Gaius Mucius Scaevola

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Painting by Hans Baldungs (1531): Mucius Scaevola in front of Porsenna

Gaius Mucius Scaevola (left-hand) is a person from early Roman history . The legend - as it z. B. Livy reports - says that Mucius saved the city of Rome when it was opened in 508 BC. Was besieged by the hostile Etruscan king Lars Porsenna .

Legend

Mucius is said to have sneaked into the enemy camp to kill Porsenna. Out of ignorance, however, he did not kill Porsenna, but a clerk. When he was caught afterwards, he tells Porsenna that many Romans covet the honor of killing him and that some are already in the camp. Porsenna threatens Mucius to hand him over to the flames if Mucius does not reveal who they are. Mucius stretched his right hand into an open flame in front of Porsenna's eyes. The hand burned without showing the pain; he is supposed to have said that his body is worthless, his honor is not. Porsenna was so overwhelmed by this example of steadfastness that he gave Mucius freedom, began peace negotiations and finally broke off the siege of Rome. Mucius was nicknamed Scaevola (left-handed) and a piece of land from the Roman Senate.

Scientific explanatory approach

Current deliberations suggest that Scaevola may have suffered from syringomyelia . A dissociated sensory disorder in the right hand and the associated loss of protopathic sensitivity could have made his heroic deed possible for the Roman. Here, however, the fact is disregarded that the heroes of early Roman history are predominantly mythical figures whose actual existence is more than uncertain. Therefore scientific explanations are misleading. The ancient authors had Scaevola put his hand in the fire to set a shining example of patriotism that puts the existence of the city of Rome above its own existence. The authors certainly did not give any thought to the possibility of syringomyelia, which is why this thesis is not discussed among historians and philologists.

reception

Blue fan flower ( Scaevola aemula )
Visual arts
  • Ferdinand Bol : Mutius Scaevola burns his hand in the presence of King Porsenna.
Opera
Movie
  • In 1964, a free adaptation of the material was the basis for the Italian sandal film Il Colosso di Roma (published in Germany under the title The Titan with the Iron Fist ), in which Gordon Scott played Gaius Mucius Scaevola.
  • In Star Trek: Discovery , the Klingon Voq also voluntarily holds his hand in a flame to prove that his honor and will are more important than his body.
science
  • The plant genus Scaevola (fan flowers) was described by Carl von Linné and its name indicates that the corolla of the plant is strongly zygomorphic , 5-fold and in many species is clearly compressed on one side.

literature

Web links

Commons : Gaius Mucius Scaevola  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Livy 2,12,1-2,13,5.
  2. ↑ Dr. med. Christian Müller: Elegant self-control. (PDF) In: Swiss Medical Journal. Editores Medicorum Helveticorum, 2003, accessed June 10, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Luciana Aigner-Foresti : The Etruscans and early Rome, Darmstadt 2009, p. 9.
  4. ^ Early Rome. Myth and Society, ed. v. Jaclyn Neel, Hoboken (New Jersey) 2017, p. 274
  5. ^ Auctioneer Schmidmer: Directory of the rare art collections . Nuremberg 1825, 250 pages ( online , p. 73)
  6. ↑ florabase online