Greek city of Katane in Sicily
Bronze Dekonkion 20mm (4.30 grams) Struck after 212 B.C.
Reference: Sear 1072; B.M.C. 2.62
Jugate busts of Zeus Serapis and Isis right; ear of corn behind, X before.
KATANAIΩN, Apollo standing facing, holding laurel-branch and bow, and resting left elbow
on column; quiver and omphalos at feet.

Following the capture by Hieron of Syracuse, in 476 B.C., the name of this city was changed to Aitna; but on the expulsion of the the new colonists, fifteen years later, the place reverted to its original name of Katane. It was captured in 404 B.C. by Dionysios of Syracuse who sold the population into slavery. Katane submitted to Rome during the First Punic War.

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Isis or in original more likely Aset was a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world . She was worshiped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans, the downtrodden, as well as listening to the prayers of the wealthy, maidens, aristocrats and rulers. Isis is the Goddess of motherhood , magic and fertility .

The goddess Isis (the mother of Horus ) was the first daughter of Geb, god of the Earth, and Nut , the goddess of the Overarching Sky, and was born on the fourth intercalary day . At some time Isis and Hathor had the same headdress. In later myths about Isis, she had a brother, Osiris , who became her husband, and she then was said to have conceived Horus . Isis was instrumental in the resurrection of Osiris when he was murdered by Set . Her magical skills restored his body to life after she gathered the body parts that had been strewn about the earth by Set. This myth became very important in later Egyptian religious beliefs.

Isis nursing Horus, wearing the headdress of Hathor

Isis is also known as the goddess of simplicity , protector of the dead and goddess of children from whom all beginnings arose. In later myths, the Ancient Egyptians believed that the Nile River flooded every year because of her tears of sorrow for her dead husband, Osiris. This occurrence of his death and rebirth was relived each year through rituals. The worship of Isis eventually spread throughout the Greco-Roman world, continuing until the suppression of paganism in the Christian era.

Serapis (Latin spelling, or Sarapis in Greek) was a syncretic Hellenistic -Egyptian god in Antiquity . His most renowned temple was the Serapeum of Alexandria. Under Ptolemy Soter , efforts were made to integrate Egyptian religion with that of their Hellenic rulers. Ptolemy's policy was to find a deity that should win the reverence alike of both groups, despite the curses of the Egyptian priests against the gods of the previous foreign rulers (i.e Set who was lauded by the Hyksos ). Alexander the Great had attempted to use Amun for this purpose, but he was more prominent in Upper Egypt , and not as popular with those in Lower Egypt , where the Greeks had stronger influence. The Greeks had little respect for animal-headed figures, and so a Greek-style anthromorphic statue was chosen as the idol , and proclaimed as the equivalent of the highly popular Apis . It was named Aser-hapi (i.e. Osiris-Apis), which became Serapis, and was said to be Osiris in full, rather than just his Ka (life force).

In the ancient Greek religion , Zeus zews zooss ; Ancient Greek : Ζεύς; Modern Greek : Δίας, Dias) was the "Father of Gods and men" (πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε) who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology . His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and Etruscan counterpart is Tinia .

Zeus was the child of Cronus and Rhea , and the youngest of his siblings. In most traditions he was married to Hera, although, at the oracle of Dodona , his consort was Dione : according to the Iliad , he is the father of Aphrodite by Dione.^[2] He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena , Apollo and Artemis , Hermes , Persephone (by Demeter ), Dionysus , Perseus , Heracles , Helen of Troy , Minos , and the Muses (by Mnemosyne ); by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered Ares , Hebe and a title="Hephaestus" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hephaestus" style="text-decoration: none"> Hephaestus.^[5]

As Walter Burkert points out in his book, Greek Religion, "Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence."^[6] For the Greeks, he was the King of the Gods , who oversaw the universe. As Pausanias observed, "That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men".^[7] In Hesiod's Theogony Zeus assigns the various gods their roles. In the Homeric Hymns he is referred to as the chieftain of the gods.

His symbols are the thunderbolt , eagle , bull , and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East , such as the scepter . Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing, striding forward, with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in majesty.

Etymology

The Chariot of Zeus, from an 1879 Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church

In Greek, the god's name is Ζεύς Zeús /zdeús/ or /dzeús/ (Modern Greek /ˈzefs/) in the nominative case and Διός Diós in the genitive case . The earliest forms of the name are the Mycenaean Greek di-we and di-wo, written in Linear b syllabic script.^[8] With the apparent interchangeability of "z" and "d", Zeus can also be Deus.

