Roman
mythology
Romulus and Remus ,the Lupercal ,Father Tiber ,and the Palatine on a relief from a pedestal dating to the reign of Trajan (AD 98–117)
Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories per-taining to ancient Rome 's legendary origins and religious system ,as reprented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans .“Roman mythology”may also refer to the modern study of the reprentations,and to the subject matter as reprented in the literature and art of other cultures in any period.
The Romans usually treated their traditional narratives as historical,even when the have miraculous or super-natural elements.The stories are often concerned with politics and morality,and how an individual’s personal integrity relates to his or her responsibility to the com-munity or Roman state.Heroism is an important theme.When the stories illuminate Roman religious practices,they are more concerned with ritual,augury ,and institu-tions than with theology or cosmogony .[1]
The study of Roman religion and myth is complicated by the early influence of Greek religion on the Italian peninsula during Rome’s protohistory ,and by the later artistic imitation of Greek literary models by Roman au-thors.In matters of theology,the Romans were curi-ously eager to identify their own gods with tho of the Greeks (interpretatio graeca ),and to reinterpret stories about Greek deiti
es under the names of their Roman counterparts.[2]Rome’s early myths and legends also have a dynamic relationship with Etruscan religion ,less docu-mented than that of the Greeks.While Roman mythology may lack a body of divine nar-ratives as extensive as that found in Greek literature,[3]Romulus and Remus suckling the she-wolf is as fa-mous as any image from Greek mythology except for
the Trojan Hor .[4]Becau Latin literature was more widely known in Europe throughout the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance ,the interpretations of Greek myths by the Romans often had the greater influence on narra-tive and pictorial reprentations of "classical mythology "than Greek sources.In particular,the versions of Greek myths in Ovid 's Metamorphos ,written during the reign of Augustus ,came to be regarded as canonical .
1The nature of Roman
myth
In this wall painting from Pompeii ,Venus looks on while the
physician Iapyx tends to the wound of her son,Aeneas ;the tear-ful boy is her grandson Ascanius,also known as Iulus ,legendary ancestor of Julius Caesar and the Julio-Claudian dynasty
Becau ritual played the central role in Roman re-ligion that myth did for the Greeks,it is sometimes doubted that the Romans had much of a native mythol-ogy.This perception is a product of Romanticism and the classical scholarship of the 19th century,which val-ued Greek civilization as more “authentically creative.”[5]From the Renaissance to the 18th century,however,Ro-man myths were an inspiration particularly for European painting .[6]The Roman tradition is rich in historical myths,or legends ,concerning the foundation and ri of the city.The narratives focus on human actors,with only occasional intervention from deities but a pervasive
1
22RELIGION AND MYTH
至关重要的n of divinely ordered destiny.In Rome’s earliest pe-riod,history and myth have a mutual and complementary relationship.[7]As T.P.Wiman notes:The Roman stories still matter ,as they mat-tered to Dante in 1300and Shakespeare in 1600and the founding fathers of the United States in 1776.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 ?[8]
Major sources for Roman myth include the Aeneid of
Vergil and the first few books of Livy 's 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 ,and the fourth book of elegies by Propertius .Scenes from Roman myth also appear in Roman wall painting ,coins ,and sculpture ,particularly
reliefs .元旦手抄报文字
1.1Founding myths
Main article:Founding of Rome
The Aeneid and Livy’s early history are the best extant sources for Rome’s founding myths .Material from Greek heroic legend was grafted onto this native stock at an early date.The Trojan prince Aeneas was cast as husband of Lavinia ,daughter of King Latinus ,patronymical ances-tor of the Latini ,and therefore through a convoluted re-visionist genealogy as forebear of Romulus and Remus .By extension,the Trojans were adopted as the mythical ancestors of the Roman people.[9]
1.2Other
myths
Mucius Scaevola in the Prence of Lars Pornna (early 1640s)by Matthias Stom
The characteristic myths of Rome are often political or moral,that is,they deal with the development of Roman government in accordance with divine law,as expresd by Roman religion ,and with demonstrations of the indi-vidual’s adherence to moral expectations (mos maiorum )
or failures to do so.
•Rape of the Sabine women ,explaining the impor-tance of the Sabines in the formation of Roman cul-ture,and the growth of Rome through conflict and alliance.•Numa Pompilius ,the Sabine cond king of Rome who consorted with the nymph Egeria and estab-lished many of Rome’s legal and religious institu-tions.
