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Octavian's birth
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 2:41 pm
by ghost
How would you confirm or disconfirm that this is Octavian's birth?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativity_scene
Re: Octavian's birth
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 2:53 pm
by neilgodfrey
I would ask:
If the scene were of Octavian's birth what would I expect to find/not find in it to confirm that?
If the scene were of some other's birth what would I expect to find/not find in it to confirm that?
What existing explanations are there for this scene?
What are the origins of those explanations?
What relationships between this scene and other nativity scenes in ancient literature?
Does the nativity scene include motifs from a variety of nativity stories?
Was there are cluster of motifs in nativity stories of famous names that incorporated into a story of any one particular famous person?
i.e. what are the existing explanations for the nativity scene and why are they deficient and why is the alternative view (Octavian) superior?
Re: Octavian's birth
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 4:20 pm
by Leucius Charinus
ghost wrote:How would you confirm or disconfirm that this is Octavian's birth?
By comparing it with the Solarium Augusti -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarium_Augusti
September 23 is the date claimed by Augustus as his birthday.
See:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/enc ... ogium.html
In 1976, Buchner hypothesized that the Horologium was a colossal sundial, its gnomon casting a shadow over a vast pavement of travertine calculated to have measured some 525 by 246 feet. As the day advanced, the shadow moved from west to east along the equinox and from north to south along the meridian through the passage of the seasons, beginning with the winter solstice under Capricorn, the day of Augustus' conception (as well as the birth sign of Apollo, his patron deity), and ending with the summer solstice under Cancer. It then returned northward for the remaining six months of the year. Nine months later on the fall equinox (September 23), the date claimed by Augustus as his birthday, the shadow of the gnomon extended directly to the east and, as the sun set, into the Ara Pacis itself, symbolizing that Augustus was one who had been born for peace.
Re: Octavian's birth
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 2:54 am
by Roger Pearse
By the same methods that I would use to determine that it is not a depiction of the inauguration of President Barak Obama.