Roman Deities

Contents
Articles
List of Roman deities 1
Roman Gods 15
Adranus 15
Aius Locutius 16
Almo (god) 17
Apollo 17
Arimanius 34
Averrunci 34
Averruncus 34
Cacus 35
Caelus 37
Consus 41
Convector (mythology) 43
Cupid 44
Dei Lucrii 46
Dionysus 47
Dis Pater 60
Dius Fidius 62
Domiducus 63
Domitius 63
Elagabalus (deity) 64
Endovelicus 66
Evander of Pallene 68
Eventus Bonus 69
Fabulinus 70
Falacer 71
Fascinus 72
Faunus 74
Feretrius 76
Fontus 77
Forculus 78
Hercules 78
Honos 86
Inuus 87
Janus 91
Jugatinus 94
Jupiter (mythology) 94
Jupiter Indiges 100
Jupiter Tonans 101
Lactans 102
Lares 103
Liber 115
Limentinus 120
Mars (mythology) 121
Mercury (mythology) 134
Messor 137
Momus 138
Mors (mythology) 141
Mutunus Tutunus 142
Nemausus 145
Nemestrinus 145
Neptune (mythology) 146
Nodutus 152
Orcus 152
Pales 153
Palici 154
Picumnus 155
Picus 155
Pilumnus 156
Pluto (mythology) 156
Pluvius 167
Portunes 167
Porus (mythology) 169
Quirinus 170
Robigus 172
Sancus 176
Saritor 183
Saturn (mythology) 183
Saturn Devouring His Son 187
Silvanus (mythology) 191
Sol (mythology) 194
Sol Invictus 197
Soranus (mythology) 205
Sors 205
Spiniensis 206
Statanus 206
Sterquilinus 206
Summanus 207
Terminus (god) 210
Tiberinus (god) 213
Tibertus 214
Vagitanus 214
Vejovis 216
Verminus 217
Vertumnus 218
Vervactor 221
Viduus 221
Virtus (deity) 221
Volturnus 222
Vulcan (mythology) 222
Roman Goddesses 231

Abeona 231
Abundantia 231
Acca Larentia 232
Aequitas 233
Aeternitas 234
Alemonia 235
Angerona 235
Angitia 236
Anna Perenna 237
Annona (goddess) 238
Antevorte 239
Appiades 239
Aurora (mythology) 240
Averna 243
Bellona (goddess) 243
Bona Dea 245
Bubona 253
Camenae 253
Candelifera 254
Cardea 255
Carmenta 255
Ceres (mythology) 257
Cinxia 269
Clementia 269
Cloacina 270
Collatina 270
Concordia (mythology) 271
Cuba (mythology) 272
Cunina 273
Cura 273
Dea Dia 274
Dea Tacita 275
Decima (mythology) 275
Deverra 275
Diana (mythology) 276
Disciplina 283
Domiduca 284
Edusa 284
Egeria (mythology) 285
Empanda 288
Epona 288
Fauna (goddess) 293
Faustitas 293
Febris 293
Fecunditas 294
Felicitas 295
Ferentina 296
Feronia (mythology) 296
Fides (goddess) 298
Flora (mythology) 299
Fornax (mythology) 301
Fortuna 301
Fraus 307
Fulgora (mythology) 307
Furrina 307
Gallia (goddess) 308
Hecate 309
Hersilia 321
Hippona 323
Hostilina 327
Invidia 327
Juno (mythology) 329
Lady Justice 331
Juturna 338
Laetitia 338
Larentina 339
Laverna 339
Levana 340
Libera (mythology) 341
Liberalitas 342
Libertas 342
Libitina 344
Lima (mythology) 344
Lua (goddess) 345
Lucina (goddess) 345
Lympha 346
Magna Dea 351
Mana Genita 351
Mania (mythology) 352
Mater Matuta 352
Mefitis 353
Mellona 353
Minerva 354
Molae 360
Moneta 360
Morta (mythology) 361
Murcia (mythology) 361
Nascio 362
Nerio 362
The Night of Enitharmon's Joy 363
Di nixi 365
Nona (mythology) 368
Ops 368
Orbona 369
Palatua 370
Parcae 371
Partula (goddess) 372
Patelana 372
Paventia 373
Pax (mythology) 374
Pellonia (mythology) 375
Pietas (goddess) 375
Poena 376
Pomona 376
Postverta 378
Potina 379
Prorsa Postverta 379
Proserpina 380
Providentia 383
Pudicitia 383
Puta 384
Quiritis 385
Robigo 386
Roma (mythology) 389
Rumina 392
Runcina 393
Rusina 393
Salacia (mythology) 393
Securitas 395
Semonia 395
Sentia 396
Spes 396
Stata Mater 397
Strenua 397
Suadela 397
Tempestas 398
Terra (mythology) 398
The Mother of the Lares 400
Tranquillitas 402
Tutelina (goddess) 403
Vacuna 403
Vallonia (mythology) 405
Venus (mythology) 406
Venus Castina 414
Veritas 415
Vesta (mythology) 416
Vica Pota 421
Victoria (mythology) 422
Viriplaca 422
Volumna 423
Volutina 423
Nymphs 424
Nymph 424
Dryad 432
Limnade 434
Crinaeae 436
Acantha 437
Acis and Galatea (mythology) 438
Adamanthea 440
Adrasteia 441
Aegina (mythology) 443
Aetna (nymph) 444
Aglaea 444
Aitne 446
Alcinoe 446
Alphesiboea 446
Alseid 447
Amalthea (mythology) 448
Anthousai 451
Arethusa (mythology) 451
Argyra (mythology) 453
Asterodia 453
Astris 454
Auloniad 454
Aurai 455
Axioche 455
Bistonis 455
Bolina 456
Britomartis 456
Calybe 459
Calypso (mythology) 460
Canens (mythology) 462
Ceto (disambiguation) 462
Chariclo 463
Chesma (mythology) 463
Circe 463
Clytie 467
Corycian nymphs 468
Cynosura 469
Daphnaie 469
Daphne 470
Echo (mythology) 472
Electra (Pleiad) 473
Epimeliad 474
Eurydice 475
Euryte 477
Glauce 477
Hamadryad 478
Harpina 479
Hegetoria 481
Helike (mythology) 481
Hesperia 482
Hesperides 482
Himalia (mythology) 486
Hyades (mythology) 486
Ianthe 487
Idaea 488
Iphimedeia 488
Kallichore (mythology) 489
Kleodora 489
Korkyra 489
Lampads 490
Larissa (mythology) 490
Leimakid 491
Leuce (mythology) 492
Liriope (nymph) 492
Lotis (mythology) 493
Maenad 494
Maliades 501
Marica (mythology) 501
Melaina 501
Melanippe 502
Meliae 503
Melissa 506
Metis (mythology) 507
Metope (mythology) 509
Mideia 510
Mount Kyllini 511
Naiad 512
Nana (Greek mythology) 516
Napaeae 517
Nephele 518
Nereid 519
Nicaea (mythology) 522
Nysiads 523
Oceanid 524
Ocyrhoe 525
Oenone 526
Oread 527
Orphne 529
Pegaea 529
Pegaeae 529
Pherusa 532
Pirene (mythology) 533
Pitys (mythology) 534
Pleiades (Greek mythology) 534
Plouto 536
Pronoe 536
Pyrene (mythology) 537
Rhapso 537
Salamis (mythology) 538
Salmacis (fountain) 538
Satyrion 539
Sterope (Pleiad) 539
Stilbe 540
Syrinx 540
Syrinx (Wolter) 542
Taygete 544
Thalia (grace) 545
Thalia (muse) 546
Thalia (nymph) 547
Thelpusa 548
Thetis 548
Thriae 554
Erato (dryad) 556
Penelope (dryad) 556
Querquetulanae 557
Abarbarea 557
Achiroe 558
Aegle (mythology) 559
Aganippe 560
Albunea 561
Anaxibia 562
Appias 563
Batea (mythology) 563
Caliadne 565
Callirrhoe (naiad) 565
Cassotis 566
Castalia 566
Ceto (Oceanid) 567
Charybdis 567
Cleochareia 569
Comaetho 569
Creusa 570
Cyane 572
Drosera (naiad) 573
Eleionomae 573
Euboea (mythology) 574
Hieromneme 574
Larunda 574
Lethe 575
Lilaea 577
Melite (naiad) 577
Minthe 578
Nomia (mythology) 579
Ondine (mythology) 580
Orseis 582
Periboea 583
Polyxo 584
Praxithea 585
Salmacis 586
Styx 588
Xanthe 589
Corycia 589
Agave (mythology) 589
Amphinome 591
Amphitrite 592
Cydippe 595
Dynamene 596
Eulimene 597
Halie 597
Hippothoe 598
Ianira 598
Leucothea 599
Lycorias 601
Lysianassa 602
Mermaid 603
Nesaea 610
Orithyia 610
Panopea 612
Psamathe 613
Thalia (Nereid) 614
List of Oceanids 614
Acaste 619
Admete 620
Aethra (Greek mythology) 621
Asia (mythology) 622
Asteria 622
Bolbe 623
Caanthus 624
Chryseis 624
Clitunno 625
Dione (mythology) 625
Doris (mythology) 627
Eidyia 627
Eurynome 628
Eurynome (Oceanid) 630
Hesione 632
Meliboea 633
Merope 634
Nemesis (mythology) 635
Peitho 639
Philyra (mythology) 640
Rhode (mythology) 640
Telesto (mythology) 641
Tyche 641
References
Article Sources and Contributors 644
Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 664
Article Licenses
License 672
List of Roman deities

Ancient Roman religion
Practices and beliefs

Imperial cult · festivals · ludi
mystery religions · funerals
temples · auspice · sacrifice
votum · libation · lectisternium
Priesthoods
College of Pontiffs · Augur
Vestal Virgins · Flamen · Fetial
Epulones · Arval Brethren
Quindecimviri sacris faciundis
Dii Consentes
Jupiter · Juno · Neptune · Minerva
Mars · Venus · Apollo · Diana
Vulcan · Vesta · Mercury · Ceres
Other deities
Janus · Quirinus · Saturn ·
Hercules · Faunus · Priapus
Bacchus (Liber) · Bona Dea · Ops
Castor and Pollux · Cupid
Chthonic deities: Proserpina ·
Dis Pater · Pluto · Orcus ·
Hecate · Di Manes
Domestic and local deities:
Lares · Di Penates · Genius
Hellenistic deities: Sol Invictus · Magna Mater · Isis ·
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Divus Julius · Divus Augustus
See also List of Roman deities
Related topics
Roman mythology
Glossary of ancient Roman religion
Religion in ancient Greece
Etruscan religion
Gallo-Roman religion
Decline of Hellenistic polytheism
This is a list of deities of ancient Rome, including those who are known to have received cult within the city of
Rome, the ager Romanus, or the provinces of the Empire under a Latin or Latinized name.
Roman lists
The Romans themselves provide lists of deities in theologically based groupings.[1] These include:
Triads
• Archaic Triad: Jupiter, Mars, Quirinus.
• Capitoline Triad: Jupiter, Juno, Minerva[2]
• Plebeian or Aventine Triad: Ceres, Liber, Libera, dating to 493 BC.[3]
Groupings of twelve
Lectisternium
In describing the lectisternium of the Twelve Great Gods in 217 BC, the Augustan historian Livy places the deities
in gender-balanced pairs:[4]
• Jupiter-Juno
• Neptune-Minerva
• Mars-Venus
• Apollo-Diana
• Vulcan-Vesta
• Mercury-Ceres
Divine male-female complements such as these, as well as the anthropomorphic influence of Greek mythology,
contributed to a tendency in Latin literature to represent the gods as "married" couples or (as in the case of Venus
and Mars) lovers.
Dii Consentes
Varro uses the name Dii Consentes for the 12 deities, six male-female pairs,
whose gilded images stood in the forum.[5] Although individual names are not
listed, they are assumed to be the deities of the lectisternium. A fragment
from Ennius, within whose lifetime the lectisternium occurred, lists the same
12 deities by name, though in a different order from that of Livy: Juno, Vesta,
Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, Mercurius, Jove, Neptunus, Vulcanus,
Apollo.[6]
The Dii Consentes are sometimes seen as the Roman equivalent of the Greek
Di Consentes on an altar
Olympians. The meaning of Consentes is subject to interpretation, but is
usually taken to mean that they form a council or consensus of deities.
Agricultural deities
Varro, De re rustica
At the beginning of his treatise on farming, Varro[7] gives a list of twelve deities who are vital to agriculture. These
make up a conceptual or theological grouping, and are not known to have received cult collectively. They are:
• Juppiter-Tellus
• Sol-Luna
• Ceres-Liber
• Robigus-Flora
• Minerva-Venus
• Lympha-Bonus Eventus
Vergil, Georgics
In his Georgics, a collection of poetry on

agrarian themes, Vergil gives a list
influenced by literary Hellenization and
Augustan ideology:[8]
• Sol-Luna[9]
• Liber-Ceres
• Fauni-Dryads
• Neptune
• Aristaeus[10]
• Pan-Minerva
• Triptolemus[11]
• Silvanus
The poet proposes that the divus Julius
Allegorical scene with Roman deities from the Augustan Altar of Peace Caesar be added as a thirteenth.
Di selecti
Varro[12] gives a list of twenty principal gods of Roman religion:
• Janus
• Jupiter
• Saturn
• Genius
• Mercury
• Apollo
• Mars
• Vulcan
• Neptune
• Sol
• Orcus
• Father Liber
• Tellus
• Ceres
• Juno
• Luna
• Diana
• Minerva
• Venus
• Vesta
Sabine gods
Varro, who was himself of Sabine origin, gives a list of Sabine gods who
were adopted by the Romans:
• Feronia
• Minerva
• Novensides[13]
• Pales
• Salus
• Fortuna
• Fons
• Fides[14]
• Ops
• Flora
• Vediovis
• Saturn
• Sol Livia, wife of Augustus, dressed as the
goddess Ops
• Luna
• Vulcan
• Summanus
• Larunda
• Terminus
• Quirinus
• Vortumnus
• Lares
• Diana
• Lucina
Elsewhere, Varro claims Sol Indiges, who had a sacred grove at Lavinium, as Sabine but at the same time equates
him with Apollo.[15] Of those listed, he writes, "several names have their roots in both languages, as trees that grow
on a property line creep into both fields. Saturn, for instance, can be said to have another origin here, and so too
Diana."[16] Varro makes various claims for Sabine origins throughout his works, some more plausible than others,
and his list should not be taken at face value.[17] But the importance of the Sabines in the early cultural formation of
Rome is evidenced, for instance, by the bride abduction of the Sabine women by Romulus's men, and in the Sabine
ethnicity of Numa Pompilius, second king of Rome, to whom are attributed many of Rome's religious and legal
institutions.[18] Varro, however, says that the altars to most of these gods were established at Rome by King Tatius
as the result of a vow (votum).[19]
Alphabetical list
: Top · 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
• Abeona - a goddess who protected
children the first time they left their
parents' home, safeguarding their first
steps alone
• Abundantia - goddess of good fortune,
abundance, and prosperity
• Acca Larentia - goddess of cornfields. A
mythological figure who started out as
mortal but was later deified.
• Acis - river god near the Etna, son of
Faunus and the nymph Symaethis
• Adeona - goddess who protected children
as they returned home
A "lizard-slayer" Apollo on a mosaic from Roman Africa
• Aeolus - god of storms and winds
(Greek)
• Aerecura - goddess of Celtic origin, associated with the underworld
• Aequitas - goddess of fair trade and honest merchants
• Aesculapius - god of health and medicine
• Aeternitas - goddess and personification of eternity
• Aius Locutius - divine voice that warned the Romans of the imminent Gallic invasion
• Alemonia or Alemona - goddess responsible for nourishing the unborn child
• Angerona - goddess who relieved people from pain and sorrow
• Angita - early goddess of healing, magic and witchcraft. May be the same as Angitia
• Angitia - goddess associated with snakes, later goddess and derived from Angita
• Anna Perenna - early goddess of the "circle of the year", her festival was celebrated March 15
• Antevorta - goddess of the future and one of the Camenae; also called Porrima
• Apollo - god of poetry, music, and oracles, and one of the Dii Consentes
• Arimanius - an underworld god derived from the Greek Areimanios.
• Aurora - goddess of the dawn
• Averna - goddess of the underworld. May be equivalent to Proserpina
• Averruncus - god of childbirth. Averts calamity, whilst bringing good fortune
B
• Bacchus - god of wine, sensual pleasures, and truth, originally a cult title
for the Greek Dionysus and identified with the Roman Liber
• Bellona or Duellona - war goddess
• Bona Dea - goddess of fertility, healing, virginity, and women. Also
known as Fauna
• Bonus Eventus - personification of a good event
• Bromius - an epithet, Greek in origin, of Bacchus, god of wine
• Bubona - goddess of cattle
C
• Caca - originally an ancient hearth goddess, later demoted to a minor
figure in mythology and replaced by Vesta.
• Cacus - originally an ancient god of fire, later demoted to a giant.
• Caelus - god of the sky
• Camenae - four goddesses with various attributes including fresh water,
prophecy, and childbirth. There were four of them: Carmenta, Egeria,
Antevorta, and Postvorta.
• Candelifera - goddess of childbirth, particularly of bringing the newborn
into the light
• Cardea - goddess of health, thresholds and after being assigned by Janus,
door hinges and handles.
• Carmenta - goddess of childbirth and prophecy, and assigned a flamen A Bacchus from Roman Spain, 2nd
minor. The leader of the Camenae. century
• Carmentes - two goddesses of childbirth: Antevorta and Postvorta or

Porrima, future and past.
• Carna - goddess who presided over the heart and other organs
• Ceres - goddess of the harvest and mother of Proserpina, one of the Dii Consentes, was assigned a flamen minor
• Cinxia - goddess of marriage; name occurs as an epithet of Juno
• Clementia - goddess of forgiveness and mercy
• Clitunno - god of the Clitunno River
• Cloacina - goddess who presided over the system of sewers in Rome; identified with Venus
• Collatina - goddess of hills
• Concordia - goddess of agreement, understanding, and marital harmony
• Consus - chthonic god protecting grain storage
• Convector - god who oversaw the bringing in of the crops from the field
• Cuba - goddess of infants who was invoked by mothers to help their babies sleep
• Cunina - the protectress of infants in cradles
• Cupid - Roman god of love. The son of Venus. Greek name is Eros
• Cura - goddess of care and concern who created humans from clay
• Cybele - a goddess of caverns and mountains, walls and fortresses, nature, wild animals
D
• Dea Dia - goddess of growth
• Dea Tacita (The Silent Goddess) - goddess of the dead; later
equated with the earth goddess Larenta
• Decima - minor goddess and one of the Parcae (Roman equivalent
of the Moirae). The measurer of the thread of life, her Greek
equivalent was Lachesis
Diana Nemorensis on a denarius • Dei Lucrii - early gods of wealth, profit, commerce and trade
• Devera or Deverra - goddess who ruled over the brooms used to
purify temples in preparation for various worship services, sacrifices and celebrations; she protected midwives
and women in labor
• Diana - goddess of the hunt, the moon, virginity, and childbirth, twin sister of Apollo and one of the Dii
Consentes
• Diana Nemorensis - Local version of Diana
• Dius Fidius - god of oaths, associated with Jupiter
• Disciplina - personification of discipline
• Discordia - goddess of discord. Greek equivalent is Eris
• Dis Pater or Dispater - god of wealth and the underworld
• Domiduca - goddess of protecting children on the way back to their parents' home
• Domiducus - god who brought brides to their husbands' houses.
• Domitius or Domidius - god who kept wives in their husbands' homes
E
• Edusa - goddess of nourishment who guarded over children as they
learned to eat solid foods
• Edesia - goddess of food who presided over banquets
• Egeria - water nymph/goddess, later considered one the Camenae
• Empanda or Panda - goddess of generosity and charity
• Epona - protector of horses, donkeys, mules
• Eventus Bonus - god of success in agriculture and commerce.
F
• Fabulinus - god of children, the god responsible for teaching
children to speak
• Falacer - obscure god. He was assigned a flamen minor.
• Fama - goddess of fame and rumor. The Gallo-Roman horse goddess Epona
• Fascinus - phallic god who protected from evil supernatural

influences
• Fauna - goddess of vegetation. Also a title of other vegetative goddesses such as Bona Dea, Ops, and Terra.
• Faunus - god of flocks.
• Faustitas - goddess who protected herd and livestock
• Febris - goddess who protected people against fevers and malaria
• Fecunditas - goddess of fertility.
• Felicitas - goddess of good luck and success.
• Ferentina - patron goddess of the city Ferentinum, Latium, protector of the Latin commonwealth.
• Feronia - rural goddess of woods and fountains.

• Fessonia - goddess who relieved weariness
• Fides - goddess of loyalty
• Flora - goddess of flowers, was assigned a flamen minor
• Fornax - goddess of hearths and ovens
• Fontus - god of wells and springs
• Forculus - god of doors
• Fortuna - goddess of luck
• Fraus - goddess of treachery. Her Greek equivalent was Apate
• Fulgora - personification of lightning.
• Furrina - goddess whose functions are mostly unknown; may be associated with water. One source claims she was
a goddess of robbers and thieves. She was assigned a flamen minor. Name could also be Furina.
G
• Glycon - snake god. His cult originated in Macedonia.
• Gratiae - Roman term for the Charites or Graces
H
• Hercules - god of strength, whose worship was derived from the Greek hero
Heracles
• Hermaphroditus - an androgynous god (Greek)
• Hermus - a river god with a sanctuary at Sardis
• Hespera - goddess of dusk
• Hilaritas - goddess of rejoicing and good humor
• Honos - god of military honours, chivalry and as once source claims, military
justice
• Hora - Quirinus' wife
• Hostilina - goddess who presided over the ears of crops becoming even
Roman statue of the infant
I Hercules strangling a snake
• Imporcitor - god responsible for the harrowing of the fields. Minor attendant of
Ceres
• Indiges - the deified Aeneas
• Insitor - god responsible for the sowing of crops
• Intercidona - minor goddess of childbirth; invoked to keep evil spirits away from the child; symbolised by a
cleaver
• Inuus - god of fertility and sexual intercourse, protector of livestock
• Invidia - goddess of envy or jealousy
• Iris - goddess of the rainbow (Greek)
J
• Janus - double-faced or two-headed god of beginnings and endings
and of doors
• Jugatinus - god of mountain ranges
• Juno - Queen of the Gods and goddess of matrimony, and one of the
Dii Consentes
• Jupiter - King of the Gods and the storm, air, and sky god, father of
Venus, and one of the Dii Consentes; was assigned a flamen maior
• Justitia - goddess of justice
• Juturna- goddess of fountains, wells, and springs
A janiform sculpture, perhaps of Janus
• Juventas - goddess of youth
L
• Lactanus or Lactans - god that made the crops prosper or "yield milk"
• Larentina - an underworld goddess
• Lares - household gods
• Laverna - patroness of thieves, con men and charlatans
• Levana - goddess of the rite through which fathers accepted newborn babies as their own
• Letum - personification of death
• Liber - a god of male fertility, viniculture and freedom, assimilated to Roman Bacchus and Greek Dionysus
• Libera - Liber's female equivalent, assimilated to Roman Proserpina and Greek Persephone.
• Liberalitas - goddess or personification of generosity
• Libertas - goddess or personification of freedom
• Libitina - goddess of death, corpses and funerals
• Lima - goddess of thresholds
• Limentinus - god of lintels
• Lua - goddess to whom soldiers sacrificed captured weapons, probably a consort of Saturn
• Lucina - goddess of childbirth. The name occurs as a surname of Juno.
• Luna - goddess of the moon
• Lupercus - god of shepherds; a name for the Greek god Pan.
• Lympha, often plural lymphae, a water deity assimilated to the Greek nymphs
M
• Mana Genita - goddess who presided over burials, mother or leader
of the manes
• Manes - the souls of the dead; came to be seen as household deities
• Mania - goddess of the dead and ruler of the underworld, wife of
Mantus. Not to be confused with the Greek figure of the same name.
• Mantus - god of the dead and ruler of the underworld, husband of
Mania.
• Mars - god of war and father of Romulus, the founder of Rome,
Capitoline Triad of Juno, Jupiter, and Minerva
lover of Venus, and one of the Dii Consentes, was assigned a
flamen maior
• Mater Matuta - goddess of dawn and childbirth; also seen as patroness of mariners
• Meditrina - goddess of healing, introduced to account for the festival of Meditrinalia
• Mefitis or Mephitis - goddess and personification of poisonous gases and volcanic vapours.
• Mellona or Mellonia - goddess of bees and beekeeping
• Mercury - messenger of the gods and bearer of souls to the underworld, and one of the Dii Consentes
• Messia - a harvest goddess
• Messor - minor agricultural god concerned with the growth and harvesting of crops; attendant of Ceres.
• Minerva - goddess of wisdom, war and the arts, and one of the Dii Consentes
• Mithras - god worshipped in the Roman empire; popular with soldiers
• Molae - daughters of Mars, probably goddesses of grinding of the grain.
• Moneta - minor goddess of memory, equivalent to the Greek Mnemosyne. Also used as an epithet of Juno.
• Mors - personification of death and equivalent of the Greek Thanatos.
• Morta - minor goddess of death and one of the Parcae (Roman equivalent of the Moirae). The cutter of the thread
of life, her Greek equivalent was Atropos.
• Murcia or Murtia - a little-known goddess who was associated with the myrtle, and in other sources was called a
goddess of sloth and laziness (both interpretations arising from false etymologies of her name). Later equated
with Venus in the form of Venus Murcia.
• Muta - goddess of silence
• Mutunus Tutunus - god of fertility
N
• Naenia - goddess of funerary lament
• Nascio - personification of the act of
birth
• Necessitas - goddess of destiny, the
Roman equivalent of Ananke
• Nemesis - goddess of revenge (Greek)
• Nemestrinus - god of woods and forests
• Neptune - god of the sea, earthquakes,
and horses, and one of the Dii Consentes.
Greek Equivalent is Poseidon.
• Nerio - ancient war goddess and the
personification of valor
• Neverita - wife of Neptune; their quarrels
caused sea storms.
• Nixi, also di nixi, dii nixi, or Nixae -
goddesses of childbirth, called upon to
Neptune on a 3rd-century mosaic
protect women in labour
• Nodutus - god who made knots in stalks of wheat
• Nona - minor goddess, one of the Parcae (Roman equivalent of the Moirae). The spinner of the thread of life, her
Greek equivalent was Clotho.
• Nox - goddess of night, derived from the Greek Nyx.
O
• Obarator - minor god of agriculture. Responsible for overseeing the top-dressing of crops.
• Occator - minor agricultural god responsible for the growth and harvesting of the crops; attendant of Ceres.
• Orchadis - minor god responsible for the olive groves; attendant of Ceres.
• Ops or Opis - goddess of fertility
• Orbona - goddess of children, especially orphans. She granted new children to those who had become childless
• Orcus - a god of the underworld and punisher of broken oaths
P
• Palatua - obscure goddess who guarded the Palatine
Hill. She was assigned a flamen minor.
• Pales - deity of shepherds, flocks and livestock
• Parcae - personifications of destiny (Nona, Decima,
and Morta)
• Partula or Parca - goddess of childbirth; determined
the length of pregnancy.
• Patelana - goddess of opening husks of grain
• Paventia - goddess who comforted frightened
children
• Pax - goddess of peace; equivalent of Greek Eirene.
Aeneas and the Penates, from a 4th-century manuscript • Pellonia - goddess who warded people off their
enemies
• Penates or Di Penates - household gods
• Picumnus - minor god of fertility, agriculture, matrimony, infants and children
• Picus — Italic woodpecker god with oracular powers
• Pietas - goddess of duty; personification of the Roman virtue pietas.
• Pilumnus - minor guardian god, concerned with the protection of infants at birth
• Pluto - Pluto a name given to him by the Romans from Greek myths, he is the King of the Dead, and of the
underworld.
• Poena - goddess of punishment
• Pomona - goddess of fruit trees, gardens and orchards; assigned a flamen minor
• Porus - god and personification of plenty
• Porrima - goddess of the future. Also called Antevorta. One of the Carmentes and the Camenae
• Portunes - god of keys, doors, and livestock, he was assigned a flamen minor.
• Postverta or Prorsa Postverta - goddess of childbirth and the past, one of the two Carmentes (other being Porrima)
• Potina - goddess of children's drinks
• Priapus - localised god of the shade; worship derived from the Greek Priapus
• Promitor - minor agricultural god, responsible for the growth and harvesting of crops; attendant of Ceres.
• Proserpina - Queen of the Dead and a grain-goddess, the Roman equivalent of the Greek Persephone
• Providentia - goddess of forethought
• Pudicitia - goddess and personification of chastity, one of the Roman virtues. Her Greek equivalent was Aidôs.
• Puta - goddess of pruning vines and bushes
Q
• Quirinus, Sabine god identified with Mars; Romulus, the founder of Rome, was deified as Quirinus after his
death. Quirinus was a war god and a god of the Roman people and state, and was assigned a flamen maior.
• Quiritis - goddess of motherhood. Originally Sabine or pre-Roman, she was later equated with Juno.
R
• Redarator - minor god of agriculture, associated with the second ploughing
• Robigo or Robigus, a god or goddess who personified grain disease and protected crops
• Roma - personification of the Roman state
• Rumina - goddess who protected breastfeeding mothers
• Runcina - minor goddess of agriculture, associated with reaping and weeding.
• Rusina - protector of the fields or farmland (also known as Rurina)
• Rusor - a minor agricultural god and attendant of Ceres
S
• Salacia - goddess of seawater, wife of Neptune
• Salus - goddess of the public welfare of the Roman people; came to
be equated with the Greek Hygieia
• Sancus - god of loyalty, honesty, and oaths
• Sarritor or Saritor - minor god of agriculture, god of hoeing and
weeding
• Saturn - a titan, god of harvest and agriculture, the father of Jupiter,
Neptune, Juno, and Pluto
• Secia - a harvest goddess
• Securita or Securitas - goddess of security, especially the security of
the Roman empire
• Segetia - an agricultural goddess
Sol Invictus, or Christ depicted in his guise • Semonia - goddess of sowing
• Sentia - goddess who oversaw children's mental development
• Setia - an agricultural goddess
• Silvanus - minor god of woodlands and forests
• Sol Invictus - sun god
• Somnus - god of sleep; equates with the Greek Hypnos.
• Soranus - a god later subsumed by Apollo in the form Apollo Soranus.
• Sors - god of luck
• Spes - goddess of hope
• Spiniensis - minor agricultural god; prayed to when removing thorny bushes
• Stata Mater - goddess who protected against fires. Sometimes equated with Vesta
• Statanus - god also known as Statulinus or Statilinus. Presided over the child's first attempt to stand up. Along
with his wife Statina protected the children as they left home for the first time and returned.
• Statina - goddess who, along with her husband Statanus, protected the childred as they left home for the first time
and returned.
• Sterquilinus ("manure") - god of fertilisation. Also known as Stercutus, Sterculius, Straculius, Struculius.
• Strenua or Strenia - goddess of strength and endurance
• Suadela - goddess of persuasion, her Greek equivalent was Peitho
• Subigus - god of the wedding night
• Summanus - god of nocturnal thunder
T
• Tellumo - male counterpart of Tellus
• Tempestas - goddess of storms
• Terra Mater or Tellus - goddess of the earth and land
• Terminus - the rustic god of boundaries
• Tiberinus - river god; deity of the Tiber river.
• Tibertus - god of the river Anio, a tributary of the Tiber
• Tranquillitas - goddess of peace and tranquility
• Trivia - goddess of crossroads and magic, equated with Hecate
• Tutelina - a harvest goddess
U
• Ubertas - minor agricultural goddess, who personified fruitfulness of soil and plants, and abundance in general.
• Unxia - minor goddess of marriage, concerned with anointing the bridegroom's door. The name occurs as a
surname of Juno.
• Uranus - god of the sky before Jupiter (Greek)
V
• Vacuna - ancient goddess who protected the farmers' sheep and was
later identified with Nike - Goddess of Victory and worshipped as a
war goddess.
• Vagitanus - minor god of children, guardian of the infant's first cry
at birth
• Vallonia - goddess of valleys
• Vediovus or Veiovis - obscure god, a sort of anti-Jupiter, as the
meaning of his name suggests. May be a god of the underworld
• Venilia or Venelia - sea goddess, wife of Neptune or Faunus
• Venti - the winds, equivalent to the Greek Anemoi. North wind:
Aquilo(n) or Septentrio; South wind: Auster; East wind: Vulturnus;
West wind: Favonius; North west wind: Caurus or Corus.
• Venus - goddess of love and beauty, mother of the hero Aeneas, and
one of the Dii Consentes
• Veritas - goddess and personification of the Roman virtue of veritas
or truth. Venus, Mars, and Cupid on a wall painting from
• Verminus - god of cattle worms Pompeii
• Vertumnus, Vortumnus or Vertimnus - god of the seasons, and of

gardens and fruit trees
• Vervactor - minor agricultural god, deity of the first ploughing
• Vesta - goddess of the hearth and the Roman state, and one of the Dii Consentes
• Vica Pota - goddess of victory and competitions
• Victoria - goddess of victory
• Viduus - god who separated soul and body after death
• Virbius - a forest god, the reborn Hippolytus
• Viriplaca - goddess of marital strife
• Virtus - god or goddess of military strength, personification of the Roman virtue of virtus
• Volturnus - god of water, was assigned a flamen minor. Not to be confused with Vulturnus.
• Volumna - goddess of nurseries
• Voluptas - goddess of pleasure
• Volutina - goddess of the envelopes of the follicles of crops
• Vulcan - god of the forge, fire, and blacksmiths, husband to Venus, and one of the Dii Consentes, was assigned a
flamen minor
External links
• A list of some major Roman gods [20]
• A list of some minor Roman gods [21]
• Roman Gods and Associates (with Etrusceans) [22]
• Roman Mythology Names Index [23]
References
[1] Robert Schilling, "Roman Gods," Roman and European Mythologies (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981),
pp. 75 online (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Uf2_kHAs22sC& pg=PA75& dq="The+ following+ is+ a+ summary+ of+ the+
different+ groupings+ of+ deities+ in+ Rome"& hl=en& ei=Cfz0TN3eGIf9nAePv4npCQ& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=1&
ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage& q="The following is a summary of the different groupings of deities in Rome"& f=false) and 77 (note
49). Unless otherwise noted, citations of primary sources are Schilling's.
[2] Livy, 1.38.7, 1.55.1–6.
[3] Dionysius of Halicarnassus 6.17.2
[4] Livy, 22.10.9.
[5] Varro, De re rustica 1.1.4: "eos urbanos, quorum imagines ad forum auratae stant, sex mares et feminae totidem.
[6] Ennius, Annales frg. 62, in J. Vahlen, Ennianae Poesis Reliquiae (Leipzig, 1903, 2nd ed.). Ennius's list appears in poetic form, and the word
order may be dictated by the metrical constraints of dactylic hexameter.
[7] Varro, De re rustica 1.1.4–6.
[8] Vergil, Georgics 1.5–20.
[9] Clarissima mundi lumina
[10] Cultor nemorum.
[11] Unci puer monstrator aratri.
[12] As recorded by Augustine of Hippo, De civitate Dei 7.2.
[13] Or Novensiles: the spelling -d- for -l- is characteristic of the Sabine language
[14] For Fides, see also Semo Sancus or Dius Fidius; Roger D. Woodard, Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman Cult p. 184.
[15] Varro, De lingua latina 5.10; Paul Rehak, Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius (University of Wisconsin
Press, 2006), p. 94.
[16] e quis nonnulla nomina in utraque lingua habent radices, ut arbores quae in confinio natae in utroque agro serpunt: potest enim Saturnus
hic de alia causa esse dictus atque in Sabinis, et sic Diana.
[17] Anna Clark, Divine Qualities: Cult and Community in Republican Rome (Oxford University Press, 2007) pp. 37–38; Emma Dench,
Romulus' Asylum: Roman Identities from the Age of Alexander to the Age of Hadrian (Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 317–318.
[18] William Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People (London, 1922), p. 108.
[19] Tatius is said by Varro to have dedicated altars to "Ops, Flora, Vediovis and Saturn, to Sol, Luna, Vulcan and Summanus, and likewise to
Larunda, Terminus, Quirinus, Vortumnus, the Lares, Diana and Lucina."
[20] http:/ / www. unrv. com/ culture/ major-roman-god-list. php
[21] http:/ / www. unrv. com/ culture/ minor-roman-god-list. php
[22] http:/ / www. mythome. org/ roman. html
[23] http:/ / www. mythindex. com/ roman-mythology/ Names-A. html
15
Roman Gods
Adranus
Adranus or Adranos (Greek: 'Αδρανός) was a fire god worshipped by the Sicels, an ancient population of the
island of Sicily. His worship occurred all over the island, but particularly in the town of Adranus, modern Adrano,
near Mount Etna.[1] [2] Adranus himself was said to have lived under Mount Etna before being driven out by the
Greek god Hephaestus, or Vulcan. According to Aelian, about a thousand sacred dogs were kept near his temple in
this town.[3] According to Hesychius, Adranus was said to have been the father of the Palici, born to Adranus's lover,
the nymph Thalia.
Some modern commentators have suggested that Adranus may have been related to the similarly-named gods Adar
and Adramelech (from Persia and Phoenicia respectively), who were also personifications of the sun or of fire in
general.[4]
References
[1] Plutarch, Timoleon 12
[2] Diodorus Siculus, xiv. 37
[3] Aelian, Hist. Anim. xi. 20
[4] Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Adranus" (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 0029. html), in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and
Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston, pp. 20,
Sources
• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
by William Smith (1870).
Aius Locutius 16
Aius Locutius
Aius Locutius (Latin: āius locūtius, spoken affirmation) or Aius Loquens (Latin: āius loquens, speaking
affirmation), was a Roman deity or numen associated with the Gallic invasions of Rome during the early 4th century
BC.
According to legend, a Roman pleb named M. Caedicius heard a supernatural, nocturnal voice that issued from
Vesta's sacred grove, at the base of the Palatine hill. It warned him of an imminent Gaulish attack, recommended that
the walls of Rome be fortified and instructed him to pass these messages on to the tribune of the plebs; but because
of the messenger's humble station, the message was ignored. In consequence, the Gauls entered and burned the city
(c.391 BC). Once the Gauls were repelled, the senate built a temple and altar (known as Ara Aius Locutius, or Ara
Saepta) to propitiate the unknown deity who had offered the warning. This was said to have been set up where
Caedicius had heard the divine voice. Later Roman historians disputed its exact location and no trace remains of the
temple or altar; the latter has been historically misidentified with the Palatine altar inscribed si deus si dea ("whether
God or Goddess"), in cautious dedication to some unknown deity.[1]
In the broad context of official Roman religion, Aius Locutius is exceptional. Officially, the gods might speak
through the cryptic writings and utterances of specialised oracles, or through a complex system of signs in answer to
the specific questions of State augurs. They might also grant signs of fortune to their most favoured proteges, or
speak privately to them in dreams. Aius Locutius gave clear, urgent instructions of great importance to the State, in
everyday Latin, to an ordinary plebeian passer-by – and thereafter, according to Cicero, "having acquired a temple,
an altar, and a name, 'Speaker' never spoke again".[2]
Notes and references

[1] Lawrence Richardson, A new Topographical dictionary of ancient Rome, 1992, p5; googlebooks preview (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/
books?id=K_qjo30tjHAC& pg=PA5& lpg=PA5& dq=Aius+ Locutius& source=bl& ots=VvgiSYPOaz&
sig=3a7SjFCxwbvCfYZwD3IpbqBaQfs& hl=en& ei=nbsgTKiIK4z-0gT8sfXfDw& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=9&
ved=0CDIQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage& q=Aius Locutius& f=false)
[2] Clifford Ando, The matter of the gods: religion and the Roman Empire, University Presses of California, Columbia and Princeton, 2008,
p.125 - googlebooks preview (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/ books?id=vmQkvj9qdXkC& lpg=PA44& ots=sB2zaASNYm& dq=rome iuvenes
young men& pg=PA125#v=onepage& q=locutius& f=false) for Ando's paraphrasis of Cicero, De divinatione, 2.69.
Almo (god) 17
Almo (god)
Almo was in ancient Roman mythology the eponymous god of a river in the vicinity of Rome.[1] Like Tiberinus and
others, he was prayed to by the augurs of Rome. In the water of Almo the statue of the mother of the gods, Cybele,
used to be washed.[2] [3] He had a naiad daughter named Larunda.[4]
References
[1] Schmitz, Leonhard (1867). "Almo" (http:/ / quod. lib. umich. edu/ cgi/ t/ text/ pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;idno=acl3129. 0001.
001;q1=demosthenes;size=l;frm=frameset;seq=147). In William Smith. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston:
Little, Brown and Company. pp. 132. .
[2] Cicero, De Natura Deorum iii. 20
[3] comp. Varro De lingua latina v. 71, ed. Müller
[4] Seyffert, Oskar; Henry Nettleship, ed. (1895). A Dictionary of Classical Antiquity: Mythology, Religion, Literature and Art (http:/ / www.
google. com/ books?id=pbcUAAAAYAAJ). W. Glaisher. pp. 373. .
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by
William Smith (1870).
Apollo
Apollo
2nd century AD Roman statue of Apollo depicting the god's attributes—the lyre and the snake Python
God of music, poetry, plague, oracles, sun, medicine, light and knowledge
Abode Mount Olympus
Symbol Lyre, laurel wreath, python, raven, bow and arrows
Parents Zeus and Leto
Siblings Artemis
Children Asclepius, Troilus, Aristaeus, Orpheus
Roman equivalent Apollo

Apollo 18
Ancient Greek Religion

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Apollo 19
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
Apollo (Attic, Ionic, and Homeric Greek: Ἀπόλλων, Apollōn; Doric: Απέλλων, Apellōn; Arcadocypriot: Απείλων,
Apeilōn; Aeolic: Ἄπλουν, Aploun; Latin: Apollō) is one of the most important and diverse of the Olympian deities in
Greek and Roman mythology. The ideal of the kouros (a beardless, athletic youth), Apollo has been variously
recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; medicine, healing, and plague; music, poetry, and the
arts; and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis. Apollo is
known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu. Apollo was worshiped in both ancient Greek and Roman
religion, as well as in the modern Greco–Roman Neopaganism.
As the patron of Delphi (Pythian Apollo), Apollo was an oracular god—the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle.
Medicine and healing were associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son
Asclepius, yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague. Amongst the god's
custodial charges, Apollo became associated with dominion over colonists, and as the patron defender of herds and
flocks. As the leader of the Muses (Apollon Musegetes) and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron
god of music and poetry. Hermes created the lyre for him, and the instrument became a common attribute of Apollo.
Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans.
In Hellenistic times, especially during the 3rd century BCE, as Apollo Helios he became identified among Greeks
with Helios, Titan god of the sun, and his sister Artemis similarly equated with Selene, Titan goddess of the moon.[1]
In Latin texts, on the other hand, Joseph Fontenrose declared himself unable to find any conflation of Apollo with
Sol among the Augustan poets of the 1st century, not even in the conjurations of Aeneas and Latinus in Aeneid XII
(161–215).[2] Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the 3rd century
CE.
Name
The etymology of Apollo is uncertain. The spelling Ἀπόλλων had almost superseded all other forms by the
beginning of the common era, but the Doric form Απέλλων is more archaic, derived from an earlier *Απέλjων. The
name is certainly cognate with the Doric month name Απέλλαιος and the Doric festival απελλαι.[3]
Several instances of popular etymology are attested from ancient authors. Thus, the Greeks most often associated
Apollo's name with the Greek verb απολλυμι (apollymi), "to destroy".[4] Plato in Cratylus connects the name with
ἀπόλυσις (apolysis), "redeem", with ἀπόλουσις (apolousis), "purification", and with ἁπλοῦν (aploun), "simple",[5]
in particular in reference to the Thessalian form of the name, Ἄπλουν, and finally with Ἀει-βάλλων (aeiballon),
"ever-shooting". Hesychius connects the name Apollo with the Doric απέλλα (apella), which means "assembly", so
that Apollo would be the god of political life, and he also gives the explanation σηκος (sekos), "fold", in which case
Apollo would be the god of flocks and herds.
Following the tradition of these Ancient Greek folk etymologies, in the Doric dialect the word απέλλα originally
meant wall, fence from animals and later assembly within the agora. In the Macedonian dialect πέλλα (pella) means
stone, and some toponyms are derived from this word: Πέλλα (Pella), Πελλήνη (Pellini).
The form Apaliunas (]x-ap-pa-li-u-na-aš) is attested as a god of Wilusa in a treaty between Alaksandu of Wilusa
interpreted as "Alexander of Ilios",[6] and the Hittite great king Muwatalli II ca 1280 BCE.[7] The Hittite testimony
reflects an early form *Apeljōn, which may also be surmised from comparison of Cypriot Απειλων with Doric
Απελλων.[8]
Apollo 20
A number of non-Greek etymologies have been suggested for the name,[9] among them a Hurrian and Hittite
divinity, Aplu, who was widely invoked during the "plague years". Aplu, it is suggested, comes from the Akkadian
Aplu Enlil, meaning "the son of Enlil", a title that was given to the god Nergal, who was linked to Shamash,
Babylonian god of the sun.[10] A Luwian etymology suggested for Apaliunas makes Apollo "The One of
Entrapment", perhaps in the sense of "Hunter".[11]
Greco-Roman epithets
Apollo, like other Greek deities, had a number of epithets applied to him, reflecting the variety of roles, duties, and
aspects ascribed to the god. However, while Apollo has a great number of appellations in Greek myth, only a few
occur in Latin literature, chief among them Phoebus (pronounced /ˈfiːbəs/ FEE-bəs; Φοίβος, Phoibos, literally
"radiant"), which was very commonly used by both the Greeks and Romans in Apollo's role as the god of light.
As sun-god and god of light, Apollo was also known by the epithets Aegletes (English pronunciation: /əˈɡliːtiːz/
ə-GLEE-teez; Αἰγλήτης, Aiglētēs, from αἴγλη, "light of the sun"),[12] Helius (English pronunciation: /ˈhiːliəs/ HEE-lee-əs;
Ἥλιος, Helios, literally "sun"),[13] Phanaeus (English pronunciation: /fəˈniːəs/ fə-NEE-əs; Φαναῖος, Phanaios, literally
"giving or bringing light"), and Lyceus (English pronunciation: /laɪˈsiːəs/ lye-SEE-əs; Λύκειος, Lukeios, from
Proto-Greek *λύκη, "light"). The meaning of the epithet "Lyceus" later became associated Apollo's mother Leto,
who was the patron goddes of Lycia (Λυκία) and who was identified with the wolf (λύκος),[14] earning him the
epithets Lycegenes (English pronunciation: /laɪˈsɛdʒəniːz/ lye-SEJ-ə-neez; Λυκηγενής, Lukēgenēs, literally "born of a
wolf" or "born of Lycia") and Lycoctonus (English pronunciation: /laɪˈkɒktənəs/ lye-KOK-tə-nəs; Λυκοκτόνος,
Lukoktonos, from λύκος, "wolf", and κτείνειν, "to kill"). As god of the sun, the Romans referred to Apollo as Sol
(English pronunciation: /ˈsɒl/ SOL; literally "sun" in Latin).
In association with his birthplace, Mount Cynthus on the island of Delos, Apollo was called Cynthius (English
pronunciation: /ˈsɪnθiəs/ SIN-thee-əs; Κύνθιος, Kunthios, literally "Cynthian"), Cynthogenes (English
pronunciation: /sɪnˈθɒdʒɨniːz/ sin-THOJ-i-neez; Κύνθογενης, Kunthogenēs, literally "born of Cynthus"), and Delius
(English pronunciation: /ˈdiːliəs/ DEE-lee-əs; Δήλιος, Delios, literally "Delian"). As Artemis's twin, Apollo had the
epithet Didymaeus (English pronunciation: /dɪdɨˈmiːəs/ did-i-MEE-əs; Διδυμαιος, Didumaios, from δίδυμος, "twin").
Apollo was worshipped as Actiacus (English pronunciation: /ækˈtaɪ.əkəs/ ak-TYE-ə-kəs; Ἄκτιακός, Aktiakos, literally
"Actian"), Delphinius (English pronunciation: /dɛlˈfɪniəs/ del-FIN-ee-əs; Δελφίνιος, Delphinios, literally "Delphic"), and
Pythius (English pronunciation: /ˈpɪθiəs/ PITH-ee-əs; Πύθιος, Puthios, from Πυθώ, Pūthō, the area around Delphi), after
Actium (Ἄκτιον) and Delphi (Δελφοί) respectively, two of his principal places of worship.[15] [16] An etiology in the
Homeric hymns associated the epithet "Delphinius" with dolphins. He was worshipped as Acraephius (English
pronunciation: /əˈkriːfiəs/ ə-KREE-fee-əs; Ἀκραιφιος, Akraiphios, literally "Acraephian") or Acraephiaeus (English
pronunciation: /əˌkriːfiˈiːəs/ ə-KREE-fee-EE-əs; Ἀκραιφιαίος, Akraiphiaios, literally "Acraephian") in the Boeotian
town of Acraephia (Ἀκραιφία), reputedly founded by his son Acraepheus; and as Smintheus (English
pronunciation: /ˈsmɪnθiəs/ SMIN-thee-əs; Σμινθεύς, Smintheus, either "Sminthian") in the Troad town of Sminthos (or
mouse-killer - from σμίνθος).[17] The epithet "Smintheus" has historically been confused with σμίνθος, "mouse", in
association with Apollo's role as a god of disease. For this he was also known as Parnopius (English
pronunciation: /pɑrˈnoʊpiəs/ par-NOH-pee-əs; Παρνόπιος, Parnopios, from πάρνοψ, "locust") and to the Romans as
Culicarius (English pronunciation: /ˌkjuːlɨˈkæriəs/ KEW-li-KARR-ee-əs; from Latin culicārius, "of midges").
In Apollo's role as a healer, his appellations included Acesius (English pronunciation: /əˈsiːʃəs/ ə-SEE-shəs; Ἀκέσιος,
Akesios, from ἄκεσις, "healing"), Acestor (English pronunciation: /əˈsɛstər/ ə-SES-tər; Ἀκέστωρ, Akestōr, literally
"healer"), Paean (English pronunciation: /ˈpiːən/ PEE-ən; Παιάν, Paiān, from παίειν, "to touch"), and Iatrus (English
[18]
pronunciation: /aɪˈætrəs/ eye-AT-rəs; Ἰατρός, Iātros, literally "physician"). Acesius was the epithet of Apollo
worshipped in Elis, where he had a temple in the agora.[19] The Romans referred to Apollo as Medicus (English
pronunciation: /ˈmɛdɨkəs/ MED-i-kəs; literally "physician" in Latin) in this respect. A temple was dedicated to Apollo
Medicus at Rome, probably next to the temple of Bellona.
Apollo 21
As a protector and founder, Apollo had the epithets Alexicacus (English pronunciation: /əˌlɛksɨˈkækəs/ ə-LEK-si-KAK-əs;
Ἀλεξίκακος, Alexikakos, literally "warding off evil"), Apotropaeus (English pronunciation: /əˌpɒtrəˈpiːəs/
ə-POT-rə-PEE-əs; Ἀποτρόπαιος, Apotropaios, from ὰποτρέπειν, "to avert"), and Epicurius (English
[13]
pronunciation: /ˌɛpɨˈkjʊriəs/ EP-i-KEWR-ee-əs; Ἐπικούριος, Epikourios, from ἐπικουρέειν, "to aid"), as well as
Archegetes (English pronunciation: /ɑrˈkɛdʒətiːz/ ar-KEJ-ə-teez; Ἀρχηγέτης, Arkhēgetēs, literally "founder"), Clarius
(English pronunciation: /ˈklæriəs/ KLARR-ee-əs; Κλάριος, Klārios, from Doric κλάρος, "allotted lot"), and Genetor
(English pronunciation: /ˈdʒɛnɨtər/ JEN-i-tər; Γενέτωρ, Genetōr, literally "ancestor").[13] To the Romans, he was known
in this capacity as Averruncus (English pronunciation: /ˌævəˈrʌŋkəs/ AV-ər-RUNG-kəs; from Latin āverruncare, "to
avert"). He was also called Agyieus (English pronunciation: /ˌædʒiˈaɪ.əs/ AJ-ee-EYE-əs; Ἀγυιεύς, Aguīeus, from ὰγυιά,
"street") for his role in protecting roads and homes; and as Nomius (English pronunciation: /ˈnoʊmiəs/ NOH-mee-əs;
Νόμιος, Nomios, literally "pastoral") and Nymphegetes (English pronunciation: /nɪmˈfɛdʒɨtiːz/ nim-FEJ-i-teez;
Νυμφηγέτης, Numphēgetēs, from Νύμφη, "Nymph", and ἡγέτης, "leader") in his role as a protector of shepherds
and pastoral life.
In his role as god of prophecy and truth, Apollo had the epithets Manticus (English pronunciation: /ˈmæntɨkəs/
MAN-ti-kəs; Μαντικός, Mantikos, literally "prophetic"), Leschenorius (English pronunciation: /ˌlɛskɨˈnɔəriəs/
LES-ki-NOHR-ee-əs; Λεσχηνόριος, Leskhēnorios, from λεσχήνωρ, "converser"), and Loxias (English
[13]
pronunciation: /lɒkˈsaɪəs/ lok-SYE-əs; Λοξίας, Loxias, from λέγειν, "to say"). The epithet "Loxias" has historically
been associated with λοξός, "ambiguous". In this respect, the Romans called him Coelispex (English
pronunciation: /ˈsɛlɨspɛks/ SEL-i-speks; from Latin coelum, "sky", and specere, "to look at"). The epithet Iatromantis
(English pronunciation: /aɪˌætrəˈmæntɪs/ eye-AT-rə-MAN-tis; Ἰατρομάντις, Iātromantis, from ὶατρός, "physician", and
μάντις, "prophet") refers to both his role as a god of healing and of prophecy. As god of music and arts, Apollo had
the epithet Musegetes (English pronunciation: /mjuːˈsædʒɨtiːz/ mew-SAJ-i-teez; Μουσηγέτης, Mousēgetēs, from Μούσα,
"Muse", and ἡγέτης, "leader"), Doric Μουσαγέτας, Mousagetas.[20]
As a god of archery, Apollo was known as Aphetor (English pronunciation: /əˈfiːtər/ ə-FEE-tər; Ἀφήτωρ, Aphētōr, from
ὰφίημι, "to let loose") or Aphetorus (English pronunciation: /əˈfɛtərəs/ ə-FET-ər-əs; Ἀφητόρος, Aphētoros, of the same
origin), Argyrotoxus (English pronunciation: /ɑrˌdʒɪrəˈtɒksəs/ ar-JIRR-ə-TOK-səs; Ἀργυρότοξος, Argurotoxos, literally
"with silver bow"), Hecaërgus (English pronunciation: /ˌhɛkəˈɜrɡəs/ HEK-ə-UR-gəs; Ἑκάεργος, Hekaergos, literally
"far-shooting"), and Hecebolus (English pronunciation: /hɨˈsɛbələs/ hi-SEB-ə-ləs; Ἑκηβόλος, Hekēbolos, literally
"far-shooting"). The Romans referred to Apollo as Articenens (English pronunciation: /ɑrˈtɪsɨnənz/ ar-TISS-i-nənz;
"bow-carrying"). Apollo was called Ismenius (English pronunciation: /ɪzˈmiːniəs/ iz-MEE-nee-əs; Ἰσμηνιός, Ismēnios,
literally "of Ismenus") after Ismenus, the son of Amphion and Niobe, whom he struck with an arrow.
Celtic epithets and cult titles

Apollo was worshipped throughout the Roman Empire. In the traditionally Celtic lands he was most often seen as a
healing and sun god. He was often equated with Celtic gods of similar character.[21]
• As Apollo Atepomarus ("the great horseman" or "possessing a great horse"), Apollo was worshipped at
Mauvières (Indre). Horses were, in the Celtic world, closely linked to the sun.[22]
• Apollo Belenus ('bright' or 'brilliant'). This epithet was given to Apollo in parts of Gaul, North Italy and Noricum
(part of modern Austria). Apollo Belenus was a healing and sun god.[23]
• Apollo Cunomaglus ('hound lord'). A title given to Apollo at a shrine in Wiltshire. Apollo Cunomaglus may have
been a god of healing. Cunomaglus himself may originally have been an independent healing god.[24]
• Apollo Grannus. Grannus was a healing spring god, later equated with Apollo [25] [26] [27]
• Apollo Maponus. A god known from inscriptions in Britain. This may be a local fusion of Apollo and Maponus.
• Apollo Moritasgus ('masses of sea water'). An epithet for Apollo at Alesia, where he was worshipped as god of
healing and, possibly, of physicians.[28]
Apollo 22
• Apollo Vindonnus ('clear light'). Apollo Vindonnus had a temple at Essarois, near Châtillon-sur-Seine in
Burgundy. He was a god of healing, especially of the eyes.[26]
• Apollo Virotutis ('benefactor of mankind?'). Apollo Virotutis was worshipped, among other places, at Fins
d'Annecy (Haute-Savoie) and at Jublains (Maine-et-Loire) [27] [29]
Origins
The cult centers of Apollo in Greece, Delphi and Delos, date from the 8th century BCE. The Delos sanctuary was
primarily dedicated to Artemis, Apollo's twin sister. At Delphi, Apollo was venerated as the slayer of Pytho.
A non-Greek origin of Apollo has long been assumed in scholarship, but be established conclusively.[3] Walter
Burkert[30] discerned three components in the prehistory of Apollo worship, which he termed "a Dorian-northwest
Greek component, a Cretan-Minoan component, and a Syro-Hittite component." The connection with Dorians and
their initiation festival apellai is reinforced by the month Apellaios in northwest Greek calendars.[31]
Homer pictures Apollo on the side of the Trojans, fighting against the Achaeans, during the Trojan War, a
connection seemingly confirmed by the discovery of Apalunias as a tutelary god of Wilusa.[32]
The Greeks gave to Apollo the name αγυιεύς agyieus as the protector god who wards off evil.[33] The Late Bronze
Age (from 1700–1200 BCE) Hittite and Hurrian Aplu, like the Homeric Apollo, was a god of plagues, and resembles
the mouse god Apollo Smintheus. Here we have an apotropaic situation, where a god originally bringing the plague
was invoked to end it, merging over time through fusion with the Mycenaean healer-god Paeon (PA-JA-WO in
Linear B); Paeon, in Homer's Iliad, was the Greek healer of the wounded gods Ares and Hades. In later writers, the
word, usually spelled "Paean", becomes a mere epithet of Apollo in his capacity as a god of healing,[34] but it is now
known from Linear B that Paeon was originally a separate deity.
Homer illustrated Paeon the god, as well as the song both of apotropaic thanksgiving or triumph,[35] and Hesiod also
separated the two; in later poetry Paeon was invoked independently as a god of healing. It is equally difficult to
separate Paeon or Paean in the sense of "healer" from Paean in the sense of "song." Such songs were originally
addressed to Apollo, and afterwards to other gods: to Dionysus, to Apollo Helios, to Apollo's son Asclepius the
healer. About the 4th century BCE, the paean became merely a formula of adulation; its object was either to implore
protection against disease and misfortune, or to offer thanks after such protection had been rendered. It was in this
way that Apollo had become recognised as the god of music. Apollo's role as the slayer of the Python led to his
association with battle and victory; hence it became the Roman custom for a paean to be sung by an army on the
march and before entering into battle, when a fleet left the harbour, and also after a victory had been won.
Apollo 23
Oracular cult
Unusually among the Olympic deities, Apollo had two cult sites that
had widespread influence: Delos and Delphi. In cult practice, Delian
Apollo and Pythian Apollo (the Apollo of Delphi) were so distinct that
they might both have shrines in the same locality.[36] Apollo's cult was
already fully established when written sources commenced, about 650
BCE. Apollo became extremely important to the Greek world as an
oracular deity in the classical period, and the frequency of theophoric
names such as Apollodorus or Apollonios and cities named Apollonia
testify to his popularity. Oracular sanctuaries to Apollo were
established in other sites, including Didyma and Clarus in Asia Minor.
A notable group of oracular pronouncements from Didyma and Clarus,
the so-called "theological oracles", date to the 2nd and 3rd century AD.
In these, Apollo proclaims that there is only one highest god, of whom
the gods of polytheistic religions are mere manifestations or servants.
In the 3rd century, Apollo fell silent. Julian the Apostate in the 4th
century tried to revive the oracle at Delphi, but failed.[3]
Head of Apollo. Marble, Roman copy of a Greek

Oracular shrines original of the 4th century BCE, from the
collection of Cardinal Albani
Apollo had a famous oracle in Delphi, and other notable ones in Clarus
and Branchidae. His oracular shrine in Abae in Phocis, where he bore
the toponymic epithet Abaeus (Ἀπόλλων Ἀβαῖος, Apollon Abaios) was important enough to be consulted by Croesus
(Herodotus, 1.46). His oracular shrines include:
• In Abae in Phocis
• In Bassae in the Peloponnese
• At Clarus, on the west coast of Asia Minor; as at Delphi a holy spring which gave off a pneuma, from which the
priests drank.
• In Corinth, the Oracle of Corinth came from the town of Tenea, from prisoners supposedly taken in the Trojan
War.
• At Khyrse, in Troad, the temple was built for Apollon Smintheus
• In Delos, there was an oracle to the Delian Apollo, during summer. The Hieron (Sanctuary) of Apollo adjacent to
the Sacred Lake, was the place where the god was said to have been born.
• In Delphi, the Pythia became filled with the pneuma of Apollo, said to come from a spring inside the Adyton.
• In Didyma, an oracle on the coast of Anatolia, south west of Lydian (Luwian) Sardis, in which priests from the
lineage of the Branchidae received inspiration by drinking from a healing spring located in the temple. Was
believed to have been founded by Branchus, son or lover of Apollo.
• In Hierapolis Bambyce, Syria (modern Manbij), according to the treatise De Dea Syria, the sanctuary of the
Syrian Goddess contained a robed and bearded image of Apollo. Divination was based on spontaneous
movements of this image.[37]
• At Patara, in Lycia, there was a seasonal winter oracle of Apollo, said to have been the place where the god went
from Delos. As at Delphi the oracle at Patara was a woman.
• In Segesta in Sicily
Oracles were also given by sons of Apollo.
• In Oropus, north of Athens, the oracle Amphiaraus, was said to be the son of Apollo; Oropus also had a sacred
spring.
Apollo 24
• in Labadea, 20 miles (32 km) east of Delphi, Trophonius, another son of Apollo, killed his brother and fled to the
cave where he was also afterwards consulted as an oracle.
Festivals
The chief Apollonian festivals were the Boedromia, Carneia, Carpiae, Daphnephoria, Delia, Hyacinthia, Metageitnia,
Pyanepsia, Pythia and Thargelia.
Attributes and symbols

Apollo's most common attributes were the bow and arrow. Other
attributes of his included the kithara (an advanced version of the
common lyre), the plectrum and the sword. Another common emblem
was the sacrificial tripod, representing his prophetic powers. The
Pythian Games were held in Apollo's honor every four years at Delphi.
The bay laurel plant was used in expiatory sacrifices and in making the
crown of victory at these games. The palm was also sacred to Apollo
because he had been born under one in Delos. Animals sacred to
Apollo included wolves, dolphins, roe deer, swans, cicadas
Apollo Citharoedus ("Apollo with a kithara"),
(symbolizing music and song), hawks, ravens, crows, snakes
Musei Capitolini, Rome
(referencing Apollo's function as the god of prophecy), mice and
griffins, mythical eagle–lion hybrids of Eastern origin.
As god of colonization, Apollo gave oracular guidance on colonies, especially during the height of colonization,
750–550 BCE. According to Greek tradition, he helped Cretan or Arcadian colonists found the city of Troy.
However, this story may reflect a cultural influence which had the reverse direction: Hittite cuneiform texts mention
a Minor Asian god called Appaliunas or Apalunas in connection with the city of Wilusa attested in Hittite
inscriptions, which is now generally regarded as being identical with the Greek Ilion by most scholars. In this
interpretation, Apollo's title of Lykegenes can simply be read as "born in Lycia", which effectively severs the god's
supposed link with wolves (possibly a folk etymology).
In literary contexts, Apollo represents harmony, order, and reason—characteristics contrasted with those of
Dionysus, god of wine, who represents ecstasy and disorder. The contrast between the roles of these gods is reflected
in the adjectives Apollonian and Dionysian. However, the Greeks thought of the two qualities as complementary: the
two gods are brothers, and when Apollo at winter left for Hyperborea, he would leave the Delphic oracle to
Dionysus. This contrast appears to be shown on the two sides of the Borghese Vase.
Apollo is often associated with the Golden Mean. This is the Greek ideal of moderation and a virtue that opposes
gluttony.
Roman Apollo
The Roman worship of Apollo was adopted from the Greeks. As a quintessentially Greek god, Apollo had no direct
Roman equivalent, although later Roman poets often referred to him as Phoebus.[38] There was a tradition that the
Delphic oracle was consulted as early as the period of the kings of Rome during the reign of Tarquinius Superbus.[39]
On the occasion of a pestilence in the 430s BC, Apollo's first temple at Rome was established in the Flaminian
fields, replacing an older cult site there known as the "Apollinare".[40] During the Second Punic War in 212 BC, the
Ludi Apollinares ("Apollonian Games") were instituted in his honor, on the instructions of a prophecy attributed to
one Marcius.[41] In the time of Augustus, who considered himself under the special protection of Apollo and was
even said to be his son, his worship developed and he became one of the chief gods of Rome.[42] After the battle of
Apollo 25
Actium, which was fought near a sanctuary of Apollo, Augustus enlarged Apollo's temple, dedicated a portion of the
spoils to him, and instituted quinquennial games in his honour.[43] He also erected a new temple to the god on the
Palatine hill.[44] Sacrifices and prayers on the Palatine to Apollo and Diana formed the culmination of the Secular
Games, held in 17 BCE to celebrate the dawn of a new era.[45]
In art
In art, Apollo is depicted as a handsome beardless young man, often
with a kithara (as Apollo Citharoedus) or bow in his hand, or reclining
on a tree (the Apollo Lykeios and Apollo Sauroctonos types). The
Apollo Belvedere is a marble sculpture that was rediscovered in the
late 15th century; for centuries it epitomized the ideals of Classical
Antiquity for Europeans, from the Renaissance through the 19th
century. The marble is a Hellenistic or Roman copy of a bronze
original by the Greek sculptor Leochares, made between 350 and 325
BC.
The lifesize so-called "Adonis" (shown at left) found in 1780 on the

site of a villa suburbana near the Via Labicana in the Roman suburb of
Centocelle and now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, is identified
as an Apollo by modern scholars. It was probably never intended as a
cult object, but was a pastiche of several 4th-century and later
Hellenistic model types, intended to please a Roman connoisseur of the
2nd century AD, and to be displayed in his villa.
Apollo (the "Adonis" of Centocelle), Roman after

a Greek original (Ashmolean Museum)
In the late 2nd century CE floor mosaic from El Djem, Roman

Thysdrus (right), he is identifiable as Apollo Helios by his effulgent
halo, though now even a god's divine nakedness is concealed by his
cloak, a mark of increasing conventions of modesty in the later Empire.
Another haloed Apollo in mosaic, from Hadrumentum, is in the
museum at Sousse.[46] The conventions of this representation, head
tilted, lips slightly parted, large-eyed, curling hair cut in locks grazing
the neck, were developed in the 3rd century BCE to depict Alexander
the Great (Bieber 1964, Yalouris 1980). Some time after this mosaic
Apollo with a radiant halo in a Roman floor
was executed, the earliest depictions of Christ will be beardless and
mosaic, El Djem, Tunisia, late 2nd century
haloed.
Mythology
Apollo 26
Birth
When Hera discovered that Leto was pregnant and that Zeus was the father, she banned Leto from giving birth on
"terra firma". In her wanderings, Leto found the newly created floating island of Delos, which was neither mainland
nor a real island, so she gave birth there, where she was accepted by the people, offering them her promise that her
son will be always favourable toward the city. Afterwards, Zeus secured Delos to the bottom of the ocean. This
island later became sacred to Apollo.
It is also stated that Hera kidnapped Ilithyia, the goddess of childbirth, to prevent Leto from going into labor. The
other gods tricked Hera into letting her go by offering her a necklace, nine yards (8 m) long, of amber.
Mythographers agree that Artemis was born first and then assisted with the birth of Apollo, or that Artemis was born
one day before Apollo, on the island of Ortygia and that she helped Leto cross the sea to Delos the next day to give
birth to Apollo. Apollo was born on the seventh day (ἑβδομαγενής [47] ) of the month Thargelion —according to
Delian tradition—or of the month Bysios—according to Delphian tradition. The seventh and twentieth, the days of
the new and full moon, were ever afterwards held sacred to him.
Youth
Four days after his birth, Apollo killed the chthonic dragon Python, which lived in Delphi beside the Castalian
Spring. This was the spring which emitted vapors that caused the oracle at Delphi to give her prophesies. Hera sent
the serpent to hunt Leto to her death across the world. In order to protect his mother, Apollo begged Hephaestus for a
bow and arrows. After receiving them, Apollo cornered Python in the sacred cave at Delphi.[48] Apollo killed Python
but had to be punished for it, since Python was a child of Gaia.
Hera then sent the giant Tityos to kill Leto. This time Apollo was aided by his sister Artemis in protecting their
mother. During the battle Zeus finally relented his aid and hurled Tityos down to Tartarus. There he was pegged to
the rock floor, covering an area of 9 acres (36000 m2), where a pair of vultures feasted daily on his liver.
Admetus
When Zeus struck down Apollo's son Asclepius with a lightning bolt for resurrecting Hippolytus from the dead
(transgressing Themis by stealing Hades's subjects), Apollo in revenge killed the Cyclopes, who had fashioned the
bolt for Zeus.[49] Apollo would have been banished to Tartarus forever, but was instead sentenced to one year of hard
labor as punishment, due to the intercession of his mother, Leto. During this time he served as shepherd for King
Admetus of Pherae in Thessaly. Admetus treated Apollo well, and, in return, the god conferred great benefits on
Admetus.
Apollo helped Admetus win Alcestis, the daughter of King Pelias and later convinced the Fates to let Admetus live
past his time, if another took his place. But when it came time for Admetus to die, his parents, whom he had assumed
would gladly die for him, refused to cooperate. Instead, Alcestis took his place, but Heracles managed to "persuade"
Thanatos, the god of death, to return her to the world of the living.
Trojan War
Apollo shot arrows infected with the plague into the Greek encampment during the Trojan War in retribution for
Agamemnon's insult to Chryses, a priest of Apollo whose daughter Chryseis had been captured. He demanded her
return, and the Achaeans complied, indirectly causing the anger of Achilles, which is the theme of the Iliad.
When Diomedes injured Aeneas (Iliad), Apollo rescued him. First, Aphrodite tried to rescue Aeneas but Diomedes
injured her as well. Aeneas was then enveloped in a cloud by Apollo, who took him to Pergamos, a sacred spot in
Troy.
Apollo aided Paris in the killing of Achilles by guiding the arrow of his bow into Achilles' heel. One interpretation of
his motive is that it was in revenge for Achilles' sacrilege in murdering Troilus, the god's own son by Hecuba, on the
Apollo 27
very altar of the god's own temple.
Niobe
The queen of Thebes and wife of Amphion, Niobe boasted of her
superiority to Leto because she had fourteen children (Niobids),
seven male and seven female, while Leto had only two. Apollo
killed her sons as they practiced athletics, with the last begging for
his life, and Artemis her daughters. Apollo and Artemis used
poisoned arrows to kill them, though according to some versions
of the myth, a number of the Niobids were spared (Chloris,
usually). Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, either killed
himself or was killed by Apollo after swearing revenge. A
devastated Niobe fled to Mount Sipylos in Asia Minor and turned
into stone as she wept. Her tears formed the river Achelous. Zeus Artemis and Apollo Piercing Niobe’s Children with
their Arrows by Jacques-Louis David
had turned all the people of Thebes to stone and so no one buried
the Niobids until the ninth day after their death, when the gods
themselves entombed them.
Consorts and children

Love affairs ascribed to Apollo are a late development in Greek mythology.[50] Their vivid anecdotal qualities have
made favorites some of them of painters since the Renaissance, so that they stand out more prominently in the
modern imagination.
Female lovers
In explanation of the connection of Apollo with δάφνη (daphnē),

the laurel whose leaves his priestess employed at Delphi, it is
told[51] that Apollo chased a nymph, Daphne, daughter of the river
god Peneus, who had scorned him. In Ovid's telling for a Roman
audience, Phoebus Apollo chaffs Cupid for toying with a weapon
more suited to a man, whereupon Cupid wounds him with a
golden dart; simultaneously, however, Cupid shoots a leaden
arrow into Daphne, causing her to be repulsed by Apollo.
Following a spirited chase by Apollo, Daphne prays to her father,
Peneus, for help, and he changes her into the laurel tree, sacred to
Apollo.
Apollo had an affair with a human princess named Leucothea,

daughter of Orchamus and sister of Clytia. Leucothea loved
Apollo who disguised himself as Leucothea's mother to gain
entrance to her chambers. Clytia, jealous of her sister because she
wanted Apollo for herself, told Orchamus the truth, betraying her
sister's trust and confidence in her. Enraged, Orchamus ordered Apollo and Daphne by Bernini in the Galleria
Leucothea to be buried alive. Apollo refused to forgive Clytia for Borghese
betraying his beloved, and a grieving Clytia wilted and slowly

died. Apollo changed her into an incense plant, either heliotrope or sunflower, which follows the sun every day.
Apollo 28
Marpessa was kidnapped by Idas but was loved by Apollo as well. Zeus made her choose between them, and she
chose Idas on the grounds that Apollo, being immortal, would tire of her when she grew old.
Castalia was a nymph whom Apollo loved. She fled from him and dived into the spring at Delphi, at the base of Mt.
Parnassos, which was then named after her. Water from this spring was sacred; it was used to clean the Delphian
temples and inspire poets.
By Cyrene, Apollo had a son named Aristaeus, who became the patron god of cattle, fruit trees, hunting, husbandry
and bee-keeping. He was also a culture-hero and taught humanity dairy skills and the use of nets and traps in
hunting, as well as how to cultivate olives.
With Hecuba, wife of King Priam of Troy, Apollo had a son named Troilus. An oracle prophesied that Troy would
not be defeated as long as Troilus reached the age of twenty alive. He was ambushed and killed by Achilles.
Apollo also fell in love with Cassandra, daughter of Hecuba and Priam, and Troilus' half-sister. He promised
Cassandra the gift of prophecy to seduce her, but she rejected him afterwards. Enraged, Apollo indeed gifted her
with the ability to know the future, with a curse that she could only see the future tragedies and that no one would
ever believe her.
Coronis, daughter of Phlegyas, King of the Lapiths, was another of Apollo's liaisons. Pregnant with Asclepius,
Coronis fell in love with Ischys, son of Elatus. A crow informed Apollo of the affair. When first informed he
disbelieved the crow and turned all crows black (where they were previously white) as a punishment for spreading
untruths. When he found out the truth he sent his sister, Artemis, to kill Coronis (in other stories, Apollo himself had
killed Coronis). As a result he also made the crow sacred and gave them the task of announcing important deaths.
Apollo rescued the baby and gave it to the centaur Chiron to raise. Phlegyas was irate after the death of his daughter
and burned the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Apollo then killed him for what he did.
In Euripides' play Ion, Apollo fathered Ion by Creusa, wife of Xuthus. Creusa left Ion to die in the wild, but Apollo
asked Hermes to save the child and bring him to the oracle at Delphi, where he was raised by a priestess.
One of his other liaisons was with Acantha, the spirit of the acanthus tree. Upon her death, Apollo transformed her
into a sun-loving herb.
According to the Biblioteca, or "library" of mythology mis-attributed to Apollodorus, he fathered the Corybantes on
the Muse Thalia.[52]
Apollo 29
Male lovers
Hyacinth (or Hyacinthus) was one of his male lovers. Hyacinthus was
a Spartan prince, beautiful and athletic. The pair were practicing
throwing the discus when a discus thrown by Apollo was blown off
course by the jealous Zephyrus and struck Hyacinthus in the head,
killing him instantly. Apollo is said to be filled with grief: out of
Hyacinthus' blood, Apollo created a flower named after him as a
memorial to his death, and his tears stained the flower petals with άί άί,
meaning alas. The Festival of Hyacinthus was a celebration of Sparta.
Another male lover was Cyparissus, a descendant of Heracles. Apollo

gave him a tame deer as a companion but Cyparissus accidentally
killed it with a javelin as it lay asleep in the undergrowth. Cyparissus
asked Apollo to let his tears fall forever. Apollo granted the request by
turning him into the Cypress named after him, which was said to be a
sad tree because the sap forms droplets like tears on the trunk.
Apollo and Hyacinthus
Jacopo Caraglio; 16th c. Italian engraving
Apollo's lyre
Hermes was born on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. The story is told in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes. His mother,
Maia, had been secretly impregnated by Zeus. Maia wrapped the infant in blankets but Hermes escaped while she
was asleep. Hermes ran to Thessaly, where Apollo was grazing his cattle. The infant Hermes stole a number of his
cows and took them to a cave in the woods near Pylos, covering their tracks. In the cave, he found a tortoise and
killed it, then removed the insides. He used one of the cow's intestines and the tortoise shell and made the first lyre.
Apollo complained to Maia that her son had stolen his cattle, but Hermes had already replaced himself in the
blankets she had wrapped him in, so Maia refused to believe Apollo's claim. Zeus intervened and, claiming to have
seen the events, sided with Apollo. Hermes then began to play music on the lyre he had invented. Apollo, a god of
music, fell in love with the instrument and offered to allow exchange of the cattle for the lyre. Hence, Apollo became
a master of the lyre.
Apollo in the Oresteia

In Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy, Clytemnestra kills her husband, King Agamemnon, as well as Cassandra, a
prophetess of Apollo. Apollo gives an order through the Oracle at Delphi that Agamemnon's son, Orestes, is to kill
Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, her lover. Orestes and Pylades carry out the revenge, and consequently Orestes is
pursued by the Erinyes (Furies, female personifications of vengeance). Apollo and the Furies argue about whether
the matricide was justified; Apollo holds that the bond of marriage is sacred and Orestes was avenging his father,
whereas the Erinyes say that the bond of blood between mother and son is more meaningful than the bond of
marriage. They invade his temple, and he says that the matter should be brought before Athena. Apollo promises to
protect Orestes, as Orestes has become Apollo's supplicant. Apollo advocates Orestes at the trial, and ultimately
Athena rules with Apollo.
Apollo 30
Other stories
Apollo killed the Aloadae when they attempted to storm Mt. Olympus.
Callimachus sang[53] that Apollo rode on the back of a swan to the land of the Hyperboreans during the winter
months.
Apollo turned Cephissus into a sea monster.
Another contender for the birthplace of Apollo is the Cretan islands of Paximadia.
Musical contests
Pan
Once Pan had the audacity to compare his music with that of Apollo, and to challenge Apollo, the god of the kithara,
to a trial of skill. Tmolus, the mountain-god, was chosen to umpire. Pan blew on his pipes, and with his rustic
melody gave great satisfaction to himself and his faithful follower, Midas, who happened to be present. Then Apollo
struck the strings of his lyre. Tmolus at once awarded the victory to Apollo, and all but Midas agreed with the
judgment. He dissented, and questioned the justice of the award. Apollo would not suffer such a depraved pair of
ears any longer, and caused them to become the ears of a donkey.
Marsyas
Apollo has ominous aspects aside from his plague-bringing,

death-dealing arrows: Marsyas was a satyr who challenged Apollo to a
contest of music. He had found an aulos on the ground, tossed away
after being invented by Athena because it made her cheeks puffy. The
contest was judged by the Muses. After they each performed, both
were deemed equal until Apollo decreed they play and sing at the same
time. As Apollo played the lyre, this was easy to do. Marsyas could not
do this as he only knew how to use the flute and could not sing at the
same time. Apollo was declared the winner because of this. Apollo Apollo and Marsyas by Palma il Giovane
flayed Marsyas alive in a cave near Celaenae in Phrygia for his hubris
to challenge a god. He then nailed Marsyas' shaggy skin to a nearby pine-tree. Marsyas' blood turned into the river
Marsyas.
Another variation is that Apollo played his instrument (the lyre) upside down. Marsyas could not do this with his
instrument (the flute), and so Apollo hung him from a tree and flayed him alive.[54]
Apollo 31
Cinyras
Apollo also had a lyre-playing contest with Cinyras, his son, who committed suicide when he lost.
Modern reception
Apollo has often featured in postclassical art and literature. Percy
Bysshe Shelley composed a "Hymn of Apollo" (1820), and the god's
instruction of the Muses formed the subject of Igor Stravinsky's
Apollon musagète (1927–1928). The name Apollo was given to
NASA's Apollo Lunar program in the 1960s.
The statue of Apollo from the west pediment of the Temple of Zeus at
Olympia (currently in the Archaeological Museum of Olympia) was
depicted on the obverse of the Greek 1000 drachmas banknote of
1987–2001.[55]
Media
• 1. Apollo and Hyacinthus, read by Timothy Carter
• Apollomon from Digimon World Dawn
The Overthrow of Apollo and the Pagan Gods,
watercolour, 25 x 19.3 cm, 1809 - from William
Notes Blake's illustrations of On the Morning of Christ's
[1] For the iconography of the Alexander–Helios type, see H. Hoffmann, 1963. Nativity.
"Helios", in Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 2, pp. 117–23; cf.
Yalouris 1980, no. 42.
[2] Joseph Fontenrose, "Apollo and Sol in the Latin poets of the first century BC", Transactions of the American Philological Association 30
(1939), pp 439–55; "Apollo and the Sun-God in Ovid", American Journal of Philology 61 (1940) pp 429–44; and "Apollo and Sol in the
Oaths of Aeneas and Latinus" Classical Philology 38.2 (April 1943), pp. 137–138.
[3] Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, s.v. "Apollo".
[4] Behind the Name: Meaning, Origin and History of the Name Apollo (http:/ / www. behindthename. com/ php/ view. php?name=apollo)
[5] The ἁπλοῦν suggestion is repeated by Plutarch in Moralia in the sense of "unity".
[6] Latacz, Joachim, Troia und Homer: Der Weg zur Lösung eines alten Rätsels. (Munich) 2001:138.
[7] The reading of Apaliunas and the identification with Apollo is due to Emil Forrer (1931).
[8] Hans G. Güterbock, "Troy in Hittite Texts?" in: Mellink (ed.), Troy and the Trojan War: a symposium held at Bryn Mawr College, October
1984, Bryn Mawr Archaeological Monographs Authors John Lawrence Angel, Machteld Johanna Mellink, 1986, ISBN 9780929524597, p.
42.
[9] Martin Nilsson, Die Geschichte der Griechische Religion, vol. I (C.H. Beck) 1955:555-564.
[10] de Grummond, Nancy Thomson (2006) Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend. (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of
Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology); Mackenzie, Donald A. (2005) Myths of Babylonia and Assyria (Gutenberg)
[11] Edwin L. Brown, 'In Search of Anatolian Apollo' in: Chapin (ed.), Charis: essays in honor of Sara A. Immerwahr, Supplement to volume 33
of Hesperia, ASCSA, 2004, ISBN 9780876615331, p. 254.
[12] Apollonius of Rhodes, iv. 1730; Biblioteca, i. 9. § 26
[13] Álvaro, Jr., Santos, Allan. Simbolismo divino (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=uAiConL3xyYC& dq=articenens&
source=gbs_navlinks_s). Allan Álvaro, Jr., Santos. .
[14] Aelian, On the Nature of Animals 4. 4 (A.F. Scholfield, tr.).
[15] Ovid, Metamorphoses xiii. 715
[16] Strabo, x. p. 451
[17] Entry Σμινθεύς (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 04. 0057:entry=*sminqeu/ s) at LSJ - by eliminating
mice, a primary cause of desease, Apollo promoted preventive medicine.
[18] Euripides, Andromache 901
[19] "Acesius". Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London, 1880.
[20] LSJ entry Μουσαγέτας (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 04. 0057:entry=*mousage/ tas)
[21] Miranda J. Green, Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend, Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1997
[22] Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum XIII, 1863–1986; A. Ross,, Pagan Celtic Britain, 1967; M.J. Green, The Gods of the Celts, 1986, London
Apollo 32
[23] J. Zwicker, Fontes Historiae Religionis Celticae, 1934–36, Berlin; Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum V, XI, XII, XIII; J. Gourcest, "Le culte
de Belenos en Provence occidentale et en Gaule", Ogam 6.6 (1954:257–262); E. Thevonot, "Le cheval sacre dans la Gaule de l'Est", Revue
archeologique de l'Est et du Centre-Est (vol 2), 1951; [ ], "Temoignages du culte de l'Apollon gaulois dans l'Helvetie romaine", Revue celtique
(vol 51), 1934.
[24] W.J. Wedlake, The Excavation of the Shrine of Apollo at Nettleton, Wiltshire, 1956–1971, Society of Antiquaries of London, 1982.
[25] M. Szabo, The Celtic Heritage in Hungary, (Budapest)1971, Budapest
[26] Divinites et sanctuaires de la Gaule, E. Thevonat, 1968, Paris
[27] La religion des Celtes, J. de Vries, 1963, Paris
[28] J. Le Gall, Alesia, archeologie et histoire, (Paris) 1963.
[29] Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum XIII
[30] Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion, 1985:144.
[31] Graf, Apollo p. 104-113; Burkert also notes in this context Archilochus Fr. 94.
[32] Croft, John (2003) wrote in the Ancient Near East mail list hosted by the University of Chicago (https:/ / listhost. uchicago. edu/ pipermail/
ane/ 2003-May/ 009551. html) that "Apollo does not have a Greek provenance but an Anatolian one. Luwian Apaliuna seems to have travelled
west from further East. Hurrian Aplu was a god of the plague, and resembles the mouse god Apollo Smintheus. Hurrian Aplu itself seems
derived from the Babylonian "Aplu" meaning a "son of"—a title that was given to the Babylonian plague God, Nergal (son of Enlil)"
[33] Martin Nilsson, Die Geschichte der Griechische Religion. vol. I (C.H. Beck) 1955:563f.
[34] Graf, Apollo p. 66 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=it9n9_I-UOkC& pg=PA66#v=onepage& q& f=false)
[35] See Paean.
[36] Burkert 1985:143.
[37] Lucian (attrib.), De Dea Syria 35–37 (http:/ / www. sacred-texts. com/ cla/ luc/ tsg/ tsg07. htm#35).
[38] Theoi: "KORONIS" (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Heroine/ Koronis. html)
[39] Livy 1.56 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?lookup=Liv. + 1. 56).
[40] Livy 3.63.7 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text. jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 02. 0026:book=3:chapter=63), 4.25.3 (http:/ / www.
perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text. jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 02. 0145:book=4:chapter=25).
[41] Livy 25.12 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text. jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 02. 0147:book=25:chapter=12).
[42] J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz (1979). Continuity and Change in Roman Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 82–85.
ISBN 0-19-814822-4.
[43] Suetonius, Augustus 18.2 (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Suetonius/ 12Caesars/ Augustus*. html#18. 2);
Cassius Dio 51.1.1–3 (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Cassius_Dio/ 51*. html#1).
[44] Cassius Dio 53.1.3 (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Cassius_Dio/ 53*. html#1. 3).
[45] Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae 5050, translated by Mary Beard; John North and Simon Price (1998). Religions of Rome: Volume 2: A
Sourcebook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 5.7b. ISBN 0-521-45015-2 (hbk.); ISBN 0-521-45646-0 (pbk.).
[46] "" (http:/ / www. tunisiaonline. com/ mosaics/ mosaic05b. html). .
[47] ἑβδομαγενής (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 04. 0057:entry=e(bdomagenh/ s), Henry George
Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
[48] Children of the Gods by Kenneth McLeish, page 32.
[49] pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliothke iii. 10.4.
[50] ""The love-stories themselves were not told until later." (Karl Kerenyi, The Gods of the Greeks 1951:140.
[51] The ancient Daphne episode is noted in late narratives, notably in Ovid, Metamorphoses, in Hyginus, Fabulae, 203 and by the
fourth-century-CE teacher of rhetoric and Christian convert, Libanius, in Narrationes.
[52] Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 1.3.4 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Apollodorus1. html). Other ancient sources, however, gave the Corybantes
different parents; see Sir James Frazer's note (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Ap1a. html#46) on the passage in the Bibliotheca.
[53] Callimachus, Hymn to Apollo2.5
[54] Man Myth and Magic by Richard Cavendish
[55] Bank of Greece (http:/ / www. bankofgreece. gr/ en). Drachma Banknotes & Coins: 1000 drachmas (http:/ / www. bankofgreece. gr/ en/
Banknotes/ banknote_selection. asp?Value=1. 000). Retrieved on 27 March 2009.
Apollo 33
References
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: John Henry Freese (1911).
"Apollo" (http://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=User:Tim_Starling/ScanSet_TIFF_demo&vol=02&
page=EB2A196). In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Primary sources
• Homer, Iliad ii.595–600 (c. 700 BCE)
• Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
• Palaephatus, On Unbelievable Tales 46. Hyacinthus (330 BCE)
• Apollodorus, Library 1.3.3 (140 BCE)
• Ovid, Metamorphoses 10. 162–219 (1–8 CE)
• Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.1.3, 3.19.4 (160–176 CE)
• Philostratus the Elder, Images i.24 Hyacinthus (170–245 CE)
• Philostratus the Younger, Images 14. Hyacinthus (170–245 CE)
• Lucian, Dialogues of the Gods 14 (170 CE)
• First Vatican Mythographer, 197. Thamyris et Musae
Secondary sources
• M. Bieber, 1964. Alexander the Great in Greek and Roman Art (Chicago)
• Walter Burkert, 1985. Greek Religion (Harvard University Press) III.2.5 passim
• Graf, Fritz, Apollo, Taylor & Francis, 2009, ISBN 9780415317115.
• Robert Graves, 1960. The Greek Myths, revised edition (Penguin)
• Miranda J. Green, Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend, Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1997
• Karl Kerenyi, Apollon: Studien über Antiken Religion und Humanität rev. ed. 1953.
• Karl Kerenyi, 1951 The Gods of the Greeks
• Pauly–Wissowa, Realencyclopädie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft: II, "Apollon". The best repertory of
cult sites (Burkert).
• Pfeiff, K.A., 1943. Apollon: Wandlung seines Bildes in der griechischen Kunst. Traces the changing iconography
of Apollo.
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Apollo" (http://
www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=heracles-bio-1&highlight=orthrus)
External links
• Apollo (http://www.maicar.com/GML/Apollo.html) at the Greek Mythology Link, by Carlos Parada
Arimanius 34
Arimanius
Arimanius (Latin: Arīmanius; Greek: Areimanios) is a Greek god of the underworld, probably derived from the
Persian deity Ahriman. Plutarch identifies him as the embodiment of Hades.
References
Michael Jordan, Encyclopedia of Gods, Kyle Cathie Limited, 2002
Averrunci
The Averrunci, in antiquity, were an order of deities among the Romans, whose office was to avert dangers and
evils. The Egyptians had also their Dii Averrunci, or Apotropaet, who were pictured in a menacing posture, and
sometimes with whips in their hands. Isis was a divinity of this kind, as was shown by Athanasius Kircher.
References
• This article incorporates content from the 1728 Cyclopaedia, a publication in the public domain. [1]
References
[1] http:/ / digicoll. library. wisc. edu/ cgi-bin/ HistSciTech/ HistSciTech-idx?type=turn& entity=HistSciTech000900240217& isize=L
Averruncus
In ancient Roman religion, Averruncus or Auruncus is a god of averting harm. Aulus Gellius says that he is one of
the potentially malignant deities who must be propitiated for their power to both inflict and withhold disaster from
people and the harvests.[1]
Although the etymology of the name is often connected to the Latin verb avertere, "to turn away,"[2] a more probable
origin lies in averro "to sweep away," hence averrunco, "to ward off," perhaps with a reference to magical sweeping.
Varro[3] asserts that the infinitive verb averruncare shares its etymology with the god whose primary function is
averting. Averruncus may be among the indigitamenta pertaining to another god such as Apollo or Mars,[4] that is, it
may be a name to be used in a prayer formulary to fix the local action of the invoked deity.[5] Precise naming, in
connection with concealing a deity's true name to monopolize his or her power, was a crucial part of prayer in
antiquity, as evidenced not only in the traditional religions of Greece and Rome and syncretistic Hellenistic religion
and mystery cult, but also in Judaism and ancient Egyptian religion.[6]
In other references, Averruncus is also known as the god of childbirth.
Averruncus 35
In popular culture
In the manga and anime series Mahou Sensei Negima, the main antagonist is Fate Averruncus.
References
[1] Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 5.12.14: In istis autem diis, quos placari oportet, uti mala a nobis vel a frugibus natis amoliantur, Auruncus
quoque habetur.
[2] As in the note to Aulus Gellius in the Loeb Classical Library edition. (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Gellius/ 5*.
html#note44)
[3] Varro, De lingua latina 7.102.
[4] Robert Turcan, The Gods of Ancient Rome (Routledge, 2001, originally published 1998), p. 41 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=gZ4TKhaLwRsC& pg=PA41& dq=averruncus+ intitle:gods+ inauthor:turcan& hl=en& ei=WMsITZXWH4KUnAedpOl7& sa=X&
oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=1& ved=0CCMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage& q=averruncus intitle:gods inauthor:turcan& f=false)
[5] William Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic (London, 1908), p. 89.
[6] Matthias Klinghardt, “Prayer Formularies for Public Recitation: Their Use and Function in Ancient Religion,” Numen 46 (1999) 1–5; A.A.
Barb, "Antaura. The Mermaid and the Devil's Grandmother: A Lecture," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 29 (1966), p. 4;
Karen Hartnup, On the Beliefs of the Greeks: Leo Allatios and Popular Orthodoxy (Brill, 2004), pp. 97–101 online (http:/ / books. google.
com/ books?id=xnqI8uSeekwC& pg=PA97& dq="The+ names+ of+ the+ gello+ are+ also+ a+ source+ of+ protection"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q&
as_minm_is=1& as_miny_is=2009& as_maxm_is=12& as_maxy_is=2009& as_brr=0& as_pt=ALLTYPES) (in connection with compelling
demons).
Cacus
In Roman mythology, Cacus was a fire-breathing monster and the son of Vulcan. He lived in a cave in the Palatine
Hill in Italy, the future site of Rome. To the horror of nearby inhabitants, Cacus lived on human flesh and would nail
the heads of victims to the doors of his cave. He was eventually overcome by Hercules.
Cacus 36
According to Evander, Heracles stopped to pasture the

cattle he had stolen from Geryon near Cacus' lair. As
Heracles slept, the monster took a liking to the cattle
and slyly stole eight of them - four bulls and four cows
- by dragging them by their tails, so as to leave no trail.
When Heracles awoke and made to leave, the
remaining herd made plaintive noises towards the cave,
and a single cow lowed in reply.
Angered, Heracles stormed towards the cave. A

terrified Cacus blocked the entrance with a vast,
immoveable boulder, forcing Heracles to tear at the top
of the mountain to reach his adversary. Cacus attacked
Heracles by spewing fire and smoke, while Heracles
responded with tree branches and rocks the size of
millstones. Eventually losing patience, Heracles leapt
into the cave, aiming for the area where the smoke was
heaviest. Heracles grabbed Cacus and strangled the
monster, and was lauded throughout the land for his
act. According to Virgil in Book VIII of his Aeneid,
Heracles grasped Cacus so tightly that Cacus' eyes
popped out and there was no blood left in his throat: "et Hercules and Cacus
angit inhaerens elisos oculos et siccum sanguine Palazzo Vecchio, Florence
guttur."
Another version of the myth states that Cacus made the cattle walk backwards so they left no trail. Heracles drove
his remaining cattle past a cave, where Cacus was hiding the stolen ones, and they began calling out to each other.
Alternatively, Caca, Cacus' sister, told Heracles where he was.
In ancient Roman mythology, Cacus ("the evil one") was a fire god. He was later demoted to the giant described
above. According to the Romans, after Hercules killed Cacus, he founded an altar, the Ara Maxima, where later the
Forum Boarium, the cattle market of Rome, was held. Rome erected temples to Hercules in the area, including the
still extant Temple of Hercules Victor. It is believed that a large stone in the nearby church of Santa Maria in
Cosmedin is what is left of the Ara Maxima.
References
• March, J., Cassell's Dictionary Of Classical Mythology, London, 1999. ISBN 0-304-35161-X
• Coarelli, Filippo, Guida Archeologica di Roma, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milano, 1989.
Caelus 37
Caelus
Caelus or Coelus was a primal god of the sky in
Roman myth and theology, iconography, and
literature (compare caelum, the Latin word for
"sky" or "the heavens", hence English "celestial").
According to Cicero and Hyginus, he was the son
of Aether and Dies ("Day" or "Daylight").[1] The
deity's name usually appears in masculine
grammatical form when he is conceived of as a
male generative force, but the neuter form
Caelum is also found as a divine
personification.[2]
The name of Caelus indicates that he was the

Roman counterpart of the Greek god Uranus
(Οὐρανός, Ouranos), who was of major
importance in the theogonies of the Greeks. Varro
couples him with Terra (Earth) as pater and mater
(father and mother), and says that they are "great
deities" (dei magni) in the theology of the
mysteries at Samothrace.[3] Although Caelus is
not known to have had a cult at Rome,[4] not all
scholars consider him a Greek import; he has
been associated with Summanus as "purely
Roman."[5] Vitruvius includes him among Caelus appears at the top of the cuirass of the Augustus of Prima Porta,
celestial gods whose temple-buildings (aedes) counterposed to Earth at the bottom
[6]
should be built open to the sky. Caelus begins
to appear regularly in Augustan art and in connection with the cult of Mithras during the Imperial era.
Caelus and Dies were the parents of Mercury,[7] in what is apparently a departure from the Greek tradition. Caelus
was the father with Hecate of the distinctively Roman god Janus, as well as of Saturn and Ops.[8] Caelus was also the
father of one of the three forms of Jupiter, the other two fathers being Aether and Saturn.[9] As a sky god, he became
identified with Jupiter, as indicated by an inscription that reads Optimus Maximus Caelus Aeternus Iup<pi>ter.[10]
In one tradition, Caelus was the father with Tellus of the Muses, though was this probably a mere translation of
Ouranos from a Greek source.[11]
Caelus substituted for Uranus in Latin versions of the myth of Saturn (Kronos) castrating his heavenly father, from
whose severed genitals, cast upon the sea, the goddess Venus (Aphrodite) was born.[12] In his work On the Nature of
the Gods, Cicero presents a Stoic allegory of the myth in which the castration signifies "that the highest heavenly
aether, that seed-fire which generates all things, did not require the equivalent of human genitals to proceed in its
generative work."[13] For Macrobius, the severing marks off Chaos from fixed and measured Time (Saturn) as
determined by the revolving Heavens (Caelum). The semina rerum ("seeds" of things that exist physically) come
from Caelum and are the elements which create the world.[14]
The divine spatial abstraction Caelum is a synonym for Olympus as a metaphorical heavenly abode of the divine,
both identified with and distinguished from the mountain in ancient Greece named as the home of the gods. Varro
says that the Greeks call Caelum (or Caelus) "Olympus."[15] As a representation of space, Caelum is one of the
components of the mundus, the "world" or cosmos, along with terra (earth), mare (sea), and aer (air).[16] In his work
Caelus 38
on the cosmological systems of antiquity, the Dutch humanist Gerardus Vossius deals extensively with Caelus and
his duality as both a god and a place that the other gods inhabit.[17]
The ante-Nicene Christian writer Lactantius routinely uses the Latin theonyms Caelus, Saturn, and Jupiter to refer to
the three divine hypostases of the Neoplatonic school of Plotinus: the First God (Caelus), Intellect (Saturn), and
Soul, son of the Intelligible (Jupiter).[18]
In art
It is generally though not universally agreed that Caelus is depicted on the cuirass of the Augustus of Prima Porta,[19]
at the very top above the four horses of the Sun god's quadriga. He is a mature, bearded man who holds a cloak over
his head so that it billows in the form of an arch, a conventional sign of deity (velificatio) that "recalls the vault of the
firmament."[20] He is balanced and paired with the personification of Earth at the bottom of the cuirass.[21] (These
two figures have also been identified as Saturn and the Magna Mater, to represent the new Saturnian "Golden Age"
of Augustan ideology.)[22] On an altar of the Lares now held by the Vatican, Caelus in his chariot appears along with
Apollo-Sol above the figure of Augustus.[23]
Nocturnus and the templum

As Caelus Nocturnus, he was the god of the night-time, starry sky. In a passage from Plautus, Nocturnus is regarded
as the opposite of Sol, the Sun god.[24] Nocturnus appears in several inscriptions found in Dalmatia and Italy, in the
company of other deities who are found also in the cosmological schema of Martianus Capella, based on the
Etruscan tradition.[25] In the Etruscan discipline of divination, Caelus Nocturnus was placed in the sunless north
opposite Sol to represent the polar extremities of the axis (see cardo). This alignment was fundamental to the
drawing of a templum (sacred space) for the practice of augury.[26]
Mithraic Caelus
The name Caelus occurs in dedicatory inscriptions in connection to the cult of Mithras. The Mithraic deity Caelus is
sometimes depicted allegorically as an eagle bending over the sphere of heaven marked with symbols of the planets
or the zodiac.[27] In a Mithraic context he is associated with Cautes[28] and can appear as Caelus Aeternus ("Eternal
Sky").[29] A form of Ahura-Mazda is invoked in Latin as Caelus aeternus Iupiter.[30] The walls of some mithrea
feature allegorical depictions of the cosmos with Oceanus and Caelus. The mithraeum of Dieburg represents the
tripartite world with Caelus, Oceanus, and Tellus below Phaeton-Heliodromus.[31]
As the Jewish god

Some Roman writers used Caelus or Caelum[32] as a way to express the monotheistic god of Judaism. Juvenal
identifies the Jewish god with Caelus as the highest heaven (summum caelum), saying that Jews worship the numen
of Caelus;[33] Petronius uses similar language.[34] Florus has a rather odd passage describing the Holy of Holies in
the Temple of Jerusalem as housing a "sky" (caelum) under a golden vine, which has also been taken as an
uncomprehending attempt to grasp the presence of the Jewish god. A golden vine, perhaps the one mentioned, was
sent by the Hasmonean king Aristobulus to Pompeius Magnus after his defeat of Jerusalem, and was later displayed
in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.[35]
Caelus 39
References
[1] Cicero, De natura deorum 3.44, as cited by E.J. Kenney, Apuleius: Cupid and Psyche (Cambridge University Press, 1990, 2001), note to
6.6.4, p. 198; Hyginus, preface. This is not the theogony that Hesiod presents.
[2] Neuter, for instance, at Varro, De lingua latina 5.57, where a masculine form might be expected for the partner of Terra. Neuter also at
Hyginus, Fabula pr. 2 (17) in a series of divine personifications with Terra and Mare (the Sea). The masculine and neuter forms of the name
Caelus and Caelum differ only in the vocative and nominative cases; when a second-declension noun appears in the genitive, dative, or
ablative case, there is no way to distinguish whether the neuter or masculine is meant. When the deity is conceived of as plural, "the Heavens,"
the masculine Caeli is used, and not the neuter Caela, which would create an ambiguity with first-declension nouns of feminine gender.
Divine personifications in Latin are mostly feminine.
[3] Varro, De lingua Latina 5.58.
[4] Pierre Grimal, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology (Blackwell, 1986, 1996, originally published 1951 in French), pp. 83–84.
[5] Marion Lawrence, "The Velletri Sarcophagus," American Journal of Archaeology 69.3 (1965), p. 220.
[6] Other gods for whom this aedes design was appropriate are Jupiter, Sol and Luna. Vitruvius, De architectura 1.2.5; John E. Stambaugh, "The
Functions of Roman Temples," Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.16.1 (1978), p. 561.
[7] Cicero, De natura Deorum 3.56; also Arnobius, Adversus Nationes 4.14.
[8] Ennius, Annales 27 (edition of Vahlen); Varro, as cited by Nonius Marcellus, p. 197M; Cicero, Timaeus XI (http:/ / www. forumromanum.
org/ literature/ cicero_timaeus. html); Arnobius, Adversus Nationes 2.71, 3.29.
[9] Arnobius, Adversus Nationes 4.14.
[10] CIL 6.81.2.
[11] Arnobius, Adversus Nationes 3.37, citing Mnaseas as his source.
[12] Cicero, De nature Deorum; Arnobius, Adversus Nationes 4.24.
[13] Cicero, De natura Deorum 2.64. Isidore of Seville says similarly that Saturn "cut off the genitalia of his father Caelus, because nothing is
born in the heavens from seeds" (Etymologies 9.11.32). Jane Chance, Medieval Mythography: From Roman North Africa to the School of
Chartres, A.D. 433–1177 (University Press of Florida, 1994), pp. 27 and 142.
[14] Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.8.6–9; Chance, Medieval Mythography, p. 72.
[15] Varro, De lingua latina 7.20; likewise Isidore of Seville, Etymologies 14.8.9. The noun Caelum appears in the accusative case, which
obscures any distinction between masculine and neuter. Servius, note to Aeneid 6.268, says that "Olympus" is the name for both the
Macedonian mountain and for caelum. Citations and discussion by Michel Huhm, "Le mundus et le Comitium: Repésentations symboliques
de l'espace de la cité," Histoire urbaine 10 (2004), p. 54.
[16] Servius, note to Aeneid 3.134; Huhm, "Le mundus et le Comitium," p. 53, notes 36 and 37.
[17] Gerardus Vossius, Idolatriae 3.59 online (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=q7w_AAAAcAAJ& pg=PA229& dq=Janus+ Cerus+
Macrobius+ Caelum+ OR+ Caelus& hl=en& ei=byf9TPvUEqiBnAfT4fzHCg& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=4&
ved=0CDcQ6AEwAw#v=onepage& q& f=false) et passim, in Gerardi Joan. Vossii Operum, vol. 5, De idololatria gentili. See also Giovanni
Santinello and Francesco Bottin, Models of the History of Philosophy: From Its Origins in the Renaissance to the "Historia Philosophica"
(Kluwer, 1993), vol. 1, pp. 222–235.
[18] Elizabeth De Palma Digeser, "Religion, Law and the Roman Polity: The Era of the Great Persecution," in Religion and Law in Classical and
Christian Rome (Franz Steiner, 2006), pp. 78–79.
[19] Jane Clark Reeder, "The Statue of Augustus from Prima Porta, the Underground Complex, and the Omen of the Gallina Alba," American
Journal of Philology 118.1 (1997), p. 109; Charles Brian Rose, "The Parthians in Augustan Rome," American Journal of Archaeology 109.1
(2005), p. 27.
[20] Karl Galinsky, Augustan Culture: An Interpretive Introduction (Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 158 and 321.
[21] Reeder, "The Statue of Augustus," p. 109.
[22] Specifically, Juppiter Optimus Maximus Saturnus Augustus: Reeder, "The Statue of Augustus," p. 109 and 111.
[23] Reeder, "The Statue of Augustus," p. 103; Lily Ross Taylor, "The Mother of the Lares," American Journal of Archaeology 29.3 (1925), p.
308.
[24] Plautus, Amphytrion 272.
[25] Including CIL 3.1956 = ILS 4887, 9753, 142432, CIL 5.4287 = ILS 4888, as cited and discussed by Mario Torelli, Studies in the
Romanization of Italy (University of Alberta Press, 1995), pp. 108–109.
[26] Torelli, Studies, p. 110. See also Huhm, "Le mundus et le Comitium," pp. 52–53, on the relation of templum, mundus, and caelum.
[27] Doro Levi, "Aion," Hesperia (1944), p. 302.
[28] M.J. Vermaseren, Mithraica I: The Mithraeum at S. Maria Capua Vetere (Brill, 1971), p. 14; Jaime Alvar, Romanising Oriental Gods:
Myth, Salvation, and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis, and Mithras, translated by Richard Gordon (Brill, 2008), p. 86.
[29] R. Beck in response to I.P. Culianu, "L'«Ascension de l'Âme» dans les mystères et hors des mystères," in La Soteriologia dei culti orientali
nell' impero romano (Brill, 1982), p. 302.
[30] Levi, "Aion," p. 302.
[31] Vermaseren, Mithraica I, p. 14.
[32] The word does not appear in the nominative case in any of the passages, and so its intended gender cannot be distinguished; see above.
Caelus 40
[33] Juvenal, Satires 14.97; Peter Schäfer, Judeophobia: Attitudes toward the Jews in the Ancient World (Harvard University Press, 1997), pp.
41, 79–80.
[34] Petronius, frg. 37.2; Schäfer, Judeophobia, pp. 77–78.
[35] Florus, Epitome 1.40 (3.5.30): "The Jews tried to defend Jerusalem; but he [Pompeius Magnus] entered this city also and saw that grand
Holy of Holies of an impious people exposed, Caelum under a golden vine" (Hierosolymam defendere temptavere Iudaei; verum haec quoque
et intravit et vidit illud grande inpiae gentis arcanum patens, sub aurea vite Caelum). Finbarr Barry Flood, The Great Mosque of Damascus:
Studies on the Makings of an Umayyad Visual Culture (Brill, 2001), pp. 81 and 83 (note 118). The Oxford Latin Dictionary (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1982, 1985 reprinting), p. 252, entry on caelum, cites Juvenal, Petronius, and Florus as examples of Caelus or Caelum "with
reference to Jehovah; also, to some symbolization of Jehovah."
Consus 41
Consus

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
In ancient Roman religion, the god Consus was the protector of grains and (subterranean) storage bins (silos), and as
such was represented by a grain seed.
Consus 42
His altar was placed beneath the ground (or, according to other sources, simply covered with earth, which was swept
off at his festival) near the Circus Maximus in Rome[1] . The altar was unearthed only during the Consualia, his
festival which took place on August 21 (and another one on December 15). Mule or horse races were the main event
of the festival because the mule and the horse were Consus' sacred animals[1] . Horses and mules were crowned with
chaplets of flowers, and forbidden to work.
Consus' name has no certain etymology down to the present time. This name seems to be Etruscan or Sabine in
origin. It seems that Consus' name is really related to the one of Ops as Consivia (or Consiva), itself related to
"crops, seeding" (Latin conserere ("to sow"); see Ops; Opalia and Opiconsivia). According to Varro (L. I. 6:20),
Consualia dicta a Consus ("The Consualia are so named after Consus").
Shortly after his own festivals the ones for Ops, the Opiconsivia or Opalia, were held every August 25 and December
19, these being the periods respectively of the reaping and the seeding of crops.
Consus also became a god associated with secret conferences, perhaps due to a common misinterpretation of his
name. The Latins (Romans) associated Consus' name with consilium ("councils, synagogues, assemblies; place
where councils assemble"). This word should not be confused with "counsel" ("advice"). It in fact expresses the idea
of "sitting together" (consentes), "being together" (con-sum) or perhaps "called together, conclaimed" (con-calare).
The connection of Consus with these secret councils is attested by Servius (En. 8:636): Consus autem deus est
consiliorum ("Consus is however the god of councils").
As such, it seems that Consus was a member of the council of the Di Consentes ("Council of the Gods") formed by
six gods and six goddesses which assembled in order to assist Jupiter in making great decisions such as destroying
Troy or Atlantis with a Flood, etc.. This tradition is due to the Etruscans, but is also widely attested in Greece as
well, for instance, in Homer.
Consus was often called Neptunus Equestris ("Equestrian Neptune"). So, his connection with the Greek Poseidon
(Neptune) can hardly be denied. Poseidon was also associated with horses and horse racing, a connection which is
reminiscent of Atlantis (founded by Poseidon) and its magnificent hippodromes described by Plato in his Critias.
According to tradition, it was in the course of the Consualia and its horse races that the Romans kidnapped the
Sabine women which they married in order to found their own nation[1] .
Sources
[1] Aldington, Richard; Ames, Delano (1968). New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology. Yugoslavia: The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited,
209.
Convector (mythology) 43
Convector (mythology)
Topics in Roman mythology
Important Gods:
• Jupiter • Minerva
• Mars • Mercury
• Quirinus • Vulcan
• Vesta • Ceres
• Juno • Venus
• Fortuna • Lares
Roman Kingdom
Religion in ancient Rome
Flamens
Roman, Greek, and Etruscan mythologies compared
Other Rustic Gods:
• Bona Dea • Flora

• Carmenta • Lupercus
• Camenae • Pales
• Dea Dia • Pomona
• Convector • Egeria
In Roman mythology, the god Convector oversaw the bringing in of the crops from the fields.
Cupid 44
Cupid
In Roman mythology, Cupid (Latin cupido, meaning "desire") is
the god of desire, affection and erotic love. He is the son of
goddess Venus and god Mars.
In popular culture, Cupid is frequently shown shooting his bow to
inspire romantic love, often as an icon of Valentine's Day. He is
now in the current culture the personification of love and courtship
in general.
For the equivalent deity in Greek mythology, see Eros.
Legend
In the Roman version, Cupid was the son of Venus (goddess of
love) and Mars.[1] [2] In the Greek version he was named Eros and
seen as one of the primordial gods (though other myths exist as
well). Cupid was often depicted with wings, a bow, and a quiver of Classical statue of Cupid with his bow
arrows. The following story is almost identical in both cultures;
the most familiar version is found in Lucius Apuleius's Metamorphoses. When Cupid's mother Venus became
jealous of the princess Psyche, who was so beloved by her subjects that they forgot to worship Venus, she ordered
Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with the vilest thing in the world. While Cupid was sneaking into her room to
shoot Psyche with a golden arrow, he accidentally scratches himself with his own arrow and falls deeply in love with
her.
Following that, Cupid visited Psyche every night while she slept. Speaking to her so that she could not see him, he
told her never to try to see him. Psyche, though, incited by her two older sisters who told her Cupid was a monster,
tried to look at him and angered Cupid. When he left, she looked all over the known world for him until at last the
leader of the gods, Jupiter, gave Psyche the gift of immortality so that she could be with him. Together they had a
daughter, Voluptas, or Hedone, (meaning pleasure) and Psyche became a goddess. Her name "Psyche" means "soul."
Cupid 45
Portrayal
In painting and sculpture, Cupid is often portrayed as a nude (or
sometimes diapered) winged boy or baby (a putto) armed with a
bow and a quiver of arrows.
The Hindu Kāma also has a very similar description. On gems and
other surviving pieces, he is usually shown amusing himself with
childhood play, sometimes driving a hoop, throwing darts,
catching a butterfly, or flirting with a nymph. He is often depicted
with his mother (in graphic arts, this is nearly always Venus),
playing a horn. In other images, his mother is depicted scolding or
even spanking him due to his mischievous nature. He is also
shown wearing a helmet and carrying a buckler, perhaps in
reference to Virgil's Omnia vincit amor or as political satire on
wars for love or love as war.
Cupid figures prominently in ariel poetry, lyrics and, of course,

elegiac love and metamorphic poetry. In epic poetry, he is less
often invoked, but he does appear in Virgil's Aeneid changed into
the shape of Ascanius inspiring Dido's love. In later literature, Caravaggio's Amor Vincit Omnia
Cupid is frequently invoked as fickle, playful, and perverse. He is
often depicted as carrying two sets of arrows: one set gold-headed, which inspire love; and the other lead-headed,
which inspire hatred.
The best-known story involving Cupid is the tale of Cupid and Psyche.
Notes
[1] Cotterell, Arthur. Cupid: A Dictionary of World Mythology (http:/ / www. oxfordreference. com/ views/ ENTRY. html?subview=Main&
entry=t73. e198) Oxford University Press, 1997. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Accessed 26 April 2010
[2] John Lemprière, A classical dictionary; containing a copious account of all the proper names mentioned in ancient authors:: with the value
of coins, weights, and measures, used among the Greeks and Romans; and a chronological table (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=s6cTAAAAYAAJ& pg=PA225& dq=cupid+ father+ mother+ venus& lr=& as_brr=1& cd=4#v=onepage& q=cupid father mother
venus& f=false) (1820)
References
• Cotterell, Arthur & Storm, Rachel (2008). The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology. Annes Publishing Ltd..
• Arthur Cotterell & Rachel Storm, The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology, 2008 Annes Publishing Ltd.
• Fabio Silva Vallejo, Mitos y leyendas del mundo (Spanish), 2004 Panamericana Editorial.
Dei Lucrii 46
Dei Lucrii
Important Gods:
Jupiter Minerva
Mars Mercury
Quirinus Vulcan
Vesta Ceres
Juno Venus
Fortuna Lares
Topics
Roman Kingdom
Flamens
Other gods of craft and trade:
Penates Lemures
Dei Lucrii Eventus Bonus
Furrina Portunes
In early Roman mythology, the Dei Lucrii were early gods of wealth, profit, commerce and trade. They were later
subsumed by Mercury.
Dionysus 47
Dionysus
Dionysus
[1]
2nd century Roman statue of Dionysus, after a Hellenistic model (ex-coll. Cardinal Richelieu, Louvre)
God of Wine, Theatre, and Ecstasy
Abode Mount Olympus
Symbol Thyrsus, grapevine, leopard skin, panther, tiger, leopard
Consort Ariadne
Parents Zeus and Semele
Roman equivalent Bacchus, Liber
Dionysus (pronounced /ˌdaɪəˈnaɪsəs/ dye-ə-NYE-səs; Greek: Διόνυσος, Dionysos) was the god of the grape harvest,
winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c.
1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan
Crete.[2] His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as
Thracian, others as Greek.[3] [4] [5] In some cults, he arrives from the east, as an Asiatic foreigner; and in others, from
Ethiopia in the South. He is a god of epiphany, "the god that comes", and his "foreignness" as an arriving
outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his cults. He is a major, popular figure of Greek mythology and
religion, and is included in some lists of the twelve Olympians. His festivals were the driving force behind the
development of Greek theater.
The earliest cult images of Dionysus show a mature male, bearded and robed. He holds a fennel staff, tipped with a
pine-cone and known as a thyrsus. Later images show him as a beardless, sensuous, naked or half-naked youth: the
literature describes him as womanly or "man-womanish".[6] In its fully developed form, his central cult imagery
shows his triumphant, disorderly arrival or return, as if from some place beyond the borders of the known and
civilized. His procession (thiasus) is made up of wild female followers (maenads) and ithyphallic, bearded satyrs.
Some are armed with the thyrsus, some dance or play music. The god himself is drawn in a chariot, usually by exotic
beasts such as lions or tigers, and is sometimes attended by a bearded, drunken Silenus. This procession is presumed
to be the cult model for the human followers of his Dionysian Mysteries. In his Thracian mysteries, he wears the
bassaris or fox-skin, symbolizing a new life. Dionysus is represented by city religions as the protector of those who
do not belong to conventional society and thus symbolizes everything which is chaotic, dangerous and unexpected,
everything which escapes human reason and which can only be attributed to the unforeseeable action of the gods.[7]
He was also known as Bacchus (pronounced /ˈbækəs/ or English pronunciation: /ˈbɑːkəs/; Greek: Βάκχος, Bakkhos), the
name adopted by the Romans[8] and the frenzy he induces, bakkheia. His thyrsus is sometimes wound with ivy and
dripping with honey. It is a beneficent wand but also a weapon, and can be used to destroy those who oppose his cult
and the freedoms he represents. He is also the Liberator (Eleutherios), whose wine, music and ecstatic dance frees
his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subverts the oppressive restraints of the powerful. Those who
Dionysus 48
partake in his mysteries are possessed and empowered by the god himself.[9] His cult is also a "cult of the souls"; his
maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the
dead.[10]
In Greek mythology, he is presented as a son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, thus semi-divine or heroic: and as son
of Zeus and Persephone or Demeter, thus both fully divine, part-chthonic and possibly identical with Iacchus of the
Eleusinian Mysteries. Some scholars believe that Dionysus is a syncretism of a local Greek nature deity and a more
powerful god from Thrace or Phrygia such as Sabazios[11] or Zalmoxis.[12]
Names
Etymology
The name Dionysos is of uncertain significance. The dio- element has
been associated since antiquity with Zeus (genitive Dios): the -nysos
element is cited as of unknown, possibly non-Greek origin. In
Dionysiac tradition, the place of the god's childhood and education is
called Nysa. Nisah is an epithet of Shiva, and means supreme. Nisam is
Dionysian procession on a marble sarcophagus,
bliss, nisâ, joy. Nysa, the Happy mountain, is the equivalent of Kailâsa,
[13] possibly indicating that the deceased was an
the Earthly Paradise. The earliest attested form of the name is initiate into Dionysian mysteries
Mycenaean Greek di-wo-nu-so, written in Linear B syllabic script,
presumably for /Diwo(h)nūsos/, found on two tablets at Mycenaean Pylos and dated to the 12th or 13th century
BC.[14] [15] Later variants include Boetian Dionūsos and Diōnūsos, and Ionic and Aeolian Deonūsos and Deunūsos.
The Thessalian variant Dien(n)ūsos may be the most archaic form: the Dio- prefix is found in other names, such as
that of the Dioscures, and may derive from Dios, the genitive of the name of Zeus.[16]
Janda (2010, following Peters 1989) sees the verbal stem of diemai "to chase, hurry, impel". The second element
-nūsos is associated with Mount Nysa, the birthplace of the god in Greek mythology, where he was nursed by
nymphs (the Nysiads),[17] but according to the testimony of Pherecydes of Syros, nũsa was an archaic word for
"tree".[18] The cult of Dionysus was closely associated with trees, specifically the fig tree, and some of his bynames
exhibit this, such as Endendros "he in the tree" or Dendritēs, "he of the tree". Peters suggests the original meaning as
"he who runs among the trees", or that of a "runner in the woods". Janda (2010) accepts the etymology but proposes
the more cosmological interpretation of "he who impels the (world-)tree." This interpretation explains how Nysa
could have been re-interpreted from a meaning of "tree" to the name of a mountain: the axis mundi of Indo-European
mythology is represented both as a world-tree and as a world-mountain.[19]
Epithets
Acratophorus, ("giver of unmixed wine), at Phigaleia in Arcadia.[20]
Acroreites at Sicyon..[21]
Adoneus ("ruler") in his Latinised, Bacchic cult.[22]
Aegobolus ("goat killer") at Potniae, in Boeotia.[23]
Aesymnetes ("ruler" or "lord") at Aroë and Patrae in Achaea.
Agrios ("wild"), in Macedonia.
Bromios ("the thunderer" or "he of the loud shout").
Dendrites ("he of the trees"), as a fertility god.
Dithyrambos, form of address used at his festivals, referring to his premature birth.
Dionysus 49
Eleutherios ("the liberator"), an epithet for both Dionysus and Eros.

Endendros "he in the tree"[24]
Enorches ("with balls",[25] with reference to his fertility, or "in the testicles" in reference to Zeus' sewing the baby
Dionysus into his thigh, i.e., his testicles).[26] Used in Samos and Lesbos.
Erikryptos ("completely hidden"), in Macedonia.
Evius, in Euripides' play, The Bacchae.
Iacchus, possibly an epithet of Dionysus and associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries; in Eleusis, he is known as a
son of Zeus and Demeter. The name "Iacchus" may come from the Ιακχος (Iakchos), a hymn sung in honor of
Dionysus.
Liknites ("he of the winnowing fan"), as a fertility god connected with the mystery religions. A winnowing fan was
used to separate the chaff from the grain.
Lyaeus ("he who unties") or releases from care and anxiety.
Melanaigis ("of the black goatskin") at the Apaturia festival.
Oeneus, as god of the wine press.
Pseudanor ("false man"), in Macedonia.
In the Greek pantheon, Dionysus (along with Zeus) absorbs the role of Sabazios, a Thracian/Phrygian deity. In the
Roman pantheon, Sabazius became an alternate name for Bacchus.[27]
Symbolism
The bull, the serpent, the ivy and the wine are the signs of the characteristic Dionysian atmosphere, and Dionysus is
strongly associated with satyrs, centaurs, and sileni. He is often shown riding a leopard, wearing a leopard skin, or in
a chariot drawn by panthers, and may also be recognized by the thyrsus he carries. Besides the grapevine and its wild
barren alter-ego, the toxic ivy plant, both sacred to him, the fig was also his symbol. The pinecone that tipped his
thyrsus linked him to Cybele. The Dionysia and Lenaia festivals in Athens were dedicated to Dionysus. Initiates
worshipped him in the Dionysian Mysteries, which were comparable to and linked with the Orphic Mysteries, and
may have influenced Gnosticism. Orpheus was said to have invented the Mysteries of Dionysus.[28]
Dionysus was another god of resurrection who was strongly linked to the bull. In a cult hymn from Olympia, at a
festival for Hera, Dionysus is invited to come as a bull; "with bull-foot raging." Walter Burkert relates, "Quite
frequently [Dionysus] is portrayed with bull horns, and in Kyzikos he has a tauromorphic image," and refers also to
an archaic myth in which Dionysus is slaughtered as a bull calf and impiously eaten by the Titans.[29] (In the
Classical period of Greece, the bull and other animals identified with deities were separated from them as their
agalma, a kind of heraldic show-piece that concretely signified their numinous presence).[29]
Dionysus 50
Bacchanalia
Introduced into Rome (c. 200 BC) from the Greek culture of southern
Italy or by way of Greek-influenced Etruria, the bacchanalia were held
in secret and attended by women only, in the grove of Simila, near the
Aventine Hill, on March 16 and 17. Subsequently, admission to the
rites was extended to men and celebrations took place five times a
month. The mystery-cult may have been seen as a threat to the political
status quo. The notoriety of these festivals, where many kinds of
crimes and political conspiracies were supposed to be planned, led to a
decree by the Senate in 186 BC — the so-called Senatus consultum de
Bacchanalibus, inscribed on a bronze tablet discovered in Calabria
(1640), now in Vienna — by which the Bacchanalia were prohibited
throughout all Italy except in special cases that required specific
approval by the Senate. In spite of the severe punishment inflicted on
Bacchus by Caravaggio those found in violation of this decree, the Bacchanalia were not
stamped out, at any rate in the south of Italy, for a very long time.
Dionysus is equated with both Bacchus and Liber (also Liber Pater). Liber ("the free one") was a god of male
fertility, wine, and growth, whose female counterpart was Libera. His festival was the Liberalia, celebrated on March
17, but in some myths the festival was also held on March 5.
Mythology
Birth
Dionysus had a strange birth that evokes the difficulty in fitting him
into the Olympian pantheon. His mother was a mortal woman, Semele,
the daughter of king Cadmus of Thebes, and his father was Zeus, the
king of the gods. Zeus' wife, Hera, discovered the affair while Semele
was pregnant. Appearing as an old crone (in other stories a nurse),
Hera befriended Semele, who confided in her that Zeus was the actual
father of the baby in her womb. Hera pretended not to believe her, and
planted seeds of doubt in Semele's mind. Curious, Semele demanded of
Zeus that he reveal himself in all his glory as proof of his godhood.
The top course of this Roman sarcophagus shows
Though Zeus begged her not to ask this, she persisted and he agreed.
Dionysus's birth. In the top center, the baby god
comes out of Zeus's thigh. Therefore he came to her wreathed in bolts of lightning; mortals,
however, could not look upon an undisguised god without dying, and
she perished in the ensuing blaze. Zeus rescued the fetal Dionysus by sewing him into his thigh. A few months later,
Dionysus was born on Mount Pramnos in the island of Ikaria, where Zeus went to release the now-fully-grown baby
from his thigh. In this version, Dionysus is born by two "mothers" (Semele and Zeus) before his birth, hence the
epithet dimētōr (of two mothers) associated with his being "twice-born".
In the Cretan version of the same story, which Diodorus Siculus follows,[30] Dionysus was the son of Zeus and
Persephone, the queen of the Greek underworld. Diodorus' sources equivocally identified the mother as Demeter.[31]
A jealous Hera again attempted to kill the child, this time by sending Titans to rip Dionysus to pieces after luring the
baby with toys. It is said that he was mocked by the Titans who gave him a thyrsus (a fennel stalk) in place of his
rightful sceptre.[32] Zeus turned the Titans into dust with his thunderbolts, but only after the Titans ate everything but
the heart, which was saved, variously, by Athena, Rhea, or Demeter. Zeus used the heart to recreate him in his thigh,
Dionysus 51
hence he was again "the twice-born". Other versions claim that Zeus recreated him in the womb of Semele, or gave
Semele the heart to eat to impregnate her.
The rebirth in both versions of the story is the primary reason why Dionysus was worshipped in mystery religions, as
his death and rebirth were events of mystical reverence. This narrative was apparently used in several Greek and
Roman cults, and variants of it are found in Callimachus and Nonnus, who refer to this Dionysus with the title
Zagreus, and also in several fragmentary poems attributed to Orpheus.
The myth of the dismemberment of Dionysus by the titans, is alluded to by Plato in his Phaedo (69d) in which
Socrates claims that the initiations of the Dionysian Mysteries are similar to those of the philosophic path. Late
Neo-Platonists such as Damascius explore the implications of this at length.[33]
Infancy at Mount Nysa

According to the myth Zeus gave the infant Dionysus into the charge of Hermes. One version of the story is that
Hermes took the boy to King Athamas and his wife Ino, Dionysus' aunt. Hermes bade the couple raise the boy as a
girl, to hide him from Hera's wrath.[34] Another version is that Dionysus was taken to the rain-nymphs of Nysa, who
nourished his infancy and childhood, and for their care Zeus rewarded them by placing them as the Hyades among
the stars (see Hyades star cluster). Other versions have Zeus giving him to Rhea, or to Persephone to raise in the
Underworld, away from Hera. Alternatively, he was raised by Maro.
Dionysus in Greek mythology is a god of foreign origin, and while Mount Nysa is a mythological location, it is
invariably set far away to the east or to the south. The Homeric hymn to Dionysus places it "far from Phoenicia, near
to the Egyptian stream". Others placed it in Anatolia, or in Libya ('away in the west beside a great ocean'), in
Ethiopia (Herodotus), or Arabia (Diodorus Siculus).
According to Herodotus:
As it is, the Greek story has it that no sooner was Dionysus born than Zeus sewed him up in his thigh and
carried him away to Nysa in Ethiopia beyond Egypt; and as for Pan, the Greeks do not know what became of
him after his birth. It is therefore plain to me that the Greeks learned the names of these two gods later than the
names of all the others, and trace the birth of both to the time when they gained the knowledge.
—Herodotus, Histories 2.146
Apollodorus seems to be following Pherecydes, who relates how the infant Dionysus, god of the grapevine, was
nursed by the rain-nymphs, the Hyades at Nysa.
Childhood
When Dionysus grew up, he discovered the culture of the vine and the
mode of extracting its precious juice; but Hera struck him with
madness, and drove him forth a wanderer through various parts of the
earth. In Phrygia the goddess Cybele, better known to the Greeks as
Rhea, cured him and taught him her religious rites, and he set out on a
progress through Asia teaching the people the cultivation of the vine.
The most famous part of his wanderings is his expedition to India,
North African Roman mosaic: Panther-Dionysus which is said to have lasted several years. Returning in triumph he
scatters the pirates, who are changed to dolphins, undertook to introduce his worship into Greece, but was opposed by
except for Acoetes, the helmsman. (Bardo some princes who dreaded its introduction on account of the disorders
National Museum)
and madness it brought with it (e.g. Pentheus or Lycurgus).
Dionysus was exceptionally attractive. One of the Homeric hymns recounts how, while disguised as a mortal sitting
beside the seashore, a few sailors spotted him, believing he was a prince. They attempted to kidnap him and sail him
Dionysus 52
far away to sell for ransom or into slavery. They tried to bind him with ropes, but no type of rope could hold him.
Dionysus turned into a fierce lion and unleashed a bear onboard, killing those he came into contact with. Those who
jumped off the ship were mercifully turned into dolphins. The only survivor was the helmsman, Acoetes, who
recognized the god and tried to stop his sailors from the start.[35] In a similar story, Dionysus desired to sail from
Icaria to Naxos. He then hired a Tyrrhenian pirate ship. But when the god was on board, they sailed not to Naxos but
to Asia, intending to sell him as a slave. So Dionysus turned the mast and oars into snakes, and filled the vessel with
ivy and the sound of flutes so that the sailors went mad and, leaping into the sea, were turned into dolphins.
Other stories
Midas
Once, Dionysus found his old school master and foster father, Silenus, missing.
The old man had been drinking, and had wandered away drunk, and was found
by some peasants, who carried him to their king, (alternatively, he passed out in
Midas' rose garden). Midas recognized him, and treated him hospitably,
entertaining him for ten days and nights with politeness, while Silenus
entertained Midas and his friends with stories and songs. On the eleventh day, he
brought Silenus back to Dionysus. Dionysus offered Midas his choice of
whatever reward he wanted. Midas asked that whatever he might touch should be
changed into gold. Dionysus consented, though was sorry that he had not made a
better choice. Midas rejoiced in his new power, which he hastened to put to the
test. He touched and turned to gold an oak twig and a stone. Overjoyed, as soon
Hermes and the Infant Dionysus by as he got home, he ordered the servants to set a feast on the table. Then he found
Praxiteles, (Archaeological Museum
that his bread, meat, daughter and wine turned to gold.
of Olympia)
Upset, Midas strove to divest himself of his power (the Midas Touch); he hated
the gift he had coveted. He prayed to Dionysus, begging to be delivered from starvation. Dionysus heard and
consented; he told Midas to wash in the river Pactolus. He did so, and when he touched the waters the power passed
into them, and the river sands changed into gold. This was an etiological myth that explained why the sands of the
Pactolus were rich in gold.
Pentheus
Euripides composed a tragedy about the destructive nature of Dionysus in The

Bacchae. Since Euripides wrote this play while in the court of King Archelaus of
Macedon, some scholars believe that the cult of Dionysus was malicious in
Macedon but benign in Athens.
In the play, Dionysus returns to his birthplace, Thebes, which is ruled by his
cousin Pentheus. Dionysus wants to exact revenge on Pentheus and the women
of Thebes (his aunts Agave, Ino and Autonoe) for not believing his mother
Semele's claims of being impregnated by Zeus, and for denying Dionysus's
divinity (and therefore not worshiping him). Kylix (6th century BC) depicting
Dionysus among the sailors
Dionysus slowly drives Pentheus mad, lures him to the woods of Mount transformed to dolphins after
Cithaeron, and then convinces him to spy/peek on the Maenads (female attempting to kidnap him
worshippers of Dionysus, who often experienced divine ecstasy). The Maenads
are in an insane frenzy when Pentheus sees them (earlier in the play they had ripped apart a herd of cattle), and they
catch him but mistake him for a wild animal. Pentheus is torn to shreds, and his mother (Agave, one of the
Dionysus 53
Maenads), not recognizing her own son because of her madness, brutally tears his limbs off as he begs for his life.
Because of their acts the women are banished from Thebes, ensuring Dionysus's revenge.
Lycurgus
When King Lycurgus of Thrace heard that Dionysus was in his kingdom, he imprisoned all the followers of
Dionysus; the god fled, taking refuge with Thetis, and sent a drought which stirred the people into revolt. Dionysus
then made King Lycurgus insane, having him slice his own son into pieces with an axe, thinking he was a patch of
ivy, a plant holy to Dionysus. An oracle then claimed that the land would stay dry and barren as long as Lycurgus
was alive, so his people had him drawn and quartered; with Lycurgus dead, Dionysus lifted the curse. This story was
told in Homer's epic, Iliad 6.136-7. In an alternative version, sometimes shown in art, Lycurgus tried to kill
Ambrosia, a follower of Dionysus, who was transformed into a vine that twined around the enraged king and
restrained him, eventually killing him.[36]
Prosymnus
A better-known story is that of his descent to Hades to rescue his mother Semele, whom he placed among the
stars.[37] He made the ascent from a reputedly bottomless pool on the coast of the Argolid near the prehistoric site of
Lerna. He was guided by Prosymnus or Polymnus, who requested, as his reward, to be Dionysus' lover. Prosymnus
died before Dionysus could honor his pledge, so in order to satisfy Prosymnus' shade, Dionysus fashioned a phallus
from an olive branch and sat on it at Prosymnus' tomb.[38] This story is told in full only in Christian sources whose
aim was to discredit pagan mythology. It appears to have served as an explanation of the secret objects that were
revealed in the Dionysian Mysteries.[39]
Ampelos
Another myth according to Nonnus involves Ampelos, a satyr. Foreseen by Dionysus, the youth was killed in an
accident riding a bull maddened by the sting of an Ate's gadfly. The Fates granted Ampelos a second life as a vine,
from which Dionysus squeezed the first wine.[40]
Chiron
Young Dionysus was also said to have been one of the many famous pupils of the centaur Chiron. According to
Ptolemy Chennus in the Library of Photius, "Dionysius was loved by Chiron, from whom he learned chants and
dances, the bacchic rites and initiations."[41]
Secondary myths
When Hephaestus bound Hera to a magical chair, Dionysus got him

drunk and brought her back to Olympus after he passed out.
A third descent by Dionysus to Hades is invented by Aristophanes in
his comedy The Frogs. Dionysus, as patron of the Athenian dramatic
festival, the Dionysia, wants to bring back to life one of the great
tragedians. After a competition Aeschylus is chosen in preference to
Euripides.
When Theseus abandoned Ariadne sleeping on Naxos, Dionysus found
and married her. She bore him a son named Oenopion, but he
committed suicide or was killed by Perseus. In some variants, he had
Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian, at the National
her crown put into the heavens as the constellation Corona; in others,
Gallery in London
he descended into Hades to restore her to the gods on Olympus.
Dionysus 54
Callirrhoe was a Calydonian woman who scorned a priest of Dionysus who threatened to afflict all the women of
Calydon with insanity (see Maenad). The priest was ordered to sacrifice Callirhoe but he killed himself instead.
Callirhoe threw herself into a well which was later named after her.
Acis, a Sicilian youth, was sometimes said to be Dionysus' son.
Consorts/Children
1. Aphrodite
1. Charites (Graces)
1. Pasithea
2. Euphrosyne
3. Thalia
2. Priapus
2. Ariadne
1. Oenopion
2. Staphylus
3. Peparethus
3. Nyx
1. Phthonus
4. Althaea
1. Deianeira
5. Circe
1. Comus
Parallels with Christianity

The earliest discussions of mythological parallels between Dionysus and the figure of the Christ in Christian
theology can be traced to Friedrich Hölderlin, whose identification of Dionysus with Christ is most explicit in Brod
und Wein (1800–1801) and Der Einzige (1801–1803).[42] Modern scholars such as Martin Hengel, Barry Powell,
and Peter Wick, among others, argue that Dionysian religion and Christianity have notable parallels.
They point to the symbolism of wine and the importance it held in the mythology surrounding both Dionysus and
Jesus Christ;[43] [44] though, Wick argues that the use of wine symbolism in the Gospel of John, including the story
of the Marriage at Cana at which Jesus turns water into wine, was intended to show Jesus as superior to Dionysus.[45]
Additionally, some scholars of comparative mythology argue that both Dionysus and Jesus represent the
"dying-and-returning god" mythological archetype.[29] Other elements, such as the celebration by a ritual meal of
bread and wine, also have parallels.[46] Powell, in particular, argues precursors to the Christian notion of
transubstantiation can be found in Dionysian religion.[46]
Another parallel can be seen in The Bacchae wherein Dionysus appears before King Pentheus on charges of claiming
divinity is compared to the New Testament scene of Jesus being interrogated by Pontius Pilate.[45] [46] [47]
E. Kessler in a symposium Pagan Monotheism in the Roman Empire, Exeter, 17–20 July 2006, argues that
Dionysian cult had developed into strict monotheism by the 4th century CE; together with Mithraism and other sects
the cult formed an instance of "pagan monotheism" in direct competition with Early Christianity during Late
Antiquity.[48]
Dionysus 55
In art
Classical
The god appeared on many kraters and other wine vessels from
classical Greece. His iconography became more complex in the
Hellenistic period, between severe archaising or Neo Attic types
such as the Dionysus Sardanapalus and types showing him as an
indolent and androgynous young man and often shown nude (see
the Dionysus and Eros, Naples Archeological Museum). The 4th
century Lycurgus Cup in the British Museum is a spectacular cage
cup which changes colour when light comes through the glass; it
shows the bound King Lycurgus (Thrace) being taunted by the god
and attacked by a satyr.
Elizabeth Kessler has theorized that a mosaic appearing on the

triclinium floor of the House of Aion in Nea Paphos, Cyprus,
details a monotheistic worship of Dionysus.[49] In the mosaic,
other gods appear but may only be lesser representations of the
centrally-imposed Dionysus.
Modern views
Dionysus has remained an inspiration to artists, philosophers and
writers into the modern era. In The Birth of Tragedy (1872), the
"Bacchus" by Michelangelo (1497)
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche contrasted Dionysus with
the god Apollo as a symbol of the fundamental, unrestrained
aesthetic principle of force, music, and intoxication versus the principle of sight, form, and beauty represented by the
latter. Nietzsche also claimed that the oldest forms of Greek Tragedy were entirely based on suffering of Dionysus.
Nietzsche continued to contemplate the character of Dionysus, which he revisited in the final pages of his 1886 work
Beyond Good and Evil. This reconceived Nietzschean Dionysus was invoked as an embodiment of the central will to
power concept in Nietzsche's later works The Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist and Ecce Homo.
The Russian poet and philosopher Vyacheslav Ivanov elaborated the theory of Dionysianism, which traces the roots
of literary art in general and the art of tragedy in particular to ancient Dionysian mysteries. His views were expressed
in the treatises The Hellenic Religion of the Suffering God (1904), and Dionysus and Early Dionysianism (1921).
Inspired by James Frazer, some have labeled Dionysus a life-death-rebirth deity. The mythographer Karl Kerenyi
devoted much energy to Dionysus over his long career; he summed up his thoughts in Dionysos: Archetypal Image
of Indestructible Life (Bollingen, Princeton) 1976.
Dionysus is the main character of Aristophanes' play The Frogs, later updated to a modern version by Burt
Shevelove (libretto) and Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) ("The time is the present. The place is ancient Greece.
... "). In the play, Dionysus and his slave Xanthius venture to Hades to bring a famed writer back from the dead, with
the hopes that the writer's presence in the world will fix all nature of earthly problems. In Aristophanes' play,
Euripides competes against Aeschylus to be recovered from the underworld; In Sondheim and Shevelove's, George
Bernard Shaw faces William Shakespeare.
The Romanised equivalent of Dionysus was referenced in the 1852 plantation literature novel Aunt Phillis's Cabin is
alive, which featured a character named Uncle Bacchus, who was so-named due to his excessive alcoholism.
Dionysus 56
Both Eddie Campbell and Grant Morrison have utilised the character. Morrison claims that the myth of Dionysus
provides the inspiration for his violent and explicit graphic novel Kill Your Boyfriend, whilst Campbell used the
character in his Deadface series to explore both the conventions of super-hero comic books and artistic endeavour.
Walt Disney has depicted the character on a number of occasions. The first such portrayal of Dionysus, as the
Roman Bacchus, was in the "Pastoral" segment of Walt Disney's 3rd classic Fantasia. In keeping with the more
fun-loving Roman god, he is portrayed as an overweight, happily drunk man wearing a tunic and cloak, grape leaves
on his head, carrying a goblet of wine, and riding a drunken donkey named Jacchus ("jackass"). He is friends with
the fauns and centaurs, and is shown celebrating a harvest festival. Other portrayals have appeared in both the
Disney movie and spin-off TV series of Hercules. He was depicted as an overweight drunkard as opposed to his
youthful descriptions in myths. He has bright pink skin and rosy red cheeks hinting at his drunkenness. He always
carries either a bottle or glass of wine in his hand, and like in the myths, wears a wreath of grape leaves upon his
head. He is known by his Roman name in the series 'Bacchus', and in one episode headlines his own festival known
as the 'Bacchanal'.
In music Dionysius (together with Demeter) was used as an archetype for the character Tori by contemporary artist
Tori Amos in her 2007 album American Doll Posse, and the Canadian rock band Rush refer to a confrontation and
hatred between Dionysus and Apollo in the Cygnus X-1 duology.
In literature, Dionysius has proven equally inspiring. Rick Riordan's series of books Percy Jackson & The Olympians
presents Dionysus as an uncaring, childish and spoilt god who as a punishment has to work in Camp Half-Blood. In
Fred Saberhagen's 2001 novel, God of the Golden Fleece, a young man in a post-apocalyptic world picks up an
ancient piece of technology shaped in the likeness of the Dionysus. Here, Dionysus is depicted as a relatively weak
god, albeit a subversive one whose powers are able to undermine the authority of tyrants.
A version of Bacchus also appears in C.S. Lewis' Prince Caspian, part of the Chronicles of Narnia. Lewis depicts
him as dangerous-looking, androgynous young boy who helps Aslan awaken the spirits of the Narnian trees and
rivers. He does not appear in the 2008 film version.
In 2009 the poet Stephen Howarth and veteran theatre producer Andrew Hobbs collaborated on a play entitled
Bacchus in Rehab with Dionysus as the central character. The authors describe the piece as "combining highbrow
concept and lowbrow humour".[50]
The second season of True Blood involves a plot line wherein a maenad, Maryann, causes mayhem in the Louisiana
town of Bon Temps in attempt to summon Dionysus.
Names originating from Dionysus

• Dion (also spelled Deion and Dionne)
• Denise (also spelled Denice, Daniesa, Denese, and Denisse)
• Dennis, Denis or Denys (including the derivative surnames Denison and Dennison), Denny
• Denis, Dionis, Dionisie (Romanian)
• Dénes (Hungarian)
• Dionisio/Dyonisio (Spanish), Dionigi (Italian)
• Διονύσιος, Διονύσης, Νιόνιος (Dionysios, Dionysis, Nionios Modern Greek)
• Deniska (diminutive of Russian Denis, itself a derivative of the Greek)
• Dionísio (Portuguese)
Dionysus 57
Gallery
The Ludovisi Dionysos riding a leopard, 4th Statue of Dionysus Dionysus extending a
Dionysus with century BC mosaic from Pella (Sardanapalus) (Museo drinking cup (kantharos),
panther, satyr and Palazzo Massimo Alle late 6th century BC
grapes on a vine Terme, Rome)
(Palazzo Altemps,
Rome)
Drinking Bacchus (1623) Guido

Reni
Notes
[1] Another variant, from the Spanish royal colledtion, is at the Museo del Prado, Madrid: illustration.
[2] Kerenyi 1976.
[3] Thomas McEvilley, The Shape of Ancient Thought, Allsworth press, 2002, pp.118-121. googlebooks preview (http:/ / books. google. co. za/
books?id=vTfm8KHn900C& lpg=PA118& dq=dionysus thracian& pg=PA118#v=onepage& q& f=false)
[4] Reginald Pepys Winnington-Ingram, Sophocles: an interpretation, Cambridge University Press, 1980, p.109 googlebooks preview (http:/ /
books. google. co. za/ books?id=OPo8nVmC9LQC& pg=PA109& dq=dionysus+ thracian& hl=en& ei=J8P_TMXlFcO-4ganoZ3OCA&
sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=4& ved=0CDMQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage& q=thrace& f=false)
[5] Zofia H. Archibald, in Gocha R. Tsetskhladze (Ed.) Ancient Greeks west and east, Brill, 1999, p.429 ff. googlebooks preview (http:/ / books.
google. co. za/ books?id=ctsUcNshh68C& lpg=PA432& dq=dionysus thracian& pg=PA432#v=onepage& q& f=false)
[6] Otto, Walter F. (1995). Dionysus Myth and Cult. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253208912.
[7] Gods of Love and Ecstasy, Alain Danielou p.15
[8] In Greek "both votary and god are called Bacchus." Burkert, Greek Religion 1985:162. For the initiate as Bacchus, see Euripides, Bacchantes
491. For the god, who alone is Dionysus, see Sophocles Oedipus the King 211 and Euripides Hippolytus 560.
[9] Sutton, p.2, mentions Dionysus as The Liberator in relation to the city Dionysia festivals. In Euripides, Bacchae 379-385: "He holds this
office, to join in dances, [380] to laugh with the flute, and to bring an end to cares, whenever the delight of the grape comes at the feasts of the
gods, and in ivy-bearing banquets the goblet sheds sleep over men." (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?lookup=Eur. + Ba. + 370)
[10] Xavier Riu, Dionysism and Comedy, Rowman and Littlefield, 1999, p.105 ff. googlebooks preview (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/
books?id=wob1UszzkZwC& lpg=PR7& ots=k4W8gIVT_T& dq=riu, xavier, dionysism and comedy, chapter 4, happiness& lr=lang_en&
pg=PA105#v=onepage& q=dead presides living& f=false)
[11] Dictionary of Ancient Deities by Patricia Turner and the late Charles Russell Coulter, 2001, p.152.
Dionysus 58
[12] Dictionary of Ancient Deities by Patricia Turner and the late Charles Russell Coulter, 2001, p.520.
[13] Gods of Love and Ecstasy, Alain Danielou p.135
[14] John Chadwick, The Mycenaean World, Cambridge University Press, 1976, 99ff: "But Dionysos surprisingly appears twice at Pylos, in the
form Diwonusos, both times irritatingly enough on fragments, so that we have no means of verifying his divinity."
[15] Palaeolexicon (http:/ / www. palaeolexicon. com/ default. aspx?static=12& wid=346747), Word study tool of ancient languages
[16] This is recognized by Garcia Ramon (1987) and Peters (1989) and is summarised and endorsed in Janda (2010:20).
[17] Fox, p. 217, "The word Dionysos is divisible into two parts, the first originally Διος (cf. Ζευς), while the second is of an unknown
signification, although perhaps connected with the name of the Mount Nysa which figures in the story of Lykourgos: (...) when Dionysos had
been reborn from the thigh of Zeus, Hermes entrusted him to the nymphs of Mount Nysa, who fed him on the food of the gods, and made him
immortal".
[18] Found in an early 5th c. BC fragment, FGrH 3, 178. The context is a discussion of the name of Dionysus: "Nũsas (acc. pl.), he [Pherecydes]
said, was what they called the trees."
[19] see Janda (2010), 16-44 for a detailed account.
[20] Pausanias, 8.39.6.
[21] Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Ακρωρεία
[22] Ausonius, Epigr. xxix. 6.
[23] Pausanias, ix. 8. § 1.
[24] Janda (2010), 16-44.
[25] Kerenyi 1976:286.
[26] Jameson 1993, 53. Cf.n16 for suggestions of Devereux on "Enorkhes".
[27] Rosemarie Taylor-Perry, The God Who Comes: Dionysian Mysteries Revisited. Algora Press 2003, p.89, cf. Sabazius.
[28] Apollodorus (Pseudo Apollodorus), Library and Epitome, 1.3.2 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?lookup=Apollod. + 1. 3. 2).
"Orpheus also invented the mysteries of Dionysus, and having been torn in pieces by the Maenads he is buried in Pieria."
[29] Burkert, Walter, Greek Religion, 1985 pp. 64, 132
[30] Diorodus V 75.4, noted by Karl Kerényi, Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life (Princeton University Press) 1976, "The Cretan
core of the Dionysos myth" p 110 note 213 and pp 110-114.
[31] Diodorus III 64.1, also noted by Kerény (110 note 214.)
[32] Damascius, Commentary on the Phaedo, I, 170, see in translation Westerink, The Greek Commentaries on Plato's Phaedo, vol. II (The
Prometheus Trust, Westbury) 2009
[33] Damascius, Commentary on the Phaedo, I, 1-13 and 165-172, see in translation Westerink, The Greek Commentaries on Plato's Phaedo, vol.
II, The Prometheus Trust, Westbury, 2009
[34] Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard
University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Includes Frazer's notes. ISBN 0674991354, ISBN 0674991362
[35] Theoi.com" Homeric Hymn to Dionysus (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Olympios/ DionysosWrath. html#Tyrrhenian)
[36] British Museum (http:/ / www. britishmuseum. org/ explore/ highlights/ highlight_objects/ pe_mla/ t/ the_lycurgus_cup. aspx) on the
Lycurgus Cup
[37] Hyginus, Astronomy 2.5.
[38] Clement of Alexandria, Protreptikos, II-30 3-5
[39] Arnobius, Against the Gentiles 5.28 (Dalby 2005, pp. 108–117)
[40] Nonnus, Dionysiaca (X.175-430; XI; XII.1-117); (Dalby 2005, pp. 55–62).
[41] Photius, Library; "Ptolemy Chennus, New History"
[42] The mid-19th century debates are traced in G.S. Williamson, The Longing for Myth in Germany, 2004.
[43] Pausanias, Description of Greece 6. 26. 1 - 2
[44] Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 2. 34a
[45] Wick, Peter (2004). "Jesus gegen Dionysos? Ein Beitrag zur Kontextualisierung des Johannesevangeliums" (http:/ / www. bsw. org/
?l=71851& a=Comm06. html). Biblica (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute) 85 (2): 179–198. . Retrieved 2007-10-10.
[46] Powell, Barry B., Classical Myth Second ed. With new translations of ancient texts by Herbert M. Howe. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1998.
[47] Studies in Early Christology (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=0fLPOx1B-AwC& pg=PA331& lpg=PA331& dq="dionysus+ had+
been+ at+ home+ in+ palestine+ for+ a+ long+ time"& source=web& ots=GHsCkhiNP6& sig=qE6Sov5Xi_LB_zpRAQZreSAekTQ), by
Martin Hengel, 2005, p.331 (ISBN 0567042804)
[48] E. Kessler, Dionysian Monotheism in Nea Paphos, Cyprus: "two monotheistic religions, Dionysian and Christian, existed
contemporaneously in Nea Paphos during the 4th century C.E. [...] the particular iconography of Hermes and Dionysos in the panel of the
Epiphany of Dionysos [...] represents the culmination of a pagan iconographic tradition in which an infant divinity is seated on the lap of
another divine figure; this pagan motif was appropriated by early Christian artists and developed into the standardized icon of the Virgin and
Child. Thus the mosaic helps to substantiate the existence of pagan monotheism." ( Abstract (http:/ / www. huss. ex. ac. uk/ classics/
conferences/ pagan_monotheism/ abstracts. html))
[49] Kessler, E., Dionysian Monotheism in Nea Paphos, Cyprus,
[50] Facsimile Productions - Current Productions (http:/ / www. facsimileproductions. co. uk/ page_1193321376829. html)
Dionysus 59
References
• Dalby, Andrew (2005). The Story of Bacchus. London: British Museum Press. ISBN 0714122556 (US ISBN
0-89236-742-3)
• Farnell, Lewis Richard, The Cults of the Greek States, 1896. Volume V, cf. Chapter IV, Cults of Dionysos;
Chapter V, Dionysiac Ritual; Chapter VI, Cult-Monuments of Dionysos; Chapter VII, Ideal Dionysiac Types.
• Fox, William Sherwood, The Mythology of All Races, v.1, Greek and Roman, 1916, General editor, Louis Herbert
Gray.
• Janda, Michael, Die Musik nach dem Chaos, Innsbruck 2010.
• Jameson, Michael. "The Asexuality of Dionysus." Masks of Dionysus. Ed. Thomas H. Carpenter and Christopher
A. Faraone. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1993. ISBN 0-8014-8062-0. 44-64.
• Kerényi, Karl, Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, (Princeton: Bollingen) 1976. googlebooks
preview (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=cXL-QIIhn5gC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Dionysos:+
Archetypal+Image+of+Indestructible+Life&source=bl&ots=Yfys2bq-l8&
sig=kttZbkmKrfdmjIQ8bHPJzd6ZhaY&hl=en&ei=jggGTbirMoeA4Qax1JG7Cg&sa=X&oi=book_result&
ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false)
• Pickard-Cambridge, Arthur, The Theatre of Dionysus at Athens, 1946.
• Powell, Barry B., Classical Myth, 5th edition, 2007.
• Ridgeway, William, Origin of Tragedy, 1910. Kessinger Publishing (June 2003). ISBN 0-7661-6221-4.
• Ridgeway, William, The Dramas and Dramatic Dances of non-European Races in special reference to the origin
of Greek Tragedy, with an appendix on the origin of Greek Comedy, 1915.
• Riu, Xavier, Dionysism and Comedy, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers (1999). ISBN 0-8476-9442-9. (http://
ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2000/2000-06-13.html)
• Seaford, Richard. "Dionysos", Routledge (2006). ISBN 0-415-32488-2.
• Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1870, article on Dionysus, (http://
www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/1052.html)
• Sutton, Dana F., Ancient Comedy, Twayne Publishers (August 1993). ISBN 0-8057-0957-6.
Bibliography
• Livy, History of Rome, Book 39 (http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Livy/Livy39.html):13, Description of
banned Bacchanalia in Rome and Italy
• Detienne, Marcel, Arthur Goldhammer (translator), Dionysos at Large, Harvard University Press, 1989. ISBN
0674207734. (Originally in French as Dionysos à ciel ouvert, 1986)
• Albert Henrichs, Between City and Country: Cultic Dimensions of Dionysus in Athens and Attica, (April 1, 1990).
Department of Classics, UCB. Cabinet of the Muses: Rosenmeyer Festschrift. Paper festschrift18. (http://
repositories.cdlib.org/ucbclassics/ctm/festschrift18/)
• Seaford, Richard. Dionysos (Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World). Oxford: Routledge, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN
0-415-32487-4; paperback, ISBN 0-415-32488-2).
• Taylor-Perry, Rosemarie The God Who Comes: Dionysian Mysteries Revisited. New York: Algora Press, 2003
(hardcover, ISBN 0-87586-214-4; paperback, ISBN 0-87586-213-6).
Dionysus 60
External links
• Theoi Project, Dionysos (http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Dionysos.html) myths from original sources, cult,
classical art
• Iconographic Themes in Art: Bacchus | Dionysos (http://www.xs4all.nl/~schuffel/english/bacchus/)
• Thomas Taylor's treatise on the Bacchic Mysteries (http://www.prometheustrust.co.uk/html/7_-_oracles.
html)
• Dionysos Links and Booklist (http://www.baubo5.com/dionysos.html) (A huge list of links.)
• Mosaic of Dionysus at Ephesus Terrace Home-2 (http://www.panoramio.com/photo/4731362)
• The birth of Dionysus from the thigh of Zeus (http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/achilles/graphics/trag
Dionysus 667.gif) - Volute crater from Apulia
Dis Pater
Dis Pater, or Dispater (cf. Skt. Dyaus Pitar), was a Roman god of the underworld, later subsumed by Pluto or
Hades. Originally a chthonic god of riches, fertile agricultural land, and underground mineral wealth, he was later
commonly equated with the Roman deities Pluto and Orcus, becoming an underworld deity.
Dis Pater was commonly shortened to simply Dis (much like how Dyaus Pitar was also simply called Dyaus). This
name has since become an alternative name for the underworld or a part of the underworld, such as the Dis of The
Divine Comedy.
Etymology
Dis Pater was originally a god of wealth, much like the Roman god Pluto (from Greek Πλούτων, Ploutōn, meaning
"wealthy"), who was later equated with Dis Pater. Dis is contracted from the Latin dis (from dives meaning "rich"),
and pater ("father"), the literal meaning of Dis Pater being "Wealthy Father" or "Father of Riches" .
Julius Caesar writes in Commentarii de Bello Gallico that the Gauls considered Dis Pater to be an ancestor. In thus
interpreting the Gauls' god as Dis, Caesar offers one of his many examples of interpretatio Romana, the
re-identification of foreign divinities as their closest Roman counterparts. The choice of Dis to translate whatever
Celtic divinity Caesar has in mind - most likely Cernunnos, as the two are both associated with both the Underworld
and prosperity - may in part be due to confusion between Dis Pater and the Proto-Indo-European deity *Dyeus, who
would have been addressed as *Dyeu Phter ("Sky Father"). This name is also the likely origin of the name of many
Indo-European gods, including Zeus and Jupiter, though the name's similarity to Dis Pater may be in part
coincidental.
Mythology
Like Pluto, Dis Pater eventually became associated with death and the underworld because the wealth of the
earth—gems and precious metals—was considered in the domain of the Greco-Roman underworld. As a result, Dis
Pater was over time conflated with the Roman god Pluto, who became associated with the Greek god Hades as the
deity's role as a god of death became more prominent than his role as a wealth god.
In being conflated with Pluto, Dis Pater took on some of the Greek mythological attributes of Pluto/Hades, being one
of the three sons of Saturn (Greek: Cronus) and Ops (Greek: Rhea), along with Jupiter and Neptune. He ruled the
underworld and the dead beside his wife, Proserpina (Greek: Persephone).[1] In literature, Dis Pater was commonly
used as a symbolic and poetic way of referring to death itself.
Dis Pater 61
Worship
When Dis Pater was in the underworld, only oaths and curses could reach him, and people invoked him by striking
the earth with their hands. Black sheep were sacrificed to him, and those who performed the sacrifice averted their
faces. Dis Pater, like his Greek equivalent, Hades, had little or no real cult following, and so there are few statues of
him.
In 249 BC and 207 BC, the Roman Senate under Senator Lucius Catelli ordained special festivals to appease Dis
Pater and Proserpina. Every hundred years, a festival was celebrated in his name. According to legend, a round
marble altar, Altar of Dis Pater and Proserpina (Latin: Ara Ditis Patris et Proserpinae), was miraculously
discovered by the servants of a Sabine called Valesius, the ancestor of the first consul. The servants were digging in
the Tarentum on the edge of the Campus Martius to lay foundations following instructions given to Valesius's
children in dreams, when they found the altar 20 feet (6 m) underground. Valesius reburied the altar after three days
of games. Sacrifices were offered to this altar during the Ludi Saeculares or Ludi Tarentini. It may have been
uncovered for each occasion of the games, to be reburied afterwards, a clearly chthonic tradition of worship. It was
rediscovered in 1886–87 beneath the Corso Vittorio Emanuele in Rome.[2] [3]
In addition to being considered the ancestor of the Gauls, Dis Pater was sometimes identified with the Sabine god
Soranus. In southern Germany and the Balkans, Dis Pater had a Celtic goddess, Aericura, as a consort. Dis Pater was
rarely associated with foreign deities in the shortened form of his name, Dis.[4]
References
Notes
[1] Grimal. The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. pp. 141, 177. ISBN 0631132090.
[2] Nash. Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome Volume 1. London: A. Zwemmer Ltd. p. 57. ISBN 0878172653.
[3] Richardson. A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London: Thames and Hudson. pp. 110–111. ISBN 0801843006..
[4] Green. Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend. London: Thames and Hudson. pp. 81–82. ISBN 0500015163.
Dius Fidius 62
Dius Fidius

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
In ancient Roman religion, Dius Fidius (less often as Dius Fidus) was a god associated with Jupiter. His name was
thought to be related to Fides[1] , and he was a god of oaths.
Dius Fidius 63
Fidius may be an earlier form for filius, "son",[2] with the name Dius Fidius originally referring to Hercules as a son
of Jupiter[3] . According to some writers,[4] the phrase medius fidius was equivalent to mehercule "My Hercules!", a
common interjection.
References
[1] Sextus Pompeius Festus s. v. medius
[2] William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, v. 2, page 150, under Fidius (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/
smith-bio/ 1258. html)
[3] Ovid, Fasti, 6. 213
[4] Cicero, Letters to friends, 5. 21; Pliny, Letters, 4. 3
External links
• Myth Index - Fidius (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/F/Fidius.html)
Domiducus
In Roman mythology, Domiducus was the god who brought brides to their husbands' houses. His feminine
counterpart was Domiduca.
Domitius
Domitius (or Domidius), in Roman mythology, was a god of marriage, specifically, "The god which helps the
groom bring the bride into the marriage house."[1] [2] who kept wives in the households of their husbands. The name
is derived from the Latin word for "home".
References
[1] Gregory Flood's Roman Gods and Goddesses (http:/ / ancienthistory. about. com/ library/ bl/ bl_gregory_gods. htm)
[2] Roman God Name Evolution (http:/ / www. mythome. org/ romegodevol. html)
Elagabalus (deity)
Elagabalus or Heliogabalus is a Syro-Roman sun god.
Cult
Elagabalus was initially venerated at Emesa
in Syria. The name is the Latinized form of
the Syrian Ilāh hag-Gabal, which derives
from Ilāh "god" and gabal "mountain")
compare Hebrew: ‫לבג‬‎ gəbul and Arabic:
‫لبج‬‎ jabal), resulting in "the God of the
Mountain" the Emesene manifestation of the
deity.[1] The cult of the deity spread to other
parts of the Roman Empire in the second
century. For example, a dedication has been The temple at Emesa, containing the holy stone, on the reverse of this bronze coin
found as far away as Woerden by Roman usurper Uranius.
(Netherlands).[2]
In Rome
The cult statue was brought to Rome by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who before his accession was the
hereditary high priest at Emesa and is commonly called Elagabalus after the deity.[3] The Syrian deity was
assimilated with the Roman sun god known as Sol Invictus ("the Undefeated Sun").[4]
A temple called the Elagabalium was built on the east face of the Palatine Hill, to house the holy stone of the Emesa
temple, a black conical meteorite.[5] Herodian writes of that stone:
This stone is worshipped as though it were sent from heaven; on it there are some small projecting
pieces and markings that are pointed out, which the people would like to believe are a rough picture of
the sun, because this is how they see them.[6]
Herodian also relates that Elagabalus
forced senators to watch while he danced
around his deity's altar to the sound of
drums and cymbals,[5] and at each
summer solstice celebrated a great
festival, popular with the masses because
of food distributions,[7] during which he
placed the holy stone on a chariot adorned
with gold and jewels, which he paraded
through the city:
A six horse chariot carried Roman aureus depicting Elagabalus. The reverse reads Sanct Deo Soli Elagabal (To
the Holy Sun God Elagabal), and depicts a four-horse, gold chariot carrying the holy
the divinity, the horses huge
stone of the Emesa temple.
and flawlessly white, with
expensive gold fittings and
rich ornaments. No one held the reins, and no one rode in the chariot; the vehicle was escorted as if the
god himself were the charioteer. Elagabalus ran backward in front of the chariot, facing the god and
holding the horses reins. He made the whole journey in this reverse fashion, looking up into the face of
his god.[7]
Herodian's description strongly suggests that the Emesene cult was inspired by the Babylonian Akitu-festival.[8]
The Emperor also tried to bring about a union of Roman and Syrian religion under the supremacy of his deity, which
he placed even above Jupiter,[9] and to which he assigned either Astarte, Minerva or Urania, or some combination of
the three, as wife.[7] The most sacred relics from the Roman religion were transferred from their respective shrines to
the Elagabalium, including "the emblem of the Great Mother, the fire of Vesta, the Palladium, the shields of the
Salii, and all that the Romans held sacred." He reportedly also declared that Jews, Samaritans and Christians must
transfer their rites to his temple so that it "might include the mysteries of every form of worship."[10]
After the Emperor was killed in 222, his religious edicts were reversed and the cult of Elagabalus returned to
Emesa.[11]
Literature
• M. Pietrzykowsky, "Die Religionspolitik des Kaisers Elagabal", in: Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt
II 16.3 (1986) 806-1825
References
[1] Lenormant, Francois (1881). "Sol Elagabalus". Revue de l'Histoire des Religions 3: 310.
[2] An Early Dedication to Elagabal (http:/ / rambambashi. wordpress. com/ 2008/ 05/ 22/ an-early-dedication-to-elagabal/ ); the inscription is in
now in Woerden's city museum.
[3] Halsberghe, Gaston H. (1972). The Cult of Sol Invictus. Leiden: Brill. pp. 62.
[4] Devlaminck, Pieter (2004). "De Cultus van Sol Invictus: Een vergelijkende studie tussen keizer Elagabalus (218-222) en keizer Aurelianus
(270-275)" (http:/ / www. ethesis. net/ invictus/ invictus_inhoud. htm) (in Dutch). University of Ghent. . Retrieved 2007-08-07.
[5] Herodian, Roman History V.5 (http:/ / www. livius. org/ he-hg/ herodian/ hre505. html)
[6] Herodian, Roman History V.3 (http:/ / www. livius. org/ he-hg/ herodian/ hre503. html)
[7] Herodian, Roman History V.6 (http:/ / www. livius. org/ he-hg/ herodian/ hre506. html).
[8] M. Geller, "The Last Wedge," in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 87 (1997), pp. 43-95.
[9] Cassius Dio, Roman History LXXX.11 (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Cassius_Dio/ 80*. html#79-11)
[10] Augustan History, Life of Elagabalus 3 (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Historia_Augusta/ Elagabalus/ 1*.
html#3. 4)
[11] Herodian, Roman History VI.6 (http:/ / www. livius. org/ he-hg/ herodian/ hre601. html)
External links
• Livius.org: Elagabal (http://www.livius.org/ei-er/elagabal/elagabal.html)
Endovelicus 66
Endovelicus
Endovelicus (Endovélico in Portuguese, also Endouellicus), was an Iron Age god of public health and safety,
worshipped in pre-Roman and Roman Lusitania and Gallaecia. He was associated with chthonic oracles and healing,
and was probably the recipient of pig sacrifices. After the Roman invasion, his cult spread to most of the Roman
Empire, but was always most popular in the Roman provinces of Lusitania (covering part of what is now Portugal)
and Betica (located in Southern Spain). Thus he is considered part of the Roman mythology and the related
Lusitanian and Gallaecian mytology.
Endovelicus has a temple in São Miguel da Mota in Alentejo, Portugal, and there are numerous inscriptions and
ex-votos dedicated to him in the Museu Etnológico de Lisboa (the Ethnological Museum of Lisbon). The cult of
Endovelicus prevailed until the 5th century, just when Christianity was spreading in the region.
Powers
Endovelicus was a supreme solar healing god, thus a god of Medicine. Some suspect he was also a god who wore
several faces, one of which may have been an "infernal" one, since all solar gods went down to the infernos and
returned with healing power.
After receiving certain rites, if a person or priest slept in his sanctuary, Endovelicus would talk to them in their
dreams and even tell them about their own future or offer advice.
Endovelicus also protected the cities or region that venerated him. The epithets given to Endovelicus are deus,
sanctus, prarsentissimus and preaestantissimus. These suggest that the god was effective, and always present and
living on the sanctuary. Votive altars suggest that the god inspired the early Lusitanian resistance against the
Romans.
The name
In the 19th century, António da Visitação Freire classified the name of "Endovelicus" as a mixed Celtic and
Phoenician name, adapted to the Roman language. The End- radical would be from Celtic languages; Bel (or Vel-)
would be Phoenician for Lord and - Cus a usual word termination in Latin. José Leite de Vasconcelos believed the
word Endovellicus was originally Celtic, Andevellicos, meaning very good.
Temples and cult

As a powerful Lusitanian God, the Romans also adopted it and his cult spread to other regions of the Empire.
In the municipality of Alandroal, there is the Santuário da Rocha da Mina (Mina's Rock Sanctuary); some authors
classify it as a temple of Endovelicus. It is the only known place of this kind in Southern Portugal. Near the temple,
we can find the Lucefecit rivulet that has been associated with Lucifer since the Middle Ages. Lucifer was the name
used by the Romans for the Morning star and the goddess Venus. Some authors connect the name of the rivulet with
the meaning of the place as being the "Glimpse of Light". A kilometer away, there is a sacred fountain that is said to
be more ancient than the temple; its waters are still considered medicinal.
The temple is rocky and hemmed in by a rocky formation that protects the site and the chiselled flooring is often
related to Roman sacrificial altars. This sort of monument is not uncommon in the North of Portugal and on the
Spanish Meseta.
Leite de Vasconcelos mentions that the site was used by Roman people from all walks of life. Several inscriptions
suggest that the temple of Endovelicus was used as an oracle. One of the inscriptions states: EX IMPERATO AVERNO.
Leite de Vasconcelos translated this as “segundo a determinação que emanou de baixo" (by the determination that
emanated from below) suggesting that there is a similarity to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Steam would emanate
Endovelicus 67
from below, deep within the earth, and bestow clairvoyance. Vasconcelos also suggests that believers practiced the
incubatio, sleeping at the site, hoping for dreams they could interpret later.
In Castro de Ulaca in Ávila, a city on the border of the ancient province of Lusitania, a sanctuary dedicated to
Vaelicus has been discovered. The name could be related to Endovelicus.
The most notable sanctuary hypothetically dedicated to Endovelicus, is the Roman Sanctuary of Panóias in Vila
Real, Trás-os-Montes, with a complex system of "sinks" bearing Roman inscriptions. Nearby, in Cabeço de São
Miguel da Mota, another temple dedicated to Endovelicus was built and, on its ruins, the Alans built or readapted the
previous temple, a sanctuary dedicated to Saint Michael (São Miguel in Portuguese). The Muslims transformed the
temple into a mosque, and with the Reconquista the temple was once agan made a Christian temple. In 1559 the
temple was still somewhat well preserved when the Cardinal Henrique ordered 96 marble columns to be removed
from the place to build the Colégio do Espírito Santo in Évora. From the building only the staging remained. But
archaeological forays have turned up pottery and amphorae as well as votive altars dedicated to Endovelicus, and
lead to the discovery of several architectural elements, among them the "sinks" made in the rocks. The sinks suggests
the existence of rituals, animal sacrifice and, possibly, feasts of a ritual nature.
References
• Loução, Paulo Alexandre: Portugal, Terra de Mistérios Ésquilo, 2000 (third edition; ISBN 972-8605-04-8).
• Michael Jordan, Encyclopedia of Gods, Kyle Cathie Limited, 2002
See also
• Lusitanian mythology
• List of deities
• List of Di Indigetes
Evander of Pallene 68
Evander of Pallene
In Roman mythology, Evander (from Greek Εὔανδρος
Euandros, "good man" or "strong man")[1] [2] or Euander was a
deific culture hero from Arcadia, Greece, who brought the Greek
pantheon, laws and alphabet to Italy, where he founded the city of
Pallantium on the future site of Rome, sixty years before the
Trojan War. He instituted the Lupercalia.
The oldest tradition of its founding ascribes to Evander the

erection of the Great Altar of Hercules in the Forum Boarium. In
Virgil's Aeneid, VIII, where Aeneas and his crew first come upon
them, Evander and his people are engaged in venerating Hercules
for having dispatched the giant Cacus. Virgil's listeners recognized
the same Great Altar of Hercules in the Forum Boarium of their
own day, one detail among the passages that Virgil has saturated Evander from "Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum "
with references linking a heroic past with the Age of Augustus. As
Virgil's backstory goes, Hercules had been returning from Gades with Geryon's cattle when Evander entertained him
and was the first to raise an altar to this hero. The archaic altar was destroyed in the Great Fire of Rome, AD 64.
Evander was born to Mercury and Carmenta, and his wisdom was beyond that of all Arcadians. According to Virgil
[3]
, previous to the Trojan War, he gathered a group of natives to a city he founded in Italy near the Tiber river,
which he named Pallantium. Virgil states that he named the city in honor of his son, Pallas, although Pausanias as
well as Dionysius of Halicarnassus [4] say that Evander's birth city was Pallantium, thus he named the new city after
the one in Arcadia.
Since he met Anchises before the Trojan War, Evander aids Aeneas[5] in his battle against the Rutuli under the
autochthonous leader Turnus and plays a major role in Aeneid Book XII.
Evander was deified after his death and had an altar constructed in his name on the Aventine Hill.
Pallas apparently died childless, leaving the natives under Turnus to ravage his kingdom. However, the gens Fabia
claimed descent from Evander.
Notes
[1] Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary at Perseus (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 04.
0059:entry=#16312)
[2] A Greek spelling Euandros was affected by poets to emphasize the etymology of the name, "good man."
[3] 'Aeneid, viii
[4] Roman Antiquities, i. 31
[5] They share descent through their common ancestor Atlas
External links
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Evander". Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Eventus Bonus 69
Eventus Bonus

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
Bonus Eventus - Good success was honoured inAncient Rome with a peculiar worship. On a denarius of Scribonius
Libo, gens occur these abbreviated words, owing no doubt (says Eckhel, v 303) to the Roman practice of
consecrating every thing capable of producing good and evil, as Fortune, Hope, Genius, etc. And thus with Eventus;
Eventus Bonus 70
just as Lucretius enumerates among events, Slavery, Liberty, Riches, Povery, War, Peace (L i v 456). Eventus,
according to Cicero's definition (De Invent. Rhet. i c 28), is "the issue of any matter respecting which we generally
inquire, what has resulted, or may result, or will ultimately result, from such circumstances." Thus if anything turned
out well it was attributed to Bonus Eventus; that it was considered to be of the same nature as Felicitas, is proved by
a denarius engraved in Morell. Thesaur. amongst the incerti, Tab ii D on which near a female head is inscribed BON
EVENT ET FELICITAS. Eckhel expresses his own opinion to be that "this Genius of the Romans is the same as the
'ΑΝΤΟΜΑΤΙΑ of the Greeks; and he quotes what Plutarch says of Timolean, "Having built in his house a shrine to
'ΑΝΤΟΜΑΤΙΑ, he sacrificed to her; but the house itself he dedicated to the sacred ∆ΑΙΜΩΥ (genius). And Nepos
also, in his life, corroberates the fact of that great reverence, which Timolean paid the above named deification of
chance or fortunate events. The reason for this conduct was, that whatever he undertook he prospered. Consequently,
'ΑΝΤΟΜΑΤΙΑ is niether more nor less than the spontaneous agency of Fortune, that is to say Eventus, and Bonus
Eventus, because thatnks were returned to it; and it was believed to be presided over by a good or sacred Genius, by
the Greeks styled ΑΓΑΘΟΣ, or ΓΕΠΟΣ ∆ΑΙΜΩΥ."
Bonus Eventus, according to Publius Victor, had a temple in the ninth quarter of Rome; and Ammianus also
mentions it. On consular denarii the female sex is assigned to Eventus (see Scribonia gens). Also on an
autonoomous, or family denarius of Galba. But on those of other emperors down to the time of Gallienus, this deity
is represented as of the male sex.
Sources
Fabulinus
In the popular religion of ancient Rome, though not appearing in literary Roman mythology, the god Fabulinus
(from fabulari, to speak) taught children to speak. He received an offering when the child spoke its first words. He
figured among what Walter Pater enumerated in Marius the Epicurean (1885) among:
the names of that populace of 'little gods', dear to the Roman home, which the pontiffs had placed on the
sacred list of the Indigitamenta,[1] to be invoked, because they can help, on special occasions, were not
forgotten in the long litany— Vatican who causes the infant to utter his first cry, Fabulinus who prompts
his first word, Cuba who keeps him quiet in his cot, Domiduca especially, for whom Marius had through
life a particular memory and devotion, the goddess who watches over one's safe coming home".[2]
Notes
[1] Lists of prayer formularies for invocations, or names of deities; cf. Di indigetes.
[2] Pater, Marius the Epicurean, ch. I, "The Religion of Numa".
Falacer 71
Falacer
Important Gods:
Jupiter Minerva
Mars Mercury
Quirinus Vulcan
Vesta Ceres
Juno Venus
Fortuna Lares
Topics
Roman Kingdom
Flamens
Penates Lemures
Furrina Portunes
Falacer, or more fully dīvus pater falacer, was an ancient Italian god, according to Varro.[1] Hartung[2] is inclined to
consider him an epithet of Jupiter, since falandum, according to Festus, was the Etruscan name for "heaven."
His name may appear in the name of the city of Falacrine (Latin: Falacrīnum or Phalacrīna).
References
• This article incorporates text by Leonhard Schmitz from the article "Falacer" in the public domain Dictionary of
Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870), vol. 2, p. 132.
Footnotes
[1] de L. L. v. 84, vii. 45
[2] Die Religion der Römer ii. p. 9
Fascinus 72
Fascinus
In ancient Roman religion and magic, the
fascinus or fascinum was the embodiment
of the divine phallus. The word can refer to
the deity himself (Fascinus), to phallus
effigies and amulets, and to the spells used
to invoke his divine protection.[1] Pliny calls
it a medicus invidiae, a "doctor" or remedy
for envy (invidia, a "looking upon") or the
evil eye.
A graphic representation of the power of the

fascinus to ward off the evil eye is found on
a Roman mosaic that depicts a phallus
ejaculating into a disembodied eye;[2] a
Gallo-Roman examples of the fascinum in bronze
1st-century BC terracotta figurine shows
"two little phallus-men sawing an eyeball in
half."[3] As a divinized phallus, the fascinus
shared attributes with Mutunus Tutunus,
whose shrine was supposed to date from the
founding of the city, and the imported Greek
god Priapus.[4]
The Vestal Virgins tended the cult of the

fascinus populi Romani, the sacred image of
the phallus that was one of the tokens of the
safety of the state. It was thus associated
with the Palladium.[5] Roman myths, such as
the begetting of Servius Tullius, suggest that
this phallus was an embodiment of a
masculine generative power located within
the hearth, regarded as sacred.[6] Augustine,
whose primary source on Roman religion
was the lost theological works of Varro,
notes that a phallic image was carried in A ca. 1st-century BC tintinnabulum or wind chime,
procession annually at the festival of Father found at Herculaneum, depicting the phallus as a beast
which the human male engages in combat
Liber, the Roman god identified with
Dionysus or Bacchus, for the purpose of
protecting the fields from fascinatio, magic compulsion:[7]
Fascinus 73
Phallus inscribed on a paving stone at

Pompeii
“ Varro says that certain rites of Liber were celebrated in Italy which were of such unrestrained wickedness that the shameful parts of the male
were worshipped at crossroads in his honour. … For, during the days of the festival of Liber, this obscene member, placed on a little trolley,
was first exhibited with great honour at the crossroads in the countryside, and then conveyed into the city itself. … In this way, it seems, the
god Liber was to be propitiated, in order to secure the growth of seeds and to repel enchantment (fascinatio) from the fields.
[8]
”
Phallic charms, often winged, were ubiquitous in Roman culture, from jewelry to bells and windchimes to lamps.[9]
The fascinus was thought particularly to ward off evil from children, mainly boys, and from conquering generals.
Pliny notes the custom of hanging a phallic charm on a baby's neck, and examples have been found of
phallus-bearing rings too small to be worn except by children.[10] When a general celebrated a triumph, the Vestals
hung an effigy of the fascinus on the underside of his chariot to protect him from invidia.[11]
The "fist and phallus" amulet was prevalent amongst soldiers. These are phallic pendants with a representation of a
(usually) clenched fist at the bottom of the shaft, facing away from the glans. Several examples show the fist making
the manus fica or "fig sign", a symbol of good luck.[12] The largest known collection comes from Camulodunum.[13]
Etymology
The English word "fascinate" ultimately derives from Latin fascinum and the related verb fascinare, "to use the
power of the fascinus," that is, "to practice magic" and hence "to enchant, bewitch." Catullus uses the verb at the end
of Carmen 7, a hendecasyllabic poem addressing his lover Lesbia; he expresses his infinite desire for kisses that
cannot be counted by voyeurs nor "fascinated" (put under a spell) by a malicious tongue; such bliss, as also in
Carmen 5, potentially attracts invidia.[14]
Fescennine verses, the satiric and often lewd songs or chants performed on various social occasions, may have been
so-named from the fascinum; ancient sources propose this etymology along with an alternative origin from
Fescennia, a small town in Etruria.[15]
References
[1] The neuter form fascinum is used most often for objects or magic charms, masculine fascinus for the god.
[2] Daniel Ogden, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook (Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 25 online.
(http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=ox3QRxWQQtcC& pg=PA225& dq=fascinus& lr=& as_drrb_is=b& as_minm_is=0&
as_miny_is=1988& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=2010& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=6#v=onepage& q=fascinus& f=false)
[3] Craig Arthur Williams, Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity p. 92 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=Kf4cs5Y0fiIC& pg=PA92& dq=fascinus& lr=& as_drrb_is=b& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=1988& as_maxm_is=0&
as_maxy_is=2010& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=11#v=onepage& q=fascinus& f=false)
[4] Arnobius, Adversus nationes 4.7, explicity connects Tutunus to the fascinus; see Robert E.A. Palmer, "Mutinus Titinus: A Study in
Etrusco-Roman Religion and Topography," in Roman Religion and Roman Empire: Five Essays (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1974), pp.
187–206.
[5] R. Joy Littlewood, A Commentary on Ovid: Fasti Book 6 (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 73; T.P. Wiseman, Remus: A Roman Myth
(Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 61 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=7LPNHRUlWacC& pg=PA61& dq=fascinus& lr=&
as_drrb_is=b& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=1988& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=2010& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=68#v=onepage&
Fascinus 74
q=fascinus& f=false)
[6] Joseph Rykwert, The Idea of a Town: The Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy, and the Ancient World (MIT Press, 1988), pp. 101
and 159 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Jq78Ff2TYHAC& pg=PA159& dq=fascinus& lr=& as_drrb_is=b& as_minm_is=0&
as_miny_is=1988& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=2010& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=2#v=onepage& q=fascinus& f=false)
[7] Augustine of Hippo, De civitate Dei 7.21; Williams, Roman Homosexuality, p. 92.
[8] English translation by R.W. Dyson, Augustine: The City of God against the Pagans (Cambridge University Press, 1998, 2002), p. 292 online.
(http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=ReU2M8cLtGcC& pg=PA292& dq="21+ Of+ the+ wickedness+ of+ the+ rites+ celebrated+ in+
honour+ of+ Liber"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& as_brr=3& cd=1#v=onepage&
q="21 Of the wickedness of the rites celebrated in honour of Liber"& f=false)
[9] Williams, Roman Homosexuality, p. 92.
[10] Martin Henig, Religion in Roman Britain (London: BT Batsford LTD, 1984), pp. 185–186 online (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=ZOhxSp8nlPsC& pg=PA186& dq="A+ child's+ gold+ ring+ with+ phallus"& hl=en& ei=1tOTTIXKG4TfnAenpYCRCA& sa=X&
oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=1& ved=0CDUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage& q="A child's gold ring with phallus"& f=false), with image of
example.
[11] Pliny, Natural History 28.4.7 (28.39).
[12] Henig, Religion in Roman Britain, p. 176; Portable Antiquities Scheme, cat num: LIN-2BE126, www.finds.org/database
[13] N. Crummy, Colchester Archaeological Report 2: The Roman Small finds from excavations in Colchester 1971-9 (Colchester: Colchester
Archaeological Trust LTD, 1983).
[14] David Wray, Catullus and the Poetics of Roman Manhood (Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 152 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=kmmjg7UX19UC& pg=PA152& dq=fascinus& lr=& as_drrb_is=b& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=1988& as_maxm_is=0&
as_maxy_is=2010& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=14#v=onepage& q=fascinus& f=false)
[15] Gian Biagio Conte, Latin Literature: A History (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, 1994), p. 23 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=NJGp_dkXnuUC& pg=PA23& dq=fascinum& lr=& as_drrb_is=b& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=1988& as_maxm_is=0&
as_maxy_is=2010& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=172#v=onepage& q=fascinum& f=false)
Faunus
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Faunus was the horned god of
the forest, plains and fields; when he made cattle fertile he was called
Inuus. He came to be equated in literature with the Greek god Pan.
Faunus was one of the oldest Roman deities, known as the di indigetes.
According to the epic poet Virgil, he was a legendary king of the
Latins who came with his people from Arcadia. His shade was
consulted as a god of prophecy under the name of Fatuus, with
oracles[1] in the sacred grove of Tibur, around the well Albunea, and
on the Aventine Hill in ancient Rome itself [2]
Marcus Terentius Varro asserted that the oracular responses were given
in Saturnian verse.[3] Faunus revealed the future in dreams and voices
that were communicated to those who came to sleep in his precincts,
lying on the fleeces of sacrificed lambs. W. Warde Fowler suggested
that Faunus is identical with Favonius,[4] one of the Roman wind gods
(compare the Anemoi). Faunus as depicted by the sculpter Bartolomeo
Ammanati.
Consorts and family

A goddess of like attributes, called Fauna and Fatua, was associated in his worship. She was regarded sometimes as
his wife, sometimes as his sister. As Pan was accompanied by the Paniskoi, or little Pans, so the existence of many
Fauni was assumed besides the chief Faunus.[5] In fable Faunus appears as an old king of Latium, son of Picus, and
grandson of Saturnus, father of Latinus by the nymph Marica. After his death he is raised to the position of a tutelary
deity of the land, for his many services to agriculture and cattle-breeding.
Faunus 75
Faunus was known as the father or husband or brother of Bona Dea (Fauna, his feminine side) and Latinus by the
nymph Marica (who was also sometimes Faunus' mother). Fauns are place-spirits (genii) of untamed woodland.
Educated, Hellenizing Romans connected their fauns with the Greek satyrs, who were wild and orgiastic drunken
followers of Dionysus, with a distinct origin.
Festivals
The Christian writer Justin Martyr identified him as Lupercus ("he who wards off the wolf"), the protector of cattle,
following Livy, who named his aspect of Inuus as the god who was originally worshiped at the Lupercalia,
celebrated on the anniversary of the founding of his temple, February 15, when his priests (Luperci) wore goat-skins
and hit onlookers with goat-skin belts.
Two festivals, called Faunalia, were celebrated in his honour—one on the 13th of February, in the temple of Faunus
on the island in the Tiber, the other on the 5th of December, when the peasants brought him rustic offerings and
amused themselves with dancing (Peck 1898).
A euhemeristic account made Faunus a Latin king, son of Picus and Canens. He was then revered as the god Fatuus
after his death, worshipped in a sacred forest outside what is now Tivoli, but had been known since Etruscan times as
Tibur, the seat of the Tiburtine Sibyl. His numinous presence was recognized by wolf skins, with wreaths and
goblets.
In Nonnos' Dionysiaca, Faunus/Phaunos accompanied Dionysus when the god campaigned in India.
Equation with Pan

With the increasing Hellenization of literate upper-class Roman culture in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, the Romans
tried to equate their own deities with one of the Greeks', applying in reverse the Greeks' own interpretatio graeca.
Faunus was naturally equated with the god Pan, who was a pastoral god of shepherds who was said to reside in
Arcadia. Pan had always been depicted with horns and as such many depictions of Faunus also began to display this
trait. However, the two deities were also considered separate by many, for instance, the epic poet Virgil, in his
Aeneid, made mention of both Faunus and Pan independently.
Later worship
Faunus was worshipped across the Roman Empire for many centuries. An example of this was a set of thirty-two
4th-century spoons found near Thetford in England in 1979. They had been engraved with the name "Faunus", and
each also had a different epithet after the god's name. The spoons also bore Christian symbols, and it has been
suggested that these were initially Christian but later taken and devoted to Faunus by pagans. The 4th century was a
time of largescale Christianisation, and the discovery provides us with evidence that even during the decline of
Roman paganism, the god Faunus was still worshipped.[6] [7] In Gaul, Faunus was identified with the Celtic
Dusios.[8]
Faunus 76
Notes
[1] For oracular Faunus, see Virgil, Aeneid vii.81; Ovid, Fasti iv.649; Cicero, De Natura Deorum ii.6, iii.15 and De Divinatione i.101; Dionysius
of Halicarnassus v.16; Plutarch, Numa Pompilius xv.3; Lactantius Institutiones i.22.9; Servius on the Aeneid viii.314.
[2] Peck 1898
[3] Varro, De lingua latina vii. 36.
[4] W. Warde Fowler (1899). The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic: An Introduction to the Study of the Religion of the Romans
(http:/ / www. archive. org/ details/ romanfestivalsof00fowluoft). London: Macmillan and Co.. p. 259. . Retrieved 2007-06-07.
[5] Peck 1898.
[6] Hutton, Ronald. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles. (1991) Blackwell ISBN 0-631-17288-2. Page 260-261
[7] Ronald Hutton (1988) Antiquaries Journal
[8] Papias, Elementarium: Dusios nominant quos romani Faunos ficarios vocant, as quoted by Du Cange in his 1678 Glossarium mediae et
infimae latinitatis (Niort: Favre, 1883–1887), vol. 3, online (http:/ / ducange. enc. sorbonne. fr/ DUSII); Katherine Nell MacFarlane, "Isidore
of Seville on the Pagan Gods (Origines VIII. 11)," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 70 (1980), pp. 36–37.
References
• Peck, Harry Thurston, 1898. Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities ( On-line (http://www.perseus.tufts.
edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062:id=faunus))
• Hammond, N.G.L. and Scullard, H.H. (Eds.) 1970. The Oxford Classical Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University
Press) ISBN 0-19-869117-3.
Feretrius
Feretrius is one of the titles of the Roman god Jupiter. In this capacity Jupiter was called upon to witness the signing
of contracts and marriages. An oath was taken that called upon Jupiter to strike down the person if they swore the
oath falsely.
Fontus 77
Fontus
In ancient Roman religion, Fontus or Fons (plural Fontes, "Font" or
"Source") was a god of wells and springs. He was the son of Juturna
and Janus.[1]
A religious festival called the Fontinalia was held on October 13 in his
honor. Throughout the city, fountains and wellheads were adorned with
garlands.[2] Fons was not among the deities depicted on coinage of the
Roman Republic.[3]
Numa Pompilius, second king of Rome, was supposed to have been
buried near the altar of Fons (ara Fontis) on the Janiculum.[4] William
Warde Fowler observed that between 259 and 241 BC, cults were
founded for Juturna, Fons, and the Tempestates, all having to do with
sources of water.[5] As a god of pure water, Fons can be placed in
opposition to Liber as a god of wine identified with Bacchus.[6]
An inscription includes Fons among a series of deities who received

expiatory sacrifices by the Arval Brothers in 224 AD, when several
trees in the sacred grove of Dea Dia, their chief deity, had been struck
by lightning and burnt. Fons received two wethers.[7]
Ornamental wellhead (puteal) (1st century AD)
In the cosmological schema of Martianus Capella, Fons is located in depicting a drunken Hercules as part of a Bacchic
the second of 16 celestial regions, with Jupiter, Quirinus, Mars, the revel
Military Lar, Juno, Lympha, and the Novensiles.[8]
Fons Perennis
Water as a source of regeneration played a role in the Mithraic mysteries, and inscriptions to Fons Perennis ("Eternal
Spring" or "Never-Failing Stream") have been found in mithraea. In one of the scenes of the Mithraic cycle, the god
strikes a rock, which then gushes water. A Mithraic text explains that the stream was a source of life-giving water
and immortal refreshment.[9] Dedications to "inanimate entities" from Mithraic narrative ritual, such as Fons
Perennis and Petra Genetrix ("Generative Rock"), treat them as divine and capable of hearing, like the nymphs and
healing powers to whom these are more often made.[10]
References
[2] Stephen L. Dyson, Rome: A Living Portrait of an Ancient City (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010), p. 228. Described by Varro, De lingua
latina 6.3: "The Fontanalia [is named after] Fons, because it's his holiday (dies feriae); on account of him then they toss wreaths into fountains
and garland puteals" (Fontanalia a Fonte, quod is dies feriae eius; ab eo tum et in fontes coronas iaciunt et puteos coronant). Festus also
mentions the rites (sacra).
[3] Michael H. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage (Cambridge University Press, 1974, 2001), p. 914.
[4] Cicero, De legibus 2.56 and De natura deorum 3.52; Samuel Ball Platner, The Topography and Monuments of Ancient Rome (1904), p. 488.
[5] William Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People (London, 1922), p. 285, with a speculation that this was a response to
the naval activity of the First Punic War.
[6] As when two characters argue over which holds imperium in Plautus's Stichus, line 696ff.; Thomas Habinek, The World of Roman Song
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), p. 186.
[7] Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 152.
[8] Martianus Capella, The Marriage of Philology and Mercury 1.46 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=nZ-Z9eI6dXwC&
pg=PA22& dq=Lympha+ OR+ Lymphae& lr=& cd=11#v=onepage& q=Lympha OR Lymphae& f=false)
[9] Vivienne J. Walters, The Cult of Mithras in the Roman Provinces of Gaul (Brill, 1974), p. 47.
Fontus 78
[10] Richard Gordon, "Institutionalized Religious Options: Mithraism," in A Companion to Roman Religion (Blackwell, 2007), p. 398.
Forculus
In Roman mythology, Forculus was a god that protected the integrity of doors (Latin fores), together with Cardea
and Limentinus[1] . The entrance door was a significant object as the passage between the realms of the inside and
the outside.
References
[1] Augustine, De civitate Dei, 4. 8 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=7Tp7iwzRyDMC& pg=PA145& dq=Forculus+ roman+ god& hl=en&
ei=Ofa6TPS1EI7Nswa-gfnXDQ& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=book-thumbnail& resnum=1& ved=0CC8Q6wEwAA#v=onepage&
q=Forculus roman god& f=false)
External links
• Roman Gods - see under Forculus (http://www.mythome.org/roman.html)
Hercules
Gilded bronze "Hercules of the

