1.
Diana of Versailles
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The Diana of Versailles is a slightly over lifesize marble statue of the Greek goddess Artemis, with a deer, located in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. It is a Roman copy of a lost Greek bronze original attributed to Leochares, the statue is also known as Diana à la Biche, Diane Chasseresse, Artemis of the Chase, and Artemis with the Hind. In 1602 Henri IV removed it to the Palais du Louvre, where the Diana was installed in a specially designed gallery to receive it, at the time its restorations were revised by Barthélemy Prieur. The Diana was installed in the Grande Galerie of Versailles by Louis XIV, for Marly a marble copy was executed by Guillaume Coustou in 1710. As one of Frances greatest treasures, the Diane Chasseresse returned to the Louvre in An VI of the First Republic and it was restored once more, in 1802, by Bernard Lange. Diana is represented as a slender and masculine huntress, attended by a smaller than life buck in vibrancy of life and she looks toward the right, perhaps towards the very deer, as with raised right arm she draws an arrow from the quiver. She wears a short Dorian chiton, a himation around her waist, comparable Roman replicas of the same model, noted by the Louvres website, have been found at Leptis Magna and at Antalya. A miniature replica of the statue stood on the mantle in the Titanics first class lounge. In 1986, Robert Ballard discovered and photographed the statue on the sea floor near the bow section of the wreck, maxime Collignon, Manual of Mythology, in Relation to Greek Art, H. Grevel & Co.1890. Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny,1981, taste and the Antique, The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900 Cat. no.30. A History of Greek Art vol, I, pp 460–61 Diana of Versailles Artémis à la biche, dite Diane de Versailles Château de Fontainebleau, Le Jardin de Diane
2.
Louvre
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The Louvre or the Louvre Museum is the worlds largest museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the citys 1st arrondissement, approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres. The Louvre is the second most visited museum after the Palace Museum in China. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II, remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to the expansion of the city, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function and. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace, in 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nations masterpieces. The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum renamed Musée Napoléon, the collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic, whether this was the first building on that spot is not known, it is possible that Philip modified an existing tower. According to the authoritative Grand Larousse encyclopédique, the name derives from an association with wolf hunting den, in the 7th century, St. Fare, an abbess in Meaux, left part of her Villa called Luvra situated in the region of Paris to a monastery. This territory probably did not correspond exactly to the modern site, the Louvre Palace was altered frequently throughout the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, Charles V converted the building into a residence and in 1546, Francis acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvres holdings, his acquisitions including Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa. After Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, constructions slowed, however, on 14 October 1750, Louis XV agreed and sanctioned a display of 96 pieces from the royal collection, mounted in the Galerie royale de peinture of the Luxembourg Palace. Under Louis XVI, the museum idea became policy. The comte dAngiviller broadened the collection and in 1776 proposed conversion of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre – which contained maps – into the French Museum, many proposals were offered for the Louvres renovation into a museum, however, none was agreed on. Hence the museum remained incomplete until the French Revolution, during the French Revolution the Louvre was transformed into a public museum. In May 1791, the Assembly declared that the Louvre would be a place for bringing together monuments of all the sciences, on 10 August 1792, Louis XVI was imprisoned and the royal collection in the Louvre became national property
3.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
4.
Religion in ancient Rome
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The Romans thought of themselves as highly religious, and attributed their success as a world power to their collective piety in maintaining good relations with the gods. According to legends, most of Romes religious institutions could be traced to its founders, particularly Numa Pompilius, the Sabine second king of Rome, who negotiated directly with the gods. This archaic religion was the foundation of the mos maiorum, the way of the ancestors or simply tradition, as Rome came into contact with foreign cultures, and conquered them, foreign religions increasingly attracted devotees among Romans, who increasingly had ancestry from elsewhere in the Empire. The emperors promoted the Imperial cult around the empire, and this, ultimately, Roman polytheism was brought to an end with the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the empire. The priesthoods of public religion were held by members of the elite classes, there was no principle analogous to separation of church and state in ancient Rome. During the Roman Republic, the men who were elected public officials might also serve as augurs. Priests married, raised families, and led politically active lives, Julius Caesar became pontifex maximus before he was elected consul. The augurs read the will of the gods and supervised the marking of boundaries as a reflection of universal order, Roman religion was thus practical and contractual, based on the principle of do ut des, I give that you might give. Even the most skeptical among Romes intellectual elite such as Cicero, for ordinary Romans, religion was a part of daily life. Each home had a shrine at which prayers and libations to the familys domestic deities were offered. Neighborhood shrines and sacred such as springs and groves dotted the city. The Roman calendar was structured around religious observances, women, slaves, and children all participated in a range of religious activities. The Romans are known for the number of deities they honored. The Romans looked for common ground between their major gods and those of the Greeks, adapting Greek myths and iconography for Latin literature, etruscan religion was also a major influence, particularly on the practice of augury. The mysteries, however, involved exclusive oaths and secrecy, conditions that conservative Romans viewed with suspicion as characteristic of magic, conspiratorial, or subversive activity. Sporadic and sometimes brutal attempts were made to suppress religionists who seemed to threaten traditional morality and unity, one way that Rome incorporated diverse peoples was by supporting their religious heritage, building temples to local deities that framed their theology within the hierarchy of Roman religion. Inscriptions throughout the Empire record the worship of local and Roman deities. Because Romans had never been obligated to one god or one cult only
5.
Marcus Aurelius
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Marcus Aurelius was Emperor of Rome from 161 to 180. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Verus death in 169, Marcus Aurelius was the last of the so-called Five Good Emperors. He was a practitioner of Stoicism, and his untitled writing, during his reign, the Roman Empire defeated a revitalized Parthian Empire in the East, Aurelius general Avidius Cassius sacked the capital Ctesiphon in 164. A revolt in the East led by Avidius Cassius failed to gain momentum and was suppressed immediately, the major sources for the life and rule of Marcus Aurelius are patchy and frequently unreliable. For Marcus life and rule, the biographies of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus and Lucius Verus are largely reliable, a body of correspondence between Marcus tutor Fronto and various Antonine officials survives in a series of patchy manuscripts, covering the period from c.138 to 166. Marcus own Meditations offer a window on his life, but are largely undateable. The main narrative source for the period is Cassius Dio, a Greek senator from Bithynian Nicaea who wrote a history of Rome from its founding to 229 in eighty books. Dio is vital for the history of the period, but his senatorial prejudices. Inscriptions and coin finds supplement the literary sources, Marcus family originated in Ucubi, a small town southeast of Córdoba in Iberian Baetica. Verus elder son—Marcus Aurelius father—Marcus Annius Verus married Domitia Lucilla, Lucilla was the daughter of the patrician P. Calvisius Tullus Ruso and the elder Domitia Lucilla. The elder Domitia Lucilla had inherited a fortune from her maternal grandfather and her paternal grandfather by adoption. Lucilla and Verus had two children, a son, Marcus, born on 26 April 121 AD, and a daughter, Annia Cornificia Faustina, Verus probably died in 124 AD, during his praetorship, when Marcus was only three years old. Though he can hardly have known him, Marcus Aurelius wrote in his Meditations that he had learned modesty and manliness from his memories of his father, Lucilla, following prevailing aristocratic customs, probably did not spend much time with her son. Marcus was in the care of nurses, even so, Marcus credits his mother with teaching him religious piety, simplicity in diet and how to avoid the ways of the rich. In his letters, Marcus makes frequent and affectionate reference to her, he was grateful that, although she was fated to die young, yet she spent her last years with me. After his fathers death, Aurelius was raised by his paternal grandfather Marcus Annius Verus who, technically this was not an adoption, since an adoption would be the legal creation of a new and different patria potestas. Another man, Lucius Catilius Severus, also participated in his upbringing, Severus is described as Marcus maternal great-grandfather, he is probably the stepfather of the elder Lucilla. Marcus was raised in his parents home on the Caelian Hill and it was an upscale region, with few public buildings but many aristocratic villas
6.
Glossary of ancient Roman religion
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The vocabulary of ancient Roman religion was highly specialized. Its study affords important information about the religion, traditions and beliefs of the ancient Romans and this legacy is conspicuous in European cultural history in its influence on later juridical and religious vocabulary in Europe, particularly of the Western Church. For theonyms, or the names and epithets of gods, see List of Roman deities, for public religious holidays, see Roman festivals. For temples see the List of Ancient Roman temples, individual landmarks of religious topography in ancient Rome are not included in this list, see Roman temple. The verb abominari was a term of augury for an action that rejects or averts an unfavourable omen indicated by a signum, the noun is abominatio, from which English abomination derives. At the taking of formally solicited auspices, the observer was required to acknowledge any potentially bad sign occurring within the templum he was observing, regardless of the interpretation. He might, however, take actions in order to ignore the signa, including avoiding the sight of them. The latter tactic required promptness, wit and skill based on discipline, thus the omen had no validity apart from the observation of it. The aedes was the place of a god. It was thus a structure that housed the image, distinguished from the templum or sacred district. Aedes is one of several Latin words that can be translated as shrine or temple, for instance, the Temple of Vesta, as it is called in English, was in Latin an aedes. See also the diminutive aedicula, a small shrine, in his work On Architecture, Vitruvius always uses the word templum in the technical sense of a space defined through augury, with aedes the usual word for the building itself. The design of an aedes, he writes, should be appropriate to the characteristics of the deity. Thus in theory, though not always in practice, architectural aesthetics had a theological dimension, the word aedilis, a public official, is related by etymology, among the duties of the aediles was the overseeing of public works, including the building and maintenance of temples. The temple of Flora, for instance, was built in 241 BC by two aediles acting on Sibylline oracles, the plebeian aediles had their headquarters at the aedes of Ceres. In religious usage, ager was terrestrial space defined for the purposes of augury in relation to auspicia, there were five kinds of ager, Romanus, Gabinus, peregrinus, hosticus and incertus. The ager Romanus originally included the space outside the pomerium. According to Varro, the ager Gabinus pertained to the circumstances of the oppidum of Gabii
7.
Libation
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A libation is a ritual pouring of a liquid as an offering to a god or spirit, or in memory of those who have passed on. It was common in many religions of antiquity and continues to be offered in various cultures today, various substances have been used for libations, most commonly wine or olive oil, and in India, ghee. The vessels used in the ritual, including the patera, often had a significant form which differentiated them from secular vessels, the libation could be poured onto something of religious significance, such as an altar, or into the earth. In East Asia, pouring an offering of rice into a stream, symbolises the unattachment from karma. Libation was part of ancient Egyptian society where it was an offering to honor and please the various divinities, sacred ancestors, humans present and not present. It is suggested that libation originated somewhere in the upper Nile Valley and spread out to other regions of Africa, isaiah uses libation as a metaphor when describing the end of the Suffering Servant figure who poured out his life unto death. Libation was a central and vital aspect of ancient Greek religion and it is one of the basic religious acts that define piety in ancient Greece, dating back to the Bronze Age and even prehistoric Greece. Libations were a part of life, and the pious might perform them every day in the morning and evening. A libation most often consisted of mixed wine and water, but could also be unmixed wine, honey, oil, water, the form of libation called spondē is typically the ritualized pouring of wine from a jug or bowl held in the hand. The most common ritual was to pour the liquid from an oinochoē into a phiale, after wine was poured from the phiale, the remainder of the contents was drunk by the celebrant. A libation is poured any time wine is to be drunk, the etiquette of the symposium required that when the first bowl of wine was served, a libation was made to Zeus and the Olympian gods. Heroes received a libation from the second krater served, and Zeus the Finisher from the third, an alternative was to offer a libation from the first bowl to the Agathos Daimon and from the third bowl to Hermes. An individual at the symposium could also make an invocation of, the Greeks stood when they prayed, either with their arms uplifted, or in the act of libation with the right arm extended to hold the phiale. In conducting animal sacrifice, wine is poured onto the victim as part of its ritual slaughter and preparation and this scene is commonly depicted in Greek art, which also often shows sacrificers or the gods themselves holding the phiale. The Greek verb spendō, pour a libation, also conclude a pact, derives from the Indo-European root *spend-, make an offering, perform a rite, the noun is spondē or spondai, libation. In the middle voice, the verb means enter into an agreement, blood sacrifice was performed to begin a war, spondai marked the conclusion of hostilities, and is often thus used in the sense of armistice, treaty. Libations poured onto the earth are meant for the dead and for the chthonic gods, in the Book of the Dead in the Odyssey, Odysseus digs an offering pit around which he pours in order honey, wine and water. For the form of libation called choē, a vessel is tipped over and emptied onto the ground for the chthonic gods
8.
