#de natura deorum

[philosophybits]

No one can be happy without virtue.

Cicero, De Natura Deorum

[philosophybitmaps]

[ciceroniantrash]

self aware Cicero saturday

[dian-and-the-gods]

Was reading De Natura Deorum by Cicero and...my head....

"The first Venus, who has a temple at Elis, was the daughter of Cœlus and Dies. The second arose out of the froth of the sea, and became, by Mercury, the mother of the second Cupid. The third, the daughter of Jupiter and Dione, was married to Vulcan, but is said to have had Anteros by Mars. The fourth was a Syrian, born of Tyro, who is called Astarte, and is said to have been married to Adonis."

So um...??

Seems like some ancients saw that in some myths Venus came from the foam of the sea and in other myths was the child of Jupiter and Dione, and they just went "mm yes that simply means there are like 5 different Venuses who all have the same name and the same domain, but these different myths correspond to only one of those" ... like that's not my explanation for why there are different genealogies in different myths at all...

A difference in genealogy makes a wholly separate deity who still has the same name and domain, this is like super hard polytheism lmao

Also interpretatio romana got in the way here lol, funny how instead of saying "Venus is Astarte just under a different name for the Syrians" they go like "Astarte is yet another Venus who is her own separate individual to our Venus", funny how they went full circle back to hard polytheism lmao

[fluentisonus]

[iphis-et-iante]

Today is the rest before the storm of reading a book a day for a week in my second language.

Have, literally, no idea what I'm going to read.

Meh, I guess old faithful Cicero for tomorrow and then we'll see afterwards?

caesar ? idk

Good luck to @sophisotes who (maybe? unsure) is possibly also participating!

[pomegraphy]

Lady Selene,

Goddess of

The Lunar Month

The Greek months start with the new moon and were then divided into three ten day periods. The first ten days were presided over by the waxing moon, the next ten were the near full and full moon, and the last ten was the waning moon. Festivals including the lucky and unlucky days of the month were measured in the cycles of the moon.

Evelyn-White. "Long-winged Meme... at eventime in the mid-month: then her great orbit is full and then her beams shine brightest as she increases. So she is sure token and a sign to mortal men" (Homeric Hymn, 32 to Selene: C7th- 4th B.C.)

Childbirth

Pregnancies were commonly measured in lunar months, so Lady Selene had a natural association with childbirth.

Timotheus. "Through the blue-black vault of the starts and of Selana who gives swift childbirth." (Campbell Vol. Greek Lyric V, Frag 803: C5th B.C.)

Dew

The moon was believed to nourish plants and animals with her dew. Lady Selene was associated with Ariadne, wife of Dionysus as the goddess of nourishing.

Cicero. "Luna the Moon's course also has a sort of winter and summer solstice; and she emits many streams of influence, which supply animal creatures with nourishment and stimulate their growth and which cause plants to flourish and attain maturity." (De Natura Deorum, 2.14: 45 B.C.)

and the Moon

Tryphiodorus. "When Mene (the Moon) [Selene], full with grey fire, gilds with her face the gleaming heaven: not when, sharpening her pointed horns, she first shines, rising in the shadowless dusk of the month, but when, orbing the round radiance of her eye, she draws to herself the reflected rays of the sun." (The Taking of Ilias, 514:C6th A.D.)

Who is Selene?

The titan goddess of the moon. She was depicted as a woman riding a sidesaddle on a horse. Her lunar crescent was set upon her head as a crown. She was said to sometimes drive a team of oxen and her lunar crescent was likened to a pair of bull's horns.

Symbolisms of Selene

Crystal: Moonstone

Colors: Silver, Grey-white, and white

Day of the week: Monday

Scents/Flowers: Myrtle, willow, white poppy, white rose, and wall flower.

Animals: Bulls and horses

Offerings

Silver jewelry, curved crescent knives, silver/white coins, silver/white candles, cups of (salt) water, seed pods, mirrors, white flowers, any sea/tide related offerings, mooncakes, writing hymns.

Ways to worship

Wearing silver jewelry

Wearing moon colored clothing

New Moon: banishing and undoing things.

