Face above the door, a Cardiff side street…
This magnificent face is above all the front doors of a row of old semi-detached houses in a small Cardiff side street that I often walk along.
He intrigues me so much that I have taken a picture of six versions – although now I have noticed there are another three painted in an off-white colour, which is why I didn’t spot them when I was there with my camera.
Old stoneface times six…
The question I ask myself is, who is this man?
He looks Greek (or Roman), so my first thought would be Janus, the god of beginnings and transitions, gates and doors. January is named after him as it opens the year.
Janus (Latin Ianus) is always two faced, looking back and forward (in time) or out and in, so the man at the door probably isn’t Janus, unless he has a hidden face on the other side, inside the house (which would be a really neat idea!)
This is Janus:
A Roman bust of Janus in the Vatican – click on the image to go to the source…
Sometimes Janus is shown as an old and a young man…
This Janus bust is in the Summer Garden in St Petersburg, Russia – click on the image to go to the source…
So my man probably isn’t Janus. What other Greek or Roman god could he be? Perhaps Zeus (Jupiter), king of the gods?
This is a rather lovely Roman marble bust of Zeus, copied from a Greek original, in the Palazzo Altemps in Rome – click on the image to go to the source…
A bit of a resemblance, do you think? Or, as Cardiff is or was a great port, especially in Victorian and Edwardian times, perhaps the face is of the sea god Poseidon (Neptune)?
Statue of Poseidon at Virginia Beach, USA – click on the image to go to the source…
My favourite statue of Poseidon, which is very different, is this bronze from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. I have seen and admired this one “in the flesh”! It was found in the sea off Cape Artemision in 1928 (to be accurate his arms had been found two years earlier). The bronze was being carried in a ship wrecked in the late first century BC. Some people believe the statue shows Zeus hurling a (now missing) thunderbolt, but most people think he is Poseidon hurling a (now missing) trident.
Poseidon bronze from Cape Artemisio – click on the image to go to the source…
So OK, it may be Poseidon, although the face over the door is missing any obviously fishy attributes. He does look a bit angry, though!
There is another, rather obscure god to whom this face bears a slight resemblance – Serapis, a hybrid god made up in the third century BC on the orders of Ptolemy I of Egypt to try to unify the Greeks and Egyptians in his land. The god is usually represented with a basket on his head, symbol of resurrection, but this one looks like he has a Phrygian cap on…
A marble head of Serapis from Carthage, now in the Louvre in Paris – click on the image to go to the source…
I admit it is a bit unlikely Serapis would have found his way to Cardiff, but he is rather handsome! Unlike one of “my” faces, which is a bit damaged – and has been painted with blue lips!
One of the Cardiff faces over the door – with broken nose and blue lips…
That one reminds me of this boxer…
Bronze head of a boxer at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens – click on the image to go to the source…
For a moment I thought the face might be Dionysus (Bacchus), god of wine, but his nose isn’t pointed enough and he isn’t wreathed in grapes…
This picture of a colourful Bacchus head in Italy is by Mike Reyher – click on the image to go to the source…
There is another person this face could represent – maybe the Green Man? An old pagan fertility god throughout Britain and Europe, his face is often seen as an architectural adornment in churches, or occasionally non-religious buildings.
Usually the Green Man’s face is very much covered in greenery and he even has leaves or shoots pouring out of his eyes, nose and mouth.
This lovely rainbow-hued Green Man mask is by xotique and can be found on Deviant Art…
This Green Man face above a window in Paris looks more human…
Green man over a window in Paris – click on the image to go to the source…
The Romans also had their own household gods for protection, the Lares and Penates (I used to call them “Lerz” and “Penn-eights” but now realise they are pronounced “Larries and Penn-arties”). These were hearth gods and ancestor gods, but they are usually depicted as domestic helpers rather than hero types. Which reminds me a bit of Dobbie the house elf in the Harry Potter stories…
Dobbie the house elf from the Warner Bros Harry Potter movies…
But I digress. Although I would like it to be Poseidon or Zeus, wouldn’t it be more logical to have a pagan fertility god like the Green Man above the front door of a house for luck, like a horse-shoe? What do you think?
Six green men at the door…
The Squirrelbasket 
A very romantic notion and could be any one of them – but I reckond it is the face of a very egotistical builder of the houses
Ooh! What a handsome builder or Victorian/Edwardian businessman he must have been then!
I’m struck by the lines on Cardiff man’s face. You say he looks angry, but I wonder if he’s worried. Whoever he is, he’s made a most interesting subject for your post.
Angry? Worried? Perhaps he just looks fierce? In today’s housing market he probably would have a lot to worry about. Maybe he saw it coming…
Ha, ha. Maybe he did.
Which street, Pat? May be a clue….
I almost mentioned it but didn’t want to get sidetracked by the fact it wasn’t a pagan name! Rectory Road in Canton. Any ideas when it was built and by whom?
The heads are also all on the front of houses in Harley street in Londons W1 district and in the general area, Wimpole street etc. I belive it could be the demi god of the sea”Triton”. More likely to be Zeus though given the area.
Triton sounds like a good idea bearing in mind Cardiff was a very big industrial port in Edwardian times.
Thanks for the information 🙂