Varro, logically, does not resist the temptation to seek an explanation or draw a conclusion, (no matter if it is focused or not,  but it does not appear to be correct), from  the proximity between the two terms: urbem and orbem. He does so it in his De lingua Latina, (On the Latin Language) V, 143:

Many founded towns in Latium by the Etruscan ritual ; that is, with a team of cattle, a bull and a cow on the inside, they ran a furrow around with a plough (for reasons of religion they did this on an auspicious day), that they might be fortified by a ditch and a wall. The place whence they had ploughed up the earth, they called a fossa ‘ ditch,’ and the earth thrown inside it they called the murus ‘ wall.’ The orbis ‘ circle ‘ which was made back of this, was the beginning of the urbs ‘ city ‘ ; because the circle was post murum ‘ back of the wall,’ it was called a postmoerium  ; it sets the limits for the taking of the auspices for the city. Stone markers of the pomerium stand both around Aricia  and around Rome. Therefore towns also which had earlier had the plough drawn around them, were termed urbes ‘ cities,’ from orbis ‘ circle ‘ and urvum ‘ curved ‘ ; therefore also all our colonies are mentioned as urbes in the old writings, because they had been founded in just the same way as Rome ; therefore also colonies and cities conduntur ‘ are founded,’ because they are placed inside the pomerium. (Translation by Roland G.Kent. Ph.D.)

Oppida condebant in Latio Etrusco ritu multi, id est, iunctis bobus, tauro et vacca interiore, aratro circumagebant sulcum (hoc faciebant religionis causa die auspicato), ut fossa et muro essent muniti. Terram unde exculpserant, fossam vocabant et introrsum iactam murum. Post ea qui fiebatorbis, urbis principium; qui quod erat post murum, postmoerium dictum, eo usque auspicia urbana finiuntur. Cippi pomeri stant et cirum Ariciam et circum Romam. Quare et oppida quae prius erant circumducta aratro ab orbe et urvo urbes; et ideo coloniae nostrae omnes in litterid antiquis scribunturt urbes, quod ítem conditae ut Roma; et ideo coloniae et urbes condungtur, quod intra pomerium ponuntur.

I will present some texts that exemplify the use in the Antiquity of this paronomasia.

Cornelius Nepos (c.100 BC – c. 25 BC) in the Life of Atticus puts in touch both words, urbis and orbis:

Nepos, Life of Atticus,  20.5

How strong such  attachment is, he will be easily able to judge, who can understand how much prudence is required to preserve the friendship and favour of those between whom there existed not only emulation in the highest matters, but such a mutual struggle to lessen one another as was sure to happen between Caesar and Antony, when each of them desired to be chief, not merely of the city of Rome, but of the whole world. (Translation by John Selby Watson, MA)

hoc quale sit, facilius existimabit is, qui iudicare poterit, quantae sit sapientiae eorum retinere usum benivolentiamque, inter quos maximarum rerum non solum aemulatio, sed obtrectatio tanta intercedebat, quantam fuit incidere necesse inter Caesarem atque Antonium, cum se uterque principem non solum urbis Romae, sed orbis terrarum esse cuperet.

Thus Ovid, in his Ars Amatoria comments that the public shows, that the women attend, are a good opportunity to establish some kind of relationship. In this passage he makes an interesting integration, a paronomasia, between “urbe” and “orbis“: atque ingens orbis in Urbe fuit.

The Art of love, 1, 171 et seq.

Caesar would represent a naval fight,
For his own honour and for Rome’s delight.
From either sea the youths and maidens come,
And all the world was then contain’d in Rome!
(atque ingens ORBIS in URBE fuit)
In this vast concourse, in this choice of game,
What Roman heart but felt a foreign flame!
Once more our prince prepares to make us glad,
And the remaining east to Rome will add.
Rejoice, ye Roman soldiers, in your urns,
Your ensigns from the Parthians shall return,
And the slain Crassi shall no longer mourn.
A youth is sent those trophies to demand,
Ard bears his father’s thunders in his hand;
Doubt not th’ imperial boy in wars unseen,
In childhood all of Caesar’s race are men.
Celestial seeds shoot out before their day,
Prevent their years, and brook no dull delay.
(Translated by John Dryden (1631–1700).

quid, modo cum belli navalis imagine Caesar
   Persidas induxit Cecropiasque rates?
nempe ab utroque mari iuvenes, ab utroque puellae
   Venere, atque ingens orbis in Urbe fuit.
quis non invenit turba, quod amaret, in illa?      
   eheu, quam multos advena torsit amor!
ecce, parat Caesar domito quod defuit orbi
   addere: nunc, oriens ultime, noster eris.
Parthe, dabis poenas: Crassi gaudete sepulti,
signaque barbaricas non bene passa manus.      
ultor adest, primisque ducem profitetur in annis,
   bellaque non puero tractat agenda puer.

Marcus Velleius Paterculus (c. 19 BC – c. AD 31), Compendium of Roman History, 2,44

But to resume. It was in Caesar’s consulship that there was formed between himself, Gnaeus Pompeius and Marcus Crassus the partnership in political power which proved so baleful to the city, to the world, and, subsequently at different periods to each of the triumvirs themselves.  Pompey’s motive in the adoption of this policy had been to secure through Caesar as consul the long delayed ratification of his acts in the provinces across the seas, to which, as I have already said, many still raised objections; Caesar agreed to it because he realized that in making this concession to the prestige of Pompey he would increase his own, and that by throwing on Pompey the odium for their joint control he would add to his own power; while Crassus hoped by the influence of Pompey and the power of Caesar he might achieve a place of pre-eminence in the state which he had not been able to reach single-handed.  Furthermore, a tie of marriage was cemented between Caesar and Pompey, in that Pompey now wedded Julia, Caesar’s daughter. (Translated by Frederick W. Shipley)

Hoc igitur consule inter eum et Cn. Pompeium et M. Crassum inita potentiae societas, quae urbi orbique terrarum nec minus diverso cuique tempore ipsis exitiabilis fuit.  Hoc consilium sequendi Pompeius causam habuerat, ut tandem acta in transmarinis provinciis, quibus, ut praediximus, multi obtrectabant, per Caesarem confirmarentur consulem, Caesar autem, quod animadvertebat se cedendo Pompei gloriae aucturum suam et invidia communis potentiae in illum relegata confirmaturum vires suas, Crassus, ut quem principatum solus adsequi non poterat, auctoritate Pompei, viribus teneret Caesaris,  adfinitas etiam inter Caesarem Pompeiumque contracta nuptiis, quippe Iuliam, filiam C. Caesaris, Cn. Magnus duxit uxorem.

Tertullian also in his Apologeticum (ca.160-ca.220), 40,1-4 relates the two words:
quantae clades orbem et urbes ceciderunt!

On the contrary, faction is a name which belongs to those only who conspire in the hatred of the good and virtuous, and remonstratefull cry for innocent blood, sheltering their malice under this vain pretence, that they are of opinion, forsooth, that the Christians are the occasion of all the mischief in the world. If Tiber overflows, and Nile does not; if heaven stands still and withholds its rain, and the earth quakes ; if famine or pestilence take their marches through the country, the word is, Away with these Christians to the lion ! Bless me ! what, so many people to one lion ! Pray tell me what havoc, what a mighty fall of people has been made in the world and Rome (quantae clades orbem et urbes ceciderunt!)  before the reign of Tiberius, that is, before the advent of Christ ? We read of Hierannape, and Delos, and Rhodes, and Co, islands swept away with many thousands of their inhabitants. … (Translated by Jeremy Collier, A.M.)

At e contrario illis nomen factionis accommodandum est, qui in odium bonorum et proborum conspirant, qui adversum sanguinem innocentium conclamant, praetexentes sane ad odii defensionem illam quoque vanitatem, quod existiment omnis publicae cladis, omnis popularis incommodi Christianos esse in causa[m].  Si Tiberis ascendit in moenia, si Nilus non ascendit in arva, si caelum stetit, si terra movit, si fames, si lues, statim: “Christianos ad leonem!” acclamatur. Tantos ad unum?
Oro vos, ante Tiberium, id est ante Christi adventum, quantae clades orbem et urbes ceciderunt! Legimus Hieran, Anaphen et Delon et Rhodon et Co insulas multis cum milibus hominum pessum abisse.

Sidonius Apollinaris (430-489 AD), bishop of Clermont Ferrand, in Carmina, 7, uses this paronomasia:
captivus, ut aiunt, orbis in urbe iacet (verse 557)

Carmen 7 is a panegyric to his father-in-law Avitus on his inauguration as emperor. In a meeting of the gods Rome complains of its decadence; its history is reviewed and Jupiter takes part. Soon Avitus is proclaimed emperor by the Visigothics and Gallicromans.

Sidonius Apollinaris, Carmina, 7, 550 y ss.

Now the supreme office calls for thee; in time of peril a realm cannot be ruled by a poltroon. All ambitious rivalry gives place when extremity calls for men of renown. After the losses of Ticinum and Trebia the trembling republic came in haste to Fabius. By the election of Livius the disaster of Cannae, famous for Varro’s rout, was undone; undone too was the Carthaginian, still exulting over the deaths of the Scipios. The world, they say, lies captive in the captive city ; the Emperor has perished, and now the Empire has its head here.

Ascend the tribunal, we beseech thee, and raise up the fainting; this time of peril asks not that some other should love Rome more. Nor do thou by any chance deem thyself unequal to sovereignty. When Brennus’ host beset the Tarpeian rock, then, thou knowest, Camillus was himself the whole of our state, and he, the destined avenger of his country, covered the smoking embers of the city with the slaughtered enemy. No gold scattered among the people hath secured for thee the verdict of the centuries ; this time no venal tribes bought with plenteous coin rush to give their votes the suffrages of the world no one can buy. Though a poor man, thou art being chosen; rich art thou in thy deserts, and that suffices in itself. Why dost thou hinder the desires of thy country, when she orders thee to give orders to her? This is the judgment of all: ” if thou becomest the master I shall be free.” (Translated by W.B. Anderson).

nunc iam summa vocant,  dubio sub tempore regnum
non regit ignavus, postponitur ambitus omnis
ultima cum claros quaerunt: post damna Ticini
ac Trebiae trepidans raptim respublica venit
ad Fabium; Cannas celebres Varrone fugato
Scipiadumque etiam turgentem funere Poenum
Livius electus fregit, captivus, ut aiunt,
orbis in urbe iacet; princeps perit, hic caput omne
nunc habet imperium, petimus, conscende tribunal, 
erige collapsos; non hoc modo tempora poscunt,
ut Romam plus alter amet. nec forte reare
te regno non esse parem: cum Brennica signa
Tarpeium premerent, scis, tum respublica nostra
tota Camillus erat, patriae qui debitus ultor
texit fumantes hostili strage favillas.
non tibi centurias aurum populare paravit,
nec modo venales numerosoque asse redemptae
concurrunt ad puncta tribus; suffragia mundi
nullus emit, pauper legeris ; quod sufficit unum,
es meritis dives, patriae cur vota moraris,
quae iubet ut iubeas ? haec est sententia cunctis :
si dominus fis, liber ero.’

Flavius Cresconius Corippus, who lived approximately from the year 500 to 570 AD was probably the last major Latin author of antiquity, on  time of the Byzantine emperors Iustinian I and Iustin II. His two major works are the epic poem Johannis  and the panegyric In laudem Iustini minoris.

It is precisely in this last one that in several occasions he uses the formula “urbis–orbis“; Precisely it is a feature of his style, the repetition of words and concepts and also the use of paronomasias or words very similar in form although different in the meaning. So

Verses I, 173 y ss.

The whole group, prostrate and lying before their feet, while speaking thus, says together: “Have pity, pious,  of those who beg you, holy man, come to help us in adversity. As the day arrives you will see that everything is lost if the people can hear that the throne is empty and the emperor is not there. As much as your affection for your virtuous  father may affect you, let not your  love for your  country  be less than that you have for your father. Your uncle himself, dying, ordered you with his own words to kept the scepter. See how much it was the forecast and request of the old man for our city and the whole world (aspice quanta fuit nostrae simul urbis et orbis). In your behalf God made all that he wanted to happen. Mount your father’s throne, mighty prince,  and rule the world that is submission  to you.

Talia dicentis pedibus prostrata iacensque
omnis turba simul “pius es, miserere” perorat
“supplicibus, vir sancte, tuis: succurre periclis.
Omnia mox veniente die periisse videbis,
si vacuam vulgussine príncipe senserit aulam.
Quantumcumque boni moveat dilectio patris,
non sit amor patriae patrio minor. Ipse tenere
sceptra tuus moriens te iussit avunculus ore.
aspice quanta fuit nostrae simul urbis et orbis
próvida cura seni. pro te deus omnia fecit,
quae fieri voluit. solium conscende paternum
et rege subiectum, prínceps fortissime, mundum

And again in Verses 244 y ss.

And not unjustly, I think, would he, in death, be so happy and with a countenance so full of goodness, if his mind, conscious of the good that he makes, would not have abandoned his  tranquil body members, flying towards heaven and would not have ensured the empire by  the confirmation of an heir. When the noble Justin came here, throwing his loving arms around the lifeless body, he said,  sobbing: “Light of the city and  the universe, Father Justinian, are you leaving your beloved court and are you abandoning  your relatives, your servants and so many subjects? Do you despise your lands? Do not you sail for  the exhausted world? Here you have the Avars and the harsh Franks and the Gepids and  the Getas, and so many other nations who, after raising their ensigns, cause war everywhere. With how much  strength will we overcome so many enemies if you, firmness of Rome, are dead? “

Haud, reor, immerito sic laetus et ore benignus
Ille foret moriens, nisi mens sibi conscia recti
in caelum properans securos linqueret artus
et tutum imperium firmato herede locaret.
Huc ubi magnanimus sacra cum coniuge venit,
cara per exanimum circumdans brachia corpus
cum lacrimis Iustinus ait: “lux urbis et orbis,
Iustiniane pater, dilectam deseris aulam?
Cognatos fámulos et tantos linquis alumnos?
Contemnis terras? Fesso non prospicis orbi?
En Avares Francique truces Gepidesque Getaeque
totque aliae gentes commotis undique ignis
bella movent; qua vi tantos superabimos hostes,
cum virtus Romana iacet?...

And again in  verses III, 72 y ss.:

Organs, plectrums and lyres resounded throughout the city; a thousand kinds of spectacles, a thousand banquets, dances, laughter, conversation, joy and applause were offered. They prayed for long life for the emperors in happy cries. “After its old age,” they say, “the world rejoices its rejuvenation and seeks the principles of its original appearance. The iron age has  now gone, and the  golden age is getting up in your time, Justin, hope of the city and the world, light of the Roman Empire, glory added to all the emperors who preceded you, whose victorious wisdom has gained the highest summit of your father’s kingdom»

Organa, plectra, lyrae totam insonuere per urbem.
Mille voluptatum species, convicia mille,
saltatus, risus, discursus, gaudia, plausus.
Augustis vitam laetis clamoribus optant.
post senium dicunt “sese iuvenescere mundus
gaudet Et antiquae repetit  primordia formae.
Férrea nunc abeunt aurea saecula surgunt
temporibus, Iustine, tuis, spes urbis et orbis,
Romani iubar imperii, decus addite cunctis
retro principibus, cuius sapientia victrix
obtinuit patrii fastigia máxima regni.”

The summary of all this, of the content and the of literary figure, is personified by a happy verse of the fifth century French poet Rutilius Namatianus, from which we retain part of the only poem we know he wrote, entitled “De reditu suo” (On the return ). In it he sings the greatness and ancient splendor of Rome and criticizes Christianity. In the so-called Hymn to Rome, which appears personified, we find the summary verse  which I referred:

             ‘urbem fecisti quod prius orbis erat’

“Listen, O fairest queen of thy world, Rome, welcomed amid the starry skies, listen, thou mother of men and mother of gods, thanks to thy temples we are not far from heaven: thee do we chant, and shall, while destiny allows, for ever chant. None can be safe if forgetful of thee. Sooner shall guilty oblivion whelm the sun than the honour due to thee quit my heart; for benefits extend as far as the sun’s rays, where the circling Ocean-flood bounds the world. For thee the very Sun-God who holdeth all together doth revolve: his steeds that rise in thy domains he puts in thy domains to rest. Thee Africa hath not stayed with scorching sands, nor hath the Bear, armed with its native cold, repulsed thee. As far as living nature hath stretched towards the poles, so far hath earth opened a path for thy valour. For nations far apart thou hast made a single fatherland; under thy dominion captivity hath meant profit even for those who knew not justice:and by offering to the vanquished a share in thine own justice, thou hast made a city of what was erstwhile a world.

“As authors of our race we acknowledge Venus and Mars — mother of the sons of Aeneas, father of the scions of Romulus: clemency in victory tempers armed strength: both names befit thy character: hence thy noble pleasure in war and in mercy: it vanquishes the dreaded foe and cherishes the vanquished. (Translated by  J. Wight Duff and Arnold M. Duff)

“exaudi, regina tui pulcherrima mundi,
inter sidereos Roma recepta polos,
exaudi, genetrix hominum genetrixque deorum,
non procul a caelo per tua templa sumus:
te canimus semperque, sinent dum fata, canemus:
sospes nemo potest immemor esse tui.
obruerint citius scelerata oblivia solem,
quam tuus ex nostro corde recedat honos.
nam solis radiis aequalia munera tendis,
qua circumfusus fluctuat Oceanus.
volvitur ipse tibi, qui continet omnia, Phoebus
eque tuis ortos in tua condit equos.
te non flammigeris Libye tardavit harenis,
non armata suo reppulit Ursa gelu:
quantum vitalis natura tetendit in axes,
tantum virtuti pervia terrae tuae.
fecisti patriam diversis gentibus unam:
profuit iniustis te dominante capi.
dumque offers victis proprii consortia iuris,
urbem fecisti quod prius orbis erat.
“auctores generis Venerem Martemque fatemur,
Aeneadum matrem Romulidumque patrem:
mitigat armatas victrix clementia vires,
convenit in mores nomen utrumque tuos:
hinc tibi certandi bona parcendique voluptas:
quos timuit superat, quos superavit amat.

The Roman Catholic Church is debtor of Ancient Rome almost everything, in  much of its myths, beliefs and dogmas, in its rites, in its artistic expression, in its administrative and juridical structure, and of course in its official language, which is still Latin. This expression is further evidence of this. If the Catholic Pope today can address “the city and the world”, it is precisely because he is “the bishop of Rome,” the city (urbs) that was the capital of the world (orbis)

The post Urbi et orbi: the city ruling an Empire (III) appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

The actions of the images and statues or representations of the divine beings that behave as if they were of flesh and bone and not of stone, wood or metal, also stand out. The statues which speak and send messages to humans, or jump and move from their stand or illuminate the pupil of their eyes with wonderful light, are especially attractive.

This behavior of the images responds to the diffuse and confused character of these statues that on one hand are mere representations of something that is not in this world and on the other hand they are the materialized divinity itself that lives with us. That is to say, the famous chryso-elephantine statue of Athena Parthenos, Virgin, of Athens is not a mere representation, but the materialized goddess herself.

And the same is true today with the images of modern saints and virgins, as it is revealed by the popular behavior that venerates them, touches them, invokes them, sings them, pleads with them, in contradiction to what reason says, even theological theory, which in reality does little to inform the people properly.

Well, these special effects are often used by poets. I will give only two examples of the indisputable Virgil and another of our poet of Hispanic origin Lucan.

Then I will present a famous text of Pliny the Younger on the appearance of a lady of great stature and prestige and of the ghosts,  which also Tacitus refers  in his Annals.

I will also quote a passage from The City of God of Saint Augustine, in which he refers and disqualifies these superstitions.

In this case, it calls powerfully the attention the clairvoyance with which he analyzes the superstitions  of the others and the security with which he accepts the own quack theory. No doubt a reader alien to our culture would not appreciate any difference between the beliefs of pagans and the beliefs of Christians; in fact, historically, the latter feed on the former.

Today as yesterday the statues of the divine beings continue to cry, illuminating their pupils, jumping from the bases, appearing to the shepherds, sending messages, many times encrypted to the mortals. Read carefully the news of the day and you will find that somewhere in the world someone claims to have met with some similar phenomenon. In that struggle between reason and mystery, the confrontation continues.

In Greek and Roman epic poetry, the gods are actors in permanent relationship with mortals, in whose disputes they take sides for one or the other.

I will present first the text of the Hispanic poet Lucanus in which he maximizes the emotion that these prodigies can generate in his credulous readers. The text is a fragment of his poem Bellum Civile, later called "Pharsalia" from  the name of the decisive battle in the civil war between Caesar and Pompey prior to the imposition of a personal and authoritarian regime in Rome, thus ending the long  republican period and giving entrance to the imperial time. In this fragment, among other prodigies, the gods shed tears and the Lares gods sweat.

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Bellum Civile 1.1 lines 544 y ss.

The jaws of Aetna were agape with flame
That rose not heavenwards, but headlong fell
In smoking stream upon th’Italian flank.
Then black Charybdis, from her boundless depth,
Threw up a gory sea. In piteous tones
Howled the wild dogs; the Vestal fire was snatched
From off the altar; and the flame that crowned
The Latin festival was split in twain,
As on the Theban pyre,2 in ancient days;
Earth tottered on its base: the mighty Alps
From off their summits shook th' eternal snow.3
In huge upheaval Ocean raised his waves
O'er Calpe's rock and Atlas' hoary head.
The native gods shed tears, and holy sweat
Dropped from the idols; gifts in temples fell:
Foul birds defiled the day; beasts left the woods
And made their lair among the streets of Rome.
All this we hear; nay more: dumb oxen spake;
Monsters were brought to birth and mothers shrieked
At their own offspring; words of dire import
From Cumae's prophetess were noised abroad.
Bellona's priests with bleeding arms, and slaves
Of Cybele's worship, with ensanguined hair,
Howled chants of havoc and of woe to men.
Arms clashed; and sounding in the pathless woods
Were heard strange voices; spirits walked the earth:
And dead men's ashes muttered from the urn.
Those who live near the walls desert their homes,
For lo! with hissing serpents in her hair,
Waving in downward whirl a blazing pine,
A fiend patrols the town, like that which erst
At Thebes urged on Agave,4 or which hurled
Lycurgus' bolts, or that which as he came
From Hades seen, at haughty Juno's word,
Brought terror to the soul of Hercules.
Trumpets like those that summon armies forth
Were heard re-echoing in the silent night:
And from the earth arising Sulla's 5 ghost
Sang gloomy oracles, and by Anio's wave
All fled the homesteads, frighted by the shade
Of Marius waking from his broken tomb.
In such dismay they summon, as of yore,
The Tuscan sages to the nation's aid.
(Translated by Sir Edward Ridley. London. Longmans, Green, and Co. 1905.)

ora ferox Siculae laxauit Mulciber Aetnae,                  545
nec tulit in caelum flammas sed uertice prono
ignis in Hesperium cecidit latus. atra Charybdis
sanguineum fundo torsit mare; flebile saeui
latrauere canes. Vestali raptus ab ara
ignis, et ostendens confectas flamma Latinas  
scinditur in partes geminoque cacumine surgit 
Thebanos imitata rogos. tum cardine tellus 
subsedit, ueteremque iugis nutantibus Alpes 
discussere niuem. Tethys maioribus undis 
Hesperiam Calpen summumque inpleuit Atlanta.  
indigetes fleuisse deos, urbisque laborem 
testatos sudore Lares, delapsaque templis 
dona suis, dirasque diem foedasse uolucres 
accipimus, siluisque feras sub nocte relictis 
audaces media posuisse cubilia Roma.  
tum pecudum faciles humana ad murmura linguae, 
monstrosique hominum partus numeroque modoque 
membrorum, matremque suus conterruit infans; 
diraque per populum Cumanae carmina uatis 
uolgantur. tum, quos sectis Bellona lacertis 
saeua mouet, cecinere deos, crinemque rotantes 
sanguineum populis ulularunt tristia Galli. 
conpositis plenae gemuerunt ossibus urnae.
tum fragor armorum magnaeque per auia uoces
auditae nemorum et uenientes comminus umbrae.                
quique colunt iunctos extremis moenibus agros
diffugiunt: ingens urbem cingebat Erinys
excutiens pronam flagranti uertice pinum
stridentisque comas, Thebanam qualis Agauen
inpulit aut saeui contorsit tela Lycurgi                 
Eumenis, aut qualem iussu Iunonis iniquae
horruit Alcides uiso iam Dite Megaeram.
insonuere tubae et, quanto clamore cohortes
miscentur, tantum nox atra silentibus auris
edidit. e medio uisi consurgere Campo                 
tristia Sullani cecinere oracula manes,
tollentemque caput gelidas Anienis ad undas
agricolae fracto Marium fugere sepulchro.
haec propter placuit Tuscos de more uetusto
acciri uates.

It is very interesting the fragment of the Aeneid of Virgil in which he relates the reaction of the image of Pallas, which had been stolen from his temple by Ulysses and the son of Tydeus. The text can also serve to compare the epic tone, elevated, solemn but far from the dramatic and baroque of Lucanus; but this is another matter.
Publius Virgilius Maro:

aeneida, 2, vv. 162 y ss.

Publius Vergilius Maro, Aeneid 2, v. 162 y ss.

All the hope of the Danaans and their confidence in beginning the war were ever stayed on the help of Pallas. But from the time that the ungodly son of Tydeus and Ulysses, the contriver of crime, dared to tear the fateful Palladium from its hallowed shrine, slew the guards of the citadelheight, and snatching up the sacred image, ventured with bloody hands to touch the fillets of the maiden goddess — from that time the hopes of the Danaans ebbed and, backward stealing, receded; their strength was broken and the heart of the goddess estranged.

And with no doubtful portents did Tritonia give signs thereof. Scarcely was the image placed within the camp, when from the upraised eyes there blazed forth flickering flames, salt sweat coursed over the limbs, and thrice, wonderful to relate, the goddess herself flashed forth  from the ground with shield and quivering spear. Straightway Calchas prophesies that the seas must be essayed in flight, and that Pergamus cannot be uptorn by Argive weapons, unless they seek new omens at Argos, and escort back the deity, whom they have taken away overseas in their curved ships. And now that before the wind they are bound for their native Mycenae, it is but to get them forces and attendant gods; then, recrossing the sea, they will be here unlooked for. So Calchas interprets the omens. (Translated by H. Rushton Fairclough)

Omnis spes Danaum et coepti fiducia belli
Palladis auxiliis semper stetit. impius ex quo 
Tydides sed enim scelerumque inuentor Vlixes, 
fatale adgressi sacrato auellere templo  
Palladium caesis summae custodibus arcis, 
corripuere sacram effigiem manibusque cruentis 
uirgineas ausi diuae contingere uittas, 
ex illo fluere ac retro sublapsa referri 
spes Danaum, fractae uires, auersa deae mens. 
nec dubiis ea signa dedit Tritonia monstris. 
uix positum castris simulacrum: arsere coruscae 
luminibus flammae arrectis, salsusque per artus 
sudor iit, terque ipsa solo (mirabile dictu) 
emicuit parmamque ferens hastamque trementem. 
extemplo temptanda fuga canit aequora Calchas, 
nec posse Argolicis exscindi Pergama telis 
omina ni repetant Argis numenque reducant 
quod pelago et curuis secum auexere carinis. 
et nunc quod patrias uento petiere Mycenas,  
arma deosque parant comites pelagoque remenso

It is also interesting the end that Virgil offers us in Book I of his Georgics. It reminds us of the signs that announced the dreadful horrors of the civil war and pray to the gods who protect Rome and guarantee its time of peace and splendor.

Virgil, Georgics, 1, v.463 et seq.