Votum
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In ancient Roman religion, a votum, plural vota, is a vow or promise made to a deity. The word comes from the past participle of the Latin verb voveo, vovere, vow, promise. As the result of this action, a votum is also that which fulfills a vow, that is, the thing promised, such as offerings. The votum is thus an aspect of the nature of Roman religion. In everyday life, individuals might make votive offerings to a deity for private concerns, vota privata are attested in abundance by inscriptions, particularly for the later Imperial era. These are regularly marked with the letters V. S. L. M, votum solvit libens merito, noting that the person making the dedication He has fulfilled his vow, willingly, as it should. William Warde Fowler found in these expressions of … religious feeling. During the Republican era, the votum was a part of ceremonies conducted at the Capitoline by a general holding imperium before deploying. The triumph with its dedication of spoils and animal sacrifices at the Capitol was in part a fulfillment of such a vow. A general who faced an uncertain outcome in battle might make a votum in the field promising to build an out of gratitude for divine aid in a victory. In 311 BC, Junius Bubulcus became the first plebeian general to vow and oversee the building of a temple, he honored the goddess Salus, a vow would also be made in connection with the ritual of evocatio, negotiations with the enemys tutelary deity to offer superior cult. An extreme form of votum was the devotio, the ritual by which a general sacrificed himself in battle, in the Republic, vota pro salute rei publicae were offered at the beginning of the year, on the day the consuls took office. Under the Empire, the people assembled on January 3 to offer collective vows for the salus of the emperor, offerings were made to Jupiter, Juno, Salus, and sometimes other deities. These vows originated in 30 BC, when the senate decreed vota on behalf of Octavian as princeps, the vota for the state continued on January 1, while those on behalf of the emperor and his family became fixed on January 3. In Rome, these ceremonies were conducted by the consuls and pontiffs, vota publica continued even after Christianity had become the official religion of the Empire, and possibly as late as the 6th century. Because the vows were as much affirmations of political loyalty as religious expressions, they were difficult to abolish without undermining the sacral aura of the emperors authority
9.
Roman temple
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Ancient Roman temples were among the most important buildings in Roman culture, and some of the richest buildings in Roman architecture, though only a few survive in any sort of complete state. Today they remain the most obvious symbol of Roman architecture and their construction and maintenance was a major part of ancient Roman religion, and all towns of any importance had at least one main temple, as well as smaller shrines. The main room housed the image of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated. Behind the cella was a room or rooms used by attendants for storage of equipment. The ordinary worshipper rarely entered the cella, and most public ceremonies were performed outside, on the portico, with a crowd gathered in the temple precinct. The most common architectural plan had a rectangular temple raised on a podium, with a clear front with a portico at the top of steps. The sides and rear of the building had much less architectural emphasis, there were also circular plans, generally with columns all round, and outside Italy there were many compromises with traditional local styles. The Roman form of temple developed initially from Etruscan temples, themselves influenced by the Greeks, public religious ceremonies of the official Roman religion took place outdoors, and not within the temple building. Some ceremonies were processions that started at, visited, or ended with a temple or shrine, sacrifices, chiefly of animals, would take place at an open-air altar within the templum. Especially under the Empire, exotic foreign cults gained followers in Rome and these often had very different practices, some preferring underground places of worship, while others, like Early Christians, worshipped in houses. The decline of Roman religion was relatively slow, and the temples themselves were not appropriated by the government until a decree of the Emperor Honorius in 415. Santi Cosma e Damiano, in the Roman Forum, originally the Temple of Romulus, was not dedicated as a church until 527. The best known is the Pantheon, Rome, which is however highly untypical, being a large circular temple with a magnificent concrete roof. The English word temple derives from the Latin templum, which was not the building itself. The Roman architect Vitruvius always uses the word templum to refer to the sacred precinct, the more common Latin words for a temple or shrine were sacellum, aedes, delubrum, and fanum. The Etruscans were a people of northern Italy, whose civilization was at its peak in the seventh century BC, the Etruscans were already influenced by early Greek architecture, so Roman temples were distinctive but with both Etruscan and Greek features. Especially in the periods, further statuary might be placed on the roof. As in the Maison Carrée, columns at the side might be half-columns and these steps were normally only at the front, and typically not the whole width of that
10.
Roman festivals
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Festivals in ancient Rome were an important part of Roman religious life during both the Republican and Imperial eras, and one of the primary features of the Roman calendar. Feriae were either public or private, state holidays were celebrated by the Roman people and received public funding. Games, such as the Ludi Apollinares, were not technically feriae, although feriae were paid for by the state, ludi were often funded by wealthy individuals. Feriae privatae were holidays celebrated in honor of individuals or by families. Conceptivae were annual holidays that were moveable feasts, the date was announced by the magistrates or priests who were responsible for them, imperativae were holidays held on demand when special celebrations or expiations were called for. One of the most important sources for Roman holidays is Ovids Fasti, varro defined feriae as days instituted for the sake of the gods. Religious rites were performed on the feriae, and public business was suspended, even slaves were supposed to be given some form of rest. Cicero says specifically that people who were free should not engage in lawsuits and quarrels, agricultural writers recognized that some jobs on a farm might still need to be performed, and specified what these were. Some agricultural tasks not otherwise permitted could be carried out if an expiation were made in advance, within the city of Rome, the flamens and the priest known as the Rex sacrorum were not allowed even to see work done. On a practical level, those who inadvertently worked could pay a fine or offer up a piaculum, work considered vital either to the gods or preserving human life was excusable, according to some experts on religious law. Although Romans were required not to work, they were not required to take any action unless they were priests or had family rites to maintain. Following is a month-by-month list of Roman festivals and games that had a place on the calendar. For some, the date on which they were first established is recorded, a deitys festival often marked the anniversary of the founding of a temple, or a rededication after a major renovation. Festivals not named for deities are thought to be among the oldest on the calendar, the first day of the month was the Kalends. Each Kalends was sacred to Juno, and the Regina sacrorum marked the day by presiding over a sacrifice to the goddess. A pontiff and the Rex sacrorum reported the sighting of the new moon, the Ides were sacred to Jupiter. On each Ides, a lamb was led along the Via Sacra to the Capitolium for sacrifice to Jupiter. The list also includes notable public religious events such as sacrifices
11.
Ludi
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Ludi were public games held for the benefit and entertainment of the Roman people. Ludi were held in conjunction with, or sometimes as the feature of, Roman religious festivals. The earliest ludi were horse races in the circus, animal exhibitions with mock hunts and theatrical performances also became part of the festivals. The singular form ludus, game, sport or play has several meanings in Latin, the plural is used for games in a sense analogous to the Greek festivals of games, such as the Panhellenic Games. The late-antique scholar Isidore of Seville, however, classifies the forms of ludus as gymnicus, circensis, the relation of gladiatorial games to the ludi is complex, see Gladiator. Originally, all seem to have been votive offerings, staged as the fulfillment of a vow to a deity whose favor had been sought. In 366 BC, the Ludi Romani became the first games to be placed on the calendar as an annual event sponsored by the state as a whole. Games in the circus were preceded by a parade featuring the competitors, mounted youths of the Roman nobility, armed dancers, musicians, a satyr chorus, as the product of military victory, ludi were often connected to triumphs. The first recorded venatio was presented in 186 BC by M. Fulvius Nobilior as part of his ludi votivi, for which he paid with booty displayed at his triumph. Although public money was allocated for the staging of ludi, the presiding official increasingly came to augment the splendor of his games from personal funds as a form of public relations. The sponsor was able to advertise his wealth, while declaring that he intended to share it for public benefit, the religious festivals to which the ludi were attached also occasioned public banquets, and often public works such as the refurbishing or building of temples. It was during these ludi, which served as funeral games. In the late Republic, performances were held at the intersections of neighborhoods throughout the city on the same day. During the civil wars of the 80s, these gave rise to often unruly plebeian political expression by the neighborhood organizations. Freedmen played a role, and even slaves participated in the festivities. In 67 BC, the Compitalia had been disrupted by a riot at the ludi, along with some forms of occupational guilds and neighborhood associations, the ludi compitalicii were consequently banned by the senate in 64 BC. An unnamed tribune of the plebs supported efforts to stage the ludi for 61 BC, the consul Calpurnius Piso, father-in-law of Caesar, permitted the games, even though the organizations that ran them were still outlawed. Caesar banned the collegia and ludi again in 46 BC, in 7 BC, Augustus reorganized Rome for administrative purposes into 265 districts which replaced but which were still called vici
12.
Roman funerary practices
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Roman funerary practices include the Ancient Romans religious rituals concerning funerals, cremations, and burials. They were part of the Tradition, the code from which Romans derived their social norms. Roman cemeteries were located outside the boundary of its cities. They were visited regularly with offerings of food and wine, funeral monuments appear throughout the Roman Empire, and their inscriptions are an important source of information for otherwise unknown individuals and history. A Roman sarcophagus could be an elaborately crafted art work, decorated with sculpture depicting a scene that was allegorical, mythological, or historical. In Greco-Roman antiquity, the bodies of the dead were regarded as polluting, at the same time, loving duty toward ones ancestors was a fundamental part of ancient Roman culture. The care of the dead negotiated these two emotionally opposed attitudes, when a person died at home, family members and intimate friends gathered around the death bed. In accordance with a belief that equated the soul with the breath, the closest relative sealed the passing of spirit from the body with a last kiss, the relatives began lamentations, calling on the deceased by name. The body was placed on the ground, washed. The placing of the body on the ground is a doublet of birth ritual, male citizens were then dressed in a toga, and others in attire appropriate to their station in life. Men who had earned a wreath wore one in death, after the body was prepared, it lay in state in the atrium of the family home, with the feet pointed toward the door. Other circumstances pertained to those who lived, as most Romans did, in apartment buildings, since elite funerals required complex arrangements, the body had to be preserved in the mean time. Charons obol was a coin placed in or on the mouth of the deceased, the coin was rationalized as his payment, the satirist Lucian remarks that in order to avoid death, one should simply not pay the fee. Evidence of Charons obol appears throughout the Western Roman Empire well into the Christian era, although inhumation was practiced regularly in archaic Rome, cremation was the most common burial practice in the Mid- to Late Republic and the Empire into the 1st and 2nd centuries. Crematory images appear in Latin poetry on the theme of the dead, when Propertius describes his dead lover Cynthia visiting him in a dream, the revenants dress is scorched down the side and the fire of the pyre has corroded the familiar ring she wears. The care and cultivation of the dead did not end with the funeral and formal period of mourning, libations were brought to the grave, and some tombs were even equipped with feeding tubes to facilitate delivery. The Romans referred to infants who died in the cradle as arpagi, the Romans did not hold funerals for arpagi. Their bodies were not cremated, or interred, and no monuments or epitaphs were made for them
13.
