Go, see beautiful Senuna

London has a new goddess in a new home.

Heard of Senuna?

No one else had until some golden plaques with her name on it turned up in a Hertfordshire field five years ago.

With a silver stauette so crushed it was originally mistaken for twentieth century silver paper.

Last night the offerings made to her shrine 1700 years ago went on display in the new Weston Gallery of Roman Britain at the British Museum.

She is dressed like the Roman goddess, Minerva, and for a while we thought she was Minerva until a pattern of pin-prick letters in the gold suggested something else.

Who was Senuna?

Perhaps a river diva.

A sort of local Minerva.

There is reference to a river Senua in the Ravenna Cosmography, a kind of gazzeteer created around 700 AD, some 350 years after the date of the offerings now on show.

Supplicants also offered exquisite representations of the goddess Victory, with laurel wreath in hand and foot firmly on the world she might help them rule.

We now have the names of those who made their expensive offerings to Sununa - who stamped their own names, not always very expertly, beside that of their protector.

The fields of Britain often produce clues to their life in the dying Roman empire.

But the results have never been better displayed in Bloomsbury than they are from today.

Go and see the beautiful Senuna. 

Comments

[Judith Fitzgerald]

Oh, you are in good company, both coming and going, then, Susan.

Eliot said amateur writers make allusions, professional ones steal (which is not the same as plagiarism). Works for magpie me-me-meanderthal me :).

Leonard Cohen considers Mr. Clay *his* hero to the point he named his only grandchild, Cassius Lyon, after him.

To tell you the truth, I hadn't given this much thought till you mentioned it; now, I'm curious (mellow). Aside from the fact the "Sir" may intimidate some, what do *you* think?

My tentative observation involves a sense the substance of this blog does not admit of much room for controversy, raverant, or ad hominem / feminam attack, etc. Much of its value resides in areas of objective truth or factual divagation.

Thing is, this is the only place where I do comment (since it ain't gots acrimoniacs). I really look forward to discovering the next direction Sir P. will take (as well as the tributaries you, Tony, Andrew, Dion, and Candadai, et. ilk. will navigate).

It's a guilty entertaining pleasure, IOW, genuinely delightful, invariably enriching, always fitting nicely among my R-L "edit-jobs" (since I work online and don't own a TV). See? I just finished slaughtering a piece :) . . .

Writers are *such* whingers (when they think their perfect copy cannot possibly be improved). Tony'd agree with me, I bet. Part of the beauty here, for me, can be located in the fact everyone accepts typos, digressions, grammatical errors, et so forthia, as the nature of this medium.

But, the individuals who do participate regularly in discussions here, however, are half the reason I do; I like the intelligent, open-hearted, non-combative, and civilised tones. Both poster and commentarians fascinate, impress, charm, welcome, enlighten, and educate yours truly.

It does take a wee investment of time on the part of anyone who cares enough to share; but, it's time well-spent, IMO.

Also, I've "lived" online from the moment it became possible to do so; hence, not much daunts me (except the fact I'm embarrassed to say I've loved computers since my first one, an Osborne 64, acquired in the early eighties. Weird info-bit? Adam Osborne passed away at 64).

I know a couple peeps who read all the time; but, they don't offer their deux because they're either too shy or nervous; I think a lot of writers might consider it risky because of its connection with the TLS and the possibility of damaging the ol' "career."

Pfft! That's unfair to the blogger; 'sides, anyone who considers what they do as "a career" isn't doing their calling justice. (Poetry is my vocation, for example, cultural criticism / literary journalism my avocation. I do the latter to make a living, the former to make a life; and, here? I contribute to make a fool of meself. Keeps me humble . . .).

Speaking of, my favourite quote from Mr. Ali? "At home I am a nice guy; but, I don't want the world to know. Humble people, I've found, don't get very far."

[Susan Balée]

Judith -- Wow, thank you for the kind words. Now I must confess: I borrowed "impossible is nothing" from the late, great Mohammed Ali.

