The God of Miles

[vovat]

When I was a lad, even younger than I am now, I used to occasionally look through my mom's old Book of Knowledge. This encyclopedia is still published, but the modern editions are in alphabetical order like you'd expect, while this old edition seemed to have the articles arranged more or less haphazardly. Anyway, the article that particularly interested me was the one on Greco-Roman mythology, which listed not only the famous gods but some of the more obscure ones as well. And of these obscure ones, one that stuck out for me was Terminus, the Roman god of boundaries, who was personified as a head on a milestone. Yes, apparently the Romans worshipped a deity who couldn't even move on his own.


Terminus was an old Roman god, predating the Roman adoption of the Greek gods, but later incorporated into that pantheon rather than abandoned. He represented the power of boundary stones themselves, on which the Romans placed great importance. Seriously, you could get the death penalty for removing one. Terminus also had his own holiday, celebrated on 23 February, during which the boundary markers were drenched in sacrificial blood and crowned with wreaths. I can really only find one actual story about Terminus himself, the gist of which is that Terminus refused to move out of the way for Jupiter when he took over a new temple. There are other references to Terminus actually being an aspect of Jupiter himself.


Terminus actually came to mind at one point while reading the Frank Black Forum, and learning that the online CD database refers to the song "End of Miles" as "God of Miles." I figure that Terminus could be the "god of miles," even though he's really more concerned with boundaries than distances.
End of Miles

Also, I think Terminus might be a good deity for the Minutemen and other people obsessed with the Mexican-American border. Most of these people probably claim to be Christians, but I don't recall Jesus ever saying anything in support of national boundaries. Well, I guess he DID have a preference for his own countrymen, but Paul did all he could to downplay that.

Comments

the end of terminus

[suegypt.livejournal.com]

Cool. Ya know, terminus also means "the end" as in death. Of course, you want your end to be fixed when it comes, I suppose, so as not to long for it and have it slip away on winged feet.

You probably also know that Atlanta was once called Terminus, and it was a big railroad hub. They had a Terminus Station, I think, which was torn down 30 or 40 years ago. The end of the end.