Depictions of Neptune in Romanmosaics, especially those inNorth Africa, were influenced byHellenistic conventions.[4] He was likely associated with freshwater springs before the sea;[5] his festival,Neptunalia, took place on July 23, during the peak of summer when water was scarcest. Like Poseidon, he was also worshipped by the Romans as a god of horses,Neptunus equestris, who was also apatron of horse-racing.[6][7]
Mosaic of Neptune (Regional Archeological Museum Antonio Salinas,Palermo)Roman mosaic on a wall in the House of Neptune and Amphitrite,Herculaneum, ItalyTheChichester inscription, which reads (in English): "To Neptune andMinerva, for the welfare of the Divine House, by the authority ofTiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, Great King in Britain, the college of artificers and those therein erected this temple from their own resources [...]ens, son of Pudentinus, donated the site."Neptune (1802) byCatalan sculptor Nicolau Travé, with twonereids by Antoni Solà (Barcelona: Llotja de Mar)Triumph of Neptune, Roman mosaic with the seasons in each corner and agricultural scenes and flora (La Chebba, Tunisia, late 2nd century, Bardo National Museum)Triumph of Poseidon andAmphitrite, showing the couplein procession. Detail of a large Roman mosaic fromCirta,Roman Africa (c. 315–325 AD, now at theLouvre)
Thetheology of Neptune is limited by his close identification with the Greek godPoseidon, one of many members of theGreek pantheon whose theology was later tied to aRoman deity.[8] Thelectisternium of 399 BC indicated that the Greek figures of Poseidon,Artemis, andHeracles had been introduced and worshipped in Rome as Neptune, Diana, and Hercules.[9] It has been speculated that Neptune has been conflated with aProto-Indo-European freshwater deity; since the Indo-Europeans lived inland and had little direct knowledge of the sea, the Romans may have reused the theology of a previous freshwater god in their worship of Neptune.[10][11]Servius explicitly names Neptune as the god of rivers, springs, and waters;[12] he may parallel theIrish godNechtan, master of rivers and wells.[citation needed] This is in contrast to Poseidon, who was primarily a god of the sea.[13]
Neptune has been associated with a number of other Roman deities. By the first century BC, he had supplantedPortunus as the god of naval victories;Sextus Pompeius called himself the "son of Neptune".[14] For a time, Neptune was paired in his dominion of the sea withSalacia, the goddess ofsaltwater.[15] Neptune was considered the legendary progenitor god of theFalisci (who called themselvesNeptunia proles), joiningMars,Janus,Saturn, andJupiter as the deific father of a Latin tribe.[16]
Neptunalia, the Roman festival of Neptune, was held at the height of summer (typically on July 23). The date of the festival and the construction of tree-branch shelters suggest that Neptune was a god of water sources in times of drought and heat.[17] The most ancientRoman calendar set theferiae of Neptunus on July 23, between theLucaria festival of the grove and theFurrinalia festival of July 25. All three festivals were connected to water during the period of summer heat (canicula) and drought, when freshwater sources were lowest.[18]
It has been speculated that the three festivals fall in a logical order. TheLucaria was devoted to clearing overgrown bushes and uprooting and burning excess vegetation.[18] Neptunalia followed, devoted to conservation and the draining of superficial waters. These culminated in theFurrinalia, sacred toFurrina (the goddess of springs and wells).