Zeus, poetically referred to by the vocative Zeu pater ("O, father Zeus"), is a continuation of *Di̯ēus, the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called *Dyeus ph₂tēr ("Sky Father").^[9] The god is known under this name in Sanskrit (compare Dyaus/Dyaus Pita ), Latin (compare Jupiter , from Iuppiter, deriving from the Proto-Indo-European vocative *dyeu-ph₂tēr^[10]), deriving from the basic form *dyeu- ("to shine", and in its many derivatives, "sky, heaven, god").^[9] And in Germanic mythology (compare *Tīwaz > Old High German language Ziu, Old Norse Týr ), together with Latin deus, dīvus and Dis (a variation of dīves^[11]), from the related noun *deiwos.^[11] To the Greeks and Romans, the god of the sky was also the supreme god. Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology.

In Greek and Roman mythology , Apollo , is one of the most important and diverse of the Olympian deities . The ideal of the kouros (a beardless youth), Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; archery ; medicine and healing; music, poetry, and the arts; and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis . Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu. Apollo was worshiped in both ancient Greek and Roman religion , as well as in the modern Greco -Roman Neopaganism .

As the patron of Delphi (Pythian Apollo), Apollo was an oracular god — the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle . Medicine and healing were associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius , yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague as well as one who had the ability to cure. Amongst the god's custodial charges, Apollo became associated with dominion over colonists , and as the patron defender of herds and flocks. As the leader of the Muses (Apollon Musagetes) and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron god of music and poetry . Hermes created the lyre for him, and the instrument became a common attribute of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans .

In Hellenistic times, especially during the third century BCE, as Apollo Helios he became identified among Greeks with Helios , god of the sun , and his sister Artemis similarly equated with Selene , goddess of the moon . In Latin texts, on the other hand, Joseph Fontenrose declared himself unable to find any conflation of Apollo with Sol among the Augustan poets of the first century, not even in the conjurations of Aeneas and Latinus in Aeneid XII (161–215). Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the third century CE.

Foundation

All ancient authors agree in representing Catania as a Greek colony named Κατάνη ('Katánē—see also List of traditional Greek place names ) of Chalcidic origin, but founded immediately from the neighboring city of Naxos , under the guidance of a leader named Euarchos (Euarchus).

The exact date of its foundation is not recorded, but it appears from Thucydides to have followed shortly after that of Leontini (modern Lentini ), which he places in the fifth year after Syracuse , or 730 BC .

 Greek Sicily

The only event of its early history that has been transmitted to us is the legislation of Charondas , and even of this the date is wholly uncertain.

But from the fact that his legislation was extended to the other Chalcidic cities, not only of Sicily, but of Magna Graecia also, as well as to his own country, it is evident that Catania continued in intimate relations with these kindred cities.

It seems to have retained its independence till the time of Hieron of Syracuse , but that despot, in 476 BC , expelled all the original inhabitants, whom he established at Leontini, while he repeopled the city with a new body of colonists, amounting, it is said, to not less than 10,000 in number, and consisting partly of Syracusans , partly of Peloponnesians .

He at the same time changed the city's name to Αἴτνη (Aítnē, Aetna or Ætna, after the nearby Mount Etna , an active volcano ), and caused himself to be proclaimed the Oekist or founder of the new city. As such he was celebrated by Pindar , and after his death obtained heroic honors from the citizens of his new colony.

But this state of things was of brief duration, and a few years after the death of Hieron and the expulsion of Thrasybulus , the Syracusans combined with Ducetius , king of the Siculi , to expel the newly settled inhabitants of Catania, who were compelled to retire to the fortress of Inessa (to which they gave the name of Aetna), while the old Chalcidic citizens were reinstated in the possession of Catania, 461 BC .

The period that followed the settlement of affairs at this epoch appears to have been one of great prosperity for Catania, as well as for the Sicilian cities in general: however, no details of its history are known till the great Athenian expedition to Sicily (part of the larger Peloponnesian War ).

On that occasion the Catanaeans, notwithstanding their Chalcidic connections, at first refused to receive the Athenians into their city: but the latter having effected an entrance, they found themselves compelled to espouse the alliance of the invaders, and Catania became in consequence the headquarters of the Athenian armament throughout the first year of the expedition, and the base of their subsequent operations against Syracuse.