Waxing Moon: offerings that relate to things you want more of. Great time for offerings

Full Moon: Harvest what you've been working on

Waning Moon: leave offerings that you want less of.

Taking items from your altar outside or on a windowsill during a full moon.

Cleansing the altar and offering items with water charged with moonlight during a new moon.

Going for a walk under the moonlight(with safety precautions)

Talking to the moon

Learning astrology

Stargazing

Meditation at night.

[deathlessathanasia]

In what source is Eleutheria, the goddess of liberty, a daughter of Hera?

Pseudo-Hyginus (Fabulae Preface) says that Jupiter had Libertas by Juno, but I'm not aware of any Greek source that makes Hera the mother of Eleutheria.

For once I agree with Theoi and find it plausible that the reference to Libertas as a daughter of Juno and Jupiter could actually be an error and that the goddess in question should be Eileithyia/Lucina instead. The names Lucina and Libertas are nothing alike, but Eileithuia/Eleuthuia/Eleuthia and Eleutheria are close enough that a confusion could conceivably arise, as seems to have happened in the case of Selene and Semele so that Luna somehow became the mother of the forth Dionysos by Jupiter according to Cicero's De Natura Deorum 3.23.

Or maybe those are genuine if less common traditions, I can't say, but given that Lucina isn't mentioned among the children of Jupiter and Juno in the Fabulae I think this theory is pretty reasonable.

[littlesparklight]

Does Ganymede take over hebe’s role and what was Ganymede’s role in cult if he had any

Some later sources do portray this as being the case; Nonnus, specifically/definitely (though even in Nonnus they seem to be serving simultaneously, too, from the excerpts on Theoi).

Other sources, late or not, rather seem to consider the position not exclusive; Cicero's De Natura Deorum 1. 40 gives the gods being served by either of them, for example, and in the Iliad, though we've heard of Ganymede's story (which is definitely in the past) Ganymede is not the one serving anyone; it's either Hebe or Hephaistos.

The usual (modern?) suggestion is that Ganymede takes over Hebe's position when she marries Herakles. Given, however, that Ganymede's most usual parentage means he's about two generations older than Herakles, he would certainly have been on Olympos before the man was even born, never mind when he finally gained apotheosis. If one would go with the version where Ganymede is a son of Laomedon, he'd still be on Olympos before Herakles' apotheosis. Another modern suggestion leans on Ganymede as Zeus personal cupbearer and Hebe as a more "general" one.

I cannot find any source for the "Hebe is clumsy and gets fired (by Apollo(???) or Zeus) and Ganymede replaces her"; so I have no idea where that is from! I'm side-eyeing that hard unless/until I can get any sort of source on that at all, even more an ancient one.

I can't exactly answer the cult question; I've not read about such things, so all I know is what Theoi mentions from Pausanias' Description of Greece; that he had at least one dedicated statue in Zeus' temple in Olympia.

[enchanted-moura]

"In other cases some exceptionally potent force is designated by a title of divinity, for example [the daimones of virtuous behaviour] . . . In the same class the names Cupidos (Sexual Desire) [Eros], Voluptas (Pleasure) [Hedone] and Venus Lubentina [Aphrodite] have been deified--things vicious and unnatural (although Velleius thinks otherwise), yet the urge of these vices often overpowers natural instinct . . . the names that I just now enumerated express the various powers of the gods that bear them."

-Cicero, De Natura Deorum 2. 23 (trans. Rackham) (Roman rhetorician C1st B.C.)

[tityre-tu-scurra]

Out of context Cicero:

If Epicurus had known what is two times two, he would not say such nonsense;

De natura deorum, II, 49

[philosophybits]

Freedom suppressed and again regained bites with keener fangs than freedom never endangered.

