The rex Nemorensis, (Latin: "the king of Nemi" or "the king of the grove") was a sort of sacred king who served as priest of the goddess Diana at Aricia in Italy, by the shores of lake Nemi. Latin is the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... A monarch is a type of ruler or head of state. ... A sacred king, according to the systematic interpretation of mythology developed by Sir James George Frazer in his influential book The Golden Bough, was a king who represented a solar deity in a periodically re-enacted fertility rite. ... Roman Catholic priest LCDR Allen R. Kuss (USN) aboard USS Enterprise A priest or priestess is a holy man or woman who takes an officiating role in worship of any religion, with the distinguishing characteristic of offering sacrifices. ... A deity or a god, is a postulated preternatural being, usually, but not always, of significant power, worshipped, thought holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, or respected by human beings. ... Diana was the equivalent in Roman mythology of the Greek Artemis (see Roman/Greek equivalency in mythology for more details). ... Aricia was, according to Greek mythology, niece of Aegeus. ... For information about the comic strip, see Nemi (comic strip). ...

Diana, in Roman mythology, the goddess of hunting and wilderness.

Scanned from a book printed in 1899. ... Scanned from a book printed in 1899. ... Roman mythology can be considered as two parts. ...

A priest who slew his predecessor

Surviving lore concerning the rex Nemorensis tells the tale that this priest or king held a very uneasy position. Macaulay's well known quatrain on the institution of the rex Nemorensis states: Quotes His imagination resembled the wings of an ostrich. ...

Those trees in whose dim shadow
The ghastly priest doth reign
The priest who slew the slayer,
And shall himself be slain.

This is, in a nutshell, the surviving legend of the rex Nemorensis: the priesthood of Diana at Nemi was held by a person who obtained that honour by slaying the prior incumbent in a trial by combat, and who could remain at the post only so long as he successfully defended his position against all challengers. But the successful candidate must first test his mettle by plucking a golden bough from one of the trees in the sacred grove. The Judicial Duel. ...

Roman mythology can be considered as two parts. ... Jupiter In Roman mythology, Jupiter (sometimes shortened to Jove) held the same role as Zeus in the Greek pantheon. ... Mars was the Roman god of war, the son of Juno and a magical flower (or Jupiter). ... In Roman mythology, Quirinus was a mysterious god. ... Gaius Julius Caesar (Latin: IMP·C·IVLIVS·CAESAR·DIVVS¹) (b. ... Bust of Augustus Caesar Imperator Caesar Augustus (Latin: IMP·CAESAR·DIVI·F·AVGVSTVS)¹ (23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), known earlier in his life as Gaius Octavius. ... Juno was the equivalent of the Greeks Hera, queen of the gods. ... Vesta was the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman mythology, analogous to Hestia in Greek mythology. ... Minerva was a Roman goddess of crafts and wisdom. ... This article treats Mercury in cult practice and in archaic Rome. ... Vulcan, in Roman mythology, is the son of Jupiter and Juno, and husband of Maia and Venus. ... For other uses, see Ceres (disambiguation). ... Venus is the Roman goddess of love, equivalent to Greek Aphrodite and Etruscan Turan. ... Diana was the equivalent in Roman mythology of the Greek Artemis (see Roman/Greek equivalency in mythology for more details). ... Lares (pl. ... In Roman mythology, Fortuna (Greek equivalent Tyche) was the personification of luck, hopefully of good luck. ... The Aeneid is a Latin epic written by Virgil in the 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy where he became the ancestor of the Romans. ... Romulus and Remus, (771 BC¹-717 BC Romulus, 771 BC-753 BC Remus), the legendary founders of Rome in Roman mythology, were the twin sons of the priestess Rhea Silvia, fathered by the god of war Mars. ... According to legend, Numa Pompilius was the second of the Kings of Rome, succeeding Romulus. ... For the son of Napoleon I of France, styled the King of Rome, see Napoleon II of France. ... Religion in ancient Rome combined several different cult practices and embraced more than a single set of beliefs. ... Orginally the Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the pre-Christian Roman religion. ... A sacred king, according to the systematic interpretation of mythology developed by Sir James George Frazer in his influential book The Golden Bough, was a king who represented a solar deity in a periodically re-enacted fertility rite. ... A vestal Virgin, engraving by Sir Frederick Leighton, ca 1890: Leightons artistic sense has won over his passion for historical accuracy in showing the veil over the Vestals head at sacrifices, the suffibulum, as translucent, instead of fine white wool. ... The Flamen Dialis was an important position in Roman religion. ... A flamen was a priest of the Roman religion. ... Roman mythology was strongly influenced by Greek mythology and Etruscan mythology. ...

