Mosaic of the Minerva of Peace (detail), Elihu Vedder, 1896 (Library of Congress)

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v t e

Minerva (Etruscan: Menrva) was the Roman goddess whom Romans from the 2nd century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic.^[1] She is often depicted with her sacred creature, an owl usually named as the "owl of Minerva",^[2] which symbolizes her ties to wisdom.

Etruscan Menrva[link]

Stemming from an Italic moon goddess *Meneswā 'She who measures', the Etruscans adopted the inherited Old Latin name, *Menerwā, thereby calling her Menrva. Extrapolating from her Roman nature, it is assumed that in Etruscan mythology, Minerva was the goddess of wisdom, war, art, schools and commerce. She was the Etruscan counterpart to Greek Athena. Like Athena, Minerva was born from the head of her father, Jupiter (Greek Zeus). It is possible that such a goddess was "imported" to both Greece and Italy from beliefs originating in the Near East during the extreme antiquity. The very few extant Lemnian inscriptions suggest that the Etruscans may have originated in Asia Minor, in which case subsequent syncretism between Greek Athena and Italic Minerva may have been all the easier.

By a process of folk etymology, the Romans could have confused the phones of her foreign name with those of the root men- in Latin words such as mens meaning "mind", perhaps because one of her aspects as goddess pertained to the intellectual. The word mens is built from the Proto-Indo-European root *men- 'mind' (linked with memory as in Greek Mnemosyne/μνημοσύνη and mnestis/μνῆστις: memory, remembrance, recollection).

Cult in Rome[link]

Minerva was part of a holy triad with Tinia and Uni, equivalent to the Roman Capitoline Triad of Jupiter-Juno-Minerva. Minerva was the daughter of Jupiter.

As Minerva Medica, she was the goddess of medicine and doctors. As Minerva Achaea, she was worshipped at Luceria in Apulia where votive gifts and arms said to be those of Diomedes were preserved in her temple.^[3][4]

A head of "Sulis-Minerva" found in the ruins of the Roman baths in Bath

In Fasti III, Ovid called her the "goddess of a thousand works." Minerva was worshipped throughout Italy, though only in Rome did she take on the warlike character shared by Athena. Her worship was also taken out to the empire — in Britain, for example, she was conflated with the local wisdom goddess Sulis.

The Romans celebrated her festival from March 19 to March 23 during the day which is called, in the neuter plural, Quinquatria, the fifth after the Ides of March, the nineteenth, an artisans' holiday . A lesser version, the Minusculae Quinquatria, was held on the Ides of June, June 13, by the flute-players, who were particularly useful to religion. In 207 BC, a guild of poets and actors was formed to meet and make votive offerings at the temple of Minerva on the Aventine hill. Among others, its members included Livius Andronicus. The Aventine sanctuary of Minerva continued to be an important center of the arts for much of the middle Roman Republic.

Minerva was worshipped on the Capitoline Hill as one of the Capitoline Triad along with Jupiter and Juno, at the Temple of Minerva Medica, and at the "Delubrum Minervae" a temple founded around 50 BC by Pompey on the site now occupied by the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva facing the present-day Piazza della Minerva.

Universities and educational establishments[link]

As patron goddess of wisdom, Minerva frequently features in statuary, as an image on seals, and in other forms, at educational establishments, including:

• Minerva is featured in the University at Albany's logo. The catalog of books and other materials in the University Library at the University at Albany campus is called the "Minerva Catalog". Minerva is also mentioned in UAlbany's Alma Mater:

"Wisdom's duty heeds thy call, Ever in Minerva's thrall,"

• Minerva is the goddess of Kappa Kappa Gamma and can be seen, with her owl, on their crest.
• Minerva as a bronze head bust over the main entrance of the Main Library of the University of California, Berkeley.
• The Minerva head has been associated with the Chartered Society of Designers since its inception in 1930 and has been redefined several times during the history of the Society by notable graphic designers. The current logo was established in 1983.
• Minerva is the symbol of the University of Porto.
• A statue of Minerva is located in the center of La Sapienza University, the most important university of Rome.
• Athena is the patron goddess of Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.
• Minerva is displayed in front of Columbia University's Low Memorial Library as "Alma Mater."
• Above the entrance to the University of Vienna main building, there is a sculpture work titled "The Birth of Minerva".^[5]
• A statue of Minerva adorns the library at the United States Military Academy
• Minerva is the name of a language school in Ruse, Bulgaria.
• Minerva is the name of a female residence at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa.
• Minerva is displayed to the East of University of North Carolina at Greensboro's Elliot University Center as a statue.
• The SUNY Potsdam campus in Potsdam, NY is home to multiple statues of Minerva and a cafe named after her.

