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Article

Acca Larentia  

C. Robert Phillips

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
Acca Larentia, obscure Roman goddess with a festival on 23 December (*Larentalia or Larentinalia). Valerius Antias (fr. 1 Peter) makes her a prostitute, contemporary with *Romulus, who left her property to the Roman people; Licinius Macer (fr. 1 Peter) makes her wife of *Faustulus and hence adopted mother of Romulus. Cato (fr. 16 Peter) initially made the connection of she-wolf (lupa) with prostitute (meretrix); thus the courtesan name Faula is linked with Faustulus (RE 6. 2090–1). The long quantity of the first syllable in Larentia (Auson. Technop. 8. 9 Peiper; p. 179 Green) suggests a connection with *Larunda and not Lar (short a), but this is not decisive, and the Lar as family ancestor would be appropriate (see lares); cf. Ogilvie on Livy 1. 4. 7. Plutarch implausibly assigned her an April festival (Quaest. Rom. 35 with Rose's notes); cf. E.

Article

aedituus  

Herbert Jennings Rose and John North

Article

Publication History:

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

Aedituus (older form, aeditumnus), the keeper or sacristan of a consecrated building in Rome (aedes sacra). The word was applied to a wide range of officials, including both men of high rank charged with control of the building and those who carried out the lowly tasks of cleaning etc.

Article

Aeneas  

Stephen J. Harrison

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Latin Literature
  2. Roman Myth and Religion
Aeneas, character in literature and mythology, son of *Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. In the Iliad he is a prominent Trojan leader, belonging to the younger branch of the royal house, (13. 460–1, 20. 179–83, 230–41), and has important duels with *Diomedes (2) (5. 239 ff) and *Achilles (20. 153 ff.), from both of which he is rescued by divine intervention. His piety towards the gods is stressed (20. 298–9, 347–8), and *Poseidon prophesies that he and his children will rule over the Trojans (20. 307–8).This future beyond the Iliad is reflected in the version in the lost cyclic Iliu Persis (see epic cycle) that Aeneas and his family left Troy before its fall to retreat to Mt. Ida, which led later to accusations of his treachery (e.g. Origo gentis Romanae 9. 2–3). The departure of Aeneas from Troy is widely recorded, and the image of Aeneas' pious carrying of his father *Anchises on his shoulders in the retreat is common in Greek vases of the 6th cent.

Article

Aesculapius  

Holt Parker and Nicholas Purcell

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
The miraculous transferral of the god of healing *Asclepius from *Epidaurus to Rome and the origin of the important healing-cult of the Tiber island there in 292 bce constituted significant moments in Roman narratives of the history of their religion (Val. Max. 1. 8. 2: Ovid made it his final Metamorphosis, Met. 15; 622–745); the summoning of a prestigious god from Greece, in accordance with the Sibylline Books (see sibyl) and perhaps after a consultation of the *Delphic oracle, to remedy a Roman crisis (pestilence), represented a stage in the domestication of external religion and acted as a prototype for the closely related tale of the summoning of the Magna Mater in 204 bce. (See cybele.) In fact the cult was becoming widely diffused at that time everywhere (even our Rome-centred stories preserve some consciousness of the contemporary importance of the cult at nearby *Antium).

Article

Aeternitas  

John Scheid

Article

Publication History:

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

The notion of aeternitas, designating perpetuity or eternity, first appears at Rome in *Cicero's day, under the influence of philosophic speculation (notably that of *Stoicism) on αἰών (eternity). From the beginning of the 1st cent. ce, aeternitas became an imperial virtue, advertising both the perpetual glory of the ruler and his power, parallel to the aeternitas populi Romani, and a promise of immortality. Assuming the iconography of the *Aion of Alexandria, ‘Aeternitas Augusta’ or ‘Augusti’ appears on coins and, in 66, Aeternitas even received a sacrifice after the discovery of a plot against Nero. Aeternitas is usually depicted as a veiled woman holding sceptre, globe, and phoenix, or the sun and moon (referring to eternity). But Aeternitas can also be associated with male figures.