Forum Boarium", with the
apple of the Hesperides, Roman
2nd century BCE; found in the
Forum Boarium in the 15th
century (Capitoline Museums)
Hercules 79

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek demigod Heracles, son of Jupiter (the Roman equivalent of Zeus), and
the mortal Alcmena. Early Roman sources suggest that the imported Greek hero supplanted a mythic Italic shepherd
called "Recaranus" or "Garanus", famous for his strength who dedicated the Ara Maxima that became associated
with the earliest Roman cult of Hercules.[1] While adopting much of the Greek Heracles' iconography and mythology
Hercules 80
as his own, Hercules adopted a number of myths and characteristics that were distinctly Roman. With the spread of
Roman hegemony, Hercules was worshiped locally from Hispania through Gaul.
Etymology
Hercules's Latin name was not directly borrowed from Greek Heracles but is a modification of the Etruscan name
Herceler, which derives from the Greek name via syncope, Heracles translates to "The Glory of Hera". An oath
invoking Hercules (Hercle! or Mehercle!) was a common interjection in Classical Latin.[2]
Character
In Roman works of art and in Renaissance and post-Renaissance art that adapts Roman iconography, Hercules can
be identified by his attributes, the lion skin and the gnarled club (his favorite weapon): in mosaic he is shown tanned
bronze, a virile aspect.[3] Hercules was the illegitimate son of Zeus and Alcmene, the wisest and most beautiful of all
mortal women. Hera was enraged at Zeus for his infidelity with Alcmene, and even more so that he placed the infant
Hercules at Hera's breast as she slept and allowed Hercules to feed, which caused Hercules to be partially immortal,
thus, allowing him to surpass all mortal men in strength, size and skill. However, Hera still held a spiteful grudge
against Hercules and sent Hercules into a blind frenzy, in which he killed all of his children. When Hercules regained
his sanity, he sought out the Oracle at Delphi in the hope of making atonement. The Oracle ordered Hercules to serve
Eurystheus, king of Mycenae, who sent him on a series of tasks known as the Labors of Hercules. These tasks are
told in this order: 1.To kill the Nemean lion 2.To destroy the Lernaean Hydra 3.To capture Cernean hind alive 4.To
trap the Erymanthian boar 5.To clean the Augean stables 6.To get rid of the Stymphalen birds 7.To capture the
Cretan bull 8.To round up the mares of Diomeds 9.To fetch Hippolyte's girdle, or belt 10.To fetch the cattle of Geron
11.To fetch the golden apples of the Hesprides 12.To bring Cerberus from Tartarus. While he was a champion and a
great warrior, he was not above cheating and using any unfair trick to his advantage. However, he was renowned as
having "made the world safe for mankind" by destroying many dangerous monsters.
Hercules 81
Roman cult
In their popular culture the Romans adopted the Etruscan Hercle, a
hero-figure that had already been influenced by Greek culture —
especially in the conventions of his representation — but who had
experienced an autonomous development. Etruscan Hercle appears in
the elaborate illustrative engraved designs on the backs of Etruscan
bronze mirrors made during the fourth century BC, which were
favoured grave goods. Their specific literary references have been lost,
with the loss of all Etruscan literature, but the image of the mature,
bearded Hercules suckling at Uni/Juno's breast, engraved on a mirror
back from Volterra, is distinctively Etruscan. This Hercle/Hercules —
the Hercle of the interjection "Mehercle!" — remained a popular cult
figure in the Roman legions.
The literary Greek versions of his exploits were appropriated by

literate Romans from the 2nd century BCE onwards, essentially
unchanged, but Latin literature of Hercules added anecdotal detail of
its own, some of it linking the hero with the geography of the Western
Mediterranean. Details of the Greek cult, which mixed chthonic
libations and uneaten holocausts with Olympian services, were adapted
to specifically Roman requirements as well, as Hercules became the
founding figure of Herculaneum and other places, and his cult became
Gilded bronze Roman "Hercules of the Theatre of
entwined with Imperial cult, as shown in surviving frescoes in the
Pompey", found near the Theatre of Pompey in
[4] Herculanean collegium. His altar has been dated to the 5th or 6th
1864, (Vatican Museums, Rome)
century BC. It stood near the Temple of Hercules Victor. Hercules
became popular with merchants, who customarily paid him a tithe of their profits.
Marcus Antonius identified himself with Hercules, and even invented a son of Hercules, called Anton, from whom
Antonius claimed descent. In response, his enemy Octavianus identified with Apollo. Some early emperors, such as
Trajan, took up the attributes of Hercules, and later Roman Emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, went
further and often identified or compared themselves with him and supported his cult; Maximianus styled himself
"Herculius". The cult of Hercules spread through the Roman world. In their gardens, wealthy Romans would often
build altars to Hercules, who was regarded as the benefactor of mankind.[5] In Roman Egypt, what is believed to be
the remains of a Temple of Hercules are found in the Bahariya Oasis.
The Romans adopted the myths of Heracles including his twelve labors, essentially unchanged, but added anecdotal
detail of their own, some of it linking Hercules with the geography of the Western Mediterranean.
In Roman mythology, Acca Larentia was Hercules' mistress. She was married to Tarutius, a wealthy merchant.
When he died, she gave his money to charity. In another version, she was the wife of Faustulus.
In Aeneid 8.195ff, Virgil relates a myth about Hercules' defeating the monstrous Cacus, who lived in a cave under
the Palatine Hill (one of the eventual Seven Hills of Rome).
Hercules 82
Death of Hercules
Hercules was married to Deianeira. Long after their marriage, one day
the centaur Nessus offered to ferry them across a wide river that they
had to cross. Nessus set off with Deianeira first, but tried to abduct her.
When Hercules realized the centaur's real intention, Hercules chased
after him and shot him with an arrow which was poisoned with Hydra's
blood. Before he died, Nessus told Deianeira to take some of his blood
and treasure it, since it was a very powerful medicine and: if she ever
thought Hercules was being unfaithful, the centaur told her, the blood
would restore his love. Deianeira kept the phial of blood.
Many years later after that incident she heard rumours that Hercules
had fallen in love with another woman. She smeared some of the blood
on a robe and sent it to Hercules by a servant named Leechas. When
doing so, some of the blood was spilled on the floor and when the sun
rays fell on it the blood begun to burn. Because of this Deianeira begun
to suspect Nessus's advice and decided to send another servant to fetch
Leechas back before he could hand over the blood soaked robe to
Hercules.But she was too late. Hercules has already put on the robe
and when he did so the blood still poisoned from the same arrow used
by Hercules, burnt into his flesh. When he jumped into a near by river Hercules, Hatra, Iraq, Parthian period, 1st-2nd
in hope of extinguishing the fire, it only made it worse.When he tried century CE.
to rip off the robe from his body his organs were also ripped off with it.
Furiously, Hercules caught Leechas and tossed him into the sea.
After that he asked his friend Philoctetis to build him a pyre out of hardy oak and wild olive on the mountain Oata.
He was burnt to death on the pyre; the fire hurt far less than the poison. Before dying, Hercules offered his bow and
arrows as a token of gratitude to Philoctetis. His father Zeus then turned him into a god. Deianeira, after hearing
what she had caused, committed suicide.
Germanic association
Tacitus records a special affinity of the Germanic peoples for Hercules. In chapter 3 of his Germania, Tacitus states:
... they say that Hercules, too, once visited them; and when going into battle, they sang of him first of all
heroes. They have also those songs of theirs, by the recital of this barditus[6] as they call it, they rouse
their courage, while from the note they augur the result of the approaching conflict. For, as their line
shouts, they inspire or feel alarm.
In the Roman era Hercules' Club amulets appear from the 2nd to 3rd century, distributed over the empire (including
Roman Britain, c.f. Cool 1986), mostly made of gold, shaped like wooden apples. A specimen found in Köln-Nippes
bears the inscription "DEO HER[culi]", confirming the association with Hercules.
In the 5th to 7th centuries, during the Migration Period, the amulet is theorized to have rapidly spread from the Elbe
Germanic area across Europe. These Germanic "Donar's Clubs" were made from deer antler, bone or wood, more
rarely also from bronze or precious metals. They are found exclusively in female graves, apparently worn either as a
belt pendant, or as an ear pendant. The amulet type is replaced by the Viking Age Thor's hammer pendants in the
course of the Christianization of Scandinavia from the 8th to 9th century.
Hercules 83
In popular culture
Since the Renaissance, Heracles has rarely been distinguished from Hercules, the Roman figure overshadowing the
Greek. Later interpretations of Hercules' legend cast him as a wise leader and a good friend (many of the movie and
TV adaptations cast him in this light, especially the 1995–1999 syndicated TV series). He was the main character in
the Disney animated movie of the same name. Steve Reeves is most famous for having played Hercules in the
movies Hercules and Hercules Unchained.The legend of Hercules endures, though often co-opted to suit the political
fashion of the day. Hercules has also had an undeniable influence on modern pop culture characters such as
Superman and He-Man. The legend of Hercules has been described in many movie and television adaptations,
including several comic series featuring the hero. Hercules has been the hero of both Marvel Comics (where the
rendition of Hercules was an early member of the Avengers) and DC Comics adventure comic books. In DC, he has
often been associated with Wonder Woman. In Marvel, he currently stars in his own ongoing series titled The
Incredible Hercules.
In numismatics
Hercules has been the main motif of many collector coins and medals, the
most recent one is the 20 euro Baroque Silver coin issued on September
11, 2002. The obverse side of the coin shows the Grand Staircase in the
town palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy in Vienna, currently the Austrian
Ministry of Finance. Gods and demi-gods hold its flights, while Hercules
stands at the turn of the stairs.
Austrian commemorative coin featuring

Hercules
Gallery
Ancient interpretations
Hercules and the Hercules frescoes in the Hercules and his Hercules Hercules sculpture in
Nemean Lion (detail), collegium at nephew, helper and bronze Behistun, Iran carved
silver plate, 6th Herculaneum eromenos Iolaus statuette, 139 BCE
century (Cabinet des 1st century CE mosaic 2nd century
Médailles, Paris) from the Anzio CE
Nymphaeum, Rome (museum of
Alanya,
Turkey)
Hercules 84
Modern interpretations
Hercules and the Hydra Rococo sculpture of Comic book cover The Cudgel of Hercules used as a
by Antonio del Hercules, 1758. (c.1958) Hercules, a tall heraldic supporter in the
Pollaiuolo, 15th century Branicki Palace in limestone rock and Coat of arms of the
Białystok. Pieskowa Skała Castle Kingdom of Greece, in
in the background use from 1863 to 1973.
Greek royalists were
sometimes mockingly
called "Ηρακλείδες"
("the Herculeses")
Hercules filmography
A series of 19 Italian Hercules movies were made in the late 50's/ early 60's. The actors who played Hercules in
these films were Steve Reeves, Gordon Scott, Kirk Morris, Mickey Hargitay, Mark Forest, Alan Steel, Dan Vadis,
Brad Harris, Reg Park, Peter Lupus (billed as Rock Stevens) and Michael Lane. The films are listed below by their
American release titles, and the titles in parentheses are the original Italian titles with English translation.
• Hercules (Le Fatiche di Ercole/ The Labors of Hercules, 1957) starring Steve Reeves
• Hercules Unchained (Ercole e la regina di Lidia/ Hercules and the Queen of Lydia, 1959) starring Steve Reeves
• Goliath and the Dragon (La Vendetta di Ercole/ The Revenge of Hercules, 1960) (this Hercules film had its title
changed to Goliath when it was distributed in the U.S.)
• Hercules Vs The Hydra (Gli Amori di Ercole/ The Loves of Hercules, 1960) co-starring Jayne Mansfield
• Hercules and the Captive Women (Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide/Hercules at the Conquest of Atlantis, 1961)
(alternate U.S. title: Hercules and the Haunted Women)
• Hercules in the Haunted World (Ercole al centro della terra/Hercules at the Center of the Earth) 1961 (directed
by Mario Bava)
• Hercules in the Vale of Woe (Maciste contro Ercole nella valle dei guai/Maciste Vs. Hercules in the Vale of Woe)
1961
• Ulysses Vs. The Son of Hercules (Ulisse contro Ercole/Ulysses Vs. Hercules) 1962
• The Fury of Hercules (La Furia di Ercole/The Fury of Hercules, a.k.a. The Fury of Samson) 1962
• Hercules, Samson and Ulysses (Ercole sfida Sansone/Hercules Challenges Samson) 1963
• Hercules Vs. the Moloch (Ercole contro Molock/Hercules Vs. Moloch, 1963) (alternate U.S. title: The Conquest of
Mycene)
• Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness (Ercole l'invincibile/Hercules, the Invincible) 1964 (this was originally a
Hercules film that was retitled to "Son of Hercules" so that it could be included in the "Sons of Hercules" TV
syndication package)
• Hercules Vs. The Giant Warrior (il Trionfo di Ercole/The Triumph of Hercules, 1964) (alternate U.S. title:
Hercules and the Ten Avengers)
• Hercules Against Rome (Ercole contro Roma, 1964)
• Hercules Against the Sons of the Sun (Ercole contro i figli del sole, 1964)
• Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon (Ercole contro i tiranni di Babilonia, 1964)
Hercules 85
• Samson and the Mighty Challenge (Ercole, Sansone, Maciste e Ursus: gli invincibili, 1964) (a.k.a. Combate dei
Gigantes)
• Hercules and the Princess of Troy (a.k.a. Hercules vs. the Sea Monster) No Italian title, 1965 (this 48-minute
Italian/U.S. co-production was made as a pilot for a Charles Band-produced TV series that never materialized)
• Hercules, the Avenger (Sfida dei giganti/Challenge of the Giants, 1965) This film was composed mostly of stock
footage from 2 earlier Reg Park Hercules films, made to be released directly to U.S. television
The Three Stooges made an American comedy in 1962 called The Three Stooges Meet Hercules with Samson Burke
playing Hercules. Note* - A number of English-dubbed Italian films that featured the Hercules name in their title
were never intended to be Hercules movies by their Italian creators.
• Hercules, Prisoner of Evil was actually a retitled Ursus film.
• Hercules and the Black Pirate and Hercules and the Treasure of the Incas were both retitled Samson movies.
• Hercules and the Masked Rider was actually a retitled Goliath movie.
• Hercules Against the Moon Men, Hercules Against the Barbarians, Hercules Against the Mongols and Hercules
of the Desert were all originally Maciste films.
None of these films in their original Italian versions were connected to the Hercules character in any way. Likewise,
most of the Sons of Hercules movies shown on American TV in the 1960s had nothing to do with Hercules in their
original Italian incarnations.
References
Notes
[1] Servius, commentary on the Aeneid viii. 203, 275 ; Macrobius, Saturnalia iii. 12.
[2] W. M. Lindsay, "Mehercle and Herc(v)lvs. [Mehercle and Herc(u)lus]" The Classical Quarterly 12.2 (April 1918:58).
[3] Hercules almost suggests "Hero". The Classical and Hellenistic convention in frescoes and mosaics, adopted by the Romans, is to show
women as pale-skinned and men as tanned dark from their outdoor arena of action and exercising in the gymnasium.(See also Reed.edu (http:/
/ academic. reed. edu/ humanities/ 110Tech/ RomanAfrica2/ pompei& herc1. jpg), jpg file. Reed.edu (http:/ / academic. reed. edu/ humanities/
110Tech/ RomanAfrica2/ #Subject), subject).
[4] The sculpture had been carefully buried in Antiquity, having been struck by lightning.
[5] Martial, book VII .
[6] or, baritus, there being scribal variants. In the 17th century, the word entered the German language as barditus and was associated with the
Celtic bards.
Sources
• Charlotte Coffin. "Hercules" (http://www.shakmyth.org/myth/111/hercules) in Peyré, Yves (ed.) A Dictionary
of Shakespeare's Classical Mythology (2009)
External links
• Sword and Sandal#Hercules Series (1957-1965) The Italian "Hercules" Filmography
• Etruscan mirror illustrated Uni and Hercle (http://www.maravot.com/Uni_suckling-Heracles.html)
• Hercle and Menerva on an Etruscan mirror from Città di Castello, c 300 B.C.: Badisches Landesmuseum (http://
www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/598123)
• Images of Hercules (http://ancientrome.ru/art/artworken/result.htm?alt=Hercules)
• Texts on Wikisource:
• James Wood (1907). "Hercules". The Nuttall Encyclopædia.
• "Hercules". The New Student's Reference Work. Chicago: F. E. Compton and Co.. 1914.
• “Hercules and the Wagoner,” by Aesop
• “Hercules,” from Heroes Every Child Should Know by H. W. Mabie
Honos 86
Honos
In Roman mythology, Honos was the god of chivalry, honor and military
justice. He was depicted in art with a lance and a cornucopia. He was
sometimes identified with the deity Virtus.
Inuus 87
Inuus

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
In ancient Roman religion, Inuus was a god, or aspect of a god, who embodied copulation. The evidence for him as
a distinct entity is scant. Servius says that Inuus is an epithet of Faunus (Greek Pan), named from his habit of
intercourse with animals, based on the etymology of ineundum, "a going in, penetration," from inire,[1] "to enter" in
Inuus 88
the sexual sense.[2] Other names for the god were Fatuus and Fatulcus,
W.F. Otto disputed the traditional etymology and derived Inuus instead from in-avos, "friendly, beneficial" (cf. aveo,
"to be eager for, desire"), for the god's fructifying power.[3]
Lupercalia
Livy is the sole source for identifying Inuus as the form of Faunus for whom the Lupercalia was celebrated: "naked
young men would run around venerating Lycaean Pan, whom the Romans then called Inuus, with antics and lewd
behavior."[4] Although Ovid does not name Inuus in his treatment of the Lupercalia, he may allude to his sexual
action in explaining the mythological background of the festival. When Romulus complains that a low fertility rate
has rendered the abduction of the Sabine women pointless, Juno, in her guise as the birth goddess Lucina, offers an
instruction: "Let the sacred goat go into the Italian matrons" (Italidas matres … sacer hirtus inito, with the verb inito
a form of inire).[5] The would-be mothers recoil from this advice, but an augur, "recently arrived from Etruscan soil,"
offers a ritual dodge: a goat was killed, and its hide cut into strips for flagellating women who wished to conceive;
thus the aetiology for the practice at the Lupercalia.[6] Rutilius Namatianus offers a similar verbal play, Faunus init
("Faunus enters"), in pointing out a statue depicting the god at Castrum Inui ("Fort Inuus").[7] Georg Wissowa
rejected both the etymology and the identification of Inuus with Faunus.[8]
The scant evidence for Inuus has not been a bar to elaborate scholarly conjecture, as William Warde Fowler noted at
the beginning of the 20th century in his classic work on Roman festivals.[9] "It is quite plain," Fowler observed, "that
the Roman of the literary age did not know who the god (of the Lupercalia) was."[10]
Castrum Inui
Servius's note on Inuus is prompted by the mention of Castrum Inui at Aeneid 6.77:[11]
A Roman imperial bust of

Faunus
“ This is one and the same as the town (civitas) in Italy which is called New Fort (Castrum Novum). Vergil says 'Fort Inuus' for the place, that
is, 'Fort Pan', who has a cult there. He is called Inuus, however, in Latin, Πάν (Pan) in Greek; also Ἐφιάλτης (Ephialtes), in Latin Incubus;
likewise Faunus, and Fatuus, Fatuclus. He is called Inuus, however, from going around having sex everywhere with all the animals, hence he
is also called Incubus.
[12]
”
Castrum Novum is most likely Giulianova on the coast of Etruria, but Servius seems to have erred in thinking that
Castrum Inui, on the coast of Latium, was the same town.
Rutilius makes the same identification as Servius, but explains that there was a stone carving of Inuus over the gate
of the town. This image, worn by time, showed horns on its "pastoral forehead", but the ancient name was no longer
legible. Rutilius is noncommittal about its identity, "whether Pan exchanged Tyrrhenian woodlands for Maenala, or
Inuus 89
whether a resident Faunus enters (init) his paternal retreats," but proclaims that "as long as he revitalizes the seed of
mortals with generous fertility, the god is imagined as more than usually predisposed to sex."[13]
Other associations
The Christian apologist Arnobius, in his extended debunking of traditional Roman deities, connects Inuus and Pales
as guardians over flocks and herds.[14] The woodland god Silvanus over time became identified with Faunus, and the
unknown author of the Origo gentis romanae[15] notes that many sources said that Faunus was the same as Silvanus,
the god Inuus, and even Pan.[16] Isidore of Seville identifies the Inui, plural, with Pan, incubi, and the Gallic
Dusios.[17]
Diomedes Grammaticus makes a surprising etymological association: he says that the son of the war goddess
Bellona, Greek Enyo (Ἐνυώ), given in the genitive as Ἐνυοῦς (Enuous), is imagined by the poets as goat-foot Inuus,
"because in the manner of a goat he surmounts the mountaintops and difficult passes of the hills."[18]
Casuccini mirror
An Etruscan bronze mirror from Chiusi (ca. 300 BC), the so-called Casuccini mirror, may depict Inuus. The scene
on the back is a type known from at least four other mirrors, as well as engraved Etruscan gems and Attic red-figure
vases. It depicts the oracular head of Orpheus (Etruscan Urphe) prophesying to a group of figures. Names are
inscribed around the edge of the mirror, but because the figures are not labeled individually, the correlation is not
unambiguous; moreover, the lettering is of disputed legibility in some names. There is general agreement, however,
given the comparative evidence, that the five central figures are Umaele, who seems to act as a medium; Euturpa
(the Muse Euterpe), Inue (Inuus), Eraz, and Aliunea or Alpunea (Palamedes in other scenarios). The lovers in the
pediment at the top are Atunis (Adonis) and the unknown E…ial where Turan (Venus) would be expected. The
figure with outstretched wings on the tang is a Lasa, an Etruscan form of Lar who was a facilitator of love like the
Erotes or Cupid.
The bearded Inuus appears in the center. Damage obscures his midsection and legs, but his left arm and chest are
nude and muscled. On an otherwise very similar mirror, a spear-bearing youth replaces Inuus in the composition. No
myth that would provide a narrative context for the scene has been determined.[19]
Darwinian connection
Charles Darwin used the nomenclature Inuus ecaudalus in writing of the Barbary ape, now classified as Macaca
sylvanus.[20] Charles Kingsley wrote to Darwin in January 1862 speculating that certain mythological beings may
represent cultural memories of creatures "intermediate between man & the ape" who became extinct as a result of
natural selection:
“ I want now to bore you on another matter. This great gulf between the quadrumana & man; & the absence of any record of species
intermediate between man & the ape. It has come home to me with much force, that while we deny the existence of any such, the legends of
most nations are full of them. Fauns, Satyrs, Inui, Elves, Dwarfs — we call them one minute mythological personages, the next conquered
of the old Latins is obscure: but his name is from inire — sexual violence.
[21]
”
inferior races — & ignore the broad fact, that they are always represented as more bestial than man, & of violent sexual passion. … The Inuus
Inuus 90
References
[1] See the infinitive form inire; ineundum is a gerund.
[2] Servius, note on Aeneid 6.775; Julian Ward Jones, Jr., An Aeneid Commentary of Mixed Type: The Glosses in Mss Harley 4946 and
Ambrosianus G111 inf. (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1996), pp. 24, 31–32.
[3] Katherine Nell MacFarlane, "Isidore of Seville on the Pagan Gods (Origines VIII. 11)," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society
70 (1980), p. 36, citing Otto's entry on Faunus in PW.
[4] Livy 1.5.2: nudi iuvenes Lycaeum Pana venerantes per lusum atque lasciuiam currerent, quem Romani deinde vocarunt Inuum.
[5] T.P. Wiseman, Historiography and Imagination: Eight Essays on Roman Culture (University of Exeter Press, 1994), p. 138, note 104, takes
Juno's instruction as clear reference to Inuus.
[6] Ovid, Fasti 2.441ff.; Jane F. Gardner, Roman Myths (University of Texas Press, 1993), p. 77, noting that Juno Sospita wears a goatskin cloak.
[7] Rutilius, De reditu suo, line 232.
[8] Georg Wissowa, Religion und Kultus der Römer, 2nd ed., p. 211, as cited by J.G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. 2, Adonis Attis Osiris
(London, 1919), p. 234, note 3.
[9] William Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic (London, 1908), p. 312, commenting with an atypical degree of
disparagement that "Unger … has much to say about Inuus in the worst style of German pseudo-research"; G.F. Unger, "Die Lupercalen,"
Rheinische Museum 36 (1881) 50–86.
[10] Fowler, Festivals, pp. 312–313.
[11] A.J. Boyle and R.D. Woodard, Ovid: Fasti (Penguin Books, 2000), p. 91.
[12] Servius, note on Aeneid 6.775 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Serv. + A. + 6. 775& fromdoc=Perseus:text:1999. 02.
0053): una est in Italia civitas, quae castrum novum dicitur: de hac autem ait 'castrum Inui', id est Panos, qui illic colitur. Inuus autem latine
appellatur, Graece: item Graece, latine Incubo: idem Faunus, idem Fatuus, Fatuclus. dicitur autem Inuus ab ineundo passim cum omnibus
animalibus, unde et Incubo dicitur.
[13] Rutilius, De reditu suo, 225–234; Dennis George, The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria (London, 1883, 3rd ed.) vol. 1, p. 297, note 7.
[15] At one time, Aurelius Victor was thought to be the author of the Origo gentis romanae.
[16] Origo gentis romanae 4.6; Peter F. Dorcey, The Cult of Silvanus: A Study in Roman Folk Religion (Brill, 1992), p. 34.
[17] Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae 8.11.103: Pilosi, qui Graece Panitae, Latine Incubi appellantur, sive Inui ab ineundo passim cum
animalibus. Unde et Incubi dicuntur ab incumbendo, hoc est stuprando. Saepe enim inprobi existunt etiam mulieribus, et earum peragunt
concubitum: quos daemones Galli Dusios vocant, quia adsidue hanc peragunt immunditiam; Katherine Nell MacFarlane, "Isidore of Seville
on the Pagan Gods (Origines VIII. 11)," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 70 (1980), pp. 36–37.
[18] Diomedes Grammaticus, Ars Grammatica 1.475–476; T.P. Wiseman, "The Minucii and Their Monument," in Imperium sine fine: T. Robert
S. Broughton and the Roman Republic (Franz Steiner, 1996), p. 69.
[19] Richard Daniel De Puma and W.K.C. Guthrie, "An Etruscan Mirror with the Prophesying Head of Orpheus," Record of the Art Museum,
Princeton University 60 (2001) 19–29; Richard Daniel De Puma, Etruscan Mirrors, Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum: U.S.A. 4: Northeastern
Collections ("L'Erma" di Bretschneider, 2005), pp. 61–63.
[20] Charles Darwin, "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals," in The Indelible Stamp: The Evolution of an Idea, edited by james
D. Watson (Running Press, 2005), p. 1132 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=LEWfWf0mUJIC& pg=PA1132& dq=Inuus& lr=&
as_drrb_is=b& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=1972& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=14#v=onepage& q=Inuus&
f=false)
[21] Charles Kingsley to Charles Darwin, in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin (Cambridge University Press, 1997), vol. 10, pp. 61–63
online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=5MqBgwX2vZIC& pg=PA63& dq=Inuus& lr=& as_drrb_is=b& as_minm_is=0&
as_miny_is=1972& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=43#v=onepage& q=Inuus& f=false) Content advisory: This
letter contains remarks and assumptions of "the superior white race" that in the 21st century are considered racist and offensive.
Janus 91
Janus
In Roman mythology, Janus is the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, endings and time. Most often he is
depicted as having two heads, facing opposite directions; one head looks back at the last year while the other looks
forward to the new, simultaneously into the future and the past.
Origins and nature

Macrobius and Cicero attempted to explain the name as Latin deriving it from the verb ire ("to go").[1] It has been
conjectured to be derived from the Indo-European root meaning transitional movement (cf. Sanskrit "yana-" or
Avestan "yah-", likewise with Latin "i-" and Greek "ie-".).[2]
William Betham argued that the cult arrived from the Middle East and that Janus corresponds to the Baal-ianus or
Belinus of the Chaldeans sharing a common origin with the Oannes of Berosus.[3]
Janus was usually depicted with two heads facing in opposite directions. According to a legend, he had received the
gift to see both future and past from the god Saturn in reward for the hospitality received. Janus-like heads of gods
related to Hermes have been found in Greece, perhaps suggesting a compound god.
The Romans associated Janus with the Etruscan deity Ani. Several scholars
suggest that he was likely the most important god in the Roman archaic
pantheon. He was often invoked together with Iuppiter (Jupiter).
According to Macrobius and Cicero, Janus and Jana (Diana) are a pair of
divinities, worshipped as the sun and moon, whence they were regarded as
the highest of the gods, and received their sacrifices before all the others.[4]
In general, Janus was the patron of concrete and abstract beginnings of the
world[5] (such as the religion and the gods themselves), the human life,[6]
new historical ages, and economical enterprises. He was also the god of the
home entrance (ianua), gates, bridges and covered and arcaded passages
The Sculpture Gold coin, depicting Janus
(iani) named after him.
He was frequently used to symbolize change and transitions such as the progression of past to future, of one
condition to another, of one vision to another, the growing up of young people, and of one universe to another. He
was also known as the figure representing time because he could see into the past with one face and into the future
with the other. Hence, Janus was worshipped at the beginnings of the harvest and planting times, as well as
marriages, deaths and other beginnings. He was representative of the middle ground between barbarity and
civilization, rural country and urban cities, and youth and adulthood.
Numa in his regulation of the Roman calendar called the first month Januarius after Janus, at the time the highest
divinity. Numa also introduced the Ianus geminus (also Janus Bifrons, Janus Quirinus or Portae Belli) , a passage
ritually opened at times of war, and shut again when Roman arms rested.[7] It formed a walled enclosure with gates
at each end, situated in the Roman Forum which had been consecrated by Numa Pompilius. In the course of wars,
the gates of the Janus were opened, and in its interior sacrifices and vaticinia were held to forecast the outcome of
military deeds.[8] The doors were closed only during peacetime, an extremely rare event. Livy wrote in his Ab urbe
condita that the doors of the temple had only been closed twice since the reign of Numa: firstly in 235 BC after the
first Punic war and secondly in after the battle of Actium in 31 BC. A temple of Janus is said to have been
consecrated by the consul Gaius Duilius in 260 BCE after the Battle of Mylae in the Forum Holitorium. The
four-side structure known as the Arch of Janus in the Forum Boarium dates to the 4th century CE.
In the Middle Ages, Janus was also taken as the symbol of Genoa, whose Latin name was Ianua, as well as of other
European communes.
Janus 92
The Roman Janus and the Indian Ganesha

There is an obvious likeness between the names of those two lesser
deities from the Roman archaic theology framework and from the still
very alive Indian theology framework. In 1806 Sir William Jones drew
a close comparison between a particular form of Ganesha, known as
Ganesha-Jayanti, and Janus. Another early 19th century Indologist,
Edward Moor,[9] expanded the claims of an association based on
functional grounds, noting that Janus, like Ganesha, was invoked at the
beginning of undertakings, a liminal god who was the guardian of
gates. Moor made various other speculations on the connection
between Janus and Ganesha. The case of Janus is addressed by
Georges Dumezil in hardly a few pages in his work “The archaic
Roman religion” , first issued in 1966;[10] Dumezil’s general thesis is
that overall, the classical period Romans had forgotten most of the
grounds of their own theology, and that hints to their primitive The traditional ascription of the "Temple of
conceptions are held solely in remnants of their most ancient rituals; he Janus" at Autun, Burgundy, is disputed.
does not mention Ganesha/Ganesa at all, he discusses Janus only
within the framework of Roman archaic theology , and the only speculations he mentions as of likenesses outside the
Roman environment is to the Etruscan framework, to Ani, as hinted by Alfred Ernout “Philologica II, 1957” “,[11] and
that rather on a negative stance, to the Indian framework, only as a passing mention to Aditi, and to the Nordic
framework, as a few lines discussing some comparable features of Heimdallr; thus it is obvious that Dumezil by
himself was not aware of a link between Janus and Ganesa, even if negatively connotated; however his work on
Janus lays down numerous threads that can be traced to attributes pertaining to Ganesa; one can retain globally:
a) Georges Dumezil starts his exposé defining Janus as a deity related to “beginnings” in rituals; in this attribute
Janus is compared/ opposed to the other Roman deity Vesta, who is associated to their closing; he then links Janus
much more generally to “beginnings” in the largest sense of “prima” in latin, as of the meaning “the first in a time
sequence or a chronological logic”; he enumerates a number of situations where thus Janus is mentioned first of a
long list of deities, as in the opening of “devotio” a very ancient Roman ritual used in the utmost despaired conditions
of warfare, as well as in the Salii verses and the Arval brothers invocation (both also very ancient rituals) etc …; he
then generally highlights the common trait between all the occasions when Janus is part of, as "in whichever
function, in whichever role of this deity that one examines, ALL stem as obvious consequences of his primacy over
“prima”" even invoking the authority of saint Augustine who entails explicitly Janus as “gifted of the power on all
beginnings” (“omnium initiorum potestatem”).
In his reading of Janus, this deity is fundamentally presiding to beginnings in case of “transition” from one status to
another; he is associated to passage ways, entries into dwellings, to the dual action of opening and closing doors
(hence his role in the rituals of war), to the cyclic opening of the year (month of Janu-arius ) and of each month
(Calendae) , to the opening of the (active) part of the day, and the poet Horace, one of the few late Roman period
educated people still initiated, like Cato, Virgil and Cicero, to the oldest Roman rituals, dedicates to him at the
opening of one of his poems.
b) Conversely Ganesha/Ganesa’s prime attribute is that of presiding to obstacles/hindrances and is specifically
designated as “The Destroyer of Obstacles”; thus Somedeva’s "Kathāsaritsāgara" (The Ocean of rivers of tales” ,
based on Brhatkathā or the “Great Story” a long lost original work ) lengthy book of tales is placed specifically under
the patronage of Ganesa, and everyone chapter opens up with an invocation to that deity; likewise very many
invocations within the multiple tales unfolded in the “Brhatkathā” are addressed to Ganesa, on all occasions when the
hero launches himself on some risky adventure, with a general lesson that unless you propitiate Ganesa at the start so
Janus 93
that he would level down all traps and difficulties before your feet, then your enterprise is doomed to failure; the
higher gods themselves must need propitiate their lesser fellow when they initiate some enterprise lest their own
plans come to no end. Thus the effective presence of Ganesa appears in a quite parallel way to Janus definitely
linked to the notion of “auspicious beginnings” and conversely his absence is definitely linked to “unauspicious
beginnings” , which one could term as actual negative omens; in addition rituals to Ganesa are linked to marriage,
another type of situations that typically associate “auspicious omens” and obvious “beginnings”; likewise in the
Jainism rituals, his avatar Ganapati is worshipped at the beginning of every auspicious ceremony and new project,
and this practice is alledgedly still very common in the Swetambara community.
From these simple, but instructive details, one probably can conclude that there indeed is a common indo-european
background or archetype to what is become Janus in the archaic Roman world, and to what is now known as Ganesa
in the Indian world.
Other myths
Janus was supposed to have shared a kingdom with Camese in Latium. They had many children, including
Tiberinus.
When Romulus and his men kidnapped the Sabine women, Janus caused a volcanic hot spring to erupt, resulting in
the would-be attackers being buried alive in the deathly hot, brutal water and ash mixture of the rushing hot volcanic
springs that killed, burned, or disfigured many of Romulus' men. Romulus was in awe of the god's power. (Later on,
however, Sabine and Rome became allies.) In honor of this, the doors of a walled roofless structure called 'The
Janus' (not a temple) were kept open during war after a symbolic contingent of soldiers had marched through it. The
doors were closed in ceremony when peace was concluded. Augustus and Nero both advertised universal peace,
which had led to 'the closing of the Janus', during their reigns.
References
[1] Macrobius, Saturnalia, I, 9, 11
[2] Taylor, Rabun, "Watching the Skies: Janus, Auspication, and the Shrine in the Roman Forum," Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome
vol. 45 (2000): p, 1.
[3] Royal Numismatic Society, Proceedings of the Numismatic Society, James Fraser, 1837
[4] Macrobius Saturnalia i. 9; Cicero De Natura Deorum ii. 27.
[5] According to Varro, in the carmen saliaris Janus is called "creator", as the initiator of the world itself. De lingua latina, VII, 26–27.
[6] Macrobius defines him Consivium, i.e. propagator of the human genre. Saturnalia, I, 9, 16.
[7] Horat. Carm. iv. 15. 8; Virg. Aen. vii. 607
[8] Livy, History of Rome, I, 19, 2
[9] Edward Moor. Hindu Pantheon. p. 98. (Reprint edition: Delhi, 1968)
[10] The archaic Roman religion, part II the Archaic theology, chapter III, by Georges Dumézil
[11] Philologica II, by Alfred Ernout, 1957
Sources
• Dumézil, Georges (2001). La religione romana arcaica. Milan: Rizzoli. pp. 291. ISBN 8817866377.
• Ferrari, Anna (2001). Dizionario di mitologia greca e latina. Milan: Rizzoli. ISBN 8817866377.
• Livius.org: Janus (http://www.livius.org/ja-jn/janus/janus.html)
• Translation of Ovid's Fasti, a section on January, and Janus (http://www.tkline.freeserve.co.uk/
OvidFastiBkOne.htm#_Toc69367257)
Jugatinus 94
Jugatinus
In Roman mythology, Jugatinus was the god of mountain ranges. His name is known from St. Augustine's work The
City of God[1] , and is not attested otherwise.
References
ei=Ofa6TPS1EI7Nswa-gfnXDQ& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=book-thumbnail& resnum=1& ved=0CC8Q6wEwAA#v=snippet& q=The
Romans could scarcely& f=false)
Jupiter (mythology)
Late 1st century AD marble statue of Jupiter preserved

in St Petersburg. Drapings, sceptre, eagle, and Victory
are made of painted plaster dating to the 19th century.

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Jupiter or Jove was the king of the gods, and the god of sky and thunder. He is
the equivalent of Zeus, in the Greek pantheon. He was called Iuppiter (or Diespiter) Optimus Maximus ("Father God
the Best and Greatest"). As the patron deity of ancient Rome, he ruled over laws and social order. He was the chief
god of the Capitoline Triad, with sister/wife Juno. Jupiter is also the father of the god Mars with Juno. Therefore,
Jupiter is the grandfather of Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome. Jupiter was venerated in ancient
Roman religion, and is still venerated in Roman Neopaganism. He is a son of Saturn, along with brothers Neptune
and Pluto.[1] [2] [3] He is also the brother/husband of Ceres (daughter of Saturn and mother of Proserpina), brother of
Veritas (daughter of Saturn), and father of Mercury.
Etymology
Iuppiter originated as a vocative compound of the Old Latin vocative *Iou and pater ("father") and came to replace
the Old Latin nominative case *Ious. Jove[4] is a less common English formation based on Iov-, the stem of oblique
cases of the Latin name. Linguistic studies identify the form *Iou-pater as deriving from the Indo-European vocative
compound *Dyēu-pəter (meaning "O Father Sky-god"; nominative: *Dyēus-pətēr).[5]
Older forms of the deity's name in Rome were Djeus-pater (“day/sky-father”), then Diéspiter. Djeus is the
etymological equivalent of ancient Greece's Zeus and of the Teutonics' Ziu, gen. Ziewes. The Indo-European deity is
thus the god from which Zeus and the Indo-Aryan Vedic Dyaus Pita are derived.
The name of the god was also adopted as the name of the planet Jupiter, and was the original namesake of Latin
forms of the weekday now known in English as Thursday[6] but originally called Iovis Dies in Latin, giving rise to
jeudi in French, jueves in Spanish, joi in Romanian, giovedì in Italian, dijous in Catalan, Xoves in Galego, Joibe in
Furlan.
Epithets of Jupiter
Jupiter was given many names.
By aspect:
1. Jupiter Caelestis ("heavenly")
2. Jupiter Elicius ("who calls forth [celestial omens]" or "who is called forth [by incantations]")
3. Jupiter Feretrius ("who carries away the spoils of war"; called upon to witness solemn oaths[7] - cf. "by Jove").
The epithet or “numen” is probably connected with ferire, the stroke of ritual as illustrated in foedus ferire, of
which the silex, a quartz rock, is evidence in his temple on the Capitoline hill, which is said to have been the first
temple in Rome, erected and dedicated by Romulus to commemorate his winning of the spolia opima from
Acron, king of the Caeninenses, and to serve as a repository for them. Iuppiter Feretrius was therefore equivalent
to Iuppiter Lapis, the latter used for a specially solemn oath[8]
4. Jupiter Fulgurator or Fulgens ("of the lightning")
5. Jupiter Lucetius ("of the light")
6. Jupiter Optimus Maximus (" the best and greatest")
7. Jupiter Pluvius ("sender of rain")
8. Jupiter Stator (from stare meaning "standing")
9. Jupiter Summanus (sender of nocturnal thunder)
10. Jupiter Terminalus or Terminus (defends boundaries).
11. Jupiter Tonans ("thunderer")
12. Jupiter Victor (led Roman armies to victory)
By synchronisation or geography:
1. Jupiter Ammon (Jupiter was equated with the Egyptian deity Amun after the Roman conquest of Egypt)
2. Jupiter Brixianus (Jupiter equated with the local god of the town of Brescia in Cisalpine Gaul (modern North
Italy)
3. Jupiter Capitolinus, the Jupiter Optimus Maximus, venerated in all the places in the Roman Empire with a
Capitol (Capitolium)
4. Jupiter Dolichenus (from Doliche in Syria, originally a Baal weather and war god), since Vespasian popular
among the Roman legions as god of war and victory, esp. on the Danube (Carnuntum). Stands on a bull, a
thunderbolt in the left, a double ax in the right hand.

5. Jupiter Indiges (Jupiter "of the country" - a title given to Aeneas after his death, according to Livy)
6. Jupiter Ladicus (Jupiter equated with a Celtiberian mountain-god and worshipped as the spirit of Mount Ladicus)
7. Jupiter Laterius or Latiaris ("God of Latium")
8. Jupiter Parthinus or Partinus (Jupiter was worshiped under this name on the borders of north-east Dalmatia and
Upper Moesia, perhaps being associated with the local tribe known as the Partheni)
9. Jupiter Poeninus (Jupiter was worshiped in the Alps under this name, around the Great St Bernard Pass, where he
had a sanctuary)
10. Jupiter Solutorius (a local version of Jupiter worshipped in Spain; he was syncretised with the local Iberian god
Eacus)
11. Jupiter Taranis (Jupiter equated with the Celtic god Taranis)
12. Jupiter Uxellinus (Jupiter as a god of high mountains)
Cult
Jupiter may have begun as a sky-god, concerned
mainly with wine festivals and associated with the
sacred oak on the Capitol. If so, he developed a twofold
character. He received the spolia opima and became a
god of war; as Stator he made the armies stand firm
and as Victor he gave them victory.[9] As the sky-god,
he was the first resort as a divine witness to oaths.[10]
Jupiter was the central deity of the early capitoline
Triad of Roman state religion, comprising Jupiter, Mars
and Quirinus. who each possessed some measure of the
divine characteristics essential to Rome's agricultural
economy, social organisation and success in war[11] He
retained this position as senior deity among the later
Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. He
remained Rome's chief official deity throughout the
Republican and Imperial eras, until displaced by the
religious hegemony of Christianity.
Jupiter granted Rome supremacy because he was

"Jupiter et Thétis" by Jean Ingres, 1811.
honoured more by the Romans than by all others: he
was "the fount of the auspices upon which the
relationship of the city with the gods rested". He thus personified the divine authority of Rome's highest offices,
internal organization and external relations: his image in the Republican and Imperial Capitol bore regalia associated
with Rome's ancient kings and the highest consular and Imperial honours.[12] Roman consuls swore their oath of
office in Jupiter's name. To thank him for his help, and to secure his continued support, they offered him a white,
castrated ox (bos mas) with gilded horns.[13] A similar offering was made by triumphal generals, who must surrender
the tokens of their victory at the feet of Jupiter's statue in the Capitol. During one of the crises of the Punic Wars, he
was offered every animal born that year.[14] In official cult, Jupiter was served by the senior of all flamines, the
Flamen Dialis, whose office was attended by many unique ritual prohibitions.
Temple of Jupiter
The largest temple in Rome was that of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill. Here, Romans worshipped
him alongside Juno and Minerva, forming the Capitoline Triad. Jupiter was also worshipped at Capitoline Hill in
the form of a stone, known as Iuppiter Lapis or the Jupiter Stone, which was sworn upon as an oath stone. Temples
to Jupiter Optimus Maximus or the Capitoline Triad as a whole were commonly built by the Romans at the center of
new cities in their colonies.
The building was begun by Tarquinius Priscus and completed by the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus,
although it was inaugurated, by a tradition recorded by the historians, on September 13, at the beginning of the
Republican era, 509BCE.
The temple building stood on a high podium with an entrance staircase to the front. On three of its sides it was
probably surrounded by a colonnade, with another two rows of pillars drawn up in line with those on the façade of
the deep pronaos which precedes the three cellae, ranged side by side in the Etruscan manner, the central one being
wider than the other two.
The surviving remains of the foundations and of the podium, most of which lie underneath Palazzo Caffarelli, are
made up of enormous parallel sections of walling made in blocks of grey tufa-quadriga stone (cappellaccio) and bear
witness to the sheer size of the surface area of the temple's base (about 55 x 60 m).
On the roof was a terracotta quadriga, a chariot drawn by four horses, with God Jupiter himself as the charioteer,
made by the Etruscan artist Vulca of Veii in the 6th Century BCE and commissioned by Tarquinius Superbus; it was
replaced by a bronze one in 296BCE. The cult image was also by Vulca and of the same terracotta material; its face
was painted red on festival days (Ovid, Fasti, 1.201f). Beneath the cella were the favissae, or underground passages,
in which were stored the old statues that had fallen from the roof, and various dedicatory gifts.
The temple was rebuilt in marble after fires had worked total destruction in 83BCE, when the cult image was lost, and
the Sibylline Books kept in a stone chest. Fires followed in 69CE, when the Capitol was stormed by the supporters of
Vitellius and in 80CE.
In front of the steps was the altar of Jupiter (ara Iovis). The large square in front of the temple (the Area Capitolina)
featured a number of temples dedicated to minor divinities, in addition to other religious buildings, statues and
trophies.
Its dilapidation began in the fifth century when Stilicho carried off the gold-plated doors, and Narses removed many
of the statues in 571CE.
When Hadrian built Aelia Capitolina on the site of Jerusalem, a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus was erected in the
place of the destroyed Temple in Jerusalem.
Juppiter Tonans
Juppiter Tonans ("Thundering Jove") was the aspect (numen) of Jupiter
venerated in the Temple of Juppiter Tonans, which was vowed in 26BCE by
Augustus and dedicated in 22 on the Capitoline Hill; the Emperor had narrowly
escaped being struck by lightning during the campaign in Cantabria.[15] An old
temple in the Campus Martius had long been dedicated to Juppiter Fulgens. The
original cult image installed in the sanctuary by its founder was by Leochares,[16]
a Greek sculptor of the 4th Century BCE. The sculpture at the Prado (illustration)
is considered to be a late first century replacement commissioed by Domitian.
The Baroque-era restoration of the arms gives Jupiter a baton-like scepter in his
raised hand. .
Iuppiter Tonans, possibly reflecting
the cult image of the temple of
Jupiter Tonans (Prado) In language
It was once believed that the Roman god Jupiter (Zeus in Greece) was in charge
of cosmic Justice, and in ancient Rome, in their courts of law people swore by Jove to witness the oath,[17] which led
to the common expression "By Jove!" still used as an archaism today.
In addition, "jovial" is a somewhat common adjective, originally used to describe people born under the lucky planet
of Jupiter,[18] which was believed to make them jolly, optimistic, and buoyant in temperament.
Notes
[1] The Creation of the Earth and the Great Flood according to Greek and Roman Mythology (http:/ / www. pitt. edu/ ~dash/ creation-ovid.
html), D. L. Ashliman, 2002
[2] Jupiter (mythology) (http:/ / encarta. msn. com/ encyclopedia_761564260/ Jupiter_(mythology). html), Encarta. Archived (http:/ / www.
webcitation. org/ 5kws7PHsU) 2009-10-31.
[3] Saturn (http:/ / dictionary. reference. com/ browse/ Saturn), dictionary.com
[4] Most common in poetry, for its useful meter, and in the expression "By Jove!"
[5] "Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans" (http:/ / www. bartleby. com/ 61/ 8. html). American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.
2000. . Retrieved 2008-09-27.
[6] English Thursday, German Donnerstag, is named after Thunor, Thor, or Old High German Donar from Germanic mythology, a deity similar
to Jupiter Tonans
[7] Der Große Brockhaus, vol.9, Leipzig: Brockhaus 1931, p. 520
[8] Samuel Ball Platner, revised by Thomas Ashby: A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, London: Oxford University Press, 1929 p.293
(http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Gazetteer/ Places/ Europe/ Italy/ Lazio/ Roma/ Rome/ _Texts/ PLATOP*/ Jupiter_Feretrius.
html)
[9] Victor became an intermediary feminine personification Victoria.
[10] Fides had a similar function, but was feminine. Mars was also a deity of both agriculture and war, and was offered a sheep, a suckling pig
and a bull for his continued protection of the fields and family. Cited by Halm, in Rüpke (ed), 239. See also Cato the Elder, On Agriculture,
141. The Colline deity Quirinus may have equivalent in some way to both Mars and Jupiter: "Quirinus, perhaps the war god of the Quirinal
settlement or the god who presided over the assembled citizens." Howard Hayes Scullard, (2003), A History of the Roman World, 753 to 146
BC, page 393. Routledge.
[11] For a summary regarding the nature, status and complex development of Jupiter from regal to Republican era, see Beard et al., Vol. 1, 59 -
60. For the conceptual difficulties involved in discussion of Roman deities and their cults, see Rüpke, in Rüpke (ed) 1 - 7.
[12] Orlin, in Rüpke (ed), 58.
[13] Scheid, in Rüpke (ed), 263 - 271.
[14] Beard et al, Vol 1, 32-36: the consecration made this a "Sacred Spring" (ver sacrum). The "contract" with Jupiter is exceptionally detailed.
All due care would be taken of the animals, but any that died or were stolen before the scheduled sacrifice would count as if already sacrificed.
Sacred animals were already assigned to the gods, who ought to protect their own property.
[15] Suetonius, Vita Augusti 29.91, etc. See Samuel Ball Platner and Thomas Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, (London:
Oxford University Press) 1929. On-line text (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Gazetteer/ Places/ Europe/ Italy/ Lazio/ Roma/
Rome/ _Texts/ PLATOP*/ Aedes_Jovis_Tonantis. html))
[16] According to Pliny's Natural History, 39.79

[17] Samuel Ball Platner, revised by Thomas Ashby: A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, London: Oxford University Press, 1929
p.293 (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Gazetteer/ Places/ Europe/ Italy/ Lazio/ Roma/ Rome/ _Texts/ PLATOP*/
Jupiter_Feretrius. html) and
Der Große Brockhaus, vol.9, Leipzig: Brockhaus 1931, p. 520
[18] Walter W. Skeat, A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, Oxford: Clarendon Press 1882, OUP 1984, p.274
References
• Musei Capitolini (http://www.museicapitolini.org/en/museo/sezioni.asp?l1=5&l2=3)
• Dumézil, G. (1988). Mitra-Varuna: An essay on two Indo-European representations of sovereignty. New York:
Zone Books. ISBN 0-942299-13-2
• Dumézil, G. (1996). Archaic Roman religion: With an appendix on the religion of the Etruscans. Baltimore, Md:
Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-5481-4
• Article "Jupiter" in The Oxford Classical Dictionary. ISBN 0-19-860641-9
• Smith, Miranda J., 'Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend' ISBN 0-500-27976-6
• Favourite Greek Myths, Mary Pope Osbourne Aedes Iovis Optimi Maximi Capitolini (http://penelope.uchicago.
edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/_Texts/PLATOP*/
Aedes_Jovis_Capitolini.html)
• Platner, S. B., & Ashby, T. (1929). A topographical dictionary of ancient Rome. London: Oxford University
Press, H. Milford. OCLC 1061481
• Rüpke, Jörg (Editor), A Companion to Roman Religion, Wiley-Blackwell, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4051-2943-5
Jupiter Indiges
According to the Roman historian Livy, Jupiter Indiges is the name given to the deified hero Aeneas. In some
versions of his story, he is raised up to become a god after his death by Numicius, a local deity of the river of the
same name, at the request of Aeneas' mother Venus.[1] The title Pater Indiges or simply Indiges is also used.[2]
The Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus notes that when the body of Aeneas was not found after a battle
between his group of Trojan exiles in Italy and the native Rutulians, it was assumed that he had been taken up by the
gods to become a deity. He also presents the alternative explanation that Aeneas may have simply drowned in the
river Numicus and that a shrine in his memory was built there.[3]
The term "Indiges", thought by some to be from the same root as "indigenous", may reflect the fact that these minor
deities (collectively, the "Dii Indegetes") originated locally in Italy [4] . An alternate explanation given is that they
were individuals who were raised to the status of gods after mortal life. Compare for example Sol Indiges.
References
[1] Livy, Ab Urbe Condita Book 1.
[2] Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 14
[3] The Roman Antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, published in Vol. I of the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1937
[4] Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities edited William Smith (1870) p. 573
Jupiter Tonans 101
Jupiter Tonans
Jupiter Tonans, or, in Latin spelling, Iuppiter Tonans ("Thundering
Jove") was the aspect (numen) of Jupiter venerated in the Temple of
Juppiter Tonans, which was vowed in 26 BC or BCE by Augustus
and dedicated in 22 BC or BCE on the Capitoline Hill; the Emperor
had narrowly escaped being struck by lightning during the campaign in
Cantabria.[1] An old temple in the Campus Martius had long been
dedicated to Juppiter Fulgens. The original cult image installed in the
sanctuary by its founder was by Leochares,[2] a Greek sculptor of the
4th century BC or BCE.
In the 1st century Vitruvius observed (De architectura I.2.5) the

propriety or decorum required for temples of Jupiter Tonans, that they
be hypaethral, open to the sky.
The sculpture at the Prado (illustration) is considered to be a late 1st
century replacement commissioned by Domitian. The Baroque-era
restoration of the arms has given Jupiter a baton-like scepter in his Jupiter Tonans, possibly reflecting the cult image
raised hand. of the temple of Jupiter Tonans in Rome (Spanish
Royal collection, Prado)
References
[1] Suetonius, Vita Augusti 29.91, etc. See Samuel Ball Platner and Thomas Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, London:
Oxford University Press, 1929, p. 305f. (On-line text) (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Gazetteer/ Places/ Europe/ Italy/ Lazio/
Roma/ Rome/ _Texts/ PLATOP*/ Aedes_Jovis_Tonantis. html).
[2] According to Pliny's Natural History, 39.79
External links
• Platner: Aedes Jovis Tonantis. On-line text (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/
Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/_Texts/PLATOP*/Aedes_Jovis_Tonantis.html))
Lactans 102
Lactans
In Roman mythology, Lactans (or Lactanus) was a god who made crops prosper, and specifically promoted the
growth of young corn.
Lares 103
Lares
For other meanings, see Lares (disambiguation).
Lar statuette, bronze, 1st century AD (Capitoline

Museum, Rome).

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Lares 104
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
Lares (sing. Lar) – or archaically, Lases – were guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is
uncertain; they may have been guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries or fruitfulness, hero-ancestors, or an
amalgam of these.
Lares were believed to observe, protect and influence all that happened within the boundaries of their location or
function. The statues of domestic Lares were placed at table during family meals; their presence, cult and blessing
seem to have been required at all important family events. Roman writers sometimes identify or conflate them with
ancestor-deities, domestic Penates and the hearth. Because of these associations, Lares are sometimes categorised as
household gods but some had much broader domains. Roadways, seaways, agriculture, livestock, towns, cities, the
state and its military were all under the protection of their particular Lar or Lares. Those who protected local
neighbourhoods (vici) were housed in the crossroad shrines (Compitales) which served as a focus for the religious,
social and political life of their local, overwhelmingly plebeian communities. Their cult officials included freedmen
and slaves, otherwise excluded by status or property qualification from most administrative and religious offices.
Compared to Rome's major deities, the scope and potency of Lares were limited but they were important, peculiarly
Roman objects of cult. Archaeological and literary evidence attests to their central role in Roman identity and
religious life throughout the Republic and empire. By analogy, a homeward-bound Roman could be described as
returning ad Larem (to the Lar). Despite official bans on non-Christian cults from the late 4th century AD onwards,
unofficial cults to Lares persisted until at least the early 5th century AD.
Origins and development

Archaic Rome's Etruscan neighbours practiced domestic, ancestral or family cults very similar to those offered by
later Romans to their Lares.[1] Ancient Greek and Roman and authors offer "heroes" and "daimones" as translations
of "Lares"; the early Roman playwright Plautus (c. 254–184 BC) employs a Lar Familiaris as a guardian of treasure
on behalf of a family, as a plot equivalent to the Greek playwright Menander's use of a heroon (as an ancestral
hero-shrine).[2] Weinstock proposes a more ancient equivalence of Lar and Greek hero, based on his gloss of a 4th
century BC Latin dedication to the Roman ancestor-hero Aeneas as Lare (Lar).[3]
No physical Lar images survive from before the Late Republican era, but literary references[4] suggest that cult could
be offered to a single Lar, and sometimes many more: in the case of the obscure Lares Grundules, perhaps thirty.
Lares 105
Their development as paired divinities may have arisen through the influences of Greek religion – in particular, the
heroic twin Dioscuri – and the iconography of Rome's semi-divine founder-twins, Romulus and Remus. Domestic
Lares statues from the early Imperial era show only minor stylistic variations from a common type; small, youthful,
lively male figures clad in short, rustic, girdled tunics – made of dogskin, according to Plutarch.[5] They take a
dancer's attitude, tiptoed or lightly balanced on one leg. One arm raises a drinking horn (rhyton) aloft as if to offer a
toast or libation; the other bears a shallow libation dish (patera). Carved representations of Lares on Compitalia
shrines of the same period show figures of the same type. Painted shrine-images of paired Lares show them in
mirrored poses to the left and right of a central figure, understood to be an ancestral genius.
Lares and their domains

Lares belonged within the "bounded physical domain" under their protection,
and seem to have been as innumerable as the places they protected. Some
appear to have had overlapping functions and changes of name. Some have
no particular or descriptive name: for example, those invoked along with
Mars in the Carmen Arvale are simply Lases (an archaic form of Lares),
whose divine functions must be inferred from the wording and context of the
Carmen itself. Likewise those invoked along with other deities by the consul
Publius Decius Mus as an act of devotio before his death in battle are simply
"Lares". The titles and domains given below cannot therefore be taken as
exhaustive or definitive.
• Lares Augusti: the Lares of Augustus, or perhaps "the august Lares",

given public cult on the first of August, thereby identified with the
inaugural day of Imperial Roman magistracies and with Augustus himself.
Official Cult to the Lares Augusti continued from their institution through
to the 4th century AD.[6] They are identified with the Lares Compitalicii
and Lares Praestites of Augustan religious reform.[7]
• Lares Compitalicii (also Lares Compitales): the Lares of local
communities or neighbourhoods (vici), celebrated at the Compitalia
festival. Their shrines were usually positioned at main central crossroads
(compites) of their vici, and provided a focus for the religious and social
life of their community, particularly for the plebeian and servile masses.
The Lares Compitalicii are synonymous with the Lares Augusti of
Augustan reform. Augustus' institution of cult to the Lares Praestites was Gallo-Roman Lar, Imperial period (from
the "Muri" statuette collection).
held at the same Compitalia shrines, but on a different date.[8] [9]
• Lares Domestici: Lares of the house, probably identical with Lares Familiares.
• Lares Familiares: Lares of the family, probably identical with the Lares Domestici.
• Lares Grundules: the thirty "grunting Lares", supposedly given an altar and cult by Romulus when a sow
produced a prodigous farrow of thirty piglets.[10]
• Lares Militares: "military Lares", named by Marcianus Capella as members of two cult groupings which include
Mars, Jupiter and other major Roman deities.[11] Palmer (1974) interprets the figure from a probable altar-relief as
"something like a Lar Militaris": he is cloaked, and sits horseback on a saddle of panther skin.[12]
• Lares Patrii: Lares "of the fathers", possibly equivalent to the dii patrii (deified ancestors) who received cult at
Parentalia.
• Lares Permarini: Lares who protected seafarers; also a temple to them (of which one is known at Rome's Campus
martius).
Lares 106
• Lares Praestites: Lares of the city of Rome, later of the Roman state or community; literally, the "Lares who stand
before", as guardians or watchmen. They were housed in the state Regia, near the temple of Vesta, with whose
worship and sacred hearth they were associated; they seem to have protected Rome from malicious or destructive
fire. They may have also functioned as the neighbourhood Lares of Octavian (the later emperor Augustus), who
owned a house between the Temple of Vesta and the Regia. Augustus later gave this house and care of its Lares to
the Vestals: this donation reinforced the religious bonds between the Lares of his household, his neighbourhood
and the State. His Compitalia reforms extended this identification to every neighbourhood Lares shrine. However,
Lares Praestites and the Lares Compitales (renamed as Lares Augusti) should probably not be considered
identical. Their local festivals were held at the same Compitalia shrines, but at different times.[13]
• Lares Privati
• Lares Rurales: Lares of the fields, identified as custodes agri – guardians of the fields – by Tibullus.[14]
• Lares Viales: Lares of roads and those who travel them.
Domestic Lares
Traditional Roman households owned at least one protective Lares-figure, housed in a shrine along with the images
of the household's penates, genius image and any other favoured deities. Their statues were placed at table during
family meals and banquets. They were divine witnesses at important family occasions, such as marriages, births and
adoptions, and their shrines provided a religious hub for social and family life.[15]
Responsibility for household cult and the behaviour of family members ultimately fell to the family head, the
paterfamilias but he could, and indeed should on certain occasions properly delegate the cult and care of his Lares to
other family members, especially his servants.[16] The positioning of the Lares at the House of Menander suggest
that the paterfamilias delegated this religious task to his villicus (bailif).[17] Individuals who failed to attend to the
needs of their Lares and their families should expect neither reward not good fortune for themselves. In Plautus'
comedy Aulularia, the Lar of the miserly paterfamilias Euclio reveals a pot of gold long-hidden beneath his
household hearth, denied to Euclio's father because of his stinginess towards his Lar. Euclio's own stinginess
deprives him of the gold until he sees the error of his ways; then he uses it to give his virtuous daughter the dowry
she deserves, and all is well.[18]
Care and cult to domestic Lares could include offerings of spelt wheat and grain-garlands, honey cakes and
honeycombs, grapes and first fruits, wine and incense.[19] They could be served at any time and not always by
intention: as well as the formal offerings that seem to have been their due, any food that fell to the floor during house
banquets was theirs.[20] On important occasions, wealthier households may have offered their own Lares a pig. A
single source describes Romulus' provision of an altar and sacrifice to Lares Grundules ("grunting lares") after an
unusually large farrowing of thirty piglets. The circumstances of this offering are otherwise unknown: Taylor
conjectures the sacrifice of a pig, possibly a pregnant sow.[21]
Domestic shrines to the Lares

During the early Imperial period, household shrines acquired the generic name, lararia (s. lararium). The term was
derived from Lar, probably due to the domestic ubiquity of Lares. Not all such shrines need house Lares figures but
of those that did, Pompeian shrine paintings are thought to show a typical layout: paired Lares flank a genius or
ancestor-figure, who wears a toga in the priestly manner prescribed for sacrificers. Positioned beneath this trio of
figures is a serpent, which represents the fertility of fields or the principle of generative power. Arranged around or
within the whole are representations of sacrificial essentials such as bowl and knife, incense box, libation vessels and
parts of sacrificial animals.
Household shrines, with or without a Lar figure or two, could be sited in virtually any room of any house; bedrooms,
private rooms of uncertain purpose and working areas such as kitchen and stores. The Lares figures and shrines of
wealthy households are often, though not exclusively found in the servant's quarters, and resemble those found in
Lares 107
households of more modest means: small Lar statuettes set in wall-niches, sometimes merely a tile-support
projecting from a simply painted background.[22] At Pompeii, the Lares and lararium of the sophisticated,
unpretentious and artistically restrained House of Menander[23] were associated with its servant quarters and adjacent
agricultural estate. Its statuary was unsophisticated, "rustic" and probably of ancient type or make. The placing of
Lares in the public or semi-public parts of a house, such as its atrium, enrolled them in the more outward, theatrical
functions of household religion.[24]
The House of the Vettii in Pompeii had two
lararia. One was a simple, traditionally
Roman affair, positioned out of public view,
and was probably used in private household
rites. The other was placed boldly
front-of-house, among a riot of
Greek-inspired mythological wall-paintings
and the assorted statuary of patron
divinities.[26] Its positioning in a relatively
public part of the domus would have
provided a backdrop for the probably
interminable salutatio (formal greeting)
Pompeian lararium at the House of the Vettii. Two Lares flank an ancestor-genius between its upwardly mobile owners and
holding patera (bowl) and incense box, his head respectfully covered as if for their strings of clients and "an assorted
sacrifice. The snake is associated with the land's fertility and thus prosperity; it group of unattached persons who made the
approaches a low, laden altar. The shrine's tympanum shows a patera, ox-skull and
[25] rounds of salutationes to assure their
knife.
political and economic security".[27]
Domestic Lararia were also used as a sacred, protective depository for commonplace symbols of family change and
continuity. In his coming-of-age, a boy gave his personal amulet (bulla) to his Lares before he put on his manly toga
(toga virilis). Once his first beard had been ritually cut off, it was placed in their keeping.[28] On the night before her
wedding, a Roman girl surrendered her dolls, soft balls and breastbands to her family Lares, as a sign she had come
of age. On the day of her marriage, she transferred her allegiance to her husband's neighbourhood Lares (Lares
Compitalici) by paying them a copper coin en route to her new home. She paid another to her new domestic Lares,
and one to her husband. If the marriage made her a materfamilias, she took joint responsibility with her husband for
aspects of household cult.[29] [30]
Lares 108
Lares and the Compitalia

The city of Rome was protected by a Lar, or Lares, housed in a
shrine (sacellum) on the City's ancient, sacred boundary
(pomerium).[31] Each Roman vicus (pl. vici – administrative
districts or wards) had its own communal Lares, housed in a
permanent shrine at a central crossroads of the district. These
Lares Compitalicii were celebrated at the Compitalia festival
(from the Latin compitum, a crossroad) just after the Saturnalia
that closed the old year. In the "solemn and sumptuous" rites of
Compitalia, a pig was led taken in celebratory procession through
the streets of the vicus then sacrificed to the Lares at their
Compitalia shrine. Cult offerings to these Lares were much the
same as those to domestic Lares; in the late Republican era,
Dionysius of Halicarnassus describes the contribution of a
honey-cake from each household as ancient tradition.[32]
Lar statuette, early 1st century AD, from Lora del Rio,
Spain. At the National Archaeological Museum of
Spain, Madrid
The Compitalia itself was explained as an invention of

Rome's sixth king, Servius Tullius, whose servile
origins and favour towards plebians and slaves had
antagonised Rome's ruling Patrician caste and
ultimately caused his downfall: he was said to have
been fathered by a Lar or some other divine being, on a
royal slave-girl.[33] So although the Lares Compitalicii
were held to protect all the community, regardless of
social class, their festival had a distinctly plebeian
A fresco from a building near Pompeii, a rare depiction of Roman ambiance, and a measure of Saturnalia's reversal of the
men in togae praetextae with dark red borders. It dates from the early status quo. Tradition required that the Lares
Imperial Era and probably shows an event during Compitalia Compitalicii be served by men of very low legal and
social status: not merely plebians, but freedmen and
slaves, to whom "even the heavy-handed Cato recommended liberality during the festival".[34] Dionysius' explains it
thus:
... the heroes [Lares] looked kindly on the service of slaves.[35] And [the Romans] still observe the ancient
custom in connection with those sacrifices propitiating the heroes by the ministry of their servants and during
these days removing every badge of their servitude, in order that the slaves, being softened by this instance of
humanity, which has something great and solemn about it, may make themselves more agreeable to their
masters and be less sensible of the severity of their condition.[36]
While the supervision of the vici and their religious affairs may have been charged to the Roman elite who occupied
most magistracies and priesthoods,[37] management of the day-to-day affairs and public amenities of neighbourhoods
Lares 109
– including their religious festivals – was the responsibility of freedmen and their slave-assistants. The Compitalia
was an official festival but during the Republican era, its shrines appear to have been funded locally, probably by
subscription among the plebeians, freedmen and slaves of the vici. Their support through private benefaction is
nowhere attested, and official attitudes to the Republican Compitalia seem equivocal at best: The Compitalia games
(Ludi Compitalicii) included popular theatrical religious performances of raucously subversive flavour:[38]
Compitalia thus offered a religiously sanctioned outlet for free speech and populist subversion. At some time
between 85–82 BC, the Compitalia shrines were the focus of cult to the ill-fated popularist politician Marcus Marius
Gratidianus during his praetorship. What happened – if anything – to the Compitalia festivals and games in the
immediate aftermath of his public, ritualised murder by his opponents is not known but in 68 BC the games at least
were suppressed as "disorderly".[39]
Lares and Augustan religious reforms

The princeps Augustus reformed Compitalia and subdivided the vici. From 7 BC a Lares' festival on 1 May was
dedicated to the Lares Augusti and a new celebration of the Genius Augusti was held on 1 August, the inaugural day
for Roman magistracies and personally auspicious for Augutus as the anniversary of his victory at Actium. Statues
representing the Genius Augusti were inserted between the Lares of the Compitalia shrines.[40] Whether or not
Augustus substituted the public Lares with "his own" Lares is questionable; augusti can be interpreted as descriptive,
a shared title and honour (the "august" Lares) but when coupled with his new cult to the Genius Augusti, Augustus'
deliberate association with the popular Lares through their shared honorific makes the reformed Compitalia an
unmistakable, local, "street level" aspect of cult to living emperors.[41]
The iconography of these shrines celebrates their sponsor's personal
qualities and achievements and evokes a real or re-invented continuity of
practice from ancient times. Some examples are sophisticated, others
crude and virtually rustic in style; taken as a whole, their positioning in
every vicus (ward) of Rome symbolically extends the ideology of a
"refounded" Rome to every part of the city.[42] The Compitalia reforms
were ingenious and genuinely popular; they valued the traditions of the
Roman masses and won their political, social and religious support.
Probabably in response to this, provincial cults to the Lares Augusti
appear soon afterwards; in Ostia, a Lares Augusti shrine was placed in
the forum, which was ritually cleansed for the occasion.[43] The
Augustan model persisted with only minor modifications until the end of
the Western Empire, still dedicated to the Lares Augusti and associated
with the ruling Emperor by title rather than name. Similar dedications
and collegial arrangements are found elsewhere in the Empire.[44] Compitalia procession with the image of a Lar.
Drawing from a fragment of bas-relief in the
Augustus officially confirmed the plebian-servile character of Compitalia former Lateran Museum
as essential to his "restoration" of Roman tradition, and formalised their

offices; the vici and their religious affairs were now the responsibility of official magistri vici, usually freedmen,
assisted by ministri vici who were usually slaves. A dedication of 2 BC to the Augustan Lares lists four slaves as
shrine-officials of their vicus.[45] Given their slave status, their powers are debatable but they clearly constitute an
official body. Their inscribed names, and those of their owners, are contained within an oak-wreath cartouche. The
oak-leaf chaplet was voted to Augustus as "saviour" of Rome;[46] He was symbolic pater (father) of the Roman state,
and though his genius was owed cult by his extended family, its offer seems to have been entirely voluntary. Hardly
any of the reformed Compital shrines show evidence of cult to the emperor's genius.[47] Augustus acted with the
political acumen of any responsible patronus (patron); his subdivision of the vici created new opportunities for his
clients. It repaid honour with honours, which for the plebs meant offices, priesthood, and the respect of their
Lares 110
peers;[48] at least for some. In Petronius' Satyricon, a magistrate's lictor bangs on Trimalchio's door; it causes a
fearful stir but in comes Habinnas, one of Augustus' new priests, a stonemason by trade; dressed up in his regalia,
perfumed and completely drunk.[49]
Lares origin myths and theology

From the Late Republican and early Imperial eras, the priestly records of the Arval Brethren and the speculative
commentaries of a very small number of literate Romans attest to a Mother of the Lares (Mater Larum). Her children
are invoked by the obscure, fragmentary opening to the Arval Hymn (Carmen Arvale); enos Lases iuvate ("Help us,
Lares").[50] She is named as Mania by Varro (116–27 BC), who believes her an originally Sabine deity. The same
name is used by later Roman authors with the general sense of a bogey or "evil spirit".[51] Much later, Macrobius (fl.
395–423 AD) describes the woolen figurines hung at crossroad shrines during Compitalia as maniae, supposed as an
ingenious substitution for child sacrifices to the Mater Larum, instituted by Rome's last monarch and suppressed by
its first consul, L. Junius Brutus.[52] Modern scholarship takes the Arval rites to the Mother of the Lares as typically
chthonic, and the goddess herself as a dark or terrible aspect of the earth-mother, Tellus. Ovid supplies or elaborates
an origin-myth for the Mater Larum as a once-loquacious nymph, Lara, whose tongue is cut out as punishment for
her betrayal of Jupiter's secret amours. Lara thus becomes Muta (the speechless one). Mercury leads her to the
underworld abode of the dead (ad Manes); in this place of silence she is Tacita (the silent one). En route, he
impregnates her. She gives birth to twin boys as silent or speechless as she. In this context, the Lares can be
understood as "manes of silence" (taciti manes).[53] [54]
Ovid's poetic myth appears to draw on remnants of ancient rites to the Mater Larum, surviving as folk-cult among
women at the fringes of the Feralia: an old woman sews up a fish-head, smears it with pitch then pierces and roasts it
to bind hostile tongues to silence: she thus invokes Tacita. If, as Ovid proposes, the lemures are an unsatiated,
malevolent and wandering form of Lares, then they and their mother also find their way into Lemuralia, when the
hungry Lemures gather in Roman houses and claim cult from the living. The paterfamilias must redeem himself and
his family with the offer of midnight libations of spring-water, and black beans spat onto the floor. Any lemures
dissatisfied with these offerings are scared away by the loud clashing of bronze pots. Taylor notes the chthonic
character of offerings made to fall – or deliberately expelled – towards the earth. If their mother's nature connects
the Lares to the earth they are, according to Taylor, spirits of the departed.[55]
Plutarch offers a legend of Servius Tullius, sixth king of Rome,
credited with the founding of the Lares' public festival, Compitalia.
Servius' virginal slave mother-to-be is impregnated by a
phallus-apparition arising from the hearth,[56] or some other divine
being held to be a major deity or ancestor-hero by some, a Lar by
others: the latter seems to have been a strong popular tradition.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus reports Servius' fathering by a Lar and his
later pious founding of Compitalia as Roman commonplaces during the
Augustan era. The Lar seems to him an equivalent to the Greek hero;
Household lararium in Pompeii
semi-divine, ancestral and protective of place.[57] [58] [59]
These stories connect the Lar to the hearth, the underworld, generative powers (however embodied), nourishment,
forms of divine or semi-divine ancestry and the coupling of the divine with the servile, wherein those deprived by
legal or birth-status of a personal gens could serve, and be served by, the cults attached to Compitalia and Larentalia.
Mommsen's contention that Lares were originally field deities is not incompatible with their role as ancestors and
guardians. A rural familia relied on the productivity of their estate and its soil: around the early 2nd century BC,
Plautus's Lar Familiaris protects the house, and familia as he has always done, and safeguards their secrets.[60]
The little mythography that belongs to the Lares seems inventive and poetic; no traditional, systematic theology
attaches to them. These limitations allow their development as single, usefully nebulous type with many functions. In
Lares 111
Cicero's day, one's possession of domestic Lares laid moral claim of ownership and belonging to one's domicile.[61]
Festus identifies them as "gods of the underworld" (di inferi).[62] To Flaccus, they are ancestral genii (s. genius).
Apuleius considers them benevolent ancestral spirits; they belong both to the underworld and to particular places of
the human world. To him, this distinguishes them from the divine and eternal genius which inhabits, protects and
inspires living men: and having specific physical domains, they cannot be connected with the malicious, vagrant
lemures.[63] In the 4th century AD the Christian polemicist Arnobius, claiming among others Varro (116–27 BC) as
his source, describes them as once-human spirits of the underworld, therefore ancestral manes-ghosts; but also as
"gods of the air", or the upper world. He also – perhaps uniquely in the literature but still claiming Varro's authority
– categorises them with the frightful larvae.[64] [65] The ubiquity of Lares seems to have set considerable restraints on
Christian participation in Roman public life, and in the 3rd century AD, Tertullian remarks the inevitable presence of
Lares in pagan households as good reason to forbid marriage between pagan men and Christian women: the latter
would be "tormented by the vapor of incense each time the demons are honored, each solemn festivity in honor of
the emperors, each beginning of the year, each beginning of the month."[66] Yet their type proved remarkably
persistent. In the early 5th century AD, after the official suppression of non-Christian cults, Rutilius Namatianus
could write of a famine-stricken district whose inhabitants had no choice but to "abandon their Lares" (thus, to desert
their rat-infested houses).[67]
See also
• The Lares in Rome's Imperial cult
• Compitalia
• Genius
• Lemures
• Di Penates
• Manes
• Turan, the Etruscan love goddess
Notes
[1] Ryberg, pp. 10 - 13: a wall painting at the Tomba dei Leopardi, at Etruscan Tarquinni, shows offerings are made to Lares-like figures, or di
Manes (deified ancestors) in a procession preparatory to funeral games. A black-figured Etruscan vase, and Etruscan reliefs, show the forms of
altar and iconography used in Roman Lares-cult, including the offer of a garland crown, sacrifice of a pig and the representation of serpents as
a fructifying or generative force.
[2] Hunter, 2008.
[3] Weinstock, 114-118.
[4] Such as Plautus' singular Lar, above.
[5] Plutarch, Roman Questions, 52: see Waites, 258 for analysis of chthonic connections between the Lares' dogskin tunic, Hecate and the Lares
of the crossroads (Lares Compitalicii).
[6] Beard et al, 185-6, 355, 357.
[7] Lott, 116 - 117.
[8] Beard et al, 139.
[9] Lott, 115 - 117, citing Suetonius.
[10] Taylor, 303, citing the 2nd century BC annalist Cassius Hemina.
[11] Marcianus Capella, 1.45 ff.
[12] Robert EA Plamer, Roman religion and Roman Empire: five essays, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1974, p. 116. Limited preview
available via googlebooks: (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=JtQoAAAAYAAJ& q="lar+ militaris"& dq="lar+ militaris"& hl=en&
ei=qxaETJPAAdOnnQfWkvW4AQ& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=3& ved=0CDUQ6AEwAg)
[13] Lott, 116 - 117.
[14] Tibullus, 1, 1, 19 - 24. (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/ books?id=IpQRKCKEsz0C& pg=PA15& lpg=PA15& dq=Tibullus+ custodes&
source=bl& ots=4VuDDxHV3P& sig=9vM0CNl2oPKOYBAAEnmGEE20giw& hl=en& ei=0r-8TPapLcuX4gbssJ2EDg& sa=X&
oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=2& sqi=2& ved=0CBoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage& q=Tibullus custodes& f=false) See also Cicero, De
Legibus, 2. 19, for reference to Lares as field-deities.
Lares 112
[15] The painted Lares and genius at the "House of the Red Walls" in Pompeii shared their quarters with bronze statuettes of Lares, Mercury,
Apollo, and Hercules: see Kaufmann-Heinimann, in Rüpke (ed), 200.
[16] The "proper occasions" included the household's participation in the Compitalia festival. Clear evidence is otherwise lacking for the
executive roles of subservient household members in household cults.
[17] Allison, P., 2006, The Insula of Menander at Pompeii, Vol.III, The Finds; A Contextual Study Oxford: Claredon Press.
[18] Plautus, Aulularia, prologue: see Hunter, 2008.
[19] Orr, 23.
[20] Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 28, 27.
[21] Taylor, 303: citing Cassius Hemina ap. Diomedes I, p384 K; Nonius, p 114 M. Taylor notes that the story's association with Lavinius, Rome
and Alba: "In view of the frequent identity between God and sacrificial victim, it is worth noting that the pig was the most usual offering to the
Lares, just as the pregnant animal and particularly the pregnant sow was a common sacrifice to the earth goddess."
[22] "The architecture of the ancient Romans was, from first to last, an art of shaping space around ritual:" Clarke, 1, citing Frank E. Brown,
Roman Architecture, (New York, 1961, 9. Clarke views Roman ritual as twofold; some is prescribed and ceremonial, and includes activities
which might be called, in modern terms, religious; some is what might be understood in modern terms as secular conventions – the proper and
habitual way of doing things. For Romans, both activities were matters of lawful custom (mos maiorum) rather than religious as opposed to
secular.
[23] Named after its particularly fine fresco of the poet
[24] Kaufmann-Heinimann, in Rüpke (ed), 200: in some cases, the artistic display of the lararium seems to displace its religious function.
[25] Beard et al, vol. 2, 4.12.
[26] The more public lararium is exceptionally large; it measures 1.3m x 2.25m and faces onto the internal courtyard of the building. Its painted
deities are framed by stonework in the form of a classical temple, complete with finely carved pediment to support a patera for offerings. With
its painted deities and mythological scenes, such a lararium would certainly have made a powerful impression. See Allison, P., 2006, The
Insula of Menander at Pompeii, Vol.III, The Finds; A Contextual Study Oxford: Claredon Press.
[27] Clarke, 4, 208, 264: the Vettii brothers had been freedmen and successful entrepreneurs, possibly in the wine business. Their house is
designed and decorated in the so-called Fourth Style and imports courtyard elements of the rural villa. According to Clarke, their
"semi-public" lararium and its surrounding walls - decorated with a riot of deities and mythological scenes - reflects the increasing
secularisation of household religion during this period.
[28] Clarke, 9-10; citing Propertius, 4.1.131-2 & Persius, The Satires, 5.30-1.
[29] Orr, 15-16.
[30] Clarke, 10.
[31] Tacitus, Annals, 12.24.
[32] Lott, 31: Dionysius claims the Compitalia contribution of honey-cakes as an institution of Servius Tullius.
[33] The same institution was also credited to King Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, Servius' predecessor and paterfamilias – though not, by all
accounts, his birth-father). Other candidates for Servius' paternity include a disembodied phallus that materialised at the royal hearth.
[34] Lott, 35, citing Cato, On Agriculture, 5.3.
[35] Dionysius understands the function of the Lar as equivalent to that of a Greek hero; an ancestral spirit, protector of a place and its people,
possessed of both mortal and divine characteristics.
[36] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 4.14.2-4 (excerpt), Trans. Cary, Loeb, Cambridge, 1939: cited in Lott, 31. By "badges of servility" Dionysus
seems to have meant distinctive slave-clothing; the slaves who ministered to the Lares were dressed as freedmen for the occasion.
[37] Lott, 32 ff.
[38] Pliny, Natural History, 36.204; Cicero, In Pisonem, 8; Propertius, 2.22.3-36.
[39] Lott, 28–51.
[40] Duncan Fishwick, The Imperial Cult in the Latin West: Studies in the Ruler Cult of the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire, volume 1,
Brill Publishers, 1991, pp. 82 - 83.
[41] Lott, 107–117, points out that "Augusti" is never used to refer to private Julian religious practices. He finds unlikely that so subtle a
reformist as Augustus should claim to restore Rome's traditions yet high-handedly replace one of its most popular cults with one to his own
family Lares: contra Taylor (whose view he acknowledges as generally accepted): limited preview available via googlebooks: (http:/ / books.
google. co. uk/ books?id=8nd0aDXbOSkC& dq=Lott+ the+ neighborhoods+ of+ Augustan+ rome& printsec=frontcover& source=bn&
hl=en& ei=7hpGS5fZIZarjAeF78yAAw& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=4& ved=0CBUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage& q=&
f=false) (accessed 07 January 2010). For the function of Imperial cult at "street level" via the reformed Compitalia, see Duncan Fishwick, The
Imperial Cult in the Latin West: Studies in the Ruler Cult of the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire, volume 1, Brill Publishers, 1991, p
82.
[42] Beard et al, 184–186.
[43] Beard et al, 355.
[44] Lott, 174.
[45] Their shrine is named as Stata Mater, probably after a nearby statue of that goddess.
[46] The oak was sacred to Jupiter and the award of an oak leaf chaplet was reserved for those who had saved the life of a fellow-citizen. As
Rome's "saviour", Augustus had saved the lives of all. Senators, knights (equites), plebs, freedmen and slaves were "under his protection" as
pater patriae (father of the country), a title apparently urged by the general populace.
Lares 113
[47] Galinsky, in Rüpke (ed), 78–79.

[48] Beard et al, vol 2, 207–208: section 8.6a, citing ILS 9250.
[49] Beard et al, vol–2, p–208, sect. 8.6b: citing Petronius, Satyricon, 65.
[50] Taylor, 299.
[51] In the late 2nd century AD, Festus cites mania as a name used by nursemaids to terrify children.
[52] Taylor, 302: whatever the truth regarding this sacrifice and its abolition, the gens Junii held ancestor cult during Larentalia rather than the
usual Parentalia.
[53] Wiseman, 2-88 & 174, Note 82: cf Ovid's connections between the lemures and Rome's founding myth. Remus is murdered by Romulus or
one of his men just before or during the founding of the city. Romulus becomes ancestor of the Romans, ascends heavenwards on his death (or
in some traditions, simply vanishes) and is later identified with the god Quirinus. Murdered Remus is consigned to the oblivion of the earth
and - in Ovid's variant - returns during the Lemuralia, to haunt and reproach the living; wherefore Ovid derives "Lemuria" from "Remuria".
The latter festival name is otherwise unattested but Wiseman observes possible connections between the Lemuria rites and Remus' role in
Rome's foundation legends. While the benevolent Lar is connected to place, boundary and good order, the Lemur is fearsomely chthonic -
transgressive, vagrant and destructive; its rites suggest individual and collective reparation for neglect of due honours, and for possible
blood-guilt; or in the case of Romulus, fratricide. For Ovid's Fasti II, 571 ff (Latin text) see the latinlibrary.com (http:/ / www. thelatinlibrary.
com/ ovid/ ovid. fasti2. shtml)
[54] Taylor, 301: citing "Mania" in Varro, Lingua Latina, 9, 61; "Larunda" in Arnobius, 3, 41; "Lara" in Ovid, Fasti II, 571 ff: Macrobius,
Saturnalia, 1, 7, 34-35; Festus, p115 L.
[55] Taylor, 300-301.
[56] also in Pliny, Natural History, 36, 70.
[57] Lott, 31: citing Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 4.14.3-4.
[58] Plutarch, Moralia, On the fortune of the Romans, 10, 64: available online (Loeb) at Thayer's website (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/
Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Plutarch/ Moralia/ Fortuna_Romanorum*. html) (accessed 06 January 1020)
[59] Lott, 35.
[60] Plautus, Aulularia, 2-5. See Hunter, 2008 for analysis.
[61] Cicero, de Domo sua, 108-109, for the domestic presence of the Lares and Penates as an indication of ownership.
[62] Festus, 239.
[63] Apuleius, de Deo Socratis, 15.
[64] Arnobius, Adversus nationes, 3.41.
[65] Taylor, 299-301: citing Martianus Capella, II, 162.
[66] Bowersock, Brown, Grabar et al., Late antiquity: a guide to the postclassical world, Belknap Press, Harvard University Press Reference
Library, 1999, p. 27, citing Tertullian, Ad Uxorem, 6.1.
[67] Rutilius Namatianus, de Reditu suo, 290: Latin text at Thayer's website (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ L/ Roman/ Texts/
Rutilius_Namatianus/ text*. html) (accessed 06 January 2010)
References
• Beard, M., North, J., Price, S., Religions of Rome, vol. 1, illustrated, reprint, Cambridge University Press, 1998.
ISBN 0521316820
ISBN 0521456460
• Clarke, John R., The Houses of Roman Italy, 100 BC-AD 250. Ritual, Space and Decoration, illustrated,
University Presses of California, Columbia and Princeton, 1992. ISBN 9780520084292
• Giacobello, Federico, Larari pompeiani. Iconografia e culto dei Lari in ambito domestico, LED Edizioni
Universitarie, Milano, 2008, ISBN 9788879163743
• Lott, John. B., The Neighborhoods of Augustan Rome, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004. ISBN
0521828279
• Orr, D. G., Roman domestic religion: the evidence of the household shrines, Aufstieg und Niedergang der
römischen Welt, II, 16, 2, Berlin, 1978, 1557‑91.
• Rüpke, Jörg (Editor), A Companion to Roman Religion, Wiley-Blackwell, 2007, ISBN 9781405129435
• Ryberg, Inez Scott, Rites of the State Religion in Roman Art, Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, Vol.
22, University of Michigan Press for the American Academy in Rome, 1955, pp. 10 – 13.
• Taylor, Lilly Ross, The Mother of the Lares, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 29, 3, (July - Sept. 1925),
299 - 313.
Lares 114
• Waites, Margaret C., The Nature of the Lares and Their Representation in Roman Art, American Journal of
Archaeology, Vol. 24, No. 3 (July - Sept., 1920), 241 - 261.
• Weinstock, Stefan, Two Archaic Inscriptions from Latium, Journal of Roman Studies, 50, (1960), 112 - 118.
• Wiseman, T. P., Remus: a Roman myth, Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN 9780521483667
• Hunter, Richard, On Coming After, Studies in Post-Classical Greek Literature and its Reception, Berlin, New
York (Walter de Gruyter) 2008, pp. 612–626.
Liber 115
Liber

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Liber ("the free one"), also known as Liber Pater ("the free Father") was
a god of viniculture and wine, fertility and freedom. He was a patron deity of Rome's plebeians and was part of their
Aventine Triad. His festival of Liberalia (March 17) became associated with free speech and the rights attached to
Liber 116
coming of age. His cult and functions were increasingly associated with Bacchus and his Greek equivalent Dionysus,
whose mythologies he came to share.[1]
Origins and establishment

Before his official adoption as a Roman deity, Liber was companion to two different goddesses in two separate,
archaic Italian fertility cults; Ceres, an agricultural and fertility goddess of Rome's Hellenised neighbours, and
Libera, who was either Liber's female equivalent or became so through assimilation. In ancient Lavinium, he was a
phallic deity. Latin liber means "free", or the "free one": when coupled with "pater", it means "The Free Father",
who personifies freedom and champions its attendant rights, as opposed to dependent servitude. Roman writers of
the late Republic and early Empire offer various etymological and poetic speculations based on this trope, to explain
certain features of Liber's cult.[2] [3]
Liber entered Rome's historical tradition soon after the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the establishment of the
Republic and the first of many threatened or actual plebeian secessions from Rome's authority. According to Livy,
the dictator A. Postumius vowed games (ludi) and a joint public temple to a Triad of Ceres, Liber and Libera on
Rome's Aventine Hill, c.496 BC.[4] In 493 the vow was fulfilled: the new Aventine temple was dedicated and ludi
scaenici (religious dramas) were held in honour of Liber, for the benefit of the Roman people. These early ludi
scaenici have been suggested as the earliest of their kind in Rome, and may represent the earliest official festival to
Liber, or an early form of his Liberalia festival.[5] The formal, official development of the Aventine Triad may have
encouraged the assimilation of its individual deities to Greek equivalents: Ceres to Demeter, Liber to Dionysus and
Libera to Persephone or Kore.[6] [7]
Liber's patronage of Rome's largest, least powerful class of citizens (the plebs, or plebeian commoners) associates
him with particular forms of plebeian disobedience to the civil and religious authority claimed by Rome's Republican
patrician elite. The Aventine Triad has been variously described by modern historians as parallel and "copy and
antithesis" to the Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus on the Capitoline Hill, within the city's sacred
boundary (pomerium): the Aventine Triad was apparently installed at the behest of the Sibylline Books but Liber's
position within it seems equivocal from the outset. He was a god of the grape and of wine; his early ludi scaenici
virtually defined their genre thereafter as satirical, subversive theatre in a lawful religious context. Some aspects of
his cults remained potentially un-Roman and offered a focus for civil disobedience. Liber asserted plebeian rights to
ecstatic release, self-expression and free speech; he was, after all, Liber Pater, the Free Father – libertas personified
and father of plebeian wisdoms and plebeian augury.[8]
Liber and the Bacchanalia of 186 BC

Very little is known of Liber's official and unofficial cults during the early to middle Republican era. Their
Dionysiac or Bacchic elements seem to have been regarded as tolerably ancient, home-grown and manageable by
Roman authorities until 186 BC, shortly after the end of the Second Punic War. Livy, writing 200 years after the
event, gives a highly theatrical account of the Bacchanalia's introduction by a foreign soothsayer, a "Greek of mean
condition... a low operator of sacrifices". The cult spreads in secret, "like a plague". The lower classes, plebeians,
women, the young, morally weak and effeminate males are particularly susceptible: all such persons have leuitas
animi (fickle or uneducated minds) but even Rome's elite are not immune. The Bacchanalia's priestesses urge their
deluded flock to break all social and sexual boundaries, even to visit ritual murder on those who oppose them or
betray their secrets: but a loyal servant reveals all to a shocked senate, whose quick thinking, wise actions and piety
save Rome from the divine wrath and disaster it would otherwise have suffered. Livy's dramatis personae, stylistic
flourishes and tropes probably draw on Roman satyr-plays rather than the Bacchanalia themselves.[9]
The Bacchanalia cults may have offered challenge to Rome's traditional, official values and morality but they were
practiced in Roman Italy for several decades before their alleged disclosure, and were probably no more secretive
than any other mystery cult. Nevertheless, legislation against them – the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus of 186
Liber 117
BC – was framed as if in response to a dire and unexpected national and religious emergency, and its execution was
unprecedented in thoroughness, breadth and ferocity. Modern scholarship interprets this reaction as the senate's
assertion of its own civil and religious authority throughout the Italian peninsula, following the recent Punic War and
subsequent social and political instability.[10] The cult was officially represented as the workings of a secret, illicit
state within the Roman state, a conspiracy of priestesses and misfits, capable of anything. Bacchus himself was not
the problem; like any deity, he had a right to cult. Rather than risk his divine offense, the Bacchanalia were not
banned outright. They were made to submit to official regulation, under threat of ferocious penalties: some 6,000
persons are thought to have been put to death. The reformed Bacchic cults bore little resemblance to the crowded,
ecstatic and uninhibited Bacchanalia: every cult meeting was restricted to five initiates and each could be held only
with a praetor's consent. Similar attrition may have been imposed on Liber's cults; attempts to sever him from
perceived or actual associations with the Bacchanalia seems clear from the official transference of the Liberalia ludi
of 17 March to Ceres' Cerealia of 12 - 19 April. Once the ferocity of official clampdown eased off, the Liberalia
games were officially restored, though probably in modified form.[11] Illicit Bacchanals persisted covertly for many
years, particularly in Southern Italy, their likely place of origin.[12] [13]
Festival, cults and priesthoods

Liber was closely, often interchangeably identified with Bacchus, Dionysius and their mythology but was not
entirely subsumed by them; in the late Republican era, Cicero could insist on the "non-identity of Liber and
Dionysus" and describe Liber and Libera as children of Ceres. Liber, like his Aventine companions, carried various
aspects of his older cults into official Roman religion. He protected various aspects of agriculture and fertility; the
vine, the "soft seed" of its grapes, wine and wine vessels, male fertility and virility.[14] As his divine power was
incarnate in the vine, grape and wine,[15] he was offered the first of the wine harvest, known as sacrima.[16] As a
phallic deity, he personified the male procreative power, ejaculated as the "soft seed" of human and animal semen.
His temples held the image of a phallus; in Lavinium, this was the principal focus for his month-long festival, when
according to St. Augustine, the "dishonourable member" was placed "on a little trolley" and taken in procession
around the local crossroad shrines, then to the local forum for its crowning by an honourable matron. The rites
ensured the growth of seeds and repelled any malicious enchantment (fascinatus) from fields.[17]
Liber's festivals are timed to the springtime awakening and renewal of fertility in the agricultural cycle. In Rome, his
annual Liberalia public festival was held on March 17. A portable shrine was carried through Rome's
neighbourhoods (vici) and Liber's "aged priestesses" offered honey-cakes for sale – the discovery of honey was
credited to Liber-Bacchus. Embedded within Liberalia, more or less at a ritualistic level, were the various freedoms
and rights attached to Roman ideas of virility as a divine and natural force.[18] Young men celebrated their coming of
age; they cut off and dedicated their first beards to their household Lares and if citizens, wore their first toga virilis,
the "manly" toga – which Ovid, perhaps by way of poetic etymology, calls a toga libera (Liber's toga or "toga of
freedom"). These new citizens registered their citizenship at the forum and were then free to vote, to leave their
father's domus (household), choose a marriage partner and, thanks to Liber's endowment of virility, father their own
children. Ovid also emphasises the less formal freedoms and rights of Liberalia; Liber was, after all, a god of wine.
From his later place of exile, where he may have been sent for some un-named offense of free speech against the
princeps Augustus, Ovid lamented the lost companionship of his fellow poets, who apparently saw the Liberalia as
an opportunity for uninhibited talking.[19]
Liber 118
Imperial era
Augustus successfully courted the plebs, supported their patron deities and began the restoration of the Aventine
Triad's temple; it was re-dedicated by his successor, Tiberius.[20] No trace remains of it, and the historical and
epigraphical record offers only sparse details to suggest its exact location. Pliny the Elder describes its style and
designers as Greek; this may be further evidence of time-honoured and persistent plebeian cultural connections with
Magna Graecia, well into the Imperial era, when Liber is found in some of the threefold, complementary
deity-groupings of Imperial cult; a saviour figure, like Hercules and the Emperor himself.[21] Septimius Severus
inaugurated his reign and dynasty with games to honour Liber/Shadrapa and Hercules/Melqart, the Romanised
founding hero-deities of his native town, Lepcis Magna (North Africa); then he built them a massive temple and arch
in Rome.[22] Later still, Liber Pater is of one of many deities served by the erudite, deeply religious senator Vettius
Agorius Praetextatus (c. AD 315 – 384).[23] A Bacchic community shrine dedicated to Liber Pater was established in
Cosa (in modern Tuscany) "probably during the 4th cent AD". It remained in use "apparently for decades after the
edicts of Theodosius in 391 and 392 AD outlawing paganism". Its abandonment, or perhaps its destruction "by
zealous Christians", was abrupt that much of its cult paraphernalia survived virtually intact beneath the building's
later collapse.[24]
Temples and cult images

Ancient sources describe the Aventine Triad's temple as built in the Greek style. Vitruvius recommends that Liber's
temples follow an Ionic Greek model, as a "just measure between the severe manner of the Doric and the tenderness
of the Corinthian" and respectful of the deity's part-feminine characteristics.[25]
In modern popular fiction

Gods named Liber and Libera play a major role in the science fiction/time-travel novel Household Gods by Harry
Turtledove and Judith Tarr.
Notes and References

[1] Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC& printsec=frontcover&
source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage& q& f=false), Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1. (http:/ / books. google.
com/ books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC& lpg=PP1& pg=PA259#v=onepage& q& f=false)
[2] Barbette Stanley Spaeth, The Roman goddess Ceres, University of Texas Press, 1996, pp. 8 (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/
books?id=5g3YDlPvbeMC& lpg=PA142& vq=lavinium& dq= Spaeth, Barbette S. , & pg=PA142#v=onepage& q& f=false), 44. (http:/ /
books. google. co. uk/ books?id=5g3YDlPvbeMC& lpg=PA44& vq=Liber Cicero& dq= Spaeth, Barbette S. , & pg=PA44#v=onepage& q&
f=false)
[3] C.M.C. Green, "Varro's Three Theologies and their influence on the Fasti", in Geraldine Herbert-Brown, (ed)., Ovid's Fasti: historical
readings at its bimillennium, Oxford University Press, 2002. pp. 78-80. (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/ books?id=CeFErNPdXOMC&
lpg=PP1& ots=jKfOltwDm_& dq=Ovid's Fasti: historical readings at its bimillennium By Geraldine Herbert-Brown& pg=PA78#v=onepage&
q& f=false)
[4] The vow was made in hope of victory against the Latins, the relief of a famine in Rome and the co-operation of Rome's plebeian soldiery in
the coming war despite the threat of their secession.
[5] T.P. Wiseman, Remus: a Roman myth, Cambridge University Press, 1995, p.133.
f=false)
[7] T.P. Wiseman, Remus: a Roman myth, Cambridge University Press, 1995, p.133 and note 20.
[8] Barbette Stanley Spaeth, The Roman goddess Ceres, University of Texas Press, 1996, pp. 6-8, 92, (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/
books?id=5g3YDlPvbeMC& lpg=PA142& vq=lavinium& dq= Spaeth, Barbette S. , & pg=PA92#v=onepage& q& f=false) citing Henri Le
Bonniec, Le culte de Cérès à Rome. Des origines à la fin de la République, Paris, Librairie C. Klincksieck, 1958, for the Aventine cult with its
central female deity as "copy and antithesis" of the early, entirely male Capitoline Triad and its focus on Jupiter as Rome's supreme deity.
When Mars and Quirinus were later replaced by two goddesses, Jupiter remained the primary focus of Capitoline cult. While the Aventine
Liber 119
temple and ludi may represent a patrician attempt to reconcile or at least molify the plebs, plebeian opposition to patrician domination
continued throughout contemporary and later Republican history.
[9] The plots of Satyr plays would have been familiar to Roman audiences from around the 3rd century BC onwards. See Robert Rouselle,
Liber-Dionysus in Early Roman Drama, The Classical Journal, 82, 3 (1987), p. 191. (http:/ / www. jstor. org/ pss/ 3297899)
[10] During the Punic crisis, some foreign cults and oracles had been repressed, on much smaller scale and not outside Rome itself. See Erich S.
Gruen, Studies in Greek culture and Roman policy, BRILL, 1990, pp.34-78: on precedents see p.41 ff. (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/
books?id=dnOPjX6GOrgC& lpg=PA75& ots=cvlbAQq3cx& dq=Gruen 1990 Bacchus& pg=PA34#v=onepage& q& f=false)
[11] T.P. Wiseman, Remus: a Roman myth, Cambridge University Press, 1995, p.133.
[12] See Sarolta A. Takács, Politics and Religion in the Bacchanalian Affair of 186 B.C.E., Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 100,
(2000), p.301. (http:/ / www. jstor. org/ pss/ 3185221)
[13] Beard, M., Price, S., North, J., Religions of Rome: Volume 1, a History, illustrated, Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 93 - 96.
[14] Libera protected female fertility.
[15] Cicero, De Natura Deorum, 2.6O. See also St Augustine, De Civitatis Dei, 4.11.
[16] Spaeth find a parallel in the offer of first harvest grains to Ceres. See Barbette Stanley Spaeth, The Roman goddess Ceres, University of
Texas Press, 1996, pp.41, 43. (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/ books?id=5g3YDlPvbeMC& lpg=PA142& vq=lavinium& dq= Spaeth, Barbette
S. , & pg=PA41#v=onepage& q=Liber & f=false)
[17] St Augustine, (trans. R. W. Dyson) The City of God against the pagans, 7.21., in Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought, 1998,
pp. 292-3. St Augustine (AD 354 – 430) uses Varro (116 – 27 BC) as source. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=ReU2M8cLtGcC&
pg=PA292& dq="21+ Of+ the+ wickedness+ of+ the+ rites+ celebrated+ in+ honour+ of+ Liber"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0&
as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& as_brr=3& cd=1#v=onepage& q=Liber& f=false)
f=false)
[19] See John F. Miller, "Ovid's Liberalia", in Geraldine Herbert-Brown,(ed)., Ovid's Fasti: historical readings at its bimillennium, Oxford
University Press, 2002, pp. 199-224. Briefer scholarly treatment of the Festival is offered in William Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of
the Period of the Republic, Gorgias Press, 2004 (reprint of Macmillan and Co., London, 1908), pp.54 - 56. (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/
books?id=_2w01mQEOBAC& lpg=PP1& ots=aqOdEBwy3q& dq=Warde Fowler Ovid Liberalia& pg=PA54#v=onepage& q& f=false)
[20] Tacitus, Annals, 2.49; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 6.17.
[21] Beard et al., Vol. 1, 134 - 5, 64 - 67.
[22] Bowman, A., Cameron, A., Garnsey, P., (Eds) The Crisis of Empire, AD 193-337, The Cambridge Ancient History, 2nd edition, Volume 12,
2005, p.563. (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/ books?id=MNSyT_PuYVMC& pg=PA563& lpg=PA563& dq=Liber+ Pater+ Shadrapa&
source=bl& ots=uJC6aYMgcZ& sig=TPspaBnGr9ki5z7D5KeVe5QS4Nw& hl=en& ei=wkz1TLXKKMa1hAfGyM3aBQ& sa=X&
oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=4& ved=0CCkQ6AEwAw#v=onepage& q=Liber Pater Shadrapa& f=false)
[23] J. F. Matthews, Symmachus and the Oriental Cults, The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 63 (1973), p. 179. Praetextatus' erudition and
religiousity are attested by his widow, herself a priestess. Praetextatus was also an augur, quindecimvir and public priest of Vesta and Sol, an
initiate of the Eleusinian mysteries, and priest of Hecate, Sarapis, Cybele, and Mithras, all apparently clustered on a solar theology analogous
to that of the Emperor Julian.
[24] Jaquelyn Collins-Clinton, A late antique shrine of Liber Pater at Cosa, Etudes Preliminaires aux Religions Orientales dans l'Empire Romain,
Volume 64, BRILL, 1977, pp.3, 5. (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/ books?id=CsoUAAAAIAAJ& lpg=PR9& ots=rM2A5Kjc7w& dq=Liber
Pater& lr& pg=PA3#v=onepage& q=paraphernalia& f=false)
[25] Joseph Rykwert, The Dancing Column: On Order in Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1996, p.237. (http:/ / books.
google. co. uk/ books?id=3IKoh75RI38C& pg=PA237& lpg=PA237& dq=Vitruvius+ + Ionic+ Liber& source=bl& ots=CyLc_RxSEq&
sig=lZ-ea4QcrgVgMagXbAUVECpMfTQ& hl=en& ei=Nxr4TJuuJJmAhAeboazFDw& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=4&
sqi=2& ved=0CCgQ6AEwAw#v=onepage& q=Vitruvius Ionic Liber& f=false)
Limentinus 120
Limentinus
Limentinus is the Roman God whose responsibility was to protect the threshold of the house.[1] His associates are
Cardea and Forculus.
The whole door is protected by Janus. Limentinus is mentioned by St. Augustine[2] as a protector of the threshold
and may have been responsible for preventing Silvanus from entering the household if a certain ceremony was
performed over children at their birth. Though he may not have been the original cause of the carrying the bride over
the threshold, that would be of Syrian origin, some believe it is so.[3]
References
[1] Myth Index - Limentinus (http:/ / www. mythindex. com/ roman-mythology/ L/ Limentinus. html)
[2] Augustine, De civitate Dei, 4.8; 6.7
[3] An Encyclopaedia of Religions by Maurice Arthur Canney (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=FRoMAAAAIAAJ& pg=PA222&
lpg=PA222& dq=Limentinus+ roman+ god& source=web& ots=EyOiCKa5Ww& sig=WvzIk6LuSjy9F92yZdsRmnQuYZk& hl=en& sa=X&
oi=book_result& resnum=4& ct=result#PPA356,M1)
Mars (mythology)
Mars, 1st century, found in the Forum of Nerva

(Capitoline Museums, Rome)

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
Mars (Latin: Mārs, adjectives Martius and Martialis) was the Roman god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a
combination characteristic of early Rome.[1] He was second in importance only to the chief god Jupiter, and he was
the most prominent of the military gods worshipped by the Roman legions. His festivals were held in March, the
month named for him (Latin Martius), and in October, which began and ended the season for military campaigning
and farming.
Under the influence of Greek culture, Mars was identified with the Greek god Ares, whose myths were reinterpreted
in Roman literature and art under the name of Mars. But the character and dignity of Mars differed in fundamental
ways from that of his Greek counterpart, who is often treated with contempt and revulsion in Greek literature.[2]
Mars was a part of the Archaic Triad along with Jupiter and Quirinus, the latter of whom as a guardian of the Roman
people had no Greek equivalent. Mars' altar in the Campus Martius, the area of Rome that took its name from him,
was supposed to have been dedicated by Numa himself, the peace-loving semi-legendary second king of Rome.
Although the center of Mars' worship was originally located outside the pomerium, or sacred boundary of Rome,
Augustus brought the god into the center of Roman religion by establishing the Temple of Mars Ultor in his new
forum.[3]
Although Ares was viewed primarily as a destructive and destabilizing force, Mars represented military power as a
way to secure peace, and was a father (pater) of the Roman people.[4] In the mythic genealogy and founding myths
of Rome, Mars was the father of Romulus and Remus with Rhea Silvia. His love affair with Venus symbolically
reconciled the two different traditions of Rome's founding; Venus was the divine mother of the hero Aeneas,
celebrated as the Trojan refugee who "founded" Rome several generations before Romulus laid out the city walls.
The importance of Mars in establishing religious and cultural identity within the Roman Empire is indicated by the
vast number of inscriptions identifying him with a local deity, particularly in the Western provinces.
Birth
Although Ares was the son of Zeus and Hera,[5] Mars was the son of Juno alone. Jupiter had usurped the mother's
function when he gave birth to Minerva directly from his forehead (or mind); to restore the balance, Juno sought the
advice of the goddess Flora on how to do the same. Flora obtained a magic flower (Latin flos, plural flores, a
masculine word) and tested it on a heifer who became fecund at once. She then plucked a flower ritually using her
thumb, touched Juno's belly, and impregnated her. Juno withdrew to Thrace and the shore of Marmara for the birth.
Ovid tells this story in the Fasti, his long-form poetic work on the Roman calendar.[6] It may explain why the
Matronalia, a festival celebrated by married women in honor of Juno as a goddess of childbirth, occurred on the first
day of Mars' month, which is also marked on a calendar from late antiquity as the birthday of Mars. In the earliest
Roman calendar, March was the first month, and the god would have been born with the new year.[7] Ovid is the
only source for the story. He may be presenting a literary myth of his own invention, or an otherwise unknown
archaic Italic tradition; either way, in choosing to include the story, he emphasizes that Mars was connected to plant
life and was not alienated from female nurture.[8]
Consort
The consort of Mars was Nerio or Nerine, "Valour." She represents the vital force (vis), power (potentia) and
majesty (maiestas) of Mars.[9] Her name was regarded as Sabine in origin and is equivalent to Latin virtus, "manly
virtue" (from vir, "man").[10] In the early 3rd century BC, the comic playwright Plautus has a reference to Mars
greeting Nerio, his wife.[11] A source from late antiquity says that Mars and Nerine were celebrated together at a
festival held on March 23.[12] In the later Roman Empire, Nerine came to be identified with Minerva.[13]
Nerio probably originates as a divine personification of Mars' power, as such abstractions in Latin are generally
feminine. Her name appears in an archaic prayer invoking a series of abstract qualities paired with the name of a
deity. The influence of Greek mythology and its anthropomorphic gods may have caused Roman writers to treat
these pairs as "marriages."[14]
St. Augustine disapprovingly gives Mars and the war goddess Bellona as an example of a divine couple who were
also sister and brother.[15]
Essential nature
Virility as a kind of life force (vis) or virtue (virtus) is an essential characteristic of Mars.[16] As an agricultural god,
he directs his energies toward creating conditions that allow crops to grow, which may include warding off hostile
forces of nature.[17] As an embodiment of masculine aggression, he is the force that drives wars — but ideally, war
that delivers a secure peace.
The priesthood of the Arval Brothers called on Mars to drive off "rust" (lues), with its double meaning of wheat
fungus and the red oxides that affect metal, a threat to both iron farm implements and weaponry. In the surviving text
of their hymn, the Arval Brothers invoked Mars as ferus, "savage" or "feral" like a wild animal.[18]
Mars' potential for savagery is expressed in his obscure connections to the wild woodlands, and he may even have
originated as a god of the wild, beyond the boundaries set by humans, and thus a force to be propitiated.[19] In his
book on farming, Cato invokes Mars Silvanus for a ritual to be carried out in silva, in the woods, an uncultivated
place that if not held within bounds can threaten to overtake the fields needed for crops.[20] Mars' character as an
agricultural god may derive solely from his role as a defender and protector,[21] or may be inseparable from his
warrior nature,[22] as the leaping of his armed priests the Salii was meant to quicken the growth of crops.[23]
Sacred animals
The two wild animals most sacred to Mars were the woodpecker and
the wolf, which in the natural lore of the Romans were said always to
inhabit the same foothills and woodlands.[24]
Plutarch notes that the woodpecker (picus) is sacred to Mars because
"it is a courageous and spirited bird and has a beak so strong that it can
overturn oaks by pecking them until it has reached the inmost part of
the tree."[25] As the beak of the picus Martius contained the god's She-wolf and twins from an altar to Venus and
power to ward off harm, it was carried as a magic charm to prevent bee Mars
stings and leech bites.[26] The bird of Mars also guarded a woodland
herb (paeonia) used for treatment of the digestive or female
reproductive systems; those who sought to harvest it were advised to
do so by night, lest the woodpecker jab out their eyes.[27] The picus
Martius seems to have been a particular species, but authorities differ
on which one: perhaps Picus viridis[28] or Dryocopus martius.[29]
The woodpecker was revered by the Latin peoples, who abstained from
eating its flesh.[30] It was one of the most important birds in Roman
and Italic augury, the practice of reading the will of the gods through
watching the sky for signs.[31] The mythological figure named Picus Black Woodpecker,
perhaps the picus Martius
had powers of augury that he retained when he was transformed into a
of the Romans
woodpecker; in one tradition, Picus was the son of Mars.[32] The
Umbrian cognate peiqu also means "woodpecker," and the Italic
Picenes were supposed to have derived their name from the picus who served as their guide animal during a ritual
migration undertaken as a rite of Mars.[33] In the territory of the Aequi, another Italic people, Mars had an oracle of
great antiquity where the prophecies were supposed to be spoken by a woodpecker perched on a wooden column.[34]
Mars' association with the wolf is familiar from what may be the most famous of Roman myths, the story of how a
she-wolf (lupa) suckled his infant sons when they were exposed by order of their human uncle, who feared that they
would take back the kingship he had usurped.[35] A lesser-known part of the story is that the woodpecker also
brought nourishment to the twins.[36]
The wolf appears elsewhere in Roman art and literature in masculine form as the animal of Mars. A statue group that
stood along the Appian Way showed Mars in the company of wolves.[37] At the Battle of Sentinum in 295 BC, the
appearance of the wolf of Mars (Martius lupus) was a sign that Roman victory was to come.[38]
In Roman Gaul, the goose is associated with the Celtic forms of Mars, and archaeologists have found geese buried
alongside warriors in graves. The goose was considered a bellicose animal because it is easily provoked to
aggression.[39]
Sacrificial animals
Ancient Greek and Roman religion distinguished between animals that

were sacred to a deity and those that were prescribed as the correct
sacrificial offerings for the god. Wild animals might be viewed as
already belonging to the god to whom they were sacred, or at least not
owned by human beings and therefore not theirs to give. Since
sacrificial meat was eaten at a banquet after the gods received their
The procession of the suovetaurilia portion — mainly the entrails (exta) — it follows that the animals
sacrificed were most often, though not always, domestic animals
[40]
normally part of the Roman diet. Most gods received castrated male animals as sacrifices, and the goddesses
female victims; Mars, however, was one of the few male deities who regularly received intact males.[41] Mars did
receive oxen under a few of his cult titles (see Mars Grabovius below), but the usual offering was the bull, singly or
in multiples.
The two most distinctive animal sacrifices made to Mars were the suovetaurilia, for which a pig (sus), ram (ovis) and
bull (taurus) were the victims,[42] and the October Horse, the only horse sacrifice known to have been carried out in
ancient Rome and a rare instance of an inedible victim.[43]
Iconography
In Roman art, Mars is depicted as either bearded and mature or young
and clean-shaven. Even nude or seminude, he often wears a helmet or
carries a spear as emblems of his warrior nature.
On the Augustan Altar of Peace (Ara Pacis), built in the last years of
the 1st century BC, Mars is a mature man with a "handsome,
classicizing" face, and a short curly beard and moustache. His helmet is
a plumed neo-Attic-type. He wears a military cloak (paludamentum)
and a cuirass ornamented with a gorgoneion. Although the relief is
somewhat damaged at this spot, he appears to hold a spear garlanded in
laurel, symbolizing a peace that is won by military victory. (Compare
the 1st-century statue of Mars found in the Forum of Nerva, pictured
above.) In this guise, Mars is presented as the dignified ancestor of the
Roman people. The panel of the Ara Pacis on which he appears would
have faced the Campus Martius, reminding viewers that Mars was the
god whose altar Numa established there, that is, the god of Rome's [44]
Nude statue of Mars in a garden setting, as
oldest civic and military institutions.[45]
depicted on a wall painting from Pompeii
Particularly in works of art influenced by the Greek tradition, Mars

may be portrayed in a manner that resembles Ares, youthful, beardless, and often nude.[46]
The spear of Mars

The spear is the instrument of Mars in the same way that Jupiter wields the lightning bolt, Neptune the trident, and
Saturn the scythe or sickle.[47] A relic or fetish called the spear of Mars[48] was kept in the Regia, the former
residence of the Kings of Rome.[49] When Mars is pictured as a peace-bringer, his spear is wreathed with laurel or
other vegetation, as on the Ara Pacis or a coin of Aemilianus.[50]
Names and epithets

The word Mārs (genitive Mārtis),[51] which in Old Latin and poetic usage also appears as Māvors (Māvortis),[52] is
cognate with Oscan Māmers (Māmertos).[53] The Old Latin form was believed to derive from an Italic *Māworts,
however this name is from Etruscan Maris, originally a god of vegetation and not of war. Adjective forms are
martius and martialis, from which derive English "martial" (as in "martial arts" or "martial law") and personal names
such as "Martin". The Campus Martius bore his name.
Mars also gave his name to the third month in the Roman calendar, Martius, from which English "March" derives. In
the most ancient Roman calendar, Martius was the first month. In many languages Tuesday[54] is named for the
planet Mars or the God of War (see "Days of the Week Planetary table"), in Latin Martis Dies (Mars' Day),
surviving in Romance languages as Martes (Spanish), Mardi (French), Martedi (Italian), Marţi (Romanian), and
Dimarts (Catalan), compare An Mháirt (Irish/Gaelic).
In Roman religion
Mars received cult within the traditional religion of Rome under several specific manifestations.
Mars Gradivus
Gradivus was one of the gods by whom a general or soldiers might swear an oath to be valorous in battle.[55] His
temple outside the Porta Capena was where armies gathered. The archaic priesthood of Mars Gradivus was the Salii,
the "leaping priests" who danced ritually in armor as a prelude to war.[56] His cult title is most often taken to mean
"the Strider" or "the Marching God," from gradus, "step, march."[57]
The poet Statius addresses him as "the most implacable of the gods,"[58] but Valerius Maximus concludes his history
by invoking Mars Gradivus as "author and support of the name 'Roman'":[59] Gradivus is asked — along with
Capitoline Jupiter and Vesta, as the keeper of Rome's perpetual flame — to "guard, preserve, and protect" the state,
the peace, and the princeps (the emperor Tiberius at the time).[60]
A source from late antiquity says that the wife of Gradivus was Nereia, the daughter of Nereus, and that he loved her
passionately[61] (compare Nerio above).
Mars Quirinus
Mars Quirinus was the protector of the Quirites ("citizens" or

"civilians") as divided into curiae (citizen assemblies), whose oaths
were required to make a treaty.[62] As a guarantor of treaties, Mars
Quirinus is thus a god of peace: "When he rampages, Mars is called
Gradivus, but when he's at peace Quirinus."[63]
The deified Romulus was identified with Mars Quirinus. In the Archaic Mars celebrated as peace-bringer on a Roman
coin issued by Aemilianus
Triad of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus, however, Mars and Quirinus were
two separate deities, though not perhaps in origin. Each of the three
had his own flamen (specialized priest), but the functions of the Flamen Martialis and Flamen Quirinalis are hard to
distinguish.[64]
Mars Grabovius
Mars is invoked as Grabovius in the Iguvine Tables, bronze tablets written in Umbrian that record ritual protocols
for carrying out public ceremonies on behalf of the city and community of Iguvium. The same title is given to Jupiter
and to the Umbrian deity Vofionus. This triad has been compared to the Archaic Triad, with Vofionus equivalent to
Quirinus.[65] Tables I and VI describe a complex ritual that took place at the three gates of the city. After the
auspices were taken, two groups of three victims were sacrificed at each gate. Mars Grabovius received three
oxen.[66]
Mars Pater
"Father Mars" or "Mars the Father" is the form in which the god is invoked in the agricultural prayer of Cato,[67] and
he appears with this title in several other literary texts and inscriptions.[68] Mars Pater is among the several gods
invoked in the ritual of devotio, by means of which a general sacrificed himself and the lives of the enemy to secure
a Roman victory.[69]
Father Mars is the regular recipient of the suovetaurilia, the sacrifice of a pig (sus), ram (ovis) and bull (taurus), or
often a bull alone.[70] To Mars Pater other epithets were sometimes appended, such as Mars Pater Victor ("Father
Mars the Victorious"),[71] to whom the Roman army sacrificed a bull on March 1.[72]
Although pater and mater were fairly common as honorifics for a deity,[73] any special claim for Mars as father of
the Roman people lies in the mythic geneaology that makes him the divine father of Romulus and Remus.[74]
Mars Silvanus
In the section of his farming book that offers recipes and medical preparations, Cato describes a votum to promote
the health of cattle:
Make an offering to Mars Silvanus in the forest (in silva) during the daytime for each head of cattle: 3
pounds of meal, 4½ pounds of bacon, 4½ pounds of meat, and 3 pints of wine. You may place the
viands in one vessel, and the wine likewise in one vessel. Either a slave or a free man may make this
offering. After the ceremony is over, consume the offering on the spot at once. A woman may not take
part in this offering or see how it is performed. You may vow the vow every year if you wish.[75]
That Mars Silvanus is a single entity has been doubted. Invocations of deities are often list-like, without connecting
words, and the phrase should perhaps be understood as "Mars and Silvanus".[76] Women were explicitly excluded
from some cult practices of Silvanus, but not necessarily of Mars.[77] William Warde Fowler, however, thought that
the wild god of the wood Silvanus may have been "an emanation or offshoot" of Mars.[78]
Mars Ultor
Augustus created the cult of "Mars the Avenger" to mark two occasions: his defeat of the assassins of Caesar at
Philippi in 42 BC, and the negotiated return of the Roman battle standards that had been lost to the Parthians at the
Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC. The god is depicted wearing a cuirass and helmet and standing in a "martial pose,"
leaning on a lance he holds in his right hand. He holds a shield in his left hand.[79]
A great temple of Mars Ultor was dedicated in the center of the Forum of Augustus in 2 BC, giving the god a new
place of honor in the heart of the city when he had formerly been most associated with the Campus Martius outside
the pomerium (sacred boundary).[80] Some rituals previously conducted within the cult of the Capitoline Jupiter were
transferred to the new Temple of Mars Ultor,[81] which became the point of departure for magistrates as they left for
military campaigns abroad.[82]
On various Imperial holidays, Mars Ultor was the first god to receive a sacrifice, followed by the Genius of the
emperor.[83] An inscription from the 2nd century records continued devotion to Mars Ultor, with a vow to offer him
a bull with gilded horns.[84]
Mars Augustus
Augustus was appended far and wide, "on monuments great and small,"[85] to the name of gods or goddesses (as
Augusta), including Mars. The title may have been an honorific for the deity for the same reasons that it became the
title for the former Octavian, but while it honored the deity as the source of the emperor's power and legitimacy, it
may also have allowed the viewer to infer that the deity and the emperor were one.[86]
In Roman Spain (Hispania), many of the statues and dedications to Mars Augustus were presented by members of
the priesthood called the Augustales.[87] These vows (vota) were usually fulfilled within a sanctuary that functioned
as a center for Imperial cult, or in a temple or precinct (templum) consecrated specifically to Mars.[88] As with other
deities invoked as Augustus/-a, altars to Mars Augustus might be set up to further the wellbeing (salus) of the
emperor,[89] but an inscription in the Alps records the gratitude of a slave who dedicated a statue to Mars Augustus
for restoring his own health.[90]
Mars Augustus appears in inscriptions at such locations as Baetica, Saguntum,[91] and Emerita (Lusitania) in Roman
Spain;[92] Lepcis Magna (with a date of 6–7 AD) in present-day Libya;[93] and Sarmizegetusa in the province of
Dacia.[94]
Provincial epithets
In addition to his cult titles at Rome, Mars appears in a large number of inscriptions in the provinces of the Roman
Empire, and more rarely in literary texts, identified with a local deity by means of an epithet. Mars appears with
great frequency in Gaul among the Continental Celts, as well as in Roman Spain and Britain. In Celtic settings, he is
often invoked as a healer.[95] The inscriptions indicate that Mars' ability to dispel the enemy on the battlefield was
transferred to the sick person's struggle against illness; healing is expressed in terms of warding off and rescue.[96]
• Mars Alator, a fusion of Mars with the Celtic deity Alator (possibly meaning "Huntsman" or "Cherisher"),
known from an inscription found in England, on an altar at South Shields and a silver-gilt votive plaque at
Barkway, Hertfordshire.[97] [98]
• Mars Albiorix, a fusion of Mars with the ancient Celtic deity Toutatis, using the epithet Albiorix ("King of the
World"). Mars Albiorix was worshiped as protector of the Albici (or Albioeci) tribe of southern France, and was
regarded as a mountain god. Another epithet of Toutatis, Caturix ("King of Combat"), was used in the
combination Mars Caturix, which was worshipped in Gaul, possibly as the tribal god of the Caturiges.[99]
• "Mars Balearicus", a name used in modern scholarship for small bronze warrior
figures from Mallorca (one of the Balearic Islands) and interpreted as representing the
local Mars cult.[100] These have been found within talayotic sanctuaries with
extensive evidence of burnt offerings. "Mars" is fashioned as a lean, athletic nude
lifting a lance and wearing a helmet, often conical; the genitals are perhaps
semi-erect. Other bronzes at the sites represent the heads or horns of bulls, but the
bones in the ash layers indicate that sheep, goats, and pigs were the sacrificial victims.
Bronze horse-hooves were found in one sanctuary, and an imported statue of Imhotep,
the legendary Egyptian physician, in another. The sacred precincts, which were still in
active use when the Roman occupation began in 123 BC, may have been
"Mars Balearicus" astronomically oriented toward the rising or setting of the constellation
Centaurus.[101]
• Mars Barrex, from Barrex or Barrecis (probably meaning "Supreme One"), a Celtic god known only from a
dedicatory inscription found at Carlisle, England.[98]
• Mars Belatucadrus, an epithet found in five inscriptions in the area of Hadrian's Wall in England, which equates
the Celtic deity Belatu-Cadros with Mars.
• Mars Braciaca, a synthesis of Mars with the Celtic god Braciaca. This deity is only known from a single
inscription at Bakewell, England.[98]
• Mars Camulos, from the Celtic war god Camulus.

• Mars Capriociegus, from an Celtic god who was linked to Mars. He is invoked in two inscriptions in the
Pontevedra region of north-west Spain.
• Mars Cocidius. The Celtic hunter god Cocidius was equated with both Mars and Silvanus.[102] He is referenced
around north-west Cumbria and Hadrian's Wall, and was chiefly a war god only in instances where he was
equated with Mars.
• Mars Condatis, from the Celtic god of the confluence of rivers, Condatis. Mars Condatis, who oversaw water
and healing, is known from inscriptions near Hadrian's Wall, at Piercebridge, Bowes and Chester-le-Street.[98]
[103]
• Mars Corotiacus. A local British version of Mars from Martlesham in Suffolk. He appears on a bronze statuette
as a cavalryman, armed and riding a horse which tramples a prostrate enemy beneath its hooves.[99]
• Mars Lenus. Mars Lenus, sometimes founds as Lenus Mars, had a major healing cult at the capital of the Treveri
(present-day Trier). Among the votives are images of children offering doves.[104] His consort was Ancamna.
• Mars Loucetius. The Celtic god Loucetios, Latinized as -ius, appears in nine inscriptions in present-day Germany
and France and one in Britain, and in three as Leucetius. The Gaulish and Brythonic theonyms likely derive from
Proto-Celtic *louk(k)et-, "bright, shining, flashing," hence also "lightning,"[105] alluding to either a Celtic
commonplace metaphor between battles and thunderstorms (Old Irish torannchless, the "thunder feat"), or the
aura of a divinized hero (the lúan of Cú Chulainn). The name is given as an epithet of Mars. The consort of Mars
Loucetius is Nemetona, whose name may be understood as pertaining either to "sacred privilege" or to the sacred
grove (nemeton),[106] and who is also identified with the goddess Victory. At the Romano-British site in Bath, a
dedication to Mars Loucetius as part of this divine couple was made by a pilgrim from the continental Treveri of
Gallia Belgica, who sought healing.[107]
• Mars Mullo. The Celtic god Mullo ("mule") was invoked with Mars in northwest Gaul.[108]
• Mars Neto. A fusion of Mars and the Iberian god Neto/Neito, which may be derived from the celtic Neit.
• Mars Nodens. A fusion of Mars with the Celtic god Nodens.
• Mars Ocelus. A fusion of Mars with the Celtic god Ocelus.
• Mars Olloudius. A fusion of Mars with the Celtic god Olloudius.
• Mars Rigisamus. Mars was given this title (which means 'Greatest King' or 'King of Kings') at West Coker in
Somerset, where a bronze figurine and inscribed plaque dedicated to the god were found in a field, along with the
remains of a building, perhaps a shrine. The figurine depicts a standing naked male figure with a close-fitting
helmet; his right hand may have once held a weapon, and he probably originally also had a shield (both are now
lost). The same epithet for a god is recorded from Bourges in Gaul. The use of this epithet implies that Mars had
an extremely high status, over and above his warrior function.
• Mars Rigonemetis ("King of the Sacred Grove"). A dedication to

Rigonemetis and the numen (spirit) of the Emperor inscribed on a stone
was discovered at Nettleham (Lincolnshire) in 1961. Rigonemetis is only
known from this site, and it seems he may have been a god belonging to
the tribe of the Corieltauvi.[99]
• Mars Segomo. "Mars the Victorious" appears among the Celtic
Sequani.[109]
• Mars Smertrius. At a site within the territory of the Treveri, Ancamna
was the consort of Mars Smertrius.[110]
• Mars Teutates. A fusion of Mars with the Celtic god Teutates (Toutatis).
• Mars Thinesus. A form of Mars invoked at Housesteads Roman Fort at
Hadrian's Wall, where his name is linked with two goddesses called the
Alaisiagae. Anne Ross associated Thinesus with a sculpture, also from the
fort, which shows a god flanked by goddesses and accompanied by a goose
– a frequent companion of war gods.[99]
• Mars Visucius. A fusion of Mars with the Celtic god Visucius.
• Mars Vorocius. A Celtic healer-god invoked at the curative spring shrine
at Vichy (Allier) as a curer of eye afflictions. On images, the god is A bronze Mars from Gaul
depicted as a Celtic warrior.[99]
References
[1] Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, Religons of Rome: A History (Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 47–48.
[2] Kurt A. Raaflaub, War and Peace in the Ancient World (Blackwell, 2007), p. 15.
[3] Paul Rehak and John G. Younger, Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius (University of Wisconsin Press,
2006), pp. 11–12.
[4] Isidore of Seville calls Mars Romanae gentis auctorem, the originator or founder of the Roman people as a gens (Etymologiae 5.33.5).
[5] Hesiod, Theogony p. 79 in the translation of Norman O. Brown (Bobbs-Merrill, 1953); 921 in the Loeb Classical Library numbering (http:/ /
books. google. com/ books?id=lnCXI9oFeroC& dq=Ares+ intitle:theogony+ inauthor:hesiod& q="she,+ mingling+ in+ love"+
Ares#v=snippet& q="she, mingling in love" Ares& f=false).
[6] Ovid, Fasti 5.229–260.
[7] William Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic (London, 1908), p. 35f., discusses this interpretation in order to
question it.
[8] Carole E. Newlands, Playing with Time: Ovid and the Fasti (Cornell University Press, 1995), pp. 105–106.
[9] Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 13.23. Gellius says the word Nerio or Nerienes is Sabine and is supposed to be the origin of the name Nero as
used by the Claudian family, who were Sabine in origin. The Sabines themselves, Gellius says, thought the word was Greek in origin, from
νεῦρα (neura), Latin nervi, meaning the sinews and ligaments of the limbs.
[10] Robert E.A. Palmer, The Archaic Community of the Romans (Cambridge University Press, 1970, 2009), p. 167.
[11] Plautus, Truculentus 515.
[12] Johannes Lydus, De mensibus 4.60 (42).
[13] Porphyrion, Commentum in Horatium Flaccum, on Epistula II.2.209.
[14] William Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People (London, 1922), p. 150–154; Roger D. Woodard, Indo-European
Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman Cult (University of Illinois Press, 2006), pp. 113–114; Gary Forsythe, A Critical History of Early Rome:
From Prehistory to the First Punic War (University of California Press, 2005), p. 145. The prayer is recorded in the passage on Nerio in Aulus
Gellius.
[15] Augustine, De civitate Dei 6.10, citing Seneca; Fowler doubts the authority of the passage (Religious Experience, p. 166, note 16).
[16] R.B. Onians, The Origins of European Thought about the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time and Fate (Cambridge University Press,
1951), pp. 470–471. Onians connects the name of Mars to the Latin mas, maris, "male" (p. 178), as had Isidore of Seville, saying that the
month of March (Martius) was named after Mars "because at that time all living things are stirred toward virility (mas, gen. maris) and to the
pleasures of sexual intercourse" (eo tempore cuncta animantia agantur ad marem et ad concumbendi voluptatem): Etymologies 5.33.5,
translation by Stephen A. Barney, The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 128. In antiquity, vis was
thought to be related etymologically to vita, "life." Varro (De lingua latina 5.64, quoting Lucilius) notes that vis is vita: "vis drives us to do
everything."
[17] On the relation of Mars' warrior aspect to his agricultural functions with respect to Dumézil's Trifunctional hypothesis, see Wouter W.
Belier, Decayed Gods: Origin and Development of Georges Dumézil's 'idéologie tripartie' (Brill, 1991), pp. 88–91 online. (http:/ / books.
google. com/ books?id=Hs3BpWur0_4C& pg=PA88& dq="Besides+ the+ obviously+ warlike+ aspects+ of+ Mars+ there+ are+ also+
features+ which+ have+ an+ agricultural+ aspect"& hl=en& ei=uU3wTNcEyeydB42G2OAK& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result&
resnum=1& ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage& q="Besides the obviously warlike aspects of Mars there are also features which have an
agricultural aspect"& f=false)
[18] Schilling, "Mars," in Roman and European Mythologies, p. 135; Palmer, Archaic Community, pp. 113–114.
[19] Gary Forsythe, A Critical History of Early Rome (University of California Press, 2005), p. 127; Fowler, Religious Experience, p. 134.
[20] Cato, On Agriculture 141. In pre-modern agricultural societies, encroaching woodland or wild growth was a real threat to the food supply,
since clearing land for cultivation required intense manual labor with minimal tools and little or no large-scale machinery. Fowler says of
Mars, "As he was not localised either on the farm or in the city, I prefer to think that he was originally conceived as a Power outside the
boundary in each case, but for that very reason all the more to be propitiated by the settlers within it" (Religious Experience, p. 142).
[21] Schilling, "Mars," p. 135.
[22] Beard et al., Religions of Rome: A History, pp. 47–48.
[23] Forsythe, A Critical History of Early Rome, p. 127
[24] Plutarch, Roman Questions 21, citing Nigidius Figulus.
[25] Plutarch, Roman Questions 21; also named as sacred to Mars in his Life of Romulus. Ovid (Fasti 3.37) calls the woodpecker the bird of
Mars.
[26] Pliny, Natural History 29.29.
[27] Pliny, Natural History 27.60. Pliny names the herb as glycysīdē in Greek, Latin paeonia (see Peony: Name), also called pentorobos.
[28] A.H. Krappe, "Picus Who Is Also Zeus," Mnemosyne 9.4 (1941), p. 241.
[29] William Geoffrey Arnott, Birds in the ancient world from A to Z (Routledge, 2007), p. 63 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=0NB4qqenLQIC& pg=PA63& dq=picus+ Martius+ Mars+ "green+ woodpecker"& hl=en& ei=ifEITcboAYiWnAfq-KzaDw&
sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=2& ved=0CCsQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage& q=picus Martius Mars "green woodpecker"& f=false)
[30] Plutarch, Roman Questions 21. Athenaeus lists the woodpecker among delicacies on Greek tables (Deipnosophistae 9.369).
[31] Plautus, Asinaria 259–261; Pliny, Natural History 10.18. Named also in the Iguvine Tables (6a, 1–7), as Umbrian peiqu; Schilling, "Roman
Divination," in Roman and European Mythologies (University of Chicago Press, 1992), pp. 96–97 and 105, note 7.
[32] Dionysius of Halicarnassus 1.31; Peter F. Dorcey, The Cult of Silvanus: A Study in Roman Folk Religion (Brill, 1992), p. 33.
[33] John Greppin, entry on "woodpecker," Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997), p. 648.
[34] Dionysius Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities I.14.5, as noted by Mary Emma Armstrong, The Significance of Certain Colors in Roman
Ritual (George Banta Publishing, 1917), p. 6.
[35] The myth of the she-wolf, and the birth of the twins with Mars as their father, is a long and complex tradition that weaves together multiple
stories about the founding of Rome. See T.P. Wiseman, Remus: A Roman Myth (Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. xiii, 73ff. et passim.
[36] Plutarch, Life of Romulus.
[37] Livy 22.1.12, as cited by Wiseman, Remus, p. 189, note 6, and Armstrong, The Significance of Certain Colors, p. 6.
[38] Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 10.27.
[39] Miranda Green, Animals in Celtic Life and Myth (Routledge, 1992), p. 126.
[40] Nicole Belayche, "Religious Actors in Daily Life: Practices and Related Beliefs," in A Companion to Roman Religion (Blackwell, 2007), p.
283; C. Bennett Pascal, "October Horse," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 85 (1981), pp. 268, 277.
[41] As did Neptune, Janus and the Genius; John Scheid, "Sacrifices for Gods and Ancestors," in A Companion to Roman Religion (Blackwell,
2007), p. 264.
[42] Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, Religons of Rome: A Sourcebook (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 153.
[43] C. Bennett Pascal, "October Horse," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 85 (1981), pp. 263, 268, 277.
[44] Robert Schilling, "Mars," in Roman and European Mythologies (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p. 135
online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Uf2_kHAs22sC& pg=PA135& dq=mars+ intitle:mythologies& hl=en&
ei=aV_pTIzqJorQngeB0-ziDQ& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=1& ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage& q=mars
intitle:mythologies& f=false) The figure is sometimes identified only as a warrior.
[45] Paul Rehak and John G. Younger, Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius (University of Wisconsin Press,
2006), p. 114.
[46] Rehak and Younger, Imperium and Cosmos, p. 114.
[47] Martianus Capella 5.425, with Mars specified as Gradivus and Neptune named as Portunus.
[48] Varro, Antiquitates frg. 254* (Cardauns); Plutarch, Romulus 29.1 (a rather muddled account); Arnobius, Adversus nationes 6.11.
[49] Michael Lipka, Roman Gods: A Conceptual Approach (Brill, 2009), p. 88.
[50] Imperium and Cosmos p. 114.
[51] The classical Latin declension of the name is as follows: nominative and vocative case, Mars; genitive, Martis; accusative, Martem; dative,
Marti; ablative Marte. (http:/ / www. slu. edu/ colleges/ AS/ languages/ classical/ latin/ tchmat/ grammar/ whprax/ w7-d3-n. html)
[52] Virgil, "Aeneid" VIII, 630
[53] Mallory, J. P.; D. Q. Adams (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=tzU3RIV2BWIC&
source=gbs_navlinks_s). New York: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. pp. 630–631. ISBN 1-884964-98-2. .; some of the older literature assumes
an Indo-European form closer to *Marts, and see a connection with the Indic windgods, the Maruts "Māruta" (http:/ / vedabase. net/ m/
maruta). . Retrieved July 8, 2010., but this makes the appearance of Mavors and the agricultural cults of Mars difficult to explain.
[54] English Tuesday derives from Old English "Tiwesdæg" and means "Tiw's Day" ( Online Etymology Dictionary (http:/ / www. etymonline.
com/ index. php?term=Tuesday)), Tiw being the Old English form of the Proto-Germanic god *Tîwaz, or Týr in Norse, a god of war.
[55] Livy 2.45.
[56] Livy, 1.20, (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=M-ikf_c0rB0C& pg=PA31& dq="mars+ gradivus"& hl=en&
ei=rbbRTNr0AYiWnAfRtKy8DA& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=3& ved=0CDIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage& q="mars
gradivus"& f=false) with note by Valerie M. Warrior, The History of Rome Books 1–5 (Hackett, 2006), p. 31.
[57] Compare Gradiva. The 2nd-century grammarian Festus offers two other explanations in addition. The name, he says, might also mean the
vibration of a spear, for which the Greeks use the word kradainein; others locate the origin of Gradivus in the grass (gramine), because the
grass crown is the highest military honor; see Carole Newlands, Playing with Time: Ovid and the Fasti (Cornell University Press, 1995), p.
106. Servius says that grass was sacred to Mars (note to Aeneid 12.119).
[58] Statius, Thebaid 9.4.
[59] Valerius Maximus 2.131.1, auctor ac stator Romani nominis.
[60] Hans-Friedrich Mueller, Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus (Routledge, 2002), p. 88.
[61] Martianus Capella, The Marriage of Philology and Mercury 1.4.
[62] Robert E.A. Palmer, The Archaic Community of the Romans (Cambridge University Press, 2009), p. 167.
[63] Mars enim cum saevit Gradivus dicitur, cum tranquillus est Quirinus: Servius, note to Aeneid 1.292, at Perseus. (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts.
edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Serv. + A. + 1. 292& fromdoc=Perseus:text:1999. 02. 0053) At Aeneid 6.860, Servius further notes: "Quirinus is the
Mars who presides over peace and whose cult is maintained within the civilian realm, for the Mars of war has his temple outside that realm."
See also Belier, Decayed Gods, p. 92: "The identification of the two gods is a reflection of a social process. The men who till the soil as
Quirites in times of peace are identical with the men who defend their country as Milites in times of war."
[64] Palmer, The Archaic Community of the Romans, pp. 165–171. On how Romulus became identified with Mars Quirinus, see the Dumézilian
summary of Belier, Decayed Gods, p. 93–94.
[65] Etymologically, Quirinus is *co-uiri-no, "(the god) of the community of men (viri)," and Vofionus is *leudhyo-no, "(the god) of the people":
Oliver de Cazanove, "Pre-Roman Italy, Before and Under the Romans," in A Companion to Roman Religion (Blackwell, 2007), p. 49. It has
also been argued that Vofionus corresponds to Janus, because an entry in Festus (204, edition of Lindsay) indicates there was a Roman triad of
Jupiter, Mars, and Janus, each having quirinus as a title; C. Scott Littleton, The New Comparative Mythology (University of California Press,
1966, 1973), p. 178, citing Vsevolod Basanoff, Les dieux Romains (1942).
[66] O. de Cazanove, "Pre-Roman Italy," pp. 49–50.
[67] The Indo-European character of this prayer is discussed by Calvert Watkins, "Some Indo-European Prayers: Cato's Lustration of the Fields,"
in How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics (Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 197–213.
[68] Celia E. Schultz, "Juno Sospita and Roman Insecurity in the Social War," in Religion in Republican Italy (Cambridge University Press,
2006), p. 217, especially note 38.
[69] For the text of this vow, see The invocation of Decius Mus.
[70] Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, Religons of Rome: A Sourcebook (Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 71ff. for examples of a
bull offering, p. 153 on the suovetaurilia.
[71] Beard et al., "Religions of Rome, p. 370.
[72] Martin Henig, Religion in Roman Britain (London, 1984, 1995), p. 27, citing the military calendar from Dura-Europos.
[73] Gary Forsythe, A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War (University of California Press, 2005), p. 168.
[74] Newlands, Playing with Time, p. 104.
[75] Votum pro bubus, uti valeant, sic facito. Marti Silvano in silva interdius in capita singula boum votum facito. Farris L. III et lardi P.39 IIII S
et pulpae P. IIII S, vini S.40 III, id in unum vas liceto coicere, et vinum item in unum vas liceto coicere. Eam rem divinam vel servus vel liber
licebit faciat. Ubi res divina facta erit, statim ibidem consumito. Mulier ad eam rem divinam ne adsit neve videat quo modo fiat. Hoc votum in
annos singulos, si voles, licebit vovere. Cato the Elder, On Farming 83, English translation (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/
Roman/ Texts/ Cato/ De_Agricultura/ E*. html#83) from the Loeb Classical Library, Bill Thayer's edition at LacusCurtius.
[76] Robert Schilling, "Silvanus," in Roman and European Mythologies (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p.
146; Peter F. Dorcey, The Cult of Silvanus: A Study in Roman Folk Religion (Brill, 1992), pp. 8–9, 49.
[77] Dorcey, The Cult of Silvanus, pp. 9 and 105ff.
[80] Robert Schilling, "Mars," Roman and European Mythologies (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p. 135;
Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, Religons of Rome: A Sourcebook (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 80.
[81] For instance, during the Republic, the dictator was charged with the ritual clavi figendi causa, driving a nail into the wall of the Capitoline
temple. According to Cassius Dio (55.10.4, as cited by Lipka, Roman Gods, p. 108), this duty was transferred to a censor under Augustus, and
the ritual moved to the Temple of Mars Ultor.
[82] Lipka, Roman Gods, p. 109.
[83] Lipka, Roman Gods, pp. 111–112.
[84] CIL VI.1, no. 2086 (edition of Bormann and Henzen, 1876), as translated and cited by Charlotte R. Long, The Twelve Gods of Greece and
Rome (Brill, 1987), pp. 130–131.
[85] Keith Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves (Cambridge University Press, 1978), p. 230.
[86] A.E. Cooley, "Beyond Rome and Latium: Roman Religion in the Age of Augustus," in Religion in Republican Italy (Cambridge University
Press, 2006), p. 247; Duncan Fishwick, The imperial cult in the Latin West (Brill, 2005), passim.
[87] Jonathan Edmondson, "The Cult of Mars Augustus and Roman Imperial Power at Augusta Emerita (Lusitania) in the Third Century A.D.: A
New Votive Dedication," in Culto imperial: politica y poder («L'Erma» di Bretschneider, 2007), p. 562. These include an inscription that was
later built into the castle walls at Sines in Portugal; dedications at Ipagrum (Aguilar de la Frontera, in the modern province of Córdoba) and at
Conobaria (Las Cabezas de San Juan in the province of Seville) in Baetica; and a statue at Isturgi ((CIL II. 2121 = ILS II2/7, 56). A magister of
the "Lares of Augustus" (see Imperial cult) made a dedication to Mars Augustus ((CIL II. 2013 = ILS II2/5, 773) at Singili(a) Barba (Cerro del
Castillón, Antequera).
[88] Edmondson, "The Cult of Mars Augustus," p. 563.
[89] Edmondson, "The Cult of Mars Augustus," p. 562.
[90] Mars Augustus is hailed by the person making the dedication as conservator corporis sui, the preserver of his body, and the statue was
vowed ex iussu numinis ipsius, "by the command of the numen himself" (ILS 3160); Rudolf Haensch, "Inscriptions as Sources of Knowledge
for Religions and Cults in the Roman World of Imperial Times," in A Companion to Roman Religion (Blackwell, 2007), p. 182.
[91] William Van Andringa, "Religions and the Integration of Cities in the Empire in the Second Century AD: The Creation of a Common
Religious Language," A Companion to Roman Religion , p. 86.
[92] Edmondson, "The Cult of Mars Augustus," pp. 541–575.
[93] Ittai Gradel, Emperor Worship and Roman Religion (Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 238, note 11, citing Victor Ehrenberg and Arnold
H.M. Jones, Documents Illustrating the Reigns of Augustus and Tiberius (Oxford University Press, 1955), no. 43.
[94] The chief priest of the three Dacian provinces dedicated an altar pro salute, for the wellbeing of the Emperor Gordian, at an imperial cult
center sometime between 238 and 244 AD; Edmondson, "The Cult of Mars Augustus," p. 562.
[95] Miranda Green, Animals in Celtic Life and Myth (Routledge, 1992), p. 198.
[96] Ton Derks, Gods, Temples, and Ritual Practices: The Transformation of Religious Ideas and Values in Roman Gaul (Amsterdam University
Press, 1998), p. 79.
[97] Phillips, E.J. (1977). Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani, Great Britain, Volume I, Fascicule 1. Hadrian's Wall East of the North Tyne (p. 66).
Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-725954-5.
[98] Ross, Anne (1967). Pagan Celtic Britain. Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN 0-902357-03-4.
[99] Miranda J. Green. "Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend" (p. 142.) Thames and Hudson Ltd. 1997
[100] G. Llompart, "Mars Balearicus," Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología 26 (1960) 101–128; "Estatuillas de bronce de
Mallorca: Mars Balearicus," in Bronces y religión romana: actas del XI Congreso Internacional de Bronces Antiguos, Madrid, mayo-junio,
1990 (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1993), p. 57ff.
[101] Jaume García Rosselló, Joan Fornés Bisquerra, and Michael Hoskin, "Orientations of the Talayotic Sanctuaries of Mallorca," Journal of
History of Astronomy, Archaeoastronomy Supplement 31 (2000), pp. 58–64 (especially note 10) pdf. (http:/ / articles. adsabs. harvard. edu/
cgi-bin/ nph-iarticle_query?2000JHAS. . . 31. . . 58G& defaultprint=YES& filetype=. pdf)
[102] Green, Animals in Celtic Life and Myth, p. 64.
[103] Jones, Barri & Mattingly, David (1990). An Atlas of Roman Britain (p. 275). Oxford: Basil Blackwell. ISBN 1-84217-067-8.
[105] Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise (Éditions Errance, 2003), 2nd edition, p. 200.
[106] Gaulish nemeton was originally a sacred grove or space defined for religious purposes, and later a building: Bernhard Maier, Dictionary of
Celtic Religion and Culture (Boydell Press, 1997, 2000, originally published 1994 in German), p. 207.
[107] Helmut Birkham, entry on "Loucetius," in Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, edited by John Koch (ABC-Clio, 2006), p. 1192.
[109] Lesley Adkins and Roy A. Adkins, Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome (Facts on File, 1994, 2004), p. 297.
[110] Miranda Green, Celtic Myths (University of Texas Press, 1993, 1998), p. 42.
External links
• Mars in Roman Religion (http://www.angelfire.com/empire/martiana/mars/index.html)
Mercury (mythology)
Mercury by 17th-century Flemish sculptor Artus Quellinus,

identified by his hat, drawstring purse, caduceus, winged sandals,
cock (rooster), and goat

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
Mercury (pronounced /ˈmɜrkjʉri/, Latin: Mercurius listen) was a messenger,[1] and a god of trade, the son of Maia
Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is related to the Latin word merx ("merchandise"; compare
merchant, commerce, etc.), mercari (to trade), and merces (wages).[2] In his earliest forms, he appears to have been
related to the Etruscan deity Turms, but most of his characteristics and mythology were borrowed from the
analogous Greek deity, Hermes. Latin writers rewrote Hermes' myths and substituted his name with that of Mercury.
However there are at least two myths that involve Mercury that are Roman in origin. In Virgil's Aeneid, Mercury
reminds Aeneas of his mission to found the city of Rome. In Ovid's Fasti, Mercury is assigned to escort the nymph
Larunda to the underworld. Mercury, however, fell in love with Larunda and made love to her on the way; this act
has also been interpreted as a rape. Larunda thereby became mother to two children, referred to as the Lares,
invisible household gods.
Mercury has influenced the name of many things in a variety of scientific fields, such as the planet Mercury, and the
element mercury, which it was formally associated. The word mercurial is commonly used to refer to something or
someone erratic, volatile or unstable, derived from Mercury's swift flights from place to place.
Mercury did not appear among the numinous di indigetes of early Roman
religion. Rather, he subsumed the earlier Dei Lucrii as Roman religion was
syncretized with Greek religion during the time of the Roman Republic, starting
around the 4th century BC. From the beginning, Mercury had essentially the
same aspects as Hermes, wearing winged shoes talaria and a winged petasos, and
carrying the caduceus, a herald's staff with two entwined snakes that was
Apollo's gift to Hermes. He was often accompanied by a cockerel, herald of the
new day, a ram or goat, symbolizing fertility, and a tortoise, referring to
Mercury's legendary invention of the lyre from a tortoise shell.
Like Hermes, he was also a messenger of the gods and a god of trade,
particularly of the grain trade. Mercury was also considered a god of abundance
and commercial success, particularly in Gaul. He was also, like Hermes, the
Romans' psychopomp, leading newly-deceased souls to the afterlife.
Additionally, Ovid wrote that Mercury carried Morpheus' dreams from the valley
of Somnus to sleeping humans.[3]
Hendrick Goltzius: Mercury, with his
symbols Mercury's temple in the Circus Maximus, between the Aventine and Palatine
hills, was built in 495 BC. This was a fitting place to worship a swift god of trade
and travel, since it was a major center of commerce as well as a racetrack. Since it stood between the plebeian
stronghold on the Aventine and the patrician center on the Palatine, it also emphasized the role of Mercury as a
mediator.
Because Mercury was not one of the early deities surviving from the Roman Kingdom, he was not assigned a flamen
("priest"), but he did have a major festival on May 15, the Mercuralia. During the Mercuralia, merchants sprinkled
water from his sacred well near the Porta Capena on their heads.
Mercury's net in Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso

Vulcan had created a net out of unbreakable steel so that he could catch Venus, the Goddess of Beauty, and Mars,
the God of War, in the act of making love because he was jealous of their relationship. Vulcan managed to catch
them but, afterwards, Mercury stole the net from the blacksmith God so that he could catch Cloris, a nymph who he
admired. Cloris' job is to fly after the Sun while it rises, and to scatter lilies, roses and violets behind it. Mercury lay
in wait for at least several days until he caught her wing in the net over an unnamed great river in Ethiopia, most
likely the Awash/Awasi river. Mercury then gives the net to the temple of Anubis at Canopus to protect the sacred
spot, but it was stolen 3,000 years later by Caligorant, who goes on to destroy the temple and city. Caligorant is an
important character in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso.[4]
References
[1] Theoi.com (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Olympios/ Hermes. html)
[2] http:/ / www. behindthename. com/ name/ mercury
[3] Littleton, C. Scott (Ed.) (2002). Mythology: The Illustrated Anthology of World Myth and Storytelling (pp. 195, 251, 253, 258, 292). London:
Duncan Baird Publishers. ISBN 1-904292-01-1.
[4] Ariosto, Ludovico. "Canto XV Lines 47-64." Orlando Furioso. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.
Messor 137
Messor
• In Roman mythology, Messor ("mower" or "reaper") was one of the minor god assistants of Ceres, the goddess of
agriculture. See Ceres for more details.
• Messor is also a genus of myrmicine ants, similar to Aphaenogaster. See Messor (ant genus) for more details.
Momus 138
Momus
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Titans and Olympians
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
Personified concepts
• Apate • Kratos
• Atë • Metis
• Bia • Moirae
• Charites • Morpheus
• Eris • Nemesis
• Eros • Nike
• Harmonia • Thanatos
• Horae • Themis
• Hypnos • Zelos
Momus or Momos (μῶμος) was in Greek mythology the god of satire, mockery, censure, writers, poets; a spirit of
evil-spirited blame and unfair criticism. His name is related to μομφή, meaning 'blame' or 'censure'. He is depicted in
classical art as lifting a mask from his face.
In classical literature
Hesiod[1] said that Momus was a son of Night (Nyx). He mocked Hephaestus, Lucian of Samosata recalled,[2] for
having made mankind without doors in their breast, through which their thoughts could be seen. He even mocked
Aphrodite, though all he could find was that she was talkative and had creaky sandals[3] He even found fit to mock
Zeus, saying he is a violent god and lusts for woman, giving birth to two villainous sons equal to him in disgust
(works of Apollonius Molon). Because of his constant criticism, he was exiled from Mt. Olympus.
Momus is featured in one of Aesop's fables, where he is to judge the handiwork of three gods (the gods vary
depending on the version). However, he is jealous of what they have done and derides all of their creations. He is
then banished from Olympus by Zeus for his jealousy.
Sophocles wrote a satyr play, now almost entirely lost, called Momos.
In Lucian's satiric dialogue Assembly of the Gods (ca 165 CE) it is Momus who is the secretary when the gods stage
a city meeting as if at Athens, to decide what to do about newly-arrived outsiders and metics, the target of the satire
being the recent development of complete enfranchisement of unworthy outsiders (Lucian himself being of Syrian
origin).
In Book VI of Plato's Republic, Glaucon says to Socrates: "Momus himself could not find fault with such a
combination."
Momus 139
Renaissance and later writers

Leon Battista Alberti wrote a savage and pessimistic Latin satiric dialogue, Momus, (ca. 1450)[4] which drew upon
Lucian's example; as with his model — though some readers, with Eugenio Garin, detect in it some of Alberti's own
streak of bitterness — the end use of the cynicism in the satire is to amuse.
When Sir Francis Bacon wrote an essay "Of Building," (XLV) he said that "He that builds a fair house upon an ill
seat, committeth himself to prison. .. Neither is it ill air only that maketh an ill seat, but ill ways, ill markets, and, if
you consult with Momus, ill neighbours."
In Giordano Bruno's philosophical treatise "The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast", Momus plays an integral part
in the series of dialogues conducted by the Olympian Deities and Bruno's narrators. Momus was brought back from
his expulsion deep in the cosmos in order to assist Jove in reconstructing the heaven's by purging them of vice and
heralding in an age of virtue.
In one scene of Jonathan Swift's The Battle of the Books, Momus, while rushing to defend the Moderns, gets some
aid from the goddess Criticism. Interestingly, Swift, a renowned satirist, sides with the Ancients while the goddess of
satire sides with the Moderns
Laurence Sterne ruminated on the possibilities of Momus' window into the soul in a typical rambling excursus in
Tristram Shandy.
Antonin Artaud is referencing him in his brief Artaud Le Momo (1947), written shortly after nine years of
incarceration.
Henry David Thoreau references him in Walden. In his first chapter, "Economy", Thoreau notes what he considers
the valid objection of Momus/Momos against the house which Minerva/Athena made, that she "had not made it
moveable, by which means a bad neighborhood might be avoided".
Mardi Gras
Inspired by the god, the "Knights of Momus" ("KOM") was the name of a Mardi Gras society in Galveston, Texas,
founded in 1871. The original Knights of Momus went defunct around the time of World War II. A new group was
founded in the mid-1980s, and seeking to rekindle the spirit of the original group, adopted the Momus name.
"The Knights of Momus" is also the name of the third-oldest New Orleans Mardi Gras krewe, founded in 1872.
Unlike the Galveston Momus organization, the New Orleans iteration of the Knights of Momus has operated
continuously since its founding, and remains true to its roots as a secret society.
For over 100 years, the Momus parade was a fixture of the New Orleans Mardi Gras parade schedule, parading
annually on the Thursday before Fat Tuesday. Since Momus was the Greek god of mockery, the themes of Momus
parades typically paid homage to the organization's namesake with irreverent humor and biting satire. The 1877
parade theme, "Hades, A Dream of Momus," caused an uproar when it took aim at the Reconstruction government
established in New Orleans after the Civil War. Attempts at retribution by local authorities were largely unsuccessful
due to the secrecy of the membership.
In 1991, the New Orleans City Council passed an ordinance that required social organizations, including Mardi Gras
Krewes, to certify publicly that they did not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation,
in order to obtain parade permits and other public licensure. In effect, the ordinance required these, and other, private
social groups to abandon their traditional code of secrecy and identify their members for the city's Human Relations
Commission. Momus was one of three historic krewes (with Comus of 1857 and Proteus of 1882) that withdrew
from parading rather than identify their membership.
Two federal courts later declared that the ordinance was an unconstitutional infringement on First Amendment rights
of free association, and an unwarranted intrusion on the privacy of the groups subject to the ordinance.[5] The
Supreme Court refused to hear the city's appeal from this decision. Nevertheless, the Momus parade never returned
Momus 140
to the streets of New Orleans, although the group still conducts an annual bal masqué on the Thursday before Mardi
Gras.
References
[1] Hesiod, Theogony, 214.
[2] In the extended dialogue Hermotimus, 20.
[3] Philostratus, Epistles.
[4] Alberti, Momus (The I Tatti Renaissance Library), Sarah Knight and Virginia Brown, editors; Sarah Knight's is the first translation in English.
[5] The decision of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals appears at volume 42, page 1483 of the Federal Reporter (3rd Series), or 42 F.3d 1483 (5th
Cir. 1995).
External links
• Harry Thurston Peck, Harper's Dictionary of classical antiquity, 1897 (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cache/
perscoll_Greco-Roman.html): Momus
• Bohemian Café Society" (http://www.bohemiabooks.com.au/eblinks/spirboho/paris1830/cafes.htm): the
real "Café Momus"
• Lawrence Sterne, Tristram Shandy (http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/anglophone/satanic_verses/glass.html):
ruminations on Momus' windows of glass, in Volume 1, chapter 23 (text)
• Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 'Momus, God of Laughter' (http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/
Ella-Wheeler-Wilcox/16023): Poem at www.americanpoems.com
Mors (mythology) 141
Mors (mythology)
In ancient Roman myth and literature, Mors is the personification of death
equivalent to the Greek Thánatos. As the Latin noun for "death", mors, genitive
mortis, is of feminine gender, but ancient Roman art is not known to depict Death as
a woman.[1] Latin poets, however, are bound by the grammatical gender of the
word.[2] Horace writes of pallida Mors, "pale Death," who kicks her way in to the
hovels of the poor and the towers of kings equally.[3] Seneca, for whom Mors is also
pale, describes her "eager teeth."[4] Tibullus pictures Mors as black or dark.[5]
Mors is often represented allegorically in later Western literature and art,

particularly during the Middle Ages. Depictions of the Crucifixion of Christ
sometimes show Mors standing at the foot of the cross.[6] Mors' antithesis is
personified as Vita, "Life."[7]
Genealogy
Mors is the offspring of Nox (Night), and sibling to the personification of sleep,
Somnus.
Roman mythology
Mors is often connected to Mars,[8] the Roman god of war; Pluto, the god of the
underworld; and Orcus, god of death and punisher of perjurers.
In one story, Hercules fought Mors in order to save his friend's wife. In other stories,
Mors is shown as a servant to Pluto, ending the life of a person after the thread of Mors (Death) coming for a miser
their life has been cut by the Parcae, and of Mercury, messenger to the gods, in a painting by Bosch
escorting the dead persons soul, or shade, down to the underworld's gate.
References
[1] Karl Siegfried Guthke, The Gender of Death: A Cultural History in Art and Literature (Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 24 et passim.
[2] Diana Burton, "The Gender of Death," in Personification in the Greek World (Ashgate, 2005), pp. 57–58.
[3] Horace, Carmina 1.4.14–15.
[4] Avidis … dentibus: Seneca, Hercules Furens 555.
[5] Tibullus 1.3.3.
[6] Guthke, The Gender of Death, pp. 24, 41, et passim.
[7] Guthke, The Gender of Death, pp. 45–46.
[8] Remigius of Auxerre, In Martianum 36.7: "Mars is called so as if mors (death)," as cited byJane Chance, Medieval Mythography: From
Roman North Africa to the School of Chartres, A.D. 433–1177 (University Press of Florida, 1994), p. 578, note 70. The
etymology-by-association of Remigius should be distinguished from scientific linguistics.
Mutunus Tutunus 142
Mutunus Tutunus
In ancient Roman religion, Mutunus Tutunus or Mutinus Titinus
was a phallic marriage deity, in some respects equated with Priapus.
His shrine was located on the Velian Hill, supposedly since the
founding of Rome, until the 1st century BC.
During preliminary marriage rites, Roman brides are supposed to have
straddled the phallus of Mutunus to prepare themselves for intercourse,
according to Church Fathers who interpreted this act as an obscene loss
of virginity.[1] Arnobius says that Roman matrons were taken for a ride
(inequitare) on Tutunus's "awful phallus" with its "immense shameful
parts",[2] but other sources specify that it is brides who learned through
the ritual not to be embarrassed by sex: "Tutinus, upon whose shameful
lap sit brides, so that the god seems to sample their shame before the A denarius issued by Quintus Titius, thought to
fact."[3] The 2nd-century grammarian Festus is the only classical Latin depict a bearded Mutunus Tutunus
source to take note of the god,[4] and the characterization of the rite by
Christian sources is likely to be hostile or biased.[5]
Etymology
Unlike Priapus, who is depicted in human form with an outsized erection, Mutunus seems to have been embodied
purely by the phallus, like the fascinus or the mysterious begetter of Servius Tullius. The god's name is related to two
infrequently recorded slang words for penis in Latin, mūtō (or muttō) and mūtōnium.[6] "Mutto" was also used as a
cognomen, the third of the three elements of a Roman man's name.[7] Lucilius offers the earliest recorded instance of
both forms: at laeva lacrimas muttoni[8] absterget amica ("A girlfriend wipes away Mutto's tears — his left hand,
that is"),[9] and the derivative mūtōnium. Mūtōnium may have replaced the earlier form, as it appears later among the
graffiti of Pompeii.[10] Horace has a dialogue with his muttō: "What do you want? Surely you're not demanding a
grand consul's granddaughter as a cunt?"[11] Both Lucilius and Horace thus personify the muttō.[12] Mūtūniātus, used
by Martial and in the Corpus Priapeorum,[13] describes a "well-endowed" male.[14]
Both parts of the name Mūtūnus Tūtūnus are reduplicative, Tītīnus perhaps from tītus, another slang word for
"penis."[15]
Cult
The shrine of Mutunus Tutunus on the Velia has not been located. According to Festus, it was destroyed to make a
private bath for the pontifex and Augustan supporter Domitius Calvinus, even though it was revered as among the
most ancient landmarks.[16]
This uprooting raises the question of why Calvinus was permitted to displace such a venerable shrine. The Church
Fathers associate Mutunus with groupings of other deities that are assumed to be based on the lost theological works
of Varro. Through examining these connections, Robert Palmer concluded that the old cult of Mutunus was merged
with that of Father Liber, who was variously identified with or shared attributes with Jupiter, Bacchus, and
Lampsacene Priapus. Palmer further conjectured that it was Mutunus, in the form of Liber, to whom Julius Caesar
made sacrifice on the day of his assassination, receiving the ill omens that the conspirator Decimus Brutus urged him
to ignore. Caesar had previously celebrated his victory at the Battle of Munda on the Liberalia, or festival of Liber
held March 17, and he visited the house of the pontifex Calvinus on the Ides of March, near the archaic shrine of
Mutunus-Liber. In Palmer's view, the evident ill favor of the god gave Augustus license to reform the cult during his
Mutunus Tutunus 143
program of religious revivalism that often disguised radical innovations. The god was then Hellenized as Bacchus
Lyaeus.[17]
Palmer concurred with numismatists who regard a denarius minted by Quintus Titius, moneyer ca. 90–88 BC, as
picturing an aged and bearded Mutunus on its obverse.[18] The winged diadem is a reference to the Priapus of
Lampsacus and to the winged phallus as a common motif in Roman decorative arts, which can also serve as an
apotropaic charm against the evil eye. Another issue by Titius pictures an ivy-crowned Bacchus, with both denarii
having a virtually identical Pegasus on the reverse. Michael Crawford finds "no good grounds" for identifying this
figure as Mutunus,[19] but Palmer points to the shared iconography of the Bacchus–Liber–Priapus figure and the
associative etymology of the gens name Titius. A titus ("penis") with wings was a visual pun, since the word also
referred to a type of bird.[20] Varro seems to have associated Titinus with the Titii, in an etymological collocation
that included Titus Tatius, the royal Sabine contemporary of Romulus; the Curia Titia; or the tribus of the Titienses,
one of the three original tribes of Rome.[21]
References
[1] H.J. Rose, The Roman Questions of Plutarch: A New Translation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924, reprinted 1974), p. 84 online. (http:/ /
books. google. com/ books?id=rKOuoVnZsFAC& pg=PA84& dq="Mutunus+ Tutunus"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0&
as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=17#v=onepage& q="Mutunus Tutunus"& f=false)
[2] Arnobius, Adversus nationes 4.7 (see also 4.11): Tutunus, cuius immanibus pudendis horrentique fascino vestras inequitare matronas et
auspicabile ducitis et optatis. Compare Tertullian, Ad nationes 2.11 and Apologeticus 25.3. On the translation of pudendis, see J.N. Adams,
The Latin Sexual Vocabulary (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982, 1990), pp. 55–56.
[3] Lactantius, Divinarum Institutionum 1.20.36: Tutinus in cuius sinu pudendo nubentes praesident ut illarum pudicitiam prior deus delibasse
videatur. See also Augustine of Hippo (particularly De civitate Dei 4.11 and 6.9) who "several times refers with distaste to the practices
associated with" the priapic gods; R.W. Dyson, The City of God Against the Pagans (Cambridge University Press, 1998, 2002), p. 1221
online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=ReU2M8cLtGcC& pg=PA1221& dq="Mutunus+ Tutunus"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q&
as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=7#v=onepage& q="Mutunus Tutunus"& f=false)
[4] Jean-Noël Robert, Eros romano: sexo y moral en la Roma antigua (Editorial Complutense, 1999), p. 58 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=1wS-vtfUdbUC& pg=PA58& dq="este+ fascinus+ tiene+ nombre+ y+ se+ le+ honra+ como+ a+ un+ dios+ Mutunus+ Tutunus"&
lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& as_brr=0& cd=1#v=onepage& q="este fascinus tiene
nombre y se le honra como a un dios Mutunus Tutunus"& f=false)
[5] Ronald Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy (Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 6, note 37, marks "the mockery of the Christian writers"; see
also Augustine's "distaste" for the phallic gods noted above. W.H. Parker, Priapea: Poems for a Phallic God (Routledge, 1988), p. 135 online
(http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=iZUOAAAAQAAJ& pg=PA135& dq="Church+ fathers"+ mutunus+ OR+ tutunus+ OR+ mutinus+
OR+ titinus& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3&
cd=2#v=onepage& q="Church fathers" mutunus OR tutunus OR mutinus OR titinus& f=false), observes that the ritual of Mutunus was
"condemned by early Church fathers"; Joseph Rykwert, The Idea of a Town: The Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy, and the Ancient
World (MIT Press, 1988), p. 159 online (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Jq78Ff2TYHAC& pg=PA159& dq="Church+ fathers"+
mutunus+ OR+ tutunus+ OR+ mutinus+ OR+ titinus& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=&
num=100& as_brr=3& cd=1#v=onepage& q="Church fathers" mutunus OR tutunus OR mutinus OR titinus& f=false), notes that they spoke
"scathingly" of phallic rituals. Tertullian's bias in his assemblage of deities to deride (including Mutunus) pointed out by Mary Beard, John
North et al., Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 359, note 1 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=xQd82l39KX4C& pg=PA359& dq=Christian+ mutunus+ OR+ tutunus+ OR+ mutinus+ OR+ titinus& lr=& as_drrb_is=q&
as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=17#v=onepage& q=Christian mutunus OR
tutunus OR mutinus OR titinus& f=false) The fascinum — identified by Arnobius with the phallus of Mutunus — "was used by Christian
writers in their tirades against pagan customs," points out Enrique Montero Cartelle, El latín erótico: aspectos léxicos y literarios (University
of Seville, 1991), p. 70 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=vUfXS1qQg9MC& pg=PA70& dq="Fascinum+ fue+ empleado+ por+
los+ escritores+ cristianos"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& as_brr=0&
cd=1#v=onepage& q="Fascinum fue empleado por los escritores cristianos"& f=false) For a fuller discussion, see Carlos A. Contreras,
"Christian Views of Paganism," Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.23.1 (1980) 974–1022, p. 1013 online (http:/ / books. google.
com/ books?id=0soI8HZXT3gC& pg=PA1013& dq=Christian+ mutunus+ OR+ tutunus+ OR+ mutinus+ OR+ titinus& lr=& as_drrb_is=q&
as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=40#v=onepage& q=Christian mutunus OR
tutunus OR mutinus OR titinus& f=false) specifically in relation to Mutunus and in general asserting that "Arnobius commits the same
mistake as other Fathers of applying Christian conceptions to pagan ideas in order to condemn them" (p. 1010). "Our knowledge of such
things," that is, of rites such as those of Mutunus, "comes from Christian writers who are openly concerned to discredit all aspects of pagan
idolatry," states Peter Stewart, Statues in Roman Society: Representation and Response (Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 266, note 24
online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=xauWDEbWMs8C& pg=PA266& dq="Our+ knowledge+ of+ such+ things+ comes+ from+
Mutunus Tutunus 144
Christian+ writers+ who+ are+ openly"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& as_brr=0&
cd=1#v=onepage& q="Our knowledge of such things comes from Christian writers who are openly"& f=false)
[6] J.N. Adams, The Latin Sexual Vocabulary (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982, 1990), p. 62 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=GDP9VHGbF1AC& pg=PA62& dq="Mutunus+ Tutunus"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0&
as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=1#v=onepage& q="Mutunus Tutunus"& f=false)
[7] CIL V.1412, 8473, as cited by Adams. The moneyer Quintus Titius, one of whose coins has been interpreted as depicting Mutunus, may have
used the cognomen Mutto; T.R.S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (American Philological Association, 1952), vol. 2, p.
454.
[8] Muttōni is the dative form of muttō.
[9] Lucilius 307 and 959. Kirk Freundenburg has dubbed the muttō of Lucilius "clearly the least finicky of all personified penises in Roman
satire": Satires of Rome: Threatening Poses from Lucilius to Juvenal (Cambridge University Press, 2001), p. 205 online. (http:/ / books.
google. com/ books?id=QzOjItakZRoC& pg=PA205& dq=muttonis& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0&
as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=3#v=onepage& q=muttonis& f=false) The left hand was preferred for masturbation by the Romans;
see Antonio Varone, Erotica pompeiana: Love Inscriptions on the Walls of Pompeii («L'Erma» di Bretschneider, 2002), p. 95 online. (http:/ /
books. google. com/ books?id=Vg9h-tW4KikC& dq=insula+ felicula& q="To+ grasp+ the+ meaning+ of+ the+ text"#v=snippet& q="To
grasp the meaning of the text"& f=false)
[10] CIL IV.1939, 1940.
[11] Horace, Sermones 1.2.68.
[12] Adams, Latin Sexual Vocabulary, p. 63.
[13] Martial, Epigrams 3.73.1 and 11.63.2; Corpus Priapeorum 52.10.
[14] Craig Arthur Williams, Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity (Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 92
online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Kf4cs5Y0fiIC& pg=PA92& dq="Mutinus+ Titinus"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0&
as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=50& as_brr=3& cd=1#v=onepage& q="Mutinus Titinus"& f=false)
[15] Adams, Latin Sexual Vocabulary, p. 32.
[16] Festus 142L, as cited and discussed by Lawrence Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1992), p. 262 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=K_qjo30tjHAC& pg=PA262& dq="Mutinus+ Titinus"& lr=&
as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=50& as_brr=3& cd=9#v=onepage& q="Mutinus
Titinus"& f=false) See also Ronald Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy (Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 6 online. (http:/ / books. google.
com/ books?id=fj8oQ4lzteIC& pg=PA6& dq="Mutunus+ Tutunus"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0&
as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=19#v=onepage& q="Mutunus Tutunus"& f=false)
[17] Robert E.A. Palmer, "Mutinus Titinus: A Study in Etrusco-Roman Religion and Topography," in Roman Religion and Roman Empire: Five
Essays (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1974), pp. 187–206.
[18] The identification dates back at least to Ch. Lenormant, "Types des médailles romaines," Revue numismatique (1838), pp. 11–12 online.
(http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=dnjRAAAAMAAJ& pg=PA11& dq="Mutinus+ Titinus"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0&
as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=50& as_brr=3& cd=17#v=onepage& q="Mutinus Titinus"& f=false)
[19] Michael Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage (Cambridge University Press, 1974, 2001), vol. 1, pp. 344 and 346 online. (http:/ / books.
google. com/ books?id=NuBION2KtM4C& pg=PA346& dq="Mutunus+ Tutunus"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=&
as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=18#v=onepage& q="Mutunus Tutunus"& f=false)
[20] Scholiast on Persius, Satire 1.20; Adams, Latin Sexual Vocabulary, p. 32.
[21] Palmer, "Mutinus Titinus," p. 190.
Nemausus 145
Nemausus
For the town, see Nîmes. For the true bug genus, see Nemausus (bug).
Deus Nemausus is often said to have been the Celtic patron god of Nemausus (Nîmes). The god does not seem to
have been worshipped outside of this locality. The city certainly derives its name from Nemausus, which was
perhaps the sacred wood in which the Celtic tribe of the Volcae Arecomici (who of their own accord surrendered to
the Romans in 121 BC) held their assemblies (according to Encyclopædia Britannica 1911), or was perhaps the local
Celtic spirit guardian of the spring that originally provided all water for the settlement, as many modern sources
suggest. Or perhaps Stephanus of Byzantium was correct in stating in his geographical dictionary that Nemausos, the
city of Gaul, took its name from the Heracleid (or son of Heracles) Nemausios.
An important healing-spring sanctuary existed in the town; it was established in some form at least as early as the
early Iron Age but was expanded after the Romans colonised the region in the late 2nd century BC, when there was
active Roman encouragement of the cult. Another set of local spirits worshiped at Nemausus (Nîmes) were the
Nemausicae or Matres Nemausicae, who were fertility and healing goddesses belonging to the spring sanctuary.
References
• Green, Miranda, Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend. Thames and Hudson Ltd. London. (1997)
Nemestrinus
In Roman mythology, Nemestrinus was a god of the forests and woods. His name comes from Latin nemus,
meaning "wood".
Neptune (mythology)

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
Neptune (Latin: Neptūnus) is the god of water and the sea[1] in Roman mythology, a brother of Jupiter and Pluto,
each of them presiding over one of the three realms of the universe, Heaven, Earth and the Netherworld.
Etymology
The etymology of Neptunus is unclear and disputed. The ancient grammarian Varro derived the name from nuptus
i.e. covering (opertio), with a more or less explicit allusion to the nuptiae, marriage of Heaven and Earth.[2]
Among modern scholars P. Kretschmer proposed a derivation from IE *neptu-, moist substance[3] ; but Dumezil
remarked words deriving from root *nep are not attested in IE languages other than Vedic and Avestan. He proposed
an etymology that brings together Neptunus with Vedic and Avestan theonyms Apam Napat, Apam Napá and Old
Irish theonym Nechtan, all meaning descendant of the waters. By using the comparative approach the Indo-Iranian,
Avestan and Irish figures would show common features with the Roman historicised legends about Neptunus.
Dumezil thence proposed to derive the nouns from IE root *nepot or *nept, descendant, siter's son.[4] Dumezil also
supposed Neptunus would be an adjectival form in -no meaning "he who is moist".[5] More recently German scholar
H. Petersmann proposed an etymology from IE rootstem *nebh related to clouds and foggs, plus suffix -tu denoting
an abstract verbal noun, and adjectival suffix -no which refers to the domain of activity of a person or his
prerogatives. IE root *nebh, having the original meaning of damp, wet, has given Sanskrit nábhah, Hittite nepis,
Latin nubs, nebula, German nebel, Slavic nebo etc. The concept would be close to that expressed in the name of
Greek god Όυράνος, derived from IE root *h2vórso-.[6] [7] Such etymology would be more in accord with Varro's.
Theology
The theology of Neptune may only be reconstructed to some extent as since very early times he was identified with
Greek god Poseidon, as he shown already in the lectisternium of 399 B.C. Such identification may well be grounded
in the strict relationship between the Latin and Greek theologies of the two deities.[8] It has been argued that as IE
people could not have a direct knowledge of the sea, their original seats being in inner continental areas, they reused
the theology of an original chtonic deity who associated power over the inland freshwaters as a god of the sea.[9]
This character has been preserved particularly well in the case of Neptune who was definitely a god of springs, lakes
and rivers before becoming also a god of the sea. Poseidon on the other hand underwent this process much earlier as
is shown in the Iliad.[10]
The most ancient Roman calendar set the feriae of Neptunus, the Neptunalia on July 23. This was two days after
Lucaria of July 19 and 21 and two days before the Furrinalia of July 25: G. Wissowa had already remarked that
festivals falling in a range of three days are related to each other. Dumezil elaborated that these festivals were all in
some way related to the protecting function of water during the period of summer heat (canicula), when river and
spring waters are at their lowest. Founding his analysis on the works of Palladius and Columella Dumezil argues that
while the Lucaria were devoted to the dressing of woods, clearing the undergrown bushes by cutting on the 19 and
then by uprooting on the 21, (and burning them afterwards), the Neptunalia were spent under branch huts (umbrae,
casae frondeae) drinking springwater and wine to avoid the heat. The Furrinalia too, devoted to Furrina goddess of
springs, required the work of man since they referred to spring which had to be detected by digging, this fact creating
a correspondence with the Lucaria of 21, which equally required analogous human action upon the soil.
The overflowing of Lake Albanus happened on the date of the Neptunalia. This prodigy that foretold the fall of Veii
is a historical event that Dumezil ascribed to the Roman habit of projecting legendary heritage onto their own past
history. Livy relates that a haruspex from Veii who had been taken prisoner inadvertently gave away the prophecy
that Veii would fall if the waters of the lake should overflow in the inland direction. On the contrary the fact would
go to the disadvantage of Rome if the waters were to overflow towards the sea. The prophecy was confirmed by the
oracle of Delphi consulted by the Roman senate.
This legend would show the scope of the powers hidden in waters and the importance of their control: Veientans
knowing the fact had been digging channels for a long time as recent archeological finds confirm. There is a
temporal coincidence between the conjuration of the prodigy and the works of derivation recommended by Palladius
and Columella at the time of the canicula, when the waters are at their lowest. Neptune's two paredrae Salacia and
Venilia would then in Dumezil's view, who here accepts and reproposes the interpretations of Wissowa and von
Domaszewski, represent the calm and the overpowering aspects of water, both natural and domesticated: Salacia
would be the aspect of gushing, overflowing waters and Venilia that of still or quietly flowing waters.[11] The
Furrinalia of July 25 are explained with the hydraulic works prescribed by Palladius too, i.e. the digging of wells to
detect underground water: patent and hidden waters are are dealt with on separate occasions.
German scholar H. Petermann has proposed a rather different interpretation of the theology of Neptunus. Developing
his understanding of the theonym as rooted in IE *nebh, he argues that the god would be an ancient deity of the
cloudy and rainy sky in company and opposition with Zeus/Iupiter, god of the clear bright sky. As Greek god
Ouranos he would be the father of all living beings on Earth through the fertilising power of rainwater. This hieros
gamos of Neptune and Earth would be reflected in literarature, e.g. in Vergil Aen. V 14 pater Neptunus. The virile
potency of Neptune would be represented by Salacia ( derived from salax, salio in its original sense of salacious,
lustful, desiring sexual intercourse, covering). Salacia would then represent the god's desire for intercourse with
Earth, his virile generating potency manifesting itself in rainfall. While Salacia would denote the overcast sky, the
other charachter of the god would be reflected by his other paredra Venilia, representing the clear sky dotted with
clouds of good weather. The theonym Venilia would be rooted in a not attested adjective *venilis, from IE root
*ven(h) meaning to love, desire, realised in Sanskrit vánati, vanóti, he loves, old Island. vinr friend, German Wonne,
Latin Venus, venia. Reminiscences of this double aspect of Neptune would be found in Catullus 31. 3: "uterque
Neptunus". In Petersmann's conjecture, besides Zeus/Iupiter, (rooted in IE *dei(h) to shine, who originally
represented the bright daylight of fine weather sky), the ancient Indoeuropean venerated a god of heavenly damp or
wet as the generator of life. This fact would be testified by Hittite theonyms nepišaš (D)IŠKURaš or nepišaš
(D)Tarhunnaš "the lord of sky wet", that was revered as the sovereign of Earth and men.[12] Even though over time
this function was transferred to Zeus/iupiter who became also the sovereign of weather, reminiscences of the old
function survived in literature: e.g. in Vergil Aen. V 13 reading: "heu, quinam tanti cinxerunt aetherea nimbi? quive,
pater Neptune, paras?": "Whow, why so many clouds surrounded the sky? What are you preparing, father
Neptune?".[13]
Paredrae
As a rule these entities in Roman religion represent the fundamental aspects or power of the deity concerned. Only in
later time under Hellenising influence they came to be considered as separate deities and consorts of the god. Salacia
and Venilia have been the object of the attention of scholars ancient and modern. Varro connects the first to salum
sea and the second to ventus wind.[14] Festus writes of Salacia that she was the deity that caused the motion of the
sea. While Venilia would cause the wabes to come to the shore Salacia would cause their retreating towards the sea.
The issue has been discussed in many passages by Christian apologists.
He is analogous with but not identical to the god Poseidon of Greek mythology, and is imaged often according to
Hellenistic canons in the Roman mosaics of north Africa.[15] The Roman conception of Neptune owed a great deal to
the Etruscan god Nethuns. A north African inscription at Thugga referring to the "father of the Nereids" shows that
Neptune also subsumed the archaic and by late Hellenistic times purely literary figure of Nereus.[16]
For a time he was paired with Salacia, the goddess of the salt water.[17] At an early date (399 BC) he was identified
with Poseidon, when the Sibylline books ordered a lectisternium to honour him with Apollo, Latona, Diana,
Hercules and Mercury[18]
In the earlier times it was the god Portunes or Fortunus who was thanked for naval victories, but Neptune supplanted
him in this role by at least the first century BC when Sextus Pompeius called himself "son of Neptune."[19]
Unlike Greek Oceanus, god of the world-ocean, Neptune is associated as well with fresh water. Georges Dumézil
suggested[20] that for Latins, the primary identification of Neptune was with freshwater springs, the sea having still
little interest for these people. Like Poseidon, Neptune was also worshipped by the Romans as a god of horses, under
the name "Neptune Equester," patron of horse-racing.[21]
The planet Neptune, unknown to the ancients, was named for the god, as its deep blue gas clouds gave 19th-century
astronomers the impression of great oceans.
"King Neptune" plays a central role in the long-standing tradition of the "Line-crossing ceremony" initiation rite still
current in many navies, coast guards, and merchant fleets. When ships cross the equator, "Pollywogs" (sailors who
have not done such a crossing before) receive "subpoenas"[22] to appear before King Neptune and his court (usually
including his first assistant Davy Jones and Her Highness Amphitrite and often various dignitaries, who are all
represented by the highest-ranking seamen). Some Pollywogs may be "interrogated" by King Nepture and his
entourage. At the end of the ceremony — which in the past often included considerable hazing — they are initiated
as Shellbacks or Sons of Neptune and receive a certificate to that effect.
Festivals
His festival, Neptunalia, at which tents were made from the branches of bushes, took place at the height of summer,
on July 23.[23] suggestive of a primitive role for Neptune as god of water sources in the summer's drought and
heat.[24]
Neptune had two temples in Rome. The first, built in 25 BC, stood near the Circus Flaminius, the Roman racetrack,
and contained a famous sculpture of a marine group by Scopas.[25] The second, the Basilica Neptuni, was built on
the Campus Martius and dedicated by Agrippa in honour of the naval victory of Actium.[26]
Depiction in art
A.D. 300 statue

The French Department of Subaquatic Archaeological Research divers (headed by Michel L'Hour) discovered a
lifesize marble statue of Neptune, in the Rhone River at Arles; it is dated to the early fourth century.[27] The statue is
one of a hundred artifacts that the team excavated between September and October 2007.[27] [28]
Renaissance depictions
The Renaissance brought with it a revival in pagan art, and many pagan gods were depicted in the same classical
models used in Greek and Roman times. However, with Neptune few such models existed, allowing the artists of the
Renaissance to depict Neptune however they chose. The results included a face and actions that seemed more mortal,
as well as associations with Hercules. The overall effect was to change Neptune's image to a less deified state.[29]
Gallery
Neptune Portrait of Giovan Battista Tiepolo Brumidi's The

statue at 31st Andrea Apotheosis of
street, Doria as Washington depicts
Virginia Neptune, Neptune in his
Beach, by Agnolo chariot on a
Virginia Bronzino background of an
ironclad warship, in
the dome of the
United States
Capitol
Neptune in Neptune statue in The Fountain of Neptune's fountain (Fuente de

Poznań, Poland. Gdańsk Neptune, Bologna, Neptuno) in Madrid, Spain.
Italy.
Neptune fountain in the Alameda Coysevox's Neptune at Fontana di Trevi's Neptune in Lviv,
Central in Mexico City the Louvre, in Paris. Neptune, Rome. Ukraine.
Neptune in Bartolomeo Neptune in Neptune in Riobamba, Ecuador.