I have to say, something surprises me about this blog: Why are there only a small number of regular commenters? You, Tony Francis, Dion, and Andrew K.? Where is everyone else? After all, this is the editor of the TLS who is posting and his posts are incisive, apposite.

Is it fear of the "Sir"? No comprendo.

[Judith Fitzgerald]

Susan, kudos on your eldest's achievement and condolences on the fact you shall be joining yours truly in not being able to ogle this gorgeous piece of antiquity in the fresh.

She *is* beautiful. And, from what I've read of your comments here, so are you. I look for you when you turn up missing. (You make a big difference, too, IOW.) Now, given your addition to this wonky discussion, I knew there was something I wanted to do:

Thank you for your deux. Impossible is nothing? The sky's no limit when it comes to reading you.

[Susan Balée]

I would like to see this goddess, whatever her name. But the British Museum is out of the picture with first child matriculating at university this fall. Instead, I shall have to be contented with the Metropolitan Museum of Art's new Roman/Greek galleries.

You always render service to the classics, Peter S. You bring their fragments together into coherent wholes -- whole stories. You turn Thomas Jefferson's saying onto its head: "What was lost cannot be recovered, but let us save what remains." It seems that much of what was lost *can* be recovered -- and daily is, from fields in England, or Floridian beaches, or recently, Peru, where the skull of a five-foot-tall penguin was found.

The past is constantly tossing up its artifacts onto the shores of the present. Most people don't care, but when someone like you bears witness...Well, it makes a big difference.

Impossible is nothing.

[Judith Fitzgerald]

Patience is a Victory.

[Dion Per Sona]

Power corrupts.

[Judith Fitzgerald]

Moi? Suggest "straightening out" an irreplaceable Goddess of a treasure, Andrew? Not in this strife. Heavens, no! I was inferring you might be in need of repair to your mind-control beanie since she's on permanent display in Room 49 at the BM and her finder received £35,000 or so for bringing her — and the treasures found with her — back to life.

I can't imagine anyone forking over that kind of moolah for a bit of aluminium-like shiny-silver twentieth-century paper . . .

So, *what* did you pay for your personal beanie, Andrew (and, did you also acquire one for your pet/s)?

Or, is yours home-made (like yours truly, the povert's, is)?

[Judith Fitzgerald]

> My God, what a bunch of bores!

God posts comments here? Who knew? Or, wait a minute! You mean, Sir God, don'tcha?

> Who the .... CARES/

I'll take nobody more than you on the planet, at this moment, for a grandstand, Alex.

[Alex Dahn]

My God, what a bunch of bores!

Who the .... CARES/

[Andrew Kenneally]

Are you suggesting, Judith, that this Senuna/twentieth century silver paper object if straightened out can be used as an aluminium foil head covering?

[Judith Fitzgerald]

Good for you, Andrew! That's the spirit!

But, listen up, Butter Cup :) . . .

Senua's the name. Goddess is the game. You might need to repair your beanie:

http://zapatopi.net/afdb/

[Andrew Kenneally]

I'm sticking with the original "twentieth century silver paper" theory.

[Tony Francis]

