Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/346

 298 The European Sky -God.

by Jupiter and after death returned again to him," D. Junius Brutus, the consul of 138 B.C., used to perform his family parentatio or funeral offerings not, as all other Romans did, in February, but in December.^ May not this have been the older system kept up in the family of one who claimed descent from Jupiter 2.'' Sixthly, the common representation of the genius as a snake ^ suits Jupiter, who was known to appear as a snake on the lectus genialis!^ Seventhly, it explains the belief in a two-fold genius^; for, as Jupiter was the god now of the bright sky, now of the dark sky (Jupiter Summanus), so the genius was " changeable of aspect, white or black." ^ But to all this it may be objected : if the genius was Jupiter, why is he never, except in the quasi-philosophic Augustine, called Jupiter .-' I suspect that the Romans refrained from mentioning their personal Jupiter from a fear lest others should work mischief with the name. The name of the tutelary god of Rome was never uttered for that reason, and O. Valerius Soranus who divulged it came to a bad end.^ Servius^ mentions in this connexion that on the Capitol at Rome was a shield inscribed " To the Genius of the city of Rome, whether male or female,"

^ Cic. de leg. 2. 54, Plut. quaestt. Rom. 34.

"^ Infra p. 303, Junius="son of Jupiter." ^ Roscher Lex. i. 1623 f.

•* Aur. Vict, de vir. illustr. 49. i.

5 Censorin. de die nat. 3. 3, Serv. in Verg. Aen. 6. 743, cp. ib. 3. 63.

^ Hor. epist. 2. 2. 189. If the genius was a Janus rather than a Jupiter, its duplication is equally intelligible.

'' Plin. nat. hist. 28. 18, Plut. quaestt. Rom. 61. Serv. in Verg. Aen. I. 277, Plin. nat. hist. 3. 65 and Solin. i. 5 say that Valerius Soranus divulged the forbidden name of Rome; and Solinus explains {ib. i. i) that the name in question was Valentia. Lyd. de mens. p. 125, 5 Wiinsch asserts that the mystic name was "Epwy, i.e. Amor. But both must be late inventions : Valentia is but a Latinized form of "Pwfiri, and Amor is a palindrome for Roma. Macrob. Sat. 3. 9. 3 states that both the tutelary god of Rome and the Latin name of Rome itself were kept profound secrets, but does not attempt to disclose them.

^ Serv. in Verg. Aen. 2. 351.