Friday, February 26, 2010

Myths and Legends: Romulus and Remus

Romulus and Remus with the Wolf. To find out more about Romulus and his brother Remus, see this Wikipedia article: link; for information about the image: image source.

Romulus was the legendary founder of Rome, and Remus was his brother. The grandfather, Numitor, had been the king of Alba Longa, but Numitor's brother, Amulius, deposed Numitor and also Numitor's sons. He let Numitor's daughter, Rhea Silvia, live, but he made her a Vestal Virgin so that she could not conceive heirs who might be rivals to Amulius's claim to the throne. The god Mars, however, came to Rhea Silvia and she conceived the boys Romulus and Remus. When the the boys were born, Amulius left them out in the wilderness to die, but they were found and suckled by a she-wolf, as you can see here.

You can also find more myths and legends for the week of Feb. 26 - Mar. 3 here. For more information and links to the actual javascript code, see the Myths & Legends Widget Reference Page.