Cura or Aera Cura is the name of a
Roman goddess
Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans, and is a form of Roman folklore. "Roman mythology" may also refer to the modern study of these representations, and to the ...
who created the first
human
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...
(homo) and whose name means "care" or "concern" in
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
.
Hyginus
Hyginus may refer to:
People
*Hyginus, the author of the '' Fabulae'', an important ancient Latin source for Greek mythology.
*Hyginus, the author of the ''Astronomia'', a popular ancient Latin guide on astronomy, probably the same as the author ...
seems to have created both the
personification
Personification is the representation of a thing or abstraction as a person, often as an embodiment or incarnation. In the arts, many things are commonly personified, including: places, especially cities, National personification, countries, an ...
and story for his ''Fabulae'', poem 220.
Story of Cura
While crossing a river, Cura gathered clay and, engrossed in thought, began to mold it into a man. When she was thinking about what she had already made,
Jove
Jupiter ( or , from Proto-Italic "day, sky" + "father", thus "sky father" Greek: Δίας or Ζεύς), also known as Jove ( nom. and gen. ), is the god of the sky and thunder, and king of the gods in ancient Roman religion and mytholog ...
(Jupiter) arrived on the scene. Cura asked him to grant it ''spiritus'', "breath" or "spirit." He grants her request readily, but when she also asked to give her creation her own name, he forbade it, insisting that it had to carry his name. While the two were arguing,
Tellus (Earth) arose and wanted it to have her name because she had made her body available for it.
The judgment is finally rendered by
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...
. He determines that since the ''spiritus'' was granted by Jove, he should have it in death; Tellus, or Earth, would receive the body she had given; because Cura, or Care, had been the creator, she would keep her creation as long as it lived. To resolve the debate, ''homo'', "human being," would be the name, because it was made from ''
humus
In classical soil science, humus is the dark organic matter in soil that is formed by the decomposition of plant and animal matter. It is a kind of soil organic matter. It is rich in nutrients and retains moisture in the soil. Humus is the Lati ...
'', earth.
Interpretation
The story attracted the attention of
Heidegger
Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art, and language.
In April ...
, a modern philosopher, who observed, "The double sense of ''cura'' refers to care for something as concern, absorption in the world, but also care in the sense of devotion." Heidegger regards the fable as a "naive interpretation" of the philosophical concept that he terms
Dasein
"Dasein" (; ) is a term in the philosophy of Martin Heidegger. Adopted from the ordinary German word meaning "existence", Heidegger used it to refer to the mode of being that he believed is particular to human beings. A being that is aware of an ...
, "being-in-the-world" in Section 42 of ''Being and Time.'' Heidegger's use of this fable in casting the female ''Cura'' as creator has been seen as an inversion of the equivalent
Christian myth, in which woman is created last, with the centrality of ''Cura'' as a challenge to the
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
concept of
self-sufficiency
Self-sustainability and self-sufficiency are overlapping states of being in which a person, being, or system needs little or no help from, or interaction with others. Self-sufficiency entails the self being enough (to fulfill needs), and a sel ...
and "
atomization
Atomization refers to breaking bonds in some substance to obtain its constituent atoms in gas phase. By extension, it also means separating something into fine particles, for example: process of breaking bulk liquids into small droplets.
Atomizati ...
" of the individual.
[Katrin Froese, ''Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Daoist Thought: Crossing Paths In-between'' (SUNY Press, 2006), p. 18]
online.
/ref>
See also
* Cura (surname)
References
External links
{{Wiktionary
History of the Notion of Care
Creator goddesses
Roman goddesses
Allegory