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Lex Curiatia Iulia de ratione comitiorum centuriatorum (Nova Roma)

2009-11-15T14:26:10Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

'''Lex Curiatia Iulia de ratione comitiorum centuriatorum'''

The Lex Fabia de ratione comitiorum centuriatorum 5.B is hereby amended as follows:

5.B: In the case of magisterial elections, the voting period shall last no fewer than 192 hours (8 days), with all centuries casting their votes concurrently. Reports of the voting results shall be announced sequentially.

1. The Diribitores shall select by lot one century from among the first class centuries to serve as the Centuria Praerogativa. No century containing only one member shall be selected for this purpose.

2.Within forty-eight (48) hours after the beginning of the voting period, the Diribitores shall tally the votes of all those who have cast votes thus far in the Centuria Praerogativa, and shall announce those results no later than 48 hours after the beginning of the voting period.

3. Ninety-six (96) hours after the beginning of the voting period, the Diribitores shall tally the votes of all those who have voted thus far, and shall announce the results of only the first class centuries no later than 120 hours after the beginning of the voting period.

4. All voting shall cease after no less than 192 hours (8 days) have past and no more than 216 hours (9 days) have past after the beginning of the voting period. The Diribitores shall then tally all votes cast and within 48 hours later report the results solely to the presiding magistrate and to his or her colleague as per 3.F."

Lex Curiatia Iulia de ratione comitiorum centuriatorum (Nova Roma)

2009-11-15T14:12:46Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Lex Curiatia Iulia de ratione comitiorum centuriatorum''' In the case of a magisterial election, voting shall be sequential. 1. A century from the first class shall be selected by lot...

'''Lex Curiatia Iulia de ratione comitiorum centuriatorum'''

In the case of a magisterial election, voting shall be sequential.

1. A century from the first class shall be selected by lot by the diribitores to vote first. No century containing only one member shall be selected for this purpose. For the first 48 hours of the voting period only members of that century shall be permitted to vote.

2. Twenty-four (24) hours after the beginning of the voting period, the diribitores shall tally the votes of all those who have voted so far according to the method set out in A.1 above, and shall announce the result no later than 48 hours after the beginning of the voting period.

3. Forty-eight (48) hours after the beginning of the voting period, the rest of the centuries in the first class shall be permitted to vote; members of the century selected under B.1 above who have not yet voted shall still be permitted to vote.

4. Ninety-six (96) hours after the beginning of the voting period, the diribitores shall tally the votes of all those who have voted so far according to the method set out in A.1 above, and shall announce the results no later than 120 hours after the beginning of the voting period.

5. One hundred twenty (120) hours after the beginning of the voting period, everyone who is eligible to vote but has not yet done so shall be permitted to vote. All voting shall cease no less than 216 hours after the beginning of the voting period.

The Lex Fabia de ratione comitiorum centuriatorum 5.B is hereby amended as follows:

5.B: In the case of magisterial elections, the voting period shall last no fewer than 192 hours (8 days), with all centuries casting their votes concurrently. Reports of the voting results shall be announced sequentially.

1. The Diribitores shall select by lot one century from among the first class centuries to serve as the Centuria Praerogativa. No century containing only one member shall be selected for this purpose.

2.Within forty-eight (48) hours after the beginning of the voting period, the Diribitores shall tally the votes of all those who have cast votes thus far in the Centuria Praerogativa, and shall announce those results no later than 48 hours after the beginning of the voting period.

3. Ninety-six (96) hours after the beginning of the voting period, the Diribitores shall tally the votes of all those who have voted thus far, and shall announce the results of only the first class centuries no later than 120 hours after the beginning of the voting period.

4. All voting shall cease after no less than 192 hours (8 days) have past and no more than 216 hours (9 days) have past after the beginning of the voting period. The Diribitores shall then tally all votes cast and within 48 hours later report the results solely to the presiding magistrate and to his or her colleague as per 3.F."

Proserpina

2009-08-31T05:03:12Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

'''Proserpina''' or '''Persephone''' is the Roman goddess of the underworld. Pluto, the god of the underworld, kidnapped Ceres's daughter, Proserpina, and took her to live with him. A single mother, Ceres felt abandoned by her daughter's absence. Proserpina ate six pomegranate seeds, an action that could have sealed her fate to live in the underworld forever. But Ceres, being a shrewd mother, was able to negotiate through Iuppiter with Pluto for her daughter's custody. Proserpina would spend half of the year with Pluto in the underworld and half of the year living with her mother. During the time Proserpina was in the underworld, Ceres was so grief-stricken that she refused to allow anything on Earth to be beautiful or fruitful, and these are the winter months. When Ceres has her daughter to look after, she is happy and the earth brought forth crops, giving food, so we have summer and the autumn harvest.

"The Trinacrian land took its name from its shape:
It runs out in three rocky capes to the vast ocean.
It’s a place dear to Ceres. She owns, there, many cities,
Among them fertile Enna, with its well-ploughed soul.
Cool Arethusa gathered together the mothers of the gods:
And the yellow-haired goddess came to the sacred feast.
Her daughter, Persephone, attended by girls, as ever,
Wandered barefoot through Enna’s meadows.
In a shadow-filled valley there’s a place,
Wet by the copious spray from a high fall.
All the colours of nature were displayed there,
And the earth was bright with hues of various flowers.
On seeing it she cried: ‘Come here to me, my friends,
And each carry back, with me, a lapful of flowers.’
The foolish prize enticed their girlish spirits,
And they were too busy to feel weary.
Proserpine herself plucked fragile crocuses and white lilies.
Intent on gathering them, she gradually strayed,
And none of her friends chanced to follow their lady.
Dis, her uncle saw her, and swiftly carried her off,
And bore her on shadowy horses to his realm.
She called out: `Oh, dearest Mother, I'm being
Carried away!' and tore at the breast of her robe:
Meanwhile a path opened for Dis, since his horses
Can scarcely endure the unaccustomed daylight.
When her crowd of friends had gathered their flowers,
They shouted: `Persephone, come for your gifts!'
But silence met their call: they filled the hills with their cries,
And sadly beat their naked breasts with their hands.
Ceres was startled by their grief (she'd just now come from Enna),
And cried instantly `Ah me! Daughter, where are you?'
She rushed about, distracted, as we've heard
The Thracian Maenads run with flowing hair.
As a cow bellows, when her calf's torn from her udder,
And goes searching for her child, through the woods,
So the goddess groaned freely, and ran quickly,
As she made her way, Enna, from your plains.
There she found marks of the girlish feet, and saw
Where her familiar form had printed the ground:
Perhaps her wandering would have ended that day,
If wild pigs hadn't muddied the trail she found." - Ovid, Fasti IV

"Plouton fell in love with Persephone, and with Zeus' help secretly
kidnapped her. Ceres 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. She first sat upon
the rock that has come to be called Agelasttos after her, beside the
well called Kallikhoron. Then she went to the house of Keleus, the
current ruler of the Eleusinians. After the woman inside invited her
to sit with them, one old granny named Iambe joked with the goddess
and got her to smile. For this reason they say that the women at the
Thesmophoria joke and jest. Metaneira, the wife of Keleus, had a baby, which was given to Demeter
to nurse. Wishing to make it immortal, she would set the baby in the
fire at night and remove its mortal flesh. But because Demophon (the
baby's name) grew so wondrously each day, Metaneira kept an eye on
him, and when she spied him being buried in the fire she screamed. The
child was thereupon destroyed by the fire, and the goddess revealed
her true identity. When Zeus commanded Plouton to send Persephone back up, Plouton 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 Hades' 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

"Pluto asked from Jove that he give him in marriage Ceres' daughter
and his own. Jove 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 was
gathering flowers with Venus, Diana, and Minerva, Pluto came in his
four-horse chariot, and seized her. Afterwards Ceres obtained from
Jove permission for her to stay half of the year with her, and half
with Pluto." - Hyginus, Fabulae 146

[[Category: Roman Gods]]

Larentia

2009-08-29T17:30:18Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

'''Larentia''', or '''Acca Larentia'''

'''1'''. foster-mother to Romulus and Remus, wife of the shepherd Faustulus; '''2'''. prostitute given to the god Hercules in a game of dice. She later married a wealthy man named Tarrutius, and at the end of her life bequeathed her fortune to the Roman People.

'''1'''. "Now should I forget you, Larentia, nurse of such a nation,
Nor, poor Faustulus, the help that you gave.
I’ll honour you when I speak of the Larentalia,
And the month approved of by the guardian spirits." - Ovid, Fasti III

"the babes were given to Faustulus, a shepherd, husband of Laurentia, to be exposed beside the river Tiber. These the shepherd's wife took and reared; for it happened that she had at that time borne a dead child." - Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' I.5

"But some say that the name of the children's nurse, by its ambiguity, deflected the story into the fabulous. For the Latins not only called she-wolves "lupae," but also women of loose character, and such a woman was the wife of Faustulus, the foster-father of the infants, Acca Larentia by name. Yet the Romans sacrifice also to her, and in the month of April the priest of Mars pours libations in her honour, and the festival is called Larentalia." - Plutarch, "Parallel Lives", ''Romulus'' 4.3

'''2'''. "They pay honours also to another Larentia, for the following reason. The keeper of the temple of Hercules, being at a loss for something to do, as it seems, proposed to the god a game of dice, with the understanding that if he won it himself, he should get some valuable present from the god; but if he lost, he would furnish the god with a bounteous repast and a lovely woman to keep him company for the night. On these terms the dice were thrown, first for the god, then for himself, when it appeared that he had lost. Wishing to keep faith, and thinking it right to abide by the contract, he prepared a banquet for the god, and engaging Larentia, who was then in the bloom of her beauty, but not yet famous, he feasted her in the temple, where he had spread a couch, and after the supper locked her in, assured of course that the god would take possession of her. And verily it is said that the god did visit the woman, and bade her go early in the morning to the forum, salute the first man who met her, and make him her friend. She was met, accordingly, by one of the citizens who was well on in years and possessed of a considerable property, but childless, and unmarried all his life, by name Tarrutius. This man took Larentia to his bed and loved her well, and at his death left her heir to many and fair possessions, most of which she bequeathed to the people. And it is said that when she was now famous and regarded as the beloved of a god, she disappeared at the spot where the former Larentia also lies buried. This spot is now called Velabrum, because when the river overflowed, as it often did, they used to cross it at about this point in ferry-boats, to go to the forum, and their word for ferry is "velatura." But some say that it is so‑called because from that point on, the street leading to the Hippodrome6 from the forum is covered over with sails by the givers of a public spectacle, and the Roman word for sail is "velum." It is for these reasons that honours are paid to this second Larentia amongst the Romans." - op.cit. 4.1-5

==Festival==

The '''Larentalia''' was a Roman festival in honour of Acca Larentia, the wife of Faustulus and the nurse of Romulus and Remus. It was celebrated in December on the 10th before the Calends of January (Festus, s.v.; Macrob. I.10; Ovid, Fast. III.57). The sacrifice in this festival was performed in the Velabrum at the place which led into the Nova Via, which was outside of the old city not far from the porta Romanula. At this place Acca was said to have been buried (Macrob. l.c.; Varr. de Ling. Lat. V.23, 24). This festival appears not to have been confined to Acca Larentia, but to have been sacred to all the Lares (Hartung, Die Religion der Römer, vol. II p146).

==References==

Ovid, ''Fasti'', trans. A.S. Kline (2004)

Cassius Dio ''Roman History'', trans. Ernest Carey, Loeb Classical Library (1914-1927)

Plutarch, ''Parallel Lives'', trans. Bernadotte Perrin, Loeb Classical Library (1914-1927)

William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D., ''A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities'', John Murray, London (1875)

Larentia

2009-08-29T17:29:27Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

'''Larentia''', or '''Acca Larentia'''

'''1'''. foster-mother to Romulus and Remus, wife of the shepherd Faustulus; '''2'''. prostitute given to the god Hercules in a game of dice. She later married a wealthy man named Tarrutius, and at the end of her life bequeathed her fortune to the Roman People.

'''1'''. "Now should I forget you, Larentia, nurse of such a nation,
Nor, poor Faustulus, the help that you gave.
I’ll honour you when I speak of the Larentalia,
And the month approved of by the guardian spirits." - Ovid, Fasti III

"the babes were given to Faustulus, a shepherd, husband of Laurentia, to be exposed beside the river Tiber. These the shepherd's wife took and reared; for it happened that she had at that time borne a dead child." - Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' I.5

"But some say that the name of the children's nurse, by its ambiguity, deflected the story into the fabulous. For the Latins not only called she-wolves "lupae," but also women of loose character, and such a woman was the wife of Faustulus, the foster-father of the infants, Acca Larentia by name. Yet the Romans sacrifice also to her, and in the month of April the priest of Mars pours libations in her honour, and the festival is called Larentalia." - Plutarch, "Parallel Lives", ''Romulus'' 4.3

'''2'''. "They pay honours also to another Larentia, for the following reason. The keeper of the temple of Hercules, being at a loss for something to do, as it seems, proposed to the god a game of dice, with the understanding that if he won it himself, he should get some valuable present from the god; but if he lost, he would furnish the god with a bounteous repast and a lovely woman to keep him company for the night. On these terms the dice were thrown, first for the god, then for himself, when it appeared that he had lost. Wishing to keep faith, and thinking it right to abide by the contract, he prepared a banquet for the god, and engaging Larentia, who was then in the bloom of her beauty, but not yet famous, he feasted her in the temple, where he had spread a couch, and after the supper locked her in, assured of course that the god would take possession of her. And verily it is said that the god did visit the woman, and bade her go early in the morning to the forum, salute the first man who met her, and make him her friend. She was met, accordingly, by one of the citizens who was well on in years and possessed of a considerable property, but childless, and unmarried all his life, by name Tarrutius. This man took Larentia to his bed and loved her well, and at his death left her heir to many and fair possessions, most of which she bequeathed to the people. And it is said that when she was now famous and regarded as the beloved of a god, she disappeared at the spot where the former Larentia also lies buried. This spot is now called Velabrum, because when the river overflowed, as it often did, they used to cross it at about this point in ferry-boats, to go to the forum, and their word for ferry is "velatura." But some say that it is so‑called because from that point on, the street leading to the Hippodrome6 from the forum is covered over with sails by the givers of a public spectacle, and the Roman word for sail is "velum." It is for these reasons that honours are paid to this second Larentia amongst the Romans." - op.cit. 4.1-5

==Festival==

The '''Larentalia''' was a Roman festival in honour of Acca Larentia, the wife of Faustulus and the nurse of Romulus and Remus. It was celebrated in December on the 10th before the Calends of January (Festus, s.v.; Macrob. I.10; Ovid, Fast. III.57). The sacrifice in this festival was performed in the Velabrum at the place which led into the Nova Via, which was outside of the old city not far from the porta Romanula. At this place Acca was said to have been buried (Macrob. l.c.; Varr. de Ling. Lat. V.23, 24). This festival appears not to have been confined to Acca Larentia, but to have been sacred to all the Lares (Hartung, Die Religion der Römer, vol. II p146).

==References==

Ovid, ''Fasti'', trans. A.S. Kline (2004)

Cassius Dio ''Roman History'', trans. Ernest Carey, Loeb Classical Library (1914-1927)

Plutarch, ''Parallel Lives'', trans. Bernadotte Perrin, Loeb Classical Library (1914-1927)

William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London (1875)

Larentia

2009-08-29T12:01:15Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

'''Larentia''', or '''Acca Larentia'''

'''1'''. foster-mother to Romulus and Remus, wife of the shepherd Faustulus; '''2'''. prostitute given to the god Hercules in a game of dice. She later married a wealthy man named Tarrutius, and at the end of her life bequeathed her fortune to the Roman People.

'''1'''. "Now should I forget you, Larentia, nurse of such a nation,
Nor, poor Faustulus, the help that you gave.
I’ll honour you when I speak of the Larentalia,
And the month approved of by the guardian spirits." - Ovid, Fasti III

"the babes were given to Faustulus, a shepherd, husband of Laurentia, to be exposed beside the river Tiber. These the shepherd's wife took and reared; for it happened that she had at that time borne a dead child." - Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' I.5

"But some say that the name of the children's nurse, by its ambiguity, deflected the story into the fabulous. For the Latins not only called she-wolves "lupae," but also women of loose character, and such a woman was the wife of Faustulus, the foster-father of the infants, Acca Larentia by name. Yet the Romans sacrifice also to her, and in the month of April the priest of Mars pours libations in her honour, and the festival is called Larentalia." - Plutarch, "Parallel Lives", ''Romulus'' 4.3

'''2'''. "They pay honours also to another Larentia, for the following reason. The keeper of the temple of Hercules, being at a loss for something to do, as it seems, proposed to the god a game of dice, with the understanding that if he won it himself, he should get some valuable present from the god; but if he lost, he would furnish the god with a bounteous repast and a lovely woman to keep him company for the night. On these terms the dice were thrown, first for the god, then for himself, when it appeared that he had lost. Wishing to keep faith, and thinking it right to abide by the contract, he prepared a banquet for the god, and engaging Larentia, who was then in the bloom of her beauty, but not yet famous, he feasted her in the temple, where he had spread a couch, and after the supper locked her in, assured of course that the god would take possession of her. And verily it is said that the god did visit the woman, and bade her go early in the morning to the forum, salute the first man who met her, and make him her friend. She was met, accordingly, by one of the citizens who was well on in years and possessed of a considerable property, but childless, and unmarried all his life, by name Tarrutius. This man took Larentia to his bed and loved her well, and at his death left her heir to many and fair possessions, most of which she bequeathed to the people. And it is said that when she was now famous and regarded as the beloved of a god, she disappeared at the spot where the former Larentia also lies buried. This spot is now called Velabrum, because when the river overflowed, as it often did, they used to cross it at about this point in ferry-boats, to go to the forum, and their word for ferry is "velatura." But some say that it is so‑called because from that point on, the street leading to the Hippodrome6 from the forum is covered over with sails by the givers of a public spectacle, and the Roman word for sail is "velum." It is for these reasons that honours are paid to this second Larentia amongst the Romans." - op.cit. 4.1-5

==References==

Ovid, ''Fasti'', trans. A.S. Kline (2004)

Cassius Dio ''Roman History'', trans. Ernest Carey, Loeb Classical Library (1914-1927)

Plutarch, ''Parallel Lives'', trans. Bernadotte Perrin, Loeb Classical Library (1914-1927)

Anna Perenna

2009-08-29T10:48:59Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Anna Perenna''', an elderly goddess who symbolizes the turning of the year. Her name is probably a mutation of the Latin ''per annum''. Macrobius (Saturnalia 1.12.6) related that offer...

'''Anna Perenna''', an elderly goddess who symbolizes the turning of the year. Her name is probably a mutation of the Latin ''per annum''.

Macrobius (Saturnalia 1.12.6) related that offerings were made to her
"ut annare perannareque commode liccat" ("that the circle of the year
may be completed happily") and that people sacrificed to her both
publicly and privately. Ovid in his Fasti provides a vivid
description of the revelry and licentiousness of her outdoor festival
where tents were pitched or bowers built from branches, where people
asked that Anna bestow as many more years to them as they could drink
cups of wine at the festival.

Ovid then tells that Anna Perenna was the same Anna who appears in
Virgil's Aeneid as Dido's sister and that after Dido's death, Carthage
was attacked by the Numidians and Anna was forced to flee. Eventually
Anna ended up in ship which happened to be driven by a storm right to
Aeneas' settlement of Lavinium. Aeneas invited her to stay, but his
wife Lavinia became jealous. Anna, warned in a dream by Dido's
spirit, escaped whatever Lavinia was planning by rushing off into the
night and falling into the river Numicus and drowning. Aeneas and his
folk were able to track Anna part way. Eventually Anna's form appeared
to them and Anna explained that she was now a river nymph hidden in
the "perennial stream" (amnis perennis) of Numicus and her name was
therefore now Anna Perenna. The people immediately celebrated with
outdoor revels. Ovid then notes that some equate Anna Perenna with the
Moon or with Themis or with Io or with Amaltheia, but he turns to what
he claims may be closer to the truth, that during the Plebeian revolt
the rebels ran short on food and an old woman of Bovillae named Anna
baked cakes and brought them to the rebels every morning. The
Plebeians later set up an image to her and worshipped her as a
goddess.

Next Ovid relates that soon after old Anna had become a goddess, the
god Mars attempted to get Anna to persuade Minerva to yield to him in
love. Anna at last pretends that Minerva has agreed and the wedding is
on. But when Mars' supposed new wife was brought into his chamber and
Mars removed the veil he found to his chagrin that it was not Minerva
but old Anna, which is why people tell coarse jokes and sing coarse
songs at Anna Perenna's festivities.

"The happy feast of Anna Perenna is held on the Ides,
Not far from your banks, Tiber, far flowing river.
The people come and drink there, scattered on the grass,
And every man reclines there with his girl.
Some tolerate the open sky, a few pitch tents,
And some make leafy huts out of branches,
While others set reeds up, to form rigid pillars,
And hang their outspread robes from the reeds.
But they're warmed by sun and wine, and pray
For as many years as cups, as many as they drink.
There you'll find a man who quaffs Nestor's years,
A woman who'd age as the Sibyl, in her cups.
There they sing whatever they've learnt in the theatres,
Beating time to the words with ready hands,
And setting the bowl down, dance coarsely,
The trim girl leaping about with streaming hair.
Homecoming they stagger, a sight for vulgar eyes,
And the crowd meeting them call them 'blessed'.
I fell in with the procession lately (it seems to me worth
Saying): a tipsy old woman dragging a tipsy old man."
- Ovid, Fasti III

''Huius etiam prima die ignem novum Vestae aris accendebant, ut''
''incipiente anno cura denuo servandi novati ignis inciperet: eodem''
''quoque ingrediente mense tam in regia curiisque atque flaminum domibus''
''laureae veteres novis laureis mutabantur: eodem quoque mense et''
''publice et privatim ad Annam Perennam sacrificatum itur, ut annare''
''perennareque commode liceat.'' - Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.XII.6

==References==

Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th ed. (1911)

Ovid ''Fasti'', trans. A.S. Kline (2004)

Macrobius ''Saturnalia'' trans. Ludwig von Jan, Gottfried Bass, Quedlinburg and Leipzig (1852)

Larentia

2009-08-29T10:34:17Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Larentia''', or '''Acca Larentia''' '''1'''. foster-mother to Romulus and Remus, wife of the shepherd Faustulus; '''2'''. wealthy prostitute given to the god Hercules in a game of dice...

'''Larentia''', or '''Acca Larentia'''

'''1'''. foster-mother to Romulus and Remus, wife of the shepherd Faustulus; '''2'''. wealthy prostitute given to the god Hercules in a game of dice. She later married a wealthy man named Tarrutius, and at the end of her life bequeathed her fortune to the Roman People.

