|
Avernus
Avernus was an ancient name for a volcanic crater near Cumae (Cuma), Italy, in the region of Campania west of Naples. Part of the Phlegraean Fields of volcanoes, Avernus is approximately in circumference. Within the crater is Lake Avernus ('). Role in ancient Roman society Avernus was believed to be the entrance to the underworld, and is portrayed as such in the ''Aeneid'' of Virgil. According to tradition, all birds flying over the lake were destined to fall dead, hence the lake’s name was transferred to Greek as ‚ or "Birdless (lake)". This was likely due to the toxic fumes that mouths of the crater gave off into the atmosphere. In later times, the word was simply an alternative name for the underworld. On the shores of the lake is the grotto of the Cumaean Sibyl and the entrance to a long tunnel ( Grotta di Cocceio, c. ) leading toward Cumae, where her sanctuary was located. There are also the remains of temples to Apollo and Jupiter. During the civil war between Octavi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Avernus
__NOTOC__ Lake Avernus ( it, Lago d'Averno) is a volcanic crater lake located in the Avernus crater in the Campania region of southern Italy, around west of Pozzuoli. It is near the volcanic field known as the Phlegraean Fields (') and comprises part of the wider Campanian volcanic arc. The lake is roughly circular, measuring in circumference and deep. Roman era Avernus was of major importance to the Romans, who considered it to be the entrance to Hades. Roman writers often used the name as a synonym for the underworld. In Virgil's ''Aeneid'', Aeneas descends to the underworld through a cave near the lake. In Hyginus' ''Fabulae'', Odysseus also goes to the lower world from this spot, where he meets Elpenor, his comrade who went missing at Circe's place. Despite the alleged dangers of the lake, the Romans were happy to settle its shores, on which villas and vineyards were established. The lake's personification, the ', was worshipped in lakeside temples. A large bathhouse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pluto (mythology)
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Pluto ( gr, Πλούτων, ') was the ruler of the Greek underworld. The earlier name for the god was Hades, which became more common as the name of the underworld itself. Pluto represents a more positive concept of the god who presides over the afterlife. ''Ploutōn'' was frequently conflated with Ploûtos, the Greek god of wealth, because mineral wealth was found underground, and because as a chthonic god Pluto ruled the deep earth that contained the seeds necessary for a bountiful harvest. The name ''Ploutōn'' came into widespread usage with the Eleusinian Mysteries, in which Pluto was venerated as both a stern ruler and a loving husband to Persephone. The couple received souls in the afterlife and are invoked together in religious inscriptions, being referred to as ''Plouton'' and as ''Kore'' respectively. Hades, by contrast, had few temples and religious practices associated with him, and he is portrayed as the dark and violent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ploutonion
A ploutonion ( grc, Πλουτώνιον, lit. "Place of Plouton") is a sanctuary specially dedicated to the ancient Greek god Plouton (i.e., Hades). Only a few such shrines are known from classical sources, usually at locations that produce poisonous emissions and were considered to represent an entrance to the underworld. * At Eleusis, the ploutonion was near the north entrance to the sacred district (''temenos''). It was built by Peisistratos in the 6th century BC and rebuilt two centuries later, when the Eleusinian mysteries were at the height of their influence. The cave was the traditional site of the birth of the Divine Child Ploutos. * The Greek geographer Strabo mentioned three sites as having a ploutonion. One was on a hill between Tralleis and Nysa. Its precinct encompassed a sacred grove, a temple dedicated to Plouton and Persephone, and an adjoining cave called the Charonion, after the ferryman of the dead. According to Strabo, it "possesses some singular physic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phlegraean Fields
The Phlegraean Fields ( it, Campi Flegrei ; nap, Campe Flegree, from Ancient Greek 'to burn') is a large region of supervolcanic calderas situated to the west of Naples, Italy. It was declared a regional park in 2003. The area of the caldera consists of 24 craters and volcanic edifices; most of them lie under water. Hydrothermal activity can be observed at Lucrino, Agnano and the town of Pozzuoli. There are also effusive gaseous manifestations in the Solfatara crater, the mythological home of the Roman god of fire, Vulcan. This area is monitored by the Vesuvius Observatory. It is considered a supervolcano. The area also features bradyseismic phenomena, which are most evident at the Macellum of Pozzuoli (misidentified as a temple of Serapis): bands of boreholes left by marine molluscs on marble columns show that the level of the site in relation to sea level has varied. Geological phases Three geological phases or periods are recognised and distinguished. * The Fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cumaean Sibyl
The Cumaean Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Cumae, a Greek colony located near Naples, Italy. The word ''sibyl'' comes (via Latin) from the ancient Greek word ''sibylla'', meaning prophetess. There were many sibyls in different locations throughout the ancient world. Because of the importance of the Cumaean Sibyl in the legends of early Rome as codified in Virgil's ''Aeneid'' VI, and because of her proximity to Rome, the Cumaean Sibyl became the most famous among the Romans. The Erythraean Sibyl from modern-day Turkey was famed among Greeks, as was the oldest Hellenic oracle, the Sibyl of Dodona, possibly dating to the second millennium BC according to Herodotus, favored in the east. The Cumaean Sibyl is one of the four sibyls painted by Raphael at Santa Maria della Pace (see gallery below). She was also painted by Andrea del Castagno (''Uffizi Gallery, illustration right''), and in the Sistine Ceiling of Michelangelo her powerful presence oversha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cumae
