I spent a few days in New Orleans at the end of May, wishing to complete a cruise on the Mississippi River on a French touch.
By the way, this post is the same as ‘La Nouvelle-Orléans‘, written in French.
It is impossible for me to say that I have seen everything in New Orleans, but I have walked and walked there a lot to discover various districts: French Quarter, Central Business District, Warehouse District, Garden District, etc.
This beautiful city lived under numerous European influences before becoming ‘American’ in 1803. Like in other cities of the United States between 1825 and 1860, New Orleans experienced the Greek Revival style — a style of architecture inspired by the monuments of classical Greece (5th century BC), the cradle of democracy.
Thus, I am not offering here a well-ordered and exhaustive guided tour, but some samples of my discoveries during my walks: a choice of references to the Greco-Latin world of Antiquity!
The neoclassical Federal style of the 18th and 19th centuries (such as that of The White House in Washington, DC) borrowed its criteria not only from Greek temples, but also from the architecture of the cities of the Roman Empire (such as many monuments erected in Paris at the time of Napoleon I).
In the CBD of New Orleans, Gallier Hall (old city hall), completed in 1853, relates to both Neoclassicism and the Greek Revival style.
Gallier Hall looks like a Greek temple, with its fluted columns, its Ionic capitals, and its triangular tympanum where a group of figures can be seen. In the center of the group, the allegory of Justice, a statue of a blindfolded woman, carries a sword and scales.
‘The sword and the scales are the symbols of the two ways in which, according to Aristotle, one can consider Justice. The sword represents his distributing power; the scales is balancing (social) mission. Moreover, if we equate the Latin Justitia with her Greek counterpart, the Godess Themis, the blindfold she wears over her eyes shows her blindness and means that she favors no one and ignores those she judges‘, according to the French Dictionary of Symbols.
Justice is here flanked by a female statue on each side (however I don’t know what they symbolize). And on the far left of the tympanum is an eagle — an attribute of the king of the ancient Greek gods, Zeus, whereas it has become nowadays one symbol of the United States.
Not far away, I saw another allegorical statue — easier to recognize. It is the deity Abundance (or the Goddess Ceres), judging by the ‘cornucopias‘ full of fruits and vegetables that she holds near her.
Moreover, this frieze from the end of the 19th century reveals the persistence of ancient motifs (literary or mythological) in the decoration of the rich buildings of New Orleans.
As for the buildings built by architects of the Greek Revival style, which succeeded Neoclassicism, they also present Greek characteristics, to which Italian influences will be added through the Italianate style.
These elegant homes in the Garden District are good examples.
Robinson Mansion, built between 1857 and 1867 for a wealthy tobacco merchant, Mr. Walter Grinnan Robinson, has a double gallery of columns with capitals of Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders. On its wrought iron fence, a notice explains that it was inspired by the 16th century Italian architect, Andrea Palladio.
In the same district there are other mansions with Greek characteristics: symmetry, balance, columns adorned with capital, pilasters, white color of materials imitating ancient marble, etc.
To go towards creating a Greco-Latin atmosphere, the streets have specific names. Coliseum Street is a major axis where the Muses intersect (but I couldn’t find all 9)!
‘The Muses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory), were the goddesses of Literature, Music, and Dance, then, later, of all intellectual activities … In Roman times, each muse represented a particular art: Calliope, epic poetry, Melpomene, tragedy, Polymnia, hymns to the gods and, later, pantomime, Urania, astronomy‘, according to The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature (1990).
In a garden, a grinning antique faun mask echoes modern Mardi-Gras masks.
The origins of ‘Mardi-Gras‘, a famous festival, go back to 1699, when the founder of the colony of Louisiana, Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville, landed in the southern Mississippi delta on a Mardi-Gras day (French name for ‘Shrove Tuesday’). He named the place after that day. We do not know if the inhabitants celebrated ‘Mardi-Gras‘ when New Orleans was founded in 1718 (by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, brother of the aforesaid Pierre), but we do know that at the end of the 1700s the fancy-dress balls were very popular. Nowadays, ‘Mardi-Gras‘ is an exuberant party and a multicultural celebration, with European, African, Caribbean American, and other influences.
During this festival, a ‘king’ (REX, in Latin language) is chosen. I saw this name on a building near Jackson Square in the French Quarter, and on an old imprinting in a library.
This old imprinting, ‘Rex proclaims Mardi-Gras‘, depicts a historical event. But it is the spirit of the Carnival to overturn the norms, and we can see how the purchase of Louisiana by the Americans in 1803 is treated in a burlesque way.
Indeed, a ‘Mardi-Gras king’ (REX) is placed between Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States, and Napoleon Bonaparte — both having closed the sale for 15 million dollars. The vast territory called ‘Louisiana’ (a French possession redeemed from Spain) measured approximately 600 million acres. As a result, the area of the United States at that time doubled.
Ironically enough, the Latin inscription ‘Pro Bono Publico‘ above the crown means ‘For the public good’, as Napoleon sold the former French colony to raise funds to fight the Great-Britain — who conquered him!
Contrary to all appearances, I have not lost sight of my Greco-Latin topic.
From REX we pass to CAESAR, who, after having been powerful in ancient Rome, still symbolizes Power in all areas. In modern New Orleans, Caesar Superdome, a huge multi-sports stadium opened in 1975 is named after him!
And in the impressive National WWII Museum, founded in the year 2000 and located in the Warehouse District, I saw certificates awarded to sailors — placed under the ‘wing’ (if I may say that) of the Roman God of the Seas, Neptunus Rex. The notice explains why.
Neptune, God of the Seas, is the Greek Poseidon, whom we can also meet in the Louisiana city — the local gastronomy making abundant and tasteful use of seafood!
Therefore, to stay on the note of ‘Antiquity’, what could have been more natural for me than to take advantage of this advertisement displayed in the street to eat the delicious oysters of New Orleans instead of ‘bayou’ alligator meat?