Sir Peter, I have been researcing the word "sununa". In Swahili, it means "to regret; to grieve; to experience sorrow." In Sanskrit, it means "son of"; as in "Maya-sununa": "Son of Maya." This comes up in connection with the "Upanishads" and "Bhagwad Gita" which were mentioned in movie "The Razor's Edge". I think this was Bill Murray's greatest performance, better than the one with Tyrone Power. (I am the only person in the world who thinks this!) I love that scene where he is freezing to death and he burns his books. Tzununa (probably a native name) is a river in Guatamala. It is called locally, "Rio Sununa". It is notable because in April, 2007, a 23 year old known locally as "el Diablo" was found in the river, deceased with four gunshot wounds. He had one to the abdomen, but it was probably the one to "la cabeza" that did the trick. (Assuming I read it in Spanish correctly!) Here is something curious: I found several references which seem to replace the Latin word "summa" with "sununa"; as in "She graduated sununa cum laud." I had never seen this before, but my Latin is self-taught. There are several Slavic appearring sites with the term, "sununa kadar" repeated. In East Asian scientific literature, there is a term used: "The data was sununa-tized." It seems to be used in a statistical sense, but I can't track it down any more than that. If it is Asian, it is probably Japanese. Finally, your article is listed both under "Sununa" and "Senuna". Maybe you should consider multple spellings as a matter of course. Gets more coverage on the 'net! Judith: concerning Tertullian, he is another North African Catholic, who then ended his life as a Montanist. Anyway, he ended the "Gnostic" problem, and wrote on the Trinity. Last time I looked, he has at least three writings in the "Literature of the Hours". This means he was "sort of" Catholic enough to get about 1% of the days. This even beats Aquinas. My favorite Tertullian quote: "God is a Spirit, therefore he seeks worshipers who are like Himself." (Thursday, third week of lent.)

[Judith Fitzgerald]

See, Clayton, I thought Sir Peter had already blogged plenty concerning the Man Booker — certainly he's not shied away from measured assessment nor occasional justification of awards or prizes; it's his forte, after all — and, what he wasn't saying concerning Waugh, Conrad, Woolf, Beach, et.al. was judiciously eloquent in its silence.

Why?

There's sublimely subtle method to his modernity :). When he raised the issue of the TLS's decision to re-review Heart of Darkness retro-circumspectually a fornight (!) ago, electing to feature Woolf's re-assessment of Conrad's stunning perfectitude, I thought immediately of Achebe's travestatiously self-serving blandstanding blargument against the masterpiece, the one wherein he posits his opinion it's racist tripe and "totally inconceivable" it's considered great art, a timely (sorry) reminder to the jurors it's totally inconceivable Achebe *could* be considered a serious contender for the Man Booker (given what I personally considered to be, at the time, a rather transparently inverted racism with all the bells and whistles of a self-promo campaign).

I guess it worked, sadly, despite the best efforts of the TLS's editor (who was presciently reading and blogging between the lines of the writing on the wail).

Oh, also, I can't speak for others; but, I earn a living writing and I don't much care what name or model of machine I use, as long as it works, sort of. For me, personally, it's just another name for "typewriter" and, somedays, I count the horseshoes on me arse I can't be charged — in these politically suspect times — with whacking it around when it fails to boot :).

[Judith Fitzgerald]

When I saw her name, I wondered how, if at all, Senua might be connected to Cernunnos and, although I found no evidence of their relationship, I did arrive at a charming cybershrine of sorts, one created to honour Senua's "resurrection," as it were:

http://www.senua.info/

Little did this poet — thank you, Sir Peter, for making my day — know, when I was grinning from thumb-to-thumb tippy-tapping on about Goddesses of Green and suchlike, Senua was 'aving the last larf on me (as Andrew seems generally to do).

Tony, Tertullian was also a Catholic, sort of, IIRC. What an odd assortive that fellow was (and wasn't).

[Clayton Burns]

Breaking in on the trivia for a matter of consuming importance probably will violate some obscure rule, but it's a free world, for the time being, at least. First of all, why doesn't Sir Peter Stothard set some standards for that helpless set called reporters by choosing the Nokia N95 as his reporter's notebook and blogging Inner Station? But really, how could Achebe have won the Man Booker? I would not trade one of Conrad's stories, "An Outpost of Progress," for all of Achebe. Nor would I even consider his work in teaching students from Africa about literature, but instead would favor any of Cormac McCarthy--the worst edited man, witness "Blood Meridian"--Philip Roth, or Don DeLillo, whose "Libra" is a fascinating document. JUST WHAT IS THE justification FOR CHOOSING ACHEBE? Despite his libel of Conrad, his feeble prose, and his failure to develop as a writer. It is beyond impossible. If Kipling were around to hear of it--even T.S. Eliot--there would be a decisive response.

