Snake Charm on Your Arm

How does a snake bracelet celebrate her favorite holiday? Learn about gold jewelry, the meaning of snakes for ancient Egyptians, and the Roman holiday of Saturnalia from this snake who knows all the best secrets!

This podcast uses episode-specific artwork. If you don’t see an image of the snake bracelet with this episode, you may have to turn on this setting in your podcast app.

 

For a listening guide, a coloring sheet, images, and more, visit getty.edu/podcasts/if-objects-could-talk/.

Come see the bracelet in person at the Getty Villa in gallery 216!

Episode Transcript

Announcer (00:00):
This is a Getty
podcast.

Host (00:06):
Do you ever feel like something is watching you?
Could it be somethingyou’re wearing?
Today, we hear from agold bracelet that is
thousands of years oldand shaped like a snake.
Welcome to If Objects CouldTalk, a podcast where art

(00:28):
and artifacts get to leavethe museum vault and tell
their side of the story.
Thanks for joining us as webring objects into the light!
Today’s snake bracelet wasdiscovered in Egypt and was
made between 100 BCE and 100 CE.

(00:50):
Can you imagine what itmust have been like there?
Take a moment to feel the sunon your skin, listen to the
Nile, and watch people fromdifferent cultures exchanging
goods in the marketplace.

Now picture this (01:05):
A golden snake with two glass eyes and
a textured surface to mimic thelook of a snake’s scaly skin.
In its glory days, it was wornon the wrist or upper arm.
While we don’t know anythingabout the maker, we are so

(01:25):
lucky that the bracelet isn’tshy at all and agreed to
share a little about herself.
Here she comes now:

Snake (01:36):
Oh my goodness, can it be any brighter in here?
I mean, it’s fine, I’m just,you know, I’m used to the vault
being a cool, dark environment.
Actually, can we turn thelights down just a tad?

(01:58):
Oh thank you, that’sbetter, much better.
And I feel a little farfrom the microphone.
Is there any way someone couldhelp me s-s-s-slither a little
closer so I can properly spina story for the children?

(02:20):
Oh, thank you.
If I’m going to tell you allabout myself, I should at least
be comfortable, don’t you think?
Now where should I begin?
I suppose I should begin inthe fire where I came alive.
I

(02:42):
was once a smallnugget of solid gold.
But I was heated and turnedinto hot, liquid gold.
I remember cooling down andfound myself in a new shape.
Then I was hammered andstretched into another
shape, and then my end wascoiled to form my tail.

(03:08):
They twisted me into bigloops like, what’s that
thing you snack on nowadays?
With the salt and its bread andyou have it with yellow sauce?
You know?

Vendor Voice (03:18):
Pretzels!
Get your pretzels here!

Snake (03:21):
A pretzel.
Yes!
They twisted and coiledme like a pretzel.
And then the goldsmithembossed my surface, giving
me the texture of scales.
He shaped my face,giving me my smile.
Then he gently insertedmy glass eyes and POOF!

(03:46):
I was myself...a golden snakebracelet of the highest quality.
And I know what you’rethinking about me:
I’m a talking goldensnake bracelet, I must
be sneaky or somethinglike that, but I’m not.

(04:09):
People get the wrongidea about snakes.
What would you do if yousaw a snake right now?
Scream?
Run?
Cry out to the gods to strikeit from your presence?!
But in my time, snakes wereconsidered very special.

(04:33):
It was believed we moved betweenearth and the underworld.
We were feared but also admired.
And wearing the likenessof one was like wearing
a talisman or amulet.
I was a protector!
You see, I was born inEgypt, which at that time

(04:54):
was part of the Roman Empire.
And when you think ofthe Roman Empire you
probably think of roads andaqueducts and backstabbers!
But when I think of the RomanEmpire, I think of the parties.
Oh,

(05:14):
the parties!
The food!
The wine!
The music!
The people!
Everything is divine at a party.
The gods walked among us onthose nights, I’m sure of it!
Who would want to be leftout of the hottest gatherings
in the Mediterranean.
I’ll never forgetmy first party!

(05:36):
That’s where I met her.
My Maxima!
She was the daughter of awealthy, Roman merchant.
You see, he moved toEgypt in order to better
oversee his stone quarries.
You know, there wasplenty of money to be
made in trading granite.

Anyhoo, he had two daughters: a really annoying one whose (05:56):
undefined
name I can’t remember for thelife of me...and my Maxima.
I was her Saturnalia gift.

Child (06:09):
What’s Saturnalia?

Snake (06:11):
You don’t celebrate Saturnalia?
Oh that’s too bad,you would love it.
Saturnalia was a week-longwinter festival timed to
celebrate the winter solstice,the promise of a bountiful
spring harvest and to honorthe god of wealth, time,

and agriculture (06:30):
Saturn.
There was feasting,partying, relaxing
and REPEAT!
Saturnalia was all aboutease, even social norms
and rules were lightened.
For instance, gambling wasillegal, but during Saturnalia
a little bet didn’t hurt anyone.

(06:53):
Dress codes were also loosenedwhich was disappointing because
fashion is very important.
People also exchangedgifts, which is how I
bring this back to me!
Maxima wore me on her arm,a symbol of her wealth, her
status and her father’s favor.

(07:14):
Maxima loved me, I matchedher golden earrings
and necklace perfectly.
She had such beautiful things.
When she wore me for thefirst time, my golden body
coiling around her upper arm.
I was warm again.
The first time since I wasa hot pool of liquid gold.

(07:40):
Maxima’s skin was balmy fromdancing being alive and loved
on that perfect December night.
Candles were lit to makesure the festivities would
not extinguish in the dark.
In the candlelight, Maxima andher friends and family dined
on boar, root vegetables,fresh fruits, nuts, and cakes.

(08:03):
They played games, wore sillyhats, and talked about how
they should stay up all nightlong and take the party to the
streets with song and dance!
They took eating, drinking andbeing merry very seriously.
I was only supposed to beworn for special occasions

(08:24):
like Saturnalia and birthdaysbut she seemed to always get
her way, so life became aspecial occasion and I was
always coiled around her upperarm, witnessing everything.
There isn’t enough papyrus inthe world for me to have written

(08:45):
down all the wonders I’ve seen.
But this is nice...havinga brief record of
my side of things.
And since I’ll be aroundforever, maybe I’ll share
another story another time.
For now I must restso that I can dream of

(09:06):
parties by the Nile.
Will you dream of it with me?

Host (09:11):
I
hope you enjoyed learningabout jewelry and Saturnalia!
Join us next time whenan ancient kind of dice
tumbles into the studio.
To see photographs of thesnake bracelet and learn
more, visit our website atGetty dot edu slash podcasts.

(09:36):
This episode was writtenby Tocarra Elise and
produced by Zoe Goldman.
Yolanda Spearmanvoiced the snake.
Theme music, mixing and sounddesign by Alexandra Kalinowski.
Christopher Sprinkleis executive producer.
Special thanks to curatorsKen Lapatin and Judith Barr,
conservator Susanne Gaensicke,and educator Lilit Sadoyan

(09:59):
as well as Ethan Marshall.
Catch you next time!