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Ancylia (beetle)
In ancient Rome, the ''ancilia'' (Latin, singular ''ancile'') were twelve sacred shields kept in the Temple of Mars. According to legend, one divine shield fell from heaven during the reign of Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome. He ordered eleven copies made to confuse would-be thieves, since the original shield was regarded as one of the ''pignora imperii (pledges of rule)'', sacred guarantors that perpetuated Rome as a sovereign entity. The shields are identified by their distinct 'figure of eight' shape which is said to be derived from Mycenaean art. As described by Plutarch, the shape of the ancile is a standard shield, neither round or oval, which has curved indentations on both sides. The ancilia were kept by the Salii, a body of twelve priests instituted for that purpose by Numa. The Salii wielded them ritually in a procession throughout March. According to Varro, the ancilia may have also made an appearance in the Armilustrium (‘Purification of the Arms’) in Oct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancilia
In ancient Rome, the ''ancilia'' (Latin, singular ''ancile'') were twelve sacred shields kept in the Temple of Mars. According to legend, one divine shield fell from heaven during the reign of Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome. He ordered eleven copies made to confuse would-be thieves, since the original shield was regarded as one of the '' pignora imperii (pledges of rule)'', sacred guarantors that perpetuated Rome as a sovereign entity. The shields are identified by their distinct 'figure of eight' shape which is said to be derived from Mycenaean art. As described by Plutarch, the shape of the ancile is a standard shield, neither round or oval, which has curved indentations on both sides. The ancilia were kept by the Salii, a body of twelve priests instituted for that purpose by Numa. The Salii wielded them ritually in a procession throughout March. According to Varro, the ancilia may have also made an appearance in the Armilustrium (‘Purification of the Arms’) in O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jupiter (mythology)
Jupiter ( or , from Proto-Italic language, Proto-Italic "day, sky" + "father", thus "sky father" Greek: Zeus, Δίας or Zeus, Ζεύς), also known as Jove (nominative case, nom. and genitive case, gen. ), is the sky god, god of the sky and god of thunder, thunder, and king of the gods in ancient Roman religion and Roman mythology, mythology. Jupiter was the chief deity of Roman state religion throughout the Roman Republic, Republican and Roman Empire, Imperial eras, until Constantine the Great and Christianity, Christianity became the dominant religion of the Empire. In Roman mythology, he negotiates with Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, to establish principles of Roman religion such as offering, or sacrifice. Jupiter is thought to have originated as a sky god. His identifying implement is the thunderbolt and his primary sacred animal is the eagle, which held precedence over other birds in the taking of auspices and became one of the most common symbols of the Roma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mamurius Veturius
In ancient Roman religion, the Mamuralia or ''Sacrum Mamurio'' ('Rite for Mamurius') was a festival held on March 14 or 15, named only in sources from late antiquity. According to Joannes Lydus, an old man wearing animal skins was beaten ritually with sticks. The name is connected to Mamurius Veturius, who according to tradition was the craftsman who made the ritual shields ('' ancilia'') that hung in the temple of Mars. Because the Roman calendar originally began in March, the ''Sacrum Mamurio'' is usually regarded as a ritual marking the transition from the old year to the new. It shares some characteristics with scapegoat or ''pharmakos'' ritual. The craft of Mamurius According to legend, Mamurius was commissioned by Numa, second king of Rome, to make eleven shields identical to the sacred ''ancile'' that fell from the heavens as a pledge of Rome's destiny to rule the world. The ''ancile'' was one of the sacred guarantors of the Roman state ''( pignora imperii)'', and the rep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fasti (poem)
The ''Fasti'' ( , "the Calendar"), sometimes translated as ''The Book of Days'' or ''On the Roman Calendar'', is a six-book Latin poem written by the Roman poet Ovid and made public in AD 8. Ovid is believed to have left the ''Fasti'' incomplete when he was exiled to Tomis by the emperor Augustus in 8 AD. Written in elegiac couplets and drawing on conventions of Greek and Latin didactic poetry, the ''Fasti'' is structured as a series of eye-witness reports and interviews by the first-person '' vates'' ("poet-prophet" or "bard") with Roman deities, who explain the origins of Roman holidays and associated customs—often with multiple aetiologies. The poem is a significant, and in some cases unique, source of fact in studies of religion in ancient Rome; and the influential anthropologist and ritualist J.G. Frazer translated and annotated the work for the Loeb Classical Library series. Each book covers one month, January through June, of the Roman calendar, and was writ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three Western canon, canonical poets of Latin literature. The Roman Empire, Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegy, elegists.Quint. ''Inst.'' 10.1.93 Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, the emperor Augustus Exile of Ovid, exiled him to Constanța, Tomis, the capital of the newly-organised province of Moesia, on the Black Sea, where he remained for the last nine or ten years of his life. Ovid himself attributed his banishment to a "poem and a mistake", but his reluctance to disclose specifics has resulted in much speculation among scholars. Ovid is most famous for the ''Metamorphoses'', a continuous mythological narrative in fifteen books written in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odysseus
In Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, Odysseus ( ; , ), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses ( , ; ), is a legendary Greeks, Greek king of Homeric Ithaca, Ithaca and the hero of Homer's Epic poetry, epic poem, the ''Odyssey''. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's ''Iliad'' and other works in that same epic cycle. As the son of Laertes (father of Odysseus), Laërtes and Anticlea, husband of Penelope, and father of Telemachus, Acusilaus, and Telegonus (son of Odysseus), Telegonus, Odysseus is renowned for his intellectual brilliance, guile, and versatility (''polytropos''), and he is thus known by the epithet Odysseus the Cunning (). He is most famous for his ''nostos'', or "homecoming", which took him ten eventful years after the decade-long Trojan War. Name, etymology, and epithets The form ''Odys(s)eus'' is used starting in the epic period and through the classical period, but various other forms are also found. In vase inscriptions, there are the varian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egeria (mythology)
Egeria (, ) was a nymph attributed a legendary role in the early history of Rome as a divine consort and counselor of Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, to whom she imparted laws and rituals pertaining to ancient Roman religion. Her name is used as an eponym for a female advisor or counselor. Origin and etymology Egeria may predate Roman myth: she could have been of Italic origin in the sacred forest of Aricia in Latium, her immemorial site, which was equally the grove of Diana Nemorensis ("Diana of Nemi"). At Aricia there was also a Manius Egerius, a male counterpart of Egeria. The name ''Egeria'' has been diversely interpreted. Georges Dumézil proposed it came from ''ē-gerere'' ("bear out"), suggesting an origin from her childbirth role. It may mean "of the black poplar" (Greek αἴγειρος, ''aigeiros''). Her role as prophetess and author of "sacred books" is similar to the Etruscan Vegoia, to whom were attributed various books of prophecy, including the "L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nymph
A nymph (; ; sometimes spelled nymphe) is a minor female nature deity in ancient Greek folklore. Distinct from other Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature; they are typically tied to a specific place, landform, or tree, and are usually depicted as Virginity, maidens. Because of their association with springs, they were often seen as having healing properties; other divine powers of the nymphs included divination and shapeshifting. In spite of their divine nature, they were not immortality, immortal. Nymphs are divided into various Nymph#List, broad subgroups based on their habitat, such as the Meliae (ash tree nymphs), the Dryads (oak tree nymphs), the Alseids (Grove (nature), grove nymphs), the Naiads (Spring (hydrology), spring nymphs), the Nereids (sea nymphs), the Oceanids (ocean nymphs), and the Oreads (mountain nymphs). Other nymphs included the Hesperides (evening nymphs), the Hyades (mythology), Hyades (rain nymphs), and the Pleiade ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palladium (mythology)
In Greek and Roman mythology, the Palladium or Palladion (Greek Παλλάδιον (Palladion), Latin ''Palladium'') was a cult image of great antiquity on which the safety of Troy and later Rome was said to depend, the wooden statue ('' xoanon'') of Pallas Athena that Odysseus and Diomedes stole from the citadel of Troy and which was later taken to the future site of Rome by Aeneas. The Roman story is related in Virgil's ''Aeneid'' and other works. Rome possessed an object regarded as the actual Palladium for several centuries; it was in the care of the Vestal Virgins for nearly all this time. Since around 1600, the word palladium has been used figuratively to mean anything believed to provide protection or safety, and in particular in Christian contexts a sacred relic or icon believed to have a protective role in military contexts for a whole city, people or nation. Such beliefs first become prominent in the Eastern church in the period after the reign of the Byzantine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pelta
A ''peltast'' (, ) was a type of light infantry originating in Thrace and Paeonia and named after the kind of shield he carried.Williams, Mary Frances. "Philopoemen's special forces: Peltasts and a new kind of greek light-armed warfare (Livy 35.27) " ''Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte Geschichte'' H. 3 (2004): 257-277. mentions the Thracian peltasts, while in the |
Thracians
The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European languages, Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared between Thrace, north-eastern Greece, Romania, and north-western Turkey. They shared the same language and culture. There may have been as many as a million Thracians, divided among up to 40 tribes." Thracians resided mainly in Southeast Europe in Present (time), modern-day Bulgaria, Romania, North Macedonia, northern Greece and European Turkey, but also in north-western Anatolia, Anatolia (Asia Minor) in Turkey. The exact origin of the Thracians is uncertain, but it is believed that Thracians like other Indo-European speaking groups in Europe descended from a mixture of Proto-Indo-Europeans and Early European Farmers. Around the 5th millennium BC, the inhabitants of the eastern region of the Balkans became organized in different groups of Indi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
