Historia de Grecia y Roma

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  • A bridge from Italy to Greece

    Today there are great bridges that fill us with wonder by its length: the Akashi-Kaikyo with 1991 mts. in Japan, or the Great Belt East with 1624mts. in Denmark, or Runyang with 1490 mts. in China. They are the world’s largest cable-stayed bridges. In ancient times the Romans were great builders of bridges.

    Every great city is bathed by a great river crossed by many bridges as an expression of their power. Rome is one such example. Its river, essential in its history, is the Tiber. It must have been very important the first bridge, the Pons Sublicius, from the time of King Ancus  Marcius, built entirely of wood with wooden instruments, because a taboo prevented contact with metal instruments.

    So important and need  it should be  the help of the gods that the highest  Roman religious authority was  called "Pontifex Maximus" (the maker of the bridge) as the traditional explanation of the term that gives Varro, who also suggests another: from  posse and facere (which  can make ..);  there is one who explains that the name comes from being a bridge of communication between the gods of heaven and mortal men. Certainly the Pope of the Catholic Church holds officially this title  because so assumed when the pagan religion disappeared and the Christian religion was imposed as the official religion. The disappearance then was not complete or radical.

    In Rome were numerous bridges: Bridge Aemilius, now broken, the Fabricius and Cestius on Tiber Island (small island in the middle of the river);  Agrippa’s  Bridge, Caligula’s  Bridge , Nero's, the Triumphal Bridge , the famous Bridge Aelius or of Hadrian ,  now known as Ponte Sant'Angelo, the equally famous Milvian Bridge where the confrontation took place between Maxentius and Constantine when he had the vision of the Cross with the words "in hoc signo vinces" (with this sign conquer), etc..

    Also  Roman bridges, defying the passage of time, are scattered along the all roads of the Roman Empire leading  to Rome, to the city, city par excellence. They are not as long as modern,  but they  have lasted much longer time.

    Well, in ancient times there was a project, an idea better,  because it did not project,  to unite southern Italy to northern Greece with a great bridge.  Pliny the Elder says that to us in his encyclopedia Naturalis Historia, III, (XI) 100 et seq. describing Italy:

    The towns inland from Tarentum are Varia (modern Oria) surnamed Apulia, Messapia (Mesagna), and Aletium (Santa Maria dell' Alizza); on the coast, Senum, and Callipolis (Gallipoli), now known as Anxa, 75 miles from Tarentum. Thence, at a distance of 32 miles, is the Promontory of Acra Iapygia (Capo di Santa Maria di Leuca) , at which point Italy projects the greatest distance into the sea. At a distance of 19 miles from this point is the town of Basta  ( Vaste) , and then Hydruntum (Otranto), the spot at which the Ionian is separated from the Adriatic sea, and from which the distance across to Greece is the shortest. The town of the Apolloniates (Pallina or Pollona) lies opposite to it, and the breadth of the arm of the sea which runs between is not more than fifty miles. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, was the first who entertained the notion of uniting these two points and making a passage on foot, by throwing a bridge across, and after him M. Varro, when commanding the fleet of Pompey in the war against the Pirates. Other cares however prevented either of them from accomplishing this design. (John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.)

    Oppida per continentem a Tarento Uria, cui cognomen ob Apulam Messapiae , Aletium, in ora vero Senum, Callipolis, quae nunc est Anxa, LXXV a Tarento. inde XXXIII promunturium quod Acran Iapygiam vocant, quo longissime in maria excurrit Italia. ab eo Basta oppidum et Hydruntum decem ac novem milia passuum, ad discrimen Ionii et Hadriatici maris, qua in Graeciam brevissimus transitus, ex adverso Apolloniatum oppidi latitudine intercurrentis freti L non amplius. hoc intervallum pedestri continuare transitu pontibus iactis primum Pyrrus Epiri rex cogitavit, post eum M. Varro, cum classibus Pompei piratico bello praeesset; utrumque aliae inpedivere curae

    Hydruntum is Otranto in Magna Graecia, Italy; Apollonia is in the ancient Illyria. Since these cities are going to Greece and vice versa and also to Dyrrachium further north. For example Cicero tells us in book XVI,(Epistulae Ad familiares):  Epistula 9 ad Tironem :

    On the 16th we continued our voyage to Cassiope, a harbour of Corcyra, a distance of 120 stades. There we were detained by winds until the 22nd. Many of those who in this interval impatiently attempted the crossing suffered shipwreck. On the 22nd, after dinner, we weighed anchor. Thence with a very gentle south wind and a clear sky, in the course of that night and the next day we arrived in hìgh spirits on Italian soil at Hydrus, 1 and with the same wind next day—that is, the 24th of November—at 10 o'clock in the morning we reached Brundisium, and exactly at the same time as ourselves Terentia (who values you very highly) made her entrance into the town. (Evelyn Shuckburgh, Ed.)

    a.d. xv K. in portum Corcyraeorum ad Cassiopen stadia cxx processimus. ibi retenti ventis sumus usque ad a. d. viiii K. interea, qui cupide profecti sunt, multi naufragia fecerunt. [2] nos eo die cenati solvimus ; inde austro lenissimo caelo sereno nocte illa et die postero in Italiam ad Hydruntem ludibundi pervenimus eodemque vento postridie (id erat a. d. vii K. Dec.) hora iiii Brundisium venimus, eodemque tempore simul nobiscum in oppidum introiit Terentia, quae te facit plurimi.

    Note: Tiro  is the famous slave of Cicero, then manumitted, who served as private secretary, writing and reviewing the speaker's speeches with tironianae notae,  called Tironian notes, kind of shorthand  writing used by the monks to the Middle Ages. Tiro is sometimes called the "Father of shorthand writing." He was also editor of the works of Cicero.

    For a time  Apolloniates  was domain of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, (most famous for his victory in the way, defeat in the background). Pyrrhus was not only a king who was in check the mighty Rome for a long time, but had great ideas and dreams like this to build a bridge from the shores of Italy to Greece.

    Idea that Varro collected when commanded Pompey's fleet against the pirates of the Adriatic. Friend of Cicero, wrote many works of various subjects, but only is completely preserved his De rerum rusticarum (About the field stuff),  is incomplete De lingua latina  and some remain fragments of other works.

    According to Pliny, the war prevented both to realize the dream. The truth is that the war has consumed and consumed countless time and resources that should be devoted to other tasks, such as building bridges. Even the war goes beyond, in their desire to destroy´, the first thing that usually destroyed in the siege or occupation of a territory are precisely the bridges.

    Otherwise there were in antiquity similar grandiose projects such as a bridge joining Calabria with Sicily. With this bridge dreamed the Romans (even a pontoon bridge), then Charlemagne and the Normans in the eleventh century and Roger II in the XII and permanently until today they are still dreaming. Now the problem seems to be opposition from environmental lobbyists (read mafia).

    The Romans had many wars and few  technical resources. Today there are resources, but what seems to be missing is the decision or political courage to carry out this ancient project.
     

  • God “Terminus” is the guarantor of private property of the field

    Terminus is a Roman god who sets the boundaries of the fields and cities and is also at the crossroads. He is represented as a rectangular stone block whose top is usually included head of Hermes or Mercury. It is also sometimes depicted with male genitalia, given its apotropaic character to “turn away” harm or evil influences. So he is called Hermes.

