Open Lattice Discussions
A design of lattice-work appears almost everywhere. In its simplest form, the lattice is a basic geometric form, interwoven materials creating squares and diamonds. The most common visual of a simple lattice work design that a majority of people have seen is the chain-link fence or less menacing, a screen door. Meanwhile, the trellis, more specifically the garden trellis on which climbing flowering plants or ivies have a tradition to grow. In his text on the science and treatment of botany Pliny the Younger wrote, in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, how useful trellises, pergolas, and green tunnels were in the course of gardening. They were closing off a garden space, even while giving the area more opportunity to grow (Carroll, 2003; Turner, 2005; Thacker, 1985). The openwork art and architectural style of lattice-work appears in everything from jewelry to windows, from towers to embroidery, from pottery to sculptures (Ching, 1995; Harriss, 1975; Whitfield, 1984).
There are many routes that one can go down within this open topic, so the larger article will focus on the instances where the meanings ascribed to structures with these designs varied between markers of public and open spaces versus areas that were hidden from view. While, this portion in particular will look at the earliest examples, and their descriptions of the lattice as a legal netting. The most wide-reaching description between the different meanings can be qualified between a gateway against a fence or wall, and the differences of the public legal use and private household uses. As designs appear worldwide showing many hundreds of variations appear worldwide the architectural purpose of the inclusion of lattice-work and the notion of a public area will differ, especially based on the rulers in charge and the century in which they lived. But, even if the lattice design could be seen as maybe contradictory (when looked at from a world-wide context, which is pretty ridiculous on it's own), the lattice is used as a design for privacy, as a catcher of false promises, as a gateway, with any name the lattice is an invitation for some and a wall to others.
The Netting
Mesopotamia
In Mesopotamian prehistory, cylindrical seals were [identifiers of leaders] and their transportation around the Fertile Crescent and their discovery in Egypt is a demonstration of widely expanding borders. An example of this was found in Naga-ed-De̛r; one of four such seals, that were all of the Jemdet-Nasr style, has a lattice design patterned with a fish motif (Smith & Simpson, 1998: 15). This style comes from the quintessential tell or settlement mound in Iraq and thus giving the period (3100-2900 BCE) the same name (Langdon, 1931). This period was following the protoliterate (prehistoric) period in Mesopotamia, even though it only comes into vague timely contact with Egypt's also prehistoric Gerzeh/Naqada II Culture (3500-3200 BCE) (Smith & Simpson, 1998: 15; Langdon, 1931; Shaw, 2000).
Another example of the net lattice, shown more literally is seen in a seal relating to the myth of Inanna/Ishtar's and then her husband's, Dumuzid, descent into the underworld dating back to the Akkadians in the 3rd millennium BCE before the Sumerian version came out from the 3rd dynasty of Ur (2112 BCE – 2004 BCE) (Kramer, 1961: 83–86; Wolkstein & Kramer, 1983: 127–135). It appears most like the lattice is a cage, or a net as a punishment for Dumuzid after Inanna died while in the underworld and then returned to life thanks to androgynous figures gala-tura and kur-jara who were made special by the god Enki. Upon returning to the mortal world galla demons came after Inanna and told her that someone needs to take her place. With most of her close servants properly mourning her the next person they visited was Dumuzid, who was living like a lavish king in his wife's absence. Due to this insulting display Inanna had the galla demons drag him down to the underworld until the events of Dumuzid's Dream (Kramer, 1961; Wolkstein & Kramer, 1983).
Another Babylonian reference to lattice is from the Myth of Etana, composed in 2100 BCE, about a Sumerian king who supposedly lived in the 3000s BCE (Nilssen, 1932: 77; Graves, 1960: I, 252). This king, in the myth, "ascends to heaven on an eagle" and is known as "he who stabilized the lands" (Izre'el, 2000). In the Babylonian State, the capital of which was Babylon (founded in 2300 BCE) under the Akkadian Empire with its founding dating back to 2334 BCE, there was a text of the myth that made this ritual clear. The myth of Etana, however, being told over several centuries has been interwoven with a folk legend about the eagle and the serpent. But, the myth itself follows part of the life of the heirless king Etana who daily provides sacrifice to the God Shamash (Hooke, 2004: 6.59). Shamash instructs King Etana to cross over the mountain, where he'll find an eagle that "will guide him to the plant of birth" (Hooke, 2004: 6.60). In the folk story, which turns to backstory in the larger myth, the eagle and a serpent had made a solemn oath of friendship to each other, to protect and provide for each other and each other's young. This plan had worked for a time, but the eagle "conceived of evil in his heart, and broke his oath... [and] devoured the snake's young" (Hooke, 2004: 6.60). The snake asked Shamash to punish the eagle who was able to be captured by the snake with the lattice net that came down from flanking columns. That is when Etana showed up and the eagle, being carried with broken wings, 'led' Etana to the plant of birth, which worked and provided Etana with a long line of succession (Mark, 2011).