Ancient sources of the story

The tale of the rex Nemorensis is told in a number of ancient sources. The Latin name of the priesthood is given by Suetonius who mentions in passing in his account of Caligula: Nemorensi regi, quod multos iam annos poteretur sacerdotio, ualidiorem aduersarium subornauit: "He caused the king of Nemi, who had held his priesthood for many years, to be supplanted by a stronger adversary." Ovid, also, gives a poetic account of the priesthood of Nemi in his Fasti, book III, noting that the lake of Nemi was "sacred to antique religion," and that the priest who dwelt there: Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (75 AD – 160 AD), commonly known simply as Suetonius, was a Roman writer. ... Gaius Caesar Germanicus Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus (August 31, 12 – January 24, 41), also known as Gaius Caesar or Caligula, was the third Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from AD 37 to 41. ... Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso, (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ... Fasti, a Latin word, refers to the Roman calendar and almanac; and especially, to a long, unfinished poem on the religious festivals of the Roman year and their mythological underpinnings, by the poet Ovid. ...

regna tenent fortes manibus pedibusque fugaces,
     et perit exemplo postmodo quisque suo.

("holds his reign by strong hands and fleet feet, and dies according to the example he set himself.")

In Greek, Strabo's Geography also mentions the institution: "and in fact a barbaric, and Scythian, element predominates in the sacred usages, for the people set up as priest merely a run-away slave who has slain with his own hand the man previously consecrated to that office; accordingly the priest is always armed with a sword, looking around for the attacks, and ready to defend himself." (Geographia V, 1, 2) Strabo (squinty) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. ... Scythia was an area in Eurasia inhabited in ancient times by people probably speaking Indo-Iranian languages, known as the Scythians. ...

Pausanias gives an obscure myth that attempts to explain the founding of the shrine. "The Aricians tell a tale . . . . that when Hippolytus (the son of Theseus) was killed, owing to the curses of Theseus, Asclepius raised him from the dead. On coming to life again he refused to forgive his father; rejecting his prayers, he went to the Aricians in Italy. There he became king and devoted a precinct to Artemis, where down to my time the prize for the victor in single combat was the priesthood of the goddess. The contest was open to no freeman, but only to slaves who had run away from their masters." (Description of Greece II, 27, 4) In Roman mythology, Hippolytus was deified as the god Virbius; Artemis and Diana were the Greek and Latin names, respectively, of the same goddess. An alternative story has the worship of Diana at Nemi instituted by Orestes; the flight of the slave represents the flight of Orestes. Pausanias was Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ... For the computer game, see Myth (computer game). ... In Greek mythology, Hippolytus was a son of Theseus and either Antiope or Hippolyte. ... Theseus (Θησευς) was a legendary king of Athens, son of Aegeus (or of Poseidon). ... Asclepius (Greek also rendered Aesculapius in Latin and transliterated Asklepios) was the god of medicine and healing in ancient Greek mythology, according to which he was born a mortal but was given immortality as the constellation Ophiuchus after his death. ... This article is about the Greek goddess. ... The word slaves has several meanings and usages: People who are owned by others, and live to serve them without pay. ... Roman mythology can be considered as two parts. ... In Roman mythology, Virbius was a forest god, consort of Diana. ... A goddess is a female deity in contrast with a male deity known as a god. A great many cultures have goddesses, sometimes alone, but more often as part of a larger pantheon that includes both of the conventional genders and in some cases even hermaphroditic (or gender neutral) deities. ... Orestes Ορεστης is a Greek name, literally he who stands on the mountain, or mountain-dweller. Orestes can refer to: In Greek mythology, the son of Agamemnon. ...

The ruins by the shores of the lake of Nemi.

