The Aventine Triad Ceres, Liber and Libera.

Ceres, Liber and Libera.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Aventne Triad (also referred to as the plebeian Triad or the agricultural Triad) is a modern term for the joint cult of the Roman deities Ceres, Liber and Libera. The cult was established ca. 493 BC within a sacred district (templum) on or near the Aventine Hill, traditionally associated with the Roman plebs. Later accounts describe the temple building and rites as "Greek" in style. Some modern historians describe the Aventine Triad as a plebeian parallel and self-conscious antithesis to the archaic Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus and the later Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Minerva and Juno. The Aventine Triad, temple and associated ludi (games and theatrical performances) served as a focus of plebeian identity, sometimes in opposition to Rome's original ruling elite, the patricians.

Origins

The Aventine relationship between Ceres, Liber and Libera was probably based first on their functions as agricultural and fertility deities of the plebs as a distinct social group. Liber had been companion to both Ceres and to Libera in separate and disparate fertility cults that were widespread throughout the Hellenised Italian peninsula, long before their official adoption by Rome – or rather, their partial assimilation, as Ceres' own cult appears to have been considered more tractable and obedient than Liber's. Their Aventine cults, reported in later Roman sources as distinctively Greek in character, may have been further reinforced and influenced by their perceived similarities to particular Greek deities: Ceres to Demeter, Liber to Dionysus (Roman Bacchus) and Libera to Persephone (Roman Proserpina).^[1] In keeping with Roman theology, the internal and external equivalence of the Aventine Triad remained speculative, broad and flexible. Long after its establishment, Cicero rejects the equivalence of Liber and Dionysus and asserts that Ceres is mother to Liber and Libera.^[2][3]

Foundation

The Aventine Triad was established soon after the overthrow of the Roman monarchy and establishment of the Republic.^[4] Rome's majority of citizen commoners (plebs) were ruled by the patricians, a small number of powerful, landed aristocrats who asserted a traditional, exclusive right to Rome's highest religious, political and military offices. The plebs not only served in Rome's legions: they were the backbone of its economy – smallholders, labourers, skilled specialists, managers of landed estates, vintners, importers and exporters of grain and wine. Against a background of famine in Rome, an imminent war against the Latins and a threatened plebeian secession, the dictator A. Postumius vowed a temple to the patron deities of the plebs, Ceres, Liber and Libera on or near the Aventine Hill. The famine ended and Rome's plebeian citizen-soldiery co-operated in the conquest of the Latins. In 493 BC, a new built temple on or near the Aventine hill was dedicated to the Triad and Rome's first recorded ludi scaenici(religious dramas) were held in honour of Liber, for the benefit of the Roman people. Liber's festival, the Liberalia, may date from this time.^[5]

Patrician dominance was manifest in the Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus on the Capitoline Hill, at the heart of the city. The Capitoline temple lay within Rome's sacred boundary (pomerium). The Aventine lay outside it. In most versions of the Roman founding myth, this was the hill on which the unfortunate Remus lost to his brother Romulus in a contest of augury to decide Rome's foundation, name and leadership.^[6] Postumius' vow has been interpreted as a pragmatic, timely recognition of the plebeian citizenry as a distinct social and political grouping with its own values, interests and traditions; the vow may have intended confirmation of the plebs and their deities as fully Roman, but its fulfillment focused plebeian culture and identity on a Triad of deities only part-assimilated into official Roman religion. Some aspects of their cults were still considered morally "un-Roman" by Rome's authorities. Thus the Aventine Triad gave the plebs what has been variously described by modern historians as a parallel to the official Capitoline Triad, and its "copy and antithesis".^[7] Among other religious innovations based on his antiquarian interests, the emperor Claudius redrew the pomerium to encompass the Aventine.^[8]