Imperial cult (ancient Rome)
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The Imperial cult of ancient Rome identified emperors and some members of their families with the divinely sanctioned authority of the Roman State. Augustuss reforms transformed Romes Republican system of government to a de facto monarchy, couched in traditional Roman practices, the princeps was expected to balance the interests of the Roman military, Senate and people, and to maintain peace, security and prosperity throughout an ethnically diverse empire. A deceased emperor held worthy of the honor could be voted a state divinity by the Senate, in the development of Imperial rule from Principate to Dominate, the role of the Senate was increasingly marginalised and military loyalty became the key to Imperial authority. The Imperial cult was inseparable from that of Romes official deities, whose cult was essential to Romes survival, Traditional cult was a focus of Imperial revivalist legislation under Decius and Diocletian. Christian apologists and martyrologists saw the cult of the Emperor as a particularly offensive instrument of pagan impiety and it therefore became a focus of theological and political debate during the ascendancy of Christianity under Constantine I. The emperor Julian failed to reverse the declining support for Romes official religious practices, Romes traditional gods and Imperial cult were officially abandoned. However, many of the rites, practices and status distinctions that characterized the cult to emperors were perpetuated in the theology, for five centuries, the Roman Republic did not give worship to any historic figure, or any living man, although surrounded by divine and semi-divine monarchies. Romes legendary kings had been its masters, with their removal, Republican Romans could identify Romulus, similarly, Aeneas was worshipped as Jupiter Indiges. The aristocrats who held almost all Roman magistracies, and thereby occupied almost all of the Senate, among the highest of honors was the triumph. The triumphator rode in a chariot, bearing divine emblems, in a supposed to be inherited from the ancient kings of Rome. Whatever his personal ambitions, his victory and his triumph alike served the Roman Senate, people, in private life, however, tradition required that some human beings be treated as more or less divine, cult was due from familial inferiors to their superiors. A client could call his patron Jupiter on earth, the dead, collectively and individually, were gods of the underworld or afterlife. A prominent clan might claim divine influence and quasi-divine honors for its leader, death masks were made for all notable Romans and were displayed in the atria of their houses, they were used to represent their ghostly presence at family funerals. The mask of Scipio Africanus, Cornelias father and victor over Hannibal, was stored in the temple of Jupiter, a tradition arose in the centuries after his death that Africanus had been inspired by prophetic dreams, and was himself the son of Jupiter. There are several cases of unofficial cult directed at men viewed as saviors and this celebration, in Spain, featured a lavish banquet with local and imported delicacies, and a mechanical statue of Victory to crown Metellus, who wore a triumphators toga picta for the occasion. These festivities were organized by the quaestor Gaius Urbinus, but were not acts of the state, Metellus liked all this, but his older and pious contemporaries thought it arrogant and intolerable. After Gaius Marius defeated the Teutones, private citizens would offer food and drink to him alongside their household gods, when the Romans began to dominate large parts of the Greek world, Romes senior representatives there were given the same divine honours as were Hellenistic rulers. There were similar instances of divine cult to humans in the century, although some rulers, like Agesilaus
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Greco-Roman mysteries
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The main characterization of this religion is the secrecy associated with the particulars of the initiation and the ritual practice, which may not be revealed to outsiders. The most famous mysteries of Greco-Roman antiquity were the Eleusinian Mysteries, the mystery schools flourished in Late Antiquity, Julian the Apostate in the mid 4th century is known to have been initiated into three distinct mystery schools — most notably the mithraists. Because of this element of secrecy, we are ill-informed as to the beliefs and we know that they had a general likeness to one another. They too were embraced by the process of the inculturation of Christianity in its initial phase, the term Mystery derives from Latin mysterium, from Greek mysterion, in this context meaning secret rite or doctrine. The Mysteries were thus schools in all religious functions were closed to the uninitiated. This is also reflected in the division of theology by Varro, in civil theology, natural theology. Mysteries thus supplement rather than compete with civil religion, an individual could easily observe the rites of the state religion, be an initiate in one or several mysteries, and at the same time adhere to a certain philosophical school. In contrast to the rituals of civil religion, participation in which was expected of every member of society. This is important in the context of the persecution of Christians. The mystery schools offered a niche for the preservation of ancient religious ritual and they had, more often than not, come up from a barbarous underworld. The mysteries at Eleusis near Athens lasted for a thousand years, for this reason, what glimpses we do have of the older Greek mysteries have been taken as reflecting certain archaic aspects of common Indo-European religion, with parallels in Indo-Iranian religion. The mystery schools of Greco-Roman antiquity include the Eleusinian Mysteries, the Dionysian Mysteries, the ancient mystery schools were a subject of fascination for 19th and early-20th century German and French classical scholars. This literature had an influence on European culture in the late 19th century. Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung borrowed metaphors from this literature to reframe his theories, navigium Isidis Mysticism Notes Further reading Media related to Mysteric religions in ancient world at Wikimedia Commons
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College of Pontiffs
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The College of Pontiffs was a body of the ancient Roman state whose members were the highest-ranking priests of the state religion. The college consisted of the Pontifex Maximus and the pontifices, the Rex Sacrorum, the fifteen flamens. The College of Pontiffs was one of the four major priestly colleges, the others being of the augurs, the quindecimviri sacris faciundis, and the Epulones. The title pontifex comes from the Latin for bridge builder, an allusion to a very early role in placating the gods and spirits associated with the Tiber River. Also, Varro cites this position as meaning able to do, the pontifex maximus was the most important member of the college. Until 104 BC, the pontifex maximus held the power in appointing members to the other priesthoods in the college. The flamens were priests in charge of fifteen official cults of Roman religion, the three major flamens were the Flamen Dialis, the high priest of Jupiter, the Flamen Martialis, who cultivated Mars, and the Flamen Quirinalis, devoted to Quirinus. The deities cultivated by the flamines minores were Carmenta, Ceres, Falacer, Flora, Furrina, Palatua, Pomona, Portunes, Volcanus, Volturnus. The Vestal Virgins were the female members of the college. They were in charge of guarding Romes sacred hearth, keeping the flame burning inside the Temple of Vesta, around age 6 to 10, girls were chosen for this position and were obligated to perform the rites and obligations, including remaining chaste, for 30 years. Membership in the colleges of priests, including the College of Pontiffs, was usually an honor offered to members of politically powerful or wealthy families. Membership was for life, except for the Vestal Virgins whose term was 30 years, in the early Republic, only patricians could become priests. However, the Lex Ogulnia in 300 BC opened up college to plebeians, until the 3rd century BC, the college elected the pontifex maximus from their own number. The right of the college to elect their own pontifex maximus was returned and this changed again after Sulla, when in response to his reforms, the election of the pontifex maximus was once again placed in the hands of an assembly of seventeen of the twenty-five tribes. However, the college still controlled which candidates the assembly voted on, during the Empire, the office was publicly elected from the candidates of existing pontiffs, until the Emperors began to automatically assume the title, following Julius Caesar’s example. The pontifex maximus was a political position to hold and the candidates for office were often very active political members of the college. Many, such as Julius Caesar, went on to hold consulships during their time as pontifex maximus, one of their most important duties was their guardianship of the libri pontificales. Among these were the acta, indigitamenta, ritualia, commentarii, fasti and these items were under the sole possession of the college of pontiffs and only they were allowed to consult these items when necessary
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Augur
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The augur was a priest and official in the classical Roman world. This was known as taking the auspices, the ceremony and function of the augur was central to any major undertaking in Roman society—public or private—including matters of war, commerce, and religion. Roman augurs were part of a college of priests who shared the duties and responsibilities of the position, at the foundation of the Republic in 510 BC, the patricians held sole claim to this office, by 300 BC, the office was open to plebeian occupation as well. Senior members of the collegium put forth nominations for any vacancies, in the Regal period tradition holds that there were three augurs at a time, by the time of Sulla, they had reached fifteen in number. Augury sought the divine will regarding any proposed course of action which might affect Romes pax, fortuna, political, military and civil actions were sanctioned by augury, historically performed by priests of the college of augurs and by haruspices on behalf of senior magistrates. The presiding magistrate at an augural rite thus held the “right of augury”, magistracies were therefore religious offices in their own right, and magistrates were directly responsible for the pax, fortuna and salus of Rome and everything that was Roman. The effectiveness of augury could only be judged retrospectively, the divinely ordained condition of peace was an outcome of successful augury and those whose actions had led to divine wrath could not have possessed a true right of augury. Of all the protagonists in the Civil War, only Octavian could have possessed it, lucan, writing during the Principate, described the recent Civil War as unnatural - a mirror to supernatural disturbances in the greater cosmos. His imagery is apt to the principles of augury and its broader interpretation by Stoic apologists of the Imperial cult. In the Stoic cosmology, pax deorum is the expression of natural order in human affairs, according to Cicero, the auctoritas of ius augurum included the right to adjourn and overturn the process of law, consular election could be - and was - rendered invalid by inaugural error. For Cicero, this made the augur the most powerful authority in the Republic, Cicero himself was co-opted into the college only late in his career. In the later Republic, augury came under the supervision of the college of pontifices, the office of pontifex maximus eventually became a de facto consular prerogative. In ancient Rome the auguria were considered to be in equilibrium with the sacra and were not the way by which the gods made their will known. The augures publici concerned themselves only with related to the state. The jus augurale was rigorously secret, therefore very little about the aspects of ceremonies. We have only the names of some auguria, e. g, the first one required the sacrifice of red dogs and took place before wheat grains were shelled but not before they had formed. Of the second we know only the name implies a ritual related to the harvest. Augurium and auspicium are terms used indifferently by the ancient, modern scholars have debated the issue at length but have failed to find a distinctive definition that may hold for all the known cases
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Vestal Virgin
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In ancient Rome, the Vestals or Vestal Virgins were priestesses of Vesta, goddess of the hearth. The College of the Vestals and its well-being were regarded as fundamental to the continuance and they cultivated the sacred fire that was not allowed to go out. Livy, Plutarch, and Aulus Gellius attribute the creation of the Vestals as a state-supported priestesshood to king Numa Pompilius, according to Livy, Numa introduced the Vestals and assigned them salaries from the public treasury. Livy also says that the priestesshood of Vesta had its origins at Alba Longa, the 2nd century antiquarian Aulus Gellius writes that the first Vestal taken from her parents was led away in hand by Numa. Plutarch attributes the founding of the Temple of Vesta to Numa, ambrose alludes to a seventh in late antiquity. Numa also appointed the pontifex maximus to watch over the Vestals, the first Vestals, according to Varro, were named Gegania, Veneneia, Canuleia, and Tarpeia. In myth, Tarpeia, daughter of Spurius Tarpeius, was portrayed as traitorous, the Vestals became a powerful and influential force in the Roman state. When Sulla included the young Julius Caesar in his proscriptions, the Vestals interceded on Caesars behalf, augustus included the Vestals in all major dedications and ceremonies. They were held in awe, and attributed certain magical powers and this gift was preserved inviolate till the time of the degenerate moneychangers, who diverted the maintenance of sacred chastity into a fund for the payment of base porters. A public famine ensued on this act, and a bad harvest disappointed the hopes of all the provinces and it was sacrilege which rendered the year barren, for it was necessary that all should lose that which they had denied to religion. The College of the Vestals was disbanded and the fire extinguished in 394. Zosimus records how the Christian noblewoman Serena, niece of Theodosius, entered the temple and took from the statue of the goddess a necklace and placed it on her own neck. An old woman appeared, the last of the Vestals, who proceeded to rebuke Serena, according to Zosimus, Serena was then subject to dreadful dreams predicting her own untimely death. The chief Vestal oversaw the efforts of the Vestals, and was present in the College of Pontiffs, the Vestalis Maxima Occia presided over the Vestals for 57 years, according to Tacitus. The last known chief vestal was Coelia Concordia, who stepped down in 394 with the disbanding of the College of the Vestals, the Vestalium Maxima was the most important of Romes high priestesses. The Flaminica Dialis and the regina sacrorum each held unique responsibility for religious rites. According to Plutarch, there were only two Vestal Virgins when Numa began the College of the Vestals and this number later increased to four, and then to six. It has been suggested by some authorities that a seventh was added later, the Vestals were committed to the priestesshood before puberty and sworn to celibacy for a period of 30 years
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Flamen
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In ancient Roman religion, a flamen was a priest assigned to one of fifteen deities with official cults during the Roman Republic. The most important three were the flamines maiores, who served the three chief Roman gods of the Archaic Triad, the remaining twelve were the flamines minores. Two of the minores cultivated deities whose names are now unknown, during the Imperial era, the cult of a deified emperor also had a flamen. The fifteen Republican flamens were part of the Pontifical College which administered state-sponsored religion, when the office of flamen was vacant, a pontifex could serve as a temporary replacement, although only the Pontifex Maximus is known to have substituted for the Flamen Dialis. The official costume of a flamen, of great antiquity, was a hat called an apex, the laena was a double-thick wool cloak with a fringed edge, and was worn over the flamens toga with a clasp holding it around his throat. The apex was a leather skull-cap with a chin-strap and a point of olive wood on its top, like a spindle, with a little fluff of wool at the base of the spindle. By the time of the reformation of Augustus, the origins and functions of many of the long-neglected gods resident in Rome was confusing even to the Romans themselves. The obscurity of some of the deities assigned a flamen suggests that the office dated back to Archaic Rome, many scholars assume that the flamines existed at least from the time of the early Roman kings, before the establishment of the Republic. The Romans themselves credited the foundation of the priesthood to Numa Pompilius, according to Livy, Numa created the offices of the three flamines maiores and assigned them each a fine robe of office and a curule chair. The flamines were circumscribed by many taboos, the origin of the word flamen is as obscure as are some of the assigned gods. Sophus Bugge suggested in 1879 that flamen is from an older *flădmen, both would be derived from a Proto-Indo-European word *bhlādmen. Indo-Europeanist Georges Dumézil attempted to link it to the Sanskrit word brahman, the three flamines maiores were required to be patricians, The Flamen Dialis oversaw the cult of Jupiter, the sky deity and ruler of the gods. The Flamen Martialis oversaw the cult of Mars, the god of war, the sacred spears of Mars were ritually shaken by the Flamen Martialis when the legions were preparing for war. The Flamen Quirinalis oversaw the cult of Quirinus, who presided over organized Roman social life and was related to the aspect of Mars. The Flamen Quirinalis led public rites on the sacred to Quirinus. A fourth flamen maior was dedicated to Julius Caesar as a divinity of the Roman state, thereafter, any deceased emperor could be made divus by vote of the senate and consent of his successor, and as a divus he would be served by a flamen. The flamens role in relation to living emperors is uncertain, no living emperor is known to have received official divine worship, a flamen could also be represented by a proflamen, or by a member without that title who could act as a substitute for the flamen. The twelve flamines minores could be plebeians, the flamines minores seem mostly connected to agriculture or local cults
