Fescennine Verses (Fescennina carmina), one of the earliest kinds of Italian poetry, subsequently developed into satire and Roman comic drama. [1]
Originally sung at village harvest-home rejoicing, they made their way into the towns, and became the fashion at religious festivals and private gatherings, especially weddings, to which in later times they were practically restricted. They were usually in the Saturnine metre and took the form of a dialogue consisting of an interchange of extemporaneous raillery. Those who took part in them wore masks made of the bark of trees. At first harmless and good-humored, if somewhat coarse, these songs gradually outstripped the bounds of decency; malicious attacks were made upon both gods and men, and the matter became so serious that the law intervened and scurrilous personalities were forbidden by the Twelve Tables (Cicero, De re publica, 4.10; see also Horace epist. 2.1.139). [1]
Specimens of the Fescennines used at weddings are the Epithalamium of Manlius (Catullus 61) and the four poems of Claudian in honor of the marriage of Honorius and Maria; the first, however, is distinguished by a licentiousness which is absent in the latter. Ausonius in his Cento nuptialis mentions the Fescennines of Annianus Faliscus, who lived in the time of Hadrian. [1]
Various derivations have been proposed for the word "Fescennine." According to Festus, they were introduced from Fescennia in Etruria, but there is no reason to assume that any particular town was specially devoted to the use of such songs. As an alternative Festus suggests a connection with fascinus , the Latin word referring to a phallus-shaped amulet used to ward off the evil eye, either because the Fescennina were regarded as a protection against evil influences (see Munro, Criticisms and Elucidations of Catullus, p. 76) or because the phallus, as the symbol of fertility, would from early times have been naturally associated with harvest festivals. H. Nettleship, in an article on The Earliest Italian Literature (Journal of Philology, xi. 1882), in support of Munro's view, translates the expression "verses used by charmers", assuming a noun fescennus, connected with fas fari. [1]
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric songs, and myths that were related orally for centuries in ancient Greek culture.
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Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro was a British classical scholar.
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An epithalamium is a poem written specifically for the bride on the way to her marital chamber. This form continued in popularity through the history of the classical world; the Roman poet Catullus wrote a famous epithalamium, which was translated from or at least inspired by a now-lost work of Sappho. According to Origen, the Song of Songs might be an epithalamium on the marriage of Solomon with the Pharaoh's daughter.
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Oscilla is a word applied in Latin usage to small figures, most commonly masks or faces, which were hung up as offerings to various deities, either for propitiation or expiation, and in connection with festivals and other ceremonies. It is usually taken as the plural of oscillum, a little face. As the oscilla swung in the wind, oscillare came to mean to swing, hence in English oscillation, the act of swinging backwards and forwards, periodic motion to and fro, hence any variation or fluctuation, actual or figurative.
Fescennia or Fescennium was an ancient city of Etruscan/Faliscan origin, which is probably to be placed immediately to the north of the modern Corchiano, 6 miles (9.7 km) north west of Civita Castellana, in central Italy. The Via Amerina traverses it. At the Riserva S. Silvestro, walls exist. At Corchiano itself, however, similar walls may be traced, and the site is a strong and characteristic triangle between two deep ravines, with the third (west) side cut off by a ditch. Here, too, remains of two bridges may be seen, and several rich tombs have been excavated.
Klemens Janicki (1516–1543) was one of the most outstanding Latin poets of the 16th century.
Latin obscenity is the profane, indecent, or impolite vocabulary of Latin, and its uses. Words deemed obscene were described as obsc(a)ena, or improba. Documented obscenities occurred rarely in classical Latin literature, limited to certain types of writing such as epigrams, but they are commonly used in the graffiti written on the walls of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Among the documents of interest in this area is a letter written by Cicero in 45 BC to a friend called Paetus, in which he alludes to a number of obscene words without actually naming them.
In the theatre of ancient Greece, the choregos was a wealthy Athenian citizen who assumed the public duty, or choregiai, of financing the preparation for the chorus and other aspects of dramatic production that were not paid for by the government of the polis or city-state. Modern Anglicized forms of the word include choragus and choregus, with the accepted plurals being the Latin forms choregi and choragi. In Modern Greek, the word χορηγός is synonymous with the word "grantor".
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A phallus is a penis, an object that resembles a penis, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. In art history, a figure with an erect penis is described as ithyphallic.
In Greek mythology, Priapus is a minor rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens, and male genitalia. Priapus is marked by his oversized, permanent erection, which gave rise to the medical term priapism. He became a popular figure in Roman erotic art and Latin literature, and is the subject of the often humorously obscene collection of verse called the Priapeia.
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