Jupiter Libertas

From FB:

“April 13th is the feast day of Jupiter Libertas, the Roman Goddess of Freedom. She is usually portrayed with two accoutrements: the rod (called a “vindicta”) and the soft hat (called a “pileus”) which she holds out, rather than wears.

In Ancient Rome, a slave was freed in a ceremony in which a praetor touched the slave with the vindicta and declared that he was a free man. The slave’s head was shaved and an undyed pileus was placed upon it. One 19th century dictionary of classical antiquity states that, “Among the Romans the cap of felt was the emblem of liberty. “

Here in the United States, the Statue of Freedom is a colossal bronze statue weighing approximately 15,000 lbs. that since 1863 has crowned the dome of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, DC. She is an allegorical figure whose right hand holds the hilt of a sheathed sword, while a laurel wreath of victory and the Shield of the United States are clasped in her left hand. Her Roman tunic is secured by a brooch inscribed “U.S.” and is partially covered by a heavy, Native American–style fringed blanket thrown over her left shoulder. She faces East towards the main entrance of the building and the rising Sun. She wears a military helmet adorned with stars and an eagle’s head, though this was not part of her original design.

American sculptor Thomas Crawford was commissioned to design Freedom in 1854 and executed the plaster model for the statue in his studio in Rome. U.S. Senator and U.S. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (who would later become President of the Confederacy) was in charge of the Capitol construction and its decorations. According to David Hackett Fischer in his book Liberty and Freedom, Crawford’s statue was:

“…very close to Jefferson Davis’s ideas in every way but one…. Above the crown [Crawford had] added a liberty cap (pileus), the old Roman symbol of an emancipated slave. It seemed a direct affront to a militant slaveholder, and Jefferson Davis exploded with rage.”

Davis sent his aide, Captain Montgomery Meigs, with orders to remove the cap, saying that “its history renders it inappropriate to a people who were born free and would not be enslaved”. A military helmet, with an American eagle head and crest of feathers, replaced the cap in the sculpture’s final version.”