Download Greek Myths arriving in Italy

Greek Myths arriving in
Italy
Lecture Summary:
1. Discussion of Wiseman’s
Chapter I
Ovid’s Fasti
Based on Ovid’s poem the Fasti, 1.391400, translated by William Massey 1757
 Publius Ovidius Naso – “Ovid” (43 BCE
– 17 CE) – wrote love and erotic poetry; is
also our best source of Roman myth
Metamorphoses and the Fasti
 fasti means Calendar,
 poem is collection of stories based on the
Roman festival calendar
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Giambattista Tiepolo: The Empire [or
Triumph] of Flora 1743
Flora
Games of Flora April 28 – May 3
 Ovid’s Fasti 4.945-6: The goddess Flora decked
with flowers appears who a soft scene of jesting
freedom bears (Massey translation in Wiseman)
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there comes a goddess decked with garlands of
a thousand varied flowers, and the stage enjoys
a customary license of mirth. The rites of Flora
also extend into the Kalends of May. (Fraser
translation 1931)
Flora
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In Greek myth: Chloris (= pale), nymph of the Elysian
Fields: raped and married by the West Wind (Zephyrus)
who gave her a garden as a wedding gift; Zephyrus
turned her into a goddess of flowering spring,
protectress of fields and gardens; name Latinized as
‘Flora’.
Origins of games of Flora: in context of a famine and
crop failure, plebeian aediles fined wealthy land-owners
for encroaching on the ager publicus (public land) 241 or
238 BC; some of fines paid for a new temple to Flora;
senate did not recognize games;
After another famine - games officially recognized by
Roman senate (173 BC)
Boticelli’s Primavera (1481)
Titian, Tarquin and Lucretia (1571)
Bellini, Feast of the Gods (1514)
The Feast of the Gods by Bellini
Based on Ovids’ Fasti 1. 391-438
 January 9, the Agonalia
 Present: Priapus, Silenus, Bacchus, satyrs,
Pan, nymphs, Mercurius with his caduceus
, Jupiter with his eagle, Neptune with his
trident, Ceres with her crown of corn-ears,
Apollo with laurel wreath and lyre.
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Ovid, Fasti 1. 391A young ass, too, is slain in honour of the stiff guardian32 of the countryside: the cause is shameful, but beseems the god.
 [393] A feast of ivy-berried Bacchus, thou wast wont to hold, O Greece, a
feast which the third winter brought about at the appointed time.31 Thither
came, too, the gods who wait upon Lyaeus and all the jocund crew, Pans
and young amorous Satyrs, and goddesses that haunt rivers and lonely
wilds. Thither, too, came old Silenus on an ass with hollow back, and the
Crimson One32 who by his lewd image scares the timid birds. They lit upon
a dingle meet for joyous wassails, and there they laid them down on grassy
beds. Liber bestowed the wine: each had brought his garland: a stream
supplied water in plenty to dilute the wine. Naiads were there, some with
flowing locks uncombed, others with tresses neatly bound. One waits upon
the revellers with tunic tucked above her knee; another through her ripped
robe reveals her breast; another bares her shoulder; one trails her skirt
along the grass; no shoes cumber their dainty feet. So some in Satyrs
kindle amorous fires, and some in thee, whose brows are wreathed with
pine.33 Thou too, Silenus, burnest for the nymphs, insatiate lecher! ‘Tis
wantonness alone forbids thee to grow old.
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[415] But crimson Priapus, glory and guard of gardens, lost his heart to
Lotis, singled out of the whole bevy. For her he longs, for her he prays, for
her alone he sighs; he gives her signs by nodding and woos by making
marks. But the lovely are disdainful, and pride on beauty waits: she flouted
him and cast at him a scornful look. ‘Twas night, and wine makes drowsy,
so here and there they lay overcome with sleep. Weary with frolic, Lotis,
the farthest of them all, sank to her rest on the grassy ground under the
maple boughs. Up rose her lover, and holding his breath stole secretly and
silently on tiptoe to the fair. When he reached the lonely pallet of the snowwhite nymph, he drew his breath so warily that no a sound escaped. And
no upon the sward fast by he balanced on his toes, but still the nymph slept
sound. He joyed, and drawing from off her feet the quilt, he set him, happy
lover! to snatch the wished-for hour. But lo, Silenus saddle-ass, with
raucous weasand braying, gave out an ill-timed roar! The nymph in terror
started up, pushed off Priapus, and flying gave the alarm to the whole
grove; but, ready to enter the lists of love, the god in the moonlight was
laughed at by all. The author of the hubbub paid for it with his life, and he
is now the victim dear to the Hellespontine god.
The god Priapus,
Guardian of gardens
 His ithyphallic statue
used as scarecrow
 Also associated with
fertility
 Statues of Priapus in
Roman houses
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The Fasti Antiates maiores
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Roman Calendar dating back to
the Roman Republic
Originally created as a list of
religious festivals
Attributed to King Numa (but
dated by scholars to 6th or 5th
century BC or later)
The fasti antiates maiores
represent the only fragment left of
the old Republican Calendar
(dating to ca. 84-67 BC)
Julius Caesar revised Calendar to
the Julian year in 46 BCE
Beginning of year changed in 1st
century BC from March to January
The fasti antiates maiores already
reflect the new civic year
(more details Wiseman CH. 4)
What is the Purpose of
Wiseman’s Chapter I ?
