Venus Obsequens

Last updated

Venus Obsequens ("Compliant Venus" [1] ) was the first Venus for whom a shrine (aedes) was built in ancient Rome. [2] [3] [4] Little is known of her cult [5] beyond the circumstances of her temple founding and a likely connection to the Vinalia Rustica, an August wine festival. [lower-alpha 1]

Contents

On the calendar

The anniversary (dies natalis) of the Temple of Venus Obsequens is thought to have been celebrated August 19, the day of the Vinalia Rustica, [5] [6] the second wine festival of the year on the Roman calendar. The Vinalia appears on the oldest calendars without a connection to Venus, but Varro's reference to an aedes dedicated to her on August 19 has been taken as this temple. [7] The other Vinalia was celebrated in April, the month over which Venus held guardianship (tutela), [8] on the 23rd, which after 215 BC was also the feast day of Venus Erycina. Both wine festivals were held originally in honor of Jupiter with the complex associations of Venus incorporated. [9] The Romans attributed the uninhibited behaviors induced by wine-drinking to Venus exercising her powers through Liber. [10]

Gardens were dedicated to Venus on August 19 as well. [11] The Temple of Venus Libitina, a goddess of death, celebrated its dies natalis on the same day, in a part of Rome on the Esquiline Hill where funerary services were concentrated. Plutarch saw this Venus as encompassing the regenerative cycle of birth and death, but Varro distinguished between Libitina and Libentina, the latter inspiring "sensual pleasure". [12]

The epithet obsequens

Although Venus had an archaic origin in Rome and Latium, the cult of Venus Obsequens was the earliest established in the Greek manner to Venus equated with Aphrodite as a goddess of sexuality. [13] The adjective obsequens, often translated as "deferential" (hence English "obsequious"), as a divine epithet expresses favor or active support – a "propitious" Venus. [5]

Sandstone relief of Venus and Fortuna, 3rd century AD, from Lembach (Musee archeologique de Strasbourg) Venus et la Fortune-Lembach-Musee archeologique de Strasbourg.jpg
Sandstone relief of Venus and Fortuna, 3rd century AD, from Lembach (Musée archéologique de Strasbourg)

The association of Venus and Fortuna in Roman religion is of long standing; [lower-alpha 2] Servius Tullius, semilegendary sixth king of Rome, is supposed to have set up an altar to Fortuna within a precinct of Venus, [15] along with his many other dedications to Fortuna. A Fortuna Obsequens is known from inscriptions, [16] [17] a mention in an early comedy by Plautus, [18] and Plutarch. [19]

The cultivation of "Venus the Obedient" [20] overtly expresses "an attempt to control the goddess", though counterbalanced over time by other instantiations such as Venus Erycina, originally a goddess of prostitution celebrated with sexual license. [21] The establishment of state cult for Venus Erycina mirrors that for Obsequens in several particulars, [22] including the authority of the Sibylline Books and a dies natalis on the second Vinalia (April 23); Erycina's temple was vowed in 217 BC by Quintus Fabius Maximus Cunctator, the grandson of the founder of the Temple of Venus Obsequens. [23]

Temple founding

Sited near the southeast end of the Circus Maximus [24] [25] at the edge of the Forum Boarium and facing the foot of the Aventine, [26] [27] the Temple of Venus Obsequens was built in 295 BC by the curule aedile Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges during the Third Samnite War. [6] The timing of the construction suggests that Fabius Gurges built it in thanks for his father's victory the previous year at the Battle of Sentinum. [6] [5] The foundation legend for Gurges' temple indicates that from an early date, the favor of Venus was felt as contributing both to success in war and sexuality. [5] Her power was the force of desire or intention; [28] the Vergil commentator Servius explains that Gurges had built the temple to Venus Obsequens "because she had gone along with him". [29]

Bronze stamp (1st-2nd century AD) for marking objects with Veneris obsequentis (genitive case), "of [belonging to] Venus Obsequens", perhaps used in conjunction with the temple (Metropolitan Museum of Art) Bronze stamp MET DP20597.jpg
Bronze stamp (1st–2nd century AD) for marking objects with Veneris obsequentis (genitive case), "of [belonging to] Venus Obsequens", perhaps used in conjunction with the temple (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

