77/z. ETf'TT .VtfCiS CD I a ■ t ne Mythology of Vergil's Aeneid According To Servius BY JOHN PRENTICE TAYLOR, B.D., Ph.D. ■ EXCHANGE The Mythology of Vergil's Aeneid According To Servius BY JOHN PRENTICE TAYLOR, B.D., PhD This rHESis has been accepted b\ the Graduate School of New York University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 1917. TO Prof Ernest Gottlieb Sihler, Ph.D., Litt.D. with warmest gratitude a no regard The Mythology of Vergil's Aeneid According to Servius. CONTENTS Chapter I - 1 Servius. the man: his work. His position in time ; his profession, a grammaticus. His religion, a loving attachment to the old paganism, now under the ban and almost passed away. His Great Work, the Commentory on Vergil His competence. Macrobius. Our present text Chapter II - - 4 The Method of Servius. Twofold interest discernible. (a) The simple instruction of Roman schoolboys as to points of syntax, fables etc. (a) The elucidation of problems of scholarship, e. g.. the inter- pretations of myths etc. according to the several schools, the physici, mathematici, etc His handling of the older authorities, as Donatus, for instance. Chapter III - - 6 The Roman mythology in great degree derived from the Greeks: hardly more than the adaptation of the Greek pantheon. The slender character of the uncorrupted elements of Italic origin which persisted in the Roman religion to later historical times. The di indigetos and
  • uch phrases as, alii dicunt, sunt qui, etc. His purpose is evidently to give an exhaustive treatment (cf. some of the more thorough- going Biblical scholars of our time), as he does not hesitate to quote opinions diametrically contrary to his own. Nor does Servius in all cases insist upon a choice between con- flicting views, often leaving his reader without any means to de- termine what he himself thought, and perhaps for the very good reason that he could not decide. His exegesis Servius is fond of introducing by such formulas as "fingitur," "ideo fingitur quod" or similar expressions, thus ap- parently indicating his belief that the fables were deliberate in- ventions due to perfectly reasoned efforts to symbolize physical phenomena (cf. VIII 389) ; rather than that the myths themselves were the originals upon which at a later and philosophic age the explanations grew up. On the whole we are justified in saying that Servius reveals the method of the true scholar, to whom no toil is too burdensome, no detail too insignificant to engage his enthusiastic interest, pro- vided he might gain for himself, and rescue for his readers a closer view of the subject to the elucidation of which he had so utterly devoted himself CHAPTER III. In strict accuracy we can hardly speak of a Roman mythology for, as Dr. Warde Fowler justly says, "the early Romans were destitute of mythological fancy"; they were of a stern, grave and robust character, intensely practical in their interests and lack- ing in imagination. But they were not without deep religious feel ings and early possessed both relig : ous convictions and cultus, truly of a very simple, and we might almost dare to say of a spiritual character, if worshipping without images marks any difference be tween a spiritual and a sensuous religion, where constant appeal is made to the physical senses through the representation of the gods by images and the pomp and circumstance of elaborate ritual. We are at a disadvantage in the study of the Roman religion from the fact that we have no literature contemporaneous with its rise, and must, therefore, in the main see through the eyes of men of much later times. It is true we have the Calendar of Numa . and some inscriptions to aid us ; but these are of value largely because of the inferences we are able to draw, rather than from any clear statements of their own. Because the Greek influence came to be as great in the realm of religion as in that of literature, the modern student, it has been truly said, sees all things through a "Hellenistic mist." Thus the inferences to be drawn from the writings of such men as Varro. Ovid and others, must be used with extreme caution in seeking to determine the elements of the early religion of Rome : for they speak of a much later period when the transforming touch of the Greeks had been laid upon all things Roman, so far as literature and religion were concerned. The original Italic element which survived to later times seems to have been very slender indeed. So far back as we can go the numina appear to have been spirits which had not reached the stage of clear-cut personality. The adjectival character of many of their appellations would suggest this, e.g., Neptunus, Volturnus, Volcanus, etc. Cf . Fowler RERP. and Carter "de Deorum Ro- manorum cognominibus." The whole matter is summed up most satisfactorily in a quo- tation from Aust's book on the Roman Religion as given by Fowler RERP., p. 157. "The deities of Rome were deities of the cult only. They had no human form ; they are not the human heart with its virtues and vices. They had no intercourse with each other, and no common or permanent residence ; they enjoyed no nectar and ambrosia .... they had no children, no parental relation These deities never became independent ex- istences, they remain cold, colorless conceptions, numina as the Romans called them, that is supernatural beings whose existence only betrays itself in the exercise of certain powers." These ancient numina under the influence of Greek thought and poetical conceptions became identified with the various deities of the Greek pantheon, and were then and not till then, conceived as fully constituted persons with the same parts and passions as their human worshippers. Perhaps Vesta and Mars among the greater deities remained -.trongly Italic, while Janus, Faunus, Silvanus, Ops, Consus, Iu- turna kept in large degree their own native characteristics, though Faunus became identified with Arcadian Pan. Servius says that deus and dea were the general names for all deities, deriving deus from 5scg, i.e., fear, since, as he naively says, all religion is due to that feeling. The Magni Di were by some identified with the Penates (q.v.), by others with Jupiter, Minerva and Mercury, whom Aeneas brought from Samothrace. The Di Indigites appear to have been the deities worshipped in the Rome of the four regions, at the time of Numa. Wissowa makes them thirty-three in number. Servius defines them in his note on XII 794. They were called indigites according to Lucretius (II 650): quod nullius rei egeant. vcl quod nos deorum indigeamus .... alii patrios deos indigites dici dcbcre tradunt, alii ab invocatione indigites dictos volunt, quod 'indigito' est precor et invoco. (Cf. Mommsen Hist. Rome, Vol. I, p. 213, Eng. Transl.) vel ccrte indigites sunt dii ex hominibus facti, et dicti indigetes quasi in diis agentcs. In support of this last point he cites the manner in which Aeneas was made an object of worship by his son Ascanius. Inasmuch as the Greek deities had really absorbed the Roman to a great degree, I have made my chapter divisions in this treat- ment with the Greek pantheon in view, i.e., I first treat of the Olympian or Greater Divinities, then of the lesser gods and god- desses, the demigods and heroes who underwent apotheosis last. CHAPTER IV. IUPPITER Jupiter was at Rome the sky-god as in Greece and other Indo European countries. He w.as the god who gave rain and so fer- tility. He was also the god of the lightning and whatever the heavenly fire touched became sacred to him. As king of gods and men he was the god of battles also, and received various epithets accordingly, as Feretrius, Stator, and Victor. He was called Fi- dius as the guardian of treaties and oaths. His greatest temple as King was that of the Capitoline, where he was worshipped as Iuppiter Optimus Maximus. Here the laws were kept and hither triumphing generals came to render thanks and to deposit their spoils of war. Jupiter represented the unity of Rome, but it was not till his fuller identification with the Greek Zeus that any stories of his relations to men on the human plane, e.g., his human marriages, gained currency at Rome. He was, Fairbanks remarks, never so near a monotheistic conception as was Zeus. We turn to Servius. The birth of Iuppiter is narrated in III 104. After Saturn had learned from the oracle that he was to have a son who might drive him from his kingdom he devoured his children as they were born by his wife Rhea. When Iuppiter appeared she was so captivated by his beauty that she resolved to save him. Accordingly she sent him away to Mount Dicte in Crete where bees fed him, and in place of the child she gave Saturn a stone wrapped up in swad- dling clothes. He soon learned the trick and began a search for the infant, to save whom Rhea had the Curetes and Corbyantes keep up a constant din with their cymbals that the wailing of Iuppiter might not attract the attention of his father and so dis- cover his whereabouts. RATIO. Servius now explains the myth according to the Phys- ici : ut autcm fingatur Saturnus filios snos comesse, ratio haec est, quia dicitnr dens esse aeternitatis et saeculorum saecula autem annos ex se natos in se rcvolvunt: unde Graece Koovog quasi Xqovoc, id est tempus, dicitur. This story is referred to again in IX 83. Juno was both sister and wife of Iuppiter. (Perhaps, inciden- tally, we are here given to know that the myth arose at a time when it was felt to be no immorality that a sovereign should marry his own sister.) See I 47. XII 830. 8 THE RATIONALE of the myth Servius gives as follows . physici lovem aethcrcm, id est igncm volant intellegi, lunonem vere acrcm, et quoniam tcnuitatc hacc elementa paria sunt, dixer- unt esse gcrmana, sed quoniam Iuno, hoc est acr subiectus est igni, id est Iovi, iure super posito clemento marili traditum nomen est. Tl I E ETYMOLOGY, lovem autem a iuvando dixerunt; n\ enim res sic fovet omnia, quemadmodum calor. IX 126. Iuppiter is so called from "Juvans pater": His epi- thet "hominum divumque acterna potestas" is explained as touch- ing the gods by the physici thus : nam divitni potestas est quia ip- se, est aether, qui elementorum possidet principatum; as touching men by the mathematici (astrologers) as follows: hominum veto ideo, quia bona Iovis inradiatio honorcs hominibus tribuit. 'ae- terna' autem 'potestas' adiccit propter aliorum numinum discre- tionem : nam legimus Apollonem deposuisse divinam potcstatem et ilcrciilcm vcl Liberum patrcm non semper deos fuisse. IUPPITER was then among the first class of deities according to the classification of Servius. As god of the sky, Iuppiter was also the lord of storms, whose weapon was the thunderbolt, though he was not exclusively the master of that fearful phenomenon (I 42 where Varro is quoted i'or the statement that thunderbolts were assigned to four deiti The Etruscan books also gave the power of the lightning to Jove, Vulcan and Minerva; moreover, as many as twelve different sorts of thunderbolts were named). The aegis was also connected by the Greeks with the production of storms: sane Graeci poetae turbines et procellas xaxaiyibaq appellant quod hacc mota faciat tempestatcs. The aegis was really the hide of the Amalthean goat by which Iuppiter was nourished, and by the shaking of which he caused storms (VIII 354). The eagle was his sacred bird and the oak among trees was also consecrated to Iuppiter. In I 394, Servius goes quite extensively into the causes for this selection of the eagle as the bird of Jove. It is a bird of excessive heat, so much so that unless it put into the nest with its eggs a cer- tain very cold stone it would cook them The eagle furnished Jove with his thunderbolts in his battle with the gianl 3 1 here is still another very interesting legend and one which has i sort of euhemeristic cast, i.e., the eagle was originally a hay : aptttf Graecos legitur, puerum quendam terra editunt admodum pul- 9 chrum membris fuisse, qui 'Aetoc; sit vocatus. hie cum luppiter propter patrem Saturnum, qui suos filios devorabat, in Creta in- sula in Ideao antro nutriretur. primus in obsequium Iovis se dedit, post vero cum adolevisset, luppiter et patrem regno pepulisset, Juno permota forma pueri velut paelicatus dolore eum in avem vertit. quae ab ipso 'Aero? dicitur Gracce, a nobis aquila propter aquihtm color em, qui ater est. quam semper luppiter sibi inhaerere praecipit et fidmina gestare; per hanc etiam Ganymedes cum ama- retur a love dicitur raptus, quos luppiter inter sidera collocavit. et quia aquilae haec est natura, ut solem recto lumine spectet, sig- num quoque aquilae, quod in coelo est, orientem semper solem videtur adtendere. ALU DICUNT ab hac am lovem raptum et ad latebras Cre- tenses perlatum, cum a Saturno ubique quacreretur. ipsam etiam Iovi cum adversus Titanas bellum gereret, obvolasse in augurium ac statim victoriam consecutam, et ideo inter sidera collocatam. Thus in a very careful and exhaustive manner does our author narrate the various and, to a certain degree, conflicting interpre- tations of the fact that the eagle was under the protection of luppiter. As luppiter represents the light in its victory over darkness, the growth of the sway of reason and law over brute force, we are not Surprised to find that he retained his throne only after terrible conflicts with giants and Titans, who symbolize those wild and un- regulated forces of nature before their control by the principles of law and order. Of these struggles Servius has -little to say ; though he seems to assert that the Titans fought not against lup- piter but against Cronus (VI 580), and that it was the giants who were in conflict with Zeus (III 578). :~ In his quarrel with Neptune, Iuno and Minerva, it was Briareus. the hundred handed, summoned by Thetis to the aid of Zeus, who saved the day for him (VI 287; X 567). We shall next consider his relationship with men as Servius depicts it. luppiter was felt to be the god to whom justice was a special care (X 689) : dicimus priinum lovem iustitiae favere, non par- tibus: ■ He was the special guardian of oaths (XII 200) ; where Ser- vius seems to imply that the sacrifices at the altars, when treaties were made, were kindled bv luppiter in answer to praver, thus. 1 10 uld suppose, signifying his interest and watchfulness in the i ter of the oaths then made between the parties. In a time when nations and tribes were so separated in their conceptions of religion and social life, as well as in their peculiar interests, that the word for enemy and stranger were one and the same "hostis," it became a matter of moment that the rights and immunities of travellers should be enforced by the strongest re- ligious sanctions. So we find it was ainonq- the Greeks and Ro- mans, who conceived that the supreme deity himself took under his own special protection all strangers, and marked for punish ment all who worked ill to the guest. In I 731 we have the story of Lycaon who, for destroying his guests, was turned into a wolf by fuppiter to whom he had offered a feast of human flesh in his own house. This act of Iuppiter was to show that the rights of hospitality must not be violated. While fuppiter was not conceived as the author of death to men he was nevertheless thought of as determining at times the sort of death (XII 851) : vohint Iovcm non esse mortis auctorem, sed posse mortis gencre vel prodessc vel obesse mortclibus. Iuppiter was an ancestor of the Roman people through Venus. who was the mother of Aeneas (VII 220). At first there was no temple of Iuppiter at Rome (IX 446). Priscus Tarqu'nius vowed such a temple and Tarquinius Super- bus erected it on the Tarpeian Rock, having taken the augul and discovered that to be the proper place. As there v ere -l<;- ; of many