The Legend of Romulus and Remus - The Shewolf
The Legend of Romulus and Remus
According to Roman mythology, Remus and Romulus were the
sons of the princes turned Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia and the god of war, Mars. The
twins were said to be born around 771 BC. As soon as they were born, they were
placed in a trough and thrown into the Tiber River. The trough came ashore and
they were found by a she-wolf who suckled them.
The Legend of Romulus and Remus
The boys were discovered and raised by a shepherd, Faustulus.
Reaching adulthood, the twins decided to found a town of their own, and chose
the place where the she-wolf had nursed them. Remus chose the Aventine Hill, and
Romulus begun to build walls on the Palatine Hill. When Remus jeered at his
brother’s low walls, contemptuously leaping over them, an angry Romulus killed
him. Romulus continued to build his new town, naming it
Roma after himself.
Roma after himself.
The Legend of Romulus and Remus
Not having enough wives for his men, Romulus decided to steal
women from the Sabines, the neighboring tribes. He invited the Sabines to a
festival and then abducted their women. The Sabianes made war on Remuls. The
fighting ended when the Sabine women, who had grown fond of their Roman
husbands, intervened between the fighters and begged both sides to make peace.
The Legend of Romulus and Remus
Romulus is alleged to not have died, but to have mysteriously
disappeared in a violent storm after having reigned over Rome for 38 years. The
Romans, believing he had changed into a god, worshipped him under the name of
Quirinus. 
Romulus and Remus
All across Italy statues and paintings depicting the She-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus can be seen. This is one of the symbols of the Roman Empire.
Romulus and Remus
Romulus and Remus
Romulus and Remus
Romulus and Remus
Romulus and Remus
"And thou, the thunder-stricken nurse of Rome!
ReplyDeleteShe-wolf! whose brazen-imaged dugs impart
The milk of conquest yet within the dome
Where, as a monument of antique art,
Thou standest:—Mother of the mighty heart,
Which the great Founder sucked from thy wild teat,
Scorched by the Roman Jove's ethereal dart,
And thy limbs black with lightning—dost thou yet
Guard thine immortal cubs, nor thy fond charge forget?
Thou dost;—but all thy foster-babes are dead—
The men of iron; and the World hath reared
Cities from out their sepulchres: men bled
In imitation of the things they feared,
And fought and conquered, and the same course steered,
At apish distance; but as yet none have,
Nor could, the same supremacy have neared,
Save one vain Man, who is not in the grave—
But, vanquished by himself, to his own slaves a slave..."