Roman Mythology
Hellas
Greek myth formed a body of rich, diverse, variant narratives, which expressed the most profound fears and desires of human life; the relationships between men & gods, between human beings; history; gender roles; relations between peoples; concepts of hero, heroic deeds, excellent behaviour; accounts of nature; aetiologies, explanations of rituals and customs important to society. Polyvalent, profound & serving many different functions greek mythology is local in colour yet transcendant in universality of theme, reflects historical conditions & events but becomes supra-historical also.The product of a singularly imaginative people, set of peoples, greek myths often grapple with the great problems of being & establish types, articulate dilemmas & respones to being in the world to which we have always returned, recognizing types & symbols of universal pertinence & power. The fertility of imagination in Greek myth is unmatched in Roman. Rome is culturally dominated by Greece.
Rome
Not much seems to survive of native Italic or Roman myth- no creation myth of its own- no comparable myths of the deities- much adaptation of & literary treatment of Greek myths and divinities.
“...for these unspeculative & imaginative people...no myth-creating imagination winds its tendrils round the gods.” (Latte, K.)
Roman mythology is characterized by a “...peculiar aridity..” (Grant, M.)
This had long been the common evaluation of the scant Roman mythopoeic tradition. However there is another school:
Romans had a rich tradition of native mythology, they inserted this into their history- little literary evidence of native Roman mythology till relatively late (3rd Century BC) is not to say none existed- Wiseman (1989) oral transmission of these/ dramatic performances at Roman festivals: main evidence of Roman, Etruscan, Italian myths in dramatic form before merely Roman versions of Greek ones: Italian pottery, severly limited.
“...there exists on Roman soil sure signs of a non-literary mythology untouched by the influence of Greek poetry. The signs are divided equally among the archaic Roman, the Etruscan, and the Greek components of the historical Roman religion.” (Koch, C.)
Myths given literary treatment by the Romans divided into classes:
Greek myths retold by Roman writers.
Stories of Rome’s distant past, such as aetiological & foundation myths. These bear historical connections & are regarded by some scholars as legends.
Virgil’s Aeneid seems a fusion of these two classes. Livy’s history of early Rome of the aetiological, legendary variety.
Roman Conception of Myth
Cicero in On the Nature of the Gods “distinguishes between mythological stories about the gods, which he regards as something Greek, and Roman expectations of religion; Roman religion is made up of (1) ritual, (2) taking auspices and (3) prophetic warnings issued by interpreters of Sibylline oracles, or of the entrails of sacrificed animals, on the basis of portents and omens. ‘I am quite certain that Romulus by instituting auspices and Numa ritual, laid the foundations of our state, which would never have been able to be so great had not the immortal gods been placated to the utmost extent.’” (Gardner, J. Roman Myths [London, 1993] p.5)- stories of divine shenanigans were not so relevant as the function of religious practice, which was to retain good, stable relations bewteen gods & state. Rome’s success thus prove divine sanction.
What is history for? Literary quality (thus pleasure,) and Education (social and moral): Livy writes, “What makes the study of history particularly beneficial & profitable is that you have all manner of experience set out in full view as if on a memorial, and from there you may choose both for yourself and for your country examples of what to imitate [strong echoes of Aristotle in his Poetics] and what things (bad begun and worse ended) to avoid.” Thus history, as tragedy should have been in 5th Century Greece, according to Plato then Aristotle, was affecting and didactic and should be interpreted to derive the best possible lessons for living men. History and historical legends, is exemplary. It is instrumental, not factual.
Most of our Roman mytho-historical sources are writers of the first century BC and the first AD. They are very far removed from the legendary period of Rome’s founding. They write for their day and for an urbane male readership of the upper classes. They fuse history, Greek myth, folktale motifs and family traditions of the oldest Roman nobility. Their mythical history is then a mix of traditions, which are expressive of the history of encounters, wars and unifications that make up the Roman past. It is aetiological and self-defining.
Myth: A Mode of History
Roman Mythology fundamentally political mythology: its focus=the polis, the transformations of legend reflect those the of the transforming Roman context.
Historical Myth = History without primary sources. (see Veyne, P.)
The Romans are a practical people with a genius for politics & organization, this is reflected in the priorities of their historical imagination.
The Aeneid
“This synthesis of five elements- (1) contemporary relevance, (2) history, (3) myth, (4) rivalry with Homer, (5) symbolism- gives the Aeneid its peculiar status as a mixed or
composite work of art...Any serious attempt at understanding the poem must take cognizance of the constant tension between the story told and the implications of that
story- what we may call, if we like, the poem’s message.” (Quinn, K. Virgil’s Aeneid: a critical description [London, 1968] p. 57)
Some themes to consider as we examine the legend of Aeneas & Dido, of the founding of Rome & its early history:
Romanized Hellenisms: with this epic Virgil inscribes Rome into an epic tradition and makes it the equal of Greece in antiquity, authenticity and also historical authority.
Genealogy: Priam’s line is cursed, Anchises is blessed. Aeneas’ mother is Aphrodite/ Venus. As an Iliadic hero Aeneas is in the ranks of Hector, he fights Achilles. He adventures on a nostos like Odysseus.
Unification: Aeneas embodies Roman moral ideal, he enters treaties, unites peoples and prefigures the unity which will be Rome and Rome’s unification of many other people’s in Italy and the Mediterranean under its imperial sway.
Aeneas & Inevitability: Aeneas is blessed and protected, he is an embattled survivor, a man with a great future and a goddess for a mother: Aeneas is Rome, whose destiny was always to be great, in him the inevitability of roman imperium, the naturalness of the order of things, the prefiguring of Augustus’ accesion to Imperial power and his victories, its symbolic justification.
Abroad & at home: Greeks- Etruscans- Carthiginians- Actium [ 31BC, Mark Anthony&Cleopatra are defeated, the completion of the Roman political hegemony over Hellas]: accounting for subsequent international relations.The foundation of Rome by Aeneas is rich in aetiological, narrative and rhetorical value. relation to the gods, relations amongst men. Proper relations, the order of things. Remember what this foundation myth reflects of Virgil’s contemporary Roman context.
Identity Politics: the Roman against the foreign, characterizing the self & the other.
Men/ Women: Dido; echoes of Theseus, as well as Odysseus. Characterization: Aeneas is marked by his pietas, his sense of duty and destiny. How is Dido evoked, why?
Some Dates:
1184-1053? Destruction of Troy
1053-753: Alban Kings
753 Romulus restored his grandfather Numitor to the throne, which Numitor’s younger brother had usurped. Romulus then founded Rome in 753.
715-673: Numa, from the village of Cures, gave Rome religion & laws.
673-642:Tullius Hostilius, the warrior king- 642-617: Ancus Marcius, courted popular favour- Tarquins, 616-579: L. Tarquinius Priscus & 534-510: L. Tarquinius Superbus
510: L. Junius Brutus leads an uprising against Superbus to avenge rape of Lucretia. Brutus later one of the first two consuls of Rome. Beginning of Republican Rome.
264-241: First Punic War; 218-202 Second Punic War; 149-146 Third Punic War
86: Sulla sacks Athens
44: assasination of Julius Caesar, a time of civil wars, the passing away of Republic and bloody birth of Imperial Rome.
31: Augustus’ victory over Antony & Cleopatra at Actium (North Western Greece).
27: Principate of Augustus begins
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