| May 23, 2013 |
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| Mythology
(171)
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|  AEOLIA (Island complex) ITALY |
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The adventures of Ulysses, Aeolus
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Acis & Galatea
Acis (Akis), according t Ovid (Met. xiii. 750, &c.) a son of Faunus and Symaethis. He was beloved by the nymph Galatea, and Polyphemus the Cyclop, jealous of him, crushed him under a huge rock. His blood gushing forth from under the rock was changed by the nymph into the river Acis or Acinius at the foot of mount Aetna. This story does not occur any where else, and is perhaps no more than a happy fiction suggested by the manner in which the little river springs forth from under a rock.
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| | ENNA (Ancient city) SICILY |
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The abduction of Persephone
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| | LAISTRYGONES (Mythical lands) ITALY |
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The adventures of Ulysses, the Laestrygonians
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| | ROME (Ancient city) ITALY |
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Coriolanus
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| | SIKELIA (Ancient Hellenic lands) ITALY |
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Ulysses and Cyclops, Scylla & Charybdis
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Daphnis
A Sicilian shepherd, son of Hermes by a nymph, and taught by
Pan to play on the flute. He was regarded as the inventor of bucolic poetry. A
Naiad, to whom he proved faithless, punished him with blindness, whereupon his
father Hermes translated him to heaven.
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Daphnis, a Sicilian hero, to whom the invention of bucolic poetry is ascribed.
He is called a son of Hermes by a nymph (Diod. iv. 84), or merely the beloved
of Hermes. (Aelian, V. H. x. 18.) Ovid (Met. iv. 275) calls him an Idaean shepherd;
but it does not follow from this, that Ovid connected him with either tile Phrygian
or the Cretan Ida, since Ida signifies any woody mountain. (Etym. Magn. s.v. His
story runs as follows: The nymph, his mother, exposed him when an infant in a
charming valley in a laurel grove, from which he received his name of Daphnis,
and for which he is also called the favourite of Apollo. (Serv. ad Virg. Eclog.
x. 26.) He was brought up by nymphs or shepherds, and he himself became a shepherd,
avoiding the bustling crowds of nen, and tending his flocks on mount Aetna winter
and summer. A Naiad (her name is different in different writers, Echenais, Xenea,
Nomia, or Lyce,--Parthen. Erot. 29; Schol. ad Theocrit. i. 65, vii. 73; Serv.
ad Virg. Eclog. viii. 68; Phylarg. ad Virg. Eclog. v. 20) fell in love with him,
and made him promise never to form a connexion with any other maiden, adding the
threat that he should become blind if he violated his vow. For a time the handsome
Daphnis resisted all the numerous temptations to which he was exposed, but at
last he forgot himself, having been made intoxicated by a princess. The Naiad
accordingly punished him with blindness, or, as others relate, changed him into
a stone. Previous to this time he had composed bucolic poetry, and with it delighted
Artemis during the chase. According to others, Stesichorus made the fate of Daphnis
the theme of his bucolic poetry, which was the earliest of its kind. After having
become blind, he invoked his father to help him. The god accordingly raised him
up to heaven, and caused a well to gush forth on the spot where this happened.
The well bore the name of Daphnis, and at it the Sicilians offered an annual sacrifice.
(Serv. ad Virg. Ecl. v. 20.) Phylargyrius, on the same passage, states, that Daphnis
tried to console himself in his blindness by songs and playing on the flute, but
that he did not live long after; and the Scholiast on Theocritus (viii. 93) relates,
that Daphnis, while wandering about in his blindness, fell from a steep rock.
Somewhat different accounts are contained in Servius (ad Virg. Eclog. viii. 68)
and in various parts of the Idyls of Theocritus.
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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Son of Hermes and a nymph, Daphnes was the inventor of pastoral poetry,
himself being a sheperd on Sicily.
According to various myths, he was the lover of the nymph Piplea or
the shepherdess Chloe.
| This text is cited Sept 2003 from the In2Greece URL below. |
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| Eponymous founders or settlers |
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| | AKRAGAS (Ancient city) SICILY |
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Acragas (Akragas)
Acragas (Akragas), a son of Zeus and the Oceanid Asterope, to whom the foundation of the town of Acragas (Agrigentum) in Sicily was ascribed. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Akragantes.)
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| | ALESSA (Ancient city) SICILY |
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Halaesus
Perseus Project Index. Total results on 4/5/2001: 16
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| | ARDEA (Ancient city) ITALY |
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Ardeas
Ardeas, a son of Odysseus and Circe, the mythical founder of the town of Ardea in the country of the Rutuli. (Dionys. i. 72 ; Steph. Byz. s. v. Anteia)
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| | ERYX (Ancient city) SICILY |
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Eryx
Eryx (Erux). A son of Butes and Aphrodite, who, relying upon his
strength, challenged all strangers to fight with him in the combat of the caestus.
Heracles accepted his challenge after many had yielded to his superior dexterity,
and Eryx was killed in the combat, and buried on the mountain where he had built
a temple to Aphrodite.
| This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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| | IAPYGIA (Ancient country) ITALY |
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Iapyx
Iapyx (Iapux). Son of Lycaon and brother of Daunius and
Peucetius, who went as leaders of a colony to Italy. According to others, he was
a Cretan and a son of Daedalus.
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Iapyx (Iapux), a son of Lycaon and brother of Daunius and Peucetius, who went
as leaders of a colony to Italy (Anton. Lib. 31). According to others, Iapyx was
a Cretan, and a brother of Icadius (Serv. ad Aen. iii. 332), or a son of Daedalus
and a Cretan woman, from whom the Cretans who migrated to Italy derived the name
of Iapyges (Strab. vi.; Athen. xii.; Herod. vii. 170; Heyne, ad Virg. Aen. xi.
247).
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| | INOTRIA (Ancient country) ITALY |
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Oenotrus
(Oinotros). A son of Lycaon. He was fabled to have passed with
a body of followers from Arcadia into Southern Italy, and to have given the name
of Oenotria to that part of the country where he settled.
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Oenotrus :Perseus Encyclopedia
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| | VRENDESION (Ancient city) PUGLIA |
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Brentus
Brentus, (Brentos), a son of Heracles, who was regarded as the founder of the town of Brentesium or Brundusium, on the Adriatic. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Brentesion.)
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| | ROME (Ancient city) ITALY |
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Cacus
Son of Hephaestus.
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Cacus. In Italian mythology, a fire-spitting giant, the son
of Vulcan, who lived near the place where Rome was afterwards built. When Hercules
came into the neighbourhood with the cattle of Geryon, Cacus stole some of them
while the hero was sleeping and dragged them backwards into his cave under a spur
of the Aventine, so that their footprints gave no clue to the direction in which
they had gone. He then closed the entrance to the cave with a rock, which ten
pairs of oxen were unable to move. But the lowing of the cattle guided the hero,
in his search, to the right track. He tore open the cave, and, after a fearful
struggle, slew Cacus with his club. Upon this he built an altar on the spot to
Iupiter, under the title of Pater Inventor, "the discoverer," and sacrificed
one of the cattle upon it. The inhabitants paid him every honour for freeing them
of the monster; and Evander, who had been instructed by his mother, Carmentis,
in the lore of prophecy, saluted him as a god. Hercules is then said to have established
his own religious service, and to have instructed two noble families, the Potitii
and the Pinarii, in the usages to be observed at the sacrifice. This sacrifice
was to be offered on the Ara Maxima, which he himself had built on the cattle-market
(Forum Boarium) where the cattle had been pastured.
| This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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| | INOTRIA (Ancient country) ITALY |
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Morges, Morgetes
An ancient people in the south of Italy. According to Strabo,
they dwelt in the neighbourhood of Rhegium, but being driven out of Italy by the
Oenotrians crossed over to Sicily and there founded the town of Morgantium. According
to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Morges was the successor of the Oenotrian king
Italus, and hospitably received Siculus, who had been driven out of Latium by
the Aborigines, in consequence of which the earlier Oenotrians were called Italietes,
Morgetes, and Siculi; according to this account, the Morgetes ought to be regarded
as a branch of the Oenotrians.
| This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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Morgetes
Morgetes, an ancient people of southern Italy, who had disappeared
before the period of authentic history, but are noticed by several ancient writers
among the earliest inhabitants of that part of the peninsula, in connection with
the Oenotrians, Itali, and Siculi. Antiochus of Syracuse (ap. Dionys. i. 12) represented
the Siculi, Morgetes and Italietes as all three of Oenotrian race; and derived
their names, according to the favourite Greek custom, from three successive rulers
of the Oenotrians, of whom Italus was the first, Merges the second, and Siculus
the third. This last monarch broke up the nation into two, separating the Siculi
from their parent stock; and it would seem that the Morgetes followed the fortunes
of the younger branch; for Strabo, who also cites Antiochus as his authority,
tells us that the Siculi and Morgetes at first inhabited the extreme southern
peninsula of Italy, until they were expelled from thence by the Oenotrians, when
they crossed over into Sicily. (Strab. vi. p. 257.) The geographer also regards
the name of Morgantium in Sicily as an evidence of the existence of the Morgetes
in that island (Ibid. pp. 257. 270); but no other writer notices them there, and
it is certain that in the time of Thucydides their lame must have been effectually
merged in that of the Siculi. In the Etymologicon Magnum, indeed, Merges is termed
a king of Sicily: but it seems clear that a king of the Siculi is intended; for
the fable there related, which calls Siris a daughter of Merges, evidently refers
to Italy alone. (Etym. M. v. Siris.) All that we can attempt to deduce as historical
from the legends above cited, is that there appears to have existed in the S.
of Italy, at the time when the Greek colonists first became acquainted with it,
a people or tribe bearing the name of Morgetes, whom they regarded as of kindred
race with the Chones and other tribes, whom they included under the more general
appellation of the Oenotrians. Their particular place of abode cannot be fixed
with certainty; but Strabo seems to place them in the southern peninsula of Bruttium,
adjoining Rhegium and Locri. (Strab. vi. p. 257.)
| This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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| | AGATHYRNON (Ancient city) SICILY |
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Agathyrnos
Diodoros (5.8) attributes its foundation to Agathyrnos, son of Aiolos.
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| | ARDEA (Ancient city) ITALY |
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Pilumnus & Danae
According to a later or Italian tradition, the chest was carried to the coast of Italy, where king Pilumnus married Danae, and founded Ardea (Virg. Aen. vii. 410; Serv. ad Aen. vii. 372)
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| | ARPINA (Ancient city) LAZIO |
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Diomedes of Argos
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| | BRINDISI (Town) PUGLIA |
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Diomedes of Argos
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| | CALES (Ancient city) CAMPANIA |
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Calais
(Kalais) and Zetes (Zetes). The Boreadae, or sons of Boreas
and Orithyia. They were both winged heroes, and took part in the Argonautic expedition.
Coming in the course of the enterprise to Salmydessus, they set free Phineus,
the husband of their sister Cleopatra, from the Harpies, chasing them through
the air on their wings. According to one story, they perished on this occasion;
according to another, they were slain afterwards by Heracles on the island of
Tenos, on their return from the funeral games of Pelias. This was in retribution
for the counsel which they had given to the Argonauts on the coast of Mysia, to
leave Heracles be hind. Their graves and monuments were shown in Tenos. One of
the pillars was said to move when the north wind blew.
| This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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Calais : Perseus Encyclopedia
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| | CHONES (Ancient tribe) ITALY |
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Pliloctetes
Apollodorus, in his work On Ships, in mentioning Philoctetes, says that, according to some, when Philoctetes arrived at the territory of Croton, he colonized the promontory Crimissa, and, in the interior above it, the city Chone, from which the Chonians of that district took their name, and that some of his companions whom he had sent forth with Aegestes the Trojan to the region of Eryx in Sicily fortified Aegesta.
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| | EGESTA (Ancient city) SICILY |
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Acestes
Acestes (Akestes), a son of the Sicilian river-god Crimisus and of a Trojan woman
of the name of Egesta or Segesta (Virg. Aen. i. 195, 550, v. 36, 711, &c.), who
according to Servius was sent by her father Hippotes or Ipsostratus to Sicily,
that she might not be devoured by the monsters, which infested the territory of
Troy, and which had been sent into the land, because the Trojans had refused to
reward Poseidon and Apollo for having built the walls of their city. When Egesta
arrived in Sicily, the river-god Crimisus in the form of a bear or a dog begot
by her a son Acestes, who was afterwards regarded as the hero who had founded
the town of Segesta (Comp. Schol. ad Lycophr. 951, 963.) The tradition of Acestes
in Dionysius (i. 52), who calls him Aegestus (Aigestos), is different, for according
to him the grandfather of Aegestus quarrelled with Laomedon, who slew him and
gave his daughters to some merchants to convey them to a distant land. A noble
Trojan however embarked with them, and married one of them in Sicily, where she
subsequently gave birth to a son, Aegestus. During the war against Troy Aegestus
obtained permission from Priam to return and take part in the contest, and afterwards
returned to Sicily, where Aeneas on his arrival was hospitably received by him
and Elymus, and built for them the towns of Aegesta and Elyme. The account of
Dionysius seems to be nothing but a rationalistic interpretation of the genuine
legend.
