Remus

A Roman Myth

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Paperback | 6 November 1995

At a Glance

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260 Pages

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22.23 x 14.61 x 1.27

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Romulus founded Rome -- but why does the myth give him a twin brother Remus, who is killed at the moment of the foundation? This mysterious legend has been oddly neglected. Roman historians ignore it as irrelevant to real history; students of myth concentrate on the more glamorous mythology of Greece, and treat Roman stories as of little interest. In this book, Professor Wiseman provides, for the first time, a detailed analysis of all the variants of the story, and a historical explanation for its origin and development. His conclusions offer important new insights, both into the history and ideology of pre-imperial Rome and into the methods and motives of myth-creation in a non-literate society. In the richly unfamiliar Rome of Pan, Hermes and Circe the witch-goddess, where a general grows miraculous horns and prophets demand human sacrifice, Remus stands for the unequal struggle of the many against the powerful few.

Industry Reviews

"...a pleasure to read and will lead, one hopes, to renewed interest in the myth of the foundation of Rome and its central characters." Religious Studies Review "[This] wonderfully clear narrative demonstrates the best of contempoary scholarship..." Choice "...[a] wild and wonderful book." Times Literary Supplement "...Wiseman packs several centuries worth of primary sources and scholarship into a delightfully written argument. Wiseman's Remus is required reading for anyone with an interest in Roman mythology, history, or literature." Cynthia Bannon, Folklore Forum

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction History Regional & National History European History Society & Culture Popular Beliefs & Controversial Knowledge Folklore Studies / Study of Myth (Mythology)General & World History Earliest Times to Present Day Ancient History to the Year 500 Religion & Beliefs Other Non-Christian Religions

Ancient Religions & Mythologies

List of illustrations	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
A too familiar story	p. 1
The Fabian narrative	p. 1
'De Remo et Romulo'	p. 2
Concord or discord?	p. 4
The quarrel	p. 6
The death of Remus	p. 9
Post mortem	p. 12
The problem	p. 13
Multiform and manifold	p. 18
The primal twin	p. 18
Dioscurism	p. 25
When and where	p. 31
One and a half millennia	p. 31
The beginnings	p. 35
A test case	p. 39
What the Greeks said	p. 43
Material and methodology	p. 43
The first contact	p. 45
The descendants of Circe	p. 49
Achaeans and others	p. 50
The end of innocence	p. 52
Where are the twins?	p. 55
The Promathion version	p. 57
Conclusion	p. 61
Italian evidence	p. 63
She-wolves and lionesses	p. 63
The mirror	p. 65
The Ogulnian monument	p. 72
The Lupercalia	p. 77
Cermalus and Lupercal	p. 77
The ritual	p. 80
Ritual and myth	p. 86
The arguments	p. 89
Niebuhr, Schwegler and Mommsen	p. 89
Schulze and after	p. 92
Back to politics	p. 95
Alfoldi and after	p. 98
Ariadne's thread	p. 101
The life and death of Remus	p. 103
Equals	p. 103
Remus the slow	p. 107
Remuria	p. 110
A necessary death	p. 117
The creation period	p. 126
The uses of a myth	p. 129
Pre-literate Rome	p. 129
The games	p. 133
Making a story	p. 138
Into literature	p. 141
Remus and Augustus	p. 144
Medieval epilogue	p. 150
The other Rome	p. 151
Imperial preconceptions	p. 151
An unfamiliar city	p. 154
Versions of the foundation of Rome	p. 160
Notes	p. 169
Bibliography	p. 220
Index	p. 236
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

Remus

A Roman Myth

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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