Mens (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Mens is the personification of thought and consciousness; it is also known as Bona Mens , as the personification of the human soul.
After the defeat of the consul Gaius Flaminius in the Battle of Lake Trasimeno in 217 BC. On the advice of the Sibylline books and on behalf of the Senate , the praetor Titus Otacilius Crassus swore to build a temple of the men on the Capitol , which was consecrated two years later next to the temple of Venus Erycina . The Romans asked the goddess to give them prudence and clarity of thought in the fight against Hannibal . On the foundation day of the temple, June 8th, a festival was celebrated in her honor. Mens Bona was worshiped not only in public but also in private cult. With Pliny andCicero mentions the cult of the men alongside other abstract deifications. While the cult was not very widespread during the republican era, numerous consecrations from the imperial era have come down to us. Outside of Rome, the cult was widespread among slaves.
Images of the men are preserved on Roman coins.
literature
- R. Peter: Mens . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.2, Leipzig 1897, Col. 2798-2800 ( digitized version ).
Web links
- Mens in the Roman Myth Index (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ August Pauly (ed.): Real Encyclopedia of Classical Classical Studies. Vol. 4. Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart 1846, pp. 1811f
- ↑ Livy 22, 9, 7ff .; 23, 31, 9.
- ^ Ovid : Fasti 6, 241 ff.
- ^ Dtv lexicon of antiquity. Religion - mythology . Vol. 2. 2nd edition dtv Verlag, Munich 1976, p. 89.
- ↑ Ovid, fasti 6, 241 ff.
- ↑ Properz 3, 24, 19.
- ↑ Pliny, Naturalis historia 2.14.
- ↑ Cicero, de natura deorum 3, 88 and de legibus 2, 19 and 2, 28.
- ^ Dtv lexicon of antiquity. Religion - mythology . Vol. 2. 2nd edition dtv Verlag, Munich 1976, p. 89
- ^ Gerhard Radke: Mens. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 3, Stuttgart 1969, Col. 1224.