Re: [tied] Was Rome founded by a woman?

Dear Friends,

      I just received the following email from Alex Moeller of the Cybalist group, a most interesting story. As I am a historian and not a linguist, I would like to pose a few questions that might shed some heat or light on the subject if anyone has some answers:

I.    The Trojan War is traditionally dated to about 1225 BC +/- 25
      years, a 475 year gap in which there was no literacy and no '
      record keeping.
II.   There are traces of Anatolian origin for the neighboring Etruscans
      in their Tyrhennian language related to Lemnian but the Latin
     language is clearly within the Italic branch of the Indo European
     Familiy of languages.
III. There is no real History of Rome before the Etruscans in any
      documents anywhere and the hills of Latium before 500 BC
      when the area was a provincial backwater at best.
IV. No artifacts have been found and published from Latium that
      would indicate any Anatolian Bronze Age Trojan diasporan
      colonists.
V. Stesichoros even being an early Greek poet still lived 600 years
      after the Trojan War when Homer's Ilian was already current
      throughout the Hellenic Greek area. He would not have known of
      any Italic villages in Latium under Etruscan suzreinty nor have
      any real information of their cosmology or religious systems.
VI. Rome became important to the world long after its founding, the
      early knowledge of the Romans that we have all comes from
      Roman sources.
VII.Virgil's Aenead was composed during the reign of Augustus (31
      BC - 14 AD) and his source materials would have ONLY been
      Homer and the various fictional dramas and tragedies. He
      composed his work to give Rome greater antiquity and show a
      more honorable lineage for the Romans, including Octavian, his
      patron.
VIII.None of the above is evidence that Roma did not found Rome,
      only questions whether it is possible or if there is any evidence
      that she did.

Best regards, John Piscopo

In a message dated 6/10/2003 11:18:54 AM Central America Standard Ti, alxmoeller@... writes:

Article appeared in the Nr 22/2003 of the German newspaper "Spiegel". The original German version will be given at the end of the text with the wish for people who are more skilled in English as me to make the necessary correction ( or just to read it in German)

Was Rome founded by an women?

Rome, the eternal city at Tiber, should have been baptised not by
Romulus and Remus, the famous twins of the antic mythology, but by Rome,
a daughter of the Trojan hero Aeneas. Like Ms Eleanor Leach of Indiana
University of Bloomington, scholars who are adepts of this theory are
counting on a document of the Greek-Sicilian writers Stesichoros which
have lived between 630 -555 BC. He mentions that the daughter of Aeneas
together with her people have flied from the destroyed Troy. Being given
out of the curse at the coast of Italy, they decided to remain there ,
the ships have been burden out and they founded a new city which was
called after the name of her. Because the date of founding Rome is given
as 753 BC and Stesichoros lived in 630-555, his statement should be seen
more reliable as the one of Pultarch , the one who spread the Romulus
legend in the first century AC. A second argument for the Rome being
founded by Roma is Dionysios of Halikarnassos in the work of which
should be understood too the version of the one who founded Rome should
have been a feminine founder. Even in Rome, the legend about the
beautifully Trojan girl coming from oversee was known by many people. It
seems that the roman regents and people as Julius Caesar or Augustus, to
thes people appears suspect the version of a woman as founder of Rome.
Thus they preferred to show off with the version of the twins Romulus
and Remus.
------------------------------------------

Wurde Rom von einer Frau gegründet?

Nicht Romulus und Remus, das berühmte Zwillingspaar der antike
Mythologie, sollen die Ewige Stadt am Tiber aus der Taufe gehoben haben,
sonder Roma, eine Tochter des trojanischen Helden Aeneas. Verfechter
dieser alternativen Gründungslegende wie die US- Altertumsforscherin
Eleanor Leach von der Indiana University in Bloomington berufen sich auf
ein Fragment des griechisch - sizilianischen Dichters Stesichoros, der
von 630 bis 555 vor Christus lebte. Dem Poeten zufolge hatte die Aeneas-
Tochter mit ihren Getreuen aus dem zerstörten Troja die Flucht
ergriffen. An die Küste Italiens verschlagen, haben sie Gefallen an der
Landschaft gefunden , die Schiffen verbrennen lassen und der wenig
später landeinwärts errichteten Siedlung ihren Namen gegeben. Für dei
abweichende Version des Gründungsmythos spricht, daß Stesichoros beim
Abfassen seines Textes näher am angeblichen Gründungsdatum der Stadt im
Jahr 753vor Christus war als Plutarch, der die Romulus- Legende im
ersten Jahrhundert nach Christus verbreitete. Auch Aufzeichnungen des
griechischen Historiker Dionysios von Halikarnassos stützen nach Ansicht
der US-Forscherin die Lesart von der weiblichen Stadtgründerin. Noch in
Rom der Zeitenwende war die Legende von der übers Meer gekommenen
schönen TRojanerin offenbar in vieler Munde. Doch, männlichen Regenten
des Imperiums wie Julius Cäsar oder Augustus muß die Abstammung von
einer weiblichen Figur suspekt erschienen sein: Sie bürsteten sich
lieber mit angeblich direkten Blutsbanden zu den männlichen Zwillingen.