other gods on that spot, these deities were induced to re- move to other temples (a fine example of evocatio), Terminus alone refusing to go, thus signifying that if that deity should be worshipped with Iuppiter the sway of the city would be eternal. There was a great altar to Iuppiter before the temple of Iup- piter Stator, which Romulus had built after the divinity had stayed the flight of his army in the battle with the Salr.nes (VIII 640). As to the immoralities of Jove to which reference is made in XII 144, perhaps it might be said that they arose from the desire to explain the origin of men from the gods and especially the ancestry of the great families as of divine beginning In IV 638 we have Pluto referred to as Iuppiter Stygius, with tin- explanation of the theocrasia according to the Stoics: et s endum Stoicos diccrc tiuum esse drum, cui nomina vdriqntur pro dctibus et officps, ionic ctiam duplicis rexits nutnina esse aicun II tur, ut cum in actu sunt, mares sint ; feminae, cum patiendt ha- bent naturam, etc. Servius gives the euhemeristic explanation of Saturnus and luppiter as follows (VIII 3i9) : Saturn was king of Crete whom luppiter his son expelled in war. In his flight Saturn was re- ceived by Janus who was then ruling in Italy and who had a city where the hill Janiculum now is. Saturn, in return for the instruc- tion of the people in the cultivation of the vine and a more humane manner of living, was admitted to a share in the kingship and built a town for*himself on the slope of the Capitoline hill where his temple was to be seen in the time of Servius LUNO luno was the wife of luppiter as was Hera of Zeus. She- was the queen of the gods, and was especially concerned with mar- riage. Under various names she was worshipped by the bride to be and the wife. As luno Pronuba she was the goddess of be- trothal, as luno Juga the deity who joined husband and wife in the new relation, as Juno Sospita the preserver of mother and child at the perilous time of childbirth. Each woman worshipped her iuno as did each man his genius The worship of luno is closely associated with the moon, and to her as luno Lucetia or Lucina the Kalends were sacred as were the Ides to luppiter. She also shared the warlike functions of luppiter. Fairbanks says that while Hera is primarily the queen and the wife, luno is rather the representative and guardian of female life in all its phases. To turn to Servius : Juno was the sister and wife of Zeus and therefore queen of the gods (XII 830, I 47). The physici represent luppiter as Aether and luno as Aer — kin- dred elements, but with luno as the subjected element. (See un- der luppiter, where the whole passage is quoted.) She has many attributes or functions numina, or better per- haps many divine powers (18): namque IUNO multa habet nu- mina : est Curitis, quae utitur curru et hasta, ut est hie illiu s a r ma , hie currusfuit ; est Lucina, quae partibus p r a e - est ut IUNO lucina fer op em; est regina ut quae d iv u m in c e d o regina sunt et alia cius numina. Iuno grants to Aeolus the control of the winds. Here again the physici suggest their explanation : nam motus aeris, id est lunonis, ventos creat. quibus Aeolus praeest (I 78) 12 She is also the goddess of marriage and as such is called luno Pronuba (IV 59. i66, 45, 608). In her worship she delights especially in hymns and prayers ( 1 1 ! 438) luno was called maxima (VIII 84), because of the varied pow- ers she exercised as Lucina, Matrona, Regina, etc. And the theo- igi (i.e., the poetae) say that she was the mother of the gods, who is called terra (another case of theocrasia) whence a young sow was sacrificed to her. (Compare VIII 43.) As Iuppiter St/gius was identified with Dis. so was luno Inferna with Proserpina, VI 138. luno was always dependent on the help of some other deity to accomplish her will. This the physici explained (VII 311) by the fact that air can accomplish nothing alone, but through the union with the winds, which produce clouds and rains. She appears as the cause of the insanity of Hercules in VII 1 292. Unlike her spouse, luno was ever chaste (and so a proper ob- ject of worship for the true wife and naturally invoked to avenge broken marriage pledges, as by Dido after Aeneas' defection) ; XII 144: Iuppiter enim multas vitiasse narratur, cum nihil utn- quam tale de Iunone legerimus. Her worship, according to Servius, goes back to the Second Punic War (XII 841) :.. sed constat hello Punico secundo exora- tam hinoncm, tcrtio vero hello a Scipione sacris quihusdam etiam Romam esse translatam It is said thai the Trojans had had luno among their penates (I 734). NEPTUNE. Neptune in Rome was originally merely a god of moisture and not a sea deity ; but very early the worship of Poseidon, under the aame of Neptune, was introduced from Magna Graecia. He was prayed to for safe journeys by sea, and contests with ships were held in his honor. Neptune was represented as hostile to Troy for different rea sons: in II 201, it was because his priest had been stoned to death by the Trojans inasmuch as he had refused to forbid the coming of the Greeks by his sacrifices. When later Laocoon, priest of Apollo, tried to take the place of the genuine priest he was de- stroyed bv Neptune, with his children, the sea-god sending the 13 great serpent to accomplish his will. Or that the Trojans had had no priest of Neptune since he had been insulted by Laomedon in the matter of the pay for building the walls of Troy. (See below.) II 610, where we have the fabula at length. According to which Apollo and Poseidon built the walls of Troy for which they were to have certain pay. There is, however, what might be called an explanation according to the method of the physici, viz. ; that La- omedon had vowed certain money to fulfil the sacra of those de- ities, but that when threatened by the Mysians he had misappro- priated it, using it for defense in building walls, and hence Apollo and Neptune are said to have erected the Avails. By this sacrile- gious use the gods were offended and became inimical to the Tro- jans, and at the downfall of the city were represented as destroy- ing what they had built up. Hence the epithet "earth-shaker" zvooiydwv "hoc est terrain movens aquae concussione, sicut terrae motus continent opiniones." The contest of Minerva, Pallas Athene, and Neptune as to the naming of Athens is recounted at length (VIII 128). For when Neptune and Minerva were contending concerning the naming of Athens, Jupiter ordered that it should bear the name of the one who should bestow on mankind the better gift. There- upon Neptune gave the horse ; Athene the olive, and at once be- came the victor — hence the name Athens. (Cf. Pallas Athene. Minerva.) CERES. Notwithstanding the importance of this goddess she is but slightly mentioned by Servius. She was the goddess of plant life especially, as Warde Fowler says, of the "fructus" rather than the seed. She was worshipped in connection with the old earth power Tellus by offerings of grain and games. In 496 B. C, under the direction of the Sibylline books, a temple was established for her worship, she being at this time identified with the Greek Demeter. She was regarded as the patron of the plebs. Fairbanks says that in the country Ceres continued to be the spirit of growing corn, while in the city she was the mother goddess protecting her people. One of the great festivals, the Cerealia, as its name im- plies, was dedicated to her ; it took place on the 19th of April. In IV 58, Servius declares thatCeres was the giver of laws to the people; nam et sacra ipsius thesmophoria vocantur, (id est 14 legumlatio). Here again the explanation is according to the phys ici : ideo fingitur, quia ante inventum frumcntum a Cerere passim homines sine lege vagabantur : quae feritas interrupta est invento usu frumentorum, postquam ex agrorum divisione nata sunt tura. Two interpretations of the thesmophoria : Thcsmophoria autem vocantur legumlatio. an quia in aedr Cercris acre incisae positae leges fuerunt? Ceres by some was thought to be hostile to marriage, either be- cause of the rape of her daughter Persephone, or because when Zeus preferred Juno to her, she was repudiated though she had been his wife (nupta). Thus, at Eleusis, when her sacra were taking place, the temple of Juno was closed and vice versa, nor could a priest of Juno taste any libation offered to Ceres. At Rome during her sacra care was taken lest one mention fa- ther or daughter, because the fruit of marriage lay in children. But others say that Ceres favored marriage because she had been Jove's first wife and presided over the founding of cities (in which, of course, marriage was the most important factor) ; ut Calvus docet 'et leges sanctas docuit et cara iugavit corpora conu- biis et magnas condidit urbes. Harking back to the former opinion that Ceres was hostile to marriage we are told : ergo modo nuptura placat ante Cere- rem, quae propter raptvin filias mipluras execratur. Ceres as Demeter is also the mother of Diana, who is identified with Proserpina (cf. Eclogue III 26). APOLLO (PHOEBUS, HELIOS, SOL) Apollo was the old city god of Cumae, whence his cult was transferred to Rome. He was at first the god of the healing art and, Wissowa thinks, was probably introduced at Rome under the pressure of some great plague. The games in his honor, the Ludi Apollinares, Livy says (XXV 12, 15. Cf. Macr. S.I.. 17. 25, 27). were established "victoriae non valetudinis ergo." He was also the god of prophecy and the Sibyl was his mouth- piece. Augustus made Apollo and Diana the patrons of his new imperial residence on the Palatine. Apollo as god of the sun and of music among the Greeks came to be so considered among the Romans when the Greek concep- tions obtained more thoroughly in Roman religion. 15 As the archer god, his arrows represented the baneful effects of the sun, while his, (i.e., the sun's) wholesome influences were the basis of his attributes as healer. At first Apollo and Sol were really different deities, the former representing the illuminating power of light in the mental and spiritual realm, while the latter was the expression of the purely physical aspects of the lord of day. In later times no distinction was made between Phoebus-Apollo and Helios among the Greeks nor between Apollo and Sol among the Romans. As the sun seemed ever youthful, Phoebus- Apollo became the special protector of youth whether in war or in the contests of peace. We now turn to Servius. The birth of Apollo and Diana is found in Servius' comments on III 73 : post vitiatam Latonam luppiter cum etiam ems sororem Astericn vitiare vellet ilia optavit a diis, ut in avem convcrtcretur : versaque in coturniccm est. et cum vellet mare transfretare, quod est coturnicum, adflata a love et in lapidem conversa, din sub flue- tibus latuit. posted snpphcante Iovi Latona, levata superferri aquis coepit. Haec primo Neptuno et Doridi fuit consecrata. postea cum Iuno gravidam Pythone imisso Latonam persequeretur, terris omnibus expulsa Latona, tandem aliquando applicante se litoribus sorore suscepta est, et ilhc Dianarn primo, post Apollmem peperit Apollo then killed the Python and so freed his mother from that bitter persecution. His sister Diana, though always a virgin, was, nevertheless, called upon by women in childbirth because she having been born before Apollo had performed the kindly offices of midwife to her own mother at the god's birth. [ 329. The god was called by different names among the vari ous races and states who worshipped him according to the various benefits which he granted by the exercise of his different divine powers. His arrows are explained as symbolic of the action of disease, which comes silently and in a secret fashion as do those weapons He is the deity who protects the crops, who is the god of the healing art, of divination (i.e., soothsaying), and who has to pre- side over the affairs of cities when at peace as well as over wars waged at a distance from home ( longinqua) . Further great care was exercised against the pollution of his priests or worshippers (I 329) : cui laurum ideo sacratum quia 16 arbor stiff itnentts purgationibusque adhibeatur, ut ostendatur nullum templum eitis nisi purum ingredi debcre. Defilement by contact with the dead on the part of his priests was especially guarded against: cautum enim est, ne sacerdos eius domum ingrediatur, in qua ante quintam diem funus fuerit Apollo's great function was that of uttering the oracle rather than that of giving (something) ; 111 85. He was worshipped at many altars in different states, at which victims were not slaughtered but where the deity was reverenced by solemn prayer alone. Servius makes much of Apollo's connection with the art of healing. (See above 1 329.) Aesculapius, the father of medicine, was the son of Apollo by Coronis, and was taught the healing art by Chiron, the Centaur (VII 76i). Aesculapius had been removed from the body of his mother, who had been transfixed by the angry Apollo because >he had been reported to him as adulterous, in the manner of the birth of Julius Caesar (X 316). And indeed it was because the latter was born as was Aesculapius, the son of Apollo, that the family of the Caesars retained the guardianship of his sacra. I'urther, all who were born in that manner were consecrated to Apollo, since he was the god of the healing art and it was through that art that they came to share the light of day, i.e., to live. In XII 405 he is called "inventor m-cdicinac" nam Aesculapius prae- est medicinae, quam Apollo invenit, qui in Ovidio de se ait: in rentum medicina meum est. Apollo was (IV 58) expers uxoris, and indeed hostile to wed lock (IV i44) nuptiis est hoc numen infensum, though unlike his chaste twin Diana, he enjoyed illicit love. He presided over the auspices by which cities were regulated i IV 58). The various epithets of this deity are important as revealing the extent of his worship or some fact of his history or attributes Preller gives two pages of them in his index. We shall confine ourselves to Servius. In II 332 he is called Patrius Apollo, some say from Patrae, a city of Achaia. Others say that altars were built to Apollo by \esculap:us and called "patrius," referring to his parentage. Still others say that there was in a temple of Apollo an altai said to have been inscribed IIATPIOY AIIOAAQNi >^ from this fact that Icadius. a son of Apollo and the nymph Lycia 17 when he had come of adult age, first of all called the district in which he had been born, Lycia, and then built in it a city to the honor of Apollo, and consecrated the lots and oracle and, that he might bear witness to the fact that Apollo was his father, he named it Patara, whence he, i.e., Apollo, was called Patareus (cf IV 377 at the end). He was also called the Delphian Apollo, from his famous shrine, the story of which is as follows : III 332. Inde cum (Icadius) Italiam peteret, naufragio vexa- tus delphini tergo exceptus dicitur ac prope Pamasum montem delatus patri Apollini templum constituisse et a delphino locum Delphos appellasse, aras deinde Apollini tamquam patri conse- crasse, quas ferunt vulgo patrias dictas. The dolphin was thus introduced into the sacra of Apollo : hinc ergo et delphinum aiunt inter sacra Apollinis receptum; cuius rei vestigium est quod hodieque quindecemvirorum cortinis delphinus in summo ponitur et pridie quam sacrificium faciunt velut symbolum delphinus circumfertar, ob hoc silicet. quia quin- decemviri librorum Sibyllinorum sunt antistites. The Sibyl was the seeress inspired of Apollo ; Sibylla autem A.pollinis vatcs et delphinus Apollini sacer est. Cornificius Longus is quoted by Servius'in this same passage as giving the same derivation of the name Delphi. The