-
Skip These Ads
-
Skip These Ads|
|
 |
Click here and add this page to your favorites!
|
Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MAR-MEC |
|
|
MARS (MAYORS, MARMAR, MARSPITER GA MASPITER) , after Jupiter the most important deity of the Roman state, and one who, unlike most Roman deities, was never so much affected by foreign influences as to lose his essentially Roman and Italian character. Traces of his worship are found in all parts of central and southern Italy, in Umbria, Picenum, Samnium, and in one or two Etruscan cities, as well as in Latium; and in several communities, as we learn from Ovid (Fasti
chief
(see Wissowa, Religion and Kultus der Romer, p. 129 seq.). Until the time of Augustus
Rome, and both are connected with warlike operations. One ofthese was originally only an altar; it was in the Campus Martius; the exercising-ground of the army. The other was outside the Porta Capena
Dion
house
consul
wake
worship of Mars seems at a standstill: we have no trace of it in the calendar or in Roman literature. His activity is all in the warm season, i.e. in the season of warfare. It is only at the end of February that we find indications of the coming force of the Mars-cult in the month which bears his name: Quirinus, who was probably the Mars of the community settled on the Quirinal Hill, and had his twelve Salii corresponding to those of the Palatine Mars, held his festival on the 17th of February, and on the 27th was the first festival called Equirria, the second being on the 14th of March. The name indicates horse-racing; horses were bred and used at Rome chiefly for military purposes, and it is possible to see here, as in the Equirria of the 14th of March, which we know was a festival of Mars (W. W. Fowler, Roman Festivals, p. 44), an exercise of the war-horses, accompanied with sacrifice to Mars, preparatory to the opening of the season of arms.There is thus abundant evidence, based on the ancient calendars and the features of the cult, that Mars was all along a deity especially connected with warfare; and it is hardly necessary to add proof of a less convincing kind, e.g. that the wolf, his special animal, is a warlike beast, or that Nerio, a female deity who may anciently have been coupled with him, seems to be etymologically " the strong one," or that he is in legend the father of Romulus the warlike king and founder of the Roman army, as compared with Numa, who instituted the Roman law and religion. Enough has been said to show why Mars should have become exclusively a god of war, even if the Roman state in its advance in the conquest of other peoples had not given a continual impulse to this aspect of the cult. In founding his famous temple of Mars Ultor (the avenger of Caesar) in the Forum Augusti, Augustus
There are however certain features in the Mars cult which make it probable that this god was not entirely warlike in character. He seems, in early times, at least, to have been also associated with agriculture; and this is in harmony with the facts: (I) that the season of arms is also the season of the growth, ripening and harvesting of the crops; (2) that the early Roman community was an agricultural as well as a military one, as is indicated in its religious calendar (Fowler, Roman Festivals, p. 334). Thus Mars was invoked in the ancient hymn of the Arval Brothers, whose religious duties had as their object to keep off enemies of all kinds from crops and herds (Henzen, Acta Fratr. Arv. p. 26, 1874; Wordsworth, Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin, p. 385 seq.); and his association here with the Lares (q.v.) proves. that he is not regarded as a war-god who could avert the raid of an enemy. Still more striking is the invocation of Mars (with the cult-title Silvanus) in the yearly lustration of his land by the Roman farmer (Cato, De re rustica, 141), where it is not a human enemy, but disease, and all unwholesome influences, which the god is besought to avert from the farm and land, plantations and flocks. Three times the procession went round the land, reciting prayers and driving the victims to be sacrificed, viz. ox, sheep and pig (suovetaurilia), representing the farmer's most valuable stock. We can hardly doubt that in the state ceremony of the Ambarvalia, i.e. the lustratio of the ager romanus in its earliest form, the same god was invoked and the same ritual used (Fowler, op. cit. p. 124 seq.). Again in the curious ritual of the sacrifice to Mars of the October horse (Oct. 15: Fowler op. Cit. 241), though the animal was undoubtedly a war-horse, the head was cut off and decked with cakes, as we are told (Paul. Diac. 220) ob frugum eventum. Even Quirinus, the form of Mars worshipped in the Quirinal community, is not without an association with agricultural perils, for it was his flamen who sacrificed the victims at the Robigalia on the 25th of April, when the spirit of the mildew (robigus) was invoked to spare the corn (Ovid, Fasti
\Var and agriculture are thus the two factors of human life and experience which are unquestionably prominent in the cult of Mars, and explain his importance in a community like that of Rome: and there is no need, in a short account of this religious conception, to determine whether he was by origin a solar deity, a storm-god, or a vegetation-spirit. His name gives us no help, its etymology is uncertain (Roscher in Mythological Lexicon, s.v. " Mars," p. 2436). But we are safe in conjecturing that Mars first came into prominence among the Latins and kindred peoples in the course of their long struggle for settlements among the mountains and forests of Italy. The clearing of primeval woodland, the perils of agriculture from the raids of enemies and of wild beasts, and from the ravages of disease, are all indicated in the later Mars cult. The wolf and the woodpecker, denizens of the forest, always remained his sacred animals, and were believed in Italian legend to have led the Piceni and Hirpini to their places of settlement. Mars is specially associated with the early foundation legends of Italy, as was the case at Rome: and it was to him that the ter sacrum was dedicated, i.e. the entire produce of a spring , including the children born then, who were eventually driven forth from their homes to form new settlements else-where (Roscher in Lex. Myth. 2411). The fierce character of the god, gained no doubt in this period of struggle and danger, never entirely left him. Even in the hymn of the Fratres Arvales he is the " fierce Mars " (fere Mars), and in the prayer of Cato's farmer, though he has become " Father Mars," he is Silvanus (q.v.), the dweller in the woodland which surrounded the agricultural clearing.See Roscher in 'Myth. Lex. s.v. 2385 seq.; Wissowa, Religion and Kultus der Romer, p. 129 seq.; Preller, R6mische Mythologie, ed. Jordan, i. 332 seq. ; Fowler, Roman Festivals, p. 33 seq. (W. W. F.*) End of Article: MARS (MAYORS, MARMAR, MARSPITER GA MASPITER) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/MAR_MEC/MARS_MAYORS_MARMAR_MARSPITER_G.html"> MARS (MAYORS, MARMAR, MARSPITER GA MASPITER) </a> |
|
|
(Previous) MARS |
(Next) MARS, MLLE [ANNE FRANCOISE HYPPOLYTE BOUTET] (1... |
Jesus Christ Saves Ministries, P.O. Box 70696, Pasadena, CA 91117JCSM is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. Copyright © 1997-present. |
Free & Cheap Cell
Phones |
Cheap Long Distance
Phone Service Carriers |
Talk America Local Phone Service
|
Ztel & MCI - Unlimited Long Distance
Compare
Cell Phone Plans & Companies |
International Calling Cards & Prepaid Phone Cards |
Voice Over IP Broadband Internet Phone
Service | Wireless
Phone Plans & Cheap Cell Phones
|
_____________________________________________________________________________
Online First Aid and CPR Certification . The Online Christ Centered Ministries . The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained . The Inerrancy Discussion Board . Free Email Accounts . Home Equity Loans . JasonGastrich.com . The Missions, Apologetics, and Creation Bible Conference . Young Earth Creation Science . San Diego Music Lessons . 10,000 Wise Quotes and Spiritual Sayings . Gastrich.net . Maximizing the Internet: 12 Keys to Success . Louisiana Baptist University . NKJV Web Hosting and Services . Michael Newdow . San Diego Soccer Training . Christian Guitar Lessons . Jesus Christ Saves Ministries . Eternal Security