•Servius Tullius ,the sixth king of Rome,who mys-terious origins were freely mythologized and who was said to have been the lover of the goddess Fortuna .•The Tarpeian Rock ,and why it was ud for the ex-ecution of traitors.
•Lucretia ,who lf-sacrifice prompted the over-throw of the early Roman monarchy and led to the establishment of the Republic.
•Cloelia ,A Roman woman taken hostage by Lars Porna .She escaped the Clusian camp with a group of Roman virgins.
•Horatius at the bridge ,on the importance of individ-ual valor .
•Mucius Scaevola ,who thrust his right hand into the fire to prove his loyalty to Rome.
传统文化素材
•Caeculus and the founding of Praeneste .[10]
•Manlius and the gee ,about divine intervention at the Gallic siege of Rome .[11]•Stories pertaining to the Nonae Caprotinae and Poplifugia festivals.[12]•Coriolanus ,a story of politics and morality.•The Etruscan city of Corythus as the “cradle”of Trojan and Italian civilization.[13]•The arrival of the Great Mother (Cybele)in Rome.[14]
2Religion and myth
Main article:Religion in ancient Rome
Divine narrative played a more important role in the sys-tem of Greek religious belief than among the Romans,
for whom ritual and cult were primary.Although Ro-man religion was not bad on scriptures and exegesis ,
2.1Foreign gods 3
priestly literature was one of the earliest written forms of Latin pro .[15]The books (libri)and commentaries (commentarii)of the College of Pontiffs and of the augurs contained religious procedures,prayers,and rulings and opinions on points of religious law.[16]Although at least some of this archived material was available for consul-tation by the Roman nate ,it was often occultum genus litterarum ,[17]an arcane form of literature to which by definition only priests had access.[18]Prophecies pertain-ing to world history and Rome’s destiny turn up fortu-itously at critical junctures in history,discovered sud-denly in the nebulous Sibylline books ,which according to legend were purchad by Tarquin the Proud in the late 6th century BC from the Cumaean Sibyl .Some aspects of archaic Roman religion were prerved by the lost theo-logical works of the 1st-century BC scholar Varro ,known through other classical and Christian
authors.
Capitoline Triad
At the head of the earliest pantheon were the so-called Archaic Triad of Jupiter,Mars,and Quirinus,who flamens were of the highest order ,and Janus and Vesta .According to tradition,the founder of Roman religion was Numa Pompilius ,the Sabine cond king of Rome ,
who was believed to have had as his consort and advir a Roman goddess or nymph of fountains and prophecy,Egeria .The Etruscan-influenced Capitoline Triad of Jupiter,Juno and Minerva later became central to official religion,replacing the Archaic Triad —an unusual ex-ample within Indo-European religion of a supreme triad formed of two female deities and only one male.The cult of Dia
na was established on the Aventine Hill ,but the most famous Roman manifestation of this goddess may be Diana Nemorensis ,owing to the attention paid to her cult by J.G.Frazer in the mythographical classic The Golden Bough .
The gods reprented distinctly the practical needs of daily life,and they were scrupulously accorded the rites and offerings considered proper.Early Roman divini-ties included a host of “specialist gods”who names were invoked in the carrying out of various specific ac-tivities.Fragments of old ritual accompanying such acts as plowing or sowing reveal that at every stage of the op-eration a parate deity was invoked,the name of each
deity being regularly derived from the verb for the op-eration.Tutelary deities were particularly important in ancient Rome.
Thus,Janus and Vesta guarded the door and hearth,the Lares protected the field and hou,Pales the pasture,Saturn the sowing,Ceres the growth of the grain,Pomona the fruit,and Consus and Ops the harvest.Even the ma-jestic Jupiter ,the ruler of the gods,was honored for the aid his rains might give to the farms and vineyards.In his more encompassing character he was considered,through his weapon of lightning,the director of human activity and,by his widespread domain,the protector of the
Ro-mans in their military activities beyond the borders of their own community.Prominent in early times were the gods Mars and Quirinus ,who were often identified with each other.Mars was a god of war;he was honored in March and October.Quirinus is thought by modern scholars to have been the patron of the armed commu-nity in time of peace.