In the year 295 BC, Rome had been subject to pestilence, and prodigies had prompted the consultation of the libri, the Sibylline books. [30] The Obsequens cult was founded following a perceived outbreak of sexual misconduct (stuprum) among matronae (ordinarily a term for respectable married women), which was supposedly so widespread that Gurges could fund the project from the fines he collected. [31]

The line of thought that led from the victory at Sentinum to funding the temple with fines for stuprum is not recorded, [5] [32] but it was one in a series of foundings based on regulating female behavior as a religious response to social disorder particularly in time of war or crisis for the Roman state. In 331 BC Rome's first trial for poisoning had resulted in the conviction of 170 matrons, [33] [lower-alpha 3] and the involvement of patrician women may suggest that the founding of the scantly attested Temple of Pudicitia Patricia was a consequence. [34] Pudicitia was the virtue by which women were to demonstrate their excellence, often invoked in settings when married women were competing for social standing, encompassing sexual integrity and self-discipline equivalent to virtus , "manly" virtue. In 296 BC, a corresponding cult for Pudicitia Plebeia was established so that plebeians could compete as pudicae. Participation in both cults was limited to univirae, women who had married only once. [35] The Temple of Venus Obsequens is one of the proposed locations of the first statue, dedicated in 220 BC, to Venus Verticordia ("Heart-Turner"), [24] whose sphere of influence was diverting sexual desire into marital expression. [36]

The matrons' stuprum

The historian Livy says [lower-alpha 4] that the matrons were convicted of stuprum, an all-purpose word for sexual misconduct, originally meaning any disgraceful act, which by his own time had become a matter of public law owing to Augustan moral legislation. [37] The view of Mario Torelli and Richard Bauman that these upper-class women had literally prostituted themselves, based in part on the intervention of an aedile, [lower-alpha 5] is not widely held. [38] [39] However, Livy's insistence that many women were involved may indicate a widespread societal issue in which wives were left socially and financially adrift during wartime and sought companionship and material support. [40] A comparable incident occurred in 213 BC, when Italy was invaded during the Punic Wars and large numbers of men were called into military service: two plebeian aediles convicted a number of women of stuprum and sent them into exile. [40]

Adultery might be more plausible in the case that resulted in the Obsequens cult; [36] the temple may have served as a public warning against infidelity. [41] The matrons were brought before an aedile as a matter of public rather than private law, [30] and yet their offenses seem to have been regarded as less serious than sex crimes that could result in capital penalties. [42] That fines were deemed a sufficient penalty may suggest "something less than adultery". [43] Jane F. Gardner conjectured that the matrons were guilty of "nothing more than disorderly and uninhibited behaviour 'under the influence'" at festivals where women drank wine, such as the feast of Anna Perenna and the two Vinalia in honor of Venus [42] – "debauched picnics" that allowed them to cast off their usual propriety in the guise of religion. [44] They may not have been "guilty" of anything; [41] but since a conviction for stuprum could result in exile, property forfeiture as a consequence might explain the source of temple funding more fully than mere fines. [45]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Ancient sources on Venus Obsequens and her temple include Livy 10.31.9, 29.37.2; Festus 322 in the edition of Lindsay; Servius on Aeneid 1.720; Fasti Vallenses (Degrassi 497–498). [3]
  2. ↑ Often cited on this point is the "seminal" work of Jacqueline Champeaux, Fortuna: Le culte de la Fortune à Rome et dans le monde romain des origins à la mort de César (École française de Rome, 1982). [14]
  3. ↑ For the year 331 BC, the Augustan-era historian Livy rather skeptically records (8.18.1–14) that the aediles were presented with a handmaid ( ancilla ) who testified that what appeared to be a pandemic (publica pestis) actually arose from a ring of poisoners. The ancilla led them to a gathering where twenty matrons, under the guidance of two patricians, were preparing what they insisted were curative medicaments. They were arrested, and in their defense they agreed to drink the remedies themselves. Their consequent deaths were not taken as evidence that intent was lacking but simply as proof that the medicaments were the cause. Although their minds were said to have been "captured" (captis mentibus), and Roman law recognized that a person in the grip of mental illness could not be held legally culpable, an outbreak of collective insanity on this scale was taken as a prodigy. Expiation included the appointment of a dictator to carry out the ritual driving of a nail.
  4. ↑ Livy 10.31.8–9: "The year, though one of success in war, was saddened by a pestilence and vexed with prodigies. Showers of earth were reported to have fallen in many places, and it was said that in the army of Appius Claudius many had been struck by lightning. On account of these signs the Sibylline books were consulted. in this year Quintus Fabius Gurges, the consul's son, assessed a fine of money against a number of married women who were convicted before the people of adultery" – less precisely, stuprum – "and with this money erected the temple of Venus which is near the Circus," in the 1926 translation of B. F. Foster (Felix annus bellicis rebus, pestilentia gravis prodigiisque sollicitus; nam et terram multifariam pluvisse et in exercitu Ap. Claudi plerosque fulminibus ictos nuntiatum est; librique ob haec aditi. Eo anno Q. Fabius Gurges consulis filius aliquot matronas ad populum stupri damnatas pecunia multavit; ex multaticio aere Veneris aedem quae prope Circum est faciendam curavit).
  5. ↑ The aediles were charged with regulating commerce, and in this role also registered prostitutes to practice their trade. [30]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus</span> Roman statesman and general (c. 280 – 203 BC)

Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, surnamed Cunctator, was a Roman statesman and general of the third century BC. He was consul five times and was appointed dictator in 221 and 217 BC. He was censor in 230 BC. His agnomen, Cunctator, usually translated as "the delayer", refers to the strategy that he employed against Hannibal's forces during the Second Punic War. Facing an outstanding commander with superior numbers, he pursued a then-novel strategy of targeting the enemy's supply lines, and accepting only smaller engagements on favourable ground, rather than risking his entire army on direct confrontation with Hannibal himself. As a result, he is regarded as the originator of many tactics used in guerrilla warfare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Servius Tullius</span> King of Rome from c. 578 to 535 BC

Servius Tullius was the legendary sixth king of Rome, and the second of its Etruscan dynasty. He reigned from 578 to 535 BC. Roman and Greek sources describe his servile origins and later marriage to a daughter of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, Rome's first Etruscan king, who was assassinated in 579 BC. The constitutional basis for his accession is unclear; he is variously described as the first Roman king to accede without election by the Senate, having gained the throne by popular and royal support; and as the first to be elected by the Senate alone, with support of the reigning queen but without recourse to a popular vote.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venus (mythology)</span> Ancient Roman goddess of love, sex and fertility

Venus is a Roman goddess whose functions encompass love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory. In Roman mythology, she was the ancestor of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and fled to Italy. Julius Caesar claimed her as his ancestor. Venus was central to many religious festivals, and was revered in Roman religion under numerous cult titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jupiter (god)</span> Chief deity of Roman state religion

Jupiter, also known as Jove, is the god of the sky and thunder, and king of the gods in ancient Roman religion and mythology. Jupiter was the chief deity of Roman state religion throughout the Republican and Imperial eras, until Christianity became the dominant religion of the Empire. In Roman mythology, he negotiates with Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, to establish principles of Roman religion such as offering, or sacrifice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ceres (mythology)</span> Roman goddess of agriculture

In ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. She was originally the central deity in Rome's so-called plebeian or Aventine Triad, then was paired with her daughter Proserpina in what Romans described as "the Greek rites of Ceres". Her seven-day April festival of Cerealia included the popular Ludi Ceriales. She was also honoured in the May lustration (lustratio) of the fields at the Ambarvalia festival: at harvesttime: and during Roman marriages and funeral rites. She is usually depicted as a mature woman.

Libitina, also Libentina or Lubentina, is an ancient Roman goddess of funerals and burial. Her name was used as a metonymy for death, and undertakers were known as libitinarii. Libitina was associated with Venus, and the name appears in some authors as an epithet of Venus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pudicitia</span> Concept in ancient Roman ethic

Pudicitia was a central concept in ancient Roman sexual ethics. The word is derived from the more general pudor, the sense of shame that regulated an individual's behavior as socially acceptable. Pudicitia was most often a defining characteristic of women, but men who failed to conform to masculine sexual norms were said to exhibit feminizing impudicitia, sexual shamelessness. The virtue was personified by the Roman goddess Pudicitia, whose Greek equivalent was Aidos.

