Search

(Κομαιθώ; Komaìthṓ). [German version] [1] Lover of Amphitryon Daughter of  Pterelaus, the mythological king of Taphos. She helped  Amphitryon, with whom she has fallen in love, in his battle against the Teleboeans from Taphos. She was, however, killed by him after he had conquered the island (Apollod. 2,60). Prescendi, Francesca (Geneva) [German version] [2] Priestess of Artemis Triklaria at the sanctuary of Laphria near Patrae Priestess of  Artemis Triklaria at the sanctuary of Laphria near Patrae. She and her lover  Melanippus have a sexual encounter in the…

[German version] Lemures is a Roman term that describes the ghosts that appear during the night (Hor. Epist. 2,2,209; Non. 1, 197 L.). The lemures are equated with the dii manes (Ov. Fast. 5,422; schol. in Pers. 8,185) or the larvae (Varro in Non. 1, 197 L.). Later commentators interpret them as souls of the deceased who died early (Porph. ad Hor. Epist. 2,2,209) or through violence (Acro ad Hor. Epist. 2,2,209). The festival of the lemuria (or lemuralia) on 9, 11 and 13 May was dedicated to them. On these days - people believed - the lemures would return to the earth during the night and e…

[German version] Foster father of Romulus and Remus, husband of Acca Larentia. According to the tradition [1. 9f.] going back to Diocles [7] and Fabius Pictor (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1,79,4; Plut. Romulus 3,1,19a; 8,9,22c; Ps.-Aur. Vict. Origo 20,1), F. is either Amulius' leading shepherd, to whom the other shepherds hand over the newly-born brothers Romulus and Remus (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 1,79-83), or the one who finds the twins with the she-wolf on the Tiber banks (Liv. 1,4). He in his turn gives …

[German version] Goddess of dawn, worshipped in Italy and Rome (Lucr. 5,655f.), whose name, in the form of an adjective, like Lat. maturus, ‘at the proper moment’, goes back, by way of the stem * mātū-, to * mā, ‘good’ [1]. Statuettes portraying the goddess with the sun's disc around her head and a child in her arms ( kourotrophos), and the temple dedicated to her in Satricum (now Le Ferriere) in Latium (with anatomical votive offerings: [5. Vol. 1-2]), go back to the seventh century BC [2; 3; 4]. Her temple near the Forum Boarium …

[German version] (Κλεῖνις; Kleînis) was a rich Babylonian much beloved by  Apollo and  Artemis. Among the Hyperboreans he learnt that Apollo was honoured with a donkey sacrifice and wished to transfer this custom to Babylon. However, he encountered the misgivings of Apollo, who only appreciated the donkey sacrifice in the land of the Hyperboreans. C. stopped the sacrifice but his sons continued it. Thereupon, Apollo drove the donkeys mad. They ate C. and his sons who were then transformed into birds (Antoninus Liberalis 20).  Donkey cult;  Hyperborei Prescendi, Francesca (Geneva)

[German version] I. Religion F. is the cultically venerated personification of faith and veracity [1]. According to Varro (Ling. 5,74), she had been adopted in Rome from the Sabini; her cult is still in evidence at the end of the 2nd cent. AD (Tert. Apol. 24,5). F. is depicted as a woman, her head adorned with a garland or veil, dressed in a   chitṓn and péplos [2]. She appears frequently in poetry, but rarely in prose. She was considered to be a very ancient deity (Sil. Pun. 1,329f.; 2,484ff.) and therefore referred to as cana (Verg. Aen. 1,292). According to Agathocles Perì Kyzíkou (Fest. 328 L…

[German version] Epithet of Juno in her role as the goddess of birth. In antiquity the name is derived either from Latin lucus, ‘grove’, or Latin lux, ‘light’. The latter emphasizes the role of the goddess as midwife (Varro, Ling. 5,69; Varro antiquitates rerum divinarum fr. 100 Cardauns; Ov. Fast. 2,449f.; Plin. HN 16,235). The Kalendae, the days which mark the return of the cycle of the moon, are dedicated to Juno L. (Varro, Ling. 5,69; [1]). Her temple on the Esquiline in Rome was presumably consecrated in 375 BC by t…