In this myth the lattice net is part of a trap and may influence later mythology with the net being used in the same way, as punishment for those who would break their sacred oaths.
Greek and Roman World
In the European tradition the lattice work enclosing a generally open area is called transenna (in Italian) and this gardening practice dates back to the classic period of ancient Greece and Rome, 8th century BCE - 6th century CE. While researching this one particular word, an interesting contradiction came to light, the difference between the English common usage and the direct Italian to English translation. Rather than being the assumed general architecture style of open flow, the translation was either hurdle (according to Google Scholar's automatic translation software), to block off, or a barrier (according to Collin's Dictionary, the Cambridge Dictionary, Bab.la, etc.) with only Merriam Webster stating transenna as a lattice or screen of stone or metal enclosing and protecting a shrine (Merriam Webster), with others including that they mainly appeared in early Christian shrine architecture (Crook, 2000). These artistic styles mainly appear when the shrines are no longer automatically open for all people to visit as the temples and open-air shrines. While this isn't a straight contradiction it shows just how many assumptions might occur based on a slight variation of definition over the centuries.
In the Latinate world one only need look at the capitals themselves. The easiest examples noticed by passersby are the short fences with the lattice design and stout height, they are not much of a hurdle, while still appearing as a point of designed architecture. Also, the windows, lined with stone or marble and the spaces being sometimes filled with clearer thin material such as alabaster (Loth, 2010). This is due to their original use as a public area identifier, being the important symbol to come out of the myth of the Dioskouros.
Reconstruction drawing, Baths of Caracalla, from Sir Banister Fletcher, History of Architecture, 19th Edition.
St. Peter’s Square, Rome (Loth).
Roman Lattice fragment, Santa Maria in Trastevere (Loth).
National Library of Greece, Athens (Loth).
Forecourt railing, U.S. Supreme Court, Washington, D.C. (Loth).
National Valley Bank, Staunton, Virginia (Loth).
National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. (Loth).
House on Seminary Avenue, Richmond, Virginia (Loth).
[All photos above come from Roman Lattice by Calder Loth in 2010 via The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA)].
The Sparta columns connect to the myth of the Dioskouros, which translates to 'Sons of Zeus', and include the goddess in between. To summarize the myth from which arose the Dakana; as mortals Castor and Pollux (aka Polydeuces) were twin sons of the Spartan queen Leda and Zeus (disguised as a swan) and raised along with Leda's husband Tyndareus (Hesiod, frag. 66 in Ziogas, 2013). During their life they accompanied the heroes of Jason's Argonauts, joined the Calydonian Boar Hunt, rescued their kidnapped sister Helene after destroying Athens, raped their cousins' (another set of twin brothers Lynceus and Idas of Messenia) betrothed, the Leucippides ("daughters of the white horse"), Phoebe and Hilaeira, whose father was Leucippus translating to "white horse" (Kerenyi, 1959: 109; Stratikis, 1987: 20–23). and in their last act 'shared the fate of a grave in the valley of Therapnai' (Pindar, Nemean Ode 10 ep3 - ep5).
A./B. Dioscorus battling Giants, Athenian red-figure, Shape: amphora, 400-390 BCE (Photo from Musée du Louvre) – Description: "Detail of one of the Dioscuri twins battling a Gigante from a painting of the Gigantomachia (War of the Giants). The demigod is depicted as a horseman wearing a petasos cap and brandishing a spear. His brother also appears in the painting (see 2nd image).
The Dioscuri, Athenian red-figure, Shape: kylix, 450 BCE-5th c. BCE. (Photo from National Archaeological Museum of Ferrara) – Description: The Dioscuri twins, Castor and Polydeuces, march on Marathon to recover their abducted sister Helene from Theseus. The pair are depicted as horsemen armed with spears.
*Their sister Helene was the same Helen of Troy, but the twins died before she was kidnapped years later by Paris to Troy so they didn't participate in the Trojan War (Atsma, 2019).