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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| | KANISION (Ancient city) PUGLIA |
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Diomedes of Argos
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| | KAVLONIA (Ancient city) CALABRIA |
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Typhon
Of Aegium: founds Caulonia in Italy (Paus. 6.3.12).
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| | KRIMISSA (Ancient city) CALABRIA |
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Philoktetes
And Philoctetes was driven to Campania in Italy, and after making war on the Lucanians, he settled in Crimissa, near Croton and Thurium; and, his wanderings over, he founded a sanctuary of Apollo the Wanderer (Alaios), to whom also he dedicated his bow, as Euphorion says.
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| | KROTON (Ancient city) CALABRIA |
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Myscellus
Certain of the Achaeans who had strayed from the Trojan fleet put in there and disembarked for an inspection of the region, and when the Trojan women who were sailing with them learned that the boats were empty of men, they set fire to the boats, for they were weary of the voyage, so that the men remained there of necessity, although they at the same time noticed that the soil was very fertile. And immediately several other groups, on the strength of their racial kinship, came and imitated them, and thus arose many settlements, most of which took their names from the Trojans; and also a river, the Neaethus, took its appellation from the aforementioned occurrence.
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According to Antiochus, when the god told the Achaeans to found Croton, Myscellus departed to inspect the place, but when he saw that Sybaris was already founded--having the same name as the river near by--he judged that Sybaris was better; at all events, he questioned the god again when he returned whether it would be better to found this instead of Croton, and the god replied to him (Myscellus was a hunchback as it happened): "Myscellus, short of back, in searching else outside thy track, thou hunt'st for morsels only; 'tis right that what one giveth thee thou do approve;" and Myscellus came back and founded Croton, having as an associate Archias, the founder of Syracuse, who happened to sail up while on his way to found Syracuse
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Myscelus, (Muskelos). A native of Achaia, who founded Croton
in Italy, B.C. 710, by order of the Delphic oracle, which had commanded him to
build a city, where he should find rain with fine weather. For a long time he
thought it impossible to fulfil the command of the oracle, till at length he found
in Italy a beautiful woman in tears; whereupon he perceived that the oracle was
accomplished, and straightway founded Croton on the spot.
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Alemon
a Greek; father of Myscelus, who built Crotona in Lower Italy
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| | LILYBAEUM (Ancient city) SICILY |
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Butes, Boutes
A descendant of Amycus, king of the Bebryces. He was one of
the Argonants, and on passing the island of the Sirens leaped overboard in order
to swim to it, but was caught up by Aphrodite, who conveyed him to Lilybaeum in
Sicily. Here she became by him the mother of Eryx. He was renowned as a boxer.
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Boutes : Perseus Encyclopedia
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| | METAPONTO (Town) ITALY |
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Leucippus
And there is this further account, that the man who was sent by the Achaeans to help colonize it was Leucippus, and that after procuring the use of the place from the Tarantini for only a day and night he would not give it back, replying by day to those who asked it back that he had asked and taken it for the next night also, and by night that he had taken and asked it also for the next day (Strab. 6,1,15).
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| | NEAPOLIS (Ancient city) CAMPANIA |
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Heracles
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| | OLBIA (Ancient city) SARDINIA |
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Iolaus
A Theban, son of Iphicles and nephew of Herakles, charioteer of Herakles, shares labours of Herakles, father of Lipephile, kills Eurystheus, wins chariot-race at Olympia, and at funeral games of Pelias, leads colony of Athenians and Thespians to Sardinia, worshipped by Sardinians, altar of I. at Athens, gymnasium and shrine at Thebes, receives Megara in marriage from him.
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Iolaus
A fourth component part of the population was the army of Iolaus, consisting of Thespians and men from Attica, which put in at Sardinia and founded Olbia (Paus. 10.17.5).
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| | PETELIA (Ancient city) CALABRIA |
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Philoctetes
It (Petelia) was founded by Philoctetes after he, as the result of a political quarrel, had fled from Meliboea.
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| | RIGION (Ancient city) CALABRIA |
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Iocastsus
Iocastsus (Iokastos), a son of Aeolis, king on the coast of Italy in the district of Rhegium. (Diod. v. 8; Tzetz. ad Lyeoph. 732; Callim. fragm, 202)
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| | ROME (Ancient city) ITALY |
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Romulus
Romulus. The name of the mythical founder of Rome. According to the popular
Roman tradition, recorded in the first book of Livy, he was the son of Mars and
Ilia or Rhea Silvia, daughter of Numitor, and was born at the same birth with
Remus. Amulius, who had usurped the throne of Alba, in defiance of the right of
his elder brother Numitor, ordered the infants to be thrown into the Tiber, and
their mother to be buried alive, the doom of a vestal virgin who violated her
vow of chastity. The river happened at that time to have overflowed its banks,
so that the two infants were not carried into the middle of the stream, but drifted
along the margin, till the basket which contained them became entangled in the
roots of a wild vine at the foot of the Palatine Hill. At this time a she-wolf,
coming down to the river to drink, suckled the infants, and carried them to her
den among the thickets hard by. Here they were found by Faustulus, the king's
herdsman, who took them home to his wife Laurentia, by whom they were carefully
nursed, and named Romulus and Remus. The two youths grew up, employed in the labours,
the sports, and the perils of the pastoral occupation of their foster-father.
But their royal blood could not be quite concealed. Their superior mien, courage,
and abilities soon acquired for them a decided superiority over their young compeers,
and they became leaders of the youthful herdsmen in their contests with robbers
or with rivals. Having quarrelled with the herdsmen of Numitor, whose flocks were
accustomed to graze on the neighbouring hill Aventinus, Remus fell into an ambuscade,
and was dragged before Numitor to be punished. While Numitor, struck with the
noble bearing of the youth, and influenced by the secret stirrings of nature within,
was hesitating what punishment to inflict, Romulus, accompanied by Faustulus,
hastened to the rescue of Remus. On their arrival at Alba, the secret of their
origin was discovered, and a plan was speedily organized for the expulsion of
Amulius and the restoration of their grandfather Numitor to his throne. This was
soon accomplished; but the twin-brothers felt little disposition to remain in
a subordinate position at Alba, after the enjoyment of the rude liberty and power
to which they had been accustomed among their native hills. They therefore requested
from their grandfather permission to build a city on the banks of the Tiber, where
their lives had been so miraculously preserved. Scarcely had this permission been
granted, when a contest arose between the two brothers respecting the site, the
name, and the sovereignty of the city which they were about to found. Romulus
wished it to be built on the Palatine Hill, and to be called by his name; Remus
preferred the Aventine, and his own name. To terminate their dispute amicably,
they agreed to refer it to the decision of the gods by augury. Romulus took his
station on the Palatine Hill, Remus on the Aventine. At sunrise Remus saw six
vultures, and immediately after Romulus saw twelve. The superiority was adjudged
to Romulus, because he had seen the greater number; against which decision Remus
remonstrated indignantly, on the ground that he had first received an omen. Romulus
then proceeded to mark out the boundaries for the wall of the intended city. This
was done by a plough with a brazen ploughshare, drawn by a bull and a heifer,
and so directed that the furrow should fall inward. The plough was lifted and
carried over the spaces intended to be left for gates; and in this manner a square
space was marked out, including the Palatine Hill, and a small portion of the
land at its base, termed Roma Quadrata. This took place on the 21st of April,
on the day of the festival of Pales, the goddess of shepherds. While the wall
was beginning to rise above the surface, Remus, whose mind was still rankling
with his discomfiture, leaped over it, scornfully saying, "Shall such a wall
as that keep your city?" Immediately Romulus, or, as others say, Celer, who
had charge of erecting that part of the wall, struck him dead to the ground with
the implement which he held in his hand, exclaiming, "So perish whosoever
shall hereafter overleap these ramparts."
By this event Romulus was left the sole sovereign of the city;
yet he felt deep remorse at his brother's fate, buried him honourably, and, when
he sat to administer justice, placed an empty seat by his side, with a sceptre
and crown, as if acknowledging the right of his brother to the possession of equal
power. To augment as speedily as possible the number of his subjects, Romulus
set apart, in his new city, a place of refuge, to which any man might flee, and
be there protected from his pursuers. By this device the population increased
rapidly in males, but there was a great deficiency in women; for the adjoining
States, regarding the followers of Romulus as little better than a horde of brigands,
refused to sanction intermarriages. But the schemes of Romulus were not to be
so frustrated. In honour of the god Consus, he proclaimed games, to which he invited
the neighbouring States. Great numbers came, accompanied by their families, and,
at an appointed signal, the Roman youth, rushing suddenly into the midst of the
spectators, snatched up the unmarried women in their arms, and carried them off
by force. The outrage was immediately resented, and Romulus found himself involved
in a war with all the neighbouring States. Fortunately for Rome, though those
States had sustained a common injury, they did not unite their forces in the common
cause. They fought singly, and were each in turn defeated; Caenina, Crustumerium,
and Antemnae fell successively before the Roman arms. Romulus slew with his own
hands Acron, king of Caenina, and bore off his spoils, dedicating them, as spolia
opima, to Iupiter Feretrius. The third part of the lands of the conquered towns
was seized by the victors, and such of the people of these towns as were willing
to remove to Rome were received as free citizens. In the meantime, the Sabines,
to avenge the insult which they had sustained, had collected together forces under
Titus Tatius, king of the Quirites. The Romans were unable to meet so strong an
army in the field, and withdrew within their walls. They had previously placed
their flocks in what they thought a place of safety, on the Capitoline Hill, which,
strong as it was by nature, they had still further secured by additional fortifications.
Tarpeia, the daughter of the commander of that fortress, having fallen into the
hands of the Sabines, agreed to betray the access to the hill for the ornaments
they wore upon their arms. At their approach she opened the gate, and, as they
entered, they crushed her to death beneath their shields. From her the cliff of
the Capitoline Hill was called the Tarpeian Rock. The attempt of the Romans to
regain this place of strength brought on a general engagement. The combat was
long and doubtful. At one time the Romans were almost driven into the city, which
the Sabines were on the point of entering along with them, when fresh courage
was infused into the fugitives in consequence of Romulus vowing a temple to Iupiter
Stator, and by a stream of water which rushed out of the Temple of Ianus and swept
away the Sabines from the gate. The struggle was renewed during several successive
days with various fortune and great mutual slaughter. At length the Sabine women
who had been carried away, and who were now reconciled to their fate, rushed with
loud outcries between the combatants, imploring their husbands and their fathers
to spare on each side those who were now equally dear. Both parties paused; a
conference began, a peace was concluded, and a treaty framed, by which the two
nations were united into one, and Romulus and Tatius became the joint sovereigns
of the united people. But, though united, each nation continued to be governed
by its own king and Senate. During the double rule of Romulus and Tatius a war
was undertaken against the Latin town of Cameria, which was reduced and made a
Roman colony, and its people were admitted into the Roman State, as had been done
with those whom Romulus previously subdued. Tatius was soon afterwards slain by
the people of Laurentum, because he had refused to do them justice against his
kinsmen, who had violated the laws of nations by insulting their ambassadors.
The death of Tatius left Romulus sole monarch of Rome. He was
soon engaged in a war with Fidenae, a Tuscan settlement on the banks of the Tiber.
This people he likewise overcame, and placed in the city a Roman colony. This
war, extending the Roman frontier, led to a hostile collision with Veii, in which
he was also successful, and deprived Veii, at that time one of the most powerful
cities of Etruria, of a large portion of its territories, though he found that
the city itself was too strong to be taken. The reign of Romulus now drew near
its close. One day, while holding a review of his army, on a plain near Lake Capra,
the sky was suddenly overcast with gloom and a tempest of thunder and lightning
arose. The people fled in dismay; and when the storm abated, Romulus, over whose
head it had raged most fiercely, was nowhere to be seen. A rumour was circulated
that during the tempest he had been carried to heaven by his father, the god Mars.
This opinion was speedily confirmed by the report of Iulius Proculus, who declared
that, as he was returning by night from Alba to Rome, Romulus appeared before
him in a form of more than mortal majesty, and bade him go and tell the Romans
that Rome was destined by the gods to be the chief city of the earth; that human
power should never be able to withstand her people; and that he himself would
be their guardian god Quirinus.
| This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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Romulus, the founder of the city of Rome. It is unnecessary in the present work to prove
that all the stories about Romulus are mythical, and merely represent the traditional
belief of the Roman people respecting their origin. Romulus, which is only a lengthened
form of Romus, is simply the Roman people represented as an individual, and must
be placed in the same category as Aeolus, Dorus, and Ion, the reputed ancestors
of the Aeolians, Dorians, and Ionians, owing to the universal practice of antiquity
to represent nations as springing from eponymous ancestors. But although none
of the tales about Romulus can be received as an historical fact, yet it is of
importance to know the general belief of the Roman people respecting the life
of the founder of their city. It is, however, very difficult to ascertain the
original form of the legend; since poets, on the one hand, embellished it with
the creations of their own fancy, and historians, on the other hand, omitted many
of its most marvellous incidents, in order to reduce it to the form of a probable
history. The various tales related respecting the foundation of Rome may be reduced
to two classes, one of Greek and the other of native origin. The former bring
Romulus into close connection with Aeneas. A few Greek writers make Aeneas the
founder of Rome, and speak of his wife under the name of Roma; others represent
Romulus as his son or a remote descendant; but the greater part make him his grandson
by his daughter Ilia. In most of these accounts the twin brothers are spoken of,
but they appear under the names of Romulus and Romus, not Remus (comp. Dionys.
i. 72, 73; Plut. Rom. 2, 3; Serv. ad Virg. Aen. i. 274; Festus, s. v. Roma). These
accounts, however, scarcely deserve the name of traditions, as Niebuhr has remarked;
they are for the most part the inventions of Greek writers, who were ignorant
of the native legend, but having heard of the fame of Rome, wished to assign to
it an origin.
