View source for Caelus

{{Short description|Roman god of the sky}}
{{For|the defunct computer hardware company|Caelus Memories}}
[[File:MC - Jahreszeitenaltar 1.jpg|thumb|upright|Mithraic altar (3rd-century AD) showing Caelus flanked by allegories of the Seasons ([[Carnuntum|Museum Carnuntinum]], Lower Austria)]]

'''Caelus''' or '''Coelus''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|iː|l|ə|s}}; {{respell|SEE|ləs}}) was a primordial [[List of Roman deities|god]] of the [[sky]] in [[Roman mythology]] and [[Religion in ancient Rome|theology]], [[Roman art|iconography]], and [[Latin literature|literature]] (compare {{langx|la|caelum}} 'sky', 'heaven', whence English ''celestial''). The deity's name usually appears in [[grammatical gender|masculine grammatical form]] when he is conceived of as a male generative force.

==Identity==
The name of Caelus indicates that he was the [[interpretatio graeca|Roman counterpart]] of the [[Greek mythology|Greek god]] [[Uranus (mythology)|Uranus]] (Οὐρανός, ''Ouranos''), who was of major importance in the [[theogony|theogonies]] of the Greeks, and the Jewish god [[Yahweh]].<ref>[[Works attributed to Florus|Floro]], ''Epitome'' 1.40 (3.5.30): "The [[Judaism|Jews]] tried to defend [[Jerusalem]]; but he ''[Pompeius Magnus]'' entered this city also and saw that grand Holy of Holies of an impious people exposed, Caelum under a golden vine" ''(Hierosolymam defendere temptavere Iudaei; verum haec quoque et intravit et vidit illud grande inpiae gentis arcanum patens, sub aurea vite Caelum).'' Finbarr Barry Flood, ''The Great Mosque of Damascus: Studies on the Makings of an Umayyad Visual Culture'' (Brill, 2001), pp. 81 and 83 (note 118). El ''Oxford Latin Dictionary'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982, 1985 reprinting), p. 252, entry on ''caelum'', cita a Juvenal, Petronio, and Floro como ejemplos de ''Caelus'' o ''Caelum'' "with reference to [[Yahweh|Jehovah]]; also, to some symbolization of Jehovah."</ref> [[Varro]] couples him with [[Terra (mythology)|Terra]] (Earth) as [[List of Roman deities#Mater and Pater|''pater et mater'']] (father and mother), and says that they are "great deities" (''dei magni'') in the theology of the [[mystery religions|mysteries]] at [[Samothrace]].<ref>Varro, ''De lingua Latina'' 5.58.</ref> Although Caelus is not known to have had a cult at Rome,<ref>Pierre Grimal, ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology'' (Blackwell, 1986, 1996, originally published 1951 in French), pp. 83–84.</ref> not all scholars consider him a Greek import given a Latin name; he has been associated with [[Summanus]], the god of nocturnal thunder, as "purely Roman."<ref>Marion Lawrence, "The Velletri Sarcophagus", ''American Journal of Archaeology'' 69.3 (1965), p. 220.</ref>

Caelus begins to appear regularly in [[Augustus|Augustan]] art and in connection with the cult of [[Mithras]] during the [[Roman Empire|Imperial era]]. [[Vitruvius]] includes him among celestial gods whose temple-buildings ''([[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#aedes|aedes]])'' should be built open to the sky.<ref>Other gods for whom this ''aedes'' design was appropriate are [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]], [[Sol (Roman mythology)|Sol]] and [[Luna (Roman goddess)|Luna]]. [[Vitruvius]], ''[[De architectura]]'' 1.2.5; John E. Stambaugh, "The Functions of Roman Temples", ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16.1 (1978), p. 561.</ref> As a sky god, he became identified with Jupiter, as indicated by an [[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|inscription]] that reads ''[[Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus|Optimus Maximus]] Caelus Aeternus Iup<pi>ter''.<ref>''[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|CIL]]'' 6.81.2.</ref>

