{"id":999,"date":"2014-09-17T13:15:55","date_gmt":"2014-09-17T13:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ajaonline.org\/2014\/09\/17\/1861\/"},"modified":"2024-08-13T03:46:14","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T03:46:14","slug":"1861","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/1861\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bronze Mice of Apollo Smintheus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hellenistic-Roman bronze mouse statuettes have traditionally been connected to the god Apollo Smintheus, who appears in the opening scenes of the <em>Iliad <\/em>and who was venerated in Asia Minor. A careful examination of their findspots and the dating of the statuettes show that this association is erroneous. In fact, the mouse statuettes were attached to bronze oil lamps, candelabra, lampstands, and other pieces of furniture. They refer directly to the common problem of mice gnawing at wicks and drinking lamp oil, a nuisance that is documented in various ancient texts. Mice were a popular motif that not only created a trompe l&rsquo;oeil effect but also invoked Hellenistic and Roman literary and artistic traditions of an inverted world in which mice undertook human activities that were out of proportion to their small size.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hellenistic-Roman bronze mouse statuettes have traditionally been connected to the god Apollo Smintheus, who appears in the opening scenes of the Iliad and who was venerated in Asia Minor. A careful examination of their findspots and the dating of the statuettes show that this association is erroneous. In fact, the mouse statuettes were attached to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[904],"tags":[22,28,35,37,53],"issues":[144],"region":[801],"class_list":["post-999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-smallfinds","tag-arthistory","tag-antiquitiestradeartmarket","tag-religioncult","tag-lamps","issues-144","region-italy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Bronze Mice of Apollo Smintheus | October 2014 (118.4) | American Journal of Archaeology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/1861\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Bronze Mice of Apollo Smintheus | October 2014 (118.4) | American Journal of Archaeology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hellenistic-Roman bronze mouse statuettes have traditionally been connected to the god Apollo Smintheus, who appears in the opening scenes of the Iliad and who was venerated in Asia Minor. A careful examination of their findspots and the dating of the statuettes show that this association is erroneous. In fact, the mouse statuettes were attached to [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/1861\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Journal of Archaeology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/aja.journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-17T13:15:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-08-13T03:46:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/1184_Kiernan.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"558\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"aja\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"aja\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/1861\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/1861\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"aja\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#\/schema\/person\/711697bfd0087a94589eecedb525bf52\"},\"headline\":\"The Bronze Mice of Apollo Smintheus\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-17T13:15:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-13T03:46:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/1861\/\"},\"wordCount\":140,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/1861\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/1184_Kiernan.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Small Finds\",\"Art History\",\"Antiquities Trade\/Art Market\",\"Religion\/Cult\",\"Lamps\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Article\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/1861\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/1861\/\",\"name\":\"The Bronze Mice of Apollo Smintheus | October 2014 (118.4) | American Journal of Archaeology\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/1861\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/1861\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/1184_Kiernan.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-17T13:15:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-13T03:46:14+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/1861\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/1861\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/article\/1861\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/1184_Kiernan.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ajaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/1184_Kiernan.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":558,\"caption\":\"Detail of mouse (lgth. 3.0 cm) on shelf from the Augusta Raurica hoard (S. 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