Animals and Naming
The animals sacred to Mars that led the group sometimes became the eponyms of the new community. These included the wolf, hirpus, after which the Hirpini of Campania were supposed to have been named; the woodpecker, picus, which gave its name to the Piceni or Picenti who settled present-day Marche (hence the green woodpecker as the symbol of the region); the vulture, vultur, of the Vultures; and the horse, equus of the Aequi or Aequicolae in Latium. The Samnites were led by an ox, bos, after which was named their capital Bovianum, founded upon the hill on which the ox had stopped. The Mamertini of Sicily received their name directly from the god Mars.
Read more about this topic: Ver Sacrum
Famous quotes containing the words animals and, animals and/or naming:
“For the time of towns is tolled from the world by funereal chimes, but in nature the universal hours are counted by succeeding tribes of animals and plants, and by growth of joy on joy.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“who cooked rotten animals lung heart feet tailborscht & tortillas
dreaming of the pure vegetable kingdom,”
—Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)
“Husband,
who am I to reject the naming of foods
in a time of famine?”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)