Roman History Books and More

IO SATVRNALIA!

Resurrecting an old post ...

Escultura "Saturnalia" en el Jardín Botánico de Buenos Aires, Ernesto Biondi

Here are some links to Rome's big December festival, some courtesy N.S. Gill:

• Saturnalia - Celebrate the Saturnalia
• Saturnalia (Roman Holidays)
• December (Fasti) 
• Saturnalia at Wikipedia => Macrobius: Saturnalia
• Image: Alma-Tadema's Ave, Caesar! Io, Saturnalia!

and a how to …

Pliny the Younger did not think much of the festivities:

"...especially during the Saturnalia when the rest of the house is noisy with the licence of the holiday and festive cries. This way I don't hamper the games of my people and they don't hinder my work or studies."  (Epistles 2.17.24)

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

IO, SATVRNALIA!

IO SATVRNALIA!

Reposting from 2009

IO SATVRNALIA!

latinus, mythical king of the aeneid

Lavinia, the subject of our upcoming book chat (Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin), is a minor character in the Aeneid and the daughter of the King Latinus.

N.S. Gill covers him today: Who Was Latinus?

Vergil (Virgil) introduces King Latinus, in Aeneid 7.45-49, as the aged king of Latium, a peaceful rural and urban kingdom. Latinus is the son of Marica, his mother, and his father, Faunus [see Bona Dea], whose father was Picus and whose mother may have been Circe, daughter of Sol (sun). Out of jealousy, Circe turned Picus into a woodpecker. The father of Picus was Saturn [Moorton].

read on

Image: Latinus "Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum" Published by Guillaume Rouille (1518?-1589)
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

our next book: 'lavinia' by ursula le guin and plenty of food for thought

Our next book is Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin, at the April 7 chat.  It's not an easy read, so I appreciate all the help we can get.  My thanks to Robert for finding this 2009 entry in Tony Keen's  Memorabilia Antonina, called Lavinia:

I've just this week finished and sent off to Vector, the British Science Fiction Association's critical journal, a review of Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin. Almost immediately, a large online discussion of the novel, conducted by Niall Harrison, Adam Roberts, Abigail Nussbaum, Nic Clarke and Jo Coleman, has appeared, in four parts spread across four separate blogs:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

There are a couple of other links that will be relevant: Adam Roberts' original review on Strange Horizons, and another interesting discussion of the book by Andries du Toit. 

Read on, there is a lot of food for thought.  And we all might as well start reading the book as soon as possible …

io, saturnalia!

 
Escultura "Saturnalia" en el Jardín Botánico de Buenos Aires, Ernesto Biondi

Here are some links to Rome's big December festival, some courtesy N.S. Gill:

• Saturnalia - Celebrate the Saturnalia
  
• Saturnalia (Roman Holidays)
• December (Fasti) 
• Saturnalia at Wikipedia => Macrobius: Saturnalia
• Image: Alma-Tadema's Ave, Caesar! Io, Saturnalia!

and a how to …

Pliny the Younger did not think much of the festivities:

"...especially during the Saturnalia when the rest of the house is noisy with the licence of the holiday and festive cries. This way I don't hamper the games of my people and they don't hinder my work or studies."  (Epistles 2.17.24)

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

IO, SATVRNALIA!

who was mormolyce?

In Caesar's Women, Servilia, after the affair of the infamous letter, is telling at Brutus that Cato "is not all there. He never was, even as a baby.  Mormolyce got at him."

Who was Mormolyce? The Greek Myth Index tells us,

MORMOLYCE  Or Mormolyceion (Mormolukeion), the same phantom or bugbear as Mormo, and also used for the same purpose. (Philostr. Vit. Apollon. iv. 25; Menandr. Reliq. p. 145, ed. Meineke; Aristoph. Thesm. 417 Strab. i. p. 19; Stob. Eclog. p. 1010.)

MORMO was

A female spectre, with which the Greeks used to frighten little children. (Aristoph. Acharn. 582, Pax, 474.) Mormo was one of the same class of bugbears as Empusa and Lamia.

According to the OCD, Mormo was the the queen of the frightful Laestrygones who lost her own children and so murders other children.  The Laestrygones are known to us from the Odyssey.