Olomouc, Czech Ammannati's Gliwice, Poland.
Republic. Fountain of
Neptune in
Florence.
References and notes

[1] J. Toutain, Les cultes païens de l'Empire romain, vol. I (1905:378) securely identified Italic Neptune as a god of freshwater sources as well as
the sea.
[2] Varro Lingua Latina V 72: Neptunus, quod mare terras obnubuit ut nubes caelum, ab nuptu, id est opertione, ut antiqui, a quo nuptiae,
nuptus dictus.: "N., because the sea covered the lands as the clouds the sky, from nuptus i.e. covering, as the ancients (used to say), whence
nuptiae marriage, was named nuptus".
[3] P. Kretschmer Einleitung in der Geschichte der Griechischen Sprache Göttingen, 1896, p. 33
[4] Y. Bonnefoy, W. DOniger Roman and Indoeuropean Myhtologies Chicago, 1992, s.v. Neptune, citing G. Dumezil Myht et Epopée vol. III p.
41 and Ernout-Meillet Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. Neptunus
[5] G. DumezilFetes romaines d' ete' et d' automne, suivi par dix questions romaines Paris 1975, p.25
[6] H. Petermann Göttingen 2002
[7] M. Peters "Untersuchungen zur Vertratung der indogermanischen Laryngeale in Griechisch" in Österreicher Akademie der Wissenschaften,
philsophische historische Klasse Bd. 372, 1980 p.180
[8] R. Bloch "Quelques remarques sur Poseidon, Neptunus and Nethuns" in Revue d'Histoire des Religions 1981
[9] G. Wissowa Religion un Kultus der Römer Munich, 1912; A. von Domaszewski Abhandlungenzur römische Religion Leipzig und Berlin,
1909; R. Bloch above
[10] R. Bloch above
[11] Dumezil above p.31
[12] Eric NeunDie Anitta-TextWiesbaden, 1974, p. 118
[13] H. Petersmann "Neptuns ürsprugliche Rolle im römischen Pantheon. Ein etymologisch-religiongeschichtlicher Erklärungsversuch" in
Lingua et religio. Augewählte kleine Beiträge zur antike religiogeschichtlicher und sprachwissenschaftlicher Grundlage Göttingen, 2002, pp.
226-235
[14] Varro Lingua Latina V 72
[15] Alain Cadotte, "Neptune Africain", Phoenix 56.3/4 (Autumn/Winter 2002:330-347) detected syncretic traces of a Lybian/Punic agrarian god
of fresh water sources, with the epithet Frugifer, "fruit-bearer"; Cadotte enumerated (p.332) some north African Roman mosaics of the fully
characteristic Triumph of Neptune, whether riding in his chariot or mounted directly on sea-beasts.
[16] Noted by Cadotte 2002:232; Cadotte gives a list of inscriptions referring to Neptune, pp335-37.
[17] van Aken, Dr. A.R.A., ed. Elseviers Mythologische Encyclopedie (Elsevier, Amsterdam: 1961)
[18] Livy v. 13.6; Showerman, Grant. The Great Mother of the Gods. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 1901:223
[19] Fox, Robin Lane. The Classical World. Basic Books, 2006. p. 412 ISBN 0465024963
[20] Dumézil, La religion romaine archaïque (Paris, 1966:381)
[21] Compare Epona.
[22] Ceremonial Certificates — Neptune Subpoena (http:/ / www. usni. org/ store/ item. asp?ITEM_ID=1239)
[23] CIL, vol. 1,pt 2:323; Varro, De lingua latina vi.19.
[24] "C'est-à-dire au plus fort de l'été, au moment de la grande sécheresse, et qu'on y construisaient des huttes de feuillage en guise d'abris contre
le soleil" (Cadotte 2002:342, noting Sextus Pompeius Festus, De verborum significatu [ed. Lindsay 1913] 519.1)
[25] Wukitsch, Thomas K., Neptunalia Festival (http:/ / www. mmdtkw. org/ VNeptunalia. html),
[26] Ball Platner, Samuel; Ashby, Thomas (1929), A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, "Basilica Neptuni" (http:/ / penelope. uchicago.
edu/ Thayer/ E/ Gazetteer/ Places/ Europe/ Italy/ Lazio/ Roma/ Rome/ _Texts/ PLATOP*/ basilicae. html), London: Oxford University Press,
[27] Divers find Caesar bust that may date to 46 B.C. (http:/ / www. thefreelibrary. com/ Divers+ find+ Caesar+ bust+ that+ may+ date+ to+ 46+
B. C. -a01611530816), Associated Press, 2008-05-14,
[28] Henry Samuel, "Julius Caesar bust found in Rhone River" (http:/ / www. telegraph. co. uk/ news/ worldnews/ europe/ france/ 1955773/
Julius-Caesar-bust-found-in-Rhone-River. html), The Telegraph
[29] Freedman, Luba (September 1995), "Neptune in classical and Renaissance visual art" (http:/ / www. springerlink. com/ content/
r0505005858761h8/ ) (PDF), International Journal of the Classical Tradition (Springer Netherlands) 2 (2): 219–237, ISSN 1874-6292,
External links
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Neptune (god)". Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University
Press.
98949848498984
Nodutus 152
Nodutus
In Roman mythology, Nodutus was the god who made knots in stalks of wheat. His name derives from the Latin
nodus, "a knot", in turn derived from *nōdo- PIE *ned-, "to bind, tie".
Orcus
Orcus was a god of the underworld, punisher of broken oaths in Italic and Roman mythology. He was more
equivalent to the Greek Pluto than to Hades, and later identified with Dis Pater. He was portrayed in paintings in
Etruscan tombs as a hairy, bearded giant. A temple to Orcus may have existed on the Palatine Hill in Rome. It is
likely that he was transliterated from the Greek daemon Horcus, the personification of Oaths and a son of Eris.
Origins
The origins of Orcus may have lain in Etruscan religion. Orcus was a name used by Roman writers to identify a
Gaulish god of the underworld. The so-called Tomb of Orcus, an Etruscan site at Tarquinia, is a misnomer, resulting
from its first discoverers mistaking as Orcus a hairy, bearded giant that was actually a figure of a Cyclops.
The Romans sometimes conflated Orcus with other gods such as Pluto, Hades, and Dis Pater, god of the land of the
dead. The name "Orcus" seems to have been given to his evil and punishing side, as the god who tormented evildoers
in the afterlife. Like the name Hades (or the Norse Hel, for that matter), "Orcus" could also mean the land of the
dead.
Orcus was chiefly worshipped in rural areas; he had no official cult in the cities.[1] This remoteness allowed for him
to survive in the countryside long after the more prevalent gods had ceased to be worshipped. He survived as a folk
figure into the Middle Ages, and aspects of his worship were transmuted into the wild man festivals held in rural
parts of Europe through modern times.[1] Indeed, much of what is known about the celebrations associated with
Orcus come from medieval sources.[1]
Survival and later use

From Orcus' association with death and the underworld, his name came to be used for demons and other underworld
monsters, particularly in Italian where orco refers to a kind of monster found in fairy-tales that feeds on human flesh.
The French word ogre (appearing first in Charles Perrault's fairy-tales) may have come from variant forms of this
word, orgo or ogro; in any case, the French ogre and the Italian orco are exactly the same sort of creature. An early
example of an orco appears in Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, as a bestial, blind, tusk-faced monster inspired
by the Cyclops of the Odyssey; this orco should not be confused with the orca, a sea-monster also appearing in
Ariosto.
This orco was the inspiration to J. R. R. Tolkien's orcs in his The Lord of the Rings. In a text published in The War of
the Jewels, Tolkien stated:
Note. The word used in translation of Q[uenya] urko, S[indarin] orch, is Orc. But that is because of the
similarity of the ancient English word orc, 'evil spirit or bogey', to the Elvish words. There is possibly no
connexion between them. The English word is now generally supposed to be derived from Latin
Orcus.
Also, in an unpublished letter sent to Gene Wolfe, Tolkien also made this comment:[2]
Orc I derived from Anglo-Saxon, a word meaning demon, usually supposed to be derived from the Latin
Orcus -- Hell. But I doubt this, though the matter is too involved to set out here.
Orcus 153
From this use, countless other fantasy games and works of fiction have borrowed the concept of the orc.
Orcus appears as a character in Christopher Moore's A Dirty Job.
Notes
[1] Bernheimer, p. 43.
[2] http:/ / home. clara. net/ andywrobertson/ wolfemountains. html
References
• Bernheimer, Richard (1952). Wild men in the Middle Ages, New York : Octagon books, 1979, ISBN
0-374-90616-5
• Grimal, P. (1986). The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. (p. 328)
• Richardson, L. (1992). A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Baltimore and London: The Johns
Hopkins University Press. (p. 278)
External links
• "Tomb of the Orcus," Tarquinia (http://www.mysteriousetruscans.com/tarorcus.html)
Pales
Important Gods:
• Vesta • Ceres
• Juno • Venus
Roman Kingdom
Flamens
Other Rustic Gods:

In Roman mythology, Pales was a deity of shepherds, flocks and livestock. Regarded as a male by some sources and
a female by others, and even possibly as a pair of deities (as Pales could be either singular or plural in Latin).
Pales' festival, called the Parilia, was celebrated on April 21. Cattle were driven through bonfires on this day.
Another festival to Pales, apparently dedicated "to the two Pales" (Palibus duobus) was held on July 7.
Pales 154
Marcus Atilius Regulus built a temple to Pales in Rome following his victory over the Salentini in 267 BC. It is
generally thought to have been located on the Palatine Hill, but, being a victory monument, it may have been located
on the route of the triumphal procession, either on the Campus Martius or the Aventine Hill.
References
• Richardson, L. (1992). A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Baltimore and London: The Johns
Hopkins University Press. (p. 282)
• Scullard, H.H. (1981). Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic. London: Thames and Hudson. (p.
104–105)
Palici
The Palici (Παλικοί in Greek), or Palaci, were a pair of indigenous Sicilian chthonic deities in Roman mythology,
and to a lesser extent in Greek mythology. They are mentioned in Ovid V, 406, and in Virgil IX, 585. Their cult
centered around three small lakes that emitted sulphurous vapors in the Palagonia plain, and as a result these twin
brothers were associated with geysers and the underworld. There was also a shrine to the Palaci in Palacia, where
people could subject themselves or others to tests of reliability through divine judgement; passing meant that an oath
could be trusted. The mythological lineage of the Palici is uncertain; one legend made the Palici the sons of Zeus, or
possibly Hephaestus, by Aetna or Thalia, but another claimed that the Palici were the sons of the Sicilian deity
Adranus.
References
• Hammond, N.G.L. & Scullard, H.H. (eds.) (1970). The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford; Oxford University
Press.
• Wilson, R.J.A. (1990). Sicily under the Roman Empire. Warminster: Aris and Phillips (p. 278).
Picumnus 155
Picumnus
Picumnus (bird) is a genus of Neotropic piculets.
In Roman mythology, Picumnus was a god of fertility, agriculture, matrimony, infants and children. He may have
been the same god as Sterquilinus. His brother was Pilumnus.
Picus
In Roman mythology, Picus was the first king of Latium. He was known for his skill at augury and horsemanship.
The witch Circe turned him into a woodpecker for scorning her love. Picus' wife was Canens, a nymph who killed
herself after his transformation. They had one son, Faunus.
According to grammarian Servius, Picus's love for Pomona was itself scorned. He is featured in one of the
Metamorphoses of Ovid. Virgil says that he was the son of Saturnus and the grandfather of Latinus, the king of the
Laurentines whom Aeneas and his Trojans fought upon reaching Italy.
Italic people believed Picus was the son of the god of war Mars. After being turned into a woodpecker Italic tribes
attributed to the bird divine qualities, connected with Picus's original skills at augury.
One of the function he performed was to lead the deduction of colonies (made up of younger generation folk) with
his flight, which traditionally took place in spring and was performed according to a religiuos ritual known as Ver
sacrum. The people of the Piceni derived their name from the memory of this ritual.
Sources
• Ovid Metamorphoses 14.320-434
• Virgil Aeneid 7.45-49, 170-191
• Servius on Aeneid 7.190
• Diodorus Siculus 6, frag. 5
Pilumnus 156
Pilumnus
In Roman mythology, Pilumnus ("staker") was a nature deity, brother of Picumnus. He ensured children grew
properly and stayed healthy. Ancient Romans made an extra bed after the birth of a child in order to ensure the help
of Pilumnus. He also taught humanity how to grind grain. He was also sometimes identified as the husband of
Danaë, and therefore the father of Danaus and the ancestor of Turnus.
A ceremony to honour the deity involved driving a stake into the ground.
References
• Michael Jordan, Encyclopedia of Gods, Kyle Cathie Limited, 2002
• Myth Index - Deverra, Intercidona and Pilumnus [1]
References
[1] http:/ / www. mythindex. com/ roman-mythology/ D/ Deverra. html
Pluto (mythology)
For the dwarf planet, see Pluto. For other
uses, see Pluto (disambiguation).
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Pluto
(Πλούτων, Ploutōn) was a name for the ruler of
the underworld; the god was also known as
Hades, the name of the underworld itself. He has
two major myths: in Greek cosmogony, he
received the rule of the underworld in a three-way
division of sovereignty over the world, with his
brothers Zeus ruling Heaven and Poseidon the
Sea; and he abducts Persephone to be his wife and
the queen of his realm.[1] In other myths, he plays
a secondary role, mostly as the possessor of a
quest-object.[2]
The name Ploutōn was frequently conflated with

that of Plutus (Πλοῦτος, Ploutos), a god of
wealth, because mineral wealth was found
underground, and because as a chthonic god Pluto
ruled the deep earth that contained the seeds
necessary for a bountiful harvest.[3] Ploutōn
became a more positive way to talk about the
ruler of the underworld, and the name was
The abduction of Proserpina (Persephone) by Pluto, with a Cupid in
popularized through the mystery religions and
attendance (Roman cinerary altar, Antonine Era, 2nd century)
philosophical systems influenced by Plato, the
major Greek source on its meaning.
Pluto (genitive Plutonis) is the Latinized form of the Greek Ploutōn. Pluto's Roman equivalent is Dis Pater, whose
name is most often taken to mean "Rich Father." Pluto was also identified with the obscure Roman Orcus, like Hades
the name of both a god of the underworld and the underworld as a place. The name Pluto is sometimes used for the
ruler of the dead in Latin literature, leading some mythology handbooks to assert misleadingly that Pluto was the
Roman counterpart of Hades, rather than an adopted Greek name identified with Dis Pater or Orcus.[4]
Hesiod's Theogony
The name Plouton does not appear in Hesiod's Theogony, where the six children of Kronos and Rhea are Zeus, Hera,
Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, and Hestia.[5] The male children divide the world into three realms. Hades takes
Persephone by force from her mother Demeter, with the consent of Zeus. Ploutos, "Wealth," appears in the
Theogony as the child of Demeter and Iasion: "fine Plutus, who goes upon the whole earth and the broad back of the
sea, and whoever meets him and comes into his hands, that man he makes rich, and he bestows much wealth upon
him." This union, also described in the Odyssey,[6] took place in a fallow field that had been ploughed three times, in
what seems to be a reference to a ritual copulation or sympathetic magic to ensure the earth's fertility.[7] "The
resemblance of the name Ploutos to Plouton …," it has been noted, "cannot be accidental. Plouton is lord of the
dead, but as Persephone's husband he has serious claims to the powers of fertility."[8] Demeter's son merges with her
son-in-law, redefining the implacable chariot-driver whose horses trample the flowering earth.[9]
Plouton and Ploutos

Plouton was one of several euphemistic names for Hades, described in
the Iliad as the god most hateful to mortals.[10] Plato says that people
prefer the name Plouton, "giver of wealth," because the name of Hades
is fear-provoking.[11] The name was understood as referring to "the
boundless riches of the earth, both the crops on its surface — he was
originally a god of the land — and the mines hidden within it."[12]
What is sometimes taken as "confusion" of the two gods Plouton and
Ploutos ("Wealth") held or acquired a theological significance in
antiquity; as a lord of abundance or riches, Pluto expresses the positive
aspect of the god, symbolized in art by the "horn of plenty"
(cornucopia),[13] by means of which Plouton is distinguished from the
Ploutos (or possibly Plouton) with the horn of
gloomier Hades.[14] abundance, in the company of Dionysos (4th
century BC)
At the time of Ennius (ca. 239–169 BC), the leading figure in the
Hellenization of Latin literature, Pluto was considered a Greek god to
be explained in terms of his Roman equivalents Dis Pater and Orcus.[15] It is unclear whether Pluto had a literary
presence in Rome before Ennius. Some scholars think that rituals and beliefs pertaining to Pluto entered Roman
culture with the establishment of the Saecular Games in 249 BC, and that Dis pater was only a translation of
Plouton.[16] Cicero identifies Pluto with Dis, explaining that "The earth in all its power and plenty is sacred to Father
Dis, a name which is the same as Dives, 'The Wealthy One,' as is the Greek Plouton. This is because everything is
born of the earth and returns to it again."[17]
The geographer Strabo (1st century) makes a distinction between Pluto and Hades. In writing of the mineral wealth
of ancient Iberia (Roman Spain), he says that among the Turdetani, it is "Pluto, and not Hades, who inhabits the
region down below."[18] In Lucian's discourse On Mourning (2nd century), Plouton's "wealth" is the dead he rules
over in the abyss (chasma); the name Hades is reserved for the underworld itself.[19]
Other identifications
In Greek religious practice, Pluto is sometimes seen as the "chthonic Zeus" (Zeus Chthonios[20] or Zeus
Catachthonios[21] ), or at least as having functions or significance equivalent to those of Zeus but pertaining to the
earth or underworld.[22] In ancient Roman and Hellenistic religion, Pluto was identified with a number of other
deities, including Summanus, the god of nocturnal thunder;[23] Februus, the god from whose purification rites the
month of February takes its name;[24] the syncretic god Serapis, regarded as Pluto's Egyptian equivalent;[25] and the
Semitic god Muth (Μούθ). Muth was described by Philo of Byblos as the equivalent of both Thanatos (Death
personified) and Pluto.[26] The ancient Greeks did not regard Pluto as "death" per se.[27]
Mythology
See also: Abduction of Persephone.
The best-known myth involving Pluto or Hades is the abduction of Persephone, also known as Kore ("the Maiden").
The earliest literary versions of the myth are a brief mention in Hesiod's Theogony and the extended narrative of the
Homeric Hymn to Demeter; the ruler of the underworld is named as Hades ("the Hidden One") in both these works.
In the hymn, Hades is given the epithet "son of Kronos", more commonly used of Zeus. He is an unsympathetic
figure, and Persephone's unwillingness is emphasized.[28] Increased usage of the name Plouton in religious
inscriptions and literary texts reflects the influence of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which treated Pluto and Persephone
as a divine couple who received initiates in the afterlife; Pluto was disassociated from the "violent abductor" of
Kore.[29]
The most influential Latin version of the abduction myth is found in the Metamorphoses of Ovid (Book 5), who tells
the story again in the Fasti (Book 4).[30] Another major retelling is the long unfinished poem De raptu Proserpinae
of Claudian. Ovid uses the name Dis, not Pluto in these two passages,[31] and Claudian uses Pluto only once;
translators and editors, however, sometimes supply the more familiar "Pluto" when other epithets appear in the
source text.[32] The mythographers Apollodorus (in Greek, 2nd century BC; see below) and Hyginus (in Latin,
1st-century BC)[33] in their accounts name the god as Pluto instead of Hades. The abduction myth was a popular
subject for Greek and Roman art, and recurs throughout Western art and literature, where the name "Pluto" becomes
common.
Offspring
The Augustan poet Vergil says that Pluto is the father of Allecto, the Fury, whom he hates.[34] In Orphic texts,[35] the
Eumenides ("The Kindly Ones") are the offspring of Persephone and Zeus Chthonios, often identified with Pluto,
and are distinguished from the Furies (Greek Erinyes).[36] The lack of a clear distinction between Pluto and
"chthonic Zeus" confuses the question of whether in some traditions, now obscure, Persephone bore children to her
husband. In the late 4th century, Claudian's epic on the abduction motivates Pluto with a desire for children. The
poem is unfinished, however, and anything Claudian may have known of these traditions is lost.[37]
Mysteries and cult

As Pluto gained importance within the Eleusinian Mysteries
throughout the 5th century BC as an embodiment of agricultural
wealth, the name Hades was increasingly reserved for the underworld
as a place.[38] Neither Hades nor Pluto was one of the traditional
Twelve Olympians, and Hades seems to have received limited cult,[39]
perhaps only at Elis, where the temple was opened once a year.[40] At
the time of Plato, the Athenians honored Plouton with the "strewing of
a couch" (tên klinên strôsai).[41] At Eleusis, Plouton had his own
priestess.[42] Pluto was worshipped with Persephone as a divine couple
at Knidos, Ephesos, Mytilene, and Sparta as well as at Eleusis, where
they were known simply as God (Theos) and Goddess (Thea).[43]
Scenes from the Eleusinian narrative, with
Persephone in the four-horse chariot of Pluto
In the ritual texts of the mystery religions preserved by the so-called
bottom center (red-figure volute-krater, ca. 340
Orphic or Bacchic gold tablets, the earliest extant examples of which BC, from Apulia)
date from the late 5th century BC,[44] the name Hades appears more
frequently than Plouton. Hades, however, most often refers to the underground place,[45] and Plouton to the ruler
who presides over it with Persephone.[46] After the end of the 4th century BC, the name Plouton begins to appear in
Greek metrical inscriptions.[47] Two fragmentary tablets greet Plouton and Persephone jointly,[48] and the divine
couple appear as welcoming figures in a metrical epitaph:
I know that even below the earth, if there is indeed a reward for the worthy ones,
the first and foremost honors, nurse,[49] shall be yours, next to Persephone and Pluto.[50]
Hesychius identifies Plouton with Eubouleus,[51] but other ancient sources distinguish between these two underworld
deities, and in the Mysteries Eubouleus plays the role of a torchbearer, possibly a guide for the initiate's return.[52]
Magic invocations
The names of both Hades and Pluto appear also in the Greek Magical Papyri and curse tablets, with Hades usually
referring to the underworld, and Pluto regularly invoked in connection to Persephone.[53] Five Latin curse tablets
from Rome, dating to the mid-1st century BC, promise Persephone and Pluto an offering of "dates, figs, and a black
pig" if the curse is fulfilled by the desired deadline. The pig was a characteristic animal sacrifice to chthonic deities,
whose victims were typically black or dark in color.[54]
A set of curse tablets written in Doric Greek and found in a tomb addresses a Pasianax, "Lord to All,"[55] sometimes
taken as a title of Pluto,[56] but more recently thought to be a magical name for the corpse.[57] Pasianax is found
elsewhere as an epithet of Zeus, or in the tablets may invoke a daimon like Abrasax.[58]
Sanctuaries of Pluto
Main article: Ploutonion.
A sanctuary dedicated to Pluto was called a ploutonion (Latin plutonium). The complex at Eleusis for the mysteries
had a ploutonion regarded as the birthplace of the divine child Ploutos, in another instance of conflation or close
association of the two.[59] Greek inscriptions record an altar of Pluto, which was to be "plastered", that is, resurfaced
for a new round of sacrifices at Eleusis.[60] One of the known ploutonia was in the sacred grove between Tralleis and
Nysa, where a temple of Plouton and Persephone was located. Visitors sought healing and dream oracles.[61] The
ploutonion at Hierapolis, Phrygia, was connected to the rites of Cybele, but during the Roman Imperial era was
subsumed by the cult of Apollo, as confirmed by archaeological investigations during the 1960s. It too was a dream
oracle.[62]
Iconography
Kevin Clinton attempted to distinguish the iconography of Hades, Plouton, Ploutos, and the Eleusinian Theos in
5th-century vase painting that depicts scenes from or relating to the mysteries. In Clinton's schema, Plouton is a
mature man, sometimes even white-haired; Hades is also usually bearded and mature, but his darkness is emphasized
in literary descriptions, represented in art by dark hair. Plouton's most common attribute is a scepter, but he also
often holds a full or overflowing cornucopia; Hades sometimes holds a horn, but it is depicted with no contents and
should be understood as a drinking horn. Unlike Plouton, Hades never holds agrarian attributes such as stalks of
grain. His chest is usually bare or only partly covered, whereas Plouton is fully robed (exceptions, however, are
admitted by the author). Plouton stands, often in the company of both Demeter and Kore, or sometimes one of the
goddesses, but Hades almost always sits or reclines, usually with Persephone facing him.[63] "Confusion and
disagreement" about the interpretation of these images remain.[64]
In Greek literature and philosophy

The name Plouton is first used in Greek literature by Athenian playwrights.[65] In Aristophanes' comedy The Frogs
(Batrachoi, 405 BC), in which "the Eleusinian colouring is in fact so pervasive,"[66] the ruler of the underworld is
one of the characters, under the name of Plouton. The play depicts a mock descent to the underworld by the god
Dionysus to bring back one of the dead tragic playwrights in the hope of restoring Athenian theater to its former
glory. Plouton is a silent presence onstage for about 600 lines presiding over a contest among the tragedians, then
announces that the winner has the privilege of returning to the upper world.[67] The play also draws on beliefs and
imagery from Orphic and Dionysiac cult, and rituals pertaining to Ploutos (Plutus).[68] In a fragment from another
play by Aristophanes, a character "is comically singing of the excellent aspects of being dead," asking in reference to
the tripartition of sovereignty over the world, "And where do you think Pluto gets his name (i.e. "Rich"), / if not
because he took the best portion? /… / How much better are things below than what Zeus possesses!"[69]
To Plato, the god of the underworld was "an agent in th[e] beneficent cycle of death and rebirth" meriting worship
under the name of Plouton, a giver of spiritual wealth.[70] Plato discusses the etymology of Plouton through his
interlocutor Socrates in the dialogue Cratylus. Socrates says that Plouton gives wealth (ploutos), and his name means
"giver of wealth, which comes out of the earth beneath." Because the name Hades is taken to mean "the invisible,"
people fear what they cannot see; although they are in error about the nature of this deity's power, Socrates says, "the
office and name of the God really correspond."
He is the perfect and accomplished Sophist, and the great
benefactor of the inhabitants of the other world; and even
to us who are upon earth he sends from below exceeding
blessings. For he has much more than he wants down
there; wherefore he is called Pluto (or the rich). Note also,
that he will have nothing to do with men while they are in
the body, but only when the soul is liberated from the
desires and evils of the body. Now there is a great deal of
philosophy and reflection in that; for in their liberated
state he can bind them with the desire of virtue, but while
they are flustered and maddened by the body, not even
father Cronos himself would suffice to keep them with him
in his own far-famed chains.[73]
[71] [72]
Persephone and Pluto or Hades on a
pinax from Locri
Since "the union of body and soul is not better than the loosing,"[74] death is not an evil. Walter Burkert thus saw
Pluto as a "god of dissolution."[75] Among the titles of Pluto was Isodaitēs, "divider into equal portions," a title that
connects him to the fate goddesses the Moirai.[76] Isodaitēs was also a cult title for Dionysus and Helios.[77]
In ordering his ideal city, Plato proposed a calendar in which Plouton was honored as a benefactor in the twelfth
month, implicitly ranking him as one of the twelve principal deities.[78] In the Attic calendar, the twelfth month,
more or less equivalent to June, was Skirophorion; the name may be connected to the rape of Persephone.[79]
Theogonies and cosmology
Euhemerism and Latinization

In the theogony of Euhemerus (4th century BC), the gods were treated as mortal rulers whose deeds were
immortalized by tradition. Ennius translated Euhemerus into Latin about a hundred years later, and a passage from
his version was in turn preserved by the early Christian writer Lactantius.[80] Here the union of Saturn (the Roman
equivalent of Kronos) and Ops, an Italic goddess of abundance, produces Jupiter, Juno, Neptune, Pluto, and Glauca:
Then Saturn took Ops to wife. Titan, the elder brother, demanded the kingship for himself. Vesta their
mother, with their sisters Ceres [Demeter] and Ops, persuaded Saturn not to give way to his brother in
the matter. Titan was less good-looking than Saturn; for that reason, and also because he could see his
mother and sisters working to have it so, he conceded the kingship to Saturn, and came to terms with
him: if Saturn had a male child born to him, it would not be reared. This was done to secure reversion of
the kingship to Titan's children. They then killed the first son that was born to Saturn. Next came twin
children, Jupiter and Juno. Juno was given to Saturn to see while Jupiter was secretly removed and given
to Vesta to be brought up without Saturn's knowledge. In the same way without Saturn knowing, Ops
bore Neptune and hid him away. In her third labor Ops bore another set of twins, Pluto and Glauce.
(Pluto in Latin is Diespiter;[81] some call him Orcus.) Saturn was shown his daughter Glauce but his son
Pluto was hidden and removed. Glauce then died young. That is the pedigree, as written, of Jupiter and
his brothers; that is how it has been passed down to us in holy scripture.
In this theogony, which Ennius introduced into Latin literature, Saturn, "Titan,"[82] Vesta, Ceres, and Ops are
siblings; Glauca is the twin of Pluto and dies mysteriously young. There are several mythological figures named
Glauca; the sister of Pluto may be the Glauca who in Cicero's account of the three aspects of Diana conceived the
third with the equally mysterious Upis.[83]
Apollodorus
The theogony presented by the 2nd-century BC Greek mythographer Apollodorus for the most part follows Hesiod
(see above), but Apollodorus uses the name Plouton instead of Hades and says that the three brothers were each
given a gift by the Cyclopes to use in their battle against the Titans: Zeus thunder and lightning; Poseidon a trident;
and Pluto a helmet (kyneê).[84] The helmet is assumed to be the magical Cap of Invisibility (aidos kyneê), but
Apollodorus is the only author who says it was a possession of Pluto.[85] Apollodorus also uses the name Plouton in
his account of the abduction.
Orphic and philosophical systems

The Orphic theogonies are notoriously varied,[86] and Orphic cosmology influenced the varying Gnostic theogonies
of late antiquity.[87] Clementine literature (4th century AD) preserves a theogony with explicit Orphic influence that
also draws on Hesiod, yielding a distinctive role for Pluto. When the primordial elements came together by orderly
cyclonic force, they produced a generative sphere, the "egg" from which the primeval Orphic entity Phanes is born
and the world is formed. The release of Phanes and his ascent to the heavenly top of the world-egg causes the matter
left in the sphere to settle in relation to its relative weight, creating the tripartite world of the traditional
theogonies:[88]
Its lower part, the heaviest element, sinks downwards, and is called Pluto because of its gravity, weight,
and great quantity (plêthos) of matter. After the separation of this heavy element in the middle part of
the egg the waters flow together, which they call Poseidon. The purest and noblest element, the fire, is
called Zeus, because its nature is glowing (ζέουσα, zeousa). It flies right up into the air, and draws up
the spirit, now called Metis, that was left in the underlying moisture. And when this spirit has reached
the summit of the ether, it is devoured by Zeus, who in his turn begets the intelligence (σύνεσις,
sunesis), also called Pallas. And by this artistic intelligence the etherial artificer creates the whole world.
This world is surrounded by the air, which extends from Zeus, the very hot ether, to the earth; this air is
called Hera.[89]
This cosmogony interprets Hesiod allegorically, and so the heaviest element is identified not as the Earth, but as the
netherworld of Pluto.[90] (In modern geochemistry, plutonium is the heaviest primordial element.) Supposed
etymologies are used to make sense of the relation of physical process to divine name; Plouton is here connected to
plêthos (abundance).[91]
In the Stoic system, Pluto represented the lower region of the air, where according to Seneca (1st century AD) the
soul underwent a kind of purgatory before ascending to the ether.[92] Within the Pythagorean and Neoplatonic
traditions, Pluto was allegorized as the region where souls are purified, located between the moon (as represented by
Persephone) and the sun. Plutarch says that the story of Persephone leaving Pluto for a period during the year is thus
a misunderstanding of the celestial and eschatological phenomena that the myth expresses; when the moon is in the
shadow of Earth, Persephone and Demeter are said to embrace, but when they part, they long for each other, and the
territory of Hades/Pluto comes between them.[93]
A dedicatory inscription from Smyrna describes a 1st–2nd century sanctuary to "God Himself" as the most exalted
of a group of six deities, including clothed statues of Plouton Helios and Koure Selene, "Pluto the Sun" and "Kore
the Moon."[94] The status of Pluto and Kore as a divine couple is marked by what the text describes as a "linen
embroidered bridal curtain."[95] The two are placed as bride and groom within an enclosed temple, separately from
the other deities cultivated at the sanctuary. Plouton Helios is mentioned in other literary sources in connection with
Koure Selene and Helios Apollo; the sun on its nighttime course was sometimes envisioned as traveling through the
underworld on its return to the east. Apuleius describes a rite in which the sun appears at midnight to the initiate at
the gates of Proserpina (the Latin name of Persephone/Kore); it has been suggested that this midnight sun could be
Plouton Helios.[96]
The Smyrna inscription also records the presence of Helios Apollo at the sanctuary. As two forms of Helios, Apollo
and Plouton pose a dichotomy:
Helios Apollo Plouton Helios
One Many
clarity invisibility
bright dark
memory [97]
oblivion
Given the collocation of deities and other details in the inscription, and on the basis of comparative material, it has
been argued that the sanctuary was in the keeping of a Pythagorean sodality or "brotherhood". The relation of Orphic
beliefs to the mystic strand of Pythagoreanism, or of these to Platonism and Neoplatonism, is complex and much
debated.[98]
The Neoplatonist Proclus (5th century AD) considered Pluto the third demiurge, a sublunar demiurge who was also
identified variously with Poseidon or Hephaestus. This idea is present in Renaissance Neoplatonism, as for instance
in the cosmology of Marsilio Ficino (1433–99),[99] who translated Orphic texts into Latin for his own use.[100]
Ficino saw the sublunar demiurge as "a daemonic 'many-headed' sophist, a magus, an enchanter, a fashioner of
images and reflections, a shape-changer of himself and of others, a poet in a way of being and of not-being, a royal
Pluto." This demiurgic figure identified with Pluto is also "'a purifier of souls' who presides over the magic of love
and generation and who uses a fantastic counter-art to mock, but also … to supplement, the divine icastic or truly
imitative art of the sublime translunar Demiurge."[101]
Notes
[1] William Hansen, Classical Mythology: A Guide to the Mythical World of the Greeks and Romans (Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 180.
[2] Hansen, Classical Mythology, p. 180–181.
[3] Hansen, Classical Mythology, p. 182.
[5] In Book 3 of the Sibylline Oracles, dating mostly to the 2nd century AD, Rhea gives birth to Pluto as she passes by Dodona, "where the
watery paths of the River Europus flowed, and the water ran into the sea, merged with the Peneius. This is also called the Stygian river"; see
Rieuwerd Buitenwerf, Book III of the Sibylline Oracles and Its Social Setting (Brill, 2003), p. 157.
[6] Odyssey 5.125–128: And so it was when Demeter of the lovely hair, yielding / to her desire, lay down with Iasion and loved him / in a
thrice-turned field (translation of Richmond Lattimore).
[7] Hesiod, Theogony 969–74; Apostolos N. Athanassakis, Hesiod. Theogony, Works and Days, Shield (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983,
2004), p. 56.
[8] Athanassakis, Hesiod, p. 56.
[9] Emily Vermeule, Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry (University of California Press, 1979), p. 37; Hendrik Wagenvoort, "The
Origin of the Ludi Saeculares," in Studies in Roman Literature, Culture and Religion (Brill, 1956), p. 198.
[10] Hansen, Classical Mythology, pp. 162 and 182, citing Homer, Iliad 9.158–159. Euphemism is a characteristic way of speaking of divine
figures associated with the dead and the underworld; Joseph William Hewitt, "The Propitiation of Zeus," Harvard Studies in Classical
Philology 19 (1908), p. 66, considers euphemism a form of propitiation.
[11] Plato, Cratylus 403a; Glenn R. Morrow, Plato's Cretan City: A Historical Interpretation of the Laws (Princeton University Press, 1993), pp.
452–453.
[12] Fernando Navarro Antolin, Lygdamus: Corpus Tibullianum III.1–6, Lygdami Elegiarum Liber (Brill, 1996), pp. 145–146.
[13] Charlotte R. Long, The Twelve Gods of Greece and Rome (Brill, 1987), p. 179; Phyllis Fray Bober, “Cernunnos: Origin and Transformation
of a Celtic Divinity,” American Journal of Archaeology 55 (1951), p. 28, examples in Greek and Roman art in note 98; Hewitt, "The
Propitiation of Zeus," p. 65.
[14] Tsagalis, Inscribing Sorrow, pp. 101–102; Morrow, Plato's Cretan City, pp. 452–453; John J. Hermann, Jr., "Demeter-Isis or the Egyptian
Demeter? A Graeco-Roman Sculpture from an Egyptian Workshop in Boston" in Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 114
(1999), p. 88.
[15] Pluto Latine est Dis pater, alii Orcum vocant ("In Latin, Pluto is Dis Pater; others call him Orcus"): Ennius, Euhemerus frg. 7 in the edition
of Vahlen = Var. 78 = E.H. Warmington, Remains of Old Latin (Heinemann, 1940), vol. 1, p. 421. The Augustan poet Horace retains the
Greek accusative form of the noun (Plutona instead of Latin Plutonem) at Carmen 2.14.7, as noted by John Conington, P. Vergili Maronis
Opera (London, 1883), vol. 3, p. 36.
[16] H.D. Jocelyn, The Tragedies of Ennius (Cambridge University Press, 1967), p. 331, with reference to Kurt Latte, Römische
Religionsgeschichte (C.H. Beck, 1967, 1992), p. 246ff.
[17] Cicero, De natura deorum 2.66, translation of John MacDonald Ross (Penguin Books, 1972): Terrena autem vis omnis atque natura Diti
patri dedicata est, qui dives, ut apud Graecos Πλούτων quia et recidunt omnia in terras et oriuntur e terris.
[18] Strabo 3.9 (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Strabo/ 3B*. html#9), citing Poseidonius as his source, who in turn
cites Demetrius of Phalerum on the silver mines of Attica, where "the people dig as strenuously as if they expected to bring up Pluto himself"
(Loeb Classical Library translation, in the LacusCurtius edition).
[19] Lucian, On Mourning (see Greek text (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=kmlJAAAAIAAJ& printsec=frontcover&
dq=inauthor:"Lucian+ (of+ Samosata. )"& hl=en& ei=hwEiTaXqB4_enQfNquShDg& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=10&
ved=0CFMQ6AEwCTgU#v=onepage& q& f=false)); Peter Bolt, Jesus' Defeat of Death: Persuading Mark's Early Readers (Cambridge
University Press, 2003) discusses this passage (pp. 126–127} and Greco-Roman conceptions of the underworld as a context for Christian
eschatology passim.
[20] Noel Robertson, Religion and Reconciliation in Greek Cities: The Sacred Laws of Selinus and Cyrene (Oxford University Press, 2010), p.
102.
[21] Hewitt, "The Propitiation of Zeus," p. 74, asserts that "Zeus Catachthonius seems certainly to be Pluto." Other deities to whom the title
Katachthonios was affixed include Demeter, Persephone, and the Furies; Eugene Lane, "The Epithets of Men," Corpus monumentorum
religionis dei Menis: Interpretation and Testimonia (Brill, 1976), vol. 3, p. 77, citing the entry on Katachthonioi in Roscher, Lexikon II, i, col.
998ff.
[22] Zeus Chthonius and Pluto are seen as having "the same significance" in the Orphic Hymns and in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus (6.156ff.), by
Hewitt, "The Propitiation of Zeus," p. 74, note 7. Overlapping functions are also suggested when Hesiod advises farmers to pray to "Zeus
Chthonius and to holy Demeter that they may cause the holy corn of Demeter to teem in full perfection." This form of Zeus receives the black
victims typically offered to underworld deities.
[23] Martianus Capella, De Nuptiis 2.161.
[24] Martianus Capella, De nuptiis 2.149; Isidore of Seville, Etymologies 5.33.4; Servius, note to Vergil's Georgics 1.43 (Vergil refrains from
naming the god); John Lydus, De mensibus 4.25.
[25] Plutarch, De Iside 27 (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Plutarch/ Moralia/ Isis_and_Osiris*/ B. html) (361e): "In
fact, men assert that Pluto is none other than Serapis and that Persephone is Isis, even as Archemachus of Euboea has said, and also
Heracleides Ponticus who holds the oracle in Canopus to be an oracle of Pluto" (Loeb Classical Library translation of 1936, LacusCurtius
edition). Also spelled Sarapis. See Jaime Alvar, Romanising Oriental Gods: Myth, Salvation, and Ethics in the Cults of Cybele, Isis, and
Mithras, translated by Richard Gordon (Brill, 2008), pp. 53 online (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=FH841IBf7mwC& pg=PA53&
dq=pluto& lr=& cd=11#v=onepage& q=pluto& f=false) and 58; Hermann, "Demeter-Isis or the Egyptian Demeter?", p. 84.
[26] Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica 1.10.34 (http:/ / www. ccel. org/ ccel/ pearse/ morefathers/ files/ eusebius_pe_01_book1. htm), attributing
this view to the semi-legendary Phoenician author Sanchuniathon via Philo of Byblos. In addition to asserting that Muth was equivalent to
both Thanatos (Death personified) and Pluto, Philo said he was the son of Kronos and Rhea. See entry on "Mot," Dictionary of Deities and
Demons in the Bible, edited by Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking and Pieter Willem van der Horst (William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999,
2nd ed.), p. 598, and Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide, edited by Sarah Iles Johnston (Harvard University Press, 2004), p. 479. Philo's
cosmogony as summarized by Eusebius bears some similarities to that of Hesiod and the Orphics; see Sanchuniathon's history of the gods and
"Theogonies and cosmology" below. Philo said that these were reinterpretations of "Phoenician" beliefs by the Greeks.
[28] Diane Rayor, The Homeric Hymns (University of California Press, 2004), pp. 107–109.
[29] Christos Tsagalis, Inscribing Sorrow: Fourth-century Attic Funerary Epigrams (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2008), pp. 101–102.
[30] Andrew D. Radford, The Lost Girls: Demeter-Persephone and the Literary Imagination, 1850–1930 (Editions Rodopi, 2007), p. 24. For an
extensive comparison of Ovid's two treatments of the myth, with reference to versions such as the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, see Stephen
Hinds, The Metamorphosis of Persephone: Ovid and the Self-Conscious Muse (Cambridge University Press, 1987), limited preview online.
(http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=o2o4ZiyIjmAC& printsec=frontcover#v=onepage& q& f=false)
[31] In Book 6 of the Aeneid (the catabasis of Aeneas), Vergil also names the ruler of the underworld as Dis, not Pluto.
[32] See also, for instance, J.J.L. Smolenaars, Statius. Thebaid VII: A Commentary (Brill, 1994), passim (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=gpDQnPv0HvIC& dq=pluto+ intitle:Statius+ intitle:Thebaid+ intitle:VII& q=pluto#v=snippet& q=pluto& f=false), or John G.
Fitch, Seneca's 'Hercules Furens' (Cornell University Press, 1987), passim (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=m4X_7m7ama4C&
dq=pluto+ thanatos& q=pluto+ OR+ plutonem+ OR+ plutone+ OR+ plutoni+ OR+ plutonis#v=snippet& q=pluto OR plutonem OR plutone
OR plutoni OR plutonis& f=false), where the ruler of the underworld is referred to as "Pluto" in the English commentary, but as "Dis" or with
other epithets in the Latin text.
[33] Hyginus, Fabulae 146.
[34] Vergil, Aeneid 7.327: odit et ipse pater Pluton … monstrum.
[35] Orphic fragments 197 and 360 (edition of Kern) and Orphic Hymn 70, as cited by Helene P. Foley, Hymn to Demeter (Princeton University
Press, 1994), p. 110, note 97.
[36] Robertson, Religion and Reconciliation in Greek Cities, p. 102. Vergil conflates the Eumenides and the Furies, and elsewhere says that
Night (Nox) is their mother. Proclus, in his commentary on the Cratylus of Plato, provides passages from the Orphic Rhapsodies that give two
different genealogies of the Eumenides, one making them the offspring of Persephone and Pluto (or Hades) and the other reporting a prophesy
that they were to be born to Persephone and Apollo (Robertson, Religion and Reconciliation, p. 101).
[37] Foley, Hymn to Demeter, p. 110. Justin Martyr alludes to children of Pluto (Apology 2.5 (http:/ / www. ccel. org/ ccel/ schaff/ anf01. viii. iii.
v. html)), but neither names nor enumerates them; see discussion of the context by David Dawson, Allegorical Readers and Cultural Revision
in Ancient Alexandria (University of California Press, 1992), pp. 193–194. In defining the cult title Ἰσοδαίτης (Isodaitês, 778 in the 1867
edition of Schmidt), Hesychius mentions a "son of Pluto."
[38] Tsagalis, Inscribing Sorrow, p. 102. The shift may have begun as early as the 6th century. The earliest evidence of the assimilation of Hades
and Ploutos/Plouton is a phiale from Douris dating to ca. 490 BC, according to Jan N. Bremmer, "W. Brede Kristensen and the Religions of
Greece and Rome," in Man, Meaning, and Mystery: Hundred Years of History of Religions in Norway. The Heritage of W. Brede Kristensen
(Brill, 2000), pp. 125–126. A point of varying emphasis is whether the idea of Plouton as a god of wealth was a later development, or an
inherent part of his nature, owing to the underground storage of grain in the pithoi that were also used for burial. For a summary of these
issues, see Cora Angier Sowa, Traditional Themes and the Homeric Hymns (Bolchazy-Carducci, 1984, 2005), p. 356, note 105.
[39] Morrow, Plato's Cretan City, p. 452; Long, The Twelve Gods, p. 154.
[40] Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, p. 281.
[41] Long, The Twelve Gods, p. 179. See lectisternium for the "strewing of couches" in ancient Rome. Two inscriptions from Attica record the
names of individuals who participated in the ritual at different times: IG II21933 and 1934 (http:/ / epigraphy. packhum. org/ inscriptions/
main), as cited by Robert Develin, Athenian Officials, 684–321 B.C. (Cambridge University Press, 1989, 2003), p. 417.
[42] Nicholas F. Jones, The Associations of Classical Athens: The Response to Democracy (Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 125, citing IG
II21363, dating ca. 330–270; Karl Kerényi, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter (Princeton University Press, 1967), pp.
110–111.
[43] Tsagalis, Inscribing Sorrow, pp. 101–102.
[44] Fritz Graf and Sarah Iles Johnston, Ritual Texts and the Afterlife (Routledge, 2007), first page (not numbered).
[45] The recurring phrase "house of Hades" (῾Αΐδαο δόμος) can be read ambiguously as either the divine being or the place, or both. In the
numbering of Graf and Johnston, Ritual Texts and the Afterlife, "house of Hades" appears in Tablet 1, line 2 (Hipponion, Calabria, Magna
Graecia, ca. 400 BC), which refers again to Hades as a place ("what you are seeking in the darkness of murky Hades", line 9), with the king of
the underworld (ὑποχθονίοι βασιλεϊ, hypochthonioi basilei) alluded to in line 13; Tablet 2, line 1 (Petelia, present-day Strongoli, Magna
Graecia, 4th century BC); and Tablet 25 (Pharsalos, Thessaly, 350–300 BC). Hades is also discernible on the "carelessly inscribed" Tablet 38
from a Hellenistic-era grave in Hagios Athanasios, near Thessalonike.
[46] Giovanni Casadio and Patricia A. Johnston, "Introduction", Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia (University of Texas Press, 2009), p. 21.
[47] Tsagalis, Inscribing Sorrow, p. 101.
[48] Tablets 15 (Eleuthera 6, 2nd/1st century BC) and 17 (Rethymnon 1, from the early Roman Empire, 25–40 AD), from Crete, in the
numbering of Graf and Johnston.
[49] Sometimes read as "father," as in the translation given by Alberto Bernabé and Ana Isabel Jiménez San Cristóbal, Instructions for the
Netherworld: The Orphic Gold Tablets (Brill, 2008), p. 84.
[50] Παρὰ Φερσεφόνει Πλούτωνί τε: Tsagalis, Inscribing Sorrow, pp. 100–101. Tsagalis discusses this inscription in light of the Homeric Hymn
to Demeter and the Thesmophoria.
[51] The entry in Hesychius reads: Εὐβουλεύς (sch. Nic. Al. 14) · ὁ Πλούτων. παρὰ δὲ τοῖς πολλοῖς ὁ Ζεὺς ἐν Κυρήνη (Eubouleus: ho Ploutôn.
para de toîs polloîs ho Zeus en Kyrene), 643 (Schmidt).
[52] Kevin Clinton, "The Mysteries of Demeter and Kore," in A Companion to Greek Religion (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), pp. 347–353. In the
view of Lewis Richard Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States (Clarendon Press, 1907), vol. 3, p. 145, Eubouleus was originally a title referring
to the "good counsel" the ruler of the underworld was able to give and which was sought at Pluto's dream oracles; by the 2nd century BC,
however, he had acquired a separate identity.
[53] Hans Dieter Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (University of Chicago Press, 1986, 1992), passim (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=K0hCj5u3HNQC& dq=hades+ intitle:greek+ intitle:magical+ intitle:Papyri& q=hades#v=snippet& q=hades& f=false); John G.
Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World (Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 12 (examples invoking Pluto pp. 99, 135,
143–144, 207–209) and passim (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=rmhw2eVJnS0C& dq=pluto+ OR+ pluton+ OR+ plouton+ OR+
plutonius+ intitle:curse+ inauthor:Gager& q=hades#v=snippet& q=hades& f=false) on Hades.
[54] Bolt, Jesus' Defeat of Death, p. 152; John Scheid, "Sacrifices for Gods and Ancestors", in A Companion to Roman Religion (Blackwell,
2007), p. 264.
[55] Daniel Ogden, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds (Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 212, with English
translation of the curse.
[56] Gager, Curse Tablets, p. 131, with translations of both tablets, and note 35.
[57] Derek Collins, Magic in the Ancient Greek World (Blackwell, 2008), p. 73.
[58] Esther Eidinow, "Why the Athenians Began to Curse," in Debating the Athenian Cultural Revolution: Art, Literature, Philosophy and
Politics 430–380 BC (Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 50; Ogden, Magic, Withcraft, and Ghosts, p. 212.
[59] Bernard Dietrich, "The Religious Prehistory of Demeter's Eleusinian Mysteries," in La soteriologia dei culti orientali nell' Impero Romano
(Brill, 1982), p. 454.
[60] Robertson, Religion and Reconciliation, p. 163 online (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=5pyER-1-8VcC& pg=PA163& dq="altar+ of+
pluto"& hl=en& ei=-rIgTd_LH4SHnAfYvLyVDg& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=4& ved=0CDMQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&
q="altar of pluto"& f=false), citing IG 13356.155 and IG 221672.140; see also The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore: Topography and
Architecture (American School of Classical Studies, 1997), p. 76, note 31.
[61] Strabo 14.1.44 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=lfMrAAAAYAAJ& pg=PA25& dq=ploutonion+ OR+ plutonion+ OR+ plutonium+
inauthor:Strabo& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3&
cd=1#v=onepage& q=ploutonion OR plutonion OR plutonium inauthor:Strabo& f=false); "Summaries of Periodicals," American Journal of
Archaeology 7 (1891), p. 209; Hewitt, "The Propitiation of Zeus," p. 93.
[62] Frederick E. Brenk, "Jerusalem-Hierapolis. The Revolt under Antiochos IV Epiphanes in the Light of Evidence for Hierapolis of Phrygia,
Babylon, and Other Cities," in Relighting the Souls: Studies in Plutarch, in Greek Literature, Religion, and Philosophy, and in the New
Testament Background (Franz Steiner, 1998), pp. 382–384, citing Photius, Life of Isidoros 131 on the dream.
[63] Kevin Clinton, Myth and Cult: The Iconography of the Eleusinian Mysteries (Stockholm, 1992), pp. 105. As Clinton notes (p. 107), the
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae does not distinguish between Hades and Plouton, and combines evidence for either in a
single entry.
[64] Catherine M. Keesling, "Endoios's Painting from the Themistoklean Wall: A Reconstruction," Hesperia 68.4 (1999), p. 544, note 160.
[65] Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, p. 281.
[66] A.M. Bowie, Aristophanes: Myth, Ritual and Comedy (Cambridge University Press, 1993, 1996), p. 229.
[67] As summarized by Benjamin Bickley Rogers, The Comedies of Aristophanes (London, 1902), pp. xvii and 214 (note to line 1414).
[68] Bowie, Aristophanes, pp. 231–233, 269–271.
[69] Bernabé and Jiménez San Cristóbal, Instructions for the Netherworld, pp. 127–128.
[70] Morrow, Plato's Cretan City, pp. 452–453.
[71] Identified as Pluto by Bernabé and Jiménez San Cristóbal, Instructions for the Netherworld, p. 275.
[72] Identified as Hades by Hansen, Classical Mythology, p. 181.
[73] Translation by Benjamin Jowett, The Dialogues of Plato (London, 1873), vol. 1.
[74] Plato, Laws 828d, translation from Long, The Twelve Gods, p. 69.
[75] Walter Burkert, Greek Religion (Harvard University Press, 1985, originally published 1977 in German), pp. 231, 336. See also Homo
Necans (University of California Press, 1983, originally published 1972 in German), p. 143.
[76] Hesychius, entry on Ἰσοδαίτης, 778 in the 1867 edition of Schmidt, as translated and discussed by Richard Seaford, Money and the Early
Greek Mind: Homer, Philosophy, Tragedy (Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 51. Hesychius notes that Isodaites may alternatively refer to
a son of Pluto as well as Pluto himself.
[77] H.S. Versnel, Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion: Transition and Reversal in Myth and Ritual (Brill, 1993, 1994), p. 119,
especially note 93.
[78] Plato, Laws 828 B-D; Morrow, Plato's Cretan City p. 452; Long, The Twelve Gods, p. 179.
[79] Morrow, Plato's Cretan City, p. 453; Long, The Twelve Gods, p. 179.
[80] Lactantius, Divine Institutes 1.14; Brian P. Copenhaver, Polydore Vergil: On Discovery (Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 564.
[81] This parenthetical remark is part of the original text, which is more often read as Dis pater. The relation of the title Dis Pater to Diespiter in
Latin is debated; the latter is usually thought to refer to Jupiter.
[82] "Titan" usually refers to a class or race of deities, but sometimes means Helios or other divine personifications of the Sun.
[83] Cicero, De natura deorum 3.58: "Likewise, there are multiple Dianas. The first is said to have been born as a winged Cupid, with Jove and
Proserpina [as parents]. The second, whom we regard as the daughter of the third Jove and Latona, is better known. A tradition holds that Upis
is the father and Glauca the mother of the third [Diana]" (Dianae item plures: prima Iovis et Proserpinae, quae pinnatum Cupidinem genuisse
dicitur; secunda notior, quam Iove tertio et Latona natam accepimus; tertiae pater Upis traditur, Glauce mater: eam saepe Graeci Upim
paterno nomine appellant); Copenhaver, Polydore Vergil: On Discovery, p. 564.
[84] Apollodorus, The Library 1.1–2, 1911 Loeb Classical Library edition, translation and notes by J.G. Frazer.
[85] Hansen, Classical Mythology, p. 182. The verbal play of aidos, "invisible," and Hades is thought to account for Apollodorus's attribution of
the helmet to the ruler of the underworld, since no narratives record his use or possession of it. Apparent references to the "helmet of Pluto" in
other authors, such as Irenaeus ( Against Heresies (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=fyUMAAAAIAAJ& dq=offspring+ pluto+ OR+
pluton+ OR+ plouton+ OR+ plutonius& q="helmet+ of+ Pluto"#v=snippet& q="helmet of Pluto"& f=false)), are misleading; "Pluto" is
substituted by the English translator for "Hades."
[86] Gábor Betegh, The Derveni Papyrus: Cosmology, Theology and Interpretations (Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 151, has noted that
"one cannot establish a linear descent between the different versions"; though efforts to do so have been made, "we cannot find a single
mytheme which would occur invariably in all the accounts and could thus create the core of all Orphic theogonies."
[87] J. van Amersfoort, "Traces of an Alexandrian Orphic Theogony in the Pseudo-Clementines," in Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic
Religions, Presented to Gilles Quispel on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday (Brill, 1981), p. 13.
[88] Van Amersfoort, "Traces of an Alexandrian Orphic Theogony," pp. 16–17.
[89] Van Amersfoort, "Traces of an Alexandrian Orphic Theogony," pp. 17–18. Betegh, The Derveni Papyrus, p. 151, summarizes this version
as follows: "The story starts with Chaos; then comes the egg; the bottom part of the egg submerges and becomes Pluton, and Kronos — not a
separate god but identified with Chronos — swallows this heavy matter. The middle part, covering the first sediment, becomes Poseidon. The
upper part of the egg, being purer and lighter, fiery in nature, goes upward and is called Zeus, and so forth."
[90] Van Amersfoort, "Traces of an Alexandrian Orphic Theogony," p. 23; Betegh, The Derveni Papyrus, p. 150.
[91] Arthur Bernard Cook, Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion (Cambridge University Press, 1925), p. 746.
[92] Cornutus 5; Varro, De lingua latina 5.66; Seneca, Consolatio ad Marciam 25; all as cited by Joseph B. Mayor, De natura deorum libri tres
(Cambridge University Press, 1883), vol. 2, p. 175, note to 2.26.66.
[93] Plutarch, The Face of the Moon, LacusCurtius edition of the Loeb Classical Library translation online (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/
Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Plutarch/ Moralia/ The_Face_in_the_Moon*/ D. html); discussed by Leonard L. Thompson, "ISmyrna 753: Gods
and the One God," in Reading Religions in the Ancient World: Essays Presented to Robert McQueen Grant on His 90th Birthday (Brill, 2007),
p. 113, with reference also to Iamblichus.
[94] Thompson, "ISmyrna 753," p. 101ff. The other deities are Helios Apollo, who is paired with Artemis (p. 106); Zeus, who is subordinated to
"God Himself"; and Mēn, an Anatolian moon deity sometimes identified with Attis, who had a table before him for ceremonial dining (pp.
106, 109).
[95] Thompson, "ISmyrna 753," pp. 104–105.
[96] Thompson, "ISmyrna 753," p. 111.
[97] Thompson, "ISmyrna 753," pp. 110–111, 114, with reference to the teachings of Ammonius as recorded by Plutarch, The E at Delphi. (http:/
/ penelope. uchicago. edu/ misctracts/ plutarchE. html) See also Frederick E. Brenk, "Plutarch's Middle Platonic God," Gott und die Götter bei
Plutarch (Walter de Gruyter, 2005), pp. 37–43, on Plutarch's etymological plays that produce these antitheses.
[98] Thompson, "ISmyrna 753," passim, conclusion presented on p. 119. See also Neoplatonism and Gnosticism.
[99] Entry on "Demiurge," The Classical Tradition (Harvard University Press, 2010), p. 256.
[100] Entry on "Orpheus," The Classical Tradition, p. 665. It was even said that the soul of Orpheus had been reborn into Ficino.
[101] Entry on "Demiurge," in The Classical Tradition p. 256.
Pluvius 167
Pluvius
Jupiter Pluvius was the reliever of droughts. See Jupiter (god) for
more details. The name could also be used to describe the Hyades.
In Frank O'Connor's Guest's of the Nation The old woman blames the
drought entirely on Jupiter Pluvius.
Illustration of Jupiter Pluvius (1856)
Portunes
Important Gods:
Jupiter Minerva
Mars Mercury
Quirinus Vulcan
Vesta Ceres
Juno Venus
Fortuna Lares
Topics
Roman Kingdom
Flamens
Penates Lemures
Furrina Portunes
Portunes 168
In Roman mythology, Portunes (alternatively spelled Portumnes

or Portunus) was a god of keys and doors and livestock. He
protected the warehouses where grain was stored. Probably
because of folk associations between porta "gate, door" and portus
"harbor", the "gateway" to the sea, Portunus later became
conflated with Palaemon and evolved into a god primarily of ports
and harbors.[1] In the Latin adjective importunus his name was
applied to untimely waves and weather and contrary winds, and
the Latin echoes in English opportune and its old-fashioned
antonym importune, meaning "well-timed' and "badly-timed".
Temple of Portunus in the Forum Boarium
Hence Portunus is behind both an opportunity and importunate or
badly-timed solicitations (OED).
His festival, celebrated on August 16, the seventeenth day before the Kalends of September, was the Portumnalia, a
minor occasion in the Roman year. On this day, keys were thrown into a fire for good luck in a very solemn and
lugubrious manner. His attribute was a key and his main temple in the city of Rome, the Temple of Portunus, was to
be found in the Forum Boarium.
Portunus appears to be closely related to the god Janus, with whom he shares many characters, functions and the
symbol of the key[2] . He too was represented as a two headed being, with each head facing opposite directions, on
coins and as figurehead of ships. He was considered to be "deus portuum et portarumque praeses"[3]
The relationship between the two gods is underlined by the fact that the date chosen for the dedication of the rebuilt
temple of Janus in the Forum Holitorium by emperor Tiberius is the day of the Portunalia, August 17.[4]
Linguist Giuliano Bonfante has speculated, on the grounds of his cult and of the meaning of his name, that he should
be a very archaic deity and might date back to an era when Latins lived in dwellings built on pilings.[5] He argues
that in Latin the words porta (door, gate) and portus (harbour, port) share their etymology from the same IE root
meaning ford, wading point.
His flamen, the flamen Portunalis one of the flamines minores performed the ritual of oiling the spear (hasta) on the
statue of god Quirinus, with an ointment especially prepared for this purpose and stored in a small vase
(persillum).[6]
Notes
[1] "Portunus gives to the sailor perfect safety in traversing the seas; but why has the raging sea cast up so many cruelly-shattered wrecks?" the
Christian apologist Arnobius asks, ca 300 CE (Seven Books against the Heathen III.23 ( on-line text (http:/ / www. intratext. com/ IXT/
ENG1008/ __P3. HTM)).
[2] Paul. p. 161 L2
[3] Scholium Veron. on Aeneid V.241
[4] Georges Dumézil La religion romaine archaïque Paris, 1974, part I, chap.4
[5] G. Bonfante "Tracce di terminologia palafitticola nel vocabolario latino?" Atti dell'Istituto Veneto di scienze, lettere e arti 97 (1937:53-70).
[6] Fest. p. 321 L2
Portunes 169
References
• Marcus Terentius Varro, De Lingua Latina vii.19.
External links
• William Smith, 1875. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities( John Murray, London,): "Portumnalia"
(http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Portumnalia.html)
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Portunus". Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Porus (mythology)
There are two related mythological figures named Porus (Ancient Greek: Πόρος "resource" or "plenty") in Greek
classical literature. In Plato's Symposium, Porus, or Poros, was the personification of plenty. He was seduced by
Penia (poverty) while drunk on more than his fill of nectar at Aphrodite's birthday. Penia gave birth to Eros (love)
from their union. Porus was the son of Metis. This figure exists in Roman mythology as well, in which Porus is the
personification of abundance. He is the sister of Athena.
Quirinus 170
Quirinus

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
In Roman mythology, Quirinus was an early god of the Roman state. In Augustan Rome, Quirinus was also an
epithet of Janus, as Janus Quirinus.[1] His name is derived from Quiris meaning "spear."
Quirinus 171
History
Quirinus was originally most likely a Sabine god of war. The Sabines had a settlement near the eventual site of
Rome, and erected an altar to Quirinus on the Collis Quirinalis, the Quirinal Hill, one of the Seven Hills of Rome.
When the Romans settled there, they absorbed the cult of Quirinus into their early belief system — previous to direct
Greek influence — and by the end of the first century BC Quirinus was considered to be the deified Romulus.[2] [3]
He soon became an important god of the Roman state, being included in the earliest precursor of the Capitoline
Triad, along with Mars (then an agriculture god) and Jupiter.[4] Varro notes the Capitolium Vetus an earlier cult sited
on the Quirinal, devoted to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva,[5] among whom Martial makes a distinction between the "old
Jupiter" and the "new".[6]
In later times, however, Quirinus became far less important, losing his place to the later, more widely known
Capitoline Triad (Juno and Minerva took his and Mars' place). Later still, Romans began to drift away from the state
belief system in favor of more personal and mystical cults (such as those of Bacchus, Cybele, and Isis). In the end, he
was worshiped almost exclusively by his flamen, the Flamen Quirinalis, who remained, however, one of the
patrician flamines maiores, the "greater flamens" who preceded the Pontifex Maximus in precedence.[7]
Depiction
In earlier Roman art, he was portrayed as a bearded man with religious and military clothing. However, he was
almost never depicted in later Roman belief systems. He was also often associated with the myrtle.
Festivals
His festival was the Quirinalia, held on February 17.
Legacy
Even centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Quirinal hill in Rome, originally named from the deified
Romulus, was still associated with power - it was chosen as the seat of the royal house after the taking of Rome by
the Savoia and later it became the residence of the Presidents of the Italian Republic.
Notes
[1] In the prayer of the fetiales quoted by Livy (I.32.10); Macrobius (Sat. I.9.15);
[2] Fishwich, Duncan The Imperial Cult in the Latin West Brill, 2nd edition, 1993 ISBN 978-9004071797 (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/
books?id=4II_mqxM8s0C& pg=PA53& dq=romulus+ quirinus& ei=Rfz-SOKiGpDwsgPk4_DrDA& client=firefox-a)
[3] Evans, Jane DeRose The Art of Persuasion University of Michigan Press 1992 ISBN:0472102826 (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/
books?id=2AsRrF3ej38C& pg=PA103& dq=romulus+ quirinus& ei=Rfz-SOKiGpDwsgPk4_DrDA& client=firefox-a#PPA103,M1)
[4] Inez Scott Ryberg, "Was the Capitoline Triad Etruscan or Italic?" The American Journal of Philology 52.2 (1931), pp. 145-156.
[5] Varro, De lingua latina V.158.
[6] Martial, (V, 22.4) remarks on a position on the Esquiline from which one might see hinc novum Iovem, inde veterem, "here the new Jupiter,
there the old."
[7] Festus, 198, L: "Quirinalis, socio imperii Romani Curibus ascito Quirino".
Robigus 172
Robigus

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
In ancient Roman religion, the Robigalia was a festival held April 25. Its main ritual was a dog sacrifice to protect
grain fields from disease. Games (ludi) in the form of "major and minor" races were held.[1] The Robigalia was one
of several agricultural festivals in April to celebrate and vitalize the growing season,[2] but the darker sacrificial
Robigus 173
elements of these occasions are also fraught with anxiety about crop failure and the dependence on divine favor to
avert it.[3]
The late Republican scholar Varro says[4] that the Robigalia was named for the god Robigus, who as the numen or
personification of agricultural disease could also prevent it.[5] He was thus a potentially malignant deity to be
propitiated, as Aulus Gellius notes.[6] But the gender of this deity is elusive.[7] The agricultural writer Columella
gives the name in the feminine as Robigo, like the word used for the disease itself,[8] and says that the sacrificial
offering was the blood and entrails of an unweaned puppy (catulus).[9] Most animal sacrifice in the public religion of
ancient Rome resulted in a communal meal and thus involved domestic animals whose flesh was a normal part of the
Roman diet;[10] the dog occurs as a victim most often in magic and private rites for Hecate and other chthonic
deities,[11] but was offered publicly at the Lupercalia[12] and two other sacrifices pertaining to grain crops.[13]
Robigo is a form of wheat rust, and has a reddish or reddish-brown color. Both Robigus and robigo are also found as
Rubig-, which following the etymology-by-association of antiquity[14] was thought to be connected to the color red
(ruber) as a form of homeopathic or sympathetic magic.[15] The color is thematic: the disease was red, the requisite
puppies (or sometimes bitches) had a red coat,[16] the red of blood recalls the distinctively Roman incarnation of
Mars as both a god of agriculture and bloodshed.[17] William Warde Fowler, whose work on Roman festivals
remains a standard reference,[18] entertained the idea that Robigus is an "indigitation" of Mars, that is, a name to be
used in a prayer formulary to fix the local action of the invoked god.[19] The priest who presided was the flamen
Quirinalis, the high priest of Quirinus, the Sabine god of war who become identified with Mars;[20] the ludi were
held for both Mars and Robigo.[21] The flamen recited a prayer that Ovid quotes at length in the Fasti, his six-book
calendar poem on Roman holidays which provides the most extended, though problematic, description of the day.[22]
The Robigalia was held at the boundary of the Ager Romanus.[23] Verrius Flaccus[24] sites it in a grove (lucus) at the
fifth milestone from Rome along the Via Claudia.
Like many other aspects of Roman law and religion, the institution of the Robigalia was attributed to the Sabine
Numa Pompilius,[25] in the eleventh year of his reign as the second king of Rome.[26] The combined presence of
Numa and the flamen Quirinalis may suggest a Sabine origin.[27]
Other April festivals related to farming were the Cerealia, or festival of Ceres, lasting for several days in mid-month;
the Fordicidia on April 15, when a pregnant cow was sacrificed; the Parilia on April 21 to ensure healthy flocks; and
the Vinalia, a wine festival on April 23.[28] Varro considered these and the Robigalia, along with the Great Mother's
Megalensia late in the month, the "original" Roman holidays in April.[29]
The Fasti Praenestini also record that on the same day the festival celebrated a particular class of sex workers:
"pimped-out boys,"[30] following the previous day's recognition of meretrices, female prostitutes regarded as
professionals of some standing.[31]
The Robigalia has been connected to the Christian feast of Rogation, which was concerned with purifying and
blessing the parish and fields and which took the place of the Robigalia on April 25 of the Christian calendar.[32] The
Church Father Tertullian mocks the goddess Robigo as "made up," a fiction.[33]
Robigus 174
References
[1] The ludi cursoribus are mentioned in the Fasti Praenestini; see Elaine Fantham, Ovid: Fasti Book IV (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p.
263.
[2] Mary Beard, J.A. North and S.R.F. Price. Religions of Rome: A History (Cambridge University Press, 1998), vol. 1, p. 45.
[3] Rhiannon Evans, Utopia antiqua: Readings of the Golden Age and Decline at Rome (Routledge, 2008), pp. 185–188.
[5] A.M. Franklin, The Lupercalia (New York, 1921), p. 74.
quoque habetur et Robigus ("Auruncus and Robigus are also regarded as among those gods whom it is a duty to placate so that they deflect the
malign influences away from us or the harvests"); Woodard, Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman Cult (University of Illinois
Press, 2006), p. 234.
[7] In addition to Varro, Verrius Flaccus (CIL 1: 236, 316) and others hold that he is male; Ovid, Columella (see following), Augustine, and
Tertullian regard the deity as female. A.J. Boyle and R.D. Woodard, Ovid: Fasti (Penguin Books, 2000), p. 254 online. (http:/ / books. google.
com/ books?id=QlS3xbzhplcC& pg=RA1-PA254& dq="In+ the+ following+ lines+ Ovid+ describes+ the+ annual+ sacrifice+ made+ to+
appease+ the+ deity+ of+ grain+ rust"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& as_brr=0&
cd=1#v=onepage& q="In the following lines Ovid describes the annual sacrifice made to appease the deity of grain rust"& f=false)
[8] Vergil, Georgics 1.151. The 4th-century agricultural writer Palladius devotes a chapter contra nebulas et rubiginem, on preventing miasma
and mildew ( 1.35 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=O88PAAAAQAAJ& pg=PA884& dq="XXXV. + Contra+ nebulas+ & +
rubiginem"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& as_brr=0& cd=1#v=onepage&
q="XXXV. Contra nebulas & rubiginem"& f=false)).
[9] Columella, De re rustica 10.337–343.
[10] C. Bennett Pascal, "October Horse," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 85 (1981), pp. 275–276; general discussion of victims' edibility
by Hendrik Wagenvoort, "Profanus, profanare," in Pietas: Selected Studies in Roman Religion (Brill, 1980), pp. 25–38.
[11] David Soren, "Hecate and the Infant Cemetery at Poggio Gramignano," in A Roman Villa and a Late Roman Infant Cemetery («L'Erma» di
Bretschneider, 1999), pp. 619–621.
[12] Plutarch, Roman Questions 68 (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Plutarch/ Moralia/ Roman_Questions*/ C.
html#68); Eli Edward Burriss, "The Place of the Dog in Superstition as Revealed in Latin Literature," Classical Philology 30 (1935), pp.
34–35.
[13] Boyle and Woodard, Ovid: Fasti, p. 255.
[14] Davide Del Bello, Forgotten Paths: Etymology and the Allegorical Mindset (Catholic University of America Press, 2007), passim.
[15] Burriss, "The Place of the Dog in Superstition, pp. 34–35.
[16] Fowler, Roman Festivals, pp. 90–91.
[17] This dual function of Mars, contradictory perhaps to the 21st-century mind, may not have seemed so to the Romans: "In early Rome
agriculture and military activity were closely bound up, in the sense that the Roman farmer was also a soldier (and a voter as well)": Beard,
Religions of Rome, pp. 47–48 online (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=2rtaTFYuM3QC& pg=PA47& dq="October+ horse"& lr=&
as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=3#v=onepage& q="October
horse"& f=false) and 53. See also Evans, Utopia antiqua, p. 188 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=ppWwPuye_e4C&
pg=PA187& dq="And+ it+ may+ be+ that+ the+ Robigalia+ was+ an+ enactment"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=&
as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& as_brr=0& cd=1#v=onepage& q="And it may be that the Robigalia was an enactment"& f=false)
[19] Precise naming, in connection with concealing a deity's true name to monopolize his or her power, was a crucial part of prayer in antiquity,
as evidenced not only in the traditional religions of Greece and Rome and syncretistic Hellenistic religion and mystery cult, but also in
Judaism, ancient Egyptian religion, and later Christianity. See Matthias Klinghardt, “Prayer Formularies for Public Recitation: Their Use and
Function in Ancient Religion,” Numen 46 (1999) 1–5; A.A. Barb, "Antaura. The Mermaid and the Devil's Grandmother: A Lecture," Journal
of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 29 (1966), p. 4; Karen Hartnup, On the Beliefs of the Greeks: Leo Allatios and Popular Orthodoxy
(Brill, 2004), pp. 97–101 online (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=xnqI8uSeekwC& pg=PA97& dq="The+ names+ of+ the+ gello+ are+
also+ a+ source+ of+ protection"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=1& as_miny_is=2009& as_maxm_is=12& as_maxy_is=2009&
as_brr=0& as_pt=ALLTYPES) (in connection with compelling demons). Augustine of Hippo derided the proliferation of divinities as a turba
minutorum deorum, "a mob of mini-gods" (De civitate Dei 4.9, dea Robigo among them at 4.21); see W.R. Johnson, "The Return of Tutunus,"
Arethusa (1992) 173–179. See also indigitamenta.
[20] Boyle and Woodard, Ovid: Fasti, p. 254; Beard, Religions of Rome, p. 106, note 129; Woodward, Indo-European Sacred Space, p. 136.
[21] Tertullian, De spectaculis 5: Numa Pompilius Marti et Robigini fecit ("Numa Pompilius established [games] for Mars and Robigo").
[22] Ovid, Fasti 4.905–942; Boyle and Woodard, Ovid: Fasti, pp. 254–255 et passim on the nature of this work.
[23] Woodard, Indo-European Sacred Space, p. 234.
[24] CIL 12 pp. 236, 316), as cited by Woodard.
[25] William Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People (London, 1922), p. 108; Tertullian, De spectaculis 5.
Robigus 175
[27] Franklin, Lupercalia, p. 75. The name Quirinus was supposed to derive from the Sabine town of Cures. In his notes to Aeneid 1.292 and
6.859, Servius says that "when Mars rages uncontrolled (saevit), he is called Gradivus; when he is calm (tranquillus), he is called Quirinus."
Therefore, since Quirinus is the "Mars" who presides over peace, his temple is within the city; the temple for the "Mars of war" is located
outside the city limit. The name was also connected to Quirites, Roman civilians, and the civil comitia curiata, in contrast to military
personnel and the comitia centuriata. Quirinus was assimilated with the deified Romulus, possibly as late as the Augustan period. See Robert
Schilling, "Quirinus," Roman and European Mythologies (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p. 145.
[28] Beard, Religions of Rome, p. 45.
[29] Varro, De lingua latina 6.15–16; Fantham, Fasti, p. 29.
[30] Pueri lenonii, boys managed by a leno, pimp.
[31] Craig A. Williams, Roman Homosexuality (Oxford University Press, 1999, 2010), p. 32 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=JoS4ffPU1-0C& pg=PA32& dq="This+ inscription+ informs+ us+ that+ on+ April+ 25"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0&
as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& as_brr=0& cd=2#v=onepage& q="This inscription informs us that on April 25"& f=false)
[32] Daniel T. Reff, Plagues, Priests, and Demons: Sacred Narratives and the Rise of Christianity in the Old World and the New (Cambridge
University Press, 2005), p. 100.
[33] Tertullian, De spectaculis 5 (nam et robiginis deam finxerunt, "you see, they even make up a goddess of wheat disease"); Woodward,
Indo-European Sacred Space, p. 136.
Religion in ancient Rome series
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| Feralia | Feast of the Lemures | Floralia | Fordicidia | Furrinalia | Larentalia | Liberalia | Lucaria | Ludi Romani | Lupercalia |
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Sancus 176
Sancus
Sancus is also a genus of the Tetragnathidae family of spiders.
In ancient Roman religion, Sancus (also known as Sangus or Semo Sancus) was the god
of trust (fides), honesty, and oaths. His cult is one of the most ancient of Romans,
probably derived from Umbrian influences.[1]
Oaths
Sancus was also the god who protected oaths of marriage, hospitality, law, commerce,
and contracts in particular. Some forms of swearings were used in his name and honour
at the moment of the signing of contracts and other important civil acts. Some words
(like "sanctity" and "sanction" - for the case of disrespect of pacts) have their etymology
in the name of this god, whose name is connected with sancire "to hallow" (hence
sanctus, "hallowed").
Worship
The temple dedicated to Sancus stood on the Quirinal Hill, under the name Semo Sancus
Dius Fidus. Dionysius of Halicarnassus[2] writes the worship of Semo Sancus was
imported into Rome at a very early time by the Sabines who occupied the Quirinal Hill.
According to tradition his cult was said to have been introduced by the Sabines and
perhaps king Titus Tatius dedicated a small shrine.[3] The actual construction of the
temple is generally ascribed to Tarquin the Proud, although it was dedicated by Spurius
Postumius on June 5th 466 B.C.[4]
Illustration of a statue of
Sancus was considered the son of Iupiter, an opinion recorded by Varro and attributed to Sancus found in the
his teacher Aelius Stilo[5] . He was the god of heavenly light, the avenger of dishonesty, Sabine's shrine on the
Quirinal, near the modern
the upholder of truth and good faith, the sanctifier of agreements. Hence his church of S. Silvestro
identification with Hercules, who was likewise the guardian of the sanctity of oaths. His
festival day occurred on the nonae of June, i.e. June 5th.
The shrine on the Quirinal was described by XIX century archeologist R.A. Lanciani.[6] It was located near the Porta
Sanqualis of the Servian walls[7] , not far from the modern church of S. Silvestro, precisely on the Collis Mucialis.[8]
It was described by classical writers as having no roof so as oaths could be taken under the sky.
It had a chapel containing relics of the regal period: a bronze statue of Tanaquil or Gaia Caecilia, her belt containing
remedies that people came to collect, her distaff, spindle and slippers [9] ,and after the capture of Privernum in 329
B.C., brass medallions or bronze wheels (discs) made of the money confiscated from Vitruvius Vaccus[10] .
Dionysius of Halicarnassus records that the treaty between Rome and Gabii was preserved in this temple. This treaty
was perhaps the first international treaty to be recorded and preserved in written form in ancient Rome. It was
written on the skin of the ox sacrificed to the god upon its agreement and fixed onto a wooden frame or a shield.[11]
According to Lanciani the foundations of the temple were discovered in March 1881, under what was formerly the
convent of S. Silvestro al Quirinale (or degli Arcioni), later the headquarters of the (former) Royal Engineers.
Lanciani relates the monument was a parallelogram in shape, thirty-five feet long by nineteen wide, with walls of
travertine and decorations in white marble. It was surrounded by votive altars and the pedestal of statues. In Latin
literature it is sometimes called aedes, sometimes sacellum, this last appellation probably connected to the fact it was
a sacred space in the open air.[12] Platner though writes its foundation had already been detected in the XVI century.
Sancus 177
Lanciani supposes the statue depicted in this article might have been found on the site of the shrine on the Quirinal as
it appeared in the antiquarian market of Rome at the time of the excavations at S.Silvestro.
There was possibly another shrine or altar (ara) dedicated to Semo Sancus on the Isle of the Tiber, near the temple of
Iupiter Iurarius. This altar bears the inscription seen and misread by S. Justin (Semoni Sanco Deo read as Simoni
Deo Sancto) and was discovered on the island in July, 1574. It is preserved in the Galleria Lapidaria of the Vatican
Museum, first compartment (Dii). Lanciani advances the hypothesis that while the shrine on the Quirinal was of
Sabine origin that on the Tiber island was Latin.
According to another source the statue of Sancus (as Semo Sancus Dius Fidus) was found on the Tiber Island.[13]
The statue is life-sized and is of the archaic Apollo type. The expression of the face and the modelling of the body
however are realistic. Both hands are missing, so that it is impossible to say what were the attributes of the god, one
being perhaps the club of Hercules and/or the oxifraga, the augural bird proper to the god (avis sanqualis),
hypotheses made by archaeologist Visconti and reported by Lanciani. Other scholars think he should have hold
lightningbolts in his left hand.
The inscription on the pedestal mentions a decuria sacerdot[um] bidentalium.[14] Lanciani makes reference to a
glossa of Festus s.v. bidentalia which states these were small shrines of lesser divinities, to whom hostiae bidentes,
i.e. lambs two years old, were sacrificed. William Warde Fowler says these priests should have been concerned with
lightningbolts, bidental being both the technical term for the puteal, hole resembling a well left by strikes onto the
ground and for the victims used to placate the god and purify the site.[15] For this reason the priests of Semo Sancus
were called sacerdotes bidentales. They were organised, like a lay corporation, in a decuria under the presidency of
a magister quinquennalis.
Their residence at the shrine on the Quirinal was located adjoining the chapel: it was ample and commodious,
provided with a supply of water by means of a lead pipe.
The pipes have been removed to the Capitolin Museum. They bear the same inscription found on the base of the
statue. [16]
The statue is now housed in the Galleria dei Candelabri of the Vatican Palace. The foundations of the shrine on the
Quirinal have been destroyed.
Semo Sancus had a large sanctuary at Velitrae, now Velletri, in Volscian territory.[17]
Simon Magus
Justin Martyr records that Simon Magus, a gnostic mentioned in the Christian Bible, performed such miracles by
magic acts during the reign of Claudius that he was regarded as a god and honored with a statue on the island in the
Tiber which the two bridges cross, with the inscription Simoni Deo Sancto, "To Simon the Holy God"[18] . However,
in 1574, the Semo Sancus statue was unearthed on the island in question, leading most scholars to believe that Justin
Martyr confused Semoni Sanco with Simon.
Family
Cato [19] and Silius Italicus[20] wrote that Sancus was a Sabine god and father of the eponymous Sabine hero Sabus.
He is thus sometimes considered a founder-deity.
Origins and significance

Sancus 178

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
Even in the ancient world, confusion surrounded this deity, as evidenced by the multiple and unstable forms of his
name. Aelius Stilo[21] identified him with Hercules, but also, because he explained the Dius Fidius as Dioskouros,
with Castor. In late antiquity, Martianus Capella places Sancus in region 12 of his cosomological system, which
draws on Etruscan tradition in associating gods with specific parts of the sky.[22] On the Piacenza Liver the
corresponding case bears the theonym Tluscv. The complexity of the theonym and the multiple relationships of the
Sancus 179
god with other divine figures shall be better examined in a systematic wise here below.
Sancus as Semo
The first part of the theonym defines the god as belonging to the cathegory of divine entities known to the ancient
Romans and Italics as Semones or Semunes. In Rome this theonym is attested in the carmen Arvale and in a
fragmentary inscription.[23] . Outside Rome in Sabine, Umbrian and Pelignan territory.[24] An inscription from
Corfinium reads: Çerfom sacaracicer Semunes sua[d, placing side by side the two entities.
According to ancient Latin sources the meaning of the term would denote semihomines (also explained as
se-homines, men separated from ordinary ones, who have left their human condition) or the dii medioxumi, i.e. gods
of the second rank, semigods,[25] entities that belong to the intermediate sphere between gods and men.[26] The
relationship of these entities to Semo Sancus is comparable to that of the genii to Genius Iovialis: as the genii have a
Genius Iovialis, thus similarly the semones do have a Semo Sancus.[27] The semones would be a class of semigods,
i.e. people who did not share the destiny of ordinary mortals even though they were not admitted to Heaven, such as
Faunus, Priapus, Picus, the Silvani.[28] However some scholars opinate such a definition is wrong and the semones
are spirits of nature, representing the generative power hidden in seeds.[29]
The deity Semonia bears characters that link her to the group of the Semones as is shown by Festus s.v. supplicium:
when a citizen was put to death the custom was to sacrifice a lamb of two years (bidentis) to Semonia to appease her
and purify the community. Only thus could the head and property of the culprit be vowed to the appropriate god. It is
noteworthy that Semo Sancus received the same kind of cult and sacrifice as is shown on the inscription in the figure
under the statue of the god reading: decuria sacerdotum bidentalium.
The relationship between Sancus and the semones of the carmen Arvale remains obscure, even though some scholars
opinate that Semo Sancus and Salus Semonia or Dia Semonia would represent the core significance of this archaic
theology.[30] Norden has proposed a Greek origin.[31]
Sancus and Salus

The two gods were related in several ways. Their shrines (aedes) were very close to each other on two adjacent
hilltops of the Quirinal, the Collis Mucialis and Salutaris respectively.[32] Some scholars also claim some
inscriptions to Sancus have been found on the Collis Salutaris.[33] Moreover Salus is the first of the series of deities
mentioned by Macrobius[34] as related in their sacrality: Salus, Semonia, Seia, Segetia, Tutilina, who required the
observance of a dies feriatus of the person who happened to utter their name. These deities were connected to the
ancient agrarian cults of the valley of the Circus Maximus that remain quite mysteruious[35]
The statue of Tanaquil placed in the shrine of Sancus was famed for containing remedies in its girdle that people
came to collect.[36] As the statues of boys wear the apotropaic golden bulla, bubble or locket, which contained
remedies against envy or the evil eye, Robert E. A. Palmer has remarked a connexion between these and the praebia
of the statue of Tanaquil in the sacellum of Sancus.[37]
German scholars Georg Wissowa, Eduard Norden and Kurt Latte talk of a deity named Salus Semonia[38] which is
though attested only in one inscription of year 1 A.D., which mentions a Salus Semonia in its last line (line
seventeen). There is consensus among scholars that this line is a later addition and cannot be dated with certainty.[39]
In other inscriptions Salus is never connected to Semonia.[40]
Sancus Dius Fidius and Iupiter

The relationship between the two gods is certain as both are in charge of oath, are connected with clear daylight sky
and can wield lightning bolts. This overlap of functional characters has generated confusion about the identity of
Sancus Dius Fidius either among ancient or modern scholars, as Dius Fidius has sometimes been considered another
theonym for Iupiter.[41] The autonomy of Semo Sancus from Iupiter and the fact that Dius Fidius is an alternate
theonym designating Semo Sancus (and not Iupiter) is shewn by the name of the correspondent Umbrian god Fisus
Sancus 180
Sancius which compounds the two constituent parts of Sancus and Dius Fidius: in Umbrian and Sabine Fisus is the
exact correspont of Fidius, as e.g. Sabine Clausus of Latin Claudius.[42] The fact that Sancus as Iupiter is in charge
of the observance of oaths, of the laws of hospitality and of loyalty (Fides) makes him a deity connected with the
sphere and values of sovereignity, i.e. in Dumezil's terminology of the first function.
G. Wissowa advanced the hypothesis that Semo Sancus is the genius of Iupiter.[43] W. W. Fowler has cautioned that
this is an anachronism and it would only be acceptable to say that Sancus is a Genius Iovius as it appears from the
Iguvine Tables.[44]
Theodor Mommsen, William W. Fowler and Georges Dumezil among others rejected the accountability of the
tradition that ascribes a Sabine origin to the Roman cult of Semo Sancus Dius Fidius, partly on linguistic grounds
since the theonym is Latin and no mention or evidence of a Sabine Semo is found near Rome, while the Semones are
attested in Latin in the carmen Arvale. In their view Sancus would be a deity who was shared by all ancient Italic
peoples, whether Osco-Umbrian or Latino-Faliscan.[45]
The details of the cult of Fisus Sancius at Iguvium and those of Fides at Rome[46] , such as the use of the
mandraculum, a piece of linen fabric covering the right hand of the officiant, and of the urfeta (orbita) or orbes
ahenei, sort of small bronze disc brought in the right hand by the offerant at Iguvium and also deposed in the temple
of Semo Sancus in 329 B.C. after an affair of treason[47] confirm the parallelism.
Some aspects of the ritual of the oath for Dius Fidius, such as the proceedings under the open sky and/or in the
compluvium of private residences and the fact the temple of Sancus had no roof, have suggested to romanist O.
Sacchi the idea that the oath by Dius Fidius predated that for Iuppiter Lapis or Iuppiter Feretrius, and should have its
origin in prehistoric time rituals, when the templum was in the open air and defined by natural landmarks as e.g. the
highest nearby tree.[48] Supporting this interpretation is the explanation of the theonym Sancus as meaning sky in
Sabine given by Johannes Lydus, etymology that however is rejected by Dumezil and Briquel among others.[49]
In conclusion all the known details concerning Sancus connect him to the sphere of the fides, of oaths, of the respect
ofmpacts, and of their sanction, or divine guarantee against their breaking. These values are all proper to sovereign
gods and common with Iuppiter (and with Mitra in Vedic religion).
Sancus and Hercules

Aelius Stilo's interpretation of the theonym as Dius Filius is based partly on the interchangeability and alternance of
letters d and l in Sabine, which might have rendered possible the reading of Dius Fidius as Dius Filius, i.e. Dios
Kouros, partly on the function of guarantor of oaths that Sancus shared with Hercules: Georg Wissowa called it a
gelernte Kombination[50] , while interpreting him as the genius, (semo) of Iupiter.[51] Stilo's interpretration in its
linguistic aspect looks to be unsupported by the form of the theonym in the Iguvine Tables, where it appears as Fisus
or Fisovius Sancius, formula that includes the two component parts of the theonym.[52] This theonym is rooted in an
ancient IE *bh(e)idh-tos and is formed on the rootstem *bheidh- which is common to Latin Fides.
The connexion to Hercules looks to be much more substantial on theological grounds. Hercules, especially in ancient
Italy, retained many archaic features of a founder deity and of a guarantor of good faith and loyalty.
Sancus 181
Sancus and Mars

At Iguvium Fisus Sancius is associated to Mars in the ritual of the sacrifice at the Porta Tesenaca as one of the gods
of the minor triad, and this fact proves his military connection in Umbria. This might be explained by the military
nature of the concept of sanction which implies the use of repression. The term sanctus too has in Roman law
military implications: the walls of the city are sancti.[53]
The martial aspect of Sancus is highlighted also in the instance of the Samnite legio linteata, a selected part of the
army formed by noble soldiers bound by a set of particularly compelling oaths and put under the special protection
of Iupiter. In this case the strict association of the ritual to Iupiter underlines the military aspect of the sovereign god
that comes in to supplement the usual role of Mars.[54]
A prodigy related by Livy concerning an avis sanqualis who broke a rainstone or meteorite fallen into a grove sacred
to Mars at Crustumerium in 177 B. C. has also been seen by some scholars as a sign of a martial aspect of Sancus.
Roger D. Woodard has interpreted Sancus as the Roman equivalent of Vedic god Indra, who has to rely on the help
of the Maruts, corresponding to the twelf Roman semones of the carmen Arvale, in his task of killing the dragon
Vrtra thus freeing the waters and averting draught. He traces the etymology of Semo to IE stemroot *seh(w) bearing
the meanings of to pour, ladle, flow, drop related to rain and sowing. [55] In Roman myth Hercules would represent
this mythic character in his killing of the monstre Cacus. Sancus would be identical to Mars and Hercules as shown
by the old cults of the Salii of Tibur.[56]
Sancus in Etruria
As for Etruscan religion N. Thomas De Grummond has suggested to identify Sancus in the inscription Selvans
Sanchuneta found on a cippus unearthed near Bolsena, however other scholars connect this epithet to a local family
gentilicium.[57] The theonym Tec Sans found on bronze statues (of a boy and of the arringatore, public speaker)
from the area near Cortona has been seen as an Etruscan form of the same theonym.[58]
Legacy
The English words sanction and saint are directly derived from Sancus. The toponym Sanguineto is related to the
theonym, through the proper name Sanquinius.[59]
References
[1] K. Latte Roemische Religiongeschichte Muenchen 1960 p. 127
[2] Dion. Hal. II 49, 2
[3] Ovid Fasti VI 217-8; Properce IV 9, 74; Tertullian Ad Nationes II 9, 13; Varro Lingua latina V 52
[4] Dion. Hal. IX 60; Ovid Fasti VI 213; CIL I 2nd 319 p. 220; S. B. Platner, T. Ashby A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome London
1929 pp.469-470
[6] R.A. Lanciani Pagan and Christian Rome Boston and New York 1893 pp. 32-33
[7] Festus sv. Sanqualis Porta p. 345 L
[8] Varro Lingua Lat. V 52: Collis Mucialis: quinticeps apud aedem Dei Fidi; in delubro ubi aeditumus habere solet.
[9] Plutarch Quaestiones Romanae 30; Pliny Nat. Hist. VIII 94; Festus sv. praebia p. 276 L: "Praebia rursus Verrius vocari ait ea remedia quae
Gaia Caecilia, uxor Tarquini Prisci,invenisse existimatur, et inmiscuisse zonae suae, qua praecincta statua eius est in aede Sancus, qui deus
dius fidius vocatur; et qua zona periclitantes ramenta sumunt. Ea vocari ait praebia, quod mala prohibeant."
[10] Livy VIII 20, 8
[11] Dion. Hal. Antiquitates Romanae IV 58, 4
[12] S. B. Platner A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome London 1929 p. 469
[13] Claridge, Amanda (1998). Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. (p. 226)
[14] CIL VI 568
[15] W. W, Fowler The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic London, 1899, p. 139
[16] CIL XV 7253
[17] Livy XXXII 1. 10
Sancus 182
[18] The First Apology, Chapter XXVI.—Magicians not trusted by Christians (http:/ / www. ccel. org/ ccel/ schaff/ anf01. viii. ii. xxvi. html),
Justin Martyr.
[19] In a fragment preserved by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 2.49.2.;
[20] Punica VIII 421
[21] As preserved by Varro, De lingua latina 5.66.
[22] Stefan Weinstock, "Martianus Capella and the Cosmic System of the Etruscans," Journal of Roman Studies 36 (1946), p. 105, especially
note 19. Martianus is likely to have derived his system from Nigidius Figulus (through an intermediate source) and Varro.
[23] CIL I 2nd 2436: Se]monibu[s.
[24] cf. E. Norden Aus altroemischer Priesterbuchen Lund, 1939, p.205 ff.
[25] Festus s.v. medioxumi
[26] Scheiffele in Pauly s.v. semones citing Priscianus p. 683; Festus s.v. hemona; Varro unreferenced from semideus; Hartung I. 41: from serere
and Sabine Semones half-self, more like genii; also Gdywend Mythol. bei der Romer par. 261: in Sabine, godly people, maybe Lares. Besides
belong to this cathegory all the dii medioxumi.
[27] Pauly above.
[28] cf. Ovid Metam. I 193-195
[29] Dahrenberg & Saglio Dictionnaire des Antiquites Grecques et Romaines s.v. Semo Sancus
[30] G.B. Pighi La preghirea romana in AA. VV. La preghira Roma, 1967 pp. 605-606
[31] Classical Review 1939
[33] Jesse B. Carter in Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics vol. 13 s.v. Salus
[34] Macrobius Saturnalia I 16,8
[35] Dumezil ARR Paris 1974, Chirassi Colombo in ANRW 1981 p.405; Tertullian De Spectculis VIII 3
[36] Festus s.v. praebia; Robert E. A. Palmer "Locket gold, lizard green" in Etruscan influences on Itlian Civilisation 1994
[37] R. E. A. Palmer "Locket Gold Lizard Green" in J. F. Hall Etruscan Influences on the Civilizations of Italy 1994 p. 17 ff.
[38] G. Wissowa Roschers Lexicon s.v. Sancus, Religion und Kultus der Roemer Munich 1912 p. 139ff.; E. Norden Aus der altroemischer
Priesterbuechen Lund 1939 p. 202 ff.; K. Latte Rom. Religionsgechichte Munich 1960 p. 49-51
[39] Salus Semonia posuit populi Victoria; R.E.A. Palmer Studies of the northern Campus Martius in ancient Rome 1990
[40] Ara Salutus from a slab of an altar from Praeneste; Salutes pocolom on a pitcher from Horta; Salus Ma[gn]a on a cippus from Bagnacavallo;
Salus on a cippus from the sacred grove of Pisaurum; Salus Publica from Ferentinum
[41] G. Dumezil La religion Roamiane archiaque Paris, 1974; It. tr. p.189
[42] I. Rosenzweig London, 1937, p. ; D. Briquel; E. Norden
[43] G. Wissowa in Roschers Lexicon 1909 s.v. Semo Sancus col. 3654; Religion und Kultus der Römer Munich, 1912, p. 131 f.
[44] W. W. Fowler The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic London, 1899, p.
[45] La religion romaine archaique It. tr. Milano, 1977, p. 80 n. 25, citing also G. Wissowa in Roschers Lexicon s.v. Sancus, IV, 1909, col. 3168;
Dumezil wholly rejects the tradition of the synecism of Rome.
[46] cf.Livy I 21, 4; Servius Aen. I 292 on this prescription of Numa's
[47] Livy VIII 20, 8; W. W. Fowler The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic London 1899 p. 138; Irene Rosenzweig Ritual and Cult in
Pre-Roman Iguvium London, 1937, p.210; D. Briquel "Sur les aspects militaires du dieu ombrien Fisus Sancius" in MEFRA 1979 p. 136
[48] O. Sacchi "Il trivaso del Quirinale" in Revue Internationale de Droit de l'Antiquite' 2001 pp. 309-311, citing Nonius Marcellus s.v. rituis (L
p.494): Itaque domi rituis nostri, qui per dium Fidium iurare vult, prodire solet in compluvium., 'thus according to our rites he who wishes to
swear an oath by Dius Fidius he as a rule walks to the compluvium (an unroofed space within the house)'; Macrobius Saturnalia III 11, 5 on
the use of the private mensa as an altar mentioned in the ius Papirianum; Granius Flaccus indigitamenta 8 (H. 109) on king Numa's vow by
which he asked for the divine punishment of perjury by all the gods
[49] Lydus de Mensibus IV 90; G. Capdeville "Les dieux de Martianus Capella" in LPRDH 1995 p.290
[50] G. Wissowa Above.
[51] Wiliam W. Fowler The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic London, 1899, p. 136 who is rather critical of this interpretation of
Wissowa's.
[52] W. W. Fowler The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic London, 1899, p. 137; Irene Rosenzweig Ritual and Cult of Pre-Roman
Iguvium London, 1937 p. 275 as quoted by E. Norden Aus altroemischer Priesterbuchen Lund, 1939, p. 220 : "Iupater Sancius is identical
with Semo Sancus Dius Fidius of the Latins. Here we see Fisus Sancius who originally was an attribute of Iupater himself in his function of
the guardian of Fides, to develop into a separate god with a sphere of his own as preserver of oaths and treaties...The Umbrian god ...with the
combination of the two forms of the Roman god in his name performs a real service in establishing the unity of Dius Fidius and Semo Sancus
as the one god Semo Sancus Dius Fidius"; D. Briquel "Sur les aspects militaires du dieu ombrien Fisus Sancius" in Melanges de l'Ecole
Francais de Rome Antiquite' 1979 p.134-135: datives Ia 15 Fiso Saci, VI b 3 Fiso Sansie; vocative VI b 9, 10, 12, 14 , 15 Fisovie Sansie;
accusative VI b 8 Fisovi Sansi; genitive VI b15 Fisovie Sansie; dative VI b5,6, VII a 37 Fisovi Sansi; I a 17 Fisovi.
[53] D. Briquel "Sur les aspects militaires du dieu ombrien Fisus Sancius" in Melanges de l'Ecole Francais de Rome Antiquite' 1979 pp.135-137
[54] D. Briquel Above
[55] W. W. Fowler The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic London 1899 p. 140 ; R. D. Woodard Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic
and Roman Cult Chicago 2006 p. 186 ff.
Sancus 183
[56] R. D. Woodard Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman Cult p.220 ff.; Macrobius Saturnalia III 12
[57] N. T. De Grummond Etruscan Myth Sacred History and Legend 2006 p. 141; Peter F. Dorcey The Cult of Silvanus: a Study in Roman Folk
Religion p. 11 citing C. De Simone Etrusco Sanchuneta PP 39 (1984) pp. 49-53
[58] R. E. A. Palmer "Locket Gold Lizard Green" in J. F. Hall Etruscan Influences on the Civilizations of Italy 1994 p. 17 ff.
[59] Palmer p. 16 and Norden p. 215, above.
External links
• Ancient Library article (http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/3037.html)
Saritor
In Roman mythology, Saritor was the god of hoeing and weeding.
Saturn (mythology)
Saturn (Latin: Saturnus) was a major Roman god of time, whose
reign was depicted as a Golden Age of abundance and peace by many
Roman authors. In medieval times he was known as the Roman god of
dance, agriculture, justice and strength; he held a sickle in his left hand
and a bundle of wheat in his right. His mother was Terra and his father
was Caelus. He was identified in classical antiquity with the Greek
deity Cronus, and the mythologies of the two gods are commonly
mixed.
Saturn's wife was Ops (the Roman equivalent of Rhea). Saturn was the
father of Ceres, Jupiter, Veritas, Pluto, and Neptune, Juno, among
others. Saturn had a temple on the Forum Romanum which contained
the Royal Treasury. Saturn is the namesake of both Saturn, the planet,
and Saturday (dies Saturni).
Saturn is often identified with the Greek Cronus. In Hesiod's
Theogony, a mythological account of the creation of the universe and
Zeus' rise to power, Cronus is mentioned as the son of Uranus (the
Greek equivalent of Roman Caelus), the heavens, and Gaia (the Greek
equivalent of Terra), the earth. Hesiod is an early Greek poet and
rhapsode, who presumably lived around 700 BC. He writes that Cronus Saturnus, Caravaggio, 16th c.
seizes power, castrating and overthrowing his father Uranus. However,

it was foretold that one day a mighty son of Cronus would in turn overthrow him, and Cronus devoured all of his
children when they were born to prevent this. Cronus's wife, Rhea (often identified with the Roman goddess Ops),
hid her sixth child, Zeus, on the island of Crete, and offered Cronus a large stone wrapped in swaddling clothes in his
place; Cronus promptly devoured it. Zeus later overthrew Cronus and the other Titans, becoming the new supreme
ruler of the cosmos.
In the Roman tradition, in memory of the Golden Age of man, a mythical age when Saturn was said to have ruled, a
great feast called Saturnalia was held during the winter months around the time of the winter solstice. It was
originally only one day long, taking place on December 17, but later lasted one week. During Saturnalia, roles of
master and slave were reversed, moral restrictions loosened, and the rules of etiquette ignored. It is thought that the
festivals of Saturnalia and Lupercalia were the roots of the carnival year.
Mythology of Saturn
In Babylon he was called Ninib and was an agricultural deity. Saturn, called Cronus by the Greeks, was, at the dawn
of the Ages of the Gods, the Protector and Sower of the Seed and his wife, Ops, (called Rhea by the Greeks) was a
Harvest Helper. Saturn was one of the Seven Titans or Numina and with them, reigned supreme in the Universe. The
Titans were of incredible size and strength and held power for untold ages, until they were deposed by Jupiter.
In Hindu mythology and Astrology Saturn is called as Shani is embodied in the planet Saturn. Shani is the Lord of
Saturday; the word "Shani" also denotes the seventh day or Saturday in most Indian languages. Shani is a Deva and
son of Surya (the Hindu Sun God) and his wife Chhaya (Shadow goddess) and hence also known as Chayyaputra.
He is the elder brother of Yama, the Hindu God of death, who in some scriptures corresponds to the deliverance of
justice. Interestingly, Surya's two sons Shani and Yama judge. Shani gives us the results of one's deeds through one's
life through appropriate punishments and rewards; Yama grants the results of one's deeds after death.
The first inhabitants of the world were the children of Terra (Mother Earth) and Caelus (Father Sky). These creatures
were very large and manlike, but without human qualities. They were the qualities of Earthquake, Hurricane and
Volcano living in a world where there was yet no life. There were only the irresistible forces of nature creating
mountains and seas. They were unlike any life form known to man.
Three creatures born of Terra were monstrously huge with one hundred hands and fifty heads. Three others were
individually called Cyclops, because each had only one enormous eye in the middle of their foreheads. Then, there
were the Titans, seven of them, formidably large and none of whom were a purely destructive force. One was
actually credited with saving man after creation.
Caelus hated the children with the fifty heads. As each was born, he imprisoned it under the earth. Terra was enraged
by the treatment of her children by their father and begged the Cyclopes and the Titans to help her put an end to the
cruel treatment. Only one Titan, Saturn, responded. Saturn lay in wait for his father and, depending on the source,
either castrated him or sliced him into a thousand pieces with his sickle. From Caelus' blood sprang the Giants, a
fourth race of monsters, and the Erinyes (the Furies), whose purpose was to punish wrongdoing. They were referred
to as "those who walk in darkness" and were believed to have writhing snakes for hair and eyes that cried blood.
Though eventually all the monsters were driven from Earth, the Erinyes are to remain until the world is free of sin.
With the deposing of his father, Saturn became the ruler of the Universe for untold ages and he reigned with his
sister, Ops, who also became his wife.
It was prophesied that one day Saturn would lose power when one of
his children would depose him. To prevent this from happening, each
time Ops delivered a child Saturn would immediately devour it. When
her sixth child, Jupiter, was born, Ops had him spirited away to the
island of Crete. She then wrapped a stone in his swaddling clothes. Her
deception was complete when Saturn devoured it, thinking it was the
child. When Jupiter was grown, he secured the job of cup-bearer to his
father. With the help of Terra, his grandmother, Jupiter fed his father a
potion that caused him to vomit up Jupiter's five immortal siblings,
Vesta (Hestia), Ceres (Demeter), Juno (Hera), Pluto (Hades), and
Neptune (Poseidon), who were still alive in their father's stomach.
A devastating war that nearly destroyed the Universe ensued between

Saturn and his five brothers and Jupiter and his five brothers and
sisters. Jupiter persuaded the fifty headed monsters to fight with him
which enabled him to make use of their weapons of thunder, lightning
and earthquake. He also convinced the Titan Prometheus, who was
incredibly wise, and his brother, to join his side. With his forces,
Jupiter was victorious and the Olympians reigned supreme. Saturn was,
again depending on the source, either castrated or sliced into a
thousand pieces with his own sickle (as he had done to his father) and
cast into the darkest and deepest part of Tartarus, the underworld. His Saturn Devouring His Son, painting by Goya
sometime between 1819 and 1823
brothers were imprisoned in Tartarus as well except for Atlas, the
strongest Titan, who was given the burden of holding up the sky.
In Roman mythology,[1] when Jupiter ascended the throne, Saturn fled to Rome and established the Golden Age, a
time of perfect peace and harmony, which lasted as long as he reigned. In memory of the Golden Age, the Feast of
Saturnalia was held every year in the winter at the Winter Solstice. During this time no war could be declared, slaves
and masters ate at the same table, executions were postponed, and it was a season for giving gifts. This was a time of
total abandon and merry making. It refreshed the idea of equality, of a time when all men were on the same level.
When the festival ended, the tax collectors appeared and all money owed out to government, landlords, or lenders
had to be accounted for.
This is another side to Saturn and its ruling sign, Capricorn: the settling of accounts. The time of the winter solstice
is when the Sun enters the sign Capricorn.
Hesiod[2] wrote of the five ages of mankind: Gold, Silver, two ages of Bronze and an age of Iron. The Age of Gold
was the purest age, when no labor was required and weather was always pleasant. It was virtually a place of pleasant
surroundings and of abundance. Death was not an unpleasant eventuality and people occupied their time in pleasant
pursuits. Cronus ruled over this Golden Age.
Astrological Beliefs
Medieval and Renaissance scholars associated Saturn with one of the Four Temperaments of ancient medicine,
melancholy. Physicians, scholars, philosophers and scientists, were rationalised to have a strong Saturn placement
which gives them a tendency toward melancholy, but also wisdom.
Astrological Saturn has always been associated with the letter of the law. Gnostics have identified Saturn with the
god of Early Scripture, whom they regarded as a tyrannical father, obsessed with rigid enforcement of the law. There
is a symbolic link between Saturn and the God of Early Scripture through the use of Saturday. Saturn's Day, the
seventh day of Scripture, the holy day of rest.
Saturn's function is contraction, which gives Saturn (called since ancient times "The Greater Malefic") a somewhat
polarized role against Jupiter (called "The Greater Benefic") in astrology. In Vedic astrology Saturn and Jupiter are
considered natural neutrals, but under closer relations become enemies (although William Lilly disagrees with this
and considers them both friends). Similarly, Saturn is considered cold (slow) and dry (separate) whereas Jupiter is
considered warm (speedy) and moist (inclusive). Where there is light Saturn brings darkness, where there is heat
Saturn brings cold, where there is joy Saturn brings sadness, where there is life Saturn brings death, where there is
luck Saturn brings misfortune (and sometimes heavy consequences for bad judgment or mistakes), where there is
unity Saturn brings isolation, where there is knowledge Saturn brings fear, where there is hope Saturn brings
skepticism and stalling. However these effects are not always negative. Saturn's properties of contraction and
"crystallization" are said to create solidness in the world and give lasting form to everything physical and principle.
Saturn is considered the only planet that doesn't cause over-expansion when negatively aspected with Jupiter, but
rather causes Jupiter's expansion to remit.
Death, particular in old age, has been associated with Saturn since ancient times. At times the freedoms created by
the other planets are abused so that remorse follows. Saturn's color is black. The element associated with Saturn is
lead.
Saturn often stands for the father in the natal chart, as does the Sun, however with Saturn it usually indicates
problems with the father. Saturn indicates a tyrannical, domineering parent who seeks to mold his children in his
own image and force them to live by his standards. Children often become "swallowed up" by such domination.
Saturn's connection with agriculture suggests the nature of time. The Golden Years is a term used to describe the
retirement years and Saturn rules old age.
Planet
Saturn is a gas giant, the second largest planet in the solar system after Jupiter, and the sixth planet out from the Sun.
The planet is widely known for its prominently visible rings. Saturn is a sister planet to Jupiter, Uranus, and
Neptune. Like most of the other planets in the solar system, Saturn is named after a Roman god. Just like with other
planet's satellites, Saturn's moons are named after Greek mythology.
In the ancient times, the planet Saturn was the farthest out of the five known planets other than Earth in the Solar
System (along with Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter; Uranus and Neptune had not yet been discovered), although
the rings were not discovered until Galileo observed the planet in 1610.
References
[1] Macrobius Saturnalia I,9; Vergil Aeneis VII, 49
[2] Hesiod Theogony
Resources
Mythology: Edith Hamilton
The Only Astrology Book You Will Ever Need: Joanna Martine Woolfolk
Mythic Astrology: Archetypal Powers In The Horoscope: Ariel Guttman and Kenneth Johnson.
Parker's Astrology: Julia and Derek Parker
Mysteries of freemasonry by John Fellows
New larousse encyclopedia of mythology, introduction by Robert Graves
Saturn Devouring His Son

Saturn Devouring His Son is the name given to a painting by
Spanish artist Francisco Goya. It depicts the Greek myth of the
Titan Cronus (in the title Romanised to Saturn), who, fearing that
his children would overthrow him, ate each one upon their birth. It
is one of the series of Black Paintings that Goya painted directly
onto the walls of his house sometime between 1819 and 1823.
The work was transferred to canvas after Goya's death and now
resides in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
Saturn Devouring His Son, c. 1819–1823. Oil mural

transferred to canvas, 143cm x 81cm. Museo del Prado,
Madrid
Background
In 1819, Goya purchased a house on the banks of Manzanares near
Madrid called Quinta del Sordo (Villa of the Deaf Man). It was a small
two-story house which was named after a previous occupant who had
been deaf, although the name was fitting for Goya too, who had been
left deaf after contracting a fever in 1792. Between 1819 and 1823,
when he left the house to move to Bordeaux, Goya produced a series of
14 works, which he painted with oils directly onto the walls of the
house. At the age of 73, and having survived two life-threatening
illnesses, Goya was likely to have been concerned with his own
Quinta del Sordo, c. 1900 mortality, and was increasingly embittered by the civil strife occurring
in Spain. Although he initially decorated the rooms of the house with
more inspiring images, in time he overpainted them all with the intense haunting pictures known today as the Black
Paintings. Uncommissioned and never meant for public display, these pictures reflect his darkening mood with some
intense scenes of malevolence and conflict.[1]
Saturn Devouring His Son, a disturbing portrait of the god Saturn consuming one of his children, was one of six
works with which Goya decorated the dining room. According to Roman myth, it had been foretold that one of the
sons of Saturn would overthrow him, just as he had overthrown his father, Caelus. To prevent this, Saturn ate his
children moments after each was born. His wife Ops eventually hid his sixth son, Jupiter, on the island of Crete,
deceiving Saturn by offering a stone wrapped in swaddling in his place. Jupiter eventually supplanted his father just
as the prophecy had predicted.
Goya never named the works he produced at Quinta del Sordo; the names were assigned by others after his death,[2]
and this painting is also known as just Saturn, Saturn Devouring One of His Sons, Saturn Devouring his Children or
by the Spanish names Saturno devorando a su hijo or Saturno devorando a un hijo.
Painting
Goya depicts Saturn feasting upon one of his sons. His child's head and part of the left arm has already been
consumed. The right arm has probably been eaten too, though it could be folded in front of the body and held in
place by Saturn's crushing grip. The titan is on the point of taking another bite from the left arm; as he looms from
the darkness, his mouth gapes and his eyes bulge white with the appearance of madness. The only other brightness in
the picture comes from the white flesh,the red blood of the corpse, the white knuckles of Saturn as he digs his fingers
into the back of the body, and his piercing eyes, wide with madness. There is evidence that the picture may have
originally portrayed the titan with a partially erect penis,[3] but, if ever present, this disturbing addition was lost due
to the deterioration of the mural over time or during the transfer to canvas; in the picture today the area around his
groin is indistinct. It may even have been overpainted deliberately before the picture was put on public display.[4]
Various interpretations of the meaning of the picture have been offered:

the conflict between youth and old age, time as the devourer of all
things, the wrath of God and an allegory of the situation in Spain, where
the fatherland consumed its own children in wars and revolution. There
have been explanations rooted in Goya's relationships with his own son,
Xavier, the only of his six children to survive to adulthood, or with his
live-in housekeeper and possible mistress, Leocadia Weiss; the sex of
the body being consumed can not be determined with certainty. If Goya
made any notes on the picture, they have not survived; as he never
intended the picture for public exhibition, he probably had little interest
in explaining its significance. It has been said that the painting is
"essential to our understanding of the human condition in modern times,
just as Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling is essential to understanding the
tenor of the 16th century".[5]
Goya may have been inspired by Peter Paul Rubens' 1636 picture of the
same name. Rubens' painting, also held at the Museo del Prado, is a
brighter, more conventional treatment of the myth: his Saturn exhibits
less of the cannibalistic ferocity portrayed in Goya's rendition. However,
some critics have suggested that Rubens' portrayal is the more horrific:
the god is portrayed as a calculating remorseless killer, who – fearing
for his own position of power – murders his innocent child. Goya's
vision, on the other hand, shows a man driven mad by the act of killing
Peter Paul Rubens' more refined Saturn his own son. In addition, the body of the son in Goya's picture is that of
Devouring His Son (1636) may have inspired
an adult, not the helpless baby depicted by Rubens. Goya had produced
Goya.
a chalk drawing of the same subject in 1796-7 that was closer in tone to
Rubens' work: it showed a Saturn similar in appearance to that of
Rubens', daintily biting on the leg of one of his sons while he holds another like a leg of chicken, with none of the
gore or madness of the later work. Goya scholar Fred Licht has raised doubts regarding the traditional title however,
noting that the classical iconographical attributes associated with Saturn are absent from the painting, and the body
of the smaller figure does not resemble that of an infant.[6] The rounded buttocks and wide hips of the headless
corpse has also called into question the identification of this figure as a male.[7]
Transfer from the Quinta del Sordo

Although never meant to be seen by the public, the paintings were obviously important works in Goya's oeuvre.
When Goya went into self-imposed exile in France in 1823, he passed Quinta del Sordo to his grandson, Mariano.
After various changes of ownership, the house came into the possession of the Belgian Baron Emile d'Erlanger in
1874. After 70 years on the walls of Quinta del Sordo, the murals were deteriorating badly and, in order to preserve
them, the new owner of the house had them transferred to canvas under the direction of Salvador Martinez Cubells,
the curator of the Museo del Prado. After showing them at the Exposition Universelle of 1878 in Paris, d'Erlanger
eventually donated them to the Spanish state. The effects of time on the murals, coupled with the inevitable damage
caused by the delicate operation of mounting the crumbling plaster on canvas, meant that most of the murals required
restoration work and some detail may have been lost, but in this respect Saturn Devouring His Son appears to have
fared better than some of the other works.
In Popular Culture
The image was featured in two instances in the 2009 film Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. The painting is featured
in the office of Bretton James, who mentions it briefly when Jacob Moore inquires about it. Near the end of the
movie, James rips the painting off the wall in a fit of anger as it seems to provoke his dire financial and political
situation.
Notes
[1] "But never before and never since, as far as we know, has a major, ambitious cycle of paintings been painted with the intention of keeping the
pictures an entirely private affair." Licht, 159
[2] Licht, 168
[3] Morden and Pulimood in Farthing, 375
[4] Connell, 209
[5] Licht, 71
[6] Licht, 168
[7] Connell, 210
References
• Connell, Evan (2004). Francisco Goya: A Life. Counterpoint. pp. 256. ISBN 9781582433073.
• Licht, Fred (1983). Goya: The Origins of the Modern Temper in Art. Icon. pp. 288. ISBN 0064301230.
• Morden, Karen, and Pulimood, Stephen (2006). Stephen Farthing. ed. 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You
Die. London: Quintet Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-84403-563-8.
• "Saturn Devouring One of His Sons" (http://www.museodelprado.es/coleccion/galeria-on-line/
galeria-on-line/obra/saturno-devorando-a-un-hijo/?no_cache=1). Museo del Prado. Retrieved 27 February 2007.
• E. Weems. "The Black Paintings: Saturn" (http://eeweems.com/goya/saturn.html). Retrieved 27 February
2007.
• Jay Scott Morgan. "The Mystery of Goya's Saturn" (http://web.archive.org/web/20061213003002/http://cat.
middlebury.edu/~nereview/morgan.html). New England Review. Archived from the original (http://cat.
middlebury.edu/~nereview/morgan.html) on 13 December 2006. Retrieved 27 February 2007.
• "Goya's Black Paintings" (http://www.theartwolf.com/goya_black_paintings.htm). theartworlf. Retrieved 27
February 2007.
• Milko A. García Torres. "Francisco José Goya" (http://www.imageandart.com/tutoriales/biografias/goya/
index.html) (in Spanish). Pinacoteca Universal Multimedia. Madrid: F & G Editores. Retrieved 27 February
2007.
Silvanus (mythology)
Silvanus (Latin: "of the woods") was a Roman tutelary spirit or deity of
woods and fields. As protector of forests (sylvestris deus), he especially
presided over plantations and delighted in trees growing wild.[1] [2] [3] [4]
He is also described as a god watching over the fields and husbandmen,
protecting in particular the boundaries of fields.[5] The similarly named
Etruscan deity Selvans may be a borrowing of Silvanus,[6] or not even
related in origin.[7]
Silvanus is described as the divinity protecting the flocks of cattle,

warding off wolves, and promoting their fertility.[1] [8] [9] [10] Hyginus
states that Silvanus was the first to set up stones to mark the limits of
fields, and that every estate had three Silvani:[11]
• a Silvanus domesticus (in inscriptions called Silvanus Larum and
Silvanus sanctus sacer Larum)
• a Silvanus agrestis (also called salutaris), who was worshipped by
shepherds, and
• a Silvanus orientalis, that is, the god presiding over the point at which
an estate begins.
Hence Silvani were often referred to in the plural.
Attributes and associations

Like other gods of woods and flocks, Silvanus is described as fond of
Bronze statue of Silvanus, said to be from
music; the syrinx was sacred to him,[1] and he is mentioned along with
Nocera in southern Italy.
the Pans and Nymphs.[2] [12] Later speculators even identified Silvanus
with Pan, Faunus, Inuus and Aegipan.[13] He must have been associated
with the Italian Mars, for Cato refers to him as Mars Silvanus.[9] In the provinces outside of Italy, Silvanus was
identified with numerous native gods:[14]
• Sucellos, Sinquas and Tettus in Gaul and Germany

• Callirius, Cocidius and Vinotonus in Britain
• Calaedicus in Spain
• the Mogiae in Pannonia
• Poininus in Moesia.
The Slavic god Borevit has similarities with Silvanus.
Drawing of a relief of Silvanus from Rome.
Worship
The sacrifices offered to Silvanus consisted of grapes, ears of grain, milk, meat,
wine and pigs.[1] [5] [15] [16] [17] In Cato's De Agricultura an offering to Mars
Silvanus is described, to ensure the health of cattle; it is stated there that his
connection with agriculture referred only to the labour performed by men, and
that females were excluded from his worship.[9] [16] (Compare Bona Dea for a
Roman deity from whose worship men were excluded.) Virgil relates that in the
very earliest times the Tyrrhenian Pelasgians had dedicated a grove and a festival
to Silvanus.[8]
In literature
In works of Latin poetry and art, Silvanus always appears as an old man, but as
Votive statue of the ursarius
cheerful and in love with Pomona.[5] [18] [19] [20] Virgil represents him as carrying (bear-catcher) of Legio XXX Ulpia
the trunk of a cypress (Greek: δενδροφόρος),[12] about which the following Victrix to Silvanus,
[21] [22] LVR-Archäologischer Park Xanten
myth is told. Silvanus – or Apollo according to other versions – was in
love with Cyparissus, and once by accident killed a hind belonging to
Cyparissus. The latter died of grief, and was metamorphosed into a cypress.[23] [24] [25]
In the Harry Potter series, the former Care of Magical Creatures teacher is named Silvanus Kettleburn.
References
[1] Tibullus II.5.27, 30.
[2] Lucan. Pharsalia III.402.
[3] Pliny the Elder. Naturalis historia XII.2.
[4] Ovid. Metamorphoses I.193.
[5] Horace. Epodes II.21-22.
[6] Robert Schilling, "Silvanus," in Roman and European Mythologies (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p.
146 online (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Uf2_kHAs22sC& pg=PA146& dq="borrowed+ from+ the+ Latin"+ "Etruscan+ Selvans"&
hl=en& ei=WgHcTLLtE8fOnAe5npkX& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=1& ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage& q="borrowed
from the Latin" "Etruscan Selvans"& f=false), concurring with Dumézil, Archaic Roman Religion, p. 616.
[7] Peter F. Dorcey, The Cult of Silvanus: A Study in Roman Folk Religion (Brill, 1992), pp. 10–12 online (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=1YzWMQecwH4C& pg=PA10& dq="A+ popular+ theory+ traces+ Silvanus+ back+ to+ the+ Etruscan+ divinity+ Selvans"&
hl=en& ei=RhfcTKbpOIrfnQfb1LUW& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=1& ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage& q="A popular
theory traces Silvanus back to the Etruscan divinity Selvans"& f=false), noting earlier efforts to press an Etruscan etymology on Silvanus.
[8] Virgil. Aeneid VIII.600-1.
[9] Cato the Elder. De Re Rustica 83
[10] Nonnus II.324.
[11] Hyginus. De limitibus constituendi, preface.
[12] Virgil. Georgics I.20-1.
[13] Plutarch. Parallel Lives. Min. 22.
[14] Peter F. Dorcey (1992). The Cult of Silvanus: A Study in Roman Folk Religion, p.32. ISBN 978-90-04-09601-1.
[15] Horace. Epistles II.1.143.
[16] Juvenal. VI.446, with associated scholia.
[17] Compare Voss. Mythol. Briefe, 2.68; Hartung, Die Relig. der Röm. vol. 2. p. 170, &c.
[18] Virgil. Georgics II.494
[19] Horace. Carmina III.8.
[20] Ovid. Metamorphoses XIV.639.
[21] Servius. Commentary on the Aeneid III.680.
[22] Ovid. Metamorphoses X.106
[23] Servius. Commentary on Virgil's Georgics I.20
[24] Virgil. Eclogues X.26.
[25] Virgil. Aeneid III.680.
External links
• Cato's De Agricultura: (http://www.novaroma.org/religio_romana/cato_mars.html) an offering to Mars
Silvanus (e-text in English and Latin)
Sol (mythology) 194
Sol (mythology)

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
This article is about the sun god. For the sun goddess of the same name, see Sol.
Sol was the solar deity in Ancient Roman religion. It was long thought that Rome actually had two different,
consecutive sun gods. The first, Sol Indiges, was thought to have been unimportant, disappearing altogether at an
Sol (mythology) 195
early period. Only in the late Roman Empire, scholars argued, did solar cult re-appear with the arrival in Rome of the
Syrian Sol Invictus. Recent scholarship has rejected this (see Sol Invictus).
Etymology
The Latin sol for "Sun" is the continuation of the PIE heteroclitic *Seh2ul- / *Sh2-en-, cognate to Germanic Sol,
Sanskrit Surya, Greek Helios, Lithuanian Saulė.[1] also compare Latin "solis" to Etruscan "usil". Today, "sol" is still
the main word for sun in Spanish and other romance languages. "Sol" is used in contemporary English by
astronomers and science fiction authors as the proper name of the Sun to distinguish the Sun from other stars, which
may be the Suns of their own planetary systems.
Sol in the Roman Republic

According to Roman sources, the worship of Sol was introduced by Titus Tatius.[2] In Virgil he is the grandfather of
Latinus, the son of Sol's daughter Circe who lived not far from Rome at Monte Circeo.[3] A shrine to Sol stood on
the banks of the Numicius, near many important shrines of early Latin religion.[4] In Rome Sol had an "old" temple
in the Circus Maximus according to Tacitus (AD 56 - 117),[5] and this temple remained important in the first three
centuries AD.[6] There was also an old shrine for Sol on the Quirinal, where an annual sacrifice was offered to Sol
Indiges on August 9th.[7] The Roman ritual calendars or fasti also mention a feast for Sol Indiges on December 11th,
and a sacrifice for Sol and Luna on August 28th. Sol Indiges ("the native sun" or "the invoked sun" - the etymology
and meaning of the word "indiges" is disputed) represents the earlier, more agrarian form in which the Roman god
Sol was worshipped. As the cult evolved the epithet "indiges" fell into disuse (see Sol Invictus).
See also Di indigetes.
Identification with Janus

Various Roman philosophers speculated on the nature of the sun, without arriving at any consensus. A typical
example is Nigidius, a scholar of the first century BC. His works have not survived, but writing five centuries later,
Macrobius reports that Nigidius argued that Sol was to be identified with Janus and that he had a counterpart, Jana,
who was Moon. As such, they were to be regarded as the highest of the gods, receiving their sacrifices before all the
others.[8] Such views appear to have been restricted to an erudite elite - no ancient source aside from Macrobius
mentions the equation of Sol with Janus - and had no impact on the well-attested cult of Sol as independent deity.
Sol Invictus
Sol Invictus ("Unconquered Sun") was long thought to have been a Roman state-supported sun god introduced from
Syria by the emperor Aurelian in 274 and overshadowing other Eastern cults in importance,[9] until the abolition of
paganism under Theodosius I. However the evidence for this is meager at best,[10] and the notion that Aurelian
introduced a new cult of the sun ignores the abundant evidence on coins, in images, in inscriptions, and in other
sources for a strong presence of the sun god in Rome throughout the imperial period.[11] Tertullian (ca. AD 160 - AD
220) writes that the Circus Maximus was dedicated primarily to Sol.[12] There is no hiatus in the cult of Sol in Rome,
nor any shift in the depictions of the god suggesting some sort of significant change under Aurelian. It is clear,
however, that the cult of the sun did become much more important during his reign, not least with the institution of a
new college of pontiffs for Sol.
There is some debate over the significance of December 25th for the cult of Sol. According to a single, late source,
the Romans held a festival on December 25 of Dies Natalis Invicti, "the birthday of the unconquered one." Most
scholars assume Sol Invictus was meant, although our source for this festival does not state so explicitly.[13]
December 25 was commonly indicated as the date of the winter solstice,[14] with the first detectable lengthening of
daylight hours. There were also festivals on other days in December, including the 11th (mentioned above), as well
Sol (mythology) 196
as August. Gordon points out that none of these other festivals are linked to astronomical events.[15] When the
festval on December 25th was instituted is not clear, which makes it hard to assess what impact (if any) it had on the
establishment of Christmas.
The official status of the cult of Sol after Aurelian was significant, but there is no evidence that it was the supreme
cult of the state. Hoey exaggerates the importance of an inscription from Salsovia that supposedy indicates an
official empire-wide cult-prescription for Sol on December 19th.[16] It actually simply states that at the command of
the emperor Licinius the commanding officer of the detachment at Salsovia was to burn incense annually for a newly
erected statue of Sol on November 18 (Hoey misread the date).[17] This simly means that Licinius accpted the
erection of the statue in his honour.
Throughout the fourth century the cult of Sol continued to be maintained by high-ranking pontiffs, including the
renowned Vettius Agorius Praetextatus.[18]
References
[1] see e.g. EIEC, p. 556.
[2] August. de Civ. Dei, iv. 23
[3] Virgil, Aeneid 12, 161-4.
[4] Pliny Nat. Hist. III 56.
[5] Annals 15, 74.
[6] Tertullian, de Spect. 8.
[7] Quintilian Inst. 1,7,12; Fasti Amiternini (“a.d. V Idus Augustas: Soli Indigeti in colle Quirinali Feriae”), Fasti Vallensis (a.d. V Idus Augustas:
Solis Indigetis in colle Quirinali Sacrificium Publicum), Fasti Maffeiani and Fasti Allifani.
[8] Macrobius Saturnalia i. 9; an echo of Nigidius views i perhaps to be found in Cicero De Natura Deorum ii. 27
[9] A typical example of this line of thought can be foud in: Allan S. Hoey, "Official Policy towards Oriental Cults in the Roman Army"
Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, 70, (1939:456-481) p 479f.
[10] Gordon, Richard L.; Wallraff, Martin (Bonn). "Sol." Brill's New Pauly. Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and ; Helmuth
Schneider . Brill, 2010. Brill Online.
[11] Gordon (prev. note) cites S. E. Hijmans, The Sun Which Did Not Rise in the East. The Cult of Sol Invictus in the Light of Non-Literary
Evidence, in: BABesch 71, 1996, 115-150.
[12] De Spect. 8
[13] The Natalis Invicti is mentioned only in the Calendar of Philocalus which dates t AD 354 (http:/ / www. ccel. org/ ccel/ pearse/ morefathers/
files/ chronography_of_354_06_calendar. htm)
[14] When Julius Caesar introduced the Julian Calendar in 45 BC, December 25 was approximately the date of the solstice. In modern times, the
solstice falls on December 21 or 22.
[15] Gordon, Richard L.; Wallraff, Martin (Bonn). "Sol." Brill's New Pauly. Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and ; Helmuth
Schneider . Brill, 2010. Brill Online.
[16] "An inscription of unique interest from the reign of Licinius embodies the official prescription for the annual celebration by his army of a
festival of Sol Invictus on December 19" (Hoey 1939:480 and note 128).
[17] Inscription nr. 5 in Inscriptiones Scythiae Minoris Graecae et Latinae 2, Bucharest 1980. The prescription is for "die XIV Kal(endis)
Decemb(ribus)" i.e. the 14th day before the kalends of December which is November 18th.
[18] CIL VI,1778, (http:/ / www1. ku-eichstaett. de/ epigr/ uah-bilder. php?bild=PH0009413) and 1779. (http:/ / www1. ku-eichstaett. de/ epigr/
uah-bilder. php?bild=PH0005618;PH0005615;PH0005616;PH0005617)
Sol Invictus 197
Sol Invictus
Coin of Emperor Probus, circa 280, with Sol Invictus riding a

quadriga, with legend SOLI INVICTO, "to the Unconquered Sun".
Note how the Emperor (on the left) wears a radiated solar crown,
worn also by the god (to the right).

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Sol Invictus 198
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
Sol Invictus was the official sun god of the later Roman empire. In 274 Aurelian made it an official cult alongside
the traditional Roman cults. Scholars disagree whether the new deity was a refoundation of the ancient Latin cult of
Sol,[1] a revival of the cult of Elagabalus[2] or completely new.[3] The god was favoured by emperors after Aurelian
and appeared on their coins until Constantine.[4] The last inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to 387 AD.[5] and
there were enough devotees in the 5th century that Augustine found it necessary to preach against them.[6] A festival
on 25 Dec. is sometimes thought to be responsible for the date of Christmas.[7]
Use of the phrase

Invictus (unconquered) was an epithet used for various Roman
divinities in the Roman Empire. In the Roman Calendar of the early
empire these include Jupiter Invictus and Mars Invictus. It was in use
from the late Republic and throughout the Imperial period for a range
of deities, such as Hercules, Apollo and Silvanus,[8] and was therefore
a well-established form when applied to Mithras by Roman devotees
from the 2nd century onwards. It has a clear association with solar
deities and solar monism; as such, it became the preferred epithet of
Rome's traditional Sol and the novel, short-lived Roman state cult to
Elagabalus, an Emesan solar deity who headed Rome's official
pantheon under his namesake emperor.[9]
Repoussé silver disc of Sol Invictus, Roman, 3rd
century, found at Pessinus (British Museum) The earliest dated use of Sol invictus is in a dedication from Rome, AD
158.[10] Another, stylistically dated to the 2nd century AD, is inscribed
on a Roman phalera: "inventori lucis soli invicto augusto" (to the contriver of light, sol invictus augustus ).[11] Here
"augustus" is most likely a further epithet of Sol as "august" (an elevated being, divine or close to divinity), though
the association of Sol with the Imperial house would have been unmistakable and was already established in
iconography and stoic monism.[12] These are the earliest attested examples of Sol as invictus, but in AD 102 a certain
Sol Invictus 199
Anicetus restored a shrine of Sol; Hijmans (2009, 486, n. 22) is tempted "to link Anicetus' predilection for Sol with
his name, the Latinized form of the Greek word ἀνίκητος, which means invictus".[13]
Elagabalus
The first sun god consistently termed invictus was the provincial Syrian god Elagabalus. According to the Historia
Augusta, the teenaged Severan heir adopted the name of his deity and brought his cult image from Emesa to Rome.
Once installed as emperor, he neglected Rome's traditional State deities and promoted his own as Rome's most
powerful deity. This ended with his murder in 222.
The Historia Augusta refers to the deity Elagabalus as "also called Jupiter and Sol" (fuit autem Heliogabali vel Iovis
vel Solis).[14]
This has been seen as an abortive attempt to impose the Syrian sun god on Rome;[15] but because it is now clear that
the Roman cult of Sol remained firmly established in Rome throughout the Roman period,[16] this Syrian Sol
Elagabalus has become no more relevant to our understanding of the Roman Sol than, for example, the Syrian
Jupiter Dolichenus is for our understanding of the Roman Jupiter.
Sol Invictus
Aurelian
The Roman gens Aurelia was associated with the cult of Sol.[17] After
his victories in the East, the emperor Aurelian thoroughly reformed the
Roman cult of Sol, elevating the sun-god to one of the premier
divinities of the empire. Where previously a priests of Sol had been
simply sacerdotes and tended to belong to lower ranks of Roman
society,[18] they were now pontifices and members of the new college
Aurelian in his radiate crown, on a silvered of pontifices instituted by Aurelian. Every pontifex of Sol was a
bronze coin struck at Rome, 274-275
member of the senatorial elite, indicating that the priesthood of Sol was
now highly prestigious. Almost all these senators held other
priesthoods as well, however, and some of these other priesthoods take precedence in the inscriptions in which they
are listed, suggesting that they were considered more prestigious than the priesthood of Sol.[19] Aurelian also built a
new temple for Sol, bringing the total number of temples for the god in Rome to (at least) four[20] He also instituted
games in honor of the sun god, held every four years from AD 274 onwards.
The confusion surrounding Aurelian's reforms has been significant, much of it rooted in the mistaken opinion that he
was introducing a new cult, which, as is now clear, he was not. The following constitute the most common errors of
fact attributed to Aurelian and his reforms.
1. Aurelian called his sun god Sol Invictus to differentiate him from the earlier Roman god Sol.
Actually, Aurelian is twice as likely to call Sol Oriens on his coins as he is Sol Invictus.[21] Only one of the fifteen or
so pontifices of Sol adds the epithet invictus; all others simply call themselves "pontifex Solis".[22]
2. Aurelian built his new temple for a Syrian sun god, not the Roman one.
Sol Invictus 200
There is no credible evidence to support this, and ample evidence to refute it. The "Syrian Sol-hypothesis" is
therefore now rejected by all specialists in the field.[23]
3. Aurelian inaugurated his new temple dedicated to Sol Invictus and held the first games for Sol on December 25,
274, on the supposed day of the winter solstice and day of rebirth of the Sun.
This is not only pure conjecture, but goes against the best evidence available.[24] There is no record of celebrating
Sol on December 25 prior to CE 354/362. Hijmans lists the known festivals of Sol as August 8 and/or 9, August 28,
and December 11. There are no sources that indicate on which day Aurelian inaugurated his temple and held the first
games for Sol, but we do know that these games were held every four years from CE 274 onwards. This means that
they were presumably held in CE 354, a year for which perchance a Roman calendar, the Chronography of 354 (or
calendar of Filocalus), has survived. This calendar lists a festival for Sol and Luna on August 28, Ludi Solis (games
for Sol) for October 19–22, and a Natalis Invicti (birthday of the invincible one) on December 25. While it is widely
assumed that the invictus of December 25 is Sol, the calendar does not state this explicitly.[25] The only explicit
reference to a celebration of Sol in late December is made by Julian the Apostate in his hymn to King Helios written
immediately afterwards in early CE 363. Julian explicitly differentiates between the one-day, annual celebration of
late December 362 and the multi-day quadrennial games of Sol which, of course, had also been held in 362, but
clearly at a different time.[26] Taken together, the evidence of the Calendar of Filocalus and Julian's hymn to Helios
clearly shows, according to Hijmans and others, that the ludi of October 19–22 were the Solar Games instituted by
Aurelian. They presumably coincided with the dedication of his new temple for Sol.[27]
4. After Aurelian, Sol became supreme deity of the Roman Empire.
(Hijmans 2009, chapter 9) raises serious doubts about this contention.
Constantine
Emperors portrayed Sol Invictus on their official coinage, with a wide
range of legends, only a few of which incorporated the epithet invictus,
such as the legend SOLI INVICTO COMITI, claiming the Unconquered
Sun as a companion to the Emperor, used with particular frequency by
Constantine.[28] Statuettes of Sol Invictus, carried by the
standard-bearers, appear in three places in reliefs on the Arch of
Constantine. Constantine's official coinage continues to bear images of Coin of Emperor Constantine I depicting Sol
Invictus with the legend SOLI INVICTO
Sol until 325/6. A solidus of Constantine as well as a gold medallion
COMITI, circa 315.
from his reign depict the Emperor's bust in profile twinned ("jugate")
with Sol Invictus, with the legend INVICTUS CONSTANTINUS[29]
Constantine decreed (March 7, 321) dies Solis—day of the sun,

"Sunday"—as the Roman day of rest [CJ3.12.2]:
On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people
residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the
country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and
lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that
Identical reverse as above but with Emperor
another day is not suitable for grain-sowing or vine planting; lest
Licinius on head
by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty
of heaven should be lost.[30]
Constantine's triumphal arch was carefully positioned to align with the colossal statue of Sol by the Colosseum, so
that Sol formed the dominant backdrop when seen from the direction of the main approach towards the arch.[31]
Sol Invictus 201
Sol and the other Roman Emperors

Berrens[32] deals with coin-evidence of Imperial connection to the Solar cult. Sol is depicted sporadically on imperial
coins in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, then more frequently from Septimius Severus onwards until AD 325/6. Sol
invictus appears on coin legends from AD 261, well before the reign of Aurelian.[33]
Connections between the imperial radiate crown and the cult of Sol are postulated. Augustus was posthumously
depicted with radiate crown, as were living emperors from Nero (after AD 65) to Constantine. Some modern
scholarship interprets the imperial radiate crown as a divine, solar association rather than an overt symbol of Sol;
Bergmann calls it a pseudo-object designed to disguise the divine and solar connotations that would otherwise be
politically controversial[34] [35] but there is broad agreement that coin-images showing the imperial radiate crown are
stylistically distinct from those of the solar crown of rays; the imperial radiate crown is depicted as a real object
rather than as symbolic light.[36] Hijmans argues that the Imperial radiate crown represents the honorary wreath
awarded to Augustus, perhaps posthumously, to commemorate his victory at the battle of Actium; he points out that
henceforth, living emperors were depicted with radiate crowns, but state divi were not. To Hijmans this implies the
radiate crown of living emperors as a link to Augustus. His successors automatically inherited (or sometimes
acquired) the same offices and honours due to Octavian as "saviour of the Republic" through his victory at Actium,
piously attributed to Apollo-Helios. Wreaths awarded to victors at the Actian Games were radiate.[37]
Sol Invictus and Sunday

One day of the week was named after Sol, the sun. But there was no observance of any of these days in the way that
the Jews observed Saturday or the Christians Sunday. The first Sunday closing law was enacted by Constantine in
321 AD, and refers to the "day of the sun", and forms the basis of subsequent Christian legislation in this area.[38]
Sol Invictus and Christianity

The Philocalian calendar of 354 AD gives a festival of "Natalis Invicti" on 25 Dec. There is limited evidence that
this festival was celebrated before the mid 4th century AD.[39] [40]
Whether the 'Sol Invictus' festival "has a strong claim on the responsibility for our December date" of Christmas
(Catholic Encyclopedia (1908)[41] ) or not has been called into question by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope
Benedict XVI, who challenged this theory by arguing that a December 25 date was determined simply by calculating
nine months beyond March 25, regarded as the day of Jesus’ conception (the Feast of the Annunciation).[42]
In the 5th century, Pope Leo I (the Great) spoke of how the celebration of Christ's birth coincided with the sun's
position increasing in the sky in several sermons on the Feast of the Nativity. Here is an excerpt from his 26th
sermon [43]:
But this Nativity which is to be adored in heaven and on earth is suggested to us by no day more than
this when, with the early light still shedding its rays on nature, there is borne in upon our senses the
brightness of this wondrous mystery.
Sol Invictus 202
According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, article on

Constantine the Great:
"Besides, the Sol Invictus had been adopted by the Christians in
a Christian sense, as demonstrated in the Christ as Apollo-Helios
in a mausoleum (c. 250) discovered beneath St. Peter's in the
Vatican."
Indeed "...from the beginning of the 3rd century "Sun of Justice"
appears as a title of Christ".[45] Some consider this to be in opposition
to Sol Invictus. Some see an allusion to Malachi 4:2.
According to Ramsay MacMullen, the Syriac bishop Jacob Bar-Salibi
wrote in the 12th century:
"It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 Mosaic of Sol (the Sun) in Mausoleum M in the
[44]
December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights pre-fourth-century necropolis under St
Peter's Basilica. Some have interpreted it as
in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the
representing Christ.
Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the
Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this
festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnised on that day." [46]
See also
• Saturnalia
• Victory over the Sun
Notes
[1] See S.E.Hijmans, "The sun that did not rise in the east", Babesch 71 (1996) p.115-150
[2] See Gaston Halsberghe, "The cult of Sol Invictus", Leiden: Brill, 1972
[3] As Hijmans states (p.115): "Scholars have consistently postulated a clear distinction between the Republican Sol Indiges and the Imperial Sol
Invictus." and p.116 "We should keep in mind, however, that most scholars agree that this cult[Sol Indiges] was never important, and that it
had disappeared altogether by the beginning of the second century A.D."
[4] Halsberghe, "The cult of Sol Invictus", p.155: "Up to the conversion of Constantine the Great, the cult of Deus Sol Invictus received the full
support of the emperors. The many coins showing the sun god that these emperors struck provide official evidence of this." and p.169 "the
custom of representing Deus Sol Invictus on coins came to an end in A.D. 323."
[5] Halsberghe, "The cult of Sol Invictus", p.170 n.3: "CIL VI, 1778, dates from A.D. 387."
[6] Halsberghe, p.170, n.4: "Augustine, Sermones, XII; also in Ennaratio in Psalmum XXV; Ennaratio II, 3."
[7] Heim, "Solstice d'hiver, solstice d'ete", Latomus 59 (1999), p.640-660 reviews the different opinions.
[8] Hijmans, "The sun which did not rise in the east", p.124: Hercules lnvictus is also mentioned on coins, and on inscriptions he is almost as
popular as Sol Invicnts. Other invicti on inscriptions include Jupiter, Mercurius, Satumus and Silvanus.
[9] The Roman cult to Sol is continuous from the "earliest history" of the city to (at the latest) the institution of Christianity as an exclusive
Roman State religion. Scholarly assertions that Rome's traditional Sol and Sol Invictus as different deities are refuted in Hijmans (2009,
pp. Chapter 1) (a reworking of Hijmans, 1996. Matern 2001, Wallraff 2002, and Berrens 2004 all follow Hijmans in rejecting the notion that
Sol Invictus was somehow a separate, distinct solar deity. Sol Invictus
[10] Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum VI, 715: Soli Invicto deo / ex voto suscepto / accepta missione / honesta ex nume/ro eq(uitum)
sing(ularium) Aug(usti) P(ublius) / Aelius Amandus / d(e)d(icavit) Tertullo et / Sacerdoti co(n)s(ulibus) (http:/ / www1. ku-eichstaett. de/
epigr/ uah-bilder. php?bild=PH0008364) (Publius Aelius Amandus dedicated this to the god Sol Invictus in accordance with the vow he had
made, upon his honorable discharge from the equestrian guard of the emperor, during the consulship of Tertullus and Sacerdos); see: J.
Campbell, The Roman army, 31 BC-AD 337: a sourcebook (1994), p. 43; Halsberghe 1972, p. 45. (http:/ / books. google. ca/
books?id=M1doAAAAMAAJ& q="Aelius+ Amandus"& dq="Aelius+ Amandus")
[11] Guarducci, M., "Sol invictus augustus," Rendiconti della Pont. Accademia Romana di archeologia, 3rd series 30/31 (1957/59) pp 161ff. An
illustration is provided in Kantorowicz, E. H., "Gods in Uniform" Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 105.4 (August 1961:
368-393) 383, fig. 34.
Sol Invictus 203
[12] For "august[us]" as divine epithet, see Hornum, Nemesis, the Roman state and the games (1993), 36-9. ( on-line (http:/ / books. google. ca/
books?id=-innYh2yO48C& pg=PA37& lpg=PA37& dq=augustus+ divine+ epithet& source=bl& ots=KvZyIgFEkB&
sig=8UTE7X2INYdd4thps3sPLHnkT4k& hl=en& ei=AzT7SrmjGdK0tgfWtcWfCw& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=3&
ved=0CBAQ6AEwAg#v=onepage& q=augustus divine epithet& f=false)) Augusta is a common epithet for Nemesis (51 occurrences
according to Hornum) but augustus is quite rare for Sol. Hornum also cites august as an epithet for the Lares from 58 BCE (Hornum 1993, 37
n. 23), decades before it was granted to Octavian.
[13] On that shrine, (Hijmans 2009, pp. 483–508 (chapter 5))
[14] Historia Augusta, 1, 5: English translation (Loeb) from Thayer (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/
Historia_Augusta/ Elagabalus/ 1*. html#note14) & Latin text (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ L/ Roman/ Texts/ Historia_Augusta/
Elagabalus/ 1*. html)
[15] See in particular Halsberghe 1972.
[16] Hijmans 1996, Matern 2001, Wallraff 2002, Berrens 2004, Hijmans (2009)).
[17] J.C. Richard, “Le culte de Sol et les Aurelii. A propos de Paul Fest. p. 22 L.”, in: Mélanges offerts à Jacques Heurgon. L'Italie préromaine et
la Rome républicaine, Rome, 1976, 915-925.
[18] (Hijmans 2009, pp. 504–5)
[19] For a full list of the pontifices of Sol see J. Rupke (ed.), Fasti Sacerdotum (2005), p. 606. Memmius Vitrasius Orfitus lists his priesthoods as
pontifex of Vesta, one of the quindecimviri sacris faciundis, and pontifex of Sol, in that order (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum vol. 6, 1739 -
1742). In a list of eight priesthoods, Vettius Agorius Praetextatus puts Pontifex Solis in third place (CIL , 1779 (http:/ / oracle-vm.
ku-eichstaett. de:8888/ epigr/ epieinzel_en?p_belegstelle=CIL+ VI,+ 01779& r_sortierung=Belegstelle)).
[20] The other three were in the Circus Maximus, on the Quirinal, and in Trastevere. (Hijmans 2009, chapter 5)
[21] Sol Oriens: Göbl, "Die Muenzpraegung des Kaisers Aurelianus", MIR 47 (1995), precise p. numbers to be inserted soon; Sol Invictus, idem.
(
[22] We know the names of fourteen pontifices: L. Caesonius Ovinius Manlius Rufinianus Bassus, Virius Lupus Iunius Gallienus, L. Aelius
Helvius Dionysius, T. Flavius Postumius Titianus, L. Crepereius Rogatus, M. Iunius Priscillianus Maximus, Iunius Postumianus, Iulius
Aurelianus, Gaius Ceionius Rufius Volusianus, Memmius Vitrasius Orfitus (father-in-law of Symmachus), Vettius Agorius Praetextatus (one
of the leading figures in the pagan Renaissance of the late 4th century), Gaius Vettius Cossinius Rufinus, and Q. Clodius Flavianus. All are
listed s.v. in Rupke's Fasti Sacerdotum with references to the primary sources. Only Iunius Gallienus adds the epithet invictus to Sol
[23] Hijmans 1996, Matern 2001, Wallraff 2002, Berrens 2004, (Hijmans 2009)
[24] The best English summary of this issue is (Hijmans 2009, pp. 585–592), with ample references to earlier literature (primarily in German).
(http:/ / dissertations. ub. rug. nl/ FILES/ faculties/ arts/ 2009/ s. e. hijmans/ vol1/ 09_c9. pdf)
[25] The full text of the calendar is available here (http:/ / www. tertullian. org/ fathers/ chronography_of_354_06_calendar. htm)
[26] See three different sections of the hymn: near the beginning, in c. 3 he exhorts his reader to celebrate the annual festival of Sol as it is
celebrated in the ruling city; in c. 41, he draws a contrast between the quadrennial games for Sol (tet?aet??????? ????a?) which he
characterizes as relatively new, and this annual festival - the two are clearly not the same; in c. 42-3, lastly, he states that this annual festival in
honour of the rebirth of the sun takes place immediately after the Saturnalia (which ended on December 23).
[27] Besides (Hijmans 2009), see (M. R. Salzman, "New Evidence for the Dating of the Calendar at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome"
Transactions of the American Philological Association 111 (1981, pp. 215-227) p. 221.
[28] A comprehensive discussion of all sol-coinage and -legends per emperor from Septimius Severus to Constantine can be found in Berrens
2004.
[29] The medal is illustrated in Jocelyn M.C. Toynbee, Roman Medallions (1944, reprinted 1987) plate xvii, no. 11; the solidus is illustrated in J.
Maurice, Numismatique Constantinienne vol. II, p. 236, plate vii, no. 14
[30] Excellent discussion of this decree by Wallraff 2002, 96-102.
[31] E. Marlowe, “Framing the sun. The Arch of Constantine and the Roman cityscape”, Art Bulletin 88 (2006) 223-242.
[32] S. Berrens, Sonnenkult und Kaisertum von den Severern bis zu Constantin I. (193-337 n. Chr.) Stuttgart: Steiner 2004
(Historia-Einzelschriften 185).
[33] Berrens 2004, precise p. number to follow. The coinage Elagabalus does not use invictus for Roman Sol, nor the Emesan Solar deity
Elagabalus.
[34] Bergmann 1998, 121-123
[35] S. Hijmans, “Metaphor, Symbol and Reality: the Polysemy of the Imperial Radiate Crown”, in: C.C. Mattusch (ed.), Common ground.
Archaeology, art, science, and humanities. Proceedings of the XVIth International Congress of Classical Archaeology, Boston, August 23–26,
2003, Oxford (2006), 440-443; (Hijmans 2009, pp. 80–84, 509–548)
[36] Bergmann 1998, 116-117; Hijmans 2009, 82-83.
[37] Hijmans 2009, 509-548. A mosaic floor in the Baths of the Porta Marina at Ostia depicts a radiate victory crown on a table as well as a
victorious competitor wearing one. (http:/ / www. ostia-antica. org/ regio4/ 10/ 10-1. htm)
[38] On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country,
however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so
suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.
(Given the 7th day of March, Crispus and Constantine being consuls each of them for the second time [A.D. 321].) -- Source: Codex
Justinianus, lib. 3, tit. 12, 3; trans. in Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. 3 (5th ed.; New York: Scribner, 1902), p. 380, note
Sol Invictus 204
1.
[39] Wallraff 2001: 174-177. Many earlier scholars were so convinced that the winter solstice must have been a longstanding festival of Sol that
they see evidence where there was none. Hoey (1939: 480), for instance, writes: "An inscription of unique interest from the reign of Licinius
embodies the official prescription for the annual celebration by his army of a festival of Sol Invictus on December 19". The inscription
(Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae 8940) actually prescribes an annual offering to Sol on November 18 (die XIV Kal(endis)
Decemb(ribus), i.e. on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of December).
[40] Text at (http:/ / www. tertullian. org/ fathers/ index. htm#Chronography_of_354) Parts 6 and 12 respectively.
[41] 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia: Christmas (http:/ / www. newadvent. org/ cathen/ 03724b. htm): Natalis Invicti
[42] Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), The Spirit of the Liturgy, trans. John Saward (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000), p. 108; cf. p.
100. He regards the old theories as no longer sustainable. March 25 was also considered to be the day of Jesus’ death (although obviously this
has to be considered in relation to the dates of the Jewish passover in possibly relevant years), and the day of creation. See also H. Rahner,
Griechische Mythen in christlicher Deutung. Darmstadt, 1957. An English translation is available as Greek Myths and Christian Mystery,
trans. Brian Battershaw (New York: Harper Row, 1963).
[43] http:/ / www. newadvent. org/ fathers/ 360326. htm
[44] http:/ / www. saintpetersbasilica. org/ Necropolis/ Scavi. htm
[45] New Catholic Encyclopedia, "Christmas"
[46] (cited in Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries, Ramsay MacMullen. Yale:1997, p. 155)
Bibliography
• Berrens, Stephan (2004) (in German), Sonnenkult und Kaisertum von den Severern bis zu Constantin I. (193-337
n. Chr.) (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/57010712), Geschichte (Franz Steiner Verlag); Historia (Wiesbaden,
Germany), F. Steiner, ISBN 9783515085755
• Hijmans, S (2003), "Sol Invictus, the Winter Solstice, and the Origins of Christmas", Mouseion Calgary 3.3:
377–398, ISSN 14969343, OCLC 202535001
• Hijmans, Steven E (2009) (Thesis/dissertation), Sol : the sun in the art and religions of Rome (http://
dissertations.ub.rug.nl/FILES/faculties/arts/2009/s.e.hijmans/vol1/05_c5.pdf), ISBN 9036739314
• Matern, Petra (2002) (in German), Helios und Sol : Kulte und Ikonographie des griechischen und römischen
Sonnengottes (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/53857589), Ege Yayınları, ISBN 9789758070534
External links
• Encyclopedia Britannica Online: Sol (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/552806/Sol)
• Probus and Sol, includes images of coins (http://web.archive.org/web/20050403203429/http://nis-www.
lanl.gov/~ctr/probus.html)
• Roman-Emperors: Aurelian (http://www.roman-emperors.org/aurelian.htm)
• Gibbon's Decline and Fall: Triumph of Aurelian (http://www.ccel.org/g/gibbon/decline/volume1/chap11.
htm#triumph)
• Gibbon's references for Aurelian's Temple of Sol Invictus (http://www.ccel.org/g/gibbon/decline/volume1/
nt11/085.htm)
• Clement A. Miles, Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan (1912): December 25 and the Natalis
Invicti (http://www.worldspirituality.org/december-25.html)
• Catholic Encyclopedia (1908): Christmas (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03724b.htm)
• Ancient sources (http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/sol_invictus.htm)
Soranus (mythology) 205
Soranus (mythology)
Soranus was a Sabine god adopted into ancient Roman religion. He was worshipped on Mt. Soracte in Etruria. The
are was sacred to underworld gods, like Diespiter[1] .
The worshippers of Apollo Soranus, after his cult had been subsumed by Apollo, were called Hirpi Sorani ("wolves
of Soranus", from Sabine hirpus "wolf"). They were firewalkers and carried about the entrails of the victims during
ceremonies[2] [3] [4] [5] .
Soranus was identified with Dis, the Roman god of the underworld, or with Apollo[6] , a Greek god adopted by the
Romans, and had a female partner, Feronia, whose sanctuary was located next to his[7] .
References
[1] Servius' commentary to Aeneid, XI. 785
[2] Servius' commentary to Aeneid, XI. 784
[3] Pliny, Naturalis Historia, VII. 2
[4] Silius Italicus, Punica, V. 174
[5] Strabo, Geography, chapter V
[6] Virgil, Aeneid, XI. 786
[7] Strabo, Geography, chapter V
External links
• Myth Index - Soranus (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/S/Soranus.html)
Sors
For the village in Azerbaijan, see Sors, Azerbaijan; for the ancient Roman method of divination by drawing
lots, see Sortes (ancient Rome).
In Roman mythology, Sors was a god of luck.
Although not much is said about the Roman god, he is mentioned in various stories and prayed to, or asked for
assistance in certain points; "Sors, guide my arrow"
Spiniensis 206
Spiniensis
In Roman mythology, Spiniensis was the god of thorns. People prayed to him when they removed thorny plants
from their fields, as he presided over the digging out of thorn bushes and guarded the field against thorns. His name
comes from spina ("spine").[1]
References
[1] Ferguson, J. (1988). "Divinities" (p. 835). In M. Grant & R. Kitzinger (eds.), Civilization of the Ancient Mediterranean. Greece and Rome.
Volume II (pp. 847–860). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Statanus
In Roman mythology, Statanus, also known as Statulinus or Statilinus, was a deity who presided over a child's first
attempts to stand up. Statanus, along with his wife, Statina, guarded children as they left their parents' homes for the
first time and then returned. These two gods were among the ancient, formless di indigetes of primitive Roman
religion.
References
• Ferguson, J (1988). "Divinities" (p. 853) in M. Grant & R. Kitzinger (Eds.), Civilization of the Ancient
Mediterranean. Greece and Rome. Volume II (pp. 847–860). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Sterquilinus
In Roman mythology, Sterquilinus ("manure"; also Stercutus or Sterculius) was a god of fertilization. He may
have been equivalent to Picumnus. The Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology gives the name as Stercutius, a
pseudonym of Saturn, under which the latter used to supervise the manuring of the fields.
Early Romans were an agrarian civilization and, functionally, most of their original pantheon of gods (not the later
ones they adapted to Greek stereotypes) were of a rural nature with figures such as Pomona, Ceres, Flora, Dea Dia;
so it was only apt for them to have a god supervising the basics of organic fertilization.
References in popular culture

• Sterculius was in "Peace, Love & Understanding", the second pilot episode of Beavis and Butt-head, where his
spirit rose from a port-a-potty crushed by a monster truck. In a rare moment of lucid thought, Butt-head correctly
identifies Sterculius.
Summanus 207
Summanus

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
In ancient Roman religion, Summanus (Latin: Summānus) was the god of nocturnal thunder, as counterposed to
Jupiter, the god of diurnal (daylight) thunder.[1] His precise nature was unclear even to Ovid.[2]
Summanus 208
The temple of Summanus was dedicated during the Pyrrhic War in 276 BC on June 20[3] [4] It stood at the west of
the Circus Maximus, perhaps on the slope of the Aventine. It seems the temple had been dedicated because the statue
of the god which stood on the roof of the temple of Iupiter Capitolinus had been struck by a lightningbolt[5] Every
June 20, the day before the summer solstice, round cakes called summanalia, made of flour, milk and honey shaped
as wheels,[6] were offered to him as propitiation: the wheel might be a solar symbol. Summanus also received a
sacrifice of two black oxen or whethers. Dark victims were typically offered to chthonic deities.[7]
Saint Augustine records that in earlier times Summanus had been more exalted than Jupiter, but with the
construction of a temple that was more magnificent than that of Summanus, Jupiter became more honored.[8]
Cicero recounts that the clay statue of the god which stood on the roof of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus
was struck by a thunderbolt: its head was nowhere to be seen. The haruspices announced that it had been hurled into
the Tiber River, where indeed it was found on the very spot indicated by them.[9]
The temple of Summanus itself was struck by lightning in 197 BC.[10]
Pliny thought that he was of Etruscan origin, and one of the nine gods of thunder.[11] Varro, however, lists
Summanus among gods he considers of Sabine origin, to whom king Titus Tatius dedicated altars (arae) in
consequence of a votum.[12] Paulus Diaconus considers him a god of lightning.[13]
The name Summanus may be derived from the Latin sub-manus (cf. mane, Matuta) for "preceding the morning", but
was formerly thought to be from Summus Manium "the greatest of the Manes,"[14] or sub-, "under" + manus, "hand."
Georges Dumézil[15] has argued that Summanus would represent the uncanny, violent and awe-inspiring element of
the gods of the first function, connected to heavenly sovereignty. The double aspect of heavenly sovereign power
would be reflected in the dichotomy Varuna-Mitra in Vedic religion and in Rome in the dichotomy Summanus-Dius
Fidius. The first gods of these pairs incarnate the violent, nocturnal, mysterious aspect of sovereignity while the
second ones would reflect its reassuring, daylight and legalistic aspect.
According to Martianus Capella,[16] Summanus is another name for Pluto as the "highest" (summus) of the Manes.
This identification is taken up by later writers such as Camões ("If in Summanus' gloomy realm / Severest
punishment you now endure …") [17] and Milton, in a simile to describe Satan visiting Rome: "Just so Summanus,
wrapped in a smoking whirlwind of blue flame, falls upon people and cities".[18]
Summanus and Mount Summano

Traditionally Mount Summano (elevation 1291 m.) in the Alps near Vicenza (Veneto, Italy) is considered a site of
the cult of god Pluto, Iupiter Summanus and the Manes .
The area was one of the last strongholds of ancient religion in Italy as is shown by the fact that Vicenza had no
bishop til 590 CE.
Archeological excavations have found a sanctuary area that dates back to the first iron age (IX century) and was
continuously active til late antiquity (at least IV century CE). The local flora is very peculiar as in ancient times
pilgrims used to bring flowers from their native lands.
The mountain top is frequently hit by lightningbolts. The mountain has a deep grotto (named Bocca Lorenza) in
which according to a local legend a young shepherdess got lost and disappeared. The story looks to be an adaptation
of the myth of Pluto and Proserpina.[19]
The content of this section is adapted from the entry Monte Summano of WP Italian.
Summanus 209

[1] Paulus Festi epitome p.188 L 2nd.
[2] "The temple is said to have been dedicated to Summanus, whoever he may be" (quisquis is est, Summano templa feruntur): Ovid, Fasti 6,
731. Translation by James G. Frazer, Loeb Classical Library. Pliny mentions the temple at Natural History 29.57 (= 29.14).
[3] Ovid fasti VI 729-731; Fasti Esquil., Venus., Amit.: ad XII Kal. Iul.; CIL I 2nd p. 211, 221,243, 320
[4] Pliny Nat. Hist. XXIX 14; Livy Periochae XIV
[5] S. Ball Platner, T. Ashby A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome Baltimore 1928 p. 408, citing Cicero de Div. I 10; Livy Periochae
XIV; Iordanes I 2, 14-15; 98-100
[6] Festus p.557 L
[7] John Scheid, "Sacrifices for Gods and Ancestors", in A Companion to Roman Religion (Blackwell, 2007), p. 264; Raffaele Pettazzoni, "The
Wheel in the Ritual Symbolism of Some Indo-European Peoples," in Essays on the History of Religions (Brill, 1967), p. 107.
[8] Augustine, City of God IV 23
[9] Cicero De Divinatione I 10
[10] Livy AUC XXXII 29, 1
[11] Natural History 2.53 (alternative numbering 52 or 138): "The Tuscan books inform us, that there are nine Gods who discharge
thunder-storms, that there are eleven different kinds of them, and that three of them are darted out by Jupiter. Of these the Romans retained
only two, ascribing the diurnal kind to Jupiter, and the nocturnal to Summanus; this latter kind being more rare, in consequence of the heavens
being colder" (Tuscorum litterae novem deos emittere fulmina existimant, eaque esse undecim generum; Iovem enim trina iaculari. Romani
duo tantum ex iis servavere, diurna attribuentes Iovi, nocturna Summano, rariora sane eadem de causa frigidioris caeli). English translation
by John Bostock, via Perseus Digital Library.
[12] Varro Lingua Latina V 74.
[13] Entry on Dium above
[14] Summanus (http:/ / www. 1911encyclopedia. org/ Summanus).
[15] Myth et epopee vol. III part 2 chapt. 3; Mitra-Varuna: essai sur deux representations indoeuropeennes de la souverainete' Paris 1948 2nd;
La religion romaine archaique Paris 1974; It. tr. Milano 1977 p. 184
[16] Martianus Capella, De nuptiis 2.164.
[17] Os Lusíadas, IV, 33, translated as The Lusiad by Thomas Moore Musgrave (1826).
[18] In the Latin poem "In Quintum Novembris" (lines 23–24): Talibus infestat populos Summanus et urbes / cinctus caeruleae fumanti turbine
flammae.
[19] Lucio Puttin Monte Summano: storia, arte e tradizioni Schio, 1977
Terminus (god) 210
Terminus (god)
Terminus is often pictured as a bust on a boundary stone, here the

CONCEDO NVLLI or concedo nulli means "yield no ground".
Major gods
Jupiter Minerva
Mars Mercury
Quirinus Vulcan
Vesta Ceres
Juno Venus
Fortuna Lares
Topics
Roman Kingdom
Flamens
Other minor Roman deities
Penates Lemures
Genius Manes
Terminus (god) 211
Terminus
In Roman religion, Terminus was the god who protected boundary markers; his name was the Latin word for such a
marker. Sacrifices were performed to sanctify each boundary stone, and landowners celebrated a festival called the
"Terminalia" in Terminus' honor each year on February 23. The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the
Capitoline Hill was thought to have been built over a shrine to Terminus, and he was occasionally identified as an
aspect of Jupiter under the name "Jupiter Terminalis".
Ancient writers believed that the worship of Terminus had been introduced to Rome during the reign of the first king
Romulus (traditionally 753–717 BC) or his successor Numa (717–673 BC). Modern scholars have variously seen it
as the survival of an early animistic reverence for the power inherent in the boundary marker, or as the Roman
development of proto-Indo-European belief in a god concerned with the division of property.
Worship
The name of the god Terminus was the Latin word for a boundary stone,[1] and his worship as recorded in the late
Republic and Empire centred on this stone, with which the god could be identified.[2] Siculus Flaccus, a writer on
land surveying, records the ritual by which the stone was sanctified: the bones, ashes, and blood of a sacrificial
victim, along with crops, honeycombs, and wine, were placed into a hole at a point where estates converged, and the
stone was driven in on top.[3] On February 23 annually, a festival called the Terminalia was celebrated in Terminus'
honor, involving practices which can be regarded as a reflection or "yearly renewal" of this foundational ritual.[4]
Neighboring families would garland their respective sides of the marker and make offerings to Terminus at an
altar—Ovid identifies these, again, as crops, honeycombs, and wine. The marker itself would be drenched in the
blood of a sacrificed lamb or pig. There followed a communal feast and hymns in praise of Terminus.[2] [5]
These rites were practised by private landowners, but there were also related public ceremonies. Ovid refers to the
sacrifice of a sheep on the day of the Terminalia at the sixth milestone from Rome along the Via Laurentina;[2] it is
likely this was thought to have marked the boundary between the early Romans and their neighbors in Laurentum.[5]
Also, a stone or altar of Terminus was located in the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Rome's Capitoline Hill.
Because of a belief that this stone had to be exposed to the sky, there was a small hole in the ceiling directly above
it.[2] [6] On occasion Terminus' association with Jupiter extended to regarding Terminus as an aspect of that god;
Dionysius of Halicarnassus refers to "Jupiter Terminalis",[7] and one inscription names a god "Juppiter Ter."[8]
There is some evidence that Terminus' associations could extend from property boundaries to limits more generally.
Under the Republican calendar, when the intercalary month Mercedonius was added to a year, it was placed after
February 23 or February 24,[9] and some ancient writers believed that the Terminalia on February 23 had once been
the end of the year.[10] Diocletian's decision in 303 AD to initiate his persecution of Christians on February 23 has
been seen as an attempt at enlisting Terminus "to put a limit to the progress of Christianity".[11]
History
Ancient views
Ancient authors agreed that the worship of Terminus was of Sabine origin, ascribing its introduction to Rome either
to Titus Tatius, the Sabine colleague of Rome's founding king Romulus (traditional reign 753–717 BC),[12] or to
Romulus' successor Numa Pompilius (717–673 BC).[7] [13] Those authors who gave the credit to Numa explained his
motivation as the prevention of violent disputes over property.[7] [13] Plutarch further states that, in keeping with
Terminus's character as a guarantor of peace, his earliest worship did not involve blood sacrifices.[13]
The stone in the Capitoline Temple was believed to have been among the altars located on the Capitoline Hill before
the Temple was built under Tarquinius Priscus (traditional reign 616–579 BC) or Tarquinius Superbus (535–510
BC). When the augurs took the auspices to discover whether the god or goddess of each altar was content for it to be
Terminus (god) 212
moved, Terminus refused permission, either alone or along with Juventas the goddess of youth. The stone was
therefore included within the Capitoline Temple, and its immovability was regarded as a good omen for the
permanence of the city's boundaries.[2] [14]
Modern views
According to the dominant scholarly view during the late 19th and much of the 20th century, Roman religion was
originally animistic, directed towards spirits associated with specific objects or activities which were only later
perceived as gods with independent personal existence. Terminus, with his lack of mythology and his close
association with a physical object, seemed a clear example of a deity who had developed little from such a stage.[4]
This view of Terminus retains some recent adherents,[5] but other scholars have argued from Indo-European parallels
that the personalised gods of Roman religion must have preceded the city's foundation. Georges Dumézil regarded
Jupiter, Juventas and Terminus as the Roman form of a proto-Indo-European triad, comparing the Roman deities
respectively to the Vedic Mitra, Aryaman, and Bhaga. In this view the sovereign god (Jupiter/Mitra) was associated
with two minor deities, one concerned with the entry of men into society (Juventas/Aryaman) and the other with the
fair division of their goods (Terminus/Bhaga).[8]

[1] Herbert Jennings Rose; and John Scheid (2003). "Terminus". In Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth. The Oxford Classical Dictionary
(3rd edition, revised ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 1485–1486. ISBN 0-19-860641-9.
[2] Ovid, Fasti 2.639–684 (http:/ / www. tonykline. co. uk/ PITBR/ Latin/ OvidFastiBkTwo. htm#_Toc69367696).
[3] Siculus Flaccus, De Condicionibus Agrorum 11 (http:/ / www. intratext. com/ IXT/ LAT0339/ _P4. HTM#11).
(http:/ / www. archive. org/ details/ romanfestivalsof00fowluoft). London: Macmillan and Co.. pp. 324–327. . Retrieved 2007-03-24.
[5] H. H. Scullard (1981). Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic. London: Thames and Hudson. pp. 79–80. ISBN 0-500-40041-5.
[6] Samuel Ball Platner; and Thomas Ashby (1929). "Terminus, Fanum" (http:/ / efts. lib. uchicago. edu/ cgi-bin/ eos/ eos_page. pl?DPI=100&
callnum=DG16. P72& ident=512). A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London: Oxford University Press. pp. 512. . Retrieved
2007-03-19.
[7] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 2.74.2–5 (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/
Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/ 2C*. html#74. 2).
[8] Georges Dumézil (1996) [1966]. Archaic Roman Religion: Volume One. trans. Philip Krapp. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
pp. 200–203. ISBN 0-8018-5482-2 (hbk.); ISBN 0-8018-5480-6 (pbk.).
[9] Herbert Jennings Rose; and Simon R. F. Price (2003). "Calendar, Roman". In Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth. The Oxford
Classical Dictionary (3rd edition, revised ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 274. ISBN 0-19-860641-9.
[10] Varro, De Lingua Latina 6.3 (http:/ / www. thelatinlibrary. com/ varro. ll6. html); Ovid, Fasti 2.47–54 (http:/ / www. tonykline. co. uk/
PITBR/ Latin/ OvidFastiBkTwo. htm#_Toc69367683).
[11] J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz (1979). Continuity and Change in Roman Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 247.
ISBN 0-19-814822-4.
[12] Varro, De Lingua Latina 5.10 (http:/ / www. thelatinlibrary. com/ varro. ll5. html).
[13] Plutarch, Roman Questions 15 (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Plutarch/ Moralia/ Roman_Questions*/ A.
html#15); Numa 16 (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Plutarch/ Lives/ Numa*. html#16).
[14] Livy 1.55 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?lookup=Liv. + 1. 55); Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 3.69.3–6
(http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/ 3D*. html#69. 3).
Terminus (god) 213
Further reading
• Piccaluga, Giulia (1974) (in Italian). Terminus: I segni di confine nella religione romana. Rome: Edizioni
dell'Ateneo. OCLC 1989261.
• Woodard, Roger D. (2006). Indo-European Sacred Space. Vedic and Roman Cult. Urbana-Chicago: University of
Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-02988-7.
• Reviewed by Marco V. García-Quintela (2007), Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2007.02.36 (http://ccat.sas.
upenn.edu/bmcr/2007/2007-02-36.html). Retrieved on June 13, 2007.
Tiberinus (god)
Tiberinus is a figure in Roman mythology.
He was added to the 3000 rivers (sons of
Oceanus and Tethys), as the genius of the
river Tiber.
According to Virgil's epic Aeneid, he helped
Aeneas in his travel from Troy, suggesting
to him that he land in Latium (see founding
of Rome) and gave him much other precious
advice. With Manto, Tiberinus was the
father of Ocnus.[1]
Tiberinus (statue from the Campidoglio, Rome)
Tiberinus is also known as the river god who found the twins
Romulus and Remus and gave them to the she-wolf Lupa (who
had just lost her own cubs) to suckle. He later rescued and married
Rhea Silvia, the mother of the twins and a Vestal Virgin who had
been sentenced to death.
References
[1] Virgil, Aeneid, X, 198ff
Altar, showing Tiberinus (bottom right) revealing the

twins
Tibertus 214
Tibertus
In Roman mythology, Tibertus is the god of the river Anio, a tributary of the Tiber. He is not to be confused with
Tiburtus, the legendary founder of Tibur.
Vagitanus
In ancient Roman religion, Vagitanus or Vaticanus was one of a
number of childbirth deities who influenced or guided some aspect of
parturition, in this instance the newborn's crying.[1] The name is related
to the Latin noun vagitus, "crying, squalling, wailing," particularly by a
baby or an animal, and the verb vagio, vagire.[2] Vagitanus has thus
been described as the god "who presided over the beginning of human
speech,"[3] but a distinction should be made between the first cry and
the first instance of articulate speech, in regard to which Fabulinus
(fari, "to speak"; cf. fabula) was the deity to invoke.[4] Vagitanus has In ancient Rome, Vagitanus or Vaticanus was
invoked as the god who opened the newborn's
been connected to a remark by Pliny that only a human being is thrown mouth to wail; the first syllable of his name,
naked onto the naked earth on his day of birth for immediate wails pronounced wa in Classical Latin, was thought to
(vagitus) and weeping.[5] be onomatopoeic
These "divine functionaries" (German Sondergötter) whose names

express their sphere of influence are considered characteristic of Indo-European religions.[6] The name Vaticanus in
connection to vagitus is discussed by Aulus Gellius and Augustine of Hippo. Gellius quotes Varro, who is generally
acknowledged also as Augustine's main source on ancient Roman theology:[7]
We have been told that the word Vatican is applied to the hill, and the deity who presides over it, from
the vaticinia, or prophecies, which took place there by the power and inspiration of the god; but Marcus
Varro, in his book on Divine Things, gives another reason for this name. "As Aius," says he, "was called
a deity, and an altar was built to his honour in the lowest part of the new road, because in that place a
voice from heaven was heard, so this deity was called Vaticanus, because he presided over the principles
of the human voice; for infants, as soon as they are born, make the sound which forms the first syllable
in Vaticanus, and are therefore said vagire (to cry) which word expresses the noise which an infant first
makes.[8]
Despite the insistence on an etymological connection between the god's name and vagitus, Gronovius thought the
correct form should be Vaticanus, and that Vagitanus was Vulgar Latin rather than classical.[9] Augustine mentions
Vagitanus/Vaticanus three times in Book 4 On the City of God in deriding the "mob" of Roman gods (turba deorum).
In demonstrating that the names of gods reveal their function, he points to Vaticanus, "who presides over the cries
(vagitibus) of infants," noting elsewhere that among the many deities associated with childbirth, Vaticanus is the one
who opens the mouth of the newborn in crying (in vagitu).[10]
Vagitanus 215
References
[1] Beryl Rawson, Children and Childhood in Roman Italy (Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 136–137 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=o8IwHDOpeWYC& pg=PA137& dq=Vagitanus& lr=& as_drrb_is=b& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=1972& as_maxm_is=0&
as_maxy_is=2010& num=100& as_brr=0& cd=14#v=onepage& q=Vagitanus& f=false)
[2] Emilio Lorìa, Salute e magia attraverso i secoli (Padua: Piccin Nuova, 1994), p. 41 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=NDJzL1Z5vnkC& pg=PA40& dq=Vagitanus& lr=& as_drrb_is=b& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=1972& as_maxm_is=0&
as_maxy_is=2010& num=100& as_brr=0& cd=52#v=onepage& q=Vagitanus& f=false)
[3] George C. Simmons, Education and Western Civilization: Greece, Rome, and the Middle Ages (College Readings, 1972), p. 93.
[4] Kathryn Hinds, Life in the Roman Empire: Religion (Marshall Cavendish, 2005), p. 52 online (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=feAe0fXXDhsC& pg=PA52& dq=Fabulinus& lr=& as_drrb_is=b& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=1932& as_maxm_is=0&
as_maxy_is=2010& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=17#v=onepage& q=Fabulinus& f=false); Antonio Verone, Rediscovering Pompeii: Exhibition
by IBM-ITALIA, New York City («L'Erma» di Bretschneider, 1990), p. 135 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=ciNtH6c9RDQC&
pg=PA135& dq=Fabulinus+ "names+ reflect+ their+ specific+ domains"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=&
as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& as_brr=0& cd=1#v=onepage& q=Fabulinus "names reflect their specific domains"& f=false)
[5] Pliny, Natural History 7.1 (in English (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Plin. + Nat. + 7. 1& fromdoc=Perseus:text:1999.
02. 0137)): hominem tantum nudum et in nuda humo natali die abicit ad vagitus statim et ploratum; see Morell's notes online. (http:/ / books.
google. com/ books?id=dnNAAAAAcAAJ& pg=PA50& dq=Deus+ Vagitanus& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=&
as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=71#v=onepage& q=Deus Vagitanus& f=false)
[6] Jan Gonda, "Reflections on the Indo-European Medium II," in Selected Studies (Brill, 1975), vol. 1, p. 158 online. (http:/ / books. google.
com/ books?id=r7G7Dg9mhN8C& pg=PA158& dq=Fabulinus& lr=& as_drrb_is=b& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=1932& as_maxm_is=0&
as_maxy_is=2010& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=23#v=onepage& q=Fabulinus& f=false)
[7] Varro's works "were the closest equivalent to an encyclopedia Augustine had": Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia (Wm. B.
Eerdmans, 1999), p. 863 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=GcVhAGpvTQ0C& pg=PA863& dq=Varro+ Augustine's+ source&
lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=50& as_brr=3& cd=2#v=onepage& q=Varro
Augustine's source& f=false)
[8] Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 16.17: Et agrum Vaticanum et eiusdem agri deum praesidem appellatum acceperamus a vaticiniis, quae vi atque
instinctu eius dei in eo agro fieri solita essent. Sed praeter hanc causam M. Varro in libris divinarum aliam esse tradit istius nominis
rationem: "Nam sicut Aius" inquit "deus appellatus araque ei statuta est, quae est infima nova via, quod eo in loco divinitus vox edita erat, ita
Vaticanus deus nominatus, penes quem essent vocis humanae initia, quoniam pueri, simul atque parti sunt, eam primam vocem edunt, quae
prima in Vaticano syllabast idcircoque "vagire" dicitur exprimente verbo sonum vocis recentis. English translation by William Beloe, The
Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius (London, 1795), vol. 3, pp. 247–248 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=5P8RAAAAIAAJ&
pg=PA248& dq=Vaticanus+ OR+ Vagitanus+ intitle:Attic+ intitle:Nights& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=&
as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=1#v=onepage& q=Vaticanus OR Vagitanus intitle:Attic intitle:Nights& f=false)
[9] Jakob Gronovius, note to Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 16.18, in Auli Gellii: Noctes Atticae (London, 1824), p. 1522 online. (http:/ / books.
google. com/ books?id=RtoIAAAAQAAJ& pg=RA1-PA62& dq=Deus+ Vagitanus& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=&
as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=126#v=onepage& q=Deus Vagitanus& f=false) See also Atti della Reale
Accademia di Archeologia, Lettere e Belle Arti 9 (Naples, 1879), p. 148 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=OqUOAAAAQAAJ&
pg=RA1-PA148& dq=Deus+ Vagitanus& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100&
as_brr=3& cd=54#v=onepage& q=Deus Vagitanus& f=false)
[10] Augustine of Hippo, De civitate Dei 4.8: Vaticanus, qui infantum vagitibus praesidet (4.8) and ipse in uagitu os aperiat et uocetur deus
Vaticanus (4.11); mentioned again in passing at 4.21.
Vejovis 216
Vejovis
Vejovis or Vejove (Latin: Vēiovis or Vēdiovis; rare Vēive or Vēdius) is a Roman god.
Romans believe that Vejovis is one of the first gods to be born. He is a god of healing, and became associated with
the Greek Asclepius.[1] He is mostly worshipped in Rome and Bovillae in Latium. On the Capitoline Hill and on the
Tiber Island, temples have been erected in his honor.[2] In spring, goats have been sacrificed to avert plagues.
Vejovis is portrayed as a young man, holding a bunch of arrows, pilum, (or lightning bolts) in his hand, and is
accompanied by a goat. He may be based on the Etruscan god of vendetta, known to them by the name Vetis written
on the Piacenza Liver, a bronze model used in haruspical divination.
The studies about Vejovis are very poor and unclear. They show a constant updating of his condition and his use by
people: escaping from netherworld, Volcanic God responsible for marshland and earthquakes,[3] [4] and later
guardian angel in charge of slaves and fighters refusing to lose. God of deceivers, he is called to protect right causes
and to give pain and deception to enemies. His temple has been described as a haven safe from police for wrongly
persecuted people, and dedicated to the protection of the new comers in Rome, but this view is probably wrong.[5]
The legend shows him more like an entity escaping from hell and trying to join the light and heaven, awesome
fighter and protector of any people victims of unfairness.
Aulus Gellius, in the Noctes Atticae, speculated that Vejovis is the inverse or ill-omened counterpart of Jupiter;
compare Summanus. Aulus Gellius observes that the particle ve- that prefixes the name of the god also appears in
Latin words such as vesanus, "insane," and thus interprets the name Vejovis as the anti-Jove. Aulus Gellius also
informs us that Vejovis received the sacrifice of a female goat, sacrificed ritu humano;[6] this obscure phrase could
either mean "after the manner of a human sacrifice" or "in the manner of a burial."[7]
He has been identified with Apollo, with the infant Jupiter, and speculatively as the Anti-Jupiter (i.e. the Jupiter of
the Lower World) as suggested by his name. In art, he is depicted as a youth holding a Laurel wreath and some
arrows, next to a goat. He had a temple between the two peaks of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, where his statue had a
beardless head and carried a bundle of arrows in his right hand. It stood next to a statue of a goat. There is no firm
evidence that he is a god of expiation and the protector of runaway criminals.[8] Sacrifices have been made to him
annually on March 7: A festival of Vejovis is held on this day, celebrating an ancient Etruscan or Latin deity whose
exact function is lost by Roman times. He is possibly the subterranean counterpart of Jupiter, whose earthquakes and
volcanoes mirrored Jupiter's thunder and lightning; however he is also at times identified with Apollo or as a
younger version of Jupiter himself.[9]
In fact, Vejovis had three festivals in the Roman Calendar: on 1 January, 7 March, and 21 May.[10]
Vejovis in Roman religion, a god with uncertain attributes, worshiped in Rome between the two summits of the
Capitoline Hill (the Arx and the Capitol) and on Tiber Island (both temples date from just after 200 BC) and at
Bovillae, 12 miles southeast of Rome. His name may be connected with that of Jupiter (Jovis), but there is little
agreement as to its meaning: he may be a “little Jupiter” or a “Sinister Devils Scorpion” for his enemies.[11] Vejovis
accepted a she-goat sacrifice humano ritu, meaning either "on behalf of the dead" or instead of a human sacrifice.
At least, it is evidence to say this deity can have two faces, one for allies and one for enemies, his functions evolved
with time and his progression, and he is not so simple to understand and to describe.
Vejovis 217
References
[1] Roman Medicine By John Scarborough (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=a5c1AAAAIAAJ& dq=vediovis& q=vediovis&
pgis=1#search)
[2] The New Encyclopaedia Britannica: in 30 volumes By Encyclopaedia Britannica, Chicago University of, Encyclopaedia Britannica Staff,
Encyclopaedia Britannica(ed.) (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=1BMrAAAAMAAJ& dq=vediovis& q=vediovis& pgis=1#search)
[3] Celebrating Wiccan Spirituality: Spells, Sacred Rites, and Folklore for Each ... By "Lady Sabrina" (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=mEW3ysNMFawC& lpg=RA3-PA123& dq=vediovis& pg=PA123)
[4] Classical Quarterly By Classical Association (Great Britain) (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=1u4LAAAAIAAJ& dq=vediovis&
q=vediovis& pgis=1#search)
[5] Kent J. Rigsby, Asylia, 576
[6] Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, book 5, section 12 (http:/ / www. thelatinlibrary. com/ gellius5. html)
[7] Adkins and Adkins, Dictionary of Roman Religion (Facts On File, 1996) ISBN 0-8160-3005-7
[8] Kent J. Rigsby, Asylia, 576-77
[9] Nova Roma: Calendar of Holidays and Festivals (http:/ / www. novaroma. org/ calendar/ januarius. html#Vediovis)
[10] The Nature of the Gods By Marcus Tullius Cicero (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=CPG_4CpoWfUC& lpg=PA207& dq=vediovis&
pg=PA207)
[11] The Cambridge History of Classical Literature By E. J. Kenney (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=-zlwiI7A734C& lpg=PA105&
dq=vediovis& pg=PA106)
Verminus
In Roman mythology, Verminus was the Roman god who protected cattle from disease. The god may have been
inherited from the Indigetes, whom the Romans conquered in 218 BC. An altar dedicated by consul (or duovir)
Aulus Postumius Albinus in 151 BC to Verminus was discovered in 1876,[1] [2] and was housed in the museum of
the Antiquarium Comunale in Rome.[3]
A 2nd century inscription dedicated to the god has been considered to be a reaction to increased worm infections
among humans. However, Spanish veterinary scientist M. Cordero del Campillo has concluded that it was due to an
epidemic infectious disease affecting both humans and animals.[4]
An altar to Verminus was discovered on Viminal Hill in Rome.[5]
References
[1] Adkins, Roy; Adkins, Lesley (1996). Dictionary of Roman religion. New York: Facts on File. ISBN 0-8160-3005-7. " Verminus (http:/ /
www. fofweb. com/ activelink2. asp?ItemID=WE49& iPin=RREL1399& SingleRecord=True)"
[2] Elizabeth Rawson (1973). "Scipio, Laelius, Furius and the Ancestral Religion" (http:/ / jstor. org/ stable/ 299175). The Journal of Roman
Studies 63: 161–74. doi:10.2307/299175. . " p 161 (http:/ / links. jstor. org/ sici?sici=0075-4358(1973)63<161:SLFATA>2. 0. CO;2-J)".
[3] Frothingham AL (1917). "Vediovis, the Volcanic God: A Reconstruction" (http:/ / jstor. org/ stable/ 288964). The American Journal of
Philology 38 (4): 370–91. doi:10.2307/288964. ISSN 0002-9475. . " p 375 (http:/ / links. jstor. org/
sici?sici=0002-9475(1917)38:4<370:VTVGAR>2. 0. CO;2-R)".
[4] Cordero-del-Campillo M (1999). "On the Roman god Verminus". Hist Med Vet 24 (1): 11–9. PMID 11623710.
[5] Jesse Benedict Carter (Jan-Mar 1909). "The Death of Romulus" (http:/ / jstor. org/ stable/ 496877). American Journal of Archaeology 13 (1):
19–29. doi:10.2307/496877. . " p 28 (http:/ / links. jstor. org/ sici?sici=0002-9114(190901/ 03)13:1<19:TDOR>2. 0. CO;2-O)".
Vertumnus 218
Vertumnus
In Roman mythology, Vertumnus — also
Vortumnus or Vertimnus — is the god of
seasons, change[1] and plant growth, as well
as gardens and fruit trees. He could change
his form at will; using this power, according
to Ovid's Metamorphoses (xiv), he tricked
Pomona into talking to him by disguising
himself as an old woman and gaining entry
to her orchard, then using a narrative
warning of the dangers of rejecting a suitor
(the embedded tale of Iphis and Anaxarete)
to seduce her. The tale of Vertumnus and
Pomona was the only purely Latin tale in
Ovid's Metamorphoses.[2]
Roman cult and possible

Etruscan origin
Varro was convinced that Vortumnus was
Etruscan, and a major god.[3] Vertumnus'
cult arrived in Rome around 300 BC, and a
temple to him was constructed on the
Aventine Hill by 264 BC, the date of the fall Vertumnus and Pomona by Gerbrand van den Eeckhout
of Volsinii (Etruscan Velzna) to the
Romans. Propertius also asserts that the god
was Etruscan, and came from Volsinii.
The name Vortumnus appears to derive from

Etruscan Voltumna. It was likely then
further contaminated in popular
[4]
etymology by a pre-existing Latin word
vertēre meaning "to change", hence the
alternative form, Vertumnus.
Sextus Propertius refers to a bronze statue of

Vortumnus[5] that replaced an ancient
wooden statue that was placed in a simple
shrine called the signum Vortumni, located
at the Vicus Tuscus near the Forum
Romanum[6] and decorated according to the
changing seasons. The base of the statue
Vertumnus and Pomona by Luca Giordano (1682–1683), private collection
was discovered in 1549, perhaps still in situ,
but has since been lost. Its inscription
referred to a restoration to the statue made in
Vertumnus 219
the early 4th century AD: VORTUMNUS TEMPORIBUS DIOCLETIANI ET

[7] [8]
MAXIMIANI .
Vortumnus' festival was called the Vertumnalia and was held 13
August.[9]
The origin and nature of Vortumnus that is the subject of the elegy of
Sextus Propertius, our major literary source for this god, is presented as
if the statue in the Vicus Tuscus were addressing a passer-by.[10]
Ovid recalled a time (Fasti, vi, June 9 "Vestalia") when the Roman
forum was still a reedy swamp, when
That god, Vertumnus, whose name fits many forms,
Wasn’t yet so-called from damming back the river (averso
Emperor Rudolf II as Vertumnus, by
Giuseppe Arcimboldo (now at Skokloster amne).
Castle, Sweden).
Image of Vertumnus and Pomona in later art

The subject Vertumnus and Pomona appealed to European sculptors
and painters of the 16th through the 18th centuries for its opportunity
to contrast young fresh female beauty with an aged crone, providing a
wholly disguised erotic subtext,[11] . Donald Lateiner points out that
Ovid does remark that the kisses given by Vertumnus were such as an
old woman would never have given: qualia numquam vera dedisset
anus: "so Circe's smile conceals a wicked intention, and Vertumnus'
hot kisses ill suit an old woman's disguise"[12] .
The subject was even woven into tapestry in series with the generic
A rococo Vertumne et Pomone, by Jean-Baptiste theme Loves of the Gods, of which the mid-sixteenth century Brussels
Lemoyne, 1760.
hanging at Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, woven to cartoons
attributed to Jan Vermeyen, must be among the earliest.
François Boucher provided designs for the tapestry-weaver Maurice
Jacques at the Gobelins tapestry manufactory for a series that included
Vertumnus and Pomona (1775–1778), and, extending the theme of
erotic disguise, Jupiter wooing Callisto in the guise of Diana: an
example is at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Mme de Pompadour, who sang well and danced gracefully, had played
the role of Pomone in a pastoral presented to a small audience at
Versailles;[13] the sculpture by Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne (1760) alludes
Vertumnus and Pomona in an allée of the to the event.
Summer Garden, St. Petersburg, by Francesco
Joseph Brodsky wrote a poem about Vertumnus.
Penso, called "Cabianca", 1717
Vertumnus 220
Modern interpretations of Vertumnus and Pomona

David Littlefield finds in the episode a movement from rape to mutual desire, effected against an orderly, "civilised"
Latian landscape[14]
Conversely, Roxanne Gentilcore reads in its diction and narrative strategies images of deception, veiled threat and
seduction, in which Pomona, the tamed hamadryad now embodying the orchard, does not have a voice[15] .
References
[1] " Vertumnus then, that turn'st the year about," (Thomas Nashe, Summer's Last Will and Testament (1592, printed 1600)).
[2] it is called the first purely Latin tale by Charles Fantazzi, "The revindication of Roman myth in the Pomona-Vertumnus tale", in N. Barbu et
al., eds. Ovidianum (Bucharest, 1976:288, as Roxanne Gentilcore noticed, in "The Landscape of desire: the tale of Pomona and Vertumnus in
Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'", Phoenix 49.2 (Summer 1995:110-120) p. 110 ("It has also been called the first exclusively Latin tale") and note 1.
[3] Varro, De lingua latina V.46: "Ab eis [the Etruscans] dictus Vicus Tuscus, et ideo ibi Vortumnum stare, quod is deus Etruriae princeps"
[4] As given by Sextus Propertius, Elegy 4. Propertius' editor L. Richardson Jr. (1977)notes that this etymology is not philologically sound.
[5] Sextus Propertius, Elegy 4.2.41-46
[6] Michael C. J. Putnam, "The Shrine of Vortumnus" American Journal of Archaeology vol 71, 2, pp 177-179 (April 1967).
[7] CIL VI.1.804
[8] R. Lanciani (1903) Storia degli scavi di Roma vol. II, p. 204f.
[9] Ovid, Fasti.
[10] E. C. Marquis (1974) "Vertumnus in Propertius 4, 2". Hermes, vol 102, no 3, pp 491-500.
[11] Similar subtly pornographic uses were made of the theme of Zeus disguised as Diana, and Callisto.
[12] Donald Lateiner (1996) "Nonverbal Behaviors in Ovid's Poetry, Primarily Metamorphoses 14", The Classical Journal, vol 91 no 3,
pp 225-253 (February-March 1996).
[13] "Pourquoi [[Le Devin du Village (http:/ / www. threeweb. ad. jp/ ~nityshr/ fronbun/ dvpastoral. htm)] est un pastorale?"]
[14] David Littlefield (1965) "Pomona and Vertumnus: a fruition of history in Ovid's Metamorphoses" Arion vol 4, p 470.
[15] Roxanne Gentilcore (1995) "The Landscape of Desire: The Tale of Pomona and Vertumnus in Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'" Phoenix vol 49,
no 2, pp 110-120 (Summer 1995).
External links
• Statue of Vertumnus in the Lowe Museum (http://www6.miami.edu/lowe/art_greco_roman.htm)
• Museu Gulbenkian tapestry (http://www.museu.gulbenkian.pt/obra.asp?num=2329&nuc=a10&lang=en)
• Getty Museum tapestry (http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=6166)
Vervactor 221
Vervactor
In Roman mythology, Vervactor was the god of the first ploughing.
Viduus
In Roman mythology, Viduus ("divider") was the god who separated the soul and the body after death.
In music, Viduus is a progressive technical death metal band, founded by bassist and vocalist Malethoth
Kazynanenko.
Virtus (deity)
See Virtus (disambiguation) for other meanings.
In Roman mythology, Virtus was the deity of bravery and military
strength, the personification of the Roman virtue of virtus. The Greek
equivalent deity was Arete.
He/she was identified with the Roman god Honos (personification of
honour), and was often honoured together with him. As reported in
Valerius Maximus[1] , this joint cult led to plans in 210 BC by Marcus
Claudius Marcellus to erect a joint temple for them both.[2] This led to
objections from the pontifical college that, if a miracle should occur in
such a temple, the priests would not know to which of the two gods to
offer the sacrifice in thanks for it. Marcellus therefore erected a temple
for Virtus alone which was the only way in to a separate temple of Gallic coin featuring Virtus.
Honos, financing them both with the loot from his sacking of Syracuse
and defeats of the Gauls. This temple was at the Porta Capena, and
later renovated by Vespasian.
This deity was represented in a variety of ways - for example, on the

coins of Tetricus, it can appear as a matron, an old man, or a young
man, with a javelin or only clothed in a cape.
Modern era
In 1776, Virtus was made the central figure in Seal of Virginia and the U.S. Continental currency Virginia Four-Dollar
subsequent state's flag which features the seal. The Virginia Note of 1776 (obverse) with Virtus at the left.
Four-Dollar Note, a Continental currency, had a similar Virtus pictured

on its obverse.
Virtus (deity) 222
References
[1] "Honos et Virtus" (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ L/ Roman/ Texts/ Valerius_Maximus/ 1*. html#1. 8). A Topographical
Dictionary of Ancient Rome (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Gazetteer/ Places/ Europe/ Italy/ Lazio/ Roma/ Rome/ _Texts/
PLATOP*/ home*. html). 15 June 2007. . Retrieved 28 June 2007.
[2] "Valeri Maximi" (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Gazetteer/ Places/ Europe/ Italy/ Lazio/ Roma/ Rome/ _Texts/ PLATOP*/
Honos_et_Virtus. html). Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilium. 22 April 2007. . Retrieved 28 June 2007.
Volturnus
This page is about the Roman river-god. For Vulturnus, the Roman god of the east wind, see Anemoi.
In Roman mythology, Volturnus was a god of the waters, probably derived from a local Samnite cult. His festival,
Volturnalia, was held on August 27.
The Volturno river in Campania is named in his honour.
Vulcan (mythology)
Vulcan wearing the

exomis (tunic) and pilos
(conical hat), Roman
bronze, 1st century AD?