Who dare charge the sun
With leasing? He it is who warneth oft
Of hidden broils at hand and treachery,
And secret swelling of the waves of war.
He too it was, when Caesar's light was quenched,
For Rome had pity, when his bright head he veiled
In iron-hued darkness, till a godless age
Trembled for night eternal; at that time
Howbeit earth also, and the ocean-plains,
And dogs obscene, and birds of evil bode
Gave tokens. Yea, how often have we seen
Etna, her furnace-walls asunder riven,
In billowy floods boil o'er the Cyclops' fields,
And roll down globes of fire and molten rocks!
A clash of arms through all the heaven was heard
By Germany; strange heavings shook the Alps.
Yea, and by many through the breathless groves
A voice was heard with power, and wondrous-pale
Phantoms were seen upon the dusk of night,
And cattle spake, portentous! streams stand still,
And the earth yawns asunder, ivory weeps
For sorrow in the shrines, and bronzes sweat.
Up-twirling forests with his eddying tide,
Madly he bears them down, that lord of floods,
Eridanus, till through all the plain are swept
Beasts and their stalls together. At that time
In gloomy entrails ceased not to appear
Dark-threatening fibres, springs to trickle blood,
And high-built cities night-long to resound
With the wolves' howling. Never more than then
From skies all cloudless fell the thunderbolts,
Nor blazed so oft the comet's fire of bale.
Therefore a second time Philippi saw
The Roman hosts with kindred weapons rush
To battle, nor did the high gods deem it hard
That twice Emathia and the wide champaign
Of Haemus should be fattening with our blood.
Ay, and the time will come when there anigh,
Heaving the earth up with his curved plough,
Some swain will light on javelins by foul rust
Corroded, or with ponderous harrow strike
On empty helmets, while he gapes to see
Bones as of giants from the trench untombed.
Gods of my country, heroes of the soil,
And Romulus, and Mother Vesta, thou
Who Tuscan Tiber and Rome's Palatine
Preservest, this new champion at the least
Our fallen generation to repair
Forbid not. To the full and long ago
Our blood thy Trojan perjuries hath paid,
Laomedon. Long since the courts of heaven
Begrudge us thee, our Caesar, and complain
That thou regard'st the triumphs of mankind,
Here where the wrong is right, the right is wrong,
Where wars abound so many, and myriad-faced
Is crime; where no meet honour hath the plough;
The fields, their husbandmen led far away,
Rot in neglect, and curved pruning-hooks
Into the sword's stiff blade are fused and forged.
Euphrates here, here Germany new strife
Is stirring; neighbouring cities are in arms,
The laws that bound them snapped; and godless war
Rages through all the universe; as when
The four-horse chariots from the barriers poured
Still quicken o'er the course, and, idly now
Grasping the reins, the driver by his team
Is onward borne, nor heeds the car his curb.
(Translation by J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1900. )

…. Solem quis dicere falsum
audeat. Ille etiam caecos instare tumultus
saepe monet fraudemque et operta tumescere bella.
Ille etiam exstincto miseratus Caesare Romam,
cum caput obscura nitidum ferrugine texit
inpiaque aeternam timuerunt saecula noctem.
Tempore quamquam illo tellus quoque et aequora ponti
obscenaeque canes inportunaeque volucres
signa dabant. Quotiens Cyclopum effervere in agros
vidimus undantem ruptis fornacibus Aetnam
flammarumque globos liquefactaque volvere saxa!
Armorum sonitum toto Germania caelo
audiit, insolitis tremuerunt motibus Alpes.
Vox quoque per lucos volgo exaudita silentis
ingens et simulacra modis pallentia miris
visa sub obscurum noctis, pecudesque locutae,
infandum! sistunt amnes terraeque dehiscunt
et maestum inlacrimat templis ebur aeraque sudant.
Proluit insano contorquens vertice silvas
fluviorum rex Eridanus camposque per omnis
cum stabulis armenta tulit. Nec tempore eodem
tristibus aut extis fibrae adparere minaces
aut puteis manare cruor cessavit et altae
per noctem resonare lupis ululantibus urbes.
Non alias caelo ceciderunt plura sereno
fulgura nec diri totiens arsere cometae.
ergo inter sese paribus concurrere telis
Romanas acies iterum videre Philippi;
nec fuit indignum superis, bis sanguine nostro
Emathiam et latos Haemi pinguescere campos.
Scilicet et tempus veniet, cum finibus illis
agricola incurvo terram molitus aratro
exesa inveniet scabra robigine pila
aut gravibus rastris galeas pulsabit inanis
grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris.
Di patrii, Indigetes, et Romule Vestaque mater,
quae Tuscum Tiberim et Romana Palatia servas,
hunc saltem everso iuvenem succurrere saeclo
ne prohibete! Satis iam pridem sanguine nostro
Laomedonteae luimus periuria Troiae;
iam pridem nobis caeli te regia, Caesar,
invidet atque hominum queritur curare triumphos;
quippe ubi fas versum atque nefas: tot bella per orbem,
tam multae scelerum facies; non ullus aratro
dignus honos, squalent abductis arva colonis
et curvae rigidum falces conflantur in ensem.
Hinc movet Euphrates, illinc Germania bellum;
vicinae ruptis inter se legibus urbes
arma ferunt; saevit toto Mars inpius orbe;
ut cum carceribus sese effudere quadrigae,
addunt in spatia et frustra retinacula tendens
fertur equis auriga neque audit currus habenas.

Other prodigies of great impact among the ancients are, as I said, the apparitions of the divine beings. As I also said, there is evidence of the appearance of an Egyptian goddess to a shepherd in a story that we have incomplete of only 25 lines; In it the pastor tells his companions the encounter with a woman who did not look like mortal .. This prodigy has not stopped repeating itself periodically until our days. In another moment I will dedicate an article to this subject.

But now I want to refer to another apparition that may remind us of a modern one. Pliny the Younger in a famous letter about the existence or not of the ghosts and the historian Tacitus tell it. I refer to the appearance of "a woman of superhuman stature to Curcius Rufus announcing that he would return to Africa as consul-elect.

I transcribe the whole letter of Pliny the Younger: Epistula 7,27

 To Sura/,

The present recess from business we are now enjoying affords you leisure to give, and me to receive, instruction. I am extremely desirous therefore to know whether you believe in the existence of ghosts, and that they have a real form, and are a sort of divinities, or only the visionary impressions of a terrified imagination ? What particularly inclines me to believe in their existence is a story f which I heard of Curtius Rufus. When he was in low circumstances and unknown in the world, he attended the governor of Africa into that province. One evening, as he was walking in the public portico, there appeared to him the figure of a woman, of unusual size and of beauty more than human. And as he stood there, terrified and astonished, she told him she was the tutelary power that presided over Africa, and was come to inform him of the future events of his life : that he should go back to Rome, to enjoy high honours there, and return to that province invested with the proconsular dignity, and there should die. Every circumstance of this prediction actually came to pass. It is said farther that upon his arrival at Carthage, as he was coming out of the ship, the same figure met him upon the shore. It is certain, at least, that being seized with a tit of illness, though there were no symptoms in his case that led those about him to despair, he instantly gave up all hope of recovery; judging, apparently, of the truth of the future part of the prediction by what had already been fulfilled, and of the approaching misfortune from his former prosperity.  Now the following story, which I am going to tell you just as I heard it, is it not more terrible than the former, while quite as wonderful ? There was at Athens  a large and roomv house, which had a bad name, so that no one could live there. In the dead of the night a noise, resembling the clashing of iron was frequently heard, which, if you listened more attentively, sounded like the rattling of chains, distant at first, but approaching nearer by degrees; immediately afterwards a spectre appeared in the form of an old man, of extremely emaciated and squalid appearance, with a long beard and dishevelled hair, rattling the chains on his feet and hands. The distressed occupants meanwhile passed their wakeful nights under the most dreadful terrors imaginable. This, as it broke their rest, ruined their health, and brought on distempers, their terror grew upon them, and death ensued.

Even in the day time, though the spirit did not appear, yet the impression remained so strong upon their imaginations that it still seemed before their eyes, and kept them in perpetual alarm. Consequently the house was at length deserted, as being deemed absolutely uninhabitable ; so that it was now entirely abandoned to the ghost. However, in hopes that some tenant might be found who was ignorant of this very alarming circumstance, a bill was put up, giving notice that it was either to be let or sold. It happened that Athenodorus  the philosopher came to Athens at this time, and, reading the bill, enquired the price. The extraordinary cheapness raised his suspicion ; nevertheless, when he heard the whole Mory, he was so far from being discouraged that he was more strongly inclined to hire it, and, in short, actually did so. When it grew towards evening, he ordered a couch to be prepared for him in the front part of the house, and, after calling for a light, together with his pencil and tablets, directed all his people to retire. But that his inind might not, for want of employment, be open to the vain terrors of imaginary noises and spirits, he applied himself to writing with the utmost attention. The first part of the night passed in entire silence, as usual ; at length a clanking of iron and rattling of chains was heard : however, he neither lifted up his eyes nor laid down his pen, but in order to keep calm and collected tried to pass the sounds off to himself as something else. The noise increased and advanced nearer, till it seemed at the door, and at, last in the chamber. He looked up, saw, and recognised the ghost exactly as it had been described to him : it stood before him, beckoning with the finger, like a person who calls another, Athenodorus in reply made a sign with his hand that it should wait a little, and threw his eyes again upon his papers ; the ghost then rattled its chains over the head of the philosopher, who looked up upon this, and seeing it beckoning as before, immediately arose, and, light in hand, followed it. The ghost slowly stalked along, as if encumbered with its chains, and, turning into the area of the house, suddenly vanished. Athenodorus, being thus deserted, make a mark with nome grass and leaves on the spot where the spirit left him. The next day he gave information to the magistrates, and advised them to order that spot to be dug up. This was accordingly done, and the skeleton of a man in chains was found there ; for the body, having lain a considerable time in the ground, was putrefied and mouldered away from the fetters. The bones being collected together were publicly buried, and thus after the ghost was appeased by the proper ceremonies, the house was haunted no more This story I believe upon the credit of others ; what I am going to mention, I give you upon my own. I have a freedman named Marcus, who is by no means illiterate. One night, as he and his younger brother were lying together, he  fancied he saw somebody upon his bed, who took out a pair of scissors, and cut off the hair from the top part of  his own head, and in the morning, it appeared his hair  was actually cut, and the clippings lay scattered about the floor. A short time after this, an event of a similar nature contributed to give credit to the former story. A young I lad of my family was sleeping in his apartment with the rest of his companions, when two persons clad in white came in, as he says, through the windows, cut off his hair as he lay, and then returned the same way they entered. The next morning it was found that this boy had been served just as the other, and there was the hair agaiu, spread about the room. Nothing remarkable indeed followed these events, unless perhaps that I escaped a prosecution, in which, if Domitian during whose reign this happened had lived some time longer, I should certainly have been involved. For after the death of that emperor, articles of impeachment against me were found in his scrutore, which had been exhibited by Cams. It may therefore be conjectured, since it is customary for persons under any public accusation to let their hair grow. + this cutting off the hair of my servants was a sign I should escape the imminent danger that threatened mo. Let me desire you then to give this question your mature consideration. The subject deserves your examination ; as, I trust, I am not myself altogether unworthy a participation in the abundance of your superior knowledge. And though you should, as usual, balance between two opinions, yet I hope you will lean more on one side than on the other, lest, whilst I consult you in order to have my doubt settled, you should dismiss me in the same suspense and indecision that occasioned you the present application. Farewell.
(Translation by William Melmoth,)

Et mihi discendi et tibi docendi facultatem otium praebet. Igitur perquam velim scire, esse phantasmata et habere propriam figuram numenque aliquod putes an inania et vana ex metu nostro imaginem accipere.  Ego ut esse credam in primis eo ducor, quod audio accidisse Curtio Rufo. Tenuis adhuc et obscurus, obtinenti Africam comes haeserat. Inclinato die spatiabatur in porticu; offertur ei mulieris figura humana grandior pulchriorque. Perterrito Africam se futurorum praenuntiam dixit: iturum enim Romam honoresque gesturum, atque etiam cum summo imperio in eandem provinciam reversurum, ibique moriturum.  Facta sunt omnia. Praeterea accedenti Carthaginem egredientique nave eadem figura in litore occurrisse narratur. Ipse certe implicitus morbo futura praeteritis, adversa secundis auguratus, spem salutis nullo suorum desperante proiecit.  Iam illud nonne et magis terribile et non minus mirum est quod exponam ut accepi?  Erat Athenis spatiosa et capax domus sed infamis et pestilens. Per silentium noctis sonus ferri, et si attenderes acrius, strepitus vinculorum longius primo, deinde e proximo reddebatur: mox apparebat idolon, senex macie et squalore confectus, promissa barba horrenti capillo; cruribus compedes, manibus catenas gerebat quatiebatque.  Inde inhabitantibus tristes diraeque noctes per metum vigilabantur; vigiliam morbus et crescente formidine mors sequebatur. Nam interdiu quoque, quamquam abscesserat imago, memoria imaginis oculis inerrabat, longiorque causis timoris timor erat. Deserta inde et damnata solitudine domus totaque illi monstro relicta; proscribebatur tamen, seu quis emere seu quis conducere ignarus tanti mali vellet.  Venit Athenas philosophus Athenodorus, legit titulum auditoque pretio, quia suspecta vilitas, percunctatus omnia docetur ac nihilo minus, immo tanto magis conducit. Ubi coepit advesperascere, iubet sterni sibi in prima domus parte, poscit pugillares stilum lumen, suos omnes in interiora dimittit; ipse ad scribendum animum oculos manum intendit, ne vacua mens audita simulacra et inanes sibi metus fingeret.  Initio, quale ubique, silentium noctis; dein concuti ferrum, vincula moveri. Ille non tollere oculos, non remittere stilum, sed offirmare animum auribusque praetendere. Tum crebrescere fragor, adventare et iam ut in limine, iam ut intra limen audiri. Respicit, videt agnoscitque narratam sibi effigiem.  Stabat innuebatque digito similis vocanti. Hic contra ut paulum exspectaret manu significat rursusque ceris et stilo incumbit. Illa scribentis capiti catenis insonabat. Respicit rursus idem quod prius innuentem, nec moratus tollit lumen et sequitur.  Ibat illa lento gradu quasi gravis vinculis. Postquam deflexit in aream domus, repente dilapsa deserit comitem. Desertus herbas et folia concerpta signum loco ponit.  Postero die adit magistratus, monet ut illum locum effodi iubeant. Inveniuntur ossa inserta catenis et implicita, quae corpus aevo terraque putrefactum nuda et exesa reliquerat vinculis; collecta publice sepeliuntur. Domus postea rite conditis manibus caruit.  Et haec quidem affirmantibus credo; illud affirmare aliis possum. Est libertus mihi non illitteratus. Cum hoc minor frater eodem lecto quiescebat. Is visus est sibi cernere quendam in toro residentem, admoventemque capiti suo cultros, atque etiam ex ipso vertice amputantem capillos. Ubi illuxit, ipse circa verticem tonsus, capilli iacentes reperiuntur.  Exiguum temporis medium, et rursus simile aliud priori fidem fecit. Puer in paedagogio mixtus pluribus dormiebat. Venerunt per fenestras – ita narrat – in tunicis albis duo cubantemque detonderunt et qua venerant recesserunt. Hunc quoque tonsum sparsosque circa capillos dies ostendit.  Nihil notabile secutum, nisi forte quod non fui reus, futurus, si Domitianus sub quo haec acciderunt diutius vixisset. Nam in scrinio eius datus a Caro de me libellus inventus est; ex quo coniectari potest, quia reis moris est summittere capillum, recisos meorum capillos depulsi quod imminebat periculi signum fuisse.  Proinde rogo, eruditionem tuam intendas. Digna res est quam diu multumque consideres; ne ego quidem indignus, cui copiam scientiae tuae facias.  Licet etiam utramque in partem – ut soles – disputes, ex altera tamen fortius, ne me suspensum incertumque dimittas, cum mihi consulendi causa fuerit, ut dubitare desinerem. Vale.

Tacitus: Annals: 11, 21.:

Of the birth of Curtius Rufus, whom some affirm to have been the son of a gladiator, I would not publish a falsehood, while I shrink from telling the truth. On reaching manhood he attached himself to a quæstor to whom Africa had been allotted, and was walking alone at midday in some unfrequented arcade in the town of Adrumetum, when he saw a female figure of more than human stature, and heard a voice, "Thou, Rufus, art the man who will one day come into this province as proconsul." Raised high in hope by such a presage, he returned to Rome, where, through the lavish expenditure of his friends and his own vigorous ability, he obtained the quæstorship, and, subsequently, in competition with well-born candidates, the prætorship, by the vote of the emperor Tiberius, who threw a veil over the discredit of his origin, saying, "Curtius Rufus seems to me to be his own ancestor." Afterwards, throughout a long old age of surly sycophancy to those above him, of arrogance to those beneath him, and of moroseness among his equals, he gained the high office of the consulship, triumphal distinctions, and, at last, the province of Africa. There he died, and so fulfilled the presage of his destiny. (Translation by Alfred John Church, William Jackson Brodribb)

De origine Curtii Rufi, quem gladiatore genitum quidam prodidere, neque falsa prompserim et vera exequi pudet. postquam adolevit, sectator quaestoris, cui Africa obtigerat, dum in oppido Adrumeto vacuis per medium diei porticibus secretus agitat, oblata ei species muliebris ultra modum humanum et audita est vox 'tu es, Rufe, qui in hanc provinciam pro consule venies.' tali omine in spem sublatus degressusque in urbem largitione amicorum, simul acri ingenio quaesturam et mox nobilis inter candidatos praeturam principis suffragio adsequitur, cum hisce verbis Tiberius dedecus natalium eius velavisset: 'Curtius Rufus videtur mihi ex se natus.' longa post haec senecta, et adversus superiores tristi adulatione, adrogans minoribus, inter pares difficilis, consulare imperium, triumphi insignia ac postremo Africam obtinuit; atque ibi defunctus fatale praesagium implevit.

St. Augustine, in his City of God, refers  a prodigy well-known in antiquity: the tears shed by the statue of Apollo in Cumae, in Magna Graecia, on the occasion of the war between the Romans and the Greeks, when Publius Crassus died in a battle with Ariston. St. Augustine thinks that these are things of the demons that the poets present to us as true, but from then until today and also much earlier, many statues of gods, virgins and saints have wept frequently, acquiring the errors of men.

Augustine: De civitate Dei (The City of God), III,11

Of the statue of Apollo at Cumæ, whose tears are supposed to have portended disaster to the Greeks, whom the god was unable to succour.

And it is still this weakness of the gods which is confessed in the story of the Cuman Apollo, who is said to have wept for four days during the war with the Achæans and King Aristonicus. And when the augurs were alarmed at the portent, and had determined to cast the statue into the sea, the old men of Cumæ interposed, and related that a similar prodigy had occurred to the same image during the wars against Antiochus and against Perseus, and that by a decree of the senate gifts had been presented to Apollo, because the event had proved favourable to the Romans. Then soothsayers were summoned who were supposed to have greater professional skill, and they pronounced that the weeping of Apollo's image was propitious to the Romans, because Cumæ was a Greek colony, and that Apollo was bewailing (and thereby presaging) the grief and calamity that was about to light upon his own land of Greece, from which he had been brought. Shortly afterwards it was reported that King Aristonicus was defeated and made prisoner,—a defeat certainly opposed to the will of Apollo; and this he indicated by even shedding tears from his marble image. And this shows us that, though the verses of the poets are mythical, they are not altogether devoid of truth, but describe the manners of the demons in a sufficiently fit style. For in Virgil Diana mourned for Camilla, and Hercules wept for Pallas doomed to die. This is perhaps the reason why Numa Pompilius, too, when, enjoying prolonged peace, but without knowing or inquiring from whom he received it, he began in his leisure to consider to what gods he should entrust the safe keeping and conduct of Rome, and not dreaming that the true, almighty, and most high God cares for earthly affairs, but recollecting only that the Trojan gods which Æneas had brought to Italy had been able to preserve neither the Trojan nor Lavinian kingdom founded by Æneas himself, concluded that he must provide other gods as guardians of fugitives and helpers of the weak, and add them to those earlier divinities who had either come over to Rome with Romulus, or when Alba was destroyed. (Translated by the Rev. Marcus Dods, M.A.)

Neque enim aliunde Apollo ille Cumanus, cum adversus Achivos regemque Aristonicum bellaretur, quatriduo flevisse nuntiatus est ; quo prodigio haruspices territi cum id simulacrum in mare putavissent esse proiciendum, Cumani senes intercesserunt atque rettulerunt tale prodigium et Antiochi et Persis bello in eodem apparuisse figmento, et quia Romanis feliciter provenisset, ex senatus consulto eidem Apollini suo dona missa esse testati sunt. Tunc velut peritiores acciti haruspices responderunt simulacri Apollinis fletum ideo prosperum esse Romanis, quoniam Cumana colonia Graeca esset, suisque terris, unde accitus esset, id est ipsi Graeciae, luctum et cladem Apollinem significasse plorantem. Deinde mox regem Aristonicum victum et captum esse nuntiatum est, quem vinci utique Apollo nolebat et dolebat et hoc sui lapidis etiam lacrimis indicabat. Unde non usquequaque incongrue quamvis fabulosis, tamen veritati similibus mores daemonum describuntur carminibus poetarum. Nam Camillam Diana doluit apud Vergilium et Pallantem moriturum Hercules flevit . Hinc fortassis et Numa Pompilius pace abundans, sed quo donante nesciens nec requirens, cum cogitaret otiosus, quibusnam diis tuendam Romanam salutem regnumque committeret, nec verum illum atque omnipotentem summum Deum curare opinaretur ista terrena, atque recoleret Troianos deos, quos Aeneas advexerat, neque Troianum neque Laviniense ab ipso Aenea conditum regnum diu conservare potuisse: alios providendos existimavit, quos illis prioribus, qui sive cum Romulo iam Romam transierant, sive quandoque Alba eversa fuerant transituri, vel tamquam fugitivis custodes adhiberet vel tamquam invalidis adiutores.

I could give you many examples.

The post Prodigies, miracles, wonders, portents, phenomena, monsters (II) appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

In this article you will find dozens of miracles and marvelous and inexplicable facts that were already produced in Antiquity and which were recorded in texts written more than two thousand years ago. And surely this weakness of a being as rational as man came from a past of thousands of years before, as many as mankind. From this and other weaknesses they are fed all kinds of superstitions and religions.

But what is a prodigy, a miracle, a wonder, a portent, a phenomenon, a monster of nature?
First we will use etymology and its significant force to explain the meaning of these terms and some others.

Prodigy: from the Latin "Prodigium", "Portentum" from the Latin "portentum" and "presage" from the Latin "praesagium" come to mean the same thing in Latin: divine sign.

The Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy defines "prodigy" as "strange event that exceeds the regular limits of nature". And "portentum" as "Thing, action or singular event that by its strangeness or novelty causes admiration or terror"; and “presage”  as: "1. Signal that indicates, prevents and announces an event. 2. Species of divination or knowledge of future things through signs that have been seen or intuitions and sensations".

The etymology of "prodigium" is not secure; it has been related to "prod- agio," and this to  "aio" which means to speak, to say, and for that reason, perhaps Cicero erroneously links it with "pro-dico"; rather it seems to be related to "ago", "to carry, to push, to lead".

"Praesagium" is related to "prae-" before, and sagire, infinitive of sagio ", to perceive, to feel, from which sagax derives, which has given " sagacious ". That is why Cicero says in his De divinatione, 1,31,65:

Now sagire means 'to have a keen perception.' Accordingly certain old women are called sagae,3 because they are assumed to know a great deal, and dogs are said to be 'sagacious.' And so one who has knowledge of a thing before it happens is said to 'presage,' that is, to perceive the future in advance. (Translation. William Armistead Falconer)

“sagire sentire acute est: ex quo sagae anus, quia multa scire volunt; et sagaces dicti canes. Is igitur, qui ante sagit quam oblata res est, dicitur praesagire, id est futura ante sentiré”

It seems more certain the etymology  of portentum, from  "pro– (effect of metathesis or change of position of some phoneme) and tendo: to direct, to tend, .., that defines the Royal Spanish Academy as" Thing, action or singular event that by its Strangeness or novelty causes admiration or terror. "

Marvel (wonder): it is an "extraordinary event or thing that causes admiration". The word comes from the Latin "mirabilia", admirable things, which is the neutral plural of "mirabilis", admirable, which is formed from the root of the verb "mirari", admire, and the adjective "mirus, -a, -um ", marvelous, wonderful, strange, surprising.

From the same root and words they proceed to admire, and their compounds and also "miracle", from "miraculum".

The Royal Spanish Academy defines a miracle as: "1. The fact not explainable by natural laws and attributed to supernatural intervention of divine origin. 2. m. Event or rare thing, extraordinary and wonderful. "

From the same root they come the French "miroir", and the English "mirror".

Phenomenon is a Greek word φαινόμενον phainómenon, which has come to us through the late Latin  phaenomenon; the Greek verb φαινεῖν, phainein means to shine, to make to shine, to appear; to show, to do see. The Royal Spanish Academy  defines it as: "1. All manifestation that becomes present to the consciousness of a subject and appears as the object of his perception. 2.  Extraordinary and surprising thing. 3.  Colloquial:  Monstrous person or animal. "

With these terms are also related "oracle", from Latin oraculum and this from orare, to speak, which etymologically means message, communiqué, parliament.

And also "prophecy", "prediction made by virtue of supernatural gift." Greek word  has come to us  through Latin: prophet, Greek, προφήτης, prophetes, "who says in advance", from προ- (pro -) (before) and φημί, phemí, to speak.

In any case in the Roman world a "prodigy" is a sign of the gods with which they announce to men a future event, good or bad; it includes therefore omens and auguries.

Augury, augur, haruspex,  are terms that deserve another extensive article. Let it suffice now to remember that an "augur" is a priest, from Etruscan origin, who observes the sky and the signs of the gods, signs that are called "auguries" .The haruspices, also Etruscan, analyze the entrails of the animals sacrificed to the gods to observe into them the messages of the divinity.

With a more restricted sense, prodigy refers to any strange incident or marvelous apparition that is supposed that it announces a misfortune and therefore appears in calamitous circumstances for both the collective society and the individual.

Cicero tells us in De divinitatione, I, 42 (93) and ss. that prodigy is synonymous with ostentum, monstrum and portentum ":

Indeed, the inherent force of these means of divination, as you like to observe, is clearly shown by the very words so aptly chosen by our ancestors to describe them. Because they 'make manifest' (ostendunt), 'portend ' (portendunt), ' intimate ' (monstrant),'predict ' (praedicunt),they are called ' manifestations,' ' portents,' ' intimations,' and 'prodigies.' (Translation by William Armistead Falconer).

“Quia enim ostendunt, portendunt, monstrant, praedicunt; ostenta, portenta, monstra, prodigia dicuntur”.

I widen the quote a bit because it serves as the perfect setting for what we are dealing with. But first I want to refer to the term "monster", which derives from the verb "monstrare", to demonstrate, to teach, to show, it is "nothing but an unexpected and unprecedented being, phenomenon or event that precisely for this reason produces a major commotion in the person who sees or feel it, "that is," indicate, show, warn of something special ". Today in Spanish  the word “monstruo”, "monster" has more often a pejorative meaning, referring to something bad or inadequate, but it is not always so and it also maintains the meaning of something especially positive, as when we say of an artist, each one choose his idol, that he is a "monster of nature"

Extended text Cicero, De divinatione, I, 42 (93) y ss.

"Now, for my part, I believe that the character of the country determined the kind of divination which its inhabitants adopted. For  example, the Egyptians and Babylonians, who live on the level surface of open plains, with no hills to obstruct a view of the sky, have devoted their attention wholly to astrology. But the Etruscans, being in their nature of a very ardent religious temperament and accustomed to the frequent sacrifice of victims, have given their chief attention to the study of entrails. And as on account of the density of the atmosphere signs from heaven were common among them, and furthermore since that atmospheric condition caused many phenomena both of earth and sky and also certain prodigies that occur in the conception and birth of men and cattle—for these reasons the Etruscans have become very proficient in the interpretation of portents. Indeed, the inherent force of these means of divination, as you like to observe, is clearly shown by the very words so aptly chosen by our ancestors to describe them. Because they 'make manifest' (ostendunt), 'portend ' (portendunt), ' intimate ' (monstrant),'predict ' (praedicunt),they are called ' manifestations,' ' portents,' ' intimations,' and 'prodigies.'

But the Arabians, Phrygians, and Cilicians, being chiefly engaged in the rearing of cattle, are constantly wandering over the plains and mountains in winter and summer and, on that account, have found it quite easy to study the songs and flights of birds. The same is true of the Pisidians and of our fellowcountrymen, the Umbrians. While the Carians, and especially the Telmessians, already mentioned, because they live in a country with a very rich and prolific soil, whose fertility produces many abnormal growths, have turned their attention to the study of prodigies.

"But who fails to observe that auspices and all other kinds of divination flourish best in the best regulated states? And what king or people has there ever been who did not employ divination? I do not mean in time of peace only, but much more even in time of war, when the strife and struggle for safety is hardest. Passing by our own countrymen, who do nothing in war without examining entrails and nothing in peace without taking the auspices, let us look at the practice of foreign nations The Athenians, for instance, in every public assembly always had present certain priestly diviners, whom they call manteis. The Spartans assigned an augur to their kings as a judicial adviser, and they also enacted that an augur should be present in their Council of Elders, which is the name of their Senate. In matters of grave concern they always consulted the oracle at Delphi, or that of Jupiter Hammon or that of Dodona.

Lycurgus himself, who once governed the Spartan state, established his laws by authority of Apollo's Delphic oracle, and Lysander, who wished to repeal them, was prevented from doing so by the religious scruples of the people. Moreover, the Spartan rulers, not content with their deliberations when awake, used to sleep in a shrine of Pasiphaë which is situated in a field near the city, in order to dream there, because they believed that oracles received in repose were true. (Translation by William Armistead Falconer, 1923)

Ac mihi quidem videntur e locis quoque ipsis, qui  a quibusque incolebantur, divinationum oportunitates esse ductae. Etenim Aegyptii et Babylonii in camporum patentium aequoribus habitantes, cum ex terra nihil emineret, quod contemplationi caeli officere posset, omnem curam in siderum cognitione posuerunt, Etrusci autem, quod religione inbuti studiosius et crebrius hostias immolabant, extorum cognitioni se maxume dediderunt, quodque propter aëris crassitudinem  de caelo apud eos multa fiebant, et quod ob eandem causam multa invisitata partim e caelo, alia ex terra oriebantur, quaedam etiam ex hominum pecudumve conceptu et satu, ostentorum exercitatissimi interpretes exstiterunt. Quorum quidem vim, ut tu soles dicere, verba ipsa prudenter a maioribus posita declarant. Quia enim ostendunt, portendunt, monstrant, praedicunt, ostenta, portenta, monstra, prodigia dicuntur. Arabes autem et Phryges et Cilices, quod pastu pecudum maxume utuntur campos et montes hieme et aestate peragrantes, propterea facilius cantus avium et volatus notaverunt; eademque et Pisidiae causa fuit  et huic nostrae Umbriae. Tum Caria tota praecipueque Telmesses, quos ante dixi, quod agros uberrumos maximeque fertiles incolunt, in quibus multa propter fecunditatem fingi gignique possunt, in ostentis animadvertendis diligentes fuerunt. 
  Quis vero non videt in optuma quaque re publica plurimum auspicia et reliqua divinandi genera valuisse? Quis rex umquam fuit, quis populus, qui non uteretur praedictione divina? neque solum in pace, sed in bello multo etiam magis, quo maius erat certamen et discrimen salutis. Omitto nostros, qui nihil in bello sine extis agunt, nihil sine auspiciis domi [habent auspicia]; externa videamus: Namque et Athenienses omnibus semper publicis consiliis divinos quosdam sacerdotes, quos μάντεις vocant, adhibuerunt, et Lacedaemonii regibus suis augurem adsessorem dederunt, itemque senibus (sic enim consilium publicum appellant) augurem interesse voluerunt, iidemque de rebus maioribus semper aut Delphis oraclum aut ab Hammone aut a Dodona petebant. Lycurgus quidem, qui Lacedaemoniorum rem publicam temperavit, leges suas auctoritate Apollinis Delphici confirmavit; quas cum vellet Lysander commutare, eadem est prohibitus religione. Atque etiam qui praeerant Lacedaemoniis, non contenti vigilantibus curis in Pasiphaae fano,  quod est in agro propter urbem, somniandi causa excubabant, quia vera quietis oracla ducebant. Ad nostra iam redeo. Quotiens senatus decemviros ad libros ire iussit! quantis in rebus quamque saepe responsis haruspicum paruit! Nam et cum duo visi soles sunt et cum tres lunae et cum faces, et cum sol nocte visus est, et cum e caelo fremitus auditus, et cum caelum discessisse visum est atque in eo animadversi globi, delata etiam ad senatum labe agri Privernatis, cum  ad infinitam altitudinem terra desedisset Apuliaque maximis terrae motibus conquassata esset (quibus portentis magna populo Romano bella perniciosaeque seditiones denuntiabantur; inque his omnibus responsa haruspicum cum Sibyllae versibus congruebant); quid? cum Cumis Apollo sudavit, Capuae Victoria? quid?  ortus androgyni nonne fatale quoddam monstrum fuit? quid? cum fluvius Atratus sanguine fluxit? quid? cum saepe lapidum, sanguinis non numquam, terrae interdum, quondam etiam lactis imber defluxit? quid? cum in Capitolio ictus Centaurus e caelo est, in Aventino portae et homines, Tusculi aedes Castoris et Pollucis Romaeque Pietatis: nonne et haruspices ea responderunt, quae evenerunt, et in Sibyllae libris eaedem repertae praedictiones sunt? 

