TheLympha (pluralLymphae) is anancient Roman deity of fresh water.[1] She is one oftwelve agricultural deities listed byVarro as "leaders" (duces) ofRoman farmers, because "without water all agriculture is dry and poor."[2] The Lymphae are often connected toFons, meaning "Source" or "Font," a god offountains andwellheads. Lympha represents a "functional focus" of fresh water, according to Michael Lipka's conceptual approach to Roman deity,[3] or more generally moisture.[4]
Vitruvius preserves some of her associations in the section of his workOn Architecture in which he describes how the design of a temple building(aedes) should reflect the nature of the deity to be housed therein:
The character of theCorinthian order seems more appropriate toVenus,Flora,Proserpina, and the Nymphs[Lymphae] of the Fountains; because its slenderness, elegance and richness, and its ornamental leaves surmounted byvolutes, seem to bear an analogy to their dispositions.[5]
The nameLympha is equivalent to, but not entirely interchangeable withnympha, "nymph." One dedication for restoring the water supply was madenymphis lymphisque augustis, "for the nymphs andaugust lymphae," distinguishing the two[6] as does a passage fromAugustine of Hippo.[7] In poetic usage,lymphae as acommon noun, plural or less often singular, can mean a source of fresh water, or simply "water"; compare her frequent companion Fons, whose name is a word for "fountain," but who is also invoked as a deity.
When she appears in a list ofproper names for deities, Lympha is seen as an object of religious reverence embodying the divine aspect of water. Like several other nature deities who appear in both the singular and the plural (such asFaunus/fauni), she has both a unified and a multiple aspect.[8] She was the appropriate deity to pray to for maintaining the water supply, in the way thatLiber provided wine orCeres bread.[9]
The origin of the wordlympha is obscure. It may originally have beenlumpa orlimpa, related to the adjectivelimpidus meaning "clear, transparent" especially applied to liquids.[10] An intermediate formlumpha is also found.[11] The spelling seems to have been influenced by the Greek word νύμφαnympha, as theupsilon (Υ,υ) andphi (Φ,φ) are normally transcribed intoLatin asu ory andph orf.[12]
ThatLympha is anItalic concept[13] is indicated by theOscancognatediumpā- (recorded in thedative plural,diumpaís, "for the lymphae"), with a characteristic alternation ofd forl.[14] These goddesses appear on theTabula Agnonensis as one of 17Samnite deities, who include the equivalents of Flora, Proserpina, and possibly Venus (all categorized with the Lymphae by Vitruvius), as well as several of the gods on Varro'slist of the 12 agricultural deities. On the Oscan tablet, they appear in a group of deities who provide moisture for crops.[15] In theEtruscan-based cosmological schema ofMartianus Capella, the Lymphae are placed in the second of 16 celestial regions, withJupiter,Quirinus,Mars (these three constituting theArchaic Triad), theMilitary Lar,Juno, Fons, and the obscure Italo-EtruscanNovensiles.[16] A 1st-century A.D. dedication was made to the Lymphae jointly withDiana.[17]
The Italiclymphae were connected with healing cults.Juturna, who is usually called a "nymph," is identified by Varro asLympha: "Juturna is theLympha who aids: therefore many ailing people on account of her name customarily seek out this water", with a play on the nameIu-turna and the verbiuvare, "to help, aid."[18]Juturna's water shrine was a spring-fedlacus in theforum which attracted cure-seekers, andPropertius connected its potency toLake Albano andLake Nemi, where the famous sanctuary ofDiana Nemorensis was located.[19] Juturna's cult, whichServius identifies as afons, was maintained to ensure the water supply, and she was the mother of the deity Fons.[20]
InCisalpine Gaul, an inscription links the Lymphae to the Vires, "(Physical) Powers, Vigor", personified as a set of masculine divinities,[21] a connection that in his monumental workZeusArthur Bernard Cook located in the flowing or liquid aspect of the Lymphae as it relates to the production ofseminal fluid.[22] As a complement to the Vires, the Lymphae and the nymphs with whom they became so closely identified embody the urge to procreate, and thus these kinds of water deities are also associated with marriage and childbirth.[23] When Propertius alludes to the story of howTiresias spied the virgin goddessPallas Athena bathing, he plays on the sexual properties oflympha in advising againsttheophanies obtained against the will of the gods: "May the gods grant you other fountains(fontes): this liquid(lympha) flows for girls only, this pathless trickle of a secret threshold."[24]