'''1'''. "Now should I forget you, Larentia, nurse of such a nation,
Nor, poor Faustulus, the help that you gave.
I’ll honour you when I speak of the Larentalia,
And the month approved of by the guardian spirits." - Ovid, Fasti III

"the babes were given to Faustulus, a shepherd, husband of Laurentia, to be exposed beside the river Tiber. These the shepherd's wife took and reared; for it happened that she had at that time borne a dead child." - Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' I.5

"But some say that the name of the children's nurse, by its ambiguity, deflected the story into the fabulous. For the Latins not only called she-wolves "lupae," but also women of loose character, and such a woman was the wife of Faustulus, the foster-father of the infants, Acca Larentia by name. Yet the Romans sacrifice also to her, and in the month of April the priest of Mars pours libations in her honour, and the festival is called Larentalia." - Plutarch, "Parallel Lives", ''Romulus'' 4.3

'''2'''. "They pay honours also to another Larentia, for the following reason. The keeper of the temple of Hercules, being at a loss for something to do, as it seems, proposed to the god a game of dice, with the understanding that if he won it himself, he should get some valuable present from the god; but if he lost, he would furnish the god with a bounteous repast and a lovely woman to keep him company for the night. On these terms the dice were thrown, first for the god, then for himself, when it appeared that he had lost. Wishing to keep faith, and thinking it right to abide by the contract, he prepared a banquet for the god, and engaging Larentia, who was then in the bloom of her beauty, but not yet famous, he feasted her in the temple, where he had spread a couch, and after the supper locked her in, assured of course that the god would take possession of her. And verily it is said that the god did visit the woman, and bade her go early in the morning to the forum, salute the first man who met her, and make him her friend. She was met, accordingly, by one of the citizens who was well on in years and possessed of a considerable property, but childless, and unmarried all his life, by name Tarrutius. This man took Larentia to his bed and loved her well, and at his death left her heir to many and fair possessions, most of which she bequeathed to the people. And it is said that when she was now famous and regarded as the beloved of a god, she disappeared at the spot where the former Larentia also lies buried. This spot is now called Velabrum, because when the river overflowed, as it often did, they used to cross it at about this point in ferry-boats, to go to the forum, and their word for ferry is "velatura." But some say that it is so‑called because from that point on, the street leading to the Hippodrome6 from the forum is covered over with sails by the givers of a public spectacle, and the Roman word for sail is "velum." It is for these reasons that honours are paid to this second Larentia amongst the Romans." - op.cit. 4.1-5

==References==

Ovid, ''Fasti'', trans. A.S. Kline (2004)

Cassius Dio ''Roman History'', trans. Ernest Carey, Loeb Classical Library (1914-1927)

Plutarch, ''Parallel Lives'', trans. Bernadotte Perrin, Loeb Classical Library (1914-1927)

Proserpina

2009-08-29T03:50:04Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

'''Persephone''', also known as Proserpina, and to the Greeks as Kore. She is the daughter of Ceres (known to the Greeks as Demeter). Pluto, the god of the underworld, kidnapped Ceres's
daughter, Proserpina, and took her to live with him. A single mother, Ceres felt abandoned by her daughter's absence. Proserpina ate six pomegranate seeds, an action that could have sealed
her fate to live in the underworld forever. But Ceres, being a shrewd mother, was able to negotiate through Iuppiter with Pluto for her daughter's custody. Proserpina would spend half of the year with Pluto in the underworld
and half of the year living with her mother. During the time Proserpina was in the underworld, Ceres was so grief-stricken that she refused to allow anything on Earth to be
beautiful or fruitful, and these are the winter months. When Ceres has her daughter to look after, she is happy and the earth brought forth crops, giving food, so we have summer and the autumn harvest.

"The Trinacrian land took its name from its shape:
It runs out in three rocky capes to the vast ocean.
It’s a place dear to Ceres. She owns, there, many cities,
Among them fertile Enna, with its well-ploughed soul.
Cool Arethusa gathered together the mothers of the gods:
And the yellow-haired goddess came to the sacred feast.
Her daughter, Persephone, attended by girls, as ever,
Wandered barefoot through Enna’s meadows.
In a shadow-filled valley there’s a place,
Wet by the copious spray from a high fall.
All the colours of nature were displayed there,
And the earth was bright with hues of various flowers.
On seeing it she cried: ‘Come here to me, my friends,
And each carry back, with me, a lapful of flowers.’
The foolish prize enticed their girlish spirits,
And they were too busy to feel weary.
Proserpine herself plucked fragile crocuses and white lilies.
Intent on gathering them, she gradually strayed,
And none of her friends chanced to follow their lady.
Dis, her uncle saw her, and swiftly carried her off,
And bore her on shadowy horses to his realm.
She called out: `Oh, dearest Mother, I'm being
Carried away!' and tore at the breast of her robe:
Meanwhile a path opened for Dis, since his horses
Can scarcely endure the unaccustomed daylight.
When her crowd of friends had gathered their flowers,
They shouted: `Persephone, come for your gifts!'
But silence met their call: they filled the hills with their cries,
And sadly beat their naked breasts with their hands.
Ceres was startled by their grief (she'd just now come from Enna),
And cried instantly `Ah me! Daughter, where are you?'
She rushed about, distracted, as we've heard
The Thracian Maenads run with flowing hair.
As a cow bellows, when her calf's torn from her udder,
And goes searching for her child, through the woods,
So the goddess groaned freely, and ran quickly,
As she made her way, Enna, from your plains.
There she found marks of the girlish feet, and saw
Where her familiar form had printed the ground:
Perhaps her wandering would have ended that day,
If wild pigs hadn't muddied the trail she found." - Ovid, Fasti IV

"Plouton fell in love with Persephone, and with Zeus' help secretly
kidnapped her. Ceres 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. She first sat upon
the rock that has come to be called Agelasttos after her, beside the
well called Kallikhoron. Then she went to the house of Keleus, the
current ruler of the Eleusinians. After the woman inside invited her
to sit with them, one old granny named Iambe joked with the goddess
and got her to smile. For this reason they say that the women at the
Thesmophoria joke and jest. Metaneira, the wife of Keleus, had a baby, which was given to Demeter
to nurse. Wishing to make it immortal, she would set the baby in the
fire at night and remove its mortal flesh. But because Demophon (the
baby's name) grew so wondrously each day, Metaneira kept an eye on
him, and when she spied him being buried in the fire she screamed. The
child was thereupon destroyed by the fire, and the goddess revealed
her true identity. When Zeus commanded Plouton to send Persephone back up, Plouton 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 Hades' 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

"Pluto asked from Jove that he give him in marriage Ceres' daughter
and his own. Jove 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 was
gathering flowers with Venus, Diana, and Minerva, Pluto came in his
four-horse chariot, and seized her. Afterwards Ceres obtained from
Jove permission for her to stay half of the year with her, and half
with Pluto." - Hyginus, Fabulae 146

[[Category: Roman Gods]]

Proserpina

2009-08-29T03:49:24Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

'''Persephone''', also known as Proserpina, and to the Greeks as Kore. She is the daughter of Ceres (known to the Greeks as Demeter). Pluto, the god of the underworld, kidnapped Ceres's
daughter, Proserpina, and took her to live with him. A single mother, Ceres felt abandoned by her daughter's absence. Proserpina ate six pomegranate seeds, an action that could have sealed
her fate to live in the underworld forever. But Ceres, being a shrewd mother, was able to negotiate with Pluto for her daughter's custody. Proserpina would spend half of the year with Pluto in the underworld
and half of the year living with her mother. During the time Proserpina was in the underworld, Ceres was so grief-stricken that she refused to allow anything on Earth to be
beautiful or fruitful, and these are the winter months. When Ceres has her daughter to look after, she is happy and the earth brought forth crops, giving food, so we have summer and the autumn harvest.

"The Trinacrian land took its name from its shape:
It runs out in three rocky capes to the vast ocean.
It’s a place dear to Ceres. She owns, there, many cities,
Among them fertile Enna, with its well-ploughed soul.
Cool Arethusa gathered together the mothers of the gods:
And the yellow-haired goddess came to the sacred feast.
Her daughter, Persephone, attended by girls, as ever,
Wandered barefoot through Enna’s meadows.
In a shadow-filled valley there’s a place,
Wet by the copious spray from a high fall.
All the colours of nature were displayed there,
And the earth was bright with hues of various flowers.
On seeing it she cried: ‘Come here to me, my friends,
And each carry back, with me, a lapful of flowers.’
The foolish prize enticed their girlish spirits,
And they were too busy to feel weary.
Proserpine herself plucked fragile crocuses and white lilies.
Intent on gathering them, she gradually strayed,
And none of her friends chanced to follow their lady.
Dis, her uncle saw her, and swiftly carried her off,
And bore her on shadowy horses to his realm.
She called out: `Oh, dearest Mother, I'm being
Carried away!' and tore at the breast of her robe:
Meanwhile a path opened for Dis, since his horses
Can scarcely endure the unaccustomed daylight.
When her crowd of friends had gathered their flowers,
They shouted: `Persephone, come for your gifts!'
But silence met their call: they filled the hills with their cries,
And sadly beat their naked breasts with their hands.
Ceres was startled by their grief (she'd just now come from Enna),
And cried instantly `Ah me! Daughter, where are you?'
She rushed about, distracted, as we've heard
The Thracian Maenads run with flowing hair.
As a cow bellows, when her calf's torn from her udder,
And goes searching for her child, through the woods,
So the goddess groaned freely, and ran quickly,
As she made her way, Enna, from your plains.
There she found marks of the girlish feet, and saw
Where her familiar form had printed the ground:
Perhaps her wandering would have ended that day,
If wild pigs hadn't muddied the trail she found." - Ovid, Fasti IV

"Plouton fell in love with Persephone, and with Zeus' help secretly
kidnapped her. Ceres 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. She first sat upon
the rock that has come to be called Agelasttos after her, beside the
well called Kallikhoron. Then she went to the house of Keleus, the
current ruler of the Eleusinians. After the woman inside invited her
to sit with them, one old granny named Iambe joked with the goddess
and got her to smile. For this reason they say that the women at the
Thesmophoria joke and jest. Metaneira, the wife of Keleus, had a baby, which was given to Demeter
to nurse. Wishing to make it immortal, she would set the baby in the
fire at night and remove its mortal flesh. But because Demophon (the
baby's name) grew so wondrously each day, Metaneira kept an eye on
him, and when she spied him being buried in the fire she screamed. The
child was thereupon destroyed by the fire, and the goddess revealed
her true identity. When Zeus commanded Plouton to send Persephone back up, Plouton 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 Hades' 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

"Pluto asked from Jove that he give him in marriage Ceres' daughter
and his own. Jove 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 was
gathering flowers with Venus, Diana, and Minerva, Pluto came in his
four-horse chariot, and seized her. Afterwards Ceres obtained from
Jove permission for her to stay half of the year with her, and half
with Pluto." - Hyginus, Fabulae 146

[[Category: Roman Gods]]

Proserpina

2009-08-29T03:47:23Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

'''Proserpina''', also known as Persephone, and to the Greeks as Kore. She is the daughter of Ceres (known to the Greeks as Demeter). Pluto, the god of the underworld, kidnapped Ceres's
daughter, Proserpina, and took her to live with him. A single mother, Ceres felt abandoned by her daughter's absence. Proserpina ate six pomegranate seeds, an action that could have sealed
her fate to live in the underworld forever. But Ceres, being a shrewd mother, was able to negotiate with Pluto for her daughter's custody. Proserpina would spend half of the year with Pluto in the underworld
and half of the year living with her mother. During the time Proserpina was in the underworld, Ceres was so grief-stricken that she refused to allow anything on Earth to be
beautiful or fruitful, and these are the winter months. When Ceres has her daughter to look after, she is happy and the earth brought forth crops, giving food, so we have summer and the autumn harvest.

"The Trinacrian land took its name from its shape:
It runs out in three rocky capes to the vast ocean.
It’s a place dear to Ceres. She owns, there, many cities,
Among them fertile Enna, with its well-ploughed soul.
Cool Arethusa gathered together the mothers of the gods:
And the yellow-haired goddess came to the sacred feast.
Her daughter, Persephone, attended by girls, as ever,
Wandered barefoot through Enna’s meadows.
In a shadow-filled valley there’s a place,
Wet by the copious spray from a high fall.
All the colours of nature were displayed there,
And the earth was bright with hues of various flowers.
On seeing it she cried: ‘Come here to me, my friends,
And each carry back, with me, a lapful of flowers.’
The foolish prize enticed their girlish spirits,
And they were too busy to feel weary." - Ovid, Fasti IV

"Plouton fell in love with Persephone, and with Zeus' help secretly
kidnapped her. Ceres 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. She first sat upon
the rock that has come to be called Agelasttos after her, beside the
well called Kallikhoron. Then she went to the house of Keleus, the
current ruler of the Eleusinians. After the woman inside invited her
to sit with them, one old granny named Iambe joked with the goddess
and got her to smile. For this reason they say that the women at the
Thesmophoria joke and jest. Metaneira, the wife of Keleus, had a baby, which was given to Demeter
to nurse. Wishing to make it immortal, she would set the baby in the
fire at night and remove its mortal flesh. But because Demophon (the
baby's name) grew so wondrously each day, Metaneira kept an eye on
him, and when she spied him being buried in the fire she screamed. The
child was thereupon destroyed by the fire, and the goddess revealed
her true identity. When Zeus commanded Plouton to send Persephone back up, Plouton 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 Hades' 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

"Pluto asked from Jove that he give him in marriage Ceres' daughter
and his own. Jove 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 was
gathering flowers with Venus, Diana, and Minerva, Pluto came in his
four-horse chariot, and seized her. Afterwards Ceres obtained from
Jove permission for her to stay half of the year with her, and half
with Pluto." - Hyginus, Fabulae 146

[[Category: Roman Gods]]

Talk:Proserpina

2009-08-29T03:40:42Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

this page needs to be re-titled Proserpina. I've taken out the mythology and padding. [[User:Marca Hortensia Maior|Marca Hortensia Maior]]

The Romans called her Persephone as well:

The Trinacrian land took its name from its shape:
It runs out in three rocky capes to the vast ocean.
It’s a place dear to Ceres. She owns, there, many cities,
Among them fertile Enna, with its well-ploughed soul.
Cool Arethusa gathered together the mothers of the gods:
And the yellow-haired goddess came to the sacred feast.
Her daughter, Persephone, attended by girls, as ever,
Wandered barefoot through Enna’s meadows.
In a shadow-filled valley there’s a place,
Wet by the copious spray from a high fall.
All the colours of nature were displayed there,
And the earth was bright with hues of various flowers.
On seeing it she cried: ‘Come here to me, my friends,
And each carry back, with me, a lapful of flowers.’
The foolish prize enticed their girlish spirits,
And they were too busy to feel weary. - Ovid, Fasti IV

User talk:Gaius Equitius Cato

2009-08-29T03:36:04Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

== Salve, C. Equiti Cato! ==

And welcome to the editorial staff of our website.
Please remember always to observe our category system, adding each new article you create to the relevant category.
Please also observe to add a languagebar to each new page and to keep the orthographic design in line with the accepted practices (no full capitalization for emphasis, but '''bold''' letters e.g.).
When adding new pictures, we use thumbnails. See an example to this in the article of [[Iuno]].

If you have any kind of question, don't hesitate to ask help from me, I'm the content manager as Magister Aranearius. For technical management we have no officer currently, but Agricola is an unofficial adviser for that matter. Saturninus is the ultimate boss, as Curator Rei Informaticae.

Vale!
--[[User:Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus|Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus]] 13:22, 26 August 2009 (CEST)

: Near all of these, please pay attention to the photos copyright.[[User:Titus Iulius Sabinus|Titus Iulius Sabinus]] 13:31, 26 August 2009 (CEST)

:::Hooray! thanks, gentlemen. I'm trying to use only photos or images in the public domain. How do I turn an image into a thumbnail? For the proper names of the Gods I've been doing it in caps in bold at the head of the article; is this OK?

:use Vroma,http://www.vroma.org/images/image_search.html this is a permitted source for photos, give them credit. Ideally use a photo of a cult statue and use statutes, paintings from the Roman era. Not Renaissance etc. Keep to the style; that is photos on the right with frame.To do this use the code for image and then |right|frame surrounded by double brackets[[User:Marca Hortensia Maior|Marca Hortensia Maior]]

== Some answers ==

This is a picture that is modified in its size.To see the command you have to use, click the "edit" of ''this'' page:

[[Image:Juno courtesy of Vroma.jpg|50px|left]]

You can modify the size of the picture to get an aesthetically appropriate ratio to the design of the article.

You can use thumbnails that allows you to use subtitles to the picture, while still can modify the size and even the position left-right.

[[Image:Juno courtesy of Vroma.jpg|thumb|80px|left|[[Iuno]], Queen of the gods.]]

Giant pictures aren't looking good in an article, so we usually have to reduce their size.

About the spelling of the names of the gods: while I admit that many people wish to express respest towards the gods by capitalizing the word "god" or "goddess", I think it is not a tradition of polytheistic thinking. Names of the gods of course must be written with capitalized initial, but the rest of the word must be in lower case, even if as first word at the beginning of an article. So always ''''Neptunus''', in bold, and not NEPTUNUS. This is what is observed in all articles.

ooooh I moved the picture and made it smaller cool :) OK, thank you very much.

NO Capitalizing of god or goddess. See Cordus' quote on Neptunus page! Here is a very fine example by Nero of an article. This is what you should try to emulate
http://www.novaroma.org/nr/Taurobolium[[User:Marca Hortensia Maior|Marca Hortensia Maior]]

== Ideal article and Cultus Task Force ==

What Hortensia showed you, the [[Taurobolium]] is an ideal example of how a good article have to look like, what its structure is, the place for a picture, the way of adding references, citations, links, languagebar etc.
Please also try to focus on '''Roman''' approach, i.e. while describing a Roman god Greek sources and Greek mythology has only place when all Roman sources are used up. Our focus is to catch the unique Roman nature of the Roman gods.
If you indend to work on religion articles, you need to join the [[NovaRoma:Cultus Task Force]]. On the discussion page of the Task Force, or on the discussion pages of the single articles we can arrange the organization of the religion topics. --[[User:Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus|Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus]] 12:19, 28 August 2009 (CEST)

------------------------------------------------------

Interesting and useful. My only question is that since ancient writers used both Greek and Roman names for the gods almost interchangeably, is there difficulty in quoting the Orphic or Homeric Hymns to, say, Zeus or Hera when the Romans made it quite clear that they considered Zeus and Hera to be Iuppiter and Iuno? By the way, I'll not put any images up at all until I have mastered the way of doing it that has been described. I am using articles that I wrote regarding the various festivals (and that were used on the calendar that we publish), so unless I use quotation marks these are written by me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Use only Roman name etc, the article should be Proserpina. Do not quote Greek hymns or Orphic Hymns, use Roman poets. Roman sources. Ovid, Horace, Livy, Tacitus. Aways cite your work, if the material you are posting comes from the Nova Roman Calendar, Saturninus'? then you must quote it as your source in references. [[User:Marca Hortensia Maior|Marca Hortensia Maior]]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marca Hortensia, I WROTE THE CALENDAR INFORMATION. Also, Proserpina is ALSO CALLED Persephone by the Romans.

User talk:Gaius Equitius Cato

2009-08-28T12:07:52Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: /* Ideal article and Cultus Task Force */

Mercurius

2009-08-28T03:50:14Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

{{LanguageBar|Mercurius}}

'''Mercurius''' (Mercury) is the God of commerce. The guild of merchants honored Mercurius at his temple near the [[Circus Maximus]] on his festival, the ''[[Mercuralia]]'', on May 15. They also sprinkled themselves and their merchandise with sacred water in a ceremony at the [[Capena Gate]].

A common epithet of Mercurius was ''Bonus Mercurius'' very similar to ''optimus.''<ref>See Brouwer, Bona Dea, p.246.</ref>
[[Image:Mercurius courtesy of Vroma.jpg|right|frame]]

When Mercurius became identified with the Greek Hermes, he took on the duties of messenger of the Gods, ''Psychopompus'' who guides the souls of the dead through the [[Underworld]], and God of sleep and dreams. He also became God of thieves and trickery, owing to a trick he had played on ''[[Apollo]]'' by stealing and hiding the Sun God's cattle. His serpent-twined staff (two serpents), the ''caduceus'', was originally a magician's wand for wealth (and is often confused with the "rod of [[Aesculapius]]", entwined with a single serpent) but became identified later as a herald's staff. But Mercurius has many aspects, attributes, names and epithets.

"Hermes ... messenger of Zeus ... Celestial messenger of various
skill, whose powerful arts could watchful Argos kill. With winged feet
`tis thine through air to course." - Orphic Hymn 28 to Hermes

"Zeus who masses the clouds made answer ... turned to his dear son
Hermes: 'Hermes, you are always our messenger.'" - Homer, Odyssey 5.4

"Though he was laid out in swaddling-clothes with her winnowing-basket
for a cradle, he escaped and made his way to Pieria, where he stole
some cattle that Apollon was tending. To keep from being discovered by
the tracks, he put boots on their feet and led them to Pylos. He hid
them in a grotto, except for two which he sacrificed, pinning up their
hides on rocks, boiling some o the meat for his meal and burning the
rest. Outside the cave he found a tortoise feeding. He cleaned it
out, and stretched across the shell strings made from the cattle he
had sacrificed, and when he had thus devised a lyre he also invented a
plectrum. Meanwhile Apollon reached Pylos in his search for the
cattle, and asked the locals about them. They told him that they had
indeed seen a boy driving some cattle, but they could not say where
they had been driven because there were no tracks to be found. So
Apollon learned who the thief was by divine science, and made his way
to Maia on Kyllene to charge Hermes. Maia, however, showed Apollon the
baby in his swaddling-clothes, whereupon Apollon took him to Zeus and
demanded his cattle. When Zeus told Hermes to return them, he denied
everything, but since his father would not believe him, he led Apollon
to Pylos and gave him back his cattle. Then, when Apollon heard the
lyre, he exchanged the cattle for that." - Apollodorus, the Library

"Then make me your herald, Father,’ Hermes answered, ‘and I will be responsible for the safety of all divine property, and never tell lies, though I cannot promise always to tell the whole truth.’
‘That would not be expected of you,’ said Zeus, with a smile. ‘But your duties would include the making of treaties, the promotion of commerce, and the maintenance of free rights of way for travellers on any road in the world.’ When Hermes agreed to these conditions, Zeus gave him a herald’s staff with white ribbons, which everyone was ordered to respect; a round hat against the rain, and winged golden sandals which carried him with the swiftness of the wind. He was at once welcomed into the Olympian family, whom he taught the art of making a fire by the rapid twirling of the fire-stick." '''[2]'''

Mercury did not appear among the numinous di indigetes of early Roman religion. Rather, he subsumed the earlier Dei Lucrii as Roman religion was syncretized with Greek religion during the time of the Roman Republic, starting around the 4th century BC. From the beginning, Mercury had essentially the same aspects as Hermes, wearing winged shoes talaria and a winged petasos, and carrying the caduceus, a herald's staff with two entwined snakes that was Apollo's gift to Hermes. He was often accompanied by a cockerel, herald of the new day, a ram or goat, symbolizing fertility, and a tortoise, referring to Mercury's legendary invention of the lyre from a tortoise shell. Like Hermes, he was also a messenger of the gods and a god of trade, particularly of the grain trade. Mercury was also considered a god of abundance and commercial success, particularly in Gaul. He was also, like Hermes, the Romans' psychopomp, leading newly-deceased souls to the afterlife. Additionally, Ovid wrote that Mercury carried Morpheus' dreams from the valley of Somnus to sleeping humans.

