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[German version] An epithet of  Jupiter of uncertain meaning, which already caused etymological speculation during antiquity, reflecting antiquarian and political interests. These related the name and cult of the god to each other. Derivations ranged from ferre ( arma: Prop. 4,10,47; Liv. 1,10,5-6; cf. R. Gest. div. Aug. 19: tropaiophóros; pacem: Fest. 81 L.) and feretrum (rack on which captured weapons were carried during the triumph: Plut. Marcellus 8) to ferire ( ense ducem: Prop. 4,10,46; Jupiter who ‘strikes’ with his lightening bolt: Plut. Marcellus 8; ferire foedus [ sc. feti…

[German version] Roman personification of death, modelled on the Greek Thanatos. Recorded in the title of an Atellan farce Mortis ac Vitae iudicium by Novius in Non. p. 479,7, a satire Mors ac Vita by Ennius (cf. Quint. Inst. 9,2,36), in Latin poets and on tomb inscriptions. Represented with corresponding attributes M. visualizes (1) the cause of death (Stat. Theb. 7,53: voltuque cruento M. armata sedet), (2) the transition from life to death (Anth. Lat. 2,429,1-2; 346,3-4; Hor. Carm. 1,14,13) and (3) death as a state (motionlessness, silence: Lucr. 3,959). I…

[German version] Roman goddess of indigitamenta , unequivocally thus only at Aug. Civ. 4,11. Her name is mentioned there in conjunction with the protection and care of newborn children whom she ‘lifts up’ from the earth ( terra) (probably with a perfect tense meaning of the suffix -na, s. [1]). Varro in Non. 848 L. also suggests that L. took up her abode directly after the birth, i.e. she is interpreted as a divine midwife who is the first carer of newborn infants. Kunz, Heike (Tübingen) Bibliography 1 Radke, 174.

(Σικελία/ Sikelía, Sicily). The largest island in the Mediterranean (Mare Nostrum; cf. Str. 2,5,19; differently Hdt. 1,170 and Timaeus FGrH 566 F 65): 25,460 km2, including the offshore islands such as the Insulae Aegates, Ustica, the Aeoli Insulae, Cossura, Lopadusa (present-day Lampedusa), Aethusa (present-day Linosa) and Melite [7] 25,953 km2. [German version] I. Name The island was originally called Trinacria (Τρινακρία/ Trinakría, Hellanicus FGrH 51 F 79b), later Sicania (Σικανίη/ Sikaníē, Hdt. 7,170; Σικανία/ Sikanía, Thuc. 6,2,2) and only then Sicelia (Σικελία)…

[German version] MS (= sanctuaries on rises or anticlines) were to be found in various ancient civilizations. Among the oldest monuments known to archeology are the so-called fire sanctuaries of Baal in the Near East [1]. It has been assumed that the numerous sanctuaries of the 2nd millennium on Crete were influenced by this tradition [2. 60f.]. More than 20 MS have been found there, identifiable by excavated clay figures and traces of altars. Another form of MS is represented by Greek cult sites of the Classical period (mainland, islands, Asia Minor) on heights outs…

(Λέων; Léōn). Cf. also Leo. Byzantine emperor Leo [4-9]. Sicilian place name L. [13]. [German version] [1] Spartan king, 6th cent. BC Spartan king, Agiad ( Agiads), grandfather of Cleomenes [3] I (Hdt. 5,39); is said to have been successful in war together with his fellow king Agasicles in the early 6th cent. BC, but to have been defeated by Tegea (Hdt. 1,65). Sparta is said to have already achieved eunomía (‘good order’) before his time [1. 45ff.]. Welwei, Karl-Wilhelm (Bochum) Bibliography 1 M. Meier, Aristokraten und Damoden, 1998. [German version] [2] Tyrant of Phlius, 6th cent. BC Tyran…

[German version] Roman goddess, personification of youth. The earliest evidence for the appellativum is Iuventus (3rd cent. BC [1. 154]), from the 1st cent. BC also Iuventas; Iuventa, however, is rare and late. In Rome I. had cult centres on the Capitol and at the Circus Maximus: the integration of her aedicula (‘chapel’) inside the   cella of Minerva at the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol (Dion. Hal. Ant. Rom. 3,69,5) was interpreted as an indication of the older age of I. worship (cf. Liv. 5,54,7). For the history of the const…

[German version]  Hymn of the  Salii. This cultic song in 35 fragments of unknown sequence, partly in saturnians, is only preserved by antiquarians ( Antiquarian;  C. Arvale,  C. Saeculare); a commentary on it was written by  Aelius Stilo in the 1st cent. BC. It was regarded as belonging to the oldest Roman poetry (Varro, Ling. 7,3). Its age is uncertain, addenda probably date from as late as the 2nd cent. AD (SHA Aur. 21). It begins with a general invocatio, the   axamenta (Paul. Fest. 3,12-15 L). Of the extant invocations of the gods, only Jupiter can be identified with ce…

[German version] [1] Sabinian deity According to Serv. Auct. Georg. 1,7, the Sabine name for Ceres. Presumably P. had the role of an agrarian deity in the pantheon of the Sabini; her exact function, however, cannot be determined. The translatability of Ceres as P. cannot be explained by an assumed displacement or absorption of a Sabine deity by the Italic or Roman goddess Ceres; their identification is probably a later scholarly interpretation. The attractive hypothesis of a relationship between the …

(εἴδωλον; eídōlon, Lat. idolum, picture, image, delusion). [German version] [1] Refers to a smaller-than-life-portrait Refers to a smaller-than-life portrait (cf. the votive gift of a female statue in Delphi, in Hdt. 1,51). Kunz, Heike (Tübingen) [German version] [2] Refers to a delusion in Greek mythology In Greek mythology, esp. in Homer, eidolon refers to a delusion (Hom. Il. 5,449), but especially to the soul of the deceased in Hades (Hom. Od. 11,213; Il. 23,104; the eidolon is disembodied but still has the shape of the living person: Hom. Il. 23,107). In pictorial…

[German version] A Roman deity who, according to Serv. Georg. 1,21 belongs to a circle of twelve gods invoked by the flamen Cerialis ( Flamines ) in the sacrum Cereale for Ceres and Tellus. M. and the other deities of the circle are linked by protective functions for specific agricultural activities. The etymology of the name M. indicates a rural deity that presides over the ‘reaping (i.e., the harvest) of the grain. Whether the twelve deities originally had an independent significance is disputed; their age is uncertain (o…

[German version] In Livius Andronicus (Odusia fr. 23 FPL according to Caesellius Vindex in Gell. 3,16,11) M. foretold the day of a person's death. According to Gell. ibid., M. is the Latin translation of the Greek Moira, which can be considered etymologically certain owing to their having the same origin. Caesellius Vindex's grouping of M. with Nona and Decuma as the tria fata (contradicted by Varro at Gell. 3,16,10) is an antiquarian construct and provides no key to the significance of M. to Roman religion. Kunz, Heike (Tübingen)

[German version] Name of an ancient Roman goddess, the sources show both one and two r (cf. CIL I2 p. 323: Furrinalia; the MSS vary). On the possible etymological emergence of the name from Etruscan, Oscan (here perhaps from * fursina, * forsina), or Umbrian, see [1. 137]. Her cult in earlier times is documented by a festival on 25 July, the Fu(r)rinalia or Furnalia, and a flamen Furinalis (  flamines ; Varro, Ling. 5,84; 6,19; Fest. 78 L). Myths or rites are unknown. The grove of F. was located in Rome on the other side of the Tiber (in today's…