Nixi (mythology)
Encyclopedia
In ancient Roman religion
, the di nixi (or dii nixi), also Nixae, were birth deities. They were depicted kneeling
or squatting
, a more common birthing position
in antiquity than in the modern era. The 2nd-century grammarian Festus
explains their name as the participle
of the Latin verb
nitor, niti, nixus, "to support oneself," also "strive, labor," in this sense "be in labor, give birth." The late Republican scholar Varro
said that enixae was the term for women in labor brought about by the Nixae, who oversee the types of religious practices that pertain to those giving birth. In some editions of Ovid
's Metamorphoses, a phrase is taken as referring to the birth goddess Lucina and her counterparts the Nixi.
A statuary group of three kneeling nixi or nixae stood in front of the Temple of Minerva
on the Capitoline Hill
. These had been brought to Rome by Manius Acilius Glabrio
among the spoils seized from Antiochus the Great after his defeat at Thermopylae
in 191 BC, or perhaps from the sack of Corinth
in 146.
In the iconography
of Greek myth
, the kneeling pose is also found in representations of Leto
(Roman Latona) giving birth to Apollo
and Artemis
(Diana), and of Auge
giving birth to Telephus
, son of Herakles (Hercules
). While the ancient Greek gynecologist
Soranos had disapproved of giving birth on one's knees as "painful and embarrassing," he recommends it for the obese and for lordotic
women, that is, those with a concave curvature of the lower back that would tilt the uterus out of alignment with the birth canal.
As guardians of the threshold of life, the Nixi or Nixae may also have been associated with new life in the sense of theological rebirth, or salvation
. An altar of the Nixae, within the Tarentum in the general area of the Campus Martius
, was the site of the annual sacrifice of the October Horse. The altar was possibly underground, as was the nearby altar of Dis Pater
and Proserpina
. The Tarentum gave its name to the ritual games held there (ludi
tarentini) that became the Saecular Games. A lengthy inscription
marks the occasion of these games under Augustus
in 17 BC and notes a nocturnal sacrifice carried out for the Ilithyis, or Eileithyiai, the Greek counterparts
of the Nixae as birth goddesses. The phrase nuptae genibus nixae ("brides laboring on their knees") appears twice in this invocation. The attitude
of devotion or reverence expressed by genibus nixae or genu nixa, which might also be translated as "on bended knee," is formulaic in Latin texts and inscriptions.
It has been suggested that the iconography of kneeling became associated with birth because women sought divine aid for what was often a life-threatening experience in the ancient world. Kneeling also played a role in initiation ritual for mystery religion
, which offered the promise of rebirth. Women prayed and held sacred banquets at the Saecular Games, which were characterized by an "overt and unusual celebration of women, children, and families in a civic festival
." The role of women on this occasion was consonant with the Augustan emphasis on families as necessary to the vitality of the Roman state.
Robert E.A. Palmer has speculated that the area where the altar of the Nixae was located (Piazza Navona
) continued to have significance into the modern Christian era:
Religion in ancient Rome
Religion in ancient Rome encompassed the religious beliefs and cult practices regarded by the Romans as indigenous and central to their identity as a people, as well as the various and many cults imported from other peoples brought under Roman rule. Romans thus offered cult to innumerable deities...
, the di nixi (or dii nixi), also Nixae, were birth deities. They were depicted kneeling
Kneeling
Kneeling is a human position in which the weight is distributed on the knees and feet on a surface close to horizontal.The position of kneeling may be assumed for practical reasons and for reasons of social or religious custom.- Practical reasons :...
or squatting
Squatting position
Squatting is a posture where the weight of the body is on the feet but the knees are bent either fully or partially . In contrast, sitting, involves taking the weight of the body, at least in part, on the buttocks against the ground or a horizontal object such as a chair seat...
