Listed 100 (total found 207) sub titles with search on: Mythology for wider area of: "ITALY Country EUROPE" .
AETNA (Mountain) SICILY
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.
LAISTRYGONES (Mythical lands) ITALY
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.
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
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.
AKRAGAS (Ancient city) SICILY
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.)
ARDEA (Ancient city) ITALY
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)
ERYX (Ancient city) SICILY
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
IAPYGIA (Ancient country) ITALY
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.
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).
INOTRIA (Ancient country) ITALY
(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.
Oenotrus :Perseus Encyclopedia
KORTON (Ancient city) TOSCANA
Koruthos. An Italian hero, son of Iupiter, husband of Electra, and father of Dardanus, is said to have founded Corythus, afterwards called Cortona.
(Koruthos). An Italian hero, son of Iupiter, husband of Electra, and father of Dardanus, is said to have founded Corythus, afterwards called Cortona
Corythus : Perseus Project
VRENDESION (Ancient city) PUGLIA
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.)
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
INOTRIA (Ancient country) ITALY
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
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
AGATHYRNON (Ancient city) SICILY
Diodoros (5.8) attributes its foundation to Agathyrnos, son of Aiolos.
ARDEA (Ancient city) ITALY
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)
CALES (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
(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
Calais : Perseus Encyclopedia
CHONES (Ancient tribe) ITALY
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.
EGESTA (Ancient city) SICILY
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
KANISION (Ancient city) PUGLIA
KAVLONIA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
Of Aegium: founds Caulonia in Italy (Paus. 6.3.12).
KRIMISSA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
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.
KROTON (Ancient city) CALABRIA
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.
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
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.
a Greek; father of Myscelus, who built Crotona in Lower Italy
LILYBAEUM (Ancient city) SICILY
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.
Boutes : Perseus Encyclopedia
MANTOUE (Ancient city) LOMBARDIA
A son of the river-god Tiber, and of Manto, daughter of Tiresias. Servius makes him the founder of Mantua, and identical with Ocnus.
Bianor, an ancient hero of the town of Mantua, was a son of Tiberis and Manto,
and was also called Ocnus or Aucnus. He is said to have built the town of Mantua,
and to have called it after his mother. According to others, Ocnus was a son or
brother of Auletes, the founder of Perusia, and emigrated to Gaul, where he built
Cesena. (Serv. ad Virg. Ecl. ix. 60, Aen. x. 198.)
METAPONTO (Town) ITALY
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).
NEAPOLIS (Ancient city) CAMPANIA
OLBIA (Ancient city) SARDINIA
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.
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).
PATAVION (Ancient city) PADOVA
Receives Menelaus and Odysseus hospitably, father of Iphidamas, Archelochus, Acamas and Glaucus.
PETELIA (Ancient city) CALABRIA
It (Petelia) was founded by Philoctetes after he, as the result of a political quarrel, had fled from Meliboea.
This extract is from: The Geography of Strabo (ed. H. L. Jones, 1924), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
ROME (Ancient city) ITALY
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
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.
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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.)
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SALAPIA (Ancient city) PUGLIA
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)
THOURII (Ancient city) PUGLIA
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.
VENUSIA (Ancient city) BASILICATA
ADRANON (Ancient city) SICILY
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.
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AETNA (Mountain) SICILY
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.)
(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.
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.)
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ANZIO (Town) LAZIO
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.
ARICIA (Ancient city) LAZIO
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.
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ENNA (Ancient city) SICILY
For Perseus Project information on Persephone, see Ades location.
ETROURIA (Ancient country) ITALY
Falacer, or, more fully, divus pater Falacer, is mentioned by Varro (de L. L. v. 84, vii. 45) as an ancient and forgotten Italian divinity, whom Hartungi is inclined to consider to be the same as Jupiter, since falandum according to Festus, was the Etruscan name for "heaven".
Mania, an ancient and formidable Italian, probably Etruscan, divinity of the lower world, is called the mother of the Manes or Lares. (Varro, de Ling. Lat. ix. 61; Arnob. adv. Gent. iii. 41; Macrob. Sat. i. 7.) The festival of the Compitalia was celebrated as a propitiation to Mania in common with the Lares, and, according to an ancient oracle that heads should be offered on behalf of heads, boys are said to have been sacrificed on behalf of the families to which they belonged. The consul Junius Brutus afterwards abolished the human sacrifices, and substituted garlick and the heads of poppies for them. Images of Mania were hung up at the house doors, with a view to avert all dangers. (Macrob. l.c.) As regards her being the mother of the Manes or Lares, the idea seems to have been, that the souls of the departed on their arrival in the lower world became her children, and either there dwelt with her or ascended into the upper world as beneficent spirits. (Muller, Die Etrusk. iii. 4.) In later times the plural Maniae occurs as the designation of terrible, ugly, and deformed spectres, with which nurses used to frighten children.