[German version] Roman goddess. An inscription (CIL XI 6708,7) on a clay bowl from the 3rd cent. BC represents the first evidence of her name known today. In literature, L. is considered on the one hand as the protector of thieves, the laverniones (Plaut. Aul. 445; Hor. Epist. 1,16,60) who found a hiding-place in her grove (Paul. Fest. 104 L.), and on the other hand as a goddess of the Underworld (Septimius Serenus fr. 6 Blänsdorf). An altar was dedicated to her on the Aventine near the Porta Lavernalis that was named after her (Varro, …

[German version] [1] Daughter of Celeus and Metaneira (Καλλιθόη, Kallithóe, ‘excelling in speed’). Oldest daughter of  Celeus, King of Eleusis, and of  Metaneira. C. and her sisters Callidice, Cleisidice and Demo invited  Demeter, who was grieving for her daughter Persephone, to their home (H. Hom. 2,110). Michel, Raphael (Basle) Bibliography N. J. Richardson, The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 1974, 183-185. [German version] [2] First priestess of Hera First priestess of Hera Argia's sanctuary in Argos or in Tiryns [1]. She was the first to decorate a column with w…

[German version] Deity of shepherds and herds. In the pastoral Latin literature (e.g. Verg. Ecl. 5,36; Calp. Ecl. 4,106) and in classical texts on Roman religion (Varro in Gell. NA 13,23,4; Ov. Fast. 4,723ff.) P. is female. However a male P. is documented as well (Varro in Serv. Georg. 3,1). The entry of the 7th July in the late Republican Fasti antiates maiores: Palibus II (InscrIt 13,2 p. 14) and Varro Rust. 2,5,1: Palibus point to the existence of two P.s [1] and could be a further indication of a male P. [2.101f.]. In order to avoid the assumption that two deitie…

(Μανία; Manía). [German version] [1] Greek personification of madness Greek personification of madness. Cultic worship as Maníai (plural!) in the place of that name near Megalopolis. According to Paus. 8,34,1-3, Orestes went mad there (identification with Erinyes/Eumenides? Erinys). In the singular M. is found only in Quint. Smyrn. 5,451ff. for the rage of Ajax [1]. M. appears with an annotation of the name on a Lower Italian vase by Asteas depicting Hercules's infanticide ( Lyssa, Oestrus). Käppel, Lutz (Kiel) [German version] [2] Name of the Roman goddess Larunda Another name for…

[German version] is to be understood as ‘that which is divinely sanctioned’; its opposite is nefas. The adjective fastus is derived from it. Fas and nefas appear at first with verbs (e.g. fas est), later also as nouns in expressions such as contra fas. The derivation is disputed: 1. from * fēs-/ * fas<* dh(e)h1s- as festus, feriae, fanum; 2. from * fā<* bheh2 - as fari, fama, fabula, fatum [1]. The relationship between fari and the adj. fastus was already recognised by Varro (Ling. 6, 29-30; 53). According to [2] fari indicates the existence of the utterance removed from the speaker a…

[German version] (in the Roman religion ‘the expressed will of a deity’). The concept of numen has been particularly popular in academic religious scholarship since the end of the 19th cent. Interest with regard to the Roman religion was sparked by the proponents of pre-deism or dynamism (W.W. Fowler [1], J.G. Frazer [2], H.J. Rose [3], F. Pfister [4], H. Wagenvoort [5]) (doxography: [6. 36; 7. 355-357]). They claimed numen is similar to the concepts of mana, orenda, vakanda etc. of the so-called ‘primitive’ peoples (Polynesians, Melanesians) and signifies the impersona…