Cicero, De Natura Deorum

[mystical-sleepy-musings]

LORD EREBUS

Greek primordial god of darkness

SOURCES

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

[Theoi.com|https://www.theoi.com/]

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

The darkness envelops the principal parts of our world. Gifting of our fears within he is the psyche's own shadows, which we relay our pleas of harmony

|Who is Lord Erebus?|

Lord Erebus(or Erebos)is the primordial darkness that was one of the first five beings that came to existence . He was born of Chaos. The meaning of Erebus is, of course, "Darkness" or "place of darkness between Earth and Hades." He is the consort(and brother!) of Lady Nyx.

|Mythology|

Erebus is also said to mean a place in the Underworld on the way to Hades . According to Cicero's "De Natura Deorum," Lord Erebus had many children too many to list with the Fates and Oneiroi being major examples of his offspring. According to Alcman, Lord Erebus was the fourth being to come into existence. In Aristophanes comedy "Birds," Chaos, Lord Erebus , Lady Nyx, and Tartarus were the first beings before the existence of Earth, Air and Heaven.

[joseandrestabarnia]

Los olímpicos con Hércules y las musas Jacopo Zucchi (Florencia 1541- Roma 1590) Fecha: 1570-1577 Museo: Los Uffizi Técnica: óleo sobre cobre Dimensiones: 50x39 cm Inventario: 1890 n. 1509

Durante mucho tiempo se creyó que este pequeño cuadro representaba La Edad del Hierro y que formaba parte de un único ciclo junto con otras dos obras del mismo autor y de formato similar que representaban respectivamente La Edad de Oro y La Edad de Plata.

En cambio, estudios recientes han demostrado que este cuadro no puede relacionarse con los otros dos, no sólo porque fue pintado sobre un soporte diferente, cobre y no madera, sino sobre todo porque el tema había sido identificado erróneamente.

En realidad, se trata de una representación de los dioses del Olimpo con Hércules y las Musas. El tema iconográfico está tomado de un pasaje de la Teogonía de Hesíodo en el que el poeta griego dice que Júpiter, después de haber destronado a su padre Saturno, se convirtió en señor de los dioses. Zucchi lo representa entronizado en el cielo mientras le otorga a Juno los atributos que la identifican como la reina del Olimpo. A ambos lados de la pareja están la diosa de la Justicia Astrea y Mercurio, mensajero y copero de los dioses.

A continuación, como en una especie de enciclopedia mitológica, tema especialmente agradable para el pintor, que poseía un profundo conocimiento de la mitología, las demás divinidades olímpicas hacen alarde de sus respectivos atributos.

La inscripción en la escalinata del trono "A cada uno lo suyo", extraída de un pasaje de De natura deorum de Cicerón, proporciona la clave para comprender el cuadro que alude al principio fundamental que subyace a la justicia divina.

La pequeña obra, tal vez destinada a la puerta de un gabinete o de un estudio, probablemente fue encargada a Jacopo Zucchi por Ferdinando I de' Medici en la época de su cardenalato.

Alumno de Vasari, Zucchi se convirtió en su principal colaborador, participando en la decoración del Salone dei Cinquecento y del Studiolo de Francesco I en el Palazzo Vecchio. En 1572 se instaló en Roma, convirtiéndose en el artista favorito de Fernando, quien le confió numerosos encargos, entre ellos la decoración de su villa en el Pincio.

Texto por Mónica Alderotti

Información de la web de la Gallerie degli Uffizi, fotografía de mi autoría.

[from-siseon]

23.04.28.

1. 영화 3편 감상 reviewed 3 movies

- 렌필드(Renfield)

🩸🩸🩸🩸

- 킬러 도너츠(Attack Of The Killer Donuts)

🍩🍩🍩.5

- 더 뱀파이어 파티 (I Had a Bloody Good Time at House Harker)

🫠

2. 정치커뮤니케이션 2시간 공부 studied political communication for 2 hours

3. 유즈키 아사코 - 버터 완독 finished reading Butter by Asako Yuzuki

4. 도서관에서 4월달 책 털어옴 library book haul for the next month

- 키케로, 신들의 본성에 관하여 De Natura Deorum by Cicero

- 조인수, 착한 소셜미디어는 없다

- 한국언론정보학회, 언론자유의 역설과 저널리즘의 딜레마

- 대니얼 예긴, 뉴맵 The New Map by Daniel Yergin

[fluentisonus]

I need to reread both the de rerum natura and the de natura deorum.........