Description
According to ancient authorities, she was a goddess who relieved men from pain and sorrow, or delivered the Romans and their flocks from angina (quinsy). Also she was a protecting goddess of Rome and the keeper of the sacred name of the city, which might not be pronounced lest it should be revealed to her enemies. It was even thought that Angerona itself was this name. [a] [b]
Modern scholars regard Angerona as a goddess akin to Ops, Acca Larentia, and Dea Dia; or as the goddess of the new year and the returning sun. [c] Her festival, called Divalia or Angeronalia, was celebrated on 21 December. Pliny The Elder says January. The priests offered sacrifice in the temple of Volupia, the goddess of pleasure, in which stood a statue of Angerona, with a finger on her mouth, which was bound and closed. [4] She was worshiped as Ancharia at Faesulae, where an altar belonging to her was discovered in the late 19th century. In art, she was depicted with a bandaged mouth and a finger pressed to her lips, demanding silence. [5]
Georges Dumézil considers Angerona as the goddess who helps nature and men to sustain successfully the yearly crisis of the winter days. These culminate in the winter solstice, the shortest day, which in Latin is known as bruma, from brevissima (dies), the shortest day. The embarrassment, pain and anguish caused by the lack of light and the cold are expressed by the word angor. [6] In Latin the cognate word angustiae designates a space of time considered as disgracefully and painfully too short. [d] Angerona and the connected cult guaranteed the overcoming of the unpleasant angusti dies narrow, short days.
Dumézil pointed out that the Roman goddesses whose name ends with the suffix -ona or -onia to discharge the function of helping worshipers to overcome a particular time or condition of crisis: instances include Bellona who allows the Roman to wade across war in the best way possible, Orbona who cares for parents who lost a child, [9] Pellonia who pushes the enemies away, [10] Fessonia who permits travellers to subdue fatigue. [11]
Angerona's feriae named Angeronalia or Divalia took place on December 21 – the day of the winter solstice. On that day the pontiffs offered a sacrifice to the goddess in curia Acculeia according to Varro [12] or in sacello Volupiae, near the Porta Romanula, one of the inner gates on the northern side of the Palatine. [13] A famous statue of Angerona, with her mouth bandaged and sealed and with a finger on the lips in the gesture that requests silence, [14] was placed in Angerona's shrine, on an altar to Volupia. [15] Dumézil sees in this peculiar feature the reason of her being listed among the goddesses who were considered candidates to the title of secret tutelary deity of Rome. [16]
Dumézil considers this peculiar feature of Angerona's statue to hint to a prerogative of the goddess which was well known to the Romans, i.e. her will of requesting silence. He remarks silence in a time of cosmic crisis is a well documented point in other religions, giving two instances from Scandinavian and Vedic religion. [e] [f]
Dumézil (1956) proposes that the association between Angerona and Volupia can be explained as the pleasure that derives from a fulfilled desire, the achievement of an objective. [g] Thence the description θεός τῆς βουλῆς καί καιρῶν ["goddess of advice and of favorable occasions"] given in a Latin-Greek glossary. [19] : 66–69
The Ancient Celtic Religion
Angerona was an old Gallo Roman Goddess who
Was a Celtic Goddess worshipped in Hispanum & Gallicum, Hispanum & Gallicum used by Pliny the Elder is Hispania Spain & Gaul he also mentioned Iberia.
James MacKillop (author)
Ágach, Ághmach [Contentious ] Warlike One of The Fomorians
In Irish mythology
Agroná [Brythonic] Goddess of Slaughter and early British Goddess who gave her name to battle God *Aeron.
Based on The Bello de Gallico
Lugus & Moccus are Mercury and Jupiter
Moccus is a Boar God
Based on the Roman interpretation
Lughus tries to Rape the sister of Angerona
And she tries to tell her sister's husband
But her husband angered from Infidelity left.
This would be the Celtic myth from what Ovid said was a Roman Myth since Pliny said it was Celtic.
& Lughus tells Angerona to take him in The Celtic afterlife. This is based on the Roman Concept with the Celtic Identities, as well as Lí Ban in Irish mythology, she's a water Fairy like Nymph associated with Lugh & his son Cú Chulainn, Miranda Green mentions in Dictionary Of Celtic Myth & Legend that Camolos means War Hound the Gaulish Cú Chulainn, Apollo Cunomaglus A Temple at Nettleton Shrub in Wiltshire was dedicated to Apollo Cunomaglus page 31
Which makes Cú Chulainn & or Cunomaglus, Camolos Lí Ban's consort.