When they described the gods of Celtic and Germanic tribes, rather than considering them separate deities, the Romans interpreted them as local manifestations or aspects of their own gods, a cultural trait called the ''interpretatio Romana''. Mercury in particular was reported as becoming extremely popular among the nations the Roman Empire conquered; Julius Caesar wrote of Mercury being the most popular god in Britain and Gaul, regarded as the inventor of all the arts. This is probably because in the Roman syncretism, Mercury was equated with the Celtic god Lugus, and in this aspect was commonly accompanied by the Celtic goddess Rosmerta. Although Lugus may originally have been a deity of light or the sun (though this is disputed), similar to the Roman Apollo, his importance as a god of trade and commerce made him more comparable to Mercury, and Apollo was instead equated with the Celtic deity Belenus

Mercury's temple in the Circus Maximus, between the Aventine and Palatine hills, was built in 495 BC. This was a fitting place to worship a swift god of trade and travel, since it was a major center of commerce as well as a racetrack. Since it stood between the plebeian stronghold on the Aventine and the patrician center on the Palatine, it also emphasized the role of Mercury as a mediator.
Because Mercury was not one of the early deities surviving from the Roman Kingdom, he was not assigned a flamen ("priest"), but he did have a major festival on May 15, the Mercuralia. During the Mercuralia, merchants sprinkled water from his sacred well near the Porta Capena on their heads.

'''Epithets'''

''Mercurius Artaios'', a combination of Mercury with the Celtic god Artaios, a deity of bears and hunting who was worshiped at Beaucroissant, France.

''Mercurius Arvernus'', a combination of the Celtic Arvernus with Mercury. Arvernus was worshiped in the Rhineland, possibly as a particular deity of the Arverni tribe, though no dedications to Mercurius Arvernus occur in their territory in the Auvergne region of central France.

''Mercurius Cissonius'', a combination of Mercury with the Celtic god Cissonius, who is written of in the area spanning from Cologne, Germany to Saintes, France.

''Mercurius Esibraeus'', a combination of the Iberian deity Esibraeus with the Roman deity Mercury. Esibraeus is mentioned only in an inscription found at Medelim, Portugal, and is possibly the same deity as Banda Isibraiegus, who is invoked in an inscription from the nearby village of Bemposta.

''Mercurius Gebrinius'', a combination of Mercury with the Celtic or Germanic Gebrinius, known from an inscription on an altar in Bonn, Germany.

''Mercurius Moccus'', from a Celtic god, Moccus, who was equated with Mercury, known from evidence at Langres, France. The name Moccus ("pig") implies that this deity was connected to boar-hunting.

''Mercurius Visucius'', a combination of the Celtic god Visucius with the Roman god Mercury, attested in an inscription from Stuttgart, Germany. Visucius was worshiped primarily in the frontier area of the empire in Gaul and Germany. Although he was primarily associated with Mercury, Visucius was also sometimes linked to the Roman god Mars, as a dedicatory inscription to "Mars Visucius" and Visucia, Visicius' female counterpart, was found in Gaul

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/186/468123109_1e15c65308_o.jpg http://z.about.com/d/atheism/1/0/n/S/Hermes02-l.jpg

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Roman Gods]]
2. Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths. Vol I. London: Penguin, (1960) p. 65

Lar

2009-08-28T03:37:21Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

{{LanguageBar|Lar}}

[[Image:Lar familiaris vroma.jpg|right|frame|Lar‎]]
The ''Lar'', known also as the ''Lar familiaris'', was the Roman household deity who protected the land that the family lived upon. The ''Lar'' was the center of the household cult, his shrine, known as a ''[[lararium]]'' was usually in one of the common rooms of the house, so the entire family and slaves could make offerings, always on the ''[[Kalends]]'', ''[[Nones]]'' and ''[[Ides]]'', as well as on special occasions such as banquets.
It was only in the time of Augustus that the plural ''lares'' was used.

=="Keeper of the Gate"==
''/Quoting from: Crapsey, Algernon Sidney. The Ways of the Gods. New York: The International Press, 1920. (Out of Print)/''

The family as we know it today bears little of no relation to that ancient institution of which the ''Lar'' was the "Keeper of the Gate". In the early history of Rome, the title to the land was possession and use, because it was to a Roman the source of his life, its cultivation gave him occupation, upon the land he build his house and in the land he made his grave, therefore the land to the archaic man was sacred; for not only was it the home of the living, it was also the place of the dead, and it was the dead ancestors in their graves who really possessed the land and, as the ''Lares'', were the "Keepers of the Gates".

==Fear and reverence of the ''Lares''==

The belief of the ancient man in the ghosts of his fathers, with their unknown power to help and harm, was better than a title deed to secure each man in the possession of his land. Every family feared the ''Lares'' of every other family. The earth in those days was peopled with a host of spiritual beings — unseen, unheard, smiting with the pestilence, and killing with the plague. If any untoward accident befell a man, or sickness came to him after he had trespassed on his neighbor's land, then he, as well as his neighbor, ascribed his misfortune to the wrath of the ''Lar'' of that land. Thus each man had a wholesome fear of the ghosts of his neighbor. He was ready to fight his neighbor, whom he could see, but not his neighbor's ghosts, whom he could not see.

The temple to the Lares is first mentioned in connection with a series
of prodigious events (106 BC):

''Amiterni cum ex ancilla puer nasceretur, ave dixit. In agro Perusino''
''et Romae locis aliquot lacte pluit. Inter multa fulmine icta Atellis''
''digiti hominis quattuor tamquam ferro praecisi. Argentum signatum''
''afflatu fulminis diffluxit. In agro Trebulano mulier nupta civi Romano''
''fulmine icta nec exanimata. Fremitus caelestis auditus et pila caelo''
''cadere visa. Sanguine pluit. Romae interdiu fax sublime volans''
''conspecta. In aede Larum flamma a fastigio ad summum columen''
''penetravit innoxia. Per Caepionem consulem senatorum et equitum''
''iudicia communicata. Cetera in pace fuerunt.'' - Iulius Obsequens 41

And it was part of the original pomerium of the City:

''Regum in eo ambitio vel gloria varie vulgata: sed initium condendi,''
''et quod pomerium Romulus posuerit, noscere haud absurdum reor. igitur''
''a foro boario, ubi aereum tauri simulacrum aspicimus, quia id genus''
''animalium aratro subditur, sulcus designandi oppidi coeptus ut magnam''
''Herculis aram amplecteretur; inde certis spatiis interiecti lapides''
''per ima montis Palatini ad aram Consi, mox curias veteres, tum ad''
''sacellum Larum, inde forum Romanum; forumque et Capitolium non a''
''Romulo, sed a Tito Tatio additum urbi credidere. mox pro fortuna''
''pomerium auctum. et quos tum Claudius terminos posuerit, facile''
''cognitu et publicis actis perscriptum."

(There are various popular accounts of the ambitious and vainglorious
efforts of our kings in this matter. Still, I think, it is interesting
to know accurately the original plan of the precinct, as it was fixed
by Romulus. From the ox market, where we see the brazen statue of a
bull, because that animal is yoked to the plough, a furrow was drawn
to mark out the town, so as to embrace the great altar of Hercules;
then, at regular intervals, stones were placed along the foot of the
Palatine hill to the altar of Consus, soon afterwards, to the old
Courts, and then to the chapel of the Lares. The Roman forum and the
Capitol were not, it was supposed, added to the city by Romulus, but
by Titus Tatius. In time, the precinct was enlarged with the growth of
Rome's fortunes. The boundaries now fixed by Claudius may be easily
recognized, as they are specified in the public records.) - - Tacitus, Annals xii.24

==Sacredness of private property==

In the good old days every house was haunted and every field bewitched, and it was the haunt and the bewitchment that was the safety of the house and the land. Domestic religion was the keeper of domestic wealth and life. It was the fear of the ''Lares'' that gave sacredness to property and made theft and trespass not only a crime but a sacrilege.

This sacredness of property was religion in its origin. It existed for centuries before it gave rise to the civil laws that are now its security. Long before the reign of the law we had the reign of ''Lar''. Each house-father, absolute lord and master of his own house and land, was under the protection of his ''Lar''; the fear of them and the dread of them was upon all the country-round about. If his lands were seized by a stronger man than he, his ''Lar'' were expelled from the land, the graves of his ancestors violated, and he and his household were either killed or reduced to slavery.

This relation of the family to the land, and of the house-father to the family, classified ancient society as master and slave, patron and client, patrician and plebeian. With the institution of the family, there came into existence a class of out-family men and women: runaway slaves, prodigal sons, remnants of broken families; men and women without land, without [[Manes]], without ''Lares'', having no place at any family altar. Private property in land, the basic principle of the family, was the fruitful cause of poverty, with the wretchedness and degradation that always follow in its camp. That same poverty is today destroying the family and changing the face of civilization.

Private property in land has, in the course of time, passed out of the keeping of the family ''Lar'' into the care of the civil law; what man had once to do for himself society now does for him. The "Keepers of the Gates" were no longer the ''Lares'' but the lawyers.

[[Category:Roman Gods]]

Maia

2009-08-28T03:32:35Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Maia''' is the mother of Mercurius, and the eldest daughter of Atlas and Pleione. "You ask where I think the name of May comes from? Its origin's not totally clear to me. As a travelle...

'''Maia''' is the mother of Mercurius, and the eldest daughter of Atlas and Pleione.

"You ask where I think the name of May comes from?
Its origin's not totally clear to me.
As a traveller stands unsure which way to go,
Seeing the paths fan out in all directions,
So I'm not sure which to accept, since it's possible
To give different reasons: plenty itself confuses.
You who haunt the founts of Aganippian Hippocrene,
Those beloved prints of the Medusaean horse, explain!
The goddesses are in conflict. Polyhymnia begins,
While the others silently consider her speech.
'After the first Chaos, as soon as the three primary forms
Were given to the world, all things were newly re-configured:
Earth sank under its own weight, and drew down the seas,
But lightness lifted the sky to the highest regions:
And the sun and stars, not held back by their weight,
And you, you horses of the moon, sprang high.
But Earth for a long time wouldn't yield to Sky,
Nor the other lights to the Sun: honours were equal.
One of the common crowd of gods, would often dare
To sit on the throne that you, Saturn, owned,
None of the new gods took Ocean's side,
And Themis was relegated to the lowest place,
Until Honour, and proper Reverence, she
Of the calm look, were united in a lawful bed.
From them Majesty was born, she considers them
Her parents, she who was noble from her day of birth." - Ovid, Fast V

"And Maia, the daughter of Atlas, bare to Zeus glorious Hermes, the
herald of the deathless gods, for she went up into his holy bed." -
Hesiod, Theogony 938

"He [Hermes] was born of Maia, the daughter of Atlas, when she had
mated with Zeus, a shy goddess she. Ever she avoided the throng of the
blessed gods and lived in a shadowy cave, and there the Son of Kronos
used to lie with the rich-tressed nymphe at dead of night, while
white-armed Hera lay bound in sweet sleep: and neither deathless god
nor mortal man knew it. And so hail to you, Son of Zeus and Maia." -
Homeric Hymn XVII to Hermes 3

"The oldest daughter Maia, after her intercourse with Zeus, bore
Hermes in a cave on Kyllene. Though he was laid out in swaddling-
clothes with her winnowing basket for a cradle, he escaped and made
his way to Pieria, where he stole some cattle that Apollon was
tending...Apollon learned who the thief was by divine science, and
made his way to Maia on Kyllene to charge Hermes. Maia, however,
showed Apollon the baby in his swaddling-clothes, whereupon Apollon
took him to Zeus and demanded his cattle." - Apollodorus, The Library
3.112

"The Pleiades" was the name given to the seven daughters of Atlas and
Pleione. Maia was the eldest of the daughters, and said to be the most
beautiful. Being shy, she lived quietly and alone in a cave on Mount
Cyllene, in Arcadia. Zeus, however, discovered the beautiful young
woman, and fell in love with her. He came to her cave at night, to
make love to her away from the jealous eyes of his wife, Hera. As a
result, Maia bore Zeus a son, Hermes.

When still an infant, Hermes stole some cattle from the god Apollo,
and hid them in his mother's cave. When Apollo stormed into Maia's
cave, she showed him the tiny baby to prove he could not have been the
cattle thief. Apollo was not fooled, however, and angrily appealed to
Zeus to punish Hermes. Zeus arbitrated by requiring Hermes to give
back the cattle. During the feud, baby Hermes played the lyre, and
Apollo was so enchanted by the music that he dropped the charges, and
even gave some of the cattle to Hermes, as well as other gifts.

Some time later, Maia helped Zeus when Hera had caused the death of
one of his other mistresses, Callisto, who had borne him a son, named
Arcas. Zeus ordered Hermes to give Arcas to Maia to raise as her own,
which she did. Arcas and Callisto were eventually placed in the sky,
becoming the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor (Big and Little
Bear) to escape the wrath of the ever-jealous Hera.

[[Category: Roman religion]]

Proserpina

2009-08-28T01:56:55Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Persephone''', also known as Proserpina and by the Greeks as Kore, the daughter of Ceres, known to the Greeks as Demeter, goddess of the grain. One day Kore was gathering flowers in th...

'''Persephone''', also known as Proserpina and by the Greeks as Kore, the daughter of Ceres, known to the Greeks as Demeter, goddess of the grain.

One day Kore was gathering
flowers in the flelds of Nysa with her companions when she suddenly
noticed a narcissus of striking beauty. She ran 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 huge cave in the process, since filled by
waters from the spring of Cyane. Colonus in Attica, Hermione in
Argolis, Pheneus in Arcadia and even Crete also claimed to be the location of the 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 goddess searched across 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 been concerned.' He hastened to send his messenger Iris to
Demeter, but without success. Then all the gods came one by one to
beg the goddess to allow the earth to give forth its abundance. She said no, not 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 Persephone returned to the world of light her mother Demeter was delighted to be reunited with her daughter again. Her delight was tarnished upon learning that, in contradiction to Zeus' command, Persephone had eaten the six pomegranate seeds, and was condemned to return to Pluto's kingdom. Demeter was about to lose her daughter, and threatened Zeus to make the earth barren forever if Zeus allowed this to happen.

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; Demeter set aside her anger and made the soil again be
fertile. Before she returned to Olympus, Demeter taught the kings of the earth
her divine science and initiated them into her sacred mysteries.

"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 Plouton

"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

[[Category: Roman religion]]

Fufluns

2009-08-28T01:38:31Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Fufluns''' is an Etruscan god of vegetation, vitality and gaiety, son of the earth-goddess Semia. He shows many similarities with Dionysus and Bacchus, the Greek and Roman gods of wine....

'''Fufluns''' is an Etruscan god of vegetation, vitality and gaiety, son of
the earth-goddess Semia. He shows many similarities with Dionysus and
Bacchus, the Greek and Roman gods of wine. The Etruscan religion was,
like Christianity and Judaism, a revealed religion. An account of the
revelation is given by Cicero (On Divination, 2.50). One day, says
the legend, in a field near the river Marta in Teruria, a strange
event occurred. A divine being rose up from the newly ploughed furrow,
a being with the appearance of a child, but with the wisdom of an old
man. The startled cry of the ploughman brought the lucomones, the
priest-kings of Etruria hurrying up to the spot. To them, the wise
child chanted the sacred doctrine, which they reverently listened to
and wrote down, so that this most precious possession could be passed
on to their successors. Immediately after the revelation, the
miraculous being fell dead and disappeared into the ploughed field.
His name was Tages, and he was believed to be the son of Genius and
grandson of the highest God, Tinia (or Iuppiter as he became known to
the Romans). This doctrine was known to the Romans as the "disciplina
etrusca".

''Ortum videamus haruspicinae; sic facillume quid habeat auctoritatis''
''iudicabimus. Tages quidam dicitur in agro Tarquiniensi, cum terra''
''araretur et sulcus altius esset impressus, exstitisse repente et eum''
''adfatus esse qui arabat. Is autem Tages, ut in libris est Etruscorum,''
''puerili specie dicitur visus, sed senili fuisse prudentia. Eius''
''adspectu cum obstipuisset bubulcus clamoremque maiorem cum admiratione''
''edidisset, concursum esse factum, totamque brevi tempore in eum locum''
''Etruriam convenisse. Tum illum plura locutum multis audientibus, qui''
''omnia verba eius exceperint litterisque mandarint. Omnem autem''
''orationem fuisse eam qua haruspicinae disciplina contineretur; eam''
''postea crevisse rebus novis cognoscendis et ad eadem illa principia''
''referendis. Haec accepimus ab ipsis, haec scripta conservant, hunc''
''fontem habent disciplinae.'' - M. Tullius Cicero, "de Divinatione" 2.50

[[Category: Roman religion]]

Pax

2009-08-28T01:30:12Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Pax''' is the Roman goddess of peace. "His second wife was radiant Themis; she bore the Seasons, Lawfulness and Justice and blooming Peace, who watch over the works of mortal men..."...

'''Pax''' is the Roman goddess of peace.

"His second wife was radiant Themis; she bore the Seasons,
Lawfulness and Justice and blooming Peace,
who watch over the works of mortal men..." - Hesiod, Theogony, 901-3

Open of yourselves, you doors, for mighty Ploutos (Wealth) will enter
in, and with Ploutos comes jolly Euphrosyne (Mirth) and gentle Eirene
(Peace). " - Homer's Epigrams XV

"And with a heart unsullied labours for Eirene, the city's friend." -
Pindar, Odes Olympian 4

"How far peace outweighs war in benefits to man; Eirene (Peace), the
chief friend and cherisher of the Mousai (Muses); Eirene (Peace), the
enemy of revenge, lover of families and children, patroness of wealth.
Yet these blessings we viciously neglect, embrace wars; man with man,
city with city fights, the strong enslaves the weak." - Euripides,
Suppliant Women 484

"The Horai, as they are called, to each of them, according as her name
indicates, was given [assigned by Zeus and Hera] the ordering and
adornment of life, so as to serve to the greatest advantage of
mankind; for there is nothing which is better to build a life of
felicity than obedience to law (Eunomia) and justice (Dike) and peace
(Eirene)." - Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5.72.5

On the Campus Martius
(Field of Mars, the god of war), she had a minor sanctuary called the
Ara Pacis, dedicated to her on January 30, 9 B.C. Her temple was on
the Forum Pacis (Templum Placis) built on the site of a meat market by
Vespasian, which was dedicated in A.D. 75. She was depicted in art
with olive branches, a cornucopia and a sceptre. Pax became
celebrated (in both senses of the word) as Pax Romana and Pax Augusta
from the 2nd century B.C.

In Greek mythology, she was Eirene or Irene ("peace"), daughter of
Zeus and Themis, one of the first generation of Horae. The Horae (the
Hours, or Seasons) were Pax and her sisters Lawfulness, Wisdom and
Order (Eunomia) and Justice (Justitia/Dike). are sometimes considered
to be the three aspects of Themis. As goddesses of the seasons, they
brought order to nature. Eirene was the personification of peace and
wealth and was depicted in art as a beautiful young woman carrying a
cornucopia, sceptre and a torch or rhyton.

[[Category: Roman religion]]

Cerialia

2009-08-26T20:51:12Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Cerialia''' The celebration of the Cerialia is held in honor of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture. She represented the earth-mother in connection to the growth of crops, and cere...

'''Cerialia'''

The celebration of the Cerialia is held in honor of Ceres, the Roman
goddess of agriculture. She represented the earth-mother in connection
to the growth of crops, and cereal grains in particular. She was
looked upon by the Romans much in the same light as Tellus, the
goddess of the earth. Like many other festivals originally celebrated
for only one day, the Cerialia was extended over an entire week and
made to embrace the ancient festival of the Fordicidia (April 15),
when a sacrifice of unborn calves was made to Tellus.

Ceres was the daughter of Saturn and Ops, sister of Iuppiter and
Pluto, and mother of Proserpina. She is the equivalent of the goddess
Demeter in Greek mythology. Her cult is said to have been received
from Sicily by the Romans in 496 BC during a devastating famine, when
the Sibylline oracles advised the adoption of the Greek goddess and
her daughter Kore.

"When the third dawn from the vanishing of the Hyades
Breaks, the horses will be in their stalls in the Circus.
So I must explain why foxes are loosed then,
Carrying torches fastened to scorched backs.
The land round Carseoli's cold, not suited for growing
Olives, but the soil there's appropriate for corn.
I passed it on the way to my native Pelignian country,
A small region, yet always supplied by constant streams.
There I entered, as usual, the house of my former host:
Phoebus had already unyoked his weary horses.
My host used to tell me of many things, including this,
As a preparation for my present work:
`In that plain,' he said (pointing at the plain),
A thrifty peasant woman and her sturdy husband had a small
Plot, he tilled the land himself, whether it needed ploughing,
Or required the curving sickle or the hoe.
They would sweep the cottage, set on timber piles,
She'd set eggs to hatch under the mother hen's feathers,
Or collect green mallows or gather white mushrooms,
Or warm the humble hearth with welcome fire,
And still worked her hands assiduously at the loom,
To provision them against the threat of winter cold.
She had a son: he was a playful child,
Who was already twelve years old.
In a valley, he caught, in the depths of a willow copse,
A vixen, who'd stolen many birds from the yard.
He wrapped his captive in straw and hay, and set fire
To it all: she fled the hands that were out to burn her:
In fleeing she set the crops, that covered the fields, ablaze:
And a breeze lent strength to the devouring flames.
The thing's forgotten, but a relic remains: since now
There's a certain law of Carseoli, that bans foxes:
And they burn a fox at the Cerialia to punish the species,
destroyed in the same way as it destroyed the crops." - Ovid, Fasti IV

''Tandem statuere circensium ludorum die, qui Cereri celebratur, exsequi destinata, quia Caesar rarus egressu domoque aut hortis''
''clausus ad ludicra circi ventitabat promptioresque aditus erant laetitia spectaculi.'' - Tacitus, Annals XV.53

As the foreign Megalesia honoring Cybele was especially appropriated
by the nobles, so the festival of the Roman goddess of agriculture
belonged peculiarly to the plebeians, who dominated the corn trade.
Little is known about the rituals of her worship, but one of the few
customs which has been recorded was the peculiar practice of tying
lighted brands to the tails of foxes which were then let loose in the
Circus Maximus. The wanderings of Ceres in search of her lost daughter
Proserpina were represented by women, clothed in white, running about
with lighted torches.