Statue of Minerva on the Alte Brücke in Heidelberg

Temple of Minerva in Sbeitla, Tunisia

• Minerva is featured on the seals and logos of many institutions of higher learning:
  • the University of Louisville official seal
  • the University of South Carolina official seal
  • the University of North Carolina at Greensboro official seal. UNCG also has a Minerva statue, donated by the Class of 1953.
  • University of Lincoln. An emblem of Minerva's head is represented in the logo for this UK University. There is a tradition within the Lincoln Rugby Union team where it is thought that they are Knights of Minerva, with each match being fought and won in her honour.
  • University at Albany, The State University of New York. Minerva is pictured in the university's logo. "Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom has been the institution's enduring symbol." ^[6] Minerva is still venerated by seniors and their 'torch bearers' during a pre-graduation ritual called "Torch Night" there.
  • the University of Alabama
  • the University of Virginia
  • Union College, New York. Union College has also used Minerva as the name of their new academic and social "Third Space" program, the Minerva House System; and, also here, Minerva is the goddess of Theta Delta Chi.
  • UFRJ, the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil.
  • Escola Politécnica da USP, Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo, in Brazil.
  • Ghent University, in Belgium

A 1817 French Empire mantel clock depicting Minerva. Purchased by James Monroe for the White House.

• • American Academy of Arts & Sciences, in Cambridge, Mass. The seal's principal figure is Minerva - a symbol appropriate for an organization created in the midst of the American Revolution and dedicated to the cultivation of every art and science to "advance the interest, honour, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people."
  • Max Planck Society, Germany.
  • Leiden University, Minerva is presented in the centre of the great seal of the most ancient University in the Netherlands (1575).
• Minerva is the name and the patroness of the most ancient student-association of Leiden and was established in 1819.
• Minerva decorates the keystone over the main entrance to the Boston Public Library beneath the words, "Free to all." BPL was the original public-financed library in America and, with all other libraries, is the long-term memory of the human race.
• The annual prize for the best Politics student in Liverpool Hope University in the UK is called the Minerva Prize, both because of the association with wisdom and knowledge and because there is a statue of Minerva on the dome of Liverpool Town Hall, the seat of local politics in the city.
• Minerva is the Goddess of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Fraternity Brothers are known as Loyal Sons of Minerva.
• Minerva is the name of a remote learning facility at Bath Spa University in England, UK.
• Minerva is featured on the seal of the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
• Minerva is featured on the seal of the "Escuela Comercial Cámara de Comercio", in Mexico, founded in 1923.
• A statue of Minerva stands in the entrance to Main Building at Wells College in Aurora, NY. On the last day of spring semester classes, graduating seniors kiss Minerva's feet for luck and lifelong wisdom. Minerva was the only statue that survived the 1888 fire of old Main Building.^[7]
• Minerva is the patroness of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• Minerva is featured in the logo of The Mac.Robertson Girls' High School, Australia.
• Minerva is featured in the logo of Kelvinside Academy, Glasgow, Scotland
• Minerva is featured on the seals of many schools and colleges: on that of Union College in Schenectady, NY, the motto is (translated from the French) "Under the laws of Minerva, we are all brothers."
• Minerva is the patroness of the Union Philosophical Society of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
• The Yale School of Architecture in New Haven, Connecticut, features a Roman marble statue of Minerva in its 4th floor atrium.
• The Minerva head is displayed outside The Natural History Museum, Bergen, Norway
• The seal for the University of Louisville includes a large head of Minerva.
• McGill University's web interface is called Minerva.
• Milne Library at SUNY Geneseo has a statue of Minerva in their lobby.
• Minerva is the name of the managed learning environment at the University of Sheffield Medical School
• Minerva is the name of the main file server at Keystone College
• Minerva is on the crest of the Girls Day School Trust
• A statue of Minerva appears on top of the Minerva Building at Dumfries Academy, Dumfries, Scotland.
• The symbol of Hornsby Girls High School, Australia, is the "Torch of Knowledge" and words of the school song include "Minerva by our southern seas her sacred groves replanted, with whispering gums to woo the breeze that flows o'er lands enchanted; with ageless hills she rimmed her bower, her sunlit shrine of learning, and here we keep through shine and shower the Torch of Knowledge burning..." (NOTE on Australianisms: gums here means "gum trees" (eucalyptus), not a part of the mouth) At http://www.hornsbygir-h.schools.nsw.edu.au/ you can see a model of the Torch is still used in events.

