Mythology of Italy

Father Tiber, and the Palatine on a relief from a pedestal dating to the reign of Trajan

The mythologies in present-day Italy encompass the

Etruscans, and other peoples living in Italy, those ancient stories about divine or heroic beings that these particular cultures believed to be true and that often use supernatural

events or characters to explain the nature of the universe and humanity.

Roman mythology

myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. One of a wide variety of genres of Roman folklore, Roman mythology may also refer to the modern study of these representations, and to the subject matter as represented in the literature and art of other cultures in any period. Roman mythology draws from the mythology of the Italic peoples and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European mythology

.

Roman mythology also draws directly on

Jupiter—and reinterpreted myths about Greek deities under the names of their Roman counterparts. Greek and Roman mythologies are therefore often classified together in the modern era as Greco-Roman mythology

.

Latin literature was widely known in Europe throughout the

canonical

.

Nature of Roman myth

In this wall painting from Pompeii, Venus looks on while the physician Iapyx tends to the wound of her son, Aeneas; the tearful boy is her grandson Ascanius, also known as Iulus, legendary ancestor of Julius Caesar and the Julio-Claudian dynasty

Because ritual played the central role in Roman religion that myth did for the Greeks, it is sometimes doubted that the Romans had much of a native mythology. This perception is a product of Romanticism and the classical scholarship of the 19th century, which valued Greek civilization as more "authentically creative."^[2] From the Renaissance to the 18th century, however, Roman myths were an inspiration particularly for European painting.^[3] The Roman tradition is rich in historical myths, or legends, concerning the foundation and rise of the city. These narratives focus on human actors, with only occasional intervention from deities but a pervasive sense of divinely ordered destiny. In Rome's earliest period, history and myth have a mutual and complementary relationship.^[4] As T. P. Wiseman notes:

The Roman stories still matter, as they mattered to
tyranny?^[3]

Major sources for Roman myth include the

wall painting, coins, and sculpture, particularly reliefs

.

Founding myths

Main article: Founding of Rome

The Aeneid and Livy's early history are the best extant sources for
convoluted revisionist genealogy as forebear of Romulus and Remus. By extension, the Trojans were adopted as the mythical ancestors of the Roman people.^[5]

Other myths

Mucius Scaevola in the Presence of Lars Porsenna (early 1640s) by Matthias Stom

arrival of Galatea; ancient Roman fresco painted in the "Fourth Style" of Pompeii

(45–79 AD)

The characteristic myths of Rome are often political or moral, that is, they deal with the development of Roman government in accordance with divine law, as expressed by Roman religion, and with demonstrations of the individual's adherence to moral expectations (mos maiorum) or failures to do so.

Rape of the Sabine women, explaining the importance of the Sabines
in the formation of Roman culture, and the growth of Rome through conflict and alliance.

Numa Pompilius, the Sabine second king of Rome who consorted with the nymph Egeria and established many of Rome's legal and religious institutions.
Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome, whose mysterious origins were freely mythologized and who was said to have been the lover of the goddess Fortuna.
The Tarpeian Rock, and why it was used for the execution of traitors.
early Roman monarchy
and led to the establishment of the Republic.
Cloelia, a Roman woman taken hostage by Lars Porsena. She escaped the Clusian camp with a group of Roman virgins.
Horatius at the bridge, on the importance of individual valor.
Mucius Scaevola, who thrust his right hand into the fire to prove his loyalty to Rome.
Praeneste.^[6]

Manlius and the geese, about divine intervention at the Gallic siege of Rome.^[7]
Stories pertaining to the Nonae Caprotinae and Poplifugia festivals.^[8]
Coriolanus
, a story of politics and morality.
The Etruscan city of Corythus as the "cradle" of Trojan and Italian civilization.^[9]
The arrival of the Great Mother (Cybele) in Rome.^[10]

Etruscan mythology

ancient Roman culture, following the Roman tendency to absorb some of the local gods and customs of conquered lands. The first attestations of an Etruscan religion can be traced back to the Villanovan culture.^[11]

The mythology is evidenced by a number of sources in different media, for example representations on large numbers of pottery, inscriptions and engraved scenes on the Praenestine cistae (ornate boxes; see under Etruscan language) and on specula (ornate hand mirrors). Currently some two dozen fascicles of the Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum have been published. Specifically Etruscan mythological and cult figures appear in the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae.^[12] Etruscan inscriptions have recently been given a more authoritative presentation by Helmut Rix, Etruskische Texte.^[13]