Cumae ( grc, Κύμη, (Kumē) or or ; it, Cuma) was the first ancient Greek colony on the mainland of Italy, founded by settlers from Euboea in the 8th century BC and soon becoming one of the strongest colonies. It later became a rich Roman city, the remains of which lie near the modern village of Cuma, a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' Bacoli and Pozzuoli in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania, Italy. The archaeological museum of the Campi Flegrei in the Aragonese castle contains many finds from Cumae. History Early The oldest archaeological finds by Emil Stevens in 1896 date to 900–850 BCE and more recent excavations have revealed a Bronze Age settlement of the ‘ pit-culture’ people, and later dwellings of Iron Age Italic peoples whom the Greeks referred to by the names Ausones and Opici (whose land was called Opicia). The Greek settlement was founded in the 8th century BCE by emigrants from cities of Eretria and Chalcis in Euboea, next to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucrinus Lacus
Lucrinus Lacus or Lucrine Lake ( it, Lago di Lucrino; nap, Laco 'e Lucrine) is a lake in Campania, southern Italy. It is less than one kilometre to the south of Lake Avernus and is separated from the Gulf of Pozzuoli by a narrow strip of land. Also known as the ''maricello'' ("little sea"), the size of present-day Lago Lucrino was significantly reduced by the rise of the volcanic cone of Monte Nuovo in 1538. The lake's modern dimensions are long and about deep. The recorded history of Lucrinus Lacus dates back to Sergius Orata, who is credited with creating the first oyster beds there. The lake was also a resort destination for residents of Baiae (cf. Martial i. 62). Its banks were covered with villas, of which the best known was Cicero's villa Cumanum on the east bank, which was the seat of his ''Academia''. The remnants of this villa, and the nearby village of Tripergole, disappeared beneath ejecta from the eruption of Monte Nuovo in 1538. According to a history by Tacit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grotta Di Cocceio
The Grotta di Cocceio (Cocceius' Tunnel) is an ancient Roman tunnel nearly a kilometre in length connecting Lake Avernus with Cumae and dating from 38-36 BC. It was burrowed through the tuff stone of Monte Grillo by the architect Lucius Cocceius Auctus at the command of Agrippa who was in the process of converting the Lake into a military port, the ''Portus Julius''.Everitt, A. (2006). Augustus: The life of Rome's first emperor. New York: Random House. p.130 The tunnel was wide enough to allow the passage of two wagons. The Avernus side of the passage was decorated with a colonnade and had many statues in niches hewn into the tuff walls of the entrance. Light and air were provided by six vertical shafts dug into the hill (the longest of which was over thirty metres high) The Aqua Augusta aqueduct supplying the port was dug in a tunnel parallel to and on the northern side the road and was also equipped with niches and vertical shafts. The Crypta Romana tunnel was also built n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Underworld
The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. The concept of an underworld is found in almost every civilization and "may be as old as humanity itself". Common features of underworld myths are accounts of living people making journeys to the underworld, often for some heroic purpose. Other myths reinforce traditions that entrance of souls to the underworld requires a proper observation of ceremony, such as the ancient Greek story of the recently dead Patroclus haunting Achilles until his body could be properly buried for this purpose. Persons having social status were dressed and equipped in order to better navigate the underworld. A number of mythologies incorporate the concept of the soul of the deceased making its own journey to the underworld, with the dead needing to be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mefitis
Mefitis was the Samnites, Samnite goddess of the foul-smelling gases of the earth, worshipped in central and southern Italy since before Roman times, with her main shrine at the volcano Ampsanctus in Samnium. There was a temple dedicated to her in Cremona, and another on the Esquiline Hill in Rome. It is theorized that Mefitis was originally a goddess of underground sources, such as natural springs—the fact that many of these springs were sulfurous led to her association with noxious gases. She is almost always identified with volcanoes, having been worshipped at Pompeii. Her name, which likely means "one who smokes in the middle", is also seen as Mephitis. Overview In Roman mythology, Mefitis (or Mephitis; Mefite in Italian) was a minor goddess of the poisonous gases emitted from the ground in swamps and volcanic vapors. Foul-smelling geological fissures connected to the divinity (see below) are located in Italy along the Via Appia between Rome and Brindisi. There, the ancie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portus Julius
(alternatively spelled in the Latin ) was the first harbour specifically constructed to be a base for the Roman western naval fleet, the ; the eastern fleet was based in the Port of Ravenna. The port was located at Misenum on a peninsula at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples. Portus Julius was named in honour of Octavian's (later to become Caesar Augustus) great-uncle and adoptive father, Julius Caesar and the Julian clan. Construction of Portus Julius During the civil wars, Octavian needed a safe naval harbour in which to build and train a fleet for a campaign against Sextus Pompeius (younger son of Pompey the Great) who was making frequent raids on Italy and upon the shipping routes for Rome's grain supply. To run the operation, Octavian turned to his closest and most able associate, Marcus Agrippa. Agrippa knew that Lake Averno was invisible from the surrounding sea and bay waters, and reasoned that the fleet's existence there could be kept secret from Sextus' nav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (; BC – 12 BC) was a Roman general, statesman, and architect who was a close friend, son-in-law, and lieutenant to the Roman emperor Augustus. He was responsible for the construction of some of the most notable buildings in history, including the original Pantheon, and is well known for his important military victories, notably the Battle of Actium in 31 BC against the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Born to a plebeian family around 63 BC, in an uncertain location in Roman Italy, he met the future emperor Augustus, then known as Octavian, at Apollonia, in Illyria. Following the assassination of Octavian's great-uncle Julius Caesar in 44 BC, Octavian returned to Italy. Around this time, he was elected tribune of the plebs. Agrippa served as a military commander, fighting alongside Octavian and Caesar's former general and right-hand man Mark Antony in the Battle of Philippi. In 40 BC, he was ''praetor urbanus'' and played a major role in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Ploutonion")
_01.jpg "Click for more on -> Grotta Di Cocceio")