Societies and governmental use[link]

The Seal of California

Medal of Honor

• A statue of Minerva is atop the dome of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C.
• The Minerva head has been associated with the Chartered Society of Designers since its inception in 1930 and has been redefined several times during the history of the Society by notable graphic designers. The current logo was established in 1983.
• The Seal of California depicts the Goddess Minerva having sprung full grown from the brain of Jupiter. This was interpreted as analogous to the political birth of the State of California without having gone through the probation period of being a Territory.
• In the early 20th century, Manuel José Estrada Cabrera, President of Guatemala, tried to promote a "Cult of Minerva" in his country; this left little legacy other than a few interesting Hellenic style "Temples" in parks around Guatemala.
• According to John Robison's Proofs of a Conspiracy (1798), the third degree of the Bavarian Illuminati was called Minerval or Brother of Minerva, in honor of the goddess of learning. Later, this title was adopted for the first initiation of Aleister Crowley's OTO rituals.
• Minerva is the logo of the world famous German "Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science" (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft)
• The helmet of Minerva serves as the crest of the distinctive unit insignia for Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
• Minerva is displayed on the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government.
• A large mozaic of Minerva is the focal art piece in the great room of the U.S. Library of Congress.

Minerva Institute of Management& Technology Dehradun, Uttarakhand. (India)an institute of Professional courses like- Animation & Multimedia, Fashion Technology and Mass Communication was established in 2009 affiliated to Uttarakhand Teacnical University.

Public Monuments, Places and Modern Culture[link]

The Minerva Roundabout in Guadalajara, Mexico

• A small Roman shrine to Minerva (the only one still in situ in the UK) stands in Handbridge, Chester. It sits in a public park, overlooking the River Dee.
• Minerva circle is one of the famous and busiest circles in Bangalore. It gets its name from an eponymous movie theatre that used to be located there.
• The Minerva Roundabout in Guadalajara, Mexico, located at the crossing of the López Mateos, Vallarta, López Cotilla, Agustín Yáñez and Golfo de Cortez avenues, features the goddess standing on a pedestal, surrounded by a large fountain, with an inscription which says "Justice, wisdom and strength guard this loyal city".
• Minerva is displayed as a statue in the Minneapolis Central Library in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• Minerva is displayed as a statue in Pavia near the train station, and is considered as an important landmark in the city.
• A statue of Minerva stands atop the dome of the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, Scotland.
• A seven foot statue of Minerva stands at the highest point in Brooklyn, overlooking New York Harbor, located in Green-Wood Cemetery.
• A bronze statue of Minerva lies in monument square Portland, Maine. "Our Lady of Victories Monument" dedicated 1891, Richard Morris Hunt and Franklin Simmons.
• In the Harry Potter series, J.K Rowling named a leading female character Minerva McGonagall in light of the Goddess. Indeed the character's main trait was that of wisdom - a clear inspiration from the Goddess. Also, like Minerva (who had the ability to transform into an owl), the character of McGonagall had the ability to transfigure into a cat.

See also[link]

• Celtic mythology
• Second French Empire
• Sulis

External Link[link]

• Roman Mythology

Footnotes and references[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Minerva

• Origins of English History see Chapter Ten.
• Romans in Britain - Roman religion and beliefs see The Roman gods.
• Old Norse Myths, Literature and Society

Secondary sources[link]

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1867). "^{article name needed}". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.  See page 1090

v t e Roman mythology and religion Deities Apollo · Bona Dea · Castor and Pollux · Ceres · Cupid · Diana · Dis Pater · Faunus · Genius · Hercules · Janus · Juno · Jupiter · Lares · Liber · Mars · Mercury · Minerva · Orcus · Neptune · Penates · Pluto · Priapus · Proserpina · Quirinus · Saturn · Silvanus · Sol · Venus · Vesta · Vulcan See also List of Roman deities Abstract deities Concordia · Fides · Fortuna · Pietas · Spes · Roma · Terra Legendary founders Aeneas · Romulus and Remus · Numa Pompilius · Servius Tullius · Ancus Marcius Texts Vergil, Aeneid · Ovid, Metamorphoses and Fasti · Propertius, Elegies Book 4 · Apuleius, Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass) Concepts and practices Religion in ancient Rome · Festivals · interpretatio graeca · Imperial cult · Temples See also Glossary of ancient Roman religion · Greek mythology · myth and ritual · classical mythology

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Statue of El Cid in Burgos, the capital of Sancho II's kingdom, and where El Cid served in his early years.

Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (1043 – July 10, 1099), known as El Cid Campeador (Spanish pronunciation: [el ˈθið kampeaˈðor], "The lord-master of military arts"), was a Castilian nobleman, military leader, and diplomat. Exiled from the court of the Spanish Emperor Alfonso VI of León and Castile, El Cid went on to command a Moorish force consisting of Muladis, Berbers, Arabs and Malians, under Yusuf al-Mu'taman ibn Hud, Moorish king of the northeast Al-Andalus city of Zaragoza, and his successor, Al-Mustein II.

After the Christian defeat at the Battle of Sagrajas in 1086, El Cid was recalled to service by Alfonso VI, and commanded a combined Christian and Moorish army, which he used to create his own fiefdom in the Moorish Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia.

Rodrigo Díaz was educated in the royal court of Castile and became the alférez, the chief general, of Alfonso VI, and his most valuable asset in the fight against the Moors.

Title[link]

El Cid's charter of donation to the Cathedral of Valencia (1098). His signature is shown closeup in the image below.

The name El Cid (Spanish: [el ˈθid]) comes from the article el (which means "the" in both Spanish and Arabic), and the dialectal Arabic word سيد sîdi or sayyid, which means "Lord" or "The Master". The title Campeador means "champion" or "challenger" in Spanish. Because of his exceeding prowess in arms, he was the natural challenger in single combats. In Spanish warfare, it was common for leaders of armies to pit two Champions against each other (similar to the story of David and Goliath) to determine the outcome of the conflict. This way neither side would lose a great number of men. The Cid was the champion of King Alfonso VI of Castile. He had gained the title of "Campeador" when he won victory on behalf of Alfonso against the forces of Granada.

Life and career[link]

El Cid's signature: Ego Ruderico, "I, Rodrigo".

Origins[link]

El Cid was born 1043 AD in Vivar, also known as Castillona de Bivar, a small town about six miles north of Burgos, the capital of Castile. His father, Diego Laínez, was a courtier, bureaucrat, and cavalryman who had fought in several battles. Despite the fact that El Cid's mother's family was aristocratic, in later years the peasants would consider him one of their own. However, his relatives were not major court officials; documents show that El Cid's paternal grandfather, Lain, confirmed only five documents of Ferdinand I's, his maternal grandfather, Rodrigo Alvarez, certified only two of Sancho II's, and El Cid's own father confirmed only one.

Service under Sancho II[link]

First paragraph of the Carmen Campidoctoris, the earliest literary treatment of El Cid's life, written by a Catalan partisan to celebrate El Cid's defeat of Berenguer Ramón.

As a young adult in 1057, Rodrigo fought against the Moorish stronghold of Zaragoza, making its emir al-Muqtadir a vassal of Sancho. In the spring of 1063, Rodrigo fought in the Battle of Graus, where Ferdinand's half-brother, Ramiro I of Aragon, was laying siege to the Moorish town of Cinca which was in Zaragozan lands. Al-Muqtadir, accompanied by Castilian troops including El Cid, fought against the Aragonese. The party would emerge victorious; Ramiro I was killed and the Aragonese fled the field. One legend has said that during the conflict, El Cid killed an Aragonese knight in single combat, thereby receiving the honorific title Campeador.

When Ferdinand died, Sancho continued to enlarge his territory, conquering both Christian and the Moorish cities of Zamora and Badajoz. When Sancho learned that Alfonso was planning on overthrowing him in order to gain his territory, Sancho sent Cid to bring Alfonso back so that Sancho could speak to him.

Service under Alfonso VI[link]

Sancho was assassinated in 1072, as the result of a pact between his brother Alfonso and his sister Urraca. Since Sancho died unmarried and childless, all of his power passed to his brother Alfonso.

