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InRoman mythology,Mefitis (orMephitis;Mefite in Italian) was a minor goddess of the poisonous gases emitted from the ground in swamps and volcanic vapors.
Mefitis was theSamnite andOscian goddess of the foul-smelling gases of the earth, worshipped in central and southern Italy since before Roman times, with her main shrine at the volcanoAmpsanctus inSamnium.
There were temples dedicated to her inCremona and on theEsquiline Hill in Rome. It is theorized that Mefitis was originally a goddess of underground sources, such as natural springs— the fact that many of these springs were sulfurous led to her association with noxious gases. She is almost always identified with volcanoes, having been worshipped atPompeii. Her name, which likely means "one who smokes in the middle", is sometimes spelled Mephitis. The connection with subterranean spaces also links her withChthonic deities.[1][2]
Foul-smelling geological fissures connected to the divinity (see below) are located in Italy along theVia Appia between Rome andBrindisi. There, the ancient Romans would rest on their travels and pay homage to the goddess by performing animal sacrifices using the fissure's deadly gases.[3] Many clay votive statuettes and other objects found in the Ansanto valley depict wild boars, perhaps indicating that these animals were particularly sacred to the goddess.[4] It has been proposed that Mefitis' shrines were associated with healing through adjacent sulphuric springs.[2]
Today, it lies near the village ofRocca San Felice in theprovince of Avellino (Campania region).[5]
Virgil describes this sanctuary in theAeneid:
In midst of Italy, well known to fame,
There lies a lake (Amsanctus is the name) Below the lofty mounts: on either side Thick forests the forbidden entrance hide. Full in the center of the sacred wood An arm arises of the Stygian flood, Which, breaking from beneath with bellowing sound, Whirls the black waves and rattling stones around. Here Pluto pants for breath from out his cell,
And opens wide the grinning jaws of hell.
— Book VII, lines 563–570
Varro mentions a Grove of Mefitis on the Esquiline,[6] where the women-only festival ofMatralia was celebrated on 1 March.[7] Nearby altars to Mala Fortuna, the aspect of the goddess Fortuna associated with misfortune, andFebris, the goddess of fevers, seem to indicate that the air in this part of Rome was considered unwholesome.[8]
AtRossano di Vaglio there was a sanctuary dedicated to the goddess.[1] Reconstructions of the settlement and the sanctuary are in the Museo delle Antiche Genti. Finds from this site link Mefitis with Mamers,[1] a fertility god worshipped by theOsci since pre-Roman times and thought to be a variant ofMars. Mirabella Eclano (Irpinia) was the site of another sanctuary. An inscription on the wall of the House of the Great Fountain in Pompeii mentions a festival celebrating Mefitis, organized by thegens Mamia.[1]
Mefitis was, likeCloacina, sometimes seen as an aspect ofVenus. Other deities associated with sulfur springs, and hence with Mefitis, wereAlbunea and the Greek goddessLeucothea.
The etymology of the nameMefitis is controversial, but according to the Italian linguist Alberto Manco, the system of the epithets that identified the goddess from place to place would prove her relationship with a water-based dimension.[9] Many hypotheses have been put forward concerning the etymology of the name of the goddess. Poccetti suggested the derivation from the words "medhio-dhuīhtis" means “that which burns within”[3]
"Mephitic", derived fromMefitis, is now an adjective in the English language meaning "offensive in odour"; "noxious"; and "poisonous". In Italian, a mefite is also asolfatara orfumarole (i.e., a gaseous fissure).
The name of the family of animalsMephitidae (mephitids, or skunks and their kin) and of the genusMephitis (skunks of North and Central America) are both related tomephitic, so named for the noxious secretions of their scent glands.
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