epithet "Grynean" was suggestive of a deed of lust (IV 345). Of the epithet "Lyceus," there are several explanations (IV 377). Perhaps one cannot do better than to give them in the very words of Servius : Apollinem Lyceum appellari dicunt sive de Lyco, quern vicit, et in victoriae suae testimonium hoc nomen induit : sive quod est Izvabq a candor e; idem enim et sol creditur: sive quod transfiguratus in lupum cum Cyrene concu- buit: sive quod in lupi habitu Telchinas occiderit: sive quod lu- pus ei primus post inieremptum Pythonem ex eo loco qui appell- atur Tempe, laurum attulit : sive quod pastoralis deus lupos in- tercmerit. et est alia fabula, cur Lycia vocata sit regio : Diana harum regionum gaudebat venatu; sed quodam tempore tanta vis luporum se ibi infudit, tit omnes feras eorum incursus absumeret ; cum ergo omnis -oblectatio deae, quae de venatione veniebat, ex- tinctis ceteris animalibus defecisset, Apollo ob hanc rem conse- cratus est (bad text) est et alia de hoc fabula: Danaus tr aliens ab Aegypto originem, cum videret ira N eptuni vindictam su- 18 mentis, quod odversum se de condendis At hems Inackus fluvius pro Minerva iudicassct. uri siccitatibus solum, fdiam Amymonen ad aqaam inquirendum proficisci iubet. quae cum vidissct rcp- ertum fontem hiatu terrae receptum exaruisse, ad patrem detu- lit : quo Me prodigio commotus oraculum Apollinis adiit, cm Apollo rcspondit, ut profcctus ubi invenisset taurum et lupum inter se pugnantes, spectaret exitum pugnac, ct si taunts vicissct, Neptuno templa construcrct ; si veto lupus, Apollini dclubrum sacraret. scd cum Danaus lupum videret vicisse, Apollini Lycio tcmplum dedit. in Indus autcm Lyciae rcgione Patara sacer olnn lucus Apollini fuit, ubi Apollo rcsponsa dedii, unde etiam Pata- reus appellatus est. Here are no less than eight different accountings for the epithet Lyceus," a sufficient testimony to the infinite pains to which the great scholar went to inform his readers, and furnishing a splen- did illustration of the minutiae of detail in the knowledge of such a teacher of Roman letters. After his great victory, Augustus consecrated a temple to the Actian Apollo (VIII 704). That Apollo was the great deity of Cumae, as we said in the beginning, can be seen from VI 9, where we are told that the arx of that town was consecrated to him and where Coelius de- clared there was a wooden statue of the god fifteen feet in height. The ludi Apollinares were established according to some au- thorities during the Second Punic War, according to others, in the time of Sulla according to an oracle of the Marcian brothers, who were accustomed to give responses even as the Sibylline oracle did (VI, 70). The cortina is explained in several ways (111 92) : Cortina locus wide oraculum datur. Dicitur autcm cortina, vel quod Apollinis tripos corio Pythonis tectus est, vel quod ccrta Mine rcsponsa funduntur, quasi ccrtina, vel, quod est verius, quia cor illic vatis tcnetur: nam caverna quaedam in tempi o Apollinis fuit, ad qitam Phocbas rapta vaticinabatur, ut Lucauus (V 159) ostendit. Alii cortinam quasi ortinam tradunt, quod indc vox . natur: aut (Aen. VI 347) ccrtc secundum (Jraccam etymologiatn on tttv xoonv xeivei iycoi Tivdaoei, id est quod extendi} puellam ut 'maiorque vidcri! Perhaps this is the proper place to give what Servius has to ^ay as to Sol 19 In I 568 we are told of the quarrel of Atreus and Thyestes, which resulted in the violating of his brother's wife by Thyestes and the offering of the child resulting to his own father served up as food by the vengeful Atreus. To avoid this fearful sight and its consequent pollution, Sol fled away. Here follows an explanation by the physici : sed veritatis hoc est : Atreum apud Mycenas primum solis eclipsin invenisse, cui invidens f rater ex urbe dicessit tempore quo eius probata sunt dicta. Sol was one of the Titans whom Earth bore in opposition to Saturnus, when she was angered against the gods. Of them Sol alone refrained from wronging the divinities, and so gained his place in heaven. The Titans were named obid ttjc. xioewc, id est ab ultione (VI 580). In I 14 we learn that it was because of the spying of Sol upon Venus and Mars and his report to the other gods of their shame- ful association and the consequent indignity offered them, that Venus came to persecute the children of the sun with unlawful and indeed unnatural passions. An illustration which Servius gives is the story of Pasiphae and the consequent birth of the Minotaur. DIANA.. (ARTEMIS). At Rome, before the supremacy of the Greek conceptions in religion, Diana was peculiarly the goddess of women, to whom appeal was made for help in childbirth. The name is the femi- nine form of Janus, and she was associated with other begin- nings than those of human life. She was the guardian of those treaties by which peaceful relations were entered upon. When Greek ideas came to their own in Italy, Diana became identified with Artemis, the great Greek Goddess of wild life, and on another side of her nature, the goddess of the moon as the sister of Apollo, the Sun-god, and, like him, she was conceived as presiding over music, especially the choral dance. She became in Greece the ideal young woman as Apollo was the ideal youth. In I 499 Servius refers to this fact of her leading choral dances of a thousand (put for a large number) nymphs. Her relation to wild life is suggested by the story of the Caly- donian boar, which Diana sent against the territory of the King of Calydonia because he had neglected her in sacrifice (VII 306). 20 Servius identities Diana, Hecate and Proserpm.. anothei evi- dence of the theocrasia so common in his time. VI 119. Hecate trium potestatum numen est. ipsa enim est Luna, Diana, Proserpina. IV 511. quidatn Hecaten diet am esse tradunt (i.e., tergemi nam) quod eadem et Diana sit et Proserpina (bro tojv ExateQOjv :vel quod Apollonis soror sit, qui est Exam66k)<; sed secundum Hesiodum Hecate Persi Titanis et Asteriae filia est, Diani lovis et Latona, Persephone lovis et Ceteris, quam genealogiam posteriores confuderunt. et cum super terras est, creditur esse Luna, cum in terris Diana, cum sub terris Proserpina, quibusdam ideo triplicem placet, quia Luna tres figures habet. (We think of four.) nonnulli eandem Lucinam, Dianam, Hecaten appellant ideo, quia nni deae adsignant potestates nascendi, valendi, moriendi. et quidem nascendi Lucinam deam esse dicunt, valendi Dianam, moriendi Hecaten : ob quam triplicem potestatem triforem earn tripliccmque finxcrunt, cuius in triviis templa ideo struxerunt Hecate admits of another derivation than that cited above(IV 510) : Hecate dicta est excctov id est centum, potestates ha hens.. In her sacra, thunders were imitated. The gloomy cypress was consecrated to Diana (111 68i ) . ipsa mini est etiam Proserpina, i.e., the goddess of the lower world In II 116. Servius gives at length the story of the sacrifice of Iphigenia in Aulis. Here again we find Diana associated with wild life, her anger against the Greeks arising from the unwit ting killing of a stag by Agamemnon Iphigenia was rescued by the goddess and made a priestess to the Dictyan Diana. Later she recognizes her brother Orestes while engaged in human sacrifice. He kills Thoas the king and carries off the image of Dian in a bundle of faggots Thus we see that originally Diana was worshipped with human sacrifice, but Servius says that the cruelty of this cnltus came to displease the Romans and they abandoned it, but the worship of Diana was transferred to the Spartans, where the boys were placed upon her altar and lashed with whips to discover which could hold out longest. Some suppose that Lycurgus introduced this worship in the place of human sacrifice 21 VOLCANUS (HEPHAESTUS). The Roman Vulcan was a fire-god, eminently, says Fairbanks, of the fire that wrought such havoc among the wooden buildings of an ancient city. His temple was outside the walls of Rome. Later the worship of the Greek Hephaestos was brought to the city and Vulcan was then identified with him, and became the pa- tron of smiths. Vulcan was born from the thigh of (VII 454) Juno ; of which the physici have this explanation : ideo autem Vulcanus de f em- ore Iunonis fingitur natus, quod fulmina de into aere nascuntur; for Juno was the lower acr as Jove was the upper aether. VIII- 414. Vulcanus is the fire, and he is called Vulcanus as if Volicanus, quod per aerem volet. The casting out of Hephaestus from heaven by Zeus, as Homer tells it has a physical basis : Unde etiam Homcrus dicit eum de acre praecipitatwn in terras, quod omne fulmen de acre cadit. And because many lightning bolts fall on the Island of Lemnos the story arose that it was there that Vulcanus fell. His lameness the physici explained, quia per naturam numquam rectus est ignis. They also explained that his shops were located between Aetna and Liparis on account of the fire and winds, both of which are advantageous to smiths. Vulcanus was also called Mulciber (VIII 724) : ab eo quod totum ignis permulcet; aut quod ipse mulcatus pedes sit, sicut quibusdam videtur: quod igni mulceatur. MINERVA.. (PALLAS-ATHENE). Minerva was originally an Etruscan goddess of practical wis- dom. She was the patron of handicrafts. The workman's skill was due- to her. Before she appeared at Rome she had come to be identified with Pallas-Athene, the favorite daughter of Zeus, and it is from that identification that she was revered as a war goddess. That the legends and myths must have been very well known is clear from the fact that Servius does not say anything so far as I have found concerning the origin of Athene in full armor from the head of Zeus ; though, doubtless, this is one of the very rirst things any school-boy would be apt to learn. Minerva never married, but always maintained her virginity (1131). Like Pallas-Athene, she was a war goddess as well as the pa- tron of wool-working (VII\805). She was called Tritonia virgo (XI 483; II i71). Tritonia aat quasi terribilis, dbto tou tqeiv, id est timer e, ant a Tritone amne Boetiae, aut a Tritonide palude Africae, iuxta quam nata dicitur sane 'Tritonia' autonomasivum est. quia proprium est Minervae. Her name, Pallas- Athene, is f rom ujto xov JtdUeiv id est hastae concussione ; vel quod Pallantem gigantem occiderit. There are two legends only which Servius gives with fullness, the first that of the Palladium (II 166). This was of special import to the Romans, as it had been proph esied that their empire would stand so long as they were in pos- session of the sacred image. Helenas a pud Arisbam coptus a Graecis est, indicavit co- actus fata Troiana, in quibus ctiam de Palladio. unde dicitur a Pyrrho regna mcruisse : quamquam praestiterit Pyrrho ut per terram rediret, dicens omnes Graccos, quod ct contigit, nau- fragio esse perituros. alii dicunt Helcnum non captum, sed do- lore quod post mortem Paridis Helena iudicio Priami non sibi, sed Dciphobo csset adiudicata, in Idam montcm fugisse, atque exinde monente Calchante productum de Palladio pro odio pro- didisse.. tunc Diomcdcs ct Ulixes, ut alii dicunt, cuniculis, ut alii, chads ascendcrunt arcetn, ct occisis custodibus susUdere simu- lacrum, qui cum revertercntur ad naves UHxes ut sui tanturti opc- ris vidcretur effectus, voluit scquens occidere Diomedcm: cuius ille conatum cum ad umbram lunac notassct, rcligatum prac se usque ad castra Graecorum egit. ideo autem hoc negotiurn his potissimum datur quia cultorcs fucrunt Minervae. hoc cum pos- tea Diomedes habcret, ut quidam dicunt : quod ct Vcrgilius ea parte tangit, ct Varro plenissiuic dicit: crcdens sibi non esse ap- tum, propter sua pcricula, quibus numquam cariturum responsis cognovcrai, nisi Troianis Palladium reddidissct, transcunti per Galabriam Aeneae offerre couatus est. . . Upon his attempt to give the image to Aeneas, by a pcculiar mistake Nautes, and not Aeneas, received it. Hence the Sacra of Minerva were not, as might have been expected, in the care of the Julian house, but of that of the Nautii. Others say that this story is not the true one, but that the Pal ladium was hidden within a wall which the Trojans constructed for that purpose when they saw that their city was doomed In .23 ihe second Mithndatic war the Roman commander, Fimbria, claimed to have found it, and which Servius says, it is sure, was brought to Rome. To prevent its theft, an artisan was brought in who made many images like it, but the genuine could be known from the power of motion possessed by the eyes and its spear. Genuine author- ities insist that there was only one Palladium originally possessed by Athens : dicunt sane alii, unum simulacrum caelo lapsum (quod nubibus advectum et in ponte depositum) apud Athenas tantum fuisse, unde et yzyvQwxrfe dicta est. ex qua etiam causa pontifices nuncupatos volunt ; quamvis quidam pontificcs a ponte sublicio, qui primus Tybri impositus est, appellatos tradunt, sicut Saliorum carmina loquuntur. sed hoc Atheniense Palladium a veteribus Troianis Ilium translatum. Others say there were two Palladia : this one of which Ser- vius has narrated the story, and the other the Athenian. Others say that when Ilium by Ilus was founded, the Trojan image fell from heaven ; others, that it was transferred by Dar- danus from Samothrace to Troy ; and still others say that there were many Palladia, but that this one was carried off by Diomede and Ulysses through their theft. For this theft and the sacrilege connected with it in the murder of her priests, Minerva became very angry with the Greeks. She is also said to have been wrathful with them on account of the violation of her seeress Cassandra or because when they became victorious, the Greeks, through their pride, had neglected to offer her the worship due (I 4i ; XI 259). Indeed, for the violation of Cassandra she required that a maiden of noble birth should be sent yearly to Ilium as a sacri- fice to herself from the kingdom and very tribe of Ajax, who had been guilty of the foul deed. Minerva, according to many authorities, had the power to hurl the thunderbolt (I 42), as well as Jove and Juno. The second rather full account is that of the naming of Athens trom the fact that Athena in competition with Neptune was adjudged to have made the better gift in the olive, than her op- ponent who had produced the horse (VIII 128). Then follows an explanation for the offering of the olive-branch, as indicating a desire for peace, or as a complete avowal of the superiority of one's opponent in a contest All this, however, need not take our time here 24 MARS (ARES). It seems remarkable that Servius has no more to say of this deity who was so important in the Roman pantheon Mars was the great war-god of the Romans, and also the pro- tector of the nation against other misfortunes, as against tht injury to crops through rust, etc. He was later identified with the Greek Ares, though he was of much greater importance in the Roman than was that deity in the Greek religion. His importance to the Roman cultus can be seen when we re- flect that it was from him that they drew their national existence : He was the Father of the Roman People. In VI 777 Servius gives the legend: Amulius et Numitor fratres fucrunt. sed Numitorem regno Am-ulius pepulit et Warn ejus filiam, sacerdotem Vestae fecit, de hac et Marte nati sunt Renins et Romulus, and, as we know, the latter became the founder of the Roman State. Ennius, according to Servius, declares that Ilia was the daugh- ter of Aeneas, and so the Romans become descendants of Venus, Aeneas' mother by Anchises. The identification of Mars and the Greek Ares is seen in the legends of the battle of the Lapithae with the Centauri through the jealousy of Mars (VII 304) and the tale of the amour of Mars (Ares) and Venus (VI 14). Among epithets of Mars we have the well-known pater grad ivus (III 35): "gradiinim 0oi5oov v Aor|a, id est exilientem tn proelia, quod in bellantibus sit necesse est: aut gravem deum. patrem autem ideo quia apud pontifices Mars pater dicitur : alii 'gradivum,' quod graduni inferant qui pugnant; aut quod impigre gradiantur. alii a graditudine, quod hue et illuc gradiatur; unde Martem cotn- munem dici. Here immediately follows another illustration of the tendency to theocrasia .... non nulli eundem Solcm et Vulcanum dicunt, sed Vulcanum generis esse omnis principem, Martem vero Romanae tantum stirpis auctorem. alii gradivum, quia numquam equester ; aut a gradu dictum. I have quoted at length to illustrate Servius' care to give us an exhaustive treatment of what he must have felt to be a matter of considerable importance, touching, as it does, upon the special deity of the Roman people. 