Cipus

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Genucius Cipus is a mythical Roman general from the early days of the republic . On his return from a successful battle, Cipus discovers in the water of a river shortly before the gates of Rome that he has grown horns. He then sacrifices and asks a shiver of sacrifice about the meaning of this omen . A haruspex prophesies that he will rule Rome as a king. Probably in memory of the tyrannical government of the last Roman king, Tarquinius Superbus , Cipus renounces and wants to go into exile. At the Porta Raudusculana , the city gate of the Servian Wall, in front of which this episode takes place, a sculpture is then placed as a reminder of this story.

With this episode Ovid does not describe any concrete transformation in his Metamorphoses ; the story serves more as an aition to explain the sculpture - including a criticism of the principle of Augustus .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. Pliny , Naturalis historia 11, 123: "Actaeonem enim et Cipum ... fabulosos reor."
  2. ^ Ovid, Metamorphosen 15, 569: victor domito veniebat ab hoste ; Valerius Maximus 5, 6, 3 calls him praetor
  3. In Valerius Maximus 5, 6, 3 he comes from the city
  4. Valerius Maximus 5, 6, 3 mitigates: "veluti cornua" (horns as it were)
  5. Horns as a sign of power can already be found in the deities Ammon and Hathor .
  6. ^ Ovid, Metamorphosen 15, 565-621