Article

Agdistis  

Francis Redding Walton and John Scheid

Article

Publication History:

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

Agdistis, a form of the Phrygian mother-goddess; at *Pessinus*Cybele was called Agdistis (Strabo 469, 567). According to the myth (see attis), she was originally androgynous. Her cult spread to various parts of Anatolia, to Egypt (by 250bce), to Attica (with that of Attis in Piraeus 4th–3rd, cents., IG 22. 4671; at *Rhamnus, 83/2 bce), *Lesbos, and *Panticapeum. At Lydian *Philadelphia (2) her private shrine (1st cent. bce) enforced a strict moral code (Syll. 3 985; O. Weinreich, Sitz. Heidelberg1919). There and elsewhere Agdistis appears with theoi sōtēres. See anatolian deities.

Article

Agonium  

C. Robert Phillips

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
Agonium, name for 9 January, 17 March, 21 May, and 11 December in the Roman calendar; also Agonalia (Ov. Fast. 1. 324; possibly Agnalia at 1. 325), Agonia (Varro, Ling. 6. 14), and Dies agonales (Varro, Ling. 6. 12), when the *rex sacrorum sacrificed in the *Regia (Festus Glossaria Latina 104 and Ov.

Article

aius locutius  

Herbert Jennings Rose and J. Linderski

Article

Publication History:

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

Aius locutius (or loquens), the divine voice, ‘sayer and speaker’, that warned of the coming of the Gauls shortly before the battle of the *Allia. The warning was not heeded. As expiation, a precinct (*templum) and *altar (ara) were established near Vesta's shrine, on the via Nova, where the voice was heard.

Article

Albunea  

Stephen J. Harrison

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Ancient Geography
  2. Latin Literature
  3. Roman Myth and Religion

Albunea, sulphurous spring and stream near *Tibur with a famous waterfall, and its homonymous nymph (cf. Hor. Carm. 1. 7. 12), classed as a *Sibyl by *Varro (Lactant. Div. Inst. 1. 6. 12) and fancifully identified by etymology with the sea-goddess *Ino-Leucothea (Servius on Verg. Aen.

Article

Alexander (13), of Abonuteichos  

David Potter

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
Alexander (13) of Abonuteichos in *Paphlagonia. He was a contemporary of *Lucian whose bitterly hostile account, Alexander or the False Prophet, remains the most important source of information, although it must now be read together with the evidence of inscriptions, coins, and works of art.Alexander claimed to have a new manifestation of *Asclepius in the form of a snake called Glycon. A number of statues and statuettes have been discovered showing Glycon as a serpent with human hair—applied by Alexander, according to Lucian. Coins reveal that the birth of Glycon, described in detail by Lucian, took place in the reign of Antoninus Pius (Robert, 397–9: see bibliog. below) and that his cult gained very rapid acceptance. According to Lucian, this was the result of the oracles that Glycon provided in a variety of forms. After the cult was established, Alexander, who served as Glycon's prophet, or interpreter, created mysteries from which unbelievers, especially Christians and Epicureans, were excluded. *Marcus Aurelius recognized the cult by conferring status on Abonuteichos (thereafter known as Ionopolis) and Lucian mentions several consultants from the ranks of the imperial aristocracy, including Servianus, governor of Cappadocia in 161 ce, and Rutilianus, governor of Moesia around 150 and Asia between 161 and 163.

Article

altars, Roman  

Frederick Norman Pryce, John Boardman, Antony Spawforth, and J. Linderski

Article

Publication History:

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

The Latin terms altaria (plur.) and ara (variously explained by Roman antiquarians) derive from the roots denoting ‘burning’ (of sacrificial offerings). Normally of stone, of varying size, from small cippi (stone-markers) to large structures (as the *Ara Pacis), most often quadrangular (occasionally round), and decorated with reliefs, they were dedicated to a particular deity, and stood either separately or in front of temples (inside only for incense and bloodless offerings). A separate category consists of funerary altars (also cinerary urns often had the shape of altars).