The 19th-century scholar Georg Wissowa [19]thought that the Romans distinguished two class of gods,the di in-digetes and the di novensides or novensiles :the indigetes were the original gods of the Roman state,their names and nature indicated by the titles of the earliest priests and by the fixed festivals of the calendar,with 30such gods honored by special festivals;the novensides were later di-vinities who cults were introduced to the city in the his-torical period,usually at a known date and in respon to a specific crisis or felt need.Arnaldo Momigliano and others,however,have argued that this distinction cannot be maintained.[20]During the war with Hannibal ,any dis-tinction between “indigenous”and “immigrant”gods be-gins to fade,and the Romans embraced diver gods from
various cultures as a sign of strength and universal divine favor.[21]
2.1Foreign
gods
Mithras in a Roman wall painting
The absorption of neighboring local gods took place as the Roman state conquered the surrounding territory.The Romans commonly granted the local gods of the conquered territory the same honors as the earlier gods
45REFERENCES
of the Roman state religion.In addition to Castor and Pollux,the conquered ttlements in Italy em to have contributed to the Roman pantheon Diana,Minerva, Hercules,Venus,and deities of lesr rank,some of whom were Italic divinities,others originally derived from the Greek culture of Magna Graecia.In203BC,the cult object embodying Cybele was brought from Pessinus in Phrygia and welcomed with due ceremony to Rome, centuries before the territory was annexed formally.Both Lucretius and Catullus,poets contemporary in the mid-1st century BC,offer disapproving glimps of her wildly ecstatic cult.
In some instances,deities of an enemy power were for-mally invited through the ritual of evocatio to take up their abode in new sanctuaries at Rome.
Communities of foreigners(peregrini)and former slaves (libertini)continued their own religious practices within the city.In this way Mithras came to Rome and his popu-larity within the Roman army spread his cult as far afield as Roman Britain.The important Roman deities were eventually identified with the more anthropomorphic Greek gods and goddess,and assumed many of their attributes and myths.
3Sources
•Alan Cameron Greek Mythography in the Roman World(2005)OUP,Oxford(reviewed by T P Wi-man in Times Literary Supplement13May2005 page29)
•Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC)(1981–1999,Artemis-Verlag,9volumes), Supplementum(2009,Artemis_Verlag).•LIMC-France(LIMC):databas dedicated to Graeco-Roman mythology and its iconography.
4See also
•Ancient Rome
•List of Metamorphos characters
•Roman polytheistic reconstructionism
•The Golden Bough(mythology)
•List of Roman gods
5References
[1]John North,Roman Religion(Cambridge University
Press,2000)pp.4ff.
[2]North,Roman Religion,pp.4–5.
[3]North,Roman Religion,p.4.
[4]T.P.Wiman,Remus:A Roman Myth(Cambridge Uni-
versity Press,1995),p.xiii.
[5]T.P.Wiman,The Myths of Rome(University of Exeter
Press,2004),preface(n.p.).
[6]Wiman,The Myths of Rome,preface.
[7]Alexandre Grandazzi,The Foundation of Rome:Myth and
History(Cornell University Press,1997),pp.45–46.
[8]Wiman,The Myths of Rome,preface.
[9]See also Lusus Troiae.
[10]J.N.Bremmer and N.M.Horsfall,Roman Myth and
Mythography(University of London Institute of Classical Studies,1987),pp.49–62.
[11]Bremmer and Horsfall,pp.63–75.
[12]Bremmer and Horsfall,pp.76–88.
[13]Bremmer and Horsfall,pp.89–104;Larissa Bonfante,
Etruscan Life and Afterlife:A Handbook of Etruscan Stud-ies(Wayne State University Press,1986),p.25.
[14]Bremmer and Horsfall,pp.105–111.
[15]Mos Hadas,A History of Latin Literature(Columbia
University Press,1952),p.15online.
[16] C.O.Brink,Horace on Poetry.Epistles Book II:The Let-
ters to Augustus and Florus(Cambridge University Press, 1982),p.64online.
[17]Cicero,De domo sua138.
[18]Jerzy Linderski,“The libri reconditi,”Harvard Studies in
Classical Philology89(1985)207–234.
[19]Georg Wissowa,De dis Romanorum indigetibus et noven-
sidibus disputatio(1892),full text(in Latin)online.
[20]Arnaldo Momigliano,“From Bachofen to Cumont,”in
A.D.Momigliano:Studies on Modern Scholarship(Uni-
versity of California Press,1994),p.319;Franz Altheim,
A History of Roman Religion,as translated by Harold Mat-
tingly(London,1938),pp.110–112;Mary Beard,J.A.
