You left your head out—I hope it clears

[sovay]

I was looking for something else on my computer and found a block of mythographical text I had obviously compiled for someone, I have no idea whom. Late October or early November 2011. I hope I actually sent it to them:

The problem with Mars is the same as with all the indigenous Roman gods: they were fused so early with the Olympians, it can be difficult to pick out what is underneath the interpretatio graeca. He is the god of war, yes; he can be identified in statues and murals from his helmet and spear, which is his emblem as Jupiter's is the thunderbolt, Neptune's the trident, Saturn's the sickle. He is also a god of agriculture: the Carmen Arvale, the archaic chant of the Fratres Arvales, the Brothers of the Field, calls upon him to keep off rust from the crops. He is also invoked as Mars Silvanus, Mars of the wildwood. (One of the essential qualities of Roman gods is their multiplicity: he is also Mars Gradivus, Mars whom the armies march by; Mars Quirinus, Mars of oaths and treaties; Mars Pater, divine father of the Romans and the name under which he is called to the battlefield self-sacrifice of the devotio; Mars Ultor, Mars the avenger; and any number of other cult titles I cannot list off the top of my head. There was a lot of syncretism in the provinces, especially among the Celts, about whose many-faced gods I know even less.) The wolf is one of his animals; so is the woodpecker. To him is sacrificed the October Horse: a chariot race is held on the Campus Martius on the Ides of October, the lead horse of the winning team is spear-killed by a priest of Mars and beheaded, then fought over by two teams of youths; its tail is cut off and brought to the Regia, which was once the palace of the kings of Rome. His other festival is in March, which Ovid in the Fasti claims was originally the first month of the Roman year. Together they bracket the spring-through-fall season of farming and campaigning. He is at rest in winter. The old form of his name is Mavors.

Comments

[nineweaving]

I hope they thought it was awesome—I do!

Nine

[redbird]

I like Champ de Mars as a subway station name better for knowing that a chariot race was held on its Roman namesake. (Without that, what it called to my mind was battlefields.)

[asakiyume]

The woodpecker--interesting; strange.

[larryhammer]

Cool. And now I *really* want to know more about Mars Silvanus.

[sovay]

I hope they thought it was awesome—I do!

Thank you!

[sovay]

I like Champ de Mars as a subway station name better for knowing that a chariot race was held on its Roman namesake.

Makes sense to me!

[sovay]

The woodpecker--interesting; strange.

Right! The wolf looks obvious—the mother of Rome, one of our enduring sigils of the wild. The woodpecker is not so intuitive to us. It was an important bird in the practice of augury; it's one of the guide animals of the ritual called the ver sacrum, the sacred spring, the dedication of the next year's crop of children to Mars, who instead of being sacrificed like the same cohort of livestock will leave their home city when they come to adulthood and found colonies. It's supposed to explain the proliferation of Italic peoples and their sacred animals. A bunch of grammarians discuss or refer to it, as does Livy. Georges Dumézil thought it explained the founding of Rome, but I am not sure he is considered to be right.

[sovay]

And now I *really* want to know more about Mars Silvanus.

I honestly haven't got much off the top of my head except Cato's De agri cultura, which means you may have to read Cato. It's probably something about the boundaries of the wild and the cultivated, not, like, guerrilla warfare in the forests.

[gwynnega]

Cool! I didn't know any of this besides the god of war part.

[larryhammer]

Reading around, speculation seems to be more that it's more to do with raiding and protecting cattle, with the latter function having somewhat firmer support.

[sovay]

Cool! I didn't know any of this besides the god of war part.

Greek and Roman gods are taught very neatly and uninterestingly and they are all so much damn weirder than they look on the outside of the box!

[sovay]

raiding and protecting cattle, with the latter function having somewhat firmer support.

Huh. The protection of cattle makes sense to me; it's the function of the ritual recorded by Cato which is my first association with Mars Silvanus. (All of my classical materials are in boxes, so I was about to try to track it down on the wider internet, but it turns out to be translated on Wikipedia, which makes me feel stupid.) I wouldn't have assumed a connection to cattle raiding, though. It feels more in keeping with warding off corn rust from the crops—murrain from the cattle, etc.

[kore]

I REALLY hate the way they try to make the Greek and Roman gods match up exactly, too.

[kore]

'Woodpecker' was cracking me up, altho I suspected (and apparently rightly so!) that was more because of my ignorance. I did not know it was that important to the Romans!

[larryhammer]

The raiding is a little more speculative, but that wolf-skin he wears is a part of the circumstantial evidence.

[brigdh]

This is SO fascinating! Thank you for sharing.

[sovay]

This is SO fascinating! Thank you for sharing.

You're welcome! My formal knowledge of early Roman religion is not all it could be, but it is very cool.