11-28-2012, 11:19 PM
This reminds me of all those studies on nympholepsy I had to read years ago, although they were all on the Greek side, obviously.
Honestly don't fully understand Nymphs in Roman culture. Sometimes they're pure Greek borrowings (from cult or literary constructs), Sometimes they're a good mix, sometimes the word is used to describe a native Italic element.
The most famous citation would obviously be Numa and his "girlfriend" (as Juvenal disparagingly calls her) in Livy. I think in general nymphs were held to be almost tutelary in their actions and tied to local places.
Given that this guy did well on the cursus we can assume he was from a halfway educated background and its probably an allusion about going mad for beauty or such like.
Honestly don't fully understand Nymphs in Roman culture. Sometimes they're pure Greek borrowings (from cult or literary constructs), Sometimes they're a good mix, sometimes the word is used to describe a native Italic element.
The most famous citation would obviously be Numa and his "girlfriend" (as Juvenal disparagingly calls her) in Livy. I think in general nymphs were held to be almost tutelary in their actions and tied to local places.
Given that this guy did well on the cursus we can assume he was from a halfway educated background and its probably an allusion about going mad for beauty or such like.
Jass
