Roman Myth and Religion

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Article

evocatio  

Mary Beard

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
A ritual by which, in the course of a war, a Roman general would attempt to deprive the enemy of divine protection, by formally offering their protecting deity a new home and cult at Rome. The clearest recorded case is the evocation of *Juno Regina from the Etruscan city of *Veii in 396 bce (Livy, 5. 21 ff.); the ritual led to the establishment of her cult on the *Aventine hill in Rome. There has been some debate as to how long the ritual continued to be practised, and (in particular) whether the record of the evocation of Juno from Carthage in 146 bce (Serv. on Aen. 12. 841) is anything more than antiquarian invention. The discovery of an inscription at Isaura Vetus (in modern Turkey), apparently recording an evocatio in c.75 bce, suggests that the ritual survived at least to the late republic. There are, however, changes from earlier practice: in 75 bce the deity seems to have been offered a home not in Rome, but in provincial territory.

Article

fasti  

Alexander Hugh McDonald and Simon Price

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
Strictly speaking, fasti were the days on which certain legal acts by the urban praetor (the legis actio) could take place, but the word came to mean the listing of days, fasti, nefasti (the opposite) and comitiales, when assemblies might take place; its definitive publication by Cn. *Flavius in 304 bce must have been preceded by gradual development since the 5th cent. Vulgarly, dies nefasti came to be thought of as ill-omened days. We know of the sacral calendars of M. *Fulvius Nobilior (consul 189 bce) and *Verrius Flaccus (at *Praeneste), and have fragments of the pre-Julian calendar of *Antium (84–55 bce) and twenty calendars mainly of the Augustan and Tiberian periods; also two ‘rustic’ almanacs, and in book form the calendar of ce 354 and the calendar of Polemius Silvius (ce 448–9). The Fasti of Hydatius (covering 510 bce–ce 478) and the *Chronicon Paschale (7th cent.

Article

Faunus  

Herbert Jennings Rose and John Scheid

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
Faunus (apparently from the root of favere, ‘kindly one’, a euphemism, although this is debated: cf. Radke, Götter 119 ff., contraK. Latte, Gnomon1954, 18), a god of the forests, was especially connected with the mysterious sounds heard in them, hence his titles (or identification with) Fatuus and Fatuclus (Serv. on Aen. 6. 775), both meaning ‘the speaker’. His dwelling-place, wild forests (silvicola, Verg. Aen. 10. 551), made him a protector of transhumant flocks. His first temple, dedicated on the Tiber island in 193 bce, was built with money from a fine imposed on the pecuarii (‘drovers’) (Liv. 33. 42. 10; 34. 53. 3; anniversary on 13 February, Fasti Viae Principe Amedeo, Inscr. Ital. 13. 2, no. 32). From this time on he was identified with *Pan, to the point that his original traits can no longer be separated from those of the Greek god. ‘Wild’, agrestis (Ov.

Article

Faustulus  

Herbert Jennings Rose and John Scheid

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion

Faustulus, a mythical figure, shepherd of King Amulius, husband of *Acca Larentia, who found *Romulus and Remus being suckled by the she-wolf. In a further rationalization his wife was the she-wolf herself (lupa, loose woman, prostitute). He reared the twins, and when Remus was brought before Numitor for an act of brigandage, told Romulus the whole story, whereupon the twins and their grandfather killed Amulius.

Article

Febris  

John Scheid

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion

Patron goddess of fever (malaria, without doubt; see disease), belonging to a group of baleful divinities invoked by the Romans to stop them from exercising their powers. She possessed three cult places in Rome: on the *Palatine, the *Esquiline, and the *Quirinal (Cic.Leg. 2. 28; Val. Max. 2. 5. 6; Plin.HN 2. 16). We know almost nothing about her cult. According to *Valerius Maximus, cured persons deposited in her sanctuary charms (remedia) which had been in contact with their bodies, perhaps because they passed for representations of the power of the goddess. In the 2nd–3rd cents. ce, the sick invoked as well the goddesses Tertiana or Quartana (CIL 7. 99; 12. 3129); in Cicero's day they were not yet deified (Nat. D. 3. 24).

