Painting by Charles Lebrun , approx. 1643; London, Dalwich Art Gallery
Publius Horace Kokles [1] ( lat. PUBLIVS · HORATIVS · COCLES ) is a semi-legendary ancient Roman hero who allegedly lived at the end of the VI century BC. e. and defended the Roman Pile Bridge during the war with the king of the Etruscans Porsennaya .
The most famous account of the legend is this: Kokles and two other soldiers defended the approach to the bridge from the onslaught of an entire army of Etruscans, while the Romans destroyed it from the other end. Once this happened, Kokles jumped into the waters of the Tiber , swam across the river and returned unharmed to his own, while two of his comrades died. For this, a statue was installed in the temple of the god Vulcan, and he received possession of land as much as he could plow around the circumference for a day. According to another version of the legend, Kokles defended the approaches to the bridge alone and drowned in the Tiber.
There is an obvious similarity between the legend of Horace Kokles and the legend of Horace and Curation. In both cases, the three Romans act as saviors of Rome at a critical moment, and only one of them ultimately succeeds. In one case, the scene is a land border, in another, a river that marks the border of Roman territory. The British researcher Pais considered the origin of the legend in the cult of the Volcano and identifies Kokles ("one-eyed") with one of the Cyclops, which in mythology were associated with Hephaestus and later with the Volcano. He came to the conclusion that the statue of Kokles was in fact a statue of Vulcan, who was one of the most ancient Roman gods and, in fact, the deity of the state, so he could be confused with the hero who saved the fatherland by holding the bridge against the onslaught of the invaders. Pais also suggested that the legend was the result of some religious ceremony: perhaps the practice of throwing stuffed figures, called argei, into the Tiber from Sablitzius in the Ides of May. The genus of Horatiev, which was associated with the cult of Jupiter Vulcan, played a significant role in ancient Roman history, which perhaps explains the attribution of the name "Horace" to Vulcan-Kokles.
Notes
- ↑ Dionysius of Halicarnassus . Roman Antiquities , V. 23-25. / Per. with other Greek and comm. I. L. Mayak, L. L. Kofanov, AM Smorchkov, N. G. Mayorova, V. N. Tokmakov, A. Ya. Tyzhov, AB Schegolev; answer. ed. I.L. Lighthouse. - M .: Publishing House the house "Frontiers XXI", 2005. - T. II. - S. 24-26. - 274 p. - (Historical Library). - ISBN 5-347-00002-3
Links
- Lendering, Jona Horatius Cocles Neopr . Livius Articles on Ancient History. Date of treatment August 5, 2009. Archived on April 21, 2013.
- This article (section) contains text taken (translated) from the eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica , which went into the public domain .