There is no information as to the fate of Catania after the close of this expedition: it is next mentioned in 403 BC , when it fell into the power of Dionysius I of Syracuse , who sold the inhabitants as slaves, and gave up the city to plunder; after which he established there a body of Campanian mercenaries.

These, however, quit it again in 396 BC , and retired to Aetna , on the approach of the great Carthaginian armament under Himilco and Mago . The great sea-fight in which the latter defeated Leptines , the brother of Dionysius, was fought immediately off Catania, and the city apparently^{[ wordsweasel]} fell, in consequence, into the hands of the Carthaginians.

Callippus , the assassin of Dion of Syracuse, when he was expelled from Syracuse, for a time held possession of Catania (Plut. Dion. 58); and when Timoleon landed in Sicily Catania was subject to a despot named Mamercus , who at first joined the Corinthian leader but afterwards abandoned his alliance for that of the Carthaginians, and was in consequence attacked and expelled by Timoleon.

Catania was now restored to liberty, and appears to have continued to retain its independence; during the wars of Agathocles with the Carthaginians, it sided at one time with the former, at others with the latter; and when Pyrrhus landed in Sicily, Catania was the first to open its gates to him, and received him with the greatest magnificence.

Catania was the birth-place of the philosopher and legislator Charondas; it was also the place of residence of the poet Stesichorus , who died there, and was buried in a magnificent sepulchre outside one of the gates, which derived from thence the name of Porta Stesichoreia. (Suda, under Στησίχορος.)

Xenophanes , the philosopher of Elea , also spent the latter years of his life there, so that it was evidently, at an early period, a place of cultivation and refinement.

The first introduction of dancing to accompany the flute, was also ascribed to Andron , a citizen of Catania

In ancient times Catania was associated with the legend of Amphinomus and Anapias , who, on occasion of a great eruption of Etna, abandoned all their property, and carried off their aged parents on their shoulders, the stream of lava itself was said to have parted, and flowed aside so as not to harm them. Statues were erected to their honor, and the place of their burial was known as the Campus Piorum; the Catanaeans even introduced the figures of the youths on their coins, and the legend became a favorite subject of allusion and declamation among the Latin poets , of whom the younger Lucilius and Claudian have dwelt upon it at considerable length.

The occurrence is referred by Hyginus to the first eruption of Etna that took place after the settlement of Catania.

 Roman rule

In the First Punic War , Catania was one of the first among the cities of Sicily, which made their submission to the Roman Republic , after the first successes of their arms in 263 BC. The expression of Pliny (vii. 60) who represents it as having been taken by Valerius Messalla , is certainly a mistake.

It appears to have continued afterwards steadily to maintain its friendly relations with Rome, and though it did not enjoy the advantages of a confederate city (foederata civitas), like its neighbors Tauromenium (modern Taormina ) and Messana (modern Messina ), it rose to a position of great prosperity under the Roman rule.

Cicero repeatedly mentions it as, in his time, a wealthy and flourishing city; it retained its ancient municipal institutions, its chief magistrate bearing the title of Proagorus; and appears to have been one of the principal ports of Sicily for the export of corn.

It subsequently suffered severely from the ravages of Sextus Pompeius , and was in consequence one of the cities to which a colony was sent by Augustus ; a measure that appears to have in a great degree restored its prosperity, so that in Strabo 's time it was one of the few cities in the island that was in a flourishing condition.

It retained its colonial rank, as well as its prosperity, throughout the period of the Roman Empire ; so that in the 4th century Ausonius in his Ordo Nobilium Urbium , notices Catania and Syracuse alone among the cities of Sicily.

One of the most serious eruptions of Mount Etna happened in 121 BC , when great part of Catania was overwhelmed by streams of lava, and the hot ashes fell in such quantities in the city itself, as to break in the roofs of the houses.

Catania was in consequence exempted, for 10 years, from its usual contributions to the Roman state The greater part of the broad tract of plain to the southwest of Catania (now called the Piana di Catania, a district of great fertility), appears to have belonged, in ancient times , to Leontini or Centuripa (modern Centuripe ), but that portion of it between Catana itself and the mouth of the Symaethus, was annexed to the territory of the latter city, and must have furnished abundant supplies of grain.

The port of Catania also, which was in great part filled up by the eruption of 1669 AD , appears to have been in ancient times much frequented, and was the chief place of export for the corn of the rich neighboring plains. The little river Amenanus, or Amenas, which flowed through the city, was a very small stream, and could never have been navigable.