Historia de Grecia y Roma

Category: Gods and Religion

  • Alma mater

    Among the many phrases, sentences, Latin maxims that survive in the cultural wealth of the West there are some that have been particularly fortunate. One of them is definitely “alma mater”.

    "Alma" is the feminine form of the adjective "Almus,-a,-um", derived from the same root as the verb "alo";  it means feed, sustain, take care, so that "alma" means nurturing, life-giving, fertile, and other nuances associated with the word it qualifies, as a favourable, propitious,  encourages, benefactress.

    From the same root is logically "alimentum", food, and also "alumnus", fed, bred and therefore child who grows, and if he raises or  is educated  intellectually, he will be disciple.

    In ancient Rome this adjective was attached to the title of some goddesses as Mother Cybele or  Ceres or Venus.

    So Virgil, in the beginning of his great poem dedicated to life in the countryside, Georgicae, just started with the reference to his patron Maecenas, starting from verse 5 goes to the stars and the gods, including Ceres, the goddess of agriculture (think of the name to refer to cereal grains like wheat and other guaranteed by the favor of the goddess):

    ... O universal lights
    Most glorious! ye that lead the gliding year
    Along the sky, Liber and Ceres mild,
    If by your bounty holpen earth once changed
    Chaonian acorn for the plump wheat-ear,
    …      (J. B. Greenough, Ed.)

    ….. Vos , o clarissima mundi
    Lumna, labentem caelo quae ducitis annum,
    Liber et alma Ceres, vestro si numine tellus
    Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit arista,
    …
    And so Ovid begins his IV book  of Fasti  referring to Venus as nurturing with the verses:

    ‘Kindly mother of the twin Cupids, favour me!’ I said.
    She glanced back towards her poet: ‘Why do you
    Need me?’ she said. ‘Surely, you sing greater themes.
    Have you some old wound lingering in your heart?’
    ‘Goddess, ‘ I replied, ‘you know my wound.’ She laughed,
    And the sky immediately cleared in her direction.
    (Translated by A. S. Kline)

    'Alma, fave', dixi 'geminorum mater Amorum';
         ad vatem voltus rettulit illa suos;
    'quid tibi' ait 'mecum? certe maiora canebas.
         num vetus in molli pectore volnus habes?'
    'scis, dea', respondi 'de volnere.' risit, et aether               5
         protinus ex illa parte serenus erat.

    And  another time Ovid in Book XV, 843 ff. of his Metamorphoses also refers to Venus as nutrient in the passage in which the goddess collects in the Senate the soul of killed Caesar and rises to the heavens:

    He scarcely ended had theis woordes, but Venus out of hand
    Amid the Senate house of Rome invisible did stand,
    And from her Caesars bodye tooke his new expulsed spryght
    The which shee not permitting to resolve to ayer quyght,
    Did place it in the skye among the starres that glister bryght
    (Arthur Golding, Ed.)

    Vix ea fatus erat, medi cum sede senatus
    constitit alma Venus nulli cernenda suique
    Caesaris eripuit membris nec in aera solvi              
    passa recentem animam caelestibus intulit astris

    And also the same Ovid in the same  Book IV of  the above quoted Fasti verses,  now Fasti IV, 317 ff., describing the arrival of the Mother Goddess Cybele to the port of Ostia, near Rome, in the year 204 BC also calls her  "alma":

    And, with loosened hair, uttered these words:
    “ Kind and fruitful Mother of the Gods, accept
    A suppliant’s prayers, on this one condition:
    They deny I’m chaste: let me be guilty if you condemn me:
    Convicted by a goddess I’ll pay for it with my life.
    (Translated by A. S. Kline)

    summissoque genu voltus in imagine divae
    figit, et hos edit crine iacente sonos:
    "supplicis, alma, tuae, genetrix fecunda deorum,
    accipe sub certa condicione preces.
    casta negor: si tu damnas, meruisse fatebor;
    morte luam poenas iudice victa dea;

    Horace applies it to the Muses, the Camenae: Almae Musae (feeder and-promoting the arts and sciences) in Book III, Ode IV for example, v. 42

    You, beneficent deities,  give the sweet consolation
    and ye rejoice for giving it

    vos lene consilium et datis et dato
    gaudetis, almae. …

    Then Christians claimed it logically to the Virgin Mary. A peculiar thing I will say that in 2009 the Vatican itself has released a CD entitled "Alma Mater", dedicated to the Virgin Mary religious songs of Pope Benedict XVI.

