Cloelia

Cloelia crosses the Tiber (Peter Paul Rubens, 1630–1640)

Cloelia is a fabulous female figure from early Roman history .

According to Titus Livius , a peace agreement between the Romans and the Etruscan King Lars Porsenna in 508 BC BC Cloelia and other young women were sent hostage to the Etruscan camp. However, she fled by swimming with other hostages through the Tiber to get back to Rome. Porsenna initially reclaimed them and threatened otherwise to view the newly concluded peace treaty as invalid. But then he was so impressed by Cloelia's bravery that he in turn promised the Romans that they would be returned immediately if they were extradited. She was then sent back to Porsenna by the Romans, who kept his promise, treated her with honor and even allowed her to take more hostages with her when she returned. For her heroism, Cloelia was honored with an equestrian statue on the Via Sacra , which, however, was no longer visible during Livy's lifetime.

The story was seen by some as an attempt to explain this only female equestrian statue in Rome. In iconography , too , Cloelia is often depicted as a girl on horseback in front of Porsenna. Others have made references to a prehistoric mythology of the city of Rome and the figure with various epithets of Venus (Equestris, Cluilia or Cloacina "the purifying, expiatory") or one brought together “transfunctional goddess” (cf. Georges Dumézil ), who was gifted with the three central aspects of Indo-European social theory , comparable to the Draupadi of the Indian Mahabharata , since she saved Rome with fides , bellicose courage and concern for the young.

swell

Livy, Ab urbe condita 2,13,6-11.
Florus , Epitoma de Tito Livio 1,4,7.
Valerius Maximus , Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium 3,2,2.

literature

René Bloch: Cloelia 1. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Metzler, Stuttgart 1996-2015, ISBN 3-476-01470-3 .
Friedrich Münzer : Cloelius 13 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV, 1, Stuttgart 1900, Col. 110 f.
Bernhard Kytzler : women of antiquity. From Aspasia to Zenobia. Artemis, Munich & Zurich 2000, ISBN 3-7608-1224-4 , p. 54.
Edmund W. Braun: Cloelia , in: Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte , Vol. III (1953), Sp. 796–801 ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Cloelia - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Albert Schwegler: Römische Geschichte , Vol. II. Laupp & Siebeck, Tübingen 1856, p. 186 (on Venus Cloacina, from Latin cluere "clean", cf. the entry cloaca in the Wiktionary and ibid., Vol. I, p. 488, n. 1); Ludwig Preller: Roman mythology. Third edition, ed. by Henri Jordan, Vol. I. Berlin 1881, p. 447; see. Friedrich Münzer : Cloelius 13 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV, 1, Stuttgart 1900, Col. 110 f.
↑ Jaan Puhvel: Comparative mythology . The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1987, p. 165.

[1] Albert Schwegler: Römische Geschichte , Vol. II. Laupp & Siebeck, Tübingen 1856, p. 186 (on Venus Cloacina, from Latin cluere "clean", cf. the entry cloaca in the Wiktionary and ibid., Vol. I, p. 488, n. 1); Ludwig Preller: Roman mythology. Third edition, ed. by Henri Jordan, Vol. I. Berlin 1881, p. 447; see. Friedrich Münzer : Cloelius 13 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV, 1, Stuttgart 1900, Col. 110 f.

[2] Jaan Puhvel: Comparative mythology . The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1987, p. 165.