==Genealogy==
According to [[Cicero]] and [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], Caelus was the son of [[Aether (mythology)|Aether]] and [[Dies (mythology)|Dies]] ("Day" or "Daylight").<ref>[[Cicero]], ''De natura deorum'' 3.44, as cited by E.J. Kenney, ''Apuleius: Cupid and Psyche'' (Cambridge University Press, 1990, 2001), note to 6.6.4, p. 198; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], preface. This is not the [[theogony]] that [[Hesiod]] presents.</ref> Caelus and Dies were in this tradition the parents of [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]].<ref>[[Cicero]], ''De natura Deorum'' 3.56; also [[Arnobius]], ''Adversus Nationes'' 4.14.</ref> With [[Diana (mythology)|Trivia]], Caelus was the father of the distinctively Roman god [[Janus (mythology)|Janus]], as well as of [[Saturn (mythology)|Saturn]] and [[Ops]].<ref>[[Ennius]], ''Annales'' 27 (edition of Vahlen); Varro, as cited by [[Nonius Marcellus]], p. 197M; [[Cicero]], ''Timaeus'' {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20030805071216/http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/cicero_timaeus.html XI]}}; Arnobius, ''Adversus Nationes'' 2.71, 3.29.</ref> Caelus was also the father of one of the three [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiters]], the fathers of the other two being Aether and Saturn instead.<ref>Arnobius, ''Adversus Nationes'' 4.14.</ref> In one tradition, Caelus was the father with [[Tellus (goddess)|Tellus]] of the [[Muses]], though this was probably a mere translation of ''Ouranos'' from a Greek source.<ref>Arnobius, ''Adversus Nationes'' 3.37, citing [[Mnaseas]] as his source.</ref>

==Myth and allegory==
Caelus substituted for Uranus in Latin versions of the myth of Saturn ([[Cronus]]) castrating his heavenly father, from whose severed genitals, cast upon the sea, the goddess [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]] ([[Aphrodite]]) was born.<ref>Cicero, ''De nature Deorum''; Arnobius, ''Adversus Nationes'' 4.24.</ref> In his work ''[[De Natura Deorum|On the Nature of the Gods]]'', Cicero presents a [[Stoicism|Stoic]] [[allegory]] of the myth in which the castration signifies "that the highest heavenly aether, that seed-fire which generates all things, did not require the equivalent of human genitals to proceed in its generative work."<ref>Cicero, ''De natura Deorum'' 2.64. [[Isidore of Seville]] says similarly that Saturn "cut off the genitalia of his father Caelus, because nothing is born in the heavens from seeds" (''Etymologies'' 9.11.32). Jane Chance, ''Medieval Mythography: From Roman North Africa to the School of Chartres, A.D. 433–1177'' (University Press of Florida, 1994), pp. 27 and 142.</ref> For [[Macrobius]], the severing marks off [[Chaos (cosmogony)|Chaos]] from fixed and measured [[Chronos|Time]] (Saturn) as determined by the revolving Heavens (Caelum). The ''semina rerum'' ("seeds" of things that exist physically) come from Caelum and are the elements which create the world.<ref>[[Macrobius]], ''Saturnalia'' 1.8.6–9; Chance, ''Medieval Mythography'', p. 72.</ref>

The divine spatial abstraction ''Caelum'' is a [[wikt:synonym|synonym]] for [[Mount Olympus|Olympus]] as a [[metaphor]]ical heavenly abode of the divine, both identified with and distinguished from the [[Mount Olympus|mountain in ancient Greece]] named as the home of the gods. Varro says that the Greeks call Caelum (or Caelus) "Olympus."<ref>Varro, ''De lingua latina'' 7.20; likewise [[Isidore of Seville]], ''Etymologies'' 14.8.9. The noun ''Caelum'' appears in the [[accusative case]], which obscures any distinction between masculine and neuter. [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]], note to ''[[Aeneid]]'' 6.268, says that "Olympus" is the name for both the Macedonian mountain and for ''caelum''. Citations and discussion by Michel Huhm, "Le mundus et le Comitium: Représentations symboliques de l'espace de la cité", ''Histoire urbaine'' 10 (2004), p. 54.</ref> As a representation of space, Caelum is one of the components of the ''[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#mundus|mundus]]'', the "world" or ''[[cosmos]]'', along with ''terra'' (earth), ''mare'' (sea), and ''aer'' (air).<ref>Servius, note to ''Aeneid'' 3.134; Huhm, "Le mundus et le Comitium", p. 53, notes 36 and 37.</ref> In his work on the [[cosmology|cosmological]] systems of antiquity, the [[Renaissance in the Low Countries|Dutch Renaissance]] [[Renaissance humanism|humanist]] [[Gerardus Vossius]] deals extensively with Caelus and his duality as both a god and a place that the other gods inhabit.<ref>[[Gerardus Vossius]], ''Idolatriae'' 3.59 [https://books.google.com/books?id=q7w_AAAAcAAJ&dq=Janus+Cerus+Macrobius+Caelum+OR+Caelus&pg=PA229 online] ''et passim'', in ''Gerardi Joan. Vossii Operum'', vol. 5, ''De idololatria gentili''. See also Giovanni Santinello and [[Francesco Bottin]], ''Models of the History of Philosophy: From Its Origins in the Renaissance to the "Historia Philosophica"'' (Kluwer, 1993), vol. 1, pp. 222–235.</ref>

