Lucretia

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The rape of Lucretia; Painting by Titian , 1571

According to later tradition, Lucretia was a Roman woman from the (semi) mythical early period, daughter of Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus and wife of Collatinus from the royal family of the Tarquinians. She was famous for her beauty and even more for her virtue.

Lore

Tarquinius and Lucretia by Antonio Bellucci

The later, tangible tradition, especially in Titus Livius , but also in the Fasti Ovids , reports the following story: In the 6th century BC Chr. , Thus feeling in Rome none of his life, his family and his ancestors safe. The regime of Tarquinius Superbus was unbearable, but not only for the Romans , who at the time were still shepherds and peasants and therefore did not yet have equal representatives in politics. These were uncertain times for the mighty Etruscans and even for the king's relatives . Therefore, many men from the Tarquin noble family conspired against the tyrant in order to overthrow him. Among these were Tanaquil's grandson , Brutus , and Lucretia's husband, Collatinus.

During the occupation of the city of Ardea , the young Tarquin princes met in their tents in the evenings. One evening they met in the tent of Sextus Tarquinius , a son of the king, and talked about women. The conversation heated up when Collatinus - the only one married not to an Etruscan woman but to a Roman woman - that his wife Lucretia was above all other women. To convince her, Collatinus invited the others to visit her. In contrast to her sisters-in-law, she was not found at feasts or other things that were unsuitable for women of the time, but surrounded by her maids spinning the wool in the light of an oil lamp. Sextus immediately coveted his comrade's wife.

Marcantonio Raimondi , Lucretia , ca.1510/11, copper engraving

During her husband's absence, he visited Lucretia on a pretext, who admitted him because he was a distant relative of Collatinus. Then that night he snuck into her room and tried to rape her. He threatened her with his sword, but she said she would rather die than be unfaithful to her husband. But when Tarquinius threatened to lay her corpse next to that of a dead slave and then accuse her of fornication (which is why he then killed both of them in the act), she endured the act. After the rape, Tarquinius disappeared. Lucretia sent for her husband and father. She tearfully told them the injustice she had done. The men emphasized that Lucretia was not to blame, only the perpetrator was guilty. Although she also absolved herself of sin, she did not want to go on living, so that in future no dishonorable woman would continue to live with reference to Lucretia. So she stuck a knife in her heart and died. The men carried the body out of the house and brought it to the market square. A crowd gathered there to learn what had happened. This triggered a revolt against the hated monarchy among the people. The opponents of the king from the house of the Tarquinians took this opportunity and overthrew the regime.

meaning

Lucius Junius Brutus swears vengeance for the death of Lucretia, Vienna, Schönbrunn

The Livian portrayal raises doubts as to whether the narrative was about rape or adultery. Although the criminal act of the king's son is condemned, Livy also deals with a possible part of Lucretia's guilt.

The background to this is the law of Patria Potestas , which was valid then and also in Livy’s time, and the planned judicial reform of Augustus with the Leges Iuliae , which Augustus first introduced in 28 BC. Was launched. The scene with Lucretia, the husband and the father resembles a court case: the language is colored in legal terms and the division into four sections refers to the usual parts of speech in a process. Lucretia emphasizes adultery as what is actually scandalous (and not the use of force against her) and absolves herself of any guilt. The husband and the father in the role of Patria Potestas join her statement on the grounds that "where there was no intention, there is no guilt". It is therefore completely surprising and incomprehensible to both family members and readers that she punishes herself with death.

The tragedy of the story lies in the fact that Lucretia bowed to the threats of Sextus Tarquinius and, paradoxically, she pays for her modesty with the loss of modesty. There is no evidence and the acquittal of Lucretia from all guilt by the Patria Potestas is based solely on Lucretia's testimony. The house court appears to be incompetent and weak due to the vigilante justice that now follows. With her last words, she takes the side of the judicial reform that shows all future women who commit fornication the way to death.

This story marked (according to the traditional dating 510/09 BC) the end of the monarchy and the beginning of the Roman Republic . Thus "The Desecration of Lucretia" belongs to the founding myth of the Roman Republic. There is no historical evidence: the legend of the rape of Lucretia is as old as the tradition is preserved, and is reported by Livy at the end of the first book of Ab urbe condita in chapters 57–59. Many authors were inspired by this story (see below); Most ancient historians consider the story, at least in its present form, to be a later invention that also reveals the influence of Greek tyrant topics.

In the literature

While the ancient authors used the events of Lucretia's suicide in relation to the literary representation of tyrannical behavior and saw Sextus Tarquinius as the sole culprit for Lucretia's death, the interpretation shifts with the church father Aurelius Augustine . The latter rejects Lucretia's justification for the suicide and assumes that Lucretia is complicit and motivated in connection with his resolute conviction of the suicide. So she is said to have secretly enjoyed the rape. As a result, she is said to have chosen suicide as a cover-up, stricken with shame.

Dante Alighieri , like many other authors, takes up the positive interpretation of the material that has been known since ancient times. In his Divina Commedia , the Italian poet lets Lucretia meet the lyrical self and its companion on a green lawn within the first circle of hell, together with numerous “good heathens”, the heroes and philosophers of antiquity. He rejects the possibility of referring Lucretia as a suicide - in the interpretation of Augustine - to the seventh circle of hell intended for suicides.