Almost immediately, Alfonso returned from exile in Toledo and took his seat as king of Castile and León. He was deeply suspected in Castile, probably correctly,^{[citation needed]} of having been involved in Sancho's murder. According to the epic of El Cid, the Castilian nobility led by El Cid and a dozen "oath-helpers" forced Alfonso to swear publicly in front of Santa Gadea (Saint Agatha) Church in Burgos on holy relics multiple times that he did not participate in the plot to kill his brother. This is widely reported^[who?] as truth, but contemporary documents on the lives of both Rodrigo Diaz and Alfonso VI of Castile and León do not mention any such event. El Cid's position as armiger regis was taken away and given to El Cid's enemy, Count García Ordóñez.

Exile[link]

In the Battle of Cabra (1079), El Cid rallied his troops and turned the battle into a rout of Emir Abdulallh of Granada and his ally García Ordóñez. However, El Cid's unauthorized expedition into Granada greatly angered Alfonso, and May 8, 1080, was the last time El Cid confirmed a document in King Alfonso's court. This is the generally given reason for El Cid's exile, although several others are plausible and may have been contributing factors: jealous nobles turning Alfonso against El Cid, Alfonso's own animosity towards El Cid, and an accusation of pocketing some of the tribute from Seville.

At first he went to Barcelona, where Ramón Berenguer II (1076–1082) and Berenguer Ramón II (1076–1097) refused his offer of service. Then he journeyed to the Taifa of Zaragoza where he received a warmer welcome by its diverse and well cultured inhabitants.

According to Moorish accounts:

Andalusian Knights found El Cid their foe ill, thirsty and exiled from the court of Alfonso, he was presented before the elderly Yusuf al-Mu'taman ibn Hud and accepted command of the forces of the Taifa of Zaragoza as their Master.

However, the exile was not the end of El Cid, either physically or as an important figure. In 1081, El Cid, went on to offer his services to the Moorish king of the northeast Al-Andalus city of Zaragoza, Yusuf al-Mu'taman ibn Hud, and served both him and his successor, Al-Mustain II. He was given the title El Cid (The Master) and served as a leading figure in a vibrant Moorish force consisting of Muladis, Berbers, Arabs and Malians.

O'Callaghan writes:

That kingdom was divided between al-Mutamin (1081–1085) who ruled Zaragoza proper, and his brother al-Mundhir, who ruled Lérida and Tortosa. El Cid entered al-Mutamin's service and successfully defended Zaragoza against the assaults of al-Mundhir, Sancho I of Aragón, and Ramón Berenguer II, whom he held captive briefly in 1082. In 1084, El Cid and the Moorish armies defeated Sancho of Aragon at the Battle of Morella near Tortosa. He was then troubled by the fierce conflicts between the Muladis of Badajoz and the Arabs of Seville.

In 1086, the Almoravid invasion of the Iberian Peninsula through and around Gibraltar began. The Almoravids, Berber residents of present-day North Africa, led by Yusuf ibn Tashfin, were asked to help defend the divided Moors from Alfonso. El Cid had probably commanded a large Moorish force during the great Battle of Sagrajas, which took place in 1086, near the Taifa of Badajoz. The Almoravid and Andalusian Taifas, including the armies of Badajoz, Málaga, Granada, Tortosa and Seville, defeated a combined army of León, Aragón and Castile.

Recalling From Exile[link]

Terrified after his crushing defeat, Alfonso recalled from exile the best Christian general: El Cid. It has been shown that El Cid was at court on July 1087; however, what happened after that is unclear. El Cid returned to Alfonso, but now he had his own plans. He only stayed a short while and then returned to Saragossa. El Cid was content to let the Almoravid armies and the armies of Alfonso fight without his help. Even when there was a chance that the armies of Almoravid might defeat Alfonso and take over all of Alfonso's lands. The reason El Cid did not want to fight was because he was hoping that both armies would become weak.^{[citation needed]} That would make it easier for him to carry out his own plan which was to become ruler of the Kingdom of Valencia.

Conquest of Valencia[link]

Around this time, El Cid, with a combined Christian and Moorish army, began maneuvering in order to create his own fiefdom in the Moorish Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia. Several obstacles lay in his way. First was Berenguer Ramón II, who ruled nearby Barcelona. In May 1090, El Cid defeated and captured Berenguer in the Battle of Tébar (nowadays Pinar de Tévar, near Monroyo, Teruel). Berenguer was later released and his nephew Ramón Berenguer III married El Cid's youngest daughter Maria to ward against future conflicts.