Naturally it is believed that the catastrophic announcement can be avoided by the proper offerings and rites that overturn the omen.

The rites are collected and explained in "books of practices" which are necessary for the purpose. They  are also from Etruscan origin. If the phenomenon is especially serious one has to resort to some soothsayer of recognized prestige, to the Sibylline Books or to the famous oracles like that of Delphi. We will speak of the Sibyls another time.

The ancients in general and in a special way the Romans were very superstitious, and by that reason all their social, religious and cultural life is plagued of rites and preventions of all type.

So much these phenomena, today we would say them "paranormal", attracted them, that there exist sacerdotal schools specialized in the interpretation of them; they are the augurs who watch permanently the sky and the flight of the birds and the haruspices who permanently analyze the bowels of the animals that so often are sacrificed  to their gods, as I mentioned before.

The poet Ovid tells us in his Metamorphoses (otherwise work full of prodigies) how Teages appears, who teaches the Etruscans to reveal the future according to the signs previously mentioned:

Metamorphoses XV, 547 et seq.

The grief of others could not ease the woe
of sad Egeria, and she laid herself
down at a mountain's foot, dissolved in tears,
till moved by pity for her faithful sorrow,
Diana changed her body to a spring,
her limbs into a clear continual stream.
This wonderful event surprised the nymphs,
and filled Hippolytus with wonder, just
as great as when the Etrurian ploughman saw
a fate-revealing clod move of its own
accord among the fields, while not a hand
was touching it, till finally it took
a human form, without the quality
of clodded earth, and opened its new mouth
and spoke, revealing future destinies.
The natives called him Tages. He was the first
who taught Etrurians to foretell events.
They were astonished even as Romulus,
when he observed the spear, which once had grown
high on the Palatine, put out new leaves
and stand with roots—not with the iron point
which he had driven in. Not as a spear
it then stood there, but as a rooted tree
with limber twigs for many to admire
while resting under that surprising shade.
(Translation by Brookes More, 1922)

Non tamen Egeriae luctus aliena levare
damna valent, montisque iacens radicibus imis
liquitur in lacrimas, donec pietate dolentis
mota soror Phoebi gelidum de corpore fontem
fecit et aeternas artus tenuavit in undas.
Et nymphas tetigit nova res, et Amazone natus
haud aliter stupuit, quam cum Tyrrhenus arator
fatalem glaebam mediis adspexit in arvis
sponte sua primum nulloque agitante moveri,
sumere mox hominis terraeque amittere formam
oraque venturis aperire recentia fatis
(indigenae dixere Tagen, qui primus Etruscam
edocuit gentem casus aperire futuros);
utve Palatinis haerentem collibus olim
cum subito vidit frondescere Romulus hastam,
quae radice nova, non ferro stabat adacto
et iam non telum, sed lenti viminis arbor
non exspectatas dabat admirantibus umbras;

And even they elaborate extensive lists, indexes and books in which these "wonders", the "mirabilia" are collected. They are the paradoxographies. Naturally, the Greeks were the first to do so, and within them the first of whom we have certain news that he writes a specific book on this subject, is Callimachus (310 BC – 240 BC). Its development takes place in Hellenistic time in connection with the creation of the great libraries and centers of investigation like Alexandria and Pergamon.

Those who are prone to believe in wonders and miracles will find in the Graec-Roman world hundreds of examples of marvelous facts, which according to some people continue to occur in abundance in our scientifically studied world. The knowledge of these "miracles" so old which  so often occur, should at least serve so many credulous people to question the presumed character of these prodigious facts, many of them explainable by scientific knowledge and other simply fantastic creations of man himself; as Spanish painter Goya painted, "the dream of reason produces monsters."

I will present in several articles some texts of Livy, in whose history there are always present the prodigies, other texts of the poets Lucan and Virgil, and other of St. Augustine and his City of God.

Livy, a historian who lived in the time of the emperor Augustus, wrote a history of Rome from its  foundation; that is why it is called  "Ab urbe condita", "Since the foundation of the city". His account is full of references to these miracles, portents and monsters; there are dozens of passages in which he refers dozens and even hundreds of "wonderful" facts, omens of all kinds. To this subject some important research articles have been devoted.

The credulous Livy seems to collect prodigies as the sources offer them without further consideration, but he differs between major and minor prodigies, public and private, in Rome or outside Rome. I will present later an incomplete classification which will give us an idea of the variety of prodigies.

A moment of special tension and therefore propitious for the appearance of "prodigia" is the time when in the Second Punic War between Romans and Carthaginians, Hannibal comes from Hispania and carries  the confrontation to Italy, traversing the Alps in winter with his elephants; then a great fear and worry spread among the Romans. These circumstances are a good environment for the multiplication of rumors of prodigies of all kinds. Some of them are still produced from time to time nowadays.

I will cite only two passages from Livy of the possible tens as a sufficient sample and I will also offer a broader relationship with the corresponding textual reference in case the reader would like to extend his readings.

In the list prodigies we will find rays, meteors and tongues of fire, halos and luminous crowns, multiplication of suns and moons; crevices and sinkings of the earth; strange glows in the sky; rain of blood, stones, earth, milk; rivers that carry bloody water; volcanic eruptions, perspiration of bronze or marble statues; hybrid or monstrous beings, like five-footed horses, man-headed pigs, bicephalous animals; animals or infants who speak, etc., etc.

As I said, the references to prodigies are innumerable in Livy's work. We will see some examples and in the end I will give an incomplete relationship, with some classification, that will allow us to give an approximate idea of its importance. It is a matter of interest to analyze the extent to which Livy believes in these prodigies and the sources of the prodigies, including the pontifical books and the official Annals in which they are reflected following the Etruscan custom.

Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, The History of Rome, Book 22 1,8

Men's fears were augmented by the prodigies reported simultaneously from many places: that in Sicily the javelins of several soldiers had taken fire, and that in Sardinia, as a horseman was making the round of the night-watch, the same thing had happened to the truncheon which he held in his hand; that many fires had blazed up on the shore; that two shields had sweated blood; that certain soldiers had been struck with lightning; that the sun's disk had seemed to be contracted;  that glowing stones had fallen from the sky at Praeneste; that at Arpi bucklers had appeared in the sky and the sun had seemed to be fighting with the moon; that at Capena two moons had risen in the daytime;  that the waters of Caere had flowed mixed with blood, and that bloodstains had appeared in the water that trickled from the spring of Hercules itself; that at Antium, when some men were reaping, bloody ears of corn had fallen into their basket; that at Falerii the sky had seemed to be rent as it were with a great fissure; and through the opening a bright light had shone;  and that lots had shrunk and that one had fallen out without being touched, on which was written, “Mavors brandishes his spear;”  that in Rome, about the same time, the statue of Mars on the Appian Way and the images of the wolves had sweated; that at Capua there had been the appearance of a sky on fire and of a moon that fell in the midst of a shower of rain.  Afterwards less memorable prodigies were also given credence: that certain folk had found their goats to have got woolly fleeces; that a hen had changed into a cock and a cock into a hen.

When the consul had laid these reports before the senate exactly as they had come to him and had introduced into the House the men who vouched for their truth, he consulted the Fathers regarding their religious import.  It was voted that these prodigies should be expiated, in part with greater, in part with lesser victims, and that a supplication should be held for three days at all the couches of the gods;  as for the rest, when the decemvirs should have inspected the Books, such rites were to be observed as they should declare, in accordance with the sacred verses, to be pleasing to the gods. Being so admonished by the decemvirs, they decreed that the first gift should be made to Jupiter, a golden thunderbolt weighing fifty pounds; and that Juno and Minerva should be given offerings of silver;  that Juno Regina on the Aventine and Juno Sospita at Lanuvium should receive a sacrifice of greater victims, and that the matrons, each contributing as much as she could afford, should make up a sum of money and carry it as a gift to Juno Regina on the Aventine and there celebrate a lectisternium ; and that even the very freed-women should contribute money, in proportion to their abilities, for an offering to Feronia. These measures being taken, the decemvirs sacrificed at Ardea in the market-place with the greater victims. Finally-the month was now December —victims were slain at the temple of Saturn in Rome and a lectisternium was ordered-this time senators administered the rite—and  a public feast, and throughout the City for a day and a night “Saturnalia” was cried, and the people were bidden to keep that day as a holiday and observe it in perpetuity. (Translation by Benjamin Oliver Foster)

augebant metum prodigia ex pluribus simul locis nuntiata: in Sicilia militibus aliquot spicula, in Sardinia autem in muro circumeunti vigilias equiti scipionem quem manu tenuerat arsisse, et litora crebris ignibus fulsisse, et scuta duo sanguine sudasse, et milites quosdam ictos fulminibus,  et solis orbem minui visum, et Praeneste ardentes lapides caelo cecidisse, et Arpis parmas in caelo visas pugnantemque cum luna solem,  et Capenae duas interdiu lunas ortas, et aquas Caeretes sanguine mixtas fluxisse fontemque ipsum Herculis cruentis manasse respersum maculis, et Antii metentibus cruentas in corbem spicas cecidisse,  et Faleriis caelum findi velut magno hiatu visum, quaque patuerit ingens lumen effulsisse; sortes adtenuatas unamque sua  sponte excidisse ita scriptam: “mavors telum suum concutit;”  et per idem tempus Romae signum Martis Appia via ac simulacra luporum sudasse, et Capuae speciem caeli ardentis fuisse lunaeque inter imbrem cadentis.  inde minoribus etiam dictu prodigiis fides habitat: capras lanatas quibusdam factas, et gallinam in marem, gallum in feminam sese vertisse.
his sicut erant nuntiata expositis auctoribusque in curiam introductis consul de religione patres consuluit. decretum ut ea prodigia partim maioribus hostiis, partim lactentibus procurarentur, et uti supplicatio per triduum ad omnia pulvinaria haberetur; cetera,  cum decemviri libros inspexissent, ut ita fierent quem ad modum cordi esse divis e carminibus praefarentur.  decemvirorum monitu decretum est Iovi primum donum fulmen aureum pondo quinquaginta fieret et Iunoni Minervaeque ex argento dona darentur et Iunoni reginae in Aventino Iunonique Sospitae Lanuvii maioribus hostiis sacrificaretur matronaeque pecunia conlata,  quantum conferre cuique commodum esset, donum Iunoni reginae in Aventinum ferrent lectisterniumque fieret, et ut libertinae et ipsae, unde Feroniae  donum daretur, pecuniam pro facultatibus suis conferrent.
haec ubi facta, decemviri Ardeae in foro maioribus hostiis sacrificarunt. postremo Decembri iam mense ad aedem Saturni Romae immolatum est lectisterniumque imperatum—eum lectum senatores straverunt—et convivium publicum,  ac per urbem Saturnalia diem ac noctem clamata, populusque eum diem festum habere ac servare in perpetuum iussus.

Another example of various prodigies:

Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, The History of Rome, Book 24,10, 6

After enlisting the city legions and raising troops to make up the numbers of the others, the consuls, before they quitted the city, expiated the prodigies which were reported.  Prodigies in large numbers —and the more they were believed by men simple and devout, the more of them used to be reported —were reported that year: that at Lanuvium ravens had made a nest inside the temple of Juno Sospita; that in Apulia a green palm took fire; that at Mantua a lake, the overflow of the river Mincius, appeared bloody;  and at Cales it rained chalk, and at Rome in the Cattle Market blood; and that on the Vicus Insteius an underground spring flowed with such a volume of water that the force of a torrent, as it were, overturned the jars, great and small, that were there and carried them along;  that the Atrium Publicum on the Capitol, the temple of Vulcan in the Campus, that of Vacuna and a public street in the Sabine country, the wall and a gate at Gabii were struck by lightning. Moreover other marvels were widely circulated: that the spear of Mars at Praeneste moved of itself; that an ox in Sicily spoke; that among the Marrucini an infant in its mother's womb shouted “Hail, triumph!”;  that at Spoletium a woman was changed into a man; that at Hadria an altar was seen in the sky, and about it the forms of men in white garments.  In fact at Rome also, actually in the city, directly after the appearance of a swarm of bees in the Forum —a wonder because it is rare —certain men, asserting that they saw armed legions on the Janiculum, aroused the city to arms, whereas those who were on the Janiculum denied that anyone had been seen there except the usual dwellers on that hill.  Atonement was made for these prodigies with full-grown victims on the advice of the soothsayers, and a season of prayer to all the gods who had festal couches at Rome was proclaimed. (Translated by Frank Gardener Moore).

prodigia eo anno multa nuntiata sunt, quae quo magis credebant simplices ac religiosi homines, eo plura nuntiabantur: Lanuvi in aede intus Sospitae Iunonis corvos nidum fecisse;  in Apulia palmam viridem arsisse; Mantuae stagnum effusum Mincio amni cruentum visum; et Calibus creta et Romae in foro bovario sanguine pluvisse;  et in vico Insteio fontem sub terra tanta vi aquarum fluxisse ut serias doliaque quae in eo loco erant provoluta velut impetus torrentis tulerit;  tacta de caelo atrium publicum in Capitolio, aedem in campo Volcani, Vacunae in Sabinis publicamque viam, murum ac portam Gabiis.  iam alia vulgata miracula erant:  hastam Martis Praeneste sua sponte promotam; bovem in Sicilia locutum; infantem in utero matris in Marrucinis “io triumphe” clamasse; ex muliere Spoleti virum factum; Hadriae aram in caelo speciesque hominum circum eam cum candida veste visas esse.  quin Romae quoque in ipsa urbe, secundum apum examen in foro visum—quod mirabile est, quia rarum—adfirmantes quidam legiones se armatas in Ianiculo videre concitaverunt civitatem ad arma,  cum qui in Ianiculo essent negarent quemquam ibi praeter adsuetos collis eius cultores adparuisse.  haec prodigia hostiis maioribus procurata sunt ex haruspicum responso, et supplicatio omnibus deis quorum pulvinaria Romae essent indicta est.

List and incomplete classification of the prodigies appeared in the work of  Livy:

Celestial
     – Sun eclipses: 7,28,7 / 30,38,8 / 37,4,4 / 38,36,4
     – Moon eclipses: 44,37,8-9 / 26,5,9
     – Plurality of suns, moons, etc .: 28,11,3 / 29,14,3 / 41,21,12 / 22,1,9 / 22/1/10 / 30,38,8 / 30,2  , 11-12 / 38,36,4
     – Blood color sun: 25,7,8 / 31,12,5
     – Other celestial prodigies:
     – Sky that burns: 3,9,14 / 3,10,6 / 7,28,7 / 22,1,12 / 30,2,12 / 31,12,5 / 32,9,3 / 39,22 ,3/
     – Huge torch burning: 30,2,12 / 43,13,3 / 45,16,5
     – Figure of ships burning in the sky: 21,62,4 / 42,2,4 /
     – Shields flying through the air: 22,1,9
     – The sun struggling with the moon: 22,1,9 /
     – The torn sky and a great light shining: 22,1,11 /
     – The moon falling in the rain: 22,1,12
     –  A huge stone flying: 23,7,8
     –  Appearance of light at night: 28,11,3 / 29,14,3 / 32,29,2 /
     –  Rainy earth, Stone falling from the sky: 41,9,5 /
– Seismic movements: 3,10,6 /
     – Storms: 2,62,2 / 26,11,2 / 40,58,6 /
     – Rays: Luterbacher says , collected by Jose Jiménez Delgado in Helmántica, 12, 1961, that 28 rays fell in the temples, 18 in walls, 3 in statues, besides those that fall in men, animals, plants, inanimate beings. Some examples: 1,3,9 (to Rómulo) / 10,31,8 / 22,1,8 / 25,7,8 / 27,7,7 / 27,11,12 / 27,2,2 / 27 / 37.2 / 24,10,9 / 24,44,7 / 27,37,2 / 32,1,10 / 32,9,2 / 36,37,3 / 27,23,3 / 37, 37.2 / 28.11 / 28.11 / 32.1.10 / 32.29.1 / 40.2.4 / 45.16.5 / 21.62.4 / 25.7, 7 / 27,11,2 / 24,10,9 / 42,20,1 / 32,9,2 / 26,23,4 / 33,26,8 / 42,20,1 / 27,4,11 / 30.38,9 / 41,13,1 / 27,37,2 / 22,1,8 / 24,44,8 / 26,223,5 / 27,11,2 / 27,23,3 / 29,14, 3 / 30,38.9 / 35,21,4 / 37,3,2 / 45,16,5 / 25,7,8 / 32,9,2 / 32,29,2 / 36,37,3 / 32.1,12 / 35,9,3 / 45,16,5 / 30,38,9 / 36,37,3 / 42,20,5 /
     –  prodigious rains: earth 10,1,8 / 34,45,6-7 / burning stones 22,1,9 / stones 25,7,7 / 39,22,3 / 37,3,2 / 27,11, 5 / blood 34,45,6-7 / 39,46,5 / 42,20,5 / 24,10,7 / meat 3,10,6 / lime 24,10,7 / Milk 27,11,5 /
    – Others  7, 28/ 10, 31/ 21, 62/ 22, 36/ 23, 31/ 26, 23/ 27, 32/ 29, 10/ 29, 14/ 35, 21/ 37, 3/ 39, 56/  40, 19/ 42, 2/ 43, 15/ 44, 18/ 45, 16.
 Many others less frequent or important

 Terrestrial
     – Blood in sources and rivers: 22,1,10 / 24,10,7 / 24,44,8 / 27,11,3 / 27,23,4 / 27,37,3 / 45,16,5 /
     – Images that are crying or sweating: 22,1,12 / 22,36,7 / 23,31,15 / 27,4,14 / 28,11,4 / 40,19,2 / 43,13,4 /
     – Sacred forests: 27,4,12-14 / 27,37,2 / 41,9,4 /
     – Bee swarm: 21,46,1 / 24,10,11 / 27,23,2 / 35,9,4 /
     – Presence of wolves: 3,29,6-9 / 10,27,8 / 21,46,1 / 21,62,5 / 27,37,3 / 32,29,2 /  
          33,26,9 /
     – Snakes: 1.56,4 / 7.17,3 / 25,16,2 / 26,19,7 / 27,4,13 / 28,11,2 / 41,9,6 / 
         41,21,13 / 43.13
     – Birds of good and bad omen: 10,40,14 / 21,62,4 / 22,1,13 / 24,10,6 / 27,4,12 /
       30,2,9 /
     – Flames and mysterious auras: the head of Servius Tullius burns 1,39,1 / 
       inflamed darts 22,1,8 / inflamed palm 24,10,7 / head on fire 25,39,16 / head 
       of Vulcan 34,45, 7 /
     – Bleeding ears: 22,1,10 / 28,11,2 /
     – Bleeding shields: 25,39,10 /
     – Mice gnawing gold of the temple: 27,23,2

Monstrosities
     –  Androgynous: 27,11,4 / without sex 27,37,5 / 31,12,6 /
     –  Children without eyes and nose and hands: 35,21,3
     –  Monstrous animals
     –  Goats with wool: 22,113 /
     –  Cow that stops a foal: 23,31,15 /
     –  Pork with two heads: 28,11,3 / pork with human face: 27,4,14 / 32,9,3 /
     –  A lamb is born with an udder full of milk: 27,4,11 /
     –  In Reate a mule gave birth 26,23,5
     –  Lamb male and female at the same time: 28,11,3 /
     –  Lamb with two heads: 32,9,3 /
     –  Colt with five legs: 31,12,7 / 32,1,11 /
      – Three chickens with three legs each: 32,1,11 / one dick with wool,  Goat that stops six kids: 35,21,3 /
      –  Mule that stops: 37,3,3 / Mule with three legs: 40,45,5 / 42,20,5 /
      –  Asses with sturdy legs: 42,20,5
      –  Speaking animals: A talking cow: 3,10,6 / 43,13,3 / 27,11,4 / 28,11,4 / 35,21,4 /
            – Talking children: six months: 21,62,2 / in the womb of his mother: 24,10,10 /
            – Ox that climbs to the third floor and is thrown from it / 21,62,3 / oxen that go up to the roof: 36,37,2 /
           – Fecundated bronze cow: 41,13,2
     –  mysterious voices: huge voice: 1,31,3 / 2,7,2 / more than human: 5,32,6 / 6,33,5 /
     –  Visions, dreams: Hannibal's dream: 21,22,6 /

If any reader of this blog believed that the miracles were own and exclusive of his own belief, he was very wrong: once again "Nihil novum sub sole".

The remaining texts announced remain for another article ..

The post Prodigies, miracles, wonders, portents, phenomena, monsters (I) appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

The ancients do not question heterosexuality, that is, social order and social morality, but they recognize the natural reality that some women can feel and want to live as men and some men as women.

Two thousand years later, there are countries of advanced legislation with this recognition of a natural reality, in front of others that even punish very hard these facts not so much of female homosexuality as of transgender or transsexuality.

Female homosexuality, that a woman loves as a woman to another of the same sex, is hardly understood as possible and very little visible in the ancient world, although not nonexistent.

There is certainly, although virtually invisible also, the homosexuality of a woman who assumes the role of a man to relate her to another woman, that is, the masculinization of her behavior. It is the so-called tribade or tribas, a woman with homoerotic behavior, who seeks sexual intercourse with another woman, or more specifically, a woman who in the female homoerotic relationship assumes the dominant role, the masculinized role;  it comes from the Greek τριβάς, tribas, derived from the verb τριβηιν, tribein, which means to rub, scrub or masturbate.

This female homosexual or homoerotic practice is generally rejected socially because it implies a violation of the practice considered normal, the heterosexual, but in any case, in the old world its existence is recognized recognizing the complexity and diversity of the social relation between humans; moreover, not only it does not hide itself but its explanation is approached with some naturalness, even if it is by recourse to myth.

This is that  Plato made, as I said  in http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/homosexuality-lesbian-gay-andorogynous

This is that  Phaedrus does also for example in his fable IV, 16, eliminated along with the previous 15 of numerous editions, and Ovid in Book IX of the Metamorphoses when he narrates the history of Iphis and Ianthe.

Both texts have been widely studied and commented by researchers interested in the knowledge of sexual behavior in antiquity; I only now intend to give an account of the existence of these texts for the knowledge of the interested reader.

Phaedrus 4.16 (Perry 515)

Someone asked Aesop why lesbians and fairies had been created, and old Aesop explained, 'The answer lies once again with Prometheus, the original creator of our common clay (which shatters as soon as it hits a bit of bad luck). All day long, Prometheus had been separately shaping those natural members which shame conceals beneath our clothes, and when he was about to apply these private parts to the appropriate bodies Bacchus unexpectedly invited him to dinner. Prometheus came home late, unsteady on his feet and with a good deal of heavenly nectar flowing through his veins. With his wits half asleep in a drunken haze he stuck the female genitalia on male bodies and male members on the ladies. This is why modern lust revels in perverted pleasures.' (Translated by Laura Gibbs (2002))

Note: According to Pseud-Apollodorus, in his Mythological Library, 1,7,1 Prometheus was the creator of men, making them of water and earth, and for this he was punished by Zeus; in other versions Prometheus is only the benefactor, but not the creator of mankind:

Prometheus moulded men out of water and earth1 and gave them also fire, which, unknown to Zeus, he had hidden in a stalk of fennel.2 But when Zeus learned of it, he ordered Hephaestus to nail his body to Mount Caucasus, which is a Scythian mountain. On it Prometheus was nailed and kept bound for many years. Every day an eagle swooped on him and devoured the lobes of his liver, which grew by night. That was the penalty that Prometheus paid for the theft of fire until Hercules afterwards released him, as we shall show in dealing with Hercules. (English Translation by Sir James George Frazer,)

Phaedrus  IV, 16

Rogavit alter, tribadas et molles mares
Quae ratio procreasset? Exposuit senex:

«Idem Prometheus, auctor vulgi fictilis
Qui simul offendit ad fortunam frangitur,
Naturae partis veste quas celat pudor,
Cum separatim toto finxisset die,
Aptare mox ut posset corporibus suis,
Ad cenam est invitatus subito a Libero.
Ubi irrigatus multo venas nectare
Sero domum est reversus titubanti pede.
Tum semisomno corde et errore ebrio
Applicuit virginale generi masculo
Et masculina membra applicuit feminis.
Ita nunc libido pravo fruitur gaudio».

Note: from the fable it follows that homosexuality, both male and female, is the result of an error and therefore it  is at odds with normal behavior, that  is heterosexuality, but the error is of the creator himself of the "human  Race "and therefore it is" natural " and permanent, not a "disease " that can be healed, and so it is intended to be explained with myth.

Ovid on the  his hand narrates in his most important work, The Metamorphoses, various myths referred to the sexual behavior of men and women. The myth of Iphis and Ianthe  addresses the reality of some people whose feelings and psychological behavior do not match their physical sex.

Ovid describes the reality of a girl, a woman physically, who feels like a man and falls in love with another woman. The reality observed certainly poses a problem in the old society in which a marriage between women is not conceived. The main purpose of marriage was to procreate children for the family and for society. The solution, according to the prevailing social norm, is to turn the girl  into a boy, even if that conversion is due to the powerful goddess  Isis and not to the human art of modern surgery.

Ovid, after narrating the impossible love of Biblis with his brother Caunus, tells the story of Iphis and Ianthe.

  Metamorphosis IX, 666-798  The Fable of Iphis and Ianthe

The fame of this, perhaps, thro' Crete had flown:
But Crete had newer wonders of her own,
In Iphis chang'd; for, near the Gnossian bounds
(As loud report the miracle resounds),
At Phaestus dwelt a man of honest blood,
But meanly born, and not so rich as good;
Esteem'd, and lov'd by all the neighbourhood;
Who to his wife, before the time assign'd
For child-birth came, thus bluntly spoke his mind.
If Heav'n, said Lygdus, will vouchsafe to hear,
I have but two petitions to prefer;
Short pains for thee, for me a son and heir.
Girls cost as many throes in bringing forth;
Beside, when born, the titts are little worth;
Weak puling things, unable to sustain
Their share of labour, and their bread to gain.
If, therefore, thou a creature shalt produce,
Of so great charges, and so little use
(Bear witness, Heav'n, with what reluctancy),
Her hapless innocence I doom to die.
He said, and common tears the common grief display,
Of him who bad, and her who must obey.

Yet Telethusa still persists, to find
Fit arguments to move a father's mind;
T' extend his wishes to a larger scope,
And in one vessel not confine his hope.
Lygdus continues hard: her time drew near,
And she her heavy load could scarcely bear;
When slumbring, in the latter shades of night,
Before th' approaches of returning light,
She saw, or thought she saw, before her bed,
A glorious train, and Isis at their head:
Her moony horns were on her forehead plac'd,
And yellow shelves her shining temples grac'd:
A mitre, for a crown, she wore on high;
The dog, and dappl'd bull were waiting by;
Osyris, sought along the banks of Nile;
The silent God: the sacred crocodile;
And, last, a long procession moving on,
With timbrels, that assist the lab'ring moon.
Her slumbers seem'd dispell'd, and, broad awake,
She heard a voice, that thus distinctly spake.
My votary, thy babe from death defend,
Nor fear to save whate'er the Gods will send.
Delude with art thy husband's dire decree:
When danger calls, repose thy trust on me:
And know thou hast not serv'd a thankless deity.
This promise made, with night the Goddess fled;
With joy the woman wakes, and leaves her bed;
Devoutly lifts her spotless hands on high,
And prays the Pow'rs their gift to ratifie.

Now grinding pains proceed to bearing throes,
'Till its own weight the burden did disclose.
'Twas of the beauteous kind, and brought to light
With secrecy, to shun the father's sight.
Th' indulgent mother did her care employ,
And past it on her husband for a boy.
The nurse was conscious of the fact alone;
The father paid his vows as for a son;
And call'd him Iphis, by a common name,
Which either sex with equal right may claim.
Iphis his grandsire was; the wife was pleas'd,
Of half the fraud by Fortune's favour eas'd:
The doubtful name was us'd without deceit,
And truth was cover'd with a pious cheat.
The habit show'd a boy, the beauteous face
With manly fierceness mingled female grace.

Now thirteen years of age were swiftly run,
When the fond father thought the time drew on
Of settling in the world his only son.
Ianthe was his choice; so wondrous fair,
Her form alone with Iphis cou'd compare;
A neighbour's daughter of his own degree,
And not more bless'd with Fortune's goods than he.