    But since the Middle Ages the term "alma mater" is applied especially to the University, Universitas Studiorum, real mother nurturing the minds and spirits of students moving through Europe: Bologna (founded already in 1088 ), Paris, Salamanca, Coimbra, Oxford …

    "Universitas, University" means community, corporation, joint group, college.

    Universitas magistrorum et scholarium is thus the community of teachers and students or as they say in The Seven-Part Code  (The Siete Partidas ), or Book of Laws published in the reign of Alfonso X the Wise (1252-1284):  Ayuntamiento de maestros et de escolares que es fecho en algún logar con voluntat et con entendimiento de aprender los saberes” "City of teachers and students made somewhere with  willing et understanding to learn the knowledge" (Partid. II, Title XXXI, Law 1)

    It is logical, therefore, to appear, even in the last stanza of the famous university hymn, widespread throughout the world, Gaudeamus igitur, whose letter is perhaps from the thirteenth century:

    May our Alma Mater thrive,
    A font of education;
    Friends and colleagues, where'er they are,
    Whether near or from afar,
    Heed her invitation.
                          (Trans.  by J. Mark Sugars, 1997

    Alma Mater floreat
    quae nos educavit,
    caros et conmilitones
    dissitas in regiones
    sparsos congregavit.

    If the university is "alma mater", it is logical to call “alumni”, students young or not so young who  nourish the know. Above is explained the meaning of "alumnus".

    Note also that there is the term "alma parens ". For example, it is  used by Virgil in Book II, v. 588 of the Aeneid, referring to Venus.

    So I raved,
    and to such frenzied purpose gave my soul.
    Then with clear vision (never had I seen
    her presence so unclouded) I beheld,
    in golden beams that pierced the midnight gloom,
    my gracious mother, visibly divine,
    and with that mien of majesty she wears
    when seen in heaven;
    (Theodore C. Williams, Ed.)

    Talia iactabam, et furiata mente ferebar:
    cum mihi se, non ante oculis tam clara, videndam
    obtulit et pura per noctem in luce refulsit
    alma parens, confessa deam, qualisque videri
    caelicolis et quanta solet,

    And later in Book X, v. 215, now referring to Cibeles:

    Day now had left the sky. The moon benign
    had driven her night-wandering chariot
    to the mid-arch of heaven. Aeneas sate,
    for thought and care allowed him no repose,
    holding the helm and tending his own sails.
    but, as he sped, behold, the beauteous train,
    lately his own, of nymphs, anon transformed
    by kind Cybebe to sea-ruling powers.
    In even ranks they swam the cloven wave,—
    nymphs now, but once as brazen galleys moored
    along the sandy shore.

    Iamque dies caelo concesserat almaque curru
    noctivago Phoebe medium pulsabat Olympum:
    Aeneas (neque enim membris dat cura quietem)
    ipse sedens clavumque regit velisque ministrat.
    Atque illi medio in spatio chorus ecce suarum
    occurrit comitum: nymphae, quas alma Cybebe
    numen habere maris nymphasque e navibus esse
    iusserat, innabant pariter fluctusque secabant,
    quot prius aeratae steterant ad litora prorae.

    And in the same Book X, v. 251 ff.

    Then in few words
    with eyes upturned to heaven he made his prayer:
    “Mother of gods, O Ida's Queen benign,
    who Iovest Dindymus and towns with towers,
    and lion-yokes obedient to thy rein,
    be thou my guide in battle, and fulfil
    thine augury divine. In Phrygia's cause
    be present evermore with favoring power!”
    He spoke no more.


    Tum breviter super adspectans convexa precatur:
    “Alma parens Idaea deum, cui Dindyma cordi
    turrigeraeque urbis biiugique ad frena leones,
    tu mihi nunc pugnae príncipes, tu rite propinques
    augurium Phrygibusque adsis pede, diva, secundo.
    Tantum effatus.

    And in Book XI, v.557 ff.

    ‘Latona's daughter, whose benignant grace
    protects this grove, behold, her father now
    gives thee this babe for handmaid!
    Lo, thy spear
    her infant fingers hold, as from her foes
    she flies a suppliant to thee! Receive,
    O goddess, I implore, what now I cast
    upon the perilous air.