Gods and Goddesses

Important Gods and Goddesses of Italian Mythology:

Aradia is the Italian Goddess of witchcraft. She protects witches (male and female) against the aggression of religious persecution and condemnation and symbolizes the air element and the moon.
Carmenta is the Goddess of spells, known for chanting incantations in verse to ease the pains of women in labor and children facing illness.
Februus is the Italian God of purification who lives in the underworld.
Fortuna is the Goddess of fate and fortune and also bringer of fertility.
Jana is the Goddess of the Moon, said to have 2 faces. One faces the past, and the other faces the future.
Jove
is the Sky God. He is the equivalent of Jupiter of Roman mythology who is the King of all other Gods.
Nox is the Goddess of the night, the beginning of all things, and one of the oldest of the Gods.
Umbria is Goddess of shadows, secrets, darkness who lives in the underworld.
Cel is the Etruscan Goddess of earth. She was the mother of Giants, a race of great strength and aggression.

Cultural phenomena

Two handsigns (fig sign and horned sign) used in Italy against the evil eye (1914)

The evil eye, in Italian malocchio, is not just a part of Italian folklore but is also present in many different cultures. The evil eye is a supernatural belief in a curse brought about by a malevolent glare, usually inspired by envy.^[14] The belief in the evil eye among humans has existed since prehistory,^[14] and amulets to protect against it have been found from dating to about 5,000 years ago.^[14] It is estimated that around 40% of the world's population believes in the evil eye.^[15]

It is found in many cultures in the

Mediterranean region, the Balkans, the Middle East and Central Asia, with such cultures often believing that receiving the evil eye will cause misfortune or injury,^[16] while others believe it to be a kind of supernatural force that casts or reflects a malevolent gaze back upon those who wish harm upon others (especially innocents). The idea appears multiple times also in Jewish rabbinic literature

.

Different cultures have pursued measures to protect against the evil eye.

glass beads in the Mediterranean region in approximately 1500 BC, evil eye beads were popularised with the Phoenicians, Persians, Greeks, Romans and Ottomans.^[18] Ancient Romans used representations of phallus, such as the fascinus, to protect against the evil eye, while in modern-day Southern Italy a variety of amulets and gestures are used for protection, including the cornicello, the cimaruta, and the sign of the horns

.

The cornicello, "little horn", also called in Italian the cornetto ("little horn", plural cornetti), is a long, gently twisted horn-shaped amulet. Cornicelli are usually carved out of red coral or made from gold or silver. The type of horn they are intended to copy is not a curled-over sheep horn or goat horn but rather like the twisted horn of an African eland or a chili pepper.^[19] A tooth or tuft of fur of the Italian wolf was worn as a talisman against the evil eye.^[20]

One idea that the

mano cornuta gesture and the fig sign; a fist with the thumb pressed between the index and middle fingers, representing the phallus within the vagina. In addition to the phallic talismans, statues

of hands in these gestures, or covered with magical symbols, were carried by the Romans as talismans.

The wielder of the evil eye, the jettatore, is described as having a striking facial appearance, high arching brows with a stark stare that leaps from his eyes. He often has a reputation for clandestine involvement with dark powers and is the object of gossip about dealings in magic and other forbidden practices. Successful men having tremendous personal magnetism quickly gain notoriety as jettatori. Pope Pius IX was dreaded for his evil eye, and a whole cycle of stories about the disasters that happened in his wake were current in Rome during the latter decades of the 19th century. Public figures of every type, from poets to gangsters, have had their specialized abilities attributed to the power of their eyes.^[21]

References

^ Rengel, Marian; Daly, Kathleen N. (2009). Greek and Roman Mythology, A to Z. United States: Facts On File, Incorporated. p. 66.
^ T. P. Wiseman, The Myths of Rome (University of Exeter Press, 2004), preface (n.p.).
^ ^a ^b Wiseman, The Myths of Rome, preface.
^ Alexandre Grandazzi, The Foundation of Rome: Myth and History (Cornell University Press, 1997), pp. 45–46.
^ See also Lusus Troiae.
^ J.N. Bremmer and N.M. Horsfall, Roman Myth and Mythography (University of London Institute of Classical Studies, 1987), pp. 49–62.
^ Bremmer and Horsfall, pp. 63–75.
^ Bremmer and Horsfall, pp. 76–88.
^ Bremmer and Horsfall, pp. 89–104; Larissa Bonfante, Etruscan Life and Afterlife: A Handbook of Etruscan Studies (Wayne State University Press, 1986), p. 25.
^ Bremmer and Horsfall, pp. 105–111.
ISBN 0-292-70687-1
.