25 Servius identifies Mars and Quirinus, though they seem to have been originally two different deities (VI 959), but even here there seems to be distinction drawn between the Mars worshipped in the city precincts and the Mars whose temple was outside the walls: Quirinus autem est Mars, qui praeest pad et intra civitatetn templum habuit. Mars was called "bloody" : sanguineus Mavors gaudens san- guine, aiuoyaQT)g. (XII 332). The name Quirinus is uncertain as to its derivation. Servius says (I 292) : Romulus autem ideo Quirinus dictus est, vel quod hasta ute- batur, quae Sabinorum, lingua curis dicitur .... vel a Koioavog qui Graece rex dicitur. Also again the explanation of the epithet "gradivus" : Mars enim cum saevit Gradivus dicitur, cum tranquillus est Quirinus. (See above ) The matter of the two temples is then stated, with the assertion that that of the "belli Mars" was on the Appian way outside the city and near the gate. While Mars proper was the father of Romulus, Quirinus was actually the deified Romulus, according to Servius, though, as I have said above, Servius calls both Mars. VENUS v APHRODITE). In Rome at first Venus was the goddess of vegetation, but la- ter received the characteristics of the Greek Aphrodite and be- came the goddess of love. As Venus Verticordia she was wor- shipped as the protector of the family, though she was, as in Greece, the patron of free love also. Julius Caesar erected the temple of Venus Genetrix and established games in her honor, since she was the author of the Iulian gens, having been the mother of Aeneas by Anchises, and so the ancestor of the Roman People. In V 801 Servius tells the story of her birth from the foam of the sea : et ut fcrt fabula, Caelus pater fuit Saturni, cui cum iratus filius falce virilia amputavit, delapsa in mare sunt; de quo- rum cruore et maris spuma nata dicitur Venus; unde et Aphro- dite dicitur cbto xov aepgov Here follows the explanation of the physici : "sed hoc habet ratio : omnes vires usu venerio debilitantur, qui 26 sine corporis danino nun geritur: wide fingitur Venus nata per damnum; de mari an tern idco, quia dicunt physici sudor em s-al sum esse, quern sniper elicit coitus. EPITHETS OF VENUS. (1 720) Acidalia Venus dicitur vcl quia inicit euros quas Gracci aavbag dicunt, vcl certe a fonte Acida- lio qui est in Orchomeno Boeotiae civitate, in quo se Gratiae la- vant, quas Vencri esse constat sacratas; ipsius mini et Liber i fi 1 sunt: nee immerito; gratiae enim per horum fere numinum tnu- nera concdiantur. idco autem nudae sunt quod gratiae sine fuel esse debent, idco concxae, quia insolubiles esse gratias deed, etc. Sane Vencri multa nomina pro locis vcl causis dicuntur iuiposita nam Vcncrem vocari quidam propter promptam veniam dicunt. AliiSuadam appellant, quod ipsa conciliatio Suada sit. dicitur etiam Obsequens Venus, quam Fabius Gurgcs post per actum bcllum Samniticum ideo hoc numine consccravit, quod sibi fucrit obse- cuta : lianc Itali postvotam dicunt. Dicta est etiam Equcster Venus, dicta el Cloacina, quia veteres cloare purgare dixeruni dicitur et Myrica et Myrtca et Purpurissa. csi ct Erycina, quam Aeneas sccum advexit. dicitur et Salacia, quae proprie mcre- tricum dea appcllata est veteribus, et Lubcntina, quae lubentiam mentibus novam pracstat, quamvis alii hanc Lubiam dicant, quod eo numine consilia in medullas labantur, alii Mimnerniam vet Mcminiam dicunt, quod meminerit omnium. est ct Vcrticordio, est ct Militaris Venus, est ct Limncsia quae portubus praeest. ipsa et Victrix et Genetrix ex Caesaris somnio sacrata. est et Venus Calva ob hanc causam, quod cum Galli Capitolium obsidcroit ct decsscnt funcs Romanis ad torment a facienda, prima Domitia crincm suum, post ccterac matronae imitatae cam exsecucrunt, wide facta tormenta, et post belhim statua Vencri hoc nomine collocata est, licet alii Calvam Venercm quasi puram tradant, alii Calvam, quod corda amantum calviat. id est fallat atquc cludat. quidam dicunt porriginc olim capillos cecidisse feminis et Ancum regem suae uxori statuam calvam posuisse, quod const itit piaculo; nam post omnibus feminis ca- pilli renati sunt, unde institutuni, ut Calva Venus colcrefur. apud Cyprios Venus in modum umbilici, vcl ut quidam volunt, mctae colitur. apud Ephcsios Vcncrem Automatam dixcrunt, vcl E.pi- daetiam. RATIO autem horum nominum talis est. Mcliboea ct Alexis amore sc mutuo dilcxcrunt ct iuramento se adstrinv erunt, ut cum tempus nuptiarum vcuisset sibimct iungcrcnlur . sed cum virgincm parentes sui alii despondissent et line Al- 27 exus vidisset, spontaneum subiit exilium. vxrgo autem ipso nuptiarum die semet de tecto praecipitavit : quae, cum inlaesa decidisset, in fugam conversa pervenit ad litus ibique scapham ascendit, ex qua sponte Junes soluti esse dicuntur. voluntate ita- que deorum pervectc est ubi amator morabatur: quam cum Me parans cum sodalibus convivium suscepisset, pro ipso rei eventu templum constituit. quod ergo sponte fuissent (funes) soluti, Automatae Veneri nomen sacravit, quodque cum epulas pararet virgo ei aquis fuisset advecta, Epidaetiae sacravit. She is called "laeta" probably because Paphos, in which she specially delighted was always of serene sky and without rains (I 415) Rosea was also a perpetual epithet of the goddess (II 593) She is called Dionian mother, referring to the other story of her birth as given by Homer, viz., that she was the child of Zeus and ')ione (III 19) The myrtle was sacred to Venus (V 72). Myrrha, Cinyrae filia, cum adamasset patrem et eius se stupro nocturnis horis cap- tata ebrietate paterna subiecisset gravidaque de eo esse facta prodito incesto cum patrem inscquentem se stricto gladio fugeret, in arborcm versa est : quae cum infantem, quern intra uterum ha- bucrat, etiam in cortice retinerct, percussa, ut quidam volunt, a patris gladio, ut quidam, ab apro, parvulum edidit, quern educa- tum Nymphae Adonem appellaverunt. hunc Venus vehementissi- me dilexit, et cum ira Martis ab apro esset occisus sanguinem eius vertit in florem, qui numquam vento decuti dicitur. aborcm quo- que niyrtum, ex qua puer natus fucrat, tutelae suae adscripsit: quamvis alii dicant, ideo myrtum Veneri dicatum, quia cum e mari exisset ne nuda conspicerctur, conlatuit in myrto, vel quia fragilis est arbor ipsa, ut amor inconstans, vel quia iucundi odoris, ut e sic positae quoniam suavis miscetis odores! We may note here once more Servius' pains to give the various interpretations, while withholding any decision ; probably because he felt that none was possible. Venus is represented as the wife of Vulcan (Hephaestos) VIII 389, and the Ratio, according to the physici is given: adludit ad rem naturalem; namque ideo Vulcanus maritus fingi- tur Veneris, quod Venerium officium non nisi colore consistit. [n VI i4, we have narrated the story of the adultery of Venus and Mars, which was revealed to the other gods through the Sun, while Vulcan bound them, unconscious of what was going on, 28 with very tine chains. Because of this act of Sol, Venus pursued his offspring with insane loves. Then follows the account of Pasiphae and the bull, with the consequent birth of Minotaurus and the deeds of Daedalus and Theseus, which grew out of the madness of Pasiphae. (See Daedalus and Theseus.) MERCURY.. (HERMES). The Roman Mercury was not so varied in his powers as was the Greek Hermes. He remained the god of trade, to whom prayers and incense were offered by those who sought success in traffic. He was worshipped by a guild of merchants who had charge of his service, and were appointed by the state. Servius, of course, does bring in some things which properly belong to the Greek Hermes, revealing the later identification of the two deities. The legend is very fully set forth by him in VIII 138. Mercury was the son of Jupiter and Maia, one of the pleiades, the originator of eloquence and the lyre, the messenger of the gods. He was the inventor of the game called palaestra. (A full ac count is given, and it was from anger aroused by his part in that incident, that he lost his hands through the brothers of his be- loved Palaestra, and so received the name Cyllenius from Y.uXkbq which term the Greeks gave to any one mutilated in a part of the body. The term Hermes is thus explained: wide ctiam her- nias vocamus quosdam stimulus in modum signorum sine mani- bus. Mercury is thus explained : Alii Mercurium quasi Mcdicurri- um a Latinis dictum volunt, quod inter coelurn et inferos semper intercurrat. hie ctiam mcrcimonii dcus est. Aetiological explanation of his winged hat and sandals: quidam hunc in petaso et in pedibus pinnas habere volunt propter orati- onis, cuius auctor est, velocitatem. THE CADUCEUS: What it was and its rationale. caduceum illi ideo adsignatur, quod fide media hostes in amx- citiatn conducat : quae virga ideo serpentibus iuligata est, ut st- rut illi obliti vencni sui in sc cocunt, ita hostes contemptis et de- positis ininiicitiis in amicitiam revcrtantur. Mercury was born near Mount Cyllenc in \rcadia, and his birth was very rapid (AMI 139). 29 Servius here refers to the exegesis of the physici. Speaking of his quick birth, he says : spectat etiam ad rationem physicam nam celer est ubique Mer curias, ut diximus supra (IV 239) et ideo dicit eum etiam in ortu faisse volucrem. In IV 239 Servius gives another reason for Mercury's wings and again from the standpoint of the physici: Mercurius ideo di- citur habere pennas quia citius ab omnibus planetis in ortum suum currit. In IV 242 Servius gives a little further account of the cadu- ceus, which it is worth while to incorporate here. He also in- corporates a different interpretation of the name Hermes to that cited above : Caduceum quod primum Apollo habuit et donavit Mcrcurio, accepta ab eodem lyra sibi tradita. huius ant em virgae haec ratio est. Mercurius et orationts deus dicitur et inter pres deorum : unde vinga serpentes dividit, id est venena : nam serpcn- tcs ideo introrsum spactantia capita habent, ut significent inter se legatos colloqui et convenire debere, quia bellantcs inter pretum oratione sedantur: unde secundum Livium legati pads caducea- tores dicuntur: sicut enim per fetiales, a foedere, bella indice- bantur, ita pax per caduceatores fiebat. quibus caduceis duo mala adduntur, unum Solis, aliud Lunae. sane de ipsis serpe ntibus haec opinio est Mercurius* haec tarn fera animalia con- cordent, nos quoque concordare debere. *The text is corrupt. DERIVATION OF NAME HERMES. Hermes autem Graece dicitur obto rrjg eQ^rrvEiag. Latine interpres. There were more Mercuries than one (cf. I 297), according :o Cicero. Some said there were four: a son of Jove and Maia; an- other of Coelus and Dies; a third of Liber and Proserpina, and a fourth of Jove and Cyllene, by whom the Argus was slain, and who, they say, as an exile from Greece on this account, taught letters to the Egyptians. Mercury in the Etruscan tongue was called Camillus 'quasi minister deorum.' (XI 558.) VESTA (HESTIA). She was the goddess of the hearth, the spirit of the fire and. with the penates, represented the spiritual side of the family's prosperity. She was thus the centre of family worship, as the hearth was the place where food was prepared and sacrifice of - 30 tered The city had its hearth, also, in the little Aedes Vestae. Here the sacred fire was ever kept burning and proper reverence paid the goddess on behalf of the state by the Vestal virgins. Once a year the holy fire was renewed in the primitive mod- by friction I 292. Vesta says Servius was invoked, as was lanus, in all sacrifices, because none could take place without fire, of which she was the spirit. DERIVATION. Vesta was derived from eaxia ut di- gammos sit cdjecta, sicut fjo ver, 'Evexog Venetus, vel quod variis vestita sil r-cbus. ipsa enim esse dicitur terra, quam ignem habere non dubium est, ut ex Aetna Vulcanoque et aliis locis ard- dentibus datur intellcgi. In II 296 Servius calls her the goddess of fire. Others de- rive the etymology from vi and stare, because Vesta is the earth which poised in the midst of the universe (mundus), maintains its position (stet) by its own power (via sua) and contains fire within itself. It would appear that while she accompanies the penates she is not counted as one of them, they being Jove, Juno and Minerva. Vesta was called white (cana), either because she was conceived as very old or because of the color of the ashes of the hearth (V 744) 31 CHAPTER V. SATURNUS (CRONUS). Saturnus was one of the great gods of early Italy, so great, indeed, that Italy was sometimes called Saturnia. He was the deity who presided over the sowing and the harvest, and so was represented with a sickle. His origin we shall let Servius set forth. He taught the people the blessings of humane life, and his was the golden age of freedom from severe toil and sin. His great festival was the Saturnalia, when, for a few days in December, there was a joyous holiday which seemed to recall the age of Saturn. Slaves were permitted their freedom and were even served at table by their masters. This season of good cheer came December seventeenth. Later on, he was identified with the Greek Cronus, and the original conception of him was somewhat changed, though he always persisted as a genuine Italian deity. In VIII 319 Servius gives an euhemeristic explanation of the origin of Saturn : nam Saturnus rex fuit Cretae, quern Iuppiter Filius hello pepulit. hie fugiens ab Iano rege, qui urbem habuit, ubi nunc Ianicahim, est susceptus, qui regnabat in Italia. In return for this kindness we are told, quern cunt docuisset usum vinearum et falcis et humaniorem victum, in partem est admissus imperii et sibi oppidum fecit sub clivo Capitolino, ubi nunc eius aedes videtur. qui postea suum repetivit imperium. Hence arose the Saturnalia : ex hoc et Saturnalia, ut essent memoralia vitae quam Saturnus docnerat : qua die simili et per- miscuo victu utuntur servi et liberi. ideo autem in aede ipsius Saturni aerarium, quod ibi potissimum pecunia servaretur. eo quod illi maxime credatur. The Saturnian age was not, however, without its laws, for Sat- urn was conceived as a lawgiver (VIII 322). In this same pas- sage he is identified with the Greek Cronus, who devoured his children. Upon his driving out by Jove, he fled to Italy and lay hidden (latuit) from his son, whence Latium received its name. In VII 180 we have the contrary to the elevation of men to the position of gods, viz., the deliberate assumption of divine names by men. So Servius says that Saturn assumed the name of the deity as King of Italy and that ancient kings did this gen- erally. Thus the tomb of a King by the name of Jove was shown in Crete (Euhemerus). 