The temple of Ceres in Rome was situated on the Aventine hill, and a
flamen Cerealis assisted in her worship. Her cult acquired
considerable political importance at Rome. The decrees of the Senate
were deposited in her temple for the inspection of the tribunes of the
people, and the property of traitors against the republic was often
consigned to her temple.

http://www.bsu.edu/web/00aaalves/ceres.jpg

[[Category: Roman religion]]

Fordicidia

2009-08-26T20:46:23Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Fordicidia''' The celebration of the Fordicidia was held in honor of Tellus. Tellus is also called Terra Mater, and is an ancient Roman earth goddess. Probably of great antiquity, she ...

'''Fordicidia'''

The celebration of the Fordicidia was held in honor of Tellus.
Tellus is also called Terra Mater, and is an ancient Roman earth
goddess. Probably of great antiquity, she was concerned with the
productivity of the earth and was later identified with the mother-
goddess Cybele. Her temple on the Esquiline Hill dated from about 268
BC. Though she had no special priest, she was honoured in the
Fordicidia and Sementivae festivals, both of which centred on
fertility and good crops. The Fordicidia was a festival in Rome, at
which a pregnant cow was sacrificed to Tellus in each of the 30 wards
of the city to promote fertility of cattle and the fields. The unborn
calves were burned and the ashes were used in a purification rite in
the festival of the Parilia on a.d. XII Kal. Mai.

''Fordicidia a fordis bubus; bos forda quae fert in ventre; quod eo die''
''publice immolantur boves praegnantes in curiis complures, a fordis''
''caedendis Fordicidia dicta.'' - Varro, de Lingua Latina VI.iii

"When the third day after the Ides of April dawns,
You priests, offer a pregnant (forda) cow in sacrifice.
Forda is a cow in calf and fruitful, from ferendo (carrying):
They consider fetus is derived from the same root.
Now the cattle are big with young, and the ground's
Pregnant with seed: a teeming victim's given to teeming Earth.
Some are killed on Jupiter's citadel, the Curiae (wards)
Get thirty cows: they're drenched with plenty of sprinkled blood.
But when the priests have torn the calves from their mother's womb,
And thrown the slashed entrails on the smoking hearth,
The oldest Vestal burns the dead calves in the fire,
So their ashes can purge the people on the day of Pales.
In Numa's kingship the harvest failed to reward men's efforts:
The farmers, deceived, offered their prayers in vain.
At one time that year it was dry, with cold northerlies,
The next, the fields were rank with endless rain:
Often the crop failed the farmer in its first sprouting,
And meagre wild oats overran choked soil,
And the cattle dropped their young prematurely,
And the ewes often died giving birth to lambs.
There was an ancient wood, long untouched by the axe,
Still sacred to Pan, the god of Maenalus:
He gave answers, to calm minds, in night silence.
Here Numa sacrificed twin ewes.
The first fell to Faunus, the second to gentle Sleep:
Both the fleeces were spread on the hard soil.
Twice the king's unshorn head was sprinkled with spring water,
Twice he pressed the beech leaves to his forehead.
He abstained from sex: no meat might be served
At table, nor could he wear a ring on any finger.
Dressed in rough clothes he lay down on fresh fleeces,
Having worshipped the god with appropriate words.
Meanwhile Night arrived, her calm brow wreathed
With poppies: bringing with her shadowy dreams.
Faunus appeared, and pressing the fleece with a hard hoof,
From the right side of the bed, he uttered these words:
`King, you must appease Earth, with the death of two cows:
Let one heifer give two lives, in sacrifice.'
Fear banished sleep: Numa pondered the vision,
And considered the ambiguous and dark command.
His wife, Egeria, most dear to the grove, eased his doubt,
Saying: `What's needed are the innards of a pregnant cow,'
The innards of a pregnant cow were offered: the year proved
More fruitful, and earth and cattle bore their increase." - Ovid,
Fasti IV

[[Category: Roman religion]]

Tubilustrium

2009-08-26T20:43:28Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Tubilustrium''' The month of March was the traditional start of the campaign season, and the Tubilustrium was a ceremony to make the army fit for war. It was held on March 23, the last...

'''Tubilustrium'''

The month of March was
the traditional start of the campaign season, and the Tubilustrium was
a ceremony to make the army fit for war. It was held on March 23, the
last day of the Greater Quinquatrus (the festival of Mars and
Minerva), and it occurred again on May 23. The sacred trumpets (''tubae'')
were originally war trumpets, but later they were used for ceremonial
occasions. It is not clear if the army was involved, or if it was
merely a ceremony to purify the trumpets used in summoning the
assembly on the following day. The ceremony was held in Rome in a
building called the Hall of the Shoemakers (''atrium sutorium'') and
involved the sacrifice of a ewe lamb. Romans who did not attend the
ceremony would be reminded of the occasion by seeing the Salii dancing
through the streets of the city.

"The last day of the five exhorts us to purify
The tuneful trumpets, and sacrifice to the mighty god.
Now you can turn your face to the Sun and say:
`He touched the fleece of the Phrixian Ram yesterday'.
The seeds having been parched, by a wicked stepmother's
Guile, the corn did not sprout in the usual way.
They sent to the oracle, to find by sure prophecy,
What cure the Delphic god would prescribe for sterility.
But tarnished like the seed, the messenger brought news
That the oracle sought the death of Helle and young Phrixus:
And when citizens, season, and Ino herself compelled
The reluctant king to obey that evil order,
Phrixus and his sister, brows covered with sacred bands,
Stood together before the altar, bemoaning their mutual fate.
Their mother saw them, as she hovered by chance in the air,
And, stunned, she beat her naked breasts with her hand:
Then, with the clouds as her companions, she leapt down
Into serpent-born Thebes, and snatched away her children:
And so that they could flee a ram, shining and golden,
Was brought, and it carried them over the wide ocean.
They say the sister held too weakly to the left-hand horn,
And so gave her own name to the waters below.
Her brother almost died with her, trying to help her
As she fell, stretching out his hands as far as he could.
He wept at losing her, his friend in their twin danger,
Not knowing she was now wedded to a sea-green god.
Reaching the shore the Ram was raised as a constellation,
While his golden fleece was carried to the halls of Colchis." - Ovid,
Fasti III

Ovid mentions the story of Phrixus, who was the prince who was saved
on the point of sacrifice by a magical flying ram. Phrixus escaped
together with his sister Helle on the animal's back. Helle became
dizzy and fell into the sea (giving her name to the Hellespont). But
Phrixus fetched up in Colchis on the mysterious periphery of the
heroic world. Here he sacrificed the ram to Zeus, and hung the ram's
golden fleece in the sacred grove of Ares, god of war. This became the
object of the famous quest by Jason and the Argonauts.

[[Category: Roman religion]]

Quinquatrus

2009-08-26T20:39:01Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Quinquatrus''' The "Greater" Quinquatrus is a festival dedicated to Minerva. Ovid says that this festival was celebrated in commemoration of the birthday of Minerva; but according to F...

'''Quinquatrus'''

The "Greater" Quinquatrus is a festival dedicated to Minerva.
Ovid says that this festival was celebrated in commemoration of the
birthday of Minerva; but according to Festus it was sacred to Minerva
because her temple on the Aventine was consecrated on that day. The
temple stood outside the pomerium, and the exact year of its
construction is unknown, though it is first mentioned during the time
of the Second Punic War (218-202 B.C.). In keeping with the Roman
custom of temples serving purposes other than those specifically
religious, the Aventine temple was used as the headquarters of a
writer's and actor's guild.

"After a one day interval, the rites of Minerva are performed,
Which take their name from the sequence of five days.
The first day is bloodless, and sword fights are unlawful,
Because Minerva was born on that very day.
The next four are celebrated with gladiatorial shows,
The warlike goddess delights in naked swords.
Pray now you boys and tender girls to Pallas:
He who can truly please Pallas, is learned.
Pleasing Pallas let girls learn to card wool,
And how to unwind the full distaff.
She shows how to draw the shuttle through the firm
Warp, and close up loose threads with the comb.
Worship her, you who remove stains from damaged clothes,
Worship her, you who ready bronze cauldrons for fleeces.
If Pallas frowns, no one could make good shoes,
Even if he were more skilled than Tychius:
And even if he were cleverer with his hands
Than Epeus once was, he'll be useless if Pallas is angry.
You too who drive away ills with Apollo's art,
Bring a few gifts of your own for the goddess:
And don't scorn her, you schoolmasters, a tribe
So often cheated of its pay: she attracts new pupils:
Nor you engravers, and painters with encaustics,
Nor you who carve the stone with a skilful hand.
She's the goddess of a thousand things: and song for sure:
If I'm worthy may she be a friend to my endeavours.
Where the Caelian Hill slopes down to the plain,
At the point where the street's almost, but not quite, level,
You can see the little shrine of Minerva Capta,
Which the goddess first occupied on her birthday.
The source of the name is doubtful: we speak of
`Capital' ingenuity: the goddess is herself ingenious.
Or is it because, motherless, she leapt, with a shield
From the crown of her father's head (caput)?
Or because she came to us as a `captive' from the conquest
Of Falerii? This, an ancient inscription claims.
Or because her law ordains `capital' punishment
For receiving things stolen from that place?
By whatever logic your title's derived, Pallas,
Shield our leaders with your aegis forever." - Ovid, Fasti III

"I begin to sing of Pallas Athena, the glorious goddess, bright-eyed,
inventive, unbending of heart, pure virgin, saviour of cities,
courageous, Tritogeneia. From his awful head wise Zeus himself bare
her arrayed in warlike arms of flashing gold, and awe seized all the
gods as they gazed. But Athena sprang quickly from the immortal head
and stood before Zeus who holds the aegis, shaking a sharp spear:
great Olympos began to reel horribly at the might of the grey-eyed
goddess, and earth round about cried fearfully, and the sea was moved
and tossed with dark waves, while foam burst forth suddenly: the
bright Son of Hyperion [the Sun] stopped his swift-footed horses a
long while, until the maiden Pallas Athena had stripped the heavenly
armour from her immortal shoulders. And wise Zeus was glad. Hail to
you, daughter of Zeus who holds the aegis!" - Homeric Hymn 29 to
Athena

''Da, Diva, veniam si te non pecudum fibris, non sanguine fuso, quaero nec arcanis numen coniecto sub extis. Dies admoniet et forti''
''sacrificare deae, quod est illa nata Minerva die. Pallada nunc oremus. Qui bene placavit Pallada, doctus erit. Nec quisquam invita Pallade''
''faciet bene licet antiquo manibus conlatus Epeo sit prior, irata Pallade mancus erit. Vos quoque, Phoeba morbos qui pellitis arte,''
''munera de vestris pauca referte deae. Nec vos, turba fere censu fraudante, magistri, spernite; discipulos attrahit illa novos.''
''Mille dea est operum. Si mereramus, studiis adsit amica nostris. Domina haec domii sodalitatisque patrona, te hoc sacrificio obmovendo''
''precamus uti sies volens propitius nobis domi familiaeque nostris; harumce rerum ergo, macte hoc sacrificio. Sulis Minerva Belisama,''
''Medica, Sollertissima, Pallas, Athena, Propugnatrix, sive quo alio nomine appelari volveris, aegida semper super nos extende.'' - Prayer
to Minerva, N. Moravius Vado

(Grant, Goddess, pardon, if I seek you not with the bodies of slain
beasts, nor with blood poured forth, nor divine heaven's will from the
secrets of their entrails. This day reminds us to sacrifice to the
strong goddess, for today is Minerva's birthday. Let us pray now to
Pallas, for whosoever wins Pallas' favour shall be learned. No one,
though more cunning in handiwork than old Epeus, can do well; he shall
be helpless, if Pallas be displeased with him. You too, who banish
sickness by Phoebus' art, bring from your earnings a few gifts to the
goddess. Schoolmasters, do not spurn her either, nor cheat her of
your earnings: she will bring you new students. She is the goddess of
a thousand works. May she be friendly to our pursuits, if we deserve
it. Lady, protectress of these households and this fellowship, in
making this offering to you we pray that you be propitious toward us
and our families; because of these things, be honoured by this
sacrifice).

Sacrifices were offered to Minerva, the goddess of war as well as
wisdom, arts and crafts, dyeing, science and trade, and patroness of
trumpet players. She was also the patroness of scholars and
pedagogues, who enjoyed a holiday at this time, with the pupils giving
their pedagogues gifts, dedicated to Minerva, at the close of the
festival. We see her depicted in art with Iuno and Iuppiter on the
Great Arch of Trajan, and she frequently appears on sarcophagi
offering a new life beyond the grave. The Roman goddess Minerva
probably derived from the Etruscan goddess Menrva, and was later
modelled on Greek Pallas Athena. Menrva was the Etruscan version of
Athena, and depicted similarly (with helm, spear, and shield). Like
Athena, Menrva was born from the head of a god, in her case Tinia, and
she is part of a triad with Tinia and Uni. Minerva sprang fully armed
from the head of Iuppiter, whose head had been split open with
Vulcan's axe.

[[Category: Roman religion]]

Liberalia

2009-08-26T20:27:54Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

'''Liberalia'''

The festival of the Liberalia marked the passage of young male Romans into manhood. Priests and aged priestesses,
adorned with garlands of ivy, carried through the city wine, honey,
cakes, and sweet-meats, together with an altar with a handle (''ansata
ara''), in the middle of which there was a small fire-pan (''foculus''), in
which from time to time sacrifices were burnt. On this day Roman youths who had attained their sixteenth year
received the ''toga virilis''. The boys removed the phallic bullae
charms - which had protected them in youth - from around their necks
and offered them to the household gods. Their fathers took them to the
Forum in Rome and presented them as adults and citizens. This was in
the days when male rites of passage were encouraged.

An ''infans'' was incapable of doing any legal act. An impubes, who had
passed the limits of infantia, could do any legal act with the
auctoritas of his tutor; without such auctoritas he could only do
those acts which were for his benefit. With the attainment of
pubertas, a person obtained the full power of his property, and the
tutela ceased: he could also dispose of his property by will; and he
could contract marriage.

"There’s a popular festival of Bacchus, on the third day
After the Ides: Bacchus, favour the poet who sings your feast.
I’ll not speak about Semele: you’d have been born defenceless,
If it hadn’t been that Jupiter brought her his lightning too.
Nor will I tell how the mother’s labour was fulfilled
In a father’s body, so you might duly be born their son.
It would take long to tell of the conquered Sithonians,
And the Scythians, and the races of incense-bearing India.
I’ll be silent about you too, Pentheus, sad prey to your own mother,
And you Lycurgus, who killed your own son in madness.
Lo, I’d like to speak of the monstrous Tyrrhenians, who
Suddenly became dolphins, but that’s not the task of this verse.
The task of this verse is to set out the reasons,
Why a vine-planter sells his cakes to the crowd.
Liber, before your birth the altars were without offerings,
And grass appeared on the stone-cold hearths.
They tell how you set aside the first fruits for Jupiter,
After subduing the Ganges region, and the whole of the East.
You were the first to offer up cinnamon and incense
From conquered lands, and the roast entrails of triumphal oxen.
Libations derive their name from their originator,
And cake (liba) since a part is offered on the sacred hearth.
Honey-cakes are baked for the god, because he delights in sweet
Substances, and they say that Bacchus discovered honey.
He was travelling from sandy Hebrus, accompanied
By Satyrs, (my tale contains a not-unpleasant jest)
And he’d come to Mount Rhodope, and flowering Pangaeus:
With the cymbals clashing in his companions’ hands.
Behold unknown winged things gather to the jangling,
Bees, that follow after the echoing bronze.
Liber gathered the swarm and shut it in a hollow tree,
And was rewarded with the prize of discovering honey.
Once the Satyrs, and old bald-headed Silenus, had tasted it,
They searched for the yellow combs in every tree.
The old fellow heard a swarm humming in a hollow elm,
Saw the honeycombs, but pretended otherwise:
And sitting lazily on his hollow-backed ass,
He rode it up to the elm where the trunk was hollow.
He stood and leant on the stump of a branch,
And greedily reached for the honey hidden inside.
But thousands of hornets gathered, thrusting their stings
Into his bald head, leaving their mark on his snub-nosed face.
He fell headlong, and received a kick from the ass,
As he shouted to his friends and called for help.
The Satyrs ran up, and laughed at their father’s face,
While he limped about on his damaged knee.
Bacchus himself laughed and showed him the use of mud:
Silenus took his advice, and smeared his face with clay.
Father Liber loves honey: its right to offer its discoverer
Glittering honey diffused through oven-warm cakes.
The reason why a woman presides isn’t obscure:
Bacchus stirs crowds of women with his thyrsus.
Why an old woman, you ask? That age drinks more,
And loves the gifts of the teeming vine.
Why is she wreathed with ivy? Ivy’s dearest to Bacchus:
And why that’s so doesn’t take long to tell.
They say that when Juno his stepmother was searching
For the boy, the nymphs of Nysa hid the cradle in ivy leaves.
It remains for me to reveal why the toga virilis, the gown
Of manhood, is given to boys on your day, Bacchus:
Whether it’s because you seem to be ever boy or youth,
And your age is somewhere between the two:
Or because you’re a father, fathers commend their sons,
Their pledges of love, to your care and divinity:
Or because you’re Liber, the gown of liberty
And a more liberated life are adopted, for you:
Or is it because, in the days when the ancients tilled the fields
More vigorously, and Senators worked their fathers’ land,
And ‘rods and axes’ took Consuls from the curving plough,
And it wasn’t a crime to have work-worn hands,
The farmers came to the City for the games,
(Though that was an honour paid to the gods, and not
Their inclination: and the grape’s discoverer held his games
This day, while now he shares that of torch-bearing Ceres):
And the day seemed not unfitting for granting the toga,
So that a crowd could celebrate the fresh novice?
Father turn your mild head here, and gentle horns,
And spread the sails of my art to a favourable breeze.
If I remember rightly, on this, and the preceding day,
Crowds go to the Argei (their own page will tell who they are).
The Kite star turns downwards near
The Lycaonian Bear: on this night it’s first visible.
If you wish to know who raised that falcon to heaven,
It was when Saturn had been dethroned by Jupiter:
Angered, he stirred the mighty Titans to battle,
And sought whatever help the Fates could grant him.
There was a bull, a marvellous monster, born of Mother
Earth, the hind part of which was of serpent-form:
Warned by the three Fates, grim Styx had imprisoned him
In dark woods, surrounded by triple walls.
There was a prophecy that whoever burnt the entrails
Of the bull, in the flames, would defeat the eternal gods.
Briareus sacrificed it with an adamantine axe,
And was about to set the innards on the flames:
But Jupiter ordered the birds to snatch them: and the Kite
Brought them, and his service set him among the stars." - Ovid, Fasti III

[[Category:Roman religion]]

Regifugium

2009-08-26T20:22:03Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Regifugium''' The Regifugium is a festival which is celebrated by the Romans every year on the 24th of February, and according to Varro and Ovid held in commemoration of the flight of ...

'''Regifugium'''

The Regifugium is a festival which is celebrated by the Romans every year on the 24th of February, and
according to Varro and Ovid held in commemoration of the flight of
king Tarquinius Superbus from Rome - a story of anger, rape,
suicide, and revenge.

Some ancient sources (Cincius and Plutarch, in
paticular) are of opinion that these two days derived their name from
the symbolical flight of the Rex Sacrorum from the comitium; for this
king-priest was generally not allowed to appear in the comitium, which
was destined for the transaction of political matters in which he
could not take part. But on certain days in the year, and certainly on
the two days mentioned above, he had to go to the comitium for the
purpose of offering certain sacrifices, and immediately after he had
performed his functions there, he hastily fled from it; and this
symbolical flight is said to have been called Regifugium.

"Now I have to tell of the Flight of the King:
The sixth day from the end of the month has that name.
Tarquin the Proud held the last kingship of the Roman people,
A man of injustice, but powerful in might.
He had taken cities, and overthrown others,
And made Gabii his, by base trickery.
For the youngest of his three sons, Sextus, clearly a child
Of Tarquin, entered the midst of his enemies in the still of night.
They drew their swords: he said: `Don't kill the unarmed!
That's what my brother, and father, Tarquin, desire,
He who lacerated my back with a cruel scourge.'
So he could make his plea, he had suffered a beating... It was night, and the whole house was without light:
He rose, and drew his sword from his gilded scabbard,
And, chaste wife, he entered your bedroom.
As he touched the bed, the king's son said:
`Lucretia I have a blade, and I, a Tarquin, speak!'
She said nothing: she'd no voice or powers of speech
Nor any capability for thought in her whole mind.
But she trembled like a little lamb, caught straying
From the fold, brought low by a wolf's attack.
What could she do? Fight? In battle a woman loses.
Cry out? But the sword in his right hand restrained her... What she could, she told. The end she suppressed:
She wept, and a blush spread over a wife's cheeks.
Her husband and her father forgave her being forced:
She said: `I deny myself the forgiveness that you grant.'
Then she stabbed herself with a blade she had hidden,
And, all bloodied, fell at her father's feet.
Even then she took care in dying so that she fell
With decency, that was her care even in falling... Brutus, with a shout,
Gathered the Quirites, and told of the king's evil act.
Tarquin the Proud and his children fled, a consul took up the rule
For the year: That day was the last day of kingship.
Am I wrong, or has the swallow come, herald of the Spring:
Does she not fear lest winter should turn back, return again?
Often, Procne, you'll complain that you've been too swift,
And your husband, Tereus, rejoice in the cold you feel.." - Ovid, Fasti II

"'Courageous Roman, do not steep thy heart In such relenting dew of
lamentations; But kneel with me and help to bear thy part, To rouse
our Roman gods with invocations, That they will suffer these
abominations, Since Rome herself in them doth stand disgraced, By our
strong arms from forth her fair streets chased. Now, by the Capitol that we adore,
And by this chaste blood so unjustly stain'd,
By heaven's fair sun that breeds the fat earth's store,
By all our country rights in Rome maintain'd,
And by chaste Lucrece' soul that late complain'd
Her wrongs to us, and by this bloody knife,
We will revenge the death of this true wife.'