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Fetial
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A fetial was a type of priest in Ancient Rome. They formed a collegium devoted to Jupiter as the patron of good faith, the duties of the fetials included advising the senate on foreign affairs and international treaties, making formal proclamations of peace and of war, and confirming treaties. They also carried out the functions of traveling heralds or ambassadors, the first mention of the fetials by Livy occurs in the context of the war between Alba Longa and Rome, during which the Roman king Tullus Hostilius appointed M. Valerius as a fetial and Sp. Fusius as pater patratus, for the purpose of binding Rome, according to Livy, the ritual by which the fetials were to declare war, the ritual of rerum repetitio, was introduced to Rome by Ancus Marcius, borrowing on the traditions of the Aequicolae. However he had described the ritual actions of the fetials when recording the wars of Tullus Hostilius. Thus some scholars think the mentions of the Aequi may be a due to a folk etymology connecting Aequi to aequus. On the other ancient sources support the tradition that the priesthood was created under the influence of Aequian king Ferter Resus. The ritual of rerum repetitio, a request of restitution or reparations, if the demands are not met, the pater patratus declares war within 33 days and returns to Rome to await the resolution of the Roman king and senate. Once they have resolved to go to war, a returns to the enemy frontier carrying a javelin with a steel or burnt tip. He declares war on the enemy, and throws the javelin into their territory, the fetial is connected to matters of law and not directly to war, hence in his formulae he never invokes Mars, but Jupiter, Juno and Quirinius. The religious relevance of the collegium or sodalitas lay in ensuring that Rome enjoyed the protection of gods in its relationships with foreign states and this collegium was probably common to other Latin cities as Livy makes reference to the fetials of Alba. According to some scholars, the name derives from the noun root *feti- and it is allied to the basic religious concept of fas, both being rooted in IE *dhs, originally meaning to set, setting. This root has given the verb facere, to do, make by a semantic shift, both fetial and fas preserve the original sense of foundation here, as in Vedic dhaman, dhatu in its religious sense. The implications of this etymology would hint to the fact that outside their own ager Romans felt the need for a religious, a need was felt to go beyond the sphere of human law or right. While juridical justification was acknowledged as necessary Romans wanted to ensure the approval of what founds right and makes it possible and we know the ceremonies and formulae of two circumstances, conclusion of a treaty and request of reparations and declaration of war. Oaths were made by Jupiter Lapis, the flintstone was believed to be a seat of Jupiters because if struck it emitted sparks, thus being analogous to lightning. The ceremony has two known variants, when Rome asked for reparations for an offense or damage, the fetials were sent as ambassadors to the foreign country concerned. The fetials were an institution of the Latins and of other Italic people
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Epulones
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The epulones formed one of the four great religious corporations of ancient Roman priests. The two most important colleges were the College of Pontiffs and the augurs, the fourth was the quindecimviri sacris faciundis, the epulones arranged feasts and public banquets at festivals and games, duties that had originally belonged to the pontiffs. Initially there were three epulones, but later their number was increased to seven, hence they were known as the septemviri epulonum. Julius Caesar temporarily expanded the college to ten, but after his death and their college was founded in 196 BC, long after reforms had opened the magistracies and most priesthoods to plebeians, who were thus eligible from the beginning. The necessity for such a college arose as the increasingly elaborate festivals required experts to oversee their organization, the patera was the sacred bowl used by the epulones. It was shallow with a raised center so that when held in the palm, the patera was the special emblem of the epulones. The paten used today by Roman Catholic priests, omits the raised center, lacus Curtius website, Epulones from William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London,1875. Roman Magistrates religio Romana, Patera Epulones
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Arval Brethren
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In ancient Roman religion, the Arval Brethren or Arval Brothers were a body of priests who offered annual sacrifices to the Lares and gods to guarantee good harvests. Inscriptions provide evidence of their oaths, rituals and sacrifices, Roman legend held that the priestly college was originated by Romulus, who took the place of a dead son of his nurse Acca Laurentia, and formed the priesthood with the remaining eleven sons. They were also connected originally with the Sabine priesthood of Sodales Titii who were originally their counterpart among the Sabines. Their task was the worship of Dea Dia, an old fertility goddess, on the three days of her May festival, they offered sacrifices and chanted secretly inside the temple of the goddess at her lucus the Carmen Arvale. The magister of the selected the exact three days of the celebration by an unknown method. The celebration began in Rome on the first day, was transferred to a sacred grove outside the city wall on the second day, Arval Brethren formed a college of twelve priests, although archaeologists have found only up to nine names at a time in the inscriptions. They were appointed for life and did not lose their status even in exile, according to Pliny the Elder, their sign was a white band with the chaplet of sheaves of grain. The Brethren assembled in the Regia and their duties included ritual propitiations or thanksgivings as the Ambarvalia, the sacrifices done at the borders of Rome at the fifth mile of the Via Campana or Salaria. Archaic traits of the rituals included the prohibition of the use of iron, the importance of Arval Brethren apparently dwindled during the Roman Republic, but emperor Augustus revived their practices to enforce his own authority. After Augustus time emperors and senators frequented the festivities, at least two emperors, Marcus Aurelius and Elagabalus, were formally accepted as members of the Brethren. The first full descriptions of their rituals also originate from this time, the last inscriptions about the Arval Brethren date from about 325 AD. They were abolished along with Romes other traditional priesthoods by 400 AD
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Dii Consentes
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The Dii Consentes, also as Di or Dei Consentes, was a list of twelve major deities, six gods and six goddesses, in the pantheon of Ancient Rome. Their gilt statues stood in the Forum, later apparently in the Porticus Deorum Consentium, three of the Dii Consentes formed the Capitoline Triad, Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. The grouping of twelve deities has origins older than the Greek or Roman sources, the Greek grouping may have Anatolian, more precisely Lycian origins. A group of twelve Hittite gods is known both from cuneiform texts and from artistic representation, the Hittite Twelve are all male, with no individualizing features. They have a reflex in a Lycian group of twelve gods in the Roman Empire period. By 400 BC, a dedicated to twelve gods existed at the marketplace in Xanthos in Lycia. Herodotus also refers to a group of gods in Egypt. The Greek cult of the Twelve Olympians can be traced to 6th century BC Athens, the altar to the Twelve Olympians at Athens is usually dated to the archonship of the younger Pesistratos, in 522/521 BC. By the 5th century BC there are well-attested cults of the Twelve Olympians in Olympia, the references to twelve Etruscan deities are due to later Roman authors, writing long after the influence of the Greek pantheon had become dominant, and must be regarded with skepticism. Scholarly evaluation of this account is dependent on the hypothesis that the Etruscans originally immigrated to Italy from Anatolia, in this case, the Etruscan Twelve might have been cognate to the Hittite Twelve. It is, however, just as possible that the Etruscan Twelve were simply an adaptation of the Greek Twelve just like the Roman Twelve, Twelve Olympians, the equivalent grouping of the Greek pantheon Long, Charlotte R. The Twelve Gods of Greece and Rome, vol.107 of Études préliminaires aux religions orientales dans lEmpire romain
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Capitoline Triad
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The Capitoline Triad was a group of three deities who were worshipped in ancient Roman religion in an elaborate temple on Romes Capitoline Hill. Two distinct Capitoline Triads were worshipped at various times in Romes history, the one most commonly referred to as the Capitoline Triad is the more recent of the two, consisting of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. The earlier triad, sometimes referred to in modern scholarship as the Archaic Triad, consisted of Jupiter, Mars, each triad held a central place in the public religion of Rome during its time. The three deities who are most commonly referred to as the Capitoline Triad are a group that supplanted the original Archaic Triad. This group, mirroring the Etruscan divine triad, consisted of Jupiter, the king of the gods, Juno, his wife and sister, and Jupiters daughter Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. Unlike the earlier Archaic Triad, which was typical of a trio of supreme divine beings. It is almost certainly derived from the Etruscan trio of Tinia, the deity, Uni, his wife, and Menrva, their daughter. The earliest known example of a Capitolium outside of Italy was at Emporion in Spain, according to Ovid, Terminus also had a place there, since he had a shrine there before it was built and, as the god of boundary stones, refused to yield. The temple was built under the reign of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, although the temple was shared by Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, each deity had a separate cella, with Juno Regina on the left, Minerva on the right, and Jupiter Optimus Maximus in the middle. It included a podium and a tetrastyle pronaos, another shrine dedicated to Jupiter, Juno Regina and Minerva was the Capitolium Vetus on the Quirinal Hill. It was thought to be older than the famous temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill. The original three deities thus worshipped, now commonly referred to as the Archaic Triad, were Jupiter, Mars. This structure was no longer detectable in later times, and only traces of it could be identified from various literary sources. However Wissowa did not pursue further the analysis of the meaning, however it had disappeared from most societies since prehistoric times, with the notable exception of India. Indra incarnated the military function and the twins Ashvins the function of production, wealth, fertility and pleasure. As recorded by sources and confirmed by archeological data it was devised to lodge the three major deities Iupiter, Mars, and Ops, the deity of agricultural plenty, in three separate rooms. The spolia opima were dedicated by the person who had killed the king or chief of the enemy in battle. They were dedicated to Jupiter in case the Roman was a king or his equivalent, to Mars in case he was an officer and to Quirinus in case he was common soldier
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Aventine Triad
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The Aventine Triad is a modern term for the joint cult of the Roman deities Ceres, Liber and Libera. The cult was established ca.493 BC within a district on or near the Aventine Hill. Later accounts describe the building and rites as Greek in style. The Aventine Triad, temple and associated ludi served as a focus of identity, sometimes in opposition to Romes original ruling elite. The Aventine relationship between Ceres, Liber and Libera was probably based first on their functions as agricultural and fertility deities of the plebs as a social group. In keeping with Roman theology, the internal and external equivalence of the Aventine Triad remained speculative, broad, long after its establishment, Cicero rejects the equivalence of Liber and Dionysus and asserts that Ceres is mother to Liber and Libera. The Aventine Triad was established soon after the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the famine ended and Romes plebeian citizen-soldiery co-operated in the conquest of the Latins. In 493 BC, a new temple on or near the Aventine hill was dedicated to the Triad and Romes first recorded ludi scaenici were held in honour of Liber. Libers festival, the Liberalia, may date from this time, patrician dominance was manifest in the Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus on the Capitoline Hill, at the heart of the city. The Capitoline temple lay within Romes sacred boundary, in most versions of the Roman founding myth, this was the hill on which the unfortunate Remus lost to his brother Romulus in a contest of augury to decide Romes foundation, name and leadership. Some aspects of their cults were still considered morally un-Roman by Romes authorities, thus the Aventine Triad gave the plebs what has been variously described by modern historians as a parallel to the official Capitoline Triad, and its copy and antithesis. Among other religious innovations based on his interests, the emperor Claudius redrew the pomerium to encompass the Aventine. The plebs continued to establish and administer their own laws and held formal assemblies from which patricians were excluded, even so, official Ludi Cereales were not established until as late as 202 BC. Libers festival and the Bacchic or Dionysian aspects of his cult were suppressed under the ferocious Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus of 186 BC, the Liberalia rites were transferred to Cerealia, after a few years they were restored to Liber. Varros complex, investigative Late Republican theology groups Ceres with Tellus and Venus, therefore with Victoria, and Ceres with Libera, evidence is lacking for the earliest priesthoods of the Aventine Triad, whether in joint or individual cult to its deities. The plebeian aediles, named after their service of aedes may have acted as priests for their community and may have served Liber. Ceres was served by a flamen Cerealis, usually a plebeian and his duties included the invocation of her assistant deities and cult service to the earth-goddess Tellus. From ca.205 BC, a joint mystery cult to Ceres and Proserpina was held at the Aventine Triads temple and this ritus graecus cereris recognised Libera as equivalent to Proserpina
25.
Di inferi
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For the fictional Inferi of J. K. The di inferi or dii inferi were a collective of ancient Roman deities associated with death. The epithet inferi is also given to the mysterious Manes, a collective of ancestral spirits. The most likely origin of the word Manes is from manus or manis, meaning good or kindly, in general, animal sacrifice to gods of the upper world usually resulted in communal meals, with the cooked victim apportioned to divine and human recipients. Infernal gods, by contrast, received burnt offerings, in which the victims were burnt to ash. Thereafter, he was considered part of the collective Manes, sharing in the made to them. Secret ritual practices characterized as magic were often directed at underworld gods. Di inferi were often invoked in binding spells, which offer personal enemies to them, the infernal gods were also the recipients on the rare occasions when human sacrifice was carried out in Rome. The ritual of devotio, when a general pledged his own life as an offering along with the enemy, was directed at the gods of the underworld under the name Di Manes. Religious sites and rituals for the di inferi were properly outside the pomerium, Romes sacred boundary, the Taurian Games were celebrated specifically to propitiate the di inferi. The rarely raced three-horse chariot was sacred to the di inferi, according to Isidore of Seville, the three horses represented the three stages of a human life, childhood, youth, and old age. The wood of trees, called arbores infelices, had apotropaic powers and was used for burning objects regarded as ill omens. The following list includes deities who were thought to dwell in the underworld and they typically receive nocturnal sacrifices, or dark-colored animals as offerings. Other deities may have had a secondary or disputed chthonic aspect, rituals pertaining to Mars, particularly in a form influenced by Etruscan tradition, suggest a role in the cycle of birth and death. Mercury moves between the realms of upper- and underworld as a psychopomp, the agricultural god Consus had an altar that was underground, like that of Dis and Proserpina. Deities concerned with birth are often cultivated like death deities, with nocturnal offerings that suggest a theological view of birth and death as a cycle, the deities listed below are not to be regarded as collectively forming the di inferi, whose individual identities are obscure
26.