North and S.R.F.Price.Religions of Rome:A History (Cambridge University Press,1998),vol.1,p.158,note 7.
[21]William Warde Fowler,The Religious Experience of the
Roman People(London,1922)pp.157and319;J.S.
秘密倒数
Wacher,The Roman World(Routledge,1987,2002),p.
751.
5
6Text and image sources,contributors,and licens
6.1Text
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anfranco,Deb,SJK,Ben-Zin~enwiki,Ktsquare,Youandme,Tucci528,Olivier,K.lee,Michael Hardy,Liftarn,Looxix~enwiki,Ihcoyc,
Ellywa,CatherineMunro,Bladesmaster,Glenn,Kwekubo,Timwi,Andrevan,Fuzheado,Selket,Nv8200pa,J D,Renato Caniatti~enwiki,
关于习惯的句子Wetman,Robbot,Neoncow,P0lyglut,Rholton,Hemanshu,Hadal,Borislav,Guy Peters,GreatWhiteNortherner,Jyril,Wighson,Everyk-
ing,No Guru,Curps,Daibhid C,Zinnmann,Beryllium,Jackol,Bacchiad,Vadmium,Geoffspear,Antandrus,Andux,Gecek,Neutrality,
Haiduc,DanielCD,Vincit,Jkl,Discospinster,Rich Farmbrough,Rhobite,Wclark,Silence,YUL89YYZ,Paul August,Chadlupkes,Ben-
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Malo,Snowolf,Subramanian,RainbowOfLight,H2g2bob,Bsadowski1,Kusma,SteinbDJ,Mosroth,Hojimachong,Sterio,OwenX,
Woohookitty,Jccalhoun,Davidkazuhiro,Robert K S,Terence,Sengkang,Zzyzx11,Ggurbet,Graham87,Cuchullain,Edison,Sjakkalle,
СашаСтефановић,Gryffindor,Bhadani,Yamamoto Ichiro,FlaBot,Authalic,Duomillia,Nivix,RexNL,Gurch,Ben Babcock,King
of Hearts,Chobot,DVdm,E Pluribus Anthony,Corington,Geg,Satanael,YurikBot,Alma Pater,Hairy Dude,Gavrilis,Alethiareg,
No Account,KittenKrazy,SpuriousQ,Rob.rjt,Stephenb,Wimt,Ugur Basak,Mark O'Sullivan,Anomalocaris,NawlinWiki,Wiki alf,
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bot,Theda,Clodmouth,Sotakeit,E Wing,BorgQueen,Kubra,Katieh5584,Kungfuadam,NeilN,Amberrock,Eenu,Mhardcastle,
Luk,Sardanaphalus,Remiel,SmackBot,Haymaker,Unyoyega,C.Fred,KocjoBot~enwiki,Delldot,Eskimbot,Veesicle,Yamaguchi ,
Gilliam,Tennekis,Bluebot,Persian Poet Gal,SchfiftyThree,Ctbolt,Cornflake pirate,DHN-bot~enwiki,Darth Panda,Can't sleep,clown
春潮澎湃will eat me,Ioscius,OrphanBot,Onorem,RedHillian,Nakon,Martijn Hoekstra,Mini-Geek,Maelnuneb,Marcus Brute,Tankred,Vina-
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6.2Images
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oil_on_canvas_painting_by_Matthias_Stomer%2C_early_1640s%2C_Art_Gallery_of_New_South_Wales.jpg Licen:Public domain
Contributors:Art Gallery of New South Wales Original artist:Matthias Stom(fl.1615–1649)
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•File:Altar_Mars_Venus_Massimo.jpg Source:/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Altar_Mars_Venus_Massimo.
jpg Licen:Public domain Contributors:Marie-Lan Nguyen(2006)Original artist:?
•File:Bas_relief_from_Arch_of_Marcus_Aurelius_showing_sacrifice.jpg Source:/wikipedia/ commons/7/78/Bas_relief_from_Arch_of_Marcus_Aurelius_showing_sacrifice.jpg Licen:CC BY-SA3.0Contributors:Own work
Original artist:Ur:MatthiasKabel
•File:Commons-logo.svg Source:/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg Licen:?Contributors:?Original artist:?