The old Roman legend was of a very different kind. It was preserved
in popular poems, which were handed down from generation to generation, and some
of which were in existence in the time of Dionysius (i. 79); and it seems to have
been recorded in prose in its most genuine form by the annalist Q. Fabius Pictor,
who lived during the second Punic War. This legend probably ran nearly as follows:
At Alba Longa there reigned a succession of kings, descended from Iulus, the son
of Aeneas. One of the last of these kings left two sons, Numitor and Amulius.
The latter, who was the younger, deprived Numitor of the kingdom, but allowed
him to live in the enjoyment of his private fortune. Fearful, however, lest the
heirs of Numitor might not submit so quietly to his usurpation, he caused his
only son to be murdered, and made his daughter Silvia one of the Vestal virgins.
As Silvia one day went into the sacred grove, to draw water for the service of
the goddess, a wolf met her, and she fled into a cave for safety; there, while
a total eclipse obscured the sun, Mars himself overpowered her, and then consoled
her with the promise that she should be the mother of heroic children (Serv. ad
Virg. Aen i. 274; Dionys. ii. 56; Plut. Rom. 27). When her time came, she brought
forth twins. Amnlius doomed the guilty Vestal and her babes to be drowned in the
river. in the Anio Silvia exchanged her earthly life for that of a goddess, and
became the wife of the river-god. The stream carried the cradle in which the children
were lying into the Tiber, which had overflowed its banks far and wide. It was
stranded at the foot of the Palatine, and overturned on the root of a wild figtree,
which, under the name of the Ficus Ruminalis, was preserved and held sacred for
many ages after. A she-wolf, which had come to drink of the stream, carried them
into her den hard by, and sotck led them; and there, when they wanted other food,
the woodpecker, a bird sacred to Mars, brought it to them (Ov. Fast. iii. 54).
At length this marvellous spectacle was seen by Faustulus, the king's shepherd,
who took the children to his own house, and gave them to the care of his wife,
Acca Larentia. They were called Romulus and Remus, and grew up along with the
twelve sons of their foster-parents, on the Palatine hill (Massurius Sabinus,
ap. Gell. vi. 7). They were, however, distinguished from their comrades by the
beauty of their person and the bravery of their deeds, and became the acknowledged
leaders of the other shepherd youths, with whom they fought boldly against wild
beasts and robbers. The followers of Romulus were called Quintilii; those of Remus,
Fabii. A quarrel arose between them and the herdsmen of Numitor, who stalled their
cattle on the neighbouring hill of the Aventine. Remus was taken by a stratagem,
during the absence of his brother, and carried off to Numitor. His age and noble
bearing made Numitor think of his grandsons; and his suspicions were confirmed
by the tale of the marvellous nurture of the twin brothers. Meanwhile Romulus
hastened with his foster-father to Numitor; suspicion was changed into certainty,
and the old man recognised them as his grandsons. They now resolved to avenge
the wrongs which their family had suffered. With the help of their faithful comrades,
who had flocked to Alba to rescue Remus, they slew Amulius, and placed Numitor
on the throne.
Romulus and Remus loved their old abode, and therefore left Alba to
found a city on the banks of the Tiber. They were accompanied only by their old
comrades, the shepherds. The story which makes them joined by the Alban nobles,
is no part of the old legend; since the Julii and similar families do not appear
till after the destruction of Alba. As the brothers possessed equal authority
and power, a strife arose between them where the city should be built, who should
be its founder, and after whose name it should be called. Romulus wished to build
it on the Palatine, Remus on the Aventine, or, according to another tradition,
on another hill three or four miles lower down the river, called Remuria or Remoria,
which Niebulir supposes to be the hill beyond S. Paolo (comlp. Dionys. i. 85;
Plut. Rom. 9). It was agreed that the question should be decided by augtly ; and
each took his station on the top of his chosen hill. The night passed away, and
as the day was dawning Remus saw six vultures; but at sun-rise, when these tidings
were brought to Romulus, twelve vultures flew by him. Each claimed the augury
in his own favour; but most of the shepherds decided for Romulus, and Remus was
therefore obliged to yield. Romulus now proceeded to mark out the pomoerium of
his city (see Dict. of Ant. s. v.). He yoked a bullock and a heifer to a plough
with a copper ploughshare, and drew a deep furrow round the foot of the Palatine,
so as to include a considerable compass below the hill; and men followed after
who turned every clod to the inward side. Where the gates were to be made, the
plough was carried over the space; since otherwise nothing unclean could have
entered the city, as the track of the plough was holy. In the comitium a vault
was built underground, which was filled with the first-fruits of all the natural
productions that support human life, and with earth which each of the settlers
had brought with him from his home. This place was called Mundus, and was believed
to be the entrance to the lower world (Festus, s. v. Mundus ; Plut. Rom. 11).
Rome is said to have been founded on the 21 st of April, and this day was celebrated
as a yearly festival down to the latest times of Roman history. It was the Palilia,
or festival of Pales, the divinity of the shepherds, and was, therefore, a day
weil fitted for the foundation of a city by shepherds (see Dict. of Ant. s. v.
Palilia). On the line of the pomoerium Romulus began to raise a wall. Remus, who
still resented the wrong he had suffered, leapt over it in scorn, whereupon Romulus
slew him, saying, So die whosoever hereafter shall leap over my walls; "though,
according to another account, he was killed by Celer, who had the charge of the
building. Remorse now seized Romulus, and he rejected all food and comfort, till
at length he appeased the shade of Remus by instituting the festival of the Lemuria
for the souls of the departed (Ov. Fast. v. 461, &c.). Afterwards an empty throne
was set by the side of Romulus, with a sceptre and crown, that his brother might
seem to reign with him (Serv. ad Virg. Aen. i. 276). Thus in the earliest legends
we find the supreme power divided between two persons; but it is not impossible
that the belief in the double kingdom of Romulus and Remus, as well as subsequently
in that of Romulus and Titus Tatius, may have arisen simply from the circumstance
of there being two magistrates at the head of the state in later times.
Romulus now found his people too few in numbers. He therefore set
apart, on the Capitoline hill, an asylum, or a sanctuary, in which homicides and
runaway slaves might take refuge. The city thus became filled with men, but they
wanted women. Romulus, therefore, tried to form treaties with the neighbouring
tribes, in order to obtain connubium, or the right of legal marriage with their
citizens; but his offers were treated with disdain, and he accordingly resolved
to obtain by force what he could not gain by entreaty. in the fourth month after
the foundation of the city, he proclaimed that games were to be celebrated in
honour of the god Consus, and invited his neighbours, the Latins and Sabines,
to the festival. Suspecting no treachery, they came in numbers, with their wives
and children. But the Roman youths rushed upon their guests, and carried off the
virgins. The old legend related that thirty Sabine virgins were thus seized, and
became the wives of their ravishers but the smallness of the number seemed so
incredible to a later age, which looked upon the legend as a genuine history,
that it was increased to some hundreds by such writers as Valerius Antias and
Juba (Plut. Rom. 14; comp. Liv. i. 13). The parents of the virgins returned home
and prepared for vengeance. The inhabitants of three of the Latin towns, Caenina,
Anteinmae, and Crustumerium, took up arms one after the other, and were successively
defeated by the Romans. Romulus slew with his own hand Acron, king of Caenina,
and dedicated his arms and armour, as spolia opima, to Jupiter. At last the Sabine
king, Titus Tatius, advanced with a powerful army, against Rome. His forces were
so great that Romulus, unable to resist him in the field, was obliged to retire
into the city. He had previously fortified and garrisoned the top of the Saturnian
hill, afterwards called the Capitoline, which was divided from the city on the
Palatine, by a swampy valley, the site of the forum. But Tarpeia, the daughter
of the commander of the fortress, dazzled by the golden bracelets of the Sabines,
promised to betray the hill to them, if they would give her the ornaments which
they wore on their left arms. Her offer was accepted; in the night time she opened
a gate and let in tile enemy but when she claimed her reward, they threw upon
her the shields which they carried on their left arms, and thus crushed her to
death. Her tomb was shown on the hill in later times, and her memory was preserved
by the name of the Tarpeian rock, from which traitors were afterwards hurled down.
On the next day the Romans endeavoured to recover the hill. A long and desperate
battle was fought in the valley between the Palatine and the Capitoline. At one
time the Romans were driven before the enemy, and the day seemed utterly lost,
when Romulus vowed a temple to Jupiter Stator, the Stayer of Flight; whereupon
the Romans took courage, and returned again to the combat. At length, when both
parties were exhausted with the struggle, the Sabine women rushed in between them,
and prayed their husbands and fathers to be reconciled. Their prayer was heard;
the two people not only made peace, but agreed to form only one nation. The Romans
continued to dwell on the Palatine under their king Romulus; the Sabines built
a new town on the Capitoline and Quirinal hills, where they lived under their
king Titus Tatius. The two kings and their senates met for deliberation in the
valley between the Palatine and Capitoline hills, which was hence called comitium,
or the place of meeting. But this union did not last long. Titus Tatius was slain
at a festival at Lavinium, by some Laurentines to whom he had refused satisfaction
for outrages which had been committed by his kinsmen. Henceforward Romulus ruled
alone over both Romans and Sabines; but, as he neglected to pursue the murderers,
both his people and those of Laurentum were visited by a pestilence, which did
not cease until the murderers on both sides were given up.
After the death of Tatius the old legend appears to have passed on
at once to the departure of Romultis from the world. Of the long period which
intervened few particulars are recorded, and these Niebuhr supposes, with some
justice, to be the inventions of a later age. Romulus is said to have attacked
Fidenae, and to have taken the city; and likewise to have carried on a successful
war against the powerful city of Veii, which purchased a truce of a hundred years,
on a surrender of a third of its territory. At length, after a reign of thirty-seven
years, when the city had become strong and powerful, and Romulus had performed
all his mortal works, the hour of his departure arrived. One day as he was reviewing
his people in the Campus Martius. near the Goat's Pool, the sun was sud denly
eclipsed, darkness overspread the earth, and a dreadful storm dispersed the people.
When daylight returned, Romulus had disappeared, for his father Mars had carried
him up to heaven in a fiery chariot ("Quirinus Martis equis Acheronta fugit",
Hor. Coarm. iii. 3; "Rex patriis astra petebat equis", Ov. Fast. ii. 496). The
people mourned for their beloved king; but their mourning gave way to religious
reverence, when he appeared again in more than mortal beauty to Proculus Julius,
and bade him tell the Romans that they should become the lords of the world, and
that he would watch over them as their guardian god Quirinis. The Romans therefore
worshipped him under this name. The festival of the Quirinalia was celebrated
in his honour on the 17th of February; but the Nones of Quintilis, or the seventh
of July, was the day on which, according to tradition, he departed from the earth.
Such was the glorified end of Romulus in the genuine legend. But as
it staggered the faith of a later age, a tale was invented to account for his
mysterious disappearance. It was related that the senators, discontented with
the tyrannical rule of their king, murdered him during the gloom of a tempest,
cut up his body, and carried home the mangled pieces under their robes. But the
forgers of this tale forgot that Romulus is nowhere represented in the ancient
legend as a tyrant, but as a mild and merciful monarch, whose rule became still
more gentle after the death of Tatius, whom it branded as a tyrant.
The genuine features of the old legend about Romulus may still be
seen in the accounts of Livy (i. 3-16), Dionysius (i. 76--ii. 56), and Plutarch
(Romul.), notwithstanding the numerous falsifications and interpolations by which
it is obscured, especially in the two latter writers. It is given in its most
perfect form in the Roman Histories of Niebuhr and Malden.
A s Romulus was regarded as the founder of Rome, its most ancient political
institutions and the organisation of the people were ascribed to him by the popular
belief. Thus he is said to have divided the people into three tribes, which bore
the names Ramnes, Titles, and Luceres. The Ramnes were supposed to have derived
their name from Romulus, the Tities from Titus Tatius the Sabine king, and the
Luceres from Lucumo, an Etruscan chief who had assisted Romulus in the war against
the Sabines. Each tribe contained ten curiae, which received their names from
the thirty Sabine women who had brought about the peace between the Romans and
their own people. Further, each curia contained ten gentes, and each gens a hundred
men. Thus the people, according to the general belief, were divided originally
into three tribes, thirty curiae, and three hundred gentes, which mustered 3000
men, who fought on foot, and were called a legion. Besides those there were three
hundred horsemen, called celeres, the same body as the equites of a later time;
but the legend neglects to tell us from what quarter these horsemen came. To assist
him in the government of the people Romulus is said to have selected a number
of the aged men in the state, who were called patres, or senatores. The council
itself, which was called the senatus, originally consisted of one hundred members;
but this number was increased to two hundred when the Sabines were incorporated
in the state. In addition to the senate, there was another assembly, consisting
of the members of the gentes, which bore the name of comitia curiata, because
they voted in it according to their division into curiae. To this assembly was
committed the election of the kings in subsequent times.
