Italic goddess of wilderness and liberty
In
Etruscan
and
Sabine religion
,
Feronia
was a goddess associated with wildlife, fertility, health, and abundance, also venerated by the
Faliscans
and later adopted into
ancient Roman religion
. As the goddess who granted freedom to slaves or civil rights to the most humble part of society, she was especially honored among
plebeians
and
freedmen
. Her festival, the
Feroniae
, was November 13 (the
ides
of November) during the
Ludi
Plebeii
("
Plebeian Games
"), in conjunction with
Fortuna Primigenia
; both were goddesses of
Praeneste
.
[1]
[2]
(p?7)
- Note that the similar-sounding
Feralia
on February 21 is a festival of
Jupiter Feretrius
, not Feronia.
Etymology
[
edit
]
Feronia's name is derived from a
Sabine
adjective corresponding to Latin
f?rus
, but with a long vowel, i.e.
F?r?n?a
. The root
fer
has cognate words in every
Indo-European language
(e.g. Greek
θ?ρ
,
θ?ριον
, English
feral
.)
Latin
f?rus
means "not cultivated, untamed" (
Thesaurus Linguae Latinae
), "of the field, wood", "untamed", "not mitigated by any cultivation" (Forcellini
Totius Latinitatis Lexicon
) which fits the environment of the sanctuaries of Feronia and is very close to
rudis
(rude).
Feronia is one of the Roman and Italic goddesses whose name is formed by a root ending with the suffix
-ona
or
-onia
. This form of a noun denotes a difficult or dangerous state or condition: The deity is a sovereign of that danger, only to help man to best avoid damage or get the greatest advantage, such as
Angerona
for the
angusti dies
near the winter solstice.
Myths and functions
[
edit
]
Many versions of Feronia's
cult
have been supposed, and it is not quite clear if she was only one goddess or if she had only one function in ancient times. Some Latins believed Feronia to be a harvest goddess, and honoured her with the
harvest firstfruits
[3]
in order to secure a good harvest the following year.
Festus's entry on the
picus Feronius
[6]
of Trebula Mutuesca testifies the goddess had also prophetic qualities among the
Sabines
, as did the
picus martius
of Tiora Matiena ascribed to the
Aborigines
. Feronia also served as a goddess of travellers, fire,
[
citation needed
]
and waters.
Freedmen and Libertas
[
edit
]
Varro
identified Feronia with
Libertas
, the goddess who personified Liberty.
[a]
According to
Servius
, Feronia was a
tutelary goddess
of freedmen (
dea libertorum
).
[7]
: 8.564
A stone at the Terracina shrine was inscribed "let deserving slaves sit down so that they may stand up free."
Livy
notes
[8]
that in 217
BCE
freed women collected money as a gift for Feronia.
[2]
(p?109)
Some sources state that slaves were set free at her temple near Terracina.
[9]
[
full citation needed
]
Sabine tribal matron
[
edit
]
She was among the deities that Sabine
moneyers
placed on their coins to honor their heritage.
[10]
(p?82)
She may have been introduced into Roman religious practice when
Manius Curius Dentatus
conquered
Sabinum
in the early 3rd century
BCE
.
[12]
Insistence on wild places
[
edit
]
Two stories about her sanctuary of Terracina highlight the character of Feronia as goddess of the wilderness: Servius writes that when a fire destroyed her wood and the locals were about moving the statues to another location, the burnt wood suddenly turned green.
[13]
Pliny states that all attempts at building towers in times of war between Terracina and the sanctuary of Feronia have been abandoned because all are without exception destroyed by lightning.
[15]
The goddess thus refused any continuity and linkage with the nearby town.
Role in the Aeneid
[
edit
]
In
Vergil
's
Aeneid
, troops from
Feronia's grove
fight on the side of
Turnus
against
Aeneas
.
[16]
(7.800)
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 three times.
[17]
Vergil identifies Erulus as the king of
Praeneste
, but he is otherwise unknown in literature.
[18]
Dumezil's interpretation
[
edit
]
Dumezil
considers Feronia to be a goddess of wilderness, of untamed nature, and of nature's vital forces – but honoured because she offers the opportunity to put those forces to good use in acquiring nurture, health, and fertility. She fecundates and heals, and therefore despite her being worshipped only in the wild, she receives the first-fruits of the harvest. Because she permits the people to domesticate the wild forces of vegetation, she could be seen as favouring the transformation of that which is uncouth into that which is cultivated.
[5]
(pp?361?366)
Dumezil compares her to Vedic god
Rudra
: He and Feronia are similar in that Rudra represents that which has not yet been transformed by civilization – he is the god of the
rude
, of the jungle; at one time dangerous and uniquely useful: Healer, thanks to the herbs within his domain, protector of the freed slaves and of the outcast. Feronia, though, has only the positive or useful function of putting the forces of wild nature at the service of the people.
[5]
(pp?361?366)
Cult and cult sites
[
edit
]
Inscriptions
to Feronia are found mostly in central Italy.
[2]
(p?109)
Feronia's shrines were all located in the wild, far from human settlements. Varro, however, places Feronia in his
list of Sabine gods
[19]
who had altars in Rome.
Feronia's cults at
Aquileia
and Terracina were near springs that were used in her rites.
[10]
(p?286)
The
Augustan poet
Horace
speaks of the water
(
lympha
)
of Feronia, in which "we bathe our face and hands."
