Mother Temple

What's left of the Temple of Venus Genetrix.

Cut back to 46 BCE. On this very day (I'm assuming Wikipedia corrected the ancient calendar to coincide with our modern one) Julius Caesar dedicated the Temple of Venus Genetrix ("Mother Venus") to the goddess of love in her aspect as ancestress of the Roman people and patron of motherhood and domesticity. September 26th thereafter became the day on which the festival in honor of Mother Venus was held, while yet other days (like August 12 and October the 9th) were reserved for tribute to the goddess in her other facets.

At first, Caesar wanted to dedicate his latest temple to Venus Victrix ("The Victorious"), seeing as how he had just cleverly defeated Pompey the Great at the Battle of Pharsalus (48 BCE), during the Great Roman Civil War (48-45 BCE), after which Caesar became dictator in perpetuity of Rome, the Roman Republic quietly disbanded and the path was laid for the Julio-Claudian dynasty of emperors, beginning with Augustus (who never formally called himself, or was adressed as, "emperor", preferring instead "princeps": first citizen) and ending with Nero. However, he eventually decided it was better to honor Venus as the progenitor of the family line of the Julio-Claudians, because who better to rule an empire* than someone descending from the gods themselves? It was this kind of mythical legitimization that would eventually fuel Julius Caesar's own deification (after Caesar's death the Great Comet of 44 BCE was considered to be his soul rising to heaven and henceforth he became known as divus Julius) and lead to the imperial cult of Rome, where the emperor was dignified as a god.

So what have we learned today? Myths can also function as handy propaganda tools. First and foremost myths serve as legitimizations in societies and cultures, whether that be of emperors, kings, leaders or social customs or important rites. Myths are the signifiers through which a given civilization strengthens and justifies its own identity and social organisation.

Tell a friend.

*Anachronism! At that time it was still a Republic! Good catch, anonymous internet fiend.