Tintinnabulum (ancient Rome)

For other uses, see Tintinnabulum (disambiguation).

In ancient Rome, a tintinnabulum (less often tintinnum)^[1] was a wind chime or assemblage of bells. A tintinnabulum often took the form of a bronze ithyphallic figure or of a fascinum, a magico-religious phallus thought to ward off the evil eye and bring good fortune and prosperity.

A bronze polyphallic tintinnabulum of Mercury from Pompeii: the missing bells were attached to each tip (Naples Museum).

Tintinnabulum depicting a man struggling with his phallus as a raging beast (1st century BC, Naples Museum)

A tintinnabulum acted as a door amulet.^[2][3] These were hung near thresholds^[4] at a shop or house, under the peristyles (around the inner courtyard or garden) by the bedroom, or the venereum, where the wind would cause them to tinkle.^[5][2] They were also made to ring like doorbells, a series of them being tied to cord attached to a bell pull.^[6]

The sounds of bells were believed to keep away evil spirits; compare the apotropaic role of the bell in the "bell, book, and candle" ritual of the earlier Catholic Church.^[2][7] It has also been surmised that oscilla hung on hooks along colonnaded porticoes may have comparable evil-warding intents.^[8]

Hand-bells have been found in sanctuaries and other settings that indicate their religious usage, and were used at the Temple of Iuppiter Tonans, "Jupiter the Thunderer."^[9] Elaborately decorated pendants for tintinnabula occur in Etruscan settings, depicting for example women carding wool, spinning, and weaving.^[10] Bells were hung on the necks of domestic animals such as horses and sheep to keep track of the animals, but perhaps also for apotropaic purposes.^[11]

A number of examples are part of the Secret Museum collection at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli.^[12]

See also

• Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum
• Lucky charm (disambiguation)
• Mutunus Tutunus
• Priapus
• Sexuality in ancient Rome