This said, he struck his hand upon his breast,
And kiss'd the fatal knife, to end his vow;
And to his protestation urged the rest,
Who, wondering at him, did his words allow:
Then jointly to the ground their knees they bow;
And that deep vow, which Brutus made before,
He doth again repeat, and that they swore. When they had sworn to this advised doom,
They did conclude to bear dead Lucrece thence;
To show her bleeding body thorough Rome,
And so to publish Tarquin's foul offence:
Which being done with speedy diligence,
The Romans plausibly did give consent
To Tarquin's everlasting banishment." - Wm. Shakespeare, "The Rape of
Lucrece"

[[Category: Roman religion]]

Terminalia

2009-08-26T20:17:19Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

'''Terminalia'''

The Terminalia is celebrated in honor of the god
Terminus, who ruled over boundaries. His statue was merely a stone or
post stuck in the ground to distinguish between properties. On the
festival the two owners of adjacent property crowned the statue with
garlands and raised a rude altar, on which they offered up some corn,
honeycombs, and wine, and sacrificed a lamb. It is the traditional
end of the Roman year. The rites of the Terminalia included
ceremonial renewal and mutual recognition of the boundary stone, the
marker between properties. A garland would be laid on this marker by
all parties to the land so divided. After kindling a fire,
honey-cakes, fruits and wine would be offered and shared, and songs of
praise to the god called Terminus would be sung. Terminus was
considered to have the appearance of stone and was often honored with
the placement of a large stone at the boundaries, much as farmers do
today in various countries. With this feast, the year as a whole comes
to an end, as the Roman new year began traditionally on March 1st.

"When night has passed, let the god be celebrated
With customary honour, who separates the fields with his sign.
Terminus, whether a stone or a stump buried in the earth,
You have been a god since ancient times.
You are crowned from either side by two landowners,
Who bring two garlands and two cakes in offering.
An altar's made: here the farmer's wife herself
Brings coals from the warm hearth on a broken pot.
The old man cuts wood and piles the logs with skill,
And works at setting branches in the solid earth.
Then he nurses the first flames with dry bark,
While a boy stands by and holds the wide basket.
When he's thrown grain three times into the fire
The little daughter offers the sliced honeycombs.
Others carry wine: part of each is offered to the flames:
The crowd, dressed in white, watch silently.
Terminus, at the boundary, is sprinkled with lamb's blood,
And doesn't grumble when a sucking pig is granted him.
Neighbours gather sincerely, and hold a feast,
And sing your praises, sacred Terminus:
`You set bounds to peoples, cities, great kingdoms:
Without you every field would be disputed.
You curry no favour: you aren't bribed with gold,
Guarding the land entrusted to you in good faith.
If you'd once marked the bounds of Thyrean lands,
Three hundred men would not have died,
Nor Othryades' name be seen on the pile of weapons.
O how he made his fatherland bleed!
What happened when the new Capitol was built?
The whole throng of gods yielded to Jupiter and made room:
But as the ancients tell, Terminus remained in the shrine
Where he was found, and shares the temple with great Jupiter.
Even now there's a small hole in the temple roof,
So he can see nothing above him but stars.
Since then, Terminus, you've not been free to wander:
Stay there, in the place where you've been put,
And yield not an inch to your neighbour's prayers,
Lest you seem to set men above Jupiter:
And whether they beat you with rakes, or ploughshares,
Call out: "This is your field, and that is his!"'
There's a track that takes people to the Laurentine fields,
The kingdom once sought by Aeneas, the Trojan leader:
The sixth milestone from the City, there, bears witness
To the sacrifice of a sheep's entrails to you, Terminus.
The lands of other races have fixed boundaries:
The extent of the City of Rome and the world is one." - Ovid, Fasti II

"Why is it that they were wont to sacrifice no living creature to
Terminus, in whose honor they held the Terminalia, although they
regard him as a god?

Is it that Romulus placed no boundary-stones for his country, so that
Romans might go forth, seize land, and regard all as theirs, as the
Spartan said, which their spears could reach; whereas Numa Pompilius,
a just man and a statesman, who had become versed in philosophy,
marked out the boundaries between Rome and her neighbours, and, when
on the boundary-stones he had formally installed Terminus as overseer
and guardian of friendship and peace, he thought that Terminus should
be kept pure and undefiled from blood and gore?" - Plutarch, "The
Roman Questions" 15

"It is fitting to relate also the incidents that preceded the building
of it as they have been handed down by all the compilers of Roman
history. When Tarquinius was preparing to build the temple [of
Iuppiter Optimus Maximus] he called the augurs together and ordered
them first to consult the auspices concerning the site itself, in
order to learn what place in the city was the most suitable to be
consecrated and the most acceptable to the gods themselves; and upon
their indicating the hill that commands the Forum, which was then
called the Tarpeian, but now the Capitoline Hill, he ordered them to
consult the auspices once more and declare in what part of the hill
the foundations must be laid. But this was not at all easy; for there
were upon the hill many altars both of the gods and of the lesser
divinities not far apart from one another, which would have to be
moved to some other place and the whole area given up to the sanctuary
that was to be built to the gods. The augurs thought proper to
consult the auspices concerning each one of the altars that were
erected there, and if the gods were willing to withdraw, then to move
them elsewhere. The rest of the gods and lesser divinities, then, gave
them leave to move their altars elsewhere, but Terminus and Juventas,
although the augurs besought them with great earnestness and
importunity, could not be prevailed on and refused to leave their
places. Accordingly, their altars were included within the circuit of
the temples, and one of them now stands in the vestibule of Minerva's
shrine and the other in the shrine itself near the statue of the
goddess. From this circumstance the augurs concluded that no occasion
would ever cause the removal of the boundaries of the Romans' city or
impair its vigour; and both have proved true down to my day, which is
already the twenty-fourth generation." - Dionysius of Halicarnassus,
"Roman Antiquities" III.69

[[Category: Roman religion]]

Terminalia

2009-08-26T20:17:05Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Terminalia''' The Terminalia is celebrated in honor of the god Terminus, who ruled over boundaries. His statue was merely a stone or post stuck in the ground to distinguish between pro...

'''Terminalia'''

The Terminalia is celebrated in honor of the god
Terminus, who ruled over boundaries. His statue was merely a stone or
post stuck in the ground to distinguish between properties. On the
festival the two owners of adjacent property crowned the statue with
garlands and raised a rude altar, on which they offered up some corn,º
honeycombs, and wine, and sacrificed a lamb. It is the traditional
end of the Roman year. The rites of the Terminalia included
ceremonial renewal and mutual recognition of the boundary stone, the
marker between properties. A garland would be laid on this marker by
all parties to the land so divided. After kindling a fire,
honey-cakes, fruits and wine would be offered and shared, and songs of
praise to the god called Terminus would be sung. Terminus was
considered to have the appearance of stone and was often honored with
the placement of a large stone at the boundaries, much as farmers do
today in various countries. With this feast, the year as a whole comes
to an end, as the Roman new year began traditionally on March 1st.

"When night has passed, let the god be celebrated
With customary honour, who separates the fields with his sign.
Terminus, whether a stone or a stump buried in the earth,
You have been a god since ancient times.
You are crowned from either side by two landowners,
Who bring two garlands and two cakes in offering.
An altar's made: here the farmer's wife herself
Brings coals from the warm hearth on a broken pot.
The old man cuts wood and piles the logs with skill,
And works at setting branches in the solid earth.
Then he nurses the first flames with dry bark,
While a boy stands by and holds the wide basket.
When he's thrown grain three times into the fire
The little daughter offers the sliced honeycombs.
Others carry wine: part of each is offered to the flames:
The crowd, dressed in white, watch silently.
Terminus, at the boundary, is sprinkled with lamb's blood,
And doesn't grumble when a sucking pig is granted him.
Neighbours gather sincerely, and hold a feast,
And sing your praises, sacred Terminus:
`You set bounds to peoples, cities, great kingdoms:
Without you every field would be disputed.
You curry no favour: you aren't bribed with gold,
Guarding the land entrusted to you in good faith.
If you'd once marked the bounds of Thyrean lands,
Three hundred men would not have died,
Nor Othryades' name be seen on the pile of weapons.
O how he made his fatherland bleed!
What happened when the new Capitol was built?
The whole throng of gods yielded to Jupiter and made room:
But as the ancients tell, Terminus remained in the shrine
Where he was found, and shares the temple with great Jupiter.
Even now there's a small hole in the temple roof,
So he can see nothing above him but stars.
Since then, Terminus, you've not been free to wander:
Stay there, in the place where you've been put,
And yield not an inch to your neighbour's prayers,
Lest you seem to set men above Jupiter:
And whether they beat you with rakes, or ploughshares,
Call out: "This is your field, and that is his!"'
There's a track that takes people to the Laurentine fields,
The kingdom once sought by Aeneas, the Trojan leader:
The sixth milestone from the City, there, bears witness
To the sacrifice of a sheep's entrails to you, Terminus.
The lands of other races have fixed boundaries:
The extent of the City of Rome and the world is one." - Ovid, Fasti II

"Why is it that they were wont to sacrifice no living creature to
Terminus, in whose honor they held the Terminalia, although they
regard him as a god?

Is it that Romulus placed no boundary-stones for his country, so that
Romans might go forth, seize land, and regard all as theirs, as the
Spartan said, which their spears could reach; whereas Numa Pompilius,
a just man and a statesman, who had become versed in philosophy,
marked out the boundaries between Rome and her neighbours, and, when
on the boundary-stones he had formally installed Terminus as overseer
and guardian of friendship and peace, he thought that Terminus should
be kept pure and undefiled from blood and gore?" - Plutarch, "The
Roman Questions" 15

"It is fitting to relate also the incidents that preceded the building
of it as they have been handed down by all the compilers of Roman
history. When Tarquinius was preparing to build the temple [of
Iuppiter Optimus Maximus] he called the augurs together and ordered
them first to consult the auspices concerning the site itself, in
order to learn what place in the city was the most suitable to be
consecrated and the most acceptable to the gods themselves; and upon
their indicating the hill that commands the Forum, which was then
called the Tarpeian, but now the Capitoline Hill, he ordered them to
consult the auspices once more and declare in what part of the hill
the foundations must be laid. But this was not at all easy; for there
were upon the hill many altars both of the gods and of the lesser
divinities not far apart from one another, which would have to be
moved to some other place and the whole area given up to the sanctuary
that was to be built to the gods. The augurs thought proper to
consult the auspices concerning each one of the altars that were
erected there, and if the gods were willing to withdraw, then to move
them elsewhere. The rest of the gods and lesser divinities, then, gave
them leave to move their altars elsewhere, but Terminus and Juventas,
although the augurs besought them with great earnestness and
importunity, could not be prevailed on and refused to leave their
places. Accordingly, their altars were included within the circuit of
the temples, and one of them now stands in the vestibule of Minerva's
shrine and the other in the shrine itself near the statue of the
goddess. From this circumstance the augurs concluded that no occasion
would ever cause the removal of the boundaries of the Romans' city or
impair its vigour; and both have proved true down to my day, which is
already the twenty-fourth generation." - Dionysius of Halicarnassus,
"Roman Antiquities" III.69

[[Category: Roman religion]]

Feralia

2009-08-26T20:14:21Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

'''Feralia'''

The Feralia was the last of the three Roman festivals honoring the dead.

"And the grave must be honoured. Appease your fathers'
Spirits, and bring little gifts to the tombs you built.
Their shades ask little, piety they prefer to costly
offerings: no greedy deities haunt the Stygian depths.
A tile wreathed round with garlands offered is enough,
A scattering of meal, and a few grains of salt,
and bread soaked in wine, and loose violets:
Set them on a brick left in the middle of the path...
and hide the gods, closing those revealing temple doors,
Let the altars be free of incense, the hearths without fire.
Now ghostly spirits and the entombed dead wander,
Now the shadow feeds on the nourishment that's offered.
But it only lasts till there are no more days in the month
Than the feet that my metres possess.
This day they call the Feralia because they bear [''ferunt'']
Offerings to the dead: the last day to propitiate the shades." - Ovid,
Fasti II

The Feralia ended the Parentalia, and is
held in honor of Iuppiter Feretrius and the infernal powers.
"Feretrius" is one of Iuppiter's titles, and in this capacity Iuppiter
was called upon to witness the signing of contracts and marriages. An
oath was taken that asked Iuppiter to strike down the person if they
swore the oath falsely. Spirits (manes) of the dead were said to
hover above graves on this day, and provisions were put out for them.
Some sources believe that the Roman contact with the Celtic
observances of a feast of the dead combined to create the foundations
of the holiday we now celebrate as All Hallows' Eve, or Hallowe'en.
Today is the last day of the Roman year in which to placate ghosts;
tomorrow, the living are appeased. Today the temples would be opened
at noon, and the time of religious devotion, the "tempus religiosum",
came to a close. Magistrates would lay down their insignia of office
and offer up prayers on behalf of the State.

Republican calendars are marked with "FP" for this day, but after Augustus they are marked simply "F", for ''fastus''. The mysterious meaning of "FP" may have its roots in the observance of
the Feralia as a ''fastus'' (or ''feria'') ''publicus'' during the Republic; Because the actual rites involved in the observance of the Feralia can only be guessed at, we do not know why this change was made.

[[Category: Roman religion]]

Feralia

2009-08-26T20:13:51Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

'''Feralia'''

The Feralia was the last of the three Roman festivals honoring the dead.

"And the grave must be honoured. Appease your fathers'
Spirits, and bring little gifts to the tombs you built.
Their shades ask little, piety they prefer to costly
offerings: no greedy deities haunt the Stygian depths.
A tile wreathed round with garlands offered is enough,
A scattering of meal, and a few grains of salt,
and bread soaked in wine, and loose violets:
Set them on a brick left in the middle of the path...
and hide the gods, closing those revealing temple doors,
Let the altars be free of incense, the hearths without fire.
Now ghostly spirits and the entombed dead wander,
Now the shadow feeds on the nourishment that's offered.
But it only lasts till there are no more days in the month
Than the feet that my metres possess.
This day they call the Feralia because they bear [''ferunt'']
Offerings to the dead: the last day to propitiate the shades." - Ovid,
Fasti II

The Feralia ended the Parentalia, and is
held in honor of Iuppiter Feretrius and the infernal powers.
"Feretrius" is one of Iuppiter's titles, and in this capacity Iuppiter
was called upon to witness the signing of contracts and marriages. An
oath was taken that asked Iuppiter to strike down the person if they
swore the oath falsely. Spirits (manes) of the dead were said to
hover above graves on this day, and provisions were put out for them.
Some sources believe that the Roman contact with the Celtic
observances of a feast of the dead combined to create the foundations
of the holiday we now celebrate as All Hallows' Eve, or Hallowe'en.
Today is the last day of the Roman year in which to placate ghosts;
tomorrow, the living are appeased. Today the temples would be opened
at noon, and the time of religious devotion, the "tempus religiosum",
came to a close. Magistrates would lay down their insignia of office
and offer up prayers on behalf of the State.

Republican calendars are marked with "FP" for this day, but after Augustus they are marked simply "F", for "fastus". The mysterious meaning of "FP" may have its roots in the observance of
the Feralia as a ''fastus'' (or ''feria'') ''publicus'' during the Republic; Because the actual rites involved in the observance of the Feralia can only be guessed at, we do not know why this change was made.

[[Category: Roman religion]]

Feralia

2009-08-26T20:13:35Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Feralia''' The Feralia, was the last of the three Roman festivals honoring the dead. "And the grave must be honoured. Appease your fathers' Spirits, and bring little gifts to the tomb...

'''Feralia'''

The Feralia, was the last of the three Roman festivals honoring the dead.

"And the grave must be honoured. Appease your fathers'
Spirits, and bring little gifts to the tombs you built.
Their shades ask little, piety they prefer to costly
offerings: no greedy deities haunt the Stygian depths.
A tile wreathed round with garlands offered is enough,
A scattering of meal, and a few grains of salt,
and bread soaked in wine, and loose violets:
Set them on a brick left in the middle of the path...
and hide the gods, closing those revealing temple doors,
Let the altars be free of incense, the hearths without fire.
Now ghostly spirits and the entombed dead wander,
Now the shadow feeds on the nourishment that's offered.
But it only lasts till there are no more days in the month
Than the feet that my metres possess.
This day they call the Feralia because they bear [''ferunt'']
Offerings to the dead: the last day to propitiate the shades." - Ovid,
Fasti II

The Feralia ended the Parentalia, and is
held in honor of Iuppiter Feretrius and the infernal powers.
"Feretrius" is one of Iuppiter's titles, and in this capacity Iuppiter
was called upon to witness the signing of contracts and marriages. An
oath was taken that asked Iuppiter to strike down the person if they
swore the oath falsely. Spirits (manes) of the dead were said to
hover above graves on this day, and provisions were put out for them.
Some sources believe that the Roman contact with the Celtic
observances of a feast of the dead combined to create the foundations
of the holiday we now celebrate as All Hallows' Eve, or Hallowe'en.
Today is the last day of the Roman year in which to placate ghosts;
tomorrow, the living are appeased. Today the temples would be opened
at noon, and the time of religious devotion, the "tempus religiosum",
came to a close. Magistrates would lay down their insignia of office
and offer up prayers on behalf of the State.

Republican calendars are marked with "FP" for this day, but after Augustus they are marked simply "F", for "fastus". The mysterious meaning of "FP" may have its roots in the observance of
the Feralia as a ''fastus'' (or ''feria'') ''publicus'' during the Republic; Because the actual rites involved in the observance of the Feralia can only be guessed at, we do not know why this change was made.

[[Category: Roman religion]]

Parentalia

2009-08-26T20:04:42Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Parentalia''' The Parentalia is the Roman festival for honoring one's dead parents. Families gathered amongst the tombs of loved ones and made offerings or sacrifices of grain and wine...

'''Parentalia'''

The Parentalia is the Roman festival for
honoring one's dead parents. Families gathered amongst the tombs of
loved ones and made offerings or sacrifices of grain and wine to their
souls. Although the Parentalia always began with the performance of
ceremonies in honor of dead parents by a Vestal Virgin, Romans
basically celebrated the Parentalia at the family level. Families
walked outside the city to visit the family tombs and performed
private sacrifices in honor of dead kin (especially parents). The
sacrifices were simple, a little wine, a little corn or bread, perhaps
some votive garlands. It was a quiet, personal, reflective day,
followed by a quiet reflective week or so to think about loved ones
and the importance of the family. The Parentalia was the first of
three Roman festivals in February for appeasing the dead which started
on the Ides and lasted until the 22nd. During this time all temples
were closed, marriages were forbidden, and public officials suspended
business for the duration of the festivals.

http://romeartlover.tripod.com/Bompia04.jpg

"The altars of rustic Faunus smoke, on the Ides.
There, where the island breaks Tiber's waters.
This was the day when three hundred and six
of the Fabii fell to Veientine weapons.
A single family assumed the burden and defence of the city:
Their strong right arms volunteered their swords.
Noble soldiers they marched from the one camp,
And any one of them was fitted to be the leader.
The nearest way was the right hand arch of Carmentis Gate
Let no one go that way: it is unlucky.
Tradition says that the three hundred Fabii passed through:
The gate is free of blame, but is still unlucky." - Ovid, Fasti II

"When the others refused their offer and chose the death befitting men
of noble birth, the Tyrrhenians renewed the struggle, attacking them
in relays, though no longer fighting at close quarters in hand-to-hand
combat, but standing in a body and hurling javelins and stones at them
from a distance; and the multitude of missiles was like a snow-storm.
The Romans, massing by companies, rushed upon their foes, who did not
stand their ground, and though they received many wounds from those
surrounding them, they stood firm. But when the swords of many had
become useless, some having their edges blunted and others being
broken, and the borders of their shields next the rims were hacked in
pieces, and the men themselves were for the most part bled white and
overwhelmed by missiles and their limbs paralysed by reason of the
multitude of their wounds, the Tyrrhenians scorned them and came to
close quarters. Then the Romans, rushing at them like wild beasts,
seized their spears and broke them, grasped their swords by the edges
and wrenched them out of their hands, and twisting the bodies of their
antagonists, fell with them to the ground, locked in close embrace,
fighting with greater rage than strength. Hence the enemy, astonished
at their endurance and terrified at the madness that had seized them
in their despair of life, no longer ventured to come to grips with
them, but retiring again, stood in a body and hurled at them sticks,
stones, and anything else they could lay their hands on, and at last
buried them under the multitude of missiles. After destroying these
men they ran to the fortress, carrying with them the heads of the most
prominent, expecting to take the men there prisoners at their first
onset." - Dionysius of Halicarnassus 9.21

In the 480s B.C., the gens Fabius was one of the most powerful
familial groups in Rome. The Fabii had major Etruscan connections and
owned a considerable tract of land between Rome and Veii. A major
strategic point on the Via Salaria, or Salt Road between Rome and Veii
was where the stream Cremora joined the Tiber. The Fabii and the
Veians came into conflict with each other during this period, mainly
through mutual cattle raiding. Then, the Fabii built a defensive
blockhouse at the Cremora which the Veians considered a challenge
thrown in their teeth. Now the Fabii had raised a large semi - private
army who owed their allegiance not to the Roman state but to the
Fabian Gens. Thre hundred of the Fabii and their clients occupied the
blockhouse with intentions of holding this strongpoint against Veii in
476. This led to the Battle of the Cremora in which three hundred
Fabii were killed and the area was abandoned to the Veiians.

''Scio versiculis meis evenire, ut fastidiose legantur: quippe sic meritum est eorum. Sed quosdam solet commendare materia et aliquotiens''
''fortasse lectorem solum lemma sollicitat tituli, ut festivitate persuasus et ineptiam ferre contentus sit. Hoc opusculum nec materia''
''amoenum est nec appellatione iucundum. Habet maestam religionem, qua carorum meorum obitus tristi affectione commemoro. Titulus libelli est''
''Parentalia. Antiquae appellationis hic dies et iam inde ab Numa cognatorum inferiis institutus: nec quicquam sanctius habet reverentia''
''superstitum quam ut amissos venerabiliter recordetur.'' - Praefatio for the Parentalia, unknown edition

[[Category: Roman religion]]

Lupercalia

2009-08-26T19:57:29Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Lupercalia''' The Lupercalia was an annual Roman festival held on February 15 to honour Faunus, god of fertility and forests. Justin Martyr identified Faunus as Lupercus, the one who w...