    About this divinity we spoke recently. See https://www.antiquitatem.com/en/boundary-stone-herm-mercury-termin .

    At that time we referred to its role as guarantor of private property. This was evidenced in the passage of the Ovid’s Fasti, in which are described the ceremonies and sacrifices being honored on the occasion of the celebrations  of Terminalia, which were held on February 23, the end of the primitive Roman year, by the owners of the two neighboring fields.

    I would now insist on the guarantor of private property of Terminus, adding to the text of Ovid, which I reproduce again, another of Livy, in his History book Ab urbe condita (From the founding of the city, of course Rome -), Lib. I, ch. 55.

    Livy tells us as when Tarquin wished to build the temple of Jupiter on Mount Tarpeyo had to desecrate and drive out to the gods existing in the area and so I allowed the omens, but there was one exception: there was the milestone, the boundary stone, Terminus, signaling the place, and the omens did not allow moving to another site. So the solution was that Terminus share the temple with Jupiter. The story may seem innocent, but do not. Actually is devoting the inviolability of the limits set by Terminus.

    Ovid tells us clearly that God guarantees the boundaries and ownership of each of the fields to their owners and how without him  the conflict in the countryside would be permanent.


    “Thou dost set bounds to peoples andcities and vast kingdoms;

    without thee every field would be a root of wrangling.

    Thou courtest no favour thou art bribed by no gold:

    the lands entrusted to thee thou dost guard in loyal good faith”

    'tu populos urbesque et regna ingentia finis:
         omnis erit sine te litigiosus ager.              
    nulla tibi ambitio est, nullo corrumperis auro,
         legitima servas credita rura fide.
        ……
    Recall how often in the field to move  a landmark,  a  boundary stone,  causes conflict or tragedy. In early Rome who moved a marker was considered cursed and could be killed, then the death penalty was replaced by a fine.

    Shortly after Ovid continues:

    “From that abide in that station in which thou hast been placed.
    Yield not an inch to a neighbour, though he ask thee,
    lest thou shouldst seem to value man above Jupiter.
    And whether they beat thee with ploughshares or with rakes, cry out,
    ‘This is thy land, and that is his.”

    "Termine, post illud levitas tibi libera non est:
         qua positus fueris in statione, mane;
    nec tu vicino quicquam concede roganti,               675
         ne videare hominem praeposuisse Iovi:
    et seu vomeribus seu tu pulsabere rastris,
         clamato "tuus est hic ager, ille tuus".'

    These verses of Ovid, as above, are of an undeniable emotion and elegance: Terminus is the cairn, the stone that marks the limits, but also a god with whom you can talk;  at two addresses colloquially the poet: "stone, god, do not get moving, if the farmer while works pushes you with ploughshare (perhaps intentionally) or the rake, you do not move and yell 'this is your field, that is another.”

    And he said again: "if you let yourself to Jupiter how you yield to any man." And this explains perfectly the text of Livy I offer below:

    And that the site might be free from all other religious claims and belong wholly to Jupiter and his temple, which was building there, he determined to annul the consecration of several fanes and shrines which had been first vowed by King Tatius at the crisis of the battle against Romulus, and had afterwards been consecrated and inaugurated.  At the very time when he began this task the gods are said to have exerted their power to show the magnitude of this mighty empire. For whereas the birds permitted that the consecrations of all the other shrines should be rescinded, they refused their consent for the shrine of Terminus. Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., Ed.

    Et ut libera a ceteris religionibus area esset tota Iovis templique eius quod inaedificaretur, exaugurare fana sacellaque statuit quae aliquot ibi, a Tatio rege primum in ipso discrimine adversus Romulum pugnae vota, consecrata inaugurataque postea fuerant. Inter principia condendi huius operis movisse numen ad indicandam tanti imperii molem traditur deos; nam cum omnium sacellorum exaugurationes admitterent aues, in Termini fano non addixere.

    We now better understand the verses of Ovid. The temples and shrines of other gods could be desecrated and moved to another site, the Terminus no.

    Livy accepts the consequence of what the omen and the appearance seem certify and Roman nationalist tradition is repeating: the boundaries of the Roman Empire, the city of Rome, will be fixed and eternal. But a second reading of great importance: it certifies that the story is that the limits set by Terminus are absolutely inviolable, even for Jupiter, the father of the gods, nothing is above property right that guarantees Terminus.

    It is a glaring example of the practicality of the Romans, which affects all its cultural creation, even religion. Here is  a belief, a myth, a ritual, with a practical and effective in social life: ensuring ownership of the Roman farmer and avoid conflict.

    I offer the full chapter Livy’s  work for better contextualization of these comments. Ab condita city, I, 55

    Having got possession of Gabii, Tarquinius1 made peace with the Aequian nation and renewed the treaty with the Etruscans. He next turned his attention to affairs in the city. Here his first concern was to build a temple of Jupiter on the Tarpeian Mount2 to stand as a memorial of his reign and of his name, testifying that of the two Tarquinii, both kings, the father had made the vow and the son had fulfilled it.  And that the site might be free from all other religious claims and belong wholly to Jupiter and his temple, which was building there, he determined to annul the consecration of several fanes and shrines which had been first vowed by King Tatius at the crisis of the battle against Romulus, and had afterwards been consecrated and inaugurated.  At the very time when he began this task the gods are said to have exerted their power to show the magnitude of this mighty empire. For whereas the birds permitted that the consecrations of all the other shrines should be rescinded, they refused their consent for the shrine of Terminus.  This omen and augury was thus construed: the fact that the seat of Terminus was not moved, and that of all the gods he alone was not called away from the place consecrated to him, meant that the whole kingdom would be firm and steadfast.  When this auspice of permanence had been received, there followed another prodigy foretelling the grandeur of their empire. A human head, its features intact, was found, so it is said, by the men who were digging for the foundations of the temple.  This appearance plainly foreshowed that here was to be the citadel of the empire and the head of the world, and such was the interpretation of the soothsayers, both those who were in [p. 193]the City and those who were called in from Etruria3 to consider the matter. Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D., Ed.

    Gabiis receptis Tarquinius pacem cum Aequorum gente fecit, foedus cum Tuscis renovavit. Inde ad negotia urbana animum convertit; quorum erat primum ut Iovis templum in monte Tarpeio monumentum regni sui nominisque relinqueret: Tarquinios reges ambos patrem vovisse, filium perfecisse. Et ut libera a ceteris religionibus area esset tota Iovis templique eius quod inaedificaretur,exaugurare fana sacellaque statuit quae aliquot ibi, a Tatio rege primum in ipso discrimine adversus Romulum pugnae vota, consecrata inaugurataque postea fuerant.  Inter principia condendi huius operis movisse numen ad indicandam tanti imperii molem traditur deos; nam cum omnium sacellorum exaugurationes admitterent aues, in Termini fano non addixere; idque omen auguriumque ita acceptum est non motam Termini sedem unumque eum deorum non euocatum sacratis sibi finibus firma stabiliaque cuncta portendere.Hoc perpetuitatis auspicio accepto, secutum aliud magnitudinem imperii portendens prodigium est: caput humanum integra facie aperientibus fundamenta templi dicitur apparuisse. Quae visa species haud per ambages arcem eam imperii caputque rerum fore portendebat; idque ita cecinere uates quique in urbe erant quosque ad eam rem consultandam ex Etruria acciuerant.