Indigitamenta
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In ancient Roman religion, the indigitamenta were lists of deities kept by the College of Pontiffs to assure that the correct divine names were invoked for public prayers. These lists or books probably described the nature of the deities who might be called on under particular circumstances. The earliest indigitamenta, like other aspects of Roman religion, were attributed to Numa Pompilius. The books of the Pontiffs are known only through scattered passages preserved throughout Latin literature, another likely source for the patristic catalogues is the lost work De indigitamentis of Granius Flaccus, Varros contemporary. W. H. Roscher collated the standard modern list of indigitamenta and it is unclear whether the written indigitamenta contained complete prayer formularies, or simply an index of names. If formulas of invocation, the indigitamenta were probably precationum carmina, paulus defines them as incantamenta, incantations, and indicia, signs or intimations. Roscher, however, does not consider Robigus and Maia to have part of the indigitamenta. Many of the indigitamenta are involved in the cycle of conception, birth, several appear in a list of twelve helper gods of Ceres as an agricultural goddess or are named elsewhere as having specialized agricultural functions. Gods not appearing on either of those lists are described briefly here, or are more fully described in their own articles as linked
27.
Julius Caesar
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Gaius Julius Caesar, known as Julius Caesar, was a Roman politician, general, and notable author of Latin prose. He played a role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic. In 60 BC, Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey formed an alliance that dominated Roman politics for several years. Their attempts to power as Populares were opposed by the Optimates within the Roman Senate. Caesars victories in the Gallic Wars, completed by 51 BC, extended Romes territory to the English Channel, Caesar became the first Roman general to cross both the Channel and the Rhine, when he built a bridge across the Rhine and crossed the Channel to invade Britain. These achievements granted him unmatched military power and threatened to eclipse the standing of Pompey, with the Gallic Wars concluded, the Senate ordered Caesar to step down from his military command and return to Rome. Caesar refused the order, and instead marked his defiance in 49 BC by crossing the Rubicon with the 13th Legion, leaving his province, Civil war resulted, and Caesars victory in the war put him in an unrivalled position of power and influence. After assuming control of government, Caesar began a programme of social and governmental reforms and he centralised the bureaucracy of the Republic and was eventually proclaimed dictator in perpetuity, giving him additional authority. But the underlying political conflicts had not been resolved, and on the Ides of March 44 BC, a new series of civil wars broke out, and the constitutional government of the Republic was never fully restored. Caesars adopted heir Octavian, later known as Augustus, rose to power after defeating his opponents in the civil war. Octavian set about solidifying his power, and the era of the Roman Empire began, much of Caesars life is known from his own accounts of his military campaigns, and from other contemporary sources, mainly the letters and speeches of Cicero and the historical writings of Sallust. The later biographies of Caesar by Suetonius and Plutarch are also major sources, Caesar is considered by many historians to be one of the greatest military commanders in history. Caesar was born into a family, the gens Julia. The cognomen Caesar originated, according to Pliny the Elder, with an ancestor who was born by Caesarean section. The Historia Augusta suggests three alternative explanations, that the first Caesar had a head of hair, that he had bright grey eyes. Caesar issued coins featuring images of elephants, suggesting that he favored this interpretation of his name, despite their ancient pedigree, the Julii Caesares were not especially politically influential, although they had enjoyed some revival of their political fortunes in the early 1st century BC. Caesars father, also called Gaius Julius Caesar, governed the province of Asia and his mother, Aurelia Cotta, came from an influential family. Little is recorded of Caesars childhood, in 85 BC, Caesars father died suddenly, so Caesar was the head of the family at 16
28.
Augustus
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Augustus was the founder of the Roman Principate and considered the first Roman emperor, controlling the Roman Empire from 27 BC until his death in AD14. He was born Gaius Octavius into an old and wealthy equestrian branch of the plebeian gens Octavia and his maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, and Octavius was named in Caesars will as his adopted son and heir, then known as Octavianus. He, Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar, following their victory at the Battle of Philippi, the Triumvirate divided the Roman Republic among themselves and ruled as military dictators. The Triumvate was eventually torn apart by the ambitions of its members. Lepidus was driven into exile and stripped of his position, in reality, however, he retained his autocratic power over the Republic as a military dictator. By law, Augustus held a collection of powers granted to him for life by the Senate, including supreme military command, and it took several years for Augustus to develop the framework within which a formally republican state could be led under his sole rule. He rejected monarchical titles, and instead called himself Princeps Civitatis, the resulting constitutional framework became known as the Principate, the first phase of the Roman Empire. The reign of Augustus initiated an era of peace known as the Pax Romana. Augustus dramatically enlarged the Empire, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Raetia, expanding possessions in Africa, expanding into Germania, beyond the frontiers, he secured the Empire with a buffer region of client states and made peace with the Parthian Empire through diplomacy. Augustus died in AD14 at the age of 75 and he probably died from natural causes, although there were unconfirmed rumors that his wife Livia poisoned him. He was succeeded as Emperor by his adopted son Tiberius, Augustus was known by many names throughout his life, At birth, he was named Gaius Octavius after his biological father. Historians typically refer to him simply as Octavius between his birth in 63 until his adoption by Julius Caesar in 44 BC, upon his adoption, he took Caesars name and became Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus in accordance with Roman adoption naming standards. He quickly dropped Octavianus from his name, and his contemporaries referred to him as Caesar during this period, historians. In 27 BC, following his defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra and it is the events of 27 BC from which he obtained his traditional name of Augustus, which historians use in reference to him from 27 BC until his death in AD14. While his paternal family was from the town of Velletri, approximately 40 kilometres from Rome and he was born at Ox Head, a small property on the Palatine Hill, very close to the Roman Forum. He was given the name Gaius Octavius Thurinus, his cognomen possibly commemorating his fathers victory at Thurii over a band of slaves. Due to the nature of Rome at the time, Octavius was taken to his fathers home village at Velletri to be raised. Octavius only mentions his fathers equestrian family briefly in his memoirs and his paternal great-grandfather Gaius Octavius was a military tribune in Sicily during the Second Punic War
29.
Roman mythology
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Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Romes legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. Roman mythology may also refer to the study of these representations. The Romans usually treated their traditional narratives as historical, even when these have miraculous or supernatural elements, the stories are often concerned with politics and morality, and how an individuals personal integrity relates to his or her responsibility to the community or Roman state. When the stories illuminate Roman religious practices, they are concerned with ritual, augury. Romes early myths and legends also have a relationship with Etruscan religion. In particular, the versions of Greek myths in Ovids Metamorphoses, written during the reign of Augustus, because ritual played the central role in Roman religion that myth did for the Greeks, it is sometimes doubted that the Romans had much of a native mythology. This perception is a product of Romanticism and the scholarship of the 19th century. From the Renaissance to the 18th century, however, Roman myths were an inspiration particularly for European painting, the Roman tradition is rich in historical myths, or legends, concerning the foundation and rise of the city. These narratives focus on human actors, with only occasional intervention from deities, in Romes earliest period, history and myth have a mutual and complementary relationship. As T. P. Wiseman notes, The Roman stories still matter, as they mattered to Dante in 1300 and Shakespeare in 1600, what does it take to be a free citizen. Can a superpower still be a republic, how does well-meaning authority turn into murderous tyranny. Major sources for Roman myth include the Aeneid of Vergil and the first few books of Livys history as well as Dionysius s Roman Antiquities. Other important sources are the Fasti of Ovid, a six-book poem structured by the Roman religious calendar, scenes from Roman myth also appear in Roman wall painting, coins, and sculpture, particularly reliefs. The Aeneid and Livys early history are the best extant sources for Romes founding myths, material from Greek heroic legend was grafted onto this native stock at an early date. By extension, the Trojans were adopted as the ancestors of the Roman people. Rape of the Sabine women, explaining the importance of the Sabines in the formation of Roman culture, numa Pompilius, the Sabine second king of Rome who consorted with the nymph Egeria and established many of Romes legal and religious institutions. Servius Tullius, the king of Rome, whose mysterious origins were freely mythologized. The Tarpeian Rock, and why it was used for the execution of traitors, lucretia, whose self-sacrifice prompted the overthrow of the early Roman monarchy and led to the establishment of the Republic
30.
Ancient Greek religion
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Ancient Greek religion encompasses the collection of beliefs, rituals, and mythology originating in ancient Greece in the form of both popular public religion and cult practices. These groups varied enough for it to be possible to speak of Greek religions or cults in the plural, many ancient Greeks recognized the twelve major gods and goddesses, although philosophies such as Stoicism and some forms of Platonism used language that seems to assume a single transcendent deity. Different cities often worshiped the deities, sometimes with epithets that distinguished them. Greek religion was tempered by Etruscan cult and belief to form much of the later ancient Roman religion, while there were few concepts universal to all the Greek peoples, there were common beliefs shared by many. Ancient Greek theology was polytheistic, based on the assumption there were many gods. There was a hierarchy of deities, with Zeus, the king of the gods, having a level of control all the others. Some deities had dominion over aspects of nature. Other deities ruled over abstract concepts, for instance Aphrodite controlled love, while being immortal, the gods were certainly not all-good or even all-powerful. They had to obey fate, known to Greek mythology as the Moirai, which overrode any of their divine powers or wills. For instance, in mythology, it was Odysseus fate to return home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, and the gods could only lengthen his journey and make it harder for him, the gods acted like humans, and had human vices. They would interact with humans, sometimes even spawning children with them, at times certain gods would be opposed to others, and they would try to outdo each other. In the Iliad, Aphrodite, Ares and Apollo support the Trojan side in the Trojan War, while Hera, Athena, some gods were specifically associated with a certain city. Athena was associated with the city of Athens, Apollo with Delphi and Delos, Zeus with Olympia, other deities were associated with nations outside of Greece, Poseidon was associated with Ethiopia and Troy, and Ares with Thrace. The Greeks believed in an underworld where the spirits of the dead went after death, one of the most widespread areas of this underworld was ruled over by Hades, a brother of Zeus, and was known as Hades. Other well known realms are Tartarus, a place of torment for the damned, and Elysium, in the early Mycenean religion all the dead went to Hades, but the rise of mystery cults in the Archaic age led to the development of places such as Tartarus and Elysium. Such beliefs are found in the most ancient of Greek sources, such as Homer and this belief remained strong even into the Christian era. For most people at the moment of death there was, however, no hope of anything, some Greeks, such as the philosophers Pythagoras and Plato, also embraced the idea of reincarnation, though this was only accepted by a few. Epicurus taught that the soul was simply atoms which dissolved at death, Greek religion had an extensive mythology
31.