'''Lupercalia'''

The Lupercalia was an
annual Roman festival held on February 15 to honour Faunus, god of
fertility and forests. Justin Martyr identified Faunus as Lupercus,
the one who wards off the wolf, but his identification is not
supported by any earlier classical sources. The festival was
celebrated near the cave of Lupercal on the Palatine (one of the seven
Roman hills), to expiate and purify new life in the Spring. This
festival's origins are older than the founding of Rome.

http://antipemurtadan.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/lupercalia.jpg

"Lupercalia, of which many write that it was anciently celebrated by shepherds, and has also some connection with the Arcadian Lycaea. At this time many of the noble youths and of the magistrates run up and down through the city naked, for sport and laughter striking those they meet with shaggy thongs. And many women of rank also purposely get in their way, and like children at school present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in delivery, and the barren to pregnancy." - Plutarch, Life of Caesar 61

"So we worship the god, and the priest performs
The rites the Pelasgians brought in the ancient way.
Why, you ask, do the Luperci run, and since it's their custom,
This running, why do they strip their bodies naked?
The god himself loves to run swiftly on the heights,
And he himself suddenly takes to flight.
The god himself is naked, and orders his servants naked,
Since anyway clothes were not suited to that course.
They say the Arcadians had their land before the birth
Of Jove, and their race is older than the moon.
They lived like beasts, lives spent to no purpose:
The common people were crude as yet, without arts.
They built houses from leafy branches, grass their crops,
Water, scooped in their palms, was nectar to them.
No bull panted yoked to the curved ploughshare,
No soil was under the command of the farmer.
Horses were not used, all carried their own burdens,
The sheep went about still clothed in their wool.
People lived in the open and went about nude,
Inured to heavy downpours from rain-filled winds.
To this day the naked priests recall the memory
Of old customs, and testify to those ancient ways...
A she-wolf, which had given birth to her whelps came, wondrous to
tell, to the abandoned twins [Romulus and Remus]
...She halted and fawned on the tender babes with her tail,
and licked into shape their two bodies with her tongue
...fearless, they sucked her dugs and were fed on a supply of milk
that was never meant for them. The she-wolf (lupa) gave her name to
the place, and the place gave their name to the Luperci. Great is the
reward the nurse has got for the milk she gave." - Ovid , Fasti II

"It is said that the festival of the Lupercalia, which is still
observed, was even in those days celebrated on the Palatine hill. This
hill was originally called Pallantium from a city of the same name in
Arcadia; the name was afterwards changed to Palatium. Evander, an
Arcadian, had held that territory many ages before, and had introduced
an annual festival from Arcadia in which young men ran about naked for
sport and wantonness, in honour of the Lycaean Pan, whom the Romans
afterwards called Inuus. The existence of this festival was widely
recognised, and it was while the two brothers were engaged in it that
the brigands, enraged at losing their plunder, ambushed them. Romulus
successfully defended himself, but Remus was taken prisoner and
brought before Amulius, his captors impudently accusing him of their
own crimes. The principal charge brought against them was that of
invading Numitor's lands with a body of young men whom they had got
together, and carrying off plunder as though in regular warfare. Remus
accordingly was handed over to Numitor for punishment." - Livy,
History of Rome 1.5

"But Aelius Tubero, a shrewd man and careful in collecting the
historical data, writes that Numitor's people, knowing beforehand that
the youths were going to celebrate in honour of Pan the Lupercalia,
the Arcadian festival as instituted by Evander, set an ambush for that
moment in the celebration when the youths living near the Palatine
were, after offering sacrifice, to proceed from the Lupercal and run
round the village naked, their loins girt with the skins of the
victims just sacrificed. This ceremony signified a sort of traditional
purification of the villagers, and is still performed even to this
day." - Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 1.80

"In support of this story, Varro relates others no less incredible
about that most famous sorceress Circe, who changed the companions of
Ulysses into beasts, and about the Arcadians, who, by lot, swam across
a certain pool, and were turned into wolves there, and lived in the
deserts of that region with wild beasts like themselves. But if they
never fed on human flesh for nine years, they were restored to the
human form on swimming back again through the same pool. Finally, he
expressly names one Demaenetus, who, on tasting a boy offered up in
sacrifice by the Arcadians to their god Lykaios according to their
custom, was changed into a wolf, and, being restored to his proper
form in the tenth year, trained himself as a pugilist, and was
victorious at the Olympic games. And the same historian thinks that
the epithet Lykaios was applied in Arcadia to Pan and Jupiter for no
other reason than this metamorphosis of men into wolves, because it
was thought it could not be wrought except by a divine power. For a
wolf is called in Greek lykòs, from which the name Lykaios appears to
be formed. He says also that the Roman Luperci were as it were sprung
of the seed of these mysteries." - Augustinius of Hippo, City of God 18.17

"After [Saturn], third in descent, they say that Faunus was king, in
whose time Evander came into Italy from Pallanteum, a city of Arcadia,
accompanied with a small band of his countrymen, to whom Faunus kindly
gave land, and the mountain which he afterwards called Palatium. At
the foot of this mountain he built a temple to the Lykaian god, whom
the Greeks call Pan, and the Romans Lupercus, the naked statue of the
deity being covered with a goat-skin, in which dress the priests now
run up and down during the Lupercalia at Rome." - Justin, Epitome 43.6ff

"There was added to these causes of offence his insult to the
tribunes. It was, namely, the festival of the Lupercalia, of which
many write that it was anciently celebrated by shepherds, and has also
some connection with the Arcadian Lycaea. At this time many of the
noble youths and of the magistrates run up and down through the city
naked, for sport and laughter striking those they meet with shaggy
thongs. And many women of rank also purposely get in their way, and
like children at school present their hands to be struck, believing
that the pregnant will thus be helped to an easy delivery, and the
barren to pregnancy." - Plutarch, Life of Iulius Caesar 61.1-2

The religious ceremonies were directed by the Luperci, the "brothers
of the wolf", priests of Faunus, dressed only in a goatskin. During
Lupercalia, a dog and two male goats were sacrificed. Two patrician
youths were anointed with the blood, which was wiped off with wool
soaked in milk, after which they were expected to smile and laugh. The
Luperci afterwards dressed themselves in the skins of the sacrificed
goats, in imitation of Lupercus, and ran round the Palatine Hill with
thongs cut from the skins in their hands. These were called Februa.
Girls would line up on their route to receive lashes from these whips.
This was supposed to ensure fertility. The name of the month of
February is derived from the Latin februare, "to purify", meant as one
of the effects of fever, which has the same linguistic root.

"You did see that on the Lupercal,
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse." - William Shakespeare: Mark Antony
speaking of Caesar in "Julius Caesar" III.ii

Tradition states that on this day in 44 B.C., Marcus Antonius offered
Caesar a king's crown to rule over Rome, but Caesar refused, saying
"Only Iuppiter is king in Rome."

[[Category: roman religion]]

Matronalia

2009-08-26T19:47:03Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

'''Matronalia''', the Roman equivalent of Mothers' Day.

''On the hill that now has the name of Esquiline,
''A temple was founded, as I recall, on this day,''
''By the Roman women in honour of Iuno.''
''But why do I linger, and burden your thoughts with reasons?''
''The answer you seek is plainly before your eyes.''
''My mother, Iuno, loves brides: crowds of mothers worship me:''
''Such a virtuous reason above all befits her and me.'''
''Bring the goddess flowers: the goddess loves flowering plants:''
''Garland your heads with fresh flowers, and say:''
'''You, Lucina, have given us the light of life': and say:''
''You hear the prayer of women in childbirth.''
''But let her who is with child, free her hair in prayer,''
''So the goddess may gently free her womb.'' - Ovid, Fasti III

It was held on the first day of the (pre-Iulian calendar) year, which was the kalends of Martias and special attention was paid to Iuno as
Iuno Lucina - "Iuno the Lightbringer", who was held to watch over childbirth and mothers. The epithet "Lucina" may refer to the light
(''lux'') of childbirth or to the grove (''lucus'') where the temple of Iuno was built in c. 375 BC on the Esquiline Hill.

In the Fasti, Ovid asks Mars why He would let a festival like this occur on the kalends of His sacred month, Him being the god of war and
sort of a guys' god and all; Mars replies that it is in honor of the Sabine women whom his son Romulus stole in order to give Roman men the
wives necessary to expand the population of the new city.

"Rome was little," Mars says, and then when Romulus wants to pray about it, Mars tells him that prayers are nice but he'd be better off
arming himself and the men of Rome and taking what they needed - women - by force. What other kind of advice would you expect from the god
of war? So Romulus and his army looked around and lo! there were a bunch of extra Sabine women just hanging around doing nothing!

So Romulus invites all the neighbors over to take a look at his cool new city, and in the middle of the party gives his men the signal and
they run off - where to, exactly, is never specified - with the extra women.

After the "rape" - or abduction, more properly, the Latin word ''raptio'' meaning "kidnapping" - of the Sabine women, Romulus goes
around to each of them and points out that being a Roman would really be a pretty good gig so how's about it?

Some time later, an army of (justifiably) angry Sabines showed up to rescue them. But apparently they'd waited just a little bit too long;
the women now had children, Roman children, and they stood between their Roman husbands and the Sabine army, holding up and waving their
children around as proof that they weren't really that much in need of rescuing, actually, but thanks and would you like a cup of coffee for
the march home?

The Sabines all took this in good spirits and they and the Romans became allies and everybody was happy.

http://www.crystalinks.com/juno.jpg

[[Category: Roman religion]]

Matronalia

2009-08-26T19:46:06Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Matronalia''', the Roman equivalent of Mothers' Day. ''On the hill that now has the name of Esquiline, ''A temple was founded, as I recall, on this day,'' ''By the Roman women in honou...

Consus

2009-08-26T19:32:48Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Consus''' was the protector of grains and (subterranean) storage bins (silos), and as such was represented by a corn seed. His altar was placed beneath the ground (or, according to oth...

'''Consus''' was the protector of grains and (subterranean) storage bins (silos), and as such was represented by a corn seed.

His altar was placed beneath the ground (or, according to other sources, simply covered with earth, which was swept off at His festival) near the Circus Maximus in Rome. The altar was unearthed only during the Consualia, His festival which took place on August 21 (and another one on December 15). Mule or horse races were the main event of the festival because the mule and the horse were Consus' sacred animals. Horses and mules were crowned with chaplets of flowers, and forbidden to work.

Consus' name has no certain etymology down to the present time. This name seems to be Etruscan or Sabine in origin. It seems that Consus' name is really related to the one of Ops as Consivia (or Consiva), itself related to "crops, seeding" (Latin'' conserere'' ("to sow"). According to Varro (L. I. 6:20), ''Consualia dicta a Consus'' ("The Consualia are so named after Consus").

Shortly after His own festivals the ones for Ops, the Opiconsivia or Opalia, were held every August 25 and December 19, these being the periods respectively of the reaping and the seeding of crops.

Consus also became a god associated with secret conferences, perhaps due to a common misinterpretation of his name. The Latins (Romans) associated Consus' name with consilium ("councils, synagogues, assemblies; place where councils assemble"). This word should not be confused with "counsel" ("advice"). It in fact expresses the idea of "sitting together" (consentes), "being together" (con-sum) or perhaps "called together, conclaimed" (con-calare). The connection of Consus with these secret councils is attested by Servius (En. 8:636): Consus autem deus est consiliorum ("Consus is however the god of councils").

As such, it seems that Consus was a member of the council of the Di Consentes ("Council of the Gods") formed by six gods and six goddesses which assembled in order to assist Jupiter in making great decisions such as destroying Troy or Atlantis with a Flood, etc.. This tradition is due to the Etruscans, but is also widely attested in Greece as well, for instance, in Homer. It has to do with the Twelve Olympians of the Greek myths, and their twelve gods are the same as the ones of the Romans.

'''References'''

Aldington, Richard; Ames, Delano (1968). New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology. Yugoslavia: The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited, 209

[[Category: Roman Gods]]

Ops

2009-08-26T19:27:15Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: New page: '''Ops''', more properly Opis, (Latin: "plenty") is a fertility deity and earth-goddess in Roman mythology of Sabine origin. Her husband is Saturn, the bountiful monarch of the Golden Age...

'''Ops''', more properly Opis, (Latin: "plenty") is a fertility deity and earth-goddess in Roman mythology of Sabine origin.

Her husband is Saturn, the bountiful monarch of the Golden Age. Just as Saturn is identified with the Greek deity Cronus, Ops is identified with Rhea, Cronus' wife. Opis is not only the wife of Saturn, she is His sister and the daughter of Caelus. Her children are Iuppiter, Neptune, Pluto, Juno, Ceres and Vesta. Opis also acquired queenly status and was reputed to be an eminent goddess and the Mother of the Gods. By public decree temples, priests, and sacrifices were accorded Her.

In Her statues and coins, Ops is figured sitting down, as Chthonian deities normally are, and generally holds a scepter or a corn spike as Her main attributes. In Latin writings of the time, the singular nominative (Ops) is not used; only the form Opis is attested by classical authors. According to Festus (203:19), "Opis is said to be the wife of Saturn. By her they designated the earth, because the earth distributes all goods to the human genus" (''Opis dicta est coniux Saturni per quam uolerunt terram significare, quia omnes opes humano generi terra tribuit''). The Latin word ops means "riches, goods, abundance, gifts, munificence, plenty". The word is also related to opus, which means "work", particularly in the sense of "working the earth, ploughing, sowing". This activity was deemed sacred, and was often attended by religious rituals intended to obtain the good will of chthonic deities such as Ops and Consus. Ops is also related to the Sanskrit word ápnas ("goods, property").

The cult of Ops was (mythically) instituted by King Titus Tatius, the Sabine monarch. Ops soon became the patroness of riches, abundance, and prosperity, both on a personal and national level. Ops had a famous temple in the Capitolium. Originally, a festival took place in Ops' honor on August 10. Additionally, on December 19 (some say December 9), the Opalia was celebrated. On August 25, the Opiconsivia was held. Opiconsivia was another name used for Opis, indicating when the earth was sown.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/Rubens_Abundance.jpg/240px-Rubens_Abundance.jpg

[[Category: Roman Gods]]

Mars

2009-08-26T14:08:12Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

{{LanguageBar|{{PAGENAME}} }}

'''Mars''', god of war, was originally an agricultural god whose character changed with that of His people. For this reason, He is the most Roman of the gods, representing the abundance of the fields, and the battles that must be won to keep and enlarge the provinces that kept Rome fed and thriving. He is the son of Iuno and Iuppiter, husband of Bellona, and the lover of Venus. He was the most prominent of the military gods that were worshipped by the Roman legions. The martial Romans considered Him second in importance only to Iuppiter. His festivals were held in March (named for him) and October.

As the word Mars has no Indo-European derivation, it is most likely the Latinised form of the agricultural Etruscan god Maris. Initially Mars was a Roman god of fertility and vegetation and a protector of cattle, fields and boundaries and farmers. In the second century BC, the conservative Cato the Elder advised "For your cattle, for them to be healthy, make this sacrifice to Mars Silvanus you must make this sacrifice each year" (''De Agri Cultura'' 83). Mars later became associated with battle as the growing Roman Empire began to expand, and he came to be identified with the Greek god Ares. Unlike his Greek counterpart, Mars was generally revered and rivaled Iuppiter as the most honoured god. He was also the tutelary god of the city of Rome. As He was regarded as the legendary father of Rome's founder, Romulus, it was believed that all Romans were descendants of Mars.

His priests were dancing warriors, the [[Salii]], who sang their war-songs in the streets during his festivals. His sacred spears and 12 shields were kept in his temple on the [[Collis Palatinus|Palatine Hill]].

Mars has many aspects, attributes, names and epithets, due to His enormous popularity across the Roman world. Among them are:

'''Epithets'''

''Mars Alator'', a fusion of Mars with the Celtic deity Alator (possibly meaning "Huntsman" or "Cherisher"), known from an inscription found in England, on an altar at South Shields and a silver-gilt votive plaque at Barkway, Hertfordshire.

''Mars Albiorix'', a fusion of Mars with the ancient Celtic deity Toutatis, using the epithet Albiorix ("King of the World"). Mars Albiorix was worshiped as protector of the Albici tribe of southern France, and was regarded as a mountain god. Another epithet of Toutatis, Caturix ("King of Combat"), was used in the combination Mars Caturix, which was worshipped in Gaul, possibly as the tribal god of the Caturiges.

''Mars Balearicus'', statues of a warrior discovered in the Mallorca Island, associated by the archaeologists to the Roman god Mars.

''Mars Barrex'', from Barrex or Barrecis (probably meaning "Supreme One"), a Celtic god known only from a dedicatory inscription found at Carlisle, England.

''Mars Belatucadrus'', an epithet found in five inscriptions in the area of Hadrian's Wall in England, based on equating the Celtic deity Belatu-Cadros with Mars.

''Mars Braciaca'', a synthesis of Mars with the Celtic god Braciaca. This deity is only known from a single inscription at Bakewell, England.

''Mars Camulos'', from the Celtic war god Camulus.

''Mars Capriociegus'', from an Iberian god who was linked to Mars. He is invoked in two inscriptions in the Pontevedra region of north-west Spain.

''Mars Cocidius'', a combination of Mars with the Celtic woodland hunting god Cocidius. He is referenced around north-west Cumbria and Hadrian's Wall, and was chiefly a war god only in instances where he was equated with Mars.

''Mars Condatis'', from the Celtic god of the confluence of rivers, Condatis. Mars Condatis, who oversaw water and healing, is known from inscriptions near Hadrian's Wall, at Piercebridge, Bowes and Chester-le-Street.

''Mars Corotiacus'', A local British version of Mars from Martlesham in Suffolk. He appears on a bronze statuette as a cavalryman, armed and riding a horse which tramples a prostrate enemy beneath its hooves.

''Mars Gradivus'', god of War.

''Mars Lenus'', A fusion of Mars with the Celtic healer-god Lenus. In the main cult centre of the god, the indigenous name always comes first (Lenus Mars), an indication that Lenus was an established god, with whom Mars was later equated.

''Mars Rigisamus'', Mars was given this title (which means 'Greatest King' or 'King of Kings') at West Coker in Somerset, where a bronze figurine and inscribed plaque dedicated to the god were found in a field, along with the remains of a building, perhaps a shrine. The figurine depicts a standing naked male figure with a close-fitting helmet; his right hand may have once held a weapon, and he probably originally also had a shield (both are now lost). The same epithet for a god is recorded from Bourges in Gaul. The use of this epithet implies that Mars had an extremely high status, over and above his warrior function.

''Mars Ultor'', under Augustus he obtained this title, meaning Avenger, in recognition of his victory over Caesar's assassins.

[[Image:Mars courtesy of Vroma.jpg|frame]]

[[Category:Roman Gods]]

Venus

2009-08-26T13:54:36Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

{{LanguageBar|{{PAGENAME}} }}

[[Image:Venus courtesy of Vroma.jpg|right|thumb|Venus, courtesy of Vroma]]

'''Venus''' is a Goddess of Spring, flowers and vines. Her Latin name defined her character (''venerari'', "to entreat, charm"). She has taken on many attributes of Aphrodite, her Greek equivalent.

After the military defeat at Trasimene, the Sibylline Books were consulted, and a temple to Venus of Eryx, Phoenician Astarte, was dedicated on the Capitoline hill in 217 B.C.E. It was exceptional for a foreign deity to have a temple in the heart of the Capitoline. Capitoline Venus' cult did not have the ritual prostitutes famous on Mt. Eryx, Sicily; rather the cult was Roman, and linked to the Romans' Trojan origins.

Another temple was vowed to Venus Erycina extra Portam Collinam, the 23 of April 184 B.C.E. The cult statue, Venus seated with a dove and Amor, was said to have been a copy of that on Mt. Eryx. Outside the Pomerium, Venus' cult maintained more of its Sicilian character.

The Roman honored her as ''Venus Genetrix'', the mother of the Roman people. According to legend, she fell in love with [[Anchises]], a Trojan prince, but he was blinded when he saw her in her full glory. Their son [[Aeneas]] escaped the Fall of Troy and, after many adventures, settled in Italy. He became the forefather of the Roman people, and an ancestor of the ''Julii''. Both [[Julius Caesar]] and [[Hadrian]] dedicated temples to ''Venus Genetrix''. Hadrian's still stands near the Flavian amphitheatre.

Venus has darker aspects too, such as ''Venus Libitina'', an aspect of ''Venus'' associated with the extinction of life force.

Here is a full list of her epithets: Calva, Capitolina, Cloacina, Erycina, Felix, Fisica, Frutis, Genetrix, Iovia, Libitina, Martialis, Myrtea, Obsequens, Plagiaria, Syntrophus, Verticordia, Victrix.

= Poem =

from [[Titus Lucretius Carus|Lucretius]]' ''De Rerum Natura'':

Mother of Rome, delight of Gods and men, 
Dear Venus that beneath the gliding stars 
Makest to teem the many-voyaged main 
And fruitful lands- for all of living things 
Through thee alone are evermore conceived, 
Through thee are risen to visit the great sun- 
Before thee, Goddess, and thy coming on, 
Flee stormy wind and massy cloud away, 
For thee the daedal Earth bears scented flowers, 
For thee waters of the unvexed deep 
Smile, and the hollows of the serene sky 
Glow with diffused radiance for thee! 
For soon as comes the springtime face of day, 
And procreant gales blow from the West unbarred, 
First fowls of air, smit to the heart by thee, 
Foretoken thy approach, O thou Divine, 
And leap the wild herds round the happy fields 
Or swim the bounding torrents. Thus amain, 
Seized with the spell, all creatures follow thee 
Whithersoever thou walkest forth to lead, 
And thence through seas and mountains and swift streams, 
Through leafy homes of birds and greening plains, 
Kindling the lure of love in every breast, 
Thou bringest the eternal generations forth, 
Kind after kind. And since 'tis thou alone 
Guidest the Cosmos, and without thee naught 
Is risen to reach the shining shores of light, 
Nor aught of joyful or of lovely born, 
Thee do I crave co-partner in that verse 
Which I presume on Nature to compose 

= Invocation =

"Seu tu caelestis Venus, quae primis rerum exordiis sexuum diversitatem generato Amore sociasti et aeterna subole humano genere propagato nunc circumfluo Paphii sacrario coleris." — Apuleius, ''Metamorphosis'' 11.2

[You celestial Venus, who at the beginnings of the world united the difference of the sexes making to rise the Love and propagating the eternal progeny of the human kind, now you are honored in the temple of Paphos that the sea surrounds."]

= Sources =

"La Réligion Romaine de Venus" Robert Schilling
"Dieux et Déesses de L'Univers Phénecien et Punique" E. Lipinski

[[Category:Roman Gods]]

Saturnus

2009-08-26T13:53:58Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

'''Saturnus''' (Saturn) was a major Roman god of agriculture and harvest. In medieval times he was known as the Roman god of agriculture, justice and strength; he held a sickle in his left hand and a bundle of wheat in his right. His mother's name was Helen, or Hel. He was identified in classical antiquity with the Greek deity Cronus, and the mythologies of the two gods are commonly mixed. Saturn's wife was Ops (the Roman equivalent of Rhea). Saturn had a temple on the Forum Romanum which contained the Treasury.