That part of the legend of Romulus which relates to the political
institutions which he is said to have founded, represents undoubted historical
facts. For we have certain evidence of the existence of such institutions in the
earliest times, and many traces endured to the imperial period : and the popular
belief only attempted to explain the origin of existing phenomena by ascribing
their first establishment to the heroic founder of the state. Thus, while no competent
scholar would attempt in the present day to give a history of Romulus; because,
even on the supposition that the legend still retained some real facts, we have
no criteria to separate rate what is true from what is false; yet, on the other
hand, it is no presumption to endeavor to form a conception of the political organisation
of Rome in the earliest times, because we can take our start from actually existing
institutions, and trace them back, in many cases step by step, to remote times.
We are thus able to prove that the legend is for the most part only an explanation
of facts which had a real existence. It would be out of place here to attempt
an explanation of the early Roman constitution, but a few remarks are necessary
in explanation of the legendary account of the constitution which has been given
above.
The original site of Rome was on the Palatine hill. On this there
was a Latin colony established at the earliest times, which formed an independent
state. On the neighbouring hills there appear to have been also settlements of
Sabines and Etruscans, cans, the former probably on the Quirinal and Capitoline
pitoline hills, and the latter on the Caelian. In course of time these Sabine
and Etruscan settlements ments coalesced with the Latin colony on the Palatine,
and the three peoples became united into one state. At what time this union took
place it is of course impossible to say; the legend referred it to the age of
Romulus. There appears, pears, however, sufficient evidence to prove that the
Latins and Sabines were united first, and that it was probably long afterwards
that the Etruscans became amalgamated with them. Of this we may mention, as one
proof, the number of the senate, which is said to have been doubled on the union
of the Sabines, but which remained two hundred till the reign of Tarquinius Priscus,
who is reported to have increased it to three hundred (Liv. i. 35; Dionys. iii.
67). These three peoples, after their amalgamation, became three tribes; the Latins
were called Ramnes or Ramnenses; the Sabines, Tities or Titienses; the Etruscans,
Luceres or Lucerenses. The name of Ramnes undoubtedly comes from the same root
as that of Romus or Romulus, and in like manner that of Tities is connected with
Titus Tatius. The origin of the third name is more doubtful, and was a disputed
point even in antiquity. Most ancient writers derived it from Lucumo, which etymology
best agrees with the Etruscan origin of the tribe, as Lucumo was a title of honour
common to the Etruscan chiefs. Others suppose it to come from Lucerus, a king
of Ardea (Paul. Diac. s. v. Lucercses), a statement on which Niebuhr principally
relies for the proof of the Latin origin of the third tribe; but we think with
the majority of the best modern writers, that the Luceres were of Etruscan, and
not of Latin, descent. Each of these tribes was divided into ten curiae, as the
legend states; but that they derived their names from the thirty Sabine women
is of course fabulous. In like manner each curia was divided into ten gentes,
which must be regarded as smaller political bodies, rather than as combinations
of persons of the same kindred. For further information the reader is referred
to the several articles on these subjects in the Dictionary of Atiquities.
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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Hersila, the wife of Romulus, according to Livy (i. 11) and
Plutarch (Romul. 14) but, according to Dionysius (ii. 45, iii. 1), Macrobius (Sat.
i. 6), and one of the accounts in Plutarch (l. c.), of Hostus Hostilius, or Hostus,
grandfather of Tullus Hostilius, fourth king of Rome. Those who made Hersilia
wife of Romulus, gave her a son Aollius or Avillius, and a daughter Prima (Zenodotus
of Troezene, ap. Plut. Romul. 14); those who assigned her to Hostus, called her
son Hostus Hostilius. Hersilia was the only married woman carried off by the Romans
in the rape of the Sabine maidens, and that unwittingly, or because she voluntarily
followed the fortunes of Prima her daughter. In all versions of her story, Hersilia
acts as mediator--in Livy (l. c.) with Romulus, for the people of Antemnae--in
Dionysius and Plutarch (ib. 19), between the Romans and Sabines, in the war arising
from the rape of the women. Her name is probably a later and a Greek addition
to the original story of Romulus. As Romulus after death became Quirinus, so those
writers who made Hersilia his wife raised her to the dignity of a goddess, Hora
or Horta, in either case, probably, with reference to boundaries of time (Hora)
or space (horos). (Gell. xiii. 22 ; Ennius, Ann. i.; Nonius, s. v. Hora; Augustin.
de Civ. Dei. iv. 16.)
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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Diomedes or Elpias of Rhodes
According to legend, it was founded by Diomedes or by Elpias of Rhodes. Others attribute Trojan origins to the city. (The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites)
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Philoctetes
Philoctetes was driven to Campania in Italy, and after making war on the Lucanians, he settled in Crimissa, near Croton and Thurium ; and, his wanderings over, he founded a sanctuary of Apollo the Wanderer (Alaios ), to whom also he dedicated his bow, as Euphorion says.
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| | VENUSIA (Ancient city) BASILICATA |
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Diomedes of Argos
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| | ADRANON (Ancient city) SICILY |
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Adranus
Adranus Adranos), a Sicilian divinity who was worshipped in all the island, but especially at Adranus, a town near Mount Aetna. (Plut. Timol. 12; Diodor. xiv. 37.) Hesychius (s. v. Palikoi) represents the god as the father of the Palici. According to Aelian (Hist. Anim. xi. 20), about 1000 sacred dogs were kept near his temple. Some modern critics consider this divinity to be of eastern origin, and connect the name Adranus with the Persian Adar (fire), and regard him as the same as the Phoenician Adraimelech, and as a personification of the stun or of fire in general.
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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Zeus Aetnaeus
Aetnaeus (Aitnaios), an epithet given to several gods and mythical beings connected with Mount Aetna, such as Zeus, of whom there was a statue on mount Aetna, and to whom a festival was celebrated there, called Aetnaea (Schol. ad Pind. Ol. vi. 162), Hephaestus, who had his workshop in the mountain, and a temple near it (Aelian. Hist. An. xi. 3; Spanheim, ad Callim. hymn. in Dian. 56), and the Cyclops. (Virg. Acn. viii. 440, xi. 263, iii. 768; Ov. Ex Pont. ii. 2. 115.)
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Enceladus
(Enkelados). Son of Tartarus and Gaea, and one of the hundred-armed giants who made war upon the gods. He was killed by Zeus, who buried him under Mount Aetna.
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Enceladus, (Enkelados), a son of Tartarus and Ge, and one of the hundred-armed
giants who made war upon the gods. (Hygin Fab. Praef.; Virg Aen. iv. 179; Ov.
Ep. ex Pont. ii. 2. 12, Amor. iii. 12. 27.) He was killed, according to some,
by Zeus, by a flash of lightning, and buried under mount Aetna (Virg. Aen. iii.
578); and, according to others, lie was killed by the chariot of Athena (Paus.
viii. 47.1), or by the spear of Seilenus. (Eurip, Cyclops, 7.) In his flight Athena
threw upon him the island of Sicily. (Apollod. i. 6.2.) There are two other fabulous
beings of this name. (Apollod. ii. 1.5; Eustath. ad Hom.)
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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| | ANZIO (Town) LAZIO |
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Fortuna Equestris (Equester)
Equester, and in Greek Hippios, occurs as a surname of several divinities, such as Poseidon (Neptune), who had created the horse, and in whose honour horse-races were held (Serv. ad Virg. Georg. i. 12; Liv. i. 9; Paus. v. 15.4), of Aphrodite (Serv. ad Aen. i. 724), Hera (Paus. v. 15.4), Athena (Paus. i. 30.4, 31.3, v. 15.4, viii. 47.1), and Ares. (Paus. v. 15.4). The Roman goddess Fortuna bore the same surname, and the consul Flaccus vowed a temple to her in B. C. 180, during a battle against the Celtiberians. (Liv. xl. 40, xlii. 3). Tacitus (Ann. iii. 71) mentions a temple of Fortuna Equestris at Antium.
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| | ARICIA (Ancient city) LAZIO |
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Artenis Aricia
Aricia (Arikine), a surname of Artemis, derived from the town of Aricia in Latium, where she was worshipped. A tradition of that place related that Hippolytus, after being restored to life by Asclepius, came to Italy, ruled over Aricia, and dedicated a grove to Artemis (Paus. ii. 27.4). This goddess was believed to be the Taurian Artemis, and her statue at Aricia was considered to be the same as the one which Orestes had brought with him from Tauris (Serv. ad Aen. ii. 116; Strab. v.; Hygin. Fab. 261). According to Strabo, the priest of the Arician Artemis was always a run-away slave, who obtained his office in the following manner: -The sacred grove of Artemis contained one tree from which it was not allowed to break off a branch; but if a slave succeeded in effecting it, the priest was obliged to fight with him, and if he was conquered and killed, the victorious slave became his successor, and might in his turn be killed by another slave, who then succeeded him. Suetonius (Calig. 35) calls the priest rex nemorensis. Ovid (Fast. iii. 260, &c.), Suetonius, and Pausanias, speak of contests of slaves in the grove at Aricia, which seem to refer to the frequent fights between the priest and a slave who tried to obtain his office.
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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Persephone
For Perseus Project information on Persephone, see Ades location.
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Leukippe
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Juno Lacinia
Lacinia (Lakinia), a surname of Juno, under which she was worshipped in the neighbourhood of Croton, where she had a rich and famous sanctuary. (Strab. vi.; Liv. xxiv. 3.) The name is derived by some from the Italian hero Lacinius, or from the Lacinian promontory on the eastern coast of Bruttium, which Thetis was said to have given to Juno as a present. (Serv. ad Aen. iii. 552.) It deserves to be noticed that Hannibal dedicated in the temple of Juno Lacinia a bilingual inscription (in Punic and Greek), which recorded the history of his campaigns, and of which Polybius made use in writing the history of the Hannibalian war. (Polyb. iii. 33; comp. Liv. xxviii. 46.)
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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| | LAZIO (Region) ITALY |
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Fascinus
Fascinus, an early Latin divinity, and identical with Mutinus or Tutinus. He was worshipped as the protector from sorcery, witchcraft, and evil daemons; and represented in the form of a phallus, the genuine Latin for which is fascinum, this symbol being believed to be most efficient in averting all evil influences. He was especially invoked to protect women in childbed and their offspring (Plin. Hist. Nat. xxviii. 4, 7); and women wrapt up in the toga praetexta used to offer up sacrifices in the chapel of Fascinus. (Paul. Diac. p. 103.) His worship was under the care of the Vestals; and generals, who entered the city in triumph, had the symbol of Fascinus fastened under their chariot, that he might protect them from envy (medicus invidiae), for envy was believed to exercise an injurious influence on those who were envied. (Plin. l. c.) It was a custom with the Romans, when they praised any body, to add the word praefiscine or praefiscini, which seems to have been an invocation of Fascinus, to prevent the praise turning out injurious to the person on whom it was bestowed.
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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Jupiter Latialis
Latialis or Latiaris, a surname of Jupiter as the protecting divinity of Latium. The Latin towns and Rome celebrated to him every year the feriae Latinae, on the Alban mount, which were proclaimed and conducted by one of the Roman consuls. (Liv. xxi. 63, xxii. 1; Dionys. iv. 49; Serv. ad Aen. xii. 135; Suet. Calig. 22 )
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| | LUCERIA (Ancient city) PUGLIA |
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Minerva Achaea
Achaea. A surname of Minerva worshipped at Luceria in Apulia where the donaria and the arms of Diomedes were preserved in her temple. (Aristot. Mirab. Narrat. 17.)
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Apollo Archegetes
Archegetes. A surname of Apollo, under which he was worshipped in several places, as at Naxos in Sicily (Thuc. vi. 3; Pind. Pyth. v.80), and at Megara. (Paus. i. 42. § 5.) The name has reference either to Apollo as the leader and protector of colonies, or as the founderof towns in general, in which case the import of the name is niearly the same as Deos patrooiot
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Jupiter Imperator
Imperator, a surname of Jupiter at Praeneste. After the conquest of that town in B. C. 376, T. Quinctius brought his statue to the capitol at Rome, where it was placed between the chapels of Jupiter and Minerva. (Liv. vi. 29.) According to Cicero (in Verr. iv. 57), he was identical with Jupiter Urius (i. e. the sender of favourable wind), of the Greeks.
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Jupiter (Greek Zeus)
Jupiter or perhaps more correctly, JUPPITER, a contraction of Diovis pater, or
Diespiter, and Diovis or dies, which was originally identical with divum (heaven);
so that Jupiter literally means "the heavenly father." The same meaning is implied
in the name Lucesius or Lucerius, by which he was called by the Oscans, and which
was often used by the poet Naevius (Serv. ad Aen. ix. 570; comp. Fest. s. v. Lucetium;
Macrob. Sat. i. 15; Gell. v. 12.) The corresponding name of Juno is Lucina. It
is further not impossible that the forgotten name, divus pater Falacer, mentioned
by Varro (de L. L. v. 84, vii. 45), may be the same as Jupiter, since, according
to Festus (s. v. falae), falandum was the Etruscan name for heaven. The surname
of Supinalis (August. de Civ. Dei, vii. 11) likewise alludes to the dome of heaven.