    Ovid: Fasti, 2, 639 ff.  (Translated by  JAMES G. FRAZER )

    When the night had passed, see to it that the god who marks the boundaries of the tilled lands receives his wonted honour. O Terminus, whether thou art a stone or stump buried in the field, thou too hast been deified from days of yore. Thou art crowned by two owners on opposite sides; they bring thee two garlands and two cakes. An altar is built. Hither the husbandman’s rustic wife brings with her own hands on a potsherd the fire which she has taken from the warm hearth. The old man chops wood, and deftly piles up the billets, and strives to fix the branches in the solid earth: then he nurses the kindling flames with dry bark, the boy stands by and holds the broad basket in his hands. When from the basket he had thrice thrown corn into the midst of the fire, the little daughter presents the cut honeycombs. Others hold vessels of wine. A portion of each is cast into the flames. The company dressed in white look on and hold their peace. Terminus himself, at the meeting of the bounds, is sprinkled with the blood of a slaughtered lamb, and grumbles not when a suckling pig is given him. The simple neighbours meet and hold a feast, and sing thy praises, holy Terminus: “Thou dost set bounds to peoples and cities and vast kingdoms; without thee every field would be a root of wrangling. Thou courtest no favour thou art bribed by no gold: the lands entrusted to thee thou dost guard in loyal good faith. If thou of old hadst marked the bounds of the Thyrean land, three hundred men had not been done to death, nor had the name of Othryades been read on the piled arms. O how he made his fatherland to bleed! What happened when the new Capitol was being built? Why, the whole company of gods withdrew before Jupiter and made room for him; but Terminus, as the ancients relate, remained where he was found in the shrine, and shares the temple with great Jupiter. Even to this day there is a small hole in the roof of the temple, that he may see naught above him but the stars. From that abide in that station in which thou hast been placed. Yield not an inch to a neighbour, though he ask thee, lest thou shouldst seem to value man above Jupiter. And whether they beat thee with ploughshares or with rakes, cry out, ‘This is thy land, and that is his.’” There is a way that leads folk to the Laurentine fields, the kingdom once sought by the Dardanian chief: on that way the sixth milestone from the City witnesses the sacrifice of the woolly sheep’s guts to thee, Terminus. The land of other nations has a fixed boundary: the circuit of Rome is the circuit of the world.

    Nox ubi transierit, solito celebretur honore
         separat indicio qui deus arva suo.
    Termine, sive lapis sive es defossus in agro
         stipes, ab antiquis tu quoque numen habes.
    te duo diversa domini de parte coronant,
         binaque serta tibi binaque liba ferunt.
    ara fit: huc ignem curto fert rustica testo               645
         sumptum de tepidis ipsa colona focis.
    ligna senex minuit concisaque construit arte,
         et solida ramos figere pugnat humo;
    tum sicco primas inritat cortice flammas;
         stat puer et manibus lata canistra tenet.               650
    inde ubi ter fruges medios immisit in ignes,
         porrigit incisos filia parva favos.
    vina tenent alii: libantur singula flammis;
         spectant, et linguis candida turba favet.
    spargitur et caeso communis Terminus agno,               655
         nec queritur lactans cum sibi porca datur.
    conveniunt celebrantque dapes vicinia simplex
         et cantant laudes, Termine sancte, tuas:
    'tu populos urbesque et regna ingentia finis:
         omnis erit sine te litigiosus ager.               660
    nulla tibi ambitio est, nullo corrumperis auro,
         legitima servas credita rura fide.
    si tu signasses olim Thyreatida terram,
         corpora non leto missa trecenta forent,
    nec foret Othryades congestis lectus in armis.               665
         o quantum patriae sanguinis ille dedit!
    quid, nova cum fierent Capitolia? nempe deorum
         cuncta Iovi cessit turba locumque dedit;
    Terminus, ut veteres memorant, inventus in aede
         restitit et magno cum Iove templa tenet.               670
    nunc quoque, se supra ne quid nisi sidera cernat,
         exiguum templi tecta foramen habent.
    Termine, post illud levitas tibi libera non est:
         qua positus fueris in statione, mane;
    nec tu vicino quicquam concede roganti,               675
         ne videare hominem praeposuisse Iovi:
    et seu vomeribus seu tu pulsabere rastris,
         clamato "tuus est hic ager, ille tuus".'
    est via quae populum Laurentes ducit in agros,
         quondam Dardanio regna petita duci:               680
    illa lanigeri pecoris tibi, Termine, fibris
         sacra videt fieri sextus ab Urbe lapis.
    gentibus est aliis tellus data limite certo:
         Romanae spatium est Urbis et orbis idem.
     

  • The boundary stone, the landmark of the roads, is Hermes

    Often the traveler, especially Walker, sees along the road or at the entrance of the cities stone markers, landmarks and even piles of stones.

    Often we also see these milestones, blocks of stone or cairns with  the function of marking a territory, designate a special place, as the grave of a deceased, or define a space.  In the cult language we call  these milestones "herm" or "Herma",  in ancient Greek ἕρμα. word that means "rock,  mound".  They also had a protective  and apotropaic function to "turn away" all harm or evil influences  (from Greek ἀποτρέπω, apotrépō, "away, apart", of ἀπό, apo, "away" and τρέπω, trepo, “climbed, spin"). These cairns were  usually crowned with the bust or figure of Hermes or Mercury.

    But Hermes is a god in Greek mythology, son of Zeus and Maya. He is the messenger of the gods, the protector of the travelers, the god of merchants and thieves (the ancients had gods for everything). The Greek Hermes corresponds to the Roman god Mercury (note the connection with the word "market").

    So the milestone, the stone block represents the god Hermes and so in the ancient world are very common these stone markers square shaped finished with bust of the god Hermes, sometimes adorned with male genitalia, especially with the phallus or penis as a symbol of fertility.

    This god in this function is similar to the Roman "Terminus" (meaning more evident and clear). These "Hermes", as I said, were placed along and at the crossroads of the roads (among other things Hermes is the god of travelers), at the gates  of the cities, at  the limits and boundaries of populations, etc. .   They may have their origin in the early Greek and Roman custom of forming piles of stone in certain points along the way;  the traveler passing threw its little stone  by making a wish.   The fact that they are of stone gives us back to ancient beliefs and cults in which the stone has a spirit or special religious value.

    In Spain remains from old time that  custom in some parts:  in Aragon are called "peirones", in the Molina de Aragón (Guadalajara) (where they are called "pairones") are numerous vertical prismatic  stones, whose top is usually a religious image. They are certainly related to the old "Hermes".

    No less striking is how endure to this day customs that  have lost all meaning and how persist old names, although reduced already to specially educated circles.

    Regarding "terminus",  is convenient to make some observations. Personified and deified is a Roman god who protects the limits of both private and public property. Tradition attributes to Numa the custom of placing markers or  boundary stones to delimit the property, which is protected by Iuppiter Terminus, in whose honor festivals Terminalia are celebrated in Februar, 23.. (Fast Ov.. Ii. 639 ff).

    By extension the word "terminus", which went to Spanish (“término”) also means limit, end of something and territory bounded by terms (for example:  municipality), and even the word that defines a concept (linguistic term).