The [[Ante-Nicene Period|ante-Nicene Christian]] writer [[Lactantius]] routinely uses the Latin [[wikt:theonym|theonyms]] Caelus, Saturn, and Jupiter to refer to  the three divine [[Hypostasis (Neoplatonism)|hypostases]] of the [[Neoplatonic]] school of [[Plotinus]]: the First God (Caelus), Intellect (Saturn), and Soul, son of the Intelligible (Jupiter).<ref>Elizabeth De Palma Digeser, "Religion, Law and the Roman Polity: The Era of the Great Persecution", in ''Religion and Law in Classical and Christian Rome'' (Franz Steiner, 2006), pp. 78–79.</ref>

==In art==
It is generally, though not universally, agreed that Caelus is depicted on the [[muscle cuirass|cuirass]] of the ''[[Augustus of Prima Porta]]'',<ref>Jane Clark Reeder, "The Statue of Augustus from Prima Porta, the Underground Complex, and the Omen of the Gallina Alba", ''American Journal of Philology'' 118.1 (1997), p. 109; Charles Brian Rose, "The Parthians in Augustan Rome", ''American Journal of Archaeology'' 109.1 (2005), p. 27.</ref> at the very top above the four horses of the Sun god's ''[[quadriga]]''. He is a mature, bearded man who holds a cloak over his head so that it billows in the form of an arch, a conventional sign of deity ''([[velificatio]])'' that "recalls the vault of the [[firmament]]."<ref>[[Karl Galinsky]], ''Augustan Culture: An Interpretive Introduction'' (Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 158 and 321.</ref> He is balanced and paired with the personification of Earth at the bottom of the cuirass.<ref>Reeder, "The Statue of Augustus", p. 109.</ref> (These two figures have also been identified as Saturn and the [[Magna Mater]], to represent the new Saturnian "[[Golden Age]]" of Augustan ideology.)<ref>Specifically, ''Juppiter Optimus Maximus Saturnus Augustus'': Reeder, "The Statue of Augustus", pp. 109 and 111.</ref> On an altar of the [[Lares]] now held by the [[Vatican Museums|Vatican]], Caelus in his chariot appears along with [[Apollo]]-[[Sol (Roman mythology)|Sol]] above the figure of [[Augustus]].<ref>Reeder, "The Statue of Augustus", p. 103; [[Lily Ross Taylor]], "The Mother of the Lares", ''American Journal of Archaeology'' 29.3 (1925), p. 308.</ref>

==Nocturnus and the ''templum''==
As ''Caelus Nocturnus'', he was the god of the night-time, starry sky. In a passage from [[Plautus]], Nocturnus is regarded as the opposite of  [[Sol (Roman mythology)|Sol]], the Sun god.<ref>Plautus, ''Amphytrion'' 272.</ref> Nocturnus appears in several [[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|inscriptions]] found in [[Dalmatia]] and [[Italy]], in the company of other deities who are found also in the [[cosmology|cosmological]] schema of [[Martianus Capella]], based on the Etruscan tradition.<ref>Including ''[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|CIL]]'' 3.1956 = ''[[Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae|ILS]]'' 4887, 9753, 14243<sup>2</sup>, ''CIL'' 5.4287 = ''ILS'' 4888, as cited and discussed by Mario Torelli, ''Studies in the Romanization of Italy'' (University of Alberta Press, 1995), pp. 108–109.</ref> In the [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#disciplina Etrusca|Etruscan discipline]] of divination, Caelus Nocturnus was placed in the sunless north opposite to Sol to represent the polar extremities of the axis (see ''[[cardo]]''). This alignment was fundamental to the drawing of a ''[[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#templum|templum]]'' (sacred space) for the practice of [[augur]]y.<ref>Torelli, ''Studies'', p. 110. See also Huhm, "Le mundus et le Comitium", pp. 52–53, on the relation of ''templum'', ''mundus'', and ''caelum''.</ref> 