Along the way to Valencia, El Cid also conquered other towns, many of which were near Valencia, such as Castejón and Alucidia.

El Cid gradually came to have more influence on Valencia, then ruled by al-Qadir. In October 1092 an uprising occurred in Valencia inspired by the city's chief judge Ibn Jahhaf and the Almoravids. El Cid began a siege of Valencia. A December 1093 attempt to break the siege failed. By the time the siege ended in May 1094, El Cid had carved out his own principality on the coast of the Mediterranean. Officially El Cid ruled in the name of Alfonso; in reality, El Cid was fully independent. The city was both Christian and Muslim, and both Moors and Christians served in the army and as administrators.

Death[link]

El Cid and his wife Jimena Díaz lived peacefully in Valencia for five years until the Almoravids besieged the city. El Cid died June 10, 1099.^[1] The cause of death is commonly accepted to be a combination of sorrow for the loss of his only son in 1098, and the increasing impact of the siege on famine and living standards more generally.^[2] Valencia was captured by Masdali on May 5, 1102 and it did not become a Christian city again for over 125 years. Jimena fled to Burgos, Castile, in 1101. She rode in with her retinue and the body of El Cid.^[3] Originally buried in Castile in the monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña, his body now lies at the center of the Burgos Cathedral.

After his demise, but still during the siege of Valencia, legend holds that Jimena ordered that the corpse of El Cid be fitted with his armor and set atop his horse Babieca, to bolster the morale of his troops. In several variations of the story, the dead Rodrigo and his knights win a thundering charge against Valencia's besiegers, resulting in a war-is-lost-but-battle-is-won catharsis for generations of Christian Spaniards to follow. It is believed that the legend originated shortly after Jimena entered Burgos, and that it is derived from the manner in which Jimena's procession rode into Burgos, i.e. alongside her deceased husband.^[4]

Warrior and general[link]

Battle tactics[link]

During his campaigns, El Cid often ordered that books by classic Roman and Greek authors on military themes be read aloud to him and his troops, for both entertainment and inspiration before battle. El Cid's army had a novel approach to planning strategy as well, holding what might be called brainstorming sessions before each battle to discuss tactics. They frequently used unexpected strategies, engaging in what modern generals would call psychological warfare — waiting for the enemy to be paralyzed with terror and then attacking them suddenly; distracting the enemy with a small group of soldiers, etc. (El Cid used this distraction in capturing the town of Castejón as depicted in Cantar de Mio Cid (The Song of my Cid)). El Cid accepted or included suggestions from his troops. In The Song the man who served him as his closest adviser was his vassal and kinsman Álvar Fáñez "Minaya" (meaning "My brother", a compound word of Spanish possessive Mi (My) and Anaia, the basque word for brother), although the historical Álvar Fáñez remained in Castile with Alfonso VI.

Taken together, these practices imply an educated and intelligent commander who was able to attract and inspire good subordinates, and who would have attracted considerable loyalty from his followers, including those who were not Christian. It is these qualities, coupled with El Cid's legendary martial abilities, which have fueled his reputation as an outstanding battlefield commander.

Babieca[link]

Tomb of Babieca at the monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña.

Babieca or Bavieca was El Cid's warhorse. Several stories exist about El Cid and Babieca. One well-known legend about El Cid describes how he acquired the stallion. According to this story, Rodrigo's godfather, Pedro El Grande, was a monk at a Carthusian monastery. Pedro's coming-of-age gift to El Cid was his pick of a horse from an Andalusian herd. El Cid picked a horse that his godfather thought was a weak, poor choice, causing the monk to exclaim "Babieca!" (stupid!) Hence, it became the name of El Cid's horse. Another legend states that in a competition of battle to become King Sancho's "Campeador", or champion, a knight on horseback wished to challenge El Cid. The King wished a fair fight and gave El Cid his finest horse, Babieca, or Bavieca. This version says Babieca was raised in the royal stables of Seville and was a highly trained and loyal war horse, not a foolish stallion. The name in this instance could suggest that the horse came from the Babia region in León, Spain. In the poem Carmen Campidoctoris, Babieca appears as a gift from "a barbarian" to El Cid, so its name could also be derived from "Barbieca", or "horse of the barbarian".