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ITALY (Ancient country) EUROPE
Vesta. An Italian goddess of the hearth, and more especially of the fire on the
hearth, both in name and in nature akin to the Greek Hestia (q.v.), but worshipped
by the Italian nations, particularly by the Latins, from ancient times independently
of any connection with Greece. It has been shown that the worship of Vesta had
its origin in the difficulty and the necessity of obtaining fire in primitive
times. Hence, as even in the present time among savage tribes, arose the custom
of keeping a fire always alight somewhere for the use of the community and of
carrying fire thence for any new settlement. This custom was preserved by the
conservatism of religion among civilized Greeks and Romans, after the necessity
had ceased to exist, and the State-hearth was preserved in each Latin State, just
as in Greece in the Prytanea; and in like fashion an outgoing settlement carried
its sacred fire from the parent city. It was natural that from these observances
the sacred flame itself should become personified as a goddess (Ovid, Fast.vi.
291) who presided over the hearth of each house, and in the State-hearth or sanctuary
of Vesta over the whole commonwealth. Vesta was thus intimately connected with
the Penates as deities of the household and of the State (see Penates); and the
fact that the sacred fire was brought from the parent city made the Romans trace
back the origin of the cult to the more ancient Latin settlements, first to Lanuvium
and Alba, and, after the idea of a Trojan origin prevailed, to Troy itself, whence
it was supposed the sacred fire of Vesta as well as the Penates had come ( Verg.
Aen.ii. 296). To this cause belongs the ancient custom at Rome that praetors,
consuls, and dictators, before they began their functions, sacrificed at Lanuvium,
that town having been an ancient religious centre of the Latins. At Rome, as in
other Latin cities, the sacred fire was tended and the service of Vesta maintained
by a body of virgin priestesses, who lived together in a house (Atrium Vestae)
to the southeast of the Forum, and under the northwest side of the Palatine, abutting
on the Via Nova. This house, as rebuilt under Hadrian, was excavated in 1883,
and from its character and the inscriptions (as late as the beginning of the fourth
century A.D.) and sculptures found in it much additional light has been thrown
on the Vestal service. See Jordan, Das Tempel der Vesta und d. Haus der Vestalinnen
(Berlin, 1886); and Lanciani, in his Ancient Rome, ch. vi. (Boston, 1888).
It is no doubt right to assume that the Vestals represented the daughters
of the chief in the primitive tribe, who maintained the State-fire in their father's
hut. When Vesta was recognized as a personal deity it became necessary that the
priestesses should dwell in a sort of nunnery, and that the goddess should have
a separate temple; but this Aedes Vestae preserved the shape of the primitive
chief's hut, and was a round building (see illustration under Roma). The public
worship of Vesta was maintained in this temple: her private worship belonged to
every domestic hearth --in the earliest Roman houses in the atrium. In her aspect
as a benign goddess of fire Vesta seems to have been akin to or identical with
Stata Mater (q. v.). See Preuner, Hestia-Vesta (Tubingen, 1864); Maes, Vesta e
Vestali (Rome, 1883); the discussion by Frazer in the (English) Journal of Philology,
vol. xiv., and the articles Lares, Penates, and Vestales, in this Dictionary.