Development

The plebs continued to establish and administer their own laws (plebiscita) and held formal assemblies from which patricians were excluded,. They elected their own magistrates and sought religious confirmation of their decisions through their own augury, which in plebeian religious tradition had been introduced by Marsyas, a satyr or silen in the entourage of Liber. Meanwhile, the plebeian tribunes, an emergent plebeian nobility and a small but growing number of popularist politicians of patrician ancestry gained increasing influence over Rome's religious life and government. Any person who offended against the sacred rights and person of a plebeian tribune was liable to declaration as homo sacer, who could be killed with impunity and whose property was, almost certainly, forfeit to Ceres.^[9] Even so, official Ludi Cereales were not established until as late as 202 BC. Liber's festival and the Bacchic or Dionysian aspects of his cult were suppressed under the ferocious Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus of 186 BC. The Liberalia rites were transferred to Cerealia; after a few years they were restored to Liber.^[10][11]

Varro's complex, investigative Late Republican theology groups Ceres with Tellus and Venus, therefore (in Varronian reasoning) with Victoria; and Ceres with Libera, when the latter is understood as the female aspect of Liber.^[12]

Cults and priesthoods

Evidence is lacking for the earliest priesthoods of the Aventine Triad, whether in joint or individual cult to its deities. The plebeian aediles, named after their service of aedes (shrine or temple) may have acted as cult priests for their community^[13] and may have served Liber and Libera in this capacity. Ceres was served by a flamen Cerealis, usually a plebeian. His duties included the invocation of her assistant deities and cult service to the earth-goddess Tellus. From ca. 205 BC, a joint mystery cult to Ceres and Proserpina was held at the Aventine Triad's temple, in addition to its older rites.^[14] This ritus graecus cereris recognised Libera as equivalent to Proserpina. Liber's involvement, if any, is unknown. Initiation was reserved to women, and the cult was served by priestesses of high social caste. According to Cicero, men were forbidden to look on Ceres' cult image;^[15] this could imply the use of separate cult images, or the use of the same images in different, gender-segregated rites.^{[citation needed]}

Temple

The Aventine Triad's temple was known by the name of its leading deity – thus, Roman sources describe it as the Temple of Ceres, though within it, each deity had a separate internal sanctuary (cella). The temple served as a cult centre for the patron deities of the plebs, a sacred depository for plebeian records and the headquarters for the plebeian aediles; the minutes or conclusions of senatorial decrees were also placed there, under the protection of Ceres as the guardian of laws on behalf of the Roman people.^[16] While the original temple fabric and furnishings may have been funded in whole or part by its patrician sponsors, its cult images and perhaps its maintenance were supported partly through voluntary offerings and partly through the fines collected by the plebeian aediles from those who infringed plebeian civil and religious laws.^[17] By the late Republic, it may have fallen into disrepair: Augustus undertook its restoration, which was completed by his successor Tiberius. Pliny the Elder's later description of its style and designers as "Greek" are taken as further evidence of continued plebeian cultural connections with Magna Graecia, officially funded well into the Imperial era. No trace remains of the temple building, and the historical and epigraphical record offers only sparse details to suggest its exact location.^[18]

Roman Capitoline Triad Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jupiter, the supreme Roman god of the sky, was the only deity represented in both Capitoline Triads.

The Capitoline Triad was a group of three deities who were worshipped in ancient Roman religion in an elaborate temple on Rome's Capitoline Hill (Latin Capitolium). Two distinct Capitoline Triads were worshipped at various times in Rome's history, both originating in ancient traditions predating the Roman Republic. The one most commonly referred to as the "Capitoline Triad" is the more recent of the two, consisting of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. The earlier triad, sometimes referred to in modern scholarship as the Archaic Triad, consisted of Jupiter, Mars and Quirinusand was Indo-European in origin. Each triad held a central place in the public religion of Rome during its time.

The Capitoline Triad

Capitoline Triad – Museum of Palestrina

The three deities who are most commonly referred to as the "Capitoline Triad" are a group that supplanted the original Archaic Triad. This group, mirroring the Etruscan divine triad, consisted of Jupiter, the king of the gods; Juno (in her aspect as Iuno Regina, "Queen Juno"), his wife and sister; and Jupiter's daughter Minerva, the goddess of wisdom.

