3 Roman legends to reflect on

Roman legends have the particularity of offering a strange combination of human beings with fantastic natural elements and mythological animals. But they keep much more in their content.

The classical legends, mainly the Greco-Roman ones, aimed to offer a feeling of homeland among its inhabitantspromoting enormous feats that served both to understand the origins and history of the empire and to educate the population in the values ​​of their time.

The Roman legends that promote the most reflection

In some way, the classical world has endured to this day as a cultured and almost exemplary element. Thus, in a similar way to what happened in his day, A good number of the legends that we know also help us reflect..

The truth is those ancient legends still explain the current world to us beyond his fabulous stories. It is due to their broad cultural and symbolic content, which is why they are used daily by psychologists and professionals from various disciplines to exemplify the world in which we live.

The she-wolf that suckled Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome

With the intention of giving an almost divine origin to the powerful Rome, the legend was created that, temporarily, It was a wolf that suckled Romulus and Remusthe two founders of an empire that would span 10 centuries of human history.

A servant saved the twins from being murdered and hid them on the banks of the Tiber River so that were picked up by a wolf who suckled them when she heard them cry. Then, it would be the shepherd Faustulus who would collect them and raise them with his wife, Acca Larentia.

The wolf was a sacred animal for many cultures, among them, the Etruscans, a people who lived in Italian lands before the Romans. However, from this legend we can extract other reflections. For example, how much our actions can change the world. Who would have told that servant or shepherd that one of the most powerful and largest empires we have known would be born from his acts of kindness?

Circe and King Pico

We now see another interesting Roman legend, that of Circe and King Pico; perhaps less known than the previous one, but no less striking. In it we meet Pico, son of Saturn and father of Faun, married to the nymph Canente.

Pico was a primitive fortune teller who was accompanied by a woodpecker, which is also considered a prophetic bird. However, this man did not correspond to Circe, the sorceress of the island of Aeaea whom she loved. That’s why, The woman also transformed him into a bird with prophetic powers..

It is curious that, in many of the legendary Greco-Roman fables and legends we find great presence of unrequited love that ended tragically, vengefully or in drama. Nowadays, Every time we learn to live better with our emotions. It is important to know them, control them as much as possible and, above all, understand them. Otherwise, rage, revenge or anger can be constant, as we see in many classic stories.

Hercules and Cacus

One of the characters that stars in most Roman legends is Hercules.. So much so that Virgil, probably the greatest Roman poet, narrated his adventures to defeat Cacus, half satyr, half giant. What’s more, this story is represented sculpturally in the Piazza della Signoria, in Florence.

Virgil dreamed of creating an almost divine Roman origin. That’s why I wrote The Aeneidwhich tells the adventures of Aeneas, a descendant of Troy, a city from which he escapes once it falls into Greek hands to found Rome on the Italian coast.

The passage of Hercules and Cacus is one more that adds to this divine origin. And the giant, after stealing some red oxen in the Tiber Valley, is discovered by Hercules, who dismembers him as revenge.

People say that This story begins the cult of Hercules. Also that it is an anthropological key to knowing the commercial evolution in the area. However, once again we observe revenge, the victory of the strongest and punishment for morally reprehensible acts.

There is no doubt that Roman legends, always interpreted from a current point of view, allow us to reflect on themes that are equally classic. Morality, ethics, revenge, justice, emotions… For thousands of years we have tried to understand them. Will we ever achieve it?

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