In Roman mythology

Roman mythology

Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...

, Hersilia was the wife of Romulus

Romulus and Remus

Romulus and Remus are Rome's twin founders in its traditional foundation myth, although the former is sometimes said to be the sole founder...

, the founder and first King of Rome. She is described as such in both Livy

Livy

Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...

 and Plutarch

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

; but in Dionysius

Dionysius

The Graeco-Roman name Dionysius, deriving from the name of the Thracian god Dionysus, was exceedingly common, and many ancient people, famous and otherwise, bore it. It remains a common name today in the form Dennis . The modern Greek form of the name is Dionysios or Dionysis. The Spanish form of...

, Macrobius, and another tradition recorded by Plutarch, she was instead the wife of Hostus Hostilius

Hostus Hostilius

Hostus Hostilius was a nobleman of Ancient Rome during the reign of Romulus.He fought valiantly in defending the Roman Citadel and died during the Sabine invasion of Rome that followed the "Rape of the Sabine Women". He married the daughter of the Sabine woman Hersilia.His grandson, Tullus...

, a Roman champion at the time of Romulus. This would make her the grandmother of Tullus Hostilius

Tullus Hostilius

Tullus Hostilius was the legendary third of the Kings of Rome. He succeeded Numa Pompilius, and was succeeded by Ancus Marcius...

, the fourth king of Rome.

The principal source of traditions relating to Hersilia is Livy

Livy

Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...

, I.11:
Just like her husband (who became the god Quirinus), she was deified after her death as Hora, as recounted in Ovid, Metamorphoses, Bk XIV:829-851:

External links

• Roman Myth Index
• Bryn Mawr
• The Pedigree of Hersilia
• T. P. Wiseman: The Wife and Children of Romulus (The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 2, pp 445-452, 1983)