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
Vulcanalia
Observed by Ancient Romans
Type Pagan, Historical
Date August 22
Celebrations Bonfires in honour of Vulcan
Observances Sacrifice of fish
Vulcan (Latin: Vulcanus), aka Mulciber, is the god of beneficial and hindering fire,[1] including the fire of
volcanoes in ancient Roman religion and Roman Neopaganism. He is known as Sethlans in Etruscan mythology. He
was worshipped at an annual festival on August 23 known as the Volcanalia.
The god belongs to the most ancient stage of Roman religion: Varro citing the Annales Maximi, recalls that king
Titus Tatius had dedicated altars to a series of deities among which Vulcan is mentioned.[2]
Vulcan was identified with the Greek god of fire and smithery, Hephaestus.
Etymology
The origin of the name is unclear and debated. Roman tradition maintained that it was related to Latin words
connected to lightning (fulgur, fulgere, fulmen), which in turn was thought of as related to fire.[3] This interpretation
is supported by Walter William Skeat in his etymological dictionary as meaning 'lustre'.[4]
It has been supposed that his name was not Latin but related to that of the Cretean god Velchanos, a god of nature
and the nether world.[5] Wolfgang Meid has refused this identification as phantastic.[6]
Christian Guyonvarc'h has proposed the identification with the Irish name Olcan (Ogamic Ulccagni, in the genitive).
Vassilij Abaev compares it with the Ossetic -waergon, a variant of the name of Kurdalaegon, the smith of the Nart
saga. Since the name in its normal form Kurdalaegon is stable and has a clear meaning (kurd smith+ on of the
family+ Alaeg name of one of the Nartic families), this hypothesis has been considered unacceptable by Dumezil.[7]
Worship
Vulcan's oldest shrine in Rome, called the Vulcanal, was situated at the foot of the Capitoline in the Forum
Romanum, and was reputed to date to the archaic period of the kings of Rome,[8] [9] and to have been established on
the site by Titus Tatius,[10] the Sabine co-king, with a traditional date in the 8th century BC. It was the view of the
Etruscan haruspices that a temple of Vulcan should be located outside the city,[11] and the Vulcanal may originally
have been on or outside the city limits before they expanded to include the Capitoline Hill.[1] The Volcanalia
sacrifice was offered here to Vulcan, on August 23.[8] Vulcan also had a temple on the Campus Martius, which was
in existence by 214 BC.[1] [12]
The Romans identified Vulcan with the Greek smith-god Hephaestus, and he became associated like his Greek
counterpart with the constructive use of fire in metalworking. A fragment of a Greek pot showing Hephaestus found
at the Volcanal has been dated to the 6th century BC, suggesting that the two gods were already associated at this
date.[9] However, Vulcan had a stronger association than Hephaestus with fire's destructive capacity, and a major
concern of his worshippers was to encourage the god to avert harmful fires. His festival, the Vulcanalia, was
celebrated on August 23 each year, when the summer heat placed crops and granaries most at risk of burning.[1] [13]
During the festival bonfires were created in honour of the god, into which live fish or small animals were thrown as a
sacrifice, to be consumed in the place of humans.[14] Vulcan was among the gods placated after the Great Fire of
Rome in AD 64.[15] In response to the same fire, Domitian (emperor 81–96) established a new altar to Vulcan on the
Quirinal Hill. At the same time a red bull-calf and red boar were added to the sacrifices made on the Vulcanalia, at
least in that region of the city.[16]
It is recorded that during the Vulcanalia people used to hang their cloths and fabrics under the sun.[17] This habit
might reflect a theologic connection between Vulcan and the divinized sun.[18]
Another custom observed in this day required that one should start working at the light of a candle, probably to
propitiate a beneficial use of fire by the god.[19]
In addition to the Volcanalia on August 23, the date May 23, which was the second of the two annual Tubilustria or
ceremonies for the purification of trumpets, was sacred to Vulcan.[13] [20]
A flamen, one of the flamines minores named flamen Volcanalis was preposed to the cult of the god. The flamen
Volcanalis officed a sacrifice to goddess Maia, held every year at the Kalendae of May.[21]
Theology
The nature of the god is connected to religious ideas concerning
fire.
The Roman concept of the god seems to be connected to the
destructive and fertilizing powers of fire. In the first aspect he is
worshipped to avert its potential danger to harvested wheat in the
Volcanalia and his cult is located outside the boundaries of the
original city to avoid its causing fires in the city itself.[22]
This power is however considered useful if directed against
enemies and such a choice for the location of the god's cult could
be interpreted in this way too. The same idea underlies the
dedication of the arms of the defeated enemies, as well as those of
the survived general in a devotion ritual to the god.
Through comparative interpretation this aspect has been connected
Andrea Mantegna: Parnas, Vulcan, god of fire
to the third (or defensive) fire in the Vedic theory of the three
sacrificial fires.[23]
Another meaning of Vulcan is related to male fertilizing power. In various Latin and Roman legends he is the father
of famous characters, such as the founder of Praeneste Caeculus, Cacus, a primordial monstrous being that inhabited
the site of the Aventine in Rome and Roman king Servius Tullius. In a variant of the story of the birth of Romulus
the details are identical even though Vulcan is not explicitly mentioned.[24]
Some scholars think that he might be the unknown god who impregnated goddesses Fortuna Primigenia at Praeneste
and Feronia at Anxur. In this case he would be the father of Jupiter.[25] However this view is in conflict with that
which links the goddess to Jupiter, as his daughter (puer Jovis) and her mother too as primigenia, meaning
"primordial".
In all of the above mentioned stories the god's fertilizing power is related to that of the fire of the house hearth.
In the case of Caeculus, his mother was impregnated by a spark that dropped on her womb from the hearth while she
was sitting nearby[26] . Servius Tullius's mother Ocresia was impregnated by a male sex organ that miraculously
appeared in the ashes of the sacrificial ara, at the order of Tanaquil, Tarquinius Priscus's wife.[27] Pliny the Elder tells
the same story, but states that the father was the Lar familiaris.[28] The divinity of the child was recognized when his
head was surrounded by flames and he remained unharmed.[29]
Through the comparative analysis of these myths archaeologist Andrea Carandini opinates that Cacus and Caca were
the sons of Vulcan and of a local divine being or a virgin as in the case of Caeculus. Cacus and Caca would represent
the metallurgic and the domestic fire, projections of Vulcan and of Vesta.
These legends date back to the time of preurban Latium. Their meaning is quite clear: at the divine level Vulcan
impregnates a virgin goddess and generates Jupiter, the king of gods; at the human level he impregnates a local
virgin (perhaps of royal descent) and generates a king[30]

The first mention of a ritual connection between Vulcan and Vesta is the lectisternium of 217 BC. Other facts hinting
to this connection seem to be the relative proximity of the two sanctuaries and Dionysius of Halicarnassus 's
testimony that both cults had been introduced to Rome by Titus Tatius to comply with a vow he had made in
battle.[31] Varro confirms the fact.[32]
Vulcan is related to two equally ancient female goddesses Stata mater[33] , perhaps the goddess who stops fires and
Maia.[34]
Herbert Jennings Rose interprets Maia as a goddess related to growth by connecting her name with IE root
*MAG.[35] Macrobius relates Cincius's opinion that Vulcan's female companion is Maia. Cincius justifies his view
on the grounds that the Flamen Volcanalis sacrificed to her at the Kalendae of May. In Piso's view the companion of
the god is Maiestas.[36]
According to Gellius too Maia was associated to Vulcan and he backs his view by quoting the Roman priests's ritual
prayers in use.[37]
However Maiestas and Maia are possibly the same divine person: compare Ovid's explanations of the meaning of the
name month May.[38]
The god is the patron of trades related to ovens (cooks, bakers, confectioners) as it is attested in the works of
Plautus,[39] Apuleius (the god is the cook at the wedding of Amor and Psyche)[40] and in Vespa's short poem in the
Anthologia Latina about the litigation between a cook and a baker.[41]
Sons of Vulcan
According to Hyginus' Fabulae, sons of Vulcan are Philammon, Cecrops, Erichthonius, Corynetes, Cercyon,
Philottus and Spinther[42] aka Hephaestus
Mythology
Through his identification with the Hephaestus of Greek mythology, he came to be considered as the manufacturer
of art, arms, iron, jewellery and armor for various gods and heroes, including the thunderbolts of Jupiter. He was the
son of Jupiter and Juno, and husband of Maia and Venus. His smithy was believed to be situated underneath Mount
Etna in Sicily.
As the son of Jupiter, the king of the gods, and Juno, the queen of the gods, Vulcan should have been quite
handsome, but, baby Vulcan was small and ugly with a red, bawling face. Juno was so horrified that she hurled the
tiny baby off the top of Mount Olympus.
Vulcan fell down for a day and a night, landing in the sea. Unfortunately, one of his legs broke as he hit the water,
and never developed properly. From the surface, Vulcan sunk like a pebble to the cool blue depths where the
sea-nymph, Thetis, found him and took him to her underwater grotto, and raised him as her own son.
Vulcan had a happy childhood with dolphins as his playmates and pearls as his toys. Late in his childhood, he found
the remains of a fisherman's fire on the beach and became fascinated with an unextinguished coal, still red-hot and
glowing.
Vulcan carefully shut this precious coal in a clamshell and took it back to his underwater grotto and made a fire with
it. On the first day after, Vulcan stared at this fire for hours on end. On the second day, he discovered that when he
made the fire hotter with bellows, certain stones sweated iron, silver or gold. On the third day he beat the cooled
metal into shapes: bracelets, chains, swords and shields. Vulcan made pearl-handled knives and spoons for his foster
mother, he made a silver chariot for himself, and bridles so that seahorses could transport him quickly. He even
made slave-girls of gold to wait on him and do his bidding.
Later, Thetis left her underwater grotto to attend a dinner party on Mount Olympus wearing a beautiful necklace of
silver and sapphires, which Vulcan had made for her. Juno admired the necklace and asked as to where she could get
one. Thetis became flustered causing Juno to become suspicious and, at last, the queen god discovered the truth: the
baby she had once rejected had grown into a talented blacksmith.
Juno was furious and demanded that Vulcan return home, a demand
that he refused. However he did send Juno a beautifully constructed
chair made of silver and gold, inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Juno was
delighted with this gift but, as soon as she sat in it her weight triggered
hidden springs and metal bands sprung forth to hold her fast. The more
she shrieked and struggled the more firmly the mechanical throne
gripped her; the chair was a cleverly designed trap.
For three days Juno sat fuming, still trapped in Vulcan's chair, she
couldn't sleep, she couldn't stretch, she couldn't eat. It was Jupiter who
The Forge of Vulcan by Diego Velázquez,
finally saved the day, he promised that if Vulcan released Juno he
(1630). This painting was produced during the
would give him a wife, Venus the goddess of love and beauty. Vulcan renaissance, at a time when the god was no longer
agreed and married Venus. He later built a smithy under Mount Etna being worshipped.
on the island of Sicily. It was said that whenever Venus is unfaithful,
Vulcan grows angry and beats the red-hot metal with such a force that sparks and smoke rise up from the top of the
mountain, to create a volcanic eruption.
According to Virgil, Vulcan was the father of Caeculus.[43]

To punish mankind for stealing the secrets of fire, Jupiter ordered the other gods to make a poisoned gift for man.
Vulcan's contribution to the beautiful and foolish Pandora was to mould her from clay and to give her form. He also
made the thrones for the other gods on Mount Olympus.
Sanctuaries
Vulcan's main and oldest sanctuary in Rome was the Volcanal, located in the area Volcani, an open air site at the
foot of the Capitolium, at the North West corner of the Roman Forum, where stood an ara dedicated to the god, with
a perennial fire.
According to Roman tradititon the sanctuary had been dedicated by Romulus. He had placed on the site a bronze
quadriga dedicated to the god, a war pray of the Fidenates. According to Plutarch though the war in question was
that against Cameria, that occurred sixteen years after the foundation of Rome.[44] There Romulus would have also
dedicated to Vulcan a statue of himself and an inscription in Greek listing his successes. Plutarch states that Romulus
was represented crowned by Victory. Moreover he would have planted a sacred lotus tree in the sanctuary that was
still alive at the time of Pliny the Elder and was said to be as old as the city.[45]
It has been hypothesized that the sanctuary belonged to the porch when the Forum was still outside of town. The
Volcanal is mentioned twice by Livy in connexion to the prodigium of the rains of blood happened in 183 and 181
B. C.[46]
The area Volcani was probably a locus substructus. It was five meters higher than the Comitium[47] and from it the
kings and the magistrates of the beginnings of the republic addressed the people before the building of the rostra.[48]
On the Volcanal there was also a statue of Horatius Cocles[49] that had been moved here from the Comitium, locus
inferior, after it had been struck by lightning. Aulus Gellius tells that some haruspices were summoned to expiate the
prodigium, and they had it moved to a lower site where sunlight never reached out of their hatred for the Romans.
The fraud though was uncovered and the haruspices executed. Later it was found that the statue should be placed on
a higher site, thence it was placed in the area Volcani.[50]
In 304 BC a temple to Concordia was built in the area Volcani: it was dedicated by aedilis curulis Cnaeus
Flavius.[51]
According to Samuel Ball Platner in the course of time the Volcanal should have been more and more encroached
upon by the surrounding buildings until it was totally covered over. Nonetheless cult was still alive in the first half of
the imperial era, as is testified by the finding of a dedica of Augustus's dating 9 B.C.
At the beginning of 20th century behind the Arch of Septimius Severus were found some ancient tufaceous
foundations that probably belonged to the Volcanal and traces of a rocky platform, 3.95 meters long and 2.80 meters
wide, that had been covered with concrete and painted in red. Its upper surface is dug by several narrow channels and
in front of there are the remains of a draining channel made of tufaceous slabs. The hypothesis was made that this
was Vucan's ara itself. The rock shows signs of damages and repairs. On the surface there are some hollows, either
round or square, that bear resemblance to graves and were interpreted as such in the past[52] , particularly by Von
Duhn. This scholar after the discovery of cremation tombs in the Forum, maintained that the Volcanal was originally
the site were corpses were cremated.[53]
Another temple was erected to he god before 215 BC in the Campus Martius, near the Circus Flaminius, where
games in his honour were held during the festival of the Volcanalia.
Vulcan outside Rome

At Ostia the cult of the god, as well as his sacerdos, was the most important of the town. The sacerdos was named
pontifex Vulcani et aedium sacrarum: he had under his jurisdiction all the sacred buildings in town and could give or
withhold the authorisation to erect new statues to Eastern divinities. He was chosen for life, perhaps by the council of
the decuriones, and his position was the equivalent of the pontifex maximus in Rome. It was the highest
administrative position in the town of Ostia.
He was selected among people who had already held public offices in Ostia or in the imperial administration. The
pontifex was the sole authority who had a number of subordinate official to help discharge his duties, namely three
praetores and two or three aediles. These offices were only religious and different from the omonymous civil
ones.[54]
On the grounds of a fragmentary inscrption found at Annaba (ancient Hippo Regius) it is considered possible that
writer Suetonius had held this office.[55]
From Strabon[56] we know that at Pozzuoli there was an area called in Greek agora' of Hephaistos (Lat. Forum
Vulcani). The place is a plain where many solphurous vapour outlets are located (currently Solfatara).
Pliny the Elder records that near Modena fire came out from soil statis Vulcano diebus, on fixed days devoted to
Vulcan.[57]
Legacy
Vulcan is the patron God of the English steel making city of Sheffield. His statue sits on top of Sheffield Town Hall.
A Vulcan Statue located in Birmingham, Alabama is the largest cast iron statue in the world.[58]
The word volcano is derived from the name of Vulcano, a volcanic island in the Aeolian Islands of Italy whose name
in turn originates from Vulcan.
See also
• Vulcan of the alchemists
References
[1] Georges Dumézil (1996) [1966]. Archaic Roman Religion: Volume One. trans. Philip Krapp. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
pp. 320–321. ISBN 0-8018-5482-2 (hbk.); ISBN 0-8018-5480-6 (pbk.).
[2] Varro ling. Lat. V, X: "...Et arae Sabinum linguam olent, quae Tati regis voto sunt Romae dedicatae: nam, ut annales dicunt, vovit Opi,
Florae, Vediovi Saturnoque, Soli, Lunae, Volcano et Summano, itemque Larundae, Termino, Quirino, Vortumno, Laribus, Dianae
Lucinaeque..."
[3] Varr. Ling. Lat. V, 10: "Ignis a gnascendo, quod huic nascitur et omne quod nascitur ignis succendit; ideo calet ut qui denascitur cum amittit
ac frigescit. Ab ignis iam maiore vi ac violentia Volcanus dictus. Ab eo quod ignis propter splendorem fulget, fulgur et fulmen, et fulguritum
quod fulmine ictum."
[4] W. W. Skeat Etymological Dictionary of the English Language New York 1963 (first published 1882) s.v. volcano: "cf. Sanskrit varchar-s:
lustre".
[5] A. B. Cook Zeus: a study in Ancient religion 1925 Vol. II, pp. 945 ff.
[6] W. Meid "Etr. Velkhans- Lat. Volcaanus" Indogermanische Forschugungen, 66 (1961)
[7] G. Dumezil La religion romaine archaique Paris, 1974, part I, chap.
[8] Samuel Ball Platner; and Thomas Ashby (1929). "Volcanal" (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Gazetteer/ Places/ Europe/ Italy/
Lazio/ Roma/ Rome/ _Texts/ PLATOP*/ Volcanal. html). A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London: Oxford University Press.
pp. 583–584. . Retrieved 2007-07-28.
[9] Beard, Mary; John North and Simon Price (1998). Religions of Rome Volume 2: A Sourcebook. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
pp. no. 1.7c. ISBN 0-521-45015-2 (hbk.); ISBN 0-521-45646-0 (pbk.).
[10] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, II.50.3; Varro V.74.
[11] Vitruvius 1.7 (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Vitruvius/ 1*. html#7); see also Plutarch, Roman Questions 47
(http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Plutarch/ Moralia/ Roman_Questions*/ C. html#47).
[12] Livy, Ab Urbe condita 24.10.9 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text. jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 02. 0144:book=24:chapter=10).
(http:/ / www. archive. org/ details/ romanfestivalsof00fowluoft). London: Macmillan and Co.. pp. 123–124, 209–211. . Retrieved
2007-07-28.
[14] Sextus Pompeius Festus, On the Meaning of Words, s.v. " piscatorii ludi (http:/ / remacle. org/ bloodwolf/ erudits/ Festus/ p. htm)"; Varro,
On the Latin Language 6.3 (http:/ / www. thelatinlibrary. com/ varro. ll6. html).
[15] Tacitus, Annals 15.44.1 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text. jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 02. 0078:book=15:chapter=44).
[16] Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae 4914, translated by Robert K. Sherk (1988). The Roman Empire: Augustus to Hadrian. Translated Documents
of Greece and Rome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. no. 99. ISBN 0-521-33887-5.
[17] Paulinus of NolaLetters XXXII, 139
[18] G. Dumezil Fetes romaines d'ete' et d'automne Paris 1975; It. transl. p. 70
[19] Pliny the Younger Lett. III, 5
[20] Ovid, Fasti 5.725–726 (http:/ / www. tonykline. co. uk/ PITBR/ Latin/ OvidFastiBkFive. htm#_Toc69367933).
[21] Macr. Sat. I,12,18; A. Gell. Noct. Att. XIII, 23, 2
[22] Plutarch Questiones Romanae 47; Vitruvius De architectura I,7,1
[23] G. Dumezil La religion romaine archaique Paris, 1974, part 2, chap. 2
[24] Plutarch Rom. 2, 3-6
[25] J. Champeaux Fortuna, I, Fortuna dans la religion romaine archaique Rome, 1982; A. Mastrocinque Romolo. La fondazione di Roma tra
storia e leggenda Este, 1993
[26] Verg. Aen. VII, 680
[27] Ovid Fas. VI, 627
[28] Pl.the Elder Nat. Hist. XXXVI, 204
[29] Ovid Fas. VI, 625-636
[30] A. Carandini La nascita di Roma Turin, 1997, p. 52
[31] Dion. Ant. Rom. II, 50, 3
[32] Varr. Ling. Lat. V, 73 see above
[33] CIL VI, 00802, found in Rome
[34] A. Gell. Noct. Att. XII, 23, 2: "Maiam Volcani"
[35] H. J. Rose A dictionary of classical antiquities It. transl., Turin, 1995
[36] Macr. Sat. I, XII, 18
[37] A. Gell. Noct. Att. XIII, 23, 2
[38] Ovid Fas. V, 1-52 Maiestas; 81-106 Maia
[39] Plaut. Aulularia 359,
[40] Apul. Metamorph. VI, 24, 2
[41] Iudicium coci et pistoris iudice Vulcano.
[42] Hyginus Fabulae 158
[43] Virgil, Aeneid 7.678–681 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text. jsp?doc=Verg. + A. + 7. 678); Servius on Aeneid 7.678 (http:/ /
www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text. jsp?doc=Serv. + A. + 7. 678& fromdoc=Perseus:text:1999. 02. 0053).
[44] Plut. Romulus 24
[45] Pliny the Elder Nat. Hist. XVI, 236
[46] Livy Ab Urbe Condita XXXIX,46; XL, 19, 2
[47] Dion. of Hal. Antiq. Rom. II, 50, 2
[48] Dion. of Hal. Antiq. Rom. XI, 39, 1
[49] Plutarch Publicola, 16
[50] A. Gell. Noct. Att. IV, 5; Gellius writes that the episode was recorded in the XI book of the Annales Maximi and by Verrius Flaccus Memor.
I
[51] Livy Ab Urb. Cond. IX, 46
[52] Richter BRT iv 15-16
[53] Von Duhn Italische Graeberkunde i. 413 sqq.
[54] C. Pavolini La vita quotidiana a Ostia Roma-Bari ,1986
[55] AE 1953, 00073; G. Gaggero Introduction to Suetonius's Life of the twelf Caesars Milan 1994
[56] Strabone Geografia. L'Italia V,4,6, Milan 1988
[57] Pliny the Elder Nat. Hist. II, 240
[58] "History of Vulcan Park" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20080215192202/ http:/ / www. visitvulcan. com/ history. html). Vulcan Park.
Archived from the original (http:/ / www. visitvulcan. com/ history. html) on 2008-02-15. . Retrieved 2008-02-24.
External links
• Vulcanalia article in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/
Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Vulcanalia.html)
• Vulcan God of Fire (Roman Mythology) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gbfAT0sKhU) Art historically
oriented visual exploration.
231
Roman Goddesses
Abeona
In ancient Roman religion, Abeona was a goddess who protected children the first time they left their parents' home,
safeguarding their first steps alone.
This deity was among the di indigetes ("indigenous gods") of Rome, abstract deities and concepts that predated the
many later syncretisms of various cultures' mythologies.
References
• Grimal, Pierre (1986). The Dictionary of Classical Mythology (p. 231). Oxford: Basil Blackwell. ISBN
0-631-20102-5.
Abundantia
This article is about the Roman goddess. For the Christian saint, see
Saint Abundantia.
Abundantia (Latin pronunciation: /abʊnˈdantia/) was the Roman goddess
of good fortune, abundance and prosperity.
Within Roman mythology, the figure of Abundantia was considered to
be a minor deity: the personification of luck, abundance and prosperity,
and was also the guardian of the cornucopia – the horn of plenty. It
was with this that she distributed food and money. The main version of
the origin of the cornucopia is similar in both the Greek and the
Roman mythology, in which the king of the gods, having accidentally
broken the horn of the mystical goat in play, promised that the horn
would never run empty the fruits of her desire. The horn was then later
to be passed into the keeping of Abundantia.
While there are few temples or signs of worship for Abudantia to be

found within Rome, she has also been described in the past as 'the
beautiful maiden of success', and as such is largely featured in art.
Often portrayed as holding the cornucopia and sheaves of corn or
wheat [1] , while allowing the contents to fall to the ground, Abundantia's form has graced Roman coins in ages past.
Abudantia has withstood the tests of time, taking on the form of the French 'Olde Dame Habonde'; also known as
Domina Abundia, and Notre Dame d'Abondance, a beneficial fairy figure found throughout Teutonic mythology, and
poetry of the Middle Ages. Within texts related to this figure it is said that she would bestow the gift of plenty and of
good fortune to those she visits, and in modern society is the patron of gamblers – the revered Lady Fortune.
Abundantia 232
References
[1] Raphael: The Roman religious paintings, ca. 1508-1520‎ - Page 264
Acca Larentia
Acca Larentia or Acca Larentina was a mythical woman, later goddess, in Roman mythology whose festival, the
Larentalia, was celebrated on December 23.
Foster mother
In one mythological tradition (that of Licinius Macer, et al.), she was the wife of the shepherd Faustulus, and
therefore the adoptive mother of Romulus and Remus, whom she is said to have saved after they were thrown into
the Tiber on the orders of Amulius. She had twelve sons, and on the death of one of them Romulus took his place,
and with the remaining eleven founded the college of the Arval brothers (Fratres Arvales).[1] She is therefore
identified with the Dea Dia of that collegium. The flamen Quirinalis acted in the role of Romulus (deified as
Quirinus) to perform funerary rites for his foster mother.[2]
Benefactor of Rome
Another tradition holds that Larentia was a beautiful girl of notorious reputation, roughly the same age as Romulus
and Remus, during the reign of Ancus Marcius in the 7th century BC. She was awarded to Hercules as a prize in a
game of dice, and locked in his temple with his other prize, a feast. When the god no longer had need of her, he
advised her to marry the first wealthy man she met, who turned out to be an Etruscan named Carutius (or Tarrutius,
according to Plutarch). Larentia later inherited all his property and bequeathed it to the Roman people. Ancus, in
gratitude for this, allowed her to be buried in the Velabrum, and instituted an annual festival, the Larentalia, at which
sacrifices were offered to the Lares.[3] Plutarch explicitly states that this Laurentia was a different person from the
Laurentia who was married to Faustulus, although other writers, such as Licinius Macer, relate their stories as
belonging to the same being.[4] [5]
Prostitute
Yet another tradition holds that Larentia was neither the wife of Faustulus nor the consort of Hercules, but a
prostitute called "lupa" by the shepherds (literally "she-wolf", but colloquially "courtesan"), and who left the fortune
she amassed through sex work to the Roman people.[6]
Connection to Lares
Whatever may be thought of the contradictory accounts of Acca Laurentia, it seems clear that she was of Etruscan
origin, and connected with the worship of the Lares, from which her name may or may not be derived. This relation
is also apparent in the number of her sons, which corresponds to that of the twelve country Lares.[7] [8] T.P. Wiseman
explores the connections among Acca Larentia, Lara, and Larunda in his books Remus: A Roman Myth and The
Myths of Rome.
Acca Larentia 233
Functions
Like Ceres, Tellus, Flora and others, Acca Laurentia symbolized the fertility of the earth, in particular the city lands
and their crops. Acca Larentia is also identified with Larentina, Mana Genita, and Muta.
References
Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Acca Larentia". Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University
Press.
[1] According to Massurius Sabinus in Aulus Gellius (I. c.)

[2] Macer, apud Macrob. I.e.; Ovid Fast. iii. 55, &c. ; Plin. PI. N. xviii. 2
[3] Compare Varro, De lingua Latina v. p. 85, ed. Bip.
[4] Macrobius Saturnalia i. 10; Plutarch, Romulus, 4, 5, Quaest. Rom. 35; Aulus Genius vi. 7; Valerius Antias
[5] Hornblower, Simon (1996). "Acca Larentia". The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 3.
[6] Valer. Ant. ap. Gell. I. c,; Livy, i. 4.
[7] Macrob. Sat. I. c.; compare M'uller, Etrusleer, ii. p. 103, &c.; Hartung, Die Religion der Romer^ ii. p. 144, &c.
[8] Schmitz, Leonhard (1867). "Acca Larentia" (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 0015. html). In Smith, William. Dictionary of
Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston. pp. 6.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911).
Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Aequitas
æquitas is the nominative form of the Latin
æquitatem, meaning justice, equality,
conformity, symmetry, or fairness, and is
the source of the modern word "equity".[1]
In ancient Rome, it could refer to either the
legal concept of equity, or fairness between
individuals.[2] [3]
In Roman mythology, Aequitas, also known

as Aecetia, was the minor goddess of fair
trade and honest merchants. Like
Aequitas on the reverse of this antoninianus struck under Roman Emperor
Abundantia, she is depicted with a Claudius II. The goddess is holding her symbols, the balance and the cornucopia.
cornucopia, representing wealth from
commerce. She is also shown holding a balance, representing equity and fairness. During the Roman Empire,
Aequitas was sometimes worshipped as a quality or aspect of the emperor, under the name Aequitas Augusti.
The "Percalcare" was a solemn office, whose task was to measure the Aequitare and to read the Equitare.[4]
Aequitas 234
References
[1] http:/ / www. etymonline. com/ index. php?term=equity
[2] http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=OKMicP_RRn8C& pg=PA49& lpg=PA49& dq=Cicero,+ aequitas& source=bl& ots=Z6OcJ6dFfW&
sig=xM-Nc9xWOSagavPmOjYGSptcd0g& hl=en& ei=Eaf2SbuwI5Gktwfw0bjBDw& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=7
[3] upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-06192006-083839/unrestricted/01chapters1-2.pdf
[4] cit: "Ex his manifestum est Aequitare, idem esse quod Percalcare, atque adeo legendum esse Equitare. Solemnis autem erat modus
investiturae, seu aliquem mittendi in posessionem rei alicuius." Glossarium mediæ et infimæ latinitatis conditum a Carolo Dufresne, domino
Du Cange ; auctum a monachis ordinis S. Benedicti cum supplementis integris D.P. Carpenterii et additamentis Adelungii et aliorum digessit
G.A.L. Henschel. Published 1840 by Firmin Didot fratres in Parisiis. article: Aequitare
Aeternitas
In Roman mythology, Aeternitas was the
personification of eternity.
This goddess was symbolized by a phoenix
or a worm/snake biting its own tail, wrapped
up in a circle (an Ouroboros).
Aeternitas on an antoninianus by Trebonianus Gallus. The goddess, on the reverse

of the coin, in holding her holy animal, a phoenix.
Alemonia 235
Alemonia
In ancient Roman religion, the goddess Alemonia or Alemona was responsible for feeding fetuses in utero.
Early Roman religion was concerned with the interlocking and complex interrelations between gods and humans. In
this, the Romans maintained a large selection of divinities with unusually specific areas of authority. A sub-group of
deities covered the general realm of infancy and childhood.[1] In this area, Alemonia was called upon as a general
guardian and tutelary deity to protect the health and safety of the unborn.
References
[1] "Reference Guide to Roman Mythology" (http:/ / web. raex. com/ ~obsidian/ RomPan. html). . Retrieved 2008-09-17.
Angerona
In Roman mythology, Angerona or Angeronia was an old Roman
goddess, whose name and functions are variously explained. She is
sometimes identified with the goddess Feronia.
According to ancient authorities, she was a goddess who relieved men
from pain and sorrow, or delivered the Romans and their flocks from
angina (quinsy). Also she was a protecting goddess of Rome and the
keeper of the sacred name of the city, which might not be pronounced
lest it should be revealed to her enemies. It was even thought that
Angerona itself was this name; a late antique source suggests it was
Amor, i.e. Roma inverted. Sorania and Hirpa have also been put
forward as candidates for the secret name. Modern scholars regard her
as a goddess akin to Ops, Acca Larentia, and Dea Dia; or as the
goddess of the new year and the returning sun (according to
Mommsen, ab angerendo = ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀναφέρεσθαι. τὸν ἥλιον). Her
festival, called Divalia or Angeronalia, was celebrated on the 21st of
December. The priests offered sacrifice in the temple of Volupia, the
goddess of pleasure, in which stood a statue of Angerona, with a finger
on her mouth, which was bound and closed (Macrobius i. 10; Pliny,
Nat. Hist. iii. 9; Varro, L. L. vi. 23). She was worshipped as Ancharia
at Faesulae, where an altar belonging to her has been discovered. In art,
she was depicted with a bandaged mouth and a finger pressed to her
lips, demanding silence. Angerona statue in the Schönbrunn palace in
Vienna
Angerona 236
References
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911).
For further reading

• Hendrik Wagenvoort, "Diva Angerona," reprinted in Pietas: Selected Studies in Roman Religion (Brill, 1980), pp.
21–24 online. [1]
References
[1] http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=xWaOxU28Nn4C& pg=PA21& dq=%22Angerona+ was+ a+ goddess%22+ inauthor:Wagenvoort&
lr=& as_brr=0
Angitia
In Roman mythology, Angitia (also Angita or Angu'ita) is a snake goddess who was worshipped by the Marsi
people of central Italy. She was believed to have been once a being who actually lived in that neighbourhood, taught
the people remedies against the poison of serpents, and had derived her name from being able to kill serpents by her
incantations.[1]
As snakes were often associated with the healing arts in ancient Roman mythology, Angita is believed to have been
mainly a goddess of healing. She was particularly venerated by the Marsi, a people from central Italy (may be same
as Angita). She had powers of witchcraft and was a master in the art of miraculous and herbal healing, especially
when it came to snakebites. She was also attributed with a wide range of powers over snakes, including the power to
kill snakes with a touch. Many Romans claim that she is the same as Bona Dea.
According to the account given by Servius, the goddess was of Greek origin, for Arigitia was the name given by the
Marrubians to Medea, who after having left Colchis came to Italy with Jason and taught the people the above
mentioned remedies. Silius Italicus identifies her completely with Medea. Her name occurs in several inscriptions, in
one of which she is mentioned along with Angerona, and in another her name appears in the plural form. From a
third inscription it seems that she had a temple and a treasury belonging to it. The Silvia Angitia between Alba and
lake Fucinus derived its name from her.[1]
References
[1] Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, page 178 (v. 1) (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 0187. html)
Anna Perenna 237
Anna Perenna
Anna Perenna was an old Roman deity of the circle or "ring" of the year, as the name (per annum) clearly indicates.
Her festival fell on the Ides of March (March 15), which would have marked the first full moon in the year in the old
lunar Roman calendar when March was reckoned as the first month of the year, and was held at the grove of the
goddess at the first milestone on the Via Flaminia. It was much frequented by the city plebs.
Macrobius' (Saturnalia 1.12.6) related that offerings were made to her ut annare perannareque commode liceat, i.e.
"that the circle of the year may be completed happily." and that people sacrificed to her both publicly and privately.
Johannes Lydus (De Mensibus 4.49) says that public sacrifice and prayers were offered to her to secure a healthy
year. Ovid in his Fasti (3.523f) provides a vivid description of the revelry and licentiousness of her outdoor festival
where tents were pitched or bowers built from branches, where lad lay beside lass, and people asked that Anna
bestow as many more years to them as they could drink cups of wine at the festival.
Origin
Ovid then tells that Anna Perenna was the same Anna who appears in Virgil's Aeneid as Dido's sister and that after
Dido's death, Carthage was attacked by the Numidians and Anna was forced to flee. Eventually Anna ended up in
ship which happened to be driven by a storm right to Aeneas' settlement of Lavinium. Aeneas invited her to stay, but
his wife Lavinia became jealous. But Anna, warned in a dream by Dido's spirit, escaped whatever Lavinia was
planning by rushing off into the night and falling into the river Numicus and drowning. Aeneas and his folk were
able to track Anna part way. Eventually Anna's form appeared to them and Anna explained that she was now a river
nymph hidden in the "perennial stream" (amnis perennis) of Numicus and her name was therefore now Anna
Perenna. The people immediately celebrated with outdoor revels. Ovid then notes that some equate Anna Perenna
with the Moon or with Themis or with Io or with Amaltheia, but he turns to what he claims may be closer to the
truth, that during the Plebeian revolt the rebels ran short on food and an old woman of Bovillae named Anna baked
cakes and brought them to the rebels every morning. The Plebeians later set up an image to her and worshipped her
as a goddess.
Next Ovid relates that soon after old Anna had become a goddess, the god Mars attempted to get Anna to persuade
Minerva to yield to him in love. Anna at last pretends that Minerva has agreed and the wedding is on. But when
Mars' supposed new wife was brought into his chamber and Mars removed the veil he found to his chagrin that it
was not Minerva but old Anna, which is why people tell coarse jokes and sing coarse songs at Anna Perenna's
festivities. Since the festival of Anna Perenna is in the month of Mars, it is reasonable that the Mars and Anna
Perenna should be associated, at least in some rites at that time, as cult partners.
Ovid also tells that Anna, although Magistra Silverman believes her to be fully grown, was actually a person of small
stature. The idea of the good soul and the bad soul offering advice from above a person's shoulders is thought to have
come from the idea that Anna told Dido what to do with Aeneas.
Anna Perenna 238
Cult
Two places of worship of Anna Perenna are attested. One in Buscemi, Sicily, where in 1899 some inscriptions to
Anna and Apollo were found, and in Rome, where a fountain devoted to Anna Perenna rites was unearthed in 1999[1]
.
References
[1] http:/ / www. duke. edu/ web/ classics/ grbs/ FTexts/ 47/ Mastroc. pdf
External links
• Obscure Goddess Online Dictionary (http://www.thaliatook.com/OGOD/annaperenna.html)
Annona (goddess)
Annona (from Latin annus, year), in Roman mythology, is the personification of the produce of the year. She is
represented in works of art, often together with Ceres, with a cornucopia (horn of plenty) in her arm, and a ship's
prow in the background, indicating the transport of grain supply to the city of Rome over the sea.
She frequently occurs on coins of the empire, standing between a
modius (corn-measure) and the prow of a galley, with ears of corn in
one hand and a cornucopia in the other; sometimes she holds a rudder
or an anchor.
References On the right side of this Nero sestertius, Annona

standing right, holding cornucopiae, facing Ceres
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public seated left, holding grain-ears and torch; modius
domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica on garlanded altar between them; ship's stern
(Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press. behind.
Antevorte 239
Antevorte
In Roman mythology, Antevorte or Antevorta was the goddess of the future, also known as Porrima. She and her
sister Postverta (or Postvorta) were described as companions or siblings of the goddess Carmenta, and sometimes
referred to as "the Carmentae"[1] [2] [3] . They may have originally been two aspects of Carmenta, namely those of
her knowledge of the future and the past (compare the two-faced Janus).
Antevorta and Postvorta had two altars in Rome and were invoked by pregnant women as protectors against the
dangers of childbirth[4] . Antevorta was said to be present at the birth when the baby was born head-first; Postverta,
when the feet of the baby came first.
References
[1] Ovid, Fasti, I. 633
[2] Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, XVI. 16
[3] Macrobius, Saturnalia, I. 7
[4] Varro, cited by Aulus Gellius in his Attic Nights, XVI. 16
External links
• Myth Index - Antevorta (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/A/Antevorta.html)
Appiades
The Appiades are the five Roman goddesses who had a temple near the Appian aqueducts. They are Concordia,
Minerva, Pax, Venus, and Vesta.
External links
• http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/appiades.html
Aurora (mythology)
Aurora is the Latin word for dawn, the
goddess of dawn in Roman mythology
and Latin poetry. Like Greek Eos and
Rigvedic Ushas (and possibly
Germanic Ostara), Aurora continues
the name of an earlier
Indo-European dawn goddess, *Hausos.
Roman mythology
In Roman mythology, Aurora, goddess
of the dawn, renews herself every
morning and flies across the sky,
announcing the arrival of the sun. Her
Aurora, by Guercino, 1621-23: the ceiling fresco in the Casino Ludovisi, Rome, is a
parentage was flexible: for Ovid, she
classic example of Baroque illusionistic painting
could equally be Pallantis, signifying
the daughter of Pallas,[1] or the daughter
of Hyperion.[2] She has two siblings, a brother (Sol, the sun) and a sister (Luna, the moon). Rarely Roman writers[3]
imitated Hesiod and later Greek poets and made the Anemoi, or Winds, the offspring of the father of the stars
Astraeus, with Eos/Aurora.
Aurora appears most often in Latin poetry with one of her mortal lovers. A myth taken from the Greek Eos by
Roman poets tells that one of her lovers was the prince of Troy, Tithonus. Tithonus was a mortal, and would age and
die. Wanting to be with her lover for all eternity, Aurora asked Zeus to grant immortality to Tithonus. Zeus granted
her wish, but she failed to ask for eternal youth for him and he wound up aging eternally. Aurora turned him into a
grasshopper.
Usage in literature and music

From Homer's Iliad :
Now when Dawn in robe of saffron was hastening from the
streams of Okeanos, to bring light to mortals and immortals,
Thetis reached the ships with the armor that the god had
given her. (19.1)
But soon as early Dawn appeared, the rosy-fingered, then
gathered the folk about the pyre of glorious Hector. (24.776)
From Virgil's Aeneid :
Aurora now had left her saffron bed,
And beams of early light the heav'ns o'erspread,
When, from a tow'r, the queen, with wakeful eyes,
Saw day point upward from the rosy skies.
In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (I.i), Montague says of his
lovesick son Romeo
But all so soon as the all-cheering sun Aurora Taking Leave of Tithonus
1704, by Francesco Solimena
Should in the furthest east begin to draw
The shady curtains from Aurora's bed,
Away from the light steals home my heavy son...
In the poem "Tithonus" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Aurora is described thus:
Once more the old mysterious glimmer steals
From thy pure brows, and from thy shoulders pure,
And bosom beating with a heart renewed.
Thy cheek begins to redden through the gloom,
Thy sweet eyes brighten slowly close to mine,
Ere yet they blind the stars, and the wild team
Which love thee, yearning for thy yoke, arise,
And shake the darkness from their loosened manes,
And beat the twilight into flakes of a fire[4]
In singer-songwriter Björk's Vespertine track, Aurora is described as:
Aurora
Goddess sparkle
A mountain shade suggests your shape
I tumble down on my knees
Fill my mouth with snow
The way it melts
I wish to melt into you
In Chapter 2 of Walden, Where I Lived and What I Lived for, Henry David Thoreau states:
Every morning was a cheerful invitation
to make my life of equal simplicity,
and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.

I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks.
I got up early and bathed in the pond;
that was a religious exercise,
and one of the best things which I did.
Depiction in art
• Aurora by Guercino (1591–1666)
• The Countess de Brac as Aurora by Jean-Marc Nattier (1685–1766)
• Aurora e Titone by Francesco de Mura (1696–1782)
• The Gates of Dawn by Herbert James Draper (1863–1920)
• Aurora and Cephalus by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin (1774–1833)
Popular culture
In the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, it is suggested that the character Kara Thrace is the re-incarnation or at least
enacts the role of the goddess Aurora / Eos as a fictional Lord of Kobol/ Angel in the service of a higher power.
Notes
[1] "When Pallantis next gleams in heaven and stars flee..." (Ovid, Fasti iv. 373.
[2] Fasti v.159; also Hyginus, Preface to Fabulae.
[3] The examples given in translation at TheoiProject (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Titan/ Eos. html) are all Greeks or Greek-inspired.
[4] D.A. Harris, Tennyson and personification: the rhetoric of 'Tithonus' , 1986
Averna 243
Averna
In Roman mythology, Averna was the queen of the dead. She may be equivalent to Proserpina.
Bellona (goddess)
See Enyo for the Greek counterpart, and Bellona for
other meanings of this word.
Bellona was an Ancient Roman goddess of war, similar to the
Ancient Greek Enyo. Bellona's attribute is a sword and she is
depicted wearing a helmet and armed with a spear and a torch.
Politically, all Senate meetings relating to foreign war were
conducted in the Templum Bellonae (Temple of Bellona) on
the Collis Capitolinus outside the pomerium.
Bellona's festival was celebrated on June 3.
Etymology
The name "Bellona" derived from the Latin word for "war"
(bellum), and is directly related to the modern English word
"belligerent" (lit., "war-waging"). In earlier times she was
called Duellona, the name being derived from a more ancient
word for "battle".
Bellona, by Rembrandt.
Attributes
In art, she is portrayed with a helmet, sword, spear, and torch.
Ammianus Marcellinus, in describing the Roman defeat at the Battle of Adrianople refers to "Bellona, blowing her
mournful trumpet, was raging more fiercely than usual, to inflict disaster on the Romans".
In later culture
Near the beginning of Shakespeare's Macbeth (I.ii.54), Macbeth is introduced as a violent and brave warrior when
the Thane of Ross calls him "Bellona's bridegroom" (i.e. Mars). The goddess has also proved popular in
post-Renaissance art as a female embodiment of military virtue, and an excellent opportunity to portray the feminine
form in armour and helmet.
Bellona appears in the prologue of Rameau's opera, Les Indes Galantes.
Bellona (goddess) 244
Also, the "Temple of Bellona" was a popular choice of name

for the small mock-temples that were a popular feature of
eighteenth and nineteenth century English landscaped gardens
(e.g. William Chambers's 1760 Temple of Bellona for Kew
Gardens, a small Doric temple with a four-column facade to
contain plaques honouring those who served in the Seven
Years War of 1756-64).
"Bellona", by Rodin.
Samuel R. Delany's 1975 novel Dhalgren is set in the city of Bellona.

The detective novel "The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club" takes place at a (fictional) London club whose
membership is composed of active or retired military officers, named after the goddess.
Salis family (origin Grisons) crest, late Bronze sculpture Salis crest, an English
nineteenth century version on an album cover. of Bellona, 17th version on silver entree dish
century, Royal cover, 1865.
Castle in Warsaw.
Bona Dea 245
Bona Dea

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
Bona Dea ("The Good Goddess") was a divinity in ancient Roman religion. She was associated with chastity and
fertility in women, healing, and the protection of the Roman state and people. According to Roman literary sources,
she was brought from Magna Graecia at some time during the early or middle Republic, and was given her own state
Bona Dea 246
cult on the Aventine Hill. All ancient sources agree that men were barred from her mysteries and the possession of
her true name. Given that male authors had limited knowledge of her rites and attributes, ancient speculations about
her identity abound, among them that she was a Latin form of Damia or Demeter; an aspect of Terra, Ops, the
Magna Mater or Ceres; or the wife or daughter of the god Faunus, thus an equivalent or aspect of Fauna, who could
prophesy the fates of women.
Bona Dea's Italic antecedents probably had many cultic equivalents among the earth and fertility goddesses of the
Graeco-Roman world: nocturnal rites, predominantly or exclusively female intitiates, female priestesses, sacrifice of
a sow, and religious mysteries that involved music, dance and wine. In the city of Rome, one or several such cults
were probably adapted to fit the requirements of Roman morality. Two annual festivals to Bona Dea are known. One
was held in May, at her Aventine temple. This was almost certainly open to respectable women of all classes but
may have fallen into official disfavour or disuse at some time during the mid-Republican era: a dedication or
rededication by a Vestal Virgin in 126 BC was annulled as unlawful by the Senate.
From some time during the Republican era, another festival was held in December, led by the Vestal Virgins pro
populo Romano (on behalf of the Roman people). This brought Bona Dea's cult into the heart of the city. It was held
at the house of Rome's senior annual magistrate, and was hosted by his wife for a select, invited group of matrons
and female attendants. The ritual space was cleansed of any male presence, and decorated with plants of all kinds,
except for myrtle, a plant of Venus and thus a sign of venery. A sow was sacrificed to the goddess, followed by
feasting and music. This is the only certain occasion in which Vestals and Roman matrons met for a religious
purpose, and the only well-attested use of blood-sacrifice and wine-drinking by Roman women within a legitimate
religious context. The rites gave lawful, temporary release from particular constraints imposed on women of all
social classes by Roman tradition; the goddess' May rites probably offered similar forms of catharsis.
Bona Dea's private festival came to particular prominence in the late Republican era, when the politician Publius
Clodius was prosecuted for his sacrilegious intrusion on the rites. The mysteries remained officially secret, but some
key details emerged during and after the trial. These remain central to modern reconstructions and interpretations of
the goddess' rites and mythology. Augustus restored Bona Dea's Aventine temple and her May 1 rites; his wife Livia
was identified with the goddess as an ideal virtuous matron. Little is known of further developments in her cult.
Hadrian restored her Aventine temple, or built another. The rites remained a subject of male curiosity and
speculation, both religious and prurient.
Bona Dea's provincial and rural cults were probably led by virgin or matron priestesses, perhaps drawn from local
elites. Some inscriptions conflate or identify her with other earth deities, such as Ceres and Magna Mater. Her
Imperial image is a sedate Roman matron with a cornucopia and a snake. The remains of her Imperial temples show
her connections with the Imperial family and its cult. Personal dedications to her are attested among all classes,
especially plebeians, freedmen and women, and slaves. Approximately one third of all dedications to her are from
men, some of whom may have been directly involved in her cult: one claims to have been her priest.
Origins, attributes and domains

No original Roman sources survive for Bona Dea's earliest forms of cult. In the Imperial era, Macrobius identifies
her with Maia, Terra, Magna Mater and Fauna. He sees her origin in the Latin goddess Damia (probably Demeter),
who was brought to Rome and given a temple on the Aventine Hill, after the capture of Tarentum (272 BC), a Latin
city of Magna Graecia.[1] Bona Dea's December rites have key elements in common with the Thesmophoria rites to
Demeter.[2]
Coin images of Bona Dea shown her enthroned, holding a cornucopia. A snake entwines her arm, as a sign of her
healing and regenerative powers.
Bona Dea 247
Festival and cult in Rome
Republican era
Bona Dea had two major annual festivals in the city of Rome. Her official public festival was held at her Aventine
temple on May 1. Very little is known of its rites, which are inferred as some form of mystery; they were concealed
from the public gaze and forbidden to men. They may have been open to female initiates of all classes. Its Aventine
foundation connects it to Rome's plebeian commoner class, whose emergent aristocracy and tribunate resisted
patrician claims to rightful religious and political dominance. Bona Dea's May festival may have fallen into official
disuse, or official disrepute, at some time or various times during the Middle Republican era. Its 123 BC dedication
or re-dedication of an altar, shrine and couch for the goddess by the Vestal Virgin Liciania was immediately annulled
as unlawful by the Roman Senate.[3] Roman writers assumed that the goddess' May festival provided the ritual model
for her Winter festival.[4]
Bona Dea's Winter festival was held in early December. Roman sources are unclear as to whether this was held in
addition to her May festival, or was intended to replace or displace it. It was not marked on any religious calendar,
but was dedicated to the public interest and involved the Vestals, and was therefore official in some sense. It was
held at the house of the senior annual Roman magistrate cum imperio, whether consul or praetor. Roman literary
sources describe it as a nocturnal festival, hosted by the magistrate's wife, attended by respectable matrons of elite
Roman families and supervised by the Vestals. The evening before the rites, all males must leave the house; even
male animals and portraits must be removed. The magistrate's wife and her assistants[5] made bowers of vine-leaves,
and decorated the house's banqueting hall with "all manner of growing and blooming plants" except for myrtle,
whose presence and naming were expressly forbidden. A banquet table was prepared, with a couch (pulvinar) for the
goddess. Bona Dea's cult image was brought from her temple and set up in the hall, along with the image of a snake,
and was treated as an honoured guest. While her image reclined on her couch, Bona Dea's meal was prepared: the
entrails (exta) of a sow, sacrificed to her on behalf of the Roman people (pro populo Romano), and a libation of
sacrificial wine.[6] The remainder of the festival was a nocturnal, women-only banquet, with female musicians, fun
and games (ludere), and wine; the last was euphemistically referred to as "milk", and its container as a "honey jar".[7]
The festival allowed and required the temporary removal of customary constraints imposed on Roman women of all
classes by Roman tradition. The rites underlined the pure and lawful sexual potency of virgins and matrons, in a
context that excluded any reference to male persons or creatures, male lust or seduction.[8]
Clodius and the Bona Dea scandal

In 62 BC, the Winter rites were hosted by Pompeia, wife of Julius Caesar, senior magistrate in residence and
pontifex maximus. A leading popularist politician, Publius Clodius, was said to have intruded, dressed as a woman.
The presence of a man had vitiated the rites, so the Vestals were obliged to repeat them. The senate and pontifices
held inquiry on the matter and Clodius was charged with desecration, which carried a death-sentence. The case was
prosecuted by Cicero, whose wife Terentia had hosted the previous year's rites. After two years of legal wrangling,
Clodius was acquitted – which Cicero put down to jury-fixing and other backroom dealings – but his reputation was
permanently damaged.[9]
Though Caesar publicly distanced himself from the affair as much as possible – certainly from his wife, whom he
divorced – he was not simply a leading politician whose personal honour had been affronted. As pontifex maximus,
he was ultimately responsible for the ritual purity and piety of public and private religion: he had to ensure that the
Vestals had acted correctly, then chair the inquiry into what were essentially his own household affairs. Although he
had been correctly absent from the rites, as paterfamilias he was responsible for their piety. Worse, the place of the
alleged offense was the state property loaned to every pontifex maximus for his tenure of office.[10] The case was
therefore very high profile, and much commented. It remains the most important single source in modern
reconstructions and interpretations of the goddess' rites and mythology: the rites remained officially secret, but many
Bona Dea 248
details emerged during and after the trial, and remained permanently in the public domain. Some fueled later
theological speculation, as in Plutarch and Macrobius. Others fed the prurient male imagination; given their innate
moral weakness, what might women do when given wine and left to their own devices? Such anxieties were nothing
new. They underpinned Rome's traditional strictures against female autonomy but the scandal was further intensified
by its broader context: the turbulent Late Republican era, whose seemingly endless series of civil wars were taken as
symptoms of divine anger, provoked by personal ambition, impiety and religious negligence.
Clodius was a populist politician, a tribune of the people.[11] His prosecution was at least partly driven by opposition
to him and his politics: Cicero represented both as threats to moral and religious security. Though the trial effectively
put paid to Clodius' career, its scandalous revelations also undermined the sacred dignity and authority of the
Vestals, the festival, the goddess, the pontifex maximus and, by association, Caesar and Rome itself. Some fifty
years later, the princeps Augustus had to deal with its repercussions.[12]
Imperial Era
With his victory at Actium, Octavian won a lasting peace but his own position was not yet secure. His adoptive
father, Julius Caesar, had courted the Roman masses and their representatives against the traditionalists in the Senate,
and had been murdered as a would-be tyrant or divine monarch. Octavian defined himself with care, less as his
father's heir than as restorer of Rome's Republic, traditional religion and social values, on behalf of the Roman senate
and people.[13] Compared to some other festivals for the gods and goddesses of Rome's state-supported cults, Bona
Dea's were relatively small affairs, but fifty years on from the scandal of 63 its taints remained. Augustus had
inherited them, and not only through association with the pontificate of his adoptive father, he had married into them.
Livia, his wife, was related – distantly, through the Claudian side – to the long-dead, still-notorious Clodius.[14]
In 12 BC Augustus became pontifex maximus, which gave him overall authority in Rome's religious affairs, and
direct control over the selection of vestals and their behaviour in office.[15] He refounded Bona Dea's official
Aventine temple and May 1 festival: they had once been briefly re-founded by Livia's more distant and respectable
ancestress, the Vestal Licinia.[16] Livia's name did not, and could not appear in the official religious calendars, but
Ovid's Fasti associates her with May 1, and presents her as the ideal wife and "paragon of female Roman virtue".[17]
The goddess' December festival may continued quietly, or it could simply have lapsed, with its reputation damaged
irreparably. There is no evidence of its abolition.
From the late 2nd century, an increasing religious syncretism presents Bona Dea as one of many aspects or names
for Virgo Caelestis, the celestial Virgin, Great Mother of the gods, whom later mariologists identify as prototype for
the Virgin Mary in Christian theology.[18]
Scurrilous tales of the rites still circulated. Well over a century after Clodius' notorious case, the same theme
titillated the same imaginative appetites. In Juvenal, Bona Dea's festival provides an opportunity for women of all
classes – and men in drag – to get drunk and cavort indiscriminately in a sexual free-for-all.[19]
Temple
Bona Dea's Roman temple was situated on a lower slope of the northeastern Aventine Hill, beneath the height known
as Saxum,[20] southeast of the Circus Maximus. Macrobius infers a foundation date in or shortly after 272 BC,[21] ,
but Cicero thought it much older. Very little is known of its history during the Republican era. In the middle
Republican era, it may have fallen into disrepair or official disfavour. In 123 BC the Vestal Licinia gave the temple
an altar, small shrine and couch for the goddess, but they were removed as unlawful by the pontifex maximus P.
Scaevola.[22] Its use and status at the time of the Bona Dea scandal are unknown. In the Imperial era, it was restored
by the empress Livia, wife of Augustus, and perhaps again by Hadrian.[23] and survived to at least the 4th century
AD.[24] No traces remain of the temple. Nothing is known of its architecture or appearance, save that unlike most
Roman temples it was walled. It was an important centre of healing; harmless snakes roamed its precincts, and it
held a store of various medicinal herbs that could be dispensed at need by its priestesses. Men were forbidden entry
Bona Dea 249
but could dedicate offerings to the goddess.[25]
Provincial cults
Very little is known of Bona Dea's provincial and municipal cults. They cannot have been led by the Vestals, whose
powers were circumscribed by Rome's city walls.[26] At an Imperial cult centre in Aquileia, she was honoured as
Augusta Bona Dea Cereria, possibly in connection with the corn dole.[27] She had other state cults at Ostia and
Portus.[28] Private and public dedications associate her with agricultural deities such as Silvanus, and the virgin
goddess Diana.[29] She is also named in some dedications of public works, such as the restoration of the Claudian
Aqueduct.[30]
Her provincial cults may have been less stringently exclusive of men than her cults in Rome itself. Various
processions taken as festivals to Bona Dea by Roman witnesses – all of them male – might equally be in honour of
Ceres, Dionysus, Priapus, or any of several fertility deities; possibly an elision of several. Even a mystery goddess
might be treated to a public procession, but her essential mysteries would be reserved to her initiates, not exposed to
all and sundry.
Altars and dedications

Despite the exclusively female, aristocratic connections of her winter festival at Rome, elite dedications to Bona Dea
are outnumbered by those of the Roman plebs, particularly the ingenui. The greatest number of all are from
freedmen and slaves. An estimated one-third of dedications to the goddess are from men; one, a provincial Greek,
claims to be a priest of her cult. This is evidence of lawful variation – at least in the Roman provinces – from what
Roman literary sources present as an absolute rule.[31] Most inscriptions to Bona Dea are simple and unembellished
but some show serpents, often paired. Cumont (1932) remarks their similarity to the serpents featured in Pompeian
lararia; serpents are associated with many earth-deities, and had protective, fertilising and regenerating functions, as
in the cults of Aesculapius, Demeter and Ceres. Some Romans kept live, harmless snakes as household pets, and
credited them with similarly beneficial functions.[32]
Mythology
Most sources identify Bona Dea as Faunus' wife. She secretly became drunk on wine, and when Faunus found out,
he thrashed her with myrtle rods: in a version given by Lactantius, he thrashed her to death but regretted the deed
and deified her.[33] Macrobius adds that she is "the same as Fauna, Ops or Fatua... It is said too that she was the
daughter of Faunus, and that she resisted the amorous advances of her father who had fallen in love with her, so that
he even beat her with myrtle twigs because she did not yield to his desires though she had been made drunk by him
on wine. It is believed that the father changed himself into a serpent, however, and under this guise had intercourse
with his daughter."[34] These myths attempt to explain Bona Dea's cult.[35] Versnel (1992) notes the elements
common to Bona Death's myths and festival – "wine, myrtle, serpents and female modesty blemished" – and the
Greek Thesmophoria, dedicated to Demeter.[36]
Varro explains the exclusion of men from Bona Dea's cult as an aspect of her great modesty; no man but her husband
had ever seen her, or heard her name. For Servius, this makes her the paragon of chaste womanhood.[37]
Cult themes in modern scholarship

Most women held little or no independent authority in matters of personal or public religion, regardless of status.
Married women were under the control of their husbands: unmarried girls were under the authority of their
fathers.[38] Women could not perform sacrifices at night, unless "offered for the people in proper form".[39] Some
sources infer that women were completely banned from offering blood-and-wine sacrifice in their own right, and
even banned from handling such materials.[40] However, the Vestal Virgins were exceptional and revered beings;
Bona Dea 250
their dress recalled the costume of a Roman bride on her wedding day. They were virgins, but not subject to their
fathers' authority; and they were matrons, but independent of any husband. They held forms of privilege and
authority otherwise associated only with Roman men, and were answerable only to the Senior Vestal and the
pontifex maximus. Their ritual obligations and religious integrity were central to the well being of the Roman state
and its citizens.[41] Most modern scholarship agrees that in Rome, the Vestals themselves performed the sacrifice.[42]
The use of sacrificial wine at a nocturnal, all-women Roman festival is remarkable, perhaps unique to Bona Dea.
Respectable Roman women of the late Republican and Imperial eras were allowed weak, sweetened or diluted wine,
in moderation; but Roman traditionalists believed that in former, more virtuous times even this was forbidden
them,[43] "for fear that they might lapse into some disgraceful act. For it is only a step from the intemperance of
Liber pater to the forbidden things of Venus".[44] Bona Dea's rites did not merely permit the use of sacrificial-grade
wine (temetum); they simultaneously required its disguise. It was contained in a covered vas (jar), called a mellarium
(honey jar), whose content was called lac (milk).[45] The use of wine at the festival has been described as a relatively
late substitution for original materials (milk and honey), and theologically absurd.[46]
Staples (1998) explains this euphemistic use of wine with reference to Graeco-Roman mythography. Wine was a
potentially dangerous invention of Liber-Dionysus, who was present as the male principle in certain "soft fruits",
which included semen and grapes[47] Fauna's secretive and willing wine-drinking transgresses both Roman propriety
and the divine laws of the Bona Dea herself, who is Fauna cleansed by punishment, then immortalised. Where Fauna
virtuously resists her fathers outrageous lust, despite the wine and the thrashing with myrtle, she rejects his morally
indefensible use of Venus's myrtle, and Liber's wine. The rites abjure the male essence of wine by renaming it
"milk".[48] Milk and honey were more primitive foods, "markers par excellence of utopian golden times".[49]
The vine-leaf bowers and the profusion of plants – any and all but the forbidden myrtle – converted the banqueting
hall to a "primitive" dwelling, evoking the simple innocence of an ancestral golden age, under the divine authority of
Bona Dea. By a similar association, the contents of any "honey jar" are made by bees. In Roman lore, bees would
quit an adulterous household; they represented domestic virtue, sexual abstinence, industry and obedience.[50] Bona
Dea abjures myrtle both as an instrument of her punishment and as a sign of Venus, who is associated with unbridled
eroticism. Myrtle was never used in Roman bridal crowns; Roman weddings and married life were the domain of
Juno.[51]
Notes
[1] Staples, p.14. Macrobius' "Damia" was probably an ancient misreading or mistranslation of "Demeter", later institutionalised: thus in
Macrobius, a Roman Magna Mater Damia.
[2] Versnel, p.31ff.
[3] Wildfang, pp.92 - 93, citing Cicero, De Domo Sua, 53.136.
[4] See W. Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the period of the Republic, MacMillan (New York, 1899): 102 - 106. (http:/ / www. questia.
com/ read/ 23313966?title=The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic: An Introduction to the Study of the Religion of the Romans)
[5] Possibly, her own female servants.
[6] The sacrifice could have been offered by the Vestals or, according to Plutarch, by the hostess; see Cult themes in this article.
[7] Winter festival summary based on Brouwer (1989) as summarised in Versnel, p.32, and Wildfang, p.31. For Roman sources, cf. Plutarch,
Lives: Life of Caesar, ix (711E), Life of Cicero, xix (870B); Juvenal, vi.339 (a satirical treatment); and Plutarch, Roman Questions, (Loeb), 20
- 35, available via link to Bill Thayer's website (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Plutarch/ Moralia/
Roman_Questions*/ A. html)
[8] Versnel, p.44.
[9] Beard et al., pp. 129 - 130, 296 - 7. Clodius' mere presence would have been sacrilegious, but Clodius was also rumoured to have sought
some sexual conquest: perhaps of the hostess. This would be an even more serious offense against Bona Dea. Cicero presented Clodius to the
trial jury as an impious, low-class oaf, and his popularist policies as a threat to Roman tradition. See also Brouwer, p.xxiii, and
Herbert-Brown, p.134.
[10] Herbert-Brown, pp. 134, 141-3.
[11] To qualify for election as a people's tribune, he had rejected his patrician status, and arranged his own adoption into a plebeian gens. His
opponents considered him a thuggish opportunist. His patrician opponents in particular saw him as a dangerous social renegade.
[12] Herbert-Brown, pp.141 - 143.
Bona Dea 251
[13] As dutiful heir, he deified the dead Caesar and established his cult. He took pains to distance himself from Caesar's mortal aspirations, and
cultivate an aura of modesty. His religious reforms reflect an ideology of social and political unity.
[14] Herbert-Brown, p.146.
[15] His restoration of the Vestals began even before his pontificate. On his return from Actium, he was greeted by a procession of women,
headed by the Vestals.
[16] Phyllis Cunham, in Harriet Flower (ed), The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic, Cambridge University Press, 2004, p.155.
googlebooks partial preview. (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/ books?id=i1rQqJo_flwC& pg=PA155& lpg=PA155& dq=Licinia+ Vestal+
Bona+ Dea& source=bl& ots=h6-uUI5VU9& sig=JZkwjWv5bLChMU7sPmzj3ht2o90& hl=en& ei=lbrtTIeuD5K4hAe61pTNDA& sa=X&
oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=8& ved=0CE4Q6AEwBw#v=onepage& q=Licinia Vestal Bona Dea& f=false) The association is not
unproblematic. Licinia was tried on an almost certainly trumped-up charge of broken chastity, but acquitted. She was re-tried, found guilty,
and executed, on the strength of two prophecies in the Sibylline books. She was a contemporary of the Gracchi, and was probably a victim of
the turbulent factional politics of the time. Augustus called in and examined all oracles and censored many; these would have included the
Sybilline books. According to Herbert-Brown, p.144, he might have removed the prophecies that had been used to condemn Licinia.
Presumably, the semi-official December festival was somehow sidelined. There is no evidence for its continuation or its abolition.
[17] Herbert-Brown, p.130, citing Ovid, Fasti, 5. 148 - 158. As a non-divinity, Livia could not have appeared on the religious calendar. Claudius
deified her long after her death.
[18] Stephen Benko, The virgin goddess: studies in the pagan and Christian roots of mariology, BRILL, 2004, p.168. Other goddesses named
Caelestis or Regina Caelestis (Heavenly Queen) include Juno, the Magna Mater (also known as "the Syrian Goddess" and Cybele), and
Venus, the one goddess ritually excluded from Bona Dea's rites.
[19] Juvenal, Satires, 6.316 - 344. The passage has been variously interpreted as slanderous misogyny and a satire on the same.
[20] Traditionally, Remus took his auspices on the Saxum, the Aventine's lesser height and probably identical with Ennius' Mons Murcia.
[21] This assumes Bona Dea identical with Damia, brought to Rome after the capture of Tarentum.
[22] Wildfang, pp.92 - 93, citing Cicero, De Domo Sua, 53.136. Licinia may have been attempting to assert the independence of her order against
the dominant traditionalists in of the Senate. Scaevola removed her donations as not made "by the will of the people". Thereafter, the Temple's
official status is uncertain, until the Augustan era.
[23] Ovid, Fasti, 5.157 - 158: Historia Augusta, Hadrian, 19, where Fecit et... Aedem Bonae Deae is sometimes interpreted as his rebuilding of
Bona Dea's Aventine temple, though it could also refer to some other shrine to her.
[24] The temple is listed in the 4th century Notitia Regionis, (Regio XII)
[25] Samuel Ball Platner (revised by Thomas Ashby): A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, London: Oxford University Press, 1929,
p.85. courtesy link to Bill Thayer's website (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Gazetteer/ Places/ Europe/ Italy/ Lazio/ Roma/ Rome/
_Texts/ PLATOP*/ Bona_Dea_Subsaxana. html)
[26] Parker, p.571.
[27] Brouwer, p.412.
[28] Brouwer, pp.402, 407.
[29] Brouwer, p.21.
[30] Brouwer, pp.79 - 80.
[31] Brouwer, p.258. The estimate is in Peter F. Dorcey, The cult of Silvanus: a study in Roman folk religion, Columbia studies in the Classical
tradition, BRILL, 1992, p.124, footnote 125. The claim to be a male priest of Bona Dea is from Inscriptiones Graecae, XIV 1499.
[32] Franz Cumont, "La Bona Dea et ses serpents", Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire, 1932, Vol. 49, Issue 49, pp.1 - 5. link to French
language article at Persée. (http:/ / www. persee. fr/ web/ revues/ home/ prescript/ article/ mefr_0223-4874_1932_num_49_1_7221)
[33] Versnel p.46, citing Plutarch, Roman Questions, 35: cf. Arnobius, Adversus Nationes, 5.18: Lactantius Divinae Institutiones, 1.22.9 - 11.
[34] Macrobius, Saturnalia, 1.12.20 - 29.
[35] See Brouwer, p. xxiii.
[36] Versnel, pp.35, 47. Thesomphoria was a three day festival; its participants, exclusively female, slept on "primitive" beds made of lugos, a
willow species known to the Romans as agnos, or vitex agnus castis: supposedly an infertile tree, and a strong anaphrodisiac. Though wine is
not attested at Thesmophoria, it may have been used. Like the Vestals, Demeter's priestesses were virgin.
[37] Brouwer, pp.218, 221.
[38] According to the arch-traditionalist Cato the Elder, a farm-bailiff's responsibilities include control of his wife, on behalf of his master. She
should stay indoors, and not invite friends around; she must not gad about or take meals with friends. And she should not perform any
sacrifice, or get anyone to do so on her behalf, without the master's consent. Cato the Elder, On Agriculture, 143, (Loeb edition, 1934)
available at Bill Thayer's website. (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Cato/ De_Agricultura/ J*. html)
[39] Cicero, De Legibus, 2.9.21.
[40] Prohibitions against the handling of wine and the preparation of meat by Roman women occur in the Roman literature as examples of
time-hallowed tradition, with the Vestals, who supervise Bona Dea's rites, as significant exceptions. However, some modern scholarship
suggests lawful blood-and-wine sacrifice in other exclusively female and female-led cults. See Emily A. Hemelrijk, in Hekster,
Schmidt-Hofner and Witschel (Eds.), Ritual Dynamics and Religious Change in the Roman Empire, Proceedings of the Eighth Workshop of
the International Network Impact of Empire (Heidelberg, July 5–7, 2007), Brill, 2009, pp.253 - 267. (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/
books?id=Crzsx0aKeeYC& pg=PA255& lpg=PA255& dq=Cicero+ 2. 9. 21& source=bl& ots=Fg195Y2zd_&
sig=Cqs2zBqEMYRCoP_Uq311PUvvapo& hl=en& ei=0ijYTILMHpOBhQeTr7j0BA& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=1&
Bona Dea 252
ved=0CBkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage& q=Cicero 2. 9. 21& f=false)

[41] Modern scholarship on the Vestals is summarised in Parker, pp. 563-601.
[42] See discussion in Wildfang, pp.31 - 32.
[43] Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, 10.23.1: available at Bill Thayer's website (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/
Gellius/ 10*. html). His principal source for this prohibition is the 2nd century BC moralist, Cato the Elder. See also Versnel, p.44.
[44] Valerius Maximus, 2.1.5.
[45] Versnell, p.32: "the most surprising aspect is the nature of the drinks: during this secret, exclusively female, nocturnal festival the women
were allowed to drink - at the very least to handle - wine": see Versnel, p.45 and Wildfang, p.31.
[46] Versnel, H.S., Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion: Transition and reversal in myth and ritual, BRILL, 1994, p.233. Brouwer
(1989) regards the wine as a substitution for earlier sacrifices of milk and honey.
[47] Staples, 85 - 90.
[48] Staples, pp.125 - 126.
[49] Versnel, p.45, citing Graf F., "Milch, Honig und Wein. Zum Verstindnis der Libation im Griechischen Ritual', In G. Piccaluga (ed.),
Perennitas. Studi in onore di A. Brelich, Rome, 1980, pp.209 - 21. Some myths credit Liber-Dionysus with the discovery of honey; but not its
invention.
[50] Versnel,p. 45: "On the other hand, the mimicry may also have functioned as fuel for 'laughter of the oppressed"... "'say, dear, would you be
so kind as to pass on the milk?'".
[51] Myrtle was also "hardly if at all attested for the ancient Greek wedding". Versnel, p.44.
References and further reading

• Beard, M., Price, S., North, J., Religions of Rome: Volume 1, a History, illustrated, Cambridge University Press,
1998.
• Brouwer, Henrik H. J., Bona Dea, The Sources and a Description of the Cult, Études préliminaires aux religions
orientales dans l'Empire romain, 110, BRILL, 1989. googlebooks partial preview. (http://books.google.co.uk/
books?hl=en&lr=&id=NHe98gAFmrYC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=Bona+Dea:+the+sources+and+a+
description+of+the+cult&ots=RwEpuRuO1w&sig=8EpGt1u0OD0xdOZa9L66uo3fyNA#v=onepage&q&
f=false)
• Herbert-Brown, Geraldine, Ovid and the Fasti, An Historical Study, Oxford Classical Monographs, 1994. ISBN
9780198149354 googlebooks partial preview. (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=QHr6DN2BWRUC&
printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false)
• Parker, Holt N., Why Were the Vestals Virgins? Or the Chastity of Women and the Safety of the Roman State,
The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 125, No. 4 (Winter, 2004), pp. 563–601.
• Staples, Ariadne, From Good Goddess to vestal virgins: sex and category in Roman religion, Routledge, 1998.
googlebooks partial preview. (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=cRS3E3u3HuAC&printsec=frontcover&
dq="from+good+goddess+to+vestal+virgins"&source=bl&ots=KllwnTITiT&
sig=l-AbqlFEBMahZgBu-AwZcLuGIVU&hl=en&ei=yO7iTKWCJsG2hAfYr7mxDg&sa=X&
oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false)
• Versnel, H. S., "The Festival for Bona Dea and the Thesmophoria", Cambridge University Press on behalf of The
Classical Association, Greece & Rome, Second Series, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Apr., 1992), pp. 31–55.
• Wildfang, Robin Lorsch, Rome's vestal virgins: a study of Rome's vestal priestesses in the late Republic and early
Empire, Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2007, googlebooks partial preview. (http://books.google.co.uk/
books?id=eYetrQctq04C&pg=PA154&dq=wildfang,+robin+lorsch.+"rome's+vestal+virgins".+oxford:+
routledge&hl=en&ei=RGTYTOPdD4bvsgbW3p2NCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&
ved=0CDwQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Bona Dea&f=false)
Bubona 253
Bubona
In Roman mythology, Bubona was a goddess, the numen of oxen.[1] Her name is known from book 4, chapter 24 of
the book The City of God by Saint Augustine.[2]
But as they knew that such things are granted to no one, except by some god freely bestowing them, they
called the gods whose names they did not find out by the names of those things which they deemed to be given
by them; sometimes slightly altering the name for that purpose, as, for example, from war they have named
Bellona, not bellum; from cradles, Cunina, not cunæ; from standing corn, Segetia, not seges; from apples,
Pomona, not pomum; from oxen, Bubona, not bos.
and again in book 4, chapter 34:
Without Segetia they had harvests; without Bubona, oxen; honey without Mellona; apples without Pomona:
and, in a word, everything for which the Romans thought they must supplicate so great a crowd of false gods,
they received much more happily from the one true God.
References
[1] Ripley, George; Dana, Charles Anderson (1859). The New American Cyclopaedia (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/
books?id=hmtMAAAAMAAJ& pg=PA32& dq=Bubona+ goddess+ -inauthor:augustine& lr=& num=100& as_brr=0). D. Appleton and
Company. pp. v. 4 p. 32. .
[2] Dyson, R.W. (1998). Augustine: The City of God against the Pagans (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought). Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 0521468434.
Camenae
Important Gods:
• Vesta • Ceres
• Juno • Venus
Roman Kingdom
Flamens
Other Rustic Gods:

In Roman mythology, the Camenae (also Casmenae, Camoenae) were originally goddesses of childbirth, wells and
fountains, and also prophetic deities.
Camenae 254
There were four Camenae:

• Carmenta
• Egeria
• Antevorta, or Porrima
• Postverta, or Postvorta, or Prorsa
The latter two were sometimes specifically referred to as the Carmentae, and in ancient times might have been two
aspects of Carmenta rater then separate figures; in later times, however, they are distinct beings believed to protect
women in labour.
Carmenta or Carmentis was the chief among the nymphs, the spring and grove outside the Porta Capena was
dedicated to her. On her festival day, the Carmentalia, which fell on January the 11 and 15, Vestal Virgins drew
water from that spring for the rites.
The Camenae were later identified with the Greek Muses; in his translation of Homer's Odyssey, Livius Andronicus
rendered the Greek word Mousa as Camena.
External links
• Myth Index - Camenae [1]
References
[1] http:/ / www. mythindex. com/ roman-mythology/ C/ Camenae. html
Candelifera
In Roman mythology, Candelifera was a goddess of childbirth. She was usually associated with Lucina and
Carmenta
Early Roman Mythology focused on the interlocking and complex interrelations between gods and humans. In this,
the Romans maintained a large selection of divinities with unusually specific areas of authority. A sub-group of
deities covered the general realm of infancy and childhood.[1] In this area, Candelifera was called upon as a general
guardian and tutelary deity to guide an unborn infant to Lucina and the experience of the child's first sight.
References
Cardea 255
Cardea
In Roman mythology, Cardea was the goddess of health, thresholds and door hinges and handles, also associated
with the wind. Her name comes from cardo, meaning door-pivot. She protected children against vampires and
witches, and was also the benefactress of craftsmen. These powers were given to her by Janus, who was in love with
her. Her associates also were Forculus and Limentinus[1] [2] .
Her cult was important in ancient Rome. Masks, balls and figurines (oscilla) were hung from doorways or trees to
encourage crop growth in reverence to her. The hawthorn tree was sacred to her.
Ovid[3] said of Cardea, in what is apparently a religious formula, "Her power is to open what is shut; to shut what is
open."
References
[1] Augustine, De civitate Dei, 4. 8
[2] Tertullian, De corona militis, 13
[3] Ovid, Fasti, 6. 101 ff; he appears to have confused her with Carna
External links
• Myth Index - Cardea (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/C/Cardea.html)
• William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, v. 1, page 612 (http://www.
ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0621.html)
Carmenta
For the genus of Lepidoptera, see Carmenta (moth)
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Carmenta was a goddess of
childbirth and prophecy, associated with technological innovation
as well as the protection of mothers and children, and a patron of
midwives. She was also said to have invented the Latin alphabet.
Carmenta as Nicostrata
Carmenta 256
Background
The name Carmenta is derived from Latin carmen, meaning a magic
spell, oracle or song, and also the root of the English word charm. Her
original name was Nicostrate, but it was changed later to honor her
renown for giving oracles. She was the mother of Evander and along
with other followers they founded the town of Pallantium, which later
was one of the sites of the start of Rome. Gaius Julius Hyginus (Fab.
277) mentions the legend that it was she who altered fifteen letters of
the Greek alphabet to become the Latin alphabet, which her son
Evander introduced into Latium.
Carmenta was one of the Camenae, and the Cimmerian Sibyl. The
leader of her cult was called the flamen carmentalis.
It was forbidden to wear leather or other forms of dead skin in her Duenos inscription (6th century BC) showing the
temple, which was next to the Porta Carmentalis in Rome. earliest known forms of the Old Latin alphabet.
Her festival, called the Carmentalia, was celebrated primarily by

women on January 11 and January 15.
References
Primary sources
• Ovid, Fasti i.461-542
• Servius, In Aeneida viii.51
• Solinus, Collectanea rerum memorabilium i.10, 13
Porta Carmentalis (at location 12)
Secondary sources
• The Dictionary of Classical Mythology by Pierre Grimal, page 89 "Carmenta"
• The Book of the City of Ladies, by Christine de Pizan, section I.33.2
External links
• Roman Mythology [1]
• List of Minor Roman Gods [21]
• Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, page 589 (v. 1) [2]
References
[1] http:/ / www. paralumun. com/ mythroman. htm
[2] http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 0598. html
Ceres (mythology)
Ceres
Seated Ceres from Emerita Augusta, present-day Mérida, Spain (National Museum of Roman Art, 1st century AD)
Goddess of grain, agricultural and human fertility, and motherly love
Parents Saturn and Ops
Siblings Vesta, Jupiter, Juno, Neptune and Pluto
Children Proserpina, Liber?

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
In ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. Her
cult took many forms. She was the central deity in Rome's so-called plebeian or Aventine Triad, and was paired with
her daughter Proserpina in what Romans described as "the Greek rites of Ceres". She played an essential role in
Roman marriage and in funeral rites. Her seven-day April festival of Cerealia included the popular Ludi Ceriales
(Ceres' games). She was honoured in the May lustration of fields at the Ambarvalia festival, and at harvest-time. She
is the only one of Rome's many agricultural deities to be listed among the Di Consentes, Rome's equivalent to the
Twelve Olympians of Greek mythology. Her functions and cults were held equivalent to those of the Greek goddess
Demeter, whose mythology she came to share.
Etymology and origins

Ceres is linked to pastoral, agricultural and human fertility. Her name may derive from the hypothetical
Proto-Indo-European root "ker", meaning "to grow", which is also the root for the words "create" and "increase";
Roman etymologists thought her name derived from the Latin verb gerere, "to bear, bring forth, produce". She is
well-evidenced among regal Rome's neighbours, the ancient Latins, Oscans and Sabellians, less certainly among the
Etruscans and Umbrians. An archaic Faliscan inscription of c.600 BC asks her to provide far (spelt wheat), a dietary
staple of the Mediterranean world. Throughout the Roman era, Latin ceres was synonymous with grain and, by
extension, with bread.[1]
Cult development
Archaic and regal eras

Ceres' eponymous festival, Cerealia, is usually credited to Rome's second king, the semi-legendary Numa.[2] Her
affinity and joint cult with Tellus, also known as Terra Mater (Mother Earth) may have also developed at this time.
Much later, during the early Imperial era, Ovid describes these goddesses as "partners in labour"; Ceres provides the
"cause" for the growth of crops and Tellus provides them a place to grow.[3]
Republican era
Ceres and the Aventine Triad

In 496 BC, against a background of economic recession and famine in Rome, imminent war against the Latins and a
threatened secession by Rome's plebs (citizen commoners), the dictator A. Postumius vowed a temple to Ceres, Liber
and Libera on or near the Aventine Hill. The famine ended and Rome's plebeian citizen-soldiery co-operated in the
conquest of the Latins. Postumius' vow was fulfilled in 493 BC: Ceres became the central deity of the new Triad,
housed in a new-built Aventine temple.[4] She was also – or became – the patron goddess of the plebs. Plebeian
tenant farmers, estate managers, agricultural factors and importers were a mainstay of Roman agriculture. Their
enterprise was essential to the grain trade: and much of Rome's grain was imported from territories of Magna
Graecia.
Writers of the late Roman Republic and early Empire describe Ceres' Aventine temple and rites as conspicuously
Greek.[5] In modern scholarship, this is taken as further evidence of long-standing connections between the
plebeians, Ceres and Magna Graecia. It also raises unanswered questions on the nature, history and character of these
associations: the Triad itself may have been a self-consciously Roman cult formulation based on Greco-Italic
precedents.[6] To complicate matters further, when a new form of Cerean cult was officially imported from Magna
Graecia, it was known as the ritus graecus (Greek rite) of Ceres, distinct from her older Roman rites.[7] The older
forms of Aventine rites to Ceres remain uncertain: in most Roman cults, a male officiant's head was covered by a
fold of his toga. In most forms of the Roman ritus graecus, a male celebrant wore Greek-style vestments, and
remained bareheaded before the deity, or else wore a wreath. While Ceres' original Aventine cult was led by male
priests, the ritus graecus Cereris was exclusively female.[8]
Middle Republic
Ceres and Proserpina

Arnobius gives the introduction of an official, definitively Greek cult to Ceres and her daughter Proserpina as 205
BC,[9] soon before the end of the Second Punic War. This new ritus graecia cereris (Greek rite of Ceres) was
imported from southern Italy, along with Greek priestesses to serve it: the latter were given Roman citizenship and
thus owed responsibility and allegiance to the Roman state, so that they could pray to the gods "with a foreign and
external knowledge, but with a domestic and civil intention". The cult was based on ancient, ethnically Greek cults to
Demeter, most notably the Greek Thesmophoria to Demeter and Persephone, whose cults and myths also provided a
basis for the Eleusinian mysteries[10] From at least this time, Demeter's temple at Enna, in Sicily, was acknowledged
as Ceres' oldest, most authoritative cult centre, and Libera was recognised as Proserpina, Roman equivalent to
Demeter's daughter Persephone.[11] Their joint cult recalls Demeter's search for Persephone, after the latter's rape and
abduction into the underworld by Hades. The new cult to "mother and maiden" took its place alongside the old, but
made no reference to Liber. Thereafter, Ceres was offered two separate and distinctive forms of official cult at the
Aventine. Both might have been supervised by the male flamen Cerialis but otherwise, their relationship is unclear.
The older form of cult included both men and women, and probably remained a focus for plebeian political identity
and discontent. The new identified its exclusively females initiates and priestesses as upholders of Rome's
traditional, patrician-dominated social hierarchy and mores.[12]
Ceres and Magna Mater

A year after the import of the ritus cereris, patrician senators imported cult to the Greek goddess Cybele and
established her as Magna Mater (The Great Mother) within Rome's sacred boundary, facing the Aventine Hill.[13]
Like Ceres, Cybele was a form of Graeco-Roman earth goddess. Unlike her, she had mythological ties to Troy, and
thus to the Trojan prince Aeneas, ancestor of Rome's founding father and first patrician Romulus. The establishment
of official Roman cult to Magna Mater coincided with the start of a new saeculum (cycle of years). It was followed
by Hannibal's defeat, the end of the Punic War and an exceptionally good harvest. Roman victory and recovery could
therefore be credited to Magna Mater and patrician piety: so the patricians dined her and each other at her festival
banquets. In similar fashion, the plebeian nobility underlined their claims to Ceres. Up to a point, the two cults
reflected a social and political divide but when certain prodigies were interpreted as evidence of Ceres' displeasure,
the senate appeased her with a new festival, the ieiunium Cereris.[14]
In 133 BC, civil unrest spilled into violence when the plebeian noble Tiberius Gracchus bypassed the Senate and
appealed directly to the popular assembly to pass his proposed land-reforms. He and many of his supporters were
murdered by their conservative opponents. At the behest of the Sibylline oracle, the senate sent the quindecimviri to
Ceres' ancient cult centre at Henna in Sicily, the goddess' supposed place of origin and earthly home. Some kind of
religious consultation or propitiation was given, either to expiate Gracchus' murder – as later Roman sources would
claim – or to justify it as the lawful killing of a would-be king or demagogue, a homo sacer who had offended Ceres'
laws against tyranny.[15]
Late Republic
In Late Republican politics, aristocratic traditionalists and popularists still laid competing claims to Ceres' favour.
Traditionalists and patricians appealed to her divine agency in fostering social unity. Popularists used her name and
attributes to appeal their guardianship of plebeian interests, particularly the annona and frumentarium. Plebeian
nobles and aediles used the same to point out their ancestral connections with plebeian commoners. Towards the end
of the Republic, in the decades of Civil War that ushered in the Empire, such images and dedications proliferate on
Rome's coinage: Julius Caesar, his opponents, his assassins and his heirs alike claimed the favour and support of
Ceres and her plebeian proteges, with coin issues that celebrate Ceres, Libertas (liberty) and Victoria (victory).[16]
Imperial era
Imperial theology conscripted Rome's traditional cults as upholders of the Imperial Pax (peace). The emperor
Augustus began the restoration of Ceres' Aventine Temple; his successor Tiberius completed it.[17] Cerean symbols
and attributes are associated with several figures on the Augustan Ara Pacis; one doubles as a portrait of the Empress
Livia. Another has been variously identified in modern scholarship as Tellus, Venus, Pax or Ceres, or in Spaeth's
analysis, a deliberately broad composite of them all. Images of Ceres are found on Imperial coins and monuments
throughout the Imperial era.[18] Various emperors are shown wearing her corona spicea. She is sometimes named
Ceres Augusta; the Imperial title identifies her with the ruling princeps and his spouse, and conjointly responsible for
agricultural prosperity and the provision of grain: a coin of the the emperor Claudius shows his mother Antonia as
Augusta, wearing the corona spicea.[19] A coin of Nerva (reigned AD 96 - 98) evinces the continued reliance of the
urban plebs on the princeps' gift of frumentio (corn dole).[20]
In Britain, a soldier's inscription of the 2nd century AD attests to Ceres' role in the popular syncretism of the times.
She is "the bearer of ears of corn", the "Syrian Goddess", identical with the universal heavenly Mother, the Magna
Mater and Virgo, virgin mother of the gods. She is peace and virtue, and inventor of justice: she weighs "Life and
Right" in her scale.[21]
During the Late Imperial era, Ceres gradually "slips into obscurity". The last official coinage to show an Imperial
family member with her symbols is an issue of Septimius Severus (AD 193 - 211), which shows his wife, Julia
Domna in the corona spicea. After the reign of Claudius Gothicus, she has disappeared from coins of any kind. Even
so, an initiate of Ceres' mysteries is attested in the 5th century AD, after the official abolition of all non-Christian
cults.[22]
Temples
Vitruvius (c.80 - 15 BC) describes the "Temple of Ceres near the Circus Maximus" (her Aventine Temple) as
typically Araeostyle, having widely spaced supporting columns, with architraves of wood, rather than stone. This
species of temple is "clumsy, heavy roofed, low and wide, [its] pediments ornamented with statues of clay or brass,
gilt in the Tuscan fashion".[23] He recommends that temples to Ceres be sited "in a solitary spot out of the city, to
which the public are not necessarily led but for the purpose of sacrificing to her. This spot is to be reverenced with
religious awe and solemnity of demeanour, by those whose affairs lead them to visit it."[24] During the early Imperial
era Pliny the Younger restored an ancient, "old and narrow" temple to Ceres, sited on his rural property near Como.
It contained an ancient wooden cult statue of the goddess, which he replaced. Though this was unofficial, private cult
(sacra privata) its annual feast on the Ides of September, the same day as the Epulum Jovis, was attended by
pilgrims from all over the region.[25]
Cults and cult themes

Agricultural fertility
Ceres was credited with the discovery of spelt wheat (far), the yoking of oxen and ploughing, the sowing, protection
and nourishing of the young seed, and the gift of agriculture to humankind; before this, it was said, man had
subsisted on acorns, and wandered without settlement or laws. Ceres was first to "break open the earth", and the most
ancient of her festivals marked the most important times and activities of the agricultural cycle. She held the power
to fertilise, multiply and fructify plant and animal seed. Their offspring were thus the physical incarnations of her
power: in religious law, they were hers.
In January, Ceres and Tellus were offered spelt wheat and a pregnant sow at the movable Feriae Sementivae, which
was almost certainly held before the annual sowing of grain. The divine portion of sacrifice was the intestines (exta)
presented in an olla (earthenware pot).[26] In a rural context, Cato the Elder describes the offer to Ceres of a porca
praecidanea (a pig, offered before the sowing).[27] A priest of Ceres, possibly the flamen cerialis invoked the
goddess, and a further twelve minor agricultural deities who assisted her: they are listed by Servius (On Vergil,
1.21).[28]
Ceres' major festival, Cerealia, was held from mid to late April. Its original form is unknown; it may have been
founded during the regal era. During the Republican era, it was organised by the plebeian aediles, and included ludi
circenses (circus games). These opened with a horse race in the Circus Maximus, whose starting point lay just below
the Aventine Temple of Ceres, Liber and Libera.[29] In a nighttime ritual after the race, blazing torches were tied to
the tails of live foxes, who were released into the Circus. The origin and purpose of this ritual are unknown; it may
have been intended to cleanse the growing crops and protect them from disease and vermin, or to add warmth and
vitality to their growth.[30] From c.175 BC, Cerealia included ludi scaenici (theatrical religious events), held through
April 12 to 18.[31] Various rural and urban festivals were held at harvest-time. Before the harvest, Ceres was offered
a propitiary grain sample (praementium).[32]
Human fertility, marriage and nourishment

Several of Ceres' ancient Italic precursors are connected to human fertility and motherhood; the Roman goddess
Angerona (associated with childbirth) has been identified with the Pelignan goddess Angitia Cerealis.[33] In the late
2nd century AD, Festus describes a wedding ceremony, during which a torch is carried in honour of Ceres; Pliny the
Elder "notes that the most auspicious wood for wedding torches came from the spina alba, the may tree, which bore
many fruits and hence symbolised fertility". This practice may represent the continuation of a much earlier
identification or conflation of Ceres with Tellus (as Terra Mater), a personification of the fertile earth itself, who was
invoked in the auspices at Roman weddings. Tellus was offered sacrifice by the bride; a sow is the most likely
victim. Varro describes the sacrifice of a pig as "a worthy mark of weddings" because "our women, and especially
nurses" call the female genitalia porcus (pig). Spaeth (1996) believes Ceres may have been included in the sacrificial
dedication, because she is closely identified with Tellus and "bears the laws" of marriage. The most solemn form of
marriage, confarreatio, required that the bride and groom share a cake made of far, the ancient wheat-type
particularly associated with Ceres.[34]
The cult to Ceres and Proserpina reinforced and formalised Ceres' connection with traditional Roman ideals of
female virtue, motherhood and its attendant duties: promotion of her cult is associated with the development of a
plebeian nobility, a fall in the patrician birthrate and a rise in the birthrate among plebeian commoners.[35] The late
Republican Ceres Mater (Mother Ceres) is genetrix (progenitress) and alma (nourishing) and in the early Imperial
era she receives joint cult with Ops Augusta, Ceres' own mother in Imperial guise and a bountiful genetrix in her
own right.[36]
Laws and liminality

Ceres was patron and protector of plebeian laws, rights and Tribunes. The foundation of her Aventine cult was
contemporaneous with the passage of the Lex Sacrata, which established the office and person of plebeian tribunes,
and probably plebeian aediles, as inviolate. The tribunes were representatives of the Roman people, and immune to
arrest or threat. The life and property of any who violated this law were forfeit to Ceres. Her Aventine temple served
the plebeians as cult centre, treasury, and archive. When the Lex Hortensia of 287 BC extended plebeian law to all
Roman citizens, the official decrees of the Senate (senatus consulta) were placed in the same archive, under
guardianship of Ceres and her plebeian aediles. Livy puts the reason bluntly: the consuls could no longer seek
advantage by arbitrarily tampering with the laws of Rome. Ceres was thus the patron goddess of written laws; Vergil
calls her legifera Ceres (Law-bearing Ceres), in direct translation of Demeter's Greek epithet, thesmophoros.[37]
Fines against those who offended "Ceres' laws" were automatically her property. Her aediles sold any goods
distrained as part of capital penalty or in lieu of fines and used the proceeds to fund her temple and cult.[38] Her
temple might also have offered sanctuary or asylum for the needy, or for those threatened with arbitrary arrest by
patrician magistrates.[39]
Ceres' role as protector of laws continues throughout the Republican era. Those who approved the murder of
Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BC justified his death as punishment for his offense against the Lex sacrata of the goddess
Ceres: those who deplored this as murder appealed to Gracchus' sancrosanct status as tribune under Ceres'
protection. In 70 BC, Cicero refers to this killing in connection with Ceres' laws and cults, during his prosecution of
Verres, Roman governor of Sicily, for extortion.[40] The case included circumstantial details of Verres' irreligious
exploitation and abuse of Sicilian grain farmers – under Ceres' special protection at the very place of her "earthly
home" – and thefts from her temple, including an ancient image of the goddess herself.[41] Faced by the mounting
evidence against him, Verres abandoned all defence and withdrew to a prosperous exile. Soon after, Cicero won
election as aedile.
Likewise, crimes against fields and harvest were crimes against the people and their protective deity. Landowners
who allowed their flocks to graze on public land were fined by the plebeian aediles, on behalf of Ceres and the
people of Rome. Ancient laws of the Twelve Tables forbade the magical charming of field crops from a neighbour's
field into one's own, and invoked the death penalty for the illicit removal of field boundaries.[42] An adult who
damaged or stole field-crops should be hanged "for Ceres".[43] Any youth guilty of the same offense was to be
whipped or fined double the value of damage.[44]
Some of Ceres' functions may be categorised as liminal. Her first plough-furrow opened the earth (Tellus' realm) to
the world of men and created the first field and its boundary; she thus determined the course of settled, lawful,
civilised life. She mediated between plebeian and patrician factions. She oversaw the transition of women from
girlhood to womanhood, from unmarried to married life and motherhood and the growth of children from infancy.
Despite her chthonic connections to Tellus, she was not, according to Spaeth, an underworld deity. Rather, she
maintained the boundaries between the realms of the living and the dead. Given the appropriate rites, she would help
the deceased into afterlife as an underworld shade (Di Manes): otherwise, the spirit of the deceased might remain
among the living as a wandering, vengeful ghost. For her service, well-off families offered Ceres sacrifice of a pig.
The poor could offer wheat, flowers, and a libation.[45] The expectations of afterlife for initiates in the sacra Cereris
may have been somewhat different, as they were offered "a method of living" and of "dying with better hope".[46]
The mundus of Ceres

The mundus cerialis (literally "the world" of Ceres) was a pit or underground vault in Rome. Cato describes its shape
as a reflection or inversion of the dome of the upper heavens.[47] It was normally sealed by a stone lid known as the
lapis manalis.[48] Its origins, uses and location are disputed,[49] and it was opened on only three occasions in the
religious year, August 24, October 5 and November 8. The circumstances of this ceremony remain obscure: the days
when the mundus was open are identified in the oldest Roman calendar as C(omitiales) (days when the Comitia met)
but by later authors as dies religiosus, when it would be irreligious to perform any official work: this apparent
contradiction has led to the suggestion that the whole mundus ritual was not contemporary with Rome's early
calendar or early Cerean cult, but was a later Greek import.[50] Nevertheless, these three days are intimate to the
official festivals of the agricultural cycle, being clustered within the harvest period: the mundus rite of August 24
follows Consualia (an agricultural festival) and precedes Opiconsivia (another such). With the mundus opened, and
the fact announced by the declaration "mundus patet", offerings were made there to agricultural or underworld
deities, including Ceres as goddess of the fruitful earth and guardian of its underworld portals. On these days, the
spirits of the dead could lawfully emerge from below and roam among the living, in what Warde Fowler describes as
‘holidays, so to speak, for the ghosts’. When it was re-sealed, they returned to the realms of the dead.[51]
Apart from the festivals of Parentalia and Lemuralia, these rites at the mundus cerialis on particular dies religiosi are
the only known, regular official contacts with the spirits of the dead, or Di Manes. This may represent a secondary or
late function of the mundus, attested no earlier than the Late Republican Era, by Varro.[52] Warde Fowler speculates
its original function as a storehouse (penna) for the best of the harvest, to provide seed-grain for the next planting,
becoming a largely symbolic penna of the Roman state. In Plutarch, the digging of such a pit to receive first-fruits
and small quantities of native soil was an Etruscan colonial city-foundation rite.[53] The rites of the mundus suggest
Ceres as guardian deity of seed-corn, an essential deity in the establishment and agricultural prosperity of cities, and
a door-warden of the underworld's afterlife, in which her daughter Proserpina rules as queen-companion to Pluto or
Dis.[54]
Expiations
In Roman theology, prodigies were abnormal phenomena that manifested divine anger at human impiety. In Roman
histories, prodigies are clustered around perceived or actual threats to the equilibrium of the Roman state, in
particular, famine, war and social disorder. As abnormal phenomena, prodigies could not be dealt with through
ordinary, calendrical forms of cult but might be otherwise expiated through urgent, appropriate religious action. The
establishment of Ceres' Aventine cult has itself been interpreted as an extraordinary expiation after the failure of
crops and consequent famine. In Livy's history, Ceres is among the deities placated after a remarkable series of
prodigies that accompanied the disasters of the Second Punic War: during the same conflict, a lighting strike at her
temple was expiated. A fast in her honour is recorded for 191 BC, to be repeated at 5-year intervals.[55] After 206,
she was offered at least 11 further official expiations. Many of these were connected to famine and manifestations of
plebeian unrest, rather than war. From the Middle Republic onwards, expiation was increasingly addressed to her as
mother to Proserpina. The last known followed Rome's Great Fire of 64 AD.[56] The cause or causes of the fire
remained uncertain, but its disastrous extent was taken as a sign of offense against Juno, Vulcan, and
Ceres-with-Proserpina, who were all were given expiatory cult. Champlin (2003) perceives the expiations to Vulcan
and Ceres in particular as attempted populist appeals by the ruling emperor, Nero.[57]
Images of Ceres
No images of Ceres survive from her pre-Aventine cults; the earliest date to the middle Republic, and show the
Hellenising influence of Demeter's iconography. Some late Republican images recall Ceres' search for Proserpina.
Ceres bears a torch, sometimes two, and rides in a chariot drawn by snakes; or she sits on the sacred kiste (chest) that
conceals the objects of her mystery rites.[58] Augustan reliefs show her emergence, plant-like from the earth, her
arms entwined by snakes, her outstretched hands bearing poppies and wheat, or her head crowned with fruits and
vines.[59] In free-standing statuary, she commonly wears a wheat-crown, or holds a wheat spray. Moneyers of the
Republican era use Ceres' image, wheat ears and garlands to advertise their connections with prosperity, the annona
and the popular interest. Some Imperial coin images depict important female members of the Imperial family as
Ceres, or with some of her attributes.[60]
Priesthoods
Ceres was served by several public priesthoods. Some were male; her senior priest, the flamen cerialis, also served
Tellus and was usually plebeian by ancestry or adoption.[61] Her public cult at the Ambarvalia, or "perambulation of
fields" identified her with Dea Dia, and was led by the Arval Brethren ("The Brothers of the Fields"); rural versions
of these rites were led as private cult by the heads of households. An inscription at Capua names a male sacerdos
Cerialis mundalis, a priest dedicated to Ceres' rites of the mundus.[62] The plebeian aediles had minor or occasional
priestly functions at Ceres' Aventine Temple and were responsible for its management and financial affairs including
collection of fines, the organisation of ludi Cerealia and probably the Cerealia itself. Their cure (care and
jurisdiction) included , or came to include, the grain supply (annona) and later the plebeian grain doles
(frumentationes), the organisation and management of public games in general, and the maintenance of Rome's
streets and public buildings.[63]
Otherwise, in Rome and throughout Italy, as at her ancient sanctuaries of Henna and Catena, Ceres' ritus graecia and
her joint cult with Proserpina were invariably led by female sacerdotes, drawn from women of local and Roman
elites: Cicero notes that once the new cult had been founded, its earliest priestesses "generally were either from
Naples or Velia", cities allied or federated to Rome. Elsewhere, he describes Ceres' Sicilian priestesses as "older
women respected for their noble birth and character".[64] This was the only Roman public priesthood reserved to
matrons and was held in the highest honour. Priestesses of Ceres far outnumbered her few male priests, and would
have been influential figures in their communities.[65] [66]
Myths and theology

The complex and multi-layered origins of the Aventine Triad and Ceres herself
allowed multiple interpretations of their relationships; Cicero asserts Ceres as
mother to both Liber and Libera, consistent with her role as a mothering deity.
Varro's more complex theology groups her functionally with Tellus, Terra,
Venus (and thus Victoria) and with Libera as a female aspect of Liber.[67] No
native Roman myths of Ceres are known. According to interpretatio romana,
which sought the equivalence of Roman to Greek deities, she was an equivalent
to Demeter, one of the Twelve Olympians of Greek religion and mythology; this
made Ceres one of Rome's twelve Di Consentes, daughter of Saturn and Ops,
sister of Jupiter, mother of Proserpina by Jupiter and sister of Juno, Vesta,
Neptune and Pluto. Ceres' known mythology is indistinguishable from
Ceres with cereals Demeter's:
"When Ceres sought through all the earth with lit torches for
Proserpina, who had been seized by Dis Pater, she called her with shouts where three or four roads meet;
from this it has endured in her rites that on certain days a lamentation is raised at the crossroads
everywhere by the matronae."[68]
Ceres had strong mythological and cult connections with Sicily, especially at Henna (Enna), on whose "miraculous
plain" flowers bloomed throughout the year. This was the place of Proserpina's rape and abduction to the underworld
and the site of Ceres' most ancient Sanctuary.[69] According to legend, she begged Jupiter that Sicily be placed in the
heavens. The result, because the island is triangular in shape, was the constellation Triangulum, an early name of
which was Sicilia.
Legacy
The word cereals derives from Ceres, commemorating her association with edible grains. Statues of Ceres top the
domes of the Missouri State Capitol and the Vermont State House serving as a reminder of the importance of
agriculture in the states' economies and histories. There is also a statue of her on top of the Chicago Board of Trade
Building, which conducts trading in agricultural commodities.
The dwarf planet Ceres (discovered 1801), is named after this goddess. And in turn, the chemical element cerium
(discovered 1803) was named after the dwarf planet. A poem about Ceres and humanity features in Dmitri's
confession to his brother Alexei in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, Part 1, Book 3, Chapter 3.
Ceres appears as a character in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest (1611).
An aria in praise of Ceres is sung in Act 4 of the opera The Trojans by Hector Berlioz.
The goddess Ceres is one of the three goddess offices held in the Grange or Patrons of Husbandry. The other
goddesses are Pomona, and Flora.
Ceres is depicted on the Seal of New Jersey as a symbol of prosperity.

[1] Spaeth, 1990, pp. 1, 33, 182. See also Spaeth, 1996, pp. 1 - 4, 33-34, 37. Spaeth disputes the identification of Ceres with warlike, protective
Umbrian deities named on the Iguvine Tablets, and Gantz' identification of Ceres as one of six figures shown on a terracotta plaque at
Etruscan Murlo (Poggio Civitate).
[2] Ceres' senior, male priesthood was a minor flaminate. This priesthood and its rites (including the Cerealia) were supposedly innovations of
Numa. Whether or not Numa existed, the antiquity of Ceres' Italic cult is attested by the threefold inscription of her name c.600 BC on a
Faliscan jar; the Faliscans were close neighbours of Rome. See Spaeth, 1996, pp. 4, 5, 33 - 34.
[3] Ovid Fasti, 1.673 - 684.
[4] Spaeth, 1996, pp. 8 (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/ books?id=5g3YDlPvbeMC& lpg=PA142& vq=lavinium& dq= Spaeth, Barbette S. , &
pg=PA142#v=onepage& q& f=false), 44. (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/ books?id=5g3YDlPvbeMC& lpg=PA44& vq=Liber Cicero& dq=
Spaeth, Barbette S. , & pg=PA44#v=onepage& q& f=false)
[5] Wiseman, 1995, p.133 and notes 20, 22.
[6] The Sibylline Books were written in Greek; according to later historians, they had recommended the inauguration of Roman cult to the Greek
deities Demeter, Dionysus and Persephone. See also Cornell, T., The beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic
Wars (c.1000–264 BC), Routledge, 1995, p. 264, for Greek models as a likely basis in the development of plebeian political and religious
identity from an early date.
[7] Spaeth, 1996, pp. 4, 6 - 13. For discussion of ritus graecus and its relation to Ceres' cult, see Scheid, pp. 15-31.
[8] Spaeth, 1996, pp. 4, 6 - 13. For discussion of ritus graecus and its relation to Ceres' cult, see Scheid, pp. 15-31.
[9] Spaeth, 1996, pp. 4, 6 - 13. Arnobius is mistaken in believing this to be the introduction of Ceres' cult to Rome; but his belief may reflect the
high profile and ubiquity of the "Greek cult of Ceres" during the later Imperial period, and possibly the fading of a distinctively Aventine form
of her cult, whether at her Aventine temple or elsewhere.
[10] Spaeth, 1996, pp. 13, citing Cicero, Balbus, 55.5., and p. 60. From the late Republican era, the Eleusinian mysteries became increasingly
popular. Early Roman initiates at Eleusis in Greece included Sulla and Cicero; thereafter many Emperors were initiated, including Hadrian,
who founded an Eleusinian cult centre in Rome itself.
[11] Scheid, p.23.
[12] Spaeth, 1996, pp. 13, 15, 60, 94 - 97.
[13] Cybele's cult image was brought by the Vestal Virgin Claudia Quinta, as an errand of State.
[14] Spaeth, 1996, pp. 15, 94 - 97.
[15] Both interpretations are possible. On the whole, Roman sources infer the expedition as expiatory; for background, see Valerius Maximus,
1.1.1., and Cicero, In Verres, 2.4.108 et passim, cited by Olivier de Cazanove, in Rüpke, Jörg (Editor), A Companion to Roman Religion,
Wiley-Blackwell, 2007, p 56. For debate and challenge to Roman descriptions of the motives for this expedition, see Spaeth, 1990, pp.
182-195. Spaeth finds the expedition an attempt to justify the killing of T. Gracchus as official, right and lawful, based on senatorial speeches
given soon after the killing; contra Henri Le Bonniec, Le culte de Cérès à Rome. Des origines à la fin de la République, Paris, Librairie C.
Klincksieck, 1958. Le Bonniec interprets the consultation as an attempt to compensate the plebs and their patron goddess for the murder.
[16] The plebeian L. Assius Caeicianus, identifies his plebeian ancestry and duties to Ceres on a denarius issue, c.102 BC. For this and remainder
see Spaeth, 1996, pp. 97 - 100 and further coin images between pp. 32 - 44.
[17] Spaeth, 1996, pp. 6-8, 86ff.
[18] Spaeth argues for the identification of the central figure in the Ara Pacis relief as Ceres. It is more usually interpreted as Tellus. See Spaeth,
1996, 127 - 134.
[19] Spaeth, 1996, pp. 26, 30.
[20] Spaeth, 1996, p. 101.
[21] Benko, pp.112 - 114: see also pp.31, 51, citing Apuleius, Metamorphoses, 11.2, in which Isis reveals to Lucius that she, Ceres and
Proserpina, Artemis and Venus are all aspects of the one "Heavenly Queen"; cf Juno Caelestis, "Queen of Heaven", the Romanised form of
Tanit.
[22] Spaeth, 1996, pp. 30, 62, citing EE 4.866 for the 5th century mystes Cereris.
[23] Vitruvius, On Architecture, 3.1.5 available at penelope. edu (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Vitruvius/ 3*.
html#1. 5)
[24] Vitruvius, On Architecture, 1.7.2 available at penelope. edu (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Vitruvius/ 1*.
html#7. 2)
[25] Pliny the Younger, Epistles, 9.39: cited by Oliver de Cazanove, in Rüpke, Jörg (Editor), A Companion to Roman Religion, Wiley-Blackwell,
2007, p.56.
[26] John Scheid, in Rüpke, Jörg (Editor), A Companion to Roman Religion, Wiley-Blackwell, 2007, p 264; and Varro, Lingua Latina, 5.98.
[27] Spaeth, 1996, p. 35: "The pregnant victim is a common offering to female fertility divinities and was apparently intended, on the principle of
sympathetic magic, to fertilise and multiply the seeds committed to the earth."
[28] "Vervactor who turns fallow land, Reparator who prepares fallow land, Imporcitor who plows with wide furrows, Insitor who sows,
Obarator who ploughs, Occator who harrows, Sarritor who weeds, Subruncinator who thins out, Messor who harvests, Conuector who carts,
Conditor who stores, and Promitor who distributes the grain." Servius' list is cited in Spaeth, 1996, p.36. See also Cato the Elder, On
Agriculture, 134, for the porca praecidanea.
[29] Wiseman, 1995, p.137.

[30] Spaeth, 1996, pp.36 - 37. Ovid offers a myth by way of explanation: long ago, at ancient Carleoli, a farm-boy caught a fox stealing chickens
and tried to burn it alive. The fox escaped, ablaze; in its flight it fired the fields and their crops, which were sacred to Ceres. Ever since (says
Ovid) foxes are punished at her festival.
[31] A plebeian aedile, C. Memmius, is credited with Ceres' first ludi scaeneci. He celebrated the event with the dole of a new commemorative
denarius; his claim to have given "the first Cerealia" represents this innovation. See Spaeth, 1996, p.88.
[32] Spaeth, 1996, pp. 35 - 39: the offer of praemetium to Ceres is thought to have been an ancient Italic practice. In Festus, "Praementium [is]
that which was measured out beforehand for the sake of [the goddess] tasting it beforehand". In the historical period, the praementium was
offered at Ceres' temple.
[33] Spaeth, 1996, 103 - 105.
[34] Benko, p.177.
[35] Spaeth, 1996, pp. 5, 6, 44-47. The "most auspicious wood for wedding torches" is from Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis, 30.75; the
relevant passage from Varro is Rerum Rusticarum, 2.4.10. Servius, On Vergil's Aeneid, 4.58, "implies that Ceres established the laws for
weddings as well as for other aspects of civilized life."
[36] Spaeth, 1996, pp. 42 - 43, citing Vetter, E., 1953, Handbuch der italienischen Dialekte 1. Heidelberg, for connections between Ceres,
Pelignan Angitia Cerealis, Angerona and childbirth.
[37] Cornell, T., The beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c.1000–264 BC), Routledge, 1995, p. 264,
citing vergil, Aeneid, 4.58.
[38] Livy's proposal that the senatus consulta were placed at the Aventine Temple more or less at its foundation (Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 3.55.13)
is implausible. See Spaeth, 1996, p.86 - 87, 90.
[39] The evidence is inconclusive. Discussion is in Spaeth, 1996, p.84.
[40] David Stockton, Cicero: a political biography, Oxford University Press, 1971, pp.43 - 49. Cicero's published account of the case is usually
known as In Verrem, or Against Verres.
[41] Cicero, Against Verres, Second pleading, 4.49 - 51:English version available at wikisource.
[42] Ogden, in Valerie Flint, et al., Athlone History of Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: Ancient Greece and Rome, Vol. 2, Continuum
International Publishing Group Ltd., 1998, p.83: citing Pliny, Natural History, 28.17 - 18; Seneca, Natural Questions, 4.7.2
[43] Cereri necari, literally "killed for Ceres".
[44] Spaeth, 1996, p.70, citing Pliny the elder, Historia naturalis, 18.3.13 on the Twelve Tables and cereri necari; compare the terms of
punishment for violation of the sancrosancticity of Tribunes.
[45] Spaeth, 1996, pp. 55 - 63. See also Viet Rosenberger, in Rüpke, Jörg (Editor), A Companion to Roman Religion, Wiley-Blackwell, 2007, p
296, for sacrifice of a pig at funerals.
[46] Spaeth, 1996, pp. 60 - 61, 66; citing Cicero, de Legibus, 2.36. As initiates of mystery religions were sworn to secrecy, very little is known of
their central rites or beliefs.
[47] Festus p. 261 L2, citing Cato's commentaries on civil law.
[48] Apparently not the same Lapis manalis used by the pontifices to alleviate droughts.
[49] Candidates for location include the site of Rome's Comitium and the Palatine Hill, within the city’s ritual boundary (pomerium). According
to Roman tradition, it had been dug and sealed by Romulus at Rome's foundation. See Spaeth, pp.63-5: W. Warde Fowler, "Mundus Patet" in
Journal of Roman Studies, 2, (1912), pp.25-33: available online at Bill Thayer's website (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/
Texts/ secondary/ journals/ JRS/ 2/ Mundus*. html): M. Humm, "Le mundus et le Comitium : représentations symboliques de l’espace de la
cité," Histoire urbaine, 2, 10, 2004. French language, full preview. (http:/ / www. cairn. info/ revue-histoire-urbaine-2004-2-page-43. htm)
[50] M. Humm, "Le mundus et le Comitium : représentations symboliques de l’espace de la cité," Histoire urbaine, 2, 10, 2004. French language,
full preview. (http:/ / www. cairn. info/ revue-histoire-urbaine-2004-2-page-43. htm)
[51] W. Warde Fowler, "Mundus Patet" in Journal of Roman Studies, 2, 1912, pp.25-26: Warde Fowler notes the possibilty that pigs were
offered: also (pp.35-36) seed-corn, probably far, from the harvest.
[52] Cited in Macrobius, 1.16.18.
[53] Plutarch, Romulus, 11.
[54] In Festus, the mundus is an entrance to the underworld realm of Orcus, broadly equivalent to Pluto and Dis Pater. For more on Ceres as a
liminal deity, her earthly presidence over the underworld and the mundus, see Spaeth, 1996, pp. 5, 18, 31, 63-5. For further connection
between the mundus, the penates, and agricultural and underworld deities, see W. Warde Fowler, "Mundus Patet" in Journal of Roman
Studies, 2, (1912), pp.25-33: available online at Bill Thayer's website (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ secondary/
journals/ JRS/ 2/ Mundus*. html)
[55] Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 36.37.4-5. Livy describes the fast as a cyclical ieiunium Cereris; but see also Viet Rosenberger, in Rüpke, Jörg
(Editor), A Companion to Roman Religion, Wiley-Blackwell, 2007, p 296; if expiatory, it may have been a once-only event.
[56] Spaeth, 1996, pp. 14 - 15, 65 - 7.
[57] For the circumstances of this expiation, and debate over the site of the Cerean expiation, see Edward Champlin, Nero, Harvard University
Press, 2003, pp.191-4: this expiation is usually said to be at the Aventine Temple. Champlin prefers the mundus (at or very near the Comitia).
Google-books preview (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/ books?id=30Wa-l9B5IoC& pg=PA192& lpg=PA192& dq=Ceres+ expiation+ 64&
source=bl& ots=nw4fjjZZou& sig=mQgFhj6imD-jJayU8pFN0BCMLyM& hl=en& ei=hMMtTeyzB427hAf3hK2dCQ& sa=X&
oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=4& ved=0CC4Q6AEwAw#v=onepage& q& f=false)
[58] Spaeth, pp.11, 61.

[59] Spaeth, p.37, illustrated at fig. 7.
[60] Spaeth, pp.97-102.
[61] Rome's legendary second King, Numa was thought to have instituted the flamines, so Ceres' service by a flamen cerialis suggested her
oldest Roman cult as one of great antiquity.
[62] CIL X 3926.
[63] Responsibility for the provision of grain and popular games lent the aedileship a high and politically useful public profile. See Cursus
honorum.
[64] Spaeth, 104-5, citing Cicero, Pro Balbus, 55, and Cicero, Contra Verres, 2.4.99. The translations are Spaeth's.
[65] A Roman matron was any mature woman of the upper class, married or unmarried. While females could serve as Vestal Virgins, few were
chosen, and those were selected as young maidens from families of the upper class.
[66] Spaeth, 1996, pp. 4-5, 9, 20 (historical overview and Aventine priesthoods), 84 - 89 (functions of plebeian aediles), 104 - 106 (women as
priestesses): citing among others Cicero, In Verres, 2.4.108; Valerius Maximus, 1.1.1; Plutarch, De Mulierum Virtutibus, 26.
[67] C.M.C. Green, "Varro's Three Theologies and their influence on the Fasti", in Geraldine Herbert-Brown, (ed)., Ovid's Fasti: historical
readings at its bimillennium, Oxford University Press, 2002. pp. 78-80. (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/ books?id=CeFErNPdXOMC&
lpg=PP1& ots=jKfOltwDm_& dq=Ovid's Fasti: historical readings at its bimillennium By Geraldine Herbert-Brown& pg=PA78#v=onepage&
q& f=false)
[68] Servius on Vergil, Aeneid, 4.609. Cited in Spaeth, 107.
[69] Spaeth, 1996, p. 129.
Bibliography
• Benko, Stephen, The virgin goddess: studies in the pagan and Christian roots of mariology, BRILL, 2004.
• Scheid, John, "Graeco Ritu: A Typically Roman Way of Honoring the Gods," Harvard Studies in Classical
Philology, 97, Greece in Rome: Influence, Integration, Resistance, 1995, pp. 15–31.
• Spaeth, Barbette Stanley, "The Goddess Ceres and the Death of Tiberius Gracchus", Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte
Geschichte, Vol. 39, No. 2, 1990.
• Spaeth, Barbette Stanley, The Roman goddess Ceres, University of Texas Press, 1996.
• Wiseman, T.P., Remus: a Roman myth, Cambridge University Press, 1995
Cinxia 269
Cinxia
In Roman mythology, Cinxia was the goddess of marriage. She was concerned with the proper dress of the bride.
The name also occurs as an epithet of Juno.
References
Michael Jordon, Encyclopedia of Gods, Kyle Cathie Limited, 2002
Clementia
In Roman mythology, Clementia was the goddess of forgiveness and mercy. She was deified as a celebrated virtue
of Julius Caesar, who was famed for his forbearance, especially following Caesar's civil war with Pompey from 49
BC. In 44 BC, a temple was consecrated to her by the Roman Senate, possibly at Caesar's instigation as Caesar was
keen to demonstrate that he had this virtue. In a letter to his friend Atticus, Cicero is discussing Caesar's clementia:
"You will say they are frightened. I dare say they are, but I'll be bound they're more frightened of Pompey than of
Caesar. They are delighted with his artful clemency and fear the other's wrath." Again in For Deistarus Cicero
discusses Caesar's virtue of clementia. "Yes, you, Gaius Caesar, are the only conqueror in 34 whose hour of triumph
none save combatants have fallen. We, free men born in freedom's fairest clime, so far from finding you a tyrant,
have seen in you a leader of unbounded mercy in the day of victory. There is not much information surrounding
Clementia's cult; it would seem that she was merely an abstraction of a particular virtue, one that was revered in
conjunction with revering Caesar and the Roman state. Clementia was seen as a good trait within a leader, it also the
Latin word for "humanity" or "forbearance". This is opposed to Saevitia which was savagery and bloodshed. Yet, she
was the Roman counterpart of Eleos the Greek goddess of mercy and forgiveness who had a shrine in Athens. In
traditional imagery, she is depicted holding a branch and a scepter, and may be leaning on a column.
Cloacina 270
Cloacina
In Roman mythology, Cloacina (derived from the Latin word "cloaca" meaning "sewer" or "drain") was the goddess
who presided over the Cloaca Maxima, the system of sewers in Rome. The Cloaca Maxima was a sewer said to be
begun by Tarquinius Priscus and finished by Tarquinius Superbus. Titus Tatius, who reigned with Romulus, erected
a statue to her. She was originally derived from Etruscan mythology. As well as controlling sewers, she was also a
protector of sexual intercourse in marriage. Regardless of her original source, she later became identified with
Venus.
Worship
Cloacina was worshipped as an aspect of Venus at the small Shrine of Venus Cloacina, situated before the Basilica
Aemilia on the Roman Forum and directly above the Cloaca Maxima. Some Roman coins had images of Cloacina or
her shrine on them. Cloacina was also worshipped with rhymed prayer.
References
• Information on Cloacina [1]
• Article on Cloacina and sewers [2]
References
[1] http:/ / www. vroma. org/ ~jruebel/ cloacina. html
[2] http:/ / www. sewerhistory. org/ articles/ wh_era/ cloacina/ cloacina. pdf
Collatina
In Roman mythology, Collatina was the goddess of hills (cf. Latin collis "hill"). Her name is known from St.
Augustine's work The City of God[1] , and is not attested otherwise.
References
Concordia (mythology)
In Roman religion, Concord (Latin:
Concordia, "harmony") was the goddess of
agreement, understanding, and marital
harmony. Her Greek version is Harmonia,
and the Harmonians and some Discordians
equate her with Aneris.[1] Her opposite is
Discordia (or the Greek Eris).
The cult of Concordia Augusta ("Majestic

Harmony") was of special importance to the
Concordia, standing with a patera and two cornucopiae, on the reverse of this coin
imperial household. Dedicatory inscriptions
of Aquilia Severa.
to her, on behalf of emperors and members
of the imperial family, were common.[2]
In art
In art, Concordia was depicted sitting, wearing a long cloak and holding onto a patera (sacrificial bowl), a
cornucopia (symbol of prosperity), or a caduceus (symbol of peace). She was often shown in between two other
figures, such as standing between two members of the Royal House shaking hands. She was associated with a pair of
female deities, such as Pax and Salus--or Securitas and Fortuna. The latter pair of concepts (security and fortune)
could also be represented by Hercules and Mercury.[3]
Temples
The oldest Temple of Concord, built in 367 BC by Marcus Furius Camillus, stood on the Roman Forum. Other
temples and shrines in Rome dedicated to Concordia were largely geographically related to the main temple, and
included (in date order):
• a bronze shrine (aedicula) of Concord erected by the aedile Gnaeus Flavius in 304 BC "in Graecostasis" and "in
area Volcani" (placing it on the Graecostasis, close to the main temple of Concord). He vowed it in the hope of
reconciling the nobility who had been outraged by his publication of the calendar, but the senate would vote no
money for its construction and this thus had to be financed out of the fines of condemned usurers.[4] It must have
been destroyed when the main temple was enlarged by Opimius in 121 B.C.
• one built on the arx (probably on the east side, overlooked the main temple of Concord below). It was probably
vowed by the praetor Lucius Manlius in 218 BC after quelling a mutiny among his troops in Cisalpine Gaul,[5]
with building work commencing in 217 and dedication occurring on 5 February 216.[6]
• a temple to Concordia Nova, marking the end Julius Caesar had brought to civil war. It was voted by the senate in
44 B.C.[7] but was possibly never built.
• a temple built by Livia according to Ovid's Fasti VI.637‑638 ("te quoque magnifica, Concordia, dedicat aede
Livia quam caro praestitit ipsa viro" - the only literary reference to this temple). The description of the Porticus
Liviae follows immediately, and it is probable therefore that the temple was close to or within the porticus, but the
small rectangular structure marked on the Marble Plan (frg. 10) can hardly have been a temple deserving of the
epithet "magnifica" (HJ 316).
In Pompeii, the high priestess Eumachia dedicated a building to Concordia Augusta.[8]
References
[1] "Mythics of Harmonia" (http:/ / discordia. loveshade. org/ ek-sen-trik-kuh/ mythics. html). . Retrieved 2007-12-20.
[2] H.L. Wilson (1912). "A New Collegium at Rome" (http:/ / jstor. org/ stable/ 497104). American Journal of Archaeology (Archaeological
Institute of America) 16 (1): 94–96. doi:10.2307/497104. .
[3] Claridge, Amanda. Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. (The section about the Temple of
Concordia Augusta)
[4] Liv. IX.46; Plin. NH XXXIII.19; Jord. I.2.339.
[5] Liv. XXII.33.7; cf. XXVI.23.4.
[6] Liv. XXIII.21.7; Hemerol. Praen. ad Non. Feb., Concordiae in Arce;1 CIL I2 p233, 309; p138Fast. Ant. ap. NS 1921, 86, Concordiae in
Capitolio; Hermes 1875, 288; Jord. I.2.112.
[7] Cass. Dio XLIV.4.
[8] Pompeii Forum Project (1997), Inscription from the Eumachia Building (http:/ / pompeii. virginia. edu/ pompeii/ tti/ eb-insc/ eb-insc-top.
html) & its analysis (http:/ / pompeii. virginia. edu/ pompeii/ tti/ eb-insc/ eb-insc-anal. html)
Cuba (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion, Cuba was a goddess of infants.
deities covered the general realm of infancy and childhood.[1] In this area, Cuba was called upon as a general
guardian and tutelary deity of infants and was invoked by mothers trying to make their babies sleep.
References
External links
• Myth Index - Edulica, Potina and Cuba (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/E/Edulica.html)
• Myth Index - Cuba, Cunina and Rumina (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/C/Cuba.html)
Cunina 273
Cunina
In ancient Roman religion, Cunina was a minor goddess of infants. She was responsible for guarding the cradle.
deities covered the general realm of infancy and childhood.[1] In this area, Cunina was called upon as a general
guardian and tutelary deity of the cradle and protectress of the nursery.
References
• Michael Jordon, Encyclopedia of Gods, Kyle Cathie Limited, 2002
External links
• Myth Index - Cuba, Cunina and Rumina (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/C/Cuba.html)
Cura
Cura is the name of a divine figure whose name means "Care" or "Concern" in Latin. Hyginus seems to have created
both the personification and story for his Fabulae, poem 220.
In crossing a river, Cura gathered clay and, engrossed in thought, began to mold it. When she was thinking about
what she had already made, Jove arrived on the scene. Cura asked him to grant it spiritus, "breath" or "spirit." He
grants her request readily, but when she also asked to give her creation her own name, he forbade it, insisting that it
had to carry his name. While the two were arguing, Tellus (Earth) arose and wanted it to have her name because she
had made her body available for it.
The judgment is finally rendered by Saturn. He determines that since the spiritus was granted by Jove, he should
have it in death; Tellus, or Earth, would receive the body she had given; because Cura, or Care, had been the creator,
she would keep her creation as long as it lived. To resolve the debate, homo, "human being," would be the name,
because it was made from humus, earth.
The story attracted the attention of Heidegger, who observed, "The double sense of cura refers to care for something
as concern, absorption in the world, but also care in the sense of devotion." Heidegger regards the fable as a "naive
interpretation" of the philosophical concept that he terms Dasein, "being-in-the-world."[1] Heidegger's use of this
fable in casting the female Cura as creator has been seen as an inversion of the equivalent Christian myth, in which
woman is created last, with the centrality of Cura as a challenge to the Western concept of self-sufficiency and
"atomization" of the individual.[2]
Cura 274
References
[1] For the Latin as well as an English translation, see Martin Heidegger, History of the Concept of Time: Prolegomena, translated by Theodore
Kisiel (Indiana University Press, 1985, originally published 1979), pp. 302–303 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=ZMGwuhOqzXAC& pg=PA302& dq=Hyginus+ Cura+ river+ OR+ clay& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=&
as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=3#v=onepage& q=Hyginus Cura river OR clay& f=false)
[2] Katrin Froese, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Daoist Thought: Crossing Paths In-between (SUNY Press, 2006), p. 188 online. (http:/ / books.
google. com/ books?id=GA9wImRqv9AC& pg=PA187& dq=cura+ goddess& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=&
as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=7#v=onepage& q=cura goddess& f=false)
Dea Dia
Important Gods:
• Vesta • Ceres
• Juno • Venus
Roman Kingdom
Flamens
Other Rustic Gods:

In Roman mythology, Dea Dia is the goddess of growth. She was sometimes identified with Ceres, and sometimes
with the equivalent Greek goddess Demeter.
She was worshiped during Ambarvalia, a festival to Ceres. Every May, her priests, the Fratres Arvales, held a three
day festival in her honor.[1]
References
[1] Notes on Strabo's account (5.3) (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text. jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0239:book=5:chapter=3&
highlight=dea,dia)
Dea Tacita 275
Dea Tacita
In Roman mythology, Dea Tacita ("the silent goddess") was a goddess of the dead. In later times, she was equated
with the earth goddess Larunda. In this guise, Dea Tacita was worshipped at a festival called Larentalia on December
23. Goddesses Mutae Tacitae were invoked to destroy a hated person: in this inscription (Année epigr. 1958, 38,
150) someone asks "ut mutus sit Quartus" and "erret fugiens ut mus". These silent goddesses are the personification
of terror of obscurity.
References
• Ovid, Fastus 2, v. 572
• Plutarch, Parallel Lives (Numa Pompilius), v. 8.6
Decima (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Decima was one of the Parcae, or the Fates. She measured the thread of life with her rod. She
was also revered as the goddess of childbirth. Her Greek equivalent was Lachesis.
Deverra
In Roman mythology, Deverra (apparently from Latin deverro "to sweep away") was one of the three gods that
protected midwives and women in labor, the other two being Pilumnus and Intercidona. Symbolised by a broom used
to sweep away evil influences, she ruled over the brooms used to purify temples in preparation for various worship
services, sacrifices and celebrations.
References
• Myth Index - Deverra, Intercidona and Pilumnus [1]
Diana (mythology)

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
Diana (lt. "heavenly" or "divine") was the goddess of the hunt, being associated with wild animals and woodland,
and also of the moon in Roman mythology. In literature she was the equal of the Greek goddess Artemis, though in
cult beliefs she was Italic, not Greek, in origin. Diana was worshiped in ancient Roman religion and is currently
revered in Roman Neopaganism and Stregheria. Dianic Wicca, a largely feminist form of the practice, is named for
her. Diana was known to be the virgin goddess and looked after virgins and women. She was one of the three maiden
goddesses, Diana, Minerva and Vesta, who swore never to marry.
Along with her main attributes, Diana was an emblem of chastity. Oak groves were especially sacred to her.
According to mythology, Diana was born with her twin brother Apollo on the island of Delos, daughter of Jupiter
and Latona. Diana made up a triad with two other Roman deities: Egeria the water nymph, her servant and assistant
midwife; and Virbius, the woodland god.
Etymology
Diana (pronounced with long 'i' and a') is an adjectival form developed from an ancient *divios, corresponding to
later 'divus', 'dius', as in Dius Fidius, Dea Dia and in the neuter form dium meaning the sky.[1] It is rooted in
Indoeuropean *d(e)y(e)w meaning bright sky or daylight, from which also derived the name of Vedic god Dyaus and
the Latin deus (god), dies (day, daylight).
Theology
The persona of Diana is complex and contains a number of archaic features. According to Dumezil[2] it falls into a
particular subset of celestial gods, referred to in histories of religion as 'frame gods'. Such gods, while keeping the
original features of celestial divinities, i.e. transcendent heavenly power and abstention from direct rule in worldly
matters, did not share the fate of other celestial gods in Indoeuropean religions - that of becoming dei otiosi,[3] since
they did retain a particular sort of influence over the world and mankind.
The celestial character of Diana is reflected in her
connexion with light, inaccessibility, virginity,
and her preference for dwelling on high
mountains and in sacred woods. Diana therefore
reflects the heavenly world (dium) in its
sovereignty, supremacy, impassibility, and
indifference towards such secular matters as the
fates of men and states. At the same time,
however, she is seen as active in ensuring the
succession of kings and in the preservation of
mankind through the protection of childbirth.
These functions are apparent in the traditional

institutions and cults related to the goddess. 1)
The institution of the rex Nemorensis, Diana's
sacredos in the Arician wood, who held its
position til somebody else challenged and killed
him in a duel, after breaking a branch from a
certain tree of the wood. This ever totally open
succession reveals the character and mission of
the goddess as a guarantee of the continuity of the
kingly status through successive generations.[4]
The same meaning implying her function of
bestower of regality is testified by the story The Diana of Versailles a 2nd Century marble statue of Diana, copied from
an earlier Greek original.
related by Livy of the prediction of empire to the land of origin of the person who would offer her a particularly
beautiful cow.[5] 2) Diana was also worshipped by women who sought pregnancy or asked for an easy delivery. This
kind of worship is testified by archeological finds of votive statuettes in her sanctuary in the nemus Aricinum as well
as by ancient sources, e.g. Ovid.[6]
According to Dumezil the forerunner of all frame gods is an Indian epic hero who was the image (avatar) of the
Vedic god Dyaus. Having renounced the world, in his roles of father and king, he attained the status of an immortal
being while retaining the duty of ensuring that his dynasty is preserved and that there is always a new king for each
generation. The Scandinavian god Heimdallr performs an analogous function: he is born first and will die last. He
too gives origin to kingship and the first king, bestowing on him regal prerogatives. Diana, although a female deity,
has exactly the same functions, preserving mankind through childbirth and royal succession.
Dumezil's interpretation appears deliberately to ignore that of James G. Frazer, who links Diana with the male god
Janus as a divine couple.[7] Frazer identifies the two with the supreme heavenly couple Jupiter-Juno and additionally
ties in these figures to the overarching Indoeuropean religious complex. This regality is also linked to the cult of
trees, particularly oaks. In this interpretative schema, the institution of the Rex Nemorensis and related ritual should
be seen as related to the theme of the dying god and the kings of May.[8]
Physical Description
Diana often appeared as a young woman, age around 13 to 19. It was believed that she had a fair face like Aphrodite
with a tall body, slim, small hips, and a high forehead. As a goddess of hunting, she wore a very short tunic so she
could hunt and run easily and is often portrayed holding a bow, and carrying a quiver on her shoulder, accompanied
by a deer or hunting dog. Sometimes the hunted creature would also be shown. As goddess of the moon, however,
Diana wore a long robe, sometimes with a veil covering her head. Both as goddess of hunting and goddess of the
moon she is frequently portrayed wearing a moon crown.
Worship
Diana was initially just the hunting goddess, associated with wild animals
and woodlands. She also later became a moon goddess, supplanting Titan
goddess Luna. She also became the goddess of childbirth and ruled over
the countryside.
Diana was worshipped at a festival on August 13,[9] when King Servius
Tullius, himself born a slave, dedicated her temple on the Aventine Hill
in the mid-sixth century BC. Being placed on the Aventine, and thus
outside the pomerium, meant that Diana's cult essentially remained a
'foreign' one, like that of Bacchus; she was never officially 'transferred' to
Rome as Juno was after the sack of Veii. It seems that her cult originated
in Aricia,[10] where her priest, the Rex Nemorensis remained. There the
simple open-air fane was held in common by the Latin tribes,[11] which
Rome aspired to weld into a league and direct. Diana of the wood was
soon thoroughly Hellenized,[12] "a process which culminated with the
appearance of Diana beside Apollo in the first lectisternium at Rome".[13]
Diana was regarded with great reverence by lower-class citizens and
slaves; slaves could receive asylum in her temples. This fact is of
difficult interpretation. Wissowa proposed the explanation that it might
be because the first slaves of the Romans must have been Latins of the
neighbouring tribes.[14]
Diana huntress, by Houdon. Louvre
Though some Roman patrons ordered marble replicas of the specifically
Anatolian "Diana" of Ephesus, where the Temple of Artemis stood, Diana was usually depicted for educated Romans
in her Greek guise. If she is accompanied by a deer, as in the Diana of Versailles (illustration, above right) this is
because Diana was the patroness of hunting. The deer may also offer a covert reference to the myth of Acteon (or
Actaeon), who saw her bathing naked. Diana transformed Acteon into a stag and set his own hunting dogs to kill
him.
Worship of Diana is mentioned in the Bible. In Acts of the Apostles, Ephesian metal smiths who felt threatened by
Saint Paul’s preaching of Christianity, jealously rioted in her defense, shouting “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!”
(Acts 19:28, New English Bible).
Sanctuaries
Diana was an ancient goddess common to all Latin tribes. Therefore many sanctuaries were dedicated to her in the
lands inhabited by Latins. The first one is supposed to have been near Alba before the town was destroyed by the
Romans.
The Arician wood sanctuary near the lake of Nemi was Latin confederal as testified by the dedicatory epigraph
quoted by Cato.[15]
She had a shrine in Rome on the Aventine hill, according to tradition dedicated by king Servius Tullius. Its location
is remarkable as the Aventine is situated outside the pomerium, i.e. original territory of the city, in order to comply
with the tradition that Diana was a goddess common to all Latins and not exclusively of the Romans.
Other sanctuaries we know about are listed here below:
Temple of Diana, in Evora, Portugal.
Colle di Corne near Tusculum[16] where she is referred to with the archaic Latin name of deva Cornisca and where
existed a collegium of worshippers.[17]
The Algidus Mount, also near Tusculum[18]

At Lavinium[19]
At Tivoli, where she is referred to as Diana Opifera Nemorensis[20]
A sacred wood mentioned by Livy[21] ad computum Anagninum(near Anagni).
On Mount Tifata, near Capua in Campania.[22]
In Ephesus, where she was worshiped as Diana of Ephesus and the temple used to be one of world's seven wonders.
Legacy
In religion
Diana's cult has been related in Early Modern Europe to the cult of
Nicevenn (aka Dame Habond, Perchta, Herodiana, etc.). She was
related to myths of a female Wild Hunt.
Wicca
Today there is a branch of Wicca named for her, which is
characterized by an exclusive focus on the feminine aspect of the
Divine.[23] In some Wiccan texts Lucifer is a name used
interchangeably for Diana's brother Apollo. (See
[24]
Sacred-texts.com).
Stregheria
In Italy the old religion of Stregheria embraced goddess Diana as
Queen of the Witches; witches being the wise women healers of
the time. Goddess Diana created the world of her own being
having in herself the seeds of all creation yet to come. It is said
Diana (1892 - 93), Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Bronze, that out of herself she divided into the darkness and the light,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
keeping for herself the darkness of creation and creating her
brother Apollo, the light. Goddess Diana loved and ruled with her
brother Apollo, the god of the Sun. (Charles G. Leland, Aradia: The Gospel of Witches)
Since the Renaissance the mythic Diana has often been expressed in the visual and dramatic arts, including the opera
L'arbore di Diana. In the sixteenth century, Diana's image figured prominently at the Château de Fontainebleau, in
deference to Diane de Poitiers, mistress of two French kings. At Versailles she was incorporated into the Olympian
iconography with which Louis XIV, the Apollo-like "Sun King" liked to surround himself.
There are also references to her in common literature. In Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, many references are
made to Diana. Rosaline, a beautiful woman who has sworn to chastity, is said to have "Dian's wit". Later on in the
play, Romeo says, "It is the East, and Juliet is the sun. Arise fair sun, and kill the envious moon." He is saying that
Juliet is better than Diana and Rosaline for not swearing chastity. Diana is also a character in the 1876 Leo Delibe
ballet 'Sylvia'. The plot deals with Sylvia, one of Diana's nymphs and sworn to chastity and Diana's assault on
Sylvia's affections for the shepherd Amyntas.
In Jean Cocteau's 1946 film La Belle et la Bête it is Diana's power which has transformed and imprisoned the beast.
In literature
In Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre Diana appears to Pericles in a vision, telling him to go to her temple and
tell his story to her followers.
Diana is also used by Shakespeare in the famous play As You Like It to describe how Rosaline feels about marriage.
Diana is used by Shakespeare in Twelfth Night when Orsino compares Viola (in the guise of Cesario) to Diana.
"Diana's lip is not more smooth and rubious"
Dian(a) is used again by Shakespeare in his play about racial identity Othello to describe Desdemona's face
metaphorically after he believes she is having an affair with Cassio.
There is also a reference to Diana in Shakespeare's play Much Ado About Nothing where Hero is said to seem like
'Dian in her orb', in terms of her chastity.
The Goddess is also referenced indirectly in Shakespeare's player A Midsummer Night's Dream. The character
Hippolyta states "And then the moon, like to a silver bow new bent in Heaven". She refers to Diana, Goddesse of the
moon, who is often depicted with a silver hunting bow. In the same play the character Hermia is told by the Duke
Theseus that she must either wed the character Demetrius "Or on Diana's alter to protest for aye austerity and sinle
life". He refers to her becoming a nun, with the Goddesse Diana having connotations of chastity.
In The Merchant of Venice Portia states "I will die as chaste as Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner of my
father's will". (I.ii)
In Romeo & Juliet, Romeo describes Rosaline, saying that "She hath Dian's wit".
Carlos Fuentes's novel entitled, Diana o la cazadora solitaria (Diana, The Gooddess Who Hunts Alone), was based
on The Goddess. Diana Soren was also a character that being described as having the same personality as the
goddess.
In "The Knight's Tale" in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, Emily prays to Diana to be spared from
marriage to either of her admirers Arcite or Palomon.
In "To Science", the sonnet by Edgar Allan Poe, science "dragged Driana from her car" (9).
In language
Both the Romanian word for "fairy", Zână[25] and the Leonese
word for "water nymph", xana, seem to come from the name of
Diana.
In Arts
Diana had become one of the most popular theme of arts. Painters
like Titian, Peter Paul Rubens, François Boucher, Nicholas
Pomona (left, symbolizing agriculture), and Diana
Poussin had made her as a major theme. Most of stories that being
(symbolizing commerce) as building decoration
exposed are the stories of Diana with Actaeon, story of Callisto,
and when she rested after hunting. Some famous work of arts with
Diana theme are :
• Diana and Actaeon, Diana and Callisto, and Death of Actaeon by Titian.
• Diana and Callisto, Diana Resting After Bath, and Diana Getting Out of Bath by François Boucher.
• Diana Bathing With Her Nymphs by Rembrandt.
• Diana and Endymion by Poussin.
• Diana and Callisto, Diana and Her Nymph Departing From Hunt, Diana and Her Nymphs Surprised By A Faun
by Rubens.
• The famous fountain at Palace of Caserta, Italy, created by Paolo Persico, Brunelli, Pietro Solari told a story about
when Diana being surprised by Acteon.
• A sculpture by Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain could be seen at the Musée du Louvre.
• A sculptural mascot [26] on the Diana car manufactured by the Diana Motors Company.
In Beaux Arts
Beaux Arts architecture and garden design (late 19th and early 20th centuries) used classic references in a modernized
form. Two of the most popular of the period were of Pomona (goddess of orchards) as a metaphor for Agriculture,
and Diana, representing Commerce, which is a perpetual hunt for advantage and profits.
In Parma at the convent of San Paolo, Antonio Allegri da Correggio painted the camera of the Abbess Giovanna
Piacenza's apartment. He was commissioned in 1519 to paint the ceiling and mantel of the fireplace. On the mantel
he painted an image of Diana riding in a chariot pulled possibly by a stag.
In Film
Diana/Artemis appears at the end of the 'Pastoral Symphony' segment of 'Fantasia'.
Other
• In the funeral oration of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, her brother drew an analogy between the ancient
goddess of hunting and his sister - 'the most hunted person of the modern age'.
• William Moulton Marston used the Diana myth as a basis for Wonder Woman.
• For the album art of Progressive metal band Protest the Hero's second studio album Fortress, Diana is depicted,
protected by rams and other animals. The theme of Diana is carried throughout the album.
Notes
[1] G.Dumezil La religion Romaine archaique Paris, 1974, part 3, chap.1
[2] G. Dumezil La religion Romaine archaique Paris 1974, part 3, chap.1
[3] M. Eliade Traite' d'histoire des religions
[4] Ovid Fasti III, 262-271
[5] T. Livius Ab urbe condita I, 3-7
[6] Ovid Fasti III,262-271
[7] J. Frazer The golden bough 1922, chaps. 1, 12, 16
[8] J.G. Frazer Dying gods, 1912; Geza Roheim Animism, magic and the divine king London, 1972, part 3, (see in particular chap. The king of
May)
[9] The date coincides with the founding dates celebrated at Aricium. Arthur E. Gordon, "On the Origin of Diana", Transactions and Proceedings
of the American Philological Association 63 (1932, pp. 177-192) p 178.
[10] Her cult at Aricia was first attested in Latin literature by Cato the Elder, in a surviving quote by the late grammarian Priscian. Supposed
Greek origins for the Aricia cult are strictly a literary topos. (Gordon 1932:178 note, and p. 181).
[11] commune Latinorum Dianae templum in Varro, Lingua Latina v.43; the cult there was of antiqua religione in Pliny's Natural History, xliv.
91, 242.
[12] The Potnia Theron aspect of Hellenic Artemis is represented in Capua and Signia, Greek cities of Magna Graecia, in the fifth century BCE.
[13] Gordon 1932:179.
[14] quoted by Dumezil La religion romaine archaique Paris, 1974,part 3, chap. 1
[15] Cato Origins fr.62: "Lucum Dianum In nemore Aricino Egerius Baebius Tusculanus dedicavit dictator Latinus. Hi populi communiter:
Tusculanus, Aricinus, Laurens, Coranus, Tiburtis, Pometius, Ardeatis, Rutulus."
[16] Pliny the elder Naturalis Historia XVI, 242
[17] CIL, 975; CIL XIV,2633
[18] Horace, Carmina, I, 21, 5-6; Carmen Saeculare
[19] CIL XIV,2112
[20] CIL, 3537
[21] Livy Ab urbe condita XXVII, 4
[22] Roy Merle Peterson The cults of Campania Rome, American Academy 1919, pp 322-328
[23] Falcon River (2004) The Dianic Wiccan Tradition (http:/ / www. witchvox. com/ va/ dt_va. html?a=uswi& c=trads& id=8451). From The
Witches Voice. Retrieved 2007-05-23.
[24] Sacred-texts.com (http:/ / www. sacred-texts. com/ pag/ aradia/ ara05. htm)
[25] Zână (http:/ / dexonline. ro/ search. php?cuv=Záº¤NÄ) in DEX '98 and NODEX.
[26] http:/ / www. flickr. com/ photos/ digitaldeviant/ 256613131/
External links
• Landscape with Diana and Callisto painting (http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/picture-of-month/
displaypicture.asp?venue=7&id=130)
• Diana and her Nymphs painting (http://www.wga.hu/art/d/domenich/diana.jpg)
Disciplina
In Roman mythology, Disciplina was a minor deity and the personification of discipline.[1] The word disciplina
itself, a Latin noun, is multi-faceted in meaning; it refers to education and training, self-control and determination,
knowledge in a field of study, and an orderly way of life. The goddess embodied these qualities for her worshippers.
She was commonly worshipped by imperial Roman soldiers, particularly those who lived along the borders of the
Roman Empire;[2] altars to her have been found in Great Britain and North Africa. The fort of Cilurnum along
Hadrian's Wall was dedicated to the goddess Disciplina, as witnessed by an extant dedicatory inscription on a stone
altar found in 1978.[3] Her chief virtues were frugalitas, severitas and fidelis—frugality, sternness, and faithfulness.
In worshiping Disciplina, a soldier became frugal in every way: with money, with energy and actions. The virtue of
severitas was shown in his focused, determined, not easily dissuaded, and decisive behavior. He was faithful to his
unit, his army, the officers and the Roman people.
References
[1] Eileen Holland, Holland's Grimoire of Magickal Correspondences: A Ritual Handbook, 2005, Career Press, 307 pages ISBN 1564148319.
[2] Paul Erdkamp, A Companion to the Roman Army, 2007, Blackwell Publishing, 600 pages ISBN 140512153X
[3] "The epigraphy of Cilurnum" (http:/ / www. roman-britain. org/ places/ cilurnum. htm)
Domiduca 284
Domiduca
In Roman mythology, the goddess Domiduca (Adeona) protects children on the way back to their parents' home.
Also, Domiduca and Domiducus were two gods of marriage who were believed to protect the bride on her way to the
house of the bridegroom. The names occur as epithets of Jupiter and Juno. [1]
deities covered the general realm of infancy and childhood.[2] In this area, Domiduca was called upon as a general
guardian and tutelary deity of children to ensure their safety as they traveled home.
References
[1] http:/ / www. mythindex. com/ roman-mythology/ D/ Domiduca. html
Edusa
In ancient Roman religion, Edusa or Edulica was a goddess of nourishment who guarded over children as they
learned to eat solid foods (weaning).
deities covered the general realm of infancy and childhood.[1] In this area, Edusa was called upon as a general
guardian and tutelary deity of infants to ensure their safety as they were weaned from breast feeding onto solid
foods.
References
External links
Egeria (mythology)
Egeria was a nymph attributed a legendary role in the early
history of Rome as a divine consort and counselor of the Sabine
second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, to whom she imparted
laws and rituals pertaining to ancient Roman religion. Her name is
used as an eponym for a female advisor or counselor.
Function
Egeria as a nymph or minor goddess of the Roman religious
system is of unclear origin; she is consistently, though in no very
clear way, associated with another figure of the Diana type; their
cult is known [1] to have been celebrated at sacred groves, such as
the renowned site of Nemi at Aricia, and another one close to
Rome, expedient for her presumed regular meetings with King A 16th-century drawing of Egeria
Numa; both goddesses are also associated with water gifted with
wondrous, religious or medical properties (the source in that grove at Rome was dedicated to the exclusive use of the
Vestals[2] ); their cult was associated with other, male figures of even more obscure meaning, such as one named
Virbius[3] , or a Manius Egerius, presumably a youthful male, that anyway in later years was identified with figures
like Atys or Hippolyte, because of the Diana reference (see Frazer).
Described sometime as a "mountain nymph" (Plutarch), she is usually regarded as a water nymph and somehow her
cult also involved some link with childbirth, like the Greek goddess Ilithyia.
But most of all, Egeria gave wisdom and prophecy in return for libations of water or milk at her sacred groves. This
quality has been made especially popular through the tale of her relationship with Numa Pompilius (the second
legendary king of Rome, that succeeded its founder Romulus);
In this myth she is shown as counselor and guide to King Numa in the establishment of the original framework of
laws and rituals of Rome, and in this role she is somehow uniquely in Roman mythology associated with "sacred
books"; Numa (latin "numen" designates "the expressed will of a deity"[4] ) is reputed to have written down the
teachings of Egeria in "sacred books" that he made bury with him; when some chance accident brought them back to
light some 400 years later, they were deemed by the Senate inappropriate for disclosure to the people and destroyed
by their order[5] ; what made them inappropriate was certainly of "political" nature but apparently has not been
handed down by Valerius Antias, the source that Plutarch was using.Dionysius of Halicarnassus hints that they were
actually kept as a very close secret by the Pontifices[6] .
She is also gifted with oracular capabilities (she interpreted for Numa the abstruse omens of gods, for instance the
episode of the omen from Faunus[7] ). In another episode she helps Numa in a battle of wits with Jupiter himself,
whereby Numa sought to gain a protective ritual against lightning strokes and thunder[8] .
The name Egeria has been diversely interpreted; it might mean "of the black poplar" (needs source); George
Dumézil[9] proposed it came from "e-gerere", suggesting it came from her childbirth role, though this sounds very
unlikely; her role as prophetess and author of "sacred books" (even through the proxy of Numa) would compare[10]
her to the Etruscan figure of Vegoia (alleged author among other things of "Libri Fulgurales", which give keys to
interpreting the meaning of lightning strokes, seen as ominous messages from deities, a variety of them) .
Numa also invoked communicating with other deities, such as Muses[11] ; hence naturally enough, the somewhat
"pale" figure of Egeria was later categorized by the Romans as one of the Camenae, deities who came to be equated
with the Greek Muses as Rome fell under the cultural influence of Greece; so Dionysius of Halicarnassus listed
Egeria among the Muses.[12] .

The precise level of her relationship to Numa has been described diversely sometimes as Amica[13] , but ordinarily
has been qualified with the more respectful coniuncta ("consort"); Plutarch is very evasive as of the actual mode, and
hints that Numa himself entertained a level of ambiguïty[14] . In later years that tradition came under critical review
in Juvenal's day.[15] .
Numa Pompilius died in 673 BC of old age. According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, after Numa's death Egeria was
transformed into a spring, this sort of place being a usual site of inspiration and prophecy in antiquity.[16] .
At Aricia
Egeria may predate Roman myth: she
could have been of Italic origin in the
sacred forest of Aricia in Latium, her
immemorial site, which was equally the
grove of Diana Nemorensis ("Diana of
Nemi"). At Aricia there was also a
Manius Egerius, a male counterpart of
Egeria.[17]
Egeria mourns Numa (1669) by Claude Lorrain
At Rome
A grove sacred to Egeria in connection with Numa stood close by a busy gate of
Rome, the Porta Capena , near where the Baths of Caracalla were built in the
third century. In the second century, when Herodes Atticus recast an inherited
villa nearby as a great landscaped estate, the natural grotto was formalized as an
arched interior with an apsidal end where a statue of Egeria once stood in a
niche; the surfaces were enriched with revetments of green and white marble
facings and green porphyry flooring and friezes of mosaic. The primeval spring,
one of dozens of springs that flow into the river Almone, was made to feed large
pools, one of which was known as Lacus Salutaris or "Lake of Health". Juvenal
regretted an earlier phase of architectural elaboration:
Nymph of the Spring! More honour’d hadst thou been,

Apse of the Ninfeo d'Egeria, Parco
If, free from art, an edge of living green,
Cafarella, Rome
Thy bubbling fount had circumscribed alone,
And marble ne’er profaned the native stone.[18]
The ninfeo was a favored picnic spot for nineteenth-century Romans and can still be visited in the archaeological
park of the Caffarella, between the Appian Way and the even more ancient Via Latina.[19]
In modern literature
• In Nathaniel Lee's English Restoration tragedy Lucius Junius Brutus (1680), Egeria appears in a vision to Brutus'
son Titus.
• In Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, the priest Chasuble refers to Cecily's tutor Miss Prism as
"Egeria."
Notes
[1] James George Frazer, The Golden Bough,I, The magician king in primitive societies
[2] Plutarch, "The parallel lives, Numa Pompilius"
[3] Georges Dumézil, La religion romaine archaïque, Bibliothèque historique Payot, ISBN 2-22889297-1, 1974, 2000, appendice sur la religion
des Etrusques
des Etrusques,p47
[5] Plutarch, "The parallel lives, Numa Pompilius"
[6] note by Gerard Walter, editor of Plutarch's Parallel lives translation by Jacques Amyot, La Pléïade volume n°43, 1967
des Etrusques p377
[8] Plutarch, "The parallel lives, Numa Pompilius, §XXVII"
des Etrusques
[10] Vegoia and Egeria
[11] Plutarch, "The parralel lives, Numa Pompilius"
[12] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, ii. 6o.
[13] or "girlfriend" in Juvenal's sceptical phrase
[14] Plutarch, "The parallel lives, Numa Pompilius, 4.2 and 8.6.
[15] Alex Hardie, "Juvenal, the Phaedrus, and the Truth about Rome" The Classical Quarterly New Series, 48.1 (1998), pp. 234-251.
[16] Ovid, Metamorphoses xv. 479.
[17] Encyclopædia Britannica 1911.
[18] Juvenal, Satire 3.17–20, as translated by William Gifford.
[19] Information about the Park of the Caffarella (http:/ / www. romacivica. net/ tarcaf/ engfra/ cafgen_e. htm)
External links
• Encyclopædia Britannica 1911: (http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/ECG_EMS/EGERIA.html) Egeria
• Roma Sotterranea: Il ninfeo di Egeria: (in Italian) Ruins of Egeria's Nymphaeum (http://www.romasotterranea.
it/ita/sub/280.php)
• Park of the Caffarella (http://www.romacivica.net/tarcaf/engfra/cafgen_e.htm)
Empanda 288
Empanda
In Roman mythology, Empanda or Panda was a goddess or a surname of Juno.
According to Festus,[1] she was a dea paganorum. Varro[2] connects the word with pandere, but explains it by panem
dare, so that Empanda would be the goddess of bread or food. She had a sanctuary near the gate, called after her the
porta Pandana, which led to the capitol.[3] Her temple was an asylum, which was always open, and needy
supplicants who came to it were supplied with food from the resources of the temple. In the opinion of Leonhard
Schmitz, this custom shows the meaning of the name Panda or Empanda: it is connected with pandere, to open; she
is accordingly the goddess who is open to or admits any one who wants protection. Hartung[4] thinks that Empanda
and Panda are only surnames of Juno.
References
• This article incorporates text by Leonhard Schmitz from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).
Footnotes
[1] (s. v. Empanda) – cited by Schmitz
[2] ap. Non. p. 44; comp. Gell. xiii. 22; Arnobius iv. 2 – cited by Schmitz
[3] (Festus, s. v. Pandana; Varro, de Ling. Lat. v. 42.) – cited by Schmitz
[4] (die Religion der Röm. ii. p. 76, &c.) – cited by Schmitz
Epona
In Gallo-Roman religion, Epona was a protector of horses,
donkeys, and mules. She was particularly a goddess of fertility, as
shown by her attributes of a patera, cornucopia, ears of grain and
the presence of foals in some sculptures[1] suggested that the
goddess and her horses were leaders of the soul in the after-life
ride, with parallels in Rhiannon of the Mabinogion. Unusually for
a Celtic deity, most of whom were associated with specific
localities, the worship of Epona, "the sole Celtic divinity
ultimately worshipped in Rome itself,"[2] was widespread in the
Roman Empire between the first and third centuries CE.
Etymology of the name

Although known only from Roman contexts, the name Epona,
'Great Mare' is from the Gaulish language; it is derived from the
inferred proto-Celtic *ekwos 'horse'[3] — which gives rise to
modern Welsh ebol 'foal' — together with the augmentative suffix
-on frequently, though not exclusively, found in theonyms (for
example Sirona, Matrona, and the usual Gaulish feminine singular
-a.[4] In an episode preserved in a remark of Pausanias,[5] an Epona, 3rd c. AD, from Freyming (Moselle), France
(Musée Lorrain, Nancy)
Epona 289
archaic Demeter too had also been a Great Mare, who was mounted by Poseidon in the form of a stallion and foaled
Arion and the Daughter who was unnamed outside the Arcadian mysteries.[6] Demeter was venerated as a mare in
Lycosoura in Arcadia into historical times.
Evidence for Epona

Fernand Benoit[7] found the earliest attestations of a cult of Epona in
the Danubian provinces and asserted that she had been introduced in
the limes of Gaul by horsemen from the east. This suggestion has not
been generally taken up.
Although the name is in origin Gaulish, dedicatory inscriptions to
Epona are in Latin or, rarely, Greek. They were made not only by
Celts, but also by Germans, Romans and other inhabitants of the
Roman Empire. An inscription to Epona from Mainz, Germany,
Epona and her horses, from Köngen, Germany,
identifies the dedicator as Syrian.[8] A long Latin inscription of the first About 200 AD.
century BCE, engraved in a lead sheet and accompanying the sacrifice
of a filly and the votive gift of a cauldron, was found in 1887 at Rom, Deux-Sèvres, the Roman Rauranum. The
inscription offers to the goddess an archaic profusion of epithets for a goddess, Eponina 'dear little Epona': she is
Atanta, horse-goddess Potia 'powerful Mistress' (compare Greek Potnia) and "Heppos" (ίππος = horse), Dibonia
(Latin, the 'good goddess')", Catona 'of battle', noble and good Vovesia.[9]
Her feast day in the Roman calendar was December 18 as shown by a rustic calendar from Guidizzolo, Italy,[10]
although this may have been only a local celebration. She was incorporated into the Imperial cult by being invoked
on behalf of the Emperor, as Epona Augusta or Epona Regina.
The supposed autonomy of Celtic civilisation in Gaul suffered a further setback with Fernand Benoit's study[11] of
the funereal symbolism of the horseman with the serpent-tailed ("anguiforme") daemon, which he established as a
theme of victory over death, and Epona; both he found to be late manifestations of Mediterranean-influenced
symbolism, which had reached Gaul through contacts with Etruria and Magna Graecia. Benoit compared the rider
with most of the riders imaged around the Mediterranean shores.
Perceptions of native Celtic goddesses had changed under Roman hegemony: only the names remained the same. As
Gaul was Romanized under the early Empire, Epona’s sovereign role evolved into a protector of cavalry.[12] The cult
of Epona was spread over much of the Roman Empire by the auxiliary cavalry, alae, especially the Imperial Horse
Guard or equites singulares augustii recruited from Gaul, Lower Germany, and Pannonia. A series of their
dedications to Epona and other Celtic, Roman and German deities was found in Rome, at the Lateran.[13] As Epane
she is attested in Cantabria, northern Spain, on Mount Bernorio, Palencia.[14]
A bizarre euhemeristic account of the birth of Epona that does not reflect Celtic beliefs can be found in Plutarch's life
of Solon: Giambattista Della Porta's edition of Magia naturalis (1589), a potpourri of the sensible and questionable,
remarks, in the context of unseemly man-beast coupling, Plutarch's Life of Solon, in which he "reports out of
Agesilaus, his third book of Italian matters, that Fulvius Stella loathing the company of a woman, coupled himself
with a mare, of whom he begot a very beautiful maiden-child, and she was called by a fit name, Epona..."
Epona 290
Iconography
Sculptures of Epona fall into five types, as distinguished by Benoit:
riding, standing or seated before a horse, standing or seated between
two horses, a tamer of horses in the manner of potnia theron and the
symbolic mare and foal. In the Equestrian type, common in Gaul, she
is depicted sitting side-saddle on a horse or (rarely) lying on one; in the
Imperial type (more common outside Gaul) she sits on a throne flanked
by two or more horses or foals.[15] In distant Dacia, she is represented A relief of Epona, flanked by two pairs of horses,
on a stela (now at the Szépmüvézeti Museum, Budapest) in the format from Roman Macedonia.
of Cybele, seated frontally on a throne with her hands on the necks of

her paired animals: her horses are substitutions for Cybele's lions.
In Roman texts and inscriptions

Epona is mentioned in The Golden Ass by Apuleius, where an aedicular niche with her image on a pillar in a stable
has been garlanded with freshly-picked roses.[16] In his Satires, the Roman poet Juvenal also links the worship and
iconography of Epona to the area of a stable.[17] Small images of Epona have been found in Roman sites of stables
and barns over a wide territory.
In Great Britain
The probable date of ca. 1400 BCE ascribed to the giant chalk horse carved into the hillside turf at Uffington, in
southern England, is too early to be directly associated with Epona a millennium and more later, but clearly
represents a Bronze Age totem of some kind. The English traditional hobby-horse riders parading on May Day at
Padstow, Cornwall and Minehead, Somerset, which survived to the mid-twentieth century, even though Morris
dances had been forgotten, may have deep roots in the veneration of Epona, as may the English aversion to eating
horsemeat.[18] At Padstow formerly, at the end of the festivities the hobby-horse was ritually submerged in the
sea.[19]
A provincial though not crude small (7.5 cm high) Roman bronze of a seated Epona, flanked by a small mare and
stallion, found in England,[20] is conserved in the British Museum.[21] Lying on her lap and on the patera raised in
her right hand are disproportionately large ears of grain; ears of grain also protrude from the mouths of the ponies,
whose heads are turned towards the goddess. On her left arm she holds a yoke, which curves up above her shoulder,
an attribute unique to this bronze statuette.[22]
The Welsh goddess Rhiannon rides a white horse and has many attributes of Epona. A south Welsh folk ritual call
Mari Lwyd (Grey Mare) is still undertaken in December - an apparent survival of the veneration of the goddess. The
pantomime horse is thought to be a related survival.
Epona 291
Today
On Mackinac Island, Michigan, Epona is celebrated each June with stable tours, a blessing of the animals and the
Epona and Barkus Parade. Mackinac Island, Michigan does not permit any personal automobiles: the primary source
of transportation remains the horse, so celebrating Epona has special significance on this island in the Upper
Midwest.[23]
In popular culture
• Link, from The Legend of Zelda series games, rides a horse named Epona in four installments: The Legend of
Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998), The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000), The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
Adventures (2004) and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006). In Twilight Princess the player is given
the option to change the name of the horse, but Epona is the default name.
• In Rosemary Sutcliff's 1977 historical novel, Sun Horse, Moon Horse, the White Horse of Uffington is created as
an invocation to Epona.
• In Morgan Llywelyn's novel, The Horse Goddess, Epona is a Celtic woman who possesses Druidic powers.
• Omnia (a Dutch PaganFolk band) has dedicated a song called 'Epona' to the Celtic goddess, which appears on the
album Sine Missione.
• Enya has a song titled 'Epona'.
• As part of the European Space Agency Giotto Mission to Halley's Comet, an experiment by Irish Scientists from
St. Patrick's College, Maynooth was named EPONA; this was also an acronym for Energetic Particle ONset
Admonitor.[24] [25]
• In S.M. Stirling's Dies the Fire series, the character of Rudi Mackenzie rides a large, majestic black mare named
Epona, who will allow no one but him to ride her.
• Epona is the chief deity in the Goddess of Parthalon series by P.C. Cast. Her priestess always rides a white mare.
The releveant books start with Bk. 1 "Divine by Mistake" and currently the last book is Bk. 5 "Brighid's Quest".
Notes
[1] Salomon Reinach, "Épona", Revue archéologique (1895:163-95); Henri Hubert, Mélanges linguistiques offerts à M. J.Vendryes
(1925:187-198).
[2] Phyllis Pray Bober, reviewing Réne Magnen, Epona, Déesse Gauloise des Chevaux, Protectrice des Cavaliers in American Journal of
Archaeology 62.3 (July 1958, pp. 349-350) p. 349. Émile Thevenot contributed a corpus of 268 dedicatory inscriptions and representations.
[3] Compare Latin equus, Greek hippos.
[4] Delmarre, 2003:163-164.
[5] Pausanias, viii.25.5, 37.1 and 42.1 The myth was noted in Bibliotheke 3.77 and reflected also in a lost poem of Callimachus and in Ptolemy
Hephaestion's "New History ( Theoi.com: texts (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Olympios/ DemeterFamily. html#Poseidon)).
[6] Karl Kerenyi, The Gods of the Greeks (1951) pp 184ff "Demeter, and Poseidon's stallion-marriages".
[7] Benoît, F. (1950). Les mythes de l'outre-tombe. Le cavalier à l'anguipède et l'écuyère Épona. Brussels, Latomus Revue d'études latines.
[8] CIL 13, 11801
[9] G.S.Olmstead, "Gaulish and Celti-Iberian poetic inscriptions" Mankind Quarterly 28.4, pp339-387.
[10] Vaillant, 1951.
[11] Benoit 1950.
[12] Oaks 1986:79-81.
[13] Spiedel, 1994.
[14] Simón.
[15] Nantonos, 2004.
[16] "respicio pilae mediae, quae stabuli trabes sustinebat, in ipso fere meditullio Eponae deae simulacrum residens aediculae, quod accurate
corollis roseis equidem recentibus fuerat ornatum." (iii.27). In Robert Graves' translation of The Golden Ass, he has interposed an explanatory
"the Mare-headed Mother" that does not appear in the Latin text; it would have linked Epona with the primitive mythology of Demeter, who
was covered as a mare by Poseidon in stallion-form (see above); there is no justification for identifying Epona with Demeter, however.
[17] Satire VIII lines 155-57, where the narrator derides a consul for his inappropriate interest in horses:
Epona 292
Meanwhile, while he sacrifices sheep and a reddish bullock interea, dum lanatas robumque iuuencum
in the fashion of ancient king Numa, before the altar of Jupiter more Numae caedit, Iouis ante altaria iurat
he swears an oath only by Epona and the images painted at the reeking stables. solam Eponam et facies olida ad praesepia pictas.
[18] Theo Brown, "Tertullian and Horse-Cults in Britain" Folklore 61.1 (March 1950, pp. 31-34) p. 33.
[19] Herbert Kille, "West Country hobby-horses and cognate customs" Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society
77 (1931)
[20] Wiltshire is believable, but was added to the provenance, merely "trouvée en Angleterre", after the piece had been described in the sale
catalogue of the Ferencz Pulszky collection, Paris, 1868.
[21] "provincial, but not barbaric" is the assessment of the style by Catherine Johns, "A Roman Bronze Statuette of Epona", The British Museum
Quarterly 36.1/2 (Autumn 1971:37-41).
[22] Identified as a yoke by Catherine Johns 1971; its misidentification as a serpent has led to misleading identification of a "chthonic" Epona.
[23] [http:// Mackinac Island Lilac Festival (http:/ / www. mackinacislandlilacfestival. org).
[24] Susan McKenna-Lawlor Profile (http:/ / www. zoominfo. com/ people/ McKenna-Lawlor_Susan_3678935. aspx) Contribution to the
Leonardo Space and the Arts Workshop on Sunday, March 21, 1999
[25] McKenna-Lawlor, S. M. P., "Ireland's contribution to deep space missions" Irish Astronomical Journal (ISSN 0021-1052), vol. 18, March
1988, pp 179-183. (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ full/ 1988IrAJ. . . 18. . 179M)
References
• Benoît, F. (1950). Les mythes de l'outre-tombe. Le cavalier à l'anguipède et l'écuyère Épona. Brussels, Latomus
Revue d'études latines.
• Delamarre, X. (2003). Dictionaire de la Langue Gauloise. 2nd edition. Paris, Editions Errance.
• Euskirchen, Marion (1993). "Epona" Dissertation, Bonn 1994 (Sonderdruck aus: Bericht der
Römisch-Germanischen Kommission 74.1993.)
• Evans, Dyfed Llwyd (2005–2007), Epona: a Gaulish and Brythonic goddess (Divine Horse) (http://www.
celtnet.org.uk/gods_e/epona.html)
• Green M. J. (1986), The Gods of the Celts, Stroud, Gloucestershire.
• Magnen, R. Epona (Delmas, 1953).
• Nantonos and Ceffyl (2004), Epona.net, a scholarly resource (http://www.epona.net)
• Oaks, L. S. (1986), "The goddess Epona", in M. Henig and A. King, Pagan Gods and Shrines of the Roman
Empire (Oxford), pp 77–84.
• Reinach, Salomon (1895). "Épona". Revue archéologique 1895, 163-95,
• Simón, Francisco Marco, "Religion and Religious Practices of the Ancient Celts of the Iberian Peninsula" in
e-Keltoi: The Celts in the Iberian Peninsula, 6 287-345, section 2.2.4.1 ( on-line (http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/
celtic/ekeltoi/volumes/vol6/6_6/marco_simon_6_6.html))
• Speidel, M. P. (1994). Riding for Caesar: the Roman Emperors' Horse Guards. Cambridge, Massachusetts,
Harvard University Press.
• Thevenot, Emile 1949. "Les monuments et le culte d' Epona chez les Eduens," L'antiquité Classique 18 pp
385–400. Epona and the Aedui.
• Vaillant, Roger (1951), Epona-Rigatona, Ogam, Rennes, pp 190–205.
External links
• Epona (http://www.epona.net/introduction.html)
Fauna (goddess) 293
Fauna (goddess)
In Roman mythology, Fauna is an alternate name for:
• Bona Dea, was a goddess of fertility, healing, virginity and women, also known as Marica
• Ops, a fertility deity and earth-goddess of Sabine origin
• Terra (goddess), the goddess of the Earth
Faustitas
In Roman mythology, the goddess Faustitas (Latin: "good fortune") had the responsibility of protecting the herd and
livestock. According to Horace [1] , she walked about farmlands together with Ceres, ensuring their fruitfulness.
References
[1] Horace, Odes 4. 5. 18
Febris
In Roman mythology, Febris ("fever") was the goddess who embodied, but also protected people from fever and
malaria. Febris had three temples in ancient Rome, of which one was located between the Palatine and Velabrum[1]
[2] [3] [4]
. She may have originated from the Etruscan god Februus. Among her characteristic attributes are
'shrewdness' and 'honesty', according to Seneca the Younger's Apocolocyntosis[5] .
References
[1] Valerius Maximus, Nine Books of Memorable Deeds and Sayings, 2. 5. 6
[2] Cicero, On The Laws, 2. 11
[3] Cicero, On The Nature of Gods, 3. 25
[4] Claudius Aelianus, Various History (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ aelian/ ), 12. 11
[5] Seneca the Younger, Apocolocyntosis, 6
External links
• Myth Index - Febris (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/F/Febris.html)
• William Smith Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, v. 2, page 142 (http://www.
Fecunditas 294
Fecunditas
In Roman mythology, Fecunditas (Latin: "fecundity, fertility") was the goddess of fertility. She was portrayed as a
matron, sometimes holding a cornucopia or a hasta pura, with children in her arms or standing next to her[1] .
Nero dedicated a temple at Rome to Fecunditas, on occasion of his daughter's birth[2] .
References
[1] Madden, F. Smith, C. R., Stevenson, S. W. A Dictionary of Roman coins. London, 1889. - p. 377, under Fecunditas (http:/ / www.
forumancientcoins. com/ numiswiki/ view. asp?key=fecunditas)
[2] Tacitus, Annals, 15. 23
Felicitas 295
Felicitas
These articles cover the Ancient Roman Comitium of the Republican era
Structures- Rostra, Curia Hostilia, Curia Julia, Lapis Niger, Temple of Felicitas
Politicians- Cicero, Gaius Gracchus, Julius Caesar
Assemblies- Roman Senate, comitia curiata
In Roman mythology, Felicitas (meaning "good luck" or

"fortune") was the goddess or personification of good
luck and success. She played an important role in
Rome's state religion during the empire, and was
frequently portrayed on coins. She became a prominent
symbol of the wealth and prosperity of the Roman
Empire.
Felicitas was unknown before the mid-2nd century BC, Felicitas holding a caduceus and a cornucopia, two symbols of
when a temple was dedicated to her in the Velabrum in health and wealth, on this coin of the Roman Emperor Valerian.
the Campus Martius by Lucius Licinius Lucullus, using
booty from his 151–150 BC campaign in Spain. The temple was destroyed by a fire during the reign of Claudius and
was never rebuilt.
Another temple in Rome was planned by Julius Caesar and was erected after his death by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus
on the site of the Curia Hostilia, which had been restored by Lucius Cornelius Sulla but demolished by Caesar in 44
BC. This temple no longer existed by the time of Hadrian, and its site probably lies under the church of Santi
Martina e Luca.
The word felicitas, "luck", is also the source of the word and name felicity.
References
• Champeaux, Jacqueline (1987). Fortuna. Recherches sur le culte de la Fortune à Rome et dans le monde romain
des origines à la mort de César. II Les Transformations de Fortuna sous le République (pp. 216–236). Rome:
Ecole Française de Rome. ISBN 2-7283-0041-0.
• Hammond, N.G.L. & Scullard, H.H. (Eds.) (1970). The Oxford Classical Dictionary (p. 434). Oxford: Oxford
University Press. ISBN 0-19-869117-3.
• Richardson, L. (1992). A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (p. 150). Baltimore and London: The
Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-4300-6.
Ferentina 296
Ferentina
Ferentina was the patron goddess of the city Ferentinum, Latium. She was protector of the Latin commonwealth.
She was also closely associated with the Roman Empire.
A grove sacred to the goddess was used as the site of a famous meeting of the leaders of the Latin towns with the last
king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, at the beginning of his reign. The leading citizen of Aricia, Turnus
Herdonius was murdered at the command of Tarquinius, by being drowned in the sacred waters of the grove. [1]
References
[1] Livy Ab urbe condita 1.50-52
Feronia (mythology)
For other uses, see Feronia.
In ancient Roman religion, Feronia was a goddess broadly associated
with fertility and abundance. She was especially honored among
plebeians and freedmen. Her festival, the Feroniae, was November 13,
during the Ludi Plebeii ("Plebeian Games"), in conjunction with
Fortuna Primigenia; both were goddesses of Praeneste.[1]
Origins and functions

Varro places Feronia in his list of Sabine gods[2] who had altars in
Rome. Inscriptions to Feronia are found mostly in central Italy.[3] She
was among the deities that Sabine moneyers placed on their coins to
honor their heritage.[4] She may have been introduced into Roman
religious practice when Manius Curius Dentatus conquered Sabinum in
the early 3rd century BC.[5]
Many versions of Feronia’s cult have been supposed, and it is not quite Head identified as Feronia (Archaeologic
clear that she was only one goddess or had only one function in ancient Museum of Rieti)
times. Some Latins believed Feronia to be a harvest goddess, and
honoured her with the harvest firstfruits[6] in order to secure a good harvest the following year.
Feronia also served as a goddess of travellers, fire, and waters.
In Vergil's Aeneid, troops from Feronia's grove fight on the side of Turnus against Aeneas.[7] The Arcadian king
Evander recalls how in his youth he killed a son of Feronia, Erulus, who like Geryon had a triple body and a triple
soul; Evander thus had to kill him thrice.[8] Erulus, whom Vergil identifies as king at Praeneste, is otherwise
unknown in literature.[9]
Cult sites
Feronia had a temple at the base of Mt. Soracte.[10] The Lucus
Feroniae, or "grove of Feronia" (Fiano Romano) was the site of an
annual festival in her honour,[11] which was in the nature of a trade
fair.[12] The place, in the territory of Capena in southwestern Etruria,
was plundered of its gold and silver by Hannibal's retreating troops in
211 BCE, when he turned aside from the Via Salaria to visit the
sanctuary;[13] later it became an Augustan colonia. Its status as a
colony is recorded in a single inscription, copied in a manuscript of the
rule of the Farfa Abbey[14] as colonia Iulia Felix Lucoferonensis.[15]
Ruin of the temple of Feronia at Largo di Torre
Another important site was in Anxur (Terracina, southern Latium), Argentina
where Servius recorded a joint cult of "the boy Jupiter" (puer Iuppiter)
under the name of Anxyrus and "Juno the Virgin" (Iuno virgo), whom he identifies as Feronia.[16] According to
another tradition, slaves who had just been freed might go to the shrine at Terracina and receive upon their shaved
heads the pileus, a hat that symbolized their liberty.
Her temple in the Campus Martius, in what is now Largo di Torre Argentina, may have been dedicated by Curtius
Dentatus following his victory over the Sabines. His building program also included the Anio Vetus, a major new
aqueduct, and a number of fountains are near the temple.[17] Her cults at Aquileia and Terracina were near springs
that were used in her rites.[18] The Augustan poet Horace speaks of the water (lympha) of Feronia, in which "we
bathe our face and hands."[19]
The Feralia on February 21 is a festival of Jupiter Feretrius, not Feronia.
Freedmen and libertas

Varro identified Feronia with Libertas, the goddess who personified Liberty.[20] According to Servius,[21] Feronia
was a tutelary goddess of freedmen (dea libertorum). A stone at the Terracina shrine was inscribed "let deserving
slaves sit down so that they may stand up free." Livy notes[22] that in 217 BC freedwomen collected money as a gift
for Feronia.[23]
Continuation
Charles Godfrey Leland found surviving traditions concerning the "witch" Feronia in 19th century Tuscany.[24]
References
[1] William Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic (London, 1908), pp. 252–254; Peter F. Dorcey, The Cult of
Silvanus: A Study in Roman Folk Religion (Brill, 1992), p. 7.
[2] Varro, De lingua latina 5.74 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=wHEGcPZZmHwC& pg=PA114& dq=Novensides& lr=&
as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=30#v=onepage& q=Novensides&
f=false) (Latin).
[3] Dorcey, The Cult of Feronia, p. 109.
[4] Gary D. Farney, Ethnic Identity and Aristocratic competition in Republican Rome (Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 82.
[5] Farney, Ethnic Identity, p. 286, citing Coarelli.
[6] Livy xxvi.11.8.
[7] Vergil, Aeneid 7.800.
[8] Aeneid 8.564, and Servius's note to the passage.
[9] Lee Fratantuono, Madness Unchained: A Reading of Virgil's Aeneid (Lexington Books, 2007), pp. 242 and 248.
[10] Strabo, v: Sub monte Soracte urbs est Feronia...
[11] Strabo, v.2.9; Filippo Coarelli, I Santuari del Lazio in eta Repubblicana (Rome) 1987
[12] Karl Otfried Müller, Die Etrusker (1828) identified her as a goddess of the marketplace.
[13] Livy.
[14] Codex Vaticanus Latinus 6808.
[15] Lily Ross Taylor, "The Site of Lucus Feroniae" The Journal of Roman Studies 10 (1920), pp. 29-36. Taylor identified the site as Nazzano
[16] Coarelli 1987; Servius, note to Aeneid 7.799.
[17] John W. Stamper, The Architecture of Roman Temples: The Republic to the Middle Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 44–45.
[18] Farney, Ethnic Identity, p. 286.
[19] Horace, Satires 1.5.24, as cited by R.B. Onians, The Origins of European Thought about the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time and
Fate (Cambridge University Press, 1951), p. 480
[20] Servius, in his note to Aeneid 8.564, says that Varro called the goddess Liberty Feronia or Fidonia.
[21] Servius, note to Aeneid 8.564.
[22] Livy, 22.1.18.
[23] Dorcey, The Cult of Silvanus, p. 109.
[24] Leland, Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition 1892, ch. III "Feronia"
Fides (goddess)
In Roman religion, Fides was the goddess of
trust.
Her temple on the Capitol was where the
Roman Senate signed and kept state treaties
with foreign countries, and where Fides
protected them.
She was also worshipped under the name
Fides Publica Populi Romani ("Public (or
Common) Trust of the Roman People"). She Pompeia Plotina coin, celebrating Fides on the reverse.
is represented by a young woman crowned
with an olive branch, with a cup or turtle, or a military ensign in hand. She wears a white veil or stola; her priests
wore white cloths, showing her connexion to the highest gods of Heaven, Jupiter and Dius Fidius.
Rome's second king, Numa Pompilius instituted a yearly festival devoted to Fides, and established that the major
priests (the three flamines maiores) be borne to her temple in an covered arched chariot drawn by two horses. There
they should conduct her services with their heads covered and right hands wrapped up to the fingers to indicate
absolute devotion to her.[1]
Her Greek equivalent was Pistis.
References
[1] Livy, Ab urbe condita, 1:21
External links
• Myth Index - Fides (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/F/Fides.html)
Flora (mythology)
Important Gods:
• Vesta • Ceres
• Juno • Venus
Roman Kingdom
Flamens
Other Rustic Gods:

In Roman mythology, Flora was a goddess of flowers and the season of spring. While she was otherwise a relatively
minor figure in Roman mythology, being one among several fertility goddesses, her association with the spring gave
her particular importance at the coming of springtime. Her festival, the Floralia, was held in April or early May and
symbolized the renewal of the cycle of life, drinking, and flowers. Her Greek equivalent was Chloris. Flora was
married to Favonius, the wind god, and her companion was Hercules. Her name is derived from the Latin word
"flos" which means "flower." In modern English, "Flora" also means the plants of a particular region or period. [1]
Flora achieved more prominence in the neo-pagan revival of Antiquity among Renaissance humanists than she had
ever enjoyed in ancient Rome.
She is the main villian of the ballet The Awakening of Flora.
References
• Ovid, Fasti V.193-212
• Macrobius, Saturnalia I.10.11-14
• Lactantius, Divinae institutions I.20.6-10
Flora or HebeMarie FloraLouise Abbéma 1913 Goddess Flora depiction Portrait of Flora
Louise Élisabeth Rembrandt van Rijn, Rembrandt van Rijn,
Vigée-Lebrun 1634 1635
Detail of Flora from Primavera Monument of Flora in

by Botticelli, c. 1482 Szczecin, Poland
External links
• The Obscure Goddess Online Directory: Flora [2]
References
[1] http:/ / dictionary. reference. com/ browse/ flora
[2] http:/ / www. thaliatook. com/ OGOD/ flora. html
Fornax (mythology) 301
Fornax (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Fornax was the goddess of hearth (the literal meaning of her name) and baking. Her festival,
the Fornacalia, was celebrated on February 17, and announced by curio maximus[1] [2] .
References
[1] Ovid, Fasti, II. 525 ff
[2] Sextus Pompeius Festus, under Fornacalia
External links
• Myth Index - Fornax (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/F/Fornax.html)
• William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, v. 2, page 180 (http://www.
Fortuna
Fortuna (equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) was the goddess of
fortune and personification of luck in Roman religion. She might bring
good luck or bad: she could be represented as veiled and blind, as in
modern depictions of Justice, and came to represent life's
capriciousness. She was also a goddess of fate: as Atrox Fortuna, she
claimed the young lives of the princeps Augustus' grandsons Gaius and
Lucius, prospective heirs to the Empire.[1]
Her father was said to be Jupiter and like him, she could also be
bountiful (Copia). As Annonaria she protected grain supplies. June 11
was sacred to her: on June 24 she was given cult at the festival of Fors
Fortuna.[2] [3]
Fortuna governs the circle of the four stages of

life, the Wheel of Fortune, in a manuscript of
Carmina Burana
Fortuna 302
Cult
Fortuna's Roman cult was variously attributed to Servius Tullius – whose
exceptional good fortune suggested their sexual intimacy[4] – and to Ancus
Marcius.[5] She had a temple at the Forum Boarium and a sacred precinct on the
Quirinalis as Fortuna Populi Romani (the Fortune of the Roman people). Her
identity as personification of chance events was closely tied to virtus (strength of
character). Public officials who lacked virtues invited ill-fortune on themselves
and Rome: Sallust uses the infamous Catiline as illustration – "Truly, when in
the place of work, idleness, in place of the spirit of measure and equity, caprice
and pride invade, fortune is changed just as with morality".[6]
An oracle at the Temple of Fortuna Primigena in Praeneste used a form of

divination in which a small boy picked out one of various futures that were
written on oak rods. Cults to Fortuna in her many forms are attested throughout
the Roman world. Dedications have been found to Fortuna Dubia (doubtful Fortuna and Pontos
fortune), Fortuna Brevis (fickle or wayward fortune) and Fortuna Mala (bad
fortune).
She is found in a variety of domestic and personal contexts. During the early Empire, an amulet from the House of
Menander in Pompeii links her to the Egyptian goddess Isis, as Isis-Fortuna.[7] She is functionally related to the God
Bonus Eventus,[8] who is often represented as her counterpart: both appear on amulets and intaglio engraved gems
across the Roman world.
Her name seems to derive from Vortumna (she who revolves the year): the earliest reference to the Wheel of
Fortune, emblematic of the endless changes in life between prosperity and disaster, is 55 BCE.[9] In Seneca's tragedy
Agamemnon, a chorus addresses Fortuna in terms that would remain almost proverbial, and in a high heroic ranting
mode that Renaissance writers would emulate:
"O Fortune, who dost bestow the throne’s high boon with mocking hand, in dangerous and doubtful state thou
settest the too exalted. Never have sceptres obtained calm peace or certain tenure; care on care weighs them
down, and ever do fresh storms vex their souls. ...great kingdoms sink of their own weight, and Fortune gives
way ‘neath the burden of herself. Sails swollen with favouring breezes fear blasts too strongly theirs; the tower
which rears its head to the very clouds is beaten by rainy Auster.... Whatever Fortune has raised on high, she
lifts but to bring low. Modest estate has longer life; then happy he whoe’er, content with the common lot, with
safe breeze hugs the shore, and, fearing to trust his skiff to the wider sea, with unambitious oar keeps close to
land."[10]
Ovid's description is typical of Roman representations: in a letter from exile[11] he reflects ruefully on the "goddess
who admits by her unsteady wheel her own fickleness; she always has its apex beneath her swaying foot."
Fortuna 303
Middle Ages
Fortuna did not disappear from the popular imagination with the
ascendancy of Christianity by any means.[12] Saint Augustine took a
stand against her continuing presence, in the City of God: "How,
therefore, is she good, who without discernment comes to both the
good and to the bad? ...It profits one nothing to worship her if she is
truly fortune... let the bad worship her...this supposed deity".[13] In the
6th century, the Consolation of Philosophy, by statesman and
philosopher Boethius, written while he faced execution, reflected the
Christian theology of casus, that the apparently random and often
ruinous turns of Fortune's Wheel are in fact both inevitable and
providential, that even the most coincidental events are part of God's
hidden plan which one should not resist or try to change. Fortuna, then,
was a servant of God,[14] and events, individual decisions, the The humiliation of Emperor Valerian by king
Shapur I of Persia (260) passed into European
influence of the stars were all merely vehicles of Divine Will. In
cultural memory as an instance of the reversals of
succeeding generations Boethius' Consolation was required reading for Fortuna. In Hans Holbein's pen-and-ink drawing
scholars and students. Fortune crept back in to popular acceptance, (1521), the universal lesson is brought home by
with a new iconographic trait, "two-faced Fortune", Fortuna bifrons; its contemporary setting.
such depictions continue into the 15th century.[15]
The ubiquitous image of the Wheel of Fortune found throughout

the Middle Ages and beyond was a direct legacy of the second
book of Boethius's Consolation. The Wheel appears in many
renditions from tiny miniatures in manuscripts to huge stained
glass windows in cathedrals, such as at Amiens. Lady Fortune is
usually represented as larger than life to underscore her
importance. The wheel characteristically has four shelves, or
stages of life, with four human figures, usually labeled on the left
regnabo (I shall reign), on the top regno (I reign) and is usually
crowned, descending on the right regnavi (I have reigned) and the
lowly figure on the bottom is marked sum sine regno (I have no
kingdom). Medieval representations of Fortune emphasize her
duality and instability, such as two faces side by side like Janus;
one face smiling the other frowning; half the face white the other
black; she may be blindfolded but without scales, blind to justice.
She was associated with the cornucopia, ship's rudder, the ball and
the wheel. The cornucopia is where plenty flows from, the
Helmsman's rudder steers fate, the globe symbolizes chance (who
Albrecht Dürer's engraving of Fortuna, ca 1502
gets good or bad luck), and the wheel symbolizes that luck, good
or bad, never lasts.
Fortuna 304
Fortune would have many influences in cultural works throughout the Middle
Ages. In Le Roman de la Rose, Fortune frustrates the hopes of a lover who has
been helped by a personified character "Reason". In Dante's Inferno (vii.67-96)
Virgil explains the nature of Fortune, both a devil and a ministring angel,
subservient to God. Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium ("The Fortunes
of Famous Men"), used by John Lydgate to compose his Fall of Princes, tells of
many where the turn of Fortune's wheel brought those most high to disaster, and
Boccaccio essay De remedii dell'una e dell'altra Fortuna, depends upon
Boethius for the double nature of Fortuna. Fortune makes her appearance in
Carmina Burana (see image). The Christianized Lady Fortune is not
autonomous: illustrations for Boccaccio's Remedii show Fortuna enthroned in a
triumphal car with reins that lead to heaven,[16] and appears in chapter 25 of
Machiavelli's The Prince, in which he says Fortune only rules one half of men's
fate, the other half being of their own will. Machiavelli reminds the reader that Fortuna lightly balances the orb of
Fortune is a woman, that she favours a strong, or even violent hand, and that she sovereignty between thumb and
favours the more aggressive and bold young man than a timid elder. Even finger in a Dutch painting of ca 1530
(Musée des Beaux-Arts de
Shakespeare was no stranger to Lady Fortune:
Strasbourg)
When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes

I all alone beweep my outcast state ... — Sonnet 29
Pars Fortuna in Astrology

In Astrology the term ‘Pars Fortuna’ represents a mathematical point in
the zodiac derived by the longitudinal positions of the Sun, Moon and
Ascendant (Rising sign) in the birth chart of an individual. It represents
an especially beneficial point in the horoscopic chart. In Arabic
Astrology, this point is called Arabian Parts.[17]
The procedure followed for fixing one’s Pars Fortuna in ancient and
traditional astrology depended on the time of birth, viz., during
daylight or night time (whether the Sun was above or below the
llustration by Al-Biruni (973-1048) of different horizon). In modern western astrology the day time formula only was
phases of the moon, from the Persian Kitab
used for many years, but with more knowledge of ancient astrology,
al-tafhim
the two calculation method is now often used.
The formula for calculating the day time Part of Fortune (PF) is (using the 360 degree positions for each point):
PF = Ascendant + Moon - Sun
The formula for the night-time Part of Fortune is PF = Ascendant + Sun - Moon
Each calculation method results in a different zodiac position for the Part of Fortune.[18]
Al Biruni (973 – 1048), an 11th-century mathematician, astronomer and scholar, who was the greatest proponent of
this system of prediction, listed a total of 97 Arabic Parts, which were widely used for astrological consultations.
Paul Vachier has prepared an Arabic Parts Calculator for all the Arabic Parts.[19]
Fortuna 305
Aspects of Fortuna
• Fortuna Annonaria brought the luck of the harvest
• Fortuna Belli the fortune of war
• Fortuna Primigenia directed the fortune of a firstborn child at the
moment of birth
• Fortuna Virilis attended a man's career
• Fortuna Redux brought one safely home
• Fortuna Respiciens the fortune of the provider
• Fortuna Muliebris the luck of a woman. Typical of Roman
attitudes, the fortune of a woman in marriage, however, was
Fortuna Virilis.
• Fortuna Victrix brought victory in battle
• Fortuna Augusta the fortune of the emperor [20]
• Fortuna Balnearis the fortune of the baths.[20]
• Fortuna Conservatrix the fortune of the Preserver [21]
Lady Fortune in a Boccaccio manuscript
• Fortuna Equestris fortune of the Knights.[21]
• Fortuna Huiusque fortune of the present day.[21]
• Fortuna Obsequens fortune of indulgence.[21]
• Fortuna Privata fortune of the private individual.[21]
• Fortuna Publica fortune of the people.[21]
• Fortuna Romana fortune of Rome.[21]
• Fortuna Virgo fortune of the virgin.[21]
• Pars Fortuna[22]
See also
• The Wheel of Fortune
• Fortune favours the bold
• Carmina Burana (Orff) (opening theme: O Fortuna)
• Goth's Column
Notes
[1] Marguerite Kretschmer, "Atrox Fortuna" The Classical Journal 22.4 (January 1927), 267 - 275.
[2] Samuel Ball Platner and Thomas Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome,; (London: Oxford University Press) 1929: on-line text
(http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Gazetteer/ Places/ Europe/ Italy/ Lazio/ Roma/ Rome/ _Texts/ PLATOP*/ Fors_Fortuna. html).
[3] Ovid, Fasti VI. 773‑786.
[4] Varro, De Lingua Latina VI.17.
[5] Plutarch; see Samuel Ball Platner and Thomas Ashby, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome,; (London: Oxford University Press)
1929: on-line text (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Gazetteer/ Places/ Europe/ Italy/ Lazio/ Roma/ Rome/ _Texts/ PLATOP*/
Fors_Fortuna. html).
[6] Verum ubi pro labore desidia, pro continentia et aequitate lubido atque superbia invasere, fortuna simul cum moribus immutatur, Sallust,
Catilina, ii.5. His view of fortuna is discussed in Etienne Tiffou, "Salluste et la Fortuna", Phoenix, 31.4 (Winter 1977), 349 - 360.
[7] Allison, P., 2006, The Insula of Menander at Pompeii: Vol.III, The Finds; A Contextual Study, Oxford: Claredon Press
[8] Greene, E.M., “The Intaglios”, in Birley, A. and Blake, J., 2005, Vindolanda: The Excavations of 2003-2004, Bardon Mill: Vindolanda Trust,
pp187-193
[9] Cicero, In Pisonem.
Fortuna 306
[10] Agamemnon, translation by Frank Justus Miller ( on-line text (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ SenecaAgamemnon. html))
[11] Ovid, Ex Ponto, iv, epistle 3.
[12] Howard R. Patch, The Goddess Fortuna in Medieval Literature, 1927 is the basic study.
[13] Augustine, City of God, iv.18-18; v.8.
[14] Selma Pfeiffenberger, "Notes on the Iconology of Donatello's Judgment of Pilate at San Lorenzo" Renaissance Quarterly 20.4 (Winter
1967:437-454) p 440.
[15] As Pfeiffenberger observes, citing A. Laborde, Les manuscrits à peintures de la Cité de Dieu, Paris, 1909: vol. III, pls 59, 65; Pfeiffenberger
notes that there are no depictions of a Fortuna bifrons in Roman art.
[16] Noted by Pfeiffenberger 1967:441.
[17] -Part of Fortune (http:/ / www. cafeastrology. com/ partoffortune. html); David Plant, "Fortune, Spirit and the Lunation Cycle" (http:/ /
www. skyscript. co. uk/ fortune. html)
[18] David Plant, op. cit. (http:/ / www. skyscript. co. uk/ fortune. html).
[19] Paul Vachier, "Arabic Parts" (http:/ / www. noendpress. com/ pvachier/ arabicparts/ index. php).
[20] http:/ / www. thaliatook. com/ OGOD/ augusta. html Augusta
[21] http:/ / www. mlahanas. de/ RomanEmpire/ Mythology/ Fortuna. html Fortuna
[22] Arabic Parts (http:/ / www. noendpress. com/ pvachier/ arabicparts/ index. php)
References
• David Plant, "Fortune, Spirit and the Lunation Cycle" (http://www.skyscript.co.uk/fortune.html)
• www.cafeastrology.com Part of Fortune (http://www.cafeastrology.com/partoffortune.html)
• Howard Rollin Patch (1923), Fortuna in Old French Literature
• Lesley Adkins, Roy A. Adkins (2001) Dictionary of Roman Religion
• Howard Rollin Patch (1927, repr. 1967), The Goddess Fortuna in Medieval Literature
• Howard Rollin Patch (1922), The Tradition of the Goddess Fortuna in Medieval Philosophy and Literature
External links
• Michael Best, "Medieval tragedy" (http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/SLTnoframes/drama/medievaltragedy.html)
• Arya, Darius Andre (January 27, 2006) [2002] (PDF). The Goddess Fortuna in Imperial Rome: Cult, Art, Text
(http://hdl.handle.net/2152/152). Theses and Dissertations from The University of Texas at Austin. Austin:
University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 2007-07-08.
Fraus 307
Fraus
In Roman mythology, Fraus was the goddess of treachery. A helper of Mercury, the word "fraud" has its origin in
her name. Her Greek equivalent was Apate. In Celtic Mythology, Fraus was a very offensive curse word used to
describe whores and prostitutes.
Fulgora (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Fulgora was the female personification of lightning.
External links
• List of Minor Roman Gods [21]
Furrina
Furrina (or Furina), was a Roman goddess dating from the Republican era. Her function in the Roman pantheon
was mostly unknown at the time of Cicero.
However, modern archaeological research has revealed some tenuous evidence that seems to indicate that Furrina
was both associated with water and, perhaps, with the Furies.
Her antiquity is proven by the fact that she was one the Roman deities who had their own flamen, named Furrinalis,
one of the minores.[1]
According to Georges Dumezil Furrina was a goddess of springs, her name being related to the Indoeuropean root
*bhr-u-n, Skr. bhurvan, indicating the moving or bubbling of water, Got. brunna spring, Latin fervere (from *fruur >
furr by metathesis of the vowel), to bubble or boil.[2] Compare English fervent, effervescent etc.
Dumezil remarks that in the chronological order Roman of festivals, those separated by an interval of three days
were interconnected and belonged to the same function, accepting an observation already made by Georg Wissowa.
In the second half of July the grouping included the two Lucaria on the 19th and 17th, the Neptunalia on the 23rd
and the Furrinalia on the 25th. This grouping is devoted to woods and running waters, intended as a shelter and relief
from the heat of the season, canicula.
The goddess had a sacred spring and a shrine in Rome,[3] located on the South Western slopes of Mount Janiculum,
on the right bank of the Tiber. The site has survived to the present day in the form of a grove, included within the
gardens of Villa Sciarra. Excavations on the site conducted in 1910 have identified a well and a system of
underground channels, as well as some inscriptions. However these findings look to be of later date (2nd century
CE) and perhaps not the original spring.[4]
According to Cicero another sanctuary dedicated to the cult of Furrina was located near Satricum.[5]
Other than this, the only well known fact relevant to Furrina is that Gaius Sempronius Gracchus was killed in the
"Grove of Furrina." Her placation was the duty of the Flamen Furrinalis, and she had a feast day on July 25.
Furrina 308
Notes
[1] Varro Lingua Latina VI
[2] G. Dumezil Fetes romaines d'ete' et d'automne Paris, 1975
[3] Cicero Ad Quintum fratrem 3, 1, 12
[4] Samuel B. Platner (and T. Ashby) A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, 1927 s.v.
[5] Cicero Ad Quintum Fratrem 3, 1,
Bibliography
• Altheim, Franz (1938). A History of Roman Religion. Harold Mattingly, trans. London: Metheun.
• Dowden, Ken (2000). European Paganism: The Realities of Cult from Antiquity to the Middle Ages (http://
books.google.com/books?id=b-QfhYxtKScC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&
q=&f=false). London: Routledge.
Gallia (goddess)
Gallia was a Romano-Gallic goddess, possibly related to the region of Europe known to the Romans as Gallia
(Gaul). The only evidence of her name to date is an altar set up at Vindolanda by its auxiliary garrison of the 4th
cohort of Gauls, stationed there from the early 3rd century onwards.[1] Its inscription reads:
“
CIVES GALLI
DE GALLIAE
CONCORDES
QUE BRITANNI ”
Of which a free translation would be "The troops from Gaul dedicate this statue to the goddess Gallia with the full
support of the British born troops".
Notes
[1] Selkirk, A. "A ritual statue from Vindolanda." Current Archaeology 205: 4-5 (2006)
Hecate 309
Hecate
Hecate
The Hecate Chiaramonti, a Roman sculpture of triple Hecate, after a Hellenistic original (Museo Chiaramonti, Vatican Museums
Abode Underworld
Symbol Paired Torches, Keys, Dogs
Parents Perses and Asteria
Roman equivalent Trivia
Hecate or Hekate (ancient Greek Ἑκάτη, Hekátē, pronounced English pronunciation: /ˈhɛkətiː/ or English
[1]
pronunciation: /ˈhɛkət/ in English) is a chthonic Greco-Roman goddess associated with magic and crossroads.
She is attested in poetry as early as Hesiod's Theogony. An inscription from late archaic Miletus naming her as a
protector of entrances is also testimony to her presence in archaic Greek religion.[2]
Regarding the nature of her cult, it has been remarked, "she is more at home on the fringes than in the center of
Greek polytheism. Intrinsically ambivalent and polymorphous, she straddles conventional boundaries and eludes
definition."[3] She has been associated with childbirth, nurturing the young, gates and walls, doorways, crossroads,
magic, lunar lore, torches and dogs. William Berg observes, "Since children are not called after spooks, it is safe to
assume that Carian theophoric names involving hekat- refer to a major deity free from the dark and unsavoury ties to
the underworld and to witchcraft associated with the Hecate of classical Athens."[4] But he cautions, "The Laginetan
goddess may have had a more infernal character than scholars have been willing to assume."[5] In Ptolemaic
Alexandria and elsewhere during the Hellenistic period, she appears as a three-faced goddess associated with magic,
witchcraft, and curses. Today she is claimed as a goddess of witches and in the context of Hellenic Polytheistic
Reconstructionism. Some neo-pagans refer to her as a "crone goddess",[6] though this characterization appears to
conflict with her frequent characterization as a virgin in late antiquity.[7] She closely parallels the Roman goddess
Trivia.
Etymology, spelling, and pronunciation

