Symbolic representation of the Rhea Silvia myth on a sarcophagus in the Palazzo Mattei. Most of the elements of the story can be found in the scene. The central figure, Mars, strides over Rhea Silvia being put to sleep by Somnus pouring the juice of sleep on her from a horn. The wolf, the personification of the river, the temple of Vesta, are all present.

Rhea Silvia (also written as Rea Silvia), and also known as Ilia, was the mythical mother of the twins Romulus and Remus, who founded the city of Rome. Her story is told in the first book of Ab Urbe Condita of Livy and in fragments from Ennius, Annales^[1] and Fabius Pictor.^[2]

  The legend

  Rhea Silvia, torso from the amphitheatre at Cartagena in Spain that was rediscovered in 1988.

According to Livy's account of the legend she was the daughter of Numitor, king of Alba Longa, and descended from Aeneas. Numitor's younger brother Amulius seized the throne and killed Numitor's son, then forced Rhea Silvia to become a Vestal Virgin, a priestess of the goddess Vesta. As Vestal Virgins were sworn to celibacy for a period of thirty years, this would ensure the line of Numitor had no heirs.

However, Rhea Silvia conceived and gave birth to the twins Romulus and Remus, claiming that the god Mars^[3] had discovered her in the forest and seduced her.^[4]

When Amulius learned of the birth he imprisoned Rhea Silvia and ordered a servant to kill the twins. But the servant showed mercy and set them adrift on the river Tiber, which, overflowing, left the infants in a pool by the bank. There a she-wolf (lupa), who had just lost her own cubs, suckled them.^[5] Subsequently Faustulus rescued the boys, to be raised by his wife Larentia.^[6]

Romulus and Remus went on to found Rome, overthrow Amulius, and reinstate Numitor as King of Alba Longa.

That Livy's euhemerist and realist deflation of this myth, so central to the origins of Rome, was not general is demonstrated by the recurring theme of Mars discovering Rhea Silvia - the Latinists' "Invention (to come upon) of Rhea Silvia"^[7] - in Roman arts: in bas-relief on the Casali Altar (Vatican Museums), in engraved couched glass on the Portland Vase (British Museum), or on a sarcophagus in the Palazzo Mattei.

In a version presented by Ovid,^[8] it is the river Anio who takes pity on her and invites her to rule in his realm.

  Etymology

The name Rhea Silvia suggests a minor deity, a demi-goddess of forests. Silva means woods or forest, and Rea may be related to res and regnum; Rea may also be related to Greek rheô, "flow," and thus relate to her association with the spirit of the river Tiber. Carsten Niebuhr proposed that the name Rhea Silvia came from Rea, meaning guilty, and Silvia meaning of the forest and so assumed that Rhea Silvia was a generic name for the guilty woman of the forest, i.e. the woman who had been seduced there.

  See also

• Aeneas
• Founding of Rome
• Mars (god)
• Rome
• Romulus and Remus

  Footnotes

  External links

• Livy. Ab urbe condita, Book I.
• Quintus Ennius. "The Dream of Ilia (Rhea Silvia)", Annales - Book 1.

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