Unlike the earlier Archaic Triad, which was fairly typical of a trio of supreme divine beings, this grouping of a male god and two goddesses was highly unusual in ancient Indo-European religions. It is almost certainly derived from the Etruscan trio of Tinia, the supreme deity, Uni, his wife, and Menrva, their daughter and the goddess of wisdom.

Capitolium

See also: Temple of Jupiter

Jupiter, Juno and Minerva were honored in temples known as Capitolia, which were built on hills and other prominent areas in many cities in Italy and the provinces, particularly during the Augustan and Julio-Claudian periods. Most had a triple cella. The earliest known example of a Capitolium outside of Italy was at Emporion in Spain.^[1] According to Ovid, Terminus also had a place there, since he had a shrine there before it was built and, as the god of boundary stones, refused to yield.^[2]

Although the word Capitolium (pl. Capitolia) could be used to refer to any temple dedicated to the Capitoline Triad, it referred especially to the temple on the Capitoline Hill in Rome known as aedes Iovis Optimi Maximi Capitolini ("the temple of the Best, Greatest, Capitoline Jupiter"). The temple was built under the reign of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last King of Rome prior to the establishment of the Roman Republic. Although the temple was shared by Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, each deity had a separate cella, with Juno Regina on the left, Minerva on the right, and Jupiter Optimus Maximus in the middle. It included a podium and a tetrastyle (four column) pronaos (porch).^[3]

Another shrine (sacellum) dedicated to Jupiter, Juno Regina and Minerva was the Capitolium Vetus on the Quirinal Hill. It was thought to be older than the more famous temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill, and was still a landmark in Martial's time, in the late 1st century.^[4]

Archaic Triad

The original three deities thus worshipped, now more commonly referred to as the Archaic Triad, were Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus. This structure was no longer clearly detectable in later times, and only traces of it could be identified from various literary sources and other testimonies.

Georg Wissowa, in his manual of the Roman religion, identified the structure as a triad on the grounds of the existence in Rome of the three flamines maiores, who carry out service to these three gods. He remarked that this triadic structure looks to be predominant in many sacred formulae which go back to the most ancient period and noted its pivotal role in determining the ordo sacerdotum, the hierarchy of dignity of Roman priests: rex sacrorum, flamen dialis, Flamen Martialis, flamen quirinalis and pontifex maximus in order of decreasing dignity and importance.^[5] He remarked that since such an order did no longer reflect the real influence and relationships of power among priests in the later times, it should have reflected a hierarchy of the earliest phase of Roman religion.^[6]

Wissowa identified the presence of such a triad also in the Umbrian ritual of Iguvium where only Iove, Marte and Vofionus are granted the epithet of Grabovius and the fact that in Rome the three flamines maiores are all involved in a peculiar way in the cult of goddess Fides.^[7]

However Wissowa did not pursue further the analysis of the meaning and function of the structure (which he called Göttersystem) he had identified.

Dumézil’s analysis using the Trifunctional Hypothesis

Georges Dumézil in various works, particularly in his Archaic Roman Religion^[8] advanced the hypothesis that this triadic structure was a relic of a common Proto-Indo-European religion, based on a trifunctional ideology modelled on the division of that archaic society. The highest deity would thus be a heavenly sovereign endowed with religious, magic and legal powers and prerogatives (connected and related to the king and to priestly sacral lore in human society), followed in order of dignity by the deity representing braveness and military prowess (connected and related to a class of warriors) and lastly a deity representing the common human worldly values of wealth, fertility, and pleasure (connected and related to a class of economic producers). According to the hypothesis, such a tripartite structure must have been common to all Indoeuropean peoples on accounts of its widespread traces in religion and myths from India to Scandinavia, and from Rome to Ireland. However it had disappeared from most societies since prehistoric times, with the notable exception of India.