Notable proposed etymologies for the name Hecate are:
• From the Greek word for 'will'.[8]
• From Greek Ἑκάτη [Hekátē], feminine equivalent of Εκατός Hekatos, obscure epithet of Apollo.[9] This has been
translated as "her that operates from afar", "her that removes or drives off",[10] "the far reaching one" or "the
far-darter".[11]
• From the Egyptian goddess of childbirth, Heqet.[12]
Arthur Golding's 1567 translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses refers to "triple Hecat"[13] and this spelling without the
final E later appears in plays of the Elizabethan-Jacobean period.[14] Noah Webster in 1866 particularly credits the
Hecate 310
influence of Shakespeare for the then-predominant pronunciation of "Hecate" without the final E.[15]
Representations
The earliest Greek depictions of Hecate are single faced, not triplicate. Lewis Richard Farnell states:
The evidence of the monuments as to the character and significance of Hecate is almost as full as that of
the literature. But it is only in the later period that they come to express her manifold and mystic nature.
Before the fifth century there is little doubt that she was usually represented as of single form like any
other divinity, and it was thus that the Boeotian poet imagined her, as nothing in his verses contains any
allusion to a triple formed goddess.[16]
The earliest known monument is a small terracotta found in Athens,
with a dedication to Hecate, in writing of the style of the 6th century.
The goddess is seated on a throne with a chaplet bound round her head;
she is altogether without attributes and character, and the only value of
this work, which is evidently of quite a general type and gets a special
reference and name merely from the inscription, is that it proves the
single shape to be her earlier form, and her recognition at Athens to be
earlier than the Persian invasion.[17]
Triple Hecate and the Charites, Attic, 3rd century

BCE (Glyptothek, Munich)
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Titans and Olympian deities
Aquatic deities
Other deities
Chthonic deities
• Demeter • Iacchus
• Erinyes • Melinoe
• Gaia • Persephone
• Hades • Triptolemus
• Hecate • Trophonius
Hecate 311
The 2nd-century traveller Pausanias stated that Hecate was first depicted in triplicate by the sculptor Alkamenes in
the Greek Classical period of the late 5th century. Greek anthropomorphic conventions of art resisted representing
her with three faces: a votive sculpture from Attica of the 3rd century BCE (illustration, left), shows three single
images against a column; round the column of Hecate dance the Charites. Some classical portrayals show her as a
triplicate goddess holding a torch, a key, and a serpent. Others continue to depict her in singular form.
In Egyptian-inspired Greek esoteric writings connected with Hermes Trismegistus, and in magical papyri of Late
Antiquity she is described as having three heads: one dog, one serpent, and one horse. In other representations her
animal heads include those of a cow and a boar.[18] Hecate's triplicity is elsewhere expressed in a more Hellenic
fashion in the vast frieze of the great Pergamon Altar, now in Berlin, wherein she is shown with three bodies, taking
part in the battle with the Titans. In the Argolid, near the shrine of the Dioscuri, Pausanias saw the temple of Hecate
opposite the sanctuary of Eileithyia; He reported the image to be the work of Scopas, stating further, "This one is of
stone, while the bronze images opposite, also of Hecate, were made respectively by Polycleitus and his brother
Naucydes, son of Mothon." (Description of Greece 2.22.7)
A 4th century BCE marble relief from Crannon in Thessaly was dedicated by a race-horse owner.[19] It shows
Hecate, with a hound beside her, placing a wreath on the head of a mare. She is commonly attended by a dog or
dogs, and the most common form of offering was to leave meat at a crossroads. Sometimes dogs themselves were
sacrificed to her. This is sometimes offered as an indication of her non-Hellenic origin, as dogs very rarely played
this role in genuine Greek ritual.[20]
In the Argonautica, a 3rd century BCE Alexandrian epic based on early material,[21] Jason placates Hecate in a ritual
prescribed by Medea, her priestess: bathed at midnight in a stream of flowing water, and dressed in dark robes, Jason
is to dig a round pit and over it cut the throat of a ewe, sacrificing it and then burning it whole on a pyre next to the
pit as a holocaust. He is told to sweeten the offering with a libation of honey, then to retreat from the site without
looking back, even if he hears the sound of footsteps or barking dogs.[22] All these elements betoken the rites owed
to a chthonic deity.
Mythology
Hecate has been characterized as a pre-Olympian chthonic goddess. She appears in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter
and in Hesiod's Theogony, where she is promoted strongly as a great goddess. The place of origin of her following is
uncertain, but it is thought that she had popular followings in Thrace.[23] Her most important sanctuary was Lagina, a
theocratic city-state in which the goddess was served by eunuchs.[23] Lagina, where the famous temple of Hecate
drew great festal assemblies every year, lay close to the originally Macedonian colony of Stratonikeia, where she
was the city's patroness.[24] In Thrace she played a role similar to that of lesser-Hermes, namely a governess of
liminal regions (particularly gates) and the wilderness, bearing little resemblance to the night-walking crone she
became. Additionally, this led to her role of aiding women in childbirth and the raising of young men.
Hecate 312
Hesiod records that she was esteemed as the offspring of Gaia and
Uranus, the Earth and Sky. In Theogony he ascribed great powers to
Hecate:
[...] Hecate whom Zeus the son of Cronos honored above
all. He gave her splendid gifts, to have a share of the earth
and the unfruitful sea. She received honor also in starry
heaven, and is honored exceedingly by the deathless gods.
For to this day, whenever any one of men on earth offers
rich sacrifices and prays for favor according to custom, he
calls upon Hecate. Great honor comes full easily to him
whose prayers the goddess receives favorably, and she
bestows wealth upon him; for the power surely is with her.
For as many as were born of Earth and Ocean amongst all
these she has her due portion. The son of Cronos did her
no wrong nor took anything away of all that was her
portion among the former Titan gods: but she holds, as the
Hecate, Greek goddess of the crossroads; drawing division was at the first from the beginning, privilege both
by Stéphane Mallarmé in Les Dieux Antiques, in earth, and in heaven, and in sea.[25]
nouvelle mythologie illustrée in Paris, 1880
According to Hesiod, she held sway over many things:
Whom she will she greatly aids and advances: she sits by worshipful kings in judgement, and in the
assembly whom she will is distinguished among the people. And when men arm themselves for the
battle that destroys men, then the goddess is at hand to give victory and grant glory readily to whom she
will. Good is she also when men contend at the games, for there too the goddess is with them and profits
them: and he who by might and strength gets the victory wins the rich prize easily with joy, and brings
glory to his parents. And she is good to stand by horsemen, whom she will: and to those whose business
is in the grey discomfortable sea, and who pray to Hecate and the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker, easily the
glorious goddess gives great catch, and easily she takes it away as soon as seen, if so she will. She is
good in the byre with Hermes to increase the stock. The droves of kine and wide herds of goats and
flocks of fleecy sheep, if she will, she increases from a few, or makes many to be less. So, then, albeit
her mother's only child, she is honored amongst all the deathless gods. And the son of Cronos made her
a nurse of the young who after that day saw with their eyes the light of all-seeing Dawn. So from the
beginning she is a nurse of the young, and these are her honors.[25]
Hesiod emphasizes that Hecate was an only child, the daughter of Perses and Asteria, a star-goddess who was the
sister of Leto (the mother of Artemis and Apollo). Grandmother of the three cousins was Phoebe the ancient Titaness
who personified the moon.
Hesiod's inclusion and praise of Hecate in the Theogony has been troublesome for scholars, in that he seems to hold
her in high regard, while the testimony of other writers, and surviving evidence, suggests that this was probably
somewhat exceptional. It is theorized that Hesiod's original village had a substantial Hecate following and that his
inclusion of her in the Theogony was a way of adding to her prestige by spreading word of her among his readers.[26]
Hecate possibly originated among the Carians of Anatolia,[23] the region where most theophoric names invoking
Hecate, such as Hecataeus or Hecatomnus, the father of Mausolus, are attested,[27] and where Hecate remained a
Great Goddess into historical times, at her unrivalled[28] cult site in Lagina. While many researchers favor the idea
that she has Anatolian origins, it has been argued that "Hecate must have been a Greek goddess."[29] The monuments
to Hecate in Phrygia and Caria are numerous but of late date.[30]
Hecate 313
If Hecate's cult spread from Anatolia into Greece, it is possible it presented a conflict, as her role was already filled
by other more prominent deities in the Greek pantheon, above all by Artemis and Selene. This line of reasoning lies
behind the widely accepted hypothesis that she was a foreign deity who was incorporated into the Greek pantheon.
Other than in the Theogony, the Greek sources do not offer a consistent story of her parentage, or of her relations in
the Greek pantheon: sometimes Hecate is related as a Titaness, and a mighty helper and protector of humans. Her
continued presence was explained by asserting that, because she was the only Titan who aided Zeus in the battle of
gods and Titans, she was not banished into the underworld realms after their defeat by the Olympians.
One surviving group of stories suggests how Hecate might have come to be incorporated into the Greek pantheon
without affecting the privileged position of Artemis.[26] Here, Hecate is a mortal priestess often associated with
Iphigeneia. She scorns and insults Artemis, who in retribution eventually brings about the mortal's suicide. Artemis
then adorns the dead body with jewelry and commands the spirit to rise and become her Hecate, who subsequently
performs a role similar to Nemesis as an avenging spirit, but solely for injured women. Such myths in which a native
deity 'sponsors' or ‘creates’ a foreign one were widespread in ancient cultures as a way of integrating foreign cults. If
this interpretation is correct, as Hecate's cult grew, she was inserted into the later myth of the birth of Zeus as one of
the midwives that hid the child,[26] while Cronus consumed the deceiving rock handed to him by Rhea. There was an
area sacred to Hecate in the precincts of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, where the priests, megabyzi,
officiated.[31]
Hecate also came to be associated with ghosts, infernal spirits, the dead and sorcery. Like the totems of
Hermes—herms placed at borders as a ward against danger—images of Hecate (like Artemis and Diana, often
referred to as a "liminal" goddess) were also placed at the gates of cities, and eventually domestic doorways. Over
time, the association with keeping out evil spirits could have led to the belief that if offended, Hecate could also
allow the evil spirits in. According to one view, this accounts for invocations to Hecate as the supreme governess of
the borders between the normal world and the spirit world, and hence as one with mastery over spirits of the dead.[26]
Whatever the reasons, Hecate's power certainly came to be closely associated with sorcery. One interesting passage
exists suggesting that the word "jinx" might have originated in a cult object associated with Hecate. "The Byzantine
polymath Michael Psellus [...] speaks of a bullroarer, consisting of a golden sphere, decorated throughout with
symbols and whirled on an oxhide thong. He adds that such an instrument is called a iunx (hence "jinx"), but as for
the significance says only that it is ineffable and that the ritual is sacred to Hecate."[32]
Hecate is one of the most important figures in the so-called Chaldaean Oracles (2nd-3rd century CE),[33] where she
is associated in fragment 194 with a strophalos (usually translated as a spinning top, or wheel, used in magic)
"Labour thou around the Strophalos of Hecate."[34] This appears to refer to a variant of the device mentioned by
Psellus.[35]
Variations in interpretations of Hecate's role or roles can be traced in 5th-century Athens. In two fragments of
Aeschylus she appears as a great goddess. In Sophocles and Euripides she is characterized as the mistress of
witchcraft and the Keres.
In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Hecate is called the "tender-hearted", a euphemism perhaps intended to
emphasize her concern with the disappearance of Persephone, when she addressed Demeter with sweet words at a
time when the goddess was distressed. She later became Persephone's minister and close companion in the
Underworld. But Hecate was never fully incorporated among the Olympian deities.
The modern understanding of Hecate has been strongly influenced by syncretic Hellenistic interpretations. Many of
the attributes she was assigned in this period appear to have an older basis. For example, in the magical papyri of
Ptolemaic Egypt, she is called the 'she-dog' or 'bitch', and her presence is signified by the barking of dogs. In late
imagery she also has two ghostly dogs as servants by her side. However, her association with dogs predates the
conquests of Alexander the Great and the emergence of the Hellenistic world. When Philip II laid siege to
Byzantium she had already been associated with dogs for some time; the light in the sky and the barking of dogs that
warned the citizens of a night time attack, saving the city, were attributed to Hecate Lampadephoros (the tale is
Hecate 314
preserved in the Suda). In gratitude the Byzantines erected a statue in her honor.[36]
As a virgin goddess, she remained unmarried and had no regular consort, though some traditions named her as the
mother of Scylla.[37]
Other names and epithets

• Chthonia (of the earth/underworld)[38]
• Apotropaia (that turns away/protects)[39]
• Enodia (on the way)[40]
• Kourotrophos (nurse of children)[41]
• Propulaia/Propylaia (before the gate)[42]
• Propolos (who serves/attends)[41]
• Phosphoros (bringing or giving light)[41]
• Soteira (savior)[43]
• Triodia/Trioditis (who frequents crossroads)[41]
• Klêidouchos (holding the keys)[41]
• Trimorphe (three-formed)[41]
Goddess of the crossroads

Cult images and altars of Hecate in her triplicate or trimorphic form were placed at crossroads (though they also
appeared before private homes and in front of city gates).[44] In this form she came to be known as the goddess
Trivia "the three ways" in Roman mythology. In what appears to be a 7th century indication of the survival of cult
practices of this general sort, Saint Eligius, in his Sermo warns the sick among his recently converted flock in
Flanders against putting "devilish charms at springs or trees or crossroads",[45] and, according to Saint Ouen would
urge them "No Christian should make or render any devotion to the deities of the trivium, where three roads
meet...".[46]
Animals
Dogs were closely associated with Hecate in the
Classical world. "In art and in literature Hecate is
constantly represented as dog-shaped or as
accompanied by a dog. Her approach was
heralded by the howling of a dog. The dog was
Hecate's regular sacrificial animal, and was often
eaten in solemn sacrament."[47] The sacrifice of
dogs to Hecate is attested for Thrace, Samothrace,
Colophon, and Athens.[48]
It has been claimed that her association with dogs

is "suggestive of her connection with birth, for the
dog was sacred to Eileithyia, Genetyllis, and other
birth goddesses. Although in later times Hecate's The Triple Hecate, 1795
dog came to be thought of as a manifestation of William Blake
restless souls or demons who accompanied her, its
docile appearance and its accompaniment of a Hecate who looks completely friendly in many pieces of ancient art
suggests that its original signification was positive and thus likelier to have arisen from the dog's connection with
birth than the dog's demonic associations."[49]
Hecate 315
Athenaeus (writing in the 1st or 2nd century BCE, and drawing on the etymological speculation of Apollodorus)
notes that the red mullet is sacred to Hecate, "on account of the resemblance of their names; for that the goddess is
trimorphos, of a triple form". The Greek word for mullet was trigle and later trigla. He goes on to quote a fragment
of verse "O mistress Hecate, Trioditis / With three forms and three faces / Propitiated with mullets".[50] In relation to
Greek concepts of pollution, Parker observes, "The fish that was most commonly banned was the red mullet (trigle),
which fits neatly into the pattern. It 'delighted in polluted things,' and 'would eat the corpse of a fish or a man'.
Blood-coloured itself, it was sacred to the blood-eating goddess Hecate. It seems a symbolic summation of all the
negative characteristics of the creatures of the deep."[51] At Athens, it is said there stood a statue of Hecate
Triglathena, to whom the red mullet was offered in sacrifice.[52] After mentioning that this fish was sacred to Hecate,
Alan Davidson writes, "Cicero, Horace, Juvenal, Martial, Pliny, Seneca and Suetonius have left abundant and
interesting testimony to the red mullet fever which began to affect wealthy Romans during the last years of the
Republic and really gripped them in the early Empire. The main symptoms were a preoccupation with size, the
consequent rise to absurd heights of the prices of large specimens, a habit of keeping red mullet in captivity, and the
enjoyment of the highly specialized aesthetic experience induced by watching the color of the dying fish change."
[53]
The frog, significantly a creature that can cross between two elements, also is sacred to Hecate.[54]
In her three-headed representations, discussed above, Hecate often has one or more animal heads, including cow,
dog, boar, serpent and horse.[55]
Plants
Hecate was closely associated with plant lore and the concoction of medicines and poisons. In particular she was
thought to give instruction in these closely related arts. Apollonius of Rhodes, in the Argonautica mentions that
Medea was taught by Hecate, "I have mentioned to you before a certain young girl whom Hecate, daughter of Perses,
has taught to work in drugs."[56]
The goddess is described as wearing oak in fragments of Sophocles' lost play The Root Diggers (or The Root
Cutters), and an ancient commentary on Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica (3.1214) describes her as having a head
surrounded by serpents, twining through branches of oak.[57]
The yew in particular was sacred to Hecate.
"Greeks held the yew to be sacred to Hecate, queen of the underworld, crone aspect of the Triple
Goddess. Her attendants draped wreathes of yew around the necks of black bulls which they slaughtered
in her honor and yew boughs were burned on funeral pyres. The yew was associated with the alphabet
and the scientific name for yew today, taxus, was probably derived from the Greek word for yew, toxos,
which is hauntingly similar to toxon, their word for bow and toxicon, their word for poison. It is
presumed that the latter were named after the tree because of its superiority for both bows and
poison."[58]
Hecate was said to favor offerings of garlic, which was closely associated with her cult.[59] She is also sometimes
associated with cypress, a tree symbolic of death and the underworld, and hence sacred to a number of chthonic
deities.[60]
A number of other plants (often poisonous, medicinal and/or psychoactive) are associated with Hecate.[61] These
include aconite (also called hecateis),[62] belladonna, dittany, and mandrake. It has been suggested that the use of
dogs for digging up mandrake is further corroboration of the association of this plant with Hecate; indeed, since at
least as early as the 1st century CE, there are a number of attestations to the apparently widespread practice of using
dogs to dig up plants associated with magic.[63]
Hecate 316
Places
Hecate was associated with borders, city walls, doorways, crossroads and, by extension, with realms outside or
beyond the world of the living. She appears to have been particularly associated with being 'between' and hence is
frequently characterized as a "liminal" goddess. "Hecate mediated between regimes – Olympian and Titan - but also
between mortal and divine spheres."[64] This liminal role is reflected in a number of her cult titles: Apotropaia (that
turns away/protects); Enodia (on the way); Propulaia/Propylaia (before the gate); Triodia/Trioditis (who frequents
crossroads); Klêidouchos (holding the keys), etc.
As a goddess expected to avert demons from the house or city over which she stood guard and to protect
the individual as she or he passed through dangerous liminal places, Hecate would naturally become
known as a goddess who could also refuse to avert the demons, or even drive them on against
unfortunate individuals.[65]
It was probably her role as guardian of entrances that led to Hecate's identification by the mid fifth
century with Enodia, a Thessalian goddess. Enodia's very name ("In-the-Road") suggests that she
watched over entrances, for it expresses both the possibility that she stood on the main road into a city,
keeping an eye on all who entered, and in the road in front of private houses, protecting their
inhabitants.[66]
This function would appear to have some relationship with the iconographic association of Hecate with keys, and
might also relate to her appearance with two torches, which when positioned on either side of a gate or door
illuminated the immediate area and allowed visitors to be identified. "In Byzantium small temples in her honor were
placed close to the gates of the city. Hecate's importance to Byzantium was above all as a deity of protection. When
Philip of Macedon was about to attack the city, according to the legend she alerted the townspeople with her ever
present torches, and with her pack of dogs, which served as her constant companions."[67] This suggests that Hecate's
close association with dogs derived in part from the use of watchdogs, who, particularly at night, raised an alarm
when intruders approached. Watchdogs were used extensively by Greeks and Romans.[68]
Like Hecate, "[t]he dog is a creature of the threshold, the guardian of doors and portals, and so it is appropriately
associated with the frontier between life and death, and with demons and ghosts which move across the frontier. The
yawning gates of Hades were guarded by the monstrous watchdog Cerberus, whose function was to prevent the
living from entering the underworld, and the dead from leaving it."[69]
Festivals
Hecate was worshipped by both the Greeks and the Romans who had their own festivals dedicated to her. According
to Ruickbie (2004, p. 19) the Greeks observed two days sacred to Hecate, one on the 13th of August and one on the
30th of November, whilst the Romans observed the 29th of every month as her sacred day.
Survival in pre-modern folklore

Hecate has survived in folklore as a 'hag' figure associated with witchcraft. Strmiska notes that Hecate, conflated
with the figure of Diana, appears in late antiquity and in the early medieval period as part of an "emerging legend
complex" associated with gatherings of women, the moon, and witchcraft that eventually became established "in the
area of Northern Italy, southern Germany, and the western Balkans."[70] This theory of the Roman origins of many
European folk traditions related to Diana or Hecate was explicitly advanced at least as early as 1807[71] and is
reflected in numerous etymological claims by lexicographers from the 17th to the 19th century, deriving "hag"
and/or "hex" from Hecate by way of haegtesse (Anglo-Saxon) and hagazussa (Old High German).[72] Such
derivations are today proposed only by a minority[73] since being refuted by Grimm, who was skeptical of theories
proposing non-Germanic origins for German folklore traditions.[74]
Hecate 317
Modern etymology reconstructs Proto-Germanic *hagatusjon- from haegtesse and hagazussa;[75] the first element is
probably cognate with hedge, which derives from PIE *kagh- "hedge, enclosure",[76] and the second perhaps from
*dhewes- "fly about, be smoke, vanish."[75]
Whatever the precise nature of Hecate's transition into folklore in late Antiquity, she is now firmly established as a
figure in Neopaganism,[77] which draws heavily on folkloric traditions[78] associating Hecate with 'The Wild
Hunt',[79] witches, hedges and 'hedge-riding',[80] and other themes that parallel, but are not explicitly attested in,
Classical sources.
Cross-cultural parallels
The figure of Hecate can often be associated with the figure of Isis in Egyptian myth. Lucius Apuleius (c. 123—c.
170 CE) in his work "The Golden Ass" associates Hecate with Isis:
'I am she that is the natural mother of all things, mistress and governess of all the elements, the initial
progeny of worlds, chief of powers divine, Queen of heaven, the principal of the Gods celestial, the light
of the goddesses: at my will the planets of the air, the wholesome winds of the Seas, and the silences of
hell be disposed; my name, my divinity is adored throughout all the world in divers manners, in variable
customs and in many names, [...] Some call me Juno, others Bellona of the Battles, and still others
Hecate. Principally the Ethiopians which dwell in the Orient, and the Egyptians which are excellent in
all kind of ancient doctrine, and by their proper ceremonies accustomed to worship me, do call me
Queen Isis.[...]'[81]
In the syncretism during Late Antiquity of Hellenistic and late Babylonian ("Chaldean") elements, Hecate was
identified with Ereshkigal, the underworld counterpart of Inanna in the Babylonian cosmography. In the Michigan
magical papyrus (inv. 7), dated to the late 3rd or early 4th century CE, Hecate Ereschigal is invoked against fear of
punishment in the afterlife.[82]
Before she became associated with Greek mythology, she had many similarities with Artemis (wilderness, and
watching over wedding ceremonies)[83]
Notes
[1] The latter, with two syllables, is the pronunciation is Shakespeare. "Hecate" in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2009. (http:/ / www.
merriam-webster. com/ dictionary/ Hecate)
[2] Kraus 1960, p. 12.
[3] Hornblower, Spawforth (Eds.), The Oxford Classical Dictionary, Third Edition, Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 671.
[4] Berg 1974, p. 129.
[5] Berg 1974, p. 137.
[6] e.g. Donna Wilshire, Virgin mother crone: myths and mysteries of the triple goddess, Inner Traditions International, 1994, p213
[7] "In theurgy the queen of rites is Hecate, virgin goddess of the underworld..." Mark Edwards, Neoplatonic Saints: The lives of Plotinus and
Proclus by Their Students, Liverpool University Press, 2000 ,liii; From a prayer addressed to Hecate: "[...]Lady, earth-cleaver, leader of the
hounds, subduer of all, worshipped in the streets, three-headed, light-bearing, august virgin [...]" Michael Maas, Readings in Late Antiquity: A
Sourcebook, Routledge, 2000 p167
[8] At least in the case of Hesiod's use, see Jenny Strauss Clay, Hesiod's Cosmos, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 135. Clay lists a number
of researchers who have advanced some variant of the association between Hecate's name and will (e.g. Walcot (1958), Neitzel (1975),
Derossi (1975)). The researcher is led to identify "the name and function of Hecate as the one 'by whose will' prayers are accomplished and
fulfilled." This interpretation also appears in Liddell-Scott, A Greek English Lexicon, in the entry for Hecate, which is glossed as "lit. 'she who
works her will'"
[9] Hornblower, Spawforth (Eds.) The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 1996, p. 671.
[10] Charles Anthon, A Classical Dictionary, Harper & Brothers, 1869, p579
[11] P.E. Wheelwright, Metaphor and Reality, 1975 p144
[12] McKechnie, Paul, and Philippe Guillaume. Ptolemy II Philadelphus and His World. Leiden: Brill, 2008. page 133.
[13] Golding, Arthur (trans.) (1567). Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book Seven. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=asGFKAUTQC8C&
lpg=PA243& pg=PA243& dq="triple+ Hecat"#v=onepage& q="triple Hecat"& f=false)
Hecate 318
[14] Marlowe, Christopher (first published 1604; performed earlier). Doctor Faustus, Act III, Scene 2, line 21: (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=vaNlzzIqXe0C& lpg=PA42& pg=PA42& dq=Hecat#v=onepage& q=& f=false) "Pluto's blue fire and Hecat's tree".
Shakespeare, William (ca.1594-96). A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act V, Scene 1, line 384: (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=Ey2gnY51jmoC& ;pg=PT195& pg=PT195& dq="By+ the+ triple+ Hecat's+ team"#v=onepage& q="By the triple Hecat's team"&
f=false) "By the triple Hecat's team".
Shakespeare, William (ca.1603-07). Macbeth, Act III, Scene 5, line 1: (http:/ / www. playshakespeare. com/ macbeth/ scenes/
257-act-iii-scene-5) "Why, how now, Hecat!"
Jonson, Ben (ca. 1637, printed 1641). The Sad Shepherd, Act II, Scene 3, line 668: (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=8XcLAAAAIAAJ&
lg=PA144& pg=PA144& dq="our+ dame+ Hecat"& ei=yMfWSq_4AYqOywTtltiuDg#v=onepage& q="our dame Hecat"& f=false) "our
dame Hecat".
[15] Webster, Noah (1866). A Dictionary of the English Language (10th edition), (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=gmwIAAAAQAAJ&
lpg=PT9& pg=PT9#v=onepage& dq=Hecate& f=false) "Rules for pronouncing the vowels of Greek and Latin proper names", p.9: "Hecate...,
pronounced in three syllables when in Latin, and in the same number in the Greek word Ἑκάτη, in English is universally contracted into two,
by sinking the final e. Shakespeare seems to have begun, as he has now confirmed, this pronunciation, by so adapting the word in Macbeth....
And the play-going world, who form no small portion of what is called the better sort of people, have followed the actors in this word; and the
rest of the world have followed them."
Cf. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1894): "Hec'ate (3 syl. in Greek, 2 in Eng.)" (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=6aElzaWwzkQC& dq=Hecate& lpg=RA1-PA593& pg=RA1-PA593#v=onepage& q=& f=false)
[16] Lewis Richard Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, Clarendon Press, 1907, p. 549.
[17] Lewis Richard Farnell, (1896). "Hecate in Art", The Cults of the Greek States. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
[18] Yves Bonnefoy, Wendy Doniger, Roman and European Mythologies, University of Chicago Press, 1992, p. 195.
[19] This statue is in the British Museum, inventory number 816.
[20] "One of the features of the Lupercalia which has aroused the greatest amount of scholarly speculation is the use of a dog as sacrificial
victim. Such a sacrifice was very unusual, both in Italy and in Greece." Alberta Mildred Franklin, The Lupercalia, Columbia University, 1921,
p. 67. Franklin goes on to discuss the likelihood that dog sacrifice was closely connected with Thrace.
[21] "The legend of the Argonauts is among the earliest known to the Greeks," observes Peter Green, The Argonautika, 2007, Introduction, p. 21.
[22] Apollonios Rhodios (tr. Peter Green), The Argonautika, University of California Press, 2007, p140
[23] Walter Burkert, (1987) Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical, p. 171. Oxford, Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-15624-0.
[24] Strabo, Geography 14.2.25; Kraus 1960.
[25] Hesiod, Theogony, (English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White)
[26] Johnston, Sarah Iles, (1991). Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece. ISBN 0-520-21707-1
[27] Theodor Kraus, Hekate: Studien zu Wesen u. Bilde der Göttin in Kleinasien u. Griechenland (Heidelberg) 1960.
[28] Berg 1974, p. 128: Berg comments on Hecate's endorsement of Roman hegemony in her representation on the pediment at Lagina
solemnising a pact between a warrior (Rome) and an amazon (Asia)
[29] Berg 1974, p. 134. Berg's argument for a Greek origin rests on three main points: 1. Almost all archaeological and literary evidence for her
cult comes from the Greek mainland, and especially from Attica—all of which dates earlier than the 2nd century BCE. 2. In Asia Minor only
one monument can be associated with Hecate prior to the 2nd century BCE. 3. The supposed connection between Hecate and attested "Carian
theophoric names" is not convincing, and instead suggests an aspect of the process of her Hellenization. He concludes, "Arguments for
Hecate's "Anatolian" origin are not in accord with evidence."
[30] Kraus 1960, p. 52; list pp.166ff.
[31] Strabo, Geography, 14.1.23
[32] Mark Edwards, Neoplatonic saints: the Lives of Plotinus and Proclus by their Students, Liverpool University Press, 2000, p. 100.
[33] The Chaldaean Oracles are a group of oracles (possibly oracular pronouncements made by priests of a number of gods) that date from
somewhere between the 2nd century and the late 3rd century, the recording of which is traditionally attributed to one Julian the Chaldaean or
his son, Julian the Theurgist. The most important of these deities was apparently Hecate. The material seems to have provided background and
explanation related to the meaning of these pronouncements, and appear to have been related to the practice of theurgy, pagan magic that later
became closely associated with Neoplatonism (source: Hornblower, Spawforth, The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 1996, p316).
[34] English translation used here from: William Wynn Wescott (tr.), The Chaldaean Oracles of Zoroaster, 1895.
[35] "A top of Hekate is a golden sphere enclosing a lapis lazuli in its middle that is twisted through a cow-hide leather thong and having
engraved letters all over it. [Diviners] spin this sphere and make invocations. Such things they call charms, whether it is the matter of a
spherical object, or a triangular one, or some other shape. While spinning them, they call out unintelligible or beast-like sounds, laughing and
flailing at the air. [Hekate] teaches the taketes to operate, that is the movement of the top, as if it had an ineffable power. It is called the top of
Hekate because it is dedicated to her. For Hekate was a goddess among the Chaldaeans. In her right hand she held the source of the virtues.
But it is all nonsense." As quoted in Frank R. Trombley, Hellenic Religion and Christianization, C. 370-529, Brill, 1993, p. 319.
[36] "In 340 B.C., however, the Byzantines, with the aid of the Athenians, withstood a siege successfully, an occurrence the more remarkable as
they were attacked by the greatest general of the age, Philip of Macedon. In the course of this beleaguerment, it is related, on a certain wet and
moonless night the enemy attempted a surprise, but were foiled by reason of a bright light which, appearing suddenly in the heavens, startled
all the dogs in the town and thus roused the garrison to a sense of their danger. To commemorate this timely phenomenon, which was
attributed to Hecate, they erected a public statue to that goddess [...]" William Gordon Holmes, The Age of Justinian and Theodora, 2003, pp.
Hecate 319
5-6; "If any goddess had a connection with the walls in Constantinople, it was Hecate. Hecate had a cult in Byzantium from the time of its
founding. Like Byzas in one legend, she had her origins in Thrace. Since Hecate was the guardian of "liminal places", in Byzantium small
temples in her honor were placed close to the gates of the city. Hecate's importance to Byzantium was above all as deity of protection. When
Philip of Macedon was about to attack the city, according to he legend she alerted the townspeople with her ever-present torches, and with her
pack of dogs, which served as her constant companions. Her mythic qualities thenceforth forever entered the fabric of Byzantine history. A
statue known as the 'Lampadephoros' was erected on the hill above the Bosphorous to commemorate Hecate's defensive aid." Vasiliki
Limberis, Divine Heiress, Routledge, 1994, pp. 126-127; this story apparently survived in the works Hesychius of Miletus, who in all
probability lived in the time of Justinian. His works survive only in fragments preserved in Photius and the Suda, a Byzantine lexicon of the
10th century CE. The tale is also related by Stephanus of Byzantium and Eustathius.
[37] Joseph Eddy Fontenrose, Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins, Biblo & Tannen Publishers, 1974, p. 96.
[38] Jon D. Mikalson, Athenian Popular Religion, UNC Press, 1987, p. 76.
[39] Alberta Mildred Franklin, The Lupercalia, Columbia University, 1921, p. 68.
[40] Sarah Iles Johnston, Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece‎, University of California Press, 1999,
pp. 208-209.
[41] Liddell-Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon.
[42] Sarah Iles Johnston, Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece‎, University of California Press, 1999, p.
207.
[43] Sarah Iles Johnston, Hekate Soteira, Scholars Press, 1990.
[44] Hornblower, Spawforth, Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd Edition, 1996, p. 671.
[45] Amanda Porterfield, Healing in the history of Christianity, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 72.
[46] Saint Ouen, Vita Eligii book II.16 (http:/ / www. catholic-forum. com/ saints/ sto09001. htm).
[47] Alberta Mildred Franklin, The Lupercalia, Columbia University, 1921, p67
[48] Hornblower, Spawforth, The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 1996, p. 671.
[49] Sarah Iles Johnston, Restless Dead, University of California Press, 1999, pp. 211-212.
[50] Charles Duke Yonge, tr.), The Learned Banqueters, H.G. Bohn, 1854.
[51] Robert Parker, Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion, Oxford University Press, 1990, pp. 362-363.
[52] William Martin Leake, The Topography of Athens, London, 1841, p. 492.
[53] Alan Davidson, Mediterranean Seafood, Ten Speed Press, 2002, p. 92.
[54] Varner, Gary R. (2007). Creatures in the Mist: Little People, Wild Men and Spirit Beings Around the World: A Study in Comparative
Mythology, p. 135. New York: Algora Publishing. ISBN 0875865461.
[55] Yves Bonnefoy, Wendy Doniger, Roman and European Mythologies, University of Chicago Press, 1992, p. 195; "Hecate" article,
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1823.
[56] R. L. Hunter, The Argonautica of Apollonius, Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 142, citing Apollonius of Rhodes.
[57] Daniel Ogden, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds, Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 82-83.
[58] Matthew Suffness (Ed.), Taxol: Science and Applications, CRC Press, 1995, p. 28.
[59] Frederick J. Simoons, Plants of Life, Plants of Death, University of Wisconsin Press, 1998, p. 143; Fragkiska Megaloudi, Plants and Diet in
Greece From Neolithic to Classic Periods, Archaeopress, 2006, p. 71.
[60] Freize, Henry; Dennison, Walter (1902). Virgil's Aeneid. New York: American Book Company. pp. N111.
[61] "Hecate had a "botanical garden" on the island of Colchis where the following alkaloid plants were kept: Akoniton (Aconitum napellus),
Diktamnon (Dictamnus albus), Mandragores (Mandragora officinarum), Mekon (Papaver somniferum), Melaina (Claviceps pupurea), Thryon
(Atropa belladona), and Cochicum [...]" Margaret F. Roberts, Michael Wink, Alkaloids: Biochemistry, Ecology, and Medicinal Applications,
Springer, 1998, p. 16.
[62] Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, Penguin Books, 1977, p. 154.
[63] Frederick J. Simoons, Plants of Life, Plants of Death, University of Wisconsin Press, 1998, pp. 121-124.
[64] Bonnie MacLachlan, Judith Fletcher, Virginity Revisited: Configurations of The Unpossessed Body, University of Toronto Press, 2007, p.
14.
[65] Sarah Iles Johnston, Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece, University of California Press, 1999, p.
209.
[66] Sarah Iles Johnston, Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece, University of California Press, 1999, p.
208.
[67] Vasiliki Limberis, Divine Heiress: The Virgin Mary And The Creation of Christian Constantinople, Routledge, 1994, pp. 126-127.
[68] Hornblower, Spawforth, The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 1996, p. 490.
[69] Richard Cavendish, The Powers of Evil in Western Religion, Magic and Folk Belief, Routledge, 1975, p. 62.
[70] Michael Strmiska, Modern paganism in world cultures, ABC-CLIO, 2005, p. 68.
[71] Francis Douce, Illustrations of Shakspeare, and of Ancient Manners, 1807, p. 235-243.
[72] John Minsheu and William Somner (17th century), Edward Lye of Oxford (1694-1767), Johann Georg Wachter, Glossarium Germanicum
(1737), Walter Whiter, Etymologicon Universale (1822)
[73] e.g. Gerald Milnes, Signs, Cures, & Witchery, Univ. of Tennessee Press, 2007, p. 116; Samuel X. Radbill, "The Role of Animals in Infant
Feeding", in American Folk Medicine: A Symposium Ed. Wayland D. Hand. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.
Hecate 320
[74] "Many have been caught by the obvious resemblance of the Gr. Hecate, but the letters agree to closely, contrary to the laws of change, and
the Mid. Ages would surely have had an unaspirated Ecate handed down to them; no Ecate or Hecate appears in the M. Lat. or Romance
writings in the sense of witch, and how should the word have spread through all German lands?" Jacob Grimm, Teutonic Mythlogy, 1835,
(English translation 1900)
[75] Etymology Online (http:/ / www. etymonline. com/ index. php?term=hag), entry 'hag', accessed 8/23/09
[76] Mallory, J.P, Adams, D.Q. The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World. Oxford University Press,
2006. p. 223
[77] For Hecate as a protector deity of a contemporary (mid-nineties) neopagan coven see: Sabina Magliocco, Witching Culture: Folklore and
Neopaganism in America, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004, p79
[78] "Neo-paganism/witchcraft is a spiritual orientation and a variety of ritual practices using reconstructed mythological structures and
pre-Christian rites primarily from ancient European and Mediterranean sources. […] most see in goddess worship a rediscovery of folk
practices that persisted in rural Europe throughout the Christian era and up to recent times." Timothy Miller (Ed.), America's Alternative
Religions, State University of New York Press, 1995, p339; "Neopaganism sees itself as a revival of ancient pre-Christian religion: the old
nature religions of Greece and Rome, of the wandering Teutonic tribes and of others as well." Gaustad, Noll (Eds.),A Documentary History of
Religion In America Since 1877, Eerdmans, 2003, p603; "A second theme in the Neo-Pagan combination is the pre-Christian European folk
religion or Paganism." James R. Lewis, Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft, State University of New York Press, 1996, p303
[79] For a summary of the wild hunt as a neopagan 'tradition' see the entry in James R. Lewis, Witchcraft Today: An Encyclopedia of Wiccan and
Neopagan Traditions, 1999, pp 303-304; For a 'moon magick' reference to Hecate as "Lady of the Wild Hunt and witchcraft" see: D. J.
Conway, Moon Magick: Myth & Magic, Crafts & Recipes, Rituals & Spells, Llewellyn, 1995, p157
[80] For an extensive discussion of the symbolism of the hedge and hedge-riding as it relates to contemporary witchcraft see: Eric De Vries,
Hedge-Rider: Witches and the Underworld, Pendraig Publishing, 2008, pp 10-23 (De Vries also mentions Hecate in this liminal context); and
for the relation between hedges, hedge-riding and witches in German folklore see: C. R. Bilardi, The Red Church or The Art of Pennsylvania
German Braucherei, Pendraig Publishing, 2009, pp 127-129; As a general indicator of the currency of the association of hedge and witch see
titles such as: Silver Ravenwolf, Hedge Witch: Spells, Crafts & Rituals for Natural Magick, Llewellyn, 2008 and Rae Beth, Hedge Witch:
Guide To Solitary Witchcraft", Hale, 1992
[81] Apuleius, The Golden Ass 11.47.
[82] Hans Dieter Betz, "Fragments from a Catabasis Ritual in a Greek Magical Papyrus", History of Religions 19,4 (May 1980):287-295). The
goddess appears as Hecate Ereschigal only in the heading: in the spell itself only Erschigal is called upon with protective magical words and
gestures.
[83] Heidel, William Arthur (1929). The Day of Yahweh: A Study of Sacred Days and Ritual Forms in the Ancient Near East, p. 514. American
Historical Association.
References
Primary sources
• Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days. An English translation is available online (http://www.sacred-texts.com/
cla/hesiod/theogony.htm)
• Pausanias, Description of Greece
• Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI 140, VII 74, 94, 174, 177, 194, 241, XIV 44, 405.
• Strabo, Geography
Secondary sources
• Berg, William, "Hecate: Greek or "Anatolian"?", Numen 21.2 (August 1974:128-40)
• Burkert, Walter, 1985. Greek Religion (Cambridge: Harvard University Press) Published in the UK as Greek
Religion: Archaic and Classical, 1987. (Oxford: Blackwell) ISBN 0-631-15624-0.
• Lewis Richard Farnell, (1896). "Hecate in Art", The Cults of the Greek States. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
• Johnston, Sarah Iles, (1990). Hekate Soteira: A Study of Hekate's Role in the Chaldean Oracles and Related
Literature.
• Johnston, Sarah Iles, (1991). Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece.
ISBN 0-520-21707-1
• Mallarmé, Stéphane, (1880). Les Dieux Antiques, nouvelle mythologie illustrée.
• Kerenyi, Karl. The Gods of the Greeks. 1951.
Hecate 321
• Rabinovich,Yakov. The Rotting Goddess. 1990. A work which views Hekate from the perspective of Mircea
Eliade's archetypes and substantiates its claims through cross-cultural comparisons. The work has been sharply
criticized by Classics scholars, some dismissing Rabinowitz as a neo-pagan (http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/
1998/98.5.11.html).
• Ruickbie, Leo. Witchcraft Out of the Shadows: A Complete History. Robert Hale, 2004.
• Von Rudloff, Robert. Hekate in Early Greek Religion. Horned Owl Publishing (July 1999)
External links
• Myths of the Greek Goddess Hecate (http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/greek_goddess_hecate.
htm)
• Encyclopaedia Britanica 1911: (http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Hecate) "Hecate"
• The Rotting Goddess (http://www.invisiblebooks.com/Junk12.27.06.pdf) by Yakov Rabinovich, complete
book included in the anthology "Junkyard of the Classics" published under the pseudonym Ellipsis Marx.
• Theoi Project, Hecate (http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Hekate.html) Classical literary sources and art
• Hecate in Early Greek Religion (http://www.islandnet.com/~hornowl/HekateArticle.html)
• Hekate in Greek esotericism (http://www.granta.demon.co.uk/arsm/jg/hekate.html): Ptolemaic and Gnostic
transformations of Hecate
• Cast of the Crannon statue (http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/CGPrograms/Cast/image/D083.jpg), at the
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
• The Hekate/Iphigenia Myth (http://www.raebryant.com/2009/10/09/hekate-hecate/)
Hersilia
Hersilia is also a spider genus (Hersiliidae).
In Roman mythology, Hersilia was the wife of Romulus. The
principal source for her is Livy, I.11:
Hersilia "Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum"
“
Whilst the Romans are achieving these exploits, the army of the Antemnates, taking advantage of their absence, makes an incursion into the
Roman territories in a hostile manner. A Roman legion being marched out in haste against these also, surprise them whilst straggling through
the fields. Accordingly the enemy were routed at the very first shout and charge: their town taken; and as Romulus was returning, exulting for
”
this double victory, his consort, Hersilia, importuned by the entreaties of the captured women, beseeches him "to pardon their fathers, and to
admit them to the privilege of citizens; that thus his power might be strengthened by a reconciliation." Her request was readily granted.
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 [1]:
Hersilia 322
“
His queen, Hersilia, wept continually,
regarding him as lost, till regal Juno
commanded Iris to glide down along
her curving bow and bring to her these words:
“O matron, glory of the Latin race
and of the Sabines, worthy to have been
the consort chosen by so great a man
and now to be his partner as the god
Quirinus, weep no more. If you desire
to see your husband, let me guide you up
to a grove that crowns the hill of Quirinus,
shading a temple of the Roman king.”
Iris obeyed her will, and, gliding down
to earth along her tinted bow, conveyed
the message to Hersilia; who replied,
with modest look and hardly lifted eye,
“Goddess (although it is not in my power
to say your name, I am quite certain you
must be a goddess), lead me, O lead me
until you show to me the hallowed form
of my beloved husband. If the Fates
will but permit me once again to see
his features, I will say I have won heaven.”
At once Hersilia and the virgin child ”
of Thaumas, went together up the hill
of Romulus. Descending through thin air
there came a star, and then Hersilia
her tresses glowing fiery in the light,
rose with that star, as it returned through air.
And her the founder of the Roman state
received with dear, familiar hands. He
changed
her old time form and with the form her name.
He called her Hora and let her become
a goddess, now the mate of Quirinus.
External links
• Bryn Mawr [2]
References
[1] http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999. 02. 0028& layout=& loc=14. 772
[2] http:/ / ccat. sas. upenn. edu/ bmcr/ 2001/ 2001-11-23. html
Hippona 323
Hippona
In Gallo-Roman religion, Epona was a protector of horses,
donkeys, and mules. She was particularly a goddess of fertility, as
shown by her attributes of a patera, cornucopia, ears of grain and
the presence of foals in some sculptures[1] suggested that the
goddess and her horses were leaders of the soul in the after-life
ride, with parallels in Rhiannon of the Mabinogion. Unusually for
a Celtic deity, most of whom were associated with specific
localities, the worship of Epona, "the sole Celtic divinity
ultimately worshipped in Rome itself,"[2] was widespread in the
Roman Empire between the first and third centuries CE.
Etymology of the name

Although known only from Roman contexts, the name Epona,
'Great Mare' is from the Gaulish language; it is derived from the
inferred proto-Celtic *ekwos 'horse'[3] — which gives rise to
modern Welsh ebol 'foal' — together with the augmentative suffix
-on frequently, though not exclusively, found in theonyms (for
example Sirona, Matrona, and the usual Gaulish feminine singular
-a.[4] In an episode preserved in a remark of Pausanias,[5] an Epona, 3rd c. AD, from Freyming (Moselle), France
(Musée Lorrain, Nancy)
archaic Demeter too had also been a Great Mare, who was
mounted by Poseidon in the form of a stallion and foaled Arion
and the Daughter who was unnamed outside the Arcadian mysteries.[6] Demeter was venerated as a mare in
Lycosoura in Arcadia into historical times.
Evidence for Epona

Fernand Benoit[7] found the earliest attestations of a cult of Epona in
the Danubian provinces and asserted that she had been introduced in
the limes of Gaul by horsemen from the east. This suggestion has not
been generally taken up.
Although the name is in origin Gaulish, dedicatory inscriptions to
Epona are in Latin or, rarely, Greek. They were made not only by
Celts, but also by Germans, Romans and other inhabitants of the
Roman Empire. An inscription to Epona from Mainz, Germany,
Epona and her horses, from Köngen, Germany,
identifies the dedicator as Syrian.[8] A long Latin inscription of the first About 200 AD.
century BCE, engraved in a lead sheet and accompanying the sacrifice
of a filly and the votive gift of a cauldron, was found in 1887 at Rom, Deux-Sèvres, the Roman Rauranum. The
inscription offers to the goddess an archaic profusion of epithets for a goddess, Eponina 'dear little Epona': she is
Atanta, horse-goddess Potia 'powerful Mistress' (compare Greek Potnia) and "Heppos" (ίππος = horse), Dibonia
(Latin, the 'good goddess')", Catona 'of battle', noble and good Vovesia.[9]
Her feast day in the Roman calendar was December 18 as shown by a rustic calendar from Guidizzolo, Italy,[10]
although this may have been only a local celebration. She was incorporated into the Imperial cult by being invoked
on behalf of the Emperor, as Epona Augusta or Epona Regina.
Hippona 324
The supposed autonomy of Celtic civilisation in Gaul suffered a further setback with Fernand Benoit's study[11] of
the funereal symbolism of the horseman with the serpent-tailed ("anguiforme") daemon, which he established as a
theme of victory over death, and Epona; both he found to be late manifestations of Mediterranean-influenced
symbolism, which had reached Gaul through contacts with Etruria and Magna Graecia. Benoit compared the rider
with most of the riders imaged around the Mediterranean shores.
Perceptions of native Celtic goddesses had changed under Roman hegemony: only the names remained the same. As
Gaul was Romanized under the early Empire, Epona’s sovereign role evolved into a protector of cavalry.[12] The cult
of Epona was spread over much of the Roman Empire by the auxiliary cavalry, alae, especially the Imperial Horse
Guard or equites singulares augustii recruited from Gaul, Lower Germany, and Pannonia. A series of their
dedications to Epona and other Celtic, Roman and German deities was found in Rome, at the Lateran.[13] As Epane
she is attested in Cantabria, northern Spain, on Mount Bernorio, Palencia.[14]
A bizarre euhemeristic account of the birth of Epona that does not reflect Celtic beliefs can be found in Plutarch's life
of Solon: Giambattista Della Porta's edition of Magia naturalis (1589), a potpourri of the sensible and questionable,
remarks, in the context of unseemly man-beast coupling, Plutarch's Life of Solon, in which he "reports out of
Agesilaus, his third book of Italian matters, that Fulvius Stella loathing the company of a woman, coupled himself
with a mare, of whom he begot a very beautiful maiden-child, and she was called by a fit name, Epona..."
Iconography
Sculptures of Epona fall into five types, as distinguished by Benoit:
riding, standing or seated before a horse, standing or seated between
two horses, a tamer of horses in the manner of potnia theron and the
symbolic mare and foal. In the Equestrian type, common in Gaul, she
is depicted sitting side-saddle on a horse or (rarely) lying on one; in the
Imperial type (more common outside Gaul) she sits on a throne flanked
by two or more horses or foals.[15] In distant Dacia, she is represented A relief of Epona, flanked by two pairs of horses,
on a stela (now at the Szépmüvézeti Museum, Budapest) in the format from Roman Macedonia.
of Cybele, seated frontally on a throne with her hands on the necks of

her paired animals: her horses are substitutions for Cybele's lions.
In Roman texts and inscriptions

Epona is mentioned in The Golden Ass by Apuleius, where an aedicular niche with her image on a pillar in a stable
has been garlanded with freshly-picked roses.[16] In his Satires, the Roman poet Juvenal also links the worship and
iconography of Epona to the area of a stable.[17] Small images of Epona have been found in Roman sites of stables
and barns over a wide territory.
In Great Britain
The probable date of ca. 1400 BCE ascribed to the giant chalk horse carved into the hillside turf at Uffington, in
southern England, is too early to be directly associated with Epona a millennium and more later, but clearly
represents a Bronze Age totem of some kind. The English traditional hobby-horse riders parading on May Day at
Padstow, Cornwall and Minehead, Somerset, which survived to the mid-twentieth century, even though Morris
dances had been forgotten, may have deep roots in the veneration of Epona, as may the English aversion to eating
horsemeat.[18] At Padstow formerly, at the end of the festivities the hobby-horse was ritually submerged in the
sea.[19]
A provincial though not crude small (7.5 cm high) Roman bronze of a seated Epona, flanked by a small mare and
stallion, found in England,[20] is conserved in the British Museum.[21] Lying on her lap and on the patera raised in
Hippona 325
her right hand are disproportionately large ears of grain; ears of grain also protrude from the mouths of the ponies,
whose heads are turned towards the goddess. On her left arm she holds a yoke, which curves up above her shoulder,
an attribute unique to this bronze statuette.[22]
The Welsh goddess Rhiannon rides a white horse and has many attributes of Epona. A south Welsh folk ritual call
Mari Lwyd (Grey Mare) is still undertaken in December - an apparent survival of the veneration of the goddess. The
pantomime horse is thought to be a related survival.
Today
On Mackinac Island, Michigan, Epona is celebrated each June with stable tours, a blessing of the animals and the
Epona and Barkus Parade. Mackinac Island, Michigan does not permit any personal automobiles: the primary source
of transportation remains the horse, so celebrating Epona has special significance on this island in the Upper
Midwest.[23]
In popular culture
• Link, from The Legend of Zelda series games, rides a horse named Epona in four installments: The Legend of
Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998), The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000), The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
Adventures (2004) and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006). In Twilight Princess the player is given
the option to change the name of the horse, but Epona is the default name.
• In Rosemary Sutcliff's 1977 historical novel, Sun Horse, Moon Horse, the White Horse of Uffington is created as
an invocation to Epona.
• In Morgan Llywelyn's novel, The Horse Goddess, Epona is a Celtic woman who possesses Druidic powers.
• Omnia (a Dutch PaganFolk band) has dedicated a song called 'Epona' to the Celtic goddess, which appears on the
album Sine Missione.
• Enya has a song titled 'Epona'.
• As part of the European Space Agency Giotto Mission to Halley's Comet, an experiment by Irish Scientists from
St. Patrick's College, Maynooth was named EPONA; this was also an acronym for Energetic Particle ONset
Admonitor.[24] [25]
• In S.M. Stirling's Dies the Fire series, the character of Rudi Mackenzie rides a large, majestic black mare named
Epona, who will allow no one but him to ride her.
• Epona is the chief deity in the Goddess of Parthalon series by P.C. Cast. Her priestess always rides a white mare.
The releveant books start with Bk. 1 "Divine by Mistake" and currently the last book is Bk. 5 "Brighid's Quest".
Notes
[1] Salomon Reinach, "Épona", Revue archéologique (1895:163-95); Henri Hubert, Mélanges linguistiques offerts à M. J.Vendryes
(1925:187-198).
[2] Phyllis Pray Bober, reviewing Réne Magnen, Epona, Déesse Gauloise des Chevaux, Protectrice des Cavaliers in American Journal of
Archaeology 62.3 (July 1958, pp. 349-350) p. 349. Émile Thevenot contributed a corpus of 268 dedicatory inscriptions and representations.
[3] Compare Latin equus, Greek hippos.
[4] Delmarre, 2003:163-164.
[5] Pausanias, viii.25.5, 37.1 and 42.1 The myth was noted in Bibliotheke 3.77 and reflected also in a lost poem of Callimachus and in Ptolemy
Hephaestion's "New History ( Theoi.com: texts (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Olympios/ DemeterFamily. html#Poseidon)).
[6] Karl Kerenyi, The Gods of the Greeks (1951) pp 184ff "Demeter, and Poseidon's stallion-marriages".
[7] Benoît, F. (1950). Les mythes de l'outre-tombe. Le cavalier à l'anguipède et l'écuyère Épona. Brussels, Latomus Revue d'études latines.
[8] CIL 13, 11801
[9] G.S.Olmstead, "Gaulish and Celti-Iberian poetic inscriptions" Mankind Quarterly 28.4, pp339-387.
[10] Vaillant, 1951.
[11] Benoit 1950.
[12] Oaks 1986:79-81.
[13] Spiedel, 1994.
Hippona 326
[14] Simón.
[15] Nantonos, 2004.
[16] "respicio pilae mediae, quae stabuli trabes sustinebat, in ipso fere meditullio Eponae deae simulacrum residens aediculae, quod accurate
corollis roseis equidem recentibus fuerat ornatum." (iii.27). In Robert Graves' translation of The Golden Ass, he has interposed an explanatory
"the Mare-headed Mother" that does not appear in the Latin text; it would have linked Epona with the primitive mythology of Demeter, who
was covered as a mare by Poseidon in stallion-form (see above); there is no justification for identifying Epona with Demeter, however.
[17] Satire VIII lines 155-57, where the narrator derides a consul for his inappropriate interest in horses:
Meanwhile, while he sacrifices sheep and a reddish bullock interea, dum lanatas robumque iuuencum
in the fashion of ancient king Numa, before the altar of Jupiter more Numae caedit, Iouis ante altaria iurat
he swears an oath only by Epona and the images painted at the reeking stables. solam Eponam et facies olida ad praesepia pictas.
[18] Theo Brown, "Tertullian and Horse-Cults in Britain" Folklore 61.1 (March 1950, pp. 31-34) p. 33.
[19] Herbert Kille, "West Country hobby-horses and cognate customs" Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society
77 (1931)
[20] Wiltshire is believable, but was added to the provenance, merely "trouvée en Angleterre", after the piece had been described in the sale
catalogue of the Ferencz Pulszky collection, Paris, 1868.
[21] "provincial, but not barbaric" is the assessment of the style by Catherine Johns, "A Roman Bronze Statuette of Epona", The British Museum
Quarterly 36.1/2 (Autumn 1971:37-41).
[22] Identified as a yoke by Catherine Johns 1971; its misidentification as a serpent has led to misleading identification of a "chthonic" Epona.
[23] [http:// Mackinac Island Lilac Festival (http:/ / www. mackinacislandlilacfestival. org).
[24] Susan McKenna-Lawlor Profile (http:/ / www. zoominfo. com/ people/ McKenna-Lawlor_Susan_3678935. aspx) Contribution to the
Leonardo Space and the Arts Workshop on Sunday, March 21, 1999
[25] McKenna-Lawlor, S. M. P., "Ireland's contribution to deep space missions" Irish Astronomical Journal (ISSN 0021-1052), vol. 18, March
1988, pp 179-183. (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ full/ 1988IrAJ. . . 18. . 179M)
References
• Benoît, F. (1950). Les mythes de l'outre-tombe. Le cavalier à l'anguipède et l'écuyère Épona. Brussels, Latomus
Revue d'études latines.
• Delamarre, X. (2003). Dictionaire de la Langue Gauloise. 2nd edition. Paris, Editions Errance.
• Euskirchen, Marion (1993). "Epona" Dissertation, Bonn 1994 (Sonderdruck aus: Bericht der
Römisch-Germanischen Kommission 74.1993.)
• Evans, Dyfed Llwyd (2005–2007), Epona: a Gaulish and Brythonic goddess (Divine Horse) (http://www.
celtnet.org.uk/gods_e/epona.html)
• Green M. J. (1986), The Gods of the Celts, Stroud, Gloucestershire.
• Magnen, R. Epona (Delmas, 1953).
• Nantonos and Ceffyl (2004), Epona.net, a scholarly resource (http://www.epona.net)
• Oaks, L. S. (1986), "The goddess Epona", in M. Henig and A. King, Pagan Gods and Shrines of the Roman
Empire (Oxford), pp 77–84.
• Reinach, Salomon (1895). "Épona". Revue archéologique 1895, 163-95,
• Simón, Francisco Marco, "Religion and Religious Practices of the Ancient Celts of the Iberian Peninsula" in
e-Keltoi: The Celts in the Iberian Peninsula, 6 287-345, section 2.2.4.1 ( on-line (http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/
celtic/ekeltoi/volumes/vol6/6_6/marco_simon_6_6.html))
• Speidel, M. P. (1994). Riding for Caesar: the Roman Emperors' Horse Guards. Cambridge, Massachusetts,
Harvard University Press.
• Thevenot, Emile 1949. "Les monuments et le culte d' Epona chez les Eduens," L'antiquité Classique 18 pp
385–400. Epona and the Aedui.
• Vaillant, Roger (1951), Epona-Rigatona, Ogam, Rennes, pp 190–205.
Hippona 327
External links
• Epona (http://www.epona.net/introduction.html)
Hostilina
In Roman mythology, Hostilina was a minor agricultural goddess, who was responsible for making ears of the corn
even. Her name is known from St. Augustine's work The City of God[1] , and is not attested otherwise. Augustine
also mentions an "old" Latin verb hostire "to make even", which, in his opinion, was the etymon of the goddess'
name.
References
Invidia
In Latin, invidia is the sense of envy or jealousy, a "looking upon"
associated with the evil eye, from invidere, "to look against, to look at in
a hostile manner."[1] Invidia ("Envy") is one of the Seven Deadly Sins in
Christian belief.
Invidia and magic

See also: Fascinus and the envious reproductive demons Abyzou
and Gello.
The material culture and literature of ancient Rome offer numerous
examples of rituals and magic spells intended to avert invidia and the evil
eye. When a Roman general celebrated a triumph, the Vestal Virgins
suspended a fascinus, or phallic effigy, under the chariot to ward off
invidia.
Invidia as emotion
The experience of invidia, as Robert A. Kaster notes,[2] is invariably an
unpleasant one, whether feeling invidia or finding oneself its object.
Invidia at the thought of another's good may be merely begrudging,
Kaster observes, or begrudging and covetous at the same time: "I can feel
dolor at seeing your good, just because it is your good, period, or I can
feel that way because the good is yours and not mine."[3] Such invidia is
Circe Invidiosa ("Circe, abounding in envy")
by John William Waterhouse: in the magical morally indefensible: compare the Aesop fable "The Dog in the Manger".
tradition, invidia was a danger that could be But by far the most common usage in Latin of invidia occurs in contexts
provoked or turned away by spells where the sense of justice has been offended, and pain is experienced at
the sight of undeserved wealth, prestige or authority, exercised without
shame (pudor); this is the close parallel with Greek nemesis (νέμεσις)[4]
Invidia 328
The Romans used one word, invidia, to cover the range of two Greek personifications, Nemesis and Phthonus.
Invidia might be personified, for strictly literary purposes, as a goddess, a Roman equivalent to Nemesis in Greek
mythology, though Nemesis did receive cultus, notably at her sanctuary at Rhamnous, north of Marathon, Greece.
Ovid offers an extensive personification of Invidia in Metamorphoses 2.760-832.
Invidia is the uneasy emotion denied by the shepherd Melipoeus in Virgil's Eclogue 1.[5]
Allegorical invidia
Among Christians, Invidia is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. In Late
Gothic and Renaissance iconography, Invidia is personified invariably
as a woman.
Cesare Ripa's influential Iconologia (Rome, 1603) represented Invidia
with a serpent coiled round her breast and biting her heart, "to signify
her self-devouring bitterness; she also raises one hand to her mouth to
show she cares only for herself". The representational tradition drew on
Latin authors such as Ovid, Horace, and Pliny, as well as Andrea
Alciato's emblem book and Jacopo Sannazaro. Alciato portrayed her
devouring her own heart in her anguish.[6]
Invidia is the fatal flaw of Iago in Shakespeare's Othello':"O you are

well tuned now; but I'll set down the pegs that make this music."
(Othello II.i).[7]
Invidia by Jacques Callot (1620) draws on a long

iconic tradition Notes
[1] Oxford Latin Dictionary, s.v. "invidere"; Kaster 2002 (see below) p 278 note 4.
[2] Robert A. Kaster, "Invidia and the End of Georgics 1" Phoenix 56.3/4 (Autumn - Winter, 2002:275-295); Kaster presents a diagrammatic
"taxonomy" of the behavioral scripts embodying invidia adducing numerous examples in Latin literature to generate a more nuanced
apprehension of the meaning.
[3] Kaster 2002:281 note 9.
[4] Kaster 2002:283ff.
[5] Explored in terms of the language of emotions and applied to a passage in Virgil's Georgics by Robert A. Kaster, "Invidia and the End of
Georgics 1" Phoenix 56.3/4 (Autumn - Winter, 2002:275-295).
[6] Miles Chappell, "Cigoli, Galileo, and Invidia", The Art Bulletin 57.1 (March 1975:91-98) p. 97, in the context of an allegorical drawing by
Ludovico Cigoli. The expression "Eat your heart out! may be read as an invitation to invidia.
[7] Kaster 2002 illustrates the process of invidia with a number of utterances of Iago, "the most fully rounded representative of such scripts" (p.
281).
References
• Peter Aronoff, 2003. (Bryn Mawr Classical Review 20) (http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2003/2003-12-28.
html/): Review of David Konstan and Keith Rutter, eds. Envy, Spite and Jealousy: The Rivalrous Emotions in
Ancient Greece. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press 2003; ISBN 0-7486-1603-9).
Juno (mythology)
Juno (Latin pronunciation: /ˈjuːnoː/) was an ancient Roman
goddess, the protector and special counselor of the
state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister (but also the
wife) of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Mars
and Vulcan. Her Greek equivalent is Hera. As the
patron goddess of Rome and the Roman empire she
was called Regina ("queen") and, together with Jupiter
and Minerva, was worshipped as a triad on the Capitol
(Juno Capitolina) in Rome.
Juno's own warlike aspect among the Romans is

apparent in her attire. She often appeared armed and
wearing a goatskin cloak, which was the garment
favoured by Roman soldiers on campaign. This warlike
aspect was assimilated from the Greek goddess Athena,
whose goatskin was called the 'aegis'.
Worship
Every year, on the first of March, women held a
festival in honor of Juno called the Matronalia. On this
day, lambs and cattle were sacrificed in her honor.
Another festival called the Nonae Caprotinae ("The Roman statue Juno Sospita. Plaster cast in pushkin museum. Plaster
Nones of the Wild Fig") was held on July 7. Juno is the cast in pushkin museum after original in Vatican museums.
patroness of marriage, and many people believe that the

most favorable time to marry is June, the month named after the goddess. Lucina was an epithet for Juno as "she who
brings children into light."
Epithets
Even more than other major Roman deities, Juno held a large number of significant and diverse epithets, names and
titles representing various aspects and roles of the goddess. In accordance with her central role as a goddess of
marriage, these included Interduca ("she who leads the bride into marriage"), Domiduca ("she who leads the bride to
her new home"), Cinxia ("she who looses the bride's girdle"). However, many other epithets of Juno are less
thematically linked.
Juno was very frequently called Juno Regina
("Juno the Queen"). This aspect was the one
named in the Temple of Jupiter as part of the
Capitoline Triad, emphasizing that Juno's role as
the wife of Jupiter and queen of the gods was the
most important in that context. There were also
temples of Juno Regina on the Aventine Hill, in
the Circus Flaminius and in the area that became
the Porticus Octaviae. On September 1, the IVNO REGINA ("Queen Juno") on a coin celebrating Julia Soaemias.
festival of Juno took place.[1]
As the great Juno Moneta (which the ancients interpreted as "the one who warns") she guarded over the finances of
the empire and had a temple on the Arx (one of two Capitoline hills), which was the mint. The epithet Moneta
ultimately derives from the legend of the Gallic attack on Rome by Brennus in 390 BC, during which the Romans,
having retreated into the citadel, were awakened at night by the sacred geese of Juno and, thus, alerted to the coming
of the Gauls. Consequently, Juno became Juno Moneta, she who warns/protects. Although much debate surrounds
the etymology, even amongst the ancient Romans, it is this story that Virgil favors in Book VIII of the Aeneid in the
ekphrasis of Aeneas' shield (VIII.655-662). A temple dedicated to Juno Moneta was the mint in which Rome's
money was coined. The name of this temple gives rise to the English word "monetary".
As healer of the sick, she was known as Juno Sospita, Juno the Savior.
Juno "of the Yoke of Holy Matrimony" was Juno Jugo (see Vicus Jugarius, a street in Rome where she once had an
altar under this epithet).
Lucina was an epithet for Juno as "she who brings children into the light", and Lucetia as "bringer of light" in
general. She was also referenced as Pomona ("goddess of fruit"), Pronuba ("matron of honor") and Ossipagina
("bone setter" or "bone strengthener"). Some of these titles may have been invented as poetic descriptions, however,
and may not have been actually used in the cult worship of Juno.
In Virgil's Aeneid, book I, verse 23, she is referred to as Saturnia, daughter of Saturnus.
Juno could throw thunderbolts like her husband Jupiter.
Statue at Samos
In Dutch city of Maastricht, which was founded as Trajectum ad
Mosam about 2000 years ago, the remains of the foundations of a
substantial temple for Juno and Jupiter are to be found in the cellars of
Hotel Derlon. Over part of the Roman remains the first Christian
church of the Netherlands was built in the 4th century AD.
The story behind these remains begins with Juno and Jupiter being
born as twins of Saturn and Opis. Juno was sent to Samos Island when
she was a very young child. She was carefully raised there until
Jupiter and Juno, by Annibale Carracci. puberty, when she then married her brother. A statue was made
representing Juno, the bride, as a young girl on her wedding day. It was
carved out of Parian marble and placed in front of her temple at Samos for many centuries. Ultimately this statue of
Juno was brought to Rome and placed in the sanctuary of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill. For a
long time the Romans honored her with many ceremonies under the name Queen Juno. The remains were moved
then sometime between the first century and the fourth century to the Netherlands.[2]
In literature
Perhaps Juno's most prominent appearance in Roman literature is as the primary antagonistic force in Virgil's
Aeneid, where she is depicted as a cruel and savage goddess intent upon supporting first Dido and then Turnus and
the Rutulians against Aeneas' attempt to found a new Troy in Italy. There has been some speculation—such as by
Maurus Servius Honoratus, an ancient commentator on the Aeneid—that she is perhaps a conflation of Hera with the
Carthaginian storm-goddess Tanit in some aspects of her portrayal here.
Juno is also mentioned in The Tempest in Act IV, Scene I. In this, she relates to Prospero as they are both leaders in
their realm and have spirit like messengers who are very loyal (Juno has Iris, Prospero has Ariel). William
Shakespeare repeatedly mentions Juno throughout the play Antony and Cleopatra, often in forms of exclamation by
the characters.
Ancient source references

• Servius, In Aeneida ii.225
• Lactantius, Divinae institutions i.17.8 juno married his brother
References
[1] Scullard, H.H. (1981). Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic (p. 183). London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-8014-1402-4.
[2] Virginia Brown's translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Famous Women, pp. 13–14; Harvard University Press 2001; ISBN 0-674-01130-9
Lady Justice
Lady Justice (Latin: Justitia), the Roman goddess of Justice, who
is equivalent to the Greek goddess Dike, is an allegorical
personification of the moral force in judicial systems.[1] [2]
Depiction
The personification of justice balancing the scales of truth and
fairness dates back to ancient Egypt and the Goddess Maat, and
later Isis. The Roman Empire replaced the ancient Egyptian legal
system with its own laws but adopted the image of a female
goddess: Justitia has frequently been depicted as a woman
carrying a sword and scales, and wearing a blindfold. Her modern
iconography, which frequently adorns courthouses and
courtrooms, conflates the attributes of several goddesses who
embodied Right Rule for Greeks and Romans, blending Roman
blindfolded Fortuna (luck) with Hellenistic Greek Tyche (fate),
and sword-carrying Nemesis (vengeance).
Justitia's attributes parallel those of the Hellenic deities Themis

and Dike. Themis was the embodiment of divine order, law, and
custom, in her aspect as the personification of the divine rightness
Themis armed with sword and scales
of law. However, the mythological connection is not a direct one.
A more appropriate comparison is Themis' daughter Dike, who
was imagined carrying scales:
"If some god had been holding level the balance of Dike"
is an image in a surviving fragment of Bacchylides's poetry.
Justitia is most often depicted with a set of scales typically suspended from her left hand, upon which she measures
the strengths of a case's support and opposition. She is also often seen carrying a double-edged sword in her right
hand, symbolizing the power of Reason and Justice, which may be wielded either for or against any party.
Lady Justice 332
Blindfold
Lady Justice is often depicted wearing a blindfold. The blindfold represents objectivity, in that justice is (or should
be) meted out objectively, without fear or favour, regardless of identity, money, power, or weakness; blind justice
and blind impartiality. The earliest Roman coins depicted Justitia with the sword in one hand and the scale in the
other, but with her eyes uncovered.[3] Justitia was only commonly represented as "blind" since about the end of the
fifteenth century. The first known representation of blind Justice is Hans Gieng's 1543 statue on the
Gerechtigkeitsbrunnen (Fountain of Justice) in Berne.[4]
Instead of using the Janus approach, many sculptures simply leave out the blindfold altogether. For example, atop
the Old Bailey courthouse in London, a statue of Lady Justice stands without a blindfold;[5] the courthouse brochures
explain that this is because Lady Justice was originally not blindfolded, and because her “maidenly form” is supposed
to guarantee her impartiality which renders the blindfold redundant.[6] Another variation is to depict a blindfolded
Lady Justice as a human scale, weighing competing claims in each hand. An example of this can be seen at the
Shelby County Courthouse in Memphis, Tennessee.[7]
Justice in sculpture
Lady Justice with sword, scales and blindfold on the Gerechtigkeits-brunnen in

Berne, Switzerland — 1543
Supreme Court of Brazil, 1961

Lady Justice 333
Sculpture of Lady Justice on the Gerechtigkeitsbrunnen in

Frankfurt, Germany
Justicia, outside the Supreme Court of Canada,

Ottawa, Canada
The Central Criminal Court or Old Bailey,

London, UK
Lady Justice 334
Themis, Itojyuku, Shibuya-ku, Japan
19th-century sculpture of the Power of Law at Olomouc, Czech Republic — lacks the blindfold and scales of Justice,
replacing the latter with a book
Themis, Chuo University, Tama-shi,

Japan
Lady Justice 335
Themis, Chuo University Suginami high school,

Suginami-ku, Japan
The Law, by Jean Feuchère
Shelby County Courthouse, Memphis,

Tennessee, USA
Lady Justice 336
Themis, outside the Supreme Court of Queensland, Brisbane,

Queensland, Australia
Justice in painting
Gerechtigkeit, Lucas Cranach the

Elder, 1537
Lady Justice 337
Luca Giordano, Palazzo Medici Riccardi in

Florence, 1684-1686
References
[1] Hamilton, Marci. God vs. the Gavel (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Ox4_vqFCjcEC& pg=PA296& dq="lady+ justice"+ symbol&
lr=& as_brr=3& ei=uXb8Se-IC4GuyATlm5SPBg), page 296 (Cambridge University Press 2005): “The symbol of the judicial system, seen in
courtrooms throughout the United States, is blindfolded Lady Justice.”
[2] Fabri, Marco. The challenge of change for judicial systems (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=AwwH0F8iC9QC& pg=PA137&
dq="lady+ justice"+ symbol& lr=& as_brr=3& ei=uXb8Se-IC4GuyATlm5SPBg), page 137 (IOS Press 2000): “the judicial system is intended
to be apolitical, its symbol being that of a blindfolded Lady Justice holding balanced scales.”
[3] See "The Scales of Justice as Represented in Engravings, Emblems, Reliefs and Sculptures of Early Modern Europe" in G. Lamoine, ed.,
Images et representations de la justice du XVie au XIXe siecle (Toulouse: University of Toulose-Le Mirail, 1983)" at page 8.
[4] Image of Lady Justice in Berne.
[5] Image of Lady Justice in London.
[6] Colomb, Gregory. Designs on Truth (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=trgG0BAQ4xkC& pg=PA50& dq=Justice+ and+ + "without+ a+
blindfold"& ei=c3z8Sdg9lujMBJC2uf4G), page 50 (Penn State Press, 1992).
[7] Image of Lady Justice in Memphis.
External links
• Media related to Iustitia at Wikimedia Commons
• DOJ Seal - History and Motto (http://www.usdoj.gov:80/jmd/ls/dojseal.htm)
• Origin of Lady of Justice (http://www.commonlaw.com/Justice.html)
• Images of the Goddess of Justice (http://members.tripod.com/mdean/justice.html)
• Photos of Lady Justice (http://radio.cz/pictures/policie/spravedlnost1.jpg)
Juturna 338
Juturna
For the 2005 album by Circa Survive, see Juturna (album).
In the myth and religion of ancient Rome, Juturna was
a goddess of fountains, wells and springs. She was a
sister of Turnus and supported him against Aeneas by
giving him his sword after he dropped it in battle, as
well as taking him away from the battle when it seemed
he would get killed. She was also the mother of Fontus
by Janus.
Jupiter turned her into a water nymph and gave her a

sacred well in Lavinium, Latium, as well as another
one near the temple to Vesta in the Forum Romanum.
The pool next to the second well was called Lacus
Juturnae. Juturna had an affair with Jupiter but the
Temple of Juturna in Largo di Torre Argentina, Rome.
secret was betrayed by another nymph, Larunda, whom
Jupiter struck with muteness as punishment.
Laetitia
Laetitia was a minor Roman goddess of gaiety, her name deriving from the root word laeta, meaning happy
Laetitia may refer to:
People
Laetitia is a girls' name that is quite popular in the south of France and is also used in Québec. It is originally a Latin
name.
• Laetitia Sadier, member of Stereolab and Monade
• Saint Laetitia
• Laetitia Casta, a French supermodel who rose to fame in the 1990s
• Laetitia Delhez, one of two surviving victims of Belgian serial killer Marc Dutroux
• Princess Laetitia Maria of Belgium
Laetitia 339
Other
• "Laetitia" is a song by the German musical project E Nomine featured on their studio album Die Prophezeiung
Fictional characters
• Miss Lætitia Prism, a fictional character from Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest
• Laetitia, a fictional character from the anime series MADLAX
See also
• 39 Laetitia, an asteroid
• Leticia (disambiguation)
• Letitia
Larentina
Larentina was a Roman goddess of death. She had her tongue torn out by Jupiter after she revealed one of his
indiscretions, and was then called Muta, "the mute one" (see also Dea Tacita). She is also associated with Acca
Larentia, Mania, and Lara or Larunda, Mother of the Lares.
Laverna
Important Gods:
Jupiter Minerva
Mars Mercury
Quirinus Vulcan
Vesta Ceres
Juno Venus
Fortuna Lares
Topics
Roman Kingdom
Flamens
Penates Lemures
Furrina Portunes
In Roman mythology, Laverna was a goddess of thieves, cheats and the underworld. She was propitiated by
libations poured with the left hand. The poet Horace and the playwright Plautus call her a goddess of thieves. In
Laverna 340
Rome, her sanctuary was near the Porta Lavernalis.
References
Michael Jordon, Encyclopedia of Gods, Kyle Cathie Limited, 2002
Levana
In ancient Roman religion, Levana ("lifter", from Latin levare "to lift") was the goddess of newborn babies. Her
name comes from the practice of the father lifting the child off the ground where it was placed by the child's mother
to show that he officially accepts the child as his own.
Thomas de Quincey's prose poem Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow begins with a discussion of the role of Levana
in Roman religion.
Modern use
Levana is the name of an infant and child safety product manufacturer. The brand was established in 2007 and
concentrates on electrical means of protection.
External links
• Myth Index - Levana [1]
• Child Safety Products [2] Official Levana Website.
• Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow [3] by Thomas de Quincey.
References
[1] http:/ / www. mythindex. com/ roman-mythology/ L/ Levana. html
[2] http:/ / myLEVANA. com/
[3] http:/ / dequincey. classicauthors. net/ LevanaAndOurLadiesOfSorrow/
Libera (mythology) 341
Libera (mythology)
Libera is a fertility goddess in ancient Roman religion. Her origins are unknown; she may have been a fertility
goddess of archaic or pre-Roman Magna Graecia. Her Latin name is the feminine form of Liber, (free, or in a cult
context, The Free One). At some time during Rome's Regal or very early Republican eras, she became a female
counterpart of Liber, also known as Liber Pater (The Free Father), Roman god of wine, male fertility, and a guardian
of plebeian freedoms.[1] In this form, she enters Roman history as Triadic cult companion to Ceres and Liber in a
temple established on the Aventine Hill ca. 493 BC. The location and context of this early cult mark her association
with Rome's commoner-citizens, or plebs; she might have been offered cult as part of Liber's festival, Liberalia, or
during Cerealia, in which she would have been subordinate to Ceres. Otherwise, her relationship to her Aventine cult
partners is uncertain. [2]
With the institution of the ritus graecia cereris (greek rites of Ceres) c.205 BC, Libera was officially identified with
Ceres' daughter Proserpina and acquired with her a Romanised form of Greek mystery rite and attendant mythology,
based on Greek cults to Demeter and Persephone. In the late Republican era, Cicero describes Liber and Libera as
Ceres' children. At around the same time, possibly in the context of popular or religious drama, Hyginus equates her
with Greek Ariadne, as bride to Liber's Greek equivalent, Dionysus: therefore her mythographic associations and
identity seem far from straightforward.[3] The older and newer forms of her cult and rites, and their diverse
associations, persisted well into the late Imperial era. St. Augustine (AD 354 – 430) observes that Libera is
concerned with female fertility, as Liber is with male fertility.[4]

[1] Barbette Stanley Spaeth, The Roman goddess Ceres, University of Texas Press, 1996, p. 8: the pairing of Libera and Liber identifies both as
aspects of an "etymological duality" – cf Roman Faunus and Fauna.
[2] No surviving accounts of this period are contemporaneous; later Roman accounts offer the equivalence of Ceres, Liber and Libera to the
Greek deities Demeter, Dionysus and Persephone; the comparison may retrospectively conflate older with more recent cult.
[3] T. P. Wiseman, "Satyrs in Rome? The Background to Horace's Ars Poetica", The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 78 (1988), p 7, note 52.
[4] Barbette Stanley Spaeth, The Roman goddess Ceres, University of Texas Press, 1996, p. 131, citing Cicero, De Natura Deorum, 2.62, and
Saint Augustine, De Civitate Dei, 4.11, who most likely use the Late Republican polymath Varro as their source.
Liberalitas 342
Liberalitas
In Roman mythology, Liberalitas was the
personification (or Goddess) of generosity.
This aureus by Macrinus celebrates Macrinus and his son Diadumenianus, as well
as and their prodigality (LIBERALITAS AUG[USTORUM]). They are depicted in
the act of providing for the Romans.
Libertas
Libertas (Latin for Liberty) was the Roman
goddess and embodiment of liberty.
Temples and derived

inspirations
In 238 BC, before the Second Punic War,
having long been a Roman deity along with
other personified virtues, Libertas assumed
goddess status. Tiberius Gracchus ordered Denarius (42 BC) issued by Cassius Longinus and Lentulus Spinther, depicting the
crowned head of Libertas, with a sacrificial jug and lituus on the reverse
the construction of her first temple on
Aventine Hill; census tables were stored
inside the temple's atrium. A subsequent temple was built (58-57 B.C.) on Palatine Hill, another of the Seven hills of
Rome, by Publius Clodius Pulcher. By building and consecrating the temple on the former house of then-exiled
Cicero, Clodius ensured that the land was legally uninhabitable. Upon his return, Cicero successfully argued that the
consecration was invalid and thus managed to reclaim the land and destroy the temple. In 46 B.C., the Roman Senate
voted to build and dedicate a shrine to Libertas in recognition of Julius Caesar, but no temple was built; instead, a
small statue of the goddess stood in the Roman Forum.[1]
Libertas, along with other Roman goddesses, has served as the inspiration for many modern-day symbols, including
the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island in the United States of America. According to the National Park Service, the
Statue's Roman robe is the main feature that invokes Libertas and the symbol of Liberty from which the Statue
derives its name.[2]
In addition, money throughout history has born the name or image of Libertas. Libertas was pictured on Galba's
"Freedom of the People" coins during his short reign after the death of Nero.[3] The University of North Carolina
records two instances of private banks in its state depicting Libertas on their banknotes;[4] [5] Libertas is depicted on
the 5, 10 and 20 Rappen denomination coins of Switzerland.
Libertas 343
Symbols of Libertas
Libertas was associated with the pileus, commonly worn by the freed
slave (emphasis added):[6]
Among the Romans the cap of felt was the emblem of liberty.
When a slave obtained his freedom he had his head shaved, and
wore instead of his hair an undyed pileus (πίλεον λευκόν,
Diodorus Siculus Exc. Leg. 22 p625, ed. Wess.; Plaut. Amphit.
I.1.306; Persius, V.82). Hence the phrase servos ad pileum Libertas is depicted on coins from several
countries, such as the centime coins of the Swiss
vocare is a summons to liberty, by which slaves were frequently
franc depicted here.
called upon to take up arms with a promise of liberty (Liv.
XXIV.32). The figure of Liberty on some of the coins of
Antoninus Pius, struck A.D. 145, holds this cap in the right hand.[7]
Libertas was also recognized in ancient Rome by the rod (vindicta or festuca),[6] used ceremonially in the act of
Manumissio vindicta, Latin for "Freedom by the Rod" (emphasis added):
The master brought his slave before the magistratus, and stated the grounds (causa) of the intended
manumission. The lictor of the magistratus laid a rod (festuca) on the head of the slave, accompanied
with certain formal words, in which he declared that he was a free man ex Jure Quiritium, that is,
"vindicavit in libertatem." The master in the meantime held the slave, and after he had pronounced the words
"hunc hominem liberum volo," he turned him round (momento turbinis exit Marcus Dama, Persius, Sat. V.78)
and let him go (emisit e manu, or misit manu, Plaut. Capt. II.3.48), whence the general name of the act of
manumission. The magistratus then declared him to be free [...][8]
Personifications
Columbia (name) of U.S.A., Marianne of France, the Statue of Liberty and many others are actually embodiments of
Libertas. See Liberty.
References
[1] "Libertas" (http:/ / www. britannica. com/ EBchecked/ topic/ 1389461/ Libertas). Encyclopædia Britannica online. 2008. . Retrieved 1
September 2008.
[2] "Robe" (http:/ / www. nps. gov/ archive/ stli/ teachercorner/ page13. html). National Park Service. . Retrieved 2008-09-01.
[3] "Roman Coins" (http:/ / artgallery. yale. edu/ pdf/ perspect/ roman_coins. pdf) (PDF). . Retrieved 2008-09-01.
[4] Howgego, Christopher. Ancient History from Coins. Routledge; New York, NY: 1995.
[5] "Bank of Fayetteville one-dollar note, 1855" (http:/ / dc. lib. unc. edu/ u?/ numismatics,503). . Retrieved 2008-09-01.
[6] Sacred Places of Goddess: 108 Destinations (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=b7KbLLjzuRgC). CCC Publishing. 2005. pp. 360–361.
ISBN 1888729112. .
[7] Yates, James. Entry "Pileus" in William Smith's A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (John Murray, London, 1875).
[8] Long, George. Entry " Manumission (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ secondary/ SMIGRA*/ Manumissio. html)"
in William Smith's A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (John Murray, London, 1875).
Libitina 344
Libitina
In Roman mythology, Libitina was the goddess of death, corpses and funerals. Her name was also a synonym for
death [see Horace Odes 3.30].
Her face was seldom portrayed; hardly any sacrifices were offered to her, as they were to Orcus, her male equivalent.
Today, her very name has sunk into such obscurity that it is seldom mentioned when the gods and goddesses of
antiquity are reviewed. Her name was comparable to our idea of death, and she was worshipped by the ancients and
often sung about by their poets. This female deity, remembered today mostly from Roman verse, was a reigning
personification of Death. She was manifest as a black robed, dark winged figure who might, like an enormous bird of
prey, hover above her intended victim until the moment came to seize it. In some traditions, she is the same as Venus
or Persephone. Servius Tullius is said to have been the first to set up temples to her that housed all the equipment
necessary for funerals, including gravediggers. Her temples also usually contained the registers of the dead. It is
believed that the Colosseum had one gate dedicated to Libitina for all of the fallen gladiators that fought within the
Colosseum.
As a deity of death, Libitina was most often invoked at funerals: it was a tradition for a coin to be brought to her
temple when someone died, and undertakers were known as libitinarii. [1] .
Sources
[1] Aldington, Richard; Ames, Delano (1968). New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology. Yugoslavia: The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited,
209.
Lima (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Lima was the goddess of thresholds (from Latin limen "threshold")[1] [2]
. It is possible that
she was a female counterpart of Limentinus[3] .
References
[1] Arnobius, Adversus Nationes, 4. 9
[2] http:/ / www. paralumun. com/ mythroman. htm
[3] William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, v. 2, page 786 (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/
1894. html)
External links
• Myth Index - Lima (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/L/Lima.html)
Lua (goddess) 345
Lua (goddess)
In Roman mythology, Lua was a goddess to whom soldiers sacrificed captured weapons.[1] She is sometimes
referred to as "Lua Saturni", which makes her a consort of Saturn; it may be that Lua was merely an alternative name
for Ops [2] .
References
[1] liber paganum, part L (http:/ / web. mac. com/ dykow/ libpagan/ l. html#Lua)
[2] Myth Index - Lua (http:/ / www. mythindex. com/ roman-mythology/ L/ Lua. html)
Lucina (goddess)
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Lucina was the goddess of childbirth. She safeguarded the lives of women in
labour. Later, Lucina was an epithet for Juno. The name was generally taken to have the sense of "she who brings
children into the light" (Latin: lux "light"), but may actually have been derived from lucus ("grove") after a sacred
grove of lotus trees on the Esquiline Hill associated with the goddess. The asteroid 146 Lucina is named after the
goddess.
Lucina was chief among a number of deities who influenced or guided every aspect of birth and child development,
such as Vagitanus, who opened the newborn's mouth to cry, and Fabulinus, who enabled the child's first articulate
speech. Among other minor deities within this sphere of influence were the Di nixi, Alemonia, Partula, Prorsa
Postverta, Levana, Cunina, Rumina, Potina, Edusa, Sentia, Statanus, Abeona, and Paventia.
External links
• Lucina [1]
References
[1] http:/ / www. goddessmyths. com/ Lucina-Ptesan-Wi. html
Lympha 346
Lympha

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
The Lympha (plural Lymphae) is an ancient Roman deity of fresh water.[1] She is one of twelve agricultural deities
listed by Varro as "leaders" (duces) of Roman farmers, because "without water all agriculture is dry and poor."[2]
The Lymphae are often connected to Fons, "Source" or "Font," a god of fountains and wellheads. Lympha represents
Lympha 347
a "functional focus" of fresh water, according to Michael Lipka's conceptual approach to Roman deity,[3] or more
generally moisture.[4]
Vitruvius preserves some of her associations in the section of his work On Architecture in which he describes how
the design of a temple building (aedes) should reflect the nature of the deity to be housed therein:
The character of the Corinthian order seems more appropriate to Venus, Flora, Proserpina, and the
Nymphs [Lymphae] of the Fountains; because its slenderness, elegance and richness, and its ornamental
leaves surmounted by volutes, seem to bear an analogy to their dispositions.[5]
The name Lympha is equivalent to, but not entirely interchangeable with nympha, "nymph." One dedication for
restoring the water supply was made to nymphis lymphisque augustis, "for the nymphs and august lymphae,"
distinguishing the two.[6] In poetic usage, lymphae as a common noun, plural or less often singular, can mean a
source of fresh water, or simply "water"; compare her frequent companion Fons, whose name is a word for
"fountain," but who is also invoked as a deity.
When she appears in a list of proper names for deities, Lympha is seen as an object of religious reverence embodying
the divine aspect of water. Like several other nature deities who appear in both the singular and the plural (such as
Faunus/fauni), she has both a unified and a multiple aspect.[7] She was the appropriate deity to pray to for
maintaining the water supply, in the way that Liber provided wine or Ceres bread.[8]
Name and Italic origins

The origin of the word lympha is obscure. It may originally have been lumpa or limpa, related to the adjective
limpidus meaning "clear, transparent" especially applied to liquids.[9] An intermediate form lumpha is also found.[10]
The spelling seems to have been influenced by the Greek word nympha, as the upsilon (Υ,υ) and phi (Φ,φ) are
normally transcribed into Latin as u or y and ph or f.[11]
That Lympha is an Italic concept[12] is indicated by the Oscan cognate diumpā- (recorded in the dative plural,
diumpaís, "for the lymphae"), with a characteristic alternation of d for l.[13] These goddesses appear on the Tabula
Agnonensis as one of 17 Samnite deities, who include the equivalents of Flora, Proserpina, and possibly Venus,
categorized with the Lymphae by Vitruvius, as well as several of the gods on Varro's list of the 12 agricultural
deities. On the Oscan tablet, they appear in a group of deities who provide moisture for crops.[14] In the
Etruscan-based cosmological schema of Martianus Capella, the Lymphae are placed in the second of 16 celestial
regions, with Jupiter, Quirinus, Mars (these three constituting the Archaic Triad), the Military Lar, Juno, Fons, and
the obscure Italo-Etruscan Novensiles.[15] A 1st-century A.D. dedication was made to the Lymphae jointly with
Diana.[16]
The Italic lymphae were connected with healing cults. Juturna, who is usually called a "nymph," is identified by
Varro as Lympha: "Juturna is the Lympha who aids: therefore many ailing people on account of her name
customarily seek out this water", with a play on the name Iu-turna and the verb iuvare, "to help, aid."[17] Her water
shrine was a spring-fed lacus in the forum which attracted cure-seekers, and Propertius connected its potency to
Lake Albano and Lake Nemi, where the famous sanctuary of Diana Nemorensis was located.[18] Juturna's cult, which
Servius identifies as a fons, was maintained to ensure the water supply, and she was the mother of the deity Fons.[19]
In Cisalpine Gaul, an inscription links the Lymphae to the Vires, "(Physical) Powers, Vigor", personified as a set of
masculine divinities,[20] a connection that in his monumental work Zeus Arthur Bernard Cook located in the flowing
or liquid aspect of the Lymphae as it relates to the production of seminal fluid.[21] As a complement to the Vires, the
Lymphae and the nymphs with whom they became so closely identified embody the urge to procreate, and thus these
kinds of water deities are also associated with marriage and childbirth.[22] When Propertius alludes to the story of
how Tiresias spied the virgin goddess Pallas Athena bathing, he plays on the sexual properties of lympha in advising
against theophanies obtained against the will of the gods: "May the gods grant you other fountains (fontes): this
liquid (lympha) flows for girls only, this pathless trickle of a secret threshold."[23]
Lympha 348
The Augustan poets frequently play with the ambiguous dual meaning of lympha as both "water source" and
"nymph". In the poetry of Horace,[24] lymphae work,[25] dance,[26] and make noise;[27] they are talkative,[28] and
when they're angry they cause drought until their rites are observed.[29] Some textual editors have responded to this
personification by emending manuscript readings of lymphae to nymphae. When the first letter of a form of -ympha
is obliterated or indistinct in an inscription, the word is usually taken as nympha instead of the less common
lympha.[30]
Divine madness
In the religions of ancient Greece, Rome,
and Celtica,[31] water goddesses are
commonly sources of inspiration or divine
revelation, which may have the appearance
of madness or frenzy. In Greek,
"nympholepsy" ("seizure by the nymphs")
was primarily "a heightening of awareness
and elevated verbal skills" resulting from
the influence of the nymphs on an
individual.[32] The term also meant a
physical snatching or abduction of a person
by the nymphs, as in the myth of Hylas, and
by extension became a euphemism or
metaphor for death, as evidenced by both
Greek and Roman epitaphs.[33] A person
who was a religious devotee of the nymphs
might also be called a "nympholept."[34]
The Latin verb lympho, lymphare meant "to Roman mosaic depicting the abduction of Hylas by the nymphs
drive crazy" or "to be in a state of frenzy,"
with the adjectives lymphaticus and lymphatus meaning "frenzied, deranged" and the abstract noun lymphatio
referring to the state itself. Vergil uses the adjective lymphata only once,[35] in the Aeneid to describe the madness of
Amata, wife of Latinus, goaded by the Fury Allecto and raving contrary to mos, socially sanctioned behavior.[36]
Among the Greeks, the Cult of the Nymphs was a part of ecstatic Orphic or Dionysiac religion. The adjective
lymphatus was "strongly evocative of Bacchic frenzy,"[37] and the Roman playwright Pacuvius (220–130 BC)
explicitly connects it to sacra Bacchi, "rites of Bacchus."[38] R.B. Onians explained the "fluidity" of the ecstatic gods
in the context of ancient theories about the relation of body and mind, with dryness a quality of rationality and liquid
productive of emotion. Water as a locus of divine, even frenzied inspiration links the Lymphae to the Latin
Camenae, who became identified with the Muses.[39]
In his entry on Lymphae, the lexicographer Festus notes that the Greek word nympha had influenced the Latin name,
and elaborates:
Popular belief has it that whoever see a certain vision in a fountain, that is, an apparition of a nymph,
will go quite mad. These people the Greeks call numpholêptoi ["Nymph-possessed"] and the Romans,
lymphatici."[40]
Because the states of madness, possession, and illness were not always strictly distinguished in antiquity,
"nympholepsy" became a morbid or undesirable condition.[41] Isidore compares Greek hydrophobia, which literally
means "fear of water," and says that "lymphaticus is the word for one who contracts a disease from water, making
him run about hither and thither, or from the disease gotten from a flow of water." In poetic usage, he adds, the
Lympha 349
lymphatici are madmen.[42]

During the Christianization of the Empire in late antiquity, the positive effects of possession by a nymph were
erased, and nymphs were syncretized with fallen angels and ancient Greek figures such as the Lamia and Gello.[43]
Tertullian amplifies from a Christian perspective anxieties that unclean spirits might lurk in various water sources,
noting that men whom waters (aquae) have killed or driven to madness or a terrified state are called "nymph-caught
(nympholeptos) or lymphatic or hydrophobic."[44]
References
[1] Floyd G. Ballentine, "Some Phases of the Cult of the Nymphs," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 15 (1904), p. 90.
[2] Varro, De re rustica 1.1.4–7; Peter F. Dorcey, The Cult of Silvanus: A Study in Roman Folk Religion (Brill, 1992), p. 136.
[4] Patricia A. Johnston, "The Mystery Cults and Vergil's Georgics," in Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia (University of Texas Press, 2009), p.
268; Matthew Dillon and Lynda Garland, Ancient Rome: from the early Republic to the assassination of Julius Caesar (Routledge, 2005), p.
137.
[5] Vitruvius, De architectura 1.1.5, (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Vitruvius/ 1*. html#2. 5) Bill Thayer's edition at
LacusCurtius of the translation by Joseph Gwilt, The Architecture of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (London, 1826). The Latin text at LacusCurtius
is that of Valentin Rose's 1899 Teubner edition: Veneri Florae Proserpinae Fonti Lumphis corinthio genere constitutae aptas videbuntur
habere proprietates, quod his diis propter teneritatem graciliora et florida foliisque et volutis ornata opera facta augere videbuntur iustum
decorem. A textual crux occurs at the relevant phrase: Gwilt translates Fontium Lumphis ("for the Lymphae of the Fountains"), but some
editions give Fonti Lumphis ("for Fons, for the Lymphae").
[6] CIL 5.3106; Ballentine, "Some Phases," p. 95; Theodor Bergk, "Kritische bemerkungen zu den römische tragikern," Philologus 33 (1874), p.
269.
[7] Lipka, Roman Gods, p. 67; Joshua Whatmough, The Foundations of Roman Italy (1937), p. 159. The simultaneous oneness and multiplicity
of these deities is an example of monotheistic tendencies in ancient religion: "Lower gods were executors or manifestations of the divine will
rather than independent principles of reality. Whether they are called gods, demons, angels, or numina, these immortal beings are emanations
of the One": Michele Renee Salzman, "Religious koine in Private Cult and Ritual: Shared Religious Traditions in Roman Religion in the First
Half of the Fourth Century CE," in A Companion to Roman Religion (Blackwell, 2007), p. 113. The nymphs, with whom the lymphae are
identified, are among the beings who inhabit forests, woodlands, and groves (silvas, nemora, lucos) and ponds, water sources and streams
(lacus, fontes ac fluvios), according to Martianus Capella (2.167), who lists these beings as pans, fauns, fontes, satyrs, silvani, nymphs, fatui
and fatuae (or fautuae), and the mysterious Fanae, from which the fanum (sacred precinct or shrine) is supposed to get its name.
[8] Ballentine, "Some Phases," p. 91, citing Augustine, De civitate Dei 4.22, 34; 6.1.
[9] Entries on limpidus and lympha, Oxford Latin Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982, 1985 reprinting), pp. 1031 and 1055; Arthur
Sidgwick, P.vergili Maronis Aeneidos Liber VII (Cambridge University Press Archive, n.d.), p. 61, note 377; Fernando Navarro Antolín,
Lygdamus. Corpus Tibullianum III. 1–6: Lygdami elegiarum liber (Brill, 1996), pp. 418–419. In his Etymologies (20.3.4), Isidore of Seville
says that "limpid (limpidus) wine, that is, clear, is so called from its resemblance to water, as if it were lymphidum, because lympha is water";
translation by Stephen A. Barney et al., The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 398.
[10] CIL 1.1238, as cited by Bergk, "Kritische bemerkungen zu den römische tragikern," p. 269. Bergk demonstrated that lympha was in origin
Italic, and not a borrowed Greek term, despite the spelling.
[11] Bergk, "Kritische bemerkungen zu den römische tragikern," pp. 264–269.
[12] Jacqueline Champeaux, "Sorts et divination inspirée. Pour une préhistoire des oracles italiques," Mélanges de l'École française de Rome
102.2 (1990), p. 827.
[13] Whatmough, Foundations of Roman Italy, p. 383; R.S. Conway, The Italic Dialects (Cambridge University Press, 1897), p. 676; Johnston,
Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia, p. 268; Bergk, "Kritische bemerkungen," p. 265.
[14] Johnston, Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia, pp. 268–269.
[15] Martianus Capella, The Marriage of Philology and Mercury 1.46 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=nZ-Z9eI6dXwC&
pg=PA22& dq=Lympha+ OR+ Lymphae& lr=& cd=11#v=onepage& q=Lympha OR Lymphae& f=false)
[16] CIL 9.4644 = ILS 3857.
[17] Varro, De lingua latina 5.71: (Lympha Iuturna quae iuvaret: itaque multi aegroti propter id nomen hanc aquam petere solent). See also
Frontinus, On Aqueducts 1.4, where Juturna is in company with the Camenae and Apollo. C. Bennett Pascal, The Cults of Cisalpine Gaul
(Latomus, 1964), p. 93, reads an inscription as linking the Celtic god Belenus (usually identified with Apollo) and the Lymphae, but Dessau
reads Nymphae (ILS 4867). Servius, note to Aeneid 12.139, has Juturna as a fons, and Propertius 4.21.26, (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=xNTTGDpy5tQC& pg=PA148& dq="lympha+ salubris"& hl=en& ei=-aj7TOyME8S0nAe6wrjICg& sa=X& oi=book_result&
ct=result& resnum=8& ved=0CEUQ6AEwBzgU#v=onepage& q="lympha salubris"& f=false) as the lympha salubris who restored a horse of
Pollux (some editions emend to nympha; see note to the line at Sexti Aurelii Propertii Elegiarum Libri Quattuor, edited by N. Lemaire (1840),
p. 448 online (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=NPcZAQAAIAAJ& pg=RA1-PA448& dq="lympha+ salubris"& hl=en&
ei=-aj7TOyME8S0nAe6wrjICg& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=2& ved=0CCoQ6AEwATgU#v=onepage& q="lympha
Lympha 350
salubris"& f=false)).
[18] Lawrence Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), pp. 74, 105, 152, 228,
230–231.
[19] Servius, note to Aeneid 12.139: "Juturna is a fountain (fons) in Italy. … It was customary to offer sacrifices to this fountain in respect to a
scarcity of water," as cited and discussed by Ballentine, "Some Phases," pp. 91–93. The temple was vowed by G. Lutatius Catulus as the result
of a naval battle during the First Punic War. Arnobius, Adversus Nationes 3.29, identifies her as the mother of Fons.
[20] CIL 5.5648; Joseph Clyde Murley, The Cults of Cisalpine Gaul as Seen in the Inscriptions (Banta, 1922), pp. 32–33.
[21] Arthur Bernard Cook, Zeus (Cambridge University Press Archive), p. 306.
1951), p. 220; Ballentine, "Some Phases of the Cult of the Nymphs," p. 97ff; on marriage (mainly in regard to nymphs, but see note 216),
Salvatore Settis, "'Esedra' e 'ninfeo' nella terminologia architettonica del mondo romano," Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt
(1973), pp. 685–688.
[23] Propertius, Elegies 4.9.59–60, as cited and discussed by Tara S. Welch, "Masculinity and Monuments in Propertius 4.9," American Journal
of Philology 125 (2004), p. 81.
[24] Ballentine, "Some Phases," p. 94.
[25] Horace, Carmen 2.3.11–12 (laborat).
[26] Carmen 3.13.13–16 (desiliunt) and Epode 16.47–48 (desilit).
[27] Epode 2.27 (obstrepunt).
[28] Carmen 3.13.13–16(loquaces).
[29] Sermo 1.5.96–103 (iratis).
[30] Bergk, "Kritische bemerkungen zu den römische tragikern," pp. 268–269; Wilhelm Adolf Boguslaw Hertzberg, note to Propertius 3.16, Sex.
Aurelii Propertii Elegiarum Libri Quattuor (1845), p. 340.
[31] Ausonius, Ordo urbium nobilium 20.29–34, mentioning Divona; entry on "Spring deities" in Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia,
edited by John Koch (ABC-Clio, 2006), pp. 1623–1624.
[32] Jennifer Lynn Larson, Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore (Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 13.
[33] Larson, Greek Nymphs, pp. 13–14, 70.
[34] Larson, Greek Nymphs, p. 14.
[35] Gertrude Hirst, "An Attempt to Date the Composition of Aeneid VII," Classical Quarterly 10 (1916), p. 93.
[36] Vergil, Aeneid 7.377, as noted by Sidgwick, p. 61, and R.D. Williams, The Aeneid of Vergil: Books 7–12 (St. Martins Press, 1973, 1977),
pp. 195–196, who observes that it is "a very strong word." See also Debra Hershkowitz, The Madness of Epic: Reading Insanity from Homer
to Statius (Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 50.
[37] As at Pacuvius. Trag. 422f.; Catullus 64.254, the Ariadne epyllion; and Lucan, Bellum Civile 1.496, as noted by Paul Roche, Lucan: De
Bello Civili, Book 1 (Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 309.
[38] Pacuvius as quoted by Varro, De lingua latina 7.5. See also Johnston, Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia, p. 268. In 186 BC, during the lifetime
of Pacuvius, the Roman senate placed severe legal restrictions on the Bacchanalia, the Dionysian rites celebrated in Italy.
1951), pp. 34–35, 67.
[40] Translation from Larson, Greek Nymphs, pp. 62–63. Festus states that the Lymphae are "called that after the nymphs," then explains: Vulgo
autem memoriae proditum est, quicumque speciem quandam e fonte, id est effigiem nymphae, viderint, furendi non feciesse finem; quos
Graeci νυμφολήπτους vocant. Latini lymphaticos appellant (p. 107, Teubner 1997 edition of Lindsay).
[42] Isidore, Etymologies 4.6.12 and 10.L.161, as translated by Barney et al., pp. 110, 223. See also Festus, entry on Lymphae, p. 107 in the
edition of Lindsay. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=_Ugb6woUJLoC& pg=PA107& dq=lympha+ OR+ Lymphae& lr=&
cd=23#v=onepage& q=lympha OR Lymphae& f=false)
[44] Tertullian, "On Baptism" 2.5. translated by S. Thelwall: "Are there not other cases, too, in which, without any sacrament, unclean spirits
brood on waters, in spurious imitation of that brooding of the Divine Spirit in the very beginning? Witness all shady founts (fontes), and all
unfrequented brooks, and the ponds in the baths and the conduits in private houses, the cisterns and wells which are said to have the property
of 'spiriting away' through the power, that is, of a hurtful spirit. Men whom waters have drowned or affected with madness or with fear, they
call nymph-caught (nympholeptos), or 'lymphatic,' or 'hydrophobic' (an non et alias sine ullo sacramento immundi spiritus aquis incubant
adfectantes illam in primordio divini spiritus gestationem? sciunt opaci quique fontes et avii quique rivi, et in balneis piscinae et euripi in
domibus vel cisternae, et putei qui rapere dicuntur, scilicet per vim spiritus nocentis. nam et esetos et lymphaticos et hydrophobas vocant quos
aquae necaverunt aut amentia vel formidine exercuerunt).
Magna Dea 351
Magna Dea
Magna Dea is Latin for "Great Goddess" and can refer to any major goddess worshipped during the Roman
Republic or Roman Empire. Magna Dea could be applied to a goddess at the head of a pantheon, such as Juno or
Minerva, or a goddess worshipped monotheistically. The term "Great Goddess" itself can refer to a mother goddess
in contemporary Neopagan and Wiccan religions.
Mana Genita
In ancient Roman religion, Mana Genita or Geneta Mana was the goddess who could determine whether infants
were born alive or dead.[1] Her rites were carried out by the sacrifice of a puppy[2] or bitch. Her name would seem to
connect her to the Manes, or spirits of the dead, but is also comparable to the Oscan Deiua Geneta (birth goddess).
Genita Mana may be an epithet like Bona Dea rather than a distinct theonym.[3]
Plutarch examines the nature of this obscure goddess in his Roman Questions, deriving Mana from the Latin verb
manare, "to flow." He explicitly connects the goddess to Hekate,[4] but notes that Argive practice makes for an
interesting comparison with Eilioneia, or the birth goddess Eileithyia.[5] Horace may be referring to this goddess as
Genitalis in the Carmen Saeculare (line 16.)[6]
What Plutarch says

Plutarch writes Roman Questions as a series of questions and answers. Of Geneta Mana, he poses the dual question
of why a bitch is offered to her as a victim, and why it is prayed that no members of one's household should become
"good":
Is it because Geneta is a spirit concerned with the generation and birth of beings that perish? Her name means
some such thing as "flux and birth" or "flowing birth." Accordingly, just as the Greeks sacrifice a bitch to
Hecatê, even so do the Romans offer the same sacrifice to Geneta on behalf of the members of their
household. But Socrates says that the Argives sacrifice a bitch to Eilioneia by reason of the ease with which
the bitch brings forth its young. But does the import of the prayer, that none of them shall become "good,"
refer not to the human members of a household, but to the dogs? For dogs should be savage and terrifying.
Or, because of the fact that the dead are gracefully called "the good," are they in veiled language asking in
their prayer that none of their household may die? One should not be surprised at this; Aristotle, in fact, says
that there is written in the treaty of the Arcadians with the Spartans: "No one shall be made good for rendering
aid to the Spartan party in Tegea"; that is, no one shall be put to death.[7]
References
[1] H.J. Rose, The Roman Questions of Plutarch (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924, 1974), p. 192, note LII; David and Noelle Soren, A Roman
Villa and a Late Roman Infant Cemetery («L'Erma» di Bretschneider, 1999), p. 520 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=U8Muzx1VrbwC& pg=PA520& dq="Geneta+ Mana"+ OR+ "Mana+ Genita"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0&
as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=18#v=onepage& q="Geneta Mana" OR "Mana Genita"& f=false)
[2] Pliny, Natural History 20.58: Genitae Manae catulo res divina fit.
[3] Rose, The Roman Questions of Plutarch, p. 192.
[4] Rose, The Roman Questions of Plutarch, p. 142 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=rKOuoVnZsFAC& pg=PA142& dq="Geneta+
Mana"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=1#v=onepage&
q="Geneta Mana"& f=false)
[5] See also Simon Goldhill, Being Greek Under Rome: Cultural Identity, the Second Sophistic and the Development of Empire (Cambridge
University Press, 2007), pp. 106–107.
[6] Emily A McDermott, "Greek and Roman Elements in Horace's Lyric Program," Aufsteig under Niedergang der römischen Welt (1981), p.
1665.
Mana Genita 352
[7] Loeb Classical Library translation, Bill Thayer's edition at LacusCurtius online. (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/
Plutarch/ Moralia/ Roman_Questions*/ C. html#52)
Mania (mythology)
In Roman and Etruscan mythology, Mania (or Manea) was the goddess of the dead. She, along with Mantus, ruled
the underworld. She was said to be the mother of ghosts, the undead, and other spirits of the night, as well as the
Lares and the Manes. Both the Greek and Latin Mania derive from PIE *men-, "to think". Cognates include Ancient
Greek menos ("life, vigor") and Avestan mainyu, "spirit".
Mater Matuta
Mater Matuta was an indigenous Roman goddess, whom the Romans
eventually made equivalent to the dawn goddess Aurora, and the Greek
goddess Eos. Mater Matuta had a temple on the Forum Boarium, and
she was also associated with the sea harbors and ports, where there
were other temples to her.
Her festival was the Matralia, celebrated on June 11 in her temple at
the Forum Boarium. The festival was only for single women or women
in their first marriage, who offered prayers for their nieces and
nephews, and then drove a slave out of the temple.
Mater Matuta, seated in a wicker chair and

nursing an infant, from Roman Britain, 2nd
century AD
Mefitis 353
Mefitis
In Roman mythology, Mefitis (or Mephitis) was the personification of the poisonous gases emitted from the ground
in swamps and volcanic vapors. Mephitic, derived from Mefitis, is an adjective in the English language meaning
"offensive in odor"; "noxious"; and "poisonous."
Mefite is also a solfatara, a gaseous fissure, associated with the Roman Goddess, Mefitis. It is located in Italy along
the Via Appia between Rome and Brindisi. There, the ancient Romans would rest on their travels and pay homage to
the goddess by performing animal sacrifices using the fissure's deadly gases. Today, it lies near the village of Rocca
San Felice in the province of Avellino (Campania region). The solfatara still emits deadly volcanic gasses originating
from the Vesuvian volcanic system.
Mellona
For the moth genus, see Mellona (moth).
In Roman mythology, the goddess Mellona or Mellonia was the patroness of bees and beekeeping[1] [2] . Her name
comes from Latin mel meaning honey.
References
[1] Augustine, De civitate Dei, IV. 34
[2] Arnobius, Adversus Nationes, IV. 7, 8
External links
• Myth Index - Mellona (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/M/Mellona.html)
Minerva 354
Minerva
Mosaic of the Minerva of Peace (detail), Elihu Vedder, 1896

(Library of Congress)

Priesthoods
Minerva 355
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
Minerva (Etruscan: Menrva) was the Roman goddess whom Hellenizing 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, and the inventor of music.[1] She is often depicted with an owl, her sacred
creature and, through this connection, a symbol of wisdom.
This article focuses on Minerva in ancient Rome and in cultic practice. For information on Latin literary
mythological accounts of Minerva, which were heavily influenced by Greek mythology, see Pallas Athena, where
she is one of three virgin goddesses along with Artemis and Hestia, known by the Romans as Diana and Vesta.
Etruscan Menrva
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). A
goddess with attributes like those of Athena/Minerva does not exist in other Indo-european mythologies. 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).
Minerva 356
Cult in Rome
Menrva 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.[2] [3]
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
A head of "Sulis-Minerva" found in formed to meet and make votive offerings at the temple of Minerva on the
the ruins of the Roman baths in Bath
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

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 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.
• Minerva 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".[4]
• 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.
Minerva 357
• Minerva is featured on the seals and logos of many institutions of

higher learning:
• the University of Louisville official seal
• the University of North Carolina at Greensboro official seal
• University of Lincoln. Minerva's head is used as the logo of this
UK University. There is a tradition within the Lincoln rugby
union team and it is thought they are the Knights of Minerva,
each match being 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." [5] Minerva is still venerated by seniors and their 'torch
Statue of Minerva on the Alte Brücke
bearers' during a pre-graduation ritual called "Torch Night" there. in Heidelberg
• 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
• American Academy of Arts & Sciences, in Cambridge, Mass. Temple of Minerva in Sbeitla, Tunisia
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.
• Minerva is also the name of the oldest student-association of Leiden, the Netherlands (Leiden University).
• 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 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 358
• 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
Societies and governmental use

• 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. The Seal of California
• 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 Menerva is the focal art piece in the great room
of the U.S. Library of Congress.
Medal of Honor
• Minerva consulting & communication [6] is the Belgian
communication agency specialized in increasing the visibility of EU funded research projects. "Let Minerva, the
ancient Roman Goddess of Wisdom, inspire the way you communicate!"
Minerva 359
Public monuments and places

• 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,
The Minerva Roundabout in Guadalajara, Mexico
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.
Footnotes and references

[1] Candau, Francisco J. Cevallos (1994). Coded Encounters: Writing, Gender, and Ethnicity in Colonial Latin America (http:/ / books. google.
com/ books?isbn=0870238868). University of Massachusetts Press. pp. 215. ISBN 0870238868. .
[2] Aristotle Mirab. Narrat. 117
[3] Schmitz, Leonhard (1867). "Achaea (2)" (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 0017. html). In Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek
and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston. pp. 8.
[4] AC.at (http:/ / public. univie. ac. at/ index. php?id=6053& L=2)
[5] www.albany.edu (http:/ / www. albany. edu/ about_history_minerva. php)
[6] http:/ / www. minerva-communication. eu/
• Origins of English History (http://books.google.com/books?isbn=0543904326) see Chapter Ten.

• Romans in Britain - Roman religion and beliefs (http://www.romans-in-britain.org.uk/
arl_roman_religion_and_beliefs.htm) see The Roman gods.
Secondary sources
William Smith (1870). See page 1090 (http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/2198.html)
Molae 360
Molae
In Roman mythology, the Molae were two daughters of the god Mars[1] . Since the Latin mola (singular form of
molae) translates to "grindstone", they may have been connected to pounding or grinding of the grain.
References
[1] Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, XIII. 22
External links
• Myth Index - Molae (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/M/Molae.html)
Moneta
In Roman mythology, Moneta (Latin Monēta) was a title given to two separate goddesses: the goddess of memory
(identified with the Greek goddess Mnemosyne) and an epithet of Juno, called Juno Moneta (Latin Iūno Monēta).
The latter's name is source of numerous words in English and the Romance languages, including the word "money".
Moneta
The goddess Moneta was created largely under the influence of Greek religion as a cognate of Mnemosyne
("Μνημοσύνη"), the goddess of memory and the mother of the Muses. The goddess's name is derived from Latin
monēre (which means to remind, warn, or instruct). She is mentioned in a fragment of Livius Andronicus' Latin
Odyssey: Nam diva Monetas filia docuit ("since the divine daughter of Moneta has taught...", frg. 21 Büchner),
which may be the equivalent of either Od. 8,480-1 or 488.
The epithet Moneta given to Juno more likely derives from the Greek word "moneres" ("μονήρης") and means
"alone, unique". By Andronicus' age, the folk-etymology deduction from monēre prevailed, and so he could
transform this epithet into a separate goddess, the literary (but not religious) counterpart of Greek Mnemosyne.
Juno Moneta
Juno Moneta, an epithet of Juno, was the protectress of funds. As such, money in ancient Rome was coined in her
temple. The word "moneta" had come to mean "money", "currency", or "mint" by the times of writers such as Ovid,
Martial, Juvenal, and Cicero. In several modern languages including Russian and Italian, moneta is the word for
"coin."
As with the goddess Moneta, Juno Moneta's name is derived either from the Latin monēre, since, as protectress of
funds, she "warned" of instability or more likely from the Greek "moneres" meaning "alone, unique", an epithet that
every mother has.
Moneta 361
In Culture
Moneta is the name assumed by a character in Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos.
References
• Simpson, D.P. (1968). Cassell's Latin Dictionary: 5th Edition. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.
ISBN 0-02-522570-7.
• The American Heritage dictionary of the English language: 4th Edition. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. 2000.
ISBN 0-02-522570-7.
• en.museicapitolini.org [1]
References
[1] http:/ / en. museicapitolini. org/ sede/ campidoglio_antico/ tempio_di_giunone_moneta
Morta (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Morta was the goddess of death. She is one of the Parcae, related to the Roman conception of
the Fates in Greek mythology, the Moirae. She is responsible for pain and death that occurs in a half wake half sleep
time frame. Her father is the god of night and her mother the goddess of darkness. She visits and warns in advance of
the pain or death about to be endured. Nox.
Murcia (mythology)
Murcia was a little known goddess in ancient Rome. Her name occurs as a surname of Venus[1] .
According to Livy[2] she had a temple at the foot of the Aventine Hill near to the Palatine Hill. Murcus is said to
have been an old name for the Aventine Hill itself [3] ; hence the adjective murtius (= murcius) was applied to the
turning-posts of the Circus Maximus, which was also situated in a valley between the Aventine and the Palatine Hills
[4]
.
The name Murcia was linked to the name of the myrtle tree (Latin myrtus)[5] [6] by folk etymology, hence the
spellings Murtia and Murtea. Christian writers, in their turn, connected Murcia with the adjective murcus or
murcidus "lazy, inactive", thus interpreting her as a "goddess of sloth and laziness"[7] [8] .
References
[1] Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
[2] Livy, Ab urbe condita, 1:33
[3] Paulus Diaconus, Epitoma Festi, p. 148M
[4] Apuleius, Metamorphoses, 6. 8
[5] Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, XV. 36
[6] Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanae, 20
[8] Arnobius, Adversus Nationes, IV. 9
Murcia (mythology) 362
External links
• Myth Index - Murcia (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/M/Murcia.html)
Nascio
In Roman mythology, Nascio (Latin: "birth") was one of many goddesses of birth, and a protector of infants. She
assisted Lucina in her functions, and was analogous to the Greek Eileithyia. She had a sanctuary in the neighborhood
of Ardea.[1] [2]
References
[1] Cicero, On the Nature of Gods, 3. 18
[2] "Nascio" (http:/ / www. mythindex. com/ roman-mythology/ N/ Nascio. html). Roman Myth Index. . Retrieved 2008-06-10.
Nerio
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Nerio was an ancient war goddess and the personification of valor. She was the
partner of Mars in ancient cult practices, and was sometimes identified with the goddess Bellona, and occasionally
with the goddess Minerva. Spoils taken from enemies were sometimes dedicated to Nerio by the Romans. Nerio was
later supplanted by mythologized deities appropriated and adapted from other religions.[1]
References
[1] Grimal, p. 308.
Sources
• Grimal, Pierre. The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986. ISBN 0-631-20102-5
The Night of Enitharmon's Joy

The Night of Enitharmon's Joy
Artist William Blake
Year 1795
Type Pen and ink with watercolour on paper
Dimensions 44 cm × 58 cm (17.32 in × 22.83 in)
Location Tate Gallery, London
The Night of Enitharmon's Joy (1795), often referred as The Triple Hecate or simply Hecate, is a 1795 colour print
by English artist and poet William Blake depicting Enitharmon, a female character in his mythology, as an
androgynous Hecate, Greco-Roman goddess of magic and the underworld, in a nightmarish scene with fantastic
creatures.[1] [2] Painted with deep tones and bold masses, this picture also alludes to the Three Fates — the Moirae
for Greeks and Parcae for Romans. Despite this allusion, critics point out that the primary source for Blake's
inspiration is Shakespeare,[3] who wrote the lines
"Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble." (Macbeth, IV.i)
Therefore, the bat, owl and snake are justified in Blake's illustration.[3] In Europe a Prophecy, the book "is devoted
to 'the night of Enitharmon's joy', when she establishes her Woman's World with its false religion of chastity and
vengeance: a religion of eighteen hundread years, which is the error of official Christianity."[4] In other words, it
represents a Feminine Will over a patriarchal Christianity.[5] [6] [7] Blake's character is described as "the Moon of
love to Los's Sun",[4] hence its relationship with Hecate, one of the Moon Goddesses alongside Diana/Artemis and
Selene. She is also invoked in Hamlet, in the play within the play method, by the (actor) Lucianus: "With Hecate's
ban thrice blasted, thrice infected,\Thy natural magic and dire property [...]"[8] but in Europe: a Prophecy
Enitharmon's night is presented in this way:
"Now comes the night of Enitharmon's joy!
Who shall I call? Who shall I send?
That Woman, lovely Woman! may have dominion?
Arise O Rintrah thee I call! & Palamabron thee!
Go! tell the human race that Womans love is Sin!

That an Eternal life awaits the worms of sixty winters
In an allegorical abode where existence hath never come:
Forbid all joy, & from her childhood shall the little female
Spread nets in every secret path."
There are other literary sources for the myth of Hecate, such as Metamorphoses by Ovid, VI 140, VII 74, 94, 174,
177, 194, 241, XIV 44, 405, and Blake himself: "The Gods all Serve her at her will; so great her Power is, like fabled
Hecate, she doth bind them to her law." (Blake, Then She bore Pale desire…). But not only in his poetry The Triple
Hecate makes a connection: it is seen as an opposition to his painting Pity, circa 1795, where the piety provides a
"possibility of salvation" in the fallen world.[9] Here, both witchcraft and curse, associated with Hecate, are factors to
human perdition. Geoffrey Keynes wrote about it:
"Hecate, an infernal Trinity, crouches in the centre. An evil winged spectre hovers over her. On her left an ass
is grazing on rank vegetation, while an owl and a great toad watch from between rocks. The theme of the
Moon Goddess is derived from Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream."[10]
The print was made in a time in which Shakespeare's Macbeth had a revival, being performed nine times.[11] Like
other works by Blake, such as The Ghost of a Flea, the picture is part of W. Graham Robertson's private collection
and was presented to the Tate Gallery by himself in 1939. It is considered to be one of the most brilliant and
significant pictures of William Blake.[12]
References
[1] Alexander Gilchrist, The Life of William Blake, General Books LLC, 2009, p.287. ISBN 1-150-51671-2
[2] C. Scott Littleton, Gods, goddesses, and mythology, vol. 1, Marshall Cavendish, 2005, p. 620. ISBN 0-7614-7559-1
[3] Emory University (http:/ / www. english. emory. edu/ ). " Blake. Hecate (http:/ / www. english. emory. edu/ classes/ Shakespeare_Illustrated/
Blake. Hecate. html)". Consulted on September 25, 2010.
[4] Samuel Foster Damon and Morris Eaves, A Blake dictionary: the ideas and symbols of William Blake, UPNE, 1988, p.125. ISBN
0-87451-436-3
[5] Samuel Foster Damon and Morris Eaves, A Blake dictionary: the ideas and symbols of William Blake, UPNE, 1988, p.25.
[6] Nicholas M. Williams, Ideology and utopia in the poetry of William Blake, Cambridge University Press, 1998, p.81. ISBN 0-521-62050-3
[7] John Howard, Infernal poetics: poetic structures in Blake's Lambeth prophecies, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1984, p.143. ISBN
0-8386-3176-2
[8] Shakespeare, Hamlet, III. ii.
[9] Martin Butlin, William Blake 1757-1827, Tate Gallery Collections, V, London 1990.
[10] Geoffrey Keynes, Drawings of William Blake: 92 pencil studies, Courier Dover Publications, 1970, p.18. ISBN 0-486-22303-5
[11] Nick Rawlinson, William Blake's comic vision, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, p.48. ISBN 0-312-22064-2
[12] Blake, Volumes 14-15. University of New Mexico. Dept. of English. Ardent Media, 1980, p.59
Some effects of "Eye of Newt" if inhaled are loss of sense of smell or sensitivity in touch. In rare but potent cases, a
sixth sense is produced: the visions of spirits.
External links
• The Night of Enitharmon's Joy (formerly called `Hecate') (http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/
ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=1120). Profile of the picture in Tate Gallery official website.
• Tate Britain Past Exhibitions (http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/gothicnightmares/rooms/
room5_works.htm). A collection of Gothic Nightmares in Tate official site.
Di nixi 365
Di nixi

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
In ancient Roman religion, the di nixi (or dii nixi), also Nixae, were birth deities. They were depicted kneeling or
squatting,[1] a more common birthing position in antiquity than in the modern era.[2] The 2nd-century grammarian
Festus explains their name as the participle of the Latin verb nitor, niti, nixus, "to support oneself," also "strive,
Di nixi 366
labor," in this sense "be in labor, give birth."[3] The late Republican scholar Varro said that enixae was the term for
women in labor brought about by the Nixae, who oversee the types of religious practices that pertain to those giving
birth.[4] In some editions of Ovid's Metamorphoses, a phrase is taken as referring to the birth goddess Lucina and her
counterparts the Nixi.[5]
A statuary group of three kneeling nixi or nixae stood in front of the Temple of Minerva on the Capitoline Hill.
These had been brought to Rome by Manius Acilius Glabrio among the spoils seized from Antiochus the Great after
his defeat at Thermopylae in 191 BC, or perhaps from the sack of Corinth in 146.[6]
In the iconography of Greek myth, the kneeling pose is also found in representations of Leto (Roman Latona) giving
birth to Apollo and Artemis (Diana), and of Auge giving birth to Telephos, son of Herakles (Hercules).[7] While the
ancient Greek gynecologist Soranos had disapproved of giving birth on one's knees as "painful and embarrassing,"[8]
he recommends it for the obese and for lordotic women, that is, those with a concave curvature of the lower back that
would tilt the uterus out of alignment with the birth canal.[9]
As guardians of the threshold of life, the Nixi or Nixae may also have been associated with new life in the sense of
theological rebirth, or salvation.[10] An altar of the Nixae, within the Tarentum in the general area of the Campus
Martius, was the site of the annual sacrifice of the October Horse.[11] The altar was possibly underground, as was the
nearby altar of Dis Pater and Proserpina.[12] The Tarentum[13] gave its name to the ritual games held there (ludi
tarentini)[14] that became the Saecular Games. A lengthy inscription[15] marks the occasion of these games under
Augustus in 17 BC and notes a nocturnal sacrifice carried out for the Ilithyis, or Eileithyiai, the Greek counterparts of
the Nixae as birth goddesses.[16] The phrase nuptae genibus nixae ("brides laboring on their knees") appears twice in
this invocation. The attitude of devotion or reverence expressed by genibus nixae or genu nixa, which might also be
translated as "on bended knee," is formulaic in Latin texts and inscriptions.[17]
It has been suggested that the iconography of kneeling became associated with birth because women sought divine
aid for what was often a life-threatening experience in the ancient world. Kneeling also played a role in initiation
ritual for mystery religion, which offered the promise of rebirth.[18] Women prayed and held sacred banquets at the
Saecular Games, which were characterized by an "overt and unusual celebration of women, children, and families in
a civic festival." The role of women on this occasion was consonant with the Augustan emphasis on families as
necessary to the vitality of the Roman state.[19]
Robert E.A. Palmer has speculated that the area where the altar of the Nixae
was located (Piazza Navona) continued to have significance into the modern
Christian era:
Romanized Isis nursing Infant

Harpocrates
Di nixi 367
“ The shadow of the Nixae hangs over St. Augustine's. For hours I have sat facing the inside of the central portal of this church which is always
sealed to accommodate the hundreds of exvotos for the statue of the seated Madonna del (Divin) Parto [Our Lady of Divine Childbirth] and I
have watched by candlelight scores of Roman women touch certain parts of that Christian idol in a given order. Who can say whether St.
Tryphon's had housed a similar Mother of God and whether she traced her pedigree to Mother Earth or the Isis with the Infant
Harpocrates?
[20]
”
References
[1] Pierre Grimal, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology (Blackwell, 1986, 1996, originally published 1951 in French), pp. 311–312 online.
(http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC& pg=PA311& dq=Minerva+ birth+ Nixae+ OR+ nixi+ OR+ nixii& lr=&
as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=0& cd=3#v=onepage& q=Minerva birth
Nixae OR nixi OR nixii& f=false)
[2] Charles J. Adamec, "Genu, genus," Classical Philology 15 (1920), p. 199 online (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=qo3PAAAAMAAJ&
pg=PA199& dq=Minerva+ birth+ Nixae+ OR+ nixi+ OR+ nixii& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0&
as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=0& cd=12#v=onepage& q=Minerva birth Nixae OR nixi OR nixii& f=false); J.G. Frazer, Pausanias's
Description of Greece (London, 1913), vol. 4, p. 436 online (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=ecLNAAAAMAAJ& pg=PA436&
dq="di+ nixi"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3&
cd=6#v=onepage& q="di nixi"& f=false); Marcel Le Glay, "Remarques sur la notion de Salus dans la religion romaine," La soteriologia dei
culti orientali nell' imperio romano: Études préliminaires au religions orientales dans l'empire romain, Colloquio internazionale Roma, 1979
(Brill, 1982), p. 442 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=eMoUAAAAIAAJ& pg=PA442& dq="la+ position+ normale+ de+
l'accouchement+ dans+ l'antiquité"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& as_brr=0&
cd=1#v=onepage& q="la position normale de l'accouchement dans l'antiquité"& f=false)
[3] Nixi Dii appellabantur, quos putabant praesidere parientium nixibus, p. 175 in Müller's edition.
[4] Varro as preserved by Nonius: enixae dicuntur feminae nitendi, hoc est conandi et dolendi, labore perfunctae: a Nixis quae religionum
genera parientibus praesunt.
[5] Lucinam Nixosque pares, Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.294; M.N. Tod and A.J.B. Wace, A Catalogue of the Sparta Museum (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1906), p. 117 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=49OfAAAAMAAJ& pg=PA117& dq=Minerva+ birth+ Nixae+ OR+ nixi+
OR+ nixii& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=0& cd=4#v=onepage&
q=Minerva birth Nixae OR nixi OR nixii& f=false)
[6] Festus: Nixi Di appellantur tria signa in Capitolio ante cellam Minervae genibus nixibus, velut praesidentes parentium nixibus. Quae signa
sunt qui memoriae prodiderint Antiocho rege Syriae superato M'. Acilium subtracta a populo Romano adportasse, atque ubi sunt posuisse.
Etiam qui capta Corintho advecta huc, quae ibi subiecta fuerint mensae. Latin text as presented by G. Sauron, "Documents pour l'exégèse de
la mégalographie dionysiaque de Pompeii," in Ercolano, 1738–1988: 250 anni di ricerca archeologica («L'Erma» di Bretschneider, 1993), p.
358 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=UhfJFhN-Pe4C& pg=PA358& dq="di+ nixi"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0&
as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=1#v=onepage& q="di nixi"& f=false)
[7] W.W. How and J. Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus (Oxford University Press, 1912, reprinted 2002), vol. 2, p. 48 online (http:/ / books.
google. com/ books?id=QBPeJXnN6MYC& pg=PA48& dq="di+ nixi"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=&
as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=14#v=onepage& q="di nixi"& f=false); Frazer, Pausanias's Description of
Greece, p. 436.
[8] Soranus of Ephesus, Gyn. 2.5, as cited by Sauron, "Documents pour l'exégèse de la mégalographie dionysiaque de Pompeii," p. 358 (this does
not correspond to the numbering by Temkin following).
[9] The idea is that kneeling should tilt the uterus forward and align it with the cervix. For an English translation of the relevant passage, see
Soranus' Gynecology, translated by Owsei Temkin (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1956), p. 184 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=YsKWfh31gxwC& pg=PA184& dq="Now+ if+ difficult+ labor+ takes+ place+ because+ the+ parturient+ has+ concave+ loins"&
lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& as_brr=0& cd=1#v=onepage& q="Now if difficult
labor takes place because the parturient has concave loins"& f=false) See also p. 177 on lordosis and obesity in pregnancy.
[10] Le Glay, "Remarques," pp. 431–433.
[11] Ad nixas; William Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic (London, 1908), p. 242.
[12] Comment by H.S. Versnel in response to Le Glay, "Remarques," p. 442.
[13] John H. Humphrey, Roman Circuses: Arenas for Chariot Racing (University of California Press, 1986), pp. 558, 560; Le Glay,
"Remarques," p. 442.
[14] The name is far less likely to have come from Tarentum in Apulia; Erich S. Gruen, "Poetry and Politics: The Beginnings of Latin
Literature," in Studies in Greek Culture and Roman Policy (Brill, 1990), p. 83, note 17 online (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=DG43AAAAIAAJ& pg=PA83& dq="ludi+ tarentini"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0&
as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=9#v=onepage& q="ludi tarentini"& f=false); Calvert Watkins, How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of
Indo-European Poetics (Oxford University Press, 1995), devotes a chapter to the meaning of tarentum.
[15] Available at LacusCurtius online. (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Gazetteer/ Places/ Europe/ Italy/ Lazio/ Roma/ Rome/ _Texts/
Lanciani/ LANPAC/ Ludi_Saeculares*. html)
Di nixi 368
[16] Sauron, "Documents pour l'exégèse de la mégalographie dionysiaque de Pompeii," p. 358; Le Glay, "Remarques," p. 442.
[17] For instance, variations in Plautus, Rudens 695; Vergil, Aeneid 3.607; Tibullus 1.2.85f.; Apuleius, the Cupid and Psyche tale,
Metamorphoses 6.3. See Sauron, "Documents pour l'exégèse de la mégalographie dionysiaque de Pompeii," p. 358; R. B. Onians, The Origins
of European Thought about the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time, and Fate (Cambridge University Press, 1951, 2000), p. 185 online.
(http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=cjDy2O2jDmUC& pg=PA185& dq=Nixae& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=&
as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=108& hl=en#v=onepage& q=Nixae& f=false)
[18] Sauron, "Documents pour l'exégèse de la mégalographie dionysiaque de Pompeii," pp. 357–358.
[19] Beth Severy, Augustus and the Family at the Birth of the Roman Empire (Routledge, 2003), p. 58 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=SBRN6HW8xEIC& pg=PA58& dq="genibus+ nixae"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0&
as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=17#v=onepage& q="genibus nixae"& f=false)
[20] Robert E.A. Palmer, Studies of the Northern Campus Martius in Ancient Rome (American Philosophical Society, 1990), p. 57.
Nona (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Nona was the equivalent of Clotho in Greek mythology. She, along with Decima and Morta
formed the Parcae (Roman) / Moirae (Greek). Nona was also referred to as "Ninth", the Roman goddess of
pregnancy. She was called upon by pregnant women in their ninth month when the child was due to be born.
Ops
In ancient Roman religion, Ops or Opis, (Latin: "Plenty")
was a fertility deity and earth-goddess of Sabine origin.
Mythology
Her husband was Saturn, the bountiful monarch of the
Golden Age. Just as Saturn was identified with the Greek
deity Cronus, Opis was identified with Rhea, Cronus'
wife. In her statues and coins, Opis is figured sitting
down, as Chthonian deities normally are, and generally
holds a scepter or a corn spike as her main attributes. The
Chthonian deities are the manifestations of the Great
Goddess, such as Gaia or Ge.
In Latin writings of the time, the singular nominative

(Ops) is not used; only the form Opis is attested by
classical authors. According to Festus (203:19), "Ops is
said to be the wife of Saturn. By her they designated the
earth, because the earth distributes all goods to the human
genus" (Opis dicta est coniux Saturni per quam uolerunt
terram significare, quia omnes opes humano generi terra
tribuit). The Latin word ops means "riches, goods,
abundance, gifts, munificence, plenty". The word is also Peter Paul Rubens: Ops with two children
related to opus, which means "work", particularly in the
sense of "working the earth, ploughing, sowing". This activity was deemed sacred, and was often attended by
religious rituals intended to obtain the good will of chthonic deities such as Ops and Consus. Ops is also related to
the Sanskrit word ápnas ("goods, property").
Ops 369
The cult of Opis was (mythically) instituted by King Titus Tatius, the Sabine monarch. Opis soon became the
patroness of riches, abundance, and prosperity, both on a personal and national level. Opis had a famous temple in
the Capitolium. Originally, a festival took place in Opis' honor on August 10. Additionally, on December 19 (some
say December 9), the Opalia was celebrated. On August 25, the Opiconsivia was held. Opiconsivia was another
name used for Opis, indicating when the earth was sown. These festivals also included activities that were called
Consualia, in honor of Consus, her consort.
Opis, when synchronized with Greek mythology, was not only the wife of Saturn, she was his sister and the daughter
of Caelus. Her children were Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Juno, Ceres, and Vesta. Opis also acquired queenly status and
was reputed to be an eminent goddess. By public decree temples, priests, and sacrifices were accorded her.
References
Primary sources
• Livy Ab urbe condita libri XXIX.10.4-11.8, 14.5-14
• Lactantius, Divinae institutions I.13.2-4, 14.2-5
Secondary sources
• Virginia Brown's translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Famous Women, p. 12 - 13; Harvard University Press 2001;
ISBN 0-674-01130-9
Orbona
In Roman mythology, Orbona was the goddess who granted new children to parents who had become childless. She
was also the goddess of children, especially orphans.
deities covered the general realm of infancy and childhood.[1] In this area, Orbona was called upon as a general
guardian and tutelary deity of children and orphans.
References
Palatua 370
Palatua
Major gods
Jupiter Minerva
Mars Mercury
Quirinus Vulcan
Vesta Ceres
Juno Venus
Fortuna Lares
Topics
Roman Kingdom
Flamens
Other minor Roman deities
Penates Lemures
Genius Manes
Terminus
Palatua was a Roman Goddess who was provided an official priest or flamen, the Flamen Palatualis, and was
charged with guarding the Palatine Hill. Aside from this little else is known about her, and it is a safe assumption
that her cult, like those of Falacer or Volturnus, had diminished during the late republican period, and that by the
beginning of the Empire there were few, if any, followers aside from the flamen.
Parcae 371
Parcae
In Roman mythology, the Parcae were the personifications of destiny, often called The Fates in English. Their
Greek equivalent were the Moirae. They controlled the metaphorical thread of life of every mortal and immortal
from birth to death. Even the gods feared the Parcae. Jupiter also was subject to their power.
The names of the three Parcae were:
• Nona (Greek equivalent Clotho), who spun the thread of life from her distaff onto her spindle;
• Decima (Greek Lachesis), who measured the thread of life with her rod;
• Morta (Greek Atropos), who cut the thread of life and chose the manner of a person's death.[1] [2] [3]
The earliest extant document of these deities are three small stelae (cippi) found near the location of ancient
Lavinium shortly after the end of World War II.[4] They bear the inscription:
Neuna fata, Neuna dono, Parca Maurtia dono
The names of two of the three Roman Parcae are recorded (Neuna = Nona, Maurtia = Morta) and connected to the
concept of fata.[5]
Nona was supposed to determine the lifespan of man as the dies lustricus, that is, the day on which the name of the
child was chosen, which occurred on the ninth day from birth for a male and the eighth for a female.[6] [7]
The recurrence of the nundinae was also considered a dies festus and as such nefas by some Roman scholars as
Julius Caesar and Cornelius Labeo, because on it the flaminica dialis offered the sacrifice of a goat to Jupiter in the
Regia.[8]
One of the sources for the Parcae is Metamorphoses by Ovid, II 654, V 532, VIII 452, XV 781.
References
[1] L. L. Tels de Jong Sur quelques divinites romaines dela naissance et dela prophetie 1959, pp. 70 -77; 83-85
[2] P. Ramat "Morta" in Archivio glottologico italiano 40, 1960, pp. 61-67
[3] J. H. Waszinsk Gnomon 34, 1962, p. 445
[4] G. Dumezil La religion romaine archaique Paris, 1974, part 4, chapt.
[5] L. L. Tels De Jong Sur quelques divinites romaines de la naissance et de la prophetie 1959 pp. 67-130
[6] Eadem, ibidem
[7] S. Breemer and J. H. Waszinsk Mnemosyne 3 Ser. 13, 1947, pp. 254-270: on personal destiny as linked to the collation of the dies lustricus.
[8] Macr. Sat. I 16, 30
Partula (goddess) 372
Partula (goddess)
In ancient Roman religion Partula (also known as Parca) was a goddess of childbirth. She watched over pregnancy
and determined its duration.[1]
deities covered the general realm of infancy and childhood.[2] In this area, Partula was called upon as a general
guardian and tutelary deity of parturition.
References
[1] Tertullian, Deuteronomy Carne Christi, chaps. 37, 39. "Partula adjusted every thing relative to the labour".
Patelana
Important Gods:
• Vesta • Ceres
• Juno • Venus
Roman Kingdom
Flamens
Other Rustic Gods:

In Roman mythology and religion, Patelana or Patella was a minor deity or numen who protected the opening husks
of grain. Augustine of Hippo refers to Patelana among a number of other grain gods in a passage of De Civitate Dei
contrasting the multitude of Roman gods to the single God worshipped by Christianity.
Patelana 373
References
• Augustine, De Civitate Dei Book IV Chapter 8. Latin text [1], English translation [2]
• Lesley Adkins, Roy A. Adkins. Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome. Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN
9780195123326
External links
• Myth Index - Patella [3]
References
[1] http:/ / www. thelatinlibrary. com/ augustine/ civ4. shtml
[2] http:/ / www. newadvent. org/ fathers/ 120104. htm
[3] http:/ / www. mythindex. com/ roman-mythology/ P/ Patella. html
Paventia
In ancient Roman religion, Paventia was a goddess who comforted frightened children.
deities covered the general realm of infancy and childhood.[1] In this area, Paventia was called upon as a general
guardian and tutelary deity of frightened children.
References
Pax (mythology) 374
Pax (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Pax [paqs] (Latin for peace) (her Greek
equivalent was Eirene) was recognized as a goddess during the
rule of Augustus. On the Campus Martius, she had a temple called
the Ara Pacis, and another temple on the Forum Pacis. She was
depicted in art with olive branches, a cornucopia and a scepter.
There was a festival in her honor on January 3. Daughter of Jupiter
and Iustitia. Pax was often associated with spring.
External links
• http://www.unrv.com/culture/minor-roman-god-list.php
• http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/HoraEirene.html
• http://www.societasviaromana.net/Collegium_Religionis/
caljan.php
• http://www.pantheon.org/articles/p/pax.html
• http://www.loggia.com/myth/eirene.html
Statue of Pax in the garden of Pavlovsk Palace

Pellonia (mythology) 375
Pellonia (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Pellonia was a goddess who was believed to protect people from their enemies by driving the
latter off.[1] [2]
Her name likely derives from Latin pello "to hit, push, thrust off".
References
[2] Arnobius, Adversus Nationes, IV. 4
External links
• Myth Index - Pellonia (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/P/Pellonia.html)
Pietas (goddess)
In Roman mythology, Pietas was the
goddess of duty to one's state, gods and
family and a personification of the Roman
virtue of pietas. One of the di indigetes, her
main temple was a 2nd century BC one in
the Forum Holitorium.
This goddess was often depicted on the

reverses of Roman Imperial coins with
women of the imperial family on the
obverse [1] , as an appropriate virtue to be On the reverse of this coin by Flavia Maximiana Theodora, Pietas bearing holding
attributed to them (e.g. Flavia Maximiana infant to breast.
Theodora, right). The imperial women

might even appear in the goddess's guise (e.g. Livia here and Salonina Matidia here).
[1] Roman Coins Issued During the Reign of Emperor Hadrian (http:/ / www. dig4coins. com/ articles/ ancient-coins/
roman-coins-issued-during-the-reign-of-emperor-hadrian-ad-117-to-138), Dig4Coins.com.
Poena 376
Poena
In Roman mythology, Poena (also Poine) is the spirit of punishment and the attendant of punishment to Nemesis,
the goddess of divine retribution. The Latin word poena, "pain, punishment, penalty", gave rise to English words
such as subpoena. The original root of the word is from the Ancient Greek "poini" (ποινή), also meaning penalty.
External links
• LacusCurtius – Poena [1]
References
[1] http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ secondary/ SMIGRA*/ Poena. html
Pomona
Pomona, by Nicolas Fouché, c. 1700.
Important Gods:
• Vesta • Ceres
• Juno • Venus
Roman Kingdom
Flamens
—
Pomona 377
Other Rustic Gods:

Pomona was the goddess of plenty in Roman mythology. Her name comes from the Latin word, pomum, meaning
"fruit." She scorned the love of Silvanus and Picus but married Vertumnus after he tricked her, disguised as an old
woman.[1] Her high priest was called the flamen Pomonalis. The pruning knife was her attribute.
Pomona was a uniquely Roman goddess, unusual in that she was never identified with any Greek counterpart. She
was particularly associated with the blossoming of trees rather than with the harvest.
In 19th-century statues and building decorations, Pomona is usually shown carrying either a large platter of fruit or a
cornucopia. A nude statue of Pomona is in the fountain in the little park before the Plaza Hotel in New York City.
For a listing of cities and institutions named after Pomona, see Pomona (disambiguation).
Notes
[1] Duckworth, George E (1976). "Pompona". In William D. Halsey. Collier's Encyclopedia. 19. Macmillan Educational Corporation. p. 232.
References
• Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology (http://books.google.com/books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC&
printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false), Wiley-Blackwell, 1996,
ISBN 9780631201021. "Pomona" p. 387 (http://books.google.com/books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC&
printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=Pomona&f=false)
• Morford, Mark P. O., Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN
978-0-19-530805-1. ""Ponona and Vertumnus", p. 655–656.
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Pompo'na" (http://
www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:alphabetic+letter=P:entry+
group=38:entry=pomona-bio-1)
Pomona 378
External links
• Media related to Vertumnus and Pomona at Wikimedia Commons
Vertumnus and Pomona by Luca Giordano (1682–1683), private

collection
Postverta
In Roman mythology, Postverta or Postvorta (also Prorsa or Prorsa Postverta, Prorsa being the contracted form
for Proversa) was the goddess of the past and one of the two Carmentes (along with her sister Antevorta, or
Porrima)[1] [2] [3] [4] . They were companions of the goddess Carmenta, and probably embodied her aspects as the
goddess of the past (Postvorta) and the future (Antevorta, or Porrima).
During childbirth, prayers were offered to summon the Carmentes to preside over the labor[5] . Porrima was said to
be present at the birth when the baby was born head-first; Postverta, when the feet of the baby came first.
References
[4] Servius' commentary to Aeneid, VIII. 339
External links
• Myth Index - Postverta (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/P/Postverta.html)
Potina 379
Potina
In ancient Roman religion, Potina was the goddess of children's drinks.
deities covered the general realm of infancy and childhood.[1] In this area, Potina was called upon as a general
guardian and tutelary deity of healthy liquids and drinks in infants.
References
External links
Prorsa Postverta
In Roman mythology, Postverta or Postvorta (also Prorsa or Prorsa Postverta, Prorsa being the contracted form
for Proversa) was the goddess of the past and one of the two Carmentes (along with her sister Antevorta, or
Porrima)[1] [2] [3] [4] . They were companions of the goddess Carmenta, and probably embodied her aspects as the
goddess of the past (Postvorta) and the future (Antevorta, or Porrima).
During childbirth, prayers were offered to summon the Carmentes to preside over the labor[5] . Porrima was said to
be present at the birth when the baby was born head-first; Postverta, when the feet of the baby came first.
References
[4] Servius' commentary to Aeneid, VIII. 339
External links
• Myth Index - Postverta (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/P/Postverta.html)
Proserpina 380
Proserpina
Proserpina (sometimes spelt Proserpine, Prosperine
or Prosperina) is an ancient Roman goddess whose
story is the basis of a myth of Springtime. Her Greek
goddess' equivalent is Persephone[1] . The probable
origin of her name comes from the Latin, "proserpere"
or "to emerge," in respect to the growing of grain.
Proserpina was subsumed by the cult of Libera[2] , an
ancient fertility goddess, wife of Liber and is also
considered a life–death–rebirth deity.
She was the daughter of Ceres, goddess of agriculture

and crops[3] and Jupiter, the god of sky and thunder.
Myths
Myth of Springtime
Venus, in order to bring love to Pluto, sent her son
Amor also known as Cupid to hit Pluto with one of his
arrows. Proserpina was in Sicily, at the Pergusa Lake
near Enna, where she was playing with some nymphs Proserpine, 1873-1877, at Tate Gallery, London. Painting by Dante
and collecting flowers, when Pluto came out from the Gabriel Rossetti
volcano Etna with four black horses named Orphnaeus,

Aethon, Nycteus and Alastor[4] . He abducted her in
order to marry her and live with her in the underworld
of which he was the ruler. Notably, Pluto was also her
uncle, being Jupiter's (and Ceres's) brother. She is
therefore Queen of the Underworld.
Her mother Ceres, the goddess of agriculture or of the

Earth, went looking for her in vain to every corner of
the earth, but wasn't able to find anything but a small
belt that was floating upon a little lake (made with the
tears of the nymphs). In her desperation Ceres angrily
stopped the growth of fruits and vegetables, bestowing
a malediction on Sicily. Ceres refused to go back to
Porwanie Prozerpiny by Augustyn Schöps, the fountain in Poznań,
Mount Olympus and started walking on the Earth,
Poland.
making a desert at every step.
Worried, Jupiter sent Mercury to order Pluto (Jupiter's brother) to free Proserpina. Pluto obeyed, but before letting
her go he made her eat six pomegranate seeds, because those who have eaten the food of the dead could not return to
the world of the living. This meant
Proserpina 381
that she would have to live six months of each year

with him, and stay the rest with her mother. This story
was undoubtedly meant to illustrate the changing of the
seasons: when Ceres welcomes her daughter back in
the spring the earth blossoms, and when Proserpina
must be returned to her husband it withers.
In another version of the story, some people believe

that upon her abduction, Proserpina ate only four
pomegranate seeds, and she did so of her own accord.
When Jupiter ordered her return, Pluto struck a deal
with Jupiter, saying that since she had stolen his Rape of Proserpina, by Luca Giordano
pomegranate seeds, she must stay with him four
months of the year in return. For this reason, in spring
when Ceres received her daughter back, the crops
blossomed, and in summer they flourished. In the
autumn Ceres changed the leaves to shades of brown
and orange (her favorite colors) as a gift to Proserpina
before she had to return to the underworld. During the
time that Proserpina resided with Pluto, the world went
through winter, a time when the earth was barren.
Orpheus and Eurydice

The myth of Proserpina, the most extensive Latin
version of which is by Claudian (4th century AD,
available), is closely connected with that of Orpheus
and Eurydice — it is Proserpina, in Virgil's writings, as
Queen of Hades, who allows Orpheus to enter and
bring back to life his wife Eurydice who is dead by
snake poison[5] . Proserpina played her cetra to quiet
Cerberus, but Orpheus did not respect her order never
to look back, and Eurydice was lost.
Art featuring Proserpina

Proserpina's figure inspired many artistic compositions,
This copy of Vincenzo de'Rossi's "The Rape of Proserpina" on a
eminently in sculpture (Bernini[6] ), in painting
pedestal in the ring of the parterre faces the Garden Front of
(D.G.Rossetti,[7] Pomarancio,[8] J.Heintz,[9] P.P. Cliveden House
Rubens,[10] A.Durer,[11] Dell'Abbate,[12] M.Parrish[13] )
and in literature (Goethe's[14] Proserpina and Swinburne's Hymn to Proserpine and The Garden of Proserpine) The
statue of the Rape of Prosepina by Pluto that stands in the Great Garden of Dresden, Germany is also referred to as
"Time Ravages Beauty". Kate McGarrigle's song about the legend was one of the last things she wrote prior to her
death, and received its only performance at her last concert at Royal Albert Hall in December 2009.
Proserpina in astronomy
Proserpina is a Main belt asteroid 95.1 km in diameter, which was discovered by R. Luther in 1853.
Proserpina 382
References
[1] Persephone: Greek Goddess of Innocence and Queen of the Underworld (http:/ / www. goddessgift. com/ goddess-myths/
goddess_persephone. htm)
[2] Suggestions for names of Pluto's moons - The Planetary Society Blog | The Planetary Society (http:/ / www. planetary. org/ blog/ article/
00000464/ )
[3] http:/ / www. etymonline. com/ index. php?term=Proserpina Daughter of Ceres
[4] http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Claudian/ De_Raptu_Proserpinae/ 1*. html P315
[5] http:/ / www. timelessmyths. com/ classical/ lovers. html#Orpheus Orpheus and Eurydice
[6] Bernini Gian Lorenzo, Apollo e Dafne (http:/ / www. thais. it/ scultura/ image/ sch00001. htm)
[7] (http:/ / www. artmagick. com/ ALLpaintings/ rossetti/ rossetti12. jpg)
[8] (http:/ / www. castiglionedellago. it/ england/ sala5eng. htm)
[9] OCAIW - The Nude in Art History: Peter Paul Rubens (http:/ / www. ocaiw. com/ galenug288. jpg)
[10] ARTEHISTORIA - Genios de la Pintura - Ficha Rapto de Proserpina (http:/ / www. artehistoria. com/ genios/ cuadros/ 1186. htm)
[11] ARTEHISTORIA - Genios de la Pintura - Ficha Rapto de Proserpina (http:/ / www. artehistoria. com/ genios/ cuadros/ 4016. htm)
[12] Rape of Proserpina (http:/ / webpages. ursinus. edu/ classics/ Myth/ rape_of_proserpina. htm)
[13] http:/ / www. independentweb. com/ parrish/ 1908a. htm
[14] http:/ / gutenberg. spiegel. de/ goethe/ proserpi/ proserpi. xml
Further reading
• John Ruskin (1886). Proserpina: Studies of Wayside Flowers while the Air was Yet Pure among the Alps and in
the Scotland and England Which My Father Knew.
External links
• Claudian, De raptu Proserpinae ("The Rape of Proserpine"), three books, in Latin (http://penelope.uchicago.
edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Claudian/De_Raptu_Proserpinae/1*.html) and English (http://penelope.
uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Claudian/De_Raptu_Proserpinae/1*.html), Bill Thayer's edition of the
Loeb Classical Library text at LacusCurtius
• The Pomegranate Seeds (http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/nh/tt06.html) adapted as a children's tale by
Nathaniel Hawthorne, in Tanglewood Tales
Providentia 383
Providentia
In Roman mythology, Providentia is a goddess of forethought.
Providentia in numismatics
Providentia has been the main motive for many collector coins and medals,
the most recent one is the famous 100 euro Sculpture Gold coin issued on
November 13, 2002. The reverse features the Providentia Fountain
(“Provendentia Brunnen”) in central Vienna, work of one of the greatest
baroque sculptor Georg Rafael Donner. In the centre of the coin, the
allegorical figure of Providentia with a medallion of the Roman god, Janus,
who had two faces, is displayed. Surrounding the fountain there are other
symbolic figures representing tributary rivers of the Danube. Providentia is
enthroned high above the figure of an old man representing the Enns River.
Providencia in numismatics
References
Pudicitia
For the genus of grass skipper butterflies, see Pudicitia (butterfly).
In Roman mythology, Pudicitia ("modesty" or “sexual virtue”) was the personification of modesty and chastity. Her
Greek equivalent was Aidôs.
Romans, both men and women, were expected to uphold the virtue of
pudicitia, a complex ideal that was explored by many ancient writers,
including Livy, Valerius Maximus, Cicero and Tacitus. Livy describes
the legendary figure of Lucretia as the epitome of pudicitia. She is
loyal to her husband and is modest, despite her incredible beauty. The
story of Lucretia shows that the more virtuous a woman was, the more
appealing she was to potential adulterers.
Pudicitia was not only a mental attribute but also physical; a person’s
appearance was seen as an indicator of their morality. The way a man
or woman presented him or herself in public, and the persons they
interacted with caused others to pass judgment on their pudicitia. For
example, if a woman was seen associating with men other than her
husband people would make a negative judgment on her pudicitia. The
Roman ideal was that a woman be univira, or a “once-married woman.”
Modest self-presentation indicated pudicitia. The opposite of pudicitia
Pudicitia
was impudicitia or “sexual vice.” Stuprum was the loss of one’s
pudicitia, even if it was unwilling.
Romans associated the loss of pudicitia with chaos and loss of control, so they wanted their religious and political
officials to uphold pudicitia. In Cicero’s oration against Verres, he discusses many of the governor’s transgressions
including sexual misconduct with both men and women. This is one of the many reasons Cicero argues Verres is a
bad governor. In the Imperial age, Augustus attempted to enact a program of moral reform to encourage pudicitia in
Pudicitia 384
Roman citizens.
According to Livy, there were two temples of Pudicitia in Rome. The original one was for women of the patrician
class only, but when Verginia was excluded on account of marrying a plebeian consul, she, together with a group of
plebeian matrons, founded an altar of Pudicitia for women of the plebeian class as well. Livy states that the plebeian
shrine of Pudicitia eventually fell into disuse after its sacred character had been abused.
References
• Langlands, Rebecca. Sexual Morality in Ancient Rome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
• Livy, History of Rome (Ab urbe condita libri), 10:23 (English text [1])
References
[1] http:/ / mcadams. posc. mu. edu/ txt/ ah/ Livy/ Livy10. html#livy. hist. 10. 23
Puta
In Roman mythology, according to Arnobius, Puta presided over the pruning of trees and was a minor goddess of
agriculture.[1]
According to one version, the etymology of its name comes from Latin and its literal meaning is pruning. The
festivities in honor of this goddess celebrated tree pruning, and these days, the priestesses manifested themselves
exercising a sacred carousal (prostituted themselves) honoring the goddess (which would explain the current
meaning of the word in many Latin-speaking countries).
References
[1] Arnobius, Ante-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325. Volume 19: The Seven Books of
Arnobius Adversus Gentes, 2001, ISBN 1402168659 p. 190. She is mentioned nowhere else. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=iE0kF8LySnQC& pg=PA190& vq=puta& dq=puta+ goddess+ pruning+ -wikipedia& sig=2PwsY_OXbssZaY4Ufdc2Wk_OoRU)
Quiritis 385
Quiritis
Quiritis was a Sabine (pre-Roman) goddess of motherhood. She was often associated with protection. In later years,
Quiritis was identified with the goddess Juno, who was sometimes worshipped under the name Juno Quiritis (or Juno
Curitis). Some scholars believe that Juno was in fact merely another version of Quiritis, although others say that the
two are linked merely by borrowing.
Her name is believed to have derived from a Sabine word meaning "lance" or "spear", and she is often depicted
holding that weapon (presumably in defence of someone or something). This is a feature that was incorporated into
Juno's identity. Traditionally, Roman marriages included a ritual where the bride's hair was cut or parted with a spear
- some see this as the result of Juno's association with marriage, although other explanations for the ritual are given
as well.
Juno Quiritis is said to have been the only deity worshipped by all thirty of the original curiae (political and military
divisions) established by Romulus. There was a temple to Juno Quiritis on the Campus Martius, an area where
soldiers traditionally trained.
Robigo 386
Robigo

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
In ancient Roman religion, the Robigalia was a festival held April 25. Its main ritual was a dog sacrifice to protect
grain fields from disease. Games (ludi) in the form of "major and minor" races were held.[1] The Robigalia was one
of several agricultural festivals in April to celebrate and vitalize the growing season,[2] but the darker sacrificial
Robigo 387
elements of these occasions are also fraught with anxiety about crop failure and the dependence on divine favor to
avert it.[3]
The late Republican scholar Varro says[4] that the Robigalia was named for the god Robigus, who as the numen or
personification of agricultural disease could also prevent it.[5] He was thus a potentially malignant deity to be
propitiated, as Aulus Gellius notes.[6] But the gender of this deity is elusive.[7] The agricultural writer Columella
gives the name in the feminine as Robigo, like the word used for the disease itself,[8] and says that the sacrificial
offering was the blood and entrails of an unweaned puppy (catulus).[9] Most animal sacrifice in the public religion of
ancient Rome resulted in a communal meal and thus involved domestic animals whose flesh was a normal part of the
Roman diet;[10] the dog occurs as a victim most often in magic and private rites for Hecate and other chthonic
deities,[11] but was offered publicly at the Lupercalia[12] and two other sacrifices pertaining to grain crops.[13]
Robigo is a form of wheat rust, and has a reddish or reddish-brown color. Both Robigus and robigo are also found as
Rubig-, which following the etymology-by-association of antiquity[14] was thought to be connected to the color red
(ruber) as a form of homeopathic or sympathetic magic.[15] The color is thematic: the disease was red, the requisite
puppies (or sometimes bitches) had a red coat,[16] the red of blood recalls the distinctively Roman incarnation of
Mars as both a god of agriculture and bloodshed.[17] William Warde Fowler, whose work on Roman festivals
remains a standard reference,[18] entertained the idea that Robigus is an "indigitation" of Mars, that is, a name to be
used in a prayer formulary to fix the local action of the invoked god.[19] The priest who presided was the flamen
Quirinalis, the high priest of Quirinus, the Sabine god of war who become identified with Mars;[20] the ludi were
held for both Mars and Robigo.[21] The flamen recited a prayer that Ovid quotes at length in the Fasti, his six-book
calendar poem on Roman holidays which provides the most extended, though problematic, description of the day.[22]
The Robigalia was held at the boundary of the Ager Romanus.[23] Verrius Flaccus[24] sites it in a grove (lucus) at the
fifth milestone from Rome along the Via Claudia.
Like many other aspects of Roman law and religion, the institution of the Robigalia was attributed to the Sabine
Numa Pompilius,[25] in the eleventh year of his reign as the second king of Rome.[26] The combined presence of
Numa and the flamen Quirinalis may suggest a Sabine origin.[27]
Other April festivals related to farming were the Cerealia, or festival of Ceres, lasting for several days in mid-month;
the Fordicidia on April 15, when a pregnant cow was sacrificed; the Parilia on April 21 to ensure healthy flocks; and
the Vinalia, a wine festival on April 23.[28] Varro considered these and the Robigalia, along with the Great Mother's
Megalensia late in the month, the "original" Roman holidays in April.[29]
The Fasti Praenestini also record that on the same day the festival celebrated a particular class of sex workers:
"pimped-out boys,"[30] following the previous day's recognition of meretrices, female prostitutes regarded as
professionals of some standing.[31]
The Robigalia has been connected to the Christian feast of Rogation, which was concerned with purifying and
blessing the parish and fields and which took the place of the Robigalia on April 25 of the Christian calendar.[32] The
Church Father Tertullian mocks the goddess Robigo as "made up," a fiction.[33]
Robigo 388
References
[1] The ludi cursoribus are mentioned in the Fasti Praenestini; see Elaine Fantham, Ovid: Fasti Book IV (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p.
263.
[2] Mary Beard, J.A. North and S.R.F. Price. Religions of Rome: A History (Cambridge University Press, 1998), vol. 1, p. 45.
[3] Rhiannon Evans, Utopia antiqua: Readings of the Golden Age and Decline at Rome (Routledge, 2008), pp. 185–188.
[5] A.M. Franklin, The Lupercalia (New York, 1921), p. 74.
quoque habetur et Robigus ("Auruncus and Robigus are also regarded as among those gods whom it is a duty to placate so that they deflect the
malign influences away from us or the harvests"); Woodard, Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman Cult (University of Illinois
Press, 2006), p. 234.
[7] In addition to Varro, Verrius Flaccus (CIL 1: 236, 316) and others hold that he is male; Ovid, Columella (see following), Augustine, and
Tertullian regard the deity as female. A.J. Boyle and R.D. Woodard, Ovid: Fasti (Penguin Books, 2000), p. 254 online. (http:/ / books. google.
com/ books?id=QlS3xbzhplcC& pg=RA1-PA254& dq="In+ the+ following+ lines+ Ovid+ describes+ the+ annual+ sacrifice+ made+ to+
appease+ the+ deity+ of+ grain+ rust"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& as_brr=0&
cd=1#v=onepage& q="In the following lines Ovid describes the annual sacrifice made to appease the deity of grain rust"& f=false)
[8] Vergil, Georgics 1.151. The 4th-century agricultural writer Palladius devotes a chapter contra nebulas et rubiginem, on preventing miasma
and mildew ( 1.35 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=O88PAAAAQAAJ& pg=PA884& dq="XXXV. + Contra+ nebulas+ & +
rubiginem"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& as_brr=0& cd=1#v=onepage&
q="XXXV. Contra nebulas & rubiginem"& f=false)).
[9] Columella, De re rustica 10.337–343.
[10] C. Bennett Pascal, "October Horse," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 85 (1981), pp. 275–276; general discussion of victims' edibility
by Hendrik Wagenvoort, "Profanus, profanare," in Pietas: Selected Studies in Roman Religion (Brill, 1980), pp. 25–38.
[11] David Soren, "Hecate and the Infant Cemetery at Poggio Gramignano," in A Roman Villa and a Late Roman Infant Cemetery («L'Erma» di
Bretschneider, 1999), pp. 619–621.
[12] Plutarch, Roman Questions 68 (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Plutarch/ Moralia/ Roman_Questions*/ C.
html#68); Eli Edward Burriss, "The Place of the Dog in Superstition as Revealed in Latin Literature," Classical Philology 30 (1935), pp.
34–35.
[13] Boyle and Woodard, Ovid: Fasti, p. 255.
[14] Davide Del Bello, Forgotten Paths: Etymology and the Allegorical Mindset (Catholic University of America Press, 2007), passim.
[15] Burriss, "The Place of the Dog in Superstition, pp. 34–35.
[16] Fowler, Roman Festivals, pp. 90–91.
[17] This dual function of Mars, contradictory perhaps to the 21st-century mind, may not have seemed so to the Romans: "In early Rome
agriculture and military activity were closely bound up, in the sense that the Roman farmer was also a soldier (and a voter as well)": Beard,
Religions of Rome, pp. 47–48 online (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=2rtaTFYuM3QC& pg=PA47& dq="October+ horse"& lr=&
as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=3#v=onepage& q="October
horse"& f=false) and 53. See also Evans, Utopia antiqua, p. 188 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=ppWwPuye_e4C&
pg=PA187& dq="And+ it+ may+ be+ that+ the+ Robigalia+ was+ an+ enactment"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=&
as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& as_brr=0& cd=1#v=onepage& q="And it may be that the Robigalia was an enactment"& f=false)
[19] Precise naming, in connection with concealing a deity's true name to monopolize his or her power, was a crucial part of prayer in antiquity,
as evidenced not only in the traditional religions of Greece and Rome and syncretistic Hellenistic religion and mystery cult, but also in
Judaism, ancient Egyptian religion, and later Christianity. See Matthias Klinghardt, “Prayer Formularies for Public Recitation: Their Use and
Function in Ancient Religion,” Numen 46 (1999) 1–5; A.A. Barb, "Antaura. The Mermaid and the Devil's Grandmother: A Lecture," Journal
of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 29 (1966), p. 4; Karen Hartnup, On the Beliefs of the Greeks: Leo Allatios and Popular Orthodoxy
(Brill, 2004), pp. 97–101 online (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=xnqI8uSeekwC& pg=PA97& dq="The+ names+ of+ the+ gello+ are+
also+ a+ source+ of+ protection"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=1& as_miny_is=2009& as_maxm_is=12& as_maxy_is=2009&
as_brr=0& as_pt=ALLTYPES) (in connection with compelling demons). Augustine of Hippo derided the proliferation of divinities as a turba
minutorum deorum, "a mob of mini-gods" (De civitate Dei 4.9, dea Robigo among them at 4.21); see W.R. Johnson, "The Return of Tutunus,"
Arethusa (1992) 173–179. See also indigitamenta.
[20] Boyle and Woodard, Ovid: Fasti, p. 254; Beard, Religions of Rome, p. 106, note 129; Woodward, Indo-European Sacred Space, p. 136.
[21] Tertullian, De spectaculis 5: Numa Pompilius Marti et Robigini fecit ("Numa Pompilius established [games] for Mars and Robigo").
[22] Ovid, Fasti 4.905–942; Boyle and Woodard, Ovid: Fasti, pp. 254–255 et passim on the nature of this work.
[23] Woodard, Indo-European Sacred Space, p. 234.
[24] CIL 12 pp. 236, 316), as cited by Woodard.
[25] William Warde Fowler, The Religious Experience of the Roman People (London, 1922), p. 108; Tertullian, De spectaculis 5.
Robigo 389
[27] Franklin, Lupercalia, p. 75. The name Quirinus was supposed to derive from the Sabine town of Cures. In his notes to Aeneid 1.292 and
6.859, Servius says that "when Mars rages uncontrolled (saevit), he is called Gradivus; when he is calm (tranquillus), he is called Quirinus."
Therefore, since Quirinus is the "Mars" who presides over peace, his temple is within the city; the temple for the "Mars of war" is located
outside the city limit. The name was also connected to Quirites, Roman civilians, and the civil comitia curiata, in contrast to military
personnel and the comitia centuriata. Quirinus was assimilated with the deified Romulus, possibly as late as the Augustan period. See Robert
Schilling, "Quirinus," Roman and European Mythologies (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p. 145.
[28] Beard, Religions of Rome, p. 45.
[29] Varro, De lingua latina 6.15–16; Fantham, Fasti, p. 29.
[30] Pueri lenonii, boys managed by a leno, pimp.
[31] Craig A. Williams, Roman Homosexuality (Oxford University Press, 1999, 2010), p. 32 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=JoS4ffPU1-0C& pg=PA32& dq="This+ inscription+ informs+ us+ that+ on+ April+ 25"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0&
as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& as_brr=0& cd=2#v=onepage& q="This inscription informs us that on April 25"& f=false)
[32] Daniel T. Reff, Plagues, Priests, and Demons: Sacred Narratives and the Rise of Christianity in the Old World and the New (Cambridge
University Press, 2005), p. 100.
[33] Tertullian, De spectaculis 5 (nam et robiginis deam finxerunt, "you see, they even make up a goddess of wheat disease"); Woodward,
Indo-European Sacred Space, p. 136.
Religion in ancient Rome series
Festivals
Agonalia | Armilustrium | Brumalia | Caprotinia | Carmentalia | Cerealia | Compitalia | Consualia | Divalia | Epulum Jovis | Equirria
| Feralia | Feast of the Lemures | Floralia | Fordicidia | Furrinalia | Larentalia | Liberalia | Lucaria | Ludi Romani | Lupercalia |
Matronalia | Meditrinalia | Mercuralia | Neptunalia | Opiconsivia | Parentalia | Parilia | Quinquatria | Quirinalia | Robigalia |
Saturnalia | Secular Games | Sementivae | Septimontium | Tubilustrium | Veneralia | Vinalia | Volturnalia | Vulcanalia
Roma (mythology)
In traditional Roman religion, Roma was a female deity who personifed the city of Rome and more broadly, the
Roman state.[1] Her image appears on the base of the column of Antoninus Pius.
Problems in earliest attestation

A helmeted figure on Roman coins of 280-276 and 265-242 BCE is sometimes interpreted as Roma but the
identification is contestable.[2] Other early Roman coinage shows a warlike "Amazon" type, possibly Roma but more
likely genius than dea. Ennius personified the "Roman fatherland" as Roma: for Cicero, she was the "Roman state",
but neither of these are dea Roma.[3] Though her Roman ancestry is possible - perhaps merely her name and the
ideas it evoked - she emerges as a Greek deity.
Roma in the Greek world

The earliest certain cult to dea Roma was established at Smyrna in 195 BCE, probably to mark Rome's successful
alliance against Antiochus III.[4] Mellor has proposed her cult as a form of religio-political diplomacy which adjusted
traditional Graeco-Eastern monarchic honours to Republican mores: honours addressed to the divine personification
of the Roman state acknowledged the authority of its offices, Republic and city as divine and eternal.[5] Democratic
city-states such as Athens and Rhodes accepted Roma as analogous to their traditional cult personifications of
Demos. In 189 BCE, Delphi and Lycia instituted festivals in her honour. Roma as "divine sponsor" of athletics and
pan-Hellenic culture seems to have dovetailed neatly into a well-established and enthusiastic festival circuit, and
temples to her were outnumbered by her civic statues and dedications,[6] In 133 BCE Attalus III bequeathed the
people and territories of Pergamon to Rome, as to a trusted ally and protector. The Pergamene bequest became the
new Roman province of Asia, and Roma's cult spread rapidly within it.[7]
In Hellenist religious tradition, gods were served by priests and goddesses by priestesses but Roma's priesthood was
male, perhaps in acknowledgment of the virility of Rome's military power. Priesthood of the Roma cult was
competed among the highest ranking local elites.[8]
In contrast to her putative "Amazonian" Roman original, Greek coinage depicts Roma in the "dignified and rather
severe style" of a Greek goddess, often wearing a mural crown, or sometimes a Phrygian helmet. She is occasionally
bareheaded.[9] In this and later periods, she was often associated with Zeus (as guardian of oaths) and Fides (the
personification of mutual trust).[10] Her Eastern cult appealed for Rome's loyalty and protection - there is no reason
to suppose this as other than genuine (and diplomatically sound) respect. A panegyric to her survives, in five Sapphic
stanzas attributed to Melinno of Lesbos.[11] In Republican Rome and its Eastern colonae her cult was virtually
non-existent.[12]
Very little remains of Roma's cult temples in the Eastern Mediterranean world. Four altars survive, and one
deliberately mutilated statue.[13]
Roma in Imperial cult

The murder of Julius Caesar led to his apotheosis and cult as a State divus in Rome and her Eastern colonies.
Caesar's adopted heir Augustus ended Rome's civil war and became princeps ("leading man") of the Republic, and in
30/29 BCE, the koina of Asia and Bithynia requested permission to honour him as a living divus. Republican values
held monarchy in contempt, and despised Hellenic honours - Caesar had fatally courted both - but an outright refusal
might offend loyal provincials and allies. A cautious formula was drawn up: non-Romans could only offer him cult
as divus jointly with dea Roma.[14] Two temples were dedicated for the purpose. Roma was thus absorbed into the
earliest (Eastern) form of "Imperial cult" - or from an Eastern viewpont, cult to Augustus was grafted onto their
time-honoured cult to Roma. From here on, she increasingly took the attributes of an Imperial or divine consort to
the Imperial divus, but some Greek coin types show her as a seated or enthroned authority, and the Imperial divus
standing upright as her supplicant or servant.[15] [16]
The Imperial cult arose as a pragmatic and ingenious response to an Eastern initiative. It blended and "renewed"
ancient elements of traditional religions and Republican government to create a novel and remarkably successful
framework for the unification of Empire under a principate. In the West, Gaulish, Germanic and Celtic cultures had
no precedent for ruler cult or Roman-style administration.[17] The foundation of the Imperial cult centre at
Lugdunum introduced Roman models for provincial and municipal assemblies and government, a Romanised
lifestyle, and an opportunity for local elites to enjoy the advantages of citizenship through election to Imperial cult
priesthood: its ara (altar) was dedicated to Roma and Augustus.[18] Thereafter, Roma is well attested by inscriptions
and coinage throughout the Western provinces. Literary sources have little to say about her, but this may reflect her
ubiquity rather than neglect: in the early Augustan era, she may have been honoured above her living Imperial
consort.[19] [20] [21]
In provincial Africa, one temple to Roma and Augustus is known at Leptis Magna and another at Mactar. On the
Italian peninsula, six have been proven - Latium built two, one of them privately funded. During the reign of
Tiberius, Ostia built a grand municipal temple to Roma and Augustus.[22]
In the city of Rome itself, the earliest known state cult to dea Roma was combined with cult to Venus at the
Hadrianic Temple of Venus and Roma. This was the largest temple in the city, probably dedicated to inaugurate the
reformed festival of Parilia, which was known thereafter as the Romaea after the Eastern festival in Roma's honour.
The temple contained the seated, Hellenised image of dea Roma - the Palladium in her right hand symbolised
Rome's eternity.[23] [24] In Rome, this was a novel realisation. Greek interpretations of Roma as a dignified deity had
transformed her from a symbol of military dominance to one of Imperial protection and gravitas.
Roma's position could be more equivocal. Following the defeat of Clodius Albinus and his allies by Septimius
Severus at Lugdunum, Roma was removed from the Lugdunum cult ara to the temple, where along with the Augusti
she was co-opted into a new and repressive formulation of Imperial cult. Fishwick interprets the reformed rites at
Lugdunum as those offered any paterfamilias by his slaves.[25] It is not known how long this phase lasted, but it
appears to have been a unique development.
In a later, even more turbulent era, a common coin type of Probus shows him in the radiate solar crown of the
Dominate: the reverse offers Rome's Temple of Venus and dea Roma. While Probus' image shows his monarchic
Imperium, Roma displays his claims to restoration of Roman tradition and Imperial unity.[26]
Legacy
“
As personification, as goddess or as symbol, the name Roma stretches from classical Greece to Mussolini's Fascist propaganda... Roma has
been seen as a goddess, a whore, a near-saint, and as the symbol of civilization itself. She remains the oldest continuous political-religious
symbol in Western civilisation. ”
Ronald Mellor, Introduction, The goddess Roma.[27]
Notes
[1] Mellor, 956.
[2] From "Sear Roman Coins & their Values (RCV 2000 Edition) #25" at www.wildwinds.com (http:/ / www. wildwinds. com/ coins/ sear5/
s0025. t. html) (accessed 22 June 2009): but see Mellor, 974-5 for a more tentative approach to early helmeted figures: other possible
identities have been speculated, such as Diana or the Trojan captive Rhome, who may be a mythic-poetic personification of Gk. rhome
(strength). (For Rhome, see Hard, R., Rose, H.J., The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology, 2003, p586: limited preview available
online: (http:/ / books. google. co. uk/ books?id=XfGw5uYrDMYC& pg=PA586& lpg=PA586& dq=Rhome+ Trojan& source=bl&
ots=UImFeoca78& sig=pjnjEh468sU6sBWOecUgWUAl1ys& hl=en& ei=oVBJSr6sF8KTjAeaxKjQAQ& sa=X& oi=book_result&
ct=result& resnum=7).
[3] Mellor, 963, 1004-5.
[4] Tacitus, Annals, 4.56
[5] The Roma cult did not displace cult to individual Roman benefactors. The Hellenophile general Flamininus was given divine honours jointly
with Roma for his military achievements on behalf of Greek allies: Plutarch, Flamininus, 16, gives the ending lines of what he describes as a
lengthy Chalcidian hymn to Zeus, Roma and Flamininus: available online at Thayer's website (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/
Roman/ Texts/ Plutarch/ Lives/ Flamininus*. html) (accessed June 29, 2009)
[6] Mellor, 967.
[7] Mellor, 958-9.
[8] Mellor, 965-6: In the East - as later in the provincial West - Roma's priests were probably elected.
[9] Mellor, 960-3.
[10] Roman cult to Fides was instituted in the Late Republic: Cicero, De Natura Deorum, 2. 61.
[11] English and Greek versions in Powell, Anton, The Greek World, Routledge, 1997, p369: limited preview available - (http:/ / books. google.
co. uk/ books?id=ZlSCexW2L4QC& pg=RA1-PA369& lpg=RA1-PA369& dq=Hail,+ Roma,+ daughter+ of+ Ares& source=bl&
ots=wWtQ8Z67Wj& sig=UiB18ajQIxQICjsKaBnqiO1spvY& hl=en& ei=Z0dJSovXC96OjAeAp52QCQ& sa=X& oi=book_result&
ct=result& resnum=1)
[12] Mellor, 972.
[13] Mellor, 960-3.
[14] For a summary of modern viewpoints on the religious sincerity of Ruler cult see Harland, P.A., Introduction to Imperial Cults within Local
Cultural Life: Associations in Roman Asia, 2003. Originally published in "Ancient History Bulletin / Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte" 17
(2003):85-107. Available online: (http:/ / www. philipharland. com/ publications/ articleAHB. html)
[15] Mellor, 972.
[16] Ando, 45.
[17] Roma may have had joint (but unattested) cult with Augustus at the three colonial Arae Sestianae of the Iberian peninsula, probably founded
shortly after 19 BCE: see Mellor, 989.
[18] The cult altar was inaugurated in 10 or 12 BCE: Fishwick favours 12 BCE as both practical and a particularly auspicious date for Augustus
[19] Fishwick sees the persistence of Roma's Hellenic seniority as dea (over the Augustan divus) in Western Imperial cult.
[20] Mellor, 990-993: Mellor finds Roma an essential companion to the Augustan and later Imperial divi, based on the surmise of Imperial cult as
less one of obedience than a Romano-Hellenic framework for co-operation and acculturation: emperors of the principate claimed to represent
and sustain the "senate and people of Rome", not to dominate them.
[21] Priests at the Lugdunum complex were known by the Greek title of sacerdos. Most others were flamen who - contrary to Roman tradition -
served a number of deities. In general, female Imperial cult honorands (such as the living or deceased and deified Empress and state
goddesses) were served by a priestess. Some were wife to the cult priest, but most may have been elected in their own right. One priestess is
rather confusedly flamina sive sacerdos - Western Imperial cults show remarkably liberal interpretations of cult and priesthood: some appear
to be unique. However, with only one possible exception (at Toulouse) dea Roma was served by priests, as in her Hellenic cult. See Fishwick
vol 1, 1, 101 & vol 3, 1, 12-13, & Mellor, 998-1002.
[22] Mellor, 1002-3.
[23] Beard et al, vol 1, 257-9.
[24] Mellor, 963-4.
[25] Fishwick,Vol. 3, 1, 199.
[26] Examples of Probus' coin types are shown at Doug Smith's website (http:/ / dougsmith. ancients. info/ probus. html)
[27] Mellor, 952.
References
• Ando, Clifford, Imperial ideology and provincial loyalty in the Roman Empire, illustrated, University of
California Press, 2000. ISBN 0520220676
• Beard, M., Price, S., North, J., Religions of Rome: Volume 1, a History, illustrated, Cambridge University Press,
1998. ISBN 0521316820
• Mellor, R., "The Goddess Roma" in Haase, W., Temporini, H., (eds), Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen
Welt, de Gruyter, 1991. pp 950–1030. ISBN 3110103893
Rumina
In ancient Roman religion, Rumina, also known as Diva Rumina, was a goddess who protected breastfeeding
mothers, and possibly nursing infants. Her domain extended to protecting animal mothers, not just human ones. As
one of the di indigetes, Rumina lacked the elaborate mythology and personality of later Roman deities, and was
instead a more abstract, numinous entity.
Rumina's temple was near the Ficus Ruminalis, the fig tree at the foot of the Palatine Hill where Romulus and Remus
were raised by a she-wolf. Milk, rather than the typical wine, was offered as a sacrifice at this temple. In AD 58, the
tree started to die, which was interpreted as a bad omen.
References
• Hammond, N.G.L. & Scullard, H.H. (Eds.) (1970). The Oxford Classical Dictionary (p. 940). Oxford: Oxford
University Press. ISBN 0-19-869117-3.
Runcina 393
Runcina
In Roman mythology, Runcina was a goddess of agriculture, associated with reaping and weeding (the latter was
thus known as runcation).
In biology, Runcina is the name of a genus of sea slugs.
Rusina
In Roman mythology, the goddess Rusina, also known as Rurina, was a protector of the fields or farmland, one of
the ancient di indigetes. Her name is related to the Latin word rus, meaning "countryside", which is also the source
of the word rural.
A related Roman deity, Rusor, was associated with the goddess Tellus. Rusor may mean something like
"ploughman".
Salacia (mythology)
This article is about the goddess of salt water, Neptune’s wife.
In ancient Roman mythology, Salacia was the female divinity of the sea, worshipped as the goddess of salt water
who presided over the depths of the ocean[1] . She was the wife and queen of Neptune, god of the sea and water [2] .
That Salacia was the wife of Neptune is implied by Varro[3] , and is positively affirmed by Seneca, Augustine and
Servius[4] [5] .
The god Neptune wanted to marry Salacia, but she was in great awe of her distinguished suitor, and to preserve her
virginity, with grace and celerity she managed to glide out of his sight, and hid from him in the Atlantic Ocean. The
grieving Neptune sent a dolphin to look for her and persuade the fair nymph to come back and share his throne.
Salacia agreed to marry Neptune and the King of the Deep was so overjoyed at these good tidings that the dolphin
was awarded a place in the heavens, where he now forms a well known constellation Delphinus.
Salacia is represented as a beautiful nymph, crowned with seaweed, either enthroned beside Neptune or driving with
him in a pearl shell chariot drawn by dolphins, sea-horses (hippocamps) or other fabulous creatures of the deep, and
attended by Tritons and Nereids[6] . She is dressed in queenly robes and has nets in her hair[7] .
Salacia was the personification of the calm and sunlit aspect of the sea [8] . Derived from Latin sal meaning "salt" [9] ,
the name Salacia denotes the wide, open sea [10] , and is sometimes literally translated to mean sensational.
As his wife, Salacia bore Neptune three children.
Aulus Gellius, in 12.23 of his Attic Nights[11] , notes that Roman priests would invoke specific attributes of various
gods, “maia Volcani, Salacia Neptuni, hora Quirini, nerio Martis.” Forsythe notes that Salacia Neptuni means
“effervescence of Neptune”[12] .
[13]
Sometimes, as Salachia, she is also known as the goddess of springs , ruling over the springs of highly
mineralized waters.
She is identified with the Greek goddess, Amphitrite, wife of Poseidon. In northern Europe, the Norse god Aegir and
his consort, Rán are equivalent to Neptune and Salacia. The goddess Sulis, an aspect of Salacia is worshiped at the
sacred hot springs at Bath.
Salacia (mythology) 394
References and notes

[1] The Works of Apuleius, Comprising the Metamorphoses, Or Golden Ass, the God of Socrates, the Florida, and His Defence, Or a Discourse
on Magic, Gurney, H, Published by READ BOOKS: 2008
[2] Manual of Mythology: for the use of schools, art students, and general readers founded on the works of Petiscus, Preller, and Welcker,
Murray, A. S., Asher: 1873, Original from Oxford University, Digitized 19 Jan 2007
[3] Varro, De lingua Latina, v. 72, :Salacia Neptuni a salo.”
[4] Augustine, De civitate Dei, vii. 22, “Jam utique habebat Salaciam Neptunus uxoreum”; Servicius, on Virgil, Aen, x. 76, “Sane hane Veniliam
quidam Salaciam accipiunt, Neptuni uxorem.”
[5] Adonis Attis Osiris: Studies in the History of Oriental Religion, Frazer, J. G., Edition: 3, Kessinger Publishing: 2003
[6] “…Salacia, weighed down with her lapful of fish, with little Palaemon, their charioteer, upon a dolphin”. The Works of Apuleius, Comprising
the Metamorphoses, Or Golden Ass, the God of Socrates, the Florida, and His Defence, Or a Discourse on Magic, Gurney, H, Published by
READ BOOKS: 2008
[7] "...Salacia, the folds of her garment sagging with fish" (Apuleius, The Golden Ass 4.31).
[8] The myths of Greece & Rome, Guerber, H.A., Courier Dover Publications: 1993
[9] http:/ / en. wiktionary. org/ wiki/ sal#Latin
[10] A new classical dictionary of Greek and Roman biography, mythology and geography, partly based upon the Dictionary of Greek and
Roman biography and mythology, Smith, W, Anthon, C, Published by Harper and brothers: 1862, Original from Harvard University, Digitized
6 May 2008
[11] http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Gellius/ home. html
[12] A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War, Forsythe, G, Published by University of California Press: 2006
[13] Dictionary of Ancient Deities, Turner, P , Coulter, C. R., Published by Oxford University Press US: 2001
Other References:
• Elseviers Mythologische Encyclopedie, van Aken, Dr. A.R.A., Elsevier, Amsterdam: 1961
• Vestal Virgins, Sibyls, and Matrons: Women in Roman Religion, Takács, S. A., University of Texas Press: 2007
• Bell's New Pantheon Or Historical Dictionary of the Gods, Demi Gods, Heroes and Fabulous Personages of
Antiquity, Bell, J, Kessinger Publishing: 2003
• St. Augustin's City of God and Christian Doctrine: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church Part
2, Augusti St Augustin, Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Published by Kessinger Publishing: 2004
Securitas 395
Securitas
For the Swedish security guard services provider, see Securitas AB. For the Swiss security guard services
provider, see Securitas AG. For the heist, see Securitas depot robbery.
In Roman mythology, Securitas was the
goddess of security, especially the security
of the Roman Empire.
Securitas, the security of the Roman Empire, celebrated on the reverse of this
sestertius by Hostilian.
Semonia
In Roman mythology, Semonia was the goddess of sowing. She belonged to a group of agricultural deities which
also comprised Setia (or Seja) and Segetia[1] [2] [3] . Their names are derived from the same stem as the Latin verb
sero "to sow".
References
[1] Pliny, Naturalis Historia, XVII, 2.2
External links
• Myth Index - Segetia, Setia and Semonia (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/S/Segetia.html)
Sentia 396
Sentia
This article is about the goddess. For the automobile, see Mazda Sentia.
In ancient Roman religion, Sentia was the goddess who oversaw children's mental development. It is also said it was
the goddess who gave awareness to the young child.
Roman religion was concerned with the interlocking and complex interrelations between gods and humans. In this,
deities covered the general realm of infancy and childhood.[1] In this area, Sentia was called upon as a general
guardian and tutelary deity of the mental development of children.
References
Spes
In Roman mythology, Spēs (pronounced Latin pronunciation: /ˈspeːs/) was the goddess of hope. She was traditionally
defined as "the last goddess" (Spes, ultima dea), meaning that hope is the last resource available to men.
There was a temple to her in the Forum Holitorium.
In art, Spes was depicted hitching her skirt while holding a cornucopia and flowers.
Spes personified hope for good harvests, and for children, and was invoked at births, marriages, and other important
times.
Her Greek equivalent was Elpis.
Stata Mater 397
Stata Mater
In Roman mythology, Stata Mater was the goddess who protected against fires. She was sometimes equated with
Vesta. Her statue was located on the Forum.
Vulcanalia is the fire festival in which the Goddesses Juturna (goddess of fountains) and Stata Mater (the goddess
who puts out conflagrations) were invoked along with Vulcan in order to control his fires.
Strenua
In Roman mythology, Strenua or Strenia was the goddess of strength and endurance. She was originally a Sabine
goddess. She had a temple on the Via Sacra.
According to some scholars the Befana tradition is derived by the Strenua cult.
Suadela
In Roman mythology, Suadela was a goddess of persuasion, particularly in romance, seduction and love. She was
strongly associated with Venus. Her Greek name was Peitho.[1] Sometimes she is associated with or counted as one
of the Graces.[2]
References
[1] Mayo, Robert (1819). A new system of mythology: in three volumes; giving a full account of the idolatry of the pagan world; Vol. 3 (http:/ /
books. google. com/ books?id=S2IuAAAAYAAJ& dq=suada& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0&
as_maxy_is=& as_brr=1& as_pt=BOOKS& pg=RA1-PA10#v=onepage& q=suada& f=false). Philadelphia. .
[2] Francis Lieber, ed (1835). "Suada, or Suadela" (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=LPRPAAAAMAAJ& dq=suada& lr=& as_drrb_is=q&
as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& as_brr=1& as_pt=BOOKS& pg=PA37#v=onepage& q=suada& f=false).
Encyclopædia Americana. 12 ("New Edition" ed.). Philadelphia. pp. 37. .
Tempestas 398
Tempestas
In Roman mythology, Tempestas (Latin tempestas: "season, weather; bad weather; storm, tempest") was the
goddess of storms. Sometimes Tempestates ("The Storms", plural) were seen as a group of deities.
There was a temple of Tempestas at Rome, dedicated to her by Scipio in 259 BC[1] [2] .
References
[1] Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, 1.9
[2] Ovid, Fasti, VI. 193
Terra (mythology)
Terra Mater or Tellus was a goddess
personifying the Earth in Roman mythology.
The names Terra Mater and Tellus Mater both
mean "Mother Earth" in Latin; Mater is an
honorific title also bestowed on other goddesses.
The chemical element Tellurium was named
after Tellus by Martin Heinrich Klaproth in
1798.
A male deity of Earth, Tellumo, was sometimes

invoked together with Tellus during the rites in
her honour[1] .
Form and function

Romans appealed to Terra over earthquakes, and
along with the grain goddess Ceres, she was
Aion-Uranus and Tellus with four children, perhaps the personified seasons,
responsible for the productivity of farmland. She
mosaic from a Roman villa in Sentinum, 200-250 CE, Munich Glyptothek
was also associated with marriage, motherhood, (Inv. W504)
pregnant women, and pregnant animals. Terra's
Greek counterpart is Gaia.
The two words Terra and Tellus are thought to derive from the formulaic phrase tersa tellus, meaning "dry land"[2] ;
it may also be related to the similar sounding name of the equivalent Etruscan goddess Cel. If this is true, Tellus
might be the more ancient version of the name.
According to The Oxford Classical Dictionary, Terra refers to the element earth (one of the four basic elements of
earth, air, water, and fire) and Tellus refers to the guardian deity of Earth and by extension the globe itself.[3] Actual
classical Latin usage does not necessarily appear to respect this distinction.[4]
Terra (mythology) 399
Cult
A festival for Tellus called the Fordicidia or Hordicidia was held every year on April 15; it involved the sacrifice of
pregnant cows and was managed by the pontifex maximus and the Vestal Virgins. The Virgins kept the ashes of the
fetal calves until they were used for purification at Parilia.
Two festivals were held in January to mark the end of the winter sowing season, the Sementivae, celebrated in the
city, and the Paganalia, celebrated mostly in rural areas. The first part of the Sementivae was held January 24–26 in
honor of Tellus, the second part honored Ceres and was held a week later.
Tellus and Terra in science and science fiction

Many science fiction authors have used the term Terra to refer to the planet Earth. The term Terran is used by Philip
K. Dick in many of his short stories and also Blizzard's StarCraft had as one of the primary races in the game,
Terrans. Authors that have used Tellus include C. S. Lewis in his Space Trilogy, E. E. Smith in his Lensman series,
and Robert A. Heinlein in several of the stories in his Future History sequence. The Greek "Gaia" is used by Isaac
Asimov in the Foundation Series, but does not refer to Earth. Earth is also called Terra in the universe of
Warhammer 40,000.
The metalloid tellurium was named after Tellus.
References
[1] Augustine, De civitate Dei, 7. 23 (citing Varro)
[2] Taurus. "tersa tellus" (http:/ / www. constellationsofwords. com/ Constellations/ Taurus. html) (DOC). Press release. . Retrieved August 1,
2010.
[3] Hornblower, Simon, & Spawforth, Antony, ed (1996). "Tellus". The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford; New York: Oxford University
Press. p. 1480. ISBN 0198606419. "while Terra describes the element earth Tellus is the name of its protecting deity".
[4] Ovid, Fastis (http:/ / www. gutenberg. org/ dirs/ etext05/ 8fsti10. txt), line 1 ff., 67 ff., 105 ff., 469 ff. etc.
The Mother of the Lares

The Mother of the Lares (Mater Larum) has been identified with any of several minor Roman deities. She appears
twice in the records of the Arval Brethren as Mater Larum, elsewhere as Mania and Larunda. Ovid calls her Lara,
Muta (the speechless one) and Tacita (the silent one).[1]
Cult to Matres Larum is known through the fragmentary Arval rites to Dea Dia, a goddess of fruitfulness. The Arvals
address Dia herself as Juno Dea Dia, which identifies her with the supreme female principle. The mother of the
Lares is addressed only as Matres Larum; she is given a sacrificial meal (cena matri Larum) of puls (porridge)
contained in a sacred, sun-dried earthenware pot (olla). Prayers are recited over the pot, which is then thrown from
the temple doorway, down the slope on which the temple stands; thus, remarks Lily Ross Taylor,[2] towards the earth
as a typically chthonic offering. On another occasion, the Arvals offer sacrificial recompense to various deities for a
necessary pollution of Dia's sacred grove; the Mater Larum is given two sheep.[3] The Arvals also invoke her
children, in the opening lines of the Arval Hymn to Dia, which begins enos Lases iuvate ("Help us, Lares").[4]
The Mater Larum may have been offered cult with her Lares during the festival of Larentalia as she was, according
to Macrobius (fl. 395 - 423 AD),[5] during Compitalia. Ovid[6] poetically interprets what may be a variant of her rites
at the fringes of the Feralia: an old woman squats among a circle of younger women and sews up a fish-head. She
smears this with pitch then pierces and roasts it; this, she says, binds hostile tongues to silence. She thus invokes
Tacita (silence). If, as Macrobius proposes, the Lemures are unsatiated and malevolent forms of Lares, then they and
their mother also find their way into Lemuralia, when the vagrant and malicious Lemures and (perhaps) Larvae must
be placated by midnight libations of spring-water and offerings of black beans, spat from the mouth of the
paterfamilias to the floor of the domus. Again, Taylor notes the chthonic character of offerings made to fall – or
deliberately expelled – towards the earth.
Varro (116 BC – 27 BC) believes that she and her children were originally Sabine and names her as Mania; the
name is used by later Roman authors with the general sense of an "evil spirit". In the late 2nd century AD, according
to Festus, nursemaids use the name of Mania to terrify children. Macrobius applies it to the woolen figurines
(maniae) hung at crossroad shrines during Compitalia, thought to be substitutions for ancient human sacrifice once
held at the same festival and suppressed by Rome's first consul, L. Junius Brutus.[7]
The only known mythography attached to Mater Larum is little, late and poetic: again, the source is Ovid (Fasti II,
571 ff), who identifies her as a once-loquacious nymph, Lara, her tongue cut out for betrayal of Jupiter's secret
amours. Lara thus becomes Muta (speechless) and is exiled from the daylight world to the underworld abode of the
dead (ad Manes); a place of silence (Tacita). She is led there by Mercury and impregnated by him en route. Her
offspring are as silent or speechless as she.[8]
If their mother's nature connects the Lares to the earth they are, according to Taylor, spirits of the departed and their
mother a dark or terrible aspect of Tellus (Terra Mater).[9] The Lares and the Mater Larum have been suggested as
ancient Etruscan divinities; the title or forename Lars, used by Rome's Etrucan kings has been interpreted as "king",
"overlord" or "leader".[10] Greek authors offered "heroes" and "daimones" as translations for Lares and Plautus
employs a Lar Familiaris where Menander's Greek original has a heroon (hero-shrine).[11]
Notes
[1] Taylor, 301: citing "Mania" in Varro, Lingua Latina, 9, 61; "Larunda" in Arnobius, 3, 41; "Lara" in Ovid, Fasti II, 571 ff: Macrobius,
Saturnalia, 1, 7, 34-5; Festus, p115 L.
[2] Taylor, Lilly Ross, "The Mother of the Lares", American Journal of Archaeology, 29.3, (July - September 1925), pp 299 - 313.
[3] Beard et al, vol. 2, 151: section 6.2: CIL VI.2107, 2-13: ILS 5048. The grove was polluted by the use of iron tools when clearing up after a
storm and lightning-strike. Iron was strictly forbidden in the sacred area.
[4] Taylor, 299.
[5] Macrobius, Saturnalia I, 7, 35.
[6] Ovid, Fasti.
[7] Taylor, 302: whatever the truth regarding this sacrifice and its abolition, the Junii held ancestor cult during Larentalia rather than the usual
Parentalia even in the 1st century BC.
[8] Link to Latin text of Ovid's Fasti II at the latinlibrary.com (http:/ / www. thelatinlibrary. com/ ovid/ ovid. fasti2. shtml)
[9] Taylor, 300-301; Wiseman, 71, is more oblique and suggests that the Lemuria might represent Lara's "bitterness at the cruelty of her
treatment".
[10] See Lars Porsenna: "When Porsenna, Lars (lord) of Clusium, in Etruria, had reached with his army the Ja-nic'u-lum, just across the Tiber
from Rome... (John Jacob Anderson, A complete course in history: new manual of general history 1893:pt I, 190 ).
[11] Weinstock, 114-18, proposes the equivalence of "lar" and Greek hero, based on his gloss of a 4th century BC inscription from Latium as a
dedication to the Roman ancestor-hero Aeneas as Lare (Lar).
References and further reading

ISBN 0521316820
ISBN 0521456460
• Taylor, Lilly Ross, The Mother of the Lares, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 29, 3, (July - Sept. 1925),
299 - 313.
• Wiseman, T. P., Remus: a Roman myth, Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN 9780521483667
Tranquillitas 402
Tranquillitas
In Roman mythology, Tranquillitas was the goddess and personification of tranquility, security, calmness, peace.
Tranquillitas was a bit of a mystery goddess, but she seems related to Annona (the goddess of the corn harvest from
Egypt) and Securitas, implying reference to the peaceful security of the Roman Empire. In the Roman context, the
characteristics of Tranquilitas reflected the values at the heart of the Via Romana (the Roman Way) and are thought
to be those qualities which gave the Roman Republic the moral strength to conquer and civilize the world.
Tranquillitas is often depicted with the attributes which seem to again hint at an association with the grain supply
(and tranquility then of a placated and satiated population), a rudder and ears of grain, sometimes a modius or a
prow, sometimes leaning on a pilaster (decorative column). The modius was a measuring device used to measure
grain/corn. Both a rudder and prow are references to the ships which brought the grain harvest across the
Mediterranean from Egypt to Rome. In that connection, Tranquillitas also seemed to have been the goddess of calm
weather (very important for the transporting of the grain harvest). There even seems to have been a "Tranquillitas
Vacuna" the goddess of doing absolutely nothing.
In some representations (Roman coinage) Tranquillitas is depicted holding a hasta pura, a ceremonial lance (spear),
the forerunner of the standard pilum issued to Roman soldiers, a reference to tranquility enforced/provided by the
Roman military machine; or perhaps suggest a tranquil period for the Roman Armies which had been involved in
frequent civil wars. In the other hand Tranquillitas is hold some sort of animal in her outstretched hand. Most experts
believe to be a Roman Dragon ("draco"), a symbol associated with the military ensigns (banners) all of the Roman
Legionary Armies during the period of the Empire, as well as by the Dacians and the Parthians. Again, this would be
a reference to the tranquility afforded by the protection, fidelity, and valor of the Roman army.
There is a dissenting opinion, that being that the animal held in Tranquillitas’s hand is not a dragon, but rather a
capricornus, which would tie in with the maritime theme of the transportation of Egypt’s grain harvest across the
Mediterranean to Rome. The capricornus was a marvelous animal of with the forequarter is that of a goat with
prominent horns, the hindquarter terminating in the tail of a fish, said in mythology to be a manifestation of Pan.
According to myth, Pan’s transmutation into a capricornus was to escape the wrath of Typhon – and occurred as Pan
threw himself into a river. The capricornus was often depicted on Roman coinage in conjunction with a rudder, again
tying to the maritime transport so critical in moving grain into Rome.
Tutelina (goddess) 403
Tutelina (goddess)
In Roman mythology, Tutelina was an agricultural goddess who was responsible for protecting fruits brought in
during harvest time. Tutelina and two other harvesting goddesses, Messia and Secia, had three pillars with altars
before them in the Circus Maximus.[1] [2] [3] [4]
References
[1] Pliny, Historia Naturalis, XVIII. 2
[3] Varro, De lingua Latina, V. 74
External links
• Myth Index - Tutelina (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/T/Tutelina.html)
Vacuna
Vacuna was an ancient Sabine goddess,
identified by ancient Roman sources and
later scholars with numerous other
goddesses, including Ceres, Diana, Nike,
Minerva, Bellona, Venus and Victoria. She
was mainly worshiped at a sanctuary in
Tibur near Horace's villa, in sacred woods at
Reate, and at Rome.
The protection she was asked to provide

remains obscure. Pomponius Porphyrion
Roman Republic denarius, depicting Vacuna
calls her incerta specie (of an uncertain
kind) in his commentaries on Horace.
Renaissance authors[1] and Leonhard Schmitz[2] state that she was a divinity to whom the country people offered
sacrifices when the labours of the field were over, that is, when they were at leisure, vacui.
The etymology of her name is linked to lack and privation, and Horace appears to call upon her in favour of a friend
to whom one of his epistles is addressed. From this, it has been conjectured that she was prayed to in favour of
absent people, family members or friends.[3]
Vacuna 404
Period sources
Literary sources:
• Horace, Epistles, l. 1, ep. 10, v. 49-50 (commented by Pomponius Porphyrion, Helenius Acron and the scholiast
of Cruquius);
• Ovid, Fasti, 6, v. 305 to 308;
• Pliny the Elder, Natural History, l. 3 (ch. 12), par. 109;
• Auson, Epistle 4, v. 101.
Epigraphical sources:
• Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, IX, 4636, 4751, 4752.
References
• Edmond Courbaud, Horace : sa vie et sa pensée à l’époque des Épîtres, Paris, 1914, ch. 2, § 7, note 16. Online on
espace-horace [4]
• A. W. van Buren, « Vacuna », The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 6, 1916 (1916), pp. 202-204.
• Elizabeth Cornelia Evans, « Horace's Sabine Goddess Vacuna », Transactions and Proceedings of the American
Philological Association, Vol. 65, 1934 (1934).
• This article incorporates text by Leonhard Schmitz from the article "Vacuna" in the public domain Dictionary of
Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870), vol. 3, p. 1202.
Footnotes
[1] Petrus Crinitus, De honesta disciplina, 1504, vol. 25, chap. 12; Lilius Gregorius Gyraldus, Historiae Deorum Gentilium, Syntagma 10, Basel,
1548, who may depend on Crinitus.
[2] In Smith, citing Schol. ad Horat. Epist. i. 10. 49 ; Ovid Fasti vi. 307 ; Plin. H. N. iii. 17.
[3] G. Dumézil, La religion romaine archaïque, 2nd ed., p. 369, n. 3; id., Mélanges Geo Widengren, 1972, p. 307-311.
[4] http:/ / www. espace-horace. org/ etud/ courbaud/ courbaud_2_07. htm
Vallonia (mythology) 405
Vallonia (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Vallonia was the goddess of valleys (cf. Latin vallis "valley"). Her name is known from St.
Augustine's work The City of God[1] , and is not attested otherwise.
References
Venus (mythology)
The Birth of Venus, by Sandro Botticelli c. 1485–1486.

