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Helvetia is the female national personification of Switzerland, officially ''Confœderatio Helvetica,'' the Swiss Confederation. The allegory is typically pictured in a flowing gown, with a spear and a shield emblazoned with the Swiss flag, and commonly with braided hair, commonly with a wreath as a symbol of confederation. The name is a derivation of the ethnonym ''Helvetii'', the name of the Gaulish tribe inhabiting the Swiss Plateau prior to the Roman conquest. ==History== The fashion of depicting the Swiss Confederacy in terms of female allegories arises in the 17th century. This replaces an earlier convention, popular in the 1580s, of representing Switzerland as a bull (''Schweizer Stier''). In the first half of the 17th century, there isn't a single allegory identified as ''Helvetia''. Rather, a number of allegories are shown representing both virtues and vices of the confederacy. On the title page of his 1642 ''Topographia'', Matthäus Merian shows two allegorical figures seated below the title panel: one is the figure of an armed ''Eidgenosse'', representing Swiss military prowess or victory, the other is a female ''Abundantia'' allegory crowned with a city's ramparts, representing the Swiss territory or its fertility. 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 shows a number of 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 raise 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 himself 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" (''Hélvetiens'') 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 Hélvetiens'' (1749–53) followed by Alexander Ludwig von Wattenwyl's ''Histoire de la Confédération hélvetique'' (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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Helvetia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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