In Vedic religion the sovereign function was incarnated by Dyaus Pitar and later appeared split into its two aspects of uncanny and awe inspiring almighty power incarnated by Varuna and of source and guardian of justice and compacts incarnated by Mitra. Indra incarnated the military function and the twins Ashvins (or Nasatya) the function of production, wealth, fertility and pleasure. In human society the rajah and the class of the brahmin priests represented the first function (and enjoyed the highest dignity), the warrior class of the kshatriya represented the second function and the artisan and merchant class of the vaishya the third.

Similarly in Rome Jupiter was the supreme ruler of the heavens and god of thunder, represented on earth by the rex, king (later the rex sacrorum) and his substitute, the flamen dialis, the legal aspect of sovereignty being incarnated also by Dius Fidius, Mars was the god of military prowess and a war deity, represented by his flamen martialis; and Quirinus the enigmatic god of the Roman populus ("people") organised in the curiae as a civilian and productive force, represented by the flamen quirinalis.

Apart than from the analysis of the texts already collected by Wissowa, Dumezil stressed the importance of the tripartite plan of the regia, the cultic centre of Rome and official residence of the rex. As recorded by sources and confirmed by archeological data it was devised to lodge the three major deities Iupiter, Mars, and Ops, the deity of agricultural plenty, in three separate rooms.

The cult of Fides involved the three flamines maiores: they were carried to the sacellum of the deity together in a covered carriage and officiated with their right hand wrapped up to the fingers in a piece of white cloth. The association with the deity that founded divine order (Fides is associated with Iupiter in his function of guardian of the supreme juridical order) underlines the mutual interconnections among them and of the gods they represented with the supreme heavenly order, whose arcane character was represented symbolically in the hidden character of the forms of the cult.

The spolia opima were dedicated by the person who had killed the king or chief of the enemy in battle. They were dedicated to Jupiter in case the Roman was a king or his equivalent (consul, dictator or tribunus militum consulari potestate), to Mars in case he was an officer and to Quirinus in case he was common soldier.^[9] The sacrificial animals too were in each case the ones of the respective deity, i. e. an ox to Jupiter, solitaurilia to Mars and a male lamb to Quirinus.

Besides Dumézil analysed the cultural functions of the flamen quirinalis to better understand the characters of this deity. One important element was his officiating on the feriae of the Consualia aestiva ( of the Summer), which associated Quirinus to the cult of Consus and indirectly of Ops (Ops Consivia). Other feriae on which this flamen officiated were the Robigalia, the Quirinalia that Dumezil identifies with the last day of the Fornacalia, also named stultorum feriae because on that day the people who had forgot to roast their spelt on the day prescribed by the curio maximus for their own curia were given a last chance to make amends, and the Larentalia held in memory of Larunda. These religious duties show Quirinus was a civil god related to the agricultural cycle and somehow to the worship of Roman ancestry.

In Dumézil's view the figure of Quirinus became blurred and started to be connected to the military sphere because of the early assimilation to him of the divinised Romulus, the warring founder and first king of Rome. A coincident facilitating factor of this interpretation was the circumstance that Romulus carried with himself the quality of twin and Quirinus had a correspondence in the theology of the divine twins such the Indian Ashvins and the Scandinavians Vani. The resulting interpretation was the mixed civil and military, warring and peaceful personality of the god.

A detailed discussion of the sources is devoted by Dumézil to showing that they do not support the theory of an agrarian Mars. Mars would be invoked both in the Carmen Arvale and in Cato's prayer as the guardian, the armed protector of the fields and the harvest. He is definitely not a deity of agricultural plenty and fertility.

It is also noteworthy that according to tradition Romulus established the double role and duties, civil and military, of the Roman citizen. In this way the relationship between Mars and Quirinus became a dialectic one, since Romans would regularly pass from the warring condition to the civil one and vice versa. In the yearly cycle this passage is marked by the rites of the Salii, they themselves divided into two groups, one devoted to the cult of Mars (Salii Palatini, created by Numa) and the other of Quirinus (Salii Collini, created by Tullus Hostilius).