Neptunalia was spent under branch huts in a woods between theTiber and theVia Salaria, with participants drinking spring water and wine to escape the heat.[19] It was a time of merrymaking, when men and women could mix without the usual Roman societal constraints.[20] There is an added context of agricultural fertility in the festival, since Neptune received the sacrifice of a bull.[21]
Neptune is one of only four Roman gods to whom it was considered appropriate to sacrifice a bull. The other three wereApollo,Mars, andJupiter, althoughVulcan (known in Greek mythology as Hephaestus) has also been depicted with the offering of a red bull and a red-bull calf.[27] If an incorrect offering was presented, either inadvertently or due to necessity, additionalpropitiation was required to avoid divine retribution. This type of offering implied a stricter connection between the deity and the world.[28]
Paredrae are entities who accompany a god, representing the fundamental aspects (or powers) of that god. With Hellenic influence, theseparedrae came to be considered separate deities and consorts of their associated god.[29] Earlier folk belief might have also identifiedparedrae as consorts of their god.[30]
Salacia andVenilia have been discussed by ancient and modern scholars. Varro connects Salacia tosalum (sea), and Venilia toventus (wind).[31] Festus attributed to Salacia the motion of the sea.[32] Venilia brought waves to the shore, and Salacia caused their retreat out to sea.[33] They were examined by the Christian philosopherSt. Augustine, who devoted a chapter ofDe Civitate Dei to ridiculing inconsistencies in the theological definition of the entities; since Salacia personified the deep sea, Augustine wondered how she could also be the retreating waves (since waves are a surface phenomenon).[33] He wrote elsewhere that Venilia would be the "hope that comes", an aspect (or power) of Jupiter understood asanima mundi.[34]
Servius, in his commentary on theAeneid, wrote about Salacia and Venilia in V 724: "(Venus) dicitur et Salacia, quae proprie meretricum dea appellata est a veteribus"; "(Venus) is also called Salacia, who was particularly named goddess of prostitutes by the ancient". Elsewhere, he wrote that Salacia and Venilia are the same entity.[35]
Among modern scholars, Dumézil and his followers Bloch and Schilling centre their interpretation of Neptune on the direct, concrete, limited value and functions of water. Salacia would represent the forceful, violent aspect of gushing and overflowing water and Venilia the tranquil, gentle aspect of still (or slowly-flowing) water. According to Dumézil,[36] Neptune's twoparedrae (Salacia and Venilia) represent the overpowering and tranquil aspects of water, natural and domesticated: Salacia the gushing, overbearing waters, and Venilia the still (or quietly-flowing) waters.[37]
Preller, Fowler, Petersmann and Takács attribute to the theology of Neptune broader significance as a god of universal worldly fertility, particularly relevant to agriculture and human reproduction. They interpret Salacia as personifying lust, and Venilia as related tovenia: ingratiating attraction, connected with love and the desire for reproduction.Ludwig Preller cited a significant aspect of Venilia; she was recorded in theindigitamenta as a deity of longing or desire. According to Preller, this would explain a theonym similar to that of Venus.[38] Other data seem to agree; Salacia would parallelThetis as the mother of Achilles, and Venilia would be the mother ofTurnus andIuturna byDaunus (king of theRutulians). According to another source, Venilia would be the partner ofJanus, with whom she mothered the nymphCanens (loved byPicus).[39] These mythical data underline the reproductive function envisaged in the figures of Neptune'sparedrae, particularly that of Venilia, in childbirth and motherhood. A legendary kingVenulus was remembered atTibur andLavinium.[40]
Before Poseidon was known as the god of the sea, he was connected to the horse and may have originally been depicted in equine form. This connection reflects the violent and brutal nature of Poseidon the earth-shaker, the linkage of horses and springs, and the animal'spsychopompous character.[41] Neptune, in contrast, has no such direct connection with horses. The Roman deityConsus was associated with the horse, and his underground altar was in the valley of theCircus Maximus at the foot of thePalatine (the site of horse races). On the summerConsualia (August 21) it was customary to bring horses and mules, crowned with flowers, in procession and then hold equine races in the Circus.[42] The festival also traditionally reenacted the abduction of the Sabine (and Latin) women, reflecting the sexual license characteristic of such festivals.[43] On that day, theFlamen Quirinalis and theVestal Virgins made sacrifices on the underground altar of Consus. The proximity of the twoConsualia to theOpiconsivia (the latter were four days later, the winter festival on December 19) indicates the relationship between the two deities pertaining to agriculture. According to Dumézil, the horse has a much-different symbolic value in the theologies of Poseidon and Consus. Tertullian (De Spectaculis V 7) wrote that according to Roman tradition, Consus was the god who advisedRomulus on the abduction of the Sabines.[44]