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Feretritis, a surname of Jupiter, which is probably derived from ferire, to strike; for persons who took an oath called upon Jupiter, if they swore falsely, to strike them as they struck the victim they sacrificed to him. (Fest. s. v. Lapidem Silicem.) Others derived it from ferre, because he was the giver of peace, or because people dedicated (ferebant) to him spolia opima. (Fest. s. v. Feretrius; Liv. i. 10; Propert. iv. 10. 46)
Diana, an original Italian divinity, whom the Romans completely identified with the Greek Artemis. The earliest trace of her worship occurs in the story about Servius Tullius, who is said to have dedicated to her a temple on the Aventine, on the ides of Sextilis. It is added that, as Diana was the protectress of the slaves, the day on which that temple had been dedicated was afterwards celebrated every year by slaves of both sexes, and was called the day of the slaves (dies servorum; Fest. s. v. servorum dies; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 100; Martial, xii. 67). Besides that day of the slaves, we hear of no festival of Diana in early times, which may be accounted for by supposing that either she was a divinity of inferior rank, or that her worship had been introduced at Rome without being sanctioned or recognized by the government, that is, by the ruling patricians. The former cannot have been the case, as the goddess was worshipped by the plebeians and the Latins as their patron divinity; for a tradition related that the plebeians had emigrated twice to the Aventine, where stood the temple of Diana (Liv. ii. 32, iii. 51, 54; Sallust, Jug. 31); and the temple which Servius Tullius built on the Aventine was founded for the benefit of the Latin subjects, who assembled and sacrificed there every year (Dionys. iv. 26; comp. Liv. i. 45; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 4). The Sabines and Latins, who formed the main stock of the plebeians, were thus in all probability the original worshippers of Diana at Rome. Now s we know that the Aventine was first occupied by the conquered Sabines who were transplanted to Rome (Serv. ad Aen. vii. 657; Dionys. iii. 43), and as it is stated that shortly before the decemviral legislation the Aventine was assigned to the plebeians, and that the law ordaining this assignment was kept in the temple of Diana (Dionys. x. 32; Liv. iii. 54), it seems clear that Diana's worship was introduced at Rome by the Sabines and Latins on their becoming plebeians, and that she was worshipped by them in particular without the state taking any notice of her, or ordaining any festival in honour of her. Varro (de L. L. v. 74) moreover expressly attests, that the worship and name of Diana had come from the Sabines. Now, as the religion of the Latins and Sabines did not differ in any essential point from that of the Romans, we may ask what Roman divinity corresponded to the Sabine or Latin Diana? Diana loved to dwell in groves and in the neighbourhood of wells; she inspired men with enthusiasm and madness; she dreaded the very sight of male beings so much, that no man was allowed to enter her temple, and she herself remained a virgin (Horat. Epist. ii. 1. 454; Plut. Quaest. Rom. 3; Fest. s. v. Juvenilia; Augustin, de Civ. Dei, vii. 16); and these characteristics at once shew a striking resemblance between Diana and Feronia or Fauna Fatua. This circumstance, and the fact that Diana was the goddess of the moon, also render it easy to conceive how the Romans afterwards came to identify Diana with the Greek Artemis, for Fauna Fatua bore the same relation to Picus and Faunus that Artemis bore to Apollo.
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Fascelis, a surname of Diana in Italy, which she was believed to have received from the circumstance of Orestes having brought her image from Tauris in a bundle of sticks (fascis, Serv. ad Aen. ii. 116; Solin. i. 2; Sil. Ital. xiv. 260). Fascelis, however, is probably a corruption, for the purpose of making it allude to the story of Orestes bringing her image from Tauris: the original form of the name was probably Facelis or Facelina (from fax), as the goddess was generally represented with a torch in her hand.
Janus and Jana, a pair of ancient Latin divinities, who were worshipped as the
sun and moon, whence they were regarded as the highest of the gods, and received
their sacrifices before all the others (Macrob. Sat. i. 9; Cic. de Nat. Deor.
ii. 27). The name Janus is only another form of Dianus, and Jana of Diana; but
the ancients connected it also with janua (door), for it was also applied to a
covered passage with two entrances, as the Janus medius in the forum (Heindorf,
ad Horat. Sat. ii. 3. 18). The fact of Jana being identical in import with Luna
and Diana is attested beyond a doubt by Varro (de Re Rust. i. 37). We stated above
that Janus was regarded as identical with Sol, but this does not appear to have
been the case originally, for it is related that the worship of Janus was introduced
at Rome by Romulus, whereas that of Sol was instituted by Titus Tatius (August.