The archaic triad in Dumézil's view was not strictly speaking a triad, it was rather a structure underlying the earliest religious thought of the Romans, a reflection of the common Indoeuropean heritage.^[10]

This grouping has been interpreted as a symbolic representation of early Roman society, wherein Jupiter, standing in for the ritual and augural authority of the Flamen Dialis (high priest of Jupiter) and the chief priestly colleges, represents the priestly class, Mars, with his warrior and agricultural functions, represents the power of the king and young nobles to bring prosperity and victory through sympathetic magic with rituals like the October Horse and the Lupercalia, and Quirinus, with his source as the deified form of Rome's founder Romulus and his derivation from co-viri ("men together") representing the combined military and economic strength of the Roman people.

According to Georges Dumézil's trifunctional hypothesis, this division symbolizes the overarching societal classes of "priest" (Jupiter), "warrior" (Mars) and "farmer" or "civilian" (Quirinus). Though both Mars and Quirinus each had militaristic and agricultural aspects, leading later scholars to frequently equate the two despite their clear distinction in ancient Roman writings, Dumézil argued that Mars represented the Roman gentry in their service as soldiers, while Quirinus represented them in their civilian activities. Although such a distinction is implied in a few Roman passages, such as when Julius Caesar scornfully calls his soldiers quirites ("citizens") rather than milites ("soldiers"), the word quirites had by this time been dissociated with the god Quirinus, and it is likely that Quirinus initially had an even more militaristic aspect than Mars^{[citation needed]}, but that over time Mars, partially through synthesis with the Greek god Ares, became more warlike, while Quirinus became more domestic in connotation. Resolving these inconsistencies and complications is difficult chiefly because of the ambiguous and obscure nature of Quirinus' cult and worship; while Mars and Jupiter remained the most popular of all Roman gods, Quirinus was a more archaic and opaque deity, diminishing in importance over time.

Ancient Egyptian funerary texts

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The literature that make up the ancient Egyptian funerary texts are a collection of religious documents that were used in ancient Egypt, usually to help the spirit of the concerned person to be preserved in the afterlife.

They evolved over time, beginning with the Pyramid Texts in the Old Kingdom, which were the concern only of royal burials, through the Coffin Texts of the Middle Kingdom, the several books in the New Kingdom and later times. With passing time access to these documents was extended to the noble classes, then the common (at least those that could afford ritual burials) population.

Old Kingdom[edit]

Main article: Pyramid Texts

The funerary texts of the Old Kingdom were initially reserved for the king only. Towards the end of the period, the texts appeared in the tombs of royal wives.

Middle Kingdom[edit]

Main article: Coffin Texts

These are a collection of ancient Egyptian funerary spells written on coffins beginning in the First Intermediate Period. The texts are derived in part from the earlier pyramid texts, but they contain substantial new material related to everyday desires that reflects the fact that the texts were now used by the common people. Because non-royal Egyptians who could afford to have a coffin now had access to these funerary spells, the pharaoh no longer had exclusive rights to the afterlife.^[1][2]

New Kingdom[edit]

• Book of the Dead
• Amduat
• Spell of the Twelve Caves
• The Book of Gates
• Book of the Netherworld
• Book of Caverns
• Book of the Earth
• Litany of Re

Late New Kingdom[edit]

• Books of the Sky

After the Amarna Period, a new set of funerary texts began to be used.^[3] These centre on representations of Nut (goddess), the sky goddess. They represent the nighttime journey of the sun into and through her body, with her giving birth to the rejuvenated sun in the morning. From the tomb of Ramesses IV onwards two of these Books of the Sky were usually placed next to each other on the ceiling of royal tombs.

