Passover: Season Two, Episode One

[M. Porcius Cato]

Wow! This is going to be a very dark season. Impressions?

[M. Porcius Cato]

The events depicted in this episode are also described in:

Appian, Civil Wars, Book 2, 118-148

Cassius Dio, Roman History, Book 44

Edited January 15, 2007 by M. Porcius Cato

[Jordon Harriman]

"Passover" was powerful. I enjoyed the image of Octavian in his funeral cowl. It echoed the statue and bust of Augustus as priest. The writing was excellent, really capturing the confusion and shifting plans and ideas in the chaos following Caesar's death. No one immediately thinks of the "best" course or the one ultimately chosen, but ideas get tossed about until the plan forms. Very good. I am so captivated by the show now, I don't care as much about some historical errors. It still feels like what Rome must have been like. I can't wait for the next episode.

[Plautus]

Salve Citizens,

 

The Second Season of HBO's ROME has started here in the U.S. at long last. Happy Day! Two questions for my brother and sisters about some details portrayed. (Remember not to give away too much to our overseas cousins!)

 

- Is there an accurate meaning when Pullo and Irene dab each others foreheads with mud like the Catholic Ash Wednesday ceremony?

 

-When Voerenus sifts through the remains of Niobe's funeral pyre, what is he collecting?

 

One questions also lingers in my mind from the first season. In the opening of episode two, When Attia is whipping her slave Castor , all the family busts have a scarlet ribbon tying their throats. Is there a religious meaning for this?

[Primus Pilus]

"Passover" was powerful. I enjoyed the image of Octavian in his funeral cowl. It echoed the statue and bust of Augustus as priest. The writing was excellent, really capturing the confusion and shifting plans and ideas in the chaos following Caesar's death. No one immediately thinks of the "best" course or the one ultimately chosen, but ideas get tossed about until the plan forms. Very good. I am so captivated by the show now, I don't care as much about some historical errors. It still feels like what Rome must have been like. I can't wait for the next episode.

 

Yes, the accuracy was a bit lacking, but clearly we can understand the need to consolidate the events. I think the overall feeling of the period was well represented, the smugness of Antonius, the early political calculations of Octavian, and the consternation of the assassins. However, I was terribly disappointed in Cicero's praise of Brutus and cowardice towards Antonius literally within moments of one another, but again I understand the decision to show a relative overview of the character. I just hope the character becomes a bit more in line with the anti-Antonian Cicero later.

 

The venom of Calpurnia countered by the stoic cold of Servilia was a scene I very much enjoyed.

 

The sub plot involving Vorenus and Pullo was brilliant and completely unexpected. McKidd is quite an actor, and I believe he will be a major screen star some day.

[M. Porcius Cato]

I thought the depiction of Roman funerals and funeral preparations was quite interesting, including the posture of the corpse and its customary treatment.

 

In the first episode of season one, Pompey is shown at the wake of Julia, whose corpse is displayed standing rather than reclining. In "Passover", both Niobe and Caesar are displayed reclining rather than standing. (In a different TV dramatization of a Roman funeral, the corpse was displayed sitting.) I wonder what the normal practice was.

 

Also, some, but not all, of the customs regarding the corpse were familiar to me. The coin in the mouth, for example, is proverbially to pay Charon's passage across the river Styx. But, by Jupiter's stone!, why was the corpse of Caesar given the nipple of a wet nurse? I've not seen that one anywhere. It's so weird I'm inclined to believe they have a source for it.

[P.Clodius]

Salve Citizens,

 

The Second Season of HBO's ROME has started here in the U.S. at long last. Happy Day! Two questions for my brother and sisters about some details portrayed. (Remember not to give away too much to our overseas cousins!)

 

- Is there an accurate meaning when Pullo and Irene dab each others foreheads with mud like the Catholic Ash Wednesday ceremony?

 

-When Voerenus sifts through the remains of Niobe's funeral pyre, what is he collecting?

 

One questions also lingers in my mind from the first season. In the opening of episode two, When Attia is whipping her slave Castor , all the family busts have a scarlet ribbon tying their throats. Is there a religious meaning for this?

Customs, religion, etc are Ursus' domain..He'll answer in due course...

[P.Clodius]

But, by Jupiter's stone!, why was the corpse of Caesar given the nipple of a wet nurse? I've not seen that one anywhere. It's so weird I'm inclined to believe they have a source for it.

Perhaps she was a representation of Venus Birthgiver?