Similar to The story of Serglige Con Culainn.
Changes from Father to son and or Father & Son fighting over Lí Ban, Lugh the Father of Cú Chulainn.
Asturias Mythology Xana, French Folklore Melusine is in the role of Juturna
Which is based on shared myths different regions and different Celtic mythological spectrums as well as Pliny The Elder in Naturalis historia mentions Romans Adopted The myth from Celts.
Book Three, Pages 171–173
His words are, Counted in the Mysteries of the Ceremonies an impious and unlawful Thing: which, after it was abolished, for the faithful Safety thereof, Valerius Soranus pronounced, and soon after suffered the Penalty.
I think it not amiss to insert in this Place an Example of the ancient Religion, instituted especially for this Silence: for the Goddess Angerona,
to whom is sacrificed on the twelfth Day before the Kalends of January, is represented by an Image having her Mouth bound and sealed up. The city had three Gates when Romulus left it; or rather four (if we believe most Men that write thereof), its Walls, when the two Vespasians, Emperors and Censors,
took the Measure, in the Year after the Foundation of it, 828, were in circuit thirteen1 Miles and almost a quarter. It containeth within it seven Mountains, and is divided into fourteen Regions and 265 cross Streets, called Compita Larium. The Measure of the same space of Ground, running from the Milliarium,
He then mentions Groups with the shared Myth & Traditions
I tali, Morgetes, Siculi, People for the most part of Greece: and last of all by the Lucani, descended from the Samnites, under their Leader Lucius. In which standeth the Town Paestum, called by the Greeks Posidonia: the Bay Psestanus, the Town Helia, now Velia. The Promontory Palinurum, Creek receding, from which there is a Passage to the Column Rhegia, 100 Miles over. Next to this, the River Melphes: the Town Buxentum, in Greek Pyxus; the River Laiis; and a Town there was likewise of the same Name. From thence the Sea-coast of Brutium, the Town Blanda, the River Batnm, the Haven Parthenius belonging to the Phocaeans: the Bay Vibonensis; the Grove Clampetia, the Town Ternsa, called by the Greeks Temese: and Terina of the Crotonians, and the very large Bay Terinseus: the Town Consentia. Within, in a Peninsula, the River Acheron, from which the Townsmen are called Acherontini. Hippo, which now we call Vibovalentia; the Port of Hercules, the River Metaurus, the Town Tauroentum, the Port of Orestes, and Medua: the Town Scylleum, the River Cratais, Mother (as they say) to Scylla. Then the Column Rhegia
the Passage through which it entereth is by the Greeks called Porthmos; by us FretumGaditanum; when it hath entered the Spanish Sea, so far it washeth the Coasts of Spain, Freturn Hispanum: of others, Ibericum, Iberian Peninsula, or Balearicum: and presently it taketh the Name of Gallicum, Gaul, before the Province Narbonensis: and after that, Ligusticum: from whence, to the Island Sicily, it is called Tuscum; which some of the Grecians term Notium, others Tyrrhenum, but most of our Countrymen Inferum. Beyond Sicily.
French Folklore:This tale is about one of the most compelling female characters in medieval French fiction. It most likely draws on earlier myths dating back to Gallo-Roman and Celtic prototypes. Even the name 'Fair Melusina' may derive from the same ancient Gaulish root for the fair beings such as mermaids, water sprites, and forest nymphs.
The intriguing story tells or the beautiful Mélusine, the result of the marriage of the King of Scotland and his fairy wife. In her youth Mélusine entombed her father in ar mountain leaving her mother heartbroken. The deed displeased her mother and as punishment Mélusine was condemned to transform into a serpent from the waist down every Saturday
Mélusine is believed to be Gaulish in origin.
Also mother of The Lusignans who may gotten they're name from a Gaulish Tribe in France the House of Lusignan the royal French Family.
Could mean Offspring or Worshippers. From Boria Sax Ph.D. her name means Grey or Light from Gaulish Leuk.
Miranda Green also shares a head found in Denmark of a Sacrifice to Angerona.