    Along the noun is the verb "terminar"  "end" to mean stop or end of something and the compounds 'determine' (set limits or terms between which something is in real or figurative sense) and "exterminate" (completely finish , destroy, take you beyond the limits or terms).

    I then offer translation of Ovid's text in which he describes the festival of Terminalia to deepen the idea of the importance of religious rites and acts to set the rules and laws of society, in this case, the private ownership of land : Ovid: Fasti, 2, 639 ff.  (Translated by  JAMES G. FRAZER )

    When the night had passed, see to it that the god who marks the boundaries of the tilled lands receives his wonted honour. O Terminus, whether thou art a stone or stump buried in the field, thou too hast been deified from days of yore. Thou art crowned by two owners on opposite sides; they bring thee two garlands and two cakes. An altar is built. Hither the husbandman’s rustic wife brings with her own hands on a potsherd the fire which she has taken from the warm hearth. The old man chops wood, and deftly piles up the billets, and strives to fix the branches in the solid earth: then he nurses the kindling flames with dry bark, the boy stands by and holds the broad basket in his hands. When from the basket he had thrice thrown corn into the midst of the fire, the little daughter presents the cut honeycombs. Others hold vessels of wine. A portion of each is cast into the flames. The company dressed in white look on and hold their peace. Terminus himself, at the meeting of the bounds, is sprinkled with the blood of a slaughtered lamb, and grumbles not when a suckling pig is given him. The simple neighbours meet and hold a feast, and sing thy praises, holy Terminus: “Thou dost set bounds to peoples and cities and vast kingdoms; without thee every field would be a root of wrangling. Thou courtest no favour thou art bribed by no gold: the lands entrusted to thee thou dost guard in loyal good faith. If thou of old hadst marked the bounds of the Thyrean land, three hundred men had not been done to death, nor had the name of Othryades been read on the piled arms. O how he made his fatherland to bleed! What happened when the new Capitol was being built? Why, the whole company of gods withdrew before Jupiter and made room for him; but Terminus, as the ancients relate, remained where he was found in the shrine, and shares the temple with great Jupiter. Even to this day there is a small hole in the roof of the temple, that he may see naught above him but the stars. From that abide in that station in which thou hast been placed. Yield not an inch to a neighbour, though he ask thee, lest thou shouldst seem to value man above Jupiter. And whether they beat thee with ploughshares or with rakes, cry out, ‘This is thy land, and that is his.’” There is a way that leads folk to the Laurentine fields, the kingdom once sought by the Dardanian chief: on that way the sixth milestone from the City witnesses the sacrifice of the woolly sheep’s guts to thee, Terminus. The land of other nations has a fixed boundary: the circuit of Rome is the circuit of the world.

    Nox ubi transierit, solito celebretur honore
         separat indicio qui deus arva suo.
    Termine, sive lapis sive es defossus in agro
         stipes, ab antiquis tu quoque numen habes.
    te duo diversa domini de parte coronant,
         binaque serta tibi binaque liba ferunt.
    ara fit: huc ignem curto fert rustica testo               645
         sumptum de tepidis ipsa colona focis.
    ligna senex minuit concisaque construit arte,
         et solida ramos figere pugnat humo;
    tum sicco primas inritat cortice flammas;
         stat puer et manibus lata canistra tenet.               650
    inde ubi ter fruges medios immisit in ignes,
         porrigit incisos filia parva favos.
    vina tenent alii: libantur singula flammis;
         spectant, et linguis candida turba favet.
    spargitur et caeso communis Terminus agno,               655
         nec queritur lactans cum sibi porca datur.
    conveniunt celebrantque dapes vicinia simplex
         et cantant laudes, Termine sancte, tuas:
    'tu populos urbesque et regna ingentia finis:
         omnis erit sine te litigiosus ager.               660
    nulla tibi ambitio est, nullo corrumperis auro,
         legitima servas credita rura fide.
    si tu signasses olim Thyreatida terram,
         corpora non leto missa trecenta forent,
    nec foret Othryades congestis lectus in armis.               665
         o quantum patriae sanguinis ille dedit!
    quid, nova cum fierent Capitolia? nempe deorum
         cuncta Iovi cessit turba locumque dedit;
    Terminus, ut veteres memorant, inventus in aede
         restitit et magno cum Iove templa tenet.               670
    nunc quoque, se supra ne quid nisi sidera cernat,
         exiguum templi tecta foramen habent.
    Termine, post illud levitas tibi libera non est:
         qua positus fueris in statione, mane;
    nec tu vicino quicquam concede roganti,               675
         ne videare hominem praeposuisse Iovi:
    et seu vomeribus seu tu pulsabere rastris,
         clamato "tuus est hic ager, ille tuus".'
    est via quae populum Laurentes ducit in agros,
         quondam Dardanio regna petita duci:               680
    illa lanigeri pecoris tibi, Termine, fibris
         sacra videt fieri sextus ab Urbe lapis.
    gentibus est aliis tellus data limite certo:
         Romanae spatium est Urbis et orbis idem.

  • One, two, many

    The acquisition of the concept of number and of the terms to designate it and numbers to represent them is one of the most difficult tasks for humans. It must be for the primitive and it is for the child now learning it in childhood.

    We are surprised when ethnologists  report that current people, whom we call primitive with remarkable injustice from our perspective exclusively Western, have only proper name for the "one" and to the "two", from there only speak of "many "," crowd. " It seems strange and a great limitation that at least they have no proper name for the top ten, like us.

    The study of language sometimes offers remarkable surprises. Our language, like French, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese, Catalan … derives from Latin, related in turn to many other languages called Indo-European. Comparing with each other, the old and the modern, somehow we can reconstruct the common trunk, which we call "Indo-European". With this method we can come back to IV or V millennium BC.

    Well, in Indo-European languages ranging from Europe to Asia (and from the late fifteenth century to America with Spanish, English, French and Portuguese in particular) the numbers keep a remarkable unity and uniformity. Their study offers us some surprises.

    You can track how in Indo-European number two (2) was also the maximum accuracy and from him it was only  "crowd."

    We say first that Indo-European languages are "inflected",  ie.  words have different endings to express the number, gender and grammatical function. Well, in Greek and Latin (in this residually) still have some finishing words to express the "singular", others to express that are two the objects referred, number called "dual" and others for "plural") when more than two. This puts us closer to those people who differ only one, two, many.

    This extraordinary perception of "2" can undoubtedly be explained by the frequent and relevant objects or beings matched: both hands, both arms, both feet, both legs, two eyes, two ears … there are two wings of birds two birds legs … the immediate perception would be  "1", one, which refers to oneself.

    Very striking is the study of the name of the number "three" (3). The root of the word "Indo-European", the reconstructed original language,  is * "tri", and derivatives * "treyes", * "tisores" ( the Indo-European terms are preceded by an asterisk (*) to differentiate them).

    The francophone people notice immediately the etymological proximity, relation,  between "trois" (3) and "très" which means "very much" indicating intensity and "trop" which means "too much".

    In Latin the word "trans" meaning "beyond" is from the same root as “tres”,"three" (3);  the Latin word "ter" means  "three times" but also has a general sense, for example in this Plautus phrase:

    " Ter tanto peior ipsa est, quam illam tu esse vis   = is many times worse how many you want to be."

    In Horatius is read "ter quaterque" that  literally means "three to four times" , but actually means "a thousand times, many times".

