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‘Alien: Romulus’ (2024)
Why is the film named after a mythic founder of Rome?
If you have seen the film Alien: Romulus then you may recognize the image above. It is Lupa Capitolina and a copy is embossed on one of the doors inside the Weyland Corporation scientific vessel The Renaissance which is divided into two separate areas Romulus and Remus. My following discussion will contain spoilers. I am sorry but it is necessary to explain my theory on why Romulus the mythic founder of Rome was chosen.
The statue was made in the 12th century AD and depicts a she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus in their infancy. This has been a symbol of the city of Rome and the ancient Romans since at least the 3rd century BC. However, the two small children in the statue were only added 300 years later to depict the twin brothers Romulus and Remus and encapsulate the mythology of the origin of Rome.
Romulus would eventually murder his twin and be the sole founder of Rome and the future Empire. The basic legend of how Romulus came to be the first king of Rome begins with the usurper Amulius of Alba Longa, in Latium taking the throne from his brother King Numitor and treacherously ordering the murder of his nephew, Aegestus, and forcing Numitor’s daughter, Rhea Silvia, to become a priestess to Vesta who was the goddess of the hearth. Since such priestesses were required to be chaste during their tenure under the pain of death, Amulius assumed that Rhea would not mother any potential rivals to the throne. But as the Romulus tale goes, the god Mars ravaged her one day and this led to her pregnancy, and she later gave birth to twins: Romulus and Remus.
Even in the prologue to their myth, we already have a fratricide which would not have been uncommon in the dynastic pursuit of power. But the origin story continues as Amulius learns of Rhea’s pregnancy, and shortly after Romulus and Remus’ births, the rogue, tyrannical king of Alba Longa condemned the infants to death by drowning. For what?
Amulius orders a servant to carry out the death sentence, but in every scenario of this myth, the servant takes pity on the twins and spares their lives. The servant places the twins into a basket and onto the River Tiber; the river carries the boys to safety.