32 I cannot resist a reference or two to explanations of Saturnus which Servius makes in annotation of the Georgics. fn G [[ 406 he has the legend of the use of the sickle in tin- amputations of the genitals of his father Caelus and the conse- quent production of Venus from the combination of his blood and the foam of the sea, which he expounds according to the physici quod ideo fingitur, quia nisi umor de caclo in terras descenderit . nihil creatar. Others explain Saturnus as the god of the seasons (temporum) or perhaps of times in the larger sense of cycles, and make the sickle the symbol of this meaning because, even as the seasons. it is always turning back upon itself. In G III 93 we have the myth of the origin of Chiron the Cen- taur who was the son of Saturn by an illicit amour. SILVAN US. He was also a god of the woods, as his name implies, a kindly spirit protecting the peasant's flocks from wolves the deity of the peasant's farm which he had reclaimed from the forest. Servius says little about him. In VIII 601 he calls him dens pecorum et agrorum. But adds that the more philosophical interpreters make him a god of matter: essevhv.bv 0f6v, hoc est dcum vh}<;. vht\ antem est faex elementorum, id est ignis sordidior et aer, item aqua ct terra sordidior, unde cuncta procreantur, quam uXnv Latini materiam appellaverunt ; nee incongrue, cum materiae silvarum sint. ergo quod Gracci a toto, hoc Latini a parte dixerunt BONA DEA (Ops, Terra, Rhea, Maia). In VIII 314 the god dess Bona Dea is identified with Fauna, who here is conceived is the daughter of Faunus and whose name it was not lawful to pronounce. H'ence she was spoken of as Bona Dea. Later she was identified with other female deities, as with Ops and Maia, for example. Ops, according to XI 532, is the same as Terra, the wife of Saturnus, whom the Greeks called Rhea. Others identify her with Diana. All Servius tells us of Maia is that she was mother of Mercu rius, one of the daughters of Atlas, and one of the Pleiades (VIII 138) This goddess is involved in much mystery. Wissowa thinks that some Greek cult later imposed threw the original worship in the shade. Warde Fowler, in his Roman Festivals, says that Bona Dea was "at one time . a protective deity of the female wx, the earth Mother (cf Terra Rhea), a kindly and 33 helpful but shy and unknowable deity of fertility " In her great December Festival, men were not allowed, their portraits being veiled. Her offering was a young sow. FAUNUS. Faunus was a spirit of the woods and hills. He lent fertility to the fields and made the flocks productive. As Lupercus, he protected them from the wolves, and from this side of his char- acter the Lupercalia arose. He was also a god of prophecy (Fatuus). His wife was Fau- na or Bona Dea (q. v.), although Servius calls her his daughter He is one of the few remaining elements in the Roman relig- ion which was really Italic in origin, and remained such for the most part, though later he was in certain respects closely related to the Greek Pan. Servius dwells almost entirely on his function as foreteller of the future. Thus in VII 81 : Faunus and xr\<; qxovfjg dictus quod voce non signis ostendit futura. VII 47: (Faunus) quidam deus est Faticulus. huius uxor est Fatua. idem Faunus et eadem Fauna a vaticinando , id est fando, wide et fatuos dicimus inconsiderate loquentes. In VIII 314 the same facts are given, with the addition that the Bona Dea, so called because it had been prohibited to utter her real name, was a daughter of Faunus, who was himself son of Picus. He was only one of a race of Fauni, so named because per stuporem divina pronuntient. There is also another derivation of the word as if from 'favens quidam Faunum appcllatum volunt eum quern nos propitium dic- imus. The Fauni inhabited the groves, and were called indi- genae, Greek oartoxflovEC. id est inde geniti. The Lupercalia, in February, are connected with his worship. So Ovid Fasti II 268; 101. Servius' explanation of this strange survival from a very early time accords with this of Ovid, that it was a festival sacred to the Lycian Pan, who was identified with Faunus, the god of Evander who implored the help of that deity against the wolf, the preda- tory enemy of the flock (VIII 343). By others, Pan Enualios was thought of as a war god, and by still others he was identified with Father Liber, because sacrifice to both deities was made by the immolation of a goat. 34 That Faunus and Pan are one is perfectly clear from Ovid Fasti II 424 or (53) : F annus in Arcadia templa Lycaeus habet. In VIII 663 we are told that the Lupercalia were celebrated in honor of Pan because the Romans (in 343 Romulus and Remus) had regained their flocks when they were being carried off by robbers, having first thrown aside their garments. Thus the Lupercalia were celebrated by nude (in the Roman sense) men, since without their garments they had overtaken the robbers, slain them and recovered their sheep. Pan, being the deus pasto- ralis, had doubtless given them success in their undertaking. Perhaps we ought to say that there was still another explana- tion which it is hard to connect with the worship of Faunus un- less it was thought that as a spirit of fertility he might have some good offices in that case also ; namely, that the Lupercalia were in- stituted with a view to removing the sterility of the women : ideoque et puella de loro capri caeduntnr, ut care ant stcrilitate et fecundae sint, nam pellem ipsam capri veieres februm vocabant [II 343). BACCHUS (LIBER). In Italy, Liber was identified with the Greek Dionysos or Bac- chus, who was a god of the vine and of vegetation, and whose ex- periences on earth were symbolical of the alternate growth and death of vegetation. The Romans not only conceived him as the god of wine but also, as in the Libcralia, associated with Libera in the giving of children. I now proceed to set forth what Servius has to say of this deity. He has the epithet, "Giver of joy ,"dator laetitiae, because of the happy effects of wine (I 734). Also, Pater Lyaeus, quod nimio vino membra solvantur (I\ 58). Servius gives the etymology as djto xov ?.veiv. Liber was especially invoked by free cities, and those cities, as a mark of their status, erected a statue of Marsyas, the minis ter of Bacchus, on their forums (IV 58; III 120). Bacchus was among the deities who were esteemed opposed to lawful wedlock, in his case because he rejoiced in free love, espe- cially among the Bacchae, and was unable to have association with any unless he had first made them an object of his violent cap- ture (TV 58) 35 ' His sacra were called orgia, the common name for sacra among the Greeks as was caeremoniae among the Latins. They were celebrated every three years. The term was derived djto xfjc 6qy% {furoris) or cbio tcov oqcoov montibus and in the case of Liber was used "abusive," says Servius. Servius declares in XI 737, that among the ancients the ludi theatrales were not held except in honor of Father Liber. By the Stoics, Liber was considered only a personification of the power of the One Supreme Deity, thus again bearing witness to the "theocrasia," which was so evident in Servius' time as an inheritance through the Alexandrine school from the earlier Sto- ics. IV 638. et sciendum Stoicos dicere unum esse deum, cui nomina variantur pro actibus et officiis. unde etiam daplicis sexus nu- mina esse dicuntur, ut cum in actu sunt, mares sint; feminae, cum patiendi habent naturam; unde est conjugis in gremium lae- tae descendit. ab actibus autem vocantur, ut 'luppiter' invans pa- ter; Mercurius quod mercibus praeest; 'Liber' a libcrtate. There is yet another epithet of Liber which should be noticed, viz., Lenaeus ; nam Liber Lenaeus dicitur (IV 207), quia torcu- lis praeest, qui et Graecc ?.nvo! dicuntur; nam cum sit Graecum. a mentis delenimento non potest accipi. This last is a fine illustration of Servius' great care not to con- fuse Latin and Greek in making his derivatives. AMOR, CUPIDO (EROS). The Roman Amor or Cupido is really the Greek Eros. The latter was represented as accompanying Aphrodite, first con- ceived as a youth, then as a boy and last as a baby. He executed the commands of Aphrodite as did Cupid those of Venus. He carried either a lyre or bow and arrows. The re- lation of the passion of love to the soul is beautifully set forth in the story of Cupid and Psyche. Servius refers but little to Cupid. In I 663-664, he says : La- tini deum ipsum 'Cupidinem' vocant hoc quod facit 'amorem.' sed hie imitatus est Graecos, qui uno nomine utrumque signifi- cant; nam Amorem dixit deum: sed discrevit epitheto. sane nu- men hac rationc non caret, nam quia turpitudinis est stvlta cu- piditas, puer pingitur, ut : inter quas curam Clymene narrabat inancm, id est amorem, item quia imperfectus est in amantibus sermo, sicut in puero, ut 'incipit effari mediaque in voce resistit 36 alatus autem ideu est, quia amantibus nee levins aliquid nee mu tabilius invenitur, ut in ipsa probatur Didonc ; nam de cius inter itu cogitat, cuius paulo ante more deperibat, ut 'nan potui abrep- tum divellere corpus.' Sagiltas vcro ideo gestarc dicitur, quia et ips.ic inccrtae velocesque sunt, et haec ratio paenc in omnibus aliis numinibus pro potestatum qualitate formatur. We note here the clear symbolism of the philosophical inter- pretation of the myth, even in the detailed attention to the vari- ous matters of size and equipment of the love god, i.e., he v. represented as a boy who could hardly speak without hesitancy because lovers say little and then not very connectedly ; he was winged, because love is ever ready to take its flight elsewhere , with bow and arrows, because, like love, they were swift and un certain in their destination. I 664. Cupid was the "strength of Venus," either because the sexual desire cannot be exercised without love, or, according to Simonidcs, because Cupid was born only from Venus. Then, in his usual thorough-going fashion, Servius gives the different accounts of the origin of Love: although others say he was sprung from Mars and Venus, others from Vulcan and Venus, and yet others that he was the son of Chaos and the origi- nal universe (primac rerum naturae). In this connection Servius mentions the existence of Anteros (IV 520) 'Avtf.qcotci invocat, contrarium Cupidini, qui amo- rcs resolvit, aut certe cui curac est iniquus amor, sccilicct ut in plicct non amantem: amatoribus praecsee dicuntur 'Av-riococ;, AuoEQCog. IANUS [anus was the only one of the great gods who maintained his own character without addition from Greek myth. In his "Religious Experience of the Roman People," W Warde Fowler takes the position that to the later Romans he was not an intelligible deity. So modern scholars have interpreted him in different ways,— as sun-god, heaven-god, universe-god, wind-god. Fowler seems to distrust the old etymologies; but is inclined to the view that, as the original numen of the city gate, he became the god of beginnings in general. So he was worshipped as Pater Matutinus in the early morning, on the Kalends of each month, and on the first of January. 37 In all prayers and invocations he was named first as was Vesta last. His blessing was sought before important events or under- takings, e.g., before harvest, marriage* or birth. Fairbanks connects his name with iamiae and iani, and names Cardea (cardo, hinge) as his wife. His most important worship was on the Forum and under the care of the Rex Sacrorum. His little house had two doors, one at each end, and within, in later times, the statue with its two faces. He was associated with war in that this "house" had its doors open in time of war, closed only when the nation was at peace. Servius tells us the etymologies of the name Ianus which he knew (VII 610) : quidam Ianum Eanum dicunt ab eundo ; and they identify him with Mars; eumque esse Martem. As we said above, he was always invoked first, the reason for which seems to lie in this identification with Mars : et quod apud Roman os plurimwm potest (i.e., Mars) ideo primum in venera- tione nominari. IANUS as the air ; alii Ianum aerem credunt; et quia vocis genitor habeatur, idcirco mandari ei preces nostras ad deos perfe- r en-das. (Would this perhaps explain his being first invoked?) Ianus as the world : alii Ianum mundum accipiunt, cuius caulae ideo in pace clausae sunt, quod mundus undique clausus est, belli tempore aperiuntur, ad auxilium petendum ut pateant. IANUS CLUSIVIUS et P AT U LCI US : alii Clusivium di- cunt, alii Patulcium, quod patendarum portarum habeat potesta- tem. [ANUS IUNONIUS : idem Iunonius; inde pulchre Iuno portas apcrire inducitur. IANUS QUIRINUS: idem Quirinus, wide trabeatum consu- 1cm apcrire portas dicunt eo habitu quo Quirinus fuit. Ianus was represented either as two or four faced (VII 607). At the fall of Falerii an image of the deity with four faces was discovered. It was brought to Rome at the order of Numa and a temple near the forum transitorium with four gates was erected for its reception. The two-faced Ianus was explained from the fact that the day is marked by two special events, — the rising and the setting of the sun, and hence he was called the "lord of day." He was represented with four faces as the lord of the whole year, which is certainly divided into four seasons. 38 That he was conceived of as god of the year, Servius says is clear because from him the first part of the year is named ; nam a lano Ianuarius dictus est. In XII 198 we have still another explanation of the two faces of the god: namque postquam Romulus et Titus Tatius in foe- dcra convenerunt, lano simulacrum duplicis fronds effectum est quasi ad imagincm duorum populorum. In this same passage we are told that it was a function of Ianus to preside over treatises in their making: Ianum quoque rite in vocat quia ipse faciendis focderibus praecst. The coinage bore on one side the head of the deity, on the other the imprint of a ship; because he had come to the Janiculum, where he had his city, as an exile and in a single ship We are told further in VIII 319 that lanus lived on this hill and that here he received Saturnus (q.v.) and from him as king received the instruction in the arts of humane living, for which Saturn was always remembered with gratitude by the Roman people. These last two references are a fine example of the euhe- meristic exegesis of the myth. JUTURNA: She was a nymph of healing, to whom Lutatius Catulus first built a temple on the campus Martius (XII 139). Her name was derived from "juvans," since she aided men by the healing waters of her spring near Numicum. She was the most important of the nymphs who possessed healing powers. ATLAS. He was the great Titan who bore the heaven upon his shoul- ders and who was generally located in the west. Some say that it was because he led the revolt against Zeus that he was punished with this endless task. In I 741 Servius gives an euhemeristic exegesis of the myth Hercules was a philosophus and was taught by Atlas, who was said to have received heaven as a burden and held it up because of his knowledge, of the heavens (astrology). Further, I [ercules was said to have slain so many monsters because of this knowledge of hitherto unknown facts. IV 246 relates that Atlas was a king who had somewhere in the neighborhood of the Aethiopians a fine apple orchard, in which were apples of gold watched by the Hespcrides and a sleepless dragon. Warned by Themis that a son of love should 39 one day gain possession of his fruit he refused to receive any one into hospitality lest he might prove the fated robber. At last Perseus came, a son of Jove, and on being refused hos- pitality turned Atlas into a mountain through the help of the Gor- gon's head, which turned to stone all who gazed upon it. In IV 484 Servius narrates the other story in which Hercules, not Perseus, gains the golden apples from the garden of the Hes- perides FURIAE (ERINYES, EUMENIDES). These were spirits of the lower world. In Homer they en- force natural law in depriving the horses of Achilles of human speech, or social law in guarding the rights of strangers and beg- gars, and particularly they defend the rights of the first born. Later poets conceive of them as spirits that avenge crimes of vi- olence and those against the family. Vergil introduces them into his poem, but Servius does not enter into any lengthy discussion of their character or functions. Their number became fixed to three, Tisiphone, Alecto and Me- gaera. In IV 469 Servius explains the reference to the Eumenides as though they were a large number coming on in troops, aut impe- tus aut secundum quosdam, quoniam habitus earum et sibila ser- pentium faciem agminis praebent : here we have a suggestion of their snaky locks ; vcl quia plures furiae putantur (according to the older idea) vel quia furiosis pro tribus plures videntur. VII 327, 331 the furies are called the daughters of night, and commenting upon Juno's appeal to Alecto Servius says it was the special office of the furies to stir up wars. VI 250 they are called Eumenides xaxd dvtiqpoaaiv cum sint immites. So VI 375. This last does not agree with the statement that the Eumeni- des were really kindly goddesses to those who were pure and good, and were so worshipped as Semnai, Potniai, and Eumeni- des. As avenging goddesses they were also called Dirae, VIII 701 XII 845 says they are called "dirae" because they only appear in the presence of Zeus when he is enraged 40 CYBELE She was the same as Rhea, Magna Mater Idaea, and was con ceived of as the mother of Zeus and other Olympian deities. Her home was among the mountains of Crete and there Zeus was born. She is interpreted as the earth-mother whence all life pro- ceeds. Zeus's grave was shown in Crete ; hence the myth has been made 'o stand for the birth and death of vegetation ; the wild orgies in honor of the goddess symbolizing the delirious joy of the people at the returning life of Spring, or of sadness at the decay of plant life in the winter. In III 111 Servius derives the name Cybele from a mountain in Phrygia where the goddess was worshipped. Others say that she was named from Cybelus her first priest in Phrygia, while still others say the name comes from v.v6ioxuv x\\v v.