Silvanus (mythology)
Encyclopedia
Silvanus was a Roman
tutelary deity of woods and fields. As protector of forests (sylvestris deus), he especially presided over plantations and delighted in trees growing wild. He is also described as a god watching over the fields and husbandmen, protecting in particular the boundaries of fields. The similarly named Etruscan
deity Selvans
may be a borrowing of Silvanus, or not even related in origin.
Silvanus is described as the divinity protecting the flocks of cattle, warding off wolves, and promoting their fertility. Hyginus
states that Silvanus was the first to set up stones to mark the limits of fields, and that every estate had three Silvani:
Hence Silvani were often referred to in the plural.
was sacred to him, and he is mentioned along with the Pans and Nymphs. Later speculators even identified Silvanus with Pan
, Faunus
, Inuus
and Aegipan
. He must have been associated with the Italian Mars
, for Cato
refers to him as Mars Silvanus. In the provinces outside of Italy, Silvanus was identified with numerous native gods:
The Slavic
god Porewit
has similarities with Silvanus.
's De Agricultura an offering to Mars Silvanus is described, to ensure the health of cattle; it is stated there that his connection with agriculture referred only to the labour performed by men, and that females were excluded from his worship. (Compare Bona Dea
for a Roman deity from whose worship men were excluded.) Virgil
relates that in the very earliest times the Tyrrhenian
Pelasgians
had dedicated a grove and a festival to Silvanus.
. Virgil represents him as carrying the trunk of a cypress
, about which the following myth is told. Silvanus – or Apollo
according to other versions – was in love with Cyparissus
, and once by accident killed a hind belonging to Cyparissus. The latter died of grief, and was metamorphosed into a cypress.
In the Edmund Spenser
's epic poem The Faerie Queene
(1590-96), Silvanus appears in Canto VI of Book I. His 'wyld woodgods' (Stanza 9) save the lost and frightened Lady Una from being molested by Sans loy and take her to him. They treat her as a Queen because of her great beauty. Spenser writes in Stanza 14:
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
tutelary deity of woods and fields. As protector of forests (sylvestris deus), he especially presided over plantations and delighted in trees growing wild. He is also described as a god watching over the fields and husbandmen, protecting in particular the boundaries of fields. The similarly named Etruscan
Etruscan mythology
The Etruscans were a diachronically continuous population, with a distinct language and culture during the period of earliest European writing, in the Mediterranean Iron Age in the second half of the first millennium BC...
deity Selvans
Selvans
In Etruscan mythology, Selvans was god of the woodlands, cognate with Roman Silvanus. His name is mentioned on the Piacenza Liver, a bronze model of a sheep's liver used for divinatory rites....
may be a borrowing of Silvanus, or not even related in origin.
Silvanus is described as the divinity protecting the flocks of cattle, warding off wolves, and promoting their fertility. Hyginus
Hyginus
Hyginus can refer to:People:*Gaius Julius Hyginus , Roman poet, author of Fabulae, reputed author of Poeticon astronomicon*Hyginus Gromaticus, Roman surveyor*Pope Hyginus, also a saint, Bishop of Rome about 140...
states that Silvanus was the first to set up stones to mark the limits of fields, and that every estate had three Silvani:
- a Silvanus domesticus (in inscriptions called Silvanus LarumLaresLares , archaically Lases, were guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries or fruitfulness, hero-ancestors, or an amalgam of these....
and Silvanus sanctus sacer Larum) - a Silvanus agrestis (also called salutaris), who was worshipped by shepherds, and
- a Silvanus orientalis, that is, the god presiding over the point at which an estate begins.
Hence Silvani were often referred to in the plural.
Attributes and associations
Like other gods of woods and flocks, Silvanus is described as fond of music; the syrinxPan flute
The pan flute or pan pipe is an ancient musical instrument based on the principle of the closed tube, consisting usually of five or more pipes of gradually increasing length...
was sacred to him, and he is mentioned along with the Pans and Nymphs. Later speculators even identified Silvanus with Pan
Pan (mythology)
Pan , in Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, as well as the companion of the nymphs. His name originates within the Greek language, from the word paein , meaning "to pasture." He has the hindquarters, legs,...
, Faunus
Faunus
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Faunus was the horned god of the forest, plains and fields; when he made cattle fertile he was called Inuus. He came to be equated in literature with the Greek god Pan....
, Inuus
Inuus
In ancient Roman religion, Inuus was a god, or aspect of a god, who embodied copulation. The evidence for him as a distinct entity is scant. Servius says that Inuus is an epithet of Faunus , named from his habit of intercourse with animals, based on the etymology of ineundum, "a going in,...
and Aegipan
Aegipan
Aegipan , that is, Goat-Pan, was according to some statements a being distinct from Pan, while others regard him as identical with Pan. His story appears to be altogether of late origin. According to Hyginus he was the son of Zeus and Aega , and was transferred to the stars...
. He must have been associated with the Italian Mars
Mars (mythology)
Mars was the Roman god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was second in importance only to Jupiter, and he was the most prominent of the military gods worshipped by the Roman legions...
