1 do by their Soul), and also to swear by it;1 and in the Latin writers it is sometimes not easy to distinguish a man's Genius from himself. The distinct worship of the Genius continued down to the demise of paganism, for we find it noticed in the Theodosian Code.3 Places and peoples were also believed to have their Genii or protecting spirits. Horace, in speaking of the Genius, calls him "changeable of countenance, white and black;"5 and in the well-known appearance of his evil Genius to Brutus, the spirit was black. This would seem to intimate that a man had two Genii, a good and an evil one; but this does not appear to have been the Italian belief, though such a notion may perhaps have prevailed in Greece; for the philosopher Empedokles said that two Mæræ receive us at our birth, and get authority over us.8 Orcus, Ditis, or Dis. If there was any deity, in the theology of the people of ancient Latium, answering to the Hadés of the Greeks, the Yama of the Hindús, it was the being named Orcus or Dis. But we have elsewhere' endeavoured to show that Orcus was merely Death, and that in the ancient Latin cosmology there was no place answering to the Hellénic Erebos. In confirmation of this last view it may be further observed that Varro 10 says that Dispater or Orcus was the lower part of the air, that close to the earth, in which all things arise and decay—the proper domain of Death. The former view seems to be strengthened by the fact that though Mors is feminine, Death is never represented as such 1 Sen. Ep. 12, 2. Suet. Cal. 27. Plin. Pan. 52. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. iv. 15: comp. Tibull. iv. 13, 15. 2 Hence the phrases indulgere Genio, defraudare Genium. 3 "Nullus Larem igne, mero Genium, Penates nidore veneratus accendat lumina, imponat thura, serta suspendat." De Paganis. 62. Verg. Æn. v. 95. ("Nullus locus sine Genio." Serv.) vii. 136. Liv. xxi. 5 Ep. ii. 2, 189. 8 6 Florus, iv. 7. 7 See Serv. En. iii. 63. Apud Plut. de Tranq. Anim. 15. He thus names some of the pairs : Ενθ ̓ ἦσαν Χθονίη τε καὶ Ἡλιόπη ταναῶπις, Menander (id. ib.) said that a dæmon, a good guide of life, comes to a man when he is born. 9 See our note on Hor. Ep. ii. 2, 178, and Excurs. on Ov. Fast. ii. 533: comp. Hor. Carm. ii. 13, 38. Lucan. ix. 7. 10 De L. L. v. 66. in Roman works of art; and had not the Romans a male deity of this kind they would probably have made Mors masculine to represent ávaros, as they made Cupido masculine to take the place of "Ερως. 1 Verrius Flaccus said that Orcus was originally pronounced Uragus (rather Urgus), which he derives from urgeo; but this is very uncertain, and we may have observed that the names of the Italian deities are generally of unknown origin. Dis (with which pater is usually joined), or Ditis, is merely a translation of the Greek II oÚTwv. Its resemblance to Death is curious, but most certainly casual. Sol et Luna. As Hélios and Seléné were distinct from Apollo and Artemis, so Sol and Luna seem to have been very early distinguished from Dianus and Diana. Tatius, as we have seen, worshipped both Diana and Luna; we meet with Luna Mater. CHAPTER III. THE REMAINING ITALIAN DEITIES. Quirinus. QUIRINUS, we are told, was a war-god, answering to the Enyalios of the Greeks. He is said to have been the deified founder of Rome. Like the other gods, he was addressed as Pater, and a goddess named Hora was associated with him.* Quirinus was evidently a Sabine deity; and the derivation usually given of his name from quiris, a spear, would seem to make him an original war-god. It is however, not improbable that he was only the deified symbol of the town of Cures, and 1 Thus a celebrated Florentine usurer was nicknamed 77 Morte: see Rosini, La Monaca di Monza, ch. xviii. The poets however sometimes personified mors: see Hor. Carm. i. 4, 13. 2 Festus v. Orcum. In the Fairy Mythology (ii. 237, p. 449 new edit.) we have shown that the Italian Orco and the French Ogre were derived from Orcus. The plates in the works of Inghirami and Micali represent Mantus (the Etruscan Orcus) as a coarse large man with a wild look and pointed ears, and armed with a huge mallet. This is nearly the very form of an ogre: see Müller, Etrusk. ii. 99 seq. 3 Dion. Hal. ii. 48. "Teque Quirine pater veneror Horamque Quirini.”—Ennius. (s. v.) says that Hora was Juventas. Ovid (Met. xiv. 851) makes her the deified Hersilia. 5 See Buttmann, Mythol. ii. 91. Nonius that the symbols of Rome and Cures were united in one deity. Tertullian1 speaks of a Pater Curis of the Faliscans. Bellona. Bellona, anciently Duellona, the goddess of war, was so called from bellum, in old Latin duellum. She corresponds with the Enyo of the Greeks. The temple of Bellona at Rome was without the city, near the Carmental Gate. Audience was given there by the senate to foreign ambassadors. Before it stood a pillar, over which a spear was thrown on declaration of war against any people. The priests of Bellona used to gash their thighs and arms and offer to her the blood which flowed from the wounds, whence she was named Mater Sanguinis.3 Libitina. Libitina was the goddess presiding over funerals: at her temple were sold all things requisite for them; and by an institution ascribed to Servius Tullius, a piece of money was paid there for every one who died, and the name of the deceased entered in a book called Libitina ratio.