Odysseus at the Laestrygonians
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

n.s. gill on ancient eclipses

Ancient Eclipses
(Ancient Classical History at About.com)

"Nothing there is beyond hope, nothing that can be sworn impossible, nothing wonderful, since Zeus, father of the Olympians, made night from mid-day, hiding the light of the shining Sun, and sore fear came upon men."
Archilochus

We may know there's a scientific explanation for them, but solar eclipses continue to exert an almost magical power over us.  It's not at all clear we've decreased in gullibility since the days when Columbus used his fore-knowledge of an eclipse to hoodwink the Jamaicans.  And even though we know better, during each total solar eclipse, there will be people blinded by the too tempting sight of an eclipsed sun.

read on  (Image: Thales of Miletus)

mythology: isis and osiris on matters arising

Robert of Matters Arising in his mythology series is blogging Isis and Osiris, with nice images.

The story of the Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris, their brother Set, their child Horus, and the sun god Ra is well known from a mixture of native Egyptian texts and from texts written by the 2nd century AD Greek biographer and philosopher Plutarch, and the slightly later Roman novelist Apuleius.    read on

Roman fresco from the temple of Isis in Pompeii, Io is welcomed in Egypt by Isis.
Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Naples), courtesy Wikimedia Commons

a novel by C.S. Lewis, 'till we have faces' retelling the myth of cupid and psyche

Robert of Matters Arising recommends C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold, a novel retelling Apuleius' story of Cupid and Psyche from the point of view of one of Psyche's sisters.

Book description: This tale of two princesses – one beautiful and one unattractive – and of the struggle between sacred and profane love is Lewis’s reworking of the myth of Cupid and Psyche and one of his most enduring works.

The Google Books copy allows a few glimpses into the novel.  I found this review:

Lewis considered this, his last novel, to be his best, and many of his readers agree.  It is the first-hand story of the ugly princess Orual’s love for her sister, and her complaint against the gods. Orual lives in Glome, a little barbarian kingdom of ancient times.  Glome and its closest neighbours are fictional, but Lewis uses his considerable knowledge of classical history to imbue it with all the beauty and horror of pagan culture.   read on

apuleius in art: cupid and psyche in the 17th century (matters arising)

Robert continues blogging Cupid and Psyche in the visual arts:

Cupid and Psyche: The 17th Century

Moving on to the 17th century, the Royal Collection has a series of paintings by Luca Giordano illustrating the story of Cupid and Psyche, which were painted in the mid 1690s. London's National Gallery has a picture by Claude Lorrain of Psyche outside Cupid's palace, painted in 1664.   read on

apuleius in art: cupid and psyche in the 16th century (matters arising)

Robert (Matters Arising) has begun blogging Cupid and Psyche in the visual arts:

Cupid and Psyche: The 16th Century

The story of Cupid and Psyche from books 4-6 of Apuleius's The Golden Ass has been a favourite subject for artists down the years  read on

I found another painting:

Jacopo Zucci - Amor and Psyche, 1589
Museo e Galleria Borghese
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

book online: 'a catechism of mythology' by william darlington (1832)

A catechism of mythology; containing a compendious history of the heathen gods and heroes, indispensable to a correct knowledge of the ancient poets and the classics: with 75 engravings. To which is added, The mythology of northern Europe, translated from the French .. (1832)
by William Darlington

I recommend Flip Book (beta) version for viewing.

Also on Google Books

(Hat tip David Meadows)

meanwhile, 'matters arising' continues with his 'metamorphoses' series … and also displays art about the rape of lucretia updated

Metamorphoses

---

Update 2:  Lucretia: The 18th to 20th Centuries

Don't miss the links at the bottom:

ultraorange.net
The Lucretia in Art Project
The Visual History of the World

Update 1:  Lucretia: The 17th Century

Lucretia: The 16th Century

Chapter IV in Saylor's book deals with the end of Rome's regal period and the beginnings of the Republic. The part of this story that has most inspired artists is the story of the rape of Lucretia … read all

Here is another one that I found and add:

Lucretia, 1508–12
Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio or Santi) (Italian, Marchigian, 1483–1520)
Pen and brown ink over black chalk, partially incised with a stylus (recto), rubbed with black chalk for transfer (verso); 15 5/8 x 11 1/2 in. (39.7 x 29.2 cm)
full view and description
courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art

a look back to the foundation legend

In September of 2008 I posted t.p. wiseman's "remus: a roman myth".