Etruscan mythology
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Etruscan religion and mythology were partly incorporated into classical Roman culture, including the Roman pantheon. However, in the last years of the Roman Republic the religion began to fall out of favor and was satirized by such public figures as Marcus Tullius Cicero. The Julio-Claudians, especially Claudius, who claimed a remote Etruscan descent, maintained a knowledge of the language and religion for a time longer. A number of works in the Etruscan language survived until the middle of the first millennium AD, but were destroyed by the ravages of time, decree of the Roman Senate. Around the mun or muni, or tombs, were the man or mani, in iconography after the 5th century BC, the deceased are shown traveling to the underworld. In several instances of Etruscan art, such as in the François Tomb in Vulci, a god was called an ais, which in the plural is aisar. The abode of a god was a fanu or luth, a place, such as a favi. There, one would need to make a fler, or offering, three layers of deities are portrayed in Etruscan art. Ruling over them were higher deities that seem to reflect the Indo-European system, Tin or Tinia, the sky, Uni his wife, and Cel, as a third layer, the Greek gods were adopted by the Etruscan system during the Etruscan Orientalizing Period of 750/700-600 BC. Examples are Aritimi, Menrva, and Pacha, and over time the primary trinity became Tinia, Uni, the Etruscans believed in intimate contact with divinity. They did nothing without proper consultation with the gods and signs from them and these practices were taken over in total by the Romans. The Etruscan scriptures were a corpus of texts termed the Etrusca Disciplina and this name appears in Valerius Maximus, and Marcus Tullius Cicero refers to a disciplina in his writings on the subject. These works did not present prophecies or scriptures in the ordinary sense, the Etruscans appear to have had no systematic ethics or religion and no great visions. The Etruscans accepted the inscrutability of their gods wills and they did not attempt to rationalize or explain divine actions or formulate any doctrines of the gods intentions. These revelations may not be understandable and may not be pleasant or easy. He then quipped, regarding divination from the singing of frogs, and yet they do have by nature some faculty of premonition, clear enough of itself, but too dark for human comprehension. Divinatory inquiries according to discipline were conducted by priests whom the Romans called haruspices or sacerdotes, the Etruscans, as evidenced by the inscriptions, used several words, capen, maru, eisnev, hatrencu. They called the art of haruspicy zich nethsrac, a special magistrate, the cechase, looked after the cecha or rath, sacred things
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Gallo-Roman religion
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It was the result of selective acculturation. In some cases, Gaulish deity names were used as epithets for Roman deities, in other cases, Roman gods were given Gaulish female partners – for example, Mercury was paired with Rosmerta and Sirona was partnered with Apollo. In at least one case – that of the equine goddess Epona – a native Celtic goddess was also adopted by Romans. The Jupiter Column was a type of religious monument from Roman Gaul and Germania. Eastern mystery religions penetrated Gaul early on and these included the cults of Orpheus, Mithras, Cybele, and Isis. The imperial cult, centred primarily on the numen of Augustus, came to play a prominent role in the religion of Gaul. This gave rise to a characteristic Gallo-Roman fanum, identifiable in archaeology from its concentric shape, Roman Gaul Gallo-Roman culture Interpretatio romana Celtic mythology Burnand, Y. Notes sur le vocabulaire épigraphique de la de la divinité en Gaule romaine in Signa deorum. Debal, J. Vienne-en-Val, divinités et sanctuaires, bulletin de la Société Archéologique et Historique de lOrléanais,42 Deyts, S. A la rencontre des Dieux gaulois, un défi à César, faudet, I. Les temples de tradition celtique en Gaule Romaine. ISBN 2-87772-074-8 Green, M. Gods of the Celts, jufer, N. Luginbühl, T. Répertoire des dieux gaulois. ISBN 2-87772-200-7 Weisgerber, G. Das Pilgerheiligtum des Apollo und der Sirona von Hochscheid im Hunsruck, woolf, G. Becoming Roman, the origins of provincial civilization in Gaul
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Interpretatio graeca
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It is thus a comparative methodology that looks for equivalencies and shared characteristics. Interpretatio romana is comparative discourse in reference to ancient Roman religion and myth, both the Romans and the Gauls reinterpreted Gallic religious traditions in relation to Roman models, particularly Imperial cult. …The meaning of a deity is his or her character as it unfolded in myths, hymns, rites. This character makes a deity comparable to other deities with similar traits, the similarity of gods makes their names mutually translatable. … The practice of translating the names of the created a concept of similarity. Pliny the Elder expressed the translatability of deities as different names to different peoples and this capacity made possible the religious syncretism of the Hellenistic era and the pre-Christian Roman Empire. Herodotus was one of the earliest authors to engage in this form of interpretation, in his observations regarding the Egyptians, he establishes Greco-Egyptian equivalents that endured into the Hellenistic era, including Amon/Zeus, Osiris/Dionysus, and Ptah/Hephaestus. Some pairs of Greek and Roman gods, such as Zeus and Jupiter, are thought to derive from a common Indo-European archetype, some deities dating to Romes oldest religious stratum, such as Janus and Terminus, had no Greek equivalent. Other Greek divine figures, most notably Apollo, were adopted directly into Roman culture, the phrase interpretatio romana was first used by the Imperial-era historian Tacitus in the Germania. Tacitus reports that in a grove of the Nahanarvali, a priest adorned as a woman presides. Elsewhere, he identifies the god of the Germans as Mercury. Some information about the deities of the ancient Gauls, who left no written literature other than inscriptions, is preserved by Greco-Roman sources under the names of Greek, a large number of Gaulish theonyms or cult titles are preserved, for instance, in association with Mars. As with some Greek and Roman divine counterparts, the similarities between a Gallic and a Roman or Greek deity may reflect a common Indo-European origin. Lugh was identified with Mercury, Nodens with Mars as healer and protector, in some cases, however, a Gallic deity is given an interpretatio romana by means of more than one god, varying among literary texts or inscriptions. These tendencies extended to cross-cultural identifications, in the Eastern empire, the Anatolian storm god with his double-headed axe became Jupiter Dolichenus, a favorite cult figure among soldiers. Roman scholars such as Varro interpreted the monotheistic god of the Jews into Roman terms as Caelus or Jupiter Optimus Maximus, some Greco-Roman authors seem to have understood the Jewish invocation of Yahweh Sabaoth as Sabazius. Interpretatio germanica is the practice by the Germanic peoples of identifying Roman gods with the names of Germanic deities, according to Rudolf Simek, this occurred around the 1st century of the common era, when both cultures came into closer contact. This is also the case with Saturn in some West Germanic languages, such as the English Saturday, the West Frisian Saterdei, the Low German Saterdag and the Dutch zaterdag all meaning Saturns day
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Decline of Greco-Roman polytheism
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Hellenistic polytheistic traditions survived in pockets of Greece throughout Late Antiquity. The Neoplatonic Academy was shut down by Justinian I in 529, under Roman authority, the various national myths most similar to Rome were adopted by analogue into the overall Roman mythos, further cementing Imperial control. Consequently, the Romans were generally tolerant and accommodating towards new deities, the more philosophical outlook of the Hellenic parts of the Roman empire led to a renaissance of intellectual religious thought around the start of the 2nd century. A more organised form of alatrist henotheistic panentheism emerged in parallel to Hermetism, at least one major meeting place for followers of this neopythagoreanism was built in Rome itself, near Porta Maggiore, to a design similar to later Christian churches, though subterranean. Neoplatonism began to be adopted by prominent scholars such as the Christian theologian Origen, during the rule of Gallienus, the imperial family themselves gave patronage to Plotinus, and encouraged his philosophical activities. Neoplatonism was further developed by Iamblichus, who believed that physical invocations would be able to produce soteriological results, Mithraism wasnt exclusive - it was possible and common to follow Mithraism and other cults simultaneously. From the reign of Septimius Severus, other, less gender-specific and he rode roughshod over other elements of traditional religion, marrying a Vestal Virgin, and moved the most sacred relics of Roman religion to a new temple dedicated exclusively to El-Gabal. Nearly half a century after Elagabalus, Aurelian came to power and he was a reformer, strengthening the position of the sun-god as the main divinity of the Roman pantheon, he even built a brand new temple, in Rome, dedicated to the deity. Lactantius argued that Aurelian would have outlawed all the gods if he had had enough time. Imperial tolerance only extended to religions that did not resist Roman authority, religions that were hostile to the state or any that claimed exclusive rights to religious beliefs and practice were not included and some exclusive Eastern cults were persecuted. Jews were given special privileges owing to their dominance in economy, numbers and dispersal, tolerance of Judaism turned to persecution when collaboration was perceived as ending, see Anti-Judaism in the pre-Christian Roman Empire. The results included massacres of Christian communities and Jewish nationalist groups, the early Christian community was perceived at times to be an intrinsically destabilising influence and threat to the peace of Rome, a religio illicita. The same gods whom the Romans believed had protected and blessed their city, after the initial conflicts between the state and the new emerging religion, Gallienus was the first emperor to issue an edict of toleration for all religious creeds including Christianity. According to Christian polemicists writing after his death, Constantine I was baptized on his deathbed, eusebius, a contemporary Christian historian, also praises him for having some pagan temples torn down. Actual persecution was sporadic and generally the result of local initiative, official orders may have established an understanding that actual persecution would be tolerated, but in the first century of official Christianity did not generally organize it. By the Edict of Milan, Constantine continued the policy of toleration and his legislation against magic and private divination were driven out of a fear that others might gain power through those means. Nonetheless, this did not mean he or other Roman rulers disfavored divination, instead, his belief in Roman divination is confirmed by legislation calling for the consultation of augurs after an amphitheatre had been struck by lightning in the year 320. Constantine explicitly allowed public divination as a practice of State ceremony as well as pagan practices to continue
35.
Hunting
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Hunting is the practice of killing or trapping animals, or pursuing or tracking them with the intent of doing so. Hunting wildlife or feral animals is most commonly done by humans for food, recreation, to predators that are dangerous to humans or domestic animals. Lawful hunting is distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species. The species that are hunted are referred to as game or prey and are usually mammals, Hunting can also be a means of pest control. However, hunting has also contributed to the endangerment, extirpation and extinction of many animals. The pursuit, capture and release, or capture for food of fish is called fishing, the practice of foraging or gathering materials from plants and mushrooms is also considered separate from hunting. The word hunt serves as both a noun and a verb, the noun has been dated to the early 12th century, act of chasing game, from the verb hunt. The meaning of a body of persons associated for the purpose of hunting with a pack of hounds is first recorded in the 1570s, meaning the act of searching for someone or something is from about 1600. The verb, Old English huntian to chase game, perhaps developed from hunta hunter, is related to hentan to seize, from Proto-Germanic huntojan, the general sense of search diligently is first recorded c. Hunting has a history and may well pre-date the rise of the species Homo sapiens. Evidence from western Kenya suggests that hunting has been occurring for more two million years. Furthermore, evidence exists that hunting may have one of the multiple environmental factors leading to the Holocene extinction of megafauna. North American megafauna extinction was coincidental with the Younger Dryas impact event, however, in other locations such as Australia, humans are thought to have played a very significant role in the extinction of the Australian megafauna that was widespread prior to human occupation. The closest surviving relatives of the species are the two species of Pan, the common chimpanzee and bonobos. Common chimpanzees have a diet that includes troop hunting behaviour based on beta males being led by an alpha male. Bonobos have also observed to occasionally engage in group hunting. With the establishment of language, culture, and religion, hunting became a theme of stories and myths, as well as such as dance. Hunting was a component of hunter-gatherer societies before the domestication of livestock
36.
Moon
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The Moon is an astronomical body that orbits planet Earth, being Earths only permanent natural satellite. It is the fifth-largest natural satellite in the Solar System, following Jupiters satellite Io, the Moon is second-densest satellite among those whose densities are known. The average distance of the Moon from the Earth is 384,400 km, the Moon is thought to have formed about 4.51 billion years ago, not long after Earth. It is the second-brightest regularly visible celestial object in Earths sky, after the Sun and its surface is actually dark, although compared to the night sky it appears very bright, with a reflectance just slightly higher than that of worn asphalt. Its prominence in the sky and its cycle of phases have made the Moon an important cultural influence since ancient times on language, calendars, art. The Moons gravitational influence produces the ocean tides, body tides, and this matching of apparent visual size will not continue in the far future. The Moons linear distance from Earth is currently increasing at a rate of 3.82 ±0.07 centimetres per year, since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the Moon has been visited only by uncrewed spacecraft. The usual English proper name for Earths natural satellite is the Moon, the noun moon is derived from moone, which developed from mone, which is derived from Old English mōna, which ultimately stems from Proto-Germanic *mǣnōn, like all Germanic language cognates. Occasionally, the name Luna is used, in literature, especially science fiction, Luna is used to distinguish it from other moons, while in poetry, the name has been used to denote personification of our moon. The principal modern English adjective pertaining to the Moon is lunar, a less common adjective is selenic, derived from the Ancient Greek Selene, from which is derived the prefix seleno-. Both the Greek Selene and the Roman goddess Diana were alternatively called Cynthia, the names Luna, Cynthia, and Selene are reflected in terminology for lunar orbits in words such as apolune, pericynthion, and selenocentric. The name Diana is connected to dies meaning day, several mechanisms have been proposed for the Moons formation 4.51 billion years ago, and some 60 million years after the origin of the Solar System. These hypotheses also cannot account for the angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system. This hypothesis, although not perfect, perhaps best explains the evidence, eighteen months prior to an October 1984 conference on lunar origins, Bill Hartmann, Roger Phillips, and Jeff Taylor challenged fellow lunar scientists, You have eighteen months. Go back to your Apollo data, go back to computer, do whatever you have to. Dont come to our conference unless you have something to say about the Moons birth, at the 1984 conference at Kona, Hawaii, the giant impact hypothesis emerged as the most popular. Afterward there were only two groups, the giant impact camp and the agnostics. Giant impacts are thought to have been common in the early Solar System, computer simulations of a giant impact have produced results that are consistent with the mass of the lunar core and the present angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system
37.
Nature
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Nature, in the broadest sense, is the natural, physical, or material world or universe. Nature can refer to the phenomena of the world. The study of nature is a part of science. Although humans are part of nature, human activity is understood as a separate category from other natural phenomena. The word nature is derived from the Latin word natura, or essential qualities, innate disposition, and in ancient times, literally meant birth. Natura is a Latin translation of the Greek word physis, which related to the intrinsic characteristics that plants, animals. This usage continued during the advent of scientific method in the last several centuries. Within the various uses of the word today, nature often refers to geology, for example, manufactured objects and human interaction generally are not considered part of nature, unless qualified as, for example, human nature or the whole of nature. Depending on the context, the term natural might also be distinguished from the unnatural or the supernatural. Earth is the planet known to support life, and its natural features are the subject of many fields of scientific research. Within the solar system, it is third closest to the sun, it is the largest terrestrial planet and its most prominent climatic features are its two large polar regions, two relatively narrow temperate zones, and a wide equatorial tropical to subtropical region. Precipitation varies widely with location, from several metres of water per year to less than a millimetre,71 percent of the Earths surface is covered by salt-water oceans. The remainder consists of continents and islands, with most of the land in the Northern Hemisphere. Earth has evolved through geological and biological processes that have left traces of the original conditions, the outer surface is divided into several gradually migrating tectonic plates. The interior remains active, with a layer of plastic mantle. This iron core is composed of a solid phase. Convective motion in the core generates electric currents through dynamo action, the atmospheric conditions have been significantly altered from the original conditions by the presence of life-forms, which create an ecological balance that stabilizes the surface conditions. Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth, the geology of an area evolves through time as rock units are deposited and inserted and deformational processes change their shapes and locations
38.
