Remus

Romulus founded Rome -- but why does the myth give him a twin brother Remus who is killed at the moment of the foundation? This mysterious legend has been oddly neglected. Roman historians ignore it as irrelevant to real history; students of myth concentrate on the more glamorous mythology of Greece and treat Roman stories as of little interest. In this book Professor Wiseman provides for the first time a detailed analysis of all the variants of the story and a historical explanation for its origin and development. His conclusions offer important new insights both into the history and ideology of pre-imperial Rome and into the methods and motives of myth-creation in a non-literate society. In the richly unfamiliar Rome of Pan Hermes and Circe the witch-goddess where a general grows miraculous horns and prophets demand human sacrifice Remus stands for the unequal struggle of the many against the powerful few.