Ilia's dream

I’m not totally satisfied with this poem, but as it is based on a translation from a Latin text I feel some restriction in going too far from the original. The Latin text I used is by Ennius (239-169 BCE) and can be found in Beginning Latin Poetry Reader pp. 3-5. Without the notes that come with the text, I might have thought I was putting too much of my own interpretation on the poem. The notes make it clear that this is a story about rape.

Ilia is the daughter of Aeneas and of Eurydice, and full sister of the unnamed sister whom she addresses in this poem. Ilia is the mother of Romulus and Remus who are the children born as a result of this rape. Mars is the god of war, but also has to do with agriculture.

Ilia has a second name, Rhea Silvia. Rhea suggests the Greek word rheo ‘flow’, therefore associated with the river, the spirit of the Tiber. It’s possible it has a connection to res and regnum, hence to the ruling family. Silvia comes from Latin silva, ‘forest’ or ‘woods’, suggesting a goddess of the forests, the wilds, perhaps Diana.

This story has so many convolutions because Ilia aka Rhea Silvia is also a vestal virgin. The vestal virgins were selected at a very young age (6-10 years) and expected to remain virgins until the age of 35. In a society where a virgin is an independent woman with sacred power, the important thing is that she is not at the beck and call of a husband. By being selected, this daughter of royalty is prevented from having heirs. Her father Numitor has a nasty younger brother, Amulius who has already killed Numitor’s son and wants to see an end to his line. In the poem she is referred to as a daughter of Aeneas, but that was some eleven generations back and is shorthand for saying that she is part of this foundational family, of the lineage of Aeneas.

Numitor was king of Alba Longa which is now the site of Castel Gandolfo, the pope’s summer residence. So the pope now hangs out in summer at the home of Rome’s first family. The sheep wins again!!  How is it possible that the sheep has come to hold all that belonged to the family with wolf connections, who lived comfortably with wilderness in the forest along with the animals?

The vestal virgins continued to have power in Classical Rome. They paid no taxes, they were the only ones allowed to drive a cart through the Forum (Senators did not have this privilege), they had the best seats in the Colisseum near the emperor (hard to know if they wanted to watch all those killings, especially of animals whom originally they represented). 

The vestal virgins' job to was keep alight the flame in the Temple of Vesta. Vesta was the goddess of hearth and home (Hestia in Greece). If the fire went out, then Rome’s end was near. This Roman temple was originally built around the 8^th century BCE, so it is very old.

When Rhea Silvia aka Ilia gave birth to twins the punishment was to be thrown in jail (be weighed down with chains, according to Livy) and her children thrown in the river.

The fire of the vestals was put out by order of Christian emperor Thodosius I in 394 CE. The College of the Vestals was then disbanded, but an interesting side story is the appropriation of the vestals’ garments by the church. The main items of clothing of a vestal were an infula (a white woollen fillet), a suffibulum (a white woollen veil), and a palla (a long very simple shawl made of wool which Roman women wore as everyday clothing). When a Catholic cardinal attains the status of cardinal he receives a woollen item of clothing. So far, I’ve found out that the pope has a palla. It looks pretty likely that the other two are also part of the clergy’s vestments. I’d love to hear from anyone who knows more about priests’ clothing in the Catholic Church. I’ve long noticed the church’s predisposition for long garments that resemble what women used to wear, but I did not know they took holus bolus the outfit of the vestal virgins.

Ilia’s dream

I know it is a dream but it doesn’t help

every night I relive it

Nutrix limbs shaking with age

rushes in her torch aflame

I weep rivers in dream-shock shouting my terrors

dear sister daughter of Eurydice

you are our father’s favourite

but he forsakes me in these hours

I tell you life and energy have left me

abandoned my whole body

the man who seized me

it was Mars

was handsome and I was swept away

he took me to an enchanted willow grove

in a rapture embraced by the river

I was lost in that strange locale

my very self displaced

I was ravaged

and he laughed

sister afterwards my heart ached for you

I do not know up from down

earth sways at my every step

a voice disembodied

our father Aeneas

you must bear these troubles alone

he does not comfort me

only the old woman with her trembling limbs

he does not come to me nor defend me

he kowtows to the one who thinks he’s god

as if this excuses rape

I stretch my hands skyward

but all the words I hear are smooth-tongued

blandishments

I am heart-sick

and insomnia stalks my bedside

Gavin Betts and Daniel Franklin eds. 2006. Beginning Latin Poetry Reader. New York: McGraw Hill. The poem is called ‘The Dream of Ilia’.

The photos below are pictures taken from Rome Reconstructed which shows photos of how it looks now (no water there the day I took my photos) and how it probably looked during the Classical period.

Lupa's story

Lupa is Latin for she-wolf. The she-wolf inhabits the hills of the Palatine which I suspect are the site of a prior Etruscan sacred site. The day I visited the Palatine was really hot and the hills were shining and pink. I wandered over towards them wanting some shade and found this small shrine with no signs to indicate anything of importance here. First of all I saw the bird wolf woman (upper right, as in the previous post). And then I saw the sheep's head (on the lower left). I had not expected to find these two figures together, it seemed as though it was there for my benefit (I know, I know...). Anyway, I was standing there mouth gaping thinking about all the different possible ways to take the meaning of this. Some days later I wrote the following poem and I've been working on it on and off since then.