[Cohort]

I am flummoxed ..I have done a fair bit of reading regards roman funeral rites..I have never come across the breast milk in the mouth rite....was that an invention of the director, or is there such a rite?

[M. Porcius Cato]

But, by Jupiter's stone!, why was the corpse of Caesar given the nipple of a wet nurse? I've not seen that one anywhere. It's so weird I'm inclined to believe they have a source for it.

Perhaps she was a representation of Venus Birthgiver?

 

That's a good idea, but was there any ordinary association between Venus Birthgiver and the dead? Surely an ordinary priestess of Venus Genetrix wouldn't think to drop her nipple in the mouth of a dead man unless it had been done before.

 

EDIT: Perhaps the "wet-nurse" was a priestess of Libitina (i.e., a libitinarii), whose job it was to ritually purify the dead so that others could touch the corpse without spiritual contamination? But by breast-feeding??

Edited January 15, 2007 by M. Porcius Cato

[Violentilla]

I think it may be Egyptian:

 

Caesar did follow the ways of Egypt a great deal, and may have brought them with him:

 

In the funeral rites of ancient Egypt, it was sung that milk should never be far from the mouths of the dead. In the Egyptian Pyramid texts, Ra is asked to bestow the milk of Isis upon the deceased, thereby rendering them a surrogate child of the goddess. Utterance 406 requests abundance on behalf of the dead:

 

Greetings to thee RA in thy beauty, in thy beauties,

in thy places, in thy two-thirds gold.

Mayest thou bring the milk of Isis to (name of the dead), and the flood of Nephthys,

the swishing of the lake, the primaeval flood of the ocean,

life, prosperity, health, happiness,

bread, beer, clothing, food, that (name) may live thereof

 

 

Both nourishment and sweetness are asked for to strengthen the act of remembrance and after

[Pertinax]

I presume we are seeing the relationship of venus/hecate here (though I havent seen the episode). The interpretation is as follows, the female principle as virgin/wife-lifegiver/crone-death(life taker), ie: the full life cycle of the feminine principle . Hecate or Proserpine as a deity(of death/subduction to the underworld) associated with mortality is intimately related to Venus as the ascendant figure of female beauty/fertility/desire/fecundity.One might say Hecate is the obverse of Venus, or Venus ripe with years and doom- lifegiver/lifetaker-return to to oblivion.

Violentillas post mirrors this with the Isis /Osiris cycle- I am intrigued by these posts and hope we can see the series soon!

[Violentilla]

I am flummoxed ..I have done a fair bit of reading regards roman funeral rites..I have never come across the breast milk in the mouth rite....was that an invention of the director, or is there such a rite?

 

I think it may be Egyptian:

 

Caesar did follow the ways of Egypt a great deal, and may have brought them with him:

 

In the funeral rites of ancient Egypt, it was sung that milk should never be far from the mouths of the dead. In the Egyptian Pyramid texts, Ra is asked to bestow the milk of Isis upon the deceased, thereby rendering them a surrogate child of the goddess. Utterance 406 requests abundance on behalf of the dead:

 

Greetings to thee RA in thy beauty, in thy beauties,

in thy places, in thy two-thirds gold.

Mayest thou bring the milk of Isis to (name of the dead), and the flood of Nephthys,

the swishing of the lake, the primaeval flood of the ocean,

life, prosperity, health, happiness,

bread, beer, clothing, food, that (name) may live thereof

 

 

Both nourishment and sweetness are asked for to strengthen the act of remembrance and after

[M. Porcius Cato]

Plutarch mentions that Libitina is sometimes identified with Venus, and there's a connection between Venus and Isis as well. Maybe Violentilla's suggestion has merit. I did read in Frazier of a case where an Egyptian mother breast-fed her dead babies, but Frazier doesn't mention any precedent.

Edited January 15, 2007 by M. Porcius Cato

[Julia C]

The episode was absolutely stunning. At this point I've gotten used to the historical liberties, and the show tends to be generally on the mark at any rate. More importantly, this show is one of the more colorful and lively representations of the Roman world, which is what I enjoy.

 

Antonius was smashing. His character really came to his own.

 

I also particularly enjoyed Octavian (we can now call him that without feeling bad!) begin turning those wheels in his devious little head. He's a darling!

 

I was also perplexed by the wet nurse, so I'm finding the speculation here very interesting. Did anyone catch the Latin funeral chanting? I've only watched my recording once, so I didn't try writing it down. What were they saying?