Article

Felicitas  

Herbert Jennings Rose and John Scheid

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion

A goddess of good fortune and success in battle, not heard of till the middle of the 2nd cent. bce, when L. *Licinius Lucullus (1) dedicated her temple on the *Velabrum (see LTUR, 244–5 (Palombi)); another was planned by Caesar and erected after his death by M. *Aemilius Lepidus (3) where the Curia Hostilia had stood. She is associated with *Venus Victrix, *Honos, and Virtus at Pompey's theatre (fast. Amiternini on 12 August); with the *Genius Publicus and Venus Victrix on the Capitol (ibid., 9 October). The supposed association with the Numen Augusti on the fasti Praenestini (on 17 January) results from a wrong reading (Degrassi, Inscr. Ital. 13. 2. 115). Thereafter she is important in official cult under the emperors, appearing frequently on coins (Felicitas saeculi with figure of the goddess) and in addresses to the gods in dedications, etc. , immediately after the Capitoline triad.

Article

Feralia  

C. Robert Phillips

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
Feralia, Roman festival on 21 February which concluded the ancestors' festival (*Parentalia) which had begun on 13 February. Each household made offerings at the graves of its dead: Ov.Fast 2. 533 ff. with F. Bömer's comm. (1957–8), Varro, Ling. 6. 13, FestusGloss. Lat. 202; cf. Cic.

Article

Feronia  

Herbert Jennings Rose and John Scheid

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
Feronia (Fē-, Verg. Aen. 7. 800; Hor. Sat. 1. 5. 24; and elsewhere), an Italian goddess, of presumably Sabine origin. She was officially received in Rome during the 3rd cent. bce (272 according to Castagnoli and Coarelli; around 225 according to Ziolkowski: see bibliog. below) and given a temple in the Campus Martius (fasti arvales) on 13 November (temple C of the Largo Argentina, according to Castagnoli and Coarelli; temple A according to Ziolkowski). At any rate, in 217 bce this temple already existed (Livy 22. 1. 18). Her principal place of worship was the grove of Capena, later *Lucus Feroniae, near Mt. Soracte (Cato, Orig. 1, fr. 26 Jordan; Verg.Aen. 7. 697; Strabo 5. 2. 9; Plin.HN 3. 51). Her cult, however, is shown by inscriptional and other evidence to have been widespread in central Italy (see *Wissowa, RK 285 f.; Latte, RR 189).

Article

festivals, Roman  

Herbert William Parke and Simon Price

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
Roman festivals (Lat. feriae). The basic notion included not only the honouring of the gods, but also restrictions on public life: the courts were closed, some agricultural work was restricted, and in some cases holidays given to other workers. Festivals were of various kinds: some fixed by the regular calendar of the fasti (stativae) (see calendar, roman); movable festivals (conceptivae), such as the feriae sementivae dedicated to *Tellus and *Ceres, were held annually on days appointed by priests or magistrates; special festivals (imperativae) were ordered, again by magistrates or priests, because of a specific event, a prodigy, a disaster, or a victory. A major element in many public festivals was the accompanying games (see ludi). Besides public festivals, the period assigned to private ceremonial might be classed as feriae—e.g. birthdays or the ten days of mourning (denicales).

Article

fetiales  

John North

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
Fetiales, priests of the Latin states, concerned with the procedures and laws of declaring wars and making treaties. Our information comes from Rome, where they formed a college (*collegium) of twenty members, who advised the senate on issues of peace and war, and had their own legal tradition (the ius fetiale). The institution presupposes that similar priests, with whom Roman fetiales interacted, existed in the other Latin states.*Livy gives an account of their ritual (1. 24) in the form of a narrative, no doubt an antiquarian reconstruction, but perhaps based on priestly sources. In making a treaty (*foedus), two fetiales were sent out, who met with fetiales from the other side; one carried herbs (the verbenarius), the other (the pater patratus), having heard the new treaty read out, pronounced a curse that would operate against the Romans, should they be first to break the treaty. The other side did the same. The sacrifice of a pig with a special stone knife (lapis silex) confirmed the transaction.