Perhaps influenced by Poseidon Ίππιος, Consus (whose festival included horse races) was reinterpreted asNeptunus equestris; for his underground altar, he was identified with Poseidon Ένοσίχθων. The etymology ofPoseidon, derived fromPosis (lord or husband) andDe (grain or earth) may have contributed to the identification of Consus with Neptune.[45] His arcane cult, which required the unearthing of the altar, indicate the deity's antiquity andchthonic nature. From Augustine (De Civitate Dei IV 8, about the role ofTutilina in assuring the safety of stored grain), Dumézil interprets its name as deriving fromcondere (to hide or store) as a verbal noun similar toSancus andJanus: the god of stored grains.[46] A direct identification of Consus with Poseidon is hindered by the fact that Poseidon is nowhere worshipped at underground shrines or altars.[47]
Martianus Capella places Neptune and Consus together in region X of Heaven, possibly following an oldinterpretatio graeca of Consus or reflecting an Etruscan idea of a chthonic Neptune apparent in the recommendation of theDe Haruspicum Responso[48] forpropitiating Neptune for the cracking sounds heard underground in theager latiniensis.[clarification needed] The Etruscans were also fond of horse races.[49]
The Etruscan name of Neptune isNethuns. It had been believed that Neptune derived fromEtruscan, but this view has been disputed.[50][51] Nethuns was apparently important to theEtruscans. His name is found in two places on theLiver of Piacenza: on the outer rim of section seven, and on thegallbladder of section 28. This last location aligns with Pliny the Elder's belief that the gallbladder was sacred to Neptune.[52] The nameNethuns occurs eight times in columns VII, IX, and XI of theLiber Linteus.[53]
On a mirror fromTuscania (E. S. 1. 76), Nethuns is represented talking toUśil (the sun) andThesan (the goddess of dawn). Nethuns is seated on the left, holding a double-ended trident in his right hand and with his left arm raised as if giving instructions. Uśil is standing in the centre, holdingAplu's bow in his right hand. Thesan is on the right, with her right hand on Uśil's shoulder; both are listening intently to Nethuns' words. The identification of Uśil with Aplu (and his association with Nethuns) is emphasised by ananguiped demon holding two dolphins on anexergue. The scene highlights the identities and association of Nethuns and Aplu (here identified as Uśil) as main deities of the worldly realm and the life cycle. Thesan and Uśil-Aplu, who has been identified with Śuri (Soranus Pater, the underworld sun god) clarify the transience of earthly life.[54]
Neptune is a god of fertility, including human fertility.[55] According to Stephen Weinstock, Jupiter is present in each of the first three regions with different aspects related to each region; Neptune should have been in the second region, and Pluto in the third. The reason for Neptune's displacement to region X is unclear.[56] It is consistent with the collocation in the third quadrant of the deities related to the human world.[57]
Arnobius provides information about the theology of Neptune. Neptune andApollo were considered EtruscanPenates, and the deities were credited with givingIlium its walls. In another tradition based on the same source, the Etruscan Penates wereFortuna,Ceres,Genius Iovialis andPales.[58]
Neptune andAmymone, fresco inStabiae, Italy, 1st century
The etymology of the LatinNeptunus is unclear and disputed.[59] The ancient grammarianVarro derived the name fromnuptus ("covering",opertio), alluding tonuptiae ("the marriage of Heaven and Earth").[60]
Among modern scholars,Paul Kretschmer proposed a derivation from theIndo-European*neptu- ("moist substance").[61] Raymond Bloch similarly theorised that it might be an adjectival form (-no) of*nuptu- ("he who is moist").[62]
Georges Dumézil said that words deriving from the root*nep- are not attested in Indo-European languages other thanVedic Sanskrit andAvestan. He proposed an etymology which joinsNeptunus with the Indian and Iranian theonymsApam Napat and Apam Napá and the Old Irish theonymNechtan, all meaning "descendant of the waters". Using acomparative approach, the Indo-Iranian, Avestan and Irish figures have common features with the Roman legends about Neptune. Dumézil proposed to derive the nouns from the Indo-European rootnépōts- ("descendant, sister's son").[63][64] His former student,Indo-EuropeanistJaan Puhvel, theorises that the name might have meant "child (neve, nephew) of the water" as part of anIndo-European fire-in-water myth.[65]
