Remus: A Roman MythCambridge University Press, 1995 M08 25 - 243 pages Romulus founded Rome - but why does the myth give him a twin brother Remus, who is killed at the moment of the foundation? This mysterious legend has been oddly neglected. Roman historians ignore it as irrelevant to real history; students of myth concentrate on the more glamorous mythology of Greece. In this book, Professor Wiseman provides, for the first time, a detailed analysis of all the variants of the story, and a historical explanation for its origin and development. His conclusions offer important new insights, both into the history and ideology of pre-imperial Rome and into the methods and motives of myth-creation in a non-literate society. In the richly unfamiliar Rome of Pan, Hermes and Circe the witch-goddess, where a general grows miraculous horns and prophets demand human sacrifice, Remus stands for the unequal struggle of the many against the powerful few. |
Contents
Illustrations | xi |
Preface | xiii |
A too familiar story THE FABIAN NARRATIVE | 1 |
DE REMO ET ROMULO | 2 |
CONCORD OR DISCORD? | 4 |
THE QUARREL | 6 |
THE DEATH OF REMUS | 9 |
POST MORTEM | 12 |
THE OGULNIAN MONUMENT | 72 |
The Lupercalia CERMALUS AND LUPERCAL | 77 |
THE RITUAL | 80 |
RITUAL AND MYTH | 86 |
The arguments | 89 |
SCHULZE AND AFTER | 92 |
BACK TO POLITICS | 95 |
ALFÖLDI AND AFTER | 98 |
THE PROBLEM | 13 |
Multiform and manifold THE PRIMAL TWIN | 18 |
DIOSCURISM | 25 |
When and where ONE AND A HALF MILLENNIA | 31 |
THE BEGINNINGS | 35 |
A TEST CASE | 39 |
What the Greeks said MATERIAL AND METHODOLOGY | 43 |
THE FIRST CONTACT | 45 |
THE DESCENDANTS OF CIRCE | 49 |
THE END OF INNOCENCE | 52 |
WHERE ARE THE TWINS? | 55 |
THE PROMATHION VERSION | 57 |
CONCLUSION | 61 |
Italian evidence SHEWOLVES AND LIONESSES | 63 |
THE MIRROR | 65 |
ARIADNES THREAD | 101 |
The life and death of Remus EQUALS | 103 |
REMUS THE SLOW | 107 |
REMURIA | 110 |
A NECESSARY DEATH | 117 |
THE CREATION PERIOD | 126 |
The uses of a myth PRELITERATE ROME | 129 |
MEDIEVAL EPILOGUE | 150 |
The other Rome IMPERIAL PRECONCEPTIONS | 151 |
AN UNFAMILIAR CITY | 154 |
Versions of the foundation of Rome | 160 |
Notes | 169 |
Bibliography | 220 |
| 236 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Aeneas Alba Alföldi Amulius ancient archaic augury contest Augustine CD Augustus authors Aventine Bona Dea brother called Capitoline Celer Circe Circus Maximus consul context cult daughter death of Remus Diodorus Dion Dionysius Ennius eponym Etruscan Evander evidence explain Fabius Pictor Faunus Faustulus Festus Festus Paulus FGrH Ficus Ruminalis fifth century foundation legend foundation story founded goddess Greek Hesiodic historian honour identified implies Italy Jupiter king Lares late later Latin Latium Livy ludi scaenici Lupercal Lupercalia Lycophron Lydus Macer Momigliano Mommsen monument myth mythology Naevius narrative Niebuhr Numitor Odysseus origins Ovid Fasti 11 Palatine patrician plebeian Pliny NH Plut Plutarch Polybius Propertius Puhvel Quirinus Remuria Remus and Romulus Rhome Rhomos Rhomylos ritual Roma Roman Rome sacrifice second century Servius she-wolf sources suckling Telegony temple third century BC Tiber tradition Trojan variants Varro VIII Wiseman Zonaras