Editing Circus Maximus (section)

== Religious significance ==
{{Wide image|Circus Maximus in Rome.jpg|900px|The Circus Maximus site and the Palatine Hill in background|box width|center|alt=alt text}}
The southeastern turn of the track ran between two shrines which may have predated the Circus' formal development. One, at the outer southeast perimeter, was dedicated to the valley's eponymous goddess [[Murcia (mythology)|Murcia]], an obscure deity associated with [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]], the [[Myrtus|myrtle]] shrub, a sacred spring, the stream that divided the valley, and the lesser peak of the Aventine Hill.<ref>The prestige attached to the [[curule chair]] granted [[Manius Valerius Maximus]] and his descendants in 494 BC would have been enhanced by its positioning close to this shrine. See {{harvnb|Humphrey|1986|p=61}}</ref> The other was at the southeastern turning-post, where there was an underground shrine to [[Consus]], a minor god of grain-stores, connected to the grain-goddess [[Ceres (mythology)|Ceres]] and to the [[underworld]]. According to Roman tradition, [[Romulus]] discovered this shrine shortly after the [[founding of Rome]]. He invented the [[Consualia]] festival, as a way of gathering his Sabine neighbours at a celebration that included horse-races and drinking. During these distractions, Romulus's men then [[bride abduction|abducted]] the Sabine daughters as brides. Thus the famous [[Roman myth]] of the [[Rape of the Sabine women]] had as its setting the Circus and the Consualia.
[[File:Circus max 1978.jpg|thumb|300px|Circus Maximus., 1978]]
In this quasi-legendary era, horse or chariot races would have been held at the Circus site. The track width may have been determined by the distance between Murcia's and Consus' shrines at the southeastern end, and its length by the distance between these two shrines and [[Hercules]]' [[Ara Maxima]], supposedly older than Rome itself and sited behind the Circus' starting place.<ref>{{harvnb|Humphrey|1986|p=62}}</ref> The position of Consus' shrine at the turn of the track recalls the placing of shrines to Roman [[Neptune (mythology)|Neptune]]'s Greek equivalent, [[Poseidon]], in Greek [[hippodrome]]s.<ref>{{harvnb|Humphrey|1986|p=62}}; "later Roman authors often reported the Consualia were held in honour of [[Neptune (mythology)#Neptunus equestris|Neptunus Equestris]]."</ref> In later developments, the [[altar of Consus]], as one of the Circus' [[patron deities]], was incorporated into the fabric of the south-eastern turning post. When Murcia's stream was partly built over, to form a dividing barrier (the ''spina'' or ''euripus'')<ref>Most modern sources use ''spina'' (a spine) for the central barrier, based on a single, very late Roman source ([[Cassiodorus]]), but most Roman sources used ''euripus'', a Greek word meaning a channel, strait, or canal, and thus a barrier. See {{harvnb|Humphrey|1986|p=175}}</ref> between the turning posts, her shrine was either retained or rebuilt. In the Late Imperial period, both the southeastern turn and the circus itself were sometimes known as ''Vallis Murcia''.<ref>{{harvnb|Humphrey|1986|pp=61–62}}. For Murcia's shifting topographical associations, see Otto Skutsch, "Enniana IV: Condendae urbis auspicia", ''The Classical Quarterly, New Series'', Vol. 11, No. 2 (Nov., 1961), pp. 252–67.</ref> The symbols used to count race-laps also held religious significance; [[Castor and Pollux]], who were [[Leda (mythology)|born from an egg]], were patrons of horses, horsemen, and the [[equestrian order]] ''(equites)''. Likewise, the later use of dolphin-shaped lap counters reinforced associations between the races, swiftness, and [[Neptune (mythology)#Neptunus equestris|Neptune]], as god of earthquakes and horses; the Romans believed dolphins to be the swiftest of all creatures.<ref name="auto2" /> When the Romans adopted the Phrygian [[Magna Mater|Great Mother]] as an ancestral deity, a statue of her on lion-back was erected within the circus, probably on the dividing barrier.<ref>Roller, Lynn Emrich, ''In Search of God the Mother: The Cult of Anatolian Cybele,'' University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, 1999, p.315, isbn 0-520-21024</ref>