£($akr\v that is from the rotary movement of the head which was peculiar to her priests in her worship. In X 220 Cybele is declared to be the mother of the gods and the same derivation of her name as that above is given with this added : quod semper Galli, per furorem motu capitis rotantes. ululatu futura pronuntiabant : Lucanus (I 566) crinemque ro- tantes sanguinei populis ulularunt tristia Galli (cf. IX 81). Lucretius in his second book gives a very lively account of her worship in Italy through bands of roving priests. See also Ae- neid VI 784 IRIS Iris is the Rainbow, the messenger of the gods, the fitting symbol of the relation between heaven and earth, the light god and the lower world he rules. The swiftness of Iris is but a representation of the quickness with which the rainbow appears and disappears. In IV 694 Iris is dismissed from Olympus to ease the dying pains of Dido, by Hera (cf. Ill 46). In V 606 we are told that usually Iris is sent on some message of discord or strife, hence her name is derived from hhc So also and even more strongly in IX 2. Her epithet Thaumantias (IX 5) has two possible origins Either as the poets said, as daughter of Thaumas, or because of the wonder which the beauty of her colors excited Iris was also called roscida (exegesis of the physici I quia cum nubibus est. quae rort nan carcnt 41 The physici also explain her brilliant and various colors as due to the shining of the sun against the rainshower. Iris enim nisi e regione solis non fit, cid varios colores ilia dat res, quia aqua tenuis, aer lucidus et nubes caligantes inradiatd varios creant colores. PENATES. The Dii Penates appear to have been the spirits who guarded the food store of the family, and so the word is derived from penus, the stored-up food. The plural form has given rise to conjectures, some of which we shall note when we examine what Servius has to say of the pe- nates. Perhaps the suggestion of Warde Fowler that the spirits were represented in the plural number as representing the variety and multiplicity of kinds of food in the family storeroom, is as good as any modern suggestion. At first there were no simulacra, but later they were so imaged to the worshipper. The goddess Vesta was so intimately asso- ciated with them in the household worship that some have thought of her as of their number. The lares were generally named with the penates, and later on there seems to have arisen a confusion which practically identified the two sets of spirits. We turn to our examination of Servius. Servius says (I 378) that Vergil followed various opinions as to the penates. Some, as Nigidius and Labeo, say that the pena- tes of Aeneas were Neptune and Apollo. Varro, that the dii penates were certain little images of wood or marble carried by Aeneas into Italy. Varro also says- that Dardanus had brought these gods from Samothrace into Phrygia and thence Aeneas had transferred them to Rome. Others, as Cassius Hemina, say that the dii penates from Sa- mothrace were called 0eol ueycftoi. ©sol owcctoi. 0£ol iq^toy That Vesta was always worshipped in company with the pe- nates is stated so far as the public worship was concerned in 1 292, where we are further told that some say that the penates are those gods by whose aid we breathe deeply and have a body and possess a rational soul: that they are Iuppiter the middle air, Juno the lowest air with the earth, Minerva the topmost por-, tion of the aether. The worship of these deities Tarquinius son of Demaratus the Corinthian established in a single temple under 42 one roof. They were the great gods. And to them Mercury the messenger and interpreter of these deities was added This same identification of the great gods with Jupiter, Juno. Minerva and Mercurius is made at III 12; but here the identi- fication with the penates is denied by Servius, though affirmed by Varro, for he says that the magni dii were worshipped at Rome but the penates at Lanrolavinium, whence he says it is apparent that these two classes of gods are not one (unum). Varro and others, that the great gods were two images of Castor and Pollux in Samolhrace situated before the gate, to whom people saved from shipwreck paid their vows, alii deos macjnos Caelum ei Terrain putant ac per hoc lovem ct lunonem These among other reasons, were called magni, quod de La- vinio bis in locum suum rcdierint : quod imperatorcs in provin- cias ituri apud cos primum immolarint: quod eorum nomina nemo sciat: quod praesentissimi scntiantur ; nam cum ambae virgincs in templo dcorum Lavini siniul dormirent, ca quae mi- nus casta erat fulmine cxanimata alteram nihil sensissc. quos Romani penitus (possible derivation of penates?) in cultu ha- bent, quos nisi saccrdoti videre fas nulli sit, qui ideo penates* appcllantur, quod in pcnctralibus acdium coli soleant; nam et ipsum penetral penus (the modern derivation from penus, food store) dicitur, ut ho die quo que penus Vestae claudi vel apcriri dicitur. Servius tells us that each part of a dwelling was consecrated to a god, and the kitchen to the penates (IT 469) and that the hearth was the altar of the penates (XI 211). Furthermore he states that all the gods who were worshipped in the house were di penates (II 514). It would appear from these citations that Servius was not much clearer in his ideas of the origin of these gods than is the modern scholar. LARES. These spirits, like the penates, were involved in obscurity as to their origin. It used to be thought that they were the spirits of deceased ancestors who had to be propitiated to prevent their doing mischief. Of recent years this idea has lost hold and they are conceived to have been the spirits who protected the arable holding of the family, and were worshipped in small 43 buildings erected at the compita, where several estates met, and which were open to each estate so that each landholder could worship them on his own land. The Lar Familiaris was not originally a house deity, but ap- pears to have entered the house from the fields, possibly through the slaves who, since they ate in the same room with the master but at lower tables, would be desirous of seeing the deity of the field worshipped in company with the penates, the genuine house- hold gods. In later time the lares and penates were represented by small images, sometimes in the form of dancing youths. There were also public lares who guarded the public lands and had a temple where they were worshipped. Servius seems to favor the older view that the lares were connected with the worship of deceased ancestors (VI 154). omnes in suis domibns sepeliebantur, unde ortum est ut lares colerentur in domibus. Likewise he here differentiates between them and the penates : unde etiam umbras larvas vocamus a laribus, nam dii penates alii sunt. Strangely enough, in his note on V 64 Servius seems to make the penates also to have the same connection with the dead; sciendum quia etiam domi suae sepeliebantur, unde orta est con- sueiudo ut dii penates colantur in domibus. THE LOWER WORLD. Servius has comparatively little to say of the deities of the lower world. He identifies Orcus and Pluto, who is also the Stygian Iuppiter, and Pater Dis. As in the Greek so in the Roman conception Dis or Pluto was rhe god of the gloomy realms of the dead, and Persephone (Pro- serpina) was his wife, they occupying relatively the positions of love and Hera in the lower world, though they were never thought of as so vitally personal, but rather partook of that shad- owy unsubstantially which belonged to the dead. Yet there seems to have been a favorable side to Pluto, as he was conceived as the giver of wealth, the name Dis in the Latin possibly connected with dives, suggesting the same idea. Orcus, the more commonly mentioned god of death, was con- ceived of as. like Hades, the king of terrors, the fearful and 44 stealthy toe, always on track of his intended victim and ready to strike him down. And yet at times he too is the kindly god who brings men to rest after their earth toil and trouble. i'erhaps it will be well here to give what Servius has to say of the whole matter of the state of the dead. Orcus is Pluto (VI 273), and Pluto is Iuppiter Stygius (IV 638) ; another clear evidence of theocrasia (cf. Jupiter). In VI 127, according to the reasoning of the physici and with special reference to Lucretius the position is taken that there lower world but that the miseries portrayed take place in one's lifetime. I here can indeed be no infernal region such as was commonly believed in : nam locum ipsorum quern possumus diccre, cum sub ras esse dicantur antipodes? N T or does the solidity of the earth pernrt of the infernal region being within its center, nee xevtoov Tcrrae: quae si in medio mundi est, tanta eius esse profunditas non potest, ut medio sia bobcat inferos, in quibus esse dicitur Tartarus. Now for the exegesis of the physici : ergo hanc terrain in que. i limits inferos esse volucrunt, quia est omnium circulorum in- fima, planctarum scilicet septcm, Saturni, Iovis, Martis, Solis. Veneris, Mercurii, Lunae, ct duorum magnorum. The Styx is called novies, because novem circulis cingitw terra. The escape from the realm of shades is exceedineT difficult pal, ianua Ditis sed rcvocare gradam super.: vadere nd auras hoc opus hie labor est, and this Servius d is either said poetically, that is mythologically, or according the deep knowledge of the philosophers who held that the souls of those who live well in this life return to the upper > : re' that is to their place of origin, while those who live wickedly, for a long time tarry in bodies through various transnrgrations and always abide in the lower world The descent to Hades was at or rather through the Lake of Uernus (IV 512). This was doubtless chosen a- the place be cause of its death dealing vapor* ; even birr I mpting to fl) over Avernus wire destroyed: sane hie Incus nharuin den ntate sic ntur ut exhalaus inde per angustias aquae sul phureae odor gravissimus supervotantt unde ei .'- r tus est, quasi tioovoc,. *-\2 Later Julius Caesar, by cutting down the trees, rendered the region free from this pestilential vapor. The great stream of the lower world was the Styx, over which the terrible old ferryman Charon carried the souls in his skiff. Servius describes him as terribilis sqaaloris, and derives his name xatd dvTiqpQcxaiv quasi dxaiocov- (VI 299). The Styx itself was a tributary of Acheron which rose from the depths of Tartaros: from the Styx also arose Cocytos. This is mythology, but the physici have their own exegesis: nam physiologia hoc habet, quia qui caret gaudio sine dubio tristis est. tristitia autem vicina luctui est y qui procreatur ex morte: unde haec esse apud inferos dicit. VI 295 In VI 134 we have the Styx conceived of as a swamp. The gods did not dare to falsify when swearing by the Styx, because her daughter Victoria had aided Zeus in the war with the giants, in return for which the King of gods decreed that when the gods swore by her mother they should not dare to deceive. Again we have the explanation of the physici : Styx maerorem significat wide xov axvyegov, id est a tristitia Styx dicta est. dii autem laeU sunt semper: unde etiam immortales quia dqr&aoToi xal paxdoioi hoc est sine morte beati. hi ergo quia maerorem non sentiunt, mrant per rem suae naturae contrarium, id est tristitiam, quae est aeternitati contraria. ideo iusiurandum per execrationem ha- bent. The same exegesis appears again in VI 324. Souls of the unburied, that is the unwept, could not cross the Styx. Hence the throwing of even a little dust upon a corpse was deemed burial (VI 325). But after a hundred years flitting about the shore, they might cross the stream to the desired place of purgation that they might enter again into bodies. Here we arrive upon the consideration of Lethe, the stream whose waters bring oblivion, and the doctrine of the transmi- gration of souls which Servins derives from Plato (VI 703 ff.), This passage is an important elucidation of the doctrine men- tioned, that is of metempsychosis. Three points are made : that souls can return into bodies; that they ought to; and that they may wish to do so, — which Aeneas in the passage seems to have trouble in believing. It is at the last point that the Lethean stream plays its part, for drinking its waters souls forget their past life, and so become willing to re-enter bodies and begin over 46 again, the inference being that they would otherwise be unwilling to undergo the pains and sorrows of a reincarnation. The philosophers interpret Lethe to be an image of old a because the memory and the vital forces which have grown stronger from childhood up to a vigorous old age (znrentem), with a too extended old age weaken, and memory fails, on whose loss death intervenes and the soul passes into another I tody . whence it is that poets imagine that souls, having drunk of Lethe, return into the body. Mence Lethe is forgetfulne^s (oblivio), ever neighbor to death. In VI 713 we are told that not all souls suffer reincarnation, tor some, on account of their previous meritorious life, do not return into bodies ; some return because of an evil life and others by a necessity of fate. In VI 724 Servius goes into an elaborate discussion of the na- ture of the soul, showing why there is this tendency to return to bodies on the part of the souls that have entered the lower world. After treating of the origin of the soul, the different characteristics of souls as influenced by the confining bodies, the laying aside of the body in death, and the requisite purification from the taints which it received through contact with the body, that each soul might recover its own splendor {nitorem), Ser- vius very appropriately asks how a soul thus in possession of its original nature should become willing to undergo reincarnation, and finds the answer, as above, in the drinking of the waters of Lethe. I 1 have dwelt somewhat at length upon this passage, because it is worth a careful study by all who really wish to understand the conception of the soul which Servius held in common with others of his own school of thought.) The representation that souls are purged through the influence of air, fire and water, is interpreted to mean that in tin- course of metempsychosis the souls pass into bodies of creatures which live in the water, or since fire comes from the earth, on the land, or m the air. And the order is air, water and fire according to tin- degree of goodness attained by the soul in its previous life This is found in VI 741. In VI 743 the doctrine of the genius with which each man !