Inancient Roman religion,agricultural deities were thought to care for every aspect of growing, harvesting, and storing crops. Preeminent among these are such major deities asCeres andSaturn, but a large number of the manyRoman deities known by name either supported farming or were devoted solely to a specific agricultural function.
From 272 to 264 BC, four temples were dedicated separately to the agricultural deitiesConsus,Tellus,Pales, andVortumnus. The establishment of four such temples within a period of eight years indicates a high degree of concern for stabilizing and developing the productivity of Italy following thePyrrhic War.[1]
At the beginning of his treatise onfarming,Varro[2] 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:
Twelve specialized gods known only by name are invoked for the "cereal rite"(sacrum cereale) in honor of Ceres and Tellus.[7] The twelve are all male, with names formed from theagent suffix-tor. Although their gender indicates that they are not aspects of the two goddesses who were the main recipients of thesacrum, their names are "mere appellatives" for verbal functions.[8] The rite was held just before theFeriae Sementivae.W.H. Roscher lists these deities among theindigitamenta, lists of names kept by the pontiffs for invoking specific divine functions.[9]
The names of other specialized agricultural gods are preserved in scattered sources.[11]
Rusina is a goddess of the fields (from Latinrus, ruris; cf. English "rural" and "rustic").[12]
Rusor is invoked withAltor by the pontiffs in a sacrifice to the earth deitiesTellus andTellumo. In interpreting the god's function, Varro derivesRusor fromrursus, "again," because of the cyclical nature of agriculture.[13] As a matter of linguistics, the name is likely to derive from either the rootru-, as inRumina, thebreastfeeding goddess (perhaps fromruma, "teat"),[14] orrus, ruris as the male counterpart of Rusina.[15]Altor is anagent god from the verbalo, alere, altus, "to grow, nurture, nourish". According to Varro, he receivedres divina because "all things which are born are nourished from the earth".[16]
Sator (from the same root asInsitor above), the "sower" god.[17]
Seia, goddess who protects the seed once sown in the earth; also as Fructesea, compounded withfructus, "produce, fruit"[18]
Segesta, goddess who promotes the growth of the seedling.
Hostilina, goddess who makes grain grow evenly.[19]
Lactans[20] orLacturnus,[21] god who infuses crops with "milk" (sap or juice).
Volutina, goddess who induces "envelopes" (involumenta) or leaf sheaths to form.[22]
Nodutus, god who causes the "knot" (Latinnodus[23]) or node to form.
Patelana (Patelena, Patella), goddess who opens up(pateo, patere) the grain, possibly in reference to the emergence of theflag leaf.[12]
Runcina (as inSubruncinator above), the weeder goddess, or a goddess of mowing.[12]
Messia, the female equivalent ofMessor the reaper, and associated withTutelina.
Noduterensis (compareNodutus)[24] orTerensis, the god of threshing
Tutelina (alsoTutulina orTutilina), a goddess who watches over the stored grain.[25]
Sterquilinus (also asSterces, Stercutus, Sterculus, Sterculinus), whomanures the fields.
^Ceres' twelveassistant deities are listed byServius, note toGeorgics1.21, as cited inBarbette Stanley Spaeth,The Roman Goddess Ceres (University of Texas Press, 1996), p. 36. Servius cites the historianFabius Pictor (late 3rd century BC) as his source.
^Michael Lipka,Roman Gods: A Conceptual Approach (Brill, 2009), p. 69.
^Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher,Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie (Leipzig: Teubner, 1890–94), vol. 2, pt. 1, pp. 187–233.
^abPrice, Simon; Beard, Mary; North, John (1999).A history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 11.ISBN9780521316828.
^Name known only from Augustine,De civitate Dei 4.8, where it is derived from anOld Latin verbhostire "to make even".
^As named only byServius, note toGeorgics 1.315, citingVarro:sane Varro in libris divinarum dicit deum esse Lactantem, qui se infundit segetibus et eas facit lactescere.
^As named by Augustine,De Civitate Dei 4.8; Roscher,Ausführliches Lexikon, vol. 2, pt. 1, p. 201, suggests the two names probably refer to the same divine entity.