As Jupiter was the lord of heaven, the Romans attributed to him power
over all the changes in the heavens, as rain, storms, thunder and lightning, whence
he had the epithets of Pluvius, Fulgurator, Tonitrualis, Tonans, Fulminator, and
Serenator. (Appul. de Mund. 37; Fest. s. v. prorsum; Suet. Aug. 91.) As the pebble
or flint stone was regarded as the symbol of lightning, Jupiter was frequently
represented with such a stone in his hand instead of a thunderbolt (Arnob. vi.
25); and in ancient times a flint stone was exhibited as a symbolic representation
of the god. (Serv. ad Aen. viii. 641; August. de Civ. Dei, ii. 29.) In concluding
a treaty, the Romans took the sacred symbols of Jupiter, viz. the sceptre and
flint stone, together with some grass from his temple, and the oath taken on such
an occasion was expressed by per Jovem Lopidem jurare. (Fest. s.v. Feretrius;
Liv. xxx. 43; Appul. de Deo Socrat. 4; Cic. ad Fam. vii. 12; Gell. i. 21; Polyb.
iii. 26.) When the country wanted rain, the help of Jupiter was sought by a sacrifice
called aquilicium (Tertull. Apol. 40); and respecting the mode of calling down
lightning. These powers exercised by the god, and more especially the thunderbolt,
which was ever at his command, made him the highest and most powerful among the
gods, whence he is ordinarily called the best and most high (optimus maximus),
and his temple stood on the capitol; for he, like the Greek Zeus, loved to erect
his throne on lofty hills. (Liv. i. 10, 38, xliii. 55.) From the capitol, whence
he derived the surnames of Capitolinus and Tarpeius, he looked down upon the forum
and the city, and from the Alban and sacred mounts he surveyed the whole of Latium
(Fest. s. v. Sacer Mons), for he was the protector of the city and the surrounding
country. As such he was worshipped by the consuls on entering upon their office,
and a general returning from a campaign had first of all to offer up his thanks
to Jupiter, and it was in honour of Jupiter that the victorious general celebrated
his triumph. (Liv. xxi. 63, xli. 32, xlii. 49.) The god himself was therefore
designated by the names of Imperator, Victor, Invictus, Stator, Opitulus, Feretrius,
Praedator, Triumphator, and the like. (Liv. i. 12, vi. 29, x. 29; Ov. Fast. iv.
621; August. de Civ. Dei, viii. 11; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 223; Appul. de Mund. 37;
Festus, s. v. Opitulus; Cic. de Leg. ii. 11, in Verr. iv. 58.) Under all these
surnames the god had temples or statues at Rome; and two temples, viz. those of
Jupiter Stator at the Mucian gate and Jupiter Feretrius, were believed to have
been built in the time of Romulus. (Liv. i. 12, 41; Dionys. ii. 34, 50.) The Roman
games and the Feriae Latinae were celebrated to him under the names of Capitolinus
and Latialis.
Jupiter, according to the belief of the Romans, determined the course
of all earthly and human affairs: he foresaw the future, and the events happening
in it were the results of his will. He revealed the future to man through signs
in the heavens and the flight of birds, which are hence called the messengers
of Jupiter, while the god himself is designated as Prodigialis, that is, the sender
of prodigies. (Plaut. Amphitr. ii. 2, 107.) For the same reason Jupiter was invoked
at the beginning of every undertaking, whether sacred or profane, together with
Janus, who blessed the beginning itself (August. de Civ. Dei, vii. 8; Liv. viii.
9; Cato, de R. R. 134, 141; Macrob. Sat. i. 16); and rams were sacrificed to Jupiter
on the [p. 660] ides of every month by his flamen, while a female lamb and a pig
were offered to Juno on the kalends of every month by the wife of the rex sacrorum.
(Macrob. Sat. i. 15; Ov. Fast. i. 587; Fest. s. v. Idulis Ovis.) Another sacrifice,
consisting of a ram, was offered to Jupiter in the regia on the nundines, that
is, at the beginning of every week (Macrob. Sat. i. 16; Festus. s. v. nundinas);
and it may be remarked in general that the first day of every period of time both
at Rome and in Latium was sacred to Jupiter, and marked by festivals, sacrifices,
or libations.
It seems to be only a necessary consequence of what has been already
said, that Jupiter was considered as the guardian of law, and as the protector
of justice and virtue: he maintained the sanctity of an oath, and presided over
all transactions which were based upon faithfulness and justice. Hence Fides was
his companion on the capitol, along with Victoria; and hence a traitor to his
country, and persons guilty of perjury, were thrown down the Tarpeian rock. Faithfulness
is manifested in the internal relations of the state, as well as in its connections
with foreign powers, and in both respects Jupiter was regarded as its protector.
Hence Jupiter and Juno were the guardians of the bond of marriage; and when the
harmony between husband and wife was disturbed, it was restored by Juno, surnamed
Conciliatrix or Viriplaca, who had a sanctuary on the Palatine. (Fest. s. v. Conciliatric;
Val. Max. ii. 1. 6.) Not only the family, however, but all the political bodies
into which the Roman people was divided, such as the gentes and curiae, were under
the especial protection of the king and queen of the gods; and so was the whole
body of the Roman people, that is, the Roman state itself. The fact of Jupiter
being further considered as the watchful guardian of property, is implied in his
surname of Hercius (from the ancient herctum, property), and from his being expressly
called by Dionysius (ii. 74), horios Zeus, i.e. Jupiter Terminus, or the protector
of boundaries, not only of private property, but of the state.
As Jupiter was the prince of light, the white colour was sacred to
him, white animals were sacrificed to him, his chariot was believed to be drawn
by four white horses, his priests wore white caps, and the consuls were attired
in white when they offered sacrifices in the capitol the day they entered on their
office. (Festus, s.v. albogalerum pileum.) When the Romans became acquainted with
the religion of the Greeks, they naturally identified Jupiter with Zeus, and afterwards
with the Egyptian Ammon, and in their representations of the god they likewise
adopted the type of the Greek Zeus.
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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Jupiter Elicius
Elicius, a surname of Jupiter at Rome, where king Numa dedicated to Jupiter Elicius an altar on the Aventine. (Liv. i. 20.) The same king was said to have instituted certain secret rites to be performed in honour of the god, which were recorded in his Commentarii. (Liv. i. 31.) The origin of the name as well as the notion of Jupiter Elicius is referred to the Etruscans, who by certain prayers and sacrifices called forth (eliciebant or evocabant) lightning or invited Jupiter to send lightning. (Plin H. N. ii. 54; Ov Fast. iii,327, &c.; Varro, de Ling. Lat. vi. 94.) The object of calling down lightning was according to Livy's explanation to elicit prodigies ex mentlibus dicinis; and when the god appeared or sent his lightning in anger, it was an unfortunate sign to the person who had invited it. Seneca (Quaest. Nat. ii. 49) attests that the ancients distinguished a kind of lightning or fulmina, called fulmina hospitalia, which it was possible for man to draw down, and Pliny mentions Numa, Tullus Hostilius, and Porsena, among the persons who in early times had called down lighstning, though Tullus and his family perished in the attempt. Some modern writers think that the belief in the pos sibility of calling down lightnings arose out of certain observations or experiments in electricity, with which the ancients were acquainted, and some have even ventured upon the supposition that the ancients, and the Etruscans in particular, knew the use of conductors of lightning, which, though they cannot draw lightning from heaven, yet conduct it towards a certain point. Servius (ad Virg. Eclog. vi. 42) goes even so far as to say that the art of drawing down lightning was known to Prometheus.
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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Jupiter Hospitalis
Hospitalis, the guardian or protector of the law of hospitality. We find the title of dii hospitales as applied to a distinct class of gods, though their names are not mentioned. (Tacit. Ann. xv. 52; Liv. xxxix. 51; Ov. Met. v. 45.) But the great protector of hospitality was Jupiter, at Rome called Jupiter hospitalis, and by the Greeks Zeus xenios. (Serv. ad Aen. i. 140; Cic. ad Q. frat. ii. 12; Horn. Od. xiv. 389)
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Jupiter Lucerius, Juno Luceria
Lucerius, Luceria, also Lucetius and Lucetia, that is, the giver of light, occur as surnames of Jupiter and Juno. According to Servius (ad Aen. ix. 570) the name was used especially among the Oscans. (Macrob. Sat. i. 15; Gellius, v. 12)
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Jupiter Lapis
Lapis, the stone, a surname of Jupiter at Rome, as we see from the expression Jovem Lapidem jurare. (Cic. ad Fam. vii. 12; Gell. i. 21 ; Polyb. iii. 26.) It was formerly believed that Jupiter Lapis was a stone statue of the god, or originally a rude stone serving as a symbol, around which people assembled for the purpose of worshipping Jupiter. But it is now generally acknowledged that the pebble or flint stone was regarded as the symbol of lightning, and that, therefore, in some representations of Jupiter, he held a stone in his hand instead of the thunderbolt. (Arnob. adv. Gent. iv. 25.) Such a stone (lapis Capitolinus, August. De Civ. Dei, ii. 29) was even set up as a symbolic representation of the god himself. (Serv. ad Aen. viii. 641.) When a treaty was to be concluded, the sacred symbols of Jupiter were taken from his temple, viz. his sceptre, the pebble and grass from the district of the temple, for the purpose of swearing by them (per Jovem Lapidem jurare ; Liv. i. 24, xxx. 43; Fest. s. v. Feretrius). A pebble or flint stone was also used by the Romans in killing the animal, when an oath was to be accompanied by a sacrifice; and this custom was probably a remnant of very early times, when metal instruments were not yet used for such purposes. (Fest. s. v. Lapidenm Silicem ; comp. Liv. i. 24, ix. 5; Polyb. iii. 26; Plut. Sull. 10.)
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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Jupiter Liberator
Liberator, a surname of Jupiter, answering to the Greek Eleutherios, to whom Augustus built a temple on the Aventine. (Tac. Ann. xv. 64, xvi. 35)
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Juno (Greek Hera)
Juno. The name of Juno is probably of the same root as Jupiter, and differs from
it only in its termination. As Jupiter is the king of heaven and of the gods,
so Juno is the queen of heaven, or the female Jupiter. The Romans identified at
an early time their Juno with Hera, with whom she has indeed many resemblances,
but we shall endeavour here to treat of the Roman Juno exclusively, and to separate
the Greek notions entertained by the Romans, from those which are of a purely
Italian or Roman nature. Juno, as the queen of heaven, bore the surname of Regina,
under which she was worshipped at Rome from early times, and at a later period
her worship was solemnly transferred from Veii to Rome, where a sanctuary was
dedicated to her on the Aventine. (Liv. v. 21, 22, xxii. 1, xxvii. 37; Varr. de
L. L. v. 67.) She is rarely described as hurling the thunderbolt, and the main
feature of her character is, that she was to the female sex all that Jupiter was
to the male, and that she was regarded as the protectress of every thing connected
with marriage. She was, however, not only the protecting genius of the female
sex in general, but accompanied every individual woman through life, from the
moment of her birth to the end of her life. Hence she bore the special surnames
of Virginalis and Matrona, as well as the general ones of Opigena and Sospita
(Ov. Fast. vi. 33; Horat. Carm. iii. 4, 59; Serv. ad Aen. viii. 84; August. de
Civ. Dei, iv. 11; Festus, p. 343, ed. Muller), under which she was worshipped
both at Lanuvium and at Rome. (Liv. xxiv. 10, xxvii. 3, xxxii. 30; Ov. Fast. ii.
56; Cic. de Div. i. 2.) On their birthday women offered sacrifices to Juno surnamed
natalis, just as men sacrificed to their genius natalis (Tibull. iv. 6. 13. 15);
but the general festival, which was celebrated by all the women, in honour of
Juno, was called Matronalia (Dict. of Ant. s. v.), and took place on the 1st of
March. Her protection of women, and especially her power of making them fruitful,
is further alluded to in the festival Populifugia (Dict. of Ant. s.v.) as well
as in the surname of Februarius, Februata, Februta, or Februalis. (Fest. s.v.
Februarius, p. 85, ed. Muller; comp. Ov. Fast. ii. 441.) Juno was further, like
Saturn, the guardian of the finances, and under the name of Moneta she had a temple
on the Capitoline hill, which contained the mint. (Liv. vi. 20.) Some Romans considered
Juno Moneta as identical with Mnemosune, but this identification undoubtedly arose
from the desire of finding the name Moneta a deeper meaning than it really contains.
The most important period in a woman's life is that of her marriage, and, as we
have already remarked, she was believed especially to preside over marriage. Hence
she was called Juga or Jugalis, and had a variety of other names, alluding to
the various occasions on which she was invoked by newly-married people, such as,
Domiduca, Iterduca, Pronuba, Cinxia, Prema, Pertunda, Fluonia, and Lucina. (Virg.
Aen. iv. 166, 457, with Serv. note; Ov. Heroid. vi. 43; August. de Civ. Dei, vi.