• Book of Nut
• Book of the Day
• Book of the Night
• Book of the Heavenly Cow

Late Period[edit]

• Books of Breathing

Ptolemaic[edit]

• Book of Traversing Eternity

Lecture: The Egyptian god Hu

The Egyptian god Hu was one of the minor gods in some respects, but he was one of the most important gods for those serious about Egyptian deities. Hu is the power of the spoken word. He personifies the authority of utterance.

One legend has it that the creator and Sun God, Re (Ra), evolved from the primeval waters of Egypt. Once alive, Re created the air (Shu) and the moisture (Tefnut). Next, the earth god, Geb and the sky goddess, Nut were created. Mortal men and women were created from the tears of Re. Re then drew blood from his own penis and created the gods Hu and Sia. These two gods represented the creative power of the gods.

Hu and Sia were partners. Sia was the personification of Divine Knowledge/Omniscience, the mind of the gods. Hu was the personification of Divine Utterance, the voice of authority. During Ancient times, Heka, the personification of Divine Power accompanied these two gods. Together, the three gods were very important to the rulers of Ancient Egypt. Along with the falcon-headed Sun God, they rode the Sunboat across the sky in order to create and sustain all life.

The act of the Sunboat traveling across the sky signifies that with each sunrise the world was created anew. Having traveled through the Underworld of night and making it past all the dangers therein, the Sunboat once again rises to confirm that life is created new each day.

Hu was particularly important because he was the epitome of the power and command of the ruler. Even after death, Hu was of the utmost importance to the Kings of Ancient Egypt. Hu acted as the Kings companion as the King entered the Afterlife. Through Hu, the King maintained his royal authority in the Afterlife. Hu allowed the King to cross the waters of his canal and acknowledged the Kings authority and supremacy.

So far, we know Hu as the personification of Divine Utterance. However, some legends maintain that he was not just a part of creation, but that he was the creator. It is said that as Hu drew his first breath, there was in that sound the essence of his name. Hence, we have the name Hu, which sounds remarkably like the sound of an expelling breath.

With each breath Hu expelled, creation took place. The first breath created the Soul of Osiris. His last creation was the Sun. So it is said that Hu is the Word of God, the first and the last breaths, Hu Hu.

The Ancient Egyptians recognized the Sphinx at the Giza Plateau as an image of Hu. The lion was a symbol of power and strength. Used as the body of the Sphinx, this was perfectly acceptable to the Ancient Egyptians. The face of the Sphinx wore the distinctive Red Crown of the Creator and the Osiris Beard. These were hallmarks of the time.

Its been suggested that Ancient Egyptians would use the Sphinx in a ritual that reenacted the creation of the Universe. It was performed at dusk, as night was falling upon Egypt. This was considered the time before creation begun, when Hu (the Sphinx) sat silent.

Lecture: Egyptian god Heka

Heka or also known as Hike was the Egyptian God of Magic and Medicine. For ancient Egyptians, though the magic and the medicine were one and the same. ‘Heka’ is the Egyptian word for magic. According to Coffin text, “Heka” was used for the practice of magical ritual.

Literally Heka means activating the Ka, the aspect of the soul which embodied personality. By activating the power of the soul was how magic worked, but more significantly also power and influence, particularly in the case of the Ka of gods. Heka was one of the creative powers both in the mortal world and the world of the gods, which were necessary for creation to come about. Thus, Heka was the divine energy or the life force, which acted together with ‘Hu’, the principle of divine utterance, and ‘Sia’ the concept of divine omniscience.

Heka was said to be the son of Atum, the God of Creator. He was also considered to be the son of Khnum and Menhit, due to Atum and Khnum being associated with one another. These three deities formed the Triad of Latopolis (Esna) in Upper Egypt.

His name was depicted as a twist of flax and a pair of raised arms. The flax was often placed with the arms and was thought to resemble two snakes. He also portrayed as a man standing in front of the naos carrying different ritual objects and occasionally shown as a man holding two entwined serpents. The two intertwined serpents became symbolic of his power, which still associated with medicine today.

Although Heka had no formal worship, his favor was beseeched by doctors and other healers, who were called “Priests of Hike”.