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
Venus was a Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty and fertility, who played a key role in many
Roman religious festivals and myths. From the third century BC, the increasing Hellenization of Roman upper
classes identified her as the equivalent of the Greek goddess Aphrodite.
Name
The noun form venus means "love" and "sexual desire" in Latin[1] and has connections to venerari (to honour, to try
to please) and venia (grace, favour) through a possible common root in an Indo-European *wenes-, comparable to
Sanskrit vanas- "lust, desire".[2] [3]
Venus' name might embody the function of honours and gifts to the divine when seeking their favours: such acts can
be interpreted as the enticement, seduction or charm of gods by mortals.[4] [5] The ambivalence of this function is
suggested in the etymological relationship of the root *venes- with Latin venenum (poison, venom), in the sense of "a
charm, magic philtre".[6]
Comparative mythology
Due to her early association with Aphrodite in the interpretatio graeca, it is hard to establish what characteristics the
natively Italic Venus may have had. Ushas is linked to Venus by a Vedic Sanskrit epithet ascribed to her, vanas-
"(female) loveliness; longing, desire", which is cognate with Latin Venus (Proto-Indo-European root *wen- "to
desire").[7]
In the interpretatio romana of the Germanic pantheon during the early centuries AD, Venus became identified with
the Germanic goddess Frijjo, giving rise to the loan translation "Friday" for dies Veneris. The historical cognate of
the dawn goddess in Germanic tradition, however, would be Ostara.
Roman mythology
Venus was commonly associated with the Greek goddess Aphrodite and the Etruscan deity Turan, borrowing aspects
from each. As with most other gods and goddesses in Roman mythology, the literary concept of Venus is mantled in
whole-cloth borrowings from the literary Greek mythology of her equivalent counterpart, Aphrodite. The early,
Etruscan or Latin goddess of vegetation and gardens became deliberately associated with the Greek Goddess
Aphrodite.[8] In some Latin mythology Eros was the son of Venus and Mars, the god of war. In other times, Venus
was understood to be the consort of Vulcan. Virgil, in compliment to his patron Augustus and the gens Julia, made
Venus, whom Julius Caesar had adopted as his protectress, the ancestor of the Roman people by way of its legendary
founder Aeneas and his son Iulus.
Cult
Her cult began in Ardea and Lavinium, Latium. On August 15, 293 BC, her oldest known temple was dedicated, and
August 18 became a festival called the Vinalia Rustica. After Rome's defeat at the Battle of Lake Trasimene in the
opening episodes of the Second Punic War, the Sibylline oracle recommended the importation of the Sicillian Venus
of Eryx; a temple to her was dedicated on the Capitoline Hill in 217 BC:[9] a second temple to her was dedicated in
181 BC.[10]
Venus seems to have played a part in household or private religion of some Romans. Julius Caesar claimed her as an
ancestor (Venus Genetrix); possibly a long-standing family tradition, certainly one adopted as such by his heir
Augustus. Venus statuettes have been found in quite ordinary household shrines (lararia). In fiction, Petronius
places one among the Lares of the freedman Trimalchio's household shrine.[11]
Epithets
Like other major Roman deities, Venus was ascribed a number of epithets that referred to her different cult aspects
and roles.
Venus Acidalia was,[12] according to Servius, named after the well Acidalius near Orchomenus, in which Venus
used to bathe with the Graces. Others connect the name with the Greek acides (άκιδες), meaning cares or
troubles.[13]
Venus Calva ("Venus the bald one"), an image of the Goddess attested by post Classical Roman writings which
offer several different Roman traditions to explain this appearance and epithet. One holds that it commemorates the
virtuous offer by Roman matrons of their own hair to make bowstrings during a siege of Rome: another, that during
the reign of king Ancus Marcius, the queen and others lost their hair during an epidemic. In hope of its restoration,
women unaffected by the affliction willingly sacrificed their own hair to Venus.[14] Ashby (1929) finds the existence
of a temple to her "very doubtful".[15]
Venus Cloacina ("Venus the Purifier"), was a fusion of Venus with the Etruscan water goddess Cloacina, likely
resulting from a statue of Venus being prominent near the Cloaca Maxima, Rome's sewer system. The statue was
erected on the spot where according to Rome's founding tradition, peace was made between the Romans and
Sabines.
Venus Erycina ("Venus from Eryx"), also called Venus Erucina, originated on Mount Eryx in western Sicily.
Temples were erected to her on the Capitoline Hill and outside the Porta Collina. She embodied "impure" love, and
was the patron goddess of prostitutes.
Venus Felix ("Lucky Venus") was an epithet used for a temple on the Esquiline Hill and for a temple constructed by
Hadrian dedicated to "Venus Felix et Roma Aeterna" ("Favorable Venus and Eternal Rome") on the north side of the
Via Sacra. This epithet is also used for a specific sculpture at the Vatican Museums.
Venus Genetrix ("Mother Venus") was Venus in her role as the ancestress of the Roman people, a goddess of
motherhood and domesticity. A festival was held in her honor on September 26. As Venus was regarded as the
mother of the Julian gens in particular, Julius Caesar dedicated a Temple of Venus Genetrix in Rome in 46 BC. This
name has attached to an iconological type of statue of Aphrodite/Venus.
Venus Kallipygos ("Venus with the pretty bottom"), a form
worshipped at Syracuse.
Venus Libertina ("Venus the Freedwoman") was an epithet of
Venus that probably arose from an error, with Romans mistaking
lubentina (possibly meaning "pleasurable" or "passionate") for
libertina. Possibly related is Venus Libitina, also called Venus
Libentina, Venus Libentia, Venus Lubentina, Venus Lubentini and
Venus Lubentia, an epithet that probably arose from confusion
between Libitina, a funeral goddess, and the aforementioned
lubentina, leading to an amalgamation of Libitina and Venus. A
temple was dedicated to Venus Libitina on the Esquiline Hill.
Venus Murcia ("Venus of the Myrtle") was an epithet that merged

the goddess with the little-known deity Murcia or Murtia. Murcia
was associated with the myrtle-tree, but in other sources was
called a goddess of sloth and laziness.
Venus Obsequens ("Graceful Venus" or "Indulgent Venus") was
Venus Genetrix temple in Forum of Caesar, Rome.
an epithet to which a temple was dedicated in the late 3rd century
BCE during the Third Samnite War by Quintus Fabius Maximus
Gurges. It was built with money fined from women who had been found guilty of adultery. It was the oldest temple
of Venus in Rome, and was probably situated at the foot of the Aventine Hill near the Circus Maximus. Its
dedication day, August 19, was celebrated in the Vinalia Rustica.
Venus Urania ("Heavenly Venus") was an epithet used as the title of a book by Basilius von Ramdohr, a relief by
Pompeo Marchesi, and a painting by Christian Griepenkerl. (cf. Aphrodite Urania.)
On April 1, the Veneralia was celebrated in honor of Venus Verticordia ("Venus the Changer of Hearts"), the
protector against vice. A temple to Venus Verticordia was built in Rome in 114 BC, and dedicated April 1, at the
instruction of the Sibylline Books to atone for the inchastity of three Vestal Virgins.
Venus Victrix ("Venus the Victorious") was an aspect of the armed Aphrodite that Greeks had inherited from the
East, where the goddess Ishtar "remained a goddess of war, and Venus could bring victory to a Sulla or a Caesar."[16]
Pompey, Sulla's protege, vied with his patron and with Caesar for public recognition as her protege. In 55 BC he
dedicated a temple to her at the top of his theater in the Campus Martius. She had a shrine on the Capitoline Hill, and
festivals on August 12 and October 9. A sacrifice was annually dedicated to her on the latter date. In neo-classical
art, her epithet as Victrix is often used in the sense of 'Venus Victorious over men's hearts' or in the context of the
Judgement of Paris (e.g. Canova's Venus Victrix, a half-nude reclining portrait of Pauline Bonaparte).
Other significant epithets for Venus included Venus Amica ("Venus the Friend"), Venus Armata ("Armed Venus"),
Venus Caelestis ("Celestial Venus"), and Venus Aurea ("Golden Venus").
In art
Classical art
Roman and Hellenistic art produced many variations on the
goddess, often based on the Praxitlean type Aphrodite of Cnidus.
Many female nudes from this period of sculpture whose subjects
are unknown are in modern art history conventionally called
'Venus'es, even if they originally may have portrayed a mortal
woman rather than operated as a cult statue of the goddess.
Examples include:
• Venus de Milo (130 B.C.)
• Venus de' Medici
• Capitoline Venus
• Esquiline Venus
• Venus Felix
• Venus of Arles
• Venus Anadyomene (also here)
• Venus, Pan and Eros
• Venus Genetrix
• Venus of Capua
• Venus Kallipygos
• Venus Pudica
Venus de Milo at the Louvre
In non-classical art
Venus became a popular subject of painting and sculpture during the
Renaissance period in Europe. As a "classical" figure for whom nudity
was her natural state, it was socially acceptable to depict her unclothed.
As the goddess of sexuality, a degree of erotic beauty in her presentation
was justified, which appealed to many artists and their patrons. Over
time, venus came to refer to any artistic depiction in post-classical art of a
nude woman, even when there was no indication that the subject was the
goddess.
• The Birth of Venus (Botticelli) (c. 1485)

• Sleeping Venus (c. 1501)
• Venus of Urbino (1538)
• Titian's Venus with a Mirror (c. 1555)
• Rokeby Venus
• Olympia (1863)
Venus Anadyomene, by Titian (ca. 1525) • The Birth of Venus (Bouguereau) (1879)
• The Birth of Venus (Cabanel) (1863)
• Venus of Cherchell, Gsell museum in Algeria
• Venus Victrix, and Venus Italica by Antonio Canova
In the field of prehistoric art, since the discovery in 1908 of the

so-called "Venus of Willendorf" small Neolithic sculptures of
rounded female forms have been conventionally referred to as
Venus figurines. Although the name of the actual deity is not
known, the knowing contrast between the obese and fertile cult
figures and the classical conception of Venus has raised resistance
to the terminology.
Russian Venus by Boris Kustodiev (1926).
Jacques-Louis David, Mars Being Disarmed

by Venus (Brussels)
Tannhäuser
The medieval German legend Tannhäuser preserved the Venus
myth long after her worship was extirpated by Christianity.
The German story tells of Tannhäuser, a knight and poet who
found Venusberg, a mountain with caverns containing the
subterranean home of Venus, and spent a year there worshipping
the goddess. After leaving Venusberg, Tannhäuser is filled with
remorse, and travels to Rome to ask Pope Urban IV if it is
possible to be absolved of his sins.
Urban replies that forgiveness is as impossible as it would be for

his papal staff to blossom. Three days after Tannhäuser's
departure, Urban's staff blooms with flowers; messengers are
sent to retrieve the knight, but he has already returned to
Venusberg, never to be seen again.
References
[1] http:/ / lysy2. archives. nd. edu/ cgi-bin/ WORDS. EXE?venus
[2] Etymonline link (Harper) (http:/ / www. etymonline. com/ index.
php?term=Venus)
[3] William W.Skeat Etymological Dictionary of the English Language New Tannhäuser in the Venusberg by John Collier, 1901: a
York, 1963 (first ed. 1882) s. v. venerable, venereal, venial. gilded setting that is distinctly Italian quattrocento.
[4] R. Schilling La religion romaine de Venus depuis les origines jusqu'au
temps d' Auguste Pais, 1954, pp.13-64
[5] R. Schiling "la relation Venus venia", Latomus, 21, 1962, pp. 3-7
[6] Linked through an adjectival form *venes-no-: ibid. s.v. "venom"
[7] "wen-1. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000." (http:/ / www. bartleby. com/ 61/ roots/ IE568.
html). . Retrieved 2008-02-16.
[8] (http:/ / www. questia. com/ library/ encyclopedia/ venus-in-roman-religion-and-mythology. jsp)
[9] Beard et al, Vol 1., 80, 83: see also Livy Ab Urbe Condita 23.31.
[10] Orlin, in Rüpke (ed), 62.
[11] Kaufmann-Heinimann, in Rüpke (ed), 197 - 8.
[12] Virgil, Aeneid i. 720
[13] Schmitz, Leonhard (1867). "Acidalia" (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 0021. html). In Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek
and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston, MA. pp. 12.
[14] R. Schilling La religion romaine de Venus depuis les origines jusqu'au temps d'August Paris, 1954, pp.83-89: "L'origine probable du cult de
Venus".
[15] Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby), A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, London, Oxford
University Press, 1929, p551. (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Gazetteer/ Places/ Europe/ Italy/ Lazio/ Roma/ Rome/ _Texts/
PLATOP*/ Venus_Calva. html)
[16] Thus Walter Burkert, in Homo Necans (1972) 1983:80, noting C. Koch on "Venus Victrix" in Realencyclopädie der klassischen
Altertumswissenschaft, 8 A860-64.
Sources
• Champeaux, J. (1987). Fortuna. Recherches sur le culte de la Fortuna à Rome et dans le monde romain des
origines à la mort de César. II. Les Transformations de Fortuna sous le République. Rome: Ecole Française de
Rome. (pp. 378–395)
• Hammond, N.G.L. and Scullard, H.H. (eds.) (1970). The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University
Press. (p. 113)
• Lloyd-Morgan, G. (1986). "Roman Venus: public worship and private rites." In M. Henig and A. King (eds.),
Pagan Gods and Shrines of the Roman Empire (pp. 179–188). Oxford: Oxford Committee for Archaeology
Monograph 8.
• Nash, E. (1962). Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Rome Volume 1. London: A. Zwemmer Ltd. (pp. 272–263, 424)
• Richardson, L. (1992). A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (http://books.google.com/
books?id=K_qjo30tjHAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false).
Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. (pp. 92, 165–167, 408–409, 411) ISBN
0-8018-4300-6
• Room, A. (1983). Room's Classical Dictionary. London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (pp. 319–322)
• Rüpke, Jörg (Editor), A Companion to Roman Religion, Wiley-Blackwell, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4051-2943-5
• Schilling, R. (1982) (2nd ed.). La Religion Romaine de Vénus depuis les origines jusqu'au temps d'Auguste. Paris:
Editions E. de Boccard.
• Scullard, H.H. (1981). Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic. London: Thames and Hudson. (pp. 97,
107)
• Simon, E. (1990). Die Götter der Römer. Munich: Hirmer Verlag. (pp. 213–228).
• Weinstock, S. (1971). Divus Julius. Oxford; Clarendon Press. (pp. 80–90)
• Gerd Scherm, Brigitte Tast Astarte und Venus. Eine foto-lyrische Annäherung (1996), ISBN 3-88842-603-0
External links
• 'Venus Chiding Cupid for Learning to Cast Accounts' (http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/
picture-of-month/displaypicture.asp?venue=7&id=86) by Sir Joshua Reynolds at the Lady Lever Art Gallery
(http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/index.asp)
Ancient source references

• Ovid, Metamorphoses IV.171-189
• Cicero, De natura deorum II.20.53
• Lactantius, Divinae institutiones I.17.10
• Justine, Epitome Historiarum philippicarum Pompei Trogi XVIII.5.4, XXI.3.2
Venus Castina 414
Venus Castina
Venus Castina was a minor epithet of the Roman goddess Venus; in this form, she was associated with "the
yearnings of feminine souls locked up in male bodies."[1] [2] Depictions of worshipers of Venus Castina display both
men and women as devotees; some portraits include male worshipers dressed in female attire.
Herodotus wrote that Venus Castina cursed a group of Scythians who pillaged Venus' temple at Ascelon by turning
them into women:
"The Scythians who plundered the temple were punished by the goddess with the female sickness,
which still attaches to their posterity. They themselves confess that they are afflicted with the disease for
this reason, and travelers who visit Scythia can see what sort of a disease it is. Those who suffer from it
are called Enarees." — The Histories, I, 105. Herodotus.
References
[1] Bulliet, Clarence Joseph (1956). Venus Castina: Famous Female Impersonators, Celestial and Human. Bonanza Books.
[2] Roberta Perkins (1994). "Geldings for the Gods" (http:/ / www. gendercentre. org. au/ 4article3. htm). Polare. . Retrieved 2008-08-10.
External links
• Venus Castina @ Everything2.com (http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1015007)
Veritas 415
Veritas
In Roman mythology, Veritas, meaning truth, was the goddess of truth, a
daughter of Saturn and the mother of Virtue. It was believed that she hid
in the bottom of a holy well because she was so elusive. Her image is
shown as a young virgin dressed in white.[1] Veritas is also the name
given to the Roman virtue of truthfulness, which was considered one of
the main virtues any good Roman should possess. In Greek mythology,
Veritas was known as Aletheia.
This Latin word now appears in the mottos of many colleges and
universities. Veritas is the motto of Bilkent University, Harvard
University, Drake University and the prestigious Scotland independent
school Fettes College, as well as the Dominican Order of the Roman
Catholic Church, and Providence College which is run by the
Dominicans. Caldwell College in Caldwell, New Jersey issues a "Veritas
Award" each year in honor of the Dominican Sisters who founded and
administer the college. "Veritas" is included in the motto of Indiana
University and Yale University, Lux et Veritas ("Light and Truth"). It also
appears on the California State University's motto Vox Veritas Vita
("Speak the Truth as a way of Life"). Veritas Curat ("Truth Cures") is the
motto of the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and
Research, a prominent medical school in Pondicherry, India. Howard
University, in Washington, DC, goes by the motto "Veritas et Utilitas",
translated to "Truth and Service".
Statue of Veritas outside the Supreme Court
of Canada
In Modern Culture
In the series Harry Potter, Veritas gives her name to Veritaserum, the Truth Serum.
Notes
[1] Mercantante, Anthony S. The Fact on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend. Facts on File, 1988, p. 654, ISBN 0-8160-1049-8.
External links
• History of Truth: The Greek "Aletheia" (http://www.ontology.co/aletheia.htm)
• History of Truth: The Latin "Veritas" (http://www.ontology.co/veritas.htm)
Vesta (mythology)
Landscape with Vesta temple in Tivoli, Italy, c. 1600.

Priesthoods
Dii Consentes
Other deities
Hecate · Di Manes
Mithras
Deified emperors:
Related topics
Roman mythology
Etruscan religion
Vesta was the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman religion. Vesta's presence was symbolized
by the sacred fire that burned at her hearth and temples. Her closest Greek equivalent is Hestia.
Etymology
According to Georges Dumézil (1898–1986), a French comparative philologist[1] (quoting glottologist Emil
Benveniste)[2] the name of the goddess derives from Indoeuropean root *(e)eu- amplified to *(e)uee and with an
addition of an 's'. This amplified root has two possible forms: *(e)eu-s, to be found in Greek 'heuei', Lat. 'urit', 'ustio'
and Vedic 'osathi' all meaning to burn, burning. The second is *(e)u-ee to be found in 'Vesta', Greek 'Hestia'. See also
Gallic Celtic 'visc' fire
Theology
Vesta was the goddess of the hearth of the city of Rome.
Dumezil[3] draws a comparison between Roman religious conceptions and rituals and the relevant aspects of Vedic
religion. Sacrificial ritual in Vedic India, required the presence of three fires, two of them being essential.[4]
The so called hearth of the landlord that marks the connexion to Earth of the offerer, i.e. is the marker of the origin
of everything in the ritual act. In Vedic ritual such kind of fire must be round as Earth itself is round and also
because on Earth there is no distinction in direction without reference to Heaven.
The sacrificial fire that on the contrary must be quadrangular as it is intended to convey the sacrificial offer to
Heaven in the form of smoke.
These two fires were laid on a West-East line.
The third fire had the function of protecting the offerers from attacks of evil spirits and was placed to the South,
considered a dangerous direction.
Dumezil elaborates that in Rome the whole site of the city itself was considered as an extended sacrificial ground,[5]
with the temple of Vesta performing the function of hearth of the landlord and other temples that of sacrificial fires.
He remarks that the temple of Vesta was the only ancient temple in Rome to be built in a round shape and covered
with a dome to protect the sacred fire from rain, other temples being quadrangular. Ancient Romans as well as other
Indoeuropean people believed Earth is a sphere. Every temple however had to have two fires of which one was a
hearth (foculus) and the main was the sacrificial ara.
In this conception the function of defensive fire was performed by the temple of the god Vulcanus that was situated
to the South of the city wall, this being in accord with what could be expected from the omology with the Vedic
situation.
The Aedes Vestae and the Ignis Vestae being indeed the Hearth of the city of Rome guaranteed its connexion to
Earth and its permanence in history. It did not need to be inaugurated as other temples since it was an aedes, not a
templum, its power and function being totally limited to Earth and bearing no relation to Heaven and its directions. In
other words its function was exclusively terrestrial, implying stability and lasting over time.
It is noteworthy that the sacred fire standing for and representing the terrestrial origin could be lit only by the friction
of two pieces of wood, one of them being necessarily an arbor felix auspicious tree (probably an oak)[6] and cave in
shape. Water was not allowed into the inner aedes or could stay for longer than indispensable on the nearby
premises. It was carried by the Vestales in vessels called futiles which had a tiny foot that made them unstable.[7]
Quite a number of rules of the aedes Vestae we know about can be explained with the comments to omologous rules
in Vedic rituals concerning the hearth of the landlord.
In conclusion, Vesta is a symbol and a protector of Rome and its site, the hearth of the great Roman family.
According to Ovid Vesta was indeed the Earth itself, the sacred sphere (orbs) that makes life possible as we know it:
"Vesta is the Earth itself, both have the perennial fire, the Earth and the sacred Fire show their see." [8]
The space within which men lived had to be marked and protected by a sacred fire. The sacrality of fire is related to
the belief that it is the element at the origin of Earth (the central fire within), of life on Earth and that connects our
world with the divine one.
The sacral function of fire is reflected by the peculiar relationship of the Vestals with the rex whom they ritually
apostrophated once a year with the phrase: "Vigilasne rex? Vigila!"[9] and their accompanying the Pontifex Maximus
in various rites.[10] The atrium Vestae too is frequently called regal.
This connection between fire and Earth is also the reason why the Vestals guilty of unchastity were condemned to be
buried alive, an expiation conceived as a token of their belonging and a reparation to Earth.[11]
The Aedes was solemnly swept once a year, on June 15, the last day of the Vestalia. That day was named Q(uando)
S(tercum) D(elatum) F(as): since the temple site in historic times was obviously kept clean, this expression is an
heritage of high antiquity, an archaic fossil ritual reminiscent of a time when really the sweeping implied the removal
of animal droppings.
It is noteworthy that Vesta is invoked as the last in all ritual formulas concerning one or more gods (Vesta extrema).
This use is comparable to Agni's in the Rig Veda. Agni is invoked first or last or in both places. In Iranian rituals
Atar is always invoked at the end.
Comparative interpretation
Dumezil hints to the significance of fire as the origin and bearer of life in connection to Vesta. Its talismanic value
was the reason that caused the accumulation of signa fatalia or pignora harboured in the innermost part of the penus.
Servius gives a list of seven, three of which from Troy.[12] The earliest collection was limited and kept secret, though
according to Pliny[13] the function of fertility was represented by the image of a male sex organ.
The correspondence of Vesta with Vedic god Agni was noted long ago.[14] Dumezil recalls that in the Indian epic
poem Mahabharata in the episodes of Karttikeya, god of war and son of Agni[15] and of Agni and the daughters of
Nila[16] is to be found the same theme of the flames as the sex organ of the god.
The fecondating power of sacred fire is testified in Latin mythology by one version of the birth of Romulus,[17] that
of the birth of king Servius Tullius[18] (in which his mother Ocresia becomes pregnant after sitting on a fallus
appeared among the ashes of the ara of god Vulcanus, by order of Tanaquil wife of king Tarquinius Priscus) and that
of the birth of Caeculus, the founder of Praeneste.[19]
All these mythical or semilegendary characters show a mystical mastership of fire. E.g. Servius's hair was kindled by
his father without hurting him, his statue was unharmed by fire in the temple of Fortuna Primigenia after his
assassination.[20] Caeculus kindled and exstinguished a fire at his will.
In Vedic India the same complex appears as a quality of the divine twins, the Nasatya: they allowed a hero to survive
in a basin of fire into which he had been thrown and enjoy as pleasant the bathing.
A much later episode of Roman history has been detected as a revised replication of the same early mythologem. In
the fire of the temple of Vesta of year 241 BC L. Caecilius Metellus, consul, dictator and at the time pontifex
maximus, saved the pignora Vestae by entering the penus, to which men were not allowed, and according to tradition
was blinded in the incident.[21] Modern scholars have speculated that it would be impossible to cover offices as
pontifex and consul for a blind man for more than twenty years. It has been suggested that this episode should be
interpreted in the light of the connexion of the gens Caecilia with Caeculus the founder of Praeneste.[22] The use of
the story of this incident is paradigmatic of how archaic mythologems common to Indoeuropean heritage were over
time reused applied to later history.
Vestales
Vesta's (in some versions she is called Vestia) fire was guarded at
her Temples by her priestesses, the Vestales. Every March 1 the
fire was renewed. It burned until 391, when the Emperor
Theodosius I forbade public pagan worship. One of the Vestales
mentioned in mythology was Rhea Silvia, who with the God Mars
conceived Romulus and Remus (see founding of Rome).
The Vestales were one of the few full-time clergy positions in

Roman religion. They were drawn from the patrician class and had
to observe absolute chastity for 30 years. It was from this that the
Vestales were named the Vestal virgins. They could not show
excessive care of their person, and they were not allowed to let the
fire go out. The Vestal Virgins lived together in a house near the
Vesta from "Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum " Forum (Atrium Vestae), supervised by the Pontifex Maximus. On
becoming a priestess, a Vestal Virgin was legally emancipated
from her father's authority[23] and swore a vow of chastity for 30 years.[24] [25] This vow was so sacred that if it were
broken, the Vestal was buried alive in the Campus Sceleris ('Field of Wickedness'). It is likely that this is what
happened to Rhea Silvia. They were also very independent and had many privileges that normal women did not
have. They could move around the city but had to be in a carriage.[26] [27] [28]
The Vestales had a strict relationship with the rex sacrorum and flamen dialis as is shown in the verses of Ovid about
their taking the februae (lanas: woolen threads) from the king and the flamen.[29] Their relationship with the king is
also apparent in the ritual phrase: "Vigilasne rex, vigila!" by which they apostrophated him. The sacrality of their
functions is well compounded by Cicero's opinion that without them Rome could not exist as it would not be able to
keep contact with gods.[30]
A peculiar duty of the Vestals was the preparation and conservation of the sacred salamoia muries used for the
savouring of the mola salsa, a salted flour cake to be sprinkled on sacrificial victims (hence the Latin verb immolare,
"to put on the mola, to sacrifice"). This dough too was prepared by them on fixed days. Theirs also the task of
preparing the suffimen for the Parilia.
Vestalia
Vesta was celebrated at the Vestalia which took place from June 7 to June 15. On the first day of the festivities the
penus Vestae (the curtained sanctum sanctorum of her temple) was opened, for the only time during the year, for
women to offer sacrifices in. Such sacrifices included the removal of an unborn calf from a pregnant cow.
Household worship
Vesta was the goddess of the hearth at the centre of atrium and home. It was in the house and home that Vesta was
most important because she was the goddess of the hearth and of fire. Vesta was particularly important to women of
the household as the hearth was the place where food was prepared and next to it the meal was eaten with offerings
being thrown into the fire to seek the future from the way it burned.
Notes
[1] G.Dumezil La religion Romaine archaique Paris 1974, part2, chap.2
[2] E. Benveniste Le vocabulaire des institutions indo-europeens Paris, 1969
[3] G.Dumezil La religion Romaine archaique Paris, 1974, part 2, chap. 2
[4] L. Renou "Etudes Vediques", 5 Journal Asiatique 243, 1955, pp. 426-427
[5] A. Magdelain Recherches sur l'imperium, la loi curiate et les auspices d'investiture 1968, pp57-67
[6] J.Frazer The golden bough abridged version 1912
[7] G.Dumezil Ibidem
[8] Ovid, Fas. VI, 269
[9] Serv. Ad Aen.10,228
[10] eg Hor. Carm. 3, 30, 8
[11] Ovid Fasti VI, 458-460
[12] Servius Aen. 7,188
[13] Pliny the Elder Nat. Hist.28,39
[14] Numa-Denis Fustel de Coulange La cite' antique 1864
[15] Mahabh. 14, 291-292
[16] Mahabh. 2, 1124-1163
[17] Plut. Rom. 2,7
[18] Dion. 4, 2, 1-4; Ovid Fasti VI, 633-636
[19] Serv. Ad Aen. 7,678; A. Brelich Vesta 1949, pp.70, 97-98
[20] Ovid, Fas. VI, 625-626
[21] Ovid Fas. VI, 437-454
[22] A. Brelich Il mito nella storia di Cecilio Metello Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni, 1939, pp. 30-41
[23] Gaius 1,145
[24] Plut. Numa 10,2
[25] Dion. Hal. 2,67,2
[26] Gaius 1,145
[27] Plut. Numa 10, 4
[28] Gell. Noct. Att. 1, 12,9; 7,2
[29] Ovid Fas. 2, 21
[30] Cicero Font. 48
Vica Pota 421
Vica Pota
In ancient Roman religion, Vica Pota was a goddess whose shrine
(aedes) was located at the foot of the Velian Hill, on the site of the
domus of Publius Valerius Publicola.[1] This location would place the
temple on the same side of the Velia as the forum and perhaps not far
from the Regia. Cicero explains her name as deriving from vincendi
atque potiundi, "conquering and gaining mastery."[2]
In the Apocolocyntosis, Vica Pota is the mother of Diespiter;[3]

although usually identified with Jupiter, Diespiter is here treated as a
separate deity, and in the view of Arthur Bernard Cook should perhaps
be regarded as the chthonic Dispater.[4] The festival of Vica Pota was
January 5.
Asconius identifies her with Victoria,[5] but she is probably an earlier
Roman or Italic form of victory goddess that predated Victoria and the
influence of Greek Nike;[6] Vica Pota was thus the older equivalent of
Winged Victory of Brescia, 1st century BC: the Victoria but probably not a personification of victory as such.[7] In a
earlier goddess Vica Pota became identified with conjecture not widely accepted, Ludwig Preller thought that Vica Pota
Victory personified might be identified with the Etruscan divine figure Lasa Vecu.[8]
References
[1] Livy 2.7.6 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Fq6L77DZc54C& pg=PA204& dq="Vica+ Pota"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0&
as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=73#v=onepage& q="Vica Pota"& f=false) and 11–12.
[2] Cicero, De legibus 2.28.
[3] Duncan Fishwick, The Imperial Cult in the Latin West (Brill, 2002), p. 84 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Ss-NgHC16PMC&
pg=PA84& dq="Vica+ Pota"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3&
cd=59#v=onepage& q="Vica Pota"& f=false)
[4] Arthur Bernard Cook, "The European Sky-God III: The Italians," Folklore 16 (1905), p. 263 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=YEcKAAAAIAAJ& pg=PA263& dq="Vica+ Pota"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0&
as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=22#v=onepage& q="Vica Pota"& f=false) See also Detlev Dormeyer, "Die Apotheose in Seneca
Apocolocyntosis und die Himmelfahrt Lk 24.50–53; Apg 1.9–11," in Testimony and Interpretation: Early Christology in its Judeo-Hellenistic
Milieu: Studies in Honor of Petr Pokorný (Continuum, 2004), p. 137 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=smoKwl8Cn_sC&
pg=PA137& dq="Vica+ Pota"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100&
as_brr=3& cd=13#v=onepage& q="Vica Pota"& f=false)
[5] Lawrence Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), pp. 140 and 420.
[6] J. Rufus Fears, "The Theology of Victory at Rome," Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.17.2 (1981), p. 774 online (http:/ / books.
google. com/ books?id=QK1M2VD1tsAC& pg=PA774& dq="Vica+ Pota"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=&
as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=34#v=onepage& q="Vica Pota"& f=false); John T. Ramsey and A. Lewis Licht,
The Comet of 44 B.C. and Caesar's Funeral Games (Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 186 online. (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=SRMUiwOEaTYC& pg=PA186& dq="Vica+ Pota"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0&
as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=24#v=onepage& q="Vica Pota"& f=false)
[7] William Vernon Harris, War and Imperialism in Republican Rome, 327-70 B.C. (Oxford University Press, 1979, 1985), p. 124 online. (http:/ /
books. google. com/ books?id=tSE8PW5Eq1wC& pg=PA124& dq="Vica+ Pota"& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0& as_miny_is=&
as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=8#v=onepage& q="Vica Pota"& f=false)
[8] Preller, Römische Mythologie vol. 2, p. 245, as cited by Charles Hoeing, "Vica Pota," American Journal of Philology 24 (1903), p. 324 online.
(http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=k5ANAAAAYAAJ& pg=PA324& dq=lasa+ vecu& lr=& as_drrb_is=q& as_minm_is=0&
as_miny_is=& as_maxm_is=0& as_maxy_is=& num=100& as_brr=3& cd=12#v=onepage& q=lasa vecu& f=false)
Victoria (mythology) 422
Victoria (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion, Victoria was the
personified goddess of victory. She is the
Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess
Nike, and was associated with Bellona. She
was adapted from the Sabine agricultural
goddess Vacuna and had a temple on the
Palatine Hill. The goddess Vica Pota was
also sometimes identified with Victoria.
Unlike the Greek Nike, Victoria (Latin for

"victory") was a major part of Roman Gold coin of Constantine II depicting Victoria on the reverse
society. Multiple temples were erected in
her honour. When her statue was removed in 382 CE by emperor Gratianus there was much anger in Rome. She was
normally worshipped by triumphant generals returning from war.
Also unlike the Greek Nike, who was known for success in athletic games such as chariot races, Victoria was a
symbol of victory over death and determined who would be successful during war.
Victoria appears widely on Roman coins, jewelry, architecture, and other arts. She is often seen with or in a chariot,
as in the late 18th-century sculpture representing Victory in a quadriga on the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany.
Viriplaca
Viriplaca, in Roman mythology, was "the goddess who soothes the anger of man," and was applied as a surname of
Juno, describing her as the restorer of peace between married people. She had a sanctuary on the Palatine, into which
women went when they thought themselves wronged by their husbands. They frankly told the goddess their grief,
and the latter disposed their minds to become reconciled to their husbands.[1]
References
[1] Festus p. 62 ; Valerius Maximus ii. 1. § 6.
Volumna 423
Volumna
In Roman mythology, Volumna was the goddess of nurseries.
deities covered the general realm of infancy and childhood.[1] In this area, Volumna was called upon as a general
guardian and tutelary deity of infancy and the nursery.
References
Volutina
In Roman mythology, Volutina was a minor agricultural goddess, who presided over the envelopes (Latin
involumenta) of follicles of crops. Her name is known from St. Augustine's work The City of God[1] , and is not
attested otherwise.
References
424
Nymphs
Nymph
A nymph in Greek mythology is a female minor nature deity typically
associated with a particular location or landform. Different from gods,
nymphs are generally regarded as divine spirits who animate nature,
and are usually depicted as beautiful, young nubile maidens who love
to dance and sing; their amorous freedom sets them apart from the
restricted and chaste wives and daughters of the Greek polis. They
dwell in mountains and groves, by springs and rivers, and also in trees
and in valleys and cool grottoes. Though they would never die of old
age nor illness, and could give birth to fully immortal children if mated A fourth-century Roman depiction of Hylas and
to a god; they themselves were not necessarily immortal, and could be the Nymphs, from the basilica of Junius Bassus
beholden to death in various forms.
Other nymphs, always in the shape of young nubile maidens, were part of the retinue of a god, such as Dionysus,
Hermes, or Pan, or a goddess, generally the huntress Artemis.[1] Nymphs were the frequent target of satyrs. They are
frequently associated with the superior divinities: the huntress Artemis; the prophetic Apollo; the reveller and god of
wine, Dionysus; and rustic gods such as Pan and Hermes.
The symbolic marriage of a nymph and a patriarch, often the eponym of a people, is repeated endlessly in Greek
origin myths; their union lent authority to the archaic king and his line.
Etymology
Nymphs are personifications of the creative and fostering activities of nature, most often identified with the
life-giving outflow of springs: as Walter Burkert (Burkert 1985:III.3.3) remarks, "The idea that rivers are gods and
springs divine nymphs is deeply rooted not only in poetry but in belief and ritual; the worship of these deities is
limited only by the fact that they are inseparably identified with a specific locality."
The Greek word νύμφη has "bride" and "veiled" among its meanings: hence a marriageable young woman. Other
readers refer the word (and also Latin nubere and German Knospe) to a root expressing the idea of "swelling"
(according to Hesychius, one of the meanings of νύμφη is "rose-bud").
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
Nymph 425
• Asclepius, god of
medicine
• Leto, mother of Apollo
and Artemis
• Pan, shepherd god
Nymphs
• Alseid • Meliae
• Auloniad • Naiads
• Crinaeae • Napaeae
• Dryads • Nereids
• Hamadryads • Oceanids
• Hesperides • Oreads
• Limnades • Pegaeae
Adaptations
The Greek nymphs were spirits invariably bound to places, not unlike the Latin genius loci, and the difficulty of
transferring their cult may be seen in the complicated myth that brought Arethusa to Sicily. In the works of the
Greek-educated Latin poets, the nymphs gradually absorbed into their ranks the indigenous Italian divinities of
springs and streams (Juturna, Egeria, Carmentis, Fontus), while the Lymphae (originally Lumpae), Italian
water-goddesses, owing to the accidental similarity of their names, could be identified with the Greek Nymphae. The
mythologies of classicizing Roman poets were unlikely to have affected the rites and cult of individual nymphs
venerated by country people in the springs and clefts of Latium. Among the Roman literate class, their sphere of
influence was restricted, and they appear almost exclusively as divinities of the watery element.
In modern Greek folklore

The ancient Greek belief in nymphs survived in many parts of the
country into the early years of the twentieth century, when they were
usually known as "nereids". At that time, John Cuthbert Lawson wrote:
"...there is probably no nook or hamlet in all Greece where the
womenfolk at least do not scrupulously take precautions against the
thefts and malice of the nereids, while many a man may still be found
to recount in all good faith stories of their beauty, passion and caprice.
Nor is it a matter of faith only; more than once I have been in villages
A Sleeping Nymph Watched by a Shepherd by
where certain Nereids were known by sight to several persons (so at
Angelica Kauffman, about 1780, (V&A Museum
no. 23-1886) least they averred); and there was a wonderful agreement among the
witnesses in the description of their appearance and dress."[2]
Nymph 426
Nymphs tended to frequent areas distant from humans but

could be encountered by lone travelers outside the village,
where their music might be heard, and the traveler could spy
on their dancing or bathing in a stream or pool, either during
the noon heat or in the middle of the night. They might
appear in a whirlwind. Such encounters could be dangerous,
bringing dumbness, besotted infatuation, madness or stroke
to the unfortunate human. When parents believed their child
to be nereid-struck, they would pray to Saint Artemidos.[3] [4]
Modern sexual connotations

The Head of a Nymph by Sophie Anderson
Due to the depiction of the mythological nymphs as females
who mate with men or women at their own volition, and are
completely outside male control, the term is often used for women who are perceived as behaving similarly. (For
example, the title of the Perry Mason detective novel The Case of the Negligent Nymph (1956) by Erle Stanley
Gardner is derived from this meaning of the word.)
The term nymphomania was created by modern psychology as referring to a "desire to engage in human sexual
behavior at a level high enough to be considered clinically significant", nymphomaniac being the person suffering
from such a disorder. Due to widespread use of the term among lay persons (often shortened to nympho) and
stereotypes attached, professionals nowadays prefer the term hypersexuality, which can refer to males and females
alike.
The word nymphet is used to identify a sexually precocious girl. The term was made famous in the novel Lolita by
Vladimir Nabokov. The main character, Humbert Humbert, uses the term countless times, usually in reference to the
title character.
Classification
As H.J. Rose states, all the names for various classes of nymphs are
plural feminine adjectives agreeing with the substantive nymphai, and
there was no single classification that could be seen as canonical and
exhaustive. Thus the classes of nymphs tend to overlap, which
complicates the task of precise classification. Rose mentions dryads
and hamadryads as nymphs of trees generally, meliai as nymphs of ash
trees, and naiads as nymphs of water, but no others specifically.[5]
Hylas and the Nymphs by John William
Classification by type of dwelling Waterhouse, 1896
The following[6] is not the authentic Greek classification, but is

intended simply as a guide:
• Celestial nymphs
• Aurae (breezes), also called Aetae or Pnoae
• Asteriae (stars), mainly comprising the Atlantides (daughters of Atlas)
• Hesperides (nymphs of the West, daughters of Atlas; also had attributes of the Hamadryads)
• Aegle ("dazzling light")
• Arethusa
Nymph 427
• Erytheia (or Eratheis)

• Hesperia (or Hispereia)
• Hyades (star cluster; sent rain)
• Pleiades (daughters of zeus Atlas and Pleione; constellation; also were classed as something)
• Maia (partner of Zeus and mother of Hermes)
• Electra
• Taygete
• Alcyone
• Celaeno
• Asterope
• Merope
• Nephelae (clouds)
• Land nymphs
• Alseides (glens, groves)
• Auloniades (pastures)
• Leimakides or Leimonides (meadows)
• Napaeae (mountain valleys, glens)
• Oreads (mountains, grottoes), also Orodemniades
• Wood and plant nymphs
• Anthousai (flowers)
• Dryades (trees)
• Hamadryades or Hadryades
• Daphnaeae (laurel tree)
• Epimeliades or Epimelides (apple tree; also protected flocks),
The Water Nymph by Herbert James Draper
other name variants include Meliades, Maliades and
Hamameliades; same as these are also the Boucolai (Pastoral
Nymphs)
• Kissiae (ivy)
• Meliae (manna-ash tree)
• Hyleoroi (watchers of woods)
• Water nymphs (Hydriades or Ephydriades)
• Haliae (sea and seashores)
• Nereids (50 daughters of Nereus, the Mediterranean Sea)
• Naiads or Naides (fresh water) Clipper ship Sea Nymph
• Crinaeae (fountains)
• Eleionomae (marshes)
• Limnades or Limnatides (lakes)
• Pegaeae (springs)
• Potameides (rivers)
• Oceanids (daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, any water, usually salty)
• see List of Oceanids
Nymph 428
• Underworld nymphs
• Cocytiae, daughters of the river god Cocytus
• Lampades - torch bearers in the retinue of Hecate
• individual underworld nymphs:
• Gorgyra
• Leuce (white poplar tree), lover of Hades
• Minthe (mint), lover of Hades, rival of Persephone
• Orphne
• Other nymphs
• Hecaterides (rustic dance) - sisters of the Dactyls, mothers of the Oreads
and the Satyrs
Nymphs Dancing by Adriaen van der
• Kabeirides - sisters of the Kabeiroi
Werff, 1718 (Louvre)
• Maenads or Bacchai or Bacchantes - frenzied nymphs in the retinue of
Dionysus
• Lenai (wine-press)
• Mimallones (music)
• Naides (Naiads)
• Thyiai or Thyiades (thyrsus bearers)
• Melissae (honey bees), likely a subgroup of Oreades or Epimelides
• The Muses (memory, knowledge, art)
• Themeides - daughters of Zeus and Themis, prophets and keepers of certain divine artefacts
Location-specific groupings of nymphs

The following is a list of groups of nymphs associated with this or that particular location.[7] Nymphs in such
groupings could belong to any of the classes mentioned above (Naiades, Oreades, and so on).
• Aeaean Nymphs (Aeaea Island), handmaidens of Circe
• Aegaeides (Aegaeus River on the island of Scheria)
• Aesepides (Aesepus River in Anatolia)
• Abarbarea
• Acheloides (Achelous River)
• Callirhoe, second wife of Alcmaeon
• Acmenes (Stadium in Olympia, Elis)
• Amnisiades (Amnisos River on the island of Crete), who entered the retinue of Artemis
• Anigrides (Anigros River in Elis), who were believed to cure skin diseases
• Asopides (Asopus River in Sicyonia and Boeotia)
• Aegina
• Asopis
• Chalcis
• Cleone
• Corcyra
• Euboea
• Harpina
• Ismene
• Nemea
• Oeroe
Nymph 429
• Ornea
• Peirene
• Plataia
• Salamis
• Sinope
• Tanagra
• Thebe
• Thespeia
• Astakides (Lake Astakos in Bithynia)
• Asterionides (Asterion River) - nurses of Hera
• Acraea
• Euboea
• Prosymna
• Carian Naiades (Caria)
• Salmacis
• Nymphs of Ceos
• Corycian Nymphs (Corycian Cave)
• Cleodora
• Corycia
• Daphnis
• Melaina
• Cydnides (River Cydnus in Cilicia)
• Cyrenaean Nymphs (City of Cyrene, Libya)
• Cypriae Nymphs (Island of Cyprus)
• Cyrtonian Nymphs (Town of Cyrtone, Boeotia)
• Deliades (Island of Delos) - daughters of the river god Inopos
• Dodonides (Oracle at Dodona)
• Erasinides (Erasinos River in Argos), followers of Britomartis
• Anchiroe
• Byze
• Maira
• Melite
• Nymphs of the river Granicus
• Alexirhoe
• Pegasis
• Heliades (River Eridanos) - daughters of Helios who were changed into trees
• Himeriai Naiades (Local springs at the town of Himera, Sicily)
• Hydaspides (River Hydaspes in India), nurses of infant Zagreus
• Idaean Nymphs (Mount Ida), nurses of infant Zeus
• Ida
• Adrastea
• Inachides (Inachus River)
• Amymone
• Io
• Hyperia
• Messeis
Nymph 430
• Philodice
• Ionides (Kytheros River in Elis)
• Calliphaea
• Iasis
• Pegaea
• Synallaxis
• Ithacian Nymphs (Local springs and caves on the island of Ithaca)
• Ladonides (Ladon River)
• Lamides or Lamusides (Lamos River in Cilicia), possible nurses of infant Dionysus
• Leibethrides (Mounts Helicon and Leibethrios in Boeotia; or Mount Leibethros in Thrace)
• Libethrias
• Petra
• Lelegeides (Lycia, Anatolia)
• Lycaean Nymphs (Mount Lycaeus), nurses of infant Zeus, perhaps a subgroup of the Oceanides
• Melian Nymphs (Island of Melos), transformed into frogs by Zeus; not to be confused with the Meliae (ash tree
nymphs)
• Mycalessides (Mount Mycale in Caria, Anatolia)
• Mysian Nymphs (Spring of Pegai near Lake Askanios in Bithynia), who abducted Hylas
• Euneica
• Malis
• Nycheia
• Naxian Nymphs (Mount Drios on the island of Naxos), nurses of infant Dionysus; were syncretized with the
Hyades
• Cleide
• Coronis
• Philia
• Neaerides (Thrinacia Island) - daughters of Helios and Neaera, watched over Helios' cattle
• Nymphaeides (Nymphaeus River in Paphlagonia)
• Nysiads (Mount Nysa) - nurses of infant Dionysos, identified with Hyades
• Ogygian Nymphs (Island of Ogygia), four handmaidens of Calypso
• Ortygian Nymphs (Local springs of Syracuse, Sicily), named for the island of Ortygia
• Othreides (Mount Othrys), a local group of Hamadryads
• Pactolides (Pactolus River)
• Euryanassa, wife of Tantalus
• Pelionides (Mount Pelion), nurses of the Centaurs
• Phaethonides, a synonym for the Heliades
• Phaseides (Phasis River)
• Rhyndacides (Rhyndacus River in Mysia, Anatolia)
• Sithnides (Fountain at the town of Megara)
• Spercheides (River Spercheios); one of them, Diopatra, was loved by Poseidon and the others were changed by
him into trees
• Sphragitides, or Cithaeronides (Mount Cithaeron)
• Thessalides (Peneus River in Thessaly)
• Thriae (Mount Parnassos), prophets and nurses of Apollo
• Trojan Nymphs (Local springs of Troy)
Nymph 431
Individual names of some of the nymphs

• Sabrina (the river Severn)
References
[1] But see Jennifer Larson, "Handmaidens of Artemis?" (http:/ / www. jstor. org/ stable/ 3298110), The Classical Journal 92.3 (February 1997),
pp. 249-257.
[2] Lawson, John Cuthbert (1910). Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion (1st ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
pp. 131.
[3] "heathen Artemis yielded her functions to her own genitive case transformed into Saint Artemidos", as Terrot Reaveley Glover phrased it in
discussing the "practical polytheism in the worship of the saints", in Progress in Religion to the Christian Era 1922:107.
[4] Tomkinson, John L. (2004). Haunted Greece: Nymphs, Vampires and Other Exotika (1st ed.). Athens: Anagnosis. chapter 3.
ISBN 960-88087-0-7.
[5] Rose, Herbert Jennings (1959). A Handbook of Greek Mythology (1st ed.). New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.. pp. 173. ISBN 0-525-47041-7.
[6] Theoi Project - Classification of Nymphs (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ Nymphai. html#Types)
[7] Theoi Project - List of Nymphs (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Cat_Nymphai. html)
Sources
• Burkert, Walter (1985). Greek Religion (1st ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press..
ISBN 0-674-36281-0.
• Larson, Jennifer Lynn (2001). Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore. New York: Oxford University Press.
ISBN 0195144651.
• Lawson, John Cuthbert, Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 1910, p. 131
• Nereids (http://www.anagnosis.gr/index.php?pageID=117&la=eng)
• paleothea.com homepage (http://www.paleothea.com/Nymphs.html)
• Tomkinson, John L., Haunted Greece: Nymphs, Vampires and other Exotika (http://www.anagnosis.gr/index.
php?pageID=74&la=eng), Anagnosis, Athens, 2004, ISBN 960-88087-0-7
External links
• Theoi.com: Nymphs (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/Nymphai.html)
Dryad 432
Dryad
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
medicine
and Artemis
Nymphs
Dryads (Δρυάδες, sing.: Δρυάς) are tree nymphs in Greek mythology. In Greek drys signifies 'oak,' from an
Indo-European root *derew(o)- 'tree' or 'wood'. Thus Dryads are specifically the nymphs of oak trees,[1] though the
term has come to be used for all tree nymphs in general. "Such deities are very much overshadowed by the divine
figures defined through poetry and cult," Walter Burkert remarked of Greek nature deities.[2] They were normally
considered to be very shy creatures, except around the goddess Artemis, who was known to be a friend to most
nymphs.
Dryad 433
Meliai
The Dryads of ash trees were called the Meliai.[1] The ash-tree sisters tended the
infant Zeus in Rhea's Cretan cave. Rhea gave birth to the Meliai after being made
fertile by the blood of castrated Uranus. Nymphs associated with apple trees were
Epimeliad, and walnut-trees Caryatids.[1]
Hamadryad
Dryads, like all nymphs, were supernaturally long-lived and tied to their homes,
but some were a step beyond most nymphs. These were the Hamadryads who
were an integral part of their trees, such that if the tree died, the Hamadryad
associated with it died as well. For these reasons, Dryads and the Greek gods
punished any mortals who harmed trees without first propitiating the tree-nymphs.
Names
Some of the individual Dryads or Hamadryads are:
• Atlanteia and Phoebe, two of the many wives or concubines of Danaus[3]
• Dryope[4] [5]
• Phigalia[6]
• Pitys[7] [8] The Dryad by Evelyn De Morgan.
[9]
• Tithorea
Other works
Dryads are mentioned in Milton's Paradise Lost, in Coleridge, and in Thackeray's work The Virginians.[10] Keats
addresses the nightingale as 'light-winged Dryad of the trees', in his Ode to a Nightingale. In the poetry of Donald
Davidson they illustrate the themes of tradition and the importance of the past to the present.[11] The poet Sylvia
Plath uses them to symbolize nature in her poetry in "On the Difficulty of Conjuring up a Dryad", and "On the
Plethora of Dryads".[12]
In the ballet Don Quixote Dryads appear in a vision with Dulcinea before Don Quixote, they also appear in the
classical ballet Sylvia
Dryads are also featured extensively throughout The Chronicles of Narnia by British author C.S. Lewis and are
shown to fight along side Aslan, son of the Emperor-Over-The-Sea, and the Pevensie Children.
The same characters recur in David Eddings' masterpiece, The Belgariad, where Dryads live in seclusion on the
Wood of the Dryads within the Tolnedran Empire and among the most prominent in the storyline is Ce'Nedra.
The animated show Monster School,the charactor Rose Greendae is a dryad who can turn into a tree at will.
Dryad 434
References
[1] Graves, ch. 86.2; p. 289
[2] Burkert (1986), p174
[3] Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2. 1. 5
[4] Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.330 ff
[5] Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 32
[6] Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 39. 3
[7] Propertius, Elegies 1. 18
[8] Nonnus, Dionysiaca 2. 92 ff :
[10] J. Simpson, E. Weiner (eds), ed (1989). "Dryad". Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-861186-2.
[11] Martha E. Cook (1979). "Dryads and Flappers" (http:/ / www. jstor. org/ pss/ 20077624). The Southern Literary Journal (University of
North Carolina Press) 12 (1): 18–26. .
[12] Britzolakis, Christina (2000). Sylvia Plath and the theatre of mourning. Oxford English Monographs. Oxford University Press. pp. 85–86.
ISBN 0198183739.
Sources
• Graves, Robert (1955). Greek Myths. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-001026-2.
• Burkert, Walter, 1985. Greek Religion (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).
External links
• Greek Mythology Link: Nymphs. (http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/NYMPHS.html)
• Hans Christian Anderson, "The Dryad", 1868 (http://hca.gilead.org.il/dryad.html) (e-text)
• Tim Hoke, "The Dryad", 2002 (http://mytholog.com/fiction/hoke_dryad.html/) (e-text)
Limnade
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
medicine
and Artemis
Nymphs
Limnade 435
In Greek mythology, the Limnades / Leimenides (Λιμνάδες / Λειμενίδες) were a type of Naiad. They lived in
freshwater lakes. Their parents were river or lake gods.
The number of Limnades includes but is not limited to[1] :
1. The Astakides (αι Ἀστακίδες), nymphs of the Lake Astakos in Bithynia[2]
2. Bolbe (Βόλβη), nymph of a Thessalian lake of the same name, also classed as an Oceanid due to her parentage
(daughter of Oceanus and Tethys)
3. Limnaee (Λιμναία), daughter of the Indian river god Ganges, one of the reputed mothers of Attis[3]
4. Pallas (Παλλάς, genitive Παλλάδος)[4]
5. Tritonis (Τριτονίς), nymph of the homonymous salt-water lake in Libya, mother of Nasamon and Caphaurus (or
Cephalion) by Amphithemis[5] [6] , and, according to an archaic version of the myth, also of Athena by
Poseidon[7] .
References
[1] Theoi Project - List of Nymphs and types of Nymphs (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Cat_Nymphai. html)
[2] Nonnus, Dionysiaca 15.370 ff
[3] Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.47 ff
[4] Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 144
[5] Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4. 1493 ff
[6] Hyginus, Fabulae 14
Sources
• Theoi Project - Naiads (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/Naiades.html)
• Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, v. 2, page 1216 (http://www.ancientlibrary.com/
smith-bio/2324.html)
Crinaeae 436
Crinaeae
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
medicine
and Artemis
Nymphs
In Greek mythology, the Crinaeae (Κρηναῖαι) were a type of Naiad nymphs associated with fountains or wells.
The number of Crinaeae includes but is not limited to[1] :
1. Aganippe[2] [3] [4]
2. Appias (Roman mythology)[5]
3. Myrtoessa (one of the nurses of infant Zeus, dwelled in a well in Arcadia)[6] [7]
4. The Sithnides (a group of nymphs associated witn a fountain in Megara)[8]
Sources
• Theoi Project - Naiads [9]
• Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, v. 2, page 1216 [10]
References
[2] Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 29. § 3
[3] Virgil, Eclogae 10. 12.
[4] Theoi Project - Aganippe (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheAganippe. html)
[5] Ovid, Remedia Amoris, 659; Ars Amatoria, 1. 81., 3. 451
[6] Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.31.4
[7] Theoi Project - Myrtoessa (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheMyrtoessa. html)
[9] http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ Naiades. html
Acantha 437
Acantha
Acantha (Greek: Ἀκάνθα, English translation: "thorny") was a minor character in Greek mythology. She was a
nymph loved by Apollo, the sun god. In one version of the story, Acantha refused Apollo's advances and scratched
his face when he tried to rape her. Apollo then turned her into an acanthus plant.[1] Another version features Acantha
as a mortal man who returned Apollo's advances.[2] The matter of Acantha's identity is further confused by the fact
that the acanthus plant is not a tree, but a shrub or bush, and therefore is unlikely to have had a nymph associated
with it. This may simply indicate that it was perceived to be a tree at the time the myth was created.
References
[1] Women in Greek Myths, "Acantha" (http:/ / www. paleothea. com/ Nymphs. html), Accessed: 11 June 2006.
[2] OEDILF "Acantha" (http:/ / www. oedilf. com/ db/ Lim. php?Word=Acantha)
Acis and Galatea (mythology)

Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
Aquatic deities
• Amphitrite • Ophion
• Ceto • Phorcys
• Glaucus • Pontus
• Naiades • Poseidon
• Nereides • Proteus
• Nereus • Tethys
• Oceanides • Thetis
• Oceanus • Triton
For other meanings, see ACIS (disambiguation)

In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Acis (Greek: Άκις) was the spirit of the Acis River in Sicily,[1] beloved of the nereid, or
sea-nymph,[2] Galatea (Γαλάτεια; "she who is milk-white"). Galatea returned the love of Acis, but a jealous suitor,
the Sicilian Cyclops Polyphemus,[3] killed him with a boulder. Distraught, Galatea then turned his blood into the
river Acis. The Acis River flowed past Akion (Acium) near Mount Etna in Sicily.
Details
According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, Acis was the son
of Faunus and the river-nymph Symaethis, daughter of
the River Symaethus.
The tale occurs nowhere earlier than in Ovid; it may be
a fiction invented by Ovid "suggested by the manner in
which the little river springs forth from under a
rock".[4] According to Athenaeus, ca 200 BCE[5] the
story was first concocted as a political satire against the
Sicilian tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse, whose favourite
concubine, Galatea, shared her name with a nereid
mentioned by Homer. Others[6] claim the story was
invented to explain the presence of a shrine dedicated
Acis and Galatea by Claude Lorrain
to Galatea on Mount Etna.
A first-century fresco removed from an Imperial villa at Boscotrecase, preserved by the eruption of Vesuvius, and
now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art[7] shows the three figures as incidents in a landscape.
Cultural references
The tale of Acis and Galatea was familiar from the Renaissance
onwards: there are paintings of the subject, sometimes as mythological
incidents in a large landscape, by Adam Elsheimer.[8] Nicolas Poussin
(National Gallery of Ireland), and Claude Lorrain (Dresden).[9]
In music, the story was the basis for Lully's Acis et Galatée. Handel
created both Acis and Galatea and Aci, Galatea e Polifemo on the story
and Antonio de Literes wrote the zarzuela Acis y Galatea. Nicola
Porpora's opera Polifemo and Jean Cras's opera Polyphème are also
based on the story.
Claude Lorrain's painting of Acis and Galatea inspired Fyodor
Dostoevsky's description of the 'Golden Age'; explicitly in 'A Raw
Youth' and in Stavrogin's dream in 'The Devils', and implicitly in 'The
Dream of a Ridiculous Man'.
Notes Polyphemus Surprising Acis and Galatea, by

Auguste Ottin (1866), the Fontaine Médicis,
[1] Ovid. Metamorphoses xiii. 750–68 (http:/ / www. poetryintranslation. com/ PITBR/
Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris
Latin/ Metamorph13. htm#_Toc64105850).
[2] Hesiod. Theogony; Homer. Iliad.
[3] Philoxenus of Cythera, Theocritus Idylls VI (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ TheocritusIdylls2. html#6); Ovid Metamorphoses xiii.750-68
(http:/ / www. poetryintranslation. com/ PITBR/ Latin/ Metamorph13. htm#_Toc64105850).
[4] Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Acis" (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 0022. html), in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and
Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston, MA, pp. 13,
[5] Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 1.6e (http:/ / www. attalus. org/ old/ athenaeus1. html#6)
[6] Scholiast on Theocritus' Idyll VI quoting the historian Duris and the poet Philoxenus of Cythera
[7] Polyphemus and Galatea in a landscape (http:/ / www. metmuseum. org/ Works_Of_Art/ viewOne. asp?dep=13& viewMode=0& item=20.
192. 17)
[8] National Gallery of Scotland. Elsheimer changed his mind midway and painted out the figures, rendering the painting a pure landscape.
Elsheimer highlights (http:/ / www. nationalgalleries. org/ elsheimer/ highlights_7. html)
[9] Other images of Acis, Galatea and Polyphemus are displayed at the ICONOS site (http:/ / www. iconos. it/ index. php?id=1168).
References
• Grimal, Pierre (1986). The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-20102-5.
• Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/
0022.html): Acis
• Theoi.com: Akis (http://www.theoi.com/Potamos/PotamosAkis.html)
• Galatea the Nereid in classical literature and art (http://www.theoi.com/Pontios/NereisGalateia.html)
Adamanthea 440
Adamanthea
A nymph in Greek mythology, Adamanthea helped raise the infant Zeus to hide him from his father, Cronus. Her
name comes from the Greek word αδαμας (adamas), meaning "untameable" and θεά, the Greek word for goddess.
Mythology
Adamanthea along with the goat-nymph Amalthea are revered as the foster mothers of Zeus. Reacting to a prophecy
from his mother Gaia that his own offspring would overthrow his supreme position in the pantheon, Cronus
swallowed all of his children immediately after birth. Rhea, Zeus' mother and Cronus' wife, deceived Cronus by
giving him a stone wrapped to look like a baby instead of Zeus, whom she instead gave to Adamanthea to nurse.
Since Cronus ruled over the earth, the heavens and the sea, Adamanthea hid Zeus by dangling him on a rope from a
tree, suspended between earth, sea and sky, and thus invisible to his father.
References
• ADAMANTHEA: Spiritual beings from Greek Mythology [1]
References
[1] http:/ / www. godchecker. com/ pantheon/ greek-mythology. php?deity=ADAMANTHEA
Adrasteia 441
Adrasteia
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
• Atë • Metis
• Bia • Moirae
• Eros • Nike
In Greek mythology, Adrasteia (Greek: Ἀδράστεια (Ionic Greek: Ἀδρήστεια), "inescapable"; also spelled
Adrastia, Adrastea, Adrestea, Adastreia) was a nymph who was charged by Rhea with nurturing the infant Zeus,
in secret, to protect him from his father Cronus (Krónos) in the Dictaean cave.[1]
Zeus
Adrasteia and her sister Ida, the nymph of Mount Ida, who also cared for the infant Zeus, were perhaps the daughters
of Melisseus. The sisters fed the infant milk from the goat Amaltheia. The Korybantes, also known as the Curetes,[2]
whom the scholiast on Callimachus calls her brothers, also watched over the child; they kept Cronus from hearing
him cry by beating their swords on their shields, drowning out the sound.
Sphaira
Apollonius Rhodius relates[3] that she gave to the infant Zeus a beautiful globe (sphaira) to play with, and on some
Cretan coins Zeus is represented sitting upon a globe. The ball, which Aphrodite promises to Eros, is described as if
it were the Cosmos: "its zones are golden, and two circular joins[4] curve around each of them; the seams are
concealed, as a twisting dark blue pattern plays over them. If you throw it up with your hands, it sends a flaming
furrow through the sky like a star."[5]
Adrasteia 442
Rhesus
The tragedy Rhesus, no longer attributed to Euripides, makes Adrasteia the daughter of Zeus, rather than his nurse.[6]
Cirrha
At Cirrha, the port that served Delphi, Pausanias noted "a temple of Apollo, Artemis and Leto, with very large
images of Attic workmanship. Adrasteia has been set up by the Cirrhaeans in the same place, but she is not so large
as the other images."[7]
Epithet for other goddesses

Adrasteia was also an epithet of Nemesis, a primordial Great Goddess of the archaic period.[8] The epithet is derived
by some writers from Adrastus, who is said to have built the first sanctuary of Nemesis on the river Asopus,[9] and
by others from the Greek verb διδράσκειν (didraskein), according to which it would signify the goddess whom none
can escape.[10] [11]
Adrasteia was also an epithet applied to Rhea herself, to Cybele, and to Ananke. As with Adrasteia, these four were
especially associated with the dispensation of rewards and punishments.
Lucian of Samosata refers to Adrasteia/Nemesis in his Dialogue of the sea-gods, 9, where Poseidon remarks to a
Nereid that Adrasteia is a great deal stronger than Nephele, who was unable to prevent the fall of her daughter Helle
from the ram of the Golden Fleece.
References
[1] Bibliotheke, 1.1.6.
[2] Callimachus. Hymn to Jove, 47.
[3] Apollonius Rhodius. Argonautica, III.132-41.
[4] The celestial equator and the ecliptic.
[5] The furrow is a meteor. Translation by Richard Hunter, Jason and the Golden Fleece. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993, p 69.
[6] Rhesus, 342.
[7] Pausanias. Description of Greece, 10.37.8.
[8] As a-da-ra-te-ja her name appears in Mycenaean Pylos (Margareta Lindgren, The People of Pylos: Prosopographical and Methodological
Studies in the Pylos Archives: part II [Uppsala] 1973.
[9] Strabo, xiii. p. 588.
[10] Valeken, ad Herod, iii. 40.
[11] Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Adrasteia (2)" (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 0030. html), in Smith, William, Dictionary of
Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston, pp. 21,
Aegina (mythology) 443
Aegina (mythology)
Aegina (Αἴγινα) was a figure of Greek mythology, the nymph of the island that bears her name, Aegina, lying in the
Saronic Gulf between Attica and the Peloponnesos. The archaic Temple of Aphaea, the "Invisible Goddess", on the
island was later subsumed by the cult of Athena. Aphaia (Ἀφαῖα) may be read as an attribute of Aegina that provides
an epithet, or as a doublet of the goddess.
Though the name Aegina betokens a goat-nymph,[1] such as was Cretan Amalthea, she was given a mainland identity
as the daughter of the river-god Asopus and the nymph Metope; of their twelve or twenty daughters, many were
ravished by Apollo or Zeus. Aegina bore at least two children: Menoetius by Actor, and Aeacus by Zeus, both of
whom became kings.
The mortal son Menoetius was king of Opus, and was counted among the Argonauts. His son was Patroclus,
Achilles' cousin through their paternal family connection to Aegina, and his intimate companion.
The son made immortal, Aeacus, was the king of Aegina, and was known to have contributed help to Poseidon and
Apollo in building the walls of Troy. Through him Aegina was the great-grandmother of Achilles, who was son of
Peleus, son of Aeacus.
The Abduction of Aegina

It was often said[2] that Zeus took the form of an eagle and abducted Aegina, taking her to an island near Attica,[3]
then called Oenone;[4] henceforth known by her name. Aegina's father Asopus chased after them; his search took
him to Corinth, where Sisyphus was king. Sisyphus, having chanced to see a great bird bearing a maiden away to a
nearby island, informed Asopus. Though Asopus pursued them, Zeus threw down his thunderbolts, sending Asopus
back to his own waters. Aegina eventually gave birth to her son Aeacus, who became king of the island. For his
troubles, Sisyphus was punished in Hades by having to forever roll a stone uphill which continually rolled back
down before he could complete his task.
Myrmidons
When the city of Aegina was depopulated by a plague sent by Hera in jealous reprisal for Zeus's love of Aegina, the
king Aeacus prayed to Zeus for the ants that were currently infesting an oak tree to morph into humans to repopulate
his kingdom. Thus the myrmidons were created.
Notes
[1] Compare Aegis, Aegeus, Aigai "place of goats", etc.
[2] Bibliotheke 3.x11.2; Pindar, Isthmian Odes viii and Nemean Odes viii; Ovid, Metamorphoses vi.``3.
[3] A mythic inversion, as Aegina simply was the nymph of the island, whose culture, continuous from an early date, long preceded the
introduction of the Olympian gods. Ceramic fragments at Aegina attest to trade with Minoan Crete and with the Cyclades.
[4] "Wine Island", thus not an indigenous name after all: the introduction of viticulture provides many mythemes for the Hellenes.
References
• Robert Graves, The Greek Myths (1955) 1960, 66.b.1; 67.f; 138.b.
• Edith Hamilton, Mythology (1940) 1942 Mentor
Aetna (nymph) 444
Aetna (nymph)
Aetna (Greek: Αἴτνη) was in Greek and Roman mythology a Sicilian nymph,[1] and according to Alcimus,[2] a
daughter of Uranus and Gaea, or of Briareus. Simonides said that she had acted as arbitrator between Hephaestus and
Demeter respecting the possession of Sicily. By Zeus or Hephaestus she became the mother of the Palici.[3] Mount
Aetna in Sicily was believed to have derived its name from her, and under it Zeus buried Typhon, Enceladus, or
Briareus. The mountain itself was believed to be the place in which Hephaestus and the Cyclops made the
thunderbolts for Zeus.[4] [5] [6]
References
[1] Schmitz, Leonhard (1870), "Aetna" (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 0063. html), in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and
Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston, pp. 54,
[2] Alcimus, ap. Schol. Theocrit. i. 65.
[3] Servius. ad Aen., ix. 584.
[4] Euripides. Cyclops, 296.
[5] Propertius, iii. 15. 21.
[6] Cicero. De Divinatione, ii. 19.
Sources
Aglaea
Aglaea or Aglaïa (Greek: Ἀγλαΐα) is the name of five figures in
Greek mythology.
Charis
The youngest of the Charites, Aglaea or Aglaia ("splendor,
brilliant, shining one") was Hephaestus' wife and Asclepius'
daughter in Greek mythology. Other sources cite her and her
sisters as the daughters of Zeus and the Oceanid Eurynome. Her
other two sisters were Euphrosyne, and Thalia. Together they
were known as the Three Graces, or the Charites. The asteroid
47 Aglaja is named for her. By Hephaestus, she was mother of
Eucleia ("good repute"), Eupheme ("acclaim"), Euthenia
("prosperity") and Philophrosyne ("welcome").
Daughter of Mantineus
Aglaea is the daughter of Mantineus. She married Abas and had
Aglaea, one of the Charites.
twins: Acrisius and Proetus.[1]
Aglaea 445
Daughter of Thespius
Aglaea is the daughter of Thespius and Megamede. She bore Heracles a son, Antiades. [1]
Lover of Amythaon
Aglaea is the mother, by Amythaon, of Melampus and Bias.[2]
Nymph
Aglaea is a nymph. She is the mother, by Charopus, of Nireus.[3]
Notes
[1] Apollodorus, Library.
[2] Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History.
[3] Hyginus, Fabulae.
References
ISBN 9780631201021. "Charites" p. 98 (http://books.google.com/books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC&
printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=snippet&q=Charites&f=false)
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Charis" (http://
www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:alphabetic+letter=C:entry+
group=19:entry=charis-bio-1)
Aitne 446
Aitne
Aitne may refer to:
• Aitne (moon), one of Jupiter's moons
• In Greek mythology, Aetna (nymph) aka Aitne, a nymph who was seduced by Zeus. Jupiter's moon
• The name of the Sicilian volcano Mount Etna derives from this word
Alcinoe
Alcinoe is the name that is attributed to two women in Greek mythology:
• Alcinoe, daughter of Polybus of Corinth and wife of Amphilochus, son of Dryas. She refused to pay the full
wages to a weaver she had hired, and the woman prayed to Athena to avenge her. The goddess afflicted Alcinoe
with a passion for Xanthus of Samos and she left her husband and children and ran away with him. Coming to her
senses in the middle of the voyage, she wept bitter tears and threw herself into the sea.[1]
• Alcinoe, a naiad, and one of the nymphai Lykaaides (nymphs of Mount Lykaios in Arkadia). Her parents were
Oceanus and Tethys. She had her fellow nymphs assist Rhea whilst she was in labour with Zeus and helped nurse
the infant god.[2]
References
[1] Parthenius of Nicaea, Love Stories, 27 (Theoi Project - Parthenius) (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Parthenius2. html#27)
[2] Theoi Project - Nymphai Lykaiai (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NymphaiLykaiai. html)
Alphesiboea
Alphesiboea was the name of several characters in Greek mythology:[1]
• Alphesiboea, the mother of Adonis with Phoenix (son of Agenor).[2]
• Alphesiboea, a daughter of Phegeus, who married Alcmaeon. In some versions of this myth, she is called
Arsinoe.
• Alphesiboea who, according to Theocritus, was a daughter of Bias, and the wife of Pelias.[3] This character,
however, is usually called Anaxibia.
• Alphesiboea, an Indian nymph, who was passionately loved by Dionysus, but could not be induced to yield to his
wishes, until the god changed himself into a tiger, and thus compelled her by fear to allow him to carry her across
the river Sollax, which from this circumstance received the name of Tigris.[4]
Alphesiboea 447
References
[1] Schmitz, Leonhard (1867). "Alphesiboea" (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 0143. html). In William Smith. Dictionary of Greek
and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 134. .
[3] Theocritus, Idylls, 3. 45
[4] Pseudo-Plutarch, On Rivers, 24
Alseid
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
medicine
and Artemis
Nymphs
In Greek mythology, Alseids (Ἀλσηΐδες) were the nymphs of glens and groves. Of the Classical writers, the first and
perhaps only poet to use the term alseid is Homer. Rather than alseid he used alsea. The three uses of alsea by
Homer are as follows:
"The nymphs who live in the lovely groves (ἄλσεα - alsea), and the springs of rivers (πηγαὶ ποταμῶν - pegai
potamon) and the grassy meadows (πίσεα ποιήεντα - pisea poiêenta)."[1]
"They [nymphs] come from springs (krênai), they come from groves (alsea), they come from the sacred rivers
(ποταμοί - potamoi) flowing seawards."[2]
"The nymphs [of Mount Ida] who haunt the pleasant woods (alsea), or of those who inhabit this lovely mountain
(oros) and the springs of rivers (pegai potamon) and grassy meads (pisea)."[3]
Alseid 448
References
[1] Homer. Iliad, 20.4.
[2] Homer. Odyssey, 10.348.
[3] Homer. Homeric Hymn V To Aphrodite, 94.
External links
• Theoi Project - Nymphai (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/Nymphai.html)
Amalthea (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Amalthea or Amaltheia (Greek: Ἀμάλθεια) is
the most-frequently mentioned foster-mother of Zeus. Her name in
Greek ("tender goddess") is clearly an epithet, signifying the presence
of an earlier nurturing goddess,[1] whom the Hellenes, whose myths we
know, knew to be located in Crete, where Minoans may have called
her a version of "Dikte".[2] Amalthea is sometimes represented as the
goat who suckled the infant-god in a cave in Cretan Mount Aigaion
("Goat Mountain"),[3] sometimes as a goat-tending nymph[4] of
uncertain parentage (the daughter of Oceanus, Haemonius, Olenos,[5]
Infancy of Zeus, by Jacob Jordaens, early 1630s
or - according to Lactantius — Melisseus[6] ), who brought him up on
(Louvre Museum).
the milk of her goat.[7] Having multiple and uncertain mythological
parents, indicates wide worship of a deity in many cultures having
varying local traditions. Amalthea becomes blurred with Adamanthea at times.
In the tradition represented by Hesiod's Theogony, Cronus swallowed all of his children immediately after birth. The
mother goddess Rhea, Zeus' mother, deceived her brother consort Cronus by giving him a stone wrapped to look like
a baby instead of Zeus. Since she instead gave the infant Zeus to Adamanthea to nurse in a cave on a mountain in
Crete, it is clear that Adamanthea is a doublet of Amalthea. In many literary references, the Greek tradition relates
that in order that Cronus should not hear the wailing of the infant, Amalthea gathered about the cave the Kuretes or
the Korybantes to dance, shout, and clash their spears against their shields.[8]
Horn of Amalthea
The presence of Amalthea is signalled by the cornucopia overflowing with fruits and grain. The goat Amalthea's
horn, according to the Alexandrian poet Callimachus (Hymn to Zeus) was the original of the much earlier drinking
vessel called a rhyton, an inverted horn-shape in its most basic form, with an outlet hole in the pointed base—the
very horn from which the child Zeus drank.
Alternatively, the sacred goat having
broken off one of her horns, Amalthea
filled it with flowers and fruits and
presented it to Zeus, who placed it
together with the goat amongst the
stars.
According to another story, Zeus
himself broke off her horn and, in an
example of mythic inversion, gave it to
Amalthea, promising that it would
supply whatever she desired in
abundance. The goat-nymph, however,
was older than the Olympian.
Amalthea was a goddess who
traditionally provided plenty as part of
her nature before the cult of Zeus
The Nurture of Jupiter, by Nicolas Poussin, c. 1635-1637 (Dulwich Picture Gallery). existed. Amalthea, in this tradition,
gave her horn to the river-god
Achelous (her reputed brother), who exchanged it for his own horn, which had been broken off in his contest with
Heracles for the possession of Deianeira. According to ancient mythology, the owners of her horn were many and
various as one tradition was integrated into another. Speaking generally, Amalthea's horn was regarded as the
symbol of inexhaustible riches, the horn of plenty or cornucopia, and became adopted as the attribute of various
divinities— of Gaia, Demeter, Cybele, of Hades in his manifestation as Plouton, the bringer of wealth, and of rivers
as fertilizers of the land.
The term horn of Amalthea is applied to any especially fertile district. An estate belonging to Titus Pomponius
Atticus was called Amaltheum. Cretan coins represent the infant Zeus being suckled by the goat Amalthea; other
Greek coins exhibit him suspended from her teats or carried in the arms of the nymph.[9]
Amalthea and the aegis

Amalthea's skin, or that of her goat, killed and skinned by the grown Zeus, became the protective aegis in some
traditions, a vivid enough metaphor for the transfer of power to this Olympian god from that of the goddess who
preceded his cult.
Amalthea placed among the stars

"Amaltheia was placed amongst the stars as the constellation Capra — the group of stars surrounding Capella on the
arm (ôlenê) of Auriga the Charioteer."[10] Capra simply means "she-goat" and the star-name Capella is the "little
goat", but some modern readers confuse her with the male sea-goat of the Zodiac, Capricorn, who bears no relation
to Amalthea, no connection in a Greek or Latin literary source nor any ritual or inscription to join the two. Hyginus
describes this catasterism in the Poetic Astronomy, in speaking of Auriga, the Charioteer:
Parmeniscus says that a certain Melisseus was king in Crete, and to his daughters Jove was brought to
nurse. Since they did not have milk, they furnished him a she-goat, Amalthea by name, who is said to
have reared him. She often bore twin kids, and at the very time that Jove was brought to her to nurse,
had borne a pair. And so because of the kindness of the mother, the kids, too were placed among the
constellations. Cleostratus of Tenedos is said to have first pointed out these kids among the stars.
But Musaeus says Jove was nursed by Themis and the nymph Amalthea, to whom he was given by Ops,
his mother. Now Amalthea had as a pet a certain goat which is said to have nursed Jove.[11]
Notes
[1] "...the business of Amaltheia, caves and the nurturing of Zeus lands us squarely in Minoan times," John Bennet remarked in passing (Bennet,
"The Structure of the Linear B Administration at Knossos" American Journal of Archaeology 89.2 [April 1985:231-249] p. 107 note 39); cf.
M.P. Nilsson, The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and its Survival in Greek Religion (1950:537ff).
[2] An Egyptian inscription of Amenhotep III (1406-1369 BCE) discussed by Michael C. Astour, "Aegean Place-Names in an Egyptian
Inscription" American Journal of Archaeology 70.4 (October 1966:313-317), "shows that the Egyptian scribe conceived the Minoan form of
Diktê as the Northwest Semitic word dqt... Aigaion oros=Diktê may well be a Graeco-Semitic doublet, for in Ugaritic ritual texts dqt (literally
'small one') was the term for 'female head of small cattle for sacrifice' and a goat rather than a sheep. Dqt is also found as a divine name in a
Ugaritic list of gods, which reminds us of the goat that nourished Zeus in the Dictaean cave." (p. 314).
[3] Hesiod. Theogony, 484.
[4] For the primitive Amalthea as the goat rather than the goat-herding nymph, see R.W. Hutchinson, Prehistoric Crete (1962:202).
[5] In Hyginus' Poetical Astronomy II.13 as the nymph Aega or Aex ("she-goat"), daughter of Olenos: see Aega (mythology); in Hyginus
Fabulae, 182.
[6] The early fourth-century Christian apologist Lactantius (Institutiones I.22) makes the father of Amalthea and her honey-providing sister
Melissa, a Melisseus, "king of Crete"; this example of the common Christian Euhemerist interpretation of Greek myth as fables of humans
superstitiously credited with supernatural powers during the passage of time does not represent the actual cultural history of Amalthea, save in
its synthesised reflection of an alternative mythic tradition, that infant Zeus was fed with honey: see Bee (mythology).
[7] Legendary infancy episodes of some historical figures — and poetical figures, such as Longus' Daphnis — were suckled by goats, and the
actual practice lingered in Italy into the nineteenth century: see William M. Calder, III, "Longus 1. 2: The She-Goat Nurse" Classical
Philology 78.1 (January 1983:50-51).
[8] Kerenyi, p. 94.
[9] Ovid. Fasti, V. 115; Metamorphoses, IX. 87.
[10] Theoi Project: "Amaltheia" (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Ther/ AixAmaltheia. html)
[11] Theoi Project: on-line complete text in English translation (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HyginusAstronomica. html)
References
• Kerenyi, Karl. The Gods of the Greeks. London: Thames & Hudson, 1951.
External links
• Theoi Project - Aix Amaltheia (http://www.theoi.com/Ther/AixAmaltheia.html)
Anthousai 451
Anthousai
Anthousai (from Greek άνθος "flower") are nymphs of flowers in Greek mythology. They were described as having
hair that resembles hyacinth flowers.[1]
References
[1] Philostratus the Elder, Images, 2. 11
Sources
• Theoi Project - List of Nymphs and Classes of Nymphs (http://www.theoi.com/Cat_Nymphai.html)
Arethusa (mythology)
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
medicine
and Artemis
Nymphs
For other uses, see Arethusa

Arethusa (Ἀρέθουσα) means "the waterer". In Greek mythology, she was a nymph and daughter of Nereus (making
her a Nereid),[1] and later became a fountain on the island of Ortygia in Syracuse, Sicily.
Arethusa (mythology) 452
The myth of her transformation begins when she came across a

clear stream and began bathing, not knowing it was the river god
Alpheus. He fell in love during their encounter, but she fled after
discovering his presence and intentions, as she wished to remain a
chaste attendant of Artemis. After a long chase, she prayed to her
goddess to ask for protection. Artemis hid her in a cloud, but
Alpheus was persistent. She began to perspire profusely from fear,
and soon transformed into a stream. Artemis then broke the ground
allowing Arethusa another attempt to flee.[2] Her stream traveled
under the earth to the island of Ortygia, but Alpheus flowed
An engraving by Bernard Picart depicting Alpheus in
through the sea to reach her and mingle with her waters.[3]
his attempt to capture Arethusa.
During Demeter's search for her daughter Persephone, Arethusa
entreated Demeter to discontinue her punishment of Sicily for her daughter's disappearance. She told the goddess
that while traveling in her stream below the earth, she saw her daughter looking sad as the queen of Hades.[4]
Arethusa occasionally appeared on coins as a young girl with a net in her hair and dolphins around her head. These
coins were common around Ortygia, the location in which she ends up after fleeing from Alpheus.
The Roman writer Ovid called Arethusa by the name "Alpheias", because her stream was believed to have a
subterranean communication with the river Alpheius, in Peloponnesus.[5] [6] [7]
References
[1] Virgil, Georgics 4.344
[2] Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.710
[5] Ovid, Metamorphoses 5. 487
[6] Schmitz, Leonhard (1867). "Alpheias" (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 0142. html). In William Smith. Dictionary of Greek and
Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 133. .
[7] Ovid; William S. Anderson (ed.) (1997). Metamorphoses (http:/ / www. google. com/ books?id=t12AuG0q144C). Norman, Oklahoma:
University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 548. ISBN 0-8061-2894-1. .
External links
Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Arethusa". Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• Coins of Arethusa (http://www.math.nyu.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Coins/Arethusa.html) (contains verse

from Ovid and Shelley)
Argyra (mythology) 453
Argyra (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Argyra (Greek: Αργυρά, Polytonic:Ἀργυρᾶ , pronunciations: ar-JEE-rah or probably
ar-JY-rah) was one of the Naiads, a nymph who resided in a well, which worshipped in ancient Achaea in Greece.
There was an ancient city of the same name, which is now the site of a town and a spring.
Argyra was in love with a shepherd named Selemnus, but when he aged she no longer loved him. He pined away and
almost died of grief. The goddess Aphrodite changed him into a river. The legend says that a foresaken lover who
bathes in this river will forget their pain.[1]
References
[1] http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheArgyra. html
Asterodia
In Greek mythology, the name Asterodia refers to:
• A daughter of Deion and Diomede.[1]
• A Caucasian nymph, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, mother of Absyrtus by Aeetes.[2]
• One of the possible wives of Endymion.[3]
• Daughter of Eurypylus and one of the possible wives of Icarius.[4]
References
[2] Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 3. 240 ff; scholia on 3. 242 for her parentage
[3] Pausanias, Description of Greece, 5. 1. 4
[4] Pherecydes in scholia on Homer, Odyssey, 15. 16
Astris 454
Astris
In Greek mythology, Astris (or Asteria) was one of the Heliades, daughters of Helios, either by the Oceanid
Clymene or the Oceanid Ceto[1] [2] . She married the river god Hydaspes (the modern Jhelum River) and became
mother of Deriades, king in India[3] [4] [5] .
References
[1] Nonnus Dionysiaca 17. 269 ff
[2] Nonnus Dionysiaca 26.350
[5] Nonnus, Dionysiaca 27. 189 ff
External links
Theoi Project - Astris (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheAstris.html)
Auloniad
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
medicine
and Artemis
Nymphs
The names of different species of nymphs varied according to their natural abodes. The Auloniad (Αὐλωνιάς from
the classical Greek αὐλών "valley, ravine") was a nymph who could be found in mountain pastures and vales, often
in the company of Pan, the god of nature.
Eurydice, for whom Orpheus traveled into dark Hades, was an Auloniad, and it was in the valley of the Thessalian
river Pineios where she met her death, indirectly, at the hands of Aristaeus. Aristaeus, son of the god Apollo and the
Auloniad 455
nymph Cyrene, desired to ravish Eurydice. Either disgust or fear made the nymph run away from him without
looking where she was going. Eurydice trod on a poisonous serpent and died[1] .
References
[1] Virgil, Georgicon, 4. 453 ff
External links
• Theoi Project - Dryades&Oreades (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/Dryades.html)
Aurai
In Greek mythology, the Aurai (or Aurae) are the winged nymphs of the breezes, daughters of either Oceanus or
Boreas, the god of the north wind. [1]
References
[1] AURAE : Nymphs of the breezes ; Greek mythology ; pictures : AURAI (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ Aurai. html)
Axioche
Axioche (or Astioche) was a nymph In Greek mythology. She was the mother of Chrysippus by Pelops.
Bistonis
Bistonis is the name of a nymph in Greek mythology who gave birth to a son of Ares, Tereus. Although she is
mentioned in several surviving classical texts, she is the main subject of few or none. In at least one poem, written by
Moschus in the 3rd century BCE, Lake Bistonis, in Thrace, is referred to as being her lake, and that lake is described
as having a population of nymphs.(Reference: THE MOURNING FOR BION.; TRANSLATED FROM THE
GREEK OF MOSCHUS.JAMES GILBORNE LYONS The Knickerbocker; or New York Monthly Magazine
(1833-1862); Dec 1849; 34, 6; APS Online:
“Tell all the nymphs by Bistonis’ clear lake,
The Orpheus of the Dorian isle is dead.“
Her name is similar to the name of a city in Thrace, Bistonia, said in ancient Greek mythology to have been built on
the shores of that lake by Biston, who was the son of Ares and Pyrene.
References
• MYTHOLOGY.; BELLONA. VICTORY. THE STORY OF TEREUS.
The Family Magazine; or, Monthly Abstract of General Knowledge (1833-1841); Apr 1835; 2, APS Online pg.
A103
Bolina 456
Bolina
In Greek mythology, Bolina (Βολίνα) or Boline (Βολίνη) was a nymph.
Somewhere she loved the god Apollo and bothered him, Bolina tried to leave from him and fell into the sea and
drown, though the god was immortal. In the point which she fell into the sea, Boline was founded and existed until
its ruin in 278 BC.
Bibliography
• Alexios Panagopoulou, Istoriko lexiko periochis dimou Riou nomou Achaias (Ιστορικό λεξικό περιοχής δήμου
Ρίου νομού Αχαίας = Historic Dictionary of the Municipality of Rio, Achaia, Peri Technon, Patras 2003, ISBN
960-8260-32-9
• Athanasios Angelopoulou New Greek Mythology Dictionary, Eletheris
References
• Pausanias Achaica
Britomartis
For the butterfly genus, see Britomartis (butterfly).
"Dicte" redirects here. For the fairy longhorn moth genus, see Dicte (moth).
Britomartis (Βριτόμαρτις), was the Minoan goddess of mountains and hunting. She is among the Minoan goddess
figures that passed through the Mycenaeans' culture into classical Greek mythology, with transformations that are
unclear in both transferrals.[1] For the Greeks Britomartis (Cretan dialect[2] for "sweet maiden", "sweet virgin"[3] ) or
Diktynna (derived by Hellenistic writers as from diktya, "hunting nets")[4] was a mountain nymph (an oread) whom
Greeks recognized also in Artemis and in Aphaea, the "invisible" patroness of Aegina.[5]
Britomartis ("sweet maid") is an epithet that does not reveal the goddess's name,[6] nor her character, for it has the
ring of an apotropaic euphemism.[7] The goddess addressed as "Britomartis" was worshipped in Crete as an aspect of
Potnia, the "Mistress". The oldest aspect of the Cretan Goddess was as Mother of Mountains, who appears on
Minoan seals with the demonic features of a Gorgon, accompanied by the double-axes of power and gripping divine
snakes. Her terror-inspiring aspect was softened by calling her Britomartis, the "good virgin", a euphemism to allay
her dangerous aspect.
Every element of the Classical myths that told of Britomartis served to reduce her power and scope, even literally to
entrap her in nets (but only because she "wanted" to be entrapped). The traditional patriarchal bias of Greek writers
even made her the "daughter" of Zeus (see below), rather than his patroness when he was an infant in her cave on
Mount Dikte, and they made her own tamed, "evolved" and cultured Olympian aspect, the huntress Artemis,
responsible for granting Britomartis status as a goddess, a mythic inversion expressed by the Romanized Greek
Pausanias, in the 2nd century CE: "She was made a goddess by Artemis," Pausanias asserts (2.30.3), "and she is
worshipped, not only by the Cretans but also by the Aiginetans" (see Aphaea, below). But the ancient goddess never
quite disappeared and remained on the coins of Cretan cities, as herself or as Diktynna, the goddess of Mount Dikte,
Zeus' birthplace. As Diktynna, winged and now represented with a human face, she stood on her ancient mountain,
and grasped an animal in each hand, in the guise of Potnia Theron the Mistress of animals. The Greeks could only
conceive of a mistress of animals as a huntress, but on the early seals she suckles griffons. Archaic representations of
winged Artemis show that she evolved from Potnia Theron.
Britomartis 457
By Hellenistic and Roman times, Britomartis was given a genealogical setting that fitted her into a Classical context:
"Britomartis, who is also called Diktynna, the myths relate, was born at Kaino in Crete of Zeus and
Karme,[8] the daughter of Euboulos who was the son of Demeter; she invented the nets [diktya] which
are used in hunting."[9]
The third hymn to Artemis by Callimachus tells how she was pursued by Minos and, as Diktynna, "Lady of the
Nets", threw herself into fishermen's nets to escape him; thus rescued, she was taken by the fishermen to mainland
Greece. She was also known as Dicte. This myth element "explains" the spread of the Cretan goddess's cult to
Greece. Didorus Siculus found it less than credible: "But those men who tell the tale that she has been named
Diktynna because she fled into some fishermen’s nets when she was pursued by Minos, who would have ravished
her, have missed the truth; for it is not a probable story that the goddess should ever have got into so helpless a state
that she would have required the aid that men can give, being as she is the daughter of the greatest one of the
gods."[10] Strabo notes she was venerated as Diktynna only in western Crete, in the region of Cydonia, where there
was a Diktynnaion , or temple of Diktynna. "Oupis [Artemis], O queen, fairfaced Bringer of Light, thee too the
Kretans name after that Nymph," Callimachus says. "She passed her time in the company of Artemis, this being the
reason why some men think Diktynna and Artemis are one and the same goddess," Diodorus Siculus (5.76.3)
suggested.
In Minoan art, and on coins, seals and rings and the like throughout Greece, Britomartis is depicted with demonic
features, carrying a double-handed axe and accompanied by feral animals.
As Diktynna
A xoanon, a cult wooden statue, of Britomartis, made by Daedalus, sat in the temple of Olous. In Chersonesos and
Olous, she was often portrayed on coins, showing that she was worshipped in those cities; the festival Britomarpeia
was held in her honor. As Diktynna, her face was pictured on Cretan coins of Kydonia, Polyrrhenia and Phalasarna
as the nurse of Zeus. On Crete, she was connected with the mountain where Zeus was said to have been born--Mount
Dikte. On some early Britomartis coins of Kydonia, the coin was manufactured as an overstrike of specimens
manufactured by Aegina.[11] Temples dedicated to her existed in Athens, Sparta, Massalia and between Ambrosus
and Anticyra in Phocis,[12] where, as Artemis Diktynna, her cult object was a black stone worked by Aeginetans,[13]
but she was primarily a goddess of local importance in Western Crete, such as Lysos and West of Kydonia. Her
temples were said to be guarded by vicious dogs stronger than bears. A temple dedicated to the goddess was erected
in ancient times on Mount Tityros near Cydonia.[11]
As Aphaea
Britomartis was worshipped as Aphaea (Pausanias, 2.30.3) primarily on the island of Aegina in Mycenaean times,
where the temple "Athena Aphaea"[14] was later located. With the coming of Athenian control over Aegina, a temple
to her also existed on the outskirts of Athens, at the Aspropyrgos.
Spenser's "Britomart"
Britomart figures in Edmund Spenser's knightly epic The Faerie Queene, where she is an allegorical figure of the
virgin Knight of Chastity, representing English virtue—in particular, English military power—through a folk
etymology that associated Brit-, as in Briton, with Martis, here thought of as "of Mars", the Roman war god. In
Spenser's allegory, Britomart connotes the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I of England.
In his retelling of the King Arthur legends, Arthur Rex, author Thomas Berger suggests that Queen Guinevere may
have become a powerful female knight known as Britomart after the death of the King.
Britomartis 458
In popular culture
A warrior version of Britomart appears alongside Robin Hood and his men in "The Last Castle," an installment of
the Eisner-award-winning graphic novel Fables.
Notes
[1] Other Minoan/Greek goddess figures that the scant archaeological evidence and speculative reading of literary sources suggest made the
transition to classical Hellenic culture can be detected in aspects of the Olympian goddesses Hera, Demeter and Artemis, and in Europa,
Eileithyia, Leto, Leucothea, Rhea, Pasiphaë, Ariadne, and even Helen. The subject is examined in detail in Martin P. Nilsson, The
Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and Its Survival in Greek Religion 2nd ed. (Lund) 1950, which is presented in two sections, "The
Minoan-Mycenaean religion according to the monuments" and "Minoan-Mycenaean religion in its relations to Greek religion". See also
Walter Burkert, Greek Religion, 1985:10-47.
[2] According to Solinus, Polyhistor, 2.8; the word is not Greek; Solinus says explicitly that Britomartis is the Cretan Artemis. Noted by H. J.
Rose, A Handbook of Greek Mythology (New York) 1959:117, citing Theodor Mommsen's edition, 1864.
[3] Solinus, ix.8.
[4] For example, "...all but caught, she leapt into the sea from the top of a cliff and fell into the nets of fishermen which saved her. Whence in
after days the Kydonians call the Nymphe Diktyna (Lady of the Nets) and the hill whence the Nymphe leaped they call the hill of Nets
(Diktaion)," (Callimachus, Ode 3 to Artemis, 188ff.
[5] K. Pilafidis-Williams, The Sanctuary of Aphaia on Aigina in the Bronze Age (Munich: Hirmer) 1998, describes the distinctive local cult but is
cautious in retrojecting the later cult of Aphaia to describe Britomartis at Aigina; the explicit identification of Britomartis and Aphaea is in
Pausanias, ii.30.3 and in Diodorus Siculus, v.76.3.
[6] A Christian parallel may render this observation even clearer: Mater dolens, "grieving mother", identifies the Blessed Virgin, but none of the
four attributes—"grieving, mother, blessed, virgin"— gives her name, Mary.
[7] "Her name is supposed to mean the 'Good Maiden'—which like Aristaios and Kalliste, is probably a euphemism for its opposite, the Maiden
of Death." (Carl A.P. Ruck and Danny Staples, The World of Classical Myth [Carolina Academic Press], 1994:113).
[8] Karme was a grain-harvest sprite.
[9] Diodorus Siculus, 5.76.3.
[10] Diodorus Siculus 5.76.3.
[11] C. Michael Hogan, Cydonia, The Modern Antiquarian, Jan. 23, 2008 (http:/ / www. themodernantiquarian. com/ site/ 10881/ cydonia.
html#fieldnotes)
[12] RE, s.v. “Diktynna”, col. 584-588.
[13] Pausanias (.36) saw on the high ground between the two cities "a temple of Dictynnaean Artemis, who is held in the highest honour by the
people of Ambrosus; her statue is of Aeginetan workmanship in black stone."
[14] The Olympian assimilates the older goddess as an epithet. As Athens assumed control of Aegina, there are clear socio-political implications.
References
• Theoi.com: Britomartis (http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Britomartis.html)
• Theoi.com: Karme (http://www.theoi.com/Georgikos/Karme.html)
Calybe 459
Calybe
In Greek mythology, Calybe was a nymph who was a wife of the Trojan king Laomedon and the mother of
Bucolion.
Calypso (mythology)
Calypso
Detail from Calypso receiving Telemachus and Mentor in the Grotto by William Hamilton
Abode Ogygia
Consort Odysseus
Parents Atlas
Children By some accounts Latinus, by others Nausithous and Nausinous
Calypso (pronounced /kəˈlɪpsoʊ/; Greek: Καλυψώ, Kalupsō) was a nymph in Greek mythology, who lived on the
island of Ogygia, where she kept Odysseus prisoner for a number of years. She is generally said to be the daughter of
the Titan Atlas.[1]
Perhaps the same or different Calypsos, are mentioned by Hesiod as one of the Oceanid daughters of Tethys and
Oceanus,[2] and Pseudo-Apollodorus as one of the Nereid daughters of Nereus and Doris.[3]
The Odyssey
Calypso is remembered most for her role in Homer's Odyssey, in which she imprisons the fabled Greek hero
Odysseus on her island in order to make him her immortal husband. According to Homer, Calypso kept Odysseus
hostage at Ogygia for seven years,[4] while Pseudo-Apollodorus says five years[5] and Hyginus says one.[6]
Odysseus, however, wants to return home to his beloved wife Penelope. His patron goddess Athena asks Zeus to
order the release of Odysseus from the island, and Zeus sends Hermes to tell Calypso to set Odysseus free.
Homer does not mention any children by Calypso. By some accounts, which come after the Odyssey, Calypso bore
Odysseus a son, Latinus,[7] though Circe is usually given as Latinus' mother.[8] In other accounts Calypso bore
Odysseus two children, Nausithous and Nausinous.[9]
Name
The origins of Calypso's name are uncertain. Καλύπτειν (kalyptein, "to cover", from which apocalypse is also
derived) suggests that Calypso may have originally been a death goddess.[10] The spelling of Calypso music reflects
a later folk-etymological assimilation with the mythological name[11] and is not otherwise related to the goddess.
Other appearances
Calypso appears in the "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" series in the fourth book The Battle of the Labyrinth, when
Percy is washed up on her island after a volcanic eruption she heals him using her herbs. She reveals that she was
exiled there as she supported her father, Atlas, during the war, being his daughter. At the end of the last book, Percy
demands that the Gods set her free as his reward.
Calypso also appears in the earth-bound human form of an Obeah witch called Tia Dalma in the films Pirates of the
Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
In addition Calypso appears in the "Otherland" series (Book 3—Mountain of Black Glass).
In popular culture
Jacques-Yves Cousteau named his research ship after Calypso; John Denver wrote a song titled "Calypso" as a
tribute to Cousteau and his work.
Calypso is referenced in the Black Eyed Peas song Rock That Body.
Notes
[1] Homer, Odyssey, 1.14 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0136:book=1:card=1), 1.50 (http:/ / www.
perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0136:book=1:card=44); Apollodorus, Library (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/
hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0022:text=Epitome:book=E:chapter=7:section=24). She is sometimes referred to as Atlantis
(Ατλαντίς), which means the daughter of Atlas, see the entry Ατλαντίς (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/
ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 04. 0057:entry=#17105) in Liddell & Scott, and also Hesiod, Theogony, 938 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/
cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus:abo:tlg,0020,001:938& vers=original& word=*)atlantiko/ s#word1).
[2] Hesiod, Theogony 359 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Hes. Th. 359& lang=original)
[3] Apollodorus, Library 1.2.7 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Apollod. 1. 2. 7& lang=original)
[4] Homer, Odyssey 7.259 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Hom. + Od. + 7. 259& fromdoc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0136)
[5] Apollodorus, Epitome 7.24 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01.
0022:text=Epitome:book=E:chapter=7:section=24)
[6] Hyginus, Fabulae 125 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HyginusFabulae3. html)
[7] Apollodorus, Epitome 7.24 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01.
0022:text=Epitome:book=E:chapter=7:section=24)
[8] Hesiod, Theogony 1011 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Hes. + Th. + 1011& fromdoc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0130)
[9] See Hesiod, Theogony 1019 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Hes. Th. 1119& lang=original), Sir James George Frazer in
his notes to Apollodorus, Epitome 7.24 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01.
0022:text=Epitome:book=E:chapter=7:section=24), says that these verses "are probably not by Hesiod but have been interpolated by a later
poet of the Roman era in order to provide the Latins with a distinguished Greek ancestry".
[10] Online Etymology Dictionary (http:/ / www. etymonline. com/ index. php?search=calypso)
[11] Wiktionary: calypso
References
ISBN 9780631201021. "Calypso" p. 86 (http://books.google.com/books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC&
printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=Calypso&f=false)
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Calypso" (http://
group=8:entry=calypso-bio-1)
External links
Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Calypso". Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• The Theoi Project, "KALYPSO" (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheKalypso.html)

Canens (mythology) 462
Canens (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Canens was the personification of song. She was a nymph from Latium.
The witch Circe turned her husband Picus into a woodpecker because he scorned her love. Canens searched for her
husband for six days and then threw herself into the Tiber river. She sang one final song and then died. They had one
son, Faunus.
Sources
• Ovid Metamorphoses 14.320-434
Ceto (disambiguation)
Ceto or Keto may refer to:
Places
Italy
• Ceto, Lombardy, a comune in the Province of Brescia
Other uses
• 65489 Ceto, a trans-Neptunian scattered disc object
• Ceto (also called Krataiis), a primordial sea goddess in Greek mythology, daughter of Pontus and Gaia and
mother to the Phorcydes
• Ceto, one of the Nereids in Greek mythology
• Ceto (Oceanid), a Naiad and Oceanid in Greek mythology, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys
• CETO Wave Power, an underwater wave power technology
Chariclo 463
Chariclo
In Greek mythology, Chariclo was a nymph, daughter of Cychreus and Stilbe. She married Chiron and became the
mother of Hippe, Endeis, Ocyrhoe, and Carystus. There is another nymph named Chariclo who is favored by
Athena. With a shepherd, Everes, she became the mother of the prophet Tiresias. Tiresias was struck blind by
Athena after seeing her naked. Chariclo begged Athena to give him sight back, but the goddess could not undo her
curse. She gave him the gift of prophecy instead.[1]
References
[1] Chariklo (http:/ / www. zanestein. com/ chariklo. htm)
Chesma (mythology)
In Turk mythology, Chesma was a cat-shaped well or fountain-spirit or nymph. She inveigles youth to death like the
Lorelei.
Circe
In Greek mythology, Circe (pronounced /ˈsɜrsiː/; Greek Κίρκη Kírkē
"falcon") is a minor goddess of magic (or sometimes a nymph, witch,
enchantress or sorceress) living on the island of Aeaea, famous for her
part in the adventures of Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey.
By most accounts, Circe was the daughter of Helios, the god of the
sun, and Perse, an Oceanid, and the sister of Aeetes, the keeper of the
Golden Fleece, Perses, and Pasiphaë, the Wife of King Minos and
mother of the Minotaur.[1] Other accounts make her the daughter of
Hecate.[2]
Circe transformed her enemies, or those who offended her, into
animals through the use of magical potions. She was renowned for her
knowledge of drugs and herbs.
That Circe also purified the Argonauts for the death of Apsyrtus, as
related in Argonautica,[3] may reflect early tradition.[4]
In ancient literature
Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus, by John

William Waterhouse.
Circe 464
In Homer's Odyssey
In Homer's Odyssey, Circe is described as living in a mansion that stands in the middle
of a clearing in a dense wood. Around the house prowled strangely docile lions and
wolves, the drugged victims of her magic;[5] they were not dangerous, and fawned on all
newcomers. Circe worked at a huge loom.[6] She invited Odysseus' crew to a feast of
familiar food, a pottage of cheese and meal, sweetened with honey and laced with wine,
but also laced with one of her magical potions, and she turned them all into pigs with a
wand after they gorged themselves on it. Only Eurylochus, suspecting treachery from the
outset, escaped to warn Odysseus and the others who had stayed behind at the ships.
Odysseus set out to rescue his men, but was intercepted by his great grandfather,
Hermes,[7] who had been sent by Athena. Hermes told Odysseus to use the holy herb
moly to protect himself from Circe's potion and, having resisted it, to draw his sword and
act as if he were to attack Circe. From there, Circe would ask him to bed, but Hermes
advised caution, for even there the goddess would be treacherous. She would take his
manhood unless he had her swear by the names of the gods that she would not.
Circe, by Charles Gumery
Odysseus followed Hermes's advice, freeing his men. Odysseus and his men remained on
the island for one year feasting and drinking wine. According to Homer, Circe suggested to Odysseus two alternative
routes to return to Ithaca: toward the "Wandering Rocks" where King Aeolus reigned or passing between the
dangerous Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis, conventionally identified with the Strait of Messina.
This adventure, like the story of the Cyclops, is a fairy tale of wide dispersion. In 1869 G.K.C. Gerland[8] showed
that the story makes part of the collection of Somadeva, Kathāsaritsāgara, a store of Indian tales, of which 1200 AD
is the approximate date. Circe appears as a Yackshini, and is conquered when an adventurer seizes her flute whose
magic music turns men into beasts. The Indian Circe had the habit of eating the animals into which she transformed
men.[9]
In Hesiod's Theogony
Towards the end of Hesiod's Theogony (1011f) we find that Circe bore of Odysseus three sons: Ardeas or Agrius
(otherwise unknown), Latinus, and Telegonus who ruled over the Tyrsenoi, that is the Etruscans.
Other literature
Later poets generally only speak of Telegonus as Odysseus' son by Circe. When grown to manhood, later poets
reported, she sent him to find Odysseus, who had long since returned to his home on Ithaca, but on arrival Telegonus
accidentally killed his father. He brought the body back to Aeaea and took Odysseus' widow Penelope and son
Telemachus with him. Circe made them immortal and married Telemachus, while Telegonus made Penelope his
wife.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus (1.72.5) cites Xenagoras the historian as claiming that Odysseus and Circe had three
sons: Romus, Anteias, and Ardeias who respectively founded three cities called by their names: Rome, Antium, and
Ardea.
In later tales Circe turned Picus into a woodpecker for refusing her love, and Scylla into a monstrous creature with
six dogs' heads when Glaucus (another object of Circe's affection) declared his undying love for her. She had one
daughter: Aega, who was born from the ocean in a shield of ice.
Circe is referred to in Dante's Divine Comedy: "Virtue is like an enemy avoided by all, as is a serpent, through
misfortune of place, or through bad habit that impels them, on which account they have so transformed their nature,
the dwellers in the miserable valley, that it seems that Circe had them in her pasture." [10]
Circe 465
Shakespeare makes a reference to Circe in The Comedy of Errors. When the Duke is listening to seemingly
contradictory tails that arose due to confusion between identical twins, he says: "Why what an intricate impeach is
this? I thinke you all haue drunke of Circes cup: If heere you hous’d him, heere he would haue bin."
Calderon de la Barca composed a mythological spectacle play based on Ulysses entrapment in Circe's island. Love,
the Greatest Enchantment was performed at Philip IV's palace of the Buen Retiro in 1635.
In ancient art
Although some scenes from the Odyssey remained favorites of the vase-painters, notably the visually dramatic
episode of Polyphemus, the Circe episode was rarely depicted. In describing an unusual miniature fifth-century
Greek bronze in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore,[11] that takes the form of a man on all fours with the foreparts
of a pig, Dorothy Kent Hill expressed the artist's dilemma: how could an artist depict a man bewitched into a pig
other than as a man with a pig's head? "An author can discuss the mind and the voice, but an artist cannot show
them."[12] In an Etruscan bronze mirror relief, a common barnyard pig is depicted at the feet of Circe: Odysseus and
Elpenor approach her, swords drawn. The subject would be obscure, save that the names of the characters are
inscribed in the bronze.[13] Some Boeotian vase-paintings show a caricature version of the episode, acted out by
dwarf pygmies with negroid attributes, and an aged and lame Odysseus leaning on a staff; they are the mute
survivors of some rustic comedy tradition that is impenetrable to us.
Modern interpretations
Medical historians have speculated that the transformation to pigs was
not intended literally but refers to anticholinergic intoxication.[14]
Symptoms include amnesia, hallucinations, and delusions. The
description of "moly" fits the snowdrop, a flower of the region that
contains galantamine, which is an anticholinesterase and can therefore
counteract anticholinergics.
Eponyms
The phrase "Circean poison" has been used to refer to intoxicating
things, such as applause.[15]
The "Circe effect", coined by the enzymologist William P. Jencks,
refers to a scenario where an enzyme lures its substrate towards it
through electrostatic forces exhibited by the enzyme molecule before
transforming it into product. Where this takes place, the catalytic
velocity (rate of reaction) of the enzyme may be significantly faster
than that of others.[16]
Snowdrop, perhaps the herb moly

See also
• Circe in popular culture
• Cape Circeo
• Mount Circeo
Circe 466
Notes
[1] Homer, Odyssey 10.135 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Hom. + Od. + 10. 135& fromdoc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0136);
Hesiod, Theogony, 956 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Hes. + Th. + 956& fromdoc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0130);
Apollodorus, Library 1.9.1 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01.
0022:text=Library:book=1:chapter=9:section=1); Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica .
[2] Grimal; Smith
[3] "They escaped neither the vast sea's hardships nor vexatious tempests till Kirké should wash them clean of the pitiless murder of Apsyrtos"
(Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, iv.586-88, in Peter Grean's translation).
[4] See the ancient concept of miasma, a Peter Green's commentary on iv. 705-17, The Argonautika Apollonios Rhodios, (1997, 2007) p 322.
[5] Odyssey x.212ff.
[6] Refer Weaving (mythology).
[7] Hermes is Odysseus' great grandfather from his mother side, Anticlea through Autolycos
[8] Gerland, Alt Griechische Märchen in der Odyssee: Ein Beitrag zur vergleichenden Mythologie, 1869.
[9] S.H. Butcher and Andrew Lang, The Odyssey of Homer, 1890 (Project Gutenberg)
[10] Purgatorio XIV.
[11] Walters Art Museum, acc. no. 54.1483.
[12] Hill, "Odysseus' Companions on Circe's Isle" The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 4 (1941:119-122) p. 120.
[13] Noted by Hill 1941:120
[14] Plaitakis A, Duvoisin RC (March 1983). "Homer's moly identified as Galanthus nivalis L.: physiologic antidote to stramonium poisoning".
Clin Neuropharmacol 6 (1): 1–5. PMID 6342763.
[15] 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopaedia.
[16] Jeremy M. Berg, John L. Tymoczko, Lubert Stryer. (2006). Biochemistry. New York, NY: Freeman. ISBN 9780716767664.
References
Ancient
• Servius, In Aeneida vii.190
• Ovid, Metamorphoses xiv.248-308
• Lactantius Placidus, Commentarii in Statii Thebaida
Modern
ISBN 9780631201021. "Circe" p. 104 (http://books.google.com/books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC&
printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=Circe&f=false)
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Circe" (http://
group=23:entry=circe-bio-1)
External links
• The Theoi Project, "KIRKE" (http://www.theoi.com/Titan/Kirke.html)
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.
Clytie 467
Clytie
"Clytia" redirects here. For the hydrozoan genus, see Clytia (Hydrozoa). "Clytia" can also be a spelling
variant of the Euphorbiaceae genus Clutia; there is also a moth genus Clytie (moth).
Clytia (or Clytie) was a water nymph, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys in
Greek mythology.[1] She loved Apollo.[2]
Narrative
Apollo, whom Clytie always loved, did not love her in return, for he loved
Daphne, the daughter of a water god. Sadly, Daphne had no feelings toward
the beautiful Apollo, and when Apollo tried to convince Daphne to love
him in return, she ran from him, and began to beg for her father's help. Her
father helped her by turning her into a plant. To Clytie, this was great, but
to Apollo, the love of his life had just died. Clytie soon began to realized
that Apollo still didn't love her, and went into deep sorrow. She stripped
herself and sat naked, with neither food nor drink, for nine days on the
rocks, staring at the sun, Apollo, and mourning his departure. After nine
days she was transformed by the Gods into a beautiful turnsole (which is
known for growing on sunny, rocky hillsides), which turns its head always Bust of Clytie, by Hiram Powers, modeled
to look longingly at Apollo's chariot of the sun. 1865-1867, carved 1873.
Modern traditions substitude the turnsole with a sunflower, that is also

known for turning in the direction of the sun. Sunflowers originate in North America and did not grow anywhere in
the ancient old world.
Art
Bust (Townley collection)

One sculpture of Clytie is a Roman marble in the collection of Charles
Townley.[3]
The bust was created between 40 and 50 AD. Towneley acquired it from the
family of the principe Laurenzano in Naples during his extended second
Grand Tour of Italy (1771–1774); the Laurenzano insisted it had been found
locally. It remained a favorite both with him (it figures prominently in Johann
Zoffany's iconic painting of Townley's library (illustration, right), was one of
three ancient marbles Townley had reproduced on his visiting card, and was
apocryphally the one which he wished he could carry with him when his
house was torched in the Gordon Riots - apocryphal since the bust is in fact
far too heavy for that) and with the public (Joseph Nollekens is said to have
always had a marble copy of it in stock for his customers to purchase, and in
Townley's Bust of Clytie (left, on the
the late 19th century Parian ware copies were all the rage.[4] table).
The identity of the subject, a woman emerging from a calyx of leaves, was
much discussed among the antiquaries in Townley's circle. At first referred to
Clytie 468
as Agrippina, and later called by Townley Isis in a lotus flower, it is now

accepted as Clytie. Some modern scholars even claim the bust is of eighteenth
century date, though most now think it is an ancient work showing Antonia
Minor or a contemporaneous Roman lady in the guise of Ariadne.
Bust (George Frederick Watts)

Another famous bust of Clytie was by George Frederick Watts.[5] Instead of
Townley's serene Clytie, Watts's is straining, looking round at the sun.
References
[1] Her name appears in the long list of Oceanids in Hesiod, Theogony 346ff.
[2] Two other minor personages name Clytie are noted: see Theoi Project: Clytie (http:/ / www.
Townley's Clytie.
theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheKlytie. html).
[3] Trustees of the British Museum - Marble bust of 'Clytie' (http:/ / www. thebritishmuseum. ac. uk/ explore/ highlights/ highlight_objects/ gr/
m/ marble_bust_of_clytie. aspx)
[4] Trustees of the British Museum - Parian bust of Clytie (http:/ / www. thebritishmuseum. ac. uk/ explore/ highlights/ highlight_objects/
pe_mla/ p/ parian_bust_of_clytie. aspx)
[5] The Victorian Web - Clytie George Frederick Watts, R.A., 1817-1904 (http:/ / www. victorianweb. org/ sculpture/ watts/ 1. html)
Corycian nymphs
The Corycian Nymphs were the three Naiads (nymphs) of the sacred springs of the Corycian Cave of Mount
Parnassus in Phocis. The names of the nymphs are Corycia, Kleodora and Melaina; their father's name was Kephisos
or Pleistos.
Corycia was the sister whom the Corycian Cave was named after. She was the mother of Lycoreus with Apollo.
Kleodora was loved by Poseidon. With Poseidon (or Kleopompos) she was the mother of Parnassos, who founded
the city of Parnassus. (Pausanias 10.6.13).
Melaina was loved by Apollo, bearing him Delphos. Another tradition names Thyia as the mother of Delphos. Her
name meant "the black," suggesting she presides over subterranean nymphs.
Cynosura 469
Cynosura
In Greek mythology, Cynosura (Ancient Greek: Κυνοσούρα) was a nymph (an Oread) on Mount Ida, Crete.
Cynosura (together with Helike) nursed Zeus when he was being hidden from his father, Cronus. In gratitude, Zeus
placed her in the heavens as the constellation Ursa Minor; according to folk etymology and the myth, Kynosoura is
from κυνὸς οὐρά "dog's tail. Cynosura is also another name for the constellation Ursa Minor or its brightest star,
Polaris.
References
• Cynosura [1] Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
• Aratus, Phaenomena, 35; Hyginus Astronomica, 2. 2; Servius on Virgilius. Georgica 1. 246 (Myth Index -
Cynosura [2])
References
[2] http:/ / mythindex. com/ greek-mythology/ C/ Cynosura. html
Daphnaie
In Greek mythology the Daphnaie are the nymphs of the laurel trees.[1]
Like the other Dryads, they are the spirits of the trees and spend most of their time sleeping behind the bark. They
only come out to dance when the coast is clear.
They seem to be named after Daphne ('Laurel'), one of the naiads who was plagued with unwanted sexual advances
until she cried to Gaia for help. The Earth Mother took pity on her and turned Daphne into a laurel tree.
As laurel leaves (aka bay leaves) were chewed by Sibyls to get them in the right frame of mind for prophetic vision,
it's possible the whole story is just a drug-induced dream.
References
[1] Nymphs of trees and mountain forest (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ Dryades. html/ )
Daphne 470
Daphne
According to Greek myth, Apollo chased the nymph Daphne (Greek: Δάφνη,
meaning "laurel"), daughter either of Peneus and Creusa in Thessaly,[1] or of the
river Ladon in Arcadia.[2] The pursuit of a local nymph by an Olympian god, part
of the archaic adjustment of religious cult in Greece, was given an arch anecdotal
turn in Ovid's Metamorphoses,[3] where the god's infatuation was caused by an
arrow from Eros, who wanted to make Apollo pay for making fun of his archery
skills and to demonstrate the power of love's arrow. Ovid treats the encounter,
Apollo's lapse of majesty, in the mode of elegiac lovers,[4] and expands the
pursuit into a series of speeches. According to the rendering Daphne prays for
help either to the river god Peneus or to Gaia, and is transformed into a laurel
(Laurus nobilis): "a heavy numbness seized her limbs, thin bark closed over her
breast, her hair turned into leaves, her arms into branches, her feet so swift a
moment ago stuck fast in slow-growing roots, her face was lost in the canopy.
Apollo and Daphne by Antonio del
Only her shining beauty was left."[5] "Why should she wish to escape? Because Pollaiolo, c. 1470–80 (National
she is Artemis Daphnaia, the god's sister," observed the Freudian anthropologist Gallery, London)
Géza Róheim,[6] and Joseph Fontenrose concurs;[7] baldly stating such a
one-to-one identity doubtless oversimplifies the picture: "the equation of Artemis
and Daphne in the transformation myth itself clearly cannot work", observes
Lightfoot.[8] The laurel became sacred to Apollo, and crowned the victors at the
Pythian Games.[9] Most artistic impressions of the myth focus on the moment of
transformation.
A version of the attempt on Daphne's sworn virginity that has been less familiar
since the Renaissance was narrated by the Hellenistic poet Parthenius, in his
Erotica Pathemata, "The Sorrows of Love".[10] Parthenius' tale, based on the
Hellenistic historian Phylarchus, was known to Pausanias, who recounted it in
his Description of Greece (2nd century AD).[11] In this, which is the earliest
written account, Daphne is a mortal girl fond of hunting and determined to Apollo and Daphne, by Giovanni
remain a virgin; she is pursued by the lad Leucippos ("white stallion"), who Battista Tiepolo, c. 1744–45
assumes girl's outfits in order to join her band of huntresses. He is so successful (Louvre).
in gaining her innocent affection, that Apollo is jealous and puts it into the girl's
mind to stop to bathe in the river Ladon; there, as all strip naked, the ruse is revealed, as in the myth of Callisto, and
the huntresses plunge their spears into Leucippos. At this moment Apollo's attention becomes engaged, and he
begins his own pursuit; Parthenius' modern editor remarks on the rather awkward transition, linking two
narratives.[12]
A famous rendition of the subject is Gian Lorenzo Bernini's sculpture Apollo and Daphne. In music, the German
composer Richard Strauss composed a one-act opera about the legend based on accounts by both Ovid and
Euripides.
Daphne 471
Artemis Daphnaia
Artemis Daphnaia, who had her temple among the Lacedemonians, at a place called Hypsoi[13] in Antiquity, on the
slopes of Mount Cnacadion near the Spartan frontier,[14] had her own sacred laurel trees.[15]
Temple of Apollo Daphnephoros, Eretria

At Eretria the identity of an excavated 7th and 6th century temple[16] to Apollo Daphnephoros, "Apollo,
laurel-bearer", or "carrying off Daphne", a "place where the citizens are to take the oath", is identified in
inscriptions.[17]
Notes
[1] Hyginus Fabulae 203.
[2] Pausanias viii.20.1 and x.7.8; Statius, Thebaid iv.289f; Johannes Tzetzes Ad Lycophron 6; Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana i. 16; First
Vatican Mythographer ii.216; none of these citations are earlier than Parthenius' source Phylarchus.
[3] Ovid, Metamorphoses i. 452; the treatment is commonly viewed as an Ovidian invention: see H. Fränkel, Ovid: A Poet Between Two Worlds
(1945) p 79, or E. Doblhofer, ""Ovidius Urbanus: eine Studie zum Humor in Ovids Metamorphosen" Philologus 104 (1960), p. 79ff; for the
episode as a witty transposition of Calvus' Io, see B. Otis, Ovid as an Epic Poet 2nd ed. 1970, p. 102
[4] W.S.M. Nicoll, "Cupid, Apollo, and Daphne (Ovid, Met. 1. 452 ff.)" The Classical Quarterly, New Series, 30.1 (1980; 174–182).
[5] Translation (http:/ / www. tkline. freeserve. co. uk/ Metamorph. htm#_Toc64105470) by A. S. Kline, 2000.
[6] Róheim, Animism, Magic and the Divine King, (London 1930:308)
[7] Fontenrose, The Delphic oracle: its responses and operations 1981:49.
[8] lightfoot p. 474.
[9] Pausanias, x.7.8.
[10] J. L. Lightfoot, tr. Parthenius of Nicaea: the poetical fragments and the Erōtika pathēmata 1999, notes to XV, Περὶ Δάφνης pp 471ff.
[11] Pausanias viii.20.2.
[12] Lightfoot, p. 471.
[13] G. Shipley, "The Extent of Spartan Territory in the Late Classical and Hellenistic Periods", The Annual of the British School at Athens,
2000.
[14] Pausanias, 3.24.8 ( on-line text (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Pausanias3B. html)); Lilius Gregorius Gyraldus , Historiae Deorum
Gentilium, Basel, 1548, Syntagma 10, is noted in this connection in Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon, 1770 (http:/ /
www. textlog. de/ 40739. html)
[15] Karl Kerenyi, The Gods of the Greeks, 1951:141
[16] Built over 8th century walls and apsidal building beneath the naos, all betokening a Geometric date for the sanctuary.
[17] Rufus B. Richardson, "A Temple in Eretria" The American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts, 10.3 (July -
September 1895:326-337); Paul Auberson, Eretria. Fouilles et Recherches I, Temple d'Apollon Daphnéphoros, Architecture (Bern, 1968). See
also Plutarch, Pythian Oracle, 16.
External links
• Theoi Project: Daphne (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheDaphne.html)
• Apollo and Daphne (http://digilander.libero.it/debibliotheca/Arte/bernini/bernini_apollo_and_daphne.jpg) –
statue by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Echo (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Ekho (Greek: Ἠχώ, Ēkhō; "Sound") was an Oread (a mountain nymph) who loved her own
voice. Zeus loved consorting with beautiful nymphs and visited them on Earth often. Eventually, Zeus's wife, Hera,
became suspicious, and came from Mt. Olympus in an attempt to catch Zeus with the nymphs.
Zeus, the King of the Olympians, was known for his many love affairs. Sometimes the young and beautiful nymph
Echo would distract and amuse his wife Hera with long and entertaining stories while Zeus took advantage of the
moment to ravish the other mountain nymphs. When Hera discovered the trickery she punished the talkative Echo by
taking away her voice, except in foolish repetition of another's shouted words. Thus, all Echo could do was repeat
the voice of another.[1]
Echo fell in love with a vain youth named Narcissus, who was the son of the blue Nymph Liriope of Thespia. The
river god Cephisus had once encircled Liriope with the windings of his streams, trapping her, and seduced the
nymph. Concerned about her infant son's future, Liriope consulted the seer Teiresias. Teiresias told the nymph that
Narcissus "would live to a ripe old age, as long as he never knew himself."[1]
One day when Narcissus was out hunting stags, Echo stealthily followed the handsome youth through the woods
longing to address him but unable to speak first. When Narcissus finally heard footsteps and shouted "Who's there?",
Echo answered "Who's there?" And so it went, until finally Echo showed herself and rushed to embrace the lovely
youth. He pulled away from the nymph and vainly told her to leave him alone. Narcissus left Echo heartbroken, and
she spent the rest of her life in lonely glens pining away for the love she never knew, crying until all that was left
was her voice. However, in other versions Echo cries until she is stone and an invisible Echo (probably her
ghost/spirit) haunts the Earth.
The most popular version of the Echo/Narcissus story depicts that when Narcissus realises he is in love with his own
reflection, he becomes utterly distraught and realising no way to fulfill his love, he takes his hunting knife and stabs
himself through the heart. As the blood drops fell to the ground they spawned the first growth of the Daffodil, also
known as the Narcissus flower (or plant).
Echo was a beautiful and musical nymph who could sing and play many instruments.[2] She lived in the woods and
denied the love of any man or god.[2] Pan, a lecherous god, fell in love with Echo, but she ran away from him. He
became so angry when she refused him, he created such a "panic" causing a group of shepherds to kill her. Echo was
torn to pieces and spread all over the Earth.[3] The goddess of the earth, Gaia, received the pieces of Echo, whose
voice remains repeating the last words of others.[2] In some versions, Echo and Pan had two children: Iambe[4] and
Iynx[5]
Other cultures
• In Slavic mythology, Oźwiena was similar to Echo.
Popular culture
• In 2008, director Gabriel Bologna, wrote and directed the horror film, "The Black Waters of Echo's pond," about
an evil board game based on the mythology of Echo and her namesake pond. The film stars Robert Patrick,
Danielle Harris, Jimmy Duval, and Nick Mennell. Electra and Elise Avallon.
• In 2009, Leona Lewis' sophomore album, entitled "Echo", was named after the myth of Echo.[6]
• U.S. TV series Dollhouse directed by Joss Whedon features Echo, played by Eliza Dushku, whom is sold to
customers as a "doll" or "active". She is imprinted with various personalities through an electronic system, and
her memory is erased once her last mission is done.
• In 2010, the band Glass Wave recorded a song entitled "Echo," which recounts Ovid's myth of Echo and
Narcissus from the perspective of the nymph Echo.
Notes
[1] Ovid, 'Metamorphoses'. New york: Oxford University Press Inc., 1998. Print. Trans. Melville, A.D. (pages 61-66)
[2] Echo & Narcisus (http:/ / thanasis. com/ echo. htm). See (Short Greek version)
[3] Dionysus, Pan, Echo, and Narcissus (http:/ / www. oup. com/ us/ companion. websites/ 9780195308044/ studentresources/ chapters/ ch13).
Chapter 13 of Classical Mythology, Eighth Edition, by Mark P. O. Morford and Robert J. Lenardon. Oxford University Press. (See Pan and
Echo)
[4] Iambe (http:/ / www. mlahanas. de/ Greeks/ Mythology/ Iambe. html)
[5] Google books (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=HC93q4gsOAwC& pg=PA1076& lpg=PA1076& dq=Echo+ and+ pan+ Lynx&
source=bl& ots=7l-Hvprpr5& sig=xyv8uVtFE295ksTwJuYgQ9cY-50& hl=en& ei=zz3YTL7PMqHfnQePhZntCQ& sa=X& oi=book_result&
ct=result& resnum=5& ved=0CCsQ6AEwBA#v=onepage& q=Echo and pan Lynx& f=false) Gods, goddesses, and mythology, Volume 1, By
C. Scott Littleton, Marshall Cavendish Corporation
[6] Mattera, Adam. "Bio" (http:/ / www. leonalewismusic. co. uk/ gb/ bio/ ). Leonalewismusic.co.uk. . Retrieved 17 February 2010.
Electra (Pleiad)
The Pleiad Electra English pronunciation: /ɨˈlɛktrə/ of Greek mythology was one of the seven daughters of Atlas and
Pleione. Electra was the wife of Corythus. She was raped by Zeus and gave birth to Dardanus, who became the
founder of Troy, ancestor of Priam and his house. According to one legend, she was the lost Pleiad, disappearing in
grief after the destruction of Troy. She was called Atlantis by Ovid, personifying the family of Pleiades. Electra
means "amber," "shining," and "bright."
The Pirt-Kopan-noot tribe of Australia have a legend of a lost Pleiad, making this the queen of the remaining six.
The lost Pleiad is revered by the heavenly Crow (Canopus) and never returns to her home after she is carried away
by him.
Thy beauty shrouded by the heavy veil Thy wedlock won. (Elizabeth Worthington Fiske).[1]
References
[1] Richard Hinckley Allen. Electra, Star Names and their Meanings. Dover Publications, 1963, p. 406.
Epimeliad 474
Epimeliad
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
medicine
and Artemis
Nymphs
In Greek mythology, the Epimeliads or Epimelides are nymphs who are protectors of apple trees. However, the
word for "apple" (μηλον) in ancient Greek texts is also the word for "sheep". This translation gives Epimeliads as
protectors of sheep and goats. Their hair was white, like apple blossoms or undyed wool.like other dryads,they can
shapeshift from tree to human.
References
• Theoi Project - Epimelides [1]
References
[1] http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ Epimelides. html
Eurydice 475
Eurydice
Eurydice (Εὐρυδίκη, Eurydíkē) (yur-ID-ih-see) in Greek mythology,
was an oak nymph or one of the daughters of Apollo (the god of light).
She was the wife of Orpheus, who loved her dearly; on their wedding
day, he played joyful songs as his bride danced through the meadow.
One day, a satyr saw and pursued Eurydice, who stepped on a
venomous snake, dying instantly. Distraught, Orpheus played and sang
so mournfully that all the nymphs and gods wept and told him to travel
to the Underworld and retrieve her, which he gladly did. After his
music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone, his singing so
sweet that even the Erinyes wept, he was allowed to take her back to
the world of the living. In another version, Orpheus played his lyre to
put Cerberus, the guardian of Hades, to sleep, after which Eurydice
was allowed to return with Orpheus to the world of the living. Either
way, the condition was attached that he must walk in front of her and Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein, Orpheus and
not look back until both had reached the upper world. However, just as Eurydice, 1806, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek,
they reached the portals of Hades and daylight, he could not help but Copenhagen
turn around to gaze on her face, and Eurydice vanished again from his
sight, this time forever.
The story in this form belongs to the time of Virgil, who first
introduces the name of Aristaeus and the tragic outcome.[1] Other
ancient writers, however, speak of Orpheus' visit to the underworld in a
more negative light; according to Phaedrus in Plato's Symposium,[2] the
infernal gods only "presented an apparition" of Eurydice to him. Ovid
says that Eurydice's death was not caused by fleeing from Aristaeus but
by dancing with naiads on her wedding day. In fact, Plato's
representation of Orpheus is that of a coward; instead of choosing to
die in order to be with the one he loved, he instead mocked the gods by
trying to go to Hades and get her back alive. Since his love was not
"true" — meaning he was not willing to die for it — he was actually
punished by the gods, first by giving him only the apparition of his
former wife in the underworld, and then by being killed by women.
The story of Eurydice may actually be a late addition to the Orpheus

myths. In particular, the name Eurudike ("she whose justice extends
widely") recalls cult-titles attached to Persephone. The myth may have
been derived from another Orpheus legend in which he travels to
Charles-François Lebœuf, Dying Eurydice
Tartarus and charms the goddess Hecate.[3]
(1822), marble
The story of Eurydice has strong parallels to the Japanese myth of
Izanami, as well as to the Mayan myth of Itzamna and Ix Chel, the Indian myth of Savitri and Satyavan, the
Akkadian/Sumerian myth of Inanna's descent to the underworld, and the Biblical story of Lot and his wife.
Works of art
Eurydice 476
The story of Orpheus and Eurydice has been depicted in a number of works by famous artists, including Titian, Peter
Paul Rubens, Nicolas Poussin and recently Bracha Ettinger whose series Eurydice was exhibited in the Pompidou
Centre, Paris (Face à l'Histoire, 1996); the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (Kabinet, 1997) and The Royal Museum
of Fine Arts, Antwerpen (Gorge(l), 2007) and has inspired ample writings in the fields of ethics, aesthetics, art and
feminist theory. It has also been retold in an opera by Monteverdi, Jacopo Peri, C W Gluck, Yevstigney Fomin and
Harrison Birtwistle, a play by Sarah Ruhl, and in the comic book The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. It also forms the
basis for the 1967 song "From the Underworld" by The Herd, and the poem "The Years Go Fast and the Days Go
Slow" by James McCoy. "Eurydice (don't follow)" is also a song by the band The Cruxshadows. The music project
Sleepthief includes a song called "Eurydice" on their first album, The Dawnseeker. The myth of Orpheus and
Eurydice features prominently in the 1967 album Reflections by Manos Hadjidakis, the Nick Cave and the Bad
Seeds album The Lyre of Orpheus, and The New York Rock and Roll Ensemble song "Orpheus". The band She &
Him has a song entitled Don't Look Back, which references the story. The myth inspired the 1959 film Black
Orpheus (Portuguese: Orfeu Negro) made in Brazil by French director Marcel Camus. It won the Golden Palm at the
1959 Cannes Film Festival. The myth also is the basis for Anais Mitchell's folk opera Hadestown, created in
collaboration with composer Michael Chorney and director Ben T. Matchstick. The freeware game Don't Look Back
is a modern interpretation of the story.
References
[1] M. Owen Lee, Virgil as Orpheus: A Study of the Georgics, State University of New York Press, Albany (1996), p. 9.
[2] Symposium 179d (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0174:text=Sym. :section=179d).
[3] Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, Penguin Books Ltd., London (1955), Volume 1, Chapter 28, "Orpheus", p. 115.
Sources
• Ovid, Metamorphoses 10
• Apollodorus, The Library 1.3.2
• Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.30
• Virgil, Georgics 4.453
• Plato, Symposium
• Sleepthief,"Eurydice" featuring Jody Quine"
• Griselda Pollock, "Abandoned at the Mouth of Hell". In: Looking Back to the Future. G&B Arts. ISBN
90-5701-132-8.
• Judith Butler, "Bracha's Eurydice". In: Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger: Eurydice Series. Edited by Catherine de
Zegher and Brian Massumi. Drawing Papers n.24. The Drawing center, NY, 2001. Reprinted in: Theory, Culture
and Society, 21(1), 2004. ISSN 0263-2764.
• Emmanuel Levinas in conversation with Bracha L. Ettinger, "What would Eurydice Say?" (1991-1993).
Reprinted in 1997. Reprinted in Athena: Philosophical Studies, Volume 2, 2006. ISSN 1822-5047.
• Dorota Glowaka, "Lyotard and Eurydice". In: Margaret Grebowicz (ed.),Gender after Lyotard. NY: Suny Press,
2007. ISBN 978-0-7914-6956-9
• Christine Buci-Glucksmann, "Eurydice and her Doubles. Painting after Auschwitz", in: Artworking 1985-1999,
Amsterdam: Ludion, 2000. ISBN 90-5544-283-6.
• Carol Ann Duffy, "Eurydice". In: The World's Wife. ISBN 978-0-330-37222-0.
Euryte 477
Euryte
In Greek mythology, the name Euryte may refer to:
• A nymph, mother of Halirrhothius by Poseidon.[1]
• Daughter of Hippodamas and granddaughter of Achelous. By Porthaon, she was the mother of Oineus, Agrius,
Leucopeus, Melas, Alcathous and Sterope.[2]
References
Glauce
In Greek mythology, Glauce (in ancient Greek: Γλαυκή), Latin Glauca, refers to seven different people:
1. Glauce, daughter of Creon. She married Jason. She was killed, along with Jason's children, by his wife, Medea.
Also known by the name Creusa, predominantly in Latin authors, e.g. Seneca (Medea) and Propertius (2.16.30).
2. Glauce, one of the Nereids
3. Glauce, one of the Danaids, daughter of Danaus. She married Alces, son of Aegyptus and an Arabian woman.
4. Glauce, daughter of Cychreus, son of Poseidon and Salamis. Some sources say that Glauce married Aeacus and
bore him a son Telamon. Others say that Telamon was her husband and that, after her death, he married Periboea,
mother of Ajax.
5. Glauce, a nymph, one of the nurses of Zeus
6. Glauce, an amazon
7. Glauce, mother by Ajax, of Aeantides
Hamadryad 478
Hamadryad
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
medicine
and Artemis
Nymphs
Hamadryads (Ἁμαδρυάδες) are Greek mythological beings that live

in trees. They are a specific kind of dryad, which are a particular type
of nymph. Hamadryads are born bonded to a specific tree. Some
believe that hamadryads are the actual tree, while normal dryads are
simply the entity, or spirit, of the tree. If the tree died, the hamadryad
associated with it died as well. For that reason, dryads and the gods
punished any mortals who harmed trees. The Deipnosophistae of
Athenaeus lists eight Hamadryads, the daughters of Oxylus and
Hamadryas:
• Karya (Walnut or Hazelnut)

• Balanos (Oak)
Tile mosaic of Pan and a hamadryad, found in
• Kraneia (Dogwood) Pompeii.
• Morea (Mulberry)
• Aigeiros (Black Poplar)
• Ptelea (Elm)
• Ampelos (Vines, especially Vitis)
• Syke (fig)
Their mother, Hamadryas, is immortalized in the name of both the genus that contains the Cracker butterfly and the
northernmost monkey in Asia Minor, the Hamadryas baboon. The Cracker Butterfly is more arboreal than most
butterflies, as it commonly camouflages itself on trees. It feeds not on nectar but on sap, rotting fruit, and dung. The
Hamadryas baboon however is one of the least arboreal monkeys but it was the most common monkey in Hellenic
Hamadryad 479
lands.
Hamadryad is referenced as a whole in Edgar Allan Poe's sonnet, "To Science."
References
• The Deipnosophists, or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus [1] presented online by the University of Wisconsin
Digital Collections Center [2]
External links
• Theoi Project - Hamadryades [3]
References
[1] http:/ / digital. library. wisc. edu/ 1711. dl/ Literature. DeipnoSub
[2] http:/ / uwdc. library. wisc. edu
[3] http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NymphaiHamadryades. html
Harpina
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
Aquatic deities
• Poseidon • Triton
• Oceanus • Proteus
• Nereus • Pontus
• Glaucus • Oceanids
• Thetis • Nereids
• Amphitrite • Naiads
• Tethys
Nymphs
• Dryads • Hamadryads
• Naiads • Oceanids
• Meliae • Limnades
• Oreads • Crinaeae
• Napaeae • Hesperides
• Nereids • Pegaeae
In Greek mythology, Harpina (Greek Άρπινα) was a Naiad nymph and daughter of Phliasian Asopus and of
Metope. Pausanias (5.22.6) and Diodorus Siculus (4.73.1) mention Harpina and state that, according to the tradition
of the Eleans and Phliasians, Ares mated with her in the city of Pisa (located in the ancient Greek region of Elis) and
she bore him Oenomaus, the king of Pisa. Oenomaus (6.21.8) founded and named after his mother the city of
Harpina 480
Harpina, not far from the river Harpinates, near Olympia. Pausanias (5.22.6) mentions Harpina in his description of a
group sculpture, donated by the Phliasians, of the daughters of Asopus, which included Nemea, Zeus seizing Aegina,
Harpina, Corcyra, Thebe and Asopus. The sculpture was located in the sanctuary of Hippodamia at Olympia.
References
• Diodorus Siculus, 1939. The library of history (English translation by C.H. Oldfather. Cambridge, MA, Harvard
University Press)
• Pausanias, 1918. Pausanias Description of Greece (English translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A.
Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd)
• 5.22.6 [1]
• 6.21.8 [2]
• Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography [3], 1854. (ed. William Smith, LLD)
Further reading
• Theoi Project - Nymphe Harpina [4]
• Greek Mythology Link [5]
• Family tree [6]
References
[1] http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?lookup=Paus%2e+ 5%2e22%2e6
[2] http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?lookup=Paus%2e+ 6%2e21%2e8
[3] http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999. 04. 0064& layout=& loc=harpina-geo
[4] http:/ / theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheHarpina. html
[5] http:/ / homepage. mac. com/ cparada/ GML/ Oenomaus1. html
[6] http:/ / www. romansonline. com/ Famy. asp?IntID=10534& Ename=Oenomaus
Hegetoria 481
Hegetoria
In Greek mythology, Hegetoria was a local nymph at Rhodes who married Ochimus. They had a daughter, Cydippe
or Cyrbia, who married Ochimus's brother, Cercaphus, successor to his brother's power.[1] According to an alternate
version, Ochimus engaged Cydippe to Ocridion but Cercaphus loved her and kidnapped her. He did not return until
Ochimus was old.[2]
References
[1] Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5.57.7
[2] Plutarch, Quaestiones Graecae, 27
Helike (mythology)
For the ancient Greek city see Helike. For the moon of Jupiter, see Helike (moon).
In Greek mythology, Helike was one of the nymphs who nurtured Zeus in his infancy on Crete (Aratus, Phaenomena
27 [1] and also [2]). Her name suggests that she was a "willow-nymph", just as there were oak-tree nymphs and
ash-nymphs (Dryads and Meliai).
Helike was in antiquity also a common proper name for the constellation Ursa Major.[3]
References
[1] http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Ouranos/ Kronos. html
[2] http:/ / homepage. mac. com/ dykow/ libpagan/ h. html
[3] Classical E-text: Aratus, "Phaenomena", translation by A. W. Mair, G. R. Loeb (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ AratusPhaenomena. html)
Hesperia 482
Hesperia
Hesperia may refer to: Hesperia or Hesper is the Greek goddess of the evening star in Greek mythology, may refer
to:
• Hesperia, one of the Hesperides in Greek mythology
• Hesperia as "western land", a term sometimes applied to Italy and sometimes to the Iberian Peninsula
• Hesperia, also called Asterope, the wife or desired lover of Aesacus and daughter of the river Cebren
• Hesperia, California, a city in the United States
• Hesperia, Michigan, a village in the United States
• 69 Hesperia, an asteroid
• Hesperia Planum, a region of Mars
• Hesperia (skipper) (the Branded Skippers), a genus in the Skippers (Hesperiidae) butterfly family
• Hesperia (journal), an academic journal of Classical archaeology
Hesperides
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
medicine
and Artemis
Nymphs
In Greek mythology, the Hesperides (Greek: Ἑσπερίδες) are nymphs who tend a blissful garden in a far western
corner of the world, located near the Atlas mountains in North Africa at the edge of the encircling Oceanus, the
world-ocean.[1]
According to the Sicilian Greek poet Stesichorus, in his poem the "Song of Geryon", and the Greek geographer
Strabo, in his book Geographika (volume III), the Hesperides are in Tartessos, a location placed in the south of the
Iberian peninsula.
Hesperides 483
By Roman times, the garden of the Hesperides had lost its archaic place in religion and had dwindled to a poetic
convention, in which form it was revived in Renaissance poetry, to refer both to the garden and to the nymphs that
dwelt there.
The Nymphs of the Evening

Ordinarily the Hesperides number three, like the other Greek triads (the Three Graces and the Moirae). "Since the
Hesperides themselves are mere symbols of the gifts the apples embody, they cannot be actors in a human drama.
Their abstract, interchangeable names are a symptom of their impersonality," Evelyn Harrison has observed;[2]
nevertheless, among the names given to them, though never all at once, are Aegle ("dazzling light"), Arethusa,
Erytheia (or Erytheis), Hesperia (alternatively Hespereia, Hespere, Hespera, Hesperusa, or Hesperethoosa). Lipara,
Asterope and Chrysothemis are named in a Hesperide scene of the apotheosis of Heracles (romanised to Hercules)
on a late fifth-century hydria by the Meidias Painter in London[3] They are sometimes called the Western Maidens,
the Daughters of Evening, or Erythrai, the "Sunset Goddesses", designations all apparently tied to their imagined
location in the distant west. Hesperis is appropriately the personification of the evening (as Eos is of the dawn) and
the Evening Star is Hesperus. In addition to their tending of the garden, they were said to have taken great pleasure
in singing.
They are sometimes portrayed as the evening daughters of Night (Nyx) either alone,[4] or with Darkness (Erebus),[5]
in accord with the way Eos in the farthermost east, in Colchis, is the daughter of the titan Hyperion. Or they are
listed as the daughters of Atlas, or of Zeus and either Hesperius or Themis, or Phorcys and Ceto.
Erytheia ("the red one") is one of the Hesperides. The name was applied to the island close to the coast of southern
Hispania, that was the site of the original Punic colony of Gades (modern Cadiz). Pliny's Natural History (4.36)
records of the island of Gades: "On the side which looks towards Spain, at about 100 paces distance, is another long
island, three miles wide, on which the original city of Gades stood. By Ephorus and Philistides it is called Erythia, by
Timæus and Silenus Aphrodisias, and by the natives the Isle of Juno." The island was the seat of Geryon, who was
overcome by Heracles.
The Garden of the Hesperides

The Garden of the Hesperides is Hera's orchard in the west,
where either a single tree or a grove of immortality-giving golden
apples grew. The apples were planted from the fruited branches
that Gaia gave to her as a wedding gift when Hera accepted Zeus.
The Hesperides were given the task of tending to the grove, but
occasionally plucked from it themselves. Not trusting them, Hera
also placed in the garden a never-sleeping, hundred-headed dragon
named Ladon as an additional safeguard.
The Twelfth Labour of Heracles

After Heracles completed his first ten Labours, Eurystheus gave
The Garden of the Hesperides by Frederick, Lord
Leighton, 1892. him two more claiming that neither the Hydra counted (because
Iolaus helped Heracles) nor the Augean stables (either because he
received payment for the job or because the rivers did the work). The first of these two additional Labours was to
steal the apples from the garden of the Hesperides. Heracles first caught the Old Man of the Sea,[6] the shape-shifting
sea god, to learn where the Garden of the Hesperides was located.[7]
Hesperides 484
In some variations, Heracles, either at the start or at the end of his task, meets Antaeus, who was invincible as long
as he touched his mother, Gaia, the earth. Heracles killed Antaeus by holding him aloft and crushing him in a
bearhug.[8]
Herodotus claims that Heracles stopped in Egypt, where King Busiris decided to make him the yearly sacrifice, but
Heracles burst out of his chains.
Finally making his way to the Garden of the Hesperides, Heracles
tricked Atlas into retrieving some of the golden apples for him, by
offering to hold up the heavens for a little while (Atlas was able to
take them as, in this version, he was the father or otherwise related to
the Hesperides). This would have made this task - like the Hydra and
Augean stables - void because he had received help. Upon his return,
Atlas decided that he did not want to take the heavens back, and
instead offered to deliver the apples himself, but Heracles tricked
him again by agreeing to take his place on condition that Atlas
Hercules stealing the golden apples from the Garden
relieve him temporarily so that Heracles could make his cloak more of the Hesperides. Detail of a Twelve Labours
comfortable. Atlas agreed, but Heracles reneged and walked away, Roman mosaic from Llíria, Spain (3rd century).
carrying the apples. According to an alternative version, Heracles
slew Ladon instead.
There is another variation to the story where Heracles was the only person to steal the apples, other than Perseus,
although Athena later returned the apples to their rightful place in the garden. They are considered by some to be the
same "apples of joy" that tempted Atalanta, as opposed to the "apple of discord" used by Eris to start a beauty contest
on Olympus (which caused "The Siege of Troy").
On Attic pottery, especially from the late fifth century, Heracles is depicted sitting in bliss in the Gardens of the
Hesperides, attended by the maidens.
The Hesperides in the Renaissance

With the revival of classical allusions in the Renaissance, the Hesperides returned to their prominent position, and
the garden itself took on the name of its nymphs: Robert Greene wrote of "The fearful Dragon... that watched the
garden called Hesperides".[9] Shakespeare inserted the comically insistent rhyme "is not Love a Hercules, Still
climbing trees in the Hesperides" in Love's Labours Lost (iv.iii) and John Milton mentioned the "ladies of the
Hesperides" in Paradise Regained (ii.357).
See also
• Avalon
• Cedar Forest
• Immortality
• Paradise
• Fortunate Islands
Hesperides 485
Notes
[1] A confusion of the Garden of the Hesperides with an equally idyllic Arcadia is a modern one, conflating Sir Philip Sidney's Countess of
Pembroke's Arcadia and Robert Herrick's Hesperides: both are viewed by Renaissance poets as oases of bliss, but they were not connected by
the Greeks. The development of Arcadia as an imagined setting for pastoral is the contribution of Theocritus to Hellenistic culture: see
Arcadia (utopia).
[2] Evelyn B. Harrison, "Hesperides and Heroes: A Note on the Three-Figure Reliefs", Hesperia 33.1 (January 1964 pp. 76-82) pp 79-80.
[3] Illustrated in Harrison 1964:plate 13. Beyond the group sits Hygeia, perhaps giving rise to a mistaken impressionm that there might be four
Hesperides. Sometimes two of the three are represented with Heracles when the symmetry of a composition requires it, as in the so-called
"Three-Figure Reliefs". A good survey of the Hesperides' representations on fourth-century vases is Dieter Metzler, Les representations dans
la céramique attique du IVe siècle (1951) pp 204-10.
[4] Hesiod, Theogony 215 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Hes. Th. 215& lang=original)
[5] Hyginus, Fabulae Preface (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HyginusFabulae1. html); Cicero De Natura Deorum 3.44 (http:/ / www. perseus.
tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:2007. 01. 0037:book=3:section=44)
[6] Kerenyi, The Heroes of the Greeks, 1959, p.172, identifies him in this context as Nereus; as a shape-shifter he is often identified as Proteus.
[7] In some versions of the tale, Heracles was directed to ask Prometheus. As payment, he freed Prometheus from his daily torture. This tale is
more usually found in the position of the Erymanthian Boar, since it is associated with Chiron choosing to forgo immortality and taking
Prometheus' place.
[8] Apollodorus ii. 5; Hyginus, Fab. 31
[9] Greene, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (published 1594)
References
ISBN 9780631201021. "Hesperides" p. 213 (http://books.google.com/books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC&
printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=Hesperides&f=false)
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Hespe'rides" (http:/
/www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:alphabetic+letter=H:entry+
group=11:entry=hesperides-bio-1)
External links
• The Theoi Project, "THE HESPERIDES" (http://www.theoi.com/Titan/Hesperides.html)
• 'The Garden of the Hesperides' (http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/picture-of-month/displaypicture.
asp?venue=7&id=137) in the Lady Lever Art Gallery (http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/index.
asp)
• JC Loudon on the Gardens of Hesperides (1835) (http://www.gardenvisit.com/book/
history_of_garden_design_and_gardening/chapter_1_gardening_in_the_ancient_world/gardens_of_hesperides)
Himalia (mythology) 486
Himalia (mythology)
Himalia is a nymph in Greek mythology. Zeus was enamoured with her and she produced three sons with him,
Spartaios, Kronios, and Kytos.
References
• Theoi Project [1]
References
[1] http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Olympios/ ZeusFamily. html#Rhodes
Hyades (mythology)
In Greek mythology, the Hyades (pronounced /ˈhaɪ.ədiːz/; Ancient Greek: Ὑάδες "the rainy ones"), are a sisterhood
of nymphs that bring rain.
The Hyades were daughters of Atlas (by either Pleione or Aethra, one of the Oceanides) and sisters of Hyas in most
tellings, although one version gives their parents as Hyas and Boeotia.[1] [2] [3] The Hyades are sisters to the Pleiades
and the Hesperides.
The main myth concerning them is envisioned to account for their collective name and to provide an etiology for
their weepy raininess: Hyas was killed in a hunting accident and the Hyades wept from their grief.[1] [4] They were
changed into a cluster of stars, the Hyades set in the head of Taurus.[5]
Their number varies from three of the earliest sources to fifteen of the late ones. The names are also variable,
according to the mythographer, and include[1] [3] [6] [7] :
• Aesyle or Phaesyle
• Ambrosia
• Cleeia
• Coronis
• Eudora
• Pedile
• Phaeo or Phaeote
• Phyto
• Polyxo
Servius[8] gives a set of five names that doesn't match any other known lists: Pytho, Synecho, Baccho, Cardie,
Niseis.
Additionally, Thyone and Prodice were supposed to be daughters of Hyas by Aethra, and have been added to the
group of stars.
The Greeks believed that the rising and setting of the Hyades star cluster were always attended with rain, hence the
association of the Hyades (sisters of Hyas) and the Hyades (daughters of ocean) with the constellation of the Hyades
(rainy ones).[3] [9] [10]
The Hyades are also thought to have been the tutors of Dionysus, in some tellings of the latter's infancy,[1] and as
such are equated with the Nysiads, the nymphs who are also believed to have cared for Dionysus,[11] as well as with
other reputed nurses of the god - the Lamides,[12] the Dodonides[3] and the nymphs of Naxos.[13] Some sources relate
that they were subject to aging, but Dionysus, to express his gratitude for having raised him, asked Medea to restore
Hyades (mythology) 487
their youth.[14] [15] [16]
References
[1] Hyginus, Fabulae, 192
[2] Ovid, Fasti, 5. 169 ff
[3] Hyginus, Poetical Astronomy 2. 21
[5] "Taurus' face gleams with seven rays of fire, which Greek sailors call Hyades from their rain-word." (Ovid, Fasti, 5. 164). In Ancient Greek,
"to rain" is hyein.
[6] Hesiod, Astronomy Fragment 2 (in Theon on Aratus, Phaenomena, 254)
[7] Eustathius on Homer's Iliad 1156
[8] Servius on Virgil's Georgics, 1. 138
[9] Hesiod, Works and Days 609 ff
[10] Cicero, De Natura Deorum 2. 43. 111; he also points out that the Romans wrongly refer to the Hyades as Suculae (Piglets), as though the
name Hyades was derived from hys "sow", while it actually derives from hyein "to rain"
[12] Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 9. 28 ff; in 14. 143, the identification is explicit
[13] Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5.52.1; the Naxian nymphs were named Philia, Coronis and Cleide
[14] Ovid, Metamorphoses 7. 294
[16] Suidas s. v. απεψησάμην
External links
• Theoi Project – Nymphai Hyades (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NymphaiHyades.html)
• Myth Index - Hyades (http://www.mythindex.com/greek-mythology/H/Hyades.html)
Ianthe
Ianthe (English translation: "purple or violet flower") was a name attributed to three figures in Greek mythology.
• Ianthe was a Cretan girl who was betrothed to Iphis. Iphis was a woman raised as a man; she also fell in love
with Ianthe and prayed to the gods to allow the two women to marry. She was changed by Iphis into a man, and
became Ianthe's husband.[1]
• Ianthe, one of the 3,000 sons and daughters of the Titan Oceanus and Tethys, the Oceanids mentioned in homeric
hymn to Demeter, who was one of the nymphs with the Goddess of Spring, Persephone when she was captured by
Hades, the God of the Underworld.
• Ianthe, a young girl, so beautiful that when she died the Gods made purple flowers grow around her grave.
Other references
• Ianthe was the nickname the poet Lord Byron gave to his intimate friend, Lady Charlotte Harley, to whom Childe
Harold's Pilgrimage is dedicated.
• Mary Saunderson was sometimes referred to as Ianthe throughout her life, due to her excellent performance of the
character in The Siege of Rhodes
• In Percy Shelley's poem, "Queen Mab," the fairy queen visits a character named Ianthe. The fairy then takes the
soul of the sleeping Ianthe and leads it across existence and uses the soul to highlight the good and pure in
mankind. Shelley uses this to illustrate the evil in man's nature. Shelley also named his eldest daughter with
Harriet Westbrook, Eliza Ianthe (born June 23, 1813).
• Ianthe was the love interest of the main character in John Polidori's The Vampyre.
Ianthe 488
• Ianthe is the name of the main belt asteroid 98 Ianthe.

