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Lauinia (Livinia) was the only child of Latinus, or Lavinius, king of Latium. Latinus was the son of the horned god Faunus, who was Saturnus' grandson. In Publius Vergilius Maro's "Aeneid," Faunus appeared in a dream and told Latinus, "Propose no Latin alliance for your daughter / Son of mine; distrust the bridal chamber / Now prepared. Men from abroad will come / And be your sons by marriage. Blood so mingled / Lifts our name starward. Children of that stock / Will see all earth turned Latin at their feet,/ governed by them, as far as on his rounds / The Sun looks down on Ocean, East or West." (tr. Robert Fitzgerald). However, his wife Amata, wanted their daughter to marry Turnus, the son of her sister Venilia (a deity associated with the winds and the sea), who was the king of the Rutuli, who ruled from Ardea, one of the oldest towns in western Europe (founded by Etruscans in the 8th century BCE). When the Trojan refugees arrived Latinus welcomed them and offered his daughter in marriage to their leader Aeneas. Juno (daughter of Saturnus and wife/sister of Jupiter), a sworn enemy of Troy, instigated Turnus to declare war against Aeneas. Aeneas killed Turnus in a duel, Amata killed herself, and Aeneaus founded Lavinium as his capital, named after his new wife. Aeneas' son Ascanius later founded Alba Longa and was the ancestor of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Roma. In some accounts, Aeneas and Lavinia had a son, Silvius, who was born after Aeneas' death; she named after the forest in which he was born while she was hiding to prevent his assassination by Ascanius (whom he succeeded as king of Alba Longa). Another son, Brutus, was the 1st king of Britain.
Coatlicue (“[she who has] the skirt of snakes”) gave birth to the moon, stars, and Huitzilopochtli ("Hummingbird South" or "Hummingbird Left"), the Aztec god of the sun, war, and human sacrifice. In addition to her skirt of writhing snakes, she was depicted with a necklace made of human hearts, hands, and skulls. Her feet and hands were adorned with claws, her breasts were flaccid from pregnancy, and her face was formed by 2 facing serpents (representing the 2 gigantic snakes that appeared as the spurting blood after she was beheaded). After she was impregnated by a ball of feathers that fell on her while she was sweeping a temple, her daughter Coyolxauhqui ("Painted with Bells") led her 400 brothers to attack their mother. As soon as she was decapitated Huitzilopochtli merged from her womb fully grown and armed for battle; he killed many of his siblings and threw Coyolxauhqui's head into the sky, where it became the moon.
In other accounts, the gods had destroyed 4 universes because they were dissatisfied with the humans they had created. The twin sons of the virgin Coatlicue, Quetzalcoatl ("feathered serpent") and Xolotl retrieved the sacred bones of their ancestors and mixed them with corn and Quetzalcoatl's blood to make new people, and the gods assembled at Teotihuacan to decide which one of them would be sacrificed to become the next sun. Nanahuatzin ("full of sores") and Tezzictecatl ("person from the Place of the Conch") both jumped into the fire and became 2 suns, but the gods threw a rabbit at Tecciztecatl to humble him, causing him to diminish and darken so that, as the moon, he could only be seen at night. But Nanahuatzin, unmoving in the sky, was too hot. To preserve the lives of the new human beings, the other gods allowed the wind god Ehecatl to sacrifice them one by one, creating a powerful wind that moves the sun across the sky. In some versions Coatlicue and other women also killed themselves but came back to life, and therefore the Aztecs worshiped their skirts.
Lauinia (Livinia) was the only child of Latinus, or Lavinius, king of Latium. Latinus was the son of the horned god Faunus, who was Saturnus' grandson. In Publius Vergilius Maro's "Aeneid," Faunus appeared in a dream and told Latinus, "Propose no Latin alliance for your daughter / Son of mine; distrust the bridal chamber / Now prepared. Men from abroad will come / And be your sons by marriage. Blood so mingled / Lifts our name starward. Children of that stock / Will see all earth turned Latin at their feet,/ governed by them, as far as on his rounds / The Sun looks down on Ocean, East or West." (tr. Robert Fitzgerald). However, his wife Amata, wanted their daughter to marry Turnus, the son of her sister Venilia (a deity associated with the winds and the sea), who was the king of the Rutuli, who ruled from Ardea, one of the oldest towns in western Europe (founded by Etruscans in the 8th century BCE). When the Trojan refugees arrived Latinus welcomed them and offered his daughter in marriage to their leader Aeneas. Juno (daughter of Saturnus and wife/sister of Jupiter), a sworn enemy of Troy, instigated Turnus to declare war against Aeneas. Aeneas killed Turnus in a duel, Amata killed herself, and Aeneaus founded Lavinium as his capital, named after his new wife. Aeneas' son Ascanius later founded Alba Longa and was the ancestor of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Roma. In some accounts, Aeneas and Lavinia had a son, Silvius, who was born after Aeneas' death; she named after the forest in which he was born while she was hiding to prevent his assassination by Ascanius (whom he succeeded as king of Alba Longa). Another son, Brutus, was the 1st king of Britain.
ReplyDeleteCoatlicue (“[she who has] the skirt of snakes”) gave birth to the moon, stars, and Huitzilopochtli ("Hummingbird South" or "Hummingbird Left"), the Aztec god of the sun, war, and human sacrifice. In addition to her skirt of writhing snakes, she was depicted with a necklace made of human hearts, hands, and skulls. Her feet and hands were adorned with claws, her breasts were flaccid from pregnancy, and her face was formed by 2 facing serpents (representing the 2 gigantic snakes that appeared as the spurting blood after she was beheaded). After she was impregnated by a ball of feathers that fell on her while she was sweeping a temple, her daughter Coyolxauhqui ("Painted with Bells") led her 400 brothers to attack their mother. As soon as she was decapitated Huitzilopochtli merged from her womb fully grown and armed for battle; he killed many of his siblings and threw Coyolxauhqui's head into the sky, where it became the moon.
In other accounts, the gods had destroyed 4 universes because they were dissatisfied with the humans they had created. The twin sons of the virgin Coatlicue, Quetzalcoatl ("feathered serpent") and Xolotl retrieved the sacred bones of their ancestors and mixed them with corn and Quetzalcoatl's blood to make new people, and the gods assembled at Teotihuacan to decide which one of them would be sacrificed to become the next sun. Nanahuatzin ("full of sores") and Tezzictecatl ("person from the Place of the Conch") both jumped into the fire and became 2 suns, but the gods threw a rabbit at Tecciztecatl to humble him, causing him to diminish and darken so that, as the moon, he could only be seen at night. But Nanahuatzin, unmoving in the sky, was too hot. To preserve the lives of the new human beings, the other gods allowed the wind god Ehecatl to sacrifice them one by one, creating a powerful wind that moves the sun across the sky. In some versions Coatlicue and other women also killed themselves but came back to life, and therefore the Aztecs worshiped their skirts.