Cipus
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
- Ulrich Schmitzer : The political reality in Rome. Cipus, Augustus and the crisis of 23 BC Chr. (15,533-621). in: Ulrich Schmitzer: Contemporary history in Ovids Metamorphoses. Mythological poetry with a political claim. BG Teubner, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-519-07453-2 , pp. 260-272
- Detlef Urban: Cipus (15, 565–621): a vir vere Romanus . in: Detlef Urban: The Augustan rule program in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2005, ISBN 3-631-53800-6 , pp. 120-134
- Georg Wissowa : Cipus . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,1, Leipzig 1886, Col. 908 f. ( Digitized version ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pliny , Naturalis historia 11, 123: "Actaeonem enim et Cipum ... fabulosos reor."
- ^ Ovid, Metamorphosen 15, 569: victor domito veniebat ab hoste ; Valerius Maximus 5, 6, 3 calls him praetor
- ↑ In Valerius Maximus 5, 6, 3 he comes from the city
- ↑ Valerius Maximus 5, 6, 3 mitigates: "veluti cornua" (horns as it were)
- ↑ Horns as a sign of power can already be found in the deities Ammon and Hathor .
- ^ Ovid, Metamorphosen 15, 565-621