🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 Aristaeus is the son of Apollo and the huntress Cyrene. He was raised by nymphs, from whom he learned the rustic arts of bee-keeping, mead-making, and cheese-making. He also studied with the…
Does Venus have Sacred animals?
Salve, friend! As far as I can tell, Venus wasn’t depicted with animals in Roman art as often as Aphrodite appeared with animals in Greek art. This comes with a couple of caveats: 1) my knowledge of Greek and Roman art isn’t exhaustive and 2) because Roman culture, art, and religion had been conversant with…
Worship of Cybele and Attis in the Roman era
A reader asked: Was Adonis only ever worshiped in Greece or was there a cult for him in Rome as well? Was he worshiped in Rome at all? Salve, dear reader! This a timely question, thank you for asking! The cult of Cybele, also known as Magna Mater, was established in Rome after consultation of…
Navigium Isidis
Today, 5 March, marks the Navigium Isidis, an annual festival seeking the blessing of Isis upon the waters at the beginning of the shipping season. Lucius Apuleius wrote of this festival in The Golden Ass: From time immemorial the day born of this night has been dedicated to my rites: on this coming day the…
Books I Read in 2022
I read 42 books this year, which is a new record since I started keeping track in 2017. Here’s 27 of those books with relevance in some way to this blog. Academic/Non-fiction: Visualizing the Afterlife in the Tombs of Greco-Roman Egypt by Marjorie Susan Venit Death, Power and Apotheosis in Ancient Egypt by Julia Troche…
Celebrating the Birth of Mithras
The Birth of Mithras Most modern historians accept that the birth of Mithras was celebrated by the initiates of his cult on or around the Winter Solstice, perhaps on December 25. Featured Image: Central medallion from a 1st century Roman floor mosaic depicting Mithras emerging from a rock, attended by the torchbearers Cautes and Cautopates…
Wishing you the best Saturnalia!
Ancient Roman midwinter celebration Saturnalia is an ancient Roman religious festival honoring Saturn, who was pardoned after his expulsion from Olympus by Jupiter and subsequently regarded as a benevolent god of agricultural abundance. The first documented Saturnalia was held in 497 BCE for the dedication of the Temple of Saturn in Rome. An annual festival…
Happy New Year!
The Romans gave each other gifts to mark the New Year: coins, nuts and dried fruit, honey, and terracotta oil lamps. The oil lamps may have conveyed an implicit message of intellectual and philosophical illumination. Lamps like this one, with the image of the goddess Victory (Greek Nike), may have also implied a wish for…
Felix dies natalis Sol Invictus!
Felix dies natalis Sol Invictus! Hail to the Unconquered Sun! Today, December 25, marks the dies natalis (anniversary) of the dedication of the temple of Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, in Rome in 274 CE by the Emperor Aurelian. Sol Invictus was regarded as a special patron of Roman soldiers and of the Emperor, possibly…
Saturnalia
Wishing you a good Saturnalia! Saturnalia is a Roman religious festival honoring Saturn, who became a benevolent agricultural deity after his expulsion from Olympus by Jupiter and the other gods. The first documented Saturnalia was held in 497 BCE for the dedication of the Temple of Saturn in Rome. An annual festival commemorating the dies natalis (anniversary)…
Natalis Antinoi
Today, November 27, is the dies natalis (anniversary) of the birth of Antinous in the city of Claudiopolis, in the Roman province of Pontus Bithynia, most likely in the year 110 CE An inscription from 2nd century Ostia, the Roman harbor at the mouth of the Tiber River, recorded the charter of an association of…
Happy Halloween!
The word “Euphrosynos” means “Be merry, enjoy life!” I created the ‘Happy Halloween’ manip because I think this playful spirit epitomizes mood of the holiday. Wishing you a joyful Halloween! ✨💀✨🎃✨👻 ✨ 💀✨🎃✨👻 ✨ !Image description: A skeleton reclining on a cushion holds a kylix (drinking cup); to the skeleton’s right is a wine amphora…
honor the gods 