They soon espous'd; for they with ease were join'd,
Who were before contracted in the mind.
Their age the same, their inclinations too;
And bred together, in one school they grew.
Thus, fatally dispos'd to mutual fires,
They felt, before they knew, the same desires.
Equal their flame, unequal was their care;
One lov'd with hope, one languish'd in despair.
The maid accus'd the lingring day alone:
For whom she thought a man, she thought her own.
But Iphis bends beneath a greater grief;
As fiercely burns, but hopes for no relief.
Ev'n her despair adds fuel to her fire;
A maid with madness does a maid desire.
And, scarce refraining tears, Alas, said she,
What issue of my love remains for me!
How wild a passion works within my breast,
With what prodigious flames am I possest!
Could I the care of Providence deserve,
Heav'n must destroy me, if it would preserve.
And that's my fate, or sure it would have sent
Some usual evil for my punishment:
Not this unkindly curse; to rage, and burn,
Where Nature shews no prospect of return.
Nor cows for cows consume with fruitless fire;
Nor mares, when hot, their fellow-mares desire:
The father of the fold supplies his ewes;
The stag through secret woods his hind pursues;
And birds for mates the males of their own species chuse.
Her females Nature guards from female flame,
And joins two sexes to preserve the game:
Wou'd I were nothing, or not what I am!
Crete, fam'd for monsters, wanted of her store,
'Till my new love produc'd one monster more.
The daughter of the sun a bull desir'd,
And yet ev'n then a male a female fir'd:
Her passion was extravagantly new,
But mine is much the madder of the two.
To things impossible she was not bent,
But found the means to compass her intent.
To cheat his eyes she took a different shape;
Yet still she gain'd a lover, and a leap.
Shou'd all the wit of all the world conspire,
Shou'd Daedalus assist my wild desire,
What art can make me able to enjoy,
Or what can change Ianthe to a boy?
Extinguish then thy passion, hopeless maid,
And recollect thy reason for thy aid.
Know what thou art, and love as maidens ought,
And drive these golden wishes from thy thought.
Thou canst not hope thy fond desires to gain;
Where hope is wanting, wishes are in vain.

And yet no guards against our joys conspire;
No jealous husband hinders our desire;
My parents are propitious to my wish,
And she herself consenting to the bliss.
All things concur to prosper our design;
All things to prosper any love but mine.
And yet I never can enjoy the fair;
'Tis past the pow'r of Heav'n to grant my pray'r.
Heav'n has been kind, as far as Heav'n can be;
Our parents with our own desires agree;
But Nature, stronger than the Gods above,
Refuses her assistance to my love;
She sets the bar that causes all my pain;
One gift refus'd, makes all their bounty vain.
And now the happy day is just at hand,
To bind our hearts in Hymen's holy band:
Our hearts, but not our bodies: thus accurs'd,
In midst of water I complain of thirst.
Why com'st thou, Juno, to these barren rites,
To bless a bed defrauded of delights?
But why shou'd Hymen lift his torch on high,
To see two brides in cold embraces lye?

Thus love-sick Iphis her vain passion mourns;
With equal ardour fair Ianthe burns,
Invoking Hymen's name, and Juno's pow'r,
To speed the work, and haste the happy hour.

She hopes, while Telethusa fears the day,
And strives to interpose some new delay:
Now feigns a sickness, now is in a fright
For this bad omen, or that boding sight.
But having done whate'er she could devise,
And empty'd all her magazine of lies,
The time approach'd; the next ensuing day
The fatal secret must to light betray.
Then Telethusa had recourse to pray'r,
She, and her daughter with dishevel'd hair;
Trembling with fear, great Isis they ador'd,
Embrac'd her altar, and her aid implor'd.

Fair queen, who dost on fruitful Egypt smile,
Who sway'st the sceptre of the Pharian isle,
And sev'n-fold falls of disemboguing Nile,
Relieve, in this our last distress, she said,
A suppliant mother, and a mournful maid.
Thou, Goddess, thou wert present to my sight;
Reveal'd I saw thee by thy own fair light:
I saw thee in my dream, as now I see,
With all thy marks of awful majesty:
The glorious train that compass'd thee around;
And heard the hollow timbrels holy sound.
Thy words I noted, which I still retain;
Let not thy sacred oracles be vain.
That Iphis lives, that I myself am free
From shame, and punishment, I owe to thee.
On thy protection all our hopes depend.
Thy counsel sav'd us, let thy pow'r defend.

Her tears pursu'd her words; and while she spoke,
The Goddess nodded, and her altar shook:
The temple doors, as with a blast of wind,
Were heard to clap; the lunar horns that bind
The brows of Isis cast a blaze around;
The trembling timbrel made a murm'ring sound.

Some hopes these happy omens did impart;
Forth went the mother with a beating heart:
Not much in fear, nor fully satisfy'd;
But Iphis follow'd with a larger stride:
The whiteness of her skin forsook her face;
Her looks embolden'd with an awful grace;
Her features, and her strength together grew,
And her long hair to curling locks withdrew.
Her sparkling eyes with manly vigour shone,
Big was her voice, audacious was her tone.
The latent parts, at length reveal'd, began
To shoot, and spread, and burnish into man.
The maid becomes a youth; no more delay
Your vows, but look, and confidently pay.
Their gifts the parents to the temple bear:
The votive tables this inscription wear;
Iphis the man, has to the Goddess paid
The vows, that Iphis offer'd when a maid.

Now when the star of day had shewn his face,
Venus and Juno with their presence grace
The nuptial rites, and Hymen from above
Descending to compleat their happy love;
The Gods of marriage lend their mutual aid;
And the warm youth enjoys the lovely maid.
(Translated by Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden, et al)
By Mr. DRYDEN.

Fama noui centum Cretaeas forsitan urbes
Inplesset monstri, si non miracula nuper
Iphide mutata Crete propiora tulisset.
Proxima Gnosiaco nam quondam Phaestia regno
Progenuit tellus ignotum nomine Ligdum,
Ingenua de plebe uirum; nec census in illo
Nobilitate sua maior, sed uita fidesque
Inculpata fuit. grauidae qui coniugis aures
Vocibus his monuit, cum iam prope partus adesset:
"Quae uoueam, duo sunt: minimo ut releuere dolore,
Vtque marem parias. onerosior altera sors est,
Et uires fortuna negat: quod abominor, ergo,
Edita forte tuo fuerit si femina partu,
(Inuitus mando: pietas, ignosce) necetur."
Dixerat, et lacrimis uultum lauere profusis
Tam qui mandabat, quam cui mandata dabantur;
Sed tamen usque suum uanis Telethusa maritum
Sollicitat precibus, ne spem sibi ponat in arto;
Certa sua est Ligdo sententia. iamque ferendo
Vix erat illa grauem maturo pondere uentrem,
Cum medio noctis spatio sub imagine somni
Inachis ante torum pompa comitata sacrorum
Aut stetit aut uisa est: inerant lunaria fronti
Cornua cum spicis nitido flauentibus auro
Et regale decus; cum qua latrator Anubis
Sanctaque Bubastis uariusque coloribus Apis,
Quique premit uocem digitoque silentia suadet;
Sistraque erant, numquamque satis quaesitus Osiris
Plenaque somniferis serpens peregrina uenenis.
Tum uelut excussam somno et manifesta uidentem
Sic adfata dea est: "pars o Telethusa mearum,
Pone graues curas mandataque falle mariti;
Nec dubita, cum te partu Lucina leuarit,
Tollere, quidquid erit. dea sum auxiliaris opemque
Exorata fero, nec te coluisse quereris
Ingratum numen." monuit thalamoque recessit.
Laeta toro surgit purasque ad sidera supplex
Cressa manus tollens, rata sint sua uisa, precatur.
Vt dolor increuit seque ipsum pondus in auras
Expulit et nata est ignaro femina patre,
Iussit ali mater puerum mentita; fidemque
Res habuit, neque erat ficti nisi conscia nutrix.
Vota pater soluit nomenque inponit auitum:
Iphis auus fuerat, gauisa est nomine mater,
Quod commune foret nec quemquam falleret illo.
Inde incepta pia mendacia fraude latebant:
Cultus erat pueri, facies, quam siue puellae
Siue dares puero, fieret formosus uterque.
Tertius interea decimo successerat annus,
Cum pater, Iphi, tibi flauam despondit Ianthen,
Inter Phaestiadas quae laudatissima formae
Dote fuit uirgo, Dictaeo nata Teleste.
Par aetas, par forma fuit, primasque magistris
Accepere artes, elementa aetatis, ab isdem;
Hinc amor ambarum tetigit rude pectus et aequum
Vulnus utrique dedit, sed erat fiducia dispar:
Coniugium pactaeque exspectat tempora taedae,
Quamque uirum putat esse, uirum fore credit Ianthe;
Iphis amat, qua posse frui desperat, et auget
Hoc ipsum flammas ardetque in uirgine uirgo,
Vixque tenens lacrimas "quis me manet exitus" inquit,
"Cognita quam nulli, quam prodigiosa nouaeque
Cura tenet Veneris? si di mihi parcere uellent,
Parcere debuerant; si non, et perdere uellent,
Naturale malum saltem et de more dedissent!
Nec uaccam uaccae, nec equas amor urit equarum;
Vrit oues aries, sequitur sua femina ceruum;
Sic et aues coeunt, interque animalia cuncta
Femina femineo correpta cupidine nulla est.
Vellem nulla forem! ne non tamen omnia Crete
Monstra ferat, taurum dilexit filia Solis,
Femina nempe marem: meus est furiosior illo,
Si uerum profitemur, amor; tamen illa secuta est
Spem Veneris, tamen illa dolis et imagine uaccae
Passa bouem est, et erat, qui deciperetur, adulter.
Huc licet e toto sollertia confluat orbe,
Ipse licet reuolet ceratis Daedalus alis,
Quid faciet? num me puerum de uirgine doctis
Artibus efficiet? num te mutabit, Ianthe?
Quin animum firmas teque ipsa reconligis, Iphi,
Consiliique inopes et stultos excutis ignes?
Quid sis nata, uide, nisi te quoque decipis ipsam,
Et pete, quod fas est, et ama, quod femina debes.
Spes est, quae capiat, spes est, quae pascit amorem;
Hanc tibi res adimit: non te custodia caro
Arcet ab amplexu nec cauti cura mariti,
Non patris asperitas, non se negat ipsa roganti;
Nec tamen est potiunda tibi, nec, ut omnia fiant,
Esse potes felix, ut dique hominesque laborent.
Nunc quoque uotorum nulla est pars uana meorum,
Dique mihi faciles, quidquid ualuere, dederunt,
Quodque ego, uult genitor, uult ipsa socerque futurus;
At non uult natura, potentior omnibus istis,
Quae mihi sola nocet. uenit ecce optabile tempus,
Luxque iugalis adest, et iam mea fiet Ianthe –
Nec mihi continget: mediis sitiemus in undis.
Pronuba quid Iuno, quid ad haec, Hymenaee, uenitis
Sacra, quibus qui ducat abest, ubi nubimus ambae?"
Pressit ab his uocem, nec lenius altera uirgo
Aestuat, utque celer uenias, Hymenaee, precatur.
Quod petit haec, Telethusa timens modo tempora differt,
Nunc ficto languore moram trahit, omina saepe
Visaque causatur; sed iam consumpserat omnem
Materiam ficti, dilataque tempora taedae
Institerant, unusque dies restabat: at illa
Crinalem capiti uittam nataeque sibique
Detrahit et passis aram complexa capillis
"Isi, Paraetonium Mareoticaque arua Pharonque
Quae colis et septem digestum in cornua Nilum,
Fer, precor", inquit "opem nostroque medere timori!
Te, dea, te quondam tuaque haec insignia uidi
Cunctaque cognoui, sonitum comitesque facesque…
Sistrorum memorique animo tua iussa notaui.
Quod uidet haec lucem, quod non ego punior, ecce
Consilium munusque tuum est: miserere duarum
Auxilioque iuua." lacrimae sunt uerba secutae.
Visa dea est mouisse suas (et mouerat) aras,
Et templi tremuere fores imitataque lunam
Cornua fulserunt crepuitque sonabile sistrum.
Non secura quidem, fausto tamen omine laeta
Mater abit templo, sequitur comes Iphis euntem,
Quam solita est, maiore gradu; nec candor in ore
Permanet, et uires augentur, et acrior ipse est
Vultus et incomptis breuior mensura capillis,
Plusque uigoris adest, habuit quam femina. nam quae
Femina nuper eras, puer es. date munera templis,
Nec timida gaudete fide! dant munera templis,
Addunt et titulum, titulus breue carmen habebat:
"Dona puer solvit quae fémina voverat Iphis."
Postera lux radiis latum patefecerat orbem,
Cum Venus et Iuno sociusque Hymenaeus ad ignes
Conueniunt, potiturque sua puer Iphis Ianthe.

The post Ancient myths try to explain the various kinds of sexual relationships between men and women appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

I will briefly refer, however, to his influence on the painting of the Prado Museum, Museo del Prado in Madrid. Ovid is present in all the important museums of the world: Louvre Museum of Paris and the National Gallery of London and the Alte Pinakothek of Munich and the Hermitage of St. Petersburg, etc. etc.,  through its influence on painters, especially of the Renaissance and Baroque (Rubens, Velázquez, Tiziano ...) but also contemporaries, as Picasso himself.

The influence is mostly that of his book of mythology The Metamorphosis or transformation of some beings into others, usually humans or gods in animals, trees or stars. The Metamorphosis are a true treatise on mythology.

I will refer exclusively and briefly to his presence at the Prado Museum, Museo del Prado, in Madrid. In fact it is absolutely advisable to anyone who visits this important museum, one of the most important Pinacothecas, "art galleries", in the world, to do so after a previous reading of the work of Ovid, the Metamorphosis, or some of the guides and publications that exist on the subject, or a visit to the museum's own website.

https://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/obras-de-arte?search=metamorfosis&ordenarPor=pm:relevance

Note: the word "pinacotheca" has come to us through the Latin "pinacotheca, but in fact it is from  Greek origin: πινακοθήκη, pinakotheke, word itself composed of πινακος, pinakos, genitive of πίναξ, pinax, meaning " picture" and θήκη, theke," box, wardrobe, shelf,  and by extension collection of things and objects deposited therein.

The consultation to this link at the time of the publication of this article offers the immediate reference of 158 works, some of them of the most famous of which the Museum houses. It is true that not all of them are indebted exclusively to Ovid, but the vast majority.

I will confine myself to presenting only three of the corresponding Ovid texts and to cite some of the others to encourage the reader to search for the correspondences of himself, an experience that can be extended to any other museum, such as the Louvre Museum or the National Gallery of London) or the Alte Pinakothek of Munich or the Hermitage of St. Petersburg, etc. etc.

The reader can find ample information in numerous books and published articles on this, of general form in the work of Amalia Fernández: Diosesy mitos. Una aproximación literaria a la pintura mitológica del Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1998) (Gods and myths. A literary approach to the mythological painting of the Museo del Prado); Or Rosa López Torrijos: Mitología e Historia en las obras maestras del Prado, Madrid, 1998 (Mythology and History in the masterpieces of the Prado,) or more concretely in Mª. Cruz García Fuentes: Mitos de las Metamorfosis de Ovidio en la Iconografía del Museo del Prado, Madrid, Edit. C. E. R. S. A., 2013. ( Myths of the Metamorphoses of Ovid in the Iconography of the Prado Museum).

I will limit myself to relate, as I said, by way of example, three or four great works of the Museum, of the hundred and fifty exposed, with the corresponding text of the Metamorphoses of Ovid. I hope that this is enough incentive for the reader to locate and atmosphere the visit to the Museum with the reading of Ovid.

The painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) is widely represented in the Museo del Prado with paintings of mythological subject, whose commission received from King Felipe IV to decorate the "Torre de la parada” (Tower of the Parada). Most of the mythological scenes of the passions of the gods were inspired by Ovid's description in the Metamorphoses.

For example:

Deucalión and Pyrrha. (1636-1637. Oil on wood, 26.4 x 41.7 cm.)

In Greco-Roman mythology there is also a deluge with which Jupiter punishes the evil of the human race, which must perish. Only Deucalion, son of Prometheus, and his wife Pyrrha are saved from punishment in their  ark, which was stranded on Mount Parnassus in the Greek Peloponnese. This pair will give rise to a new race of men.

Although Rubens's picture refers only to the creation of the new men, I will return to the story since the appearance of Deucalion in the poem of Ovid.

Ovid tells us the episode of the deluge and the survival of Deucalion and Pyrrh a in Metamorphosis, I, 309-430:

Now hills, and vales no more distinction know;
And levell'd Nature lies oppress'd below.
The most of mortals perish in the flood:
The small remainder dies for want of food.

A mountain of stupendous height there stands
Betwixt th' Athenian and Boeotian lands,
The bound of fruitful fields, while fields they were,
But then a field of waters did appear:
Parnassus is its name; whose forky rise
Mounts thro' the clouds, and mates the lofty skies.
High on the summit of this dubious cliff,
Deucalion wafting, moor'd his little skiff.
He with his wife were only left behind
Of perish'd Man; they two were human kind.
The mountain nymphs, and Themis they adore,
And from her oracles relief implore.
The most upright of mortal men was he;
The most sincere, and holy woman, she.

When Jupiter, surveying Earth from high,
Beheld it in a lake of water lie,
That where so many millions lately liv'd,
But two, the best of either sex, surviv'd;
He loos'd the northern wind; fierce Boreas flies
To puff away the clouds, and purge the skies:
Serenely, while he blows, the vapours driv'n,
Discover Heav'n to Earth, and Earth to Heav'n.
The billows fall, while Neptune lays his mace
On the rough sea, and smooths its furrow'd face.
Already Triton, at his call, appears
Above the waves; a Tyrian robe he wears;
And in his hand a crooked trumpet bears.
The soveraign bids him peaceful sounds inspire,
And give the waves the signal to retire.
His writhen shell he takes; whose narrow vent
Grows by degrees into a large extent,
Then gives it breath; the blast with doubling sound,
Runs the wide circuit of the world around:
The sun first heard it, in his early east,
And met the rattling ecchos in the west.
The waters, listning to the trumpet's roar,
Obey the summons, and forsake the shore.

A thin circumference of land appears;
And Earth, but not at once, her visage rears,
And peeps upon the seas from upper grounds;
The streams, but just contain'd within their bounds,
By slow degrees into their channels crawl;
And Earth increases, as the waters fall.
In longer time the tops of trees appear,
Which mud on their dishonour'd branches bear.

At length the world was all restor'd to view;
But desolate, and of a sickly hue:
Nature beheld her self, and stood aghast,
A dismal desart, and a silent waste.

Which when Deucalion, with a piteous look
Beheld, he wept, and thus to Pyrrha spoke:
Oh wife, oh sister, oh of all thy kind
The best, and only creature left behind,
By kindred, love, and now by dangers joyn'd;
Of multitudes, who breath'd the common air,
We two remain; a species in a pair:
The rest the seas have swallow'd; nor have we
Ev'n of this wretched life a certainty.
The clouds are still above; and, while I speak,
A second deluge o'er our heads may break.
Shou'd I be snatcht from hence, and thou remain,
Without relief, or partner of thy pain,
How cou'dst thou such a wretched life sustain?
Shou'd I be left, and thou be lost, the sea
That bury'd her I lov'd, shou'd bury me.
Oh cou'd our father his old arts inspire,
And make me heir of his informing fire,
That so I might abolisht Man retrieve,
And perisht people in new souls might live.
But Heav'n is pleas'd, nor ought we to complain,
That we, th' examples of mankind, remain.
He said; the careful couple joyn their tears:
And then invoke the Gods, with pious prayers.
Thus, in devotion having eas'd their grief,
From sacred oracles they seek relief;
And to Cephysus' brook their way pursue:
The stream was troubled, but the ford they knew;
With living waters, in the fountain bred,
They sprinkle first their garments, and their head,
Then took the way, which to the temple led.
The roofs were all defil'd with moss, and mire,
The desart altars void of solemn fire.
Before the gradual, prostrate they ador'd;
The pavement kiss'd; and thus the saint implor'd.

O righteous Themis, if the Pow'rs above
By pray'rs are bent to pity, and to love;
If humane miseries can move their mind;
If yet they can forgive, and yet be kind;
Tell how we may restore, by second birth,
Mankind, and people desolated Earth.
Then thus the gracious Goddess, nodding, said;
Depart, and with your vestments veil your head:
And stooping lowly down, with losen'd zones,
Throw each behind your backs, your mighty mother's bones.
Amaz'd the pair, and mute with wonder stand,
'Till Pyrrha first refus'd the dire command.
Forbid it Heav'n, said she, that I shou'd tear
Those holy reliques from the sepulcher.
They ponder'd the mysterious words again,
For some new sense; and long they sought in vain:
At length Deucalion clear'd his cloudy brow,
And said, the dark Aenigma will allow
A meaning, which, if well I understand,
From sacrilege will free the God's command:
This Earth our mighty mother is, the stones
In her capacious body, are her bones:
These we must cast behind. With hope, and fear,
The woman did the new solution hear:
The man diffides in his own augury,
And doubts the Gods; yet both resolve to try.
Descending from the mount, they first unbind
Their vests, and veil'd, they cast the stones behind:
The stones (a miracle to mortal view,
But long tradition makes it pass for true)
Did first the rigour of their kind expel,
And suppled into softness, as they fell;
Then swell'd, and swelling, by degrees grew warm;
And took the rudiments of human form.
Imperfect shapes: in marble such are seen,
When the rude chizzel does the man begin;
While yet the roughness of the stone remains,
Without the rising muscles, and the veins.
The sappy parts, and next resembling juice,
Were turn'd to moisture, for the body's use:
Supplying humours, blood, and nourishment;
The rest, too solid to receive a bent,
Converts to bones; and what was once a vein,
Its former name and Nature did retain.
By help of pow'r divine, in little space,
What the man threw, assum'd a manly face;
And what the wife, renew'd the female race.
Hence we derive our nature; born to bear
Laborious life; and harden'd into care.

The rest of animals, from teeming Earth
Produc'd, in various forms receiv'd their birth.
The native moisture, in its close retreat,
Digested by the sun's aetherial heat,
As in a kindly womb, began to breed:
Then swell'd, and quicken'd by the vital seed.
And some in less, and some in longer space,
Were ripen'd into form, and took a sev'ral face.
Thus when the Nile from Pharian fields is fled,
And seeks, with ebbing tides, his ancient bed,
The fat manure with heav'nly fire is warm'd;
And crusted creatures, as in wombs, are form'd;
These, when they turn the glebe, the peasants find;
Some rude, and yet unfinish'd in their kind:
Short of their limbs, a lame imperfect birth:
One half alive; and one of lifeless earth.
(Translated by Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden, et al (1717))

Note: because some texts are somewhat extensive, I will reproduce the Latin texts at the end of the article.

The Rape of Europa

According to the mythical account, Europa was daughter of Agenor, the king of Tiro; The god Zeus fell in love with her, who ordered Hermes to bring the king's cows to the river; Zeus was transformed into a white bull to gain the confidence of Europa, that was mounted in its loins; At that moment the bull started speeding, entered the Mediterranean Sea and reached Crete. There the god appeared in his divinity and seduced the young woman.

This is one of the myths most represented since ancient times; we have representations since the 6th century BC. Tiziano painted between 1559 and 1562 an oil on this myth that is exposed in the Museum of the Prado. Peter Paul Rubens copied this painting in 1628-1629. Then the same Rubens repeated the theme again for the “Torre de la Parada”,Tower of the Parade, but in a very different way (the sketch is preserved in the same museum) and in turn shortly afterwards Jan Erasmus Quelinus painted on this sketch the painting which is also preserved in the Prado Museum.

Peter Paul Rubens.  (Copy of Tiziano, Vecellio di Gregorio)

The Rape of Europa. Sketch by Peter Paul Rubens 1636 – 1637. Oil painting, 18.9 x 13.7 cm. And Jan Erasmus Quelinus oil.

Ovid tells us in Metamorphoses II, 833-875:

Europa's Rape

When now the God his fury had allay'd,
And taken vengeance of the stubborn maid,
From where the bright Athenian turrets rise
He mounts aloft, and re-ascends the skies.
Jove saw him enter the sublime abodes,
And, as he mix'd among the crowd of Gods,
Beckon'd him out, and drew him from the rest,
And in soft whispers thus his will exprest.

"My trusty Hermes, by whose ready aid
Thy sire's commands are through the world convey'd.
Resume thy wings, exert their utmost force,
And to the walls of Sidon speed thy course;
There find a herd of heifers wand'ring o'er
The neighb'ring hill, and drive 'em to the shore."

Thus spoke the God, concealing his intent.
The trusty Hermes, on his message went,
And found the herd of heifers wand'ring o'er
A neighb'ring hill, and drove 'em to the shore;
Where the king's daughter, with a lovely train
Of fellow-nymphs, was sporting on the plain.

The dignity of empire laid aside,
(For love but ill agrees with kingly pride)
The ruler of the skies, the thund'ring God,
Who shakes the world's foundations with a nod,
Among a herd of lowing heifers ran,
Frisk'd in a bull, and bellow'd o'er the plain.
Large rowles of fat about his shoulders clung,
And from his neck the double dewlap hung.
His skin was whiter than the snow that lies
Unsully'd by the breath of southern skies;
Small shining horns on his curl'd forehead stand,
As turn'd and polish'd by the work-man's hand;
His eye-balls rowl'd, not formidably bright,
But gaz'd and languish'd with a gentle light.
His ev'ry look was peaceful, and exprest
The softness of the lover in the beast.

Agenor's royal daughter, as she plaid
Among the fields, the milk-white bull survey'd,
And view'd his spotless body with delight,
And at a distance kept him in her sight.
At length she pluck'd the rising flow'rs, and fed
The gentle beast, and fondly stroak'd his head.
He stood well-pleas'd to touch the charming fair,
But hardly could confine his pleasure there.
And now he wantons o'er the neighb'ring strand,
Now rowls his body on the yellow sand;
And, now perceiving all her fears decay'd,
Comes tossing forward to the royal maid;
Gives her his breast to stroke, and downward turns
His grizly brow, and gently stoops his horns.
In flow'ry wreaths the royal virgin drest
His bending horns, and kindly clapt his breast.
'Till now grown wanton and devoid of fear,
Not knowing that she prest the Thunderer,
She plac'd her self upon his back, and rode
O'er fields and meadows, seated on the God.

He gently march'd along, and by degrees
Left the dry meadow, and approach'd the seas;
Where now he dips his hoofs and wets his thighs,
Now plunges in, and carries off the prize.
The frighted nymph looks backward on the shoar,
And hears the tumbling billows round her roar;
But still she holds him fast: one hand is born
Upon his back; the other grasps a horn:
Her train of ruffling garments flies behind,
Swells in the air, and hovers in the wind.

Through storms and tempests he the virgin bore,
And lands her safe on the Dictean shore;
Where now, in his divinest form array'd,
In his true shape he captivates the maid;
Who gazes on him, and with wond'ring eyes
Beholds the new majestick figure rise,
His glowing features, and celestial light,
And all the God discover'd to her sight.
Translated by Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden, et al (1717)

Orpheus and Eurydice

The theme of the mythical pair Orpheus and Eurydice is that of the descent into the lower world, to hell, to the world of the dead, to the world where Pluto and Proserpine reign; In Greek this descent is called καταβᾴσεις, katabaseis, or κάθοδοι, kathodoi, and are adjudged to Hercules, Ulysses, Aeneas, Theseus, Pyrithus and especially to Orpheus, who goes in search of his wife, deceased by the venom of a snake, and whose end I do not anticipate for not to diminish the interest in the reading of Ovid's text, which undoubtedly inspired the many pictorial representations of the myth. I present it in a painting also by Peter Paul  Rubens.

Orpheus and Eurydice. 1636 – 1638. Oil on canvas, 196.5 x 247.5 cm.

Virgil tells us also  the myth in his little Culex and then in his famous Georgics. Ovid had to know this Virgilian version and it is Ovid's account that we find at the beginning of Book X of his Metamorphoses, verses 1 to 77. which I now transcribe:

The Story of Orpheus and Eurydice

Thence, in his saffron robe, for distant Thrace,
Hymen departs, thro' air's unmeasur'd space;
By Orpheus call'd, the nuptial Pow'r attends,
But with ill-omen'd augury descends;
Nor chearful look'd the God, nor prosp'rous spoke,
Nor blaz'd his torch, but wept in hissing smoke.
In vain they whirl it round, in vain they shake,
No rapid motion can its flames awake.
With dread these inauspicious signs were view'd,
And soon a more disastrous end ensu'd;
For as the bride, amid the Naiad train,
Ran joyful, sporting o'er the flow'ry plain,
A venom'd viper bit her as she pass'd;
Instant she fell, and sudden breath'd her last.

When long his loss the Thracian had deplor'd,
Not by superior Pow'rs to be restor'd;
Inflam'd by love, and urg'd by deep despair,
He leaves the realms of light, and upper air;
Daring to tread the dark Tenarian road,
And tempt the shades in their obscure abode;
Thro' gliding spectres of th' interr'd to go,
And phantom people of the world below:
Persephone he seeks, and him who reigns
O'er ghosts, and Hell's uncomfortable plains.
Arriv'd, he, tuning to his voice his strings,
Thus to the king and queen of shadows sings.

Ye Pow'rs, who under Earth your realms extend,
To whom all mortals must one day descend;
If here 'tis granted sacred truth to tell:
I come not curious to explore your Hell;
Nor come to boast (by vain ambition fir'd)
How Cerberus at my approach retir'd.
My wife alone I seek; for her lov'd sake
These terrors I support, this journey take.
She, luckless wandring, or by fate mis-led,
Chanc'd on a lurking viper's crest to tread;
The vengeful beast, enflam'd with fury, starts,
And thro' her heel his deathful venom darts.
Thus was she snatch'd untimely to her tomb;
Her growing years cut short, and springing bloom.
Long I my loss endeavour'd to sustain,
And strongly strove, but strove, alas, in vain:
At length I yielded, won by mighty love;
Well known is that omnipotence above!
But here, I doubt, his unfelt influence fails;
And yet a hope within my heart prevails.
That here, ev'n here, he has been known of old;
At least if truth be by tradition told;
If fame of former rapes belief may find,
You both by love, and love alone, were join'd.
Now, by the horrors which these realms surround;
By the vast chaos of these depths profound;
By the sad silence which eternal reigns
O'er all the waste of these wide-stretching plains;
Let me again Eurydice receive,
Let Fate her quick-spun thread of life re-weave.
All our possessions are but loans from you,
And soon, or late, you must be paid your due;
Hither we haste to human-kind's last seat,
Your endless empire, and our sure retreat.
She too, when ripen'd years she shall attain,
Must, of avoidless right, be yours again:
I but the transient use of that require,
Which soon, too soon, I must resign entire.
But if the destinies refuse my vow,
And no remission of her doom allow;
Know, I'm determin'd to return no more;
So both retain, or both to life restore.

