Non. Ian. (January 5)
From NovaRoma
Non. Ian.
OSD C. Equitius Cato
Salvete omnes!
Hodie est Nonis Ianuariis; haec dies fastus est.
"Should the Nones be here, rain from dark clouds Will be the sign, at the rising of the Lyre." - Ovid, Fasti I
"Thereupon greater strife arose between them than before, as each, while secretly striving for the advantage, was ostensibly willing to accept equality, for the following reason. Their grandfather, as I have stated, had ordered that he to whom the more favourable birds first appeared should rule the colony; but, as the same kind of birds had been seen by both, one had the advantage of seeing them first and the other that of seeing the greater number. The rest of the people also espoused their quarrel, and arming themselves without orders from their leaders, began war; and a sharp battle ensued in which many were slain on both sides. In the course of this battle, as some say, Faustulus, who had brought up the youths, wishing to put an end to the strife of the brothers and being unable to do so, threw himself unarmed into the midst of the combatants, seeking the speediest death, which fell out accordingly. Some say also that the stone lion which stood in the principal part of the Forum near the rostra was placed over the body of Faustulus, who was buried by those who found him in the place where he fell Remus having been slain in this action, Romulus, who had gained a most melancholy victory through the death of his brother and the mutual slaughter of citizens, buried Remus at Remoria, since when alive he had clung to it as the site for the new city.
As for himself, in his grief and repentance for what had happened, he became dejected and lost all desire for life. But when Laurentia, who had received the babes when newly born and brought them up and loved them no less than a mother, entreated and comforted him, he listened to her and rose up, and gathering together the Latins who had not been slain in the battle (they were now little more than three thousand out of a very great multitude at first, when he led out the colony), he built a city on the Palatine hill.
The account I have given seems to me the most probable of the stories about the death of Remus. However, if any has been handed down that differs from this, let that also be related. Some, indeed, say that Remus yielded the leadership to Romulus, though not without resentment and anger at the fraud, but that after the wall was built, wishing to demonstrate the weakness of the fortification, he cried, 'Well, as for this wall, one of your enemies could as easily cross it as I do,' and immediately leaped over it. Thereupon Celer, one of the men standing on the wall, who was overseer of the work, said, 'Well, as for this enemy, one of us could easily punish him,' and striking him on the head with a mattock, he killed him then and there. Such is said to have been the outcome of the quarrel between the brothers.
Such, then, are the facts concerning the origin of the Romans which I have been able to discover a reading very diligently many works written by both Greek and Roman authors. Hence, from now on let the reader forever renounce the views of those who make Rome a retreat of barbarians, fugitive and vagabonds, and let him confidently affirm it to be a Greek city, — which will be easy when he shows that it is at once the most hospitable and friendly of all cities, and when he bears in mind that the Aborigines were Oenotrians, and these in turn Arcadians, and remembers those who joined with them in their settlement, the Pelasgians who were Argives by descent and came into Italy from Thessaly; and recalls, moreover, the arrival of Evander and the Arcadians, who settled round the Palatine hill, after the Aborigines had granted the place to them; and also the Peloponnesians, who, coming along with Hercules, settled upon the Saturnian hill; and, last of all, those who left the Troad and were intermixed with the earlier settlers." - Dionysius of Halicarnassus, "Roman Antiquitius" 1.87-88
"Plouton [Hades] fell in love with Persephone, and with Zeus' help
secretly kidnapped her. Demeter roamed the earth over in search of
her, by day and by night with torches. When she learned from the
Hermionians that Plouton had kidnapped her, enraged at the gods she
left the sky, and in the likeness of a woman made her way to Eleusis
...When Zeus commanded Plouton to send Kore [Persephone] back up,
Plouto gave her a pomegranate seed to eat, as assurance that she would not remain long with her mother. With no foreknowledge of the outcome of her act, she consumed it. Askalaphos, the son of Akheron and Gorgyra, bore witness against her, in punishment for which Demeter pinned him down with a heavy rock in Haides' realm. But Persephone was obliged to spend a third of each year with Plouton, and the remainder of the year among the gods." - Apollodorus, The Library 1.29