TheAugustan poets frequently play with the ambiguous dual meaning oflympha as both "water source" and "nymph". In the poetry ofHorace,[25]lymphae work,[26] dance,[27] and make noise;[28] they are talkative,[29] and when they're angry they cause drought until their rites are observed.[30] Sometextual editors have responded to thispersonification by emendingmanuscript readings oflymphae tonymphae. When the first letter of a form of-ympha is obliterated or indistinct in an inscription, the word is usually taken asnympha instead of the less commonlympha.[31]
Roman mosaic depicting the abduction ofHylas by the nymphs
In thereligions of ancient Greece, Rome, and theCeltic territories,[32] water goddesses are commonly sources of inspiration or divine revelation, which may have the appearance of madness or frenzy. InGreek, "nympholepsy" ("seizure by the nymphs") was primarily "a heightening of awareness and elevated verbal skills" resulting from the influence of the nymphs on an individual.[33] The term also meant a physical snatching or abduction of a person by the nymphs, as in the myth ofHylas, and by extension became a euphemism or metaphor for death, as evidenced by both Greek and Roman epitaphs.[34] A person who was a religious devotee of the nymphs might also be called a "nympholept."[35]
TheLatin verblympho, lymphare meant "to drive crazy" or "to be in a state of frenzy," with the adjectiveslymphaticus andlymphatus meaning "frenzied, deranged" and theabstract nounlymphatio referring to the state itself.Vergil uses the adjectivelymphata only once,[36] in theAeneid to describe the madness ofAmata, wife ofLatinus, goaded by theFuryAllecto and raving contrary tomos, socially sanctioned behavior.[37]
Among the Greeks, the Cult of the Nymphs was a part ofecstaticOrphic orDionysiac religion. The adjectivelymphatus was "strongly evocative of Bacchic frenzy,"[38] and theRoman playwrightPacuvius (220–130 BC) explicitly connects it tosacra Bacchi, "rites ofBacchus."[39] R.B. Onians explained the "fluidity" of the ecstatic gods in the context of ancient theories about the relation of body and mind, with dryness a quality of rationality and liquid productive of emotion. Water as alocus of divine, even frenzied inspiration links the Lymphae to the LatinCamenae, who became identified with theMuses.[40]
In his entry onLymphae, thelexicographerFestus notes that the Greek wordnympha had influenced the Latin name, and elaborates:
Popular belief has it that whoever see a certain vision in a fountain, that is, an apparition of a nymph, will go quite mad. These people the Greeks callnumpholêptoi ["Nymph-possessed"] and the Romans,lymphatici.[41]
Because the states of madness, possession, and illness were not always strictly distinguished in antiquity, "nympholepsy" became a morbid or undesirable condition.[42]Isidore compares Greekhydrophobia, which literally means "fear of water," and says that "lymphaticus is the word for one who contracts a disease from water, making him run about hither and thither, or from the disease gotten from a flow of water." In poetic usage, he adds, thelymphatici are madmen.[43]
During theChristianization of the Empire inlate antiquity, the positive effects of possession by a nymph were erased, and nymphs weresyncretized withfallen angels and dangerous figures such as theLamia andGello.[42]Tertullian amplifies from aChristian perspective anxieties thatunclean spirits might lurk in various water sources, noting that men whom waters(aquae) have killed or driven to madness or a terrified state are called "nymph-caught(nympholeptos) or lymphatic or hydrophobic."[44]
^Floyd G. Ballentine, "Some Phases of the Cult of the Nymphs,"Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 15 (1904), p. 90.
^Varro,De re rustica 1.1.4–7; Peter F. Dorcey,The Cult of Silvanus: A Study in Roman Folk Religion (Brill, 1992), p. 136.
^Michael Lipka,Roman Gods: A Conceptual Approach (Brill, 2009), p. 67.
^Patricia A. Johnston, "The Mystery Cults and Vergil'sGeorgics," inMystic Cults in Magna Graecia (University of Texas Press, 2009), p. 268; Matthew Dillon andLynda Garland,Ancient Rome: from the early Republic to the assassination of Julius Caesar (Routledge, 2005), p. 137.
