| Pomona | |
|---|---|
Goddess of fruit trees, fruitful abundance, plenty, gardens, and orchards | |
.jpg) Statue of Pomona, Naples Archaeology Museum (late 2nd century AD) | |
| Major cult center | Pomonal |
| Abode | gardens and orchards |
| Symbols | pruning knife |
| Festivals | Vertumnalia |
| Consort | Vertumnus |
Pomona (/pəˈmoʊnə/ ⓘ,[1]Latin:[poːˈmoːna]) was a goddess of fruitful abundance and plenty inancient Roman religion andmyth. Her name comes from the Latin wordpomum, "fruit", specifically orchard fruit.
Pomona was said to be awood nymph.[2][3] Pomona does not have a clear counterpart inGreek mythology, although the fruit goddessOpora can be seen as her equivalent.[4]
The namePōmōna is a derivation fromLatinpōmus ('fruit-tree, fruit'), possibly stemming fromProto-Italic*po-e/omo ('taken off, picked?'), cognate withUmbrianPuemune, ultimately fromProto-Indo-European*h₁e/omo ('what is (to be) taken').[5]
In the myth narrated byOvid, she scorned the love of the woodland godsSilvanus andPicus, but marriedVertumnus after he tricked her, disguised as an old woman.[6] She and Vertumnus shared a festival held on August 13. Her priest was called theflamen Pomonalis. Thepruning knife was her attribute. There is a grove that is sacred to her called thePomonal, located not far from Ostia, the ancient port of Rome.
Pomona was the goddess of fruit trees, gardens, and orchards. Unlike many other Roman goddesses and gods, she does not have a Greek counterpart, though she is commonly associated withDemeter. She watches over and protects fruit trees and cares for their cultivation. She was not actually associated with the harvest of fruits itself, but with the flourishing of the fruit trees. In artistic depictions she is generally shown with a platter of fruit or a cornucopia.
The city ofPomona, California, inLos Angeles County, is named after the goddess.[7]Pomona College was founded in the city and retained its name even after relocating to its present-day location inClaremont.[7][8]
The township ofPomona, Illinois, inJackson County, is named after the goddess. The township is home to mainly agricultural land, and has wineries and orchards in the vicinity.
The town ofPomona Park, Florida, inPutnam County is named after the goddess of fruit from the time citrus horticulture dominated the economy of the area.[9]
ThePomona Docks (formerly part of theManchester docks) were built on the site of the Pomona Gardens. A former public house nearby was named the Pomona Palace.
32 Pomona is amain belt asteroid discovered in 1854.
In 2003 a newly discovered honey bee (Apis mellifera) subspecies was named after Pomona being called theApis mellifera pomonella. It was discovered in theTien Shan Mountains, an area with the greatest genetic diversity for a wildMalus species,M. sieversii, that is the predominant ancestor of domesticated apple varieties, which are typically pollinated by honey bees on a commercial scale.[10]
Pomona is a rural town andlocality in theShire of Noosa,Queensland, Australia.[11][12] It is about 135 kilometres north ofBrisbane. The town was originally calledPinbarren Siding from 1890-1900 as a subsidiary toPinbarren. In the2021 census, the locality of Pomona had a population of 2,931 people.[13] Pomona was renamed in 1900, after the Roman goddess of fruit, following the government rejection of the names Pinbarren and Cooroora. Its name avoided confusion with the neighbouring towns ofCooroy andCooran and reflected the fertile nature in the area.[citation needed]
A bronze statue of Pomona sits atop thePulitzer Fountain in Manhattan'sGrand Army Plaza in New York. The fountain was funded by newspaper tycoonJoseph Pulitzer, designed by the architectThomas Hastings, and crowned by a statue conceived by the sculptorKarl Bitter.[14] The fountain was dedicated in May 1916.
Pomona is briefly mentioned inC. S. Lewis's children's bookPrince Caspian.[15]
Der Sieg der fruchtbaren Pomona ("The Victory of Fruitful Pomona") is a 1702 opera byReinhard Keiser.
Pomona is the title of a play byAlistair McDowell, commissioned in 2014 for theRoyal Welsh College of Music and Drama.[16]
Pomona is one of three statues featured at the Massachusetts Horticulture Society'sElm Bank Horticulture Center, along with Ceres and Flora.[17]
.JPG)
Census2021 was invoked but never defined (see thehelp page).
| Deities (Dii Consentes) |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Legendary figures | ||
| Legendary beings | ||
| Texts | ||
| Concepts and practices | ||
| Philosophy | ||
| Events | ||
| Objects | ||
| Variations | ||
| See also | ||