[[File:Roman - Intaglio of a Circus with a Chariot Race - Walters 421314.jpg|thumb|[[Jasper]] [[intaglio (sculpture)|intaglio]] (2nd century AD) depicting chariot races, with the three-pointed ''metae'' at each end of the dividing barrier shown at top ([[Walters Art Museum]])]]
Sun and Moon cults were probably represented at the Circus from its earliest phases. Their importance grew with the introduction of Roman cult to Apollo, and the development of [[Stoicism|Stoic]] and solar monism as a theological basis for the [[Roman Imperial cult]]. In the Imperial era, the Sun-god was divine patron of the Circus and its games. His sacred [[obelisk]] towered over the arena, set in the central barrier, close to his temple and the finishing line. The Sun-god was the ultimate, victorious charioteer, driving his four-horse chariot (''[[quadriga]]'') through the heavenly circuit from sunrise to sunset. His partner Luna drove her two-horse chariot (''[[biga (chariot)|biga]]''); together, they represented the predictable, orderly movement of the cosmos and the circuit of time, which found analogy in the Circus track.<ref>Jean Sorabella, "A Roman Sarcophagus and Its Patron", ''Metropolitan Museum Journal'', Vol. 36, (2001), p. 75. See also Doro Levi, "Aion", ''Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens'', Vol. 13, 4, 1944, pp. 287ff.</ref> Luna's temple, which was probably built long before Apollo's, burned down in the [[Great Fire of Rome|Great Fire of 64 AD]] and was probably not replaced. Her cult was closely identified with that of [[Diana (mythology)|Diana]], who seems to have been represented in the processions that started Circus games, and with [[Sol Indiges]], usually identified as her brother. After the loss of her temple, her cult may have been transferred to Sol's temple on the dividing barrier, or one beside it; both would have been open to the sky.<ref>{{harvnb|Humphrey|1986|pp=61–64, 92–94, 270–273}}</ref>

Temples to several deities overlooked the Circus; most are now lost. The temples to [[Ceres (mythology)|Ceres]] and [[Flora (mythology)|Flora]] stood close together on the Aventine, more or less opposite the Circus' starting gate, which remained under Hercules' protection. Further southeast along the Aventine was a temple to [[Temple of Luna|Luna]], the moon goddess. Aventine temples to [[Venus Obsequens]], [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]] and [[Dis Pater|Dis]] (or perhaps [[Summanus]]) stood on the slopes above the southeast turn. On the Palatine hill, opposite to Ceres's temple, stood the temple to [[Temple of Cybele (Palatine)|Magna Mater]] and, more or less opposite Luna's temple, one to the sun-god [[Temple of Apollo Palatinus|Apollo]].

Several festivals, some of uncertain foundation and date, were held at the Circus in historical times. The Consualia, with its semi-mythical establishment by Romulus, and the [[Cerealia]], the major festival of Ceres, were probably older than the earliest historically attested "Roman Games" ''([[Ludi Romani]])'' held at the Circus in honour of [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] in 366 BC.<ref>[[Livy]], ''[[Ab urbe condita (book)|Ab urbe condita]]'', 1.56.</ref> In the early Imperial era, [[Ovid]] describes the opening of Cerealia (mid to late April) with a horse race at the Circus,<ref>Wiseman, 1995, p.137.</ref> followed by the nighttime release of foxes into the stadium, their tails ablaze with lighted torches.<ref>See [[Spaeth, Barbette Stanley]], ''The Roman goddess Ceres'', University of Texas Press, 1996, pp. 36–37.</ref> Some early connection is likely between Ceres as goddess of grain crops and Consus as a god of grain storage and patron of the Circus.