Sunday, November 12, 2006

Adoptee Roll Call: Romulus and Remus

In the wake of this month's elections and other political brouhaha, we're going to highlight two famous adoptees of myth and legend and prominent politicians/nation builders:

Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome.


Got Wolf's Milk?


The two were twins who were set adrift to die on the Tiber river, but were kept safe by the river god Tiberinus, who made the cradle catch in the roots of a fig tree growing in the Velabrum swamp.

According to most sources, Tiberinus then brought the infant twins up onto the Palatine Hill. There, the two were nursed by a she-wolf (lupa in Latin, a designation also used for female prostitutes, leading to an alternative theory that the "wolf" was actually human) underneath a fig-tree and were fed by a woodpecker.

Well, maybe not this one.


Romulus and Remus were soon discovered by the shepherd Faustulus, who brought the children to his home and raised the boys as his own until they were old enough to go found their own nation...

And the rest is history that you can read over at the Wikipedia and around the web.

But still a fun thing to keep in mind of how far you can go.

Who is this Bwian?

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