INFERIOR DEITIES ATTENDING MANKIND PROM THEIR BIRTH TO THEIR DECEASE.
It would be almost an endless task to enter into a detail of all the
inferior deities of the Greeks and Romans; our object being to refer to
such only as preside over the health of the human race, every part and
parcel of whom had their presiding genius.--During pregnancy, the
tutelar powers were the god Pelumnus,[39] and the goddesses
Intercedonia,[40] and Deverra.[41] The import of these words seems to
point out the necessity of warmth and cleanliness to ladies in this
condition.
Besides the superior goddesses Jemo-Lucien, Diana Hythia, and Latona,
who all presided at the birth, there were the goddesses Egeria,[42]
Prosa,[43] and Manageneta,[44] who with the Dii Nixii,[45] had all the care
of women in labour.
To children, Janus performed the office of door-keeper or midwife; and
in this quality was assisted by the goddess Opis or Ops;[46] Cuma rocked
the cradle, while Carmenta sung their destiny; Levana lifted them up
from the ground;[47] and Vegetanus took care of them when they cried;
Rumina[48] watched them while they suckled; Polina furnished them with
drink; and Edura with food or nourishment; Osslago knit their bones; and
Carna[49] strengthened their constitutions. Nudina[50] was the goddess of
children's purification; Stilinus or Statanus instructed them to walk,
and kept them from falling; Fabulina learnt them to prattle; the goddess
Paventia preserved them from frights;[51] and Camaena taught them to
sing.
Nor was the infant, when grown to riper years, left without his
protectors; Juventas was the god of youth; Agenoria excited men to
action; and the goddesses Stimula and Strenua inspired courage and
vivacity; Horta[52] inspired the fame or love of glory; and Sentra gave
them the sentiments of probity and justice; Quies was the goddesses of
repose or ease,[53] and Indolena, or laziness, was deified by the name of
Murcia;[54] Vacua protected the idle; Adeona and Abeona, secured people
in going abroad and returning;[55] and Vibilia, if they wandered, was so
kind as to put them in the right way; Fessonia refreshed the weary and
fatigued; and Meditrina healed the sickly;[56] Vitula was the goddess of
mirth and frolic;[57] Volupia the goddess who bestowed pleasure;[58]
Orbona was addressed, that parents might not love their offspring;
Pellonia averted mischief and danger; and Numeria taught people to cast
and keep accounts; Angerona cured the anguish or sorrow of the mind;[59]
Haeres Martia secured heirs the estates they expected; and Stata or
Statua Mater, secured the forum or market place from fire; even the
thieves had a protectress in Laverna;[60] Averruncus prevented sudden
misfortunes; and Conius was always disposed to give good advice to such
as wanted it; Volumnus inspired men with a disposition to do well; and
Honorus raised them to preferment and honours.
Nor was the marriage state without its peculiar defenders. Five deities
were esteemed so necessary, that no marriages were solemnized without
asking their favours; these were Jupiter-Perfectus, or the Adult, Juno,
Venus, Suadela,[61] and Diana. Jugatinus tied the nuptial knot; Domiducus
ushered the bride home; Domitius took care to keep her there, and
prevent her gadding abroad; Maturna preserved the conjugal union entire;
Virginensis[62] loosed the bridle zone or girdle; Viriplaca was a
propitious goddess, ready to reconcile the married couple in case of any
accidental difference. Matuta was the patroness of matrons, no maid
being suffered to enter her temple. The married was always held to be
the only honourable state for woman, during the times of pagan
antiquity. The goddess Vacuna,[63] is mentioned by Horace (Lib. 1. Epist.
X. 49.) as having her temple at Rome; the rustics celebrated her
festival in December, after the harvest was got in (Ovid. Fast. Lib.
XI).
The ancients assigned the particular parts of the body to particular
deities; the head was sacred to Jupiter; the breast to Neptune; the
waist to Mars; the forehead to Genius; the eye-brows to Juno, the eyes
to Cupid; the ears to Memory; the right hand to Fides or Veritas; the
back to Pluto; the knees to Misericordia or mercy; the legs to Mercury;
the feet to Thetis; and the fingers to Minerva.[64]
The goddess who presided over funerals was Libitina,[65] whose temple at
Rome, the undertakers furnished with all the necessaries for the
interment of the poor or rich; all dead bodies were carried through the
Porto Libitina; and the Rationes Libitinae mentioned by Suetonius, very
nearly answer to our bills of mortality.
FOOTNOTES:
[39] Either from _pilum_, a pestle; or from _pello_, to drive away;
because he procured a safe delivery.
[40] She taught the art of cutting wood with a hatchet to make fires.
[41] The inventress of brooms.
[42] From casting out the birth.
[43] Aulus Gellius.
[44] Aelian.
[45] From _erritor_, to struggle. See Ausonius, Idyll 12.
[46] Some make her the same with Rhea or Vesta.
[47] Among the Romans the midwife always laid the child on the ground,
and the father or somebody appointed, lifted it up; hence the expression
of _tollere liberos_, to educate children.
[48] This goddess had a temple at Rome, and her offerings were milk.
[49] On the Kalends of June, sacrifices were offered to Carna, of bacon
and bean flour cakes; whence they were called Fabariae.
[50] Boys were named always on the ninth day after the birth, and girls
on the eighth.
[51] From Pavorema vertendo.
[52] She had a temple at Home which always stood open.
[53] She had a temple without the walls.
[54] Murcia had her temple on Mount Aventine.
[55] From _abeo_, to go away; and _adeo_, to come.
[56] The festival of this goddess was in September, when the Romans
drank new wine mixed with old, by way of physic.
[57] From _vitulo_, to leap or advance.
[58] From _voluptas_, pleasure.
[59] In a great murrain which destroyed their cattle, the Romans invoked
this goddess, and she removed the plague.
[60] The image was a head without a body. Horace mentions her (Lib. 1.
Epist. XVI. 60). She had a temple without the walls, which gave the name
to the Porta Lavernalis.
[61] The goddess of eloquence, or persuasion, who had always a great
hand in the success of courtship.
[62] She was also called Cinxia Juno.
[63] She was an old Sabine deity. Some make her the same with Ceres; but
Varro imagines her to be the goddess of victory.
[64] From this distribution arose, perhaps, the scheme of our modern
astrologers, who assign the different parts of the body to the different
constellations, or signs of Zodiac: as the head to Aries, the neck to
Taurus, the shoulders to Gemini, the heart to Cancer, the breast to Leo,
and so on. The pretended issues of astrology have been always
inseparable from stellar influence, and the zodiac has ever been the
fruitful source of its solemn delusions.
[65] Some confound this goddess with Proserpine, others with Venus.