The Green Man: a Pagan Relic of Roman Times?

Have you ever heard of the Green Man?

A Green Man is drawing or carving of a human face with either leaves instead of hair or leaves spewing out of the facial cavities.

If you live in a city in Europe or the New World with buildings dating to the 19^th century or earlier, chances are you have already seen one, but if you have not, you are very likely to spot one once you start paying attention to the doors and façades of old buildings. [Fig. ❶]

The meaning of these Green Men has been much debated and reinterpreted, but it is often implied that He was a Pagan Deity that continued to be worshipped in secret and survived Christianisation.

Fig. ❶ Green Man on a balcony, Leuven (Belgium)

Fig. ❷ Green Men throughout Europe and the New World, 19th～early 20th century buildings

One is most likely to encounter Green Men on 19^th and early 20^th century buildings as they were quite popular back then and there are still plenty of buildings around from that era.[Fig. ❷]

Fig. ❸ Green Men on mantelpieces: Museum Het Rembrandthuis in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and Kasteel van Arenberg in Leuven (Belgium)

With some luck, one might be able to find one on a mantelpiece in a 17^th or 18^th century house. [Fig. ❸] 

Around where the author lives, they are quite common on the doors of churches and the like [Fig. ❹❺❻].

 

Fig. ❹ Green Men on Doors in Leuven and Antwerp (Belgium), 17th or 18th century?

Fig. ❺ Green Man on a Door in Leuven (Belgium), 17th or 18th century?

Fig. ❻ Green Man on a Door of Saint George's Church in Antwerp (Belgium), 17th or 18th century?

On the doors depicted on [Fig. ❺], the Green Man serves as a plinth for the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus. These two characters from Christian mythology standing as conquerors on top of a non-Christian creature may indicate that the sculptor wanted this Green Man to represent a Pagan deity, but was there in fact a deity that was depicted in this manner in pre-Christian Europe?

Modern writers and sellers of home and garden decoration often describe the Green Man as a representation of the Wine God Bacchus. [I]

The reason for this assumption seems to be the fact that the Greeks and Romans typically depicted Bacchus with a wreath of ivy on top of His head [Fig. ❼], but the author finds this far from convincing: a wreath on top of a human head is not at all the same thing as a half-man half-foliage creature and moreover, Bacchus is typically depicted as a beautiful man, while the Green Man usually has more grotesque features.

Fig. ❼ Bacchus / ΔΙΟΝΥΣΟΣ 【Dionysos】 VS the Green Man,
 photograph Bacchus mask by Bibi Saint-Pol, Green Man carving from a door in Cartagena (Spain)

Fig. ❽ Faunus / ΠΑΝ 【Pan】 VS Green Man, Faunus mask by VIATOR IMPERI, Green Man from Cologne (Germany)

 

 

A Greco-Roman Deity that often does have grotesque features and is also sometimes equated with the Green man is the woodland Deity Faunus. [Fig. ❽] However, Faunus is not depicted with foliage around His face and –unlike the Green Man- He has goat-horns.

Similarly we can rule out the Celtic Deity Cernunnos, who was probably depicted with antlers. [II]

According to another and somewhat more plausible theory, the origin of the medieval Green Man lies in the Graeco-Roman depictions of water deities like Oceanus or Achelous.

However, unlike the Green Man, Oceanus was typically depicted with crab pincers for horns and Achelous had bullhorns. By the way, one of them was broken off by Hercules and turned into the cornu copiae (“the horn of plenty”).

But does this mean that the Green Man was a medieval invention that is unrelated to Antiquity?
Not quite, it seems!

Fig. ❾ Great Dish from the Mildenhall treasure (United Kingdom, 4th century CE), original photograph by JMiall

There are many Roman mosaics and carvings that fit the description of the Green Man, but it is not always clear whom they represent. Let us examine a a few examples.

A very clear example of a Green Man-like creature can be seen on the “Great Dish” of the Mildenhall treasure. [Fig. ❾❿]

As Bacchus and Faunus also make their appearance on the same dish, it is very clear that the face in the middle is not meant to represent the Wine God nor His horned friend. [Fig. ❾]

Fig. ❿ Great Dish from the Mildenhall treasure (United Kingdom, 4th century CE), original photograph by JMiall

There are however several clues that imply He is a water Deity:
* the seashells all around Him that separate the middle part of the dish from the Bacchic scenes around it

* the dolphins emerging from His beard

* sea nymph (Nereis, plural: Nereides) riding a half-horse half-fish creature called a Hippocampus

* Nereis riding a Sea God, probably Phorcus.

In this case, the Green Man obviously represents a water Deity, most likely Oceanus.

The author has encountered several similar Roman depictions of a Green Man-like creature where the marine wildlife also points towards Oceanus.

Fig.⓫ Roman reliefs featuring Green Man-like foliate heads (1st～5th century CE)

Other times however such elements are absent and yet other times elements that are not particularly sea-related are present instead. [Fig.⓫] Is this also Oceanus? Or is it perhaps a lesser known vegetation Deity that was depicted in a similar fashion?

Conclusion
In any case, whether they are surrounded by marine wildlife or not, it seems that Roman Green Men were primarily decorative in nature, rather than devotional.

At best, they may have had some kind apotropaic function (in other words, perhaps they were believed to ward off evil, like the face of Medusa).

So is the Green Man of the Middle Ages and later a Pagan Deity that escaped Christianisation?

Yes and no. The visual similarity is striking enough to suspect that the first Medieval Green Men were made by people who had seen foliate heads on old Roman buildings or graves, but it is conceivable that they were no longer aware of whom they were supposed to depict. In that case, we cannot say the Deity survived Christianization.

Roman Green Men did not seem to have a devotional function to begin with, but if even the myths that were attached to them were forgotten, there is not much left there that can be called Pagan. It is almost no more Pagan than other architectural features that were popularised in Antiquity like say a Corinthian column, or a tympanum.

Nonetheless, the idea of Oceanus quietly hiding in churches, waiting to be rediscovered by future generations is quite appealing.

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Reference:
[I] An example of an unconvincing conflation of Bacchus and the Green Man can be found in:
Grimassi, Raven (2000) Encyclopedia of Wicca & Witchcraft. Body, Mind & Spirit: p40.
[II] Green, Miranda (2003) Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art. Routledge: p89.