-. born and under the influence of which he passes through life s set forth. One of these genii inclines us to the good, the othei to the evil, and in accordance with our obedience to one or the \7 other, we are after death assigned to a better or condemned to an inferior life. Through them we either win freedom (from reincarnation) or a return into a body. In VI 745 we have the doctrine that finally all souls come to be re-embodied, et quaeritur utrum animae per apotheosin, de qui- bus ait 'pauci laeta arva tenemus' possint mereri perpetuam va- cationem. quod non potest fieri : merentur enim temporis multi, non perpetuitatis, et quae male vixerunt statim redeunt, quae melius, tardius, quae optime, diutissimo tempore sunt cum numi- nibus. Paucae tamen sunt quae et ipsae exigent e ratione, licet tarde, coguntur reverti. This seems to harmonize with the the- ory of cycles, that the universe' is constantly renewed and falling into decay, so that everything which has happened occurs again when its proper cycle comes round. Tartarus (VI 135) was the Deep of the lower world (543), where the wicked were punished. It was so-called (577) vel quia omnia illici turbata sunt anb t% Taoax% aut, quod est melius dito xov TccQTaoi^Eiv id est a tremor e frig oris; sole enim caret From Tartarus, Acheron (295) took its rise. Elysium is the place where the pious dwell after the separa- tion of soul and body : ergo elysium ctjto t% KiGEGog ab solu- tions The poets placed it in the midst of the lower world ; but the philosiphi said that elysium was the blessed isles, and the theologi located it about the lunar circle, where the air is clearer (purior) (VI 404). Erebus was the place where the souls of the good were delayed until purification, for they could not enter Elysium until they had undergone cleansing. Erebus was also called the profunditas inferorum (IV 510). There was a strange notion that a sort of ghost double (simu- lacrum) of those heroes who had suffered apotheosis, e.g. Her- cules, abode in the lower world and could there be seen (VI 134). In VI 395, VIII 297, Cerberus, the horrible watchdog of the lower world, is explained by the physici as really the earth, which consumes the buried bodies : nam indc Cerberus dictus est quasi HQ£o66oog. Perhaps we have delayed too long on this subject but it seems an essential part of the treatment which deals with so vital a (heme as the life after death. 4S CHAPTER VI. HERCULES (HERACLES). The worship of the Greek god Heracles early appeared at Rome, where he had at first a shrine and later a temple. Travellers and merchants sought his protection and great gen- erals like Sulla dedicated to him a portion of their spoils as Hercules Victor. Our author gives much attention to this hero who was later deified. Hercules was the son of Zeus and Alcmena, the wife of Am phitryo, king of the Thebans, with whom Zeus had association in the absence of her husband on war duty. His half-brother, son of Amphitryo, was Iphitus (VIII 103). Juno .being jealous of Alcmena, sent two serpents to destroy the infant Hercules (VIII 288) ; but his brother Iphitus falling out of the cradle through terror and setting up a wail, the par- ents, when they had been aroused, found the child Hercules strangling the serpents which had been sent against him through the hate of his stepmother Juno. This was but a prophecy of his deeds of strength and valor, due in the future as now to the persistent hatred of Juno which never ceased to load him with toilsome labors. In addition to his killing of the Lernean Hydra and the Ne- mean lion, Servius gives a full legend as to his great exploits — 1 mean the labors in VIII 299: praeter haec quae Herculem hoc loco pocta fecisse memoravit, alia facta Herculis haec sunt, su- per atus apcr Erymanthius; post cerva; item Stymphalides aves. quae alumnae Martis fuisse dicuntur. quae hoc periculum regi- onibus inrogabant, quod cum cssent plurimae, volantes tantum plumarutn dc sc emittebant, ut homines et animalia necarent. agros et semina omnia cooperirent. inde ovilia Elidensium regis, quae stercore animalium congesto pestilentiam tarn suis quam vicinis rcgionibus creaverant, immisso Alpheo flumine purgavit et rcgionibus salubritatc rcddita, ipsum regem negata sibi mer- cede inter emit, inde equos Diomedis Thracis, qui humanis carni- bus vescebantur, abduxit. inde ad Hippolytae cingulum peten- dum perrexit eamque ablato cingulo superavit. Ad Geryonem autem, sicut iam supra (VII 662) dictum est, navi aenea navt- gavit tergo Ironis icltficans, ibique primum canem. Echidnae fil 49 mm peremit, deinde Eurytiona pastorem, Martis filium, novis- sime Geryonem, cuius abduxit armenta. item ad Hesperidas perrexit, et Antaeum, filium Terrae, victum luctatione necavit. (tide in Aegypto Busiridem necavit, qui advenientes hospites immolare consueverat. post Prometheum, Iovis imperio in Cnu- caso Monte religatum, occisa sagittis aquila liberavit. Acheloum etiam fiuvium, qui se propter Deianiram, Oenei filiam, certando cum Hercule in formas varias commutabat, mutatum in taurum, avulso ab illo cornu, victoria cedere compulit. Post Lycum regem, qui, se apud inferos constituto, Megaram uxorem eius temptaverat reversus peremit; propter cuius necem Iuno ei insa- niam misit^ ut uxorem necaret et filios. qui post, recepta sanitate, cum expiationem parricidii ab Apolline petisset nee ab eo re- sponsa meruisset, ira concitus cortinam ipsam et tripodem Apol- linis sustulit; cb quod iratus Iuppiter eum Omphalae servire praecepit. His death and apotheosis Servius gives in the same passage : cuius finis humanitatis talis fuit. cum Deianiram coniugem per fluvium, in quo Nessus Centaurus commeantes transvehebat, etiam Hercules transvehere vellet, ausus est Nessus occulte Deia- niram de stupro interpellare. quod cum Hercules agnovisset Nessum peremit sed Nessus moriens Deianiram monuit, ut san- quinem suum exceptum servarct, et si quando advertisset Hercu- lem altera femina delectari, sanguine ipso vestem inlitam marito darct, per quam vindicari posset, sed Deianira cum audisset maritum Iolen, Euryti Oechaliensis amare filiam, vestem tinctam Nessi sanguine Lichae servo dedit ad eum perferendam. qui cum Herculi in Oeta occurrisset, munus uxoris tradidit. quam cum tile lovi sacrificaturus induisset, tanto corporis ardore correptus est, ut nop invento remedio pyram construi iubcret donatisque Philoctetae sagittis peteret ab eo ut cremaretur. quo facto inter dcos relatus est. In this list we miss the dragging of Cerberus to the light of the upper world. In VI 395 he refers to it and there gives an interesting explanation of the myth in arcordance with the meth- ods of the physici : quod autem dicitur traxisse ab inferis Cerbe- rum, haec ratio est, quia omnes cupiditates et cuncta vitia terrena eontempsit et domuit; nam Cerberus terra est, id est consumptrix omnium corporum. unde et Cerberus dictus, est quasi uq£o66ooc; i id est cam em vorans... 50 In this same passage Servius also gives a ratio for putting the number of Hercules' labors at twelve, though he actually per- formed more, viz., that they might conform to the twelve signs of the zodiac. Very naturally Servius follows Vergil in his interest in Her- cules as to the hero's later exploits ; that is he touches upon those legends which relate themselves to the forbears of the Romans. Hercules delivered Hesione, the daughter of Laomedon king of Troy, from a sea monster to whom she had been exposed by her father as a result of an incursion of the sea, which Neptune and Apollo had sent upon Troy because Laomedon had refused to pay the money pledged to those deities for the building of the walls. Laomedon also refused to pay to Hercules the stipulated reward for saving his child, whereupon the hero slew him, and having destroyed Troy gave Hesione to his companion Telamon in marriage, from whom Teucer was sprung (VIII 157). There is also another version of the story (I 619) : that Her- cules, while on his way to Colchis, came to Troy by ship, and when Laomedon sought to prevent his entering the harbor, he killed him and taking Hesione as a spoil of war gave her to Telamon, who had been first to scale the walls of the city in the attack. Thereupon Hercules rescued Priam from his neighbor- ing foes and restored him to the throne of Troy, whence Priam received his name, i.e., dbio tov Jtoiaoftai id est emi. In VII 291 we are told that the reward promised by Laomedon to Hercules for the rescue of Hesione from the sea monster was the horses of divine stock and marriage with the maiden. In this same passage our author tells the story of the killing of king Eurytus of Oechalia in Euboea, for a .suspected amour with whose daughter Iole, he was to meet his death. Hercules had won a contest with the bow, the prize of which was to be a marriage with Iole. This he was denied on the ad- vice of the son of Eurytus, who narrated the murder of Hercules' wife, Megara, and her children in a fit of madness sent on him by Iuno. As usual the hero destroys the city and slays the king and possesses himself of the coveted maiden. One of the feats recounted of Hercules in Italy was the pro- duction of Lake Ciminus by a deed of strength (VII 697). While on his way back from Spain the hero came to the people dwelling in this region. They one and all urged him to perform an act of might. Thereupon he fixed in the earth an iron bar 51 which he had been using. No one was able to pull it up. Then he was asked to do so, and upon his compliance there gushed forth a great body of water which created Lake Ciminus. He slew also the giant Cacus who seems to have bt:en origin- ally an old Roman Fire god (VIII 203), whose worship was supplanted by that of Hercules at Rome. Hercules was called deus communis (VIII 275) aut quia Argivus est Hercules et supra dixit Aeneas tarn Graecos quam Troianos de uno sanguinis fonte descendere; aut communem deum dixit inter deos atque homines; unde medius fidius dictus; aut utriusque naturae medium, id est inter mortalitatem et divini- tatem. sunt enim numina aliqua tanium caelestia, aliqua tantum terrestria, aliqua media; quos deos Apuleius medioximos vocat, hoc est qui ex hominibus dii fiunt. Alii communem deum ideo dictum volunt, quia secundum pontificalem ritum idem est Hercules, qui et Mars; nam et stellam Chaldeis dicentibus unam habere dicuntur, et novimus Mart em communem dici; Cicero 'Martemque communem item paido post dat salios Herculi, quos Martis esse non dubium est. alii 'communem' humanum, beneficium, (piAdvdocojtov - unde et communes homines dicimus. Varro dicit deos alios esse qui ab initio certi et sempiterni sunt, alios qui immortales ex homi- nibus facti sunt; et de his ipsis alios esse privatos, alios commu- nes, privatos quos unaquaeque gens colit, ut nos Faunum, The- bani Amphiarum, Lacedaemonii Tyndareum; communes quos universi, ut Castorem Pollucem Liberum Herculem. This is an important passage as illustrating the tendency to theocrasia in the identification of Mars and Hercules, the ap- peal to the mathematici, the Chaldei, the astrologers, the varied and conflicting authorities, etc. In VIII 301 we have another explanation of the epithet Divus iidius : hie Divus Fidius solus dicitur, quod solus fidem fecit (esse) se lovis filium. VERA 10 VIS PROLES nullus enim humano sanguine procreatus tauta perficeret. Servius gives an important account of the reception of Her- cules by Evander and the establishment of his worship in Italy ( VIII 269) : Apud majores nostros raro advenae suscipie- bantur, nisi haberent itis hospitii; incertum enim erat quo animo venirent. unde etiam Hercides primo non est ab Evandro iusceptus; postea veto cum se et lovis filium dixisset et morte ( 'act virtutem suam probasset, et susceptus et pro numine habi- 52 tus est. denique ara est ex maxima const ituta quod Her cult Delphicus Apollo in Italia fore praedixerat. cum ergo de suo armento ad sua sacrificia boves dedisset, inventi sunt duo senes, vcl tit quid am tradunt ab Evandro dati, Pinarius et Potitins, qui- bus qualiter se coli vcllet ostendit, scilicet ut mane et vespere et sacrificaretur. pcrfecto itaque matutino sacrificio cum circa soils occasum essent sacra repetenda, Potitins prior advenit, Pinarius postea, extis tarn redditis. wide iratus Hercules statuit ut Pina- iorum familia tantum ministra esset epulantibus Potitiis et com- plentibus sacra : wide et Pinarii dicti sunt euro xr\q jreivac id est a fame; nam senem ilium Pinarium constat alio nomine nuncu- patum. hinc est quod paulo post Potitii tantum facit commemo- rationcm, ut ' primusque Potitius ibat.' quod autem dicit 'domus Hcrculei custos Pinaria sacri' non est contrarium ; nam 'custos' est ministra, ut in undecimo (836) at 'Triviae custos iamdudum in montibus Opis alta sedet,' id est ministra. Alii 'custos Pinaria sacri' dicunt, quod cum ara maxima vicino incendio conflagra- ret, a Pinariis liberata sit. et ideo 'custos sacri' ' And or' verd Potitius' quare? nam quod sine familia Potitiorum sacra ista non fiebant, donee illos Appius Claudius corrupit pecunia, ut servos publicos hoc sacrum docerent, propter quod dicitur et ipse mox caecus f actus et Potitorum familia intra breve tempus rxtincta. Another explanation follows (VIII 270) : Quidam tradunt ideo Potitiis ab Hcrcule sacra commissa, quod cum ipse Hercu- les, rem divinam faciens, preces praecaneret quas Potitius, diccret et pro eo deo cut Hercules rem divinam faciebat ipsum Herculcm fortuitu invocasset Potitius, fertur tunc Herculcm accepto omine divinitatis, rc-iccto Pinario, pcrpctuac epulatibnis sacrum Potitio tradidisse a quo videbatur consecratus ct Potitios dici, quod eorurn auctor epulis sacris potitus sit, Pinarios, quod eis, sicut dictum est. fames epularum sacrarum indicta sit : hoc enim eis Hercules dixisse dicitur v\iel<; be JteivdaeTE At first Hercules had only an altar and not a temple (VIII 179, 271). The altar was called maxima, either because of its vast size, or as Servius says, alii maximam ideo dicunt, quia illo tempore omnibus erat honore potior quam sibi Hercules, post quam se a matre Evandri lovis filium esse et immortalem futu rum cognovit, statuit. The poplar was sacred to Hercules (VIII 276), who made a wreath of it when he was on his descent to the lower world , 53 though after the founding of the city those who ministered at the ara maxima were crowned with laurel, as was the praetor urbanus, who sacrificed according to the Greek ritus. A fine illustration of the method of the physici is seen in VI 287 where Hercules is represented as killing the Lernean hydra : sed constat hydrant locum fuisse evomentem aquas, vastantes vicinam civitatem, in quo uno meatu clauso multi erumpebant : quod Hercules videns