Remus: A Roman Myth

by Timothy Peter Wiseman

Overview

This is an account of the foundation legend of Rome, how the twins Remus and Romulus were miraculously suckled by a she-wolf, and how Romulus founded Rome and Remus was killed at the moment of the foundation. What does the story mean? Why have a twin, if he has to be killed off? This is the first historical analysis of the origins and development of the myth, and it offers important insights into the nature of pre-imperial Rome and the ways in which myths could be created and elaborated in a nonliterate society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521483667
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/25/1995
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.59(d)

Table of Contents

1. A too familiar story; 2. Multiform and manifold; 3. When and where; 4. What the Greeks said; 5. Italian evidence; 6. The Lupercalia; 7. The arguments; 8. The life and death of Remus; 9. The uses of a myth; 10. The other Rome; Appendix: Versions of the foundation of Rome.

Editorial Reviews

"...a pleasure to read and will lead, one hopes, to renewed interest in the myth of the foundation of Rome and its central characters." Religious Studies Review

"[This] wonderfully clear narrative demonstrates the best of contempoary scholarship..." Choice

"...[a] wild and wonderful book." Times Literary Supplement

"...Wiseman packs several centuries worth of primary sources and scholarship into a delightfully written argument. Wiseman's Remus is required reading for anyone with an interest in Roman mythology, history, or literature." Cynthia Bannon, Folklore Forum

From the Publisher