, a more common birthing position
Childbirth positions
The term childbirth positions refers to the various physical postures the pregnant mother may assume during the process of childbirth...
in antiquity than in the modern era. The 2nd-century grammarian Festus
Sextus Pompeius Festus
Sextus Pompeius Festus was a Roman grammarian, who probably flourished in the later 2nd century AD, perhaps at Narbo in Gaul.He made an epitome in 20 volumes of the encyclopedic treatise in many volumes De verborum significatu, of Verrius Flaccus, a celebrated grammarian who flourished in the...
explains their name as the participle
Participle
In linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...
of the Latin verb
Latin conjugation
Latin verbs have four main patterns of conjugation. As in a number of other languages, Latin verbs have an active voice and a passive voice. Furthermore, there exist deponent and semi-deponent Latin verbs , as well as defective verbs...
nitor, niti, nixus, "to support oneself," also "strive, labor," in this sense "be in labor, give birth." The late Republican scholar Varro
Varro
Varro was a Roman cognomen carried by:*Marcus Terentius Varro, sometimes known as Varro Reatinus, the scholar*Publius Terentius Varro or Varro Atacinus, the poet*Gaius Terentius Varro, the consul defeated at the battle of Cannae...
said that enixae was the term for women in labor brought about by the Nixae, who oversee the types of religious practices that pertain to those giving birth. In some editions of Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
's Metamorphoses, a phrase is taken as referring to the birth goddess Lucina and her counterparts the Nixi.
A statuary group of three kneeling nixi or nixae stood in front of the Temple of Minerva
Minerva
Minerva was the Roman goddess whom Romans from the 2nd century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic...
on the Capitoline Hill
Capitoline Hill
The Capitoline Hill , between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the seven hills of Rome. It was the citadel of the earliest Romans. By the 16th century, Capitolinus had become Capitolino in Italian, with the alternative Campidoglio stemming from Capitolium. The English word capitol...
. These had been brought to Rome by Manius Acilius Glabrio
Manius Acilius Glabrio (consul 191 BC)
Manius Acilius Glabrio was a consul of the Roman Republic in 191 BC. He came from an illustrious plebeian family whose members held magistracies throughout the Republic and into the Imperial era....
among the spoils seized from Antiochus the Great after his defeat at Thermopylae
Battle of Thermopylae (191 BC)
The Battle of Thermopylae was fought in 191 BC between a Roman army led by consul Manius Acilius Glabrio and a Seleucid force led by King Antiochus III the Great. The Romans were victorious, and as a result, Antiochus was forced to flee Greece. It was described by Appian and by Livy at...
in 191 BC, or perhaps from the sack of Corinth
Battle of Corinth (146 BC)
The Battle of Corinth was a battle fought between the Roman Republic and the Greek state of Corinth and its allies in the Achaean League in 146 BC, that resulted in the complete and total destruction of the state of Corinth which was previously so famous for its fabulous wealth...
in 146.
In the iconography
Iconography
Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...
of Greek myth
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, the kneeling pose is also found in representations of Leto
Leto
In Greek mythology, Leto is a daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe. The island of Kos is claimed as her birthplace. In the Olympian scheme, Zeus is the father of her twins, Apollo and Artemis, the Letoides, which Leto conceived after her hidden beauty accidentally caught the eyes of Zeus...
(Roman Latona) giving birth to Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
and Artemis
Artemis
Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals"...
(Diana), and of Auge
Auge
In Greek mythology, Auge a daughter of Aleus and Neaera and priestess of Athena Alea at Tegea, bore the hero Telephus to Heracles. Her father had been told by an oracle that he would be overthrown by his grandson. She secreted the baby in the temple of Athena...
giving birth to Telephus
Telephus
A Greek mythological figure, Telephus or Telephos Telephus was one of the Heraclidae, the sons of Heracles, who were venerated as founders of cities...
, son of Herakles (Hercules
Hercules
Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...
). While the ancient Greek gynecologist
Gynaecology
Gynaecology or gynecology is the medical practice dealing with the health of the female reproductive system . Literally, outside medicine, it means "the science of women"...
Soranos had disapproved of giving birth on one's knees as "painful and embarrassing," he recommends it for the obese and for lordotic
Lordosis
Lordosis is a medical term used to describe an inward curvature of a portion of the lumbar and cervical vertebral column. Two segments of the vertebral column, namely cervical and lumbar, are normally lordotic, that is, they are set in a curve that has its convexity anteriorly and concavity...
women, that is, those with a concave curvature of the lower back that would tilt the uterus out of alignment with the birth canal.