A different etymology, grounded in the legendary history of Latium and Etruria, was proposed by the 19th-century scholarsLudwig Preller,Karl Otfried Müller andWilhelm Deeke. The name of the Etruscan deityNethuns or Nethunus (NÈDVNVZ) would be an adjectival form of the toponym Nepe(t) or Nepete (present-dayNepi), nearFalerii. The district was traditionally connected to the cult of Neptune, andMessapus andHalesus (the eponymous hero of Falerii) were believed to be his sons. Messapus led the Falisci (and others) to war in theAeneid.[66] Nepi and Falerii have been known since antiquity for the quality of their meadow springwater.Nepet might be considered a hydronymic toponym of pre-Indo-European origin from a noun meaning "damp wide valley, plain", a cognate of theproto-Greekνάπη ("wooded vale, chasm").[67]
In lectures delivered during the 1990s, German scholar Hubert Petersmann proposed an etymology from the Indo-European root*nebh- ("damp, wet") with the suffix-tu (for an abstract verbal noun) and the adjectival suffix-no (domain of activity). The root*nebh- gives the Sanskritnābhah, Hittitenepis, Latinnubs,nebula, GermanNebel, and the Slavicnebo. The concept would be close to that expressed in the name of the Greek godΌυράνος (Uranus), derived from the root*h2wórso- ("to water or irrigate") and*h2worsó- ("the irrigator").[68][69]
Petersmann proposes a different interpretation of Neptune's theology.[70] Developing his understanding of the theonym as rooted in the Indo-European*nebh, he writes that the god would be an ancient deity of the cloudy, rainy sky in company with (and in opposition to)Zeus/Jupiter, the god of clear skies. Similar toCaelus, he would be the father of all earthly things through the fertilising power of rain. Thehieros gamos of Neptune and Earth is reflected in Virgil'sAeneid V 14 (pater Neptunus). Neptune's power would be reflected bySalacia, one of hisparedrae, who also denotes the overcast sky. His otherparedra,Venilia, is associated with the wind as well as the sea. Thetheonym may be rooted in*venilis, a postulated adjective deriving from the IE root*ven(h) ("to love or desire") in the Sanskritvánati, vanóti ("he loves"), GermanWonne, and the LatinVenus,venia. Neptune's dual nature is found inCatullus 31. 3: "uterque Neptunus".[71]
According to Petersmann, the ancient Indo-Europeans also venerated a god of wetness as the generator of life; this is indicated by theHittite theonymsnepišaš (D)IŠKURaš ornepišaš (D)Tarhunnaš ("lord of sky wet"), the sovereign of Earth and humanity.[72] Although this function was transferred to Zeus/Jupiter (the sovereigns of weather), the old function survived in literature: theAeneid V 13-14 reads, "Heu, quianam tanti cinxerunt aethera nimbi?/ quidve, pater Neptune, paras?" ("What, why have so many clouds enringed the sky? What are you preparing, father Neptune?")[73] The indispensability of water and its connection to reproduction are universally known.[74]
Müller and Deeke interpreted Neptune's theology as a divine ancestor of the Latin Faliscans: the father ofMessapus and Halesus, their heroic founders.William Warde Fowler considered Salacia the personification of the virile potency which generated a Latin people, parallel with Mars, Saturn, Janus and Jupiter.[75]
Etruscan representations of Neptune are rare but significant. The oldest of them may be a fourth-century BC carvedcarnelianscarab fromVulci of Nethuns kicking a rock and creating a spring (Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale,Cabinet des Medailles. Another Etruscan artifact (Nethunus, from the Luynes collection) depicts the god causing a horse to spring from the earth with a blow of his trident.[76]
A late-fourth-century bronze mirror in theVatican Museums (Museo Gregoriano Etrusco: C.S.E. Vaticano 1.5a) depicts Neptune withAmymone (daughter ofDanaus), whom he saves from assault by a satyr and teaches the art of creating springs. On a bronze mirror from Tuscania dated to 350 BC, also in the Vatican Museums (Museo Gregoriano Etrusco E. S. 1. 76), Nethuns is talking to Usil and Thesan. He holds a double-ended trident, suggesting that he might be able wield lightning bolts.[77]
Bloch, Raymond (1981). "Quelques remarques sur Poseidon, Neptunus et Nethuns".Comptes-rendus des séances de l' Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Letres. Vol. 2. pp. 341–352.
Nancy Thomson De Grummond 2006.Etruscan Mythology, Sacred History and Legend: An Introduction, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology,ISBN1-931707-86-3.
Georges Dumézil 1977.La religione romana arcaica. Con un 'appendice sulla religione degli Etruschi Edizione e traduzione a cura di Furio Jesi: Milano Rizzoli (Italian translation conducted on an expanded version of the 2nd edition ofLa religion romaine archaïque Paris Payot 1974).
Fowler, William Warde (1912).The Religious experience of the Roman People. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Sarolta A. Takacs 2008.Vestal Virgins, Sibyls and Matronae: Women in Roman Religion, University of Texas Press.
Georg Wissowa 1912.Religion und Kultus der Rőmer Munich.