Rome and Modern Preconceptions
To remove 19th and 20th century preconceptions of Rome
as an empire representing power
 Romantic image of ancient Greece – as polar opposite of
militaristic and imperialistic Rome
 Greeks produced democracy, philosophy, tragedy, art
etc.,
 Romans built roads, bridges, aequaducts, law and order
 Was assumed Romans had no ‘real’ mythology of their
own unlike the Greeks
 Perpetuated for long time by Classical Scholars
 Another assumption - Greek were ‘before’ the Romans
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Wiseman
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goal to dispel these preconceptions:
City states of Athens and Rome formed about same time
Athenians kicked out their last tyrant in 510 BC, Romans
kicked out last king Tarquin the proud around 510 BC
Romans too have long tradition of stories
Latin speaker familiar with Greek language in early Iron
Age
Wiseman places his examination of Roman myths into
this context in roughly chronological order
Problems of Reconstructing the Religious
Life of Early Italy and Rome:
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Sources: Romans did not produce literature of their own
until 240 BCE (Livius Andronicus)
Romans did not start writing history until ca. 200 BCE
(Q. Fabius Pictor); 553 years between the traditional
foundation date and the recording of history
The Gallic Sack – 390 BCE - old records destroyed
Hellenization of the Roman Past and Roman myth
Most of our extant sources are late (i.e. 1st century BCE
or later)
Sources for Roman Myth and
Religious Life
Annalistic Historians
 Antiquarian Writers
 Roman Poets
 Religious Monographs
 Early Christian Writers
 Art and Archaeology
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Annalistic Historians: Their Sources
and Methods
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Historians who wrote year by year accounts of Roman
history (i.e. dated according to consulships )
Information derived from: 1. Pontifical Tables, 2. Family
Histories, 3. Oral Traditions, 4. Roman Law
Reliance on Pontifical Tables ensured recording of events
of religious significance – floods, famines, omens (i.e.
calf born with two heads, etc);
Early annalistic historians not much older than 2nd
century BCE – and survived only in fragments
Annalistic historians
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Titus Livius – “Livy” (59 BCE – 17 CE): wrote a
history of Rome Ab Urbe Condita in 142 books;
Only 35 books survive; Books 1-5 on earliest
history of Rome complete; heavily steeped in
mythic tradition
 Note the date of his work!
 Others: Tacitus (ca. 56 CE – 117 CE); Dio
Cassius (ca. 155-229 CE)
 Focus on political history and more concerned
with using the past as a political tool for the
present
The Antiquarians: Sources and
Methods
More interested in a much broader range of
subjects (i.e. Origins of peoples, customs,
practices, beliefs etc.)
 Use a wider range of source material (i.e. other
historians, oral traditions present in Rome and
elsewhere, monuments, current religious
traditions and practices; etymology)
 Reliability often questioned by scholars
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Antiquarians continued
Dionysius of Halicarnassus (60 BCE – ca. 7
BCE): wrote Roman Antiquities in 20 books
(written in Rome ca. 30 BCE); sources included
Greek and Roman historians writing on Italian
affairs, local mythic traditions and religious
customs
 Others: M. Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE), On
the Nature of the Gods, On Divination; Aulus
Gellius (ca. 125 – 180 CE) Attic Nights; Plutarch
(ca. 46 – 120 CE) Moralia
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Roman Poets & Mythographers
Romans developed their own literary traditions ca. 240
BCE
 Livius Andronicus (ca. 260-200 BCE) a Greek from
southern Italy; was brought to Rome as a slave;
Translated the Odyssey into Latin
 Quintus Ennius (239-169 BCE) - born in Oscan town of
Rudiae; wrote several works of significance to Roman
myth and religion: 1.The Epicharmus (On the gods and
their role in the universe), 2. The Euhemerus (work on
the origins of gods as famous men), 3. The Annals (Epic
poem recounting Roman history from its mythical
foundation of the Roman people by Aeneas down to 184
BCE)
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Poets and mythographers
Publius Vergilius Maro – “Virgil” (17 BCE –
19 BCE) – Poet writing bucolic and epic poetry:
1. The Eclogues, 2. The Georgics, 3. The Aeneid
(the story of Aeneas’ flight from Troy and arrival
in Rome)
 Publius Ovidius Naso – “Ovid” (43 BCE – 17
CE) – Writer of love and erotic poetry; produced
our best source of Roman myth Metamorphoses
and the Fasti
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Early Christian Writers
A number of Christian writers produced
polemical tracts against pagan myth and religion
 Many of these men converted later in life to
Christianity and were familiar with traditional
Roman religion and myths.
 Tertullian (160-235 CE) – Christian apologist
from N. Africa who wrote a number of works
against Christian heresies and against pagan
critiques of Christianity
 Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) – Christian
apologist; Confessions and City of God
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Summarizing the Problems With Sources on Roman Myths
and Religion,
Annalistic historians were primarily concerned
with political history. They are not reliable
sources for conditions existing prior to 390 BCE
 Antiquarians rely heavily on oral traditions and
folktale. They are useful but difficult to date and
identify origins.
 Poets record Roman mythic traditions, but the
late start to Roman literature means that the
tradition is heavily influenced by Greek myth
and literary models.
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Sources and their Problems
continued
Christian Sources are universally hostile to
traditional Roman myth and religion
 All of our sources are late
 Art and Archaeology (including epigraphy)
is crucial for reconstructing early Roman
myth and religious practice
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