[22]
Capena, Etruria
[
edit
]
Her
lucus
at Capena was a place where everybody was allowed to come for worship and trade, attracting people from different nations, Sabines, Latins, Etruscans, and others from even farther away. The grove provided everybody with a neutral territory in which peace must not be perturbed.
[24]
Feronia's temple at the base of
Mt. Soracte
which was near Capena.
[25]
The
Lucus Feroniae
, or "grove of Feronia" (
Fiano Romano
) was the site of an annual festival in her honour,
[26]
[11]
which was in the nature of a trade fair.
[b]
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;
[28]
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
[29]
as
colonia Iulia Felix Lucoferonensis
.
[c]
Anxur, Terracina
[
edit
]
Another important site was near Anxur (
Terracina
, southern
Latium
), in a wood three Roman miles from the town, 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.
[11]
[7]
: 7.799
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.
Campus Martius, Rome
[
edit
]
Her temple in the
Campus Martius
, in what is now
Largo di Torre Argentina
, was probably also located in a grove, according to an inscription found on the site.
[32]
It was established before 217 BCE. It 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 near the temple.
[33]
Late continuation
[
edit
]
Charles Godfrey Leland
reported surviving traditions of the "witch" Feronia in 19th century
Tuscany
.
[34]
Namesakes
[
edit
]
The
asteroid
72 Feronia
is named for her.
- ^
Servius
says that Varro called the goddess Liberty
Feronia
or
Fidonia
.
[7]
: 8.564
- ^
Muller
(1828) identified her as a goddess of the marketplace.
[27]
- ^
Taylor
(1920) identifies the site as
Nazzano
.
[30]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Fowler, W.W.
(1908).
The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic
. London, UK. pp. 252?254.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
- ^
a
b
c
Dorcey, Peter F. (1992).
The Cult of Silvanus: A study in Roman folk religion
. Brill.
- ^
Livy
.
[no title cited]
. xxvi.11.8.
- ^
Festus
.
[no title cited]
. p. 308 L².
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Dumezil, G.
(1977).
La religione romana arcaica
[
Archaic Roman Religion
] (in Italian). Milano, IT: Rizzoli. pp. 361?366.
Con un'appendice sulla religione degli Etruschi Edizione e traduzione a cura di Furio Jesi.
- Italian translation of an expanded version of
Dumezil, G.
(1974).
La religion romaine archaique
[
Archaic Roman Religion
] (in French) (2nd ed.). Paris, FR: Payot.
- ^
Festus
[4]
as cited by Dumezil.
[5]
(p?363)
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Maurus Servius Honoratus
.
In Vergilii Aeneidem commentarii
[
Commentary on Vergil's Aeneid
] (in Latin). 7.799?800, 8.564.
- ^
Livy
.
[no title cited]
. 22.1.18.
- ^
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 9. 1966.
- ^
a
b
c
Farney, Gary D. (2007).
Ethnic Identity and Aristocratic competition in Republican Rome
. Cambridge University Press.
- ^
a
b
c
Coarelli, Filippo (1987).
I santuari del Lazio in eta Repubblicana
[
The sanctuaries of Lazio in the age of the Roman republic
] (in Italian). Rome, IT.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
- ^
Coarelli
[11]
cited by Farney.
[10]
(p?286)
- ^
Servius
[7]
: 7.800
cited by Dumezil.
[5]
(p?362)
- ^
Pliny the elder
.
Natural History
. II 146.
- ^
Pliny
[14]
as cited by Dumezil.
[5]
(p?362)
- ^
a
b
Vergil
.
Aeneid
.
- ^
Aeneid
[16]
(8.564)
and Servius's note to that passage.
[7]
- ^
Fratantuono, Lee (2007).
Madness Unchained: A reading of Virgil's
Aeneid
. Lexington Books. pp. 242, 248.
- ^
Varro
.
De lingua latina
[
The Latin Language
] (in Latin).
5.74
.
- ^
Horace
.
Satires
. 1.5.24.
- ^
Onians, R.B. (1951).
The Origins of European Thought about the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time, and Fate
. Cambridge University Press. p. 480.
- ^
Horace
[20]
as cited by Onians (1951).
[21]
- ^
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
.
Roman Antiquities
. III 32, 12.
- ^
Dionysius
[23]
cited by Dumezil.
[5]
(p?364)
- ^
Strabo
.
[no title cited]
. v.
Sub monte Soracte urbs est Feronia ...
- ^
Strabo
.
[no title cited]
. v.2.9.
- ^
Muller, K.O.
(1828).
Die Etrusker
[
The Etruscans
] (in German).
- ^
Livy
.
[no title cited]
. 26.11.
- ^
Codex Vaticanus Latinus 6808
.
Codex Vaticanus Latinus
.
- ^
Taylor, L.R.
(1920).
"The site of lucus Feroniae"
.
The Journal of Roman Studies
.
10
: 29?36.
doi
:
10.2307/295785
.
JSTOR
295785
.
S2CID
163491953
.
- ^
Gatti, G. (1905).
Notizie degli Scavi
. p. 15.
- ^
Gatti (1905)
[31]
cited by Dumezil.
[5]
(p?362)
- ^
Stamper, John W. (2005).
The Architecture of Roman Temples: The Republic to the middle Empire
. Cambridge University Press. pp. 44?45.
- ^
Leland, C.G.
(1892).
Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition
. chapter III ? Feronia.
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