When Castor fell in battle Polydeuces got revenge and then was killed by Ida, who Zeus then struck with a thunderbolt before making Polydeuces a god. Because of the brothers' connection of love and friendship Polydeuces refused to rise if his brother stayed dead. Zeus acquiesced and brought up Castor as well, giving them both access to the mortals and the gods on alternating days (Pindar Nemean Ode 10 ep3 - ep5; Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 136 - 137). The Gemini twins also became the gods of St. Elmo's Fire [an electrical discharge which appears on the rigging of ships portending deliverance from a storm], along with horsemanship, and the protection of travelers and guests, as they were constantly traveling between and the guests of two of the realms (Lycophron, Alexandra 564 ff, Greek poet 3rd BCE).
These brothers show up on coinage, in paintings, as statues, on shrines, and had their own temple.
1 a/b: Dioscuri, Rome, Capitol (Photo from NoJin).
2: Coin of Antiochus VI with Dioskouroi (Photo by Uploadalt at the MET).
3 a/b: Copies of the Dioscuri paintings in Pompeii at the House of the Dioscuri. The authentic paintings are housed at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (Lil Herodotus, 2019).
4: Relief (2nd century BC) depicting the Dioskouroi galloping above a winged Victory, with a banquet (theoxenia) laid out for them below. Inscription: ‘To the Great Gods, Danaa daughter of Aphtonetos (Atthoneiteia)’. (Marie-Lan Nguyen, 2011).
5: Roman sarcophagus (160 CE) depicting the rape of the Leucippides, Phoebe, and Hilaeira (Vatican Museum).
6: Fragmentary remains of the Temple of Castor and Pollux in Rome (2005).
7: Pair of Roman statuettes (3rd century AD) depicting the Dioscuri as horsemen, with their characteristic skullcaps (Metropolitan Museum of Art).
Here, as well as in the Mesopotamian region, lattices were important for making oaths and contracts while in their presence, as the gods were watching. This shows up in the mythology with their sister Helene as a third pillar or as a subject between them, providing the connection. Alternately, because the twins' visages often appear flanking roads or votive offering shrines for travelers or guests, the twin motif provides its own connection, which was deeply engrained in the society of the time (Browning, 1997; Parker, 2003) But most importantly to the lattice point the Spartan aniconic representation of the Tyndaridai/Dioscuri was two upright posts joined by a cross-bar, called the dókana meaning "beam figure" (Burkert, 1985; Kerenyi, 1959: 107; Sekunda, 1998: 53).
In Laconia, the region of southern Greece in which Sparta ruled, their prodigal daughter and sometimes goddess Helen/e has been pictured in reliefs from before the 2nd century BCE "as a stiff xoanon 'wooden image' (Nilsson, 1932: 73)" (Silver, 1992: 100). On the Laconian cup from 550 BCE, from Pipili, 1987, was shown as a lattice between two snake-entwined pillars, one of which is depicted as behind another lattice (Pipili, 1987). The Dókana relief moved from the Laconia/ Spartan lotus flower (on the left) to the Greek world through the lattice design with the belief that between the vertical pillars Helene watches as an oath goddess along with her brothers. This connection is derived from her epithet 'Rhamnusian' in the nearby Attica [where Athens lies], where she is typically depicted with a torch or wicker basket because of their presence in underground repositories and treasuries (Silver, 1992: 100). This is believed to be another link to Babylonian texts due to the position of the handmaids as watchers being comparable to the Babylonian 'nadītu' or businesswomen-preistesses as treasury protectors (Silver, 1992: 100).
The goddess in the window is also sometimes shown as Aphrodite within the larger myth connecting to the lattice as a net, shown binding either the seated Hera or Ares and Aphrodite, as an "ensnared pair", at Mt. Etna, one of the mythological homes of Hephaestus (Od. 8.266-389: Brukert, 1985:154, 168; Grimal, 1986; Silver, 1992: 289). There is a another contradiction between Sparta and Athens (since they were so often adversaries) as it applies to the lattice design and how it applies to the Gods. In Athens it was Apollo that had the had the title prostates, meaning 'one who stands before' (LSJ s.v.) and name variant Apellōn, which appeared in the meanings (attested by fifth century scholar Hesychius) of the words for 'meetings' and 'sheepfolds' (Gutherie, 1950), the latter of which is described as a lattice-like fence where meetings would often take place (Silver, 1992: 289-90).
This also continued into the future through Judaism via the story of Samson and, separately, the pillars of Solomon's temple in Israel, as well as the Grecian evolution of the brother pillars and the connection to Athena with the latticed windows in her temples (Silver, 1992).