Greek mythology
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It was a part of the religion in ancient Greece. Greek mythology is explicitly embodied in a collection of narratives. Greek myth attempts to explain the origins of the world, and details the lives and adventures of a variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines. These accounts initially were disseminated in a tradition, today the Greek myths are known primarily from ancient Greek literature. The oldest known Greek literary sources, Homers epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on the Trojan War, archaeological findings provide a principal source of detail about Greek mythology, with gods and heroes featured prominently in the decoration of many artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles, in the succeeding Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence. Greek mythology has had an influence on the culture, arts. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in the themes, Greek mythology is known today primarily from Greek literature and representations on visual media dating from the Geometric period from c. Mythical narration plays an important role in every genre of Greek literature. Nevertheless, the only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus and this work attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends. Apollodorus of Athens lived from c, 180–125 BC and wrote on many of these topics. His writings may have formed the basis for the collection, however the Library discusses events that occurred long after his death, among the earliest literary sources are Homers two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Other poets completed the cycle, but these later and lesser poems now are lost almost entirely. Despite their traditional name, the Homeric Hymns have no connection with Homer. They are choral hymns from the part of the so-called Lyric age. Hesiods Works and Days, a poem about farming life, also includes the myths of Prometheus, Pandora. The poet gives advice on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world, lyrical poets often took their subjects from myth, but their treatment became gradually less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including Pindar, Bacchylides and Simonides, and bucolic poets such as Theocritus and Bion, additionally, myth was central to classical Athenian drama
39.
Artemis
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Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Some scholars believe that the name, and indeed the goddess herself, was originally pre-Greek, Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron, Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals. The Arcadians believed she was the daughter of Demeter, in the classical period of Greek mythology, Artemis was often described as the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. The deer and the cypress were sacred to her, in later Hellenistic times, she even assumed the ancient role of Eileithyia in aiding childbirth. The name Artemis is of unknown or uncertain origin and etymology although various ones have been proposed, for example, according to J. T. Jablonski, the name is also Phrygian and could be compared with the royal appellation Artemas of Xenophon. Anton Goebel suggests the root στρατ or ῥατ, to shake, babiniotis, while accepting that the etymology is unknown, states that the name is already attested in Mycenean Greek and is possibly of pre-Hellenic origin. It is believed that a precursor of Artemis was worshiped in Minoan Crete as the goddess of mountains and hunting, R. S. P. Beekes suggested that the e/i interchange points to a Pre-Greek origin. Artemis was venerated in Lydia as Artimus, various conflicting accounts are given in Classical Greek mythology of the birth of Artemis and her twin brother, Apollo. All accounts agree, however, that she was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, an account by Callimachus has it that Hera forbade Leto to give birth on either terra firma or on an island. Hera was angry with Zeus, her husband, because he had impregnated Leto, but the island of Delos disobeyed Hera, and Leto gave birth there. In ancient Cretan history Leto was worshipped at Phaistos and in Cretan mythology Leto gave birth to Apollo, a scholium of Servius on Aeneid iii. The myths also differ as to whether Artemis was born first, most stories depict Artemis as born first, becoming her mothers mid-wife upon the birth of her brother Apollo. The childhood of Artemis is not fully related in any surviving myth, the Iliad reduced the figure of the dread goddess to that of a girl, who, having been thrashed by Hera, climbs weeping into the lap of Zeus. She wished for no city dedicated to her, but to rule the mountains, Artemis believed that she had been chosen by the Fates to be a midwife, particularly since she had assisted her mother in the delivery of her twin brother, Apollo. All of her companions remained virgins, and Artemis closely guarded her own chastity and her symbols included the golden bow and arrow, the hunting dog, the stag, and the moon. Okeanus daughters were filled with fear, but the young Artemis bravely approached and asked for bow, Callimachus then tells how Artemis visited Pan, the god of the forest, who gave her seven bitches and six dogs. She then captured six golden-horned deer to pull her chariot, Artemis practiced with her bow first by shooting at trees and then at wild beasts. As a virgin, Artemis had interested many gods and men, Orion was accidentally killed either by Artemis or by Gaia
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Diana Nemorensis
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Diana Nemorensis, also known as “Diana of the Wood”, was an Italic form of the goddess who became Hellenised during the fourth century BCE and conflated with Artemis. Her sanctuary was to be found on the shore of Lake Nemi beneath the cliffs of the modern city Nemi. This lake is referred to by poets as speculum Dianae, “Dianas Mirror, after his death, the myth has it, his bones were transported from Aricia to Rome and buried in front of the Temple of Saturn, on the Capitoline slope, beside the Temple of Concord. No historical or archaeological evidence links these Greek myths to the cultus at Nemi, the temple of Diana Nemorensis was preceded by the sacred grove in which there stood a carved cult image. The temple was noted by Vitruvius as being archaic and Etruscan in its form, a. E. Gordon has observed that the comparatively late date of the excavated remains of the sanctuary does not preclude the dedication of the grove at the end of the sixth century. Andreas Alföldi has demonstrated that the image still stood as late as 43 BCE. The Italic type of the cult image of Diana Nemorensis was reconstructed by Alföldi from a sequence of later Republican period coins he connected with a gens from Aricia. In early examples the three goddesses stand before a sketchily indicated wood, the central goddess placing her hand on the shoulder of one goddess. The three are shown to be one by a bar behind their necks that connects them. Diana is commonly addressed as Trivia by Virgil and Catullus, a votive inscription of the time of Nerva indicates that Vesta, Roman goddess of the hearth, home, and family, was also venerated in the grove at Nemi. No one was to break off its limbs, with the exception of a runaway slave and he was then in turn granted the privilege to engage the Rex Nemorensis, the current king and priest of Diana in the region, in one-on-one mortal combat. If the slave prevailed, he became the king for as long as he could defeat challengers. By the time Caligula interfered in the succession of priest-kings, the murder-succession had devolved into a gladiatorial combat before an audience, querquetulanae, oak nymphs who may have been associated with Diana Nemorensis Carin M. C
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Minerva (mythology)
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Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom and sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She was born with weapons from the head of Jupiter, after impregnating the titaness Metis, Jupiter recalled a prophecy that his own child would overthrow him. Fearing that their child would grow stronger than he and rule the Heavens in his place, the titaness forged weapons and armor for her child while within the father-god, and the constant pounding and ringing gave him a headache. To relieve the pain, Vulcan used a hammer to split Jupiters head and, from the cleft, Minerva emerged, whole, adult, from the 2nd century BC onwards, the Romans equated her with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the goddess of music, poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving. She is often depicted with her sacred creature, an owl usually named as the owl of Minerva, stemming from an Italic moon goddess *Meneswā, the Etruscans adopted the inherited Old Latin name, *Menerwā, thereby calling her Menrva. It is assumed that her Roman name, Minerva, is based on this Etruscan mythology, Minerva was the goddess of wisdom, war, art, schools and commerce. She was the Etruscan counterpart to Greek Athena, like Athena, Minerva was born from the head of her father, Jupiter. The word mens is built from the Proto-Indo-European root *men- mind, the Etruscan Menrva was part of a holy triad with Tinia and Uni, equivalent to the Roman Capitoline Triad of Jupiter-Juno-Minerva. Minerva was the daughter of Jupiter, as Minerva Medica, she was the goddess of medicine and doctors. As Minerva Achaea, she was worshipped at Lucera in Apulia where votive gifts, in Fasti III, Ovid called her the goddess of a thousand works. Minerva was worshipped throughout Italy, and when she eventually became equated with the Greek goddess Athena, unlike Mars, god of war, she was sometimes portrayed with sword lowered, in sympathy for the recent dead, rather than raised in triumph. In Rome her bellicose nature was emphasized less than elsewhere and her worship was also spread throughout the empire—in Britain, for example, she was syncretized with the local goddess Sulis, who was often invoked for restitution for theft. The Romans celebrated her festival from March 19 to March 23 during the day which is called, in the plural, Quinquatria, the fifth after the Ides of March, the nineteenth. A lesser version, the Minusculae Quinquatria, was held on the Ides of June, June 13, by the flute-players, in 207 BC, a guild of poets and actors was formed to meet and make votive offerings at the temple of Minerva on the Aventine Hill. Among others, its members included Livius Andronicus, the Aventine sanctuary of Minerva continued to be an important center of the arts for much of the middle Roman Republic. When it was founded, the emperor himself was present and was believed to be of divine nature as a result of its construction, Minerva is featured on the coinage of different Roman Emperors. She is often represented on the side of a coin holding an owl
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Vesta (mythology)
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Vesta is the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman religion. She was rarely depicted in form, and was often personified by the fire of her temple in the Forum Romanum. Entry to her temple was permitted only to her priestesses, the Vestals, as she was considered a guardian of the Roman people, her festival, the Vestalia, was regarded as one of the most important Roman holidays. During the Vestalia matrons of the city walked barefoot to the sanctuary of the goddess, the myths depicting Vesta and her priestesses were few, and were limited to tales of miraculous impregnation by a phallus appearing in the flames of the hearth - the manifestation of the goddess. Vesta was among the Dii Consentes, twelve of the most honored gods in the Roman pantheon and she was the daughter of Saturn and Ops, and sister of, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Juno, and Ceres. Her closest Greek equivalent is Hestia, Ovid derived Vesta from Latin vi stando - standing by power. Cicero supposed that the Latin name Vesta derives from the Greek Hestia and this etymology is offered by Servius as well. Another etymology is that Vesta derives from Latin uestio, as well as from Greek έστἰα, georges Dumézil, a French comparative philologist, surmised that the name of the goddess derives from Proto-Indo-European root *h₁eu-, via the derivative form *h₁eu-s- which alternates with *h₁w-es-. The former is found in Greek εὕειν heuein, Latin urit, ustio and Vedic osathi all conveying burning, see also Gallic Celtic visc fire. According to tradition, worship of Vesta in Italy began in Lavinium, the mother-city of Alba Longa, from Lavinium worship of Vesta was transferred to Alba Longa. Upon entering higher office, Roman magistrates would go to Lavinium to offer sacrifice to Vesta, the Penates were Trojan gods first introduced to Italy by Aeneas. Alongside those household gods was Vesta, who has referred to as Vesta Iliaca. Worship of Vesta, like the worship of gods, originated in the home. The priestesses of Vesta, known as Vestal Virgins, administered her temple and their existence in Alba Longa is connected with the early Roman traditions, for Romulus mother Silvia was a priestess. After assuming the office of pontifex maximus in 12 BC, Augustus converted part of his house into public property. The old shrine remained in the Forum Romanum, but this one linked the public hearth of the state and this strengthened the connection between the office of pontifex maximus and the cult of Vesta. Henceforth, the office of pontifex maximus was tied to the title of emperor, now the emperor was technically a priest of Vesta, and the pontifices were sometimes referred to as pontifices Vestae. In 12 BC,28 April was chosen ex senatus consultum to commemorate the new shrine of Vesta in Augustus home on the Palatine, Vestas cult would continue to dominate the ancient cults with religious observances persisting into the 4th century
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Oak
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An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 600 extant species of oaks, the common name oak also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus, as well as in those of unrelated species such as Grevillea robusta and the Casuarinaceae. North America contains the largest number of oak species, with approximately 90 occurring in the United States, the second greatest center of oak diversity is China, which contains approximately 100 species. Oaks have spirally arranged leaves, with lobate margins in many species, also, the acorns contain tannic acid, as do the leaves, which helps to guard from fungi and insects. Many deciduous species are marcescent, not dropping dead leaves until spring, in spring, a single oak tree produces both male flowers and small female flowers. The fruit is a nut called an acorn, borne in a structure known as a cupule, each acorn contains one seed and takes 6–18 months to mature. The live oaks are distinguished for being evergreen, but are not actually a distinct group, the oak tree is a flowering plant. Oaks may be divided into two genera and a number of sections, The genus Quercus is divided into the following sections, Quercus, the white oaks of Europe, Asia and North America. Styles are short, acorns mature in 6 months and taste sweet or slightly bitter, the leaves mostly lack a bristle on their lobe tips, which are usually rounded. The type species is Quercus robur, Mesobalanus, Hungarian oak and its relatives of Europe and Asia. Styles long, acorns mature in about 6 months and taste bitter, the section Mesobalanus is closely related to section Quercus and sometimes included in it. Cerris, the Turkey oak and its relatives of Europe and Asia, styles long, acorn mature in 18 months and taste very bitter. The inside of the shell is hairless. Its leaves typically have sharp tips, with bristles at the lobe tip. Protobalanus, the live oak and its relatives, in southwest United States. Styles short, acorns mature in 18 months and taste very bitter, the inside of the acorn shell appears woolly. Leaves typically have sharp tips, with bristles at the lobe tip. Lobatae, the red oaks of North America, Central America, styles long, acorns mature in 18 months and taste very bitter
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Apollo
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Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. The ideal of the kouros, Apollo has been recognized as a god of music, truth and prophecy, healing, the sun and light, plague, poetry. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu. As the patron of Delphi, Apollo was an oracular god—the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle. Medicine and healing are associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius, yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague. Amongst the gods custodial charges, Apollo became associated with dominion over colonists, as the leader of the Muses and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron god of music and poetry. Hermes created the lyre for him, and the instrument became an attribute of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans, Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the 3rd century CE. The name Apollo—unlike the related older name Paean—is generally not found in the Linear B texts, the etymology of the name is uncertain. The spelling Ἀπόλλων had almost superseded all other forms by the beginning of the common era and it probably is a cognate to the Doric month Apellaios, and the offerings apellaia at the initiation of the young men during the family-festival apellai. According to some scholars the words are derived from the Doric word apella, apella is the name of the popular assembly in Sparta, corresponding to the ecclesia. R. S. P. Beekes rejected the connection of the theonym with the noun apellai, several instances of popular etymology are attested from ancient authors. Thus, the Greeks most often associated Apollos name with the Greek verb ἀπόλλυμι, in the ancient Macedonian language πέλλα means stone, and some toponyms may be derived from this word, Πέλλα and Πελλήνη. The role of Apollo as god of plague is evident in the invocation of Apollo Smintheus by Chryses, the Hittite testimony reflects an early form *Apeljōn, which may also be surmised from comparison of Cypriot Ἀπείλων with Doric Ἀπέλλων. A Luwian etymology suggested for Apaliunas makes Apollo The One of Entrapment, Apollos chief epithet was Phoebus, literally bright. It was very commonly used by both the Greeks and Romans for Apollos role as the god of light, like other Greek deities, he had a number of others applied to him, reflecting the variety of roles, duties, and aspects ascribed to the god. However, while Apollo has a number of appellations in Greek myth. Aegletes, from αἴγλη, light of the sun Helius, literally sun Lyceus light, the meaning of the epithet Lyceus later became associated with Apollos mother Leto, who was the patron goddess of Lycia and who was identified with the wolf
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Delos
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The island of Delos, near Mykonos, near the centre of the Cyclades archipelago, is one of the most important mythological, historical and archaeological sites in Greece. Delos had a position as a sanctuary for a millennium before Olympian Greek mythology made it the birthplace of Apollo. Established as a center, Delos had an importance that its natural resources could never have offered. Investigation of ancient stone huts found on the island indicate that it has been inhabited since the 3rd millennium BCE, thucydides identifies the original inhabitants as piratical Carians who were eventually expelled by King Minos of Crete. By the time of the Odyssey the island was famous as the birthplace of the twin gods Apollo. Indeed, between 900 BCE and 100 CE, sacred Delos was a cult centre, where Dionysus is also in evidence as well as the Titaness Leto. Eventually acquiring Panhellenic religious significance, Delos was initially a religious pilgrimage for the Ionians, a number of purifications were executed by the city-state of Athens in an attempt to render the island fit for the proper worship of the gods. The first took place in the 6th century BC, directed by the tyrant Pisistratus who ordered that all graves within sight of the temple be dug up and the bodies moved to another nearby island. In the 5th century, during the 6th year of the Peloponnesian war and under instruction from the Delphic Oracle, immediately after this purification, the first quinquennial festival of the Delian games were celebrated there. The island had no capacity for food, fiber, or timber. Limited water was exploited with a cistern and aqueduct system, wells. Strabo states that in 166 BCE the Romans converted Delos into a free port, Roman traders came to purchase tens of thousands of slaves captured by the Cilician pirates or captured in the wars following the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire. It became the center of the trade, with the largest slave market in the larger region being maintained here. The island was attacked in 88 BCE by the troops of Mithridates VI of Pontus, an enemy of Rome. Another devastating attack was by pirates in 69 BCE, before the end of the 1st century BCE, trade routes had changed, Delos was replaced by Puteoli as the chief focus of Italian trade with the East, and as a cult-centre too it entered a sharp decline. Due to the history, Delos - unlike other Greek islands - did not have an indigenous. As a result, in times it became uninhabited. Since 1872 the École française dAthènes has been excavating the island, in 1990, UNESCO inscribed Delos on the World Heritage List, citing it as the exceptionally extensive and rich archaeological site which conveys the image of a great cosmopolitan Mediterranean port
46.