* We have seen 5 that she was held to be the same as Venus: her name, in that case, might possibly come from the old verb libeo. Consus. This deity was, as his name denotes, the god of counsel. His altar was in the Circus Maximus, and was always covered, except on his festival-day, the 18th of August, called the Consualia. Horse- and chariot-races were celebrated at this festival, and the working horses, mules and asses were crowned with flowers, and allowed to rest: hence Consus has probably been confounded with Neptunus Equestris, as this latter god was called, to identify him with the Greek Poseidón. It was at the Consualia that the Sabine virgins were carried off by the Romans. Laverna. Laverna was the patron-goddess of thieves, who were anciently called Laverniones, and of all in general who practised artifice 1 Apol. 24. 7 3 Hist. Aug. Claud. 4. 2 and fraud.1 At Rome she had an altar, near the gate which was called from her the gate of Laverna. There was also a temple of this goddess near Formiæ. Her name is probably derived from lateo, significatory of darkness or obscurity. She would seem to have been regarded as one of the Di Inferi.5 Sancus. Sancus was, beyond question, an ancient Sabine deity, but his exact nature is not known. He was very early confounded with the Grecian Héraklés; but the Ara Maxima, and the priesthood of the Potitii and Pinarii, together with the gentile worship of the Fabii who were of Sabine origin, must all, as it would appear, have belonged to the old Sabine god. As a further proof, we may observe that the temple of Sancus stood on the Quirinal, the Sabine part of the city. In this temple was preserved the original treaty concluded by Tarquinius Superbus with the Gabians. There also stood in it a brazen statue of Caia Cæcilia, the thrifty spouse of Tarquinius Priscus, according to the ancient legend; and her spindle and sandals had once been preserved there." 10 Sancus was also named Dius Fidius 11 and Semo;12 the former, perhaps, in consequence of the resemblance of his name to the word sanctus; the latter is said to be semihomo. Ovid, when addressing him, calls him in the usual manner, Semo Pater.13 The festival of Sancus was on the nones of June. People when going on a journey used to sacrifice to him.14 1 Pulchra Laverna, Da mihi fallere, da justo sanctoque videri; Hor. Ep. i. 16, 60. Per deam sanctam Lavernam, quæ sit cultrix quæstuis. Novius ap. Non. v. quæsti. 3 Cic. ad Att. 7, 8. 2 Porta Lavernalis. Varr. De L. L. v. 163. 4 It is rather curious that t and v should be commutable, yet there are many instances of it, such as τίλλω and vello, θέλω and volo, κλιτύς and clivus. To these may perhaps be added Latinus and Lavinum, and certainly vallis and the German thal and English dale, as also gladius and glaive. 5 Inferis manu sinistra immolamus pocula, Sept. Sever. ap. Wernsdorf. Poet. Minor. ii. p. 288. 6 Dion. Hal. ii. 49. Ov. Fast. vi. 216, 217. Sil. Ital. viii. 422. 7 See Propert. iv. 9, 71 seq. 8 Dion. Hal. ix. 60. Ov. Fast. vi. 218. 9 Dion. Hal. iv. 58: comp. Hor. Epist. ii. 1, 24, 25. 11 Hence the oath Me Dius Fidius (sc. juvet), answering to Mehercle. 12 Livy (i. 20) calls him Sancus Semo. 13 Fast. vi. 214. 14 Festus v. Propter viam. Summanus, Vejovis, Soranus. We place these three together, as being deities of the underworld. Summanus, or rather Submanus, was a god of Etruria, whose worship was adopted, probably very early, at Rome. A temple was erected to him close by that of Juventas at the Circus Maximus in the time of the war with Pyrrhus;1 and his earthen statue stood on the top of the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol.2 Nocturnal lightnings were ascribed to Summanus, as diurnal ones were to Jupiter; and when trees had been struck with lightning, the Arval brethren sacrificed to him black wethers, naming him Pater. He may therefore have been only a god of the night; but we are assured that he was Pluto and Dispiter.5 Varro joins him with Volcanus, as one of the gods worshipped by the Sabine Tatius. His festival, the Summanalia, was on the 20th of June. Cakes of a wheel-shape were then offered to this deity. The most usual derivation of this name is that which makes it Summus Manium, which would then appear to be a translation from the Tuscan. But if our idea of the Di Manes and their condition be correct, they could not have been under the authority of any being answering to the Hadés of Greece. A derivation therefore from sub mane would seem to be more probable, and the following ingenious theory might be received, namely that the Roman deity named Nocturnus, who ruled over the night (as the male-power of Nox), may, in the usual placatory manner, have been denominated Submanus as the forerunner and harbinger of the Dawn. 8 Vedjovis, Vejovis or Vedius was also an Etruscan god, for he cast lightnings. These had the property of causing previous deafness in those whom they were to strike.10 The temple of Vejovis at Rome stood in the hollow between the Arx and the 1 Ov. Fast. vi. 731. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxix. 4. The earliest notice of this deity is Plaut. Curc. iii. 1, 43. 2 Cic. Div. i. 10. 3 Plin. Nat. Hist. ii. 53. August. De Civ. Dei, iv. 23. Inser. Fratr. Arv. No. 43. Gruter, Inscrip. p. 121. 5" Pluto qui etiam Summanus dicitur." Gent. v. 37. 7 See our Ov. Fasti, Excurs. iv. 8 Merkel, Prol. in Ov. Fast. p. ccviii. Mart. Cap. ii. 40. Arnob. adv. 6 De L. L. v. 74. 9"Credo ego hac noctu Nocturnum obdormivisse ebrium." Plaut. Amph. i. 1, 119. "Nocturnum deum Varro in Satiris perpetuo sopore et ebrietate torpidum induxit." August. De Civ. Dei. 10 Amm. Marcel. xvii. 10, 2. |