• Ianthe is also the name of a major city in the nation of Ophir (see also Hyborian Age, Conan the Barbarian,
Robert E. Howard)
The name is pronounced I-AN-THEE.
References
[1] Ovid. Metamorphoses, Book IX, 666-797
Idaea
Idaea can mean:
• Idaea, a genus of geometer moths, including I. aversata, I. biselata and I. seriata
• In Greek mythology (also Idaia):
• Idaea, a nymph, wife of Scamander and mother of King Teucer
• Idaea, great-granddaughter of the precedent, the offspring of Bateia (daughter of Teucrus) and Dardanus, and
second wife of Phineas
• Idaea, an epithet of Cybele, referring to Mt. Ida in Asia Minor, a center of her cult.
Iphimedeia
In Greek mythology, Iphimedeia (Greek: Ἰφιμήδεια) was a nymph and the daughter of the river-god Triopas. Her
brothers were Erysichthon and Phorbas. She was the wife of Aloeus, who was also her uncle. With Poseidon she was
the mother of Otus and Ephialtes (who were called the Aloadae after their stepfather), as well as Cercyon and the
bandit Sciron.
Kallichore (mythology) 489
Kallichore (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Kallichore is sometimes considered one of the Muses, and thus a daughter of Zeus (Jupiter).
However, she is better known as one of the Nysiads, nymphs which nursed Dionysos. Both the lunar crater
Kallichore and Jupiter's moon Kallichore are named after her.
Kleodora
In Greek mythology, Kleodora (or Cleodora) was one of the prophetic Thriai, nymphs who divined the future by
throwing stones or pebbles. She and her sisters (Melaina and Daphnis) lived on Mount Parnassus in Phocis and was
loved by Poseidon. With Poseidon (or Kleopompos), she became the mother of Parnassus.[1] Her father was the local
river-god Cephissus of northern Boeotia. There was probably a spring or well near Delphi that she once inhabited.
References
[1] Pausanias, 10.6.13.
Korkyra
"Corcyra" redirects here. For the snout moth genus, see Rice Moth.
In Greek mythology Korkyra was the daughter of the Asopos river and the nymph Metope. According to myth
Poseidon fell in love with the beautiful nymph Korkyra, kidnapped her and brought her to a hitherto unnamed island
and offered her name to the place: Korkyra or modern Kerkyra (Corfu). Together they had a child Phaiax after
whom the inhabitants of the island, Phaiakes, were named; their name was later transliterated in Latinate
orthography to Phaeacians. [1] [2]
References
[1] Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica. 4.557 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ ApolloniusRhodius4. html)
[2] Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 4.72.3 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ DiodorusSiculus4D. html)
Lampads 490
Lampads
The Lampads or "Lampades" (Greek: Λαμπάδες) are the nymphs of the Underworld in Greek mythology.
Companions of Hecate, the Greek titan goddess of witchcraft and crossroads, they were a gift from Zeus for Hecate's
loyalty in the Titanomachy. They bear torches and accompany Hecate on her night-time travels and hauntings. Some
accounts tell of how the light of the Lampads' torches has the power to drive one to madness.
The Lampads were probably the daughters or sons of various Underworld gods, Daimones, river gods, or Nyx.
The Lampads' Roman name is Nymphae Avernales.
Sources
• http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Lampades.html
Larissa (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Larissa (Greek: Λάρισσα) was a local nymph from Thessaly. She was described by Pausanias
as a daughter of Pelasgus. However, Hellanicus states that the sons of Poseidon and Larissa were Achaios, Phthios,
and Pelasgus. Strabo (Geographika, xiv) calls her a daughter of Piasus, a Pelasgian prince.
The arx of Argos and two towns (Larissa in Thessaly and one in the Peneus) are believed to have derived their name
(meaning "citadel"[1] ) from her.[2]
She was represented on the obverse of common drachms produced by the city of Larissa between 400 BCE and at
least 340 BCE, as a three-quarters face with outward flowing hair.[3] This style was copied from the head of
Arethusa by Cimon, depicted on Syracusan tetradrachms.[4] [5] According to hoard evidence from Thessaly, this
coinage was produced down to c. 320 BCE.[6] Other coins depict Larissa seated, holding a hydria and with a spring
nearby, confirming her status as a nymph.[7]
A moon of Neptune was discovered by Harold J. Reitsema, William B. Hubbard, Larry A. Lebofsky and David J.
Tholen on May 24, 1981 and later given the name Larissa. Larissa is also designated as "Neptune VII", S/1981 N 1
and "S/1989 N 2".
References
[1] Λάρισα (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 04. 0057:entry=*la/ risa), Henry George Liddell, Robert
Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus
[2] Smith p.722
[3] Mørkholm p.85
[4] Larson p.166
[5] Mørkholm p.85
[6] Bellinger
[7] Larson p.165
• Bellinger, A.R. (1965). "The Thessaly hoard on 1938". INC Rome Atti 1965: 57–60.
• Larson, Jennifer S. (2001) Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore. Oxford, Oxford University Press. ISBN
0-19-514465-1
• Mørkholm, Otto (1991) Early Hellenistic Coinage from the Accession of Alexander to the Peace of Apamaea
(336–188 BC). Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-39504-6
• Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.24.1. available online (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/
ptext?lookup=Paus.+2.24.1)
• Smith, William (1849) Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.
Larissa (mythology) 491
• Strabo, Geographika, xiv
External links
• LarissaTora.com (http://larissatora.com/) A website about the prefecture of larissa with the coin image in its
banner (contains some information about the mythological Nymph named Larissa also).
• Silver coin with head of Larissa (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?lookup=Perseus:image:1990.
26.0909)
Leimakid
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
medicine
and Artemis
Nymphs
In Greek Mythology, Leimakids were nymphs of meadows. They are also known as Leimoniads.
Leuce (mythology) 492
Leuce (mythology)
Leuce was a nymph in Greek mythology, daughter of Oceanus, carried off by Hades, the god of the underworld.
According to some versions, she was metamorphosed by Hades in a white poplar tree after her death. Another
version is that she was metamorphosed by Persephone into a white poplar tree while standing by the pool of
Memory.
Heracles on his way back from his Twelfth Labour wove himself a wreath from the white poplar tree, or aspen. The
outer leaves remained black, the colour of the underworld, but the leaves in contact with his brow became
silver-white by his sweat. Thus the white poplar was sacred to him, signifying that he has laboured in both worlds.
The white poplar was also sacred to Persephone as Goddess of Regeneration.
References
• Graves Robert (1955). The Greek Myths I (Revised Edition 1960). London: Penguin, pp 121,124-125.
• Graves, Robert (1955). The Greek Myths II (Revised Edition 1960). London: Penguin, p 154
Sources
• Pausanias: Description of Greece 5.14.2 [1]
• Servius on Virgil's Eclogues vii.61
References
[1] http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999. 01. 0160& layout=& loc=5. 14. 2
Liriope (nymph)
In Greek mythology, Liriope or Leiriope is a Boeotian naiad, who was probably the daughter of one of the Boeotian
or Phocian river Gods. Liriope was loved by the river-god Cephissus, who was himself the son of Oceanus and
Tethys, and bore his son Narcissus.[1]
References
[1] Ovid, Metamorphoses, 3. 340
Lotis (mythology) 493
Lotis (mythology)
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
Aquatic deities
Lotis (Ancient Greek: Λωτίς) was a nymph of Greek mythology, the daughter of Poseidon or Nereus. Priapus tried
to rape her and she was changed into a lotus tree to escape him. Later, Dryope picked a flower off the tree Lotis had
become, and was transformed into a black poplar.
Maenad 494
Maenad
In Greek mythology, maenads (Ancient
Greek: μαινάδες, mainádes) were the
female followers of Bacchus (Dionysus), the
most significant members of the Thiasus,
the god's retinue. Their name literally
translates as "raving ones". Often the
maenads were portrayed as inspired by him
into a state of ecstatic frenzy, through a
combination of dancing and drunken
intoxication.[1] In this state, they would lose
all self-control, begin shouting excitedly,
engage in uncontrolled sexual behavior, and
ritualistically hunt down and tear to pieces
animals — and, in myth at least, sometimes
men and children — devouring the raw
flesh. During these rites, the maenads would
dress in fawn skins and carry a thyrsus, a
long stick wrapped in ivy or vine leaves and
tipped by a cluster of leaves; they would
Furious Maenad,carrying a thyrsus and a panther,with a snake rolled up over her
weave ivy-wreaths around their heads, and head.Tondo of an Ancient Greek Attic white-ground kylix 490-480 BC from
often handle or wear snakes.[2] German Vulci.Staatliche Antikensammlungen Munich Germany.
philologist Walter Friedrich Otto writes that
The Bacchae of Euripides gives us the most vital picture of the wonderful circumstance in which, as Plato says
in the Ion, the god-intoxicated celebrants draw milk and honey from the streams. They strike rocks with the
thyrsus, and water gushes forth. They lower the thyrsus to the earth, and a spring of wine bubbles up. If they
want milk, they scratch up the ground with their fingers and draw up the milky fluid. Honey trickles down
from the thyrsus made of the wood of the ivy, they gird themselves with snakes and give suck to fawns and
wolf cubs as if they were infants at the breast. Fire does not burn them. No weapon of iron can wound them,
and the snakes harmlessly lick up the sweat from their heated cheeks. Fierce bulls fall to the ground, victims to
numberless, tearing female hands, and sturdy trees are torn up by the roots with their combined efforts.[3]
The maddened Hellenic women of real life were mythologized as the mad women who were nurses of Dionysus in
Nysa: Lycurgus "chased the Nurses of the frenzied Dionysus through the holy hills of Nysa, and the sacred
implements dropped to the ground from the hands of one and all,as the murderous Lycurgus struck them down with
his ox-goad."[4] They went into the mountains at night and practised strange rites.[5]
In Macedon, according to Plutarch's Life of Alexander, they were called Mimallones and Klodones, epithets derived
from the feminine art of spinning wool;[6] nevertheless, these warlike parthenoi ("virgins") from the hills, associated
with a shamanic Dionysios pseudanor, routed an invading enemy.[7] In southern Greece they were described as
Bacchae, Bassarides, Thyiades, Potniades[8] and given other epithets.[9]
The maenads were also known as Bassarids (or Bacchae or Bacchantes) in Roman mythology, after the penchant
of the equivalent Roman god, Bacchus, to wear a fox-skin, a bassaris.
In Euripides' play The Bacchae, Theban maenads murdered King Pentheus after he banned the worship of Dionysus.
Dionysus, Pentheus' cousin, himself lured Pentheus to the woods, where the maenads tore him apart. His corpse was
mutilated by his own mother, Agave, who tore off his head, believing it to be that of a lion.
Maenad 495
A group of maenads also killed Orpheus.[10]

In Greek vase painting, the frolicking of maenads and Dionysus is often a theme depicted on Greek kraters, used to
mix water and wine. These scenes show the maenads in their frenzy running in the forests, often tearing to pieces
any animal they happen to come across.
Categories
Nurses and nymphs

The name maenad has come to be associated with a wide variety of
women, supernatural, mythological, and historical,[11] associated with
the god Dionysus and his worship. In the realm of the supernatural is
the category of nymphs who nurse and care for the young Dionysus,
and continue in his worship as he comes of age. The god Hermes is
said to have carried the young Dionysus to the nymphs of Nysa.
In another myth, when his mother, Semele, is killed, the care of young
Dionysus falls into the hands of her sisters, Ino, Agave, and Autonoe,
who later are depicted as participating in the rites and taking a
leadership role among the other maenads.
Dancing maenad. Detail from a Ancient Greek

Paestum red-figure skyphos, made by Python, ca.
330-320 BC. British Museum, London
Maenad 496
Resisters to the new religion

The term 'maenad' is also used to refer to a category of women in the
mythology who resist the worship of Dionysus, and are therefore
driven mad by him, being forced against their will to participate in
often horrific rites. The doubting women of Thebes, the prototypical
maenads, or 'mad women', left their homes to live in the wilds of the
nearby mountain Cithaeron. When they discover Pentheus spying on
them, dressed as a maenad, they tear him limb from limb.[12]
This also occurs with the three daughters of Minyas, who reject
Dionysus and remain true to their household duties, becoming startled
by invisible drums, flutes, cymbals, and seeing ivy hanging down from
their looms. As punishment for their resistance, they become
madwomen, choosing the child of one of their number by lot and
tearing it to pieces, as the women on the mountain did to young
animals. A similar story with a tragic end is told of the daughters of
Maenad and Satyr. Ancient Greek kylix by
Proetus.
Makron, 490-480 BC. Staatliche
Antikensammlungen München Kat. 94
Voluntary revelers
Not all women were inclined to resist the call of Dionysus, however. Maenads, possessed by the spirit of Dionysus,
traveled with him from Thrace to mainland Greece in his quest for the recognition of his divinity. Dionysus was said
to have danced down from Parnassos accompanied by Delphic virgins, and it is known that even as young girls the
women in Boeotia practiced not only the closed rites but also the bearing of the thyrsos and the dances.
The foundation myth is believed to have been reenacted every other year during the Agronia. Here the women of
Thebes were organized into three dance groups and rushed off to Mount Cithaeron with ritual cries of "to the
mountain!" As "mad women," they pursued and killed, perhaps by dismemberment (sparagmos), the 'king', possibly
represented by a goat. The maenads may have eaten the meat of the goat raw (omophagia) or sacrificed it to
Dionysus. Eventually the women would be freed from the madness and return to Thebes and their usual lives, but for
the time of the festival they would have had an intense ecstatic experience. The Agrionia was celebrated in several
Greek cities, but especially in Boeotia. Each Boeotian city had its own distinct foundation myth for it, but the pattern
was much the same: the arrival of Dionysus, resistance to him, flight of the women to a mountain, the killing of
Dionysus’ persecutor, and eventual reconciliation with the god.
Maenad 497
Priestesses of Dionysus
In this category of 'maenad' is found the later references to priestesses
of the Dionystic cult. In the third century BC, when an Asia Minor city
wanted to create a maenadic cult of Dionysus, the Delphic Oracle bid
them to send to Thebes for both instruction and three professional
maenads, stating, "Go to the holy plain of Thebe so that you may get
maenads who are from the family of Ino, daughter of Cadmus. They
will give to you both the rites and good practices, and they will
establish dance groups (thiasoi) of Bacchus [ie: Dionysus] in your
city."
Other groups Two satyrs and a maenad. Side A from an

Ancient Greek red-figure kalyx-krater from
The names of other associations of women who can be characterized as Apulia, 380–370 BC. Louvre, Paris.
maenads are the Laphystiai, the Dionysiades, the Leucippides, the
Bassarai, the Dysmainai, the Klodones, and the Mimallones. The
memory of the Thyiades and of their cymbals, which people thought
they heard, was still alive in the vicinity of Mt. Parnassos at the
beginning of [the 20th] century. For the peasants the Thyiades had
become Neraides, ghost women, of whom folk stood in awe believing
that they possessed a power which Dionysus himself possessed.
Bacchanalia
Cultic rites associated with worship of the Greek god of wine,
Dionysus (or Bacchus in Roman mythology), were allegedly
characterized by maniacal dancing to the sound of loud music and
crashing cymbals, in which the revellers, called Bacchantes, whirled,
screamed, became drunk and incited one another to greater and greater Dionysus and two Maenads, as depicted by the
ecstasy. The goal was to achieve a state of enthusiasm in which the Amasis Painter circa 550-530BCE.
celebrants’ souls were temporarily freed from their earthly bodies and
were able to commune with Bacchus/Dionysus and gain a glimpse of and a preparation for what they would
someday experience in eternity. The rite climaxed in a performance of frenzied feats of strength and madness, such
as uprooting trees, tearing a bull (the symbol of Dionysus) apart with their bare hands, an act called sparagmos, and
eating its flesh raw, an act called omophagia. This latter rite was a sacrament akin to communion in which the
participants assumed the strength and character of the god by symbolically eating the raw flesh and drinking the
blood of his symbolic incarnation. Having symbolically eaten his body and drunk his blood, the celebrants became
possessed by Dionysus.
Myths
Dionysus came to his birthplace, Thebes, where neither Pentheus, his cousin who was now king, nor Pentheus’
mother Agave, Dionysus’ aunt (Semele’s sister) acknowledged his divinity. Dionysus punished Agave by driving her
insane, and in that condition, she killed her son and tore him to pieces. From Thebes, Dionysus went to Argos where
all the women except the daughters of King Proetus joined in his worship. Dionysus punished them by driving them
mad, and they killed the infants who were nursing at their breasts. He did the same to the daughters of Minyas, King
of Orchomenos in Boetia, and then turned them into bats.
Maenad 498
According to Opian, Dionysus delighted, as a child, in tearing kids into

pieces and bringing them back to life again. He is characterized as "the
raging one", and "the mad one", and the nature of the maenads, from
which they get their name, is, therefore, his nature.[13]
Once during a war in the middle of the third century BC, the entranced
Thyiades (maenads) lost their way and arrived in Amphissa, a city near
Delphi. There they sank down exhausted in the market place and were
overpowered by a deep sleep. The women of Amphissa formed a
The Women of Amphissa by Lawrence
protective ring around them and when they awoke arranged for them to
Alma-Tadema
return home unmolested.
On another occasion, the Thyiades were snowed in on Parnassos and it was necessary to send a rescue party. The
clothing of the men who took part in the rescue froze solid. It is unlikely that the Thyiades, even if they wore
deerskins over their shoulders, were ever dressed more warmly than the men.[14]
Art
Maenads have been depicted in art as erratic and frenzied women enveloped in a drunken rapture. The most obvious
example being that of Euripides’ play The Bacchae. His play, however, is not a study of the cult of Dionysus or the
effects of this religious hysteria of these women. The maenads have often been misinterpreted in art in this way. To
understand the play of Euripides though one must only know about the religious ecstasy called Dionysiac, the most
common moment maenads are displayed in art. In Euripides' play and other art forms and works the Dionysiac only
needs to be understood as the frenzied dances of the god which are direct manifestations of euphoric possession and
that these worshippers, sometimes by eating the flesh of a man or animal who has temporarily incarnated the god,
come to partake of his divinity.
In addition to Euripedes' The Bacchae, depictions of maenads are often found on both red and black figure Greek
pottery, statues and jewellery. Also, fragments of reliefs of female worshippers of Dionysus have been discovered at
Corinth.[15] Mark W. Edwards in his paper "Representation of Maenads on Archaic Red-Figure Vases" traces the
evolution of maenad's depictions on Red-Figure vases. Edwards distinguishes between "nymphs" which appear
earlier on Greek pottery and "maenads" which are identified by their characteristic fawnskin or "nebris" and often
carrying snakes in their hands. However, the actions of the figures on the pottery Edwards does not consider a
distinguishing characteristic for differentiation between Maendas and nymphs. Rather, the differences or similarities
in actions are more striking between black-figure and red-figure pottery as opposed to maenads and nymphs.[16]
Maenad 499
Maenad carrying a Ancient Greek Statue of a sleeping Maenad, Ring with the
hind,fragment of an terracotta lying on a panther skin spread on engraved
Attic red figure cup statuette of a a rocky surface; the type in representation of a
ca.480BC Louvre dancing maenad, known as the reclining maenad. Ancient
Museum. 3rd century BC, Hermaphrodite; Pentelic marble; Greek artwork,
from Taranto. found at the south of the 3rd–2nd century BC.
Metropolitan Athenian Acropolis; Hadrianic Louvre, Paris.
Museum of Art, time (117-138 AD), follows a
New York. classical trend in the attic art;
National Archaeological
Museum, Athens.
Later culture
A maenad appears in Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem, Ode to the West Wind.
The Bassarids (composed 1964-65, premiere 1966), to a libretto by W. H.
Auden and Chester Kallman, is the most famous opera composed by Hans
Werner Henze.
Maenads, along with Bacchus and Silenus, appear in C.S. Lewis' Prince
Caspian. They are portrayed as wild, rambunctious young children who dance
and perform somersaults.
Maenads are the primary symbol of the city of Tetovo depicted prominently
of the city's coat of arms. The inclusion of maenad imagery dates to 1932,
when a small 6th-century BC statuette of a maenad was found within the city.
The "Tetovo Maenad" was also featured on the reverse side of the
Macedonian 5000 denars banknote issued in 1996.[17]
In Fables and Reflections, the seventh volume of Neil Gaiman's comic series
The Sandman, the maenads feature in the story Orpheus, in which they
gruesomely murder the titular character after he refuses to cavort with them
(echoing the events of the actual Greek myth of Orpheus).
Bacchante by William-Adolphe
Many modern feminists look at the maenads as an early example of misandric Bouguereau
behavior, through which women of the classical period gradually took a stand
against the reigning patriarchal culture of the time.
Charlaine Harris' The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels and its television adaption, the HBO series True
Blood (2nd season, aired in summer 2009), feature maenads in the characters of Callisto and her television
representation, Maryann, respectively. In the show, Maryann wishes to sacrifice a supernatural being, (Sam
Merlotte), in hopes of summoning her god, Dionysus.[18]
In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel Go Ask Malice: A Slayer's Diary, maenads are depicted as corrupted human
beings in service of the ancient and powerful Greek vampire Kakistos, whose name means in Greek "the worst", the
natural superlative of kakos meaning "bad".[19] . The maenads rampaged from village to village luring victims back
Maenad 500
to their vampire master as well as hunting any Slayers in the area.
References
[1] Wiles, David (2000). Greek Theatre Performance: An Introduction (http:/ / www. cambridge. org/ catalogue/ catalogue.
asp?isbn=052164027X). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. .
[2] Ernest L. Abel, Intoxication in Mythology: A Worldwide Dictionary of Gods, Rites, Intoxicants, and Place McFarland; Jefferson, NC and
London 2006.
[3] Otto, Dionysus: Myth and Cult Indiana University Press; Bloomington and Indianapolis 1965. p.96
[4] Homer, Iliad, VI.130ff, in E.V. Rieu's translation.
[5] Lever, Katherine (1956). The Art of Greek Comedy.
[6] According to Grace Harriet Macurdy, "Klodones, Mimallones and Dionysus Pseudanor", The Classical Review 27.6 (September 1913), pp.
191-192, and Troy and Paeonia. With Glimpses of Ancient Balkan History and Religion, 1925, p. 166.
[7] According to the second-century CE Macedonian military writer Polyaenus, IV.1; Polyaenus gives a fanciful etymology..
[8] Potnia, the "power" of maddened intoxication.
[9] Harrison, "The Maenads", Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 3rd ed. (1922:388-400) p. 388.
[10] Apollodorus (Pseudo Apollodorus), Library and Epitome, 1.3.2 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?lookup=Apollod. + 1. 3. 2).
"Orpheus also invented the mysteries of Dionysus, and having been torn in pieces by the maenads he is buried in Pieria."
[11] Jane Ellen Harrison remarked of the 19th-century (male) classicists, "so persistent is the dislike to commonplace fact, that we are repeatedly
told that the maenads are purely mythological creations and that the maenad orgies never appear historically in Greece." Prolegomena to the
Study of Greek Religion (1903; 1922), p.388.
[12] Euripides, Bacchae
[13] Dionysus: Myth and Cult; Indiana University Press; Bloomington and Indianapolis 1965. pg. 135.
[14] Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life; translated from the German by Ralph Manheim; Bollingen Series LXV 2; Princeton
University Press 1976. pg. 220.
[15] Richardson, A Group of Dionsiac Sculptures from Corinth
[16] Edwards, Representation of Maenads on Archaic Red-Figure Vases
[17] National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia (http:/ / www. nbrm. gov. mk). Macedonian currency. Banknotes in circulation: 5000 Denars
(http:/ / www. nbrm. gov. mk/ default-en. asp?ItemID=061547767D9F93459B8971DBBE74A75A). – Retrieved on 30 March 2009.
[18] TVguide.com (http:/ / www. tvguide. com/ News/ True-Blood-Forbes-1007953. aspx)
[19] Walton, J. Michael, Found in translation: Greek drama in English (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=0U9KUKe_TpQC&
printsec=frontcove), Cambridge University Press, 2006. Confer p. 128 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=0U9KUKe_TpQC&
pg=PA128& lpg=PA128& dq=kakistos+ translation& source=bl& ots=OFT7x2GdnL& sig=D475VrEf05f3Dk1gVvrTwx_heOw& hl=en&
ei=qyk6TZjCEIGClAfwg6CkBw& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=8& ved=0CEIQ6AEwBw#v=onepage& q=kakistos
translation& f=false).
Further reading
• Abel, Ernest L., Intoxication in Mythology: A Worldwide Dictionary of Gods, Rites, Intoxicants, and Place,
McFarland & Co., Inc., Publishers; Jefferson, NC and London 2006.
• Edwards, Mark W. "Representation of Maenads on Archaic Red-Figure Vases." The Journal of Hellenistic
Studies 80 (1960): 78-87
• Manheim, Ralph (translator), Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, Bollingen Series LXV 2;
Princeton University Press 1976.
• Manzarek, Ray. Light My Fire: My Life with the Doors. New York: Berkly Boulevard Books, 1999
• Mikalson, Jon D., Ancient Greek Religion, Blackwell Publishing Ltd; Malden, MA 2005.
• Morford, Mark P.O.; and Lenardon, Robert J., Classical Mythology, 7th ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford,
2003.
• Otto, Walter F., Dionysus: Myth and Cult; Indiana University Press; Bloomington and Indianapolis 1965.
• Richardson, Rufus B. "A Group of Dionsiac Sculptures from Corinth. " American Journal of Archaeology 8, no.3
(July- September 1904): 288-296
Maenad 501
External links
• Background and Images for the Bacchae (http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/bacchaebg.html)
Maliades
In Greek mythology the Maliades or Meliades are three types of Nymph.
1. The Maliades, another name for the Epimeliads
2. The Meliads, another name for the Meliae.
3. The Maliades, the name for the naiads of the river Spercheios on mount Othrys in Malis. Also known as
Spercheides. They were the daughters of Zeus or of the river-god Spercheios and Deino.
Marica (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Marica was a nymph, the mother of Latinus. Latinus was fathered by Faunus, who was also
occasionally referred to as the son of Marica. The sacred forest near Minturnae was dedicated to Marica. A lake
nearby was also named after her.
Melaina
In Greek mythology, Melaina was a Corycian nymph, or member of the prophetic Thriae, of the springs of Delphi in
Phocis, who was loved by Apollo bearing him Delphos. Her father was the local river-gods Kephisos, or Pleistos of
northern Boeotia.[1] [2] Her name meant the black suggesting she presides over subterranean aspects. Melaina was
also identified with Thyia who is named as the mother of Delphos in other traditions. In some legends, she is called
the daughter of Persephone and Hades.
References
[1] Pausanias, 10.6.1.
[2] Apollonius Rhodius. Argonautica, 2.710.
Melanippe 502
Melanippe
In Greek mythology, Melanippe referred to several different people.
• Daughter of the Centaur Chiron. Also known as Hippe or Euippe. She bore a daughter to Aeolus, Melanippe or
Arne (see below). She escaped to Mount Pelion so that her father would not find out that she was pregnant, but,
being searched for, she prayed to Artemis asking for assistance, and the goddess transformed her into a mare.
Other accounts state that the transformation was a punishment for her having scorned Artemis, or for having
divulged the secrets of gods. She was later placed among the stars.[1] [2] [3]
• Daughter of Aeolus and the precedent Melanippe (or else daughter of Hippotes or of Desmontes). Also known as
Arne. Mother, by Poseidon, of the twins, Aeolus and Boeotus. There are various accounts of what happened to
her after the birth of her sons. In one version, when her father discovered her pregnancy, he handed her over to a
man from Metapontium, who was childless and adopted her sons as his own. When the boys grew up, a civil war
began in Metapontium and they seized the kingship. They also killed Autolyte, their adoptive father's wife, for
having mistreated their natural mother.[4] Strabo cites two other accounts, in which Melanippe was said to have
been handed over either to Metabus or to Dius[5] . In another version of Melanippe's story, when her father
discovered that she had given birth to twins, he blinded her, shut her in a prison and ordered that the babies be
exposed. However, they were suckled by a cow and survived. They were subsequently rescued by shepherds, who
later gave them to Theano, wife of King Metapontus of Icaria, as she was looking for a baby to present to her
husband as her own, fearing that he would expel her if she bore him no children. Later, however, she did give
birth to two sons, but Metapontus was already more fond of the sons of Melanippe. So when they grew up,
Theano instructed her natural sons to kill Aeolus and Boeotus during hunt. The two, however, defended
themselves and, with the aid of Poseidon, killed Theano's sons. She then committed suicide and the brothers fled
to the shepherds who had found them. Having found out about their true descent from Poseidon, they released
their natural mother Melanippe from prison, and Poseidon restored her sight.[6] . Two tragedies by Euripides,
Melanippe The Prisoner and Melanippe The Philosopher, were dedicated to this character.
• Daughter of Althaea and Oeneus, one of the Meleagrids. She was turned into a guinea fowl by Artemis after the
death of her brother, Meleager.[7]
• An Amazon, sister of Hippolyte and Antiope, daughter of Ares. Heracles captured her and demanded Hippolyte's
girdle in exchange for her freedom. Hippolyte complied and Heracles let her go.[8] [9] Some say that it was
Melanippe whom Theseus abducted and married[10] . Yet others relate that she was killed by Telamon[11]
• Wife of Hippotes, son of Mimas, himself son of Aeolus, and the mother of another Aeolus.[12]
• Daughter of the winged horse Pegasus and Ocyrhoe the centauress.
• A nymph who married Itonus, son of Amphictyon[13] .
Notes
[1] Pseudo-Eratosthenes, Catasterisms, 18
[2] Hyginus, Poetical Astronomy, 2. 18
[3] Smith, "Melanippe" 1. (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 04. 0104:alphabetic+ letter=M:entry+
group=16:entry=melanippe-bio-1)
[4] Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 4. 67. 3-4
[5] Strabo, Geography, 6. 1. 15
[7] Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses, 2
[8] Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 4. 64
[9] Justin's Epitome of Trogus Pompeius' History of the World, Book 2, part IV (http:/ / www. freewebs. com/ vitaphone1/ history/ justin. html)
[10] Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, Epitome of Book IV, 1. 16
[11] Scholia on Pindar, Nemean Ode 3. 64
Melanippe 503
[12] Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 4. 67. 3

References
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873).
Meliae
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
medicine
and Artemis
Nymphs
In Greek mythology, the Meliae or Meliai (Ancient Greek: Μελίαι or Μελιάδες) were nymphs of the ash tree,
whose name they shared. They appeared from the drops of blood spilled when Cronus castrated Uranus, according to
Hesiod, Theogony 187. From the same blood sprang the Erinyes, suggesting that the ash-tree nymphs represented the
Fates in milder guise (Graves 6.4). From the Meliae sprang the race of mankind of the Age of Bronze.[1]
The Meliae belong to a class of sisterhoods whose nature is to appear collectively and who are invoked in the plural,
though genealogical myths, especially in Hesiod, give them individual names, such as Melia, "but these are quite
clearly secondary and carry no great weight" (Burkert 1985 III.3.2). The Melia thus singled out is one of these
daughters of Oceanus. By her brother the river-god Inachus, she became the mother of Io, Phoroneus, Aegialeus or
Phegeus, and Nilodice. In other stories, she was the mother of Amycus by Poseidon, as the Olympian representative
of Oceanus.
Many species of Fraxinus, the ash trees, exude a sugary substance, which the ancient Greeks called méli, "honey".
The species of ash in the mountains of Greece is the Manna-ash (Fraxinus ornus). The Meliae were nurses of the
infant Zeus in the Cretan cave of Dikte, according to Callimachus, Hymn to Zeus. They fed him honey.
Of "manna", the ash-tree sugar, the standard 19th-century US pharmacopeia, The Dispensatory of the United States
of America (14th edition, Philadelphia, 1878) said:
Meliae 504
It is owing to the presence of true sugar and dextrin that manna is capable of fermenting...Manna, when long
kept, acquires a deeper color, softens, and ultimately deliquesces into a liquid which on the addition of yeast,
undergoes the vinous fermentation.
Fermented honey preceded wine as an entheogen in the Aegean world.
Argive genealogy in Greek mythology
Argive genealogy in Greek

mythology
Uranus Gaia
Cronus Rhea Oceanus Tethys
Memphis Libya Poseidon Nilus Inachus Melia
Belus Agenor Telephassa Phoroneus Io Zeus
Cadmus Cilix Europa Phoenix Achiroe Epaphus
Harmonia Danaus Aegyptus

Polydorus
Agave Hypermnestra Lynceus
Autonoë
Ino Abas
Semele
Acrisius
Danaë Zeus
Perseus
References
[1] Hesiod. Works and Days, 143-45: 'Zeus the Father made a third generation of mortal men, a brazen race, sprung from meliai, "ash-trees"
(Eustathius' reading) or "ash-tree nymphs" (Proclus' reading: see Works and Days, note 4 (http:/ / omacl. org/ Hesiod/ works. html);
Apollonius of Rhodes. Argonautica, 4.164.2.
Sources
• Ruck, Carl A.P. and Danny Staples, The World of Classical Myth 1994, p. 140.
• Burkert, Walter, 1985. Greek Religion (Cambridge: Harvard University Press).
• Graves, Robert (1955) 1960. The Greek Myths.
Meliae 505
External links
• Theoi Project - Nymphai Meliai (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NymphaiMeliai.html)
• Darl J. Dumont, "The Ash Tree In Indo-European Culture" (http://www.musaios.com/ash.htm) from Mankind
Quarterly 32.4 (Summer 1992), pp. 323-336.
Melissa 506
Melissa
Melissa
Eastern honey bee

Pronunciation Melissa
Gender Female
Meaning Honey bee
Region of origin Greece
Origin Greek
Related names Melita, Mel, Melina
Melissa is a given name for a female child. The name comes from Greek μέλισσα (melissa), "honey bee" and that
from μέλι (meli), "honey".[1] [2] Compare Hittite melit.[3]
According to Greek mythology, perhaps reflecting Minoan culture in making her the daughter of a Cretan king
Melissos, Melissa was a nymph who discovered and taught the use of honey and from whom bees were believed to
have received their name.[4] She was one of the nymphic nurses of Zeus, sister to Amaltheia, but rather than feeding
the baby milk, Melissa, appropriately for her name fed him honey. Or, alternatively, the bees brought honey straight
to his mouth. Because of her, Melissai became the name of all the nymphs who cared for the patriarch god as a
baby.[5]
In 2007, Melissa was the 137th most popular name for girls born in the United States, dropping steadily from its
peak of second place in 1977. It was among the top ten most popular names for girls from 1967 to 1984.[6]
Melissa also refers to the plant known as lemon balm (family Lamiaceae; genus and species Melissa officinalis).
References
[1] Melissa, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, "An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon" (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/
text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 04. 0058:entry=me/ lissa) at Perseus project
[2] Lexicon of Greek Personal Names (http:/ / www. lgpn. ox. ac. uk), Oxford
[3] "the Hittite cuneiform word for honey is melit-" (R.D. Barnett, "Hittite Hieroglyphic Texts at Aleppo", Iraq, 1948
[4] Greek Myth Index (http:/ / www. mythindex. com/ greek-mythology/ M/ Melissa. html)
[5] Women in Greek Myths (http:/ / www. paleothea. com/ Nymphs. html#Melissa)
[6] "Social Security Online; Popular Baby Names" (http:/ / www. ssa. gov/ OACT/ babynames/ ). .
Melissa 507
External links
• Baby names (http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/)
Metis (mythology)
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Olympians
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
Titans
The Twelve Titans:
Oceanus and Tethys,
Hyperion and Theia,
Coeus and Phoebe,
Cronus and Rhea,
Mnemosyne, Themis,
Crius, Iapetus
Sons of Iapetus:
Atlas, Prometheus,
Epimetheus, Menoetius
• Muses • Adrasteia
• Nemesis • Horae
• Moirae • Bia
• Cratos • Eros
• Zelus • Apate
• Nike • Themis
• Metis • Eris
• Charites
In Greek mythology, Metis (Μῆτις, "wisdom," "skill," or "craft") was

of the Titan generation and, like several primordial figures, an
Oceanid, in the sense that Mètis was born of Oceanus and Tethys, of an
earlier age than Zeus and his siblings. Mètis was the first great spouse
of Zeus, indeed his equal (Hesiod, Theogony 896) and the mother of
Athena, Zeus' first daughter, the goddess of the war and wisdom. By
the era of Greek philosophy in the fifth century BCE, Mètis had
become the goddess of wisdom and deep thought, but her name
originally connoted "magical cunning" and was as easily equated with
the trickster powers of Prometheus as with the "royal metis" of Zeus.[1]
The Stoic commentators allegorized Metis as the embodiment of
An ancient depiction of a winged goddess who "prudence", "wisdom" or "wise counsel", in which form she was
may be Metis.
inherited by the Renaissance.[2]
The word mètis was also the ordinary Greek word for a quality that combined wisdom and cunning, this quality was
considered to be highly admirable and was regarded by Athenians as one of the notable characteristics of the
Athenian character. Metis was the one who gave Zeus a potion for Cronus to vomit out all his siblings.[3]
Mètis was both a threat to Zeus and an indispensable aid (Brown 1952:133):
Zeus lay with Metis but immediately feared the consequences. It had been prophesied that Metis would bear
extremely powerful children: the first, Athena and the second, a son more powerful than Zeus himself, who
would eventually overthrow Zeus.[4]
In order to forestall these dire consequences, Zeus tricked her into turning herself into a fly and promptly swallowed
her.[5] He was too late: Mètis had already conceived a child. In time she began making a helmet and robe for her
fetal daughter. The hammering as she made the helmet caused Zeus great pain, and Hephaestus, Hermes, or
Palaemon (depending on the sources examined) either clove Zeus's head with an axe,[6] or hit it with a hammer at the
river Triton, giving rise to Athena's epithet Tritogeneia. Athena leaped from Zeus's head, fully grown, armed, and
armored, and Zeus was none the worse for the experience. The similarities between Zeus swallowing Metis and
Cronus swallowing his children have been noted by several scholars.
The second consort taken by Zeus, according to the Theogony was Themis, "right order".
Hesiod's account is followed by Acusilaus and the Orphic tradition, which enthroned Mètis side by side with Eros as
primal cosmogenic forces. Plato makes Poros, or "creative ingenuity", the child of Mètis.[7]
Metis in astronomy
• The asteroid, 9 Metis, named in 1848.
• The minor moon of Jupiter, Metis named in 1979.
References
• M. Detienne and J.-P. Vernant, Les Ruses de l'intelligence: la Mètis des Grecs (Paris, 1974). ISBN 2080810367.
[1] Norman O. Brown, "The Birth of Athena" Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 83 (1952), pp. 130–143.
[2] A.B. Cook, Zeus (1914) 1940, noted in Brown 1952:133 note.
[3] Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke (Apollod. 1.2.1; Hesiod. Theogonny 471.
[4] Hesiod's Theogony, 886–900 Available at wikisource
[5] The Birth of Athena (http:/ / www. paleothea. com/ Myths/ BirthAthena. html); Greek Goddess Athena (http:/ / www. buzzle. com/ articles/
greek-goddess-athena-wisdom-war. html).
[6] Pindar, Seventh Olympian Ode the first written appearance of this iconic image, which A.B. Cook showed first appears in sixth-century
vase-painting; previously the Eilithyiaa attend Zeus at the birthing.
[7] Symposium.
External links
• Theoi Project: Titanis Metis (http://theoi.com/Titan/TitanisMetis.html)
• Reality by Kingsley (http://www.peterkingsley.org/Reality.cfm)
Metope (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Metope (Greek: Μετώπη) was a river nymph, the daughter of the river Ladon.[1] Her waters
were near the town of Stymphalus in the Peloponnesus.[2] She married the river god Asopus by whom she had
several (either 12 or 20) daughters, including Aegina, Salamis, Sinope, Euboea , Tanagra, Thespia, Thebe, Corcyra,
Ismene, and Harpina; and possibly sons, including Pelagon and Ismenus.[3] [1] The question of the exact parentage of
these children of Asopus is very vague.
She may or may not be identical to Metope, consort of the river god Sangarius. Some say these were the possible
parents of Hecuba.[4]
References
[2] Pindar, Olympian Ode 6. 83
External links
• Theoi Project - Metope (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheMetope.html)
Mideia 510
Mideia
In Greek mythology, Mideia or Midea may refer to:
• A Phrygian slave, mother of Licymnius by Electryon.[1]
• A nymph, mother of Aspledon by Poseidon.[2]
• One of the Danaids. She married (and killed) Antimachus, son of Aegyptus.[3]
References
Mount Kyllini 511
Mount Kyllini
Kyllini
Mount Kyllini as seen from Stymphalia

Elevation 2374 m (7789 ft)
Location
Location western Corinthia, Greece
Coordinates 37°56′30″N 22°24′0″E
Mount Kyllini or Mount Cyllene (pronounced /sɪˈliːniː/; Greek Κυλλήνη Greek pronunciation: [kyˈlːɛːnɛː], Modern
Greek pronunciation: [ciˈlini]; sometimes Ζήρια, Mod. [ˈzirja]), is a mountain on the Peloponnesus peninsula in Greece,
famous for its association with the god Hermes. It rises to 2374 m (7789 ft) above sea level, making it the
second-highest on the peninsula. It is located near the border between the historic regions of Arcadia and
Achaea—in the northeast of Arcadia, and entirely within modern Corinthia. It is located west of Corinth, northwest
of Stymfalia, north of Tripoli, and south of Derveni.
Much of the mountain is barren and rocky, although the area below 2000 m (6500 ft) is largely forested. There is an
observatory at 908 m (2979 ft), at 22.67 east longitude and 37.97 north latitude. From the top a large portion of
northeastern Peloponnesus is visible, including the eastern part of Achaia and Chelmos, the Gulf of Corinth and most
of Corinthia, the southern part of Corinthia and parts of northeastern Arcadia. The nearest mountain ranges are
Oligyrtos to the south and Chelmos/Aroania to the west. Roads pass near the southern and western slopes, but there
are not many on the mountain itself, as much of the mountain is part of a park. The municipal boundary of
Stymfalia–Feneos–Evrostini and Xylokastro passes through the mountain.
Mythology
In Greek mythology, Hermes was born in a sacred cave on the mountain, and so Cyllenius is a frequent epithet of
his. The Homeric Hymn Hymn to Pan recalled that "Hermes ... came to Arkadia ... there where his sacred place is as
god of Kyllene. For there, though a god, he used to tend curly-fleeced sheep." In ancient times there was a temple
and statue dedicated to him on the mountain's summit.
Hyginus records that it was on Cyllene that the seer Tiresias changed sex when he struck two copulating snakes.
Cyllene (or Kyllene) herself was a mountain nymph (an oread) who had taken for her consort Pelasges in the most
ancient times that Greek mythographers could recall. There was a port in Elis in Antiquity named "Cyllene" near the
mouth of the Alfeios River, where the traveler Pausanias noted the image of Hermes, "most devoutly worshiped by
the inhabitants, is merely the male member upright on the pedestal." Several modern places are also named Kyllini.
The Pleiades were born on Mount Kyllini.
Mount Kyllini 512
Nearest places
• Feneos, west
• Kastania (Mt Cnacalus), 1,000 m
• Kessari, southeast
• Goura, southwest
External links
• Mount Ziria: a lair for divine herbs [1]
• Ζήρια [2] (photos)
• Ζήρια ή Κυλλήνη [3] (Greek)
• Greek Mountain Flora [4]
References
[1] http:/ / www. pbase. com/ dead_poet/ ziria
[2] http:/ / www. gianniskofinas. com/ Vouna/ ziria/ z. htm
[3] http:/ / victorian. fortunecity. com/ degas/ 455/ ziria. htm
[4] http:/ / www. greekmountainflora. info/ Kyllini/ Kyllini%20Ziria. html
Naiad
In Greek mythology, the Naiads or Naiades
(Ναϊάδες from the Greek νάειν, "to flow,"
and νᾶμα, "running water") were a type of
nymph who presided over fountains, wells,
springs, streams, and brooks.
They are distinct from river gods, who
embodied rivers, and the very ancient spirits
that inhabited the still waters of marshes,
ponds and lagoon-lakes, such as
pre-Mycenaean Lerna in the Argolid.
A Naiad by John William Waterhouse, 1893: a water nymph approaches the
Naiads were associated with fresh water, as sleeping Hylas
the Oceanids were with saltwater and the
Nereids specifically with the Mediterranean, but because the Greeks thought of the world's waters as all one system,
which percolated in from the sea in deep cavernous spaces within the earth, there was some overlap. Arethusa, the
nymph of a spring, could make her way through subterranean flows from the Peloponnesus, to surface on the island
of Sicily.
Mythology
Naiad 513
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities

Chthonic deities
Other deities
Aquatic deities
• Tethys
Nymphs
The essence of a naiad was bound to her spring, so if a naiad's body of water dried, she died.
They were often the object of archaic local cults, worshipped as essential to humans. Boys and girls at
coming-of-age ceremonies dedicated their childish locks to the local naiad of the spring. In places like Lerna their
waters' ritual cleansings were credited with magical medical properties. Animals were ritually drowned there.
Oracles might be situated by ancient springs.
Naiads could be dangerous: Hylas of the Argo's crew was lost when he
was taken by naiads fascinated by his beauty (see illustration). The
naiads were also known to exhibit jealous tendencies. Theocritus's
story of naiad jealousy was that of a shepherd, Daphnis, who was the
lover of Nomia; Daphnis had on several occasions been unfaithful to
Nomia and as revenge she permanently blinded him. Salmacis forced
the youth Hermaphroditus into a carnal embrace and, when he sought
to get away, fused with him.
The Naiads were either daughters of Posidon or various Oceanids, but

a genealogy for such ancient, ageless creatures is easily overstated. The
water nymph associated with particular springs was known all through
Europe in places with no direct connection with Greece, surviving in
the Celtic wells of northwest Europe that have been rededicated to
Saints, and in the medieval Melusine.
Undine, by John William Waterhouse
Naiad 514
Walter Burkert points out, "When in the Iliad [xx.4–9] Zeus calls the gods into assembly on Mount Olympus, it is
not only the well-known Olympians who come along, but also all the nymphs and all the rivers; Okeanos alone
remains at his station,"[1] , Greek hearers recognized this impossibility as the poet's hyperbole, which proclaimed the
universal power of Zeus over the ancient natural world: "the worship of these deities," Burkert confirms, "is limited
only by the fact that they are inseparably identified with a specific locality."[1]
Interpretation
Robert Graves offered a sociopolitical reading of the common
myth-type in which a mythic king is credited with marrying a
naiad and founding a city: it was the newly arrived Hellenes
justifying their presence. The loves and rapes of Zeus, according
to Graves' readings, record the supplanting of ancient local cults
by Olympian ones (Graves 1955, passim).
So, in the back-story of the myth of Aristaeus, Hypseus, a king of

the Lapiths, married Chlidanope, a naiad, who bore him Cyrene.
Aristaeus had more than ordinary mortal experience with the Fountain of the Naiads, Piazza della Repubblica,
naiads: when his bees died in Thessaly, he went to consult them. Rome, Italy
His aunt Arethusa invited him below the water's surface, where he
was washed with water from a perpetual spring and given advice.
Types of Naiads
• Crinaeae (fountains)
• Limnades or Limnatides (lakes)
• Pegaeae (springs)
• Potameides (rivers)
• Eleionomae (marshes)
Individual Naiads
• Aba
• Abarbarea
• Aia
• Aegina
• Aegle
• Alexirhoe
• Alcinoe
• Annaed
• Anippe
• Anchinoe
• Anchirhoe
• Anthedon
• Arethusa
• Argyra
• Bateia
• Bistonis
• Byzia, naiad said to have raised Byzas, founder of Byzantium
Naiad 515
• Caliadne
• Callirrhoe
• Castalia
• Charybdis
• Cleochareia
• Corycian nymphs
• Corycia
• Kleodora or Cleodora
• Melaina
• Creusa
• Daphne
• Drosera
• Diogeneia
• Diopatre
• Echenais
• Harpina
• Ismenis
• Lara
• Langia
• Lethe
• Lilaea
• Liriope
• Melite
• Memphis
• Metope
• Minthe
• Moria
• Nana
• Neaera
• Nicaea
• Nomia
• Orseis
• Pegasis
• Periboea
• Pitane
• Polyxo
• Praxithea
• Salmacis
• Sparta
• Strymo
• Styx
• Telphousa
• Thronia
• Tiasa
• Zeuxippe
Naiad 516
Notes
[1] Burkert, III, 3.3, p. 174.
References
• Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus) 2.95, 2.11, 2.21, 2.23, 1.61, 1.81, 1.7.6
• Homer. Odyssey 13.355, 17.240, Iliad 14.440, 20.380
• Ovid. Metamorphoses
• Hesiod. Theogony
• Walter Burkert, Greek Religion 1985, Harvard University Press, III 3.3
• Robert Graves, The Greek Myths 1955
External links
• The Naiades (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/Naiades.html)
• Naiad Nymphs (http://www.paleothea.com/Nymphs.html#Naiads)
Nana (Greek mythology)

According to Greek mythology, Nana was a daughter of Phrygian river-god Sangarius, the river Sakarya located in
present-day Turkey.
She became pregnant when an almond from an almond tree fell on her lap. The almond tree had sprung where the
violent and dangerous demon Agdistis was slain. Agdistis was a son of Cybele, the Mother of all things.
Nana abandoned the baby boy, who was adopted by his "grandmother" Cybele. The baby, Attis, grew up to become
Cybele's servant and lover.
External links
• Theoi.com: Attis, Nana and Cybele [1]
• Macedonianissues.blogspot.com: Nana [2]
References
[1] http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Phrygios/ Attis. html
[2] http:/ / macedonianissues. blogspot. com/ 2010/ 04/ macedonian-names-and-makedonski-pseudo_14. html
Napaeae 517
Napaeae
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
medicine
and Artemis
Nymphs
In Greek mythology, the Napaeae (Ancient Greek: ναπαῖαι, from νάπη; English translation: "a wooded dell") were
a type of nymph that lived in wooded valleys, glens or grottoes.[1] Statius invoked them in his Thebaid, when the
naiad Ismenis addresses her mortal son Krenaios:
"I was held a greater goddess and the queen of Nymphae. Where alas! is that late crowd of courtiers
round thy mother’s halls, where are the Napaeae that prayed to serve thee?" [2]
Notes
[1] Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities 1898, s.v. "Napaeae".
[2] Statius, Thebaid 9.385; see also Thebaid 4.259.
Nephele 518
Nephele
In Greek mythology, Nephele (Greek: Νεφέλη, from νέφος nephos
"cloud"; Latinized to Nubes) was a cloud nymph who figured
prominently in the story of Phrixus and Helle[1] .
Greek myth also has it that Nephele is the cloud whom Zeus created in
the image of Hera to trick Ixion to test his integrity after displaying his
lust for Hera during a feast as a guest of Zeus. Ixion failed in
restraining his lust for Hera, thus fathering the Centaurs.
Nephele married Athamus, but he divorced her for Ino. Phrixus, son of
Athamas and Nephele, along with his twin Helle, were hated by their
stepmother, Ino. Ino hatched a devious plot to get rid of the twins,
roasting all the town's crop seeds so they would not grow. The local
farmers, frightened of famine, asked a nearby oracle for assistance. Ino
Punishment of Ixion: Nephele sitting at Mercury's
bribed the men sent to the oracle to lie and tell the others that the oracle
feet. Roman fresco in Pompeii.
required the sacrifice of Phrixus. Before he was killed though, Phrixus
and Helle were rescued by a flying golden ram sent by Nephele, their
natural mother.
Phrixus and Helle were instructed to not look down to Earth for the duration of their flight. Helle, though, did look
down, and fell off the ram into the Hellespont (which was named after her, meaning Sea of Helle) and drowned, but
Phrixus survived all the way to Colchis, where King Aeetes took him in and treated him kindly, giving Phrixus his
daughter, Chalciope, in marriage. In gratitude, Phrixus gave the king the golden fleece of the ram, which Aeetes
hung in a tree in his kingdom. The golden fleece would later be taken by Jason.
References
[1] Hyginus (Mary Grant translation): The Ram (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HyginusAstronomica2. html#20), (Aries)
Nereid 519
Nereid
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
Aquatic deities
• Tethys
Nymphs
In Greek mythology, the Nereids (pronounced /ˈnɪəri.ɪdz/, NEER-ee-idz; Ancient Greek: Νηρηΐδες) are sea nymphs, the
fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris. They often accompany Poseidon and are always friendly and helpful towards
sailors fighting perilous storms. They are particularly associated with the Aegean Sea, where they dwelt with their
father in the depths within a silvery cave. The most notable of them are Thetis, wife of Peleus and mother of
Achilles; Amphitrite, wife of Poseidon; and Galatea, love of the Cyclops Polyphemus.
In Iliad XVIII, when Thetis cries out in sympathy for the grief of Achilles for the slain Patroclus,
“
There gathered round her every goddess, every Nereid that was in the deep salt sea. Glauce was there and Thaleia and Cymodoce; Nesaea,
Speio, Thoe and ox-eyed Halie; Cymothoe, Actaee and Limnoreia; Melite, Iaera, Amphithoe and Agaue; Doto, Proto, Pherusa and Dynamene;
Dexamene, Amphinome and Callianeira; Doris, Panope and far-sung Galatea; Nemertes, Apseudes and Callianassa. Clymene came too, with
”
Ianeira, Ianassa, Maera, Oreithuia, Amatheia of the lovely locks, and other Nereids of the salt sea depths. The silvery cave was full of nymphs.
(E.V. Rieu, translator)

The Nereids are the namesake of one of the moons of the planet Neptune.
Nereid 520
Names of the Nereids

This list is correlated from four sources: Apollodorus, Hesiod, Homer,
and Hyginus. Because of this the total number of names goes beyond
fifty.[1]
1. Actaea
2. Agave
3. Amathia
4. Amphinome
5. Amphithoe
6. Amphitrite
7. Apseudes
8. Arethusa
In classical art Nereids are frequently depicted
9. Asia riding an assortment of sea creatures — dolphins,
10. Autonoe sea monsters, and hippocampi.
11. Beroe
12. Callianassa
13. Callianira
14. Calypso
15. Ceto
16. Clio
17. Clymene
18. Cranto
19. Creneis
20. Cydippe
21. Cymo
22. Cymatolege
23. Cymodoce
24. Cymothoe
25. Deiopea
26. Dero
27. Dexamene
28. Dione
29. Doris
30. Doto
31. Drymo
32. Dynamene
33. Eione
34. Ephyra
35. Erato
36. Eucrante
37. Eudore
38. Eulimene
39. Eumolpe
40. Eunice
41. Eupompe
42. Eurydice
Nereid 521
43. Evagore
44. Evarne
45. Galene
46. Galatea
47. Glauce
48. Glauconome
49. Halie
50. Halimede
51. Hipponoe
52. Hippothoe
53. Iaera
54. Ianassa
55. Ianeira
56. Ione
57. Iphianassa
58. Laomedeia
59. Leiagore
60. Leucothoe
61. Ligea
62. Limnoria
63. Lycorias
64. Lysianassa
65. Maera
66. Melite
67. Menippe
68. Nausithoe
69. Neaera
70. Nemertes
71. Neomeris
72. Nesaea
73. Neso
74. Opis
75. Orithyia
76. Panopea (Panope)
77. Pasithea
78. Pherusa
79. Phyllodoce
80. Plexaure
81. Ploto
82. Polynome
83. Pontomedusa
84. Pontoporeia
85. Poulunoe
86. Pronoe
87. Proto
88. Protomedeia
89. Psamathe
Nereid 522
90. Sao
91. Speio
92. Thaleia
93. Themisto
94. Thetis
95. Thoe
96. Xantho
In modern Greek folklore, the term "nereid" (νεράϊδα, neráïda) has come to be used of all nymphs, or fairies, not
merely nymphs of the sea.
References
[1] NEREIDS, Greek Mythology Link - www.maicar.com (http:/ / www. maicar. com/ GML/ NEREIDS. html)
External links
• Nereids in classical literature and art (http://www.theoi.com/Pontios/Nereides.html)
• Nereid and Triton Mosaic from Ephesus Terrace Home -2 (http://www.panoramio.com/photo/4731425)
• 3D stereoview of Nereid and Triton relief from Apollon Temple in Didim (http://www.panoramio.com/photo/
4691185)
Nicaea (mythology)
For other uses, see Nicaea
In Greek mythology, Nicaea was a nymph, the daughter of the river-god Sangarius and Cybele. She was beloved by
a shepherd, Hymnus, and killed him, but Eros took vengeance upon her, and Dionysus, who first intoxicated her,
made her mother of Telete, whereupon she attempted to hang herself; yet she did live to see Aura, another nymph
seduced by Dionysus, getting into labor and giving birth to Iacchus. Dionysus called the town of Nicaea after her.
References
• Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 16 passim; 48. 866-876
References
Nysiads 523
Nysiads
The Nysiads or Nysiades (Νυσιάδες) were the nymphs of Mount Nysa who cared for and taught the infant
Dionysus[1] [2] [3] .
Their names include[4] :
• Ambrosia
• Arsinoe
• Bromia or Bromis
• Cisseis
• Coronis
• Erato
• Eriphia
• Nysa[5] [6]
• Pedile
• Polymno or Polyhymno
Also mentioned are Callichore and Calyce[7] (after whom two moons of Jupiter, Kallichore and Kalyke, are named).
In later tellings of Dionysus's infancy, the Nysiades appear to be identified with the Hyades[8] . The term might have
been used for the Pleiades and the Hyades as Dionysus's tutors altogether.
References
[1] Homeric Hymn 26 to Dionysus 2 ff
[2] Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 2. 3
[5] Also occurs in Terpander, Fragment 9
[6] In Diodorus Siculus' Library of History, 3. 69, she is called daughter of Aristaeus
[7] Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 14. 219 ff
[8] In Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 3. 4. 3, the identification is explicit: "...the Nymphai of Asian Nysa, whom Zeus in later times placed among the
stars and named the Hyades."
External links
• Theoi Project - Nysiades (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NymphaiNysiades.html)
Oceanid 524
Oceanid
Goddess Tethys, mother of Oceanids.
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
Aquatic deities
• Tethys
Nymphs
In Greek mythology and, later, Roman mythology, the Oceanids (Ancient Greek: Ὠκεανίδες, pl. of Ὠκεανίς) were
the three thousand daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. Each was the patroness of a particular spring, river,
Oceanid 525
sea, lake, pond, pasture, flower or cloud[1] . Some of them were closely associated with the Titan gods (such as
Calypso, Clymene, Asia, Electra) or personified abstract concepts (Tyche, Peitho).
One of these many daughters was also said to have been the consort of the god Poseidon, typically named as
Amphitrite[2] . More often, however, she is called a Nereid[3]
Oceanus and Tethys also had 3,000 sons, the river-gods Potamoi (Ποταμοί, "rivers")[4] . Whereas most sources limit
the term Oceanids or Oceanides to the daughters, others include both the sons and daughters under this term.[5]
Sibelius wrote an orchestral work called Aallottaret (The Oceanides) in 1914.
References
[1] Hesiod, Theogony, 346 ff
[2] Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 1.8
[3] Hesiod Theogony 243; Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.11
[4] Hesiod Theogony 337
[5] Hyginus. Fabulae, Preface (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HyginusFabulae1. html).
External links
• Theoi Project - Oceanides (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/Okeanides.html)
Ocyrhoe
In Greek mythology, Ocyrhoe or Ocyrrhoe refers to three characters.
• Ocyrhoe was a daughter of Chiron and Chariclo. Ocyrhoe was transformed into a horse because she told her
father Chiron his exact fate. She revealed that he would forsake his immortality to be spared the agonizing pain of
a serpent’s poison. For this transgression, Ocyrhoe's ability to speak was taken. One might assume that she turned
into a horse because her father was a centaur, and because she had long, auburn hair.
• Ocyrrhoe, one of the Oceanids.[1]
• Ocyrrhoe, a nymph. She was the mother, by Hippasus, of Charops, Socus, Apisaon, Agelaus, Pammon, and
Hippomedon.[2]
Modern references
The Centaur (planetoid) 52872 Okyrhoe is named after this figure.
A character in The Mongoliad is named Ochyroe [3].
References
[1] Hesiod. Theogony.
[2] Quintus Smyrnaeus. The Fall of Troy.
[3] http:/ / mongoliad. com/ pedia/ Ocyrhoe
Oenone 526
Oenone
In Greek mythology, Oenone (pronounced /ɨˈnoʊniː/,
from Ancient Greek Oinōnē - Οἰνώνη "wine woman")
was the first wife of Paris of Troy, whom he abandoned
for the queen Helen of Sparta.[1]
Oenone was a mountain nymph (an oread)[2] on Mount
Ida in Phrygia, a mountain associated with the Mother
Goddess Cybele, alternatively Rhea.[3] Her father was
Cebren, a river-god.[4] Her very name links her to the
gift of wine.
Paris, son of the king Priam and the queen Hecuba, fell
in love with Oenone when he was a shepherd on the
slopes of Mount Ida, having been exposed in infancy
(owing to a prophecy that he would be the means of the
destruction of the city of Troy) but rescued by the Oenone holding pan pipes, Paris and Eros – a detail from a
herdsman Agelaus. The couple married, and Oenone sarcophagus with the Judgement of Paris, Roman, Hadrianic period
gave birth to a son, Corythus. (Palazzo Altemps, Rome)
When Paris later abandoned her to return to Troy and

sail across the Aegean to kidnap Helen, the queen of Sparta, Oenone predicted the Trojan War. Out of revenge for
Paris' betrayal, she sent Corythus to guide the Greeks to Troy. Another version has it that she used her son to drive a
rift between Paris and Helen, but Paris, not recognizing his own son, killed him.
The only extensive surviving narration of Oenone and Paris is Quintus Smyrnaeus, Posthomerica, book X.259-489,
which tells the return of wounded Paris to Oenone.[5] Mortally wounded by Philoctetes' arrow, he begged Oenone to
heal him with her herbal arts,[6] but she refused and cast him out with scorn, to return to Helen's bed, and Paris died
on the lower slopes of Ida. Then, overcome with remorse, Oenone, the one whole-hearted mourner of Paris, threw
herself onto his burning funeral pyre, which the shepherds had raised. A fragment of Bacchylides suggests that she
threw herself off a cliff,[7] in Bibliotheke it is noted "when she found him dead she hanged herself," and Lycophron
imagined her hurtling head first from the towering walls of Troy. Her tragic story makes one of the Love Romances
of Parthenius of Nicaea.[8]
Ovid includes an imagined reproachful letter from Oenone to Paris in his collection Heroides[9] , a text that has been
extended by a number of spurious post-Ovidian interpolations, which include a rape of Oenone by Apollo that is
nowhere confirmed in other sources.[10] .
Oenone 527
In literature
"Oenone and Paris" (1594) is an epyllion by Thomas Heywood. Lawrence Binyon published a one-act closet tragedy
in blank verse "Paris and Oenone" in 1906.
Tennyson adapted Quintus' treatment of the theme for "The death of Oenone" (1892), distilling its tragic essence.[11]
In popular culture
"The Misjudgment Of Oenone" is a play by Michael R. McGuire.
References
[1] In Jean Racine's play Phèdre, the name Oenone is given to Phaedra's nurse.
[2] Oenone was also the ancient name of an island, which was later named after Aegina, daughter of the river god Asopus.
[3] Her gift of prophecy was learned from Rhea, according to ps-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke, 3.12.6; on-line English translations of the relevant
Classical references are at Theoi Project (http:/ / www. theoi. com).
[4] Bibliotheke.
[5] On-line text (http:/ / www. gutenberg. org/ catalog/ world/ readfile?fk_files=36051& pageno=123)
[6] "Oenone, skilled in drugs". according to Lycophron, Alexandra, 61.
[7] Bacchylides, fr. 20D
[8] Parthenius, 4.
[9] Heroides v.
[10] Sergio Casali, reviewing The Cambridge Heroides in The Classical Journal 92.3 (February 1997, pp. 305-314) pp306-07.
[11] Tennyson dedicated his poem to the classical scholar Benjamin Jowett as "a Grecian tale retold" and in his Memoirs (ii.386) credited it with
being "even more strictly classical in form and language than the old", as Wilfred P. Mustard noted in The American Journal of Philology 23.3
(1902), p 318. See "The death of Oenone" (http:/ / whitewolf. newcastle. edu. au/ words/ authors/ T/ TennysonAlfred/ verse/ deathofoenone/
deathoenone. html)
Oread
For a Hilda Doolittle poem, see Oread (poem). For a lake in Greece, see Lake Orestiada. For a city in
Greece, see Orestiada.
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
medicine
and Artemis
Nymphs
Oread 528
In Greek mythology, an Oread or Orestiad (Ὀρεάδες / Όρεστιάδες from ὄρος, "mountain") was a type of nymph
that lived in mountains, valleys, ravines. They differ from each other according to their dwelling: the Idae were from
Mount Ida, Peliades from Mount Pelia, etc. They were associated with Artemis, since the goddess, when she went
out hunting, preferred mounts and rocky precipices.
Oreads
The number of Oreads includes but is not limited to:
• Britomartis
• Claea (Mount Calathion, Messenia)[1]
• Cyllene or Kyllene (Mount Cyllene)[2]
• Daphnis (Mount Parnassos)[3]
• Echo (Mount Cithaeron)[4]
• The Idaeae (Mount Ida, Crete)[5] [6] :
• Adrasteia
• Cynosura
• Helike
• Ida
• Nomia (Mount Nomia, Arcadia)[7]
• Othreis (Mount Othrys, Malis)[8]
• Sinoe (Mount Sinoe, Arcadia)[9]
• The Sphragitides [10] or Cithaeronides (Mount Cithaeron)[11]
References
[4] Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae 970
[5] Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 1.4.5
[6] Hyginus, Astronomica, 2. 2
[8] Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 13
[10] Plutarch, Life of Aristides 11. 3
Orphne 529
Orphne
In Greek mythology, Orphne, also known as Styx and Gorgyra,[1] was a nymph that lived in Hades. With Acheron,
she mothered Ascalaphus.[1]
References
[1] Fontenrose, Joseph Eddy (May 1980). Python: a study of Delphic myth and its origins (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=wqeVv09Y6hIC& pg=PA287). University of California Press. p. 287. ISBN 9780520040915. . Retrieved 6 January 2011.
Pegaea
In Greek mythology, Pegaea (Ancient Greek: ἡ Πηγαία) was a nymph. She and her sisters (Calliphaeia, Synallasis
and Iasis) – the Ionids – dwelled at Elis, and were said to have the power to cure disease. Pegaea is also the singular
form of Pegaeae.
Pegaeae
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
medicine
and Artemis
Nymphs
In Greek mythology, the Pegaeae (Πηγαῖαι) were a type of naiad that lived in springs. They were often considered
daughters of the river gods (Potamoi), thus establishing a mythological relationship between a river itself and its
springs.
The number of Pegaeae included but was not limited to[1] :
1. Albunea (Roman mythology)
Pegaeae 530
2. Alexirhoe, daughter of the river god Grenikos[2] [3]

3. The Anigrides (daughters of the river god Anigros, were believed to cure skin diseases)[4] [5] [6]
4. Archidemia[7]
5. Arethusa[8] [9] [10] [11]
6. Castalia, or Cassotis[12] [13]
7. Comaetho, daughter or wife of the river god Cydnus[14]
8. The Corycian Nymphs (Coryceia, Cleodora, Daphnis, Melaina)
9. Cyane
10. The Cyrtonian nymphs (local springs in the town of Cyrtones, Boeotia)[15] [16]
11. The Deliades (daughters of Inopus, god of the river Inopus on the island of Delos)[17] [18]
12. Dirce, transformed into a spring (presumably into a nymph personifying it) after her death
13. Gargaphie, or Plataia (one of the daughters of the river god Asopus)[19]
14. Hagno, one of the nurses of infant Zeus
15. The Himerian Naiads[20] [21]
16. The Inachides (daughters of the river god Inachus, namely Io, Amymone[22] , Philodice[23] , Messeis and
Hyperia)[24] [25] [26]
17. The Ionides (Calliphaea, Iasis, Pegaea and Synallaxis)[27]
18. Ismene[28] [29]
19. The Ithacian nymphs (dwelled in sacred caves on Ithaca)[30]
20. Langia[31]
21. The Leibethrides (individual names include Libethrias and Petra)[32] [33]
22. Magea[7]
23. Milichie[7]
24. Metope (wife of Asopus)
25. The Mysian Naiads (Euneica, Malis and Nycheia[34] ), who dwelled in the spring of Pegae near the lake
Askanios in Bithynia and were responsible for the kidnapping of Hylas[35] [36]
26. The Ortygian nymphs (local springs of Syracuse, Sicily)[37] [38]
27. Pegasis, daughter of the river god Grenikos[39]
28. Peirene
29. Pharmaceia, nymph of a poisonous spring in Attika and Orithyia's playmate[40] [41]
30. Psanis (a local spring in Arcadia)
31. The Rhyndacides (daughters of the river god Rhyndacus)[42]
32. Salmacis
33. The Spercheides (daughters of the river god Spercheus)
34. Strophia (a spring on Mount Cithaeron near Thebes; barely personified)[43] [44]
35. Telphousa
36. Temenitis[7]
Pegaeae 531
References
[2] Ovid, Metamorphoses 11. 762 ff
[3] Theoi Project - Alexirhoe (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheAlexirhoe. html)
[4] Strabo, Geography 8.3.19
[5] Pausanias, Guide to Greece 5.5.11
[6] Theoi Project - Anigrides (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NymphaiAnigrides. html)
[7] Pliny the Elder, Natural History 3. 89, in a list of Sicilan springs, of which only Arethousa and Cyane are known to have been personified
[8] Strabo, Geography 6. 2. 4
[9] Ovid, Metamorphoses 5. 407 & 487 ff
[10] Virgil, Aeneid 3. 694 ff
[11] Theoi Project - Arethousa (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheArethousa. html)
[12] Pausanias, Guide to Greece 10.8.9; 10.24.7
[13] Theoi Project - Castalia (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheKastalia. html)
[14] Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 2. 143-144 & 40 141-143
[16] Theoi Project - Nymphai Kyrtoniai (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NymphaiKyrtoniai. html)
[17] Callimachus, Hymn IV to Delos, 252
[18] Theoi Project - Deliades (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NymphaiDeliades. html)
[19] Theoi Project - Plataia (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NymphePlataia. html)
[20] Pindar, Odes Olympian, 12
[22] Theoi Project - Amymone (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheAmymone. html)
[23] Tzetzes on Lycophron, 511
[24] Callimachus, Aitia Fragment 66
[25] Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 4. 374 ff
[26] Theoi Project - Inachides (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NymphaiInakhides. html)
[28] Apollodorus, The Library 2.6
[29] Theoi Project - Ismene (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheIsmene. html)
[30] Homer, Odyssey 13.96 ff
[31] Statius, Thebaid 4.716
[32] Strabo, Geography 9.2.25; 10.3.17
[34] Theocritus, Idylls, 13. 44
[35] Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1. 1225 ff.
[37] Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5.5.1
[38] Theoi Project - Naiades Ortygiai (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NymphaiOrtygiai. html)
[39] Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 3.300
[40] Plato, Phaedrus 229
[41] Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, v. 3, page 238 (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/
2572. html)
[42] Theoi Project - Rhyndacides (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NymphaiRhyndakides. html)
[43] Callimachus, Hymn 4 to Delos 75 ff
[44] Theoi Project - Strophia (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheStrophia. html)
Sources
• Theoi Project - Naiades (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/Naiades.html)
Pherusa 532
Pherusa
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
Aquatic deities
In Greek mythology, Pherusa, or Pherousa was a Nereid, one of the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris. Her name,
a participle, means "she who carries." She, along with her sister Dynamene, were associated with the power of great
ocean swells. Mentioned in Hesiod's Theogony.
Another Pherusa is counted by some authors as one of the Horae, goddess of substance and farm estates.
Pirene (mythology) 533
Pirene (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Pirene or Peirene (Greek: Πειρήνη), a nymph, was either the daughter of the river god
Asopus[1] [2] , Laconian king Oebalus[3] , or the River God Achelous[4] , depending on different sources. By
Poseidon she became the mother of Lecheas and Cenchrias. When Cenchrias was unintentionally killed by Artemis,
Pirene's grief was so profound that she became nothing but tears and turned into the fountain outside the gates of
Corinth[5] . The Corinthians had a small sanctuary dedicated to Pirene by the fountain where honey-cakes were
offered to her to during the dry months of early summer.
The fountain was sacred to the Muses and it was there that Bellerophon found Pegasus (as Polyidus had claimed),
drinking, and tamed him.[6]
References
[1] Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 4.72.1-5
[2] Bacchylides, Fragment 9
[3] The Great Eoeae, cited in Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.2.2
[4] Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.2.2
[5] Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.3.3
[6] Pindar, Odes Olympian 13.3
Sources
• A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith.
Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood. Boston: Little, Brown and co., 1867, p.166 (http://quod.lib.umich.
edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;idno=acl3129.0003.001;size=l;frm=frameset;seq=174).
• "PEIRENE, Greek Mythology Index" (http://www.mythindex.com/greek-mythology/P/Peirene.html).
Retrieved 2009-08-03.
• "PIRENE : Naiad nymph of Corinth ; Greek mythology : PEIRENE" (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/
NymphePeirene.html). Retrieved 2009-08-03.
Pitys (mythology) 534
Pitys (mythology)
In Greek mythology— or more particularly in Ancient Greek poetry— Pitys (Πίτυς; English translation: "pine") was
an Oread nymph who was pursued by Pan. According to a passage in Nonnus' Dionysiaca (ii.108) she was changed
into a pine tree by the gods in order to escape him. Pitys is mentioned in Longus' Daphnis and Chloe (ii.7 and 39)
and by Lucian of Samosata (Dialogues of the Dead, 22.4).[1] Pitys was chased by Pan as was Syrinx, who was turned
into reeds to escape the satyr who then used her reeds for his panpipes. The flute-notes may have frightened the
maenads running from his woodland in a "panic." The subject is illustrated in paintings of (roughly chronologically)
Nicolas Poussin, Jacob Jordaens, François Boucher, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Annibale Carracci, Andrea
Casali, Arnold Bocklin, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, and Maxfield Parrish.
Notes
[1] These occurrences are noted by Birger A. Pearson, "'She Became a Tree': A Note to CG II, 4: 89, 25-26" The Harvard Theological Review,
69.3/4 (July - October 1976): 413-415) p. 414 note 8; Pearson notes that an assertion by Rouse in notes to Dionysiaca (Loeb Classical
Library), to the effect that Pitys is mentioned in Propertius is in error.
Pleiades (Greek mythology)

This article is about Greek mythology. The Pleiades star cluster also appears in many other mythologies.
The Pleiades (pronounced /ˈplaɪ.ədiːz/, also
English pronunciation: /ˈpliːədiːz/; from the
Greek Πλειάδες Greek
pronunciation: [pleːˈades], Modern Greek
pronunciation: [pliˈaðes]), companions of
Artemis, were the seven daughters of the
titan Atlas and the sea-nymph Pleione born
on Mount Cyllene. They are the sisters of
Calypso, Hyas, the Hyades, and the
Hesperides. The Pleiades were nymphs in
the train of Artemis, and together with the
seven Hyades were called the Atlantides,
Dodonides, or Nysiades, nursemaids and 1885 The Pleiades by symbolist painter Elihu Vedder
teachers to the infant Bacchus.
There is some debate as to the origin of the name Pleiades. Previously, it was accepted the name is derived from the
name of their mother, Pleione. However, the name Pleiades may derive from πλεῖν (to sail) because of their
importance in delimiting the sailing season in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Seven Sisters

Several of the most prominent male Olympian gods (including Zeus, Poseidon, and Ares) engaged in affairs with the
seven heavenly sisters. These relationships resulted in the birth of their children.
1. Maia, eldest of the seven Pleiades, was mother of Hermes by Zeus.
2. Electra was mother of Dardanus and Iasion by Zeus.
3. Taygete was mother of Lacedaemon, also by Zeus.
4. Alcyone was mother of Hyrieus by Poseidon.
5. Celaeno was mother of Lycus and Eurypylus by Poseidon.
6. Sterope (also Asterope) was mother of Oenomaus by Ares.
7. Merope, youngest of the seven Pleiades, was wooed by Orion. In other mythic contexts she married Sisyphus
and, becoming mortal, faded away. She bore to Sisyphus several sons.
Mythology
After Atlas was forced to carry the heavens on his shoulders, Orion
began to pursue all of the Pleiades, and Zeus transformed them first into
doves, and then into stars to comfort their father. The constellation of
Orion is said to still pursue them across the night sky.
One of the most memorable myths involving the Pleiades is the story of
how these sisters literally became stars, their catasterism. According to
some versions of the tale, all seven sisters committed suicide because
they were so saddened by either the fate of their father, Atlas, or the loss
of their siblings, the Hyades. In turn Zeus, the ruler of the Greek gods,
immortalized the sisters by placing them in the sky. There these seven
stars formed the constellation known thereafter as the Pleiades.
The Greek poet Hesiod mentions the Pleiades several times in his Works
and Days. As the Pleiades are primarily winter stars, they feature
prominently in the ancient agricultural calendar. Here is a bit of advice
from Hesiod:
"And if longing seizes you for sailing the stormy seas,
when the Pleiades flee mighty Orion
and plunge into the misty deep
and all the gusty winds are raging,
then do not keep your ship on the wine-dark sea
but, as I bid you, remember to work the land."
Lost Pleiad (1884) by William-Adolphe
(Works and Days 618-23) Bouguereau.
The Pleiades would "flee mighty Orion and plunge into the misty deep"
as they set in the West, which they would begin to do just before dawn during October–November, a good time of
the year to lay up your ship after the fine summer weather and "remember to work the land"; in Mediterranean
agriculture autumn is the time to plough and sow.
The poet Lord Tennyson mentions the Pleiades in his poem Locksley Hall:
"Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising through the mellow shade,
Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid."
Notes
References
• Kohn, Rachael (October 10, 2004). "The Seven Stars of the Pleiades" (http://www.abc.net.au/rn/relig/spirit/
stories/s1213298.htm). Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2007-05-01.
Plouto
In Greek mythology, Plouto or Pluto was a nymph and the mother of Tantalus by Zeus. Her parents were Oceanus
and Tethys (thus making Plouto one of the 3000 Oceanids) or Himas, a Lydian that was otherwise unknown. Plouto
was said to be married to Tmolus, the stepfather of Tantalus.
Pronoe
Pronoe (Προνόη "forethought") refers to five characters in Greek mythology.
1. Pronoe, one of the Nereids. [1]
2. Pronoe, daughter of Phorbus. She married Aetolus and bore him Pleuron and Calydon. [2]
3. Pronoe, daughter of Melampus, king of Argos, and Iphianeira, daughter of Megapenthes. She was considered to
be a seer. [3]
4. Pronoe, a nymph. She was the mother of the Trojan Lassus. Lassus was killed by Podalirius during the Trojan
war. [4]
5. Pronoe, a Naiad of a river in Lycia. She told Caunus what had happened to his sister Byblis (that she had killed
himself), and persuaded him to stay with her on condition that he receive rulership of the country of Lycia or Caria.
The couple had a son Aegialus who inherited the kingdom upon his father's death. [5]
References
[1] Hesiod, Theogony, 240 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HesiodTheogony. html)
[2] Apollodorus, Library, 1.7.7 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Apollodorus1. html)
[3] Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History 4.68.5 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ DiodorusSiculus4D. html)
[4] Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy, 6.497 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ QuintusSmyrnaeus6. html)
[5] Conon, Narratives (Diegeseis), 2
Pyrene (mythology) 537
Pyrene (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Pyrene (Greek: Πυρήνη) may refer to:
• Pyrene, daughter of King Bebrycius and a lover of Hercules. She bore a serpent and became so terrified that she
fled to the woods where she died. Hercules created a tomb for her by piling up rocks thus forming the mountain
range of the Pyrenees, named after her.[1] [2] [3]
• Pyrene, mother of Cycnus with Ares.[4] [5]
References
[1] Silius Italicus, Punica, 3. 415-446
[2] Bell's New Pantheon Or Historical Dictionary of the Gods, Demi Gods, page 203 (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=HNEMkXDHxo0C& pg=RA1-PA203& lpg=RA1-PA203& dq=pyrene+ hercules& source=web& ots=PL4veRlZZg&
sig=VKrKFEpUQDHwtjf-gFDpvmUM9yM& hl=en& sa=X& oi=book_result& resnum=8& ct=result)
[3] (Anonymous) A classical manual, being a mythological, historical, and geographical commentary on Pope's Homer and Dryden's Aeneid of
Virgil. London, J. Murray, 1833. p. (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=AhBTAEKpfNMC& pg=PA588& lpg=PA588& dq=pyrene+
hercules& source=web& ots=Z4MqBxEHJx& sig=udqyNcnLZ1MuORGa00bAHiJt8Lw& hl=en& sa=X& oi=book_result& resnum=9&
ct=result)
[5] Greek Mythology Index (http:/ / www. mythindex. com/ greek-mythology/ C/ Cycnus. html)
Rhapso
In Greek mythology, Rhapso (Greek: Ραψώ) was a nymph or a minor goddess. She is known solely from an
inscription of the 4th century BC, found at Phaleron[1] . Her name apparently derives from the Greek verb ράπτω "to
sew".
Notes
[1] Inscriptiones Graecae, 22, 4547
References
• H. G. Liddel, R. Scott, H. Stuart Jones, R. McKenzie. Greek-English Lexicon. Revised supplement. Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 1996; p. 269, under Ραψώ
• Chantraine, Pierre. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque. Histoire des mots. Tome IV-1. Paris,
Éditions Klincksiek, 1977; p. 967, sous ράπτω (French)
Salamis (mythology) 538
Salamis (mythology)
Salamis was a nymph in Greek mythology, the daughter of the river god Asopus and Metope, daughter of the Ladon,
another river god. She was carried away by Poseidon to the island which was named after her, whereupon she bore
the god a son Cychreus who became king of the island.
References
• Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4.72.1-5
Salmacis (fountain)
Salmacis was a fountain, located near the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. In classical times, it had:
"the slanderous repute, for what reason I do not know, of making effeminate all who drink from it. It
seems that the effeminacy of man is laid to the charge of the air or of the water; yet it is not these, but
rather riches and wanton living, that are the cause of effeminacy." —Strabo Geography XIV.2.16’' [1]
This was illustrated by Hellenic sculptors, who produced several works depicting a person of dual-gender. The
power of the spring was rejected by other Romans, such as the architect Vitruvius
"there is a mistaken idea that this spring infects those who drink of it... it cannot be that the water makes
men effeminate" —Vitruvius ’’On Architecture’’ 2. 11-12
Ovid creates or recounts the myth of how the fountain came to be so in the story of the nymph Salmacis (after whom
the fountain is, in this account, named), her attempted rape of Hermaphroditus, and his resultant change into an
intersexual being.
References
[1] http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999. 01. 0198& layout=& loc=14. 2. 16
Satyrion 539
Satyrion
In Greek mythology, Satyrion is the name of a nymph, perhaps from the region of Taranto, Italy. Her union with the
god Poseidon produced Taras.
Satyrion is also an ancient aphrodisiac made from ragwort. Though it may have been named after the nymph, it
more likely derives from the mythical and lustful satyrs. This aphrodisiac is mentioned twice in the Satyricon of
Petronius.
Sterope (Pleiad)
In Greek mythology, Sterope (pronounced /ˈstɛrəpiː/, Greek: Στερόπη Greek pronunciation: [sterópɛː]), also called
Asterope (Ἀστερόπη), was one of the seven Pleiades (the daughters of Atlas and Pleione, born to them at Mount
Cyllene in Arcadia) and the wife of Oenomaus (or, according to some accounts, his mother by Ares).
References
• Apollodorus, 1921. Apollodorus, The Library (English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in
2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd)
• Apollodorus, 3.10.1 [1]
References
[1] http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?lookup=Apollod. + 3. 10. 1
Stilbe 540
Stilbe
Stilbe in Greek mythology was a nymph, daughter of the river god Peneus and the Naiad Creusa. She bore Apollo
twin sons, Centaurus, ancestor of the Centaurs, and Lapithus, ancestor of the Lapiths. In another version of the myth,
Centaurus was instead the son of Ixion and Nephele. By Cychreus she became mother of the nymph Chariclo, wife
of Chiron, and Everes.
References
• M. Grant and J. Hazel, Who's Who in Greek Mythology, David McKay & Co Inc, 1979
Syrinx
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
medicine
and Artemis
Nymphs
Syrinx 541
In classical mythology, Syrinx (Greek Συριγξ) was a nymph and a follower of Artemis,
known for her chastity. Pursued by the amorous Greek god Pan, she ran to the river's
edge and asked for assistance from the river nymphs. In answer, she was transformed
into hollow water reeds that made a haunting sound when the god's frustrated breath
blew across them. Pan cut the reeds to fashion the first set of pan pipes, which were
thenceforth known as syrinx.[1] The word syringe was derived from this word.
In literature
The story became popular among artists and writers in the 19th century. The Victorian
artist and poet Thomas Woolner wrote Silenus, a long narrative poem about the myth, in
which Syrinx becomes the lover of Silenus, but drowns when she attempts to escape rape
by Pan, as a result of which crime Pan is transmuted into a demon figure and Silenus
becomes a drunkard.[2] Amy Clampitt's poem Syrinx refers to the myth by relating the
whispering of the reeds to the difficulties of language.
The story was used as central theme by Aifric Mac Aodha in her poetry collection
"Gabháil Syrinx".
"Syrinx" by Arthur Hacker
In art
The Victorian artist, Arthur Hacker (September 25, 1858 – November 12,
1919), depicted Syrinx in his 1892 nude. This painting in oil on canvas is
currently on display in Manchester Art Gallery.
Sculptor Adolph Wolter was commissioned in 1973 to create a replacement
for a stolen sculpture of Syrinx in Indianapolis, Indiana. The sculpture sits in
University Park located in the cities Indiana World War Memorial Plaza.
"Pan and Syrinx" by Jean-François de In Music

Troy
Claude Debussy wrote "Syrinx (La Flute De Pan)" based on Pan's sadness
over losing his love. This piece was the first unaccompanied flute solo of the
20th century, and remains a very popular addition to the modern flutist's repertoire. It was also transcribed for solo
saxophone, becoming a standard performance piece for saxophone too. It was used as incidental music in the play
Psyché by Gabriel Mourey.[3]
Danish composer Carl Nielsen composed "Pan and Syrinx" (Pan og Syrinx), Op. 49, FS 87.
The progressive band Rush have a movement titled "The Temples of Syrinx" in their song 2112 on their album 2112.
The song is about an Orwellian futuristic society in which the arts, particularly music, have been suppressed by the
Priests of Syrinx.
Syrinx 542
References
[1] Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.689ff (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?lookup=Ov. + Met. + 1. 650)
[2] Thomas Woolner, Silenus, Macmillan, 1884.
[3] James McCalla, Twentieth-century Chamber Music: Routledge Studies in Musical Genres, Routledge, 2003, p.48
Syrinx (Wolter)
Syrinx
Artist Adolph Wolter
Year 1973
Type Bronze
Dimensions 69 cm × 41 cm × 33 cm (27 in × 16 in × 13 in)
Location Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
39°46′19″N 86°9′24″W
Owner City of Indianapolis
Syrinx is a public artwork by German-born American sculptor Adolph Wolter located at the Indiana World War
Memorial Plaza in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States.[1]
Syrinx (Wolter) 543
Description
It is a bronze figure of Syrinx sitting on a limestone tree stump. Syrinx is nude, and her proper right knee is bent
upwards to her chest with her other leg hanging over the side of the stump. She holds her hand to her ear, cupping it,
"listening" to the music of the nearby sculpture of the satyr Pan, who plays a flute.[1]
Front Proper Left
Detail Label
Information
In 1923 Myra Reynolds Richards created Syrinx and Pan for installation at University Park at the Indiana World War
Memorial Plaza. Eventually, both pieces were stolen, with Syrinx disappearing in 1959 and Pan being stolen in
1970.[2] The parks department commissioned Adolph Wolter to replace the pieces, and in 1973 they were reinstalled
in their current location in University Park at the Plaza.[1]
External links
• Indiana War Memorial Commission Picture Tour [3].
• Syrinx on Flickr [4].
Syrinx (Wolter) 544
References
[1] Save Outdoor Sculpture (1993). "Syrinx (sculpture)." (http:/ / siris-artinventories. si. edu/ ipac20/ ipac. jsp?& profile=all&
source=~!siartinventories& uri=full=3100001~!314194~!0#focus). SOS. Smithsonian. . Retrieved 6 January 2010.
[2] "Syrinx" (http:/ / visitindy. com/ indianapolis-attractions-syrinx). Attractions. Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association. . Retrieved 6
January 2010.
[3] http:/ / www. in. gov/ iwm/ 2357. htm
[4] http:/ / www. flickr. com/ photos/ wsavespublicart/ 4433731789
Taygete
In Greek mythology, Taygete (pronounced /teɪˈɪdʒətiː/; Greek Ταϋγέτη Greek pronunciation: [taːyɡétɛː], Modern. Greek
pronunciation: [taiˈʝeti]) was a nymph, one of the Pleiades according to Apollodorus (3.10.1) and a companion of
Artemis, in her archaic role as potnia theron, "Mistress of the animals". Mount Taygetos in Laconia, dedicated to the
Goddess, was her haunt.
As he mastered each of the local nymphs one by one, Olympic Zeus pursued Taygete, who invoked her protectress
Artemis. The goddess turned Taygete into a doe[1] , any distinction between the Titaness in her human form and in
her doe form is blurred: the nymph who hunted the doe in the company of Artemis is the doe herself. As Pindar
conceived the myth-element in his third Olympian Ode, "the doe with the golden horns, which once Taygete had
inscribed as a sacred dedication to Artemis Orthosia", ("right-minded" Artemis)[2] was the very Cerynian Hind that
Heracles later pursued. For the poet, the transformation was incomplete, and the doe-form had become an offering.
Pindar, who was a very knowledgeable mythographer, hints that the mythic doe, even when slain and offered to
Artemis, also continues to exist, to be hunted once again (though not killed) by Hercules at a later time.[3] Karl
Kerenyi points out (The Heroes of the Greeks) "It is not easy to differentiate between the divine beast, the heroine
and the goddess".
According to Pausanias (iii. 1, 2, etc.) Taygete conceived Lacedaemon, the mythical founder of Sparta, through
Zeus, and Eurotas. Pausanias noted, at Amyclae, that the rape of Taygete was represented on the throne.[4]
Later mythographers have misconceived Taygete's transformation as a punishment from Artemis, for her loss of
virginity in the rape.
Notes
[1] Biogeographically speaking, in Greece the nearest species of deer in which females carry horns was and is the reindeer (Ruck and Staples p
173), a fact which has occasioned various speculations: see also Deer (mythology)
[2] Emmet Robbins, "Heracles, the Hyperboreans, and the Hind: Pindar, "OL." 3", Phoenix 36.4 (Winter 1982:295-305) 302f notes that the
association of Artemis with Orthia = Orthosia was under way in the sixth century BCE.
[3] Robbins 1982:295-305.
[4] Pausanias, Periegesis, iii.18.10.
References
• Ruck, Carl A.P., and Danny Staples, 1994. The World of Classical Myth (Carolina Academic Press)
• Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities 1898 (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/):
"Taygete"
• Robbins, Emmet. "Heracles, the Hyperboreans, and the Hind: Pindar, "OL. 3", Phoenix 36.4 (Winter 1982),
pp. 295–305.
Thalia (grace) 545
Thalia (grace)
For the muse of this name, see Thalia (muse). For other uses see Thalia (disambiguation).
In Greek mythology, Thalia (Θαλία / Thalía, "Abundance") was one of the three
Graces or Charites with her sisters Aglaea and Euphrosyne, and a daughter of Zeus
and the Oceanid Eurynome or the hour Eunomia. She presided over festive
celebrations and rich and luxurious banquets.
In popular culture
• Thalia (as one of the Three Graces) is referred to on page 264 of Neal
Stephenson's book The Diamond Age [1]
• Thalia (surname Grace) is a demigod in the series Percy Jackson and the
Olympians as the daughter of Zeus who is hunted down by Hades (Lord of the
Underworld). While protecting Luke Castellan, Grover Underwood, and
Annabeth Chase, she is turned into a tree by her father Zeus outside of Camp
Half-Blood. Thalia is later expunged out of the tree with the Golden Fleece in the
second book. In the third book, she goes on a quest with Perseus Jackson (main
protagonist), Grover Underwood (satyr) , Zoe Nightshade (lieutenant of Artemis'
Hunt), and Bianca di Angelo (child of Hades) to save Annabeth from the clutches
of the Titans. In the end, she becomes one of Artemis' hunters.
Primary sources The Three Graces, by Hans

Baldung.
• Apollodoros, Library (I, 3, 1).
• Hesiod, Theogony (v. 907-909).
• Orphic hymns (LIX on the Charites).
• Pausanias, Description of Greece (IX, 35, 1).
• Pindar, Odes (Olympics, 14, str. 1-2).
References
• Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology [2], Wiley-Blackwell, 1996, ISBN 9780631201021.
"Thalia" 2. p. 442 [3].
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Thaleia" 4. [4]
References
[1] http:/ / books. google. ca/ books?id=n59TlhNAkSEC& pg=RA1-PA254& lpg=RA1-PA254& dq=thalia+ neil+ stephenson+ diamond+ age&
source=bl& ots=pNc5KoHRPo& sig=w5yE9-l31LT8Oe86vS6e3cx5pyc& hl=en& ei=kA8dS8qfGcGfnQf6m-DiAw& sa=X&
oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=1& ved=0CAoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage& q=& f=false
[2] http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC& printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage& q&
f=false
[3] http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC& printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=snippet& q=Thalia&
f=false
[4] http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999. 04. 0104%3Aentry%3Dthaleia-bio-4
Thalia (muse) 546
Thalia (muse)
For the one of the three Graces, see Thalia (grace). For
other uses see Thalia (disambiguation).
Thalia (in ancient Greek Θάλεια / Tháleia or Θάλια / Thália, "the
joyous, the flourishing", from θάλλειν / thállein, to flourish, to be
verdant) was the muse who presided over comedy and idyllic
poetry. In this context, her name means “flourishing,” because the
praises in her songs flourish through time.[1] She was the daughter
of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the eighth-born of the nine Muses.
According to pseudo-Apollodorus, she and Apollo were the

parents of the Corybantes.[2] Other ancient sources, however, gave
the Corybantes different parents[3] .
She was portrayed as a young woman with a joyous air, crowned
with ivy, wearing boots and holding a comic mask in her hand.
Many of her statues also hold a bugle, a trumpet (both used to
Muse of comedy and idyllic poetry, Jean-Marc Nattier.
support the actors' voices in ancient comedy), a shepherd’s staff, or
a wreath of ivy.
In popular culture
• Thalia was portrayed by Actress Penelope Lagos in the 2008 TV pilot "Muse" written by Rudy Cecera.
• Thalia was also the main character in Clea Hantman's "Goddesses" series.
• Thalia also appeared as the short, stout, clumsy Muse in the Walt Disney original movie Hercules
• A main character named after Thalia was the daughter of Zeus in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.
Notes
[1] Theoi Project - Mousa Thaleia (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Ouranios/ MousaThaleia. html)
[2] Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 1.3.4 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Apollodorus1. html).
[3] Sir James Frazer's note (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Ap1a. html#46) on the passage in the Bibliotheca.
References
ISBN 9780631201021. "Thalia" 1. p. 442 (http://books.google.com/books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC&
printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=snippet&q=Thalia&f=false).
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Thaleia" 1. (http://
www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=thaleia-bio-1)
Thalia (muse) 547
External Link
• Facebook Page for Thalia (http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Muse-Thalia-Thalia/165047466849483)
Thalia (nymph)
For other uses see Thalia (disambiguation).
In Greek mythology, Thalia (Θάλεια / Tháleia or Θάλια / Thália , "the Joyous, the Flourishing", from θάλλειν /
thállein , "to flourish, to be green") is a nymph, the child of Hephaestus. She is also given as an anthropomorphic
secondary deity of plant life and shoots, possibly as the culmination of the transmission of knowledge on volcanic
ash's use as a fertiliser, characteristic of ancient viticulture in volcanic soils such as those of the islands of Thera and
Santorini.
The tradition surrounding her is confused, but she is probably confused with the muse, grace or Nereid of the same
name. Macrobius's Saturnales (song V) states how Zeus seized this Thalia whilst he was in the form of an eagle, as
he did with Aegina, Leto and Ganymede. He then made love to her near the river Symethe on Sicily and then buried
her in the ground to avoid Hera's jealousy. Her twin children, the Palici, were thus born from the earth, though other
authors make the Palici the sons of Hephaestus.
References
External links
• The Theoi Project, "Thaleia" (nymph) [2]
References
[2] http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheThaleia. html
Thelpusa 548
Thelpusa
Thelpusa or Thelpousa (Greek: Θέλπουσα, also known as Telphusa/Τέλφουσα or Thelphusa/Θέλφουσα) was an
ancient city-state in Azania in Arcadia.
The city was built on the left bank of the Ladon and bounded with Kleitor and Psophis. The name comes from the
nymph Thelpousa or Thelpusa, daughter of Ladon. The city contained the temple of Eleusinian Demeter, and nearby,
a stone statue of the goddess of the daughter and Dionysus and Ongius, chief of Thelpousa and the son of Apollo,
Asclepius' children with the memory of Trygon and the temple of the twelve gods. When Pausanias visited the city,
Thelpousa was abandoned and ruined for many years. In 352 BC, its city residents took part with the
Lacedaemonians. It was the member of the Achaean League and was cut off from the rights of law. The legal system
had with Demeter and the son of Arion. Thelpusa was the patriot of Asclepius and Artion.[1]
References
[1] Pausanias, Arcadica.
External links
• Theoi Project - Thelpousa or Thelpusa (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheThelpousa.html)
Thetis
The following article is about the Greek lesser
sea goddess of late myths. Thetis should not be
confused with Themis, the embodiment of the
laws of nature, but see the sea-goddess Tethys.
For other uses, see Thetis (disambiguation).
Silver-footed Thetis (Ancient Greek: Θέτις), disposer
or "placer" (the one who places), is encountered in
Greek mythology mostly as a sea nymph or known as
the goddess of water, one of the fifty Nereids,
daughters of the ancient one of the seas with
shape-shifting abilities who survives in the historical
vestiges of most later Greek myths as Proteus (whose
name suggests the "first", the "primordial" or the
"firstborn").
When described as a Nereid in Classical myths, Thetis

Head of Thetis from an Attic red-figure pelike, c. 510–500 BC -
was the daughter of Nereus and Doris (Hesiod,
Louvre.
Theogony), and a granddaughter of Tethys with whom
she sometimes shares characteristics. Often she seems
to lead the Nereids as they attend to her tasks. Sometimes she also is identified with Metis.
It is likely, however, that she was one of the earliest of deities worshiped in Archaic Greece, the oral traditions and
records of which are lost. Only one written record, a fragment, exists attesting to her worship and an early Alcman
hymn exists that identifies Thetis as the creator of the universe. Worship of Thetis as the goddess is documented to
have persisted in some regions by historical writers such as Pausanias.
Thetis 549
In the Trojan War cycle of myth, the wedding of Thetis and the Greek hero Peleus is one of the precipitating events
in the war, leading also to the birth of their child Achilles.
Thetis as goddess
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
Aquatic deities
Most extant material about Thetis concerns her role as mother of Achilles, but there is some evidence that as the
sea-goddess she played a more central role in the religious beliefs and practices of Archaic Greece. The pre-modern
etymology of her name, from tithemi (τίθημι), "to set up, establish," suggests a perception among Classical Greeks
of an early political role. Walter Burkert[1] considers her name a transformed doublet of Tethys.
In Iliad I, Achilles recalls to his mother her role in defending, and thus legitimizing, the reign of Zeus against an
incipient rebellion by three Olympians, each of whom has pre-Olympian roots:
"You alone of all the gods saved Zeus the Darkener of the Skies from an inglorious fate, when some of the
other Olympians—Hera, Poseidon, and Pallas Athene—had plotted to throw him into chains... You, goddess,
went and saved him from that indignity. You quickly summoned to high Olympus the monster of the hundred
arms whom the gods call Briareus, but mankind Aegaeon,[2] a giant more powerful even than his father. He
squatted by the Son of Cronos with such a show of force that the blessed gods slunk off in terror, leaving Zeus
free" (E.V. Rieu translation).
Thus, evidence of major changes in religious concepts may be recorded only in fragments of myths that supersede
and later, obscure the originals.
Quintus of Smyrna, recalling this passage, does write that Thetis once released Zeus from chains;[3] but there is no
other reference to this rebellion among the Olympians, and some readers, such as M. M. Willcock,[4] have
understood the episode as an ad hoc invention of Homer's to support Achilles' request that his mother intervene with
Zeus. Laura Slatkin explores the apparent contradiction, in that the immediate presentation of Thetis in the Iliad is as
a helpless minor goddess overcome by grief and lamenting to her Nereid sisters, and links the goddess's present and
past through her grief.[5] She draws comparisons with Thetis' role in another work of the epic Cycle concerning
Troy, the lost Aethiopis,[6] which presents a strikingly similar relationship—that of the divine Dawn, Eos, with her
slain son Memnon; she supplements the parallels with images from the repertory of archaic vase-painters, where
Eros and Thetis flank the symmetrically opposed heroes with a theme that may have been derived from traditional
epic songs.[7]
Thetis 550
Thetis does not need to appeal to Zeus for immortality for her son, but snatches him away to the White Island Leuke
in the Black Sea, an alternate Elysium[8] where he has transcended death, and where an Achilles cult lingered into
historic times.
Thetis and the other deities

Pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheke asserts that
Thetis was courted by both Zeus and
Poseidon, but she was married off to the
mortal Peleus because of their fears about
the prophecy by Themis [9] (or Prometheus,
or Calchas, according to others) that her son
would become greater than his father. Thus,
she is revealed as a figure of cosmic
capacity, quite capable of unsettling the
divine order (Slatkin 1986:12).
When Hephaestus was thrown from

Olympus, whether cast out by Hera for his
lameness or evicted by Zeus for taking
Hera's side, the Oceanid Eurynome and the
Nereid Thetis caught him and cared for him
on the volcanic isle of Lemnos, while he
labored for them as a smith, "working there
in the hollow of the cave, and the stream of
Okeanos around us went on forever with its Immortal Thetis with the mortal Peleus in the foreground, Boeotian black-figure
foam and its murmur" (Iliad 18.369). dish, c. 500–475 BC; note the lioness and snakes associated with Thetis - Louvre.
Thetis is not successful in her role

protecting and nurturing a hero (the theme of kourotrophos), but her role in succouring deities is emphatically
repeated by Homer, in three Iliad episodes: as well as her rescue of Zeus (1.396ff) and Hephaestus (18.369),
Diomedes recalls that when Dionysus was expelled by Lycurgus with the Olympians' aid, he took refuge in the
Erythraean Sea with Thetis in a bed of seaweed (6.123ff). These accounts associate Thetis with "a divine
past—uninvolved with human events—with a level of divine invulnerability extraordinary by Olympian standards.
Where within the framework of the Iliad the ultimate recourse is to Zeus for protection, here the poem seems to point
to an alternative structure of cosmic relations"[10] and the reference relates to the religious concepts that greatly
ante-dated the classical period.
Thetis 551
Marriage to Peleus and the Trojan War

An essential subordinate motif later
occurring in the nature of Thetis, as a
Nereid, one that links her with the dawn
Titan Eos and with Aphrodite, is her liaison
with a mortal lover which occurs with the
rise of the Olympian deities. Reportedly
most attracted to the goddess, but fearful of
losing his hold on the deities, because Zeus
had received a prophecy that Thetis's son
would become greater than his father, the
familiar mytheme of the Succession
Prophecy. Zeus had dethroned his father to
lead the succeeding pantheon,[11] therefore,
in order to ensure a mortal father for her
eventual offspring, Zeus and his brother
Poseidon made arrangements for her
marriage to a human, Peleus, son of Aeacus,
but she refused him.
Chiron, the centaur, who later would be Thetis changing into a lioness as she is attacked by Peleus, Attic red-figured kylix
by Douris, c. 490 BC from Vulci, Etruria - Bibliothèque Nationale de France in
tutor to her son by Peleus, Achilles, advised
Paris.
Peleus to find the sea nymph when she was
asleep and bind her tightly to keep her from
escaping by changing forms. She did shift shapes, becoming flame, water, a raging lioness, and a serpent [12] This
ability was shared with many of the primordial deities of Archaic Greece (compare the early sea-god Proteus), but
Peleus held fast. Subdued, she then consented to marry him. Thetis is the mother of Achilles by Peleus, who became
king of the Myrmidons.
According to classical mythology, the wedding of Thetis and Peleus was celebrated on Mount Pelion outside the
cave of Chiron and attended by the deities: there they celebrated the marriage with feasting. Apollo played the lyre
and the Muses sang, Pindar claimed. At the wedding Chiron gave Peleus an ashen spear that had been polished by
Athene and had a blade forged by Hephaestus, and Poseidon gave him the immortal horses, Balius and Xanthus.
Eris, the goddess of discord, had not been invited, however. In spite, she threw a golden apple into the midst of the
goddesses that was to be awarded only "to the fairest." (In most interpretations, the award was made during the
Judgement of Paris and eventually occasioned the Trojan War; by others such as Robert Graves, the imagery is
considered misinterpreted and it is thought that it should reflect the selection of a king to be sacrificed in a sacred
ritual).
Thetis 552
In the later classical myths Thetis worked

her magic on the baby Achilles by night,
burning away his mortality in the hall fire
and anointing the child with ambrosia
during the day, Apollonius tells. When
Peleus caught her searing the baby, he let
out a cry.
"Thetis heard him, and catching up

the child threw him screaming to the
ground, and she like a breath of wind
passed swiftly from the hall as a Thetis and attendants bring armor she had prepared for him to Achilles, an Attic
dream and leapt into the sea, black-figure hydria, c. 575–550 BC - Louvre.
exceeding angry, and thereafter

returned never again."
In a variant of the myth, Thetis tried to make Achilles invulnerable by dipping him in the waters of the Styx (the
river of Hades). However, the heel by which she held him was not touched by the Styx's waters, and failed to be
protected. In the story of Achilles in the Trojan War in the Iliad, Homer does not mention this weakness of Achilles'
heel.
A similar myth of immortalizing a child in fire is connected to Demeter; compare the myth of Meleager. Some myths
relate that because she had been interrupted by Peleus, Thetis had not made her son physically invulnerable. His
heel, which she was about to burn away when her husband stopped her, had not been protected. Alternative
interpretations assert that substitutes for the sacred king were sacrificed by fire (or water), putting off their ritual
sacrifice for various numbers of years.
Peleus gave the boy to Chiron to raise. Prophecy said that the son of Thetis would have either a long but dull life, or
a glorious but brief life. When the Trojan War broke out, Thetis was anxious and concealed Achilles, disguised as a
girl, at the court of Lycomedes. When Odysseus found that one of the girls at court was not a girl, but Achilles, he
dressed as a merchant and set up a table of vanity items and jewellery and called to the group.
Only Achilles picked up the golden sword
that lay to one side, and Odysseus quickly
revealed him to be male. Seeing that she
could no longer prevent her son from
realizing his destiny, Thetis then had
Hephaestus make a shield and armor.
When Achilles was killed by Paris [13],

Thetis came from the sea with the Nereids to
mourn him, and she collected his ashes in a
golden urn, raised a monument to his
memory, and instituted commemorative
festivals. According to alternative Thetis and the Nereids mourning Achilles, Corinthian black-figure hydria,
interpretations suggesting archaic traditions, 560–550 BC; note the Gorgon shield - Louvre
Paris would have been the succeeding
sacred king who was selected next by the three goddesses.
Thetis worship in Laconia and other places

Thetis 553
A noted exception to the general observation resulting from the existing historical records, that Thetis was not
venerated as a goddess by cult, was in conservative Laconia, where Pausanias was informed that there had been
priestesses of Thetis in archaic times, when a cult that was centered on a wooden cult image of Thetis (a xoanon),
which preceded the building of the oldest temple; by the intervention of a highly-placed woman, her cult had been
re-founded with a temple; and in the second century AD she still was being worshipped with utmost reverence.
Accseniorssenians, who had revolted, and their king Anaxander, having invaded Messenia, took prisoners certain
women, and among them Cleo, priestess of Thetis. The wife of Anaxander asked for this Cleo from her husband, and
discovering that she had the wooden image of Thetis, she set up the woman Cleo in a temple for the goddess. This
Leandris did because of a vision in a dream, but the wooden image of Thetis is guarded in secret.[14]
In one fragmentary hymn [15] by the seventh century Spartan poet, Alcman, Thetis appears as a demiurge, beginning
her creation with poros (πόρος) "path, track" and tekmor (τέκμωρ) "marker, end-post". Third was skotos (σκότος)
"darkness", and then the sun and moon. A close connection has been argued between Thetis and Metis, another
shape-shifting sea-power later beloved by Zeus but prophesied bound to produce a son greater than his father
because of her great strength.[16] This cosmogony is interesting not only because it takes up Near Eastern
astronomical and theological speculation, but also because its first principles are the building-blocks of a race-track,
reflecting the athletic preoccupations of Spartan society and education.
Herodotus[17] noted that the Persians sacrificed to "Thetis" at Cape Sepias. By the process of interpretatio graeca,
Herodotus identifies the deity of another culture as the familiar Hellenic "Thetis" a sea-goddess who was being
propitiated by the Persians.
Thetis in other works

• Homer's Iliad makes many references to Thetis;
• Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica IV, 770-879,
• Apollodorus, The Library 3.13.5
• In 1981, British actress Maggie Smith portrayed Thetis in the Ray
Harryhausen film Clash of the Titans for which she won a Saturn
Award. In the film she acts as the main antagonist to the hero
Perseus for the mistreatment of her son Calibos.
• In 2004, veteran actress Julie Christie portrayed Thetis in a short
scene in the film Troy, in which her son Achilles, portrayed by Brad
Pitt, featured heavily. During her entire scene, she was standing in
an ocean pool.
Notes
Jupiter and Thetis, Ingres: "She sank to the
[1] Burkert, The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in ground beside him, put her left arm round his
the Early Archaic Age, 1993, pp 92-93. knees, raised her right hand to touch his chin, and
[2] The "goatish one" so made her petition to the Royal Son of Cronos"
[3] The chains are a metaphor for impotence among the "deathless gods": Mircea (Iliad, I.
Eliade, Images and Symbols (tr. 1969), chapter3 "The 'God who Binds' and the
symbolism of knots" pp92-124.
[4] M. M. Willcock, "Ad Hoc Invention in the Iliad," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 81 (1977), pp. 41-53.
[5] Slatkin, "The Wrath of Thetis" Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974)116 (1986), pp 1-24.
[6] The summary by Proclus survives.
[7] "When Achilles fights with Memnon, the two divine mothers, Thetis and Eos, rush to the scene—this was probably the subject of a pre-Iliad
epic song, and it also appears on one of the earliest mythological vase paintings." (Walter Burkert, Greek Religion 1985, p 121.
[8] Erwin Rohde calls the isle of Leuke a sonderelysion in Psyche: Seelen Unsterblickkeitsglaube der Grieche (1898) 3:371, noted by Slatkin
1986:4note.
[9] Pindar, Eighth Isthmian Ode.
Thetis 554
[10] Slatkin 1986:10.

[11] Zeus himself would lead the list of other sons "fated" to be greater than their fathers.
[12] Ovid:Metamorphoses xi, 221ff.; Sophocles: Troilus, quoted by scholiast on Pindar's Nemean Odes iii. 35; Apollodorus: iii, 13.5; Pindar:
Nemean Odes iv .62; Pausanias: v.18.1
[13] http:/ / experts. about. com/ e/ t/ th/ Thetis. htm
[14] Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.14.4-5
[15] The papyrus fragment was found at Oxyrhynchus.
[16] M. Detienne and J.-P. Vernant, Les Ruses de l'intelligence: la métis des Grecs (Paris, 1974) pp 127-64, noted in Slatkin 1986:14note.
[17] Herodotus Histories 6.1.191.
External links
• Thetis (http://www.theoi.com/Pontios/NereisThetis.html): very full classical references
• Slatkin: The Power of Thetis (http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft0z09n7fd&chunk.
id=d0e367&toc.depth=1&toc.id=&brand=ucpress): a seminal work freely available in the University of
California Press, eScholarship collection (http://www.escholarship.org/editions/).
Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Thetis". Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Thriae
The Thriae or Thriai were nymphs, three
virginal sisters, one of a number of such triads
("maiden trinities" Jane Ellen Harrison called
them) in Greek mythology[1] who were able to
see the future and interpret the signs of nature
and omens, a gift they taught Apollo, who
passed it to Hermes. They received names
Melaina ("the Black"), Kleodora ("Famed for her
Gift"), and Daphnis ("Laurel").[2] The Homeric
Hymn to Hermes places them in Mount
Parnassus, where they have taught the art of Gold plaques embossed with the winged bee-goddesses, perhaps the Thriai,
divination to the youthful Apollo who addresses found at Camiros Rhodes, 7th century BCE (British Museum).
Hermes in the hymn:
"There are three holy ones, sisters born[3] - three virgins gifted with wings: their heads are besprinkled with
white barley meal, and they dwell under a ridge of Parnassos. These are teachers of divination apart[4] from
me, the art which I practised while yet a boy following herds, though my father paid no heed to it. From their
home they fly now here, now there, feeding on honeycomb and bringing all things to pass. And when they are
inspired through eating yellow honey, they are willing to speak the truth; but if they be deprived of the gods'
sweet food,[5] then they speak falsely, as they swarm in and out together. These, then, I give you; enquire of
them strictly and delight your heart: and if you should teach any mortal so to do, often will he hear your
response - if he have good fortune. Take these, Son of Maia ... ' So he spake. And from heaven father Zeus
himself gave confirmation to his words, and commanded that glorious Hermes should be lord over all birds of
omen ... and also that he only should be the appointed messenger to Aides, who, though he takes no gift, shall
give him no mean prize." —Homeric Hymn IV, to Hermes, lines 550-563, Hugh G. Evelyn-White, tr., 1914.
"They are in a word 'Melissae', honey-priestesses, inspired by a honey-intoxicant; they are bees, their heads white
with pollen." Jane Harrison observed.[6]
Thriae 555
A fragment of Philochorus quoted by Zenobius additionally makes them nurses of Apollo, of which Jane Ellen
Harrison observed "Save for this mention we never hear that Apollo had any nurses, he was wholly the son of his
father. Is it not more probable that they were nurses of Dionysus?"[7] and she noted from the Sudas a remark "they
call the madness of poets thriasis. Through a doubtful etymology William Smith asserted the Thriae were "believed
to have invented the art of prophecy by means of little stones (thriai), which were thrown into an urn" (Smith 1870)
and the assertion is often repeated, though Philochorus makes it plain that the mantic pebbles were named after the
three Thriae, rather than the other way round. The earliest mention of the Thriai, in a fragment of Pherecydes simply
states that they were three in number, whence their name. Susan Scheinman argues that the bee-nymphs should be
disassociated with the Thriai, "by the omission of any reference in the Hymn to the chief attribute of the Thriae, their
mantic pebbles." (Scheinman 1979:14); she prefers the reading Semnai for the three bee-maidens.</ref>
The Thriai may have been conflated in the Homeric hymn with the Coryciae, nymphs of the prophetic springs of
Mount Parnassos, and in such a connection thought of as "daughters" of Apollo.
"The Thriai inspired the old crow [either a bird, or an old seeress]." Callimachus, Hecale (Fragment 260).[8]
Callimachus also alludes to the Thriae in his Hymn to Apollo (line 250)
The Rhodes gold plaques of bee-goddesses are not unique; a relief in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston also depicts a
goddess with the head of a woman and the body of a bee.
References
[1] Hesiod's Theogony gives the Gorgon, the Horae, the Moirae, and the Charites; later myth adds the Erinyes, the Graiae, the Sirens, the
Hesperides, and Greek cult has given more: see the list in Scheinberg 1979:2.
[2] In the second century CE, Pausanias understood (Description of Greece 10.5.5) that "Daphnis" had been the first prophetess of Gaia
(mythology) at Delphi: "For they say that in the earliest times the oracular seat belonged to Earth, who appointed as prophetess at it Daphnis,
one of the nymphs of the mountain... The Delphians say that the second temple was made by bees from beeswax and feathers, and that it was
sent to the Hyperboreans by Apollo."
[3] The text had been corrupted to the more familiar Moirai; Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann first recognized that the Thriai could possibly be
intended here, and modern texts keep the emendation (Harrison 1922:442 note 2; Scheinmann 1979.)
[4] The Homeric word here invariably means a literal geographic separation: "the adverb helps isolate the sisters from the mature Delphic
Apollo" (Scheinberg 1979:10).
[5] The Hymn does not explicitly state that this food of the gods is honey, but Susan Scheinberg (1979:5) quotes Porphyry's De antro
nympharum to this effect.
[6] Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek religion 3rd ed. 1922, p 442.
[7] Harrison 1922:441-42
[8] Hugh Lloyd-Jones and John Rea, "Callimachus, Fragments 260-261" Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 72 (1968, pp. 125-145) p 143
note that, in Callimachus' ambiguous wording, whoever has sworn the oath has referred to herself as "the old crow" and claimed prophetic
powers given by the Thriai.
Sources
• Harrison, Jane Ellen 1922. A Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, 3rd edition, pp. 441–43.
• Robbins, Frank Egleston Robbins 1916. "The Lot Oracle at Delphi" Classical Philology 11.3 (July 1916),
pp. 278–292.
• Smith, William, 1870Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology: "Thriae".
• Scheinberg, Susan 1979. "The Bee Maidens of the Homeric Hymn to Hermes" Harvard Studies in Classical
Philology 83 (1979), pp. 1–28.
Thriae 556
External links
• Theoi Project - Nymphai Thriai (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NymphaiThriai.html)
Erato (dryad)
In Greek mythology, Erato is a dryad. A priestess and prophetess of the god Pan, verses were attributed to her at an
ancient oracle of the god, located at Megalopolis near Acacesium.[1] She was married to Arcas, the son of Zeus and
Callisto, and bore him three sons, Azan, Apheidas, and Elatus.[2] [3]
References
[1] Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ ), p. 107.
[2] Pausanias, Description of Greece, 8.4.2 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Pausanias8A. html).
[3] Pausanias, Description of Greece, 8.37.11; 8.37.12 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Pausanias8C. html).
Penelope (dryad)
In Greek mythology Penelope or Penelopeia is a dryad, the daughter of Dryops. She resides on mount Kyllene in
Arcadia and is the mother of the god Pan or of Nomios (this is a title of Pan). [1] [2] [3]
This particular Penelope is sometimes confused with her namesake, Penelope, the wife and queen of Odysseus, in
stories in which she is said to be the mother of Pan. [4]
References
[1] The Homeric Hymns: Hymn to Pan (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HomericHymns3. html#19)
[2] Nonnus, Dionysiaca, (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ NonnusDionysiaca14. html)
[3] Hyginus Fabulae, 224 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HyginusFabulae5. html)
[4] Apollodorus, The Library E.7.38 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ ApollodorusE. html#7)
Querquetulanae 557
Querquetulanae
In Roman mythology, the Querquetulanae (virae) were nymphs of green oak forests.
Abarbarea
In classical Greek and Roman mythology, Abarbarea (Ἀβαρβαρέα) is a naiad, daughter of the river god Aesepus.
She was the wife of Bucolion (the eldest but illegitimate son of the Trojan king Laomedon) and had two sons by
him, Aesepus and Pedasus[1] . Abarbarea is also one of the three ancestors of the Tyrians, along with Callirrhoe and
Drosera[2] . Other writers do not mention this nymph, but Hesychius mentions "Abarbareai" or "Abarbalaiai" as the
name of a class of nymphs.
Notes
[1] Homer, Iliad 6.21-23
[2] Nonnus, Dionysiaca 15.377; 40.363
References
• Homer. The Iliad, Book VI. (June 2, 2006). Wikisource, The Free Library.
Achiroe 558
Achiroe
Achiroë or Anchirrhoë (Greek: Ἀχιρ(ρ)όη), or according to Apollodorus Anchinoë (Ἀγχινόη),[1] which is perhaps a
mistake for Anchiroë, was in Greek mythology a naiad, a daughter of the river-god Nilus. She was also the wife of
Belus, by whom she became the mother of Aegyptus and Danaus, and, according to some accounts, Cepheus, and
Phineus.[2] According to the scholiast on Lycophron,[3] she was the consort of Sithon, son of Ares, and bore him two
daughters, Pallene and Rhoeteia, from whom two towns derived their names.[4] [5]
Argive genealogy in Greek mythology
Argive genealogy in Greek

mythology
Uranus Gaia
Cronus Rhea Oceanus Tethys
Memphis Libya Poseidon Nilus Inachus Melia
Belus Agenor Telephassa Phoroneus Io Zeus
Cadmus Cilix Europa Phoenix Achiroe Epaphus
Harmonia Danaus Aegyptus

Polydorus
Agave Hypermnestra Lynceus
Autonoë
Ino Abas
Semele
Acrisius
Danaë Zeus
Perseus
Achiroe 559
References
[1] Apollodorus, ii. 1. § 4
[2] Theoi Project - Ankhinoe (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheAnkhinoe. html)
[3] Tzetzes on Lycophron 583 and 1161.
[4] Hegesippus in Stephanus of Byzantium s.v. Παλλήνη.
[5] Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Achiroe" (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 0021. html), in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and
Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Tempil Hill, MD: Nikolai Ferreira, pp. 12,
Sources
Aegle (mythology)
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
medicine
and Artemis
Nymphs
Aegle (Ancient Greek Αἴγλη) is the name of several different figures in Greek mythology:
• Aegle, the most beautiful of the Naiads, daughter of Zeus and Neaera,[1] by whom Helios begot the Charites.[2]
• Aegle, one of the Heliades, a sister of Phaeton, and daughter of Helios and Clymene.[3] In her grief at the death of
her brother she and her sisters were changed into poplars.
• Aegle, one of the Hesperides.[4] [5]
• Aegle, a nymph, and daughter of Panopeus, who was beloved by Theseus, and for whom he forsook Ariadne.[6] [7]
[8]
• Aegle, one of the daughters of Asclepius by Lampetia,[9] the daughter of the Sun, according to Hermippus,[10] or
by Epione, according to the Suda.[11] She is said to have derived her name Aegle, "Brightness," or "Splendor,"
either from the beauty of the human body when in good health, or from the honor paid to the medical
Aegle (mythology) 560
profession.[12]
References
[1] Virgil, Eclogues 6. 20
[2] Pausanias, 9. 35. § 1
[3] Hyginus, Fabulae 154, 156
[4] Apollodorus, 2. 5. § 11
[5] Servius on Aeneid 4. 484
[6] Plutarch, Theseus 20
[7] Athenaeus, Banquet of The Learned, 13. p. 557
[8] Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Aegle (1), (2), (3) and (4)" (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 0036. html), in Smith, William,
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston, pp. 27,
[9] Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 35. 40. § 31
[10] Hermippus, in Scholia in Aristophanes, Plutos 701
[11] Suda, s.v. Ηπιόνη
[12] Greenhill, William Alexander (1867), "Aegle (5)" (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 0036. html), in Smith, William, Dictionary
of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston, pp. 27,
Sources
Aganippe
Aganippe (Greek: Ἀγανίππη) was a name or epithet of three figures in Greek mythology and a genus of spiders.
• Aganippe was the name of both a fountain and the Naiad (a Crinaea) associated with it. The well is in Boeotia,
near Thespiae, at the base of Mount Helicon. It was created by the hooves of Pegasus and was associated with the
Muses as a source of poetic inspiration. The nymph is called a daughter of the river-god Termessus.[1] [2] The
Muses are sometimes called Aganippides.[3] [4]
• Another Aganippe was the wife of Acrisius, and according to some accounts the mother of Danaë, although the
latter is more commonly called a daughter of Eurydice.[3] [5] [6]
• Son of the king Egypt. And Leukippês (or Leucippe) who was Euênôr (or Evenor)'s spouse and Efesto's
granddaughter and Kleito's mother.[7]
• Aganippis is a name used by Ovid as an epithet of Hippocrene;[8] its meaning however is not quite clear. It is
derived from Aganippe, the well or nymph, and as "Aganippides" is used to designate the Muses, Aganippis
Hippocrene may mean nothing than "Hippocrene, sacred to the Muses."[3]
Aganippe 561
Spider genus
• Aganippe is also the name of a spider genus in the family Idiopidae.
References
[1] Pausanias, ix. 29. § 5.
[2] Virgil, Eclogues x. 12.
[3] Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Aganippe (1) and (2)" (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 0068. html), in Smith, William, Dictionary
of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston, pp. 59,
[4] Theoi Project - Aganippe (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheAganippe. html)
[5] Hyginus. Fabulae, 63.
[6] Scholiast, ad Apollon. Rhod. iv. 1091.
[7] "... [113ε] τούτῳ δ᾽ ἦν ἔνοικος τῶν ἐκεῖ κατὰ ἀρχὰς ἐκ [113δ] γῆς ἀνδρῶν γεγονότων Εὐήνωρ μὲν ὄνομα, γυναικὶ δὲ συνοικῶν
Λευκίππῃ..." (Plato Criti. 113c-d)
[8] Ovid, Fasti v. 7
Sources
Albunea
Albunea, the Tiburtine Sibyl, was in Roman mythology a prophetic nymph or Sibyl, a naiad who lived in the
sulfuric spring near Tibur (Tivoli), with a well and a temple.[1] Near it was the oracle of Faunus Fatidicus.[2] [3] [4]
Lactantius states that the tenth Sibyl, called Albunea, was worshiped at Tibur, and that her image, holding a book in
one hand, was found in the bed of the river Anio.[5] Her oracles, called sortes, belonged to the libri fatales and were
at the command of the senate, deposited and kept in the Capitol. The small square temple of this Sibyl is still extant
at Tivoli.
Her name is derived from the whiteness (from albinus, "white") of the sulfurous water at her spring.[6] She was one
of the Pegaeae.
References
[1] Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Albunea" (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 0103. html), in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and
Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, pp. 94,
[2] Virgil, Aeneid vii. 81, &c.
[3] Horace, Carmina i. 7. 12
[4] Tibullus, ii. 5. 69
[5] Lactantius, De Sibyll. i. 6
[6] Harrison, Stephen J. (1996), "Albunea", in Hornblower, Simon, Oxford Classical Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press
Anaxibia 562
Anaxibia
'' :
• Anaxibia (spider), a spider genus in the family Dictynidae
Anaxibia (Ancient Greek: Άναξίβια) is the name of five characters in Greek mythology.
• Anaxibia, the daughter of Bias and Iphianassa, and niece of Melampus. She married Pelias, to whom she bore
Acastus, Pisidice, Pelopia, Hippothoe, Alcestis, and Medusa. She was sometimes called Alphesiboea.[1] [2]
• Anaxibia, daughter of Atreus and Aerope or, alternatively, of Pleisthenes and Aerope or Pleisthenes and Cleolla
(daughter of Dias), and sister of Agamemnon and Menelaus.[3] In other sources the sister of the Atrides is instead
called Astyoche (they may be the same person). Astyoche married Strophius, king of Phocis, becoming mother of
Pylades.[4] [5]
• Anaxibia, one of the Danaids, married to Archelaus, son of Aegyptus.[6]
• Anaxibia, daughter of Cratieus. She married Nestor and is the mother of Pisidice, Polycaste, Perseus, Stratichus,
Aretus, Echephron, Peisistratus, Antilochus, and Thrasymedes. More commonly, Eurydice is considered to be
Nestors's wife and the mother of these children.[7]
• Anaxibia, a naiad of the River Ganges. She fled from the advances of Helios. Artemis hid her in the sanctuary on
Mount Koryphe.[8] [9]
References
[1] Hyginus, Fabulae, 51. LI. Alcestis (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HyginusFabulae2. html)
[2] Apollodorus. Library, 1.9.10 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Apollodorus1. html).
[3] Hesiod. Catalogue of Women, 69: Agamemnon (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HesiodCatalogues. html)
[4] Hyginus, Fabulae, 117. CXVII. Clytemnestra (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HyginusFabulae3. html)
[5] Hyginus, Fabulae. 119. CXIX. Orestes (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HyginusFabulae3. html)
[7] Apollodurus. Library, 1.9.9 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Apollodorus1. html).
[8] Pseudo-Plutarch, On Rivers, 3. 3
[9] Theoi Project - Helios Loves (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Titan/ HeliosLoves. html)
Appias 563
Appias
In Roman mythology, Appias was one of the Crinaeae, a naiad who lived in the Appian Well outside the temple to
Venus Genitrix in the Roman Forum. The well was surrounded by statues of nymphs who were called "The
Appiades" (plural form of Appias).[1] .
In one of his letters[2] , Cicero refers to a statue of Minerva as "Appias". In this case, he derived this surname from
the name of Appius Claudius Pulcher, whom he intended to flatter.
References
[1] Ovid, Remedia Amoris, 659; Ars Amatoria, 1. 81., 3. 451
[2] Cicero, Ad familiares, 3. 1
Sources
• Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith, v. 1, page 248, under Appias
(http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0257.html)
Batea (mythology)
In Greek mythology, the name Batea (or Bateia) refers to the following individuals:
• The daughter or (less commonly) the aunt of King Teucer[1] [2] . Her father was the ruler of a tribe known as the
Teucrians (Teucri)[3] [4] . The Teucrians inhabited the area of northwest Asia Minor later called the Troad (Troas),
and the term is sometimes used as another name for the Trojans. Batea married King Dardanus, son of Zeus and
Electra, whom Teucer named as his heir[3] . Batea gave her name to a hill in the Troad, mentioned in the Iliad[5] ,
as well as to the town of Bateia[6] . By Dardanus, Batea was the mother of Ilus, Erichthonius, Zacynthus, and
Idaea (future wife of Phineus)[3] [7] [8] . Greek mythology also recounts Arisbe of Crete, a daughter of Teucer, as
the wife of Dardanus[9] , so Arisbe and Batea are usually assumed to be the same person.
• A Naiad, who married King Oebalus of Sparta. Their sons were Hippocoon, Tyndareus and Icarius[10] .
Family tree
Zeus/Jupiter Electra Teucer
Dardanus Batea
Erichthonius Ilus
Tros
Ilus Assaracus Ganymede
Laomedon Themiste Capys
Priam Anchises Aphrodite/Venus Latinus
Creusa Aeneas Lavinia

Batea (mythology) 564
Ascanius Silvius
Silvius Aeneas
Silvius
Brutus of Latinus Silvius

Britain
Alba
Atys
Capys
Capetus
Tiberinus
Silvius
Agrippa
Romulus Silvius
Aventinus
Procas
Numitor Amulius
Rhea Silvia Ares/Mars
Hersilia Romulus Remus
Kings of Rome
References
[1] Stephanus of Byzantium s. v. Dardanus
[2] Tzetzes on Lycophron, 29, where she is called sister of Scamander, who was the father of Teucer by Idaea
[4] Conon, Narrations, 21
[5] Homer, Iliad, 2. 813; the hill was known as the tomb of Batea to the mortals, but as that of Myrina to the immortals
[6] Arrian in Eustathius on Homer, 351
[7] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 1. 50. 3
External links
• Myth Index - Bateia (http://www.mythindex.com/greek-mythology/B/Bateia.html)
• Theoi Project - Bateia (Naiad) (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheBateia.html)
Caliadne 565
Caliadne
Caliadne (also Caliadna), in Greek mythology, is a naiad of the river Nile, presumably one of the daughters of the
river-god Nilus. She is one of the wives of Aegyptus, bearing him twelve sons: Eurylochus, Phantes, Peristhenes,
Hermus, Dryas, Potamon, Cisseus, Lixus, Imbrus, Bromios, Polyctor, and Chthonios. These sons married the
daughters of her sister Polyxo, and were murdered by them.[1]
References
[1] Theoi Project - Kaliadne (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheKaliadne. html)
Callirrhoe (naiad)
In Greek mythology, Callirrhoe (often written Callirrhoë) was a naiad. She was the daughter of Oceanus and
Tethys[1] [2] . She had three husbands, Chrysaor, Neilus and Poseidon. She was one of the three ancestors of the
Tyrians, along with Abarbarea and Drosera[3] . Jupiter's moon Callirrhoe is named after her.
Children
• By Chrysaor:
• Geryon[4] [5] [6] [7]
• Echidna
• By Neilus:
• Chione[8]
• By Poseidon:
• Minyas[9]
• By Tros:
• Ganymede[10]
References
[1] Hesiod, Theogony 351
[2] Homeric Hymn 2, 417
[3] Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 40. 535 ff
[4] Hesiod, Theogony, 287, 981
[6] Stesichorus fragments 512-513, 587
[7] Hyginus, Fabulae, Preface & 151
[8] Servius on Virgil, Aeneid, 4. 250
Cassotis 566
Cassotis
In Greek mythology, Cassotis (Κασσωτίς) was the naiad (a Pegaea) who lived in the spring at the Oracle at Delphi,
dedicated to Apollo; the spring was named for her.
External links
• ΠΑΥΣΑΝΙΟΥ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ ΠΕΡΙΗΓΗΣΙΣ: ΦΩΚΙΚΑ ΚΕʹ [1]
• Mythindex.com [2]
References
[1] http:/ / books. google. gr/ books?id=ZhoTAAAAQAAJ& pg=RA1-PA432& lpg=RA1-PA432&
dq=%CE%BA%CE%B1%CF%83%CF%83%CF%89%CF%84%CE%B9%CF%82& source=bl& ots=90otHBz4Lq&
sig=bAQXQhOKBRRskHKihosmBLz2Tro& hl=el& ei=6oTuSfq-AcSW_AadkpDnDw& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result&
resnum=2#PRA1-PA432,M1
[2] http:/ / www. mythindex. com/ greek-mythology/ C/ Cassotis. html
Castalia
Castalia (Ancient Greek: Κασταλία), in Greek mythology, was a nymph whom Apollo transformed into a fountain
at Delphi, at the base of Mount Parnassos, or at Mount Helicon. Castalia could inspire the genius of poetry to those
who drank her waters or listened to their quiet sound; the sacred water was also used to clean the Delphian temples.
Apollo consecrated Castalia to the Muses (Castaliae Musae). The 20th century German writer Hermann Hesse used
Castalia as inspiration for the name of the fictional province in his 1943 magnum opus, The Glass Bead Game.
External links
• Theoi Project - Nymphe Kastalia [1]
References
[1] http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheKastalia. html
Ceto (Oceanid) 567
Ceto (Oceanid)
Ceto was one of the Oceanids, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. She was also considered to be a naiad or sea nymph.
Ceto consorted with Helios and bore a daughter, Astris, also known as Asteria.[1] [2]
References
[1] Theoi Project - Nymphe Keto (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheKeto. html)
[2] Donnus. Dionysiaca, 26.350.
Charybdis
In Greek mythology, Charybdis or Kharybdis (pronounced
/kəˈrɪbdɨs/; in Greek, Χάρυβδις) was a sea monster, once a beautiful
naiad and the daughter of Poseidon and Gaia. She takes form as a huge
bladder of a creature whose face was all mouth and whose arms and
legs were flippers and who swallows huge amounts of water three
times a day before belching them back out again, creating whirlpools.
In some variations of the tale, Charybdis is just a large whirlpool rather
than a sea monster. Charybdis was very loyal to her father in his
endless feud with Zeus; it was she who rode the hungry tides after
Poseidon had stirred up a storm, and led them onto the beaches,
Britannia between Scylla & Charybdis. or — The
gobbling up whole villages, submerging fields, drowning forests,
Vessel of the Constitution steered clear of the
claiming them for the sea. She won so much land for her father's Rock of Democracy, and the Whirlpool of
kingdom that Zeus became enraged and changed her into a monster. Arbitrary-Power, a cartoon by James Gillray
portraying Britain navigating a path between
The myth has Charybdis lying on one side of a blue, narrow channel of revolutionary democracy and dictatorship.
water. On the other side of the strait was Scylla, another sea-monster.
The two sides of the strait are within an arrow's range of each other, so close that sailors attempting to avoid
Charybdis will pass too close to Scylla and vice versa. The phrase "between Scylla and Charybdis" has come to
mean being in a state where one is between two dangers and moving away from one will cause you to come closer to
the other. "Between Scylla and Charybdis" is the origin of the phrase "between the rock and the whirlpool" (the rock
upon which Scylla dwelt and the whirlpool of Charybdis) and may also be the genesis of the phrase "between a rock
and a hard place".
According to Thomas Bulfinch, based on writings of Homer, Charybdis stole the oxen of Geryon from Hermes, in
whose possession they had been at the time, and was transformed into a sea monster as a punishment.
Charybdis 568
Location
Traditionally, the location of Charybdis has been associated with the Strait of Messina off the coast of Sicily,
opposite the rock called Scylla.[1] The vortex there is caused by the meeting of currents but is seldom dangerous.
Recently, Tim Severin looked again at the location and suggested this association was a misidentification and that a
more likely origin for the myth could be found close by Cape Skilla in northwestern Greece.[2]
References in ancient literature
The Odyssey
Throughout the poem, Odysseus is hindered by the efforts of Poseidon and the sea monsters throughout the ocean.
Odysseus faced both Charybdis and Scylla in Homer's Odyssey while rowing through a narrow channel. He ordered
his men to avoid Charybdis thus forcing them to pass near Scylla. This resulted in the deaths of six of his men.
Later, stranded on a makeshift raft, Odysseus was swept back through
the strait to face Scylla and Charybdis again. This time, Odysseus
passed near Charybdis. His raft was sucked into Charybdis' maw, but
Odysseus survived by clinging to a fig tree grown on the rock
overhanging her lair. On the next outflow of water, his raft exploded
and sank and was expelled, and Odysseus was able to recover it and
paddle away to safety.
Jason and The Argonauts

The Argonauts were able to avoid both dangers because they were
guided by Thetis, one of the Nereids. Thetis was the mother of
Achilles, a Greek war hero.
Ovid's Metamorphoses
In Book VIII of Ovid's Metamorphoses Charybdis is mentioned in the
story of Minos and Scylla. Scylla betrays her father and country in order to aid Minos, of whom she is enamoured,
however Minos is disgusted by Scylla's treachery and sails away without her, provoking a damning diatribe from
Scylla. Scylla uses Charybdis to insult Minos in reference to his parentage. The Scylla of the Minos and Scylla story
is to be differentiated from Scylla as counter-part of Charybdis.
hac quoque si prohibes et nos, ingrate, relinquis, non genetrix Europa tibi est, sed inhospita Syrtis,
Armeniae tigres austroque agitata Charybdis.
If you forbid me from here also and abandon me, you ungrateful one, Europa is not mother to you, but
the inhospitable Syrtis, an Armenian tigress and Charybdis, whipped up by the south wind.
Charybdis 569
Notes
[1] Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War, 4.24.5 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text. jsp?doc=thuc. 4. 24).
[2] Severin, Tim. The Ulysses Voyage (http:/ / www. timseverin. net/ books_ulysses_voyage. html). ISBN 978-0-525-24614-5. .
References
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Scylla" 1. (http://
www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:alphabetic+letter=S:entry+
group=10:entry=scylla-bio-1)
Cleochareia
In Greek mythology, Cleochareia (or Kleokhareia) was a naiad, a river nymph. She was married to King Lelex of
Laconia. She is the ancestress of the Spartan royal family and gave birth to two children: Myles and Polycaon. Her
son, Myles, had a son named Eurotas (presumably named after his great grandfather). Eurotas had a daughter named
Sparta, who married Lacedaemon. Lacedaemon named the city of Sparta after his wife. However, the city's name
would also be his own, as it was called either Lacedaemon or Sparta interchangeably.
Comaetho
In Greek mythology, Comaetho (Κομαιθώ) is a name that may refer to:
• The daughter of Pterelaos, a Taphians' princess who loved Amphitryon. The Taphians were at war with Thebes,
led by Amphitryon. The Taphians remained invincible until Comaetho out of love for Amphitryon cut off her
father's golden hair, the possession of which rendered him immortal. Having defeated the enemy, Amphitryon put
Comaetho to death and handed over the kingdom of the Taphians to Cephalus.[1] The story is similar to that of
Scylla (princess).
• A beautiful girl of Patrae who served as priestess in the temple of Artemis Triclaria and was in love with
Melanippus. They were not allowed to marry each other, so they met secretly in the temple and had sex together.
The outraged goddess sent famine and plague upon the city; to propitiate her, the inhabitants had to sacrifice both
Comaetho and Melanippus to her. Since then, a young man and a young girl were sacrificed to the goddess each
year until, in accordance with the instructions of the Delphian oracle, a strange king (Eurypylus, son of Euaemon)
introduced the worship of a new deity (Dionysus, whose image he brought from Troy) in Patrae, thus both putting
an end to the sacrifices and curing himself of madness which had been sent upon him when he had first looked at
the god's image.[2]
• A nymph of a spring who incessantly mingles her waters with those of the river god Cydnus, who in one passage
of Nonnus' Dionysiaca is said to be her father,[3] and in another her consort.[4]
• Daughter of Tydeus and sister of Diomedes, mother of Cyanippus by Aegialeus.[5]
Comaetho 570
References
[2] Pausanias, Description of Greece, 7. 19. 1-9
[3] Dionysiaca 2. 143-144
[4] Dionysiaca 40. 141-143
[5] Tryphiodorus, The Taking of Ilios, 159
Creusa
In Greek mythology, four people had the name Creusa (or Kreousa - Κρέουσα); the name means simply "princess".
Naiad
According to Pindar's 9th Pythian Ode, Creusa was a naiad and daughter of Gaia who bore Hypseus, King of the
Lapiths to the river god Peneus. Hypseus had one daughter, Cyrene. When a lion attacked her father's sheep, Cyrene
wrestled with the lion. Apollo happened along and immediately fell in love with her and kidnapped her. He took her
to North Africa and founded the city of Cyrene in her name. The region, Cyrenaica, is also named for her. Together,
she and Apollo had one son: Aristaeus.
Daughter of Creon
Creusa was the daughter of King Creon of Corinth, Greece. After Jason divorced Medea, he married Creusa. Medea
obtained her revenge by giving Creusa a dress which Medea had cursed. The curse caused the dress to stick to
Creusa's body and burn her to death as soon as she put it on. Also known by Greek authors by the name Glauce, e.g.
in Apollodorus's Bibliotheca 1.9.28.
Daughter of Erechtheus
Interwiki : bn
Creusa was the daughter of Erechtheus, King of Athens and his wife, Praxithea, who was spared the fate of her
sisters, who died in order to protect Athens, because she was an infant. According to Hesiod's Eoiae she was mother
of a son Achaeus, a daughter named Diomede, and presumably another son Ion, but according to Euripides' Ion, in
which she is a prominent character, she was mother of Ion by Apollo and of Achaeus and Dorus by her husband
Xuthus. This is the only source which names Apollo as Ion's father, so it may have been invented for the play.
Creusa in Virgil's Aeneid

Creusa was the wife of Aeneas and mother to Ascanius, also known as Iulus. As Troy is falling to the Greeks,
Aeneas goes to his home to lead his father Anchises, Creusa, and their son Ascanius out of the city and into the
countryside. Anchises refuses to leave the house, prompting Aeneas to decide that he will leave to continue the fight
against the Greeks so that he may die in battle. Creusa grabs his feet and begs him to think of what would become of
Iulus, Anchises and herself if Aeneas were to be killed. As she does this, Iulus catches fire with an un-earthly flame.
The flame is quickly doused with water. Anchises believes this to be an omen from Jupiter, who confirms this omen
by sending a shooting star. Anchises now agrees to flee Troy. The family leaves the home, Aeneas carrying his
father and Iulus holding his hand, while Creusa is to remain some distance behind them. As they flee through the
city, pursued by Greeks, they reach the gates and begin to run after noticing that the Greeks appear to be gaining on
them. Creusa was unable to keep up with them. After reaching Ceres’ temple outside of the city, Aeneas leaves
Anchises (Iulus) and Ascanius there to go back in search of Creusa. As he searches the city without success, he
meets the ghost of Creusa, who tells him that she may not leave the city with him. She predicts his journey to
Creusa 571
Hesperia (Italy) and future marriage to another. She asks that Aeneas take care of their child and vanishes. Aeneas
tries three times to hold her, each time failing to grasp her wraith.[1]
Trojan Family Tree

Zeus/Jupiter Electra Teucer
Dardanus Batea
Erichthonius Ilus
Tros
Ilus Assaracus Ganymede
Laomedon Themiste Capys
Priam Anchises Aphrodite/Venus Latinus
Creusa Aeneas Lavinia
Ascanius Silvius
Silvius Aeneas
Silvius
Brutus of Latinus Silvius

Britain
Alba
Atys
Capys
Capetus
Tiberinus
Silvius
Agrippa
Romulus Silvius
Aventinus
Procas
Numitor Amulius
Rhea Silvia Ares/Mars
Hersilia Romulus Remus
Kings of Rome
[1] Book 2, Aeneid by Virgil

Cyane 572
Cyane
For the butterfly genus, see Asterope.
In Greek mythology, Cyane or Kyane (Κυάνη in Greek) was a nymph who tried to prevent Hades from abducting
Persephone, her playmate. Upon failure, she dissolved away in tears and melted into her pool[1] . In a slightly
different version, Cyane was the Naiad (i.e. the fresh-water nymph) of a spring in the Sicilian town of Syracuse.
After witnessing Hades's abduction of the goddess Persephone and trying to prevent it, she was turned to liquid by
Hades[2] .
Cyane had as a partner the river god Anapos (or Anapis)[3] [4] . She cited their love as an example of consensual
relationship while trying to convince Hades not to take Persephone by force[5] .
Popular culture
In the popular TV series Xena: Warrior Princess, Cyane is a recurring name of prominent Amazon warriors, each
considered the reincarnation of the former one: five different Cyanes (from different times) are shown in
"Xenaverse", played respectively by Vicky Pratt as "Cyane III", Selma Blair as "Cyane I", Shelley Edwards as
"Cyane IV" and Morgan Reese Fairhead as "Cyane V". "Cyane II" appears in Young Hercules series, played by
Katrina Browne. There are probably some other Cyanes between "Cyane I" and "Cyane II", but they are not shown
in the series. All shown Cyanes are powerful and charismatic, but "Cyane IV" is somewhat aphoristic, and "Cyane
V" overly polite and shy. The first Cyane came from the future: she taught Amazons to tame horses and (in a strange
time loop) gave them the name "Amazons".
A powerful person, "Cyane III" defeated both Xena (in a physical battle) and Alti (in a spiritual battle). She was
trusting of Xena and even offered to let her join the tribe. Xena betrayed Cyane when Alti "offered her a better deal".
Alti wanted Cyane's blood, and after she drank it she kept Cyane's soul and the souls of all the Amazons in the land
of the dead. She then used their power for herself and made it evil. The souls of the Amazons were trapped in the
land of the dead until the reformed Xena killed Alti and found the Amazon's new holy word, Love.
References
[1] Ovid, Metamorphoses 5. 407-464
[2] Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 2. 3
[3] Aelian, Historical Miscellany 2. 33
[5] Ovid, Metamorphoses 5. 418-419
External links
• Theoi Project - Nymphe Kyane (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheKyane.html)
Drosera (naiad) 573
Drosera (naiad)
In Greek mythology, Drosera was a naiad. She was one of the three ancestors of the Tyrians, along with Callirrhoe
and Abarbarea.
References
• Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 40. 535 ff
Eleionomae
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
medicine
and Artemis
Nymphs
The Eleionomae were marsh naiads in ancient Greek mythology. Aside from living in marshy environments, the
Eleionomae often misled travelers with their illusions. The illusions constituted images of a traveler's loved ones.
These nymphs also lured young, virgin boys and seduced them with their beauty.
Euboea (mythology) 574
Euboea (mythology)
Euboea is the name of four women in Greek mythology
1. Euboea or Calchis, a naiad, daughter of the Boeotian river-god Asopus and of Metope. Poseidon abducted her.
The island of Euboea (or the city of Chalcis, located on that island) was given her name. Some authors call her the
mother of the Curetes and Corybantes (under the name Chalcis).[1]
2. Euboea, one of the daughters of the river-god Asterion. She and her sisters, Acraea and Prosymna, were the
nurses of Hera.[2]
3. Euboea, one of the daughters of Thespius and Megamede. She bore Heracles a son Olympus.[3]
4. Euboea, daughter of Macareus, king of Locris. She bore Apollo a son, Agreus.[4]
References
[1] Theoi Project - Nymphe Euboia (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheEuboia. html)
[2] Theoi Project - Nymphai Asterionides (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NymphaiAsterionides. html)
[3] Apollodorus. The Library, 2.7.8.4 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Apollodorus2. html).
[4] Theoi Project - Apollon Family (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Olympios/ ApollonFamily. html)
Hieromneme
Hieromneme was a minor naiad of Asia Minor in Greek mythology. She was a daughter of the river-god Simoïs and
the wife of Assaracus, by whom she bore Capys.
Larunda
Larunda (also Larunde, Laranda, Lara) was a naiad or nymph, daughter of the river Almo in Ovid's Fasti[1] . She
was famous for both beauty and loquacity (a trait her parents attempted to curb). She was incapable of keeping
secrets, and so revealed to Jupiter's wife Juno his affair with Juturna (Larunda's fellow nymph, and the wife of
Janus). For betraying his trust, Jupiter cut out Lara's tongue and ordered Mercury, the psychopomp, to conduct her to
Avernus, the gateway to the Underworld and realm of Pluto. Mercury, however, fell in love with Larunda and made
love to her on the way; this act has also been interpreted as a rape. Lara thereby became mother to two children,
referred to as the Lares, invisible household gods. However, she had to stay in a hidden cottage in the woods so that
Jupiter would not find her.
Larunda is likely identical with Muta "the mute one" and Tacita "the silent one", nymphs or minor goddesses[2] [3] .
References
[1] Ovid, Fasti 2, V. 599.
[2] Lactantius, The Divine Institutions, I. 20
[3] J. A. Hartung, Die Religion der Römer: Nach den Quellen, vol. II, p. 204
External links
• Myth Index - Larunda (http://www.mythindex.com/roman-mythology/L/Larunda.html)
Lethe 575
Lethe
In Greek mythology, Lethe (Λήθη; Classical Greek Greek pronunciation: [ˈlɛːtʰɛː], modern Greek: Greek
pronunciation: [ˈliθi]) was one of the five rivers of Hades. Also known as the Ameles potamos (river of unmindfulness),
the Lethe flowed around the cave of Hypnos and through the Underworld, where all those who drank from it
experienced complete forgetfulness. Lethe was also the name of the Greek spirit of forgetfulness and oblivion, with
whom the river was often identified.
In Classical Greek, the word Lethe literally means "oblivion", "forgetfulness," or "concealment". It is related to the
Greek word for "truth", aletheia (ἀλήθεια), meaning "un-forgetfulness" or "un-concealment".
Mythology
River
Lethe (lee-thee), the river of forgetfulness, was one of the five rivers of the Greek underworld, the other four being
Styx (the river of hate), Akheron (the river of sorrow), Kokytos (the river of lamentation) and Phlegethon (the river
of fire). According to Statius, it bordered Elysium, the final resting place of the virtuous. Ovid wrote that the river
flowed through the cave of Hypnos, god of sleep, where its murmuring would induce drowsiness.[1]
The shades of the dead were required to drink the waters of the Lethe in order to forget their earthly life. In the
Aeneid, Virgil writes that it is only when the dead have had their memories erased by the Lethe that they may be
reincarnated.[2]
Goddess
Lethe was also the name of the personification of forgetfulness and oblivion, with whom the river was often
associated. Hesiod's Theogony identifies her as the daughter of Eris ("strife") and sister of Ponos ("toil"), Limos
("starvation"), the Algea ("pains"), the Hysminai ("fightings"), the Makhai ("battles"), the Phonoi ("murders"), the
Androktasiai ("man-slaughters"), the Neikea ("quarrels"), the Pseudologoi ("lies"), the Amphilogiai ("disputes"),
Dysnomia ("lawlessness"), Atë ("ruin"), and Horkos ("oath").[3]
Role in religion and philosophy

Some ancient Greeks believed that souls were made to drink from the river before being reincarnated, so they would
not remember their past lives. The Myth of Er at the end of Plato's Republic tells of the dead arriving at the "plain of
Lethe", through which the river Ameles ("careless") runs. A few mystery religions taught the existence of another
river, the Mnemosyne; those who drank from the Mnemosyne would remember everything and attain omniscience.
Initiates were taught that they would receive a choice of rivers to drink from after death, and to drink from
Mnemosyne instead of Lethe. These two rivers are attested in several verse inscriptions on gold plates dating to the
4th century BC and onward, found at Thurii in Southern Italy and elsewhere throughout the Greek world. There were
rivers of Lethe and Mnemosyne at the oracular shrine of Trophonius in Boeotia, from which worshippers would
drink before making oracular consultations with the god. More recently, Martin Heidegger used "lēthē" to symbolize
the "concealment of Being" or "forgetting of Being" that he saw as a major problem of modern philosophy.
Examples are found in his books on Nietzsche (Vol 1, p. 194) and on Parmenides.
Lethe 576
Real rivers
Amongst authors in Antiquity, the tiny Limia River between Northern
Portugal and Galicia (Spain) was said to have the same properties of
memory loss as the legendary Lethe River. In 138 BC, the Roman
general Decimus Junius Brutus sought to dispose of the myth, as it
impeded his military campaigns in the area. He was said to have
crossed the Limia and then called his soldiers on the other side, one by
one, by name. The soldiers, astonished that their general remembered
their names, crossed the river as well without fear. This act proved that
The River Lethe in Alaska.
the Limia was not as dangerous as the local myths described. In
Alaska, a river which runs through the Valley of Ten Thousand
Smokes is called River Lethe.
References
[1] "LETHE : Greek goddess of the underworld river of oblivion ; mythology" (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Khthonios/ PotamosLethe. html). .
Retrieved 02-06-2010.
[2] Day-Lewis, Cecil (trans.) (1952). Virgil's Aeneid. pp. 705.
[3] Hesiod (author); Evelyn-White, H.G. (trans.) (1914). [[Theogony|The Theogony of Hesiod (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HesiodTheogony.
html)]]. pp. 226. .
External links
• Theoi Project: Lethe, Greek goddess of the underworld river of oblivion (http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/
PotamosLethe.html)
• Theoi Project: Lethe, Greek goddess or spirit of forgetfulness and oblivion (http://www.theoi.com/Daimon/
Lethe.html)
Lilaea 577
Lilaea
For the plant, see Lilaea (plant)
In Greek mythology, Lilaea was a Naiad of a spring of the same name, daughter of the river god Cephissus.[1] [2]
The town of Lilaea in Phocis and the asteroid 213 Lilaea are named after her.
References
[2] See also Homeric Hymn 3 to Pythian Apollo, 239
Melite (naiad)
Melite (Μελίτη) was one of the naiads, daughter of the river god Aegaeus, and one of the many loves of Zeus and
his son Hercules. Given the choice, she chose Hercules over Zeus who went off in search of other pursuits. She gave
birth to Hercules's sons Hyllus and/or Hylas.
Hercules tried to find refuge on the mythical island of Scheria, widely considered to be the island of Corfu in modern
Greece, after fighting a war he had caused. He decided to rest near a lake. This lake happened to be the place in
which Melite and her sisters were currently residing. When Melite saw Hercules she hid him away from her siblings
in a deeper and darker part of the lake where she had sex with him. The two then traveled to another part of the
island and stayed there until Melite gave birth to her twins, who they named Hylas and Hyllus.
Zeus was in a rage over her choice of a mortal over him, and so he appealed to her father who would not let her have
anymore children with Hercules or any sexual contact whatsoever. Hercules promptly left Melite for other mortals.
She was one of the women who were there mourning the death of Hercules.
Melite was also the name of one of the Nereids.
Minthe 578
Minthe
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
medicine
and Artemis
Nymphs
In Greek mythology, Minthe (also Menthe, Mintha or Mentha; Greek: Μίνθη or Μένθη) was a naiad associated
with the river Cocytus. She was dazzled by Hades' golden chariot and was about to be seduced by him had not
Queen Persephone intervened and metamorphosed Minthe into the pungently sweet-smelling mint, which some call
hedyosmus. The –nth– element in menthe is characteristic of a class of words borrowed from a pre-Greek language:
compare acanthus, labyrinth, Corinth, etc..
In ancient Greece, mint was used in funerary rites, together with rosemary and myrtle, and not simply to offset the
smell of decay; mint was an element in the fermented barley drink called the kykeon that was an essential preparatory
entheogen for participants in the Eleusinian mysteries, which offered hope in the afterlife for initiates.[1]
Notes
[1] Kerenyi 1967
References
• Graves, Robert, (1955; rev. ed. 1960). The Greek Myths I (London: Penguin) 31.d (p 121), 31.d.note 6 (p. 124).
ISBN 9780631201021. "Menthe" p. 286 (http://books.google.com/books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC&
printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=Menthe&f=false)
• Kerenyi, Karl, 1967. Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter, pp. 40, 179f (Princeton: Bollingen)
• Ovid: Metamorphoses X: 728–731 (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Ov.+Met.+10.728&
fromdoc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0028)
Minthe 579
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Mintha" (http://
www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:alphabetic+letter=M:entry+
group=26:entry=mintha-bio-1)
• Strabo, 8.3.14 (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+8.3.14&fromdoc=Perseus:text:1999.
01.0198)
External links
• The Theoi Project, "MINTHE" (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheMinthe.html)
Nomia (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Nomia was a naiad. The Nomian Mountains were named after her. She may have been the
nymph who loved Daphnis. Naiads are the beautiful nymphs of fresh water (often streams, fountain, brooks, wells,
and ponds). They are debatedly daughters of Zeus or closely related to Oceanids.
Ondine (mythology)
(Undine)
Undine with harp by Ludwig Michael von Schwanthaler (1855)

Creature
Grouping Mythological
Sub grouping Water spirit

Elemental
Similar creatures Mermaid

Selkie
Siren
Data
Habitat Any body of water
Ondines or undines ((Latin: unda — a wave) Fr. Mermaid) are

elementals, enumerated as the water elementals in works of alchemy
by Paracelsus.[1] They also appear in European folklore as fairy-like
creatures; the name may be used interchangeably with those of other
water spirits.[2] Undines are said to be able to gain a soul by marrying a
man and bearing his child. An undine is the heroine of the popular
1812 novella Undine by German author Baron Friedrich de la Motte
Fouqué and has since been adapted into various manners, such as
ballets and operas.[3] The German folktale of Ondine, a water nymph
who curses her unfaithful husband to cease breathing if he should ever
fall asleep again, is the basis for "Ondine's Curse," the historical term
for Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome, in which the
afflicted lose autonomic control over breathing, placing them at
greatest risk when they are asleep.
Undine, by John William Waterhouse (1872)

Characteristics of undines
According to a theory advanced by Paracelsus, an Undine is a water nymph or water spirit, the elemental of water.
They are usually found in forest pools and waterfalls. They have beautiful voices, which are sometimes heard over
the sound of water. According to some legends, undines cannot get a soul unless they marry a man and bear him a
child. This aspect has led them to be a popular motif in romantic and tragic literature.
In 18th century Scotland, ondines were also referred to as the wraiths of water. Even then, they were not feared as
other wraiths such as the kelpie.
Sleep of Ondine
In a German tale known as Sleep of Ondine, Ondine is a water nymph. She was very beautiful and, like all nymphs,
immortal. However, should she fall in love with a mortal man and bear his child, she would lose her immortality.
Ondine eventually falls in love with a handsome knight, Sir Lawrence, and they are married. When they exchange
vows, Lawrence vows to forever love and be faithful to her. A year after their marriage, Ondine gives birth to his
child. From that moment on she begins to age. As Ondine’s physical attractiveness diminishes, Lawrence loses
interest in his wife.
One afternoon, Ondine is walking near the stables when she hears the familiar snoring of her husband. When she
enters the stable, she sees Lawrence lying in the arms of another woman. Ondine points her finger at him, which he
feels as if kicked, waking him up with surprise. Ondine curses him, stating, "You swore faithfulness to me with
every waking breath, and I accepted your oath. So be it. As long as you are awake, you shall have your breath, but
should you ever fall asleep, then that breath will be taken from you and you will die!"
"Ondine's curse"
The tale is the basis for "Ondine's Curse," the historical name for Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome
(CCHS), a serious form of sleep apnea. CCHS causes patients to lose autonomic control of breathing, resulting in the
need to consciously initiate every breath. If untreated, patients with CCHS will die—like Ondine's unfaithful
spouse—if they fall asleep and can therefore no longer consciously breathe.
Cultural reproductions
• Fantasy authors will sometimes employ undines in their fiction,
often as elementals rather than another type of water spirit, such as
in in China Miéville's New Crobuzon trilogy.[4]
• In the Mana video game series, water spirits are typically referred to
as "Undines" as is the water-based summoning spirit in the game
Tales of Symphonia.
• In Hart Crane's poem, Voyages II, from his 1926 collection, White
Buildings, the poet, in describing the Sea, writes, ...Her undinal
vast belly moonward bends,....
• Genesis' 1973 song "Firth of Fifth" makes reference to "Undinal
Songs."
• Hans Werner Henze/Frederick Ashton's ballet Undine about a water
nymph, was choreographed for Margot Fonteyn. The ballet and the
operas of the same name by Albert Lortzing and E. T. A. Hoffmann
are independent adaptations of Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué
novella.
• One of the sections of Maurice Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit is titled
"Ondine".
• Piano music composed by Cécile Chaminade. Op. 101 titled "Ondine de Spa" by Pouhon Pierre-Le-Grand.
"l'ondine"
• The film Ondine starring Colin Farrell as a fisherman who discovers an Ondine.
For more cultural references, see Undine.
See also
• Elemental
• Gnome
• Mermaid
• Morgens
• Naiad
• Rusalka
• Salamander
• Siren
• Sylph
References
[1] Carole B. Silver, Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness, p 38 ISBN 0-19-512100-6
[2] C.S. Lewis, The Discarded Image, p135 ISBN 0-521-47735-2
[3] Funk & Wagnall's New comprehensive international dictionary of the English language~Encyclopedic edition~,Library of Congress Catalog
Card Number 74-150152, p1369, J.G. Ferguson Publishing Company ,@1976
[4] John Grant and John Clute, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, "Elemental" p 313-4, ISBN 0-312-19869-8
External links
• Water spirit legends (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/water.html)
• Myths of the Goddess Ondine (http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/goddess-Ondine.htm)
• (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235796/) Ondine the movie
Orseis
For the polychaete worm genus, see Orseis (polychaete).
In Greek mythology, Orseis, (Greek: Oρσηίς) was the water-nymph (Naiad) of a spring in Thessalia, Greece, and
the mythical ancestor of the Greeks. It is uncertain whether she was believed to be the daughter of Oceanus or the
river-god of Thessalia, Peneios. There is even a possibility that she was the daughter of Zeus and Deino the Graeae.
According to the Library of (Pseudo-)Apollodorus, Orseis married Hellen, son of Deucalion and Pyrrha and brother
of Pandora, the legendary eponymous ancestor of the Greeks. Their sons, Dorus, Xuthus, and Aeolus, according to
Hesiod's (probably) "Eoiae" (Greek: Ηοίαι) or Catalogue of Women[1] together with the sons of Pandora, Graecus,
Magnetas and Makedon with Zeus, became the founders of the seven primordial tribes of Hellas (Graecians,
Magnetes, Makedones, Dorians, Achaeans, Ionians, and Aeolians).[2]
Orseis 583
References
[1] Hesiod's (probably) "Eoiae" (Greek: Ηοίαι) or Catalogue of Women, the origin of Hellenes
[2] Apollodorus, The Library 1.49 - Hellen and a Nymphe named Orseis had Doros, Xuthos, and Aiolos.
Sources
• Apollodorus, The Library (Greek Mythography 2nd century BC).
• Hesiod's (probably) "Eoiae" (Greek: Ηοίαι) or Catalogue of Women, on the origin of Hellenes.
External links
• Theoi Project: Orseis (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheOrseis.html)
• The Pedigree of Orseis the Nymph (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jamesdow/s053/f004819.
htm)
Periboea
In Greek mythology, nine people shared the name Periboea (Περίβοια).
1. Periboea was the daughter of either King Cychreus of Salamis or of Alcathous. Her mother was either Pyrgo or
Evaechme (Εὐαίχμη), daughter of Megareus[1] . She married Telamon[2] and became and mother of Ajax [3] [4] .
She was among the seven young girls sent to Crete as retribution (see Minotaur); while on board the ship, Minos
attempted to sexually abuse her but she was defended by Theseus[5] , with whom she later consorted[6] . Also
known as Eriboea[7] [8] [9] [10]
2. Periboea, daughter of Eurymedon. With Poseidon, Periboea was the mother of Nausithous[11] .
3. Periboea, Wife of Polybus, foster mother of Oedipus[12] .
4. Periboea, a Naiad. Wife of Icarius, mother of Penelope, Perilaus, Aletes, Damasippus, Imeusimus and Thoas[13] ,
presumably also of Iphthime[14] . Icarius' wife is alternatively known as Asterodia, Dorodoche[15] or Polycaste[16]
5. Periboea, daughter of Hipponous and mother of Tydeus by Oeneus[17] .
6. Periboea, one of the first two maidens sent by the people of Locris to the shrine of Athena at Troy, in order to
relieve them of plague. The other was named Cleopatra[18] .
7. Periboea, eldest daughter of Acessamenus. She bore a son, Pelagon, to the river-god Axius[19] .
8. Periboea, one of the Oceanids. Mother of Aura by Lelantos[20]
9. Periboea, mother, by Meges, of Celtus and Eubius (Εὔβιος) (Trojans)[21] .
Other
• Periboea (polychaete), polychaete worm genus
• Periboea (plant), Hyacinthaceae plant genus
References
[2] Plutarch, Parallel Lives, 27. 312b
[3] Apollodorus, The Library, 3. 12. 7
[4] Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1. 42. 1, 1. 17. 3
[5] Bacchylides, Ode 17, 8-16
[6] Pherecydes in Athenaeus, 13. 557b. A certain "Phereboea" is also mentioned by him among the wives of Theseus; she could be identical with
Periboea
[8] Sophocles, Ajax, 566
Periboea 584
[9] Pindar, Isthmian Ode 6. 65

[11] Homer, Odyssey, 7. 56-57
[12] Apollodorus, The Library, 3. 5. 7
[13] Apollodorus, The Library 3. 10. 6
[14] Homer, Odyssey, 4, 797
[15] Scholia on Homer, Odyssey, 15. 16
[16] Strabo, Geography, 10. 2. 24; her sons by Icarius are called Alyzeus and Leucadius
[17] Apollodorus, The Library 1. 8. 4
[18] Apollodorus, Epitome of Book 4, 6. 20-21
[19] Homer, Iliad 20. 142
[21] Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy, 7. 606 ff
Sources
• Lyons, Deborah. Gender and Immortality - Appendix: A Catalogue of Heroines (http://press.princeton.edu/
books/lyons/appendix.html)
External links
• Theoi Project, "Periboia" (Naiad) (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NymphePeriboia2.html)
• Theoi Project, "Periboia" (Oceanid) (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NymphePeriboia1.html)
• Myth Index - Periboea (http://www.mythindex.com/greek-mythology/P/Periboea.html)
Polyxo
Polyxo (Greek: Πολυξώ), in Greek mythology, is a name that may refer to:
• One of the Hyades.
• A Naiad of the river Nile, presumably one of the daughters of the river-god Nilus. She was one of the wives of
Danaus and bore him twelve daughters: Autonoe, Theano, Electra, Cleopatra, Eurydice, Glaucippe, Anthelea,
Cleodora, Euippe, Erato, Stygne, and Bryce. They married twelve sons of Aegyptus and Caliadne, Polyxo's sister,
and murdered them on their wedding nights.[1] [2]
• Mother of Antiope by Nycteus.[3]
• A Lemnian, nurse of Hypsipyle and a seeress. She advised that the Lemnian women conceive children with the
Argonauts, as all the men on the island had previously been killed.[4] [5]
• A native of Argos, who married Tlepolemus and fled with him to Rhodes. Together they had a son, whose name
is not known. After Tlepolemus was killed in the Trojan War, Polyxo became queen of Rhodes. She received
Helen after the latter had been driven out of Sparta by Megapenthes and Nicostratus (Menelaus, Helen's husband,
was already dead by the time). Still, Polyxo regarded Helen as the cause of Tlepolemus' death and eventually
decided to take revenge on her. So when Helen was taking a bath, several handmaidens in the guise of the
Erinyes, sent by Polyxo, seized her and hanged her on a tree.[6]
• Mother of Actorion. She came to invite Triopas and Erysichthon to her son's wedding, but Erysichthon's mother
had to answer that her own son was not coming, as he had been wounded by a boar during hunt. The truth was
that Erysichthon was dealing with the insatiable hunger sent upon him by the angry Demeter.[7]
Polyxo 585
References
[2] Theoi Project - Nymphe Polyxo (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NymphePolyxo. html)
[4] Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 1. 668
[6] Pausanias, Description of Greece, 3. 19. 9 - 10
[7] Callimachus, Hymn to Demeter, 77 ff
Praxithea
In Greek mythology, Praxithea (Greek: Πραξιθέα) was a name attributed to five women.
Oceanid
Interwiki: bn.
Praxithea was a Oceanid, a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. According to Apollodorus Praxithea married
Erichthonius of Athens and by him had a son named Pandion I.
Naiad
Interwiki: bn.
Praxithea was a daughter of Phrasimus and Diogeneia, daughter of the river-god Cephissus. She married Erechtheus
and bore him Cecrops, Pandorus, Metion, Thespius, Eupalamus, Sicyon, Orneus, Procris, Creusa, Merope, Chthonia,
and Orithyia.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Metanira's maid
Praxithea was the woman that cried out when she saw Demeter holding Metanira's son Demophon in the fires, thus
preventing him from becoming immortal.[8]
Daughter of Leos
Praxithea was a daughter of Leos. Along with her sisters, Theope and Eubule, she sacrificed herself in order to save
Athens. In another version, their father was the one who offered them up to sacrifice.[9]
Daughter of Thespius
Praxithea was one of the fifty daughters of Thespius and Megamede. She bore Heracles a son, Nephus.[10]
Praxithea 586
Notes
[1] Apollodorus. The Library, 3.15.1 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Apollodorus3. html).
[2] Diodorus Siculus. Library of History, 4.29 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ DiodorusSiculus4B. html).
[3] Diodorus Siculus. Library of History, 4.76.1 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ DiodorusSiculus4D. html).
[4] Pausanias. Description of Greece, 2.6.5 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Pausanias2A. html).
[5] Pausanias. Description of Greece, 2.25.6 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Pausanias2A. html).
[6] Plutarch. Life of Theseus, 5 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ PlutarchTheseus. html).
[7] Theoi Project - Praxithea (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NymphePraxithea. html), naiad nymph of Athens in Attica
[9] Theoi Project - Apollodorus (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Ap3d. html)
References
• Apollodorus, 1921. Apollodorus, The Library (English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in
2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd) (Perseus) (http://
www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Apollod.+3.14.6).
• James, Vanessa, 2003. The Genealogy of Greek Mythology. Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Salmacis
In Greek mythology, Salmacis was an atypical naiad who rejected the
ways of the virginal Greek goddess Artemis in favour of vanity and
idleness. Her attempted rape of Hermaphroditus places her as the only
nymph rapist in the Greek mythological canon.
"There dwelt a Nymph, not up for hunting or archery:
unfit for footraces. She the only Naiad not in Diana’s
band.
Often her sisters would say: “Pick up a javelin, or
bristling quiver, and interrupt your leisure for the chase!”
But she would not pick up a javelin or arrows,
nor trade leisure for the chase.
Instead she would bathe her beautiful limbs and tend to
her hair,
with her waters as a mirror."
Ovid, Metamorphoses. Book IV, 306-312.
Salmacis and Hermaphroditus by
In Ovid's Metamorphoses, she becomes one with Hermaphroditus, and François-Joseph Navez (c. 1828)
Hermaphroditus curses the fountain to have the same effect on others.

However, it's very likely that Ovid fabricated the entire tale himself - his use of "praetereo, dulcique animos novitate
tenebo" could be read in several ways, as "novitate" could be translated as either something strange or something
new, which would imply that it was a new tale. Salmacis could also have been intended simply as a contrast to the
previous tales in Ovid's Metamorphoses, as others involve a dominant male pursuing an elusive female. [1]
Salmacis 587
Gallery
Artistic allusions
• A sculpture by François-Joseph Bosio, La nymphe Salmacis, can be seen on display at the Louvre Museum in
Paris. [2]
• Ovid's story of Salmacis and the boy Hermaphroditus is retold by Francis Beaumont in his epyllion 'Salmacis and
Hermaphroditus'. [3]
• The story is retold in the song "The Fountain of Salmacis" by Genesis, on the album Nursery Cryme (1971). [4]
• Paintings by Italian artist Roberto Ferri, a set of 3 oil paintings taken from Ovid's myth of Salmacis and
Hermaphroditus. [5]
References
[1] Theoi Greek Mythology, Exploring Mythology in Classical Literature & Art Theoi.com (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/
NympheSalmakis. html)
[2] Sculpture: The Nymph Salmacis by François-Joseph Bosio, Louvre Museum, Paris Insecula.com (http:/ / www. insecula. com/ oeuvre/
photo_ME0000033687. html)
[3] Renascence Editions: Salmacis and Hermaphroditus by Francis Beaumont Luminarium.org (http:/ / www. luminarium. org/
renascence-editions/ fbeaumont1. html)
[4] Music Video: Genesis - The Fountain of Salmacis Youtube.com (http:/ / www. youtube. com/ watch?v=orSrE8yowQk)
[5] Roberto Ferri: Salmace e Ermafrodito, trittico olio su tavola Blogspot.com (http:/ / robertoferripittore. blogspot. com/ 2009/ 10/
salmace-e-ermafrodito-trittico. html)
Styx 588
Styx
The Styx (Greek: Στύξ, Stux, also meaning "hate" and "detestation")
(adjectival form: Stygian, pronounced /ˈstɪdʒi.ən/) was a river in
Greek mythology that formed the boundary between Earth and the
Underworld (often called Hades which is also the name of this
domain's ruler). It circles the Underworld nine times. The rivers Styx,
Phlegethon, Acheron, and Cocytus all converge at the center of the
underworld on a great marsh. The other important rivers of the
underworld are Lethe and Eridanos, and Alpheus. The ferryman was
called Charon.
Etching of G. Doré
The gods respected the Styx and swore binding oaths on it. Zeus swore
to give Semele whatever she wanted and was then obliged to follow
through, resulting in her death. Helios similarly promised Phaëton whatever he desired, also resulting in his death.
Gods that did not follow through on such an oath had to drink from the river, causing them to lose their voices for
nine years, then being exiled from the council of gods for nine years after that. According to some versions, Styx had
miraculous powers and could make someone invulnerable. According to one tradition, Achilles was dipped in it in
his childhood, acquiring invulnerability, with exception of his heel, by which his mother held him. This is the source
of the expression Achilles' heel, a metaphor for a vulnerable spot.
Styx was primarily a feature in the afterworld of Greek mythology, but has been described as a feature present in the
hell of Christianity as well, notably in The Divine Comedy and also "Paradise Lost". The ferryman Charon is in
modern times commonly believed to have transported the souls of the newly dead across this river into the
underworld, though in the original Greek and Roman sources, as well as in Dante, it was the river Acheron that
Charon plied. Dante put Phlegyas over the Styx and made it the fifth circle of Hell, where the wrathful and sullen are
punished by being drowned in the muddy waters for eternity.
In ancient times some believed that placing a coin in the mouth or two coins in the eyes of the deceased, would help
pay the toll for the ferry to help cross the Styx river which would lead one to the entrance of the underworld. If some
could not pay the fee it was said that they would never be able to cross the river. This ritual was performed by the
relatives.
The variant spelling Stix was sometimes used in translations of Classical Greek before the 20th century.[1] By
synecdoche, the adjective stygian came to refer to anything dark, dismal, and murky.
Goddess
Styx was also the name of the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. She was wife to Pallas and bore him Zelus, Nike,
Kratos and Bia (and sometimes Eos). Styx supported Zeus in the Titanomachy where she was the first to rush to his
aid. For this reason her name was given the honor of being a binding oath for the gods.
Nymph
Styx is specifically a Naiad, or fresh water nymph.
External links
Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Styx". Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• Theoi Project - Potamos Styx [2]

Styx 589
References
[1] Iliad(1-3), Homer; H. Travers, 1740
[2] http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Khthonios/ PotamosStyx. html
Xanthe
Xanthe (Ξανθή meaning "blond-haired" in Greek) is a name with origins in Greek mythology. It may refer to:
• One of the Oceanids, daughters of Oceanus.
• One of the Amazons.
• The wife of Asclepius, sometimes called Xanthe.
It may also refer to
• Xanthe Terra, a region on the planet Mars.
Corycia
In Greek mythology, Corycia (or Korykia - Κωρύκια) was a naiad who lived on Mount Parnassus in Phocis. Her
father was the local river-god Kephisos or Pleistos of northern Boeotia. With Apollo, she became the mother of
Lycoreus. Corycia was one of the nymphs of the springs of the Corycian Cave which was named after her. She was
related to the nymph, Castalia, who presided over the sacred springs at Delphi. Corycia was closely identified with
Kleodora and Melaina.
Agave (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Agave (or Agaue from Ancient Greek: Ἀγαύη, English translation: "illustrious") was the
daughter of Cadmus, the king and founder of the city of Thebes, Greece, and of the goddess Harmonia. Her sisters
were Autonoë, Ino and Semele.[1] She married Echion, one of the five spartoi, and was the mother of Pentheus, a
king of Thebes. She also had a daughter Epirus. She was a Maenad, a follower of Dionysus (also known as Bacchus
in Roman mythology).
In Euripides's play, "The Bacchae", Theban Maenads murdered King Pentheus after he banned the worship of
Dionysus because he denied Dionysus' divinity. Dionysus, Pentheus' cousin, himself lured Pentheus to the woods,
where the Maenads tore him apart and his corpse was mutilated by his own mother, Agave.
This murder also served as Dionysus' vengeance on Agave (and her sisters Ino and Autonoë). Semele, during her
pregnancy with Dionysus, was destroyed by the sight of the splendor of Zeus. Her sisters spread the report that she
had only endeavored to conceal unmarried sex with a mortal man, by pretending that Zeus was the father of her
child, and said that her destruction was a just punishment for her falsehood. This calumny was afterwards most
severely avenged upon Agave. For, after Dionysus, the son of Semele, had traversed the world, he came to Thebes
and sent the Theban women mad, compelling them to celebrate his Dionysiac festivals on Mount Cithaeron.
Pentheus, wishing to prevent or stop these riotous proceedings, was persuaded by a disguised Dionysus to go himself
to Cithaeron, but was torn to pieces there by his own mother Agave, who in her frenzy believed him to be a wild
beast.[2] [3]
For this transgression, according to Hyginus,[4] Agave was exiled from Thebes and fled to Illyria to marry King
Lycotherses, and then killed him in order to gain the city for her father Cadmus. This account, however, is manifestly
transplaced by Hyginus, and must have belonged to an earlier part of the story of Agave.[5]
Agave (mythology) 590
Other characters
Agave is also the name of three more minor characters in Greek mythology.
• Agave, one of the Nereids.[6] [7] [8] [9]
• Agave, one of the Danaids, daughter of Danaus and Europa. She married Lycus, son of Aegyptus and
Argyphia.[10]
• Agave, an Amazon.[11]
References
[1] Apollodorus, iii. 4. § 2
[2] Apollodorus, iii. 5. § 2
[3] Ovid, Metamorphoses iii. 725
[4] Hyginus, Fabulae 240, 254
[5] Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Agave" (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 0075. html), in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and
Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston, pp. 66–67,
[6] Apollodorus. Library, 1.2.7 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Apollodorus1. html#2)
[7] Homer. Iliad, 18.35 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HomerIliad18. html)
[8] Hesiod. Theogony, 240 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HesiodTheogony. html)
[11] Hyginus. Fabulae, 163 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HyginusFabulae4. html#163).
Sources
Amphinome 591
Amphinome
Amphinome may refer to:
• Characters in Greek mythology:
• Amphinome the Nereid
• Amphinome, wife of Aeson and mother to Jason and Promachus. She and her husband were persecuted by
king Pelias of Iolcus. Amphinome killed herself with a sword. As she lay dying she pronounced a curse against
the king.[1]
• Amphinome, wife of Arizelus and mother of Harpalion
• Amphinome (annelid), a bristle worm genus
[1] Diodorus Siculus: The Library of History
Amphitrite 592
Amphitrite
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
Aquatic deities
In ancient Greek mythology, Amphitrite (Ἀμφιτρίτη) was a sea-goddess and wife of Poseidon.[1] Under the
influence of the Olympian pantheon, she became merely the consort of Poseidon, and was further diminished by
poets to a symbolic representation of the sea. In Roman mythology, the consort of Neptune, a comparatively minor
figure, was Salacia, the goddess of saltwater.[2]
Mythography
Amphitrite was a daughter of Nereus and Doris (and thus a Nereid), according to Hesiod's Theogony, but of Oceanus
and Tethys (and thus an Oceanid), according to Apollodorus, who actually lists her among both of the Nereids[3] and
the Oceanids.[4] Others called her the personification of the sea itself. Amphitrite's offspring included seals[5] and
dolphins.[6] Poseidon and Amphitrite had a son, Triton who was a merman, and a daughter, Rhode (if this Rhode was
not actually fathered by Poseidon on Halia or was not the daughter of Asopus as others claim). Apollodorus (3.15.4)
also mentions a daughter of Poseidon and Amphitrite named Benthesikyme.
Amphitrite is not fully personified in the Homeric epics: "out on the open sea, in Amphitrite's breakers" (Odyssey
iii.101), "moaning Amphitrite" nourishes fishes "in numbers past all counting" (Odyssey xii.119). She shares her
Homeric epithet Halosydne ("sea-nourished")[7] with Thetis[8] in some sense the sea-nymphs are doublets.
Amphitrite 593
Representation and cult

Though Amphitrite does not figure in Greek cultus, at an archaic
stage she was of outstanding importance, for in the Homeric Hymn
to Delian Apollo, she appears at the birthing of Apollo among "all
the chiefest of the goddesses, Dione and Rhea and Ichnaea and
Themis and loud-moaning Amphitrite." Theseus in the submarine
halls of his father Poseidon saw the daughters of Nereus dancing
with liquid feet, and "august, ox-eyed Amphitrite", who wreathed
him with her wedding wreath, according to a fragment of
Bacchylides. Jane Ellen Harrison recognized in the poetic
treatment an authentic echo of Amphitrite's early importance: "It
would have been much simpler for Poseidon to recognize his own
son... the myth belongs to that early stratum of mythology when
Poseidon was not yet god of the sea, or, at least, no-wise supreme
there—Amphitrite and the Nereids ruled there, with their servants
the Tritons. Even so late as the Iliad Amphitrite is not yet 'Neptuni
uxor'" [Neptune's wife]".[9]
Amphitrite, "the third one who encircles [the sea]",[10] was so

"Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite", detail of a vast entirely confined in her authority to the sea and the creatures in it
Roman mosaic from Cirta, now in the Louvre (ca.
that she was almost never associated with her husband, either for
315–325 AD).
purposes of worship or in works of art, except when he was to be
distinctly regarded as the god who controlled the sea. An
exception may be the cult image of Amphitrite that Pausanias saw in the temple of Poseidon at the Isthmus of
Corinth (ii.1.7).
The widely respected Pindar, in his sixth Olympian

Ode, recognized Poseidon's role as "great god of the
sea, husband of Amphitrite, goddess of the golden
spindle." For later poets, Amphitrite became simply a
metaphor for the sea: Euripides, in Cyclops (702) and
Ovid, Metamorphoses, (i.14).
Eustathius said that Poseidon first saw her dancing at

Naxos among the other Nereids,[11] and carried her
off.[12] But in another version of the myth, she fled
from his advances to Atlas,[13] at the farthest ends of
the sea; there the dolphin of Poseidon sought her
through the islands of the sea, and finding her, spoke Neptune and Amphitrite by 16th-century Dutch artist Jacob de Gheyn
persuasively on behalf of Poseidon, if we may believe II
Hyginus[14] and was rewarded by being placed among
the stars as the constellation Delphinus.[15]
In the arts of vase-painting and mosaic, Amphitrite was distinguishable from the other Nereids only by her queenly
attributes. In works of art, both ancient ones and post-Renaissance paintings, Amphitrite is represented either
enthroned beside Poseidon or driving with him in a chariot drawn by sea-horses (hippocamps) or other fabulous
creatures of the deep, and attended by Tritons and Nereids. She is dressed in queenly robes and has nets in her hair.
The pincers of a crab are sometimes shown attached to her temples.
Amphitrite 594
Amphitrite's legacy
• Amphitrite is the name of a genus of the worm family Terebellidae.
• In poetry, Amphitrite's name is often used for the sea, as a synonym
of Thalassa.
• Seven ships of the Royal Navy were named HMS Amphitrite.
• At least one ship of the Royal Netherlands Navy was named HM
Amphitrite (corvette, in service 1830s).
• Three ships of the United States Navy were named USS Amphitrite.
• An asteroid, 29 Amphitrite, is named for her.
• In 1936 Australia used an image of Amphitrite on a postage stamp
Amphitrite on 1936 Australian stamp
as a classical allusion for the submarine communications cable
commemorating completion of submarine
telephone cable to Tasmania across Bass Strait from Apollo Bay, Victoria to Stanley, Tasmania.
• The name of the former Greek Royal Yacht.
• Amphitrite Pool, a shallow ceremonial pool on the grounds of the
United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York
contains a statue of Amphitrite. When First Classmen are taking
their Third Mate or Third Assistant Engineer License Examinations,
it is considered good luck if they bounce a coin off Amphitrite into
a seashell at her feet.
• Amphitrite is featured in a puzzle in the PlayStation 2 game God of
War as Poseidon's faithful wife, in which a statue of her is pointing
towards the solution to the puzzle, the exit of the room.
Cadets paying a traditional visit to Amphitrite at Notes

U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Kings Point
[1] Compare the North Syrian Atargatis.
[2] Sel, "salt"; "...Salacia, the folds of her garment sagging with fish" (Apuleius, The
Golden Ass 4.31).
[3] Bibliotheke i.2.7
[4] Bibliotheke i.2.2 and i.4.6.
[5] "...A throng of seals, the brood of lovely Halosydne." (Homer, Odyssey iv.404).
[6] Aelian, On Animals (12.45) ascribed to Arion a line "Music-loving dolphins, sea-nurslings of the Nereis maids divine, whom Amphitrite
bore."
[7] Wilhelm Vollmer, Wörterbuch der Mythologie, 3rd ed. 1874 (http:/ / www. vollmer-mythologie. de/ halosydne/ ):
[8] Odyssey iv.404 (Amphitrite), and Iliad, xx.207.
[9] Harrison, "Notes Archaeological and Mythological on Bacchylides"The Classical Review 12.1 (February 1898, pp. 85–86), p. 86.
[10] Robert Graves, The Greek Myths 1960.
[11] Eustathius of Thessalonica, Commentary on Odyssey 3.91.1458, line 40.
[12] The Wedding of Neptune and Ampitrite provided a subject to Poussin; the painting is at Philadelphia.
[13] ad Atlante, in Hyginus' words.
[14] "...qui pervagatus insulas, aliquando ad virginem pervenit, eique persuasit ut nuberet Neptuno..." Oppian's Halieutica I.383–92 is a parallel
passage.
[15] Catasterismi, 31; Hyginus, Poetical Astronomy, ii.17, .132.
Amphitrite 595
References
• Theoi.com: Amphitrite (http://www.theoi.com/Pontios/Amphitrite.html): a repertory of Greek and Latin
quotes, in translation.
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Amphitri'te" (http:/
/www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:alphabetic+letter=A:entry+
group=20:entry=amphitrite-bio-1), and "Halosydne (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/
text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:alphabetic+letter=H:entry+group=1:entry=halosydne-bio-1).
Cydippe
The name Cydippe (Κυδίππη) is attributed to four individuals in Greek mythology.
• Cydippe was the mother of Cleobis and Biton. Cydippe, a priestess of Hera, was on her way to a festival in the
goddess' honor. The oxen which were to pull her cart were overdue and her sons, Biton and Cleobis pulled the
cart the entire way (45 stadia; 8 km). Cydippe was impressed with their devotion to her and asked Hera to give
her children the best gift a god could give a person. Hera had the two brothers drop dead instantaneously as the
best thing she could give them was for them to die at their moment of highest devotion. This is Herodotus's
account (Histories 1.31) of the story and it comes couched as advice from Solon the Athenian to Croesus as to
who the most blessed people in history are. The most often used quotation from this episode is (roughly
translated) "call no man blessed until he is dead."[1]
• Cydippe or Cyrbia was the daughter of Hegetoria and Ochimus. She married Ochimus' brother, Cercaphus, who
inherited the island. According to an alternate version, Ochimus engaged Cydippe to Ocridion but Cercaphus
loved her and kidnapped her. He did not return until Ochimus was old.[2] [3]
• Cydippe was the name of one of the Nereids, daughters of Nereus and Doris.[4] [5]
• Cydippe was an Athenian girl who was obliged to marry Acontius.[6] [7]
References
[1] Herodotus, Histories, 1. 31
[3] Plutarch, Quaestiones Graecae, 27
[4] Virgil, Georgics, 4. 339
[5] Hyginus, Fabulae, Preface
[6] Callimachus, Cydippe
[7] Ovid, Heroides 20-21
Dynamene 596
Dynamene
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
Aquatic deities
In Greek mythology, Dynamene (Ancient Greek: Δυναμένη) was a Nereid or sea-nymph, one of the 50 daughters of
Nereus and Doris. She, along with her sister Pherusa, was associated with the might and power of great ocean swells.
She is mentioned in Hesiod's Theogony.
Popular culture
Dynamene is also the name of the beautiful widow in Christopher Fry's 1946 comedy A Phoenix Too Frequent. After
the premature death of her husband Virilius, Dynamene along with her maid Doto proposes to starve herself to death
and follow him to Hades. They are rudely interrupted from their purpose by the handsome Roman soldier Tegeus
who is meant to be guarding six dead bodies outside. With Tegeus' charm and adoration Dynamene is able to save
herself from an untimely fate.
References
Eulimene 597
Eulimene
Eulimene was the name of two characters in Greek mythology.
1. Eulimene, one of the Nereids.[1] [2]
2. Eulimene was a Cretan girl, daughter of Cydon, and betrothed to Apterus. In spite of this she had an affair with
another man, Lycastus. When Cydon consulted the oracles to discover how to best his enemies they told him to
sacrifice a virgin. He cast lots on all the virgins of the area, and the fatal lot was cast upon his own daughter. Even
though Lycastus confessed to having slept with her, she was still condemned to death, after which an examination of
her body proved that she had been pregnant.[3]
References
[1] Apollodorus, Library, 1.2.7 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Apollodorus1. html)
[2] Hesiod, Theogony, 240 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HesiodTheogony. html)
[3] Parthenius, Love Stories, XXXV. The Story of Eulimene (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Parthenius2. html#35)
Halie
Halie or Halia (Greek: Άλίη, Άλία; the difference in ending is merely due to dialectal variations) is the name of the
following characters in Greek mythology:
• Halie, one of the Nereids, daughter of Nereus and Doris[1] [2]
• Halia, daughter of Thalassa, sister of the Telchines, mother of six sons and one daughter, Rhodos, by Poseidon.
Through the wrath of Aphrodite, the sons went insane and raped Halia. For that, Poseidon buried them
underearth; but Halia threw herself into the sea and became the goddess Leucothea (who in all other sources,
however, is identified with Ino)[3]
• Halie, daughter of Tyllus. She married Cotys, son of Manes, the first king of Lydia, bearing him two sons, Asies
and Atys, king of Lydia.[4]
References
[1] Hesiod, Theogony, 246
[3] Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 5. 55. 4-7
[4] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, 1. 27. 1
Hippothoe 598
Hippothoe
In Greek mythology, Hippothoe is the name of five distinct characters.
• Hippothoe was a daughter of Mestor, son of Perseus, and of Lysidice, daughter of Pelops. Poseidon abducted
Hippothoe from her family and took her to the Ekhidnades islands. Upon her he sired Taphius who later
founded the city of Taphos.[1] [2]
• Hippothoe was one of the Nereids.[2] [3]
• Hippothoe was a daughter of Pelias. Her mother was either Anaxibia, daughter of Bias, or Phylomache, one of
the Niobids[2] [4]
• Hippothoe an amazon. She fought with Penthesilea at Troy and was killed by Achilles [4] [5] [6]
• Hippothoe, one of the Danaids, daughter of Danaus. She married Obrimus, son of Aegyptus.[4]
Hippothoe is also the scientific name of Lycaena hippothoe, the "Purple-edged Copper" butterfly [7].
References
[1] LOVES OF POSEIDON 2 : Greek mythology (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Olympios/ PoseidonLoves2. html#Hippothoe)
[2] Apollodorus, Library
[3] Hesiod, Theogony
[4] Hyginus, Fabulae
[5] Brave Women Warriors Of Greek Myth: An Amazon Roster (http:/ / www. whoosh. org/ issue12/ ruffel3. html)
[6] Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy
[7] http:/ / www. leps. it/ indexjs. htm?SpeciesPages/ LycaenHippot. htm
Ianira
Ianira or Ianeira was a name attributed to two characters in Greek mythology.
• Ianira, one of the Oceanids.[1] She was among the nymphs gathering flowers with Persephone.[2]
• Ianira, one of the Nereids.[3] [4] [5]
References
[1] Hesiod. Theogony, 346 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HesiodTheogony. html).
[2] Homeric Hymns, To Demeter (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HomericHymns1. html)
[4] Homer. Iliad, 18.35 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HomerIliad18. html).
Leucothea 599
Leucothea
In Greek mythology, Leucothea (Greek: Leukothea (Λευκοθέα), "white
goddess") was one of the aspects under which an ancient sea goddess was
recognized, in this case as a transformed nymph.
In the more familiar variant, Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, sister of
Semele, and queen of Athamas, became a goddess after Hera drove her
insane as a punishment for caring for the new-born Dionysus. She leapt
into the sea with her son Melicertes in her arms, and out of pity, the
Hellenes asserted, the Olympian gods turned them both into sea-gods,
transforming Melicertes into Palaemon, the patron of the Isthmian games,
and Ino into Leucothea.
In the version sited at Rhodes, a much earlier mythic level is reflected in

the genealogy: there, the woman who plunged into the sea and became
Leucothea was Halia ("of the sea", a personification of the saltiness of the
sea) whose parents were from the ancient generation, Thalassa and Pontus
or Uranus. She was a local nymph and one of the aboriginal Telchines of
the island. Halia became Poseidon's wife and bore him Rhodos/Rhode and
six sons; the sons were maddened by Aphrodite in retaliation for an
impious affront, assaulted their sister and were confined beneath the Earth
by Poseidon. Thus the Rhodians traced their mythic descent from Rhode
and the Sun god Helios.[1]
In the Odyssey (5:333 ff.) Leucothea makes a dramatic appearance as a

gannet who tells the shipwrecked Odysseus to discard his cloak and raft
Leucothea by Jean Jules Allasseur (1862),
and offers him a veil (κρήδεμνον, kredemnon) to wind round himself to Cour Carrée of the Palais du Louvre.
save his life and reach land. Homer makes her the transfiguration of Ino.
In Laconia, she has a sanctuary, where she answers people's questions about dreams. This is her form of the oracle.
Cultural allusions
Leucothea is mentioned by Robert Graves in The White Goddess.
In Ezra Pound's Cantos, she is one of the goddess figures who comes to the poet's aid in Section: Rock-Drill (Cantos
85–95). She is introduced in Canto 91 as "Cadmus's daughter":
As the sea-gull Κάδμου θυγάτηρ said to Odysseus
KADMOU THUGATER
"get rid of parap[h]ernalia"
She returns in Cantos 93 ("Κάδμου θυγάτηρ") and 95 ("Κάδμου θυγάτηρ/ bringing light per diafana/ λευκὁς
Λευκόθοε/ white foam, a sea-gull... 'My bikini is worth yr/ raft'. Said Leucothae... Then Leucothea had pity,/'mortal
once/ Who now is a sea-god...'"), and reappears at the beginning of Canto 96, the first of the Thrones section
("Κρήδεμνον.../ κρήδεμνον.../ and the wave concealed her,/ dark mass of great water.").
Leucothea appears twice in Dialoghi con Leucò (Dialogues with Leucò) by Cesare Pavese.
Leucothoé was the first work by the Irish playwright Isaac Bickerstaffe published in 1756.
Leucothea 600
Other characters
A similar name is carried by two other characters in Greek mythology.
• A beautiful mortal woman named Leucothoë: a princess, daughter of Orchamus and sister of Clytia, Leucothoë
was loved by Helios, who disguised himself as Leucothoë's mother to gain entrance to her chambers. Clytia,
jealous of her sister because she wanted Helios for herself, told Orchamus the truth, betraying her sister's trust and
confidence in her. Enraged, Orchamus ordered Leucothoë, who claimed Helios had forced her to succumb to his
desires, buried alive. Helios refused to forgive Clytia for betraying his beloved, and a grieving Clytia wilted and
slowly died. Helios changed her into an incense plant, a heliotrope, which follows the sun every day.[2]
• Leucothoë, one of the Nereids.[3]
Notes
[1] Graves 1955.
[2] Ovid, Metamorphoses.
[3] Hyginus, Fabulae.
References
• Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion, 1985.
• Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths, 1955.
• Kerenyi, Karl. The Gods of the Greeks, 1951.
Lycorias 601
Lycorias
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
Aquatic deities
In Greek mythology, Lycorias was a Nereid, one of the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris.
She is mentioned by Virgil as being "yellow haired" in the Georgics 4.
"But from her chamber in the river depth the mother heard his cry. Around her the Nymphs carded Milesian fleeces
stained with rich sea-dyes, Drymo and Xantho, Ligea and Phyllodoce, their bright tresses falling loose over their
snowy necks; and Cydippe and golden-haired Lycorias, the one a maiden, the other even then knowing the first
throes of travail; and Clio and Beroë her sister, both daughters of Ocean, both"
Lysianassa 602
Lysianassa
Lysianassa is the name of four characters in Greek mythology:
• Lysianassa, one of the Nereids.[1] [2]
• Lysianassa, daughter of Epaphus. She bore Poseidon a son, Busiris, king of Egypt. He was killed by Heracles.[3]
• Lysianassa, daughter of king Polybus of Sicyon. She married king Talaus or Argos and bore him Adrastus and
Mecisteus.[4] [5]
• Lysianassa, daughter of Priam.[6]
References
[1] Hesiod. Theogony, 240, (Theoi Project) (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HesiodTheogony. html).
[2] Apollodorus. Library, 1.2.7, (Theoi Project) (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Apollodorus1. html).
[3] Apollodorus, Library, 2.5.11, (Theoi Project) (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Apollodorus2. html).
[4] Herodotus, History, 5.67, (MIT - Classics) (http:/ / classics. mit. edu/ Herodotus/ history. 5. v. html)
[5] Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.6.6, (Theoi Project) (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Pausanias2A. html)
[6] Hyginus, Fabulae, [90] XC. (Theoi Project) (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HyginusFabulae2. html).
Mermaid 603
Mermaid
A Mermaid by John William Waterhouse

Creature
Grouping Mythological
Sub grouping Water spirit
Similar creatures Merman

Siren
Ondine
Data
Mythology World mythology
First reported c. 1000 BC
Country Worldwide
Habitat Ocean, sea
A mermaid is a mythological aquatic creature with a

female human head and torso and the tail of a fish.
Mermaids have a broad representation in folklore,
literature, and popular culture.
Overview and etymology

The word is a compound of mere, the Old English word
for "sea", and maid, a woman. The male equivalent is a
merman.
Much like sirens, mermaids sometimes sing to people and
gods and enchant them, distracting them from their work Mermaid and merman, 1866. Anonymous Russian folk artist.
and causing them to walk off the deck or run their ships
aground. Other stories depict them squeezing the life out of drowning men while attempting to rescue them. They are
also said to carry humans down to their underwater kingdoms. In Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, it is
said that they forget that humans cannot breathe underwater, while others say they drown men out of spite.
The sirens of Greek mythology are sometimes portrayed in later folklore as mermaid-like; in fact, some languages
use the same word for both bird and fish creatures, such as the Maltese word 'sirena'. Other related types of mythical
or legendary creatures are water fairies (e.g., various water nymphs) and selkies, animals that can transform
themselves from seals to humans.
Mermaid 604
History
Ancient Near East

The first known mermaid stories appeared in Assyria, ca. 1000 BC. The goddess Atargatis, mother of Assyrian
queen Semiramis, loved a mortal shepherd and unintentionally killed him. Ashamed, she jumped into a lake to take
the form of a fish, but the waters would not conceal her divine beauty. Thereafter, she took the form of a
mermaid—human above the waist, fish below—though the earliest representations of Atargatis showed her as a fish
with a human head and legs, similar to the Babylonian Ea. The Greeks recognized Atargatis under the name Derketo.
Prior to 546 BC, the Milesian philosopher Anaximander proposed that mankind had sprung from an aquatic species
of animal. He thought that humans, with their extended infancy, could not have survived otherwise. This idea
reappeared as the aquatic ape hypothesis in the twentieth century.
A popular Greek legend turns Alexander the Great's sister, Thessalonike, into a mermaid after she died.[1] She lived,
it was said, in the Aegean and when she encountered a ship, she asked its sailors only one question: "Is King
Alexander alive?" (Greek: "Ζει ο Βασιλιάς Αλέξανδρος;"), to which the correct answer was: "He lives and reigns
and conquers the world" (Greek: "Ζει και βασιλεύει και τον κόσμο κυριεύει"). This answer pleased her so she
calmed the waters and wished the ship farewell. Any other answer would spur her into a rage. She would raise a
terrible storm, with certain doom for the ship and every sailor on board.[2] [3]
Lucian of Samosata in Syria (2nd century AD) in De Dea Syria ("Concerning the Syrian Goddess") wrote of the
Syrian temples he had visited:
"Among them - Now that is the traditional story among them concerning the temple. But other men swear that
Semiramis of Babylonia, whose deeds are many in Asia, also founded this site, and not for Hera Atargatis but
for her own Mother, whose name was Derketo"
"I saw the likeness of Derketo in Phoenicia, a strange marvel. It is woman for half its length, but the other half,
from thighs to feet, stretched out in a fish's tail. But the image in the Holy City is entirely a woman, and the
grounds for their account are not very clear. They consider fishes to be sacred, and they never eat them; and
though they eat all other fowls, they do not eat the dove, for she is holy so they believe. And these things are
done, they believe, because of Derketo and Semiramis, the first because Derketo has the shape of a fish, and
the other because ultimately Semiramis turned into a dove. Well, I may grant that the temple was a work of
Semiramis perhaps; but that it belongs to Derketo I do not believe in any way. For among the Egyptians, some
people do not eat fish, and that is not done to honor Derketo."[4]
Mermaid 605
Arabian Nights
The One Thousand and One Nights includes several tales featuring
"Sea People", such as Djullanar the Sea-girl. Unlike the depiction in
other mythologies, these are anatomically identical to land-bound
humans, differing only in their ability to breathe and live underwater.
They can (and do) interbreed with land humans, the children of such
unions sharing in the ability to live underwater.
In another Arabian Nights tale, "Abdullah the Fisherman and Abdullah

the Merman", the protagonist Abdullah the Fisherman gains the ability
to breathe underwater and discovers an underwater submarine society
that is portrayed as an inverted reflection of society on land, in that the
underwater society follows a form of primitive communism where
concepts like money and clothing do not exist. Other Arabian Nights
tales deal with lost ancient technologies, advanced ancient civilizations
that went astray, and catastrophes which overwhelmed them.[5]
The Land Baby, by John Collier (1899)
In "The Adventures of Bulukiya", the protagonist Bulukiya's quest for
the herb of immortality leads him to explore the seas, where he
encounters societies of mermaids.[6] "Julnar the Sea-Born and Her Son King Badr Basim of Persia" is yet another
Arabian Nights tale about mermaids. When sailors come the mermaids sing, and some men are led straight to their
doom. If they follow the mermaids' lovely and beautiful voices, they do not know what they are doing or where
they're going.
British Isles
Mermaids were noted in British folklore as unlucky omens – both
foretelling disaster and provoking it.[7] Several variants of the ballad Sir
Patrick Spens depict a mermaid speaking to the doomed ships; in some,
she tells them they will never see land again, and in others, she claims
they are near shore, which they are wise enough to know means the
same thing. They can also be a sign of rough weather.[8]
Some mermaids were described as monstrous in size, up to 2000 feet

(610 m).[7]
Mermaids could also swim up rivers to freshwater lakes. One day, in a
lake near his house, the Laird of Lorntie went to aid a woman he
thought drowning; a servant of his pulled him back, warning that it was
a mermaid, and the mermaid screamed after that she would have killed
him if it were not for his servant.[9]
On occasion, mermaids could be more beneficent, teaching humans
cures for disease.[10]
Some tales raised the question of whether mermaids had immortal souls
The Fisherman and the Syren, by Frederic
answering in the negative.[11] The figure of Lí Ban appears as a
Leighton, c. 1856–1858
sanctified mermaid, but she was a human being transformed into a
mermaid; after three centuries, when Christianity had come to Ireland,
she came to be baptized.[12]
Mermaid 606
Mermen were noted as wilder and uglier than mermaids, but they were described as having little interest in
humans.[13]
In Scottish mythology, there is a mermaid called the ceasg or "maid of the wave".[14]
China
In some ancient fairytales of China, mermaid is a special species whose tears can turn into priceless pearls. What's
more, mermaids can also knit an extremely valuable material which is not only slight but also beautiful and
translucent. Because of this, fishermen longed to catch them, but it's difficult for them to survive for mermaids'
splendid singing can simply drag them to coma. Actually, mermaid is a symbol of wonderful creatures in Ancient
China. They are deft,beautiful and versatile. And the fishermen who want to catch mermaids are a symbol of
negative character.[15]
Warsaw Mermaid
The mermaid, or syrenka, is the symbol of Warsaw.[16] Images of a mermaid
symbolized Warsaw on its crest since the middle of the 14th century.[17]
Several legends associate Triton of mythology with the city, which may have
been the mermaid association's origin.[18]
Other
Among the Neo-Taíno nations of the Caribbean the mermaid is called
Aycayia.[19] [20] Her attributes relate to the goddess Jagua, and the hibiscus
flower of the majagua tree Hibiscus tiliaceus.[21] In the modern Caribbean the
mermaid is found as Haitian Vodou Lwa La Sirene (literally, 'the mermaid')
who is lwa of wealth and beauty and the orisha Yemaya. Examples from other
cultures are the Mami Wata of West and Central Africa, the Jengu of
1659, Coat of arms of Old Warsaw on
Cameroon, the Merrow of Ireland and Scotland, the Rusalkas of Russia and the cover of an accounting book of the
Ukraine, the Iara from Brazil and the Greek Oceanids, Nereids, and Naiads. city.
One freshwater mermaid-like creature from European folklore is Melusine,
who is sometimes depicted with two fish tails, and other times with the lower body of a serpent. It is said in Japan
that eating the flesh of a ningyo can grant unaging immortality. In some European legends mermaids are said to be
unlucky.
Mermaids and mermen are also characters of Philippine folklore, where they are locally known as sirena and
siyokoy, respectively.[22] The Javanese people believe that the southern beach in Java is a home of Javanese mermaid
queen Nyi Roro Kidul.
Claimed sightings
Claimed sightings of dead or living mermaids have come from places as diverse as Java and British Columbia. There
are two Canadian reports from the area of Vancouver and Victoria, one from sometime between 1870 and 1890, the
other from 1967.[23] [24]
In August 2009, the town of Kiryat Yam in Israel offered a prize of $1 million for anyone who could prove the
existence of a mermaid off its coast, after dozens of people reported seeing a mermaid leaping out of the water like a
dolphin and doing aerial tricks before returning to the depths.[25] The prize has not yet been awarded.
Mermaid 607
Symbolism
According to Dorothy Dinnerstein’s book, The Mermaid and the Minotaur, human-animal hybrids such as the
minotaur and the mermaid convey the emergent understanding of the ancients that human beings were both one with
and different from animals:
"[Human] nature is internally inconsistent, that our continuities with, and our differences from, the
earth's other animals are mysterious and profound; and in these continuities, and these differences, lie
both a sense of strangeness on earth and the possible key to a way of feeling at home here."[26]
Art and literature

One influential image was created by John William Waterhouse,
from 1895 to 1905, entitled A Mermaid, (see the top of this article).
An example of late British Academy style artwork, the piece debuted
to considerable acclaim (and secured Waterhouse's place as a member
of the Royal Academy), but disappeared into a private collection and
did not resurface until the 1970s. It is again in the collection of the
Royal Academy.[27]
The most famous in more recent centuries is Hans Christian

Andersen's fairy tale The Little Mermaid (1836), which has been
translated into many languages. Andersen's portrayal, immortalized
with a famous bronze sculpture in Copenhagen harbour, has arguably
become the standard and has influenced most modern Western
depictions of mermaids since it was published. The mermaid, as
conceived by Andersen, appears to represent the Undines of
Paracelsus, which also could only obtain an immortal soul by
marrying a human being.
16th century Zennor mermaid chair The best known musical depictions of mermaids are those by Felix
Mendelssohn in his Fair Melusina overture and the three "Rhine
daughters" in Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Lorelei, the name of one of the Rhine mermaids, has
become a synonym for a siren. A more recent depiction in contemporary concert music is The Weeping Mermaid by
Taiwanese composer Fan-Long Ko.
Sue Monk Kidd has written a book called The Mermaid Chair. The title comes from a mermaid who becomes a
(fictional) saint.
Saint James Comics published an 8-page comic in which the mermaid queen Atargatis captures two adventurers and
attempts to imprison them forever.
Movie depictions include the comedy Splash (1984). A 1963 episode, The Cruelest Sea, of the television series
Route 66, featured a real mermaid working at Weeki Wachee aquatic park. Mermaids also appeared in the popular
supernatural drama television series Charmed, and were the basis of its spin-off series Mermaid. Mermaid
Chronicles Part 1: She Creature 2002 Two carnies (Sewell and Gugino) abduct a mermaid in Ireland, circa 1900, and
decide to transport her to America. Animated films include Disney's popular musical version of Andersen's tale, and
Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo.
Mermaid 608
Heraldry
In heraldry, the charge of a mermaid is commonly represented with a comb
and a mirror, and blazoned as a 'mermaid in her vanity'. Merfolk were used to
symbolize eloquence in speech.
A shield and sword-wielding mermaid (Syrenka) is on the official Coat of
arms of Warsaw. The city of Norfolk, Virginia also uses a mermaid as a
symbol. The capital city of Hamilton, Bermuda has the mermaid in its coat of
arms.
The personal coat of arms of Michaëlle Jean, Canada's Governor General,
features two mermaids as supporters.[28]
Hoaxes
During the Renaissance and Baroque eras, dugongs, frauds and victims of
sirenomelia were exhibited in wunderkammers as mermaids.
In the 19th century, P. T. Barnum displayed in his museum a taxidermal hoax
Coat of arms of Warsaw
called the Fiji mermaid. Others have perpetrated similar hoaxes, which are
usually papier-mâché fabrications or parts of deceased creatures, usually
monkeys and fish, stitched together for the appearance of a grotesque mermaid. In the wake of the 2004 tsunami,
pictures of Fiji "mermaids" circulated on the Internet as supposed examples of items that had washed up amid the
devastation, though they were no more real than Barnum's exhibit.[29]
Sirenia
Sirenia is an order of fully aquatic, herbivorous mammals that inhabit rivers, estuaries, coastal marine waters,
swamps, and marine wetlands. Sirenians, including manatees and the Dugong, have major aquatic adaptations: arms
used for steering, a paddle used for propulsion, hind limbs (legs) are two small bones floating deep in the muscle.
They appear fat, but are fusiform, hydrodynamic, and highly muscular. Prior to the mid 19th century, mariners
referred to these animals as mermaids.[30]
Sirenomelia
Sirenomelia, also called "mermaid syndrome", is a rare congenital disorder in which a child is born with his or her
legs fused together and reduced genitalia. This condition is about as rare as conjoined twins, affecting one out of
every 100,000 live births[31] and is usually fatal within a day or two of birth because of kidney and bladder
complications. Four survivors were known to be alive as of July 2003.[32]
References
[1] Teacher's Guide (http:/ / www. mpt. org/ programsinterests/ mpt/ alexander/ guide/ teachers_guide. pdf)
[2] Mermaids and Ikons: A Greek Summer (1978) page 73 by Gwendolyn MacEwen ISBN 978-0-88784-062-3
[3] Folktales from Greece Page 96 ISBN 1-56308-908-4
[4] Lucian of Samosata, De Dea Syria Part 2, Chapter 14
[5] Irwin, Robert (2003). The Arabian Nights: A Companion. Tauris Parke Paperbacks. pp. 211–2. ISBN 1860649831
[6] Irwin, Robert (2003). One Thousand and One Nights: A Companion. Tauris Parke Paperbacks. p. 209. ISBN 1860649831
[7] Katharine Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, "Mermaids", p 287. ISBN
0-394-73467-X
[8] Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 2, p 19, Dover Publications, New York 1965
[9] K. M. Briggs, The Fairies in English Tradition and Literature, p 57 University of Chicago Press, London, 1967
Mermaid 609
[10] K. M. Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, "Mermaids", p 288. ISBN
0-394-73467-X
[11] K. M. Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, "Mermaids", p 289. ISBN
0-394-73467-X
[12] K. M. Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, "Liban", p 266-7. ISBN
0-394-73467-X
[13] K. M. Briggs, An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, "Mermen", p 290. ISBN
0-394-73467-X
[14] MacKenzie, Donald A. (1931). Scottish Folk-Lore and Folk Life — Studies in Race, Culture and Tradition (http:/ / books. google. com/
?id=JcAu3xeAbu8C& pg=PA251). Blackie. pp. 251. ISBN 9781444656367. .
[15] (Chinese)http:/ / baike. baidu. com/ view/ 210682. htm
[16] "The Mermaid" (http:/ / www. ucl. ac. uk/ atlas/ polish/ mywarsaw/ warsaw10. html). . Retrieved 2008-02-11.
[17] "Warsaw Mermaid's Statue" (http:/ / www. um. warszawa. pl/ v_syrenka/ perelki/ index_en. php?mi_id=47& dz_id=2). . Retrieved
2008-07-10.
[18] (English) "History of Warsaw's Coat of Arms" (http:/ / www. e-warsaw. pl/ miasto/ herb-1. htm). www.e-warsaw.pl. . Retrieved
2008-07-10.
[19] Diccionario de Argot Cubano - Conexion Cubana ! (http:/ / www. conexioncubana. net/ index. php?st=others& sk=pdef& id=a)
[20] Bennett, Lennie (July 10, 2008). "Four exhibitions woven into 'Textures'" (http:/ / www. tampabay. com/ features/ visualarts/ article680572.
ece). tampabay.com. St. Petersburg Times. . Retrieved 2009-04-25.
[21] Hibiscus tiliaceus - Hau (Malvaceae) - Plants of Hawaii (http:/ / www. hear. org/ starr/ hiplants/ images/ thumbnails/ html/
hibiscus_tiliaceus. htm)
[22] "Tagalog-English Dictionary by Leo James English, Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, Manila, distributed by National Book Store,
1583 pages, ISBN 971-91055-0-X
[23] Myths & Legends (http:/ / www. tourismvictoria. com/ Content/ EN/ 747. asp)
[24] Folklore Examples in British Columbia (http:/ / www. folklore. bc. ca/ Folkexamples. htm)
[25] "Is a mermaid living under the sea in Kiryat Yam?" (http:/ / haaretz. com/ hasen/ spages/ 1107034. html), Haaretz 12 Aug. 2009.
[26] Dorothy Dinnerstein, The Mermaid and the Minotaur. New York: Harper and Row, 1963. Cited by Northstar Gallery (http:/ /
northstargallery. com/ mermaids/ MermaidHistory2. htm)
[27] Prettejohn, Elizabeth et al (2008). J. W. Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite, p. 144. Thames & Hudson Ltd, London. ISBN
978-90-8586-490-5.
[28] Canadian Heraldic Authority (20 September 2005). "The Public Register of Arms, Flags, and Badges of Canada > Michaëlle Jean" (http:/ /
www. gg. ca/ heraldry/ pub-reg/ project-pic. asp?lang=e& ProjectID=929& ProjectElementID=3456). Queen's Printer for Canada. . Retrieved
23 September 2008.
[29] Urban Legends Reference Pages: Mermaid to Order (http:/ / www. snopes. com/ photos/ tsunami/ mermaid. asp)
[30] "Experts: Sea cow 'sirens' fuel mermaid mythology; sailors' deprivation sparked images" (http:/ / www. underwatertimes. com/ news.
php?article_id=05297681013). underwatertimes.com. December 25, 2005. . Retrieved October 30, 2009.
[31] Kallen B, Castilla EE, Lancaster PA, Mutchinick O, Knudsen LB, Martinez-Frias ML, Mastroiacovo P, Robert E (1992). "The cyclops and
the mermaid: an epidemiological study of two types of rare malformation" (http:/ / www. pubmedcentral. nih. gov/ articlerender.
fcgi?tool=pmcentrez& artid=1015818). J Med Genet 29 (1): 30–5. doi:10.1136/jmg.29.1.30. PMID 1552541. PMC 1015818.
[32] "Journal of Pediatric Surgery: A surviving infant with sirenomelia (mermaid syndrome) associated with absent bladder" (http:/ / www.
sciencedirect. com/ science?_ob=ArticleURL& _udi=B6WKP-4950J75-14& _user=10& _rdoc=1& _fmt=& _rig=search& _sort=d& view=c&
_acct=C000050221& _version=1& _urlVersion=0& _userid=10& md5=e3c14c888d56c7c1a6191a3567cfd7c5). ScienceDirect. 25 July 2003.
. Retrieved 2008-02-16.
External links
• Mermaid History (http://members.cox.net/mermaid31/merhist.htm)
• "The Mermaid" (http://www.endicott-studio.com/jMA03Summer/theMermaid.html) by Heinz Insu Fenkl,
from the mermaid-themed Summer 2003 issue of the Journal of Mythic Arts
• The mermaid goddess Derketo (http://web.archive.org/web/20091026224532/http://www.geocities.com/
SoHo/Lofts/2938/deasyria1.html) from Lucian of Samosata's On the Syrian God (2c. AD)
• Coney Island Mermaid Parade (http://northstargallery.com/pages/MermaidHome.htm) mermaids on parade
• 17th century pamphlet telling the story of an alleged sighting of a mermaid near Pendine, Wales, in 1603 (http://
www.gtj.org.uk/en/item1/26001)
• Israeli city offers reward for proof of mermaid presence on its shore (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/
0,7340,L-3766303,00.html)
Nesaea 610
Nesaea
Nesaea was one of the Nereids who gathered round Thetis in her sympathetic grief for Achilles' loss of Patroclus.[1]
This name is used to describe a genus of plants in the family Lythraceae.
References
[1] Homer. Iliad, XVIII.
Orithyia
Orithyia (pronounced /ɒrɨˈθaɪ.ə/;[1] Latin: Ōrīthyia;
Greek: Ὠρείθυια, Ōreithuia) was the daughter of King
Erechtheus of Athens and his wife, Praxithea, in Greek
mythology. Her brothers were Cecrops, Pandorus, and
Metion, and her sisters were Procris, Creusa, and
Chthonia.[2]
Boreas, the north wind, fell in love with her. At first he

attempted to woo her, but after failing at that he
decided to take her by force, as violence felt more
natural to him.[3] While she was playing by the Ilissos
River[4] she was carried off to Sarpedon’s Rock, near
the Erginos River in Thrace. There she was wrapped in
a cloud and raped.[5] Aeschylus wrote a satyr play
about the abduction called Orithyia which has been
lost.
Rape of Orithyia by Boreas. Detail from an Apulian red-figure
Plato writes somewhat mockingly that there may have
oinoche, 360 BC.
been a rational explanation for her story. She may have
been killed on the rocks of the river when a gust of
northern wind came, and so she was said to have been 'taken by Boreas'. He also mentions in another account she
was taken by Boreas not along the Ilissos, but from the Areopagus, a rock outcropping near the Acropolis where
murderers were tried.[6] However, many scholars regard this as a later gloss.[7]
She bore Boreas two daughters, Chione and Cleopatra, and two winged sons, Calais and Zetes, both known as the
Boreads. These sons grew wings like their father and joined the Argonauts in the quest for the golden fleece.[8]
Because she was in Thrace with Boreas, she did not die when her sisters either committed suicide or were sacrificed
so that Athens could win a war against Eleusis.
Orithyia was later made into the goddess of cold mountain winds. It is said that prior to the destruction of a large
number of barbarian ships due to weather during the Persian War, the Athenians offered sacrifices to Boreas and
Oreithyia, praying for their assistance.[9]
Orithyia 611
Other people
Orithyia is also the name of four other minor people in Greek mythology:
• Orithyia, the Nereid.[10] [11]
• Orithyia, a nymph, called by some the grandmother of Adonis.[12]
• Orithyia, a daughter of Cecrops, wife of Makednos and mother of Europus.[13]
• Orithyia (Amazon)
References
[1] Joseph Emerson Worcester, A comprehensive dictionary of the English language, Boston, 1871, p. 480 (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=bpkaAAAAYAAJ& pg=PA480#v=onepage& q& f=false), rule 3, where he notes that the pronunciation of such names is not e.g.
pronounced /ɒˌrɪθiˈaɪ.ə/ "as in Walker" (see e.g. Walker and Trollope, A key to the classical pronunciation etc., London, 1830, p. 123 (http:/ /
books. google. com/ books?id=s2sUAAAAYAAJ& pg=PA123#v=onepage& q& f=false))
[2] Apollodorus. The Library, 3.15.1.
[3] Ovid. Metamorphoses, VI.683.
[4] Apollodorus. The Library, 3.15.2
[5] Apollonius of Rhodes. Argonautica, 1.212.
[6] Plato. Phaedrus, 229.
[7] See Fowler's translation of "Phaedrus" 229d.
[8] Pindar. Pythian Odes, 4.8.
[9] Herodotus. Histories, 7.189.
[10] Homer. Iliad, 18
[11] Hyginus. Fabulae, Preface.
[12] Antoninus Liberalis. Metamorphoses, 34.
[13] The Ancient Library - Europus (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 1216. html)
Panopea 612
Panopea
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
Aquatic deities
In Greek mythology, Panopea (also Panopaea) [1] and Panope [1] [2] [3] [4] were two of the Nereids.
Asteroid 70 Panopaea is named after one of them.
Panope is also the name of one of the daughters of Thespius and Megamede. She bore Heracles a son, Threpsippas.
In zoological nomenclature, Panope or Panopea is the genus of bivalves containing the geoduck.
External links
• http://www.theoi.com/Pontios/NereisPanopeia.html
[1] Hyginus, Fabulae
[2] Apollodorus, Library
[3] Hesiod, Theogony
[4] Homer, Iliad
Psamathe 613
Psamathe
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
Aquatic deities
This article is about the mythological figures. For the moon of Neptune, see Psamathe (moon). For the
polychaete worm genus, see Psamathe (polychaete).
In Greek mythology, there were two people named Psamathe (Greek: Ψάμαθη):
1. Psamathe was a Nereid, the lover of Aeacus and mother of Phocus.[1] In the tragedy Helen by Euripides, she was
married to king Proteus of Egypt.
1. Psamathe was the daughter of Crotopus, the King of Argos and mother of Linus by Apollo. She feared her father
and gave the infant Linus to shepherds to raise. He was torn apart by dogs after reaching adulthood and Psamathe
was killed by her father, for which Apollo sent a child-killing plague to Argos.
Some translations of Ovid have the name as Psamanthe.[2]
References
[1] Ovid. Metamorphoses, XI, 398.
[2] Ovid Illustrated: The Renaissance Reception of Ovid in Image and Text (http:/ / etext. lib. virginia. edu/ latin/ ovid/ sandys/ 11comm. htm).
Thalia (Nereid) 614
Thalia (Nereid)
For other uses, see Thalia (disambiguation).
In Greek mythology Thalia is one of the fifty known Nereids, daughters of Nereus and Doris. She is mentioned as
one of the 32 Nereids who gather on the coast of Troy from the depths of the sea to mourn with Thetis for the future
death of her son Achilles in Homer's Iliad (book I, verse 39).
References
"Thalia" 3. p. 442 [3].
References
List of Oceanids
Oceanus is a figure of ancient Greek myth. This is a list of his consorts and children.
According to Hesiod[1] , total number of Oceanus' children was 6000 (3000 daughters and 3000 sons), but only a
relatively small portion of their names is actually attested throughout accounts of Greek mythology.
List of Oceanids
The following are the daughters of Oceanus and Thetys:[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
1. Acaste
2. Admete
3. Aethra
4. Amaltheia
5. Amphiro
6. Amphitrite – usually counted as a Nereid rather than an Oceanid
7. Anchiroe
8. Anthracia - one of the nymphs that nursed infant Zeus
9. Argia
10. Asia – nymph of the Asian region, sister to Europe
11. Asterodia[7]
12. Beroe
13. Bolbe
14. Cleodora
15. Callirrhoe
16. Calypso
17. Camarina[8]
18. Capheira[9]
19. Cerceis
20. Ceto
21. Chryseis
22. Clio - not to be confused with the Muse Clio