==Mithraic syncretism==
The name ''Caelus'' occurs in dedicatory inscriptions in connection to the cult of [[Mithras]].<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Uranus (god) |volume= 27 | page= 789; see lines five to seven |quote= The Roman Caelus (or Caelum) is ...not the name of a distinct national divinity...no evidence of the existence of a cult of Caelus...the worship of the sky being closely connected with that of Mithras.}}</ref> The Mithraic Caelus is sometimes depicted [[allegory|allegorically]] as an eagle bending over the sphere of heaven marked with symbols of the planets or the [[zodiac]].<ref>Doro Levi, "Aion", ''Hesperia'' (1944), p. 302.</ref> In a Mithraic context he is associated with [[Cautes]]<ref>M. J. Vermaseren, ''Mithraica I: The Mithraeum at S. Maria Capua Vetere'' (Brill, 1971), p. 14; Jaime Alvar, ''Romanising Oriental Gods: Myth, Salvation, and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis, and Mithras'', translated by Richard Gordon (Brill, 2008), p. 86.</ref> and can appear as ''Caelus Aeternus'' ("Eternal Sky").<ref>R. Beck in response to I.P. Culianu, "L'«Ascension de l'Âme» dans les mystères et hors des mystères", in ''La Soteriologia dei culti orientali nell' impero romano'' (Brill, 1982), p. 302.</ref> A form of [[Ahura-Mazda]] is invoked in Latin as ''Caelus Aeternus Iupiter''.<ref>Levi, "Aion", p. 302. This was the view also of [[Salomon Reinach]], ''Orpheus: A General History of Religions'', translated by Florence Simmonds (London: Heinemann, 1909), p. 68.</ref> The walls of some [[mithraeum|mithrea]] feature allegorical depictions of the cosmos with [[Oceanus]] and Caelus. The mithraeum of [[Dieburg]] represents the tripartite world with Caelus, Oceanus, and Tellus below [[Phaethon|Phaeton]]-Heliodromus.<ref>Vermaseren, ''Mithraica I'', p. 14.</ref>

==Jewish syncretism==
Some Roman writers used Caelus or Caelum<ref>The word does not appear in the [[nominative case]] in any of the passages, and so its intended gender cannot be distinguished; see above.</ref> as a way to express the [[monotheism|monotheistic]] [[God in Judaism|god of Judaism]] ([[Yahweh]]). [[Juvenal]] identifies the [[God in Judaism|Jewish God]] with Caelus as the highest heaven ''(summum caelum)'', saying that [[Jews]] worship the ''[[numen]]'' of Caelus;<ref>[[Juvenal]], ''Satires'' 14.97; Peter Schäfer, ''Judeophobia: Attitudes toward the Jews in the Ancient World'' (Harvard University Press, 1997), pp. 41, 79–80.</ref> [[Petronius]] uses similar language.<ref>[[Petronius]], frg. 37.2; Schäfer, ''Judeophobia'', pp. 77–78.</ref> [[Florus]] has a passage describing the [[Kodesh Hakodashim|Holy of Holies]] in the [[Second Temple|Temple of Jerusalem]] as housing a "sky" ''(caelum)'' under a golden vine. A golden vine, perhaps the one mentioned, was sent by the [[Hasmonean]] king [[Aristobulus II|Aristobulus]] to [[Pompey the Great|Pompeius Magnus]] after his defeat of [[Jerusalem]], and was later displayed in the [[Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus|Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus]].<ref>[[Florus]], ''Epitome'' 1.40 (3.5.30): "The Jews tried to defend [[Jerusalem]]; but he ''[Pompeius Magnus]'' entered this city also and saw that grand Holy of Holies of an impious people exposed, Caelum under a golden vine" ''(Hierosolymam defendere temptavere Iudaei; verum haec quoque et intravit et vidit illud grande inpiae gentis arcanum patens, sub aurea vite Caelum).'' Finbarr Barry Flood, ''The Great Mosque of Damascus: Studies on the Makings of an Umayyad Visual Culture'' (Brill, 2001), pp. 81 and 83 (note 118). The ''[[Oxford Latin Dictionary]]'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982, 1985 reprinting), p. 252, entry on ''caelum'', cites Juvenal, Petronius, and Florus as examples of ''Caelus'' or ''Caelum'' "with reference to [[Jehovah]]; also, to some symbolization of Jehovah."</ref>
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==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
*{{citation|last=Burkert|first=Walter|author-link=Walter Burkert|date=2005|chapter=Chapter Twenty: Near Eastern Connections|title=A Companion to Ancient Epic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V4mZmoZhG68C&q=Epic+of+Gilgamesh+Iliad+and+Odyssey|editor-last=Foley|editor-first=John Miles|location=New York City, New York and London, England|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|isbn=978-1-4051-0524-8}}
*{{citation|last=Mondi|first=Robert|date=1990|chapter=Greek and Near Eastern Mythology: Greek Mythic Thought in the Light of the Near East|title=Approaches to Greek Myth|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vl_zWHnSkJAC&q=Anu+myth&pg=PA170|editor-last=Edmunds|editor-first=Lowell|location=Baltimore, Maryland|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|isbn=0-8018-3864-9}}
* {{citation|last=Puhvel|first=Jaan|author-link=Jaan Puhvel|title=Comparative Mythology|date=1987|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore, Maryland|isbn=0-8018-3938-6}}

{{Roman religion}}

[[Category:Roman gods]]
[[Category:Sky and weather gods]]
[[Category:Arts gods]]