Article

Fides  

Herbert Jennings Rose and John Scheid

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion

Fides, the Roman personification of good faith. Although her temple (on the *Capitol, near that of *Jupiter, with whom she is closely connected) is no older than 254 bce (see Ziolkowski, Temples 28 ff.), her cult is traditionally very old, said to have been founded by *Numa (Livy 1. 21. 4) although it should be noted that Jupiter himself once discharged her function (Wissowa, Freyburger). Livy also gives details of her ritual; the *flamines, meaning probably the flamines maiores (see Dumézil, ARR 198 f.), drove to her shrine in a covered carriage drawn by two beasts, and the sacrificer must have his hand covered with a white cloth. A pair of covered hands is indeed her symbol, as often on coins commemorating the fides of the Augusti, the legions, etc. , in imperial times. Since giving the hand is a common gesture of solemn agreement, the symbolism is natural.

Article

Filocalus, Furius Dionysius  

Wolfram Kinzig

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
Furius Dionysius Filocalus, calligrapher of Pope *Damasus I (366–84 ce), produced many of Damasus' inscriptions in the Roman *catacombs. (See epigraphy, latin, § 9.) He is perhaps also the author of the Chronicle of 354 (ed. T. Mommsen, Chronica minora 1 (MGH, AA 9, 1892), 13–196; Inscr.

Article

Firmicus Maternus, Iulius  

David Potter

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion

Firmicus Maternus, Iulius, of *Syracuse, wrote (334–7ce) an astrological treatise, Mathesis, in eight books, the first containing an apologia for *astrology. In this book he promised to provide a Latin summary of the wisdom of Babylonian and Egyptian astrologers. In doing so he reveals considerable ignorance of the technical aspects of the subject; the panegyric on *Constantine (1) in book 1 is however of considerable interest, as is the discourse on the lingering death of *Plotinus (Math. 1. 10. 13–14, 1. 7. 14–22). He later converted to *Christianity and wrote Concerning the Error of Profane Religions, a blistering attack upon traditional cult in which he urged *Constantius II and *Constans to eradicate paganism (343–50). The most interesting features of this work are his effort to contrast pagan symbolism with Christian, his accounts of the origins of some ancient cults, and the insight that he offers into the impact of Constantinian legislation against traditional cults in the western empire.

Article

flamines  

John North

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
06 July 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
Flamines, Roman priests within the college of the *pontifices. There were three major, twelve minor flamines, each of them assigned to the worship of a single deity, though this did not preclude their taking part in the worship of other deities, as when the flamen Quirinalis conducted the ritual for *Robigus on April 25. The three major ones were the flamen Dialis, Martialis, and Quirinalis—of *Jupiter, *Mars, and *Quirinus; according to the system of Georges Dumézil, these three gods formed the most ancient and senior triad of Roman gods, representing the three Indo-European functions of law, warfare, and production. Of the twelve deities served by a minor flamen, we know ten, including *Ceres, *Flora, and *Volcanus; but next to nothing is known of their priests' duties.The three major flamines were always patricians and chosen by the members of the pontifical college, never elected. The Dialis in historic times was bound by an elaborate system of ritual rules, marking the holiness of his person and protecting it from pollution (Gell.

Article

Flora  

Herbert Jennings Rose and John Scheid

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
Flora (Oscan Flusia: Conway, Ital. Dial. nos. 46; 175 a; L 24), an Italian goddess of flowering or blossoming plants, mainly cereals (also found in Agnone, Vittorino, and Furfo, as well as Rome). The antiquity of her cult in Rome is proved by the existence of a flamen Floralis (see flamines), but her festival is not in the ‘calendar of Numa’ and therefore was movable (feriae conceptivae) Flora had an old temple on the *Quirinal, dedicated on 3 May, but, shortly after the foundation of the Floralia in 240–1 bce, and on the advice of the Sibylline books, she was given a second temple in 238 close to the Circus Maximus (Plin.HN 18. 286; cf. Ziolkowski, Temples, 31 ff.). Its dedication day was 28 April (fasti Praenestini; rededication by *Tiberius on 13 August, fasti Allifani). The games (ludi Florales) were celebrated annually from 173 bce (Ov.

