LIVIA OOMANTÍS: LA METÁFORA DEL NACIMIENTO DE TIBERIO Y EL GALLO-SOL DE LA REALEZA. ENTRE ADIVINACIÓN, ASTROLOGÍA Y MAGIA.

The purpose of this study is to examine, from a rational point of view, the story occurred in the year 42 BC and related by Pliny and Suetonius. According to these roman authors, a very young Livia Drusilla (future wife of Octavius) at the age of 15-16 years and being pregnant carried out and oomantic ceremony, in order to guess the sex of the child she was carrying and make sure it was a boy. For this purpose the narration says that she had taken a chicken egg - as a simulation of the fetus - which had been incubated within her, extra corpore, until it hatched out showing a baby-bird with an enormous red cockscomb. This image was a sign referred to the baby who was coming to life: Tiberius. In political terms, we retroactively situate the formation of this genethliacal myth in the year 2 AD, coinciding with the return of the emperor Tiberius back to Rome from his voluntary exile in Rhodes, "the golden island". This episode operates as a metaphor for a "new birth" and for its incorporation, initially unfortunate, to the political scene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]