Festivals in ancient Rome were a very important part in Roman religious life during both the Republican and Imperial eras, and one of the primary feat of "holy days"; singular also feriae or dies ferialis) were either public (publicae) or private (privatae). State holidays were celebrated by the Roman people and received public funding. Games (ludi), such as the Ludi Apollinares, were not technically feriae, but the days on which they were celebrated were dies festi, holidays in the modern sense of days off work. Although feriae were paid for by the state, ludi were often funded by wealthy individuals. Feriae privatae were holidays celebrated in honor of private individuals or by families. This article deals only with public holidays, including rites celebrated by the state priests of Rome at temples, as well as celebrations by neighborhoods, families, and friends held simultaneously throughout Rome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Floralia</span> Roman religious festival for the goddess Flora

The Floralia was a festival of ancient Roman religion in honor of the goddess Flora, held on 27 April during the Republican era, or 28 April in the Julian calendar. The festival included Ludi Florae, the "Games of Flora", which lasted for six days under the empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juno (mythology)</span> Ancient Roman goddess of marriage and childbirth

Juno was an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counsellor of the state. She was equated to Hera, queen of the gods in Greek mythology and a goddess of love and marriage. A daughter of Saturn and Ops, she was the sister and wife of Jupiter and the mother of Mars, Vulcan, Bellona, Lucina and Juventas. Like Hera, her sacred animal was the peacock. Her Etruscan counterpart was Uni, and she was said to also watch over the women of Rome. As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, Juno was called Regina ("Queen") and was a member of the Capitoline Triad, centered on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, and also including Jupiter, and Minerva, goddess of wisdom.

Quintus Fabius Q. f. M. n. Maximus Gurges, the son of Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus, was consul in 292, 276, and 265 BC. After a dissolute youth and a significant military defeat during his first consulate, he was given the opportunity to salvage his reputation through the influence of his father, and became a successful general, eventually holding the highest honours of the Roman state. He was slain in battle during his third and final consulate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temple of Concord</span> Temple in the Roman Forum

The Temple of Concord in the ancient city of Rome refers to a series of shrines or temples dedicated to the Roman goddess Concordia, and erected at the western end of the Roman Forum. The earliest temple is believed to have been vowed by Marcus Furius Camillus in 367 BC, but it may not have been built until 218 BC by L. Manlius. The temple was rebuilt in 121 BC, and again by the future emperor Tiberius between 7 BC and AD 10.

Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges was Roman consul in 265 BC, and died of wounds received in battle at Volsinii, where he had been sent to help put down a revolt. There is some uncertainty as to his identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vulcan (mythology)</span> Ancient Roman god of fire, volcanoes, and metalworking

Vulcan is the god of fire including the fire of volcanoes, deserts, metalworking and the forge in ancient Roman religion and myth. He is often depicted with a blacksmith's hammer. The Vulcanalia was the annual festival held August 23 in his honor. His Greek counterpart is Hephaestus, the god of fire and smithery. In Etruscan religion, he is identified with Sethlans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sulpicia (wife of Quintus Fulvius Flaccus)</span> Roman matron outstanding for sexual integrity

Sulpicia was an ancient Roman woman whose outstanding sexual integrity (pudicitia) earned her the honor of instituting the cult of Venus Verticordia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vinalia</span> Festivals in honour of Jupiter and Venus

The Vinalia were Roman festivals of the wine harvest, wine vintage and gardens, held in honour of Jupiter and Venus. The Vinalia prima, also known as the Vinalia urbana was held on 23 April to bless and sample last year's wine and ask for good weather until the next harvest. The Vinalia rustica was on 19 August, before the harvest and grape-pressing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Porta Collina</span> Landmark in ancient Rome

The Colline Gate was a landmark in ancient Rome, supposed to have been built by Servius Tullius, semi-legendary king of Rome 578–535 BC. The gate stood at the north end of the Servian Wall, and past it were two important streets, the Via Salaria and Via Nomentana. Within this area the Alta Semita linked the Quirinal with the Porta Carmentalis. Several temples were located near the gate, including temples of Venus Erycina and Fortuna. To a person facing the gate in the 3rd century AD, the Gardens of Sallust would have been on the left, with the Baths of Diocletian on the right.

In ancient Roman religion, a sacellum is a small shrine. The word is a diminutive from sacrum. The numerous sacella of ancient Rome included both shrines maintained on private properties by families, and public shrines. A sacellum might be square or round.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venus Verticordia</span> Epithet of the Roman goddess Venus

Venus Verticordia was an aspect of the Roman goddess Venus conceived as having the power to convert either virgins or sexually active women from dissolute desire (libido) to sexual virtue (pudicitia). Under this title, Venus was especially cultivated by married women, and on 1 April she was celebrated at the Veneralia festival with public bathing.