As guardians of the threshold of life, the Nixi or Nixae may also have been associated with new life in the sense of theological rebirth, or salvation
Soteriology
The branch of Christian theology that deals with salvation and redemption is called Soteriology. It is derived from the Greek sōtērion + English -logy....
. An altar of the Nixae, within the Tarentum in the general area of the Campus Martius
Campus Martius
The Campus Martius , was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about in extent. In the Middle Ages, it was the most populous area of Rome...
, was the site of the annual sacrifice of the October Horse. The altar was possibly underground, as was the nearby altar of Dis Pater
Dis Pater
Dis Pater, or Dispater was a Roman god of the underworld, later subsumed by Pluto or Hades. Originally a chthonic god of riches, fertile agricultural land, and underground mineral wealth, he was later commonly equated with the Roman deities Pluto and Orcus, becoming an underworld deity.Dis Pater...
and Proserpina
Proserpina
Proserpina or Proserpine is an ancient Roman goddess whose story is the basis of a myth of Springtime. Her Greek goddess' equivalent is Persephone. The probable origin of her name comes from the Latin, "proserpere" or "to emerge," in respect to the growing of grain...
. The Tarentum gave its name to the ritual games held there (ludi
Ludi
Ludi were public games held for the benefit and entertainment of the Roman people . Ludi were held in conjunction with, or sometimes as the major feature of, Roman religious festivals, and were also presented as part of the cult of state.The earliest ludi were horse races in the circus...
tarentini) that became the Saecular Games. A lengthy inscription
Epigraphy
Epigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...
marks the occasion of these games under Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
in 17 BC and notes a nocturnal sacrifice carried out for the Ilithyis, or Eileithyiai, the Greek counterparts
Interpretatio graeca
Interpretatio graeca is a Latin term for the common tendency of ancient Greek writers to equate foreign divinities to members of their own pantheon. Herodotus, for example, refers to the ancient Egyptian gods Amon, Osiris and Ptah as "Zeus", "Dionysus" and "Hephaestus", respectively.-Roman...
of the Nixae as birth goddesses. The phrase nuptae genibus nixae ("brides laboring on their knees") appears twice in this invocation. The attitude
Attitude (art)
Attitude as a term of fine art refers to the posture or gesture given to a figure by a painter or sculptor. It applies to the body and not to a mental state, but the arrangement of the body is presumed to serve a communicative or expressive purpose...
of devotion or reverence expressed by genibus nixae or genu nixa, which might also be translated as "on bended knee," is formulaic in Latin texts and inscriptions.
It has been suggested that the iconography of kneeling became associated with birth because women sought divine aid for what was often a life-threatening experience in the ancient world. Kneeling also played a role in initiation ritual for mystery religion
Mystery religion
Mystery religions, sacred Mysteries or simply mysteries, were religious cults of the Greco-Roman world, participation in which was reserved to initiates....
, which offered the promise of rebirth. Women prayed and held sacred banquets at the Saecular Games, which were characterized by an "overt and unusual celebration of women, children, and families in a civic festival
Roman festivals
In ancient Roman religion, holidays were celebrated to worship and celebrate a certain god or divine event, and consisted of religious observances and festival traditions, usually with a large feast, and often featuring games . The most important festivals were the Saturnalia, the Consualia, the...
." The role of women on this occasion was consonant with the Augustan emphasis on families as necessary to the vitality of the Roman state.
Robert E.A. Palmer has speculated that the area where the altar of the Nixae was located (Piazza Navona
Piazza Navona
Piazza Navona is a city square in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in 1st century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans came there to watch the agones , and hence it was known as 'Circus Agonalis'...
) continued to have significance into the modern Christian era:
See also
- Ciconiae NixaeCiconiae NixaeThe Ciconiae Nixae was a landmark, or more likely two separate landmarks, in the Campus Martius of ancient Rome. In A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, Lawrence Richardson regards a single site called Ciconiae Nixae as "hypothetical," noting that the subject "has long exercised...
, a landmark listed in the 4th-century regionaries, but probably two separate sites, the Ciconiae, or "Storks," perhaps a sculpture, and the altar to the di nixi in Region IX.