"He [Hades] with Demeter's girl [Persephone] captive, through grassy plains, drawn in a four-yoked car with loosened reins, rapt over the deep, impelled by love, you flew till Eleusinia's city rose to view: there, in a wondrous cave obscure and deep, the sacred maid secure from search you keep, the cave of Atthis, whose wide gates display an entrance to the kingdoms void of day." - Orphic Hymn 18 to Pluton
"Pluto asked from Iove that he give him in marriage Ceres' daughter and his own. Iove said that Ceres would not permit her daughter to live in gloomy Tartarus, but bade him seize her as she was gathering flowers on Mount Etna, which is in Sicily. While Proserpina [Persephone] was gathering flowers with Venus, Diana, and Minerva, Pluto came in his four-horse chariot, and seized her. Afterwards Ceres obtained from Iove permission for her to stay half of the year with her, and half with Pluto." - Hyginus, Fabulae 146
In ancient Greece today was held in honor of the goddess Kore, known to the Romans as Persephone or Proserpina. One day Kore was gathering flowers in the flelds of Nysa with her companions when she suddenly noticed a narcissus of striking beauty. She tan to pick it, but as she bent down to do so the earth gaped open and Hades appeared. He seized her and dragged her with him down into the depths of the earth.
According to another tradition, the abduction of Kore took place on the heights near the town of Enna in Sicily. And in the neighbourhood of Syracuse they showed the place where Hades plunged back into the earth, hollowing out a vast cavity in the process, since filled by waters from the spring of Cyane. Colonus in Attica, Hermione in Argolis, Pheneus in Arcadia and even Crete, likewise claimed for their territory the honour of this divine abduction.
Demeter meanwhile had heard her child's despairing cry for help. 'Then,' says the poet of the Homeric hymn, 'bitter sorrow seized her heart...Over her shoulders she threw a sombre veil and flew like a bird over land and sea, seeking here, seekíng there...' For nine days the venerable goddess ranged the world, bearing flaming torches in her hands. At last on Hecate's advice, she went to consult the divine Helios who revealed to her the name of her daughter's ravísher. 'No other god is guilty,' he said to her, 'but Zeus himself, who awarded thy daughter to his brother Hades so that he might call her his flowering bride.' This revelation overwhelmed Demeter. In rage and despair she withdrew from Olympus and in the guise of an old woman sought refuge among the cities of men.
Still inconsolable at the loss of her daughter, Demeter retired to her temple at Eleusis. There 'she prepared for mankind a cruel and terrible year: the earth refused to give forth any crop. Then would the entire human race have perished of cruel, biting hunger if Zeus had not bcen concerned.' He hastened to send his messenger Iris to Demeter, but without success. Then all the gods carne one by one to supplicate the implacable goddess. She stated fiatly that she would not permit the earth to bear fruit unless she saw her daughter again. There was no solution except to give in. Zeus commanded Hermes to descend into the kingdom of Hades and obtain Hades' promise to return young Kore - who since her arrival in the underworld had taken the name Persephone - to her mother. Hades complied with the will of Zeus, but before sending his wife up to earth tempted her to eat a few pomegranate seeds. Now this fruit was a symbol of marriage and the effect of eating it was to tender the union of man and wife indissoluble.
When Kore returned to the world of light her mother hastened to her and embraced her with transports of joy. 'My daughter,' she cried, 'surely thou hast eaten nothing during your imprisonment in the dark regions of Hades! For if thou hast not eaten thou shalt live with me on Olympus. But if thou hast, then must thou return to the depths of the earth!' Kore admitted that she had tasted of the fatal pomegranate. lt seemed that Demeter was again to lose her daughter.
As a compromise Zeus decided that Persephone should live with her husband for one-third of the year and pass the other two-thirds with her mother. The august Rhea herself brought this proposal to Demeter who agreed to it. She set aside her anger and bade the soil again be fertile. The vast earth was soon covered with leaves and flowers. Before she returned to Olympus, Demeter taught the kings of the earth her divine science and initiated them into her sacred mysteries.
Valete bene!
Cato
SOURCES
Ovid, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Apollodorus Siculus, Hyginus, Wikipedia
