| Orcus | |
|---|---|
God of the underworld, punisher of broken oaths | |
| Member of thedi selecti | |
 Orcus Mouth, a 16th-centuryfolly in theGardens of Bomarzo | |
| Other names | Dis Pater,Hades (Pluto)[a] |
| Abode | Hades, Underworld |
| Gender | Male |
| Equivalents | |
| Etruscan | Orcus |
| Greek | Horkos,Hades |
Orcus was a god of the underworld, punisher of broken oaths inEtruscan andRoman mythology. As withHades, the name of the god was also used for the underworld itself. Eventually, he was conflated withDis Pater andPluto.
A temple to Orcus may once have existed on thePalatine Hill inRome. It is likely that he was transliterated from the GreekdaemonHorkos, the personification of oaths and a son ofEris.[citation needed]
_Tomb_of_Orcus.jpg)
The origins of Orcus may have lain inEtruscan religion. The so-called "Tomb of Orcus", anEtruscan site atTarquinia, is a misnomer, resulting from its first discoverers mistaking a hairy, bearded giant for Orcus; it actually depicts aCyclops.
The Romans sometimes conflated Orcus with otherunderworld gods such asPluto,Hades, andDis Pater. The name "Orcus" seems to have referred specifically to the malicious and punishing side of the ruler of the underworld, as the god who tormented evildoers in their afterlife. Like the name Hades, "Orcus" could refer both to the underworld itself, as well as its ruling deity. In the charitable interpretation for such a place, it was believed to be an abode for purification of the souls of the deceased.[1]
In Roman literature one encounters phrases such asOrcum morari (lit. "to make Orcus wait", i.e. to postpone death) andcum Orco rationem habere (lit. "to go reason with Orcus", i.e. to approach death).[2]
Orcus was chiefly worshipped in rural areas; he had no official cult in the cities.[3] This remoteness allowed for him to survive in the countryside long after the more prevalent gods had ceased to be worshipped. He survived as a folk figure into theMiddle Ages, and aspects of his worship may have been transmuted into thewild man festivals held in rural parts of Europe through themodern era.[3] Indeed, much of what is known about the celebrations associated with Orcus come from medieval sources.[3]
From Orcus's association with death and the underworld, his name came to be used for demons and other underworld monsters, particularly in Italian whereorco refers to a kind of monster found in fairy-tales that feeds on human flesh.
The French wordogre (appearing first inCharles Perrault's fairy-tales) may have come from variant forms of this word,orgo orogro; in any case, the Frenchogre and the Italianorco are exactly the same sort of creature.
An early example of anorco appears inLudovico Ariosto'sOrlando Furioso (1516), as a bestial, blind, tusk-faced monster inspired by theCyclops of theOdyssey.[b]
Theorco fromOrlando, along with theOld English wordorc (in the sense of anogre, likeGrendel), was part of the inspiration forTolkien'sorcs in hisThe Lord of the Rings.[4] In other manuscripts Tolkien wrote a side-note on the word:
In an unpublished letter sent toGene Wolfe, Tolkien also made this comment:
From this use, countless otherfantasy games and works of fiction have borrowed the concept of the orc.
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