    In English the word "three" means “3”,; the rarer use "thrice" means "three times" and "several";  "throng", means  "many" and "fill, cram," ; "through " means  “beyond".

    From Indo-European root derive the word used in  Late Latin or vulgar Latin  "troppus" meaning "herd, band", from which derive the French "trop" cited, the Italian "troppo", "too", the French "troupe" and from this the Spanish “tropa” and “tropel” (meaning  "troops" and "flock")  with obvious sense of crowd large group.

    All this brings us back to a very ancient stage of our language in which “tres”,"three", was synonymous of  "crowd,  plurality" and thus brings us closer to those we call primitive peoples who do not have their own name beyond the number three .

    We have created a more complex and perfect numeral system, which remains extremely limited in the background, as we glimpse when compared with modern computing machines.
     

  • In Rome the declaration of war is a sacred act that only “fetial” priests can perform.

    Unfortunately war is an activity too often in the history of men. Despite the violence it engenders and which develops, war is subject to rules and rites. The Roman people, very superstitious and ritualistic, has rituals for all activities, and also for war. War is an action so important that only “fetial” priests can declare.

    The Romans were at war with each other peoples almost every day of their  history. A few days remained closed the temple of Janus that stayed open in times of war, ready to assist the legions.The wars made them many disappointments, but also a huge empire. Now,  the war is a very serious subject submitted to a complex religious ritual performed by specialized priests,  the fetials. The Romans are a people very ritualistic.
    The historian Livy reproduces the sacred formulas, which created by Ancus Martius, fourth king of Rome, used the fetial priest   for the declaration of war:

    The fetial approaches the border of the bully people, his head covered with a cloak of wool and says:

    "Listen Jupiter, hear the inhabitants of  frontiers, hear you too, justice:  I am the messenger of the Roman people, come with a righteously, and godly mission ".

    Then present their complaints; continues after putting Jupiter to witness:

    "If I,  messenger of the Roman people, outraged the laws of justice and religion, do not let my country ever again return".

    Pronounce this formula to the first man he meets, says it when he  enters the enemy city and repeats when  reachs the public square. If he does not receive satisfaction solemnly  in within thirty-three days,  he declares war on this way:

    "Listen you Jupiter and you Juno, Quirinus and all the gods of heaven, earth and hell, listen: I put on witnesses injustice of this town, who refuses to return what is not theirs. Now the elders of my country will deliberate on measures to restore our rights."

    The messenger returned to Rome and the king raised the issue to the senators. If a majority approved of the war, the fetial priest wore  to the borders of enemy an iron spear or stake hardened in the fire and infused with his blood. In the presence of at least three young men said,

    "because they have acted against the Roman people, son of Quirinius, and transgressed against him, the Roman people, son of Quirinius  has provided war; the senate of the Roman people, son of Quirinius, has  proposed, sentenced and decreed, and I and the Roman people declared it and I break the hostilities. "

    After these words hurled the spear into enemy territory.

    The war, holy in its origin, must  also end with  a religious action. Part of the spoils of the enemy belonged to the gods who had heard the words of fetial and supported their claim and were delivered in the temple of Jupiter Feretius.

    When over time the wars were held away from the capital, the fetial priest  went to Campus Martius in Rome and there celebrated the ceremony just described.

    Maybe some wicked and cruel individual thinks that in war there are no rules, but the Romans knew that only a very formalistic ritual guaranteed the necessary support of the gods.

    The man, being social, needs permanent rules, rituals and laws to regulate and control all social activity, including violent war. So are objectionable and cause us embarrassment modern and current scenes of gratuitous violence.
     

  • The ancient Olympic Games

    Among the many things that we owe to the Greeks, no less important is the creation of sporting competitions. The Greeks held the Olympic Games for over a thousand years, then the Olympics disappeared for more than 1600 years, and we have recovered them only a hundred years ago.

    Currently held every four years, somewhere in the world, the Olympic Games take place. The most important cities or the most emerging ones of the planet compete for its organization. No other sports event has as much interest and healthy competitiveness as the Olympics. And they are watched by thousands of millions of citizens. For a few weeks everything revolves around the Olympics and humans seem to forget the quarrels and cultivate their best qualities.

    Like so much else, we owe the Olympics to the Greeks and therefore we owe the sport as a peaceful and physical contest that eventually would leaved its religious connotations. Like all aristocratic and warrior society, their young soldiers or make the war or do they train for it (with adequate competitive exercises).

    These competitions are held at specific times within a religious festival in honor of a particular god or the funeral of a chieftain or warrior hero and therefore have a sacred character. Games are an opportunity to keep alive the heroic and chivalrous spirit of the Homeric heroes, expressed by the Greek term "arete", when the winner does not kill the vanquished and keeps his belongings, but respect the opponent.

    Although athletes compete individually, cities move their national rivalries to games and are proud of them.

    The Olympic Games were held in honor of Zeus at Olympia city in the fertile basin of the river Alpheus, in Greek Elis. These athletic contests in Olympia are really centuries old. The tradition and myth awarded Herakles  with his creation because he organized a race in gratitude to Zeus for the victory that took over King Augeas. Hercules fixed a distance of 600 of his own feet, making this a stadium length (192.27 m.). So today the "stadiums" are the sports facilities where competitions are held. Some "stadiums" are great and remarkable works of architecture.

    In the year 864 BC a treaty was signed by Iphitus for the Eleos, Lycurgus for Sparta, and Cleóstenes for Pisa to approve the famous Sacred Truce for three months that prevented war and declared inviolable territory of Olympia and guaranteed the safety of pilgrims and athletes who came competing two months before the games begin.

    These games in these conditions are an essential element in the sense of community among Greek polis or city-state so assiduously practiced clashes between them.

    In the year 776 BC were held the first Olympic Games that were officially recorded. This had great significance, since it served to initiate a new era or historical account of time thereafter.

    The heydays corresponds to the V and IV, classical period after passing the previous archaism, when monarchical and aristocratic regimes are were succeeded democracy, epitomized by Athens.

    These Olympic Games (there were others in other cities dedicated to other gods) were the religious festival and sports and cultural competition most important in Greece. The olive wreath, award for victory, was the most coveted trophy for a Greek.

    The Olympics were held every four years without interruption since the year 776. BC. until 394 AD, when the Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius banned them considering them a cult and pagan rite. Christianity, which incorporated many pagan things to his creed and ritual, preferred to delete the Olympics. In fact the Olympic spirit had disappeared earlier and the Games had fallen sharply. However they had survived virtually steadily 1170 years (the question that arises is what happened in the Olympics between 265 and 286, because they are not preserved lists of winners for this era).

    We have taken longer to recover in the modern era, exactly 1,500 years.

  • Pygmalion

    Pygmalion is a Greek myth constantly reinterpreted

    The numerous Greek myths recount the life and miracles of their gods, their heroes, their people, explain the origin and meaning of the phenomena of nature, albeit in an unscientific way (though the Greeks also began scientific thinking); delve into the lives of men, their essence, their passions, their customs. Myths, then, transmit messages of identity to members of the society of the every period.

    Greek mythology is also a vast area open to the creativity of men. So some of their myths have been recreated  again and again since Antiquity.