7, 11, vii. 3; Arnob. iii. 7, 25, vi. 7, 25; Fest. s. vv.) The month of June,
which is said to have originally been called Junonius, was considered to be the
most favourable period for marrying. (Macrob. Sat. i. 12; Ov. Fast. vi. 56.) Juno,
however, not only presided over the fertility of marriage, but also over its inviolable
sanctity, and unchastity and inordinate love of sexual pleasures were hated by
the goddess. Hence a law of Numa ordained that a prostitute should not touch the
altar of Juno, and that if she had done so, she should with dishevelled hair offer
a female lamb to Juno. (Gell. iv. 3.) Women in childbed invoked Juno Lucina to
help them (Plaut. Aulul. iv. 7, 11; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 77; Propert. v 1, 95; Arnob.
iii. 9, 21, 23), and after the delivery of the child, a table was laid out for
her in the house for a whole week (Tertull. de Anim. 39), for newly-born children
were likewise under her protection, whence she was sometimes confounded with the
Greek Artemis or Eileithyia. (Catull. xxxiv. 13; Dionys. Hal. iv. 15)
As Juno has all the characteristics of her husband, in so far as they
refer to the female sex, she presides over all human affairs, which are based
upon justice and faithfulness, and more especially over the domestic affairs,
in which women are more particularly concerned, though public affairs were not
beyond her sphere, as we may infer from her surnames of Curiatia and Populonia.
In Etruria, where the worship of Juno was very general, she bore the surname of
Cupra, which is said to have been derived from the name of a town, but it may
be connected with the Sabine word cyprus, which, according to Varro (de L. L.
v. 159), signified good, and also occurs in the name of vicus Cyprius. At Falerii,
too, her worship was of great importance (Dionys. i. 21), and so also at Lanuvium,
Aricia, Tibur, Praeneste, and other places. (Ov. Fast. vi. 49, 59; Liv. v. 21,
x. 2; Serv. ad Aen. vii. 739; Strab. v. p. 241.) In the representations of the
Roman Juno that have come down to us, the type of the Greek Hera is commonly adopted.
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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(Juno ?) Empanda or Panda
Empanda or Panda, was, according to Festus (s. v. Empanda), a dca paganorum. Varro (ap. Non.; comp.
Gell. xiii. 22; Arnob. iv. 2) connects the word with pandere, but absurdly explains
it by panem dare, so that Empanda would be the goddess of bread or food. She had
a sanctuary near the gate, called after her the porta Pandana, which led to the
capitol (Festus, s. v. Pandana; Varro, de Ling. Lat. v. 42). Her temple was an
asylum, which was always open, and the suppliants who came to it were supplied
with food from the funds of the temple. This custom at once shews the meaning
of the name Panda or Emlpanda: it is connected with pandere, to open; she is accordingly
the goddess who is open to or admits any one who wants protection. Hartung (die
Religion der Rom. ii.) thinks that Empanda and Panda are only surnames of Juno.
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Juno Juga or Jugadelis
Juga or Jugadelis, that is, the goddess of marriage, occurs as a surname of Juno, in the same sense as the Greek zugia. She had a temple under this name in the forum at Rome, below the capitol, and the street which there took its commencement was called vicus Jugarius. (August. dei, iv. Dei, iv. 8, 11, vi. 9; Festus)
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Juno Lucina
Lucina the goddess of light, or rather the goddess that brings to light, and hence the goddess that presides over the birth of children; it was therefore used as a surname of Juno and Diana, and the two are sometimes called Lucinae. (Varro, de Ling. Lat. v. 69; Catull. xxxiv. 13; Horat. Carm. Saec. 14, &c.; Ov. Fast. ii. 441, &c., vi. 39; Tibull. iii. 4. 13.) When women of rank gave birth to a son, a lectisterniumn was prepared for Juno Lucina in the atrium of the house. (Serv. and Philarg. ad Virg. Eclog. iv. 63.)
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Venus Libentina, Lubentina or Lubentia
Libentina, Lubentina or Lubentia, a surname of Venus among the Romans, by which she is described as the goddess of sexual pleasure (dea libidinis, Varr. de Ling. Lat. v. 6; Cic. de Nat. Deor. ii. 23; August. de Civ. Dei, iv. 8; Nonius, i. 324; Plaut. Asin. ii. 2. 2; Arnob. adv. Gent. i. p. 15, who however speaks of Libentini dii.)
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Bacchus Liber
Liber. This name, or Liber pater, is frequently applied by the Roman poets to the Greek
Bacchus or Dionysus, who was accordingly regarded as identical with the Italian
Liber. Cicero (de Nat. Deor. ii. 24), however, very justly distinguishes between
Dionysus (the Greek Liber) and the Liber who was worshipped by the early Italians
in conjunction with Ceres and Libera. Liber and the feminine Libera were ancient
Italian divinities, presiding over the cultivation of the vine and fertility of
the fields; and this seems to have given rise to the combination of their worship
with that of Ceres. A temple of these three divinities was vowed by the dictator,
A. Postumius, in B. C. 496, near the Circus Flaminius; it was afterwards restored
by Augustus, and dedicated by Tiberius. (Tac. Ann. ii. 49; Dionys. vi. 17.) The
most probable etymology of the name Liber is from liberare; Servius (ad Virg.
Georg. i. 7) indeed states that the Sabine name for Liber was Loebasius, but this
seems to have been only an obsolete form for Liber, just as we are told that the
ancient Romans said loebesus and loebertas for the later forms liber(us) and libertas.
(Paul. Diac. p. 121, ed. Miller.) Hence Seneca (de Tranq. Anim. 15) says, "Liber
dictus est quia liberat servitio curarum animi", while others, who were evidently
thinking of the Greek Bacchus, found in the name an allusion to licentious drinking
and speaking. (Macrob. Sat. i. 18; August. de Civ. Dei, vi. 9; Paul. Diac.) Poets
usually call him Liber pater, the latter word being very commonly added by the
Italians to the names of gods. The female Libera was identified by the Romans
with Cora or Persephone, the daughter of Demeter (Ceres), whence Cicero (de Nat.
Deor. ii. 24) calls Liber and Libera children of Ceres; whereas Ovid (Fast. iii.
512) calls Ariadne Libera. The festival of the Liberalia was celebrated by the
Romans every year on the 17th of March. (Dict. of Ant. s. v. Liberalia; Hartung,
Die Relig. der Rďm. vol. ii. p. 135, &c.; Klausen, Aeneas und die Penaten, vol.
ii. p. 750, &c.)
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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Bacchus Lyaeus
Lyaeus (Luaios), the god who frees men from care and anxiety, a surname of Bacchus. (Eustath. ad Hom.; Virg. Georg. ii. 229.)
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Mars
Mars an ancient Roman god, who was at an early period identified by the Romans
with the Greek Ares, or the god delighting in bloody war, although there are a
variety of indications that the Italian Mars was originally a divinity of a very
different nature. In the first place Mars bore the surname of Silvanus, and sacrifices
were offered to him for the prosperity of the fields and flocks; and in the second
a lance was honoured at Rome as well as at Praeneste as the symbol of Mars (Liv.
xxiv. 10), so that Mars resembles more the Greek Pallas Athene than Ares. The
transition from the idea of Mars as an agricultural god to that of a warlike being,
was not difficult with the early Latins, as the two occupations were intimately
connected. The name of the god in the Sabine and Oscan was Mamers; and Mars itself
is a contraction of Mavers or Mavors.
Next to Jupiter, Mars enjoyed the highest honours at Rome: he frequently
is designated as father Mars, whence the forms Marspiterand Maspiter, analogous
to Jupiter (Gellius, iv. 12; Macrob. Sat. i. 12, 19; Varro, De Ling. Lat. viii.
33); and Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus, were the three tutelary divinities of Rome,
to each of whom king Numa appointed a flamen, whose rank was sometimes thought
higher even than that of the great pontiff. (Liv. viii. 9; Festus, p. 188, ed.
Muller) Hence a very ancient sanctuary was dedicated to Mars on the Quirinal hill,
near the temple of Dius Fidius, from which he derived his surname of Quirinus
(Varro, De ling Lat. v 52; Serv. ad Aen. i. 296), and hence he was regarded as
the father of the Roman people, having begotten the founders of Rome by Rhea Silvia,
a priestess of Vesta. The rites of the worship of Mars all point to victory, in
proof of which we need only direct attention to the dances in armour of the Salii,
the dedication of the place of warlike exercises and games to Mars (campus Martius),
and that war itself is frequently designated by the name of Mars. But being the
father of the Romans, Mars was also the protector of the most honourable pursuit,
i. e. nariculture, and hence he was invoked to be propitious to the household
of the rustic Roman (Cato, De Re Rust. 141); and under the name of Silvanus, he
was worshipped to take care of the cattle (ibid. 83). The warlike Mars was called
Gradivus, as the rustic god was called Silvanus; while, in his relation to the
state, he bore the name of Quirinus. These are the three principal aspects under
which the god appears; and in reference to the second, it may be remarked that
females were excluded from his worship, and that accordingly he presided more
particularly over those occupations of country life which belonged to the male
sex. (Cato, De Re Rust. 83; Schol. ad Juvenal. vi. 446.) But notwithstanding this,
Mars was conceived not only accompanied by female divinities, but one of them,
Nerio, or Neriene, is even described as his wife. (G(ellius, xiii. 22; Plaut.
Truc. ii. 6. 34; L. Lydus, De Mens. iv. 42.)
Mars was further looked upon as a god with prophetic powers; and in
the neighbourhood of Reate there had been a very ancient oracle of the god (Dionys.
i. 41), in which the future was revealed through a woodpecker (picus), which was
sacred to him, and was for this reason surnamed Martius. The wolf also was sacred
to Mars, and these animals, together with the horse, were his favourite sacrifices.
Numerous temples were dedicated to him at Rome, the most important of which was
that outside the Porta Capena, on the Appian road (Liv. x. 23, vi. 5, xli. 13;
Serv. ad Aen. i. 296 ), and that of Mars Ultor, which was built by Augustus, in
the forum. (Dion Cass. xlvi. 24 ; Sneton. Aug. 29; Virruv. i. 7; comp. Hartung,
Die Reliq. der Rom. vol. ii. p. 155, &c.)
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Bellona
Bellona, the goddess of war among the Romans. It is very probable that originally
Bellona was a Sabine divinity whose worship was carried to Rome by the Sabine
settlers. She is frequently mentioned by the Roman poets as the companion of Mars,
or even as his sister or his wife. Virgil describes her as armed with a bloody
scourge. (Virg. Aen. viii. 703; Lucan, Phars. vii. 569; Horat. Sat. ii. 3. 223.)
The main object for which Bellena was worshipped and invoked, was to grant a warlike
spirit and enthusiasm which no enemy could resist; and it was for this reason,
for she had been worshipped at Rome from early times (Liv. viii. 9), that in B.
C. 296, during the war against the Samnites, Appius Claudius the Blind vowed the
first temple of Bellona, which was accordingly erected in the Campus Martins close
by the Circus Flaminius. (Liv. x. 19; Ov. Fast. vi. 201, &c.) This temple subsequently
became of great political importance, for in it the senate assembled to give audience
to foreign ambassadors, whom it was not thought proper to admit into the city,
to generals who returned from a campaign for which they claimed the honour of
a triumph, and on other occasions. (Liv. xxviii. 9, xxx. 21; Dict. of Ant. s.v.
Legatus). In front of the entrance to the temple there stood a pillar, which served
for making the symbolical declarations of war; for the area of the temple was
regarded as a symbolical representation of the enemies' country, and the pillar
as that of the frontier, and the declaration of war was made by launching a spear
over the pillar. This ceremony, so long as the Roman dominion was of small extent,
had been performed on the actual frontier of the enemy's country. (Ov. Fast. vi.
205, &c.; Serv. ad Aen. ix. 53; Liv. i. 32; Dict. of Ant. s. v. Fetiales.) The
priests of Bellona were called Bellonarii, and when they offered sacrifices to
her, they had to wound their own arms or legs, and either to offer up the blood
or drink it themselves, in order to become inspired with a warlike enthusiasm.
This sacrifice, which was afterwards softened down into a mere symbolic act, took
place on the 24th of March, which day was called dies sanguinisfor this reason.
(Lucan, i. 565; Martial, xii. 57; Tertull. Apology. 9; Lactant. i. 21; comp. Heindorf,
ad Hor. Sat. l. c.; Hartung, Die Relig. der Romer, ii.; C. Tiesler, De Bellonae
Cultu et Sacris, Berlin, 1842. 8vo.)
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Bona Dea
Bona Dea, a Roman divinity, who is described as the sister, wife, or daughter of Faunus,
and was herself called Fauna, Fatua, or Oma (Serv. ad Aen. viii. 314; Macrob.
Sat. i. 12). She was worshipped at Rome from the earliest times as a chaste and
prophetic divinity; and her worship was so exclusively confined to women, that
men were not even allowed to know her name. Faunus himself had not been able to
overcome her aversion to men, except by changing her into a serpent (Cic. de Harusp.
resp. 17; Varr. ap. Lactant. i. 22; Serv. l. c.). She revealed her oracles only
to females, as Faunus did only to males. Her sanctuary was a grotto in the Aventine,
which had been consecrated to her by Claudia, a pure maiden (Macrob. l. c.; Ov.
