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- Author or Editor: Giulia Pedrucci x
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Summary
This chapter aims to reconsider an inscription from Consilinum (3rd century CE), in which we find the problematic mention of a mundus Attinis. This inscription has been almost neglected by scholars: it has been analyzed in a systematic way only in an article in Latin language back in 1978. It is not easy to explain what mundus exactly represented to the ancient Romans, but we can assert for sure that it was a holy place in connection with the worship of the gods of the underworld. The connection between Cybele, Attis, and the underworld is well known, but this is the only mention we have of a mundus Attinis i.e. Attidis. It might be connected to the (mystic?) rites in honor of the dead Attis, symbolized by a pine, who, during the Hilaria, was carried in an underground chamber for lamentations, before his new life. In my opinion, we might also think of the mundus as a sort of reversed womb, related to the figure of the Magna Mater, in which birth and death come together and overlap.
Starting from some reflections on how Hera played the role of mother in mythological tales, we move to take into consideration the special case of the goddess suckling Heracles (sometimes as an adult). Notoriously, the Greeks attributed specific properties to breast-milk, such as transmitting genetic traits and creating bonds of kinship; therefore it does not seem unlikely to think that the episode in question alludes to the (symbolic) adoption by Hera of the illegitimate son of her husband, in order to let him access the divine family. Adoption in the ancient world, in fact, often involved adolescents and adults, with the primary goal being the provision of a legitimate heir to a citizen.
Was Kore/Persephone's journey to the afterworld as a path to infertility?
Some evidence from modern southern Calabria
Abstract
As mythological figures, Demeter and Kore stand together as timeless symbols of this moment of transition between maidenhood, wifehood, and then motherhood. While contemplating these goddesses, historically situated and embodied women surely remembered — or learned soon enough — that pregnancies and babies would follow their marriage. The mythological narrative, however, focuses on this crucial transition rather than on the effective beginning of motherhood through pregnancy and childbirth. Kore is the maiden, the new bride, and the mother-to-be. She never becomes a mother.
The absence of offspring can be explained by the functional reading we just mentioned: she is a mother-to-be, not a mother. Demeter, in the Eleusinian myth, plays the role of the mother. There is, however, another way that can be explored in this regard and that is not necessarily in contrast with the first one: Kore/Persephone's marriage is sterile since it takes place in the underworld. There is no life in the afterworld; therefore, she can not give birth to a child. This paper will explore if the journey of Kore/Persephone to the Hades can be seen as a path to infertility.
Who protects children in the Roman religion? From whom?
Some reflections concerning Carna, Ino, and Thesan, in connection with Mater Matuta
Abstract
If we think of child protection in the Roman religion, the first goddess that comes to mind is Mater Matuta. This paper, however, does not focus directly on Mater Matuta, but on other divine figures to some extent related to her: Carna, Ino, and Thesan.
Carna-Cranaë-Cardea, the nymph of the thresholds was celebrated on the calends of June, just ten days after the ceremony in the temple of Mater Matuta. The cult of Ino and Melicertes arose in Italy, where they were called by the Greeks Leukothea and Palaemon, and by the Romans Matuta and Portunus. Thesan was the Etruscan goddess connected with the Dawn, like Mater Matuta. To some extent, these divine figures are all related to kourotrophia.
Incidentally, I will try to suggest that the Roman religious calendar from the 1st of June to the 11th of June was full of details which might allude to one another, with the aim of underlining the importance of human and divine kourotrophia, by using the concept of intertext in literary criticism.