de Civ. Dei, iv. 23), and the priority of the worship of Janus is also implied
in the story related by Macrobius (Sat. i. 9). Hence we must infer that the two
divinities were identified at a later period, and that in such a manner that the
separate idea of Sol was lost in that of Janus, for we find few traces of the
worship of Sol, while that of Janus acquired the highest importance in the religion
of the Romans. Numa in his regulation of the Roman year called the first month
Januarius, [p. 551] after Janus, the highest divinity, presiding over the beginning
of all things: the same king dedicated to Janus the passage called Janus, which
was opened in times of war, and closed when the Roman arms rested. (Liv. i. 9;
Varro, de Ling. Lat. v. 164.) This passage (commonly, but erroneously, called
a temple), with two entrances, was usually called Janus Geminus, Janus Bifrons,
Janus Quirinus or Portae Belli (Horat. Carm. iv. 15. 8; Virg. Aen. vii. 607),
and stood ad infimum Argiletum, close by the forum. Atemple of Janus was built
by C.Duilius in the time of the first Punic war: it was restored by Augustus,
and dedicated by Tiberius. (Tacit. Ann. ii. 49.) Niebuhr (Hist. of Rome, vol.
i. p. 292, 3d edit.) explains the objects of the earliest Janus (and those of
the others in a similar manner) as follows: " When the two cities (that of the
Romans on the Palatine, and that of the Sabines on the Quirinal) were united on
terms of equality, they built the double Janus, on the road leading from the Quirinal
to the Palatium, with a door facing each of the cities, as the gate of the double
barrier which separated their liberties. It was open in time of war, that succour
might pass from one to the other, and shut during peace; whether for the purpose
of preventing an unrestricted intercourse, out of which quarrels might arise,
or as a token that, though united, they were distinct." But if this had been the
case, the two gates would necessarily have faced the north and south, whereas,
according to the express testimony of Procopius (Bell. Goth. i. 25), the two gates,
as well as the two-faced statue of Janus, which stood in the passage, faced the
east and west. It is therefore more probable that the Janus Geminus originally
was not an ordinary gate of the city, but, like the later porta triumphalis, used
only on certain occasions, viz. armies marching out against an enemy and returning
from their campaign, passed through it: hence it was open in war, indicating symbolically
that the god too had gone out to assist the Roman warriors, and shut in time of
peace that the god, the safeguard of the city, might not escape. (Ov. Fast. i.
281 ; Macrob. Sat. i. 9.) This covered gate is in later times often called a temple,
but probably in a wider sense of the word, that is, as a sacred place, containing
the statue of Janus. A bronze statue of the god, five cubits in height, existed
as late as the time of Procopius. The earliest representations, however, appear
to have been the two-faced heads, which are frequently seen on Etruscan medals
found at Volaterrae. A statue with four faces was brought to Rome after the conquest
of the Etruscan town of Falerii (Serv. ad Aen. vi. 607; Macrob. l. c.), and was
there imitated, for one of the same kind existed at Rome in the forum of Nerva
as late as the time of Laurentius Lydus (De Mens. iv. 1). Whether the Etruscan
divinity with two or four faces was originally the same as the Roman Janus is
uncertain, but it was at any rate very natural for the Romans to see in him their
own Janus, and to identify the two. The identity of Janus with the Sun was commonly
expressed by his indicating with the fingers of the right hand the 55 (Plin. H.
N. xxxiv. 7), and in later times by his counting in his right hand 300 pebbles,
and in his left 65 (L. Lydus, de Mens. i. 4). In some representations he held
in his right hand a staff or sceptre, and in his left a key (Ov. Fast. i. 99;
comp. L. Lydus, l. c.), by which he is symbolically described as the god who had
power over the entrance of heaven (Ov. Fast. i. 125); hence he had the surnames
of Patulcus or Patulcius, and Clusius or Clusiviuns (Ov. Fast. i. 129; Serv. ad
Men. vii. 610; Macrob. l c.; L. Lydus, de Mens. iv. 1). Although in the classical
age the Romans them-selves avowed that Janus was peculiar to them-selves (Ov.
Fast. i. 90), yet we find at a later period, when Janus was regarded as the god
of all entrances and gates, that he was identified with Apollo thurais. (Macrob.
l. c.) We pass over a series of arbitrary etymological and philosophical speculations
(see Varro, ap. August. de Civ. Dei, vii. 9; Festus, s. v. Chaos), and merely
remark, that no nation of antiquity attributed such importance to the beginning
of a work or undertaking as the Romans, who believed that the progress and success
of a thing had some magic connection with its beginning (Gellius, v. 12; Plin.