Thus, while the bard melodiously complains,
And to his lyre accords his vocal strains,
The very bloodless shades attention keep,
And silent, seem compassionate to weep;
Ev'n Tantalus his flood unthirsty views,
Nor flies the stream, nor he the stream pursues;
Ixion's wond'ring wheel its whirl suspends,
And the voracious vulture, charm'd, attends;
No more the Belides their toil bemoan,
And Sisiphus reclin'd, sits list'ning on his stone.

Then first ('tis said) by sacred verse subdu'd,
The Furies felt their cheeks with tears bedew'd:
Nor could the rigid king, or queen of Hell,
Th' impulse of pity in their hearts repell.

Now, from a troop of shades that last arriv'd,
Eurydice was call'd, and stood reviv'd:
Slow she advanc'd, and halting seem to feel
The fatal wound, yet painful in her heel.
Thus he obtains the suit so much desir'd,
On strict observance of the terms requir'd:
For if, before he reach the realms of air,
He backward cast his eyes to view the fair,
The forfeit grant, that instant, void is made,
And she for ever left a lifeless shade.

Now thro' the noiseless throng their way they bend,
And both with pain the rugged road ascend;
Dark was the path, and difficult, and steep,
And thick with vapours from the smoaky deep.
They well-nigh now had pass'd the bounds of night,
And just approach'd the margin of the light,
When he, mistrusting lest her steps might stray,
And gladsome of the glympse of dawning day,
His longing eyes, impatient, backward cast
To catch a lover's look, but look'd his last;
For, instant dying, she again descends,
While he to empty air his arms extends.
Again she dy'd, nor yet her lord reprov'd;
What could she say, but that too well he lov'd?
One last farewell she spoke, which scarce he heard;
So soon she drop'd, so sudden disappear'd.

All stunn'd he stood, when thus his wife he view'd
By second Fate, and double death subdu'd:
Not more amazement by that wretch was shown,
Whom Cerberus beholding, turn'd to stone;
Nor Olenus cou'd more astonish'd look,
When on himself Lethaea's fault he took,
His beauteous wife, who too secure had dar'd
Her face to vye with Goddesses compar'd:
Once join'd by love, they stand united still,
Turn'd to contiguous rocks on Ida's hill.

Now to repass the Styx in vain he tries,
Charon averse, his pressing suit denies.
Sev'n days entire, along th' infernal shores,
Disconsolate, the bard Eurydice deplores;
Defil'd with filth his robe, with tears his cheeks,
No sustenance but grief, and cares, he seeks:
Of rigid Fate incessant he complains,
And Hell's inexorable Gods arraigns.
This ended, to high Rhodope he hastes,
And Haemus' mountain, bleak with northern blasts.
(Translated by Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden, et al (1717))

Atalanta and Hippomenes

Hippomenes and Atalanta 1618 – 1619. Oil on canvas, 206 x 297 cm. Reni, Guido, baroque Bolognese painter

Some time ago I wrote  the story of the famous race of Atalanta and Hippomenes in this same blog adapting directly the text of Ovid. The myth tells the story of Atalanta, the daughter of the king of Arcadia, who offered to marry anyone who could beat her in the race; Those who were defeated would be punished with death. The handsome Hippomenes won the race by using the help of the goddess Venus, who suggested a stratagem.

I refer to http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/atalanta-mythologie-palace-of-the-infant

to get a wider commentary on the story, but I nonetheless offer the text, now in view of one of the pictures of the Prado , The one corresponding to Guido Reni.

Whoever wants a full reading of Ovid's text must go to Metamorphoses, VIII, 281 et seq. for the episode of Meleager and the boar hunt of Calidon and to Metamorphosis X, 560-704 for the race with Hippomenes.

When Atalanta was born, her father, the king of Arcadia, enraged because he only wanted a son, abandoned her all godliness lacking at the top of a mountain so that she could die of hunger or devoured by the ferocious beasts. The goddess Artemis, who casually hunted in those places, took pity on the helpless child and sent her a huge bear that, docilely, suckled her with her milk.
Sometime later, and adopted as a daughter by the goddess, she became an accurate huntress and the fastest woman in the world and emulating her patroness she promised that she would never marry either.

When being a famous huntress she received as a trophy the skin of the wild boar ravaging the kingdom of Calydon, whose hunting she had participated in, she reconciled with her father, who again and again insisted her on the need to get married and provide him a future heir for his throne.

The elusive Atalanta consulted the oracle of the gods on her husband and heard these confusing words:

– For anything you need a husband, Atalanta; avoid having a husband. And yet you will not escape from marriage and still alive you will see yourself private of yourself.

Frightened by these words, hard to be understood, she tries to remain single living in the woods, away from her many suitors, who she wants to scare and avoid with a strange proposal:

– Only will possess me the one of you who beats me in a quick race, that one will be my husband. Instead the loser will have to die in punishment for his pretensions. This is my final proposal.

Such is the beauty of the fast Atalanta that many were the unsuspecting youth who dared to compete with the fastest woman in the world, so they lost the race moaning and crying and, with it, they lost the priceless life.

So the young Hippomenes, who had only heard to talk about the beautiful Atalanta, considered excessive the risk he would have to face in order to get her as his wife. But as soon as he saw the splendid body of the young girl who had removed the veil from her face, he fell in love and was immediately seduced.

– I’ll also try my luck; the prize is worth risking death. Gods always help those who are brave- he says inflamed. And madly in love, he continues:

– Beautiful Atalanta, you have beaten easily and effortlessly those poor boys, but now measure yourself with me, that I'm the son of Megareus. If I beat you, it won´t be a dishonorable defeat for you and if you win the race, you would have beaten Hippomenes, the great-grandson of Neptune, god of the waters.

Atalanta raising her beautiful bright eyes up looks at him tenderly.

– Why do you, foolish boy, want to risk your precious life, you who are still a child? You are beautiful and brave, because death does not scare you. So much you love and want me that you are willing to die…? Run away while you can, young handsome boy; many other pretty girls will be pleased and happy to marry you.

And perhaps touched by the sweet feeling of love for the very first time, the inexperienced and unfriendly Atalanta softens her relentless decision and thinks in the inner part of her heart:

– Why has this unhappy boy to die undeservedly as a reward for his love? I wish you, unhappy boy, had not ever seen me. If virginity was not my eternal destiny, you'd be the only one with whom I would share my wedding bed. I wish you, fool, were faster than me.
But Hippomenes already urges the race, but not before entrusting himself to the goddess of love and asking for her divine help:

– You, goddess, who has inspired my blind passion, help my fearlessness.

Venus answered the call wrapped in a white cloud, visible only to Hippomenes, and gave him three yellow apples, as bright as the sun, that he should use in the race in a certain way.

The trumpets gave the departure signal. There the two contenders go, so fast that they seem to fly. Atalanta, refusing to pass and leave the boy behind, places herself on par and, rapt, she stares at his virginal face. Hippomenes then throws one of the three bright apples, which immediately attracts the eye and interest of Atalanta. She restrains then her speed and while she´s collecting the golden fruit from the ground with curiosity, she is passed by Hippomenes. The fast Atalanta recovers the lost space and again she surpasses the young man easily. The young man throws a second fruit and once again entertains the girl, who soon also recovers the lost time. All that remains is the last stretch before the finish line. Now the young man throws strongly the third apple out of the way. Atalanta hesitates, but trusting in her swift feet, she goes to collect the golden fruit which is placed in the distance. But she miscalculated her speed or maybe the burgeoning love restrained her progress, because now she loses the race. Meanwhile Hipomenes has reached the finish line and, this way, he has reached his desired and deserved prize too, the marriage with the young virgin.

Incomprehensibly, the young Hippomenes forgot Venus and failed to thank her help. This way, the goddess felt neglected and offended by it.

One day as they were passing by the temple of Cybele, Mother of gods, they decided to rest because they were very tired due to the long trip. Hipomenes was taken by a sudden and overwhelming desire to lie with Atalanta, sparked no doubt by the vengeful Venus. Right there, in the sacred cave, in front of the divine images, they desecrate the sanctuary with their obscene love.

Mother Cybele punished their lustfulness with her divine severity: long and fierce manes cover their human necks, hands become claws, a long tail emerges from their backs, fierce they raise up their proud lion heads and their jaws make roaring noises which intimidate the rest part of the animals.

Later the goddess takes pity on them, so she ties the pair of lions with strong flex leather straps to her majestic carriage, which they´ll have to pull tireless for the whole eternity.

These are three or four examples of how Ovid can facilitate the visit to Museums such as the Prado and facilitate the understanding of dozens of works exposed there.

Latin texts

Deucalion and Pyrrha, Metamorphosis, I, 309-430:

Obruerat tumulos inmensa licentia ponti,
Pulsabantque noui montana cacumina fluctus.
Maxima pars unda rapitur: quibus unda pepercit,
Illos longa domant inopi ieiunia uictu.
Separat Aonios Oetaeis Phocis ab aruis, 
Terra ferax, dum terra fuit, sed tempore in illo
Pars maris et latus subitarum campus aquarum;
Mons ibi uerticibus petit arduus astra duobus,
Nomine Parnasus, superantque cacumina nubes:
Hic ubi Deucalion (nam cetera texerat aequor)
Cum consorte tori parua rate uectus adhaesit,
Corycidas nymphas et numina montis adorant
Fatidicamque Themin, quae tunc oracla tenebat:
Non illo melior quisquam nec amantior aequi
Vir fuit aut illa metuentior ulla deorum.
Iuppiter ut liquidis stagnare paludibus orbem
Et superesse uirum de tot modo milibus unum
Et superesse uidet de tot modo milibus unam,
Innocuos ambo, cultores numinis ambo,
Nubila disiecit nimbisque aquilone remotis
Et caelo terras ostendit et aethera terris.
Nec maris ira manet, positoque tricuspide telo
Mulcet aquas rector pelagi supraque profundum
Exstantem atque umeros innato murice tectum
Caeruleum Tritona uocat conchaeque sonanti
Inspirare iubet fluctusque et flumina signo
Iam reuocare dato: caua bucina sumitur illi,
Tortilis, in latum quae turbine crescit ab imo,
Bucina, quae medio concepit ubi aera ponto,
Litora uoce replet sub utroque iacentia Phoebo.
Tunc quoque, ut ora dei madida rorantia barba
Contigit et cecinit iussos inflata receptus,
Omnibus audita est telluris et aequoris undis
Et, quibus est undis audita, coercuit omnes.
Iam mare litus habet, plenos capit alueus amnes,
Flumina subsidunt collesque exire uidentur,
Surgit humus, crescunt loca decrescentibus undis,
Postque diem longam nudata cacumina siluae
Ostendunt limumque tenent in fronde relictum.
Redditus orbis erat; quem postquam uidit inanem
Et desolatas agere alta silentia terras,
Deucalion lacrimis ita Pyrrham adfatur obortis:
"O soror, o coniunx, o femina sola superstes,
Quam commune mihi genus et patruelis origo,
Deinde torus iunxit, nunc ipsa pericula iungunt,
Terrarum, quascumque uident occasus et ortus,
Nos duo turba sumus: possedit cetera pontus.
Haec quoque adhuc uitae non est fiducia nostrae
Certa satis; terrent etiam nunc nubila mentem.
Quis tibi, si sine me fatis erepta fuisses,
Nunc animus, miseranda, foret? quo sola timorem
Ferre modo posses? quo consolante doleres?
Namque ego, crede mihi, si te quoque pontus haberet,
Te sequerer, coniunx, et me quoque pontus haberet.
O utinam possim populos reparare paternis
Artibus atque animas formatae infundere terrae!
Nunc genus in nobis restat mortale duobus
(Sic uisum superis) hominumque exempla manemus."
Dixerat, et flebant; placuit caeleste precari
Numen et auxilium per sacras quaerere sortes.
Nulla mora est: adeunt pariter Cephisidas undas,
Vt nondum liquidas, sic iam uada nota secantes.
Inde ubi libatos inrorauere liquores
Vestibus et capiti, flectunt uestigia sanctae
Ad delubra deae, quorum fastigia turpi
Pallebant musco stabantque sine ignibus arae.
Vt templi tetigere gradus, procumbit uterque
Pronus humi gelidoque pauens dedit oscula saxo,
Atque ita "si precibus" dixerunt "numina iustis
Victa remollescunt, si flectitur ira deorum,
Dic, Themi, qua generis damnum reparabile nostri
Arte sit, et mersis fer opem, mitissima, rebus."
Mota dea est sortemque dedit: "discedite templo
Et uelate caput cinctasque resoluite uestes
Ossaque post tergum magnae iactate parentis."
Obstipuere diu, rumpitque silentia uoce
Pyrrha prior iussisque deae parere recusat,
Detque sibi ueniam, pauido rogat ore pauetque
Laedere iactatis maternas ossibus umbras.
Interea repetunt caecis obscura latebris
Verba datae sortis secum inter seque uolutant.
Inde Promethides placidis Epimethida dictis
Mulcet et "aut fallax" ait "est sollertia nobis,
Aut (pia sunt nullumque nefas oracula suadent)
Magna parens terra est: lapides in corpore terrae
Ossa reor dici; iacere hos post terga iubemur."
Coniugis augurio quamquam Titania mota est,
Spes tamen in dubio est: adeo caelestibus ambo
Diffidunt monitis. sed quid temptare nocebit?
Discedunt uelantque caput tunicasque recingunt
Et iussos lapides sua post uestigia mittunt.
Saxa (quis hoc credat, nisi sit pro teste uetustas?)
Ponere duritiem coepere suumque rigorem
Mollirique mora mollitaque ducere formam.
Mox ubi creuerunt naturaque mitior illis
Contigit, ut quaedam, sic non manifesta uideri
Forma potest hominis, sed, uti de marmore coepta,
Non exacta satis rudibusque simillima signis.
Quae tamen ex illis aliquo pars umida suco
Et terrena fuit, uersa est in corporis usum;
Quod solidum est flectique nequit, mutatur in ossa;
Quae modo uena fuit, sub eodem nomine mansit;
Inque breui spatio superorum numine saxa
Missa uiri manibus faciem traxere uirorum,
Et de femineo reparata est femina iactu.
Inde genus durum sumus experiensque laborum
Et documenta damus, qua simus origine nati.
Cetera diuersis tellus animalia formis
Sponte sua peperit, postquam uetus umor ab igne
Percaluit solis caenumque udaeque paludes
Intumuere aestu fecundaque semina rerum
Viuaci nutrita solo ceu matris in aluo
Creuerunt faciemque aliquam cepere morando.
Sic, ubi deseruit madidos septemfluus agros
Nilus et antiquo sua flumina reddidit alueo
Aetherioque recens exarsit sidere limus,
Plurima cultores uersis animalia glaebis
Inueniunt et in his quaedam modo coepta per ipsum
Nascendi spatium, quaedam inperfecta suisque
Trunca uident numeris, et eodem in corpore saepe
Altera pars uiuit, rudis est pars altera tellus.

             …………………
The rape of Europa. Metamorphoses II, 833-875:

Has ubi uerborum poenas mentisque profanae
Cepit Atlantiades, dictas a Pallade terras
Linquit et ingreditur iactatis aethera pennis.
Seuocat hinc genitor nec causam fassus amoris:
"Fide minister" ait "iussorum, nate, meorum,
Pelle moram solitoque celer delabere cursu
Quaeque tuam matrem tellus a parte sinistra
Suspicit (indigenae Sidonida nomine dicunt),
Hanc pete, quodque procul montano gramine pasci
Armentum regale uides, ad litora uerte".
Dixit et expulsi iamdudum monte iuuenci
Litora iussa petunt, ubi magni filia regis
Ludere uirginibus Tyriis comitata solebat.
Non bene conueniunt nec in una sede morantur
Maiestas et amor; sceptri grauitate relicta,
Ille pater rectorque deum, cui dextra trisulcis
Ignibus armata est, qui nutu concutit orbem,
Induitur faciem tauri mixtusque iuuencis
Mugit et in teneris formosus obambulat herbis.
Quippe color niuis est, quam nec uestigia duri
Calcauere pedis nec soluit aquaticus Auster.
Colla toris exstant, armis palearia pendent;
Cornua parua quidem, sed quae contendere possis
Facta manu puraque magis perlucida gemma.
Nullae in fronte minae nec formidabile lumen;
Pacem uultus habet. miratur Agenore nata
Quod tam formosus, quod proelia nulla minetur;
Sed quamuis mitem, metuit contingere primo.
Mox adit et flores ad candida porrigit ora.
Gaudet amans et, dum ueniat sperata uoluptas,
Oscula dat manibus; uix iam, uix cetera differt.
Et nunc alludit uiridique exsultat in herba
Nunc latus in fuluis niueum deponit harenis;
Paulatimque metu dempto, modo pectora praebet
Virginea plaudenda manu, modo cornua sertis
Impedienda nouis. ausa est quoque regia uirgo,
Nescia quem premeret, tergo considere tauri,
Cum deus a terra siccoque a litore sensim
Falsa pedum primo uestigia ponit in undis,
Inde abit ulterius mediique per aequora ponti
Fert praedam. pauet haec litusque ablata relictum
Respicit et dextra cornum tenet, altera dorso
Imposita est; tremulae sinuantur flamine uestes.

   ………..
Orpheus and Eurydice

Inde per immensum croceo uelatus amictu
Aethera digreditur Ciconumque Hymenaeus ad oras
Tendit et Orphea nequiquam uoce uocatur.
Adfuit ille quidem, sed nec sollemnia uerba
Nec laetos uultus nec felix attulit omen;
Fax quoque, quam tenuit, lacrimoso stridula fumo
Vsque fuit nullosque inuenit motibus ignes.
Exitus auspicio grauior. nam nupta per herbas
Dum noua naiadum turba comitata uagatur,
Occidit in talum serpentis dente recepto.
Quam satis ad superas postquam Rhodopeius auras
Defleuit uates, ne non temptaret et umbras,
Ad Styga Taenaria est ausus descendere porta
Perque leues populos simulacraque functa sepulcro
Persephonen adiit inamoenaque regna tenentem
Vmbrarum dominum pulsisque ad carmina neruis
Sic ait: "o positi sub terra numina mundi,
In quem reccidimus, quidquid mortale creamur,
Si licet et falsi positis ambagibus oris
Vera loqui sinitis, non huc, ut opaca uiderem
Tartara, descendi, nec uti uillosa colubris
Terna Medusaei uincirem guttura monstri;
Causa uiae est coniunx, in quam calcata uenenum
Vipera diffudit crescentesque abstulit annos.
Posse pati uolui nec me temptasse negabo:
Vicit Amor. supera deus hic bene notus in ora est;
An sit et hic, dubito. sed et hic tamen auguror esse,
Famaque si ueteris non est mentita rapinae,
Vos quoque iunxit Amor. per ego haec loca plena timoris,
Per Chaos hoc ingens uastique silentia regni,
Eurydices, oro, properata retexite fata!
Omnia debentur uobis paulumque morati
Serius aut citius sedem properamus ad unam.
Tendimus huc omnes, haec est domus ultima, uosque
Humani generis longissima regna tenetis.
Haec quoque, cum iustos matura peregerit annos,
Iuris erit uestri: pro munere poscimus usum.
Quod si fata negant ueniam pro coniuge, certum est
Nolle redire mihi: leto gaudete duorum."
Talia dicentem neruosque ad uerba mouentem
Exsangues flebant animae: nec Tantalus undam
Captauit refugam stupuitque Ixionis orbis,
Nec carpsere iecur uolucres, urnisque uacarunt
Belides, inque tuo sedisti, Sisyphe, saxo.
Tunc primum lacrimis uictarum carmine fama est
Eumenidum maduisse genas, nec regia coniunx
Sustinet oranti nec, qui regit ima, negare
Eurydicenque uocant. umbras erat illa recentes
Inter et incessit passu de uulnere tardo.
Hanc simul et legem Rhodopeius accipit Orpheus,
Ne flectat retro sua lumina, donec Auernas
Exierit ualles; aut irrita dona futura.
Carpitur adcliuis per muta silentia trames,
Arduus, obscurus, caligine densus opaca.
Nec procul abfuerant telluris margine summae:
Hic, ne deficeret, metuens auidusque uidendi
Flexit amans oculos: et protinus illa relapsa est
Bracchiaque intendens prendique et prendere certans
Nil nisi cedentes infelix adripit auras.
Iamque iterum moriens non est de coniuge quicquam
Questa suo (quid enim nisi se quereretur amatam?)
Supremumque "uale", quod iam uix auribus ille
Acciperet, dixit reuolutaque rursus eodem est.
Non aliter stupuit gemina nece coniugis Orpheus,
Quam tria qui timidus, medio portante catenas,
Colla canis uidit; quem non pauor ante reliquit,
Quam natura prior, saxo per corpus oborto;
Quique in se crimen traxit uoluitque uideri
Olenos esse nocens, tuque, o confisa figurae,
Infelix Lethaea, tuae, iunctissima quondam
Pectora, nunc lapides, quos umida sustinet Ide.
Orantem frustraque iterum transire uolentem
Portitor arcuerat; septem tamen ille diebus
Squalidus in ripa Cereris sine munere sedit:
Cura dolorque animi lacrimaeque alimenta fuere.
Esse deos Erebi crudeles questus in altam
Se recipit Rhodopen pulsumque aquilonibus Haemum.

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Trees, plants in general, play an important role in the symbolic and religious life of all the peoples. In many cases and places they are sacred elements; and there are sacred forests where the genius or sacred power of divinity hide and sacred trees, inhabited by the gods, consecrated or identified with them. Each species is related to a deity and to a specific function. Its elements, such as leaves or , are used as symbols or simply as decorative elements. Thus, for example, crowns of various kinds are used according to their meaning.

We know how Athena, the Minerva of the Romans, gave Athens her name and tree, the olive tree. The tree of Dionysus or Bacchus, god of wine, of course must be the vine and ivy. Myrtle is this of the Venus, goddess of love.

Virgil clearly expressed it, for example, in their Bucolics,VII, 61-64:

CORYDON

“The poplar doth Alcides hold most dear,
the vine Iacchus, Phoebus his own bays,
and Venus fair the myrtle: therewithal
Phyllis doth hazels love, and while she loves,
myrtle nor bay the hazel shall out-vie.”
(J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1895.)

Populus Alcidae gratissima, uitis Iaccho,
Formosae myrtus Veneri, sua laurea Phoebo;
Phylis amat corylos; illas dum Phyllis amabit,
Nec myrtus uincet corylos, nec laurea Phoebi.

The laurel is the tree of Phoebus or Apollo, the sun god, the god of wisdom, of artistic creation, of poetry, music and divination. The laurel is the tree in which the virgin nymph Daphne, pursued by Apollo, to escape the god, was transformed.

The laurel, always green, is a tree that is therefore associated with the fire of the sun and the prophecy.

Apollo issued oracles * to men who request it. In his famous sanctuary of Delphi, forced destination for the Greek, to know the future, he issued them by a priestess or a medium, the Pithia, the Pythoness **.

* From Latin oraculum and this from orare, speak, etymologically it means message, parliament.

** At Delphi Apollo killed the  Python snake; hence the term also applies to a powerful and feared constrictor snake that kills its victims by suffocation curling environment.

It seems that the oracle was obtained from the fire, throwing bay leaves to it;  if the leaves frizzle and crackle,  this was good signal and if they did not frizzle, the signal was bad. Who obtained a good oracle, they returned home crowned with laurel. In addition laurel caused premonitory dreams.

In the Renaissance, Alciatus reminds us in his Book of Emblems,  CCX  (aliter CCXI)  the laurel knows the future and placed near produces precognitive dreams:

The laurel tree

Knowing what is to come, the laurel tree bears signs of safety: placed under a pillow, it creates dreams that come true.

Praescia venturae laurus fert signa salutis:
Subdita pulvillo somnia vera facit

In the same Book of emblems reminds us an appointment of Tibullus on the same issue:

Tibullus, Book II, 5, v. 79 et seq.

Such was the olden time. O Phoebus, now
Of mild, benignant brow,
Let those portents buried be
In the wild, unfathomed sea!
Now let thy laurel loudly flame
On altars to thy gracious name,
And give good omen of a fruitful year
Crackling laurel if the rustic hear,
He knows his granary shall bursting be,
And sweet new wine flow free,
  …. (Translated by Theodore C.Williams. Boston and New York Houghton Mifflin Company. The Riverside Press. Cambridge,1908)

Haec fuerant olim; sed tu iam mitis, Apollo,
prodigia indomitis merge sub aequoribu.
Et succensa sacris creepitet bene laurea flammis
Omine quo felix et sacer annus erit.
Laurus ubi bona signa dedit, gaudete coloni:
Distendet spicis horrea plena Ceres…

And another of Propertius Book. II, 28, 35

Now cease the wheels whirled to the magic chant, the altar fire is dead and the laurel lies in ashes. (Translated by H.E. Butler,M.A. The Loeb Classical Library)

The chanting of magic, the whirling bullroarers cease, and the laurel lies scorched in the quenched fires.  (Translated by A. S. Kline)

Deficiunt mágico torti sub carmine rhombi,
Et iacet extincto laurus adusta foco

And Lucretius  in his De Rerum Natura, VI, 154-155

Nor is there aught that in the crackling flame
Consumes with sound more terrible to man
Than Delphic laurel of Apollo lord.
(Transated by William Ellery Leonard, Ed.)

Nec res ulla magis quam Phoebi Delphica laurus
Terribili sonitu flamma crepitante crematur

The laurel is a symbol of glory; the palm is symbol of victory and the olive branch of peace. The leaves of various plants are used to crown the winners.

A corona is a circular leaf ornament or tree branches, flowers or herbs metal ornament that is placed around the head in recognition or memory of the special value of a person's intelligence, his art or his military merits.

In ancient Greece they will likely be used initially as a decorative element and later used in the world of athletic games (ex. Olympics) as a reward for the winners and also of poetic games. Recall that with athletic games,  poetic and literary competitions are also held.

From the world of competitive sport certainly it went  to the world of the war (from which incidentally athletic games come ) and from Greece came to Rome. Although today what really is estimated is  actually prize money,  the Crown or similar tool as a symbol of victory is still used.

As I said above, probably it came into use as merely ornamental element and soon served to crown the victors in the poetic or literary games that were developed in parallel with athletic games, of which the Olympics are the best example, but also "Pythian" in honor of Apollo and the "Isthmian" in honor of Neptune. We may even think that in the case of the Pythian games at first only artistic competitions are held, as befits the god Apollo, and eventually athletic competitions would be added as  in Olympia in honor of Zeus. And again in Olympia art competitions would be introduced, like the "Pythian".

In relation to the Pythian games and laurel we can quote a few lines from Ovid, I century before and after Christ, so far from their origin, but they are illustrative. Ovid in his poem recalls the victory of Apollo over the serpent Python.

Ovid, Metamorphoses I, 445-ff.

Lest in a dark oblivion time should hide
the fame of this achievement, sacred sports
he instituted, from the Python called
“The Pythian Games.” In these the happy youth
who proved victorious in the chariot race,
running and boxing, with an honoured crown
of oak leaves was enwreathed. The laurel then
was not created, wherefore Phoebus, bright
and godlike, beauteous with his flowing hair,
was wont to wreathe his brows with various leaves.
(Translated by Brookes More. Boston. Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922.)

Neve operis famam posset delere vetustas,
instituit sacros celebri certamine ludos,
Pythia perdomitae serpentis nomine dictos.
Hic iuvenum quicumque manu pedibusve rotave
vicerat, aesculeae capiebat frondis honorem:
nondum laurus erat, longoque decentia crine
tempora cingebat de qualibet arbore Phoebus.

So soon they also meant the triumph of the great athletes, who conferred so much honor to their hometowns. Since the athletic games, in turn, are clearly related to the military tasks of the early Greek warrior aristocrats, it could easily bee moved the meaning of laurel to the military world and thus prove the military glory.

This meaning is especially developed among the Romans, who were almost always at war throughout his history. With laurel the undefeated generals and emperors are crowned, and the victorious weapons are adorned with laurel, such as spears, bows of ships or letters and tablets which brought news of victory. So Roman generals at the ceremony of victory, who also in their hands carry a branch of laurel, and the lictors and soldiers parading in the procession.

Even a small digression, I will comment that the Romans greatly developed the typology of the crowns as symbols of very specific functions; on another occasion I will comment in more detail. Suffice now a hasty catalog of crowns: obsidionalis (for breaking the siege of a city), civica (for saving the life of a Roman citizen), navalis (for being the first in the collision or by a naval victory) muralis ( for being the first to climb a wall), castrensis (for going into the enemy camp), triumphalis (the triumph is the greatest reward the General winner), etc. There are also the convivalis (of the banquet), the funebris (it needs no explanation), the nuptialis (for wedding), the natalitia (for birth: of olive if a boy, of wool if a girl), etc.

Going back to early Greece, Pindar (518? -438 BC), for example, tells us how the winner is crowned with olive leaf crowns on the occasion of the chariot race of the year 452 B.C. . In Olympic IV, 11ff, dedicated to his friend Psaumis of Camarina:

For the procession comes in honor of Psaumis' chariot; Psaumis, who, crowned with the olive of Pisa, hurries to rouse glory for Camarina. (Translated by Diane Arnson Svarlien. 1990.)

And Pliny, who described the various types of laurel reminds us how properly the laurel is the decorative element, in Natural History, XV, 39 (127):

The laurel is especially consecrated to triumphs, is remarkably ornamental to houses, and guards the portals of our emperors and our pontiffs: there suspended alone, it graces the palace, and is ever on guard before the threshold. Cato speaks of two varieties of this tree, the Delphic and the Cyprian. Pompeius Lenæus has added another, to which he has given the name of "mustax," from the circumstance of its being used for putting under the cake known by the name of "mustaceum." He says that this variety has a very large leaf, flaccid, and of a whitish hue; that the Delphic laurel is of one uniform colour, greener than the other, with berries of very large size, and of a red tint approaching to green. He says, too, that it is with this laurel that the victors at Delphi are crowned, and warriors who enjoy the honours of a triumph at Rome. The Cyprian laurel, he says, has a short leaf, is of a blackish colour, with an imbricated edge, and crisped. (John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed)

Laurus triumphis proprie dicatur, vel gratissima domibus, ianitrix Caesarum pontificumque. sola et domos exornat et ante limina excubat .  duo eius genera tradidit Cato, Delphicam et Cypriam. Pompeius Lenaeus adiecit quam mustacem appellavit, quoniam mustaceis subiceretur: hanc esse folio maximo flaccidoque et albicante; Delphicam aequali colore viridiorem, maximis bacis atque e viridi rubentibus ac victores Delphis coronare ut triumphantes Romae; Cypriam esse folio brevi, nigro, per margines imbricato crispam.