[Tony Francis]

Sir Peter, No apology is necessary. I thought it was amusing, and a learning experience. The word root "Sununa" appears on several Russian chat boards. I can read only a little Russian, so my ability to divine what they are writing about is limited. It would appear to be a name, perhaps a name of endearment. I couldn't find it in any Russian dictionary. Maybe someone knows. It is also to be found on Armenian boards, and even a Thai or Vietnamese board. Maybe it is Greek. One good thing about blogs: the editor can make changes; different from printing it. Speaking of rivers (Senua), there was a program on History Channel about several rivers in London which just disappeared. It turns out they bricked them up in a Roman "circular" fashion, and now they are underground sewers. One can see an 87 second video on History.com, edited down from the 53 minute broadcast program. Type in "London Underground" or "Naked London".

[Peter Stothard]

. . .sorry about one of the spellings, tony. . .SENUNA is our new diva name here. . when i started blogging two years ago, the meisters told me that it would be no trouble at all: i could just tap out a thought or two from the back of a taxi. . . yesterday for the first time i did blog wirelessly from the back of a taxi. . .i'm quite pleased there was only one spelling mistake. . SENUA is right for the river in the Ravenna list that may or may not be related . . .a silver Senuna statue for the bonnet of my Hybrid, Judith?. .only a poet could think of that. . . .

[Dion Per Sona]

THE WORLD-WIDE WATCH WATCH

The prisons were full in Albania, too,
But jailers were scratching their heads:
What in the world are we going to do
With grannies' and pickpockets' beds?
We have serial killers and lunatic drunks,
We have bruisers and losers and paedophile monks,
But the cells that were emptied to fill up a bus
For an "Embassy visit" are no use to us.

[Tony Francis]

Sir Peter, You have spelled the name of this goddess three different ways. Under the spelling of "Senuna", can be found many sites indicating the goddess in the story. Some call it a Celtic-Roman goddess. One suggested that "Sen" in Celtic meant "old". I would have thought this was Latin, as in "senile". Maybe it is like the Celtic-Saxon name "Arthur" which probably came from Celt "arc" and Latin "ursus", or more remotely from the Greek "arktos" for bear. Looking at "Sununa", it appears this a popular name on Russian and Armenian web-sites. There is one Latin quote from "Tertullian Adversus Marcionem I": "Proinde cum duo dii conferuntur, ut duo reges et duo sununa magna, in alterum concerat necesse est unco summi magni et sententia comparationis." But, reading the whole document, the sentence never appears in it! The only Latin I know is what I have taught myself, and this is above my pay grade! Whatever, this sununa was magna! Marcion showed up about 138 AD. He joined the Christian Church, and was kicked out after about 6 years. he was sort of a gnostic, but not really, sort of a Platonist, but not really. He claimed the Christian Church had made the Bible too complicated. Sort of a fundamentalist in fundamental times! Here is my question: Sir Peter, is this planned ambiguity, or was it accidental? Oh yes, there is a family "Sununu" in New Hampshire; the father was the governor, and the son is a US senator. They are Greek, and probably don't figure in this debate.

[Judith Fitzgerald]

:)

Sununa is a hybrid; wonder how the artistocracy at the BM would feel about recycling her as the perfect hood-ornament template? Her image is strikingly ghostly in a gorgeous sort of way. Lovely eye candy. A perfect name for the greening of a once-obscenely careless bunch of people (a.k.a. the planet's population): Goddess of Green.

Amazing she survived at all, let alone so well. Beautiful. Right.

[Candadai Tirumalai]

We know that Hippocrates is the father of medicine, and that many medical terms are Greek in origin. But the classical world survives in other forms. Ask anyone today about Nike, the Greek goddess of Victory, whom you mention, and they are very likely to think of the best-selling athletic shoes.