In Hesiod's Theogony, a mythological account of the creation of the universe and Jupiter's rise to power, Saturn is mentioned as the son of Caelus (the Roman equivalent of Uranus), the heavens, and Terra (the Roman equivalent of Gaia), the earth. Hesiod is an early Greek poet and rhapsode, who presumably lived around 700 BC. He writes that Saturn seizes power, castrating and overthrowing his father Caelus. However, it was foretold that one day a mighty son of Saturn would in turn overthrow him, and Saturn devoured all of his children when they were born to prevent this. Saturn's wife, Ops, often identified with the Greek goddess Rhea, hid her sixth child, Jupiter, on the island of Crete, and offered Saturn a large stone wrapped in swaddling clothes in his place; Saturn promptly devoured it. Jupiter later overthrew Saturn and the other Titans, becoming the new supreme ruler of the cosmos.

In memory of the Golden Age of man, a mythical age when Saturn was said to have ruled, a great feast called Saturnalia was held during the winter months around the time of the winter solstice. It was originally only one day long, taking place on December 17, but later lasted one week. During Saturnalia, roles of master and slave were reversed, moral restrictions loosened, and the rules of etiquette ignored. It is thought that the festivals of Saturnalia and Lupercalia were the roots of the carnival year.

Although Saturn changed greatly over time due to the influence of Greek mythology, he was also one of the few distinct Roman deities to predate and retain elements of his original function.

The first inhabitants of the world were the children of Terra (Mother Earth) and Caelus (Father Sky). These creatures were very large and manlike, but without human qualities. They were the qualities of Earthquake, Hurricane and Volcano living in a world where there was yet no life. There were only the irresistible forces of nature creating mountains and seas. They were unlike any life form known to man.
Three of these creatures were monstrously huge with one hundred hands and fifty heads. Three others were individually called Cyclops, because each had only one enormous eye in the middle of their foreheads. Then, there were the Titans, seven of them, formidably large and none of whom were purely destructive. One was actually credited with saving man after creation.
Caelus hated the children with the fifty heads. As each was born he placed it under the earth. Terra was enraged by the treatment of her children by their father and begged the Cyclopes and the Titans to help her put an end to the cruel treatment. Only one Titan, Saturn, responded. Saturn lay in wait for his father and castrated him with his sickle. From Caelus' blood sprang the Giants, a fourth race of monsters, and the Erinyes (the Furies), whose purpose was to punish sinners. They were referred to as "those who walk in darkness" and were believed to have writhing snakes for hair and eyes that cried blood. Though eventually all the monsters were driven from Earth, the Erinyes are to remain until the world is free of sin.

With the deposing of his father, Saturn became the ruler of the Universe for untold ages and he reigned with his sister, Ops, who also became his wife.

It was prophesied that one day Saturn would lose power when one of his children would depose him. To prevent this from happening, each time Ops delivered a child Kronos would immediately swallow it. When her sixth child, Iuppiter, was born, Rhea had him spirited away to the island of Crete. She then wrapped a stone in his swaddling clothes. Her deception was complete when Saturn swallowed it, thinking it was the child. When Iuppiter was grown, He secured the job of cup-bearer to His Father. With the help of Gaia, His grandmother, Iuppiter fed His father a potion that caused Him to vomit up Iuppiter's five siblings: Vesta, Ceres, Iuno, Pluto, and Neptune.

A devastating war that nearly destroyed the Universe ensued between Saturn and His five brothers and Iupiter and His five brothers and sisters. Iuppiter persuaded the fifty headed monsters to fight with Him which enabled Him to make use of their weapons of thunder, lightning and earthquake. He also convinced the Titan Prometheus, who was incredibly wise, to join His side. With these forces, Iuppiter was victorious and the Olympians reigned supreme. Saturn and His brothers were imprisoned in the Tartarus, a dark, gloomy region at the end of the Earth.

In Roman stories when Iuppiter ascended the throne, Saturn fled to Rome and established the Golden Age, a time of perfect peace and harmony, which lasted as long as He reigned. In memory of the Golden Age, the Feast of Saturnalia was held every year in the winter at the Winter Solstice. During this time no war could be declared, slaves and masters ate at the same table, executions were postponed, and it was a season for giving gifts. This was a time of total abandon and merry making. It refreshed the idea of equality, of a time when all men were on the same level. When the festival ended, the tax collectors appeared and all money owed out to government, landlords, or debtors had to be accounted for.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Polidoro_da_Caravaggio_-_Saturnus-thumb.jpg

[[Category:Roman Gods]]

Neptunus

2009-08-26T13:53:00Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

{{LanguageBar | Neptunus }}

'''Neptunus''' (Neptune) is the Roman God of the sea and earthquakes. His name is derived from the Etruscan Nepthuns. His major festival is the ''Neptunalia'', celebrated in ''[[Roman dates|Quintilis]]''. For a time he was paired with Salacia, the goddess of the salt water. At an early date (899 BC) he was identified with Poseidon, when the Sibylline books ordered a lectisternium in his honour (Livy v. 13). In the earlier times it was the god Portunes or Fortunus who was thanked for naval victories, but Neptune supplanted him in this role by at least the first century BC when Sextus Pompeius called himself "son of Neptune". Neptune is associated as well with fresh water, as opposed to Oceanus, god of the world-ocean. Like Poseidon, Neptune was also worshipped by the Romans as a god of horses, under the name ''Neptune Equester'', patron of horse-racing. The planet Neptune was named after the god, as its deep blue gas clouds gave early astronomers the impression of great oceans.

As god of the sea, it is likely that Neptunus was also connected to merchants and to trade generally. He is also found in the first ''[[lectisternium]]'', mentioned with [[Mercurius]], which also gives credence to this connection with trade and merchants.

[[Image:Neptunus from Ostia courtesy of Vroma.jpg|right|frame]]

==Festivals==

===Neptunalia===

The ''Neptunalia'' is celebrated {{Jul 23}}. Very little is known about the celebrations that took place on this day, or about the cult which would have celebrated it. About the celebrations of the day, Fowler <ref>Fowler, W. W. The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic: An introduction to the study of the religion of the Romans (ISBN 1402148577)</ref> says that huts or booths of foliage were set up by the ''cultores'', but this only to protect those who came to worship Neptunus on that day.

Its placement in mid-Summer suggests also the connection with trade, particularly trade by sea, from an astronomical view. In light of the fact that the Moon is at its farthest distance from Earth at this time, waves would have been significantly less than at other times of the year, which would be favourable to any sea-based trade. This would have been an optimal time to propitiate Neptunus in the hopes that he would continue to keep the waves minimised, allowing easier and more successful trade.

This also connects to agriculture. This festival is placed in enough time before the harvest to allow cultores to attempt to propitiate Neptunus such that, when the time comes, farmers will be able to harvest their crops successfully and use them at the markets to trade and barter. The favour of Neptunus would be essential to allow goods from other parts of the Mediterranean to reach Rome and all of Italy safely, something which the agricultural community of early Italy would have desired more than not.

==Temples, Priests, and Cult==

Just as there is little known about the ''Neptunalia'', there is just as little known about his cult at Rome and throughout Italy. There is no known priest of Neptunus as sponsored by the State (as, for example, the Flamines).
:During the Empire, there is evidence of ''un flamen'' at Henchir-Ouradi near Bizacena (modern Tunisia), ''sacerdotes Neptuni'' in Numidia , amd a ''cultor'' all from Africa, a ''sacerdos Neptuni'' at Corinth, and ''magistri Neptunales'' at Delos.

In popular religion Neptune protected men and women from dangers from the sea and lakes. And prayed to for ''salus'' - life, welfare and ''incolumitas'' - safety. Yet as the god of moving and still waters, he was also worshiped on the inland of Italy as numerous examples of epigpraphy attest.

He was also called upon by farmers so the running waters, streams, rivers,would not dry out during the hot season of summer and by fishermen. His epithets were ''Pater'' -venerable, ''Adiutor'' - helper, ''Redux'' - who brings men back. He probably was also seen as a god who promoted vegetation, and during Imperial times, called upon for sea victories.

Neptune, unlike Greek Poseidon was never associated with horses, though his inland worshipers may have associated him with fruitfulness ''pythalmios'' and earthquakes.

==Epigraphy==

{{CIL|III|13400}} Pannonia Superior:
''Neptuno et Nymphis pro Cassia Clementilla''

==References==
<references/>

2. Arnaldi, Ricerche Storico-Epigraphiche sul Culto di 'Neptunus' p. 224-5.
[[Category:Roman Gods]]

Mercurius

2009-08-26T13:52:26Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

{{LanguageBar|Mercurius}}

'''Mercurius''' (Mercury) is the God of commerce. The guild of merchants honored Mercurius at his temple near the [[Circus Maximus]] on his festival, the ''[[Mercuralia]]'', on May 15. They also sprinkled themselves and their merchandise with sacred water in a ceremony at the [[Capena Gate]].

A common epithet of Mercurius was ''Bonus Mercurius'' very similar to ''optimus.''<ref>See Brouwer, Bona Dea, p.246.</ref>

When Mercurius became identified with the Greek Hermes, he took on the duties of messenger of the Gods, ''Psychopompus'' who guides the souls of the dead through the [[Underworld]], and God of sleep and dreams. He also became God of thieves and trickery, owing to a trick he had played on ''[[Apollo]]'' by stealing and hiding the Sun God's cattle. His serpent-twined staff (two serpents), the ''caduceus'', was originally a magician's wand for wealth (and is often confused with the "rod of [[Aesculapius]]", entwined with a single serpent) but became identified later as a herald's staff. But ''Mercurius'' has many aspects, attributes, names and epithets.

"Then make me your herald, Father,’ Hermes answered, ‘and I will be responsible for the safety of all divine property, and never tell lies, though I cannot promise always to tell the whole truth.’
‘That would not be expected of you,’ said Zeus, with a smile. ‘But your duties would include the making of treaties, the promotion of commerce, and the maintenance of free rights of way for travellers on any road in the world.’ When Hermes agreed to these conditions, Zeus gave him a herald’s staff with white ribbons, which everyone was ordered to respect; a round hat against the rain, and winged golden sandals which carried him with the swiftness of the wind. He was at once welcomed into the Olympian family, whom he taught the art of making a fire by the rapid twirling of the fire-stick." '''[2]'''

Mercury did not appear among the numinous di indigetes of early Roman religion. Rather, he subsumed the earlier Dei Lucrii as Roman religion was syncretized with Greek religion during the time of the Roman Republic, starting around the 4th century BC. From the beginning, Mercury had essentially the same aspects as Hermes, wearing winged shoes talaria and a winged petasos, and carrying the caduceus, a herald's staff with two entwined snakes that was Apollo's gift to Hermes. He was often accompanied by a cockerel, herald of the new day, a ram or goat, symbolizing fertility, and a tortoise, referring to Mercury's legendary invention of the lyre from a tortoise shell. Like Hermes, he was also a messenger of the gods and a god of trade, particularly of the grain trade. Mercury was also considered a god of abundance and commercial success, particularly in Gaul. He was also, like Hermes, the Romans' psychopomp, leading newly-deceased souls to the afterlife. Additionally, Ovid wrote that Mercury carried Morpheus' dreams from the valley of Somnus to sleeping humans.

When they described the gods of Celtic and Germanic tribes, rather than considering them separate deities, the Romans interpreted them as local manifestations or aspects of their own gods, a cultural trait called the ''interpretatio Romana''. Mercury in particular was reported as becoming extremely popular among the nations the Roman Empire conquered; Julius Caesar wrote of Mercury being the most popular god in Britain and Gaul, regarded as the inventor of all the arts. This is probably because in the Roman syncretism, Mercury was equated with the Celtic god Lugus, and in this aspect was commonly accompanied by the Celtic goddess Rosmerta. Although Lugus may originally have been a deity of light or the sun (though this is disputed), similar to the Roman Apollo, his importance as a god of trade and commerce made him more comparable to Mercury, and Apollo was instead equated with the Celtic deity Belenus

Mercury's temple in the Circus Maximus, between the Aventine and Palatine hills, was built in 495 BC. This was a fitting place to worship a swift god of trade and travel, since it was a major center of commerce as well as a racetrack. Since it stood between the plebeian stronghold on the Aventine and the patrician center on the Palatine, it also emphasized the role of Mercury as a mediator.
Because Mercury was not one of the early deities surviving from the Roman Kingdom, he was not assigned a flamen ("priest"), but he did have a major festival on May 15, the Mercuralia. During the Mercuralia, merchants sprinkled water from his sacred well near the Porta Capena on their heads.

'''Epithets'''

''Mercurius Artaios'', a combination of Mercury with the Celtic god Artaios, a deity of bears and hunting who was worshiped at Beaucroissant, France.

''Mercurius Arvernus'', a combination of the Celtic Arvernus with Mercury. Arvernus was worshiped in the Rhineland, possibly as a particular deity of the Arverni tribe, though no dedications to Mercurius Arvernus occur in their territory in the Auvergne region of central France.

''Mercurius Cissonius'', a combination of Mercury with the Celtic god Cissonius, who is written of in the area spanning from Cologne, Germany to Saintes, France.

''Mercurius Esibraeus'', a combination of the Iberian deity Esibraeus with the Roman deity Mercury. Esibraeus is mentioned only in an inscription found at Medelim, Portugal, and is possibly the same deity as Banda Isibraiegus, who is invoked in an inscription from the nearby village of Bemposta.

''Mercurius Gebrinius'', a combination of Mercury with the Celtic or Germanic Gebrinius, known from an inscription on an altar in Bonn, Germany.

''Mercurius Moccus'', from a Celtic god, Moccus, who was equated with Mercury, known from evidence at Langres, France. The name Moccus ("pig") implies that this deity was connected to boar-hunting.

''Mercurius Visucius'', a combination of the Celtic god Visucius with the Roman god Mercury, attested in an inscription from Stuttgart, Germany. Visucius was worshiped primarily in the frontier area of the empire in Gaul and Germany. Although he was primarily associated with Mercury, Visucius was also sometimes linked to the Roman god Mars, as a dedicatory inscription to "Mars Visucius" and Visucia, Visicius' female counterpart, was found in Gaul

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/186/468123109_1e15c65308_o.jpg http://z.about.com/d/atheism/1/0/n/S/Hermes02-l.jpg

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Roman Gods]]
2. Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths. Vol I. London: Penguin, (1960) p. 65

Pluto

2009-08-26T13:51:37Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

'''
'''Pluto''' was originally the Roman god of certain metals, but because these materials are mined he also took on the role of God of the Underworld. The name is the Latinized form of Greek Πλούτων (Ploutōn), another name by which Hades was known in Greek mythology, possibly from the Greek word for wealth, πλοῦτος (ploutos). He is believed to be the lord of all the metals, jewels and riches that lie under the surface of the Earth.

Pluto, son of Saturn and Ops, assisted Iupiter in His wars, and after victory had crowned their exertions in placing His brother on the throne, He obtained a share of His father's dominions, which, as some authors say, was the eastern continent, and lower regions of Asia; but, according to the common opinion, Pluto's division lay in the west. He fixed his residence in Spain, and lived in Iberia, near the Pyrrenees mountains.

His whole domains are washed with vast and rapid rivers, whose peculiar qualities strike horror into mortals. Cocytus falls with an impetuous roaring; Phlegethon rages with a torrent of flames; the Acharusian fen is dreadful for its stench and filth: nor does Charon, the ferryman, who wafts souls over, occasion any less horror; Cerberus, the triple-headed dog, stands ready with open mouths to receive them; and the Furies shake at them their serpentine locks.

He is usually represented in an ebony chariot, drawn by his four black horses, Orphnaeus, Aethon, Nycteus, and Alastor. As god of the dead, keys were the ensigns of his authority, because there is no possibility of returning when the gates of his palace are locked. Sometimes he holds a sceptre, to denote his power; at other times a wand, with which he directs the movements of his subject ghosts. Homer speaks of his helmet as having the quality of rendering the wearer invisible; and tells us that Minerva borrowed it when she fought against the Trojans, that she might not be discovered by Mars. Perseus also used this helmet when he cut off Medusa's head.

The widely accepted story about Hades and Persephone was also told of Pluto and Proserpina in Roman myth. Pluto and Proserpina are almost exact replicas of their Greek equivalents, as the Romans' ideas about the spirits of the underworld were very vague before adopting Greek mythology. Venus, in order to bring love to Pluto, sent her son Amor, also known as Cupid, to hit Pluto with one of his arrows. Proserpina was in Sicily, at the fountain of Arethusa near Enna, where she was playing with some nymphs and collecting flowers, when Pluto came out from the volcano Etna with four black horses. He abducted her in order to marry her and live with her in Hades, the Greco-Roman Underworld. She is therefore Queen of the Underworld.

Notably, Pluto was also her uncle, being the brother of her parents, Iuppiter and Ceres.

Ceres vainly went looking for her in any corner of the Earth, but wasn't able to find anything but her daughter’s small belt that was floating upon a little lake (made with the tears of the nymphs). Ceres angrily stopped the growth of fruits and vegetables, bestowing a malediction on Sicily. The plants died, and it became cold and dark above ground. Ceres refused to go back to Mount Olympus and started walking on the Earth, making a desert at every step. While Proserpina remained in captivity, Ceres wept, and nothing could grow or be harvested. The people of the world were dying, and prayed to Iuppiter for help.
Worried, Iuppiter sent Mercury to order Pluto to free Proserpina. Pluto would have obeyed, but by then, she had eaten six pomegranate seeds, whether of her own accord or through Pluto's trickery. Having tasted the food of the underworld, she could not leave, but when Iuppiter ordered her return, Pluto struck a deal with him. He said that since she had stolen his six pomegranate seeds, she must stay with him six months of the year, but could remain aboveground the rest of the time. For this reason, in spring when Ceres received her daughter back, the crops blossomed and flowers colored in a beautiful welcome to her daughter, and in summer they flourished. In the autumn, Ceres changed the leaves to shades of brown and orange (her favorite colors) as a gift to Proserpina before she had to return to the underworld. During the time that Proserpina resided with Pluto, the world went through winter, a time when the earth was barren.

Although Hades was seen as somewhat merciless, Pluto was worshipped by the Romans for some of his kinder attributes. Although Hades took a central role in many Greek myths, Pluto was not as much of a general focus.

Pluto is also the god of the dead, terminally ill, and those wounded in battle.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/Nymphenburg-Statue-3a.jpg/240px-Nymphenburg-Statue-3a.jpg

[[Category:Roman Gods]]

User talk:Gaius Equitius Cato

2009-08-26T13:46:58Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

Pluto

2009-08-26T11:47:49Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

'''
'''PLUTO''' was originally the Roman god of certain metals, but because these materials are mined he also took on the role of God of the Underworld. The name is the Latinized form of Greek Πλούτων (Ploutōn), another name by which Hades was known in Greek mythology, possibly from the Greek word for wealth, πλοῦτος (ploutos). He is believed to be the lord of all the metals, jewels and riches that lie under the surface of the Earth.

Pluto, son of Saturn and Ops, assisted Iupiter in His wars, and after victory had crowned their exertions in placing His brother on the throne, He obtained a share of His father's dominions, which, as some authors say, was the eastern continent, and lower regions of Asia; but, according to the common opinion, Pluto's division lay in the west. He fixed his residence in Spain, and lived in Iberia, near the Pyrrenees mountains.

His whole domains are washed with vast and rapid rivers, whose peculiar qualities strike horror into mortals. Cocytus falls with an impetuous roaring; Phlegethon rages with a torrent of flames; the Acharusian fen is dreadful for its stench and filth: nor does Charon, the ferryman, who wafts souls over, occasion any less horror; Cerberus, the triple-headed dog, stands ready with open mouths to receive them; and the Furies shake at them their serpentine locks.

He is usually represented in an ebony chariot, drawn by his four black horses, Orphnaeus, Aethon, Nycteus, and Alastor. As god of the dead, keys were the ensigns of his authority, because there is no possibility of returning when the gates of his palace are locked. Sometimes he holds a sceptre, to denote his power; at other times a wand, with which he directs the movements of his subject ghosts. Homer speaks of his helmet as having the quality of rendering the wearer invisible; and tells us that Minerva borrowed it when she fought against the Trojans, that she might not be discovered by Mars. Perseus also used this helmet when he cut off Medusa's head.

The widely accepted story about Hades and Persephone was also told of Pluto and Proserpina in Roman myth. Pluto and Proserpina are almost exact replicas of their Greek equivalents, as the Romans' ideas about the spirits of the underworld were very vague before adopting Greek mythology. Venus, in order to bring love to Pluto, sent her son Amor, also known as Cupid, to hit Pluto with one of his arrows. Proserpina was in Sicily, at the fountain of Arethusa near Enna, where she was playing with some nymphs and collecting flowers, when Pluto came out from the volcano Etna with four black horses. He abducted her in order to marry her and live with her in Hades, the Greco-Roman Underworld. She is therefore Queen of the Underworld.

Notably, Pluto was also her uncle, being the brother of her parents, Iuppiter and Ceres.

Ceres vainly went looking for her in any corner of the Earth, but wasn't able to find anything but her daughter’s small belt that was floating upon a little lake (made with the tears of the nymphs). Ceres angrily stopped the growth of fruits and vegetables, bestowing a malediction on Sicily. The plants died, and it became cold and dark above ground. Ceres refused to go back to Mount Olympus and started walking on the Earth, making a desert at every step. While Proserpina remained in captivity, Ceres wept, and nothing could grow or be harvested. The people of the world were dying, and prayed to Iuppiter for help.
Worried, Iuppiter sent Mercury to order Pluto to free Proserpina. Pluto would have obeyed, but by then, she had eaten six pomegranate seeds, whether of her own accord or through Pluto's trickery. Having tasted the food of the underworld, she could not leave, but when Iuppiter ordered her return, Pluto struck a deal with him. He said that since she had stolen his six pomegranate seeds, she must stay with him six months of the year, but could remain aboveground the rest of the time. For this reason, in spring when Ceres received her daughter back, the crops blossomed and flowers colored in a beautiful welcome to her daughter, and in summer they flourished. In the autumn, Ceres changed the leaves to shades of brown and orange (her favorite colors) as a gift to Proserpina before she had to return to the underworld. During the time that Proserpina resided with Pluto, the world went through winter, a time when the earth was barren.

Although Hades was seen as somewhat merciless, Pluto was worshipped by the Romans for some of his kinder attributes. Although Hades took a central role in many Greek myths, Pluto was not as much of a general focus.

