Roman deity
Libitina, alsoLibentina orLubentina, is anancient Roman goddess offunerals and burial. Her name was used as ametonymy for death,[1] and undertakers were known aslibitinarii.[2] Libitina was associated withVenus, and the name appears in some authors as anepithet of Venus.[3]
The grove(lucus) of Libitina was located on theEsquiline Hill,[4] as were several religious sites indicating that the area had "unhealthy and ill-omened" associations.[5] A public cemetery was located outside theEsquiline Gate, in theCampus Esquilinus.[6] A temple of Venus in the grove of Libitina celebrated its founding anniversary August 19, the day of theVinalia Rustica.[7] When a person died, the treasury of the temple collected a coin as a "death tax" supposed to have been established byServius Tullius.[8] During a plague in 65 AD, 30,000 deaths were recorded at the temple.[9]Livy notes two occasions when the death toll exceeded Libitina's capacity.[10] A panel(collegium) of funeral directors(dissignatores) was based in the grove of Libitina.[11]
Libitina is sometimes regarded asEtruscan in origin.[12] The name is perhaps derived fromEtruscanlupu-, "to die."[13]Varro, however, offers aLatin etymology fromlubere, "to be pleasing," related tolibido, that attempts to explain the goddess's connection to Venus.[14]Venus Lubentina orLibitina may result from anidentification with the EtruscanAlpanu (also as Alpan or Alpnu) who had characteristics of both a love goddess and an underworld deity. The Etruscan formulaalpan turce is equivalent tolibens dedit, "gave freely or willingly," in Latin.[15]
- ^Horace,Sermones 2.16.19 and Odes 3.30.7; Verity Platt,Facing the Gods: Epiphany and Representation in Graeco-Roman Art, Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 355.
- ^New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology (Hamlyn, 1968), p. 209.
- ^Varro, as preserved by Nonius, p. 64 (Müller); Cicero,De natura deorum 2.23;Dionysius Halicarnassus 4.15;Plutarch,Roman Questions 23.
- ^Lawrence Richardson,A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), p. 409.
- ^These sites included the cult ofDea Febris, the goddess of fever; a shrine to the goddessMefitis, associated with toxic gases emitted from the earth; and an altar of Mala Fortuna ("Bad Luck"); Paul F. Burke, "Malaria in the Graeco-Roman World,"Aufstieg und Niedergang der römische Welt II.37.2 (1995), p. 2268.
- ^Donald G. Kyle,Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome (Routledge, 1998, 2001), p. 164.
- ^Festus p. 322 in the edition of Lindsay; Richardson,Topographical Dictionary, p. 409.
- ^Dionysius Halicarnassus 4.15.5; Plutarch,Roman Questions 23; Richardson,Topographical Dictionary, p. 409; Kyle,Spectacles of Death, p. 166.
- ^Suetonius,Life of Nero39.1; Kyle,Spectacles of Death, p. 178.
- ^Livy 40.19.4 and 41.21.6.
- ^Horace,Epistulae 1.7.6f.;Seneca,De beneficiis 6.38.4;Jörg Rüpke,Religion of the Romans (Polity Press, 2007, originally published in German 2001), p. 235.
- ^Hendrik Wagenvoort, "The Origin of the Goddess Venus," inPietas: Selected Studies in Roman Religion (Brill, 1980), p. 178; Daniel P. Harmon, "Religion in the Latin Elegists,"Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.16.3 (1986), p. 1924.
- ^Harmon, "Religion in the Latin Elegists," p. 1924, citing Paul Kretschmer, "Die protoindogermanische Schicht,"Glotta 14 (1925), p. 307.
- ^Varro,De lingua latina 6.47.
- ^Harmon, "Religion in the Latin Elegists," p. 1924, citing Robert Schilling,La religion romaine de Vénus depuis les origines jusqu'au temps d'Auguste, Bibliothèque des Écoles d'Athènes et de Rome 178 (Paris, 1954).
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