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , in his "bourgeois tragedy" Emilia Galotti in 1772, transferred the already classic theme of ancient Lucretia and Verginia to the present day, but the seduced and dishonored protagonist Emilia does not die by her own hand like Lucretia, she rather wishes from to be stabbed to her father.

In the arts

Lucretia is the title heroine of numerous works with the central theme of conjugal fidelity and violated chastity .

Fiction

  • Ovid : Fasti , verse (in it the events of Lucretia)
  • William Shakespeare : The Rape of Lucrece , long poem. The focus here is no longer on the Roman ideal of the virtue of an “Uxor Romana”, but rather tragic and power-political elements. The hostile misdeed of Tarquin is only focused through the stories of his opponent Collatin and the perpetrator meets Lucretia for the first time when he desecrates her. She demands an oath of revenge from her husband .
  • Giuseppe Maria Doria Pamphilj: Lasciato havea d'adultero superbo , cantata libretto , which was used, for example, by Alessandro Scarlatti and Benedetto Marcello for their Lucrezia cantatas
  • Alexander Pushkin : Count Nulin , parody
  • Jean Giraudoux : Pour Lucrèce , drama
  • André Obey : Le Viol de Lucrèce , play for the stage
  • Mario Vargas Llosa : Praise the Stepmother , Roman
  • Heinrich Bullinger : A nice game of the story of the noble Roman Lucretiae , drama in 2 acts, premier: Basel 1533.
    • Other titles:
      • A nice game of the story of the noble Roman woman Lucretiae and how the tyrannical küng Tarquinius Superbus of Rhom and wonderful of the steadfast Junij Bruti of the First Consul in Rhom
      • Game of the beautiful Lucretia
      • A nice game from the story of the noble Roman Lucretiae
      • Game of Lucretia and Brutus

Fine arts

The figure of Lucretia also appears in pictorial representations of the Nine Good Heroines , she is a representative of paganism in this iconographic series. This is how it became a major 'secular' theme in the Renaissance:

The Museum of Late Antiquity and Byzantine Art ( Bode-Museum ) shows the threat to Lucretia with a knife by Tarquinius in a sculpture by the Italian sculptor Pietro Tacca from 1700.

music

Sodoma : The Death of Lucretia , 1513
  • The Sisters of Mercy : Lucretia My Reflection , Third single from the album Floodland (1987)
  • Megadeth : Lucretia , thrash metal song (released on Capitol Records on the 1990 Rust in Piece LP )
  • Kreator : Lucretia My Reflection , Thrash Metal, appeared on the album "Voices of Transgression"
  • Momus : The Rape of Lucretia , on the album Circus Maximus

literature

Web links

Commons : Lucretia  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Titus Livius  - Quotes

Remarks

  1. ↑ “And no one after me should, referring to Lucretien, want to keep their life in the event of unchastity. “Liv. 1.58. Roman history, translation by Konrad Heusinger , Volume 1, Vieweg, Braunschweig 1821, p. 96, books.google.de
  2. ↑ The Patria Potestas is the judge's office over all family members with the entire household and was incumbent on the pater familias , the male head of the family. He was the competent authority for adultery. See Marriage in the Roman Empire .
  3. ↑ Robert Maxwell Ogilvie thinks that Livy did not intentionally support Augustus 'family policy with the story, but that he shared Augustus' position. Robert Maxwell Ogilvie: A Commentary on Livy. Books 1–5. Oxford Scholarly Editions Online, January 2016. p. 223.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Livius 1: 57–60 and Ovid, Fasti, 2.685–855.
  2. ↑ Livy 1,57,5-8.
  3. ↑ Livy 1,57,9-11.
  4. ↑ Livy 1: 58: 1-5.
  5. ↑ Livy 1.58.6-1.59.4.
  6. ^ Robert Maxwell Ogilvie : A Commentary on Livy . Books 1–5. Oxford Scholarly Editions Online, January 2016. p. 29
  7. ↑
    Wikiquote: Titus Livius  - Quotes
  8. ↑ Liv. 1.58.10-12. Translated by Hans Jürgen Hillen , Düsseldorf and Zurich, 1987.
  9. ^ Livy 'Lucretia: An adultera or per vim stuprata? A classification taking into account the Lex Iulia de adulteriis coercendis, Theresia Lehner, Freie Universität Berlin, winter semester 2013/2014, published in an essence note, student journal for humanities and cultural studies, issue 6. Berlin 2015.
  10. ↑ "57-59. Lucretia and the Fall of the Tarquins. " Robert Maxwell Ogilvie: A Commentary on Livy . Books 1–5. Oxford Scholarly Editions Online, January 2016. p. 219.
  11. ↑ Aug. civ. I, XIX. See also Walther, pp. 122–123.
  12. ↑ Inferno, IV, 111-144. See also Walther, p. 124.
  13. ^ Der Tagesspiegel , October 23, 2006; Picture gallery Staatliche Museen zu Berlin ( Memento from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on December 11, 2015
  14. ↑ Jacques Gallot - Tarquin. Retrieved March 26, 2013 .
  15. ^ Jacques Gallot - Lucrèce. Retrieved March 26, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME Lucretia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus
DATE OF BIRTH 6th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 6th century BC BC or 5th century BC Chr.
Place of death Rome