^Vitruvius,De architectura1.1.5, Bill Thayer's edition atLacusCurtius of the translation by Joseph Gwilt,The Architecture of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (London, 1826). The Latin text at LacusCurtius is that ofValentin Rose's 1899Teubner edition:Veneri Florae Proserpinae Fonti Lumphis corinthio genere constitutae aptas videbuntur habere proprietates, quod his diis propter teneritatem graciliora et florida foliisque et volutis ornata opera facta augere videbuntur iustum decorem. Atextualcrux occurs at the relevant phrase: Gwilt translatesFontium Lumphis ("for the Lymphae of the Fountains"), but some editions giveFonti Lumphis ("for Fons, for the Lymphae").
^CIL 5.3106; Ballentine, "Some Phases," p. 95;Theodor Bergk, "Kritische bemerkungen zu den römische tragikern,"Philologus 33 (1874), p. 269.
^Augustine of Hippo,De civitate Dei 4.34: the ancient Jews, he says, "did not worship Nymphs and Lymphs when the rock was smitten and poured forth water for the thirsty" (nec quando sitientibus aquam percussa petra profudit, Nymphas Lymphasque coluerunt, English translation by R.W. Dyson).
^Lipka,Roman Gods, p. 67;Joshua Whatmough,The Foundations of Roman Italy (1937), p. 159. The simultaneous oneness and multiplicity of these deities is an example ofmonotheistic tendencies in ancient religion: "Lower gods were executors or manifestations of thedivine will rather than independent principles of reality. Whether they are called gods, demons, angels, ornumina, these immortal beings are emanations of the One": Michele Renee Salzman, "Religiouskoine in Private Cult and Ritual: Shared Religious Traditions in Roman Religion in the First Half of the Fourth Century CE," inA Companion to Roman Religion (Blackwell, 2007), p. 113. The nymphs, with whom thelymphae are identified, are among the beings who inhabit forests, woodlands, and groves(silvas,nemora,lucos) and ponds, water sources and streams(lacus, fontes ac fluvios), according toMartianus Capella (2.167), who lists these beings aspans,fauns,fontes,satyrs,silvani, nymphs,fatui andfatuae (orfautuae), and the mysteriousFanae, from which thefanum (sacred precinct or shrine) is supposed to get its name.
^Ballentine, "Some Phases," p. 91, citingAugustine,De civitate Dei 4.22, 34; 6.1.
^Entries onlimpidus andlympha,Oxford Latin Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982, 1985 reprinting), pp. 1031 and 1055;Arthur Sidgwick,P.vergili Maronis Aeneidos Liber VII (Cambridge University Press Archive, n.d.), p. 61, note 377; Fernando Navarro Antolín,Lygdamus. Corpus Tibullianum III. 1–6: Lygdami elegiarum liber (Brill, 1996), pp. 418–419. In hisEtymologies (20.3.4),Isidore of Seville says that "limpid(limpidus) wine, that is, clear, is so called from its resemblance to water, as if it werelymphidum, becauselympha is water"; translation by Stephen A. Barneyet al.,The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 398.
^CIL 1.1238, as cited by Bergk, "Kritische bemerkungen zu den römische tragikern," p. 269. Bergk demonstrated thatlympha was in origin Italic, and not a borrowed Greek term, despite the spelling.
^Bergk, "Kritische bemerkungen zu den römische tragikern," pp. 264–269.
^Jacqueline Champeaux, "Sorts et divination inspirée. Pour une préhistoire des oracles italiques,"Mélanges de l'École française de Rome 102.2 (1990), p. 827.
^Whatmough,Foundations of Roman Italy, p. 383;R.S. Conway,The Italic Dialects (Cambridge University Press, 1897), p. 676; Johnston,Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia, p. 268; Bergk, "Kritische bemerkungen," p. 265.
^Johnston,Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia, pp. 268–269.
^Varro,De lingua latina 5.71: (Lympha Iuturna quae iuvaret: itaque multi aegroti propter id nomen hanc aquam petere solent). See alsoFrontinus,On Aqueducts 1.4, where Juturna is in company with theCamenae andApollo. C. Bennett Pascal,The Cults of Cisalpine Gaul (Latomus, 1964), p. 93, reads an inscription as linking theCeltic godBelenus (usually identified with Apollo) and theLymphae, butDessau readsNymphae (ILS 4867).Servius, note toAeneid 12.139, has Juturna as afons, andPropertius4.21.26, as thelympha salubris who restored a horse ofPollux (some editions emend tonympha; see note to the line atSexti Aurelii Propertii Elegiarum Libri Quattuor, edited by N. Lemaire (1840), p. 448online).
^Lawrence Richardson,A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), pp. 74, 105, 152, 228, 230–231.