^J. Toutain,Les cultes païens de l'Empire romain, vol. I (1905:378) securely identified Italic Neptune as a saltwater sources as well as the sea.
^Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia,The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215.
^About the relationship of the lord of our earthly world with water(s) Bloch, p. 342-346, gives the following explanations:
Poseidon is originally conceived as achthonic god, lord and husband of the Earth (for the etymolog gearoid γαιήοχος, he who possesses the Earth, εννοσίδας he who makes the Earth quake) with an equine form. He mates withDemeter under this form in the Arcadian myth fromThelpusa, they beget the racing horseAreion and the unnamed daughter of those mysteries (story inPausanias VIII 25, 3).
Poseidonhippios (horse) is the god of Earth and as springs come from beneath the earth, this is also a metaphora (or better a figure) of the origin of life on Earth; the horse is universally considered as having a psychopompous character and Poseidon is known as tamer of horses (damaios) and father ofPegasus who with its hoof can open up a spring.
Poseidon is the god worshipped in the main temple of the Isle ofAtlantis in the myth narrated byPlato in the dialogues Timaeus and Critias; there was also a hippodrome nearby.
The island was swallowed up by an earthquake caused by Poseidon himself. This factor would connect the power over earth and that over waters. The Greek had a memory of the explosion of the Island ofSantorini and of the seaquake it provoked as well as other consequences affecting climate.
^Alain Cadotte, "Neptune Africain",Phoenix 56. 3/4 (Autumn/Winter 2002:330-347) detectedsyncretic traces of a Libyan/Punic agrarian god of fresh water sources, with the epithetFrugifer, "fruit-bearer"; Cadotte enumerated (p.332) some north African Roman mosaics of the fully characteristicTriumph of Neptune, whether riding in his chariot or mounted directly on albino dolphins.
^"C'est-à-dire au plus fort de l'été, au moment de la grande sécheresse, et qu'on y construisaient des huttes de feuillage en guise d'abris contre le soleil" (Cadotte 2002:342, notingSextus Pompeius Festus,De verborum significatu [ed. Lindsay 1913] 519.1)
^abG. DumézilFêtes romaines d' été et d' automne. Suivi de Dix questions romaines Paris 1975 1. "Les eaux et les bois" p. 25-31.
^CIL, vol. 1, pt 2:323;Varro,De lingua Latina vi.19.
^Sarolta A. TakacsVestal virgins, sibyls and matronae: women in Roman religion 2008, University of Texas Press, p. 53 f., citing HoraceCarmina III 28.
^Sarolta A. Takacs 2008; citing MacrobiusSaturnalia III 10, 4.
^Cassius Dio 17 fragment 57. 60 as cited by L. Richardson jr.A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome 1992 p. 267.
^On the issue of this group by Scopas cf. F. Coarelli "L'ora di Domizio Enobarbo e la cultura artistica in Roma nel II sec. a. C." inDialoghi di Arrcheologia II3 1968 p. 302-368.
^S. Dušanić, Ž. Petković "The Flamen Quirinalis at the Consualia and the Horseman of the Lacus Curtius" inAevum 2002 1. p. 63.
^Sarolta A. TakacsVestal Virgins, Sybils and Matrons University of Texas Press 2008 p. 55-56, also citing Scullard on the influence of horse races in the identification. Bloch 1981 citing Chantraine DELGs.v. Poseidon.
^Cf. the related deities of the Circus Semonia, Seia, Segetia, Tutilina: TertullianDe Spectaculis VIII 3.
^G. Capdeville "Jeux athletiques et rituels de fondation"Revue de l' histoire des religions.
^CiceroDe Haruspicum Responso 20. Neptunus is mentioned third after Jupiter and Saturn and before Tellus.
^R. Bloch 1981; G. Capdeville "Les dieux de Martianus Capella" inRevue de l'Histoire des Religions 213-3, 1996, p. 282 n. 112
^De Grummond, Nancy Thomson (2006).Etruscan Mythology, Sacred History and Legend: An Introduction. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology.ISBN1-931707-86-3. p. 59.
^N. Thomas De GrummondEtruscam Myth, Sacred History and Legend Univ. of Pennsylvania Press 2006 p. 145.