Fast. v. 148, &c.). In the time of Cicero, however, she had also a sanctuary between
Aricia and Bovillae (Cic. pro Mil. 31; Ascon. ad Milon..) Her festival, which
was celebrated every year on the 1st of May, was held in the house of the consul
or praetor, as the sacrifices on that occasion were offered on behalf of the whole
Roman people. The solemnities were conducted by the Vestals, and only women, usually
of the higher orders, were allowed to take part in them (Cic. ad Ait. i. 13, de
Harusp. resp. l. c.; Dion Cass. xxxvii. 45). During the solemnity, no male person
was allowed to be in the house, and portraits of men were tolerated only when
they were covered over. It is a wellknown fact, that P. Clodius profaned the sacred
ceremonies on such an occasion by entering the house of Caesar in the disguise
of a woman (Juv. vi. 429; Senec. Epist. 97; Plut. Caes. 9, Quaest. Rom. 20; Cic.
Paradox. 4, ad Att. ii.4). The women who celebrated the festival of Fauna had
to prepare themselves for it by abstaining from various things, especially from
intercourse with men. The house of the consul or praetor was decorated by the
Vestals as a temple, with flowers and foliage of every kind except myrtle, on
account of its symbolic meaning. The head of the goddess's statue was adorned
with a garland of vine-leaves, and a serpent surrounded its feet. The women were
decorated in a similar manner. Although no one was allowed to bring wine with
her, a vessel filled with wine, stood in the room, and from it the women made
their libations and drank. This wine, however, was called milk, and the vessel
containing it mellarium, so that the name of wine was avoided altogether. The
solemnity commenced with a sacrifice called damium (the priestess who performed
bore the name damiatrix, and the goddess damia, who however gives an absurd account
of these names). One might suppose that the sacrifice consisted of a chamois (dama)
or some kind of substitute for a chamois; but Pliny (H. N. x. 77) seems to suggest,
that the sacrifice consisted of liens of various colours, except black ones. After
this sacrifice, the women began to perform Bacchic dances, and to drink of the
wine prepared for them (Juv. vi. 314). The goddess herself was believed to have
set the example for this; for, while yet on earth, she was said to have intoxicated
herself by emptying a large vessel of wine, whereupon Faunus killed her with a
myrtle staff, but afterwards raised her to the rank of a goddess (Varr. ap. Lactant.
l. c.; Arnob. adv. Gent. v. 18; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 20). This whole ceremony took
place at night, whence it is usually called sacrum opertum, or sucra opertanea
(Cic. de Legg. ii. 9, ad Att. i. 13). Fauna was also regarded as a goddess possessed
of healing powers, as might be inferred from the serpents being part of her worship;
but we know that various kinds of medicinal herbs were sold in her temple, and
bought largely by the poorer classes (Macrob., Plut., Arnob. ll. cc.). Greek writers,
in their usual way, identify the Bona Dea with some Greek divinity, such as Semele,
Medeia, Hecate, or Persephone. The Angitia of the Marsians seems to have been
the same goddess with them as the Bona Dea with the Romans.
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Edulica or Edusa
Edulica or Edusa, a Roman divinity, who was worshipped as the protectress of children, and was believed to bless their food, just as Potina and Cuba blessed their drinking and their sleep. (Augustin, de Civ. Dei, iv. 11; Varro, ap. Non.; Arnob. iii. 25; Donat. ad Terent. Phorm. i. 1, 11.)
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Epona
Epona (Hippona), from epus (hippos), that is, equus, was regarded as the protectress of horses. Images of her, either statues or paintings, were frequently seen in niches of stables. She was said to be the daughter of Fulvius Stellus by a mare. (Juven. viii. 157; Plut. Parall. Gr. et Rom.)
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Flora (Chloris)
Flora (Chloris), the Roman goddess of flowers and spring. The writers, whose object it was to bring
Flora, the Roman religion into contempt, relate that Flora had been, like Acca Laurentia,
a courtezan, who accumulated a large property, and bequeathed it to the Roman
people, in return for which she was honoured with the annual festival of the Floralia
(Lactant. i. 20). But her worship was established at Rome in the very earliest
times, for a temple is said to have been vowed to her by king Tatius (Varro, de.
L. L. v. 74), and Numa appointed a flamen to her. The resemblance between the
names Flora and Chloris led the later Romans to identify the two divinities. Her
temple at Rome was situated near the Circus Maximus (Tac. Ann. ii. 49), and her
festival was celebrated from the 28th of April till the first of May, with extravagant
merriment and lasciviousness. (Dict. of Ant. s. v. Floralia.)
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Fontus
Fontus, a Roman divinity, and believed to be a son of Janus. He had an altar on the Janiculus, which derived its name from his father, and on which Numa was believed to be buried. He was a brother of Volturnus. (Cic. de Leg. ii. 22 ; Arnob. iii. 29.) The name of this divinity is connected with fons, a well; and he was the personification of the flowing waters. On the 13th of October the Romans celebrated the festival of the wells, called Fontinalia, at which the wells were adorned with garlands, and flowers thrown into them. (Varro, de L. L. vi. 22; Festus, s. v. Fontinalia.)
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Fornax
Fornax, a Roman goddess, who is said to have been worshipped that she might ripen the corn, and prevent its being burnt in baking in the oven. (Fornax.) Her festival, the Fornacalia, was announced by the curio maximus. (Ov. Fast. ii. 525, &c.; Festus, s. v. Fornacalia.)
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Furina or Furrina
Furina or Furrina, an ancient Roman divinity, who had a sacred grove at Rome (Cic. de Nat.Deor. iii.
18). Her worship seems to have become extinct at an early time, for Varro (de
L. L. vi. 19) states that in his day her name was almost forgotten. An annual
festival (Furinalia or Furinales feriae) had been celebrated in honour of her,
and a flamen (flamen Furinalis) conducted her worship (Varro de L. L. v. 84, vii.
45). She had also a temple in the neighbourhood of Satricum (Cic. ad Q. Frat.
iii. 1).
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Indiges
Indiges, plur. Indigetes, the name by which indigenous gods and heroes were invoked
at Rome, that is, such as were believed to have once lived on earth as mortals,
and were after their death raised to the rank of gods, e. g. Janus, Picus, Faunus,
Aeneas, Evander, Hercules, Latinus, Romulus, and others (Serv. ad Aen. xii. 794;
Liv. viii. 9; Virg. Georg. i. 498, Aen. viii. 314, xii. 794; Arnob. adv. Gent.
i.). Thus Aeneas, after his disappearance on the banks of the Numicus, became
a deus Indiges, pater Indiges, or Jupiter Indiges; and in like manner Romulus
became Quirinus, and Latinus Jupiter Latiaris (Gellius, ii. 16; Virg., Liv. ll.
cc. ; Sil. Ital. viii. 39 Tibull. ii. 5, 44; Solin. 2; Aurel. Vict. de Orig. 14).
The Indigetes are frequently mentioned together with the Lares and Penates (Virg.
Georg. i. 498; Lucan, i. 556; Sil. Ital. ix. 294), and many writers connect the
Indigetes with those divinities to whom a share in the foundation of the Latin
and Roman state is ascribed, such as Mars, Venus, Vesta, &c. (Sil. Ital. l. c.;
Ov. Met. xv. 862; Claudian, Bell. Gild. 82; Liv. viii. 9). Paulus Diaconus describes
the Indigetes as deo, quorum nomina vulgari non licet, a statement which is repeated
by others, though its import is rather obscure. The origin of the name Indigetes
was also a matter of dispute with the ancients (Serv. ad Aen. xii. 794), but they
were at all events Deoi enchiorioi, and we are therefore inclined rather to connect
the name with induagere than with indigilare, as Festus thinks; in addition to
which the plural is not Indigites, but Indigetes. We may therefore define the
Indigetes to be indigenous heroes of the country, whom the grateful veneration
of their countrymen raised after their death to the rank of gods. They were regarded
as manifestations of the supreme deity, and worshipped as the protectors of the
country to which they had done good service during their mortal life.
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Lares
Lares. Gods of inferior power worshipped at Rome, of human origin and presiding
over houses and families. There were various classes of them, such as Urbani,
to preside over the cities; Familiares, over houses; Rustici, over the country;
Compitales, over crossways; Marini, over the sea; Viales, over roads, etc. The
Lares were originally human beings themselves, who lived upon the earth, and,
becoming pure spirits after death, loved still to hover round the dwelling which
they once inhabited, to watch over its safety, and to guard it with as much care
as the faithful dog does the possessions of its master. They keep off, therefore,
danger from without, while the Penates (q.v.), residing in the interior of the
dwelling, pour forth benefits upon its inmates. The fundamental idea, on which
rests the doctrine of the Lares, is intimately connected with all the psychology
and pneumatology of the ancient Italians. According to Apuleius the daemones which
once had inhabited, as souls, human bodies, were called Lemures: this name therefore
designated, in general, the spirit separated from the body. Such a spirit, if
it adopted its posterity--if it took possession, with favourable power, of the
abode of its children--was called Lar familiaris. If on the contrary, by reason
of the faults committed in life, it found in the grave no resting place, it appeared
to men as a phantom; inoffensive to the good, but terrible to the wicked. Its
name was in that case Larva. As, however, there was no way of precisely ascertaining
what had been the lot of a deceased person, whether he had become, for example,
a Lar or a Larva, it was customary to give to the dead the general appellation
of Manes. The mother of the Lares was called Lara or Larunda (Arnob. Adv. Gent.
iii. 41; Macrob. i. 7). This conception of the Lares, as the souls of fathers
and of forefathers, protectors of their children, and watching over the safety
of their descendants, necessarily gave rise to the custom of burying the dead
within the dwelling ( Serv. ad Verg. Aen.v. 64; vi. 152; Orig.xv. 11). Men wished
to have near them these tutelary genii, in order to be certain of their assistance
and support. In process of time, however, this custom was prohibited at Rome by
the laws of the Twelve Tables.
The Etrurians, and the Romans after them, had their Lares publici
and Lares privati. The Lares were supposed to assist at all gatherings of men,
at all public assemblies or reunions, in all transactions of men, and in all the
most important affairs of State as well as of individuals. As each individual
had his Lar, his genius, his guardian spirit, even the infant at the breast, so
entire families, and whole races and nations, were equally under the protection
of one of these tutelar deities. Here the Lares became in some degree confounded
with the Heroes, that is, with the spirits of those who, having deserved well
of their country while on earth, continued to watch over and protect it. It would
seem, too, that at times the worship of these public Lares, like that of the public
Penates, was not without some striking resemblance to that rendered to the great
national divinities.
All that the house contained was confided to the superintending care
of these vigilant genii: they were set as a watch over all things large and small,
and hence the name of Praestites, which is sometimes given them (Ovid, Fast.v.
128 Fast., 132). Hence the dog was the natural symbol of the Lares; an image of
this animal was placed by the side of their statues, or else these were covered
with the skin of a dog. The ordinary altar on which sacrifices were offered to
the Lares was the domestic hearth. The victims consisted of a hog ( Hor. Carm.iii.
23Hor. Carm., 4) or a fowl; sometimes, with the rich, of a young steer; to them
were also presented the first fruits of the season, and libations of wine were
poured out. In all the family repasts, the first thing done was to cast a portion
of all the viands into the fire that burned on the hearth, in honour of the Lares.
In the form of marriage, called coemptio, the bride always threw a piece of money
on the hearth to the Lares of her family, and deposited another in the neighbouring
cross-road, in order to obtain admission, as it were, into the dwelling of her
husband. Young persons, after their fifteenth year, consecrated to the Lares the
bulla which they had worn from infancy ( Pers.v. 31). Soldiers, when their time
of service was once ended, dedicated to them the arms with which they had fought
(Ovid, Trist. iv. 8, 21). Captives and slaves restored to freedom consecrated
to the Lares the fetters from which they had just been freed ( Sat.i. 5). Before
undertaking a journey, or after a successful return, homage was paid to these
deities, their protection was implored, or thanks were rendered for their guardian
care (Ovid, Trist. i. 3, 33). The new master of a house crowned the Lares, in
order to render them propitious; a custom which was of the most universal nature,
and which was perpetuated to the latest times (Plaut. Trinum. i. 2, 1). The proper
place for worshipping the Lares, and where their images stood, was called Lararium,
a sort of domestic chapel in the atrium, where were also to be seen the images
and busts of the family ancestors. The rich had often two Lararia, one large and
the other small; they had also “Masters of the Lares,” and “Decuries of the Lares”--namely,
slaves specially charged with the care of these domestic chapels and the images
of their divinities. As to the poor, their Lares had to be content with the simple
hearth, where honours not less simple were paid to them. Certain public festivals
were also celebrated in honour of the Lares, called Lararia and Compitalia. The
period for their celebration fell in the month of December, a little after that
of the Saturnalia. The Compitalia, dedicated to the Lares Compitales, were celebrated
in the open air, in the cross-roads. The day of their celebration was not fixed.
They were introduced at Rome by Servius Tullius, who left to the Senate the care
of determining the period [p. 923] when they should be held. In early times, children
were immolated to the goddess Mania, the mother, according to some, of the Lares,
to propitiate her favour for the protection of the family. This barbarous rite
was subsequently abolished, and little balls of wool were hung up in the stead
of human offerings at the gates of dwellings. Macrobius ( Sat.i. 7 Sat., 34) informs
us that it was Junius Brutus who, after the expulsion of the Tarquins, introduced
a new form of sacrifice, by virtue of which heads of garlic and poppies were offered
up in place of human heads, ut pro capitibus capitibus supplicaretur, in accordance
with the oracle of Apollo.
