewers are actually

thrown into the scene and feel more connected to the story as if they were a part of it. Even though Hadrian was not the only emperor to enjoy the beauty of nature there are signs that not every emperor enjoyed this fad in ancient times. Evidence for this keenness to nature being just a fad can be seen in the use of Tivoli after Hadrians tenure. Burrage tells us, The fact that so little attention is given to the Villa by other ancient authors would seem to indicate that the later emperors made little use of the palace (339). If getting out into nature was more than just a fad, it can be assumed that the other emperors after Hadrian would have utilized the facilities. Not every person in ancient times had the resources to build rustic summer homes away from the city. However, this did not stop city dwellers from joining the nature movement. Just as Hadrian staged ancient myths in his natural villa, urbanites staged scenes of the supernatural in their gardens. People who lived in the city would use their gardens as a means to bring nature to the city in the most realistic way possible. As William Doolittle puts it, even in modern times, Urban dwellers seem to strive relentlessly to set aside areas that at least in some feeble way attempt to mimic the natural world (398). In the city of Pompeii, residents would decorate their interior gardens with statues and mosaics of supernatural myths, Pan playing in the syrinx, Hercules at the hunt(Bergmann, 142). Both of these supernatural characters entail stories of nature. The god, Pan, invokes an image of the rustic countryside, for the god is a half man and half goat who takes

care of the sheep (Merivale, 297). While Hercules on the hunt automatically has the viewer imagining a natural setting where beasts would be hunted. Putting these figures in the garden allowed for the myths to be recreated without having to leave the city. The garden acted as a substitute for nature allowing for the resident to feel closer to the supernatural stories. In addition to statues, residents also had murals that depicted beautiful scenes of myth and nature installed around the interior gardens. Paintings of birds, flora, beasts and the supernatural covered the garden walls. In the House of Venus there is a fresco of the goddess surrounded by the sea with the appearance of sunlight in the background, Together, the atmosphere created by the trees, water, birds, sunlight, and fragrant flowers beside the nude goddess implies the primacy of the senses (Bergmann, 152). The mural makes the viewer feel like they are closer to nature through imitation. Gardens and mural allowed the urban citizen to join the fad and bring nature within the city bounds. Moving away from the city and back into nature, this next section focuses fossils and their roll in the nature fad. In antiquity, when fossils were discovered, they were thought to be the bones of gods or mythical beasts such as Achilles, Ajax, and the Monster of Troy, extinct animals captured the imaginations of ancient Greeks and Romans and matched their search image for the corpses of primeval giants and monsters long ago buried in the earth (Mayor, 71). In particular, near Samos, ancient people thought they had found the remains form the battle between Dionysus and the Amazons. And although most fossils were transported to temples

in far away places much like they are transported to museums today, some of these bones stayed at Samos as tourist attractions (Mayor, 55). As the myth of the battle goes, Dionysus and his elephants encountered the women of the Amazon in the area around Samos and defeated them, leaving the ground red from the spilt blood (Mayor, 55). A tourist visiting these bones would be able to see the red soil and envision the battle taking place right where they were standing, transporting them back in time. Though the spectator would still be able to imagine the size of the elephants and amazon women if they saw the bones in a temple, they would be disconnected from the natural setting of the battle and, therefore, not feel as close to the battle as they would standing on the field where it supposedly took place. The popularity of nature has been a reoccurring fad through out the course of human civilization. Though evidence of the fads is found in many different forms, from gardens to large summer mansions, the motivations behind participating in these fads are timeless. In each of the cases previously examined, nature (or replica nature) and the objects placed in nature act as a way for the spectator to feel closer to the past. William Doolittle wrote, As the human species became increasingly more civilized, culturally advanced, and economically developed, its member were progressively distance figuratively, literally and unwittingly from nature (398). As a group, we have moved farther away from our roots. Escaping to the mountains, or sitting in a garden imagining the statue of Achilles coming to life and going on the hunt transports the spectator back in time and closer to our natural inclination to be a part of nature.

As a demonstration of the popularity of nature and its roll as a fad, a complimentary website has been created to go along with this project. Following the set up of a modern environmental website, like the pages previously mentioned, this website has a 21st century appearance with an ancient twist. As discussed earlier, enjoying nature is a reoccurring fad and the reasons associated with its popularity are timeless. This website, Ancient Yuppie, offers the ancient nature lover all of the amenities that the modern nature lover enjoys such as travel tips, places to visit, ways to get closer to nature, merchandise, and much more. Check it out at www.ancientyuppie.weebly.com.

Works Cited Doolittle, William. Gardens Are Us. We Are Nature: Transcending Antiquity and Modernity. Geographical Review. Vol. 94.3, pp. 391-404. 2004. Bergmann, Bettina. Staging the Supernatural: Interior Gardens of Pompeian Houses. From Pompeii and the Roman Villa by C, Mattush. 2008. Burrage, Dwight. A Visit to Hadrians Villa at Tivoli. The Classical Journal. Vol. 24.5, pp. 338-345. 1929. Mayor, Adrienne. The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times. Chaper 2: Earthquakes and Elephants: Prehistoric Remains in Mediterranean Lands. Princeton University Press. 2000. Sills, David. The Environmental Movement and Its Critics. Human Ecology. Vol. 3.1, pp. 1-41. 1975. Scobie, Alex. The Origins of Centaurs. Folklore, Vol. 89.2, pp. 142-147. 1978. Thoreau, Henry David. Walking. From http://www.mckinley.k12.hi.us/ebooks/pdf/wlkng10.pdf Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Nature II," May-Day and Other Pieces (1867).

United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). Climate Change: Basic Information. http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/basics/ . Retrieved 11/31/13. Mari, Zaccari., Sgalambro, Sergio. The Antinoeion of Hadrians Villa: Interpretation and Architectural Reconstruction. The Journal of Archeaology. Vol. 111.1, pp. 83-104. 2007. Perseus and Andromeda. Greek and Roman Mythology. Mark Twain Media Inc. Publishers. Retrieved from http://www.jefftwp.org. Merivale, Particia. D.H Lawrence and the Modern Pan Myth. Texas Studies in Literature and Language, Vol. 6.3, pp. 297-305. 1964.

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