    “Alma, tibi hanc, nemorum cultrix, Latonia virgo,
    ipse pater famulam voveo; tua prima per auras
    tela tenens supplex hostem fugit.

    It should be known that the Latin word "parens" (related to "pario", give birth, produce, raise) designates both father and mother. What is an unacceptable error, indicating considerable ignorance, is to build the phrase "alma pater" because "pater" only refers to "father", masculine, and "alma" is a feminine form, nurturing.

    Naturally, it is also a remarkable mistake to confuse  Latin adjective "alma", nurturing, with the Spanish noun "alma", spirit, term derived from "anima". By the way, all the "animals", as the name suggests, have  "anima" or spirit.

  • Habemus Papam

    Jesus Christ was born in the time of Emperor Augustus and, with him, the Catholic Church. Christianity owes many things to the Greco-Roman world.

    A Jew who expresses in Greek, Paul of Tarsus, based on the holy books of the Bible, diffused among the Greeks and Gentiles (non-Jews) the message of another Jew, Jesus, who his followers considered the long-awaited Messiah. That message, in Latin or Greek, using the cultural, social, institutional and administrative Rome structures reaches the far corners of the Roman Empire, and in just three hundred years that religion becomes universal and almost unique.

    On another occasion we will discuss the importance of beliefs, doctrines, philosophy and Greco-Roman religion in the creation and development of Christianity. Today I will discuss only some current linguistic terms.

    After the death of Jesus at the cross, his disciples leave for various destinations as apostles (Greek Απόστολος, "sent") to preach the good news (Greek εὐ, eu, "well, good" and αγγέλιον, angelion “message , new”).

    Christianity is organized administratively into dioceses (Latin dioecesis, from Greek διοίκησις, "administration") name of the administrative units of the Empire, first for the collection of taxes, and then territorial divisions of the province. At the head of each diocese it is a bishop, in Latin "episcopus" (Greek ἐπίσκοπος, episkopos) literally supervisor, watchman (from ἐπί, epi, upon, and σκοπἐω, skopeo, watch or monitor).

    The Bishop of Rome is the supreme authority of the Church; he is called "Papa Urbis Romae, Pope of Rome" (Latin for "papa or papas = father" and this from the Greek πάππας (páppas), "Dad” ), honorary title given to the bishops.

    After the unusual (for unaccustomed, that's what it means etymologically the word "unusual") resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, it is held a conclave, that is, a cardinals meeting where they are "locked" to choose a new one. That is precisely what the word “conclave” etymologically means, from Latin "cum clave (clavis) = with key".

    If anyone thinks that the meeting is locked to prevent outsiders from entering the College of Cardinals and intervene in this important meeting, he or she would be wrong. Actually the "conclaves" began in the thirteenth century; after the authorities got tired of waiting for the election of a new pope, that did not happen, they decided to lock the cardinal electors. The most famous occasion was held in the year 1268 in which elected Pope was Clement IV, once the locked voters "cum clave” receive only bread and water for food to precipitate his decision.

    The pope or bishop of Rome is also called "Pontiff" (Latin pontifex,-ficis, word composed of pons, bridge, and verb facere, that means to make) and therefore the Pope is the one who makes bridges.
    The Pontifex Maximus, president of the college of pontiffs, is the highest religious Roman authority, responsible among other things for the conservation of the first bridge in Rome, the pons sublicius, a wooden bridge over the Tiber river, built exclusively of wood and with wooden instruments, no metal.

    This ancestral taboo evidences the sacred character and the difficulty that the ancients must have had to build a bridge, and evidences as well the respect that rivers inspired to them, in a sense considered deities. Although later, the bridge construction task was easier and Romans themselves made thousands of bridges throughout the empire, the most important priest of religion, then and now, is called "Pontiff".

    The word school or college derives from the Latin "collegium" meaning corporation, group, group of colleagues. Therefore meets the so-called "college of cardinals". Cardinals are the princes of the Church, and therefore very important axes of his administration. The word derives from "cardo,-dinis" meaning hinge, door hinge, polo, cardinal point, line demarcating space for taking auspices or signals sent by the gods. And it also designated one of the two-way or main streets of a town or city that were cut perpendicular: the decumanus running from east to west and the cardo that ran from north to south. Precisely this implies the expression "compass points" or “cardinal points” to indicate north, south, east, west. Cardinals are therefore hinges and essential points of the Church.