Regardless, Babieca became a great warhorse, famous to the Christians, feared by El Cid's enemies, and loved by El Cid, who allegedly^{[by whom?][attribution needed]} requested that Babieca be buried with him in the monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña.^{[citation needed]} His name is mentioned in several tales and historical documents about El Cid, including The Lay of El Cid.

Swords[link]

Tizona

A weapon traditionally identified as El Cid's sword, Tizona, used to be displayed in the Army Museum (Museo del Ejército) in Toledo. In 1999, a small sample of the blade underwent metallurgical analysis which confirmed that the blade was made in Moorish Córdoba in the eleventh century and contained amounts of Damascus steel. [Garcia Alonso et al., 1999]

In 2007 the Autonomous Community of Castile and León bought the sword for 1.6 million Euros, and it is currently on display at the Museum of Burgos.

El Cid also had a sword called Colada.

Marriage and family[link]

El Cid was married in July 1075 to Alfonso's kinswoman Jimena Díaz. The Historia Roderici calls her a daughter of a Count Diego of Oviedo, a person unknown to contemporary records, while later poetic sources name her father as an otherwise unknown Count Gomez de Gormaz.

Tradition states that when El Cid first laid eyes on her, he was enamored of her great beauty. Together El Cid and Jimena had three children. Their daughters Cristina and María both married into the high nobility; Cristina to Ramiro, Lord of Monzón, grandson of García Sánchez III of Navarre via an illegitimate son; María, first (it is said) to a prince of Aragon (presumably the son of Peter I) and second to Ramón Berenguer III, count of Barcelona. El Cid's son Diego Rodríguez was killed while fighting against the invading Muslim Almoravids from North Africa at the Battle of Consuegra (1097).

El Cid's own marriage and those of his daughters raised his status by connecting him to the peninsular royalty; even today, most European monarchs and many commoners of European ancestry descend from El Cid, through Cristina's son, King García Ramírez of Navarre and to a lesser extent via a granddaughter Jimena of Barcelona, who married into the Counts of Foix.

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: El Cid

Bibliography[link]

• Simon Barton and Richard Fletcher. The world of El Cid, Chronicles of the Spanish reconquest. Manchester: University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-7190-5225-4 hardback, ISBN 0-7190-5226-2 paperback.
• Gonzalo Martínez Díez, "El Cid Histórico: Un Estudio Exhaustivo Sobre el Verdadero Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar", Editorial Planeta (Spain, June 1999). ISBN 84-08-03161-9
• Richard Fletcher. "The Quest for El Cid". ISBN 0-19-506955-2
• Kurtz, Barbara E. El Cid. University of Illinois.
• I. Michael. The Poem of El Cid. Manchester: 1975.
• C. Melville and A. Ubaydli (ed. and trans.), Christians and Moors in Spain, vol. III, Arabic sources (711-1501). (Warminster, 1992).
• Joseph F. O'Callaghan. A History of Medieval Spain. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1975
• Peter Pierson. The History of Spain. Ed. John E. Findling and Frank W. Thacheray. Wesport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999. 34-36.
• Bernard F. Reilly. The Kingdom of León-Castilla under King Alfonso VI, 1065-1109 Princeton, New Jersey: University Press, 1988.
• The Song of El Cid. Translated by Burton Raffel. Penguin Classics, 2009.
• R. Selden Rose and Leonard Bacon (trans.) The Lay of El Cid. Semicentennial Publications of the University of California: 1868-1918. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997.
• Steven Thomas. 711-1492: Al-Andalus and the Reconquista.
• M. J. Trow,El Cid The Making of a Legend, Sutton Publishing Limited, 2007.
• Henry Edwards Watts. "The Story of El Cid (1026-1099)" in The Christian Recovery of Spain: The Story of Spain from the Moorish Conquest to the Fall of Grenada (711-1492 AD). New York: Putnam, 1894. 71-91.
• Cantar de mío Cid - Spanish (free PDF)
• Poema de Mio Cid, Códice de Per Abbat in the European Library (third item on page)
• T.Y. Henderson. "Conquests Of Valencia"
• J. I. Garcia Alonso, J. A. Martinez, A. J. Criado, "Origin of El Cid's sword revealed by ICP-MS metal analysis", Spectroscopy Europe, 11/4 (1999).

Sources and external links[link]

• Information about The Route of El Cid - English

Notes[link]