Victoria (mythology)
Victoria is the deified personification of victory ( Latin victoria ) in Roman mythology , protective goddess of the Roman emperor and virgin guardian of the empire . She is the equivalent of the Greek goddess Nike . She was often depicted flying and with a laurel wreath as a symbol of victory in her right hand.
In Roman history, sacrifices were allegedly made to Victoria early on, according to the ancient writer Dionysius of Halicarnassus already at the time of the mythical king Euandros , but this is to be seen as an invention of the more recent annals . Their temple in Rome was built in 294 BC. Chr., According to the Fasti Praenestini on August 1st, consecrated by Lucius Postumius Megellus on the occasion of the Third Samnite War . During the Roman civil wars , especially through Sulla and Gaius Iulius Caesar , the goddess finally achieved great importance for the ideological stylization of the respective rulers. Emperor Augustus and his successors during the Principate's time used them and their pictorial representations specifically to represent their own rule and power, for example through the 29 BC. BC built Victoria Altar as well as numerous Victoria statues. With the rise of Christianity and the decline of the Roman religion in late antiquity , Victoria's political role also ended. In the second half of the 4th century, the dispute over the Victoria Altar finally came to a climax between " pagans " and Christians.
The goddess Victoria had a strong aftereffect in later political iconography , for example through her statues on the Brandenburg Gate ( Quadriga ), the Berlin Victory Column , the Waterloo Column in Hanover and in the Schwerin Orangery . Various place names (see Victoria ) and the first name Victoria / Viktoria (see Viktoria (name) ) are also derived from the goddess of victory .
Web links
literature
- Kurt Latte : Victoria . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 6, Leipzig 1937, Col. 294-302 ( digitized version ).
- Johannes Scherf: Victoria 1. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 12/2, Metzler, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-01487-8 , Col. 189 f.
Individual evidence
- ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiquitates Romanae 1,32,5.
- ↑ Kurt Latte : Victoria . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 6, Leipzig 1937, column 295 ( digitized version ) ..
- ^ Hermann Dessau : Inscriptiones Latinae selectae . Volume 2.2. Weidmann, Berlin 1906, No. 8744 a; Attilio Degrassi : Calendaria (= Inscriptiones Italiae. Volume 13: Fasti et Elogia . Fasc. 2). Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato, Rome 1963, pp. 107-145 (= AE 2007, 312 ).
- ↑ Titus Livius , Ab urbe condita 10,33,9.