    One of the most inspiring has been the myth  Pygmalion, king of Cyprus, a priest, a sculptor who falls in love with his own work, the sculpture of the young beautiful Galatea. The image will come to life by the goddess Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

    There are many examples in history in which the author falls in love with his work, whether in art of sculpture or painting.

    Who think that Leonard  was in love with Mona Lisa, the Gioconda, work that remained with him throughout his life, would not be more successful if   they would assert the love to his own work, his paint,  and not a girl of flesh and bone in view of the character of the author?  And what about the special consideration that Michelangelo dispensed his Moses, whom he considered his best work and according to tradition, perhaps legendary, hit him with hammer to speak because that he had no?

    The theme of Pygmalion and Galatea has been picked up by many painters and sculptors: Bronzino, Boucher, Gérôme, Goya, Edward Burne-Jones, Girodet, Poussin, Daumier, Rodin and Falconet.

    The theater and music have reinterpreted that so many times: in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there are no fewer than half a dozen operas, musicals and ballets about  the myth of Pygmalion.

    In modern times the most famous recreation was the play of George Bernard Shaw also called "Pygmalion", published in 1913. A professor of phonetics transforms  a vulgar London florist who talks careless in a sophisticated lady with perfect diction.

    On the work of Bernard Shaw are made several movies, one in 1938 and the most famous and hugely successful My Fair Laydi in 1964 directed by George Cukor and starring  by Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison,  adjustment for film of a famous musical of the year 1956.

    More recently (1990), the film “Pretty Woman”, directed by Garry Marxhall and starring by Richard Gere and Julia Robers, also with highly successful, returns the old myth. Now is a handsome and wealthy businessman without scruples who hires a prostitute who will radically change way of life when the young man treated her with respect as a person and taught to behave in society, also the broker underwent a profound transformation  in that normalized relationship.

    Several critics, especially some feminists have highlighted the sexist nature of the myth that highlights t superiority of the male  by the fact that men are just artists, modelers, and women, however, the product, modeling.

    Apart from the assessment and personal interest of everyone, it seems advisable to try and evaluate every literary or artistic work in the context in which it occurs.

    At this point, it is appropriate to know the myth of "Pygmalion" itself and therefore offer a version of it on the basis of what the Latin poet Ovid tells us in his Metamorphoses, in Book X, lines 243 – 297.

    PYGMALION

    Pygmalion was a wise and good king of the island of Cyprus, was also a priest and an extraordinary sculptor. For a long time searched for wife the most beautiful and perfect woman of Greece without finding anywhere. Moreover, disgusted by the vices and bad behavior of some women who shamelessly prostituted the beauty of your body, decided to live alone, without a companion to his bed, and dedicate forever to sculpt beautiful statues.

    One day, he decided with his extraordinary art sculpt the body of a woman out of ivory white as snow in the image and likeness of the goddess Venus. Finish the job and finding more perfect than if he had the nature, fell in love with that beautiful woman's body, which he named Galatea.

    It seemed the ivory statue of a young woman living truth to get up and speak sweet words. Pygmalion's heart lit each day more and more love for Galatea, which caressed and kissed and clasped in his arms. He thought even in his delirium she back him kisses  and answer their sentences in love.

    – Dear Galatea: I bring colorful flowers and jewelry for your hands and this long necklace for your neck.

    he said her tenderly. Or caring and loving he leaned the beautiful naked body saying:

    – Rest, dear love in this bed of purple and lie your head on these soft cushions of feathers.

    Meanwhile had come the day of the feast of Venus, the patroness of Cyprus. The Pygmalion priest sacrificed on the altar of the goddess some skin white young calves carrying the head and horns adorned with colorful ribbons and sheets of gold and incense burned and spread its sweet smelling smoke in the temple. With a timid voice whispered the king, priest and sculptor, at the altar:

    – Oh god almighty! I beg my wife, if I ever find her, were like my ivory woman.

    Listened Venus, the goddess of love who attended the party, these words with divine mercy.

    When Pygmalion returned home, came to the statue  and gave it a gentle kiss. He fell asleep and  seemed in dreams that ivory body did not return the freezing cold inert ivory but was lukewarm. Bring near  his mouth again and touch its chest with his trembling hands. Ivory abandons its hardness, is softened and yields to finger pressure. Wake up startled and fearful and unbelieving and amazed again and again touches the silent body and with caresses  infuses warmth and life. Now it is a living body, your flexible muscles  give motion to its members, the blood  runs through your  veins which have a pulse and pink dyed his face. When Pygmalion kisses finally living Galatea’s living, she blushes and looks with rapture at her husband.

    Pygmalion is directed with respectful words of thanks to Venus and the goddess of love appears suddenly, splendid and bright and affable replies:

    – You deserve happiness, Pygmalion, a happiness to which you yourself have been shaped by your actions. Here the queen and wife who have sought. Love her forever, defend her from the poor and share with her your happiness. "

      Thus Galatea became a real woman and Pygmalion got the desire  so eagerly pursued.
     

  • Love potions and love filters

    Against all prediction has appeared recently (late May 2013) in Spanish media a story with three old flavor words that seem move us to another world: witch, spell, potion.

    Certainly mediums, spells, love potions do not seem issues of our time but of the past. Yet important  newspapers headlined:

    "The big goal of the baker witch. The psychic claimed 165,000 euros to ex president of  Castellón F.C. by a spell of love " or  "Laparra arrested for robbing the house of a psychic who sold a fake love potion".

    In short, the news was referring to the fact that a certain Laparra, chairman of a football club, had hired the services of a fortune teller (in other times would say "witch"), which prepared a potion for obtain the  love of Sandra, with whom he was madly in love. But the potion was ineffective and the lover claimed the astronomical amount paid 165,000 euros.

    The formula for the potion or "elixir" (a term also used bay newspapers) consisted of washing with water which had previously been submerged some flowers during  40 days, then the lover must collect land from  a cemetery and rub his body .

    The potions, elixirs or love filters  exist from the remotest Antiquity. In Greek and Roman culture are ubiquitous in the mythological stories and daily life of people. Remember the "witch" Medea who attracts Jason  or the sorceress Circe who  turns men into pigs with his wand and retains Ulysses (Odysseus) in his palace, by referring to the Greeks.

    Among Latins are frequent references in the poets like Horace, Ovid, Catullus, Propertius, and in romans of Petronius and Apuleius to love filters to obtain  the girls love. For example, we can remember  Cintia’s  complaints, because she  has suffered infidelity from her beloved Propertius, in Elegies, III,6,25-30:

    She won not by her morals, but by magic herbs, the bitch: he’s led by the bullroarer whirling on its string. He’s drawn to her by omens, of swollen frogs and toads, and the bones of dried snakes she’s fished out, and the feathers of screech owls found by fallen tombs, and a woollen fillet bound to a murdered man. (Translated by A. S. Kline)

    Non me moribus illa, sed herbis improba vicit:
    staminea rhombi ducitur ille rota.
    Illum turgentis ranae portentae rubetae
    et tecta exsectis anguibus ossa trahunt,
    et strigis inventae per busta iacentia plumae,
    cinctaque funesto lanea vitta rogo.