Virgil remembers how the sailors placed wreaths of flowers  (and laurel in the prows of boats in victory and peace, in his Georgics, I, 303-304:

As laden keels, when now the port they touch,
And happy sailors crown the sterns with flowers.
(Translated by J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1900.)

Ceu pressae cum iam portum tetigere carinae,
Puppibus et laeti nautae imposuere coronas

Pliny also reminds us it in  Natural History XV, 40 (133):

This tree is emblematical of peace: when a branch of it is extended, it is to denote a truce between enemies in arms. For the Romans more particulary it is the messenger of joyful tidings, and of victory: it accompanies the despatches of the general, and it decorates the lances and javelins of the soldiers and the fasces which precede their chief.  (Translated by John Bostock, M.D.,F.R.S. and H.T. Riley, Esq. B.A. 1855)

Ipsa pacifera, ut quam praetendi etiam inter armatos hostes quietis sit indicium. Romanis praecipue laetitiae victoriarumque nuntia additur litteris et militum lanceis pilisque, fasces imperatorum decorat.

Saint Isidore also considered the laurel as a symbol of glory and victory. In his Etymologies XVII, 7.2 he derives its name from the word laus (praise), and explains why it crowns the head of the winners:

"Laurel" (Laurus) is so called from the word laudis (praise). The heads of the victors were crowned with praise with this tree.  Among the ancients it was called laudea; then the letter D was abolished and replaced by R and it was called laurus, just like auriculis (ears) which was at first pronounced audiculae and medidies (midday) which is now pronounced meridies. The Greeks call this tree  δάφνη (Dafne) δαφνην  because it never loses its verdure; and for this reason the winners are crowned with him. The common people believe that this is the only tree that can not be struck by lightning.

Laurus a verbo laudis dicta; hac enim cum laudibus victorum capita coronabantur. Apud antiquos autem laudea nominabatur; postea D littera sublata et subrogata R dicta est laurus; ut in auriculis, quae initio audiculae dictae sunt, et medidies, quae nunc meridies dicitur. Hanc arborem Graeci  δάφνην (dafnen)  vocant, quod numquam deponat viriditatem; inde illa potius victores coronantur. Sola quoque haec arbor vulgo fulminari minime creditur.

Apollo, whose tree is the laurel, is the patron god of poetry, of music and of the arts in general. Its perennial verdure is the best symbol of the enduring value of poetry and art. A greater specialization seems to require the laurel for epic poetry which sings  the victorious heroes and the myrtle for lyric  and pastoral poetry:

Virgil, Bucolic: VIII 11-13:

Take thou these songs that owe their birth to thee,
and deign around thy temples to let creep
this ivy-chaplet 'twixt the conquering bays.
(Translated by J. B. Greenough. Boston. Ginn & Co. 1895.)

…accipe iussis
Carmina coepta tuis, atque hanc sine tempora circum
Inter uictrices hederam tibi serpere laurus.

This symbolic value of the literary glory survived in the Middle Ages, it gained new importance in the Renaissance and endures today.

Mostly it has been used, appropriated, translated, recreated the famous fable or myth of Apollo and Daphne. Daphne δάφνη is precisely the Greek name for the laurel. The myth was divulged by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, I, 452 et ff.:

Apollo, proud of their victory over the serpent Python, mocked Cupid, who being  a child used arms of an adult; Cupid took revenge wounding him with a golden arrow and inflaming his heart with an irresistible love for the nymph Daphne while he  wounded her with an arrow of lead, which generated disgust and rejection.The supplications  of Apollo were useless , and they did not soften the heart of the nymph; Apollo, desperate chases her through the woods and he is about to reach her  when Dafne implores the help of his father, Peneus River, who turns her into laurel; Apollo desperate and tearful embraces the tree, which made its emblem and its tree. And the laurel is also the symbol of unrequited and unhappy love.

Well, no Medieval or Renaissance literary or Baroque author who does not remember, imitate or reproduce this myth.

I will comment on a curious question. Often in the literature, with an epic or lyrical character appears a comic element that downplays the grandeur of earlier. Thiat happens with laurel: given its culinary value to flavor stews and cooked, it is not uncommon in the Baroque Literature of contrasts appear burlesque versions of the value of laurel.

An example is the famous Spanish playwright and poet Lope de Vega, who under the name of his heterónimo Tomé Burguillos, is the author of this great sonnet which ridicules the desire of poets to receive laurels and awards. I offer only Spanish text without translation to avoid damaging the poem:

Llevóme Febo a su Parnaso un día,
y vi por el cristal de unos canceles
a Homero y a Virgilio con doseles,
leyendo filosófica poesía
Vi luego la importuna infantería
de poetas fantásticos noveles,
pidiendo por principios más laureles
que anima Dafne y que Apolo cría.
Pedile yo también por estudiante,
y díjome un bedel: “Burguillos, quedo:
que no sois digno de laurel triunfante”
“¿Por qué?”, le dije; y respondió sin miedo:
“Porque los lleva todos un tratante
para hacer escabeches en Laredo.”

This comic contrast between the two functions of laurel, the sublime to crown the head of the poets and this of the prosaic culinary seasoning, remains a continuing reflection today. For example, the writer, journalist and Spanish writer Manuel Vicent reminds us in his article in the newspaper El País of 22 July 2001 "Glory":

.. So they you want you, dedicated to the verses in the horatian village, between chickens and lettuce, you contemplating the twilight and they filling the sack. The laurel  has two destinations: the head of the hero or the stew. Maybe one day you were a rebel: it was that day when you were willing to die for no bend yourself. That is the moment of glory that belongs to you.

But Laurel does not exhaust its virtuality in this symbolic work; its branches also serve as a shield against lightning, which increases the idea of symbol of immortality. Pliny tells us how Tiberius crowned himself with bay when there was a storm:

Naturalis Historia, book XV,  40 (134-135):

Another reason, too, may be the fact, that of all the shrubs that are planted and received in our houses, this is the only one that is never struck by lightning…. It is said that when it thundered, the Emperor Tiberius was in the habit of putting on a wreath of laurel to allay his apprehensions of disastrous effects from the lightning.

et quia manu satarum receptarumque in domos fulmine sola non icitur. ..Ti. principem tonante caelo coronari ea solitum ferunt contra fulminum metus.

Saint Isidore picked up the belief in his Etymologies (XVII, 7, 1), as we saw above:

The common people believe that this is the only tree that can’t  be struck by lightning.

Sola quoque haec arbor vulgo fulminari minime creditur.

Even today in some towns, they are placed on the balconies branches of laurel to ward off the danger of lightning.

Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca) had very easy to pun on the name of his immortal beloved, Laura, "Laurel" in many poems of his Songbook; so, Song XXIX:

She is a star on earth, and she keeps
her chastity as laurel stays green,
so no lightning strikes her, no shameful breeze
can ever force her.
(Translated by: A.S.Kline)

ch'è stella in terra, et come in lauro foglia
conserva verde il pregio d'onestade,
ove non spira folgore, né indegno
vento mai che l'aggrave.

and in song CXXIX

where the breeze is fragrant
with fresh and perfumed laurel.
(Translated by: A.S.Kline)

ove l'aura si sente
d'un fresco et odorifero laureto.

Also the laurel is a common element in the ideals gardens (locus amoenus) ideal scene, despite the redundancy, for love. So  Petronius does it in his Satyricon , chap. CXXXI,8,

Shorn of its top, the swaying pine here casts a
summer shade
And quivering cypress, and the stately plane
And berry-laden laurel. A brook's wimpling waters strayed
Lashed into foam, but dancing on again
And rolling pebbles in their chattering flow.
It was Love's own nook,
(Translation by W. C. Firebaugh)

Mobilis aestiuas platanus diffuderat umbras
et bacis redimita Daphne tremulaeque cupressus
et circum tonsae trepidanti uertice pinus.
Has inter ludebat aquis errantibus amnis
spumeus, et querulo uexabat rore lapillos.
Dignus amore locus …

And even occasionally it may appear in funeral environments, recalling the perennial glory of the deceased.

Finally, only the olive tree can compete in the ancient world in symbolic value with laurel.

So the meaning of laurel as a symbol of artistic and military triumph was preserved throughout the Middle Ages and of course in the Renaissance, where it can also be a symbol of triumph in love, given the similarities with these the poets present the two battles, war and love, and in Baroque periods and so to this day. Appointments are innumerable. And even a piece remains of its  magic value in the custom of placing branches on the balconies, custom now generally Christianized by putting olive branches in Palm Sunday.

I will transcribe as an example of the emblem of Alciato cited above aimed at Charles V for his campaign in Tunisia and two quotes from Cervantes in Don Quixote with evident ironic tone:

Alciato's Book of Emblems
Emblem 211

The laurel tree is owed to Charles for his victory over the Poeni:
may such garlands adorn victorious heads.

Debetur Carolo superatis Laurea Poenis:
  Victrices ornent talia serta comas.

Don Quixote (II, 18):  

When Don Lorenzo had finished reciting his gloss, Don Quixote stood up, and in a loud voice, almost a shout, exclaimed as he grasped Don Lorenzo's right hand in his, "By the highest heavens, noble youth, but you are the best poet on earth, and deserve to be crowned with laurel, not by Cyprus or by Gaeta—as a certain poet, God forgive him, said—but by the Academies of Athens, if they still flourished, and by those that flourish now, Paris, Bologna, Salamanca. Heaven grant that the judges who rob you of the first prize—that Phoebus may pierce them with his arrows, and the Muses never cross the thresholds of their doors. Repeat me some of your long-measure verses, senor, if you will be so good, for I want thoroughly to feel the pulse of your rare genius." (Translated by John Ormsby)

Don Quixote (II, 55):

(aimed for his donkey)

! O comrade and friend, how ill have I repaid thy faithful services! Forgive me, and entreat Fortune, as well as thou canst, to deliver us out of this miserable strait we are both in; and I promise to put a crown of laurel on thy head, and make thee look like a poet laureate, and give thee double feeds."

Etymological note: “laureate”, of course,  means crowned with laurel. Who perform  secondary education are the laureates with the bacca, which according to the dictionary of the Royal Academy is the fruit or berry laurel; they  are bacca laureati, ie "bachelors" (word derived from "Baccalaureatus").

I then offer a long quotation from Pliny, at the end of Book XV on the bay, their classes, their symbolism and wonders. This gives us an idea of the importance that the laurel was in the ancient world and detail with which it is studied.

Pliny, Natural History, 39-40
39. (30.)—The laurel; thirteen varieties of it.

The laurel is especially consecrated to triumphs, is remarkably ornamental to houses, and guards the portals of our emperors and our pontiffs: there suspended alone, it graces the palace, and is ever on guard before the threshold. Cato speaks of two varieties of this tree, the Delphic and the Cyprian. Pompeius Lenæus has added another, to which he has given the name of "mustax," from the circumstance of its being used for putting under the cake known by the name of "mustaceum." He says that this variety has a very large leaf, flaccid, and of a whitish hue; that the Delphic laurel is of one uniform colour, greener than the other, with berries of very large size, and of a red tint approaching to green. He says, too, that it is with this laurel that the victors at Delphi are crowned, and warriors who enjoy the honours of a triumph at Rome. The Cyprian laurel, he says, has a short leaf, is of a blackish colour, with an imbricated edge, and crisped.
Since his time, however, the varieties have considerably augmented. There is the tinus for instance, by some considered as a species of wild laurel, while others, again, regard it as a tree of a separate class; indeed, it does differ from the laurel as to the colour, the berry being of an azure blue. The royal laurel, too, has since been added, which has of late begun to be known as the "Augustan:" both the tree, as well as the leaf, are of remarkable size, and the berries have not the usual rough taste. Some say, however, that the royal laurel and the Augustan are not the same tree, and make out the former to be a peculiar kind, with a leaf both longer and broader than that of the Augustan. The same authors, also, make a peculiar species of the bacalia the commonest laurel of all, and the one that bears the greatest number of berries. With them, too, the barren laurel is the laurel of the triumphs, and they say that this is the one that is used by warriors when enjoying a triumph—a thing that surprises me very much; unless, indeed, the use of it was first introduced by the late Emperor Augustus, and it is to be considered as the progeny of that laurel, which, as we shall just now have occasion to mention, was sent to him from heaven; it being the smallest of them all, with a crisped short leaf; and very rarely to be met with.
In ornamental gardening we also find the taxa employed, with a small leaf sprouting from the middle of the leaf, and forming a fringe, as it were, hanging from it; the spadonia, too, without this fringe, a tree that thrives remarkably well in the shade: indeed, however dense the shade may be, it will soon cover the spot with its shoots. There is the chamædaphne, also, a shrub that grows wild; the Alexandrian laurel, by some known as the Idean, by others as the "hypoglottion," by others as the "carpophyllon," and by others, again, as the "hypelates." From the root it throws out branches three quarters of a foot in length; it is much used in ornamental gardening, and for making wreaths, and it has a more pointed leaf than that of the myrtle, and superior to it in softness, whiteness, and size: the seed, which lies between the leaves, is red. This last kind grows in great abundance on Mount Ida and in the vicinity of Heraclea in Pontus: it is only found, however, in mountainous districts.
The laurel, too, known as the daphnoides, is a variety that has received many different names: by some it is called the Pelasgian laurel, by others the euthalon, and by others the stephanon Alexandri. This is also a branchy shrub, with a thicker and softer leaf than that of the ordinary laurel: if tasted, it leaves a burning sensation in the mouth and throat: the berries are red, inclining to black. The ancient writers have remarked, that in their time there was no species of laurel in the island of Corsica. Since then, however, it has been planted there, and has thrived well.

40.—Historical anecdotes connected with the laurel.

This tree is emblematical of peace: when a branch of it is extended, it is to denote a truce between enemies in arms. For the Romans more particularly it is the messenger of joyful tidings, and of victory: it accompanies the despatches of the general, and it decorates the lances and javelins of the soldiers and the fasces which precede their chief. It is of this tree that branches are deposited on the lap of Jupiter All-good and All-great, so often as some new victory has imparted uni- versal gladness. This is done, not because it is always green, nor yet because it is an emblem of peace—for in both of those respects the olive would take the precedence of it—but because it is the most beauteous tree on Mount Parnassus, and was pleasing for its gracefulness to Apollo even; a deity to whom the kings of Rome sent offerings at an early period, as we learn from the case of L. Brutus. Perhaps, too, honour is more particularly paid to this tree because it was there that Brutus earned the glory of asserting his country's liberties, when, by the direction of the oracle, he kissed that laurel-bearing soil. *

(Note *: He alludes to the circumstance of the priestess being asked who should reign at Rome after Tarquin; upon which she answered, "He who first kisses his mother;" on which Brutus, the supposed idiot, stumbled to the ground, and kissed the earth, the mother of all.)

Another reason, too, may be the fact, that of all the shrubs that are planted and received in our houses, this is the only one that is never struck by lightning. It is for these reasons, in my opinion, that the post of honour has been awarded to the laurel more particularly in triumphs, and not, as Massurius says, because it was used for the purposes of fumigation and purification from the blood of the enemy.

In addition to the above particulars, it is not permitted to defile the laurel and the olive by applying them to profane uses; so much so, indeed, that, not even for the propitiation of the divinities, should a fire be lighted with them at either altar or shrine. Indeed, it is very evident that the laurel protests against such usage by crackling as it does in the fire, thus, in a manner, giving expresssion to its abhorrence of such treatment. The wood of this tree when eaten is good as a specific for internal maladies and affections of the sinews.
It is said that when it thundered, the Emperor Tiberius was in the habit of putting on a wreath of laurel to allay his apprehensions of disastrous effects from the lightning. There are also some remarkable facts connected with the laurel in the history of the late Emperor Augustus: once while Livia Drusilla, who afterwards on her marriage with the Emperor assumed the name of Augusta, at the time that she was affianced to him, was seated, there fell into her lap a hen of remarkable whiteness, which an eagle let fall from aloft without its receiving the slightest injury: on Livia viewing it without any symptoms of alarm, it was discovered that miracle was added to miracle, and that it held in its beak a branch of laurel covered with berries. The aruspices gave orders that the hen and her progeny should be carefully preserved, and the branch planted and tended with religious care. This was accordingly done at the country-house belonging to the Cæsars, on the Flaminian Way, near the banks of the Tiber, eight miles from the City; from which circumstance that road has since received the title "Ad gallinas." From the branch there has now arisen, wondrous to relate, quite a grove: and Augustus Cæsar afterwards, when celebrating a triumph, held a branch of it in his hand and wore a wreath of this laurel on his head; since which time all the succeeding emperors have followed his example. Hence, too, has originated the custom of planting the branches which they have held on these occasions, and we thus see groves of laurel still existing which owe their respective names to this circumstance. It was on the above occasion, too, that not improbably a change was effected in the usual laurel of the triumph. The laurel is the only one among the trees that in the Latin language has given an appellation to a man, and it is the only one the leaf of which has a distinct name of its own,—it being known by the name of "laurea." The name of this tree is still retained by one place in the city of Rome, for we find a spot on the Aventine Mount still known by the name of "Loretum," where formerly a laurel-grove existed. The laurel is employed in purifications, and we may here mention, incidentally, that it will grow from slips—though Democritus and Theophrastus have expressed their doubts as to that fact.We shall now proceed to speak of the forest trees.  (Translated by  John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855).

Naturalis Historia, XV, 39-40

Laurus triumphis proprie dicatur, vel gratissima domibus, ianitrix Caesarum pontificumque. sola et domos exornat et ante limina excubat. duo eius genera tradidit Cato, Delphicam et Cypriam. Pompeius Lenaeus adiecit quam mustacem appellavit, quoniam mustaceis subiceretur: hanc esse folio maximo flaccidoque et albicante; Delphicam aequali colore viridiorem, maximis bacis atque e viridi rubentibus ac victores Delphis coronare ut triumphantes Romae; Cypriam esse folio brevi, nigro, per margines imbricato crispam.  postea accessere genera: tinus — hanc silvestrem laurum aliqui intellegunt, nonnulli sui generis arborem — differt colore; est enim caerulea baca. accessit et regia, quae coepit Augusta appellari, amplissima et arbore et folio, bacis gustatu quoque non asperis. aliqui negant eandem esse et suum genus regiae faciunt longioribus foliis latioribusque.

iidem in alio genere bacaliam appellant hanc quae vulgatissima est bacarumque fertilissima, sterilem vero earum, quod maxime miror, triumphalem eaque dicunt triumphantes uti, nisi id a Divo Augusto coepit, ut docebimus, ex ea lauru quae ei missa e caelo est, minima altitudine, folio crispo, brevi, inventu rara. accedit in topiario opere Thasia, excrescente in medio folio parvola veluti lacinia folii, et sine ea spadonina, mira opacitatis patientia, itaque quantalibeat sub umbra solum implet.  est et chamaedaphne silvestris frutex et Alexandrina, quam aliqui Idaeam, alii hypoglottion, alii danaen, alii carpophyllon, alii hypelaten vocant. ramos spargit a radice dodrantales, coronarii operis, folio acutiore quam myrti ac molliore et candidiore, maiore, semine inter folia rubro, plurima in Ida et circa Heracleam Ponti, nec nisi in montuosis. id quoque quod daphnoides vocatur genus in nominum ambitu est; alii enim Pelasgum, alii eupetalon, alii stephanon Alexandri vocant. et hic frutex est ramosus, crassiore ac molliore quam laurus folio, cuius gustatu accendatur os, bacis e nigro rufis. notatum antiquis, nullum genus laurus in Corsica fuisse, quod nunc satum et ibi provenit.

40
Ipsa pacifera, ut quam praetendi etiam inter armatos hostes quietis sit indicium. Romanis praecipue laetitiae victoriarumque nuntia additur litteris et militum lanceis pilisque, fasces imperatorum decorat.  ex iis in gremio Iovis optimi maximique deponitur, quotiens laetitiam nova victoria adtulit, idque non quia perpetuo viret nec quia pacifera est, praeferenda ei utroque olea, sed quia spectatissima in monte Parnaso ideoque etiam grata Apollini visa, adsuetis eo dona mittere, oracula inde repetere iam et regibus Romanis teste L. Bruto, fortassis etiam in argumentum, quoniam ibi libertatem publicam is meruisset lauriferam tellurem illam osculatus ex responso et quia manu satarum receptarumque in domos fulmine sola non icitur.  ob has causas equidem crediderim honorem ei habitum in triumphis potius quam quia suffimentum sit caedis hostium et purgatio, ut tradit Masurius, adeoque in profanis usibus pollui laurum et oleam fas non est, ut ne propitiandis quidem numinibus accendi ex iis altaria araeve debeant. laurus quidem manifesto abdicat ignes crepitu et quadam detestatione, interna eorum etiam vitia et nervorum ligno torquente. Ti. principem tonante caelo coronari ea solitum ferunt contra fulminum metus.

Sunt et circa Divum Augustum eventa eius digna memoratu. namque Liviae Drusillae, quae postea Augusta matrimonii nomen accepit, cum pacta esset illa Caesari, gallinam conspicui candoris sedenti aquila ex alto abiecit in gremium inlaesam, intrepideque miranti accessit miraculum. quoniam teneret in rostro laureum ramum onustum suis bacis, conservari alitem et subolem iussere haruspices ramumque eum seri ac rite custodiri: quod factum est in villa Caesarum fluvio Tiberi inposita iuxta nonum lapidem Flaminiae viae, quae ob id vocatur Ad Gallinas, mireque silva provenit. ex ea triumphans postea Caesar laurum in manu tenuit coronamque capite gessit, ac deinde imperatores Caesares cuncti. traditusque mos est ramos quos tenuerunt serendi, et durant silvae nominibus suis discretae, fortassis ideo mutatis triumphalibus.  unius arborum Latina lingua nomen inponitur viris, unius folia distinguntur appellatione; lauream enim vocamus. durat et in urbe inpositum loco, quando Loretum in Aventino vocatur ubi silva laurus fuit. eadem purificationibus adhibetur, testatumque sit obiter et ramo eam seri, quoniam dubitavere Democritus atque Theophrastus.

Nunc dicemus silvestrium naturas.

The post Crowned with laurel appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

The matter is not without interest but I have to leave for another time to dig a little on the origin of the holiday, in the absence of the martyr Saint Valentine or of powerful arguments to doubt his existence, in the Christianization of a party of most important pagan holidays of February, the Lupercalia.

All this is of great interest, but I prefer to postpone its study. I want to limit myself now to tell one of the most beautiful love stories of antiquity that  Ovid tells in his Metamorphoses, the tragic love story of Pyramus and Thisbe, two dead lovers by a tragic error.

The story, the tale, well known since Antiquity, was so successful since the Renaissance that it is but one from which seems to emerge the most famous tragedy of Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, who also used it on A Midsummer Night's Dream.

It is true that Hyginus, contemporary although a little older than Ovid, (64 BC -. 17) makes a simple reference to the story of Pyramus and Thisbe in his Fables Hyginus is a writer from Valencia, (Spain)  according to Luis Vives,  although others scholars doubt the place of his birth.

(See http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/moon-sun-eclipse-antikythera-mechanism )

He says in Fables, CCXLII:

…..Pyramus in Babylonia ob amorem Thisbes ipse se occidit…
                Pyramus in Babylonia out of love for Thisbe killed himself.

CCXLII Qui se ipsi interfecerunt

CCXLIII    Thisbe Babylonia propter Pyramum quod ipse se interfecerat.
               Thisbe of Babylon killed herself because Pyramus had killed himself.

CCXLIII Quae se ipsae interfecerunt

But he is the poet Ovid who tells this story in Book IV of his work Metamorphoses. We know of no author who told in advance and there are few who do later, some with some variation.

The story is certainly of oriental origin, as evidenced its location in Babylon. Certainly since Ovid  the story  had remarkable success and was well known; before it seems  that it was not known,  judging by the words of Ovid: "vulgaris fabula non est" "it is not a popular story." In Late Antiquity there is a slightly different version of Nonnus, Latin author of the late IV or early of V century, in his Dyonisiaca XII, 84 et seq. He places it in Cilicia, not in Babylon.

Augustine presents us as one of the common themes that students have to develop as an exercise in studying rhetoric, which means that the issue was already well known. So he says, referring to the wall interposed between Pyramus and Thisbe in his On Order, De ordine, 1,3,8:

I tell you, that I irritate myself when I see you singing and suffering with these verses of all kinds that stand between you and the truth a wall thicker than this one they strove to raise between your lovers; but they were connected by a hairline crack. He tried then to sing Pyramus).

Irritor, inquam, abs te versus istos tuos omni metrorum genere cantando et ululando insectari, qui inter te atque veritatem immaniorem murum quam inter amantes tuos conantur  erigere”. ; nam in se illi vel inolita rimula respirabant. Pyramum enim ille tum canere instituerat.

And then in the same De Ordine, 1,5,12

I tell you: so be it that  you call me an irritating busybody;  for surely I can not but be irritating  if I have attack you when you talked with Pyramus and Thisbe …

Cui ego licet, inquam, me odiosum percontatorem voces; vix enim possum non esse,qui  expugnavi me cum Pyramo et Thisbe coloqueris

In the Middle Ages it is commonplace as reference to "unhappy love". The myth appears in all medieval European literature: in Spain and appears in The Fazienda overseas, probably in the year 1153. In France there are numerous examples; it is sufficient the Chretien de Troyes in his Conte of Charrette. Chaucer in England told the story in his The Legend of Good Women. In Italy, Boccaccio summarizes the fable in his De claris mulieribus, although the names of Pyramus and Thisbe not appear.

In Spain it has a minor presence in the Middle Ages by the general lack of Ovid, but it seems that the Marquis de Santillana and Gomez Manrique had a translation of the Metamorphoses. But since the Renaissance there are dozens poets and literary authors who replicate the legend, of which are also numerous fictional romances that were sung in Spain and Portugal. Numerous editions and translations of Ovid from the Renaissance facilitated the direct relationship between authors and this legend.

I want to emphasize only two of Spanish authors without going into the matter, because my interest at the moment is to provide readers with direct text of Ovide; so they can enjoy an exciting literary narrative. These two authors are Cervantes, who in his Don Quixote makes three references to the unhappy love affair: the story of Cardenio and Lucinda in First Part (I, 23-24), and in the Second the sonnet of Lorenzo Miranda, son of The Knight of the Green Gaban, (II, 16-18) and the episode of the Wedding of Camacho (II, 19,20 and 21) with the comic inversion of the fatal love.

I offer the Miranda’s Lorenzo sonnet, because it is shorter:

The lovely maid, she pierces now the wall;
  Heart-pierced by her young Pyramus doth lie;
  And Love spreads wing from Cyprus isle to fly,
A chink to view so wondrous great and small.
There silence speaketh, for no voice at all
  Can pass so strait a strait; but love will ply
  Where to all other power 'twere vain to try;
For love will find a way whate'er befall.
Impatient of delay, with reckless pace
  The rash maid wins the fatal spot where she
Sinks not in lover's arms but death's embrace.
  So runs the strange tale, how the lovers twain
One sword, one sepulchre, one memory,
  Slays, and entombs, and brings to life again.
(Translated by John Ormsby)

El muro rompe la doncella hermosa
que de Píramo abrió el gallardo pecho;
parte el Amor de Chipre y va derecho
a ver la quiebra estrecha y prodigiosa.

Habla el silencio allí, porque no osa
La voz entrar por tan estrecho estrecho;
las almas sí, que amor suele de hecho
facilitar la más difícil cosa

Saltó el deseo de compás y el paso
de la imprudente virgen solicita
por su gusto su muerte. Ved qué historia;

Que a entrambos en un punto, ¡oh extraño caso!,
los mata, los encubre y resucita
una espada, un sepulcro, una memoria.

The other is Gongora, who wrote the story, albeit humorous, or to be more precise, difficult to interpret, that is now known as the Enlightenment and Defense of the Fable of Pyramus and Thisbe (1618). Gongora had previously alluded to the theme of Pyramus and Thisbe in one of the Letrillas (a brief poem) in which the popular refrain 'let me go warm and the people may laugh” is repeated.

Because love is so cruel
that thalamus makes a sword
of Pyamus and his love,
where he and she together are,
let be my Tisbe a cake
and let be the sword my tooth
and the people may laugh

Pues amor es tan cruel
que de Píramo y su amada
hace tálamo una espada,
do se junten ella y él,
sea mi Tisbe un pastel
ya la espada sea mi diente
y ríase la gente.

Shakespeare, meanwhile, recalls the story in the famous tragedy Romeo and Juliet and with an ironic tone in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", though specialists say that the English author does not was directly influenced by the work of Ovid, but the influence came indirectly from  Italian authors  from the poem by Arthur Brooke the Tragical Historye of Romeus and Juliet and from translation of William Painter "Rhomeo and Julietta"; these authors made use of a French version of Pierre Boaiastou which was based on Romeo and Giuletta of Mateo Bandello and a Giulietta e Romeo of Luigi da Porto.

But Shakespeare would have no difficulty in knowing such a popular topic in Europe: Golding  had had translated the Metamorphoses in 1567.

Of course the issue was relevant to other artists in addition to the letters, as painters and musicians, from ancient times to the present day.

I offer only four examples of paintings on the theme: A first-century Pompeii, one from a twelfth-century Romanesque capital in Basel, one of the XVIII-XIX and one absolutely contemporary.

Pyramus and Thisbe represented in a fresco of the House of Octavius Cuartio (Pompeii). S. I d.C.

Cloister of the Cathedral of Basel, late twelfth century,  (with a Christian moralizing interpretation)

Pierre-Claude Gautherot, (1769-1825),

Gabriel Alonso, painting published by the digital publishing One and Zero (http://unoyceroediciones.com/)

Examples of music go from opera A Midsummer Night's Dream,  by Benjamin Britten based on A Midsummer Night's Dream or West Side Story based on Romeo and Juliet to the adaptation of the Beatles, in which Paul McCartney was Pyramus, Thisbe was John Lennon, George Harrison was the Moon and Ringo Starr was the lion.