23. Clymene - wife of Iapetus
24. Clytie or Clytia
25. Crocale - one of the sixty younger Oceanids, attendants of Artemis[10] [11]
26. Daira
27. Dione
28. Dodone
29. Doris – wife of the sea god Nereus, mother of the fifty Nereides.
30. Eidyia or Idyia - wife of Aeetes, mother of Medea
31. Electra - wife of Thaumas, mother of Iris, Arke and the Harpies; not to be confused with other characters of the
same name, see Electra (disambiguation)
32. Ephyra
33. Euagoreis
34. Eudore
35. Europa
36. Eurynome
37. Galaxaure
38. Glauke - one of the nymphs that nursed infant Zeus
39. Hagno - one of the nymphs that nursed infant Zeus
40. Hesione - wife of Prometheus
41. Hippo
42. Hyale - one of the sixty younger Oceanids, attendants of Artemis
43. Iakhe
44. Ianira
45. Ianthe – nymph of violet rain clouds or violet flowers
46. Ithome - one of the nymphs that nursed infant Zeus
47. Leucippe
48. Lysithea
49. Melia
50. Meliboea
51. Melite
52. Melobosis
53. Menestho
54. Merope
55. Metis – goddess of wisdom, first spouse of Zeus
56. Myrtoessa - one of the nymphs that nursed infant Zeus
57. Nede - one of the nymphs that nursed infant Zeus
58. Nemesis
59. Nephele - one of the sixty younger Oceanids, attendants of Artemis; not to be confused with Nephele, goddess
of clouds
60. Ocyrrhoe
61. Oinoe - one of the nymphs that nursed infant Zeus
62. Ozomene - in one source[12] , this name substitutes for Electra
63. Pasithoe
64. Peitho
65. Periboea
66. Perse or Perseis
67. Petraea
68. Phaino
69. Phiale - one of the sixty younger Oceanids, attendants of Artemis
70. Philyra - mother of Chiron by Cronus
71. Phrixa - one of the nymphs that nursed infant Zeus
72. Pleione – mother of the Pleiades by Atlas
73. Plexaure
74. Plouto or Pluto – mother of Tantalus by Zeus
75. Polydora
76. Polyphe - in a rare version, mother of Athena by Poseidon[13] [14]
77. Pronoia
78. Prymno
79. Psekas - one of the sixty younger Oceanids, attendants of Artemis
80. Rhanis - one of the sixty younger Oceanids, attendants of Artemis
81. Rhode or Rhodia
82. Rhodope
83. Stilbo
84. Styx – Oceanid of the river Styx that flowed nine times around Hades; an exceptionally female river goddess
85. Telesto
86. Theisoa - one of the nymphs that nursed infant Zeus
87. Thoe
88. Tyche
89. Urania - not to be confused with the Muse Urania
90. Xanthe
91. Zeuxo
Others: the text by Hyginus (Fabulae) is corrupted in places, making the names of a few of the Oceanids uncertain:
*yaea; *lyris, *clintenneste, *teschinoeno.[6]
List of River-gods (Potamoi)

The following are the sons of Oceanus and Tethys:[6] [15] [16]
1. Achelous or Akheloios
2. Acheron
3. Acragas
4. Aeas
5. Aegaeus
6. Aesar
7. Aesepus
8. Almo
9. Alpheus
10. Amnisos
11. Amphrysos
12. Anapos
13. Anauros
14. Anigros
15. Apidanus
16. Arar
17. Araxes
18. Ardescus
19. Arnos
20. Asopus
21. Asterion
22. Axius
23. Baphyras
24. Borysthenes
25. Brychon
26. Caicinus
27. Caicus
28. Cayster
29. Cebren
30. Cephissus
31. Chremetes
32. Cladeus or Kladeos
33. Clitunno (Roman mythology)
34. Cocytus
35. Cratais
36. Crinisus
37. Cydnos
38. Cytheros
39. Elisson
40. Enipeus
41. Erasinus
42. Eridanus
43. Erymanthus
44. Euphrates
45. Eurotas
46. Evenus
47. Ganges
48. Granicus
49. Haliacmon
50. Halys
51. Hebrus
52. Heptaporus
53. Hermus
54. Hydaspes
55. Ilissos
56. Imbrasos
57. Inachus
58. Indus
59. Inopos
60. Ismenus
61. Istrus or Ister
62. Ladon
63. Lamos
64. Lethe (exceptionally female)

65. Lycormas
66. Marsyas
67. Maeander
68. Meles
69. Mincius
70. Nessus
71. Nestos
72. Nilus
73. Numicius
74. Nymphaeus
75. Orontes
76. Pactolus
77. Parthenius
78. Phasis
79. Phlegethon or Pyriphlegethon
80. Phyllis
81. Peneus
82. Pleistos
83. Porpax
84. Rhesus
85. Rhine
86. Rhodius
87. Rhyndacus
88. Satnioeis
89. Sangarius
90. Scamander
91. Simoeis
92. Sperchius
93. Strymon
94. Symaethus
95. Tanais
96. Termessus
97. Thermodon
98. Tiberinus (Roman mythology)
99. Tigris
100. Titaressus
References
[1] Hesiod; Theogony (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HesiodTheogony. html), 364-370
[2] Hesiod; Theogony (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HesiodTheogony. html), 346
[3] Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter, 415
[4] Pausanias, Guide to Greece, 8.31.4; 8.38.2; 8.47.3
[5] Apollodorus; The Library, Volume I (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ Apollodorus1. html), 1.2.2
[6] Hyginus; Fabulae (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HyginusFabulae1. html), Preface: The text is corrupted in places, making the names of
some of the daughters illegible.
[7] Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 3. 242
[8] Pindar, Odes Olympian, V
[9] Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, V.55
[10] Callimachus, Hymn III to Artemis, 12
[13] Suidas s. v. Hippeia Athena
[14] Theoi Project - Polyphe (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NymphePolyphe. html)
[15] Hesiod; Theogony (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HesiodTheogony. html), 334
[16] Pseudo-Plutarch, On Rivers
Acaste
For the prehistoric genus of Trilobite, see Acaste (genus).
Acaste was a name attributed to two characters in Greek mythology.
• Acaste, the nurse of the children of king Acastus of Argos.[1]
• Acaste, one of the Oceanids.[2] She was one among the companions of Persephone when she was gathering wild
flowers[3]
References
[1] Statius. Thebaid, 525 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ StatiusThebaid1. html).
[2] Hesiod. Theogony, 346 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HesiodTheogony. html).
[3] The Homeric Hymns. To Demeter, 405 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HomericHymns1. html).
Admete 620
Admete
Admete (Greek: Αδμήτη) is a name attributed to two individuals in Greek mythology:
• Admete the Oceanid, a companion of Persephone.[1] Hyginus in the preface to his fables calls her Admeto, and a
daughter of Pontus and Thalassa.
• Admete (or Admeta), daughter of Eurystheus. Heracles, as one of his Twelve Labors, was obliged by her father to
fetch for her the girdle of Ares, which was worn by Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons.[2] According to John
Tzetzes,[3] she accompanied Heracles on this expedition. There was a tradition according to which Admete was
originally a priestess of Hera at Argos, but fled with the image of the goddess to Samos.[4] Pirates were engaged
by the Argives to fetch the image back, but the enterprise did not succeed, for the ship when laden with the image
could not be made to move. The men then took the image back to the coast of Samos and sailed away. When the
Samians found it, they tied it to a tree, but Admete purified it and restored it to the temple of Samos. In
commemoration of this event, the Samians celebrated an annual festival called Tonea. This story seems to be an
invention of the Argives, by which they intended to prove that the worship of Hera in their place was older than in
Samos.[5]
References
[1] Hesiod, Theogony 349.
[2] Apollodorus, ii. 5. § 9.
[3] John Tzetzes, ad Lycophron 1327.
[4] Athen. xv. p. 447.
[5] Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Admete (1) and (2)" (http:/ / www. ancientlibrary. com/ smith-bio/ 0028. html), in Smith, William, Dictionary of
Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston, pp. 19,
Sources
Aethra (Greek mythology)

In Greek mythology, Aethra or Aithra (Ancient Greek: Αἴθρα, the
"bright sky"[1] ) was a name applied to the following individuals:
Mother of Theseus
Aethra was a daughter of King Pittheus of Troezen and the mother of
Theseus (his father was the king Aegeus of Athens, or in some
versions, Poseidon). Aegeus went to Troezen, a city southwest of
Athens that had as its patrons Athena and Poseidon, where Pittheus got
Aegeus drunk on unmixed wine and put him to bed with his daughter.
Following the instructions of Athena in a dream, she left the sleeping Demophon (?) freeing Aethra, Attic white-ground
kylix, 470–460 BC, Staatliche
Aegeus and waded across to the island of Sphairia that lay close to
Antikensammlungen (Inv. 2687).
Troezen's shore. There she poured a libation to Sphairos, Pelops'
charioteer, and was possessed by Poseidon in the night. When she was
thus doubly pregnant, Aegeas decided to go back to Athens. Before leaving, he covered his sandals, shield and sword
under a huge rock, that served as a primitive altar to Strong Zeus, and told her that when their son would grow up, he
should move the rock and bring his weapons back. Aethra did as she was told, and Theseus, recovering the weapons
that were his birthright, grew to be a great hero, killing the Minotaur, among other adventures.
Later, when Theseus kidnapped Helen, he gave her to Aethra for safekeeping. Helen's brothers, the Dioscuri, took
Helen back and kidnapped Aethra in revenge. She went to Troy with Helen and remained there until found by her
grandson, Acamas, during the fall of the city. With significant alterations to the character, a version of this Aethra
appears as Aithra, a sorceress and concubine of Poseidon, in Richard Strauss's famous opera Die ägyptische Helena
(The Egyptian Helen).
Oceanid
Aethra is also the name of one of the Oceanids, the 3000 daughters of Oceanus and Tethys. She is sometimes called
the wife of Atlas and mother of the Pleiades and the Hyades (more usually the offspring of Pleione).[2]
Wife of Hyperion
A figure called Aethra (possibly the Oceanid) is, in one source, called the wife of Hyperion, rather than Theia, and
mother of Helios, Eos, and Selene.[3]
Wife of Palanthus
Another Aethra was the wife of the Spartan Palanthus. She fulfilled the prophecy given to her husband by her tears,
after which he conquered Tarentum for himself.[4]
References
[1] Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, (1955; 1960) index, s.v. "Aethra".
[2] Hyginus. Astronomica, 2.21 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HyginusAstronomica2. html#21).
[4] Pausanias. Description of Greece, Book 10 (http:/ / www. indiana. edu/ ~dmdhist/ Pausaniasdelphi. htm).
Asia (mythology)
Asia or Clymene in Greek mythology was a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, the wife of the Titan Iapetus, and
mother of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus and Menoetius. Hesiod gives the name as Clymene in his Theogony (359)
but Apollodorus (1.8) gives instead the name Asia as does Lycophron (1411). It is possible that the name Asia
became preferred over Hesiod's Clymene to avoid confusion with what must be a different Oceanid named Clymene
who was mother of Phaethon by Helios in some accounts. Herodotus (4.45.1) records the tradition that the continent
Asia was named after Asia whom he calls wife of Prometheus rather than mother of Prometheus, perhaps here a
simple error rather than genuine variant tradition. Both Acusilaus and Aeschylus in his Prometheus Bound call
Prometheus' wife Hesione.
Herodotus relates also the Lydian tradition:[1] yet the Lydians claim a share in the latter name, saying that Asia was
not named after Prometheus' wife Asia, but after Asies, the son of Cotys, who was the son of Manes, and that from
him the Asiad clan at Sardis also takes its name. (see also Asia's name etymology)
References
[1] Histories (Herodotus) 4.45.1 (http:/ / old. perseus. tufts. edu/ cgi-bin/ ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0126& layout=& loc=4. 45)
Asteria
In Greek mythology, Asteria (Greek: Αστερία, "of the stars, starry
one") was a name attributed to the following individuals:
Amazon
Asteria was the sixth Amazon killed by Heracles when he came for
Hippolyte's girdle.[1]
Daughter of Coeus
Asteria and Phoebe on the Pergamon Altar.
Asteria was the daughter of the titans Coeus and Phoebe and sister of
Leto.[2] According to Hesiod, by Perses she had a daughter Hecate.
The Titan goddess of oracles, prophetic dreams, astrology and necromancy, Asteria flung herself into the Aegean
Sea in the form of a quail in order to escape the advances of Zeus. She became identified with Delos, which was the
only piece of earth to give refuge to the fugitive Leto when, pregnant with Zeus's children, she was pursued by
vengeful Hera.[3]
According to a lost poem of Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 355 BCE)[4] by Zeus she became the mother of the Heracles in
the form in which Hellenes thought they recognized him (by interpretatio graeca) as he was worshipped among
Phoenicians at Tyre.
Asteria 623
Heliad
Asteria was an alternate name for the daughter of Helios and Clymene or Ceto, also known as Astris.
Danaid
Asteria was one of the Danaids, daughters of Danaus who, with one exception, murdered their husbands on their
weddings nights. She was, briefly, the bride of Chaetus.
Alkyonides
Asteria was one of the Alkyonides. Along with her sisters, she flung herself into the sea and was transformed into a
kingfisher.
References
[2] Hesiod, Theogony, 404ff.
[3] Theoi Project - Titanis Asteria (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Titan/ TitanisAsteria. html)
[4] Athenaeus (392d) summarizes the lost poetical narrative of Eudoxus, telling how Heracles the son of Zeus by Asteria was killed by Typhon in
Libya.
External links
• Theoi Project: Asteria (http://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanisAsteria.html)
Bolbe
In Greek mythology, Bolbe (Greek: Βόλβη) was an extremely beautiful lake goddess or nymph who dwelled in a
Thessalian lake of the same name (modern Lake Volvi). She was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys[1] . Like other
lake gods and goddesses, Bolbe's offspring were Limnades who are Nymphs living in fresh water lakes. According
to Athenaeus, Bolbe was the mother of Olynthus by Heracles[2] .
References
[1] Theoi Project - Potamoi (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Potamos/ Potamoi. html) (Bolbe is included on the list of river gods)
[2] Athenaeus, Banquet of the Learned, 8. 334e (http:/ / penelope. uchicago. edu/ Thayer/ E/ Roman/ Texts/ Athenaeus/ 8A*. html)
Caanthus 624
Caanthus
In Greek mythology, Caanthus was the brother of Melia, one of the Oceanids. He was commissioned by his father
to seek his sister, who had been carried away. Finding that Apollo had her, and being unable to get her from him, he
set fire to the precinct of Apollo. For this reason Apollo ultimately killed him.
Chryseis
In Greek mythology, Chryseis (Greek:
Χρυσηΐς, Khrysēís) was a Trojan woman, the
daughter of Chryses. Chryseis, her apparent
name in the Iliad, means simply "Chryses'
daughter"; later writers give her real name as
Astynome (Ἀστυνόμη).[1]
In the first book of the Iliad, Agamemnon

enslaves her, whom he admits is finer than his
own wife, as a war prize and refuses to allow
her father, a priest of Apollo, to ransom her.
An oracle of Apollo then sends a plague
sweeping through the Greek armies, and
Agamemnon is forced to give Chryseis back in
order to end it, so Agamemnon sends
Odysseus to return Chryseis to her father. Odysseus returns Chryseis to her father (by Claude Lorrain, 1644).
Agamemnon compensates himself for this loss

by taking Briseis from Achilles, an act that offends Achilles, who refuses to take further part in the Trojan War. A
later Greek legend, preserved in Hyginus' Fabulae, states that she had a son by Agamemnon. In medieval literature,
Chryseis is developed into the character Cressida.
References
[1] Scholia on the Iliad, 1.392; Hesychius, Lexicon; Malalas, Chronographia 100; Eustathius of Thessalonica, Commentary on the Iliad 1.123.9
van der Valk.
Clitunno 625
Clitunno
In Roman mythology, Clitumnus (Latin: Clītumnus) was a son of Oceanus and Tethys. He was the god of the
Clitunno River.
Dione (mythology)
Dione, (Greek: Διώνη) pronounced /daɪˈoʊniː/, in Greek mythology is a vague goddess presence who has her most
concrete form in Book V of Homer's Iliad as the mother of Aphrodite. Aphrodite journeys to Dione's side after she
has been wounded in battle while protecting her favorite son Aeneas. In this episode, Dione seems to be the
equivalent of Gaia the Earth Mother, whom Homer also placed in Olympus, and to that extent might be classed as a
"mother goddess".[1] Dione's Indo-European name is really less a name than simply a title: the "Goddess",
etymologically a female form of Zeus. After the Iliad, Aphrodite herself was sometimes referred to as "Dionaea" and
even "Dione", just "the goddess" (Peck 1898).
Roman "Diana" has a similar etymology but is not otherwise connected with Dione.
At the very ancient oracle of Zeus at Dodona, Dione rather than Hera, was the goddess resorted to in the company of
Zeus, as many surviving votive inscriptions show.[2] The birds associated with her at Dodona are doves,[3] and her
priestesses at Dodona were "doves", peliades.[4]
Although Dione is not a Titan in Hesiod, but appears instead in his
Theogony among the long list of Oceanids,[6] Apollodorus includes her
among the Titans[7] and the Roman mythographer Gaius Julius
Hyginus makes her the daughter of the Titan Atlas.[8] In the sculptural
frieze of the Great Altar of Pergamum (2nd century BCE), Dione
(inscribed in the cornice directly above with her name) figures in the
Three goddesses from the Parthenon east eastern third of the north frieze, among the Olympian family of
pediment, possibly Hestia, Dione, and Aphrodite, Aphrodite; thus she is an exception to the rule, detected by Erika
[5]
ca. 435 BCE (British Museum)
Simon,[9] that the organizational principle according to which the gods
on the Great Altar were grouped, was Hesiodic: her company in the
grouping of offspring of Uranos and Gaia is Homeric rather than Hesiodic, as is her appearance in the east pediment
of the Parthenon (illustration)[10] but serves perhaps also to show how imperfect the fit in was her inclusion among
any purely Olympian schema.
The archaic king Tantalus in Lydia had Dione as a consort: Hyginus says that Dione, daughter of Atlas, was the
mother, by Tantalus, of Pelops, Niobe, and Broteas. See also Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.172 If a king's consort is
"Dione", the logical implication is that he justifies his authority as the earthly, visible consort of "The Goddess" in an
archaic model of sacred kingship.
Dione (mythology) 626
Notes
[1] In the late second century CE, Pausanias notes (iii.22.4) at "Acriae, a city on the coast. Well worth seeing here are a temple and marble image
of the Mother of the Gods. The people of Acriae say that this is the oldest sanctuary of this goddess in the Peloponnesus, although the
Magnesians, who live to the north of Mount Sipylus, have on the rock Coddinus the most ancient of all the images of the Mother of the gods.
The Magnesians say that it was made by Broteas the son of Tantalus." The connections Pausanias makes show that this Mother of the Gods
was Cybele.
[2] A room is devoted to finds from Dodona in the museum at Ioannina.
[3] Herodotus, II.55, tells the local story of the oravcle's founding: a black dove flew from Egypt, establishing the shrine in the sacred oak grove
dedicated to the Earth Mother.
[4] Dorothy Burr Thompson, "A Dove for Dione" Hesperia Supplements, 20, Studies in Athenian Architecture, Sculpture and Topography.
Presented to Homer A. Thompson (1982:155-219).
[5] (http:/ / www. britishmuseum. org/ explore/ highlights/ highlight_objects/ gr/ f/ figures_of_3_goddesses. aspx) British Museum website:
another interpretation of the two figures at the right, however, is that they are of the Sea (Thalassa) in the lap of the Earth (Gaia).
[6] Hesiod, Theogony 353 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Hes. + Th. + 353& fromdoc=Perseus:text:1999. 01. 0130).
[7] Apollodorus, Library, 1.1.3 (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Apollod. 1. 1. 3& lang=original).
[8] Hyginus, Fabulae 83 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HyginusFabulae2. html#83).
[9] Simon, Pergamon und Hesiod, (Mainz) 1975.
[10] Aphrodite in the lap of Dione is the identification of Rhys Carpenter (Carpenter, "On Restoring the East Pediment of the Parthenon"
American Journal of Archaeology 66.3 [July 1962:265-268] p. 267).
References
ISBN 9780631201021. "Dione" p. 138 (http://books.google.com/books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC&
printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=Dione&f=false)
• Peck, Harry Thurston, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. New York. Harper and Brothers, 1898.
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Dio'ne" (http://
www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:alphabetic+letter=D:entry+
group=12:entry=dione-bio-1)
External links
• The Theoi Project, "Title" (Titan) (http://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanisDione.html)
• The Theoi Project, "Title" (nymph) (http://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanisDione.html)
Doris (mythology) 627
Doris (mythology)
This is an article about the Greek goddess. For other uses, see Doris (disambiguation).
Doris (Δωρίς), an Oceanid, was a sea nymph in
Greek mythology, whose name represented the
bounty of the sea. She was the daughter of
Oceanus and Tethys and the wife of Nereus. She
was also aunt to Atlas, the titan who was made
to carry the sky upon his shoulders, whose
mother Clymene was a sister of Doris. Doris was
mother to the fifty Nereids, including Thetis,
who was the mother of Achilles, and Amphitrite,
Poseidon's wife, and grandmother of Triton.
Doris is a semi-common female name.
Doris riding an hippocamp and carrying two torches to light the wedding
cortege of Poseidon and Amphitrite, base of a sculpted group, end 2nd
century BC, Munich Glyptothek museum (Inv. 239).
Eidyia
In Greek mythology, Eidyia was a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys[1] , and queen to Aeetes, king of Colchis.[2]
Mother of Medea, Chalciope and Apsyrtus[3] [4] [5] [6] , she was also the youngest of the Oceanides.[7] Some sources
called her the goddess of knowledge.
References
[2] Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 3. 268
[6] Accounts vary on the name of Apsyrtus' mother, and only Apollodorus (1. 9. 23) seems to consider him full brother of Medea; see Apsyrtus.
[7] Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 3. 244-245
External links
• Theoi Project - Eidyia (http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheEidyia.html)
Eurynome 628
Eurynome
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
Aquatic deities
Eurynomê (Εὐρυνόμη, ευρύς -eurys "broad" + νόμος -nomos "pasture") was the Titan goddess of water-meadows
and pasturelands, and one of the elder Oceanides. She was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.[1] Eurynome was the
third bride of Zeus and mother of the Charites, goddesses of grace and beauty.[2]
When Hephaestus was cast from Olympus by the goddess Hera, who was disgusted at having borne a crippled child,
he was caught by Eurynome and Thetis (possibly a doubling for Tethys, her mother). Eurynome and Thetis nursed
the god Hephaestus on the banks of the earth-encircling river Oceanus, after his fall from heaven.[3] Charis,
Eurynome's daughter, later became Hephaestus' bride.[4]
Eurynome is closely identified with another Eurynome, Queen of the Titans. A second derivation of her name,
"wide-ruling" can be taken from the Greek words eurys "wide" + nomos "law" or "ruling". This Eurynome was an
early Titan queen who ruled Olympus beside her husband Ophion. The pair were wrestled for their thrones by
Cronus and Rhea who cast them down into the earth-encircling river Oceanus.[5] She may have been the same as the
Titan Tethys whose river-god sons nurtured the pastures and whose daughter Eurynome was goddess of
pasturelands. Eurynome's husband Ophion "the Serpent" was similar to Tethys' husband Oceanus, who in classical
art was represented with a serpentine-fish tail in place of legs and holding a snake (ophis). It is also possible that
Ophion and Eurynome (daughter of Oceanus) were equated with Uranus (Heaven) and Gaia (Earth). In the Orphic
Theogonies Gaia was the daughter of Hydrus (Water), a primordial being similar to Oceanus. It was Uranus who
Cronus wrestles for the throne of Olympus in Hesiod's Theogony.[6]
Eurynome was worshipped at the confluence of the rivers Neda and Lymax in Arcadia. Her xoanon, which could
only be viewed when her sanctuary was opened once a year, was a wooden statue bound in golden chains depicting a
woman's upper body and the lower body of a fish.[7] Her son Asopus was the god of a nearby stream in the adjacent
region of Sikyonia. The fish-tailed goddess, Eurynome, worshipped in Arcadia, may have been Eurynome wife of
Ophion, Tethys the wife of Oceanus, Eurynome mother of the Charites, the goddess of the river Neda, or a watery
Artemis.[8]
Eurynome 629
Other figures in Greek mythology named

Eurynome
1. Daughter of King Nisus of Megara and mother of Bellerophon by
Poseidon according to Hesiod's Catalogue 7 and Hyginus 157.
2. Mother of Leucothea whom Helios loved, whose father was the
Persian Orchamus, as given by Ovid in Metamorphoses 4.208ff.
3. Wife of Lycurgus of Arcadia and mother of Amphidamas, Epochus,
Eurynome (far left)
Ancaeus, and Iasus; from Apollodorus 3.9.2.
4. Daughter of Iphitus and mother of Adrastus of Argos by Talaus, as given by Hyginus 70.
5. Waiting woman of Penelope in the Odyssey.
Other uses
1. Eurynome is a genus of crab in the family Pisidae.
2. 79 Eurynome is an asteroid.
3. An alternate name for Eurynomos
References
[1] Hesiod, Theogony 346 ff (trans. Evelyn-White)
[2] Hesiod, Theogony 907 ff (trans. Evelyn-White)
[3] Homer, Iliad 13. 397 ff (trans. Lattimore)
[5] Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 503 ff (trans. Aldrich)
[6] Theoi Project, Aaron J. Atsma
[7] Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 41. 4 - 6 (trans. Jones)
[8] Theoi Project, Aaron J. Atsma
Eurynome (Oceanid)
Eurynome was a deity of ancient Greek religion worshipped at a sanctuary near the confluence of rivers called the
Neda and the Lymax in classical Peloponnesus. She was represented by a statue of what we would call a mermaid.
Tradition, as reported by the Greek traveller, Pausanias, identified her with the Oceanid, or “daughter of Ocean”, of
Greek poetry.
Origin
The name is usually segmented Eury-nome, where eury- is “wide”. This segment appears in Linear B as e-u-ru–, a
prefix in a few men’s names. It does not occur in any Mycenaean women’s names, nor does –nome.
The root of –nome is Proto-Indo-European *nem-, distribute, as in the Greek infinitive, nemein, “to distribute.”
Words derived from *nem- had a large variety of senses. In the case of Eurynome, the two main senses proposed are
“wanderer” and “ruler”.
Robert Graves saw in Eurynome a lunar goddess descending from the Pre-Hellenic mother goddess of Neolithic
Europe. In that case, –nome is as in our word nomad. The nomad wanders searching for pastureland, or land that has
been “distributed” for the use of domestic animals. The moon is to be regarded as wandering. In the other
interpretation, –nome is as in English auto-nomy. A ruler is someone who “distributes” law and justice. Neither case
has any bearing on the status of Eurynome as a possible Pelasgian mother goddess.
If Eurynome was the descendant of a pre-Greek goddess, she must have had a pre-Greek name, and not the Greek
name, Eurynome. If the name is Indo-European, it might have evolved into Greek with the rest of the language. If it
is not Indo-European, then it might result from renaming or from selecting the closest Greek homonym.
Sources
Some major sources are paraphrased or quoted below.
Homer
Iliad 18.388ff
The earliest known reference to the Oceanid is a passage in the Iliad relating what happened to Hephaistos
after his mother, Hera, threw him from Olympos. Thetis and Eurynome, the daughter of Oceanus, offered him
refuge. He stayed with them for nine years in their cave at the edge of the ocean making splendiferous
artifacts.
Hesiod
Theogony
355. Eurynome is among the daughters of Ocean and Tethys.
907. Eurynome bore the Graces to Zeus.
Homer and Hesiod establish that a belief in the Oceanid existed in the earliest literary times. The most likely
circumstance, based on the testimony of Pausanias, is that both authors took their themes from a religion known to
and believed in by all the Hellenes; thus, it is probably best to assume that Eurynome the Oceanid is the same
Oceanid of ancient Greek belief mentioned in all the classical sources.
Pausanias
8.41.5, 6
[5] “Eurynome is believed by the people of Phigalia to be a surname of Artemis. Those of them, however, to
whom have descended ancient traditions, declare that Eurynome was a daughter of Ocean, whom Homer
mentions in the Iliad, saying that along with Thetis she received Hephaestus. On the same day in each year
they open the sanctuary of Eurynome, but at any other time it is a transgression for them to open it.
[6] On this occasion sacrifices also are offered by the state and by individuals. I did not arrive at the season of
the festival, and I did not see the image of Eurynome; but the Phigalians told me that golden chains bind the
wooden image, which represents a woman as far as the hips, but below this a fish. If she is a daughter of
Ocean, and lives with Thetis in the depth of the sea, the fish may be regarded as a kind of emblem of her. But
there could be no probable connection between such a shape and Artemis.”
9.35.5
Hesiod repeats that the Graces are the offspring of Zeus and Eurynome.
Apollodorus
1.2.2. The Oceanids, including Eurynome, were the daughters of Ocean and Tethys.
1.3.1. The Graces are the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome.
3.12.6. Some say the river Asopus is the son of Zeus and Eurynome.
Creation myth
A few important sources relate a creation myth. The main source is Apollonius of Rhodes, who is quoted in the
article on Ophion. The details are not repeated here.
Robert Graves, one of the chief scholars interested in the myth, saw in this passage a possible Pelasgian creation
myth. Putting together what was then beginning to be known of Neolithic Greece and its connections to the orient, he
hypothesized that Eurynome originally was another manifestation of the Neolithic mother goddess.
The Ophion article takes a skeptical approach on the grounds that he read too much into the sources. As he did not
rely only on the sources, this article presents some of Graves’ wider arguments:
• The egg and the snake. The rebirth of the world from an egg and the use of the snake as a symbol of regenerative
power is a strong theme of what Marija Gimbutas called “the language of the goddess”; that is, the common (but
undeciphered) writing system attested on Neolithic pottery of much of Europe, including the Balkans. In another
myth, the Pelasgians descend from the teeth of Ophion, which ostensibly means “snake.”
• As the Neolithics either entered the Balkans from the eastern Mediterranean region or kept close ties with the
Natufians there, Graves makes comparisons with and draws parallels to mythic elements among cultures to which
the Natufians descended; that is, the entire Middle East. For example, he compares her to Sumerian Iahu, “exalted
dove”, which he believed became the name of Jehovah.
• Many if not most of the names of Greek mythology are believed to have come from pre-Greek elements. For
example, the Proto-Indo-Europeans had no word for ocean or travel upon it. Okeanos is a pre-Greek word, as are
Olympos, Tethys and Titan.
• The antiquity of Eurynome and Ophion are sufficiently attested in the sources to warrant a presumption that they
descend from prehistoric times. Only the prefix, Eury-, appears in the most ancient known Greek, but that is
sufficient to demonstrate the remoteness of the names in time from later poetic mythologizers such as Apollonius.
Graves’ views attract more attention as time goes by, perhaps because of increasing knowledge about the Neolithic.
At the present time, however, they are still regarded as mainly speculation. Concerning prehistoric Europe,
archaeology and speculation are all we have at the moment. Even if some of Graves’ detail can be shown to be
wrong, no proof exists that his overall views, based on the synthesis of many elements, are either true or untrue.
Hesione
In Greek mythology and later art, the name Hesione refers to various mythological figures, of which the Trojan
princess Hesione is known most.
Princess Hesione of Troy

According to Apollodorus, the most prominent Hesione was a Trojan
princess, daughter of King Laomedon of Troy, sister of Priam and
second wife of King Telamon of Salamis. Apollo and Poseidon were
angry at king Laomedon because he refused to pay the wage he
promised them for building Troy's walls. Apollo sent a plague and
Poseidon a sea monster to destroy Troy.[1] Oracles promised
deliverance if Laomedon would expose his daughter Hesione to be
devoured by the sea monster (in other versions, the lot happened to fall
on her) and he exposed her by fastening her naked to the rocks near the
sea.[2]
Heracles (along with Telamon and Oicles) happened to arrive on their

return from the expedition against the Amazons. Seeing her exposed, Heracles saves Hesione. Medieval miniature
Heracles promised to save her on condition that Laomedon would give

him the wonderful horses he had received from Zeus as compensation for Zeus' kidnapping of Ganymedes.[3]
Laomedon agreed and Heracles slew the monster, in some accounts after being swallowed by it and hacking at its
innards for three days before it died and he emerged having lost all his hair. However, Laomedon refused the
promised award. In a later expedition Heracles attacked Troy, slew Laomedon and all Laomedon's sons except the
youngest named Podarces.[4] Heracles gave Laomedon's daughter Hesione as a prize to Telamon instead of keeping
her for himself.[5] He allowed her to take with her any captives that she wished and she chose her brother Podarces.
Heracles allowed her to ransom him in exchange for his veil whence Podarces was henceforth known as Priam from
primai 'to buy'.[6] Heracles then bestowed the government of Troy on Priam. However, it is also claimed that Priam
simply happened to be absent during Heracles attack on Troy, being campaigning in Phrygia.
Hesione was taken home by Telamon and bore him a son Teucros[7] who would be half-brother to Telamon's son
from his first marriage Ajax. Priam later sent Antenor and Anchises to Greece to demand Hesione's return, but they
were rejected and driven away, hence the willingness of Priam later to accept the abduction of Helen.
Hesione 633
Others named Hesione

Hesione was an Oceanid who became wife of Prometheus according to both Acusilaus and Aeschylus (in
Prometheus Bound, 555).
Hesione was also the name of the wife of Nauplius according to Cercops as cited by Apollodorus (2.1.5).
A character in George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House was named Hesione.
Spurious references
The name Hesione in Dictys Cretensis 4.22 appears to be an error for Plesione of Dictys 1.9 and that in turn an error
for Pleione.
[1] pg34. Apollodorus, and Hyginus. Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology. Trans. R. Scott Smith
and Stephen Trzaskoma. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2007. Print.
[2] pg 34 Apollodorus, and Hyginus. Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology. Trans. R. Scott Smith
[5] pg 38 and 65 Apollodorus, and Hyginus. Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology. Trans. R. Scott
Smith and Stephen Trzaskoma. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2007. Print.
and Stephen Trzaskoma. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2007.
and Stephen Trzaskoma. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2007.
Meliboea
In Greek mythology, Meliboea (Ancient Greek: Μελίβοια) was a name attributed to the following individuals:
• The wife of Magnes, who named the town of Meliboea in Thessaly after her.[1] The town of Meliboea became a
kingdom in eastern Thessalia (north Magnesia). Nowadays, Meliboea (Melivia) is a municipality of Larissa
prefecture. The exact place of ancient Melivia is not known.
• The only Niobid spared when Artemis and Apollo killed them. She was so horrified at the sight of her siblings'
death that she stayed greenishly pale for the rest of her life, and for that reason she was dubbed Chloris ("the pale
one").[2] [3]
• The daughter of Oceanus and possible mother of Lycaon with Pelasgus[4] [5] . She was also loved by the river god
Orontes, who stopped his waters out of love for her, flooding the land.[6]
• A maiden of Ephesus. She loved a young man named Alexis, but her parents betrothed her to another man, and
Alexis had to leave the city. On her wedding day Meliboea tried to kill herself by jumping off the roof, but landed
unhurt. She then escaped to the seashore and found a boat, the ropes of which untied on their own. In this boat,
she was carried straight to the place where Alexis was dining with his friends. The reunited lovers, as they had
promised before, dedicated two temples to Aphrodite, surnamed Epidaetia "The One That Brings To The
Banquet" and Automate "The Spontaneous".[7]
• Mother of Phellus, according to Hesiod.[8] Both mother and son are otherwise unknown.
• Meliboea is also an alternate name for Periboea or Eriboea, mother of Ajax the Great, who was also said to have
been married to Theseus.[9]
Meliboea 634
Kings of Meliboea
Famous kings of Meliboea were:
• King Poeas (Argonaut), a friend of Hercules.
• King Philoctetes, son of Poeas, was a famous archer, and a participant in the Trojan War.
References
[1] Eustathius on Homer, p. 338
[4] Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 8. § 1
[5] Tzetzes on Lycophron 481
[6] Oppian, Cynegetica, 2. 115 ff
[7] Servius on Aeneid, 1. 720
[8] Catalogues of Women, Fragment 33 (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Text/ HesiodCatalogues. html)
[9] Athenaeus, Banquet of the Learned, 4. p. 557a
Merope
Merope (English pronunciation: /ˈmɛrəpiː/; Greek Μερόπη) was the name of several, probably unrelated, characters in
Greek mythology.
• Merope (Heliades), one of the Heliades, daughter of Helios (or his son Clymenus) and Clymene
• Merope (mythology), queen of Messenia, wife of Cresphontes and mother of Aepytus
• Merope (Oedipus), foster mother of Oedipus, wife of Polybus
• Merope (Oenopion), consort/daughter of Oenopion
• Merope (Pleiades), one of the Pleiades, daughter of Atlas and Pleione
Other uses
• 1051 Merope, an asteroid
• Merope (insect), a genus of Mecoptera
• Merope (plant), a plant genus in the subfamily Aurantioideae
• Merope (star), star in the constellation Taurus and a member of the Pleiades star cluster
• Merope Riddle (née Gaunt), mother of Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
• Mérope, a play by Voltaire
• Merope Ward, a main character in the 2010 novels Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis
Nemesis (mythology)
Nemesis, by Alfred Rethel (1837)
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Other deities
• Atë • Metis
• Bia • Moirae
• Eros • Nike
In Greek mythology, Nemesis (Greek, Νέμεσις), also called Rhamnousia/Rhamnusia ("the goddess of Rhamnous")
at her sanctuary at Rhamnous, north of Marathon, was the spirit of divine retribution against those who succumb to
hubris (arrogance before the gods). The Greeks personified vengeful fate as a remorseless goddess; the goddess of
revenge. The name Nemesis is related to the Greek word νέμειν [némein], meaning "to give what is due". The
Romans equated the Greek Nemesis with Invidia. (Aronoff 2003 [1]).
"Nemesis" is now often used as a term to describe one's worst enemy, normally someone or something that is the
exact opposite of oneself but is also somehow similar. For example, Professor Moriarty is frequently described as the
nemesis of Sherlock Holmes.
Background
Inexorable divine retribution is a major theme in the Hellenic world view, providing the unifying theme of the
tragedies of Sophocles and many other literary works. Hesiod states: "Also deadly Nyx bore Nemesis an affliction to
mortals subject to death." (Theogony, 223, though perhaps an interpolated line). Nemesis appears in a still more
concrete form in a fragment of the epic Cypria.
She is the implacable of justice: that of Zeus in the Olympian scheme of things, but it is clear she existed prior to
him, as her images look similar to several other goddesses, such as Cybele, Rhea, Demeter and Artemis.[2]
As the "Goddess of Rhamnous", Nemesis was honored and placated in an
archaic sanctuary in the isolated district of Rhamnous, in northeastern Attica.
There she was a daughter of Oceanus, the primeval river-ocean that encircles
the world. Pausanias noted her iconic statue there. It included a crown of
stags and little Nikes and was made by Pheidias after the Battle of Marathon
(490 BC), crafted from a block of Parian marble brought by the
over-confident Persians, who had intended to make a memorial stele after
their expected victory.
Origins
Nemesis has been described as the daughter of Oceanus or Zeus, but
according to Hesiod she was a child of Erebus and Nyx. She has also been
described as the daughter of Nyx alone. Her cult may have originated at
Smyrna.
In some metaphysical mythology, Nemesis produced the egg from which
hatched two sets of twins: Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, and the Dioscuri,
Castor and Pollux. While many myths indicate Zeus and Leda to be the
parents of Helen of Troy, the author of the compilation of myth called
Bibliotheke notes the possibility of Nemesis being the mother of Helen;
Nemesis, to avoid Zeus, turns into a goose, but he turns into a swan and mates
Nemesis, Roman marble from Egypt, 2nd with her. Nemesis in her bird form lays an egg that is discovered in the
century AD (Louvre)
marshes by a shepherd, who passes the egg to Leda. It is in this way that Leda
comes to be the mother of Helen, as she kept the egg in a chest until it
hatched[3] .
Fortune and retribution

The word Nemesis originally meant the distributor of fortune, neither good nor bad, simply in due proportion to each
according to what was deserved; then, nemesis came to suggest the resentment caused by any disturbance of this
right proportion, the sense of justice which could not allow it to pass unpunished. O. Gruppe (1906) and others
connect the name with "to feel just resentment". From the 4th century onwards, Nemesis, as the just balancer of
Fortune's chance, could be associated with Tyche.
In the Greek tragedies Nemesis appears chiefly as the avenger of crime and the punisher of hubris, and as such is
akin to Atë and the Erinyes. She was sometimes called Adrasteia, probably meaning "one from whom there is no
escape"; her epithet Erinys ("implacable") is specially applied to Demeter and the Phrygian mother goddess, Cybele.
Local cult
A festival called Nemeseia (by some identified with the Genesia) was held at Athens. Its object was to avert the
nemesis of the dead, who were supposed to have the power of punishing the living, if their cult had been in any way
neglected (Sophocles, Electra, 792; E. Rohde, Psyche, 1907, i. 236, note I).
At Smyrna there were two manifestations of Nemesis, more akin to Aphrodite than to Artemis. The reason for this
duality is hard to explain; it is suggested that they represent two aspects of the goddess, the kindly and the
implacable, or the goddesses of the old city and the new city refounded by Alexander. The martyrology Acts of
Pionius, set in the "Decian persecution" of AD 250–51, mentions a lapsed Smyrnan Christian who was attending to
the sacrifices at the altar of the temple of these Nemeses.
Rome
Invidia (sometimes called Pax-Nemesis) was also worshipped at Rome
by victorious generals, and in imperial times was the patroness of
gladiators and of the venatores, who fought in the arena with wild
beasts, and was one of the tutelary deities of the drilling-ground
(Nemesis campestris). Invidia was sometimes, but rarely, seen on
imperial coinage, mainly under Claudius and Hadrian. In the 3rd
century AD there is evidence of the belief in an all-powerful Nemesis on a brass sestertius of Hadrian, struck at
Rome AD 136.
Nemesis-Fortuna. She was worshipped by a society called Hadrian's
freedman. The poet Mesomedes wrote a hymn to Nemesis in the early
2nd century CE, where he addressed her
Nemesis, winged balancer of life,

dark-faced goddess, daughter of Justice,
and mentioned her "adamantine bridles" that restrain "the frivolous insolences of mortals."
In early times the representations of Nemesis resembled Aphrodite, who herself sometimes bears the epithet
Nemesis. Later, as the maiden goddess of proportion and the avenger of crime, she has as attributes a measuring rod
(tally stick), a bridle, scales, a sword and a scourge, and rides in a chariot drawn by griffins.
Nemesis is also known to have been called by the name "Adrastia." Ammianus Marcellinus includes her in a
digression on Justice following his description of the death of Gallus Caesar[4]
In Popular Culture
In the Twilight Zone episode "The Executions of Grady Finch," a killer named Grady Finch is repeatedly saved from
death by an angelic figure who says, "Not yet," which Grady can only hear, with Grady assuming her to be his
guardian angel. Near the end, the very cocky Grady admits to his lawyer Liz that he did kill a person. Soon
afterward, he hears the voice say, "Now," and remembers all of the pain of the executions. A statue of a woman
resembling Grady's "guardian angel" falls and crushes him to death. The statue is later revealed to be of Nemesis,
implying she was his "guardian angel," and enacted divine justice.
In the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan, there is a half-blood (demigod) by the name of
Ethan Nakamura who is reportedly the son of the goddess Nemesis.
References
[1] http:/ / ccat. sas. upenn. edu/ bmcr/ 2003/ 2003-12-28. html
[2] The primeval concept of Nemesis is traced by Marcel Mauss (Mauss, The Gift: the form and reason for exchange in archaic societies,
2002:23: "Generosity is an obligation, because Nemesis avenges the poor... This is the ancient morality of the gift, which has become a
principle of justice". Jean Coman, in discussing Nemesis in Aeschylus (Coman, L'idée de la Némésis chez Eschyle, Strasbourg, 1931:40-43)
detected "traces of a less rational, and probably older, concept of deity and its relationshiop to man", as Michael B. Hornum observed in
Nemesis, the Roman State and the Games, 1993:9.
[3] (Pseudo-Apollodorus) R. Scott Smith, Stephen Trzaskoma, and Hyginus. Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: Two Handbooks of
Greek Mythology. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2007:60.
[4] Ammianus Marcellinus 14.11.25
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Nemesis". Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press.
External links
• Myth Man's Nemesis page (http://thanasis.com/modern/nemesis.htm)
• Theoi.com: Nemesis (http://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Nemesis.html) Anthology of quotes from Classical
sources
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911).
Peitho 639
Peitho
Peitho is also the name of an Oceanid. See 118 Peitho for the asteroid.
In Greek mythology, Peitho (Ancient Greek: Πειθώ; English translation: "persuasion") is the goddess who
personifies persuasion and seduction. Her Roman name is Suadela. Pausanias reports that after the unification of
Athens, Theseus set up a cult of Aphrodite Pandemos and Peitho on the south slope of Acropolis at Athens. Peitho,
in her role as an attendant or companion of Aphrodite, was intimately connected to the goddess of love and beauty.
Ancient artists and poets explored this connection in their works. The connection is even deeper in the context of
Ancient Greek marriage because a suitor had to negotiate with the father of a young woman for her hand in marriage
and offer a bridal price in return for her. The most desirable women drew many prospective suitors, and persuasive
skill often determined their success. Aphrodite and Peitho were sometimes conflated to a certain extent, with the
name Peitho appearing in conjunction with, or as an epithet of, Aphrodite's name. This helps to demonstrate how the
relationship between persuasion and love (or desire) was important in Greek culture. Peitho's ancestry is somewhat
unclear. According to Hesiod in the Theogony, Peitho was the daughter of the Titans Tethys and Oceanus, which
would make her an Oceanid and therefore sister of such notable goddesses as Tyche, Doris, Metis, and Calypso.
However, Hesiod's classification of Peitho as an Oceanid is contradicted by other sources.
References
"Peitho" 1. p. 349 [1]
• North, Helen F. (1993). "Emblems of Eloquence" [2]. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 137 (3):
406–430. ISBN 9781422370186.
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Peitho" 1. [3]
External links
• The Theoi Project, "PEITHO" [4]
• [5]
References
[1] http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC& printsec=frontcover& source=gbs_ge_summary_r& cad=0#v=onepage&
q=Peitho& f=false
[2] http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=wUwLAAAAIAAJ& lpg=PA408& dq=peitho& pg=PA406#v=onepage& q=peitho& f=false
[3] http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999. 04. 0104%3Aalphabetic+ letter%3DP%3Aentry+
group%3D12%3Aentry%3Dpeitho-bio-1
[4] http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Daimon/ Peitho. html
[5] http:/ / www. stoa. org/ projects/ demos/ article_personifications?page=20& greekEncoding=UnicodeC
Philyra (mythology) 640
Philyra (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Philyra (Greek Φιλύρα) was an Oceanid, a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. Chiron was her
son by Cronus.[1] When she gave birth to her son, she was so disgusted by how he looked that she abandoned him at
birth. She was the goddess of perfume, writing, healing, beauty and paper. She also taught humanity to make paper.
Another Philyra was married to Nauplius and had many children including Palamedes. She was also known as
Klymene or Hesione.[2]
References
[1] Theoi.com: Philyra (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NymphePhilyre. html)
[2] Source: Papyrus Larousse Britannica.
Rhode (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Rhode also known as Rhodos (Ancient Greek: Ῥόδος) was the sea nymph or goddess of the
island of Rhodes.[1]
Though she does not appear among the lists of nereids in Iliad XVIII or Bibliotheke 1.2.7, such an ancient island
nymph in other contexts might gain any of various Olympian parentages: she was thought of as a daughter of
Poseidon[2] with any of several primordial sea-goddesses— with whom she might be identified herself— notably
Halia or Amphitrite.[3] Pindar even urges his hearers to "Praise the sea maid, daughter of Aphrodite, bride of Helios,
this isle of Rhodes."[4] "All three names— Halia, Aphrodite, Amphitrite, and furthermore also Kapheira—[5] must
have been applied to one and the same great goddess", Karl Kerenyi observes.[6]
In Rhodes, to which she gave her name, she was the consort of Helios, as Pindar says, and a co-protector of the
island, which was the sole center of her cult. Her name was applied to the rose, which appeared on Rhodian coinage.
The first inhabitants of Rhodes were identified by Hellenes as the Telchines. Helios made the island rise from the sea
and with Rhode, fathered seven sons there,[7] the Heliadae: Ochimus, Cercaphus, Macareus, Actis, Tenages, Triopas,
and Candalus) and one daughter, Electryone. Electryone died a virgin and the sons became legendary astronomers
and rulers of the island, accounting for the cities among which it was divided. Rhode was worshipped on Rhodes in
her own name, as well as Halia, the embodiment of the "salt sea" or as the "white goddess", Leucothea.
Notes
[1] Rhode: Sea nymph, goddess of Rhodes in the Aegean; Greek Mythology: Rhodos Theoi.com (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/
NympheRhode. html)
[2] Theoi Greek Mythology, Exploring Mythology in Classical Literature and Art, Loves of Aphrodite: Poseidon Theoi.com (http:/ / www. theoi.
com/ Olympios/ AphroditeLoves. html#Poseidon)
[3] In Bibliotheke 1.2.7.
[4] Pindar, Seventh Olympian Ode.
[5] TheoiProject: "Kapheira" (http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Nymphe/ NympheKapheira. html)
[6] Kerenyi, The Gods of the Greeks 1951:184.
[7] Pindar, op. cit.
Rhode (mythology) 641
References
ISBN 9780631201021. "Rhode" p. 404 (http://books.google.com/books?id=iOx6de8LUNAC&
printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=Rhode&f=false)
• Smith, William; Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London (1873). "Rhode" (http://
www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:alphabetic+letter=R:entry+
group=3:entry=rhode-bio-1)
• Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths (1955), §42.c, d.
External links
• Theoi Project - Nymphe Rhode (http://theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheRhode.html)
Telesto (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Telesto or Telestho (Greek: Τελεστώ; English translation: "success") was a daughter of
Oceanus and Tethys. Hesiod describes her as "wearing a yellow peplos"[1] .
Telesto, a moon of Saturn, is named after her.
References
Tyche
Tyche 642
In ancient Greek city cults, Tyche (Τύχη, meaning "luck" in Greek,

Roman equivalent: Fortuna) was the presiding tutelary deity that
governed the fortune and prosperity of a city, its destiny.
Increasingly during the Hellenistic period, cities venerated their own
specific iconic version of Tyche, wearing a mural crown (a crown like
the walls of the city).
The Greek historian Polybius believed that when no cause can be
discovered to events such as floods, drought or frosts then the cause of
these events may be fairly attributed to Tyche.[1]
Stylianos Spyridakis [2] concisely expressed Tyche's appeal in a
Hellenistic world of arbitrary violence and unmeaning reverses: "In the
turbulent years of the Epigoni of Alexander, an awareness of the
instability of human affairs led people to believe that Tyche, the blind
mistress of Fortune, governed mankind with an inconstancy which
explained the vicissitudes of the time."[3]
In literature, she might be given various genealogies, as a daughter of

The Tyche of Antioch, Roman copy of a bronze
Hermes and Aphrodite, or considered as one of the Oceanids,
by Eutychides (Galleria dei Candelabri, Vatican
daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, or of Zeus.[4] She was connected Museums).
with Nemesis[5] and Agathos Daimon ("good spirit").
She was uniquely venerated at Itanos in Crete, as Tyche Protogeneia, linked with the Athenian Protogeneia
("firstborn"), daughter of Erechtheus, whose self-sacrifice saved the city.[6]
She had temples at Caesarea Maritima, Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople. In Alexandria the Tychaeon, the
temple of Tyche, was described by Libanius as one of the most magnificent of the entire Hellenistic world.[7]
Tyche appears on many coins of the Hellenistic period in the three centuries before the Christian era, especially from
cities in the Aegean. Unpredictable turns of fortune drive the complicated plotlines of Hellenistic Romances, such as
Leucippe and Clitophon or Daphnis and Chloe. She experienced a resurgence in another era of uneasy change, the
final days of publicly-sanctioned Paganism, between the late-fourth-century emperors Julian and Theodosius I who
definitively closed the temples. The effectiveness of her capricious power even achieved respectability in
philosophical circles during that generation, though among poets it was a commonplace to revile her for a fickle
harlot.[8]
In medieval art, she was depicted as carrying a cornucopia, an emblematic ship's rudder, and the wheel of fortune, or
she may stand on the wheel, presiding over the entire circle of fate.
The constellation of Virgo is sometimes identified as the heavenly figure of Tyche,[9] as well as other goddesses such
as Demeter and Astraea.
Tyche 643
Equivalent deities
The tutelary goddess who had ancient Rome in her care was Roma. Constantine, in founding Constantinople,
entrusted the new city to Anthousa.
In the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, Tyche became closely associated with the Buddhist goddess Hariti.
References
[1] Polybius. The Rise Of The Roman Empire, Page
29, Penguin, 1979.
[2] University of California Davis faculty: Stylianos
Spyridakis (http:/ / history. ucdavis. edu/ faculty/
Spyridakis_Stylianos)
[3] Spyridakis, Stylianos. "The Itanian cult of Tyche
Protogeneia", Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte
Geschichte 18.1 (January 1969:42-48) p. 42.
[4] Pindar, Twelfth Olympian Ode.
[5] As on an Attic amphora, 5th century BCE,
Antikensammlung Berlin, illustrated at Theoi.com
(http:/ / www. theoi. com/ Daimon/ Tykhe. html).
Tyche on the reverse of this coin by Gordian III, 238-244 CE.
[6] Noted by Spyridakis, who demonstrated that earlier
suggestions of a source in Fortuna Primigenia of
Praeneste was anachronistic.
[7] Libanius, in Progymnasmata 1114R, noted by Spyridakis 1969:45.
[8] C. M. Bowra, "Palladas on Tyche" The Classical Quarterly New Series, 10.1 (May 1960:118-128).
[9] DK Multimedia: Eyewitness Encyclopedia, Stardome, Virgo: miscellaneous section
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Kileleax, Marilyn.hanson, Matthew Yeager, Noe, Special-T, T@nn, Ziusudra, 16 anonymous edits
Mutunus Tutunus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=401455375 Contributors: Cynwolfe, Magioladitis, The Man in Question, 1 anonymous edits
Nemausus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407325932 Contributors: Deror avi, Dysmorodrepanis, Emersoni, GeeJo, Gtrmp, Hmains, Jossi, Nicknack009, Pigman,
QuartierLatin1968, T@nn, TUF-KAT, Underwaterbuffalo, Wetman, 3 anonymous edits
Nemestrinus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=347293110 Contributors: Aecis, Alex earlier account, Fram, Gtrmp, Requiem mn, Tucci528, 2 anonymous edits
Neptune (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410311702 Contributors: 11kellen11, 5 albert square, ABF, Abhimat.gautam, Aldrasto11, Andreas Kaganov, Andy M.
Wang, Anonymous Dissident, Attilios, Bart133, Bchaosf, Bdoserror, BigThunderMtn, BlckKnght, Bob Burkhardt, Bongwarrior, Bsherr, Bwilkins, C+C, Caltas, Can't sleep, clown will eat me,
Captain panda, Casliber, Ccrazymann, Che!, Chris CII, Clohuigt, Courcelles, Cyberuly, Cynwolfe, DReifGalaxyM31, Dabit100, DarkAudit, Delhicalling, DerHexer, Diannaa, Doggy7dog world,
Donalfred, Doug Coldwell, Econn13, Elassint, Enigmaman, Epbr123, EscapingLife, Excirial, Finalnight, Florentino floro, Funandtrvl, Gary King, Giants27, Goldenrowley, Grossmünster,
Gyrobo, Hamsterlopithecus, Headbomb, Hello778, Hut 8.5, Ian Lancaster, Iridescent, Irish Pearl, Ivyblack21, J.delanoy, Jauerback, Java7837, Jdsteakley, Jersey emt, Jhfireboy, Jhinman, Jmlk17,
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Mavazacca, Maxschmelling, Metodicar, Michael Hardy, Midnightblueowl, Mimihitam, Neifion, NeilRJohnston, Nepenthes, Neutrality, Nihiltres, NotAnonymous0, PL290, Paul Barlow,
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Avery, WookieInHeat, 250 anonymous edits
Nodutus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=347293125 Contributors: Aecis, Alex earlier account, Drbreznjev, Fram, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Lordbartley, M.e,
Montrealais, Tucci528, 11 anonymous edits
Orcus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409149440 Contributors: Acalamari, Anatkh, Andrew Rodland, Antandrus, Anthrcer, Ashmoo, Attilios, Bryan Derksen, CALR,
Canonblack, Captainfwiffo, Catalographer, Colonies Chris, Cuchullain, Dan, DennisRobinson, Eequor, Erolos, GB fan, GeeJo, Gracefool, Grossmünster, Gtrmp, Hike395, Jakenelson, Jnemo412,
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Rjwilmsi, Robbstrd, Robwingfield, Saruoh, Silence, Silverwizard, Stan Shebs, Sucro, Susvolans, Synabetic, T@nn, Taco325i, The Fringe 32E, The Man in Question, The Niggler, Thu,
Tiphaine800, Tucci528, Urhixidur, Wetman, 28 anonymous edits
Pales Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=403086259 Contributors: Aecis, Alex earlier account, Andres, Anypodetos, Aranel, Bacchiad, Bjankuloski06en, Ft1,
GreatWhiteNortherner, JLCA, Karaku, L Hamm, Radon210, Rorshacma, Silence, T@nn, Taco325i, Tucci528, 18 anonymous edits
Palici Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=384762035 Contributors: Cprompt, Deucalionite, Erud, Fordmadoxfraud, Ivanvlasov, Omnipedian, Paul August, SamEV, Silence,
Stefanomione, T@nn, Tucci528, WolfgangRieger, 7 anonymous edits
Picumnus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=347293143 Contributors: Aecis, Dfrg.msc, Dysmorodrepanis, Fram, Gtrmp, T@nn, TUF-KAT, 2 anonymous edits
Picus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407694138 Contributors: Aecis, Aldrasto, André Koehne, Aramgar, Canadabear, Captain panda, Care, Chronicler, CyberSkull,
GreatWhiteNortherner, Jimfbleak, Mairi, Neddyseagoon, Nick81, Renato Caniatti, T@nn, Tucci528, 16 anonymous edits
Pilumnus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=395824328 Contributors: AdSR, Drbreznjev, Fordmadoxfraud, Goldenrowley, Gtrmp, Hpc, Lithpiperpilot, Marshman,
Montrealais, Phlyaristis, Robin Hood, T@nn, TUF-KAT, 4 anonymous edits
Pluto (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409862161 Contributors: 11kellen11, 1exec1, A8UDI, ARUNKUMAR P.R, Abhimat.gautam, Adrian J. Hunter, Aeonx,
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Kurt Leyman, Lambiam, Laser brain, Lateg, LiDaobing, Lipinki, LittleJerry, Luna Santin, Lusanaherandraton, Magister Mathematicae, Mallerd, Matthew Yeager, Meeples, Meladina, Melamed
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Opelio, OwenBlacker, Oxymoron83, Palica, PatGallacher, Paul August, Phoenix-forgotten, Pstanton, PurpleChez, Quinsareth, Qxz, RandomCritic, Randy Johnston, Renato Caniatti, Revery,
Rknasc, Roberdin, Robofish, SMcCandlish, SUL, SharkAIC, Shrivenzale, SigPig, Sluzzelin, Sotaru, Splee, Sspecter, Ste4k, Sunderland06, T@nn, TUF-KAT, The Man in Question, The Nut, The
Thing That Should Not Be, Tide rolls, Toby Bartels, Tommy2010, Ttownfeen, Uncle Dick, Vaeworld7, Vector Potential, Vriullop, Vs64vs, Wakuran, Wayne Slam, William.keiser, XJubeo,
YAZASHI, Zucchini Marie, Саша Стефановић, Уральский Кот, 295 anonymous edits
Pluvius Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=392104751 Contributors: Ahoerstemeier, Bacchiad, Curps, Cynwolfe, Fram, Gtrmp, Kbdank71, Kuralyov, Melaen, PharoDarkSide,
TUF-KAT, 1 anonymous edits
Portunes Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407962730 Contributors: Ahoerstemeier, Aldrasto, Bacchiad, Bob Burkhardt, Brian0918, Ccson, Chris the speller, Ebeisher,
GreatWhiteNortherner, James Arboghast, Jfurr1981, Joaquin008, Kbdank71, Neddyseagoon, Nicke Lilltroll, Pwqn, Redmind0, Renato Caniatti, Rwflammang, RyanFreisling, Sarfa, Snoyes,
T@nn, TUF-KAT, VampWillow, Warofdreams, Wetman, 10 anonymous edits
Porus (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409358964 Contributors: Arb, CalicoCatLover, Captain panda, Chick Bowen, Chronicler, Curps, DGottschall,
Deucalionite, Earphoria, Kimchi.sg, N2e, OlEnglish, Omnipaedista, RafaAzevedo, SimonP, T@nn, Tony Esopi, Waacstats, Wompa99, ‫דוד‬55, 3 anonymous edits
Quirinus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=404548449 Contributors: ARTE, Aldux, Andreworkney, Aranel, Art LaPella, Artiste-extraordinaire, Bacchiad, Bob Burkhardt,
CalicoCatLover, Crazysouthman, DIEGO RICARDO, Dougweller, Eixo, Ekwos, Elerium, Epbr123, Faaaa, Gianfranco, GreatWhiteNortherner, Hairy Dude, Jammy0002, Kaihsu, Kubra,
Lenoxus, Looxix, Midnightblueowl, Moverton, Neddyseagoon, Onassi, Philoctitis, Pink!Teen, Pmanderson, Polylerus, Raven in Orbit, Richard75, Rursus, Sarah, Solipsist, TUF-KAT, The Epopt,
The Great Honker, The One True Fred, Tomlillis, UnDeadGoat, Varlaam, Wetman, 46 anonymous edits
Robigus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=358843450 Contributors: Aecis, Aldrasto, Aranel, Cynwolfe, Francesca Santoro, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Haukurth, Jagdfeld,
Maximus Rex, Ohconfucius, Rursus, RussBlau, Shirulashem, T@nn, Tregoweth, 5 anonymous edits
Sancus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410350840 Contributors: Aldrasto11, Bacchiad, Cynwolfe, Diehardinfo, Enchanter, Error, FoekeNoppert, Gcm, Gianfranco,
GreatWhiteNortherner, Jose Ramos, Menchi, Mild Bill Hiccup, Mus Musculus, Sarefo, Srose, T@nn, TUF-KAT, Tagishsimon, Texture, Tony Esopi, UnDeadGoat, Wetman, WikHead, 10
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Saritor Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=347293303 Contributors: Aecis, Drbreznjev, Fram, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, M.e, TUF-KAT, TexasAndroid
Saturn (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407506091 Contributors: .Absolution., Acefox, Adun12, Akhilleus, Al3xil, Altenmann, Amakuru, Andre Engels,
Andrew Dalby, Andrewrp, Arnobarnard, Art LaPella, BTA453, Basketball110, Belovedfreak, Bgeelhoed, Biglovinb, Biruitorul, Bloodofox, Bobo192, Borat fan, CALR, Cadwaladr, Calvin 1998,
Ccacsmss, Charmpop, Cheezwiz82, Chekaz, ChrisHodgesUK, Chzz, CommonsDelinker, Couillaud, CrazyInSane, Cromwellt, DReifGalaxyM31, Davewho2, Delirium, Deville, Diligent Terrier,
Dirtydan667, Dnnjhdjdecu, Doczilla, Dreadstar, Eagle404, Ean5533, Economy1, ElationAviation, Enviroboy, Escape Orbit, EugeneZelenko, Euryalus, Everyking, Facts707, Friendlystar, Fæ,
Gaius Cornelius, Gawdismydaddy, Gsmgm, Gyrobo, Hede2000, Heracles31, IdLoveOne, Ifny, Iridescent, J.delanoy, JLaTondre, Jauerback, Java7837, Jclemens, JeanPiaget, Jerzy, John Riemann
Soong, Johnatx, Josiah Rowe, Kateshortforbob, Kayau, Kingpin13, Kvn8907, Larry V, Lethe, Loren.wilton, MPerel, Macrakis, Maestlin, Materialscientist, Mattis, Mboyrock, Metsavend,
Minimac, Mjolnir1984, Mmounties, Montrealais, MuZemike, Nancy, Naomichanart, NawlinWiki, Neddyseagoon, Nercromancy?, NewEnglandYankee, Nihiltres, Opelio, Owlofcreamcheese,
Oxymoron83, PIL1987, Panellet, Pearle, Penbat, Plushiethemu, Podzemnik, Richhoncho, Rjcusa, Rwflammang, SanSolo, Sanchuniathon, Satanael, Serendipodous, Shit shit shit, Silence,
Silverscaledsalmon, Skarebo, Skoglund, SmileToday, Some thing, Sparkit, Stephenb, T@nn, TUF-KAT, Tbrownell, Tedeh, The Evil IP address, The Thing That Should Not Be, The monkeyhate,
Thehelpfulone, Thrindel, Thuglas, Tide rolls, Tim Q. Wells, Tommy2010, UNIT A4B1, Undead Herle King, VernoWhitney, Vkil, Waggers, WolfmanSF, Woohookitty, Xeno, Yerpo, Yomangan,
Yomangani, 333 anonymous edits
Saturn Devouring His Son Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409498806 Contributors: ADM, Acer, Adhonormetfraternitas, Andjam, Anonymous Dissident, ArdClose,
Asarelah, AxelBoldt, BTA453, Backtable, Bastin, Carcharoth, Ccacsmss, Ceoil, Colonies Chris, CommonsDelinker, Crywalt, D-Notice, Darkwind, Debresser, Dimboukas, Escarlati,
Fabs.Mueller, Foober, Gary King, Ghiraddje, Good Olfactory, Homonihilis, I am Zeus, king of the gods, Ida Shaw, JForget, JNW, Jroth.x, Karam.Anthony.K, Machina in the Deep-Blue Sea,
Maxis ftw, Michael Hardy, MidnightSoldier, MisfitToys, Mithridates, Modernist, Mountolive, Muzilon, Mym-uk, Outriggr, Razr, Remember, Ronhjones, Scwlong, Sluzzelin, Sparkit, Thingg,
Treyt021, Twas Now, Tygrrr, Tyw7, Velella, Xdiabolicalx, Yomangan, Yomangani, 53 anonymous edits
Silvanus (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408816096 Contributors: André Koehne, Attilios, BD2412, Cynwolfe, Denni, Fordmadoxfraud, Gits (Neo), Haiduc,
Kleuske, Mboverload, Michal Nebyla, Phoenixrod, Picus viridis, QuartierLatin1968, Redeagle688, Saltzmann, Saruoh, T@nn, Tonalone, Tucci528, Wetman, 25 anonymous edits
Sol (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=405290468 Contributors: Anthony Appleyard, Archaioman, BTH, Birmans, Charles Matthews, Dbachmann, Echosmoke,
EurekaLott, Fratrep, FvdP, Glenn, Goblim, Gtrmp, Keraunos, LilHelpa, Mcorazao, Northumbrian, Ragimiri, Rrburke, Sam Hocevar, Sam Spade, SolLuna, TUF-KAT, Tucci528, Wiglaf,
Woohookitty, Лев Дубовой, 11 anonymous edits
Sol Invictus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409505384 Contributors: 32X, 83d40m, Adam Bishop, Ahuitzotl, Airflow, Aldux, All Is One, Altzinn, Amovrvs, Andrew c,
Anthony Appleyard, Arker, Ash, Bacchiad, Bearingbreaker92, BillFlis, BoBo, Brixius083, Byates5637, CALR, CLWaltersHI, Capricorn42, Carnun, Catalographer, Charles Matthews,
CheeseDreams, Craig Pemberton, Cuchullain, Cynwolfe, Dasch9a, David Latapie, Dbachmann, Demonteddybear, Deybirth, Discospinster, Dmottram, Donmac, Dougweller, Dposte46, EALacey,
Echosmoke, Eequor, Eric Kvaalen, FHSerkland, Fayenatic london, Flamarande, G Rose, GeckoRoamin, Gioto, GiveItSomeThought, Groggy Dice, Hajor, Hakluyt bean, Haploidavey,
Hiberniantears, Hires an editor, Hmains, Hongooi, Infrogmation, JForget, Jack Upland, JamesTeterenko, JanDeFietser, Jengod, JohnElder, Johnbod, Jonathan Tweet, JorgeMacD, Jujutacular,
Keraunos, Kevin.gould, Kingdomassassin, Kitten86, LafinJack, Lamorak, Lemuel Gulliver, Life, Liberty, Property, Lightmouse, Lima, ListenerX, Loadmaster, Lostcaesar, Marco's Wiki Account,
Mathwhiz 29, Matusz, MaxEspinho, Mercury543210, Midnightblueowl, Mk5384, Moez, MoogleDan, Mrpearcee, NGC6254, Ndteegarden, Neddyseagoon, Neurolysis, Noisy, Nymf, Olayuk,
Omnipaedista, Orlando098, Otrfan, Panairjdde, PedroPVZ, Per Honor et Gloria, PigFlu Oink, Proxima Centauri, Pvasiliadis, QuartierLatin1968, R'n'B, Rettetast, Richard Keatinge, Robert1947,
Roger Pearse, RoyBoy, Rwflammang, Ryanmcdaniel, Sacerdos solis, Saperaud, Scientus, Sd-marco, Some thing, Springbok26, Starbois, StelionisIgnigenae, Str1977, T@nn, TakenakaN,
Terrasidius, The Anome, The Thing That Should Not Be, TheBaron0530, TheNWOInquisition, Twas Now, VVVladimir, Veledan, Velho, Wetman, Wikicrusader, WingedEarth, Woohookitty,
Xanzzibar, 209 anonymous edits
Soranus (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=404877593 Contributors: Aecis, Anilocra, Cynwolfe, Fram, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, JohnLynch, Joyous!,
Loupeter, NatusRoma, Phlyaristis, TUF-KAT, Wareh, 11 anonymous edits
Sors Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=388148946 Contributors: Aecis, Agerdts, Alpha Quadrant (alt), Azertus, Carlossuarez46, D3, Fordmadoxfraud, GeeJo, RedWolf,
SimonMayer, SimonP, T@nn, TUF-KAT, 11 anonymous edits
Spiniensis Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=122492644 Contributors: Aecis, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Manika, Silence, T@nn, TUF-KAT
Statanus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=367402624 Contributors: Aecis, David Humphreys, Gtrmp, Peterdx, Silence, T@nn, TUF-KAT, TheTriumvir, Woohookitty
Sterquilinus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=375050967 Contributors: Avicennasis, Bogdangiusca, Diligent, Electrolite, Gaius Cornelius, Gtrmp, Kirsted, Mattg82, Melaen,
Raul654, Rob T Firefly, Silence, TUF-KAT, 3 anonymous edits
Summanus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409498507 Contributors: Aecis, Aldrasto11, BCtl, Bacchiad, Cynwolfe, Eranb, Franzeska, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner,
Gtrmp, Hmains, JarlaxleArtemis, Loupeter, Mboverload, Nagelfar, Oiophron, RlyehRising, TUF-KAT, The Man in Question, Txomin, 12 anonymous edits
Terminus (god) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=395529114 Contributors: Andre Engels, Bacchiad, Belovedfreak, BiT, CalicoCatLover, DorisAntony, EALacey, Gadget850,
JLCA, Koavf, Lethe, Manu bcn, Mrs Trellis, Neddyseagoon, Nehrams2020, Nono64, Numbo3, Patrick, Pietro, R'n'B, Redmind0, Redtigerxyz, Robodoc.at, Shii, Solarapex, Solaricon, Tregoweth,
Violetine, Xfigpower, Yakudza, Zoney, 1 anonymous edits
Tiberinus (god) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=397182048 Contributors: Bináris, Neddyseagoon, Polylerus, Retaliate, Stepheng3, T@nn, 9 anonymous edits
Tibertus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=262157561 Contributors: Aecis, Dialectric, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Haukurth, Jallan, Markalex, Merphant, Tucci528, 1
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Vagitanus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=404450241 Contributors: Cynwolfe
Vejovis Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=401540923 Contributors: Altenmann, Amovrvs, Bacchiad, Bogusone, C45207, Catalographer, Cthuljew, Epbr123, FinalRapture,
FinnWiki, GaMip, Glengordon01, Goldenrowley, GreatWhiteNortherner, Hpc, Ihcoyc, Leolaursen, Lucio Di Madaura, M-le-mot-dit, Meelar, NERIUM, Neddyseagoon, Nhprman, Oleksii0,
Pauli133, Pax:Vobiscum, Pink!Teen, Rich Farmbrough, SQL, Satanael, T@nn, The Man in Question, Thue, ToAr, Tucci528, Vediovis365, 19 anonymous edits
Verminus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409604638 Contributors: Aecis, Cynwolfe, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Hmains, Markalex, Nick Graves, Nneonneo,
RDBrown, T@nn, TUF-KAT, 1 anonymous edits
Vertumnus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=406962861 Contributors: Alphachimp, Andreas Kaganov, Aranel, Art LaPella, Bobo192, Bonio, Calieber, Caravaggisti,
Cynwolfe, Drapik, EALacey, Glengordon01, Goldfritha, GreatWhiteNortherner, HenHei, Jastrow, LilHelpa, MetaManFromTomorrow, Michael Hardy, Pmanderson, Santosga, Simon12, T@nn,
TUF-KAT, Wetman, Winner4600, Yamara, 24 anonymous edits
Vervactor Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=347293358 Contributors: Aecis, Bryan Derksen, Emperorbma, Fram, GeeJo, Jaranda, Jitse Niesen, Onco p53, SimonMayer,
T@nn, TUF-KAT, 1 anonymous edits
Viduus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=347294503 Contributors: Aecis, Drbreznjev, Fram, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, TUF-KAT, 1 anonymous edits
Virtus (deity) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=390773451 Contributors: Aecis, Angelo.romano, BD2412, Cynwolfe, Deewhite, Deucalionite, Firsfron, GeeJo, Goldenrowley,
GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, J.delanoy, Markalex, Mdebets, Mephiston999, Neddyseagoon, Patrickneil, Rich Farmbrough, Staplovich, SteinbDJ, T@nn, TUF-KAT, Taurrandir, Tony Esopi,
Verloren Hoop, 11 anonymous edits
Volturnus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=404306356 Contributors: Aecis, Aldrasto, Alex S, Bacchiad, Bluemoose, David Newton, Fram, GeeJo, Gianfranco,
GreatWhiteNortherner, HenHei, Lucio Di Madaura, Pasquale, Phlyaristis, Silence, T@nn, TUF-KAT, The Epopt, 4 anonymous edits
Vulcan (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409756526 Contributors: ADyuaa, Abrech, Addihockey10, Aldrasto, Aldrasto11, AlexanderWinston, Am86, Amatulic,
Anthony Appleyard, Apostolos Margaritis, Aranel, Armaced, Art LaPella, Art8641, Arthena, Ashmoo, AstroNomer, Atlant, Attilios, BD2412, Bacchiad, BananaFiend, Banus, Beautifulangel88,
BillFlis, Bobcat7, Bornhj, Bryan Derksen, Böri, CNichols, CSI Bully, Can't sleep, clown will eat me, Che!, Chris G, ChristTrekker, Chromaticity, Clarkbhm, Colonies Chris, Cynwolfe, Danjel,
David Edgar, Davidbod, DeadEyeArrow, Delldot, DerHexer, Donama, DoubleBlue, Dougofborg, Drat, Drdhaval2785, EALacey, Earthsound, Eenu, El C, Epbr123, Eve Hall, Flyingty,
France3470, GDonato, GSchjetne, GetFighted--, Ghbarratt, Gjd001, GorleyVMC, Grafen, Grahamec, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gurch, Heron, Himasaram, Hmains, Ihcoyc, ImGz, Imm0rtal,
J.delanoy, Jagganath, Jan eissfeldt, Jastrow, Jauerback, Java7837, Jkl, Jordanhurley, Jpgordon, Junglecat, JustAGal, Karenjc, Katerenka, Killpk2000, Kimse, Kingpin13, Kurt Leyman, Kuru,
Kyng, LittleOldMe, Lowellian, Lucio Di Madaura, Luigi30, Magister Mathematicae, Managore, Marek69, Martarius, Matt Crypto, Maxim, Mdiamante, MeekSaffron, Mendaliv,
Midnightblueowl, Mild Bill Hiccup, MisfitToys, Mlm42, NYKevin, Neddyseagoon, Norwikian, OldakQuill, OverlordQ, Palladinus, Panarjedde, Paul-L, Pigman, Podzemnik, Ponyo,
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TSO1D, Teltnuag, Terribleman, The Great Honker, The Man in Question, Thunder Wolf, Tide rolls, Tommy2010, Tucci528, Uvaduck, Valerius Tygart, Vasiľ, Versus22, Vidioman, Wecl0me12,
Wetman, WookieInHeat, Xdrt2, Yte0012, Саша Стефановић, 311 anonymous edits
Abeona Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=352730755 Contributors: Aecis, Ary29, Cynwolfe, Iridescent, Maher27777, Mozgulek, Nuno Tavares, Rocastelo, Silence, T@nn,
TUF-KAT, Timo Honkasalo, Tucci528, Verdi1, 9 anonymous edits
Abundantia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=395200515 Contributors: Cam, Deville, Either way, Erikwitz, Friendlystar, Hectorthebat, John Carter, KathrynLybarger,
Knutux, Kwamikagami, Mattis, NeilEvans, Nixeagle, QuartierLatin1968, RP459, Schekinov Alexey Victorovich, Silence, Stan Shebs, T@nn, The Singing Badger, Trainra, Tucci528, Welsh, 10
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Acca Larentia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=404807322 Contributors: 2ct7, Charles Matthews, Ck lostsword, Cynwolfe, Felizdenovo, Fordmadoxfraud,
GreatWhiteNortherner, Healthinspector, HenHei, Hyperboreios, Knowledge4all, Kusma, Leondumontfollower, Magnus Manske, Margacst, Methcub, Mozart2005, NRPanikker, Nuno Tavares,
OmegaPaladin, Omicronpersei8, Politicaljunkie23, Polylerus, Psu256, Rh, Rich Farmbrough, Rjwilmsi, Roby, Rocastelo, Saxbryn, Shimgray, SiobhanHansa, Stan Shebs, StefanB sv, T@nn, The
Anome, The Man in Question, Tucci528, Versus22, Will314159, Морган, 10 anonymous edits
Aequitas Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410425356 Contributors: 404notfound, Aecis, Aranel, Bluerasberry, Bschlueter, Credema, Cyrloc, Dekimasu, Deror avi, GeeJo,
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Aeternitas Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=381523207 Contributors: Aecis, Andre Engels, AndreniW, Andy Christ, BD2412, Dsda, Emperorbma, GeeJo,
GreatWhiteNortherner, Guy Peters, Jheald, Jj137, Onco p53, Panairjdde, Pavenis, RP459, Sandstein, SimonMayer, Snoyes, T@nn, Tucci528, Yamara, 4 anonymous edits
Alemonia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=384897737 Contributors: Aecis, Cynwolfe, Drbreznjev, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Joie de Vivre, Keithh, Kubra,
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Angerona Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407281935 Contributors: Atgnclk, Bacchiad, Butsuri, Cynwolfe, Deucalionite, Dysmorodrepanis, Gtrmp, JoJan, Margacst,
Midnightblueowl, Paul August, Punarbhava, Silence, T@nn, Tagishsimon, Tom Peters, Tucci528, 4 anonymous edits
Angitia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=397501125 Contributors: AdjustShift, Aecis, Aranel, Asarelah, Asperchu, Cate108, Chronicler, Delta 51, Fanra, GeeJo,
GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Java7837, Jpgordon, Katharineamy, Nono64, Pgk, RP459, Rjwilmsi, Ronhypnolxcore, T@nn, TubularWorld, Tucci528, 15 anonymous edits
Anna Perenna Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=334511876 Contributors: Adagio, Derek Ross, Grantsky, GreatWhiteNortherner, HenHei, Izzy2, Jallan, JamesBurns,
JeffyJeffyMan2004, Maximus Rex, Mgar, Minesweeper, Neddyseagoon, Panairjdde, Pwqn, RP459, T@nn, Tucci528, Wereon, Whogue, Yamara, 15 anonymous edits
Annona (goddess) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=406724927 Contributors: Amakuru, BorgQueen, Error, Kjkolb, Mahlon, Neddyseagoon, PMG, Rickjpelleg, Ruud Koot,
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Antevorte Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=390905283 Contributors: Aecis, Andrew Dalby, Cje, Fram, GeeJo, Markalex, Onco p53, Phlyaristis, SimonP, T@nn, Tikiwont,
Tucci528, Yamara, 5 anonymous edits
Appiades Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=400718923 Contributors: Lawrence Cohen, Rpyle731, T@nn, Topbanana, 1 anonymous edits
Aurora (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407272498 Contributors: Auric, Biscuittin, Ccacsmss, Coyau, Cynwolfe, Danjel, Dbachmann, Dlohcierekim,
Dmgerman, Evanreyes, Evoc, Fabian Steeg, Felizdenovo, FinalRapture, Gershwinrb, Goldenrowley, Greatbritain2k3, Gtrmp, Haukurth, Hede2000, Ioscius, Ixfd64, J'88, J.delanoy, Jackcocoon,
Jeff G., Jerry, Juansidious, Jujutacular, Kimse, Kuratowski's Ghost, Mikemoral, Mobiusinversion, Moverton, Nutiketaiel, Olly150, Paul August, Peterdx, Pinethicket, Radek Bartoš, RalfX,
Rcronin, Ross Burgess, Sharadtriyama, Steinninn, Swiftblade21, T@nn, Tellyaddict, TenaciousP45, TexasAndroid, The Thing That Should Not Be, This lousy T-shirt, Ttbya, Victor LP, Wetman,
William Allen Simpson, Zundark, Δ, ‫תמאה תויסחי‬, 102 anonymous edits
Averna Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=347292653 Contributors: Aecis, Fram, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Stevage, T@nn, Test software, Tucci528
Bellona (goddess) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=403285321 Contributors: Alma Pater, Amovrvs, Attilios, Bewtros, Bill, Bogey97, Cynwolfe, Deror avi, Lavallen,
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Bona Dea Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410054090 Contributors: AGK, AliaGemma, Aranel, Arria Belli, AxmxZ, Bacchiad, BerndGehrmann, Bjankuloski06en, Cxz111,
Cynwolfe, Darkmisa55, Den of Earth, Elmo iscariot, Fanx, FinalRapture, Francisco Valverde, Gaius Cornelius, Grblomerth, GreatWhiteNortherner, Haploidavey, JamesAM, Madmarigold,
Michael Hardy, Perfecto, Peterdx, Pol098, RP459, RedWolf, Renato Caniatti, Rh, Rich Farmbrough, Shii, Spasemunki, Tamfang, Tli817, Tucci528, Underneath-it-All, 24 anonymous edits
Bubona Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=383239225 Contributors: Fratrep, Mild Bill Hiccup, NantonosAedui, Pastordavid, Phil Bridger, RP459, Rjwilmsi, Somewhere Out
There
Camenae Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=390905839 Contributors: Aecis, Bacchiad, Bjankuloski06en, Deucalionite, Fram, Gau1990, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp,
J S Ayer, Jamelan, Lotje, Lucius Domitius, Magnetic Rag, Moncrief, Phlyaristis, Renato Caniatti, Romanm, Spitcurl, T@nn, Tucci528, Xakepxakep, Yamara, 12 anonymous edits
Candelifera Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=392709899 Contributors: Aecis, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Keithh, Markalex, T@nn, Tucci528, 1 anonymous edits
Cardea Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=391237476 Contributors: Armodios, Beowulf314159, CatherineMunro, Drbreznjev, FinalRapture, Gtrmp, John Yesberg, Metodicar,
Nihiliststar, Phlyaristis, Pmanderson, R'n'B, Redmind0, Rhys, Shoemoney2night, TUF-KAT, Tucci528, 7 anonymous edits
Carmenta Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=401026897 Contributors: Aecis, Aranel, Bacchiad, Bjankuloski06en, Canadaduane, Cynwolfe, Doug Coldwell, FoekeNoppert,
Friendlystar, GreatWhiteNortherner, Jamelan, Matsuzaki-Koudou, Metodicar, Mirv, Odea, Panellet, Renato Caniatti, T@nn, TUF-KAT, Til Eulenspiegel, ToAr, Tony Esopi, Tucci528, Wareh,
Williamb, Yamara, 4 anonymous edits
Ceres (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409567732 Contributors: Achilles, Ale jrb, Andres, Angela, Angr, AnnaKucsma, Atlant, Bacchiad, Beardo,
Bearingbreaker92, Belovedfreak, Bryan Derksen, Caiaffa, CalicoCatLover, Calmypal, Ciriii, Ckatz, Craigy144, Cromwellt, Cynwolfe, DWaterson, Danny, David Kernow, David Levy, Doug
Coldwell, Dpv, Dressagerider551, Ducker, Earthdirt, Echosmoke, Eideteker, Eiler7, Ellywa, Enirac Sum, Epbr123, Erath, Everyking, Fraise, France3470, Gabbyhamburg, GearedBull, Gef756,
Gogo Dodo, Graham87, GreatWhiteNortherner, Haploidavey, Haukurth, Herbee, Hyperboreios, IEdML, Infrogmation, Jauerback, Java7837, Jeffrey O. Gustafson, JesseW, Jevansen,
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Samois98, Savant1984, Shell Kinney, Shikai shaw, Silence, Skypacker, Something14, Storeye, Student7, Syrthiss, Teorth, The Enlightened, The Man in Question, Thecurran, Theuserofusers,
Timwi, Trekphiler, Tucci528, Upon the stair, Urhixidur, UtherSRG, Vanished user, Vanished user 03, Velho, Voxpuppet, Welsh, WinstonSmith, YUL89YYZ, Youssefsan, Zoe, 106 anonymous
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Cinxia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=364596634 Contributors: Aecis, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Jevansen, Kevin Saff, Makemi, Phlyaristis, T@nn, Tucci528,
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Clementia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=349895413 Contributors: 1up, Aecis, CambridgeBayWeather, Ctynan, Deucalionite, Fram, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp,
J.smith, Jmabel, Lsisson, Mdebets, Neelix, Onco p53, Patrick, SwordSmurf, T@nn, Thanatos Nikos, Tucci528, Waif8, 12 anonymous edits
Cloacina Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=367642547 Contributors: Aecis, FinalRapture, GeeJo, Geogre, Glengordon01, Gtrmp, JTN, Jason Recliner, Esq., Jcmo,
Kyouketsusha, TruHeir, Tucci528, Varlaam, Vultur, Zello, 8 anonymous edits
Collatina Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=404840906 Contributors: Phlyaristis
Concordia (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=403903617 Contributors: Alvestrand, Aranel, Bacchiad, Binky The WonderSkull, CalicoCatLover, Charles
Matthews, Colonies Chris, Cynwolfe, DenisMoskowitz, Deror avi, Dgies, EALacey, Fishal, GreatWhiteNortherner, IamthatIam, JDoorjam, Jamelan, Jpacold, Jpgordon, Kubra, Mattis, Menchi,
Midnightblueowl, Morwen, Mr. Absurd, Neddyseagoon, Panairjdde, Phlyaristis, Radagast83, Renato Caniatti, Rjwilmsi, Silence, SilentC, T@nn, Thue, Toddzilla, Verdi1, 9 anonymous edits
Cuba (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=390907667 Contributors: Aecis, Cynwolfe, GeeJo, Gtrmp, Jezhotwells, Keithh, Leithp, Peterdx, Philip Trueman,
Phlyaristis, T@nn, Tucci528, Vanish2, 3 anonymous edits
Cunina Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=390907773 Contributors: Aecis, Cynwolfe, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Keithh, Phlyaristis, RedWolf, T@nn, Tucci528, 1
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Cura Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407814807 Contributors: 16@r, AIULondon, Aecis, ArcAngel, Cynwolfe, Drbreznjev, GeeJo, Gooddaycura, GreatWhiteNortherner,
Gtrmp, Jan1nad, LeaveSleaves, Peter S., Piyush.gohana, Qushta, RedWolf, Sgroupace, SpacemanSpiff, Tabletop, Tucci528, Whpq, Xufanc, Zero Gravity, 20 anonymous edits
Dea Dia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=391586312 Contributors: Aecis, Bacchiad, Bearcat, Bjankuloski06en, Calieber, Colonies Chris, Firch, GreatWhiteNortherner,
Gtrmp, HenHei, Jomunro, LIC Habeeb, Tucci528, Xezbeth, 4 anonymous edits
Dea Tacita Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=387131060 Contributors: Aecis, Aranel, Cloj, Dgies, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, SimonP, Tucci528, 14 anonymous edits
Decima (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=386092929 Contributors: Ayls, Yamara, 1 anonymous edits
Deverra Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=390148946 Contributors: Aecis, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, NickPenguin, Phlyaristis, T@nn, TUF-KAT, Tucci528
Diana (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410429665 Contributors: 17Drew, 19cass20, 999, A8UDI, Aeonx, AeternaReginula, Aitias, Alansohn, Alchemistoxford,
Aldrasto, Alex S, Alice beaty, Andrew Dalby, Angelo De La Paz, Apollonius 1236, Aranel, Arichnad, Art LaPella, Auslli, Autiger, B. Wolterding, Ballon845, Barticus88, Bcrowell,
BehemothCat, Benoni, Bigjimr, Bigtimepeace, Blueboar, Bobo192, Bpeps, Brandmeister, Bryan Derksen, Burn, C+C, CalicoCatLover, Caltas, Captin Shmit, Che!, Christosjannes, Coffeewhite,
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ankan, Denara, Denelson83, Deor, Dougluce, Edward321, Eequor, Elkbone, Epbr123, Epriestess, Eranb, EscapingLife, FF2010, Fratrep, Fæ, Gadykozma, Galoubet, Gawdismydaddy, Gidonb,
Gilliam, Griffinofwales, Grimey109, Gscshoyru, Gurchzilla, HaeB, Heptite, Infrogmation, Ixfd64, J.delanoy, Jackollie, Javert, Jdhomrighausen, Jfire, Jkl, Joshschr, Juliancolton, Jusdafax,
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LilHelpa, LonebikeroftheApcocolypse, Longbow4u, Looxix, Lord Emsworth, LordCo Centre, Lotje, Luk, Lunagoth, M Cheyne, Magnus.de, Majorly, Manning Bartlett, Mario Žamić,
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NHRHS2010, Nazar, Nev1, NodnarbLlad, Nor'westerner, Norhelt, ONUnicorn, Panairjdde, Patrick2480, Paul August, Piano non troppo, Pinethicket, Pmanderson, Polylerus, Porsche997SBS,
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Ricardo Frantz, Rich Farmbrough, Rochelimit, RodC, RollanT, Rror, Rschmertz, Ryssby, SJP, Salmanazar, SamuelTheGhost, Sannse, Schwnj, Shadowcat2012, Shikai shaw, Silence, Silsor,
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Wahrmund, Wayne Slam, We are unipire, West.andrew.g, Wetman, Woloflover, Womaningreen, Xandar, Xanzzibar, Zigger, 398 anonymous edits
Disciplina Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=358098350 Contributors: Alex S, Callmarcus, Charles Matthews, Cimon Avaro, Deucalionite, Furrykef, GreatWhiteNortherner,
Gtrmp, Ian Pitchford, Jondel, Leithp, Maudemiller, McDutchie, R.D.H. (Ghost In The Machine), Rambler24, Steven J. Anderson, Switchercat, T@nn, Tucci528, Wetman, 9 anonymous edits
Domiduca Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=364596656 Contributors: Aecis, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Jevansen, Keithh, Phlyaristis, T@nn, Tucci528, 1
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Edusa Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=390907252 Contributors: Aecis, Cynwolfe, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Kauczuk, Keithh, Mishac, Phlyaristis, Spiritia,
T@nn, TUF-KAT, Tucci528
Egeria (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407249114 Contributors: Aldrasto11, Aranel, Argo Navis, Cmdrjameson, Cynwolfe, Eugene-elgato, Flowerparty,
Galoubet, Gensanders, Goldfritha, Gtrmp, Headbomb, Ilya, Iwfi, J heisenberg, Jamelan, Kateshortforbob, Leonard G., Mlouns, Neddyseagoon, Notafly, Remy B, Robiquetgobley, Semolo75,
T@nn, Tom Lougheed, Türkçe, Unyoyega, Wetman, Yamara, Yone Fernandes, 15 anonymous edits
Empanda Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407694700 Contributors: Aecis, Asarelah, BD2412, Beta m, Capsicum Sulfide, Charles Matthews, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner,
M-le-mot-dit, Markalex, Sandstein, Tonyrex, Tucci528, 1 anonymous edits
Epona Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408945136 Contributors: Andrevan, Apostrophe, Atgnclk, Axem Titanium, Bachrach44, Bacteria, Bardin, Cgilmer, Critto, Cynwolfe,
Dbachmann, Dcoetzee, Dewrad, Dimadick, Dionysos1, DoctorWorm, DopefishJustin, EADoherty, Eequor, Eluchil, Enviroboy, Erebus Morgaine, Everyking, Finefella, Forcrist, Gadfium, Gaius
Cornelius, GreatWhiteNortherner, Grutness, Gtrmp, Haha169, IceCreamAntisocial, Ironholds, Jossi, Kuru, LilHelpa, Looxix, Lumin, Miami33139, MinishCap, Mjmemm, Montanabw, Naiant,
NantonosAedui, Neddyseagoon, Neelix, Nefasdicere, Neoptolemos, Nicke Lilltroll, Nicknack009, Niteowlneils, Noble Korhedron, Ntsimp, Possum, Prairie Dad, QuartierLatin1968, Renato
Caniatti, Rich Farmbrough, Rjwilmsi, Robchurch, Rosemania, SMcCandlish, Sack36, Scotia Scotia, Sesshomaru, Somewhere Out There, Stalwart111, SusannaMF, T@nn, TUF-KAT, Tanuki Z,
The Utahraptor, The wub, TheTriumvir, Todd661, Tucci528, Vonharris, Wareh, Welsh, Wetman, WikiJedits, 95 anonymous edits
Fauna (goddess) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=291378226 Contributors: Aecis, Bjankuloski06en, Cuchullain, Ellywa, Fosnez, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Jaxl,
Perfecto, Shii
Faustitas Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=367643379 Contributors: Aecis, FinalRapture, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Phlyaristis, Ssd, T@nn, Tucci528
Febris Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=391227293 Contributors: Aecis, EEIM, Fabrictramp, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Kuralyov, Maestlin, Neddyseagoon,
Phlyaristis, Rsabbatini, Tucci528, Ykalayci, 6 anonymous edits
Fecunditas Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=391221186 Contributors: Aecis, Drbreznjev, Fram, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Markalex, Phlyaristis, Tucci528
Felicitas Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=379724528 Contributors: Aecis, CARAVAGGISTI, CalicoCatLover, Filipvr, GreatWhiteNortherner, Llywrch, MikaelLindmark,
Pablo-flores, Panairjdde, Silence, T@nn, Taco325i, The Singing Badger, Thomas Hopkins, Tucci528, Woohookitty, Zhou Yu, 8 anonymous edits
Ferentina Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=402404413 Contributors: Aecis, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, I H8 Niggs, Kubra, Mattisse, Subash.chandran007, T@nn,
Tony Esopi, Tucci528, Urg writer, 3 anonymous edits
Feronia (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=405679905 Contributors: CarlFink, Cynwolfe, FinnWiki, Firefly07, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, JHunterJ, Jamelan,
Laurent paris, Panairjdde, Renato Caniatti, Silence, T@nn, The Singing Badger, Tom Lougheed, Wetman, 3 anonymous edits
Fides (goddess) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=404300634 Contributors: Aecis, Aldrasto11, Andre Engels, Arendedwinter, Bacchiad, ChiMama, Cynwolfe, Deucalionite,
Gcm, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, JLCA, Jamelan, JoaoRicardo, KymeSnake, Mdebets, Meco, Merovingian, Midnightblueowl, Mirv, Panairjdde, Philthecow, Phlyaristis, Puceron, Silence,
T@nn, Tucci528, Urg writer, Woohookitty, 6 anonymous edits
Flora (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408318628 Contributors: Adkins, Aranel, Azucar, Bacchiad, Bjankuloski06en, CalicoCatLover, David Rush, DixonD,
DocSigma, Doug Coldwell, Eras-mus, Gaius Cornelius, Gilliam, Goldenrowley, Goldfritha, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gurch, Haukurth, Healthinspector, Hede2000, Java7837, Klemen Kocjancic,
Klubbit, Leonard G., MBlue2020, MMich, Macellarius, Manu bcn, Markwiki, Mattis, NHRHS2010, NellieBly, Norandav, Omicronpersei8, Polylerus, Prosfilaes, Ranveig, Renato Caniatti,
Rholton, Sgould, Silence, Tim1357, Tony Esopi, Urhixidur, Wetman, 42 anonymous edits
Fornax (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408286669 Contributors: Chyel, Cynwolfe, Phlyaristis, Rich Farmbrough, Sadads, T@nn, Teh roflmaoer
Fortuna Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407773903 Contributors: 5 albert square, Aecis, Amanmadh, AnOddName, Anita13, Antandrus, Aranel, Bacchiad, BenAveling,
Biggz48, Bkwillwm, CristianChirita, Cynwolfe, D. F. Schmidt, Daggerstab, DavidApi, Dbachmann, DennisTheTiger, Doug Coldwell, Dysepsion, Dysprosia, EALacey, Emijrp, Flauto Dolce,
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Paul August, Polylerus, Quercus basaseachicensis, Reikku, Renato Caniatti, Rjwilmsi, Rwflammang, Samuel Erau, Shanes, Shouriki, Silence, Skoglund, Smooth0707, StAnselm, Stbalbach,
T@nn, The Man in Question, Tobycat, Uncle G, Vilerage, Wetman, Whogue, Wutwutinthabutt, Wysinwygaa, Yamara, Ype, Zakhx150, Александър, 霧木諒二, 111 anonymous edits
Fraus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=382526270 Contributors: Aecis, Atropos, Drbreznjev, EikaKou, Fram, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Jeronimo, Minesweeper,
Richard Barlow, Tony Esopi, Tucci528, 4 anonymous edits
Fulgora (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=189593489 Contributors: Aecis, Deucalionite, Dyanega, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, James Barlow,
Markalex, Mind the gap, T@nn, TUF-KAT, Tucci528, 2 anonymous edits
Furrina Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407282991 Contributors: Aecis, Aldrasto, Aldrasto11, Bacchiad, Chase me ladies, I'm the Cavalry, Cmdrjameson, Deanlaw, GeeJo,
GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Hmains, Jlittlet, Kontos, Loud Mouth Soup, Minesweeper, Rich Farmbrough, Robgea, RomanXNS, Sicherlich, Storm Rider, Tucci528, Vrenator, 9 anonymous
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Gallia (goddess) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=401617519 Contributors: JHunterJ, Neddyseagoon, Tim1357, Woohookitty
Hecate Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409436719 Contributors: 00 Sorceress 00, 83d40m, AS, Adavies42, AdelaMae, Aeonx, Aitchdawg, Akhilleus, Alagos, Alai, Alatari,
Amalas, Annajannajones, Anthony Appleyard, Artemisboy, Arthena, Asarelah, Ashley Y, Atelaes, Atif.t2, Auréola, Autoerrant, Bacchiad, Bannedman123456789, BehemothCat, Belovedfreak,
Belzub, Bodrumlife, Bongwarrior, Borg2008, BorgQueen, BrettAllen, Bryan Derksen, CJ, CalicoCatLover, Caltas, Careless hx, Carnun, Catalographer, Cedartrees, CertainMiracle, Charles
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Tunnels of Set, Twsx, Typing monkey, UTK007, Ulric1313, Vanis314, Veledan, Wayland, Wetman, Wild ste, Wrad, XJamRastafire, Xanzzibar, Xover, Xuchilbara, Yamara, Zariane, Zeimusu,
432 anonymous edits
Hersilia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409222010 Contributors: Al-qamar, Anakin101, Bugboy52.40, Deucalionite, Ex1le, GeeJo, Goldenrowley, GreatWhiteNortherner,
MALLUS, Neddyseagoon, Sarefo, SimonMayer, T@nn, Tanuki Z, Tony Esopi, Tucci528, Vigilius, 3 anonymous edits
Hippona Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=183104213 Contributors: Andrevan, Apostrophe, Atgnclk, Axem Titanium, Bachrach44, Bacteria, Bardin, Cgilmer, Critto,
Cynwolfe, Dbachmann, Dcoetzee, Dewrad, Dimadick, Dionysos1, DoctorWorm, DopefishJustin, EADoherty, Eequor, Eluchil, Enviroboy, Erebus Morgaine, Everyking, Finefella, Forcrist,
Gadfium, Gaius Cornelius, GreatWhiteNortherner, Grutness, Gtrmp, Haha169, IceCreamAntisocial, Ironholds, Jossi, Kuru, LilHelpa, Looxix, Lumin, Miami33139, MinishCap, Mjmemm,
Montanabw, Naiant, NantonosAedui, Neddyseagoon, Neelix, Nefasdicere, Neoptolemos, Nicke Lilltroll, Nicknack009, Niteowlneils, Noble Korhedron, Ntsimp, Possum, Prairie Dad,
QuartierLatin1968, Renato Caniatti, Rich Farmbrough, Rjwilmsi, Robchurch, Rosemania, SMcCandlish, Sack36, Scotia Scotia, Sesshomaru, Somewhere Out There, Stalwart111, SusannaMF,
T@nn, TUF-KAT, Tanuki Z, The Utahraptor, The wub, TheTriumvir, Todd661, Tucci528, Vonharris, Wareh, Welsh, Wetman, WikiJedits, 95 anonymous edits
Hostilina Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=397755567 Contributors: Phlyaristis
Invidia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=395950481 Contributors: Aecis, Anna Lincoln, Copysan, Cynwolfe, DIEGO RICARDO PEREIRA, Deucalionite, GeeJo,
Gene.arboit, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Ifuckdogs, Kwiki, Mdebets, Michal Nebyla, Mikaey, Peterdx, Proserpine, RandyS0725, SimonP, Sirsai, T@nn, Theda, Tsange, Tucci528, Voce,
Wetman, 14 anonymous edits
Juno (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410130916 Contributors: Abhimat.gautam, Aecis, Akhilleus, Alansohn, Ale jrb, Alexf, Aliasbeth, Amovrvs, Andres,
AniMate, AnonMoos, Ardric47, Art LaPella, Asarelah, Attilios, Babyskates, Bacchiad, Barticus88, Bearcat, Bearingbreaker92, Bencherlite, Bingobangobongoboo, Bobo192, Brastein, CaesarGJ,
Californicus, CanadianLinuxUser, Cfrydj, Chanel spriggs, Che!, Cimon Avaro, Coffee, CowFoot88, Cromwellt, Cuchullain, Cyberpunk007, Daniel 1992, December21st2012Freak, DerHexer,
Deucalionite, Diannaa, Discospinster, Disdero, Dmmdmmd, Dogaroon, Doug Coldwell, Dreadstar, Drmies, Edward321, Epbr123, Fieldday-sunday, Fireswordfight, G.-M. Cupertino, Gabriel
Surette, Gaius Cornelius, Galapagosa, Georgeryp, Gidonb, Gutsul, Guycalledryan, Hairy Dude, Hbdragon88, Hgkamath, HollyAm, I4wong, Icestorm815, Iconoclast.horizon, J.delanoy, JaGa,
Jackfork, Jallan, Japanese Searobin, Jimreeves, Jmundo, Joelmills, Jonathan.s.kt, Junomatic, Justing, Jyril, Kwamikagami, La Pianista, LiDaobing, Lightmouse, LittleJerry, LordCurzon, Lorynote,
Mason1024, MattGiuca, Mattis, Megan1967, Melchizedekjesus, Midnightblueowl, Mknox928, Mon Vier, Monkey Bounce, Mr. Absurd, MrSmart, Mverleg, Mychele Trempetich,
Mygerardromance, Neddyseagoon, Neelix, Nekura, NellieBly, Nev1, Nezroy, Nsaa, Nurmsook, Ocrasaroon, Olivier, Ottawa4ever, PCHS-NJROTC, Padalkar.kshitij, Paine Ellsworth, Panairjdde,
Paul August, Pmanderson, Protomoney, Ptolemy Caesarion, Puma5d04, QuartierLatin1968, Quendus, RainbowOfLight, Razorflame, RedKlonoa, Renato Caniatti, Roderick Mallia, Ronhjones,
Rorybob, Rwflammang, SDC, SMcCandlish, Salamurai, Salvio giuliano, Scohoust, Shakko, Silence, Skysmith, Smyth, Spccarp, Steven Luo, Stevenmitchell, Str1977, Subversive.sound,
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Yeatesy, Yekrats, Yjwong, Zimriel, Zurkatini, 349 anonymous edits
Lady Justice Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409020803 Contributors: A8UDI, AGK, Ace Class Shadow, Alansohn, Alex contributing, Angel ivanov angelov, AnonMoos,
Anonymous Dissident, Anythingyouwant, Archibald Tuttle, Arzel, B9 hummingbird hovering, BD2412, Bantosh, Bobo192, Carptrash, CharlesHBennett, CommonsDelinker, Crystallina,
Cuchullain, CyberSkull, DeadEyeArrow, Denismattos, DeusMP, Dger, Drunkenduncan, Eddie.willers, Elendil's Heir, Ethics2med, Exathor, Glane23, Gorte, HamburgerRadio, HexaChord,
IdLoveOne, Iulius, JohnSawyer, Johnuniq, Jyoshimi, Kennifu, Lakhim, Mermaid from the Baltic Sea, Mimihitam, NawlinWiki, Nihiltres, Opponent, Otm.sk, Oxymoron83, Paine Ellsworth,
Pamri, Pepper, Rursus, Sandstein, Saverivers, Sdornan, Snek01, SnowFire, Stifle, Surfeit of palfreys, TR Wolf, Tbhotch, Thardman22, Themis-jp, Tikiwont, Tom harrison, Tomkinsr, Tony Esopi,
UrbanNerd, Vikramkr, Wetman, Wikidea, Wknight94, Woohookitty, X-factor, Yakudza, Yannismarou, 105 anonymous edits
Juturna Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=399915137 Contributors: Andre Engels, Aranel, Bacchiad, Bryan Derksen, CatherineMunro, Conscious, Cynwolfe, Deucalionite,
Gaius Cornelius, Giorgio Baroni, Gtrmp, Jamelan, Panairjdde, Perseus1852, Renato Caniatti, SMcCandlish, SReynhout, Shureg, Tony Esopi, Tucci528, 8 anonymous edits
Laetitia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410241498 Contributors: Andrew Dalby, Barbiedrag, Cnwb, DrJos, Evrik, Galoubet, Halmstad, HitroMilanese, Jeff3000, Koveras,
Laetitio, Marielouisezz, Marser, Mhockey, Partyinchicago, Pictureuploader, Polylerus, Risk one, Sgt Pinback, T@nn, The Singing Badger, Zenohockey, 17 anonymous edits
Larentina Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=332170643 Contributors: Acjelen, Aecis, Aranel, Giorgio Baroni, GreatWhiteNortherner, Quadell, T@nn, Tydaj, 1 anonymous
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Laverna Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=403297651 Contributors: Aecis, BirgitteSB, Bob Burkhardt, Ciphers, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Hellohisup, Jeepday, Martpol,
Pearle, RJFJR, Rar, Robgea, Switchercat, T@nn, TUF-KAT, Tanár, Thalia Took, Tucci528, Tydaj, Vizjim, 6 anonymous edits
Levana Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=390886393 Contributors: Aecis, Aranel, Cynwolfe, D6, GreatWhiteNortherner, Ihcoyc, Open2universe, Peterdx, Phlyaristis, SVAT
Electronics, T@nn, Tucci528, 2 anonymous edits
Libera (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=406398718 Contributors: Alterboy, Andreas Kaganov, Art LaPella, Haploidavey, RafaAzevedo, Robert K S, T@nn,
Tony Esopi, 9 anonymous edits
Liberalitas Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=382531518 Contributors: Aecis, Ancientgifts, Fram, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Kingturtle, Panairjdde, SU Linguist, T@nn,
Tucci528, Tydaj, 5 anonymous edits
Libertas Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=394211606 Contributors: Adminix, Adxp, Aecis, Aesopos, Amadscientist, AttoRenato, Baronnet, Barry Moreno, Berchemboy,
Bongwarrior, Breadandcheese, Clicketyclack, Collegebookworm, Cynwolfe, Deucalionite, Digwuren, Forp, Fuhghettaboutit, Gianfranco, GregorB, Gtrmp, Gugganij, Hede2000, Ida Shaw,
Interiot, JBellis, Jan Tik, Kroulee, Marcelle, R'n'B, RL0919, Rjwilmsi, Sandstein, Sasper, Scott Burley, Sgeureka, Snappy, Ssolbergj, T@nn, Thenino, Trounce, Tucci528, Vision Thing,
WBardwin, 27 anonymous edits
Libitina Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=243111410 Contributors: Aecis, Aranel, Charivari, Cprompt, Geogre, GreatWhiteNortherner, Kesal, Lechatjaune, P Ingerson,
RollingStone122, T@nn, Thue, Tucci528, Tydaj, Veesicle, 10 anonymous edits
Lima (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=392186728 Contributors: Aecis, Avocado, Bryan Derksen, Emperorbma, Fram, GreatWhiteNortherner, IainUK, JimVC3,
Phlyaristis, R'n'B, Redmind0, SimonMayer, Snoyes, TheKMan, Tucci528, Tydaj, 4 anonymous edits
Lua (goddess) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=394406739 Contributors: Aecis, Aseld, Ck lostsword, Gaius Cornelius, GeeJo, Manuel Anastácio, Phlyaristis, Ross Burgess,
T@nn, 2 anonymous edits
Lucina (goddess) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=381156637 Contributors: Aecis, Amakuha, Aranel, Cynwolfe, Derek Ross, Deucalionite, Dr. Blofeld, Gene Nygaard,
GreatWhiteNortherner, Neelix, Parmesan, Rlandmann, Roberth Edberg, Sarasa, T@nn, The Singing Badger, Tucci528, WolfgangRieger, 9 anonymous edits
Lympha Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=402684711 Contributors: Aldrasto11, Cynwolfe, Pol430, Prioryman
Magna Dea Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=392149683 Contributors: BD2412, Biscuittin, Dbachmann, Guy M, Jkl, Jokermage, Kathleen.wright5, Yamara, 1 anonymous
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Mana Genita Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=357683651 Contributors: Aecis, Cynwolfe, E. Underwood, GeeJo, RJHall, T@nn, TheParanoidOne, 2 anonymous edits
Mania (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=381878112 Contributors: Alex earlier account, Andrew Dalby, Bhadani, ButteredToast, CatherineMunro, Colonies
Chris, Deucalionite, Earphoria, FinnWiki, Fourthgeek, Gtrmp, Haploidavey, Jeff Silvers, Kameraad Pjotr, Michael93555, Pax:Vobiscum, Rmky87, Seb az86556, Shoemoney2night, Silence,
T@nn, TUF-KAT, Waacstats, 14 anonymous edits
Mater Matuta Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407611211 Contributors: Cynwolfe, Kauczuk, Neddyseagoon, Ravichandar84, Steven Zhang, Tom Lougheed, Tony Esopi,
Tucci528, 5 anonymous edits
Mefitis Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=370418052 Contributors: Addymum, Amsantos1234, Deucalionite, Emersoni, Fram, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Malcolm Farmer,
Nautius maximus, Niteowlneils, Olybrius, Queenmomcat, SimonMayer, T@nn, Tucci528, 9 anonymous edits
Mellona Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=390904470 Contributors: Aecis, Drbreznjev, Dysmorodrepanis, Fram, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Phlyaristis, Tucci528,
2 anonymous edits
Minerva Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409011919 Contributors: 130.94.122.xxx, A classicist, AaronW, Adam1213, Aeonx, Agaddis, Ahrarara, Akhilleus, Alexyo50,
Allynwalters, Alpha Quadrant, Amitembedded, Anakata, Anaxial, Andonic, Andre Engels, Andux, Andyjsmith, Andykoom, Angela, Animum, AnnaKucsma, Aranel, Atomaton, AuburnPilot,
Aude, BD2412, Bacchiad, Bartledan, BehemothCat, Bgag, Biederman, Bkwrmgrl1, Bobbythemazarin, Bobo192, Bradyf01, Brettpeace, Bryan Derksen, Butko, Caltas, Can't sleep, clown will eat
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Lisapollison, Lolsaywhaat, Looxix, Lotje, Luna Santin, MGSpiller, Man vyi, MarkSutton, Marlodge, Matanariel, Mattis, Michael Hardy, Midnightblueowl, MoogleDan, Moverton, Mushroom,
NHRHS2010, Namiba, Narthring, Nature's Mistake, Natyayl, Nautaparata, Neddyseagoon, Nehwyn, Netartnet, Niera, Ofthehudson, Olivier, OllieFury, Onlim, Oxymoron83, Papoise, Pgk, Philip
Trueman, Pilif12p, Pizzahut2, Pjm4474, PrestonH, QuartierLatin1968, RL0919, Randee15, Raven in Orbit, Rearden Metal, Red 81, Redtigerxyz, Redvers, Renato Caniatti, Retodon8, Rich
Farmbrough, SMasters, SSSN, Samfreed, SaveThePoint, Sbharris, Schulz47, ScottDavis, Seally13, SiN, Silence, Slowking Man, Smalljim, Smyth, Socal gal at heart, Stephenb, Stonecherub,
SunCreator, T@nn, THEN WHO WAS PHONE?, Teogarno, The Singing Badger, TheTrojanHought, Thetravellinggourmet, Thingg, Thrutheseasons, Tilla, Timo Laine, Tom Lougheed,
Tom87020, Tripodics, Ttownfeen, Tucci528, Udugunit, Vague Rant, Van der Hoorn, Vengeful Cynic, VernoWhitney, Versus22, VeryVerily, Waveformula, Wereon, Wetman, Wexcan, Wiki-BT,
Woohookitty, Xalexjx, Yakyback, Yamara, Zekigal, Zureks, Саша Стефановић, 529 anonymous edits
Molae Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=390896254 Contributors: Phlyaristis
Moneta Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407694710 Contributors: A. di M., Aecis, Angrendal, Auzzieprincess, Bobo192, Bomac, CardinalDan, Fang Aili, Gaius Cornelius,
Galapagosa, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gutsul, Jkl, Klandon, Octavabasso, Owen, Palenque1, Protomoney, RedWolf, SDC, Sannse, Sarefo, SimonMayer, T@nn, The Man in Question,
Tonyrex, Tucci528, Wereon, 27 anonymous edits
Morta (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410045935 Contributors: Ayls, DIEGO RICARDO PEREIRA, Dorianisme, Goldenrowley, JHunterJ, Jatrobat, Laurent
paris, Renata3, Sirloganthestud, T@nn, Tokyotown8, Vampiremovies&deerskins, Yamara, 7 anonymous edits
Murcia (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=393201500 Contributors: Cnilep, Maañón, Merovingian, Phlyaristis, S. M. Sullivan, Urg writer
Nascio Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=392187660 Contributors: Aecis, Barkeep, Emperorbma, Frankie816, Frvernchanezzz, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Jan1nad,
Lachatdelarue, Minesweeper, Phlyaristis, SimonMayer, Timc, Tucci528, 2 anonymous edits
Nerio Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=396640601 Contributors: Aecis, Asarelah, Blah3, Bloodofox, Cynwolfe, Deucalionite, Emperorbma, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner,
Minesweeper, Silence, SimonMayer, T@nn, Tony Esopi, Tucci528, Zoe, 4 anonymous edits
The Night of Enitharmon's Joy Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=403601657 Contributors: Auréola, Ericoides, Gene Fellner, GrahamHardy, LilHelpa, Nick Number,
Victuallers, Woohookitty, 2 anonymous edits
Di nixi Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=404365745 Contributors: Ana Pérez Vega, Cynwolfe, Emersoni, Fram, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Mereda, Penbat, SimonMayer,
SimonP, T@nn, Timc, Tucci528, 2 anonymous edits
Nona (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=403601009 Contributors: Aecis, Andrea Parri, Atlantas, DIEGO RICARDO PEREIRA, Gaius Cornelius, Kymacpherson,
Mairi, Nick Number, Renata3, Solarusdude, T@nn, Whitepaw, Yamara, 2 anonymous edits
Ops Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=396632809 Contributors: 83d40m, AMCKen, Aranel, Bacchiad, Can't sleep, clown will eat me, Carolina wren, Ccson, ChristopheS,
Cynwolfe, Dan Austin, David Latapie, Dcoetzee, Doug Coldwell, Dysprosia, Erik the Red 2, Francisco Valverde, GreatWhiteNortherner, Interlinking, J04n, Jeandré du Toit, Knotwork, Lights,
Metodicar, Mgiganteus1, Neilc, Proserpine, Pyrate1700, Restre419, Silence, T@nn, Tedeh, Tim Thomason (usurped), Tom Peters, Tony Esopi, Tucci528, ZooFari, 31 anonymous edits
Orbona Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=239132374 Contributors: Aecis, Drbreznjev, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Keithh, Marvoir, Royalguard11, T@nn,
Tucci528, 1 anonymous edits
Palatua Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=374182988 Contributors: Aecis, Bishzilla, GeeJo, JoeSmack, Metodicar, Robgea, 2 anonymous edits
Parcae Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=403602143 Contributors: Abtract, Aldrasto11, Auréola, Ayls, Berig, Cynwolfe, DIEGO RICARDO PEREIRA, Dbachmann, Dodo,
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Partula (goddess) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=352727237 Contributors: Aecis, Alex earlier account, Aranel, Cynwolfe, Esowteric, GreatWhiteNortherner, Heron,
Keithh, Martynwg, Mellery, Partula, Pmaas, T@nn, Tucci528, 2 anonymous edits
Patelana Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=390883761 Contributors: Aecis, Alex earlier account, Drbreznjev, Fram, GeeJo, Gtrmp, Onco p53, Phlyaristis, Tucci528, Vultur, 2
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Paventia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=352727025 Contributors: Aecis, Cynwolfe, Emperorbma, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Hemanshu, Keithh, Rmhermen,
SimonMayer, T@nn, Tucci528
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Pellonia (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=390954015 Contributors: Jimmy Pitt, Phlyaristis
Pietas (goddess) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=404411741 Contributors: Bloodofox, Cynwolfe, GoingBatty, Hmains, Neddyseagoon, RP459, Rougher07, Shanes, T@nn, 2
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Poena Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=388129508 Contributors: Angela, Aranel, Avicennasis, Chris Roy, Cobaltcigs, Deucalionite, Emersoni, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner,
KnightRider, Leadwind, Metodicar, Nicke L, Physicistjedi, T@nn, TUF-KAT, 8 anonymous edits
Pomona Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407694747 Contributors: Adam Keller, Aesopos, Afa86, Andreas Kaganov, Aranel, BRG, Bacchiad, Bjankuloski06en, Bllabadie,
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Postverta Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=391247161 Contributors: Andrew Dalby, Fram, Gtrmp, Judgesurreal777, Merinda, MisterHand, Phlyaristis, T@nn, TUF-KAT,
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Potina Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=392262467 Contributors: Aecis, Cynwolfe, FinalRapture, GeeJo, Gtrmp, Keithh, Korath, M.e, Peterdx, Phlyaristis, T@nn, TUF-KAT,
The Anome, 1 anonymous edits
Prorsa Postverta Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=392825936 Contributors: Andrew Dalby, Fram, Gtrmp, Judgesurreal777, Merinda, MisterHand, Phlyaristis, T@nn,
TUF-KAT, Tony Esopi, Yamara, 2 anonymous edits
Proserpina Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407689378 Contributors: 5 albert square, Andre Engels, Andy M. Wang, Aranel, Bayerischermann, Bbrodhead, Besha,
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Providentia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409375527 Contributors: Aecis, Black Falcon, Bloodofox, GeeJo, Gtrmp, John of Reading, Miguel.mateo, Rich Farmbrough,
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Pudicitia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=388680214 Contributors: Aecis, Bogdangiusca, Cardamon, Diwas, Dysmorodrepanis, Elcolley, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner,
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Puta Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407694757 Contributors: Acidburn9999, Acjelen, Aecis, Alansohn, Alex earlier account, Alopezme, Altenmann, Andonic, Aranel,
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Quiritis Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=391370322 Contributors: Aranel, Drugonot, GreatWhiteNortherner, Jeepday, Jkl, Steven Kippel, T@nn, TUF-KAT, Vardion, 1
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Robigo Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=358843700 Contributors: Aecis, Aldrasto, Aranel, Cynwolfe, Francesca Santoro, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Haukurth, Jagdfeld,
Maximus Rex, Ohconfucius, Rursus, RussBlau, Shirulashem, T@nn, Tregoweth, 5 anonymous edits
Roma (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=394380784 Contributors: Adam Bishop, Alex earlier account, Andre Engels, BerndGehrmann, Bjankuloski06en, Bletch,
Bobnorwal, CanadianCaesar, Catalographer, CommonsDelinker, Cynwolfe, Darth Panda, Dollarback, Epbr123, Erolos, Erud, Grafen, GreatWhiteNortherner, Hadal, Haploidavey, Jallan, Jamelan,
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Rumina Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407694768 Contributors: Aecis, Alansohn, Cynwolfe, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Jacj, Lenthe, Lowellian, Renato Caniatti,
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Runcina Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=266365404 Contributors: Aecis, Aranel, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Grutness, Jakenelson, Longhair, RP459, TUF-KAT, 1
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Rusina Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=266365541 Contributors: Aecis, Alex earlier account, Drbreznjev, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, M.e, RP459, Silence,
T@nn, TUF-KAT, 5 anonymous edits
Salacia (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=393435414 Contributors: Bidgee, Bwilkins, Can You Prove That You're Human, Mark Foskey, Mychele Trempetich,
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Securitas Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=390600160 Contributors: Aecis, Ark25, Bogdangiusca, Corrections101, Docu, Drbreznjev, Emperorbma, Error, Fram, GaidinBDJ,
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Semonia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=390879421 Contributors: Aecis, GeeJo, Kuru, Phlyaristis, RP459, SimonMayer, Susvolans, T@nn, TUF-KAT, 2 anonymous edits
Sentia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=352726414 Contributors: Aecis, Cynwolfe, France3470, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Keithh, M.e, Myscrnnm, T@nn,
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Spes Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407694773 Contributors: Aecis, Aeons, Bacchiad, FoekeNoppert, GeeJo, Gianfranco, GreatWhiteNortherner, InfiniteHunter, Korg,
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Stata Mater Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=347293345 Contributors: Aecis, Aranel, Fram, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, T@nn, TUF-KAT, The Man in Question,
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Strenua Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=403724829 Contributors: Aecis, Andre Engels, Fram, Gdaly7, Gtrmp, Snigbrook, TUF-KAT, Walty1971, 2 anonymous edits
Suadela Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=327301300 Contributors: Aecis, Aranel, Eequor, Erikp, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Jkelly, Michbich, P Ingerson,
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Tempestas Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=390140306 Contributors: Aecis, Drbreznjev, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Phlyaristis, TUF-KAT, TexasAndroid
Terra (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408162674 Contributors: Aeonx, Aeusoes1, All Is One, Amakuru, Antandrus, Barbara Shack, Ben Pirard, Bryan
Derksen, BryanD, Cuchullain, DNewhall, DarkLordSeth, DavidMcCabe, Digamma, Dizagaox, Dmh, DocWatson42, DrGaellon, Erik the Red 2, Felix Folio Secundus, Friendlystar, Furrykef,
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The Mother of the Lares Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=364831567 Contributors: Cynwolfe, HJ Mitchell, Haploidavey, Malcolma, Rich Farmbrough, Wetman
Tranquillitas Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=333590387 Contributors: 48states, Alvestrand, Ancientgifts, BD2412, DJ Clayworth, Deucalionite, Gilgamesh007, T@nn
Tutelina (goddess) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=405113662 Contributors: A. Parrot, Phlyaristis
Vacuna Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=387502474 Contributors: 83d40m, Aecis, Asarelah, Charles Matthews, Corpx, Cynwolfe, DabMachine, Firefly07, GeeJo,
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Vallonia (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=391241823 Contributors: Phlyaristis
Venus (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410041587 Contributors: 0, 2206, 8.132, 84user, ACSE, AVand, Abie the Fish Peddler, Action Jackson IV,
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Vesta (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410035284 Contributors: -- April, Accunova, Ahoerstemeier, Aldrasto, Aldrasto11, Alyssalover, Amakuru, Amalthea,
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Vica Pota Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=398657326 Contributors: Aecis, Cynwolfe, Finn-Zoltan, Flockmeal, Fram, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Ionutzmovie, T@nn,
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Victoria (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=396055351 Contributors: 83d40m, Aecis, Angel ivanov angelov, Ashley Y, Bcadam, Brando130, CalicoCatLover,
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Volumna Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=331282712 Contributors: Aecis, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Keithh, Logical Fuzz, Markalex, T@nn, TUF-KAT, 2
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Nymph Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409482401 Contributors: 200.60.91.xxx, AbeyMarquez, Abyca, Achurch, Adam Keller, AdjustShift, Ainlina, Alansohn,
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Петър Петров, 334 anonymous edits
Dryad Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407693796 Contributors: Andre Engels, Avant Guard, Awggie, Bacchiad, Bahahs, Bibi Saint-Pol, Borgx, Bryan Derksen,
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Mikelima, Mintrick, Mirv, Mr b eyer, Mr. Absurd, Msh210, Mygerardromance, Omnipaedista, OtakuMan, Paul August, Perl, Phlyaristis, Pigkeeper, Pizza Puzzle, Rambutaan, Raven in Orbit,
Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ), Schuetzm, Scottandrewhutchins, Seegoon, Semidriver214, Slawojarek, Stemonitis, Steven Zhang, T@nn, Tesscass, TheTrojanHought, Theyellowgod, Treanna,
Treemaster4, Tucci528, UtherSRG, Versus22, Wack'd, Wetman, WookieInHeat, Zundark, 129 anonymous edits
Limnade Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=396985206 Contributors: ArcAngel, Bacchiad, Bryan Derksen, CommonsDelinker, Delirium, Deucalionite, Gtrmp, Iwfi,
Jakegothic, Java7837, Larlin, Lesath, Lethesl, Omnipaedista, Phlyaristis, T@nn, Tucci528, Tydaj, Unyoyega, Vantey, Waacstats, YUL89YYZ, 5 anonymous edits
Crinaeae Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=396396400 Contributors: AgentPeppermint, Bacchiad, Bewtros, Bryan Derksen, Captain panda, FoekeNoppert, Gau1990, GeeJo,
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Acantha Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=381533745 Contributors: Acantha1979, Ale jrb, Axel1989, Bryan Derksen, Captain panda, Crystallina, Dbachmann, Demon Prince
Hosoku, Demonstray, Deucalionite, Edward321, EyeSerene, Gogo Dodo, Gtrmp, Hoary, Ida Shaw, Jocke, Lisapollison, MDwww, MaEr, Marshman, Michel BUZE, Molotron, Naufana, Necrom,
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Acis and Galatea (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=395583814 Contributors: 666Mystery666, Alanmaher, Asmith44, Budelberger, CalicoCatLover, Deacon of
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Adamanthea Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=406052374 Contributors: Andre Engels, Angela, Benc, Choster, Delta 51, Deucalionite, Elizabennet, Frankie816, Grutness,
Mlk, Mr.Clown, Omnipedian, Pigman, Rwv37, Timo Honkasalo, Tucci528, UtherSRG, Vilcxjo, Waacstats, 4 anonymous edits
Adrasteia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=378389802 Contributors: 2ct7, Andre Engels, Aranel, BD2412, Bacchiad, Bornyesterday, Bryan Derksen, Buster7, Cain Mosni,
Captain panda, Catalographer, Deucalionite, Didactohedron, Felizdenovo, FocalPoint, Fordmadoxfraud, GeeJo, Gtrmp, Hut 8.5, Iwfi, Kimon, Reikku, Rubble pile, SiobhanHansa, T@nn,
Tucci528, UtherSRG, Vary, Wetman, WolfgangRieger, €pa, 20 anonymous edits
Aegina (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=399503322 Contributors: Alagos, Bacchiad, Bluemask, Bryan Derksen, Catalographer, Che!, Chronicler, Daddylight,
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T@nn, The Singing Badger, Wetman, Yanguas, 16 anonymous edits
Aetna (nymph) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=385865504 Contributors: Chronicler, Deucalionite, Fordmadoxfraud, Llakais, Omnipedian, Rjwilmsi
Aglaea Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409831677 Contributors: Abyssus, AgentPeppermint, Amit6, Andrew Dalby, Angela, Avacalop, Captain panda, Catalographer,
Charivari, Colonies Chris, Deucalionite, Dreadpiratetif, Echoray, Erud, Felizdenovo, FoekeNoppert, GeeJo, Grutness, Hqb, Isfisk, Ivanvlasov, KnightRider, Maikel, Mathiasrex, Matrix61312,
Mattis, Metodicar, Nicke L, OldakQuill, Omnipaedista, Omnipedian, Oskar71, PanagosTheOther, Paul August, Pigman, Polylerus, Rholton, Rjwilmsi, SimonP, T@nn, Tucci528, Waacstats, 18
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Aitne Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=323451586 Contributors: BD2412, Boleyn2, Chronicler, Idont Havaname, Iwoelbern, Jmlk17, Kappa, Pigman, Rholton, T@nn, 3
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Alcinoe Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=342087599 Contributors: Deucalionite, JamesAM, Pigman, Saint Midge, T@nn, Waacstats, 3 anonymous edits
Alphesiboea Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407503024 Contributors: Ary29, Chronicler, Fordmadoxfraud, GeeJo, Gtrmp, Ketiltrout, Metodicar, NawlinWiki, Phlyaristis,
Pigman, Rjwilmsi, Susvolans, T@nn, Tucci528, 2 anonymous edits
Alseid Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=392096761 Contributors: Allen3, Ary29, Captain panda, Chris the speller, Czarnoglowa, Deucalionite, DragonflySixtyseven,
Firefly07, GeeJo, Omnipaedista, Pigman, Queentuala, Rochelimit, Spamhunt, T@nn, Unyoyega, Waacstats, 8 anonymous edits
Amalthea (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410350675 Contributors: 83d40m, BD2412, Bahar101, Benc, BlackUniGryphon, Bryan Derksen, Catalographer,
DIEGO RICARDO PEREIRA, Deucalionite, Discospinster, Felizdenovo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gypsyfingers, Hbent, Jheiv, Jose Ramos, Karl-Henner, Kwamikagami, Maqs, MichaelHaeckel,
Moth1701, Nagelfar, Neddyseagoon, Omnipedian, Renata, Renato Caniatti, Rjwilmsi, Scriberius, Shikai shaw, Tonyrex, Tsemii, Tucci528, Wetman, WikHead, Тиверополник, 25 anonymous
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Anthousai Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410211930 Contributors: Alvestrand, Balloonguy, Jakegothic, Phlyaristis, Switchercat, 4 anonymous edits
Arethusa (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=385108414 Contributors: Care, Catalographer, Fordmadoxfraud, Guycox65, JamesAM, Jjamison, JoJan, Kutu su,
Leondumontfollower, Metodicar, Neelix, Omnipedian, Ravenous, Rjwilmsi, TreasuryTag, 3 anonymous edits
Argyra (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=397716712 Contributors: Catalographer, ChiMama, Diannaa, Pumpie, 1 anonymous edits
Asterodia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=403930453 Contributors: Phlyaristis
Astris Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=391514940 Contributors: Atlantas, Phlyaristis
Auloniad Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=400177456 Contributors: Captain panda, Chronos Phaenon, GeeJo, Last rank, Molson4285, Omnipaedista, Phlyaristis, Polylerus,
Waacstats, Wereon, Zoicon5, 9 anonymous edits
Aurai Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=371638549 Contributors: Garion96, T@nn, Theranos, Waacstats, Yannismarou, ZhiRandom, 3 anonymous edits
Axioche Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=397504177 Contributors: Bryan Derksen, Captain panda, Dimadick, Fram, GeeJo, Gtrmp, Onco p53, Stelio, T@nn, Tucci528,
Waacstats, 2 anonymous edits
Bistonis Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=311982491 Contributors: Addshore, Alex contributing, Bwpach, Catalographer, Cédric Boissière, Dimadick, DrSculerati
Bolina Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=312391344 Contributors: Catalographer, HeartofaDog, Pumpie
Britomartis Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409442644 Contributors: AndarielHalo, AndreasPraefcke, AnonMoos, Aphaia, Art LaPella, Bryan Derksen, Catalographer,
Cewvero, Chatsam, Curps, Cynwolfe, Darkfrog24, Dysmorodrepanis, Elendil's Heir, Erud, Hmains, Ihcoyc, Jamelan, Jeff3000, John of Reading, Jwy, Keith Edkins, Kimon, Meredyth, Mmcannis,
Oashi, Omnipaedista, Ouedbirdwatcher, Panellet, Pax:Vobiscum, R powers, Rwalker, SteveCrook, T@nn, Trekphiler, Tucci528, Wetman, Wlodzimierz, Woohookitty, 17 anonymous edits
Calybe Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=332034420 Contributors: Captain panda, GeeJo, Merovingian, Waacstats, Xezbeth, 1 anonymous edits
Calypso (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410434203 Contributors: (jarbarf), A8UDI, Abyca, Aidanmorse, Airplaneman, Alexius08, AllanBz, Alsandro,
Ambar3456, Andonic, AndperseAndy, Andrejj, Andrewrp, Anonymous Dissident, Apoltix, Atif.t2, Beao, Beemer69, BehemothCat, Bjschuma, Blanchardb, BlueMoonlet, Bobxii, Brokenfoote,
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Daf, Danielrodman, Dantadd, Darguz Parsilvan, Davidr1986, DeadGuy, Dedalus22, Dendodge, Deucalionite, Diddims, Discospinster, Dismas, Dmitri Yuriev, Dougweller, EamonnPKeane,
Elephantissimo, Elonka, Ethereal Vega, Excirial, Falcorian, Fetofs, Feydey, FigmentJedi, Flcelloguy, GWlover12, Gampe, Gene93k, Gilgamesh, Goldfritha, Grafen, GreaterWikiholic, Grimnir,
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Mastrodomenico, Logan jackson, Loudcolors, MPerel, Mackayacp, Madhero88, Magioladitis, Mahlum, Manu bcn, MarcoTolo, Mdebets, MichL87, Moeron, Mr.crabby, MuZemike,
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Pmlineditor, Praefectorian, RHYUAKN, Rayfire, Reaper7, Rich Farmbrough, Riversoverflow, Rjwilmsi, Ronhjones, RoyBoy, Rposthau, SLEPhoto, Sam Korn, Samitshah1, Schmendrick,
Secretforces, Sgfish, Shipmaster, Shmeeh, SkyWalker, Slingstone, Smokizzy, Sparsefarce, Squids and Chips, StealthCopyEditor, Stephan Schulz, Supermorff, T@nn, TALlama, The Man in
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Vrenator, WRK, Wetman, WhisperToMe, Whoisjohngalt, WikHead, Wikipe-tan, Wlodzimierz, Wlsgudchoi, Woggly, Xcat777x, Тиверополник, 401 anonymous edits
Canens (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=281219309 Contributors: Aramgar, Captain panda, Chronicler, DAJF, GreatWhiteNortherner, Letoatreides98,
Neutrality, Olivier, Skapur, T@nn, Tucci528, Yarnalgo, 1 anonymous edits
Ceto (disambiguation) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=371477536 Contributors: Deucalionite, Ian Spackman, Joel.Gilmore, Kheider, Proserpine, Shadowjams, Skinsmoke,
T@nn, Urhixidur, 3 anonymous edits
Chariclo Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=388945843 Contributors: AS, AndromedaRoach, Captain panda, Care, Chronicler, Deucalionite, FocalPoint, Goldenrowley, Gtrmp,
IdLoveOne, Mallaccaos, Murtasa, Phlyaristis, T@nn, TOO, The Singing Badger, Tucci528, Waacstats, 5 anonymous edits
Chesma (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=400422789 Contributors: Captain panda, ErrantX, Goldenrowley, Goustien, Pigman, T@nn, Zotel
Circe Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408776500 Contributors: 777nnr, AJCham, Abyca, AdjustShift, Ahoerstemeier, Aidanmorse, Alansohn, Andrea1952, Angie Y.,
Annalise, Anonymous Dissident, Antiphus, Antrophica, Arfaj2, Argylemoose, Artemisboy, Arthena, Avihu, B9 hummingbird hovering, Badagnani, Battloid, BehemothCat, Bigblooga, Biglovinb,
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Sreejithk2000, StaticGull, Stephen Gilbert, Strabismus, Sucro, Suitmonster, T@nn, TSRWedge, Tagishsimon, Tavilis, Tchoutoye, The MoUsY spell-checker, The Thing That Should Not Be,
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Webwarlock, Wereon, Wetman, WhisperToMe, WikHead, Woohookitty, WriterHound, Yumbow, Zoicon5, 413 anonymous edits
Clytie Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=397955659 Contributors: Alensha, Andrew Dalby, Cam, Clarahamster, Cromwellt, Deucalionite, Dpv, Dysmorodrepanis, Flowerparty,
FoekeNoppert, Galanskov, Geogre, Iwfi, Java7837, Jyril, Ke(anglais), Kimon, Liamdaly620, Metodicar, NapalmSunday, Neddyseagoon, Plegadis, Polylerus, Postdlf, Psemmusa, Qmwne235,
Qwertzy2, Rookkey, Saxifrage, T@nn, Wetman, Yorkshirian, 24 anonymous edits
Corycian nymphs Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=387798430 Contributors: Captain panda, Ccson, Chronicler, Fish and karate, Flauto Dolce, Gau1990, Goldenrowley,
Grantsky, Java7837, Metodicar, Quuxplusone, Radagast83, T@nn, Waacstats, 1 anonymous edits
Cynosura Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=405949809 Contributors: (, Bhadani, Bryan Derksen, Catalographer, Christian List, Deucalionite, Kaldari, Kordas, Omnipaedista,
Phlyaristis, Tucci528, Waacstats, 4 anonymous edits
Daphnaie Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=307694461 Contributors: Bobo192, Catalographer, T@nn, Waacstats, Yannismarou, 3 anonymous edits
Daphne Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409456524 Contributors: Abyca, Adam Bishop, Adambiswanger1, AdjustShift, AnakngAraw, Andre Engels, Andres, Andycjp,
Anonymous101, Antandrus, Aris Katsaris, Athannasius pernath, Benjamin Barenblat, Bppubjr, Caltas, Ceranthor, Cherlin, Cyanidesandwich, Dicke macleod, Djtagger, DoronAssayas,
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Searobin, Java7837, Jcvamp, Jeff G., Jim Michael, Jmundo, Jrcla2, Keilana, Kkelly, Kyoko, Lee M, Leibniz, Lomo123, MARKELLOS, MPF, Marc Shepherd, MaxSem, McSly, Mcmaz, Michael
Bednarek, Michal Nebyla, MindstormsKid, Mirlen, Nakon, NellieBly, Nicke Lilltroll, Niteowlneils, Nooone, NuclearWarfare, O0pyromancer0o, Optim, PatGallacher, Pauldavidgill, Pedrose,
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Triwbe, Trunone, Tucci528, Wereon, Wetman, Wintonian, Woohookitty, Zandperl, ZhiRandom, 159 anonymous edits
Echo (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408601464 Contributors: -Ril-, Abbeyvet, Abyca, Andonic, Andrew Dalby, Arabani, Archangel1066, Attilios, Badagnani,
Baldhur, Beardo, Benc, Betacommand, Bibliomaniac15, Bryan Derksen, CWii, CalicoCatLover, Calvin 1998, Capricorn42, CoeurDeLion, Cow foot, Crazy Boris with a red beard, Dane
Sorensen, Darsie, DerHexer, Deucalionite, Dorftrottel, EamonnPKeane, Egil, Ellywa, Erikp, Eye.of.the.dragonfly, F6119474, GoingBatty, Hebele, Hephaestos, Heron, Husum, Iain, Iluvcapra,
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Kragen, Marasmusine, Mattman00000, Metafrog, Mittens.the.kitten, Monaarora84, MonkeyHateClean, Neelix, Netsnipe, Notheruser, Oashi, Od Mishehu, One66667, Ozzieboy, Pablo X, Paul
Haymon, PaulSlinski, Pharaoh of the Wizards, Piast93, PicklePower, Pne, R sirahata, Raven in Orbit, Re probst, Remember, Renato Caniatti, RexNL, Rian46, Rjwilmsi, SLATE, Sam Francis,
Sbashi, Shubinator, Soczyczi, Sodaplayer, Sotakeit, Sterling32157, SydGal24, Sylvesterr20, T@nn, THEN WHO WAS PHONE?, Tamabat45, The 888th Avatar, Thr4wn, Tide rolls, Tryforceful,
Tucci528, Versus22, Vmlaker, WannabeAmatureHistorian, Wereon, Why Not A Duck, Winterwater, ZhiRandom, Zoicon5, 181 anonymous edits
Electra (Pleiad) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=400505237 Contributors: (aeropagitica), Andrew Dalby, Axaj, Ayla81, CIreland, ChicXulub, Curps, DanielCD,
Deucalionite, Douglasfrankfort, Enkyklios, Gau1990, GeeJo, H2g2bob, Hyperboreios, I love maya, Ida Shaw, Ivanvlasov, Iwfi, Jlhamilt, Kedemel, Kwamikagami, Ohms law, Paul August,
Remuel, Renato Caniatti, Robertg9, T@nn, Tony Fox, Waacstats, 9 anonymous edits
Epimeliad Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=395919868 Contributors: Captain panda, Ccson, Deucalionite, Gau1990, Hairy Dude, Javert, Metodicar, T@nn, Waacstats, 6
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Eurydice Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=401642453 Contributors: 5 albert square, AHumanus, Abyca, Afasmit, Aideenx88x, Aldux, Ambercatgoddess, Antandrus, Aua,
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Euryte Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=404096180 Contributors: Phlyaristis
Glauce Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=403906963 Contributors: Andrew Dalby, Bibi Saint-Pol, Bobrednek, Captain panda, Cynwolfe, Dirgela, Extraordinary, Fram, GeeJo,
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Hamadryad Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409783991 Contributors: Alansohn, Andre Engels, Bacchiad, Bianchi-Bihan, Bibi Saint-Pol, Borgx, BrettAllen, Bryan Derksen,
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Harpina Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=376939879 Contributors: ***Ria777, Care, CommonsDelinker, Deucalionite, Dual Freq, Giorgio Baroni, Metodicar, Panellet,
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Hegetoria Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407539661 Contributors: Bryan Derksen, Captain panda, Deucalionite, Fagstein, Fram, Gtrmp, Jusjih, Nicke L, Phlyaristis,
Tucci528, Waacstats, 1 anonymous edits
Helike (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=357512593 Contributors: Athang1504, Captain panda, GeeJo, Ilya, MiltonT, Paul August, Rursus, The Singing Badger,
Urhixidur, Waacstats, Wareh, 3 anonymous edits
Hesperia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=399944134 Contributors: AjAldous, Andrew Dalby, Ary29, Bryan Derksen, Cplakidas, DesertSteve, Error, Iwfi, Jallan, Jonathan
Webley, Ken Gallager, Mdebets, Nakassis, Paul Arnott, Pigman, Poor Yorick, Richard Barlow, T@nn, Tails07, Template namespace initialisation script, The Singing Badger, Tucci528, 12
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Hesperides Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409214163 Contributors: -Ril-, Abu America, Alai, Alex Klotz, AlexChurchill, Andre Engels, Andrew Dalby, Angel David,
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Himalia (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409593655 Contributors: Bluetooth954, Eyeball kid, Iwfi, Magioladitis, Pamputt, Phlyaristis, SolLuna, Soumyasch, 3
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Hyades (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=404681368 Contributors: Ahoerstemeier, Art LaPella, Ccson, Deucalionite, Gheuf, Ilya, Iwfi, Kwamikagami, Loupeter,
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Ianthe Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=406752577 Contributors: Amccune, Anarkeya, Andrew Dalby, Art LaPella, Atlantas, Bookofjude, Brenont, Caerwine, Captain panda,
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Idaea Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407247297 Contributors: Alex '05, Bibi Saint-Pol, Bryan Derksen, Böri, Captain panda, Dyanega, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner,
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Iphimedeia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=404763633 Contributors: Aaronlit, AdelaMae, Arcadian, Captain panda, Care, Chronicler, Deh, Drmies, Metodicar,
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Kallichore (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=349492665 Contributors: ElToro1966, Neddyseagoon, Pigman, Stormbay, Waacstats, 2 anonymous edits
Kleodora Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=323084924 Contributors: Butwhatdoiknow, Captain panda, Ccson, Deucalionite, Flauto Dolce, Java7837, M3taphysical,
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Korkyra Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=402566924 Contributors: Alex Rio Brazil, Catalographer, Chronicler, Darx9url, Dr.K., FocalPoint, T@nn, Tasoskessaris, Twpsyn
Pentref, Waacstats
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Larissa (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=397839922 Contributors: (, A Macedonian, CalicoCatLover, Cplakidas, Firsfron, Flauto Dolce, Galoubet, Iwfi,
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Leimakid Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=334505797 Contributors: Captain panda, Sotakeit, T@nn, Waacstats, 3 anonymous edits
Leuce (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=394833980 Contributors: Bogdangiusca, Catalographer, Flauto Dolce, Francisco Valverde, Khoikhoi, Metodicar,
Mrwojo, NickelShoe, Okc, Ryan Roos, Shikai shaw, SimonMayer, TheParanoidOne, Tucci528, Tydaj, 9 anonymous edits
Liriope (nymph) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408286972 Contributors: Angr, Bibi Saint-Pol, Blankfaze, Captain panda, CommonsDelinker, Fram, Gtrmp, Hadal, Jallan,
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Lotis (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=390857258 Contributors: Attilios, Bacchiad, Bryan Derksen, Chronicler, Fidipat, Gcm, JellyFish72, Jjhake, LouScheffer,
Magioladitis, Malcolm Farmer, Omnipaedista, Stan Shebs, T@nn, Tucci528, Waacstats, Williamb, Xanzzibar, 4 anonymous edits
Maenad Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409317624 Contributors: 9eyedeel, A Macedonian, A Nobody, A plague of rainbows, A. Balet, ABF, Abyca, Alex earlier account,
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Maliades Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=270926250 Contributors: T@nn
Marica (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=347292923 Contributors: Ajdebre, Bjankuloski06en, Bootstoots, Burndownthedisco, Cryout, Fantastique, Fosnez,
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Melaina Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=341815052 Contributors: Clemwang, Deucalionite, Faradayplank, Flauto Dolce, Java7837, Landon1980, Loveyoulots3353,
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Melanippe Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408200371 Contributors: Andrew Dalby, Asarelah, Bkell, Bryan Derksen, Clavecin, Erud, Gtrmp, HyDeckar, Metodicar, Paul
August, Phlyaristis, RexNL, Rursus, Sortan, T@nn, Tucci528, Ugur Basak, Yone, 6 anonymous edits
Meliae Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=395918276 Contributors: Bacchiad, Bryan Derksen, Captain panda, Care, Ccson, Chronicler, Darknight0x, Deucalionite, GeeJo,
Gtrmp, Hairy Dude, Jag123, Java7837, Mallaccaos, Millerwiki, Odysses, Omnipaedista, Omnipedian, Panellet, T@nn, TDogg310, Tucci528, Wetman, Zoe, 7 anonymous edits
Melissa Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410107711 Contributors: 1exec1, 5 albert square, A Macedonian, A Softer Answer, Abb615, Academic Challenger, Addshore,
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Metis (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409421612 Contributors: A Train, AMuseo, AS, Andre Engels, Andrew Dalby, AnnaKucsma, Arabani, Aranel, Aris
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Metope (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410047836 Contributors: Captain panda, Care, Giorgio Baroni, Melchoir, Metodicar, Phlyaristis, Pictureuploader,
Randee15, T@nn, Tasoskessaris, Twpsyn Pentref, Waacstats, 6 anonymous edits
Mideia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407503446 Contributors: Phlyaristis
Mount Kyllini Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=403716717 Contributors: Aeusoes1, Bob Burkhardt, CanisRufus, Catalographer, Ccson, Damac, Darwinek, Delirium, Derusa,
Deucalionite, Dorieo21, Droll, Enkyklios, FocalPoint, Frokor, Gabrieli, Klaaskam, Kwamikagami, Macukali, Mark J, Markussep, Nick Ottery, Plastikspork, Pumpie, QuartierLatin1968, Rich
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Naiad Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407118838 Contributors: ***Ria777, 334a, Ahoerstemeier, Alex contributing, Altenmann, AnakngAraw, Atlantas, Betacommand,
BlakJakNZ, Bluemoose, Bmearns, Bobblehead, Borgx, Bryan Derksen, Butko, Bwilkins, CRGreathouse, Ccson, Che!, CommonsDelinker, CrazySexyCool, DIEGO RICARDO PEREIRA,
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Nana (Greek mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=391701398 Contributors: AS, AxelBoldt, Bkonrad, Captain panda, Carlog3, Catalographer, Eismakedon, GeeJo,
Mairi, Makalp, Nono64, Olivier, Per Honor et Gloria, Rastapopoulos, Theranos, Waacstats, 8 anonymous edits
Napaeae Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408989343 Contributors: Bacchiad, Bryan Derksen, Captain panda, Cícero, Deucalionite, Dysmorodrepanis, GeeJo, Gtrmp,
Metodicar, Raven in Orbit, Rickjpelleg, T@nn, Tucci528, Viriditas, Waacstats, Wetman, 9 anonymous edits
Nephele Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410395954 Contributors: Altenmann, Aristeo, Atlantas, CalicoCatLover, Che!, Chronicler, Deucalionite, Editor2020, Falcorian,
Gutsul, Isnow, Jeronimo, Kpjas, Languagehat, Modster, Neelix, Nemesis83, Panellet, Rtkat3, Rursus, Shikai shaw, Traveler100, Tucci528, Waacstats, Wik, Wikipillar, 23 anonymous edits
Nereid Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410441100 Contributors: 129.128.16.xxx, Ahoerstemeier, Amalthea, Andrew Dalby, Angr, Anthony Appleyard, Art LaPella, Axidos,
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Nicaea (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410047363 Contributors: Catalographer, Kittybrewster, Lotje, Phlyaristis
Nysiads Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408028391 Contributors: Andrew Dalby, Catalographer, Dodo, Kateshortforbob, Metodicar, Neddyseagoon, Nick Ottery,
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Oceanid Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409134740 Contributors: Ahoerstemeier, Andrew Dalby, Art LaPella, Bacchiad, Bkonrad, Bobo192, Bryan Derksen, Ccson, Che!,
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Ocyrhoe Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=399929945 Contributors: Captain panda, Care, Deucalionite, Epbr123, GeeJo, Gtrmp, Jeremybornstein, Metodicar, T@nn, TOO,
Tucci528, Waacstats, Weyes, 7 anonymous edits
Oenone Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=400751896 Contributors: (, Agne27, Amit6, Bryan Derksen, DIEGO RICARDO PEREIRA, Deucalionite, Flowanda, France3470,
Graham87, I dream of horses, Igwelldowntrodden, Jastrow, Jeffsterz, Karl Stas, Kwamikagami, Lesgles, LizzyAllman, MaxSem, Mrwojo, Nonagonal Spider, Oenone575, Omnipaedista,
Rogertudor, Sepreece, Seth01, StageGull, Strabismus, T@nn, Trimp, Tucci528, Varlaam, Wareh, Water TIGHT Sail, Wetman, WhisperToMe, WikHead, Zserghei, Zumoogoldsea, 28 anonymous
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Oread Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=399533816 Contributors: Ahoerstemeier, Al Hart, Bacchiad, Bryan Derksen, Ccson, Curps, Deucalionite, Douglasfrankfort, Ellywa,
Gcm, Ghirlandajo, Giorgio Baroni, GregorB, Gtrmp, Heron, Ipsenaut, Iwfi, Maqs, MercuryBlue, MicTronic, Oashi, Omnipaedista, Phlyaristis, Raven in Orbit, Spiritia, T@nn, TonySever,
Tucci528, Uanfala, Una Smith, ZhiRandom, 28 anonymous edits
Orphne Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410027411 Contributors: Captain panda, Egmontaz, Fram, GeeJo, Moonriddengirl, Phlyaristis, Pigman, RedWolf, SimonMayer,
Susvolans, Tucci528, Waacstats
Pegaea Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=398933803 Contributors: Budelberger, Captain panda, Deucalionite, Gadfium, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Onco p53,
Pigman, Sadads, Waacstats
Pegaeae Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407120395 Contributors: Aoi, Bacchiad, Biglovinb, Bryan Derksen, Captain panda, Deucalionite, Gau1990, GeeJo, Goplat,
GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Jakegothic, Java7837, Jrdioko, Omnipaedista, Phlyaristis, Pnm, Tucci528, Waacstats, 3 anonymous edits
Pherusa Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=383437808 Contributors: Andrew Dalby, Bacchiad, Bryan Derksen, Captain panda, Deucalionite, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner,
ManuelFD, Phlyaristis, Pmanderson, RandyS0725, T@nn, Urhixidur, Waacstats, Zane crawford, 1 anonymous edits
Pirene (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=396384401 Contributors: AndreasJS, Billyjoekoepsel, Chronicler, Erud, GeeJo, Känsterle, Mafutrct, N2e, Patroklis,
Phlyaristis, RedWolf, SimonMayer, Susvolans, T@nn, Tucci528, Valeren, Waacstats, 3 anonymous edits
Pitys (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=375208528 Contributors: Attilios, Bacchussips, Bryan Derksen, Captain panda, Ccson, Colonies Chris, Deucalionite,
GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Leeearnest, Metodicar, Omnipaedista, Paul Barlow, RedWolf, T@nn, Tucci528, Una Smith, Waacstats, Wetman, Xezbeth, Xx236, 2 anonymous edits
Pleiades (Greek mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=403594852 Contributors: Ahoerstemeier, Akhilleus, Albmont, Andrew Dalby, Anne 4ever, Annielogue, Avg,
Brian0918, Ccson, ChicXulub, Chris Shobar, Cuchullain, Curps, DIEGO RICARDO PEREIRA, DanielCD, Dave3457, Dbachmann, DiamondDave, Douglasfrankfort, Eep², Enkyklios, Euryalus,
Falcor84, FoekeNoppert, Giftlite, Gilgamesh, Giorgio Baroni, Gveret Tered, Hede2000, Ipsherman, Iwfi, Jacob1207, Joseph Dwayne, Kwamikagami, Lumrs, MarkSutton, Markjoseph125,
NERIUM, Nima Baghaei, Numbo3, Paranoiq, Paul August, Petri Krohn, Pharos, PurpleRain, QuartierLatin1968, RayNorris, Redgunnerdevil, Renato Caniatti, Sentenio, Sonjaaa, Stevey7788,
Sverdrup, T@nn, Tchoutoye, Twas Now, Vananthar, Wereon, Wetman, WilliamKF, Woohookitty, Wwoods, XJamRastafire, 71 anonymous edits
Plouto Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=381952111 Contributors: Art LaPella, Bryan Derksen, Captain panda, ChicXulub, Deucalionite, Fotaun, Fram, Iwfi, Lambiam,
Metodicar, Minesweeper, NiTenIchiRyu, Panellet, Poolkris, Smack, Svick, T@nn, TeaDrinker, Tucci528, Waacstats, 12 anonymous edits
Pronoe Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=405329037 Contributors: Fordmadoxfraud, Metodicar, MrArifnajafov, Nono64, Omnipedian, Phlyaristis, T@nn
Pyrene (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=405753319 Contributors: AndreasJS, Catalographer, Chronicler, Erud, Mafutrct, MatthewVanitas, Phlyaristis,
Sthomson06, 4 anonymous edits
Rhapso Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=396909458 Contributors: Phlyaristis
Salamis (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=377444547 Contributors: Colonies Chris, Cplakidas, Deucalionite, El C, Gcm, Gordonofcartoon, Metodicar, Neelix,
Pinkadelica, T@nn, Tiyoringo, 2 anonymous edits
Salmacis (fountain) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408939528 Contributors: Catalographer, Flamarande, Neddyseagoon, Woohookitty, 2 anonymous edits
Satyrion Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410359497 Contributors: CarolSpears, Fredwords, Malcolma, SlackerMom, Switchercat, Xyzzyplugh
Sterope (Pleiad) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=394624222 Contributors: Andrew Dalby, Derusa, Deucalionite, Enkyklios, Giorgio Baroni, Ivanvlasov, Jyril,
Kwamikagami, Omnipaedista, Panellet, T@nn, Waacstats, WereSpielChequers, 5 anonymous edits
Stilbe Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=392542165 Contributors: Carstor, Chronicler, Emeraude, Hydro2, Metodicar, Rbrausse, T@nn, TubularWorld, 5 anonymous edits
Syrinx Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407687503 Contributors: 24.108.233.xxx, AetherAeternus, Alphachimp, Andre Engels, Andycjp, BD2412, BorgHunter, Bravado01,
Bryan Derksen, Burntsauce, Camembert, Captain panda, Casliber, Chronicler, Cleduc, Conversion script, Cyborg Ninja, Dylan63, Emurphy42, Equazcion, Erud, Feezo, GeeJo, Gilliam,
Goldfritha, Hari, Impy4ever, Ipigott, Jacquerie27, Jimp, Jordo2112, Kafziel, Karen Johnson, Kubra, Laura schnak, Lunakeet, Marcus Brute, MegX, Mintrick, Missvain, Noah Salzman, Orphan
Wiki, Ortolan88, Paul Barlow, Pinethicket, Renato Caniatti, Rigadoun, Riphead, Rogerbrent, Ryguasu, Scix, Serinde, Shoemaker's Holiday, SilkTork, SimonP, TallulahBelle, Thomas.Hedden,
Timwi, Tucci528, TwilightChrome, Waacstats, Yoyouarecool, 75 anonymous edits
Syrinx (Wolter) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407768022 Contributors: Koavf, Missvain, Nihiltres
Taygete Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=403629675 Contributors: Aeusoes1, Ahoerstemeier, Albmont, Andrew Dalby, Bibi Saint-Pol, Bryan Derksen, Chronicler, Curps,
Danny, Douglasfrankfort, Egmontaz, Enkyklios, FrenchieAlexandre, Ivanvlasov, Iwfi, Kwamikagami, Panellet, Phil Boswell, Psychade, Pumpie, Sam Hocevar, T@nn, Tony Sidaway, Tucci528,
Thalia (grace) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=399899413 Contributors: Helios13, Neddyseagoon, Oskar71, Paul August, Polylerus, Rising*From*Ashes, WolfgangRieger,
7 anonymous edits
Thalia (muse) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409716671 Contributors: Andy Dingley, AntonioMartin, Aranel, Ashfaqmuhammed, Bbik, Beardo, Bewtros,
Blizzardstar2000, Boojum, BorgQueen, Briséis, Bruxism, CRKingston, Captain panda, CardinalDan, Catalographer, Chestyspankwhip, Coolhtw, CptCutLess, CrystallinEntity, Curps, Cwoyte,
Dark Load, David Gerard, DeadEyeArrow, December21st2012Freak, Deor, Deucalionite, EVula, El-Ahrairah, Ericmachmer, Favonian, FixerMX, Gaius Cornelius, Galoubet, GateKeeper, GeeJo,
Gheuf, Gladys1099, Glenn, Gyrobo, HISNAMEISLONDON, Hajatvrc, Helios13, Hephaestos, Inka.arhaom, Insanity Incarnate, IrisWings, Iwfi, J.delanoy, Jamin9999, Jic, Jprg12, Kalvyn,
Kazubon, Kdau, Kencf0618, KnightRider, Kpjas, Krylonblue83, Kwamikagami, Leithp, Lockley, Loren.wilton, Luigi-ish, M3c4n0, Markaci, Mathmagus37, Mattis, Megistias, Melesse, Menchi,
MercuryBlue, Mgmei, MightyWarrior, Mikael V, Monkeycheetah, MrArifnajafov, Msh210, NERIUM, Neddyseagoon, Omnipedian, OriginalCyn3000, Oxymoron83, PL290, Panther991, Paul
August, Pekinensis, Penguinwithin, Pigman, Pipesdreams, Qmwne235, RadicalBender, Renato Caniatti, SElefant, SHallathome, ST47, Shanes, Shirt58, Skumarla, SpeedyGonsales, Standfest,
Stroppolo, T@nn, TUF-KAT, Teiladnam, Tekana, Template namespace initialisation script, Thalia289, Thatcher, Theda, Thedean1222, Thuresson, Tom Radulovich, Tone, Tucci528, Tvrit22,
Utcursch, Wimt, ZhiRandom, Zidane tribal, 166 anonymous edits
Thalia (nymph) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409758906 Contributors: Neddyseagoon, Ospalh, Paul August, Til Eulenspiegel, 1 anonymous edits
Thelpusa Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=390676139 Contributors: Catalographer, Chris the speller, Deucalionite, Folks at 137, Pumpie, Tusculum, WolfgangRieger, 1
anonymous edits
Thetis Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=399559933 Contributors: 09mauerj, 130.94.122.xxx, 83d40m, A8UDI, Adrian.benko, Agne27, Ahoerstemeier, Akamad, Akhilleus,
Andonic, Andres, Antandrus, Art LaPella, Artemisboy, BD2412, Bacchiad, Badgernet, Bryan Derksen, CaptainJae, Carrot Pikmin, Ccson, Ceoil, Che!, Colonies Chris, Cuchullain, Curps,
Cynwolfe, DIEGO RICARDO PEREIRA, David Schaich, Deor, Dr RB Howe, Dzordzm, Ed Poor, EoGuy, Geogre, Gilliam, Glenn, Grutness, Gurchzilla, Guy M, Hiding, Ida Shaw, Ijon,
Iridescent, Itai, JPX7, JamesAM, Jimjoe, JoanneB, John, Ketiltrout, Kpjas, Ladywolf13, Leondumontfollower, Luk, Marrisman3, Massimo Macconi, Montrealais, Morwen, Mskadu,
Mygerardromance, Nicke Lilltroll, Paul August, Paxsimius, Puckly, RSStockdale, Rdu, RedWolf, Renato Caniatti, RexNL, Rrburke, Salgueiro, Sketchee, SmilesALot, Stackja1945, Suwa, T@nn,
The Thing That Should Not Be, Tom Lougheed, Travelbird, Tucci528, Ugur Basak, Uncle Milty, UtherSRG, Vaznav, Wetman, Woohookitty, Xjy, YanA, Yonwe, YourEyesOnly, 116 anonymous
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Thriae Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=399642116 Contributors: Bkonrad, Bobrednek, Chronicler, Deucalionite, Gtrmp, J04n, JamesAM, Lyocheetsa, Pigman, RandyS0725,
Ryulong, T@nn, Tarquin, Theranos, Tolanor, Tucci528, Wetman, 3 anonymous edits
Erato (dryad) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=347739826 Contributors: 48states, Dcljr, Iwfi, Rwalker, T@nn, TurboGiant
Penelope (dryad) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=348519505 Contributors: 48states, Atlantas, Bibi Saint-Pol, JamesAM, Jj137, Starry maiden Gazer, T@nn, 1 anonymous
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Querquetulanae Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408319504 Contributors: Merovingian, MonoALT
Abarbarea Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408286435 Contributors: AnjaManix, Captain panda, Deucalionite, Elizabennet, Fordmadoxfraud, GeeJo, Java7837, Kevin B12,
Manuel Anastácio, Merovingian, NeilEvans, Omnipedian, Oskar71, Phlyaristis, Pigman, Widefox, Xezbeth, 2 anonymous edits
Achiroe Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407480638 Contributors: Albmont, Charles Matthews, Deucalionite, Fordmadoxfraud, Jj137, Odysses, Omnipaedista, Phlyaristis,
Pigman, 1 anonymous edits
Aegle (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407549709 Contributors: Boleyn3, Captain panda, Deucalionite, El-Ahrairah, Eugene van der Pijll, Fordmadoxfraud,
GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, HeartofaDog, Heron, Java7837, MPF, Mpfiz, Omnipedian, Perl, Phlyaristis, Shadowjams, Sotakeit, The Singing Badger, Todd Vierling, Tucci528, 6 anonymous
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Aganippe Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=396365619 Contributors: Angela, Ary29, Bewtros, Captain panda, Care, Czarnoglowa, Deucalionite, Erud, Felizdenovo,
Fordmadoxfraud, GeeJo, Gmturi, HeartofaDog, Java7837, Känsterle, Merovingian, Metodicar, Mjk2357, Phlyaristis, Pigman, Pwqn, Rjwilmsi, Sarefo, Tomas e, Tony Sidaway, Tucci528,
Zundark, 9 anonymous edits
Albunea Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=362626930 Contributors: Aecis, Bryan Derksen, DabMachine, Fordmadoxfraud, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Java7837,
Str1977, TUF-KAT, Tucci528, Wetman, 2 anonymous edits
Anaxibia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407502743 Contributors: Bibi Saint-Pol, Care, Crvst, Deucalionite, Fordmadoxfraud, Kaliadne, Metodicar, Nono64, Phlyaristis,
Pigman, Ravenous, T@nn, TreasuryTag, ‫یدهتجم دواد‬, 4 anonymous edits
Appias Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=396363726 Contributors: Andre Engels, Bryan Derksen, Eugene van der Pijll, Fram, GreatWhiteNortherner, Java7837, Melaen,
Phlyaristis, Scroner, TUF-KAT, Tucci528
Batea (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=397889379 Contributors: Bibi Saint-Pol, Bumm13, Captain panda, Computerjoe, Deucalionite, Dondegroovily, Erud,
Gilliam, Paul August, Phlyaristis, Pygora123, RexNL, Rougher07, Signalhead, Smooth O, T@nn, Tijawi, 8 anonymous edits
Caliadne Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=374844869 Contributors: Deucalionite, Kaliadne, Metodicar, Stemonitis, T@nn, Yannismarou, 1 anonymous edits
Callirrhoe (naiad) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=399182579 Contributors: Alohasoy, Arienh4, Captain panda, Chronicler, Deucalionite, GeeJo, Ilovewikiworld, Iwfi,
Java7837, Merovingian, MrArifnajafov, N. Harmonik, Phlyaristis, Prolog, Reofax, Sligocki, T@nn, Tchoř, The Man in Question, Waacstats, Widefox, 4 anonymous edits
Cassotis Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=349464982 Contributors: Bryan Derksen, Captain panda, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Java7837, Notheruser,
Omnipaedista, Pigman, Tucci528
Castalia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407690276 Contributors: A2Kafir, Aecis, Ams80, Ary29, Bryan Derksen, Captain panda, Ceyockey, Deucalionite, GeeJo,
Gianfranco, GreatWhiteNortherner, Java7837, Kostisl, Metodicar, Neptunekh, Omnipaedista, Renato Caniatti, Robert K S, Scwlong, Solace098, T@nn, The Singing Badger, Tucci528,
Woohookitty, 10 anonymous edits
Ceto (Oceanid) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408773548 Contributors: Deucalionite, Phlyaristis, T@nn, Waacstats
Charybdis Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408759610 Contributors: (jarbarf), 129.128.16.xxx, 12Ghost12, 24.108.233.xxx, 24.176.164.xxx, Aaron north, Abyca, Adi4094,
Agricultor, Ahoerstemeier, Ajraddatz, Alansohn, Alexjohnc3, Anagogist, Analoguedragon, Angela, AnnaFrance, Anonymous Dissident, Arthaey, BD2412, Baileypalblue, Beefyt, Beemer69,
Benc, Bobo192, Burnedthru, Butko, Catalographer, Centrepull, Chill doubt, Chochopk, Chris9086, Codymiller212-212, CommonsDelinker, Conversion script, DIEGO RICARDO PEREIRA,
Dantadd, Davidhorman, Dchristle, Deconstructhis, DennyColt, Deucalionite, Djordjes, Docu, Dr. Blofeld, Droll, Ekpride, El C, Epbr123, Ericcat, Fireswordfight, FoekeNoppert, Fordmadoxfraud,
GeneCallahan, Gonzalo84, Gtrmp, Guest9999, Hede2000, Heyy 12, Hobart, Ihcoyc, Iwfi, J.delanoy, Jacob1207, James Haughton, Janet1983, Japanese Searobin, Java7837, JohnOwens,
Kablammo, Kalogeropoulos, Kammer06, Karl-Henner, Kierano, Kimon, Kingturtle, Klemen Kocjancic, KnowledgeOfSelf, Kwamikagami, Kww, LilHelpa, MKoltnow, MacRusgail, Makuta
Invictus, Margoz, Martial75, Mas1@, Mgiganteus1, Michael Hardy, Michael Zimmermann, Michaelas10, Midnightblueowl, Ming2020, Mintrick, Moby-Dick3000, MozartEinsteinPhysics!,
Nastythug21, NawlinWiki, Neonkow, Number 0, Onceonthisisland, Ortonmc, P4k, Paul August, Paul Barlow, Petrb, Pfhreak, Plasticup, Private meta, Pufferfish101, Quadell, Randalllin,
Ravikiran r, Rcawsey, Renato Caniatti, Rgamble, Richieisking19, Robertson-Glasgow, Sam Korn, Samwb123, Saxbryn, Scottandrewhutchins, ShadowEscape, ShutterBugTrekker, Slprescott,
Soundout, Stormwriter, Supercroc12, Surturz, Sus scrofa, Susfele, T@nn, TAnthony, Tartaruga, The Captain Justice, The Rambling Man, The Spleen Farmer, TheKMan, Themfromspace,
Thingg, TomasBat, Tombomp, Trialzero, Tucci528, TurtleShroom, Utcursch, Vnss roque, Voldemortuet, Voruk, Waggers, WhisperToMe, WikiParker, Wikiuser100, Yonwe, Zurqoxn, 322
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Cleochareia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=375257000 Contributors: AgentPeppermint, Algebraist, Bobrednek, Chris the speller, Deucalionite, GeeJo, Java7837, Jeffsterz,
Oatmeal batman, Radagast83, Sietse Snel, T@nn, Vargenau, Woohookitty
Comaetho Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=410005126 Contributors: Bryan Derksen, Captain panda, Care, GeeJo, Hajor, Jeffsterz, Meelar, Omnipedian, Onco p53,
Phlyaristis, Tucci528, 3 anonymous edits
Creusa Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=383199211 Contributors: Amit6, Andre Engels, Andrew Dalby, Bibi Saint-Pol, Catalographer, Dantadd, Darsie, Dondoolee, DrJos,
Eclecticology, Erud, Fordmadoxfraud, Goregore, Grudolph, Hannah standeven, Imoen, Iwfi, Jallan, Java7837, Jcmo, Kacser, Leovizza, Mav, Metodicar, Neddyseagoon, Neutrality, Omnipedian,
Paul August, Pmanderson, Ravenous, RexNL, Reywas92, Rholton, Ross Burgess, Rougher07, T@nn, Taragui, Tucci528, Unyoyega, 22 anonymous edits
Cyane Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=396391739 Contributors: Abbabash, Acad Ronin, Arrowned, Bahaab, Bibi Saint-Pol, Bunnyhop11, Chronicler, DIEGO RICARDO
PEREIRA, Deucalionite, DivisionByZero, Dysmorodrepanis, GeeJo, Java7837, Mayukhers112, Meelar, NeilEvans, Omnipaedista, Phil Sandifer, Phlyaristis, Reddi, Rjwilmsi, Sidhebolg, T@nn,
Template namespace initialisation script, The Singing Badger, Valeren, Xezbeth, 10 anonymous edits
Drosera (naiad) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=399182480 Contributors: Captain panda, GeeJo, Java7837, Merovingian, Phlyaristis, Widefox
Eleionomae Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=348593987 Contributors: Captain panda, Deucalionite, Dybryd, Java7837, Kuebi, Mairi, Miq, Rmky87, Sotakeit, T@nn,
TexasAndroid, 7 anonymous edits
Euboea (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=399228686 Contributors: Care, Catalographer, Chronicler, Colonies Chris, Deucalionite, Erud, Fordmadoxfraud,
Loupeter, Ludde23, M-le-mot-dit, Oskar71, T@nn, 1 anonymous edits
Hieromneme Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=406091757 Contributors: Bearcat, Malcolma, TheTito, Twpsyn Pentref, Veron
Larunda Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=390123749 Contributors: AS, Aecis, Clarityfiend, Cynwolfe, Deucalionite, Dgies, Fordmadoxfraud, GreatWhiteNortherner,
Haploidavey, Panellet, Phlyaristis, Quadell, SMcCandlish, T@nn, The Man in Question, Tydaj, 8 anonymous edits
Lethe Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408291908 Contributors: Abyca, Adeliine, Alma Pater, AngelVigilante, AnnaFrance, Antique1967, Armagion, Ashnard, Bacchiad,
Beklemmt, BiT, Bigfan, Biruitorul, Blueaster, Bogdangiusca, Bquinn42, CalicoCatLover, Catalographer, Ccson, Chris the speller, Chupon, Colonies Chris, Conversion script, Ctachme,
DanielCD, Dantadd, Dbachmann, Delirium, Deucalionite, Dmilosev, Dysmorodrepanis, Ed Poor, EdenMaster, Eirein, Ellsworth, Emarcus, Eugene van der Pijll, Expensivehat, Eyrian, FeralDruid,
Fordmadoxfraud, Gaius Cornelius, Gclinkscales, Gtrmp, Gunter.krebs, Hanlinyang92, Hcnebono, Herr Klugbeisser, Hu, Igoldste, Iridescent, IronGargoyle, J04n, JLStamper, Jaimicus, Jallan,
Jason One, Jclemens, Jfxnaradzay, Jmgonzalez, Jonathan Drain, Julia Rossi, Karen Johnson, KathrynLybarger, Kedi the tramp, Kingturtle, Kosebamse, Kwamikagami, Lethe, Lfh, Lisette79,
Malkinann, Mayneverhave, MegX, Mia noi, Michael Greiner, MichaelTinkler, Mintrick, Mircea cs, Mrathel, NawlinWiki, Nbarth, Nev1, Njaard, Number 0, Officiallyover, Omnipedian,
Opblaaskrokodil, Oren0, Patricio Paez, Pearbo, Pefstath, Plastikspork, Qwertyus, Raveled, Redskinfan325, Revolus, Rgamble, Richard1608, Rosuav, RoyBoy, SGGH, SalineBrain, ScottyBerg,
Ser Amantio di Nicolao, Shoemoney2night, Simon_J_Kissane, Six string brad, Skyfinity, Slartibartfast, Suslindisambiguator, T@nn, Tadramgo, Terence Kuch, The Anome, Ttrese, Tucci528,
Undront, Unyoyega, Why Not A Duck, Woohookitty, WriterHound, Xaledeib, 160 anonymous edits
Lilaea Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408288075 Contributors: Elsweyn, Fram, GreatWhiteNortherner, IceCreamAntisocial, Java7837, Metodicar, Paul August, Phlyaristis,
Pumpie, RedWolf, Salomis, Tucci528, Tydaj, 2 anonymous edits
Melite (naiad) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=403170684 Contributors: Deucalionite, Euchiasmus, Gaius Cornelius, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Healthinspector, Jhml,
KnightRider, NeilHynes, Nilmerg, Omnipaedista, Quoth the Raven, T@nn, Tasoskessaris, Tucci528, 7 anonymous edits
Minthe Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407338921 Contributors: Deucalionite, Ejdzej, Flockmeal, Flowerparty, Francisco Valverde, GeeJo, Gtrmp, Hailey C. Shannon,
Java7837, Michel BUZE, MikeVitale, Mintho, Missmarple, Mrwojo, Nick Number, Okc, Paul August, Rjwilmsi, SimonMayer, Sotakeit, T@nn, Tucci528, Wetman, Wikipedians promote
fascism, 10 anonymous edits
Nomia (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=398431850 Contributors: Acjelen, Captain panda, Deucalionite, Java7837, K kisses, Macukali, Metodicar, Sepand, 5
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Thalia (Nereid) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=370663453 Contributors: Neddyseagoon, Paul August
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Bolbe Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=399878136 Contributors: Aeonx, Alex '05, Bash, Circeus, Deucalionite, Larlin, Metodicar, Phlyaristis, Rjwilmsi, T@nn, Waacstats,
WikHead, 10 anonymous edits
Caanthus Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=332032235 Contributors: Chronicler, Deucalionite, LeeHunter, Smitty, T@nn, Waacstats, 2 anonymous edits
Chryseis Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=405245401 Contributors: Andrew Dalby, Blahbofdoom, Che!, Colonies Chris, Cossy, Deucalionite, Dondoolee, Flauto Dolce,
Gondooley, Hooperbloob, Kimon, Kwekubo, Llywrch, Mieciu K, Mr.crabby, Neddyseagoon, Odeveli, Omnipaedista, Peter cohen, RafaAzevedo, Renato Caniatti, Reywas92, Rjwilmsi, Sam
Hocevar, Sampo Torgo, T@nn, The Singing Badger, Tipiac, Tr606, Tucci528, WhisperToMe, Wikid77, Zoe, 16 anonymous edits
Clitunno Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=347292748 Contributors: Aecis, Deucalionite, Fram, GeeJo, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gtrmp, Java7837, Minesweeper, OffsBlink,
Spondoolicks, T@nn, The Man in Question, Tucci528, 4 anonymous edits
Dione (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409513149 Contributors: Akhilleus, Alansohn, Alex.tan, Algont, Andres, Bacchiad, Bryan Derksen, Bunnyhop11,
CalicoCatLover, Catalographer, Craig Pemberton, Cuchullain, DavidA, Dd42, Dferrantino, Dpv, Gamaliel, GeeJo, Ghirlandajo, Gildemax, Gurch, Haploidavey, J04n, JPX7, Japanese Searobin,
Kwamikagami, Lectonar, Machine Elf 1735, Maitch, Maus-78, Metodicar, Nev1, Nk, Paul August, Peter, Peter Grey, Poopoo5038, RandyS0725, Rjwilmsi, Sk8tergirl939, T@nn, TheGrza,
Wetman, WikiDao, 48 anonymous edits
Doris (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=404141914 Contributors: Alfiesgirl, Altenmann, Andrew Dalby, Captain panda, Daimore, Deucalionite, Gospodar
svemira, Helios13, Hmains, Inge-Lyubov, Iwfi, Keith-264, Kutu su, Margoz, MrArifnajafov, Omnipedian, Panellet, Shenme, Sietse Snel, Smitty, Special-T, Waacstats, Αστραία, 20 anonymous
edits
Eidyia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=403928325 Contributors: Al Pereira, Captain panda, Deucalionite, Dodo, GeeJo, Jeffsterz, Metodicar, Phlyaristis, T@nn, Waacstats, 3
anonymous edits
Eurynome Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=400904299 Contributors: Amorymeltzer, Bacchiad, Colonies Chris, Cynferdd, Daffdaemon, Deucalionite, Dpv,
DragonflySixtyseven, Flockmeal, FoekeNoppert, Heron, Iwfi, Jallan, Lorynote, Lycaon, Machine Elf 1735, Mbf123, Metodicar, Nolanus, Omnipaedista, Paul August, Ravenous, Slawojarek,
SpeedyGonsales, T@nn, Template namespace initialisation script, The Man in Question, The Singing Badger, TreasuryTag, Tucci528, Wetman, WhisperToMe, Xezbeth, Yurik, 9 anonymous
edits
Eurynome (Oceanid) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=399503169 Contributors: AS, Andonic, Art LaPella, C'est moi, CALR, Catalographer, DerHexer, Deucalionite,
Deville, Dougweller, Dpv, Everyking, F-402, Flauto Dolce, Furius, Igiffin, Jcw69, JohnI, Jon513, Netkinetic, Paul August, Pax:Vobiscum, Phlyaristis, Richhoncho, Seano1, T@nn, Tide rolls,
Yoruno, 23 anonymous edits
Hesione Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409121505 Contributors: AS, Akhilleus, Albmont, Andre Engels, Bkonrad, Bryan Derksen, Charles Matthews, Che!, Chris the
speller, Cruiser1, Curps, Deucalionite, Fdewaele, Iwfi, Jallan, Jan Hidders, Jess Cully, MARKELLOS, Michael Bednarek, Mjroots, MyDaroga, Nairobiny, Phlyaristis, Rursus, Shakko, T@nn,
TOO, Tucci528, Unyoyega, VPliousnine, Yildizspinel, Zoicon5, 14 anonymous edits
Meliboea Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=408253915 Contributors: Albmont, Bryan Derksen, Curps, Deucalionite, FoekeNoppert, Gtrmp, KnightRider, Macedonius,
Omnipaedista, Oskar71, Phlyaristis, Seanwal111111, T@nn, The Singing Badger, Tucci528, 4 anonymous edits
Merope Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409488765 Contributors: Adjectivore, Aetherea, Ahoerstemeier, Andrew Dalby, Arie Inbar, Atannir, Awesomeomar, Bryan
Derksen, Cholmes75, ChongDae, Curps, D6, Dana boomer, David Gerard, DeC, Dysmorodrepanis, Enchanter, Enkyklios, Exploding Boy, Hike395, Iwfi, Kwamikagami, Matrinka, Mattisse,
Merope, Michaelsanders, Omnipaedista, Pmanderson, Ronstew, Sandpiper, SidP, SimonP, Soapy Sunshine, Stemonitis, T@nn, Tenchebrai10, The Valid One, Tucci528, Urod, Wareh, Wetman,
Wi11y 0n wh3315!, Window, 28 anonymous edits
Nemesis (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407852018 Contributors: Adam Bishop, Alansohn, Andre Engels, Andrewcaleb, Anfearard, Aranel, Arsvita734,
Atomicbre, Avihu, B9 hummingbird hovering, Bacchiad, Baristarim, Beatdown, Bedoyere, Blueyoshi321, Bob Burkhardt, Bobblehead, Bobo192, BorgQueen, Brandmeister, Caiyu, Caltas,
CardinalDan, Charles Matthews, Cjmnyc, Cybercobra, DIEGO RICARDO PEREIRA, DJBullfish, Defunctzombie, Dejvid, Dekkanar, DerHexer, Didactohedron, Dino, Disinclination,
Dougweller, Drasek Riven, Drunkenpete, Dryazan, Dubfeather, Duvessa-black, Emperor, Evrenos, Favonian, Flutterman, FoekeNoppert, Fourthhorseman, Gaff, Glenn, Hairy Dude, Hectorian,
Hirpex, Hoelli, IanManka, Ihcoyc, Infosocialist, Inka 888, InklingBooks, Iridescent, Ixfd64, James Seneca, JasonAQuest, Jediforce, Jtcoolidge, Julia Rossi, Kusunose, Logan 2006, Looxix, MPS,
MacMog, Magioladitis, Markeilz, Martpol, Mijobe, MikeLynch, Mingwei.Samuel, Muffuletta, Myanw, Mythobeast, NawlinWiki, Nbarth, Neddyseagoon, Nemesis63, Obscurans, Olivier,
Olly150, Oolongy, Paul August, Phlyaristis, Piano non troppo, Polylerus, PrestonH, Quaeler, Rajpaj, Randy.f, Renato Caniatti, Robofish, Ruhtinas routa, ShelfSkewed, Silence, Simon12,
Sotakeit, Spangineer, Sticky Parkin, Susvolans, SuzanneIAM, Svartalf, Sysy, Szymk, T@nn, TAnthony, TallNapoleon, The Haunted Angel, The Thing That Should Not Be, The undertow,
Theodolite, ThisFaintMemory, Tide rolls, TigerShark, Varano, VindicativeLilith, Wereon, Wetman, Whhornsey, Why so serious 8(, Wikiftw101, Wrecksdart, Xezbeth, Yamara, Youssefsan,
Yvwv, Zoicon5, Zythe, Александър, €pa, 268 anonymous edits
Peitho Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=409566746 Contributors: Alsandro, Aranel, Art LaPella, Captain panda, Deucalionite, Dreamyshade, GeeJo, Gtrmp, Maqs, Metodicar,
Michbich, Nigholith, Omnipaedista, P Ingerson, ParisianBlade, Paul August, Paul Barlow, Rich Farmbrough, Satanael, Susvolans, T@nn, The Singing Badger, Theranos, TimBentley, Tucci528,
Waacstats, 9 anonymous edits
Philyra (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=397413325 Contributors: Adam McMaster, Al Silonov, Asarelah, BananaFiend, Bookgrrl, Bryan Derksen, Captain
panda, Curps, Deucalionite, Enchanter, FoekeNoppert, Fram, Goldenrowley, Grutness, J04n, Jean-François Clet, Jilibi, Metodicar, Odysses, Qwertzy2, Stemonitis, T@nn, Tucci528, Unyoyega,
Waacstats, Wiwaxia, 14 anonymous edits
Rhode (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=403222889 Contributors: Bryan Derksen, Canterbury Tail, Catalographer, Crazytales, Curps, Davis437, Deucalionite,
Erud, FoekeNoppert, Goldenrowley, Iwfi, Matthead, Nicke L, Paul August, Sarah777, Sarefo, Sdr, Shoeofdeath, T@nn, The Epopt, Tucci528, Wetman, Xanzzibar, 11 anonymous edits
Telesto (mythology) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=391520644 Contributors: Argo Navis, CalicoCatLover, Curps, Deucalionite, Douglasfrankfort, GeeJo, Kubra,
LiDaobing, Metodicar, Onco p53, Phlyaristis, T@nn, Tom Lougheed, Waacstats, 1 anonymous edits
Tyche Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=407694293 Contributors: AS, Aecis, AgentPeppermint, Andre Engels, Andromeda, Aranel, Bryan Derksen, Captain panda, Curps,
Davidzuccaro, DeadEyeArrow, Deucalionite, Fjbfour, FocalPoint, FoekeNoppert, Friendlystar, Gcm, GreatWhiteNortherner, Gryffindor, Gtstricky, Hibernophile, J.delanoy, JAn Dudík, Jake
Wartenberg, JeLuF, KGasso, Kpjas, LIC Habeeb, Magnus.de, Man vyi, Michal Nebyla, Muu-karhu, Natalie Erin, NuclearVacuum, Olivier, Panairjdde, Per Honor et Gloria, Pmanderson,
RafaAzevedo, RandyS0725, Renato Caniatti, Robert E Ryewood, Shanes, SidP, Sitethief, T@nn, The Dogandpony, Tomisti, Tucci528, UtherSRG, Varlaam, Wetman, Wideshanks, William
Avery, Yamara, Александър, Милан Јелисавчић, 40 anonymous edits
Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

Image:Pompejanischer Maler um 80 v. Chr. 001.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Pompejanischer_Maler_um_80_v._Chr._001.jpg License: Public Domain
Contributors: AnRo0002, AndreasPraefcke, DenghiùComm, G.dallorto, Mattes, Père Igor, Ronaldino, 2 anonymous edits
File:Altar twelve gods Louvre Ma666.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Altar_twelve_gods_Louvre_Ma666.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: User:Jastrow
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File:Drinking Bacchus WGAREG001.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Drinking_Bacchus_WGAREG001.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Anna reg,
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Roman Deities

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Contents

Roman Goddesses 231

List of Roman deities

Practices and beliefs

In his Georgics, a collection of poetry on

• Carmentes - two goddesses of childbirth: Antevorta and Postvorta or

• Fascinus - phallic god who protected from evil supernatural

• Feronia - rural goddess of woods and fountains.

• Summanus - god of nocturnal thunder

• Vertumnus, Vortumnus or Vertimnus - god of the seasons, and of

Notes and references

Abode Mount Olympus

Symbol Lyre, laurel wreath, python, raven, bow and arrows

Parents Zeus and Leto

Children Asclepius, Troilus, Aristaeus, Orpheus

Roman equivalent Apollo

Ancient Greek Religion

Ancient Roman religion

Practices and beliefs

Celtic epithets and cult titles

Head of Apollo. Marble, Roman copy of a Greek

Attributes and symbols

The lifesize so-called "Adonis" (shown at left) found in 1780 on the

Apollo (the "Adonis" of Centocelle), Roman after

In the late 2nd century CE floor mosaic from El Djem, Roman

very altar of the god's own temple.

Consorts and children

In explanation of the connection of Apollo with δάφνη (daphnē),

Apollo had an affair with a human princess named Leucothea,

betraying his beloved, and a grieving Clytia wilted and slowly

Another male lover was Cyparissus, a descendant of Heracles. Apollo

Apollo in the Oresteia

Apollo has ominous aspects aside from his plague-bringing,

According to Evander, Heracles stopped to pasture the

Angered, Heracles stormed towards the cave. A

The name of Caelus indicates that he was the

Nocturnus and the templum

As the Jewish god

Practices and beliefs

Religion in ancient Rome

Roman, Greek, and Etruscan mythologies compared

Other Rustic Gods:

• Bona Dea • Flora

Cupid figures prominently in ariel poetry, lyrics and, of course,

Religion in ancient Rome

Roman, Greek, and Etruscan mythologies compared

Other gods of craft and trade:

Dei Lucrii Eventus Bonus

Abode Mount Olympus

Symbol Thyrsus, grapevine, leopard skin, panther, tiger, leopard

Parents Zeus and Semele

Roman equivalent Bacchus, Liber

Eleutherios ("the liberator"), an epithet for both Dionysus and Eros.

Infancy at Mount Nysa

Euripides composed a tragedy about the destructive nature of Dionysus in The

When Hephaestus bound Hera to a magical chair, Dionysus got him

Parallels with Christianity

Elizabeth Kessler has theorized that a mosaic appearing on the

Names originating from Dionysus

Drinking Bacchus (1623) Guido

Practices and beliefs

Temples and cult

The oldest tradition of its founding ascribes to Evander the

Practices and beliefs