| Egeria | |
|---|---|
Nymph, giver of laws and rituals | |
.jpg) Sculpture of Egeria on a fountain inHalifax, Nova Scotia | |
| Other names | Aegeria |
| Major cult center | spring and grove near thePorta Capena; Nympheum of Egeria;Temple of Diana at Nemi |
| Gender | female |
| Consort | possiblyNuma Pompilius |
| Equivalents | |
| Etruscan | possiblyVegoia |
Egeria (Latin:[eːˈgɛria],[1]Ancient Greek:Ἠγερία[2]) was anymph attributed a legendary role in theearly history of Rome as a divine consort and counselor ofNuma Pompilius, the secondking of Rome, to whom she imparted laws and rituals pertaining toancient Roman religion. Her name is used as aneponym for a female advisor or counselor.
Egeria may predateRoman myth: she could have been ofItalic origin in the sacred forest ofAricia inLatium, her immemorial site, which was equally the grove ofDiana Nemorensis ("Diana ofNemi"). At Aricia there was also a Manius Egerius, a male counterpart of Egeria.[3]
The nameEgeria has been diversely interpreted.Georges Dumézil proposed it came fromē-gerere ("bear out"), suggesting an origin from her childbirth role.[4] It may mean "of theblack poplar" (Greek αἴγειρος,aigeiros). Her role as prophetess and author of "sacred books" is similar to the EtruscanVegoia, to whom were attributed various books of prophecy, including the "Libri Fulgurales", which were used to interpret the will of the gods through lightning strikes.[5]
Egeria as a nymph or minor goddess of the Roman religious system is of unclear origin; she is consistently, though not in a very clear way, associated with another figure of theDiana type; their cult is known[6] to have been celebrated atsacred groves, such as the site ofNemi atAricia, and another one close to Rome (see section below); both goddesses are also associated with water bearing wondrous, religious or medical properties (the source in that grove at Rome was dedicated to the exclusive use of theVestals[7]); their cult was associated with other, male figures of even more obscure meaning, such as one namedVirbius,[8] or a Manius Egerius, presumably a youthful male, that anyway in later years was identified with figures like Atys or Hippolyte, because of the Diana reference (see Frazer).
Described sometime as a "mountain nymph" (Plutarch), she is usually regarded as awater nymph and somehow her cult also involved some link with childbirth, like theGreek goddessIlithyia, but most of all, Egeria gave wisdom and prophecy in return forlibations of water or milk at hersacred groves. This quality has been made especially popular through the tale of her relationship withNuma Pompilius (the second legendary king of Rome, who succeeded its founder Romulus).
According to mythology, she counseled and guided the KingNuma Pompilius (Latinnumen designates "the expressed will of a deity"[9]) in the establishment of the original framework of laws and rituals of Rome. Numa is reputed to have written down the teachings of Egeria in "sacred books" that he had buried with him. When a chance accident brought them back to light some 500 years later, the Senate deemed them inappropriate for disclosure to the people, and ordered their destruction.[10] What made them inappropriate was some matter of religious nature with political bearing that apparently has not been handed down byValerius Antias, the source thatPlutarch was using.Dionysius of Halicarnassus hints that they were actually kept as a very close secret by the Pontifices.[11]
She is also gifted with oracular capabilities (she interpreted for Numa the abstruse omens of gods, for instance the episode of the omen fromFaunus).[12] In another episode, she helps Numa in a battle of wits with Jupiter himself, whereby Numa sought to gain a protective ritual against lightning strikes and thunder.[13]
Numa also invoked communicating with other deities, such as theMuses;[14] hence naturally enough, the somewhat pale figure of Egeria was later categorized by the Romans as one of theCamenae, deities who came to be equated with theGreek Muses as Rome fell under the cultural influence of Greece; so Dionysius listed Egeria among the Muses.[15]
The precise level of Egeria's relationship to Numa has been described diversely. She is typically given the respectful labelconiuncta ("consort"); Plutarch is very evasive as of the actual mode of intimacy between Numa and Egeria, and hints that Numa himself entertained a level of ambiguity.[16] ByJuvenal's day, that tradition was treated more critically. Juvenal called her Numa'samica ("girlfriend") in a sceptical phrase.[17]
According to the traditional chronology, Numa died of old age about 673 BC. InOvid'sMetamorphoses, following Numa's death, Egeria melted into tears of sorrow, thus becoming aspring (...donec pietate dolentis / mota soror Phoebi gelidum de corpore fontem / fecit...[18]), traditionally identified with the one near Rome's Porta Capena.
A spring and a grove once sacred to Egeria stand close to a gate of Rome, thePorta Capena. Its waters were dedicated to the exclusive use of theVestals.[19] Theninfeo, a favoredpicnic spot for nineteenth-century Romans, can still be visited in the archaeologicalPark of the Caffarella, between theAppian Way and the even more ancientVia Latina,[20] nearby theBaths of Caracalla (a later construction).
In the second century, whenHerodes Atticus recast an inheritedvilla nearby as a great landscaped estate, the naturalgrotto was formalized as an arched interior with anapsidal end where a statue of Egeria once stood in a niche; the surfaces were enriched with revetments of green and whitemarble facings and greenporphyry flooring and friezes ofmosaic. The primeval spring, one of dozens of springs that flow into the riverAlmone, was made to feed large pools, one of which was known asLacus Salutaris or "Lake of Health". Juvenal regretted an earlier phase of architectural elaboration:
Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poemEgeria's Grotto in The New Monthly Magazine, 1826, descriptive of an artistic representation of Egeria's Spring.[23]
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