I oca ipsa exussit et sic aquae clausit mea- tus nam hydra ab aqua dicta est. The various personages bearing the name of Hercules accord- ing to their localities are explained from the fact that the an- cients were wont to call men of great strength and of valiant achievements "Hercules." (VIII 564, 203). For a fuller statement of the visit to the Hesperides and the robbery of the golden apples see VI 484 where the myth is thor- oughly explained according to the fashion of the physici. The Hesperides are shepherdesses whose sheep [i\\la are driven* oft by Hercules after slaying their guard, the word for sheep being confused with the word for apples, and so giving rise to the story. AESCULAPIUS (ASCLEPIUS). m He was the son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis. He became the god of healing and the patron of physicians. Zeus slew him because he brought back to life a man already dead. Afterward he became a spiritual deity and his influence was more widely extended, passing from his native Thessaly to Epidaurus and thence extending to other Greek cities and finally at a time of great pestilence being imported to Rome. The presence of the deity was symbolized by sacred serpents in his shrines one of which was brought with his worship to Rome and placed in a temple built for Asclepius on an island in the Tiber. He became famous because of his deeds of healing, though he never as- sumed importance as a national deity. In VII 761 Servius gives us the story of his birth and death Aesculapius was the child of Apollo and Coronis from whose body he was removed after his father had slain his mother in anger because of her infidelity to himself. The child became ex- pert (under the teaching of Chiron the centaur) in the healing •art. He brought to life Hippolytus whom his father had slain because of a false charge of his stepmother Phaedra, and for 54 this act he was struck dead by a thunderbolt of Jove. Compare also VI 398. [n X 316 there seems to be the inference that because Aescu- lapius had been born by what we now know as the Caesarian operation, which was a surgical act and so under the special pro- tection of Apollo the god of healing, he was conceived to have been the son of the god. ROMULUS ET REMUS. They were the two brothers, twins, sons of the vestal Ilia and Mars, who both sought the honor of founding Rome, and became involved in a quarrel in which Remus lost his life, and as a result of which Romulus became the sole founder and ruler of the new state. Servius has the legend in full and we shall permit his version its rightful place. In 1-273 this is the story: Amulius and Numitor were broth- ers. Amulius drove his brother out of the kingdom of Alba Longa and slew his son, his daughter Ilia he made a priestess of Vesta, that he might take away from her any expectation of issue, by whom he had learned he might be punished for his wickedness. But many say that Mars embraced her and that she had twin sons, Remus and Romus, as a result, whom with their mother the wicked Amulius ordered cast into the Tiber. Some say it was Anio who married Ilia, others Tiberis. Thus the Tiber was called uxorius amnis. The boys, Faustus the shepherd discovered and his wife lately a harlot, Accia of Lau- : Mitum brought them up. They, after they had slain Amulius, recalled their own grandfather Numitor to the throne. When Alba seemed insufficient to maintain three rulers the young men withdrew and, having resorted to augury, founded the city of Rome. Remus saw six vultures first, Romus afterward saw twelve ; which fact brought on a quarrel, in which Remus was slain and the people were called Romans from the name of Romus. The name Romulus was given to Romus as a species of flattery, since the diminutive was expressive of that feeling. That they were -aid to have been nourished by a she-wolf was a fable invented to conceal the baseness of the authors of the Roman race ; nor was it out of harmony with reason since the Romans called har- lots she-wolves. Then follow several differing accounts Clinias 55 states that a daughter of Telemachus, Romes by name, had been married to Aeneas from whose name Rome was called. It is said that Latinus named Rome from Romes, his own sister, who had died. Perhaps it is necessary to cite no further traditions, though there are more given as to the naming of the city, since it is not a question immediately touching mythology. The Sibylla ita dicit — 'Ptojiaioi, 'Poauov jkxiSec; In VI 777 the same story is told with the exception that Ilia is there made a daughter of Aeneas. After the death of Remus, a pestilence broke out, whence, the oracle having been consulted, declared that his manes must be pacified. On this account a curule chair, with sceptre and crown and the other insignia of kingly power used to be placed near to Romulus when he was making any decree., that the two brothers might appear to be exercising the royal power equally (I 276, VI 779). In the latter passage the old story that Remus was killed because of a quarrel over the walls is pronounced a fable. In VIII 635 we have the legend of the rape of the Sabine maidens, which does not concern us in this connection. The apotheosis of Romulus is suggested in VI 780: merito virtutis Mars Romulum deum esse significat. (Compare Livy I 16. also I 40, where he is called deis prognatus. deus ipse.) 56 CHAPTER VII Thus tar we trust we have covered with a fair degree of thor- oughness the subject of this thesis, with the limitations set forth in the introduction. There are, however, two or three matters upon which we ought to touch in this closing chapter. First, the Cumaean Sibyl, while she is not a mythological figure who became an object of worship, is nevertheless of great importance when viewed in the light of the religious hopes and aspirations of the Roman people; for the Sibylline books were made the objects of special care by the appointment of an ever-growing commission of patrician men, as we shall see, whose business it was to guard them religiously and to consult them at any time of crisis, upon order of the senate. Secondly, the Parcae or Fates, while they seem to have had no cultus, were nevertheless among those religious conceptions which must have been almost daily in the thought of men, who, like ourselves, facing the dark, mysterious and often seemingly contradictory events of human experience, could hardly help questioning and seeking some rational explanation for a world so constituted. As we have said at the start we did not purpose to give a full account of all the myths found in Servius' treatment; but it may not be out of place to name for the convenience of stu- dents several of the most important of them, which have received extended notice from our author. Thus: Orion, I 535, X 763. Orpheus, VI 119; VI 645 very fully Theseus and the Minotaur, VI 21, 14 very fully. Perseus and Medusa VI 289. Phaethon, V 105; X 89 very fully Scylla, 111 420 fully. Pollux, VI 120. Here follows the discussion of the Sibyl and the Parcae There was at first only one Sibyl ; later, the Greeks conceived i as many as ten. These Sibyllae were women who were in- spired by Apollo with the gift of prophecy. We turn at once to Servius ; f cr the Sibyl played a prominent part in the religious history of Rome. In HI 445 we are told that sibyl is an appellative and not a proper noun. So that Varro has written of a number of sibyls Moreover every girl who had received the divine inspiration within her heart (literally the numen) was called a sibyl. The etymology is interesting as Servius gives it nam Ae.nli* 57 oiovq dicunt deos, |@ou)o) autem est sententia . ergo Sibyllas quasi axov BouA&g dixerunt. All the responses of the Sibyl were contained in a hundred utterances (sermonibus) more or less. Servius says that many follow Vergil in believing that the fata Romana were written down by the Cumaean Sibyl, who was very long lived, but who, he thinks, could hardly have survived to the time of the Tarquin to whom the Sibylline Books were offered Varro was led to the belief that the fata Romana were due to Erythraea, because after the burning of the temple of Apollo in which they had been deposited, the very verses themselves were discovered in the island of Erythrae (VI 36). According to VI 72 it was an old woman by the name Amal- thea, who offered the nine sibylline books to Tarquin for an im- mense price, and when he refused went away. After burning three she returned, offering the six remaining volumes at the old price. Again Tarquin rejected her offer; again she departed, and later, came back, this time with only three, offering them at the original price. The king, moved by curiosity at her persist- ence in maintaining the price unchanged, at last yielded, and the Books came into the possessi >n of the Roman state. At first two men of patrician rank were made custodians of these priceless prophecies, later ten and then fifteen, the quinde- cimviri sacris faciundis, until the time of Sulla. Afterward the number rose until it reached even sixty, but the old name quin- decimviri remained (VI 73). In VI 321 Servius appears to identify the Cumaean Sibyl with Varro's Erythraea. According to the legend as here set forth, the god Apollo loved the Sibyl with a tender love and gave her the choice of asking what she would. She, letting sand slip through her fingers or fall from her hand, asked that she might have as long a life as there were sand grains (so I understand it). Apollo answered that it should be so on condition that she leave Erythraea, the island on which she dwelt, and never see it again. She went to Cumae and dwelt there. After a long time her bodily powers passed away and she retained life in her voice alone. When the citizens of Cumae saw that, moved either by hostility or pity, they sent her a letter sealed, according to ancient custom, with clay. When she saw it, since the clay was from her island, she melted away in death. Because, as above, the verses were restored from this island after their loss by the 58 burning of the temple of Apollo, some concluded that she was the sibyl who wrote the Roman fates. While strictly speaking the Sibyl did not become an object of worship she played so great a part in the religion of the Romans that this thesis would hardly seem complete without this refer- ence to her. The Romans through a mistaken etymology identified their Parcae with the Greek Moirae, as though Parcae were from pars. The truth seems to be that there was originally one Parca (as there was one Moira) and that she was a birth goddess. Cf. Gel- lius quoting Varro III 16, 10: Nam 'Parca' inquit,, imnmtata una littera, a pariu nominata. Though Gellius says there were three fata and that their names were Parca, Nona and Decima, the latter two referring to the months of gestation. In the Greek conception at first there was only one Moira, later Hesiod introduced the three sisters, Clotho, Lachesis and Atro- pos. Sometimes even the gods appear to be under the domain of fate, while at others the will of Zeus seems to be all controll- ing. Wissowa says that the fates never really had a place in the Roman religion but that the idea remained rather poetical or phil- osophical. Servius says little about the fates as genuine persons, but in lV r 609 he has a lengthy discussion where he seems to conceive of them philosophically as the inexorable laws controlling men, rather than as personalities. In I 22 he gives the number as three and with their Greek names: one he says speaks .another writes and the third draws out the threads of life. He derives the name Parcae not from pars, or partus, as did Varro, but xcura avtupoaaiv quod nulh parcant, sicut lucus a non luccndo, helium a nulla re bclla. His full discussion of the fata appears in IV 696. Here he discusses the two sorts of fate: the fatum drenuntiativum, and the fatum condlcionale. The former was the fate which was pronounced .is in every way certain, and so not to be avoided. The latter was a fate which, as the adjective implies, was conditional, and which so might be conceived of as avoidable. Servius quotes several examples. Thus Achilles' fate was 'condlcionale' since he chose to remain before Troy rather than to return home to an inglorious destiny, though he was perfectly well aware that his 59 late was to be short lived if he tarried in the war. So a man might die before his appointed day, his fatum condicionale mak- ing it possible for him to die, so to speak, before his time. And yet even thus he dies not without fate since, as Servius says in speaking of the death of Achilles : obiit quidem ante diem fato statutum, sed nee turn sine fato, quia de gemina fati auctoritate veniebat utraque condicio. This passage is a fine illustration of the statement of Wissowa quoted above that the Roman interest in fate is rather philo- sophical than religious. In XI 843 we have a comment of Servius which points to the idea that even the gods were subjected to fate; where he says that contrary to the fates nee numinis opitulatur auxilium. The same thought appears again in XII 147: sane latenter ostendit favorem numinum concessione fatorum non posse procedere. H\ CHAPTER VII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. If we have after this careful study of Servius been able to see through his eyes, to catch a closer vision of the matters with which he deals, to feel ourselves in actual possession of some of the treasures of knowledge which he has had to offer, the time and pains required will have been well spent indeed. Reverting to the statements made concerning his person and his method, as we set them forth in the early chapters, we can but feel that they were under rather than above the truth. Servius' scholarship and care remind us of the diligence of men trained to German methods of investigation ; though, un- fortunately, he was unacquainted with critical methods, which, had he possessed them, would have proved of high value to him and to us, in seeking the clearing up of some most perplexing problems. However, to the student of Vergil he remains the master in- terpreter upon whose foundations his successors have been glad to build. We have in this commentary, as has already been suggested, not the work of a great and enthusiastic scholar alone, but the revelation of a noble soul, believer though he remained in the old pagan faith. While we possess little material for a life of Servius we cannot but be impressed by his earnest effort to set his faith in its best light ; for thus we may understand his at- tempts to rationalize the old myths and hero tales, that they might be made more palatable to earnest souls who thought deeply upon religion. We cannot claim infallibility; but we trust that the spirit and contribution of the great grammaticus to the study of Rome's religion, as far as the objects of her worship are concerned, have in the main been faithfully presented here. It has been a long and exacting task, because the work of Thilo has never, as yet, seen a published index, and each investigator must read the entire commentary and make such an index of his own. This the present writer has done, and the teaching of the great commentator has been gleaned from his hundreds of 61 pages, and is here presented to the reader in the hope that it may be of some little service in interpreting the great Epic, which became in the days of Augustus and still remains the chief text- book of the youthful student in his approach to the study of Roman poetry. And we might justly add, "More's the pity, that so beautiful and profound a poem should be relegated to a period of study, which, because of the immaturity of the pupils, forbids its just appreciation with respect either to its art or subject-matter." 62 *'HIS BOOK T