    Of course this formula is more complicated than this one of the modern "witch". As is  it that  Pliny gives us in his Natural History XXX, 49, 141 (Book dedicated to medicinal use of animal products):

    A lizard drowned in a man's urine has the effect of an antaphrodisiac upon the person whose urine it is; for this animal is to be reckoned among the philtres, the magicians say. The same property is attributed to the excrements of snails, and to pigeons' dung, taken with oil and wine. The right lobe of a vulture's lungs, attached to the body in the skin of a crane, acts powerfully as a stimulant upon males: an effect equally produced by taking the yolks of five pigeons' eggs, in honey, mixed with one denarius of hog's lard; sparrows, or eggs of sparrows, with the food; or by wearing the right testicle of a cock, attached to the body in a ram's skin.     ( Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.)

    In urina virili enecata lacerta venerem eius, qui fecerit, inhibet; nam inter amatoria esse Magi dicunt. inhibent et cocleae, fimum columbinum cum oleo et vino potum. pulmonis vulturini dextrae partes venerem concitant viris adalligatae gruis pelle, item si lutea ex ovis quinis columbarum admixta adipis suilli denarii pondere ex melle sorbeantur, passeres in cibo vel ova eorum, gallinacei dexter testis arietina pelle adalligatus.

    Anyway, if anyone is curious to know more of these magical rituals can read the Epode V of Horace in which he describes a real black magic scene in which a child is killed slowly to make with his viscera a powerful love potion.

    In any case is not without interest to note the persistence of these magical practices that are lost in the mists of time for millennia.

    As is also of great interest to note that today as thousands of years ago are just women who are the possessors of these magical arts. They are the ones who know the herbs and their effects and prepare medicines for diseases and filters. Interestingly venenum (herbs filter good or bad) and Venus (love, lovemaking, love object) have the same common root. In Latin they are called "sagae" witches. About that Pliny  said  in Naturalis Historia XXV, 5, 10:

    and yet the greater part of the lower classes still remain firmly persuaded that these phenomena are brought about by compulsion, through the agency of herbs and enchantments, and that the knowledge of this art is confined almost exclusively to females. ( Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.)

    durat tamen tradita persuasio in magna parte vulgi, veneficiis et herbis id cogi eamque unam feminarum scientiam praevalere.

    In any case, if this modern lover had read Ovid’s work would have avoided some problems. Just started his booklet "Remedia Amoris" (Remedies of Love), in verses 21-22, we suggest either:

    Let him who’ll die of wretched passion unless he quits it,
    quit it: and you’ll be the cause of no one’s funeral.
    (Translated by A. S. Kline)

    Qui, nisi desierit, misero periturus amore est,
    desinat: et nulli funeris auctor eris.

    And if he had known the famous Ovid’s Ars Amandi, would have read in Book II, verses 99-102, how disqualifies the value of potions and herbs to woo the woman he loved or desired:

    Is wrong who uses arts of Haemonia
    and gives what springs from the tender  front of a foal.
    Medea's herbs will not make love survives,
      nor Marsi spells,  mixed with magical sounds.

    Fallitur, Haemonias si quis decurrit ad artes
    Datque, quod a teneri fronte revellit equi;
    Non facient ut vivat amor Medeides herbae
    Mixtaque cum magicis naenia Marsa sonis.

    And if none of this will come good, could use another formula or spell, but this time to forget a elusive love , like does Scylla in Appendix Vergiliana, Ciris, 369-374:

    But the nurse, mixing sulphur in a flat bowl,
    kindles narcissus and cassia, savoury herbs;
    and thrice tying nine threads, marked eith three different hues, she cries:
    “Spit thrice into your bosom, as I do,  maiden;
    spit thirce, maiden: heaven delights in an uneven number
    (by H.R. Fairclough, rev. G.P. Goold; Loeb Classical Library;  Cambridge, MA 2001;  )

    At nutrix patula componens sulpura testa
    narcissum casiamque herbas incendit olentis
    terque novena ligans triplici diversa colore
    fila «ter in gremium mecum» inquit «despue, virgo,
    despue ter, virgo: numero deus impare gaudet.

    Either approach would have been preferable to suffer the fraud or scam of a crazy formula  for a crazy purpose for which they are paid 165,000 euros.

    We could end these reflections with some consideration about the terminology used in newspaper. They speak of a modern "witch" without doubt on the meaning, which supports the Royal Spanish Academy, of charming, bewitching, and which is  derived from the function of ancient Pythia or priestess of the temple of Apollo at Delphi, where came faithful from anywhere of the Greek world to ask the god about their future or their designs and projects. Has little to do, then, the modern witch of newspapers with the  function of old Pythia as an intermediary between mortals and Apollo.

    He is also called "seer", a word that clearly means "one who sees", even supernatural visions, and who "intends to foretell the future or clarifying what is hidden" (curiously, many times these seers of the future or of the supernatural are physically blind about the world in which they live; let us  remember the famous seer of the tragedy Oedipus named Tiresias, blind,). Shortly should see the modern witch, who guessed neither foresaw the backlash of gullible customer who swindled 165,000 euros. Therefore, the use of this word in this context is absolutely inadmissible.

    Nor is it a "potion", because this word comes from the Greek “apó”, ἀπό gr. 'away from', 'from' and “zema”, ζέμα, 'cooking', 'decoction' of herbs and here only refers to "flowers submerged in water" .

    It is not  more appropriate to use the term spell, because although we assume that beside the water bath of flowers and smeared with mud from the cemetery, there was some magic verbal formula, nothing is told about it.

    Nor is the situation exactly fits the term "elixir", according to the Royal Academy a word from scientific  Latin “ elixir”, this from  classic Arabic “ al'iksīr” , and this from Greek. ξηρά, dry substances, because it is not a liqueur or medicinal liquid to drink. It could only be admitted as a generalization of its meaning.

    Neither seems very appropriate to speak in the subentry of the headline  as "fake love potion," as if there were any "real" and effective  potion.

    In short, if  these linguistic lacks of precision are curious , what  really is striking is that these magical practices come from the dawn of humanity and have gone through all historical periods, from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, Modern and Contemporary, and now  survive at present in various forms, (sometimes covered with cultural costumes as Donizetti famous opera "L'elisir d'amore"):  beliefs, ceremonies, horoscopes, necromancy, fortune-tellers, TV spots large audiences and, of course, thousands of web pages absolutely despicable.

      So weak, imperfect and irrational  is our human constitution?
     

  • A mammothreptus is a hefty volume, a huge tome

    Mammothretus is a word that designates bulky book, fat, heavy and of little value. The origin of this word is very curious. It comes from the Greek via Latin.

    The Spanish Royal Academy defines  “mamotreto” (latin mammotrectus/mammothreptus)  as "hulk, very bulky book or file, especially irregular and deformed".

    Sebastian de Covarrubias, in his Treasury of the Castilian language (1611) defines it as "Big book in volume about  frivolous materials and of little fruit." Equivalent also therefore a “huge tome”.

    It is considered that derives from the late Latin "mammotrectus" and this from "mammothreptus" which comes from the late Greek μαμμόθρεπτος.

    The Greek-latin  word literally means "raised at the teat", "suckling longer due", "sucker", without the connotation it has in colloquial and vulgar, and also "raised by his grandmother" (if you drift of μἀμμη, mamme, mother, grandmother, and θρεπτὁς, threptos, fed, bred, of τρέφειν, trefein, feeding) and perhaps better "raised by a nurse".