^Servius, note toAeneid 12.139: "Juturna is a fountain(fons) in Italy. … It was customary to offer sacrifices to this fountain in respect to a scarcity of water," as cited and discussed by Ballentine, "Some Phases," pp. 91–93. The temple was vowed byG. Lutatius Catulus as the result of anaval battle during theFirst Punic War.Arnobius,Adversus Nationes 3.29, identifies her as the mother of Fons.
^CIL 5.5648; Joseph Clyde Murley,The Cults of Cisalpine Gaul as Seen in the Inscriptions (Banta, 1922), pp. 32–33.
^R.B. Onians,The Origins of European Thought about the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time and Fate (Cambridge University Press, 1951), p. 220; Ballentine, "Some Phases of the Cult of the Nymphs," p. 97ff; on marriage (mainly in regard to nymphs, but see note 216), Salvatore Settis, "'Esedra' e 'ninfeo' nella terminologia architettonica del mondo romano,"Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt (1973), pp. 685–688.
^Propertius,Elegies 4.9.59–60, as cited and discussed by Tara S. Welch, "Masculinity and Monuments in Propertius 4.9,"American Journal of Philology 125 (2004), p. 81.
^Bergk, "Kritische bemerkungen zu den römische tragikern," pp. 268–269; Wilhelm Adolf Boguslaw Hertzberg, note to Propertius 3.16,Sex. Aurelii Propertii Elegiarum Libri Quattuor (1845), p. 340.
^Ausonius,Ordo urbium nobilium 20.29–34, mentioningDivona; entry on "Spring deities" inCeltic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, edited by John Koch (ABC-Clio, 2006), pp. 1623–1624.
^Jennifer Lynn Larson,Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore (Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 13.
^Gertrude Hirst, "An Attempt to Date the Composition ofAeneid VII,"Classical Quarterly 10 (1916), p. 93.
^Vergil,Aeneid 7.377, as noted by Sidgwick, p. 61, and R.D. Williams,The Aeneid of Vergil: Books 7–12 (St. Martins Press, 1973, 1977), pp. 195–196, who observes that it is "a very strong word." See also Debra Hershkowitz,The Madness of Epic: Reading Insanity from Homer to Statius (Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 50.
^As atPacuvius.Trag. 422f.;Catullus 64.254, theAriadneepyllion; andLucan,Bellum Civile 1.496, as noted by Paul Roche,Lucan: De Bello Civili, Book 1 (Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 309.
^Pacuvius as quoted by Varro,De lingua latina 7.5. See also Johnston,Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia, p. 268. In 186 BC, during the lifetime of Pacuvius, theRoman senate placed severe legalrestrictions on the Bacchanalia, the Dionysian rites celebrated in Italy.
^R.B. Onians,The Origins of European Thought about the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time and Fate (Cambridge University Press, 1951), pp. 34–35, 67.
^Translation from Larson,Greek Nymphs, pp. 62–63. Festus states that theLymphae are "called that after the nymphs," then explains:Vulgo autem memoriae proditum est, quicumque speciem quandam e fonte, id est effigiem nymphae, viderint, furendi non feciesse finem; quos Graeci νυμφολήπτους vocant. Latini lymphaticos appellant (p. 107, Teubner 1997 edition of Lindsay).
^Isidore,Etymologies 4.6.12 and 10.L.161, as translated by Barneyet al., pp. 110, 223. See alsoFestus, entry onLymphae, p. 107 in theedition of Lindsay.
^Tertullian, "On Baptism" 2.5. translated by S. Thelwall: "Are there not other cases, too, in which, without any sacrament,unclean spirits brood on waters, in spurious imitation of that brooding of the Divine Spirit in the very beginning? Witness all shady founts(fontes), and all unfrequented brooks, and the ponds in the baths and the conduits in private houses, the cisterns and wells which are said to have the property of 'spiriting away' through the power, that is, of a hurtful spirit. Men whom waters have drowned or affected with madness or with fear, they call nymph-caught(nympholeptos), or 'lymphatic,' or 'hydrophobic'(an non et alias sine ullo sacramento immundi spiritus aquis incubant adfectantes illam in primordio divini spiritus gestationem? sciunt opaci quique fontes et avii quique rivi, et in balneis piscinae et euripi in domibus vel cisternae, et putei quirapere dicuntur, scilicet per vim spiritus nocentis. nam et esetos et lymphaticos et hydrophobas vocant quos aquae necaverunt aut amentia vel formidine exercuerunt).