As regards the forms under which the Lares were represented, it may
be observed that it differed often but little from that of the Penates. Thus,
on the coins of the Caesian family, they are represented as two young men, seated,
their heads covered with helmets, and holding spears in their hands, while a dog
watches at their feet. Sometimes, as has already been remarked, the heads of the
Lares are represented as covered with, or their mantle as formed of, the skin
of a dog. At other times we find the Lares resembling naked children, with the
bulla hanging from the neck.
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Lares. The worship of the Lares at Rome was closely connected with that of the
Manes, and that of both was analogous to the hero worship of the Greeks. The name
Lar is Etruscan, and signifies lord, king, or hero. The Lares may be divided into
two classes, the Lares domestici and Lares publici, and the former were the Manes
of a house raised to the dignity of heroes. So long as the house was the place
where the dead were buried (Serv. ad Aen. v. 64, vi. 152), the Manes and Lares
must have been more nearly identical than afterwards, although the Manes were
more closely connected with the place of burial, while the Lares were more particularly
the divinities presiding over the hearth and the whole house. According to what
has here been said, it was not the spirits of all the dead that were honoured
as Lares, but only the spirits of good men. It is not certain whether the spirits
of women could become Lares; but from the sugrundaria in Fulgentius (De Prisc.
Serm. p. xi. ed. Lersch.), it has been inferred that children dying before they
were 40 days old might become Lares. (Comp. Nonius, p. 114; Diomed. i. p. 379.)
All the domestic Lares were headed by the Lar familiaris, who was regarded as
the first originator of the family, corresponding in some measure with the Greek
heros eponumos, whence Dionysius (iv. 2) calls him ho kat oikian heros. (Comp.
Plut. De Fort. Rom. 10; and more especially Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 70; Plant. Aulul.
Prolog.) The Lar familiaris was inseparable from the family; and when the latter
changed their abode, the Lar went with them. (Plaut. Trin. 39, &c.)
The public Lares are expressly distinguished by Pliny (H. N. xxi.
8) from the domestic or private ones, and they were worshipped not only at Rome,
but in all the towns regulated according to a Roman or Latin model. (Hertzberg,
De Diis Rom. Pair. p. 47.) Among the Lares publici we have mention of Lares praestites
and Lares compitales, who are in reality the same, and differ only in regard to
the place or occasion of their worship. Servius Tullius is said to have instituted
their worship (Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 70); and when Augustus improved the regulations
of the city made by that king, he also renewed the worship of the public Lares.
Their name, Lares praestites, characterises them as the protecting spirits of
the city (Ov. Fast. v. 134), in which they had a temple in the uppermost part
of the Via Sacra, that is, near a compitum, whence they might be called compitales.
(Solin. 1; Ov. Fast. v. 128; Tacit. Ann. xii. 24.) This temple (Sacellum Larum
or aedes Larum) contained two images, which were probably those of Romulus and
Remus, and before them stood a stone figure of a dog, either the symbol of watchfulness,
or because a dog was the ordinary sacrifice offered to the Lares. Now, while these
Lares were the general protectors of the whole city, the Lares compitales must
be regarded as those who presided over the several divisions of the city, which
were marked by the compita or the points where two or more streets crossed each
other, and where small chapels (aediculae) were erected to those Lares, the number
of which must have been very great at Rome. As Augustus wished to be regarded
as the second founder of the city, the genius Augusti was added to the Lares praestites,
just as among the Lares of a family the genius of the paterfamilias also was worshipped.
But besides the Lares praestites and compitales, there are some other
Lares which must be reckoned among the public ones, viz., the Lares rurales, who
were worshipped in the country, and whose origin was probably traced to certain
heroes who had at one time benefitted the republic. (Cic. De Leg. ii. 11; Tibull.
i. 1. 24.) The Lares arvales probably belonged to the same class. (Klausen, De
Carm. Frat. Arval. p. 62.) We have also mention of Lares viales, who were worshipped
on the highroads by travellers (Plaut. Merc. v. 2, 22; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 302);
and of the Lares marini or permarini, to whom P. Aemilius dedicated a sanctuary
in remembrance of his naval victory over Antiochus. (Liv. xl. 52.)
The worship of the Lares was likewise partly public and partly private.
The domestic Lares, like the Penates, formed the religious elements of the Roman
household (Cic. De Repub. iv. in fin., ad Fam. i. 9, in Verr. iii. 24; Cat. De
Re Rust. 143); and their worship, together with that of the Penates and Manes,
constituted what are called the sacra privata. The images of the Lares, in great
houses, were usually in a separate compartment, called aediculae or lararia. (Juven.
viii. 110; Tibull. i. 10. 22; Petron. 29; Ael. Lamprid. Alex. Sev. 28; comp. Dict.
of Ant. s. v. Lararium.) The Lares were generally represented in the cinctus Gabinus
(Pers. v. 31; Ov. Fast. ii. 634), and their worship was very simple, especially
in the early times and in the country. The offerings were set before them in patellae,
whence they themselves are called patellarii (Plaut. Cistell. ii. 2. 55), and
pious people e made offerings to them every day (Plaut. Aulul. Prolog.); but they
were more especially worshipped on the calends, nones, and ides of every month.
(Cat. De Re Rust. 143; Horat. Carm. iii. 23. 2; Tibull. i. 3. 33; Virg. Eclog.
i. 43.) When the inhabitants of the house took their meals, some portion was offered
to the Lares, and on joyful family occasions they were adorned with wreaths, and
the lararia were thrown open. (Plaut. Aulul. ii. 8. 15; Ov. Fast. ii. 633; Pers.
iii. 24, &c., v. 31; Propert. i. 1. 132; Petron. 38.) When the young bride entered
the house of her husband, her first duty was to offer a sacrifice to the Lares.
(Macrob. Sat. i. 15.) Respecting the public worship of the Lares, and the festival
of the Larentalia, see Dict. of Ant. s. v. Larentalia, Compitalia. (Comp. Hempel,
De Diis Laribus, Zwickau, 1797; Muller, De Diis Romanorum Laribus et Penatibus,
Hafniae, 1811; Schomann, De Diis Manibus, Laribus et Geniis, Greifswald, 1840;
Hertzberg, De Diis Romanorum Patriis, sive de Larum atque Penatium tam publicorum
quam privatorum Religione et Cultu, Halae, 1840.)
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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Larunda
Larunda or Lara, a daughter of Almon, was a nymph who denounced to Juno that there was some connexion between Jupiter and Juturna; hence her name is connected with lalein. Jupiter punished her by depriving her of her tongue, and condemning her to be conducted into the lower world by Mercury ;but on the way thither Mercury fell in love with her, and afterwards she gave birth to two Lares. (Ov. Fast. ii. 599, &c.; Auson. Monosyll. de Diis, 9.) Hartung (Die Relig.) infers from Lactantius (i. 20) that Larunda is identical with Muta and Tacita.
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Lactans, Lacturnus & Lacturcia
Lactans, Lacturnus & Lacturcia, Roman divinities, who were believed to protect the young fruits of the field. (Serv. ad Aen. i. 315; August. De Civ. Dei, iv. 3.) Some believe that Lactans and Lacturcia are mere surnames of Ops, and that Lacturnus is a surname of Saturnus. (Hartung, Die Relig. der Rem.)
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Lateranus
Lateranus, was, according to Arnobius (adv. Gent. iv. 6), a divinity protecting the hearths built of bricks (lateres), whence some consider him to be identical with Vulcan. (Hartung, Die Relig. der Rom. ii.)
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Laverna
Laverna, the protecting divinity of thieves and impostors; a grove was sacred to her on the via Salaria, and she had an altar near the porta Lavernalis, which derived its name from her. (Arnob. adv. Gent. iii. 26; Nonius, viii. 6; Acron, ad Horat. Ep. i. 16, 60; Varro, De L. L. v. 163; Fest. s. v. Laverniones.) The name of this divinity, which is said to be a contraction of Lativerna, is, according to some, connected with the verb latere, or with the Greek labein and the Sanscrit labh, but it is more probably derived from levare and levator (a thief). See Petron. 140; Obbarius, ad Horat. Ep. i. 16. 60.
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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Lemures
Lemures i. e., spectres or spirits of the dead, which were believed by the Romans to return to the upper world and injure the living. Some writers describe Lemures as the common name for all the spirits of the dead (Apul. de Deo Socr.; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 63; Mart. Capella, ii.162; Ov. Fast. v. 483), and divide all Lemures into two classes; viz. the souls of those who have been good men are said to become Lares, while those of the wicked become Larvae. But the common idea was that the Lemures and Larvae were the same (August. De Civ. Dei, ix. 11); and the Lemures are said to wander about at night as spectres, and to torment and frighten the living. (Horat. Epist. ii. 2. 209; Pers. v. 185). In order to propitiate them, and to purify the human habitations, certain ceremonies were performed on the three nights of the 9th, 11th, and 13th of May every year. The pater familias rose at midnight, and went outside the door making certain signs with his hand to keep the spectre at a distance. He then washed his hand thrice in spring water, turned round, and took black beans into his mouth, which he afterwards threw behind him. The spectres were believed to collect these beans. After having spoken certain words without looking around, he again washed his hands, made a noise with brass basins, and called out to the spectres nine times: " be gone, you spectres of the house !" This being done, he was allowed to look round, for the spectres were rendered harmless. The days on which these rites were performed were considered unlucky, and the temples remained closed during that period. (Varro, ap. Non.; Fest. s. v. Fabam; Ov. Fast. v. 419, &c.; comp. Hartung, Die Relig. der Rom. i.)
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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Levana
Levana, a Roman divinity, who derived her name from the custom that the father picked up his new-born child from the ground, by which symbolic act he declared his intention not to kill the child, but to bring it up. (August. De Civ. Dei, iv. 11.)
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Libertas
Libertas, the personification of Liberty, was worshipped at Rome as a divinity.
A temple was erected to her on the Aventine by Tib. Sempronius Gracchus, the expenses
of which were defrayed by fines which had been exacted. Another was built by Clodius
on the spot where Cicero's house had stood (Liv. xxiv. 16; Paul. Diac.; Dion Cass.
xxxviii. 17, xxxix. 11), which Cicero afterwards contemptuously called Templum
Licentiae (pro Dom. 51, de Leg. ii. 17). After Caesar's victories in Spain, the
senate decreed the erection of a temple to Libertas at the public expense (Dion
Cass. xliii. 44); and after the murder of Sejanus, a statue of her was set up
in the forum. (Dion Cass. lviii. 12.) From these temples we must distinguish the
Atrium Libertatis, which was in the north of the forum, towards the Quirinal,
probably on the elevated ground extending from the Quirinal to the Capitoline
(Cic. ad Att. iv. 16; Liv. xliii. 16). This building, which had been restored
as early as B. C. 195 (Liv. xxxiv. 44), and was newly built by Asinius Pollio
(Suet. Aug. 29), served as an office of the censors (Liv. l. c. xliii. 16, xlv.
15), and sometimes also criminal trials were held (Cic. p. Mil. 22), and hostages
were kept in it (Liv. xxv. 7). It also contained tables with laws inscribed upon
them, and seems, to some extent, to have been used as public archives (Liv. xliii.
6; Fest.). After its rebuilding by Asinius Pollio, it became the repository of
the first public library at Rome. Libertas is usually represented as a matron,
with the pileus, the symbol of liberty, or a wreath of laurel. Sometimes she appears
holding the Phrygian cap in her hand. (Dion Cass. xlvii. 25, lxiii. 29; Suet.
Ner. 57; Hirt. Mythol. Bilderb. p. 115, tab. 13, 14.)
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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Libitina
Libitina, an ancient Italian divinity, who was identified by the later Romans
sometimes with Persephone (on account of her connection with the dead and their
burial) and sometimes with Aphrodite. The latter was probably the consequence
of etymological speculations on the name Libitina, which people connected with
libido (Plut. Num. 12, Quaest. Rom. 23). Her temple at Rome was a repository of
everything necessary for burials, and persons might there either buy or hire those
things. It was owing to this circumstance, that a person undertaking the proper
burial of a person (an undertaker) was called libitinarius, and his business libitina,
whence the expressions libitinam exercere, or facere (Senec. de Benef. vi. 38;
Val. Max. v. 2.10), and libitina funeribus non sufficiebat, i. e. they could not
all be buried (Liv. xl. 19, xli. 21). Also the utensils kept in the temple, especially
the bed on which corpses were burnt, were called libitina (Plin. xxxvii. 3; Martial,
x. 97; Ascon. Argum. ad Milon). Dionysius (iv. 79) relates that king Servius Tullius,
in order to ascertain the number of persons who died, ordained that for each person
that had died, a piece of money should be deposited in the temple of Libitina
(Comp. Suet. Ner. 39). Owing to this connection of Libitina with the dead, Roman
poets frequently employ her name in the sense of death itself. (Horat. Carm. iii.
30. 6; Sat. ii. 6, 19, Epist. ii. 1. 49; Juvenal. xiv. 122.)
| This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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Lima
Lima, a Roman divinity protecting the threshold (limen, Arnob. adv. Gent. iv. 9); it is, however, not impossible that she may be the same as the dea Limentina.
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