Roman Mythology: A Traveller's Guide from Troy to Tivoli

by David Stuttard

The perfect guide to Roman myths and the landscapes and ideas that shaped them―for both the actual and armchair traveler. All roads lead to Rome, as the famous saying goes. Rome was a melting pot of peoples from across the Mediterranean and beyond, each bringing their own myths and legends of heroes and heroines, gods and goddesses. Roman myths formed the backdrop to the rituals and customs of everyday life, from the way aristocrats dressed up for a banquet to the bloodthirsty audiences thrilled to watch criminals forced to enact the roles of mythological characters. In Roman Mythology , David Stuttard offers an innovative approach to the subject, taking the reader on a tour of the great sites of the ancient Roman world. Each account begins with a brief, evocative description of the location and landscape, followed by its associated myths and stories, as well as any rituals performed there in antiquity. Drawing on the great works of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Plutarch, Ovid, Horace, and Virgil, and with commissioned maps and illustrations, as well as practical information about the sites today, this book is a fresh look at a subject of great fascination. Compact enough to fit in a backpack, Roman Mythology is perfect for both the armchair and experienced traveler. 70 two-color illustrations

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction, History, Classics, Travel, Ancient History

272 pages, Hardcover

Published October 8, 2019

About the author

David Stuttard is a British theatre director, classical scholar, translator, lecturer on classical literature and history, and author, primarily of historical works on the ancient world.

Reviews

[Tim Pendry · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Stuttard's approach to Roman mythology is sophisticated and complex and yet the presentation is simple and easy to read. In a succession of chapters following a strict format, he makes what is a jumble of ideas as coherent as it is possible to be by emphasising place.

There are two separate mythological ideologies to deal with. There is the original part-folkloric, part legendary, part-derivative (of Etruria and of Hellenism) and part native to Latium belief system that underpinned what it meant to be a Roman under the Republic.

Then there is the Virgilian version, based on the tale of Aeneas, in which Hellenistic culture is appropriated to provide a justification for the Augustan Imperial settlement - the Republican story re-engineered as propaganda on which our own perception of Rome has been built.

Stuttard handles this by centring each early chapter on Aeneas' journey to Rome (Troy, Delos, Carthage, Eryx (Sicily), Cumae and Lavinium) telling the Imperial myth first and then going back further in history to tell the legendary story of Rome through sites in Latium and Eruria.

Each chapter follows the same format. There is a quotation from classical literature, an evocative short account of what you will see if you go to the site today at the start and a history (not legend and mythology), a chronology and a recommendation of what to see at the end.

The bulk of each chapter is a well told story. We get a coherent narrative out of something inherently incoherent, with often competing versions, so that we have some idea of what an educated Roman might have believed in the first century AD.

The final chaper is set in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli and is used as an opportunity to tease us with the swan song of Roman self-belief as the new mystery religions (Mithras, Isis, Antinous) emerge. Christianity, which would destroy 'Romanitas', lurks in the background.

'Romanitas' dies long before the Roman Empire. The Imperial Augustan adaptation reinvigorates it for a while but the rot from the East sets in as cosmopolitanism crushes the identity of 'race' and place much as its liberal imperial version is crushing our sense of place today.

Rome ceased to be capital of its own empire in 286. Rome became a backwater, later largely to be known as the capital of the mystery religion that had conquered it culturally. It had long since lost its rough and ready Republican 'virtue' to a class of slave-holding grandees and the migrant mob.

The mythology would not survive long after the 'coup' against the old religion engineered by Constantine. The Republican role of Pontifex Maximus had already been transferred to the Imperial line by Augustus and it died as a pagan title with Gratian. Now the title is bestowed on the Pope.

Roman culture as a living force committed suicide thanks to the allure of the oriental but it has survived as a noble ghost within the Western cultural tradition ever since, appropriated by its chief ideological rival and then by new empires, fascist and democratic alike.

Now it is just a footnote, humiliated by the wokeness of contemporary academics and studied by others out of antiquarian interest rather than being a 'spiritual' influence. Even the Church of Rome has long since abandoned Latin although it still squats on old Republican land.

So, this book is welcome in making Roman mythology and legend available to a wider community on its own terms. Although far from all that could be said on Roman ideology, it makes an excellent introduction to a central element in the West's cultural heritage.

Get it before some iconoclastic university nutter decides that Rome must now die completely because of its imperial strategies of exploitation and slave economy and before all future books on the subject have manuscripts hidden away in their vaults by frightened publishers.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was well-designed and -conceived. It would have gotten a higher rating if I were not annoyed by the author's needless chauvinism. He went out of his way to point out which mythological figures probably had a basis in history, and which were likely completely made up - the female figures, of course, were more often than not completely made up, in his judgment. For instance, Aeneas probably existed, or was an amalgamation of several men who existed, but Dido is, in David Stuttard's view, too far-fetched and obscure to have had any basis in reality. OK, bro. Stuttard even expresses his tongue-in-cheek amusement that so many Roman myths contain the extraneous "female character" at all - couldn't they all just get the point with the proper people, not needing any women?

[Marko Vasić · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ova knjiga je više od fenomenalnog vodiča kroz antički Rim. Ne samo da taksativno i sistematično prezentuje mitološke odeljke sa citatima iz brojnih epova ili antičkih delâ uz gravure autentičnih kipova, fresaka ili objekata, nego autor iznosi na kraju svakog poglavlja i istorijski pregled vremenskog sleda koji se odnosi na datu oblast, kao i detaljno uputstvo i popis šta se sve danas može pronaći na tim lokalitetim koji vrve od posetilaca, tako da mi je sve to mnogo značilo da sačinim sopstveni dnevnik obilazaka u Rimu koji nijedan iznajmljeni vodič ne bi nadmašio: sve što je meni važno od objekata na Palatinusu, koji kipovi su na Kapitolinskom brdu, koji muzeji su gde raspoređeni i šta je sve od antičkih zanimljivosti tamo pohranjeno… i mnoge druge stvari.

Knjiga daje detaljne prikaze svih lokaliteta širom sveta koji imaju veze sa mitologijom Rima ili njegovim nastankom: počinje od Troje, pa preko Kume (koju sam već obišao i na teži način morao da se informišem šta sve mogu da pronađem tamo pored Sibiline pećine i Avernusa), Lavinijuma, pretpostavke o Alba Longi do Herkulovog hrama, Kakovog stepeništa, Romulove kuće i ostalih artefakata rasutih na sedam rimskih brežuljaka.

Tako da je ovo štivo moja OGROMNA preporuka za ljude koji bi želeli da vide živu mitologiju ispred sebe a ne znaju odakle da krenu.

[Andrew Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

The travelling theme is a great format, especially considering Roman mythologising seems more about exaggerating real feats of its own history vs. the more distant fables of the Greeks.

[Apollo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Isabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful, gives a detailed yet abrupt understanding of events that occurred from "Troy to Tivoli." Would recommend as a reference as needed for any paper or as simply a quick read.

[Willem Vooijs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes you through the roman empire and uses key locations to tell its convoluted mythical origin story. It's a great book to start when looking for the diverences between Roman and Greek mythology. it also takes the time to, at the very least, glance at the true history behind the mythology tells the importance of certain locations throughout history, even far beyond the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

with it relatively short paragraphs and clear language, it's the perfect book to take with you in the train. i highly recommend this book for anyone who want to read about roman mythology on the go

[meeees · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5