Continuation...
Columns with netting around the top will, over time mean that this netting will create links and will later become gateways to the heavens and to the halls of Hades and beyond. Which will be continued in the next part of this.
Completely disconnected from this world lie art and architecture in the Maya lowlands. As it was the inspiration for my interest in the subject I won't do the lattice portion of the Puuc style the disservice of leaving it short at the end of another subject article. I will, however, focus on it's importance in the next article because it's meaning connects to public works and swearing oaths.
Beautiful how people around the world have similar ideas, isn't it.
Additional Reading:
Mohamed, J. (2015).The traditional arts and crafts of turnery or mashrabiya (Doctoral dissertation, Rutgers University-Camden Graduate School): 1–33.
If you want to read the Sumerian version of the Inanna-Ishtar myth. Dalley 1989, p. 154.
If you have a thing for maths:
Simplex-lattice designs by the Engineering Statistics Handbook
Citations:
Atsma, A. (2019). DIOSCURI (Dioskouroi) - Greek Gods of Horsemanship & Protectors of Sailors. Retrieved 6 July 2020, from https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Dioskouroi.html.
Browning, W. R. F.(1997), "Dioscuri",A Dictionary of the Bible, Oxford University Press.
Burkert, Walter (1985), Greek Religion, Cambridge: Harvard University Press: 212–13.
Carroll, M. (2003).Earthly paradises: ancient gardens in history and archaeology. Getty Publications.
Ching, Francis D.K. (1995). A Visual Dictionary of Architecture. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: 27. ISBN0-471-28451-3.
Crook, J. (2000).The Architectural setting of the Cult of Saints in the Early Christian West c. 300-c. 1200. Clarendon Press.
Dalley, Stephanie (1989), Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-283589-5.
Harriss, Joseph (1975).The Eiffel Tower:Symbol of an Age. London: Paul Elek: 63. ISBN0236400363.
Hooke, S. H. (2004). Middle eastern mythology. Courier Corporation. Ch. 6: 59-60.
Izre'el, S. (2000). Linguistics and Poetics in Old Babylonian Literature: Mimation and Meter in Etana. Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society, 27(1), 2429.
Kerényi, Karl. (1959). The Heroes of the Greeks, Thames and Hundson: 105–12 et passim.
Kramer, Samuel Noah (1961), Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C.: Revised Edition, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, ISBN 978-0-8122-1047-7,
Langdon, S. (1931). New texts from Jemdet Nasr.Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,63(4), 837-844.
Lerner, M. (1984).The flame and the lotus: Indian and Southeast Asian art from the Kronos collections. Metropolitan museum of art.
Mahuika, N. (2019). Rethinking Oral History and Tradition: An Indigenous Perspective. Oxford University Press, USA.
Mark, Joshua J. (02 Mar 2011)."The Myth of Etana." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia. https://www.ancient.eu/article/224.
Mohamed, J. (2015).The traditional arts and crafts of turnery or mashrabiya (Doctoral dissertation, Rutgers University-Camden Graduate School): 1–33.
Parker, Robert Christopher Towneley (2003), "Dioscuri", in Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Anthony (eds.). The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford University Press.
Pipili, M. (1987). Laconian Iconography of the 6th Century BC.
Sekunda, Nicholas "Nick" Victor & Hook, Richard. (1998). The Spartan Army. Osprey Publishing: 53, ISBN 1-85532-659-0.
Shaw, Ian, ed. (2000).The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press. p. 479.ISBN0-19-815034-2.
Smith, W. S., & Simpson, W. K. (1998).The art and architecture of ancient Egypt. Yale University Press.
Stratikis, Potis (1987), Greek Mythology, B, pp. 20–23.
Thacker, C. (1985).The history of gardens. Univ of California Press.
Thapar, Binda (2004).Introduction to Asian Architecture. Singapore: Periplus Editions: 16–17. ISBN0-7946-0011-5.
Turner, T. (2005).Garden history: Philosophy and design 2000 BC–2000 AD. Routledge.
Whitfield, Roger (ed). (1984). Treasures from Korea: Art Through 5000 Years, British Museum Publications: 68. ISBN0-7141-1430-8, 9780714114309.
Wolkstein, Diane; Kramer, Samuel Noah (1983), Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer, New York City, New York: Harper & Row Publishers, ISBN 978-0-06-090854-6.
Ziogas, I. (2013).Ovid and Hesiod: the metamorphosis of the catalogue of women. Cambridge University Press.