    Incidentally, the Latin word "ecclesia"  comes from the Greek word ἐκκλησία  (ekklēsía),  meaning "assembly" or gathering of citizens.

    The Cardinals cover their heads with the so-called "solideo" composed of two Latin words (solo deo = only to God), which is nothing but a hat or cap that covers the crown or tonsure (shaved crown) or top of the head. The Cardinals, according to the etymology, should only remove the cap in front of God, but they also do in front of the Pope as a sign of respect. Usually in all religions the priests and faithful people cover or discover their heads ritually. The color of this “cardinal cap” is red purple, color reserved in ancient times to the kings, princes and top officials. The Pope's solideo is white. The closest object and from which may come is the Jewish kipá, a word meaning "dome", although it is black and their use is mandatory in all sacred space, unlike the use of solideo.

    Also the shoes are special and called "caligas", sandals, Latin calligae, regular shoe name of Roman legionaries. However the popes, cardinals and bishops sandals are rich embroidered with silk. Remember the famous 1968 movie "The Shoes of the Fisherman," based on the novel by Morris West, in which the actor Anthony Quinn plays the role of an Ukrainian bishop prisoner in a Soviet prison who is elected Pope.

    The election of a new Pope takes place in the Sistine Chapel (name derived from Sixtus IV, Pope who ordered its construction), one of the most beautiful places next to St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, whose dome decorated by Michelangelo depicts the Last Judgment, considered the best work of the artist.

    The word “basilica” derives from the Latin basilica and this from the Greek βασιλικὴ, basilike, (royal, belonging to the king) and this in turn from the Greek βασιλεύς, basileus (king). So at first the word meant “the king's palace”, and the word seems to have been taken from the Hellenistic expression βασιλικὴ στοά, basilike stoa, (Royal Porch), that was a public building used as a courthouse, market, changes office and civic center. The plant of the basilicas used to be elongated and rectangular and had several upper galleries at the sides. The same way was adopted by Christian churches and, eventually, the term refers only to temples especially great, usually elongated and some of which also retain their galleries but rarely functional.

    Rome is known as "the city of seven hills": the Aventine, Capitoline, Caelian, Esquiline, Palatine, Quirinal and Viminal. But there was more mounds in the area, as the Janiculum, the Pincio and the Vatican, in Trastevere, across the Tiber River, outside the city limits.

    The name "Mons Vaticanus" means place of the "predictions", oracles or prophecies (the gods send signals to mortals), so the meaning may be something like "Mount of predictions or prophecies”. The Vatican is also, according to Christian tradition, the tomb of St Peter, the apostle whom Jesus said foundation and basis of his church, who was bishop of Rome and, as such, papa and pontiff of Christendom. In the fourth century the emperor Constantine ordered the construction of the old basilica of St. Peter. The current, the greatest temple of Christianity, was ordered by Pope Julius II, and starting the building in 1506.

    Today the Vatican is a very small city-state of less than half a square kilometer, the result of the 1929 Lateran agreements.

    Therefore, when a pope or pontiff dies or voluntarily ceases its function (only two cases have been throughout history, one right now), the cardinals and princes of the Church gather in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. The color of the smoke from a fire that burned the ballots inform the Christianity about the result: if the smoke is black, i.e. if the fumata (Latin fumus, smoke) is black because of the burning of ballots with wet straw, no successor has been chosen yet, if the smoke is white (white fumata) a new Pope has been elected.

    Finally, Cardinal Protodeacon (from Lat. Protodiacŏnus, and this from Greek πρῶτος, first, foremost and διάκονος, servant, minister) announces to Christianity, under the formula Urbi et Orbi (to the city -Rome- and world), in the official language of the Vatican, the Latin, the election with these words, and rituals:

    Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum;
    Habemus Papam:
    Eminentissimum ac reverendissimum Dominum,
    Dominum …,
    Sanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ Cardinalem….,
    Qui sibi nomen imposuit ….

    I announce to you a great joy;
    We have a Pope!
    The most eminent and most reverend Lord,
    Lord [First Name]     Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church [Last Name],
    Who takes for himself the name of [Papal Name].