But enough of much scholarly considerations and inconsequential curiosities and let us allow the poet Ovid to relate in detail the unfortunate history.

Metamorphoses, IV, 42…..54;  55-166

it pleased her sisters, and they ordered her
to tell the story that she loved the most.
So, as she counted in her well-stored mind
the many tales she knew, first doubted she
whether to tell the tale of Derceto,—
that Babylonian, who, aver the tribes
of Palestine, in limpid ponds yet lives,—
her body changed, and scales upon her limbs;
…..
or of that tree
which sometime bore white fruit, but now is changed
and darkened by the blood that stained its roots.—
Pleased with the novelty of this, at once
she tells the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe;—
and swiftly as she told it unto them,
the fleecy wool was twisted into threads.
PYRAMUS AND THISBE
When Pyramus and Thisbe, who were known
the one most handsome of all youthful men,
the other loveliest of all eastern girls,—
lived in adjoining houses, near the walls
that Queen Semiramis had built of brick
around her famous city, they grew fond,
and loved each other—meeting often there—
and as the days went by their love increased.
They wished to join in marriage, but that joy
their fathers had forbidden them to hope;
and yet the passion that with equal strength
inflamed their minds no parents could forbid.
No relatives had guessed their secret love,
for all their converse was by nods and signs;
and as a smoldering fire may gather heat,
the more 'tis smothered, so their love increased.
Now, it so happened, a partition built
between their houses, many years ago,
was made defective with a little chink;
a small defect observed by none, although
for ages there; but what is hid from love?
Our lovers found the secret opening,
and used its passage to convey the sounds
of gentle, murmured words, whose tuneful note
passed oft in safety through that hidden way.
There, many a time, they stood on either side,
thisbe on one and Pyramus the other,
and when their warm breath touched from lip to lip,
their sighs were such as this: “Thou envious wall
why art thou standing in the way of those
who die for love? What harm could happen thee
shouldst thou permit us to enjoy our love?
But if we ask too much, let us persuade
that thou wilt open while we kiss but once:
for, we are not ungrateful; unto thee
we own our debt; here thou hast left a way
that breathed words may enter loving ears.,”
so vainly whispered they, and when the night
began to darken they exchanged farewells;
made presence that they kissed a fond farewell
vain kisses that to love might none avail.
When dawn removed the glimmering lamps of night,
and the bright sun had dried the dewy grass
again they met where they had told their love;
and now complaining of their hapless fate,
in murmurs gentle, they at last resolved,
away to slip upon the quiet night,
elude their parents, and, as soon as free,
quit the great builded city and their homes.
Fearful to wander in the pathless fields,
they chose a trysting place, the tomb of Ninus,
where safely they might hide unseen, beneath
the shadow of a tall mulberry tree,
covered with snow-white fruit, close by a spring.
All is arranged according to their hopes:
and now the daylight, seeming slowly moved,
sinks in the deep waves, and the tardy night
arises from the spot where day declines.
Quickly, the clever Thisbe having first
deceived her parents, opened the closed door.
She flitted in the silent night away;
and, having veiled her face, reached the great tomb,
and sat beneath the tree; love made her bold.
There, as she waited, a great lioness
approached the nearby spring to quench her thirst:
her frothing jaws incarnadined with blood
of slaughtered oxen. As the moon was bright,
Thisbe could see her, and affrighted fled
with trembling footstep to a gloomy cave;
and as she ran she slipped and dropped her veil,
which fluttered to the ground. She did not dare
to save it. Wherefore, when the savage beast
had taken a great draft and slaked her thirst,
and thence had turned to seek her forest lair,
she found it on her way, and full of rage,
tore it and stained it with her bloody jaws:
but Thisbe, fortunate, escaped unseen.
Now Pyramus had not gone out so soon
as Thisbe to the tryst; and, when he saw
the certain traces of that savage beast,
imprinted in the yielding dust, his face
went white with fear; but when he found the veil
covered with blood, he cried; “Alas, one night
has caused the ruin of two lovers! Thou
wert most deserving of completed days,
but as for me, my heart is guilty! I
destroyed thee! O my love! I bade thee come
out in the dark night to a lonely haunt,
and failed to go before. Oh! whatever lurks
beneath this rock, though ravenous lion, tear
my guilty flesh, and with most cruel jaws
devour my cursed entrails! What? Not so;
it is a craven's part to wish for death!”
So he stopped briefly; and took up the veil;
went straightway to the shadow of the tree;
and as his tears bedewed the well-known veil,
he kissed it oft and sighing said, “Kisses
and tears are thine, receive my blood as well.”
And he imbrued the steel, girt at his side,
deep in his bowels; and plucked it from the wound,
a-faint with death. As he fell back to earth,
his spurting blood shot upward in the air;
so, when decay has rift a leaden pipe
a hissing jet of water spurts on high.—
By that dark tide the berries on the tree
assumed a deeper tint, for as the roots
soaked up the blood the pendent mulberries
were dyed a purple tint.
Thisbe returned,
though trembling still with fright, for now she thought
her lover must await her at the tree,
and she should haste before he feared for her.
Longing to tell him of her great escape
she sadly looked for him with faithful eyes;
but when she saw the spot and the changed tree,
she doubted could they be the same, for so
the colour of the hanging fruit deceived.
While doubt dismayed her, on the ground she saw
the wounded body covered with its blood;—
she started backward, and her face grew pale
and ashen; and she shuddered like the sea,
which trembles when its face is lightly skimmed
by the chill breezes;—and she paused a space;—
but when she knew it was the one she loved,
she struck her tender breast and tore her hair.
Then wreathing in her arms his loved form,
she bathed the wound with tears, mingling her grief
in his unquenched blood; and as she kissed
his death-cold features wailed; “Ah Pyramus,
what cruel fate has taken thy life away?
Pyramus! Pyramus! awake! awake!
It is thy dearest Thisbe calls thee! Lift
thy drooping head! Alas,”—At Thisbe's name
he raised his eyes, though languorous in death,
and darkness gathered round him as he gazed.
And then she saw her veil; and near it lay
his ivory sheath—but not the trusty sword
and once again she wailed; “Thy own right hand,
and thy great passion have destroyed thee!—
And I? my hand shall be as bold as thine—
my love shall nerve me to the fatal deed—
thee, I will follow to eternity—
though I be censured for the wretched cause,
so surely I shall share thy wretched fate:—
alas, whom death could me alone bereave,
thou shalt not from my love be reft by death!
And, O ye wretched parents, mine and his,
let our misfortunes and our pleadings melt
your hearts, that ye no more deny to those
whom constant love and lasting death unite—
entomb us in a single sepulchre.
“And, O thou tree of many-branching boughs,
spreading dark shadows on the corpse of one,
destined to cover twain, take thou our fate
upon thy head; mourn our untimely deaths;
let thy fruit darken for a memory,
an emblem of our blood.” No more she said;
and having fixed the point below her breast,
she fell on the keen sword, still warm with his red blood.
But though her death was out of Nature's law
her prayer was answered, for it moved the Gods
and moved their parents. Now the Gods have changed
the ripened fruit which darkens on the branch:
and from the funeral pile their parents sealed
their gathered ashes in a single urn.
So ended she; at once Leuconoe
took the narrator's thread; and as she spoke
her sisters all were silent.
(Translation from Ovid,  Metamorphoses. Brookes More. Boston. Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922).

Dicta probant primamque iubent narrare sorores.
Illa, quid e multis referat (nam plurima norat),
cogitat et dubia est, de te, Babylonia, narret,
Derceti, quam versa squamis velantibus artus
stagna Palaestini credunt motasse figura;
……
an, quae poma alba ferebat,
ut nunc nigra ferat contactu sanguinis arbor.
Hoc placet, hanc, quoniam vulgaris fabula non est,
talibus orsa modis, lana sua fila sequente:
…..
55-168
Pyramus et Thisbe.
“Pyramus et Thisbe, iuvenum pulcherrimus alter,
altera, quas oriens habuit, praelata puellis,
contiguas tenuere domos, ubi dicitur altam
coctilibus muris cinxisse Semiramis urbem.
Notitiam primosque gradus vicinia fecit:
tempore crevit amor. Taedae quoque iure coissent:
sed vetuere patres. Quod non potuere vetare,
ex aequo captis ardebant mentibus ambo.
Conscius omnis abest: nutu signisque loquuntur,
quoque magis tegitur, tectus magis aestuat ignis.
Fissus erat tenui rima, quam duxerat olim,
cum fieret paries domui communis utrique.
Id vitium nulli per saecula longa notatum
(quid non sentit amor?) primi vidistis amantes,
et vocis fecistis iter; tutaeque per illud
murmure blanditiae minimo transire solebant.
Saepe, ubi constiterant hinc Thisbe, Pyramus illinc,
inque vices fuerat captatus anhelitus oris,
“invide” dicebant “paries, quid amantibus obstas?
quantum erat, ut sineres toto nos corpore iungi,
aut hoc si nimium est, vel ad oscula danda pateres?
Nec sumus ingrati: tibi nos debere fatemur,
quod datus est verbis ad amicas transitus aures.”
Talia diversa nequiquam sede locuti
sub noctem dixere ”vale” partique dedere
oscula quisque suae non pervenientia contra.
Postera nocturnos aurora removerat ignes,
solque pruinosas radiis siccaverat herbas:
ad solitum coiere locum. Tum murmure parvo
multa prius questi, statuunt, ut nocte silenti
fallere custodes foribusque excedere temptent,
cumque domo exierint, urbis quoque tecta relinquant;
neve sit errandum lato spatiantibus arvo,
conveniant ad busta Nini lateantque sub umbra
arboris. Arbor ibi, niveis uberrima pomis
ardua morus, erat, gelido contermina fonti.
Pacta placent. Et lux, tarde discedere visa,
praecipitatur aquis, et aquis nox exit ab isdem.
Callida per tenebras versato cardine Thisbe
egreditur fallitque suos, adopertaque vultum
pervenit ad tumulum, dictaque sub arbore sedit.
Audacem faciebat amor. Venit ecce recenti
caede leaena boum spumantes oblita rictus,
depositura sitim vicini fontis in unda.
Quam procul ad lunae radios Babylonia Thisbe
vidit et obscurum timido pede fugit in antrum,
dumque fugit, tergo velamina lapsa reliquit.
Ut lea saeva sitim multa conpescuit unda,
dum redit in silvas, inventos forte sine ipsa
ore cruentato tenues laniavit amictus.
Serius egressus vestigia vidit in alto
pulvere certa ferae totoque expalluit ore
Pyramus: ut vero vestem quoque sanguine tinctam
repperit, “una duos” inquit “nox perdet amantes.
E quibus illa fuit longa dignissima vita,
nostra nocens anima est: ego te, miseranda, peremi,
in loca plena metus qui iussi nocte venires,
nec prior huc veni. Nostrum divellite corpus,
et scelerata fero consumite viscera morsu,
o quicumque sub hac habitatis rupe, leones.
Sed timidi est optare necem.” Velamina Thisbes
tollit et ad pactae secum fert arboris umbram;
utque dedit notae lacrimas, dedit oscula vesti,
“accipe nunc” inquit “nostri quoque sanguinis haustus!”
quoque erat accinctus, demisit in ilia ferrum,
nec mora, ferventi moriens e vulnere traxit.
Ut iacuit resupinus humo: cruor emicat alte,
non aliter quam cum vitiato fistula plumbo
scinditur et tenui stridente foramine longas
eiaculatur aquas atque ictibus aera rumpit.
Arborei fetus adspergine caedis in atram
vertuntur faciem, madefactaque sanguine radix
purpureo tingit pendentia mora colore.
Ecce metu nondum posito, ne fallat amantem,
illa redit iuvenemque oculis animoque requirit,
quantaque vitarit narrare pericula gestit.
Utque locum et visa cognoscit in arbore formam,
sic facit incertam pomi color: haeret, an haec sit.
Dum dubitat, tremebunda videt pulsare cruentum
membra solum, retroque pedem tulit, oraque buxo
pallidiora gerens exhorruit aequoris instar,
quod tremit, exigua cum summum stringitur aura.
Sed postquam remorata suos cognovit amores,
percutit indignos claro plangore lacertos,
et laniata comas amplexaque corpus amatum
vulnera supplevit lacrimis fletumque cruori
miscuit et gelidis in vultibus oscula figens
“Pyrame” clamavit “quis te mihi casus ademit?
Pyrame, responde: tua te carissima Thisbe
nominat: exaudi vultusque attolle iacentes!”
Ad nomen Thisbes oculos iam morte gravatos
Pyramus erexit, visaque recondidit illa.
Quae postquam vestemque suam cognovit et ense
vidit ebur vacuum, “tua te manus” inquit “amorque
perdidit, infelix. Est et mihi fortis in unum
hoc manus, est et amor: dabit hic in vulnera vires.
Persequar exstinctum letique miserrima dicar
causa comesque tui; quique a me morte revelli
heu sola poteras, poteris nec morte revelli.
Hoc tamen amborum verbis estote rogati,
o multum miseri meus illiusque parentes,
ut quos certus amor, quos hora novissima iunxit,
conponi tumulo non invideatis eodem.
At tu quae ramis arbor miserabile corpus
nunc tegis unius, mox es tectura duorum,
signa tene caedis pullosque et luctibus aptos
semper habe fetus, gemini monimenta cruoris.”
Dixit, et aptato pectus mucrone sub imum
incubuit ferro, quod adhuc a caede tepebat.
Vota tamen tetigere deos, tetigere parentes:
nam color in pomo est, ubi permaturuit, ater,
quodque rogis superest, una requiescit in urna.”
Desierat, mediumque fuit breve tempus, et orsa est
dicere Leuconoe: vocem tenuere sorores.

The post Pyramus and Thisbe: an old story of tragic love, like Romeo and Juliet appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

Among these transformations  they are especially interesting the conversions to stars, called Catasterisms, not least because the force to survive. 

We call "Catasterismi" the conversion or transformation of gods, heroic beings, mythological events, and even ethical principles later, in stars, celestial bodies in the sky, or clusters of stars.

This is a technical or cult Greek term, composed of the preposition kata, κατά (above, below) and the noun ἀστήρ, aster, (star). The term was used as a title of a booklet attributable to the director of the Library of Alexandria, the mathematician, geographer, astronomer, physician, scholar, literary author, Eratosthenes.

Two  constellation or group of stars (that's what the word constellation means, from latin cum, with, and stella, star) most popular and important throughout the history of our hemisphere are the "Ursa Maior", Great Bear,result of the transformation of the nymph Callisto and Boötes, the guardianb of the Ursa, transformation of her son Arcas.

The poet Ovid tells us literally  in a long story of more than a hundred and fifty verses in Metamorphoses, Book II, v. 401-550.

Today I let a small license that surely would not bother  Ovid; in the ancient world the same mythological subject is recovered  and modified, reduced or enlarged again and again by various authors.

Let me make a smaller version of Ovid's story that may be easier to read than the original text for possible current readers, but I will offer at end to the interested reader  the complete Latin text of the author with its translation.

The Nymph Callisto

Jupiter, the powerful god, walked vigilant the broad and clear sky and reluctantly watched the land where men live. In his daily trips across the sky stopped many times in Arcadia, fertile region of the earth especially dear to him, governed by Licaón, cultured and religious king, respected by his citizens who he finally civilized, forcing them to abandon their way of  primitive and rude life.

Licaón had numerous children and among them a daughter named Callisto. Her extraordinary beauty attracted the loving attention of Jupiter, who  too often betrayed his wife Juno.

Lycaon’s daughter neither liked the comfortable life of the palace nor occupied the time carding  wool nor perfuming  her  body of fine forms. Tied her messy hair with a white ribbon and tied her dress with a slight brooch, armed with the curved bow and pointed arrows at her shoulder, she crossed the lush forests accompanying Diana, virgin goddess, free and accurate huntress.

A hot summer day, when the sun was halfway through his walk , Callisto rested lonely lying in the green forest floor, laying her head on the multicolor quiver. When Jupiter saw her so beautiful and defenseless, burning with the passion like only gods can burn, he thought:

   — My wife Juno will not know about this secret love

And taking the figure of the goddess Diana she approached to Callisto:

– Beautiful maiden,  you have hunted today extraordinarily and in accurate way.

Callisto got up swiftly jumping and responded with grateful words:

– Thank you, my dear and beloved goddess. I think you're bigger and stronger than Jupiter himself, who does not hear us.

Jupiter smiled, listening her and held her tightly against his powerful chest and filled her with lascivious kisses and inappropriate to the virgin goddess whose figure he had supplanted.

Callisto wanted uselessly to released herself out of the divine embrace, conscious of the adulterer deception. But who can beat the mighty Jupiter?

When insensitive Jupiter flew to the ether, Callisto picked up his bow and quiver and ran away fast from the accomplice and forever odious forest.

A certain day, after a good hunt, Diana, happy and contented, call Callisto, who, fearing that she were Jupiter, again disguised, runs away to hide in the thick forest. But when she sees the goddess surrounded by her nymphs preventing the deception, she walked head down and approached to the group. The flush of her face would betray her injured shame to Diana  if the goddess was not inexperienced virgin.

Fatigued by the long chase, they reached a fresh stream of clear water. Diana just dipped his virgin foot in the fresh water which ran murmuring and said friendly:

– Rest a while. Nobody sees us here; let us undress and refresh our bodies in these crystalline waters.

All nymphs quickly divest themselves of their hunting clothes, but Callisto, blushing again, dilated her nakedness. When she finally took off his clothes, it appeared evident in his body the guilt that she needlessly wanted to hide with her hands.

The angry virgin goddess shouted the embarrassed nymph:

– Get away fast from us, betrayer, and do not tarnish these sacred waters

Museo del Prado. Rubens: Calisto y Diana

The time is passed and the small Arcas was born, fruit  of this forced union. Juno, wife of Jupiter knew long time ago what happened. Now, at the right time, she does not delayed longer her cruel punishment. So the powerful goddess angry said:

– It is not possible, adulteress, that you were fruitful and that your son testify before all the gods the shameful outrage of my husband Jupiter. I soon will take off  the beauty of your body with which you attracted my adulterous husband.

She said it, and she grabs his blond hair and threw she  to the ground with all violence. Callisto tended suppliant her arms, which were covered irredeemably with  black hairs; she spread her hands which became twisted claws and sweet mouth, desired by Jupiter, was transformed into deformed animals jaws. No pleading words came out from her hoarse throat which  would move the heart, but a hoarse roar that arise in terror.

Become into a bear, she retains her previous soul, as it is evidenced by her  constant groans of pain and her hands raised upward, perhaps protesting the unfeeling ingratitude of Jupiter, the father of the gods who intimidates everyone with his rays.

Callisto now wanders the woods in solitude and hazardous fields. Who tirelessly hunted before, how many times now hides herself pursued by the barking of dogs and the arrows of the hunters! Even now being a bear, she is afraid to see the fierce bears on top of the rocks.

Many years passed and Arcas, son of Callisto, whom she did not met, pursues  wild animals through the gorges and forests of Mount Erimanto in the fertile Arcadia.  At certain  day Arcas meets his mother, who seems to recognize him and fixed her black eyes to him. When the mother approaches  unsure the son, she is about to die pierced by the arrow that Arcas placed in his tensioned bow, but the powerful  Jupiter prevented the terrible sacrilege. Snatched from the hard earth, transported through the space, he placed them in heaven, forever changed in two neighboring constellation with bright stars, the "Big Dipper" and "Boötes" (the guardian ofthe  Bear) .

——-

Full text of Ovidius

CALLISTO AND JUPITER

Now after Phaethon had suffered death
for the vast ruin wrought by scorching flames,
all the great walls of Heaven's circumference,
unmeasured, views the Father of the Gods,
with searching care, that none impaired by heat
may fall in ruins. Well assured they stand
in self-sustaining strength, his view, at last,
on all the mundane works of man is turned;—
his loving gaze long resting on his own
Arcadia. And he starts the streams and springs
that long have feared to flow; paints the wide earth
with verdant fields; covers the trees with leaves,
and clothes the injured forests in their green.
While wandering in the world, he stopped amazed,
when he beheld the lovely Nymph, Calisto,
and fires of love were kindled in his breast.
Calisto was not clothed in sumptuous robes,
nor did she deck her hair in artful coils;
but with a buckle she would gird her robe,
and bind her long hair with a fillet white.
She bore a slender javelin in her hand,
or held the curving bow; and thus in arms
as chaste Diana, none of Maenalus
was loved by that fair goddess more than she.
But everything must change. When bright the sun
rolled down the sky, beyond his middle course,
she pierced a secret thicket, known to her,
and having slipped the quiver from her arm,
she loosed the bended bow, and softly down
upon the velvet turf reclining, pressed
her white neck on the quiver while she slept.
When Jupiter beheld her, negligent
and beautiful, he argued thus, “How can
my consort, Juno, learn of this? And yet,
if chance should give her knowledge, what care I?
Let gain offset the scolding of her tongue!”
This said, the god transformed himself and took
Diana's form—assumed Diana's dress
and imitating her awoke the maid,
and spoke in gentle tones, “What mountain slope,
O virgin of my train, hath been thy chase?”
Which, having heard, Calisto, rose and said,
“Hail, goddess! greater than celestial Jove!
I would declare it though he heard the words.”
Jove heard and smiled, well pleased to be preferred
above himself, and kissed her many times,
and strained her in his arms, while she began
to tell the varied fortunes of her hunt.—
but when his ardent love was known to her,
she struggled to escape from his embrace:
ah, how could she, a tender maid, resist
almighty Jove?—Be sure, Saturnia
if thou hadst only witnessed her thy heart
had shown more pity!—
Jupiter on wings,
transcendent, sought his glorious heights;
but she, in haste departing from that grove,
almost forgot her quiver and her bow.
Behold, Diana, with her virgin train,
when hunting on the slopes of Maenalus,
amidst the pleasures of exciting sport,
espied the Nymph and called her, who, afraid
that Jove apparelled in disguise deceived,
drew backward for a moment, till appeared
to her the lovely Nymphs that followed: thus,
assured deceit was none, she ventured near.
Alas, how difficult to hide disgrace!
She could not raise her vision from the ground,
nor as the leader of the hunting Nymphs,
as was her wont, walk by the goddess' side.
Her silence and her blushes were the signs
of injured honour. Ah Diana, thou,
if thou wert not a virgin, wouldst perceive
and pity her unfortunate distress.
The Moon's bent horns were rising from their ninth
sojourn, when, fainting from Apollo's flames,
the goddess of the Chase observed a cool
umbrageous grove, from which a murmuring stream
ran babbling gently over golden sands.
When she approved the spot, lightly she struck
her foot against the ripples of the stream,
and praising it began; “Far from the gaze
of all the curious we may bathe our limbs,
and sport in this clear water.” Quickly they
undid their garments,—but Calisto hid
behind the others, till they knew her state.—
Diana in a rage exclaimed, “Away!
Thou must not desecrate our sacred springs!”
And she was driven thence.
Ere this transpired,
observed the consort of the Thunder-God
her altered mien; but she for ripening time
withheld severe resentment. Now delay
was needless for distracted Juno heard
Calisto of the god of Heaven had borne
a boy called Arcas. Full of jealous rage,
her eyes and thoughts enkindled as she cried;
“And only this was wanting to complete
your wickedness, that you should bear a son
and flaunt abroad the infamy of Jove!
Unpunished you shall not escape, for I
will spoil the beauty that has made you proud
and dazzled Jupiter with wanton art.”
So saying, by her forehead's tresses seized
the goddess on her rival; and she dragged
her roughly to the ground. Pleading she raised
her suppliant arms and begged for mercy.—While
she pled, black hair spread over her white limbs;
her hands were lengthened into feet, and claws
long-curving tipped them; snarling jaws deformed
the mouth that Jove had kissed. And lest her prayers
and piteous words might move some listening God,
and give remembrance, speech was so denied,
that only from her throat came angry growls,
now uttered hoarse and threatening.
Still remains
her understanding, though her body, thus
transformed, makes her appear a savage bear.—
her sorrows are expressed in many a groan,
repeated as she lifts her hands—if we
may call them so—repeated as she lifts
them towards the stars and skies, ungrateful Jove
regarding; but her voice accuses not.
Afraid to rest in unfrequented woods,
she wandered in the fields that once were hers,
around her well-known dwelling. Over crags,
in terror, she was driven by the cries
of hounds; and many a time she fled in fear,
a huntress from the hunters, or she hid
from savage animals; forgetting her
transformed condition. Changed into a bear,
she fled affrighted from the bears that haunt
the rugged mountains; and she feared and fled
the wolves,—although her father was a wolf.
When thrice five birthdays rounded out the youth
of Arcas, offspring of Lycaon's child,
he hunted in the forest of his choice;
where, hanging with his platted nets the trees
of Erymanthian forest, he espied
his transformed mother,—but he knew her not;
no one had told him of his parentage.
Knowing her child, she stood with levelled gaze,
amazed and mute as he began approach;
but Arcas, frightened at the sight drew back
to pierce his mother's breast with wounding spear.—
but not permitting it the god of Heaven
averted, and removed them from that crime.
He, in a mighty wind—through vacant space,
upbore them to the dome of starry heaven,
and fixed them, Constellations, bright amid
the starry host.
Juno on high beheld
Calisto crowned with glory—great with rage
her bosom heaved. She flew across the sea,
to hoary Tethys and to old Oceanus,
whom all the Gods revere, and thus to them
in answer to their words she made address;
“And is it wondered that the Queen of Gods
comes hither from ethereal abodes?
My rival sits upon the Throne of Heaven:
yea, when the wing of Night has darkened
let my fair word be deemed of no repute,
if you behold not in the height of Heaven
those new made stars, now honoured to my shame,
conspicuous; fixed in the highest dome of space
that circles the utmost axis of the world.
“Who, then, should hesitate to put affront
on Juno? matchless goddess! each offense
redounds in benefit! Who dreads her rage?
Oh boundless powers! Oh unimagined deeds!
My enemy assumes a goddess' form
when my decree deprives her human shape;—
and thus the guilty rue their chastisement!
“Now let high Jove to human shape transform
this hideous beast, as once before he changed
his Io from a heifer.—Let him now
divorce his Juno and consort with her,
and lead Calisto to his couch, and take
that wolf, Lycaon, for a father-in-law!
“Oh, if an injury to me, your child,
may move your pity! drive the Seven Stars
from waters crystalline and azure-tint,
and your domain debar from those that shine
in Heaven, rewarded for Jove's wickedness.—
bathe not a concubine in waters pure.”—
(Ovid. Metamorphoses. Brookes More. Boston. Cornhill Publishing Co. 1922.)

At pater omnipotens ingentia moenia caeli
circuit et ne quid labefactum viribus ignis
corruat explorat. Quae postquam firma suique
roboris esse videt terras hominumque labores
perspicit. Arcadiae tamen est impensior illi
cura suae: fontes et nondum audentia labi
flumina restituit dat terrae gramina, frondes
arboribus, laesasque iubet revirescere silvas.
Dum redit itque frequens, In virgine Nonacrina
haesit et accepti caluere sub ossibus ignes.
Non erat huius opus lanam mollire trahendo
nec positu variare comas; ubi fibula vestem,
vitta coercuerat neglectos alba capillos,
et modo leve manu iaculum, modo sumpserat arcum,
miles erat Phoebes: nec Maenalon attigit ulla
gratior hac Triviae. Sed nulla potentia longa est.
Ulterius medio spatium sol altus habebat,
cum subit illa nemus, quod nulla ceciderat aetas.
Exuit hic umero pharetram lentosque retendit
arcus, inque solo, quod texerat herba, iacebat
et pictam posita pharetram cervice premebat.
Iuppiter ut vidit fessam et custode vacantem,
“hoc certe furtum coniunx mea nesciet” inquit,
“aut si rescierit sunt o sunt iurgia tanti.”
Protinus induitur faciem cultumque Dianae
atque ait: “O comitum, virgo, pars una mearum,
in quibus es venata iugis?” De caespite virgo
se levat et “salve numen, me indice”, dixit
“audiat ipse licet maius Iove.” Ridet et audit,
et sibi praeferri se gaudet et oscula iungit
nec moderata satis nec sic a virgine danda.
Qua venata foret silva, narrare parantem
impedit amplexu, nec se sine crimine prodit.
Illa quidem contra, quantum modo femina possit
(adspiceres utinam, Saturnia: mitior esses !),
illa quidem pugnat: sed quem superare puella,
quisve Iovem poterat? — Superum petit aethera victor
Iuppiter: huic odio nemus est et conscia silva.
Unde pedem referens paene est oblita pharetram
tollere cum telis et quem suspenderat arcum.
Ecce, suo comitata choro Dictynna per altum
Maenalon ingrediens et caede superba ferarum
adspicit hanc visamque vocat: clamata refugit,
et timuit primo, ne Iuppiter esset in illa.
Sed postquam pariter nymphas incedere vidit,
sensit abesse dolos numerumque accessit ad harum.
Heu quam difficile est crimen non prodere vultu!
Vix oculos attollit humo, nec, ut ante solebat,
iuncta deae lateri, nec toto est agmine prima,
sed silet et laesi dat signa rubore pudoris;
et nisi quod virgo est poterat sentire Diana
mille notis culpam; nymphae sensisse feruntur.
Orbe resurgebant lunaria cornua nono,
cum dea venatu, fraternis languida flammis,
nacta nemus gelidum, de quo cum murmure labens
ibat et attritas versabat rivus harenas.
Ut loca laudavit, summas pede contigit undas:
his quoque laudatis “procul est” ait “arbiter omnis;
nuda superfusis tingamus corpora lymphis.”
Parrhasis erubuit. Cunctae velamina ponunt:
una moras quaerit. Dubitanti vestis adempta est;
qua posita nudo patuit cum corpore crimen.
Attonitae manibusque uterum celare volenti
“i procul hinc” dixit “nec sacros pollue fontes”
Cynthia; deque suo iussit secedere coetu.
Senserat hoc olim magni matrona Tonantis
distuleratque graves in idonea tempora poenas.
Causa morae nulla est, et iam puer Arcas (id ipsum
indoluit Iuno) fuerat de paelice natus.
Quo simul obvertit saevam cum lumine mentem,
“scilicet hoc etiam restabat, adultera” dixit,
“ut fecunda fores, fieretque iniuria partu
nota, Iovisque mei testatum dedecus esset.
Haud impune feres: adimam tibi nempe figuram,
qua tibi, quaque places nostro, importuna, marito.”
Dixit et adversa prensis a fronte capillis
stravit humi pronam. Tendebat bracchia supplex:
bracchia coeperunt nigris horrescere villis
curvarique manus et aduncos crescere in ungues
officioque pedum fungi, laudataque quondam
ora Iovi lato fieri deformia rictu.
Neve preces animos et verba precantia flectant
posse loqui eripitur; vox iracunda minaxque
plenaque terroris rauco de gutture fertur.
485Mens antiqua tamen facta quoque mansit in ursa,
adsiduoque suos gemitu testata dolores
qualescumque manus ad caelum et sidera tollit
ingratumque Iovem, nequeat cum dicere, sentit.
A quotiens, sola non ausa quiescere silva,
ante domum quondamque suis erravit in agris!
A quotiens per saxa canum latratibus acta est
venatrixque metu venantum territa fugit!
Saepe feris latuit visis, oblita quid esset,
ursaque conspectos in montibus horruit ursos
pertimuitque lupos, quamvis pater esset in illis.
Ecce, Lycaoniae proles, ignara parentis,
Arcas adest, ter quinque fere natalibus actis:
dumque feras sequitur, dum saltus eligit aptos
nexilibusque plagis silvas Erymanthidas ambit,
incidit in matrem; quae restitit Arcade viso
et cognoscenti similis fuit. Ille refugit
inmotosque oculos in se sine fine tenentem
nescius extimuit propiusque accedere aventi
vulnifico fuerat fixurus pectora telo.
Arcuit omnipotens pariterque ipsosque nefasque
sustulit, et celeri raptos per inania vento
imposuit caelo vicinaque sidera fecit.
Intumuit Iuno, postquam inter sidera paelex
fulsit et ad canam descendit in aequora Tethyn
Oceanumque senem, quorum reverentia movit
saepe deos, causamque viae scitantibus infit:
“Quaeritis, aetheriis quare regina deorum
sedibus huc adsim? pro me tenet altera caelum.
Mentiar, obscurum nisi nox cum fecerit orbem,
nuper honoratas summo, mea vulnera, caelo
videritis stellas illic, ubi circulus axem
ultimus extremum spatioque brevissimus ambit.
Est vero, cur quis Iunonem laedere nolit
offensamque tremat, quae prosum sola nocendo?
O ego quantum egi! quam vasta potentia nostra est!
Esse hominem vetui: facta est dea. Sic ego poenas
sontibus impono, sic est mea magna potestas.
Vindicet antiquam faciem vultusque ferinos
detrahat, Argolica quod in ante Phoronide fecit.
Cur non et pulsa ducit Iunone meoque
collocat in thalamo socerumque Lycaona sumit?
At vos si laesae tangit contemptus alumnae,
gurgite caeruleo septem prohibete triones
sideraque in caelo, stupri mercede, recepta
pellite, ne puro tingatur in aequore paelex.”

