Rhea Silvia
Template:Short description Template:For Template:Redirect
Rhea (or Rea) Silvia ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}), also known as Ilia,<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> (as well as other names)Template:Efn was the mythical mother of the twins Romulus and Remus, who founded the city of Rome.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":42">Livy I.4.2</ref> This event was portrayed numerous times in Roman art.<ref name=":172">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Her story is told in the first book of Ab Urbe Condita Libri of Livy<ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref> and in Cassius Dio's Roman History.<ref name=":25">Template:Cite book</ref> The Legend of Rhea Silvia recounts how she was raped by Mars while she was a Vestal Virgin, resulting in the twins,<ref name=":42"/> as mentioned in the Aeneid<ref name=":13">Template:Cite book</ref> and the works of Ovid.
LegendEdit
According to Livy's account of the legend, she was the daughter of Numitor, king of Alba Longa, and descended from Aeneas. Numitor's younger brother Amulius seized the throne and killed Numitor's son, then forced Rhea Silvia to become a Vestal Virgin, a priestess of the goddess Vesta. As Vestal Virgins were sworn to celibacy, this would ensure the line of Numitor had no heirs. Rhea, however, became pregnant with the twins Romulus and Remus by the god Mars.<ref name=":42">Livy I.4.2</ref>
According to Plutarch, she believed this because she saw her children being cared for by a woodpecker and a wolf – animals sacred to Mars.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite book</ref> The account says that Rhea Silvia went to a grove sacred to Mars to get water for use in the temple<ref name=":6">Template:Cite book</ref> where she encountered Mars who attempted to rape her, she ran into a cave to escape him but to no avail. Mars then promised that her children would be great.<ref name=":7">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> These claims of her children's paternity were later doubted by the Roman historian Livy.<ref name=":8">Template:Cite book</ref>
Vesta, to show her displeasure at the birth of Rhea Silvia's children, caused the holy fire in her temple to go out, shook her altar, and shut the eyes of her image.<ref name=":9">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to Ennius, the goddess Venus was more sympathetic to Rhea Silvia's plight.<ref name=":10">Template:Cite book</ref>
When Amulius learned of the birth he imprisoned Rhea Silvia and ordered a servant to kill the twins. But the servant showed mercy and set them adrift on the river Tiber, which, overflowing, left the infants in a pool by the bank. There, a she-wolf (lupa), who had just lost her own cubs, suckled them.<ref name=":21">The she-wolf is memorialised in the Medieval bronze Capitoline Wolf and is a symbol of Rome.</ref> Rhea Silvia was herself spared from death due to the intercession of Amulius' daughter Antho.<ref>Plutarch, "The Life of Romulus", 3.</ref><ref name=":22">Template:Cite book</ref> According to Ovid, Rhea Silvia ultimately threw herself into the Tiber.<ref name=":23">Template:Cite book</ref>
Romulus and Remus overthrew Amulius and reinstated Numitor as king in 752 BCE. They would then go to found Rome.<ref name=":11">Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, 71.5</ref><ref name=":12">Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, Book 1Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore.</ref>
In Roman artEdit
Despite Livy's euhemerist and realist deflation of this myth,Template:Cn it is clear that the story of her seduction by Mars continued to be widely accepted. This is demonstrated by the recurring theme of Mars discovering Rhea Silvia in Roman arts: In bas-relief on the Casali Altar (Vatican Museums), in engraved couched glass on the Portland Vase (British Museum), or on a sarcophagus in the Palazzo Mattei. Mars' discovery of Rhea Silvia is a prototype of the "invention scene" ("discovery scene") familiar in Roman art; Greek examples are furnished by Dionysus and Ariadne or Selene and Endymion.
The Portland Vase features a scene that has been interpreted as a depiction of the "invention", or coming-upon, of Rhea Sylvia by Mars.<ref name=":15">Noted by Template:Cite journal</ref>
In the Museo Nazionale Romano there is a depiction of Rhea Silvia sleeping during the conception of Romulus and Remus in a Relief.<ref name=":18">Template:Cite journal</ref>
In Roman literatureEdit
In a version presented by Ovid's Fasti, it is the river Anio who takes pity on her and invites her to rule his realm.<ref name=":16">Template:Cite book</ref>
In Virgil's Aeneid, Anchises gives a prophecy that Rhea Silvia would give birth to Romulus and Remus by Mars.<ref name=":132">Template:Cite book</ref>
Rhea Silvia's bearing of Romulus is mentioned in the Roman work, Vigil of Venus.<ref name=":14">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Academic analysesEdit
- In an article by Rosanna Lauriola, Rhea Silvia is held up as an example of how rape victims in Roman myths are valued more as the mothers and catalysts for change than as individuals in their own right.<ref name=":19">Template:Cite journal</ref>
- A paper by Revika Gersht and Sonia Muryink divides the images of Rhea Silvia's conception by Mars into as many as seven different types.<ref name=":172"/>
Modern literatureEdit
- In David Drake's science fiction story "To Bring the Light", the time travelling protagonist meets a completely human Rhea Silvia, a sympathetic peasant living in a small shepherd community on Palatine Hill in what would become the city of Rome.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- In Rick Riordan's novel The Mark of Athena, Annabeth Chase meets Rhea Silvia and the god of the river Tiber in the forms of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck's characters from the movie Roman Holiday.<ref name="Riordan2012">Template:Cite book</ref>
- Rhea Silvia is the central character in Debra May Macleod's historical fiction novel Rhea Silvia (2022).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
See alsoEdit
FootnotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
{{#invoke:Navbox|navbox}} Template:Authority control