Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2004 4:24 am
Salve Coruncani
The mundus was a vaulted subterranean shrine. It was opened on 24 Aug, 5 Oct, and 8 Nov. When opened it allowed passage of the Manes from the Underworld. The original location I don't think is known but is assumed to have been at the center of Rome. When Augustus refound the City he had built a similar subterranean structure on the Palatine, although he called it something else IIRC, and it was an essential feature of the ceremonies required in foundation rites. The location of the mundus in historical times was in or near the Forum. If that is the case then it may have been relocated with the Servian refounding of Rome, and Augustus would seem to have relocated it back to the Palatine where an original mundus was assumed to have been located. The original mundus was said to have been established by Romulus when he founded Rome.
Modern speculation on the mundus has generally tried to connect it with the subterranean sanctuary of Consus, which was in the Circus Maximus. Festus however called it the mundus Cereris. Offerings of the first fruits were placed in the mundus and thus the speculation has been that it represented the underground storage of grain. However the Romans and no other Italic tribe ever stored grain below ground.
There is some connection between the naming of the mundus and the Roman term for the Universe. However no one really knows what the connection could be. The fact that it was supposedly at the heart of Rome poses it as a kind of omphalos, and the fact that it was thought a gateway between the worlds below and above again poses it as the center of the Roman Universe.
In the most ancient period, human sacrifices were associated with foundation rites. The Augustan Restoration placed stone pillars beneath the old pomerium that encircled the Palatine, and these commemorated an earlier human sacrifice. Those pillars also connected the ancient practice to the sacrifice of Remus. Some years back Carandini did find four gravesites beneath the pomerium wall he discovered. These may have been sacrificed when the pomerium was expanded, the remains date to around 650. There was some connection between the pomerium and the mundus, the latter being at the center of the former. There is no mention of it that I am aware of, but the mundus may have once been thought as the tomb of Remus. Remus would be the first Roman among the Manes, and the sacrificial vistims at the pomerium were referred to as followers of Remus. The Augustan pillars were found at the site where Femus was said to have met his death. There was the contrast between Remus' descent to the Underworld and Romulus' ascention in to the Heavens, so that again you have a concept of the Universe above and below and a connection made between the Manes and the celestial Gods with the mundus acting as the gateway between.
Vale optime
The mundus was a vaulted subterranean shrine. It was opened on 24 Aug, 5 Oct, and 8 Nov. When opened it allowed passage of the Manes from the Underworld. The original location I don't think is known but is assumed to have been at the center of Rome. When Augustus refound the City he had built a similar subterranean structure on the Palatine, although he called it something else IIRC, and it was an essential feature of the ceremonies required in foundation rites. The location of the mundus in historical times was in or near the Forum. If that is the case then it may have been relocated with the Servian refounding of Rome, and Augustus would seem to have relocated it back to the Palatine where an original mundus was assumed to have been located. The original mundus was said to have been established by Romulus when he founded Rome.
Modern speculation on the mundus has generally tried to connect it with the subterranean sanctuary of Consus, which was in the Circus Maximus. Festus however called it the mundus Cereris. Offerings of the first fruits were placed in the mundus and thus the speculation has been that it represented the underground storage of grain. However the Romans and no other Italic tribe ever stored grain below ground.
There is some connection between the naming of the mundus and the Roman term for the Universe. However no one really knows what the connection could be. The fact that it was supposedly at the heart of Rome poses it as a kind of omphalos, and the fact that it was thought a gateway between the worlds below and above again poses it as the center of the Roman Universe.
In the most ancient period, human sacrifices were associated with foundation rites. The Augustan Restoration placed stone pillars beneath the old pomerium that encircled the Palatine, and these commemorated an earlier human sacrifice. Those pillars also connected the ancient practice to the sacrifice of Remus. Some years back Carandini did find four gravesites beneath the pomerium wall he discovered. These may have been sacrificed when the pomerium was expanded, the remains date to around 650. There was some connection between the pomerium and the mundus, the latter being at the center of the former. There is no mention of it that I am aware of, but the mundus may have once been thought as the tomb of Remus. Remus would be the first Roman among the Manes, and the sacrificial vistims at the pomerium were referred to as followers of Remus. The Augustan pillars were found at the site where Femus was said to have met his death. There was the contrast between Remus' descent to the Underworld and Romulus' ascention in to the Heavens, so that again you have a concept of the Universe above and below and a connection made between the Manes and the celestial Gods with the mundus acting as the gateway between.
Vale optime