Prodigium

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In the context of Roman religiosity, a prodigium ( Latin : miraculous sign; monstrosity) is a strange event (interpreted as a divine sign of anger) ( meteorite impacts , malformations in people or the like).

Prodigies are to be understood exclusively as gloomy and, above all, accidental omens - not as prophecies of certain events (as in the case of the oracle ). Since they always applied to the Roman state in its entirety, they had to be recognized by the Senate . To appease the gods again, always took place at the beginning of a collective - ritual atonement .

As the basis of a narrative tradition that became very influential from the Renaissance onwards, prodigy literature is of particular interest for narrative research .

literature

  • Jürgen Beyer: Prodigies. In: Encyclopedia of Fairy Tales . Volume 10: Nibelungenlied - process motifs . de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 2002, ISBN 3-11-016841-3 , Sp. 1378-1388.
  • David Engels : The Roman omens (753-27 BC). Sources, terminology, commentary, historical development. Steiner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-515-09027-4 , ( Potsdamer Classical Studies 22).
  • Annedore Groß: Prophecies and Prodigies in the Argonautica of Valerius Flaccus. Utz, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-8316-0267-0 , ( Munich contributions to linguistic and literary studies [2]), (At the same time: Regensburg, Univ., Diss., 2003).
  • Wolfgang Hübner : Dirae in the Roman epic. About the relationship between bird demons and prodigies. Olms, Hildesheim et al. 1970, ( Spudasmata 21, ISSN  0584-9705 ), (also: Tübingen, Univ., Diss., 1965).
  • Veit Rosenberger : Tamed gods. The productive system of the Roman Republic. Steiner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-07199-7 , ( Heidelberg ancient historical contributions and epigraphic studies 27), (At the same time: Augsburg, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 1997).
  • Marco Heiles: Monsters and Humanists. On the change in meaning of the monster in the late Middle Ages , 2010 online at hcommons.org (last accessed April 6, 2017)

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