Pluto is also the god of the dead, terminally ill, and those wounded in battle.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/Nymphenburg-Statue-3a.jpg/396px-Nymphenburg-Statue-3a.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2038/1537899900_64f6b4c79a.jpg

[[Category:Roman Gods]]

User talk:Gaius Equitius Cato

2009-08-26T11:46:45Z

Gaius Equitius Cato: /* Salve, C. Equiti Cato! */

Neptunus

2009-08-26T11:24:05Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

{{LanguageBar | Neptunus }}

'''NEPTUNUS''' (Neptune) is the Roman God of the sea and earthquakes. His name is derived from the Etruscan Nepthuns. His major festival is the ''Neptunalia'', celebrated in ''[[Roman dates|Quintilis]]''. For a time he was paired with Salacia, the goddess of the salt water. At an early date (899 BC) he was identified with Poseidon, when the Sibylline books ordered a lectisternium in his honour (Livy v. 13). In the earlier times it was the god Portunes or Fortunus who was thanked for naval victories, but Neptune supplanted him in this role by at least the first century BC when Sextus Pompeius called himself "son of Neptune". Neptune is associated as well with fresh water, as opposed to Oceanus, god of the world-ocean. Like Poseidon, Neptune was also worshipped by the Romans as a god of horses, under the name ''Neptune Equester'', patron of horse-racing. The planet Neptune was named after the god, as its deep blue gas clouds gave early astronomers the impression of great oceans.

As god of the sea, it is likely that Neptunus was also connected to merchants and to trade generally. He is also found in the first ''[[lectisternium]]'', mentioned with [[Mercurius]], which also gives credence to this connection with trade and merchants.

http://z.about.com/d/ancienthistory/1/5/P/E/2/VEX.2006.3.14.jpg http://golden2.net/rome/pics/Rome%20colleseum%20111.jpg

==Festivals==

===Neptunalia===

The ''Neptunalia'' is celebrated {{Jul 23}}. Very little is known about the celebrations that took place on this day, or about the cult which would have celebrated it. About the celebrations of the day, Fowler <ref>Fowler, W. W. The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic: An introduction to the study of the religion of the Romans (ISBN 1402148577)</ref> says that huts or booths of foliage were set up by the ''cultores'', but this only to protect those who came to worship Neptunus on that day.

Its placement in mid-Summer suggests also the connection with trade, particularly trade by sea, from an astronomical view. In light of the fact that the Moon is at its farthest distance from Earth at this time, waves would have been significantly less than at other times of the year, which would be favourable to any sea-based trade. This would have been an optimal time to propitiate Neptunus in the hopes that he would continue to keep the waves minimised, allowing easier and more successful trade.

This also connects to agriculture. This festival is placed in enough time before the harvest to allow cultores to attempt to propitiate Neptunus such that, when the time comes, farmers will be able to harvest their crops successfully and use them at the markets to trade and barter. The favour of Neptunus would be essential to allow goods from other parts of the Mediterranean to reach Rome and all of Italy safely, something which the agricultural community of early Italy would have desired more than not.

==Temples, Priests, and Cult==

Just as there is little known about the ''Neptunalia'', there is just as little known about his cult at Rome and throughout Italy. There is no known priest of Neptunus as sponsored by the State (as, for example, the Flamines).
:During the Empire, there is evidence of ''un flamen'' at Henchir-Ouradi near Bizacena (modern Tunisia), ''sacerdotes Neptuni'' in Numidia , amd a ''cultor'' all from Africa, a ''sacerdos Neptuni'' at Corinth, and ''magistri Neptunales'' at Delos.

In popular religion Neptune protected men and women from dangers from the sea and lakes. And prayed to for ''salus'' - life, welfare and ''incolumitas'' - safety. Yet as the god of moving and still waters, he was also worshiped on the inland of Italy as numerous examples of epigpraphy attest.

He was also called upon by farmers so the running waters, streams, rivers,would not dry out during the hot season of summer and by fishermen. His epithets were ''Pater'' -venerable, ''Adiutor'' - helper, ''Redux'' - who brings men back. He probably was also seen as a god who promoted vegetation, and during Imperial times, called upon for sea victories.

Neptune, unlike Greek Poseidon was never associated with horses, though his inland worshipers may have associated him with fruitfulness ''pythalmios'' and earthquakes.

==Epigraphy==

{{CIL|III|13400}} Pannonia Superior:
''Neptuno et Nymphis pro Cassia Clementilla''

==References==
<references/>

2. Arnaldi, Ricerche Storico-Epigraphiche sul Culto di 'Neptunus' p. 224-5.
[[Category:Roman Gods]]

Pluto

2009-08-26T11:10:01Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

'''
'''PLUTO''' was originally the Roman god of certain metals, but because these materials are mined he also took on the role of God of the Underworld. The name is the Latinized form of Greek Πλούτων (Ploutōn), another name by which Hades was known in Greek mythology, possibly from the Greek word for wealth, πλοῦτος (ploutos). He is believed to be the lord of all the metals, jewels and riches that lie under the surface of the Earth.

Pluto, son of Saturn and Ops, assisted Iupiter in His wars, and after victory had crowned their exertions in placing His brother on the throne, He obtained a share of His father's dominions, which, as some authors say, was the eastern continent, and lower regions of Asia; but, according to the common opinion, Pluto's division lay in the west. He fixed his residence in Spain, and lived in Iberia, near the Pyrrenees mountains.

His whole domains are washed with vast and rapid rivers, whose peculiar qualities strike horror into mortals. Cocytus falls with an impetuous roaring; Phlegethon rages with a torrent of flames; the Acharusian fen is dreadful for its stench and filth: nor does Charon, the ferryman, who wafts souls over, occasion any less horror; Cerberus, the triple-headed dog, stands ready with open mouths to receive them; and the Furies shake at them their serpentine locks.

He is usually represented in an ebony chariot, drawn by his four black horses, Orphnaeus, Aethon, Nycteus, and Alastor. As god of the dead, keys were the ensigns of his authority, because there is no possibility of returning when the gates of his palace are locked. Sometimes he holds a sceptre, to denote his power; at other times a wand, with which he directs the movements of his subject ghosts. Homer speaks of his helmet as having the quality of rendering the wearer invisible; and tells us that Minerva borrowed it when she fought against the Trojans, that she might not be discovered by Mars. Perseus also used this helmet when he cut off Medusa's head.

The widely accepted story about Hades and Persephone was also told of Pluto and Proserpina in Roman myth. Pluto and Proserpina are almost exact replicas of their Greek equivalents, as the Romans' ideas about the spirits of the underworld were very vague before adopting Greek mythology. Venus, in order to bring love to Pluto, sent her son Amor, also known as Cupid, to hit Pluto with one of his arrows. Proserpina was in Sicily, at the fountain of Arethusa near Enna, where she was playing with some nymphs and collecting flowers, when Pluto came out from the volcano Etna with four black horses. He abducted her in order to marry her and live with her in Hades, the Greco-Roman Underworld. She is therefore Queen of the Underworld.

Notably, Pluto was also her uncle, being the brother of her parents, Iuppiter and Ceres.

Ceres vainly went looking for her in any corner of the Earth, but wasn't able to find anything but her daughter’s small belt that was floating upon a little lake (made with the tears of the nymphs). Ceres angrily stopped the growth of fruits and vegetables, bestowing a malediction on Sicily. The plants died, and it became cold and dark above ground. Ceres refused to go back to Mount Olympus and started walking on the Earth, making a desert at every step. While Proserpina remained in captivity, Ceres wept, and nothing could grow or be harvested. The people of the world were dying, and prayed to Iuppiter for help.
Worried, Iuppiter sent Mercury to order Pluto to free Proserpina. Pluto would have obeyed, but by then, she had eaten six pomegranate seeds, whether of her own accord or through Pluto's trickery. Having tasted the food of the underworld, she could not leave, but when Jupiter ordered her return, Pluto struck a deal with him. He said that since she had stolen his six pomegranate seeds, she must stay with him six months of the year, but could remain aboveground the rest of the time. For this reason, in spring when Ceres received her daughter back, the crops blossomed and flowers colored in a beautiful welcome to her daughter, and in summer they flourished. In the autumn, Ceres changed the leaves to shades of brown and orange (her favorite colors) as a gift to Proserpina before she had to return to the underworld. During the time that Proserpina resided with Pluto, the world went through winter, a time when the earth was barren.

Although Hades was seen as somewhat merciless, Pluto was worshipped by the Romans for some of his kinder attributes. Although Hades took a central role in many Greek myths, Pluto was not as much of a general focus.

Pluto is also the god of the dead, terminally ill, and those wounded in battle.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6e/Nymphenburg-Statue-3a.jpg/396px-Nymphenburg-Statue-3a.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2038/1537899900_64f6b4c79a.jpg

Venus

2009-08-26T11:08:05Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

{{LanguageBar|{{PAGENAME}} }}

[[Image:Venus courtesy of Vroma.jpg|right|thumb|Venus, courtesy of Vroma]]

'''VENUS''' is a Goddess of Spring, flowers and vines. Her Latin name defined her character (''venerari'', "to entreat, charm"). She has taken on many attributes of Aphrodite, her Greek equivalent.

After the military defeat at Trasimene, the Sibylline Books were consulted, and a temple to Venus of Eryx, Phoenician Astarte, was dedicated on the Capitoline hill in 217 B.C.E. It was exceptional for a foreign deity to have a temple in the heart of the Capitoline. Capitoline Venus' cult did not have the ritual prostitutes famous on Mt. Eryx, Sicily; rather the cult was Roman, and linked to the Romans' Trojan origins.

Another temple was vowed to Venus Erycina extra Portam Collinam, the 23 of April 184 B.C.E. The cult statue, Venus seated with a dove and Amor, was said to have been a copy of that on Mt. Eryx. Outside the Pomerium, Venus' cult maintained more of its Sicilian character.

The Roman honored her as ''Venus Genetrix'', the mother of the Roman people. According to legend, she fell in love with [[Anchises]], a Trojan prince, but he was blinded when he saw her in her full glory. Their son [[Aeneas]] escaped the Fall of Troy and, after many adventures, settled in Italy. He became the forefather of the Roman people, and an ancestor of the ''Julii''. Both [[Julius Caesar]] and [[Hadrian]] dedicated temples to ''Venus Genetrix''. Hadrian's still stands near the Flavian amphitheatre.

Venus has darker aspects too, such as ''Venus Libitina'', an aspect of ''Venus'' associated with the extinction of life force.

Here is a full list of her epithets: Calva, Capitolina, Cloacina, Erycina, Felix, Fisica, Frutis, Genetrix, Iovia, Libitina, Martialis, Myrtea, Obsequens, Plagiaria, Syntrophus, Verticordia, Victrix.

= Poem =

from [[Titus Lucretius Carus|Lucretius]]' ''De Rerum Natura'':

Mother of Rome, delight of Gods and men, 
Dear Venus that beneath the gliding stars 
Makest to teem the many-voyaged main 
And fruitful lands- for all of living things 
Through thee alone are evermore conceived, 
Through thee are risen to visit the great sun- 
Before thee, Goddess, and thy coming on, 
Flee stormy wind and massy cloud away, 
For thee the daedal Earth bears scented flowers, 
For thee waters of the unvexed deep 
Smile, and the hollows of the serene sky 
Glow with diffused radiance for thee! 
For soon as comes the springtime face of day, 
And procreant gales blow from the West unbarred, 
First fowls of air, smit to the heart by thee, 
Foretoken thy approach, O thou Divine, 
And leap the wild herds round the happy fields 
Or swim the bounding torrents. Thus amain, 
Seized with the spell, all creatures follow thee 
Whithersoever thou walkest forth to lead, 
And thence through seas and mountains and swift streams, 
Through leafy homes of birds and greening plains, 
Kindling the lure of love in every breast, 
Thou bringest the eternal generations forth, 
Kind after kind. And since 'tis thou alone 
Guidest the Cosmos, and without thee naught 
Is risen to reach the shining shores of light, 
Nor aught of joyful or of lovely born, 
Thee do I crave co-partner in that verse 
Which I presume on Nature to compose 

= Invocation =

"Seu tu caelestis Venus, quae primis rerum exordiis sexuum diversitatem generato Amore sociasti et aeterna subole humano genere propagato nunc circumfluo Paphii sacrario coleris." — Apuleius, ''Metamorphosis'' 11.2

[You celestial Venus, who at the beginnings of the world united the difference of the sexes making to rise the Love and propagating the eternal progeny of the human kind, now you are honored in the temple of Paphos that the sea surrounds."]

= Sources =

"La Réligion Romaine de Venus" Robert Schilling
"Dieux et Déesses de L'Univers Phénecien et Punique" E. Lipinski

[[Category:Roman Gods]]

Iuppiter

2009-08-26T11:07:22Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

{{LanguageBar|Iuppiter}}

'''IUPPITER''' (alt. spelling '''Jupiter''') is the God of the sky, moon, winds, rain and thunder, who became king of the Gods after overthrowing his father Saturnus. The ancient name of Iuppiter was ''Diespiter'', whose root is Dios (= Zeus, God) + Pater (= Father). As ''Iuppiter Optimus Maximus'', he is the tutelary God of Rome. As a warrior, he is ''Iuppiter Stator'', protector of the City and State who exhorts soldiers to be steadfast in battle. But Iuppiter has many aspects, attributes, names and epithets.

Iuppiter originated as a vocative compound of the archaic Latin vocative *Iou and pater ("father") and came to replace the archaic Latin nominative case *Ious. Jove is a less common English formation based on Iov-, the stem of oblique cases of the Latin name. Linguistic studies identify the form *Iou-pater as deriving from the Indo-European vocative compound *Dyēu-pəter (nominative: *Dyēus-pətēr meaning "O Father Sky-god"). Older forms of the deity's name in Rome were Djeus-pater (“day/sky-father”), then Diéspiter. Djeus is the etymological equivalent of Greece's Zeus and of the Teutonics' Ziu, gen. Ziewes. The Indo-European deity is thus the god from which the Greek Zeus and the Vedic Dyaus Pita are derived. The name of the God was also adopted as the name of the planet Jupiter, and was the original namesake of Latin forms of the weekday now known in English as Thursday but originally called Iovis Dies in Latin, giving rise to ''jeudi'' in French, ''jueves'' in Spanish, ''joi'' in Romanian, ''giovedì'' in Italian, ''dijous'' in Catalan, ''Xoves'' in Galego, ''Joibe'' in Furlan.

http://www.odysseyadventures.ca/articles/olympia/zeus_statue.jpg

==Epithets of Iuppiter==
[[Image:Juppiter courtesy of Vroma.jpg|right|frame]]

Iuppiter was given many names.

'''By aspect:'''

''Iuppiter Caelestis'' ("heavenly")

''Iuppiter Elicius'' (of weather and storms)

''Iuppiter Feretrius'' ("who carries away the spoils of war"; called upon to witness solemn oaths - cf. "by Jove"). The epithet or “numen” is probably connected with ferire, the stroke of ritual as illustrated in foedus ferire, of which the silex, a quartz rock, is evidence in his temple on the Capitoline hill, which is said to have been the first temple in Rome, erected and dedicated by Romulus to commemorate his winning of the spolia opima from Acron, king of the Caeninenses, and to serve as a repository for them. Iuppiter Feretrius was therefore equivalent to Iuppiter Lapis, the latter used for a specially solemn oath.

''Iuppiter Fulgurator'' or ''Fulgens'' ("of the lightning")

''Iuppiter Lucetius'' ("of the light")

''Iuppiter Optimus Maximus'' (" the best and greatest")

''Iuppiter Pluvius'' ("sender of rain")

''Iuppiter Stator'' (from stare meaning "standing")

''Iuppiter Summanus'' (sender of nocturnal thunder)

''Iuppiter Terminalus'' or ''Terminus'' (defends boundaries)

''Iuppiter Tonans'' ("thunderer")

''Iuppiter Victor'' (led Roman armies to victory)

'''By synchronisation or geography:'''

''Iuppiter Ammon'' (Jupiter was equated with the Egyptian deity Amun after the Roman conquest of Egypt)

''Iuppiter Brixianus'' (Jupiter equated with the local god of the town of Brescia in Cisalpine Gaul (modern North Italy)

''Jupiter Capitolinus'', the Jupiter Optimus Maximus, venerated in all the places in the Roman Empire with a Capitol (Capitolium)

''Iuppiter Dolichenus'' (from Doliche in Syria, originally a Baal weather and war god), since Vespasian popular among the Roman legions as god of war and victory, esp. on the Danube (Carnuntum). Stands on a bull, a thunderbolt in the left, a double ax in the right hand.

''Iuppiter Indiges'' (Jupiter "of the country" - a title given to Aeneas after his death, according to Livy)

''Iuppiter Ladicus'' (Jupiter equated with a Celtiberian mountain-god and worshipped as the spirit of Mount Ladicus)

''Iuppiter Laterius'' or ''Latiaris'' ("God of Latium")

''Iuppiter Parthinus'' or ''Partinus'' (Jupiter was worshiped under this name on the borders of north-east Dalmatia and Upper Moesia, perhaps being associated with the local tribe known as the Partheni)

''Iuppiter Poeninus'' (Jupiter was worshiped in the Alps under this name, around the Great St Bernard Pass, where he had a sanctuary)

''Iuppiter Solutorius'' (a local version of Jupiter worshipped in Spain; he was syncretised with the local Iberian god Eacus)

''Iuppiter Taranis'' (Jupiter equated with the Celtic god Taranis)

''Iuppiter Uxellinus'' (Jupiter as a god of high mountains)

[[Category:Roman Gods]]

Mercurius

2009-08-26T11:05:10Z

Gaius Equitius Cato:

{{LanguageBar|Mercurius}}

'''MERCURIUS''' (Mercury) is the God of commerce. The guild of merchants honored Mercurius at his temple near the [[Circus Maximus]] on his festival, the ''[[Mercuralia]]'', on May 15. They also sprinkled themselves and their merchandise with sacred water in a ceremony at the [[Capena Gate]].

A common epithet of Mercurius was ''Bonus Mercurius'' very similar to ''optimus.''<ref>See Brouwer, Bona Dea, p.246.</ref>

When Mercurius became identified with the Greek Hermes, he took on the duties of messenger of the Gods, ''Psychopompus'' who guides the souls of the dead through the [[Underworld]], and God of sleep and dreams. He also became God of thieves and trickery, owing to a trick he had played on ''[[Apollo]]'' by stealing and hiding the Sun God's cattle. His serpent-twined staff (two serpents), the ''caduceus'', was originally a magician's wand for wealth (and is often confused with the "rod of [[Aesculapius]]", entwined with a single serpent) but became identified later as a herald's staff. But ''Mercurius'' has many aspects, attributes, names and epithets.

"Then make me your herald, Father,’ Hermes answered, ‘and I will be responsible for the safety of all divine property, and never tell lies, though I cannot promise always to tell the whole truth.’
‘That would not be expected of you,’ said Zeus, with a smile. ‘But your duties would include the making of treaties, the promotion of commerce, and the maintenance of free rights of way for travellers on any road in the world.’ When Hermes agreed to these conditions, Zeus gave him a herald’s staff with white ribbons, which everyone was ordered to respect; a round hat against the rain, and winged golden sandals which carried him with the swiftness of the wind. He was at once welcomed into the Olympian family, whom he taught the art of making a fire by the rapid twirling of the fire-stick." '''[2]'''

Mercury did not appear among the numinous di indigetes of early Roman religion. Rather, he subsumed the earlier Dei Lucrii as Roman religion was syncretized with Greek religion during the time of the Roman Republic, starting around the 4th century BC. From the beginning, Mercury had essentially the same aspects as Hermes, wearing winged shoes talaria and a winged petasos, and carrying the caduceus, a herald's staff with two entwined snakes that was Apollo's gift to Hermes. He was often accompanied by a cockerel, herald of the new day, a ram or goat, symbolizing fertility, and a tortoise, referring to Mercury's legendary invention of the lyre from a tortoise shell. Like Hermes, he was also a messenger of the gods and a god of trade, particularly of the grain trade. Mercury was also considered a god of abundance and commercial success, particularly in Gaul. He was also, like Hermes, the Romans' psychopomp, leading newly-deceased souls to the afterlife. Additionally, Ovid wrote that Mercury carried Morpheus' dreams from the valley of Somnus to sleeping humans.

When they described the gods of Celtic and Germanic tribes, rather than considering them separate deities, the Romans interpreted them as local manifestations or aspects of their own gods, a cultural trait called the ''interpretatio Romana''. Mercury in particular was reported as becoming extremely popular among the nations the Roman Empire conquered; Julius Caesar wrote of Mercury being the most popular god in Britain and Gaul, regarded as the inventor of all the arts. This is probably because in the Roman syncretism, Mercury was equated with the Celtic god Lugus, and in this aspect was commonly accompanied by the Celtic goddess Rosmerta. Although Lugus may originally have been a deity of light or the sun (though this is disputed), similar to the Roman Apollo, his importance as a god of trade and commerce made him more comparable to Mercury, and Apollo was instead equated with the Celtic deity Belenus

Mercury's temple in the Circus Maximus, between the Aventine and Palatine hills, was built in 495 BC. This was a fitting place to worship a swift god of trade and travel, since it was a major center of commerce as well as a racetrack. Since it stood between the plebeian stronghold on the Aventine and the patrician center on the Palatine, it also emphasized the role of Mercury as a mediator.
Because Mercury was not one of the early deities surviving from the Roman Kingdom, he was not assigned a flamen ("priest"), but he did have a major festival on May 15, the Mercuralia. During the Mercuralia, merchants sprinkled water from his sacred well near the Porta Capena on their heads.

'''Epithets'''

''Mercurius Artaios'', a combination of Mercury with the Celtic god Artaios, a deity of bears and hunting who was worshiped at Beaucroissant, France.

''Mercurius Arvernus'', a combination of the Celtic Arvernus with Mercury. Arvernus was worshiped in the Rhineland, possibly as a particular deity of the Arverni tribe, though no dedications to Mercurius Arvernus occur in their territory in the Auvergne region of central France.

''Mercurius Cissonius'', a combination of Mercury with the Celtic god Cissonius, who is written of in the area spanning from Cologne, Germany to Saintes, France.

''Mercurius Esibraeus'', a combination of the Iberian deity Esibraeus with the Roman deity Mercury. Esibraeus is mentioned only in an inscription found at Medelim, Portugal, and is possibly the same deity as Banda Isibraiegus, who is invoked in an inscription from the nearby village of Bemposta.

''Mercurius Gebrinius'', a combination of Mercury with the Celtic or Germanic Gebrinius, known from an inscription on an altar in Bonn, Germany.

''Mercurius Moccus'', from a Celtic god, Moccus, who was equated with Mercury, known from evidence at Langres, France. The name Moccus ("pig") implies that this deity was connected to boar-hunting.

''Mercurius Visucius'', a combination of the Celtic god Visucius with the Roman god Mercury, attested in an inscription from Stuttgart, Germany. Visucius was worshiped primarily in the frontier area of the empire in Gaul and Germany. Although he was primarily associated with Mercury, Visucius was also sometimes linked to the Roman god Mars, as a dedicatory inscription to "Mars Visucius" and Visucia, Visicius' female counterpart, was found in Gaul

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/186/468123109_1e15c65308_o.jpg http://z.about.com/d/atheism/1/0/n/S/Hermes02-l.jpg

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Roman Gods]]
2. Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths. Vol I. London: Penguin, (1960) p. 65