Article

Ambarvalia  

C. Robert Phillips

Article

Publication History:

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

Ambarvalia, Roman private and public field *lustration in May. The name appears only in Festus Gloss. Lat. 112, SHA Aurel. 20. 3; Strabo 5. 3. 2. Private rite: Cato, Agr. 141; Verg. Ecl. 5. 75, G. 1. 338 ff. with Serv. on 1. 341; Tib. 2. 1; P. Pöstgens, Tibulls Ambarvalgedicht (1940). The rustic calendars (menologia rustica) for May note: segetes lustrantur (‘crops are purified’). The public rites symbolically lustrated all fields and are sometimes connected with the pontifices (Strabo), sometimes with the arval brethren's May 29 worship of *Dea Dia (Festus): Wissowa, Religion und Kultus 562 and E. Norden, Aus altrömischen Priesterbüchern (1939), 161 ff.; contra: Latte, Römische Religionsgeschichte 65.. Other Italic communities had similar rites: J. Poultney, The Bronze Tablets of Iguvium (1954), 1 b 20–3.

Article

Amburbium  

C. Robert Phillips

Article

Publication History:

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

Amburbium, *lustration for Rome, seldom so named (Serv. on Verg. Ecl. 3. 77; SHA Aurel. 20. 3), usually linked with the *Ambarvalia's lustration of the fields (Festus Gloss. Lat. 112; Servius; SHA). Since it appears in no *calendar it may have been a movable festival (L. Delatte, Ant. Class. 1937, 114–17) or, based on the infrequent references, all late, it may have been a rarely performed lustration (cf. Ogilvie on Livy 1. 44. 2, and JRS 1961, 39) which anachronistically received its name by analogy with Ambarvalia. H. Usener placed it (Weihnachtsfest, 2nd edn. (1911), 1. 314–28) on 2 February as ultimately Christianized into Candlemas, unpersuasively despite Wissowa, RK 142 n. 12. Lucan (1. 592–638) describes an amburbium—but clearly an extraordinary ceremony.

Article

amulets  

H. S. Versnel

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Greek Myth and Religion
  2. Roman Myth and Religion
Amulets were magically potent objects worn (hence the Greek names: περίαμμα, περίαπτον) for protection against witchcraft, illness, the evil eye, accidents, robbery, etc. (hence the Greek name: φυλακτήριον); also to enhance love, wealth, power, or victory. Houses, walls, and towns could be protected in the same way. Any kind of material might be employed: stones and metals as well as (parts of) animals and plants, since to every sort of material could be attributed an inherent ‘magical’ virtue (see magic); parts of human bodies (especially of people who had suffered a violent death: *gladiators, executed criminals, victims of *shipwreck etc. ) were also used as amulets. Their efficacy might be enhanced by engraved figures, e.g. deities or symbols, especially on stones and gems in rings. Powerful names taken from exotic (especially Egyptian and Hebrew) myth and cult were popular: Abraxas, Solomon (e.g. in the formula: ‘sickness be off, Solomon persecutes you’), magical words (e.g. abracadabra) and formulae (e.

Article

Anchises  

Stephen J. Harrison

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
Anchises, character in literature and mythology, son of Capys, father of *Aeneas, and member of the Trojan royal house. He does not appear in person in *Homer's Iliad, but the Homeric *Hymn to Aphrodite recounts his union with that goddess on the slopes of Mt. Ida. He was warned by *Aphrodite not to reveal her identity as the mother of the resulting child, Aeneas (Hymn. Hom. 5. 286 ff), but disobeyed; as punishment, he was lamed by a thunderbolt (Verg. Aen. 2. 648–9) or blinded (Servius on Aen. 2. 35). Most versions of the Aeneas-legend tell how Anchises was carried on his son's back from Troy (e.g. Soph. fr. 373 Radt, Xen. Cyn. 1. 15); some state that he went with Aeneas to Carthage and Italy (Servius on Aen. 4. 427), but in the Aeneid he dies in Sicily before reaching either place (3. 707–15). Anchises' character in Aeneid bks.