^Erika Simon "Gods in Harmony: The Etruscan Pantheon" in N. Thomas De Grummond (editor)Etruscan Religion 2006 p. 48; G. Colonna "Altari e sacelli: l'area sud di Pyrgi dop otto anni di ricerche"Rendiconti della Pontificia Accademia di Archeologia64 p. 63-115; "Sacred Architecture and the Religion of the Etruscans" in N.T. DeGrummond 2006 p.139
^Ludwig PrellerRömische Mythologie Berlin, 1858, II p. 1
^G. DumezilLa religion romaine archaique Paris, 1974 2nd, Appendix; It. tr. p. 584; citing Stephen Weinstock "Martianus Capella and the Cosmic System of the Etruscans" inJournal of Roman Studies 36, 1946, p. 104 ff.; G. Capdeville "Les dieux de Martianus Capella" inRevue de l'Histoire des Religions 213-3, 1996, p. 280-281
^Cf. M. Pallottino "Deorum sedes" inSaggi di antichitá. II. Documenti per la storia della civiltá etrusca Roma 1979 p. 779-790. For a summary exposition of the content of this work the reader is referred to articleJuno, section Etrurian Uni note n. 201.
^Michiel de Vaan,Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden/Boston 2004, p. 406.
^VarroLingua Latina V 72:Neptunus, quod mare terras obnubuit ut nubes caelum, ab nuptu, id est opertione, ut antiqui, a quo nuptiae, nuptus dictus.: "N., because the sea covered the lands as the clouds the sky, fromnuptus i.e. "covering", as the ancients (used to say), whencenuptiae marriage, was namednuptus".
^P. KretschmerEinleitung in der Geschichte der Griechischen Sprache Göttingen, 1896, p. 33.
^R. Bloch "Quelques remarques sur Poseidon, Neptunus et Nethuns" inRevue de l' Histoire des Religions (1981), p. 347.
^Y. Bonnefoy, W. DonigerRoman and Indoeuropean Mythologies Chicago, 1992, p. 138-139, s.v. Neptune, citing G. DumezilMyth et Epopée vol. III, p. 41 and Alfred Ernout- Atoine MeilletDictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine Paris, 1985 4th, s.v. Neptunus.
^G. DumézilFêtes romaines d' étè et d' automne, suivi par dix questions romaines, p. 25, Paris 1975.
^Jaan Puhvel,Comparative Mythology, Baltimore 1987, p. 277-283.
^VergilAeneis, VII, p. 691: L. PrellerRömische Mythologie, vol. 2, Berlin, 1858; Müller-DeekeEtrusker II 54 n. 1 b; DeekeFalisker p. 103, as quoted by William Warde FowlerThe Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic London, 1899, p. 185 and n. 3.
^Robert S.P. Beekes,Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Leiden/Boston 2010, p. 996.
^M. Peters "Untersuchungen zur Vertratung der indogermanischen Laryngeale in Griechisch" inÖsterreicher Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophische historische Klasse, vol. 372, Vienna 1980, p. 180.
^Hubert PetersmannLingua et Religio: ausgewählte kleine Schriften zur antiken Religionsgeschichte auf sprachwissenschaftlicher Grundlage herausgegeben von Bernd Heßen. Hypomnemata: Supplement-Reihe 1. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 2002. Pp. 304.ISBN3-525-25231-5.
^Catullus 31. 3: "Paene insularum, Sirmio, insularumque/ ocelle, quascumque in liquentibus stagnis/ marique vasto fert uterque Neptunus/...": the quoted words belong to a passage in which the poet seems to be hinting to the double nature of Neptune as god both of the freshwaters and of the sea.
^Eric NeunDie Anitta-Text Wiesbaden, 1974, p. 118.
^H. Petersmann "Neptuns ürsprugliche Rolle im römischen Pantheon. Ein etymologisch-religiongeschichtlicher Erklärungsversuch" inLingua et religio. Augewählte kleine Beiträge zur antike religiogeschichtlicher und sprachwissenschaftlicher Grundlage Göttingen, 2002, pp. 226-235.
^cf. Festus s. v.aqua: "a qua iuvamur", whence we get life, p 2 L.; s. v.aqua et igni : "...quam accipiuntur nuptae, videlicet quia hae duae res...vitam continent", p.2-3 L; s.v.facem: "facem in nuptiis in honore Cereris praeferebant, aqua aspergebatur nova nupta...ut ignem et aquam cum viro communicaret", p.87 L.
^William Warde FowlerThe Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic London, 1899, p. 126
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