H. N. xxxvi. 5). Janus was the god of the beginning of everything: he protected
the beginning of all occupations and actions as well as of human life, whence
he was called Consivius (a conserendo, or consationibus, Macrob. Sat. i. 9; Tertull.
ad Nat. ii. 11). Hence, whenever a civil or military undertaking did not succeed,
it was attributed to some fault in the manner of beginning it, and was frequently
commenced afresh (Ov. Fast. i. 179). It was indeed Jupiter who by augury sanctioned
every undertaking, but its beginning depended on the blessing of Janus; hence
these two divinities were invoked first in every undertaking, and in all prayers
their names were mentioned first. The fact of the name of Janus being pronounced
even before that of Jupiter, and that according to tradition Janus was in Italy
before any of the other gods, and that he dedicated temples to them (Macrob. l.
c.; Ov. Fast. i. 70; L. Lydus, de Mens. iv. 2; Aur. Vict. de Orig. Gent. Rom.
3), is perfectly in accordance with the idea of the god, he being the beginning
of every thing; but it does not follow that on this account he was considered
superior or more powerful than all the other gods. As he presided over the beginning
of the year, the people offered sacrifices to him on the first day of the year,
and priests offered sacrifices to him on twelve altars, as the beginner of the
twelve months, and prayed to him at the commencement of every day (Varro, ap.
Macrob. l. c.; P. Vict. Reg. Urb. xiv.). As the kalends of every month were sacred
to Juno, Janus was surnamed Junonius, and in reference to his presiding over the
beginning of every day, he was called Matutinus pater. On new year's day, which
was the principal festival of the god, people took care that all they thought,
said, and did, was pure and favourable, since every thing was ominous for the
occurrences of the whole year. Hence the people wore festive garments, abstained
from cursing, quarrelling; they saluted every one they met with words of a favourable
import, gave presents to one another, and performed some part of what they intended
to do in the course of the year, auspicandi causa (Columella, de Re Rust. xi.
2; Senec. Epist. 83; Ov. Fast. i. 169). The presents connumber 300, and with those
of the left the number sisted of sweetmeats, such as gilt dates, figs, honey cakes,
and copper coins, showing on one side the double head of Janus and on the other
a ship (Ov. Fast. i. 185, &c., 230; Plin. H. N. xxiii. 3, 13; Martial, viii. 33,
xiii. 27; Plut. Quaest. Rom.; Macrob. Sat. i. 7; L. Lydus, de Menes. iv. 2). The
general name for these presents was strenae. The sacrifices offered to Janus consisted
of cakes (called janual), barley, incense, and wine.
(Ov. Fast. i. 75, 128, 172; Festus, s. v. janual; L. Lydus, de Mens. iv. 2)
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Curitis, a surname of Juno, which is usually derived from the Sabine word curis, a lance or spear, which according to the ancient notions was the symbol of the imperium and mancipium, and would accordingly designate Juno as the ruling goddess. (Ov. Fast. ii. 477, vi. 49; Macrob. Sat. i. 9). Hartung (Die Relig. der Rom. ii.72) finds in the surname Curitis an allusion to a marriage ceremony, in which some of the bride's hair was either really or symbolically cut off with the curved point of a sword. (Plut. Quaest. Rom. 87 ; Ov. Fast. ii. 560)
Gradivus, i. e. the striding or marching, a surname of Mars, who is hence called gradivus pater and rex gradivus. Mars Gradivus had a temple outside the porta Capena on the Appian road, and it is said that king Numa appointed twelve Salii as priests of this god. The surname is probably derived from gradior, to march, or march out, and we know that the soldiers, when they marched out, sometimes halted near his temple. (Liv. i. 20, vii. 23; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 35; Ov. Fast. vi. 191, &c.; Fest. s. v. Gradivus)
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.). 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.
Februus, an ancient Italian divinity, to whom the month of February was sacred, for in
the latter half of that month great and general purifications and lustrations
were celebrated, which were at the same time considered to produce fertility among
men as well as beasts. Hence the month of February was also sacred to Juno, the
goddess of marriage, and she was therefore surnamed Februata or Februtis (Fest.
s. v. Februarius; Arnob. iii. 30). The name Februus is connected with februare
(to purify), and februae (purifications) (Varro, de L. L. vi. 13; Ov. Fast. ii.
31, &c.). Another feature in the character of this god, which is however intimately
connected with the idea of purification, is, that he was also regarded as a god
of the lower world, for the festival of the dead (Feralia) was likewise celebrated
in February (Macrob. Sat. i. 4, 13; Ov. Fast. ii. 535, &c.); and Anysius (ap.