It's now relevant again, to our current read Roma, the Novel of Ancient Rome by Steven Saylor.  In another context, there was the post lemuria, lemuralia – feast of the lemures.

And here is another nice Wikimedia Commons image:

Anonymous (Rome). Circa 269-266 BC. Silver didrachm (6.44 g). Reverse: Wolf & twins, ROMANO in exergue. Crawford 20/1. (Obverse not available)

more on hercules and cacus via n.s. gill

Which Cacus Did Hercules Kill?

"Somewhat late to the Steven Saylor Roma (2007) bandwagon, I now can't get the story of Cacus and Hercules out of my mind. The Augustan writers had two traditions about Cacus, one that he was human (Livy and Dionysus) and the other that he was superhuman (Vergil, Ovid, Propertius)."  Read all

notes to 'roma, the novel of ancient rome' numen, hercules and cacus

This is more or less a dictionary, covering the first chapters of Roma,the Novel of Ancient Rome by Steven Saylor.

numen (veneration of objects)

Before gods, there were numina, see Roman religion » History » Early Roman Religion » Veneration of objects (Britannica Online). 
One of such 'objects' is Fascinus, whose amulet has a special meaning to the Potitii and Pinarii in the novel.

Hercules and Cacus

Cacus is monster that terrorizes the villagers and kills a Pinarius.  Hercules appears with his oxen and dog and manages to slay Cacus.  In the novel, Hercules becomes the first god to be worshiped.  Ara Maxima Herculis (Platner).

The story is narrated in Aeneid 8.195ff., Book 8  (Dryden translation, Gutenberg) and Ovid's Fasti, Book I, January 11: The Carmentalia (Tony Kline).

Beham, (Hans) Sebald (1500-1550): Hercules killing Cacus at his cave, from The Labours of Hercules (1542-1548). Engraving, 1545. (Wikimedia Commons)

the fountain of arethusa, arethusa and alpheus

In the novel The Sand-Reckoner by Gillian Bradshaw, Archimedes and the King's sister Delia have clandestine meetings at the Fountain of Arethusa.

Arethusa Fountain, Ortygia, Syracuse, Wikimedia Commons

In Greek mythology, the nymph Arethusa, daughter of Nereus, is pursued by the river god Alpheus and transforms herself into a stream. (Wikipedia, handle with care)

another entertaining mythology installment by bingley: pyramus and thisbe

Pyramus and Thisbe at Matters Arising

Don't miss the Beatles video!

Image:  Pyramus and Thisbe, from Caxton's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, circa 1480.

More Ovid Illustrations and facsimiles from The Classics Text, Traditions and Interpretations.

n.s. gill gives credit to a politician showing familiarity with the classics

Does Biden Envision Obama as A Second Hercules?

About.com's Guide to Greece, deTraci Regula, alerted me to the fact that Joe Biden, U.S. Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, referred to Obama as cleaning out the Augean Stables if and when he enters the Oval Office.  See So, Just Where Are the "Augean Stables"?.

Had I heard Biden's use of the term, it would probably have passed me by because the "Augean Stables" are a staple of my vocabulary, but deTraci is right that we should give credit when politicians show a familiarity with the Classics.

read on

a satisfying sunday at the met museum greek & roman galleries and a turner retrospective

… after which we declared ourselves mentally exhausted and headed home.

The new Greek and Roman Galleries are overwhelming!  More Greek than Roman objects though.  It is worthwhile perusing the preceding link down to two YouTube clips;  although the 45 artifacts shown online mostly do not include the ones I especially liked.  But not to despair, I found out that one is allowed to take photos, and on my next visit – all by my little self  – I will take my camera along and do some more reporting here.  I've taken copious notes already, so I will find them easily.  Then there is a mezzanine which displays Etruscan art, with a life-size bronze chariot – the colors in the above photo though are misleading, the chariot has the typical bluish-green patina, and in the current display it is dramatically preceded by two lions who seem to draw it.  The mezzanine also holds the amazing Greek and Roman Study Collection, containing 3,500 objects!   There are no labels;  instead there are computer screens along the wall where one can call up each item.  The windows of the Etruscan Art gallery overlook the central court of the galleries, the former fountain court, which older residents of the area may remember as the Fountain Court Café with the reflecting pool.