^ "An illustrated lexicon about the ancient myths". Foundation for the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 2009. Retrieved 21 June 2009.

ISBN 3-8233-4240-1
. 2 vols.

^ ^a ^b ^c Hargitai, Quinn (19 February 2018). "The strange power of the 'evil eye'". BBC. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 5 January 2021.

JSTOR 644689
.

doi:10.1111/j.1556-3537.2010.01020.x
.

ISBN 978-0-88125-463-1
.

^ Smith, Elaine (6 December 2019). "Beware the Evil Eye. Or Buy One, Just for Kicks (Published 2019)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 14 January 2021. Retrieved 5 January 2021.

^ Lucky Mojo. "The Corno (Italian Horn Amulet)". Archived from the original on 1 September 2013. Retrieved 9 February 2015.

^ (in Italian) Altobello, G. (1921), Fauna dell'Abruzzo e del Molise. Mammiferi. IV. I Carnivori (Carnivora) Archived 2016-05-04 at the Wayback Machine, Colitti e Figlio, Campobasso, pp. 38–45

ISBN 0-231-04006-7
.

External links

Italian Lore, Gods, Demigods, Heroes, Symbols, and Other Famous Mythological Characters

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mythology_of_Italy&oldid=1216958391"

[1] Rengel, Marian; Daly, Kathleen N. (2009). Greek and Roman Mythology, A to Z. United States: Facts On File, Incorporated. p. 66.

[2] T. P. Wiseman, The Myths of Rome (University of Exeter Press, 2004), preface (n.p.).

[auto-3] Wiseman, The Myths of Rome, preface.

[4] Alexandre Grandazzi, The Foundation of Rome: Myth and History (Cornell University Press, 1997), pp. 45–46.

[5] See also Lusus Troiae.

[6] J.N. Bremmer and N.M. Horsfall, Roman Myth and Mythography (University of London Institute of Classical Studies, 1987), pp. 49–62.

[7] Bremmer and Horsfall, pp. 63–75.

[8] Bremmer and Horsfall, pp. 76–88.

[9] Bremmer and Horsfall, pp. 89–104; Larissa Bonfante, Etruscan Life and Afterlife: A Handbook of Etruscan Studies (Wayne State University Press, 1986), p. 25.

[10] Bremmer and Horsfall, pp. 105–111.

[degrummond2006-11] ISBN 0-292-70687-1
.

[12] "An illustrated lexicon about the ancient myths". Foundation for the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 2009. Retrieved 21 June 2009.

[13] ISBN 3-8233-4240-1
. 2 vols.

[:0-14] Hargitai, Quinn (19 February 2018). "The strange power of the 'evil eye'". BBC. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 5 January 2021.

[15] JSTOR 644689
.

[16] :10.1111/j.1556-3537.2010.01020.x
.

[ulmer-17] ISBN 978-0-88125-463-1
.

[18] Smith, Elaine (6 December 2019). "Beware the Evil Eye. Or Buy One, Just for Kicks (Published 2019)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 14 January 2021. Retrieved 5 January 2021.

[19] Lucky Mojo. "The Corno (Italian Horn Amulet)". Archived from the original on 1 September 2013. Retrieved 9 February 2015.

[altobello1921-20] (in Italian) Altobello, G. (1921), Fauna dell'Abruzzo e del Molise. Mammiferi. IV. I Carnivori (Carnivora) Archived 2016-05-04 at the Wayback Machine, Colitti e Figlio, Campobasso, pp. 38–45

[21] ISBN 0-231-04006-7
.

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Roman mythology

Nature of Roman myth

Founding myths

Other myths

Etruscan mythology

Gods and Goddesses

Cultural phenomena

See also

References

External links