The word 'lupa' has multiple meanings. It can also mean prostitute (in Italian this has shifted to 'cagna' as in English 'bitch'). It's hard to unpack how words shift in meaning and in societies where women have much more status and freedom the word prostitute can have a range of other meanings, from sexually active to sacred in some way. In Greek and Roman religion the 'bitch goddess' is Artemis or Diana respectively. She is not bossed around by anyone, in fact, she is also called 'mistress of the animals', 'goddess of the wild' and the like.

Lupa’s story

heat is swelling like distended breasts

the day after I whelp my cubs

my dugs full    craving water

I wander down the pink Palatino hill

to the cool by the river

flood-high from summer storms

I smell something on Zephyr’s breath

hear the thin yelp

find them scratched and naked

tumbling from a wicker basket

I lick the caul from their bodies

first one then the other

they attach their mouths to me

almost drain me of milk

like ringlets we curl in the grotto and doze

I know the science of auspex

crows and ravens who bring

morsels of food augure well

there is man-smell in the air

I dare not remain

they are calm now

these pink-fleshed ones

I retreat from sun-glare

into the cave’s umbral arms

he steps out from

behind the fig tree

with his ovine face

his sheepskin wrap

shepherd’s crook

and bumpkin ways

a kindly one our Faunus

he cradles them in his arms

stares into my eyes

carries them to the breasts

of fertile Acca Larentia

who shares my name Lupa

There are so many things going on in this story. The shepherd, Faunus (another name for Pan and probably from the term 'the kindly one') takes the twins back home to another woman who has had ten children. She, like the wolf, is known as Lupa. But these 'lupas' are mothers, they suckle children. That is the most obvious element in the two stories.

Pan or Faunus is a kind of sidekick to Diana and Artemis and that also comes through in this story with the passing of the children from the suckling she-wolf 'lupa' to the suckling woman 'lupa'.

Photos on this page:
1. The shrine on the Palatine Hill, Rome with both bird/wolf/woman and sheep.
2. A Roman coin in the Museum of Antiquities, Turin.
3. The Palatine shrine with bird/wolf/woman.
4. The Palatine shrine with sheeps's head.
5. Lupa sculpture outside the Capitoline Museum (behind it).
6. Lupa sculpture outside the Capitoline Museum at sunrise.

The photo that heads my blog is the Lupa sculpture inside the Capitoline Museum.

Cavalupa

I took this photo at the Diocletian Baths in Rome. From its location you would think that the curators of the museum don't want visitors to notice this sculpture. She was in the far corner on a path that led nowhere. I was just lucky that I happened to turn around and see her.

She is in fact the cornerstone of Rome's mythical tradition around the she-wolf. The wolf is, I expect, a much older goddess or ancestral figure. And in her old form, as you can see in this photo she has wolf paws and legs, eight wolf breasts plus two woman breasts at the top, a woman's head and wings. She is one powerful figure drawing together strengths from many different realms. I have seen other figures similar to this and will post them in due course.

The following poem was inspired by a story I noted down when I visited the Etruscan Museum. And this figure probably draws on Etruscan stories, as does the story of the she-wolf.

Cavalupo means the quarry of the wolf. I have given it a feminine ending instead to make it the quarry of the she-wolf.

Cavalupa

in the quarry of the wolf

the remains of two women

they have shared this urn

for three thousand years

your body on my tongue

your tongue on my body

once we were birds

winged auguries

between us multiple breasts

wolf paws and tail

your blood on my tongue

your tongue on my blood

two women in parallel lope

noses twitching airborne scents

thigh muscles rippling in tension

pounce and prance the wolf dance

slut but but versione italo inglese

So now for something completely different. I read this tonight at the weekly readings at Isola Tiburina. Con grazie mille a mia amica Suzanne Santoro per la traduzione.

Sono femminista radicale da quadrant-anni. Ma, non mi va giù per niente il/la. “Slut Walk”. Però, c’è stato/stata un/una “Slut Walk” in aprile scorso qui a roma.

slut but but

I’m a slut

but  but

ma       non sono  non sono

I’m a slot

I’m a slut

ma ma

ma che significa?

am I a slut?

but but

he said you’re a slut

he said look at your butt

you’re a slut

dicevo

but but

she said she’s a slut

no buts about it

just a slut

all smut

tutti dicevono she’s a slut

sicuramente

but but I said

I said but

I’m no slut

non sono una fessura per il tuo pezzo

I’m not here for you

so fuck off and stop doin me in

he said but but

no slut here

no fear

he said but but

she said but but

they said but but

I’m not the butt of your names

le tue parole non sono le mie parole

no fuckin way

chiudi il becco

I’m no slut

I’m no slut walker

sono una cammina non sono una zoccola

so butt out

vattene della mia mente

I’ll think what I want

I’ll do what I want

I’ll walk at 3 am if I want

indosserò stivaloni i tirero calci

avrò i cappelli come mi pare

corti o lunghi

ma non faro sesso per strada

because I’m not here for you

tu sei uno stalker

cos I’m no slut

you say but but

you look like a slut

you must be a slut

if you’re out a 3 am

if you don’t look girlie

you must be a fuckin femminista

they’re all sluts

that’s what they are

and I say

you got it boy

you got it girl

sono una femminista

now fuck off

I’m no slut

d’you hear

try again

I’m no slut

they all said but but

Bilingual version © Susan Hawthorne, 2013; Translation Suzanne Santoro, 2013.