Article

folktale  

William Hansen

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
27 February 2017
Subjects:
  1. Greek Literature
  2. Greek Myth and Religion
  3. Latin Literature
  4. Roman Myth and Religion

Folktales are traditional fictional stories. Unlike works of original literary fiction, they are normally anonymous narratives that have been transmitted from one teller to another over an uncertain period of time, and have been shaped by multiple narrators into the form and style that are characteristic of oral narratives. The transmission of traditional tales is predominantly oral, but in literate societies such as Greece and Rome, transmission also takes place via written works.

“Folktale” is an umbrella term for a number of subgenres: the wonder tale (commonly known as the fairytale), the religious tale, the novella, the humorous tale (with its subforms the joke and the tall tale), the animal tale, and the fable. Since there was no ancient notion of folktales as such, no compilation of folktales exists from antiquity—only compilations of particular genres of folktales such as the fable and the joke.

Unlike myths and legends, folktales are narrative fictions, make no serious claim to historicity, and are not ordinarily accorded credence. They differ from myths and especially from legends in their handling of the supernatural.

Article

Fontinalia  

C. Robert Phillips

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
Fontinalia, Roman festival on 13 October to Fons, god of *springs (Varro, Ling 6. 22; Horace'sFons Bandusiae ode [3.13] may refer to it, see Nisbet-Rudd ad loc.), outside the porta Fontinalis (FestusGloss. Lat.201), perhaps at a shrine dedicated by C. Papirius Maso (consul 231 bce): Platner–Ashby210.

Article

Fordicidia  

C. Robert Phillips

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
Fordicidia (Hordicidia in Sabine: Conway Ital. Dial. 1. 385; Varro, Rust. 2. 5. 6; Festus, Gloss. Lat. 225), Roman festival on 15 April, when a forda (pregnant cow) was sacrificed to *Tellus (Ov. Fast. 4. 630 ff. with F. Bömer's comm.; Tellus may not have featured in earlier times). It and the *Fornacalia were the only festivals which in historic times were organized on the basis of the *curiae (1).

Article

Fornacalia  

C. Robert Phillips

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion

Fornacalia, one of the movable *festivals (feriae conceptivae; cf. L. Delatte, Ant. Class. 1936, 391 ff.), tied to the Quirinalia (17 February) and celebrated then (Fasti Praenestini). It was called stultorum feriae (fools' festival) according to Ovid (Fast. 2. 531–2 with F. Bömer's comm. on 513; cf. Festus Gloss. Lat. 361, 412) because those too stupid to know their curiae celebrated then instead of on the proper day, proclaimed by the curio maximus (Ov. ibid. 527–8). This makes it a festival of the *curiae (1), not the people. It consisted of ritual either to benefit the ovens (fornaces) which parched grain, or to propitiate the obscure goddess Fornax (Ov. ibid. 525, 6. 314; Lactant. Div. inst. 1. 20. 35; Latte, RR 143).

Article

Fortuna/Fors  

Nicholas Purcell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
Fortuna/Fors, the goddess of Chance or Luck, Greek *Tyche, of great importance in Italian and Roman religion, but not thought by the Romans to be part of the oldest stratum of their religious system (no feast-day in the oldest calendar, and no flamen; see flamines). Instead, her introduction was importantly attributed to the rather anomalous figure of King Servius *Tullius, who was associated with several of the more important of her numerous cults at Rome (Plut.Quaest. Rom. 74). Oracles of Fortuna existed at *Antium (Macrob.Sat. 1. 23. 13) and at *Praeneste, where the important cult of Fortuna Primigenia (the First-born: Plut. Quaest. Rom.106) was much embellished during the age of Roman and Italian success in Mediterranean conquest and its economic rewards. The combination of political achievement and a patronage of procreation is common in Fortuna-cults (for the latter, see e.g. ILLRP101, dedication by a local woman to Praenestine Fortuna as daughter of *Jupiter, to secure procreation, and note the existence of an important cult of Fortuna Muliebris, Women's Luck).