Jupiter (mythology)
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Jupiter, also Jove, is the god of sky and thunder and king of the gods in Ancient Roman religion and mythology. Jupiter was the deity of Roman state religion throughout the Republican and Imperial eras. In Roman mythology, he negotiates with Numa Pompilius, the king of Rome, to establish principles of Roman religion such as offering. Jupiter is usually thought to have originated as a sky god, the two emblems were often combined to represent the god in the form of an eagle holding in its claws a thunderbolt, frequently seen on Greek and Roman coins. As the sky-god, he was a witness to oaths. Many of his functions were focused on the Capitoline Hill, where the citadel was located and he was the chief deity of the early Capitoline Triad with Mars and Quirinus. In the later Capitoline Triad, he was the guardian of the state with Juno. His sacred tree was the oak, the Romans regarded Jupiter as the equivalent of the Greek Zeus, and in Latin literature and Roman art, the myths and iconography of Zeus are adapted under the name Iuppiter. In the Greek-influenced tradition, Jupiter was the brother of Neptune, each presided over one of the three realms of the universe, sky, the waters, and the underworld. The Italic Diespiter was also a sky god who manifested himself in the daylight, usually, Tinia is usually regarded as his Etruscan counterpart. The Romans believed that Jupiter granted them supremacy because they had honoured him more than any other people had, Jupiter was the fount of the auspices upon which the relationship of the city with the gods rested. He personified the divine authority of Romes highest offices, internal organization and his image in the Republican and Imperial Capitol bore regalia associated with Romes ancient kings and the highest consular and Imperial honours. The consuls swore their oath of office in Jupiters name, to thank him for his help, they offered him a white ox with gilded horns. A similar offering was made by generals, who surrendered the tokens of their victory at the feet of Jupiters statue in the Capitol. Some scholars have viewed the triumphator as embodying Jupiter in the triumphal procession, Jupiters association with kingship and sovereignty was reinterpreted as Romes form of government changed. Originally, Rome was ruled by kings, after the monarchy was abolished and the Republic established, religious prerogatives were transferred to the patres, nostalgia for the kingship was considered treasonous. Those suspected of harbouring monarchical ambitions were punished, regardless of their service to the state, in the 5th century BC, the triumphator Camillus was sent into exile after he drove a chariot with a team of four white horses —an honour reserved for Jupiter himself. His house on the Capitoline Hill was razed, and it was decreed that no patrician should ever be allowed to live there, during the Conflict of the Orders, Romes plebeians demanded the right to hold political and religious office
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Leto
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In Greek mythology, Leto is a daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe, the sister of Asteria, and the mother, by Zeus, of Apollo and Artemis. The island of Kos is claimed as her birthplace, in the Olympian scheme, Zeus is the father of her twins, Apollo and Artemis, the Letoides, which Leto conceived after her hidden beauty accidentally caught the eyes of Zeus. Finally, she finds an island that is not attached to the floor so it is not considered land. This is her one active mythic role, once Apollo and Artemis are grown, Leto withdraws, to remain a dim and benevolent matronly figure upon Olympus, in Roman mythology, Letos equivalent is Latona, a Latinization of her name, influenced by Etruscan Letun. Walter Burkert notes that in Phaistos she appears in connection with an initiation cult, Leto was identified from the fourth century onwards with the principal local mother goddess of Anatolian Lycia, as the region became Hellenized. In Greek inscriptions, the Letoides are referred to as the gods of the country. Her sanctuary, the Letoon near Xanthos predated Hellenic influence in the region, however, the Hellenes of Kos also claimed Leto as their own. Another sanctuary, more recently identified, was at Oenoanda in the north of Lycia, there was, of course, a further Letoon at Delos. Letos primal nature may be deduced from the natures of her father and mother, the name of Letos mother, Phoebe, is identical to the epithet of her son Apollo, Φοῖβος Ἀπόλλων, throughout Homer. Several explanations have been put forward to explain the origin of the goddess, older sources speculated that the name is related to the Greek λήθη lḗthē and λωτός lotus. It would thus mean the hidden one, in 20th-century sources Leto is traditionally derived from Lycian lada, wife, as her earliest cult was centered in Lycia. Lycian lada may also be the origin of the Greek name Λήδα Leda, other scholars have suggested a Pre-Greek origin. She was powerless to stop the flow of events, Latona for her intrigue with Zeus was hunted by Hera over the whole earth, till she came to Delos and brought forth first Artemis, by the help of whose midwifery she afterwards gave birth to Apollo. Hera banned Leto from giving birth on terra firma, the mainland, any island at sea, the island was surrounded by swans. As a gesture of gratitude, Delos was secured with four pillars and it is remarkable that Leto brought forth Artemis, the elder twin, without travail, as Callimachus wrote, as if she were merely revealing another manifestation of herself. Only Hera kept apart, perhaps to kidnap Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, instead Artemis, having been born first, assisted with the birth of Apollo. The dynastic rite of the witnessed birth must have been familiar to the hymns hearers, demeter is not present, her mother Rhea attends. The goddess Dione is sometimes taken by later mythographers as a feminine form of Zeus, if this were so
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Egeria (mythology)
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Her name is used as an eponym for a female advisor or counselor. Egeria may predate Roman myth, she could have been of Italic origin in the sacred forest of Aricia in Latium, her immemorial site, at Aricia there was also a Manius Egerius, a male counterpart of Egeria. Described sometime as a nymph, she is usually regarded as a water nymph and somehow her cult also involved some link with childbirth. But most of all, Egeria gave wisdom and prophecy in return for libations of water or milk at her sacred groves and this quality has been made especially popular through the tale of her relationship with Numa Pompilius. According to mythology she counseled and guided the King Numa Pompilius in the establishment of the framework of laws. Numa is reputed to have written down the teachings of Egeria in sacred books that he had buried with him, when a chance accident brought them back to light some 500 years later, the Senate deemed them inappropriate for disclosure to the people, and ordered their destruction. What made them inappropriate was some matter of nature with political bearing that apparently has not been handed down by Valerius Antias. Dionysius of Halicarnassus hints that they were kept as a very close secret by the Pontifices. She is also gifted with oracular capabilities, in another episode she helps Numa in a battle of wits with Jupiter himself, whereby Numa sought to gain a protective ritual against lightning strokes and thunder. The precise level of her relationship to Numa has been described diversely, by Juvenals day that tradition was treated more critically. Juvenal called her Numas Amica in a sceptical phrase, Numa Pompilius died in 673 BC of old age. According to Ovids Metamorphoses, with Numas death Egeria melted into tears of sorrow, thus becoming a spring, a spring and a grove once sacred to Egeria stand close to a gate of Rome, the Porta Capena. Its waters were dedicated to the use of the Vestals. The primeval spring, one of dozens of springs flow into the river Almone, was made to feed large pools. Juvenal regretted an earlier phase of architectural elaboration, Nymph of the Spring, more honour’d hadst thou been, If, free from art, an edge of living green, Thy bubbling fount had circumscribed alone, And marble ne’er profaned the native stone. In Nathaniel Lees English Restoration tragedy Lucius Junius Brutus, Egeria appears in a vision to Brutus son Titus, in Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest, the priest Chasuble refers to Cecilys tutor Miss Prism as Egeria. In Smithsonian Nov 2016 Vol47, Number 7, John Adams writes to his son Charles, encyclopædia Britannica 1911, Egeria Roma Sotterranea, Il ninfeo di Egeria, Ruins of Egerias Nymphaeum Park of the Caffarella
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Hippolytus (son of Theseus)
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In Greek mythology, Hippolytus was a son of Theseus and either Antiope or Hippolyte. He was identified with the Roman forest god Virbius, the most common legend regarding Hippolytus states that he was killed after rejecting the advances of Phaedra, his stepmother, the second wife of Theseus. Spurned, Phaedra deceived Theseus saying that his son had raped her, Theseus, furious, used one of the three wishes given to him by Poseidon to curse Hippolytus. Poseidon sent a sea-monster—or, alternatively, Dionysus sent a wild bull—to terrorize Hippolytuss horses, versions of this story appear in Euripides play Hippolytus, Seneca the Youngers play Phaedra, Ovids Metamorphoses and Heroides, and Jean Racines Phèdre. Euripides version has Phaedras nurse tell Hippolytus of Phaedras love, Hippolytus swore that he wouldnt reveal the nurse as a source of information – even after Phaedra killed herself and falsely accused him of raping her in a suicide note, which Theseus read. Alternatively, it is stated that Phaedra simply killed herself out of guilt for Hippolytus’ death, according to some sources, Hippolytus had scorned Aphrodite in order to become a devotee of Artemis, devoting himself to a chaste life in pursuit of hunting. In retaliation, Aphrodite made Phaedra fall in love with him, Hippolytus’ rejection of Phaedra led to his death in a fall from a chariot. As a result, a cult grew up around Hippolytus, associated with the cult of Aphrodite and his cult believed that Artemis asked Asclepius to resurrect the young man since he had vowed chastity to her. He was brought to Latium, Italy, where he reigned under the name of Virbius or Virbio, after his resurrection, he married Aricia. According to another tradition, he lived in the forests near Aricia in Latium. Girls who were about to be married offered locks of their hair to him as a sign of their virginity