[German version] Roman spirits of the dead, particularly the animae (‘souls’) of deceased individuals. They are part of the Underworld and also referred to as di inferi (e.g. CIL X 2936; VI 13388) and contrasted with the gods above ground ( di superi); in metonymy, they may stand for the Underworld itself. Literature of antiquity explains di manes euphemistically as ‘the good’ (Paul Fest. 132 l.; Serv. Aen. 1,143) and links them with Lat. mane, ‘the morning’, with mania or with Mater Matuta (Paul Fest. 109 l.). The salutation frequently found on gravestones and in memorial inscriptions, dis…

[German version] The identity of the Roman goddess L. is not easily identifiable. L., also called Lara, was understood as the mother of the lares (Lactant. Div. inst. 1,20,35) and equated with Mania (Varro, Ling. 11,61). An aetiological myth says that she was also equated with Tacita Muta (‘mute’) (Ov. Fast. 2,583-616). It is disputed whether L./M.L. is the same goddess as Acca Larentia. According to Varro (Ling. 5,74), L. comes from the Sabine country; Titus Tatius dedicated an altar to her. According to an uncertain reconstruction of a passage in Tacitus (…

[German version] [1] Mythical ancestor of the Latin people (Greek Λατῖνος; Latînos). Mythical eponymous ancestor of the Latini. According to the Greek version, L. and his brother Agrius are the sons of Odysseus and Circe and kings of the Tyrrheni on the Island of the Blessed (Hes. Theog. 1011ff.). Servius (Aen. 12,164), who refers to a no longer identifiable Greek author, takes up this origin of L., but identifies him as the founder of the city of Rome, which was named for Rhome, the sister of L. Accor…

[German version] The consort of Liber; as he is the god of male fertility, so she is the goddess of female fertility (Aug. Civ. 6,9). She belongs to the Aventine triad of Ceres, Liber and L. (Fast. Caeretani, CIL I 1, 212) and is venerated together with Liber, at the Liberalia and at wine festivals [1. 256ff.]. In accordance with the identification of Liber with Dionysius L. is equated with Ariadne (Ov. Fast. 3,512). For bibliography see Liber. Prescendi, Francesca (Geneva) Bibliography 1 O. de Cazanove, Jupiter, Liber et le vin latin, in: RHR 205, 1988, 245-265.

[German version] Liber Pater is an Italic-Roman god of nature, fertility, and wine. L. is attested archaeologically first on the inscriptions of the Praenestine cistae from the 4th cent. BC (CIL I 2, 563), then on a cippus from Pisaurium from the 3rd-2nd cents. BC (CIL I 2, 381). The historians report that L. was introduced from Greece into Rome in the year 496, when the Sibylline Books had recommended to transfer the triad of Demeter, Kore, and Iacchus - who correspond to the Roman deities Ceres,…

[German version] [1] L. (Baebius or Manius), dictator Latinus L. (Baebius or Manius) Egerius [2] had the sanctuary of Diana Nemorensis (Cato fr. 58 Peter) dedicated in his capacity as dictator Latinus. Prescendi, Francesca (Geneva) Bibliography C. Ampolo, Ricerche sulla lega latina, II. La dedica di Egerius Baebius, in: PdP 212, 1983, 321-326. [German version] [2] Probably the first lyric love poet of Rome, 2nd or early 1st cent. BC Probably the first lyric love poet of Rome, 2nd (cf. [8]) or early 1st cent. BC (for example, according to [2. 118]), and in the latt…

[German version] In the Roman sphere, larvae are spirits which cause madness (Plaut. Capt. 598; Plaut. Aul. 642): one who has lost his wits is called larvatus (Plaut. Men. 890; Paul Fest. 106 L.). The larvae are regarded as ghosts, who are considered equal to the lemures (Gloss. 5,656,14) and can thus be considered as the addressees of the lemuria (Paul Fest. 77, 25 L.). In the interpretations of Roman authors, the larvae are equated with both the maniae ( Mania) and the dii manes when these return to Earth from the Underworld (Paul Fest. 114 L.). Furthermore, they are also identified with the lar…