Article

androgyny  

Luc Brisson

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
27 February 2017
Subjects:
  1. Gender Studies
  2. Greek Myth and Religion
  3. Roman Myth and Religion
In the modern use, “bisexuality” refers to sexual object choice, whereas “androgyny” refers to sexual identity. In ancient Greece and Rome, however, these terms sometimes refer to human beings born with characteristics of both sexes, and more frequently to an adult male who plays the role of a woman, or to a woman who has the appearance of a man, both physically and morally. In mythology, having both sexes simultaneously or successively characterises, on the one hand, the first human beings, animals, or even plants from which arose male and female, and on the other, mediators between human beings and gods, the living and the dead, men and women, past and future, and human generations. Thus androgyny and bisexuality were used as a tools to cope with one’s biological, social, and even fictitious environment.The term “androgyne” comes from the Greek andrógunos,1 a compound formed from the terms an.

Article

Angerona  

C. Robert Phillips

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
Angerona, Roman goddess, worshipped on 21 December (*Divalia or Angeronalia) in the Curia Acculeia (Varro, Ling. 6. 23), or the Sacellum Volupiae, where there stood on the altar a statue of Angerona with her mouth bound and sealed (Macrob. Sat. 1. 10. 8 ff., fasti Praenestini). The ancients connected her name with angina (Festus Gloss.

Article

Angitia  

C. Robert Phillips

Article

Publication History:

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

Angitia, or the Angitiae, *Marsian goddess (es) principally worshipped on the *Fucinus Lacus at Lucus Angitiae (cf. Verg. Aen. 7. 759 with Serv. on 750) at *Sulmo (CIL 9. 3074), where the plural of the name appears. Her native name was Anagtia; inscriptional evidence makes her a popular goddess of healing; she was subject to Hellenistic mythologizing (Cn. Gellius 9 Peter).

Article

Anna Perenna  

C. Robert Phillips

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
07 March 2016
Subjects:
  1. Roman Myth and Religion
Anna Perenna, Roman goddess with a merry festival on 15 March (O. Fast. 3. 523–696 with Bömer's notes). This date on the Ides and the first full moon of the year by archaic reckoning (1 March being New Year's Day) imply a year-goddess; hence her name from the prayer ut annare perennareque commode liceat (‘for leave to live in and through the year to our liking’: Macrob. Sat. 1. 12. 6), but cf. the evidence from satire and mime (below) with F. Altheim, Terra Mater (1931), 91–108, and H. J. Rose, JRS 1931, 138–9. Ovid tells three stories, one identifying her with Anna, sister of *Dido (Fast. 3. 545–656), the second with an old woman of *Bovillae named Anna, who fed the plebeians during the secession to the *mons Sacer (663–74); the third, after her apotheosis (675–96), provides an aetiology for ribald verses via an encounter with *Mars Gradivus (cf.

Article

anthropology  

J. T. Vallance

Article

Publication History:

Published online:
22 December 2015
Subjects:
  1. Greek Myth and Religion
  2. Science, Technology, and Medicine
  3. Roman Myth and Religion
It is probably misleading, though not entirely inappropriate, to use this word to describe the ancient study of man and society. Misleading, because anthropology did not really exist as the kind of discrete discipline it is today (see anthropology and the classics). What follows here is a very brief summary of some central anthropological themes from antiquity, gathered from a variety of sources and contexts, ethical, scientific, and literary.The Greeks and Romans developed a range of ideas about their own identity and the identity of others; about the nature of human societies, their history, and organization. It is well known that many Greeks designated non-Greek speakers ‘*barbarian’,—after the Greek verb for ‘babble’—and language of course remained an important index of racial and cultural difference. (*Herodotus (1)'s History introduced many Greeks to foreigners and their customs for the first time: Hdt. 4. 183 notes that the Egyptian *Trogodytae ‘squeak like bats’; elsewhere, e.