Jewish
Culture

Objects
& Symbols

Late 1st century

Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale

The funerary inscription for Claudia Aster, from an unidentified burial place along the road between Naples and Pozzuoli, is one of the most touching documents witnessing the gate of the thousands of prisoners who, taken in Judea at the end of the war in the year 70, were brought to Rome in chains. The name Aster (‘Star’) is nothing other than the Greek adaptation of Hebrew Esther. Brought to Italy as a slave, at some point Aster was purchased by an imperial freedman. At the time of her death, her patron wanted to give her a dignified burial and include in the epitaph an unusual element that was particularly meaningful, either for him or for her: the fact that Aster was Hierosolymitana captiva, a prisoner from Jerusalem.

(in Hebrew Rimmon)

The pomegranate is fraught with meaning. At the feast of Rosh haShanah, the Jewish New Year (see the section on holidays), while eating the fruit we pray “May we be full of merits like the pomegranate (is full of seeds).” Hailed by the Torah as one of the seven most bountiful agriculture products of the Land of Israel, the pomegranate tree has its place in the MEIS Garden of Questions.