J. Lydum, de Mens. i.) states, that Februus in Etruscan signified the god of the
lower world (kaatachthonios). Hence Februus was identified with Pluto. When the
expiator sacrifices were burnt, the people threw the ashes backwards over their
heads into the water (Serv. ad Virg. Georg. i. 43; Isidor. Orig. v. 33; Voss.
in Virg. Eclog. viii. 101).
Feronia, an ancient Italian divinity, who originally belonged to the Sabines and Faliscans, and was introduced by them among the Romans. Greek writers, as usual, describe her as of Greek origin. Dionysius (ii. 49) thus relates, that the Lacedaemonians who emigrated at the time of Lycurgus, after long wanderings (pheromenoi), at length landed in Italy, where they founded a town Feronia, and built a temple to the goddess Feronia. But, however this may be, it is extremely difficult to form a definite notion of the nature of this goddess. Some consider her to have been the goddess of liberty, because at Terracina slaves were emancipated in her temple (Serv. ad Aen. viii. 465), and because on one occasion the freedmen at Rome collected a sum of money for the purpose of offering it to her as a donation. (Liv. xxii. 1.) Others look upon her as the goddess of commerce and traffic, because these things were carried on to a great extent during the festival which was celebrated in honour of her in the town of Feronia, at the foot of mount Soracte. But commerce was carried on at all festivals at which many people met, and must be looked upon as a natural result of such meetings rather than as their cause. (Dionys. iii. 32; Strab. v.; Liv. xxvi. 11, xxvii. 4; Sil. Ital. xiii. 84.) Others again regard her as a goddess of the earth or the lower world, and as akin to Mania and Tellus, partly because she is said to have given to her son three souls, so that Evauder had to kill him thrice before he was dead (Virg. Aen. iii. 564), and partly on account of her connection with Soranus, whose worship strongly resembled that of Feronia. Besides the sanctuaries at Terracina and near mount Soracte, she had others at Trebula, in the country of the Sabines, and at Luna in Etruria. (Comp. Serv. ad Aen. xi. 785; Varro, de L. L. v. 74; Muller, die Etrusker, vol. i., vol. ii.)
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Lua, also called Lua mater or Lua Saturni, one of the early Italian divinities, whose worship was forgotten in later times. It may be that she was no other than Ops, the wife of Saturn; but all we know of her is, that sometimes the arms taken from a defeated enemy were dedicated to her, and burnt as a sacrifice, with a view to avert punishment or any other calamity. (Liv. viii. 1, xlv. 33 ; Gellius, xiii. 22; Varro, de Ling. Lat. viii. 36, with Miiller's note.)
Mana or Mana Genita, an ancient Italian divinity. When a sacrifice was offered to her, the people used to pray that none of those born in the house should become pious, that is, that none should die. (Plut. Quaest. Ronm. 52.) The name Mana is of the same root as Manes, and like manis (whence immanis) originally signified good. (Comp. Macrob. Sat. i. 3; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 63; Isidor. Orig. viii. 11.) It is not impossible that Mana may be the same divinity as Mania.
KROTON (Ancient city) CALABRIA
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.)
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LAZIO (Region) ITALY
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.
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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 )
LUCERIA (Ancient city) PUGLIA
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.)
NAXOS (Ancient city) SICILY
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. Β§ 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
PADOS (River) ITALY
Eridanus, (Eridanos). A river-god, on the banks of whose river amber was
found. In later times the Eridanus was supposed to be the same as the Padus (Po),
because amber was found at its mouth. Hence the Electrides Insulae, or "Amber
Islands," are placed at the mouth of the Po, and here Phaethon was supposed
to have fallen when struck by the lightning of Zeus.
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Eridanus, (Eridanos), a river god, a son of Oceanus and Tethys, and father of Zeuxippe. (Hesiod. Theog. 338; Hygin. Fab. 14.) He is called the king of rivers, and on its banks amber was found. (Virg. Georg. i. 482; Ov. Met. ii. 324.) In Homer the name does not occur, and the first writer who mentions it is Hesiod. Herodotus (iii. 15) declares the name to be barbarous, and the invention of some poet. (Comp. Strab. v.) The position which the ancient poets assign to the river Eridanus differed at different times.
PALESTRINA (Town) LAZIO
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.
ROME (Ancient city) ITALY
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
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
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)
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)
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
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)
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
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.
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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