    In any case concerns a fat kid, beefy, big guy, that is whether by excess breast and for a long time and as if he is raised with much attention, as  usually do grandmothers and nurses.

    Now, what has happened for that  this word, that appoints  a chubby child, pass  to refer to a tome, too fat, heavy and often of little value?

    It cites and documents the following explanation. In the fourteenth century, a certain Giovanni Marchesini, Franciscan friar, gave this name to his biblical interpretation manual "Mammotrectus super Bibliam ", a glossary about 1,300 terms to help young friars. There is a manuscript of 1375 and since then  it was printed many times in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

    The term would mean "food" or "nurse" of the Bible. The title could come from  a passage of St. Augustine in his "Enarrationes in Psalmos", In eumdem Psalmum 30, Sermo 2, 12 [v 15.]:

    If you look at the man and want to imitate him and depend on him, still want to feed on milk, and you become a mammothreptus, as is said of the children who breastfeed for a long time, so you should not …. The nurses will do this to mammothreptis , put something bitter on her nipples, so that children do depart upset with chest and feel to the table. So say, "I said, waited on you, Lord, Thou art my God"

    Si attendis adhuc hominem, et cum quaeris imitari, et ex illo pendere, adhuc lacte vis nutriri; et fies mammothreptus, quales dicuntur pueri qui diu sugunt, quod non decet… Faciunt enim hoc nutrices mammothreptis, ut aliqua amara ponant in papillis suis, quibus offensi parvuli ab ubere resiliant, et ad mensam inhient. Ergo dicat; Ego autem in te speravi, Domine, dixi: Tu es Deus meus.

    What Giovanni Marchesini  will  mean is that just as children need mother's milk, the young monks need the elementary and primary food of his manual or dictionary. The dictionary is like a mother or wet nurse.

    He self  explains in the preface that so as in the same way that the teacher directs the steps of the nursery, so his work can be called "Mammotrectus":

    And because it creates custom the work of the teacher who directs the steps of the nursery, may be called Mamotreto

    “et quod morem gerit talis decursus pedagogi qui  gressus dirigit parvulorum,  Mammotrectus poterit appellari”.

    Although this "mammotrectus" was fatter than other manuals used by the students, yet the term didn’t  had the meaning of "big book" that then acquired in student jargon.

    But one "big book" does not have to be heavy or dull. No doubt thousands of Argentines and Spanish people remember with sympathy and affection the famous encyclopedia and educational television series "The Big Book of Petete ". Even the book of Marchesini ,  that gives rise to this word,  should be useful for many generations of monks, judging by the many impressions he had.
     

     

  • A bed of roses

    The historical reality and people´s fantasy have made Sybaris a city steeped in luxury and pleasure; Sybarite is the adjective that designates its inhabitants, but the term came to refer to exquisite people with refined tastes or to those who were delivered to the luxury and pleasure.

    Ancient people themselves and then some Renaissance put some reservation to the things that were told of the "Sybarite people", the inhabitants of Sybaris; we must put it as well.

    Perhaps to better understand what was said about them, we should interpret it as the "stories" or “tales” that nowadays we tell children or even adults. To this, it will certainly help us to relate one of the ancient Sybarite stories with one of the most famous contemporary tales.

    Seneca the Younger (4 BC – 65 AD) stated in his dialogue De Ira, II, 25.2 the tale, certainly known and repeated a thousand times in Antiquity, of a really delicate Sybarite man:

    Mindyriden aiunt fuisse ex Sybaritarum ciuitate qui, cum uidisset fodientem et altius rastrum adleuantem, lassum se fieri questus uetuit illum opus in conspectu suo facere; idem habere se peius questus est, quod foliis rosae duplicatis incubuisset.

    It is said that there was a certain Mindyrides, from the city of Sybaris, who once, when he saw a farmer digging and lifting a hoe, complained of feeling tired and forbade him to work in his sight; and he himself complained of feeling very bad because he had slept in a bed of roses and one of the petals had folded.

    Without doubt this is the source, or maybe the result, of the expression "a bed of roses".

    Also Claudius Aelianus (175? -235? AD) Latin professor of rhetoric who insisted on publishing his work in Greek (it was called μελίγλωττος / melíglôttos = honeyed tongue), and who wrote a Ποικίλη ἱστορία, Several Stories, Weird Stories, collects this cartoon or story about Sybarite people. He says in his Stories, in his Latin version Ninth Book, 24:

    Smindirides Sybarita adeo in luxuriam delitiemque prolapsus est; ut cum omnes Sybaritae delitiis vacarent, vitaque diffluerent, hic omnes longe post tergum relinqueret. Proinde quodam tempore in rosarum foliiss recumbens experegefactus dixit se postulas ex nimia lecti duritie inflactas habere.

    Smindyrides the Sybarite advanced to so high degree of luxury that, although the Sybarites themselves were very luxurious and made the pursuit of pleasure and delight of life their only occupation, yet he surpassed all of them. On a time being laid to sleep on a bed of roses, as soon as he awaked, he said that the hardness of his bed had raised huge blisters on him.

    No doubt the story or tale went on running in the Middle Ages and even later, in written texts or in oral tradition.

    This Sybarite story has an obvious reflection in the famous tale published by the well-known Danish author Hans Christian Andersen "The Princess and the Pea", in which an unknown girl confirms her royal ancestry and status as princess because lying on a bed of twenty mattresses she could not sleep due to the trouble that a pea that was under them caused her. So delicate the little princess was!

    Andersen said that he had heard the story as a child and then took the memory. Its structure and social intention is different from the story about Smindyrides the Sybarite, but the bottom line is the same and the relationship, known or forgotten in Europe, is evident.

    Among similar stories or tales it is quoted one of the Indian story collection of the eleventh century called Kathásaritságara (The Ocean of rivers of legends): a young man gets up from a bed of seven mattresses and feels hurtful because under the first or lower one there was a hair that bothered or disturbed his dream.

    Any relation has also got an Italian tale in which a jasmine petal wounded in its fall the delicate skin of a sensitive Italian woman.

    So, somehow, it turns out still more curious that it is not quoted as precedent or similar the story about Smindyrides the Sybarite.

    However, we can quote a fragment from a lecture by a curious character, the Spanish Pablo of Ballester, Orthodox bishop in Mexico, who was shot to death in 1984 by a general who alleged mental disorders. Pablo of Ballester was a professor of Classical Greek at the Autonomous University of Mexico and headmaster of the Hellenic Cultural Institute and famous lecturer.

    Ballester says in his book Lectures I, Great Greek World, edited by Cruz. O Publications SA, Mexico, 1996, page 102:

    Near those latitudes was the wonderful city of Sybaris, the finest in the whole world but yes! in the whole world! of all ages! … Let me say (I promise that is the last time) what happened in Sybaris one night when a scream was heard, a woman let out a scream that woke everybody in Sybaris. They said:

    – What is it? What is going on?
    – Well, it's the princess who shouted
    – And why has the princess shouted?

    They all ran to the palace. The princess had cried because- like every Sybarite person- she slept on a bed of rose petals and one petal was bent when she went to sleep! So… she almost breaks the side … The Sybarite people, such a springy civilization, so refined, weren´t they? As they were able to resent a rose petal when it was folded…

    Obviously Ballester made a logical mix: the story about Smindyrides the Sybarite with the tale of The Princess and the Pea by Andersen.