In addition to Varro, Verrius Flaccus (CIL 1: 236, 316) and others hold that he is male; Ovid, Columella (see following), Augustine, and Tertullian regard the deity as female. A.J. Boyle and R.D. Woodard, Ovid: Fasti (Penguin Books, 2000), p. 254 online.Archived September 21, 2023, at the Wayback Machine
This dual function of Mars, contradictory perhaps to the 21st-century mind, may not have seemed so to the Romans: "In early Rome agriculture and military activity were closely bound up, in the sense that the Roman farmer was also a soldier (and a voter as well)": Beard, Religions of Rome, pp. 47–48 onlineArchived September 21, 2023, at the Wayback Machine and 53. See also Evans, Utopia antiqua, p. 188 online.Archived September 21, 2023, at the Wayback Machine
Precise naming, in connection with concealing a deity's true name to monopolize his or her power, was a crucial part of prayer in antiquity, as evidenced not only in the traditional religions of Greece and Rome and syncretisticHellenistic religion and mystery cult, but also in Judaism, ancient Egyptian religion, and later Christianity. See Matthias Klinghardt, “Prayer Formularies for Public Recitation: Their Use and Function in Ancient Religion,” Numen 46 (1999) 1–5; A.A. Barb, "Antaura. The Mermaid and the Devil's Grandmother: A Lecture," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 29 (1966), p. 4; Karen Hartnup, On the Beliefs of the Greeks: Leo Allatios and Popular Orthodoxy (Brill, 2004), pp. 97–101 onlineArchived September 21, 2023, at the Wayback Machine (in connection with compelling demons). Augustine of Hippo derided the proliferation of divinities as a turba minutorum deorum, "a mob of mini-gods" (De civitate Dei 4.9, dea Robigo among them at 4.21); see W.R. Johnson, "The Return of Tutunus," Arethusa (1992) 173–179. See also indigitamenta.
Craig A. Williams, Roman Homosexuality (Oxford University Press, 1999, 2010), p. 32 online.Archived September 21, 2023, at the Wayback Machine
uchicago.edu
penelope.uchicago.edu
Plutarch, Roman Questions68Archived September 21, 2023, at the Wayback Machine; Eli Edward Burriss, "The Place of the Dog in Superstition as Revealed in Latin Literature," Classical Philology 30 (1935), pp. 34–35.
web.archive.org
Plutarch, Roman Questions68Archived September 21, 2023, at the Wayback Machine; Eli Edward Burriss, "The Place of the Dog in Superstition as Revealed in Latin Literature," Classical Philology 30 (1935), pp. 34–35.
In addition to Varro, Verrius Flaccus (CIL 1: 236, 316) and others hold that he is male; Ovid, Columella (see following), Augustine, and Tertullian regard the deity as female. A.J. Boyle and R.D. Woodard, Ovid: Fasti (Penguin Books, 2000), p. 254 online.Archived September 21, 2023, at the Wayback Machine
This dual function of Mars, contradictory perhaps to the 21st-century mind, may not have seemed so to the Romans: "In early Rome agriculture and military activity were closely bound up, in the sense that the Roman farmer was also a soldier (and a voter as well)": Beard, Religions of Rome, pp. 47–48 onlineArchived September 21, 2023, at the Wayback Machine and 53. See also Evans, Utopia antiqua, p. 188 online.Archived September 21, 2023, at the Wayback Machine
Precise naming, in connection with concealing a deity's true name to monopolize his or her power, was a crucial part of prayer in antiquity, as evidenced not only in the traditional religions of Greece and Rome and syncretisticHellenistic religion and mystery cult, but also in Judaism, ancient Egyptian religion, and later Christianity. See Matthias Klinghardt, “Prayer Formularies for Public Recitation: Their Use and Function in Ancient Religion,” Numen 46 (1999) 1–5; A.A. Barb, "Antaura. The Mermaid and the Devil's Grandmother: A Lecture," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 29 (1966), p. 4; Karen Hartnup, On the Beliefs of the Greeks: Leo Allatios and Popular Orthodoxy (Brill, 2004), pp. 97–101 onlineArchived September 21, 2023, at the Wayback Machine (in connection with compelling demons). Augustine of Hippo derided the proliferation of divinities as a turba minutorum deorum, "a mob of mini-gods" (De civitate Dei 4.9, dea Robigo among them at 4.21); see W.R. Johnson, "The Return of Tutunus," Arethusa (1992) 173–179. See also indigitamenta.
Craig A. Williams, Roman Homosexuality (Oxford University Press, 1999, 2010), p. 32 online.Archived September 21, 2023, at the Wayback Machine
