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Notably, translations of the term Helvetia still serve as the name for Switzerland in languages such as Irish, in which the country is known as An Eilvéis, Greek, in which it is known as Ελβετία (Elvetia) and Romanian, in which it is known as Elveția.
Notably, translations of the term Helvetia still serve as the name for Switzerland in languages such as Irish, in which the country is known as An Eilvéis, Greek, in which it is known as Ελβετία (Elvetia) and Romanian, in which it is known as Elveția.
The fashion of depicting the Swiss Confederacy in terms of female allegories arose in the 17th century. This replaced an earlier convention, popular in the 1580s, of representing Switzerland as a bull (German: Schweizer Stier).
In the first half of the 17th century, no single allegory was identified as Helvetia. Rather, several allegories represented both virtues and vices of the confederacy. On the title page of his 1642 Topographia, Matthäus Merian depicted two allegorical figures seated below the title panel: one is the figure of an armed Eidgenosse, representing Swiss military prowess and sovereignty, the other is a female Abundantia allegory crowned with a city's ramparts.2
Female allegories of individual cantons predate the single Helvetia figure. There are depictions of a Respublica Tigurina Virgo (1607), a Lucerna shown in 1658 with the victor of Villmergen, Christoph Pfyffer, and a Berna of 1682.
Over the next half-century, Merian's Abundantia would develop into the figure of Helvetia proper. An oil painting of 1677/78 from Solothurn, known as Libertas Helvetiae, shows a female Libertas allegory standing on a pillar. In 1672, an oil painting by Albrecht Kauw showed several figures labelled Helvetia moderna. These represent vices such as Voluptas and Avaritia, contrasting with the virtues of Helvetia antiqua (not shown in the painting).
On 14 September 1672, a monumental baroque play by Johann Caspar Weissenbach was performed in Zug, entitled Eydtgnossisch Contrafeth Auff- und Abnemmender Jungfrawen Helvetiae. The play is full of allegories illustrating the rise of Helvetia and her decadence after the Reformation. In the 4th act, the Abnemmende Helvetiae or "Waning Helvetia" is faced with Atheysmus and Politicus while the old virtues leave her. In the final scene, Christ appears to punish the wayward damsel, but the Mother of God and Bruder Klaus intercede, and the contrite sinner is pardoned.
Identification of the Swiss as "Helvetians" (Helvétiens) becomes common in the 18th century, particularly in the French language, as in François-Joseph-Nicolas d'Alt de Tieffenthal's very patriotic Histoire des Helvétiens (1749–1753) followed by Alexander Ludwig von Wattenwyl's Histoire de la Confédération helvétique (1754). Helvetia appears in patriotic and political artwork in the context of the construction of a national history and identity in the early 19th century, after the disintegration of the Napoleonic Helvetic Republic, and she appears on official federal coins and stamps from the foundation of Switzerland as a federal state in 1848.
The Swiss Confederation continues to use the name in its Latin form when using any or all of its four official languages is inappropriate or inconvenient. Thus, the name appears on postage stamps, coins, and other uses; the full name, Confœderatio Helvetica, is abbreviated for uses such as the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 and vehicle registration code CH, and the ccTLD, .ch.
Notably, translations of the term Helvetia still serve as the name for Switzerland in languages such as Irish, in which the country is known as An Eilvéis, Greek, in which it is known as Ελβετία (Elvetia) and Romanian, in which it is known as Elveția. In Italian, Elvezia is seen as archaic, but the noun/adjective is used commonly as a synonym of . In , Swiss people may be called . The German word is used as well as a synonym of and has a higher poetic value. is also more common in Germany; the German-speaking Swiss use or as poetic synonyms for their country.
Gallery
Helvetia (right) with "Geneva" (monument in Geneva)
Helvetia auf Reisen ("Helvetia on her travels"), statue in Basel
2Kreis, Georg (1991). Helvetia. Zürich: NZZ Verlag. p. 76. ISBN 3858233161.
Bibliography
(in French) Gianni Haver, L'image de la Suisse, collection « Comprendre », Éditions loisirs et pédagogie, 2011, 128 pages (ISBN 978-2-606-01390-5).
(in French) Gianni Haver, Dame à l'antique avec lance et bouclier: Helvetia et ses Déclinaisons, in M.-O.Gonseth, B. Knodel, Y. Laville and G. Mayor (editors), Hors-champs. Eclats du patrimoine culturel immatériel, Musée d'ethnographie de Neuchâtel, 2013, pages 274-282.
The Helvetii (Ancient Greek: Ἐλουήτιοι, Latin: Helvētiī [hɛɫˈweːti.iː], Gaulish: *Heluētī), anglicized as Helvetians, were a Celtic tribe or tribal confederation occupying most of the Swiss Plateau at the time of their contact with the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC.
The national flag of Switzerland displays a white Greek cross in the centre of a red field. The white cross is known as the Swiss cross or the federal cross.
The Gauls (Latin: Galli; Ancient Greek: Γαλάται, Galátai) were a group of Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age and the Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD).
Vreneli (aka Goldvreneli) is the informal name for a range of legal tender gold coins of the Swiss franc. The coins were issued between 1897 and 1936, in 1947 and in 1949.
The territory of modern Switzerland was a part of the Roman Republic and Empire for a period of about six centuries, beginning with the step-by-step conquest of the area by Roman armies from the 2nd…
A national personification is an anthropomorphic personification of a state or the people(s) it inhabits. It may appear in political cartoons and propaganda.
Internet top-level domain generally used by or reserved for a country
A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code.
Romanian (obsolete spelling: Roumanian; endonym: limba română [ˈlimba roˈmɨnə], or românește [romɨˈneʃte], lit. 'in Romanian') is the official and main language of Romania and Moldova.