The post The Nymph Callisto appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

Note: homosexual is a word compound of the Greek ὅμοιος, homoyos,  meaning "same" and the Latin sexualis of sexus, sex. Therefore it refers to the love between people of same  sex. It has nothing to do with its origin with  the Latin word "homo" meaning man. Love between persons of the male gender is often called, specifically "gay", English term which in principle means "happy"; the love between women is called "Sapphic" or "lesbian" from de poetess Sapho of Lesbos (Greek insel). These terms seem began to be used in the eighteenth century in the Illustrated France. Transgender refers to those who have "transformed" its initial or apparent sex to one  with  they really identify.

Well, how many lessons can be drawn from the ancient Greeks and Romans. Who have some age, we have looked impotent the unbridled persecution of those who did not follow the dominant sexual behavior imposed by religion and social norms, but they acted only as their nature required them.

We have also seen in recent years  an attitude of society and rules more open, just accepting   what nature has created. This attitude, which is taking shape in rules and laws of social behavior, unfortunately has not been generalized  or in all countries, (they are many which with incomprehensible hardness pursue the homosexual behavior), or all people who because  religious reasons or by cultural inertia manifest an unacceptable rejection that produces only pain and suffering to very many people.

Maybe you can help us to keep an absolutely open attitude to know  the normality with which the ancients accept what nature engenders.

It is very known  the presence and importance that  homosexual love, especially the male, has  in ancient Greece. At another time I'll try about it and about the called "paederastia", which has nothing to do with "corruption or sex with minors", then forbidden and harshly persecuted today and punished by the law justly.

Today I will quote a myth that Plato creates or recreates  in his dialogue “The Symposium”, subtitled “On  love", in which he analyzes what is love ?,; it actually refers almost exclusively to homosexual love.

Plato uses, as in the past, a myth to explain the existing reality: there are men looking for men, women to other women and men who are seeking complemented by beings of the opposite sex. If things are like this, just we have to find some explanation:

Plato: Symposium, 188c y ss.

I will try to describe his power to you, and you shall teach the rest of the world what I am teaching you. In the first place, let me treat of the nature of man and what has happened to it; for the original human nature was not like the present, but different. The sexes were not two as they are now, but originally three in number; there was man, woman, and the union of the two, having a name corresponding to this double nature, which had once a real existence, but is now lost, and the word "Androgynous" is only preserved as a term of reproach. In the second place, the primeval man was round, his back and sides forming a circle; and he had four hands and four feet, one head with two faces, looking opposite ways, set on a round neck and precisely alike; also four ears, two privy members, and the remainder to correspond. He could walk upright as men now do, backwards or forwards as he pleased, and he could also roll over and over at a great pace, turning on his four hands and four feet, eight in all, like tumblers going over and over with their legs in the air; this was when he wanted to run fast. Now the sexes were three, and such as I have described them; because the sun, moon, and earth are three;-and the man was originally the child of the sun, the woman of the earth, and the man-woman of the moon, which is made up of sun and earth, and they were all round and moved round and round: like their parents. Terrible was their might and strength, and the thoughts of their hearts were great, and they made an attack upon the gods; of them is told the tale of Otys and Ephialtes who, as Homer says, dared to scale heaven, and would have laid hands upon the gods. Doubt reigned in the celestial councils. Should they kill them and annihilate the race with thunderbolts, as they had done the giants, then there would be an end of the sacrifices and worship which men offered to them; but, on the other hand, the gods could not suffer their insolence to be unrestrained.

At last, after a good deal of reflection, Zeus discovered a way. He said: "Methinks I have a plan which will humble their pride and improve their manners; men shall continue to exist, but I will cut them in two and then they will be diminished in strength and increased in numbers; this will have the advantage of making them more profitable to us. They shall walk upright on two legs, and if they continue insolent and will not be quiet, I will split them again and they shall hop about on a single leg." He spoke and cut men in two, like a sorb-apple which is halved for pickling, or as you might divide an egg with a hair; and as he cut them one after another, he bade Apollo give the face and the half of the neck a turn in order that the man might contemplate the section of himself: he would thus learn a lesson of humility. Apollo was also bidden to heal their wounds and compose their forms. So he gave a turn to the face and pulled the skin from the sides all over that which in our language is called the belly, like the purses which draw in, and he made one mouth at the centre, which he fastened in a knot (the same which is called the navel); he also moulded the breast and took out most of the wrinkles, much as a shoemaker might smooth leather upon a last; he left a few, however, in the region of the belly and navel, as a memorial of the primeval state. After the division the two parts of man, each desiring his other half, came together, and throwing their arms about one another, entwined in mutual embraces, longing to grow into one, they were on the point of dying from hunger and self-neglect, because they did not like to do anything apart; and when one of the halves died and the other survived, the survivor sought another mate, man or woman as we call them, being the sections of entire men or women, and clung to that. They were being destroyed, when Zeus in pity of them invented a new plan: he turned the parts of generation round to the front, for this had not been always their position and they sowed the seed no longer as hitherto like grasshoppers in the ground, but in one another; and after the transposition the male generated in the female in order that by the mutual embraces of man and woman they might breed, and the race might continue; or if man came to man they might be satisfied, and rest, and go their ways to the business of life: so ancient is the desire of one another which is implanted in us, reuniting our original nature, making one of two, and healing the state of man.

Each of us when separated, having one side only, like a flat fish, is but the indenture of a man, and he is always looking for his other half. Men who are a section of that double nature which was once called Androgynous are lovers of women; adulterers are generally of this breed, and also adulterous women who lust after men: the women who are a section of the woman do not care for men, but have female attachments; the female companions are of this sort. But they who are a section of the male follow the male, and while they are young, being slices of the original man, they hang about men and embrace them, and they are themselves the best of boys and youths, because they have the most manly nature. Some indeed assert that they are shameless, but this is not true; for they do not act thus from any want of shame, but because they are valiant and manly, and have a manly countenance, and they embrace that which is like them. And these when they grow up become our statesmen, and these only, which is a great proof of the truth of what I am saving. When they reach manhood they are loves of youth, and are not naturally inclined to marry or beget children,-if at all, they do so only in obedience to the law; but they are satisfied if they may be allowed to live with one another unwedded; and such a nature is prone to love and ready to return love, always embracing that which is akin to him. And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and would not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment: these are the people who pass their whole lives together; yet they could not explain what they desire of one another. For the intense yearning which each of them has towards the other does not appear to be the desire of lover's intercourse, but of something else which the soul of either evidently desires and cannot tell, and of which she has only a dark and doubtful presentiment. Suppose Hephaestus, with his instruments, to come to the pair who are lying side, by side and to say to them, "What do you people want of one another?" they would be unable to explain. And suppose further, that when he saw their perplexity he said: "Do you desire to be wholly one; always day and night to be in one another's company? for if this is what you desire, I am ready to melt you into one and let you grow together, so that being two you shall become one, and while you live a common life as if you were a single man, and after your death in the world below still be one departed soul instead of two-I ask whether this is what you lovingly desire, and whether you are satisfied to attain this?"-there is not a man of them who when he heard the proposal would deny or would not acknowledge that this meeting and melting into one another, this becoming one instead of two, was the very expression of his ancient need. And the reason is that human nature was originally one and we were a whole, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love. There was a time, I say, when we were one, but now because of the wickedness of mankind God has dispersed us, as the Arcadians were dispersed into villages by the Lacedaemonians. And if we are not obedient to the gods, there is a danger that we shall be split up again and go about in basso-relievo, like the profile figures having only half a nose which are sculptured on monuments, and that we shall be like tallies.

Wherefore let us exhort all men to piety, that we may avoid evil, and obtain the good, of which Love is to us the lord and minister; and let no one oppose him-he is the enemy of the gods who oppose him. For if we are friends of the God and at peace with him we shall find our own true loves, which rarely happens in this world at present. I am serious, and therefore I must beg Eryximachus not to make fun or to find any allusion in what I am saying to Pausanias and Agathon, who, as I suspect, are both of the manly nature, and belong to the class which I have been describing. But my words have a wider application-they include men and women everywhere; and I believe that if our loves were perfectly accomplished, and each one returning to his primeval nature had his original true love, then our race would be happy. And if this would be best of all, the best in the next degree and under present circumstances must be the nearest approach to such an union; and that will be the attainment of a congenial love. Wherefore, if we would praise him who has given to us the benefit, we must praise the god Love, who is our greatest benefactor, both leading us in this life back to our own nature, and giving us high hopes for the future, for he promises that if we are pious, he will restore us to our original state, and heal us and make us happy and blessed. This, Eryximachus, is my discourse of love, which, although different to yours, I must beg you to leave unassailed by the shafts of your ridicule, in order that each may have his turn; each, or rather either, for Agathon and Socrates are the only ones left. (Translated by Benjamin Jowett)

Note:
1. androgynous is a word composed  from two Greek words andros (man) and gyné (woman) ; from it they are  derived another one, such "gynecology", which  according to the dictionary is the part of medicine that deals with the diseases of women.

2. Parmenides considered the Sun as the male element of the universe, the Moon as the feminine and the Earth as the result of the union of both.

The post Men, women, androgynous appeared first on History of Greece and Rome.

In the poem number XI Prudentius sings the martyrdom of Hippolytus, who suffered a death similar to mythical Hippolytus,  torn to pieces by horses. Prudentius tells us further that on his poem he is describing the paint on the tomb of Hippolytus that represents his death. It is an example of ekphrasis or description in words, verbally, of a visual work, in this case, a paint.. See http://www.antiquitatem.com/en/hyppolitus-phaedra-martyr-prudentius .

Well, in the poem number IX also Prudentius tells the death of another martyr, Cassian of Imola,  inspired no doubt on other torture of the mythical-legendary Roman times, the death of the teacher  of Falerias at the hands of his pupils.

Cassian is a school teacher, specialized in shorthand, martyr suffering a painful death at the hands of his disciples also, punished by refusing to worship pagan gods. The horror of the description of execution binds the distaste they are just the young and tender students who pay in this way  the cares of the teacher.

And as in the case of Hippolytus, also he tells us now he describes the painting in the tomb which represents the death of the martyr, which incidentally also happened on August 13, as Hippolytus. It is therefore another example of ekphrasis.

The description of the painting is no less gruesome and baroque in this case than the poem XI on Hippolytus, certainly responding to the literary model of the time and the desire to move a devoted audience but easily impressionalbe by the detailed and prolonged suffering, that here it is imposed on the glorious death of every martyr because of their beliefs. Interestingly, Prudentius entertains in detail, we would say morbid, in describing the torment, but he does not say the attitude and how Cassianus suffer, about  sensations he tells us nothing.

I offer below the full text of the poem IX of Prudentius.

Saint Cassian therefore endures  a fanciful penalty, but curiously related to a pagan literary tradition. The Roman historian Livy describes in his Ab urbe condita (History since the founding of the city -Roma-) a mythical legendary episode in which Prudentius certainly is inspired to recreate the Martyrdom of Cassian.

Livy tells us in 5, 27, how a schoolteacher of Falisci children, simulating go to the field outside the walls, took them to the Romans, with whom they fought, offering them as a tool for achieving the surrender of the Falisci; the Romans of that time, men of honor, did not accept this offer but they  gave the teacher to the Falisci and their  sons for these   were these who will implement the deserved punishment; the Falisci, impressed by the virtue  of the Romans, immediately signed the surrender and peace.

As I said, Prudentius would have been inspired on this legendary episode from Rome. But this episode, although it is lost in the mist of the legend of the early fourth century BC, seems more credible and believable than the story of Prudentius in the IV-V century AD.

I also offer below the text of Livy.

In any case mythical pagan tradition served as repertory and model to shape some stories of Christian martyrs.

Painting of the early sixteenth century by Innocenzo Francucci

The Passion of St Cassian of Forum Cornelii.

Cornelius Sulla « established a Forum, and so the Italians call the town, after its founder's name. Here when I was journeying towards thee, Rome, the world's capital, there sprang up in my heart a hope of Christ's favour.

I was bowed to the ground before the tomb which the holy martyr Cassian honours with his consecrated body ; and while in tears I was thinking of my sins and all my life's distresses and stinging pains, I lifted my face towards heaven, and there stood confronting me a picture of the martyr painted in colours, bearing a thousand wounds, all his parts torn, and showing his skin broken with tiny pricks. Countless boys round about (a pitiful sight !) were stabbing and piercing his body with the little styles " with which they used to run over their wax tablets, writing down the droning lesson in school.

I appealed to the verger and he said : " What you are looking at, stranger, is no vain old wife's tale. The picture tells the story of what happened ; it is recorded in books and displays the honest assurance of the olden time. He had been in charge of a school for boys and sat as a teacher of reading and writing with a great throng round him, and he was skilled in putting every word in short signs and following speech quickly with swift pricks on the wax. But at times the young mob, feeling his teaching harsh and stern, were moved with anger and fear, for the teacher is ever distasteful to the youthful learner and childhood never takes kindly to training. Noav there came a cruel tempest battering the faith and pressing hard on the people devoted to the Christian glory. The governor of the flock of pupils was dragged from the midst of his class because he had scornfully refused to worship at the altars, and when the contriver of punishments asked of what profession this man of such high and unruly spirit was, they answered :

' He teaches a company of young children, giving them their first lessons in writing down words with signs invented for the purpose.' ' Take him away,' he cried, ' take him
away a prisoner, and make the children a present of the man who used to flog them. Let them make sport of him as they please, give them leave to mangle him at will, let them give their hands a holiday and dip them in their master's blood. It is a pleasant thought that the strict teacher should himself furnish sport to the pupils he has too much held down.'

" So he is stripped of his garments and his hands are tied behind his back, and all the band are there, armed with their sharp styles. All the hatred long conceived in silent resentment they each vent now, burning with gall that has at last found freedom.
Some throw their brittle tablets and break them against his face, the wood flying in fragments when it strikes his brow, the wax-covered box-wood splitting with a loud crack as it is dashed on his blood-stained cheeks, the broken slab wet and red from the blow. Others again launch at him the sharp iron pricks, the end with which by scratching strokes the wax is written upon, and the end with which the letters that have been cut are rubbed out and the roughened surface once more made into a smooth, glossy space. With the one the confessor of Christ is stabbed, with the other he is cut ; the one end enters the soft flesh, the other splits the skin. Two hundred hands together have pierced him all over his body, and from all these wounds at once the blood is dripping.

A greater torturer was the child who only pricked the surface than he who bored deep into the flesh ; for the light hitter who will not wound to the death has the skill to be cruel with only the piercing pains, but the other, the farther he strikes into the hidden vitals,
gives more relief by bringing death near. ' Be stout, I beg,' he cries, ' and outdo your years with your strength. What you lack in age let a savage spirit make up.' But the young boys from lack of vigour fail in their efforts and begin to be fatigued; the torments worsen while the tormentors grow faint.

' Why do you complain ? ' calls one ; ' you yourself as our teacher gave us this iron and put the weapon in our hands. You see we are giving you back all the thousands of characters which as we stood in tears we took down from your teaching. You cannot be angry with us for writing ; it was you who bade us never let our hand carry an idle style. We are no longer asking for what was so often refused when we were under your instruction, you stingy teacher, — a holiday from school. We like making pricks, twining scratch with scratch and linking curved strokes together. You may examine and correct our lines in long array, in case an erring hand has made any mistake. Use your authority; you have power to punish a fault,if any of your pupils has written carelessly on you.'

Such sport the boys had on their master's body, and yet the long-drawn suffering was not releasing him from his weariness. At length Christ, taking pity from heaven on his struggles, commands that the bands be loosened from his soul, undoes the irksome hindrances that detain his spirit and hold his life, and opens out its confined seat. The blood follows the open ways from its source in the veins within and leaves the heart, and through the many holes pierced in the body the pulsing warmth of life in the flesh departs.

" This, stranger, is the story you wonder to see represented in liquid colours, this is the glory of Cassian. Declare now any upright and worthy wish you have, any hope, any desire that burns in your heart. The martyr, you may be sure, hears with all favour every prayer, and fulfils those that he finds acceptable."

I obeyed, clasping the tomb and shedding tears,warming the altar with my lips, the stone with my breast. Then I reviewed all my private distresses, and murmured my desires and fears, with a prayer for the home I had left behind me in the uncertainty of fortune, and my hope, now faltering, of happiness to come. I was heard. I visited Rome, and found all things issue happily, I returned home and now proclaim the praise of Cassian.  (Translation BY H. J. THOMSON)

PASSIO SANCTI CASSIANI FOROCORNELIENSISI
Sylla Forum statuit Cornelius; hoc Itali urbem
uocant ab ipso conditoris nomine.
Hic mihi, cum peterem te, rerum maxima Roma,
spes est oborta prosperum Christum fore.
Stratus humi tumulo aduoluebar, quem sacer ornat
martyr dicato Cassianus corpore.
Dum lacrimans mecum reputo mea uulnera et omnes
uitae labores ac dolorum acumina,
erexi ad caelum faciem, stetit obuia contra
fucis colorum picta imago martyris
plagas mille gerens, totos lacerata per artus,
ruptam minutis praeferens punctis cutem.
Innumeri circum pueri—miserabile uisu—
confossa paruis membra ligebant stilis,
unde pugillares soliti percurrere ceras
scholare murmur adnotantes scripserant.
Aedituus consultus ait: 'quod prospicis, hospes,
non est inanis aut anilis fabula;
historiam pictura refert, quae tradita libris
ueram uetusti temporis monstrat fidem.
Praefuerat studiis puerilibus et grege multo
saeptus magister litterarum sederat,
uerba notis breuibus conprendere cuncta peritus
raptimque punctis dicta praepetibus sequi.
Aspera nonnumquam praecepta et tristia uisa
inpube uulgus mouerant ira et metu;
doctor amarus enim discenti semper efybo
nec dulcis ulli disciplina infantiae est.
Ecce fidem quatiens tempestas saeua premebat
plebem dicatam christianae gloriae.
Extrahitur coetu e medio moderator alumni
gregis, quod aris supplicare spreuerat.
Poenarum artifici quaerenti, quod genus artis
uir nosset alto tam rebellis spiritu,
respondent: 'agmen tenerum ac puerile gubernat
fictis notare uerba signis inbuens.'
'Ducite', conclamat, 'captiuum ducite, et ultro
donetur ipsis uerberator paruulis.
Vt libet, inludant, lacerent inpune manusque
tinguant magistri feriatas sanguine;
ludum discipulis uolupe est ut praebeat ipse
doctor seuerus, quos nimis coercuit.'
Vincitur post terga manus spoliatus amictu,
adest acutis agmen armatum stilis.
Quantum quisque odii tacita conceperat ira,
effundit ardens felle tandem libero.
Coniciunt alii fragiles inque ora tabellas
frangunt, relisa fronte lignum dissilit,
buxa crepant cerata genis inpacta cruentis
rubetquc ab ictu curta et umens pagina.
Inde alii stimulos et acumina ferrea uibrant,
qua parte aratis cera sulcis scribitur,
et qua secti apices abolentur et aequoris hyrti
rursus nitescens innouatur area.
Hinc foditur Christi confessor et inde secatur,
pars uiscus intrat molle, pars scindit cutem.
Omnia membra manus pariter fixere ducente
totidemque guttae uulnerum stillant simul.
Major tortor erat, qui summa pupugerat infans,
quam qui profuuda perforarat uiscera,
ille leuis, quoniam percussor morte negata
saeuire solis scit dolorum spiculis,
hic, quanto interius uitalia condita pulsat.
plus dat medellae, dum necem prope applicat.
'Este, precor, fortes et uincite uiribus annos,
quod defit aeuo, suppleat crudelitas!'
Sed male conatus tener infirmusque laborat,
tormenta crescunt, dum fatiscit carnifex.
'Quid gemis?' exclamat quidam, 'tute ipse magister
istud dedisti ferrum et armasti manus.
Reddimus ecce tibi tam milia multa notarum,
quam stando, flendo te docente excepimus.
Non potes irasci, quod scribimus; ipse iubebas,
numquam quietum dextera ut ferret stilum.
Non petimus totiens te praeceptore negatas,
auare doctor, iam scholarum ferias.
Pangere puncta libet sulcisque intexere sulcos,
flexas catenis inpedire uirgulas.
Emendes licet inspectos longo ordine uersus,
mendosa forte si quid errauit manus,
exerce imperium, ius est tibi plectere culpam,
si quis tuorum te notauit segnius.'
Talia ludebant pueri per membra magistri
nec longa fessum poena soluebat uirum.
Tandem luctantis miseratus ab aethere Christus
iubet resolui pectoris ligamina
difficilesque moras animae ac retinacula uitae
relaxat artas et latebras expedit.
Sanguis ab interno uenarum fonte patentes
uias secutus deserit praecordia
totque foraminibus penetrati corporis exit
fibrarum anhelans ille uitalis calor.
'Haec sunt, quae liquidis expressa coloribus, hospes,
miraris, ista est Cassiani gloria.
Suggere, si quod habes iustum uel amabile uotum,
spes si qua tibi est, si quid intus aestuas!
Audit, crede, preces martyr prosperrimus omnes
ratasque reddit, quas uidet probabiles.'
Pareo: conplector tumulum, lacrimas quoque fundo,
altar tepescit ore, saxum pectore.
Tunc arcana mei percenseo cuncta laboris,
tunc, quod petebarn, quod timebam, murmuro:
et post terga domum dubia sub sorte relictam
et spem futuri forte nutantem boni.
Audior, 'urbem adeo, dextris successibus utor,
domum reuertor, Cassianum praedico.

Livy, Ab urbe condita, 5, 27

It was customary amongst the Faliscans to employ the same person as teacher and attendant of their children, and they used to intrust a number of lads at the same time to the care of one man, a practice which still obtains in Greece.  The children of the chief men, as is commonly the case, were under the tuition of one who was regarded as their foremost scholar. This man had in time of peace got into the way of leading the boys out in front of the city for play and exercise, and during the war made no change in his routine, but would draw them sometimes a shorter, sometimes a longer distance from the gate, with this and that game and story, until being farther away one day than usual, he seized the opportunity  to bring them amongst the enemy's outposts, and then into the Roman camp, to the headquarters of Camillus.  He then followed up his villainous act with an even more villainous speech, saying that he had given Falerii into the hands  of the Romans, having delivered up to them the children of those whose fathers were in power there.  On hearing this Camillus answered: “Neither the people nor the captain to whom you are come, you scoundrel, with your scoundrel's gift, is like yourself. Between us and the Faliscans is no fellowship founded on men's covenants; but the fellowship which nature has implanted in both sides is there and will abide.  There are rights of war as well as of peace, and we have learnt to use them justly no less than bravely. We bear no weapons against those tender years which find mercy even in the storming of a city, but against those who are armed themselves, who, without wrong or provocation at our hands, attacked the Roman camp at Veii.  Those people you have done your best to conquer by an unheard-of crime. I shall conquer them, as I conquered Veii, in the Roman way, by dint of courage, toil, and arms.”  He then had the fellow stripped, his hands bound behind his back, and gave him up to the boys to lead back to Falerii, providing them with rods to scourge the traitor as they drove him into town.  To behold this spectacle, there was at first a great gathering together of the people, and presently the magistrates called a meeting of the senate about the strange affair, and men underwent such a revulsion of feeling, that those who a short time before, in the fury of their hate and resentment would almost have preferred the doom of Veii to the peace of Capena, were now calling for peace, with the voice of an entire city.  The honesty of the Romans, and the justice of their general, were praised in market-place and senate-house, and, with the consent of all, envoys proceeded to Camillus in his camp, and thence, by his permission, to the Roman senate, to surrender Falerii. Being introduced into the Curia they are said to have spoken as follows: “Conscript Fathers, you and your general have won a victory over us which no one, whether God or man, could begrudge you, and we give ourselves into your hands, believing (than which nothing can be more honourable to a victor) that we shall be better off under your government than under our own laws.  The outcome of this war has afforded the human race two wholesome precedents: you have set fair-dealing in war above immediate victory; and we, challenged by your fair-dealing, have freely granted you that victory. We are under your sway; send men to receive our arms and hostages, and our city, the gates of which stand open. Neither shall you be disappointed in our fidelity nor we in your rule.” Camillus was thanked both by his enemies and by his fellow citizens. The Faliscans were commanded to pay the soldiers for that year, that the Roman People might be exempted from the war tax. Peace being granted, the Roman army was led home. (Translated by Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., Ed.)

 mos erat Faliscis eodem magistro liberorum et comite uti, simulque plures pueri, quod hodie quoque in Graecia manet, unius curae demandabantur. principum liberos, sicut fere fit, qui scientia videbatur praecellere erudiebat.  is cum in pace instituisset pueros ante urbem lusus exercendique causa producere, nihil eo more per belli tempus intermisso, modo brevioribus modo longioribus spatiis trahendo eos a porta lusu sermonibusque variatis, longius solito ubi res dedit progressus inter stationes eos hostium castraque inde Romana in praetorium ad Camillum perduxit.  ibi scelesto facinori scelestiorem sermonem addit,  Falerios se in manus Romanis tradidisse, quando eos pueros quorum parentes capita ibi rerum sint in potestatem dediderit.  quae ubi Camillus audivit, “non ad similem” inquit “tui nec populum nec imperatorem scelestus ipse cum scelesto munere venisti.  nobis cum Faliscis  quae pacto fit humano societas non est: quam ingeneravit natura utrisque est eritque. sunt et belli sicut pacis iura, iusteque ea non minus quam fortiter didicimus gerere.  arma habemus non adversus eam aetatem cui etiam captis urbibus parcitur, sed adversus armatos et ipsos, qui nec laesi nec lacessiti a nobis castra Romana ad Veios oppugnarunt.  eos tu quantum in te fuit novo scelere vicisti: ego Romanis artibus, virtute opere armis, sicut Veios vincam.”  denudatum deinde eum manibus post tergum inligatis reducendum Falerios pueris tradidit, virgasque eis quibus proditorem agerent in urbem verberantes dedit.  ad quod spectaculum concursu populi primum facto, deinde a magistratibus de re nova vocato senatu tanta mutatio animis est iniecta ut qui modo efferati odio iraque Veientium exitum paene quam Capenatium pacem mallent, apud eos pacem universa posceret civitas.  fides Romana, iustitia imperatoris in foro et curia celebrantur; consensuque omnium legati ad Camillum in castra, atque inde permissu Camilli Romam ad senatum, qui dederent Falerios proficiscuntur.  introducti ad senatum ita locuti traduntur: “patres conscripti, victoria cui nec deus nec homo quisquam invideat victi a vobis et  imperatore vestro dedimus nos vobis, rati, quo nihil victori4 pulchrius est, melius nos sub imperio vestro quam legibus nostris victuros.  eventu huius belli duo salutaria exempla prodita humano generi sunt: vos fidem in bello quam praesentem victoriam maluistis; nos fide provocati victoriam ultro detulimus.  sub dicione vestra sumus; mittite qui arma, qui obsides, qui urbem patentibus portis accipiant.  nec vos fidei nostrae nec nos imperii vestri paenitebit.” Camillo et ab hostibus et a civibus gratiae actae. Faliscis in stipendium militum eius anni, ut populus Romanus tributo vacaret, pecunia imperata. pace data exercitus Romam reductus.
 

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