Bellona
Bellona (from Latin bellum 'war' old form Duellona of early Latin duellum "war") was in the Roman religion , a war goddess . Since the end of the republic, she has been equated with the goddess of war Enyo from Greek mythology and the Anatolian mother and war goddess Ma . As such, she appeared to Sulla in a vision and urged him to ruthlessly destroy his enemies.
In later Roman mythology , Bellona was considered the sister, daughter or wife of the god of war Mars , sometimes also his charioteer or muse . Her attributes are helmet, lance, sword. Her feast day was June 3rd.
During the imperial era, her picture often adorned the denarius .
In Rome , on the Field of Mars outside the city near the Mars altar, stood since 296 BC. A temple in honor of Bellona . Appius Claudius Caecus had praised and established him. His gens , the Claudians , later renovated the temple again and again and ensured that it was preserved. Inside it was decorated with battle pictures showing Appius Claudius Caecus as a general.
The Roman Senate received foreign embassies here, generals before their triumphal procession and people who were not allowed to enter the city. Directly in front of the temple was the so-called columna bellica , which served as a symbolic declaration of war by the fetials . From her a lance dipped in blood was thrown into an area at the Circus Flaminius , which was symbolically declared enemy territory . The first time this happened during the war against Pyrrhus .
The cult of Bellona seems to have both fascinated and repulsed by the frenzy of the followers ( fanatici ), who inflicted wounds on themselves with double axes . The cult was even said to have made human sacrifices, so one should 48 BC. BC found vessels with human flesh in the accidental destruction of a Bellona shrine. After all, there was at least one temple with a grove within the city .
The asteroid (28) Bellona is named after her .
literature
- Emil Aust : Bellona . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III, 1, Stuttgart 1897, Col. 253-257.
- Fritz Graf : Bellona. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 2, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01472-X , Sp. 556.
- August Procksch : Bellona . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1.1, Leipzig 1886, Col. 774-777 ( digitized version ).
- Georg Wissowa : Religion and cult of the Romans. 2nd Edition. 1912, p. 151f. 348-350.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Varro , De lingua latina 5.73; Antiquitates rerum humanarum et divinarum fr. 189 Cardauns.
- ↑ Plutarch , Sulla 9.4.
- ↑ Ovid , Fasti 6,201-208.
- ↑ Livy , Ab urbe condita 10,19,17.
- ^ Servius , Commentarius in Vergilii Aeneida 9:52.
- ↑ Tibullus , Elegies 1,6,43-54.
- ↑ Cassius Dio 42,26,2.
- ↑ CIL VI, 490 . 2232 . 2233 . 2234 .