, for Cato
Cato the Elder
Marcus Porcius Cato was a Roman statesman, commonly referred to as Censorius , Sapiens , Priscus , or Major, Cato the Elder, or Cato the Censor, to distinguish him from his great-grandson, Cato the Younger.He came of an ancient Plebeian family who all were noted for some...
refers to him as Mars Silvanus. In the provinces outside of Italy, Silvanus was identified with numerous native gods:
- Sucellos, Sinquas and Tettus in GaulGaulGaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
and GermanyGermaniaGermania was the Greek and Roman geographical term for the geographical regions inhabited by mainly by peoples considered to be Germani. It was most often used to refer especially to the east of the Rhine and north of the Danube... - Callirius, CocidiusCocidiusIn Romano-British religion, Cocidius was a deity worshipped in northern Britain. The Romans equated him with Mars, god of war and hunting and with Sylvanus, god of forests, groves and wild fields...
and Vinotonus in BritainRoman BritainRoman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia... - Calaedicus in SpainHispaniaAnother theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....
- the Mogiae in PannoniaPannoniaPannonia was an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia....
- Poininus in MoesiaMoesiaMoesia was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans, along the south bank of the Danube River. It included territories of modern-day Southern Serbia , Northern Republic of Macedonia, Northern Bulgaria, Romanian Dobrudja, Southern Moldova, and Budjak .-History:In ancient...
.
The Slavic
Slavic mythology
Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs before Christianisation.The religion possesses many common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion....
god Porewit
Porewit
Porewit is the West Slavic deity in Wendish mythology revered in the town of Charenza on Rugia.Porewit was the second of the three gods, revered in Charenza, along with Rugiewit and Porenut. A wooden idol of the Porewit stood in the temple, which was dedicated to him. Porewit was depicted with...
has similarities with Silvanus.
Worship
The sacrifices offered to Silvanus consisted of grapes, ears of grain, milk, meat, wine and pigs. In CatoCato the Elder
Marcus Porcius Cato was a Roman statesman, commonly referred to as Censorius , Sapiens , Priscus , or Major, Cato the Elder, or Cato the Censor, to distinguish him from his great-grandson, Cato the Younger.He came of an ancient Plebeian family who all were noted for some...
's De Agricultura an offering to Mars Silvanus is described, to ensure the health of cattle; it is stated there that his connection with agriculture referred only to the labour performed by men, and that females were excluded from his worship. (Compare Bona Dea
Bona Dea
Bona Dea was a divinity in ancient Roman religion. She was associated with chastity and fertility in women, healing, and the protection of the Roman state and people...
for a Roman deity from whose worship men were excluded.) Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
relates that in the very earliest times the Tyrrhenian
Tyrrhenian
Tyrrhenian may refer to the:* Tyrrhenian Stage, a faunal stage from 0.26 to 0.01143 million years ago* Tyrrhenians, an ancient ethnonym associated variously with Pelasgians, Etruscans or Lemnians* Tyrrhenian Sea* Tyrrhenian languages...
Pelasgians
Pelasgians
The name Pelasgians was used by some ancient Greek writers to refer to populations that were either the ancestors of the Greeks or who preceded the Greeks in Greece, "a hold-all term for any ancient, primitive and presumably indigenous people in the Greek world." In general, "Pelasgian" has come...
had dedicated a grove and a festival to Silvanus.
In literature
In works of Latin poetry and art, Silvanus always appears as an old man, but as cheerful and in love with PomonaPomona
Pomona was a goddess of fruitful abundance in ancient Roman religion and myth. Her name comes from the Latin word pomum, "fruit," specifically orchard fruit. She was said to be a wood nymph and a part of the Numia, guardian spirits who watch over people, places, or homes...
. Virgil represents him as carrying the trunk of a cypress
Cupressus sempervirens
Cupressus sempervirens, the Mediterranean Cypress is a species of cypress native to the eastern Mediterranean region, in northeast Libya, southeast Greece , southern Turkey, Cyprus, Northern Egypt, western Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Malta, Italy, western Jordan, and also a disjunct population in...
, about which the following myth is told. Silvanus – or Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
according to other versions – was in love with Cyparissus
Cyparissus
In Greek mythology, Cyparissus or Kyparissos was a boy beloved by Apollo, or in some versions by other deities. In the best-known version of the story, the favorite companion of Cyparissus was a tamed stag, which he accidentally killed with his hunting javelin as it lay sleeping in the woods...
, and once by accident killed a hind belonging to Cyparissus. The latter died of grief, and was metamorphosed into a cypress.
In the Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...
's epic poem The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene is an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza and is one of the longest poems in the English...
(1590-96), Silvanus appears in Canto VI of Book I. His 'wyld woodgods' (Stanza 9) save the lost and frightened Lady Una from being molested by Sans loy and take her to him. They treat her as a Queen because of her great beauty. Spenser writes in Stanza 14:
-
-
- So towards old Syluanus they did her bring;
- Who with the noyse awaked, commeth out,
- To weet the cause, his weake steps gouerning,
- And aged limbs on Cypresse stadle stout,
- And with an yvie twyne his wast is girt about.
-
External links
- Cato's De Agricultura: an offering to Mars Silvanus (e-text in English and Latin)