The most extensive ancient record of the priesthood at Nemi, however, is contained in Virgil's Æneid. In the Æneid, Æneas, significantly a fugitive from the fall of Troy, visits the sacred grove at Nemi and plucks the golden bough. (Æneid, book VI, 124 et. seq.) He presents it, not as part of a ritual challenge to become the rex Nemorensis, but rather as a gift to the Sybil of Cumae, who instructs Æneas on the way to travel to Hades, where he converses with the ghost of his father Anchises. However, at the conclusion of the poem Æneas slays Turnus in battle, and Turnus allegorically represents the Etruscans: the theme of supplanting the prior occupants of Latium remains arguably present in the Æneid as well. Virgil also places Hippolytus at the grove of Aricia, and has Æneas encounter him there. (Æneid, book VII, 761 et. seq.) For other uses see Virgil (disambiguation). ... The Aeneid is a Latin epic written by Virgil in the 1st century BC that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy where he became the ancestor of the Romans. ... Aeneas (or Aineias) was a Trojan hero, the son of prince Anchises and the goddess Venus. ... Walls of the excavated city of Troy (Turkey) This article is about the city of Troy / Ilion as described in the works of Homer, and the location of an ancient city associated with it. ... In antiquity, the oracular seeresses of the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean were referred to by the Greek term Sibyls. ... Cumae (Cuma, in Italian) is an ancient Greek settlement lying to the northwest of Naples in the Italian region of Campania. ... Hades (Greek: - HadÄ“s or - HáidÄ“s) (unseen) means both the ancient Greek abode of the dead and the god of that underworld. ... Reputed ghost of a monk. ... In Greek mythology, Anchises was a son of Capys. ... In Roman mythology, King Turnus of the Rutuli was an ancient king killed by Aeneas. ... An allegory (from Greek αλλος, allos, other, and αγορευειν, agoreuein, to speak in public) is a figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than and in addition to the literal. ... The Etruscan civilization existed in Etruria and the Po valley in the northern part of what is now Italy, prior to the formation of the Roman Republic. ... Latium (Lazio in Italian) is a region of central Italy, bordered by Tuscany, Umbria, Abruzzo, Molise, Campania and the Tyrrhenian Sea. ...

More recent interpretations

The human sacrifice conducted at Nemi was thought to be highly unusual by the ancients. The surviving accounts suggest that it was thought extremely primitive, even if hallowed by centuries of tradition. Suetonius mentions it as an example of the moral failings of Caligula, his subject. Strabo calls it Scythian, implying that he found it barbaric. The violent character of this singular institution could barely be justified by reference to its great antiquity and mythological sanctity. The ancient sources also appear to concur that an escaped slave who seeks refuge in this uneasy office is likely to be a desperate man. Human sacrifice was practiced in many ancient cultures. ... Scythia was an area in Eurasia inhabited in ancient times by people probably speaking Indo-Iranian languages, known as the Scythians. ... Barbarian was originally a Greek term applied to any foreigner, one not sharing a recognized culture or degree of polish with the speaker or writer employing the term. ...

However, Sir James George Frazer, in his seminal work The Golden Bough, argued that the tale of the priesthood of Nemi was in fact an instance of a worldwide myth of a sacred king who must periodically die as part of a regular fertility rite. While later anthropology is sceptical of Frazer's broad hypothesis, this hypothesis went on to have an extensive literary career. Because of Frazer's deep literary influence, the notion of a sacred king who must periodically be slain by his rival as part of a fertility rite is likely far more familiar to contemporary readers than it was to the ancients. Sir James George Frazer (January 1, 1854 - May 7, 1941), a social anthropologist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion, was born in Glasgow, Scotland. ... The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion is a broad comparative cultural study of mythology and religion by Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941). ... Fertility rites are religious rituals that reenact, either actually or symbolically, sexual acts and/or reproductive processes. ... Anthropology (from the Greek word άνθρωπος = human) consists of the study of humankind (see genus Homo). ...

References

• Frazer, Sir James G. The Golden Bough (MacMillan, 1950 (abridged edition)
• Hornblower, Simon, et. al. (eds.) The Oxford Classical Dictionary (3d edition. 2003) ISBN 0198606419

1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• The Oleaster at the End of the Æneid by Julia Dyson
• Diana Aricina e il Rex Nemorensis by Rossano Buttaroni (Italian)