References

  1. ↑ Kraemer 1992, p. 58.
  2. ↑ Fantham 2002a, p. 37.
  3. 1 2 Richardson 1992, p. 409.
  4. ↑ Eden 1963, p. 451, qualifying with "oldest dateable Roman temple (italic emphasis added).
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Staples 1998, p. 113.
  6. 1 2 3 Scullard 1981, p. 177.
  7. ↑ Eden 1963, p. 451, citing Varro, De lingua Latina 6.20, which simply says quod tum Veneri aedes dedicata, "because then a shrine of Venus was dedicated".
  8. ↑ Scullard 1981, p. 96.
  9. ↑ Scullard 1981, pp. 106–107.
  10. ↑ Versnel 1992, p. 45.
  11. ↑ Eden 1963, p. 451, citing Varro, De lingua Latina 6.20.
  12. ↑ Scullard 1981, p. 177, 252, n. 225, citing Festus, 322 in the edition of Lindsay; Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae 22; Varro, De lingua Latina 6.47.
  13. ↑ Fantham 1998, p. 115.
  14. ↑ Wiseman 2008, p. 141.
  15. ↑ Pasco-Pranger 2016, p. 146, citing Dionysius of Halicarnassus 4.27.7.
  16. ↑ Salomies 2015, p. 156, citing ILLRP-S 36 = AE 1991, 113, with the Republican spelling Fortuna Opsequens in a dedication by a temple servant (aeditumus).
  17. ↑ Miano 2018, p. 114, n. 62, also in the archaic form Opsequens, citing CIL 6.975.
  18. ↑ Peralta 2023, p. 173, citing Asinaria 716, where the servus callidus Libanus demands to be worshipped as Salus and Fortuna Obsequens.
  19. ↑ Miano 2018, pp. 82, 114, translated into Greek as μειλιχία in Plutarch's listings of temples to Fortuna founded by Servius Tullius (De Fortuna Romanarum 10 and Quaestiones Romanae 74).
  20. ↑ Barrow 2018, p. 119.
  21. ↑ Wiseman 2008, p. 154.
  22. ↑ Erskine 2001, pp. 200–201.
  23. ↑ Eden 1963, p. 457, citing Livy 22.9.10.
  24. 1 2 Richardson 1992, p. 411.
  25. ↑ Humphrey 1986, pp. 61 (fig. 34), 69.
  26. ↑ Palmer 1976, pp. 140, 148.
  27. ↑ Scullard 1981, pp. 234–235.
  28. ↑ Wagenvoort 1980, pp. 187–196, to simplify a rather complicated argument.
  29. ↑ Buszard 2023, p. 42, citing Servius, commentary to Aeneid 1.720, quod sibi fuerit obsecuta (quoted by Buszard as quod sibi fuerit obsecrata).
  30. 1 2 3 Bauman 1992, p. 16.
  31. ↑ Fantham 2002a, p. 37, n. 43, citing Livy 10.31.9.
  32. ↑ Buszard 2023, p. 42.
  33. ↑ Langlands 2006, p. 57, citing Livy 8.18.1–11.
  34. ↑ Langlands 2006, p. 57, citing Robert E. A. Palmer, "Roman Shrines of Female Chastity from the Caste Struggle to the Papacy of Innocent I," Rivista Storica dell’Antichitá 4 (1974), p. 122.
  35. ↑ Langlands 2006, pp. 37ff, especially 50–51, and 57 on Pudicitia Plebeia.
  36. 1 2 Langlands 2006, p. 57.
  37. ↑ Fantham 2011, pp. 117–118, 141–142.
  38. ↑ Wiseman 2008, p. 154, especially n. 61 on Torelli.
  39. ↑ Parker 2004, p. 589, n. 106, on Bauman, citing Women and Politics in Ancient Rome (1992), pp. 17 and 223, n. 15.
  40. 1 2 Fantham 2011, pp. 132–133.
  41. 1 2 Parker 2004, p. 589, n. 106.
  42. 1 2 Gardner 1986, p. 123.
  43. ↑ Fantham 2011, p. 132.
  44. ↑ Strong 2016, p. 182.
  45. ↑ Bauman 1992, pp. 222–223, n. 14–15.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.