In Roman mythology and Roman religion, Quirinus ( ,[ Janus Quirinius in the prayer of the fetiales quoted by Livy (I.32.10); Macrobius ( Sat. I.9.15); .]
Name
Attestations
The name of god Quirinus is recorded across Roman sources as
Curinus,
Corinus,
Querinus,
Queirinus and
QVIRINO, also as fragmented
IOVI. CYRINO.
[Dupraz, Emmanuel. Les Vestins à l'époque tardo-républicaine. Du nord-osque au latin. France, Rouen: Publications des Universités de Rouen et du Havre. 2010. pp. 125-126.] The name is also attested as a surname to
Hercules as
Hercules Quirinus.
Etymology
The name
Quirīnus probably stems from Latin
Quirites, the name of Roman citizens in their peacetime function. Since both
quirīs and
Quirīnus are connected with Sabellic immigrants into Rome in ancient legends, it may be a loanword. The meaning "wielder of the spear" (Sabine
quiris, 'spear', cf.
Janus Quirinus), or a derivation from the Sabine town of Cures, have been proposed by
Ovid in his
Fasti 2.477-480.
Some scholars have interpreted the name as a contraction of *co-viri-nus ("god of the assemblymen", cf. Curia < *co-viria), descending from an earlier *co-wironos, itself from the Proto-Indo-European noun wihₓrós ("man").
Depiction and worship
In earlier Roman
art, Quirinus was portrayed as a bearded man with religious and military clothing. However, he was almost never depicted in later
Roman art due to the process of
hellenisation. His main
festival was the
Quirinalia, held on February 17.
The priest of Quirinus, the Flamen Quirinalis, was one of the three patrician flamines maiores ("major ") who had precedence over the Pontifex Maximus.
History
Quirinus most likely was originally a
Sabines war god. The Sabines had a settlement near the eventual site of
Rome, and erected an altar to Quirinus on the
Collis Quirinalis,
Quirinal Hill, one of the Seven hills of Rome. When the Romans settled in the area, the cult of Quirinus became part of their early belief system. This occurred before the later influences from classical Greek culture.
Deified Romulus
By the time of the poet Ennius in the 2nd century, Quirinus was considered the deified legendary first king,
Romulus.
In his Parallel Lives, Plutarch wrote that, shortly after Rome's founder had disappeared under what some considered suspicious circumstances, a Roman noble named Proculus Julius reported that Romulus had come to him while he was travelling. He claimed that Romulus had instructed him to tell his countrymen that he, Romulus, was Quirinus.
Brelich's argument for split deification
Historian Angelo Brelich argued that Quirinus and
Romulus were originally the same divine entity which was split into a founder hero and a god when Roman religion became demythicised. To support this, he points to the association of both Romulus and Quirinus with the grain
spelt, through the
Fornacalia or
Stultorum Feriae, according to Ovid's
Fasti.
The last day of the festival is called the Quirinalia and corresponds with the traditional day of Romulus' death. On that day, the Romans would toast spelt as an offering to the goddess Fornax. In one version of the legend of Romulus' death cited by Plutarch, he was killed and cut into pieces by the nobles and each of them took a part of his body home and buried it on their land.
Brelich claimed this pattern – a festival involving a staple crop, a god, and a tale of a slain founding hero whose body parts are buried in the soil – is a recognized mytheme that arises when such a split takes place in a culture's mythology (see Dema deity archetype). The possible presence of the Flamen Quirinalis at the festival of Acca Larentia would corroborate this thesis, given the fact that Romulus is a stepson of hers, and one of the original twelve arval brethren (Fratres Arvales).
The Grabovian pantheon
The association of Quirinus and Romulus is further supported by a connection with Vofionos, the third god in the triad of the Grabovian gods of
Iguvium. Vofionos would be the equivalent of
Liber or
Teutates, in
Latium and among the
Celts respectively.
The Capitoline Triad
His early importance led to Quirinus' inclusion in the
Archaic Triad (the first
Capitoline Triad), along with Mars (then an agriculture god) and Jupiter.
Over time, however, Quirinus became less significant, and he was absent from the later, more widely known triad (he and Mars had been replaced by Juno and Minerva). Varro mentions the Capitolium Vetus, an earlier cult site on the Quirinal, devoted to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva,
Fade into obscurity
Eventually, Romans began to favor personal and mystical cults over the official state belief system. These included those of
Dionysus,
Cybele, and
Isis, leaving only Quirinus' flamen to worship him.
Legacy
Even centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, the
Quirinal hill in Rome, originally named from the deified
Romulus, was still associated with power. in 1583
Gregory XIII chose the site for his summer palace, this palace would come to be known as the
Quirinal Palace. After the Capture of Rome, it was chosen as the seat of the Kingdom by the House of Savoy and later after the Abolition of the Monarchy it became the residence of the Presidents of the Italian Republic.
See also
Footnotes
Bibliography
Modern sources
Ancient sources
Further reading
